Friday Stride: One Who Views the Planet, Globe Magus

So after so many very long months of nothing but side releases, we've finally got a new core booster set. Moonlight Dragonfang is now out, bringing Pale Moon into the G era and giving a boost to several other clans, including Oracle Think Tank. Naturally for the clans on the second wave of support, there are less new cards needed for the initial G era build and so those clans have the room for a bit more support for older builds, and for Oracle Think Tank it's the Magus build that gained the bulk of this. So, as I'm sure many of you would have predicted even without the title, let's have a look at One Who Views the Planet, Globe Magus.

She's now banned from entering Fantasy Football

The theme-specific Magus skills all focus on knowing the top card of your deck. A few allow you to see the top card, or otherwise put a known card onto the top of the deck; the rest require you to correctly name the top card of the deck in order to activate their skills. Since the latter set can also be used to check the top card of the deck, classic Magus decks would have some of these skills 'sacrificed' by making blind guesses to check the card for other skills, especially for battle phase rear-guard skills being used after the drive check had removed the card on top when the deck was checked in the main phase.

Globe changes all that. Her skill is simple but with the Magus support can be brutal. Her skill is a continuous skill to allow you to look at the top card of the deck at any time during the turn and put it back on top of the deck. This is at any time, effectively allowing you to play with the top card of your deck face up for you only. Whereas before Globe rear-guards attacking after the vanguard would need to match up their attack order very carefully to get the skills they wanted, with Globe you can check the top card immediately before you use each skill. Memorising the top card suddenly becomes much less important - whereas before you might check a card in the main phase, and then move on to the battle phase before you have to name it, with Globe you simply check right before you need to.

It's also easier to dig out your triggers. Whilst Globe herself doesn't dig through the deck towards the triggers, the ability to see what the top card is allows you to decide when to attack with Stellar Magus and Ring Magus on the rear-guard. If your top card is a trigger, swing in with the vanguard first. If it isn't, attack with a rear-guard, add that card to your hand, and then attack with the vanguard. As an attacking vanguard, Globe has one last trick, and it can be a game-changer. Because a card revealed for a trigger check goes to the trigger zone, there's now a new top card of the deck, and because Globe allows you to check at any time you can check what your next drive check will be before you assign the effects of a trigger you just revealed. Thus guarding for a 2-pass (or even 3-pass) nowhere near as safe as against many other vanguards - if you can see you'll get the second trigger you can put the bonuses onto the vanguard without risk, at worst losing 1 trigger if you're aiming to break a 3-pass guard.

Of course, Globe doesn't do all that much alone, and it's the rear-guards which are doing much of the work. The above-mentioned Stellar and Ring magi allow you to gain cards, Ring also gaining enough power to real 21000 with a 7k booster. Rhombus Magus gains power, whilst Cone Magus can unflip damage from either Stellar and Ring or G units besides Globe. Octagon Magus, by contrast, aids in defence - although you can't check during your opponent's turn, you can check what's on top after your last attack before Globe returns to the G zone, which also lets you know what your first damage check would be. Just be aware that if you call Lozenge Magus (or Sphere Magus) and boost with them, their skills will send them back to the deck after Globe returns to the G zone, shuffling your deck and denying this information. Finally Semilunar Magus, as the new starting vanguard, gives you a helpful checker early game before diving away into the soul for a net +1.

In conclusion, Globe is exactly what the Magus needed to gain a new lease of life. Whilst the deck's lack of legion or stride reliance allows it to function against the grade 2 game, once Globe hits the board all the guesswork, memorisation and skill timing is stripped away, granting you powerful effects for much less work. I suppose you could argue it's unfair, but that's really what Globe's stride skill is for - whereas other strides give you power or card advantage, Globe simply removes the hurdles for other units to do that with their own skills.

Friday Stride: Legendary Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser Leon

So Moonlit Dragonfang is almost upon us, but before we get into the strides in that set we've time for one more card from the Fighter's Collection. So, in the spirit of giving as many clans as possible equal exposure in this column, let's check out Dimension Police's newest offering, Legendary Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser Leon.

Clearly, he must like the Morikawa dimension.

Leon is the newest form of Daikaiser, and continues that unit's tradition of being able to break through the opponent's guardians, including Perfect Guards, when a grade 3 is damage checked. For Leon, this translates into a GB2 counter-blast 1 and flip a copy face up, provided you have a Kaiser heart. For clan fight (i.e the format all Bushiroad events currently use), this means one of Daikaiser's Grade 3 forms or Shadowkaiser - who's support for Daikaiser as well.

