The Fab and the Flab: G-BT03

With the G-Series of support in full swing, we've all had a while to let the fully released Set 3 settle in and let our impressions and thoughts simmer. With a much needed update to Dark Irregulars and Murakumo, as well as bringing us new Shadows, Golds, and Link Joker, this set came highly anticipated. In this article, I'm going to delve into what I deem the 3 best cards in the set, and the 3 most disappointing ones.

One Who is Abhorrent, Gilles de Rais

The new boss unit for Dark Irregulars, Gilles embodies everything the clan ever wanted to be. Going along with the new theme of staggering effects given the size of the soul, Gilles gains 10,000 Power for having a soul of 10, then adds a guard restriction ability with a soul of 15. To top it off, if he's your second stride, he gains a critical. This means he's swinging 36,000 minimum, unboosted, with a critical that can't be guarded by Grade 1 or greater cards. Unless you just suck and your opponent is at really low damage, or they happen to have 4-5 10,000 shields in their hand to throw down for fun, there's no realistic way they're blocking that attack. Gilles is the perfect Dark Irregular card: It rewards you for hitting that huge soul mark, and its a very powerful finisher. This, combined with the new Rear Guard support they got in the set, have definitely brought them up to speed for the first time in a while.

Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch Dragon

This was a hard choice. This slot was going to either Big Crunch or Amnesty Messiah, but ultimately Big Crunch took the cake for helping out more decks. I haven't delved too deep into Messiahs, but I assume he's at least usable in their deck, not to mention being a huge boost to Venom Dancer, Nebula Lord, Dark Zodiac, Deletors... essentially every other Link Joker deck variant. He isn't broken and doesn't troll too hard (he's certainly no Glendios), but he's simple, effective, and helps out just about any deck he's put in. 

Sovereign Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon

If something Shadow Paladin didn't make it onto a Top 3 Cards of the Set list, something would be wrong. Claret Sword is everything people were hoping Blaster Dark Diablo would be: Striding over him yields a Grade 1 call, and it increases the power to boot, making those Sword Breakers 8,000 Power for the turn. Pre-Battle Phase on-demand searching is a pretty big deal, since most other options the deck had for Grade 1 tutoring (Judgebau, Grim Recruiter, Macha) are all on-hit or in the Battle Phase. His GB2 skill isn't something to be trifled with either, being a CB-less Phantom Blaster Dragon skill for 1 less retire (as it should always have been). Being able to nab a Charon when you stride into Phantom Blaster Diablo can be a huge life saver in some situations, as well as a nasty surprise for your opponent.

Phantom Blaster Dragon

I finished off the Top 3 with a Shadow Paladin, so its only right to start the Bottom 3 with one as well. The much-anticipated 2nd Generation Rare of the set turn out to be a brand new Phantom Blaster card, and everything, under the impression that it would be a Stride, was ready to throw all of their money at Bushiroad. But then we found out it was, of all things, a Break Ride. Not only is it the first non-Stride Generation Rare, it also sucks. The Soul Blast 3 cost means you are locked out of Dark Trumpeter and Sword Breaker, two of the best advantage engines available to the deck. Not only that, but the retire 3 cost also keeps it from synergizing with things like the Abyss legion. Its only realistic use is with Phantom Blaster Overlord, refunding the massive CB3 cost of the persona blast, as well as preventing the opponent from simply dropping a Perfect Guard and calling it a day. But its a gimmicky combo at best, and the space definitely could have gone to something more useful and helpful.

Golden Dragon, Spear Cross Dragon

Everyone knew this was going to be on here. This card is without a doubt the biggest disappointment in the set. Losing a GR to Phantom Blaster Dragon was a huge heart break to players, but at least Shadows had Diablo and Claret Sword to fall back on. Gold Paladin players? They had nothing. Gurguit was a great addition to the deck, and added a really interesting mechanic to the game, but when you looked at a Gold Paladin Stride Deck, there was a clear need for a strong finishing unit, and with a cool name like Spear Cross Dragon, everyone expected this guy to fill that role. Instead, they got a really crappy mass-caller. As a mechanic, mass calling is simply terrible and inefficient, which is seen in cards like Liberator Garmore and Monarch Alfred. Late-game restricted mass calling units are walking paradoxes: They require a near empty field to get the most out of, but by the time late game rolls around, having an empty field means you had a terrible early and mid game and are probably losing, and the advantage from the mass call will be needed just to catch up. What's more, Spear Cross is a costly CB2 and persona flip. He's good for recovering fields in the late game against Kagero, Narukami, and other mass retire decks, but other than that he's useless.

Sovereign Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon

It was between Aurageyser and Homura Raider for the last spot on the Bottom 3. However, bad as Homura is, he still contributes more to his deck than Aurageyser does. I probably should have made more of an effort to try to add more variety to this list (3/6 of the cards are Shadow Paladin...) although I guess that just speaks to the quantity and quality of support they got in the set. Aurageyser just... isn't good. He's a CB1, SB1, Persona Flip, AND Retire 2, all for a crappy break even skill. Retire 2 to Draw 2 is essentially what is boils down to, and maybe gain some power. He's little more than a glorified Ildona, who wasn't a very good card in his own time. Aurageyser is good for setting off Blaster Dark Diablo's GB2 skill if you think you'll be hurting for stride ammo, but as a whole he's just terribly overcosted for what he does. 

