Libra Cup
Libra Cup, or the 18th Champions Meeting (CM18), takes place on the Hanshin 1600m Track. This CM is based on the Mile Championship, which took place in Hanshin instead of Kyoto due to ongoing redevelopment during 2022.
Acceleration
This CM, the Late-race begins three-quarters of the way into the Final Corner, 60m before the Final Straight. As such, primary Acceleration Skills will be those which can activate on any part of the Corner - these are 
Angling and Scheming, Budding Blossom, and Let's Pump Some Iron!. The 60m delay relegates Straight Acceleration Skills like Straightaway Spurt and 
Victoria por plancha ☆ to weaker, complementary Skills and should only be taken if lacking Accel otherwise.
Red Shift/LP1211-M, Shooting for Victory!, and Moving Past, and Beyond activate too early in the Mid-race and are not recommended.
WARNING
Nimble Navigator/
No Stopping Me! is typically not effective on tracks where the Late-race starts on or after the Final Corner. For CM18, this Skill should only be considered as a desperate last resort.
TIP
Acceleration is a Skill worth considering on Pace Chasers, Late Surgers, and End Closers. Although it should not be specifically targeted, this Skill can appear as a Lv5-Hint from 
Taiki Shuttle, or as a random Hint from Techniques in Grand Concert. Since the Skill has similar conditions to other vital Skills such as Shadow Break, Acceleration can serve as a cheap complement to if Players have spare SP.
Front Runners 
As usual, Angling and Scheming is the primary Acceleration Skill for Front Runners. Usually Angling and Scheming is their only Accel, but the track features for this CM allow Final Push/ Unrestrained to be an effective albeit somewhat random complementary Acceleration Skill. Meanwhile, Victoria por plancha ☆ is a more stable, but less effective, complementary option.
Second Wind is not recommended.
Pace Chasers 
Pace Chasers have two viable pathways which can be fought for individually, or attempted simultaneously.
The first, easier path will be to inherit Budding Blossom onto the Pace Chaser. Budding Blossom is a fully effective instant Acceleration Skill on Hanshin 1600 provided the pre-condition is met.
WARNING
Unfortunately, Budding Blossom’s pre-condition can fail because it is not guaranteed Pace Chasers will have another Uma by their side Mid-race. Even if the player enters the CM with two Pace Chasers, this won’t guarantee Budding Blossom's activation because the track’s wide Corner typically results in Pace Chasers running in a line rather than side by side. Pace Chasers should have alternative Acceleration Skills to account for Budding Blossom failing.
The alternative, more difficult build involves equipping Pace Chasers with Angling and Scheming to fight for First against the Front Runners. This is enabled by stacking Final Corner Skills which include 
Speed Star, Shadow Break, The Duty of Dignity Calls, alongside Skills such as Mile Corners, Pace Chaser Corners, Professor of Curvature, Shifting Gears/ Changing Gears, to attack the Front Runners before the Late-race. Angling and Scheming will also prove to be a very effective Skill in matches without a Front Runner present, since being promoted to Pacemaker will lock the Uma out of Budding Blossom anyway.
Both the above Acceleration Skills can be taken simultaneously, broadening the scope of the Pace Chaser’s win conditions at the cost of a tougher Lineage.
No matter the primary Accel, Pace Chasers will need one or two more secondary Accels to escape the back-liners behind them. Head-On/ Neck and Neck, and Straight Descent/ Determined Descent are each random Accels that may be effective this CM.
TIP
Although Shooting for Victory! is ineffective as an Inherited Skill, Shooting for Victory! is still effective as a Unique Skill on Taiki Shuttle herself. This makes Nishino Flower and Taiki Shuttle the only two Pace Chasers with effective +0.4 Acceleration this CM.
Late Surgers 
Late Surgers are looking to have Let's Pump Some Iron! and Budding Blossom which will cover Acceleration whilst the Uma is in Positions 3, 4, and 6, each of which a Late Surger is likely to be.
Leap Forward/ Lightning Surge should be taken on all back-liners. This Skill is effectively near-instant Acceleration Skills provided Players put in some additional effort into ensuring the Uma will be faster than the Uma in front. This is achieved by stacking Final Corner Skills such as Shadow Break, Nemesis, or any other randomly activating Corner Skill. Shooting Star can enable an early activation of Leap Forward as well due to its Current Speed bonus.
