An attack for all seasons: Aqua Force 4th battle enablers - Part 3

A few months ago, past me promised that I'd go through the enablers of additional attacks for Aqua Force that came from Clan Booster 2, Commander of the Incessant Waves. Well, since I have some free time and motivation let's get on with it.

The new clan booster introduced the Wave keyword for Aqua Force, which is a more concise form of the existing mechanic of counting the number of battles. Besides being easier to say, it makes it easier to see at a glance which units need which attacks to activate, and a couple of cards also interact with the wave mechanic itself, but we'll get to those later.

Girl's can't be ripples. Apparently.

The booster itself gave support for almost every major build of Aqua Force, although not all of them received attack enablers due to differences in play-style and previous support. The Ripple deck received some very powerful support, but they continued the set 11 mechanic of counting resting units rather than attacks. Maelstrom also passed up an enabler, but as he received Rascal Sweeper in the last round of support his relatively small amount of support filled in other roles.

As to the enablers themselves, we'll start with the generic cards, and picking up where part 2 left off Couple Dagger Sailor was reprinted, although not given an errata with wave. Given how rare these were in set 2, being in only 1 in 7 boxes, this is a reasonable reprint, though the amount of enablers now available make her less than essential for a lot of decks. 

That doesn't sound ri- and he's gone.

The only other generic enablers this time are the series of Violent Shooter,  Marine General of the Sonic Speed, Nektarios, and Titan of the Trench Patrol, all of whom have the same skill at different grades. At GB1, on wave 1 or 2, they can soul blast 1 for 2000 power and then at the end of the battle you check the top 4 cards for a card with a Wave ability. You can then call that unit and put any un-called units as well as the original attacking unit to the bottom of the deck. A fair attempt to create a new series of enablers, but it has some flaws. Trying to use them often will suck up a lot of soul which may be better served elsewhere, but more significantly they have reliability issues. Since it's impossible to run only units with wave abilities (if only because there aren't 4 different wave triggers), there's always a chance of the search missing - and if you're relying on it to set off something like Lambros failing to get another unit for the attack could be fatal. Having said that, If you can balance the soul usage properly and incorporate enough wave units it's not a high-cost effect, so they're not entirely useless - if they can supplement other attack enablers, or are used with decks that activate key effects on wave 3 or more where failing won't shut down those central plays entirely, then they have potential.

Wish she'd refrained from needing legion.

Although Maelstrom didn't get an enabler, Blue Storm did get one, for it's legion build. As legion decks are usually less flexible in their grade 2s, due to the need to include enough mates, here their new enabler is a new stand trigger. Blue Storm Battle Princess, Doris can, after it attacks as wave 1 with a vanguard in legion, swap positions with another rear-guard, give the other unit 5000 power, and then return to the deck. Although 4000 power means she will need a booster to hit, the power boost to the other unit means that unit is unlikely to need it to hit so she can be safely boosted. Whilst it's not going to make the Blue Storm legion deck amazing, it gives one further boost to the deck's consistency, which might make all the difference later. Since this set's release, a couple of cards have been given wording that allows them to work with legion vanguards even when you stride, so the deck may get it's chance next time around.

So, in short, he's in charge.

As the second set of G support for Aqua Force, more support for the Thavas build was inevitable. This includes his stride fusion form, Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas, who this time actually helps set up additional attacks. For flipping a copy of himself, he grants a rear-guard 5000 power as well as the ability to attack from the back row, which gives three rear-guards the ability to attack and thus with enough rear-guards sets up wave 4 easily. Since I covered this card not too long ago, I'll not go into much more detail, except to note how interesting it is to see a wave 4 vanguard who can set up it's own wave.

Thavas' new starter, Kelpie Rider, Mitros, might not seem to generate extra attacks at first glance. When a Thavas vanguard attacks at wave 3 or more, Mitros' GB1 allows him to move to the soul to call a Thavas from the deck, and then return that Thavas to the hand at the end of the turn. Since the new Thavas can come in standing it gives one

Unless it's before about 1500 AD.

extra attack, of most use for the retiring skills of both forms of Thavas. If needed, you can even call the Thavas over another unit - although you'd be advised to leave Mitros in the front instead, to open a space and avoid losing a card.

Thavas also gained a GB1 grade 2 in Battle Siren, Adelaide, who on-call can counter-blast 1 and soul-blast 1 to gain 2000 power and the ability to restand after it first attacks the vanguard for that turn. Two attacks which under normal conditions should hit help ensure that the higher wave counts can be met, acting as a Magnum Assault without the need to be boosted. Like Magnum, Adelaide can also be powered up by triggers or the effects of other units to double-up on those bonuses. Unfortunately she only gets to restand the turn she's played, but she's still a 9000 power grade 2, and can intercepy herself away for another unit once she's finished.

Maybe from you. For this turn.

The new Blue Wave deck, centred around Tetra-drive dragon and following up on it's 'Vanguard 2nd' attack pattern, also has a similar card, in Blue Wave Marine General, Foivos. Like Adelaide, Foivos can make 2 11k attacks for a counterblast, but whilst Adelaide can make her first attack at any point on one turn, Foivos can only restand when he attack third, but on any turn provided the vanguard is a Blue Wave. Since the two Blue Wave restanding vanguards require a rear-guard to attack for wave 4, restanding after the third attack instantly sets up the conditions for this.

He needs a more dramatic entrance.

Blue Wave is currently a small group, but isn't tied into needing specific support aside from a grade 3 vanguard. The newest of these, Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon, also provides extra attacks. His  GB2 skill restands a unit when it attacks at wave 2 only with an extra 10000 power (as well as 5000 for Anger-boil). Whilst instantly setting up a charged-up Foivos (or Tidal/Magnum) to attack twice more, this isn't the most interesting skill in terms of enabling wave 4 or more skills. His other skill, when Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-boil Dragon strides over him, gives him a wave 2 only ability to re-stand 2 rear-guards with 3000 power each. Like Tetra-drive, Tetra-boil requires the 4th attack to be from your rear-guard to be against the opponent's vanguard, and by standing a full column Anger-boil provides the only enabling you'd need - however just like with the GB2 can allow you to power up re-standers for more attacks.

