Little Busters! – Boys Love (B/Y/R/G) [05/15/2024]

Forbidden love. True romance. Whatever you want to call it. The topic of “BL” has been considered to be both a taboo and sacred subject. However, when it comes to consulting experts, none other than Mio Nishizono should be your guide. She surrounds herself with the beautiful art, adorning it on her walls and holding it dear to her heart.

What a wonderful sight that makes even the most pure maiden’s heart bleed. These wonderful thoughts and many others stream through Mio’s head as she witnesses the scene of two men hand in hand together. The erotic combination of a man in a suit holding the hand of another man in a maid outfit only grows her curiosity.

The event on the left searches for two characters of the specific names: Natsume [棗], Kyousuke [恭介], Naoe [恭介], and/or Riki [理樹] and adds them to hand, then you must discard a card and shuffle your deck. Mio on the right is a power pump on play and bonds to the event while granting one of your characters the Delusion (妄想) trait for the turn (this is very important, at least to Mio).

There’s nothing more loving than seeing a blossoming friendship become even closer. Best friends, Kyousuke and Riki, are such close friends that their friendship is enshrined in their shared climax name. Our mid-game consists of combining the fruitful play of both Riki and Kyousuke above. Riki is an early play should you have Kyousuke in your clock zone. When Riki attacks with his best buddy climax, and you meet his requirements, he gains cross-turn power and a minus two-soul ability in front of him. Kyousuke is a support piece that gains a bar trigger icon in any zone as long as you have a bar climax in play. Furthermore, he has an alarm ability that lets you draw and discard at the start of your climax phase.

Now for our early game, we have two options available with their own particular strengths. Riki here is more than ready to catch any balls thrown his way from Kyousuke. More importantly, he combos with the Little Busters! climax on the right to allow you to pay a cost when he swings to salvage any character to hand. Now Riki may carry a slight cost, but he does allow you to grab any particular character from your waiting room if needed. Furthermore, he does also have hand encore. Most importantly, if you play the bar climax version of Little Busters!, you can use this to synergize with the 2/1 Kyousuke. One last thing to note, if you do choose to run Riki, you may also run his level three combo which spawns a character from your clock that is level two or less onto stage for a cheap discard cost that uses the same climax.

Alternatively, you may play Jumper Kyousuke above. Big brother is more than ready to guide his younger friend into a brand new universe. Kyousuke’s merit over Riki is that he is a costless combo; however, the hand advantage he provides is less selective and a little bit more nuanced. When you perform his climax combo, you perform a Cigarette-esque ability by milling the top three cards of your deck and salvaging a traitless or Anniversary (Anniversary) trait character whose level is equal to the number of colours you’ve milled. Keep this in mind if you do choose this combo instead. Aside from a few specific cards, Kyousuke will mostly target mainly himself and Riki as they are mostly traitless or carry the Anniversary trait.

Not one to leave her boys alone in the dark, at least not without her watching them secretly, Mio has her own little tricks to assist her fellow brethren. Mio on the left is an interesting way to net you hand advantage at a very cheap cost; the caveat is that both you and your opponent gain hand as a result. Furthermore, her ability only activates at the start of your draw phase. Mio in the center is a Pina profile, willing to sacrifice herself for the pursuit of romance. Lastly, Mio holding a poster carries forced draw and discard ability on play.

Another trio that you could potentially run is the group shown here. Starting with the Mio on the left with Midori, the pair is a clock bonder to the freefresh profile in the center. Mio in the center can pay a cost when you have five or less cards in deck to refresh your deck and spawn in the Mio assist to the right. Final form Mio on the right gains 1000 power if you have another level three character on stage. Additionally, she gives a global 1000 power boost to all your other level two or higher characters, helping defend your late game cards.

Did you know the position of different males can affect the direct power struggle between them? There are many Riki and Kyousuke cards that will be sure to make Mio blush. I have included a few above, mainly for thematic flavour. As for the artistic piece on the left, this depicts a picture perfect scene that encapsulates their relationship. Riki in the center dons on him in his true uniform, the one that Kyousuke loves the most. Lastly, the boys are sitting together and sharing a sandwich as boys normally do (according to Mio).

When it comes to backups, nobody does it better than Kyousuke. Striking his fist in the air and encouraging his friends, he grants one of your characters an additional level for the turn, getting around level reversers and giving a small bit of power. Kyousuke is a rare level zero backup, perfect for getting those sneaky reversals during your opponent’s turn in the early game.

The classic Riki is more than a welcome asset to help us grab our pieces together. Rin and Natsume is a brainstorm that grants us hand and can power pump one of our characters when we play a climax. Mio in the shower is an interesting free level three or lower killer if you mill a climax using her ability while also having an on-play top deck scry ability. Kyousuke by his car is a burst power clean-cut that can save our other pieces. Riki in a dress is flavourful, but he can also act as a strong beater that can top deck opponents or act as level fodder.

An excerpt from Mio’s diary:

Once again, I saw the two young men. The older, stronger man lay the other younger, gentler man against the floor. He began to unbutton the other man’s shirt with his teeth, making to place his hands all around the younger man’s skin. There was a pulse of raw energy emanating from this encounter. The young man could only lay still as he bore and embraced the other man’s touch.