Black Witches Stable 1

Stable Build 1

Everyone's favorite loli witch, Lir
and witch hats are still awesome

(White Witches would be Genesis Witches)
If you want to see the previous version, click here

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

*Note: Working as intended != finished build, it just means deck functions as planned and is overall consistent

FVG:
Witch of Banquets, Lir *1

 Trigger: (6 stand/6 crit/4 heal)
 Black Cat Witch, Milkre (Heal) *4
Black Crow Witch, Eine (Critical) *4
Witch of Goats, Medb (Stand) *4
Revenger, Air Raid Dragon (Critical) *2
Revenger, Waking Angel (Stand) *2

 Grade 1: (*14)
Barrier Witch, Grainne (QW) *2
Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir (PG) *2
Ruin Witch, Scathach *2
Witch of Precious Stones, Dana *4
Witch of Pursuit, Sekuana *4

 Grade 2: (*11)
Witch of Attraction, Adora *3 (juggling between proportion of this and Skull Witch, Nemain)
Inspection Witch, Deirdre *4
Witch of Reality, Femme *4

 Grade 3: (*8)
Cultus Witch, Rias *4
Witch of Enchantment, Fianna *4

I was wrong about her :(
she's MVP.

   So this build ended up working significantly better than the previous ones; Sekuana literally makes all the difference. My initial thought was focusing on control, which proved itself to be extremely inconsistent and prone to your opponent's maneuvers. Now that I realized the control aspect is just a method for the power reduction so you can attack aggressively; the control part is a bonus, but the main focus should be on the power reduction, which is significantly more consistent and reliable (as long as you're not shooting for -25k or -30k, -5k~15k is fairly consistent)

Adora, our only pressure unit

   Adora is the G0 generator for the drop zone. When boosted by a 7k booster, she requires 10k shield to be guarded (unless against cross ride bodies, but those are rare today). So there can be 3 scenarios: 1.) your opponent guards with a single G0 and now has a G0 in their drop zone for Deirdre and Dana to use, 2.) they guard with 2 5k shields or a PG (which is not worth it btw, since even if you take the hit and then simply call over the G0 that's still only a -1 and not a -2), or 3.) they take the hit and have 1 - (2/3)^5 = ~86.83% chance having one of their RGs transformed into a G0.

   Even when they only have a FVG on the field as target, I'd usually still use the effect to call over the FVG even if the total G0 count doesn't go up. The reason behind that is 1.) you kill their FVG, who is usually important for most decks and 2.) you popped a G0 in the drop zone for your Deirdre and Dana to use. 

   As why certain cards are ran at their amount, here's a break down:

• 4 Fianna because she's your best first ride, and her 2nd effect is good
• 4 Rias because she's an awesome finisher or a boss to put your opponent straight to 5 damage, and she's our only other boss
• 4 Femme because she's the best G2 the deck has, and the more you have the more you can plus off Fianna's 2nd effect
• 4 Deirdre because she's the 2nd best G2, offering control and soul blast that aids Legion
• 3 Adora because she's a great G0 generator, but her window of relevance is small (she's irrelevant as soon as your opponent hits 4 damage)
• 4 Sekuana because she's Fianna's only win condition, and is a pseudo +5k to all columns. She's very important
• Total of 4 Sentinels because they're mandatory at this era
• 4 Dana because she's the other best G1, and helps out the deck's gimmick
• 2 Scathach because this deck runs off stands, and she forms 16k columns with Sekuana. She's also this deck's other best G1

   So overall, the main focus is pretty much to mildly control your opponent and setting up for your win condition (the power reduction) while swapping out priority targets and messing up power columns. There are two approaches to the power reduction. If you have enough resources (since all power drop takes a -1 in cost), you can drop a power-drop earlier and directly put your opponent straight into their late game, forcing them to guard everything that comes afterwards. The other is obvious, where you try to wrap a game up and seal the deal with a power-reduction when they're at high damage.

See something like this? Yeah... no
Kill it before it lays eggs.

