Mill Colon - The "Hah! Tim was wrong!" RPS deck.

(I was going to make a video, but my saved games were against CFA randos playing bad decks like DRobos and Deletors, so I opted to not include them.  I was able to get a very solid feel for the deck and I can conclude, as many already have, how it will perform in the meta.  I was going to see if I could get better videos, but then someone guessed the deck based on vague clues, so since the cat's out of the bag, here we are.)

So, in my previous perceptions of milling viability, I never gave it particularly high ratings for two specific reasons:

1.  With two of the better mill cards being Killerleaf and Cyclomatooth, a zero damage strategy wasn't in my field of vision.

2.  The game has become disgustingly fast, with DOtX ending games on turn 3 with moderate consistency.

Those were my big reasons for believing that mill Colon was not viable.  I was wrong (although I made my judgment before the set was entirely revealed).  It turns out that one of the two cards (the other being Scatterhorn) that I originally said were the "Game changers" of the set in my Vanguard inner circle chats happened to be the card that made Mill Colon viable.

The card in question is Turbulent Signal.  Turbulent Signal is CB1, retire Turbulent Signal, your opponent mills 1, and you Cradle one RG for each grade of the milled unit.  A CB1 -1 Cradle is honestly pretty viable.  This averages out (assuming a 14/11/8 ratio, which is a conservative ratio) to 1.22 cradles per use of the skill, which is pretty awesome.

The low roll is very bad, at CB1 -1 to mill a trigger.  The high roll is amazingly good.  Each time they call over or retire a rear guard to get rid of the 0 power body, you get a free card.  They make excellent targets to swing into with Hercules to either force out two cards (which they should probably do) or you get to countercharge and pick the same grade unit from your deck.

 Before getting too crazy with specifics, let's post the list:

1x Starter - Young Mutant, Worectus

4x Critical 1 - Sharp Nail Scorpio
4x Critical 2 - Shelter Beetle
4x Sentinel Crit - Scissor-shot Mutant, Bombscissor
4x Heal - Large Snowflake Mutant, Snow Trick

4x Grade 3 Searcher - New Face Mutant Little Dorcas
4x Countercharger - Small Captain, Butterfly Officer
4x Mill 1 Cradler/MVP - Turbulent Signal
3x Mill 1 - Brawny Jerk

4x Grade 3 Searcher - Machining Mantis
4x Countercharger - Bloody Hercules
2x Tech Choice - Nasty Smog

4x Lead boss, mills 1-2 cards per turn, extra drive check - True Demonic Rifle Rogue, Gunningcoleo
4x Mill 2 - Destruction Spear Mutant, Dovaspeed

The list is pretty basic.  We're running all of the good mill cards that don't require attacking Vanguard.  The general strategy is to not attack turn 1 unless you ride Butterfly Officer and can guarantee you won't hit with a grade 1 booster in the back to pass triggers to.  Each turn, you swing into a RG, or if your VG has lower power than theirs, swing at VG and pass triggers to a back row unit.  Naturally, there is an advantage against force decks in never being unable to swing with your VG.

Typically, you just mill whenever you're able.  The only exception is waiting for the opponent to have a board to use Turbulent Signal.  Cradling anything spirals the game wildly into your favor as they have few outs to do anything with the unit without counterblasts that don't involve giving you a card back.  If you cradle a grade 1, you either nullify a back row slot the entire game or get another free Turbulent Signal, which is mega memes.  Cradling 3s is also a priority to fish out Dovaspeeds.

You'll find yourself opting not to use your non-mill cards' effects a large chunk of the time.  This is fine.  You don't want to be spamming counterblasts to get 3s once you've seen your first few, as your odds of hitting get progressively worse.  Butterfly should be played strictly as a countercharge 1 or to shove a RG Dovaspeed to soul for an additional mill.

If your opponent attempts to damage deny you, you can't mill as effectively, but if they don't deal any damage, you will win by decking them out.  If they don't call front row RGs, you can easily get away with not attacking with your VG, especially with getting Protect 1s each turn.  If they're Force, then you can attack with VG and still damage deny them.  If they attempt to bash your face in, other than your first damage check, ALL of your heals are ALWAYS live.  Finally, if they're low on cards in deck, keep in mind that each damage you deal is also a card from deck (two if they hit a draw).  It may be worth going in later in the game to ping them for one or two damage as they reach single digits.  Other than this, there aren't many strategies, it's just rock, paper, scissors. 

