Was it my cockiness or was it because waifus actually prevail over practicality? Anyway, what happened was that right after the article about Bordsavior’s article about ASTOLFOPHA, the gay greedy build that I happened to love and play actually ended up being nothing compared to this topping list in Mexico REGIONALS. WHAT THE FUCK!!!

So before everyone starts shitting their pants, I decided it was time we took a closer look and revealed what the fuck these cards can do when they’re actually played to have synergy with each other. Here’s a deck analysis to make up for our Astolfo Bias!

LETS GET STRAIGHT TO THE POINT SHALL WE SO ALL THE IMPATIENT VIEWERS CAN LEAVE FIRST:

Out of 193 players (Sauce: Connor Pelham), this was the first place deck in Mexico. Top 3 were:

1. This Apocrypha deck

2. Nisekoi

3. Attack on Titan

Ok you’re probably going WTF Nisekoi in 2018 ATM but that’s not the fucking point of this article. As an ENG FAPO player, I cannot simply ignore this list so let’s go over what we know. To spice things up however, we’re going to start with the climaxes first.

Yeah… if you’re a new player and you’re interested in Fate Apocrypha you should probably read past this part…

CLIMAXES:

4x CLARENT

This combos with your Mordred level 3s. We went through this in previous articles so no need to really explain further on that. However, it serves a more important role in this deck as well since it can also fetch your BACKUPS which we will go over eventually.

4x Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Hoh boi. Standby. If you’re a lucky lil shit and trigger this at the right time you can summon MASSIVE characters for free that will throw you right into an advantage over your opponent. This can be very nice since you can play characters that usually cost stock for like… Free just by triggering this crap. This list runs a lot of characters we can take use to put ourselves into a favorable position so just w a i t.

LEVEL 0 LINE UP (16 cards):

“Great Holy Grail War” Shirou

【AUTO】 【CXCOMBO】 [Return this card to your hand] When a card named “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” is placed on your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to two cards from the top of your deck, choose up to one card from among them, put it into your hand, put the rest into your waiting room, choose a card in your hand, and put it into your waiting room.

【ACT】 [【REST】 this card] Choose one of your characters, and that character gets +1000 power until end of turn.

This is your main handfixing tool and a great way to pump power to your level 1 line up which definitely can abuse it. I do wish it was a plussing engine instead of the handfix but since this bounces back to hand it kind of replenishes it in a way. Oh by the way it can grab CLIMAXES and events and yes you don’t haev to show the one you grabbed to your opponent :^)

3x “Brimming with Confidence” Saber of Red

【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, look at the top card of your deck, and put it on the top of your deck or into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a level 1 or lower character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Man this is probably the third time I’m going over this card but FUCK IT. It’s just sooooooo good. I’ve also said this before but this really lets you be greedy at level 0 and 1. It has a topcheck scry ability that lets you dig 1 more for that brainstorm, but in this deck it actually helps with your Shirou backrow instead. That ability also happens increase your chances of you clocking climaxes in your clock which is SUPER IMPORTANT past level 0 since you want to refresh quickly and with every climax in your clock or stock you’re gonna feel suicidal.

I feel like I’m repeating myself at this point but because of how good this card’s utility is, you can actually mulligan your level 1 cards (you probably should more in this case since you can standby it out if you trigger into them) since you can technically grab it back with this card’s ability. This gives you more chances to field more characters at level 0 without hand size repercussions and honestly that’s not a bad thing unless you’re against AOT or something (which in this case, you want to be careful since you want to hit level 1 first for sure). By attacking more, you have a higher chance to trigger standby which is EXCELLENT!

Oh yeah, this card also can help you HIT LEVEL 1 quickly which is SUPER important for a deck like this. Often times you’ll want to hit level 1 first because your goal is to set up and wall off your opponent to put them into a disadvantage and this is crucial for things like that.

I could go on all day about how great this is honestly but it’s TIME TO MOVE On because this card is starting to remind me I couldn’t pull Mordred on FGO during rate up day…

3x “Bewitching Smile” Assassin of Red

【AUTO】 [(1)] This ability activates up to one time per turn. When a card is put into your level, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to three cards from the top of your deck, choose up to one 《Master》 or 《Servant》 character from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and put the rest into your waiting room.

NERFED MILKY HOLMES BACKROW. Anyway, aside from jokes this is what you’re going to use to mill through and gain your dank plusses. As you can see from the cost, we’re going to be making some dank plays with our walls to trigger this effect so hopefully, you don’t end up milling 2-3 climaxes with this hahahah.