And so we reach the end of another wave of support. Different clans are differentiating further in the cards they use, but in terms of generic enablers Tidal and Magnum still rule, with Couple Dagger for those who want swapping. With no further support announced, I'm not going to make any promises on part 4, but hopefully I'll have some articles on another clan some time.

Friday Stride, Christams Edition: Amnesty Messiah

I did have a good better excuse for not posting last week - 11 boxes of Aqua Force, 2 of Japanese Weiss, various pre-constructed decks and long work hours meant I actually spent most of my free time dealing with actual cards. Helpfully we're now in holiday season, so hopefully I can get at least one extra post up in the next week, but first back to the scheduled postings, and in the spirit of a holiday commemorating the birth of a Messiah, let's review one, more specifically Genesis Dragon, Amnesty Messiah

This lord is a shepherd of locked cards.

Amnesty is the third G unit in the Messiah series of cards, which form the core of the vanguard G Link Joker. All of these are forms of the same entity, who is integrating Link Joker units with the rest of Cray, and so they show of the new play-style of these cards - self-locking. Unlike the (thematically) overly aggressive Star-Vaders and Deletors, this group take a more technical approach, locking and each other as the cost for effects, and then unlocking for more bonuses. Amnesty slots in here perfectly - when he attacks he unlock any number of cards for a counterblast, and then gains 3000 power for each, with a critical if 3 or more were unlocked. Without any requirements for other G units face up, he's viable as a first stride, and is one of a very small number of such which can gain a critical.

It does, however, take a little bit of work to set up and get the best out of the skill. Whilst the Grade 3 Alter Ego Messiah can set up two locks along with a power boost, one of those is on your opponent's field, so you'd usually prefer not to unlock it where possible. He also needs a counterblast and a rear-guard to lock when you stride, which can sometimes leave him unable to activate. However, he's not the only locker available. Lady Gunner of the Neutron Star, Spawn of the Spiral Nebula and Wings of Phenomenon, Wingmatter also provide one-for-one locking, with the former two being able to activate on-demand without a counterblast cost. If you're wanting more conventional defence, that's also available, with the interceptor Lightspeed Cheetah who can lock any unit not under attack for a 10000 shield boost.

For more aggressive plays, Lady Battler of the Gravity Well is a common choice. A useful solo attacker for when boosters (or guaranteed unlocks for them) aren't available, she locks one of your cards in the main phase for a 4000 power boost. Whilst she'll need an 8k or better booster to make a 21k column, she's a free, reusable lock and makes a great stand target. The last self-locker in English is Heavymaterial Dragon, who for a counterblast and a self-lock can discard 1 card to draw 2. The filtration helps dig for key cards, and whilst it may only have 8000 power, the equivalent in Shadow Paladins without the self-lock is the even trickier to use 7000 (and without GB1, this falls to just 3000 power - on a grade 2), and if you're running it with Gravity Well, you might even find room for grade 1 vanillas - for now.

G-BT05, Moonlit Dragonfang, introduces two new Messiahs with self-lock capability: Arrestor Messiah, who on the turn he's played gains 2000 power and then after attacking locks himself to lock any back row card, and Sacrifice Messiah, who responds to a unit being locked by locking itself to counter charge and give a 3000 power boost. Both of these units allow for battle phase locking, something which combines very nicely with battle phase unlocks - since units unlock standing, a unit which attacks before being locked can make two attacks in a turn, making Amnesty's mass unlock into a mass re-stand as well.

Since on an Amnesty turn he'll be doing the majority of the unlocking, unlockers aren't of major note here, but it's worth noting a couple of cards with skills which activate when unlocked. Neon Messiah can search for Alter Ego when unlocked, pulling a non-trigger from the deck, fixing your ride if you had to go into a backup grade 3 or netting you stride fodder. Awaking Messiah can restand another unit with a 2000 power boost when unlocked (remember how Lady Battler of the Gravity Well made a good stand target? Well this is what stands it), and lastly Dark Metal Chameleon, who grants a counter charge when unlocked. The chameleon also has resist, making it useful against control decks to retain a unit for Alter Ego to lock.

So, overall, Messiahs have created a whole new, not inherently evil, Link Joker deck. Not bad for Cray's saviour, and it would seem it isn't done yet.

Friday Stride: Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas

So after a week suffering from a severe case of laziness, we return to meet our next release - another clan booster, so now it's time for Navy Season a single review. There's a better reason than for the swordboys, or at least a less subjective one - we're getting plenty of new stuff in the next few weeks, so there's only really chance to cover one card. Maybe I'll get back to the others later, but I promise nothing. So, anyway, let's get into the super special cover card of the set - Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas.

Never release 'Battle Siren, Storm', Bushiroad.

Thavas comes to us from the first school of stride fusion, whereby you get soft advantage for your persona flip whatever and then a +1 if you have two units (and in Thavas' case, four attacks but he sets that up himself so you'll rarely be worried about that). More specifically, flipping a copy of himself gives a rear-guard 5000 power and the ability to attack from the back row. Then, if you're at Generation Break 3 (that is, you have 2 face-up G units in the G zone) he gain the on-stride skill of his grade 3 form, to force your opponent to retire one of three rear-guards on the fourth attack. It's worded slightly differently due to the introduction of the Wave keyword, but the impact is the same.

At first glance, this doesn't seem all that impressive - this is the clan that carries the monster that is Lambros, so why would you want a card that enables 4 attacks for a retire of dubious quality? To a degree, it's a valid point, as Lambros is the big finisher, but that's not what Thavas is here for. Thavas is a grinding unit, with all of his effects aiming at working more cards out of your opponent's hand. More power, means more shield to stop the attack. Attacking from the back means an extra attack, which forces the guard to be split between attacks and drain even more cards in shielding. Whilst the retire isn't the most efficient, it's one card that they have to replace in order to sustain their pressure, and it's not so good that it insists you avoid this as first stride to access it. Each extra guard, or indeed extra damage, can make the difference between Lambros ending the game or letting them survive to make their counter play.

There's also the small matter of all your 'Wave' rear-guards getting their skills enabled even if you draw none of your enablers. None of Aqua Force's other G units do this, giving it a unique and valuable role in most builds.