This deck beats any deck that relies heavily on counterblasts to do anything.  This includes DOtX, Sharhrot, Nightrose, and many other such decks.  This deck loses severely to no counterblast aggro decks such as Blaus or Thavas.  The big question (which I haven't done enough testing on) is "does it beat Luard?"  I'm not 100% sure.  Luard can still superior ride and get Force 1 spam and grade 1s with bonus crit super easily, especially with you shoving the 1s into their drop.  However, Luard cannot superior call 1s with Nemain gone and his calling being CB locked.  I think it's a coinflip on whether or not Turbelent Signal hits.  Which is a coinflip that the Megacolony player should win more often than not in theory.

Since most of the decks that would cause potential issues for the deck are either non-meta or not out yet, I think there's a LOT of potential for this deck to see real play.  Potentially tier 1.5.  Maybe even tier 1 with such a dominantly favorable matchup to Scharhrot.  I will leave it for the community to decide before this deck gets bonked by robits and saylers.

Megacolony Zero - Card Review and Thoughts

Since we kind of know that I have a bit of a thing for the colon, I figured I'd drop my thoughts on the Megacolony support in Zero.

Let's start:

Mechanic - Paralyze 

Paralyze got buffed considerably from in the original.  All units that "prevented restanding" in the original game now "paralyze", which was a term already used to describe the effect, due to the anime.  Paralyze makes the unit unable to move circles (even through card effects like Wheel Assault) in addition to being unable to stand during the stand phase or through card effects/stand triggers and also forces the card to rest.

Starters

Larva Mutant, Giraffa

The first thing we'll take note of is how few cards are actually different in Megacolony.  Ignoring how Paralyze functions differently, only a few cards have any text changes.  I'll cover those in a bit more depth.  For this, it's the same thing you're used to seeing with Blaus, Ambers, and the Blaster chain, all of which have been out for a while.  If you ride the grade 1 over it, you get to grab the grade 2.  The difference is that Giraffa as a grade 2 VG is objectively better than any of the other grade 2 Vanguards.  I'll cover that more when I get to him.

Rating 4/5

Machining Worker Ant

Machining Worker Ant surprised me.  I figured it would have had some other change in effect and not just be a vanilla starter if you miss your Stag Beetle.  Given how many grade 3s we can run, how Stag Beetle functions in ZERO, and the other weaknesses involved with this card, it's actually far worse in ZERO than it was in the original (and it was already pretty bad in the original).  Hopefully more comboing mechanisms will be released later, but it's doubtful.

Rating 1.5/5

Megacolony Battler C

Battler C got buffed in that it's the same effect (Move to soul, Paralyze any RG on VG hit that it boosted) but now it doesn't cost a counterblast, which is honestly great.  The big problem with early Megacolony (and one of the reasons why it splashed Mr. Invincible so often) was how counterblast intensive it was.  This has gone a long way to fix those issues in conjunction with the buff on Master Beetle.  All in all, a great card.

Rating 4/5

Grade 1s

Karma Queen

Didn't get buffed.  Was too expensive then.  It's definitely too expensive now.

Rating 1.5/5

Machining Hornet

On call, becomes 10k for a turn if you have a Machining Soul.  Due to how much worse Stag Beetle functions in this game, I'm not certain there's room for this.

Rating 2/5

Machining Mosquito

On call, soul charge 1.  Amazing card outside of Machining due to Master Fraude's ability to soul blast 3 and to draw on hit (even rear guards!).  I think Fraude is going to be in every deck and there is space to fit it (at max) in all builds other than Giraffa where it becomes the one-of tech.

Rating 4.5/5

Megacolony Battler B

When an attack hits a VG that it boosted, counterblast one to paralyze a RG.  I don't think I need to explain that this card is a staple in any deck.  It goes behind the Vanguard, typically, so its 6k base is rarely punished.  There is a case that you run 3 of this and 2 of your tech since you're best off with just one behind the Vanguard, but if you want consistency (or fear retirement) there's no harm in having 4, in my opinion.

Rating 5/5

Paralyze Madonna

Rating PG/5

Pest Professor, Mad Fly

On hit that it boosts, discard and draw.  A decent tech for your tech slot (for non-Giraffa builds), but I'd caution against it, since you're drawing, soul charging, and with this, filtering.  You could potentially be at risk for deck out if running draws.

