Disclaimer: I am writing this post out of my own free will and not because my upcoming BCS partner is forcing me to under duress. My cards at home are safe, and my max rarity LycoReco deck is totally not at his house.
Himeno’s such a sweetie pie. Outside of killing devils, you can just ask her out to a cafe, sit down with her, and just share with her about your problems. And she’ll just listen earnestly without judgment. Using the same pair and brand of cigarettes as Aki her partner, she musters up the power of tobacco and extends her ghost hand to deal a modular amount of damage with her combo of your choice (you pick between two or three damage).
Just like Aki, a fellow smoking addict (she was the one who got him hooked), she needs copies of “Easy revenge!” in memory. However, unlike 3/2 Aki, she requires at least two of them in memory to perform her ability. As such, it is imperative that we get the smoking train going. Due to the current banlist restrictions, we’ll switch over to using the bonder listed here to grab the infamous cigarette from deck to hand.
For those unfamiliar, Easy revenge! is a Cigarettes event that mills your deck to give you hand while sending itself to memory. Himeno’s smiling bonder is a level zero bottom deck reverser that discards a character on play to search out the event to hand.
To pair with his smoking addicted partner, Aki is our early game advantage combo. Aki performs a simple but effective hand gaining ability with his climax in play. He allows you to salvage any character from waiting room when he attacks with his climax. In addition, he gains a large amount of burst power during your turn and continual event or climax encore (which may be relevant considering our deck is eight arc triggers).
Himeno’s advantage doesn’t come in the traditional sense of advantage. Rather than looking to chain together hand or filter for cards at some point, Himeno uses the two cards above to punish your opponent instead. 1/0 Drunk Himeno gains massive power and the ability to clock swap her opponents upon reversing them during your turn, denying any sent to waiting room abilities or field shenanigans like J.C. profiles. 2/1 Himeno relaxing in the wind provides massive power to your team on swing when she reveals a character or the Cigarettes event from the top of your deck. Do note that both cards do require you to have at least one copy of your Cigarettes event in memory already.
Furthermore, Himeno also possesses some clock shenanigans as evidenced by the two cards above with their respective ALARM triggers. At first glance, both cards may seem rather niche on field. 2/1 Himeno is a level three killer while 3/2 Himeno is a bouncer that allows you to discard a card in hand for a double bounce. The key with these two cards comes in their viability beyond the field, making them less like traditional late game bricks in hand. 2/1 Himeno’s ALARM ability allows you to free filter through your deck at the start of your climax phase while 3/2 Himeno lets you level down your opponent for a cheap discard cost. Essentially, the bonus for these two Himeno cards come at their ability to support you throughout the game as you benefit from their ALARM abilities on top of their on-play/field abilities.
One last key card to mention is that of the backrow support card above. Sorry Aki, you’re being sidelined this post. Himeno above offers you a free scry and cross-turn power boost to one of your characters when you place a climax in your climax zone. Her other ability, requiring the Cigarette event in memory, grants climax filter, letting you discard a climax whenever a climax is triggered to salvage any character from waiting room.
In terms of defense, Himeno is more so on the offensive side, making your cards rather weak on your opponent’s turn. However, the backups that work alongside the deck are more important for their utility. Himeno smoking is an anti-change backup that sends any cheated target to the bottom of your opponent’s deck. Aki is a freefresh backup, letting you hopefully shuffle your waiting room back to give you a better chance at cancelling.
In terms of additional suggestions, we can begin with Himeno’s salvage brainstormer. The most interesting and my favourite part about this card is its first ability to sacrifice itself to memory to search out a level two or higher character at level two or higher. This gives you modality and a better way to secure your finishers and utility for the cheap. Aki’s climax swap here lets you sacrifice a character instead of paying stock, trading hand for the ability or a card left over from previous turns (this is great to preserve stock). Aki looking puzzled gains power in the center and triggers twice on attack for free (you pay out the second stock), helping to push damage and potentially hit climax triggers. Aki’s fox gesture pose is a standard Fukaziroh profile to net any level one or higher card to hand when its sent to waiting room (important to try and grab the Cigarettes events). Aki eating rice lets you check the top three cards of your deck and add any card to hand such as climaxes for your current or next turn. Aki wielding his sword is an early play healer if you have two or more Cigarettes events in memory. He can potentially generate you extra stock to refund part of his costs when he reverses his opponent (with a bit of luck).