This set review contains spoilers for Macross Delta. Either go watch the show and come back or skip over the sections marked with spoiler warning tags
Unfortunately, there are no English sites that have translations for Macross Delta that allow links to point to specific cards. In the interim, I have linked to the card on the Japanese card list. Feel free to use the Weiss Teatime translation list in combination with the official card list as a translation source. I will describe the key effects in the body of the text. Once English translations are available, I will update this article accordingly.
Thirteen years after the release of the Macross Frontier Weiss Schwarz set, and two years after Zettai Live!!!!!! and Macross F Labyrinth of Time hit theaters, we finally have the Macross Delta Weiss Schwarz set. This premium does an impressive job to cover key moments from 26 anime episodes and two movies in just sixty beautiful cards. But should competitive Weiss players hop in the cockpit and pilot Macross Delta? Absolutely. It’s core Link mechanic plays like no other deck I have ever played. A fresh style that stays truthful to the Delta ethos that is strong enough to play competitively.
Set Aesthetics
Before we touch on how the cards play, I want to talk about just how gorgeous these cards are. There are 63 unique cards, and each card has at least one alternate version. From Hayate and Freya’s introduction in the first episode of Delta TV, Passionate Walkure’s movie poster, Zettai Live’s opening concert, through to Zettai Live’s climactic ending, this set manages to cover almost the entirety of Macross Delta in 63 cards. The set is only missing a few characters from Delta Flight and the Macross Elysion crew. They also managed to create cards depicting costumes from all of Delta.
The climaxes have anywhere from two to five versions. While this seems like overkill, it helps chronicle Macross Delta in loving detail. For songs performed by the whole unit, each climax art depicts a different idol singing the song. My personal favourites are [spoiler warning]Axia and [spoiler warning]Alive. Both climaxes depict pivotal moments in the show, and each art depicts the core of what each scene means to Macross Fans.
Axia is an extraordinary example of Weiss aesthetics and flavour. Both versions of the Axia climax depict a key moment of the Kaname/Messer relationship. Adding on to the art, the Climax combos attached to Axia represent the scene perfectly [spoiler warning] with Kaname summoning Messer and Messer going to memory after defeating his foe. The set just perfectly nails flavour. The set creators truly understood Macross Fans.
The set creators also truly understand collectors. The foil version of every card looks gorgeous. On top of fantastic art, the foiling on each card is incredibly detailed. Most cards have unique foil patterns that enhance the overall image by accentuating key details and adding subtle detail to the background. I noticed this most in the witch outfit Reina[1] and the Axia climax combo. Witch Reina uses foiling to add highlights to the background that make the white and green witch outfit really pop. Axia, on the other hand, uses foiling to make the night sky look deeper and drawing you into that tender moment between Kaname and Messer. The foil version of Alive is likewise stunning in its artwork and use of foiling to draw your eye to Walkure.
Some English collectors bristled at the fact that the signatures were from the characters and not the voice actresses. However, Walkure have great signatures and Japanese fans don’t seem to mind. Players are willing to pay a premium for the signed cards and several signed cards, particularly Kaname, Freyja, and Mikumo are hard to find. Mikumo faces extra scarcity as a manufacturing error rendered several of her cards under printed.
Macross Delta gets full marks for aesthetic and flavour. I cannot think of a way for the set to improve in this area. From a collector standpoint and Macross fan standpoint, I cannot recommend this set enough. Can I give the same 9G full throttled endorsement to people interested in playing the set casually or competitively? Yes.
Core Mechanic: Link
Despite playing Weiss Schwarz for nearly 12 years, including the original Macross Frontier set, I have never played any deck like Macross Delta. The main build revolves around the Link mechanic. Although Delta isn’t the first set to have Link in its repertoire, it is the first to deploy Link in a usable manner. Link effectively gives climaxes traits. Climaxes that have the same “trait” in the climax zone or the waiting room have the same name allowing for you to activate multiple climax combos at the same time. Macross Delta activates Link by putting two copies of the Flying Walkure event, which either send themselves to memory or draw one card, into memory. Additionally, once two Flying Walkure are in memory any further instances of Flying Walkure are free turning it into a wild card.
