Sugar, Spice, & Everything Nice:

 Genesis Witches

A decklist and theory guide

*J-Pop Intensifies* 

Grade 0 - 17

Fetter of Leather, Leyding x1

Witch's Familiar, Shiroma (Crit) x4

Lemon Witch, Limonccino (Crit) x4

Dreaming Dragon (Stand) x4

Witch of Big Pots, Laurier (Heal) x4

Grade 1 - 14

Witch of Quill Pen, Onion x4

Witch of Melons, Thyme x4

Witch of Strawberries, Framboise x4

Mythic Beast, Skoll x2

Grade 2 - 11

Black Snake Witch, Chicory x3

Witch of Golden Eagles, Jasmine x4

Witch of White Rabbits, Cardamom x4

Grade 3 - 8

Witch of Eagles, Fennel

White Snake Witch, Mint x4

Grade 4 - 8

Rain Element, Madew x1

Great Angel, Doombrace x3

Witch Queen of Holy Water, Clove x4

Grade 0 Overview

Fairly standard spread, crits help us to end games faster, and with the restacking capabilities of our Legion Vanguard, makes our drive checks likely to show something nasty. 

You might not find me so cute when you see me as often as you're likely to see me.

Shiroma works well, allowing us to selectively soulcharge something from top three- Cardomom/Onion/Camomile/Melissa all excellent choices - then drop the other two to drop, letting us legion faster with no need for any of THOSE turns where we over extend simply to kick our deck off. In tandem with Thyme, who has a largely similar effect, the deck thinning allows us to reach our dangerous state of "I'm all crits and PGs, baby."

Dreaming Dragon is a recent addition for me, it's currently in testing. Stands wouldn't usually work- but with Black Snake Witch being an inherently good target, and with Clove making all witches extra powerful, you can really stand to extend those pressure turns. It is Dreaming Dragon's effect you'll want, however. 

Decking out in Genesis is a very real threat, and a misplay or fighting a stalling deck can spell disaster. Dreaming will remedy this- he'll stop your deck from being the wonderland of crits it should be, but he'll also keep you in the game. So far, he's testing well, doing excellently against decks that can and will stall you out until you have nothing left.

Leyding, our starter, offers a rearguard to field, and then we can re-legion him back for recycled use. Testing will show if Prayer Angel is required for Clove plays, but out of the two, I prefer Leyding.

Grade 1 Summary

Onion is Melissa with clogs on. +2k on call if Witch Vanguard, a la Cardomom. She's a grey wollen jumper of sorts- practical, but fairly vanilla- worth running, naturally, as she's the literal upgrade to poor Melissa, and her +2k makes her a 21k column naturally on call with a Black Snake Witch or with an active Jasmine. Her "9k for a turn" also means she could be called front row if RG are reaaaally tight. Just something to think about.

I don't think Thyme herself even knows what is going on here. Very Melon indeed.

Thyme works like Shiroma, although she doesn't restack herself and replace herself with a card. She functions similarly- stack that soul, deck thin like crazy, so you can make the deck a manipulated pile of crits.

Stride fodder is fairly standard- you'll use Mint often too- Fennel is golddust and must be rode often to loop the deck, but having more opportunity to go into Clove is a good idea.

Grade 2 Summary

Jasmine can be 12k if you want, and she can give +3 soul for 1CB if you're super desperate. She's handy. Black Snake Witch is Mint's legion mate, and her 12k attacking status makes her good for rushing, not much else to say here, besides her easy 19k/21k with your G1s makes her real nice for RG sniping.

Finding it hard to be funny about this card. Think she's got rabies THERE I DID IT

Cardie is your friend. When you soulblast, she'll make herself appear for a counterblast.The population is super handy for our propensity for beating on down, and being 11k for a turn doesn't hurt. She's also handy because if your opponent is targeting your front row rearguards (and they should, because Genesis Witch will beat them down if they don't start to get rid of the powerhouses) she'll replace those with a wiggle of her bunny ears.

There's also the opportunity of getting off extra attacks- Mint, Fennel and Clove activate on/after their attack, so if you really need to push, and don't mind calling over your other rearguards- get yourself an extra lane- Onion and Cardamon are 20k altogether before triggers. Not to be sneezed at.

Grade 3 Summary

Fairly standard line-up. Fennel is the ideal ride, and should be looped endlessly to get that crazy deck you crave. Mint is less optimal now with the arrival of Clove, but if you cannot stride for whatever reason, and you've had to ride Mint- she still keeps up the pressure if you have to use her effect, and she can get you those extra soul charges if you need them.