   The tricky part is knowing what to target and swap out. Key units with annoying abilities are obvious. The
harder part comes in the rest, and really comes down to the situation. One way is to swap out boosters so your opponent will be less likely to call over them and thus keeping a higher G0 concentration for your Rias play that'd hurt them greatly later. another approach is to swap out an entire column, forcing them to swing for 10k max with that column, or call over it to suffer actual minuses all while putting G0s in the drop zone for you to use Deirdre and Dana. Swapping out the interceptor is another obvious one when you are ready to pop a power drop and push for game, but it's not always the right choice. There will be times where if you swap out their interceptor, your unboosted attacker (often 9 or 10k) will be unable to hit anything other than the G0 you gave them, which is counter-intuitive (and this happens quite often due to the nature of the deck if you are not careful). You will want to avoid creating that scenario yourself at all costs.


   So that concludes the first stable build. Again, don't be afraid to disagree with me and do your own thing and discover your own stuff. If you have any questions, comments, or just want to say 'hai' just let me know lol

Black Witches Prototype 2

Test Build 2

mai waifu
SP Fianna and Femme

(White Witches would be Genesis Witches)
If you want to see the previous version, click here

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

FVG:
Witch of Banquets, Lir *1

 Trigger: (6 stand/6 crit/4 heal)
 Black Cat Witch, Milkre (Heal) *4
Black Crow Witch, Eine (Critical) *4
Witch of Goats, Medb (Stand) *4
Revenger, Air Raid Dragon (Critical) *2
Revenger, Waking Angel (Stand) *2

 Grade 1: (*14)
Barrier Witch, Grainne (QW) *2
Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir (PG) *2
Ruin Witch, Scathach *2
Witch of Precious Stones, Dana *3
Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod *3
Witch of Pursuit, Sekuana *2

 Grade 2: (*11)
Comet Witch, Serva *2 (will probably be replacing with Witch of Attraction, Adora once she's out)
Inspection Witch, Deirdre *4
Witch of Reality, Femme *4
Skull Witch, Nemain *1

 Grade 3: (*8)
Cultus Witch, Rias *4
Witch of Enchantment, Fianna *4

This is me when my SP Fianna arrived to pair with my SP Femme

   Black Witches prototype version 2. So it's been running smoother for me, and I'm sure it's due to me getting and seeking SP Fianna as mate for my SP Femme, because ever since I got my SP legion pair it's been running smoother, probably because I've gotten a bit more used to the cards and the deck's gimmicks as a whole.



   I'm starting to believe this deck to be one of  those more complex decks where the proportions are balanced on the edge of a knife for it to work rather than just going 4x of whatever you think is important and going for "max consistency", because most things are situational enough that you don't really need nor want to go for that highest consistency. For example, while sticking G0s all over your opponent's face is the whole point of the deck and the base conditions for this deck's gimmick, Dana and Deirdre do not always have the option to sheep your opponent based off their plays. However, even if you run a bit less Dana and Deirdre, your opponent will still play carefully and be expecting them, so the hidden advantage of discouraging your opponent to guard with G0s still applies even if you run less Dana and Deidre.

   I'm actually not a big fan of running everything at 2-of/3-of (actually I like 3-of, but not too much for 2-of), but everything other than Fianna and Famme are situational at best and heavily dependent on what's going on. 4 Arianrhod? Er, you don't really need that many. 4 Sekuana? Hell no, as she has a pretty hefty condition to meet to even work. 4 Dana? Maybe, still a situational card though. 4 Scathach? I wish I have the space. More than 1~2 Nemain? Yeah try riding or drawing into multiple copies of her and you'd know why I only run 1. But these are reasons why you're not really seeing things at 4 copies; there are almost no card that's completely independent off your opponent besides the 7+3, 9+3, and 10k vanilla. Even Fianna is still dependent off your opponent to some extent.