So, as a whole, the set was pretty good for what it was. Shadow Paladin had Phantom Blaster Diablo to fall back on, and got a couple pieces of quality support out of the set. Link Joker and Dark Irregulars made out like bandits. Golds got the middle finger from Bushi, but they got enough to scrape by, and would do very well to see another set with minimal support in it. The real tragedy was Murakumo, as always, but at least they got focused, centralized, and playable support this set, which is a lot more than they've gotten in the past.

Deck of the Week - Magatsu

More like "Deck of the Weak," this week's installment will focus on the newly revitalized Magatsu deck. Initially released on Set 9 as a Ride Chain for Murakumo, Magatsu recently received a Legion Revival in G-Set 3, and I've spent the past week fiddling with it. First off, here's the deck list:

Grade 0:

1x Stealth Dragon, Magatsu Wind

4x Stealth Beast, Moon Edge (Critical)

4x Stealth Rogue of Dagger, Yaiba (Critical)

4x Stealth Fiend, Lantern Ghost (Draw)

4x Stealth Fiend, River Child (Heal)

Grade 1:

4x Stealth Dragon, Magatsu Breath

4x Stealth Beast, Leaves Mirage (Perfect Guard)

4x Silent Stealth Rogue, Shijimamaru

3x Stealth Fiend, Oboro Cart

Grade 2:

4x Stealth Dragon, Magatsu Gale

3x Stealth Dragon, Royalnova

3x Hair Stealth Fiend, Gurenjishi

Grade 3:

4x Covert Demonic Dragon, Magatsu Typhoon

4x Covert Demonic Dragon, Magatsu Storm

Generation Zone:

4x Beauty of Light Snowfall, Shirayuki

2x Rain Element, Madu

2x Snow Element, Blizza

What's the point?

The idea of the deck is to hit the Ride Chain and rush the opponent. Since the Ride Chain fills your front row with 9,000 and 10,000 Power vanillas for a turn, it allows you to get 3 attacks in without having to commit anything from your hand, and returns the attackers to the deck so you don't suffer from decks like Kagero killing off attackers. Afterwards, the idea is to Legion Storm and Typhoon to power your field up to unspeakable numbers to push for game, and to stride units in between Rush and Legion to keep your hand and damage at good levels.

MVPs

Covert Demonic Dragon, Magatsu Typhoon

The boss of the deck, he obviously gets honorable mention. However, nothing else in the main deck really puts in work. Hitting the Ride Chain is a great, but that's pretty luck dependent and inconsistent. And while Typhoon has been criticized for not synergizing with the deck as much as he should, that still doesn't stop him from being a solid unit. His non-Legion skill allows you to turn draw trigger into a strong attacking unit, which then bounces to your hand as stride fodder the following turn, or can be called when you want to legion to become a 16k attacker/booster. While he doesn't work as well with Storm as a lot of people hoped he would (the Limit Break clones don't get the 5,000 Boost), they still synergize pretty well. Calling Gale or Typhoon to the back row and then Limit Breaking to call Storms to the front means you can make a nasty field like that, give your Grade 2's and 3's the Boost ability for the turn, then have the Storms go back to the deck so you can move the 2's and 3's in the backrow up to the front the following turn, letting you keep decent columns

Rain Element, Madu

As I said, nothing else in the Main Deck really does much. Oboro Cart can clone Magatsu's if you're missing them for your Legion turn, but he isn't too helpful. Madu though. Madu puts in some serious work. If you manage to hit the Ride Chain and are sitting on Magatsu Storm pre-limit break and before you want to ride Typhoon and Legion, Madu lets you Stride without losing a Grade 3 that would otherwise be a powerful booster during the Legion Turn. 

What the Deck Needs

Davain Clone

The deck would benefit so much from a ride chain fixer like Davain, especially if they removed the "-3,000 Power" skill and replaced it with the Magatsu chain theme. Stick 1 Rear Guard into the soul, ride a card, call a card from the soul, then clone it for the turn. Or call 1 "Magatsu" from the deck for the turn. Either would work, since it would give you 2 extra Magatsu units for the Legion turn. It would be even better if the Davain clone had "Magatsu" in its name so it could benefit from the Legion as well.

Advantage Engine

This is pretty generic, and I said the same thing in the Zeal Deck analysis, but it's still true. Murakumo as a whole has a pretty bad advantage engine since everything is based on temporary and soft advantage. The Magatsu deck can't even make use of cards like Yasuie who can help you convert clones into hard advantage. Typhoon does a much better job than Zeal at making the vanilla Ride Chain pieces usable, but vanilla beats can only get you so far.

