CM3 – Cancer Cup

Statline

Speed & Power
Speed at 1200, Power at 1000+. Given how skill-heavy this CM is, it may be preferable to take Turf S and more Wit rather than capping Power.

Stamina & Guts
Without recovery skills, Stamina at 601-650, Guts at 301-350. You should try to reach at least one of these lower bounds (see note). Pace Chasers and Umas near capped power and/or very low wit should go closer to the upper bounds. Golden/white recovery skills reduce the Stamina required by approximately 140/40 points at 301 Guts.

Note: In this track, you get +2.5% Speed (+30 pts at cap) for each threshold of 300 points you surpass in Stamina and Guts after mood effects. For instance, disregarding mood effects, 601 Stamina grants you +7.5% Speed, while 550 Stamina grants you just +5% Speed. Therefore, reaching 601 Stamina and 301 Guts (or 627 and 314 respectively to account for awful mood), grants you +12.5% Speed, while failing to reach one of these thresholds would grant you only +10% Speed.

If dipping below one of the speed bonus thresholds and taking a recovery skill allows you to increase your Speed by over 30 points (or your Power by approximately over 60 points), it is better to do so. Do note however that bringing SSR Super Creek for Swinging Maestro is likely a waste of a slot, and Breath of Fresh Air is unreliable (50% chance of activating during late-race and ~12.5% chance of activating too early in the race for full effect).

Wit
As much as possible once the other stats are reached. Anything below 300 is very risky territory. Front Runners should aim for 600+ as they benefit more from Wit than other styles.

Applicable Green Skills

Green skills dependent on position (e.g. Inner/Outer Post Proficiency, Lucky Seven) or on other runners (e.g Maverick/Competitive Spirit) are inconsistent. Besides Lone Wolf, which you should buy in one (and only one) of your runners, they are probably a waste of SP.

Speed and Power green skills are useful to everyone, even more so when so many runners will have 1200 speed. Left-Handed and Summer Runner are generally higher priority than Wet Conditions.

Stamina and Guts green skills may be useful to cover for rushing and debuffs. Tokyo Racecourse ○, Standard Distance ○, Sunny Days ◎ are roughly equivalent to a white recovery skill.

[Position] Savvy skills are generally only useful for Front Runners and Umas with critically low wit. Note that the skill does not improve skill activation chances.

Front Runners should have at least two green skills (but ideally three, see table below) with guaranteed activation to reliably activate Groundwork at race start.

Race start Groundwork activation chance based on Wit and skills

Front Runners

WIN CONDITION: Be in first place at the start of late-race.

With the final leg starting at the end of the final corner, the Seiun Sky’s and El Condor Pasa’s uniques are high priority. Seiun Sky needs first place, while El Condor Pasa needs top two. These strict conditions mean that Front Runners must stack early- and mid-race skills to remain ahead, otherwise they have very low chances of recovering. Therefore, the ideal Front Runner accelerates to top speed at race start as soon as possible and maintains the lead until reaching late-race.

You must take at least three race start skills (two greens + Concentration/Focus or three greens), Groundwork, Seiun Sky’s and El Condor Pasa’s uniques. Any remaining SP should be spent in skills that can keep you in first place before late-race.

The Front Runners can be divided into two groups.
The first group is composed of Seiun Sky (starts with Mile C) and El Condor Pasa (starts with Front Runner E). They have the highest potential thanks to their acceleration uniques but require a lot of investment in mid-race skills to secure the lead going into late-race. The former has access to Escape Artist and Front Runner Savvy, while the latter has better stat bonuses, access to Wet Conditions, and can still be competitive if reaching the Final Straight in second place.
The second group is composed of Front Runners that compensate the weaker inherited acceleration skills with mid-race uniques that can help them take or secure the lead. The best one is Smart Falcon (starts with Turf E) who has two consistent greens, Leader’s Pride, great stat bonuses, and a unique skill that can activate before anyone else, potentially putting her well in the lead. Next in line, Mejiro McQueen (starts with Mile F) has a very strong and consistent unique, and Daiwa Scarlet has a gambling unique that can outperform a Seiun/Pasa if it lasts until late-race, on top of a consistent gold recovery. Sakura Bakushin O gets an honorable mention as her unique skill effectively stops others from challenging her lead.