The other advantage he has is that he's Thavas, which means he has access to the standard suite of support for on-stride units. The most generally useful is the critical trigger,
Kelpie Rider, Petros, who can go to the soul when a Thavas vanguard attacks to draw and give a power boost. Few Aqua Force builds need especial counterblasts, so Petros is easy to fit in most decks running commander Thavas even in the absence of the grade 3. The other support is unlikely to be seen outside of Thavas-centered builds, but with only one grade 3 option you won't always have him to ride. Kelpie Rider, Mitros can search out a Thavas for another attack and then a copy in hand, but only if you have a Thavas as vanguard. Commander Thavas allows him to correct having to ride into an alternate grade 3, fetching a card to re-ride. Battle Siren, Melania also generate advantage with a Thavas vanguard, and the ability to attack from the back row is perfect for her - as a grade 1 with resist the back row is a perfect place for her, but her skill requires her to attack which would normally require her to move up to use it. The last card, Battle Siren, Adelaide, is a one-time restander with a Thavas vanguard. Being effectively 'disposable' whilst making two valid attacks without support, she's a nice way to enable attacks against control decks, and the commander allows her even more power, and even a chance to hang back to allow her to get locked without clogging up the front.

In conculsion, Thavas is a solid support card. He's probably a 2-of, since most builds have a finisher of choice they want at four, but almost every build will have use for him, either to patch up a poor hand or drag an opponent into kill range.

Friday Stride: Rain Element, Madew

For the first few years of the game's existence, Vanguard allowed clan mixing, although it wasn't encouraged outside of a couple of specific decks. Then Clan Fight was introduced, eliminating all mixed decks but those two decks designed around it, which saved text space but prevented the use of cards from other clans in most decks. However, just two sets later Vanguard G began, and alongside some new mechanics it brought Cray Elementals into the game. The Cray Elementals are vanguard's generic cards, allowing every clan to be given access to specific cards. Though currently few in number, most of them provide some interesting support which can benefit most if not all clans, and helpfully enough the most recent set just reprinted one of them - Rain Element, Madew.

Unlike cursed rain, which causes flooding.

Madew was first released in that mine of G units known as the fighter's collection, but it was so widely useful and in demand that it apparently deserved a reprint just a few months after it's first print - in fact this is one of a very few cards to be in print in multiple packs at once, and unlike most of the others this isn't due to having multiple artworks. It's skill is simple enough - on stride, if you have a heart with 10000 power or less you can recover a grade 3 from the drop zone - but it opens up a huge range of options for a wide range of decks.

Although most grade 3's which are currently relevant have 11000 power base, a few older 10k units still see use, generally because the newer support allows them to function. Although most have clan-specific options, sometimes they won't be usable, and Madew functions as a free stride, boosting up the lower power of these units whilst not losing stride fodder for the next turn.

Probably the most significant card Meta-wise is Machining Stag Beetle, the original machining boss and the most cost-effective way of gaining enough rear-guards for the subclan's own G unit. Megacolony have enough options that Madew only has a small window where it's the best option, but given the power of their G zone having the ability to stride for free might just be useful.

Alongside Machinings, Musketeers also received a G unit, but oddly it was limited to "Cecilia", thus making it exclusive to White Lily Musketeer, Cecilia. Musketeer's first boss, she carried the build until the Legion bosses arrived, and with her new stride she gained more effective mid-game plays. Musketeers have always had an issue getting two boss units in a single deck, and boosting the aging Cecilia back up displaced Martina (a legion which really only shone in specific match-ups) and finally gave the deck a solid all-round grade 3 line-up of Cecilia & Vera. Cecilia's stride changes cards and plusses, whilst her base form gets around grade 2 gaming opponents. However, since all of Cecilia's skills are field manipulation based, if your setup doesn't need changing not losing a grade 3 you may want later is a handy option, especially as Musketeers can't afford to run the grade 1 stride fodder unit.

Unlike the above two cards, the resurgance of Leading Jewel Knight, Salome wasn't due to G units. It began with the Limit Break enabler, which as per standard pattern for those cards, was a Jewel Knight. Unlike (almost) every other Limit Break unit, Salome could call it from the deck without already having Limit Break, turning on her bonus crit even before the opponent reached grade 3. That early critical pressure made her threatening, but combined with Jewel Knight's rush potential makes a dangerous deck to face. Though not essential to the deck, Salome is a strong option especially if you can't afford Swordmy, and Madew helps grant more power for no real cost once the opponent is at five damage and her critical isn't needed.

What also helps sell Madew to these decks is that all three can pair up with a Legion, which Madew can also work with. Since all grade 2 mates meet the criteria, striding Madew over a legion can net you a grade 3 back even if you take the name and power of an 11k legion leader. Notable legions to benefit from this trick - besides any with on-legion skills which want to re-ride - are Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Glare and Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster, both of which require other grade 3 units as part of the cost of their own skills. Being able to stride without losing (or in some cases gaining) fuel for these skills is a huge bonus.

Revival legions with 10k mates can also do the same thing. Of the ten revealed at time of writing, six of these meet the criteria, and those with specific advantage we'll come back to later.

It's worth noting that Madew checks the printed power of the unit, which means anything which has 10000 printed but has a higher power due to skills can still apply the effect. This means every ride chain outside Tsukuyomi and Galahad can also use Madew's effect, as well as Majesty Lord Blaster. The ability to stride for free whilst maintaining full defensive power is no bad thing, especially on any turn you weren't planning to use your vanguard's own skills.

The last area I'll talk about today is persona blasts. Stride doesn't sit well with these, as both mechanics suck up the same grade 3s, and whilst the Dragonic Overlord and Maiden revival legions make these workable by searching out more copies that doesn't help the rest of them. However, since many of them are 10000 power, Madew can either salvage them back or functionally provide trade of another grade 3 or stride enabler for a used persona, in much the same way as the legion examples above. The grade 3s able to use this trick include several revival legions - both the early Top Idol, Riviere and the more recent Thundering Ripple, Genovious have persona blasts, and whilst King of Knights' Vanguard, Ezzell is an 11k unit, his mate - King of Knights, Alfred - is not, and so can allow either unit to be recovered for future use.

Thus, we reach the other reason why Madew is in Vanguard and Deletor - the Royal Paladins are mostly focussed on Alfred units, and all royal Alfreds are 10k base or legion with a grade 2, making Madew highly useful for such builds.

