With the recent leak of all of the OTT cards from the first wave of standard support, I’ve decided to release my preliminary thoughts on all of the units. As always, my ratings are subject to change as I further test these cards against the other clans in the set.

I’ve been known to complain a lot about the lack of quality OTT units in the G era. However, I am very pleased to see that Bushiroad is turning over a new leaf with the V era. These is exactly to kind of skills that I was hoping to see. Now without further ado, my review and decklist are below.

[Auto](V):When placed [Cost]{CB1}, look at 2 cards from the top of your deck, add 1 of them to hand and 1 into soul or top of the deck, When this card rides on a G3, during this turn this unit gets POWER +15000/ Critical +1.

[ACT](V)[1/turn]:[Cost]{SB1}, during this turn 1 of your unit gets POWER +6000.

Imperial Daughter’s skill is super dope. She is also a great example that proves that in this set, rarity and power are linked (unlike past sets where commons could be broken and RRRs could be trash). I have nothing bad to say about this card. The power up is simple, yet effective. This is without a doubt a 4-of.

5/5

[ACT](V)[1/turn]:[Cost]{CB1}, Draw 1, look at the top card of your deck, place it on the top or bottom of your deck.

[Auto](V/R): When you look at your deck by an ability of your card during this turn, this unit gets POWER +5000. (This includes abilities that “look” “Reveal” “Search”. This unit will only get POWER +5000 even if you look at your deck multiple time with the same ability.)

All throughout G era, all I wanted was for Amaterasu to get a Grade 3 retrain. Obviously, that never happened. However, Ammy finally gets her retrain in the first set of the reboot. Without a doubt, CEO Amaterasu is a fantastic Grade 3 ride. She is the best first Grade 3 ride because she gets all of her skills right away. She is also the best Grade 3 if you get stuck, and cannot re-ride because her skills are not on-ride. Though her ability to stack power is mostly dependant on the skill of other units, she can get a minimum of 5k extra power on her own. You can definitely build a deck focused around powering up CEO Amaterasu, however, this would force you to sacrifice some great units. As a result, I can only recommend Amaterasu as the secondary Grade 3, and initial Grade 3 ride. You are better off focusing your deck on Imperial Daughter. However, that doesn’t mean that CEO Amaterasu isn’t a solid Grade 3 option, she just isn’t the best. I recommend running her at 4 copies. The reason for this is that you want to increase consistency of getting her off as your first Grade 3 ride. As such, you need to find her ASAP.

4.5/5

[Auto](V/R): When placed, [Cost]{CB1}, during this turn this unit gets POWER +6000.

[Continuous](V/R): During the battle where this unit attacks a VG, your opponent cannot call normal units from hand to the Guardian circle.

Silent Tom confused me a lot at first. The on place skill of adding power doesn’t seem like it would be used all that much. This unit isn’t easy to judge on paper, as it requires playtesting against an opponent to see its true potential. If this skill is used a lot, then it would greatly conflict with Sotoohirime, making that card less viable for use. As for the second skill, it is an interesting form of guard restrict, because it doesn’t restrict against the main guarding units. You can still guard Tom with PGs, crits, fronts, and heals. With that in mind, I wondered what utility this card could possibly have, especially since it cannot even snipe a rearguard, which was one of the original powers of Silent Tom. However, if you attack for a high shield value, then you are diverting your opponent’s main guarding units from your Vanguard to your rearguard, thereby making your Vanguard more deadly. This is definitely a different/more balance focused approach to OTT than I expected in Standard. This card can also force the opponent to overguard or lose valuable rearguards if the attack is for 5k-10k shield. I recommend running 4 copies.

5/5? I would need to test this card in a game to see how potent it really is.

[Auto](V/R): When you drive checks a G2 or above card, you may put it on the bottom of your deck and draw 1.

[Auto]: When you ride on this card, [Cost]{CB1}, draw 1.

