Ah yes, we are at the semi-annual strategy presentation again. As per tradition, there will be new set announcements for Weiss, which also means that it’s time to make a speculation post. This year, they have separated Vanguard to its own day, while Re:Birth and Weiss will be on their own. There isn’t a specific number of set announced ahead, so we’ll do the usual and just speculate. Last time the two of us were able to correctly guess 3 sets, can we do better this time?
The stream that you are interested in is on Day 1, on January 18th, JST. The YouTube stream can be accessed here, so just use that and see what time the stream starts for your local time zone. Keep in mind that Weiss is going first for the stream.
Already announced sets
Currently, there are two set that does not have a date:
- Assault Lily Bouquet (BP)
- The Day I became a God (TD+/BP)
Assault Lily has been announced since last year, but it still does not have a date for the BP. Even the TD is getting a re:edit version coming out in January. So this could just be due to Bushiroad waiting on the anime to finish to gauge popularity, or they just have too much stuff to work with. The Day I became a God officially does have a spring date, so it will probably come out some time in April/May, as March is already stacked with Shinymas and Slime volume 2.
Before we jump into the sets speculations, there are a few new factors that are in place this time.
Factors to consider
- Rebirth for You is still a thing. I’m not sure how well it sells, since my usual source of sales of TCG in Japan is busy promoting his own TCG, but it probably sells well enough as Amiami is always sold out of Rebirth before it even releases. Rebirth is also not limiting itself to just chibi-characters, so it is possible to take some of the sets that are meant for Weiss.
- COVID 19 is still a factor, but does not seemed to have affected releases at all for last year, unless Assault Lily BP’s delay was due to that. The only thing I can think of is that Anime were pushed down the line, which could’ve affected sets that were slated to come out soon after the anime airs/ended. With 2 sets that needs a date, this should bring us to around May, as SIFAS is slated to come out in April. We are about 2 sets behind if we compared to the same meeting last year, so I’m guessing they will announce about 7-8 sets.
Well, let’s jump to the speculations.
AnzuP: D4DJ First Mix
I know what you are thinking – D4DJ is in Rebirth already. However, so far Rebirth has only used Chibi characters and art from Groovy Mix (the mobage), which leaves D4DJ First Mix, the anime, to be completely up for grabs. D4DJ was Bushiroad’s main focus of 2020, so much that the money spent on promotions actually put them in the reds (TCG and wrestling departments were fine), so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them to continue to push that in 2021. Besides, they haven’t really pushed anything with their own IP with Weiss for a long while now. The last time it was BanG Dream! in January 2020, unless you also count Lost Decade (Bushiroad is just the Japanese Publisher here, so not really a true IP), or the premium booster for BanG Dream!, but that’s more like a collector/power-up set than anything.
Sound thought. The real question is how pushed the first set will be. As we all know from Bushiroad IP’s, the second set is where its at. But with D4DJ putting them in the red perhaps this will change? Also music trait set so like… it can’t be bad right?
AnzuP: Gochiusa BLOOM
Well, now that season 3 is complete, it’s time to put the set in. To be fair, the current cards for Gochiusa that are on the restriction list should be coming off one of these years, so it should even be less of a factor to stop them from printing an new set for it. Not like the restriction list has ever stopped them from printing new sets anyway, as this isn’t English Weiss. Gochiusa has always been popular, as it is one of the main title of Manga Time Kirara, and Bushiroad has even released the set for the movie.
Agree on both fronts, in terms of getting off the ban list and a new set. A strong base set with a solid finisher. Anything they add would only serve to boost the strength of the series in Weiss. More diversity is always nice. We haven’t had a cute girls set for a while.
AnzuP: Uma Musume Pretty Derby
Now that Bushiroad have established the connect with Cygames with the Princess Connect Re:Dive set, it wouldn’t be strange for them to also bring over the other popular IP – I mean, we always need more idol sets right? Similar to Priconne, Uma Musume also has a phone game, and season 2 is currently airing, so they can easily print like 3 sets. The slight caveat is that Uma Musume anime isn’t done in house by Cygames, and they did change anime studio from season 1 to season 2, so there are probably more hoops to jump through than Priconne. However, easily one of those sets that will get like 20 signed cards, so it will make money.
I want this to happen so badly. WILL ACCELERATE FINALLY NOT BE GARBAGE? STAY TUNED. In all honestly, it would be super cool if this turned into a weiss set.
AnzuP: Saekano Fine
Yes, Bushiroad just moved cards from Saekano to the restriction list, but that also is an non-issue for them to print new sets. Saekano is popular, it sells, and you know the fans have been waiting for a new set even if the last one pushed them to the top of the meta. Besides, it’s a easy fix – just give all characters the <fine> trait, so that the new cards won’t work with the old perfectly. Don’t worry, someone will still figure out a way to make a deck that works. Or the new set will just be fine on its own, like SAO 20th.
It’s not unheard of from them to add cards to a set that just got on the list. Fate was super recently put on and we already have Heaven’s Feel set 2. It would be interesting to see if they wanted to pull an Alicization with the traits as you’ve proposed to try to mitigate the strength from the latest set that required it to go on the ban list. This was a super contender before the latest ban list in December so I’m also so those who invested would like to see some more they can now do.
AnzuP: Kimetsu no Yaiba
I think I’ve had this on my list for the last couple articles, and it still has not happened. Maybe the real hurdle is that Bushiroad have spent too much on promoting D4DJ, and don’t have the money to pay for the collaboration. However, since the movie just became the all-time highest grossing film in Japan, and the series is still creating a social phenomenon in Japan, there really isn’t any time better to do it than this year. This would also inject so much new blood into the game, as the demographic for Kimetsu is like age 5-70. Don’t worry, if this doesn’t get announced in 2021, I will probably take it off in 2022.
