Saturday, June 15, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Official Monoclan Kageroyals Variants
Kageroadhouse
Starter - Lizard Solider Conroe
16 Kagero Critical Triggers
4 Bahr
4 Perfect Guard
6 8k's from other clans
11 Kagero 10k vanillas
4 Waterfall
4 Graphite Cannon Dragon
Revenge Tastes Vanilla
Starter - Spinbau Revenger
16 Shadow Paladin Critical Triggers
4x Sharron
4x Revenger Mac Lir (Perfect Guard)
6x 8k's from other clans
11x Shadow Paladin Vanilla 10k's, max out on the Revenger Rugos.
OR
4x Revenger Rugos
4x Revenger Masquerade
3x Shadow Paladin Vanilla 10k
4x Curse Spear Revenger, Diarmuid
4x Revenger of Labyrinth, Araun
Diarmuid offers a few things to the Kageroyals playstyle: Late game finishing power, and consistency. No matter how you slice the cake, Waterfall is a -1 from hand, and this is a -1 from the field to apply that extra pressure. The trade off is that you have more targets in this version, but they have to be sacked from the field. If you're feeling brave, you can sack one of the 8 crits for Revengers or just off a grade 2 that swung at a RG. There's plenty of combo play here, and while it is a Limit Break, 26k 2 crit is just too juicy to pass up, and he is on equal grounds with Waterfall most of the time. We also get the archetype grade 3's to enable the use of 12k beaters in the deck to hit 20k in some rows. This comes with its own risks (harder to guard if you're forced to ride, easier to attack on the RG by unboosted units) and rewards (great attacking uboosted or boosted vs. 10k Vanguards). That decision is player preference.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Regional Qualifiers #2 (Gamerz)
So, there comes a time in every boy's life where he has to man the fuck up and keep his word. I said I was taking Amon to the regional qualifiers and pussed out at the last moment and switched to Kageroyals. Even with consistently bad hands and missing triggers all over the place, I still got 5th with Kageroyals. The deck is strong and it has nothing left to prove. Silent Tom told me to man the fuck up, keep my word, and go with Hellfire Ritual. Here are the results.
Game 1 (Go Pdi)
You might be wondering why I made the Gold Paladin name missing several letters. That's because the deck I was playing against was missing triggers. They had about 7 in their deck. They misplayed several times, including not attacking on their turn, and I won. Not too much to say about it, I gave him some advice and helped him out after match and proceeded on.
Game 2 (Shadow Paladin)
This match was the manliest match ever. We're both in a tight spot, I have a ton of damage (4), he has no viable rear guards since I keep swinging at them, but only one damage. He swings at my vanguard, I do a two-to-pass. He initiated manmode and gets a heal and a draw. I take a damage. Next turn, I take out his rear guards again and swing with my Vanguard, he does a two-to-pass, I initiate man mode, get a heal and a draw. His next turn, I'm in much better shape. I do a two-to-pass on his vanguard. He initiates manmode. Crit, draw. I lose. MANLIEST MATCH EVER!
Game 3 (Great Nature)
This guy was a special little snowflake. He decided to use 8 draws in conjunction with the high base power of Great Nature to have a big hand (of 5k shields). My Amon deck doesn't give any fucks about 5k shields, unless you've got like 9 of them. Well, he kind of did. He hit 5 triggers on his first 5 drive/damage checks. 4 draws and a heal which activated. I get him down to 7 cards in hand, i know 5 of them. He had a 10k, 4 5k's in hand that I knew of, and a 5k and a null guard that I didn't know about. I push all in with Amon since he's at 5 damage, having my entire backrow being Doreens. I had two null guards in hand and nothing else, so I charge those and another unit I had on the field. I have 27k, 30k, 15k for my rows. I swing 15k, he guards with 10. He has 6 cards left. I attack with Amon, he null guards, dropping a 5k shield. I hit no triggers. He drops 4 5k's, the rest of his hand, to stop the 5th damage. Just like last week, hitting a single trigger would have won the game for me. He actually used 2 null guards already, which is why I wasn't convinced one of the two cards I didn't know about was going to be one, but I already factored in that if it was, I just needed a trigger to break through the rest of his guard, which I was right about. It kind of sucked losing so early, but the games were just so overflooded with triggers I couldn't really do anything about it.
