Tired of losing again and again because your deck simply isn’t good enough? Or even worse… tired of winning with OP Meta decks that feel pointless because they’re simply no fun? Perhaps you’re doing it all wrong. Sometimes life without flare is a life not worth living…

BUT FEAR NOT. THERE IS A SET CALLED SYMPHOGEAR BASED ON AMAZING MAGICAL GIRLS SINGING FABULOUSLY DURING THE MOST OVER-THE-TOP FIGHT SCENES. START WATCHING IT IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY. It’s also one of those series that will most likely always keep getting more sets in the future because season 5 is confirmed and they haven’t even done AXZ yet!

FUCK YEAH TIME TO KICK SOME POOR LOSER’S ASS IN WEISS SCHWARZ.

And this time using a Symphogear deck with all the main girls in it!

NOTE: I’ve been waiting a very long time for this. YES, a very LONG time. After being tortured by having to do like 3 No Game No Lolis decks in a row, this is without a doubt a godsend. A big thanks to the anon who was kind enough to go out of his way to send a deck based on one of the most underrated Weiss sets ever…

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, WE WILL START WITH THE LEVEL 0s!

(and yes we will use HOTC translations and LittleAkiba)

THE FORMULA TO FIST YOUR OPPONENT’S WAIFU:

4x HIBIKI THE BUMBLEBEE

[A] At the start of your Opponent’s Attack Phase, you may put the top card of your Library in the Waiting Room. If it’s a ::Music:: Character, you may move this to an empty Slot in the Front Row.

Starting off the card list with our main heroine! Compared to the older lists we don’t play events really so this is the perfect choice for that first turn plus! Better mill a character like a good player!

2x HIBIKI’S BIGGEST FAN!

[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, choose 1 of your ::Music:: Characters, and that Character gains +1500 Power for the turn.

[A] [Discard a Climax card from your hand to the Waiting Room] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may pay cost. If so, choose a ::Music:: Character in your Waiting Room and return it to your hand.

This is a very strong utility card. It not only gives power for our SOON TO BE REVEALED level 1 climax combo but also provides beautiful handfix for our deck. IF ONLY I had cards like this in some of my other sets!

By the way if you like Miku or happen to be hungry let me remind you of that one time I had beef stroganoff… Boys like me just don’t know it though… YOU SHOULD PROBABLY HAVE SOME WHILE READING THE REST OF THIS DECK PROFILE!

1x SAMURAI MIZUKI NANA

[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, reveal the top card of your Library. If it’s a ::Music:: Character, put it in your hand and discard a card from your hand to the Waiting Room. (Otherwise put it back where it was)

[A] [(1) Discard a card from your hand to the Waiting Room] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may pay cost. If so, search your Library for up to 1 ::Music:: Character, reveal it, put it in your hand, and shuffle your Library.

Oh baby. A DOUBLE HANDFIX. This would seem OP if things like Azusa didn’t exist… Regardless it’s a nice little tech to have. It provides free hand filter and a search which is valuable all throughout the game after the first turn. By the way, you get to choose which effects to resolve first so don’t forget about that!

2x SOME SINGER FROM FRIPSIDE

[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, look at up to 2 cards from top of your Library and put them on top of your Library in any order.

[A] When this attacks, choose 1 of your ::Music:: Characters, and that Character gains +1500 Power for the turn.

YAASSSS more power pumping! But this time we get to change our attack order so we don’t trigger a climax first… or maybe confirm a brainstorm instead! Gee I wonder why this character sounds perfect for singing songs like Only My Railgun or something…

4x CHRIS MAKING AN OBVIOUS GUNDAM REFERENCE

[A] CX COMBO When “BILLION MAIDEN” is placed in your Climax Zone, choose 1 of your other Characters, and that Character gains the following ability for the turn. “[A] When the Battle Opponent of this becomes Reversed, look at up to 4 cards from top of your Library and search for up to 1 ::Music:: Character, reveal it, put it in your hand, and put the rest in the Waiting Room.”

[S] BRAINSTORM [(1) Rest 2 of your Characters] Flip over the top 4 cards of your Library and put them in the Waiting Room. For each Climax card revealed this way, choose up to 1 Character in your Waiting Room and return it to your hand.

Oh baby. Can we just take a moment to admire the amount of milling this card can potentially provide? This is actually going to be our main plussing combo which is why we run so many characters at level 0 that can pump power. You can use this ability all throughout the game really but sometimes rushing your opponent’s ass at level 0 can just be so satisfying… Especially when you have multiples of this and you get that beautiful reverse off! It just feels so GOOD!

4x BADASS TSUBASA DOING A BADASS AKIRA REFERENCE!