All but one of the Macross Delta climaxes have the Super Dimension Venus “trait,” meaning you can assemble your very own Walkure concert to style on your opponent. This leads to some absolutely wild climax lines. For instance, I run two of the [spoiler warning]Axia and Ikenai Borderline yellow Choice climaxes, one copy of [spoiler warning]Alive, and one of each of three of the four red climaxes. Six different climaxes in total, including a sole standby trigger which you get to use more often than you would expect.
Walkure operates as a unit so naturally their CX combos all have excellent synergy, making Link viable. Your level main level one combo relies on two combos: Kaname’s Axia followed up with Mikumo’s Ikenai Borderline. Axia allows you to summon a cost zero character to field, including cost zero level twos. Mikumo, such a cost zero level 2, allows you to salvage two characters at the start of encore phase when you send the climax to waiting room if the slot across from her is either empty or reversed. Cycling this allows a player to easily replenish their hand from nearly empty in two turns while building stock and avoiding damage by constantly keeping climaxes in deck.
How Does Macross Delta Win
Abuse Link in the most aggressive manner possible. The key card is Witch Reina. She allows you to put all but the last five cards in your deck into the waiting room, and if there are four climaxes with different names on it in your waiting room you get to refresh without incurring the refresh penalty. This allows you to exploit your set up combo, Axia and Ikenai Borderline, pretty much every turn[2] until you have enough stock to use your choice of finisher to close out the game. Shuffling your waiting room back into your deck also occurs at the beginning of encore step at the same time as Ikenai Borderline activating, so you get to send the climax to waiting room and salvage before you refresh and send any reversed characters to waiting room afterwards. You get a nicely compressed deck this way.
In terms of cards to support the main loop, you have several options despite Macross Delta being such a small set. The funniest, but must stock intensive option, is Yami Makina. Yami Makina is a level 1 with two soul for one stock. Which is wild. Getting wilder, when played from hand she can send a random card from your opponent’s hand to memory until the end of their turn. You can effectively deny your opponent their sculpted hand by sending half of their sculpted hand to memory before the turn they intend to use their finisher. It’s particularly funny when you pair this with the Mikumo bouncer, allowing you to send cards your opponent brought in via standby to memory.
Sticking with Yami_Q_Ray, Yami Kaname can also support the loop. Yami Kaname is a costless level one character who also has two souls. She can enter the stage via Axia and bounce to your hand when damage done to you during her battle is cancelled. On top of that, when played from hand, you mill two. If there was a climax among those two cards, you can send a level two or lower character in the front row to memory. This helps you deal with decks that like to get value off walls while also opening a lane for Ikenai Borderline Mikumo. She fits naturally into the Axia combo loop.
Another potential addition is Messer, who also combos with Axia. Messer gets big (10,000 on his own with Axia, and up to 11,000 with backrow support) and can run to memory until your next turn when he reverses a character[3]. This is nice, as it allows you to put a Mikumo into Messer’s slot with Kaname to get the reverse with Messer and still salvage with Mikumo.
The set provides a ton of level 0 support to get the loop started and sustained. You have multiple cards that can dig for events, including a card that can salvage Flying Walkure. You have free salvage filter. You have two good profiles that trade a point of damage for additional cards in hand including the Mikumo that pulls the card going to clock from waiting room instead of the top of your deck. You have multiple good oversized cards such as the Mikumo that can bounce back to hand or the oversized drop search. You have cards to dig for climaxes. It’s honestly hard to decide which level zeros to include as you have so many good options to support the Link loop mission.
