This will be my first deck review and I chose this as it is the champion of the WC 2014 of Asia-Oceania. I will be going over how the deck is built, my thoughts on it’s setup and game plan and the viability of the deck. Note that this was created 2 years ago which would have had it in a different meta to an Angel Beats deck in this day and age.

Please excuse the formatting. WordPress is a bitch to deal with.

The deck is a RY deck (of course, AB only has 2 colours) with the ratio’s split with 35 Red and 15 yellow. The deck runs 8 red gates for climaxes and 2 red events.

What this deck includes:

Hand Fixing : Only the “Bond of Many Lifetimes, Otonashi” (Pay 1, drop 1, salvage), the “Yuri’s fearless gaze” (Spam-able salvage brainstorm) and the “United Battlefront, Kanade & Yuri” (Put a card from hand to clock to salvage 1). So in total, this deck only has 3 ways to handfix and only 1 copy of each is run in this deck.

Plusing : “Thinner in Clothes, Takamatsu” (Pay 2 when sent to waiting room from field to salvage 1), “Memories of the Beat, Otonashi” (Pay 1, bond to the 7.5k kanade) and the 8 climax gates to salvage. Deck runs 1 bonder and 2 plusers for a total of 3 character plusses.

Backups : “Yuri’s Powerful Draw” (1.5k backup + if you have 2 or more death it gains + 500 x your level) and “Highly Skilled Shiina” (2.5k + freefresh for an extra 2 stock). A total of 1 backup at level 1 and 2 at level 2.

Brainstorm : “Yuri’s fearless gaze” and the event “Operation Tornado” (Brainstorm 3, salvage 1 character equal level or less to the amount of characters you hit during brainstorm). The deck runs 2 events and 1 yuri for a total 3 brainstorms.

Backrow Support : “Resolved Conflict, Yuri” (Global 500 + 500 revenge booster), “Kanade, Sending Everyone Off” (Tap itself to give 1k and also give everything hand encore), “Worrying Kanade” (Level assist + 1k boost on play). This deck runs a total of 8 back row supports.

Finishers : “Yuri Nakamura” (Climax Combo, on attack burn 1 first + self buff for +1.5k until end of your opponent’s turn). Running 4 of these that combo with 4 of the 8 gates used in this deck.

Early Play : “Separate Ways, Yuri” (Pay 1, drop 1 and put to memory, encore changer) which amounts to 2 in the deck.

Healers : “Yuri’s Independent Actions” (Climax combo and pay 1 to buff and salvage 1) can be early played and is being run at 4 which combos with the other 4 gates.

Level 0 – 15

5 Yellow – 10 Red

3 x Battle Meeting, Kanade

1 x Yui’s Sex Appeal

1 x Memories of the Beat, Otonoashi

2 x Strategic Provocation, Yuri

4 x Resolved Conflict, Yuri

1 x Bond of Many Lifetimes, Otonashi

2 x Thinner in Clothes, Takamatsu

Level 1 – 14

9 Yellow – 3 Red

3 x Kanade Sending Everyone Off

4 x “Messenger of God” Angel

2 x Angel Wings, Kanade

1 x Yuri’s Fearless Gaze

1 x United Battlefront, Kanade & Yuri

1 x Yuri’s Powerful Draw?

2 x (Event) Operation Tornado

Level 2 – 5

1 Yellow – 4 Red

1 x Worrying Kanade

2 x Highly Skilled Shiina

2 x Separate Ways, Yuri

Level 3 – 8

8 Red

4 x Yuri’s Independent Actions

4 x Yuri Nakamura

Climax

8 Red

4 x After the Battle

4 x Heart of the World

Game Plan

The main game plan of this deck is to get out the “Messenger of God” 7.5k beatstick to wall off the opponent and to keep it alive through hand encore with the support of “Kanade, Sending Everyone Off“. It could reach as high as 10/10.5k with one global support + the help of the “Yuri’s Powerful Draw” backup. This eats up a lot of hand if your opponent is somehow able to run her over (such as level 1 suiciders) or if you are really unlucky with her check top (which should be ok since there is only 2 events). The thing I don’t like about this deck is that it relies heavily on the 7.5k beaters, it’s other level 1’s aren’t amazing as the 1/0 kanade’s plussing climax combo is not run which reduces it to a 6k beater with a full field and 6.5k with optimal setup (being 0/0 global support + 1/0 kanade encore support in the back) and only run at 2 copies. The other level 1’s in this deck are tech cards which all revolve around brainstorming or grabbing the 7.5k beater and keeping it alive.

