WIXOSS Grand Prix Houston 2025: Interview with the Top 8 Azaela

On June 22nd, 2025, Emi achieved 7th place with the brand new team Mugen Shoujo, headed by Azaela. The deck brings the legendary team from the anime to life, and features some of the most powerful SIGNI and LRIGs the Diva format has ever seen.

Hi! I’m Emi. My name’s shown up here a few times from tournaments, but I’m happy to finally be featured. I got into Wixoss because I was an accounting intern for Tomy International a few years ago, and I stumbled upon the TOMY logo on art I liked on Twitter. Then I dug into the rabbit hole, and started playing around when P10 came out in EN. This is the first TCG I’ve ever played competitively, and through it I’ve made so many friends I look forward to seeing whenever I can. I’ve always had an itch for competitiveness, and Wixoss struck the perfect balance for what I was looking for.

Emi’s Top 8 Deck from GP Houston 2025

// Could you tell us a little about the deck? Team Mugen Shoujo had quite a few different builds, with varying centers, pieces, and deck makeups – what made you settle on this version? //

This deck was largely inspired by Coffee’s Azaela list that he brought to the 2024 Winter GP in Japan. I tried a lot of variations of the deck for P16 format, but the one that felt the most consistent is the one with Gae Bolg and Carnival//Dissona to replace the cards not currently in the EN format. I believe this was first made by Starfruit. I tried making a variety of modifications, but they all seemed to be too niche and risky.

I would consider Azaela to be a great center because Zeusias, the team signi, is a red card. Every MS center wants to play Zeusias, so it helps fill your grow cost easily. Additionally, the tax on the ener is relevant in almost every matchup, especially when paired with connect spinning. The big question is why does this run connect spinning over D-(A)live, the team piece? When paired with the ener burn Azaela already does, it fixes exactly what the deck was missing–a reliable way to end the game. D-(A)live’s purpose is slowing the gameplan of your opponent, while Connect Spinning pushes the pace of your own, something that really helped in slow and tough matchups like Defense Division.

// Were there any other decks you considered for this event leading up to it? //

I’ve taken Alfou to the past two GP’s, and I felt like she was set up for success in both of those formats. However, my performance in the Dallas GP was under what I wanted it to be, so I wanted to make sure I was bringing the deck that gave me the best shot at winning a Mugen Shojo invite. Alfou struggles really hard vs Defense Faction, so she unfortunately was out of the picture pretty early. My favorite lrig is Allos Piruluk, so I considered her as well. But similar to Alfou, she didn’t have the power level that seemed consistent enough to win an invite, which was my goal. So that one was out pretty quick, too. I do feel like very early on into the meta, I knew exactly what I was going to play. While Defense was always going to be a good pick, I never considered it because I knew there will always be better players than me at that style of deck. My goal was to place top two, and I still don’t think I could have accomplished that on any other deck.

// What did practice and preparation for this event look like? Did you expect to make it as far as you did? //

I prepared more for this event than any other. I’m lucky to have the active practice group I do, so I was able to receive meaningful practice against top players on every strong deck. And we’re all close friends, so we end up talking to each other a lot in and out of the game. That, and the North Carolina Friday Night Wixoss online tournaments helped me stay fresh in a tournament-like setting.

My practice made it seem like I always had a chance to make it to top eight, but GPs are always chaotic and nothing is for granted. There are many players that placed below me I would consider to be better at the game, so I definitely think there was some luck involved with me being able to make it this far. But my goal was to win an invite to Mugen Shojo, which unfortunately I came up short. Nonetheless, I’m extremely happy with how far I made it, and I couldn’t have done it without the help I got along the way. I just hope I can finally win a game in top eight sometime!!!!!!

Emi had achieved tops at several tournaments leading up to the GP

// How was playing games in the streaming room – did you feel any extra stress or pressure from knowing you were under a more public eye during those games? //

Personally, I loved being in the streaming room. I am always happy to be in front of (or below, in this case) a camera, so it didn’t bother me at all to have my gameplay publicized. Sure, it added to the nerves, but I didn’t let it get to me and think I played as good if not better than I would have if it weren’t streamed. If it was up to me, all my games would be streamed!

// What were your thoughts on the event format, and what are some memorable moments from it, within the games or otherwise? //

It turning into six games of Swiss was a shock, but I think in this meta especially with how diverse it can be, it takes a lot of brain power to play seven intense games (which Azaela has a lot of). So I didn’t mind. Making top eight at the only two-day GP was really, really, fun. Coming back to the Airbnb on Saturday to the overwhelming support from my friends was something I’m never going to forget. When I opened the door to piles of cards my friends were putting together to help prepare me for my top eight matches, I could feel how much they cared about my success. I consider them to be family, and I could not have gotten this far without them. Big shoutout to ChairA, Pigeon, and Rewsula who helped me play games late into the night on Saturday! As for gameplay memorable moments, it for sure has to be the Sirionseal win on stream. It was PEAK HYPE!!

Sirionseal discards the last card (6 in one turn cycle) from Engel’s hand to secure a win in Round 3

// What are your thoughts on the P-16 metagame? Are you looking forward to ARTS format? //

P16 is extremely difficult to prep for because there are so many good decks that play so differently that it feels impossible to prep for them all. I know that a lot of my testing group struggled to pick their deck to pilot, and some even waited till the last minute (literally) to make a decision on what deck they were playing. I think that because I settled on a deck multiple months in advance, it helped me make sure I was successful and prepared, although I’m not sure how much I’ll play this format anymore.

I’m looking forward to arts, but now I’m back till square zero with what deck I’m playing!! I like Iona a lot, but black isn’t in the best spot. And it doesn’t seem Azaela gets all that great again until WX24-P4 when the multi-colored arts come out. So maybe I’ll play like Hitoe or something I’m not sure. We’ll see. But I still am very motivated to compete and can’t wait till the next time we all meet up again. Hopefully this time I’ll win a game in top eight!

Thanks again to Emi for sharing his time with us, who was truly Mugen Shoujo during this event!