An attack for all seasons: Aqua Force 4th battle enablers - Part 1

The clan system is one of Vanguard's defining features. The concept of different groups of cards doing different things is certainly not a new thing for TCGs - Magic's colours tend to have different effects, and Yugioh has not only it's archetypes but also different types and attributes tend to have their differing play-styles. Vanguard, however, doesn't allow mixing of cards with different effects anything like as easily, and it allows each clan to have it's own thing, at least for the most part.

For Aqua Force, it's focus is on attack order and positioning. Whether or not the deck has been focused on activating skills when the vanguard attacks 4th, the deck has always paid attention to attack number and order, and so many of it's cards have been designed around setting up an extra attack without reliance on unpredictable stand triggers. In this short series we'll be examining these enabler units, as well as taking a glance into how they slotted into the clan at the time.

Back in the day, you used him or you
used another clan.

Aqua Force were introduced to the game in their first trial deck, Descendants of the Marine Emperor. As hard as it may be to see how, trial decks back then were even more generic than they are now, and with very little room for non-generic cards - one card, at one copy each, for grades 1 and 2, the cover card, and 2 copies of a backup grade 3 - a 4th attack focus would have left the deck unstable and probably too complex for new layers. It was probably for the best, therefore, that Bushiroad opted to focus the deck on the third attack, with the only card using the 4th attack functioning on rear-guard to allow synergy with stand triggers and the vanguard's Limit Break. We need not dwell on this deck any longer, except to not that it wasn't very good anyway, and the new one is much better.

The Grade 3 we needed,
but not the one we deserved

Set 8, Blue Storm Armada was the clan's full introduction, and with it came Blue Storm Dragon, Maestrom and Hydro Hurricane Dragon, two units who had to be the 4th attack of the turn to get the effects off. Clearly as vanguard these units were not going to be able to set this up with stand triggers, so some way to allow an extra rear-guard attack without the vanguard needing to attack would be needed. Bushiroad's first attempt to provide this came with the first set of Storm Riders: Eugen, Basil, and Diamantes. All three had the same skill - if they made the first attack of the turn against the opponent's vanguard, they gained 2000 power and then could exchange their positions with the unit behind them, allowing that unit to attack. In principle, this allows you to do the same damage as a standard rear-guard column, but broken up over two attacks to allow you to reach the 4th, however the units suffered from a severe lack of power. The grade 1 Eugen is 6000 power, meaning it will struggle to hit even grade 2 vanguards reliably. The grade 2 Basil was still weak at 8000 power, but reaching 10000 on attack meant it could hit at least some of the vanguards used at the time of it's release. That meant, however, that it's usefulness was entirely dependent on the opponent's choice of ride (and once 11k vanguards became the norm his usefulness dropped). Diamantes was the only one able to hit the stronger vanguards without assistance, but 9000 power as a grade 3 brought the threat of being forced to ride and sit on it, opening up the threat of an opponent abusing the low power.

Well at least he can boost things

Given that these three were the entire 4th attack enabling section of the clan, you pretty much had to run the lot to maximise your chance of reaching that 4 attack setup. However Aqua Force were a key player in the latter half of the anime's season 2, so the season finale set, Clash of the Knights & Dragons, would provide a second set of storm riders: Nicolas, Damon, and Lysander. These three fixed the sub-par base power of the originals, but were worse in every single other way. The need to attack first had been removed, but so had the power gain, which meant that they couldn't hit anything bigger than themselves, and worse they now had a counter-blast cost, which although not too onerous for Maestrom stopped Hydro Hurricane being able to use them. The cost also slowed them up to the point than Nicolas would be unable to ever hit whilst using the skill if the player went second. Damon did little better, and Lysander was as efficient as Basil, only with a heavier cost and directly competing with Diamantes for the same 4 secondary grade 3 lots. Without external power boosts, these three were relegated to being emergency enablers only, although Nicolas did edge out Eugan in this roll, as a better booster when not enabling attacks.

