Friday Stride: Force Spear Mutant Deity, Stun Beetle

So - for the UK - regionals are over for another year, and as may have been obvious from my last entry I took Megacolony's Machining subclan, backed up by some of the newer G era support. With that out of the way, time to get on with the other obvious gap in clans covered in this series. So, Force Spear Mutant Deity, Stun Beetle.

This used to be the game's worst clan. No, really.

The game's lore for the current block indicates that Megacolony have rejected Gear Chronicle's offer to teach the use of stride, and are researching the phenomenon by themselves. For the most part, this hasn't affected what support they've had - they've had all the core cards other clans have received from the first wave of G support - but it does seem to have thrown a very interesting twist into their G persona stride unit.

Uniquely for a clan's first stride which flips a copy of itself as a cost, it's skill requires it to hit in order to activate, only paying when it does. When this is met, as long as you are at Generation Break 2, you can flip a copy and counter blast 2 to prevent their vanguard from standing at the start of their next turn. Further, they can't normal ride either, shutting out most decks' only counter to vanguard stunning (at present only a few decks have superior ride options, and even fewer actually use them) and forcing them to skip a vanguard attack. At a bare minimum, this is two cards less for them from the lack of twin drive, plus you save your guard for that attack.

Of course, this does rely on him actually hitting, which may not always be easy to pull off. However, as mentioned above, you only have to pay the cost when he hits, meaning that you can have three shots to make the attack connect - three attacks which the opponent will have to guard because the shift in momentum and advantage from shutting down their vanguard for the turn will often seal the game. This makes him the only persona stride who can be strode three times without intentionally passing on the skill. He's also the only one who can function at three copies, because as long as your opponent isn't aware that you don't have the fourth then they can't let the third hit, as any hit from him would be a disaster.

Ultimately, Stun Beetle is a huge pressure card. He has the same 'guard or die' threat that high-powered, multi-critical G units have, but rather than abruptly ending the game he puts it out of the opponent's reach, forcing them to face two of your turns without any chance to recover their defences or push against you. Other cards might find it easier to stun, but if you need them to stay stunned, this is the guy you're going to be calling for.