Rating 3/5

Phantom Black

Rating Vanilla/5

Pupa Mutant, Giraffa

The grade 1 for the ride chain.  Can also be used to grab a grade 3 Giraffa from deck by discarding a grade 3.  Secondary skill is lackluster, primary skill is great.

Rating 4/5

Stealth Millipede

[UPDATE] Since writing the original article, I have since learned that force-rest DOES occur from Paralyze.  That increases Stealth Millipede's viability somewhat.  However, in comparison to Battler B who hits comparable numbers with most of your Vanguard picks, I just don't see the point in choosing this as an option.

Rating 2.5/5

Toxic Soldier

Nullifies intercepts when it attacks?  Forces out nulls and deals damage and lets you keep Paralyzed front row units in place with main phase stuns?  Yes please.

Rating 5/5

Grade 2s

Bloody Hercules

Rating Vanilla/10

Elite Mutant, Giraffa

Giraffa has a powerful on-hit skill and has a nice 10k butt to wall with.  Now that I've learned that Paralysis forces a rest, they either have to go first and use their starter, have an ACT starter, or you can paralyze said starter.  Thus, in the MLB match-up, if you go first, you can stun Wingal Brave before they have an opportunity to use it irrespective of what they choose to do.  All-in-all, an amazing card dampened by having a non-viable grade 3 attached to it.

5/5

Ironcutter Beetle

Imagine if the entire viability of your boss card required this card to be on the field.  Well, that's the case.  The goal of the Giraffa deck is to pop backrows, hope the opponent can't call boosters, hope the opponent doesn't have 12ks, and force the VG to swing into the 12k.  If not, hopefully after popping the backrow a couple of time, the idea is to sit on an 11k butt with beefier RGs so they can't hit them.  Since we're living in a meta of 12k attacking RGs and are going into an even more dense meta of 12k attacking RGs (oh, and front-row retirement) this card's viability is cut deeply.  Still, definitely not a bad card in that your opponent needs specific outs to handle it to overcome your strategy.  Too many decks have the outs, though.

Rating 3.5/5

Lady Bomb

Still too expensive.

1.5/5

Machining Armor Beetle

Because the Machining core build is weaker, you're left with using this in the Fraude build.  But, you can transfer your -1 to Paralyze into a +1 with Fraude, effectively negating its cost for a free Paralyze.  It's great for stunning grade 1/3 front row RGs as they appear and amazing in conjunction with Toxics on late turns if you stun front row interceptors and bypass them with Toxics to ping/finish.  I would personally hold onto Armor Beetles for late game to do just this.  Decks that call to open (RC) like Golds feel pretty bad about this card as well.  This was a staple 4-of promo in the base game and I don't see too much different here.

Rating 4.5/5

Machining Mantis

With lackluster support, it's hard to justify Mantis in the current metagame.  I also think there's not enough grade 2 space to make it work.  It's not a bad card, but it doesn't have the pieces to work currently, in my opinion.

Rating 2/5

Tail Joe

[UPDATE] Now that I've learned that Paralyze forces a rest, Tail Joe is somewhat more viable.  The only issue is that you want it to attack and clear the front row and Master Beetle needs to be attacking a Vanguard for your most reliable Paralyze to occur.  Grade 2 space isn't super tight, so if you want the chance at 11k go for it.  I'm not the biggest fan of something that can be cleared with 8k vanillas, however.

Rating 2.5/5

Toxic Trooper

Yes please on an interceptor that can hit crossrides with your forerunner.

Rating 5/5

Transmutated Thief, Steal Spider

With only Vesper as a mechanism to secure board (outside of Machining, which is hurting in other ways) this card has limited capacity to secure its card draw.  Still, if you're opting to run Machining, this isn't a bad filler tech and makes for a solid grade 2 ride.

Rating 1.5/5

Water Gang

Great, like all Libra clones.  Only, now we have waaaay more counterblasts to mess around with, making a use of Water Gang perfectly acceptable.  Between Toxic Trooper, Giraffa, and Ironcutter, there isn't much space in that build, but this works great in a Master Beetle deck with Trooper.

Rating 4/5

Grade 3s

Bewitching Officer, Lady Butterfly

Not much to say.  12k vs. VG attacker.

