Becoming a master thief requires one to acquire a multitude of skills and tricks. You’ll need precision, stealth, and tenacity. At best, Kazuma possesses half of those traits, but he makes up for this with his dirty tricks and with a blatant lack of care for the well-being of others, or in other words, by being an assh*le.
Meet Iris, a young noble who’s proficient in many areas and aims to learn many things including Kazuma’s way of life. With a little bit of inspiration from Kazuma, Iris will attempt her own sneak attacks. Her on-play ability mills the top two cards of the deck and deals damage equal to the total number of soul triggers milled. With her combo, she gains immense burst power and unleashes a burn two attack, a two-pronged shot that will hopefully kill her opponent and also your opponent within the process.
To help set up for our finisher, we’ll be relying on some support from Kazuma’s fellow thief “friend”. Chris’ combo gives the Maguro effect to one of your characters whenever they reverse their opponent. It should be noted that Chris’ climax has the on-play effect to pump immense power and soul to two yellow characters. Additionally, her climax possesses two soul triggers which can help with securing Iris’ on-play ability.
Chris’s level two above can sneak on stage early if her level three on the right is in the level zone. Additionally, when she’s played, if there are four or more Adventurer (冒険者) characters on stage, she can send an Adventurer character from waiting room to stock. Chris’ aforementioned level three card can assist in securing the killing strike with her pseudo Moca ability. Keep in mind that Chris’ cards also possess the much needed soul triggers for Iris’ on-play effect.
Kazuma has a couple more tricks up his sleeves that complement Chris’ experience requirement. Kazuma on the left can rest one of your other characters to swap a card in level with a card in your waiting room. Kazuma on the right has an experience ability that allows him to steal his opponent’s power and use it for himself that pairs nicely with the 2/1 Chris as it requires level two or higher experience which 3/2 Chris fulfills.
KS/W76-021C “堂々のハッタリ”カズマ (center)
KS/W49-011U “王国検察官”セナ (right)
Since Kazuma lacks raw strength, he must resort to more devious means to deal with stronger opponents. Kazuma with his bow is a stock reverser that targets level zero characters. In addition, when he’s reversed, Kazuma replaces the top card in your opponent’s clock with the top card of their deck, potentially sniping a climax into clock. Kazuma bluffing is also a stock bomb; although, he targets costless characters. Furthermore, unlike his level zero counterpart, when this Kazuma is sent to waiting room, he can perform a drop salvage ability.
A bit of an interesting addition is Sena which, when she attacks, sends a card with “Kazuma” [カズマ] in its name from stage to waiting room. If she does so, she allows you to add the top card of your deck to hand if it possesses either “Adventurer” or “Glasses” [メガネ] trait. Kazuma’s aforementioned reversers can be good targets for Sena’s effect.
In terms of backups, we can make use of Kazuma’s proficiency with the freeze skill, allowing you to freeze time and sneak up on your opponent, impairing their attack and causing them to lose a soul.
Making another appearance, Chris relaxing on the rooftops is a search brainstormer that requires two characters to be rested. Despite that demerit, she pumps immense burst power to the middle position which can assist in securing reverses. Blushing Chris plays a little game with your opponent where your opponent will declare a number between zero to two, and if she mills a card whose level is equal to the declared number, you draw cards equal to the declared number plus one. Finally, Kazuma with Chunchunmaru his blade drawn sends the top card of your deck to stock when he reverses an opponent while a climax is in play.
When push comes to shove, Kazuma can be quite the proficient thief. And with how dimwitted he portrays himself to be, nobody would suspect he could be quite the underhanded trickster. Yes, he’s not always the most reliable nor the nicest guy around, but so what? He’s got some good qualities such as …