Gold Paladin: 2012's Champions

   Conner here, going to talk about Gold Paladin, the clan which unfortunately has gotten a bad reputation for being "too successful" in the meta. Alas, that goes for any top tier deck in any TCG, people will like to badmouth the one on top. However, I will give Golds their due respect as the reigning deck of the season and give the best synopsis I can on them.

   To start off, the winning image for these golden knights is simple: plussing by superior calling. Gold Paladin have a way of building advantage very early on the game through various effects to call units out of the deck. While Spike Brothers have a similar idea, Gold Paladins do not minus to do, the units called are for free. This clan also has three builds going for it: Garmore/Ezel, Spectral Duke, and Garmore/Pellinore (Agravain does not count), all of which have been very successful in the English meta. So lets go straight to the source and outline the winning images that this clan has to offer.

The Champions of the Sacred Beast Armors

                                                    The Silver Wolf

   My favorite of the Gold Paladins. He is THE BEST grade 3 in the clan and any noob who tells you that Ezel is better I shake my head to. Garmore has the most versatility out of any grade 3 in the entire game. When ridden, Garmore allows you to counterblast two to search your deck for any grade 2 or lower Gold Paladin and superior call it, which makes him one of the only cards that allows you to choose what paladin you want, as opposed to going off random superior calling. Follow him up with Listener of Truth, Dindrane, and you just turned your Grade 3 ride into a +1 (-1 for Ride, +1 for calling Dindrane, +1 for drawing 1). With that, Garmore will be hitting for 16k and 21k with limit break active, and is perfectly consistent. Dindrane isn't the only target you can grab though. Want a Nemean Lion special intercepter, or an 8k boosting Gareth? Garmore can grab that. Have a hand full of grade 3s and need to patch it up, grab Lop Ear Shooter and replace one of those dead cards with something off the top 3 cards of your deck.

   What makes Garmore even more special, is that he turns himself from a dead Grade 3 in hand to any card from your deck. At the cost of counterblast 2, just ride him over your current Garmore and let him turn into whatever card you want. That's a lot of consistency in one package for a Grade 3 if you ask me. It gets even better though. If you want to call Garmore as a rearguard, he hits very fat columns with his own specific booster Charjgal. This allows for 21k rearguard columns which is very important in a metagame full of 10k/11k vanguards. You could even call Charjgal behind Garmore as a vanguard and hit as high as 26k. Late game if your opponent runs out of perfect shields and you time Charjgal's effect just right, they will be in a world of hurt guarding for a hit that huge. Now just take everything I told you about this card and put it all together. A powerful on ride skill, highly consistent, non cloggy, and powerful uses as a rearguard makes Garmore one of the most powerful Grade 3s in the entire game, and I highly recommend as many copies as possible for any Gold Paladin deck. There's a good reason all of the Gold Paladin builds play him. Not to mention he has really sick artwork.

                                                        The Red Lion

   Aichi Sendou's main card of season 2 and the card people thought was milestones better than Garmore on paper. In practice though, people quickly realized this card's biggest flaw: consistency. That's right, Ezel too many times has superior called that Critical Trigger right off the top of your deck that you would have drive checked into. But its a free unit right, and Ezel can call two units in total (3 if a heal is hit later on the game) while Garmore can only call one! However, that is a misconception and is what I'd like to call a noob trap. The Garmore/Dindrane combo I outlined above nets you the same card advantage that Ezel would offer you for less counterblasts, without having to wait on limit break and risk hitting triggers. The power boost that Ezel gets for his superior call is irrelevant too, it's common knowledge that it's far easier to just allow the vanguard's attacks to hit midgame anyway, so whatever boost Ezel gets is not a big deal. If perfect shields did not exist, the power boost could be ridiculous, but perfect shields do exist and render the power boost useless in most scenarios. Very late in the game when the perfect shields are all used up, it "could" be a big deal, but it's also not wise to rely on hitting a G2/G3 off Ezel's skill when its of paramount importance to keep up strong columns at that time. Also saving open counterblasts for that late in the game is rather rare and unproductive.


   This isn't to say that Ezel doesn't have his uses though. The most appealing feature of the Ezel builds for Gold Paladin is his starter, Crimson Lion Cub Kyrph. This essentially allows a slight safety net in terms of a grade 3 ride, while every once in a while allowing you to have a Grade 3 vanguard while your opponent is still at grade 1 (assuming you went first). Even though I did mention Ezel's inconsistencies above, on the other side of the coin he has the potential to be very lucksacky. Hitting Dindrane off Ezel is a very strong (and lucky) play, as well as hitting 10k G2s and 3s when needed. So therefore, most Garmore/Ezel builds feature Ezel as the alternate vanguard and play less copies as opposed to Garmore.

                                                     

The Black Horse

   THE card that arguably pushed Gold Paladin to the top of the food chain, as well as one of the most infamous cards in the English meta. When you hear people hate on Gold Paladin, they're usually talking about how they got sacked by the Duke's plus chain. While I'll get into Duke's deadly limit break in a bit, I'm first going to go over his ride chain. Starting off with Black Dragon Whelp Vortimer, when ridden on by Scout of Darkness Vortimer, you get to search the top seven cards of your deck for either Black Dragon Knight Vortimer or the Duke himself. This essentially sets up a succession of rides. As you can see from the links, for each successful ride, you get to kill off 1 Gold Paladin on the field (usually something like a draw trigger) to superior call the top two cards of your deck for FREE. That's right, completely bonafide free, no counterblasts, nothing required. This essentially makes each ride a +0 in advantage as opposed to the -1 riding inherently is (ride -1, kill off a GP -1, call the top two +2). What makes this a pain is how quickly pressure can be applied to you right off the bat, as well as making it so there are more cards that you'll need to take care of and account for going against this deck.

