Notes & Combos

Finally managed to luck my way to the top, this time with a completely new strat from my previous seasons: presenting Crystron! Originally crafted to help me complete the "Destroy a card" daily mission, I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually enjoyed its playstyle.

Here are some of the maybe surprising tech choices -- feel free to ask about any others in the comments:

• I think the most out of place card in this list would be Impulse. I added it as a tech against Maliss -- which it did a much better job of than the Nibiru I swapped out -- but it surprisingly came up against a Ryzeal player too (usually when they normal Ice, but sometimes on Node or Plugin). Mind the lock -- you'll probably be playing SP + Typhon + Eleskeletus + Cluster control against the weakened opponent, which was somewhat often my going 2nd game plan regardless. As a poor boi with no UR dust I only had 2x... otherwise I'd sub out 1 Lancea for it.
• Speaking of Lancea... it fluctuated between 2-3 during my climb based on how much Maliss I was going against that day. I think Master players prefer Maliss over Ryzeal?
• Horus package over Millennium because the latter pays your LP for no reason into Ryzeal's Deadnamer. Again, Duamutef because I had no UR dust for Hapi.
  • Similarly, Called and Crossy because getting your Imsety Bloss'd is kinda a big problem.
• Hagoita wasn't used against Maliss, but against Ryzeal, feels great when paired with the C. Your opponent would need to special 3 more times just to get to Deadnamer alone, which is a lot of draws.
• Typhon actually came up frequently. Importantly, it suppresses Deadnamer -- even if for only a split second before getting Plasma Hole'd or attacked, to allow Cluster to put back an Eleskeletus and pop Cross, which can be huge when it comes to locking up the game.

I... don't actually have a conclusion thought up. This season still felt pretty sacky, and I don't feel motivated to try pushing Rated. I guess I'm just happy I still have something that can sort of keep up after all this time, as bad as I am at saving for meta.

Speaking of which, I still intend to pull for Ryzeal -- the pacing and end board intrigue me, and I feel like its value will increase over time if the right pairing appears alongside it....