Starter
Flag of Raijin, Corposant
Triggers
4x Malevolent Djinn
4x Eradicator Criticals
4x Eradicator Draws
4x Eradicator Heals
Grade 1's
4x Eradicator Guld
4x Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
4x Red River Dragoon
2x Eradicator Kougaji
Grade 2's
4x Eradicator Cho-ou
4x Eradicator Zuitan
3x Hex Cannon Wyvern/Eradicator Thunderboom Dragon
Grade 3's
4x Eradicator Rai-Oh
4x Martial Arts General, Daimu
The purpose of this deck is to toss excess triggers/draws/grade
1's/Rai-Oh in the soul with Cho-Ou or Rai-Oh to force retirement. This
also gives you a +1 to soul. Zuitan gives you a soul when it hits.
This gives you access to plenty of soul charging capabilities to trigger
Daimu's effect, on top of forcing your opponent to continuously field
front row units. When you've established yourself, your megablast will
retire as many of your opponent's units as you have units fielded. Yup.
That's about it.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
No Hand, No Stand!
No Hand, No Stand is a combination budget-mixed deck that focuses on making your opponents hate the two least supported (real) clans in the game, Nubatama and Megacolony. This deck is significantly more focused on the Nubatama aspect over the Megacolony aspect.
Here's the list:
Grade 0's
Starter - Larva Mutant, Giraffa
4x Stealth Beast, Hagakure
4x Sharp Nail Scorpio (Critical)
4x Shelter Beetle (Critical)
4x Stealth Dragon, Kurogane (Critical)
4x Stealth Fiend, Zashikihime (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Stealth Beast, Mijingakure (Perfect Guard)
4x Stealth Dragon, Dreadmaster
4x Pupa Mutant, Giraffa
2x Megacolony Battler B
Grade 2's
4x Stealth Rogue of a Thousand Knives, Oborozakura
2x Elite Mutant, Giraffa
1x Bloody Hercules
Grade 3's
4x Stealth Fiend, Daidarahoushi
4x Stealth Dragon, Voidmaster
Now, let's answer a few questions.
1. Why run this over a monoclan Nubatama deck?
2. Is Voidmaster really worth it?
3. Why Megacolony?
4. Why Giraffa?
1. To answer the first question, there are many reasons. A monoclan Nubatama deck can't run 4 Hagakure without hurting their own riding ratios. They often lose their ability to reliably force discards, or are only able to secure on-hit pressure in one row. There's also the unreliability of having to run rainbow triggers.
There are many good reasons to run monoclan Nubatama, like the amazing break ride, but everything is a tradeoff. This deck does the original mission of what Nubatama was trying to do far better than the monoclan versions of the deck.
2. Voidmaster lets you essentially double-up on the on-hit pressure total while also not having any weaknesses in a mixed deck and being a Nubatama Vanguard for Hagakure. Remember, Hagakure is the best Nubatama card, and there's a reason he's at 4 in here.
3. Megacolony gives me access to the 12 crit trigger line-up I want. Stands do nothing for the on-hit pressure that Nubatama is aiming for. This is because your opponent is likely to guard your Vanguard, and you need to twin-drive to check a stand. This makes Voidmaster completely lack synergy with stands since if he gets restood, you almost always have more cards in hand than your opponent.
4. Giraffa's ride chain lets me effectively count drawing the grade 1 Giraffa as drawing the grade 2 Giraffa. This is why I can run 7 grade 2's and still ride up like a traditional 14/11/8 deck. Additionally, generation 2 (set 4) ride chains have no downsides for you riding a non-clan unit over the starter over riding a same-clan unit over the starter. This is the engine that allows us to run 4 Hagakure with few downsides barring a match-up against Seal Dragons.
The deck functions like Nubatama was meant to function. Hagakure are suicide bombers. You store them up in your hand, then when your opponent is doing their last attack for a turn, you drop them all to destroy your opponent's hand. Even if you lose all of your cards doing this, it's still a worthwhile tactic because your opponent loses several cards right before the start of your turn. After that, you swing in and end the game with your 12 criticals against your otherwise defenseless foe.
For early game, having a Dreadmaster row with a Nubatama attacker swinging into a RG row will force them to lose two cards if they don't guard. Don't be afraid to call a Nubatama trigger in front of a Dreadmaster. No matter what they choose to do, they will lose a card from hand. That's one of the things that makes this deck so incredibly devastating. If you have a severe card advantage lead, you can swing into their rear guards and cripple their offensive ability for the remainder of the game while using the 12 crits to force their damage up higher. The combination of raw beat, Nubatama discarding, and a potential Battler B -> Hercules row for stunning units makes the deck a devastating combination of offense and defense.
This deck may just be on par with Tom and Jerry for being one of the most lethal mixed decks in existence. I just hope too many people don't play it, because it's not just devastating. It's also annoying as fuck.
Here's the list:
Grade 0's
Starter - Larva Mutant, Giraffa
4x Stealth Beast, Hagakure
4x Sharp Nail Scorpio (Critical)
4x Shelter Beetle (Critical)
4x Stealth Dragon, Kurogane (Critical)
4x Stealth Fiend, Zashikihime (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Stealth Beast, Mijingakure (Perfect Guard)
4x Stealth Dragon, Dreadmaster
4x Pupa Mutant, Giraffa
2x Megacolony Battler B
Grade 2's
4x Stealth Rogue of a Thousand Knives, Oborozakura
2x Elite Mutant, Giraffa
1x Bloody Hercules
Grade 3's
4x Stealth Fiend, Daidarahoushi
4x Stealth Dragon, Voidmaster
Now, let's answer a few questions.
1. Why run this over a monoclan Nubatama deck?
2. Is Voidmaster really worth it?
3. Why Megacolony?
4. Why Giraffa?
1. To answer the first question, there are many reasons. A monoclan Nubatama deck can't run 4 Hagakure without hurting their own riding ratios. They often lose their ability to reliably force discards, or are only able to secure on-hit pressure in one row. There's also the unreliability of having to run rainbow triggers.
There are many good reasons to run monoclan Nubatama, like the amazing break ride, but everything is a tradeoff. This deck does the original mission of what Nubatama was trying to do far better than the monoclan versions of the deck.
2. Voidmaster lets you essentially double-up on the on-hit pressure total while also not having any weaknesses in a mixed deck and being a Nubatama Vanguard for Hagakure. Remember, Hagakure is the best Nubatama card, and there's a reason he's at 4 in here.
3. Megacolony gives me access to the 12 crit trigger line-up I want. Stands do nothing for the on-hit pressure that Nubatama is aiming for. This is because your opponent is likely to guard your Vanguard, and you need to twin-drive to check a stand. This makes Voidmaster completely lack synergy with stands since if he gets restood, you almost always have more cards in hand than your opponent.
4. Giraffa's ride chain lets me effectively count drawing the grade 1 Giraffa as drawing the grade 2 Giraffa. This is why I can run 7 grade 2's and still ride up like a traditional 14/11/8 deck. Additionally, generation 2 (set 4) ride chains have no downsides for you riding a non-clan unit over the starter over riding a same-clan unit over the starter. This is the engine that allows us to run 4 Hagakure with few downsides barring a match-up against Seal Dragons.
The deck functions like Nubatama was meant to function. Hagakure are suicide bombers. You store them up in your hand, then when your opponent is doing their last attack for a turn, you drop them all to destroy your opponent's hand. Even if you lose all of your cards doing this, it's still a worthwhile tactic because your opponent loses several cards right before the start of your turn. After that, you swing in and end the game with your 12 criticals against your otherwise defenseless foe.
For early game, having a Dreadmaster row with a Nubatama attacker swinging into a RG row will force them to lose two cards if they don't guard. Don't be afraid to call a Nubatama trigger in front of a Dreadmaster. No matter what they choose to do, they will lose a card from hand. That's one of the things that makes this deck so incredibly devastating. If you have a severe card advantage lead, you can swing into their rear guards and cripple their offensive ability for the remainder of the game while using the 12 crits to force their damage up higher. The combination of raw beat, Nubatama discarding, and a potential Battler B -> Hercules row for stunning units makes the deck a devastating combination of offense and defense.
This deck may just be on par with Tom and Jerry for being one of the most lethal mixed decks in existence. I just hope too many people don't play it, because it's not just devastating. It's also annoying as fuck.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Just How Likely is it to Die at 3 Damage to a Double Crit?
Odds of checking double criticals with X amount of criticals in your deck.
16 Crits: 10.2%
15 Crits: 8.9%
14 Crits: 7.74%
13 Crits: 6.63%
12 Crits: 5.6%
11 Crits: 4.68%
10 Crits: 3.82%
9 Crits: 3.06%
8 Crits: 2.38%
7 Crits: 1.79%
6 Crits: 1.28%
5 Crits: 0.85%
4 Crits: 0.51%
3 Crits: 0.26%
2 Crits: 0.085%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Odds of damage checking heals with 4 in your deck.
Checking a heal: 8.16%
Double checking heals: .5%
Triple checking heals: .02%
Quadruple checking heals: .00047%
Checking one heal in two damage checks: 15.8%
Checking one heal in three damage checks: 22.98%
The odds of dying to an opponent if you have the same or more damage (your opponent is at 3 or less damage) when you take the 3 critical attack at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 7.856%
15 Crits: 6.855%
14 Crits: 5.961%
13 Crits: 5.106%
12 Crits: 4.313%
11 Crits: 3.605%
10 Crits: 2.942%
9 Crits: 2.357%
8 Crits: 1.833%
7 Crits: 1.379%
6 Crits: 0.986%
5 Crits: 0.655%
4 Crits: 0.393%
3 Crits: 0.2%
2 Crits: 0.065%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent if you have one less damage (your opponent is at 4 damage) when you take the 3 critical attack at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 8.59%
15 Crits: 7.49%
14 Crits: 6.52%
13 Crits: 5.58%
12 Crits: 4.73%
11 Crits: 3.94%
10 Crits: 3.22%
9 Crits: 2.58%
8 Crits: 2%
7 Crits: 1.51%
6 Crits: 1.08%
5 Crits: 0.72%
4 Crits: 0.43%
3 Crits: 0.22%
2 Crits: 0.072%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent if you have two less damage (your opponent is at 5 damage) when you take the 3 critical attack at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 9.37%
15 Crits: 8.17%
14 Crits: 7.11%
13 Crits: 6.09%
12 Crits: 5.14%
11 Crits: 4.3%
10 Crits: 3.51%
9 Crits: 2.81%
8 Crits: 2.19%
7 Crits: 1.64%
6 Crits: 1.18%
5 Crits: 0.78%
4 Crits: 0.47%
3 Crits: 0.24%
2 Crits: 0.078%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
16 Crits: 10.2%
15 Crits: 8.9%
14 Crits: 7.74%
13 Crits: 6.63%
12 Crits: 5.6%
11 Crits: 4.68%
10 Crits: 3.82%
9 Crits: 3.06%
8 Crits: 2.38%
7 Crits: 1.79%
6 Crits: 1.28%
5 Crits: 0.85%
4 Crits: 0.51%
3 Crits: 0.26%
2 Crits: 0.085%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Odds of damage checking heals with 4 in your deck.
Checking a heal: 8.16%
Double checking heals: .5%
Triple checking heals: .02%
Quadruple checking heals: .00047%
Checking one heal in two damage checks: 15.8%
Checking one heal in three damage checks: 22.98%
The odds of dying to an opponent if you have the same or more damage (your opponent is at 3 or less damage) when you take the 3 critical attack at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 7.856%
15 Crits: 6.855%
14 Crits: 5.961%
13 Crits: 5.106%
12 Crits: 4.313%
11 Crits: 3.605%
10 Crits: 2.942%
9 Crits: 2.357%
8 Crits: 1.833%
7 Crits: 1.379%
6 Crits: 0.986%
5 Crits: 0.655%
4 Crits: 0.393%
3 Crits: 0.2%
2 Crits: 0.065%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent if you have one less damage (your opponent is at 4 damage) when you take the 3 critical attack at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 8.59%
15 Crits: 7.49%
14 Crits: 6.52%
13 Crits: 5.58%
12 Crits: 4.73%
11 Crits: 3.94%
10 Crits: 3.22%
9 Crits: 2.58%
8 Crits: 2%
7 Crits: 1.51%
6 Crits: 1.08%
5 Crits: 0.72%
4 Crits: 0.43%
3 Crits: 0.22%
2 Crits: 0.072%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent if you have two less damage (your opponent is at 5 damage) when you take the 3 critical attack at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 9.37%
15 Crits: 8.17%
14 Crits: 7.11%
13 Crits: 6.09%
12 Crits: 5.14%
11 Crits: 4.3%
10 Crits: 3.51%
9 Crits: 2.81%
8 Crits: 2.19%
7 Crits: 1.64%
6 Crits: 1.18%
5 Crits: 0.78%
4 Crits: 0.47%
3 Crits: 0.24%
2 Crits: 0.078%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Megacolony Decks
So, it surprises me that budget decks have overtaken both mixed and rush
decks for the lists that you guys want to see. Since the economy sucks
and money is tight, I'm going to be releasing a quick series of budget
decks. Let's go with the cheapest, and most unreasonably underestimated clan of all, MEGACOLON. For these budget decks, any card that costs
more than a buck will be labelled with a rough pricing, so you can get a
good idea of how much the deck will cost you.
Machining Deck:
The Machining build focuses around its soul. It uses Machining units that are in soul by either giving a rear guard Mantis or Hornet +3000 power if one exists in there, or riding a Stag Beetle and choosing two of the Machining units from soul and bringing them to rear guard circles and giving Stag Beetle their power. Since they come out at rest, Worker Ant is typically one of the units that is brought out, since it stands a Machining when it gets called. If used in conjunction with Machining Armor Beetle, you can put Worker Ant back in the soul to stun (prevent standing) an opponent's unit while getting to call Armor Beetle and letting it stay standing, all while making your Vanguard +14000 power. It's pretty strong. You can also make 21k on the RG by calling a Hornet (which will be a 10k boost for that turn) behind a Tail Joe or a Mantis that was also called that turn. Hell Spider is a strong back-up ride. Vesper lets you get a cheap plus to compensate for using Armor Beetle (or just to be a free plus).
Starter - Machining Worker Ant
Triggers - 8 crit, 4 draw, 4 heal
Grade 1's
4x Paralyze Maddonna ($6)
4x Machining Hornet
4x Machining Mosquito
2x Megacolony Battler, B <- Best grade 1 MEGACOLON
Grade 2's
4x Machining Armor Beetle ($3, in the current promo packs) <- Best grade 2 MEGACOLON
4x Machining Mantis
3x Tail Joe
Grade 3's
4x Machining Stag Beetle ($2)
2x Hell Spider
2x Violent Vesper
COST - $44 + R's and C's
Giraffa Deck:
This deck is really strong at tanking early game. Generation 2 (set 4) ride chains are over 50% likely to hit their grade 1 and secure you an 8k and 10k Vanguard for your first two turns. If you miss the grade 1, 3/10 of your back-up rides are 8k, which can give you reasonable tanking early regardless. If you go first with this deck, it's very easy to shut down any deck that doesn't have the ability to rush you by dropping a 10000 power shield to negate the first attacks they do. This is because (especially with archetypes) most people will have a 7000 power Vanguard boosted by a 5000 power forerunner, which, even with a trigger, isn't strong enough to break through 8000 + 10000. Late game, you're all sad that you managed to miss the grade 2, even though the odds of that happening are terrible. NO WORRIES! Toss the grade 2 into soul later in the game with Armor Beetle, problem solved. :D Okay, now that early guarding and stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the deck.
The grade 1 Giraffa allows you to discard a grade 3 to search your deck for the grade 3 Giraffa. You have the ability to make 20000 rows with your rear guards by using Iron Cutter, or 18k with Iron Cutter and a Battler B/Giraffa boost. Both the grade 2 and the grade 3 Giraffa have good on-hit effects. But there's plenty of tactics with the deck, too. If your opponent is low in damage, you can disrupt their field heavily if Giraffa hits (retire 2 of your units, retire two of their grade 1's). If it's boosted by a Battler B, you can also stun one of their front row units. Priority of stuns should typically be: Grade 3's > Grade 1's > Grade 2's. Unless you're against Musketeers. Then you just don't stun. Fuck those guys.
