2021 Weiss Schwarz At a Glance

It’s been quite an interesting year with its twists and turns. Even as the world still struggles with COVID-19, players are still able to form communities online and play each other via webcam and other means. I do hope for the best for everyone in this upcoming year. I’ve decided to write this article as a brief overview of my personal thoughts as to the sets released between December 2020 to November 2021. (I will only be giving review to full sets that have their booster released)

Timed with the near release of the last part of the Heaven’s Feel movie trilogy, the latest Fate set was released early December 2020. With the advent of the previous ban list, Fate had many of its options limited making players turn to entirely new builds. One of the common variants I found came in the shift from eight green bar to a mix of bar/gate or even pure eight gate. A number of great card profiles were added to the set overall in the form of Riki and clean cut. The Illya Akatsuki profile was also reprinted as well. Also a very interesting unique card in the form of FS/S77-002RR came to play as a means to guarantee a climax on stage.

Kaguya stormed the stage next. Originally a blue and red build with the popular standby level 1 combo (KGL/S79-053R) and level three gate combo, the deck also divided into another variant where a splash of green was added as well for the fearsome early play Shirogane level 3 (KGL/S79-026RR). Sporting a very impressive level 0 game with a clean-cut runner, the series was quite a difficult matchup early up until the recent ban list.

One of my personal favourites, Princess Connect! (Priconne) entered the scene. Priconne had a ton of different builds trying out the diverse card pool. However, one very popular build seemed to settle on an eight bar build consisting of the two combos shown above. Adding to the consistency, cards like PRD/W84-095SR were put into the deck builds to help convert any bar triggers into other resources.

Originally sporting a common eight gate build for Rental Girlfriend (Kanokari), the most popular builds seem to have shifted towards the direction of sporting a mix of both Sumi and Chizuru, a green/red build. Sumi became the go to level 1 combo for its ability to gain an absurd amount of potential hand for a low cost. The top end has remained mostly with Chizuru and the early play Sumi for board pressure.

Illya gained support this year as well with a release set based on its latest OVA, Prisma Phantasm. The set introduced an early hand plus combo along with a powerful end game finisher that was not reliant on other combo pieces on the field. Additionally, several other variants of pre-existing cards were also reprinted with different names without a restriction clause. Decks could now run up to eight copies of a card with the same effect essentially. Another archetype in the form of ファンタズム (Phantasm) was added to the set along with its own number of supports. Many popularized builds included eight pants, eight standby, and a mix of the two.

The newest support for Sword Art Online (SAO) was targeted as a boost for the Aliciazation arc set of the series. A plethora of builds formed around the new set mixed with support from previous sets. Some opted to go for a bar/switch build with Leafa level 1 (SAO/S80-037R) and the above Asuna as the finish. Recently, there’s been a growing number of stock soul and pants decks involving SAO/S80-088U and SAO/S80-074RR respectively. The finish is dependent on the player, but SAO/S80-076RR is a growing option.

Idolm@ster Shiny Colours (Shinym@s) came onto the scene with their own specialized trial decks based on their own unique units. As for deck building, many options were thrown around. Although, one trait was quite common in many of the decks. Many made use of the alarm effects found in the L’Antica group. Popularized combos changed from person to person. ISC/S81-087RR was a very popular option to run at one point as well.

Slime also gained support this year. Two different common variants were made. The first utilized the second set mostly, mainly using the above cards and similar tech to beatdown their opponent. The other common build was focused mainly on stacking memory and winning through memory compression. TSK/S82-036SR is an extremely cute card.

Assault Lily (AssLily) joined in the fray with two initial common builds. One involved the Lily on the left which gave a Icy Tail ability to of your other characters on swing. When coupled with ALL/S76-078R which could restand, you could potentially have the ability go through at least 4 times in a single attack phase. The other build mainly revolved around the Yuija in the center to try and maintain board dominance. The Yuija build as of current writing has seen less play, but that may be due to more options being explored and the advent of the upcoming Vol. 2 set.

Love Live! Nijigasaki joined into scene with a very popular eight standby variant. Carrying numerous standby-esque cards with great support to establish and maintain field priority, the deck hopes to beatdown its opponent and finish them off with the Setsuna combo to the left. A level 1 combo is seldom seen since the deck usually goes all in on its standby commitment.

