Guide to a Deck: Piruluk

Piruluk was one of the best decks in the meta, and is now the best deck, with the introduction of Code Piruluk APEX. Before APEX came by, Piruluk, with the mass discarding she could do, the massive hand size, and quality cards, had the potential to sweep the metagame singlehandedly. The only reason she didn't at the time was because, well, Yuzuki was even more powerful. Even then, Piruluk was an amazing deck.

Hell, Piruluk turned out to be so powerful that TakaraTomy nerfed her twice in less than one set. And even that didn't stop Piruluk from being devastating, while still remaining on the top of the meta. Those nerfs did make Piruluk much less powerful, however.

Code Piruluk APEX

Overview

Okay, remember how I said that APEX will make Vermilion great? I lied. Vermilion is still trash. APEX, however, is not trash, and was way more powerful than I had initially imagined her to be. However, people didn't use Vermilion as a base, and instead went with Lambda.

Lambda provides a couple niches for APEX to use over Vermilion. Namely, that exceed 3.While this is a rare scenario, if you get into a situation in where you would lose during turn 4, the Exceed 3 can save you. A situation like that may be rare, but often times not impossible. Plus, Lambda is an overall quality card in all aspects.


Vermilion's niche over Lambda would be being able to tutor out a spell of your choice from the deck. This isn't much, but it's definitely something. The other effects don't mean much, really. The Action effect is very costly, and the freezing effect synergizes well only with the action effect and otherwise isn't worth much, since one frozen SIGNI is easy to play around.

Looking at the two, Lambda does look like a better choice for the base of APEX. APEX can work both ways, but I feel myself tilting over to Lambda more.

How the Deck Works

APEX, being the lord that she is, still needs about 8-10 spells to work with. The main quality spells stay the same throughout Piruluk builds, with cards like THREE OUT, MIRROR and CRYSTAL SEAL. However, APEX does have fun twists to her compared to Lambda. Vermilion decks liked running Purple Stain and/or TORNADO in their decks to make Vermilion Piruluk's Action work better, and APEX likes doing the same. Purple Stain in general is great and can be free depending on what APEX can do, but there's a new spell made for APEX strategy, which is Ice Finger. Ice Finger, when used with APEX, is a banish 2 and draw 2 for a colorless cost, which is ridiculously good and useful. However, Ice Finger is costly outside of APEX and costs a Colorless Ener which is fucked up by Retribution, which is something Purple Stain isn't, so this is a tricky question. That being said, looking at FREEZE, I don't think I'd use either. A guaranteed living switch in the form of FREEZE, and possibly an Ice Finger as a tech to cheeze out those Servants when you need them. Aside from those two, APEX can use THREE OUT and MIRROR as her fodder, and that's really about it.

Another option for a good spell is INSIGHT. INSIGHT can become free with an easy condition. It can make a perfect fodder for APEX and for getting key pieces out. That being said, INSIGHT has been a dead card from Piruluk decks for quite a while now. INSIGHT was always mediocre, but people just... stopped using it at a certain point of time.

†MGT† is an option, but APEX, being the level 5 she is, appreciates the ARTS slot.

Gurehozame is a thing. Mixing Gurehozame with HTR has been amazing since ancient times, and still is. The meta shifted heavily towards late game shenanigance, which makes SIGNIs have higher base powers, but Gurehozame is still powerful during turn 4, and even counter her opponent with her own level 5 base during turn 5. One of the best things that could happen to Gurehozame used to be combining HTR with AMS, and respectfully, still is. However, with CL's ban, AMS is a lot more inconsistent now. I'm personally not sure if I'd run more than 1 AMS at this point.

While this combo may seem inconsistent, in reality it isn't. At least not with Piruluk's massive hand size and †ALCA†, which an amazing card that can salvage out combo pieces. Overall, Piruluk has access to a lot of quality cards, such as MPP.

As for your level 5s, you have Hellboros to murder the likes of Ulith, and †MCMR† which is an amazing form of defense that any deck can wish for.

