I don’t like Riki.

Welcome back dear readers, Zabuton here.

Those of you who’ve read my other recent article may have found it a little strange that, despite my calls to differentiate Fukaziroh clones and Chiyuri clones, I did not mention the differences between all the “Riki”s that exist. I’m pretty nitpicky when it comes to accurate language, and of course this is a topic that I have an opinion or two about. Enough opinions, in fact, to write a separate article about.

Some of you may know that there was a phase in the past during which I really didn’t like Rikis.

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one level 1 or lower character, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

“Little Busters” Riki [LB/W21-065]
Little Busters! Anime

I didn’t like that I had to make an attack with a weak card to fuel my turn 2 Riki. I didn’t like that it was a weak draw in the late game. I didn’t like that I had to use 2 resources to gain 1. I didn’t like that its strength was swayed by whether or not I drew my level 1 combo. I didn’t like that Riki was neither the first nor the most widely-used card with its ability.

That’s all in the past though. I’m now open to using Riki in some decks. They can be useful.

But forget all that, because that’s not what this article is about.

This article is about the ridiculously wide range of cards that are referred to as “Riki”s, and how the overuse has led to the term being horribly ineffective at describing what cards actually do.

What is a Riki?

Let’s start by taking a look at some cards. Think about how you would shorthand their abilities when explaining them to an opponent.

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one level 1 or lower character, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

“President of the Occult Research Club” Akane [RW/W15-003]
Rewrite

If you called this one a Riki, that’s right.

This card’s text is a carbon copy of Riki’s. Rather, Riki, being the newer card, is a clone of this one. Akane is the original “Riki”, and thus the community in Japan refers to them as “オカ研(Oka-ken, short for Occult Research Club)”.

【AUTO】 When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, look at the top card of your deck, and put it on the top of your deck or into your waiting room.

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose 1 level 1 or lower character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

My Own Shine, Karen Aijo [RSL/S56-E035]
Revue Starlight

Salvage Riki? That’s fair. If you only look at the bottom line of text, the only difference between Karen and Akane is where they add their level 1 or lower card from.

【CONT】 If you have 2 or more other 《Golden Wind》 characters, this card gets +1000 power.
【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose 1 《Golden Wind》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

Guiding Fate, Trish [JJ/S66-E073]
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

This is where it gets a little questionable.

I’m sure that 90% of the time that this card is called a “Riki”, the fact that it can in fact salvage a character of any level (so long as it has the《Golden Wind》trait) will not be explicitly stated, and it will simply be referred to as a “CIP Salvage Riki”. This is not of much concern if the communication is between two players aware of what this card is, and the question is simply “what is the card that you just triggered?”.

However, this absolutely is a problem if the asking player is not aware of the card text and the question is “what does that card do?”.

If the asker’s interpretation of the term “Riki” encompasses more than just cards that add level 1 or lower characters, then there will be a follow-up question asking exactly what range of cards this card can add to hand (level-restricted/trait-restricted/etc.). Not a huge issue, but it does mean the use of the term “Riki” is not conveying all of the information that was asked.

The worse scenario occurs when the asker’s interpretation of the term “Riki” is that the card can only add characters whose level is 1 or lower. In this case, he/she will he unable to identify that the opponent is in fact able to add late-game cards to the hand should it be necessary. This is not a situation that you’d want to put yourself and a potential new player in, is it?

Furthermore, this sort of miscommunication can influence player decisions, and as such can be classified as a rule infraction under section 3.2 of the Bushiroad TCG Advanced Floor Rules, which can be found under the Rules section on the official website.

While decisions are ultimately up to the judge at whatever event you’re playing at, a communication of the above Trish as a “Salvage Riki” could be ruled as an “instance where the fighters’ strategies will clearly change if the correct information had been conveyed“ and therefore might land you with a warning or even game loss.

I should be right in saying that tournament penalties are something worth avoiding, even for the small subgroup of players who don’t give two flying fucks about their newbie opponent correctly understanding what their cards actually do.

And now let’s look at all the other variations of card effects that too many players call “Rikis”, along with the laziest descriptors I’ve heard of each.

【CONT】 If the number of cards in your stock is three or less, this card gets +1000 power.

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is put into your waiting room from the stage, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a level 1 or lower character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

“Guardian of the Crow Cards” Kero-chan [CCS/W66-002]
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

Laziest explanation: “On-death Riki”

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, choose one of your characters, and that character gets +500 power until end of turn.

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to 1 《Music》 character, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

Our Super Song, Miku [SG/W89-001]
Symphogear XV

Laziest explanation: “On-reverse Riki”

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock & Put this card into your memory] When this card becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to 1 《Alchemy》 character, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

Autoscorer Leiur [SG/W39-004]
Symphogear GX

Laziest explanation: “On-reverse Riki”

【AUTO】 When this card attacks, choose one of your other characters, and that character gets +X power until end of turn. X is equal to 1000 multiplied by that character’s soul.

【AUTO】 [Put the top card of your stock into your clock & Put this card into your memory] When this card becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a 《Fluctlight》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

With Memories, Asuna & Yuuki[SAO/S80-001]
Sword Art Online Alicization Vol.2

Laziest explanation: “On-reverse salvage Riki”

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock & Put this card into your memory] When this card becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw 1 card.

