Deck Tech: Tama!

     -Current commonly used builds in Japan (from booster 6 to booster 9)

Below are 2 main builds that Tama players in Japan employ.

1. Arm-Weapon-Angel

2. Arm-Ancient Weapon-Angel

I will cover the first playstyle first; take a look at the decklists below






There are countless other variations which you will be able to find on the net and try them out, but I've only shown the most recent 2 for reference purposes.

So what is the Arm-Weapon build all about? First of all, looking at the decklist, you will realise that all of them contain Mayu, Arcgain and Valkyrie. This is a common game ender (if you haven't realised by now) and it's relatively simple to execute.

If you really need an explanation on how this works:

 Mayu double turn + Arcgain and 2 other Angels on the field + clear your opponent's field

Simple?

Of course even though with Arcgain's protection over your SIGNI from your opponent's effects, he is free to use ARTS that call SIGNI to the field in response to you. This is especially prevalent in most Ancient Weapon ARTS. What this means is that it's up to your own thinking and skill to play around and anticipate what your opponent is going to do in response to you. Deciding when to grow into level 5 and activating Mayu's exceed 5 effect for the double turn when your opponent is at X number of shields remaining is another key factor in whether or not your game ender will work. I will write a separate guide on this if enough people want it.


On to the main bulk of the deck

The Arm-Weapon build prominently features 2 important cards from the red Tama trial deck; WXD-10 RED HOPE, which are the level 3 and 4 CROSS SIGNI, Heckler, Ballista and Koch, Roaring Gun. 



>Cross< "Koch, Roaring Gun" Right
[Cross Constant]: This SIGNI's power is 15000.
[Cross Constant]: When this SIGNI is  Heaven, you may pay . If you do, crush 1 of your opponent's Life Cloth.
 Life Burst: Banish one SIGNI with power 10000 or less.




>Cross< "Heckler, Ballista" Left
[Cross On-Play]: Banish one of your opponent's SIGNI with power 8000 or less.

These 2 SIGNI are usually used for the level 4 mid-game push when both players are already capable to responding and protecting their shields. Playing these 2 out will either result in your opponent being forced to play ARTS to protect their shields or allow to deal them substantial damage. Why these 2 are a viable option at level 4 is due to Tama's powerful search capabilities. Valkyrie can search the deck for Koch, Roaring Gun as she is a level 3 SIGNI. Tamayorihime, Vermilion Miko is able to call  Heckler, Ballista using her exceed 2 ability, which brings to the field ANY SIGNI. 

A commonly used card to combo those 2 is Energe, Original Spear



What she does is that after paying 2 white ener during your main phase, ALL your opponent SIGNI are sent to the trash so long as they are banished this turn. This includes both battle phase banishing and main phase banishing using effects. Are you catching on? That's right. Koch, Roaring Gun has a CROSS on play ability that banishes one of your opponent SIGNI that is of 8000 power and below. Following which, you simply clear the rest of your opponent's field during the attack phase and proceed to crush a shield through the empty hole. Upon which, the HEAVEN effect of the CROSS SIGNIs activate, allowing you to pay 1 additional red ener to crush 1 more shield.

Sounds pretty easy right? It is. All you need is to gauge when your opponent is least able to react to that particular set-up.

I will now go through the lower leveled SIGNI and the early game.

The first thing you ought to notice about the level 1 Arm SIGNI in the above decks are the 2 kinds of bows used: Bow, Shooting Bow and Bonya, Small Bow. Now before you starting asking what's so good about being able to look at the top card or top 3 cards of your deck, take a good look at the ARTS used by most if not all of the Tama decks around nowdays. Allow me to introduce you to the best ARTS ever made for Tama: Modern Boundary. 





Use Timing [Main Phase] [Attack Phase] 
Declare a number. Then, reveal the top three cards of your deck. If there is a SIGNI with the same level as the declared number, return one of your opponent's SIGNI to their hand. Return the cards revealed by this effect to the top of your deck in any order.

Do you now see why knowing your top few cards is important? This ARTS is particularly instrumental in both offense and defense. For a low cost of 2 ener, this easily creates a hole in your opponent's field without giving him 1 extra ener to defend for the next immediate turn. I cannot stress any more on how important this card is to ANY Tama deck; get your hands on 1 if not 2 if you intend to go serious on a Tama deck. It is however, a promo card and you will need a bit of extra effort to find it online or buy the SECRET version that is available in WX07. 

