Wixoss 5th Anniversary decks - Overview

The Wixoss tcg is a terrific game, and buying a pair of the 5th anniversary starter decks is the cheapest way to start playing it, or just seeing what the game plays like if you’re curious. These decks offer distinct gameplay and strategies, and are reasonably well balanced against one another. That is not to say that they are all equal, however. The power levels are close enough that any deck can win against any of the others, but how much luck and skill are required for that win differs quite a bit. Piruluk has a much narrower margin of error than Ril. Draw too many Signi of the wrong levels at the wrong time, or mistake the optimal timing of your Arts, and Piruluk will often lose, while Ril can shrug off a bit of bad luck or minor play errors. Even still, any wins or losses will be close; often the winning deck would have lost if the opponent had survived another turn. Most importantly, though, unlike certain other tcgs, these decks don't offer a subpar gameplay experience; they contain powerful and consistent strategies that reward player skill and a strong understanding of the ins and outs of each deck. As with any tcg, these are still starter products, so you can’t just waltz into a tournament and expect to compete with the most tuned lists in the metagame, but as far as offering great gameplay when paired against other starter decks, and providing a solid base to modify with cards from booster packs, these decks do a terrific job for a crazy low price.

(In terms of where to buy these decks, there are a few options, but absent any personal preferences, you should be able to find them on amazon.jp, whose English language support and reasonable shipping costs makes these decks pretty easy to get ahold of. Search by deck code ie. WXK-D05, and you won’t need to know a word of Japanese.)

A few more detailed notes and random thoughts:

Power levels
In terms of general power, my experience would rank them as Ril > Guzuko > Tama > Carnival > Piruluk. This shouldn’t be taken to mean that the decks are problematically unbalanced, though, and the decks ranking can change depending on the matchup. Guzuko’s “Together with Aya!” key changes value quite a bit depending on the opponent. Decks like Ril and Carnival that primarily push damage with Signi attacks can dismiss it as a minor inconvenience, but for decks that rely on LRIG attacks to force through damage, it can really make life difficult for them (Piruluk lacks ways to force through Signi attacks, and relies on discarding the Guards from the opponent’s hand to force through LRIG attacks to compensate, and Tama’s double crush LRIG attack and her Key’s Guard limiting effect are important sources of damage that she relies on keep pace with opponents who have stronger defensive options). Against an open field, Guzuko is weaker than Ril, but in a meta of just these decks, Guzuko might be the strongest by virtue of how well she matches up to the opposition.

Another example is Ril’s See Through the Fiery Ambition, which can offer a way to force through an extra 1 or 2 damage against decks that rely heavily on their 12000 power level 4 for their offensive (Carnival, Guzuko, other Ril decks), but can be near useless against decks like Piruluk or Tama that tend to string together their strategies using either their Arts deck, or lower level Signi.

Piruluk is already on the weaker side of these decks, but against the other decks with Phantom Garden she really struggles. After you’ve gone through a ton of effort to empty the opponent’s hand, it’s pretty demoralizing to see them instantly rebuild it at such a low cost, especially considering Phantom Garden is pretty low-impact in other matchups. She does fare a bit better against decks without powerful draw engines in their LRIG decks, like Tama and Ril.


Playing with other starter decks
Most decks from before the ‘Key’ format (decks with the WXD code rather than the WXK code - see here) have only 8 cards in their LRIG decks, which means that they’re poorly set up to compete with the Key format starters, which have a full 10 cards in their LRIG deck. The main difference is that the Key format starters add in a Key card and a generic, colourless Arts, so you can change up these older decks to still be viable, but getting the power right with these modifications can be tricky, so it’s easier to stick to Key format starter decks (the older decks are out of print, so they’re harder to find anyway).

The decks from WXK-D01 Red Doping to WXK-D08 Dual Blast (the Dual decks each contain two decks, so they’re another nice way of trying out the game) are all roughly at the same power level as these 5th anniversary decks, so they’re easy pickups if you’re looking to extend the range of decks you can play. From WXK-D09 Blue Umr onwards, however, the starters take a noticeable jump in power level. They don’t have an alternate level 4 LRIG in boosters, and so they have overall stronger effects, and they’ve replaced the mediocre Phantom Garden or Victim Defence colourless Arts with the much more useful Rays of Edge (if you’re looking to get into deck building beyond stock lists, they also have several copies of the no-life-burst guards, which are hugely useful in deck building as they give you a lot more freedom in which cards you can include without worrying as much about the 20 life-burst, 20 non-life-burst deck building requirement). They also ditch the simple power-boost effect Signi for more focused options. The older decks are still pleasantly competitive with these newer ones, but you will notice the power difference, and it might make for a bad time if you and your friend each only have 1 deck, and one has an older Key deck and one has a newer Key deck.

