Before I start, I would like to inform the readers that I would only be covering the various cards used in the more popular Red-Blue Student Council build. It is definitely not everything the trait has to offer.

Joining the Council – Level 0

DC/WE02-002R お雛様　音姫 / Doll Otome
Text:
【A】 When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a card with the trait 《Student Council》, during this turn, this card gains Soul +1. (Return the card to its original position)

Previously mentioned in another article, this card is a rather good attacker in a Student Council deck. Its ability allows you to easily increase your damage output with no additional cost, making this card a good attacker even throughout your later Levels. If your deck is made up of mostly Student Council characters, considering putting this card into your deck for better Soul outputs, something a Neo-Standard Student Council deck may lack.

DC/WE02-016R アジサイ畑のまゆき/ Hydrangea Field Mayuki
Text:
【C】 All your other Character cards with the trait 《Student Council》 gains 『【A】 ENCORE [Put 1 Character card from your Hand into your Waiting Room]』.

It is not an understatement to say that this is the most important card in a Da Capo Neo-Standard Student Council deck. It allows you to keep your important attackers to serve whatever important duties they have for another turn, seeing as how the general power level of the Student Council trait in Da Capo is actually rather low. It also helps to conserve your stock in which you would most likely be using a lot in your Level 3. You also won’t have to worry about staying in any Level with a lack of attackers next turn, especially your Level 0s.

DC/W09-054R エリカ・ムラサキ/ Erika Murasaki
Text:
【C】 If all your Character cards have the trait 《Student Council》, this card gains Power +1000.

A decent Level 0 beater. Its ability brings it to a 3500 power easily, and paired with Hydrangea Field Mayuki, you will have a pretty reliable Level 0, without any worries for a lack of decent attackers or even the bad situations of having to use your support cards to attack for that 1 extra stock you will need in your Level 1.

DC/W09-080R スキーウェアのまゆき / Ski Gear Mayuki
Text:
【A】 When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a card with the trait 《Student Council》, add that card to your hand, choose 1 card in your hand, and put it to the Waiting Room. (If not, return it to its original position)

A good utility card for a Student Council deck. It allows you to exchange unimportant cards in your hand with possible better cards that are revealed on attack. Or you can simply use the ability to thin your deck by a few cards. If your luck is good, you may even change your trigger for the better, let’s say you only want to deal 1 damage, so you may actually reduce the chance of triggering 1 more by first adding the card with the trigger into your hand. Of course, the opposite may also happen… It all depends on your luck.

DC/W09-089C 磯鷲　涼芽 / Isowashi Suzume
Text:
【S】[Put 2 of your Character cards to 【Rest】 mode] Look at the top card of your Deck, and choose to put it at the top or bottom of your deck.

Yet another good Level 0 utility card. Many of the Student Council cards in Da Capo play by revealing the trait on attack for their effects. This card allows you to ensure success, or to simply increase your chances by pushing a card that isn’t of the trait to the bottom of your deck. You can also use it to push climax cards to the bottom of your deck for a chance to cancel when your deck is left with fewer cards.

DC/WE08-01R 完全無欠なお姉ちゃん　音姫 / Perfect and Faultless Older Sis Otome
Text:
【C】 ASSIST: All of your Character cards in front of this card gain Power +500.
【C】 This card cannot be chosen for your Opponent’s card abilities.

Currently the only Level 0 Assist +500 support for Student Council in Da Capo. The extra 500 it provides may be crucial for your Level 0s or even Level 1s to better take down the opposing character. Its second ability also ensures that this card won’t be moving from your field during your opponent’s turn, providing a very reliable 500 power boost.

Fulfilling Duties – Level 1

DC/WE01-024PR デートを楽しむエリカ / Enjoying the Date Erika
Text:
【C】 If you have 3 or more other Character cards with the trait 《Student Council》, this card gains Power +1000.

One of the better Level 1 attackers for Student Council in Level 1. Its ability brings its power to 6500, which was really good in past, way before the era of the Level 1 Cost 1 7000 power characters. Its condition can be quite a pain to fulfill as well, having need at least 3 other characters spotting the Student Council trait. But still, pair with the available support and perhaps even a Draw-1-2000-1-Soul type of climax, it is still able to take down certain Level 1 characters of the current metagame.

DC/W09-066C 決意のエリカ / Determined Erika
Text:
【C】 For each Marker under this card, this card gains Level +1, Power +2500.
【A】[Put 1 「Truth」 from your Hand or the Climax area into your Waiting Room] When this card in battle is put to 【Knockout】 mode, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, put the top card of your deck under this card as a Marker, and put this card to 【Rest】 mode.

DC/W09-073CR 真実 / Truth
Text:
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Climax area, put the top card of your Deck into your Stock. During this turn, all your Character cards gain Soul +1.

A rather strong Marker ability. Among all the character cards that uses Markers for abilities, this card gains the most boost per Marker, which is in this case, 1 Level and a 2500 Power boost. It also has no limit to how many Markers you can add to this card, but it only becomes harder to do so as you gain more Markers. The condition to add Marker to this card can also be rather difficult, as it requires to discard the specific climax in order to do so. However, you may also send the climax from your Climax area to fulfill the ability, so you can actually use the Climax to increase your soul output while getting to keep this character alive, bigger and better.

Players who want to use this card should be contended with just 1 Marker, as it becomes a Level 2 7500 character that is bigger than regular Level 1s. However, getting this card to 2 Markers makes it a whooping Level 3 with 10000 base power, which can easily defeat any Level 2 or even Level 3 characters with the appropriate support

DC/WE08-15R 恥ずかしがり屋　まゆき / Embarrassed Person Mayuki
Text:
【A】 When this card attacks, and the Climax card 「Romantic Kiss」 is in play, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a Character card with the trait 《Student Council》, put it into your hand. (If not, return it to its original position.)

DC/WE08-018C ロマンチックなキス / Romantic Kiss
Text:
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand into the Climax Area, draw 1 card. Choose 1 of your Character cards, during this turn, it gains Soul +3.

Currently the best Level 1 for a Student Council based deck. Its climax ability allows you to increase your hand advantage with only the Character cards, as compared to blind drawing, which may make you draw into Climax cards.  Its ability is also free of cost, in which the only cost is perhaps for the playing of the character. Its climax, while not being the ever-popular and useful Draw-1-2000-1-Soul type of Climax, it still allows you to draw a card to replace the hand lost in playing the Climax card, and the extra soul can be very useful in Side attacks or even to simply go for a chance to deal in big damage. Of course, there is always the chance that you may reveal events or even climax cards by the ability, which would prevent you from getting that 1 hand card, but the chances of hitting a Student Council character is relatively higher, in a Student Council based deck.

Making Decisions – Level 2

DC/WE02-010R 水着のエリカ / Swimsuit Erika
Text:
【C】 For each of your other Character cards with the 「【A】 ENCORE [Put 1 Character card from your Hand into the Waiting Room]」 ability, this card gains Power +500.
【A】 When this card attacks, and the Climax card 「Sleepy Erika」 is in play, choose 1 Character card in your Waiting Room, and add it to your hand.

DC/WE02-013C 寝ぼけるエリカ/ Sleepy Erika
Text:
【C】 All your Character cards gain Power +1000, Soul +1.
(【Pickup】 During Trigger Check and this card is revealed, you may choose 1 Character card from your Waiting Room and add it to your hand.)

A rather decent Level 2 character. Its ability is best played together with Hydrangea Field Mayuki for the best effect, which allows this card to reach a possible 9000 base power. If you also happen to have a Student Council Level x500 Assist character behind, this card can reach a power of 10000 with the Drop-Character-Encore ability, which isn’t too shabby.

Its climax synergy ability is nothing special, which is a free waiting room character retrieval. The climax is that of the Gate trigger, which is always a good addition to any deck. In this case, both triggering the gate on normal attack and saving a gate in hand to use this Climax synergy nets you a character back from the Waiting Room, hence it is rather ‘advantageous’.

DC/W09-082R 負けず嫌いで努力家まゆき / Hard-Worker that Hates to Lose Mayuki
Text:
【C】 When your opponent have a Climax card in his Climax area, this card gains Power +2000.
【A】 When this card attacks, if you have the Climax card 「Last Chance」 in play, all your Character cards, until the end of your Opponent’s next turn, gains Power +1000.

DC/W09-098CR ラストチャンス / Last Chance
Text:
【A】 When you play this card from your hand to your Stage, draw 1 card, choose 1 of your Character cards. During this turn that card gains Power +2000 and Soul +1.

Yet another decent (yes, I know, everything’s decent) Level 2 character. Its first ability makes opponent think twice about using their Climax cards, especially if it is to overpower this character, as playing a climax to do so only makes it more difficult. It also improves this card’s overall survivability, but sadly, doesn’t help you to survive.

Its second ability is that of a climax synergy ability, which provides a small boost in power for all your characters, improving both the offensive and defensive power. This can be crucial to a Student Council deck, seeing as how their power level are usually lower as compared to many other decks out there. Of course, there’s always Hydrangea Field Mayuki when your character’s power are not big enough, but surely it would be nice once in a while to be the one over-powering others. The climax is that of a Draw-1-2000-1-Soul type of climax also, further giving you the ability to take down opposing characters.

DC/WE08-12C 若き生徒会長　エリカ / Young Student Council President Erika
Text:
【C】 ASSIST: All your Character cards in front of this card gain Power +X. X is equal to that character’s level x500.
【A】 ENCORE [Put 1 Character card from your Hand into the Waiting Room]

There are currently 2 Level x500 Assist spotting the Student Council trait, but I would say this is the better choice, simply because of that seemingly out-of-place Drop-Character-Encore ability. The main use of that ability is to give your Swimsuit Erika that additional 500 in case you don’t have a Hydrangea Field Mayuki, or simply refuse to use it in a Student Council based deck for reasons beyond my understanding.

In very bad situations where you simply have nothing else left, you can use this card to deal some damage, and Encore it to either block for more damage, or to let it leave until the next turn, in case you need the support it provides again.

Leader of the Elites – Level 3

DC/W09-077RR 新生徒会長　杏 / New Student Council President Anzu
Text:
【A】 When you play this card from your hand to your Stage, you may put the top card of your Clock to your Waiting Room.
【A】［②］ When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a Character Card with the 《Drama》 or 《Student Council》 Trait, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so,put the the top card of your Clock to your Waiting Room. (Return the revealed card to its original position)

The most popular Level 3 character for a Da Capo Neo-Standard Student Council deck. Its healing abilities is tremendous, where you can easily heal 6 damage away if you play down 3 of this card, and scores a hit on each trigger check, all without the requirement of any specific climax card. The ability was rather well-designed, allowing players to only pay the cost after they reveal the correct traits, and also for them to choose to pay or not, which helps them prevent the wastage of stock. Coupled with Hydrangea Field Mayuki, you can ensure a rather long Level 3, so long as you don’t die in 1 turn. However, as the game progresses further, you would be struggling more to heal as your stock would be rather depleted after repeated uses of this ability. Still, it allows any player to hold on for a longer period of time, hopefully long enough to defeat their opponent before they eventually lose out in damage.

Overall review:

The whole trait, while being one of the smallest trait in Da Capo itself, has many cards that are very powerful, and together, they form a formidable opponent, that braved through even many of the other top metagame decks in past tournaments. It has easily sustainable field advantage, multiple ways to gain or to re-gain hand advantage, and also a rather reliable way to heal multiple damage constantly over a few turns.

Seeing as how Da Capo III is just around the corner, many players who have been following the official site should have already seen many Student Council trait cards. I believe there would be quite a number of cards that would be able to push the current deck further, or perhaps bring it to a whole new level altogether. Existing Student Council members and those wishing to join, do look out for the release of Da Capo III in about a week’s time!

This is a rather huge Extra Booster of 45 variants. Unfortunately, I am unable to go through each and every one of the cards. I will go through the 15 rare variants of the set and also a quick mention of some of the notable common cards.

ZM/WE13-01 R ガリアの王族 タバサ/ Royalty of Gallia Tabitha
Text:
【S】 BRAINSTORM [①] Flip over 4 cards from the top of your deck, and put them into your Waiting Room. Search your deck for up to X Character cards with the trait 《Magic》, show it to your opponent, and add it to your Hand. Shuffle your Deck. Choose X number of cards from your Hand, and put it into your Waiting Room. X is equal to the number of Climax cards in those cards.

Another addition to their Brainstorm card pool. It is a regular ability that allows you to exchange cards in your deck with hand cards. It deals with the trait Magic, which is the most significant trait in Zero no Tsukaima, but not being able to search out the Familiar trait is quite a pity. The lack of requirement to put this card to Rest allow for multiple use of this ability, which can allow for faster running through of your deck in case too many Climaxes are out by your frequent Brainstorms.

ZM/WE13-02 R “風使い”タバサ / Wind User Tabitha
Text:
【C】 ASSIST: All your character cards in front of this card gain Power +500.
【A】 When you use a 『BRAINSTORM』 ability and send any Climax card by its effect, select 1 of your Character cards, during that turn, it gains Power +2000.

A regular support with a conditional power boost. With the many Brainstorm abilities available in Zero no Tsukaima, it would be less difficult to acquire that additional 2000 power. Also, considering you’re usually using Brainstorm for the primary effect, or to simply run through your deck, this 2000 is but an additional effect that comes with the success of your Brainstorm.

On a side note, using Despell Activate! while this card is present turns the event into a possible 0 cost 5500 counter.

ZM/WE13-03 R ルイズの守り手 サイト / Louise’s Guardian Saito
Text:
【S】 BRAINSTORM [①] Flip over the top 4 card of your Deck, and put them into your Waiting Room. For each Climax card in those cards, during this turn, this card gains Power +3000.

Yet another simple Brainstorm ability that Zero no Tsukaima will never have enough. The light cost of 1 stock allows for spamming of the ability, until you reach enough power to take down even the Heavens, or to simply avoid taking 1-2 levels worth of Climax due to earlier Brainstorms. Plays very nicely with the series of Brainstorm-Climax-2000 series of effects. Paired with Wind User Tabitha, this card is easily 10000 and above with only 1 cost, if successfully on first try. It also has a Bond character to retrieve it for 1 stock cost.

ZM/WE13-04 R 揺るぎない信頼 ルイズ / Unwavering Trust Louise
Text:
【C】 ASSIST: All your Character cards in front of this card gain Power +X. X is equal to that Character card’s Level x500.
【A】[①] When you put the Climax card 「Summon Servant」 into the Climax Area, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, search your deck for up to 1 Level 1 or above Character card with the Trait 《Familiar》 or 《Void》, show it to your opponent, and add it to your Hand. Shuffle your Deck.

