Senki Zesshou Symphogear (Symphogear for short) is a series revolving around a set of girls whom are faced with a global crisis in the form of invading alien enemies with an unknown origin called Noise. To combat these enemies, they employ the use of the powerful gears known as “symphogears”, which are weapons that are the only ways of combating the Noise. By activating the symphogear, the protagonists are able to deploy into combat ready forms ready to take on any challenge ahead of them. Through the power of martial arts and music, they battle against waves of enemies while strengthening their bonds of friendship along the way.
Symphogear came out in 2012 and following since, has a total of seven sets in total (one reprint set with extra new cards) with a single trial deck. Its latest release was Symphogear XV in June 2021.
The set comes with three main archetypes:
- Music (音楽)
- Alchemist (錬金術)
- Noise (ノイズ)
(interesting fact to note, this card was the first mill runner in the game)
The most common archetype is Music (音楽), which represents most of the cards in the series. All the protagonists of the series carry this trait.
Following music lies the trait of Alchemist (錬金術), which is the trait of an enemy of the protagonists aside from the Noise. Alchemy carries a very interesting profile that involves the combination of several alchemy units.
Noise (ノイズ) is a swarming archetype of the set. Usually the grunt-type enemies of the series, multiple cards of this archetype are able to bypass the general rule of four in each deck. Their playstyle generally finds ways to mass spawn themselves from the deck.
A powerful mechanic of this set lies in its event interactions with characters to essentially level the protagonists up from one form to another. Multiple prints of the events have taken place, but at its core, the idea remains the same. When the player reaches level two, with the combination of a level two event and a character, they can transform that character into a stronger card.
Overall, if you’re interested in the series or the idea of “transforming” your characters into a stronger form, then consider playing Symphogear.