The first thing you'll note is that it's a chance-reliant skill. Whereas the previous guard breakers have either given an additional bonus or only paid when the grade 3 is revealed, Leon pays up-front for something which might not even work, and thus you're going to want to maximise your chances at pulling the skill off, and the easiest way to do this is more grade 3's. When the original Daikaiser was revealed, this was taken to it's extreme with decks running 12 or more grade 3's, with the resulting unbalanced grade ratios being patched by the Enigman ride chain (this type of chain guaranteed the grade 2 if you rode the grade 1, thus meaning having the latter in opening hand effectively gave you two of the cards you needed to ride). Whilst Nova Grapplers can still use this sort of build with Asura Kaiser and the Blau ride chain, True Great Daikaiser - Dimension Police's strongest Kaiser - requires Dimensional Robo soul for both him and his mate, thus pushing Leon into a purer subclan build. 9-10 grade 3's, however, is perfectly viable (in fact a grade 1-2-3 lineup of 13-11-9 is slightly more consistent for riding than the conventional 14-11-8, which sacrifices ride consistency for booster numbers), especially if some of your grade 1 slots would include stride fodder. Since you're running these to act as extra grade 3's, just run a grade 3 to trigger on drive checks as well. This also helps you get as many Kaisers in the deck whilst also having room for Great Daiyusha for the legion.

The more recent tool to aid triggering the skills is Dimensional Robo, Daibazooka, Kaiser's 11k attacker. His other skill makes him a grade 3 when revealed in a trigger check, as well as allowing a counter charge and soul charge when drive checked. Not only does Daibazooka repay Leon's cost when checked, he can also ensure you have the soul for True Daikaiser & Great Daiyusha, as well as any soul blast skills you may run.

Leon has one more issue, which is harder to fix: He doesn't give much pressure. Unlike his Grade 3 forms, he doesn't gain a bonus critical to force the opponent to guard. Triple drive somewhat makes up for this, but without being able to make his attack a killing blow the opponent can let the attack through and rely on you not getting those triggers - or drop a single perfect guard and bank on you not seeing both the triggers you need to push them to six damage and the grade 3 to get through. 12 criticals are advisable here, to maximise your chances of getting them, but 12 criticals are good almost everywhere right now. You could also use criticals on other units whilst getting to GB2 to accelerate the opponent to 5 damage so that Leon doesn't need extra criticals

However, if you want another option, there's also a helpful little trick which can give Leon his own criticals. Dimensional Robo, Gocannon is an unimpressive grade 1 who can at the cost of two units give a Daiyusha vanguard an extra critical. Since a stride unit can take the name of a heart card, all you need do is stride Leon over a Daiyusha, gain it's name, and voilà! You now have one grade 4, guard-breaking Daiyusha, all ready to gain a critical and make someone cry. But, you may be saying, didn't Leon need a Kaiser heart? This is true, but we can have both. Since True Daikaiser legions with Great Daiyusha, striding over the legion with Leon gives both cards in the heart. Leon doesn't need to take the name of it's Kaiser heart, only have one in there, so it's free to take Daiyusha's name instead and gain the benefits of even more support cards. This is not advised - it's very inefficient and doesn't give enough back to make it worth the investment - but it's there if you really want that critical.

Leon can be threatening, but the deck has to be build and played aggressively. If you don't deal them damage early, by Leon isn't going to threaten them by himself. Get the deck and play-style right, however, and he might just be even more of a danger than previous Daikaisers.

Friday Stride: Helleity Seal Dragon, Crossorigin

Kagerō has been a central clan for most of vanguard's history, but despite a large card pool much of their meta focus has centred around a single character - Dragonic Overlord. Frequently the clan has received new support focussed on different units, only for some form of Overlord to come along and overshadow everything else. The first occurrence of this was in set 11, which introduced the Seal Dragons. Based on the anti-interceptor Seal Dragon, Blockade, the subclan had a wider focus on the opponent having grade 2 units, with various skills reliant on opponents having grade 2 units coupled with cheap retires which gave the opponent the chance to call out grade 2's in place of them. Unfortunately, the subclan was overshadowed from the outset by the (non-Seal Dragon) breakride pairing better with Overlord, then by Nouvelle and Dauntless Reverse, before Overlord got more support at the end of the season. Odd bits of support made the deck more practical, but nothing really caught up to the power jump legion and stride provided - until they received their own stride, in Helldeity Seal Dragon, Crossorigin.

Thus dragons became good guys.

Crossorigin fits the mould of several of the GR units from the latest Fighter's Collection, flipping any G unit face up to activate a skill which becomes more effective the more copies of itself you have face-up (unlike some others, however, he doesn't need any copies of himself to have some effect). When his skill is activated and you have a Seal Dragon in the heart, he retires an opponent's rear-guard for each face-up copy in the G zone. He then forces the opponent to reveal four cards from the top of their deck and for each card retired call a grade 2 from those four, and then if the opponent has two grade 2 units he gains a critical.

