Hello guys,

Everyday we listen to stories about Kancolle and generalized fear about anti abilities.

Is it a genuine fear to have?

Are these just decent abilities or more than that?

Today I’m going to talk about Anti-Salvage, featuring Hatsukaze from Kancolle.

【CONT】All of your other 《Fleet Girl》 characters get +500 power.

【AUTO】During the attack phase, when your character or your opponent’s character is returned to hand from the waiting room, all of that player’s characters get -3 soul until end of turn.

Note: In case you don’t know, “salvage” is what’s commonly called when you return a card from the waiting room to hand.

I’m going to go through the list of existing English sets as of this article, to find out what cards this ability impacts.

We all know an obvious card that’s affected, maybe the most important in this case, and it’s not actually “a card” but a set of cards: climax cards with a comeback icon ( ).

They exist in all sets, and when you trigger one and Hatsukaze is in play a choice must be made:

Either get a character card from the waiting room and your characters get -3 soul or don’t get a character and have no penalty.

Don’t forget that getting a card from the waiting room in this case is optional, you may choose to not get a character from the waiting room and not get the penalty or sometimes you may want to get a card from there and take the -3 soul across the stage (for example, when it’s your last attack or even when you’re sure your attack would hit an opponent’s climax).

So… besides comeback icon climaxes, what cards are affected?

Madoka Magica



Egoist, Kyoko

【AUTO】[②] When this card attacks, if a card named “Sayaka VS Kyoko” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two characters in your waiting room, and return them to your hand.

Unyielding Girl, Kyoko

【AUTO】 [Put a character from your hand into your waiting room] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do not, put this card into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 [(1)] When this card attacks, if a card named “Reunion and Alliance” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, return it to your hand, and this card gets +1500 power until the end of your opponent’s next turn.

“Magical Girls’ Tea Party” Kyoko

【AUTO】 [① Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your characters, and until end of turn, that character gets +1000 power and the following ability. “【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, choose a character in your waiting room, and you may return it to your hand.”

In Madoka Magica you’ve got these three Kyokos.

Sayaka VS Kyoko and Reunion and Alliance have a comeback trigger icon, so in Madoka Magica these are the most affected combinations by anti-salvage.

Remember that in “Magical Girls’ Tea Party” Kyoko case (as in others where the effect happens on reverse) the character has already dealt damage to the player, so it will not affect the character’s attack and if it’s your last character attacking it won’t affect the damage you deal (as all your attacks have already dealt damage before).

Fate Series





Head of Tohsaka Family, Tokiomi

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “Parting with Rin” is in your climax area, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Young Successor, Rin

【AUTO】［Put a card from your hand into your waiting room］ When this card attacks, if a red climax is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a 《Master》 or 《Servant》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Fashionable Glasses, Rin

【CONT】 If the number of other characters you have is one or less, this card gets +1500 power.

【AUTO】 [Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card attacks, if a card named “Summoning Ritual” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a 《Master》 or 《Servant》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

The Tohsaka family is also slightly affected apparently.

Project Diva



Megurine Luka “Floral”

【AUTO】 [① Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

【ACT】 [【REST】 one of your 《Music》 characters] This card gets +1000 power until end of turn.

Hatsune Miku “Emerald”

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “World’s End Dance Hall” is in your climax area, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Megurine Luka “Cybernation”

【AUTO】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “Luka Luka ★ Night Fever” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two characters in your waiting room with “Luka(ルカ)” in its card name, return them to your hand, choose a card in your hand, and put it into your waiting room.



Notice that Megurine Luka “Floral”‘s ability also works on the opponent’s turn, but in that case getting -3 soul to your characters is irrelevant and you can do it without reservation.

World’s End Dance Hall is a comeback icon climax that has a nice combo with Hatsune Miku “Emerald” and Megurine Luka”Ruby” from the first set of Project Diva. With the second set you get a lot more possibilities to build a red based deck, even if you use the climax, this Miku is a little expensive as level 2/cost 2 card.

Megurine Luka “Cybernation” returns up to two cards to hand, so you’re up for a -6 soul penalty with only one card 😉

Fully Armed, Hitagi Senjyogahara

【CONT】This card gets +500 power for each of your other 《Strange》 characters.

【AUTO】When this card attacks, if a card named “HITAGI Crab” is in your climax area, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Cuckoo girl, Tsukihi Araragi

【AUTO】 [① Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card attacks, if you have a card named “Platinum Mad” in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two 《Japanese Clothes》 characters in your waiting room, and return them to your hand.

Hitagi crab is a comeback icon climax, but as with Hatsune Miku “Emerald”, this is usually an expensive card to include at level 2 (even though it’s usually a bit bigger powerwise).

Love Live



Energetic by Nature, Honoka

【CONT】 If the number of other 《Music》 characters you have is three or more, this card gets +500 power and “【AUTO】 Encore ［Put a character from your hand into your waiting room］”.

【AUTO】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “First Thoughts” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

“That’s our Miracle” Nico Yazawa

【CONT】 All of your other characters with “Nico(にこ)” in its card name get +500 power.

