The “Cigarettes” Combo

The “Cigarettes” combo generally refers to any sort of combo where you either fetch an event that performs a check salvage effect or performs the effect itself. The combo effect is a forced mill of two that generally almost always guarantees you at least one target to add back to hand.

As aptly named for its description and the visuals on the card itself, the “Cigarettes” came from the set Fate/Apocrypha back in 2018. The event and its fetching combo took up quite a fair number of slots, but given the nature of the event itself, it could easily cycle into other cards regardless.

“Cigarettes” offers a randomized selection of filter options which expands further depending on the state of your waiting room. The effect mills the top two cards of your deck and then checks your waiting room for corresponding targets to add back to hand (based on the combined levels of the cards milled). As an example, if you milled cards that carry a combined level of three (a level two card and a level one card), you would be able to add any level three or lower character from your waiting room back to hand.

Ideally, you’d mill some high level targets to give you full access to any character card within your waiting room. Alternatively, the event can be used as a nice means to forcing climaxes into your waiting room to prepare you for refreshing while providing back hand.

Most profiles nowadays have the “cigarettes” effect tied to the card itself rather than another card. As such, the “cigarettes” effect is performed exactly when the card combos with their associated climax, which does offer immediate value, but lessens your opportunity to use the effect as you wish during another main phase compared to the event. Do keep in mind that the mill two is exactly two and no more or less. That means, if you mill your deck clean, you will not have a waiting room, and thus, you will gain no advantage. Furthermore, if you have one card left in your deck, you would mill and refresh with that card, and then proceed to mill after upon performing refresh (so you better pray that the other card milled is a character). Overall, the combo and effect is a neat way to fill out your waiting room while also helping you retain hand advantage.