A Regular Level x500 support with a somewhat decent ability. It allows you to fetch either a Familiar or Void character from your deck upon the playing of the specific Climax for the light cost of 1. The effect, however, only extends its reach to Level 1 and above characters, which makes most of your strong Level 0 Brainstorms (notably Louise of the Void and Strong Bond Louise) out of reach. But well, it is able to give you the other important attackers for your Level 2 and 3, and since it is a support with a Climax ability that does not require this card to be in funny positions outside of being a support, it is still highly valued.

ZM/WE13-05 R貴族の務め ルイズ / Duties of the Noble Louise
Text:
【C】 EXPERIENCE: If you have 「Unwavering Trust Louise」 and 「Holy Country Louise」in your Level Area, this card gains Level -1 in your Hand.
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, you may put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room.

One of the advance summons in Zero no Tsukaima. Its condition requires 1 of your Yellow Level x500 Support and a Red Level 1 Cost 1 7000, which binds you to play this 2 colours mainly. And considering the fact that Zero no Tsukaima has no cards to switch cards in their Level area with anywhere else, it is rather tough to achieve.

However, considering the existence of other In-Hand-Level-Minus-1 characters of other series, in which most of their conditions are variables (E.g. certain cards in Waiting Room/ Deck), fulfilling this card’s condition assures you that this card is forever a Level 2 in your hand, because there is currently no card to switch your opponent’s Level card, and I believe 1 won’t be released so soon…

ZM/WE13-14 R 森の妖精 ティファニア / Fairy of the Forest Tiffania
Text:
【A】[① Put 1 card from your Hand into your Waiting Room] When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, search your deck for a Character card with the trait 《Magic》, show it to your opponent, and add it to your hand. Shuffle your deck.

A typical Come-Into-Play deck search utility character. Similarly to Royalty of Gallia Tabitha, it only looks for the characters with the Magic trait, leaving your Familiars in the dust of your deck. But compared to Royalty of Gallia Tabitha, this card ensures you a confirmed deck search as you do not have to test your luck and pray for a Climax for the Brainstorm.

ZM/WE13-15 R 優しい友達 ティファニア / Kind Friend Tiffania
Text:
【A】 ENCORE [Put 1 Character card from your Hand into your Waiting Room]
【A】 When you use a 『BRAINSTORM』ability and send any Climax card by its effect, during that turn, this card gains Power +2000.

A very good Level 1 character in any Brainstorm-intensive deck. Its ability can bring it to a power of 8000 at least on offense, which can deal with most of the Level 1 beaters. On defense, it spots a somewhat lower power level of 6000, but the ability to Drop-Encore allows this card to survive longer. If you use a Brainstorm counter like Despell Activate!, it also has the chance to add 2000 more power on defense, which affects your opponent’s regular counter limit calculations.

ZM/WE13-15 R もう一人の担い手 ティファニア / The Other Bearer Tiffania
Text:
【C】 EXPERIENCE: For each card with the 『BRAINSTORM』ability in your Level area, this card gains Power +500.
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, you may put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room.

A very good Level 3 character for a Brainstorm-intensive deck. It can reach a base power of 11500 if you happen to put 3 Brainstorm characters into your Level. Paired with decent support, this card can easily overpower many others with little effort. However, it is not a given that you will be able to put a card with Brainstorm ability into your Level every time you level up, and as mentioned before, Zero no Tsukaima has no cards to switch cards in your Level area with any others. But 1 simply can’t complain when you have a Level 3 character with a standard Come-Into-Play-Heal-1 ability that has higher base power with no extra cost.

ZM/WE13-24 R 素直になれない ルイズ / Hard to be Honest Louise
Text:
【A】 When this card attack, you may send 1 Marker under this card to the Waiting Room. Should you do so, choose 1 of your Opponent’s Level 0 or below character in the Center Stage, and put it into the Waiting Room.
【S】[Put this card to 【Rest】 mode] If this card has no Marker under this card, put the top card of your deck under this card as a Marker.

A player’s answer to unreachable Level 0 beaters or irritating Level 0 runners. Compared to regular Level 0 characters with the ability to destroy a Level 0 with 1 stock cost, this card needs at least 1 turn to set up the marker. However, you do not pay any additional cost to use the ability, which helps to conserve that 1 stock to be used in other areas, like Brainstorm, or Brainstorm, or even Brainstorm.

Jokes aside, many of the cards in this Extra Booster does suggest strongly for players to use Brainstorm abilities as soon as early Level 0, making this card fit in with the general “theme” very well.

ZM/WE13-25 R 強い絆 ルイズ / Strong Bond Louise
Text:
【S】 BRAINSTORM [① Put this card to 【Rest】 mode] Flip over 4 cards from the top of your Deck, and put it into your Waiting Room. For each Climax card in those cards, choose up to 1 Cost 0 or below Character card from your Waiting Room, and put it onto your Stage in separate borders.

A card that directly contributes to field advantage. If you use this ability during Level 0, it acts as a form of advance summoning as well. Directly reviving characters contributes to saving the other resources in your hand for other moments, and give you attackers for the turn, as opposed to drawing cards by Brainstorm, where you can always draw currently unplayable character cards, or even Events and Climaxes. The advantage provided by this card is comparable to that of Sailor Uniform Siesta and Louise of the Void, but I won’t say it is better, as the 2 cards allow for preparations for later levels, as opposed to this card’s ability to generate your field at that specific moment.

An interesting way to play this card would be with Elf of the Desert Luctiana, also in this Extra Booster. If you are lucky and somehow stayed at Level 0 with Stock to afford, you can actually attempt to first revive Elf of the Desert Luctiana, and then use its ability to call out Unconscious Power Louise. If you are able to Change, congratulations, you have just successfully played a Level 3 at Level 0. Worth a try, but don’t expect it to happen very frequently.

ZM/WE13-26 R 無意識の力 ルイズ / Unconscious Power Louise
Text:
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto your Waiting Room, if you have 5 cards or less in your Deck, choose up to 1 Character card with the Trait 《Familiar》 or 《Void》 in your Waiting Room and add it to your hand, and return all cards in your Waiting Room to your Deck. Shuffle your Deck.
【A】CHANGE [① Put 1 card from your Hand into your Waiting Room, put this card into your Waiting Room] At the start of your Encore Step, should this card be in 【Rest】 mode, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, choose 1 [Mutual Love Louise] Character card from your Waiting Room and place it in this card’s original Border.

A Change character that spots an ability that allows you to “refresh” your deck when you have 5 or less card in your deck, which is not very difficult to achieve in a Brainstorm-intensive series like Zero no Tsukaima. It allows you to first retrieve either a Familiar or a Void character before you shuffle your waiting room into your deck, so players may actually retrieve Mutual Love Louise and later drop it as part of the Change cost to ensure that this card have something to change into.

ZM/WE13-27 R 途切れぬ想い サイト /Uninterrupted Feelings Saito
Text:
【C】 All your other Character cards with the trait 《Void》 trait gain Power +1500.

Short and sweet. It gives all your Void characters a considerable boost, and since this Extra Booster, there is a great increase of Void characters other than Louise, making this card even more playable. The 2 cost may prove to be unaffordable for several Zero no Tsukaima deck, which may use stock at certain points in the game for everyone’s favorite ability – Brainstorm.

ZM/WE13-28 R 相思相愛 ルイズ / Mutual Love Louise
Text:
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, or put onto the Stage by the effect of 「CHANGE」, you may put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room.
【A】 When you put the Climax card 「World Door」into the Climax Area, if this card is in your Center Stage, choose 1 「Uninterrupted Feelings Saito」 in your Memory, and put it onto your Stage in any Border, during this turn, this card gains Power +3000.

Changeable Level 3 character with a Come-Into-Play heal. Its Climax synergy ability allows you to return an Uninterrupted Feelings Saito from your Memory into play and have a temporal power boost of 3000 for that turn. Considering that you have no other supports, this card is still able to reach a power of 15000 if you pull back an Uninterrupted Feelings Saito. Even if you don’t have any in your Memory, this card is still able to gain the 3000 power boost to take down any characters opposing this card. The climax in question is also the ever-popular Comeback Climax that is beneficial to any deck in general.

ZM/WE13-40 R恋のライバル シエスタ / Love Rival Siesta
Text:
【C】 During your Opponent’s turn, all your other Character cards gain Power +500.
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it at the top or the bottom of your Deck.

A good Level 0 utility card that you can keep on the field for a little boost in defensive powers. Checking the top of your deck is rather essential for Brainstorm-intensive decks, especially decks that plans to run the 2 card Brainstorm abilities from the Zero no Tsukaima booster, which have a smaller chance of success as compared to the regular 4 card Brainstorm. And as compared to sending the card to the waiting room, choosing to push it to the bottom of the deck allows for more tactical use of Brainstorm, like in a situation where you have about 5 or 6 cards left in deck, and wants the Climax card to actually go back into the deck during Refresh.

ZM/WE13-41 R 司令官 アンリエッタ / Commander Henrietta
Text:
【A】[①  Put 1 card from your Hand into your Waiting Room] When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, search your deck for 1 of each Character card with the trait 《Familiar》 and 《Void》and add it to your Hand. Shuffle your deck.

A Level 2 tutor character that allows you to search your deck for 1 Familiar and 1 Void character each, which is essential 2 cards, for the cost of 1 Stock and 1 Hand, literally making this card a 2 for 2 exchange. It allows you to search out various important parts for a Louise-Saito deck, but that would mean you will need to splash in Blue in addition to the Red and Yellow of the 2 characters. Also, its power of 3000 usually means you won’t expect it to kill anything big, so there isn’t a need to play more than perhaps 2 copies of this card in any deck, since it can’t search out itself anyway.

Notable cards:

ZM/WE13-08 Cデルフリンガーの相棒 サイト / Partner of Delfinger Saito: A Level 0 with a Climax ability to return Level 2 or above characters with the cost of 1, regardless of its position.

ZM/WE13-13 C伝説の使い魔 / The Legendary Familiar: It shares the name with a Climax in the old booster, making this card the climax for 2 Climax Abilities. And Draw-1-2000-1-Soul type of climaxes is always welcomed.

ZM/WE13-19 C 砂漠のエルフ ルクシャナ/ Elf of the Desert Luctiana: Allows multiple advance summon, depending on the number of climax cards you flip over by this ability. Allows for many stunts to be pulled, other than the one stated above.

ZM/WE13-21C ティファニア＆シエスタ / Tiffania & Siesta: Possible Level 2 Cost 1 9500 Attacker, but is more difficult to achieve because Zero no Tsukaima lack Level card switching abilities. Better potential in Standard play.

ZM/WE13-22 C“忘却の魔法”ティファニア / “Spell of Forgetfulness” Tiffania: Ability to gain Drop-Encore, and a weird Climax synergy ability that you may use to disrupt opponent’s Waiting Room based abilities, reduce his climax when refreshing, or simply shuffle his Stock and watch his face change as he “forgets” where the climax he previously trigger went to.

ZM/WE13-30 C愛の狩人 キュルケ / Hunter of Love Kirche: Another card to check the top card of your deck to ensure success for your Brainstorms. Its second ability allows you to retrieve any cards with Backup ability on play with 2 cost, which is generally useful, since it never hurts to have a Backup in hand to make your opponent overextend.

ZM/WE13-32 C笑顔の別れ ルイズ / Smiling Farewell Louise: A possible Cost 0 6000 attacker, and which I believe is the only way to put Uninterrupted Feelings Saito into the Memory.

ZM/WE13-33 C気丈なサイト / Stout-Hearted Saito: Slightly low power for a Level 1 attacker, but acts as a 1500 Pseudo-Backup for your other Magic characters. Has a Bond card that can give Familiar characters in the Middle Center Stage Drop-Character-Encore, which could mean multiple use of this ability.

ZM/WE13-42 Cサイトへの想い アンリエッタ/ Feelings towards Saito Henrietta: Yet another advance summon ability using the specific Climax. It would be better for players to play out characters of at least 1 cost by this ability, in order to earn the most from paying the cost of 1 stock and this card going to clock.

ZM/WE13-43 C入浴中のアンリエッタ / In the Bath Henrietta: A decent Level 1 character, able to reach base power of 5500 easily, and able to check your top card for either planned attacks or simply Brainstorm.

ZM/WE13-44 C無能王 ジョゼフ / Incompetent King Joseph: A decent card that allows you to seal off your opponent’s attempt in escaping battle and trying to Direct attack for more damage. It also spots the widely support Void trait.

Overall Review:

While one is able to form a somewhat above-average deck just from the Trial Deck and the Extra Booster itself, it is more advisable for players who can find and afford some of the older cards to better improve the playability of their decks, which includes Louise of the Void for better retrieval power, and even some of the Level 0 beaters like Yukikaze Tabitha, as the Level 0 characters of this Extra Booster hardly has any presence, since most of them are actually utility and Brainstorm characters.

The Level 3s in this Extra Booster is nowhere short of being excellent, seeing as how the old Level 3s from the Booster were all Bodyguard abilities with somewhat lower power. The 3 new Level 3s all spot the Come-Into-Play Heal ability, and with 2 of them being capable of advance summoning at Level 2, which is easily comparable with many of the better Level 3s in the game now.

And of course, the Brainstorm abilities. Adding on to the already very formidable Brainstorm abilities of the Booster, this Extra Booster gives the player even more options to explore around, and most of the Brainstorm available actually directly contributes to card advantages, like Hand or Stage presence.

The Zero no Tsukaima had already been a rather good set on its own. With the many awesome new cards available in this Zero no Tsukaima F Extra Booster, I say yes, this is not a set to be missed for anyone already playing the series, or is interested in starting it.

Them legs…

Today I’m going to review just one part of the new PR cards released in Update Campaign 2012, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo.

Denoted by the annotation SK, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo is a 2009 animation production by Sunrise (Gundam, Mai series). As it has only existed as small halves of two small volumes in Weiß Schwarz, the card pool for this set is painfully small.

And the OP/ED… doesn’t suit the show at all D=

 Once thought to be unpractical and utterly horrid in construction, the comeback campaign breathed new life into an amazingly underplayed series and brings it to a totally different level then originally conceived.

to the beginning…

There were really only a handful of cards available to the set and frankly, It was almost impossible to build anything from the scattered remnants of both extra boosters. No one really had any clue to begin building their deck as there were no gelling power, as well as zero synergy in the set of original cards. Volume 1 had only 5 variant cards!