【ACT】 [②【REST】 this card] Choose one of your characters with “Nico(にこ)” in its card name, and until end of turn, that characters gets +2000 power and the following ability. “

【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【Reverse】, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.”

Otonokizaka High 2nd Year, Umi

【CONT】 If the number of other 《Music》 characters you have is three or more, this card gets +1000 power.

【AUTO】 When this card is placed on stage from your hand, you may put the top card of your clock into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “You’re the worst!” is in your climax area, choose a character in your waiting room, return it to your hand, and all your 《Music》 characters get +1000 power until end of turn.



“Snow Halation” Umi Sonoda

【AUTO】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “Memory That We are All Here at This Very Moment” is in your climax area, and you have other cards named ““Snow Halation” Honoka Kosaka” and ““Snow Halation” Kotori Minami”, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two characters in your waiting room, return it to your hand, choose a card in your hand, put it into your waiting room, and this card gets +2000 power until end of turn.

Again First Thoughts is a comeback icon climax, which makes anti-salvage “shut down” two different cards in a deck.

Angel Beats





Yuri Defying God

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “Battle with Shadows” is in your climax area, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Role of a Big sister, Yuri

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “Memories of a Past Life” is in your climax area, you may choose up to two 《Death》 characters in your waiting room, and return them to your hand. If you do, choose two cards from your hand, and put them into your waiting room.

Graduation from This World, Yuri

【CONT】 Memory If the number of cards in your memory is two or more, this card gets the following ability. “【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand. If you do, choose a card in your hand, and put it into your waiting room.”

Noda & Ooyama

【AUTO】 [② Put this card into your memory] When this card becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a 《Death》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Excellent Communicator, Yusa

【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, if the number of other characters you have is one or less, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand. If you do, choose a card in your hand, and put it into your waiting room.

Yuri’s Independent Actions

【AUTO】 When this card is placed on stage from your hand or by a “Change” effect, you may put the top card of your clock into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “After the Battle” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, return it to your hand, choose one of your 《Death》 characters, and that character gets +3000 power until end of your opponent’s next turn.

There are a lot of cards here, but they’re not usually seen together in the same deck. Lots of different climax combos and not the most used ones in this set.

In sum, a lot of cards, but usually they aren’t used.

There is one card here that is somewhat used and that’s “Yuri’s Independent Actions” which has a combo with a comeback icon climax: After the Battle.

Notice again that in “Graduation from This World, Yuri”, “Noda & Ooyama” and “Excellent Communicator, Yusa”‘s cases activating the ability in your opponent’s turn is OK as the -3 soul penalty isn’t relevant.

Persona 4





Yukiko & Amaterasu

【CONT】 If your opponent does not have any 【STAND】 characters, this card gets +2000 power.

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “Salvation” is in your climax area, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

This trial deck card has a combo with a comeback icon climax: Salvation.

Fairy Tail



Black Steel Gajeel

【AUTO】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “Iron Dragon Roar” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

【ACT】 [①] Choose one of your 《Dragon》 characters, and that character gets +1500 power until end of turn.

S-class Quest

Choose up to two of your characters, and they get the following ability until end of turn. “【AUTO】 [①] When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.”



Sword Art Online



Like a Younger Sister, Silica

【AUTO】 When this card is placed on stage from your hand, you may put the top card of your clock into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “Pina’s Resurrection” is in your climax area, choose up to one character in your waiting room, return it to your hand, choose up to one card in your opponent’s waiting room, and put it on top of your opponent’s deck.

Realization of Love, Lisbeth

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “Back to Her Cheerful Self” is in your climax area, put the top three cards of your deck into your waiting room. If all those cards are 《Avatar》 or 《Net》 characters, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Searching Lisbeth

【AUTO】[①］ When this card attacks, if a card named “Seeking Warmth” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two characters in your waiting room, return them to your hand, choose a card in your hand, put it into your waiting room, and this card gets +1000 power until end of turn.

SAO Silica’s build has one card affected by anti-salvage.

When using “Searching Lisbeth”, Seeking Warmth is a comeback icon climax and Lisbeth herself salvages up to 2 characters.

Kill la Kill



Connected by Blood, Ryuko

【AUTO】 [Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card attacks, if a card named “Life Fiber Synchronize, Kamui Senketsu!” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, return it to your hand, and this card gets +4000 power until end of turn.

【AUTO】 Encore ［Put the top card of your deck into your clock］ （When this card is put into your waiting room from the stage, you may pay the cost. If you do, return this card to its previous stage position as 【REST】)

With this ability, remember you don’t have to return the character to your hand to give Ryuko +4000 power.

Nisekoi



Marika’s Ordeal

【AUTO】When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【Reverse】, if a card named “Feelings for the Last 10 Years” is in your climax area, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

This is probably one of the most used cards in all this list.

Nisekoi is a really good set and it has a large set of tools to manipulate the deck. Even if this card is affected there are other options usually available in the deck. When playing against Kancolle there’s a need to play around this shortcoming.

Kancolle



1st Kongo-class Battleship, Kongo

【AUTO】When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, this card gets the following ability until end of turn. “【AUTO】When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【Reverse】, choose up to two 《Fleet Girl》 characters in your waiting room, and return them to your hand.”

