On the last day of July 2021, Dan’s Ranch and Strictly Broken TCG teamed up to host a tournament based on an old meta game. Specifically, Weiss Schwarz as was released and legal on July 31st 2012. The tournament was a ton of fun, and I came 4th out of about 50 participants playing a Macross Frontier deck based around Clan and Michael. The legacy format is quite different from the modern format, and I think it has a lot to offer players who didn’t play it back in 2012.
Why 2012 Weiss Specifically
Unlike modern Weiss, in which decks have many consistency tools and cost-efficient ways to do things, the 2012 format relies more on slowly ramping and fixing your hand as you go. Climax combos are weaker or cost more. Decks in this era liked to build a nice pile of stock, keep board, and then loop healing cards. Effects we take for granted like drop searchers, look at top 4 climax combos, and good brainstorms were luxuries. Thus, players had to pilot out of their hand more, which leads to more tactical thinking required from the deck pilot. Side attacking to keep field because your hand couldn’t support losing another character was also more common.
Given what was discussed above, what sets did people actually play? The consensus Best Deck in Format was Zero no Tsukaima. This deck represented a quarter of all decks played in Japanese nationals in 2012. The deck relies on throwing up a big wall at level 1 which sits at 8,000 power on the opponent’s turn due to a character that pumps 1000 power to all characters on the opponent’s turn. They can push it to 9,500 with a free 1,500 back up. They also have a character that gains 3,000 power for each climax hit on a brainstorm to punch through the opponent’s wall. Once they get to level 2, they have an easy early play healer, specific character in level, and a free-fresh card that salvages, and can change into a healer. The heal loop is on. Note that the deck doesn’t have a level one climax combo, so it relies on Comeback Triggers and not playing characters to increase hand size.
Other potent heal looping decks in the format are Madoka Magica, Disgaea, and Raildex. Madoka has access to beefy level one walls with Kyoko and Sayaka, a massive end game wall in Goddess Madoka and Homura fights on, and one of the best heal events ever printed in Sayaka’s Wish. It’s not surprising that Madoka beat out Zero no Tsukaima to win nationals in 2012[1]. Disgaea is fun heal loop, which heals with Laharal, then Laharl sends himself to memory to salvage two traited characters, often a burn one combo or other healers. Raildex also can wall up at level 1 and early play level threes via change effect. The main difference is that it has a climax combo that allows the player to burn one when it reverses the opponent for one card and one stock. It seems quaint by modern standards, but was great at the time, as you were putting both board and clock damage on a heal looping opponent while heal looping yourself.
So why did I play Macross Frontier?
Looking at the state of the meta above, I decided that if I wanted to have a chance at doing well at this tournament, I needed to be able to simultaneously deny my opponents the ability to build resources while walling early and put them on borrowed time by pushing obscene damage quickly and consistently. It turns out I had a solution in my back pocket.
Macross Frontier happens to be my favourite anime. Naturally, I’ve built and tried many builds and have a full playset at my disposal. Back around 2019, PlatPlat sent me this list because he thought it was incredibly bizarre. It played a very high zero count, no level threes, and only ran crit triggers. The climax line is a two-soul climax and a stock soul climax. Once I sat and thought about it, it clicked. The intention is to deny field at levels zero and one, so that your opponent can’t even think about bringing their level three game to fruition since they’ve expended their hand and stock playing characters every turn.
I also noticed that this deck worked well enough against the 8 standby decks that were popular at the time, like Fujumi Bunko, so I started playing the deck in the hyper consistent 2019 Weiss meta. I knew all the way ways this deck could go sideways. I also knew how to get every scrap of advantage out of this deck. This gave me an advantage over people who had just picked up the best decks for the first time.
Deck Intro, abridged
The full deck list is here. I’ll write a full list description of the list and justification for each card. For now, I’ll give the broad strokes and note my modifications.
Level 0
This deck’s level 0 is large in number and size. The intention is to start forcing your opponent to play lots of cards or opt for direct attacks to speed you to level 1 since your level 0s can be massive. Your front row has two beefy cards: Clan Stealing Roasted Pork and Mayan Island Klan. Clan gets 1000 power for each of your other rested characters, and Mayan Island Clan gets 500 power for each character your opponent plays. Both level 0s can get to 5,000 power or more.