First thing to note: The critical can be gained on the first stride, which is rather unusual - many strides can't gain any criticals until the second stride, allowing Helldeity to put some early pressure, especially if the opponent called a lot of cards early. The second part is that you only check 4 card from the opponent's deck regardless of how many units were retired, which means that the more units you retire, the less likely your opponent is to be able to replace them. Finally, the grade 2 calls are forced. Most Seal Dragon calls are optional, allowing the opponent to take the -1 to avoid some of the more devastating effects, however Helldeity demands those cards are called, even if the opponent would rather not call them.

Overall, Helldeity is a brutal card - highly threatening from the start, and capable of doing a lot of damage to the opponent's field - but it needs a Seal Dragon in the heart, which means we're going to need some grade 3 Seal Dragons. The original Seal Dragon, Blockade is a card long past it's prime, and can be ignored unless it's in your personal all-time favourite card list or something. It's crossride, Hellfire Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno, was the deck's original ace. Intended to wipe out all those grade 2's you called, it's skill is still cost-effective if the opponent has multiple grade 2's - and between your forced calls and stride making grade 3's less likely to be called as attackers multiple grade 2's aren't that unlikely for most opponents to have. 

Seal Dragon, Georgette was part of the Lock Break campaign, and besides a secondary skill which has limited utility in evading Link Joker it's limit break is a 5000 power boost for each of the opponent's grade 2 rear-guards, with a bonus critical if they have two or more. With the critical, Georgette acts as a smaller Crossorigin, and one which doesn't need a grade 3 opponent - a helpful tool to fight off decks stalling at grade 2. The last grade 3 of relevance is Hellfire Seal Dragon, Weathercloth, a break ride granting 2 free retires and a single top 4 check for grade 2s to replace them. Stride helps break rides quite a bit - despite the conflict in grade 3 usage strides allow break ride decks to do more whilst setting up - and Crossorigin will put in work until you're ready to ride Blocade Inferno or Georgette.

The rear-guards which pull out your opponent's grade 2's require seal dragon counter blasts, as does Blocade Inferno, which means a seal dragon deck will probably be mostly Seal Dragons. This isn't all bad - classic 10k and 12k attackers allow for early game pressure, and the deck has enough triggers for it. The only non-Seal Dragons that might be needed are the Stride Fodder and the G era Perfect Guard, and possibly 1 set of triggers, depending on your ratios. As an alternative, Georgette/Weathercloth could potentially use generic Kagerō support instead. Whilst this setup may make Gorgette a little harder to pull off, Helldeity can cover for it a lot of the time, and getting away from the subclan gives a whole other card pool to work with.

Crossorigin probably isn't going to make Seal Dragons a meta deck by itself, but it will give them a much-needed boost, and hopefully get some more Kagerō players running something other than yet another Overlord deck - well, until the next wave of Overlord support (announced the day before this article went live) gets released.

Friday Stride: Omniscience Dragon, Cath Palug

There's a legend in the Great Nature university that is one gains enough knowledge you'll reincarnate into a dragon with great intelligence and wisdom. Since the university is home to various sentient animals, however, these dragons become Wild Dragons, the 11th dragon race currently in the game and how Bushiroad got dragons into a clan which wouldn't otherwise have thematically fitted them. The latest member of the 'Dragonic animals club' is the reincarnated form of - and dedicated stride support for - Great Nature's break ride, Honorary Professor, Chatnoir. As part of the newly released Fighter's Collection 2015 Winter, the first G unit review of 2016 is Omniscience Dragon, Cath Palug.

Is fluff really intellig- Ooh, kitty!

Cath Palug, as an exclusive stride to Honorary Professor, Chatnoir (at least for the moment), has a skill which mirrors that of her previous form's break ride - each time a rear-guard attacks, any rear-guard can gain 4000 power for the turn, and then at the end of the turn you draw a card and retire the powered-up unit. Cath Palug differs in that each power-up will cost a counter-blast, though this is set against the 26000 power body, triple drive and instant access denied to the break ride. Much of what Cath Palug does also applies on the turn you break ride over Chatnoir (and since both go together you're actually quite likely to do both in a game).

First trick of note: Power up the same rear-guard more than once. You'll draw a card each time you power up a rear-guard, however you can only retire a rear-guard once (even if it manages to come back it's a new unit and won't retire again). Thus each subsequent power-up will change the retire & draw from a break even to an increase in card advantage. This is something of a standard Great Nature trick, but it's worth pointing out for those new to the clan.

You only naturally gain two rear-guard attacks a turn, but this can be increased. There's the good old-fashioned stand trigger, which can work well if you can pump up rear-guards or run units which can hit without boosters, or for more reliability there's Crayon Tiger, one of G Great Nature's more effective weapons. Restanding a rear-guard with a power boost is a useful skill. Adding a drop and draw on might sometimes cost you an interceptor, but can be employed equally as well on excess grade 3's or grade 1's dropped for a rush, and can help dig through your deck. Add in yet another draw on a unit already due to retire? Now you're not only gaining +1 in battle advantage, but a net +1 in hand at the end of the turn as well.

