Card of the Week: October 22

Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-Boil Dragon

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card named "Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-boil Dragon" from your G zone, and turn it face up] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if you have a heart card with "Blue Wave" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, until end of turn, this unit gets drive-1, and "[AUTO](VC)Wave-4th time (This ability is active during the specified battles of each turn):[Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] At the end of the battle that your rear-guard attacked a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, [Stand] this unit.".

This week's unit is the complement to the card I reviewed, and boy is it a doozy. This guy just adds to the armada of restanding G-units in the game, but he takes the cake for being cheaper than any of them (and any restander at all, in fact). Let's do the math on him:

Normal Grade 3 Turn:

Unit attacks for Twin Drive: +2 Cards

Total: +2 Cards

Tetra-Boil Turn:

Stride into Tetra-Boil: -1 Card

Attack with Tetra-Boil, using his skill for Twin Drive: +2 Cards (+1 Net)

Pay for his restand: -1 Card (+0 Net)

Attack again for Twin Drive: +2 Cards (+2 Net)

You'll see that you don't lose any card advantage with his restand. You gain just as much hard advantage from striding him and using his restand as you would from not striding at all, except by striding him you get two Vanguard attacks, for twice the number of trigger checks, for maximum killing potential. Now let's compare him to another restanding G-unit, such as Victoplasma:

Victoplasma Turn:

Stride into Victoplasma: -1 Card

Use his skill and attack for Twin Drive: +2 Cards (+1 Net)

Pay for his restand: -2 Cards (-1 Net)

Attack again for Twin Drive: 2 Cards (+1 Net)

The math is the same for Dragonic Overlord "The Ace", where you end up with 1 less card by going for the restand than if you had just Twin Drove normally. You're giving up that 1 card in hard advantage for the insane pushing power that 4 drive checks and 2 attacks from a 26,000 Power unit gives you. Not to mention, Tetra-boil only has a 1 CB cost as opposed to the 2 CB cost that Victoplasma and The Ace have.

Granted, the decreased cost can be accounted for by all of his restrictions. He requires a "Blue Wave" heart, and heart-restricted units are allowed to be cheaper than generic units, due to the fact that they can't be splashed into any 'ole deck. His restand is also restricted to 4th Wave, meaning he can only restand if you have cards to combo with him, as opposed to something like Victoplasma who is a self-contained restand. But The Ace and even Homura Raider are restrained by needing more cards to work (The Ace needs a certain card in hand, Homura needs 3 of the same named cards on the field and there are very few ways to do that without going -2+ to restand or blowing 3+ CB). But, lets be honest, 4th Wave in Aqua Force is an absolute joke. Not to mention the slew of support this guy has makes it to where, not only can you trigger his restand with just one other card on the field, you can actually plus even more if you use the Blue Wave starter and/or Critical Trigger, who let's your Vanguard draw 1 card each time they attack, making each skill use a +1 the turn you restand. With the right cards, you can actually go +2, or more, the turn you restand. Granted, that is a 4+ card combo which is very situational, but it likely won't be too hard and inconsistent.

All-in-all, while this guy may be properly restricted/costed due to his "requirements" (and I use that term loosely), the fact that Bushiroad created an entire deck around him that is based on abusing his skill, is not ok. What could have been scraping the edges of healthy is undoubtedly a cancer magnet that people are going to flock to, especially given the popularity of Aqua Force as a clan, and the ease of access to the deck in the form of the newest Clan Booster. I haven't been able to see the card in action yet, and I suspect he'll be slower than people expect him to be (GB2 can definitely slow a card down), and he certainly won't be the end-all-be-all of Vanguard, but he's not a healthy design, especially given the fact that he's in an already over-hyped and over-played clan.

Card of the Week: October 16

First off, let me say welcome back to myself. College and personal life, plus a general lack of inspiration to write anything, has kept me away. But after having an epiphany that not every article needs to be some in-depth, insightful analysis of the game (which is slowly becoming less and less of an in-depth game to play), I've decided to reel it back and start up a Card of the Week series. And for the first installment, I'll be discussing the latest card to take the community by storm:

Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-Boil Dragon

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2 Wave-2nd time (This ability is active during the specified battles of each turn):When this unit attacks a vanguard, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn, choose up to one of your rear-guards, [Stand] it, and it gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn.
[AUTO](VC):During your turn, when your unit named "Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-boil Dragon" Stride, choose one of your vanguards, until end of turn, it gets [Power]+3000, and "[AUTO](VC)Wave-2nd time (This ability is active during the specified battles of each turn):When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose up to two of your rear-guards, [Stand] them, and they get [Power]+3000 until end of turn.".

After Lambros got released, everyone was wondering how Bushiroad was going to create an incentive to play any other stride units, given how broken he was. Well, turns out the answer is to just turn him into a Grade 3 to make room in the Generation Zone.

I'll start off by discussing this guy's GB2 skill. 5,000 Power on-attack means he can swing for real numbers unboosted, and real numbers with just about anything behind him. On top of that, he will restand a Rear Guard and give it 10,000 Power. Lambros needs 4th attack and a person flip to do that (Granted, he swings with more power, drive checks, and will stand two units with a 10,000 boost). However, he only needs to be the 2nd attack, so he'll just stand whatever attacked first and pump it up to Spike Brother-levels of power, then continue on about his day. As long as you have anything else on your field, this guy can trigger his GB2 and make it a monster.

But the real issue is when you compare him to Exxtreme Battler, Viktor, an already-existing On-Stride Grade 3. Viktor's GB2 skill is a 5,000 Power boost to himself, then stand 1 unit and give it 5,000 Power. That's word-for-word Anger-Boil's GB2, except Viktor gives 5,000 less power. That really isn't ok. Not to mention, Aqua Force has plenty of Rear Guards who gain skills off of being the Xth attack, such as retiring units or drawing cards. All Nova Grapplers have (at least at the moment) is "How many times can I restand Sazanda?". But even then, Viktor's GB2 skill in combination with Sazanda (who gains 5,000 Power every time he restands) amounts to a 10,000 Boost, which is exactly what Anger-Boil gives, except his Rear Guards also have their own skills they can capitalize off of. I assume the logic here is that Viktor is a generic on-stride unit that can work with any Stride Nova Grapplers will get, whereas Anger-Boil's second skill works solely with Tetra-boil (much like Blaster Dark "Diablo" and Phantom Blaster Dragon "Diablo"), so Viktor has more utility.

Which brings me to Anger's 2nd skill, his on-stride ability. When "Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-Boil Dragon" strides, Tetra-Boil will gain 3,000 Power and, when he attacks second, will stand 2 Rear Guards and give them both 3,000 Power as well. This being limited to 2nd Wave means the two units you restand will be an attacker and its booster, but still, that's +6,000 Power to a column that likely has other skills attached to it. No one likes a 12,000 Power Tidal Assault.

I'll have to wait until Tetra-Boil is revealed to give a final verdict on the on-stride skill, but it has plenty of potential to be broken as all get-out. If Tetra-Boil has a 4th Wave skill (which is VERY likely), striding it over Anger-Boil will be a near-guaranteed trigger for it.