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.

4 comments:

  1. Why aren't you using Super Electromagnetic Lifeform, Storm, and Dancing Wolf. Dancing Wolf becomes a 10k booster when stood, so using Stern to stand him would turn him into a 10k boosting Stern to 21k as well as what ever triggers you hit on top of it. Also I tested this build the first match went well, I changed to 12 crit and 4 stand using Grapple Mania as the only stand and I won turn 3 with the added trigger. Another thing that is really fun is adding Death Army Guy and Death Army Lady, dropping one trigger to tip the balance to 16-14-11-9, keeping the same grade 3's you already had adding one Asura Kaiser.

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    1. Hungry Dumpty unflips when called. I prefer cards that have conditions that my opponent doesn't control, even though on-hit pressure is nice.

      Dancing Wolf is actually the more consistent unit for boosting Stern if you play stands. Since I'm not playing stands, Dancing Wolf only ever gets his effect after I've already hit. If I've already hit, then I no longer need the bonus power to secure the first hit. Rocket Hammerman giving Stern Power can make him hit that 21k threshold before he attacks the first time, and that makes a lot more difference.

      You must run exactly 16 triggers in every deck for it to be a valid deck, so you aren't exactly allowed to fiddle with your ratios like that. (I've also done a lot of testing, and if you add in more triggers that 16, things go crazy.)

      Death Army Guys and Ladies are good techs in most Nova Grappler decks, and the searching functions imbedded in Blaupanzer to get Blaukluger can allow you to skew your ratios considerably and still have equal or greater chances of riding up over a non-ride chain deck.

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    2. I've been tinkering with it myself and haven't had mush luck, last tournament I lost to OTT, while decks that are more focused on control I have no problem with since everything I use rests, unflips damage and/or I don't care about using.

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    3. Soulless OTT gives most early game on-hit pressure decks like this trouble. Even full-blown rush decks with no grade 3's have a tendency to fizzle out in front of three draws just for riding grade 3. That's why Soulless OTT is a top tier deck. Its only weakness is not riding CoCo and being 10k defense in a meta that makes 20k rows really easy to make, although that's changing since archetypes don't have vanilla 8k's.

      Sadly, all on-hit pressure and rush decks are going to continue to have a weakness to Soulless until we can establish a way to get 20k rows in all three rows consistently while doing a rush (which probably isn't happening). ~_~ Although, the new EB08 Blauklugers can keep up with them from getting card advantage on-hit early while restanding their Vanguard if anything else slips through late game.

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