The chapter has been split into 2 parts, but it's easier to discuss them in the same thread IMO

Direct link to second part: What can you do? (part 2)

Previous thread: chapter 58.5

Preface

Among the many Mega Altaria deck archetypes, Altaria-Sylveon has got to be one of the most underused one - which is a pity because it's my favourite archetype.

It's very consistent in terms of draw power and damage output, and it maxes out on the cute factor. Just look at Mega Altaria and the two Sylveons!

In fact, this isn't my first time building Altaria-Sylveon; here's a variant I shared a while back: Highlander

With the release of the new Sylveon, it's time for an upgrade.

Deck list

• 2x Eevee (Boosted Evolution)
• 1x Sylveon (Soothing Ribbon)
• 1x Sylveon ex
• 2x Chingling
• 2x Swablu (Sing)
• 1x Mega Altaria ex
• 1x Rocky Helmet
• 1x Lucky Egg
• 1x Protective Poncho
• 1x Elegant Cape
• 1x Professor's Research
• 1x Sabrina
• 1x Cyrus
• 1x Copycat
• 2x Lisia
• 1x Training Area

Honestly, this deck isn't optimised. I'm still not completely certain which set of pokemon tools should go into the deck.

Deck building rationale

Disclaimer: I'm just going assume that you are a veteran and skip obvious inclusions. (But feel free to ask about the deck in the comments!)

Soothing Ribbon Sylveon is the main upgrade to this deck. It is able to heal for 30 HP anywhere on your board, and gives up only 1 prize point if it gets knocked out! This is an immediate upgrade over Indeedee in Mega Altaria decks.

Furthermore, with Training Area in play, Sylveon can hit for 70 damage, allowing you to one-shot Oricorio.

The 4 pokemon tools all have their uses, which is why I am still undecided on their inclusion / exclusion. Rocky Helmet helps extend your reach, crucial in a deck with low damage output . Lucky Egg can provide crazy deck-thinning value. Protective Poncho helps protect your bench in a meta with so much bench-sniping. Elegant Cape buffs the 3 stage-1s in the deck by a whopping 30 HP.

What matters is that you run enough pokemon tools to draw into them consistently, to attach to Sylveon when its ability is required.

The sheer number of basic pokemons and tools also has the side effect of making Copycat more effective since it's so easy to dump all of them down on your board.

Only 1 Professor's Research is ran in this deck because 2 of Lisia is way more consistent at drawing into the basics. Incidentally, all basic pokemons in this deck have 50 HP or lower, so they are all searchable by Lisia.

Lastly, running both Sabrina and Cyrus is a must since there are no bench snipers in this deck.

Weaknesses / Poor match-ups

This deck doesn't run Comfey / PCL / Big Malasada due to the limited deck space, so it does get countered by sleep scams quite significantly.

It also requires a built-up bench as with most Mega Altaria decks, making it food for Suicune.

One more deck it does poorly against is Zoroark. Zoroark is simply too fast and completely outpaces this deck before it has the chance to set up.

Conclusion

It's cute and consistent. Give it a shot and may you have fun!

Source: My Ribdiculous Reincarnation - episode 12

My previous one was just 2-3 days ago.

Here's how this one went:

Got my chase card of the set!

Previously: 5th wonderpick god pack

Which pokemons / characters do you foresee being released in this set?

(panel from channel 1; most non-subtle foreshadowing of what's to come)

MangaDex link: https://mangadex.org/title/778b8438-af3a-4534-841c-adf923b55ee1/uma-musume-pretty-derby-star-blossom

Meta / Preface

I just binged this manga yesterday and can't stop thinking about it, keeping me distracted the whole of today. Rarely have stories got me so invested like this. Hopefully making a post about it would help me move on with the rest of my day / week.

Anyway, I've heard of Star Blossom ever since I got hooked on Umamusume, but for a while I thought it's best for wait for the anime adaptation. Unfortunately, my impatience won and once I got started on this manga, I couldn't put it down. That's how I ended up catching up to the latest chapter within just a few hours.