   So what's so special about calling the top units from the deck? Didn't I just go over about how that isn't so great with Ezel? Here's the thing, any medicore unit that gets called can be killed off for the next 2 cards coming from the ride plusses. They can also be used as sacrificial lambs for the Duke's limit break, giving more synergy for their output as opposed to the randomly called trigger you'd have to forcibly retire in an Ezel deck. In fact, a successful ride chain will allow Duke's ability to be free, giving you that extra attack and really forcing pressure on your opponent.


   Speaking of which, let's outline what makes the Duke tick. On first glance, his skill doesn't look very good. Killing off three units just to lay one more attack without twin drive? Sounds like a fat minus in card advantage. However, what does it matter if you lose a few cards if this is the final push you needed to go for game? Picture it, you swing your attack with Duke and your opponent drops a perfect shield, a very common scenario as a matter of fact. You drive check into a critical trigger, and place all the effects on Duke. Stand it again through its skill, and your opponent now has to guard an additional attack that has another chance of getting a trigger. What's fantastic about the Duke is his limit break is very flexible, it doesn't have to hit the vanguard to use unlike some other cards. If timed right, this skill will frustrate even the most skilled players, if timed horribly, the minus will be the end of you.

   So with all of its strengths, what prevents the Duke build from completely overshadowing any other Gold Paladin build? Naturally, the answer is missing the ride chain. If you miss your Scout of Darkness Vortimer, you are no longer subject to gaining +1s off your rides, and if the Black Dragon Knight Vortimer is missed, Duke will only be 10k. Without the free cards acquired through the course of the game, suddenly Spectral Duke's limit break seems a lot more costly to use and it feels a lot harder to do so. While Duke builds often play Garmore as a backup plan, due to the presence of the ride chain they cannot fit the complete suite of cards tailored for Garmore such as Charjgals and Nemean Lions, so they cannot make the most of him as opposed to the Garmore/Ezel builds. Also there are times where even the Duke's limit break wasn't enough to kill your opponent and that will result in having a more difficult time guarding next turn, as well as requiring to refill those positions the following turn, should you make it to that.

                                                     The White Hare

   Unlike Incandescent Lion Blond Ezel, Pellinore was thought to be a very mediocre card at first glance but turned into a great card once people realized what he can really do. Pellinore is one of the sackiest cards in the game and his greatest strength comes from the abilities of his own starter, Spring Breeze Messenger.

   So when boosting a card and hitting a vanguard, at the cost of one counterblast, Spring Breeze lets you trade places with one card from the top three cards of the deck. If White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore just happens to be one of those cards, you can discard a card to ride him! What's so special about that? Well get this, you now have the ability to have twin drive...again in the same turn! More chances to check critical triggers and gain cards to your hand! That's incredibly game changing, especially mid game and it will shift momentum in your favor. Trying to dig for a specific card off the top three sounds sacky though, and it is. However, there are other cards that have advantages when grabbed. When Lop Ear Shooter is one of the cards you see and called through Spring Breeze, you essentially get a 2nd chance of looking at three more cards to dig for that Pellinore. Hitting Dindrane off the Spring Breeze is also very good, in fact hitting almost anything but a trigger is great because you get to trade a 5k booster on your field into a "better card", which is important when facing against 11k vanguards.

   So from seeing the suite of the White Hare cards, one can see how Pellinore has his uses. But how would a deck be built around a one trick pony? The answer is you don't. What you really do is just take a Gold Paladin core consisting of Garmore and his friends, and throw in the Pellinore cards as an alternate suite of cards. In other words, the Ezels in a Garmore/Ezel build would be swapped out for Pellinores, cut out a couple 10k vanilla Beaumains and a couple other Grade 2s for Lop Ears, and switch Kyrph for Spring Breeze. With that, you still have all of Garmore's strengths as the primary win condition, with the Pellinore sack thrown in as an extra bonus. In another words, if you don't hit Pellinore it's not a big deal, just do what your deck normally does with Garmore. If you do hit it, great you just gained a game changing swing of momentum!

   Let's go into Pellinore's other skill. At Limit Break, you can send two Gold Paladins to the bottom of your deck to give two other Gold Paladins +5000 power. Again, at first glance that doesn't even seem good. But lets take the same logic we used on Duke and apply it to Pellinore. What does it matter if you lose a couple cards if it is the final push you need for game? It's an even exchange in fact, you're trading 2 5k shields (or even better would be a grade 3) in exchange for another 10k shield from your opponent that they would not have needed to drop. A common misconception is that Pellinore doesn't have the same pressure effect Duke has and his minus isn't worth his output. However, you really can't lose due to Pellinore's skill and here's why. Say you ended up using Pellinore's skill twice just trying to nudge your way to a win, and your opponent were still able to guard it. Given that's the scenario which is common enough, your opponent was way ahead of you in terms of guarding power and you were probably not able to win that game regardless, if they had that much cards to guard with. In other words, you can't blame Pellinore itself for that loss.

The Knights of the Gold Paladin Corps

   Now that we've gone over their champions, lets go over the bread and butter of the deck. Again, Gold Paladin's winning image is using superior call to gain advantage so we'll go over what other units are capable of that besides their vanguards.

   Player of the Holy Bow Viviane goes straight to the point for what Gold Paladins do. When boosted and hitting a vanguard, at the cost of CB1, superior call the top unit of the deck. For a 9k Grade 2, that's very powerful and she finds a place in any Gold Paladin build. Nothing in this game quite beats the look on your opponent's face when you superior call Pellinore right off the top from Viviane. That said, Viviane can be abused more in Duke centered builds as opposed to ones that utilize Garmore. The reason is that you really want 2 unflipped damage for Garmore's counterblast by your grade 3 ride, which is the turn you ride Garmore. Using Viviane too early makes that hard to accomplish without letting yourself reach 3 damage too early (bad idea). It's much better to get something guaranteed with Garmore than rely on something good coming from the top off Viviane. Sound familiar? That's right, its the same debate Garmore has with Ezel. What Viviane does do is force guards from your opponent, while you may not necessarily be trying to use her skill, your opponent doesn't know that and will guard if possible, which is perfectly fine in our books.