Of course with Cath Palug this is starting to rack up counterblasts, so generally it's not going to be used unless you took a lot of damage early (though it does help towards evening out that score). You can run Label Pangolin to unflip during the damage phase, but grade 1 space is rather tight, and it's another card you need to draw into before you can start using most of your draw abilities. However, Great Nature is usually comparatively counter blast light, and has quite a few end phase unflips, so if you can overlook being unable to maximise Cath Palug when you only have one damage or so she won't cripple your deck.

Great Nature's retirement mechanic has two aspects to it. The first is the power-up & retire skills as discussed above. The second is on-retire effects, which come either built-in or are passed on by other units much like the power-ups. Of the built-in on-retire effects, most aren't used - Ruler Chameleon and Protractor Orangutan are some of the most widely seen, but generally as triggers - though removing triggers from the deck isn't ideal, maintaining card advantage can be key early. The last card of this type used frequently is Illusion Scientist, Researcher Fox, who's conditions make in irrelevant for Cath Palug. 

It's the on-call skills which grant another unit an on-retire skill which are more significant. Tick Tock Flamingo, Coiling Duckbill and Honorary Assistant, Mikesaburo are all 7k grade 1 units which grant another unit an on-retirement skill when called in the main phase. When the target is retired, Flamingo provides a counter charge, Duckbill gives you a draw, whilst Mikesaburo searches for any grade 3. The last of these is the key card of the three, helping ensure your prefered ride, though Duckbill is also useful to gather other cards needed to guard or for later plays. Flamingo suffers from a lack of space, not directly replacing the retired card, and Great Nature having other effective counter charge options, though could be interesting as an alternative to the other. Set Square Penguin is similar - a 9k grade 2, he effectively combines Duckbill and Flamingo into a single skill whilst not competing with them for space - but is a GB1 and so significantly slower. There's also Blackboard Parrot, a starting vanguard with the same skill as Duckbill, except as an ACT skill putting itself into the soul. Much like the power-ups, stacking these skills onto a single unit can generate a lot of advantage for very little overall cost.

Cath Palug, despite being heart restricted, is quite a useful tool for many Great Nature decks. Chatnoir is still quite an effective break ride and usable with most if not all of the clan's ace units, especially with extra attacks, and an effective way to generate advantage and activate on-retire skills whilst preparing for the break ride turn really gives the deck a boost. With Mikesaburo to help get the grade 3 you want when you want it there's little threat of missing your break ride and Cath Palug not going live. Trust the cat. The cat has spent millennia studying and ended up turning into a dragon, it knows how to support it's clan.

Costume Coordination - Using Costume Idol, Alk

Costume Idol, Alk is one of the more interesting cards in the Bermuda Triangle clan, not only for her effects but also for her origin. Alk began her career in Dazzling Divas as Costume Change, Alk, the clan's generic Limit Break support starting vanguard, and was used little if at all. Under these conditions, she could easily have been forgotten (Who remembers Suwannee, for example?), and likely would have been were it not for Bushiroad setting up a popularity contest for the 35 idols within the set. Alk was depicted in artwork as promoting the contest, and it would seem to have promoted herself as well, getting her into the top three which got her exclusive sleeves and a playmat, and when Divas Duet rolled around the following year, a new promotional card, seeing her jump straight from grade 0 to grade 3 (and in the English release another playmat for the Divas Duet sneak peek event). It's this second card that we're looking at here.

Alk represents all idols. That's why she's cool.

This Alk has an on-ride soul blast to return a rear-guard and gain 5000 power for the turn, and then a limit break 4 skill which, after she attacks, allows you to ride another grade 3 from the hand (rested), return Alk to the hand, and draw. With the only cost being the grade 3 you ride, which is replaced by Alk, this skill grants a net +1 every time it's used. The first key combo play - or more accurately the last, since this is what any Alk deck will end up doing once it's other grade 3's are gone - is to loop two Alk turn after turn, netting free draws and picking up units if you need to. You can't take advantage of Alk's on-ride power gain, but since the point of the play is card advantage, it's only a minor setback.

More importantly, Alk is one of, if not the most flexible grade 3 in Bermuda Triangle, and if something doesn't work with her then it's probably down to the other card being restrictive than anything Alk did. In this article we'll go through some of the better partners, but before we do it's better we look at some of the support available which specifically benefits Alk, so we don't have to cover them for each build.

Costume Disciples - Alk-centric support

Alk doesn't have any direct support (at least not yet), but there's a fair chunk of cards which work well with her. I'll set aside cards with on-bounce effects as a whole, since most of them do work with Alk's on-ride skill, and instead look at a selection of cards which specifically support the Limit Break's mechanics.

