Devil Survivor 2 – Summoning Lucifer (Y/B) [01/29/2021]

Following Hibiki’s quest to defeat the accursed Septentriones, he employs the power of the mysterious demons to assist him in his endeavor. Lucifer, a member of the Tyrant race, is considered the ultimate demon born from the fusion of both Metatron and Loki. After going through multiple ordeals and reaching the final stages of the game, Lucifer arrives, ready to dismiss any foes in Hibiki and his friends’ paths.

The star players of the deck are shown above. Hibiki acts as the global back row assist with a single goal. Absorbing the powers of his fallen fellow Summoner(s) (サマナー), Hibiki places markers underneath himself from the top of your deck. Upon reaching eleven or more markers, Hibiki spawns Lucifer on the right onto the stage in his position either from hand or the waiting room.

Lucifer himself has a plethora of abilities. Firstly, when he enters the field from either hand or Hibiki’s effect, he effectively heals your clock and turns that card into a marker. That marker itself powers Lucifer and turns him into 13000 powered beater with a persistent effect that gives a cancel ping once per turn.

Now, you may be thinking that the best strategy here would simply be to crash your cards in and turbo charge Hibiki. However, that’s likely not the best idea considering the constant loss of hand to maintain field and the potential to receive large amounts of soul damage on the opponent’s turn. Instead, Hibiki should be considered to be a long term goal despite his ability to summon Lucifer anytime assuming his eleven marker condition is met.

As such, the main plan in this case would be to field cards to overpower your opponents’ during your turn and then power-up Hibiki the following turn when your own cards are reversed. Alternatively, if your cards are not reversed, that’s simply another beater that can be used the following turn.

Moving on, Alcore above acts as a the main means of gaining hand in the deck. Keep in mind that he exclusively searches for up to one card with Yamato [ヤマト] and a card with Hibiki [ヒビキ] in its name.

Some ideal targets for Alcore’s combo are shown above. Our protagonist to the left acts as a wonderful beater that easily hits 7000 power without any stock, assuming you have the ideal backrow with both the marker Hibiki shown before and the other back-row, DS2/SE16-01R. The center Hibiki is an oversized beater with a rather painful potential demerit. However, assuming you do pass the check, he can be used as a potential reveal for DS2/SE16-01R and its brainstorm ability. Lastly, the Yamato to the right is a vanilla card that acts a target for Alcore. The level three Yamato is also a potential option as well, but more so to fulfil Alcore’s targets and the book trigger it combos with.

Jungo is an amazing card to consider since his bond target is a great card and bond is a relatively cheap efficient means of regenerating hand. His bond target, the Airi on the right, has a spectacular ability as long as Jungo is on the field. Being a respectable 8500 power without considering assists is nice, but the additional soul for a single stock cost is extremely valuable and cost efficient.

Some other interesting cards to note include the ones above. As mentioned before, DS2/SE16-01R is the brainstorm that also possesses a nice assist ability to pump up your other characters in front of her. DS2/SE16-05R, which was mentioned before, benefits greatly from this card since Io is a level zero charater and has an an assist effect. She is essentially an additional 1000 power to that specific Hibiki alone. Furthermore, with all the check top effects, Io can be a good way to exchange any climaxes into additional resources with its brainstorm effect.

The Io in the center is another great beater with its clock encore ability. Note that DS2/SE16-02R only requires your characters to be reversed, not sent to the waiting room. As such, she can be a reliable source to get markers continually without depleting hand. Fumi on the right is another great top-checking option. Her demerit may be punishing, but combined with DS2/SE16-16C, you have two sources to peek at the top of your deck. At worst, she’ll disappear at the start of your encore phase, which is slightly unfortunate, but her hit still gets in.

Daichi has an oversized counter which may be useful for defending your bulky characters. A potential option in your deck build if you’d like but not entirely necessary.

Consider Lucifer as your “surprise” that pops up ideally near your early-mid to late game. Hibiki’s got quite a bit of supportive power from his comrades. Don’t forget Airi’s ability to push soul with Jungo out on the field either. Unfortunately, the Yamato cards aren’t very good for this deck, but Alcore finds specifically both a Hibiki and Yamato. As such, you’ll want a sufficient amount of Yamatos in the deck just to gain hand. Consider DS2/SE16-P01PR as a great option as well. Fight back against your opponent and surprise them with the Morning Star himself!