Starter - Larva Mutant, Giraffa
Triggers - 8 crit, 4 draw, 4 heal
Grade 1's
4x Pupa Mutant, Giraffa
4x Paralyze Maddonna ($6)
2x Stealth Millipede (NOW we can make 21k, so this is stronk)
2x Phantom Black
2x Megacolony Battler, B <- Best grade 1 MEGACOLON
Grade 2's
4x Elite Mutant, Giraffa ($6 for all 4)
4x Iron Cutter Beetle
3x Machining Armor Beetle ($3, in the current promo packs) <- Best grade 2 MEGACOLON
Grade 3's
4x Evil Armor General, Giraffa ($6 for all 4)
4x Violent Vesper
COST - $39 + R's and C's
MegaDRAWlony Deck:
This deck focuses on building soul and attacking rear guards with Fraude, typically supported by Battler C initially. For those unfamiliar with the grade 3's in this list, Ant Lion is their megablast unit. We use him to feed our soul for rear guard Fraudes. Fraude's effect is, if he hits anything, you can soul blast 3 and draw. If you swing with him and a 5k boost into a rear guard, they'll be annoyed. They have to drop 10000 to guard their rear guard, or lose that rear guard, give me an extra card, and I can choose to stun a unit. Sadly, even though Battler B is the best grade 1 MEGACOLON, his effect only works if the attack hits the Vanguard. So place him behind the Vanguard, and if you have extras, behind your other row. This deck is all about on-hit pressure, so remember, if your opponent doesn't hate their life after playing against this deck, you aren't trolling them hard enough.
The combination of draw power, stalling, and annoying-bugginess is enough to make this deck legitimately close to as likely to lose by decking out as it is by hitting 6 damage.
Starter - Megacolony Battler C
Triggers - WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT SINCE THEY'RE ALL GREAT FOR THIS DECK
Grade 1's
4x Paralyze Maddonna ($6)
4x Machining Mosquito
3x Megacolony Battler, B <- Best grade 1 MEGACOLON
3x Phantom Black
Grade 2's
4x Machining Armor Beetle ($3, in the current promo packs) <- Best grade 2 MEGACOLON
4x Tail Joe
2x Bloody Hercules
1x Water Gang
Grade 3's
4x Death Warden Ant Lion
4x Master Fraude
COST - $36 + R's and C's
Machining Deck:
The Machining build focuses around its soul. It uses Machining units that are in soul by either giving a rear guard Mantis or Hornet +3000 power if one exists in there, or riding a Stag Beetle and choosing two of the Machining units from soul and bringing them to rear guard circles and giving Stag Beetle their power. Since they come out at rest, Worker Ant is typically one of the units that is brought out, since it stands a Machining when it gets called. If used in conjunction with Machining Armor Beetle, you can put Worker Ant back in the soul to stun (prevent standing) an opponent's unit while getting to call Armor Beetle and letting it stay standing, all while making your Vanguard +14000 power. It's pretty strong. You can also make 21k on the RG by calling a Hornet (which will be a 10k boost for that turn) behind a Tail Joe or a Mantis that was also called that turn. Hell Spider is a strong back-up ride. Vesper lets you get a cheap plus to compensate for using Armor Beetle (or just to be a free plus).
Starter - Machining Worker Ant
Triggers - 8 crit, 4 draw, 4 heal
Grade 1's
4x Paralyze Maddonna ($6)
4x Machining Hornet
4x Machining Mosquito
2x Megacolony Battler, B <- Best grade 1 MEGACOLON
Grade 2's
4x Machining Armor Beetle ($3, in the current promo packs) <- Best grade 2 MEGACOLON
4x Machining Mantis
3x Tail Joe
Grade 3's
4x Machining Stag Beetle ($2)
2x Hell Spider
2x Violent Vesper
COST - $44 + R's and C's
Giraffa Deck:
This deck is really strong at tanking early game. Generation 2 (set 4) ride chains are over 50% likely to hit their grade 1 and secure you an 8k and 10k Vanguard for your first two turns. If you miss the grade 1, 3/10 of your back-up rides are 8k, which can give you reasonable tanking early regardless. If you go first with this deck, it's very easy to shut down any deck that doesn't have the ability to rush you by dropping a 10000 power shield to negate the first attacks they do. This is because (especially with archetypes) most people will have a 7000 power Vanguard boosted by a 5000 power forerunner, which, even with a trigger, isn't strong enough to break through 8000 + 10000. Late game, you're all sad that you managed to miss the grade 2, even though the odds of that happening are terrible. NO WORRIES! Toss the grade 2 into soul later in the game with Armor Beetle, problem solved. :D Okay, now that early guarding and stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the deck.
The grade 1 Giraffa allows you to discard a grade 3 to search your deck for the grade 3 Giraffa. You have the ability to make 20000 rows with your rear guards by using Iron Cutter, or 18k with Iron Cutter and a Battler B/Giraffa boost. Both the grade 2 and the grade 3 Giraffa have good on-hit effects. But there's plenty of tactics with the deck, too. If your opponent is low in damage, you can disrupt their field heavily if Giraffa hits (retire 2 of your units, retire two of their grade 1's). If it's boosted by a Battler B, you can also stun one of their front row units. Priority of stuns should typically be: Grade 3's > Grade 1's > Grade 2's. Unless you're against Musketeers. Then you just don't stun. Fuck those guys.
Starter - Larva Mutant, Giraffa
Triggers - 8 crit, 4 draw, 4 heal
Grade 1's
4x Pupa Mutant, Giraffa
4x Paralyze Maddonna ($6)
2x Stealth Millipede (NOW we can make 21k, so this is stronk)
2x Phantom Black
2x Megacolony Battler, B <- Best grade 1 MEGACOLON
Grade 2's
4x Elite Mutant, Giraffa ($6 for all 4)
4x Iron Cutter Beetle
3x Machining Armor Beetle ($3, in the current promo packs) <- Best grade 2 MEGACOLON
Grade 3's
4x Evil Armor General, Giraffa ($6 for all 4)
4x Violent Vesper
COST - $39 + R's and C's
MegaDRAWlony Deck:
This deck focuses on building soul and attacking rear guards with Fraude, typically supported by Battler C initially. For those unfamiliar with the grade 3's in this list, Ant Lion is their megablast unit. We use him to feed our soul for rear guard Fraudes. Fraude's effect is, if he hits anything, you can soul blast 3 and draw. If you swing with him and a 5k boost into a rear guard, they'll be annoyed. They have to drop 10000 to guard their rear guard, or lose that rear guard, give me an extra card, and I can choose to stun a unit. Sadly, even though Battler B is the best grade 1 MEGACOLON, his effect only works if the attack hits the Vanguard. So place him behind the Vanguard, and if you have extras, behind your other row. This deck is all about on-hit pressure, so remember, if your opponent doesn't hate their life after playing against this deck, you aren't trolling them hard enough.
The combination of draw power, stalling, and annoying-bugginess is enough to make this deck legitimately close to as likely to lose by decking out as it is by hitting 6 damage.
Starter - Megacolony Battler C
Triggers - WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT SINCE THEY'RE ALL GREAT FOR THIS DECK
Grade 1's
4x Paralyze Maddonna ($6)
4x Machining Mosquito
3x Megacolony Battler, B <- Best grade 1 MEGACOLON
3x Phantom Black
Grade 2's
4x Machining Armor Beetle ($3, in the current promo packs) <- Best grade 2 MEGACOLON
4x Tail Joe
2x Bloody Hercules
1x Water Gang
Grade 3's
4x Death Warden Ant Lion
4x Master Fraude
COST - $36 + R's and C's
Monday, November 11, 2013
Breakride Dungaree
So, it surprises me that budget decks have overtaken both mixed and rush
decks for the lists that you guys want to see. Since the economy sucks
and money is tight, I'm going to be releasing a quick series of budget
decks. For these budget decks, any card that costs
more than a buck will be labelled with a rough pricing, so you can get a
good idea of how much the deck will cost you.
Starter
Set 11: Spark Kid Dragoon
Set 12: Exorcist Mage, DanDan
Triggers
4-8x Eradicator Critical Triggers (8 post set 10)
0-4x Non-Eradicator Critical Triggers
4x Eradicator Draw Triggers
4x Eradicator Heal Triggers
Grade 1's
4x Red River Dragoon
4x Wyvern Guard, Guld (5)
2x Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
2x Eradicator of Fire, Kohkaiji
2x Rising Phoenix
Grade 2's
4x Hex Cannon Wyvern
4x Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou (8 currently, hopefully this card will drop some more)
3x Dragonic Deathscythe (4)
Grade 3's
4x Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon (10)
4x Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree (2)
This deck functions like Vermillion, only it does it for a single counterblast and a break ride instead of 3 counterblasts. This opens up more versatility for Deathscythe's ability. Cho-Ou can be used to toss excess draw triggers to soul to do more retirement. Dungaree swings for 21k with Kougaji, and 16k on the RG with any 7k booster. Rising Phoenix hits magic numbers with many, many units, and can even make the VG row swing for 16k if necessary. All around a solid amount of control that makes Vermillion insanely jealous while still having the option to snipe the backrow with Deathscythe, an option too expensive for Vemillion at the moment.
Deck cost - 100 dollars + Commons and Rares. This will drop over time as Deathscythe sees less play and Cho-ou drops after its initial price hike (started at 14 bucks for a RR!), No real way to curb the cost of Vowing Sword. Fortunately, 16 of the commons come in a single trial deck, which you would need to purchase to get a single Vowing Sword in the first place. All-in-all, an extremely solid control build that's cost effective both in-game and out of game.
Starter
Set 11: Spark Kid Dragoon
Set 12: Exorcist Mage, DanDan
Triggers
4-8x Eradicator Critical Triggers (8 post set 10)
0-4x Non-Eradicator Critical Triggers
4x Eradicator Draw Triggers
4x Eradicator Heal Triggers
Grade 1's
4x Red River Dragoon
4x Wyvern Guard, Guld (5)
2x Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
2x Eradicator of Fire, Kohkaiji
2x Rising Phoenix
Grade 2's
4x Hex Cannon Wyvern
4x Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou (8 currently, hopefully this card will drop some more)
3x Dragonic Deathscythe (4)
Grade 3's
4x Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon (10)
4x Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree (2)
This deck functions like Vermillion, only it does it for a single counterblast and a break ride instead of 3 counterblasts. This opens up more versatility for Deathscythe's ability. Cho-Ou can be used to toss excess draw triggers to soul to do more retirement. Dungaree swings for 21k with Kougaji, and 16k on the RG with any 7k booster. Rising Phoenix hits magic numbers with many, many units, and can even make the VG row swing for 16k if necessary. All around a solid amount of control that makes Vermillion insanely jealous while still having the option to snipe the backrow with Deathscythe, an option too expensive for Vemillion at the moment.
Deck cost - 100 dollars + Commons and Rares. This will drop over time as Deathscythe sees less play and Cho-ou drops after its initial price hike (started at 14 bucks for a RR!), No real way to curb the cost of Vowing Sword. Fortunately, 16 of the commons come in a single trial deck, which you would need to purchase to get a single Vowing Sword in the first place. All-in-all, an extremely solid control build that's cost effective both in-game and out of game.
Jankride Tachikaze
So, it surprises me that budget decks have overtaken both mixed and rush decks for the lists that you guys want to see. Since the economy sucks and money is tight, I'm going to be releasing a quick series of budget decks. We'll start with the one that just won locals for me this last week, Jankride Tachikaze. For these budget decks, any card that costs more than a buck will be labelled with a rough pricing, so you can get a good idea of how much the deck will cost you.
Starter - Dragon Egg
Triggers - 12 crit, 4 Heal
Grade 1's
4x Sonic Noah
4x Null Guard (5-8 dollars)
4x Winged Dragon, Skyptero
2x Winged Dragon, Beamptero
Grade 2's
4x Vanilla 10k
3x Winged Dragon, Slashptero
2x Dragon Cannon Fire, Cannon Gear
2x Savage Archer
Grade 3's
4x Ravenous Dragon, Battlerex (1-4 dollars)
2x Ancient Dragon, Spinodriver (7-10 dollars)
2x Ancient Dragon, Stegobuster
The idea for the deck is to have a very tricky Vanguard row. Even if you miss the break ride, Battlerex's power can shoot up like crazy late game by drive checking a grade 3 and offing a Beamptero or Slashptero for a massive 13k power boost. Additionally, you can compensate for minusing with even more plus-power on your third row if you miss the 21k set-up with Stego and Noah or by bringing units like Dragon Egg and Skyptero back to your hand. If you hit the break ride, awesome. Your backrow (which are tough to target with retirement shifting to mostly front row lately) is where all of your recycling units are, so they can't even really stop your plussing from the break ride by swinging into your units. Even if they do hit your backrow, you can just counterblast 1 and add them back to your hand regardless. All-in-all, I've found it to be very consistent in making good rows, and very deadly/trolly lategame with the ability to break a full 15k guard by checking a single grade 3. ~_~ And it's really fun.
Odds of breaking a two-to-pass late game:
Situation A: 8/49 times, you break a two-to-pass on your first check.
Situation B: 16/49 times you hit a trigger which you can stack on your Vanguard because the odds of breaking a two-to-pass are ENORMOUS.
Situation C: 25/49 times you hit nothing.
Situation D: 8/49 times, you break the two-to-pass on your second check.
Situation E: 16/49 times you hit a trigger on the second drive check. If situation B occurred, you just broke the two-to-pass.
Situation F: 25/49 times you hit nothing.
8/49 times you break it with Situation A and any other situation. = 16.32%
16/49 times * 24/49 times you break the two-to-pass by hitting either a double trigger or a trigger into a grade 3. = 16%
Situation C you only hit it if you hit Situation D = 25/49 * 8/49 = 8.33%
Add them together for a total of 40.65%. With standard grade 3 ratios.
Total cost: (Assuming 6 dollar nulls, 3 dollar Battlerexes, and 8 dollar Spinodrivers) 52 bucks + commons and rares. Roughly 60-65 total. This makes it about 30% cheaper than a standard Ancient Dragon deck, which is already known as one of the more budget builds.
Starter - Dragon Egg
Triggers - 12 crit, 4 Heal
Grade 1's
4x Sonic Noah
4x Null Guard (5-8 dollars)
4x Winged Dragon, Skyptero
2x Winged Dragon, Beamptero
Grade 2's
4x Vanilla 10k
3x Winged Dragon, Slashptero
2x Dragon Cannon Fire, Cannon Gear
2x Savage Archer
Grade 3's
4x Ravenous Dragon, Battlerex (1-4 dollars)
2x Ancient Dragon, Spinodriver (7-10 dollars)
2x Ancient Dragon, Stegobuster
The idea for the deck is to have a very tricky Vanguard row. Even if you miss the break ride, Battlerex's power can shoot up like crazy late game by drive checking a grade 3 and offing a Beamptero or Slashptero for a massive 13k power boost. Additionally, you can compensate for minusing with even more plus-power on your third row if you miss the 21k set-up with Stego and Noah or by bringing units like Dragon Egg and Skyptero back to your hand. If you hit the break ride, awesome. Your backrow (which are tough to target with retirement shifting to mostly front row lately) is where all of your recycling units are, so they can't even really stop your plussing from the break ride by swinging into your units. Even if they do hit your backrow, you can just counterblast 1 and add them back to your hand regardless. All-in-all, I've found it to be very consistent in making good rows, and very deadly/trolly lategame with the ability to break a full 15k guard by checking a single grade 3. ~_~ And it's really fun.
Odds of breaking a two-to-pass late game:
Situation A: 8/49 times, you break a two-to-pass on your first check.
Situation B: 16/49 times you hit a trigger which you can stack on your Vanguard because the odds of breaking a two-to-pass are ENORMOUS.
Situation C: 25/49 times you hit nothing.
Situation D: 8/49 times, you break the two-to-pass on your second check.
Situation E: 16/49 times you hit a trigger on the second drive check. If situation B occurred, you just broke the two-to-pass.
Situation F: 25/49 times you hit nothing.
8/49 times you break it with Situation A and any other situation. = 16.32%
16/49 times * 24/49 times you break the two-to-pass by hitting either a double trigger or a trigger into a grade 3. = 16%
Situation C you only hit it if you hit Situation D = 25/49 * 8/49 = 8.33%
Add them together for a total of 40.65%. With standard grade 3 ratios.
Total cost: (Assuming 6 dollar nulls, 3 dollar Battlerexes, and 8 dollar Spinodrivers) 52 bucks + commons and rares. Roughly 60-65 total. This makes it about 30% cheaper than a standard Ancient Dragon deck, which is already known as one of the more budget builds.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Ripple Rush 2.0
Starter - Starting Ripple, Alex
Triggers - 16 Aqua Force Critical Triggers
Grade 1's (15)
4x Tear Knight, Theo
4x Silent Ripple, Stiletto
4x Accelerated Command
3x Emerald Shield, Paschal
Grade 2's (14)
4x Tidal Assault
4x Rising Ripple, Pavroth
4x Twin Strike Brave Shooter
2x Ocean Current Rescuing Turtle Soldier
Grade 3's (4)
4x Roaring Ripple, Genovious
So first, I'll address the major updates.