There’s a few odd decks out to watch for. There were several decks before the Key format that had the full 10 LRIG deck cards, which tended to be expensive special editions. Some were pretty mediocre (the movie-version decks, and Red Promise / Blue Petition each only have 4 level 4 Signi total, as opposed to the usual 8, and therefore lack a lot of late-game power), some are pretty good (the Conflation decks), and Carnival’s Red Joker in particular is just bonkers powerful. Things are a little more steady in the Key era, but if you’re a fan of virtual youtubers, WXK-D16 Nijisanji WIXOSS Battle Set is crazy strong. It’s so strong, in fact, that it one-sidedly stomps every other starter I’ve tried to play against it, so unless you and your friend(s) plan to heavily modify your decks from their stock lists, this deck will not be much fun if you’re playing starter decks against each other.


Modification
Like any tcg, Wixoss has a ton of options to further customize these decks and dial up their power. That being said, the game is Japanese-language only, so unless you read the language fairly well, it can be a bit of work to keep the effects straight. Generally, I find that as long as I can keep the card list (with effect translations) to a single page of 8.5/11 paper, some modifications can be nice, but it can get a bit cumbersome if you need to shuffle between multiple sheets of paper to keep track of what does what. As far as modifications themselves, a lot of that will come down to how you feel about the deck: what it needs more of, and what doesn’t play any role in advancing your game plan. A few easy notes:

• Most decks have at least one Arts that is noticeably subpar (see my reviews of the individual decks), so replacing them with a more functional Arts is a quick and easy way to upgrade a deck.
• The limits on the decks level 2 and 3 LRIGs can feel a bit low (for example, at level 2 you can’t play 2 level 2 Signi without leaving your third Signi zone open). If you feel you don’t need the effects, swapping to the higher-limit non-effect versions at these levels can let you play out these levels a bit more freely (this will depend heavily on how the decks use their coins, and will also be heavily affected by any changes you make to the main deck).
• These decks all have an alternate level 4 LRIG in booster packs, which are often more powerful, so swapping them out can change up how the deck plays with only one swap.
• As for changing up your main deck, the easiest thing to swap out is some number of the spells. They range from barely decent to outright bad, and while you might want to keep a few of them in the deck, no deck wants 4 copies of them (Tama especially doesn’t want any spells). I’d start by swapping out 2 spells, and adjusting from there.
• The next easy main deck swap are the cards that only have a minor power boost as their effect. Generally, putting in effects that more directly benefit your gameplan will go quite a ways in improving the deck’s overall performance.

Just like all tcgs, modifying your decks can turn into an (expensive!) arms race, and it can also throw off the balance of the decks quite easily. Generally, I’d recommend finding an agreement with whoever you play with before going nuts and rushing off to yuyutei to order singles. Unlike certain other tcgs, the gameplay offered by these starter decks is quite good, so it’s perfectly okay to leave these decks in their stock lists.

Wixoss Starter Deck: Dual Paleness - Tama

Dual Paleness is the Wixoss TCG’s 28th preconstructed deck, and 5th released for the “Key” format, and features 2 seperate decks: a white Tama deck, and a blue Remember deck. The Tama deck focuses on War Spirit: Playground Equipment Signi. It was reprinted as part of Wixoss’s 5th anniversary, at the lower price of 555 yen (and a much longer name: “WXK-DF03 Start WIXOSS with Tama and Win by Returning Cards to the Hand!”) - the only difference is that the reprint does not include the two foils (Tamayorihime, Daybreak Miko and one copy of Snow Daruma, Master Play). These cards are instead included as regular, non-foils. The deck lists are identical.

(For a full list of contents, check out https://wixoss.fandom.com/wiki/WXK-D05_Dual_Paleness - note that the first 20 cards listed are the Remember deck list - Tama’s cards are the second 20)

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Tamayorihime, New Moon Miko - LRIG - level 0 / limit 0
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Tamayorihime, First Moon Miko - LRIG - level 1 / limit 2
On-Play Discard 1 card from your hand: Gain .
(Everything to the left of the : in an [On-Play] ability is the cost. You may choose to not activate the ability by not paying its cost.)
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Servant O - Signi - level 1 / 2000 power - Origin Spirit
[Guard] (By discarding this card from your hand, prevent damage from a LRIG's attack once)
Constant: [Multi Ener] (While paying an ener cost, this card can pay for any one color of your choice)
Life Burst: [Ener Charge 1]
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String Phone, Great Knowledge Play - Signi - level 1 / 3000 - War Spirit: Playground Equipment
No effect.
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Snow Sled, Great Knowledge Play - Signi - level 1 / 3000 - War Spirit: Playground Equipment
On-Play: Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Return them to the top of your deck in any order. (If there are 2 or less cards in your deck, look at all of them.)
Life Burst: Draw 1 card.
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Level 1 LRIG: Tamayorihime, First Moon Miko
Your level 1 is identical to the level 1s found in most other Key format starter decks. In these starter decks, it makes for a slow “Discard 1 card, then draw a card”, since the starters all have “pay a coin, draw a card” as their level 2 effect. You don’t have to discard, but most games you should easily be able to find something to trade in, either a copy of your spell, or a high-level Signi (you’ll draw more of them, don’t worry).