   I've mentioned Listener of Truth Dindrane several times previously, but I feel she deserves her own image in this section. Dindrane is simply fantastic. I've gone over the plus obtained with Garmore and Spring Breeze Messenger, but she also has her plusses with Spectral Duke's ride chain as well as being a lucky hit off the chick right above us, Viviane. She isn't a great draw, so most builds only run a couple but her ability is just too good to pass up. Some people argue that Silver Fang Witch is better than Dindrane for that very reason, but I digress. The witch simply uses up too much soul as opposed to Dindrane, soul which is needed to be utilized by Charjgal or needs to house the oh so important Black Dragon Knight, Vortimer for Spectral Duke Dragon to remain at 11k. Also she's only 5k, which is piss-poor against 11k vanguards, while Dindrane is still passable behind the vanguard or behind a 10k vanilla Beaumains.

   The rest of the Gold Paladin deck consists of basic units found in any other deck, 8 and 10k vanillas, perfect shields, 12k attacking Grade 3s, etc. The special interceptor Nemean Lion also takes up spots,
due to his ability to be called off Garmore. Those are just staple cards
and we can't sacrifice too much of them because we do need to keep
in tune with the core principles of the game. They're staples for a reason!
Now for what you've all been waiting for...

DECKLISTS!!

   This is my personal tastes on each Gold Paladin build. They're all powerful and effective, as the meta circuit consists of a ton of Gold Paladin decks for a reason. Garmore/Ezel is the most consistent out of the three due to not relying on ride chains or gimmicks, Spectral Duke has the highest power output in exchange for a snag of consistency since missing the ride chain will make the fight significantly harder, and Garmore/Pellinore is the middle road between the two on terms of power and consistency.

Garmore/Ezel:
G0: 17
Starter: Crimson Lion Cub, Kyrph
8 Critical Triggers -  standard
4 Draw Triggers - standard
4 Heal Triggers - standard

G1: 15
4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth - 8k booster, max out for superior riding
4 Halo Shield Mark - Perfect Shield
3 Charjgal - Excellent when paired with Garmore, 26k vanguard or 21k rearguard columns
2 Listener of Truth, Dindrane - Too good to pass up with Garmore
2 Sleygal Dagger - Hits 21k with Holy Mage, Manawydan, 7k by itself isn't bad at all

G2: 11
4 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains - 10k vanilla, max out for superior riding
4 Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion - Special interceptor, great synergy with Garmore
2 Player of the Holy Bow Viviane -  Force pressure on opponent, don't need too many due to Garmore
1 Lop Ear Shooter - An option to be grabbed off Garmore incase our hand needs patching up

G3: 7
4 Great Silver Wolf Garmore - Ideal ride, max him out for reasons stated in article
2 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel - Our alternate vanguard, ride if Garmore isn't drawn or superior ride
1 Holy Mage, Manawydan - Makes strong columns in front of Gareth/Sleygal Dagger
_______________________________________________________________________________
Spectral Duke Dragon: 
G0: 17
Starter: Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer
8 Critical Triggers - standard
4 Draw Triggers - standard
4 Heal Triggers - standard

G1: 14
4 Scout of Darkness, Vortimer - Required for the deck to function
4 Halo Shield Mark - Perfect shield
2 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth - 8k booster
2 Listener of Truth, Dindrane - Hit this off the ride chain or Garmore, huge plusses
2 Little Battler, Tron - Put behind Duke to swing for 21k, nice to see but not necessary

G2: 11
4 Black Dragon Knight, Vortimer - Required for the deck to function
3 Player of the Holy Bow Viviane - Forces pressure on opponent, provides fodder for Duke
2 Flash Edge Valkyrie- Very sacky when hit off the Duke ride chain, allows for even more plusses
2 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains - 10k vanilla

G3: 8
4 Spectral Duke Dragon - The decks win condition. 11k vanguard with G2 Vortimer
2 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore - Alternate vanguard in case of a missed ride chain
2 Gigantech Destroyer- Hits for 12k by himself, 20k with Gareth. Sacrificial fodder for Duke
_____________________________________________________________
Garmore/Pellinore:
G0: 17 
Starter: Spring Breeze Messenger
8 Critical Triggers - Standard
4 Draw Triggers - Standard
4 Heal Triggers - Standard

G1: 14
4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth - 8k booster
4 Halo Shield Mark - Perfect Guard
3 Charjgal - Excellent when paired with Garmore, 26k vanguard or 21k rearguard columns
2 Listener of Truth, Dindrane - Hit this off Garmore or Spring Breeze for plusses
1 Sleygal Dagger - Allows certain columns to hit magic numbers

G2: 11
3 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains - 10k vanilla
3 Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion - Special interceptor, great synergy with Garmore
3 Lop Ear Shooter - Hit this off Spring Breeze/Garmore to filter through the deck for Pellinore/fix hands
2 Player of the Holy Bow Viviane- Force pressure on opponent

G3: 8
4 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore - Ideal ride, max him out for reasons stated in article
3 White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore - huge momentum swing if hit off Spring Breeze
1 Holy Mage, Manawydan - hits 20k with Gareth and 21k with Sleygal Dagger

   So there you have it, Gold Paladins in the flesh. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed typing it. This clan proved to be the top clan of the English meta, what will happen when crossrides approach remains to be seen. That said, stay in tune for the rest of our clan synopsis!

