Hololive – Do Snow Elves Dream of Hungry Wolves? (B/R) [04/04/2023]

The drunk loveable Yukihana Lamy is a sweet careful little angel that loves nothing more than drinking and practicing traditional Japanese arts and crafts. Along with her husband, Shishiro Botan, the two make a powerful couple that cherishes the beauty of their environment while caring for their Hololive family.

Nene returns as the star of the deck. As Lamy and Botan’s independent biological idol child, Nene was born to be on stage and sing. Despite being a bit clumsy at times, with the support of her family and hardworking parents, Nene strives to make them proud.

Nene is an interesting combo that has two parts. Firstly, when she attacks with her climax in play, you mill the top card of your deck, and if that card is level 1 or higher, she deals three damage to your opponent. Secondly, if you have three cards with different names in your memory, she gains two abilities: character/event encore and a damage surveil whenever damage is taken during your opponent’s turn (she must be in the front row for this ability).

For our early advantage engine, either of the parents are great choices for the deck. Botan is a 7000 power beater during your turn if you have a card in memory. She’s a reverse combo that lets you search for two characters, adding one to hand and discarding the other to the waiting room. Lamy is a burst power fighter with an on-reverse ability with her combo to grant herself an Oboro effect that can also bounce an additional character on your stage back to hand. Choose either mommy or daddy; neither will be sad that you’ve chosen one parent over the other (at least in public).

With the onset of the second volume for Hololive, we have plenty of new memory support for the deck. There are plenty to choose from with a couple of notable cards above. Lamy is especially great as a check four Riki profile that can fix colours in your clock. If you plan to run some red cards at level 1, Lamy will be great to hopefully ensure we get those colours into our clock or level so we can play our cards. She’s also a power pump on swing which can help with our reverse combos. Nene is an on-play check three and add one, but more importantly, she freely sends herself to memory when she’s reversed if you meet her condition. Botan performs the same duty as Nene, but she can only add a character to hand. However, she can be forced into memory without meeting any condition.

Depending on which parent you choose to run, there are slight differences to the deck. The primary idea to remember is that Botan sets up your hand and waiting room whereas Lamy helps you maintain field advantage. As such, it is highly recommended to carefully consider which cards will benefit their parents’ special traits more.

Polka is a nice addition to any deck as a cheap way to spawn a cost zero onto stage from waiting room for a single stock. Her ability does force the spawned character into memory at the end of turn, so that is something to keep in mind. She works very well with Botan as Botan only cares about reversing her opponent and getting advantage immediately on the turn she’s played. However, since Lamy needs to remain on stage, Polka’s ability will nullify her combo entirely because Polka forces her summoned friend to hop into memory.

Botan’s 0/0 is especially good for the Botan deck as a potential way to freely add the level 1 combo to hand if you get lucky during your opponent’s turn. Cards that also want a larger waiting room will benefit more from Botan compared to that of Lamy.

As for Lamy, cards that have powerful on-play abilities or field abilities are highly recommended. Cards that can loop value are awesome since Lamy can recur them to hand for you to use in the following turn. Lamy on the left is great as a delayed form of advantage that also temporarily places a card into memory (great for meeting conditions even if temporary). Lamy in the middle is a hand-fix and power pump on swing. Nene on the right is a climax swapper.

Being partially standby gives the deck access to a bunch of nice targets to block our opponent’s board and also cause a ruckus. Botan to the left is a large beater if you meet her memory condition while being able to disrupt and attack your opponent’s backrow supports when she swings. Lamy in the center is an anti-level 3 with built in power and hand encore. Lastly, Nene is a new card that changes into her level 3 combo.

On top of our memory support, we have the lovely Polka and Nene above providing some alarm abilities for the deck. Polka bounces back to hand when you play a climax to pump a character’s power for the turn. Her alarm ability forces you to draw two and discard two at the start of your climax phase if you meet her memory condition. Nene is a level 1 reverser with a forced refresh ability at the start of your main phase if she is at the top of your clock. Nene works especially well to force pressure during your opponent’s turn as she can reverse her opponent and be bounced back to hand with Lamy depending on how your opponent plays. Furthermore, since both cards have alarm abilities, you can recycle their on-play effects and then use their alarm effects the following turn with Lamy.

The brainstorm for the deck is the lovely Lamy who has an additional ability to pay a cost and send herself to memory to salvage the Hololive Gen 5 event on the right. The Hololive Gen 5 event gives a Gen 5 (5期生) character free encore (brings them back rested on stage when they are sent to waiting room) and also acts as a hand filter for Gen 5 characters.

The last synergy piece I want to show is between Nene and her father. Nene is a large beater on swing, but her more important ability is that when she is fronted, and at the start of your encore step, you may pay her cost and replace her with her father on the right. Botan is a global assist in the front row with a niche on play ability to shuffle three cards back from your opponent’s waiting room to their deck. Nene can be a bit of a nuisance to your opponent if they aren’t prepared to deal with Botan. Even just the threat of potentially having Botan could force your opponent to back away from Nene. Just like a young lady on the day of her prom, your opponent best be prepared or feel the wrath of her doting father.

Remember when Mama used to tell you stories about how she met Dad with his sexy allure and good looks. Well, now instead of having to hear her drag on about your stories, you can visually see why Mommy and Daddy got together in the first place. Nene’s dashing good looks had to come from somewhere. Anyways, Daddy Botan is a 2000 powered backup that sends itself to memory. Nene is a backup that can pay an additional stock (should you meet her memory conditions) to deal a single point of damage when her backup ability is used.

Their silly daughter Polka is a nice early play heal if you fulfill her memory condition. There are a variety of Lamy supports that function to provide power and other utility based effects. 2/1 Botan is a bottom deck reverser for higher level characters than your opponent’s current level. As an added bonus, when Botan is played from hand to stage, you mill the top three cards of your deck, and if you reveal a climax, you may send a level 3 or lower character from your opponent’s front row to the waiting room, making Botan a potential two for one. Lastly, Nene is a free runner with a potential ability to gain power and additional soul if you chain her marker ability with the Lamy Riki profile. Do note that this does remove the Lamy from memory, and you’ll have to reuse Lamy again if you want her in memory.

Lamy and Botan are the textbook example of a great family. Always caring for each other and their Gen 5 children, Lamy and Botan also extend this care into helping to push your opponent closer to the grave.