There's even more Madew can do, but I've gone on long enough, and even if I did go through every possible trick there'll be another one sooner or later. It should be clear this is a solid card, and even if you don't need it now it's not a bad idea to pick it up, just in case you change decks or your favourite clan gets support for a 10k grade 3.

Friday Stride: Original Deletor, Egorg

Yep, Comic Booster time. It's nice that at least some of the Manga cards got put out into the game, and Deletors did need some help to deal with stride being a direct counter to half the benefits delete gave out. One of those cards was a stride of their own, complete with a delete skill of it's own - Original Deletor, Egorg

Well aren't you cheerful?

Egorg is, like most deletors, named with random sounds, because that's how you emphasis 'alien' - make it meaningless. Unlike any other deletor, however, he has a Generation Break skill which only makes him useful on the second stride or more. This does mean that you'll have to skip a turn's delete to stride into something else (unless you ride Mixed Deletor, Keios that turn), but once you do so Egorg give you one of, if not the most cost-efficient delete available.

Most of the Grade 3 deletors cost 4 cards to delete, either in counter-blasts or in discards/retires. Juxtapose Deletor, Zaele only costs three, but is a once-only skill on legion, as opposed to a reusable ACT skill, and lacks the bonus effects other deleting units gain when they delete. Egorg costs only counter-blast 1 and retire 1 for a total of two cards (three if you count the stride cost, which is recovered by triple drive), and on top of the delete and the stride power locks a back row rear-guard and forces the opponent to bind a card from their drop zone face-down, an effect termed Vanish Delete.

Already it's better than almost any other Deletor - the only ones to have a lower cost either require the soul blast of a specific grade 3 or require two grade 3's to delete only after the vanguard attacked (a setup even less appealing in stride format than a conventional delete). But wait, there's more. Once you've deleted, locked and bound the cards, if your opponent has four or more damage and 13 or more cards bound face-down, you instantly win. Instant wins aren't usually common in TCGs in general, and Vanguard has kept them very rare - though so far all of them are in Link Joker.

Four damage isn't going to be hard to get to - you'd have to do that to beat them the conventional way anyway, and although we're not in season 3 any more and few decks will need to go to four damage to even start most decks will eventually want either counterblasts or not to waste shield. It's the 13 vanish deletes that will need some effort, but even this shouldn't be too difficult. Almost every new Deletor in Vanguard and Deletor has, as part of it's skill a vanish delete or two, which can soon start to add up. If nothing else, Egorg humself will vanish delete each turn you stride him, which should be every turn from his GB2 going live, unless you can't stride or would be on the last one but can't get enough units bound to win for some reason. The threat of the Delete End victory condition is a very real one, and it's even harder to play around than World's End. Against that, the opponent can leave them on four and pressure with criticals at least. Here, you either have to push hard and fast, somehow keep the drop zone empty, or play the grade 2 game, and for some decks this may well be difficult.

Overall, whilst Egorg doesn't fix all the problems with Deletors, it at least minimises the advantage losses they face, allowing them to keep up despite a lack of significant card advantage. It gives them an ultimate finisher and something for decks which don't find the delete as draining something else to worry about.

Friday Stride: Avatar of Heroic Spirits, Vishnu

So with the sword boys out of the way, we're almost ready for another new set for the English game, so once again a single week to find a card for. Since Narukami have just received more support in the Japanese game, let's take one more look at a card from Fighters Collection 2015. Looking ahead, this is likely to be the last time we visit this set for some time as the 2015 Winter set will be coming along before I need filler again. So, let's get on with Avatar of Heroic Spirits, Vishnu.

Wait, so there'll be more bad grade 3's?

Vishnu is stride support for Narukami's Noble deck, a build which has mostly slid under the radar due to being overshadowed by essentially every other build since, and the fact that they've had effectively no support. Vajra Emperor, Indra first appeared as a stand-alone card in Narukami's début set, gaining a critical for each copy on the rear-guard when it attacked. Somewhat interesting, but lacking power to back up the damage and relying on more copies of a specific grade 3 on rear-guard made it much less popular than Vermillion. The second noble, Black Celestial Maiden, Kali, didn't give any indication that there would be a theme to the Nobles, being a generic power-gaining unit. It was Lord of the Demonic Winds, Vayu who showed the pattern, being the equivalent to Indra, save for gaining 10000 power for each copy instead of extra criticals. The two make a working partnership - Indra pushes the damage up early, whilst Vayu has the power to overwhelm the opponent's remaining guard later in the game. However, Vermillion had been given a crossride, and the following set the Eradicators would make their appearance, consigning non-subclan Narukami to the binder for the next two blocks. Later in season 3, the deck would be thrown a bone in the form of Thousand Name Wyvern Knight, who could gain the name of whichever Noble was on your vanguard. Besides simply giving extra copies of your nobles, being a grade 2 gave you access to interceptors without limiting the vanguard.

It was G booster 2 which finally brought generic builds back into the limelight - though once again, it wasn't the Noble build. However, one more noble made it's appearance. Turbulence Deity Howl, Rudra also gained it's skill based on other copies on the rear-guard, this time retiring an opponent's rear-guard for each other copy. In addition, the clan's new heal trigger, Deity of Love, Kama, was also a noble, which wasn't overly significant until Vishnu made his appearance.

Vishnu himself lost the counterblast cost of the smaller nobles, and since he can't have cards with his name on the rear-guard he can work with any nobles - shutting out Thousand Name, but allowing Kama to add to the skill and also be a useful booster. For each Noble, Vishnu forces the opponent to retire and bind a rear-guard, and then if you retire three or more he gains a critical. Sadly the deck still isn't up in the higher tiers - Vishnu himself performs better in extreme fights, where Genesis and Oracle Think Tank can abuse their larger supply of Nobles - but there's now generic support up to modern standards to at least give them a fighting chance, and with the newest support from Japan gaining skills based on bound cards the deck may have more potential to come.

Firday Stride: Hotarumaru

Well, it finally happened. Vanguard's first fully non-Cray clan has reached the Anglosphere, and with it a whole bunch of cards who care not a jolt if you try and stick on grade 2. However, they still have some solid G units to call upon the rest of the time, so in the interest of equality let's have a look at one of them - Touken Ranbu's Hotarumaru

Adding a playable crossover will do that.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Stun Beetle was the only example of a clan's initial persona flip unit to be on-hit. Technically that's true (and for the English game I base these reviews on was completely true at the time), though it's not quite that simple. This week's card also has an on-hit persona flip, although the clan did get another persona flip at the same time, so it's only a joint first. With that out of the way, onto the effect. As mentioned, he on-hit he flips a copy of himself in the G zone, and also rests 5 rear-guard to activate a Homare ability.