Adults don't go on adventures - quick, break that limit!

First up is PR♥ISM-Duo, Loretta, the clans Limit Break enabler. Since Alks LB4 activates after she attacks, heal triggers can occasionally leave her stranded out on the field when you'd rather switch her out. Loretta prevents this being an issue, as well as allowing you to start chaining rides as soon as you reach grade 3 - even if your opponent opts to remain on grade 2. Whilst this series of cards usually isn't overly effective when it can't be searched out, Bermuda Triangle can generate a lot of draw power to reach her quickly.

If you're looking for Nemo, he's behind you

A card which some older Alk builds tried to include was Dancing Fan Princess, Minato, a grade 3 who as rear-guard could gain 10000 power whenever you rode a grade 3. If you rode Alk during your ride phase, then re-rode with her limit break, she could gain this power boost twice, giving you a hefty 30k rear-guard before boosting. However, including her cuts into your grade 3 space, which you need for Alk and her partner, and a 10k base vanguard with no usable skill was a death sentence before stride, and is still a huge handicap today. Academy of Divas brought us a much more practical form of this card, in Mystery Solving Time, Ithil. Ithil has the same skill as Minato, but is a grade 2, making her far easier to fit into the deck. Whilst her 8k base means that she'll need 8k vanillas to reach proper column numbers, the ability to gain 10-20k each turn makes up for this.

It's been a while Shizuku. How are you?

Alk needs her grade 3s, and Academy of Divas provides a helpful way to dig for them. Superb New Student, Shizuku is appropriately enough another retrained starting vanguard from an older set, though she sticks closer to her original skill than Alk. At GB1, when she enters Harmony she searches the top 5 cards of the deck for a grade 3. Whilst not a guaranteed card, it's a costless, reusable skill and will usually succeed at least part of the time.

That light was a passing angler fish.

On the subject of grade 3s, Talent of Perseverance, Shandee is essential for striding. Whilst you can drop an Alk, maybe two if you have the others on hand, the need to re-ride from the hand will demand you not discard grade 3's to stride, and hence 1-card strides are vital.

The last card we'll cover here is Admired Sparkle, Spica, although she's useful for almost all Bermuda Triangle decks - only some Duo decks are better without her. She allows you to extend attack patterns, as well as getting further use from on-bounce and on-call units. It's worth noting that the 3k power boost she gives makes Ithil 11k, allowing Ithil to attack twice with a 10k boost rather than once with a 20k boost.

The above cards will no doubt give some idea of where an Alk build can go. Now it's time to get down to the defining element of Alk decks - the alternate grade 3.

Break Time - Alk with break rides

For her own decks, the most obvious partner would be a break ride, since you can break ride, gain the benefits, and then drop a new break ride from hand and recover Alk to repeat the process. The sheer speed you kick out break rides with this deck puts out a massive amount of pressure even without resorting to strides. There are three options, each with it's own benefits, and all three can give a workable deck.

But what if it's a duet with two true idols?

PR♥ISM-Image, Vert: The original Bermuda break ride, and honestly she hasn't aged all that well. She has a basic skill to bounce two rear-guards and draw a card, and whilst this was a major boost back before Legion and Stride it's no longer all that efficient. However, PR♥ISM's star is rising, and using Vert gives a couple of advantages over the newer break rides. The biggest is that having a PR♥ISM grade 3 gives access to Princess Labrador, one of the most effective first strides for the entire clan. Beyond that, should you want a greater focus on the PR♥ISM units you can also use Princess Leyte as a counter-charge and soulcharge engine, and Princess Celtic for on-hit pressure even with Alk on vanguard.

Weiss or Schwartz?

Duo True Sister, Meer: Duo's Break Ride is far more offensive than PR♥ISM's (as opposed to the rest of the subclans, in which Duo tends to be the more defensive deck), with Meer allowing for the entire field to be picked up when the vanguard attacks, and two new units placed down. Meer provides an powerful offensive push that might otherwise be lacking, but as partner to Alk there's a couple of issues - Duo Temptation, Reit and Duo Eternal Sister, Meer. Both Duo's original ace and Meer's upgraded form have intentional synergy with the break ride skill, Reit with her restand (allowing two uses of the break ride skill and power boost) and Eternal Meer re-riding the break ride from the soul standing, allowing potentially even more break rides than Alk. Of course this increased pressure comes at a cost - both cost resources to achieve the second vanguard attack, whereas Alk actually gains cards, which is where the Alk-Meer build finds it's niche. Meer also encourages the use of at least part of Duo's advantage engine, with Rhone and Kazuha able to provide on-hit pressure as well as copy other units should they get through.

Always Evolving. Just like everything else.