Next up we have black SIGNI that look totally out of place in a Tama deck:



Ein=Dagger
[Action] Put this SIGNI into the trash from the field: Until end of turn, one of your opponent's SIGNI gets -1000 power for each of your LRIG's level. (A SIGNI with power 0 or less is banished.)
 Life Burst: Draw one card.

This card is usually used for the early game push at either level 1 or 2; your opponent will most of the time have at least 1 SIGNI with 1000 or 2000 power on the field at those stages, and you can use this SIGNI's effect to open an additional hole to poke at his shields, as he is most likely to not have any response due to a lack of ener at the early game. Alternatively, this SIGNI can be used at level 4 or 5 to have 1 of your opponent's SIGNI lose 4000 or 5000 power, followed by which you may choose to activate Ancient Surprise's 3rd ability, which then allows you to rid the field of an opponent's SIGNI with 12000 power. 



Code Anti Doronjo
[Constant]: When this SIGNI is banished, until end of turn, one of your opponent's SIGNI gets -2000 power. (A SIGNI with power 0 or less is banished)
 Life Burst: Draw one card.

This is another SIGNI that is commonly found in Ancient Weapon decks, yet we see it here. This is due to Tama's heavy reliance on deck searching effects, where the SPELL Get Index comes in very handy. Yes, Get Index is used to banish this SIGNI, thereby allowing you to not only search your deck for a white SIGNI that you need, but also to cause an opponent's SIGNI to lose 2000 power. This is extremely useful to gain an early advantage where you deal damage and replenish your hand for the next turn. 


The second build is as such:











For this kind of a playstyle, we're met with new unfamiliar SIGNI. As you've guessed by now, Tama is never meant to be played as a mono-coloured deck. Feel free to think otherwise, I might be wrong. The current popular way to play her is to tap on her amazing search potential and use it to consistently execute effects of other colours and deal your opponent some serious damage. As such, she is extremely versatile and flexible, go ahead and try out other combinations of your preference.

These decks are mainly Black-White, with many of the same cards as we've encountered earlier on.

What are the key non-white cards we see here then?




Code Anti Marsface
[Action]  Banish one of your other <Ancient Weapon> SIGNI: Until end of turn, one of your opponent's SIGNI gets -7000 power.
[Action]  Put two of your other <Ancient Weapon> SIGNI on the field into the trash: Until end of turn, all of your opponent'sSIGNI get -10000 power.

This card is present due to the fact that the deck has a significant amount of Ancient Weapon cards in it, and Tama has tremendous draw power if used correctly. This SIGNI therefore has a lot of free fodder to send to the trash and wreck your opponent's field.





Code Anti Palbek
[Action]  : Put 1 SIGNI onto the field from your trash.

This is personally one of my favourite SIGNI. She calls ANYTHING from the trash! How good is that! She was the cornerstone of my deck's level 4 game during CGA 2015. Just couldn't get enough of the Arcgain cycling...hee hee...




Code Anti Arahabaki
[On-Play] Discard 1 <Ancient Weapon> SIGNI from your hand: Put 1 level 3 or more <Ancient Weapon> SIGNI onto the field from your trash.
 Life Burst: [Ener Charge 1]

Play this SIGNI out during your opponent's attack phase with either Ancient Surprise or Grave Awake, use her effect to get another of her out from the trash and 1 other SIGNI for a nice all-round defense of your empty field. 


I believe that I've covered most of what needs to be said about the above decks, hope you found this deck tech useful and that it's given you a much better idea of how to use this loud and annoying twintailed loli. See you guys soon (maybe at the upcoming shop tourneys) and who knows, you might just be the one to come up with a brand-new and powerful deck build that will inspire many others to follow and try! If you guys want a another guide on my personal deck, feel free to drop us a notif via email/comment or approach any of us or myself in person at the shop tourney. In the meantime I will be keeping up with the Tama's general playstyle and the Japanese meta Tama. 



Until then, Leggo Scrubs~
   -tamacannotplayone