[C] During your Opponent’s turn, your other Character in the Front Row Center Slot gains +1000 Power.

[A] [(1)] When your Climax is placed in the Climax Zone, you may pay cost. If so, look at up to 4 cards from top of your Library and search for up to 1 ::Music:: Character, reveal it, put it in your hand, and put the rest in the Waiting Room.

YAAAAAAAAAY it’s my favorite symphogear and this time she’s on a kickass motorcycle! This is going to be the “Amagi” you’re looking forward to when playing your billion maiden climax combo. Well then again, this is also an option if you happen to get a feelsbadgame and have the other climax in hand to make you feel better. Combining this card with Billion Maiden Chris can make you seriously snowball early and gain huge advantage in certain situations just like the show!

FUCK I ONLY JUST FINISHED COVERING THE LEVEL 0S AND IM ALREADY SO FUCKING HYPED. LETS GO TO THE LEVEL 1S BUT FIRST HERES A BADASS GIF OF TSUBASA SLICING UP SOME CANNON FODDER!

2x SHIRABE WHO BTW IS VOICED BY YOSHINO NANJO

[C] If the Level of the Character Opposite this is higher than the Level of this, this cannot Front Attack.

[A] [(1) Discard a Climax card from your hand to the Waiting Room] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may pay cost. If so, choose a Climax card in your Waiting Room and return it to your hand.

MFFF I love recycling climaxes! You can grab your billion maidens again and again and just plus like a madman if you happen to have this ready along with another climax you obviously didn’t need. Being able to turn a bad situation into a favorable one is HUGE, and this can definitely help at the level 3 game as well…

4x LET’S BEYBLAAAAAAAAAADE

[C] If you don’t have another ‘”Fuubatsu: Pinocchio: Heart” Kirika’, this gets -2000 Power.

But just who could this Kirika be? Let’s check out the next card where I’ll obviously put more detail…

3x THE GIRL WHO CRIED “DEEEESSSSSSSS”

[C] If you don’t have another ‘”Hijou Sigma Shiki: Kingetsurin IGNITE: Technique” Shirabe’, this gets -3000 Power.

[C] All your other ‘”Hijou Sigma Shiki: Kingetsurin IGNITE: Technique” Shirabe’ gain +1000 Power.

Aha! We have another Dekomori on our hands! If you haven’t figured out already the card before this is absolutely useless without this card. Having both of them on the field is extremely important which is why it can be sometimes very beneficial to just bum rush your opponent at level 0 with billion maiden just to be able to guarantee Kirika and Shirabe early on. Just as how they’re together all the time in the show they absolutely MUST be together or your level 1 game is lost… man it’s just so FLAVORFUL!

BUT MAN HAVE THESE TWO TOGETHER AND THEY ARE ALMOST UNBEATABLE WALLS… It almost reminds me of THE DARK TIMES IN ANOR LONDO

Remember what I said about billion maiden Chris being useful all throughout the game? Both Kirika and Shirabe get really big as long as they have each other (YURI ALERT!) so if you get a chance throw down a billion maiden and show your opponent’s who’s the boss. By the way I love Orbital Beat by Zwei Wing but these two just sang it so well too…

2x YOUR SHIRT IS A BIT TOO SMALL FOR YOU CHRIS

[C] ASSIST All your ::Music:: Characters in front of this gain +1 Level and +500 Power.

[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may put the top 3 cards of your Library in the Waiting Room.

[A] [(1)] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may pay cost. If so, choose an “Ichaival” in your Waiting Room and return it to your hand.

Ahahaha remember how SHIRABE WHO BTW IS VOICED BY YOSHINO NANJO can’t front attack characters that have a level higher than her? Well this card can solve the problem. She also provides the free mill which I love so much and can make your already big walls CHIKABOMB-Proof! Say no to level 1 suiciders!

We don’t run the “Ichival” event in our deck but this card is definitely worth running especially when your locals happen to be playing troublesome bombs. BE CAREFUL about this card in the backrow slot if you’re at level 3 though because if the opponent has an anti-change in hand they can potentially deny you an attack during that part of the game.

Oh I almost forgot to mention the most important part. This card kind of FORCES your opponent to FRONT at level 1 if they can’t really kill the walls since the +1 level will make them often side for 0 even with a climax. Pretty neat huh?

2x MY FAVORITE IDOL GROUP, ZWEI WING!

(but in a bathtub this time)

[A] When you use the BACKUP of this, if you have a ::Music:: Character, choose 1 of your Characters in battle, and that Character gains +1000 Power for the turn.

