Friday Stride: Dream-Spinning Ranunculus, Ahsha

Once again, a new set has finally made it into the game, and with it another load of strides. On the other hand, with my regionals just a week away, there's some cards I don't really want to be showing off all the tricks for because I might be playing them there, and why should I give anonymous internet people hints as to my strategy? So, something I don't plan to use, Dream-spinning Ranunculus, Ahsha.

I dreamed a dream of decks gone by...

The stride form of Ranunculus Flower Maiden, Ahsha, Dream-spinning Ahsha is Neo Nectar's second persona flip stride, building on the effects of her Grade 3 form. For just the flip of another copy of herself, she gains the ability to give the front row 5000 power if two of your rear-guards have the same name, and if she's not the first stride she gets to clone a rear-guard and give the new unit an extra 2000. Helpfully, the first part of her skill doesn't power-up then, but hands her another ACT skill, allowing her to clone a rear-guard and then use the cloned unit to meet the requirements for the +5000 skill. Whilst a continuous boost would have been nice, allowing extra powered-up attacks through Maiden of Gladiolus, the static power boost does mean that if you remove one of the clone units granting the power bonus from the field (such as calling a new unit over one, or sending Flower Garden Maiden, Mailis into the soul) you won't lose the power boosts, whereas Jingle Flower needs a static field (or at least a static backrow) to retain the power.

One more aspect to note: She's not locked to a Ranunculus heart - she's an entirely generic unit, usable anywhere in Neo Nectar. Combined with her skill being an adaptation of her base form's GB2 and on-stride skills, she actually does better outside G-Maiden decks, because whilst Ahsha and her support can easily bring up perfect fields for Sacred Tree Dragon, Jingle Flower Dragon, decks with a weaker focus on cloning will find that the hard advantage more useful. That's not to say she doesn't have a place in the G build - she's handy for salvaging fields wrecked by control, or alternatively giving early pressure if the ideal field came early enough - but that the Rose Legion and Musketeer decks have to work harder for less reward from Jingle Flower, making Ahsha more worthwhile despite a lower power output.

Ultimately, she's a flexible stride that give a decent power boost and hard advantage, all in a rather pretty package. Certainly worth at least a pair of slots in most Neo Nectar G zones.

Due to the Regional event next week, there may or may not be a Friday Stride, but I'll attempt to give a rundown of the event, especially if I do miss another week.