No one can even make anything out of these 5 variant cards.

Heck, even a quick search on it’s annotation SK brings about only 29 search results!

PR cards were subsequently released after volume 1 and had some additions to the set, yet nothing was particularly useful. A very ordinary 0/0 3000 秋葉＆妹子 and amazingly, the set’s first Climax card 奪われた者達. I would assume that the producers of the set would have wanted players to use the Climaxes from Mai HiME, but that is hardly enough neither.

Thank God it was a Gate!

Out comes volume 2 with 12 new variant cards. Nothing really special neither but at least there exists a Climax combo within the set, as well as a rather interesting level 0 which seemingly tries to compensate the lack of level 2s in the set (elaborated later). The set also included notorious card reprint 小川で遊ぼう！ from Da Capo’s Extra booster inside the set.

But as again, nothing really enough to really make a very “complete” deck. There wasn’t even a single level 3 in the set.

Life Goes On

And a few years passes by, with Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo being laid in the dust until some geniuses from Bushiroad decide to come up with the Comeback Campaign. I would think they had brainstormed over ideas of what other sets to improve on, and what did not have boosts to current meta. The choice was obvious, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo had to be one of them.

The Comeback Campaign eventually led to 5 different cards, as shown below.

To those unfamiliar with the series, you may also take the chance to get familiar with the characters by reading through the cards themeselves! Firstly, I shall begin with Honoka, the cute and quiet type loli =D

Quiet lolis… and ponytail!!! =D

SK/WE05-29 Qテクターほのか / Q Tector Honoka

Text:
【Continuous】 For every other Character card with Trait ≪Colony≫ on your Stage, this card gains Power +500.

Amazingly, what was so simple and achievable in many newer generation Trait boosted cards is now made into the SK set. With this card, level 1s would no longer serve as a problem. Easily reaching up to 7500-8000 Power, this card can smash through many things and make cost expenditure tactical, rather then using them for previously inferior 1 Cost level 1 cards.

With a potential to hit up to 9k+ Power without Climax card, this card is something to look out for…

This card is also red, but unfortunately, neo-standard restricted as ≪Colony≫ only exists in the SK set. With the other Comeback Campaign PRs (almost all 5 of them), this power of this card is respectable.

Originally a cop, I wouldn’t mind being arrested by her =3

SK/WE05-30 Qテクターいつき / Q Tector Itsuki

Text:
【Auto】 EXPERIENCE When you use this card’s 『Counter』 ability,  should your Level slot include 2 or more ≪Colony≫ character cards, choose one of your Battling Character cards. During this turn that card gains Power +1000.
【Startup】【ASSIST】 COUNTER 2500 Level 2 ［① Put this card from your hand to your Waiting Room］ （Choose 1 of your Character card sustaining a Front Attack, that card gains Power +2500 this turn.）

This might seem hauntingly familiar with Shana’s uncommon Role of Dorothy, Shana ( ドロシー役のシャナ) as it really does seem like a similar ability. However, the Experience requirement is different and frankly, not difficult to fulfill at all. With the exception of the lv2s and 3s, it is almost too easily to fulfill the requirements for the first ability.

Not very difficult to sustain Stage presence, with such a useful Counter.

With a high powered level 1-3, this card can easily maintain the Stage presence against most series.

No pantsu! eeeeee

SK/WE05-31 最後の切り札 秋葉 / The Final Trump Card Akiha

Text:
【Continuous】 All your other Character cards with ≪Colony≫ trait gains Power +1000.
【Auto】 CHANGE  ［① Put this card to your Waiting Room］ At the start of your Draw phase, you may pay the Cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, choose 1 「一緒の気持ち 秋葉＆妹子」 from your Waiting Room and place it on this card’s original Border.

A very useful support to compliment the deck, this card can be put to use in many devious ways. Primarily, as a support, this card allows the Stage presence of SK cards a minimum trash-hold, thus creating overall field pressure.

Nice power boost to any level characters.

With one of these and a Imoko Shishido ( 獅子堂　妹子) from Volume 2, all your Characters easily gain a power boost of 1500 across the Stage. With two of these, you would easily add 2000 to any Character card, making it’s effects most visible at the sides of your Front Stage.

Imoko’s a rather cute thing isn’t she?

As mentioned before, a certain level 0 from Volume 2 actually brings about a greater field presence for the set as your game progresses. This common card, The Successor of Wishes Akiha (願いを受け継ぐ者　秋葉) can actually bring about great changes in your Stage presence.

At level 3, the boost is a staggering 6k! 8500 Power without support!

For every level you progress, this card would gain Power +2000. This easily makes it a 4500 Power at level 1, 6500 Power at level 2, and 8500 Power at level 3. With The Final Trump Card Akiha on the stage and a few decent supports, this card can easily grow to 10 000 to 10 500 during level 3. At 0 cost, this is probably the best beatstick anyone can hope for in the game.

Moving on, this card can actually Change during your next Draw Phase. The standard weakness of delayed-Change abilities still apply (Blow, disruption, putting to top deck/stock) as it will drastically slow down the pace of the deck. However if all goes according to plan, you would easily have a 9500 base-Power Character card at your disposable. Not to mention a heal.

This card is broken. Period.

The slower pace to Change might also benefit the player. With lower cost and it being on the field for a turn’s defense, this card can help in more ways then one. With Strange Girl Honoka (不思議少女ほのか), you may retrieve a Character card by simply paying 1 Cost and putting 2 Character cards with ≪Colony≫ trait to Rest. You may use this card and The Final Trump Card Akiha to retrieve 1 more of itself, or a copy of Of Same Feelings Akiha & Imoko (一緒の気持ち 秋葉＆妹子), while still being a 8500-9000 1 Cost level 2 Character card.

Pretty dominating offensive power.

SK/WE05-32 一緒の気持ち 秋葉＆妹子 / Of Same Feelings Akiha & Imoko

Text:
【Continuous】 During your turn, this card gains Power +500 for each of your other Character cards with trait ≪Colony≫ on your Stage.
【Auto】 When this card is played from your hand to the Stage or by the effects of 『CHANGE』, you may put the top card of your Clock to your Waiting Room.
【Auto】 When this card puts a Battling opponent to 【KNOCKOUT】 mode and your Climax border contains the Climax card 「宇宙をかける少女」, you may choose up to 3 card from your Opponent’s Waiting Room and return it to his deck. After doing so, your opponent shuffles his deck, put this card to your Memories. At the start of your next Draw Phase, choose 1 of your Character cards with name 「一緒の気 持ち 秋葉＆妹子」 in your Memories and put it to any Border you want.

Finally, a level 3 for SK, not to mention, a healing one. With enough offensive capabilities to rival that of the likes of “Inspector” of Justice Kokoro (正義の“警察官”小衣)　and Miki Sayaka (美樹　さやか), this card can take down foes rather easily. On defense, it can also reach up to a highest potential power barrier of 15 000 rather easily with the new Counter card.

This is actually pretty scary…

However, the part where the card truly shine, is the Climax synergy combo. Should you have the Climax card on the field when you have two to three of these level 3s on the field and appropriately attack the opponent, you would be able to return cards back into your opponent’s deck and make him take more potential damage. Should your opponent be running out of deck, with just enough cards to return back into his deck and continue the barrage, you can make the life of the opponent rather miserable by giving him more damage as cards are returned back to his deck without the chance to refresh.

Similarly, as the last attack and your opponent having a small number of deck size (1-2 cards), you may use the ability and return a bunch of Climax cards back to his deck and force him to draw it. It is normally very difficult to shake loose of these extra Climax cards so close into Refresh.

Last but not least, when it is put out of game by it’s Climax synergy ability, you do not need to worry if her Power is not big enough to be sustained with a Counter card during your opponent’s turn.

However, the downside to the ability is that it is forced. Even if you choose to add 0 cards back to your opponent’s deck, the Climax synergy ability would still kick in and force it out of game, giving your opponent extra chances for direct attacks.

I believe, I can fly, FUUU~!

SK/WE05-33 宇宙をかける少女 / The Girl Who Lept Through Space

Text:
【Auto】 When this card is put to your Climax border from your hand, draw 1 card. Choose 1 of your characters, during this turn that card gains Power +2000 and Soul +1.

Pretty much a standard 2k1s Climax card. This card is particularly useful as the set is geared towards offensive beatdowns and Soul powerups. With an additional 2000 Power and 1 Soul, Character cards will be able to meet power ranges that were once impossible with the set. With the dual trigger, Soul damage is improved to accommodate for the lesser number of 2 Soul characters in the set.

ebullient future

With such interesting cards, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo certainly set a bar for Comeback Campaign and demonstrated the difference a few cards could make to an older generation set. Hopefully this article is informative about this primeval set and introduced the new mechanics that help the deck survive and win consistently.

Next up, I plan on writing a full scale article on the whole CLANNAD set similar to this article. I will also be resuming my postings of Weekly Tips so do keep a look out for them!

P.S. I have my headings written with song names. I wonder who would be the first to name where all of them were from…? =)

ZM/WE13-T01 TD ひそひそ話　アンリエッタ＆サイト/ Whispering Words Henrietta & Saito
Text:
【C】 When you have 2 or less card in your Stock, this card gains Level +1, Power +1000.

A very good Level 0 starter, spotting an easy to achieve condition that will make this card a decent 3500 beater, as well as resistance against Level 0 Self-Destruct abilities. The condition of Stock 2 or less would usually mean the ability is only good for at most the first 2 turns, but with the many Level 0 Brainstorm abilities available in the series itself, it is possible for this card to keep its effect even longer.

ZM/WE13-T03 TD 友に赦された少女　タバサ / Girl Forgiven by Friends Tabitha
Text:
【A】 When this card attacks, and the Climax 「My Ivaldi」 is in play, choose 1 of your other character cards, during this turn, that card gains Power +1500, this card gains Power +1500.

【A】CHANGE [③ Put this card into your Waiting Room] At the start of your Encore Step, should this card be in 【Rest】 mode, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, choose 1 「Hero’s “Knight” Tabitha」from your Waiting Room and place it in this card’s original Border.

ZM/WE13-T06 TD 勇者の“騎士”タバサ / Hero’s “Knight” Tabitha
Text:
【C】 When you have 4 or less cards in your Stock, this card gains 「【A】 ENCORE [Put 1 Character card in your Hand into your Waiting Room]」.

ZM/WE13- T08a/b TD わたしのイーヴァルディ/ My Ivaldi
Text:
【A】 When you play this Climax card onto the Climax Slot from your hand, from the top of your deck, put 1 card into your Stock. During this turn, all your Characters gain Soul +1.

A series of Tabitha cards that is the main Combo of this Trial Deck. Girl Forgiven by Friends Tabitha has a rather decent ability on top of its rather costly Change ability, giving you temporal power boost that can help your Level 1 beaters defeat other higher power Level 1 beaters, or even to take down smaller Level 2s. It Changes into Hero’s “Knight” Tabitha, which is most like able to gain the Drop-Character Encore ability if you happen to change it out during your earlier Level 1s, where you are less likely to have a lot of Stock.

The Climax My Ivaldi was nicely made a 1-Stock-All-1-Soul type of ability, which allows this set of Change combo to play well with the other cards in the deck, seeing how you should be having little stock during your earlier Level 1, while trying to retain the Stock-2-or-less abilities of your Level 0 characters.

ZM/WE13-T04 TD 教皇　ヴィットーリオ / Pope Victtorio
Text:
【A】 When this card in Battle is put into 【Knockout】 mode, your opponent selects one of his own character card, during that turn, it gains Power +1000.

A Level 1 Cost 0 6000 beater with a rather, I would say, bad side effect. While it would be harder to be taken down in battle should you have appropriate support and counters, the defeat of this card gives your opponent a chance to defeat your other characters, which means more resource wasted on your side.

ZM/WE13-T05 TD サイトの専属メイド　シエスタ/ Saito’s Personal Maid Siesta
Text:
【A】 When you use a 「BRAINSTORM」 ability, and have put any Climax card into the Waiting Room by its effect, during that turn, this card gains Power +2000.

A rather good effect, but sadly, sees little play in the Trial Deck itself. The only type of Brainstorm ability in the whole Trial Deck is that of Despell Activate!, and even that card’s effect can’t be use directly on this card, which lacks both the Magic trait and the Familiar trait. This card, however, would see more use in regular Zero no Tsukaima decks, as a large portion of its card pool spots the Brainstorm ability, including the ever-popular Louise of the Void, and Sailor Uniform Siesta.

ZM/WE13-T07 TD シャルロット・エレーヌ・オルレアン / Charlotte Helene Orléans
Text:
【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, draw up to 2 cards, select 1 card in your Hand, and put it into the Waiting Room.

【A】 When your Character card’s trigger check reveals a Climax card, during that turn, this card gains Power +2000.

Interesting, it spots the exact same name as the old yellow Level 3 in the Zero no Tsukaima Booster, which have a Bond card targeting this name, making this card a legal target for retrieval also. This is a fairly decent Level 3, sacrificing the Come-Into-Play-Heal-1 ability for access to more hand cards. Its second ability is rather awkward, as you don’t really want to be triggering any Climax cards during your Level 3s, unless you happen to have a Henrietta de Tristain in play, which trades that 1 less cancel for 1 less damage in your Clock.

ZM/WE13-T11C 秘密兵器　イルククゥ/ Secret Weapon Illococoo
Text:
【C】 During your turn, all your other Character cards gain Power +500.

【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, choose 1 of your other Character cards with the trait 《Magic》, during this turn, it gains Power +1000.

A decent utility card that sees greatest effect at Level 0, where power differences are easily covered. It can also be used to provide a temporal 1500 power boost for any of your Magic character during the later levels to overcome that small difference in power between you and your opponent’s characters.

ZM/WE13-T13C 理想のお部屋　ルイズ / Ideal Room Louise
Text:
【C】 When you have 2 or less cards in your Stock, this card gain the following ability.「【A】 When this card is put to【Knockout】 mode, if this card’s Battling Opponent is Cost 0 or below, you may put that Character card to【Knockout】mode.  」

Another very good Level 0 starter in this Trial Deck. It is able to gain a Self-Destruct ability that extends it destruction to Cost 0 characters, as opposed to most of the other Level 0 Self-Destruct characters. This card can still be used in your early Level 1 to take down any Cost 0 characters your opponent may play, seeing as how Zero no Tsukaima has access to many useful Brainstorm abilities that you may spend your Stock using, even during the early game.

