Sneaker Bunko – My Russian Girl Can’t Be This Cute (B/Y) [03/20/2025]

This is a special piece. While browsing over the recently released Sneaker Bunko set, an idea came to mind between myself and my editor. Together, we essentially crafted the same RoshiDere (Alya Sometimes Hides her Feelings in Russian) deck with some mixed ratios. After some bit of talk, I came to the conclusion that the deck profile would be a good insight into how to create a general deck-building structure for the modern game.

To help with understanding the reasoning behind the use of such cards in a deck skeleton, we have colour-coded those paragraphs in red.

Beginning with the end game, we have our finisher, Alya, above. Alya’s purpose is very clear. The deck’s finisher’s job is to close out the game. Once we have reached the late game, we need to dish out multiple attacks and/or find ways to guarantee damage to push our opponent to level four. Alya does just that.

After paying her hefty costs, Alya plays a mini-game with your opponent where you shuffle your waiting room into your deck. Then, you choose a card from your deck and place it underneath herself as a marker (hidden). Afterwards, your opponent declares a number between zero and three, trying to guess the level of the card you placed underneath as a marker. Once they do, you reveal the marker and send it to waiting room, and depending on the result, two things may happen. If they are correct, the tsundere loses, and no extra damage is done. However, if they do guess wrong, the tsundere wins, and you slap them with two damage worth of sharp blows twice.

In the early game, usually through the use of a level one combo (or a level zero combo, whatever fits your deck), these cards nab you advantage for the early to mid stages of the game. The level one combo is considered one of the most important pieces of any modern deck. The reason for this is due to the random nature of card games, it is generally very difficult to assemble your hand or resources as needed, which is much more difficult in the early game due to lack of having the tools to do so. The level one combo nabs these pieces or grabs tools that enable you to facilitate your game plan. The fact that they work with a climax works to also put pressure on your opponent with soul damage while still helping you retain advantage.

Whether you choose the ice queen or the brother-loving angel is your choice. Each comes with its own pros and cons. Alya has more power than Yuki during your opponent’s turn. Her selection with her combo allows you to either scan through the top four cards of your deck and add a character or search your deck for a level two or higher character, letting you grab your finisher or other pieces directly. Yuki, on the other hand, requires you to run yellow for level one to play her. She acts as a partial filter as part of her climax combo cost, letting you discard any unwanted cards or extra climaxes. She doesn’t go through the deck as much as Alya since she only checks three cards, but she does allow you to salvage any character from your waiting room compared to Alya’s limitation of a level two or higher character from your deck. Furthermore, Alya combos with an arc climax to help salvage climaxes on trigger while Yuki gives you access to a choice trigger to give you modular stock or hand from waiting room.

As a way to implement our strategy early while also giving protection to our little silver-haired tsundere, her sister Masha and close friend Masachika have come to help. Both of these cards act as ways to help facilitate our end-game combo and to give protection to Alya. Masha allows you to play Alya out early for a cost when she enters the stage. She can also provide a bit of extra power to your Alya [アーリャ] or Masachika [政近] characters, likely that of your finisher, and protection from backup use or event use when that character is in battle. Keep in mind that they can still use backups or events when Masha attacks, meaning you are incentivized to side if need be, which is thankfully considered because Masha has a two soul base. Masachika, on the other hand, is an exclusive support for Alya, providing her with unparalleled power for the turn and both hexproof and cannot be reversed for both Alya and her opponent during her opponent’s turn (this shuts down Adachi profiles).

While both cards are nice supports to have, it is important to remember the costs of performing your Alya finisher into consideration. Masha can indeed spawn Alya early, but your Alya doesn’t gain any protection until Masha attacks. Furthermore, without playing Alya’s climax, Masachika is essentially a costed 1/1 vanilla that does nothing on stage.

Some other ways to help filter our hand or to gain further advantage are shown above. Cards that go one-for-one in hand advantage or more are heavily coveted as ways replenish hand while also providing field. Masha in pyjamas is a good example of one of these types of cards. She’s an Aqua profile that has the potential of netting you one card or more from the top of your deck when she’s sent to waiting room. Alongside hand generators, filters are equally as important to help you get the cards you need while also potentially milling through your deck into the next deck to keep your deck filled with cancels.

Masha in casual wear is a Helmet profile to recycle your combos and other useful cards. Masha enjoying the beach is an Aqua profile potentially securing hand in the early game. Ayano is an on-reverse Rize profile to filter through your deck when she’s reversed.

Some other examples of cards that perform some other bit of utility can be found in the ice queen’s cards depicted here. Many of a modern deck’s cards are focused on providing utility through both milling and filtering. One thing to keep an eye out on is the power of these cards as utility can often lower the raw power of a card on field. Regardless, they are essential as a means to help you get what you need to turn your cards in hand or other zones into cards that you do need.

Alya in her swimsuit provides a climax swapping ability while also milling three cards from the top of your deck when she’s played if you choose to. Alya in her winter wear lets you clock a character from hand to clock to add a card from the top three cards of your deck. Alya playing with her sock is a search brainstormer that gives you a beginning of encore step trigger to draw and discard a card if you have a climax in your climax zone.

Some other cards that exist and are usually regarded last when deck building are cards that solely exist for power. The saying: “there’s always a bigger fish in the ocean” applies here. Power cards are usually not that coveted since power is often something that can be relatively ignored or potentially overwhelmed by game mechanics (opponent levels and plays a stronger higher level card). Power isn’t irrelevant, but it isn’t as important than the card’s base effects. Power is still good as a potential way to maintain board for the following turn and thus retain hand as you don’t need to play over your own cards.

Yuki in her swimsuit offers you some strong raw power while also giving you an on-play discard and draw. Masha is a large beater on field that can get enormous should you take damage during her battle step. Lastly, Ayano, while not necessarily a power card is a way to potentially kill two birds with one stone. She’s a stock Adachi profile that can also kill another card if you mill a climax during the turn she’s played from hand.

Off-finishers aren’t necessary, but they are nice to have as failsafes should you not have your finisher around. They provide ways to finish the game without the use of a climax. Often, given the nature of Weiss, you may just not have three copies of your finisher in the front for whatever reason. Sometimes your finishers may be stuck in stock or were kicked to clock as a result of taking damage. Either way, it’s out of your control, and these off-finishers, while less efficient than most climax finishers, do provide you that possibility to still close out the game.

Yuki is great. Yuki is love. Yuki is everything you could ever want in a little sister. She is perfection incarnate. Anyways, Yuki is a standard Musashi profile that can refund some stock if you play her onto a nearly full stage.

We’ve introduced every card possible to build around Alya’s series. Hopefully in the future, she’ll get even more support or even her own set. For now, this is what we have to work with. I hope this deck profile has helped you both in building Alya and also understanding the mechanics behind how to design a deck.