Homare is one of Touken Ranbu's new keywords, and acts as a hard once per turn skill - only one Homare skill can be paid for in a single turn, regardless of which card tries to use it. This allows them to have some quite powerful skills without the same restrictions as other clans, but forces them to decide which skills are more important when.

For Hotarumaru, his skill is a very powerful one - he gets to re-stand himself, at the cost of two of his three drive checks for the rest of the turn. Though the loss of Triple Drive may seem to be an issue, he has the natural bulk of a stride unit, coupled with any triggers from the first swing, means this isn't something that can be taken lightly, especially if the opponent can't block this attack (not that unlikely, if they let it hit to begin with).

For anyone who's been following the game for any length of time, this guy has obvious parallels to Dimension Police's Commander Laurel, a much older card with a similar effect. When printed, Laurel was fairly well-balanced, however as the vanguard line has gained more power, Laurel has become more of an issue. Hotarumaru, however, provides a nice display of how Laurel would need to change to stay in check.

First up, the cost. We can't expect non-GB rear-guard skills to flip G units, and nor should we, as the early GB1 would be unfair (except on a Cray Elemental), but resting 5 vs resting 4 is a huge shift. Resting 5 means the first attack can't be boosted, which for an on-hit skill helps to keep it in check. Whilst Touken Ranbu do have a unit which can stand itself in the back row when a vanguard attacks, it's a 4k base trigger, meaning it won't make a difference outside specific combinations of your heart and your opponent's vanguard. Said unit is more helpful to the sides, as when Hotarumaru attacks he can stand a column, allowing you some extra attacks that turn.

Second, what has to be hit. Laurel can activate when a rear-guard is hit, meaning a huge vanguard can go after a relatively unimportant rear-guard for an increased chance of a hit, especially against decks who use Perfect Guards which can't protect them, Whilst you lose the guard pressure of swinging against the vanguard, you still get your extra drive checks and can usually save the booster for the second attack. Hotarumaru can't pull off this trick, and thus has to deal with any deck's perfect guards and the late-game need not to let any vanguard hit.

Third, Hotarumaru's loss of drive checks. With this, over two attacks he makes four checks, the same as any other restanding G unit, whereas a G unit stood with Laurel gets to make six. Even Nextage only makes 5, and that comes with an extra discard relative to other restanders as well as an inability for Chronojet to carry trigger bonuses. As standard, resting both rear-guard columns would save the opponent 2 10k shields, hence two extra drive checks from a grade 3 Laurel stands balances out. A G unit, however, starts to ramp up advantage very quickly.

Fourth, Hotarumaru's restand is it's skill, whereas Dimension Police's vanguards have their own skill on top of Laurel, meaning more for the opponent to deal with. Finally, there's reusability. Hotarumaru can only restand twice at best, and can only make the attempt three times before he can no longer pay the cost. Laurel is live as soon as your field is full and is live even to the end of the game.

What you shouldn't take from this is that Hotarumaru is bad. What you should be seeing is that Laurel compounds all the advantages of more powerful cards released since his début, and so he's not really healthy for the game, but that the idea is sound and thus salvageable. In this role, Hotarumaru is a solid card, and Touken Ranbu as a clan are distinct enough from the rest of the game that they're worth at least looking at.

Friday Stride: Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Double Bill

In my quest to not go back to clans during this series' early posts, we've reached the end of what we can do with G BT04. Since two of the clans have been covered previously, we've got a single clan left and just one week before the next English language release. So to round out our coverage of this set (at least for now), we have a double bill - the connected stride units Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon and Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Doomed, from the Shadow Paladins.

Don't retire your allies then.

Aurageyser Dragon was released in Sovereign Star Dragon, as it's clan's main stride of the set. It has one of the most long-winded costs for it's still in the game, with it's on-attack skill requiring:

• Counter Blast 1
• Soul Blast 1
• Turning a copy of itself face-up
• Retire two rear-guards

All of this gives it the ability to reveal the top two cards of the deck and add them to your hand, whilst gaining an extra 5000 power for each of those cards at grade 1 or lower. On the face of it this really isn't much for that cost, and for the most part that's pretty much right - trading two rear-guards for two draws is a break-even, and when it comes to gaining cards flipping a G unit doesn't seem to be valued as a card, making it a counter blast 1, soul blast 1 to gain power if you have the right cards on the top of your deck. However, this is Shadow Paladin, a deck with a focus on retiring and thus ways not to lose out to it. We'll come back to those in a minute.

So what's your excuse?

Our second card is Aurageyser's evolved form, Aurageyser Doomed (or Dammed, for those who prefer to use the Japanese name). His skill is similar to his base form's, but has some subtle tweaks which somewhat change how he plays. First up, his skill is an ACT, not a Battle Phase AUTO, which is actually worse for Shadow Paladins, since you can't sacrifice units which have already attacked. Second, we're still flipping up Aurageyser Dragon, not himself, which means you need to make some decisions in advanced about your strategy, in order to set up your G zone properly. The soul blast cost is gone, which is handy for cards like Black-Winged Swordbreaker who also want it, but instead we're now retiring 3 rear-guards for two new cards, this time grade 1 and 0 units netting retires rather than power. Finally, he gains a critical for 3 face-up Aurageyser Dragons in the G zone. Since this counts the face-up one, you either use Doomed 3 times, or use Aurageyser Dragon once and then Doomed, to gain this crit. Once again, we have a hefty cost for a luck-based effect - you either retire two and go +1, or you hit nothing and end up a -1.

However, once again the Shadow Paladins will provide ways to mitigate the costs, so now it's time to have a look at some of them.