All-in-all, I shouldn't have made luck my dump stat, but at least I manned up and kept my word. I didn't secure one of the regional qualifiers, but at least I had a blast being a nooblord loser failsauce unwinner. <3
Game 1 (Go Pdi)
You might be wondering why I made the Gold Paladin name missing several letters. That's because the deck I was playing against was missing triggers. They had about 7 in their deck. They misplayed several times, including not attacking on their turn, and I won. Not too much to say about it, I gave him some advice and helped him out after match and proceeded on.
Game 2 (Shadow Paladin)
This match was the manliest match ever. We're both in a tight spot, I have a ton of damage (4), he has no viable rear guards since I keep swinging at them, but only one damage. He swings at my vanguard, I do a two-to-pass. He initiated manmode and gets a heal and a draw. I take a damage. Next turn, I take out his rear guards again and swing with my Vanguard, he does a two-to-pass, I initiate man mode, get a heal and a draw. His next turn, I'm in much better shape. I do a two-to-pass on his vanguard. He initiates manmode. Crit, draw. I lose. MANLIEST MATCH EVER!
Game 3 (Great Nature)
This guy was a special little snowflake. He decided to use 8 draws in conjunction with the high base power of Great Nature to have a big hand (of 5k shields). My Amon deck doesn't give any fucks about 5k shields, unless you've got like 9 of them. Well, he kind of did. He hit 5 triggers on his first 5 drive/damage checks. 4 draws and a heal which activated. I get him down to 7 cards in hand, i know 5 of them. He had a 10k, 4 5k's in hand that I knew of, and a 5k and a null guard that I didn't know about. I push all in with Amon since he's at 5 damage, having my entire backrow being Doreens. I had two null guards in hand and nothing else, so I charge those and another unit I had on the field. I have 27k, 30k, 15k for my rows. I swing 15k, he guards with 10. He has 6 cards left. I attack with Amon, he null guards, dropping a 5k shield. I hit no triggers. He drops 4 5k's, the rest of his hand, to stop the 5th damage. Just like last week, hitting a single trigger would have won the game for me. He actually used 2 null guards already, which is why I wasn't convinced one of the two cards I didn't know about was going to be one, but I already factored in that if it was, I just needed a trigger to break through the rest of his guard, which I was right about. It kind of sucked losing so early, but the games were just so overflooded with triggers I couldn't really do anything about it.
All-in-all, I shouldn't have made luck my dump stat, but at least I manned up and kept my word. I didn't secure one of the regional qualifiers, but at least I had a blast being a nooblord loser failsauce unwinner. <3
Friday, March 15, 2013
Bison Overlord
I've been tinkering around with this deck lately.
I've had some very pleasing results with it. Normally, I'd say skip the
Great Nature side of things and play the Tri-Stinger version of Overlord
(since multi-attacks and stand triggers synergize more with Aqua Force)
but I just had to try this version out because Soft Tank Sloth is
adorable, and unflipping 4 damage is just crazy.
There has to be a certain balance to the deck since you need at least one other Kagero out for Dragonic Overlord to be 11k, but you also need certain Great Nature grade 1's to secure the damage unflip (Soft Tank) and protect yourself (Perfect Guard). Here's the list I eventually settled on.
