Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls – Jougasaki Trouble (Y) [08/03/2024]

Imagine yourself leaving the convenience store. Right outside, hanging out by a nearby telephone pole stands two girls wearing loose clothing, sporting various colours and make-up, and carrying that signature gyaru look. They come up to you, hook their arms around yours and lead you down the road towards their choice of their next destination. Well, wake-up, this is reality, not some poorly written light novel fantasy.

Meet the Jougasakis. They are two sisters: Mika Jougasaki (elder) and Rika Jougasaki (younger). Energetic, tough, and vying for trouble, the Jougasaki sisters define the meaning of fun itself. Despite always messing with each other, the Jougasaki girls are quite close with each other. Mika acts as a model (both literally and figuratively) as Rika looks up to her with starry eyes.

Forget whichever hack wrote the last CG article. This is the penultimate best Cinderella Girls deck.

This deck, as hinted by the introduction, will be focused mainly surrounding the Jougasaki ladies. Starting with our late game powerhouse, we have Mika Jougasaki posing with superiority over all her lower subjects (both you and your opponent). Mika doesn’t exactly finish your opponent, but she has the ability to grow increasingly large. Mika gains an additional 2000 power for each marker underneath her. How do you get markers for her? Well, her “combo” allows you to discard a copy of her climax to search your deck for up to three level zero characters and place them underneath her in any order. This effectively makes Mika 16000 power cross-turn, but keep in mind, she doesn’t have a limit to the number of markers she can have.

In the early game, as we prepare for Mika’s debut, we have a choice of two combos. Well, I’m kidding. Both Mika and Rika can be ran in conjunction with each other. Beginning with Mika, she gains two different abilities with her shared climax with her sister. The first, of which, allows you to pay a cost to allow her to trigger twice, and the second ability grants her an on-reverse salvage. Rika grants power to one of your characters at the start of your climax phase, and when you play her climax, you may give one of your characters the ability to perform an Oboro ability until the end of your opponent’s next turn. Mix and match the combos as you’d like. You can be aggressive with Mika in the front and placing Rika in the backrow to defend her sister. You may opt to just slam three Rikas immediately with the climax as soon as you can. The choice is yours. Speaking of which, I chose to put the non-foil scene of the climax to remind you of this article’s introduction that you’ll never experience.

Since the Jougasaki sisters were shafted and denied a finisher for unfair reasons, we must seek to find alternative ways to help the sisters accomplish their goals. Yumi is a stock healer, but more importantly, when she swings, you may pay her costs to grant all your other characters the ability to shuffle back cards from your opponent’s waiting room to their deck if they cancel. To further punish our opponents when they cancel, Yuki allows you to grant another character the ability to pay a cost and deal a point of damage when they cancel (once per turn). Lastly, Kirari carries a hefty cost to grant a character a cancel ping ability like Yuki, but unlike Yuki, she carries her own cancel ping ability as well. It is imperative that this deck runs purely or almost all yellow characters for many of the cards’ synergies such as that of Yumi’s.

The Jougasaki sisters are invincible and uncontested when it comes to power. Rika on the left is an early play that acts like her level three sister. Whenever she reverses her opponent, you may place a character from your waiting room underneath her and she gains power for each marker. Mika in the center is a Taigei profile that emanates the meaning of strength. Lastly, Rika on the right is an assist that also grants a powerful power buff to one of your characters whenever they trigger any soul icon. Beat down your opponent’s field and show them the true power of the gyaru.

True to their nature, the girls love nothing more than messing with your opponent. Riamu’s J.C. profile is perfect for scaring on-reverse combos in the early game (this one features Mika, so make sure to run the non-foil). Shiho can swap your opponent’s front-row cards, messing with their swings. Lastly, Kiyomi can sink your opponent’s single character in the front row on play.

Some other utility pieces that feature the Jougasaki sisters are shown here. Rika carrying her microphone is a new type of drop search profile that sacks itself as part of her cost. She is a stock free way to nab your pieces to hand. The sisters together is a sent to waiting room Rize profile that allows you to nab any yellow character from the top three cards of your deck. Lastly, the old but reliable Rika mill runner is here to try and preserve hand and mill your deck.

One last complimentary piece that’s essential to the gyaru experience is that of Mika’s brainstorm above. Outside of being a salvage brainstorm, Mika’s other ability allows you to take a gamble at the start of your main phase. You may pay her costs and reveal the top three cards of your deck and then shuffle your deck. If you revealed a climax, you may then stock the top two cards of your deck. Mika can be a rather cheap way to generate extra stock per turn, assuming you win at the slots.

Before we end the post, we have a few events to consider. Orange Sapphire is an extra damage instance event that mills your deck and deals damage equal to the number of soul triggers revealed. You must play the Mika version if you want to use this event. Rika’s letter to her sister is another payoff for having only yellow characters. This expensive event gives all your characters an on-cancel ping ability once per turn and a single power boost, a reflection of the sisterly bond between the Jougasakis. Lastly, every idol needs that little burst of energy because, even with all the idol power, idols are still human after all. The energy drink gives your center frontrow character the ability to restand upon reversing their opponent once a turn.

Power is everything to Mika. The goal is to keep Mika alive so we can recycle her combo and make her increasingly larger. Also, the above backups contain soul triggers, working in conjunction with that of your Orange Sapphire event should you wish to run them. Mika is a free “costless” counter that refunds her stock from the top of your deck. Shiho is an oversized backup that just says “no” when your opponent tries to take out Mika.

Beginning with Mika’s gorgeous smile, she forces you to reveal the top card of your deck when she enters the stage. And if that card is a yellow character, she gains a cheeky extra soul for the turn. Mio is a forced refresh for both players’ decks if you have a full field of yellow characters. Tomoe is a climax swapper that also has a secondary ability to tap two characters to pump one of your character’s power for the turn, but she is, more importantly, yellow for our card effects. Tokiko carries a unique forced movement ability as she moves her target to an empty slot to mess with your opponent’s board. Sana is a stock Adachi profile that also grants global power during your turn. Yumi is a drop search profile on play that also gains burst power.

Welcome to the Jougasaki experience! The deck’s plan is simple. Approach innocently at your opponent and then slam your combos to rush them. Torture their board and make them regrettably swing at your oversized Mika(s) and Rika(s). Show them the power of the naughty sisters.