Hey all,
I decided to give some initial thoughts on the new format and what I think of each individual mechanic, as well as the removal of other things. Let's start with my initial tier list for set 1.
SS+++ tier
Going First
S tier
Oracle Think Tank, Kagero, Nova Grapplers with a good hand
B tier
Royal Paladin
C tier
Nova Grapplers having a mediocre hand or worse.
You may notice that I skipped a full tier between Royal Paladin and every other deck. That's because Royals have no incentive to multi-ride grade 3s, don't have a "high-roll" that proves to be devastating like Novas (restanding a 32k attacker with the potential for triggers is crazy strong), and have little end-game utility outside of Soul Saver, which can only be used once and fights for resources with Blaster Blade. Outside of Royals, I think the format is pretty well balanced. Novas have an advantage over OTT generally speaking. OTT can outlast Kagero, although Kagero can get in a win with Waterfall in ideal situations. Kagero pretty much auto-wins the Nova match-up. It's not so bad that all of the match-ups are the equivalent of playing rock, papers, scissors, but no singular deck has an insurmountable advantage that we can't see a diversity of tops, either.
My initial opinion is that the format is well-balanced in card design. But that doesn't make the format itself well-designed. Let's look into the Imaginary Gifts.
FORCE
Force gives a circle of your choice 10000 power during your turn. It's pretty close to adding a legion mate to that circle. Consequently, this is a power-level we've seen and are used to. Currently, the advantages of Force are that it makes power-requirement clans like Dimension Police achieve those requirements far more easily. It also makes multi-attacker decks that call mid-battlephase have extra advantages when this is done, which will likely be a facet we see for Royal Paladin and Gold Paladin at a later date (assuming Gold Paladin is in this reboot). I think Force has solid utility and potential. The only major abuse I can see for force clans would be sentinel restriction. Wouldn't you know it, that happened set 1 with a bonus crit and it's the best singular card in the set. I think that force is the most tame of the the imaginary gifts in power level and the one that's the hardest to abuse.
ACCEL
Accel gives you an extra front row RG circle with a bonus 10000 power on it during your turn. It's pretty nuts. Nova Grappler started with very few cards in the first set and nothing to reliably get a solid field set-up. Currently, when they get their optimal set-up, they are the strongest overall deck. But, high rolling is still high rolling. You will keep seeing Novas top here and there so long as the deck can destroy anything when it gets that setup. I think this is the strongest of the gifts because it has the most potential for abuse when joined with a clan that has access to mid-battlephase calls or a large amount of restanding. Not only do you get all of the swings associated with having the extra RG slots, but you also get that extra static power boost at all times. Getting in 7-8 attacks at ascended power levels can be quite potent, to say the least. So far, no accel clans have had a mid-battlephase call announced, so I think Bushiroad is being mindful of this. That being said, I could see Accel clans being stupid in premium, which is why I'm glad I won't be playing it.
PROTECT
Protect gives you a null guard every time you ride to grade 3. It's pretty nuts. It's currently the strongest mechanic in the current format because Bushiroad has been mindful in restricting the other two from becoming too cancerous, at least in the first set. This mechanic is strong independent of the deck being used, but OTT gets extra bonuses for riding more grade 3s with Imperial Daughter and Deer, so it's shown itself to be the strongest deck in the current format for exactly this reason. I can see protect in a control clan (like Megacolony) being strong, but I think protect in a clan like Granblue is going to really show us the limits on how much it can do as a mechanic. I think protect clans are always going to be in the upper tiers simply for the mechanic at this point, as the mechanic is independently strong and requires no additional mechanism to function properly.
I think that the Imaginary Gifts have the potential to be really unbalanced depending on what support is created, and it will make entire clans limited in design in that facet. I wanted to discuss what I'm really upset about with the new format: Going first. I wrote an article about how going first was objectively overpowered until Legion became a mechanic. Well, here we are, back with the same old problems, only we also have to deal with Imaginary Gifts benefiting the first player as well and all previous mechanics that benefited the second-turn player are now gone. I have done some playtesting with friends, and short of playing a deck that wins a match-up convincingly, the person who goes first wins at a very disproportionate amount. I did mirrors with my buddy (Novas vs. Novas) where there is even more variance in potential power-output from the decks, and the first-turn player won the first 12 games. ~_~ Unless there is a large disparity in deck strength, the deck going second has an unfavorable match-up, or the player going first plays suboptimally, going first is a daunting facet to the game that currently is the hardest thing in a fight to overcome. I hope Bushiroad addresses this in some way to make it more "fair" for people going second. Especially now that the loser decides who goes first in games 2 and 3. Every single 3 game match my buddies and I played was won by the person who won the dice roll when doing mirrors. Let that sink in.
