Why to play Wixoss - What makes a great TCG?

[@RedZoneRogue]

I say it often but Wixoss is the single most underrated tcg on the market

[@codenamexelda]

A meeting of the minds

[@tcgacademia]

The rogue of the red zone! Definitely feels underrated, I feel way too many people dismiss the game outright due to the art. It's really good!

[@dimitrilepain3821]

@@tcgacademia Outsider perspective here: It's cerntainly not just the art, tho visual appeal is one of the deciding factors, for most people. when first they choose a TCG to play. I did watch the anime a couple of months ago and that didn't do the game any favor making me interested in the game. The story that was told is . . . difficult to say the least and it didn't explain the game mechanics very well. Naming the game WiXoss (spoken Wi-Cross) also didn't help, as in my native tongue and a couple others i know "WiXoss" will be misunderstood, especially if you see those sometimes barely clothed, borderline underage looking anime girls behind it. Then on top of that having to exlain "no, no, it might look like a suggestive word, but it's actually pronounced very differently!" is the equivalent of "she might look like a toddler, but is actually 5000 years old". Thirdly, it's just hard to get into other TCGs if you're already into one, especially if that one's one of the big 3. Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon and MTG have such a tight grip on the market, CFV and WeissSchwarz did manage to make a name for themselves as *the* underdogs and the OnePiece TCG is ... well ... OnePiece. Anything else has you make a hard decision with very little estimable pay-off: you re-learn the ruleset, make the investment to get the cards, look for people to play with, etc. etc. I like comparing switching TCGs to moving to a different country, as there's so many different things you have to learn and re-learn, that it's a very hard decision to make for everyone and only very very few people actually end up goingng through with it.

[@000Zevuel]

Had a few games just today that illustrates how resource management can be vital and a game can come down to Win Now Or Lose. Yuzuki chipping away at and slowly gaining just enough ener to force the game to to end makes for some nailbiters, including not attacking with her on my second-to-last turn in hopes that whatever life burst or ener they might get from the attack wouldn't be used against me before I was able to really close the game out. I also know the Waifus aspect is half joke, half acknowledgement of the art style polarizing potential players, but a strong main character shouldn't be underestimated. Fighting game characters and quite a few shows live or die on small characterizations. I like making piles or angels or Rock and Sand themed decks in Magic just as much as I like claw and slashing characters in fighting games or goth girls in Wixoss.

[@tcgacademia]

In some ways Wixoss feels a bit like a fighting game in how much it focuses on the LRIG and a small selection of signi that are basically their attacks. I do like the art style of the game (it kind of reminds me of browsing art sites like pixiv looking for fan art of a favourite character, and randomly finding tons of other art for series and characters that's also really good), but the mechanics are what really sells it for me, so that's where I wanted to keep the focus.

[@000Zevuel]

@@tcgacademia Oh yeah that's fair. I also dig the style but know there are styles that would turn me off from a game too so I don't blame anyone who isn't enthusiastic. Originally when I went looking for a game to play when I wasn't playing Magic one thing I was looking for was a solid system I could sink my teeth into. Any time I try to sell Wixoss to someone I point out that even "slow" games like control vs control have turns full of actions and interactions. There are situational outliers but those tend to be the result of a game, not the whole game; you're not getting land, go, counter'd the whole game, even if two turns of dealing with Exia or a freeze lockout can momentarily feel like that. I might have mentioned it before but I always thought (before Diva got its English announcement) that some company should copy wholesale Wixoss' system with a different coat of paint and try to carve out a niche with the gameplay. Glad Wix came to English but I still wonder what kinds of small changes you could make to the core system to make a Wixoss-like without it being clunkier.

[@hug-the-raccoon]

TIL that it's actually "We Cross" not "Weak Sauce", oops

[@tcgacademia]

Yeah, it's the same kind of bizarre X pronunciation that went into Digimon Xros Wars.