Remember, always MANGUARD!

Great Nature: Greatly Underestimated

The Great Nature Clan:

   We’ve all been in that awful situation where we’ve had to attack with a boosted draw trigger in order to put some sort of pressure on our opponent. There isn’t any deck where this is an ideal situation. However, what if I told you that same draw trigger was suddenly hitting for 23000 without trigger bonuses. You’d probably think I was insane and needed to check my math again. While it’s true that I’m no Stephen Hawking, the math is correct and my baby draw trigger has now suddenly become a real threat to my opponent! This ability to boost rear guard units to un-guardable numbers is the speciality of the Great Nature clan. 

SUPER STRONG

How it Works:

   The win condition of the Great Nature deck is to boost your units to very high numbers that your opponent will have trouble guarding against. This is achieved through units such as Binoculus Tiger, Monoculus Tiger, and the decks main Vanguard, School Hunter, Leo-pald. These units temporarily boost another Great Nature Rearguard by 4000 when they attack the Vanguard. So by attacking your opponents Vanguard with a Binoculus Tiger or Monoculus Tiger Rearguard and a Leopald as our Vanguard, we can give our last Rearguard an 8000 power boost. This is how our draw trigger from before can be boosted to such a high power.

   However, there is a drawback to this ability. The unit that is boosted must be retired at the beginning of your end phase. This means that while your Rearguard column is very strong, it will only last  for one turn and must be replaced on your following turn. Because of this, many players feel that Great Nature decks are gimmicky and can not contend with other tier level decks in the English meta. I disagree entirely and feel that when this deck is built correctly, it is a solid contender in the English meta.

Countering the Drawback:

   Normally, retiring your units would be an issue as you would have to draw into the right cards to replace those columns, but the Great Nature deck takes care of its own flaw. For the cost of 1 Counterblast, the Grade 1 Pencil Squire, Hammsuke and  Grade 2 Pecil Knight, Hammsuke replace themselves when retired by allowing you to search for another copy from the deck. Not only does this ability allow you to maintain your field presence, but it also provides for extra hand advantage, deck thinning for triggers, and strategy. It is important to note that the Grade 3 Pencil Hero, Hammsuke isn’t recommend as it is an awful ride and provides no shield when searched to the hand. 

   By constantly recycling your units and searching for new ones, it becomes much easier to play around decks that focus on controlling the field and retiring units, such as Kagero and Narukami. Because of the high popularity of those decks, Great Nature becomes a very good meta choice.

  The deck’s Vanguard, School Hunter, Leo-pald, also has a Limit Break ability that helps to counter the negative effects of its boosting skill. Once Limit Break 4 is reached, Leo-pald can call back from the drop zone a Great Nature unit that was retired during your present turn, for the cost of 1 counterblast. Thanks to Leo-pald, the Rearguards that would normally have been retired due to the Great Nature boosting effects, remain on the field and ready for action. Its ability to boost and revive units is what makes School Hunter, Leo-pald the best choice for Great Nature’s Grade 3 Vanguard. 

   Another card that allows you to abuse the boosting power of the Great nature units is the newly released Grade 1 Stamp Sea Otter. This nifty card cannot be retired by effects of other cards, even our own. This means, that we could use it to boost the unit in our second Rearguard column, give it all the boosting effects from Leo-pald and Binoculus Tiger/Monoculus Tiger, and let that column hit for a very large number without having to worry about using a counterblast and replacing units at all. The Stamp Sea Otter adds much needed consistency to the powerful attacks of the Great Nature clan.  

Getting the Magic Numbers:

   With Flask Marmoset, Great Nature has one of the most unique and powerful starting Vanguards in the game. Keeping with the theme of the deck, Marmoset boosts a Great Nature Rearguard by 4000 for the cost of counterblast 2, and then retires that rearguard at the end phase. This awesome skill  can be used multiple times in a turn and can give us the push we need to call final turn on our opponent. Remember the draw trigger from earlier? This is how we boost it to hit over 21000 without triggers. In this situation our columns would be set up as follows:

1) Binoculus Tiger/Monoculus Tiger in front of a booster 

2) Leo-pald with the Marmoset behind him

3) Our draw trigger with the Stamp Sea Otter as a booster. 

   Now, using the Marmosets skill we can Counterblast 2 and give the Otter a 4000 power boost. When Binoculus Tiger/ Monoculus Tiger and Leo-pald attack the opponent’s Vanguard, they each give a 4000 power boost to the Otter as well. Our 5000 power draw trigger + the 6000 power boost from the Otter + the 12000 power boost from our Great Nature skills equal a total of 23000 power from a draw trigger! 

   Obviously our ideal attacker is not a draw trigger. Usually a Pencil Knight, Hammsuke or Grade 3 Magnet Crocodile work best as the main attacker for our large Rearguard column. If the Magnet Crocodile were attacking instead of the draw trigger in the same scenario as we have above, then it would be hitting for 30000 without triggers! These numbers require your opponent to drop a perfect shield, or their entire hand in order to stop the attack.

   These odd numbers also make it easier to hit Vanguard Crossrides that will be released in Set 5. This makes Great Nature a solid anti-meta choice against 13k Vangaurds such as Dragonic Overlord The End and Phantom Blaster Overlord. 

Weaknesses and Underplay:

   So if the Great Nature deck is so good, then why doesn’t it top more? For one thing, it can be difficult to achieve the right columns as there are a lot of combo pieces that are necessary for the deck to work. Unlike most decks that can create columns out of almost any unit, Great nature requires certain units like Binoculus Tiger and Stamp Sea Otter to set up its plays.

