Idolm@ster Shiny Colours – Houkago Climax Girls (G/Y) [05/01/2024]

Meet the Houkago Climax Girls! Filled with unique personalities, Houkago Climax Girls is the one of the largest units at 283 Production. As a gathering of diverse skill sets and abilities, no challenge can stop the girls as they combine their strengths together.

The youngest of the group and its leader, Kaho carries an undying energy like no other. With her climax in play and you pay her costs, and if you assemble the other members of her unit (every single card outlined on her card text must be present), you can grant all your characters the ability to deal two damage whenever they attack.

Starting off with the other front stage members for Kaho’s combo, Natsuha and Chiyoko take their vanguard roles. Natsuha is an early play that heals and also gains cross-turn power when you play a climax equal to the number of all your characters. Chiyoko allows you to spawn a character from your hand for free when she enters the stage while providing them with a Chocolate (チョコ) trait. When she reverses her opponent and you have a climax in play, you may choose a character in your waiting room and place it to stock. This is very important because Chiyoko shares a climax with Kaho and can restand herself at the end of her attack for a cost, allowing her to reuse Kaho’s ping ability.

Juri and Rinze support their other members from the back. Juri is an Amagi profile that also pumps power to one of your characters when a climax is played. Rinze provides all your other characters listed underneath Kaho’s list with additional power as long as you have Juri on stage while being a bar climax filter. She also allows you to tap down two characters to give additional power to a character for the turn, working perfectly in conjunction with Juri who doesn’t need to rest herself.

Rinze rises up to the stage as the early play combo of choice. She carries an Oboro ability and can help in maintaining hand and field at the same time. Furthermore, to better increase her chances of making it to your opponent’s turn, Juri’s Amagi profile can help with ensuring Rinze gets reverses.

Manoeuvre through your deck with ease. The Houkago girls have come to please. Juri is a Riko profile with power during your turn to easily turn cards in hand or excess bars into other value. The center promotional card featuring all the girls gains a soul if it is in the center of your stage and is also a Kazuma profile. Lastly, Rinze refunds your stock if your field is full when you play her. Additionally, she allows you to check the top four cards of your deck to filter for a climax and discard a card.

The Houkago girls are no stranger to charging extra stock either. Kaho on the left gains a stock charge ability upon reversing her opponent with a climax in play, blind stocking the top card of your deck. Kaho in a Halloween outfit is a level zero clock reverser that goes to stock when your opponent plays a climax. Yuri is a climax discard filter that goes to stock whenever her damage is cancelled.

Before we reach the end, I want to highlight the Kaho brainstorm above. Kaho is a standard salvage brainstorm, but on top of this, she has a rare on-play ability to pay a cost to directly search a climax from deck to hand (you do need a copy of the same climax in your waiting room). Use this as you wish, either to get a combo off or to simply push your opponent.

In terms of backups, Chiyoko is an anti-early play counter that sends its target to stock. Juri is also an anti-change counter, but she grants a clock Adachi ability to said character. Lastly, the event counter featuring all the girls is a money counter that requires you to discard a climax as well, perfect for getting extra bar climaxes out of hand.

Before we close off, the Houkago girls have a bit more spice to share. Natsuha in her summer outfit is a global assist that also works as a climax filter. Natsuha in her performing outfit allows you to pay a cost when she swings to trigger twice, helping you pay out blind stocked cards. Rinze holding a mic allows you to rearrange your top two cards on swing while also allowing you to spawn a level zero character to your back stage when she attacks if you have one or less other characters on your stage. Kaho in her idol outfit is a stock Adachi profile. Lastly, Rinze in a summer outfit is a potential stock charger with a climax in play.

The Houkago girls are always ready to play be it in the heat of summer or the freezing chill of winter. Keep in mind that Kaho requires all her unit-mates on her field to grant them that ability. Filter through your deck and assemble your pieces for the endgame. May the power of the after-school climax girls be with you.