Hey guys! I’ve been thinking about what new content to post for a while, and I’ve looked over a few deck builds but didn’t really find anything super interesting. I’ve covered competitive decks on here, as well as “somehow competitive” decks and even fun decks you can make from scrap leftover cards. One deck archetype I haven’t yet touched, though, is Waifu decks. But guess what – this changes today!

This deck is the first one out of 9 Love Live! Waifu decks that I will put up in the following weeks. The other decks from this series can be found at the bottom of this post or in the top Menu under Deck Lists > Waifu Decks. Enjoy!

The Deck

WS Decks link: Tsundere Cupcake

Level 0



2x “That’s Our Miracle” Nico Yazawa

Global +500 to all Nico characters

If you rest her and pay two, one of your Nico characters gets +2000 power for the turn and when it reverses something, you get to salvage a character from your WR.



2x “No Brand Girls” Nico

If you have one or less characters beside her on your center stage, she has +1 soul.

She also has a spammable brainstorm of pay 1 / flip 4. For each CX revealed, she gets +1000 power and +1 soul for the turn.



2x “Angelic Angel” Nico Yazawa

Frontal +500 assist.

When you play a green CX, she gives one of your characters additional +1500 power for the turn.



2x “Doll Festival” Nico Yazawa

When she attacks, 2 of your<Music> characters get +500 power for the turn.

She also has hand encore.



3x “We are school idols!” Nico Yazawa

If you have 2 or less cards in stock, she has +1000 power and +1 level.



4x “Tight Hug, and Closing In on “love”!” μ’s (Nico version)

When she’s played, she gets +1500 power for the turn.

Level 1



1x Taking Pride in Lyrics, Nico

BACKUP Level 1, +1000 power: discard this from hand to WR.

When you use this backup, you can pay 2 stock and choose one of your opponent’s characters that’s a higher level than they are. Put that character into their WR, and your opponent chooses a level 0 in their WR and puts it onto the same stage slot.



2x “Summer Festival Date” Nico Yazawa

Global +500 assist to all <Music> characters.

BRAINSTORM: Pay 1 / rest 2 / flip 4. For each CX revealed, search your deck for up to one <Music> character and put it into your hand.



4x “Sweets Fairy” Nico Yazawa

If you have 2 or more Nico characters, she has +1000 power.

Rest two <Music> characters to give one of your characters this ability: [AUTO] When this reverses a character, you may blind-stock the top card of your deck.



4x “Christmas Date” Nico Yazawa

When she attacks, reveal the top card of your deck. If it’s a <Mucic> character, she gets +2000 power for the turn.



2x “Door to Our Dreams” Nico Yazawa

BACKUP Level 1, +2000 power: pay 1, discard this to WR.

When you use this backup, if all your characters are Nicos, you may blind-stock the top card of your deck.



4x Super Idol Nico

You can’t use this unless you have a Nico character.

Search your deck for up to 1 Nico character.

Level 2



2x “Homely Idol” Nico Yazawa

Global +1000 assist for all your <Music> characters.

When she’s played, you can switch the top card of your opponent’s stock with a card from their WR.



2x “Forever and Ever” Nico Yazawa

Frontal level assist.

CLIMAX COMBO w/ When These 9 People are Around: When you play the CX, you can pay 1 stock to give all your characters +2000 power for the turn.

Level 3



4x “We Are a Single Light” Nico Yazawa

When she’s played, you may heal 1.

CLIMAX COMBO w/ We Are a Single Light: When she attacks, you may pay 1 to give her +2000 power for the turn and the ability to clock-shoot when she reverses a character.



2x “Happy Maker!” Nico Yazawa

She has +500 power for each of your other Nico characters.

When she is frontal attacked, look at the top card of your deck and put it either back on top or into your WR

Climax



4x We Are a Single Light (Nico version)

1k1soul, BAR trigger



4x When These 9 People are Around

2k1soul, 2 SOUL trigger

Analysis

Wohoo 🙂 It’s a Green deck with a Yellow splash at level 0, so let’s look at those 8 yellows first, shall we? We have a global +500 assist that also lets you rest her and pay 2 in order to salvage a character from WR; similar to all those “When CIP, pay 2 to search your deck …” type effects on level 0s, but I think we can easily agree that this card is way more useful. You also have the spammable brainstorm Nico, which is not a top card, but is included nevertheless for when you desperately need to mill. The last yellow card is Tight Hug and Closing in on Love: she gets buffed to 4k on play, but she is also the only character in your deck that doesn’t have Nico in its name, so be careful of that in regards to effects of your other cards.