Other decks that run the 7.5k beater generally use it as a one off wall to stop the opponent from running all over one of your cards and the aim is to keep that one card alive. This deck however, focuses more on having more than one 7.5k beater out on the field and doesn’t really add sufficient support to support more than one on the field.

For this to happen, the early game consists of using the “Battle Meeting, Kanade” and usually another card for two attacks or having the global assist sitting in the back which boosts it to a 4k encore monster. Suiciders are there to take care of anything that you can’t possibly run over. The lone yui I believe was just put in because he couldn’t find anything else to put in, as it is a solid card to wall and side with but the RNG on the climax trigger on a front attack may completely destroy you. The Takamatsu salvager is there to pay out climaxes and is also one of the only character plusses in this deck. The otonashi bonder to the 7.5k kanade is also a pay 1 to plus a card which is also an early way to pay out climaxes stuck in stock.

The level 0 game is you building stock so that you can pay it out to salvage the 7.5k beater and having enough to actually play them. As the level 1 game relies on stock, you won’t be using stock as freely which conflicts with the idea to run the Takamatsu (Pay 2 salvage). If you need to take your first turn at level 1 to setup your hand/field to play the 7.5k beaters next turn, I think the deck starts to have problems. The deck struggles against any deck with an advantage engine at level 1 with the usual one you see being the on reverse plussing. If you expose yourself to being reversed in a single lane, you’re opponent is free to use their advantage engine whilst you on the other hand don’t really have one apart from triggering climaxes.

The level 2 change also feels a bit expensive if you’re not constantly hitting climaxes as you are forced to ditch 2 cards (itself to memory and drop a card) to early play a healer. If the healer in any way shape or form gets reversed, you are still able to hand encore it but that’d be throwing hand on a set that already has low hand. The “freefresher” in this deck needs to be used sparingly as this deck relies on having stock and throwing 3 stock to freefresh may allow you to cancel but kills what you can do next turn to follow up.

The late game splits itself into two distinct paths, the healer buff and salvage climax combo Yuri which helps stall out the game (you could also search for “Highly Skilled Shiina” freefresher) or the shot for one damage and self buff climax combo Yuri. The reason I say distinct is because they both use climax combos, so you would be either pulling off the heal combo to wall off, salvage and hopefully survive, whereas using the burn combo will attempt to finish your opponent off.

Conclusion: Deck relies on the 1/1 7.5k beater but only supports it with the usual back row supports (I don’t count the 2/1 freefreshers as support as they primarily have a different function). The deck runs salvagers so if the 7.5k beater ends up in the waiting room, it could be fished out, however, the deck runs no searchers which is a worrying sign for such a vital part of the deck. Level assist itself may be unneeded as I don’t see you having the hand and stock to play it efficiently as you would have to move one of your back row supports up (most likely the global assist) which means you will take more damage on the open swing if you are crashing it. It does however, work well with your level 3 game as the buffs + level assist make them that much more stronger and of course buffing the 7.5k beater by an extra 1k but from experience it’s not a very consistent card.

I’ve had many experiences with trying to make the 7.5k work but having it as the main game plan has always backfired on me. I have lost countless duels as a result of losing hand to encore them when they reveal a non-death card. I feel this deck lacks another game plan if the 7.5k’s are not in hand/waiting room as the other level 1’s are very lackluster tech. You are either trading cards from either your hand or stock to run through your game plan which means that this deck is quite a hard deck to play optimally. By optimally I mean getting to end game with enough stock to at least play your finishers as finishers.

-Anjube