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!