[@Silver_Chivalry]

I think you perfectly summarized what I like so much about Wixoss' gameplay and design, same for Vanguard to some extent too, given their similarities. I'd really like to see some videos from you discussing how to manage pacing in a TCG, as well as how to implement roleplay and narrative. They're important elements for a new project I have in mind.

[@tcgacademia]

I never got into Vanguard too deeply, but from what I have played I really like it as well (I watched a good chunk of the V format anime and that was a good time too). I remember finding it funny that Wixoss moved to a max level of 3 (like Vanguard) at almost the same time Vanguard introduced a ride deck (like Wixoss).

[@Silver_Chivalry]

@tcgacademia Yeah, it's funny how that worked out. I think the Ride Deck was one of the best innovations made with OverDress, even if it requires discarding a card, unlike Wixoss.

[@Tamanon]

Thank you for this well done video (and the how to play shout out!). Really goes over all the reasons the gameplay is so good!

[@tcgacademia]

For a relatively small tcg, it has some really great youtube creators! Your HTP is fantastic, and a resource I'm really happy to be able to point people towards.

[@justatraveler09]

Seems like a really fun game! I love yugioh's insane speed, consistency, and power, but even I agree games lasting to a player's second turn gets exhausting at times. A game where aggro wins on turn 3-4 and control on 6-7 sounds great to me. If only there were any shops near me that played it... it's hard to invest in a game when you don't have a place to play it.

[@tcgacademia]

That's definitely a big barrier to Wixoss - it's a pretty small-scale tcg in EN, and like you said, it's hard getting invested in a tcg without a local play group. Maybe someday open battoru will finally release and we'll have a decent online sim to play on.

[@thoughtprism2963]

A good summary of Wixoss' strong points imo. My only real issue with it is that the lack of a rotating format means powercreep is prevalent.

[@tcgacademia]

Rotation in Wixoss has been weird. So far there have been three format rotations on the JP side, of VERY inconsistent lengths. So far we're still in Diva format, but Dissona felt like a virtual soft rotation with how power creep kicked in.

[@drunkcrunkfranken]

I would actually argue that the game suffered from not having enough power creep. It's not really noticeable when you're entrenched in the game, but the lack of power creep + lack of reprint sets makes it so that new players often have to track down cards from much older sets to even stand at the start line (not only staples like Exia but also niche cards like Penlight). Actually looking forward to the big jump in power when WX24 drops since it'll be a good window of opportunity for new players to jump in.

[@dedboidora]

wixoss is the card game equivalent of a back-alley knife fight and i love it

[@tcgacademia]

Funny enough, I think you could re-skin WIxoss as some kind of fighting game tcg, and I don't think anyone would even blink 😆

[@TsunoMochi]

Really happy to see more of these videos! Funny when you said the fastest winning deck and I automatically pictured Dash Hirana and it's actually true. 😂

[@tcgacademia]

Probably could have used Hanayo dissona, but Hirana is just too iconic!

[@chaerul5166]

The only wixoss lacking is the lack of player base Card design is great, no op card in Diva format It also cheap too, even after arts comeback

[@tcgacademia]

Yeah, the lack of player base is pretty painful :(

[@codenamexelda]

Coincidentally, I was using my wixoss cards to prototype a Combat idea I had.

[@tcgacademia]

They're pretty straightforward - just level and power, so I can definitely see them being handy for testing other game ideas!

[@comettcg8830]

I played wixoss on original format and just revisiting it time to time, it is still among my top list of tcg based on mechanic alone, and for me it also encapsulate of what makes tcg great for me: - Plenty strategy to choice for, great for player expression - important decision making and skill expression - yet simple to learn/grasp as for wixoss I agree pretty much with your points, I want to offer another view that for me is aspect that wixoss might be lacking or in other words, a tradeoff it takes. - Consistency, on one side all you said abt consistency is true, but as you mentioned it can be double-edge sword, another aspect of consistency is the deck-power gap. Similar as force of will tcg that it is very consistent game, if your deck is better than your opponent's the chance of you lose is already very low, this is amazing for competitive setting but might falter for more casual. So when you said that life burst has getting stronger tbh I think that's for the good of the game - Summoning Signi is free of resource same as vanguard it can make cards that has quite difference in quality, needing similar commitment, I think both game did well designing them but just pointing out mechanic that I personally tried to avoid when designing game

[@tcgacademia]

That's a really good point and definitely another downside of consistency - it makes balance even more important. And yeah, I think a lot of the changes in Diva were to try to make the game more accessible to a more casual audience.