Moving from early and midgame to closer, Macross Delta has three climax combo finishers[4], a icy tail that does not need a climax, and a three soul beatstick that can either freefresh your opponent with one fewer CX or burn one when it comes into play. All three of the climax finishers are solid, but range in their cost and viability. Hayate and Freyja have three powerful effects you can choose between and a back row Hayate that lets you choose two of the three. However, it costs 1 stock and two hand at time of CX to do so, making it almost prohibitively expensive. However, being able to choose to either burn two or refresh your opponent’s deck with two fewer climaxes in it is exceptionally powerful. Keeping Hayate and Freyja as a subordinate option is possible.
On the other hand, Freyja’s finisher lets you look at the top three cards of your opponent’s deck and remove any CXs you find there if you pay one stock and discard one character while Mikumo allows you to give a character on cancel burn for free. These finishers are much cheaper and provide enough reliable damage to have either Freyja or Mikumo be the core of your finish while subordinating the other two to support your finish.
I tend to run the Freyja finisher since it uses the same climax as the Mikumo level two combo that the Link deck runs anyway, allowing you to run a higher number of different climaxes instead of running two copies of Halation the War. The cheapness of the Mikumo finisher allows you to add additional avenues for damage, such as the Yami Reina brainstorm, the Yami Freyja beatstick, or this spicy Sheryl promo. Frankly, the Mikumo deck is the patron saint of Meaty Swings.
Shortcomings
The Link deck requires a large stock investment and some hand sculpting early in the game. In order to get Link active, start the Reina loop, and use Axia and Ikenai borderline at the same time you need : three stock, two events, a climax, and Kaname. Obviously the deck is tuned to do this, and does so reliably when going first. This is rather difficult going second, where you are more likely to only get one turn at level zero. You practically have to tri-lane your first attack on your first turn if you go second, especially if your opponent is aware of Macross Delta’s early game stock needs. The level zero Mikumo that can return to hand if it mills a level two or lower helps with the necessary tri-laning but it still puts a lot of weight on having a good opening hand.
This leads to the deck feeling rather unstable, where being a turn late to start the Link loop can set you back for the whole game. However, the deck feels great once the Link loop begins. The early stock hungriness makes it a bit harder to generate enough stock for the flashier finishers, especially if you are unable to draw climaxes and must engineer them into your hand.
Very minor complaint: the set had nothing from Macross Frontier: Labyrinth of Time which served as part one of the double feature. I was hoping for more Sheryl and Ranka.
Can Macross Delta win in the current metagame?
The strength of the Link profile overcomes its instability and lack of new Macross F cards by rapidly refilling its hand and easily getting its cheaper finishers off. Not only does looping a CX almost every turn help you put heavy pressure on your opponent, you should be able to force them to level three in a rather compromised position with either Yami Makina putting half of their sculpted hand into the memory or aggressively pushing your opponent to three before they’re ready with the wide variety of two soul beat sticks Delta has available to it.
In play testing, I’ve found the deck holds its own against a lot of the decks vying for the top of the Japanese meta. I’ve found the deck pushes damage fast enough to force their opponent to play their finisher before Macross Delta is in appropriate kill range and that the deck is more consistent than fringe top decks. I had no fun against unbanned Chainsaw Man, but the Japanese format has already put it on the ban list so we don’t need to worry. A competitive player should seriously consider Macross Delta for solo or team play.
Wrapping Up
Macross Delta lives up to the expectations that Macross fans and Weiss Meisters have put on the set a decade in the making. Like Walkure, the cards are beautiful and powerful. The deck is unlike anything I have ever played. I implore players, collectors, and Macross fans alike to pick up Macross Delta. And if you haven’t already, give the Macross Series a watch, it is well worth your time.
[1] This isn’t because I’m a Reina fan, I swear.
[2] Flipping the deck over has synergy with Ikenai Borderline Mikumo as she now has access to most of your deck, allowing for EZ mode sculpting.
[3] Flavour so good!
[4] Macross Frontier has level three combos, but they either set up walls or allow you to remove cards from deck when a particular Sheryl is reversed. There is no finisher to speak of.
Wild Wild Weiss 