Da Capo – Newspaper Club (Y/R) [03/14/2023]

Whether it be school drama, rumours, or upcoming events, no one else is as fast as the school newspaper club dashing in with a camera ready to get the scoop on the situation. Ricca and her friends take charge of documenting every little thing that happens at their high school. No matter the situation, the girls and their single male member are always there in a hurry with the typical antics of your young hot blooded youth, of course.

Ricca, head of the newspaper club, takes a scenic view of the falling sakura blossom petals. Ricca with her climax in play allows you to pay her costs to deal two points of damage and grant herself a large burst of power for the turn. If you do happen to fulfill her memory condition, she is also impervious to event usage from your opponent when she swings along with having a bit of extra permanent power while on field.

Ricca now sitting among the falling cherry blossoms is the early game combo for the deck. With her climax in play, when she swings, Ricca allows you to salvage either a Newspaper (新聞) or Student Council (生徒会) character from your waiting room whose level is equivalent to the number of cards in your memory or less. The more memories you make with her and her friends, the wider the selection of cards you may salvage.

You may be wondering what we should do with our other free climax if Ricca is already our finisher. We can double down on our early game advantage with the use of Himeno above. Himeno is a salvage combo similar to Ricca; however, she does have a slight demerit. While also relying on memory as a condition, Himeno strictly requires you to have at the very minimum three memory when she swings with her climax. If you do manage this feat, Himeno grants you the ability to salvage any character when she swings with her climax while also pumping herself power for the turn. You can think of Himeno as extra copies of Ricca with a higher cost condition.

To enable Ricca, we must have several cards that go to memory, preferably for a cheap cost. Ricca on the left with her cheery smile is a salvage Riki profile for a level one or lower character when she’s reversed that also sends herself to memory as part of her cost. Himeno has a shift ability to help handfix with your clock and can send herself to memory for free upon being reversed, assuming you fulfill her top check condition. Ricca lying by the beside to the right allows you to discard a climax to spawn a cost zero character of your level or lower from your waiting room while also having the ability to sack herself to memory to filter through the top four cards of your deck and add a character to hand.

Mikoto, although technically not of the same newspaper club as Ricca’s gang, heavily benefits from having cards in memory as does Ricca. When you fulfill her requirements, Mikoto on the left is a level one or lower reverser that also gains an additional soul and power while her right profile gains burst power on your turn and is a Rize profile when sent to waiting room.

While getting hand is the deck’s big specialty, the deck isn’t exactly shy about getting stock either. Himeno in her swimsuit allows you to reveal the top card of your deck when she is reversed, and if that card is level one or higher, she can send herself to stock. Charles in her Christmas outfit may go to stock when her damage dealt is cancelled by your opponent.

One of the other packages we run in the deck, and primarily the reason the deck has yellow as its secondary colour, is that of the Ricca pairing shown here. Ricca on the left allows you to pay her costs and change herself into her level three finisher on the right from your hand for free when you are level three. Additionally, she is a Helmet profile to salvage any of her listed traits from your waiting room to hand. Her finisher that she’s linked to is a cantrip on-play that also combos with the main Ricca finisher’s climax to allow you to give a character the ability when she attacks to pay a cost and deal three points of damage when they reverse their opponent. You can think of her as a secondary finisher that compliments the other Ricca.

One last card I’d like to mention is that of the Charles above. Charles is an odd card, and upon meeting her memory condition, she grants an encore phase Time Machine ability to one of your non-reversed characters at the start of your encore step. This allows you to preserve a character for your following turn, perhaps even something like Ricca or Himeno. Additionally, she grants a character the ability to pay a cost and trigger twice at the start of your attack phase.

Defensively, no backups are recommended. Many of the abilities for the deck require your cards to be reversed, and so, backups would be counter-intuitive to having your cards being beaten.

There are plenty more tools to use with the newspaper girls. A newcomer to the scene, Aisha, works extremely well with Charles’ 1/1 Time Machine profile. Aisha is a level three or higher killer and gains burst power during the turn she’s played. She can come out early if your board is full. It is important to note that Aisha does not have Newspaper trait. There’s a kicker in that Aisha has to sacrifice herself at the end of your turn; however, with Charles’ power, Aisha can be sent to memory instead, saving her and bringing her back again for the following turn. Charles by the sakura blossoms has a revenge trigger whenever your cards are reversed, allowing you to empower others. You may pay her costs to give a character the ability to salvage a character upon reverse, giving you even more hand and defending your cards. Charles with a knife is a drop searcher when she’s reversed and sends herself to memory as part of her cost, helping to meet your memory conditions. Mikoto smiling and clutching her hands is a hand fix profile with the top of your deck and a level zero reverser. Mikoto hanging out with the protagonist allows you to clock a card from hand and search your deck for a character upon being sent to waiting room. You may also use her activated ability to swap a character in your clock with your hand. Lastly, Sara is a salvage brainstorm that also grants power whenever you perform an ACT ability.

The newspaper club is full of energy and cuties. Wherever Kiyotaka looks, he finds himself either amazed with his fellow members or admired by them. Through the power of love and friendship, the five girls and single boy will become literary giants and take the journalism world by storm.