Friday Stride: Avatar of Heroic Spirits, Vishnu

So with the sword boys out of the way, we're almost ready for another new set for the English game, so once again a single week to find a card for. Since Narukami have just received more support in the Japanese game, let's take one more look at a card from Fighters Collection 2015. Looking ahead, this is likely to be the last time we visit this set for some time as the 2015 Winter set will be coming along before I need filler again. So, let's get on with Avatar of Heroic Spirits, Vishnu.

Wait, so there'll be more bad grade 3's?

Vishnu is stride support for Narukami's Noble deck, a build which has mostly slid under the radar due to being overshadowed by essentially every other build since, and the fact that they've had effectively no support. Vajra Emperor, Indra first appeared as a stand-alone card in Narukami's début set, gaining a critical for each copy on the rear-guard when it attacked. Somewhat interesting, but lacking power to back up the damage and relying on more copies of a specific grade 3 on rear-guard made it much less popular than Vermillion. The second noble, Black Celestial Maiden, Kali, didn't give any indication that there would be a theme to the Nobles, being a generic power-gaining unit. It was Lord of the Demonic Winds, Vayu who showed the pattern, being the equivalent to Indra, save for gaining 10000 power for each copy instead of extra criticals. The two make a working partnership - Indra pushes the damage up early, whilst Vayu has the power to overwhelm the opponent's remaining guard later in the game. However, Vermillion had been given a crossride, and the following set the Eradicators would make their appearance, consigning non-subclan Narukami to the binder for the next two blocks. Later in season 3, the deck would be thrown a bone in the form of Thousand Name Wyvern Knight, who could gain the name of whichever Noble was on your vanguard. Besides simply giving extra copies of your nobles, being a grade 2 gave you access to interceptors without limiting the vanguard.

It was G booster 2 which finally brought generic builds back into the limelight - though once again, it wasn't the Noble build. However, one more noble made it's appearance. Turbulence Deity Howl, Rudra also gained it's skill based on other copies on the rear-guard, this time retiring an opponent's rear-guard for each other copy. In addition, the clan's new heal trigger, Deity of Love, Kama, was also a noble, which wasn't overly significant until Vishnu made his appearance.

Vishnu himself lost the counterblast cost of the smaller nobles, and since he can't have cards with his name on the rear-guard he can work with any nobles - shutting out Thousand Name, but allowing Kama to add to the skill and also be a useful booster. For each Noble, Vishnu forces the opponent to retire and bind a rear-guard, and then if you retire three or more he gains a critical. Sadly the deck still isn't up in the higher tiers - Vishnu himself performs better in extreme fights, where Genesis and Oracle Think Tank can abuse their larger supply of Nobles - but there's now generic support up to modern standards to at least give them a fighting chance, and with the newest support from Japan gaining skills based on bound cards the deck may have more potential to come.