The new cards: Tidal Assault, Accelerated Command, Ocean Current Rescuing Turtle Soldier
Tidal Assault: This guy was something I've been asking for for a while, now. He can easily hit over grade 1's and 2's twice if you attack unboosted then boosted. He can do the same to all non-crossridden grade 3's with Accelerated Command. He essentially lets you secure the original objective of playing Basil before while still being able to hit over 11k's and doubling up on trigger pressure.
Accelerated Command: This card took over a lot of the slots previously used by other grade 1 techs that got removed. This unit is used early for forcing out an extra stage where needed. Late game it just sits behind a Twin Strike or your Vanguard.
Ocean Current Rescuing Turtle Soldier: This over Callista will probably throw some people for a loop. Like always, there is a method to my madness. This deck is comprised of 29 grade 1's and 2's. That's a 60% chance to check one off the top of my deck for a free card. Additionally, this card makes an ideal ride when you have Genovious in hand with a Stiletto as Vanguard but have no Pavroth. Ride Turtle Soldier, call top card of your deck if it's a grade 1/2 for free, check top 7, if there's a Pavroth, ride it. This combo is pretty much better than sliced bread.
The cards that are now gone: Storm Rider, Basil. Storm Rider, Damon. Many grade 1 techs
Basil is pretty much obsolete for this style of deck in the face of Tidal Assault. Damon is a more versatile, but weaker Basil. The grade 1 techs were removed so I could consolidate the grade 1's into a more structured lineup with more focus.
Triggers - 16 Aqua Force Critical Triggers
Grade 1's (15)
4x Tear Knight, Theo
4x Silent Ripple, Stiletto
4x Accelerated Command
3x Emerald Shield, Paschal
Grade 2's (14)
4x Tidal Assault
4x Rising Ripple, Pavroth
4x Twin Strike Brave Shooter
2x Ocean Current Rescuing Turtle Soldier
Grade 3's (4)
4x Roaring Ripple, Genovious
So first, I'll address the major updates.
The new cards: Tidal Assault, Accelerated Command, Ocean Current Rescuing Turtle Soldier
Tidal Assault: This guy was something I've been asking for for a while, now. He can easily hit over grade 1's and 2's twice if you attack unboosted then boosted. He can do the same to all non-crossridden grade 3's with Accelerated Command. He essentially lets you secure the original objective of playing Basil before while still being able to hit over 11k's and doubling up on trigger pressure.
Accelerated Command: This card took over a lot of the slots previously used by other grade 1 techs that got removed. This unit is used early for forcing out an extra stage where needed. Late game it just sits behind a Twin Strike or your Vanguard.
Ocean Current Rescuing Turtle Soldier: This over Callista will probably throw some people for a loop. Like always, there is a method to my madness. This deck is comprised of 29 grade 1's and 2's. That's a 60% chance to check one off the top of my deck for a free card. Additionally, this card makes an ideal ride when you have Genovious in hand with a Stiletto as Vanguard but have no Pavroth. Ride Turtle Soldier, call top card of your deck if it's a grade 1/2 for free, check top 7, if there's a Pavroth, ride it. This combo is pretty much better than sliced bread.
The cards that are now gone: Storm Rider, Basil. Storm Rider, Damon. Many grade 1 techs
Basil is pretty much obsolete for this style of deck in the face of Tidal Assault. Damon is a more versatile, but weaker Basil. The grade 1 techs were removed so I could consolidate the grade 1's into a more structured lineup with more focus.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Chicago Regional Tournament Report
So, we'll start with the two big things, my placement and the deck I was using. I decided to go with Tom and Jerry this year, since I felt like it's one of the strongest possible mixed decks in the game right now, with its only major weakness being a straight OTT deck. I'm running the same decklist that I have on this blog:
Starter - Flask Marmoset
4x Ruler Chameleon (Crit)
4x Triangle Cobra (Crit)
4x Psychic Bird (Crit)
4x Oracle Guardian, Nike (Crit)
Grade 1's
4x Silver Wolf
4x Coiling Duckbill
3x Tank Mouse
2x Chocolat
1x Tic-Toc Flamingo
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus Tiger
4x Silent Tom
3x Maiden of Libra
Grade 3's
4x CEO Amaterasu
4x Battle Sister, Cookie
Now, my standings. There were about 360 people there, and I ended up 47th (Pics or it didn't happen?), losing in round 6. There were less than 32 people for round seven it seems, so I could totally just say "top 32 if you don't count tiebreakers". So, because I'm an egomaniac, we'll go with that. Top 32. I felt very fortunate that I got to use almost all of the tricks that the deck has to give, and neither myself nor my opponents were gradelocked in any of my games. Now for the play-by-play.
Round 1: W vs. DOtE
I rushed the guy super hard. I think he said he was a Pojoer (Flying Teapot?) and immediately knew who I was when he saw the mixed decks. He had no idea what to expect when he saw the Psychic Bird boosting my Vanguard on turn 1. I went second and drive checked into the Libra that I needed to ride, since I had no grade 2. I put him to 4 damage turn 3, then he crossrode into DOtE with only one card left in hand. I had a pretty good hunch he had no other DOtE's, and I ended up being correct. He attacks, I no guard at 3 damage, he checks a grade 1 and 2, and I get put to 4. I soul charge and check top-card with CEO seeing a critical and leaving it there. I knew that he checked a grade 1 and 2 last turn with one unknown card in his hand. I anticipated it being a perfect guard (it was actually a 10k). Since he was at 13k defense and my row was Coiling and Tom, I decided to pump up Coiling a bit. I used the effect of a Tank Mouse I already had out on Coiling, then called another one over it, doing the same thing, making Coiling a 15k boost, in case he checked double heals or some other shenanigans. I use my unboosted row to swing at his grade 2, retiring that. Then I attack with CEO, which he ended up one-to-passing from a misplay. Had he guarded that attack, I would have gone in with a 28k 2 crit Tom, which is the first cool thing this deck can do. Make crossrides shit their pants. Dude was a total bro and I'm happy to say he beat his goal of not losing in two rounds. I think he got to round 4.
Round 2: W vs. Pacifica/Vert
Only individual I fought with a bad deck. Only individual I fought with a bad attitude. Maybe the only individual I fought who wasn't aware of who I was or who didn't see someone walk up to me and be like, "Wait, you're that Tim?" I was polite, didn't boast, didn't gloat. I mean, for me, that's definitely my best behavior. She was pissed that I was stomping her. I mean, it sucks to be losing hard in the second round, but it wasn't like I was sacking her. She drew into a great hand. Continued to get great draws. But she had to keep guarding with all of her boosters since I was intentionally leaving Tom at low power so she would do so. She checked two stands with no front-row rear-guards to place them on since she had to guard Tom with all of them. I used Tank mouse to make a Tom row hit an extra stage, to which she responds, "I don't think you can do that." I explain to her that Tank Mouse only needs a Great Nature target and not a Great Nature Vanguard. After this point her attitude switched from irritated to bitchy. I get her to five, and with a break ride draw into Pacifica's skill for another +1, she only had 3 RG's out total that turn. Even with the card draw and bouncing from Pacifica and break riding, I swing with my 21k Amaterasu which she had to no guard. Crit. Crit. She looks absolutely livid (like the criticals actually mattered), refused to check her damage, and began picking up her cards and gathering her other belongings. I extend my hand and say, "Good game." She says, "No it wasn't!" and storms off. Good game, I guess?
Round 3: W vs. Sephirot/Laurel
I got two Toms in my starting hand. I get him to four damage very quickly since I had a double Tom whammy that they couldn't guard with grade 0's. My inability to win dice rolls helped secure all of the rushes. He ended up riding Laurel on his third turn, which pretty much secured the victory for me. Tom trick #134 won the game for me. He had enough grade 0's in hand to guard my Vanguard, and a few 1's and 2's, but not enough if I pumped Tom up. I had no Tank Mouse or Binoculus out, so I wasn't in a good position to pump units up. Then I looked at my Marmoset, and was like, "This is going to be awesome." I used his skill twice on himself, since I was at 4 damage myself. This made my Tom row 5+8+8, which is a nice 21k. I scried a critical, so I took the game that turn.
Round 4: W vs. The Blood
I felt bad. This was the only game that I felt like I turbo sacked. I crit him turn 2 and double crit him turn 3. I mean, 16 crit is there for a reason, but I still felt bad. I apologized profeusly, but my opponent was like, "Nah man. It's cool." We wished each other the best of luck. Then all of my friends left to go do other stuff since they got eliminated, and I was like, "NO! Friendship! I will lose if you don't support me with your friendship! Has Yu-Gi-Oh! taught you nothing!" My predictions ended up being true.
Round 5: L vs. The Blood
I secure an amazing rush early, getting the guy to 5 damage. For the first and third turns after this, hitting a single trigger would have secured game for me... but he ended up winning the game of pressure, getting an ultimate break out, and continuously swinging for good numbers with crossridden defense. I make a pretty cool move by using Marmoset to off himself while calling a Coiling to cycle it into a new card while using him as a pretty legit beater. Each turn after the opening turns would start with me drawing a crit, soul charging a crit, scrying a non-crit, putting it at the bottom, and hitting two non-crits, save turn 4 when he had a perfect guard to handle the bonus crit Tom. I made a big push on the fifth turn, sacking two of my boosters to hit some magic numbers. A single crit could have won the game for me, but I only had 3 left in my 18~ card deck. No cigar. It was a great match all-around that could have gone either way.
Round 6: L vs. DOtE
He hit no less than 4 draws in the first 3 turns. I knew he had his extra DOtE's in hand. Since I got him to 3 damage on my first turn from hitting a crit, I was very surprised that he went straight for my rear guards since I was at no damage for a few turns. He ended up amassing an enormous hand, but stayed at 3 for quite a while. I was in a bad spot, though, since my first damage check was a Tom, and my first soul charge was a Tom. I had a Tom in my opening hand, but he attacked it with his Vanguard Dragonic Overlord, and I didn't have the ability to guard that and his rear-guards from getting Tom. I was able to prevent a bonus critical because of his decision, so I was literally at 0 damage to his 3 when he rode DOtE. Since he used Conroe to fetch a Barri, I'm not sure that it mattered. I kept guarding DOtE since it had a draw trigger booster, and as I said, I knew had that DOtE in his hand. The guy made several misplays throughout the match. He said he had only been playing for 2 weeks, and he was super surprised he got as far as he did. I end up checking Tom with my scry, and with two gone I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to put it at the bottom, but that might not have been the best choice. He had two nulls and I had other units I could call to the front, so I wanted more things to guard with. The game edged on into turn 5 or 6, I had 2 cards left in my hand, and I knew I had no chance to survive the next turn since I couldn't force out much guard over his 13k wall, I had no more Toms, and he had 9 cards in hand. ~_~ But the card I drew into for turn was a Psychic Bird. I moved it to soul and drew a card. I swing with CEO at his Vanguard, and he no guards it since he's going to be able to block everything after that easily. Since he was new, he didn't know about CEO's megablast. Psychic Bird secured the 8th soul for me, so I was able to draw 5 from my deck, which put me back in the game. A little cheesy, but it helped make up for (albeit way too late) all of the cards he drew into earlier. I burn most of the cards to guard all of his attacks. I have enough for a full field, and nothing more. I end up hoping beyond hope that he two-to-passes me the next turn, since I had plenty of crits in my deck, and manmode was my only way out. He's at 4 at this point. He nulls me, I double crit, passing one trigger to each rear-guard. He guards both of those and still has a good 2-3 cards in hand. I didn't have enough to guard all of his units and have no heals, so I one-to-pass DOtE, win the one-to-pass, but lose to a rear guard attack. Not much I could have done to sway the game back into my favor since my deck was at only 5 cards from sitting on CEO for so long. No complaints though, I put up a hell of a fight given the circumstances and I'm very satisfied with the results that Tom and Jerry gave me for the tournament.
Kageroyals piloted by Dustin Henry - Side Special
Poor, poor Dustin. He got sacked so hard. ;__; It's not him, it's me. My luck did this to him.
Game 1 - L vs. Ezel
His opponent went first. Dustin attacks, crits and it's now his opponent's turn. Turn 2 superior ride into Ezel. They use two self-damagers, bringing themself up to 4, limit break with Ezel getting a 9-10k out, and now he can't guard Ezel at all. Double crit. Power got passed to a RG row with a boost which also couldn't be guarded without dropping 3 cards. The Ezel style superior rides are extremely tough for Kageroyals to handle since it's based around guarding Vanguard attacks early with single cards, and both Ezel's 1k for each GP rear guard and Twin-Drive!! get in the way of that. Securing that into a double crit is the ultimate disaster for Kageroyals, because it takes away the cheap, single-card guarding advantage that the deck utilizes. After losing all of the momentum in an instant, he attacks with his grade 2. His opponent swings in again for huge numbers, and he just couldn't hold up. Ezel has always been registered as a counter deck, but this is the absolute worst-case scenario for the match-ups.
Game 2 - L vs. Master Beetle Megacolony
He ended up taking a lead against his opponent and pushing them to 5 damage. He gets knocked to 5 as well. He starts his turn, attacks with Dragonic Waterfall, "persona blasts" for 31k, and his opponent is like, "Wow, 31k! I can't guard that!". Drive check 1, crit. Drive check 2, crit. His opponent says, "Wow. I'm not even going to check my damage. Good game, man." Dustin, being a bro, is like, "Dude, check your damage. You never know." Heal. Heal. Heal. Dustin loses the next turn. Words cannot describe...
Starter - Flask Marmoset
4x Ruler Chameleon (Crit)
4x Triangle Cobra (Crit)
4x Psychic Bird (Crit)
4x Oracle Guardian, Nike (Crit)
Grade 1's
4x Silver Wolf
4x Coiling Duckbill
3x Tank Mouse
2x Chocolat
1x Tic-Toc Flamingo
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus Tiger
4x Silent Tom
3x Maiden of Libra
Grade 3's
4x CEO Amaterasu
4x Battle Sister, Cookie
Now, my standings. There were about 360 people there, and I ended up 47th (Pics or it didn't happen?), losing in round 6. There were less than 32 people for round seven it seems, so I could totally just say "top 32 if you don't count tiebreakers". So, because I'm an egomaniac, we'll go with that. Top 32. I felt very fortunate that I got to use almost all of the tricks that the deck has to give, and neither myself nor my opponents were gradelocked in any of my games. Now for the play-by-play.
Round 1: W vs. DOtE
I rushed the guy super hard. I think he said he was a Pojoer (Flying Teapot?) and immediately knew who I was when he saw the mixed decks. He had no idea what to expect when he saw the Psychic Bird boosting my Vanguard on turn 1. I went second and drive checked into the Libra that I needed to ride, since I had no grade 2. I put him to 4 damage turn 3, then he crossrode into DOtE with only one card left in hand. I had a pretty good hunch he had no other DOtE's, and I ended up being correct. He attacks, I no guard at 3 damage, he checks a grade 1 and 2, and I get put to 4. I soul charge and check top-card with CEO seeing a critical and leaving it there. I knew that he checked a grade 1 and 2 last turn with one unknown card in his hand. I anticipated it being a perfect guard (it was actually a 10k). Since he was at 13k defense and my row was Coiling and Tom, I decided to pump up Coiling a bit. I used the effect of a Tank Mouse I already had out on Coiling, then called another one over it, doing the same thing, making Coiling a 15k boost, in case he checked double heals or some other shenanigans. I use my unboosted row to swing at his grade 2, retiring that. Then I attack with CEO, which he ended up one-to-passing from a misplay. Had he guarded that attack, I would have gone in with a 28k 2 crit Tom, which is the first cool thing this deck can do. Make crossrides shit their pants. Dude was a total bro and I'm happy to say he beat his goal of not losing in two rounds. I think he got to round 4.
Round 2: W vs. Pacifica/Vert
Only individual I fought with a bad deck. Only individual I fought with a bad attitude. Maybe the only individual I fought who wasn't aware of who I was or who didn't see someone walk up to me and be like, "Wait, you're that Tim?" I was polite, didn't boast, didn't gloat. I mean, for me, that's definitely my best behavior. She was pissed that I was stomping her. I mean, it sucks to be losing hard in the second round, but it wasn't like I was sacking her. She drew into a great hand. Continued to get great draws. But she had to keep guarding with all of her boosters since I was intentionally leaving Tom at low power so she would do so. She checked two stands with no front-row rear-guards to place them on since she had to guard Tom with all of them. I used Tank mouse to make a Tom row hit an extra stage, to which she responds, "I don't think you can do that." I explain to her that Tank Mouse only needs a Great Nature target and not a Great Nature Vanguard. After this point her attitude switched from irritated to bitchy. I get her to five, and with a break ride draw into Pacifica's skill for another +1, she only had 3 RG's out total that turn. Even with the card draw and bouncing from Pacifica and break riding, I swing with my 21k Amaterasu which she had to no guard. Crit. Crit. She looks absolutely livid (like the criticals actually mattered), refused to check her damage, and began picking up her cards and gathering her other belongings. I extend my hand and say, "Good game." She says, "No it wasn't!" and storms off. Good game, I guess?
