Cancer Cup

Cancer Cup, or the 15th Champions Meeting (CM15), takes place on the Hanshin 2200m Track. This CM is based on the Takarazuka Kinen, which was previously run in the first Leo Cup (CM4).

Acceleration

Similar to most Medium CMs, CM15 is a Corner 3 Acceleration Track. This means that all generic Corner Acceleration Skills, such as Angling and Scheming and Let's Pump Some Iron!, are viable. Corner 3 Acceleration Skills, such as Moving Past, and Beyond, are viable as well.

WARNING

Depending on lobby composition, Moving Past, and Beyond and Let's Pump Some Iron! may be difficult to activate. These Skills have a positional requirement for 5-6th and 6th, respectively: If there are many Debuffers or Backliners, Umas can often find themselves out of position for these Uniques.

As both the final Corner and Straight are heavily delayed, Skills that activate on these Track Features such as Red Shift/LP1211-M and Straightaway Spurt are not recommended.

Outside of inherited Acceleration Uniques, the most universal Acceleration Skill available is Nimble Navigator/ No Stopping Me!. Similar to last CM, the Accel Zone begins before the final Corner, making it easier for these two Skills to activate.

WARNING

Outside of Umas such as Mayano Top Gun who have the Skill through Potentials, No Stopping Me! can only be acquired through the use of Yukino Bijin, a weak Wit SSR. If the rest of the Deck is not strong enough to make up for using this Card, borrowing a stronger Card and acquiring Nimble Navigator through other means is recommended.

Christmas Oguri

An Uma that will be seen often during CM15 is Oguri Cap. Christmas Oguri’s Unique, Festive Miracle, provides .25 Target Speed, .3 Acceleration, and 3.5% Recovery when three Recovery Skills are used. In Tracks ranging from 1800m to 2200m, Christmas Oguri can both get a guaranteed Speed Carryover and Acceleration from her Unique in the late-race through the use of Triple 7s.

WARNING

Unlike CM12, Corner 3 is too early for U=ma2 to cause Festive Miracles to carry over making it an invalid backup recovery. Due to this, Christmas Oguri only has a 79% chance to activate her Unique at 1200 Wit.

WARNING

Radiant Star should not be taken on Christmas Oguri. Not only is it a bad Skill for the SP Cost, it can also cause Festive Miracles to activate early and miss the Accel Zone. Generally speaking, any recovery Skill beyond your base three recovery Skills are not recommended for the same reason.

INFO

Christmas Oguri’s Unique should not be inherited. Although the Skill is powerful in a vacuum, it is not strong enough to justify an average of 600SP that could be invested in other skills. The inherited version is also subject to an extra Wit check, making the chance to activate all necessary skills 73% at 1200 Wit.

Velocity Skills

A notable Skill worth mentioning is Mejiro Dober’s Unique, Wherever This Wonder Leads. This Unique activates on any Downhill in the mid-race after 60% of the race has passed. On the Hanshin 2200m Track, there is a Downhill that starts 67 meters before the start of the late-race. This means that this Skill, even when inherited, provides guaranteed Speed Carryover.

Recommended Stats

Speed

1200

Stamina

800

Power

1000+

Guts

600+

Wit

1100+

Compared to CM13, the Stamina requirement is low, only requiring around 800 Stamina and 500 Guts. With more Guts, the Stamina requirement can also be slightly lowered. In addition, due to the lower Stamina requirement, acquiring additional Power and Wit is much easier. Many players will be able to cap these Stats, but some Stats can alternatively be forgone for more Races.

With a white recovery skill, it is viable to reduce Stamina even further (by about -40) if players find the Wit check an acceptable risk.

While Guts is not absolutely critical, having higher Guts is recommended due to the ease of hitting the cap on other Stats. With triple-capped Umas becoming increasingly more common, having higher Guts can help decide Races through Dueling.

Recommended Decks and Support Cards

Refer to our Trackblazer Guide for general Deck Advice!

Example Decks

Speed Wit Budget

Speed Wit Dolphin

Speed Wit Whale

The recommended Deck for CM15 is the standard 2 SPD 2 WIT 2 Flex Deck. As Stamina Cards are not necessary, the flex slots can be filled with several different options.

One option is bringing additional Cards for meeting Stat goals. For players with weaker Decks, filling these slots with more Speed and Wit Cards will make it easier to hit Statlines.

If meeting Stat goals isn’t a problem, an alternative is using SSR Cards for their Gold Skills. Front Runners can run Daitaku Helios for Escape Artist, whilst El Condor Pasa for Killer Tunes works great on both Front and Pace. For End Closers, Admire Vega Power or Mr. C.B. Wit are highly desirable for Daring Strike. Yaeno Muteki is universally useful on all Styles for It's On!, whilst Yukino Bijin can be considered for No Stopping Me! if the player has an otherwise powerful deck.

In addition, CM15 is the first CM since CM11 that does not have Firm ground conditions. This means that Narita Top Road's Gold, Firm Course Menace, does not work.

The Throne’s Assemblage

Due to the acceleration of the schedule, The Throne's Assemblage, a Card that originally came out on the last day of Cancer Cup, was moved to the second day of Round 1. The Throne's Assemblage not only provides better Stat and SP than most Wit Cards, but also has Photon Slash, the Gold version of Medium Corners ○.

While remaking Aces for CM15 is possible, it is not strictly necessary. Many players who are using their Borrow Slot for important Cards such as Kitasan Black or Fine Motion may also not see a significant improvement from borrowing Throne instead.

Recommended Uma

With Festive Miracle being so strong, Oguri Cap will be the dominant Uma throughout the CM.

However, other Uma are not completely out of the competition. Front Runners, if they have the complete early-race kit ( Groundwork, Early Lead/ Taking the Lead, Dodging Danger, Prudent Positioning/ Ignited Spirit WIT) and sufficient mid-race ( Escape Artist, Killer Tunes, Professor of Curvature) can run away from the pack even if Oguri Cap lands Festive Miracle - however this will be a steep investment for any Uma that is not Mihono Bourbon.

End Closers can also compete with Oguri Cap, if they have Uma Stan to break themselves out of early-race Pace Down Mode, and also Daring Strike and other mid-race skills to push for Pace Chaser position.

Late Surgers are relatively weaker than the above styles, however many of them come with useful innate Skills or powerful Uniques which makes them easy to build if players need a low-stakes option.

Pace chasers that are not Oguri Cap are generally not recommended due to a lack of reliable Acceleration Skills.