Note regarding running multiple Front Runners
Front Runners can only have a realistic shot at winning if they activate Seiun Sky’s unique. This means that, in the best case scenario, only one Front Runner in the entire lobby is competitive once she reaches late-race. The only exception to this is El Condor Pasa, who can still be competitive against other Front Runners in second place. Therefore, if you plan on running multiple Front Runners, you should prioritize bringing her in order not to “waste” an ace.

Skills

Essentials

• Seiun Sky’s unique > El Condor Pasa’s unique. Ideally, you should bring both. If you absolutely must take one and only one of these, replace the other with Unrestrained/Final Push.
• Groundwork.
• Two or more green skills. Left-Handed = Summer Runner > Wet Conditions > Front Runner Savvy/Standard Distance/Tokyo Racecourse (depending on stamina) > Sunny Days. Other greens do not count. [Skill] ◎ does not count as two greens. If you take only two green skills, you must take Concentration/Focus.

Note: Concentration/Focus requires a wit check to activate. If you only have two greens, you must succeed two wit checks to activate Groundwork.

Nice to have

• Concentration/Focus. The gold version removes the chance of a delayed start, the white version merely reduces it from ~33% to ~26%.
• Slipstream and/or Playtime’s Over!. Long duration and the chance to activate multiple times make them valuable.
• Big-Sisterly/Unyielding Spirit.
• Tail Held High. Make sure to take at least three skills that reliably activate during mid-race.
• Skills that reliably activate during mid-race. More skills make Tail Held High more consistent.

• Escape Artist/Fast-Paced.
• Speed Eater. It is equivalent to two white speed skills, but requires you to be in the lead at a random point during mid-race.
• Front Runner Corners = Mile Corners > Mejiro McQueen’s unique > Professor of Curvature/Corner Adept > It’s On!/Ramp Up > Changing Gears/Shifting Gears. If you can buy both Front/Mile Corners, it is better to take both at ○ than a single one at ◎.
• Inherited uniques that can help you take first place during mid-race. Group A (see below) > Daiwa Scarlet’s > Smart Falcon’s > Mayano Top Gun’s. Any of these also help make Tail Held High more consistent.

• All uniques of Group A have the same effects. In terms of consistency, the ranking is roughly Mejiro McQueen = Maruzensky Summer (with Triple 7s) > Sakura Bakushin O > Mayano Top Gun Wedding = Biwa Hayahide > TM Opera O = Narita Brian.

Escape Artist takes priority over any other gold.

Front Runner/Mile Corners ◎ take priority over Left-Handed/Summer Runner/Wet Conditions ◎.

Luxuries

• Unrestrained/Final Push. An unreliable version of Seiun Sky’s unique. It requires you to be in first place during a random point of the final corner, and there is about a 35% chance of this random point being late enough in the corner for the acceleration to be useful.
• Mile Maven/Productive Plan and/or Top Gunner/Leader’s Pride. The former group requires first place, the latter group requires to be overtaken. Inconsistent activation makes them less valuable.
• Front Runner Straightaways = Mile Straightaways. Inconsistent activation timing makes it less valuable.
• Skills that boost speed in the final straight. Fuji Kiseki’s unique > Silence Suzuka’s unique > Mihono Bourbon’s unique (Concentration/Focus enhances consistency) > In Body And Mind/Homestretch Haste.
• Hesitant [Style]. Note that it only activates during late-race, therefore not helping you activate Seiun Sky’s unique skill.