Date Invitation, Mai Sakurajima [SBY/W77-057]
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl

Laziest explanation: “Draw Riki”

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is put into your waiting room from the stage, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to 2 cards from the top of your deck, choose up to 2 《Anniversary》 characters from among them, reveal them to your opponent, put them into your hand, and put the rest into your waiting room.

Commitment to the Sword, Kirito [SAO/S71-082]
Sword Art Online 10th Anniversary

Laziest explanation: “On death top 2 Riki”

【AUTO】 [(1)] When this card is put into your waiting room from the stage, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to 3 cards from the top of your deck, choose 1 card from among them, put it into your clock, and put the rest into your waiting room. If you put 1 card into your clock, choose 1 《Fluctlight》 character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

To the Cave in the North, Alice [SAO/S65-E001]
Sword Art Online -Alicization-

Laziest explanation: “On-death salvage Riki”

【AUTO】 [(1)] When this card is placed on the stage from your hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to 3 cards from the top of your deck, choose up to 1 card from among them, put it into your clock, and put the rest into your waiting room. If you put 1 card into your clock, choose 1 level 1 or lower character in your waiting room, and return it to your hand.

“Gears of Destiny” Mayuri Shiina [STG/S60-002]
Steins;Gate

Laziest explanation: “Top 3 Salvage Riki”

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock & Put this card into your memory] When this card becomes 【REVERSE】 in battle, If all of your characters are 《Anniversary》,《Magic》,《Music》 or 《Net》, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to 4 cards from the top of your deck, choose up to 1 character from among them, and put the rest into your waiting room.

Faint Feelings, Shiina [DC4/W81-088]
Circus 20th Anniversary

Laziest explanation: “On-reverse top 4 Riki”

【AUTO】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock] When this card is put into your waiting room from the stage, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a character in your waiting room with “Kasumi(香澄)” or “Tae(たえ)” or “Rimi(りみ)” or “Saya(沙綾)” or “Arisa(有咲)” in its card name, and return it to your hand.

“Twinkle Star” Kasumi [BD/W47-E029]
BanG Dream!

“Riki for Poppin’ Party“

That hurt to type.

I do have to admit that I am being a little unfair here by mentioning the worst examples as opposed to the average one. However, in order to accurately convey how each of the above abilities differ to an unsure opponent, it would be necessary to mention all of the following:

1. When the ability triggers (when the card is played/reversed/sent to waiting room);
2. How the cost is paid (top card to clock/stock to clock/top 3 choose 1 to clock);
3. Whether the “Riki” goes to memory;
4. Where you can add a card from (waiting room/deck/other);
5. What type of card you can add (level-restricted/trait-restricted/name-restricted).

The average person who uses “Riki” to convey their card effect to an unsure opponent is not going to convey all of this information to an opponent. Point 2 even goes to show that the term “Riki” here actually does next to nothing to convey necessary information here – it only tells that the ability leaves the user with 1 more hand and damage, but 1 fewer stock, which alone is not helpful.

Should some of these subcategories of “Riki”s have their own names?

As far as I’m aware, there’s only one “Riki” effect that has its own recognised name in the English-speaking WS community.

【ACT】 [(1) Put the top card of your deck into your clock & 【REST】 this card] Search your deck for up to one 《ESPer》 character, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

“Item” Takitsubo [RG/W26-014]
A Certain Scientific Railgun S

This card is hardly a Riki, but it’s closer to Riki than Anger clones are to Emilia combos ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

One I personally say due to its use in Japan is Leiur, from the Symphogear Alchemy card above. Surprisingly, there’s 9 other cards in the game which have that same line of text, of which Kaban, Rin and Kamome are the most notable. I don’t imagine this one to stick though, as there recently does seem to be some reluctance from Bushiroad to print more of these cards.

Aside from those, I don’t believe we need to find new words to describe the subdivisions of what is currently blanketed under Riki. As we can see from the above, there is a lot of variation between all of these effects, and having a new name for each new innovation Bushiroad decides to print is just exhausting.

So, what’s the alternative?

I think this is pretty obvious if you’ve read this far, but I am advocating to not use the term “Riki” to explain card effects to a player who you aren’t 100% certain is aware of the exact effect of the card in question. The clear overuse of the word has led to some of us being damagingly inaccurate and lazy in conveying in-game information. Which, given that many of us are playing with Japanese cards that one or more players cannot read, is a larger problem in WS than in many other TCGs.

On the other hand, I don’t intend to police people’s language in situations where all involved players are aware of what the Riki does, and the word is simply being used to indicate which card is being talked about. Go ham on that. I’ll still judge you for calling Takitsubo clones Rikis though.

Conclusion

Was this article a really stretched-out wall of text that basically just tells people to explain their card effects properly? Was it a part 2 of the previous article? Yeah it mostly was, but I do believe that with the horrific number of times “Riki” is being used to inaccurately convey card effects every day, it is necessary to drive the point home that, yes, we do need to use words that actually tell the opponent something.

So please, next time you’re asked what your card’s ability is, tell your opponent what your card does using the above 5 points. It’s not hard and it’s not that long either. It’s definitely less time-consuming than telling your opponent that your card is a Riki, only to have to clarify exactly what your card does anyway.

As always, thanks for reading. If you’ve any questions, criticisms or fanmail you can contact me on Twitter(https://twitter.com/zabuton78) or Discord (Zabuton#8605).

Until next time.