Back near the end of 2014 came out the series known as Girl Friend Beta. The set had an interesting mechanic where abilities were gained based off running mono-colour decks. However, with the arrival of the second set in 2015, the design of the set changed entirely. Soon the name “Pumpkin” became a feared mention.
One of the most powerful two card combo pairings back in its day is shown above. The Kokomi to the left is a powerful assist whose third ability exclusively powers up the pumpkin girl to the right. The pumpkin girl herself is a healing finisher which can pay a substantial amount of stock to deal a large amount of damage to your opponent’s clock. Keep in mind that her ability also procs on the opponent’s turn if they were to ram into her as well. As a climax-less finisher, the two could essentially be teched into any decks as long as the costs could be met.
Coupled with its own costless level 1 combo, the set was able to freely grab its pieces as needed. Despite the pumpkin girl being a red card, the deck could simply fetch the cheerleader Kokomi which would be able to bond to pumpkin.
Furthermore, the set had access to the powerful card above which helped in potentially sinking large amounts of damage into the opponent’s clock. Forcing a refresh in an inopportune position made opponents reach more dangerous positions of potentially taking lethal.
Another potential pairing that was run was the pair shown above. Hitting 8500 at level one with built in hand encore was quite difficult to beat which is quite reminiscent of standby abilities of the modern day at the time of this writing. Considering the power levels of cards back in the day, this pairing was quite annoying to deal with permanently.
GF/W33-005R-RRR モデル探し 時谷小瑠璃 (center)
GF/W33-021U お菓子作り 玉井麗巳 (right)
On top of having powerful board presences and a strong endgame that could work cross-turn, Girl Friend Beta has access to quite a number of other strong cards like the ones shown above. Bonds including that of Elena and Fumio helped solidified the deck and add consistency. Pumpkin was powerful for both its ability to finish the opponent and the fact that it did not require a climax. Though power-creeped in the end, the set did have its moment to shine in the overall history of the game.