[@WeebInvestments69]

Your pronunciation of Weiss Schwarz was very good, no reason to apologize 👌☺️

[@tcgacademia]

It was pretty stilted and awkward, but I wanted to at least try!

[@onewholeegg]

Hey, love the deep dive! What you said at the end about the idea of roleplaying resonates with me quite a bit. I think right now, flavor and theme are really important to me as a player. I like my games' mechanical systems to mesh well with the theme - I really like Netrunner for this reason. I've also been enjoying Star Wars Unlimited too. This realization is also what made me quit Weiss Schwarz, even though cute waifus, the game didn't appeal to me anymore.

[@tcgacademia]

Netrunner is such a perfect fusion of its flavour and mechanics, it's unreal. It's a genuinely great game. Good point on Weiss, that's another game where the flavour is really disconnected from the gameplay. I've found roleplaying vs mechanical systems is a really common point of miscommunication when it comes to people recommending games, so I wanted to be sure to mention it!

[@jasonking271]

Senseiii!! I miss you sensei!!!

[@ThiennTaii]

You sold me on it!

[@tcgacademia]

Awesome! One thing that I really like about Wixoss that I only mentioned a bit is that the starter deck gameplay is actually really good - I spent years just playing with starter decks before I actually started building my own decks to play with. If it's still around, the Double Heroines deck in EN was a really good way to try the game out and see how it plays.

[@chugz6400]

Thank you for being brave enough to include skunk for those of us who aren't.

[@tcgacademia]

It felt like the waifu section would be missing something if it wasn't there 😆

[@MoonS4S]

Are you gonna try the hololive tcg?

[@tcgacademia]

Definitely! I'm actually heading to Japan soon-ish for vacation, and I'm hoping I can pick up some of the cards while I'm there. I'm a little worried 2025 just turns into a year where the only games I review are all vtuber games. 😆

[@zlothz]

Very succinctly done for Wixoss' first strength 🤣 Though, I question your use of Chess as the background image example for 'low randomness' 🤔 Discussing Wixoss mechanics in your 'TCG Design' series is actually what convinced me to buy a couple decks! 😊Unfortunately, I've not actually played the game, yet 😅

[@tcgacademia]

Yeah, chess is a bit of an extreme choice, but I just wanted a familiar family board game that most people would recognize to really hammer the point of low- vs high-randomness. The mechanics are really good - although one weakness of Wixoss is that it can be really hard to find a play group.

[@jakehollingworth4226]

So I have a request! Can you review the Caster Chronicles TCG? I would love your breakdown of its mechanics

[@tcgacademia]

I've got a few of the old decks, and I do have some things I could definitely bring up in a video. It's on my list of games to make a video about at some point!

[@JarekCochrane]

What is your opinion on Elestrals? Im interested to know how you feel about it. (If you've had time to play it or if you've heard of it)

[@tcgacademia]

I've heard of it, and it looks reasonably well put-together, but I don't have it on my "to-play" list yet. It hasn't jumped out, and it doesn't have anime characters to short-circuit my brain XD

[@ArYokai]

Amazing video! Please make a video for Grand Archieve and Vanguard too!

[@tcgacademia]

I do like Vanguard a lot, and I definitely want to make a video on it at some point. Haven't tried Grand Archive yet, but it's on my short list to play!