Starter - Conroe
Triggers 8 Stand, 4 Draw, 4 Crit (all Great Nature)
Grade 1's
4x Soft Tank
4x Bahr
3x Cable Sheep
3x Gojo
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus
2x Lamp Camel
2x Tejas
2x Nehalem
1x Compass Lion (functions similarly to Binoculus for securing the damage unflip, hits 18k with Gojo)
Grade 3's
4x Bison
4x Overlord
This deck doesn't really try to hide that it minuses itself to minus the opponent. Using Overlord's effect is always at least 2 cards that my opponent will lose, so trading a Soft Tank Sloth for that ability every turn is the justification to the deck's playstyle. The trigger line-up has 4 crits to threaten my opponent with some early damage with 8 stands to double-up the threat of Overlord and 4 draws to give a one-turn boost to one Great Nature unit or to sacrifice with Binoculus for Bison's damage unflip.
I'm still tweaking the deck and trying to form as few dependencies on same-type vanguard units as I can (thus, no Hammsuke, since they're useless with an Overlord Vanguard even though I still have to sacrifice a unit for Binoculus and Compass, and they also partially counteract my large-scale damage unflip). Naturally, if a deck has 8 stands and access to a Kirara clone, it's a given to play that unit to put even more pressure on the opponent, especially if you haven't secured an Overlord.
Riding Overlord isn't super great for this deck, but it can still play like a generic beat down deck pretty well with fairly high base power for all of the units in the deck, coupled with Binoculus not needing a Great Nature Vanguard to use his skill. All in all, I found this deck to be incredibly fun to play, and Overlord having his threat on any given turn is terrifying.
There has to be a certain balance to the deck since you need at least one other Kagero out for Dragonic Overlord to be 11k, but you also need certain Great Nature grade 1's to secure the damage unflip (Soft Tank) and protect yourself (Perfect Guard). Here's the list I eventually settled on.
Starter - Conroe
Triggers 8 Stand, 4 Draw, 4 Crit (all Great Nature)
Grade 1's
4x Soft Tank
4x Bahr
3x Cable Sheep
3x Gojo
Grade 2's
4x Binoculus
2x Lamp Camel
2x Tejas
2x Nehalem
1x Compass Lion (functions similarly to Binoculus for securing the damage unflip, hits 18k with Gojo)
Grade 3's
4x Bison
4x Overlord
This deck doesn't really try to hide that it minuses itself to minus the opponent. Using Overlord's effect is always at least 2 cards that my opponent will lose, so trading a Soft Tank Sloth for that ability every turn is the justification to the deck's playstyle. The trigger line-up has 4 crits to threaten my opponent with some early damage with 8 stands to double-up the threat of Overlord and 4 draws to give a one-turn boost to one Great Nature unit or to sacrifice with Binoculus for Bison's damage unflip.
I'm still tweaking the deck and trying to form as few dependencies on same-type vanguard units as I can (thus, no Hammsuke, since they're useless with an Overlord Vanguard even though I still have to sacrifice a unit for Binoculus and Compass, and they also partially counteract my large-scale damage unflip). Naturally, if a deck has 8 stands and access to a Kirara clone, it's a given to play that unit to put even more pressure on the opponent, especially if you haven't secured an Overlord.
Riding Overlord isn't super great for this deck, but it can still play like a generic beat down deck pretty well with fairly high base power for all of the units in the deck, coupled with Binoculus not needing a Great Nature Vanguard to use his skill. All in all, I found this deck to be incredibly fun to play, and Overlord having his threat on any given turn is terrifying.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Regional Qualifiers #1 (Krypton Comics)
Here's the results from my awesome day at Krypton Comics with CJ Sarber.
Game 1 (MLB)
I made an early misplay by not 10k guarding their 7+5k attack to my 8k vanguard. They got a crit, which my 10k guard would have shut down completely and saved me two early damage. That woke me up (I'm still pretty tired) and I stopped misplaying after that. I still ended up taking a demanding lead and secure the game turn 4.
