WS WGP is one of the largest official tournaments for Weiss Schwarz, supported by Bushiroad directly. Players from each region flock to attend and show off their skills. Initially an in-person exclusive event with several regional tournaments followed by a national invite competition, due to the pandemic, the tournament has moved to online remote play.
Follow or reach out to Luna at their social here: https://twitter.com/LunaPyons
How did you feel about the tourney overall?
It was a lot of fun. I was hoping WGP would be in-person this year, but unfortunately, it was done online in a span of two weeks and covered in a couple of days. I do miss the online “regional” events as they allowed you to meet several individuals from different places, but I understand they had to do this for logistical reasons. I chose not to play Love Live! Superstars! (a deck I previously topped with), so it was refreshing to change it up and play Love Live! Nijigasaki! instead.
Why did you choose to play your series/deck?
Nijigasaki’s second set dropped earlier this year and with it, we finally had more deck builds outside of the original eight standby deck. I pretty much spent this year trying out different deck builds for the series after its second set release. This was the series I felt the most comfortable playing.
I think everyone can agree the new Kanata finisher can be extremely deadly at a very low cost. It can very quickly turn games around. I think the new set gave Nijigasaki many more options to play around with, and I’ve been having a lot of fun playing my deck at locals.
What do you think the greatest strengths in your deck were?
If set up correctly, the level one Ai combo can leave you sitting at an 8500 beater (sometimes 9000 power if you have your backrow set up) in your front row, making it difficult to climb for both 1k1 boards and standby decks. Her twin drive also works really well at pushing damage early on, especially as the deck has lots of soul triggers.
As discussed, the Kanata combo can push a crazy amount of damage to compressed decks. I think having a secondary finisher in the 3/2 Ai as an additional backup helps when Kanata combo may not be the most optimal finisher to use.
What do you think are weaknesses that the deck does not cover very well?
The deck requires a very slow level 0 game in order to set up memory and field triple Ai. If it gets rushed early on, it can be hard to recover and make a comeback. The level 0 cards in this deck are also weak in power, making it hard to deal with 3500 level 0 profiles (usually requiring you to bomb such cards using Emma). The finishers are also an all or nothing strategy, so there’s little chance of recovery after using Kanata.
What did you think about your deck’s performance overall?
I think the deck did a really good job. I think that, in most of my games, I had two or three climaxes out at turn 1 or 2, so I was really worried during those games, but my deck was able to recover for the most part. Often, my triple Ai board was living at for an average of two to three turns so I was able to stockpile my resources to use on early play heals or to set up for Kanata finisher.
What was your favorite card in the deck?
My favorite card was definitely the 3/2 Ai. I think Kanata has a problem where if your opponent is already out a lot of climaxes or is not very compressed, Kanata may not be the best card to use when you’re at level 3. Ai’s strengths as a secondary finisher lie in the fact that she can easily grab back her own climax for her combo. This is extremely strong and has given me ways to push for more damage when my opponent is out of climaxes in their deck.
What are some potential changes you would consider making to the deck?
I still have many mixed feelings about the 1/0 red event. The card is great early game in your first deck when you want to guarantee grabbing a 1/0 Ai. However, once we hit the second deck, it’s really rare you want to use this card as you don’t necessarily need the mill anymore in a compressed deck. By the second deck, you’re likely at level 2 so you want to set up grabbing Kanata or early play heals. The 1/0 event will not always guarantee that you will be able to fetch a level 3 (I’ve usually hit an average of two soul triggers or lower).
Events are a hit or miss as your Ai combo also whiffs on them. However, I feel the Emma bottom deck bomb is the best blue level 0 to run. It’s extremely useful with the costless mill 3 and hard removal bomb. I tried other events before this (1/0 Blue pillow event and 1/0 Yellow Kasumi counter), and those events felt better than this one to be honest. I would probably try swapping out the events again or try a build with no events in it and a different blue splash.
What was your hardest match-up?