Initially, I was a little confused by this card’s first skill. It sacrifices a Grade 2 or greater drive check for a blind draw. However, this form of hand control does increase the chance of drawing into higher shield value cards, which is a nice option to have. Furthermore, the second skill is absolutely amazing. It costs an early game soul blast, for a draw. Especially paired with Lozenge Magus, and Luck Bird this skill is great because the more early game draws you get, the easier it is to pull your ideal first Grade 3 ride (CEO Amaterasu). I don’t have anything bad to say about this card. You always want to have it in your opening hand. I strongly recommend running this card at 4.

5/5

[ACT](V/R)[1/turn]:[Cost]{SB2-G3, discard 1 card from hand}, look at 7 cards from the top of your deck, reveal up to 2 cards with Critical trigger icons, place the revealed cards in any sequence on top of your deck, return the rest of the cards shuffled back to the bottom of your deck, during this turn 6 of your unit gets POWER +10000.

Victorious Deer has been hyped to the moon and back already. Personally, I can understand why. The skill is flashy. However, flashy doesn’t always equate to good. The inherent problem with Victorious Deer is that it’s slow and inconsistent. The skill requires you to soul blast two Grade 3 units and discard 1 card. This makes the skill a -1 inherently because of the discard. Furthermore, this means that you need to ride Deer as your third Grade 3 ride or use it on rearguard after your third Grade 3 ride. On top of that, you can only look at the top seven cards from the deck for two critical triggers. If you don’t have two crits in the top seven, then you don’t get to use the skill’s full potential. You need to run a minimum of seven critical triggers in your deck for this skill to work, or you might just run out of crits in your deck altogether. If you use this skill on the rearguard, then you lose the ability to use double Tom on that turn. The skill can only target the cards that currently exist on the board, so you cannot just call over it and get the power-up. If you ride it instead, then you lose out on Imperial Daughter or CEO Amaterasu’s skill for that turn. Furthermore, you can only use Deer’s skill once in a game, making it inconvenient to maximize in your deck list. The more Deer you run, the less CEO Amaterasu or Imperial Daughter you can run, meaning that you have to sacrifice one or the other. Victorious Deer is attractive because it is obviously flashy and powerful. However, it is only worth running at 1-2 copies in your deck. Overall, the card’s consistency issues mean that it is better suited to casual play, not competitive play. I recommend running this card at 0-2 copies. If you do run him, your ratio options are:

2 Deer/3 Amaterasu/3 Imperial Daughter (balanced option, loses overall consistency of Amaterasu and Daughter)

2 Deer/4 Amaterasu/2 Imperial Daughter (heavily sacrifices Daughter re-ride consistency)

2 Deer/2 Amaterasu/4 Imperial Daughter (heavily sacrifices Amaterasu first ride consistency)

1 Deer/3 Amaterasu/4 Imperial Daughter (sacrifices Deer and Amaterasu first ride consistency)

1 Deer/4 Amaterasu/3 Imperial Daughter (sacrifices Deer and Daughter re-ride consistency)

4/5 it’s a nice card, but it’s also an OTT noob trap.

[Continuous](V/R): During the battle where this unit attacks a VG and you have 4 or more cards in hand, this unit gets POWER +6000.

[Continuous](R/Guardian): This unit cannot be retired by your opponent’s card ability.

When this unit was announced, I critiqued it for being “too easy” because it is. Promise Daughter gives you the same +6k that Silent Tom, Sotoorihime, and Weather Girl, Juice get FOR FREE (essentially). It also has a modified version of resist (without the keyword), making the first OTT Grade 2 with this skill. In all, Promise Daughter’s skill is too easy, making it too good to pass up. It’s a 4-of.

5/5

[Continuous]: Sentinel

[Auto](Guardian): When placed,[Cost]{Discard 1 card from hand}, during this battle 1 of your unit will not get hit.