Game 2 (Gold Paladins)
I ride up perfectly and reach turn 4. My opponent has mostly 5k shields and has exactly enough guard to block both of my rear-guards, but not my vanguard. He's at 4 damage. I'm at 5 damage because he swung 23k turn two with his Ezel/Tron combo due to the superior ride. So he no guards my vanguard. I have 14 triggers left in my 37~ card deck. My odds of hitting one critical and winning are about 72%. My odds of surviving his next turn if he didn't hit triggers would be guaranteed as long as I didn't drive check two grade 3's. I have two Bors on the field. I drive check two Bors, immediately declare my own loss, and chuckle to myself. This time I'M the Byond Shuffler.
Game 3 (Gold Paladins)
Another Ezelmore deck. I don't remember much about this game. I won with 3 rows of 3 Bors/8k's. Still Byond shuffling like a nooblord. All I remember was that they had 3 damage and no guarded my Bors and I Kageroyal'd them with a double crit.
Game 4 (Spike Brothers)
I got wailed on hard early game. She hit trigger after trigger after trigger. I end up winning by getting a critical at the end, but only because she misplayed a few times.
Game 5 (MLB)
Same player I beat in round one. I got gradelocked at 1 for a turn. This game lasted a while, going to turn 6 or 7. He damage checked a Blaster Dark and I attacked into one of them to retire it. He drive checked another and got one with Wingal Brave. I ended up losing to two consecutive +10k's from moving the Blasters to soul. One of the sad things about not running perfect guards is encountering big-hitting vanguards with bonus crit. I didn't see any Bediviere and 4 of each Blaster, so he had at least 3 instances where not having a booster caused him to be unable to swing over any of my units.
Result - Kageroyals went 3-2 in the tournament, netting me 5th place.
Side games
Kageroyals - won two more side games and lost one, putting me at 5-3 for the day. Not as good as usual, but I won't complain.
Royal Paladin/Dark Irregulars - This deck was dysfunctional. Not because it was built wrong, it just never drew what it needed ever. I did not have a single game where Lohengrin (running 4) was my vanguard save ONE game where he was ridden AFTER Palamedes. Palamedes was my Vanguard 6 games. I only have one of him. I ended the night 0-8 with this deck because Lohengrin is the entire crux of it working. I really need to shuffle better because holy crap that was awful. I still had fun playing it, but it just did NOT function the way it was supposed to. Again, Byond shuffle fail by me.
Hellfire Ritual - Went 5-2. I lost one game before the tournament with it, then lost once to CJ. CJ hit a 6th damage heal and double crit me at 3 damage to seal the deal on me (which I totally called!). I love comebacks, so I was probably more excited about it than he was. Sadly, my strongest row was only 30k unboosted. I guess I need to start lifting again.
Game 1 (MLB)
I made an early misplay by not 10k guarding their 7+5k attack to my 8k vanguard. They got a crit, which my 10k guard would have shut down completely and saved me two early damage. That woke me up (I'm still pretty tired) and I stopped misplaying after that. I still ended up taking a demanding lead and secure the game turn 4.
Game 2 (Gold Paladins)
I ride up perfectly and reach turn 4. My opponent has mostly 5k shields and has exactly enough guard to block both of my rear-guards, but not my vanguard. He's at 4 damage. I'm at 5 damage because he swung 23k turn two with his Ezel/Tron combo due to the superior ride. So he no guards my vanguard. I have 14 triggers left in my 37~ card deck. My odds of hitting one critical and winning are about 72%. My odds of surviving his next turn if he didn't hit triggers would be guaranteed as long as I didn't drive check two grade 3's. I have two Bors on the field. I drive check two Bors, immediately declare my own loss, and chuckle to myself. This time I'M the Byond Shuffler.
Game 3 (Gold Paladins)
Another Ezelmore deck. I don't remember much about this game. I won with 3 rows of 3 Bors/8k's. Still Byond shuffling like a nooblord. All I remember was that they had 3 damage and no guarded my Bors and I Kageroyal'd them with a double crit.
Game 4 (Spike Brothers)
I got wailed on hard early game. She hit trigger after trigger after trigger. I end up winning by getting a critical at the end, but only because she misplayed a few times.