The rest of the level 0 cards are power assists and some basic utility. Gothic Lolita Alto is a global 500 to all pilots and allows you to pay one to remove a level 0 or lower character. The deck author notes this is mostly for denying your opponent their runners, but it has niche uses as well. The Clan Kindly Watching Over 500 assist allows you to tap two characters to give something 1000 power. Extra power is super nice in this format as field denial translates directly to hand destruction, and Clan Stealing Pork likes more tapped characters. Michael Blanc both bonds and gives 1000 power to Suffering from Sadness Clan, arguably the most important card in the deck. Think of it as Kyoko from the Sayaka/Kyoko apples combo. The list rounds out with a tap self salvage brainstorm, a surprising luxury.
Level 1
As alluded to, Suffering from Sadness Clan is the most important card in the list. At one cost and 5,500 power it looks rather unimpressive. However, it has a filter combo with the two-soul climax and can change into a two-soul beat stick, Everyday Smile Clan, for two stock during encore step. If you can get two changes in during level one, your opponent will likely not be able to contest your field for the rest of the game since you will dominate the board through level 2 and likely cost them a ton of stock playing out characters or trying to recover hand if they have that sort of utility.
Note that we also run four copies of a 3,500 back up event, Nyan Nyan Ramen, to put down their attempts to scale a wall that is likely 10,500 or 11,000 at level one. Even having this card in the discard may dissuade an opponent from getting funny ideas like front attacking. Note that this is an event back-up, so you can play it on turn to pump power as well.
My list deviates from the original list here, where I replace Konning Monster with Lovely Bomber Michael. The main difference between the two is that Michael’s removal is cheaper than Konning Monster’s, and Michael is blue while the Monster is red. Another modification I made to the deck removed the need for red. Michael’s removal is also nice if I can’t get Clans out since it bottom decks wall pieces, instead of sending them back to hand, and I was already playing the Guitar Snipe climax.
Level 2 and 3
On top of Everyday Smile Clan, we include four copies of VF-25G Michael Custom. The VF-25G gives all Pilot characters 1,000 power, to make the wall even more dangerous. This gets Clan up to 12,500 power with two on field and allows her to back up to 16,000. Madoka players actually require an optimum field or the Freefresh power boost to Clan swatting down the mighty Goddess Madoka/ Homura Fights On combo. Zero no Tsukaima and Raildex struggle a lot with these numbers.
When I initially played this deck against Keeluah, he asked why I wasn’t playing level threes, and was playing a vanilla 2/2. My original answer was “If I need to heal, the game is probably over.” Thinking about it, having a way to survive the 3/6 refresh for one final push was probably a good idea. So, I added two blue healers. I don’t care about the experience effect since I play so few level two or level three cards, but it’s nice if I can get it. The healer saved my bacon in the top eight match versus Zero no Tsukaima, which ended with me at 3-6.
Match notes
The tournament was a Swiss opening round, with top cut to eight. All people who made top cut got some prizing. We ended up getting a definitive X-0 after five rounds. I went 4-1 in Swiss, winning my first three games and the final round of Swiss to qualify for top cut.
The two most common decks, by far in Swiss are consensus BDIF Zero no Tsukaima and popular Madoka. This was expected. What I loved seeing was how many weird sets came out. Multiple Melty Blood players. People playing Angel Beats, Shining Force, Guilty Crown, Nanoha, Persona, Katanagatari and a bunch of other weird stuff. There was more out of pocket stuff than meta picks. Add in the fact that a diverse set of decks did well, and the stream was easily able to showcase a large variety of sets while showing the upper end of the Swiss tourney.
Swiss Game 1 VS King of Fighters: There are two Calgary players in the tournament, PlatPlat and I, so of course we play against each other first round. PlatPlat’s deck opens poorly, while I get both front row level zeros. Other than that, I drew into two other level 0s the whole game. He was able to remove them, but I generated enough stock to get one combo off. I continue to roll throughout the game. KoF’s freefresh is neat, where he gets swap characters around. Due to a pretty poor game and my deck stabilizing, PlatPlat is only able to afford one copy of King of Fighter’s finisher Ash, which gets 1000 power for each trait on the board. I’m not able to contest Ash, just 500 out of reach due to the fact my back row Alto had the Women’s Clothing trait and Ash blocks back-ups. However, PlatPlat slammed his other characters into my meaty field, leaving him with 4 less traits on field and two open slots for extra damage. I clean up next turn. I am 1-0.