[@eclipsa9454]

I love wixoss in pretty much every single aspect, but the higher rarity cards are too expensive to invest in for a game that isn't even played at most locals. I had a full competitive deck that ran me about 110$ during set 4 english, and have played maybe a handful of remote matches with it at most. And I'm someone who will always choose to play with physical cards over simulators, and proxying whole decks to play casuals isn't the most appealing idea either. I'd care more about the game and invest in it more if it was either cheaper, or more popular.(And I have about 3 LGS that are very active with other games in my area, so not having anywhere to play tcgs isn't an issue for me at all.) Even Vanguard is a far better investment for me atm and that game can get expensive for sure

[@tcgacademia]

In the grand scheme of tcg prices, Wixoss decks are still pretty cheap, but dropping that kind of money to just play a few times over webcam is a pretty tough ask unless you really, really love the game. I definitely wish it was easier to find local play groups for the game - it really does make a huge difference in the tcg experience.

[@eclipsa9454]

@@tcgacademia yeah I agree compared to other tcgs the price range is definitely a lot better overall, just the ROI for most wixoss players makes it not worth it

[@Dorbys_]

Why cholera so cute 😭 and as expected, not a single Wixoss shop in Czechia💀

[@tcgacademia]

Wixoss makes the weirdest things into cute anime girls. Like Uranium 😆

[@ianmurphy7460]

Thanks to your videos I’m now very interested in WiXoss, but how common it is to find locals in the States? Also is there any online version similar to something like YGOPro?

[@tcgacademia]

Bad new on both fronts, unfortunately. Apart from a few small clusters in the states, there's not a ton of locals running, and while an online sim is in the works, it's been very slow going, to the point I'm not sure if it'll ever release (I should have said it would never release in the video, since that seems to have worked when I said Wixoss would never be printed in English).

[@skipthewave]

Despite what was (correctly) answered already, Tabletop Simulator tends to be a decent enough place to play most TCGs on, and in the case of WIXOSS, was the most active one the last time I checked.

[@ianmurphy7460]

@@skipthewave I will genuinely try that, thank you for the suggestion. Side question: do you know how active Cockatrice is for English Wixoss players?

[@tcgacademia]

@@ianmurphy7460 I haven't used it, but Wixoss does have a pretty well-maintained Cockatrice plug-in. From what I've seen, it's fairly commonly used in the various wixoss discords when people want to test or just fire off a game without using webcams.

[@ianmurphy7460]

@@tcgacademia I actually got it working just a few days ago!

[@wtfox8206]

In Digimon the loser usually also would've won had they an extra turn, and it makes it feel like losing the die roll loses you the game

[@tcgacademia]

I haven't done a definitive dive into first-turn advantage in Wixoss, but it feels overall pretty balanced in that respect. The first turn player getting to level up first, so they're never behind the opponent on the level curve, while the second player gets the first attack generally evens out the pace enough that there's not a huge first-turn advantage.

[@huehaklk8516]

I hope one day ya make review on JP Battle Spirits(also eldora is cute😭)

[@tcgacademia]

I've played the game already, so it's on the short list. And yeah, Eldora's great - her charm point is definitely her big hammer. 😭🔨

[@huehaklk8516]

@@tcgacademia nice,also I need to get hit by it 😭

[@EdmundYedda-x3t]

Gregg Court

[@Thestar17x]

Wish zx,build divide,and moncolle got a English version, can you do a vid on moncolle?

[@tcgacademia]

EN versions would be dangerous, because I could see myself falling into all three games! Moncolle is a game I haven't played yet, but really want to try, so hopefully I'll get a video of it out at some point in the future!

[@Thestar17x]

@tcgacademia if zx ever got a asian english version,I'd definitely be playing it, everytime I look for moncolle stuff it's never in stock Moncolle deus looks so cool

[@admiralcasperr]

One of the attributes of a great card game is readable cards. Which WiXoss certainly isn't the forerunner of. There's a bunch of wierd pieces in wierd places like the "No limit" text on Hirana. What the heck is that stylisation? I certainly can't parse a card as messy as this at a glance, which makes the name, unhelpfully in the middle, the best identifier of all cards.