   I ended up throwing Sekuana back in because I don't always get Rias or have the luxury to wait another turn to ride into her, and being able to pressure for a turn even if it's a little early ain't bad; the sooner they hit their 4th damage, the sooner they are forced to guard your VG attacks (and guarding Legion attacks is fairly expansive). Fianna also completely lacks fire power, to the point where I noticed this is one of her major weaknesses, so that's what Sekuana is for. I mean, she lacks firepower so much that she almost swings like the old school non-legion VGs. Sekuana also is another RG eater that works nicely with the triggers Lir calls out. Another thing that makes her nice is that on the turn she uses her effect, she swings like a 11k attacker if you happen to be missing one, and she synergizes well with stands for obvious reasons.

   I also tested Adora. She's not bad, but still not the magic pill that'd suddenly make black witches top tier. Adora is decent because she is a 9k attacker, meaning when boosted by a 7k booster, she requires a 10k shield to guard if you plan to guard her attack with 1 card. This means in order to guard Adora effectively, you need to guard with G0 cards, opening your opponent up for Dana and Deirdre to mess with their columns, set up your gimmicks, and generating the cost for you to perform Legion. However, if they don't guard her, they take 1 damage and you get to do what Rias does for half the cost, with the side effect of thinning their decks of triggers. So what Adora does is essentially create a lose-lose situation for your opponent. Also similar to any on-hit units, a checked stand trigger for this kind of unit can often mess up their plans, even though she's only 9k. I'd say she's a very valuable asset for the deck, just unfortunately still not strong enough to carry the deck to a top tier position because she still doesn't change the fact that this deck's performance is still heavily influenced and dependent by your opponent's deck, skill, hand, and maneuvers. She does make it better though, and I look forward for her official release (which I think was just released recently, with her being the 2nd most expansive PR card from Cardfight Pack Vol.14).

   Witches are definitely fun though. And moe. And remember, don't be afraid to leave comments or disagree with me. Never take anyone's words for granted or without question, and a pinch of salt to go with it often makes it both more tasty and healthy.

Black Witches Prototype 1

Test Build 1

Rias and Deirdre

(White Witches would be Genesis Witches)

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

FVG:
Witch of Banquets, Lir *1

 Trigger: (6 stand/6 crit/4 heal)
 Black Cat Witch, Milkre (Heal) *4
Black Crow Witch, Eine (Critical) *4
Witch of Goats, Medb (Stand) *4
Revenger, Air Raid Dragon (Critical) *2
Revenger, Waking Angel (Stand) *2

 Grade 1: (*14)
Barrier Witch, Grainne (QW) *2
Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir (PG) *2
Ruin Witch, Scathach *4
Witch of Precious Stones, Dana *4
Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod *2

 Grade 2: (*11)
Comet Witch, Serva *2 (will be replacing with Witch of Attraction, Adora once she's out)
Inspection Witch, Deirdre *4
Witch of Reality, Femme *4
Skull Witch, Nemain *1

 Grade 3: (*8)
Cultus Witch, Rias *4
Witch of Enchantment, Fianna *4

   First (actually, 2nd, but close enough) attempt on the black witches. As much as I like my RRR Nemain, her 3k hurts this deck way too much since this deck has to run stands for the awesome utility Medb provides, and I almost never find myself ever wanting to use Nemain's effect more than once per game even if I can. But she is still occasionally useful and looks great, so there's 1 copy for that.

   I've explained why I prefer 6 stand/6 crit over 8 crit/4 stand previously in my Silver Thorn deck profile; with 4 stands, I still need to attack with the R > V > R pattern to avoid wasting triggers, but I see them with low consistency (as much consistency as draw triggers in the standard 8/4/4 ratio), whereas with 6 stands, I can attack with the R > V > R pattern but expect to see both with equal frequency. Honestly I feel like the witches aren't the best deck to utilize stand triggers for reasons including a weaker front line, on-call skills that makes you think twice about calling it prematurely, absolutely no on-hit pressure (that'd change once Witch of Attraction, Adora is out), and how you can and will turn front row units into G0s and so there are a lot less interceptors to swing at. It kinda sucks that Medb has such a strong skill but is on a stand trigger, forcing you to run it.