Since OTT is forced to play at least 4 draw triggers, this card is a really good option. It solves the issue of Grade 1 PGs taking up Grade 1 space. There is no downside to playing Miss Mist. The extra PGs will definitely help guard against large Force or Protect attacks. Furthermore, Miss Mist can be used to guard against a Silent Tom, whereas Rotate Magus cannot. The one thing that I did notice is that if you run more than four draw triggers (I ran eight in testing), you will end up having A LOT of perfect guards in hand. So many, in fact, that you may end up dropping PGs as cost for other PGs. However, this line-up would pretty much guarantee that you would have a Grade 3 in hand to ride every turn. Despite the redundancy of the Protect gift and perfect guards, Miss Mist is still a nice unit to have, though I’m not sure yet whether she is a 2 or 4-of.

5/5

[Auto] (R) When placed, look at the top of your deck, return it back to the top or bottom of your deck.

Though the skill of Meme is a very nice clone of Farfalle, I would argue that this kind of skill is stronger in a Grade 1 than a Grade 2. I believe that there are better options for the grade 2 line-up than Meme. However, I would also say that if you choose not to run Sotoorihime (due to counterblast cost), then Meme would be a good replacement. She is a 0 to 4-of.

4/5

[Auto](R): When this unit attacks a VG, [Cost]{CB1}, draw 1, discard 1 card from your hand, during this turn this unit gets POWER +6000, if your VG is G3 and above, look at the top of your deck, return it back to the top or bottom of your deck.

This card is very versatile because it gets power, hand filters, and scrys all at once. The only downside to this card is the counterblast cost. However, since the skill isn’t mandatory and provides three benefits at once, it’s worth the resource loss as long as you manage your resources well. This card should never put you in the situation where you cannot use your main Grade 3’s skill. If you must choose between them, always choose the Grade 3. She is a 0 to 4 of.

4/5 loss of 1 point due to conflicting use of resources with CEO Amaterasu and Imperial Daughter.

[ACT](R): If you have 3 or more damage, [Cost]{Send this unit into soul}, CC1.

I know that a lot of OTT fans absolutely hate Gemini for its creepy art. However, I find this creepiness to be endearing, though shocking at first. Gemini is our only form of countercharge in the first wave of support, and it also doubles as soul charge, though it is a -1. However, since the effect is an ACT, and gives back resources that are needed and scarce, it gets a pass. Also, it is surprisingly the best counter charge card that generic OTT has ever gotten. The only competition it has is Cone Magus (best used in Magus), Battle Sister, Lemonade (low base stat, and high soul cost), Deity Spirit Loyalist, Ikutsu-hikone (GB1 and Oracle for the same skill as Gemini), and Arbitrator, Ame-no-Sagiri (generic PGG). This is a 4-of.

5/5

[Auto](R): When placed, look at the top of your deck, return it back to the top or bottom of your deck.

Farfalle Magus is clearly the Battle Sister, Cocoa retrain in Standard without the name, the low base stat, or the flexibility of on-ride use. As a result, Farfalle is a great addition to Standard OTT, though the Rearguard only effect is a bit of a bummer. The card would have been infinitely better if it had maintained Cocoa’s ability to use the effect on-ride. However, I can see that if that skill addition meant a decrease in base power, then the sacrifice is probably worth it. This card’s skill is great for deck manipulation and triggering Amaterasu’s skill. The elf race did surprise though, as the Magi are typically human in the original series (with the exceptions of Lozenge, Sphere, and Globe). This is a 0 to 4-of.

4.5/5

[Continuous]: Sentinel

[Auto](Guardian): When this card enters the field, by {Cost: Discard 1 card}, during this battle 1 of your unit will not get hit.

Rotate Magus is a great card for budget players who cannot afford Miss Mist. It is also a good card for players who eventually want to play 12 crit OTT (after the next wave of support). However, it is clear to me that Miss Mist is the superior PG as she frees up Grade 1 space so that you can run more beaters. As a result, I’m glad that this card exists, but I will not be playing it any time soon. This is a 0-of.

4/5

[Auto](V/R): When this unit attacks a VG, look at the top of your deck, return it back to the top or bottom of your deck, if you returned it back to the bottom, during this battle this unit gets POWER +6000.