Originally a side story to the Date A Live series, Date A Bullet quickly became more of an assistant to the main booster set. There was some trial and error using cards exclusively from the set, but many opted to instead keep it as an accompaniment. After being hit on the current ban list again, maybe things will opt to change in the upcoming months giving Date A Bullet a bit more of a spotlight than its predecessor.

Day I Became God came in with an original focus on the interesting modal choice combo early (DBG/W87-001RR) and the above level 3 combo. But after some testing and changes, many have opted to swap the early advantage combo to the above Sora combo in the center. Comboing with a 2 soul climax and no reverse condition, the center combo easily pushes heavy damage without much fear of any punish the following turn. The event it grabs can grab the Sora again, letting you chain the combo once more if you have the right climax. The Hina to the left forces guaranteed damage into your opponent’s clock, turning it into a definite threat.

The twins, Kirika and Shirabe, made a huge comeback this year with their new focused deck. Having two powerful finishing abilities that combo on the same climax and being allowed to be played early gave Symphogear a significant edge over other decks. Two popular choices were played with either pure green bar or bar/choice with the Hibiki combo (SG/W89-002RR). The set was recently hit by the ban list. We’ll have to see where the deck building will go next.

Bang Dream! received further support for various bands. Poppin’ Party, Raise_A_Sullen, and Roselia had a handful of cards added to their respective units. Morfonica was given its its own support as a new archetype. As for builds, there were all kinds of ideas hopping around, even some that traced back to using some combos from the earliest days of Bang Dream!

Gochiusa received support this year as well. Initially, there seemed to be quite some hype revolving around using eight standby and pulling out GU/WE26-018SPb onto the field. However, there seems to be more hype as of recent in building the above blue deck option with the Aoyama on the left as the finisher.

Mushoku Tensei joined the game with a very strong standby focused profile. However, a variant of yellow/blue mix focused around Rudeus level 1 (MTI/S83-T06TD) and Roxy level 3 (MTI/S83-082RR) has been seen running amok as well. Further support has been announced for the set. It will be interesting to see where the direction of new decks may lie.

Grisaia received further support this year. Two common variants seemed to be used. The first used cards from the newest set which chipped away at your opponent’s life and slammed the Yuuji and Kazuki combo to the left to close out the game. The second variant used the newer cards to support the older engine, primarily with GRI/S72-080RR.

Gotoubun also saw some more support with the newest set. One major deck that formed was that of an almost pure Nino build. Due to a clause on the Nino on the left, the deck could potentially be running twelve standbys in total. This would add to the consistency of trying to get the trigger off and establish a strong field. There were buffs overall to all the girls outside of Nino as well.

Hololive came in with a multitude of different options. Hololive entered the stage with seven trial decks, each carrying their own unique flavour. Multiple popular decks were formed and are still being formed as I speak now. The Coco to the left was a card that was highly hyped due to its ability to deal multiple instances of damage. The set is getting more support sometime in the future.

World Trigger released late in the the year. The common builds of the set aren’t known yet, but from what results are shown, many prefer to use the Yuuma to the left with its combo to the right.

Fate Grand/Order had more support this year. Much like World Trigger, there aren’t too many common builds with results to showcase the set.

Near the end of the list comes with Zombieland Saga. Many opted for the Sakura combo to the left with all its various support cards throughout the set. The Saki to the center is also a common choice for the early game advantage combo that doubles as a remover for troublesome higher level cards. Recently, there have been shifts towards other end games such as ZLS/W93-074RR.

Da Capo received a small handful of support along with a reprint booster. This marks the first official released set that’s purely based off of voice actors rather than anime characters. Keep in mind that the booster here was meant solely to support the Newspaper (新聞) trait.

The last set to enter during this period was none other than Danmachi. A popular build seems to focus on our two main protagonists, Hestia and Bell. The deck garners advantage throughout the game and then does a classy finish with Hestia’s final blow.

And that brings us to the end of this list. What do you think about these sets? Do you have anything else you’d like to add or remove about these sets? Which one was your favourite? Regardless, here’s to a brand new year with more fun sets to come.