Friday Stride: Great Angel, Doom Brace

Well Mermaid Season 2015 is over, unless Pacifica gets over here before the next figher's collection or Aqua Force's clan booster throws us something, so now it's back to a more diverse spread of clans, at least until we reach Sword Boy Season 2015 Mermaid Season 2016 some other mono-clan product I'm interested in. It seems I've come back with just one week before we get our next box of strides, so just enough time to check out an older stride relevant to what's about to hit: Great Angel, Doom Brace.

Are you coming on to me?

Genesis' first generic stride, being released in Fighter's Collection 2015, Doom Brace is another example of the high quality of many cards in this set. His skill is simple enough - soul blast 3 cards to give two units 5000 power each, and then as an added bonus, if you have less than three cards in the soul you can soul charge 3 more, effectively repaying his own cost, setting up for himself or another unit next turn. For it's cost, the payout isn't bad, but that's not where it ends, because this is Genesis, the clan of the soul blast, and there's so much more you can do with this.

There's a nice big chunk of Genesis cards who activate when they're sent from the soul to the drop zone, and whilst a good chunk of them have generic effects, pretty much all of them fit into subclans, giving us a handy way to go through them.

The first group is the Witches, since they grew from a naming theme into a full subclan. The most widely-used are the generic Witch of Frogs, Melissa and Witch of Ravens, Chamomile, both of whom can call themselves on soul blast for a counter blast. Whilst they can't be given a power-up from Doom Brace's skill, riding them allows you to make a field without draining your hand, or replace units which intercepted or were retired/stunned/returned to deck. For the dedicated Witch build, G set 4 grants Witch of White Rabbits, Cardamon, a variant of Chamomile who requires a Witch vanguard (but remember, if you stride over a Witch Doom Brace will get her name) but also gains 2000 power for the turn. The last Witches with on Soul Blast skills are Witch of Oranges, Valencia and Witch of Grapes, Grappa, who soul charge 2 when soul blasted. Not as impressive as a call, and will shut down the soul charge if you want to use another Doom Brace, but the skill of the one that sent them to the drop zone will activate first at least.

Regalia also have a couple of cards that benefit from being soul blasted. Again, this includes an entirely generic card, this time Twilight Regalia, Hesperis. When soul blasted, she grants any vanguard the ability to retire an opponent's rear-guard if it hits. With Doom Brace packing some hefty power and Triple Drive, this extra on-hit pressure is a nice bonus. Our other Regalia is Regalia of Fate, Norn, who on top of being Legion Mate to Regalia's current main boss grants a Regalia vanguard 5000 when soul blasted. This skill is also found in the group's stand trigger, Mirror Regalia, Achlis, which helpfully enough can help you get even more from Doom Brace by standing a unit he powered up. Both are more of the same really, but can be nice bonuses.

There's no Myth Guard which activates when sent from the soul, however even these have ways to benefit from soul blasting specific cards. Myth Guard, Achernar and Myth Guard, Denebola, both gain 3000 power when another copy of the same card is sent from soul to drop zone. Not an especially easy trick to pull off, but if you were looking for easy and effective why are you running Myth Guards?

The upcoming G Genesis series in Soul Strike against the Supreme bring a few more tricks to the table, but since they also bring new strides, I'll leave it there and discus the new cards along with those units. Even from what we have before the next set, Doom Brace has a lot of toys it can play with, no matter what deck it finds itself in.

An attack for all seasons: Aqua Force 4th battle enablers - Part 2

And so we return to the pet clan of Bushiroad's CEO, and the many attempts to give them key setup. Aqua Force have been on something of a role since their introduction - G set 4 will be the first time they've gone for more than one core set in a row without support - and Set 15, Infinite Rebirth, gave the clan one last set of support for the season. Here they would finally receive a subclan, Blue Storm, which focussed on Maestrom, set 15 giving it a new Reverse Crossride form. Blue Storm Karma Dragon, Maelstrom "Яeverse", like it's base form, relied on the 4th attack, so the Blue Storm subclan would need to provide. What they gave were the Blue Storm Marine Generals Spyros and Lysandros, a new take on the restanders.