Slick Surge/ On Your Left! will be the most common secondary Acceleration Skill for Late Surgers. It will serve as a backup Accel in case Let's Pump Some Iron! and Budding Blossom miss, and may sometimes be an additional activation for Leap Forward/ Lightning Surge.
WARNING
Updrafters is not recommended. Unlike Slick Surge/ On Your Left!, this skill was not buffed during the July 1st Patch. The Skill is only effective from 6th to 9th, in which case the Uma will hit Let's Pump Some Iron! + Leap Forward (6th), or are already at a significant disadvantage where the randomness of Updrafters may not save the race.
End Closers 
End Closers play very similarly to Late Surgers, their difference being the lack of access to Slick Surge/ On Your Left!. Instead, Straightaway Spurt and Louder! Tracen Cheer! are workable as complementary Accel. That said, in the event the End Closer successfully triggers Leap Forward/ Lightning Surge, the value of Straightaway Spurt and Louder! Tracen Cheer! are heavily diminished. It may be more economical to work towards activating Leap Forward/ Lightning Surge as consistently as possible, rather than spending the effort and SP on these Straight Accel Skills.
TIP
Oguri Cap (Christmas) will typically appear as an End Closer this CM. Players will Inherit 
After-School Stroll as the 3rd trigger to 
Festive Miracle for guaranteed Carryover. There are no reliable backup triggers for Festive Miracle.
WARNING
There are no reliable Festive Miracle triggers for Carryover on styles other than End Closers. In these cases, Players will be gambling on completely random Mid-race triggers.
Velocity Skills
In general, Corner Skills are absolutely vital to meet the pre-requisite conditions for almost all Acceleration Skills this CM. Not only do these Skills contribute significantly to fighting for 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th for the Inherited Acceleration Skills, but they also contribute to the activation of Leap Forward on backliners.
As such, Skills including Shadow Break, Nemesis, Latch On, and Pumped can be vital for many Uma. To a lesser extent, random Corner Skills may serve the same purpose.
TIP
The halfway point of Hanshin 1600 is precisely the beginning of the Final Corner. Thus any Skill that can trigger after halfway can be a Corner Skill.
Another way to get Velocity on the Final Corner are Downhill Skills. Downhill Speedster is quite effective, albeit very difficult to acquire through Inheritance. Wherever This Wonder Leads Leads as an Inherited Skill will typically not Carryover into the Late-race, but nonetheless it triggers at a critical time that may cause a chain of other skills to activate. Mejiro Dober (Camping) herself will benefit significantly from the Carryover, and has a near guaranteed chance to trigger Leap Forward/ Lightning Surge.
Otherwise, any other generically useful Velocity Skill remains effective.
Recommended Stats
Speed
Stamina
Power
Guts
WitThe Mid-race hill plays a significant role in the outcome of the race. Entering Downhill mode can chain into natural Speed Carryover, giving Uma a headstart to the Late-race. Wit
is crucial for hitting this consistently.
If Stamina draining Skills such as Full Throttle are used, players may need to budget an additional ~30 Stamina per 2% of Stamina drain.
Recommended Decks
Refer to our Grand Concert Guide for general Deck Advice!
With the support of 6-9* Stamina Sparks, most Players will run 3 SPD, 2 WIT, and 
Light Hello. This is the most stable strategy to reach a competitive Statline for this CM.
Players may be tempted to run Skill Cards such as 
Daiichi Ruby which offers Lightning Surge, or Daiwa Scarlet which offers Neck and Neck. Broadly speaking, it is generally recommended to work towards adding Leap Forward and Head-On to Lineages instead. The difficulty of training in Grand Concert increases substantially when a non-SPD or non-WIT Skill Card is used, and the loss of stats may not justify the upgrade from White to Gold. If your deck is unable to support a Card which will not contribute to your Stats, getting these Skills from Lineages becomes your only option.
INFO
If a Skill card is to be used, then it would take the place of one of the SPD Cards.
One particularly notable Card this CM is Taiki Shuttle. On top of strengthened Power Training and an SP bonus, her Event Chain comes with Mile Corners, which can help achieve Acceleration pre-requisites on all Styles. She also has Mile Maven, a very strong Gold Skill for Front Runners and Pace Chasers. All her Hints besides 
Wet Conditions are also useful for the CM. Overall, Taiki Shuttle is a card you can use on almost every Uma.