First up is Promising Knight, David, a GB1 starter who can be treated as two units when retiring him as a cost. This is one of the simplest ways to generate more advantage out of Aurageyser, since he turns the retire two into a retire one, giving you a net +1 from the skill. David's utility, and the deck's ability to call Grade 1 or lower units easily, sees him run in multiples in some G Shadow builds. The Blasters get their own, non GB, grade 1 version in
Pitch Black Sage, Charon who also searches for the blaster you need to ride to have the name

Like several other GB1 stand triggers, Cursed Eye Raven directly helps out with the skills of the deck's ace unit. In exchange for returning itself to the deck, it can call the top two cards of the deck at rest, but then retires them at the end of the turn. Since they'll never get a chance to attack outside of stand triggers, the skill is clearly meant to turn a trigger into two retirement fodder units. Of course, hit the right card from the skill and you could reap more benefits still, but not itself, as it needs to rest itself to use it's skill.

For older Shadow Paladin builds, the key to retiring without losing your card advantage is often to use cheap or free low quality superior calls to get warm bodies onto the field, which can then be retired for skills and replaced with better units. Dark Mage, Badhabh Caar is an early example of this, calling the top card of the deck when called and occasionally causing a chain reaction if on top of the deck when another is played. The card you get might not be one you want, but if it isn't you can kill it to gain advantage elsewhere. Though the 9000 base power makes it a poor vanguard, no fewer than three other grade 3 units have grade 1's capable of trading a Caar for them, and Stride does help him not be vanilla.

In contrast to the cheap blind calling above, Dark Night Maiden, Macha, the clan's Amber clone, can grab any grade 1 unit on attack. She can either bring out fodder or replace retired units, and can grab several of the units listed on this page for more advantage. She's more expensive, but you get what you need.

Revengers embody many of the core mechanics of the wider clan, and the ability to call out units is also a feature. Although most of these are comparatively cheep, such as
Wily Revenger, Mana, who when called can bring out any grade 1 revenger into the same column. Although the unit goes back to the deck at the end of the turn, the unit can still be used as a free fodder during that turn. If you want to spend more resources for a longer-lasting unit, the older Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu can provide. Although counter blast 2 is expensive by current standards, the grade 1 will stay around until you're ready to use it, and Tartu has more power than Mana, allowing her to make a standard rear-guard column.

By contrast, the Witches don't have much in the way of superior calling. Sharp Fang Witch, Fodla is pretty much all they have with the witch name, and even this is a generic card with the witch name from before the establishment of the subclan. Folda can, for a counterblast, call out any two grade 0 units, including those listed above. 

Witches gain advantage using the other method used by the clan - drawing cards. Befitting the theme of sacrifice in the clan, many of these skills have a cost of a card to activate the skills, such as the most well-known example, Skull Witch, Nemain. Notable for having the lowest base power in the game - and having power significantly lower than any other grade 2 unit - Nemain can, for a counterblast and a discard, give two draws on call. Lacking enough power to attack effectively, even with a booster, Nemain was always more useful as retire fodder, as otherwise it would be intercepting as soon as possible. Later cards have added further restrictions to the skill in order to allow the base power to be increased to a more useful level, such as the recent Scornful Knight, Gyva, but even the newer cards have sub-par power levels, making them preferable targets to retire.


As a focus for a deck they're not bad, but the Shadow Paladin G zone has Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo" available, and compared to that unit's game-ending potential almost everything will seem somewhat lackluster.

However, at this stage Shadow Paladins have plenty of fodder to retire, regardless of build, meaning Aurageyser Dragon at least makes a useful first stride to help dig through the deck to reach key cards. Doomed is slightly less efficient - although some units will appreciate it avoiding the soul the heavier cost and Main Phase activation make it less appealing to builds lacking a heavy focus on self-retiring, and retire isn't all that helpful for Witch builds - but if you're willing to take the risk the pay-off is ultimately greater, grinding down the opponent's resources whilst refreshing your own.

Friday Stride: Holy Seraph, Raziel

Another Friday, another G unit. Moving through Soul Strike against the Supreme, the clans yet to be covered on this blog are almost out, and so we move to the only clan in the set I haven't personally used - Angel Feather. As a result, my analysis of Holy Seraph, Raphael would probably be "run 4, play 8 damage Vanguard," so let's move on to the slightly less powerful but more interesting card, Holy Seraph, Raziel

MEDIC!!

Raziel is Angel Feather's rare stride in this set, and since the clan already recieved their on hit (Holy Seraph, Uriel) in the Fighter's Collection, they get the opportunity to branch out into something a little more diverse. Like many similar cards, he doesn't give you direct card advantage, but what he does do is allow you to set up combo plays with the rest of the deck, allowing you to do more than any of the pieces do alone.

Raziel's skill isn't inherently complicated - on stride, he can Soul Blast 2 to return the entire damage zone to the deck, shuffle, and put the same number of cards back into the damage face-up.

The first thing to note is that all the face-down damage will be replaced by face-up cards, essentially re-setting all your counter blasts for the turn. A potential counter charge 5 is nothing to be sniffed at, especially for the same cost as the 5000 power grade 1's pay to unflip just two. Of course, you won't have that all the time, but even a single unflip would be worth the 2 soul alone, and we're just getting started.

G Angel Feather are a bit more counter blast heavy than the old Season 2 era builds, as they now have counter blast costs and have to take face-up damage for their superior calls. They aren't in any real danger of running out - even without this guy their new stand also replaces face-down damage with face-up cards, and it's only cards which give hard +1s from damage who have a hard counter blast - but the deck can drag out the game, and eventually the damage can get clogged with face-down triggers, PGs, grade 3's swapped in for guard and other things you don't really want. Enter Raziel. In one move, he seeps all that clutter up, pitches it back into the deck where you want most of it, and pulls out a fresh damage zone, hopefully with less triggers than before, and ideally some nice goodies for your other units to get out for you. Notable is Black Shiver, Gavreel's on-stride skill, who can either take her pick from a fresh damage zone, or can drag out a unit which can benefit from the damage zone refresh immediately before Raziel's skill triggers.

Not bad, but for generic builds there's more fun to be had. As hinted above, Angel Feather have several older units which all gain 2000 power for each card placed into the damage. Raziel can in one move give all of them up to 10000 power, as well as freshening up the damage for more potential damage swaps to crank those power levels even higher. The new Nurse of Broken Heart has the same skill, but also hands that same power boost to Raziel, pushing him to even greater numbers. Since Raphael is more defensive, that ability to push the centre lane up along with the rear-guards helps give the deck a more offensive side to it.