Three if you have a Storm Rider

 Whilst Tidal Assault was capable of activating it's skill as soon as it could be played, the blue storm standers were forced to wait until the vanguard was at grade 3, had to counterblast a Blue Storm card to restand, and were locked to one of the first two battles, much like the storm riders (but not in conflict with them for attack order, should one use both), but in return for this stood without a power drop. Although neither can hit a Grade 3 vanguard alone, 9k or 10k is usually enough to give a rear-guard problems. Blue Storm also got Blue Storm Soldier, Tempest Blader, who's on-call 3000 power boost could get them into range for a solo hit, and in the worst case scenario the card can be left standing to pay for Maestrom Reverse's Limit Break. There was one other card which could be an enabler in the set, Blue Storm Battle Princess, Crysta Elizabeth, but she's so downright awful she may as well not have been there. Needing to hit means she couldn't reliably enable and was more of a rush/pressure card, but calling from hand meant either an open space (so unless you had just drive checked what you were calling or were bringing a grade 3 out early you'd just normal call it) or a unit retired (in which case it cost you a counterblast and a card to maybe get a card from the opponent, and frankly any other skill in the entire deck would be more useful fur that cost).

More useful as a rear-guard though

Blazing Perdition brought Aqua Force into the Legion meta - barely. With just 9 cards, one of which was specific Limit Break support, there was just enough to have a Legion deck distinct from the Maelstrom-focussed deck, but no room for anything else. Tetra-Drive joined the Blue Storm Armada, this time under the name Blue Storm Wave Dragon, Tetra-burst Dragon and with a rather basic 4th battle, gain 5000 power & 1 critical skill. Still, once again there was a need for enablers, and although Spyros and Lysandros could still be used, the nature of Legion made space tighter than ever, and so Tetra-Burst's mate Blue Storm Marine General, Starless would be a key unit here. Starless represents a return to the origins of the storm riders, gaining power on the first attack and then swapping. However, a restriction to only working with vanguards in legion allows him to gain not only 1000 base power, but to have a 3000 power boost as well. Although not as fast as the originals, no longer being held down by power issues makes him a simple but efficient enabler. The grade 1 enabler, Blue Storm Soldier, Tempest Boarder, is also legion restricted, and functions as a costless Wheel Assault. Unfortunately, it's not an optional skill, which can cause issues if your field doesn't have the right setup to make use of a swap, or at a minimum two units who can swap without them ending up too far out of position.

Thavas still surpassed it

The second Legion pair didn't involve 4 attacks directly at all, although neither directly conflicted with any setup for extra attacks the rest of the deck may be working towards.

Aqua Force didn't do so well out of block 4, but at least they did better than the clans ignored entirely. However, by the time Vanguard G came around the clan did need some updating, and that's exactly what they got. The clan's second trial deck, Blue Cavalry of Divine Marine Spirits, was just as generic as every other G trial deck, but it's few unique cards are all highly useful for the clan.

Ooh, pretty scales.

From the top, the trial deck's on-hit stride unit, Marine General of the Heavenly Scales, Tidal Bore Dragon, activates on the 3rd attack or more, with it's skill allowing a new unit to be called. Whilst not fully reliable, it does enable 4th attack skills which don't need that attack to be the vanguard, such as most rear-guard skills or the on stride unit of the deck's ace, One who Surpasses the Storm, Thavas. Thavas himself doesn't enable, but has two skills centred around the 4th attack. The above-mentioned on-stride skill has you choose three of your opponent's rear-guards and force them to retire one of them is the fourth attack is against the vanguard. The advantage gained isn't as good as some other on-strides, but is functionally costless.  His GB2 skill gives him a critical and prevents the opponent using grade 0s to guard on the 4th attack, which is powerful in itself but added in to the small attacks of most enablers can generate can force sub-optimal guarding from the opponent.

One more? Lambros says take two.

However it's lower down where the true enablers can be found. Magnum Assault is the clan's Amber clone, another re-stander. The GB1 slows it down in comparison to older cards, but where previous re-standers had lost power doing so Magnum gained an addition 2000 power, letting it hit most vanguards on the second attack. The starter, Officer Cadet, Andrey, moves to soul to give any unit the same skill without the boost requirement, which on top of basic attack enabling can generate larger columns with the right target. The final enabler, Officer Cadet, Alexbors, is the clan's GB1 stand, which after an attack can swap with another unit before heading back to the deck. It's 4k power means it will need a boost to hit, but it can attack rear-guards and puts a trigger back in the deck, so if you opt for stands it's worth having as a back-up.

