#or Baizhu who lacked Qiqi in his deck

[akissiwashere]

So because I am crazy and insane, I went ahead and played against Al-Haitham numerous time in order to figure out ALL the cards that are apart of his deck.

You see, when m*hoyo creates decks for our playable characters, multiple things obviously come into play:

- Do the cards synergies well with one another? - Does the element duo open interesting event card and/or action card? - Do the character apart of the deck know each other/have a good relationship with one another? - What character card are currently available? - etc.

You know, basics. Not every point have to check out, of course. But most do. Kind of the way a non-sweaty player would think. And so while I was surprised and delighted to see Cyno in Al-Haitham deck, I had to rationalize my delusions.

"Oh, it’s for electro resonance. The card he’s playing bursts down his opponent. He will need the energy." Okay, very true rational me, but then again, why Cyno? Based on your assumption, would Raiden’s card not have been more sutible? Perhaps Kujou Sara who thrives in quicken decks…

"Maybe because his deck takes advantage of sumerian event cards which only activates when two character cards are from Sumeru" True true true. Damn. Perhaps, you are right. I’m just delusional, but I am content… unless. Isn’t D*ri from Sumeru? Which raises my question again…UGH. No no actually, you are probably right. Most certainly right, rational me. But I must see him use it myself. To appease my insanity.

So I played against Mr Scribe. Only to beat him in four rounds. So I matched us again. And again. And again. I think our longest match was 11 rounds? No matter. My point is, he did not use a card which REQUIRES two sumerian. Not once. He sure damn used the electro resonance card though, I can assure you that!

I even went to check other characters decks, keeping in mind what event/action card were available when they came out. And like, if I can grossly summarize, you have type

A) They are lowkey meta decks (i.e. Wanderer)

or type

B) They are definitely… decks (i.e. Klee)

Guess where I would categorize Al-Haitham’s deck? He’s soooo likeeee (it’s type B by the way). I’m probably trying to rationalize it because I genuinely thought he’d do something so stupidly meta and he just… did not? And even if he did, I thought it would have a strategy that isn’t "rely on Cyno’s card when all turns to shit". Like sir! Please stop making me like your pairing more and more it was not supposed to be like this.