Celestials, however, don't quite appreciate this guy quite as much. They also have hard counterblasts on (most of) their hard +1s, so the unflip can keep them going, but they generally rely on a more static damage zone, keeping a copy of their vanguard in there to unlock skills. Obviously, when you send your damage zone back that's going to take the unit that was keeping your deck from being vanilla with it, and without units gaining power from the swaps there's not as much benefit. However, if you have a way to put that unit back in there should it not be part of the new damage zone, the unflip can be helpful, and if you get lucky you could set off a Emergency Celestial, Danielle during the re-shuffle for an easy plus.

Overall he's certainly a card to consider. Celestials don't really need him, but if there's space freshening up the damage zone might just help, and since Celestials don't use the soul he can't hurt anything besides static damage that the deck ultimately has ways to fix. For G builds, however, he's an easy 2-of. He functions as the deck's true finisher, and thus is vital to being able to do more than whether the opponent's assault, and it's really only his soul cost and the need for other things in the G zone keeping him from being run at more copies.

Friday Stride: Force Spear Mutant Deity, Stun Beetle

So - for the UK - regionals are over for another year, and as may have been obvious from my last entry I took Megacolony's Machining subclan, backed up by some of the newer G era support. With that out of the way, time to get on with the other obvious gap in clans covered in this series. So, Force Spear Mutant Deity, Stun Beetle.

This used to be the game's worst clan. No, really.

The game's lore for the current block indicates that Megacolony have rejected Gear Chronicle's offer to teach the use of stride, and are researching the phenomenon by themselves. For the most part, this hasn't affected what support they've had - they've had all the core cards other clans have received from the first wave of G support - but it does seem to have thrown a very interesting twist into their G persona stride unit.

Uniquely for a clan's first stride which flips a copy of itself as a cost, it's skill requires it to hit in order to activate, only paying when it does. When this is met, as long as you are at Generation Break 2, you can flip a copy and counter blast 2 to prevent their vanguard from standing at the start of their next turn. Further, they can't normal ride either, shutting out most decks' only counter to vanguard stunning (at present only a few decks have superior ride options, and even fewer actually use them) and forcing them to skip a vanguard attack. At a bare minimum, this is two cards less for them from the lack of twin drive, plus you save your guard for that attack.

Of course, this does rely on him actually hitting, which may not always be easy to pull off. However, as mentioned above, you only have to pay the cost when he hits, meaning that you can have three shots to make the attack connect - three attacks which the opponent will have to guard because the shift in momentum and advantage from shutting down their vanguard for the turn will often seal the game. This makes him the only persona stride who can be strode three times without intentionally passing on the skill. He's also the only one who can function at three copies, because as long as your opponent isn't aware that you don't have the fourth then they can't let the third hit, as any hit from him would be a disaster.

Ultimately, Stun Beetle is a huge pressure card. He has the same 'guard or die' threat that high-powered, multi-critical G units have, but rather than abruptly ending the game he puts it out of the opponent's reach, forcing them to face two of your turns without any chance to recover their defences or push against you. Other cards might find it easier to stun, but if you need them to stay stunned, this is the guy you're going to be calling for.

2015 Worlds Qualifiers Report

So, as I'm based in the UK, last weekend was our regional qualifier for the 2015 worlds. With G Set 4 out just a week before, it gave me a chance to take my very first clan - Megacolony. Last year I didn't have a Megacolony deck completed due to non-card game reasons, but with the boosts to the Machining deck I was somewhat looking forward to it, especially as testing at locals the week before resulted in a 4-0 record (best of 3 rounds, all of which were 2-0). I didn't expect to keep up the deck's lossless record, though I felt confident I could at least get as far as my 5-2 record from the previous year.

The deck list was as below:

4 Machining Stag Beetle
2 Machining Scorpion MkII
2 Machining Warsicle

4 Machining Red Soldier
4 Machining Mosquito MkII
3 Machining Papillo

4 Machining Caucasus
4 Rebel Mutant, Starshield
3 Machining Black Soldier
3 New Face Mutant, Little Dorcas

1 Machining Little Bee
4 Machining Scorpion
4 Machining Firefly
4 Machining Scarab
4 Machining Bombyx

3 Carapace Mutant Deity, Machining Destroyer
3 Force Spear Mutant Deity, Stun Beetle
1 Poison Spear Mutant Deity, Paraspear
1 Snow Element, Blizza

Three stun beetle may seem odd, but I only planned on hitting with it once, the third acting as a second attempt. Blizza is a result of this, being able to use the third if either the first hits or two don't. Giving that Scorpion MkII is a persona blast, it may seem odd not to run it at four, but as was pointed out online (more specifically the Pojo forums) your strides are a lot better than his legion skill, so you'd rather use another copy to stride than to persona blast. You're only ever going to drop the mate for the skill, Mosquito is run at four, so you've got at least as many chances as you do with any single-target persona blast.

I may well discuss the build in more detail in another post, but for today we'll move on to the tournament itself.

Round 1: vs Link Joker (Messiah)
This did not look promising. I hadn't had much of a chance to test against control decks, and lock can keep Destroyer out of action for several turns. Going first, I was concerned about a lack of grade 2s, but Mosquito arrived just in time to allow me to pass on the grade 3 ride for a turn, giving me the first stride. He failed to re-ride the first time, managed it the second, after which I had to go into Paraspear due to a lack of Machining damage. With an empty hand, he topdecked stride fodder, but drive checked nothing, and the following turn my critical triggers showed up to end the game.
1 - 0

Round 2: vs Neo Nectar (Ahsha)
From a control deck to a power build, I was aware that the deck had the potential to put out some beefy rear-guards, and easily replace them. However it didn't get that far. Going second, early crits and damaged PGs meant that I was able to win before he could even stride.
2 - 0

Round 3: vs Aqua Force (Thavas)
Megacolony traditionally does quite well in this match-up, and although I gave him the first stride and he called two stride enablers to search out two more Thavas, he dropped one from the second enabler's skill and used the second as stride fodder. Again, my rush won out.
3 - 0

