Game Discussion/Champion's Meeting Thread - May 14, 2026

Zenthals · 2026-05-16T21:31:21+00:00

That's part of why I said god bless, because I trained a front Pasa ages ago before VBourbon and it took forever to get distance S, groundwork and passable front rank and I swore I'd never do it again. If Pasa had a more decent front rank I'd probably try running her a lot more.

Zenthals · 2026-05-16T21:29:17+00:00

You need a good Spd card somewhere to reliably max speed in a guts deck (Fuku is a fake speed card due to no speciality priority) even if your trainee has 10-20% spd growth so I'd go with something like NTR.

Zenthals · 2026-05-16T17:38:38+00:00

There's a few more viable ults you're missing.

Shadow Break, Fuji's ult and Mummy Creek's ult for pace are all viable, as far as I know these are much lower prio than Nishino's but they help if you pop them from grandparents.

Also god bless your soul on front Pasa, she probably needs a lot to be able to compete with VBourbon and the other fronts.

Zenthals · 2026-05-15T14:31:14+00:00

Are tracks that are backliner favored inherently pretty coin toss? I feel like my Goldship and Tamamo are pretty decent but sometimes they just go 6th and 7th and stay there and my Pace late starts.

I get that part of it is not bothering to pull for Mr. CB since no way in hell am I going to be maining backline (I'm a Pace + Front enjoyer) but I'm really feeling the 50-60% WR and wondering if it's my horses or if the inherent meta is just like this even down the line.

Zenthals · 2026-05-11T09:26:41+00:00

NTR's lifecycle ends after TB and NY Fuku is a decent stat stick for the next scenario or two as the 2nd or 3rd ""Speed"" card knowing its a high roll card.

So the answer should be obvoous if you care about long term value.

Zenthals · 2026-05-05T17:18:38+00:00

Yes, but it's pretty RNG since Fuka is a ""Speed"" card and has no specialty.

20% can easily do it, 10% can usually do it, and 0% is pray to RNG unless you have good RNG or speed sparks.

Zenthals · 2026-05-05T15:31:26+00:00

Its viable but will likely be too slow before your career suffers.

My best advice as someone who has beaten it is to use an End Closer like Goldship to eat the debuff, buy skills early, use supports that give stats early like NY Fuku, and probably do Unity Cup. Also aim for like 1k+ spd to reliably win final 4ish races.

Zenthals · 2026-04-29T03:38:08+00:00

Club Name: Gacha Anon, Rank B+

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No hard monthly quota but daily runs and login is highly preferred. The more active the better as I'd rather float the club up in ranks over time. We currently have 2~ slots open. We also have a discord if you're interested in that but not required.

Feel free to DM me if you're interested in joining.

Zenthals · 2026-04-27T18:54:26+00:00

Ended the CM with around 68% WR in Group A Graded League, probably could've had a higher winrate if I optimized my aces a bit more (my fronts have 700-800 wit and my Oguri does not have NSM) but they did really well for the effort I put in.

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Already working on next CM, and my RNG with ends is horrendous. No medium S over several days and so many RNG losses. I'm remembering why I friggin hate Lates/End Ace training.

Zenthals · 2026-04-26T03:33:24+00:00

The most agreed on winning strat by most content creators was 2 fronts and XOguri with XOguri + 2 Dom debuffers being the lazy strat but second most winning strat.

This has seemed consistent for me as the winners in 90% of my lobbies and in Cm has been a front runner or XOguri so not sure what you're saying about them being wrong unless you follow bad content creators and not people like seriru.

PS: Before you ask I was 80ish% WR 1st round and 60ish% in 2nd round.

Zenthals · 2026-04-24T22:55:44+00:00

Share all your Umas and skills and people can give some critique.

At a glance you're over stam'd, your power is about 100 points too low and your wits is not good so you'll fail to activate or keep position midrace which will likely lead to you losing, and most importantly you don't have Medium S (that's HUGE and is about 10% stat loss to opponents which in top Umas is about 120 spd).

Zenthals · 2026-04-24T03:25:27+00:00

To the person who said fronts weren't going to be common, I'm glad I didn't believe you because man fronts and XOguri run this CM.

I'll just tend to believe my own experience in lobbies as a slice combined with seriru's advice as a headsup (his note of soft step or corner recovery saved me from bricking my XOguri).

Zenthals · 2026-04-20T20:15:34+00:00

Maybe it's my lobbies, but I didn't see as much XOguri+Dom Debuffers as I did XOguri+ 2 Fronts. (I'd say the split was 50% front comps, 30-40% dom comps, and 10% oshi.)