Planet Idol, Pacifica: The third break ride comes from the same wave of promotional cards as Alk herself, being the third form of one of Bermuda Triangle's most popular idols, Pacifica. Pacifica was the first break ride who's secondary skill wasn't a 1000-2000 power gain with at most a soul charge, instead being intended to set up Eternal Idol, Pacifica's 13000 crossride defence and trigger the break ride effect in the absence of another way to bounce units. Her break ride gives the vanguard a 1 time ability to call a unit from the deck when one is bounced, replacing the blind draw of Vert and attack pressure of Meer with a higher quality +1. Whilst it's technically possible to use this for an extra attack, your best battle phase bounce is Spica - who calls a unit herself - and so if you do get the call at this stage you're more likely to be replacing a solo attacker with a full column than calling a front row unit where there wouldn't be one. More likely still, you'll bounce a unit with Alk's on-ride skill to grab whatever you need but haven't drawn into, and if you do so you're then free to stride the same turn, should you not want (or are unable) to use Alk's limit break. Pacifica doesn't have as much support as PR♥ISM or Duo, and without the other Pacifica units Twinkle Happiness☆, Pacifica isn't performing optimally and whilst she's still nice to secure a second Planet Idol could be passed over for other G units. Friend of the Sun, Malucca is much the same - without three different Pacifica cards, she doesn't do much, but she does the key part the Alk deck needs in digging for that next ride.

Back to School - Alk and G era units

Academy of Divas brought a new set of grade 3s, which utilise Bermuda Triangle's new Harmony keyword. Whilst they can be used with each other, this does leave you vulnerable to being shut down by decks not riding to grade 3, so an alternate grade 3 not reliant on stride or legion, such as Alk can be a useful tool.

Sing in harmony with G units.

Miracle Voice, Lauris: Lauris is the centrepiece of the G Bermuda deck, with a useful on-stride skill as well as a decent GB2 skill which activates when entering Harmony. G Bermuda as a whole are very counter-blast heavy, and often run dedicated unflippers as well as the new perfect guards. Alk provides a nice relief from this, costing no counter-blasts, and only using one soul on ride - which is paid for by your previous vanguard entering the soul. She's also nice for how quickly she can shift in and out of the vanguard circle - any time you can't gain anything from striding, Alk can come down, gain 5000 power from her on-ride skill, then shift back into Lauris after her attack, with Alk going back to the hand to either ride again or to drop for stride. With the extra draw, the card advantage comes out to be the same as striding, though at the cost of less power. There's one other benefit - if you're at GB2 and have a unit with Harmony behind Alk, riding into Lauris will activate her GB2 skill, allowing you to give your rear-guards additional power.

How do you get water drops underwater?

Sincere Girl, Liddy: The second GB grade 3, Liddy is designed to work with harmony to a greater degree than Lauris. Her on-ride skill lets you search for a unit with harmony from the top 5 cards of the deck, and her GB1 grants her power for each unit in harmony, which can push her up to 41000 power before boosting. At first glance, that on-ride might suggest the need for as many harmony cards as possible, but there's certainly room for at least some other cards. Any Liddy deck is going to want to return it's units frequently, in order to reset the harmony skills, but Liddy can't do this herself, and will be relying on the rest of the deck to bounce. Alk can bounce on ride, allowing her to bring units back to recall later before changing out, either to herself to bounce more, or Liddy to gain another card from the deck and to prepare for a big centre lane next turn. Overuse of both on-ride skills can deplete the soul, however, so it may be worth trying a soul charge engine. There's one more factor in favour of this build - both Alk and Liddy are inexpensive, and neither is reliant on striding more than once, making this a decent option as a budget deck.

Army of Two - Legion and anti-control

There are many different partners for Alk, though some of them will be better than others. Here we'll look at two other grade 3s which can work well with Alk.

This is the dream team? Mother of God.

Dream Team Legion: Bermuda Triangle are interesting in that they got a generic legion whilst also having a subclan with legion units.Dream Team, Madre and Dream Team, Dios are designed to work together, with the grade 3 Marde gaining 5000 whenever a unit is bounced as well as a once per turn bounce - the cost of which is repaid exactly if you bounce Dios. The need to legion in the main phase doesn't seem like it'd work with Alk, but since the Dream Team don't have an intended alternate grade 3 Alk can make a useful backup for the deck, depending on the focus of your rear-guards. Whilst you can't use Dios' skill with Alk, if you intend to utilise Yarmouk and Avon to gain more power-up from bounces, or harmony units to have skills reset each turn when you bounce units, Alk will allow you to to set off these effects each turn, as well as drawing you closer to Madre.

You have no idea what's coming.