Game 5 (MLB)
Same player I beat in round one. I got gradelocked at 1 for a turn. This game lasted a while, going to turn 6 or 7. He damage checked a Blaster Dark and I attacked into one of them to retire it. He drive checked another and got one with Wingal Brave. I ended up losing to two consecutive +10k's from moving the Blasters to soul. One of the sad things about not running perfect guards is encountering big-hitting vanguards with bonus crit. I didn't see any Bediviere and 4 of each Blaster, so he had at least 3 instances where not having a booster caused him to be unable to swing over any of my units.
Result - Kageroyals went 3-2 in the tournament, netting me 5th place.
Side games
Kageroyals - won two more side games and lost one, putting me at 5-3 for the day. Not as good as usual, but I won't complain.
Royal Paladin/Dark Irregulars - This deck was dysfunctional. Not because it was built wrong, it just never drew what it needed ever. I did not have a single game where Lohengrin (running 4) was my vanguard save ONE game where he was ridden AFTER Palamedes. Palamedes was my Vanguard 6 games. I only have one of him. I ended the night 0-8 with this deck because Lohengrin is the entire crux of it working. I really need to shuffle better because holy crap that was awful. I still had fun playing it, but it just did NOT function the way it was supposed to. Again, Byond shuffle fail by me.
Hellfire Ritual - Went 5-2. I lost one game before the tournament with it, then lost once to CJ. CJ hit a 6th damage heal and double crit me at 3 damage to seal the deal on me (which I totally called!). I love comebacks, so I was probably more excited about it than he was. Sadly, my strongest row was only 30k unboosted. I guess I need to start lifting again.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Hellfire Ritual (Complete)
Grade 0's
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Hysteric Shirley (Draw)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Demonic Dragon Sage, Mahoraga
3x Alluring Succubus
Grade 2's
4x Demon of Aspiration, Amon
4x Flirtatious Succubus
3x Gwynn the Ripper
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Evil Eye, Basilisk (Makes perfect guarding more consistent and hits for 12k without needing a retire from Amon)
1x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.
This deck uses the same tactics as Hellfire Ritual, only it utilizes Demonic Dragon Mage, Mahoraga as a powerful booster over Blazing Flare Dragon as an attacker. I've altered the list with Gwynn the Ripper to give targetted retirement without having to neg yourself. Additionally, this also lets Basilisk enable power boosts for Mahoragas on the field. There's less 20k rows since I took out Seiger, but still the same access to powerful 21k+ rows. And, honestly, the 20/21k deals are if you only soul charge or retire once, but this is a build that waits until the opponent is on their last legs, then goes all-in, so you will be doing multiples of each, to the point where the difference between a Seiger or Gwynn won't be that large.
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Hysteric Shirley (Draw)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Demonic Dragon Sage, Mahoraga
3x Alluring Succubus
Grade 2's
4x Demon of Aspiration, Amon
4x Flirtatious Succubus
3x Gwynn the Ripper
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Evil Eye, Basilisk (Makes perfect guarding more consistent and hits for 12k without needing a retire from Amon)
1x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.
This deck uses the same tactics as Hellfire Ritual, only it utilizes Demonic Dragon Mage, Mahoraga as a powerful booster over Blazing Flare Dragon as an attacker. I've altered the list with Gwynn the Ripper to give targetted retirement without having to neg yourself. Additionally, this also lets Basilisk enable power boosts for Mahoragas on the field. There's less 20k rows since I took out Seiger, but still the same access to powerful 21k+ rows. And, honestly, the 20/21k deals are if you only soul charge or retire once, but this is a build that waits until the opponent is on their last legs, then goes all-in, so you will be doing multiples of each, to the point where the difference between a Seiger or Gwynn won't be that large.