4x “Like Scattered Petals” Berserker of Black

【AUTO】 [Put a card from your hand into your waiting room] When this card is put into your waiting room from the stage, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to four cards from the top of your deck, choose up to one 《Master》 or 《Servant》 character from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and put the rest into your waiting room.

Your other source of handfixing and a great staple for this deck as it allows you to make aggressive plays at level 0 while setting up an opportunity to fetch your frontline or backrow pieces for the level 1 game. However, this time we don’t have Chiron to abuse this card for the free mill. Instead, we make our plays by triggering standby! Let’s discuss some ways we can do this…

Example 1) You play your Hanging Gardens of Babylon cxc and Shirou bounces to hand. You play this from waiting room to field in the now empty backrow slot so you can play over this card on your upcoming turn for some dank free mill

Example 2) You’re on your third attack and you’ve already attacked into an open lane with this card. Suddenly, you trigger your Standby and you play a level 2 character over this Fran. You proc its effect, pay cost and fix your hand while milling for free.

These are only some of the many plays you can do with this card. While you’re not using it as proactively as you did with Chiron and you don’t have the stupid hand size you can make with Astolfo, it doesn’t make this card any worse. If anything, there are more things you can do with this card in this deck thanks to the opportunities Standby can give you.

3x “Humanity’s Salvation” Shirou Kotomine

【AUTO】 When your other character becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, choose one of your characters, and that character gets +1000 power until end of turn.

【ACT】 [【REST】 two of your characters] Choose a card in your level and a card in your waiting room, and exchange them.

Speaking of cards you can combo with your Berserker of Black, this is a really nice card to play over it from waiting room if you can. This backrow has a revenge power pump which will put pressure on your opponent for choosing the correct attack order and basically increase the survival chances of your front line walls. MORE IMPORTANTLY, it pays swap that climax out from our level zone before refresh which is SUPER IMPORTANT so we don’t end up having to play the game with like 2-3 climaxes stuck there. Make sure to get this card in your backrow ASAP along with your Semiramis by the time you hit level 1 because without it your level 1 game just falls APART!

LEVEL 1 LINEUP (12 cards):

3x “Before the Throne” Assassin of Red

【AUTO】 【CXCOMBO】 [(1)] When this card attacks, if a card named “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

【AUTO】 When this card becomes 【REVERSE】, if this card’s battle opponent is level 1 or lower, you may 【REVERSE】 that character.

I won’t lie, this card ain’t exactly my cup of tea but hey it can get the job done. By being a level 1 reverser, it can potentially open up lanes which is perfect for you doing damage back since you can’t always slam a 1k1 down at level 1 due to being a standby deck. Its climax combo with Hanging Gardens may turn you off at first because its a pay 1 combo that doesn’t combo with a stock soul when you already have a backrow that pays 1 to plus. On the other hand, this will be offset by the next card we will talk about shortly.

Most importantly though for the English meta, this card DOESN’T need to reverse to get you that handsize so you should probably consider grabbing this in those matchups against AOT or something, especially since you can reverse eren so they can only benefit from getting that event into hand.

3x “Bridal Chest” Berserker of Black

【AUTO】 This ability activates up to one time per turn. When you use an 【ACT】, this card gets the following ability until end of turn. “【AUTO】 When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, you may put the top card of your deck into your stock.”

Ok. I know what some of you are thinking. “WTF, WHY DO YOU EVEN EXPECT TO GET REVERSES WITH A PUNY 5K CARD IN ENG, ARE YOU RETARDED? HOW WILL YOU MAKE BACK THE STOCK FOR SEMIRAMIS YOU INCEL!?”

…

This is how we will do it.

4x “Duel” Rider of Red

【AUTO】 When you use this card’s “Backup”, choose a card in your level and a climax in your waiting room, and exchange them.

【ACT】 【COUNTER】 Backup 3000, Level 1 [Put this card from your hand into your waiting room] (Choose one of your characters that is being frontal attacked, and that character gets +3000 power until end of turn)

Yes YES YES. All we have to do is use this BACKUP to make our Frans into UNKILLABLE walls that will make back the stock (and hopefully, it wasn’t a climax you stocked). This is the reason why we dedicate that backrow revenge pump for the most part and the Semiramis to mill through our deck. A costless 3k backup is nothing to scoff at during level 1 and with a revenge pump, Fran can easily get up to 9k which is too much sometimes for Erens if you have her on the side. Sure the cost to play this card isn’t the greatest but since you can easily pay it out with your backrow, it doesn’t really matter unless you’re about to refresh.

