The real combo is Rita Nine and you can technicaly replace Adel by any character providing enough draw, it will just not be as fine tuned, AND you will miss the 100% damage increase buff (which is definitely a thing....but it still works).
The 3 decks are easy to build :
- Nine is just a 4 cards deck in burning life, you want the proper gear with engravings from s2
- For the 2 other ones, just use the event director's cut from theater of illusions to easily get the divines and engravings (the proper divine is forced on both character). To make it easy on Rita you can skip the dupe on the first boss and duplicate the card, so the deck cost isnt random.
- You have some room for 1 divine in both Rita and Adel's decks, and you can divine Nine's cards, but I'm only showing the really important ones. You don't need more AP, so I would suggest the "1 morale 1 resolve" divine on the upgrade cards. Morale is a small buff in this deck, but it's probably the most useful divine in this setup anyway.
- 3 perfect engravings is really hard to get, there are other viable engravings for each character, realistically you may get 2 "perfect" engravings and one "good for the character but less optimal" engraving (for Nine and the S2 engravings, you may have 2 good engravings, don't necessarily chase the perfects ones, just have damage increase %).
- There's room for changes with the items, but you really want the toolboxes to trigger the engravings. For Nine, the arbor+armor + the fact that the deck is very low points makes a gear from burning life very appealing (vulnerability at all time + the armor is really good, and you have other viable options anyway if you have good engravings, but getting BIS items + 2 engravings is easy enough, plus the fact that you only need 2 cards epiphanies....)
About your game plan :
- You need one or two turns to fully setup everything, but during turn 1, if you don't have any draw card in hand, you will want to pick a future decree with OUAT to start the drawing cycle AND apply a blessing to it. Ideally, I like to apply my 4 blessings to Truth behind a story + time paradox + 2x fighter spirit (so the draw is as smooth as possible). This can only be done if Adel has high enough ego manifestation, and/or if you already have a drawing card in hand turn 1. If your adel is E4+ you can very easily change that plan and select Chrono circle turn 1 to make your setup as fast as possible instead
- Once everything is setup, an ideal turn would look like this :
- Start by "truth behind a story" to apply the 100% dmg increase
- Then play the 2 time accel that are in your hand by using Rita's chronal ascension, so they're not the target of future decreed
- Play one future decreed to cast a hew
- Play Time paradox, then 2 time accel again. By playing it early in the turn, the final level of hews will benefit from the vulnerable (which is better value than the Time accel)
- Finally play all your hews (keep one fighter spirit for the last hew since future decreed won't work on the final level).
- When turns are unlucky, ensure you always finish your turn with 6 chronicles, failing to do this by using time paradox at the wrong timing can really mess your rotation :
- If you have 0 chronicles because you didn't spend all your chronal ascension, it means your time accel will end up in your draw pile instead of your hand, which will mess with your draw.
- If you have 1-5 Chronicles, you will have you Time accelerations in hand, but you won't have enough chronal ascension to use it and your future decreed will eventually target it and make you unable to cast all your hews.
- Ideally, you want to use "Protect us" as late as possible in the turn in order to ensure you draw all your deck. Basically, if we assume a "worst draw" scenario, I tend to use protect us until I get "Truth Behind a Story", then I use it on the ennemy, then use 2 time accel, 1 future decreed to use a hew and get chronicles back (and draw), then protect us until I get Time Paradox, then use all the future decreed, then I finish the deck.
The adel's deck has a little bit of flexibility, you can tweak that according to your liking (and budget) :
- You can add a Teddy for fights that require more survivability, but the additional card makes the deck less smooth. I would definitely make a version of the deck WITHOUT the teddy, and eventually have a second one with the teddy.
- About Truth behind a story, you can use the version that applies one vulnerable (neutral epiphany), or the version that applies 2 weaken. I actually prefer the one that applies 2 weaken as it feels it's the most versatile option and the additional vulnerable early in the fight doesn't make a really big difference in the overall damage
- If you want more blessings, you can change one of the Once upon a time and play a setup with one card that selects and draw 1 (so you don't brick turn 1), and one that applies blessing to 3 cards (but you will want it with the divine that makes it cost 0 otherwise you will mess your turns, the AP requirements are already fine tuned and you can't afford that 1 AP).
- I have this build with 4 +50 engravings, and 3 good engravings on Nine, and the finale hew crits for 20k. You can definitely OTK a lot of things with this deck, and when you need to survive several turns (for full scale offensive for instance), Adel's shield (+ heal if you have her partner) are way enough to survive
Adel book is only +100 flat to the card multiplier. Not 100% damage increase of the total. Persona +150 would beat it here in terms of damage buff by exemple.