Bermuda Princess, Lena: Lena is one of the oldest Grade 3s in the clan, being released in Banquet of Divas, where is was useful for it's ability to instantly return all of your rear-guards to hand on ride. Since most of the bouncing within that set was either on-hit (Perla, Flores) or otherwise chance-based (Raindear), Lena made a useful backup for most of the decks, but break rides, subclans and more reliable bounces have rendered her redundant. Alk, however, breathes new life into her, by allowing her on-ride skill to activate during the battle phase. The deck works somewhat like the break ride version, riding a fresh Lena each turn whilst recovering the Alk, but when you ride Lena your rear-guards all return to the hand, triggering on-bounce skills, protecting them from your opponent's effects and allowing on-call and harmony skills to be re-used next turn, as well as allowing you to drop anything in your hand without losing them. This build is one of, if not the, most effective anti-control deck in the game. Lock, retire, paralysis, return to deck - all fail when there's no targets for them. Only the upcoming Chaos support for Link Joker and Nubatama 'shand control can even hope to damage you without a field. However, it's not all rosy - Conquest Dragon can give Narukami 10000 to the entire front row with no effort at all, Gear Chronicle has plenty of other tricks, and worst of all emptying your field is an instant death sentence against any Shadow Paladin deck, because Phantom Blaster "Diablo" will come out and make your massive hand useless.

Conclusions (for the moment):

Alk suffers in current Bermuda Triangle from being a wild card in a clan (and, indeed, a game as a whole) where support is tightening up and defining specific builds. As the grade 3's either gain dedicated support that needs them as vanguard or slip into complete irrelevance, Alk is pushed out to the side, being the domain of fun or budget builds. Whilst it's almost inevitable that a future grade 3 will create a potent combination with her, Alk isn't going to win any major tournaments in the near future. However, Alk builds are dynamic and fun to use, and for an idol is there any better praise?

Never forget, Alk is the little idol who made it to the big leagues, rocketing form a grade 0 newbie to a grade 3 star in record time. She wasn't written as a popular megastar - she earned her popularity and her place as a star of her own deck - and I've no doubt that Bushiroad will, in time, get around to giving her the support she needs to shine once again.

2015 Stride Awards

So a new year begins on a Friday, and it's as good a time as any for a look back over the past 12 months and have a look at what the G zone gave us in the first year or so of it's existence. In the spirit of award shows everywhere I'll be handing out a series of awards to some of the more noteworthy strides of the year, whether for good or bad reasons, so allow me to present the first No Guard No Life G unit awards (there's no actual awards, because I'm a hack with no artistic design talent or commitment) (also I'd rather spend money on trading cards).

I'll only be covering the cards released in the English game during 2015. This means no FC2015 winter or G-BT05 cards, and to be fair no Harmonics Messiah either, since that was released in 2014.

I think we do now.

Five Nights at Freddy's Award for most terrifying effect

There's quite a few 'guard or die' G units - almost everything which can gain a critical, mostly - but although Stun Beetle is something you shouldn't ever let through without a superior ride on standby I have to give this award to Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo", for not only gaining a critical, but for also packing a complete guard prevention which requires the opponent to retire two of their own rear-guards to even attempt to stop the attack. For forcing opponents to commit more than they might want just to live, and for making several clans almost unworkable, this award goes to you. Oh, and since Ren is finally showing up in G with a role beyond "look at this guy and cheer, audience", he's getting more support. Oh boy.

You'll need to do more than that.

Chocolate Dragonshield Award for most pointless card.

I suppose winning this award would put you in line for being worst G unit of 2015, but this award is for the card which has the least reason to exist, and it's for a truly stunning case of redundancy the award goes to Ardor Dragon Master, Amanda. The difference between Amanda and Clifford is that Amanda gives you a blind soul charge whilst Clifford keeps the unit out. Amanda isn't even all that bad a card, but for being a second on-hit to call from soul with 2000 power she gets this award. Maybe if you'd been on-stride, or on attack, or given a larger power boost, or, well, anything you wouldn't be here. 

Shame they're in different clans.

Exiled to Heaven Award for card most benefiting from Extreme Fight. 

A lot of G units can be abused in Extreme Fight - the threat of combining units from different clans only becomes more threatening when you add in G units which have some of the strongest effects in the game - if Silent Tom with Stil Vampir is a threat, how much more dangerous is it if you have Ragnaclock Dragon sat on the vanguard circle? However the award is going to Avatar of Heroic Spirits, Vishnu because whilst he's functional but not meta-shifting for Narukami nobles, when thrown into Genesis, a clan loaded up with them, he becomes a massive threat capable of insanely cheap field wipes with a critical, and even functions when the host deck is struggling to generate the soul it needs for it's own skills.

 

Cubic Crab Award for most blatent enabling of cancerous cards.