I had a hard time dealing with 5HY 8 Door deck. The opponent had a lot of good cancels throughout the game and continued to get clean stock using the 1/0 Itsuki stock charger. It’s hard to deal with decks that snowball in compression, and unfortunately, they hit level 3 first, making it easy to do their finisher. The deck can also struggle against standby decks. You’ll be able to win the early game, but by level 2 when your Ai is getting contested, if they set up a board fast enough, it may be harder for your field to climb over.
Is there any memorable moment that occurred during the tourney?
My first game in the tourney was super rough. I never got Ai combo set up. I had four climaxes in hand by turn 2, and I was really freaking out. However, my opponent also did not have any of his normal combo pieces and somehow didn’t cancel in their first deck. I remember having a good chat afterwards about how awful both of our decks were doing that game so that was fun.
What is your favorite part of this series?
Nijigasaki is a strange outlier in the Love Live franchise. It was originally meant to just be a spin-off that ended up getting more incorporated to the point that it received two seasons of anime. It’s a series where you can tell how hard the cast and staff worked to make the series properly recognized. It deserves all the love it gets. I think the anime was really refreshing for the Love Live! formula with beautiful backgrounds and fun stories without being tied to the previous structures of other Love Live! series.
How do you feel about the current Japanese sets?
I think the Japanese meta has not been the best: pushing high amounts of damage for little resources and creating a lot of plussing utility using level 0s and large level 1 combos. I chose not to play Superstar because it already felt outpowered in a meta filled with 5HY, HOL, and DCT. I think on a locals level, it’s been a little bit better as there’s a good assortment of decks. Hopefully, the upcoming ban list will help balance the meta more.
Any shout-outs?
Shoutout to everyone in the Toronto locals scene for helping me playtest the deck and give advice on my deck build. Shoutout to everyone I spoke to during the tournament as well as those who would help make sure the times between rounds felt less boring. Shoutout to my opponents as well as most of them were pleasant to talk to. Of course, shoutout to my boyfriend James for buying cases of set 1 and set 2 of Nijigasaki and selling me playsets on launch (and also for supporting me and my hobbies).
Final words?
Let’s get some more Shioriko, Lanzhu, and Mia cards please.
Decklist:
Level 0 (21):
LNJ/W85-002RR – ハートを咲かせます♪ 中須 かすみ x2
LNJ/W85-005R -ミルキーハニー♡ 中須 かすみ x4
LNJ/W85-015U – 天王寺 璃奈 x4
LNJ/W85-040RR – Creamy Berry 上原 歩夢 x2
LNJ/W97-036R – 夢に向かって 上原 歩夢 x3
LNJ/W97-073R – 期待を胸に エマ・ヴェルデ x4
LNJ/W97-084C – ホントの気持ち 朝香 果林 x1
LNJ/WE38-031N – 素敵な旅へご案内♪ 近江 彼方 x1
Level 1 (10):
LNJ/W85-044R – ドンドン行くよ！ 宮下 愛 x1
LNJ/W97-033RR – 楽しいを分かち合うステージ 宮下 愛 x4
LNJ/W85-017U – 桜坂 しずく x1
LNJ/WE38-026N – 素敵な旅へご案内♪ 宮下 愛 x1
LNJ/W97-061U – 部活棟のヒーロー x3
Level 2 (2):
LNJ/W85-018U – 心からの言葉？ 三船 栞子 x1
LNJ/W97-024C -情報処理学科１年 天王寺 璃奈 x1
Level 3 (9):
LNJ/W97-002RR -心に届くステージ 桜坂 しずくx1
LNJ/W85-041RR -竜宮城へようこそ♪ 宮下 愛 x2
LNJ/W97-042R -踏み出す勇気 宮下 愛 x2
LNJ/W97-071RR -夢見るステージ 近江 彼方 x4
Climaxes (8):
LNJ/W97-068CC – 未知なるミチ x4
LNJ/W97-098CR -ハルカカナタ x4