ZM/WE13-T15C ディスペル発動！/ Despell Activate!
Text:
[Counter] BRAINSTORM: Choose 1 of your Character card with the trait 《Magic》or《Familiar》, during that turn, it gains Power +3500. Flip over the top 3 card of your deck, and put them into your Waiting Room. Should there be any Climax card in those cards, put this card into your Stock.

A powerful counter event, that only offers power boost to either Magic or Familiar characters. Its Brainstorm ability allows you to recover the stock cost used to play this event. Judging from experience, it is wiser to use this counter event when you have less Climax cards left in your deck, in an attempt to burn off excessive damage and eventually lead to a possible cancel. The only time you would want to succeed for this Brainstorm ability would perhaps be when you use this event during your own turn, which can burn out Climax cards that you would probably trigger, and still refund you the 1 cost.

Overall Review:

It is a rather decent Trial Deck, giving many good Level 0s and decent Level 1 and above characters. The Climax ratio of 6 1-Stock-All-1-Soul can’t really be deemed ideal, but still plays rather well with the rest of the Trial Deck, considering how you would usually have little stock in an attempt to fulfill and keep certain abilities in play. Seeing as how just this Trial Deck itself has given the old decks of the series a considerable boost already, existing Zero no Tsukaima players and interested players alike should look forward to what pleasant surprises the Zero no Tsukaima F Extra Booster would provide.

In this article, I will be sharing about the more popular/ significant cards of the Music trait within the D.C. sets and expansions. Note that whatever covered here is not everything that D.C. can offer for the Music trait.
Intro – The Level 0s.

DC/W01-E07 C 水着の小恋 / Swimsuit Koko
Text:
【S】[Put 2 of your characters with the 《Music》 trait to 【Rest】 mode] Choose 1 of your character, during this turn, it gains Power +2000.

This is a card first introduced in the initial D.C. D.C. II Extra Booster, later being reprinted in the D.C. D.C. II P.C. Extra Booster. This is a great tech card for any music-based deck, giving idle backstage supports a use. The 2000 it provide isn’t a small amount, and can be used to overpower any character your opponent have, considering the high base powers of Music characters (generally).

DC/W09-112 PR 気配り上手な奥さん　ことり / Caring Wife Kotori
Text:
【C】 When you have 3 or less cards in your Stock, this card gains Power +1000.

The only card under the Kotori Love ExP series, but still neo-standard with any Da Capo sets and expansions. This is a great Level 0 beater, even outside of the Music trait. You would usually have 3 or less stock for at least 2 turns, making this card a viable Level 0 beater throughout your Level 0. The power of 3500 is rather decent, and together with various supports of the Music trait, it can easily overpower many other Level 0 beaters, or even attempt to defeat smaller Level 1 characters.
This card is however a Promo card from at least 2 years ago, and can be hard to obtain now.

DC/W09-029 R 縁日でデート　小恋 / Date at the Festival Koko
Text:
【C】 If you have 1 or less other Character in your Center Stage, all your other Characters gain Power +1000.

Another good level 0 character for the Music deck. This card can serve as both a support for starting attackers, or even as an attacker itself. As it is better to conserve resources and only have 1-2 Level 0 attackers during your first few turn, this card’s condition would be easily fulfilled, and giving your sole attacker a 1000 boost. Having 2 behind can greatly improved your attacker’s survivability, making the power level unreachable even when your opponent use a Draw-1-2000-1-Soul type of climax, but still vulnerable to the top favourite Self-Destruct abilities, or even the rare Startup ability to send away Level 0s with the cost of 1.

By having 2 copies of this card in the front row, both of its condition can be fulfilled, giving you 2 3500 Level 0 attackers. You can put some simply support characters in the backstage to give them more power boosts, which can allow them to take down most of the Level 0 beaters.

DC/W09-033 U 白河　ことり/ Shirakawa Kotori
Text:
【A】 When this card is put onto the stage from your hand, your opponent may reveal his hand. If there is a Climax Card in those cards, put this card to 【Rest】.

A popular level 0 character, even outside of the Da Capo context. For having 4000 power, its side ability can be advantageous to many, when used properly. If your opponent do choose to show his or her hand and there are any climax cards at all, this card would be disabled for 1 turn. It isn’t that much of a side effect, unless you have a rather bad hand for Level 0, and have no other possible attackers. Compared to sending it to the Waiting Room or even back to the deck like many other Level 0 characters with 4000 power, this is but a small cost to pay.

Looking at your opponent’s hand can allow you to better plan your attacks this turn. You can count the number of climax cards your opponent have left in the deck, knowing the number of climaxes in his Hand and Waiting Room, and perhaps his Stock. This would allow you to judge if it is the right time to play a Climax card to push for damage. You can also check your opponent’s hand for counters, which can allow you to know the exact amount to overpower, or to save resources by giving up on overpowering and going for side-attacks.

And even if your opponent chooses not to show you his or her hand, it can tell a lot of things about their current situation. They would either have too many climax cards in hand, or have none at all. There would also be players who just simply refuse to show their hand. You would just have to make them think twice with the 4000 power this card have.

DC/W09-038 C 軽音バンド　ななか＆小恋 / Light Music Band Nanaka & Koko
Text:
【C】 All your other Character Cards with <> trait gain Power +500.

A global support for the Music trait. Serves as the key support for Music-based Da Capo decks. It can be used in Standard Music decks to provide a decent boost through the Levels as well.

Allegro – The Level 1s

DC/W01-033 U みっくん＆ともちゃん / Mik-kun & Tomo-chan
Text:
【C】 ASSIST: Level 2 or above Character cards in front of this card gains Power +1000.
【S】[Put this card to 【Rest】 mode] During this turn, all your other Character cards with 《Music》 trait gains Power +500.

A decent support for Music-based decks that have more heavy usage on characters of Level 2 or above. It can provide a total of 1500 boost to any Level 2 or above music character in front of this card, making it as effective as a Power +X support (where X equal to Level x500).

DC/W01-034 U スキーウェアのななか / Ski Gear Nanaka
Text:
【A】[①] When this card battles with your opponent’s Character and puts it to 【Knockout】 mode, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, search your deck for a Character card with the《Music》Trait, show it to your opponent, then add it to your hand. Shuffle Your Deck afterwards.
【S】[②] During this turn, this card gains Power +5000.

A decent Level 1 Music character that allows players to search up any Music character from their deck with a light cost of 1 Stock whenever they put any character to reverse using this card. This card has a relatively low power of 3000, but with appropriate supports and perhaps a Draw-1-2000-1-Soul climax, they can still attempt to defeat any Level 1 or above character. Players may also use the second ability should they have spare resources, or have a character that they simply have to take down.

DC/WE02-007C 歌姫ななか/ Songstress Nanaka
Text:
【A】 When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a Character card with the 《Music》 trait, during this turn, this card gains Power +2000. (Return the revealed card to its original position)

A good Level 1 beater for a Music-based deck. Its ability allows it to reach a base power of 7000, rivaling the Level 1 7000 characters, all for the cost of 0. Players who use this card in a pure Music deck would see not much problem triggering the ability, besides the occasional climax or even event cards.

DC/W09-031R 料理中　小恋 / In the middle of Cooking Koko
Text:
【A】 When this card attacks, and the Climax card 「Trust in You」is in play, during this turn, all your characters gain Power +X. X is the number of Character Cards other than this card with the trait 《Music》 x500.

A very good card to give your Music characters a little power boost on attack. Its ability allows you to give all characters, including this card and regardless of trait, 500 more power per other Music character you have. It is, of course, most efficient with a full Music trait field, which gives a whooping 2000 boost to all characters when this card attacks. Also, if you happen to have multiple copies of this card when attacking with the climax, the power level may even reach high enough to defeat most Level 2 or even Level 3 characters. Sadly, this IS a climax-synergy ability, and is highly dependent on whether you have the climax card in question. The climax card itself, sadly, isn’t that of a Treasure icon either, so it may be harder to get it during the game for some players.

DC/W09-035U 白河　ななか/ Shirakawa Nanaka
Text:
【A】 When you use the BACKUP ability of this card, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a Character Card with 《Music》 Trait, choose 1 of your Character Cards　involved in battle, during this turn, it gains Power +1000. (The revealed card is returned to its original position)
【S】【Counter】 BACKUP 1500 Level 1 [① Send this card from your hand into Waiting] (In response to your opponent’s Front Attack, choose one of your Character card in battle. During this turn, that card gains Power +1500.)

A good Level 1 Backup for any Music-based deck. Should you be successful and reveal a Music character upon counter, it becomes a 2500 Backup, which is just slightly more than a normal Level 1 cost 1 Backup, but that 500 tends to throw many people off course. This card, like the other Reveal Music cards, works best in a pure Music deck, preferably void of even Events to ensure a higher success rate.

DC/W09-042C パジャマのことり/ Pajamas Kotori
Text: None

This card is one of the best Level 1 attackers any Music-based D.C. deck can have, being a ever-popular Level 1 Cost 1 7000 attacker spotting the Music trait. With 2 of the global boost for Music, this card can reach a power Level of 8000, which is enough to challenge most Level 1 beaters. However, since it doesn’t spot an alternate Encore ability, one would need to prepare some Counters if they want to see this card live for another turn.

DC/W09-046C 告白!?/ Confession !?
Text:
[Counter] Select one of your Character cards with the 《Music》 trait, during this turn, it gains Power +2000.

Not a bad event counter for Music characters, seeing how it can give a 2000 power boost on counter without any cost. However, regular Backup characters would be more easily searchable as compared to using this event, though saving cost for decent power is always welcomed.

DC/WE08-82 PR 悪魔の手のひらの上で/On the Palm of the Devil
Text:
Select 1 of your Character cards with the trait 《Music》 or 《Snacks》 and put it into your clock. Should you do so, select a Character card with the trait 《Music》 or 《Snacks》 from your Clock other than that card, and return it to your hand.
Search your deck for up to 1 Cost 0 or less character card with the trait 《Music》 or 《Snacks》, and put it onto your Stage in any border. Then, shuffle your deck.

This cute PR event that came with the D.C. Generation Mix 3 trading cards has quite the peculiar effect. Following closely to the scene depicted in the picture, it switches your cards around a lot. You can use this card to swap away any unwanted Level 0 characters for perhaps your global support, or any Level 1 Cost 0 beaters. And since you do get back 1 hand from this effect, the net hand cost of this card is effectively zero. Though the effect sounds strange, it is worth using.

Accelerando – The Level 2s

DC/W09-026RR ショッピング中のことり/ In the Middle of Shopping Kotori
Text:
【A】 When you put this card form your hand onto the Stage, you may select 1 card in your Clock and put it into your hand. Should you do so, choose 1 card in your hand, and put it into your Clock.
【A】 When this card attacks, if the Climax card 「Kotori’s Song」 is in play, during this turn, all your Character cards gain Power +2000.

An interesting Level 2 character. Its first effect allows you to exchange a card from your hand with a card in your clock, allowing you to get back any card you would possibly need that is stuck in your clock. Also, since you’ll place the card back at the top of your Clock, this card is excellent in any deck that plays around some Alarm abilities.
Its 2nd effect gives everyone a 2000 power boost regardless of field condition or trait when it attacks with the specific climax. The climax in question is also that of a Draw-1-2000-1-Soul, which would already mean a 4000 power boost for any 1 character of yours, for no additional stock or hand cost, which easily covers for most regular Counter limits, and even overcome some fearsome 4000+ Event counters.

DC/W09-032R 手を引く　ななか / Hand Holding Nanaka
Text:
【A】 When this card attacks, and the Climax Card [What it means to Convey] is in play, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a Character Card with the 《Music》 Trait, choose up to 2 of your opponent’s Character Card, during this turn, those cards gain Power -1500.

A Level 2 character with an unique Climax-synergy effect. There are many conditions you would have to fulfill, like attacking with the specific climax and revealing a Music character on attack, but the effect is rather rewarding. You can easily take down any still-existing Level 0 support your opponent may have, seeing how a lot of them has a base power of 1500 and below. You may also use it to reduce the front row’s character’s power which can throw opponent’s calculation for any possible counter off, which allows you to take down their characters more easily. Sadly, the ability is unable to concentrate the power reduce on 1 single character, which would have easily made this an even better card.

DC/WE08-81 PR サンタのことり/ Santa Kotori
Text:
【S】 Until the end of your opponent’s next turn, this card gains Power +1000.

Yet another PR card from the D.C. Generation Mix 3 trading cards. This is a decent Level 2 character for the Music trait in D.C., seeing as how there aren’t really a lot of Level 2 Music characters in D.C. that has high defensive power. With each additional cost you choose to pay, this card can gain power that last until the end of your opponent’s turn, which allows this card to attack with high power and still stand strong on defend next turn. However, paying too much stock may be detrimental to your overall play, so it is wise to choose the correct timing to use this effect.

Al fine – The Level 3s

DC/W01-036U 私服のことり/ Casual Clothes Kotori
Text:
【C】 BODYGUARD
【A】 When you play this card onto the stage, look at your opponent’s Hand.
【A】 When this card attacks and the Climax card 「Songstress at the Wedding Ceremony」, put the top card of your deck into your stock, and during this turn, this card gains Power +3000.

The Level 3 Music in the first Da Capo set. Like all initial Level 3 characters, it spots the Bodyguard ability, as well as the standardized climax synergy ability which you will see on all green climax-synergy effects in the earlier sets. Its 2nd ability is the one worth highlighting. It has the unique ability to force your opponent to show what is in their hand cards when you play this card onto the stage (Play = from hand to stage). You may look at your opponent’s hand to check for any counters they may be holding, and the power it can account for, so that you can better plan your attacks, especially with this card, as you can let it survive for 1 turn to let your opponent face the fearsome Bodyguard effect.

DC/W09-027RR 変わらない故郷　小恋/ Never Changing Hometown Koko
Text:
【A】 When you have 6 or more cards in your Stock, this card gains 「【A】ENCORE [Put 1 Character from your Hand into your Waiting Room]」.
【A】 When this card is played from your hand onto the stage, or put onto the stage by 「CHANGE」, you may put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room.

Music was lucky enough to get a second Level 3 in the following booster. This card is the basis of many D.C. 8-Gate Music Variant that made it to the top few for some tournaments some years back. It has 2 rather simplistic abilities that works much wonders when put together. It is a stable attacker that has decent base power, allows healing of damage, can be advanced summon during Level 2 via Change, and even sustainability via the Drop-Encore ability after you hit the quota of 6 stock. What is not to be loved?

Concertino – Specific Card Combinations

This corner features some of the cards that were made in sets, and in which would work the best if played together.