Shame you can't do it right.

Our naval forces were the clear winners in terms of support in Soaring Accent of Gale & Blossom, with a whole host of great support. Marine General of Heavenly Silk, Lambros is a card most players will be familiar with, and anyone who's seen a decent player behind it will have seen it's interplay with the re-standers, so I won't go on about it and get to the multitude of enablers the set provided.

Grade 3 doesn't give much - Strikehead Dragon lets you bring a 1st attack restander from the hand on ride, which can push if you ride up first, or support strides if you go second, and Marine General of the Wave-slicing Sword, Max can't enable 4th attack vanguards alone. What he does do is extend combos even further, though he can also setup 4th attack rear-guards if you ride him. The real meat is, as ever, in the grades 1 and 2.

Sweep the decks! Maelstrom will be landing here!

For this set, grade 2 provided more options for Blue Storm, both Maelstrom and Legion builds. Maelstrom gained Blue Storm Soldier, Rascal Sweeper, his personal 11k attacker, who's also a Maelstrom exclusive storm rider. Acting as both enabler and tag partner gives him significant flexibility, and gives the clan's first big dragon more options, and with strides taking on the heart's name those units can also benefit from the sweeper. The legion build isn't so lucky in that regard, as Blue Storm Marine General, Milos requires legion to function. It's skill is otherwise the same as Tidal Assault, but the lost speed means it can't play the rush game of it's older form. However, as the first card revealed to have Resist, it can give the deck something of a chance against most control decks.

I'd rather to be pierced by a song than a spear, but wouldn't anyone?

The generic enablers are in grade 1, with two new Battle Sirens joining the clan. Orthia is the clan's second Resist unit, and again grants a re-stand with a 5000 power loss, but with a hefty counterblast 1 soulblast 1 whilst at GB1. However, as this set also grants units who can power up on later attacks such as High Tide Sniper, the cost is somewhat understandable. The more efficient enabler is Stacia, who's GB1 skill allows her to attack from the back row, with a 3000 power boost whilst doing so. With only 6000 power she can't hit most vanguards without extra power, but 9000 is enough to make her a fantastic interceptor hunter, and if she isn't needed she can still boost like any other grade 1.

G set 2 gave us one more card, which I've left until last since not only is it a promotional card released alongside but not in the set, but it makes a nice bookend to this little foray into Aqua Force's setup cards. Couple Dagger Sailor

OK, I'll meet up with you in the Clan Booster then.

is the long-awaited successor to Storm Rider, Basil, who at the cost of a CB1 cost to her skill gains that extra 1000 base power, allowing her to hit 11k vanguards unsupported as a grade 2, finally giving a truly effective generic swapper at this grade.

And so we reach the present, at least of the time of writing, and what do we have? With Lambros the heavyweight behind almost all decks, Tidal and Magnum Assaults are the most popular enablers for most decks, generally backed up by Stacia and sometimes Orthia in grade 1 and Andrei as starter. Couple Dagger sometimes sees use, and Diamantes is still usable, especially for Thavas decks which can use Kelpie Rider Nikki to search Thavas if needed, but almost all of the other generic enablers are now functionally redundant.

Blue Storm has more flexibility. Maestrom should always run Rascal Sweeper, and can use Spiros if it wants to avoid the GB1 Magnum Assault, though the especial counter blast does restrict other options. The Legion builds have to dedicate a lot of space to their legion mates, which means they tend to run Starless and/or Milos, depending on their grade 3s.

This is the end - for now. With their clan booster incoming and only a single reprint (Couple Dagger), the story of the Aqua Force enabler isn't over, but it will have to be covered by future me, who's enjoying getting to use all those fun cards. So until the present catches up to future me, it's off to other topics surrounding this card game of ours.

Friday Stride: School Etoile, Olyvia

So for the past two weeks I've covered two of Bermuda Triangle's new stride units, and now it's time for us to move on to the third and probably final entry in Mermaid Season 2015. If you've been paying any attention to the titles for the last couple of weeks and took more than about three seconds to look at what's in Academy of Divas you can probably guess what's coming even without looking at this article's title. That's right, we're going for the true star of the clan booster, School Etoile, Olyvia.

They'll also never forget how much the SP costs.