Round 3: W vs. Sephirot/Laurel
I got two Toms in my starting hand. I get him to four damage very quickly since I had a double Tom whammy that they couldn't guard with grade 0's. My inability to win dice rolls helped secure all of the rushes. He ended up riding Laurel on his third turn, which pretty much secured the victory for me. Tom trick #134 won the game for me. He had enough grade 0's in hand to guard my Vanguard, and a few 1's and 2's, but not enough if I pumped Tom up. I had no Tank Mouse or Binoculus out, so I wasn't in a good position to pump units up. Then I looked at my Marmoset, and was like, "This is going to be awesome." I used his skill twice on himself, since I was at 4 damage myself. This made my Tom row 5+8+8, which is a nice 21k. I scried a critical, so I took the game that turn.
Round 4: W vs. The Blood
I felt bad. This was the only game that I felt like I turbo sacked. I crit him turn 2 and double crit him turn 3. I mean, 16 crit is there for a reason, but I still felt bad. I apologized profeusly, but my opponent was like, "Nah man. It's cool." We wished each other the best of luck. Then all of my friends left to go do other stuff since they got eliminated, and I was like, "NO! Friendship! I will lose if you don't support me with your friendship! Has Yu-Gi-Oh! taught you nothing!" My predictions ended up being true.
Round 5: L vs. The Blood
I secure an amazing rush early, getting the guy to 5 damage. For the first and third turns after this, hitting a single trigger would have secured game for me... but he ended up winning the game of pressure, getting an ultimate break out, and continuously swinging for good numbers with crossridden defense. I make a pretty cool move by using Marmoset to off himself while calling a Coiling to cycle it into a new card while using him as a pretty legit beater. Each turn after the opening turns would start with me drawing a crit, soul charging a crit, scrying a non-crit, putting it at the bottom, and hitting two non-crits, save turn 4 when he had a perfect guard to handle the bonus crit Tom. I made a big push on the fifth turn, sacking two of my boosters to hit some magic numbers. A single crit could have won the game for me, but I only had 3 left in my 18~ card deck. No cigar. It was a great match all-around that could have gone either way.
Round 6: L vs. DOtE
He hit no less than 4 draws in the first 3 turns. I knew he had his extra DOtE's in hand. Since I got him to 3 damage on my first turn from hitting a crit, I was very surprised that he went straight for my rear guards since I was at no damage for a few turns. He ended up amassing an enormous hand, but stayed at 3 for quite a while. I was in a bad spot, though, since my first damage check was a Tom, and my first soul charge was a Tom. I had a Tom in my opening hand, but he attacked it with his Vanguard Dragonic Overlord, and I didn't have the ability to guard that and his rear-guards from getting Tom. I was able to prevent a bonus critical because of his decision, so I was literally at 0 damage to his 3 when he rode DOtE. Since he used Conroe to fetch a Barri, I'm not sure that it mattered. I kept guarding DOtE since it had a draw trigger booster, and as I said, I knew had that DOtE in his hand. The guy made several misplays throughout the match. He said he had only been playing for 2 weeks, and he was super surprised he got as far as he did. I end up checking Tom with my scry, and with two gone I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to put it at the bottom, but that might not have been the best choice. He had two nulls and I had other units I could call to the front, so I wanted more things to guard with. The game edged on into turn 5 or 6, I had 2 cards left in my hand, and I knew I had no chance to survive the next turn since I couldn't force out much guard over his 13k wall, I had no more Toms, and he had 9 cards in hand. ~_~ But the card I drew into for turn was a Psychic Bird. I moved it to soul and drew a card. I swing with CEO at his Vanguard, and he no guards it since he's going to be able to block everything after that easily. Since he was new, he didn't know about CEO's megablast. Psychic Bird secured the 8th soul for me, so I was able to draw 5 from my deck, which put me back in the game. A little cheesy, but it helped make up for (albeit way too late) all of the cards he drew into earlier. I burn most of the cards to guard all of his attacks. I have enough for a full field, and nothing more. I end up hoping beyond hope that he two-to-passes me the next turn, since I had plenty of crits in my deck, and manmode was my only way out. He's at 4 at this point. He nulls me, I double crit, passing one trigger to each rear-guard. He guards both of those and still has a good 2-3 cards in hand. I didn't have enough to guard all of his units and have no heals, so I one-to-pass DOtE, win the one-to-pass, but lose to a rear guard attack. Not much I could have done to sway the game back into my favor since my deck was at only 5 cards from sitting on CEO for so long. No complaints though, I put up a hell of a fight given the circumstances and I'm very satisfied with the results that Tom and Jerry gave me for the tournament.
Kageroyals piloted by Dustin Henry - Side Special
Poor, poor Dustin. He got sacked so hard. ;__; It's not him, it's me. My luck did this to him.
Game 1 - L vs. Ezel
His opponent went first. Dustin attacks, crits and it's now his opponent's turn. Turn 2 superior ride into Ezel. They use two self-damagers, bringing themself up to 4, limit break with Ezel getting a 9-10k out, and now he can't guard Ezel at all. Double crit. Power got passed to a RG row with a boost which also couldn't be guarded without dropping 3 cards. The Ezel style superior rides are extremely tough for Kageroyals to handle since it's based around guarding Vanguard attacks early with single cards, and both Ezel's 1k for each GP rear guard and Twin-Drive!! get in the way of that. Securing that into a double crit is the ultimate disaster for Kageroyals, because it takes away the cheap, single-card guarding advantage that the deck utilizes. After losing all of the momentum in an instant, he attacks with his grade 2. His opponent swings in again for huge numbers, and he just couldn't hold up. Ezel has always been registered as a counter deck, but this is the absolute worst-case scenario for the match-ups.
Game 2 - L vs. Master Beetle Megacolony
He ended up taking a lead against his opponent and pushing them to 5 damage. He gets knocked to 5 as well. He starts his turn, attacks with Dragonic Waterfall, "persona blasts" for 31k, and his opponent is like, "Wow, 31k! I can't guard that!". Drive check 1, crit. Drive check 2, crit. His opponent says, "Wow. I'm not even going to check my damage. Good game, man." Dustin, being a bro, is like, "Dude, check your damage. You never know." Heal. Heal. Heal. Dustin loses the next turn. Words cannot describe...
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Catapult, Standby!
Grateful Catapult
So, I really liked Chrome Jailer Dragon's persona blast. I thought that CB1, -1 grade 3, +2 units that you get to pick from is nice, even if the selection is limited. It dawned on me that this card is an 11k Chrome Jailer Dragon, only instead of it searching the top 4 cards, it searches the top 40 cards (but costs one more counterblast). With this ability to be an 11k wall and optimize your field at will, Grateful Catapult has been a sorely overlooked card for too long, and that's largely because people are typically afraid to try and play Spike Brothers in a more conservative fashion.
Here's the decklist:
Starter - Mecha Trainer - Mecha Trainer embodies everything this deck tries to do. Optimizing that field. You can choose whatever grade 1's you are in need of, even a perfect guard. You can off Mecha Trainer with its ability to open up a spot to call a unit with Catapult, as well.
Triggers: 8 critical, 4 stand, 4 heal OR 8 critical, 4 draw, 4 heal
I've been enjoying stands in the build. Getting the persona blast off is going to be fairly inconsistent, and really, not much more consistent if you run draws. I'd rather abuse high base-power RG attackers with stands since this deck doesn't focus on sending rear guards back to the deck.
Grade 1's:
4x Wonder Boy
4x Cheer Girl, Marilyn
3x Dudley Daisy (12k when called with Catapult for a turn)
3x Tyrant Receiver (If running Rabbit House)/3 Reckless Express (If Running Dudley or Dragger)
Grade 2's:
4x MVP Black Panther
4x Charging Bill Collector (11k with Limit Break VG/RG)
3x Panzer Gale (10k interceptor)
Grade 3's
4x Grateful Catapult
4x Rabbit House OR 2x Dudley Emperor, 2x Dragger
Both version offer different things. Rabbit House hits for big numbers as Vanguard, and can even hit 21k as a rear-guard with the right booster (and since every unit is searchable, setting these rows up with a Catapult persona blast is pretty easy). Dudley lets you net 0 for the field optimization and has less defense in exchange for it being more consistent and him swinging harder. Dragger is in the Dudley build as it is a safe fall-back plan, and also hits for 13k as Vanguard like Dudley, but keeps the 11k defense. The go-for-broke plan is still there as a back-up option if your opponent is running out of steam or if you have no other hope to win. Stands are significantly less suggested in the Dudley/Dragger build. Reckless Express is in there to clear out extra room on the field while the Rabbit House build tries to keep optimized units on the field (while intercepting with Gales).
All in all, the build has proven very consistent in getting good rows and applying good pressure. Being able to convert an excess grade 3 into two extra RG's of choice is pretty much one of the best trades you can do in this game.
So, I really liked Chrome Jailer Dragon's persona blast. I thought that CB1, -1 grade 3, +2 units that you get to pick from is nice, even if the selection is limited. It dawned on me that this card is an 11k Chrome Jailer Dragon, only instead of it searching the top 4 cards, it searches the top 40 cards (but costs one more counterblast). With this ability to be an 11k wall and optimize your field at will, Grateful Catapult has been a sorely overlooked card for too long, and that's largely because people are typically afraid to try and play Spike Brothers in a more conservative fashion.
Here's the decklist:
Starter - Mecha Trainer - Mecha Trainer embodies everything this deck tries to do. Optimizing that field. You can choose whatever grade 1's you are in need of, even a perfect guard. You can off Mecha Trainer with its ability to open up a spot to call a unit with Catapult, as well.
Triggers: 8 critical, 4 stand, 4 heal OR 8 critical, 4 draw, 4 heal
I've been enjoying stands in the build. Getting the persona blast off is going to be fairly inconsistent, and really, not much more consistent if you run draws. I'd rather abuse high base-power RG attackers with stands since this deck doesn't focus on sending rear guards back to the deck.
Grade 1's:
4x Wonder Boy
4x Cheer Girl, Marilyn
3x Dudley Daisy (12k when called with Catapult for a turn)
3x Tyrant Receiver (If running Rabbit House)/3 Reckless Express (If Running Dudley or Dragger)
Grade 2's:
4x MVP Black Panther
4x Charging Bill Collector (11k with Limit Break VG/RG)
3x Panzer Gale (10k interceptor)
Grade 3's
4x Grateful Catapult
4x Rabbit House OR 2x Dudley Emperor, 2x Dragger
Both version offer different things. Rabbit House hits for big numbers as Vanguard, and can even hit 21k as a rear-guard with the right booster (and since every unit is searchable, setting these rows up with a Catapult persona blast is pretty easy). Dudley lets you net 0 for the field optimization and has less defense in exchange for it being more consistent and him swinging harder. Dragger is in the Dudley build as it is a safe fall-back plan, and also hits for 13k as Vanguard like Dudley, but keeps the 11k defense. The go-for-broke plan is still there as a back-up option if your opponent is running out of steam or if you have no other hope to win. Stands are significantly less suggested in the Dudley/Dragger build. Reckless Express is in there to clear out extra room on the field while the Rabbit House build tries to keep optimized units on the field (while intercepting with Gales).
All in all, the build has proven very consistent in getting good rows and applying good pressure. Being able to convert an excess grade 3 into two extra RG's of choice is pretty much one of the best trades you can do in this game.
Drawqua Force
Note: This is a troll deck. It's 110% fun and super non-competitive.
Grade 0's
4x Bubble Edge Dracokid (Starter)
16x Mass Production Sailor
Grade 1's (12)
4x Nicholas
3x Paschal
3x Accelerated Commando (Use on your Benedicts and Tidals to make their base power 11/12k)
2x Wheel Assault
Grade 2's (10)
4x Tidal Assault
4x Damon
2x Basil
Grade 3's (8)
4x Cobalt Wave Dragon
4x Benedict
Now, the purpose of this deck is to get as many attacks in as possible before you attack with Cobalt Wave. It's possible to have a 25k 6 crit Cobalt Wave Dragon, and that's cute. But mostly, you keep tossing Dracokids into the soul and applying the effects on your Benedicts/Tidal Assaults. In doing so, by swinging with your other RG's first, you get to draw 2 times per Dracokid that goes into the soul. Additionally, if you hit a stand, you can increase this amount to 3 times.
In Magical Fairytale Christmasland where you hit 4 Dracokids and get a 4th attack going on the Benedict/Assault and hit a stand, you can draw 13 times in one turn, not counting the drive check. Make dem OTT players jealous while swinging for 5-6 crit every turn with your Vanguard.
Grade 0's
4x Bubble Edge Dracokid (Starter)
16x Mass Production Sailor
Grade 1's (12)
4x Nicholas
3x Paschal
3x Accelerated Commando (Use on your Benedicts and Tidals to make their base power 11/12k)
2x Wheel Assault
Grade 2's (10)
4x Tidal Assault
4x Damon
2x Basil
Grade 3's (8)
4x Cobalt Wave Dragon
4x Benedict
Now, the purpose of this deck is to get as many attacks in as possible before you attack with Cobalt Wave. It's possible to have a 25k 6 crit Cobalt Wave Dragon, and that's cute. But mostly, you keep tossing Dracokids into the soul and applying the effects on your Benedicts/Tidal Assaults. In doing so, by swinging with your other RG's first, you get to draw 2 times per Dracokid that goes into the soul. Additionally, if you hit a stand, you can increase this amount to 3 times.
In Magical Fairytale Christmasland where you hit 4 Dracokids and get a 4th attack going on the Benedict/Assault and hit a stand, you can draw 13 times in one turn, not counting the drive check. Make dem OTT players jealous while swinging for 5-6 crit every turn with your Vanguard.
Monday, September 9, 2013
The Saikyou Strongest 10 Dollar Hyper-Budget Rush Deck!!
Grade 0's (21)
Lionet Heat (SVG)
4x Cat Butler (If your Grade 2 or less Nove Grappler vanguard did not hit, you may retire this unit to stand your Vanguard)
16x Nova Grappler Critical Triggers
Grade 1's
4x Tough Boy
4x Burstraizer/Oasis Girl
4x Announcer Shout
4x Claydoll Mechanic
Grade 2's
4x Brutal Jack
3x Cup Bowler
3x King of Sword
3x Hungry Dumpty
The purpose of the deck is to rush hard and get as much damage on the opponent as possible by your first or second turn swinging. When your opponent gets to 4 or 5 damage, and you have Cat Butlers on the field, they're put in a situation where they must guard each attack from your Vanguard, but each time they do, you retire a Cat Butler to stand your Vanguard and get an additional drive check. The two Vanguards of this deck are Brutal Jack, who has a solid 11k body for defending and swings for a whopping 23k with a 7k boost and Cup Bowler, who has many, many intricate combos about him. For Cup Bowler, you can use a Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer Shout, tap it, and replace it with a Cat Butler. Cup Bowler will keep that 1000 power for each of his swings, and can reach 15k unboosted for each attack. 18k with your starter, Lionet Heat. Both have advantages and disadvantages as Vanguards. Jack has higher defense, stronger swings when he's boosted, and better RG ability. Cup Bowler swings for more unboosted, has more potential power, and doesn't require counterblasts. All-in-all, the deck rushes fast, strong, and hard, and it has a devastating potential end-game with those Butlers in the mix that can make it extremely hard for your opponent to survive, especially since Cat Butler is a net +-0 for you to restand, which is crazy good.
Link to video of deck
Lionet Heat (SVG)
4x Cat Butler (If your Grade 2 or less Nove Grappler vanguard did not hit, you may retire this unit to stand your Vanguard)
16x Nova Grappler Critical Triggers
Grade 1's
4x Tough Boy
4x Burstraizer/Oasis Girl
4x Announcer Shout
4x Claydoll Mechanic
Grade 2's
4x Brutal Jack
3x Cup Bowler
3x King of Sword
3x Hungry Dumpty
The purpose of the deck is to rush hard and get as much damage on the opponent as possible by your first or second turn swinging. When your opponent gets to 4 or 5 damage, and you have Cat Butlers on the field, they're put in a situation where they must guard each attack from your Vanguard, but each time they do, you retire a Cat Butler to stand your Vanguard and get an additional drive check. The two Vanguards of this deck are Brutal Jack, who has a solid 11k body for defending and swings for a whopping 23k with a 7k boost and Cup Bowler, who has many, many intricate combos about him. For Cup Bowler, you can use a Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer Shout, tap it, and replace it with a Cat Butler. Cup Bowler will keep that 1000 power for each of his swings, and can reach 15k unboosted for each attack. 18k with your starter, Lionet Heat. Both have advantages and disadvantages as Vanguards. Jack has higher defense, stronger swings when he's boosted, and better RG ability. Cup Bowler swings for more unboosted, has more potential power, and doesn't require counterblasts. All-in-all, the deck rushes fast, strong, and hard, and it has a devastating potential end-game with those Butlers in the mix that can make it extremely hard for your opponent to survive, especially since Cat Butler is a net +-0 for you to restand, which is crazy good.