DC/W01-026RR 晴れ着のななか/ Dolled up Nanaka
Text:
【A】 All your other 「Tsukishima Koko」gains Power +1000.
【A】 BOND/「Tsukishima Koko」［①] (When this card comes into play from your hand, pay the cost to activate this ability, then search your Waiting Room for 1「Tsukishima Koko」 Character card and add it to your hand.)

DC/W01-030R 月島　小恋/ Tsukishima Koko
Text:
【A】 ENCORE [Place 1 Character card from your hand into Waiting Room] (When this card leaves the Stage and is put to the Waiting Room, you may pay cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, this card is placed in 【Rest】 mode on its previous Border.)

Personal favourite combo from the ancient days of WS. Dolled up Nanaka allows you to retrieve its pump target via Bond, and by putting 2 of it in your backstage, you would gain access to a Level 1 Cost 1 7500 character with the Drop-Encore ability. In modern context, one would not usually attempt to put 2 Dolled Up Nanaka in the backstage, but instead push her to the front stage for possible direct/ side attack chances, while keeping your Backstage free for cards like the Global support or any other more generic support cards.

DC/W09-078 R “３バカ”杉並&義之&渉 / “3 Idiots” Suginami & Yoshiyuki & Wataru
Text:
【A】 At start of your Opponent’s attack phase, you can move this card into any Border of Center Stage.
【A】[①］ When this card is put to 【Knockout】 mode during a battle, you may pay the Cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, put this card into your Memory.

DC/W09-081 R “雪月花”小恋&杏&茜 / "Setsugekka" Koko & Anzu & Akane
Text:
【A】 RECOLLECTIONS: If you have 「"3 idiots" Suginami & Yoshiyuki & Wataru」 in your Memory, this card gains Power +2000.
【A】 ENCORE [Place 1 Character card from your hand into Waiting Room] (When this card leaves the Stage and is put to the Waiting Room, you may pay cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, this card is placed in 【Rest】 mode on its previous Border.)

2 Very power rare cards from the D.C. D.C. II P.C. Booster. The first card is a highly yearned-for Level 0 character for most D.C. decks, especially those who plays with the Recollection mechanic. It is a generic runner that everyone loves to use but hate to fight against. Upon its inevitable defeat during the later levels, you can pay an additional cost of 1 to contribute to the Memory pool.

The second card is an easily achievable Level 1 Cost 1 6500 Drop-Encore beater. However, there are still cases where you would actually be unable to fulfill the seemingly simple condition, just because the 3 Idiots seem to be running away from you also.

DC/W09-083U 超マイペース　萌 / Super My-Pace Moe
Text:
【C】 During your opponent’s turn, all your other Character cards with 《Pot》 trait gain Power +500.
【A】 BOND/「Unyielding and Lively Mako」[Put the top card of your deck to your Clock] (When this card comes into play from your hand, you may pay the cost to activate this ability, then search your Waiting Room for 1 「Unyielding and Lively Mako」card and add it to your hand.)

DC/W09-087U 勝気で快活　眞子/ Unyielding and Lively Mako
Text:
【C】 ALARM: When this card is in the top of your Clock, all your Character Cards with the ability 「【A】 ENCORE [Place 1 Character card from hand to Waiting Room]」gains Power +1000.
【S】 【Counter】 BACKUP 3000 Level 2 [① Send this card from your hand into Waiting] (In response to your opponent’s Front Attack, choose one of your Character card in battle. During this turn, that card gains Power +3000.)

A set of cards previously mentioned in the Bond Article. The focus of this set would be on Unyielding and Lively Mako, being a multi-purpose Backup that is easily retrievable because of the existence of a Bond character for it. This card’s Alarm ability works well with many D.C. decks, including a deck that mains Level 3 Koko and its Change, as it can gain Drop-Encore, and hence gain power boosts from this Alarm.

Overall Review:
Music is one of the more established traits in the D.C. sets and expansions. It has shown real results from tournaments, though it’s a bit outdated…
Nevertheless, it can still put up a good fight with many of the current series, as it spots considerable power and even early healing capabilities. Splashing red to access Comeback triggers is a popular and rather stable build for D.C. Neo-Standard Music. If anyone is interested in how D.C. actually made it to the top last time, this is one trait you should at least try.

With the release of two trial decks weeks before, namely Senki Zesshō Symphogear and Zero no Tsukaima F. I’m sure fans out there are as eager as me, wanting to try out the new weapons of choice. Stay with me as I review the construction for Kadingir.

Alright, before anything else, I humbly apologise for the long wait. There has been some technical issues on my side of this digital world and I assure you this delay will not happen again.

On to the actual article, first up, the trial deck specials.

SG/W19-101 未来の親友 響 / Miku’s Close Friend Hibiki
Text:
【A】[ ①, put the top card into your clock] When this card is sent from the stage into the waiting room, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for one 《Music》 trait character, reveal it to your opponent and add it into your hand. Shuffle your deck.

Currently this is the only deck-searching card available. However, being a level 1, it is slightly less viable as compared to generic level 0 searcher. Well, one cannot be too picky.

SG/W19-102 TD 戦いに身を置く翼 / Placing oneself into Battle Tsubasa
Text:
【A】 When this card enters the stage from your hand, until end of your opponent’s turn, this card gains +1500 power.

Hmmm… Sounds good on first impression. Personally I feel that this card isn’t lasting enough as the level 1(s) in this trial deck already have the power/abilities to stay on stage and still remain as potent a threat as a level 2.

SG/W19-103 TD シンフォギアの装者　響 / User of Symphogear Hibiki
Text:

【C】Level 2 Characters in front of this card gains +1000 power.
【S】[Rest 2 《Music》 trait characters] Choose one of your character, that character gains +1 level and +1000 power this turn.

Power~Control~ what more can I ask for. The boost allow a 1/0 5500 to reach 6500 power and then 7500 power due to it being level 2. Effortlessly overpowering a standard 1/1 7000 and by-passing level 1 limit bombs.

SG/W19-104 TD シンフォギアの装者　翼 / User of Symphogear Tsubasa
Text:
【A】 When this card enters the stage from your hand, choose two of your characters, they gain +1000 power and +1 soul this turn.

【A】 When other 《Music》 trait character attacks, this character gains +1000 power.

A pretty decent level 3 for a trial deck. Does not offer a healing option but instead, offers a dominating power boost, staying true to the general theme of this deck. Coupled with two of User of Symphogear Hibiki, this card can easily reach a power of 15000, excluding buffs from climax or other card effects. The addition +1000 power and +1 soul does offer a flexible attack pattern for pin-point damage.

SG/W19-105 TD トップアーティスト　翼 / Top Artist Tsubasa
Text:

【A】[①] When this character declares attack, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your character. That character gains +1000 power until the end of opponent’s turn.

Nice boost for offense and defense. Furthermore, this card allows you to pay out climaxes that was previously triggered, ensuring a clean and healthy stock.

Now on to the main deck itself.

SG/W19-T04 TD 覚醒の鼓動　響 / Pulse of Awakening Hibiki
Text:

【A】 When this character declares attack, you may choose one of your character. That character gains +1000 power.
【A】 Encore ［Discard 1 character card from your hand into the waiting room］

Yes, Control! One must wait till level 1 for this option to be unlocked. The boost is really god-sent throughout the game. Your characters can blitz through opponent’s characters with ease with the presence of this card. Combined with User of Symphogear Tsubasa, the latter can gain a devastating boost of 2000 power.

SG/W19-T06 TD 流されやすいタイプ　響 /Easily Swayed Type Hibiki
Text:

【C】 When there are other level 3 character(s) on the stage, this character gains +1000 power.

As the ability states, this character is best reserve for level 3, despite being a level 2 card.
However, one way to by-pass the level restriction is by using the ability of User of Symphogear Hibiki to increase the level of another level 2 to 3, thus fulfilling the requirement for 1 turn.

SG/W19-T11 TD 防人の生き様　翼 / Way of the Sentinel Tsubasa

Text:
【A】 When this character declares attack, and you have the climax　「Ao no Issen」　in your climax zone, this character gains +1500 power until the end of opponent’s turn.

【A】 Encore [Discard 1 character card from your hand into the waiting room]

SG/W19-T14 TD 蒼ノ一閃 / Ao no Issen

【A】 Draw 1 card. Choose one of your character. That character gains +2000 power and +1 soul this turn.

The crème of the crop for this trial deck. This combo has the ability to reach level 2 power band. With a little stunt here and there, this combo can even challenge level 3 with ease.

On defense, you can use a normal +2000 power level 1  counter provided in this trial deck or simply encore this character.

Conclusion:
This trial deck does offer a fun definition for “power overwhelming”. I’m definitely looking forward to the booster’s release. Stay tune and have fun gaming. =)

Zen, signing off.

Which would lead us to this week’s review. Unlike the many others before this that were more Character and trait based, this review would cover a whole theme of similar effects. Read more after the jump!

In this review, I will be covering the range of looking at /revealing the top card of your deck series of effects, which have its roots all the way back in the D.C. D.C. II Extra Booster.

Level 1: Revealing the Top card of your Deck.

This chain of effects is first introduced in the D.C. D.C. II Extra Booster, where it is used to fulfill requirements to trigger certain abilities. It can give the player a slight foresight by knowing what they will trigger for the next attack, or add it to either their hand or stock by climax effects. For effects that triggers when played or by activation, it can be used to plan better attacks against your opponent, which may result in the most damage dealt with the least resource used.  For the effects that trigger on attack, while it won’t help knowing the trigger right before the trigger step (since you have already declared what type of attack first already), some of them have very powerful effects that are worth fulfilling.

Some of the notable cards in this series of effects:

DC/W01-E04 C　水着の和泉子 / Swimsuit Izumiko

Text:

【A】 When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a Climax card, select up to 2 of your opponent’s character cards and return them to your opponent’s hand.

This card is quite the popular target in many fun decks. Together with ever popular event Playing by the Stream, it forms a deadly combo that can wipe your opponent’s field for an all-out direct attack, as well as waste your opponent’s resources in playing them down.

DC/W01-E08 C 水着のななか＆由夢 / Swimsuit Nanaka & Yume

Text:

【A】 When this card is put from your hand onto the stage, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a card that is Level 1 or above, during this turn, this card gains Power +2000.

A decent level 0 character that is capable of taking down most level 0 beaters, should you succeed with the ability. Even without deck-top controlling, it is relatively easy to trigger this effect. During the later levels, it can be used to reveal your next trigger for a better planned attack.

DC/W01-E16 R 水着のアリス / Swimsuit Alice

Text:

【A】 When this card is put from your hand onto the stage, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a character card that is equal or below your Level, you may put that card onto the stage in any border.

Also another popular target for fun combo decks. It allows you to save the cost of playing bigger characters, so long as its level is equal to or lower than yours. One can simply use Playing by the Stream to selectively put the character they want to play out on the top of the deck.

DC/WE02-002 R お雛様　音姫　/Dolled Up Otome

【A】 When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a character card with the trait <<Student Council>>, during this turn, this card gains Soul +1.

One of the better attackers in a Student Council deck, throughout the whole progress of a game. A 0 cost 2 soul attacker is always welcomed.

DC/W09-077 RR 新生徒会長　杏 / New Student Council President Anzu

【A】 When this card is put from your hand onto the Stage, you may put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room.

【A】[②]  When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a character card with the trait <<Student Council>>, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room.

A key card in a Student Council deck. Allows many damage to be healed in 1 turn. It was also nice of the card designers to allow the players to pay the cost only after they confirmed a Student Council character on attack.

DC/W09-062 U 旅立つエリカ/ Starting Journey Erika

【C】For each other of your Character card with the trait <<Royalty>>, this card gains  Power +500.

【A】When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a character card with the trait <<Royalty>>, you may deal 1 damage to your opponent.

A strong level 3 character to play in a Royalty-based deck. Its ability to deal 1 damage allows easy chasing of damage, and also for a easier final turn, where players can attempt to deal 6x 1 damage if they succeed for all the checks.

DC/WE08-76 PR 黒サンタの杏 / Black Santa Anzu

【A】 When this card is put from your hand onto the stage, reveal the top card of your deck. Should it be a card that is Level 1 or above, until the end of your opponent’s next turn, this card gains Power +1000.

Similar to Swimsuit Nanaka & Yume, but this card can stay around for at least 1 more turn to net you more advantage next turn.

Level 2a: Looking at the Top card of your Deck, choose to put Top or Bottom

This is where the control starts. This type of ability allows you to control your top deck, and return any other card that you don’t want to see back to the depths of the deck. This allows you to slightly control the contents of your deck, 1 card at a time. You may choose to return any climax cards you have seen by this effect to the bottom deck, in hope for more cancels at a later stage. You may also opt to put a card you very much would like in your hand, but with no means to get it now, to the bottom deck, in which you can search the card out using deck search abilities (if you have any.) This also works well with the ‘Revealing the top’ abilities, simply because the rates of fulfilling the conditions for them would be increased.

List of cards with this ability:

DC/W01-E15 R 小悪魔　杏 / Little Devil Anzu

Text:

【A】 When you put this card from your hand onto the Stage, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it on the top or the bottom of your deck.

DC/W09-086 U 料理中の麻耶 / In the middle of Cooking Maya

Text:

【A】When you put this card from your hand onto the Stage, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it on the top or the bottom of your deck.

【A】CHANGE ［① Discard 1 card from your hand, put this card to your Memory］At the start of your Encore Step, should this card be in 【Rest】 mode, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, choose 1 [In the Middle of a Date Maya] Character card from your Waiting Room and place it in this card’s original Border.

DC/W09-089 C 磯鷲　涼芽 / Isowashi Suzume

【S】[Put 2 of your Character to 【Rest】 mode] Look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it on the top or the bottom of your deck.

Level 2b: Looking at the Top card of your Deck, choose to put Top or in Waiting Room

Very similar to the above ability, but with slight utility differences. Instead of simply returning unwanted cards back to the bottom deck, this type of effects allows you to put them directly into the waiting room. Players may use this type of ability to try and thin their deck, though this deck-thinning is inferior to many of the Brainstorm abilities out there (which Da Capo didn’t have until the very recent D.C.III trial deck, which gave a brainstorm of 1 card). Players who see climax cards using this effect may only opt to send it away to ensure its existence after refresh, or to accept fate and choose to trigger it. Players with access to waiting room retrieval may also choose to send any character cards they want to the waiting room so that they can easily retrieve it.

