Date A Live – Chilling with Mukuro (R) [10/04/2025]

Ever since her debut in the animated series, I’ve been a big fan of Mukuro. From her soft-gentle voice and nature to her willingness to defend what she cares for, I admire her design and personality. From my perspective, Mukuro is like a fluffy cloud that just chills in the sky just like how she mellows out in space until the main character approaches her.

Mukuro’s game plan is relatively simple but effective. With her finishing ability, you must pay her costs, and then you deal two points of damage followed by shuffling two cards from your opponent’s waiting room back into their deck. Keep in mind that Mukuro does require discarding two cards as part of her costs for her finishing ability.

In the early game, Mukuro appears again (I will be trying to fit all the Mukuro cards into this deck). Mukuro is a reverse combo that rewards you by providing you with both hand and stock. Keep in mind that her extra stock comes from the top of your deck and is blind (you cannot see it).

Mukuro has a self-contained package. That is to say, she can function very well just by herself and on her own (just like me irl). Our solitary spirit here does come with some boons for being rather lonesome. Mukuro has two brainstorms; the first of which, on the left here, lets you lock one of your opponent’s cards in place until the end of their next turn. That card specifically cannot go to hand, move slots, or go to memory, which is important to make sure you get the value off your level one Mukuro combo. The second brainstorm, on the right, is a level assist that also grants global power when you play a gate climax. Her brainstorm ability sacrifices a character on your stage, but more importantly, if you hit on her brainstorm, you get to swap positions of your opponent’s characters.

While the most obvious reason for the first brainstorm’s primary effect is to lock cards in place for 1/0 Mukuro to defeat, both cards can greatly contribute to dealing with arguably Mukuro’s greatest weakness, standby decks. The first brainstorm can lock your opponent’s cheated cards in the backrow for a full turn cycle until your next turn, effectively ruining your opponent’s chances of getting attacking value out of their cheated card. The second brainstorm is incredibly punishing by swapping out your opponent’s larger beaters with their weaker backrow, allowing you to hammer their support pieces, ruining their potential game plan the following turn.

As for the other Mukuro support pieces, they are shown here. 0/0 Mukuro grants power at the start of your climax phase to one of your characters and has an activated ability to give a character the on-reverse salvage ability. 1/0 Mukuro staring innocently at you is a Rize profile when sent to waiting room. Lastly, 1/0 Mukuro with flower ornaments is a turbocharged Shima-Kai profile that gives any character of your choice a large burst of power on attack if you have a full field. Most of Mukuro’s cards are here to help ensure that you can break through your opponent’s front row and secure that value from Mukuro’s level one combo. And unfortunately, the list ends here with all the “direct” Mukuro support.

To help out their fellow spirit, Tohka and Kurumi have joined the gang to provide their support to Mukuro. Given how much value that 1/0 Mukuro can generate, it is a very good idea to attempt to loop the combo as much as possible. Tohka, as a Clean Cut profile, can greatly aid in doing so. Kurumi in her dress can search out your Mukuro when she’s sent to waiting room in the early game without spending stock, a more premium resource.

There is one ace up our sleeve that hasn’t been revealed yet, but now it’s arrived. Kurumi above is a special promotional card that is our way of cheating Mukuro out consistently from our waiting room. Kurumi can sacrifice herself at level one or higher to bring out any level one or lower card from our waiting room onto stage and bypassing its costs. Kurumi will be very efficient at looping out our 1/0 Mukuro or even bringing out the 1/1 Mukuro if needed. She’s not locked to exclusively bringing out Mukuro either.

This deck profile is intentionally locked in red, so for some additional ways to mill the deck beyond the brainstorms and Mukuro’s combo, we have the above. Kotori retakes the stage after almost half a decade as a generic Fukaziroh combo that can also pump power to one of our characters on swing. Tohka is an extreme mill card that’s also a large burst-powered beater on play. Both these cards see much more value when you add in the Zero Two Tohka profile that’s been newly introduced. Since Kotori and Tohka do have triggers when sent to waiting room, Tohka can accelerate this process while also returning additional hand.

In terms of defensive power, I’ll be blunt, I’m not sure if you’d really like to commit the slots to Mukuro. She may be a divine beauty, but her defensive power is on the much lower side. There is also the 1/1 Kurumi counter that grants 4000 power if your opponent has a climax in play as an additional option. As far as free counters go, these two above are the tried and true for red.

As we finish up with this deck profile, we have to begin the suggestions with the other Mukuro cards that haven’t been mentioned of course. 2/1 Mukuro is a large beater during your turn, mainly used to deal with your opponent’s annoying threats. She’s a level two memory reverser that can grant you additional value on your opponent’s turn should they run her over. 0/0 Mukuro posing delightfully has an on-play stun effect, preventing one of your opponent’s cards from moving on stage until the end of your opponent’s next turn. Additionally, she has a check three, add one ability. 1/1 Tohka is an Adachi profile that refunds her stock costs if she’s played into a full board. 0/0 Kurumi is a very interesting card in the fact that she is a modular drop searcher or drop salvager depending on your clock state. 0/0 Kotori gains power when your other characters swing and gives you a light cantrip ability when she reverses her opponent. 2/1 Kotori and Yoshino is another Adachi profile that also lets you discard a card to blink an opponent’s card to memory until the start of your encore step.

Mukuro, my queen, has arrived and is here to stay. Challenge her and face her thunderous wrath.