Now it could be argued that Sanctuary Guard Regalie took a Swordmy who was just starting to settle down and hyped it back up to stupid tier, but ultimately I have to give this award to the entire Dimension Police clan, for their tireless work in making sure Commander Laurel will never be balanced again. Nice work guys.

Err, you're not in Kagero mate.

Faithful Butler Award for most necessary on-hit unit.

Whilst many on-hit units have been super-ceded by more useful utility strides, or the use of Blizza for faster GB2 access, a few have stayed in use due to a lack of better options. As more sets come out and bring more cards along, this list gets smaller, but it's still there. I'm giving the award to Lightning Dragon Knight, Zorras, because we know what it's getting in early 2016, and none of those G units do anything to make Zorras less essential to any deck that uses it.

One where you're useful?

Golden DCL Award for most immense effect cost.

Now I could take the dull and dry approach and calculate which unit has the highest cost with everything standardised, but I'd rather not bother and just look at the card with the most striking cost. Therefore I'm giving it to Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery-flare Dragon, for a counter blast 4 - a level of flipping damage which has only been seen twice before in this game - for a skill which requires a very specific set of events to happen. Obviously if you can pull it off it can be a game changer, but if it wasn't so good the cost would get it laughed out of the room even harder than it is already.

She's really expensive. Just like real girls.

Golden DLC Packaging Award for most expensive card.

This was a tricky one. A few of the GR cards, especially the ones which require two copies to work, have reached some almost unheard of prices for this game, but one card has stood out above all the others, reaching prices beyond any other card ever printed. Yes, for having the sheer guts to have an SP version of a GR with a persona cost, School Etoile, Olyvia takes this award. Let us hope that 2016 doesn't give us anything this expensive again, but there'll be another Bermuda set so that's not very likely.

So then a heavy dream is...a blizzard?

Compulsive Pie-Poker Award for least restricted heart-specific G unit.

Many G units with heart restrictions don't need the entire deck to share that name - indeed, for some it would be literally impossible since there's only a small number of cards with that name. However, Cosmetic Snowfall, Shirayuki takes it one step further and doesn't even require you have a Shirayuki heart at all, just giving you a bonus in the form of a one-for-one swap if you do. Admittedly this is somewhat fair given that there is only one Shirayuki to be a heart, but the same can be said of half of the cards in the upcoming FC2015 Winter and it hasn't affected any of them.

By Justice, he means superior calls.

Shinji Ikari Award for least valued 'main' stride.

Most G units have had criticism, even the good ones. In fact those are some of the most criticised, although more for being 'broken'. However, from the series of cards which flip another copy of themselves as a cost, and which were intended to be the first 'ace' strides of each clan's G build, none has been regarded as less useful than Golden Dragon, Spearcross Dragon. In a clan built almost entirely around calling from the top of the deck, more of the same was not really what any build needed, and the card has, as an ace, been overshadowed by Scourge Point Dragon. In fact Bushiroad resorted to cheating to show it off in the anime, which shows how unimpressive it is (or maybe that the anime script writers don't read the cards properly). Maybe with more cards that clear the field it might see more use, but until then enjoy your meaningless accolade Spearcross.

She didn't stop, so soon she'll bloom

Unfaithful Waifu Award for card most useful outside it's intended build.

I've mentioned it before, but whilst Dream-Spinning Ranunculus, Ahsha is fairly useful within her own build mostly as recovery from control or a first stride, she becomes the go-to stride for most other builds where cloning wasn't as abundant and setting up the homogeneous field needed for Jingle Flower wasn't as easy. 2016 is offering us a new Maiden G unit which may negate this slightly, and Ahsha is gaining another stride which may support Ranunculus directly, but Dream-Spinning Ahsha is likely to remain the envoy spreading the word of Ranunculus to the rest of Neo Nectar. Thus she gets this special award for being stupidly amazing in every deck which doesn't focus on her own grade 3 form. 



Ego's Choice Award: My Stride of the Year

Once again, I could go look at all the tops, find out what was found at most copies in most top decks, but since I'm lazy and any such analysis would favour popular decks which got earlier stride support I'm just going to give it to a card that has achieved a lot, both for it's deck and for me personally.

Carapace Mutant Deity, Machining Destroyer showed us what even minor clans could do with the right support. Giving Machinings a reliable, low-cost vanguard stun took Megacolony from something that might get the odd win to being a deck you needed to keep your wits about you to fight off. Whilst the deck around it wasn't quite strong enough at the time, it only took a handful of cards to make it one of the most frustrating decks to play against. On a personal note, Machinging Megacolony, with Destroyer as MVP, took me the full 9 rounds at my regionals, losing only to bad hands against decks with ways to avoid destroyer.

Even criminals understand the power of friendship.

And so, we reach the end of another year. A lot's happened both in Vanguard and the rest of the world, so here's to 2016. Ride well, trigger hard, and may all your Guards be Perfect.