10/16/2014

Blue Flame Liberators

Blueflame Liberators

Stable 2

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

*Note: Working as intended != finished build, it just means deck functions as planned and is overall consistent

FVG:
Coronagal Liberator *1

Trigger: (6 crit/6 stand/4 heal)
Liberator of Holy Tree, Elkia (Heal) *4
Liberator of Hope, Epona (Critical) *4
Liberator of Ambition, Asus (Critical) *2
Catchgal Liberator (Stand) *4
Fortune Liberator (Stand) *2

Grade 1: (*13)
Shine Formation Liberator, Eldol (PG) *4
May Rain Liberator, Bruno *4
Fast Chase Liberator, Josephus *4
Little Liberator, Marron *1

Grade 2: (*12)
Liberator of Destiny, Aglovale *4
Liberator of Oath, Aglovale *4
Liberator, Lawful Trumpeter *4

Grade 3: (*8)
Bluish Flame Liberator, Percival *1
Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Core *4
Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Glare *3

So I haven't posted for a while... with Silver Thorns not getting any support and being creeped, I've been playing and testing with a lot of different decks... mainly Revengers, Blue Flame Liberators, and then recently, Star-Vader and Perdition. I wish I can do more tutorial-ish things, but real life is real, and I don't think auto-pilot decks like Revengers or straight-forward decks like Liberators would be good tutorial material. And then there's also some decks I don't feel comfortable enough to say I know the guts inside-out because I have not spent as much time exploring them as things like Silver Thorns. Anyways, there's like a great-wall-of-text down below so I'll stop my ranting here.

So, this is a stable build 2 because... it has gone through the prototype stage and initial stable stage, and this is an improvement based off the initial stable build. I'm pretty happy with build honestly, as it works really well at what it is intended to be doing and packs a fairly good punch. Furthermore it kept the chain-calling ability with minimal effort to net you free advantage without compromising a lethal, crit-heavy center.

ProGlare is a great finisher, and
a valuable addition to Blue Flames

The prototype was there to try out Prominence Glare as a main boss, and while Glare is a great boss, he's not strong and reliable enough to dedicate the entire deck's winning image on him, hence putting all the eggs in one basket. The issue behind it being, that a pure Glare focused build does not benefit from chain calling, and so you would naturally steer away from chain-calling. However, Glare is a 20k boss, meaning without chain calling, he would be only swing with 30k even if you have Bruno sitting behind him. While 26k 2-crit glory clone attack is great, it's not great enough to always win you games because if we take interceptors into consideration (glory skill does not stop interceptors), all your opponent needs is 2 10k shields in hand and they can 2-pass you. While saving 2 10k shields isn't incredibly easy, it's not incredibly hard either.

If Glare was cheap at doing his skill, then it would have been fine. However, Glare is very resource intensive, and so by dedicating to his skill, you end up hogging CBs and suffer minuses for that big play that's good enough to win a lot of games, but far from guaranteeing a kill, and with all the CBs hogged, you also lose the ability to keep your columns pumped and burning to make those delicious 21k Bruno columns as well as always calling with Oath Aglovale whenever you get the chance. He is also literally an inferior Prominence Core at all stages of the game except for the 1, maybe 2 turns you use his glory skill. Overall Core is still a much better and more consistent backbone boss that you should use as the core (lol pun not intended) of your deck, as he is strong throughout the game and keeps your deck running and pumping (similar to our red flame friend, DOtG, who lacks kill potential and burst, but is extremely consistent and powerful as a backbone boss that keeps the deck running, pumping, and creating advantage gaps), even though he has less burst and his attack is less lethal than Glare.

Now while Glare isn't that great as being a backbone core boss, he is excellent as a finisher. He completely excels at this role, and as a bonus, he's still a great boss and therefore a very good backup boss if you fail to ride Core and does half of Core's job, making Glare still a very robust unit to run. And those are the 2 roles he play in this build - a finisher and a back up mid-game boss.