Rating 2.5/5

Death Warden Ant Lion

Soul charges each turn.  Great VG to partner with RG Fraudes for card advantage.  Hits 12k unboosted and hits the magic number of 18k with a Battler B booster.  The Megablast is actually very easy to pull off as well, and makes for a devastating turn where you don't attack with VG when using it and use double Toxic swings to try and end/force PGs, then they are crippled the following turn.  Soul requirement can even be met on the turn you ride to grade 3 with little issue.

Rating 4/5

Evil Armor General, Giraffa

It's sad to see a card that seems really bad but actually isn't that bad still be really bad because it's set 2 strong in set, what, 9?  If there weren't a slew of competing 12k interceptors and it could play like "Good Card Kagero", sniping back rows and walling with an 11k butt, it would have been a great card in a great deck.  But it was simply printed waaaaay too late for this to be the case.  It's not even close to viable in the current card pool.  It's sad, really.  All that potential, wasted.

Rating 1/5

Hell Spider

If this card was just 3k on-attack, it would be fine.  But it's 3k if the whole enemy board is rested.  Sadly, it's too easy to play around.  Hitting crossrides with no boost would have changed the scope of this card's viability entirely.  Now it's just meh.

Rating 1.5/5

Machining Stag Beetle

Due to no longer retaining Twin-Drive!!, you'd think getting extra cards would be more helpful, but sadly, they just aren't due to the restrictions on said cards.  You have to effectively neg calling out your starter and using Armor Beetle to shove it back in makes the whole process a wash.  Then, if you ride again (which you'll want to do to avoid being on a 10k vanilla vanguard) you go -1 and gained, effectively, nothing for your troubles.  Fraude utilizes the soul in a far more efficient way and doesn't have the advantage come in at rest.  It's just too old of a card in too restricted an archetype to really be useful.  When the next wave hits, that may change, however.

Rating 1.5/5

Martial Arts Mutant, Master Beetle

[UPDATE] I used to hate Master Beetle for being CB3.  It's now CB1.  Wew lad is that a buff.  On swing at VG, LB4, CB1, stun 2.  Now that I've learned that Paralyze forces the cards to rest, Master Beetle is insanely undercosted and is, honestly, an even more crazy card than I thought.

Rating 5/5

Master Fraude

On-hit, SB3, draw 1.  Amazing, amazing card.  Also gains 3k when boosted, so it hits 19k with Battler Bs on VG circle (doubling up on the on-hit pressure).  You can even use Battler C in the same row and hit a VG to stun and draw, even if you were one soul shy.  All-in-all, a great card.

Rating 4.5/5

Violent Vesper

Gigantech Charger clone.  Great to use as a heal.  On call, call top card is generically useful.  It had extra usage with Giraffa, but Giraffa is just too many sets behind to care.

Rating 4/5

Decklists

I'm opting not to make a Giraffa or Machining decklist as they're both less budget and inferior to the budget list.

Beetle/Fraude

Starter - Battler C

4 PGs
4 Toxic Soldier
3 Battler B
2 Mosquito

4 Water Gang
4 Toxic Trooper
4 Machining Armor Beetle
1 Bloody Hercules

4 Master Beetle (HEAL)
4 Fraude (DRAW)
3 Vesper (DRAW)
2 Ant Lion (DRAW)

Ride preference:  Beetle > Ant Lion > Fraude > Vesper

This deck is the best overall deck, so far as I can tell.  You have Beetle as the preferred ride and heal trigger.  Either you heal or you ride your boss (or you missed a 4-of all game in a deck that draws cards a lot which is super unlikely).  Whenever you see Beetle, you should hopefully be pretty happy about it.  The primary tactic is to clear the front row interceptors with on-hit pressure (Water Gang, Fraude) and swing with on-hit pressure from your Vanguard (Battler B) and, if useful, using Beetle's skill to double-stun.  This deck plays a lot like OTT (with 8 Toms), only with combo play and disruption.  I imagine that even if Megacolony ends up being bad (I'm not sure how it will perform, but it definitely wants to reach end game for its wincon), it will still be immensely fun to play.


