I bring the pain train, and I enjoy it
Conner Morgan here, so I'm sure everyone's familiar with Dragonic Lawkeeper, one of the main stars in the English Kagero decks and will most likely remain so until Dragonic Overlord reaches his final evolution in Set 5: Awakening of Twin Blades. He's also the card that I lost to twice at Anaheim qualifiers! So why are we doing an article on a card that everyone knows about and which has been out for months? Well, the answer to that is more people should be running this beast! Seriously, the Kagero deck with this guy is just as good as Gold Paladin and in fact, gives them a rather hard time. Lawkeeper is one of the most annoying cards to go against in the game (almost on par with Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion) and players shouldn't be overlooking this deck. Right below you will find several good reasons on why you should play Kagero.
1. This card is Anti-Meta
Right below you'll find our article on special interceptors, and you'll see how we talked about Nemean Lion being popular in Gold Paladin decks nowadays. Every advantage a special interceptor offers you is meaningless in the face of the Lawkeeper. In fact, it's not uncommon for Gold Paladin to be forced to make an inferior 13k-14k column with the Nemean Lion in front of Kyrph/Spring Breeze or a 6k booster like Charjgal or Dindrane due to having a lack of anything better to play from their hand. So this card punishes them even further for making such a decision and turns more of the cards they could top/drive check into weak, 8k attackers. One would be wise to exploit the meta in any way they can, and Lawkeeper is the perfect answer.
2. Kagero has a good Spectral Duke/Pellinore Matchup
Say what? You'd think that Spectral Duke killing off his own rear-guards would make Lawkeeper's skill less effective against them, and you'd be right to an extent. But it would be silly to forget about the other cards that make up a Kagero build. Cards like Demonic Dragon Mage Kimnara, Gatling Claw Dragon, and even a few teched in Wyvern Strike, Tejas manhandle Duke's early game, shutting down the cards they were planning to sacrifice for plusses in the ride chain. Kill off Spring Breeze Messenger against Pellinore, and you just shut down the biggest threat they could throw at you for the whole game. And it's not like Spectral Duke "likes" going against Lawkeeper either, they have to kill off quite a few of their shields as is (it won't always end up being final turn when using Duke's skill), and getting their interceptors binded away is a definite no bueno.
While the article is about Lawkeeper, it's worth noting that Kagero have the option to ride Dragonic Overlord as well, which gives the Duke that's missing his Grade 2 Vortimer a very hard time to hit with his limit break as well as giving Spring Breeze Messenger a difficult time to get its effect off. The ability to choose between a 10k and 11k vanguard at will is an excellent feature of Kagero. Put all these factors together, and it's easy to see how Kagero have a strong matchup against Gold Paladins.
3. Lawkeeper causes people to make stupid decisions
It's true, Lawkeeper just like Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion force people to make decisions they don't want to make. "Should I commit a full field and -1 next turn in ADDITION to the cards I'll be minusing for guarding or shall I commit less pressure to the opponent and have them guard for less." Either scenario is perfectly fine with the Lawkeeper player and should be exploited to the fullest. The card in a sense has a hidden text which says: "You may keep one card you used to guard during your opponents turn, or retire one of your opponents cards for free during your turn, this is your opponent's choice." In a game like Vanguard, where players are used to just doing their thing and going with the drive checks, when they suddenly have to make decisions for once it's quite easy for them to screw up.
So there you have it folks, 3 good reasons on why you should play Kagero. Hopefully this article has convinced some of you to give Kageros a 2nd look and perhaps take them into your locals and show Gold Paladins whats up. There really isn't anything to lose either, Kageros are a great investment at the moment. The prices of cards like Wyvern Guard, Barri and other Kagero foils are sure to rise once Set 5 launches with Dragonic Overlord the End. And rest assured, we'll be giving out articles and tips on how to beat that deck too! But for now, we'll do what it takes to get players to look at the underdog decks.
Remember, always MANGUARD!
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