ProCore is truly pro at being the core...
...
omg that was so bad

Why is Core a better backbone boss than Glare? Using at most CB1 per turn through Core, it means he is not CB intensive (costs as much as DOtG). His 1st skill also procs for free, and any form of superior call can potentially trigger it. Assuming we look at top 4 and ignore Catchgal, there's a 41.75% chance that we will hit Black Jack. Even if we only look at top 3, that's still a 33.01% chance of hitting a Black Jack, and both these probability ignores Catchgal, and ignores the fact that you can superior call more than once per turn. Lets say you legion Core and triggers Lawful Trumpeter, and use Core right after, that's instantly a whooping 7 cards looked for only CB1, and this is a common scenario that gives you 62.49% at hitting Black Jack. And all this chance and actual acquiring Black Jack with Core comes completely free.

Some people argue that his effect is inconsistent, and therefore unreliable, which is true. Relying on Core getting Black Jack is like relying on triggers. However, on the other side of the table, assuming Core will not go off would be like relying on 1-passing. You simply cannot assume that Core will not go off with such high probabilities, and assuming that he won't fire (lol another unintended pun) can easily cost you the game with Core's ability functioning kinda like critical triggers (you can proc it more than once, and with looking at top 3 having a 33.01% success rate, getting him to go off twice is literally about as common as getting double triggers). And even at 33.01% proc rate, that's about as likely as checking a trigger with a single drive check.

Skill costs as much as ProCore,
people say he's light on CB.
Then people say ProCore is too
CB heavy to run with Glare...

Another myth people often claim against a Core/Glare build is the deck being too CB heavy. This is not true. Glare is CB heavy (when you rely on him), but Core is not. A pure Core build actually have trouble burning out all the CBs because he alone uses at most 1 per turn, with the only other CB user in the deck being Aglovale. Core/Glare actually works incredibly well because your backbone is on a boss that uses but is not heavy on CB, who also can make very good use of Glare's finishing power, but is not required to rely on Glare. A boss that has built-in 41.75% chance at getting 2-crit for CB1 is often good enough to finish the job on his own.

Now why do I run the cards that I run? What is the reasoning behind my choice?

The first thing people might notice is that I run Catchgals and run a 6/6 scrit/stand split. While both Core and Glare work incredibly well with crits, Catchgals is just way too strong of a card that really doesn't have much of a drawback if you know how stand trigger works. Catchgals is a trigger unit, which means he doesn't take up precious deck space, yet he is the main backbone for chain calling even before Glare was even announced. Catchgal makes your top-deck calls more consistent and reliable at finding a card that fits your role, he also helps boost your Bruno and Corongal columns, and proc Core's crit skill. While the deck is now significantly less reliant on chain calling to reach magic numbers, a 2nd call still makes huge differences. For example, a Bruno boosted 9k attacker will be attacking at 22k instead of 19, and a Corongal boosting a boss will be at 31 instead of 28. That's literally an additional stage of power and consistency for free even in terms of deck building and space allocating. For how ridiculously much Catchgal is offering, he's way too good not to run.

Then there is 4 Lawful Trumpeters. This guy, is a must-4. Mandatory. He is a free +1, literally free of any cost. That alone is really good. What makes him better is that his free +1 also comes with a great bonus - triggering Core and Glare's skill for free. With Glare as a finisher, chances are we will not try to ride him until later in the game. Lawful Trumpeter instantly turns Glare from a CB2 finisher into a CB1 finisher. That's significantly easier to achieve than CB2. Significantly. The difference in 1 CB can easily translate to an additional turn you are making 21k columns, or another +1 you can get through Aglovale, on top of his free +1. And as I already mentioned, he also procs Core, making our awesome core boss even better. He syngerizes so incredibly well with the deck and the bosses on top of his super awesome sauce free +1 makes there absolutely no reason not to max this guy. His only hiccup is that he doesn't work too well with Percival, who is a mediocre and incredibly situational boss that we either don't run or don't run more than 1 copy anyways. So yeah, moral of the story, Lawful Trumpeter too stronk.

I don't think I really need to explain my reasoning with choices on Destiny, Aglovale, Oath, Aglovale, Bruno, and Josephus as it's fairly obvious why they are run at max copies. Both Aglovales are legion mates, and both are excellent units themselves. Bruno is the bread and butter of the deck, and Josephus is a free +1 that utilizes a resource that we don't otherwise use (now with 1 other competitor).