Link to video of deck
Tom and Jerry
Decklist:
Starter - Flask Marmoset
4x Ruler Chameleon (Crit) - When it gets retired, you can counterblast 1, search your deck for another one, and add it to your hand. This only works if you have a Great Nature vanguard, so this is a viable tactic for a grade 1/2 rush if you didn't secure Libra as a ride.
4x Triangle Cobra (Crit)
4x Psychic Bird (Crit) - Move to soul, draw.
4x Oracle Guardian, Nike (Crit)
Grade 1's
4x Silver Wolf (Makes tom 20k with one dope)
4x Coiling Duckbill (Draw when a unit is retired, 23k with two dopes and Tom)
3x Tank Mouse (Tap him, give a unit +4k. You can call over him to play a booster for Binoculus for a push or leave him behind a VG Cookie for 21k.)
2x Chocolate (Perfect Guard. Sucks if you have to ride it, but still very easy to get late game since you mill through your deck very quickly.)
1x Tic-Toc Flamingo (Unflips a damage since almost everything is CB2. A single tech because we don't really need it, but it's still better to have around than an excess of Tank Mouse's 6k body.)
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus Tiger (When it attacks a VG, give 4k to the unit boosting Tom. If you miss Tom, he can dope his own booster, which if it's 8k, can make 21k. All kinds of combo play here.)
4x Silent Tom (Can't be guarded by grade 0's)
3x Maiden of Libra (CB2, draw on hit)
Grade 3's
4x CEO Amaterasu (Scries top card, makes it a 70% chance to crit. Thins deck. Potential megablast. Makes 21k with the 7k units, and you typically want to call Coiling behind her anyway.)
4x Battle Sister, Cookie (CB2, draw 2, discard 1. Synergizes greatly with the fast paced draw and mill of the deck to get out all of your Toms. Swings for 21k with Tank Mouse and 23k with Silver Wolf.)
Tom and Jerry is a Great Nature and Oracle Think Tank mixed deck that focuses on using the power doping of Great Nature to increase the power of a booster behind Silent Tom while having an Oracle Think Tank vanguard, so that he becomes incredibly difficult to guard against, requiring either 3 or more cards, or a perfect guard. The Vanguards of the deck, Cookie and CEO also swing for over 21k pretty easily, so this makes opponents want to drop multiple nulls per turn, but instead they have to also 2 to pass your Vanguard with grade 0's, which really burns out their resources and can open up 2-to-pass victories in a lot of cases. The deck also uses its counterblasts on Libra and Cookie to draw, or if the game goes on for a while, CEO to Megablast. Flask Marmoset is also an option. Since we have the OTT card draw, deck thinning, and trigger scrying to go with Great Nature's unflipping (Tic-Toc), drawing (Duckbill), and doping (Tank Mouse, Binoculus), the deck lets you burn through itself to consistently get out what you need. Typically, by time they can kill a Tom, I'll have another one ready to play. Additionally, with 16 criticals and Amaterasu scrying the top card for them, we get a 70% chance to crit. That's right, Tom gets even deadlier.
Link to Youtube video of the deck.
Starter - Flask Marmoset
4x Ruler Chameleon (Crit) - When it gets retired, you can counterblast 1, search your deck for another one, and add it to your hand. This only works if you have a Great Nature vanguard, so this is a viable tactic for a grade 1/2 rush if you didn't secure Libra as a ride.
4x Triangle Cobra (Crit)
4x Psychic Bird (Crit) - Move to soul, draw.
4x Oracle Guardian, Nike (Crit)
Grade 1's
4x Silver Wolf (Makes tom 20k with one dope)
4x Coiling Duckbill (Draw when a unit is retired, 23k with two dopes and Tom)
3x Tank Mouse (Tap him, give a unit +4k. You can call over him to play a booster for Binoculus for a push or leave him behind a VG Cookie for 21k.)
2x Chocolate (Perfect Guard. Sucks if you have to ride it, but still very easy to get late game since you mill through your deck very quickly.)
1x Tic-Toc Flamingo (Unflips a damage since almost everything is CB2. A single tech because we don't really need it, but it's still better to have around than an excess of Tank Mouse's 6k body.)
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus Tiger (When it attacks a VG, give 4k to the unit boosting Tom. If you miss Tom, he can dope his own booster, which if it's 8k, can make 21k. All kinds of combo play here.)
4x Silent Tom (Can't be guarded by grade 0's)
3x Maiden of Libra (CB2, draw on hit)
Grade 3's
4x CEO Amaterasu (Scries top card, makes it a 70% chance to crit. Thins deck. Potential megablast. Makes 21k with the 7k units, and you typically want to call Coiling behind her anyway.)
4x Battle Sister, Cookie (CB2, draw 2, discard 1. Synergizes greatly with the fast paced draw and mill of the deck to get out all of your Toms. Swings for 21k with Tank Mouse and 23k with Silver Wolf.)
Tom and Jerry is a Great Nature and Oracle Think Tank mixed deck that focuses on using the power doping of Great Nature to increase the power of a booster behind Silent Tom while having an Oracle Think Tank vanguard, so that he becomes incredibly difficult to guard against, requiring either 3 or more cards, or a perfect guard. The Vanguards of the deck, Cookie and CEO also swing for over 21k pretty easily, so this makes opponents want to drop multiple nulls per turn, but instead they have to also 2 to pass your Vanguard with grade 0's, which really burns out their resources and can open up 2-to-pass victories in a lot of cases. The deck also uses its counterblasts on Libra and Cookie to draw, or if the game goes on for a while, CEO to Megablast. Flask Marmoset is also an option. Since we have the OTT card draw, deck thinning, and trigger scrying to go with Great Nature's unflipping (Tic-Toc), drawing (Duckbill), and doping (Tank Mouse, Binoculus), the deck lets you burn through itself to consistently get out what you need. Typically, by time they can kill a Tom, I'll have another one ready to play. Additionally, with 16 criticals and Amaterasu scrying the top card for them, we get a 70% chance to crit. That's right, Tom gets even deadlier.
Link to Youtube video of the deck.
Friday, August 16, 2013
School of Hard Locks
This deck was originally theorized to make
Schwartzchild suck less. I think that Schwarzchild's effect is very
powerful and over-the-top, so I decided to make a deck around maybe
getting it off twice. That being said, I'm still fiddling around with
the ratios and looking forward to adding in newer support for Great
Nature to really get the ball going with this. Here's my current
decklist so far.
Starter - Micro Hole Dracokid
Triggers
8 critical triggers for Great Nature (Upping to 12 when we get it on Area)
8 critical triggers for Link Joker (Reducing to 4 when we get the GN support on Area)
Grade 1's
Great Nature:
4x Coiling Duckbill
4x Tic-Toc Flamingo
2x Monoculus (Still playing around with these)
1x Tank Mouse (Still playing around with these)
Link Joker:
4x Gravity Ball Dragon
2x Barrier Star-Vader, Promethium
Grade 2's
Great Nature:
4x Binoculus Tiger
4x Compass Lion
Link Joker:
4x Gravity Collapse Dragon
Grade 3's
Link Joker:
4x Schwartzchild Dragon
This deck functions in a similar fashion to Tom and Jerry, but has a different goal of making some extremely consistent persona blasting with Schwartzchild. This deck has the same base consistencies (ride chain and top 5 search on ride) added in with the Great Nature's Coiling Duckbill to cycle through cards quickly and Tic-Toc Flamingo to unflip the damage expended on these things to get a potential second persona blast. While the deck only has two nulls, you get a lot of defense out of just a single persona blast, and guarding early and wisely in this otherwise low-counterblast deck will help you secure a larger advantage over the course of the game. When pushing for game, you have several outs to empower any Great Nature rear guards you want to, and with the right combinations of cards, you can net cards back or unflip damage during the process. You also have great turn 2 defensive options between landing the ride chain and locking a unit on the opponent's field to having an 11k Compass Lion Vanguard. If Compass Lion is your Vanguard, you can even go without retiring any units if you don't have any Great Nature rear-guards out, which is a nice way to bypass that restriction while sitting on solid defenses.
I'm still looking to future support for both clans and seeing what I can adapt to this as I'm playtesting it. So far, if I get out any reasonable set-up, the deck works amazingly, especially with early Duckbills.
Starter - Micro Hole Dracokid
Triggers
8 critical triggers for Great Nature (Upping to 12 when we get it on Area)
8 critical triggers for Link Joker (Reducing to 4 when we get the GN support on Area)
Grade 1's
Great Nature:
4x Coiling Duckbill
4x Tic-Toc Flamingo
2x Monoculus (Still playing around with these)
1x Tank Mouse (Still playing around with these)
Link Joker:
4x Gravity Ball Dragon
2x Barrier Star-Vader, Promethium
Grade 2's
Great Nature:
4x Binoculus Tiger
4x Compass Lion
Link Joker:
4x Gravity Collapse Dragon
Grade 3's
Link Joker:
4x Schwartzchild Dragon
This deck functions in a similar fashion to Tom and Jerry, but has a different goal of making some extremely consistent persona blasting with Schwartzchild. This deck has the same base consistencies (ride chain and top 5 search on ride) added in with the Great Nature's Coiling Duckbill to cycle through cards quickly and Tic-Toc Flamingo to unflip the damage expended on these things to get a potential second persona blast. While the deck only has two nulls, you get a lot of defense out of just a single persona blast, and guarding early and wisely in this otherwise low-counterblast deck will help you secure a larger advantage over the course of the game. When pushing for game, you have several outs to empower any Great Nature rear guards you want to, and with the right combinations of cards, you can net cards back or unflip damage during the process. You also have great turn 2 defensive options between landing the ride chain and locking a unit on the opponent's field to having an 11k Compass Lion Vanguard. If Compass Lion is your Vanguard, you can even go without retiring any units if you don't have any Great Nature rear-guards out, which is a nice way to bypass that restriction while sitting on solid defenses.
I'm still looking to future support for both clans and seeing what I can adapt to this as I'm playtesting it. So far, if I get out any reasonable set-up, the deck works amazingly, especially with early Duckbills.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
You've Just Triggered My Trap Card! (Vanguard cards/combos you probably should avoid)
Demon Bike of the Witching Hour - This card is so unintentionally poorly designed that it is borderline unplayable, yet still played quite a bit. Especially in the deck it was meant for. You might be thinking, "22k 3 crit?! What's wrong with that?!" Nothing is wrong with that, what's wrong is when you take a look at the numbers behind your units. Are you running 4 perfect guards? Are you running 4 Demon Bikes? Okay, that's 8 grade 1's. How many of those are on the field? 1. The "optimal" situation for this deck, according to its players, would be riding an Alluring Succubus/Yellow Bolt on the first turn, and securing that extra soul charge. So, let's take a look at our booster count for our whole deck. We have 4 nulls we don't really want to call to boost with. We have 1 Bike since the rest go to soul from deck. We just lost an Alluring/Yellow Bolt. So then, if we're running 14 grade 1's, we have 6 boosters left (-4 nulls, -3 Bikes, -1 grade 1 ride). In exchange, we have a 12k booster and 5 other potential boosters. Now, that's all fine and dandy. You can draw into 2 of 5 cards in your deck and fill your backrow and pray you aren't up against Kagero/Narukami/Correctly built Dark Irregulars that can snipe your Bike, because that will be the first target, and then you'll have no backrow short of the 5 cards you get to draw into. But, wait, there's more! In a Reijy deck, you've also soul charged close to 15 cards, which means that you're extremely likely to have soul charged a few more of your grade 1's. So, you're talking about hitting 2-3 of the maybe 4 grade 1's available to you. That's not counting cards that get damage checked. Speaking of that, a damage checked Bike makes running him useless, gives you a -1 to soul (same as soul charging him before using Reijy to put copies of himself in soul), and there's many ways for you to mess up that perfect set-up. Drawing into Demon Bikes is another way to mess up your set-up. Sure, you can ride one, soul charge another, and have two 10k boosters (not bad at all), but that typically won't let you hit any magic numbers over regular Amon and won't help you hit magic numbers over Devil Child.
Dragonic Overlord THE END/Dauntless Drive Dragon - DOtE is an early game pressure card/late game tank. All he needs to cause some form of pressure is to have two face up damage. One of the things that has made the deck dominate for so long was a combination of the deck's cycling abilities to get him out, a potential 13k defense, and Kagero's backrow sniping, making it harder for the opponent to hit over that 13k wall. If you don't crossride DOtE, it is still just as much of an offensive threat, but loses quite a bit of defensive prowess. Dauntless Drive Dragon is an incredible break ride unit. Probably the best in the game. He destroys hands late game and does what he does really well. This combo actually works out pretty well, not because of synergy (they have -5 synergy, tell you the truth), but because break riding Crested Dragon (Kagero vanilla 10k grade 3) over Dauntless Drive Dragon is still insane pressure. On-hit limit break effects suck. There's no mincing words, if your Vanguard hits late game, the game is typically over. Even still, if your opponent is going to let one of DOtE's attacks hit, it's going to be the first one. This leaves you with a choice, activate the persona blast and make DDD's effect non-existant (unsynergy) or activate DDD's effect and have them guard the second swing. They will either guard the second, or guard both. In any event that they can't guard either attack, they would lose to any break ride combination with DDD anyway. This combination quite literally accomplishes nothing short of dragging both cards away from their truest potential since both function better without each other.
Ethics Buster/Stern Blaukluger - While I personally use Ethics as a back-up Vanguard in my Stern deck post set-10, that is his function, a back-up ride that's 11k defense and swings for 13k. Apply everything about on-hit limit breaks being bad from the DOtE/DDD section and apply it to this combo.
Genovious/Benedict and/or Storm Riders - I really love Genovious and Benedict. I have never really been a big Storm Rider fan, though. These cards don't work together nicely. Having a bunch of weak swings, likely 9-10k, doesn't do anything for this deck, especially since half of the Storm Riders (Eugene/Basil/Diamantes) only get the +power and swap on the first attack. If you swap using those three units, you can't use their effects to swap back after the persona blast. This deck is really meant to do 5 boosted attacks at the Vanguard. That being said, you guys are probably wondering why Benedict doesn't fit. Here's the sad answer. When Benedict attacks a Vanguard, he is forced to lose the 5k and restand. Then you are forced to attack the Vanguard again with that -5k. When you restand Benedict, you get neither the 5k back nor the ability to use that effect to restand him. The entire purpose of using Benedict in a critical deck is to swing Vanguard first and if the Vanguard is guarded, pass that power to Benedict since he doubles up on the amount of shield forced from every trigger. Now, there is a way to play around that by attacking a RG with Benedict, but when the purpose of the 5 swing limit break persona blast is to try and finish the opponent, that feels very counterproductive.
Goku/Waterfall/Lawkeeper - I keep hearing this rationale that "Once you have checked a few grade 3's, ride a different unit over Goku." I mean, sure, you can. But math has already proven that your flat odds of hitting a grade 3 on a drive check never change, and your proportion of checking grade 3's to non-grade 3's is most likely going to stick around the flat ratio of grade 3's to non-grade 3's in your deck, so there's little point to it unless you're riding specifically to finish off the opponent. Waterfall is a big Vanguard swing, but they aren't going to be null guarding Goku unless they ran out of 10k shields earlier. There's a good chance you're just riding into a null guard while retaining the same flat odds to check grade 3's. Lawkeeper is a little more justifiable as it is a limit break unit and can eliminate the intercepting factor to push for game, but it's still not a big improvement on the base (only hits for one more stage against non-crossrides) and the null guard issue could still happen. I think that Goku should stay your Vanguard with Dauntless as a back-up ride because, like I mentioned earlier, anything with Dauntless is good and 4 chances to retire grade 1's, even that late in the game, is still relevant. It still keeps goku as that early game pressure card while having a viable back-up option that drains the opponent's hand, and if you want to run extra grade 3's, the Amber Dragon ride chain is great for this deck.
Platina/Gancelot - This combination gives your field +50k for a turn. It comes with a few downsides though. The deck doesn't do anything at any other stage of the game. People who see the breakride combination coming will keep your damage low. All of your 12k beaters work only half the time. Missing the break ride equates to you doing nothing the whole game. You need to run non-counterblasting, weak rear guards, including self-damagers. You are very likely going to create normal rows that only force 5k shield from your opponent because of the RG's you are forced to run. The deck just exudes gimmickiness, and due to all of these weaknesses, isn't likely to be that threatening with a 50k power boost.