Budget Colony

Starter - Battler C

4 PGs (If you don't have 4 PGs yet, then increase Battler B and Mosquito until you have 13 grade 1s)
4 Toxic Solider
3 Battler B
2 Mosquito

4 Toxic Trooper
4 Machining Armor Beetle
X Water Gang (However many you can squeeze in)
X Bloody Hercules (Whatever is left over)

4 Fraude (Draw)
4 Vesper (Heal)
4 Ant Lion (Draw)
1 Tech Choice (Butterfly Officer isn't a bad call, but it doesn't really matter)

This plays identically to the above list, only Ant Lion is the preferred ride and you want to keep Fraudes out as much as possible on RC.  Place cards in the deck as best as you can until you reach the non-budget deck.  Considering the non-budget deck is 4 RRRs, 8 RRs, it's honestly not super hard to get the main deck completed, given that you get 2 of the PGs for free.

Final Thoughts [UPDATED]

Based on what Megacolony has, I have no doubt that it would be strong, even in the current crossride meta of Zero.  The problem Megacolony has right now, however, is that it has too many archetypal/ride chain cards that just don't mesh nicely with everything else and have standalone weaknesses.  The Toxic cards being overpowered as all get out was a pleasant touch and made the grade 1 and 2 space fill out nicely.  Thus, the gameplan is to play old school Megadrawlony with Beetle and Toxic card support, now that they aren't awful.  Paralyze is actually incredible, only being unable to impact grade 2s meaningfully.  Of course, you can always be big brained and stun their grade 2s AND not attack with your Vanguard (unless your Vanguard is also a Toxic unit, and honestly, staying on a Toxic Vanguard might be a thing) to ping them through your Toxic units.  Ideas to keep in mind for later.

Megacolony's Soul Problem - My Thoughts on Megacolony's New Support and my Decklist (For Now)

Preface:  Milling the opponent isn't a viable wincon with accel getting the bulk of good support in recent sets.  Let's not pretend like that's anything other than a fun meme deck.

What happens when Vanguard "shifts focus" for a clan between sets?  Well, a few things.  You either end up with two "de facto" clans that don't meaningfully interact with one another, crazy hybrid concepts, or particular "good" cards from one build get eaten by the other build and only one variant ends up being played.  Only in extremely rare cases do you end up with two builds that both benefit from the others' support with both retaining viability.  At least in Vanguard, where power creep is mandated to sell sets due to a lack of set rotation.  In Megacolony's case, it's more of the "good cards get eaten" idea.  The old deck has, essentially, replaced its boss card with Gunningcoleo and remains more or less unchanged.  I mean, the additional crit is the second best card Megacolony got this set so they don't have to run 4 draw nulls.  That's kind of crazy when you consider it.

Let's discuss the issue that Megacolony has:  Megacolony's new set of support is filled with high-rolling mechanics.  Now, Vanguard already has triggers, which are elements of high-rolling mechanics.  What happens when you "double down" on this?  Your consistency takes a major hit.  But, if the base effect (the low-roll) is good enough to justify the cost on its own, then the "high-roll" is merited in virtue of that.  Let's look at the low-rolls for the cards Megacolony got this set and see if they're "worth it" on the merit of missing their primary skill.

Gunningcoleo - 

On-ride, opponent mills one, Coleo gets 5k and Triple-Drive!!!(Odds of low-roll (milling 0-2), 80-86%).
Soul blast 1 grade 3, opponent mills one (Odds of low-roll (milling grade 3), 14-20%, odds of high-roll (milling trigger) 32%).

Gunningcoleo is an interesting exception to the rest of the set in that if the low-roll was all the card did, he would be worth running.  Even over our previous boss, Spark, who has been made obsolete from numerous units that gain so much power that the -5k is negligible during the opponent's turn.  He also doesn't really require soul to function, nor does he use counterblasts.  He can fit any type of future support and I have doubts that the third VR Megacolony gets will be able to make this obsolete, and would likely still want to run it.

Rating 9/10

Cyclomatooth - 

If something rides this, opponent discards 1 and the ride target gains 5000xgrade of the card.
When it attacks, CB1, SB1, opponent mills 1 and Cyclomatooth gains 10k.  (Low-roll chance (milling trigger), 32%)

CB1 SB1 for making the opponent mill 1 and this card gaining 10k is trash.  Even with the bonus critical on the high-roll, it's still not good.  The on-ride effect is abysmal compared to just riding Gunningcoleo without a grade 3 in soul, then riding another the following turn.  Especially if you have limited turns to survive in the accel meta.  This card can't be meaningfully justified to run as a standalone card.  Much less in spite of its incredible competition with Stag Beetle, Spark, Hell Demise, and Ant Lion.