Avoid

• No Stopping Me!/Nimble Navigator. This skill only triggers if you fail your win condition.
• Beeline Burst/Straightaway Adept. Very weak due to its short duration.
• Oguri Cap’s unique. If you are not in the lead by then, you already lost.
• Taking the Lead/Early Lead. The 5s delay to activation makes it basically useless. Its effectiveness goes down with increased power, and at 900 Power this skill gives you approximately 0.25/0.21 meters assuming it also causes Groundwork to activate. You are better off taking Slipstream or any of the corner skills instead.
• Acceleration debuffs. The 5s delay to activation makes them useless (see above the analogous scenario).

Pace Chasers

WIN CONDITION: Be in first or second place at the start of the final straight and have everyone else shit the bed.

With no consistent late-race acceleration skills and very few mid-race speed skills worth taking, you are not beating a strong Front Runner that activates both Seiun Sky’s and El Condor Pasa’s unique skills. Your best hope is to be in first or second as you reach the final straight, overtake the Front Runners and bring it home. It’s a very tall order.

You want to stack many skills that activate during early- and mid-race, aiming to be in first or second place as you reach the final straight. Then, you want some strong skills to finish off the race.

The best choice by far is El Condor Pasa to maximize the acceleration from her unique skill and compete with other styles; her stat bonuses and access to Wet Conditions are welcome extras. Other runners either will not have the acceleration required to win the race and would be better off running a different style.
If you must run a different Pace Chaser, one option is Mejiro McQueen (starts with Mile F), whose unique skill is very strong and consistent. Alternatively, Tokai Teio (starts with Mile E), Fuji Kiseki and Oguri Cap have very strong late-race unique skills and good stat bonuses; the last two also have an innate consistent gold recovery.

Note that all Pace Chasers have access to Gourmand via the SSR Special Week card. This recovery skill is 100% consistent and does not force you to take an otherwise useless stamina support card, and can give you some breathing room to increase other stats.

Skills

Essentials

• El Condor Pasa’s unique.
• Tail Held High. Make sure to take at least three skills that reliably activate during mid-race.
• Skills that reliably activate during mid-race. More skills make Tail Held High more consistent.

• Pace Chaser Corners = Mile Corners > Professor of Curvature/Corner Adept > It’s On!/Ramp Up > Changing Gears/Shifting Gears = Speed Star/Prepared to Pass. If you can buy both Pace/Mile Corners, it is better to take both at ○ than a single one at ◎. Ideally you want more than two in order to make Tail Held High more consistent.
• Inherited uniques that can help you close the gap to first place during mid-race. Group A (see below) > Daiwa Scarlet’s > Smart Falcon’s > Mayano Top Gun’s.

• All uniques of Group A have the same effects. In terms of consistency, the ranking is roughly Mejiro McQueen = Maruzensky Summer (with Triple 7s) > Sakura Bakushin O > Mayano Top Gun Wedding = Biwa Hayahide > TM Opera O = Narita Brian.

Nice to have

• Wet Conditions > Left-Handed = Summer Runner.
• Race Planner = Gourmand. These count for Tail Held High activation.
• Slipstream. Long duration and the chance to activate multiple times makes it valuable. May count for Tail Held High activation.
• Pace Chaser Straightaways = Mile Straightaways > Big-Sisterly/Unyielding Spirit.
• Skills that boost speed in the final straight. Tokai Teio’s unique > Fuji Kiseki’s unique > Group B (see below) > In Body and Mind/Homestretch Haste.

• All uniques of Group B have the same value. In terms of consistency, the ranking is roughly Mihono Bourbon (with Concentration/Focus) > Rice Shower > Special Week > Narita Brian > Tokai Teio Anime.

Luxuries

• Oguri Cap’s inherited unique. The chances of this winning you the race are not that great. Your SP is likely better spent acquiring any skill that makes you more likely to trigger your acceleration skills.
• Hesitant [Style]. Note that it only activates during late-race, therefore not helping you deny Seiun Sky’s unique skill.