Round 4: vs Megacolony (Machining)
This wasn't a matchup I was looking forward to. I knew the deck I was playing wasn't the nicest to face, and the mirror is liable to devolve into a game of chicken, as whoever rides to grade 3 first usually loses. Unfortunately for me, it was quickly clear his hand was much better for rushing than mine, forcing me to go into Stag Beetle. At least I had Scorpion MkII in hand, and enough fodder to re-ride and stride into my own Destroyer after the stun. Then he went into Stun Beetle as second stride, and I was lucky enough that I was able to 2-pass it and grab stride fodder for the next turn, at which point he ran out of grade 3's. I was then able to get my own stun beetle to hit and gain the win.
4 - 0

Round 5: vs Gear Chronicle (Chronojet)
Another G - focussed deck, I was a lot happier about this pairing. I went second, but as he didn't ride to grade 3 I went into Stag Beetle first. I blocked Epochmaker, then stunned his vanguard. He re-rode and strode into Nextage at the cost of his entire hand, and with no booster and no standing rear-guard, opted not to go into Chronojet, keeping his three cards as opposed to going to two - a good call as I could easily block Chronojet. Despite the low hand, he was only on three damage, so I sent out Stun Beetle to lock down the game, allowing me to finish up the next turn.
5 - 0

Round 6: vs Gear Chronicle (Chronojet)
By this point, I'd reached table 1, and was starting to get worried as to how well I was doing. Another Gear deck, and yet again I handed over the first stride as I wasn't worried about it. Once again, I rode to grade 3 first. One of my Gear opponents had to G assist, and I suspect it to be this one, as I do not recall them re-riding. They eventually conceded, having a stunned field and no hand, topdecking into something that couldn't help them.
6 - 0

Round 7: vs Nova Grappler (Blau/Cat Raiser)
Novas were always going to be one of the trickier decks to face, especially Blaus and their early game rush capacity. Then I had to ride a pg, and G assist another away just to try and keep advantage. With a hand not suitable to guarding a rush, and the resultant need to block everything at 4 when Galaxy hit, I had nothing to block even the first legion attack.
6 - 1

Round 8: vs Aqua Force (Thavas)
He started - and immediately G assisted, showing a hand with two Grade 3's and three draw triggers. Dropping two triggers to grab a grade 1, he once again passed on riding to grade 3, however with his Magnum already out I could stun it, forcing him to pass on Tidal-Bore's skill in favour of a double-attacking High Tide Sniper. Once I strode, I stunned his field again, and unable to re-ride he was forced to attempt sniping rear-guards with tidals. The loss of advantage allowed me the win the next turn.
7 - 1

Round 9: vs Royal Paladins (Seekers)
The final round before the top 8, and I was still in with a good chance to top provided I won this last game. A full Legion build, my opponent sat on grade 2 and rushed - right into my hand full of Grade 3's. I rode a second Stag Beetle just to try and maintain some momentum, but by the time he rode to Wingal he had another to ride out the stun, and then checked Alfred, and despite a double crit I lacked anything like enough shield to stop the attack.
7 - 2

So that was it. X - 1 was needed to reach the top 8, and despite a strong showing through most of the day I ended up falling at the last hurdle. Having seen the standings, I placed 15th of 449 entrants - a position I feel happy enough with.

The deck didn't have any serious issues - my only losses were in rounds where I was either grade locked or had an unbalanced hand, in both cases with opponents playing to counter my vanguard stuns. The worst that can be said of any card was that I had it at the wrong time (non-machining Grade 1 rides) or that they simply didn't do anything at all (non-Stag Beetle grade 3's, which I only rode once each all day, as well as the third Stun Beetle, as I only ever went for him when the hit was assured). Whilst I don't doubt I made a few errors, none of them would have significantly changed the result, save perhaps mulliganing differently - which would only matter if I could see the future.

Friday Stride: Chronodragon Nextage

With 24 clans (plus Cray Elementals and a crossover thing) to pick from, I've yet to hit the need to go back to the same clan for this column - choosing three weeks of Mermaids excepted - though attempting to avoid giving away hints on my deck choices for a major tournament did throw Altmile in my face this week. However, there is one other fairly obvious gap, a clan which has a strong G zone but I've yet to even talk about.

Gear Chronicle.

So in the interests of bringing them out of the dark, cold winter of clans not yet featured on this blog, let's have a look at Bushiroad's latest attempt to commit wallet genocide, Chronodragon Nextage. 

Like, say, a 'Next Age?' Eh? Eh?

Gears have managed to assemble quite a range of skills under the nebulous banner of 'time travel' - Guard restriction (of both the grade 0 and grade 1+ varieties), deck to field tool-boxing, control of the opponent's field, and even manipulation of the G zone (if only through one stand trigger no-one uses because it doesn't do enough) - but a re-standing vanguard has managed to evade them until now. Nextage isn't technically a re-rider, but rather it goes back to the G zone during the battle phase, and then stands the heart if it's a Chronojet Dragon. Whilst this gives most of the same offensive impact, triggers from the first attack can't be placed on the vanguard and used to buff up the second, but Nextage's exact setup does grant it the ability to conduct an extra drive check compared to restanding G units.

More specifically, Nextage's skill requires another copy flipping, a counterblast of one and to discard 3 cards from your hand at the end of his attack, provided you're at GB2. He then returns to the G zone, and if the heart was a Chronojet Dragon, the new vanguard stands up. Since you're at GB2, you're now standing up a Chronojet Dragon with his own guard restriction on-line, and the high base power of the stride means you can keep the booster for this attack. Compared to other restanding G units, he gains an extra drive check on the first attack in exchange for a weakened second attack and an inability to carry triggers. He requires a specific heart, but Bushiroad were kind enough to give us Steam Fighter, Balih, who when in the heart can be swapped out for Chronojet, allowing you to set up for Nextage even on the turn you stride into him.

Although just getting that extra vanguard attack is going to help, he'll perform best when the restood Chronojet is a threat himself. To do this he needs to have a 10k booster to make him 3 cards to 2-pass, which means either Steam Rider, Burnham or the use of Summit Crest Gear Wolf /Mist Geyser Dragon to power up after using Chronojet's stride skill. The latter can climb even higher if you can send more of their rear-guards back to the deck.

Chronojet is, in the end, the core of current Gear Chronicle, and Nextage give him an extra push. Whilst it doesn't cure the clan's biggest shortcoming - that is, that they can do very little before they stride - it does grant them an extra tool to break through the opponent once they do.