Pellinore/Duke or any other main phase/ride phase superior call deck - No. Pellinore is bad. Riding him mid-battlephase is his best case scenario. Dropping 2 cards to ride a vanilla 10k unit that can limit break to sack nearly half of his field for a marginal increase in power is not a good option. Duke is better off with Gancelot (when available) and until then Destroyer. Chrome and Duke both want to be at 4, and I think that having a decent RG is a little too important for this deck, especially since Destroyer is their only out for 21k on the RG without Garmore (who is your real backup ride if you need one).
Dragonic Overlord THE END/Dauntless Drive Dragon - DOtE is an early game pressure card/late game tank. All he needs to cause some form of pressure is to have two face up damage. One of the things that has made the deck dominate for so long was a combination of the deck's cycling abilities to get him out, a potential 13k defense, and Kagero's backrow sniping, making it harder for the opponent to hit over that 13k wall. If you don't crossride DOtE, it is still just as much of an offensive threat, but loses quite a bit of defensive prowess. Dauntless Drive Dragon is an incredible break ride unit. Probably the best in the game. He destroys hands late game and does what he does really well. This combo actually works out pretty well, not because of synergy (they have -5 synergy, tell you the truth), but because break riding Crested Dragon (Kagero vanilla 10k grade 3) over Dauntless Drive Dragon is still insane pressure. On-hit limit break effects suck. There's no mincing words, if your Vanguard hits late game, the game is typically over. Even still, if your opponent is going to let one of DOtE's attacks hit, it's going to be the first one. This leaves you with a choice, activate the persona blast and make DDD's effect non-existant (unsynergy) or activate DDD's effect and have them guard the second swing. They will either guard the second, or guard both. In any event that they can't guard either attack, they would lose to any break ride combination with DDD anyway. This combination quite literally accomplishes nothing short of dragging both cards away from their truest potential since both function better without each other.
Ethics Buster/Stern Blaukluger - While I personally use Ethics as a back-up Vanguard in my Stern deck post set-10, that is his function, a back-up ride that's 11k defense and swings for 13k. Apply everything about on-hit limit breaks being bad from the DOtE/DDD section and apply it to this combo.
Genovious/Benedict and/or Storm Riders - I really love Genovious and Benedict. I have never really been a big Storm Rider fan, though. These cards don't work together nicely. Having a bunch of weak swings, likely 9-10k, doesn't do anything for this deck, especially since half of the Storm Riders (Eugene/Basil/Diamantes) only get the +power and swap on the first attack. If you swap using those three units, you can't use their effects to swap back after the persona blast. This deck is really meant to do 5 boosted attacks at the Vanguard. That being said, you guys are probably wondering why Benedict doesn't fit. Here's the sad answer. When Benedict attacks a Vanguard, he is forced to lose the 5k and restand. Then you are forced to attack the Vanguard again with that -5k. When you restand Benedict, you get neither the 5k back nor the ability to use that effect to restand him. The entire purpose of using Benedict in a critical deck is to swing Vanguard first and if the Vanguard is guarded, pass that power to Benedict since he doubles up on the amount of shield forced from every trigger. Now, there is a way to play around that by attacking a RG with Benedict, but when the purpose of the 5 swing limit break persona blast is to try and finish the opponent, that feels very counterproductive.
Goku/Waterfall/Lawkeeper - I keep hearing this rationale that "Once you have checked a few grade 3's, ride a different unit over Goku." I mean, sure, you can. But math has already proven that your flat odds of hitting a grade 3 on a drive check never change, and your proportion of checking grade 3's to non-grade 3's is most likely going to stick around the flat ratio of grade 3's to non-grade 3's in your deck, so there's little point to it unless you're riding specifically to finish off the opponent. Waterfall is a big Vanguard swing, but they aren't going to be null guarding Goku unless they ran out of 10k shields earlier. There's a good chance you're just riding into a null guard while retaining the same flat odds to check grade 3's. Lawkeeper is a little more justifiable as it is a limit break unit and can eliminate the intercepting factor to push for game, but it's still not a big improvement on the base (only hits for one more stage against non-crossrides) and the null guard issue could still happen. I think that Goku should stay your Vanguard with Dauntless as a back-up ride because, like I mentioned earlier, anything with Dauntless is good and 4 chances to retire grade 1's, even that late in the game, is still relevant. It still keeps goku as that early game pressure card while having a viable back-up option that drains the opponent's hand, and if you want to run extra grade 3's, the Amber Dragon ride chain is great for this deck.
Platina/Gancelot - This combination gives your field +50k for a turn. It comes with a few downsides though. The deck doesn't do anything at any other stage of the game. People who see the breakride combination coming will keep your damage low. All of your 12k beaters work only half the time. Missing the break ride equates to you doing nothing the whole game. You need to run non-counterblasting, weak rear guards, including self-damagers. You are very likely going to create normal rows that only force 5k shield from your opponent because of the RG's you are forced to run. The deck just exudes gimmickiness, and due to all of these weaknesses, isn't likely to be that threatening with a 50k power boost.
Pellinore/Duke or any other main phase/ride phase superior call deck - No. Pellinore is bad. Riding him mid-battlephase is his best case scenario. Dropping 2 cards to ride a vanilla 10k unit that can limit break to sack nearly half of his field for a marginal increase in power is not a good option. Duke is better off with Gancelot (when available) and until then Destroyer. Chrome and Duke both want to be at 4, and I think that having a decent RG is a little too important for this deck, especially since Destroyer is their only out for 21k on the RG without Garmore (who is your real backup ride if you need one).
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Blaukluger, Shutsugeki!
I put my own spin on the Blaukluger series a while ago. I wanted to share some of my secrets with you guys.
Starter - Blaujunger
16 Nova Grappler Critical Triggers Because We Are Men (16NGCTBWAM)
Grade 1's
4x Tough Boy [Key Card]
4x Twin-Blader
4x Blaupanzer
2x Rocket Hammerman [Key Card]
Grade 2's
4x Blaukluger [Key Card]
3x Eisenkugel [Key Card]
2x Kirara
2x Hungry Dumpty
Grade 3's
4x Stern Blaukluger
4x Death Metal Droid [Key Card]
Now, you see the "[Key Card]" symbol over a few units that aren't always typical in a Stern deck, or aren't typical at the amount I'm running them at. There is a method to this madness.
The first key card is Tough Boy. He is very important in this deck. Granted, vanilla boosters are always good. This one is a super special case though, as I will explain with the next key card.
The second key card is Rocket Hammerman. "Wait, what? Tim, why? That card is so incredible awful". Mmm, not as much as you might think. The ability to transfer one stage of power from a row that's already strong enough to hit anything unboosted to an on-hit restanding Vanguard is actually pretty amazing. Yes folks, this makes an 11k base Stern 21k with a Tough Boy booster, and that's incredibly sexy. It is typically placed behind the fourth key card, and we'll soon see why.
The third key card is Blaukluger. It is normal to run Blaukluger in a Blaukluger deck, but typically not 4. The reason why I'm running 4 Blauklugers is because I absolutely love consistency. Not only that, this opens up the option of riding a different grade 1 other than Blaupanzer, calling Blaupanzer to drop a Death Metal Droid for a Stern, and still securing that 11k base which is extremely important to this deck.
The fourth key card is Eisenkugel. It swings for 12k with a Blaukluger Vanguard while retaining a 10k body. If we don't have a Blaukluger Vanguard, though, it becomes a 5k body and swings for 7k. This is another reason why we are desperately trying to secure that Blaukluger/Stern and want each step of this process to be as consistent as possible. This card is placed in front of Rocket Hammerman to ensure that the row can always hit at least something unboosted. If your opponent crossrides and Rocket Hammerman is no longer being used to make Stern 21k (or they're at 5 damage and/or you anticipate a perfect guard) since it's no longer a magic number, this row is already 18k. Can also be used to kill Tom because Tom.
The fifth key card is Death Metal Droid. Against 10/11k Vanguards, he is extremely punishing. Your opponent can't guard a 21k Vanguard and a 21k + triggers RG every turn, and this is typically where people are going to eat the damage. If you want to troll crossrides that are at 4 damage, you can tap Rocket Hammerman to give this unit power, and have Eisenkugal swing at a RG unboosted (this always forces at least 5k shield from an opponent so that they have to "guard" the attack that they would most want not to guard). Now you swing with your 19k Stern, and when they guard that, pass triggers to your 23k+ triggers Death Metal Droid. Keep in mind that you lose a stage of power against the crossride by doing this, but you get to apply more power to the rows which are going to have the critical pressure. Again, this is a 4 damage opponent tactic. Don't do this at 5 because you will be 5k less shield to guard for turn.
Now, there are plenty of other units and tactics in this deck. I just wanted to explain a bit about how I trade power stages from rows to generate more pressure by having the higher-threat rows get more power to go with your increased likelihood of checking criticals from being a man.
Starter - Blaujunger
16 Nova Grappler Critical Triggers Because We Are Men (16NGCTBWAM)
Grade 1's
4x Tough Boy [Key Card]
4x Twin-Blader
4x Blaupanzer
2x Rocket Hammerman [Key Card]
Grade 2's
4x Blaukluger [Key Card]
3x Eisenkugel [Key Card]
2x Kirara
2x Hungry Dumpty
Grade 3's
4x Stern Blaukluger
4x Death Metal Droid [Key Card]
Now, you see the "[Key Card]" symbol over a few units that aren't always typical in a Stern deck, or aren't typical at the amount I'm running them at. There is a method to this madness.
The first key card is Tough Boy. He is very important in this deck. Granted, vanilla boosters are always good. This one is a super special case though, as I will explain with the next key card.
The second key card is Rocket Hammerman. "Wait, what? Tim, why? That card is so incredible awful". Mmm, not as much as you might think. The ability to transfer one stage of power from a row that's already strong enough to hit anything unboosted to an on-hit restanding Vanguard is actually pretty amazing. Yes folks, this makes an 11k base Stern 21k with a Tough Boy booster, and that's incredibly sexy. It is typically placed behind the fourth key card, and we'll soon see why.
The third key card is Blaukluger. It is normal to run Blaukluger in a Blaukluger deck, but typically not 4. The reason why I'm running 4 Blauklugers is because I absolutely love consistency. Not only that, this opens up the option of riding a different grade 1 other than Blaupanzer, calling Blaupanzer to drop a Death Metal Droid for a Stern, and still securing that 11k base which is extremely important to this deck.
The fourth key card is Eisenkugel. It swings for 12k with a Blaukluger Vanguard while retaining a 10k body. If we don't have a Blaukluger Vanguard, though, it becomes a 5k body and swings for 7k. This is another reason why we are desperately trying to secure that Blaukluger/Stern and want each step of this process to be as consistent as possible. This card is placed in front of Rocket Hammerman to ensure that the row can always hit at least something unboosted. If your opponent crossrides and Rocket Hammerman is no longer being used to make Stern 21k (or they're at 5 damage and/or you anticipate a perfect guard) since it's no longer a magic number, this row is already 18k. Can also be used to kill Tom because Tom.
The fifth key card is Death Metal Droid. Against 10/11k Vanguards, he is extremely punishing. Your opponent can't guard a 21k Vanguard and a 21k + triggers RG every turn, and this is typically where people are going to eat the damage. If you want to troll crossrides that are at 4 damage, you can tap Rocket Hammerman to give this unit power, and have Eisenkugal swing at a RG unboosted (this always forces at least 5k shield from an opponent so that they have to "guard" the attack that they would most want not to guard). Now you swing with your 19k Stern, and when they guard that, pass triggers to your 23k+ triggers Death Metal Droid. Keep in mind that you lose a stage of power against the crossride by doing this, but you get to apply more power to the rows which are going to have the critical pressure. Again, this is a 4 damage opponent tactic. Don't do this at 5 because you will be 5k less shield to guard for turn.
Now, there are plenty of other units and tactics in this deck. I just wanted to explain a bit about how I trade power stages from rows to generate more pressure by having the higher-threat rows get more power to go with your increased likelihood of checking criticals from being a man.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Trigger Tier List
After playtesting every combination of triggers possible, I've decided to make a new trigger tier list (Heals were moved down to tier 2, Stands up to tier 2, Draws down to tier 3):
Previous Tier List:
Tier 1 - Critical Trigger, Heal Trigger
Tier 2 - Draw Trigger
Tier 3 - Stand Trigger
Current Tier List:
Tier 1 - Critical Trigger
Tier 2 - Stand Trigger, Heal Trigger
Tier 3 - Draw Trigger
Disclaimer: This assesses the general value of triggers as if they were always 5k vanilla triggers. Gatling Claw, Margal, and Shirley are still great cards.
Criticals don't need to be explained. In a game with such an incredibly small damage pool, dealing extra damage automatically is already going to be the best option. It forces opponents into late game sooner than they would otherwise be comfortable. Also, there aren't any real clans, decks, playstyles, or builds that wouldn't see some benefit from running critical triggers.
Now, for the remaining three:
Stands - Stands started off being underpowering, and in a large section of the English meta, they are still pretty weak. However, that does not dismiss their potential. They are the best offensive trigger at 5 damage (and a good section of the game takes place at this amount of damage), but unlike criticals, which fall off at 5 damage, stands are still useful for the rest of the game before hitting their peak at 5, so long as you have a rear-guard out. As heals are proving to be less and less consistent with stronger styles of gameplay, I feel like with the increase in high-powered rear guards being introduced to the game and the strengthening of on-hit skills like Constance and units to increase their power like Sephirot and Master of Fifth, along with RG empowering break rides like Mordred, Gancelot, and Dantalian, stands have been slowly but surely gaining that early game pressure and late game killing power to get them up a notch above heals in overall effectiveness. There are still some decks that don't synergize well with stands (Pale Moon is a prime example, as even though they have on-hit skills, most of their front row base power is too low to merit stands). Link Joker will make stands significantly weaker when they land their breakride. I won't count one deck that counters stands against them, though. They have been proving their worth.
Heals - You might be thinking, "ZOMG Tim, WTF, HEELZ ARE BEST!" And if heals didn't have that, "You must have equal or greater damage to your opponent to heal.", I would agree. My playtesting has shown me a lot of insightful things. One of these things is that there are a lot of games where I will drop a 10k to no pass an opponent's first swing to my Vanguard. Of these games, about 20% of them ended up with me cockblocking a critical trigger. If you think about it, most decks run 8 criticals. More decks run 12 crit than 6 crit, and very few decks run only 4 crit. There are some decks running more/less, but they are outside of the norm. If you assume an average of 9-10 criticals per deck, then by no passing that first swing, you end up with about a 20% chance to stop a critical trigger. Now, what does this have to do with heal triggers? I think it's a smart idea to stop that first swing if you have the 10k shield for it and your vanguard is strong enough to no-pass it with just a 10k shield. If you stop that first swing, it will be a few turns before the option of healing even presents itself. I've seen people take easily guarded 5k to-guard attacks to enable themselves to reach the same damage as their opponent to not hit into dead heals. There are a wide array of situations where easily guarded attacks can be guarded for 5k or 10k shields early and save you shield in the long run. Guarding early is going to save you shield in the long run. It's a wise thing to do when the situation presents itself and your hand has those excess grade 0's. The simple fact is, you either have to play unintelligibly, you have to be losing legitimately, or you are going to have to eat some dead heal triggers. While healing is one of the most powerful effects that can occur in the game, if you have to play around your trigger in such incredibly inefficient ways, I can't give them the A+ rating that I would otherwise give them. As the other 3 triggers don't need anything special save one RG at rest (stand) and one RG not at rest (crit), it makes heals feel incredibly situational and difficult to manage. This isn't to say that heals are bad, they just aren't as great as they're hyped up to be.
Draws - Now, since I made so much of a fuss about consistency with Heals, you're probably like, "Wtf are you smoking Tim? Draws are the only cards that ALWAYS trigger." Yes, but of the 4 types of triggers, they have the weakest effect. Where a stand gives you an extra attack, potentially with an on-hit RG, where a crit will potentially end the game or rush it closer to ending, where a heal can save you or put you in a position to not have to guard with any extra cards from hand, all draws do is let you draw one random card off the top of your deck. That's not bad at all, but they come with four drawbacks.
1. They have less shield than other triggers.
2. The card they draw into most likely has 5k shield as well, so you net no gain in shields when this card is drive checked. If you twin-drive this card and draw into a trigger to get more shield, you either cockblocked your second trigger, or cockblocked your 1st damage trigger on the next turn. On your turn, there aren't really any benefits for a draw trigger over any other trigger unless you draw into the EXACT card you need for the after-battle persona blast/following turn (and that's if you have enough guard to survive the next turn without dropping that card to save yourself), a null guard, or you are crossridden and need more 5k shields to stop weak rear guard swings (not really applicable against 18k+ rows).
