A Key Insight into the Key Anniversary

See the pun I did there; laugh my fellow minions of darkness. This is a bit of a different tangent from my regular posts. While this may appear to be a set review, it’s more of a unique post (also I want to revise my approach to set reviews). Today, we’ll be looking into the past synergies that the new cards releasing from the new Key 25th Anniversary fit in with. And just to clarify, this is for the Key 25th Anniversary, not the Key Anniversary set that took place a few years back (yes, the nomenclature sucks).

So a little preface before we begin. It’s not that I’m accusing any of you readers as being fake Key fans. To be blunt with you all, I also haven’t really been watching any Key series ever since I entered adulthood. I think, out of all the Key series presented, the only series I own is Little Busters! and that is through a waifu deck with Komari (best girl). This isn’t to throw any shade at Key enjoyers; I’ve just been living through the misery of adulthood and succumbing to the bitter reality that the smiling adult I imagined I’d become in the present is long-dead and gone.

Beginning with Angel Beats! (I am just following the display order on DeckLog), we’ve got support for the two main traits and sub-trait of the original series, Death (死), Student Council (生徒会), and Music (音楽). Some excellent nice quality of life profile support such as another Riki profile has been fully added to the Angel Beats! roster. Trait-lock is making a return as evidenced by the 3/2 Yui above (she does require the original Yui climax from the original booster). Interestingly enough, this is also the first combo finisher for the Music trait in particular. For your own research, if you are interested in Yui’s band deck (GDM), feel free to look here.

I was curious about Air in the past. This is an older Key series before my time as a kid. I did some research before, but I couldn’t quite piece together what was going on. Air had some time in the spotlight with a combined deck with the last Anniversary set. Returning with just three cards and a single climax, the full dream of Air only is still a bit far off, but if there’s anything Key series have taught me, there’s always hope and another Anniversary set within the next half a decade. These cards above are more or less self-contained in this set. The cards reference each other outside of the 2/1 Misuzu which is a newer combo.

Is that Yusa or Misa? It could be both? Just kidding, it’s Yusa this time. The twins receive their own Fukaziroh profile. If you’re a Nao fan, you’ll be eating well tonight. The rest of the Charlotte cards all feature her in one way or form. With the green cards, there’s now added climax support with Nao and Pizza Sauce (Ayumi) if you want to make a deck in that direction. Feel free to check out a rather fun deck that focuses around the original series here. It would be a crime if I were not to post the rather risque 1/0 Nao card (she checks for an older card for her effect) according to one of my frequent readers, so here you go, Mr. R, enjoy!

Some people will look at this series and cry; I, frankly, have no emotional response. Hehe, I never watched Clannad. Yes, that includes Afterstory. You’ll have to strap me to a chair and binge the entire thing in one setting if you want me to learn more. Clannad also received a few cards of support. 0/0 Nagisa is a check 4, add one brainstorm; I believe the first of its kind and only works with choice climax (best of luck tracking down the old power-up set). Fuuko is a waiting room Koume profile. The most interesting card to say the least is the new 1/0 combo that features all the girls. I think this is one of the coolest things and a wonderful way to help out the old series as this 1/0 combo effectively carries all the mixed traits (in all zones) that were present in the original Clannad series. This card is a megaboon for anyone who wants to play around something like Sports (スポーツ) or Twins (双子).

While these cards can be used within the Key series itself, many of them are more callbacks to the original series. Sora is a way to fetch events, a crucial part of the original Day I Became God series. Kyouko only works with cards from her original deck which you can see here. Hina is also a very nice addition, helping fix one of the original core struggles with one of the decks with meeting colour requirements to play the events.

Mia, Lunar-Q, and Shiona are from their respective independent visual novels. I don’t really know much about any of them, but if you’re fan, you’ve got some new cards to play with. You can learn about their respective games here: Mia (LOOPERS), Lunar-Q (Lunaria), and Shiona (Harmonia).

Some more smaller visual novel series are also getting individual cards. We have Haizakura from Prima Doll, Yumemi from Planetarian (the only one I actually know of), and Philia from Stella of the End.

Mr. R is ecstatic and screaming as there’s more Heaven Burns Red support. The 0/0 Ruka and Karen shown above is quite interesting as it provides a dual boost to the TD 1/0 Ruka and the 3/2 Ruka finisher from the original set. There are some other nice additions (Megumi is cute) that you can mix and mess around with your decks with.

Kanon is here! There are some typical support cards, but the most notable card is the 2/1 Makoto that works with her level three counterpart from the previous set. She gives that finisher additional chances to hit her finishing ability while also giving you a free cantrip every turn.

My sweet angel has arrived! Little Busters! is a bit unique since it combines itself with that of Kud Wafter. The 3/2 Rin and Komari is actually a reprint of an old vanilla card. It is more of retrain which in itself is quite interesting. I love when Bushiroad gives a resurrection to old underused cards. Kud received a rare 2/1 Jun’you profile, something that hasn’t been seen in a long while. This is definitely a nod to Kud Wafter since the trait shown is Science (科学) on top of the card code (Kkw), something more exclusive to Kud’s own set.

Also returning is Rewrite. In an even more closer link to the original series, Rewrite’s cards are highly dependent on older combos. 3/2 Akane shares a climax with an older level one combo from a past Key set. Shizuru above also uses an older climax from the anime series almost a decade back.

Receiving a newer combo and probably the most cards out of any Key series this booster, Summer Pockets is ready to support its older decks with even more card selection. There are many cards to consider this time around with some being callbacks to older cards while others being entirely new or able to work with previous strategies. Take a look and choose accordingly.

And that is it, we are finally done. I do know that many of the cards listed do recall some amount of old cards, many of which haven’t seen a reprint in close to a decade. I do applaud Bushiroad for providing support to these older decks, decks that were likely beloved by fans and have been collecting dust as powercreep in the game advances. These cards, while subtle, can provide their respective decks with a breath of fresh air. I do hope that reprints will be coming soon to give players a chance to play around with both new and old cards together. For now, best of luck assembling your decks!