The time has finally come. After years of waiting, the greatest deck has finally been voted for by the community. I would personally love to thank the community who supports this blog for graciously granting me the privilege of sharing the most powerful Weiss deck of all time. Despite the community’s lack of any taste in anime characters, they have all come together to realize the ultimate truth: Illya is simply the best.
Like a kiss from the sun, young Illyasveil von Einzbern was born to a loving household to Irisveil von Einzbern and Kiritsugu Emiya. In the best Fate universe I said it, bite me, the world is in an absolute peace where a young girl cherishes the warmth of her parents while adoring her adopted big brother Shirou. Together with her quirky friends, she attends elementary school spending her days as a young child should: by watching anime, eating breakfast, sleeping in, eating lunch, and reading manga. Suddenly, her life is interrupted upon witnessing an unfortunate incident and entering the world of magic, becoming a true magical girl (the best magical girl of all time).
What’s not to love about Illya? She is the dictionary definition of perfection. She is a sweet young girl full of vibrant dreams of getting her adopted big brother’s affection and assaulting maids. Life itself is full of unexpected surprises and strange events. As for why Kirei Kotomine is dead and she’s fighting a proxy war over “kick the holy grail”, don’t worry about it.
Illya here is a healing finisher with a grand ability to perform the following effects once in any order: 1.) Look at the top two cards of your opponent’s deck and send any cards you want to their waiting room. 2.) Deal two damage to your opponent. Keep in mind that both effects can be done in any order. The caveat is that Illya has difficult requirements in costs to make up for her powerful abilities. When Illya attacks, she must fulfill her six experience condition, pay a stock, and also discard two cards from hand. However, whether you blindfire her two damage or check two first to deal a perfect amount of damage (since Illya is perfection), Illya is a powerful deadly finisher in her own right. Tremble before the true queen, heathens.
Invoking her hidden eldritch powers, Illya dons the ultimate outfit of any magical elementary schooler, clad with ribbons and colours that invoke the hope of mankind. Equipped with her magical star wand from the dollar store, Illya is more than ready to engage her enemies and protect her family and friends.
When little Illya above swings with her climax in play, you mill the top two cards of your deck into the waiting room. If both cards are Magic (魔法) trait, you may draw a card. What can I say? This combo defines the word efficiency. This is a powerful level 0 draw combo with a near zero chance of missing; just don’t mill any climax or event.
Disclaimer: Illya still does not possess a stand-alone level 1 combo to this date because of Bushiroad bias. I know of the standby combo reprint of Kuro. Don’t remind me. We aren’t playing that because Illya also doesn’t have very good standby targets.
Fear not, our lovely angel is equipped and ready for battle. Illya to the left has a check top six and rearrange ability. It’s a little convoluted, but essentially, Illya can check the top six cards of your deck on-play, discard three cards, and leave three cards on top (ideally climaxes to help refill your hand for finisher Illya’s cost), thus, setting up your triggers. She also possesses an expensive heal and self power pump ability on-play. Our other Illya is an early play if you fulfill her near full field condition. On-play, she lets you draw two, discard two, and blind stock the top card of your deck, ideally helping you filter into what you need for the endgame.
PI/S40-063R “浴衣と花火”イリヤ (left), PI/SE36-37SP-SP “真夏の日差し”イリヤ (right)
Did you know that Illya possesses two exact same effects on two different cards? Illya is the only character in the entire game to have two functioning Akatsuki profiles that can be played with up to eight copies in a deck. Filter away to fetch whatever you need.
Despite her lack of raw power, Illya has quite a number of nice abilities to filter through your deck. Illya on the left is a drop searcher with a built-in scry when played from hand. Illya on the right is a double draw and discard (once when played from hand and once when she attacks with a blue climax in play).
How do we win? The answer is easy: through sheer will and determination. Illya on the left is a Taigei profile to hold the board in the early game. Her card on the right is a freefresher that’s a one use cross-turn power pump (if you freefresh) with an innate pay two, tap two draw ability.
Interestingly enough, I mean, obviously, Illya has quite a number of ways to eliminate threats on the opposing field. The 2/1 Illya has an ability to bottom deck an opposing backrow level 3 on-play. The 1/0 Illya has a random gamble ability to attack your opponent’s backrow.
PI/SE31-45U “クラスカード セイバー”イリヤ (center)
PI/S40-059R “大切な友達”イリヤ (right)
As for backups, Illya has a plethora of options to choose from. Illya eating a popsicle is an anti-change backup. The center determined Illya is a memory kick backup. Lastly, Illya on the right is a costless 2000 backup for powering up your level 1 game.
We must assist Illya with her mission to be the ultimate and cutest magical girl all around. While possessing all kinds of beneficial tools, Illya has the ability to form a contract with any servant as we serve her according to her needs, letting us adjust to any situation. The faithful shall be blessed.
Push your opponent close to death and close out the game with our ever-flowing optimistic and youthful Illya.