Level 1 Signi
This deck contains the obligatory level 1 Servant and 3000 power / no effect Signi (in this deck String Phone, Great Knowledge Play), as well as Snow Sled, Great Knowledge Play as your only level 1 with an effect on the field. Looking at the top 3 and rearranging them is useful later, but for now it doesn’t do much, since if you use your level 2 LRIG effect to draw a card (or you get a ‘draw a card’ life burst), you’re drawing all 3 cards you see on your next turn.

Level 1 Arts, etc.
Nope.


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Tamayorihime, Young Moon Miko - LRIG - level 2 / limit 4
On-Play : Draw 1 card.
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Servant D4 - Signi - level 2 / 5000 power - Origin Spirit
[Guard] (By discarding this card from your hand, prevent damage from a LRIG's attack once)
Constant: [Multi Ener] (While paying an ener cost, this card can pay for any one color of your choice)
Life Burst: Add 1 <Origin Spirit> SIGNI from your trash to your hand.
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Kamakura, Benevolent Play - Signi - level 2 / 5000 - War Spirit: Playground Equipment
Auto: When this SIGNI attacks, you may return this SIGNI from your field to your hand. If you do, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a SIGNI, put it onto the field downed as an attacking SIGNI.
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Clean Boundary - Arts -  [Main Phase] - cost:
Return up to 2 of your <Playground Equipment> SIGNI to your hand. Then, for each SIGNI returned to your hand this way, return 1 of your opponent's SIGNI to the hand.
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Level 2 LRIG: Tamayorihime, First Moon Miko
Draw a card if you have the coin. Easy.

Level 2 Signi
In addition to your Servant, your level 2 Signi is Kamakura, Benevolent Play. This one is a bit of an odd duck, as its ability is really dangerous to use here, but is one of the decks few sources of (weird) card draw. Returning it to you hand and getting a replacement Signi from on top of your deck means that you effectively drew a card (because you have the new Signi in play, and the Kamakura now in your hand), but if the top of your deck is a spell, you already returned Kamakura, and now all you have is an open Signi zone for your opponent to attack through. Similarly, if you reveal a Signi with a level higher than your LRIG, it goes to the trash instead of coming into play (you don’t even get its on-play, if it has one), resulting in, once again, an empty Signi lane. So unless you know what’s on top of your deck (with Snow Sled, or Tama’s level 4 LRIG action), it’s usually best to not activate the effect, despite how tempting the “card draw” may be (it is a ‘may’ effect, so you can still attack and not use the effect).

Level 2 Arts, etc.
Clean Boundary is playable here (and can even let you reuse a Snow Sled if you’re itching to use Kamakura’s effect). As long as you have 2 playground equipment Signi, it returns two of your opponent’s Signi to their hand, opening up two lanes to attack through without giving your opponent extra ener. You’ll often have plenty of other ways to clear opposing Signi in the late game, so you’re better off cashing this in for damage early. It also lets you reuse on-play effects, but mostly its effect is just to open 2 lanes during your main phase.

 
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Tamayorihime, Thunder Miko - LRIG - level 3 / limit 7
On-Play: Gain .
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Pakkuncho, Praiseworthy Play - Signi - level 3 / 8000 - War Spirit: Playground Equipment
Auto: When this SIGNI attacks, you may return this SIGNI from the field to your hand. If you do, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a SIGNI, put it onto the field.
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Snowball Fight, Praiseworthy Play - Signi - level 3 / 7000 - War Spirit: Playground Equipment
On-Play: When this SIGNI enters the field from your deck on your turn, return 1 of your opponent's level 3 or less SIGNI to their hand.
Life Burst: Draw 1 card.
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Level 3 LRIG: Tamayorihime, Thunder Miko
2 coins GET.

Level 3 Signi
Pakkuncho, Praiseworthy Play is another Kamakura, except it doesn’t force the Signi you put into play to attack. But beyond weird card draw, level 3 also starts to give you access to some payoffs for putting Signi into play from your deck. Snowball Fight, Praiseworthy Play does nothing when you play it normally, but if you play it from your deck, it returns an opposing level 3 or less Signi to your opponent’s hand, which is useful even into level 4 (most level 4 LRIGs have a limit of 11, meaning there’ll always be at least one level 3 to return). You won’t be able to do much this turn, however, unless you have a stray Snow Sled, and get somewhat lucky.

Level 3 Arts, etc.
If you didn’t fire off Clean Boundary last turn, best to do it now. You’ll also have the coins to deploy your Key, but unless your opponent has a Servant or two in their ener zone, you might as well hold it until level 4 and keep up your defensive Arts.