(But now I have to wait for the release of new chapters 😭)

Why you should read this

To Umamusume fans:

You've probably heard of Star Blossom by now. If you are still waiting for its anime adaptation, I'd say good choice; keep it up. I bet the anime would be peak.

If you are a fence-sitter for whatever reason, then come join the dark side and pick up this manga.

Among the Umamusume media released, Season 2 of the anime is my absolute favourite. Yes, the visuals can't compare to the newer works, but I put a significantly higher weightage on the story + its emotional impact. So as much as I enjoyed Cinderella Gray anime (and rated it a 10/10), I still can't put it above season 2. But...

Star Blossom has the potential to topple Season 2 from its throne. It has the emotional weight of Season 2, the underdog elements of Cinderella Gray, plus visuals / frames that are at least on par with Cinderella Gray. (Comparing its visuals to Beginning of a New Era would be a too much IMO, so I'm going to stop short of that.)

Basically, it's good in every aspect that likely drew you in to Umamusume. Oh, and just like every other major pieces of Umamusume media, Star Blossom too has CGDCT, slice-of-life moments and yuri undertones. Whatever you want from Umamusume, you should find in Star Blossom.

To non-Umamusume fans:

You'd probably enjoy Star Blossom a lot if you are into high-stakes drama and/or are an emotional masochist. Once the plot got going, it got me feeling like this the whole time:

Or maybe you just enjoy a good story. IMO its MangaDex's rating reflect the good-story aspect to a certain extent, sitting at 9.23 points (at the time of writing). I said to a certain extent because to me, such a score is an underrating. I bet if it garners more attention, it would move closer to Cinderella Gray's rating of 9.67.

Unfortunately, the only way to know if a story is good is to check it out yourself. (And if you are anything like me, you won't be able to put it down either.)

Edit: One more thing that stood out is the art, and I'm not referring to the hype scenes. The manga artist is simply too good at capturing the raw emotions on the characters' faces. Their expressions truly reach deep into the soul.

Here are a few examples:

Closing Thoughts

It sucks that I won't be able to enjoy its anime adaptation in all its glory blind, but I don't regret picking this manga up this early. The plot so far is already so good, and who knows when an anime would ever be made.

But if one gets announced, you know I'd be there to follow it.

I don't usually rush through the ranked season. Unfortunately, my schedule is quite tight in the coming days, so I thought I may as well start right away and see how far I can go.

This ended up being my fastest ranked climb in Pocket to date, moving from the bottom of Ultraball 4 to Masterball (with retention) on day 1 of the ranked season.

Honestly, I struggled a bit at first, winning only 1 game for every 3 games played. It was the same regardless of the deck: Lucario-Hitmontop, vanilla Altaria, Suicune-Baxcaliber, Sceptile, Manetric.

This went on for ~10 games until I switched to Zoroark.

With a few lucky win streaks, Zoroark was able to breezed through most of Ultraball 4 and a fair bit of early Masterball.

This deck is basically the standard Zoroark deck with a couple minor tweaks:

Replaced Pokemon Center Lady with Big Malasada. Having fewer supporters means a lower chance of bricking.

Ran 2 copies of Bombirdier, which makes drawing into them way more consistent. It also reduces the chances of leading with Darkrai (which is how I lost most of my Zoroark games). Plus, if you lead off with one of the Bombirdiers, you may luck out and draw into the other one for the free retreat.

No Giant Cape and Lucky Ice Pop: Zoroark is all about being fast tempo and consistent. The extra survivability does nothing to help with this deck's game plan.

Some observations about the meta:

• So many Miraidons and Sleep Altarias. Make sure you can handle these two decks.
• Chingling is underutilised in Ultraball. You can play stage-2s with no impunity. (This is not the case in Masterball, but thankfully Zoroark doesn't care about Chingling 🤷)

Edit:

The seasonal ranking has been released:

For Zoroark's winrate, just subtract 4 from games won and 8 from games lost. That brings us to 25 wins against 11 losses - a winrate of 69.4%.