I've always felt Bermuda suffer from a 'too soon' problem, in that their boosters have a habit of coming out slightly before innovations in the core booster packs, forcing them to wait a year for them to get the new mechanic. EB02 was the last set before Limit Break entered the game, resulting in them being the last block 1 clan to get this mechanic outside the then-incomplete Nubatama. EB10 was, again, the very last set before Legion, and the last set to have clan restrictions on cards before Clan Fight became standard for Japan, giving them with a whole new subclan with a completely outdated mechanic, with the clan's legions being released as promos and in the new clan booster.

EB06 wasn't quite as bad, but it's Japanese release came just before BT11 - the first to introduce new characters as subclan Perfect Guards - meaning a PRISM Perfect Guard was passed over for an Elly reprint for no practical benefit. It's probably been to the clan's benefit that every single English release prior to the newest one has been moved forward in the release shedule, as it's given the clan a chance to shine as well as make sales in a market which places less values on the concept of 'waifu'.

Fortunately, this time around the mermaids have struck gold and the new counter charge icon makes it's first appearance here, however the following set still gives a minor change that would have been quite useful for Olyvia.

So what is this shift? Well, her skill has a lot of conditions tied to it, at least one of which would have been redundant had Bushiroad started printing Generation Break on G units one set earlier. To explain in chronological order: When she attacks, if you have a face-up unit in the G zone, you may counter blast 1 and flip up a copy of herself to choose any number of your rear-guards. If those units have different names, you can then return them to your hand, and then if you returned three or more units she gains a critical and can call up to two units to different rows, that is one in the front and one in the back. The whole thing is a massive chain of conditions and could probably have been cut down even without GB2, but she's a somewhat efficient unit.

The first restriction of note is that she cannot bounce multiple copies of the same rear-guard. No doubt this was to stop Duos engaging in the sort of mass draw shenanigans they do with Meer's break ride, but it does mean you need to think about where you place your units to make sure your bounce targets are in place. The second is that you need to bounce 3 units to gain the critical and calls. Whilst there are times just returning two may be viable (such as against Link Joker with the other column already locked) most of the time Olyvia's an expensive way to do it, so with only two calls you're going to need a unit you won't put back. For the most basic attack pattern, which is a rear-guard column followed by Olyvia resetting it and then both rear-guard columns, you'll either have to sacrifice a booster, either on Olyvia or one of the later rear-guard attacks. Since Olyvia has a lot more power than almost any rear-guard, she's usually going to be the one going solo.

However, all of this only considers her in isolation, and doesn't consider what the deck around her is doing. Her bounces can set off all sorts of skills, including drawing cards, gaining power and counter charging, and the recall can fire on-call and Harmony skills, all of which give you more advantage. One of the most impressive performers in this show, however, doesn't directly benefit from either the bounce or the call, and is just using the restand. Admired Sparkle, Spica, a card I mentioned previously, deserves credit for what she can bring to Olyvia's turn.

Spica's skill is deceptively simple: When she's attacking the vanguard at GB1 whilst boosted, she can counter blast 1 to bounce a rear-guard to call another one with 3000 extra power - the same skill as Somni, under different conditions. However, there's an important point to note with this skill - the new unit can be any unit and called anywhere - you don't have to call what you bounce and you don't have to call it to the same place. This means that rather than bounce what's behind Olyvia, you can instead pick up both front row rear-guards, along with a booster, call down a column with Spica in it, and after Olyvia has attacked with a proper boost Spica can pick up the used booster to put down an attacker in the vacant front-row spot - and if that column has a standing booster, there's always the option to put down another Spica to set up yet another attack, provided the counterblasts are still there. By the time she's done, Olyvia's turn is going to look more like something Aqua Force or Nova Grapplers did than what you'd normally expect from Bermuda Triangle.

Olyvia isn't quite the finisher that some other persona strides are, but she doesn't need to be. Returning your cards to your hand gives you a lot of flexibility in what you do, allowing you to play cards you want in your hand to generate more offence before picking them up once you draw into better units. Like most good strides for rear-guard centric decks, her skill provides a springboard from which the rest of the deck can launch their own plays, extending combos and bring together a whole greater than the some of it's parts. Ultimately she isn't something you should be passing up on - unless your budget doesn't stretch to her (as a GR persona flipper she's not cheap, and that's ignoring the SP version).