In conclusion, I think that there's some room to work with. I see caution from Bushiroad on Accel that I think is merited. I also see caution on Royal Paladin, as that was the busted clan last time around, and this over-caution left them pretty lackluster, but these cautions can both be fixed later. I think that the individual mechanics are slightly imbalanced, Accel for potential and Protect for practical usage, leaving Force somewhat underpowered, but I think that they aren't so varied in power-level that it's damning to the game's potential for fun or future content. I do think this about going first, though. I hope Bushiroad will implement something to make going second less detrimental that doesn't lead to the stupidity of something similar to R I P P U L.
Showing posts with label Kagero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kagero. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Monday, April 21, 2014
Kagero and Glendios - 21k On-Hit Retire Because I Can
Decklist:
Starter - World Line Dragon (Link Joker)
12 Link Joker Critical Triggers
4 Link Joker Heal Triggers
Grade 1's
4x Taboo Star-Vader, Rubidium (Link Joker)
3x Star-Vader, Ruin Magician (Link Joker)
3x Heatnail Salamander (Kagero)
2x Barrier Star-Vader, Promethium (Link Joker)
Grade 2's
4x Star-Vader, Magnet Hollow (Link Joker)
4x Star-Vader, Colony Maker (Link Joker)
1x Unrivaled Star-Vader, Radon (Link Joker)
Grade 3's
4x Star-Vader, Omega Glendios (Link Joker)
4x Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth" (Kagero)
4x Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Reverse" (Kagero)
Playtesting has been disgusting. The deck is just... overpowered. Heatnail is mostly a gag-tech. With any of my reverse units, it makes a 21k on-hit retire row to add insult to injury. Naturally, with no Cold Deaths or Infinite Zeroes, the purpose of the deck is to vanilla beat your opponent to death. 12 crits to supplement it. 6 sentinels, stupid easy 21k+ rows, extremely consistent riding, negating an entire row's attacks every turn you call a Reverse unit, and plussing like mad off of Ruin Magician. All with a lulzy on-hit retire 21k row tech choice.
It's pretty dumb. Not going to lie.
15-0 in testing so far. ~_~ Might make a video. Might let Glendios die in a corner. Haven't decided.
Starter - World Line Dragon (Link Joker)
12 Link Joker Critical Triggers
4 Link Joker Heal Triggers
Grade 1's
4x Taboo Star-Vader, Rubidium (Link Joker)
3x Star-Vader, Ruin Magician (Link Joker)
3x Heatnail Salamander (Kagero)
2x Barrier Star-Vader, Promethium (Link Joker)
Grade 2's
4x Star-Vader, Magnet Hollow (Link Joker)
4x Star-Vader, Colony Maker (Link Joker)
1x Unrivaled Star-Vader, Radon (Link Joker)
Grade 3's
4x Star-Vader, Omega Glendios (Link Joker)
4x Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth" (Kagero)
4x Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Reverse" (Kagero)
Playtesting has been disgusting. The deck is just... overpowered. Heatnail is mostly a gag-tech. With any of my reverse units, it makes a 21k on-hit retire row to add insult to injury. Naturally, with no Cold Deaths or Infinite Zeroes, the purpose of the deck is to vanilla beat your opponent to death. 12 crits to supplement it. 6 sentinels, stupid easy 21k+ rows, extremely consistent riding, negating an entire row's attacks every turn you call a Reverse unit, and plussing like mad off of Ruin Magician. All with a lulzy on-hit retire 21k row tech choice.
It's pretty dumb. Not going to lie.
15-0 in testing so far. ~_~ Might make a video. Might let Glendios die in a corner. Haven't decided.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Vanilla Ice - A new way to Kageroyals
Ladies and gents, we have a new Kageroyals boss. The most broken boss that's ever been introduced to the Kageroyals playstyle, Star-Vader, Freeze Ray Dragon.
This card's effect:
What this lacks that other Kageroyals Vanguards have:
+3k when attacking Vanguard
16 criticals and many vanillas in its clan to monoclan the deck with perfect guards
What it brings into the table:
Insanely nonsensical amounts of defense
We can, as of now, fit this unit into the Kagero skeleton.