Rating 3/10

Hiding Killerleaf -

On-attack, CB1, SB1, opponent mills 1 and Leaf gains 10k. (Low-roll chance (milling trigger), 32%)

Similar to Cyclomatooth, you have 10k and mill 1 on the low-roll.  The difference being that the high-roll is actually much more useful, since it's "draw a card".  It compensates for the natural weakness of protect decks to hit over force decks and gives meaningful pressure to accel decks while also adding defense.  Of course, the obvious downside is that there are numerous other clans with access to better/cheaper draws than CB1/SB1.  But, when Killerleaf goes off properly, he's not awful.  But, in playing the card, with the same odds of him failing as my opponent hitting a trigger, it just feels bad.  That being said, with the high-chance of success, I think this is one of the few justified cards to run.

Rating 5.5/10

Brawny Jerk - 

On-call, SB1, this unit gains 6k, mill 1 for opponent.  (Low-roll chance (milling trigger), 32%)
When it boosts a unit attacking a grade 3 VG, discard 1 and opponent discards 1.

Brawny Jerk has a lot more potential since Megacolony has more raw hand-cards than most clans to make the 1-for-1 trade more valuable.  The SB1 +6k mill one is honestly not awful either, as it wasn't uncommon to make this SB1 cost for Hercules or Spiteful Hopper to give this amount of power prior to this.  And the bonus effect on high-roll (soul charge 1) is actually incredible.  If you charge a grade 3, you're able to use Coleo's skill or Ant Lion's skill an additional time for free.  If you charge a Water Gang against a retirement deck, it gives you an out to get Water Gang to fire off if you didn't ride him.

Rating 7/10


Additionally, we also got one non-RNG high rarity card:

Megalaralancer -

On-attack, gains 2k per rest RG opponent has.  You may move a RG to soul to make the opponent unable to intercept until the end of turn.

This card is hot garbage.  It's either a vanilla beatstick (which isn't really amazing) or it causes you to lose a booster or attacker to nullify intercepting OR give them the opportunity to pre-emptively intercept.  I guess it's supposed to be "trade a boost to nullify Protect II".  Because Protect II needed a counter that didn't involve "not being Protect I".  Regardless, the effects are underwhelming for the first, terrible for the second.  Now, obviously, you might think, "Tim!  This is it!  This fixes the soul issue!"  To which I reply, "Yes, let's neg ourselves so we can get the soul to roll for a chance to undo the neg we just did!"  The only real benefit is tossing G3 RGs in soul so you can get another user out of your Coleo or Ant Lion.  And that's still a hard minus for the first skill which isn't worth it to attempt, typically, and makes Ant Lion a -3 to use which makes it potentially more beneficial to your opponent than to you, at that point.

Rating 1.5/10



So you might be wondering, "Tim, these RNG cards seem okay.  What's the big deal?  Why aren't they worth running in your opinion?"  And I agree, if there wasn't previous Megacolony support, I'd run them due to lack of better options, but... you see... Megacolony has a 10/10 card.  It's still their best card and still better than Gunningcoleo.  All builds want to run it or suffer the consequences of the deck failing to ever secure card advantage ever again.  It's the combo enabler.  It creates endless potential.  It lets you reuse your move-to-soul AND on-call effects.  It's a solid first ride and amazing rear guard.  It has same-turn synergy with both Water Gang and the promo.  What card?  Stag Beetle of course.

Machining Stag Beetle -


On ride or call, call two units from soul to RC as rest.  If this unit is on the VC, gain power equal to the original power of those units.

Rating 10/10

Now, Stag doesn't typically want to call grade 3s from soul (other than maybe a Hell Demise), so Gunningcoleo and Ant Lion play nicely with it.  But, you also don't want to use grade 3 soul for anything other than Gunningcoleo or Ant Lion.  So what do you do in order to try and run the other soul blast cards?  Well, the short answer is, you can't, really.  Do you run the "Get two cards for literally free" or do you run the "CB1, SB1, 10k on attack, have a 2/3 chance of drawing a card/gaining a critical?"  I mean, the answer is pretty obvious when you think about it.  Megacolony just doesn't have enough soul generation to run both, and Stag Beetle is still obviously superior.  Again, since there's no reliable method of soul generation (on-hits from grade 1s are all we have at either a -1 to us or a break-even outside of Megalarancer who is just awkward and Water Gang which is public enemy #1 and will be sniped/attacked pretty much without fail) we're left only 3-4~ soul we can reliably soul blast/call to RG.  Stag eats up most of that on his first call.