Doge Liberator Corongal

Now finally, Corongal. He is naturally a 8k booster for your VG, and if your Core finds a Black Jack, he makes your column 31k. Or if you find a Catchgal, that's again 31k. Many sees this as a weird choice as Guido now exists, who is also an excellent card. Here's the thing with Corongal. We want our crit-heavy center to hit hard. Our VG is 20k. Bruno is literally as effective a VG booster as Corongal. We want Bruno behind our VG if possible because then we might be able to hit the next stage and not get stuck on 27 or 30k. Guess what Corongal is? He's your wet dream center column already pre-setup, guaranteed, since the beginning of the game. Any Bruno we find can now just go to a RG column and wreck faces because our perfect center column is already set. This means, what Guido gets as best case scenario (getting a Bruno somewhere), we already have as a default.

"But froliz, what if Corongal gets sniped/locked/caught drunk driving and taken away by the police? He's too slow!"

Now here's the thing. Both Guido and Coronal require your VG to be in Legion. This means they are as slow as one another. If Corongal will get sniped/locked/high on drugs, so will Guido, and vice versa. So speed is not a determining factor in choosing one over the other, because they are the exact same. In fact, Corongal is actually slightly faster than Guido in most cases because you'd be using him as soon as you legion, where as Guido has his value in triggering ProGlare for free.

Now we have looked at the big-o and big-omega... I mean the best and worst case scenarios, lets look at the average case scenario. On average case, Guido will probably turn into a 7k booster if you find one, or a front row attacker, where as Corongal will be a 8k booster because you'd be pumpin' every turn anyways in most cases. That means on average, they're likely going to be a 7k booster vs. a 8k booster, so their average case is also, generally speaking, equal.

The only thing that Guido has over Corongal, is that he can sack a Josephus and +1 for free (because he is a soul himself), and he can potentially tigger your ProGlare for free if you sit on him for a while (which isn't a great idea btw, 25k columns...). So why are people super crazy over Guido as a FVG? *shrugs*. I mean, Guido is very useful and pretty awesome, and great as extra G0s to toss in the deck if you don't mind the slightly skewed ratios. But I see Corongal bringing in a much larger impact to the game in your favor.

So that's basically it for my Blue Flame Liberator deck. I think I've explained my choices fairly clearly, but if you have questions, disagree, etc, leave a comment below.

8/27/2014

Ancient Dragons Prototype 3

Test Build 3

Similar to Jibril, Ancient Dragons have been around for a long time,
and are like embodiment of violence.

At least he's kinda cute.

So in the end I ended up using Babysaurus again. Why? The problem is, Babysaurus only have 2 other Babyrex. The issue with Babyrex is common with Baby Ptrro and Babysaurus, which are you won't really feel the need to use their abilities in most your games.
competitors, with one being Babyrex which requires you to play Tyrannolegend, and the other being the G3 searcher. Tyrannolegend is lackluster most of the time, but that's not the main issue with using

Then why Babysaurus over other starters? The reason is that Babysaurus serves as a safety net in fetching a Tyrannobite if you can't get one. As powerful as Tyrannoquake is, he's really reliant on his gool 'ol pal Tyrannobite. Without Trannobite, Tyrannoquake becomes an inferior Cormac that can't even just eat anything to gain the crit and loses out on 5k power. Once Tyrannoquake gets Tyrannobite to aid him though, he instantly becomes one of the scariest and most pressuring bosses an opponent can face.

