Monday, November 7, 2016

Diet Cancer - All of the taste, none of the calories. A non-Wiseman Fenrir Build.

To preface this, I believe that Wiseman Loop (Thanks Science of Vanguard for the video explanation!) is currently the superior build for Genesis at the moment.  The only major stipulation to that is that Angelic Wiseman's Loop has three hard counters that stop their OTK turn.

The first has been around for a while.  Denial Griffin.  This retires Wiseman on his first swing, preventing him from restanding multiple times. 

The second has just been released for, what is arguably the most played deck in the format, Chronojet Gear Chronicles.  Heteroround Dragon places the powered up Wiseman into the deck, which is then shuffled and the Genesis player calls the top card of their deck, which is likely to be a 4k Stand Trigger or 7k grade 1.  Even if they sack into the Wiseman that was placed back into the deck, they still have to deal with it only being a 14k swing.  They could also potentially Heteroround a second time.  A single defensive trigger will shut it down, so they would have to swing with their Vanguard after putting multiple stands into their deck for the power, but that drastically cuts down on the loop's ability to restand Wiseman.  While this doesn't prevent lethal 100% of the time, it still disrupts the loop greatly.

The third is Freezeray Dragon.  It can stop the loop if the Link Joker player is at 4 or less damage, since the loop variant has few outs to give Wiseman a bonus critical, since that is almost never necessary.

Due to the Wiseman Loop typically occurring on the third stride turn after two Tyr strides, It's extremely likely that a Kagero or Gear Chronicle player will have gotten one or more heal triggers in their hand, and then held on to them understanding the match-up.  Additionally, they never need to guard the Vanguard due to extremely low critical quantities (2 or 4) and no on-hit abilities, giving them an unfavorable match-up to Freezeray.  Damage is very easily kept low early-to-mid game due to Genesis having no real rush, restanding, or superior calling mechanics that the Loop is willing to utilize, due to needing those counterblasts for higher power on the push-turn.

Since my locals has many Gear Chronicle and Kagero players, and our Link Joker players typically run Freezeray, I felt like it was a bad meta call to play the Wiseman Loop variant of Genesis, and opted instead for a more balanced version of the deck.  Here's the list.

Grade 0's

Starter - Fetter Creator, Van

4x Goddess of Sound Sleep, Tahro (Stand)
2x Dreaming Dragon (Stand)
4x Stake Fetter, Thviti (Critical)
2x Battle Maiden, Kukurihime (Critical)
4x Goddess of Youth, Hebe (Heal)

Grade 1's

4x Mythic Beast, Skoll
4x Shackle Fetter, Gelgja
4x Goddess of Decline, Hel
2x Mythic Beast, Hati

Grade 2's

4x Boulder Fetter, Gjoll
4x Battle Maiden, Kotonoha
2x Earth Elemental, Pokkur
1x Mythic Snake, Jormungand

Grade 3's

4x Mythic Beast, Fenrir
4x Ice Crest Goddess, Svava

GZone

4x Mythical Destroyer Beast, Vanargandr
2x Beast-Slayer Military Deity, Tyr
2x Mythical Hellsky Beast, Fenrir
2x Great Angel, Doom Brace
1x Air Element, Sebreeze
1x Snow Element, Blizza
3x Goddess of Seven Colors, Iris
1x Sky-dome Battle Maiden, Hanasatsuki

The first major question would be, "What does this list provide over the standard Wiseman Loop variant?"  Well, it provides a few nice things, actually.  It gives extra critical pressure on your Vanguard swing, gives you access to the Revelation mechanic for units you want to field (giving you more trigger scrying and potential soul set-up), and it also gives you access to counterblasts at all stages of the game so you can make plays on a case-by-case basis instead of going "all-in" for a single turn.  Additionally, the deck doesn't automatically lose when you miss the Fenrir ride, even though both decks would gladly ride Fenrir at a minus to have him as Vanguard.

A few cute things the deck can do:

  • A combination of the stand trigger, Svava, and Vanargandr can make for a nice 21k+ multi-attacking RG row if you have excess stands in soul.  This can be boosted higher with Gelgia.
  • A combination of Gjoll (called that turn) and a critical trigger can create an 18k restanding rear-guard.  I use Gjoll instead of Wiseman for my multi-attack gambit, trying to use the twin-Revelation checks from Hellsky Fenrir to set up a double trigger for Gjoll.  Additionally, Gjoll can also get bonus power from Gelgia, much like Wiseman can.  I typically have at least one game in a set where I have a 41k+ 2 crit restanding Gjoll.  This can play around Freezeray to an extent.
  • I've used Revelation on Vanargandr turns using Gelgia to restand and was able to filter down 7 cards to hit a double trigger on a Gjoll turn.
  • Fenrir can call Gjolls that you've intercepted with by placing them back into soul with Iris for a prolonged gambit.
Again, I'm not saying that "Revelation.dek" is superior to the Wiseman Loop.  It just trades in an auto-win in most match-ups for a not-auto-loss in other match-ups.  This is the obvious way that Bushiroad intended the deck to be played, so I'm not pretending like my list is creative or special.  I just found that by using similar concepts that the Wiseman Loop incorporates, we can get solid pressure in other facets to compensate for the Wiseman Loop's weaknesses, while losing its primary gambit in exchange.