Fennel Forever. You'll see her over and over again.

Grade 4 Summary

Doom Brace is fun, for starters- if you can't afford the 6 soul cost of Clove, are not using an active Fennel, and want to keep up the tempo while digging for that next Fennel ride, Doom Brace is your guy. His effect can work out as effectively costless, and he can even work as an interesting first stride, to call a few Cardamon and Onion from soul if you've accrued a few and your hand is less than stellar. In short, he's consistent and good.

Madew is a tech option I'm trying, as an emergency precaution. Want to ride Fennel again? Are all your Fennels either in drop, soul or damage? Is at least one in drop? Stride Madew over your current Jasmine Legion Mate, get that Fennel back, and carry on looping- and dig for one extra trigger check, too. Might as well get some crits going on, too. So far, I've not needed Madew, but with the options for our Extra Deck so limited (although still explosive) she can make a cameo appearance quite easily.

Clove hitting the town after getting her highlights done.

Clove, our new ace, is  powerhouse. For 6 soul, she hands out 5k boosts like candy and throws a crit at the opponent, attacking for 31 unboosted. And 43 boosted. 45 if it's a recently called Onion. Her pressure is amazing, and highly affordable. I'm going to test her at 4,but I'm sure that I'm being a little over-eager there. It's unlikely that I'll be able to stride her 4 times in one game, even with Dreaming Dragon replenishing my deck.

- - - 

In short, the Genesis Witch deck may not have been heralded as loudly as Mimi and Sinclair, but they are far from bad- they're a highly consistent, hard hitting crit advantage machine, hiding under the guise of beautifully adorable witches. 

They're going to be fun.

mawile  x

Scarlet Starlets: The Red Witches of Oracle Think Tank

A decklist and theory guide

When it comes to aging well, CoCo could school Loreal. 

Grade 0 - 17

Little Witch, LuLu x1

Nebula Witch, NoNo (Stand) x4

Psychic Bird (Critical) x4

Vanilla Critical x4

Lozenge Magus (Heal) x4

Grade 1 - 14

Emerald Witch, LaLa x2

Divne Sword, Ame-No-Murakumo (Stride Fodder) x4

Arbitrator, Ame-No-Sagiri (PGG) x4

8k Vanilla x4

Grade 2 - 11

Silent Tom x4

Promise Daughter x4

10k Vanilla x3

Grade 3 - 8

Scarlet Witch, CoCo x4

Rose Red Witch, CuCu x4

Grade 4 - 8

Floral Witch Master, MiMi x4

Rain Elemental, Madew x1

Soaring Auspicious Beast, Kirin x1

Sword Deity of the Thunderbreak, Takemikazuchi x2

Let's dive in.

Grade 0 Summary

Everything here is fairly orthodox- crits, LuLu for a draw upon hitting Grade 3, but one card will stand out.

NoNo apparently said "no no" to school, with those spelling errors in her flavor text.

A STAND trigger? In MY Oracle Think Tank?

Call me a heathen, but as we all know, cards with the Witch name help our super handy new stride, and while ideally,you're NOT going to want to send a 10k guard, it can be worth it for the pressure it puts your opponent under. 

Also, her effect is handy for loosing stray cards in soul- want to send more triggers back to deck? Want to make that soul lower so you can reride more Rose and Scarlet Witches to draw more? Want to do all this WHILE also drawing? NoNo's your gal! Hitting her as a trigger works, too, since with the lower handcount your opponent should have, restanding will chip away at that hand- plus, once you get them to 5 damage, Crits will become sadly moot.

Grade 1 Summary

8k Vanillas for Tom, check. PGG to unflip for near constant Scarlet and Rose abuse, check. Ame-no-Murakumo for reliable stride fodder, check. Emerald Witch, LuLu....uh.

That awkward moment when you pick up the fugly-ass wand and style it out because all the cool witches are watching.

Emerald Witch, LaLa. RRR for reasons unknown to anybody. If you can get her, she's a nice addition for MiMi fodder. You'll never use her effect, though. You just don't need to. Ever. Call her only in desperation.

Grade 2 Summary

Yep, four Silent Toms. Unoriginal, I know, but he's still as good as ever, and with Mimi's potential for hand eating, he makes your opponent dance even more to the tune of his....gun. Also, he'll attract all the Rearguard hate, so be sure to stockpile him.