This unit, while lesser in offense to units like Diarmuid and Waterfall, is extremely strong on defense. Due to how the Kageroyals style of gameplay works (guard early with high base-power units to shut down early damage and triggers), this unit is typically fielded when you have one or less damage. This allows you to no-guard Vanguard attacks coming at your Vanguard, and locking whichever row got the triggers passed to it, then guarding the final attack for 10k. If they apply critical on their Vanguard, they lose both side row attacks. If they attack your rear guards, literally every non-grade 0 unit is a viable front row replacement, and can make 16k with any grade 1 boost. Then you can guard the Vanguard's attack so that they waste their triggers anyway, and enjoy your 4 damage lead.
No matter how you look at it, this card makes this style of gameplay extremely powerful. Like Waterfall and Diarmuid, we have no counterblast reliance. Like Diarmuid, if you choose to, you can bring in his 12k Archetype beater to make 20k rows. You can also bring in a few of the self-damagers from Link Joker if you prefer, but this comes with less overall defense and some inconsistencies in making magic numbers.
10/10, would bang.
This card's effect:
Star-vader, Freeze Ray Dragon
Grade 3/Link Joker - Cyber Dragon/10000 Power/No Shield
Auto (Vanguard) [LB4]: When an opponent's rear-guard is locked by your effects from cards, this unit gains + 3000 Power until end of turn.
Auto (Vanguard): When you place one card into your Damage Zone, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and lock it.
What this lacks that other Kageroyals Vanguards have:
+3k when attacking Vanguard
16 criticals and many vanillas in its clan to monoclan the deck with perfect guards
What it brings into the table:
Insanely nonsensical amounts of defense
We can, as of now, fit this unit into the Kagero skeleton.
Kageroyals mixed skeleton deck (post-set 11)
Starter - Lizard Solider Conroe (Or whatever starter you deem fit, like Workerpod. Or Alk.)
16 Kagero Critical Triggers
4 Bahr
9 8k's from other clans
4 Nehalem
4 Cross-shot Garp
4 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
4 Graphite Cannon Dragon
4 Boss of your choice (Like Heartless, Tyrant Deathrex, CEO Amaterasu, etc.)
This unit, while lesser in offense to units like Diarmuid and Waterfall, is extremely strong on defense. Due to how the Kageroyals style of gameplay works (guard early with high base-power units to shut down early damage and triggers), this unit is typically fielded when you have one or less damage. This allows you to no-guard Vanguard attacks coming at your Vanguard, and locking whichever row got the triggers passed to it, then guarding the final attack for 10k. If they apply critical on their Vanguard, they lose both side row attacks. If they attack your rear guards, literally every non-grade 0 unit is a viable front row replacement, and can make 16k with any grade 1 boost. Then you can guard the Vanguard's attack so that they waste their triggers anyway, and enjoy your 4 damage lead.
No matter how you look at it, this card makes this style of gameplay extremely powerful. Like Waterfall and Diarmuid, we have no counterblast reliance. Like Diarmuid, if you choose to, you can bring in his 12k Archetype beater to make 20k rows. You can also bring in a few of the self-damagers from Link Joker if you prefer, but this comes with less overall defense and some inconsistencies in making magic numbers.
10/10, would bang.
Tuesday, July 30, 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.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Kageroyals Decklist
Starter - Workerpod Saturday (Conroe offers a little more consistency, but I choose Workerpod for the theme)
Triggers
4x Alabaster Owl (Critical)
4x Bringer of Good Luck, Epona
4x Blue-Ray Dracokid
4x Embodiment of Spear, Tahr
Grade 1's
4x Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
4x Little Sage, Marron
5x Vanilla 8k's from other clans
Grade 2's
3x Knight of Silence, Gallatin
3x Knight of Determination, Lamorak
3x Dragon Knight, Nehalem
3x Cross Shot, Gaap
Grade 3's
4x Dragonic Waterfall
4x Knight of Conviction, Bors
The Kageroyals have been one of the most frightening and powerful mixed clan decks out there. When this deck was originally theorized, I was mostly just planning to troll by having Star Drive Dragon and Crested Dragon and using it as an excuse to run all vanillas and all criticals. After winning 10 games in a row, I was terrified with what I had created. I adjusted the deck to include some more powerful cards (Soul Saver and Waterfall as Vanguards, Palamedes and Alephs as Rear Guards) and had some similarly powerful results. After being frustrated with the inconsistencies of Aleph and Palamedes, and being unimpressed with Soul Saver, I switched the grade 3 line-up to its current incarnation, Waterfall and Bors. This enabled my deck to hit 21k with Waterfall as Vanguard and 21k with Bors as Rear Guard. In addition, I had an outlet for my excess Waterfalls with Waterfall's skill.