List of cards with this ability:

DC/WE02-012 C お月見　由夢 / Looking at the Moon Yume

Text:

【A】 When you put this card from your hand onto the Stage, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it on the top of your deck, or in your waiting room.

DC/WE08-75 PR 甘味な時間　由夢 / Sweet Time Yume

Text:

【C】ASSIST: All your character cards in front of this card that is Level 2 or above gains Power +1000.

【A】When you put this card from your hand onto the Stage, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it on the top of your deck, or in your waiting room.

Level 3: Look at the Top 2 cards of your deck and Rearranging

DC/WE02-014 R 星に願う杏 / Wish upon a Star Anzu

Text:

【A】 When you put this card from your hand onto the Stage, look at up to 2 cards from the top of your deck, and return it to the top of your deck in any order.

There are very rare similar cards even in the whole of the WS card pool. This type of ability allows you to know and control your next 2 triggers. It works very well with climax cards that allow you to draw 1 card, allowing you to control what you will draw and your next 1 trigger. In standard, this ability may also be used with the popular 2-cards Brainstorm ability of the Zero no Tsukaima booster, notably Sailor Uniform Siesta and Louise of the Void.

While this ability allows you greater control, it does not have the option of returning unwanted cards back to the bottom of the deck, or to the waiting room. One may instead use this ability along with the above few for greater effect.

Level 4: Look at the Top 4 cards of your deck and Rearranging

DC/W01-E13 C 水着の由夢

【A】 When you put this card from your hand onto the stage, look at up to 4 cards from the top of your deck, and return it to the top of your deck in any order.

【A】 When this card attacks and the Climax card 「Bathing with a Cat」 is in play, select 1 Character card in your Waiting Room and add it to your hand.

Tremble in awe as you learn about the existence of this wonderful treasure, currently still available only in the Da Capo series. This card allows you to control all your triggers for your next attack, allowing the best success rate for any effects that require revealing the correct card from the top of your deck.

Besides controlling the triggers, players can also use this ability to ensure more cancels in the next turn. If the player sees at least 1 climax in the 4 cards, he is able to push it to the bottom of the 4 for 1 confirmed cancel next turn. If more than 1 climax is seen, it is up to the player to see if he wants the cancels, or simply attack for a chance of massive damage.

Level Extra: Looking at the Top of your opponent’s Deck

DC/W01-042 C 大和撫子　環 / Yamato Nadeshiko Tamaki

Text:

【A】 When you play this card from your hand to the stage, from the top of your opponent’s deck, look at up to 3 cards, and put them back on top of your opponent’s deck in any order you like.

【A】 When this card attacks and the Climax card [For my Important Person......] is in play, from the top of your deck, place one card to your Stock. During this turn, this card gains Power +3000.

【A】 Encore [Place 1 Character card from your hand into Waiting Room] (When this card leaves the Stage and is put to the Waiting Room, you may pay cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, this card is placed in 【Rest】 mode on its previous Border.

DC/W01-E09 C 水着の環 / Swimsuit Tamaki

Text:

【A】When you put this character into play from hand, look at up to the top 2 cards of your opponent’s deck, choose up to 1 of it, and put it at the bottom of your opponent’s deck. Return the remaining cards to the top of his deck in any order.

DC/W09-040 C 凛々しい環 / Dignified Tamaki

Text:

【A】[①] When you put this card onto the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, look at the top card of your opponent’s deck, and choose to put it on top or below his deck, during this turn, this card gains Power +1000.

The Da Capo series does not only have abilities that look at your own top decks. Following closely to the series, certain cards of Konomiya Tamaki can look and even decide your opponent’s future. This may be used together with cards that control your own top deck to deal ‘confirmed’ damage.

Overall Review:

The ability to control even at least 1 trigger in WS is highly valuable, even though it may seem insignificant. Besides using it to allow you to trigger the specific trait for various abilities, it can also allow you to increase your chance to cancel or to deal more precise damage that has a lower chance of being cancelled. Of course, while all the above cards are from the Da Capo sets and expansions, it is definitely not the only series with these effects. You can find top deck controlling in the Brainstorm-heavy Zero no Tsukaima, which would be releasing a new Extra Booster soon enough, and the recently released Guilty Crown, which takes the revealing top deck and top deck controlling effects to yet another level.

See beyond your normal sight, and learn to enjoy beyond your observations.

Take this and read  the rest of this post… okay?

Guilty Crown is an experimental series so do expect some cards to be sorely lacking in balance. The series explores the potential of ‘SHIFT’ effects and trigger checks. While it has a decent Level 0 game, the series doesn’t pack enough field presence at Level 1 and tends to get stock-intensive at Level 2. This limits the potential of its level 3s which are fairly decent.

The series also suffers from the Melty Blood syndrome, making it incredibly challenging to play decks that span over 3 colours due to the requirement of the <<葬儀社>> (<<sougisha>>) trait for some critical effects.

Let’s explore some of the possible deck parts that Guilty Crown provides.

At Level 0, GC spoils you with a whole host of offensive and defensive options.

 GC/S16-009U

潜入捜査 涯 /sen nyuu sousa gai / Undercover Investigation Gai

[A] When you put this card from hand onto the Stage, reveal the top card of your deck. If that card is a Climax, send the top-most card of your stock to the waiting room. (Return the revealed card to its original position)

This card is extremely strong on the first turn, allowing you to see your trigger for no cost. As the first player, I will always play this and end my turn should I reveal a climax.

GC/S16-028R

うつむく　集 / utsumuku shuu / Looking Down in Shame Shuu

BRAINSTORM [(1) Put this card to [Rest]] Flip over 4 cards from the top of your Deck to your Waiting Room. For every Climax, perform the following action [Choose a card from your clock, return it to your hand and place the top card of your deck into your clock.]

It’s a Brainstorm that actually allows you to gain a hand size advantage. It has <<葬儀社>> so do abuse the potential of Operator Tsugumi to secure a retrieve!

GC/S16-035U

草間 花音 / kusama kanon / Kusama Kanon

[Reveal the top-most card of your Deck] You may only activate this ability once per turn. If you reveal a card that is Level 1 or above, for this turn, this card gains power +1500.

Seriously? Even without Positive Thinking Tsugumi to tweak the odds of you gaining Power +1500, this card is still a viable unconventional support, allowing you to see your triggers and plan accordingly.

GC/S16-040C

学園の集 / gakuen no shuu / School Shuu

[C] This card gains Power +1500 if there is 1 or less other characters on the Stage.

Good beatstick seeing that the amount of viable Level 0 supports approaches 0.

GC/S16-059U

桜満 春夏 / ouma haruka / Ouma Haruka

[C] This card gains Power +1000 when your opponent has 3 or less stock.

An interesting effect that actually allows you to force your opponents into over-extending at Level 0. Punishing them for early on in the game will help you squeeze your way through Level 1.

GC/S16-066C

別れの言葉　いのり / wakare no kotoba inori / Words of farewell Inori

[A] When this card is goes into [Reverse] and this card is battling a Level 0 or below, you may send that card into [Reverse] as well.

A standard aiuchi that allows you to remove threats that are out of your power range. (5000 Hecate anyone?)

GC/S16-076RR

水着のツグミ / muzugi no tsugumi / Swimsuit Tsugumi

[A] [(1) Send one card from Hand to the Waiting Room] When this card is placed from Hand onto the Stage, you may choose to pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for a <<sougisha>>, show that card to your opponent and add that card to your hand. Shuffle that deck.

Ehh… I must admit that the effect does not justify the rarity. Pretty standard effect don’t you think? Must be the cat ears.

GC/S16-078R

ポジティブ思考　ツグミ / pojitibu shikou tsugumi / Positive Thinking Tsugumi

[A] When this card is placed from Hand onto the Stage, reveal the top-most card of your deck. If that card is Level 1 or above, add that card to your hand and discard a card from your hand to the Waiting Room. (If the card is not a Level 1 or above, return it to its original position, Climaxes are treated as Level 0s.)

[A] When this card attacks, choose one of your characters, for this turn, that card gains Power +500.

Strong is an understatement. This card can actually retrieve Events and has a nice power boost on attack. On a completely unrelated note, Tsugumi is dripping with cute-sauce.

GC/S16-089C

呆れ顔　綾瀬 / akiregao ayase / Amazed Ayase

[C] During your opponent’s turn, if there are two or less characters on your Stage, this card gains Power +1500.

Perfectly viable due to the presence of  <<sougisha>> that School Shuu does not  have. Choose your poison.

A heavily defensive Level 0 build will invariably lead to you to build into a blue or green Level 1 due to the overwhelming amount of Tsugumi and Shuu you’ll end up with.

Trying to build towards a red Level 1 is also possible, but you’ll have to consider other options like 魂の歌声　いのり (GC/S16-064C Vanilla support with an on-play retrieve.) or even ふゅーねる(GC/S16-065C Unconventional support that requires a retrieval mechanic to maintain hand size.)

For a yellow Level 1, consider “第一感染者”真名 (GC/S16-003R Bond to maintain hand size and the shift to abuse other effects.) and “葬儀社” 四分儀 (GC/S16-014C For a decent support that provides a stable mechanic for tweaking the top-most card of your Deck).

For Level 1 and 2, possible build paths are as follows:

Red will build :

GC/S16-051RR

優しい気持ち　いのり / yasashii kimochi inori / Tender Feelings Inori

[A] [(1)] When this card attacks, if [勇気の試練 (yuuki no shiren / Test of Bravery)] is in the Climax Border, you may choose to pay the cost. If you do so, retrieve a Character from the Waiting Room and add it your Hand.

[A] When this card is sent into [Reverse] during battle, your opponent may choose to send a Character from your Waiting Room to the top of your Deck.

A decent card that allows you to change the Climax in your Hand for a Character at the cost of 1 stock. The drawback from the second effect might encourage players to send this card into [Reverse] on their own turn to avoid taking more damage or allowing opponents to fix their next draw.

And,

GC/S16-070C

純粋な気持ち　いのり / jyunsui na kimochi inori / Untainted Feelings Inori

[A] ENCORE [Send a character from your Hand to your Waiting Room] (When this card is sent from the Stage to the Waiting Room, you may pay the cost. If you do so, send the card to [Rest] in its Border.

Playing alternative Encore mechanics is probably the best way to gimp your way through a weak Level 1. Inori sure has a lot of feelings eh?

Or,

GC/S16-062U

EGOIST いのり/ igoisuto inori / EGOIST Inori

[C] If there are two or more other cards that have [応援] ([Support]), this card gains Power +1000.

[A] SHIFT Level 1.

Build this if you are planning on using 悲痛な叫び　いのり to survive through Level 2. You will need this and the Funnel to provide a decent amount of SHIFT for her to work.

Yellow will not build anything and get their field demolished. A burst of power only on your own turn does not stand well in the current meta. Shift can only provide another avenue for you to get your cards (combos well with“第一感染者”真名 should you decide to try it) but doesn’t do nuts about having a nice 4k ~ 5k power range on your opponent’s turn. The change is way too expensive and is hard-countered by effects that blow or send characters away from the stage.

Also, yellow doesn’t provide effective Level 2s, forcing you to choke your hand with counters to keep your field alive. Not recommended.

Green builds into:

GC/S16-042C

寒川 谷尋 / samukawa yahiro / Samukawa Yahiro

[C] All your other characters gain this ability. [This card cannot perform a Side Attack].

and

GC/S16-030R

遠くを見据える　いのり/ tooku wo misueru inori / Gazing into the Distance Inori

[A] When this card attacks and the Climax 「女神の微笑み」[Smile of the Goddess] is in the Climax Border, for this turn, this card gains Power +1000 and the following ability. [ [A] When this card sends its battling opponent into [Reverse], you may send the top-most card of your deck to Stock].

[A] ENCORE [Send the top card of your deck into Clock]

Very obvious choices, having an encore mechanic that doesn’t kill off your hand size is always good. The downside of having to front attack all the time is somewhat offset the fact that you’ll probably be playing 「女神の微笑み」 [Smile of the Goddess].

Blue builds into:

GC/S16-093C

強い心　ツグミ / tsuyoi kokoro tsugumi / Strong-willed Tsugumi

[C] If there is a marker below this card, this card gains Power +1000.

[A] When this card is placed from Hand onto the Stage, reveal the topmost card of your deck. If that card is a Level 1 or above, you may place that card below this card as a Marker.

This card opens up a lot of possibilities seeing that you actually know your marker. Depending on the situation, you might want to keep this card alive to compress your deck further or keep key cards under it to send into the waiting room after refresh.

The obvious downside is that you can only confirm your topmost card, only allowing you to play one of her every turn safely.

And

GC/S16-094C

風変わりな子　ツグミ / fuugawari na ko tsugumi / Eccentric Girl Tsugumi

It’s a nice vanilla and hits 9.5k on defence easily.

Or

GC/S16-092C

有能なパイロット　綾瀬 / yuunou na pairotto ayase / Capable Pilot Ayase

[A] ENCORE [Send a Character from your Hand to the Waiting Room].

If you cannot survive the beat down, find alternatives. This is it.
Depending on how you built your level 0, you may consider playing a different colour for your level 2.

For a yellow Level 2, your only viable choice that doesn’t require a set up would be :

GC/S16-011U

月島 アルゴ / tsukishima arugo / Tsukishima Arugo

[C]During your turn, if you have 4 or more stock, this card gains Power +1500.

[A] SHIFT Level 2

Not great, but it has <<sougisha>> and SHIFT. It becomes a 10k on your own turn with Operator Tsugumi or 10.5k with Seeing Through Troubles Inori.

One of the few cards that you can consider playing down to activate Cry of Pain Inori’s buff at Level 2.
For a red Level 2, you can consider :

GC/S16-055R

悲痛な叫び　いのり/ hitsuu na sakebi inori / Cry of Pain Inori

[A] This ability can only be activated once per turn. If other cards of yours that has [SHIFT] is played on from Hand onto the Stage, this card gains Power +2000 until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Ahh… Note that you will actually have to play the character instead of just using the SHIFT ability.

With a support, this can actually be quite the formidable force. Combos well with GC/S16-054R 迷いを見抜く　いのり.

Or

GC/S16-071C

ウェブアーティスト　いのり / webu aatisuto inori / Web Artist Inori

[A] When other Characters of yours are sent into [Reverse], for this turn, this card gains Power +1000.

Saves stock, sacrifice field presence when needed. Combos well with Funnel.

