Sagittarius Cup
Sagittarius Cup, or the 20th Champions Meeting (CM20), takes place on the Nakayama 2500m Racetrack. This CM is based on the Arima Kinen.
Arima Kinen
Nakayama 2500m- Season
- Winter
- Direction
- Right
- Weather
- Cloudy
- Ground
- Good
Acceleration
The late-race on the Nakayama 2500m starts on the Backstretch. As such, Acceleration Skills which activate on the Straight such as 
Victory Cheer!, Break It Down!, and 
Straightaway Spurt/
Encroaching Shadow are the most effective.
A Corner follows 33m into the late-race. Corner Acceleration Skills such as Angling and Scheming, Let's Pump Some Iron! and Moving Past, and Beyond are viable, but may be given up in favour of the abundance of instantly effective Acceleration Skills available to each style.
WARNING
Backstretch Acceleration Skills are distinct from Final Straight Acceleration Skills. Skills such as Victoria por plancha ☆ and Give Mummy a Hug ♡ are not to be taken in this CM.
TIP
Nimble Navigator/ No Stopping Me! is effective on all non-Front Runner styles, and should generally be sought after if possible.
Pace Chasers 
Pace Chasers have the difficult task of contesting the Front Runners for their Acceleration conditions. My True Strength, an Acceleration Skill which instantly activates in the late-race, requires the Pace Chaser to push within 4 Lengths of the leading Uma. This condition may be completely disabled by the presence of a 
Runaway.
Pace Chasers can also opt into taking Victory Cheer! and Break It Down!. However, these Skills require being positioned in 2nd Place during the start of late-race.
Therefore, in order to be successful, a large abundance of mid-race Skills will be necessary for Pace Chasers to consistently activate Acceleration.
WARNING
Head-On/ Neck and Neck have high chances to activate outside of the Accel Zone, rendering them useless. Despite this, Pace Chasers may be forced to consider this Skill due to the lack of other consistent options.
Late Surgers 
Late Surgers have access to Scramble/ Claw Forward on Long CMs - an instant Acceleration Skill at the cost of 2% of the Uma’s HP. Although very powerful, there are two drawbacks players will need to account for.
The first more obvious one is the HP cost. Players may need to budget an additional 50 Stamina to survive, which can be very difficult to achieve under the limitations of Grand Concert and the relatively poor stat output of 
Symboli Kris S who gives Claw Forward.
The second drawback is the 4th-9th positioning requirement. Late Surgers will be subject to the randomness of lobby compositions. Lobbies with weak or a low number of Front Runners may mean Late Surgers can miss the activation of the Skill entirely.
As backup, it is recommended for Late Surgers to have a secondary Accel in the event Scramble/ Claw Forward fails. This Skill will usually be Nimble Navigator and/or Moving Past, and Beyond.
WARNING
Due to the length of the track, Slick Surge/ On Your Left! has a high chance of activating beyond the Accel Zone and is therefore not recommended.
Recommended Stats
Speed
Stamina
1
Power
Guts
WitStamina will once again be the most difficult stat to acquire for this CM. Although there is a longer downhill compared to the previous CM, the longer distance combined with the Stamina/Guts Racetrack Speed threshold makes 867-901 the optimal amount of Stamina. Similarly, at least 577-601 Guts
is recommended for the additional Speed threshold, while 867-901 would be optimal if possible.
Recommended Decks and Support Cards
If possible, Uma should be trained in Grand Concert due to the higher average Skill Point gain and access to increased Speed Caps. Refer to our Grand Concert Guide for general Deck Advice!
Without at least 16*s of Stamina Sparks in a Legacy, players will likely need to run a Stamina Card in their deck. As such, the most common setups will be:
- 2
SPD, 1 STA, 2 
WIT, 
Light Hello for Uma with Speed Growth - or 3 SPD, 1 STA, 1 WIT, Light Hello for Uma without Speed Growth.
Example Decks: 2 1 2
Example Decks: 3 1 1
The best Stamina Card is Super Creek for access to Swinging Maestro and high training output. Uma with access to innate healing in their kit have additional flexibility in their Stamina Card choice - Front Runners may consider Mejiro Palmer for access to Taking the Lead, while Late Surgers may run Symboli Kris S for Claw Forward.