 

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Tamayorihime, Daybreak Miko - LRIG - level 4 / limit 11
Constant: As long as there is a "Yuzuki Key, Prospering Flame" on your field, this LRIG gains [Double Crush].
On-Play: You discard any number of cards from your hand. If you discarded 1 or more cards this way, for each card discarded, search your deck for 1 <Playground Equipment> SIGNI, reveal it, add it to your hand, and shuffle your deck.
Action [1/Turn] Attack Phase Main Phase : Look at the top card of your deck.
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Keropachin, Master Play - Signi - level 4 / 10000 - War Spirit: Playground Equipment
On-Play : Put 1 of your other SIGNI from the field on top of your deck: Return 1 of your opponent's SIGNI to their hand.
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Snow Daruma, Master Play - Signi - level 4 / 12000 - War Spirit: Playground Equipment
Auto [1/Turn]: When 1 of your SIGNI is returned from your field to your hand, you may pay . If you do, return 1 of your opponent's SIGNI to their hand.
On-Play: If this SIGNI entered the field from the deck, draw 1 card or [Ener Charge 1].
Life Burst: Return 1 of your opponent's level 4 or less SIGNI to their hand. 
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Victim Defense - Arts - [Main Phase] [Attack Phase] - cost:0
Bet - (You may pay when using this ARTS.)
Choose 1 of the following 2. If you bet, choose 2 instead.
① Until end of turn, 1 of your opponent's SIGNI gets "can't attack." You discard 2 cards. (If there are 1 or less cards in your hand when you use this, discard all of them.)
② Add 1 SIGNI from your trash to your hand.
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Erase Refrain - Arts - [Main Phase] [Attack Phase] - cost:
Bet -
Until end of turn, 1 of your opponent's SIGNI loses its abilities. If you bet, instead all of your opponent's SIGNI lose their abilities. (Abilities gained and abilities of SIGNI that entered the field after this ARTS was used are not lost.)
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Modern Boundary - Arts - [Main Phase] [Attack Phase] - cost:
Declare 1 number. Then, reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. If there is a SIGNI whose level is the declared number, return 1 of your opponent's SIGNI to their hand. Return the cards revealed by this effect to the top of your deck in any order.
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Yuzuki Key, Prospering Flame - Key - cost:x2
Constant: Your LRIG gains the following ability.
         [ Action Exceed 1: This turn your opponent can't [Guard] with level 1 SIGNI. ]
On-Play: Put up to 2 colorless cards from your opponent's ener zone into the trash.
Action Put this key from the field into the LRIG trash: Put 1 card from your opponent's ener zone into the trash. 
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Level 4 LRIG: Tamayorihime, Daybreak Miko
The on-play ability is less useful than it may seem, as I’ve found you tend to enter level 4 with a pretty well set up hand already (although it does cash in unneeded copies of your spell). That being said, your ideal formation is 1 of each level 4, as well as a Kamakura or Pakkuncho, so this can help set that up. The constant is a nice bonus, and means that you should play out your Key immediately; don’t try and be cute and hold it for later. Once your opponent sees your LRIG’s text, they’ll know what Key you have, and they won’t leave any Servants in their ener zone for you to hit, so just play it and get the double crush. Finally, the action is good at letting you know when it’s safe to Kamakura/Pakkuncho, and also all but guarantees you hit off Modern Boundary.

Level 4 Signi
You now have access to your level 4 Signi, but more importantly, now the only misses off Kamakura/Pakkuncho are your spell, which you can avoid with Tama’s action. Your level 4s play into this core strategy as well. Keropachin, Master Play not only lets you return an opposing Signi to hand, but also sets up the top of your deck for Kamakura/Pakkuncho (it can even put a Snowball Fight on top so you can activate its effect when you flip it on your attack). And Snow Daruma, Master Play lets you bounce an opposing Signi when one of your Kamakura/Pakkuncho flips to your hand (its second ability when it comes into play from your deck is nice, but not worth setting up in the way Snowball Fight is). Return to hand removal (bounce) is interesting in Wixoss. Unlike banishing, it opens up lanes without giving your opponent ener, but it also lets your opponent reuse their on-play effects, and also means that you’re giving your opponent back the same cards they had last turn to re-establish their offense. Playing Tama, you want to return lower-impact Signi, while banishing the cards that are central to your opponent’s offensive. This can be tricky, as returning an offensive card when your opponent isn’t in a situation to set it up can be fine, and returning a setup card when your opponent has more offense in hand can be devastating. That being said, you’re also putting on a ton of offensive pressure yourself, so it’s a race to see who can land the last blow. Tama has a fairly slow game in the early levels, but at level 4, you’re off to the races.

