Encore! A Primer to ECP02: EX Crossover Set The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls

Fans of THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls (henceforth referred to as 'iM@S') rejoice, the EX Crossover Set is here! iM@S as a collab set is largely themed around the idols’ styles - Cool, Cute, or Passion, and the Lesson mechanic, by which an iM@S deck starts with 5 “item” tokens in the EX Area and uses them to power out certain abilities on iM@S followers. In addition to synergies with cards from the original collab set, ECP02 adds Super-Evolution as a mechanic to keep our idols fresh and up to date. One note for card mentions in this article, the U and SP rarities of the idols have different card names (although the base rarity card name will be subtitled on the U and SP variants, so I will only use base rarity card names). Just like how idols work, I’ve collabed with some members of the community to bring you some sample lists for each trait.

Let’s get the show on the road and go over some cards for each trait:

Cool:

Cool is a low to the ground aggressive strategy, known for being a meta-defining strategy in the original collab set. It stays true to this theme, having a variety of followers who are good at swarming the board and who get rewarded for swarming the board. Below is a sample list:

: In her retrain, Anastasia retains her ability to buff other followers, this time on Evolution, with her Super-Evolution buffing your whole board. Her Lesson ability to summon out another follower is also great for swarming the board.

: Rin Shibuya [Cinderella Girl] keeps aggressive momentum going by having removal for the cost of 2 Magical Items on top of as well as Storm.

: Playing low to the ground is really taxing on resources, and Karen helps you stay on top of resource generation, both by "drawing" Cool cards on top of your deck as well as recovering Magical Items.

: Your big Storm payoff for going wide, Asuka Ninomiya also has the ability to summon out either version of Ranko Kanzaki.

: Nowadays everyone gets their take on Chipper Skipper and given that Cool is about going wide, an extra summon on Evolve is a natural fit in this deck type. In fact, Nono is pretty good in a variety of iM@S strategies, as we’ll see later down the line, but we’ll generally be excluding her fellow individuals members in Cool to keep Karen Hojo [Cinderella Girl] as consistent as possible.

You might notice a certain one-of 3-drop in this list. We'll talk about her later, don't worry.

As a side note, because I had to look this up, the [Cinderella Girl] title is tied to a series of election events in the iM@S games themselves, conferred to girls who won the vote in said events.

Passion:

Passion has settled into a Midrange strategy with a cemetery payoff theme and cyclers to help you get there. There’s also a subtheme of discounting some spells to help accumulate advantage while adding to cemetery count. Here’s a sample list courtesy of worlds participant Terrance:

- Mio Honda’s the centerpiece of the Passion strategy, offering you cycling and card selection early while giving a one time massive summon on her Super-Evolution ability while helping you find the ideal target for that effect.

- Airi Totoki is the standard 2PP 2/2 that evolves to ping, with both an upside on her fanfare to ping an additional time, as well as the potential to recover Magical Item tokens.

and : This duo is your payoff for making it to at least 11 Passion cards in your cemetery - Takumi ideally summons Natsuki, who should then gain Storm. Natsuki will then trigger her ability to evolve, which will then trigger an additional instance of face ping from Takumi. Playing well into an enemy board like this really reinforces the midrange nature of Passion.

- Passion has a bit of a spell subtheme and Mika Jougasaki is a strong enabler for it. She tutors a spell to play at a 3pp discount (and you’ll often be searching for 3pp spells). and are both powerful spells for this. Later on you can replay a spell at the same discount too.

Cute:

Cute is the control playstyle of iM@S, similarly relying on a cemetery count for payoff. Unlike Passion however, Cute isn’t trying to speedrun particular counts, but rather relies on removal and healing to grind the game out to its payoffs. Here’s a list courtesy of my local Cute specialist TeeHoo:

: Once again we look to Super-Evolution to tell us what the theme for this trait is and Nana Abe's on Evolve and on Super-Evolve tell us Cute’s game plan is about disruption and sustain. Taxing the opponent cards to get rid of their amulet-follower is an interesting form of removal that plays into the Cute theme of outgrinding and out-resourcing your opponents.

- Because Cute is a slower-paced strategy, it can afford to splash more off-traits, allowing us to play Mirei Hayasaka along with Nono Morikubo. Note that Mirei counts iM@S cards in general, rather than specifically Cute cards, to activate her Storm effect.

- Our Uzuki retrain is a very strong consistency and tempo piece for the Cute strategy. The versatility of her search effect allows you to play a variety of cards with specialized roles, and they don’t even have to have the Cute trait at that. It’s also important to make sure that you’re consistently spending lessons before you play Uzuki - you don’t want to be unable to search because your EX area is full of Magical Items!

- Yuuki is a very strong card throughout the game, acting as scaling efficient removal as well as Magical Item recovery and damage.

Other Playstyles and Generic Cards:

Ok I think I’ve held off on talking about the best card in the set for long enough.

: Previewed in , Anastasia's fellow LOVE LAIKA member Minami Nitta finally makes an appearance as a follower, and their synergy is even stronger now. The ability to tutor both Anastasia versions is great in collab decks, but given how strong CP02 Anastasia is in Forest decks, Minami Nitta is going to be a consistent force in that class for sets to come.

Here's a sample Combo Forest deck featuring Minami Nitta:

In Collab decks, Nitta also has access to her Lesson ability, which can "freeze" an enemy follower for a turn, so here's some collab decks that feature her as well.

Combo Cool:

This version of Cool, favored by Academic Rune specialist tentsuzuki, and reminiscent of the CP02 version of Combo Cool, takes advantage of the low cost of cool cards and 5 “free” cards to consistently power out boards consisting of Anastasia and a wide swarm of followers.

New Generations:

There’s a variety of ways to play introduced as well, with direct support like and , but my personal favorite is to play less direct synergy and power out a combo version. After all, an Anastasia board powering out a 1pp 5/5 Storm is a very strong pattern.

Curtain Call

As a Forestcraft main, it’s hard to hide my bias for this set as it contains one of the strongest Forest cards ever made, but I think showing some love to Passion and Cute was a really Cool idea from the developers. A lot of progress has been made to add dimensions of play to iM@S collab decks, making all feel like full-fledged strategies with unique identities.