Date A Live – Nightmare Queen (Y/R) [02/28/2025]

As the duo queen of Valentine’s in 2025, Kurumi Tokisaki takes the stage with her rifle at the ready. Kurumi is a spirit from the universe of Date A Live where, with her time-based powers, she runs rampant in her unparalleled push for revenge against the very being that gave her the powers she possesses. Considered a rogue spirit for most of the series, it is only due to the kiss and gentle kindness of a certain young man that is finally able to calm her heart.

Wielding her signature Zafkiel, her dedicated angel, Kurumi has the ability to turn back time while also reproducing clones of herself. Each hour represents another ability that Kurumi can “unlock” at the cost of her sanity. Kurumi’s finisher above wields Zafkiel and allows you to grant one of your characters the ability to pay cost and deal damage equal to one level plus the level of a card in your clock at the end of their attack. And at the end of turn, as is typical of Kurumi, she resets time back a step as you may heal the top card of your clock.

We’ve really come full circle. Kurumi’s origins in Weiss Schwarz actually came from the Fujimi booster set. She was later incorporated back into her own set with the release of Date A Live as a separate series. Kurumi’s combo above allows you to mill up to the top four cards of your deck and perform an Operation Tornado-esque effect, letting you salvage a character whose level is equal or less than the number of soul icons milled.

Kurumi’s entire existence is based on messing with time, and this is adequately reflected in many of Kurumi’s mechanics. One key feature she uses is messing with ALARM triggers. The three Kurumi cards above have abilities both on field and while at the top of your clock. Kurumi pointing her gun at you grants all your characters the ability to transform any character card in your hand into a free 2000 powered backup at the start of your opponent’s climax phase, perfect for protecting your fellow Kurumi cards and making your opponent think twice. Kurumi in the center is a pseudo early play that can be spawned directly from the top of your clock if you have nearly full field and also heals as part of her spawn or on-play effect. Lastly, Kurumi holding a finger to her lips is a level one or lower reverser that allows you to discard a character and salvage any character from your waiting room for free at the start of your climax phase if she is at the top of your clock.

As for direct ways we can force our ALARM triggers, these two Kurumi are perfect for setting up our clock while also grabbing us other forms of advantage. Kurumi in the wedding dress puts a card directly into our clock and lets us search the deck for any character to add to hand. 2/1 Kurumi is a level three assist that can rest herself to temporarily place a character on the top or bottom of your clock from your waiting room, refunding the bottom card to your waiting room at the end of turn. By doing so, 2/1 Kurumi gives you the luxury of choosing from a wider range of targets in your waiting room, letting you potentially bring out your early play, hand-fix, or even defensive backup Kurumi for this and the next turn.

Special note should be made to these two above cards. They both have a connection to that of our Zafkiel finisher. Kurumi holstering her gun near her head is a global assist with two unique abilities. Her first ability lets you clock the top card of your deck to search for a copy of 3/2 Kurumi and add it to hand. Her second ability allows you to resonate with 3/2 Kurumi to exchange cards in your clock with your hand. 1/0 Kurumi is a single card that can enable our entire clock swapping strategy and enable our ALARMs with a bit of luck. Kurumi in the past would normally have an ability when a certain card is in memory, but given the restraints of this deck, that ability will be ignored. Her secondary ability sends her to memory to allow us to salvage 3/2 Kurumi back to hand.

Some other additions in the late game to support our Kurumi’s plot is shown above. Kurumi smiling on the left is a secondary finisher with an Icy Tail profile, should we need it. Keep in mind that Zafkiel Kurumi assigns any character of your choice the finishing ability, so feel free to be flexible. Kurumi in the center with Hibiki is a stock swap profile on play. Lastly, Kurumi in her casual outfit is an early play check x profile based on your field and her condition is to have Kurumi’s brainstormer in clock, something easily done with that of our 2/1 support or 1/0 Zafkiel fetcher.

In order to defend our Kurumi, we need to keep the guns blasting, and that does mean during our opponent’s turn as well. 2/1 Kurumi holding a cat is a memory kick counter. 2/1 Kurumi in her swimsuit is a freefresh counter to reset the deck and our timeline. Lastly. 1/0 1500 Kurumi counter is a costless counter that also doubles with a SHIFT ability to move our clock around and trigger clock shenanigans.

As for suggestions, there are too many Kurumi cards to choose from just like her infinite clones. To begin with, Kurumi pointing a gun to her head shuffles two characters back into your deck to give a side ability without any demerit. She can also boost the power of one of your characters on swing. Her first ability is very important as you can shuffle more soul icons into your deck for your level one combo. Since she can side without penalty, you can also assign Zafkiel’s finisher onto her to play around any backups. 1/0 Kurumi smiling with her pistol is a Koume profile when sent to waiting room, and you can also sacrifice her to grant additional power to one of her clones and trigger her first ability. Keep in mind that she can only add yellow climaxes in case you wanted to vary the deck a bit. 1/1 Kurumi looking stern is a stock Adachi profile to get rid of early played threats. 1/0 Kurumi pointing her gun forward looks rather silly at first as a weak beater with hand encore, but this card is especially dangerous when considering her in a Kurumi deck. Up to twice a turn, whenever a character is placed into your clock zone, she gains a large burst of power, easily reaching upwards of level three power if you can get both triggers to activate. Given the large swaths of Kurumi clock swapping shenanigans, she can readily activate her ability fairly easily. She also has hand encore, so that during your next turn, when you clock, you already activate one of her triggers assuming you clock a character. Kurumi in her chibi form snickering is a spawner profile that can sacrifice itself at level one to spawn a level one or lower character from your waiting room. This can be useful if you are playing the 1/1 hand encore Kurumi. Lastly, the search brainstormer for the early play Kurumi condition is shown at the end that also provides a bit of power to one of your characters at the start of your climax phase.

Be it this world or another, Kurumi is always prowling around, trying to find her ultimate enemy. Friend or ally, that is up to you to decide. Warm up to her and help her with her plans, or stand in her way and die trying. Suit up and get ready for your date a live.