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.