What a waste of good art :(

Magma Armor is dropped because of how situational he is. His winning image is you push your opponent Tyrannoquake first, I found that I don't really ever reach the point where I need to use Magma Armor to secure the kill because Tyrannoquake being 36k with 2 crit is alreay so hard to handle that you usually kill your opponent on the spot from 3 or 4 damage, and cases where they're at 5 are rare enough that it warrants the dismiss of Magma Armor. Volcatops is also a better backup vanguard than Magma Armor due to it not only having Tyrannoquake's 2nd ability, but also that his 1st effect can also wreck some havoc if you are forced to sit on Volcatops (eg. +5000 to your boosters, then swing Tyrannobite @ interceptor unboosted, swing with Volcatpos and eat Tyrannobite, you are essentially swinging for 9>21>21>21 even without a 2nd eater.)
to 5 damage, and the use his ability to make 1 extra attack for each CB and soul you have. Problem is, he's the worst first ride you can have, and is completely useless until you reach the point that your opponent is at 5. And if you successfully ride

Hurry! Kill the Lao-Shan Lung!

I also cut back on Night Armor because the guy's too slow and now that I only have 4 copies of Legion boss left in the deck. Requiring a VG in Legion really hurts him way too much in effectiveness, and even when you are in Legion his use is still somewhat limited and acts just like another Dinocrowd most of the time.

Lastly, I popped in another ~~Lao-Shan Lung~~ QW to make it a 2/2 PG/QW split even though it has the risk all QWs have in
decks that eats a lot of CBs. There are 2 reasons for this: 1.) It significantly helps out performing Legion because AD often have trouble accumulating enough drop zone in an affordable manner to legion ASAP due to having absolutely no way to make up on the loss of cards, and 2.) Ancient Dragons really lacks an advantage engine, and being to guard large attacks with 1 card helps out the deck a lot.

I still don't consider the deck completely in stable mode due to the extremely heavy reliance on Tyrannobite as a win condition throughout the entire game span, from early to late. Seeing no Tyrannobite is so devastating to the deck that it's pretty much a death sentence.

8/16/2014

Ancient Dragon Prototye 2

Ancient Dragons Prototype 2

Test Build 2

Similar to Jibril, Ancient Dragons have been around for a long time,
and are like embodiment of violence.

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

*Note: Working as intended != finished build, it just means deck functions as planned and is overall consistent

FVG:
Baby Ptero *1

Trigger: (8 crit/4 draw/4 heal)
Ancient Dragon, Ornithhealer (Heal) *4
Ancient Dragon, Titanocargo (Draw) *4
Ancient Dragon, Dinodile (Critical) *4
Ancient Dragon Fire Priestess (Critical) *4

Grade 1: (*14)
Ancient Dragon, Paraswall *3
Ancient Dragon, Rock Mine *1
Ancient Dragon, Iguanogorg *4
Ancient Dragon, Gattlingaro *4
Ancient Dragon, Gioconda *2

Grade 2: (*11)
Ancient Dragon, Dinocrowd *4
Ancient Dragon, Night Armor *3
Ancient Dragon, Tyrannobite *4

Grade 3: (*8)
Ancient Dragon, Magma Armor *2
Ancient Dragon, Volcatops *2
Ancient Dragon, Tyrannoquake *4

Why is this Prototype 2 and not 1? Because I already went through the prototype 1 stage lol.

So this build in a sense, is to mimic what Silver Thorns does best, by abusing the early game. Unlike Silver Thorns, Ancient Dragons have less direct advantage and can run low in resources and not be able to recover from it if you're not careful (no Venus for ADs, guys), and Ancient Dragons, while having as much early game power and rush potential as Silver Thorns, have a slightly heavier cost in doing so (CB1 for 2 additional attacks is impossible), less flexibility (all the on-attack eating-abilities requires an attack on the Vanguard), higher risk (you're paying your CBs before you know if they'd let it through and hit a damage trigger), as well as worse attack quality (Silver Thorns typically CB1 for 1 additional full column attack, where as Ancient Dragons gets an additional 9k attack). Unlike Silver Thorns, Ancient Dragon players also need to be careful about the situation where your opponent leaves no 9k or lower RGs in their front row, because in those cases Tyrannobite cannot grant an additional attack alone.

He's MVP.
He solves world hunger on Cray.