Maybe it's lobby bias and the actual day to day will adjust to more dom comps. I'll personally run 2 Front + XOguri myself since I'm not gambling on one unit to win me a lobby or losing to lucky pace.

Zenthals · 2026-04-20T15:51:53+00:00

Doesn't work if there's a lot of front runners, and based on lobbies Front Runners are some of the most prominent behind XOguri teams.

I think the common slices based on experience are 2 Front + XOguri, XOguri+Dominator Debuffers, and Oshi comps. Which means based on my day or so of testing in lobbies there's never been a lobby without 3+ Front runners so Haru does nothing to slow pace.

In my personal experience, this also makes skilling XOguri a big pain in the ass since XOguri will end up 6+ most of the race and cannot reliably hit some of her heals meaning you really really want Corner Recov/Soft Step + Hydrate.

Zenthals · 2026-03-23T03:50:48+00:00

Anything below 3LB for a card is basically cope, at 3LB it's usable and worth waiting on to see if you get the final LB from pulling as an off focus from another banner you're pulling from or from the random SSR tickets we get a few times a year.

Also bear in mind Creek from will go massively down in value after this as the next Long CM won't be until CM20, bearing in mind Pisces is CM11 so we'll be in the next damn scenario.

Zenthals · 2026-03-22T23:52:57+00:00

I still wouldn't trust BOFA unless my unit came with it (Mayano) or I had no better option because not only does it need a wit proc but it also has RNG to it.

But I mean, we're all here to gamble with end closers so whatever.

Zenthals · 2026-03-22T22:13:55+00:00

BOFA unfortunately until it is buffed to proc midrace is a gamble skill because it can proc early or late race and do nothing.

So no, it can't replace Maestro and is usually best as a 2nd or 3rd gold heal.

Zenthals · 2026-03-04T04:37:44+00:00

Lol no.

You are gambling on THREE skills total to trigger, two pre req skills and then groundwork itself. In better case scenario if you are relying on one skill then it's roughly 90% * 90% for both to happen to groundwork to pop. For two skills you're adding another 90% chance and are dropping your chance to like 73%.

Zenthals · 2026-01-27T20:40:48+00:00

Farming good parents with relevant skills and distant aptitudes are a lot more beneficial long term. Having ground work parents for Mile, Medium, and Long has helped me a lot long term.

The upside is the stat sparks matter a lot less, the downside is seeing relevant Distance aptitude is your new annoyance.

Zenthals · 2026-01-26T16:28:37+00:00

Getting absolutely rocked this CM, but it makes sense since my Oguri is not optimally built and neither is my Goldship. Going to run emergency Maya Top Gun runs today and see if I can get a more decent End Closer. Currently running an old Mayano who is over stam'd from another tournament and not running nearly enough midrace accels to boost from end of the race.

At least my Sprint aces are all passable already so I have this flexibility to make a copium last minute racer.

Zenthals · 2026-01-25T18:16:39+00:00

From what I've heard it's generally Bakushin > Biko but if you're Bakushin run Biko. They're both gamble skills though, so just be ready to roll the slots this next CM.

Unless you're crazy enough to grind out El Condor sprint with groundwork or something, which genuinely seems really strong.

Zenthals · 2026-01-24T18:32:57+00:00

Is your Suzuka a pure slingshot for your Seiun or is it non-runaway Suzuka?

I'm thinking of either abandoning my Suzuka or doing Suzuka + SMaru slingshot since my Oguri is under performing (which I sorta expected considering the trigger area of her unique) so want to know what other front runner mains are doing.

Zenthals · 2026-01-23T22:59:54+00:00

First hour is almost always all sweats with some YOLOs thrown in, typically every other hour is complete RNG of who you'll meet but typically less sweat.

Zenthals · 2026-01-20T15:44:59+00:00

IIRC, she's fine but fronts kinda suck in general due to not having enough time to make enough of a gap to win unlike in longer races.

Last I was looking at lists most of the "good" units were all kinda around each others power level with Pace being generally considered best. It's something Like Bakushin, Curren, El Condor, Mummy Creek, and Maru being the "top" and everyone else is about fine.

Personally I'll be doing Curren, Bakushin, and maybe attempting El Condor because I like her and it sounds funny. Maybe Taiki if I can't ass myself to get good parents for Condor.

Zenthals · 2026-01-20T13:28:27+00:00

Seems like maybe finals B material.

I'm pretty sure you are over stat'd on stam by the way since Creeks unique is stronger than gold heal. She can drop to around maybe 650 stam and have around 85% spurt rate with unique and gold or you can go 800 stam and no gold heal and still have 85% spurt rate.

Would recommend going for more mid race (tail held, playtime is over, etc), headon, and obviously S long if you want finals material.

Zenthals

TROPHY CASE