[@tcgacademia]

Wixoss's text boxes are actually pretty clean. The 'no limit' and 'Hirana' in the middle left are basically creature types. The thing that really hits readability is the full-art foils - all of which basically completely overlay the art over the top of the frame so you only get scraps of the frame left in the corner. It's not bad, though - I do like how all the important information (except creature types) are left aligned, so you can see it when fanning out the cards in your hand.

[@admiralcasperr]

​​@@tcgacademiaI don't see it. Maybe KZbin compression does them a disservice; however at 4:50, I can't read a thing. Only the middle cards are readable. I'm reasonably confident that I'd be able to read a standard frame magic or Pokemon card with a comparable length of text no problem at the size at 1080p.

[@Tamanon]

@@admiralcasperrits the compression, which happens to all card games. watch some mtg gameplay vids and thats usually why they will put the full card on screen- even with a 1080p camera set up it can be hard to read.

[@tabbune]

Wixoss strong points: Incredibly technical game that allows for both the grindiest of attrition matchups where you have 10+ points of interaction that your opponent must chew through to kill you, as well as the most degenerate aggro decks that can threaten 5+ Life Cloths in a turn that also has access to resource denial. Wixoss weak points: I HATE DIVA FORMAT I HATE DIVA FORMAT I HATE DIVA FORMAT I HATE DIVA FORMAT I HATE DIVA FORMAT

[@DaveReturnsagain1]

Then let's hope the game will continue into the new selector sets. So we can use a more traditional feeling Wixoss.

[@kyuboxincubox7556]

I don't actually like it, but if you want a game that's similar-ish to Wixoss then take a peek at Grand Archive I guess. Personally I have zero faith in the game (they were promoting it at a local con saying games are now available in hobby shops, except 5 months later some of those stores still don't support the game for example) but you DO have an extra deck you can go through and grab stuff once per turn similar to Wixoss from memory

[@ginkowave5829]

Wixoss is honestly a really cool game. Too bad it's hard to find a place to play it, and as I much as like waifus (I like them a lot; my gacha addiction should speak for itself) it does get boring for me for after some time. Love the videos though, keep up the good work.

[@tcgacademia]

Yeah, the lack of local scene's is rough. I'm glad I can play it online, but I'd love to be able to actually play in person.

[@ryuuseiirockman872]

Imo set 5-7 was the worst diva format felt and it killed a lot of areas playing the game. It’s hard to convince them back now especially with OP being a thing

[@tcgacademia]

Funny you should mention OP, since a lot of the things I like in that game are quite similar to what I like in Wixoss. But yeah, power creep has definitely been pretty uneven over time, so there have been a few rough metas. I know plenty of people aren't loving Dissona right now, either.

[@mrmeow2297]

For the same reason people play gatcha games: waifus

[@Anemoi_1]

I'll be honest, I just thought Wixoss was a waifu bait game

[@tcgacademia]

It's kind of funny - the game is fantastic mechanically, while the art is "cute anime girl, ship it."

[@tangentfox4677]

I started this video hating every aspect you brought up. By the end, I want to play it, but I hate the aesthetic. :/

[@tcgacademia]

Very fair. I skipped over it pretty quickly since I didn't want to derail the video, but the art can be very polarizing. If you're already deep in the weeb sphere, you'll probably love it or at least tolerate it, but it's a BIG deterrent for a lot of tcg fans out there. It feels like they had the mechanics of the game, then the idea for the anime, then when they needed to put art and theming on the actual cards, they just used whatever mostly SFW art one of the designers had on their laptop at the time. I kind of like it, since I've done the same in the past (I once made a lolcats archetype for yugioh since that's what I had a ton of pictures of at the time), but I definitely don't blame anyone who NOPES out of the game because of the art.

[@liranxiao3150]

The only thing new in this TCG is extra deck and you basically introduce nothing about it...

[@FruitMonstersTCG]

Try out Fruit Monsters TCG if you want to check out a new card game! its fruit themed

[@Rayquaza894]

Dead game unfortunately

[@Tamanon]

wixoss just had its 3rd GP and 4th in December with top players going to Japan for a larger event :)