3. Damage checking draws is the most effective way to check them. You get the +1 on your opponent's turn, don't suffer the weaknesses that you get when you drive check them, and you don't care about their shield value being less than other triggers in the damage zone. The problem, you only get 5 damage checks to hit a draw on. Draws are only run at 4-6 per deck, so hitting a draw on a damage check isn't super consistent. This means that you are required to run heals with draws to potentially get extra damage checks, and that greatly reduces your options for trigger lineups when running draws.
4. Drawing into a draw trigger sucks. You get only 5k shield for it, and drawing into any other trigger is better.
So, despite draws being the only trigger unit to always get its effect, I'm seeing more and more that they simply have too many weaknesses and are too restrictive with trigger line-ups.
Previous Tier List:
Tier 1 - Critical Trigger, Heal Trigger
Tier 2 - Draw Trigger
Tier 3 - Stand Trigger
Current Tier List:
Tier 1 - Critical Trigger
Tier 2 - Stand Trigger, Heal Trigger
Tier 3 - Draw Trigger
Disclaimer: This assesses the general value of triggers as if they were always 5k vanilla triggers. Gatling Claw, Margal, and Shirley are still great cards.
Criticals don't need to be explained. In a game with such an incredibly small damage pool, dealing extra damage automatically is already going to be the best option. It forces opponents into late game sooner than they would otherwise be comfortable. Also, there aren't any real clans, decks, playstyles, or builds that wouldn't see some benefit from running critical triggers.
Now, for the remaining three:
Stands - Stands started off being underpowering, and in a large section of the English meta, they are still pretty weak. However, that does not dismiss their potential. They are the best offensive trigger at 5 damage (and a good section of the game takes place at this amount of damage), but unlike criticals, which fall off at 5 damage, stands are still useful for the rest of the game before hitting their peak at 5, so long as you have a rear-guard out. As heals are proving to be less and less consistent with stronger styles of gameplay, I feel like with the increase in high-powered rear guards being introduced to the game and the strengthening of on-hit skills like Constance and units to increase their power like Sephirot and Master of Fifth, along with RG empowering break rides like Mordred, Gancelot, and Dantalian, stands have been slowly but surely gaining that early game pressure and late game killing power to get them up a notch above heals in overall effectiveness. There are still some decks that don't synergize well with stands (Pale Moon is a prime example, as even though they have on-hit skills, most of their front row base power is too low to merit stands). Link Joker will make stands significantly weaker when they land their breakride. I won't count one deck that counters stands against them, though. They have been proving their worth.
Heals - You might be thinking, "ZOMG Tim, WTF, HEELZ ARE BEST!" And if heals didn't have that, "You must have equal or greater damage to your opponent to heal.", I would agree. My playtesting has shown me a lot of insightful things. One of these things is that there are a lot of games where I will drop a 10k to no pass an opponent's first swing to my Vanguard. Of these games, about 20% of them ended up with me cockblocking a critical trigger. If you think about it, most decks run 8 criticals. More decks run 12 crit than 6 crit, and very few decks run only 4 crit. There are some decks running more/less, but they are outside of the norm. If you assume an average of 9-10 criticals per deck, then by no passing that first swing, you end up with about a 20% chance to stop a critical trigger. Now, what does this have to do with heal triggers? I think it's a smart idea to stop that first swing if you have the 10k shield for it and your vanguard is strong enough to no-pass it with just a 10k shield. If you stop that first swing, it will be a few turns before the option of healing even presents itself. I've seen people take easily guarded 5k to-guard attacks to enable themselves to reach the same damage as their opponent to not hit into dead heals. There are a wide array of situations where easily guarded attacks can be guarded for 5k or 10k shields early and save you shield in the long run. Guarding early is going to save you shield in the long run. It's a wise thing to do when the situation presents itself and your hand has those excess grade 0's. The simple fact is, you either have to play unintelligibly, you have to be losing legitimately, or you are going to have to eat some dead heal triggers. While healing is one of the most powerful effects that can occur in the game, if you have to play around your trigger in such incredibly inefficient ways, I can't give them the A+ rating that I would otherwise give them. As the other 3 triggers don't need anything special save one RG at rest (stand) and one RG not at rest (crit), it makes heals feel incredibly situational and difficult to manage. This isn't to say that heals are bad, they just aren't as great as they're hyped up to be.
Draws - Now, since I made so much of a fuss about consistency with Heals, you're probably like, "Wtf are you smoking Tim? Draws are the only cards that ALWAYS trigger." Yes, but of the 4 types of triggers, they have the weakest effect. Where a stand gives you an extra attack, potentially with an on-hit RG, where a crit will potentially end the game or rush it closer to ending, where a heal can save you or put you in a position to not have to guard with any extra cards from hand, all draws do is let you draw one random card off the top of your deck. That's not bad at all, but they come with four drawbacks.
1. They have less shield than other triggers.
2. The card they draw into most likely has 5k shield as well, so you net no gain in shields when this card is drive checked. If you twin-drive this card and draw into a trigger to get more shield, you either cockblocked your second trigger, or cockblocked your 1st damage trigger on the next turn. On your turn, there aren't really any benefits for a draw trigger over any other trigger unless you draw into the EXACT card you need for the after-battle persona blast/following turn (and that's if you have enough guard to survive the next turn without dropping that card to save yourself), a null guard, or you are crossridden and need more 5k shields to stop weak rear guard swings (not really applicable against 18k+ rows).
3. Damage checking draws is the most effective way to check them. You get the +1 on your opponent's turn, don't suffer the weaknesses that you get when you drive check them, and you don't care about their shield value being less than other triggers in the damage zone. The problem, you only get 5 damage checks to hit a draw on. Draws are only run at 4-6 per deck, so hitting a draw on a damage check isn't super consistent. This means that you are required to run heals with draws to potentially get extra damage checks, and that greatly reduces your options for trigger lineups when running draws.
4. Drawing into a draw trigger sucks. You get only 5k shield for it, and drawing into any other trigger is better.
So, despite draws being the only trigger unit to always get its effect, I'm seeing more and more that they simply have too many weaknesses and are too restrictive with trigger line-ups.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
What's an Standard Deviation?!
I'm perfectly cool with some random things happening now and again, but I expect a normalized spread of things to occur. Within at least the second Standard Deviation. Ever since I started using statistics in this game, I can't help but find that I should average getting a particular grade 3 Vanguard on turn 3 a certain amount of the time. This is like getting your one-of-four Vermillion or Garmore on turn 3. Standard stuff. The odds of getting one would be pretty high, more than half of the time to be exact. But my deck has to be the systemic anomaly.
So, the average amount of times I should be getting that grade 3 on turn 3 would be: 25.5~/40 games. I used some lazy math and got about 64% for the odds of me getting a particular grade 3 in time to ride it on turn 3, not counting missriding as I've left those games out of what I've been recording.
I've playtested this particular deck (Corrupt Paladins of Soul on this blog) extensively, and I have gotten this particular grade 3 (with no searchers/card draw other than 4 draw triggers) 6 times in those 40 playtests. I playtested it 10 games this week, so here's my results.
1st game- Deck trolled me. It was my second damage check. Didn't see another.
2nd game- 3 of them made up the bottom 4 cards of my deck. The other one was 10 from the bottom.
3rd game- Spread them apart in the deck before shuffling, then sufficiently randomized cards. Ride my 1-of Palamedes. Drive check Lohengrin, and because I did, I can't guard and lose the following turn.
4th game- Have someone else shuffle my deck. They shuffled, 2nd damage check was that grade 3. 6th damage check was that grade 3.
5th/6th game- Played online. Rode my 2-of grade 3 each game. Hit one Lohengrin... as a damage check. Yup.
7th game- Aggressive mulligan (5). Had no Lohengrin, threw everything back, hit no Lohengrin. First damage check it went away, rest were near bottom.
8th game- Turn 2, had no grade 3. Shuffled deck to search for Soul Saver with Pongal.
Lohengrin was my top card. ;__; Didn't see it rest of game.
9th game- I played against a new guy at the shop who had a starter deck. I get Lohengrin opening hand. I proceed to stomp him with my 32k Barron rows. ~_~ Well, when I can get him out, the deck works great, at least. >_<
10th game- Simply didn't see him at all. Didn't bother checking my deck for him. Decided it was writin' time.
So this means that I'm hitting my grade 3 19.5 games less than I should be (48.5% off from the mark of 64% that I should be getting). I would have needed to get Lohengrin 4.25 times as much as I did to be hitting him as much as I should. And that's not counting hitting multiples of him in a single game. My brain is severely addled by this, as I use pretty sufficient shuffling methods and even called in other people to shuffle. I even used an online shuffler a few games and got the same results.
So, the odds of me getting this result would be a 0.000000000000000X type of result. Give or take a few 0's since I'm feeling too lazy to work it out. That's how much this deck hates me. My results are close enough to 0 to be counted as 0. Yup.
Mathematical fun time.
So, the average amount of times I should be getting that grade 3 on turn 3 would be: 25.5~/40 games. I used some lazy math and got about 64% for the odds of me getting a particular grade 3 in time to ride it on turn 3, not counting missriding as I've left those games out of what I've been recording.
I've playtested this particular deck (Corrupt Paladins of Soul on this blog) extensively, and I have gotten this particular grade 3 (with no searchers/card draw other than 4 draw triggers) 6 times in those 40 playtests. I playtested it 10 games this week, so here's my results.
1st game- Deck trolled me. It was my second damage check. Didn't see another.
2nd game- 3 of them made up the bottom 4 cards of my deck. The other one was 10 from the bottom.
3rd game- Spread them apart in the deck before shuffling, then sufficiently randomized cards. Ride my 1-of Palamedes. Drive check Lohengrin, and because I did, I can't guard and lose the following turn.
4th game- Have someone else shuffle my deck. They shuffled, 2nd damage check was that grade 3. 6th damage check was that grade 3.
5th/6th game- Played online. Rode my 2-of grade 3 each game. Hit one Lohengrin... as a damage check. Yup.
7th game- Aggressive mulligan (5). Had no Lohengrin, threw everything back, hit no Lohengrin. First damage check it went away, rest were near bottom.
8th game- Turn 2, had no grade 3. Shuffled deck to search for Soul Saver with Pongal.
Lohengrin was my top card. ;__; Didn't see it rest of game.
9th game- I played against a new guy at the shop who had a starter deck. I get Lohengrin opening hand. I proceed to stomp him with my 32k Barron rows. ~_~ Well, when I can get him out, the deck works great, at least. >_<
10th game- Simply didn't see him at all. Didn't bother checking my deck for him. Decided it was writin' time.
So this means that I'm hitting my grade 3 19.5 games less than I should be (48.5% off from the mark of 64% that I should be getting). I would have needed to get Lohengrin 4.25 times as much as I did to be hitting him as much as I should. And that's not counting hitting multiples of him in a single game. My brain is severely addled by this, as I use pretty sufficient shuffling methods and even called in other people to shuffle. I even used an online shuffler a few games and got the same results.
So, the odds of me getting this result would be a 0.000000000000000X type of result. Give or take a few 0's since I'm feeling too lazy to work it out. That's how much this deck hates me. My results are close enough to 0 to be counted as 0. Yup.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Official Monoclan Kageroyals Variants
Kageroadhouse
Starter - Lizard Solider Conroe
16 Kagero Critical Triggers
4 Bahr
4 Perfect Guard
6 8k's from other clans
11 Kagero 10k vanillas
4 Waterfall
4 Graphite Cannon Dragon
Revenge Tastes Vanilla
Starter - Spinbau Revenger
16 Shadow Paladin Critical Triggers
4x Sharron
4x Revenger Mac Lir (Perfect Guard)
6x 8k's from other clans
11x Shadow Paladin Vanilla 10k's, max out on the Revenger Rugos.
OR
4x Revenger Rugos
4x Revenger Masquerade
3x Shadow Paladin Vanilla 10k
4x Curse Spear Revenger, Diarmuid
4x Revenger of Labyrinth, Araun
Diarmuid offers a few things to the Kageroyals playstyle: Late game finishing power, and consistency. No matter how you slice the cake, Waterfall is a -1 from hand, and this is a -1 from the field to apply that extra pressure. The trade off is that you have more targets in this version, but they have to be sacked from the field. If you're feeling brave, you can sack one of the 8 crits for Revengers or just off a grade 2 that swung at a RG. There's plenty of combo play here, and while it is a Limit Break, 26k 2 crit is just too juicy to pass up, and he is on equal grounds with Waterfall most of the time. We also get the archetype grade 3's to enable the use of 12k beaters in the deck to hit 20k in some rows. This comes with its own risks (harder to guard if you're forced to ride, easier to attack on the RG by unboosted units) and rewards (great attacking uboosted or boosted vs. 10k Vanguards). That decision is player preference.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Regional Qualifiers #2 (Gamerz)
So, there comes a time in every boy's life where he has to man the fuck up and keep his word. I said I was taking Amon to the regional qualifiers and pussed out at the last moment and switched to Kageroyals. Even with consistently bad hands and missing triggers all over the place, I still got 5th with Kageroyals. The deck is strong and it has nothing left to prove. Silent Tom told me to man the fuck up, keep my word, and go with Hellfire Ritual. Here are the results.
Game 1 (Go Pdi)
You might be wondering why I made the Gold Paladin name missing several letters. That's because the deck I was playing against was missing triggers. They had about 7 in their deck. They misplayed several times, including not attacking on their turn, and I won. Not too much to say about it, I gave him some advice and helped him out after match and proceeded on.
Game 2 (Shadow Paladin)
This match was the manliest match ever. We're both in a tight spot, I have a ton of damage (4), he has no viable rear guards since I keep swinging at them, but only one damage. He swings at my vanguard, I do a two-to-pass. He initiated manmode and gets a heal and a draw. I take a damage. Next turn, I take out his rear guards again and swing with my Vanguard, he does a two-to-pass, I initiate man mode, get a heal and a draw. His next turn, I'm in much better shape. I do a two-to-pass on his vanguard. He initiates manmode. Crit, draw. I lose. MANLIEST MATCH EVER!
Game 3 (Great Nature)
This guy was a special little snowflake. He decided to use 8 draws in conjunction with the high base power of Great Nature to have a big hand (of 5k shields). My Amon deck doesn't give any fucks about 5k shields, unless you've got like 9 of them. Well, he kind of did. He hit 5 triggers on his first 5 drive/damage checks. 4 draws and a heal which activated. I get him down to 7 cards in hand, i know 5 of them. He had a 10k, 4 5k's in hand that I knew of, and a 5k and a null guard that I didn't know about. I push all in with Amon since he's at 5 damage, having my entire backrow being Doreens. I had two null guards in hand and nothing else, so I charge those and another unit I had on the field. I have 27k, 30k, 15k for my rows. I swing 15k, he guards with 10. He has 6 cards left. I attack with Amon, he null guards, dropping a 5k shield. I hit no triggers. He drops 4 5k's, the rest of his hand, to stop the 5th damage. Just like last week, hitting a single trigger would have won the game for me. He actually used 2 null guards already, which is why I wasn't convinced one of the two cards I didn't know about was going to be one, but I already factored in that if it was, I just needed a trigger to break through the rest of his guard, which I was right about. It kind of sucked losing so early, but the games were just so overflooded with triggers I couldn't really do anything about it.
All-in-all, I shouldn't have made luck my dump stat, but at least I manned up and kept my word. I didn't secure one of the regional qualifiers, but at least I had a blast being a nooblord loser failsauce unwinner. <3
Game 1 (Go Pdi)
You might be wondering why I made the Gold Paladin name missing several letters. That's because the deck I was playing against was missing triggers. They had about 7 in their deck. They misplayed several times, including not attacking on their turn, and I won. Not too much to say about it, I gave him some advice and helped him out after match and proceeded on.
Game 2 (Shadow Paladin)
This match was the manliest match ever. We're both in a tight spot, I have a ton of damage (4), he has no viable rear guards since I keep swinging at them, but only one damage. He swings at my vanguard, I do a two-to-pass. He initiated manmode and gets a heal and a draw. I take a damage. Next turn, I take out his rear guards again and swing with my Vanguard, he does a two-to-pass, I initiate man mode, get a heal and a draw. His next turn, I'm in much better shape. I do a two-to-pass on his vanguard. He initiates manmode. Crit, draw. I lose. MANLIEST MATCH EVER!