[S] [Counter] BACKUP 1000, Level 1 [Discard this card from your hand to the Waiting Room]

Fuck love live. Fuck Idolm@ster. Fuck Bandori. All we need is Gay Zwei Wing. On a more serious note, these will help keep your characters alive in the case that the opponent is playing a lot of assassins that gain “X power = the number of characters”. SEARCH THEM OUT EARLY if your opponent is running combos that rely on reversing a character!

1x KINKY YOGA TIME

If you don’t have a Character with “Chris” or “Maria” in name, you cannot play this from hand.

Choose up to 2 Characters in your Waiting Room and return it to your hand.

Want to salvage more singing lesbians? No problem! You’ll basically always have a Billion Maiden Chris in the back so the condition is easy mode! This card is a convenient way to set up for your level 2-3 game and can even grab your backups again ASSUMING you have to the stock for it (which you will if you played STOCK SOULS or something! hint hint!).

HOLY. Is that not a rather extensive line-up for level 1s? We will make up for it by having a fewer level 2s… BUT FIRST HAVE ANOTHER GIF BUT THIS TIME OF MARIA TRAINING TO BEAT NOOBS IN WEISS TOURNAMENTS.

1x MY FAVORITE TYPE OF ANTI-CHANGE

[A] [(2) Put a Character from your Stage in the Waiting Room] When you use the BACKUP of this, you may pay cost. If so, choose 1 of your Opponent’s Characters whose Level is higher than your Opponent and put it in the Waiting Room.

[S] [Counter] BACKUP 2500, Level 2 [(1) Discard this card from your hand to the Waiting Room]

HOLY SHIT. I still can’t believe that this exact card effect has became so rare these days. It really makes me appreciate the times where every other set got this same effect. We get so many “ditch 2 or pay 1 ditch 1” for anti-change backup costs these days it’s almost demoralizing in most decks that can’t afford to sacrifice the hand size…

For those of you who don’t know, being able to kill your own character can potentially affect your opponent’s level 3 game especially when they run an on reverse burn or re-stand. You not only mess up their exact lethal swings they took out 5 minutes thinking about but can cripple their finishing potential really hard! Grab this card early if you think your opponent is going to early play especially if your opponent is running early plays that have “2 or less climaxes in waiting room” condition. Some of those decks can have a weak level 2 game outside of that early play option so you can really gain an advantage against some of those decks (example: Kill La Kill).

1x PLEASE DON’T CHECK CHECK UNDERNEATH MY HOSPITAL BED SHEETS

[A] When you use the BACKUP of this, reveal the top card of your Library. If it’s a ::Music:: Character, put it in your hand and discard a card from your hand to the Waiting Room. (Otherwise put it back where it was)

[S] [Counter] BACKUP 2500, Level 2 [(1) Discard this card from your hand to the Waiting Room]

AH. THE LEGEND; THE SACRED BORDEN BACKUP! Truly the best of its kind since it’s being at 2/1! Of course it’s inferior to the original Leafa backup since that one was specifically played by Our Lord himself but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play the slightly inferior copies at all. Use this card to save your life by digging 1 at level 3 or ruin your opponent’s plan to decompress you before refreshing by staying potentially at 2/5 or 2/6 before refresh damage. Ditch that climax in hand before refreshing if you need to with this card if you have to!

FINALLY ITS TIME FOR THE LEVEL 3s… BUT FIRST! Have a gif of Zwei Wing and my favorite song from them!

https://soundcloud.com/ra-146/senki-zesshou-symphogear-gyakkou-no-flugel-zwei-wing

HYPE HYPE HYPE HYYYYYYYYYYPE! (even from a soundcloud link)

1x SAY GOODBYE TO RESTANDERS- SHIRABE

[C] If you have “Kirika, the Conclusion Reached”, this gets -1 Level while in your hand.

[C] ASSIST All your ::Music:: Characters in front of this gain +2000 Power and the following ability. “[A] When the Battle Opponent of this becomes Reversed, you may send that Character to Memory.”

[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may put the top card of your Clock in the Waiting Room.

Oh my god. I remember when this card spiked to like 20 dollars when Standby Symphogear was at its most hype period in time. While we won’t be able to have this as an early play in our deck, it provides a useful heal on top of switching certain matchups into nightmares for the opponent just with that memory kick.

See that You level 3 over there? Run over it with this in the back so your opponent can’t recycle it for next turn with 2/1 Riko. Oh did your opponent’s Sinon re-stander crash against your board because it wasn’t big enough? NO RE-STAND FOR HIM. Hey is that the infamous Hand-In-Hand Miku finisher which sends opponents from like 2-3 to level 4 when triple fielded? It would be a shame if it didn’t last until ENCORE STEP to finish its burns!

