With Fighters’ Collection 2015 Winter on its way to an English release in about a week, I wanted to look at the Bermuda Triangle support we’re getting in it: “Twinkle Happiness☆, Pacifica,” and “Friend of the Sun, Malucca.”
As you can see, Twinkle Happiness plays for a tempo change where the first stride has a significant effect, which in this case, is an extra critical on a minimum 25k Vanguard. We have Religious Soul Saver and Crossorigin who can do that, but only Pacifica allows you to filter your deck, removing G3s from potential draws and drive checks.
[AUTO]:When this unit is returned to your hand from (RC), if you have a vanguard with “Pacifica” in its card name, search your deck for up to one card with “Pacifica” in its card name, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck. Then, you may choose up to three cards with “Pacifica” in its card name from your hand, and reveal them. If you revealed three cards, and all the cards revealed have different card names, Counter Charge (1)/Soul Charge (1), choose up to one of your other units, and it gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
Malucca nearly guarantees a second copy of Pacifica, and while she’s at it, gives one of your units a 5K power boost. Paired with a 7k booster, it will easily make a 21k column if you have a 9k G2. It’s almost reminiscent of Duo Beast Ear Lu Lu, except it’s on-bounce rather than on-play. Once again, it’s playing to Pacifica’s strength of filtering the deck without having to have a target on the field, like Duos, by getting that G3 out of the deck.
Now, that’s good and all, but here’s where the problem lies. Twinkle Happiness must resolve itself first before Malucca, hence the check for three copies happens before Malucca can search. This means that we need another way to actually bounce Malucca during the Main Phase. Let’s look at our options.
Weddell is a fantastic starter for this purpose, and so is Akari (though she requires GB1). The ability for them to bounce a single card is exactly what we need for Malucca to do her part. There is a pretty hefty downside to both, though. The current meta has a lot of early locks, retires, and tucks. That means that they WILL be sniped, and you can’t do anything about it.
Here’s the first band-aid. For being a 7k booster, that skill is just fantastic for our purposes. She can become a 12k booster, hitting a magical 21k once she bounces Malucca.
Slaney is also a pretty good card for bouncing, and like Mona, she’s an on-call bounce. More main phase bouncing is excellent.
While that’s nice and dandy, let’s look at our usual lineups. Will we even have room for both of them?
Grade 1 Options
- Shandee: kind of required because pitching G3s is the worst thing you can ever do.
- Shizuku: free top 5 check for G3 is way too good to pass up, though it’s a bit of a gamble.
- Nina/Kura: the deck uses a bunch of counterblast, especially from Spica, Olyvia, and Twinkle Happiness herself.
Grade 2 Options
- Spica: She’s still one of the most powerful G2s we got from G-CBT01, and for good reason. An extra attack that could allow for rear guard harass is excellent.
- Sana: Standard 12k beater. Fairly replaceable considering Malucca gives power, though Sana allows for consistency, knowing you’ll always have a 12k attack without a booster.
We can only cut so much from this, and because the optimal G3 lineup is 3 of each Pacifica, that’s another one cut from the rest of the grades. It’s really hard to draft something volatile, but at the very least, Pacifica still has LB4 to fall back to.
Here’s the decklist I’ll be testing in the coming weeks.
Grade 0 – 17
1x First Lesson, Akari – the free draw is always nice, +1 with Malucca since you get a draw on top of filtering for Pacifica.
10x Crit – the deck has enough draw and filters that having a triple crit would be devastating.
2x Draw – a couple of draw triggers wouldn’t be too terrible to see.
4x Heal – because we’re not terrible Nouvelle players
Grade 1 – 14
4x Image Master, Kukuri (PG-G)
3x Talent of Perseverance, Shandee – like I said, don’t pitch G3s unless you REALLY have to, or can get 3 Pacificas back.
3x Superb New Student, Shizuku – It hurts! It hurts to have to cut down on her from 4, but it shouldn’t be too terrible.
2x Sweets Harmony, Mona – not too many of her since Slaney is helping her with this job.
2x Duo Clear Parasol, Kura / Magical Yell, Nina – SB2 CC2. Standard fare.
Grade 2 – 10
4x Friend of the Sun, Malucca – ayyy the MVP
3x Admired Sparkle, Spica – extra attacks are way too good.
3x PR♥ISM-Duo, Slaney – on-call bounce.
Grade 3 – 9
3x Top Idol, Pacifica
3x Eternal Idol, Pacifica
3x Planet Idol, Pacifica
Grade 4 – 8
4x Twinkle Happiness☆, Pacifica
4x School Etoile, Olyvia
Sakuya's Sensational Stop 