   A few major issues I've noticed with the witches are:

• Unlike traditional Shadow Paladins, they have no superior call (the FVG one doesn't count), and relies on Nemain and Fianna for direct advantages, which is really low quality, unreliable, and inconsistent.
• Riding Rias first absolutely sucks. Her on-legion skill is pretty useless early on and even requires you to eat another witch (-1), and her Polymorph skill is extremely costly, to the point it costs as much as Fianna's but less than half as effective (you run the risk of not seeing and G0s off top 5 of deck). For the cost of CB2 even Berserk Dragon could have guaranteed something dead.
• Performance is heavily dependent on the other deck in terms of match up. Examples includes, but are not limited to: Meets Raisers? Fianna helps them fetch for up to 2 Cat Butlers off the top of their deck, and the G1 and G2 helps them reuse Cat Butler. Meets Revengers? They can just eat the triggers to suffer like nothing and even lock you out of your skills that checks for the amount of G0s on the opponent's field. 
• Fairly easy to play around and heavily dependent on your opponent's hand and actions. Good players can avoid guarding with G0s early game, guard with G0s mid game, and then Legion to shuffle all G0s away and then leave your Dana and Deirdre always vanilla. Smart players can and will call over the G0s you give them to lock you out of your skills that require X number of G0s on their field to even trigger, and then Legion the G0s away. 

   Still working on it, but these are the current issues that needs to be solved/worked around. Since Witch of Attraction, Adora is already revealed and known, I'll be beginning my testing by using that as well to see how much issues it solves.

Shadow Paladin Witch Triggers

The hype is unstoppable!

   Latest revealing of the Witches are their rainbow triggers! Usually I don't post stuff like this that's not really useful nor informative, but the Witches gets special treatment because of my hype they have big awesome witch hats!

   Three of them are vanillas, and the stand trigger is now confirmed to be a unflipper and a soul charger to make the Witch starter relevant (meaning on-hit you can essentially +1 and unflip 2 and SC2). Plus, since Rias focuses on lowering the vanguard's power, theoretically stands should work out fairly well.

Heal

Witch of Black Cat, Mirukura

Crit

Witch of Black Raven, Eine

Draw

Witch of Lizard, Aife

Stand

Witch of Goat, Maeve

(AUTO): When this unit enters , if you have a "Witch" vanguard, 
and your opponent has 2 or more Grade 0 rear guards, SC1, unflip 1 damage.

   With EB11 & EB12 being released in less than a week, that's it for now. I'm really hoping for a 7+3 generic Witch G1 attacker at this point because I still feel their G1 line up is rather lacking. It might be this card that has yet to have its effects revealed. I mean, she has a super awesome art as well, it better be useful or I'd be sad because I hate to have to leave cards with art I like a lot out of decks.

Edit:

   Witch of Ruin (center) is confirmed to be the G1 7+3 attacker.

   The card on the left translates to "Witch of God(ly) Speed, Emeru", and her effect is "AUTO[VC/RC]: When this unit attacks, if your opponent has 2 or more G0 units, this unit gets +3000 power during that battle"


This should still be their theme song

Shadow Paladin Witches

   While I don't know how many people actually give a crap about what I play, well, the next deck I'll be messing around with will probably be the Witches from Shadow Paladin that'd be released in roughly 2 weeks (sorry Genesis witches, but you gals don't really interest me as much as I loved you gals). So far they've been getting pretty unique and interesting effects, and with my very-none-intensive-and-brief proxy testing with an almost-literally-have-no-thought-put-into-it deck recipe (that Grim Reaper trigger should be Maeve, just it's not in their database yet), they've been very fun and actually better than I anticipated. Like, yeah, they almost have like 8 pseudo-Corduroys (Dana & Deirdre) that not only cost SBs (which you get naturally with no effort through Legion) but also discourage the use of triggers as shields (as opposed to Seal Dragon's G2 mechanics), backed with a usable advantage engine (Nemain & Fiana) and bosses that further nerf-bat rear guards as well as vanguards. If the witch stand trigger is proven to be an on-call  soul-charger and unflipper even upon release, well then they will have that too for more skill spamming. And they have amazing art to back it up to make you feel extra good and motivated to build and use the deck.

I mean, who doesn't love witches and their hats?

This should be their theme song.