A friend of ours, Kyle Lung, created a dataset which outlines the most common level 1 combo/top end profiles as shown from various local tournament results and more taken from Twitter. His spreadsheet is constantly being updated as we speak. Starting from September 2021, records of various decks are displayed on his spreadsheet (early combo/top end).
**Note: This article does not cover the entire list of said decks. It provides insight into the general playstyle of the decks based on their climaxes.**
Interestingly enough, the most common winning deck lists feature the Korone/Marine pairing. Korone is a choice combo with on-attack assign on-reverse search for a Hololive (ホロライブ) character. Keep in mind that her combo can select other characters other than herself for the reverse ability. Marine is a finisher with cheap costs that helps refund some advantage. She combos with a gate trigger for a ping 2 damage ability.
Korone offers a great amount of selection in the early game. Despite being a reverse combo, she’ll allow you to fetch any character you’d like from your deck, letting you set-up for your later game or grab a value card for the following turn. Marine is a solid finisher overall with a simple finishing ability that gets the job done. Both combo with plus triggers that grab hand (gate/choice) or gain extra stock (choice).
The second most common duo seems to be that of Flare and Rushia. This pairing is also found in the trial deck for Generation 3 (3期生). Flare is a potential hand advantage card that relies on the top of your deck. She’s a rather fairly bulky level 1 which combos with a choice to reveal the top card of your deck when she attacks and add it to hand if it fits her condition. Then, you have the option to pay her costs and force a double trigger. Rushia is a potential early played character with built in encore and power if you meet her conditions. Her combo with an arc trigger which lets you choose between spawning a character from hand (any character) or force shuffling four cards from your opponent’s waiting into their deck.
This pairing shares a lot of flexibility. Flare’s combo is rather random unless you can manipulate the top of your deck, but assumedly, decks running Flare will have other ways to filter what they get off the top with Flare’s combo ability. Her double trigger works well to potentially net further hand or stock from triggering climaxes while cleaning out stock and dealing more soul damage. Keep in mind, since the deck is likely going to turbo into Rushia anyway at the start of level 2, having dirty stock isn’t the worst since it’s likely to be paid out by Rushia.
Rushia provides alternatives to the player. You may choose either of her combo effects (not both) which can either give you an advantage on board or put your opponent in an inopportune spot with the reshuffled deck. Both the choice trigger and pants trigger are nice as they can help you indefinitely set-up for the powerful late game combo.
The third place slot is a tie between that of Watame/Marine and Miko/Choco. I will be covering both as a result. Watame works with her choice climax to perform a cigarettes-esque effect. Compared to Korone, Watame is completely ignorant of field conditions as she works without requiring a reverse. However, Watame’s hand gain is fully dependent on the cards milled, and as such, is prone to a bit of RNG dependent on your top deck and waiting room state.
In terms of similarity to the Korone/Marine combo pairing, at the core, they perform quite similarly in terms of their end-game goal. Watame offers a less condition dependent hand plus at the cost of less selection than Korone. Since they share the same climax triggers as Korone/Marine, those will not be covered.
As tied with the previously mentioned pairing, the last contender for this article is Miko/Choco. This deck is an eight standby deck. Miko’s combo lets you salvage on reverse. However, considering that this deck is an eight standby deck, Miko can potentially be brought out as early as turn 0, letting you begin netting advantage extremely early into the game. Choco is a value card that combos with its own climax to stand itself. Furthermore, its second ability allows you to sack her to protect one of your other characters.
As a standby deck, this pairing focuses on building a large field on the board. Being standby allows for all kinds of field based plays, spawning characters from the waiting room regardless of their conditions or colours. Miko provides a solid way of gaining hand in the early game. Choco acts as means to immediately gain value off of a two soul beater. Furthermore, she can be used to protect your higher level finishers at worst case.
So what do you think about these pairings? Do you have a better pairing in mind? The new booster set with extra support came out recently. Do you think those cards will cause any change?