Seliph Anankos (B08)

## Overview

Written by: Basil

This is a deck that takes advantage of some cards that at first don’t seem to go together, but end up creating a storm of value that can’t be matched. Of course, it is like a 5 card combo and you’re super slow to get it set up, but once it gets rolling you’re drawing and ramping and picking up so many cards, you basically auto-win.

## The Combo

### Anankos 7

The first part of your combo is the titular Anankos. His skill 1 is very good since it not only wipes the opponent’s board, but also puts whatever units you have into your bonds as ramp, which is the main reason we’re using him. He can end up getting pretty big off his skill 2, but that’s secondary to the primary goal of just taking all your units and putting them in your bonds.

### Lewyn 0

Lewyn is what breaks the deck. When he’s played, you stack 4 cards underneath him and can use him like a second hand, but that isn’t what he’s in the deck for. When he’s on the field and Anankos uses his skill 1, Lewyn and *all the cards underneath him* are sent to your bonds. This means you play this 0 cost card, tap Anankos and send 5+ cards to your bonds. You can also end up with multiple Lewyn 0s, which is crucial since you can class change him for 0 bonds and draw cards, then send the whole stack to bonds anyway.

### Seliph 5(4)

Your last primary combo piece is your Main Character. After you use Anankos to send Lewyn and all the cards underneath him to your bonds, you use Seliph’s Final Holy War skill to pick them right back up to do it again. From the 4 random cards underneath Lewyn and whatever draws you got from class changing him, you’ll almost certainly have another Seliph to replace the one you used for Holy War, and you can get all the Lewyns back to do it all again next turn. Same with other units you deploy- if you CC Sigurd 5(4), you send him to bonds and can pick him up again to CC him again next turn. It creates this powerful loop of drawing, sending a ton of cards to bonds, then picking up bonds, letting you get a ridiculous number of cards very fast.

### Tempo Cards

Anankos is likely the only Black/White card in your deck, and waiting until turn 7 to play him is far too slow already, so you need a way to cheat him out. Marth and Chrom can do it since he’ll be your only Black/White card in your deck, so he can be deployed from hand right on turn 5. Sigurd 4(3) is a backup option that has to wait an extra turn until 6 bonds, but the advantage is he deploys Anankos from bonds, which you can set up using other cards more easily than adding him to your hand. Having at least one of these options is crucial, since getting your combo rolling sooner means better odds of drawing so much your opponent can’t keep up.

## Gameplan

Seliphnankos is an abysmally slow deck, which means you aren’t going to be hitting you opponent’s MC at all until you are well set up, and even then you still may not. Early on you just want to bridge, ramp, or both. Depending on what version you’re running, you might be blue and have Gregor, or just stick with Safy on turn 3. Whichever you have, that’s the most you’re going to be doing in the early game- just survive and clear the opponent’s board.

After you promote, you’re looking to get Anankos and Lewyn going ASAP. Ideally by turn 5 you have both in hand alongside a way to cheat them out, Marth/Chrom/Sigurd, and you can start your combo. If you don’t, you can stall for a bit by class changing Sigurd 5(4) and tanking up, or putting your combo pieces into bonds with Sigurd or Deirdre 1 to pick up.

Once your combo is going, as long as you don’t mess up, you should just win. Your hand is 10+ cards, you draw and put down like 5+ cards a turn, realistically your opponent should just concede to speed things up. If you do end up having to play it out, you have a few ways to end the game. One is to just hit the opponent’s MC like normal and it doesn’t matter if they have cards because you have way way more. Some versions of Seliphnankos run stuff like Henry to make the opponent discard after they take orbs or Faye OC to make them discard orbs, and they never have to hit them at all until the very last swing.

One thing to be wary of is to make sure you can always redeploy Anankos if the opponent clears him, since you need him to be around for your combo to work. Extra copies of him are likely to end up in your hand or bonds thanks to Lewyn drawing & stacking random cards, but you also need the right card to deploy him- Chrom/Marth or Sigurd 4.

## Sample Decks

Seliphnankos (Blue)
Notes: The blue variant of Seliphnankos has 2 key advantages: Gregor and Henry. Gregor is great ramp that can get you to promote early and is annoying for your opponent to deal with, making your early game much safer. Henry is there for the mid/late game when you are just about set up- you can deploy him and then CC Lewyn a bunch of times to force your opponent to discard their hand, which will pretty much win you the game in most scenarios. As a bonus, you also get to run Robin 2 as Orb heal and can use Rainbow Chrom as your turn 5 option to play Anankos.

4 Seliph, Pledge of Friendship
4 Anankos, Crazed Silent Dragon
4 Chrom, Exalt of Justice and Bonds
4 Sigurd, 'Neath Noble Ideals
4 Lewyn, Resurrected Wind
3 Robin (Male), Tactician of Many Mysteries
3 Henry, Smiling Sorcerer
4 Deirdre, Maiden of the Spirit Forest
3 Sigurd, A Soul Who Lived for Love
4 Sigurd, Holy Honor-Imparting Knight
4 Seliph, Holy King in the Making
4 Seliph, Savior of Light+
4 Gregor, Swell Sword
MC:
1 Seliph, Heir to the Blood of Light (P2)