An attack for all seasons: Aqua Force 4th battle enablers - Part 3

A few months ago, past me promised that I'd go through the enablers of additional attacks for Aqua Force that came from Clan Booster 2, Commander of the Incessant Waves. Well, since I have some free time and motivation let's get on with it.

The new clan booster introduced the Wave keyword for Aqua Force, which is a more concise form of the existing mechanic of counting the number of battles. Besides being easier to say, it makes it easier to see at a glance which units need which attacks to activate, and a couple of cards also interact with the wave mechanic itself, but we'll get to those later.

Girl's can't be ripples. Apparently.

The booster itself gave support for almost every major build of Aqua Force, although not all of them received attack enablers due to differences in play-style and previous support. The Ripple deck received some very powerful support, but they continued the set 11 mechanic of counting resting units rather than attacks. Maelstrom also passed up an enabler, but as he received Rascal Sweeper in the last round of support his relatively small amount of support filled in other roles.

As to the enablers themselves, we'll start with the generic cards, and picking up where part 2 left off Couple Dagger Sailor was reprinted, although not given an errata with wave. Given how rare these were in set 2, being in only 1 in 7 boxes, this is a reasonable reprint, though the amount of enablers now available make her less than essential for a lot of decks. 

That doesn't sound ri- and he's gone.

The only other generic enablers this time are the series of Violent Shooter,  Marine General of the Sonic Speed, Nektarios, and Titan of the Trench Patrol, all of whom have the same skill at different grades. At GB1, on wave 1 or 2, they can soul blast 1 for 2000 power and then at the end of the battle you check the top 4 cards for a card with a Wave ability. You can then call that unit and put any un-called units as well as the original attacking unit to the bottom of the deck. A fair attempt to create a new series of enablers, but it has some flaws. Trying to use them often will suck up a lot of soul which may be better served elsewhere, but more significantly they have reliability issues. Since it's impossible to run only units with wave abilities (if only because there aren't 4 different wave triggers), there's always a chance of the search missing - and if you're relying on it to set off something like Lambros failing to get another unit for the attack could be fatal. Having said that, If you can balance the soul usage properly and incorporate enough wave units it's not a high-cost effect, so they're not entirely useless - if they can supplement other attack enablers, or are used with decks that activate key effects on wave 3 or more where failing won't shut down those central plays entirely, then they have potential.

Wish she'd refrained from needing legion.

Although Maelstrom didn't get an enabler, Blue Storm did get one, for it's legion build. As legion decks are usually less flexible in their grade 2s, due to the need to include enough mates, here their new enabler is a new stand trigger. Blue Storm Battle Princess, Doris can, after it attacks as wave 1 with a vanguard in legion, swap positions with another rear-guard, give the other unit 5000 power, and then return to the deck. Although 4000 power means she will need a booster to hit, the power boost to the other unit means that unit is unlikely to need it to hit so she can be safely boosted. Whilst it's not going to make the Blue Storm legion deck amazing, it gives one further boost to the deck's consistency, which might make all the difference later. Since this set's release, a couple of cards have been given wording that allows them to work with legion vanguards even when you stride, so the deck may get it's chance next time around.

So, in short, he's in charge.

As the second set of G support for Aqua Force, more support for the Thavas build was inevitable. This includes his stride fusion form, Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas, who this time actually helps set up additional attacks. For flipping a copy of himself, he grants a rear-guard 5000 power as well as the ability to attack from the back row, which gives three rear-guards the ability to attack and thus with enough rear-guards sets up wave 4 easily. Since I covered this card not too long ago, I'll not go into much more detail, except to note how interesting it is to see a wave 4 vanguard who can set up it's own wave.

Thavas' new starter, Kelpie Rider, Mitros, might not seem to generate extra attacks at first glance. When a Thavas vanguard attacks at wave 3 or more, Mitros' GB1 allows him to move to the soul to call a Thavas from the deck, and then return that Thavas to the hand at the end of the turn. Since the new Thavas can come in standing it gives one

Unless it's before about 1500 AD.

extra attack, of most use for the retiring skills of both forms of Thavas. If needed, you can even call the Thavas over another unit - although you'd be advised to leave Mitros in the front instead, to open a space and avoid losing a card.

Thavas also gained a GB1 grade 2 in Battle Siren, Adelaide, who on-call can counter-blast 1 and soul-blast 1 to gain 2000 power and the ability to restand after it first attacks the vanguard for that turn. Two attacks which under normal conditions should hit help ensure that the higher wave counts can be met, acting as a Magnum Assault without the need to be boosted. Like Magnum, Adelaide can also be powered up by triggers or the effects of other units to double-up on those bonuses. Unfortunately she only gets to restand the turn she's played, but she's still a 9000 power grade 2, and can intercepy herself away for another unit once she's finished.

Maybe from you. For this turn.

The new Blue Wave deck, centred around Tetra-drive dragon and following up on it's 'Vanguard 2nd' attack pattern, also has a similar card, in Blue Wave Marine General, Foivos. Like Adelaide, Foivos can make 2 11k attacks for a counterblast, but whilst Adelaide can make her first attack at any point on one turn, Foivos can only restand when he attack third, but on any turn provided the vanguard is a Blue Wave. Since the two Blue Wave restanding vanguards require a rear-guard to attack for wave 4, restanding after the third attack instantly sets up the conditions for this.

He needs a more dramatic entrance.

Blue Wave is currently a small group, but isn't tied into needing specific support aside from a grade 3 vanguard. The newest of these, Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon, also provides extra attacks. His  GB2 skill restands a unit when it attacks at wave 2 only with an extra 10000 power (as well as 5000 for Anger-boil). Whilst instantly setting up a charged-up Foivos (or Tidal/Magnum) to attack twice more, this isn't the most interesting skill in terms of enabling wave 4 or more skills. His other skill, when Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-boil Dragon strides over him, gives him a wave 2 only ability to re-stand 2 rear-guards with 3000 power each. Like Tetra-drive, Tetra-boil requires the 4th attack to be from your rear-guard to be against the opponent's vanguard, and by standing a full column Anger-boil provides the only enabling you'd need - however just like with the GB2 can allow you to power up re-standers for more attacks.

And so we reach the end of another wave of support. Different clans are differentiating further in the cards they use, but in terms of generic enablers Tidal and Magnum still rule, with Couple Dagger for those who want swapping. With no further support announced, I'm not going to make any promises on part 4, but hopefully I'll have some articles on another clan some time.