Players may also look toward sourcing their Gold Recovery from a SPD Card. These Cards include:
- Mayano Top Gun for Restless
- Tosen Jordan for Breath of Fresh Air
- Zenno Rob Roy for Lie in Wait
- Air Shakur for Serenity
- or Mejiro Ardan for Race Planner
WARNING
Due to the strict Stamina requirements, it is unlikely for a player to dedicate a Deck Slot to a Skill Card (a Card only useful for its Skills). An example of a Skill Card is 
Daiwa Scarlet and Yukino Bijin. They offer Neck and Neck and No Stopping Me! respectively, each of which are great Acceleration Skills. However, the loss in effectiveness in Training isn’t worth the upgrade from Head-On or Nimble Navigator, which can be acquired via Inheritance.
In light of the above, there are still some Style-specific Cards that offer both Skills and great Training value. Some examples include:
- Maruzensky for
Front Runners. - Agnes Tachyon and Tokai Teio for Pace Chasers
- Seeking the Pearl, Air Groove, and Eishin Flash for Late Surgers
- Mr. C.B. for
End Closers.
Inherited Skills
Generally, players should aim to inherit at least one of the many final Corner Skills with an effect of 0.25m/s for 3 seconds. ∴win Q.E.D. and Barcarole of Blessings are the most accessible options for all styles.
TIP
Due to requiring a Skill activation on the final Corner, Commander Special Week's Unique needs to be paired with other final Corner Skills. Besides the other Inherited Uniques, Inside Scoop is a great regular Skill that is both great value and serves as a Dreams Donned with Pride! trigger.
Front Runners
Due to both Angling and Scheming and Break It Down! being Seiun Sky Unique Skills, one of the two Skills can only be acquired from the sub-Legacy layer on one Legacy. The difficulty of obtaining all 3 Accel Uniques along with the subsequent SP costs means players can consider only taking 2 out of the 3 Skills. In this case, Angling and Scheming should be prioritised over Break It Down!
Late Surgers
While Moving Past, and Beyond is delayed, it can still be considered for a secondary Accel source. However, due to the difficulty in making a Long Mejiro Dober Legacy, players can also choose to omit this step.
End Closers
While Moving Past, and Beyond is delayed, it can still be considered for a secondary Accel source. However, due to the difficulty in making a Long Mejiro Dober Legacy, players can also choose to omit this step.
Recommended Uma
With every style having access to instant Acceleration, any Uma can be built competitively for a chance to win. However, one style has a significant advantage over others.
Front Runners
Front Runners will be the most dominant style this CM. Unlike other styles, Front Runner Accelerations have no difficult pre-conditions or tradeoffs that hold back their full potential. Combined with the large gaps created by Position Keep modes, good Front Runners will escape from the rest of the pack consistently in every race, even if the backline procs all of their Acceleration.
Runaways can also be powerful in the same way - however the presence of another Runaway will trigger Spot Struggle, which will drain the HP of both Uma and take them out of the Race.
End Closers
End Closers are the next most effective style. Similar to the Front Runner Accelerations, Straightaway Spurt/ Encroaching Shadow does not have any difficult pre-conditions, allowing them to Accelerate from any position. Their difficulty will lie in having enough mid-race to keep up with the gap Front Runners will inevitably create. Uma Stan and 
Daring Strike are thus crucial Skills.
Late Surgers
As explained earlier, Late Surgers are beholden to lobby composition randomness. At worst, they will miss all their Acceleration due to being out of position and will inevitably be defeated by End Closers. At best, Late Surgers will need a significant amount of mid-race to keep up with Front Runners because even with the strong effects of Claw Forward, it may not be enough to catch Front Runners. The most consistent Late Surgers are those with powerful late-race and innate healing in their kits such as T.M. Opera O (New Years)
Pace Chasers
Pace Chasers have the most difficult task of competing with Front Runners without being Front Runners themselves. The best Pace Chasers will be those with inherent healing so they may focus their resources on mid-race, or those with mid-race Velocity Uniques to aid in closing the gap to Front Runners. Oguri Cap (Christmas), Mejiro McQueen (Summer), and Rice Shower (Halloween) are the most effective Pace Chasers in this regard.