Also jumping back to Fran, you actually can get reverses off during your turn but that requires mostly abandoning your wall game. By using Semiramis reversers, you can go 1 for 1 while using your backrow to pump 1k and if you happen to play down CLARENT, Fran becomes a respectable 7k that can often run over a weaker, 4.5-5k character out of counter range (BAR STANDBY SAO, P5 and KC). If you happen to also have “Humanity’s Salvation” Shirou Kotomine along with “Great Holy Grail War” Shirou, you can even pump this card to higher attack levels. This makes getting stock with Fran very doable against most decks not named AOT or Astolfopha.

Anyway this is your ticket to snowball so you should probably use that to your advantage… I’d preferably use the backup on the last attack if possible so it’s easier to pay out climaxes. The same could be said for when you’re attacking with Fran actually.

2x “Command Spell” Saber of Red

【AUTO】 [(1) Put a face up card in your level face down] When this card’s battle opponent becomes 【REVERSE】, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a 《Master》 or 《Servant》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

【AUTO】 When this card becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, you cannot use “【AUTO】 Encore” until end of turn. (You cannot use the “【AUTO】 Encore [(3)]” rule either)

And while we talk about paying out climaxes, this card can help you do that as well if you need to pay climaxes deeper in and you’re in a matchup where reverses are easier to get (AKA, Love Live Sunshine at level 1). If you go with my strategy where you use the revenge pump with Semiramis level 1 along with a 1k1, this Saber reaches 7.5k which is enough against anything that isn’t a wall deck.

Note that we’re also playing Mordred level 3, so this card is going to be your primary way of setting up that BURN 2 if thats the amount you want to start off with by doing double Mordred finish.

Wait you still waiting for those dank standby targets aside from the level 0s? Well…

LEVEL 2 LINEUP (5 cards):

2x Petit Saber of Red

【CONT】 This card gets +1000 power for each of your other 《Master》 or 《Servant》 characters.

Note: This card has 2 SOUL!

Uhh yeah no one is surprised by this being on the list. Past your first attack you probably want to put this on your front row if you have a full field (maybe in the backrow if you’re that paranoid it’ll die on defense). In the worst case scenario where you actually didn’t trigger standby during level 1 or didn’t play the climax from hand, this card is a cost 1 wall that has 2 soul which is extremely cost efficient compared to other level 2 alternatives in the deck.

In my last article I talked about how Fate Apocrypha’s level 2 game was efficient but not necessarily good and the biggest thing holding this set back was because this card would just die easily on both attack and defense. However, with a 3k backup, this card can become downright scary especially with a revenge pump. Since this card cannot be anti change bombed (unless you’re Konosuba or something), the opponent is forced to basically run it over with level 3s if you have a full field and boy oh boy are 3k backups scary. Add to the fact that you can summon this at level 1 and man your opponent will probably be praying he can trigger some bounce climaxes.

1x “Deep Satisfaction” Berserker of Black

【AUTO】 [(2) Put a 《Master》 or 《Servant》 character from your hand into your waiting room] When you use this card’s “Backup”, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character with level higher than your opponent’s level, and put it at the bottom of your opponent’s deck.

【ACT】 【COUNTER】 Backup 2500, Level 2 [(1) Put this card from your hand into your waiting room] (Choose one of your characters that is being frontal attacked, and that character gets +2500 power until end of turn)

Are you still scared a level 3 is gonna run over your card? Have no fear, this Fran can save your day.

Yes the cost is a bit heavy and yes you’re going to kill your hand size… But hey this card can bottom deck that You level 3 or REM in the future, which is notably strong against any decks that can easily encore their Early Plays. Also in the worst case scenario, it’s still a 2500 backup which is definitely effective in most wall decks. But yeah you’ll feel bad if you use it this way knowing you already run 3k backups that don’t cost a stock to play…

2x “Transformation” Archer of Red

【CONT】 Assist All of your characters in front of this card get +X power. X is equal to 500 multiplied by that character’s level.

【ACT】 [(2) Put this card into your waiting room] Choose up to one card named “”Demonic Beast Strength” Archer of Red” in your hand, and put it on the stage position that this card was on.

This card serves 2 main purposes:

1) Make your Mordred level 2 even bigger

2) Summon a BERSERKER Atalanta potentially at level 1.

How do we summon Atalanta at level 1? We trigger standby. This cost seems a bit high at first but honestly if you need to pay out climaxes, this is a pretty neat card to bring out and you’ll find out why in a second.

LEVEL 3 LINEUP (9 cards):

3x “Demonic Beast Strength” Archer of Red

【CONT】 If you have another 《Master》 or 《Servant》 character, this card gets +1500 power.

