Friday Stride: Holy Dragon, Sanctuary Guard Regalie

This week on Friday Stride: Stride support for one of the hardest cards in the game to get hold of. As you've probably gathered by reading the title, today's card is one of Royal Paladin's cards from Fighter's Collection 2015, Holy Dragon, Sanctuary Guard Regalie.

Just like the tin man, good luck finding a heart.

Sanctuary Guard Dragon is a unit which emerged at the start of the Break Ride era, but failed to make much of an impact - mostly because it was a 1-of in Bushiroad's greatest marketing failure in the English game (A deck only available with a bunch of extras at double regular trial deck prices, and with only 1 or 2 cards people were even interested in). With people unwilling to spend so much for a single card which whilst not bad, wasn't anything special either, the deck simply remained in the pile of 'things nobody plays' - and by the time Legion arrived, Sanctuary Guard's power gains could be matched far more easily and there was no longer any point to using him.

Enter Regalie, who gives Sanctuary Guard his first exclusive support, and coupled with a backup ride  in Sanctuary Guard Guarantee, allowed the deck to do something other than give a big vanguard lane. Now you can have big rear-guards as well. Regalie takes Sanctuary Guard's Limit Break skill - gaining 3000 power for each grade 1 or lower rear-guard - and spreads it across the entire front row. Simply having a full field grants 9000 power to everything - almost an extra 10k shield from a standard column, and anything with just a little extra power tips the scales and will hit those nice numbers.

Even better, he has no cost, no second stride requirements, and no conditions besides the heart - just stride over a Sanctuary Guard and get a bucket of power, provided you can get the grade 1 units out. Despite having no extra exclusive support until G Set 4 arrives, there's actually quite Royals can do with it's large card pool:

Jewel Knight, Swordmy is appreciated in many other builds for it's ability to grab a booster in a season where Royal Paladin superior calls are focussed on grade 2s. Besides the obvious extra 3000 from Regalie, there's a couple of interesting call options - Jewel Knight, Sabermy gives Sanctuary Guard Dragon it's limit break early, whilst Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie can be an attacker, and allow you to get even more grade 1's on the field without damaging your offensive power.

Knight of Twin Sword works fantastically with this deck. Sure it calls a grade 2, but that means it can call Swordmy, and it can also call an additional attacker. Since Regalie is a continuous effect, the new unit will also get the power buff as well, giving you one more massive attack to grind at the opponent.

Whilst the more conter-blast intensive Altmile and Thing Saver decks prefer Knight of Fragment for his on-hit skill, Regalie gets more out of Transmigration Knight, Brede, as the extra 1000 makes all the difference, allowing him to hit for 21k solo. Great either as a call target for Twin Sword, a stand trigger target, or just leaving the booster open for Twin Sword to replace him.

Moving to grade 1, we have Righteousness Seeker, Gangaren and Knight of Shield Bash, both of which act as either 7k boosters or 9k attackers. Providing both early game rushdown and the ability to put out more grade 1s, they're great for decks not using Jewel Knights.

Finally, there's the recently revealed support in G-BT04: Soul Strike Against the Supreme. Jumpgal and Battle Song Angel both have generation break 1 skills activated when there are two other grade 1 or lower units on your field, and seem designed for Regalie. Jumpgal is a forerunner who becomes a 10k attacker and an interceptor (whilst keeping the 10k shield he has as a grade 0), whilst the angel gains 2000 power - enough to push a 9k attacker with a 9k boost from Regalie up one more power level - and Resist, to protect it from opponent's card effects.

Of course the synergy these have with Sanctuary Guard makes even more sense in the context of Archer of Sanctuary, Santuary Guard's own 11k attacker, who can for counter-blast 2 on call search for any grade 1 or lower card. This isn't cheap, but it's very flexible and the deck can probably afford it at least once, and whilst 11k doesn't give it Brede's ability to attack for 21k alone it does mean that it can hit above 26k with a booster.

So, in conclusion, what do we have: A card which is simple, powerful, has a deck full of amazing support at it's back, and is itself cheap. Just a shame that Sanctuary Guard Dragon is still as rare as fairy dust and twice as expensive, but even that's not quite as bad as it was, as Guarantee exists and retailers are starting to discount Rise to Royalty to get them off shelves. If you can find the parts, it's definitely a good deck to try.