Game 3 (Great Nature)
This guy was a special little snowflake. He decided to use 8 draws in conjunction with the high base power of Great Nature to have a big hand (of 5k shields). My Amon deck doesn't give any fucks about 5k shields, unless you've got like 9 of them. Well, he kind of did. He hit 5 triggers on his first 5 drive/damage checks. 4 draws and a heal which activated. I get him down to 7 cards in hand, i know 5 of them. He had a 10k, 4 5k's in hand that I knew of, and a 5k and a null guard that I didn't know about. I push all in with Amon since he's at 5 damage, having my entire backrow being Doreens. I had two null guards in hand and nothing else, so I charge those and another unit I had on the field. I have 27k, 30k, 15k for my rows. I swing 15k, he guards with 10. He has 6 cards left. I attack with Amon, he null guards, dropping a 5k shield. I hit no triggers. He drops 4 5k's, the rest of his hand, to stop the 5th damage. Just like last week, hitting a single trigger would have won the game for me. He actually used 2 null guards already, which is why I wasn't convinced one of the two cards I didn't know about was going to be one, but I already factored in that if it was, I just needed a trigger to break through the rest of his guard, which I was right about. It kind of sucked losing so early, but the games were just so overflooded with triggers I couldn't really do anything about it.
All-in-all, I shouldn't have made luck my dump stat, but at least I manned up and kept my word. I didn't secure one of the regional qualifiers, but at least I had a blast being a nooblord loser failsauce unwinner. <3
Friday, March 15, 2013
Bison Overlord
I've been tinkering around with this deck lately.
I've had some very pleasing results with it. Normally, I'd say skip the
Great Nature side of things and play the Tri-Stinger version of Overlord
(since multi-attacks and stand triggers synergize more with Aqua Force)
but I just had to try this version out because Soft Tank Sloth is
adorable, and unflipping 4 damage is just crazy.
There has to be a certain balance to the deck since you need at least one other Kagero out for Dragonic Overlord to be 11k, but you also need certain Great Nature grade 1's to secure the damage unflip (Soft Tank) and protect yourself (Perfect Guard). Here's the list I eventually settled on.
Starter - Conroe
Triggers 8 Stand, 4 Draw, 4 Crit (all Great Nature)
Grade 1's
4x Soft Tank
4x Bahr
3x Cable Sheep
3x Gojo
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus
2x Lamp Camel
2x Tejas
2x Nehalem
1x Compass Lion (functions similarly to Binoculus for securing the damage unflip, hits 18k with Gojo)
Grade 3's
4x Bison
4x Overlord
This deck doesn't really try to hide that it minuses itself to minus the opponent. Using Overlord's effect is always at least 2 cards that my opponent will lose, so trading a Soft Tank Sloth for that ability every turn is the justification to the deck's playstyle. The trigger line-up has 4 crits to threaten my opponent with some early damage with 8 stands to double-up the threat of Overlord and 4 draws to give a one-turn boost to one Great Nature unit or to sacrifice with Binoculus for Bison's damage unflip.
I'm still tweaking the deck and trying to form as few dependencies on same-type vanguard units as I can (thus, no Hammsuke, since they're useless with an Overlord Vanguard even though I still have to sacrifice a unit for Binoculus and Compass, and they also partially counteract my large-scale damage unflip). Naturally, if a deck has 8 stands and access to a Kirara clone, it's a given to play that unit to put even more pressure on the opponent, especially if you haven't secured an Overlord.
Riding Overlord isn't super great for this deck, but it can still play like a generic beat down deck pretty well with fairly high base power for all of the units in the deck, coupled with Binoculus not needing a Great Nature Vanguard to use his skill. All in all, I found this deck to be incredibly fun to play, and Overlord having his threat on any given turn is terrifying.
There has to be a certain balance to the deck since you need at least one other Kagero out for Dragonic Overlord to be 11k, but you also need certain Great Nature grade 1's to secure the damage unflip (Soft Tank) and protect yourself (Perfect Guard). Here's the list I eventually settled on.
Starter - Conroe
Triggers 8 Stand, 4 Draw, 4 Crit (all Great Nature)
Grade 1's
4x Soft Tank
4x Bahr
3x Cable Sheep
3x Gojo
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus
2x Lamp Camel
2x Tejas
2x Nehalem
1x Compass Lion (functions similarly to Binoculus for securing the damage unflip, hits 18k with Gojo)
Grade 3's
4x Bison
4x Overlord
This deck doesn't really try to hide that it minuses itself to minus the opponent. Using Overlord's effect is always at least 2 cards that my opponent will lose, so trading a Soft Tank Sloth for that ability every turn is the justification to the deck's playstyle. The trigger line-up has 4 crits to threaten my opponent with some early damage with 8 stands to double-up the threat of Overlord and 4 draws to give a one-turn boost to one Great Nature unit or to sacrifice with Binoculus for Bison's damage unflip.
I'm still tweaking the deck and trying to form as few dependencies on same-type vanguard units as I can (thus, no Hammsuke, since they're useless with an Overlord Vanguard even though I still have to sacrifice a unit for Binoculus and Compass, and they also partially counteract my large-scale damage unflip). Naturally, if a deck has 8 stands and access to a Kirara clone, it's a given to play that unit to put even more pressure on the opponent, especially if you haven't secured an Overlord.
Riding Overlord isn't super great for this deck, but it can still play like a generic beat down deck pretty well with fairly high base power for all of the units in the deck, coupled with Binoculus not needing a Great Nature Vanguard to use his skill. All in all, I found this deck to be incredibly fun to play, and Overlord having his threat on any given turn is terrifying.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Regional Qualifiers #1 (Krypton Comics)
Here's the results from my awesome day at Krypton Comics with CJ Sarber.
Game 1 (MLB)
I made an early misplay by not 10k guarding their 7+5k attack to my 8k vanguard. They got a crit, which my 10k guard would have shut down completely and saved me two early damage. That woke me up (I'm still pretty tired) and I stopped misplaying after that. I still ended up taking a demanding lead and secure the game turn 4.
Game 2 (Gold Paladins)
I ride up perfectly and reach turn 4. My opponent has mostly 5k shields and has exactly enough guard to block both of my rear-guards, but not my vanguard. He's at 4 damage. I'm at 5 damage because he swung 23k turn two with his Ezel/Tron combo due to the superior ride. So he no guards my vanguard. I have 14 triggers left in my 37~ card deck. My odds of hitting one critical and winning are about 72%. My odds of surviving his next turn if he didn't hit triggers would be guaranteed as long as I didn't drive check two grade 3's. I have two Bors on the field. I drive check two Bors, immediately declare my own loss, and chuckle to myself. This time I'M the Byond Shuffler.
Game 3 (Gold Paladins)
Another Ezelmore deck. I don't remember much about this game. I won with 3 rows of 3 Bors/8k's. Still Byond shuffling like a nooblord. All I remember was that they had 3 damage and no guarded my Bors and I Kageroyal'd them with a double crit.
Game 4 (Spike Brothers)
I got wailed on hard early game. She hit trigger after trigger after trigger. I end up winning by getting a critical at the end, but only because she misplayed a few times.
Game 5 (MLB)
Same player I beat in round one. I got gradelocked at 1 for a turn. This game lasted a while, going to turn 6 or 7. He damage checked a Blaster Dark and I attacked into one of them to retire it. He drive checked another and got one with Wingal Brave. I ended up losing to two consecutive +10k's from moving the Blasters to soul. One of the sad things about not running perfect guards is encountering big-hitting vanguards with bonus crit. I didn't see any Bediviere and 4 of each Blaster, so he had at least 3 instances where not having a booster caused him to be unable to swing over any of my units.
Result - Kageroyals went 3-2 in the tournament, netting me 5th place.
Side games
Kageroyals - won two more side games and lost one, putting me at 5-3 for the day. Not as good as usual, but I won't complain.
Royal Paladin/Dark Irregulars - This deck was dysfunctional. Not because it was built wrong, it just never drew what it needed ever. I did not have a single game where Lohengrin (running 4) was my vanguard save ONE game where he was ridden AFTER Palamedes. Palamedes was my Vanguard 6 games. I only have one of him. I ended the night 0-8 with this deck because Lohengrin is the entire crux of it working. I really need to shuffle better because holy crap that was awful. I still had fun playing it, but it just did NOT function the way it was supposed to. Again, Byond shuffle fail by me.
Hellfire Ritual - Went 5-2. I lost one game before the tournament with it, then lost once to CJ. CJ hit a 6th damage heal and double crit me at 3 damage to seal the deal on me (which I totally called!). I love comebacks, so I was probably more excited about it than he was. Sadly, my strongest row was only 30k unboosted. I guess I need to start lifting again.
Game 1 (MLB)
I made an early misplay by not 10k guarding their 7+5k attack to my 8k vanguard. They got a crit, which my 10k guard would have shut down completely and saved me two early damage. That woke me up (I'm still pretty tired) and I stopped misplaying after that. I still ended up taking a demanding lead and secure the game turn 4.
Game 2 (Gold Paladins)
I ride up perfectly and reach turn 4. My opponent has mostly 5k shields and has exactly enough guard to block both of my rear-guards, but not my vanguard. He's at 4 damage. I'm at 5 damage because he swung 23k turn two with his Ezel/Tron combo due to the superior ride. So he no guards my vanguard. I have 14 triggers left in my 37~ card deck. My odds of hitting one critical and winning are about 72%. My odds of surviving his next turn if he didn't hit triggers would be guaranteed as long as I didn't drive check two grade 3's. I have two Bors on the field. I drive check two Bors, immediately declare my own loss, and chuckle to myself. This time I'M the Byond Shuffler.
Game 3 (Gold Paladins)
Another Ezelmore deck. I don't remember much about this game. I won with 3 rows of 3 Bors/8k's. Still Byond shuffling like a nooblord. All I remember was that they had 3 damage and no guarded my Bors and I Kageroyal'd them with a double crit.
Game 4 (Spike Brothers)
I got wailed on hard early game. She hit trigger after trigger after trigger. I end up winning by getting a critical at the end, but only because she misplayed a few times.
Game 5 (MLB)
Same player I beat in round one. I got gradelocked at 1 for a turn. This game lasted a while, going to turn 6 or 7. He damage checked a Blaster Dark and I attacked into one of them to retire it. He drive checked another and got one with Wingal Brave. I ended up losing to two consecutive +10k's from moving the Blasters to soul. One of the sad things about not running perfect guards is encountering big-hitting vanguards with bonus crit. I didn't see any Bediviere and 4 of each Blaster, so he had at least 3 instances where not having a booster caused him to be unable to swing over any of my units.
Result - Kageroyals went 3-2 in the tournament, netting me 5th place.
Side games
Kageroyals - won two more side games and lost one, putting me at 5-3 for the day. Not as good as usual, but I won't complain.
Royal Paladin/Dark Irregulars - This deck was dysfunctional. Not because it was built wrong, it just never drew what it needed ever. I did not have a single game where Lohengrin (running 4) was my vanguard save ONE game where he was ridden AFTER Palamedes. Palamedes was my Vanguard 6 games. I only have one of him. I ended the night 0-8 with this deck because Lohengrin is the entire crux of it working. I really need to shuffle better because holy crap that was awful. I still had fun playing it, but it just did NOT function the way it was supposed to. Again, Byond shuffle fail by me.
Hellfire Ritual - Went 5-2. I lost one game before the tournament with it, then lost once to CJ. CJ hit a 6th damage heal and double crit me at 3 damage to seal the deal on me (which I totally called!). I love comebacks, so I was probably more excited about it than he was. Sadly, my strongest row was only 30k unboosted. I guess I need to start lifting again.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Hellfire Ritual (Complete)
Grade 0's
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Hysteric Shirley (Draw)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Demonic Dragon Sage, Mahoraga
3x Alluring Succubus
Grade 2's
4x Demon of Aspiration, Amon
4x Flirtatious Succubus
3x Gwynn the Ripper
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Evil Eye, Basilisk (Makes perfect guarding more consistent and hits for 12k without needing a retire from Amon)
1x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.
This deck uses the same tactics as Hellfire Ritual, only it utilizes Demonic Dragon Mage, Mahoraga as a powerful booster over Blazing Flare Dragon as an attacker. I've altered the list with Gwynn the Ripper to give targetted retirement without having to neg yourself. Additionally, this also lets Basilisk enable power boosts for Mahoragas on the field. There's less 20k rows since I took out Seiger, but still the same access to powerful 21k+ rows. And, honestly, the 20/21k deals are if you only soul charge or retire once, but this is a build that waits until the opponent is on their last legs, then goes all-in, so you will be doing multiples of each, to the point where the difference between a Seiger or Gwynn won't be that large.
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Hysteric Shirley (Draw)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Demonic Dragon Sage, Mahoraga
3x Alluring Succubus
Grade 2's
4x Demon of Aspiration, Amon
4x Flirtatious Succubus
3x Gwynn the Ripper
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Evil Eye, Basilisk (Makes perfect guarding more consistent and hits for 12k without needing a retire from Amon)
1x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.
This deck uses the same tactics as Hellfire Ritual, only it utilizes Demonic Dragon Mage, Mahoraga as a powerful booster over Blazing Flare Dragon as an attacker. I've altered the list with Gwynn the Ripper to give targetted retirement without having to neg yourself. Additionally, this also lets Basilisk enable power boosts for Mahoragas on the field. There's less 20k rows since I took out Seiger, but still the same access to powerful 21k+ rows. And, honestly, the 20/21k deals are if you only soul charge or retire once, but this is a build that waits until the opponent is on their last legs, then goes all-in, so you will be doing multiples of each, to the point where the difference between a Seiger or Gwynn won't be that large.
Hellfire Ritual (Incomplete)
Grade 0's
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Mad Hatter/Hysteric Shirley (Draw, Shirley is set 5)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x Alluring Succubus
3x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Yellow Bolts
Grade 2's
4x Flirtatious Succubus
4x Werewolf Seiger
2x Blue Dust (You want to save your counterblasts for Amon)
2x Cyber Beast (Only use him as a turn two VG to force your opponent to block or get a free card. You also fish him out with Greedy Hand if you need a target so you don't have to deal with his weakness as a RG later. He also makes good Perfect Shield fodder, a 5k guard, or a good sack for Amon's skill)
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.)
The idea here is to be able to push for stronger RG rows more consistently by having multiple units that get power with Amon's skill. Every retire you do with Amon gives both Doreen and Blazing Flare 3k. I put them both on opposite RG rows, have them boosting/boosted by a Werewolf/Succubus and then cycle through cards in the space behind Amon to retire my opponent's RG's. Greedy Hand is the first card you get rid of. Then you call Yellow Bolts, tap them, and sack them. Then Flirtatious. Then Amon (who is a vanilla 10k RG). Each time you soul charge with a Flirtatious/Alluring/Yellow Bolt, you are giving Doreen 3k more. It's very easy to have all of your rows swing for over 30k using this tactic, and it makes a powerful final push.
If the worst case scenario happens and you have to ride Blazing Flare Dragon, then your soul should be built up enough to use his skill. You can still use two cards to soul charge with a non-Dark Irregulars vanguard, Greedy Hand and Dark Knight of Nightmareland. If you can use those to get 10 soul with BFD, it's possible to use his skill twice to snipe any two RGs your opponent has and as long as you still have any RGs out, you will still be able to use your triggers. You can still perfect guard, but you can't use them on Blazing Flare. Since this is the case, I would just play them as RGs if they're needed, or hold onto them for the hopes of getting an Amon.
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Mad Hatter/Hysteric Shirley (Draw, Shirley is set 5)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x Alluring Succubus
3x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Yellow Bolts
Grade 2's
4x Flirtatious Succubus
4x Werewolf Seiger
2x Blue Dust (You want to save your counterblasts for Amon)
2x Cyber Beast (Only use him as a turn two VG to force your opponent to block or get a free card. You also fish him out with Greedy Hand if you need a target so you don't have to deal with his weakness as a RG later. He also makes good Perfect Shield fodder, a 5k guard, or a good sack for Amon's skill)
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.)
The idea here is to be able to push for stronger RG rows more consistently by having multiple units that get power with Amon's skill. Every retire you do with Amon gives both Doreen and Blazing Flare 3k. I put them both on opposite RG rows, have them boosting/boosted by a Werewolf/Succubus and then cycle through cards in the space behind Amon to retire my opponent's RG's. Greedy Hand is the first card you get rid of. Then you call Yellow Bolts, tap them, and sack them. Then Flirtatious. Then Amon (who is a vanilla 10k RG). Each time you soul charge with a Flirtatious/Alluring/Yellow Bolt, you are giving Doreen 3k more. It's very easy to have all of your rows swing for over 30k using this tactic, and it makes a powerful final push.
If the worst case scenario happens and you have to ride Blazing Flare Dragon, then your soul should be built up enough to use his skill. You can still use two cards to soul charge with a non-Dark Irregulars vanguard, Greedy Hand and Dark Knight of Nightmareland. If you can use those to get 10 soul with BFD, it's possible to use his skill twice to snipe any two RGs your opponent has and as long as you still have any RGs out, you will still be able to use your triggers. You can still perfect guard, but you can't use them on Blazing Flare. Since this is the case, I would just play them as RGs if they're needed, or hold onto them for the hopes of getting an Amon.
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