【AUTO】 During your opponent’s turn, when the damage you received is not canceled, if this card is on your center stage, look at the top card of your deck, and put it on the top of your deck or into your waiting room.

LOOK everyone, it’s the card that makes me want to play this deck! This card wouldn’t even be considered a viable option in any other deck but Standby and here’s why.

The earlier you get this card out, the more you’re going to cancel. That’s because every time you take damage, you effectively “scry” and get closer to another cancel. And we all know canceling is primarily the reason why most players win against others. Of course, without standby we’re forced to pay a dumb cost at level 2 which can be a bit slow… But what if we did this at level 1 instead?

Do not forget you’re playing a wall deck that COSTLESS 3k backups and we all know there’s like 0 decks out there that are relevant that somehow have a level 1 anti-change bomb. Hell, are there even relevant sets that have anti change backups at level 1 not named Konosuba in English? Ok Maybe Nisekoi since it got second in this Regionals this deck topped in I guess…

But yeah while this is a DANK play, you should probably reconsider doing it if your opponent can bounce your cards because RIP your scrying abilities. Otherwise, 10/10 would grail her anyday. Berserker Nyaatalanta in NA when???

4x “Final Flash” Saber of Red

【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may put the top card of your clock into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 【CXCOMBO】 [(2) Put a face up card in your level face down] When this card attacks, if a card named “Clarent” is in your climax area, you may pay the cost. If you do, deal X damage to your opponent, and this card gets +3500 power until the end of your opponent’s next turn. X is equal to the number of face down cards in your level. (This damage may be canceled)

You know how I said Command Spell” Saber of Red is your primary way of setting up your Mordred burns for your level 3 game? Well what if you decided to instead of bringing out Berserker Cat, you bring out your level 3 healer finisher early and decided to be really spicy…

Depending on how you played your level 1 game you can even burn for 2 at level 2 like you’re playing Darling in the Franxx! She’s also basically just as big as Strelizia too if you do the climax combo just without the markers underneath!

In all seriousness though, you basically can put this into backrow after triggering standby then basically let this do its job at level 3. You didn’t get the heal from it but hey that’s less stock you’re spending for your end game which isn’t exactly the cheapest. Other than that, it’s a solid end game and double should be enough to close out most games if you start with a burn 2.

2x “Massacre” Assassin of Black

【CONT】 During this card’s battle, all players cannot play “Backup” from hand.

【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, draw up to two cards, choose a card in your hand, and put it into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 [Put two cards from your hand into your waiting room] When this card attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, deal one damage to your opponent. (This damage may be canceled)

This card is actually great in this deck for several reasons and let me take the time to explain them all.

First of all let’s start with the obvious. The draw 2 ditch 1 compliments the Mordred cxc by potentially drawing into your gate to put the pieces together for your end game. Furthermore, if you actually do spicy stuff like burning for 1 or 2 during level 2 and only have to push a little bit more to finish your opponent off, she costs no stock to do her burn which is very resource friendly for your Mordred.

I’ve said this before in previous articles but she’s also cost efficient. While she does cost 2 cards in hand for her burn, her draw 2 ditch 1 effect on play almost makes you feel like you’re only ditching 1 card overall.

Finally, since this deck has access to standby, sending her out early can be a REALLY strong level 2 game against certain decks. Since Guardian doesn’t exist in English (for you beginners, Guardian plays MASSIVE costless event counters), you don’t have to worry since your opponent literally cannot anti-change backup you while this card is attacking. Even if you can’t use your 3k backups to your advantage when this card is being attacked by another level 3, the fact that you got this out at level 2 for NO STOCK whatsoever is still stupidly good for you. Use this to your knowledge if you happen to standby this card out at level 2 and want to kill your opponents Early Play. Perhaps this is the reason why our Mexican champion does not play the Vladimir Anti-change bomb.

Once again I did not play her in my decks mainly because I hate being potentially color locked at level 3. However, since this deck only plays 2 colors, it actually doesn’t really matter. I really see no reason not to run her in the standby builds.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Yeah I can definitely see why this topped in English. It can snowball potentially out of hand very hard and it actually has the best level 2 game Fate Apocrypha has to offer. In fact, this deck looks very fun to play and I would suggest others looking for a unique deck to play to give this one a spin. I am very glad Mexico was able to bring out the potential in this set although it is quite sad that Astolfo couldn’t be in the spotlight…

On the bright side though, FINALLY a decklist featuring the prime reason I even started FGO…

Welp it’s back to grinding time for me since its 1/2 AP cost. I had fun taking a look at this deck list and I hope this makes FAPO more mainstream. Also, don’t blame others who shat on this set, because…