The Set 4 Ride Chain
The 5 clans featured in this set (not counting the couple Royal Paladin cards which will be covered later): Shadow Paladin, Dimension Police, Kagero, Nova Grappler, and Megacolony all carry clones of the same style ride chain. The way it works is that when a certain Grade 1 rides over the starting vanguard, you add the Grade 2 from the chain directly to your hand. Not from the top 5 or top 7 like other ride chains, its ANYWHERE from the deck to the hand.
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Another trait is the grade 1s when called to rear are capable of discarding a Grade 3 to add the ride chain's Grade 3 from the deck to the hand. This skill is not only useful in pitching an alternative vanguard for your deck's primary vanguard, its great to simply thin your deck out of Grade 3s. It's common knowledge that it sucks to drive check into them, so why not have the ability to thin your deck out of them for no cost?
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So the advantages of this ride chain is that its capable of manipulating its rides very easily, and has a great ability of thinning out the deck of non trigger units. It's very consistent, the only thing that needs to be worried about is opening up with the Grade 1. Now that this is out of the way, we can talk about....
Arise From the Darkness: Shadow Paladins
Everyone at least knows of these guys as the cover clan of the set, but not everyone is familiar with what they do. Shadow Paladins serve as an anti-thesis to their Royal Paladin counterparts. While Royals focus on gaining advantage through calling to the field, Shadows focus on sacrificing each other to gain advantage to the hand. One such card that is a figurehead example of what they do is ...
Simple as that. Counterblast one and ditch one card to draw two. The balancing factor is that while her power is abysmally low, she can at least snipe out a rearguard with the aid of a booster while netting you a +1 in card advantage, as well as being able to be used as an interceptor on your opponent's turn. Combine Nemain with the previously released Origin Mage Ildona and its easy to see the powerful draw engine that this deck has.
A sacrifice for the greater good
Justice From Space: Dimension Police
A clan that we've only seen a sneak peek of in Set 3 with Super Dimensional Robo Daiyusha and a few others, Dimension Police focus on powering up the vanguard to unlock effects. Their ride chain is spearheaded by this guy on the right, Enigman Storm, who essentially is Daiyusha but with an 11k body (provided the ride chain goes off). Now at first glance this really doesn't seem anything special. A deck that only powers up the vanguard which will just be perfect guarded anyway? How does a deck like this win? The answer is that they have access to a very special grade 1 with an effect like no other....
Commander Laurel- NOTE: The English Picture isn't up yet so the translation reads
Auto [R] : (Choose 4 of your <<Dimension Police>> Rearguards and rest them) When your <<Dimension Police>> Vanguard's attack hits, you may pay the cost. If you did, Stand your Vanguard.
"Wait WHAT? Am I reading this right??" Is what you're probably thinking. And yes you are reading this right, simply hit with your vanguard and rest your other rearguards and you get to restand AGAIN. Fully loaded with another twin drive to further gain card advantage and check more triggers. Now resting 4 rearguards is a hefty cost, unlike other cards like Spectral Duke Dragon, you don't lose out on any cards to restand the vanguard and you don't lose twin drive. It's all pure card advantage and you still get 2 attacks that turn overall. The best part is that you don't even have to attack a vanguard, you can simply attack an interceptor with your vanguard, check some triggers and then restand. While it is easier said than done, it's a very interesting concept that definitely has a winning image behind it.
A New Toy For Nova Grappler
This guy is one mean attacking machine. Nova Grapplers as mentioned before get the same style ride chain featuring Stern Blaukluger as the figurehead. But instead of their usual stand trigger shenanigans, the deck takes a 180 turn and focuses ALL of their attention on the vanguard. Stern has a nasty skill for whenever he hits, you can counterblast two and discard two Nova Grapplers to stand the Stern as well as his booster and lose twin drive. It's a rather expensive cost, but here is the great part, there's no Limit Break requirement! Stern Blaukluger was made in Japan before Limit Break was a thing, so this skill is active usually as soon as you ride him, which turns the pressure on for the opponent very fast. Again like the Spectral Duke, Stern would maintain the critical effect gained from a critical trigger, but this skill is active far sooner than the Duke is, so it's quite possible to end the game as soon as you ride him! Pair this chain with the rest of the support Nova Grappler has in their bag of tricks, and you have quite the contender to work with.
Kagero Meets Twilight
Now this card is one of my personal favorites coming out of the set. Not only does Eclipse boast great artwork, but being the lead of the ride chain like the Stern, he boasts incredible pressure coming right out of the gate early-mid game. The turn you ride him, your opponent risks losing probably all the rearguards that were committed to the field at that point. It's a bit of a gamble counterblasting before attacking, but it forces your opponent to make decisions they would not want to make. If you can skillfully combo him with their new 10k VG booster Lizard Soldier Raopia, that's potentially a 20-21k vanguard that could retire the rest of the unfortunate rearguard units left on the field. He's a card that is sure to put in major work some games and misfire in others, but it's definitely a fun to play unit worth considering if your current Kagero build is getting a bit boring. If making large bets isn't quite your cup of tea, don't lose hope since the following card is something EVERY Kagero player should be looking out for....
