It is not a meme deck, I promise! It actually does non-meme things.

The Deck

WS Decks link: Sa(L)vage

Quick stats:

Colors : 100% red

: 100% red Level 0 = 16 characters

Level 1 = 12 characters

Level 2 = 8 characters

Level 3 = 6 characters

Events = 0

Cards with triggers (excluding CX cards) = 14

Level 0



4x “Board Game” Megumin

Free runner.

When she’s played, you can drop a CX card to WR and salvage an ::Adventurer:: or ::Magic:: character.



2x “Knowledge of Learning A Skill” Megumin

+1000 frontal assist for level 0s.

BRAINSTORM: Pay 1 / rest 2 / flip 4. For each CX revealed, salvage up to 1 character.



4x “Nuisance” Megumin

When she goes to WR from stage, you may discard a card from your hand to WR. If you do, look at up to 4 cards from the top of your deck, take up to 1 ::Magic:: character to your hand and put the rest to WR. [Errata!]





2x Petit Megumin

Global +500 to all ::Magic:: characters.

Top check on play: either return the card to the top of your deck or put it into the WR.



2x “Parents’ Names” Megumin

Level 0 suicider.

When she’s put to WR from stage, you can pay 2 to salvage an ::Adventurer:: or ::Magic:: character.



2x “Pride of Explosive Magic” Megumin

When she attacks, give one of your ::Adventurer:: or ::Magic:: characters +1000 power and +1 level for turn.

Level 1



3x “Nice Explosion!” Megumin

Level 1 suicider.

Also has hand-encore.



2x “Shaken” Megumin

BACKUP 1000, level 1: Drop this to WR.

When you use her backup, you can drop 2 cards from your hand to WR to choose one of your opponent’s characters with a level higher than your opponent and put it into their WR.



4x “Explosive Magic Ready” Megumin

She can’t side attack.

CX COMBO w/ Explosion: When she reverses a character, you may salvage a character from your WR.



3x “Crimson Demon Girl” Megumin

She gets +500 power for each of your other ::Adventurer:: or ::Magic:: characters.

Also has clock-encore.

Level 2



3x “Fear of Dolls” Megumin

When another of your characters gets reversed, give one of your ::Magic:: characters +3000 power for the turn.

BRAINSTORM: Pay 1 / rest 2 / flip 4. Deal X damage to your opponent, where X is the number of CXs revealed with the brainstorm.



3x “Ultimate Attack Magic” Megumin

When she’s played, she gets +1000 power for each of your ::Adventurer:: or ::Magic:: characters for the turn.



2x “Ostracized Forbidden Power” Megumin

When you play a CX, she gets the following ability for the turn: when she reverses something, you may put the top card of your deck into stock.

Level 3



4x Megumin

When she’s played, look at up to 3 cards from the top of your deck, put one into your hand and put the rest into WR.

CX COMBO w/ Real Explosion Magic: At the beginning of your attack phase, if she’s standing, you may pay 1. If you do, deal 4 damage to your opponent, choose a level 3 or lower character facing her, put it into their clock, and rest her.



2x My Name is Megumin

When she’s played, she gets +500 power for each of your ::Adventurer:: or ::Magic:: characters for the turn.

When she’s played, you can salvage an ::Adventurer:: or ::Magic:: character.

Climaxes



4x Explosion

Red stock-soul, 2SOUL trigger.



4x Real Explosion Magic

Red stock-soul, 2SOUL trigger.

Analysis

In most cases, decks with weak level 1 climax combos and no 1k1soul climaxes feel kinda tacky – but whether it’s because of the wide choice of level 0 utilities or the easy-to-pull-off burn finisher, Megumeme manages to be not only a fun waifu deck but also a deck that can win. It’s a simple deck that works – though it definitely depends on its finishers more than most decks.

Level 0

Between only 6 different cards, Megumin offers a runner, a plussing brainstorm, an Akatsuki clone, a global assist, a top checker, a deck search, a suicider and also a tool to avoid your opponent’s suiciders.

The +1000 frontal assist might only benefit your level 0s, but it still gives you an advantage early on that makes sure you can run as many utilities as you want while still having raw power to reverse things – it’s the reason why the deck doesn’t run any beaters. The Mini Megumin nicely compliments its brainstorm with her top check so hitting CXs is a bit easier than just brainstorming blind.

The runner is not only free (without a condition to meet), it also fixes your hand if you happen to be flushed with CXs. You’re probably not gonna have a lot of stuff to choose from in the WR on the first few turns, so using Nuisance Megumin‘s Akatsuki effect might prove more useful.

“Pride of Explosive Magic” Megumin is best utilized during level o and level 1 where she lets you dodge suiciders, but her +1000 power boost comes in handy later on as well (you just have to keep in mind that you might be exposed to anti-change due to the +1 level she gives). It’s also worth mentioning that she can give the boost to herself too, if needed.

The level 0 suicider is probably the most expendable card in the deck, but I thought its deck search effect was interesting: it doesn’t trigger when she’s played but instead when she’s put to WR from stage, meaning that she can potentially be used to pay out CX from stock in the same turn – it’s not necessarily a good early game tool, but it did save me a few times when I was testing out this deck and had her out around late level 1 just as a body to attack with.

Overall, you want to spend your level 0 setting up your level 1 CXC … and holy shit, I can not emphasize enough how much it helps this deck if you hit level 1 before your opponent does.