Or even

GC/S16-052

集のパートナー いのり / shuu no paatonaa inori / Shuu’s partner Inori

[A] CHANGE [(2) Place a card from your Hand to your Waiting Room] At the beginning of your Climax Phase, you may choose to pay the cost. If you do, place a 「楪 いのり」[Yuzuriha Inori] from your waiting room on the border of this card.

[Send this card into [Rest]] Choose one of your Characters, for this turn, it gains Power +1500.

Might be stock intensive. But a change into a heal is always welcome when you can afford it.

For green,

GC/S16-032R

優しい言葉　祭 / yasahii kotoba hare / Kind Words Hare

[A] [(1)] When this card attacks and the Climax 「私の大好きな王様」[My Beloved King] is in the Climax Border, you may pay the cost. Should you do so, all your other characters gain Power +4500.

Not great, but good enough. If you have a 6k Level 1, watch that take down Level 2s with ease. It serves its purpose of baiting out counters early on well.

For blue,

GC/S16-086U

しっかり者　綾瀬 / shikkari mono ayase /  Reliable Person Ayase

[A] [Shuffle two Characters from your Waiting Room into your Deck] When this card attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. If that card is a Level 1 or above, you may choose to pay the cost.

If you do so, you gain Power +2000 until the end of your opponent’s turn.

[A]ENCORE [Send a Character from your Hand to your Waiting Room]

Not wonderful and causes you to take a metric ton or two of damage. But it has a reliable encore and hits 11 000 readily should you pay the cost.

Or

GC/S16-087U

“葬儀社”ツグミ / sougisha tsugumi / “Undertaker” Tsugumi

[C]If you have 4 or more Stock, this card gains the ability [ [A]ENCORE [Send a Character from your Hand to your Waiting Room]]

[A]When this card attacks and the Climax 「情報戦の要」[The Need for Information Warfare] is in the Climax Border, you may choose to Draw a card.

This card and its climax are critical in making their ENCORE viable throughout Level 1 and 2.

You have no choice for Level 3s. Go for green and red Level 3s for the heal. Yellow is a gimmicky card you might want to consider simply for the shift. Blue is just plain expensive to play and is pretty much only viable if you went green/blue for Level 1 and blue for Level 2 as it is stock and hand intensive.

For support, the three options that are open are:

GC/S16-081R

オペレーター　ツグミ / opereetaa tsugumi / Operator Tsugumi

[C] SUPPORT All the cards in front of this card gains Power +X where X is the Level of the card multiplied by 500.

[A] This effect can only be activated twice per turn. When you play a <<sougisha>> from Hand onto Stage, look at the top card of your deck and choose to put it on top or below your deck.

Wonderful. Just plain amazing. Abuse it to cancel damage and win the war with knowledge. This should have been the RR instead of the Swimsuit Tsugumi.

Or

GC/S16-054R

迷いを見抜く　いのり/ mayoi wo minuku inori / Seeing Through Troubles Inori

[C] SUPPORT All the cards in front of this card gains Power +1000.

[A] This ability can only be used once per turn. When you use SHIFT, until the end of your opponent’s turn, this card gains the ability [ [C] All of your other Characters gain Power +500].

Hard boost of +1000 and a conditional global buff. Only more useful than Operator Tsugumi should you choose play a lot of shift.

And/Or

GC/S16-026RR

魅惑のビーチ　祭 / miwaku no biichi hare / Alluring Beach Hare

[C] All of your other Characters gain Power +500.

[A] At the beginning of your Main Phase, look at the topmost card of your deck and choose to put it below or on top of your deck.

This card will have to do seeing that GC has no Level 0 global buff. The second effect is key to making a lot of cards viable. Pretty great in standard as well.

So ends the brief analysis of the set. Mix and match as your fandom decrees and I’ll see you on the other side, pulling cards out of clock like Shuu pulling Voids out of people! After I finish my intensive play-testing of set, I will make a dedicated post on the deck builds and how to play them effectively!

In the meantime, post your deck builds on the forum, discuss certain cards, argue over the rulings all in the forum! Don’t forget to buy more Guilty Crown goods, support Lost Christmas to convince Bushiroad to make an EP that will actually give us Level 2s!

Losing at Champion Select since X years ago,

Ekuseru.

(Active development of the site resumes on 14^th April. PM me with ideas!)

This is going to be quite a long ride, so put on your spectacles as we dive right in after the jump!

For this review, I would be skipping through the cards found in the Trial Deck, as I believe many would be familiar with the cards already. For those who don’t, you have some homework to do then.

Instead of going down the list by the card numbers, some of the cards would actually be put together with the other card(s) in their specific combos.

P4/SE12-01R 最初の仲間 陽介/ The First Comrade Yousuke

Text:

【A】 When you put this card onto the Stage from your Hand, put the top card of your Deck into the Waiting Room. If that card is a Climax card, put this card into your Stock.

For a 3500 attacker, its effect isn’t really that much of a side effect. While sending a Climax card away by this effect will remove this card away from the field, you would be still be able to gain 1 stock, unlike many other similar character cards that goes to the Waiting Room or even shuffled back to deck. Its effect is more merit than demerit in too many situations.

Relevance to older series:

Spotting the Junes trait, this 3500 attacker can easily be pumped to defeat even Level 1 characters with the specific Junes support. It also has great uses in Level 3, where you could play this card if you have a gut feeling that your next card is a Climax. In this case, you can allow your Son of the Manager Yousuke to have a chance in milling more Junes trait character cards, and also gain more stock to play other character cards.

P4/SE12-02R “切り札”となる力 悠 / Power to become the “Trump Card” Yuu

Text:

【C】During your own turn, if you have 4 or less cards in your Stock, this card gains Power +2000.

【C】 While this card is on the Stage, this card’s name is also treated as 「Power to become the “Trump Card” Main Character」.

A Level 1 beater that is most useful during your initial Level 1 stages. It can be used to take down most Level 1 with a power of 7000. However, it is wiser not to attempt to fulfill the requirements of the effect at your later level 1s, unless you are playing the whole series of Stock-Below-4 cards in this Extra Booster.

Relevance to older series:

The card designers were nice enough to allow all of Yuu’s cards to be treated as Main Character (Shuujinko to some) while it is on the Stage, making any cards that plays around the Main Character name still viable with his cards. It also has the Spectacles trait, which is quite a widely used trait in Persona 4.

P4/SE12-03R フードコートの菜々子 / Food Court Nanako

Text:

【C】 All your other Character cards with 「Yuu」 or 「Main Character」 in name gain the following ability. 『【C】 This card cannot be selected by your Opponent’s card abilities.』
【C】 ASSIST: All Character cards in front of this card gain Power +X. X is equal to the number of your Character cards with 『ASSIST』 x500.

A new generation Level 1 support that increases the value it boosts equal to the number of ASSIST Character you have. By having 2 ASSIST characters in your backstage (including this card), it can provide a decent power boost of 1000 to any characters in front, making it a very playable support.

Its first ability allows you to protect your Yuus or Main Characters from devious card abilities that can remove them from the field. This helps to conserve your resources as you won’t have to pay cost to play them again if they go back to your hand, or to pay cost to Encore them if they get sent to the Waiting Room by abilites.

Relevance to older series:

It was nice of them to extend this card’s ability to reach Main Character cards as well, making it usable with the older series. Most notable use for its first effect is to play it together with the Persona 3 Main Character, with the famous Orpheus to Thanatos combo. The advance summon is very good, but always face the problem of getting returned to your hand or sent directly to the Waiting Room within 1 turn of its appearance. This card would protect it from such abilities, making the cost paid more efficient.

P4/SE12-12R  新たな仲間 りせ/ A New Comrade Rise

【C】 When this card is put onto the Stage from your Hand, select 1 of your other Character cards, during this turn, that card gains Power +1000, Level +1.

P4/SE12-14R 揺れる気持ち りせ/ Swaying Emotions Rise

【C】 When you would play this card from your hand, you may select a 「A New Comrade Rise」 on your Stage and send it to the Waiting Room. Should you do so, you can play this card by paying 0 cost.

【C】 When you have 5 or more cards in your Stock, this card gains power +1000.

【A】 When you put this card onto the Stage from your Hand, you may put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room.

This Extra Booster introduces 2 very good Rise cards to the card pool. A New Comrade Rise is a very good utility character card, spotting a Come-Into-Play ability that gives a little power boost as well as a level boost. This effect sees the greatest effects during Level 0, where self-destruct characters are widely played, and where the power difference between characters can easily be covered by the 1000 boost.

Swaying Emotions Rise is a decent Level 3 character on its own. It has a standard Come-Into-Play-Heal-1 ability for Level 3 characters, as well as being a possible 10500 attacker if you happen to have 5 or more cards in your Stock, which is fairly decent, together with the proper support. Its first ability is very good, allowing you to save stock costs while playing this character, helping you achieve its 5 Stock requirement more easily. And since the target of the effect is actually a utility character card, in which people would likely abandon after using, this card gives A New Comrade Rise another use after it exhausts its Come-Into-Play ability.

These 2 Rise cards may also see play in Standard format decks, seeing how both of them is of the major trait Music. Swaying Emotions Rise goes a step further, replacing the Television trait with another major trait, Magic.

Relevance to older series:

This is a great addition to the series, seeing as how there is only another Come-into-Play-Heal-1 character in the whole of both Persona 3 and 4, which is a Promo card that is hardly obtainable now. It boosts the series by giving it a more generic way to heal damage.

P4/SE12-13R 自称特別捜査隊 千枝 / Self-proclaimed Special Investigation Team Chie

Text:

【C】 When you have 5 or more cards in your Stock, this card gains power +1000.
【A】[①]　When you put the Climax card 「Chie’s Awakening」onto the Climax Area, if this card is in your Center Stage, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, search your deck for up to 1 「Self-proclaimed Special Investigation Team Chie」, and put it onto the Stage in any border.

This card’s first ability brings its power to that of 9000, which is a Standard Level 2 Cost 2 power level. Its second ability to “Call for Family” is rather decent, seeing as how you can play out another copy of this card for the light cost of 1 from your deck, effectively saving cost for both searching the card out and playing it. The climax in question is also that of the Treasure icon, making it easily obtainable throughout the game.

Relevance to older series:

Despite wearing Spectacles in the picture, this card does not spot the Spectacles trait. However, it still has the Sports trait that most Chie card plays around, so it isn’t an issue. This card would be a rather decent attacker for a Chie-based deck, seeing as how it allows you to summon another Level 2 Cost 2 character with the light cost of 1, helping you save some cost to play other cards in the deck.

P4/SE12-15C 雪子の味方 千枝 / Yukiko’s Ally Chie

Text:

【A】[Put this card into the Waiting Room] When one of your other Character cards with the trait <<Fan>> is Front Attacked, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, choose 1 of your battling Character cards, during this turn, that card gains Power +1000.
【A】 BOND /「A Case Closed Yukiko」 [Put the top card of your deck into your Clock] (When you play this card onto the Stage, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, select 1  「A Closed Case Yukiko」 in your Waiting Room and add it to your hand.)

A decent card, spotting a cost saving BOND and a widely usable additional ability. The ability to give a Fan trait character an additional power of 1000 on defense gives this card another use besides retrieving A Case Closed Yukiko. You can have it stay in the Center Stage by side-attacking, and send her away later since she will get reversed anyway. You can also have her stay in the backstage if you fear the additional damage from the possible direct attack after you use this card’s ability. The additional 1000 may put many people off course, as many would only consider the counter limits of regular counter cards while attempting to overpower other characters. It may also result in opponents ‘overboosting’ their characters to overcome the power difference of both this card and a possible counter in your hand.

Relevance to older series:

Most Yukiko cards spot the Fan trait, so you can put this card to act as additional counter for her. However, she does not spot either the Fan or Wafuku trait, which can reduce the chance of triggering Young Landlady Yukiko’s ability in a Yukiko-based deck.

P4/SE12-16C どこでも出前！ あいか/ Delivery to Anywhere! Aika

Text:

【A】 When you use the 『BACKUP』 ability of this card, if you have 6 or more cards in your Stock, select 1 of your battling Character cards, during this turn, it gains Power +1500, and gains the <<Meat>> trait.

【S】【Counter】 BACKUP 1000 Level 1 [Put this card from your Hand into your Waiting Room] (Select one of your Front-Attacked Character cards, during this turn, it gains Power +1000.)

A rather decent Backup ability, giving a power boost of 2500 if you have 6 stock or more for a cost of 0. This ability may be difficult to achieve at your early Level 1 stages, making it a Backup of only 1000 power. This card has rather good synergy with most of the cards in this Extra Booster, as many of them also have certain stock requirements to meet to gain additional power.

Relevance to older series:

Unfortunately, this card does not have any of the supported traits, so people may find it hard to play in a Junes deck or Yukiko-based deck, which requires more cards of the specific trait. Prior to this Extra Booster, most important Level 1 character cards in Persona 4 would require costs to play, which makes stock building rather tedious. After this Extra Booster, this is slightly improved, which allows this card’s ability to be achieved more easily.

P4/SE12-20R 大ショック！ 完二  / Great Shock! Kanji

Text:.

【C】 ASSIST: All Character Cards in front of this card gain Power +500.

【A】 When you put this card from your Hand onto the Stage, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it back on top of your deck, or into the Waiting Room.

P4/SE12-23R 自称特別捜査隊 完二 / Self-proclaimed Special Investigation Team Kanji

Text:

【C】 When you would play this card from your hand, you may select a 「Great Shock! Kanji」 on your Stage and send it to the Waiting Room. Should you do so, you can play this card by paying 0 cost.

【S】[Put 2 of your Character cards to 【Rest】 mode]  During this turn, this card gains Power +2000.

Besides Rise, Kanji also get his set of Cost-Substitute combo in this Extra Booster. Great Shock! Kanji is a great card, having a Come-Into-Play top deck checking ability, and doubles as a basic support, which gives a reason for this card to stay in the field for a while, as opposed to simply playing it for its effect and letting it die the next turn.

Self-proclaimed Special Investigation Team Kanji has a decent effect that allows it to become a temporary 10000 beater at the cost of putting 2 of your own character cards to Rest. It has a rather low power for a Level 2 of 2 cost, which may make it hard to keep him alive. What makes this card truly good is its Cost-Substitute ability and the target of it, which is Great Shock! Kanji.  Being a basic support, players may actually keep the card around for the slight power boost it may provide, which makes summoning this card for no cost become less of a hassle. This also greatly conserve both your stock and your hand.

Relevance to older series:

The top deck checking ability is greatly welcomed in many Persona 4 decks, as many effects require a certain trait or card to be revealed or sent to the waiting room from the top of the deck. This card allows you to confirm the success of such effect, or simply send a card away for a better chance of success.