Level 4 Arts, etc.
As noted above, just play the key. In most games, the ener trashing effect isn’t going to accomplish much, so it’s better to treat it as a card that gives your LRIG double crush and shuts off half your opponent’s guards. After that, all that’ll be in your LRIG deck are 3 defensive Arts. Technically, you had access to your defensive Arts at level 3, but you’re more likely to use them here. Victim Defense does what it usually does: it stops one Signi attack and brings back a Servant to stop a LRIG attack. Tama does have a bit of trouble using it, as she lacks easy card advantage that many other decks have access to. Still, it does its job. Erase Refrain also does its job, but only barely. It’s low-cost, which is nice, but it only hits a small subset of effects that matter. However, between on-attack banish effects, Assassin, Double Crush, and Lancer, chances are good you’ll find at a point in most games where it can save you from one or two damage. Although you’ll often find yourself wishing it was a little more reliable at stopping damage. Finally, Modern Boundary has been a great Arts from almost the beginning of the game, and is still rock-solid here. Not only does it bounce an opposing Signi, stopping an attack and opening a lane, but you can make sure you hit by looking at the top of your deck with Tama’s action, and it lets you rearrange the top 3 cards of your deck, setting you up for your attack next turn. It is a bit weaker in the Key format, as it tends to be easier to open multiple lanes to attack through each turn. Still great, though (and the art is terrific as well).



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Flying Trigger - Spell - cost:
Choose 1 of the following 2.
① Put 1 of your <Playground Equipment> SIGNI from the field into the trash. If you do, your opponent returns 1 of their SIGNI to their hand.
② [Ener Charge 1] (Put the top card of your deck into the ener zone)
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Flying Trigger:
There’s not really an ideal level to deploy Flying Trigger; deploy it whenever you have a spare Signi to discard. It opens up a lane to attack through, which is a better effect than most starter deck spells, but costs 2 cards to do so (the Signi you trash and the spell itself), and this deck has trouble drawing enough extra cards to absorb this cost. The deck also doesn’t need much ener, making the enercharge mode near useless. Getting rid of one of your own Signi to return an opposing Signi to hand is basically the same effect as Keropachin, which is a Signi instead of a spell, synergizes with your top-of-deck effects, and doesn't let your opponent choose to return a Servant or meaningful on-play effect Signi. To make matters worse, Flying Trigger is the only miss you have off Kamakura/Pakkuncho once you're at level 4. The best value you'll get off of this is discarding it to the level 1 or level 4 LRIG on-play effects. Most starter deck spells are mediocre; in the context of this deck, this one flat out bad.

Wrap-up:
Tama definitely has one of the most unique decks and gameplan of the 5th anniversary decks, and its cards combine into a powerful attacking engine. That being said, it does have some weaknesses that hold it back. Its defensive Arts come up a bit short, as they’re either situational or only stop one damage at a time, and they don’t hold up well to sustained pressure. You need to keep up your offense and try to race your opponent, but then you run into the decks biggest vulnerability: it doesn’t have much in the ways of card draw or other card advantage. Kamakura/Pakkuncho can help maintain your hand, but they only really come online at level 4. Worse, they’re also the core of your offense, which means if your opponent removes them or otherwise blocks them from attacking, it can be a huge tempo loss for you. Being able to deny you card draw at the same time as protecting their life cloth, and even potentially opening up their own lanes to attack down is really hard for this deck to deal with, and unfortunately the rest of the deck doesn’t do a whole lot without Kamakura/Pakkuncho. The deck is still fine, especially if you’re just playing it against other 5th anniversary decks (I’d say it’s stronger than Carnival and Piruluk, but a notch below Ril and Guzuko), but be aware of its weaknesses, and plan accordingly.

Wixoss Starter Deck: Dual Blood - Carnival

Dual Blood is the Wixoss TCG’s 29th preconstructed deck, and 6th released for the “Key” format, and features 2 separate decks: a red Ril deck, and a black Carnival deck. The Carnival deck focuses on Image Spirit: Valor Signi. It was reprinted as part of Wixoss’s 5th anniversary, at the lower price of 555 yen (and the head scratcher of a name of “WXK-DF05 Start WIXOSS with Carnival and Win by Using the Graveyard!” - note Wixoss doesn't have a 'graveyard', just the trash) - the only difference is that the reprint does not include the two foils (Carnival †QA† and one copy of Xiahou Dun, One Eye of the Wei Army). These cards are instead included as regular, non-foils. The deck lists are identical.

(For a full list of contents, check out https://wixoss.fandom.com/wiki/WXK-D06_Dual_Blood) - note that the first 20 cards listed are the Carnival deck list - Ril’s cards are the second 20)