Though Sarasa has some good synergy with Amaterasu, she will not be used because she is a Grade 3 without a gift marker, and there are better Grade 3 options. This is a 0-of.

0/5

[ACT](V/R)[1/turn]:[Cost] {Discard1 Sentinel from hand}, draw 1, during this turn this unit gets POWER +10000.

Frankly, Chitose (and all other Grade 3s without gift markers) are a joke. The best path towards winning in Standard is to continuously ride Grade 3s every turn. As a result, all Grade 3 rearguards need to have insane abilities to be worth considering. Chitose doesn’t have that. This is a 0-of.

0/5

[Auto](R)[1/turn]: When you draw a card, [Cost]{SB1}, during this turn this unit gets POWER +6000.

Though power is a nice bonus, Juice’s skill costs a resource and isn’t stackable. She isn’t horrible, so she is still a viable option. But there are other grade 2s that are better, and there are cards that utilize the soul better as well. This is a 0 to 4-of.

3/5

[Auto](R): When placed, [Cost]{SB1}, draw 1, discard 1 card from hand.

Solid Turtle is not a cost-effective card. Its skill is only useable on place, making it a vanilla unit on every other turn, and it costs you a resource just to drop and draw. Because of this, this card is an option, but it isn’t recommended. There are other cards that make a better use of the soul resource. This is a 0 to 4-of.

2/5

[Auto](R): When this unit boost a VG and you have 3 or more damage, this unit gets POWER +6000 during this battle.

Mizunohame is a cute unit that does help increase the power of the middle lane. This is great if your win-con is centred around your middle column. However, this strategy will be weak against other Protect clans. She also doesn’t have any applicable use in other lanes, reducing her versatility. Overall, she’s a viable option, but she’s not a must-have. This is a 0 to 4-of.

3/5

[ACT](R):[Cost]{Send this unit into soul}, look at the top of your deck, return it back to the top or bottom of the deck. If you return it back to the bottom, select 1 of your unit, during this turn it gets POWER +5000.

Petal Fairy is without a doubt cute. However, the skill is too awkward to consider playing. It’s only real use is building soul (for Luck Bird, or Imperial Daughter), the scry (to power up CEO) and the power-up (to increase the power of a column for 1 turn). At the end of the day though, this unit is a -1, with a skill that doesn’t justify it. This is a 0 to 4-of.

1/5 It has some applications, and it is cute, but it’s not a must-have.

I personally don’t see the utility of this card. It’s great for defensive players, but I prefer calling my units on the board. If you do play it, you will want to avoid calling this card to the rearguard because of its low base power. This is a 0 to 4-of.

?/5 I really can’t judge this card’s utility yet. I prefer units with skills.

Luck Bird

[Auto](R): When placed [Cost]{SB2}, draw 1, during this turn this unit gets POWER +6000.

Though I am a little disappointed that Luck Bird’s retrain doesn’t include a base power boost, I cannot fault the card itself. With the removal of the forerunner, it is laughably easy to have 2 cards in soul while on grade 2. This allows you to gain early game plusses while having a unit on board that is big enough to hit even a 10k base vanguard. Though I wouldn’t call this a 4-of because of the soul blast cost, I can comfortably recommend playing this card at 2. The low base stat does hurt in the long-term though, as it will not help you hit relevant numbers later in the game. As such, the best scenario is for this card to die (somehow) after the turn you call it. If this means killing it yourself, then so be it. If you do call it later in the game, I recommend calling it behind the Vanguard and leaving it there. Ideal? No, but it will do the trick against Accel clans. This is a 2-of.

4.5/5 (-0.5 because of low base stat)

[Auto]: When you ride a unit on top of this card, draw 1.

Creepy red eyes aside, I do like this card’s art. However, it cannot compete in my heart with Lozenge Magus. As such, I have to question this card’s inclusion in the set. It really seems like there was an extra slot in the set, and this card was created just to fill it. The only thing this card has to offer is the art. However, since this doesn’t add any value to the set itself, I’m forced to call it a (cute) waste of cardboard. (Lozenge gets the pass over Whiteness Rabbit because it is an iconic unit linked to Misaki.) This is a 0-of.