Avoid

• Beeline Burst/Straightaway Adept. Very weak due to its short duration.

Late Surgers

WIN CONDITION: Get one (or more) acceleration skills to trigger near the start of late-race, ideally as a strong speed skill is active, then bring it home with strong final straight skills.

Front Runners and End Closers have the only perfectly reliable acceleration skills, but Late Surgers get to play the acceleration lottery twice. Add to that some raffle tickets on mid-race speed carry-over into late-race and you have a gambler’s delight.

You take some acceleration skills and gamble on them activating at an auspicious time. You take some mid-race speed skills and gamble on them activating at an auspicious time. You take some final straight skills and gamble on them being enough to seal the deal. In Shiraoki-sama We Trust.

Any Uma with easy access to the Essential skills is a good choice. With On Your Left! otherwise locked behind the SSR Winning Ticket guts card while Furious Feat is available on SSR Oguri Cap power card, it is easier to choose a character with the former skill and add one of those power cards to your deck. That makes Grass Wonder the best choice thanks to her consistent unique, innate access to On Your Left!, and excellent stat bonuses; Gold City is the weaker alternative. The second best option is Vodka thanks to her excellent stat bonuses and access to Furious Feat and Slick Surge, allowing you to focus on other skills; an alternative is El Condor Pasa Fantasy, who has a gambling unique skill and access to Furious Feat, Rising Dragon, and Wet Conditions, but merely decent stat bonuses. Finally, Mejiro Ryan (starts with Mile C) has a very strong gambling unique skill, access to Rising Dragon, and solid stat bonuses.

Skills

Essentials

• Furious Feat/Updrafters > On Your Left!/Slick Surge. Both have the same effects and conditions, but the former has a longer duration. You should take both for consistency.

Furious Feat/On Your Left! takes priority over any other gold.

Nice to have

• Left-Handed = Summer Runner > Wet Conditions.
• Rising Dragon/Outer Swell.
• Air Groove’s unique. Very consistent activation.
• Symboli Rudolf’s unique. Very strong and consistent late-race skill.
• Tokai Teio’s unique = Fuji Kiseki’s unique > Oguri Cap’s unique > In Body and Mind/Homestretch Haste. Consistent final straight skills of varying strength.
• Fast & Furious/Position Pilfer > It’s On!/Ramp Up.
• Slipstream. Long duration and the chance to activate multiple times makes it valuable.
• Tail Held High if you have three or more skills that can reliably activate during mid-race.
• Late Surger Corners = Mile Corners > Professor of Curvature/Corner Adept. If you can buy both Late/Mile Corners, it is better to take both at ○ than a single one at ◎.
• Late Surger Straightaways = Mile Straightaways. These become more consistent the more skills you have that can activate during Position Keep.

Luxuries

• Big-Sisterly/Unyielding Spirit, 1,500,000 CC. These become more useful the more skills you have that can activate during Position Keep.
• Another acceleration skill. You can make these more consistent by bringing Front Runners and/or Pace Chasers.

• Maruzensky’s unique > Taiki Shuttle’s unique, if you feel like gambling you overtake from 6th to 5th near the start of late-race. Maruzensky’s gives you a slightly longer timeframe for the overtake.
• Mejiro Ryan’s unique, if you feel like gambling you overtake from 7th to 6th (or drop from 5th to 6th) near the start of late-race.

• Hesitant [Style].

Avoid

• Gold Ship’s inherited unique. It is painfully weak.
• Grass Wonder’s inherited unique. It is almost guaranteed to activate as you start accelerating, meaning you are at best getting very marginal value out of it.
• Beeline Burst/Straightaway Adept. Very weak due to its short duration.
• Trick (Rear), Frenzied/Flustered/Subdued [Style]. It is only worth taking any of these if you have All-Seeing Eyes, which is exclusive to Nice Nature.
• Opening Gambit. Very inconsistent stamina debuff.