Yeah…Grab this card in the matchups where it’ll be highly relevant at level 3 the moment you find out if their finishers are weak to this or not.

4x MOMMA MARIA!

[C] If you have 2 or more other ::Music:: Characters, this gains +1000 Power.

[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, choose up to 1 ‘”Airget-Lamh” Serena’ in your Waiting Room and return it to your hand, and this gains +1000 Power for the turn.

[A] CX COMBO [(1) Discard a card from your hand to the Waiting Room] When this attacks, if “EMPRESS REBELLION” is in the Climax Zone and you have another ‘”Airget-Lamh” Serena’, you may pay cost. If so, deal 4 Damage to your Opponent. (Damage Cancel can occur)

In retrospective, this was probably one of the better options for Symphogear’s top end but no one really considered it in the earlier days. It combos with a gate and technically can have a very cheap cost to burn 4. It’s biggest issue is that you HAVE to have Serena on the field to burn so this can actually be more expensive than it looks. Essentially it means in many games you’ll be limited to being able to burn twice maximum in total…

However double “Sinon” is nothing to scoff at even today. If your opponent fails to cancel one of the burns, it’s practically over for him at this point. Another potential advantage to playing this finisher is that the card required on the field is actually an early play!

Which technically means as long as you have this early play survive and in the backrow… all you need is 7 stock! If you have some of the early plays in the waiting room then you make up for the ditch cost too! Let’s talk more about the early play below.

3x BUT OOPS THIS GIRL AIN’T PART OF THE MAIN CAST!

C] If you have 4 or more ::Music:: Characters, this gets -1 Level while in your hand.

[C] If all your Characters are ::Music::, this gains +1000 Power.

[A] When this is placed from hand to the Stage, you may put the top card of your Clock in the Waiting Room.

So immediately you should be thinking “JACKPOT” if you’re able to keep Serena alive. As long as you early played her at level 2 and she survives it means you have to play only 2 more characters for level 3- both of which have a very cheap cost to burn now if they’re the Maria finishers…

If you’re a really paranoid little bitch though, you can sometimes early play Serena, heal, then put her in the backrow. Oftentimes your opponent won’t bother anti-changing her with a backup because it’s not worth it, especially with the newer, SHITTIER ones. MORE REASON TO LOVE CHRIS ANTI-CHANGE BACKUP.

Serena by herself ain’t so bad though. Her condition as an early play is as easy as it gets and 10k is passable for power. Just make sure you have a character backup in hand if you choose to try and wall off with her.

1x ZENBU ZENBU ZENBU ZEEEENNNNNBUUUUUU

[C] Character Opposite this gets -1 Soul.

[A] [(3) Discard 2 cards from your hand to the Waiting Room] When this attacks, you may pay cost. If so, deal 3 Damage to your Opponent. (Damage Cancel can occur)

[A] ENCORE [Discard a RED card from your hand to the Waiting Room]

THAT. SEXY. BURN. 3. LOVE THAT NUMBER. The cost however can be pretty high so in some games you won’t be able to finish with this card. The advantage it brings though is that it doesn’t require a climax combo and having red encore really pressures the opponent to finish if they survive since you can easily burn with her again the following turn if you happen to survive as well.

However, there may be chances are that they might take advantage of that -1 soul from the Chris. Oftentimes when people slam a 1k1, they have a 3 soul attacker (a level 3). They can move this in front of your Chris and if need be, have a 2 soul attack for lethal! They can also do a rare front attack for 1 as well. However this won’t be an issue as long as you burn their ass for 3 and finish them before they even get a chance!

TIME FOR THE CLIMAX~

AND

HOLY SHIT. WE’RE BASICALLY DONE. AND WRITING THIS ARTICLE TURNED ME FROM THIS:

TO THIS:

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Its level 2 game might be a bit risky if you’re trying to do something like triple Maria burn but other than that, this seems like an actual viable Symphogear deck you can try out. And most importantly, FUN to play! You can pressure the opponent hard starting from level 0 and its level 1 game can be pretty anti-meta considering how JP decks require a lot of on-reverse effects in 2018. It’s top end can be quite nice… even scary as long as you don’t mess up with your resources!

But yeah. I had a blast writing this article and I hope all of you guys try out Symphogear sometime. If you’re a Symphogear user and you haven’t been getting the success you’ve wanted, NOW is the time you want to brush the dust off your cards and make this. Even if you don’t want to play the Weiss set I hope I convinced you well enough to watch the show. If I like the series THIS much to have such a good time writing it then chances are so will you!

HERE’S ONE LAST SONG TO HYPE YOU UP IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN CONVINCED YET!