Swiss Game 2 VS Railgun: The Railgun player never really got anything going. He cancelled and checked a bunch of climaxes early. I was able to keep field since his level 0 was rather squishy and then punish him for it. I played a two-soul climax and two Suffering from Sadness Clans and stuck 10. I then got two of the Everyday Smile Clans on the field. He never really got set up after that, since his costed level 1 characters kept dying. They played one copy of a character that prevents event play at level three and dampens soul, but they didn’t have the stock to make use of its cool effects. They also crashed it into my Clan, which meant I didn’t have to deal with soul suppression either. Lucky break for me. I sent him from the beginning of level 3 to dead with more big hits. I don’t think he was able to get the Miso/Kuro Combo off more than once. I am 2-0
Swiss Game 3 VS Zero no Tsukaima: I thought ZnT was going to be the deck to beat, so I specifically teched against it by including Guitar Snipe Michael. Never used him. I intentionally froze him at 0/5 on my first level 1 turn, and I got one Everyday Smile Klan out. He had no way to put himself to level one, so I got to get a second Everyday Smile Clan out before he even had a chance to get level one walls out. I pushed him most of the way to level two on my second level 1 turn as well. They didn’t play level 1 backups and only played out one copy of the plus 1000 on the opponent’s turn assist, which allowed me to remove their 1/1 beatsticks with ease. They missed their Early Play condition, levelling a specific character, so the heal loop never started. The level 3 combo never came out, as I stuck 10 damage the turn after they changed into the red level 3. Overall, I smothered the ZnT player while pushing heavy damage. Everything was according to the deck’s prime objective. 3-0 Igor.
Swiss Game 4 VS Disgaea: Burn the tape on this one. I drew 5 playable cards all game, one of which is an Everyday Smile Clan I played from hand. I only had enough stock because I kept drawing the Guitar Snipe climax. I didn’t really get to see what the opponent’s Disgaea build did. I am now 3-1 and need to win the next match to make top cut.
Swiss Game 5 VS Shining Force: This game was streamed. That might have been a mistake on SBTCG’s part. My poor opponent’s deck bricked. I still have no idea what the deck did. I rolled and just walled him out. My level 0s lasted way longer than they should, even after a concerted attempt to remove them using a card that removes 1000 power from an opponent’s character on play. Mayan Island Clan lived into level two. I get one Everyday Smile Clan beat stick in by change and pay for two more. Drop a two-soul climax during one of my level 2 turns and get god cancelled. Stick 12 from two crit triggers to push my opponent from 2-2 to dead the next turn. Chat is popping off since not only did I deny him a level 3 game he was setting up but sticking 12 damage from a deck that features nothing but meat is somehow unsporting. My deck was also referred to as “disrespectful.” I am 4-1 and make top cut.
Top Cut
Top cut shakes out as follows: Macross Frontier, Madoka, Da Capo, Fate, Zero no Tsukaima, Disgaea, Guilty Crown, and iDOLM@STER. The first note is the diversity of sets that made top cut. Early on, it was assumed that Zero no Tsukaima would just roll this tournament, so seeing only one deck in top cut was a little surprising. I think what happened was that people herded to the consensus “good decks,” while the players who had a lot of experience with weird decks used that experience to their advantage. Three of the four top 4 decks in this tournament, Macross F, Fate, and Da Capo, were dark horse picks. The players chose Da Capo and Macross F specifically because the players like the series and the decks had good anti-meta potential. The quality of play in top cut was very good, and each of these games were hard fought and really fun.
Top cut game 1 VS Zero no Tsukaima: This game is also on stream, and I suggest you watch it. Tom, the Zero no Tsukaima player, is a very good player and this makes for a much better match. I play the only Zero no Tsukaima in top cut. Despite having both copies of his big off turn assist, he frequently had to side since I was too big on turn and always had Nyan Nyan Ramen in hand. Tom plays a climax early and triggers two more, which opens a chance for me to put him on a timer. I play a two-soul climax and run him from 0-5 to level 2. I get one of my big walls out
Tom is able to get a formidable wall up midway through level two, and has the ability to defend it. He has three of the cards that gives 1,000 power off turn, as well as the early play 3/2 healer and he just changed his free fresher into the 3/2 red. I decided that I had to leave the free fresher on field from the turn prior because I knew he could defend it with the 3,000-power back up he salvaged earlier in the game, and I didn’t have the resources to pay 3 to keep the attacking Clan at that moment in the game. On my side of the field, I have two Goth Loli Alto and the Clan back row that can pump 1,000 power.
