Fate – Zelritch’s Jeweled Sword (R/G) [06/27/2023]

Famed mage and destroyer of evil, Zelritch, provides his sword to Rin as she combats an evil that threatens the universe. Encrusted with magical gems, Zelritch’s blade vanquishes any enemies that Rin comes across with one fell sweep.

The magical crystal branch is shown above. When wielded, it lets loose a flash of mystical light that engulfs and swallows any shadows it comes across. These two events share the same name and can be used in any combination in a deck. The counter on the left gives one of your opponent’s cards soul for the turn equal to the number of itself in memory multiplied by four, essentially making each iteration or use of the same event more potent. Ideally and hopefully, the added soul will help you cancel damage. The other event does a single blast of six damage to your opponent, hopefully wiping them off the face of the Earth.

As the wielder of the magical toothpick, Rin carries some synergy with the event with the two cards above. The first Rin is an early play healer that can resonate with the sword to gain cross turn power at the start of your climax phase. The other Rin, the main centrepiece of this deck, is a level assist that has a brainstorm ability to spawn out a character whose level is equivalent to the number of characters or Jeweled Sword event milled. Rin has a hefty cost, but if we were able to summon her early, we can begin pumping heavy amounts of end-game damage into our opponent’s clock.

To “cheat” out our level assist Rin, we will be using this combo above. Rin above (only the foil has Sakura in the art) has a reverse combo that lets you reveal the top card of your deck upon reversing her opponent, and if that card is a character, she allows you to choose a character in your waiting room that is equal to your level or one level higher than your current level and spawn it onto your stage rested. This is important because you can spawn the 2/1 Rin level assist on your board early, hopefully, to bring out other shenanigans the following turns.

As for our finisher, this deck will be running the humble classic Rin and Archer combo. Our reason for choosing this pairing lies with the finisher being cheap to play with no additional costs for its finishing ability. Being on a two soul climax, this combo can be quite effective at dealing large amounts of damage alongside its single point of ping damage.

Given the massive amount of stock required for the activation of our level assist Rin’s brainstorm ability, any chance to acquire stock outside of our battle step is highly wanted. Sakura is great as an additional stock charger in the early game upon reversing her opponent with a climax in play. Shirou is a potential way to stock charge if you fail his condition while also giving you a top check opportunity. Lastly, Rider may be gimmicky, but if you refresh early, she can fly into your stock further giving you an extra resource for the brainstorm.

Another concern for us lies in making sure that our Rin and Archer finisher and other cards can retain their presence on the field. The Sakura package above grants additional power as supports while also helping us maintain advantage over the following turns. The Sakura on the left changes at the start of your draw phase into the Sakura level assist in the center. Additionally, should you pay her costs when she’s played from hand, you can spawn the 2/1 Rider on the right. 3/2 Sakura in the center is a level assist that lets you salvage a character on-play from hand or from the CHANGE effect from the 2/1 Sakura. More importantly, her last ability lets you rest her to stock a character from your waiting room. Finally, Rider on the right, which can be spawned from the waiting room from 2/1 Sakura’s ability, gains burst power both during your turn and when your other characters attack. If she manages to reverse a level two or higher character, you can blind stock from the top of your deck.

This package is a great value engine to help us maintain resources throughout the game while also giving our finishers and other late game cards more survivability.

The second hurdle in the deck is actually getting the event to hand. All three Rin cards above here give you the potential opportunity to grab an event to hand. 2/1 Rin is a level two reverser that also has an on-play Rize ability for events. The center Rin is a pseudo brainstorm for the deck, letting you tap two characters and paying her cost to add a level one or higher card from the top four cards of your deck. She also allows you to pay a stock and discard an event to salvage any character. Lastly, Rin on the right is a check up to four profile that lets you add any card to hand from among them.

Both Saber Alter and Archer here are great alternative finishers should we not be able to grab our Rin and Archer finisher. Both of them perform the same effect essentially. When they attack, they reveal the top card of your deck and deal damage equal to the level of the card shown. Given the amount of higher level characters in this deck, there’s a high likelihood their free ping abilities will go off. Either card will work as they perform the same ability. We will not be running the Caladbolg effect for Archer since we will have several bricks in the deck and the event will also interfere with Rin’s brainstorm ability.

One last mention is the Rin shown above. Given the wide range of cards of all levels for this deck, Rin can be a very powerful draw engine albeit random. You play a guessing game when she enters the field, and if you win, you could end up with a large amount of hand advantage. Her second ability lets you discard a climax to salvage a character to hand.

There are plethora of backups to choose from. However, Rin above, if any backup is added, is highly suggested as she helps you discard targets into your waiting room if they are stuck in hand while also acting as an early-play anti-change backup. Keep in mind that your early play combo also has a nifty ACT ability power gain, meaning it can also benefit from backup use and potentially catch your opponent’s attacks off guard.

Rider is great to both help you salvage a character cheaply to hand while also potentially jumping to stock should you cancel the damage she takes during her battle. Saber Alter is another profile that can help you fetch Zelritch’s sword should it be in the top x cards of your deck (keep in mind that her ability doesn’t cost stock). Our cute Irish hound is more than happy to bounce back to the safety of your hand when he gets reversed, which, when considering the number of level two or higher cards in the deck, has a fair chance of occurring. Gil is another choice that can act as a cheap cost one or lower reverser should you have a red climax in play. He also carries hand encore to help you dump unwanted targets in hand and retain field. Saber is a nice search brainstorm, but more importantly, she pumps power when you have a climax in play, letting you power up your early game combo pieces and secure Rin her much needed reverse.

Well now, what will you do with this forbidden knowledge? Will you rise the task and vanquish your foes with the power of Zelritch’s blade? How will you do so? What are you builds considering this profile shown above? Let us know.