It’s 2024, and after nearly half a decade without a single mainline booster, we are so back with the release of this year’s Re:Zero set. Everyone’s favourite angel has returned, more powerful than ever before, ready to unleash her icy winds to pierce and freeze our opponents solid.
RZ/S116-045EX-RRR+ 月下、出鱈目なステップ (right)
No matter what outfit she wears or hairstyle, Emilia-tan is gorgeous in every single way. Absolute perfection. Our new Emilia finisher above caries a plethora of different abilities. First and foremost, she’s a surprising early playable card if you fulfill a certain condition. With her climax in play, she gains protection from backup usage, cannot be reversed, and you may pay a cost to deal a large chunk of damage to your opponent. Emilia’s combo grants her protection from being reversed all the way until the end of your opponent’s next turn, but keep in mind, she is not hex-proof and is not immune to Adachi-style effects that hit alternative zones other than the waiting room either.
In order to spawn out our Emilia early, we have some conditions we need to fulfill. Both cards above must be in memory for Emilia to lose a level in hand. The first card featuring the chubby but adorable baby Emilia can send itself to memory upon reverse or when we pay its cost. If we do the latter, we can salvage a copy of our level one combo to hand which we’ll talk about very soon. The second condition is the Witch Trials which Emilia conquered without any trouble (she’s perfect after-all, gets 1600 on the SAT). This card also needs to go to memory, and when it’s played, you draw a card and give one of your characters burst power for the turn, and then it sends itself to memory. While in memory, you pay pay its costs when a character dares to harm any of our Emilia [エミリア] cards to flip it over, boost Emilia’s power, and reduce the soul of the opposing character by one.
As noted by the Emilia and Fortuna pair from before, this is the card that they bond to if you pay their costs. Emilia’s combo here triggers at the start of your climax phase assuming that she is in the front row and her opposing lane either has a reversed card or is empty. You then perform a Maguro effect by discarding a card and adding up to two characters or two of the Witch Trial event.
Some additional support which relies on our other cards in the deck are shown above. 1/0 Emilia staring blankly is a modified Riko profile which salvages a character whose level is equal to the number of level one Emilia combos we have in waiting room or less. 0/0 Emilia on her bed is a unique stun profile that sends itself to memory for a cost and temporarily prevents both players’ level three or lower characters from standing until your next main phase (she sacks herself from memory at the start of your main phase).
RZ/SE35-08R おちゃらけパック (center)
RZ/S55-062R もぐもぐパック (right)
As for additional ways to fetch our darling angel from the deck, her familiar spirit Puck, is able to fetch her from the deck in more ways than one. Beginning with our on-play Chiyuri profile on the left, Emilia can potentially add multiple parts of her early play conditional cards, especially that of her event. Puck in green can sacrifice himself to memory to add an Emilia or Puck [パック] character from the top four cards of your deck. The last Puck is an on-play search Riki profile only for a character with Emilia in its name. It also carries an alarm power pump ability at the start of your climax phase if you fulfill his conditions.
One last card to mention before hitting the wrap-up is this Emilia support shown here. Emilia is a level assist with a persistent hand-fix ability on climax trigger. This is especially good since the deck is an eight bar deck anyways, making sure we can constantly cycle our hand and potentially nab nice cards from our clock with a bit of extra luck.
RZ/SE35-13R ほっとけない性分 エミリア (center)
RZ/S55-P05PR 浴衣でお散歩 エミリア (right)
In order to protect our dear Emilia-tan, we have some countermeasures in place. Puck on the left is a faithful guardian that is a free counter to keep our dear Emilia on field. Emilia in the winter background is a Leafa counter to drive us closer to a cancel. Emilia in a yukata is fancying the nearby festival while also acting as an anti-change counter for our opponent’s early played threats.
To compliment our silver-haired goddess sent from above, we have plenty of suggestions to use to support her. Starting with the new early play healer, Emilia in a yukata provides us that much needed heal for the late game that our combo early player does not provide. Emilia holding a crystal is an alternative cost drop salvage. Emilia looking shook is a climax swapper. Emilia crying nabs a climax from your waiting room for your endgame. Emilia in a casual outfit is a Riko profile for filtering your cards in hand. Lastly, Emilia posing is an on-play cantrip with the top of your deck while also have a climax discard salvage ability.
Emilia is love. Emilia is life. Whomever dares harm her shall die and suffer. She is perfection embodied. I love Emilia with all that I am.