Your other level 0 backrow option is Angelic Angel Nico: a frontal +500 assist that gives you an extra power boost when you play a green CX (and all 8 of them are green). Ideally, you’ll want to have one of this and one of the yellow global assists in the backrow early on. Your level 0 green front-rows include a PR Nico that gains power and a level if you have less than 3 cards in stock – incredibly useful on the first 2 turns or so, since she’ll be immune to suiciders! The Doll Nico isn’t as huge in power, but can be used to boost other characters while also having hand encore.

Moving on to level 1: if you can, switch the yellow global assist for the better 1/0 green global assist that also has a plussing brainstorm. The yellow global assist is name based, and you do still have 4 level 0s that aren’t Nico cards, while the 1/0 green global assist is trait based, and all your characters are <Music>. Both also let you increase your hand size, but I personally prefer the plussing brainstorm effect.

All your front-rows at level 1 are also costless: Christmass Date enables you to reach higher power levels while Sweets Fairy helps you build stock while not being too frail either. To keep them and other characters alive, you have 3 backups: one copy of an anti-changer and two copies of a 2k backup that basically covers its own stock if all your characters are Nicos. Oh, and there’s also the 1/0 deck search event, which I find most useful to search out your level 3s to preprare for the clock-shoot combo.

Level 2 severly buffs up your assist game 🙂 Both the global +1000 assist and the level assist have different secondary effects: with the right timing, the first one can cause your opponent to refresh with one climax less by putting it in their stock when she’s played, and the second one has a climax combo that, for the cost of one stock, lets you buff your whole field for +2000 power. The climax, however, is a 2k1soul, which makes it less ideal.

Your main level 3 game is We Are a Single Light Nico with her clock shoot combo. Generally, you won’t have problems getting the combo off, since you have so many ways to search for characters, and the climax is a bar trigger as well. Now to look at what power levels you’ll be able to reach: she has a base of 10k + 1k from the CX + 2k form the effect = 13k power on her own. However, depending on which of the level 2 assists you have in the back and where she is positioned, she can have from 14k to 16k power: if you have 2 level assists, the middle slot will have 16 k while the other two will be at 14.5k. If you have one of each, your full board will go 14k – 15.5k – 15.5k, and if you have 2 global assists, all of them will have 15k power. Whatever setup you end with, you will have enough power to reverse and clock shoot most level 3s on offensive. (Demon Homura laughs in the distance)

Just as a little bonus, you also run 2 copies of Happy Maker Nico, which has more of a constant buff while also helping you survive attacks with her top check.

Climaxes are 4 bars and 4 double soul triggers. I rarely use 2k1soul climaxes in my competitive builds because, at least to me, they just feel like a lack-luster hindrance in overall terms, but perhaps they have their rightful place in this build; for the hand size if nothing else.

Important stuff to keep in mind when playing:

All characters have “Nico” in their card name, except for the level 0 yellow beater

All characters are <Music>

All climaxes are green

You have a good number of assists in here, arrange them according to your current desires and needs 🙂

You shouldn’t be having much problems with stock, unless you open on a really bad hand. Losing climaxes is less of a problem since you can mill through your deck pretty fast, but if you have nothing or not much to attack with the first 2 turns, you’ll have a rough time.

What can be changed if you want a different playstyle?

Well, you can always play around with the spread and numbers of assists. I’ve also thought about having a 4/4 split at level 3, but it turns out that having those extra slots filled with level 1s gets you more field presence early on and also helps your stock build up way better.

If anything, I’d advise looking into the possibility of dropping the 2k1soul climax. of course, in order to keep Angelic Angel useful, the climax would have to be green, which limits our options. Other 1k1soul green climaxes are bar triggers too, so unless you want to be stuck with a flood of climaxes in hand, your only option is a green stock-soul like Unfulfilled Wishes, which has Nico on its art and therefore complies with the Waifu deck rules as well.

If you’ll have troubles getting “We are school idols!” Nico, your other option is Someday from Here On, Maki & Nico & Rin – not immune to suiciders, but a buff middle-of-center-stage option regardless.

Love Live Waifu Decks Full List