If there’s ANYTHING that would just auto bump up sales. This is it. I haven’t had the pleasure of watching it yet, but I’ve heard nothing but praises. Its a phenomenon over in Japan and in the West I’m sure. This makes this IP a slam dunk should it come to Weiss. The ability to also set up multiple sets is also a thing, as we know the aired season of it did not encompass the entire story, and the latest movie as my friend has mentioned is the highest grossing film in Japan of all-time, which means it can be a set in itself. Perhaps the next coming of SAO? Who knows. Again, would love to see it happen to see how many people would just get into the game!
Ehynxs: Quintuplets Set 2
Feel like it’s a pretty easy guess to say Go-Toubun will get a second set. They just started airing another season and while the first set had a lot of cards and TD+ support for it, nothing was super slam dunk great about it. This gives Bushiroad some leeway in making more cards for it. There was a pretty big splash upon its announcement but I am unsure how well it did in sales. I know it was pretty underrepresented as well due to a bunch of pushed sets that came out soon after it (looking at you DAL and Princess Connect).
Season 2 is airing this season, so it’s definitely one of those “strike the iron while it’s hot” sets. The last set came out in August, so they could easily announce it here, or next time during Shirokuro Fes, so that the set will come out sometime in Autumn/Winter. In the middle of writing this article, there was the announcement that Weiss Schwarz, not Bushiroad or Hibiki, is the sponsor the Quintessential Season 2 Radio show, so I think that has made Quintessential season 2 to be a really likely candidate to have a set released this year. Actually the more I think about it, the more this makes sense: Quintessential Season 2 was originally supposed to come out as a Fall 2020 anime, but got pushed to this season – so obviously the set will also have to be pushed down the line…
Ehynxs: Attack on Titan: Final Season
With the final season airing and most likely wrapping up, Bushiroad has the opportunity to put 3 seasons (I think?) worth of AoT into one, or spanning multiple sets if they really want. This series needs no introduction in the world of Weiss, as it was always in contention as best deck in the west for multiple years. AoT since its adaptation to the anime series has garnered a very solid fan base, and as Bushiroad is looking to bring more and more recent and relevant sets from Japan to English, to me this would be a slam dunk something they could do to bring in more players.
Attack on Titan’s popularity might be falling over the years, but the manga is ending, and I have heard lots of buzz for the anime for final season. I think the fans have been waiting for an upgrade to their old cards, so definitely a solid addition here. I can’t remember where Weiss has the cards up to, but they definitely don’t have season 3 cards, so they could even just start with that.
Ehynxs: Fate/Grand Order: Camelot Movie Series
The Fate series has always been a solid series to get a weiss set. Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia was a recent set and though there was nothing stand out about, it gives Bushiroad a chance to give it a much needed boost. That being said the only cards that would carry over would be mainly the main protagonist and Mashu. On the concept of being easy to be brought over as well, the previous Fate/GO set is already set to come out in the west as well. All that being said I can see them not announcing it till the at least they are promoting the second half of the movie series.
I thought about this too, but I also thought that it was a bit too early for this to happen. Camelot is a great set since the lack of crossover with Babylonia will mean that the set is easier to design, since you probably can’t use like 80% of the cards from Babylonia anyway. Only thing is that movie 1 didn’t do that well in Japan, so it really depends on the performance of movie 2. I think they will probably just wait for movie 2 to come out, and then release both of them in a set. With movie 2 no delayed, it would probably have to wait for the next meeting for this to show up.
Ehynxs: A Certain Scientific Railgun T
As I mentioned last time, still a good candidate for all the previous reasons. Hoping the fans get another set as I think it’s about time.
Now that the anime is over for Railgun T, it’s probably a good time to also go in on this. I’m not sure if other card games still holds the license to Railgun as Precious Memories just printed some promos for Railgun T with their sleeves, so this might have to be pushed down the line for Weiss. Well, there’s also the Kaguya jumping ship situation, so you never know…
Ehynxs: Log Horizon: Entaku Houkai
God I just hope they get new cards. If they ever get a stand by into this set, suddenly it would be super serviceable. Suddenly the whole level 3 end game for Log Horizon would be feasable when you don’t always have to pay for all the level 3’s. Here’s hoping as I do love the series dearly.
I know nothing of Log Horizon, but I am always hoping that Bushiroad would revisit some of the older sets that could use some love. That would definitely be nice for people who bought the set back in the days because of the set.
Ehynxs: Gatari Series
As always, this is just a monogatari player hoping to get new cards. Much like when Second season came out, monogatari is long overdue for some cards. With Hanamonogatari, Tsukimonogatari, Kizumonogatari, Owarimonogatari, Koyomimonogatari, and Zoku Owarimonogatari all finished there is a very expansive pool for Bushi to pull from. Look, I don’t think I ask for too much. Even just a Power Up Set would be swell, really. If Kaguya can come from Precious Memories, the Gatari series can too.
Kaguya definitely created an interesting situation on how fast a series jumped ship, so it will be interesting to see who still holds the rights to print more sets to Gatari.
Closing Remarks
Well, that’s all for now. Obviously there are lots of possible sets that we don’t have time to cover, so it would be interesting to see what Bushiroad gives Weiss this time around.
Wild Wild Weiss 
Out of left field pick: The World Ends With You anime
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