    Another problem with the deck is that it lacks the ability to control your opponent’s field. In order to boost another Rearguard, Great Nature units must attack a vanguard. Because of this, we are forced to attack the opponent’s Vanguard and cannot put necessary pressure on their Rearguard columns, or else we sacrifice the winning strategy of the deck. By allowing your opponent to keep their Rearguard columns, they can maintain pressure on you and it can be hard to keep field advantage. Still, the constant pressure that the deck puts on the opponent’s Vanguard can make it difficult for them as well, so many games tend to become a war of attrition and trigger checks. 

   However, the most important reason the deck doesn’t top is that it simply isn’t played enough. Most people have never played against or with a Great Nature deck and are unaware of it’s capabilities. As we stated in our Gold Paladin article, the more people that play a deck, the more likely that deck will top. At the LA WCQ event, I was one of only 1.7% of the total player base piloting a Great Nature deck. The deck did very well for me and I was able to defeat many top decks including Soulless OTT and Narukami.

   I hope that this article has helped you to better understand the Great Nature deck. Great Nature has the potential to be a very competitive and aggressive deck and that is why this Manguarder uses it. 

Remember, Always Manguard. 

Decklist: 

Grade 0:

1x Flask Marmoset- Starting Vanguard

4x Draw Trigger

4x Heal Trigger

8X Critical Trigger

Grade 1:

4x Silver Wolf- 8k Vanilla Booster

4x Cable Sheep- Perfect Shield

4X Stamp Sea Otter- Booster to put effects on

2x Monoculars Tiger- Booster/ RG effect boosts 2nd RG column

Grade 2:

4x Binoculars Tiger- RG effect boosts 2nd RG column

4x Pencil Knight, Hammsuke- Attacker for 2nd RG column

4x Geoglyph Giant- 10k Vanilla/ Attacker for 2nd RG column

Grade 3:

4x School Hunter, Leo-pald- Main VG, boosts RG column

3X Magnet Crocodile- Attacker for 2nd RG column 

Narukami: Vermillion Thunderbolt or Bust

  Narukami’s army of thunder dragons, demons, desert gunners, and random cute girls, has come to be one of the most played clans in the english meta. This is due to their main vanguard, and my personal favorite card, Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion. Narukami pivots around a psuedo-control based play style, which is essentially Kagero-lite. They can exclusively stop interceptors without retiring them, utilize an anti-meta starter which snipes other starters with ease, destroy units with its (much cooler) Berserk Dragon clone, Dragonic Deathscythe, and activate the potentially massively destructive Vermillion Thunderbolt!

The Vermillion Pain Train

  Vermillion is an extremely powerful card when utilized to its maximum. The combination of an 11k power and the destructive force of his skill makes Vermillion one hell of a force to be reckoned with. Vermillion’s Thunderbolt is one of the most feared skills in our meta, and the deck’s main win condition, as it is a very consistent card advantage bomb when Vermillion is played at max card count. I have come to see that playing 4 Vermillions and Spark Kid Dragoon (yes, i have joined the dark side) makes the most consistent Vermillion Pain Train. 

The Issues with Vermillion

  Despite the game shifting nature of such an effect, there are multiple issues with utilizing Vermillion’s bomb, the foremost being timing. Turning Vermillion from a powerful card into your win condition takes precise skill and timing, as many people will waste the bomb at times when the opponent isn’t set up and can take the incoming damage. Vermillion’s best use as is a bluffed threat until the proper timing is achieved. 

   Narukami can have a difficult time setting up a proper field and falling behind on card and damage advantage is a big possibility without a consistent flow of triggers or units which you don’t mind guarding with. Because of this, riding vermillion can be your best defense, as many who see vermillion automatically fear losing multiple cards from the Thunderbolt. Because of this, Narukami’s main objective is to make your opponent misplay until you can turn the tide with Vermillion. 

   Because of this, Vermillion’s best use is to make the final push for game, most likely when you’re going to attempt to take the game that turn or next turn, by shifting the card and field advantage in your favor. A conservative player will normally succeed very often with this plan as Vermillion can easily make your opponent minus four cards with the use of a perfect shield and choosing to sacrifice both front rearguards (assuming they have both), or even more cards from hand if lacking a perfect shield. The results of such a crushing Vermillion Thunderbolt can reduce your opponent’s hand such that a well set up pair of rearguard rows can follow up and force your opponent to rely on the rest of their hand or, better yet, heal triggers to survive your assault. If you have the proper cards to survive an opponent’s following turn, you will probably achieve the sixth damage you need to win. This is the secret of Vermillion.

P.S. Be careful when you thunderbolt if the opponent has good boosters but a terrible front row, if their hand is fairly beefy it could easily contain units that your opponent wants to play to create fatter columns via having you retire their current front row. In scenarios like that, you shouldn't even need to thunderbolt. Sometimes there's no solution to this issue, but try your best to avoid it.

2nd In Command

   The Kaiser’s right hand man is Thunder Break Dragon, who can work as a fairly effective secondary vanguard or, when paired with Dragon Dancer Rai Rai, can be a fairly powerful rearguard. His vanguard ability, adding 5k when attacking, is standard for applying pressure once limit break is reached, and when fighting a 10k opponent such as Ezel, can be a powerful option if you’ve utilized Vermillion and want to blow through your opponent’s hand with an easily obtained 20-25k attack power when boosted. Along with this, the soulblast ability of his... dancing anime girl worshipper? can turn a standard 16k attack into 21k, requiring at least a 15k block from any current vanguard, and can be a big advantage as few rearguards can obtain this magic number against 11k vanguards (outside of GP with sleygal dagger and the Garmore/Chargal combo).

The Thunder Dragon Army

  Despite the power of the main vanguards, Narukami’s unit line up is a bit mediocre as we only have a single set and starter deck to work with. However, the deck’s power rests in its ability to support Vermillion.