Level 1

Megumin’s level 1 advantage CXC isn’t much to begin with: an on-reverse combo that has a stock-soul instead of a 1k1soul climax and only 5500 base power. If you’re not the first to hit level 1, you’ll maybe get a chance to reverse a few level 0s they may still have out or some of the weaker level 1s, but nothing that has any decent power. However, if you reach level 1 first, you might be able to use this CXC 3 times in one turn, letting you salvage anything to set up the rest of your game plan.

Unless you’re playing against anti-salvage. I’m sorry if you are.

To deal with the CXCs lack of power, you have the level 1 suicider and the 1/1 5.5k Megumin that gets +500 power for each of your other characters – those two get persistently more annoying due to the fact they have encore on them.

The backup is weak, but a “drop 2” anti-change at level 1 is good to have, especially since this build usually doesn’t have problems with handsize.

Level 2

If Megumin had a level assist, we’d be cool – it doesn’t have one. What it does have is the “Fear of Dolls” thing which is a burn brainstormer on top of letting you give one of your characters +3000 power for the turn once your other character gets reversed. And while this isn’t always ideal, it can be a game changer in the last few turns because you’ll easily put your opponent into a place where they’ll be able to kill any of your characters – but not all of them.

Similar to Aqua, Megumin has some fairly good attackers at level 2: Ultimate Attack can get up to 12.5k on the turn she’s played (cause she counts herself for her boost too) and while she’ll likely die the next turn, she can still take out any stronger level 2s or even some level 3s before she’s gone.

The 2/1 8k Megumin isn’t a cornerstone of the build either since you’ll burn most of your climaxes during level 1 and level 3, but if you do happen to have her and a CX to spare at level 2, getting that extra stock is great (unless you’re nearing refresh, since you don’t wanna blindstock climaxes, but if you’ve already refreshed and are gonna hit level 3 next turn, that stock is gonna go back into the deck anyway). And with a lot of builds playing level 1s late into level 2, she shouldn’t have issues reversing things either.

Level 3

This might just be the simplest level 3 game plan I’ve ever built.

At all costs, you wanna have as many of Megumin and her CX as possible – and the setup is made easier by both her on play mill effect and the fact that the other level 3, My Name is Megumin, lets you salvage a character on play for free. So as long as you have one Megumin in hand, you still have a chance to pull off the combo in its full glory.

Burn 4. Clock-shoot. Repeat 2 more times.

You don’t have to care about walls or counters (because after all, you’re not even attacking). The only 2 things that can stop your crusade of explosions are cards that block damage from effects and hex-proof characters, since the clock-shoot effect requires you to “choose” the character (even though you don’t really have a choice; it has to be the one Megumin is facing).

Climaxes

Ah, the not so ideal climax setup. Having 8 red stock-souls almost makes this a theme deck, but eh … it’s actually not bad. Though I have to wonder, would one of these CXs being a GATE be considered a salvage overkill?

The level 3 CXC is obviously perfect, since you aren’t even using the climax’s power and soul in the first place, but that 1 extra stock can sometimes be the difference between being able to burn 3 times or not. However, since the level 1 CXC is on-reverse, it would really be great if it were a 1k1soul instead … but then again, it’s a free salvage, so all things weighed in, it makes sense the way it is now (don’t wanna make this too OP after all).

Important stuff to keep in mind when playing:

All characters are ::Adventurer:: and ::Magic::

::Magic:: Try your best to reach level 1 first.

Set up in advance – your success depends on your level 3 climax combo.

Don’t play this against Kantai. Unless you’re a sadist. Then by all means, do play it.

Possible changes & other card options

There’s a level 0 3.5k beater that you can run if you wanna, but I think it has an overly-inconvenient penalty and most of all, you won’t need it.

I mentioned that the level 0 suicider might be redundant depending on your playstyle and the decks you’ll play against, so you might as well try swapping it for a standard drop search if you wanna.

There’s another decent level 2 option that goes from 7k to 13k if she’s facing a level 3, but I actually think the current level 2 you have is more useful because she gets her own boost no matter what she’s facing as long as you have character on stage when you play her.

And last of all, the one remaining Megumin level 3. The one with a cooler name and cooler art, ya know? Subjective opinions aside, there really is another level 3 Megumeme and I wanna take a few lines to discuss its viability. First of all, her CXC requires a level 0 Kazuma card to be on the field, so she’s automatically eliminated from a 100% waifu deck. But a lot of waifu tournaments allow up to 4 level 0 non-waifu cards – how about then?

Well, I still wouldn’t advise running “Crimson Demon” Megumin. Too much setup that gives back too little: since you won’t be using his own climax combo, the Kazuma is just a dead weight brainstormer that you’re gonna have to drag into your late game instead of using your backrow for something more useful. Also, while Crimson Demon lets you attack and then burn for 5 in the encore step, we all know that 5 damage is more likely to get canceled than 4 (heck, even 4 damage sticking is a lot to hope for at level 3). Not to mention that Megumin has a clock-shoot (bringing her total damage up to 5 as well) and can set up on her own with a little luck, which Crimson Demon can’t do.

Would I run Crimson Demon as a 1-of tech card? Still no. At best, you can hope to remove a level 2 or lower backrow from your opponent’s field with her first effect, which barely matters if you’re using the other CXC.