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Carnival †0† - LRIG - level 0 / limit 0
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Carnival †PA† - LRIG - level 1 / limit 2
On-Play Discard 1 card from your hand: Gain . -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servant O4 - Signi - level 1 / 2000 power - Origin Spirit
[Guard] (By discarding this card from your hand, prevent damage from a LRIG's attack once)
Constant: [Multi Ener] (While paying an ener cost, this card can pay for any one color of your choice)
Life Burst: Add 1 <Origin Spirit> SIGNI from your trash to your hand.
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Cao Ren, Court Advisor of the Wei Army - Signi - level 1 / 3000 power - Image Spirit: Valor
No effect
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Zhang Liao, Two-Handed Axe of the Wei Army - Signi - level 1 / 1000 power - Image Spirit: Valor
On-Play: Until end of turn, 1 of your other <Valor> SIGNI gets +1000 power for every 2 <Valor> SIGNI in your trash. This effect only applies up to 20 cards.
Life Burst: Draw 1 card. 
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Nanashi, That Hook - Key - cost: 
On-Play: All players put the top 5 cards of their deck into the trash.
Action [1/Turn] : Add 1 SIGNI with the same color as your LRIG from your trash to your hand.
Action Attack Phase Put this key from the field into the LRIG trash: Until end of turn, all of your opponent's SIGNI get −2000 power for each 1 level of your opponent's LRIG. (SIGNI that entered the field after this ability was used are unaffected by this effect.)
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Bad End - Arts - [Main Phase] - cost:
Encore - (You may use this card by paying its additional encore cost. If you do, this additionally gets "Return this card to the LRIG Deck.")
Put the top 5 cards of your deck into the trash. Then, if 5 black cards were put into the trash this way, add 1 black SIGNI from your trash to your hand. 
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Tactical Punish - Arts - [Main Phase] [Attack Phase] -  cost:
Until end of turn, 1 of your opponent's SIGNI gets −3000 power. If there are 15 or more cards in your trash, instead it gets −8000 power. (A SIGNI with power 0 or less is banished by rule.)
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Level 1 LRIG: Carnival †PA†
Your level 1 is identical to the level 1s found in most other Key format starter decks. You can discard a card to gain a coin. In these starter decks, it basically makes for a slow “Discard 1 card, then draw a card”, since the starters all have “pay a coin, draw a card” as their level 2 effect. You want plenty of Signi in your trash with this deck, so even if your hand is decent, it’s often still worth it to discard for a coin. The spells in these starter decks are all pretty bad, especially in multiples, so if you have one in your opening hand, it’s almost always correct to discard it for a coin.

Level 1 Signi
Oof. Not much going on here. You have your obligatory level 1 Servant, and your obligatory 3000 power/no effect Signi, in this case Cao Ren, Court Advisor of the Wei Army, who has some truly alarming spinal flexibility. Zhang Liao, Two-Handed Axe of the Wei Army is a pretty lackluster effect level 1, as it does stone nothing early in the game, and gives only a modest power boost later on. At this level, you’d rather either a card that helps you get in for damage early, or has an effect that helps set up your late-game strategies, and Zhang Liao does neither.

Level 1 Arts, etc.
Carnival does start with 3 coins, so you can play out your Key, Nanashi, That Hook, right away. It's usually better to save it for level 2, since sometimes you put a Servant into your opponent's trash with its effect and they can lifeburst it back with a lucky Servant *4 burst (which would otherwise do nothing in the early game), but if you're like me, you tend to forget to do that so you might as well get it out of the way at level 1. You can also play and encore Bad End. In this case, there's no reason to wait, since putting a Servant in your trash for Servant O4's lifeburst to hit gives you a small but noticeable advantage on the small chance it's flipped by your opponent's first attack. Keep in mind that you want 10 or more Valour Signi in your trash when Carnival grows to level 4 (Servants don’t count!). Rather unusually, this deck has a defensive Art that’s at its best at level 1 or 2 - Tactical Punish. It does get a power-up when you have 15 or more cards in your trash, but the best time to use it will be on your opponent’s first attack phase, when it will save you a life cloth and open up an opposing lane for you to attack through. Keep in mind that preventing early damage can mess up your ener resources, so ener charge accordingly.
*A brief aside about Bad End: Bad End is honestly kind of… bad. It fills your trash, but a single Servant being among the cards it sees stops it from having any effect past that. I haven’t calculated your exact odds of actually being able to use the second part of its effect, but they aren’t good. Wixoss has plenty of main deck self-mill cards (*milling is tcg lingo for putting cards from your deck into your trash), so devoting an Arts slot to this effect is unfortunate, when you'd rather have another defensive effect.



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Carnival †SA† - LRIG - level 2 / limit 4
On-Play : Draw 1 card.
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Servant D - Signi - level 2 / 5000 power - Origin Spirit
[Guard] (By discarding this card from your hand, prevent damage from a LRIG's attack once)
Constant: [Multi Ener] (While paying an ener cost, this card can pay for any one color of your choice)
Life Burst: [Ener Charge 1]
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Parsifal, Thrown Spear of the Round Table - Signi - level 2 / 5000 power - Image Spirit: Valor
Constant: As long as there are 3 or more <Valor> SIGNI in your trash, this SIGNI gets +3000 power. 
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Phantom Garden - Arts - [Main Phase] - cost:
Bet - (You may pay when using this ARTS.)
Add up to 3 SIGNI with the same color as your LRIG and different levels from your trash to your hand. If you bet, add up to 4 cards to your hand instead of 3.
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Level 2 LRIG: Carnival †SA†
Draw a card. Just do it. Also, her limit is 4, so play 2 level 1s and a level 2, same as all the other starter deck level 2s.

