Mid-to-Late Game Versions of Profiles

At what point is it too late to employ a certain card profile? Is there even a limit? Do all profiles have to be on level zero cards? In truth, the answer to all these questions aren’t all that simple. Furthermore, wouldn’t having more of a certain profile make that ability more prevalent and thus increase consistency in a deck? And then, would it be better to limit these profiles to a certain extent? Is it possible to have too much of a certain profile?

The answer, as is to most things in life, is it depends. The main benefits of a profile at a higher level is the addition of more power on the base card itself. Now, granted that many profiles are mainly used for their effects rather that their ability to stay on field until the the following turn, this may or may not be important depending on the card’s ability.

For cards that vividly check and use power for their abilities, such as that of the clean cut profile shown above, power is everything to the card. Now, at level zero, clean cuts are considered the most valuable as they can shift a card to your back row, ensuring you have at least one more swinger on your following next turn. At level one, the timing may not be as important as say at level zero since you are expected to have some amount of playable cards ready by now. However, where the clean cut shines at this point is the fact that you can effectively reset your level one combo on field compared to some smaller level zero cards.

Technically, a clean cut at level zero can accomplish the same thing; however, you’d be more than likely needing to find ways to power pump that card or will need to snipe one of your opponent’s weaker front row characters. Level one clean cuts, due to their added base power, will more easily accomplish their requirement of reversing their opponent.

For profiles like Riko, the change in level for the card works two-fold. On one-hand, you must wait until level one to access the card; but on the other hand, you’ll likely have more cards to select from in the early game since you will level and have targets in your waiting room for the Riko effect. In addition, since Riko checks for the level of card from the top of your deck for its condition, extra copies of each Riko profile will give you more selection (level one as opposed to level zero).

For some profiles, you would want to see them as early as possible versus others that don’t really have any impact until later in the game. Brainstorms, I’d argue, are a profile that you’d want to see as early as possible because they are still one of the most consistent ways to mill your deck. Also, in the off-chance that you do plus off their ability, you can very much use that to supplement and move your game plan forward. Profiles like stock swap are much less useful early since your opponent isn’t amassing stock until the mid to late game anyways. Having all these effects available on a level zero character is nice, but keep in mind that costs are also generally going to also be higher if a late game ability is available on a low level card.

Another reason you may opt to run higher level versions of profiles is because of another specific profile, Chiyuri (Fukaziroh), since this profile only fetches level one or higher cards. If your deck also just generally requires level one or higher card checks, then it makes sense to play more level one or higher profiles instead of your typical level zero versions.

Side note: My Rize waifu deck felt like suffering to include the above Rize. Rize didn’t have any other brainstorm until the newest premium booster. I had to standby Rize at level one for a brainstorm.

With higher level cards, you are often given access to more power and greater abilities as well since cards are power gated by their levels. You do have to make sure to meet the colour conditions and any other conditions on the cards as well, so do keep that in mind. You are also not limited to running multiple versions of these profiles in your decks, so you can mix and match as well.

One last thing to note, this isn’t some sort of golden rule or anything as the profiles you choose are solely dependent on the decks that you craft. You don’t build a deck beginning with these profiles. You build your ideas and then fill in the remaining slots with profiles that match the deck and help facilitate its plan.