Starters:

   Narukami has two starters, both of which can be fairly effective, and choosing one over the other is mostly just based on preference.

  Spark Kid Dragoon is currently my choice for starting vanguard, as his ability was the last thing I could do to increase the chances of getting vermillion in hand by turn 3. Having 4 copies of Vermillion means it takes up 8.04% of the deck, therefore, since you probably have drawn or damage checked 8-10 cards (16-20%) after the draw phase of turn two (not including mulligan chances), you have a fairly high chance of encountering a copy of Vermillion. Spark Kid is basically an insurance policy if you don’t get Vermillion. Obviously, it has a huge potential to backfire in the form of no G3 when you go digging, but it’s fairly unlikely if you haven’t drawn one.

The alternative to Spark Kid is Lizard Soldier Saishin, the anti- meta starter which can be fairly effective option when going first. Saishin can snipe any grade 0 with a cb, allowing you to take on any clan’s starter which calls out of the soul. Taking out Kyrph, Mecha Trainer, or Conroe (just to name a few) can make the game much easier to handle, removing the opponents opportunity to gain the upper hand from halting superior rides to searching out a perfect shield for late game that block your Thunderbolt.

Control vs. Pseudo-Control: 

   Narukami’s control units are few and far between, with many having fairly gimmicky effects. The fairly standard ones include Thunder Break Dragon, Dragonic Deathscythe, and Saishin, and their inclusion in a deck comes highly recommended. The other “control” based units are harder to justify being in a decklist. The Desert Gunner duo are the main pseudo-control cards. The grade one is commonly run in decks as a rare check to 10k interceptors, or a sometimes needed 7k booster with the decks multiple 9k grade twos. The grade two Desert Gunner is almost useless in my opinion unless you want to go super gimmick-control, which I almost did for shits&giggles back when the deck came out. 

                                                                                                                                                

The Main Boosting Power: 

   The Narukami 10k booster, Photon Bomber Wyvern, is one of the easiest to utilize in the current Limit Break meta game, requiring your opponent to have taken at least 3 damage before its effect activates, which many foolish people will willingly take in an attempt to utilize limit break abilities asap, making mid game pressure from your Vanguard much easier to achieve. I tend to play at least 3 Photon Bomber’s if not 4, due to its usefulness as a booster for Vanguard and any 10k rearguard. 

  Decks the stock more than two copies of Thunder Break can easily include at least two copies of Dragon Dancer Rai Rai. As I stated previously, 21k columns can really come in handy late game after a Thunderbolt, or just during any final push for game.

   The random Rising Phoenix is another card which sees some use. Utilizing the normally stagnant soul of Narukami decks, Phoenix allows you to soulblast two when called for a draw. Essentially a one-for-one in the worst situation, or more if you draw a trigger, which can be frustrating but needed to survive the late game attack power coming from Limit Break vanguards. However, its minuscule 5k power makes it difficult to effectively boost anything thats not Vermillion or a +2k grade three. Including this card is another instance of player’s preference as its pros and cons balance out its usefulness.

   As a final note: Many people enjoy playing the fairly odd builds of Narukami. Indra and Gyras have their uses in their own build, but in the competitive world I have some advice: Fork over the money for Vermillion and don’t waste your time. The man is the main reason the deck sees competitive play on the level of Kagero instead of pulling numbers like Granblue.

Standard Vermillion Decklist:

G0: 17
Starter: Your Preference
8 Critical Triggers
4 Draw Triggers
4 Heal Triggers

G1: 14
4x Red River Dragoon - 8k booster
4x Wyvern Guard Guld - Perfect Guard
4x Photon Bomber Wyvern - 10k vanguard booster, lack of better G1s to put in
2x Desert Gunner, Raien - Lack of better G1s to put in

G2: 11
4x Thunderstorm Dragoon - 10k vanilla
3x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda - Damage unflip a thunderbolt to happen twice a game
2x Dragonic Deathscythe - The berserk dragon, lack of other G2s to run and can get in there
2x Hex Cannon Wyvern - Odd choice I know, but it's better than more 9k G2s

G3: 8
4x Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion - Win condition of the deck, max chances of drawing it
2x Thunder Break Dragon - The alternate vanguard if Vermillion is not drawn
2x Breakthrough Dragon - Hits 20k rearguard columns with Red River Dragoon

-If you want, you can add 2 Thunder Breaks over the 2 Breakthroughs and then replace Raiens with Dragon Dancer, Rai Rai.       
     
   Personally, I believe the 2-3 builds I’ve looked at that made the top 2 in the english meta were garbage, but as Vanguard comes to rise, the number of lucky players that make top marks will drop. If you think I’m just being salty, go watch the Australian Narukami/OTT match for 1st/2nd and you’ll see what I mean... it was really horrible.

Remember, always Manguard.

-Z

Oracle Think Tank: No Limit Breaks, No Problem

   
   This is Bryce Miller from Team Manguard with a Clan Overview.  No matter what trading card game you play, card advantage is a huge deal.  Although it is never necessarily the win condition, it gives you the resources to dictate the flow of the game.  There are two main ways to achieve card advantage:  take away your opponent's cards or draw your own.  Oracle Think Tank(Oracles or OTT for short), the subject of today, excels at both.

Under Pressure
   
   There are two main components that allow an Oracle player to apply pressure.  First off is Silent Tom.  Silent Tom's effect is "During a battle that this unit attacks, if you have an "Oracle Think Tank vanguard, your opponent cannot normal call grade 0 units to guardian circle."  Basically when Silent Tom attacks, your opponent cannot guard with grade 0 units.  This is huge.  Normally when a a 16k column attacks your vanguard, generally at 10k or 11k in the current meta, your opponent would simply guard with one trigger and stop the attack in its tracks.  This is not the case with Silent Tom.  Your opponent is forced to use intercepters, grade 1 units or grade 2 units, normally the driving force of your opponent's offense.  This is amplified whenever critical triggers are hit.  Now your opponent needs to use up a lot of valuable resources or take considerable damage.  This one simple effect makes Silent Tom one of the best rear guards in the game and there is no reason not to play as many as possible in the current meta.