This turn, I had the resources to make the following play to force the back up out of his hand and waste his resources: First, I used Goth Loli Alto’s ability to remove the third off turn power assist which is sitting in the front row, which decreases the power of his level three characters to 12,000, which I could surmount. I then attacked the red 3/2, which then drew out the back up. I stick the damage and pay three. The trade works out in my favor as he loses a card on field, a card in hand, and a stock while I give up four stock. I still have a decent sized hand and stock to work with. Tom is in a position where he cannot contest my board on his turn, can’t afford to get his level assists out and it probably isn’t worth using the CX combo even if it’s an option since I have a fairly beefy board and telegraphed that I had a copy of Ramen in hand. This forces him into a turn to recover resources, including crashing a costed character.
Turned out that not clocking at 2-6 saved my bacon. I didn’t need to since I had all I needed to throw the last of the fire blanket down. Last turn I got a timely cancel that kept me alive, and I swung cheap one soul characters for game. Top 4.
Top cut game 2 Vs Da Capo: Funnily enough, I was originally supposed to play this player in the first round of top cut, but a shuffle due to a drop led me to play Tom and ZnT instead. Man, I’m glad I that happened. This deck is my antithesis. Da Capo in yellow has a climax combo that allows them to check the top card of their deck, and if a Student Council character is revealed, they can bounce a character back to my hand. Since it so easily bounces characters, it wears my stock harder than what is sustainable for my build. I make killing this card a priority, but my opponent pays three to keep it since it’s so destructive to my game plan. At least opening well and changing in two copiers of the Clan beat stick meant I could keep some damage up since he could only reliably remove one of my beat sticks at a time. “Level 3 close game.” This player ends up winning the whole tournament. My opponent goes to the final, and I head for the 3rd place playoff
Top Cut Game 3 VS Madoka: I get a decent start and manage to be big enough at level 0 to be annoying, but still lose cards. However, I can change from Suffering from Sadness Clan to Everyday Smile Clan twice in my first level one turn, which made the Apple combo untenable. My opponent basically used both pieces as cheap attack fodder and used the Level 1 Sayaka as a target for Sayaka’s Wish. I can’t compete with the Madokami combo, but at least I had generated enough stock while bullying Apples that I could pay three to keep my Everyday Smile Clans on field. I also had enough power with Ramen backups that I could almost contest, which forced the Madoka player to expend more resources than he would have liked. May have saved myself a 4th Sayaka’s wish coming out, but he was still able to drop three of them. That was the difference between my win and his. I end up placing fourth and won $30 store credit at SB TCG. Another well-played game.
Overall Tournament Thoughts
I had a ton of fun playing this tournament. Hats off to everyone involved in organizing the tournament. The whole thing ran incredibly smoothly for an event with almost fifty people playing. Playing on stream was not an issue and the commentators were delightful to listen to when I went back to rewatch the tape to verify my notes. Online tournaments hosted by Dan’s Ranch tend to be this smooth, and I hope they continue to run online ones like these into the future.
Many people were skeptical of the 2012 legacy format. The fear was that it would be entirely centralized into one or two decks. Given what I saw today, I believe that isn’t the case. Top 8 was organically diverse. The perceived best deck in format didn’t even crack top 4. This format is very fun, and quite different from modern Weiss. It feels like it rewards good piloting and punishes poor risk management more than the modern game where many decks stabilize easily. I think I’ll try to get more people to play it casually.
Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut. I remember for a few weeks before the tournament, I was waffling between going with a Macross F deck that I thought could actually work, playing waifu, playing Haruhi, or playing Disgaea. Clearly, sticking to my fandom guns was the right choice. Also, playing a 2012 deck in the 2020 world is now worth it. It really made me appreciate what fighting for advantage in every situation looks like. Finally, some personal acknowledgments. I want to thank my wife first and foremost. She puts up with my Macross Frontier weeabooism to the point of getting into it herself, and even let me shirk some of the cleaning to play in the tournament. I also want to thank PlatPlat and Keeluah for their input on deck tech. I think it made the list much better. Additionally, want to thank my buddy Alex for finding a complete Macross F playset for sale in 2016, allowing me to test all these funky Macross F builds I could come up with.
[1] The date for the legacy format cuts off the iDOLM@STER anime set by four days, which was an incredibly potent set at the time. I think this was intentional.
Wild Wild Weiss 
One thought on “Dan’s Ranch and Strictly Broken TCG 2012 Legacy Tournament Report: Macross Frontier finishes 4th”