Finger-blasting fun with Tom. Say that 5 times fast. Congratulations, you're now my friend.

Promise Daughter is a test unit for now- she's vastly superior to Tankman Mode Beamcannon, her G-Protege, in terms of effect, viability, and even art - sorry, I'm not into mechas.

But, testing will show how likely this deck is to deck-out, even with Lozenges. If it draws too easy, then Tankman will be the way to go. If not, Promise Daughter will turn that extra hand into easy 21k columns aimed wherever you damn well please. Personally, I like to make my opponent pay extra guard to keep those key Rearguards, and with MiMi and Tom keeping their hand low, Promise may well be a retire unit.

10k vanillas offer early guard against rush, simple. Also, not many other options.

Grade 3 Summary

Scarlet Witch, CoCo is handy as always- the 3 card draw on turn three in tandem with Little Witch, LuLu is extremely handy, and challenges those hoping to Grade 2 stall to out draw her. Then, she's eligible for Madew, which is a handy first stride if you don't have enough witches in hand/want your fodder back immediately.

This whole event is really fun until one of those bunnies lands on your head. Then it's all "lawsuits this" and "lawsuits that".

" [AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), if you have a vanguard with "Witch" in its card name, and the number of cards in your soul is one or less, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw two cards, choose a card from your hand, and discard it. "

Handy, huh? 11k to sit on for lategame, and easy selective draw for 1CB. Calling extra copies of her can be problematic, since you may want to discard her for MiMi, but honestly, she's great support. Super handy, and in tandem with CoCo, gives you that hand you crave, digging for the fodder you want and the Toms you want to crush with.

Grade 4 Summary

Soaring may find itself out of a place soon, depending on how well Madew performs. MiMi at 4 is near staple- you may not pull her off that many times, but she DOES drive the deck, and striding her as often as possible is a definite plus. If in desperation, Thunder Deity makes a nice addition to your hand, should you need it.

We've all had that day where we forget to put on pants and levitate in midair. Let's all just not look, okay?

MiMi drives the deck. Her effect is potent pressure, forcing damage early game, and forcing a loss in advantage late game. Nobody likes to discard cards. Ever. Not without them doing something first, or the process being worthwhile. It gives your opponent a painful dilemma- ditch the Grade 3s without guarding potential, and give up stride fodder/PG fodder/future game options, or discard Grade 1s and 2s, future Rearguard options?

Add Tom into the mix and things get worse. Will they ditch grade 0's, needing the other units for Tom's attack, losing a potential 20k guard from hand?

Worst case scenario here, you're down 1 card, and they're down their previous turn's drive check.

When dealing damage, MiMi thankfully ignores trigger effects, pushing the opponent closer to defeat, heightening Tom and Promise's pressuring capabilities. They either discard those cards to avoid the damage, or take the damage and spend cards to guard further damage.

In short, the deck looks to be pretty fun. Testing will show how well it works, but for now, let's just admire the Red Witches.

mawile x

New Spoiler Card Review:

Witch Queen of Transfiguration, Sinclair

Omigod omigod it's real it's real omigod omigod

Somewhere, Stil Vampir is sobbing gently in the fetal position.

A recent reveal in the Fighters Collection Winter 2015 set has in fact unveiled a Shadow Paladin Witch Stride, something I've been wanting for a WHILE, and boy, is she worth it. Firstly, we'll dissect the effect, then I'll add my opinion on how this will change the deck.

[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[ACT](VC)1/Turn:[Counter Blast (1)] If you have a heart card with "Witch" in its card name, and the number of your opponent's grade 0 rear-guards is two or more, your opponent reveals ten cards from the top of his or her deck, chooses a grade 0 card from among them, rides it, shuffles his or her deck, until end of turn, that unit gets "[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] At the beginning of the guard step of the battle that this unit was attacked, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose any number of cards from your hand, call them (GC) as [Rest]." and "[AUTO](VC):At the end of your opponent's turn, choose up to one card from your soul, and ride it.".

Now, if we dissect this in pieces, beginning with the basics- Witch heart is required, which works fine for us, and the opponent will need to control 2 or more Grade 0 units. Without Fianna on the VG circle for a turn, this is tougher, but not impossible- and it adds to the opponent's list of worries. 

