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.