The “Moca” Combo

Moca was once the most devastating combos in the game. Given the time of Moca’s release, decks were still largely dependent on having compression as a means to avoid taking lethal damage. Moca changed all that by presenting an ability that tries to “ensure” damage will enter your opponent’s clock.

Before the advent of the Bang Dream! Moca shown above, Moca effects have somewhat existed in the game in other capacities. One of the older examples comes in the form of the Wakaba from Vividred Operation shown below, at least on a level three body. Other forms of the card have existed but with events or lower level cards.

Regardless of which, Moca’s effect checks the top x cards of your opponent’s deck, and then you may place any of the cards checked on the bottom of the deck or leave them on top. You can essentially decide the cards that go into your opponent’s clock following Moca’s swing. Do note that you must declare your attack simultaneously with Moca’s on swing ability since this procs on swing, therefore you must keep your soul damage in mind when using her ability.

The neat thing about Moca is that you can also rearrange your own triggers, unlike that of the older profiles. With some luck and certain declarations, you can effectively ensure that your opponent will take damage.

One key issue with Moca is that Moca’s effect isn’t as effective in lower levels outside of the final push. Ensuring extra damage is nice and all, but remember that Moca’s damage isn’t an extra instance. Moca only secures damage rather than inflicting another instance of damage. If your opponent is far behind you in damage taken, Moca won’t help as much compared to multiple instances of damage.

Also note that Moca’s must also consider the top cards of the deck when swinging if she is fronting. With the innate requirement with her climax, she’ll be swinging for three soul at minimum while she only checks two cards from the top of your opponent’s deck, meaning your opponent can still cancel after the cards checked.

Modern Moca profiles usually come with some kind of cost. Moca cards can check more than two cards in some cases, but they will be associated with an additional cost compared to the traditional Moca with only two checks. Checking three often comes with the upside of getting around Moca’s additional trigger, since three clean outside of an additional soul trigger from the top of your deck, should equal three damage on swing. It is rather a bit unfortunate that new Moca profiles have lost the ability to scry their own decks, but there can be some more powerful trade-offs like in the case of Illya to the right with an extra instance of damage.