End Closers

WIN CONDITION: Get one (or more) acceleration skills to trigger near the start of late-race, ideally as a strong speed skill is active, then bring it home with strong final straight skills.

End Closers get a reliable acceleration skill and easier acceleration lottery tickets, on top of their inherently higher late-race target speed. Coupled with strong final straight uniques, you are well poised to steal the win from under everyone’s noses.

Encroaching Shadow/Straightaway Spurt and Furious Feat/Updrafters are your bread and butter, with speed skills taking the bulk of the remaining SP bill. Gambling on another acceleration skill goes a long way too.

There are not many native End Closer options. In a perfect world, the best choice is Narita Taishin (starts with Mile D) as she is the only one with access to Encroaching Shadow, but this is not a perfect world; without mid-race speed skills, she may get blocked by Late Surgers. Gold Ship (starts with Mile C) has a consistent gold recovery and a unique skill that may help her not get stuck behind a wall of Late Surgers during the final straight, while Hishi Amazon has the best stat bonuses of the group, on top of access to End Closer Straightaways/Corners. If you feel like gambling, Mayano Top Gun Wedding (starts with Mile D) has a gambling unique skill that either wins you the race or does absolutely nothing, and a consistent gold recovery.

Skills

Essentials

• Encroaching Shadow/Straightaway Spurt.
• Furious Feat/Updrafters.

Encroaching Shadow takes priority over any other gold.

Nice to have

• Left-Handed = Summer Runner > Wet Conditions.
• Air Groove’s unique. Very consistent activation.
• Symboli Rudolf’s unique. Very strong and consistent late-race skill.
• Tokai Teio’s unique = Fuji Kiseki’s unique > Oguri Cap’s unique > In Body and Mind/Homestretch Haste. Consistent final straight skills of varying strength.
• Late Surger Corners = Mile Corners > Air Groove’s unique > Professor of Curvature/Corner Adept. If you can buy both Late/Mile Corners, it is better to take both at ○ than a single one at ◎.
• End Closer Straightaways = Mile Straightaways. It is better to take both at ○ than a single one at ◎.
• Slipstream. Long duration and the chance to activate multiple times makes it valuable.
• Another acceleration skill.

• Mejiro Ryan’s unique. Requires 6th place on the final corner during late-race. The very tight activation window and strict placement requirement make it unreliable, but is guaranteed to help you if it activates.
• El Condor Pasa Fantasy’s unique/Mayano Top Gun Wedding’s unique. Requires 5th-7th and overtaking on the final corner. Much easier to activate than the previous one, but it may activate too early and have zero impact.

Luxuries

• Big-Sisterly/Unyielding Spirit. This becomes more useful the more skills you have that can activate during Position Keep.
• It’s On!/Ramp Up.
• Tail Held High if you have three skills that can reliably activate during mid-race.
• Hesitant [Style].

Avoid

• Sturm und Drang/Masterful Gambit. Due to its distance condition, it can only activate either during the late-race acceleration spurt or if you have already lost.
• Gold Ship’s inherited unique. It is painfully weak when inherited. Take a mid-race speed skill instead.
• Grass Wonder’s inherited unique. It is almost guaranteed to activate during your late-race acceleration, meaning you are at best getting very marginal value out of it.
• Beeline Burst/Straightaway Adept. Very weak due to its short duration.

Front Runner Saboteur (“Blocker”)

“WIN” CONDITION: Be in first place from the start of the late-race to the end of the final corner.

Every Front Runner will be vying for first place throughout early- and mid-race, hoping to be able to activate both Seiun Sky’s and El Condor Pasa’s unique during the late-race acceleration. If a strong Uma activates both skills, it will be very hard to catch up to her. So you stop them from doing so. Listen all y’all, it’s a sabotage.

