Beginner Tips #1: Basics of Playing at Level 0
Hey guys this will be my first article about Weiss Schwarz and for this first week I’ll be talking about how you can improve your play starting at level 0 :] Please note this is all based off of my own experience of the game and what has worked best for me through playing at my locals.
Level 0 and advantage
In Weiss Schwarz, Level 0 is a very important part of the game as it is one of the times where you can easily build up hand advantage. Because:
- With 2 clock phases over two turns, your hand size goes to 8 by playing only one character per turn. This gives another card freedom to commit to the field for supports and therefore you are able to enter level 1 with maximum hand size.
- It’s easiest to run over your opponents characters due to the lack of level 0 counter cards.
I hope you’re clocking every turn if your hand wouldn’t 7 or more cards at the end of the turn before level 3 
Don’t overextend on your first few turns
Level 0 is NOT, however, the time to get ahead of your opponent in soul damage or massive amounts of stock (in a normal deck, at least.). The biggest mistake beginner players make is playing and attacking with all the level 0 character cards they can, as soon as possible. This is bad for a number of reasons:
- Your hand size shrinks considerably. One would say that it builds field presence, however…
- Your opponent will likely get to 6 or more damage after your attacks, and as a result, clock to level up and in turn play higher level cards which more than likely will be able to run over your level 0s. All your field presence… Gone! In short, weak field presence is not needed. You’d rather someone direct attack you rather than run over your stuff.
- A higher likelihood to trigger your climax cards, early game. If you happen to trigger a climax card on, say, your first attack… It’ll be pretty hard to pay it out of there seeing as many cards are stock efficient at level 0. One could gain advantage by using all the stock with particular cards but remember.. Your resources and hand size are likely burnt after playing all those level 0s. Advantage-milking level 0 effects often require 2 stock or more to regain only 1 card in advantage. In that case, why not just attack with 1 character?
Instead, aim to run over your opponents characters instead with 1 character a turn and avoid unnecessary direct attacks.
Leave your opponent at 5 damage
Because of the fact that you want to get to level 1 first in order to play stronger characters, you should always aim to deal the least soul damage possible without leaving them at 6 damage (6 damage because they can usually just clock to level up). For example, your opponent at level 0 has 2 empty front row slots and 1 character that you cant run over. What you do here is situational. If your opponent is at 4 damage, I would aim to side attack the character I can’t run over while hoping not to get a soul trigger off my attack so that it would be leave them at 5 damage. But if your opponent is already at 5 damage, I would go for the direct attack so that my opponent has a higher chance of cancelling the attack.
TL;DR, run over your opponents cards rather than spam direct attacks. Do this while avoiding getting your opponent to 6 damage. In other words, run over as many of your opponents cards as possible while trying to get yourself to level 1 before your opponent.
Thanks for reading the article. I hope this sets some new players off in the right direction :] In the future, I will discuss the ways to achieve gaining advantage at level 0!
Cool article! Just a quick question, I do follow what this post is saying (to an extent XD) but sometimes when I do this I don’t have enough stock for my level ones. I play an AB deck and the only real attacking level 1′s I have is the 7.5k tenshi. And from level two and on wards everything cost stock. So half the time i’m only working with like 2-5 stocks the whole duel cause i’m not generating enough. Should I run more zero cost cards, or am I just not playing the deck right, or do I just suck? Help would be most appreciated!
Most of the time, your hand size is the utmost priority over stock. Every attack you make at level 0 and level up your opponent eventually, will most likely allow your opponent to run over your character (-1′ing you.). You want to minimize this as possible, as you would rather have a +1 card advantage rather than lots of stock but no cards in hand! After all, if you have no cards in hand, in the future you can’t build up stock easily anymore either!
In a deck like Angel Beats just 1-2 stock when you enter level 1 is fine, as long as you get the 1/0 global encore giver Tenshi. Once you have the 1/1 Tenshi on the field, that should give you enough power for level 1, and you get the same power character without making more and more stock. On average, you should generate 5-7 stock during each of level 1-2 UNLESS you are getting rushed really hard to higher levels. (Try to maintain 3 attacks every turn unless you would otherwise end up with 4-5 or less cards in your hand) Also, you can play your level 0′s at higher levels and side attack your opponent’s cards that you can’t run over/am not comfortable running over for stock.
If you are maintaining 3 attacks a turn and still am working with 2-5 stock during the entire game, chances are that you’re very unlucky running out of climaxes early game and your opponent is simply giving you very few turns to build up stock.
If you still have this problem, consider the 1/0 4k Tenshi that gains 500 for every death trait. You don’t have to run the climax combo, but it’s like a cheap 1/0 6k with hand encore most of the time. XD
Also, consider how stock intensive your deck is. Do you use 2/2′s? Those are the least stock-friendly characters of all.
Thanks for your comment!
:O I see, thanks for the help! Another question XD, so at level 0 I see how leaving your opponent at five clock can be really good but. does this also apply to level one and two? Should i aim to leave my opponent at 5 clock at level one and two, or does it only really matter when they are level zero?
And yeah I might try that 1/0 4k tenshi if I pack any next week, it seems pretty good!
For levels 1 and 2, think of it this way: The more turns your opponent gets to create stock before level 3 (or whenever they use it), the more resources they can use to survive with them. So it’s usually not a good idea to force yourself to keep them at 5 damage after level 0. It’s helpful to an extent, but the larger amount of ways to gain advantage/regain advantage at these levels makes it an unreliable way of gaining advantage for yourself (leaving them at 5 damage.)
In other words, I personally feel it only really matters when they are at level zero.
Good luck
Ah okay, I was just wondering. Thanks for replying!!