Wave-like Spirals = Whirlpools
It's elementary, dear Watson

Swapping units mid-battle phase is one way to add attacks, but it's not the only one nor even the most obvious one. Standing rear-guards is something Nova Grapplers have been doing from the very first set, so it made sense to intergrate this into Aqua Force. The first of such card was Water General of Wave-like Spirals, Benedict, another grade 3 enabler, but rather than swapping out it restood itself at the cost of 5000 power. His remaining power wouldn't hit anything alone, but it would give you the extra attack you needed, and if the opponent's vanguard had low enough power for him to hit alone the first time, then you could save the booster and have the same effect as a storm rider column. In the worst case, he could give two attacks alone, whereas a Storm Rider without a parter to switch with can't do anything. At the time, he was a very efficient enabler, doing no worse than storm riders against weaker vanguards but much better against stronger ones. Even better, if your vanguard could attack before him trigger power and extra criticals could be passed over so he could threaten the opponent with them twice. Sadly though, his reign was not to last. 11000 power as standard on grade 3's meant he couldn't apply any extra pressure over a normal column, break rides would take over the slots where utility grade 3's once dwelt, and riding a 10k vanguard was worse than ever as more decks got easy 20k columns.

Set 11, Seal Dragons Unleashed, shifted the focus of the mechanic from attack count to attack pattern. For this set, and this set alone, no-one would require a specific attack number. Instead the aces of the set would want a resting front row, and the Break Ride itself, effective as it was, lacked any specifics so as not to conflict with any of the existing or new bosses. No enablers made their way into the set, although it did give the grade 1 and 2 Brave Shooters, which made ideal switch-in units to put behind a storm rider.

Aqua Force's 4th attack plays would return in Catastrophic Outbreak, with Blue Wave Dragon, Tetra-drive Dragon, who played with the formula somewhat. Whereas previously the vanguard had simply triggered a skill on the third or fourth attack, Tetra-Drive's Limit Break activated at the end of second battle - but simply gave it a skill which would only trigger if the 4th attack was against a vanguard. Since this skill was to re-stand the vanguard, this was worth the effort to set up, and the synergy with the break ride in particular made this something you really didn't want to leave up to chance (that is, finding a stand trigger)

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay,
Watching my Tidal crit away

It was this set that would give the clan it's most popular enabler. Tidal Assault was simply a grade 2 version of Benedict, but that change had a huge impact. Tidal has one downside, in that he can't hit 10k vanguards alone, but with the meta being almost entirely 11k or better this really didn't matter, and in every other way the downgrade was an improvement. Benedict's 10k base power was low for a grade 3; Tidal Assault's 9k was standard for a grade 2, meaning the opponent was less likely to ride a unit above Tidal's own base power before he could hit the field. Not taking up grade 3 space meant he could slot into more decks, where if obtained early he could rush, could sit there to absorb triggers during the mid-game, and was able to enable 4th attack skills as needed. Especially effective with Tetra-Drive, where he could enable the dragon's Limit Break and absorb trigger bonuses simultaneously, he's been a core part of most if not all Aqua Force decks ever since, which is why at the time of writing his price is one of the highest ever for a core set single rare.

The clan progressed right past him.
Oh well.

Catastrophic Outbreak also gave us Wheel Assault, an enabler who took the basic principle of the storm riders, but operated it a different way. After it boosted an attack, for a counter-blast of one any two units could swap places. The most obvious use is to swap two attackers to enable the 4th attack - essentially a storm rider play without a storm rider - but there's further utility in moving units around, such as repairing suboptimal columns once preferred units are drawn, or giving a re-stander a booster for both it's attacks. A counter-blast cost gets in the way of some boss units, so it never gained quite the same recognition as Tidal, but it outclassed what came before and still has some relevance today.

In part two of this series, we'll be looking at the enablers brought with the Blue Storm Armada, and the new toys the new generation brought along.