Level 2 Signi
In addition to your Servant, your level 2 is Parsifal, Thrown Spear of the Round Table. It’s a standard starter deck level 2 that gets a small power boost if you’re playing to the deck’s theme. In this case, between Bad End and your Key, this Signi should always have 8000 power, which is nice, I suppose.

Level 2 Arts, etc.
Not much going on here, although note that because of all your early self-mill, you should have enough cards in your trash to make use of Phantom Garden much earlier than other decks, which can be helpful if you’re short on Signi to fill in all your Signi zones.



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Carnival †TA† - LRIG - level 3 / limit 7
On-Play : Gain .
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Gaain, Hawk Catcher of the Round Table - Signi - level 3 / 8000 power - Image Spirit: Valor
Constant: As long as there are 5 or more <Valor> SIGNI in your trash, this SIGNI gets +4000 power.
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Xiahou Yuan, Red Bow of the Wei Army - Signi - level 3 / 7000 power - Image Spirit: Valor
On-Play Discard 1 card from your hand: If it is your turn, put 1 level 3 or less <Valor> SIGNI from your trash onto your field. 
Life Burst: Draw 1 card.
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Level 3 LRIG: Carnival †TA†
You don’t really need this coin, all it’ll be used for is encoring Bad End again, which isn’t all that necessary, even if you run out of cards in your deck and have to shuffle away your trash when you refresh. You can get it if you have the spare ener, but don’t worry if you have other things you’d rather spend your ener on (like your Key effect).

Level 3 Signi
Gaain, Hawk Catcher of the Round Table is the level 3 version of Parsifal, and like Parsifal, Gaain should easily always have her power boost, making her a 12000 power Signi. Xiahou Yuan, Red Bow of the Wei Army is a decent bit of utility, she can help trade down a high level card for a lower level card if you need to squeeze a Signi in under your LRIG’s limit, and she also activates the effect of Xiahou Dun, One Eye of the Wei Army at level 4. Unfortunately, you still don’t have any real offensive effect, so you’re stuck filling in lanes until level 4.

Level 3 Arts, etc.
Again, much the same as level 2, you don’t have a whole lot of action here. Phantom Garden remains an option, and remember this is your last turn to get the 10 Valour Signi into your trash for your level 4 LRIG effect. This is also the turn when you need to think about what you want to do with your Key. It can be a useful form of long-game card advantage, or you can trade it in to cripple an opposing board, weakening some and outright banishing others. Try to establish which direction the game is going, and use your Key accordingly.



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Carnival †QA† - LRIG - level 4 / limit 11
On-Play If there are 10 or more <Valor> SIGNI in your trash, put 1 of your opponent's SIGNI into the trash.
Action [1/Turn] Put the top 3 cards of your deck into the trash: Until end of turn, 1 of your opponent's SIGNI gets −5000 power.
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Xiahou Dun, One Eye of the Wei Army - Signi - level 4 / 12000 power - Image Spirit: Valor
Auto: Whenever 1 of your <Valor> SIGNI enters the field from the trash, until end of turn, 1 of your opponent's SIGNI gets −3000 power.Auto: When this SIGNI attacks, until end of turn, 1 of your opponent's SIGNI gets −5000 power. If there are 20 or more cards in your trash, instead it gets −8000 power. 
Life Burst: Until end of turn, 1 of your opponent's SIGNI gets −10000 power. 
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Lancelot, Immorality of the Round Table - Signi - level 4 / 10000 power - Image Spirit: Valor
Action : Put 1 black SIGNI from your trash onto the field. 
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Recycle Deads - Spell - cost:
Choose 1 of the following 2.
① Put 1 of your <Valor> SIGNI from the field into the trash. If you do, put the top 2 cards of your deck into the trash. Then, put 1 <Valor> SIGNI from your trash onto the field.
② [Ener Charge 1] (Put the top card of your deck into the ener zone)
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Fate Struggle - Arts - [Main Phase] [Attack Phase] - cost: x2 x2 
This ARTS can only be used if there are 20 or more cards in your trash.
Banish up to 2 of your opponent's SIGNI.
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Level 4 LRIG: Carnival †QA†
This deck is a bit on the weaker side, but that’s certainly not the fault of your level 4 LRIG! If you’ve properly filled your trash, Carnival trashes an opposing Signi on-play, and her action effect both keeps your trash well-stocked, even after a refresh, and weakens an opposing Signi. While you can often use it in combination with your other power reducing effects, even on its own it is surprisingly powerful. Often, even in the late game, players will have to use the occasional level 1 or 2 Signi to fill in a lane, just because that’s all that’s left in their hand, or they’re trying to keep a higher level Signi in reserve to play next turn, and Carnival’s effect eats these Signi for no cost. It can be awkward when you don’t want to put cards in your trash (when it would force a deck Refresh), which means you can’t get the -5000 power and your LRIG effectively has no text. It’s bad when it happens, but it’s more a case of having two options and weighing which is better, rather than being trapped in a situation where you don’t have options at all.

