Beginner Tips #3: Climax Cards, Questions to Ask Yourself / Clock or Not to Clock

Climax cards are the core of Weiss Schwarz. They decide the outcome of a game through their ability to cancel damage, inflict damage and provide advantage with their power or through synergy with other cards. Knowing how to use these cards when they’re in your hand is extremely important. This time with beginner tips, I will explain the different kinds of climax cards (not including trigger icon climax cards) and what is the best thing to do with them when they get in your hand.

【C】 All your Characters get +1000 Power, +1 Soul.

Short Name: 1k1

Usually found on climax cards with trigger icons. Playing it is usually not recommended because you -1 on hand for playing it. At times, it could be worth it to play if you can run over at least 2 characters guaranteed. It’s suggested to clock this climax.

【C】All your Characters get +2 Soul.

Short Name: 2 Soul

Ah… The infamous +2 soul. This climax card always comes with a +2 soul trigger. Playing it -1′s your hand, so it is only advised to use it when you see that your opponents climax:non-climax ratio is low enough that you are able to abuse it and get a lot of damage in. Most of the time, it is advised to clock this climax.

【A】When this card is placed into Climax slot from Hand, draw 1 card, choose 1 of your Characters, during this turn, it gets +2000 Power, +1 Soul.

Short Name: 2k1

One of the better kinds of climax cards (usually a very optimal choice for any deck). This is the most common of climax cards that don’t make you lose net advantage when you play them because you draw a card. It’s not as important to clock this climax as the other ones but they do clog your hand should you draw into too many.

【A】When this card is placed into Climax slot from Hand, place the top card of your Deck into Stock, during this turn, all your Characters get +1 Soul.

Short Name: Stock 1

This one is another climax card that you -1 playing. Because it’s soul, you don’t really have a solid way to regain that advantage. However, because you get 1 stock from playing it, you can use a cost 1 stock 1 bond to get it back, essentially, for free. The biggest demerit of this climax card is that it stocks first, so that mystery card that you stock (you can’t look at), will be deep, deep, in there after your 3 attacks of the turn. There are some climax combos that pay first before triggering though.

—

There are some other special kinds of climax cards however I will not be mentioning them in this article as they are not seen very often (+3 soul draw 1, 1k to all draw 1)

Questions to ask yourself

So it’s your clock phase. It’s probably ideal to clock if you’re not level 3 yet and won’t have a full field and hand by the end of the turn otherwise. You realize that your hand consists of 1 or more climax card. Some good questions to ask yourself during the clock phase are

- How many cards are in my hand? This is quite possibly the biggest deciding factor for whether I (personally) would clock a climax card, or even clock in general. If I can play a climax card and end up with AT LEAST 6 cards in hand with a full field by the end of the turn, I would do it, assuming it won’t make me overswing at end-game level 3.

- How much card advantage will this climax card generate for me? Positive or negative? Usually you would clock a climax card if it is a -1 on play, for example a 1k1 climax. This is assuming you aren’t forcing cards out of your opponent’s hand however. For example, it would be alright to use a 1k+1 if you are able to run over 2-3 characters BECAUSE of it (including forcing cards out of opponents hand such as counters, but make sure the trade is okay). It’s not okay, however, to play a 1k1 just for the sole purpose of having more soul unless it is truly effective and you can afford it. This is why 2k1′s are most widely considered the most versatile climax card to play.

- How many climax cards are out of my opponent’s deck? Will this climax card create ideal numbers? This one is a very hard one to talk about. I like to think that if my opponent has AT LEAST 1:5 ratio in their deck at the time, is the ideal time to use a +2 soul climax while not considering combos. Also, can your hand size afford it? Getting your opponent to higher levels may also make it hard for you to keep up in terms of power which hurts your future handsize, however it hurts their late-game by giving them less turns to build up stock.

- Do I have enough attackers for the turn? This is probably only for deciding between whether to clock something you can play during your turn or the climax card. Pretty obvious, getting the 3 stock per turn is quite crucial. It’s even more crucial during end game.

- Do I have any GOOD climax combos for the situation? Ties in with handsize. A very variable one but I’ll leave it up to your judgment. Can you use effects that will generate advantage? For example, a change or salvage.

- Am I refreshing soon? Quite an obvious question. How much will it help my compression? Can I play it and have it go into the waiting room and if I do, can my handsize afford it? If I clock this climax am I refreshing before my clock goes into the waiting room?

PLEASE NOTE that the above suggestions are not rules, but more of “ideal actions”, at least what I believe. Do leave a comment in the comments section below if there is something you strongly agree with and we can talk about it Developing the judgment of how to use climax cards is your key to becoming a great Weiss player.

That concludes my article about climax cards. I can’t really teach everything about it (let alone say it’s right, because Weiss will fuck you over sometimes). Judgment is everything!