While Ancient Dragons have a bunch of short comings compared to Silver Thorns in the early game department, that doesn't mean Ancient Dragon's early game is strictly worse. Unlike Silver Thorns, all it takes is 1 Tyrannobite to fire it off multiple times in the same turn (Zelma cannot be used until the next turn once it leaves the soul, but Tyrannobite can be eaten multiple times as long as you have enough CBs and eating/call-over skills), and unlike Silver Thorns, while we are required to attack the vanguard to trigger the on-attack eating skills, hitting is not required and so we are the ones deciding if I get to attack multiple times, not my opponent. Another thing unlike Silver Thorns is, rather than requiring a total of 2~3 copies of Ana/Maricica to get the chain-attacks going, Ancient Dragons can also achieve additional attacks by only having 1 eater if you happen to get multiple copies of Tyrannobite (or other self-revivers), by attacking with both Tyrannobites first, eating one of the Tyrannobites, and then reviving the Tyrannobite on top of the other one to perform a pseudo-restand on both of them.

Run away, little girl! Run away...

Ancient Dragons also have a much stronger mid and late game as well as finishing power due to Tyrannoquake being a beast that either burns through hands early and fast, or puts your opponent into their
danger-zone very quickly for your small-but-multi-attacks to actually become life-threatening assaults. Tyrannoquake going for over 30k by default with little effort and threatens with 2-crit as long as you can eat a persona is very, very powerful. That kind of attack generally only costs you CB1 to do each turn, but is very unsustainable to guard against, and even Quintet Walls have trouble guaranteeing guarding the attack by itself. QWs average out to be ~25k shield, which is a 2-pass on-average
if your Tyrannoquake is only boosted by a FVG. In cases where you hit the lower end of the average (which isn't entirely rare; QWs resulting in 20k shield is fairly common as well), or when Tyrannoquake is boosted by a legit 6 or 7k booster, QWs are only worth 1-pass. This kind of attack is not something you'd want to have to guard against every single turn, especially when it also has a 2-crit to punish you for letting it through.

Volcatops servers as a backup vanguard should you fail to ride Tyrannoquake due to it having the same eating effect as Tyrannoquake (without even requiting a LB4). Magma Armor, while powerful as a finisher when your opponent is sitting on 5 damage, is very underwhelming to ride first as he has no built-in eating ability. Magma Armor is your finisher if your opponent is sitting on 5 damage and refuses to die, although he does have the risk factor in him that if you still didn't finish them off, you'd be completely exhausted of resources.

And why 4 Draws? I usually prefer crits and stands, but in this deck's case, I still feel the deck needs that occasional raw card count to do its thing due to the lack of advantage. There will be times where you just need the raw card count for PGs or just for eating/boosting purposes. I still much prefer 12 crits (and 12 crits with Tyrannoquake is super scary), so I'd be likely to juggle with that and adjusting the deck overall to a form that can just run 12 crits and eat faces.

So overall, I'm liking the new Ancient Dragons quite a lot. They have a top class early game, a top class mid game, a competitive late game, good finishing power, and are great as a budget deck (the most expensive card in the deck is like $5, which is Geoconda. Tyrannoquake are going for like 150 yen per, and Volcatops are like 30 yen per, meaning a full playset of G3s costs under $7, and PGs are like 120 yen with QWs being 50 yen, meaning a full playset of both costs under $7). They also have the fun, dynamic, and engaging play style that requires the pilot to steer and make plays and reward good plays without feeling tedious. I also see potential for more wombo combos, which I'll certainly enjoy exploring.

7/28/2014

Black Witches Stable 1

Stable Build 1

Everyone's favorite ~~loli~~ witch, Lir
and witch hats are still awesome

(White Witches would be Genesis Witches)
If you want to see the previous version, click here

I was wrong about her :(
she's MVP.

So this build ended up working significantly better than the previous ones; Sekuana literally makes all the difference. My initial thought was focusing on control, which proved itself to be extremely inconsistent and prone to your opponent's maneuvers. Now that I realized the control aspect is just a method for the power reduction so you can attack aggressively; the control part is a bonus, but the main focus should be on the power reduction, which is significantly more consistent and reliable (as long as you're not shooting for -25k or -30k, -5k~15k is fairly consistent)

Adora, our only pressure unit

Adora is the G0 generator for the drop zone. When boosted by a 7k booster, she requires 10k shield to be guarded (unless against cross ride bodies, but those are rare today). So there can be 3 scenarios: 1.) your opponent guards with a single G0 and now has a G0 in their drop zone for Deirdre and Dana to use, 2.) they guard with 2 5k shields or a PG (which is not worth it btw, since even if you take the hit and then simply call over the G0 that's still only a -1 and not a -2), or 3.) they take the hit and have 1 - (2/3)^5 = ~86.83% chance having one of their RGs transformed into a G0.