Level 4 Signi
Like most starter decks, this deck has one level 4 that’s the core of the deck’s offense, and one level 4 that plays backup. In this case, Xiahou Dun, One Eye of the Wei Army is lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, trumpet, and trombone, and Lancelot, Immorality of the Round Table is backup vocals and sometimes shakes a tambourine. This deck at level 4 feels kind of odd to play, and Xiahou Dun is a big reason why. On its own, you’re rarely going to banish anything with the auto effect, as your only way of bringing Signi from your trash to your field is with other Signi effects (Lancelot and Xiahou Yuan), and since you can only freely trash Signi from your field once per turn (Remove), you end up stuck with a field with no slots open to return cards to. Most turns, you’ll only activate the effect once, in a pinch you might activate it twice. And because of how you get Signi back, you can’t have multiples of Xiahou Dun and stack her effect, meaning you’re really only getting -6000 power at best, and more realistically only -3000. Furthermore, -5000 on attack is not that impressive, and even -8000 isn’t going to get much damage through. Generally, -8000 can snipe a stray level 3 on your opponent’s field, although especially with starter decks, sometimes even the level 3s will have 10000 or more power. So all these together don’t count for much, but combined along with the once-per-turn -5000 effect of your level 4 LRIG, you actually have quite a lot of power reduction, and a decent amount of freedom with how you can aim it. Often, you'll open one lane before combat, and threaten to open another lane if your opponent doesn’t stop Xiahou Dun (or two of them) from attacking. And, this being a black deck, you have plenty of ways of returning Xiahou Dun if your opponent ever gets rid of it: the Recycle Deads spell and Lancelot are your two main ways, as well as your Key if it hasn’t been cashed in for its power reducing effect yet (Lancelot and your Key can even bring it back from the ener zone, as you pay costs before choosing targets). Combined, the pieces of this deck do a good job establishing a strong offensive pressure that will hopefully wear down your opponent’s defenses quickly enough that the big weakness of this deck doesn’t drag you down.

Level 4 Arts, etc.
This deck’s Arts selection is its big weakness. Fate Struggle is quite strong, although its timing can be tricky, as 20 cards in your trash is a lot; at that point, you’re realistically a turn or two away from refreshing your trash into your deck, especially milling 3 cards every time you use Carnival’s level 4 action. That same action effect, along with Bad End, can restock your trash quickly for some effects, but it’s not going to put you back to 20 fast enough. That being said, generally you’ll have no trouble finding a good opportunity to fire it off before you refresh. Banishing 2 Signi with no questions asked is a terrific play on your opponent’s attack phase, as it stops even high power cards from Green (or Ril), and it opens up 2 lanes for you to counterattack through. Again, you still have the 2 modes available to your Key, but after that, your options dry up quickly. Bad End is badly underpowered for an Arts, and Phantom Garden is nearly useless in this deck, as you have a ton of other cards that bring back cards from your trash (Lancelot, Recover Deads, Nanashi Key, and, to a lesser extent, Xiahou Yuan). At the end of far too many games, you’ll find yourself looking murderously at your unused Phantom Garden and wishing it was something, anything you could have used defensively.

Wrap-up:
Carnival has some solid offense and card advantage engines to keep you going into the late game: her level 4 LRIG is quite strong, her Key is superb, and  Xiahou Dun is more than the sum of her parts. All this is combined with plenty of ways to put cards in your trash, and plenty of ways to use them once they’re there, either by returning them to your hand or field, or just counting them to enable effects. You also have a reasonably strong defensive Art in Fate Struggle, and a decent but not great one in Tactical Punish (they’re both pretty inflexible about when you can use them, which can hurt in some games). That’s balanced out by some less than optimal cards. Most decks have one Art that feels weak or unneeded, this deck has two. Bad End helps you fill your trash, but there’s tons of cards in Wixoss that let you do that without eating up a valuable Arts slot. And Phantom Garden, underwhelming in most decks it finds itself in, is at its absolute worst here. Coupled with the fact that this deck doesn’t really do anything until level 4, and you have a deck with some strong pluses, that are dragged down by weaknesses in other parts of the deck until the end result is below par. Of the five 5th anniversary decks, this one is in the lower tier. It’s also one of two black decks, for some reason (green didn’t get a deck), and Guzuko is a better deck overall - even if her offense is slightly weaker at level 4, she has a better game in the early levels, and her effects are better balanced between offense, defense, and card advantage. Carnival’s deck is still not bad enough that I’d avoid buying it if you like the looks of it, and if you're not just battling stock starter decks, Carnival also has some top tier cards in various booster sets. This is another deck, like Piruluk, that will be weaker and more difficult to win with out of the box, so know what you’re getting into if you do decide that this is the starter deck for you.