You take as much Power and Wit as possible. You do not care about Speed, and you are only taking enough Stamina and Guts to ensure your late-race acceleration is not interrupted until you enter the final straight. Your aptitudes should be Turf S, Front Runner A or above, and Mile D or above. Front Runner S adds little value, Mile above D adds no value.

The strongest candidate for the role is Smart Falcon (starts with Turf E) who has a strong unique skill that can secure you in the lead, and access to Leader’s Pride and two greens. The reduced Mile aptitude requirement makes Mejiro McQueen (starts with Mile F) a more viable candidate; her very strong and consistent unique skill can push you in the lead from behind. On the other hand, Sakura Bakushin O’s unique skill works as a backup to defend your lead during the latter part of mid-race.

Skills

Essentials

• Inherited uniques that can help you take first place during mid-race. Group A (see below) > Daiwa Scarlet’s > Smart Falcon’s > Mayano Top Gun’s. Any of these also help make Tail Held High more consistent.

• All inherited uniques of Group A have the same effects. In terms of consistency, the ranking is roughly Mejiro McQueen = Maruzensky Summer (with Triple 7s) > Sakura Bakushin O > Mayano Top Gun Wedding = Biwa Hayahide > TM Opera O = Narita Brian.

• Groundwork.
• Two or more green skills. Wet Conditions > Front Runner Savvy > Standard Distance/Tokyo Racecourse (depending on stamina) > Sunny Days (depending on stamina) > Left-Handed = Summer Runner. Other greens do not count. [Skill] ◎ does not count as two greens. If you only take two skills, you must take Concentration/Focus.

Nice to have

• Concentration/Focus. The gold version removes the chance of a delayed start, the white version merely reduces it from ~33% to ~26%.
• Big-Sisterly/Unyielding Spirit.
• Slipstream and/or Playtime’s Over!. Long duration and the chance to activate multiple times make them valuable.

• Tail Held High. Make sure to take at least three skills that reliably activate during mid-race.
• Skills that reliably activate during mid-race. More skills make Tail Held High more consistent.

• Speed Eater. It is equivalent to two white speed skills, but requires you to be in the lead at a random point during mid-race.
• Escape Artist/Fast-Paced > Front Runner Corners = Mile Corners > Mejiro McQueen’s unique > Professor of Curvature/Corner Adept > It’s On!/Ramp Up > Changing Gears/Shifting Gears. If you can buy both Front/Mile Corners, it is better to take both at ○ than a single one at ◎.

Escape Artist takes priority over any other gold.

Front Runner/Mile Corners ◎ take priority over Wet Conditions/Front Runner Savvy ◎.

Luxuries

• Mile Maven/Productive Plan and/or Leader’s Pride. The former group requires first place, the latter group requires to be overtaken. Inconsistent activation makes them less valuable.
• Front Runner Straightaways = Mile Straightaways. 50% chance of these skills being useful. If available, take the corner skills for consistency instead.
• Seiun Sky’s unique > Unrestrained/Final Push. These are borderline useful to confirm your lead between the start of late-race until the final straight. The latter group is significantly less consistent than the former. Probably not a good purchase.

Avoid

• Any final straight skills.
• No Stopping Me!/Nimble Navigator, Hesitant Front Runners. Extremely short window of time for any of these to help confirm your lead until the final straight.
• Taking the Lead/Early Lead. The 5s delay to activation makes it basically useless. Its effectiveness goes down with increased power, and at 900 Power this skill gives you approximately 0.25/0.21 meters assuming it also causes Groundwork to activate. You are better off taking Slipstream or any of the corner skills instead.
• Acceleration debuffs. These skills cannot trigger before a Front Runner with Groundwork finishes accelerating from race start. See above the analogous case for Front Runners without Groundwork.
• Stamina debuffs. Very unlikely these will be enough to delay a leading Front Runner’s late-race acceleration. If your goal is to kill the leader’s HP before the finish line, make a Late Surger instead to have access to All-Seeing Eyes/Sharp Gaze as well.