【AUTO】When this card attacks, if a card named “Standby! Fire!” is in your climax area, deal one damage to your opponent, and this card gets +3000 power until end of turn. (This damage may be canceled)

【AUTO】Change [Put this card into your waiting room] At the beginning of your encore step, if this card is 【REST】, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a card named “1st Kongo-class Battleship, Kongo-Kai-Ni” in your waiting room, and put it on the stage position that this card was on.

1st Tenryu-class Light Cruiser, Tenryu-Kai

【CONT】If the number of your other 《Fleet Girl》 characters is two or more, this card gets +1000 power.

【AUTO】[①] When this card attacks, if a card named “That’s the way to do it, anchors aweigh!” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

13th Kagero-class Destroyer, Hamakaze

【AUTO】 [② Put the top card of your deck into your clock] At the beginning of your opponent’s attack phase, you may pay the cost. If you do, move this card to an open position of your back stage, choose a level 2 or higher character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

4th Mutsuki-class Destroyer, Uduki

【AUTO】 [Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card attacks, if a card named “Pu-pukupuu!” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a 《Fleet Girl》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

It’s ironic to see how Kancolle’s red build is one of the most affected in this list.

Anyway you got your Kongo for the burn and change ability (and that’s actually what’s great about her!)

Notice we included Hamakaze here for completeness, but being that her ability is triggered at the beginning of the opponent’s attack phase, your characters getting -3 soul until end of turn is irrelevant.

Haruhi Suzumiya



Happy Valentine Haruhi

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, if a card named “Happy Valentine” is in your climax area, choose one of your other characters, and that character gets the following ability until end of turn. “【AUTO】 When this character’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.”

Yes, this is an actual card that’s been released just now in English, I don’t foresee many of these in a deck with anti-salvage in play or otherwise.

Attack On Titan



“Awkward Affection” Mikasa

【CONT】 If you do not have another character with “Eren(エレン)” in its card name, this card cannot 【STAND】 during your stand phase.

【CONT】 If you have another character with “Eren(エレン)” in its card name, this card gets +1500 power.

【AUTO】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “I Can Hear His Heartbeat” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character with “Eren(エレン)” in its card name in your waiting room, return it to your hand, and this card gets +1000 power until end of turn.

In this case, Mikasa can get +1000 power if you don’t have any Eren in your waiting room, though paying 1 stock for it may not be worth it.

However if you have any Eren in your waiting room, after paying the cost you are required to return him to hand (and thus get the -3 soul penalty).

Log Horizon



Cleric, Marielle

【AUTO】 [① Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card attacks, if a card named “Crescent Moon Alliance” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two characters in your waiting room, return them to your hand, and this card gets +2000 power until end of turn.

Even if you don’t get the up to two characters from the waiting room, you can still get the +2000 power, except I don’t think it makes the ability cost worth it.

Milky Holmes (Tutorial Deck)



Problem Child, Nero

【CONT】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “Direct Hack” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character from your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls



Marketing Mode, Anzu

【AUTO】 [①] When this card attacks, if a card named “Result of Going All Out” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, all of your other characters get the following ability until end of turn. “【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, you may choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.”

This is a new card from the Cinderella Girls set. It seems like a nice card, but Cinderella Girls has a lot of choices and good cards all around, so I don’t see a real issue here: I think Cinderella Girls players out there will agree with me 😉

So… What do you think about this list?

If you found some English card that I didn’t mention, feel free to comment so I can add it to the list (I’m not including Fate UBW 2 or SAO II Vol.2 ’cause they’re not released as of writing)

CONCLUSION

I don’t like to say that a card is “playable” or “unplayable”. This is because these expressions limit your freedom to analyse new combinations of cards and decks.

However I can agree that there are certain cards and combinations of cards you see more often in published winning deck lists and cards you almost don’t see.

What do you think about this lot of cards?

Are there that many “usually played” cards shut down?

In my opinion the anti-salvage ability per se it isn’t worthy of praise.

It’ll bother you a bit if you play decks like Fairy Tail or Kancolle’s red build, if you finish the game with AB’s Yuri or it can be a nuisance if you use the level 1 combo from Nisekoi, but nothing that shuts down your decks completely!

You might notice I didn’t really talk about the impact on the comeback icon climaxes, but if you think about it, climax triggers are more like a “random bonus” you receive, not an actual strategy. Climaxes are a core of your deck when they combo with something that gives you an advantage.

In this list there aren’t really that many cases where that happens.

Hatsukaze is just a (pretty good) global assist with a funny ability to make you think twice about the possibility to build a deck with 8 comeback icon climaxes that have no other synergy with your other cards.

I’d also like to note that as the ability is active for any player, using Hatsukaze actually limits the Kancolle player’s ability to use some cards in their deck as well.

For those of you out there thinking “yeah yeah..but anti-salvage is a huge problem with anti-heal too” I’ll write another article in the near future about “Finishers and Healers”: hope you like it!

As always if you liked this article share it with your friends and don’t forget to give a like to our facebook page 😉

Credit where credit is due, thanks to our attentive readers, who helped us with some clarifications in the article: Connor Pelham and Bren Olit.