Herminia (D-LBT03)

EDIT: Updated to reinclude commentary which got wiped when I last edited this.

Introduction

Herminia is an offensive turn 3 combo deck that focuses on the "Powerful" keyword, which triggers when you have no cards in Soul. Thanks to the special ability of her Ride Line, she is not required to discard for her Rides, giving her considerable early game resourcing and flexibility. She matches extremely well into defensive decks, and has little issue brute forcing her way through even large shield values.

After attacking, Herminia is able to discard a card and restand a rear-guard, and in addition, your next CB is discounted by 1 for the turn. This is essentially the crux of the deck, and her strategy revolved around abusing this to its fullest.

Gameplay

The main linchpin of this deck is Relie, who is simultaneously your win condition and one of your consistency cards. She provides an SB1, which allows you to meet the condition for all your Powerful effects. In addition, her own Powerful effect allows you to CB2 to boost her power by 10,000 for the whole turn, and drive check during that battle. You will often be able to resolve this effect repeatedly during the same turn, up to 3 times depending on the circumstances, which can result in scenarios where your entire front row is drive checking and being power amped.

One of the key combos of this deck involves Relie and Museta. Attacking with Relie first allows her to apply her effects. Herminia attacks next, and then applies her effect to restand Relie and discount your next CB. Museta then resolves, CC1. As Relie is now only a cost of CB1, you may attack with her again and stack the effect, meaning your 2nd Relie attack will have at minimum 32000 power and a drive check on turn 3, in addition to the previous 3 drive checks.

Signe makes this combo stronger, allowing you to clear onboxious power thresholds early. Signe + Relie immediately clears 28000 or 33000 (if applying Signe's power amp effect) and has a drive check, meaning single trigger guards are not able to guard this attack. An early Critical or Front Trigger her can be immediately game winning. Signe restands, and factoring in Museta's 2000 boost, the second attack will come in at 40,000 or 45,000 and will drive check again, and that's the low-ball assuming you hit 0 triggers on your 3 previous drive checks for the turn.

Museta also makes Herminia more obnoxious to guard, since her attack will come in at 23,000, meaning 20,000 blocks are generally not safe. This will often force out PGs, and you can dump all trigger effects onto Relie who will restand.

Terues and Varii put additional pressure on your opponents' guards, as failure to guard will result in additional draws or power. Terues demanding a guard when Relie necessitates the use of multiple triggers or PGs to block can be surprisingly oppressive.

Persona turns are especially devastating for the extra power. 38000 and then 50,000 power Relie attacks are usually sufficient for overwhelming even the likes of Eva.

One of the most essential things to do when playing this deck is damage control your opponent. In order to both use Relie repeatedly and satisfy Herminia's conditions, it will be important to make sure you receive damage in quantities that let your hand do what it needs to do, and no more. A standard Relie+Museta turn requires CB2, but taking 4+ damage will render your persona turn unable to use Relie again unless you hit a heal. Keeping yourself at 3 or less, however, will allow you to perform the effects again by taking 2 more damage.

Your opponent failing to damage you is generally a non-issue as Herminia's discount effect can be abused for things like CB0 Terues, which will be pressuring the opponent.

Deck Options

Most of the deck is absolutely locked in. 4 copies of each Herminia, Relie, Nala, Signe, and Museta are absolutely required to play this deck.

Terues and Varii are currently flexible spots.

Faithful Eye, Liliana can be used in place of Terues. They are roughly as good as each other. Liliana works better in simplified game states or in topdeck wars as she works solo, whereas Terues works better in all other instances. People tend to no-guard Liliana and conserve their shield for the more threatening Relie and Herminia. Terues punishes this, hence using her over Liliana.

Varii can be another Grade 1, such as more copies of Leranje or Beware of Overeating! Eileen. Eileen is fantastic in general, but she is very awkward in this Herminia due to the attack sequencing and the fact that you will often have nowhere to put Eileen as you will be prioritising Signe and Museta, and Nala will generall call Leranje to her own column. Vibrant Symphony is potentially an option too for damage control.

Best Moment, Strasse will replace Varii and probably a copy of Nala or Tereus when she comes out. She offers even more advantage generation that is free, improves consistency, and is also a 10,000 boost. She will likely be a mandatory 3 or 4 of.

Elementaria Sanctitude can obviously be used and does not conflict. Make the call based on the decks you're actually playing against. It's not so hot vs. lots of Eva/Gravidia etc., but will help vs. Jet and such.

Gratias Gradale is cool. Run it if you want more T4 pressure. It has the added benefit of not increasing soul, which is nifty.

Trigger wise:

Do not run effect crits as they turn off all your effects (lol). Also being 5000 power comes up sometimes.

High crit is good in general, but it's required here as it is both what wins the games and also demands the response.

Fronts are very high value here because of how the drive check and attack sequencing works (Relie>Herminia>Relie>RG). The high shield value is also very helpful for controlling damage. It also simplifies decision making, especially when checking it off of Herminia's first check. It also lets you brute force your way through defensive triggers.

Draws are terrible here. You have so much advantage you just don't need them, and they're worse in decks that have to prevent damage taken like this one.

Effect heals are only okay here. Early rushes are your biggest concern, so default heals are generally better for the early shield value. Use them if you find you need them.

Lyrical OT is fantastic here as your back row restands too.

Match-Ups


Defensive decks have a bad time, especially ones that don't come online very early. Turn 4 decks can also struggle as you come online much earlier than them. Most Grade 4 decks like Bastion or Magnolia usually die before they can pop off, or find themselves with so few resources as to not really be very threatening.

Jet match-up frankly leaves a bit to be desired, but it's manageable. You have the advantage of potentially being able to close the game before it ramps out of control, at least. Grade 2 gaming isn't viable here as you need to have Herminia for most of your effects.

Gravidia is Gravidia, but at least you're not explicitly weak to it like a lot of Lyrical decks. The lack of shield in that deck helps you out, and board control isn't as threatening as it could be since the deck can rebuild or commit less if it needs to. The worst part of this match-up is controlling your own damage is basically impossible because you have to fear Crit 4 nonsense.

Baromagnes might be unwinnable LOL. Either call nothing all game or YOLO it and hope for the best (or both).

Rush decks are brutal, and will probably be harder to win than anything other than Baro.

Nobody in my area is playing Overlord or Luticia, so can't comment on those match-ups.

Prison might be auto-win. They basically fulfil your conditions for you. The only risk is if the game really drags on, but your early turns are going to be amped up by the fact that you are guaranteed to meet your Powerful condition. It seems like it should be bad on paper, but in practice the match up actually works out favourably.

Anything off-meta this deck can consistently beat. It's quite strong. Even the current top meta is fairly serviceable, although Jet is gonna Jet.

Closing Thoughts

Deck is actually super good for how budget-friendly it is. In terms of Lyrical decks, I rate it below Luticia and Kairi, and slightly below Fortia, but above the rest. It's much more consistent and with fewer exploitable weaknesses than Loronerol or Clarissa. I don't think Strasse will push this deck into the meta, but it will definitely help close the gap.