Heatnail Salamander- NOTE: The English Picture isn't up yet so the translation reads
Auto [R]: When this unit boosts a <<Kagero>> and its attack hits a Vanguard, you may choose 1 of your opponent's Grade 1 Rearguards and retire it. If you did retire one of your opponent's units, at the start of that turn's End Phase, this Unit is sent to the Deck and that Deck is shuffled afterwards.
Look familiar? That's right, it's very similar to Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara. However, this card has a few features that set it apart and make it arguably better. For one, he doesn't take a counterblast, which is quite significant. For two, you can boost with him first BEFORE trying to retire something, which is a trait that Kimnara doesn't have. So simply put him behind the vanguard early/mid game. Your opponent will most likely have to no-guard anyway since it's common knowledge that you have to expend more cards from the hand to guard the vanguard anyway, and voila, you get to pick off whatever Grade 1 you feel needs to die. A simply excellent card that should find its place in every Kagero deck.
The Champion's Past: Royal Paladin
Fang of Light Garmore- NOTE: The English Picture isn't up yet so the translation reads
[CONT](VC): During your turn, this unit gets [Power]+1000 for each unit named "Snogal" and "Brugal" in your (RC).
[AUTO]:[Choose a <<Royal Paladin>> from your hand and discard it] When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), if you have a <<Royal Paladin>> vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one cards named "Snogal" or "Brugal", call it to (RC), and shuffle your deck.
Royal Paladin isn't left in the dust with this set. While the support they gain is small, it opens up a new build for those who are frustrated with Galahad. Before becoming a Gold Paladin, Garmore was once a Royal Paladin and has his own support team to swarm hard and fast. Snogals are 6k Grade 1s, who gain +1000 for each other Snogal that is on the field. So with Garmore, as well as his grade 2 version (which has the same AUTO effect as a vanguard/rearguard with an 8k body) and High Dog Breeder Akane, assembling a team of Snogals is very simple to accomplish. While at first glance this doesn't even seem to be good, a veteran Royal Paladin player will tell you with the current Galahad build that it is rather difficult to get a consistent field set up of Grade 1 boosters during the early-mid game. What Garmore lacks for in gaining card advantage since his skill is a one for one trade, he makes up for consistency by sculpting a dead hand into a full field through his effects every single game. Garmore himself hits pretty strong too, with 3 Snogals he's hitting for 21k through his effects, which is the magic number required and it's very consistent. Which is something that Royal Paladin can really use, since Galahad is too hit or miss.
The Creepy Crawlies: Megacolony
Now I'm not going to lie here. Even we at Manguard who try and see the strengths in everything will have to tell you that Megacolony really isn't good. There's a reason they haven't won a single game in the anime, and are commonly looked at as a joke clan. I'd love to tell you how annoying their abilities of preventing your opponents rear guards from standing are. I'd love to tell you how much fun it is to play with insects that force your opponent to either reduce their pressure or retire their rested units for new ones to keep pressure on. But alas, I have to say that while their mechanic of preventing units from standing is pretty nifty, Kagero simply outclass it by retiring the units instead. Why pay counterblasts and keep units rested when we can just retire them for the same effects? I do not know, and until this clan gets a rehaul in the future, they'll have to join the ranks of Tachikaze and sit on the sidelines.
Now I'm not going to lie here. Even we at Manguard who try and see the strengths in everything will have to tell you that Megacolony really isn't good. There's a reason they haven't won a single game in the anime, and are commonly looked at as a joke clan. I'd love to tell you how annoying their abilities of preventing your opponents rear guards from standing are. I'd love to tell you how much fun it is to play with insects that force your opponent to either reduce their pressure or retire their rested units for new ones to keep pressure on. But alas, I have to say that while their mechanic of preventing units from standing is pretty nifty, Kagero simply outclass it by retiring the units instead. Why pay counterblasts and keep units rested when we can just retire them for the same effects? I do not know, and until this clan gets a rehaul in the future, they'll have to join the ranks of Tachikaze and sit on the sidelines.
And I thought I was finally able to see some play.....
So there you all have it, a quick glimpse of whats in store in Set 4. As you all can see, for the most part there's some really solid cards coming out of the set, and I highly encourage all of you to give them a chance. This set has probably the most variety I've seen come out of one booster pack and it'd be a shame to simply ignore them and play the same old games with the same old decks. You might just be surprised on how well they seem to play out.
For now though, always MANGUARD
