How to keep Weiss interesting when new sets aren’t appealing to you

So, you’ve been playing the same meta-deck at weeklies for a while, and the results are still pretty good. However, at the same time, there’s new stuff on the horizon and you’ve been playing this deck a lot too. It’s getting a bit stale. Looking over the new release schedule you notice that there are, well, no series that excite you. As someone who still holds hope for their Macross Delta set, I feel this a lot. However, there are a ton of ways to keep the game fresh. Not all of them require buying a ton of new cards either. Let’s look through a handful of them.

Play Waifu or a Focus on Favourites

Chances are, one of the things that got you into Weiss in the first place is that your favourite series is in the game. If your favourite character(s) feature heavily in the set, you might be able to build a deck entirely around them! This is a common deck build concept for players approaching the game non-seriously, and entire rule sets have grown up around the concept. That is a different topic, but in brief playing waifu introduces a fun project for a meta player looking to try something new.

Playing waifu greatly restricts the number of cards in the set you can play. This creates a need to find something that works in a limited card profile. For instance, a Ranka Lee waifu deck does not have access to Macross F’s lone brainstorm. Playing Love Live Sunshine waifu can be downright dysfunctional if you aren’t careful given the set’s focus on subunits instead of individual idols. Some popular builds that rely on multiple characters, like the Soundless Voice wall from yesteryear go out the window entirely. However, doing right by your waifu and finding something that works well in a modern format is incredibly satisfying. A good player can even find a way to succeed when the stakes are high with a deck restricted to a favourite or favourite few characters.

Benefits to waifu

Challenges your deck design skills.
Do it for your waifu

Cons to Waifu

Absolute suffering if your deck doesn’t work

Play a deck with an odd playstyle

Tons of sets have some straight up weird cards in them which can make for a fun time trying out something weird. For instance, did you know that Lucky Star has a card that can top deck level twos with a Start-Up ability? It’s not good, but it’s funky. Add that to the Russian Roulette event and stock gen when you play Sweets trait characters and you have the base for something stupid. Another fun thing to do could be soul pumping. If Kemono Friends is you flavour, Tsuchinoko has you covered. Navy assault dolphins? Navy Assault Dolphins. Swarm decks are also an option if you are feeling Zerg rushy.

There are a ton of different ways to win a game of Weiss. What’s awesome about this way of spicing up your Weiss experience is that it gets you looking through your Weiss collection to find weird gems you missed. It’s also a ton of fun brainstorming, theory crafting, and bs-ing with your Weiss buddies about whatever half baked idea that you just came up with. Like that Lucky Star one, it’s probably bad. There is never a bad time to let those creative juices flow, so see what weird deck you can cobble together. Who knows, it might even work!

Benefits to weird decks

Get to look at weird cards that exist.
Its super satisfying when you find a weird deck that works.

Cons to weird decks

Its disappointing when it doesn’t work.
There is a lot of sifting to do to find stuff that is both weird and good, not just underpowered jank. For example, I found a different weird card in Lucky Star that can swap a character with a specific trait from clock to field. I thought that was super cool, but I had overlooked that it was restricted to level one or lower. Oh well, can’t win em all.

Buy into a set you missed

I know, I know, I said we weren’t going to spend a bunch of money. If you want something truly new to you, sometimes you got to lighten up that wallet a bit. Both the English and Japanese edition of the game have a long backlog, and you’d be surprised what’s in there. For instance, I completely forgot that Psycho-Pass and Canaan had extra sets. Playing old sets comes with its own host of issues due to power creep but playing sets from shows you like is fun even if they are underpowered. How do you think I can keep bringing out Macross Frontier if I didn’t enjoy the flavor the set brings?

A good Weiss set is not only interesting from a Weiss mechanics perspective but has flavour in spades to match the original property. Weiss has a ton of mega flavourful sets. In no particular order:

Jojo has cards that operate like stands.
Accel World goes zoom-zoom. The Accelerate mechanic was made for this set after all.
Guilty Crown sucks just like the show.
Cards in Puyo interact with the Puyos themselves.
Vivid Red Operation focuses on the girls lending each other their power. You send the Akane of the right colour and the other character to memory, and you bring out the named Vivid Colour.
Star Wars lets you force pull characters.

There are a ton of fun sets out there, and some of the older sets can be bought for a relatively cheap price on your Weiss purchasing site of choice. Although some are harder to find than others. If you have some money that you want to spend on Weiss, maybe try an old set.

Benefits to playing a set you missed

Some sets that you missed have mechanics that are fun and different.
Some of these sets can be bought affordably.
Its fun to play flavourful cards from your favourite series, even if they are no longer good.

Cons to sets you missed

Some of these sets have been powercrept pretty hard.
Some sets were limited run and may be hard to find.
It costs money.

Conclusion

Even if new sets aren’t your thing, there are a lot of ways you can spruce up your Weiss playing experience. You can try an odd deck, play waifu, or try out a set you missed, among others. Give one of these a shot and shake up your Weiss experience!