1/5 (1 point for art).

[Auto]: When you ride a unit on top of this card, draw 1.

Lozenge Magus’ cleavage and thighs make a triumphant return as SVG instead of the classic heal trigger. This makes sense as Bushiroad has decided that all triggers in the first wave of Standard should be vanillas. By promoting Lozenge to SVG, it preserves her as Misaki’s initial SVG. I just hope that if there is a power increase in OTT’s second wave of support that Lozenge Magus keeps up with the times instead of becoming a relic of the past. This is a 1-of.

5/5 for the generic skill with awesome art.

If you like the Rabbit more than Lozenge, then feel free to switch the ratings. My point is that redundancy doesn’t get points from me. The cards are both fine, but there was absolutely no need for Bushiroad to print both cards in the same set. If you’ve ever opened a case you know just how many copies of commons you will get. Starters are particularly difficult to sell (or trade or give away) because you only need 1 in a deck, and you pull about 30 in a case (therefore, enough for 30 decks). Doubling the number of starters means doubling the number of commons that will never see play. These extra cards take up space and find their best use in the trash or as an art project. They are literally printed just to take up pack space and for no other reason.

Nike is a boss crit trigger. This is a 0 to 4-of.

5/5

Our favourite birdy reprises his role as OTT’s OG crit trigger, now with no effect. Though I was disappointed to see that all triggers are now vanillas, I am comforted by the fact that it will lead to a more balanced gameplay between clans. Maybe Bushiroad will reintroduce effect triggers in the future, but even if they don’t, it is nice to see that they are really making the effort to have balance gameplay between clans. This is a 0 to 4-of.

5/5 for fairness

I must be honest, I wish that Dream Eater had reprised its role as OTT’s OG draw trigger instead of Miracle Kid. The rat has never been my favourite, because he looks a little bit creepy (Dream Eater is also creepy but in a cute way). This card will definitely see play in budget decks for players who cannot afford Miss Mist. Personally, I am glad that Miracle Kid’s place wasn’t taken over by a critical trigger. I have spent a long time trying to get OTT players away from the 12-crit OTT mindset, and I’m glad that the new set forces players to think outside that box. Draw triggers in Standard should not be underestimated. With the loss of the triple drive and insane advantage engines of the G-era, draw triggers are now more essential than ever to pull key combo pieces. Plus, the 5k shield will often come in handy for guarding smaller attacks by Accel clans. In all, Miracle Kid will be a 0-4 off in every OTT deck, based on preference. This is a 0 to 4-of.

4/5 (loss of 1 point due to art)

Sphere Magus is absolutely adorable. When I first saw that Lozenge Magus was the starter, instead of the heal trigger, I admit that I was worried. But now, I know that I don’t need to be. In the original game, Sphere and Lozenge Magus were both SVGs and heal triggers, but now it’s clear that they’ve split the responsibilities and chosen their path. Sphere Magus’ art is super dope. This is a 4-of.

5/5

Testing Decklist:

Grade 3: (8)

Imperial Daughter x4 (Main boss unit. Main re-ride target)

CEO Amaterasu x4 (Secondary unit. Main first ride, and secondary re-ride target)

Grade 2: (11)

Silent Tom x4 (Main beater)

Promise Daughter x4 (Main beater)

Sotoorihime or Juice or Meme x3 (Tech slot)

Grade 1: (14)

Gemini x4 (Resource engine)

Circle Magus x4 (Early draw and hand quality engine)

Farfalle Magus x4 (Tech slot. Sets off Amaterasu)

Luck Bird x2 (Early game draw)

Grade 0: (17)

Lozenge Magus x1 (SVG)

Sphere Magus x4 (Heal)

Miss Mist x4 (Draw PG)

Psychic Bird x3-4 (Crit)

Nike x3-4 (Crit)

Miracle Kid x0-2 (Draw, for testing consistency vs. power output)