The biggest warning about this deck has nothing to do with the deck itself. It is about changing the deck. You can, but be careful. The general line of thoughts I've seen are, "Oh, I could just run more Kagero g3's, 12 Kagero crits, some retire..." then all of the sudden you aren't hitting 21k with anything but Waterfall and you miss all of your RP triggers because you just don't have enough RP's out.
Right now we don't have any clans that have a +3k vs. Vanguard And a Bors clone, save Royal Paladins. Royal Paladins have Soul Saver, but she is a vanilla 13k. At that point you're better off playing Palamedes/Bors. That's not a bad idea, but if you get too many grade 3's, then you sit on a dead hand. There are two +3k vs. Vanguard units that CAN get rid of your excess grade 3's, Dragonic Waterfall (gets rid of himself) and Origin Mage, Ildona (gets rid of excess Shadow Paladins to draw). The reason I play Waterfall over Ildona is because Ildona can remove any Shadows. That sounds more versatile (and it certainly is!) but you'd be sacking vanilla 8k's and 10k's. That's not too appealing. If you get a lot of Ildona (who is the target you want to sack) then you can do it and feel good about it, but then your versatility just got reduced to Waterfall levels (essentially a persona blast). They also have to be on the field, so you might have to call over units, and then you don't feel the card advantage you might have gotten otherwise. Dragonic Waterfall keeps it simple.
Triggers
4x Alabaster Owl (Critical)
4x Bringer of Good Luck, Epona
4x Blue-Ray Dracokid
4x Embodiment of Spear, Tahr
Grade 1's
4x Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
4x Little Sage, Marron
5x Vanilla 8k's from other clans
Grade 2's
3x Knight of Silence, Gallatin
3x Knight of Determination, Lamorak
3x Dragon Knight, Nehalem
3x Cross Shot, Gaap
Grade 3's
4x Dragonic Waterfall
4x Knight of Conviction, Bors
The Kageroyals have been one of the most frightening and powerful mixed clan decks out there. When this deck was originally theorized, I was mostly just planning to troll by having Star Drive Dragon and Crested Dragon and using it as an excuse to run all vanillas and all criticals. After winning 10 games in a row, I was terrified with what I had created. I adjusted the deck to include some more powerful cards (Soul Saver and Waterfall as Vanguards, Palamedes and Alephs as Rear Guards) and had some similarly powerful results. After being frustrated with the inconsistencies of Aleph and Palamedes, and being unimpressed with Soul Saver, I switched the grade 3 line-up to its current incarnation, Waterfall and Bors. This enabled my deck to hit 21k with Waterfall as Vanguard and 21k with Bors as Rear Guard. In addition, I had an outlet for my excess Waterfalls with Waterfall's skill.
The biggest warning about this deck has nothing to do with the deck itself. It is about changing the deck. You can, but be careful. The general line of thoughts I've seen are, "Oh, I could just run more Kagero g3's, 12 Kagero crits, some retire..." then all of the sudden you aren't hitting 21k with anything but Waterfall and you miss all of your RP triggers because you just don't have enough RP's out.
Right now we don't have any clans that have a +3k vs. Vanguard And a Bors clone, save Royal Paladins. Royal Paladins have Soul Saver, but she is a vanilla 13k. At that point you're better off playing Palamedes/Bors. That's not a bad idea, but if you get too many grade 3's, then you sit on a dead hand. There are two +3k vs. Vanguard units that CAN get rid of your excess grade 3's, Dragonic Waterfall (gets rid of himself) and Origin Mage, Ildona (gets rid of excess Shadow Paladins to draw). The reason I play Waterfall over Ildona is because Ildona can remove any Shadows. That sounds more versatile (and it certainly is!) but you'd be sacking vanilla 8k's and 10k's. That's not too appealing. If you get a lot of Ildona (who is the target you want to sack) then you can do it and feel good about it, but then your versatility just got reduced to Waterfall levels (essentially a persona blast). They also have to be on the field, so you might have to call over units, and then you don't feel the card advantage you might have gotten otherwise. Dragonic Waterfall keeps it simple.
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