   The second pressure tool is their grade 3 vanguards.  Oracles have not one, not  two, but three powerful vanguards that allow them to easily hit above the 21k (21000) magic number or produce similar effects.  CEO Amaterasu is the first, being released in the very first booster set.  It is a soul charging unit that allows you to check the top of your deck to look for either a potential trigger or a card you may need later, and if the card is not important to your set up, you can relocate it to the bottom of your deck.  But what makes CEO stand out, and allows it to remain the single strongest soul charging unit to date, is the added effect of gaining 4k during your turn by simply having 4 or more cards in hand.  This effect is constant, which translates to only 2 cards in hand, because it still gains this effect after the cards are added in twin drive.  Still, as the archetype evolves, CEO generally takes the place of "backup vanguard" to the other two Oracle Vanguards:  Scarlet Witch Coco for the soulless deck and Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi.  Each are the stars of their deck and provide different ways to pressure their opponents. Coco gets a 3k offensive power boost for having no cards in the soul.  Tsukuyomi, while not always hitting 21k, pressures with a late game explosion referred to as "the stack" which i will discuss later.  Now, I am going to talk about the other key advantage OTT decks have.

Drawing ALL the Cards:  The Strength of the OTT Vanguard
 
   Originally, Oracles main source of draw power was having more draw triggers than anyone else.  Now there triggers are much more Crit oriented because the vanguards allow you to draw cards with there individual abilities.  The ability to draw so many cards allows an Oracle player to play the maximum amount of perfect shields without many issues to it clogging in hand.  Each of the two vanguards I will discuss has specific benefits and specific weaknesses.

Scarlet Witch Coco and the two card swing
 
   Originally, when Coco was first released, emptying the soul was rather inconsistent, relying on drawing certain rearguards to empty certain amounts of cards in soul.  Although Coco's ability to counter blast 2 to draw 2 cards when you ride her, it was not always easy to set up a situation where she was effective.  With the release of set 7 however, a new starting rear guard shifted the entire way the deck was built.  Little Witch, Lulu allows the Oracle deck to rely less on inconsistent rear guards that bring cards out of the soul, and have the entire soul empty with just one card.  When your grade 3 Oracle rides, Lulu moves to the rear guard, takes two cards out of the soul into the drop zone, and draws you a card.  This completely empties the soul leaving only a grade 3 in the vanguard circle.  This in combination with Scarlett Witch Coco's ability allows you to add 4 cards to your card presence with just 1 ride, 2 cards drawn from Coco, 1 card drawn from Lulu, and a new rear guard in the form of Lulu. This is a very dramatic change in pace that happens all in one play.

                       Misaki Hitting Her Tsukuyomi Stack

Full Moon Goddess Tsukuyomi - Drawing to "the stack"
   
   Tsukuyomi's effect allows her to counter blast 2 to draw two and put one card from hand into soul.  This comes with a condition that she needs six cards or more in the soul to activate this effect, which might seem weird when you consider that fulfilling the whole ride series only puts five cards in soul.  So you keep overall less cards than you draw with coco, and its harder to achieve, so why is it worth it?  Two reasons.  First hitting all the superior ride effects, from Godhawk to Full Moon Goddess creates an inherent plus 3 in advantage by allowing you to ride from the deck instead of riding from your hand. 2nd, the ascending ride creates "the stack" and the draws bring you closer to it.  So what is this "stack" I keep referring to?  When you use Godhawk or any of the Moon Goddess' abilities to superior ride you look at the top five cards of the deck and then, after riding or not, put them back on the bottom of the deck in ANY order.  This lets you stack two triggers together on your first ride.  Hitting double triggers at any point in a game is game changing and potentially can end any game on the turn you see them.  Tsukuyomi allows you to take probability out of the equation by setting a definitive point in the game where you will hit two triggers in one late game ending swing.

Weaknesses

   By far the biggest weakness of OTT is that while they are powerful at pressuring your opponent and drawing, they have little to no function in control and tool boxing.  Decks like Gold Paladins and Spike Brothers can toolbox cards from the deck to adapt to different situations, decks like Narukami can break apart an opponents set up with control cards and their boss monster Vermillion, and some decks like Royal Paladin and Kagero can do a little of both.  Oracles need to get lucky and draw the cards they need, and hope your opponent misplays and guards with cards you would like to get rid of (or attack a rearguard which is a minor form of control every deck has).  Also each of the two types have their own specific flaws as well.

   The soulless deck has three main flaws in it.  First there are currently no good alternative vanguards specifically tailored to help the deck.  If you don't ride Coco, you don't gain nearly enough advantage to compete with a lot of other decks.  Secondly, the deck lacks a strong grade two ride.  Aside from the 10k Oracle vanilla, your other options for the soulless vanguard are 8k Silent Tom, or the 8k Battle Sister Mocha.  This gives you a much weaker grade 2 ride, letting even 8k boosters put pressure on your vanguard and, later in the game, rear guards due to the fact that there is no 9k grade 2 tailored to work in the soulless strategy.  The final weakness happens in a lot less situations but is very severe when it does occur.  You need to have two damage to use Coco's counterblast.  Because you have to use her ability when she rides, you only get one opportunity to gain her draw 2 effect, which is basically the purpose of using this particular build.  Because you need to take this damage, you can't place effective rear guard columns until you reach your grade 3, because your opponent could just avoid attacking your vanguard and focus on rearguards instead.  This prevents you from establishing early game pressure that you could normally achieve in other decks that do not require counter blasts right away.