As things stand, it's either:

Option A:  Run Stag
Option B:  Drop Stag to run worse cards

And I just can't see myself doing option B for anything other than meme builds.  Fortunately, Brawny Jerk OR Killerleaf could either be justifiably run in the deck without causing too much harm.  But we have a brand new problem:  A counterblast vacuum.

Previously, we had to spend all of our counterblasts on Spark.  Spark's been cut for Coleo.  What do we even do with resources?  Obviously, Water Gang is ideal, but if we could use counterblasts on Water Gang all the time at-will, we'd never do anything different.  Thus, it seems like certain other cards might want to be cut.  For example, Spiteful Hopper and Butterfly Officer might be worth cutting since we can't afford the soul for Hopper and we don't want to shove cards in the soul for minimal purpose with Officer (although, Officer isn't bad.  We just need the unflip to justify the spot, so it will likely phase in and out of decks for the next few sets of support Megacolony gets).

I think that, in place of them, we'll be running Millipede (promo, coming out soon) and Brawny Jerk.  Jerk fills the niche of Hopper with a strong chance of not "losing" the soul.  Additionally, he helps push harder on your late game plays when you're trying to finish with Ant Lion.  Finally, Millipede was never a "bad" card.  He just contradicted Spark completely.  Like I've said since it was released, it just needed a different deck to thrive in.  This is that deck.

Decklist:

Grade 0's

Worker Ant - Starter
2x Draw Nulls
10x Crit
4x Heal

Grade 1's

4x Machining Mosquito
4x Brawny Jerk
3x Stealth Millipede

Grade 2's

4x Machining Mantis
4x Water Gang
3x Bloody Hercules

Grade 3's

4x Stag Beetle
4x Gunningcoleo
2x Hell Demise
1x Ant Lion

I think at this point, the only card I haven't "explained" is Bloody Hercules, which doesn't seem to be a popular pick.  Let me justify my decision.  In a deck running more than 8 crits with extra drive checks, getting bonus crit swings will happen a lot.  Hercules unflipping is fairly irrelevant for this specific deck, but taking out an interceptor and giving plus power to the row with crit effectively adds 11k to that row, which will force between 10-15k extra shield for that row, effectively, if they need to guard it to survive, which is pretty common.

Machining Darkface

Starter - Young Executive, Crimebug

8 Machining Crits
4 Machining Heals
4 Other Crits

4x Machining Mosquito
4x Rebel Mutant, Starshield
3x Machining Slater
3x New Face Mutant, Little Dorcas

4x Machining Red Soldier
4x Machining Mosquito mk II
3x Machining Mantis

4x Machining Warsickle
4x Intimidating Mutant, Darkface

4x Machining Destroyer
4x Poison Spear Mutant Deity, Paraspear

Machining Darkface is a deck that focuses on striding into Machining Destroyer so that Darkface will adopt the Machining name and all of your rear guard's abilities will be active while retaining Darkface's on-stride skill.  You would argue that Darkface's on-stride skill isn't as useful as Machining Destroyer's Vanguard stun ability.  You would be correct in making that argument.  However, the ability for Machining Slater to build soul in conjunction with Darkface's GB2 effect will supplement Darkface's on-stride skill so nicely that it will compensate for the lack of support the build faced in GSet4.

The nice thing about this build is that it compensates for its bad match-ups with your other ride.  Machining Warsickle is great against rush decks, grade 2 game decks, and decks where the Vanguard stun is more important than sickening amounts of card advantage.  Darkface fairs better for match-ups that dissolve your board presence, making Destroyer's skill unusable, like Link Joker, Brawlers, and other such builds with a heavy emphasis on control.  By having multiple facets to compensate for each side of the deck's bad match-ups, the deck ends up being extremely solid all-around.

While I wouldn't argue that this build is better than pure-Machining, it has several better match-ups.  Additionally, this is the optimal way to build Darkface in my opinion, due to the G-Bug support being trash tier.

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