Set 4: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows

  Conner here, everyone is well aware that on the 14th, the new booster set is on the horizon. However I'm quite dismayed at what the internet is saying. Just because there aren't any new cards for Gold Paladin doesn't mean this set should be overlooked. The huge variety of new clans as well as new vanguards for existing decks are actually quite good for the most part. Now this isn't a clan synopsis but I'm going to give a good overview on the power cards that you all should be willing to try out. But before I get into that, I'm going to go over the common theme of the set....


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.

->

=

   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?

->

=

   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.

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

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