Even when they only have a FVG on the field as target, I'd usually still use the effect to call over the FVG even if the total G0 count doesn't go up. The reason behind that is 1.) you kill their FVG, who is usually important for most decks and 2.) you popped a G0 in the drop zone for your Deirdre and Dana to use.

As why certain cards are ran at their amount, here's a break down:

4 Fianna because she's your best first ride, and her 2nd effect is good
4 Rias because she's an awesome finisher or a boss to put your opponent straight to 5 damage, and she's our only other boss
4 Femme because she's the best G2 the deck has, and the more you have the more you can plus off Fianna's 2nd effect
4 Deirdre because she's the 2nd best G2, offering control and soul blast that aids Legion
3 Adora because she's a great G0 generator, but her window of relevance is small (she's irrelevant as soon as your opponent hits 4 damage)
4 Sekuana because she's Fianna's only win condition, and is a pseudo +5k to all columns. She's very important
Total of 4 Sentinels because they're mandatory at this era
4 Dana because she's the other best G1, and helps out the deck's gimmick
2 Scathach because this deck runs off stands, and she forms 16k columns with Sekuana. She's also this deck's other best G1

So overall, the main focus is pretty much to mildly control your opponent and setting up for your win condition (the power reduction) while swapping out priority targets and messing up power columns. There are two approaches to the power reduction. If you have enough resources (since all power drop takes a -1 in cost), you can drop a power-drop earlier and directly put your opponent straight into their late game, forcing them to guard everything that comes afterwards. The other is obvious, where you try to wrap a game up and seal the deal with a power-reduction when they're at high damage.

See something like this? Yeah... no
Kill it before it lays eggs.

The tricky part is knowing what to target and swap out. Key units with annoying abilities are obvious. The
harder part comes in the rest, and really comes down to the situation. One way is to swap out boosters so your opponent will be less likely to call over them and thus keeping a higher G0 concentration for your Rias play that'd hurt them greatly later. another approach is to swap out an entire column, forcing them to swing for 10k max with that column, or call over it to suffer actual minuses all while putting G0s in the drop zone for you to use Deirdre and Dana. Swapping out the interceptor is another obvious one when you are ready to pop a power drop and push for game, but it's not always the right choice. There will be times where if you swap out their interceptor, your unboosted attacker (often 9 or 10k) will be unable to hit anything other than the G0 you gave them, which is counter-intuitive (and this happens quite often due to the nature of the deck if you are not careful). You will want to avoid creating that scenario yourself at all costs.

So that concludes the first stable build. Again, don't be afraid to disagree with me and do your own thing and discover your own stuff. If you have any questions, comments, or just want to say 'hai' just let me know lol

7/24/2014

Been Busy

My expression and (almost) reaction towards the
amount of stuff I'm dealing with IRL atm

I've been pretty busy with stuff IRL, so wasn't able to play much and test decks as much, and hence no updates. Silver Thorn is fairly consistent, and that recipe I have now is pretty much as good as Silver Thorns will be right now until further support.

Witch testing has been tough because they just rely too much on your opponent and overall just sucks pretty hard due to that. Arianrhod basically feels like a trap since Witches lacks power so much that the little bit of consistency Arianrhod adds doesn't really help a whole lot; the only 2 win conditions Black Witches really have, is finishing the game with Rias or Sekuana. So I've dropped Arianrhod completely in favor for much more Sekuana for the kill potential since the deck lacks heavily in that department. I've also been suspecting that the witch starter Lir is also a trap since the deck works horribly with Stand triggers outside of the turns you reduce your opponent's power; you don't really benefit from swinging at RGs because more often than not there's nothing good to swing at. Swinging at G0s is counter-intuitive to the deck's gimmick, and killing RGs does the same since no target to transform = gimmick can't work = gg. Lir is also extremely slow, as having to wait until your VG is in Legion and having to land a hit on the VG to work gives her an extremely small window of opportunity to work and makes her ridiculously easy to take out/retire before she can be used. Overall though, adding more Sekuana helps quite a bit, and I think it's the right direction the testing is heading towards.