There'll be no Friday Stride next week, because I won't have access to the machine I produce these on.

Friday Stride: PR♥ISM-Promise, Princess Labrador

So Mermaid Season 2015 continues on as we move on to one of the ace stride units of this year's idol set. As we move up the rarities we reach new support of Bermuda's oldest subclan, the awkward to type PR♥ISM series. They've had stride support previously, having shared the subclan stride in Figher's Collection 2015 with Duo, but this time PR♥ISM has the show to themselves with a new form of the groups main grade 3, PR♥ISM-Promise, Princess Labrador.

You promised to live under the sea with her?
You lucky - I mean you idiot.

Princess Labrador's skill is a once per turn ACT skill, and for the low cost of simply flipping another copy of her in the G zone and having a PR♥ISM heart she gives two rear-guard 5000 power each, as well as the option to return to the hand after they attack or boost. At first glance this may not look like the most impressive skill in the game, but Bermuda Triangle have always been a combo-based deck, and even the comparatively aggressive PR♥ISM deck still relies on combos to reach it's best.

So you've got some beefy columns and a couple of units you can pick up, so what can you do with it? Well the first thing you can do is evade control deck skills. Retire, Lock and Paralysis all fail if there's no target, or at the very least no optimal targets reduces the impact of these skills. Pulling your most important cards out of the way keeps them around for you to make another push next turn. You can also play grade 3 units as attackers and then pick them up to stride next turn, losing nothing.

Of course, Bermuda operates on returning units to hand, and PR♥ISM has a small pool of on-bounce units to draw on, all of which give other units 4000 power when they do. The original PR♥ISM-Promise Celtic and PR♥ISM-Image Clear both do this for a soul blast, whilst the new PR♥ISM-Promise, Princess Leyete grants the power boost for no cost, along with a soul charge and counter charge, if you have a PR♥ISM vanguard. Leyete then can't be called from the hand for that turn outside card effects, but with Princess Labrador that's not an issue due to the timing of the bounce. All three can add even more power to units yet to attack, adding to that aggressive power strategy which distinguishes PR♥ISM.

Since Princess Labrador can bounce any units, there's also the option to use non-PR♥ISM units to give the deck alternate bounce targets, such as using Ideal Walking Weather, Emilia or Girl's Rock Rio to add extra draw power to the deck. However these units could start to get in the way of key PR♥ISM units with Especial counter blasts, or which need specific rear-guards. That's not to say you should stick to a 100% PR♥ISM build - Princess Labrador herself does a great job of reducing the need to stick to PR♥ISM units - but it does mean you need to be careful, and ultimately you'd probably be better sticking to units which can give extra bounces and/or support PR♥ISM's aggressive playstyle. Admired Sparkle, Spica fills both these roles, which has made her quite popular with a fair number of PR♥ISM players. Her GB1 is barely a factor, since why would you not want to go into Princess Labrador if given the choice?

Bouncing doesn't just have to be for the units going pack. PR♥ISM-Duo Yarmouk and PR♥ISM-Duo Avon both gain 3000 power each time a unit is returned to the hand, allowing them to push columns up to even higher numbers. Of the two, Yarmouk is better - being a booster allows it to combo with high-powered attackers to force out guard comparatively easily, whilst Avon's only option for a booster above 7000 is Yarmouk herself.

There's one last card which deserves mentioning for how well she combos with Princess Labrador: Herself. PR♥ISM-Promise Labrador retains her position as the main grade 3 of PR♥ISM decks, and her G unit form grants the deck another way to clear rear-guard circles to allow the use of her limit break. Previously the only other unit who could clear your field as efficiently was PR♥ISM-Image Vert, who had to be rode first, needed anything which benefited from the bounces to be set up and survive a turn, and still didn't do as much as Princess Labrador. Vert remains, however, since there's nothing better, but now the deck has no worries about riding Labrador first.

Overall, Princess Labrador is a powerful card with great utility for the PR♥ISM deck. Bringing the best of Vert and more in a functionally costless first stride, she's one of the key players who've brought Bermuda Triangle's first subclan back into the spotlight once again. Sadly, despite a strong showing she missed out on being one of the three idols to receive extra merchandise, however next time we'll be looking at the highest placed G unit in that contest.