A honorable mention would go to Ancient Surprise. Ancient Surprise used to be a staple in practically every deck, but that trash requirement was too slow and got replaced my Miasma once it came out. However, Piruluk Vermilion can make use of Ancient Surprise better than most decks thanks to †SC† and †JV† for rapidly filling out the trash, letting AnSap being usable even during turn 2-3 for a field wipe (which is ridiculously powerful) provided you have the ener (which you would gain using Three Swords)

Validity in the meta

Piruluk, at the moment, is definitely a Tier 1+ build. APEX is extremely potent, and Piruluk's drawing power makes her powerful, and APEX put the nail on the coffin. Piruluk has always been powerful since her first release, and has reached the tops of the meta multiple times, and with APEX, is most likely to remain there for quite a while.

Code Cross Piruluk 

 

Overview

Cross Piruluk is one of the sub-builds of Piruluk. Aside from the typical spellspam shenanigance Piruluk normally does, Zeta supplies a reliable way of hand gathering, provided you have the ener, and a extremely niche bonus of freezing your opponent's LRIG. This lets you avoid an LRIG attack for a turn. This helps against many decks, most notably against Yuzuki, who runs Samsara. It also helps in nerfing certain decks that down themselves for skills, such as Aiyai. This is an interesting skill that lets CrossPiru have something over Lambda for, and slightly more valid. CrossPiru also has a more reliable way of offense compared to Lambda builds, since HI and DY pair supplies great offense, and also has access to running FREEZE THROUGH, which makes a fantastic finisher.

Oh, and of course, you would use APEX. A Piruluk deck that doesn't run APEX nowadays is blasphemy.

How the Deck Works

I am high on... Ice?

Oh, this part is simple. You run HI, you run DY. You run †ALCA† and †MCMR† to make the cross combo more consistent, and you run the other typical Piruluk staples, namely HTR, Daihouika, THREE OUT, and etc. Cross Piruluk is really just a typical Piruluk deck, just running HI and DY. How the deck functions is another story, which I will get to, but that's more or less it, really.

Cross Piruluk is pretty straightforward. Get as many cards into your hand as possible, put down HI and DY, and slowly push in the damage into your opponent while annoying them by rendering them unable to use their LRIG at all, and continue on. When you think you don't need Zeta anymore because you either have enough Servants, or when you think you won't live next turn without APEX or such, grow into APEX and play the stallout game, and continue until you end up murdering your opponent. Or, if you fail to get the Cross pair off because you ran out of copies, †MCMR† can help.

Validity in the meta 

Cross Piruluk goes up quite high for me, ending in the medium Tier 1 slots. This is because of how effectively she can counter Samsara, Fire of Nature, and even if she isn't fighting one of those, can extremely annoy her opponent. Her Ener-to-Hand conversion is also interesting, and HI's offense is something extremely good. While Cross Piruluk still suffers with problems against Midoriko with Retribution being a big threat, Cross Piruluk does extremely well against Yuzuki, so all's well. Lambda does well against decks with heavy SIGNI horsepower, while Zeta does better against decks with heavy LRIG horsepower, and the former is just a lot more common than the latter, leading to Lambda being the optimal choice.

Code Piruluk 2-stop: The Chain edition

Overview

Back in the days when Hanayo 2-stop was meta, the best way to play Piruluk was to play Piruluk 2-stop rush rush rush, due to the fact that otherwise, she couldn't keep up with the other decks. Fortunately though, Piruluk had an impressive tool known as Lock You to help her reign supreme in the 2-stop metagame, being able to completely deny your opponent of any defensive ARTS. But then the TakaraTomy came and punished Late Bloomer, for supporting so many of these 2-stops. Then along with Late Bloomer, Lock You died for being too cancer for it's own good, and got restricted to 1 in every and any form possible, including with Spirit Salvage. With these forms of nerfs, the 2-stop metagame saw it's doom, and the dark days of WIXOSS finally ended.

