Card of the Week: December 27th

Oh boy, its been a while since I've made a post. I don't have any particular excuse aside from Fallout 4 being so enthralling, and Christmas being a family time and all that nonsense. Anyway, in the spirit  of the holidays and as a pseudo-apology for skipping a week or two, I'm going to double down in this article and do 2 cards. Incidentally, they combo out with each other and they're 2 cards I've been waiting for since the game came out. First up:

Absolute King, Gluttony Dogma

[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them]Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[AUTO](VC/RC):Engorge[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2:[Choose a face down card named "Absolute King, Gluttony Dogma" from your G zone, and turn it face up] When this unit becomes engorged, if you retired three or more units during this turn due to the effect of this unit's engorge ability, you may pay the cost. If you do, until end of turn, this unit gets [Power]+10000, and "[AUTO](VC)[1/Turn]:At the end of the battle that this unit attacked, if you retired five or more units during this turn due to the effect of this unit's engorge ability, [Stand] this unit, and this unit gets drive-1 until end of turn.".

First up is Tachikaze's finisher unit from the Technical Booster. Oh boy is this thing a can of worms. First off, he has their new keyword "Engorge," which is a state a unit may become by retiring 1 or more other Rear Guards. As with most keywords, its just a way for Bushi to shorten the redundant card text most Tachikaze had telling you to Retire X, and if you do, do something. Plus, it just sounds baller. I personally liked the "Raging Devourer" translation, but "Engorge" sounds a little less try-hard and is a little smoother to say.

Getting into the meat of his skill, we have a 2-stage effect, which triggers depending on the number of cards you ate in order to become Engorged. If you ate 3, you flip a copy of him in order to give him 10,000 Power, making him a 36,000 Power beatstick with Triple Drive, and the ability to trigger any on-retire skills. If you eat 5 Rear Guards however (i.e. your entire field), he will restand with 1 less drive check. That's a whopping 5 drive checks in total, without even touching your hand. To top it all off, he is entirely counterblast free, meaning you're free to spend your resources on anything else in the deck to help mitigate his cost, or just make different plays entirely. This guy is incredibly flexible and can turn the crappiest of fields or hands into a 36,000 Power, 5-Drive Checking monstrosity. I can't think of a single other restander in the game that actually increases your hand size. Granted, its at the cost of your entire field, but that's why we have this guy:

Emperor Dragon, Gaiaemperor

[AUTO](VC/RC):Engorge (When this unit attacks, you may retire one or more of your other rear-guards. If you do, it is engorged until end of turn)
[CONT](VC) Generation Break 2:If this unit is engorged, this unit gets [Power]+5000/[Critical]+1.
[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] During your turn, when your G unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two cards from your hand, call them to separate (RC), choose up to two of your rear-guards, and until end of turn, they get "[AUTO]:During your turn, when this unit is put into the drop zone from (RC), call this card to (RC).".

The on-stride unit (Or Breakstride, Stride Bearer, whatever terminology you prefer) for Tachikaze who, like much of the rest of the clan, was named by Bushiroad's Redundancy Department of Redundancy. Setting the repetitive name aside, his skill is actually a god-send for the clan. His Generation Break 2 is a standard "Gain 5,000 and a Critical for a cost/condition" that most of the old stride bearers had, and it would have been nice to get something creative and maybe defensive, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. His on-stride skill more than makes up for the lackluster GB2, though.

For counterblast 1, he can take any 2 units on your field and allow them to revive themselves whenever they get retired. This completely removes the need for units like Iguranogorg or Skyptero, who were imperative to have on the field for the deck to do anything. What's more, he can now take any unit with an on-retire skill (Like Beamptero or Slashptero) and let you trigger them, then bring them back to be triggered again. What's more, he has the same clause as Altmile that allows him to call units THEN distribute the skill, so early control or inability to call an early field can't even stop this guy. 

Now, for the climax of the article, imagine putting these two cards together. Remember how Dogma's retire 5 cost was pretty hefty? Well, Gaia essentially turns it into Retire 3 and stand a column. How potent is that!? If you have a full field, with standard powerlines, your final turn attack pattern will look like: 16,000 -> 16,000 -> 36,000 -> 36,000 -> 16,000 + Triggers. Not to mention any skills that would have been triggered by Dogma's engorgement. Having already playtested this deck, I can tell you on good authority that this combo is utterly stupid. What's more, if you take the starter into account, you can easily have 3 units on the field after Dogma's second attack, meaning you can get a third Vanguard attack by using Dark Rex. Tachikaze have gone from sleeper Tier 1.5 deck to flat-out Tier 1 in a matter of 3 cards, and there's only more to come! Bushi has definitely made Tachikaze a "technical" clan with this booster, and I couldn't be happier.