     For the Tsukuyomi deck, the biggest flaw is the ride series itself.  "But wait, I thought you said that the ride series was good?"  This is true, but it works as a double-edged sword.  If you hit all the right cards in the ride series, it is extremely good.  But if you miss any at all, your strategy is crippled severely.  Not only is it harder to hit "the stack" you were setting up, the grade 3 Tsukuyomi also loses a permanent  2k on offense and defense, turning it from a good rearguard and awesome vanguard, to a bad rearguard and even more terrible vanguard.  The only way to mitigate that loss at all is to ride the alternative vanguard CEO Amaterasu, but this still leaves your Tsukuyomi grade 3s in bad shape and better left to being perfect shield fodder.

Why are these decks not more predominant in the tournament scene?
     
   Aside from the listed weakness, there is one solid reason behind this.  $$$ Money $$$.  The deck itself costs equal to, or even greater than, the current leading deck right now, Gold Paladins.  Ever since its release, it has remained the most expensive deck in Vanguard, due to so many good and necessary cards being RR or RRR.  There are alternatives you can play but the difference in power is so great, its hardly even worth it. Silent Tom $18, Battle Sister Chocolat $15, Scarlett Witch Coco $18, Battle Sister Mocha $4.  Each of these cards is almost required at 4 per deck in the Soulless build, and this is the cheaper version.  Unlike a Gold Paladin player who can play a Garmore build and still have the only cards to break the 15 dollar mark be the perfect shield and 1-2 ezel; everything else can be rares and commons.

Example Builds, keeping it Basic
 
   To end things, I am going to give some basic builds of each version and quickly discuss card choices i did not discuss previously

Soulless Coco Deck
G0: 17
Starter: Little Witch Lulu
8 Critical Triggers - Standard in most decks
4 Draw Triggers  - Pretty standard, we don't have more crits so these will do
4 Heal Triggers -Standard, with a few exceptions (check out the grade 1 rush deck)

G1: 14
4 Oracle Guardian Gemini  - 8k booster
4 Battle Sister, Chocolat -Perfect Guard
3 Emerald Witch Lala - Allows for hand recycling on call, as well as being 7k
2 Weather Girl, Milk - Lets coco hit for 20k with another G3 in soul
1 Luck Bird - Back up plan to clear the soul, a +1 on call

G2: 12
4 Battle Sister, Mocha - Allows us to hit 16k in front of Lulu/Luck Bird
4 Oracle Guardian Wiseman - 10k attacker
4 Silent Tom - The secondary win condition

G3: 7
4 Scarlet Witch Coco - Win condition of the deck, best chances of drawing into it
3 Battle Sister Souffle - Hits 20k columns with a Gemini

   Starting with the triggers, like i said you want them very Critical heavy.  With this deck you want to beat your opponent fast before they can take away the advantage you amassed with your Coco ride (if I could I would run 10-12 criticals.  in the grade 1s I have Weather girl, Milk who can boost your Coco to 23k (not too significant yet in the current meta, consider it just hitting 21k) and, in the situation where you have to re-ride Coco for more advantage, milk allows her to still hit for 20k which is really good against all the 10k vanguards out there.  Emerald Witch Lala allows you to fix hands when you call her, as long as your soul is empty.  It can be petal fairy, because she is better early game, but Lala allows you to hit magic numbers like 15k and 20k easier.  Luck bird allows you to gain some emergency advantage but could easily be swapped for another Lala or Milk.  In the grade 2s, battle sister Mocha is important because she allows you to use the Lulu that you gained as a rear guard to help her hit the magic number 16k.  Wiseman is the best grade two ride for this deck, applying the most defense so that is why it is included.  Finally there is the Grade 3 Souffle, which, although not an ideal vanguard, helps create 20k rear guard columns that can pressure your opponent when you do not have Silent Tom.

Soulful Tsukuyomi Deck
G0: 17
Starter: Godhawk Ichibyoshi (Don't worry, I can't pronounce it either)
8 Critical Triggers - Standard
4 Draw Triggers - Standard
4 Heal Triggers - Once again, standard

G1: 15
4 Goddess of the Crescent Moon, Tsukuyomi - Required for maximum chances of ride chain plusses
4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini - 8k booster
4 Battle Sister, Chocolat - Perfect Guard
2 Petal Fairy - Recycles cards in hand to search for missing ride chain pieces
1 Weather Girl, Milk - allows Full Moon Tsukuyomi to hit for 21k

G2: 12
4 Goddess of the Half Moon, Tsukuyomi - Required for maximum chances of ride chain plusses
4 Silent Tom - Secondary win condition
4 Oracle Guardian, Red Eye - Hit's the last card Tsukuyomi needs in the soul

G3: 6
4 Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi - Required for maximum chances of ride chain plusses
2 CEO Amaterasu - Alternate vanguard if the ride chain doesn't go smoothly, can soulcharge missing pieces

   The triggers are very similar to the soulless deck, and just like that deck, i would up the crits if i could.  The grade 1s run less Milk because its less important to hit 21k since you have a larger defense (Tsukuyomi is the only 11k vanguard in OTTs disposal right now) and the 2 petal fairy help thin your deck, fix hands, and accelerate towards your end game stacked triggers.  Grade 2s I use Red Eye because it allows you to get that 6th card in soul with its effect.  Grade 3s I use CEO because, like i mentioned before, its a great alternative vanguard, especially for this deck.

   Well that was my overview of the Oracle Think Tank clan.  I hope you enjoyed it and learned a bit about how the deck is played, its strengths and weaknesses, how to better pilot your own OTT deck, and how to play better against your friends.  On one final note...

   Nuns with Machine Guns. Easily the coolest Perfect Guard hands down.  Remember, Always Manguard.