However, 2-stops didn't completely die out. They just became a lot less common. Hell, 2-stops continued to be born even during WX11, which is the topic for today. WX11 brought Piruluk new toys to play with, in the form of SHOOTING and Chain Blue and Black. SHOOTING, by most people, was overlooked as trash like it should have been, but then a few players noticed the extremely annoying and effective combo with Chain Blue and Black; which was looping from a chain Blue and Black to another. Remember the whole purpose of Chain cards? To use Chain to reduce the cost of certain stuff? Some of these stuff can make other ARTS free, like Ut'ulls Chain into Last Select, Dragon Chain to Common Destiny, or the more cheezy Dragon Wave, etc etc. Chain Blue and Black, however, made each other free since they only costed 1 blue and 1 black each to use. This made extreme resource gathering possible for 2-stops from a very early game, as well as banishing things early on, or both if you wanted to. However, while Black and Blue Chaining could provide you with infinite hand, you had nowhere to use that gigantic hand on, nor does normal decks have the ARTS devotion for that shit. Which is why people lead to the only possible conclusion: using a 2-stop deck, and came up with a genius idea of using SHOOTING to drain your opponent's resource from turn 2, or even turn 1 by looping Chain Blue and Black turn 1 by charging a servant and Common Destinying. This made a ridiculously powerful deck that was live from very early on, like 2-stops were meant to be.

How the Deck Works

This deck could make your opponent discard their entire hand during turn 1, which most decks found hard... actually, impossible to stand up from. Afterwards, you would use things like the Heike loop, utilizing Skanda and Violence Jealousy, to completely wipe your opponent's field and shave all of their resources consistently while pushing in the damage.

Getting into some of the minor details for the deck, something I personally like running in the deck is Halo Effect, due to how easy it is to fill up the LRIG trash using chains and that free banish being incredibly useful in certain matchups. Also it can open a column for you to kill with Lock You later on. Dragon Chain can be used in coordinance to something like Kayappa (not necessary whatsoever. You can just run more Servants) as a wincon, as long as you note that it's conditional. Code Art †SC† could be used to fill in Violence Jealousy and fill up the trash if you use Ancient Surprise in this deck. CRYSTAL SEAL and FMS is an immediate must in the deck due to that early discard potential increasing even more than it already is, while the latter can be overlooked.

Validity in the meta

I would give 2-stop Piruluk a place as a Tier 1+ deck. Chain 2-stop Piruluk is a one-dimensional horse, like many other 2-stop decks, which means that if you fail that specific combo you are dead by default, but if you get it off, you are immortal, with your opponent being able to do nothing.

Code Piruluk 2-stop: Freeze edition

How the Deck Works

FREEZE THROUGH was a good card from the moment it came out. 2 Ener for an Assassin to the whole field was extremely good. The problem with it, however, was that freezing the whole field was an extremely difficult feat unless you have a consistent form of freezer. however, even without something like that, there was a card that made FREEZE THROUGH incredibly easy; FREEZE.

Only, FREEZE is normally utter trash that is not worth the space in most decks. About the only thing that would use FREEZE was APEX, and even then that was only at 1 as Exceed fodder.

As you can probably tell, FREEZE THROUGH decks fell in number when the number of 2-stop decks in general did too, however didn't become any less powerful, aside from Lock You restrictions, which isn't that major.

How the Deck Works

Using Code Piruluk E + Thrilling Draw + Pay Charging + Spell Salvage, FREEZE THROUGH shenanigance is extremely consistent.


Other things that made FREEZE THROUGH consistent was Code Art BBQ, which fetched FREEZE THROUGH from trash for free On-Play, as well as Code Art PSM, which acted as a tutor for either FREEZE or FREEZE THROUGH.

Anyways, with all these shit to make FREEZE THROUGH even more consistent that it already is, the deck is already more or less set to go. Now all we need is a couple SEARCHERs and Dragon Chain fuels (read: Servants, Kayappa), and maybe Xeno Multiple for a freezing method outside of FREEZE and other normal stuff. FREEZE THROUGH build could also make use of Blue and Black Chain, I guess, but you don't need resources in this deck, just 3 SIGNIs and FREEZE THROUGHs.

Finally, to make sure that you have enough ener, there are a couple options. For example, Kayappa. Cyclamen is just as good, but you have too many spells in the deck to be good in this deck. Combining Kayappa with Common Destiny is extremely effective, and Common Destiny also synergizes with Dragon Chain. That, and finally, Pay Charging and Three Swords will give you enough ener engine.

Validity in the meta

Piruluk 2-stop is a Tier 1+, like most of the other decent 2-stop decks. An Assasin every turn is extremely powerful. About the only thing that can consistently beat down this deck is other Piruluk with Blue Punish, and even then, it's a doable matchup, since they will usually have 2 Blue Punish at most, and early on, ener restraints aid you in the matter.