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.