Final Thoughts

Like with Zeal, the deck is a solid Tier 2. Murakumo as a whole just aren't supported enough for anything higher. The Magatsu deck can't even make use of Homura Raider, although to be fair Homura is a pretty high maintenance finisher, and Typhoon is a good enough finisher as-is. And as a disclaimer, I haven't been able to test the deck with cards like Rune Star or any of the newly revealed commons and rares, so I may revisit this deck after a little more testing. But for now, I'm placing Murakumo in the contender-but-not-champion category, especially given the deck's inherent terrible matchup against Phantom Blaster Diablo, who is going to run rampant when he gets released.

Deck of the Week - Zeal

Welcome to "Deck of the Week," where I take a deck, break it down, and analyze it in a competitive environment! To kick off this series, and this new blog, I'm going to take a jab at the new "Zeal" deck and see what kind of effect "G Extra Booster 1: Cosmic Roar" had on the deck's viability. First things first, here's the deck list:

Grade 0
1x Larva Beast, Zeal
4x Demonic Eye Monster, Gorgon (Critical)
4x Justice Cobalt (Critical)
4x Jewel Beast, Jewel Mane (Draw)
4x Justice Rose (Heal)

Grade 1
4x Eye of Destruction, Zeal
4x Evolution Monster, Davain
4x Cosmic Hero, Granguard (Perfect Guard)
2x Commander Laurel

Grade 2
4x Devourer of Planets, Zeal
4x Cosmic Hero, Grand Kungfu
3x Combined Monster, Bugleed

Grade 3
4x Galactic Beast, Zeal
4x New Era Beast, Zeal

Generation Zone
4x Super Cosmic Hero X Tiger
2x Dark Superman, Omega
2x Rain Element, Madu

What's the point?

The main goal of the Zeal deck is to use Galactic Beast Zeal's Limit Break skill to lower the opponent's Vanguard's power in order to make it impossible for them to guard. The G-Unit lineup is designed to force the opponent to high damage early, or to bait any Perfect Guards they may have before going in for the final push. The Rear Guard lineup is focused on capitalizing on the opponent's lowered power.

MVPs

Evolution Monster, Davain

This guy is the glue that holds the deck together. Seriously, he's soo good, and without him, the deck would flat-out suck. When he is called, he puts 1 other Rear Guard into your soul, then rides a unit from your deck that has the same grade as your Vanguard, then calls a unit from the soul that has the same grade as your Vanguard, and lowers the opponent's Vanguard's power by 3000. Its a net +0 overall, with a 3000 power weaker Vanguard, but its a very quality +0. His main use is to fix the ride chain so that you can salvage it later on, or still get the 1000 Power boost to Galactic Beast later on in the game. Sadly, you can't use him to trigger the ride chain skills if you missed them, but he can turn the crappy 4000 Power starter into a Grade 1, 2, or 3 unit, which is a very quality upgrade. His 3,000 drain means Bugleed becomes live against even 11,000 Power Vanguards, and he can be used to add onto Galactic Beast's 5,000 drain.

His greatest attribute, though, is the combo where you perform legion with New Era Beast, sending back 3-4 triggers and legioning Galactic Beast, then draining the opponent for 5,000 Power. Calling a Davain after that means you can ride another New Era Beast from the deck, legion again to send back even more triggers, AND use Galactic Beast's Limit Break to drain 5,000 more power. With Davain's drain, that's a total of -13,000 Power, putting almost ever Vanguard at -2,000 Power and having to contend with your 3 attacks.

Commander Laurel

Any Dimension Police deck that uses Laurel and doesn't list it as an MVP is wrong. Especially now with Strides, Laurel is incredibly deadly and there's definitely a reason he got put to 1 in Japan. The new Perfect Guards that unflip damage can't even be used to guard Rear Guards, so swinging at an RG with your Vanguard (a common strategy with Laurel) is even more deadly than before, and that isn't even taking into account the Triple Drive. Getting +6 cards in hand for 2-3 turns in a row is game winning enough, even before taking actual skills into account. Laurel becomes even more deadly in this deck when you account for the numerous cards that reduce the opponent's power, making guarding even harder.

What the Deck Needs

Advantage Engines

Sure, battle advantage through power reduction is cool and all, but decks need hard advantage engines nowadays to keep up with the meta. The only way to gain hard advantage in Zeal is through Bugleed, who is pretty lackluster, and through Laurel restanding your G-Units. The fact that the deck is comprised primarily of vanilla ride chain pieces really doesn't help.

Not New Era Beast

This card sucks. Like, hardcore. It has 2 skills, neither of which help the deck out in any way. The only reason it sees the light of day is because its a legion, so it can shuffle triggers back, and because it makes Galactic Beast hit a little harder. His legion skills really is impossible to trigger simply due to the timing of it, and even when it goes off, it isn't very helpful. If it had been a skill that increased the amount of Galactic Beast's drain, or even if it had Bugleed's skill, it would have been infinitely better.

Final Thoughts

The deck is a solid Tier 2 deck. It won't be contending with the big names like Thing Saver or Lambros anytime soon, but it can definitely hold its own against any deck that doesn't spit out an ungodly amount of hard/soft advantage. And, given how cheap all of the components to the deck are, its a really good choice for people operating on a budget.