Friday Stride: Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Double Bill

In my quest to not go back to clans during this series' early posts, we've reached the end of what we can do with G BT04. Since two of the clans have been covered previously, we've got a single clan left and just one week before the next English language release. So to round out our coverage of this set (at least for now), we have a double bill - the connected stride units Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon and Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Doomed, from the Shadow Paladins.

Don't retire your allies then.

Aurageyser Dragon was released in Sovereign Star Dragon, as it's clan's main stride of the set. It has one of the most long-winded costs for it's still in the game, with it's on-attack skill requiring:

• Counter Blast 1
• Soul Blast 1
• Turning a copy of itself face-up
• Retire two rear-guards

All of this gives it the ability to reveal the top two cards of the deck and add them to your hand, whilst gaining an extra 5000 power for each of those cards at grade 1 or lower. On the face of it this really isn't much for that cost, and for the most part that's pretty much right - trading two rear-guards for two draws is a break-even, and when it comes to gaining cards flipping a G unit doesn't seem to be valued as a card, making it a counter blast 1, soul blast 1 to gain power if you have the right cards on the top of your deck. However, this is Shadow Paladin, a deck with a focus on retiring and thus ways not to lose out to it. We'll come back to those in a minute.

So what's your excuse?

Our second card is Aurageyser's evolved form, Aurageyser Doomed (or Dammed, for those who prefer to use the Japanese name). His skill is similar to his base form's, but has some subtle tweaks which somewhat change how he plays. First up, his skill is an ACT, not a Battle Phase AUTO, which is actually worse for Shadow Paladins, since you can't sacrifice units which have already attacked. Second, we're still flipping up Aurageyser Dragon, not himself, which means you need to make some decisions in advanced about your strategy, in order to set up your G zone properly. The soul blast cost is gone, which is handy for cards like Black-Winged Swordbreaker who also want it, but instead we're now retiring 3 rear-guards for two new cards, this time grade 1 and 0 units netting retires rather than power. Finally, he gains a critical for 3 face-up Aurageyser Dragons in the G zone. Since this counts the face-up one, you either use Doomed 3 times, or use Aurageyser Dragon once and then Doomed, to gain this crit. Once again, we have a hefty cost for a luck-based effect - you either retire two and go +1, or you hit nothing and end up a -1.

However, once again the Shadow Paladins will provide ways to mitigate the costs, so now it's time to have a look at some of them.

First up is Promising Knight, David, a GB1 starter who can be treated as two units when retiring him as a cost. This is one of the simplest ways to generate more advantage out of Aurageyser, since he turns the retire two into a retire one, giving you a net +1 from the skill. David's utility, and the deck's ability to call Grade 1 or lower units easily, sees him run in multiples in some G Shadow builds. The Blasters get their own, non GB, grade 1 version in
Pitch Black Sage, Charon who also searches for the blaster you need to ride to have the name

Like several other GB1 stand triggers, Cursed Eye Raven directly helps out with the skills of the deck's ace unit. In exchange for returning itself to the deck, it can call the top two cards of the deck at rest, but then retires them at the end of the turn. Since they'll never get a chance to attack outside of stand triggers, the skill is clearly meant to turn a trigger into two retirement fodder units. Of course, hit the right card from the skill and you could reap more benefits still, but not itself, as it needs to rest itself to use it's skill.

For older Shadow Paladin builds, the key to retiring without losing your card advantage is often to use cheap or free low quality superior calls to get warm bodies onto the field, which can then be retired for skills and replaced with better units. Dark Mage, Badhabh Caar is an early example of this, calling the top card of the deck when called and occasionally causing a chain reaction if on top of the deck when another is played. The card you get might not be one you want, but if it isn't you can kill it to gain advantage elsewhere. Though the 9000 base power makes it a poor vanguard, no fewer than three other grade 3 units have grade 1's capable of trading a Caar for them, and Stride does help him not be vanilla.

In contrast to the cheap blind calling above, Dark Night Maiden, Macha, the clan's Amber clone, can grab any grade 1 unit on attack. She can either bring out fodder or replace retired units, and can grab several of the units listed on this page for more advantage. She's more expensive, but you get what you need.

Revengers embody many of the core mechanics of the wider clan, and the ability to call out units is also a feature. Although most of these are comparatively cheep, such as
Wily Revenger, Mana, who when called can bring out any grade 1 revenger into the same column. Although the unit goes back to the deck at the end of the turn, the unit can still be used as a free fodder during that turn. If you want to spend more resources for a longer-lasting unit, the older Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu can provide. Although counter blast 2 is expensive by current standards, the grade 1 will stay around until you're ready to use it, and Tartu has more power than Mana, allowing her to make a standard rear-guard column.

By contrast, the Witches don't have much in the way of superior calling. Sharp Fang Witch, Fodla is pretty much all they have with the witch name, and even this is a generic card with the witch name from before the establishment of the subclan. Folda can, for a counterblast, call out any two grade 0 units, including those listed above. 

Witches gain advantage using the other method used by the clan - drawing cards. Befitting the theme of sacrifice in the clan, many of these skills have a cost of a card to activate the skills, such as the most well-known example, Skull Witch, Nemain. Notable for having the lowest base power in the game - and having power significantly lower than any other grade 2 unit - Nemain can, for a counterblast and a discard, give two draws on call. Lacking enough power to attack effectively, even with a booster, Nemain was always more useful as retire fodder, as otherwise it would be intercepting as soon as possible. Later cards have added further restrictions to the skill in order to allow the base power to be increased to a more useful level, such as the recent Scornful Knight, Gyva, but even the newer cards have sub-par power levels, making them preferable targets to retire.


As a focus for a deck they're not bad, but the Shadow Paladin G zone has Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo" available, and compared to that unit's game-ending potential almost everything will seem somewhat lackluster.

However, at this stage Shadow Paladins have plenty of fodder to retire, regardless of build, meaning Aurageyser Dragon at least makes a useful first stride to help dig through the deck to reach key cards. Doomed is slightly less efficient - although some units will appreciate it avoiding the soul the heavier cost and Main Phase activation make it less appealing to builds lacking a heavy focus on self-retiring, and retire isn't all that helpful for Witch builds - but if you're willing to take the risk the pay-off is ultimately greater, grinding down the opponent's resources whilst refreshing your own.