P4/SE12-21R 自称特別捜査隊 雪子/ Self-proclaimed Special Investigation Team Yukiko

Text:

【C】 When you have 5 or more cards in your Stock, this card gains Power +1000.

【A】 When you put the Climax card 「Konohana Sakuya Activate」 into the Climax Area, if this card is in your Center Stage, you may select 1 「Self-proclaimed Special Investigation Team Yukiko」 from your Waiting Room and put it onto the Stage in any border.

This is a very good resource-conserving card. Its 1st effect simply raises its power to 5500 if you happen to have 5 or more stock, which is the standard power level of a Level 1 Cost 0 vanilla. Reaching 5 or more stock in Level 1 is quite a feat, especially if you have a rather difficult Level 0. Its 2nd ability, however, may contribute to achieving this ability earlier.

Its 2nd ability is a Climax synergy ability to bring back 1 more copy of itself from the Waiting Room and putting it directly into play for totally no cost. While the effect’s target is very limited, considering you will only have a maximum of 3 more copies if you already have 1 in play, but it allows you to save both your hand and stock, while giving you more attackers to gain more resources. The climax in question is also that of the hot favourite Comeback (Gate) trigger, which is a good addition to any deck.

Relevance to older series:

This is a great addition to both the series on a whole, as well as to a Yukiko-based deck. A Yukiko-based deck has a lot of high-cost characters, and requires quite a bit of stock to run. If one chooses to play this card and its climax, not only will they gain access to yet another Comeback trigger, they would be able to play more conservatively for their Level 1, and has much more resource for a better Level 2 and 3.

P4/SE12-22R 一件落着 雪子 / A Case Closed Yukiko

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【A】[①] When you play this card from your hand onto the Stage, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, select 1 Level 0 character card from your Waiting Room, and put it onto any empty border in the Backstage.

Yet another card that conserve resources for red. When this card is played, you can pay the small cost of 1 stock to bring back a Level 0 character back into play, provided you have an empty slot in your Backstage. You can call back the smaller supports in case you need a slight boost, or simply call back any level 0 character and pushing it into the front later for more attackers while conserving your hand cards. This ability can also be used to call back Level 0 targets of Persona 4’s cost-substitution ability, which can help to conserve more resource, including both stock and hand.

Relevance to older series:

In a Yukiko-based deck, you will most likely be changing your support to the very powerful Yukata Yukiko in the later levels, and highly unlikely to have free slots in your Backstage. However, this is a valuable Level 2 Cost 1 Yukiko, which can be used to replace some of the Level 2 attackers in a Yukiko-Based deck, to save more stock to play other cards, like Yukata Yukiko’s change ability.

P4/SE12-24C 生田目 太郎 / Namatame Tarou

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【A】[⑦] During the start of your opponent’s Draw phase, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, select 1 of your opponent’s Level 3 or below character in 【Stand】 mode and put it to 【Rest】 Mode, and deal X damage to your opponent. X is equal to the number of Soul that character card have. (Damage cancel can happen)

【S】[① Put the top card of your Deck into your Clock] Select 1 of your opponent’s Level 0 character card in the Center Stage, and put it onto the top of his deck.

A rather weird card. Its 1st effect allows the player to immobilize an opponent’s character and deal damage to him, making it feel like you’re controlling his character to attack him. Its cost is rather heavy, and while the effect does have its uses, it is not really a wise choice to attempt to use this effect during earlier Levels. It would serve the most effect during late Level 2 or Level 3, as players tempt to run lower on resources nearing the end of a game, which can make immobilizing his character more devastating. You will also be able to deal more damage using the ability.

Its 2nd ability is rather decent, and can be used during early Level 0 to get rid of your opponent’s Level 0 attackers, pay out cards in your stock, and even accelerate your own leveling. In the later levels of a game, you will generally see less Level 0 in the Center Stage, and hence be harder to use the ability. The 1 clock penalty is also quite bad for later Levels.

Relevance to older series:

You can use its first ability to put your opponent’s character to Rest to achieve many of Persona 4’s abilities, which plays around the modes of the card. His trait, however, does not fit into any of the “pure” trait decks of Persona  4, so many would choose not to play it. Older decks of Persona 4 do have slight problems with stock as well, so it may be rather difficult to achieve its ability.

P4/SE12-25C 一刀両断 雪子

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【A】 When this card puts it Battling Opponent to the 【Reverse】 mode, if you have 3 or more cards in your Stock, you may select 1 of your other character cards, put it to 【Rest】 mode, and move it to any empty border in your Backstage.

This card allows you to save another character of yours and move it behind if you happen to defeat any character with this card, and have 3 or more stock. This ability is easily fulfilled during your 2nd turn, if you have at least attacked once during your previous turn. You can use this ability to save any Self-Destruct characters that you may have used to defeat 1 of your opponent’s character. While this card does have a lower power of 2500, if you use it together with any Draw-1-Plus-2000-1Soul type of climax, it can still easily defeat most of the Level 0 beaters in the game.

Relevance to older series:

This card can be used in conjunction with Yukata Yousuke in a Yukiko-based deck for a rather devastating combo. In other decks, it can be used with either of the Self Destruct ability characters for a similar effect.

P4/SE12-2C 本当はいい奴 完二

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【C】 If there are no other Character cards with the trait <<Male Cross Dress>>, this card gains the following ability. 『【A】 When this card is put to 【Reverse】 mode, if this card’s battle opponent is Level 1 or below, you may put that character card to 【Reverse】 mode. 』

【C】 If there are any other Character cards with the trait <<Male Cross-Dress>>, this card gains the following ability. 『【C】 Your other character cards in the middle border of the Center stage gain Power +1000. 』

Another strange addition to the Persona card pool. It is seemingly quite useful, depending on the situation on the entire field. In a regular playing field, which would not see the existence of any Male Cross-Dress characters, this card would be a normal Level 1 Self-Destruct character. If you are playing certain Naoto cards with this card, or if it’s one of the rare situation where you find yourself playing against someone who has some Male Cross Dress characters, this card instead becomes a support for the middle border of your Center Stage. Either ways, this card allows you to gain certain advantage against your opponent. Its use can also be changed if you’re the one controlling the existence of the Male Cross Dress trait.

Relevance to old series:

This can be used to replaced the old Level 1 Self-Destruct in Persona 3, as it is of the same power, and spots 2 useful effects, in which the Self-Destruct would be the more common ability. You can also choose to play this card in a Naoto-based deck to increase the deck’s overall power, seeing how most Naoto cards have rather low power.

P4/SE12-27C お調子者 足立

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【A】ENCORE [ Put 1 Character card from your hand to your Waiting Room].

Nothing really special. However, being a Level 1 cost 0 character card spotting the drop-character Encore is rather useful for conserving resources.

Relevance to older series:

There aren’t enough police cards to form a full deck, but anyone who likes Adachi would be happy about this useful addition to his minor collection of cards.

P4/SE12-29R 頭脳明晰 直斗 / Clear-minded Naoto

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【A】 When this card in battle is put to 【Reverse】 mode, your opponent may draw 1 card. Should he do so, your opponent selects 1 card in his hand, and put it into his Waiting Room.

A decent Level 1 cost 1 character that has a power level that is high enough to survive in this age. Its side-effect’s severity depends on the situation it is in, but is generally bad. When your opponent has more cards in their hand, this ability may allow them to exchange less useful cards with the card they draw. They may also discard away climax cards that are stuck in their hand to ensure for a better refresh.

There is however, still a chance that they draw a climax card by this ability, reducing the number of climax cards in their deck. This all depends on the opponent, as they have the choice to initiate this side-effect.

Relevance to older series:

A very good addition to a Naoto-based deck, which has rather low power in general. Paired with the existing supports for Male Cross Dress characters, this can be a formidable card to fight against.

P4/SE12-30R アンチエイジング クマ / Anti-Aging Kuma

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【A】[Put this card into the Waiting Room] When you put the Climax card 「Kintoki Doruji Activate」 into the Climax Area, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, put the top card of your Clock into your Waiting Room, search for up to 1 「Brilliant Kuma」 from your deck and put it onto stage in this card’s previous border.

【S】[①] Draw 1 card, select 1 card in your hand and put it into the Waiting Room.

P4/SE12-34C ブリリアント クマ / Brilliant Kuma

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A rather rare healing ability. When you play the climax card, you can heal 1 damage and ‘downgrade’ this card. The heal itself is pretty good, considering that all you have to do is to play the climax, which is rather cheap as compared to many other healing abilities out there. A point of interest is that this card’s ability does not only activates if it is in the center stage, so you can have your other attackers take the front row instead. In the event that you ran out of Brilliant Kuma in deck, you are still able to activate this ability for the heal it provides, but it would be less worth it, considering you’ll be losing 1 character from the Stage.

Its 2nd ability can be used to exchange some unwanted cards in hand. Players may use it a few times before accessing the climax synergy ability, or perhaps even use this ability to draw out the climax.

Relevance to older series:

Like all Kuma cards, they do not have the more supported traits in the Persona series. If one wants to form a deck with less attention to the notable traits, this card and the other combo parts is worth consideration, seeing as how Brilliant Kuma is a regular Level 1 Cost 0 5500 that is useful anywhere, and the climax in question is a Draw trigger that may provide extra hand even if triggered.

P4/SE12-31C ミスコンは無理！？ 直斗 / Miscon Impossible!? Naoto

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【A】【Clock】 ALARM: If this card is the top card of your clock, during the start of your Climax phase, you may draw 1 card. Should you do so, select 1 card in your hand and put it into the Waiting Room.

No, this is not a Shift card. The clock icon will now be on all character cards with either Shift or Alarm.

This card is perhaps 1 of the more useful Alarm abilities. You can simply clock this card during your Clock phase to access its ability during the start of your climax phase. You will then be able to do a small exchange of 1 card from your deck. In the event that you drew a climax card, instead of simply discarding it, you also have the option to directly play it for additional damage, considering you are still in the Climax phase when all this happens. However, this card has a very low power as an attacker, and may take up valuable slots in the deck for other better Level 0s. One should not play too many of this card in the deck.

Relevance to older series:

This card only spots the Detective trait, so it is hard to put this card into the more trait-based decks of Persona. However, its ability is rather decent, so players who choose not to play by the traits may want to try a few copies in their decks.

P4/SE12-32C タロットの報せ マーガレット/ Tarot’s Report Margaret

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【A】 When this card is put from your hand onto the stage, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it on the top or the bottom of your deck.

【A】[②] When this card is put from your hand onto the stage, you may pay the cost to activate this ability. Should you do so, draw 1 card from your deck.

A pretty decent utility card. Its first ability allows players to check the top card of their deck, and allow them to put at the top or bottom of the deck. It also has a 2nd Come-Into-Play ability that allows players to draw 1 card with a stock cost of 2. If the card they checked was a card they wanted in hand, they can pay 2 to draw it. Or if they are simply in dire need of hand but still want to check the next card after they draw, they can choose to use the 2nd ability first before checking the top card of the deck. If they have checked and saw a climax card, instead of simply slapping it to the bottom of your deck, you can also opt to draw it and attempt to deal extra damage to your opponent.

Relevance to older series:

Like Great Shock! Kanji, this card can be used to check the top deck in case you need a specific trait to be triggered/ sent to the Waiting Room. The ability to draw 1 card may prove to be useful in keeping a healthy amount of hand cards.

P4/SE12-33C 霧を見通すメガネ クマ

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【A】 When you put this card from your hand onto the Stage, all your other Level 0 or below character cards gain the trait <<Spectacles>> and the following ability. 『【A】 When this card attacks, look at the top card of your deck, and choose to put it at the top or bottom of your deck.』

A pretty decent card. When this card is played, it gives all other Level 0 character of yours the Spectacles trait and the ability to check the top deck and choose to trigger it or not, when the character attacks. This is a rather good ability, but there are a few points of disappointment. One, just like in the anime, Kuma doesn’t need spectacles, and hence, they made the card so that he doesn’t get the ability himself. This is quite a pity as you’ll lose 1 chance to check your top deck if this card is one of the attackers, and playing 3 Level 0 before this card is just too wasteful. Which brings us to the 2nd point, where the ability only affects Level 0 characters.  It would be useful in your Level 0 and perhaps early level 1, but it would be rather unusable in the later levels, unless your deliberately choose to play level 0 characters just to use this ability, which may cost you more resources than playing normally.

But no, I am not saying that this card is bad. Having control over your triggers is always a good thing. You may even use this card to ensure easier death for your opponent during the ‘final’ turn.

Relevance to old series:

The trait-giving ability may be utilized, as some cards of the older series plays using the Spectacles trait, which may allow your cards to gain some power from the supports and take down other Level 0s. This ability can also be used in conjunction with certain Level 0 characters that have to reveal the top/ send the top card of deck to the waiting room abilities for assured success.

P4/SE12-35C 自称特別捜査隊 直斗

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【C】When you have 4 or less cards in your Stock, this card gains 『【A】 ENCORE [Put 1 character card from your hand into the Waiting Room]』.

A rather decent card to play alongside the other Stock-Below-4 abilities. While spotting a somewhat decent power of 8500, its Encore ability may be really helpful in trying to keep this card around, seeing as how you will have only 4 or less stock, which makes it hard to play down new characters next turn. You will be sure that you have at least 1 decent attacker left next turn by dropping away character cards that you may find difficulty to play due to stock restraint.

Relevance to older series:

In a Naoto-based deck, this is the best Level 2 the deck can have. Seriously. Most Persona decks, other than decks playing the new resource-friendly cards in this Extra Booster, are rather cost heavy, which allows this card to gain its Encore ability more easily.

Overall Review:

As one would notice by now, this Extra Booster is split into 2 distinct categories: Stock-Below-4 or Stock-Above-5. Most Persona decks built from the older series are rather cost heavy, so the addition of more cost-friendly cards in this expansion helps to change a lot of things for the better.

Besides playing the cards in their specific pure trait / name decks, one can consider making a mixed deck now, something that was not really available in the Persona 4 booster. From my point of view, to make a good deck that does not play by the traits, just cards from this set may actually land you somewhere already.

Offering possible upgrades to the older decks, and still offer new deck options to the Persona universe, this Extra booster is rather brilliant, and should not be missed by anyone who wants to bring this series to the next level.

The draft is roughly complete, but I’ll have to leave this to the end of the month due to my End-of-Semester exams and submissions. Currently still providing more artwork for my FYP game.

An actual screenshot of the game =D

Wish me luck, and see you soon!