Hellfire Ritual (Incomplete)
Grade 0's
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Mad Hatter/Hysteric Shirley (Draw, Shirley is set 5)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x Alluring Succubus
3x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Yellow Bolts
Grade 2's
4x Flirtatious Succubus
4x Werewolf Seiger
2x Blue Dust (You want to save your counterblasts for Amon)
2x Cyber Beast (Only use him as a turn two VG to force your opponent to block or get a free card. You also fish him out with Greedy Hand if you need a target so you don't have to deal with his weakness as a RG later. He also makes good Perfect Shield fodder, a 5k guard, or a good sack for Amon's skill)
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.)
The idea here is to be able to push for stronger RG rows more consistently by having multiple units that get power with Amon's skill. Every retire you do with Amon gives both Doreen and Blazing Flare 3k. I put them both on opposite RG rows, have them boosting/boosted by a Werewolf/Succubus and then cycle through cards in the space behind Amon to retire my opponent's RG's. Greedy Hand is the first card you get rid of. Then you call Yellow Bolts, tap them, and sack them. Then Flirtatious. Then Amon (who is a vanilla 10k RG). Each time you soul charge with a Flirtatious/Alluring/Yellow Bolt, you are giving Doreen 3k more. It's very easy to have all of your rows swing for over 30k using this tactic, and it makes a powerful final push.
If the worst case scenario happens and you have to ride Blazing Flare Dragon, then your soul should be built up enough to use his skill. You can still use two cards to soul charge with a non-Dark Irregulars vanguard, Greedy Hand and Dark Knight of Nightmareland. If you can use those to get 10 soul with BFD, it's possible to use his skill twice to snipe any two RGs your opponent has and as long as you still have any RGs out, you will still be able to use your triggers. You can still perfect guard, but you can't use them on Blazing Flare. Since this is the case, I would just play them as RGs if they're needed, or hold onto them for the hopes of getting an Amon.
Greedy Hand (Starter)
4x Dark Knight (Crit)
4x Blitz Ritter (Crit)
4x Mad Hatter/Hysteric Shirley (Draw, Shirley is set 5)
4x Cursed Doctor/Cheshire Cat (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Doreen the Thrustor
4x Alluring Succubus
3x March Rabbit (Perfect Guard)
3x Yellow Bolts
Grade 2's
4x Flirtatious Succubus
4x Werewolf Seiger
2x Blue Dust (You want to save your counterblasts for Amon)
2x Cyber Beast (Only use him as a turn two VG to force your opponent to block or get a free card. You also fish him out with Greedy Hand if you need a target so you don't have to deal with his weakness as a RG later. He also makes good Perfect Shield fodder, a 5k guard, or a good sack for Amon's skill)
Grade 3's
4x Amon
3x Blazing Flare Dragon (This is a Kagero card, it gains 3k every time a RG is destroyed.)
The idea here is to be able to push for stronger RG rows more consistently by having multiple units that get power with Amon's skill. Every retire you do with Amon gives both Doreen and Blazing Flare 3k. I put them both on opposite RG rows, have them boosting/boosted by a Werewolf/Succubus and then cycle through cards in the space behind Amon to retire my opponent's RG's. Greedy Hand is the first card you get rid of. Then you call Yellow Bolts, tap them, and sack them. Then Flirtatious. Then Amon (who is a vanilla 10k RG). Each time you soul charge with a Flirtatious/Alluring/Yellow Bolt, you are giving Doreen 3k more. It's very easy to have all of your rows swing for over 30k using this tactic, and it makes a powerful final push.
If the worst case scenario happens and you have to ride Blazing Flare Dragon, then your soul should be built up enough to use his skill. You can still use two cards to soul charge with a non-Dark Irregulars vanguard, Greedy Hand and Dark Knight of Nightmareland. If you can use those to get 10 soul with BFD, it's possible to use his skill twice to snipe any two RGs your opponent has and as long as you still have any RGs out, you will still be able to use your triggers. You can still perfect guard, but you can't use them on Blazing Flare. Since this is the case, I would just play them as RGs if they're needed, or hold onto them for the hopes of getting an Amon.
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