Sword Girls Cannelle Deck Strategy Guide

Sword Girls Cannelle Deck Strategy Guide by prototype909

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Following up on my promise from the Nold thread, I’m deciding to make a thread for Cannelle strategy as well. The boss cards are just so fun and unique as far as their effects go, and because of the effort involved in obtaining them I feel like people should get a feel for exactly how rewarding these cards may be for their style before they “Waste” time grinding for them.

As with the previous thread, this topic is for discussion of Cannelle as a playable character (IE, this isn’t where to come on strats for how to beat the boss version of Cannelle or the Intermediate Dungeon). This thread will hopefully facilitate discussion on if Cannelle is the right character card for you, etc etc.

Basics and Acquisition

Cannelle is the boss character of the 15 Floor Intermediate Dungeon. She is a neutral (SG Faction) character and can be acquired for your own personal use by clearing the intermediate dungeon 10 times, on the 10th clear you will receive Cannelle’s character card instead of the usually given materials. She is uhh…quite a bit less developed when you get her isn’t she?

Effect Breakdown

Cannelle’s effect, for those who either are unfamiliar with her or just as a refresher is as follows –

At the start of the turn, allied Followers with the lowest SIZE have their ATK/STA increased by the difference between the lowest SIZE in your Field and the highest SIZE in the enemy Field.

So following the trend of her boss card, her strategy revolves around mostly small size follower decks, gaining massive buffs should her followers survive the turn against comparatively larger size followers.

Pros

Obviously, Cannelle carries one massive advantage with her effect – the ability to achieve sweeping buffs of up to +4ATK/+4 STA to potentially five followers in a single turn (If you only played five size 1 followers in a turn and they played at least one size 5 follower, not a very realistic scenario – but it gets the point across). These buffs make your low size followers on par with followers of much larger size, much to the chagrin of any opponent who plays a size 5 only for it to be one hit KO’d by a size 1 follower that received a +4ATK/+4STA buff.

Cannelle can effectively be played in the same manner as her boss form played – swamping a field with low size followers and then reaping the benefits of her effect to enact sweeping buffs across the field. If played in a certain manner, you can actually eliminate some of the faction specific buff spells entirely from your deck (Such as New Maid’s training for example) in favor of focusing on spells that will increase the survivability of your followers to ensure that they receive the character effect buff.

This strategy is especially potent when used with already strong survivability cards – such as Senpai Maid or Student Leader Layna. As their default effects already increase their survivability and they have small size, they are prime candidates to receive the buffs from Cannelle’s effect – though keep in mind only the followers with the lowest size will be buffed.

Cons

As your strategy will usually revolve around flooding your field with low size followers, your deck will be in danger of running out if you don’t establish some momentum for at least a few turns. The worst feeling in the world is decking out in a close game because you were forced to replay your entire hand each turn. This problem is further compounded by spells like Mass Recall, which will force you to replay your entire field if you didn’t have any followers above size four in your field (Which is likely if you are intending to solely base your deck off reaping Cannelle’s maximum effect bonus).

Furthermore, Cannelle’s faction is the Neutral/Factionless/SG faction. For those who are unfamiliar, this faction does not receive any benefits associated with any of the other factions, and no non-SG followers are tied to the character card. This means the spell Sense of Belonging can effectively steal any of your followers, meaning any uber buffed units you create are a potential risk for you – the only saving grace is that because none of your followers (Save Blade Tutor or Coin Girl for example if you have them) are affiliated with your character, the chances of any one particularly dangerous card being converted (Such as a Layna or Senpai Maid) are comparatively low.

Finally, Cannelle’s effect is only as good as how size heavy your opponent’s deck is. When playing a high to mid size deck, Cannelle will shine with constant +2-4s. Against a similarly low size based deck you’ll be seeing anything from +0s-+2s. Also, because lower size cards have lower base stats when compared to higher size cards you will have to ensure at least a few of your cards survive the turn to enjoy the effect – you get nothing if everything dies after all.

Deck Structure

Just like the previous thread with Nold, I’m not about to tell people exactly what cards to use, what your EXACT deck should be, or anything along those lines (At least, not in this first post. I may make a supplementary post later). What I WILL tell you is my theory behind what type of cards you may want to look into.

Because Cannelle is factionless, you can’t depend on any cards that require the character to be of one of the four starter factions (That is, cards that do not even activate without being Crux, Vita, Darklore, or Academy. Cards that may have a reduced effect without faction ties such as Magic Eye, Dark Secret, etc. are still fair game) – so discount these cards immediately. What you can still enjoy are any character cards that are of low size – Student Leader Layna, Senpai Maid come to mind as referenced earlier due to their ability to survive and thus receive the effect buff.

Other cards that come to mind are low size followers with defense, but low HP or ATK stats. Latecomer, Library Lucca, New Maid, Private Maid, Aristocrat Girl, Flag Knight Frett, Crescent Conundrum, Student Government Celine, and Coin Girl come to mind. All of these cards have at least some level of defense, but a deficiency in either their attack or HP. Coin Girl has some of the lowest HP in the game, but a ridiculously high attack – if she can survive a turn Cannelle can quickly turn her into a monster (And as her faction is SG, she can’t be Sense of Belonging’d away from Cannelle).

As for spells, carrying shield breaks should be considered for dealing with enemies such as Pintail who are counters to low size decks in general. Carrying Shrinks is generally ill-advised in this scenario, because Cannelle’s effect is dependent on the highest size in the enemy field which Shrink would reduce. However, keeping a shrink for an emergency or last resort situation is always a possibility.

Restraint/Bondage can be used to great effect here, not only to prevent your opponent from playing more cards in their field as is the normal usage – but the artificial increase in size allows for Cannelle’s effect to become even more ridiculous by allowing it to breach into potential +5ATK/+5STA buff range, or beyond if more than one restraint/bondage is used. A very potent spell for her effect.

Again, I have to reiterate though that ONLY the lowest size cards in your field will be buffed. So if you play only one size 1 card, that is the only card that will be buffed. Playing a field of identical sizes allows the buffs to be granted to everyone rather than just one or two followers, so this means playing 5 size 1s, 4 size 2s, 3 size 3s, for example would be result in every follower receiving a buff if there is a size difference in the enemy field.

Closing

Cannelle is definitely one to watch out for – her only real weakness is her dependence on the size range of the opponent’s deck as well as her SG faction compromising potentially buffed units (As well as any weaknesses inherent in a small size deck).

I’ll assuredly be adding to this thread as needed as I discover more things and play more people, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask me anything, or if anything was vague please ask me for clarification. And of course, feel free to add your own tips and stratagems.

At this point in time, I don’t intend to make more of these threads for the other boss cards – but if people think that these threads have been useful enough I can look into it once the OBT or Full Game is opened. Thanks, stay sharp everyone.