Now, they know this card exists, and they know Diablo exists, and they know that you have access to both. The threat of Diablo will make them call units, so they can still guard, which gives you rearguards to Hex with Fianna, Adora, Dana and Deirdre, while the threat of Sinclair will make them replace those Grade 0's as soon as humanly possible, minusing themselves and making Diablo hurt more. As you can tell, it's a big wheel of variables and worry and YOU'RE the one spinning it.

So, if they're silly enough to leave 1 or 2 Grade 0 rearguards, with a Dana or Deirdre in hand, Striding Sinclair becomes quite the option. For a counterblast, you'll make them ride a G0 from the top 10 cards of their deck- but it's okay, they aren't getting completely pseudo-Gloried. They can still guard the vanguard any way they want to...by paying a counterblast for the privilege.

In a game where in most decks, counterblasts equal direct advantage, pushing your opponent to use them to do something as essential as guarding is like disruption on steroids for SP Witches. And that's just wonderful, really. A cherry on top is that your opponent's Vanguard will be on 5k at most, which, if you're hitting or 16k+ columns (which you SHOULD) all rearguard attacks will require 15k shield at least- and if they want to use any grade other than Zero...that'll be a Counterblast, please.

At the end of the turn, they can re-ride a Vanguard from their soul- in some strange and situational scenarios, they can work this to their advantage- but in any properly planned Sinclair turn, this shouldn't matter too much, as they should be considerably softened up, or even out of the game entirely. In the rare scenario where re-riding their vanguard would plus hugely for them, simply use your common sense and judgement, and either go through with it if you think it will spell the end, or just don't stride Sinclair. She doesn't mind, she'll help you mess people up another time.

Changes to the Deck

Now, this is all my own theorycrafting here, but I've been playing Witches a while- so I feel like I may have some valid points. All things discussed here will need proper testing before we know for certain if they're right.

We're now more counterblast-heavy than we've ever been.

Fianna, Diablo, Sinclair and later on, Adora all  need counterblasts to get their effects off. This applies most to Fianna- the double Hex is quite effective, and done on a regular, staggered on a once per turn basis, will really set up for Sinclair, as most opponents will find it hard to keep replacing the Rearguards they've lost, and the loss of triggers from their deck, 2 at a time, is quietly devastating.

In a match against a Granblue player not so long ago, with his milling, and my Fianna effects, I managed to make him lose all of his trigger units from his main deck. It can happen, and while it's not something you should aim for by any means, it's still worth your time to grind those triggers out. Just think, the less Grade 0's they draw/check, the more Counterblast they will need to pay with Sinclair to guard, and the more disruption you'll have spread.

To mitigate this, Shadow Paladin has some counterchargers we can use. In English, I'm currently running 3 Adra, whom functions as an impressive pressure unit- opponents generally know WHAT that countercharge and soulcharge will be doing, so they will guard her. Witch of Goats, Medb, is also an option, but calling a G0 Stand Trigger for a countercharge and soulcharge is getting more difficult these days- not only is a Stand Trigger difficult to run (Stands only being really worth it on Rias or Sinclair turns) but giving up a 10k shield for a 4k Rearguard that then stays on the field is NOT worth it.

And then, I personally will be defecting to Karma Collector. While Nemain has the name (which only really matters for Adora especial counterblasts and dumping for Kuroma/Rias/Securna, but it's not as if you'd drop a PG for those), Karma gives us the countercharge we need. Nemain's draw and drop is cute, and sometimes hits gold, but in dire straits, it's usually a one card mill, and set up for the Legion turn is no longer really a valid reason, when you can easily stride before Legion (usually Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter, or Aurageyser if you're nasty).

With Adra and Karma, you should be set for some nice countercharging- 2 gets you a Fianna go, 1 gets you to have fun with either Diablo or Sinclair.

Dana and Deirdre are staple at 4 now more than ever.

Speaks for itself really, Sinclair turns can come about now and then if your opponent can't/won't rid themselves of the units Fianna gave them, but savvy players will know to get rid of as many as possible- if they leave one, or none, however, Sinclair is still possible thanks to Dana and Deirdre. Call them as a column and you've got a Sinclair turn.

Although, careful not to hold too tightly onto them in your hand- sometimes, to keep up the tempo, you'll need to call Deirdre or even Dana just to remain offensive enough so that Sinclair/Diablo will be offensive pushes and not just damage turns- it's okay if sometimes you can't make Deirdre or Dana activate their effects. Plan ahead as best you can.

= = = 

To summarize, waking up this morning and seeing this card announced honestly made my day. It's diabolically cruel, and fits Witches like a glove. I'm happy.

mawile  x