Other card options include Nishino Flower for Determined Descent, or Seeking the Pearl for Dauntless and Uma Stan.
Lineage Planning
Front Runner
Front Runners Lineages will look like the usual. Angling and Scheming is the primary Acceleration Skill for Front Runners. The rest of the Lineage will consist of either Mid-race to assist your Front Runner in fulfilling Angling and Scheming‘s activation conditions, or Skills to help run away with the lead after Accel.
Front Runners do not necessarily have CM18-specific sparks they may want to hunt for. The usual generic Front Runner Sparks such as Groundwork, 
Dodging Danger, Prudent Positioning, and 
Ignited Spirit WIT apply. It is recommended to look for 
Right-Handed ○ or Fall Runner ○ as Groundwork activations well. Other Groundwork activations can come from Taking the Lead and 
Front Runner Savvy ○, which are easily acquired from Mihono Bourbon and Light Hello respectively.
Pace Chaser
Pace Chasers have the diversity of choice when it comes to their Lineages. Budding Blossom and Angling and Scheming were explained earlier in the guide.
Whilst the Accel Zone begins on a Downhill, it is not recommended to work Straight Descent into your Lineages. This Skill is too randomly ineffective to afford the effort of Parenting for it.
Head-On is a generically useful Skill to have for all CMs - this can also be acquired from Agnes Tachyon, the Scenario Card.
Late Surger and End Closer
Let's Pump Some Iron! and Budding Blossom are the primary Acceleration Skills for the backline.
Despite the existence of Daiichi Ruby which offers Lightning Surge, it is still recommended to work towards adding Leap Forward to backline Lineages.
All other Unique Skills in the Lineage should contribute towards activating Leap Forward/ Lightning Surge as soon as possible. These are Velocity Skills that activate on the Final Corner like Shadow Break and Nemesis, or Skills with Current Speed like Shooting Star. Otherwise, Late-race Skills to help close out the Race remain generically useful.
Recommended Umas
The most competitive Uma this CM are Mejiro Dober (Camping), Narita Taishin, and Oguri Cap (Christmas). Each of these three Uma are backliners who have near-guaranteed Speed Carryover, which also translates to guaranteed instant activations of Leap Forward. Consistent bursts of Speed accompanied by consistent Accel is substantially more powerful than what other Uma have access to.
Special Week is similar to the Uma above, however Shooting Star is slightly trickier to activate compared to Nemesis or Wherever This Wonder Leads. Shooting Star's conditions require Special Week to pass another Uma, but this can be difficult without first activating other Skills. Some effort would need to be made for Special Week to pass as early as possible in the Late-race.
Taiki Shuttle (Camping) is strong for different reasons. Mile Maven, Neck and Neck, Pace Chaser Corners, and Mile Corners are each innately available to Taiki Shuttle, and each are crucial Skills for success this CM. The availability of these Skills also dramatically increase her Deck flexibility, making her one of the easiest Uma to train amongst the available roster. Joyful Voyage! is also a powerful Late-race Velocity Skill that will always prove useful.
Otherwise, most Mile-capable Uma will perform well this CM. Many options such as Fine Motion (Wedding) and Nishino Flower are easy to train due to their inherent Mile-related Skills.
Runaway 
Runaways are not effective aces this CM, but they do have significant strategic value amongst the team. Each benefit also comes with some risk.
One of their key uses is providing a consistent means for Uma to activate Skills which require Overtake or Overtake Mode. These are Skills like Shadow Break, Shooting Star, Leap Forward, and Acceleration, which may be vital Skills in an Uma’s build.
Runaways can also help set the Pace of the lobby to stretch the pack, preventing congestion. A stretched pack will typically reward Uma with better Mid-race performance and may reduce the frequency of Wide Swings. This can especially help Front Runners, who can pace up to the Runaway to establish a significant Mid-race lead ahead of the mid-pack. In this case, Players must be careful not to block their own Front Runners from activating Angling and Scheming by making the Runaway too competitive in the Mid-race.
TIP
On the other hand, players without a Front Runner in the team comp can use Runaways to block Angling and Scheming from opponents. Take caution that too weak of a Runaway may benefit Front Runners instead.
WARNING
Be aware that if the Player’s own Uma can use the Runaway to their benefit, so can opponents! That said, this is likely an acceptable risk if the Player’s Uma becomes significantly more consistent with the presence of a Runaway - after all, not all opponents will build the same way.