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.