Other than that, I'm really interested and looking forward to in Ancient Dragons since they got a brutal Legion and legion mate. Along with Dinocrowd, Nightarmor, this gives them additional attacks and 21k columns similar to a Luquier Reverse onto Eva break ride turn every turn for as cheap as CB1, or even potentially free if Nightarmor lands his hit. There's also the card interactions and fiend dancing through all the eating and even calling units over other units when reviving to achieve very aggressive multiple attacks. Magmaarmor also provides as a good finisher if you can get a total of 2 copies of any combination of Dinocrowd or Nightarmor, as these can achieve as much 14k attacks as you have soul and CBs by eating each other, making this a extremely devastating finishing play for when your opponent is at 5 damage since they need to guard every single attack to stay alive. The best part? This deck will be dirt cheap, and by dirt cheap I actually do mean dirt cheap because one of the Legion bosses is of R rarity, and for that reason there's no way I'm not building this deck. I also love to explore wombo combos like those seen in Silver Thorn, and this deck definitely have that potential to provide as much combos to the level of Silver Thorns, if not more.

So that's all for now. I don't know when the next update will be (really depends on my real life), or what it'd be about. I do know though that I'd look into and dig into Ancient Dragons in search for wombo combos and Falcos. Or about the new Pale Moon Legion if it turns out to be a Silver Thorn (which I'm very doubtful based off the image. No sign of and loops or strands of silver thorn anywhere on her, especially her head, and she just looks like a Beast Tamer to me. Probably to extend what Bunny Queen started and reviving the old beast tamer twins). It'll be revealed on July 31, 2014 though, so we'd find out by next week.

7/06/2014

Black Witches Prototype 2

Test Build 2

~~mai waifu~~
SP Fianna and Femme

(White Witches would be Genesis Witches)
If you want to see the previous version, click here

This is me when my SP Fianna arrived to pair with my SP Femme

Black Witches prototype version 2. So it's been running smoother for me~~, and I'm sure it's due to me getting and seeking SP Fianna as mate for my SP Femme, because ever since I got my SP legion pair it's been running smoother~~, probably because I've gotten a bit more used to the cards and the deck's gimmicks as a whole.

I'm starting to believe this deck to be one of those more complex decks where the proportions are balanced on the edge of a knife for it to work rather than just going 4x of whatever you think is important and going for "max consistency", because most things are situational enough that you don't really need nor want to go for that highest consistency. For example, while sticking G0s all over your opponent's face is the whole point of the deck and the base conditions for this deck's gimmick, Dana and Deirdre do not always have the option to sheep your opponent based off their plays. However, even if you run a bit less Dana and Deirdre, your opponent will still play carefully and be expecting them, so the hidden advantage of discouraging your opponent to guard with G0s still applies even if you run less Dana and Deidre.

I'm actually not a big fan of running everything at 2-of/3-of (actually I like 3-of, but not too much for 2-of), but everything other than Fianna and Famme are situational at best and heavily dependent on what's going on. 4 Arianrhod? Er, you don't really need that many. 4 Sekuana? Hell no, as she has a pretty hefty condition to meet to even work. 4 Dana? Maybe, still a situational card though. 4 Scathach? I wish I have the space. More than 1~2 Nemain? Yeah try riding or drawing into multiple copies of her and you'd know why I only run 1. But these are reasons why you're not really seeing things at 4 copies; there are almost no card that's completely independent off your opponent besides the 7+3, 9+3, and 10k vanilla. Even Fianna is still dependent off your opponent to some extent.

I ended up throwing Sekuana back in because I don't always get Rias or have the luxury to wait another turn to ride into her, and being able to pressure for a turn even if it's a little early ain't bad; the sooner they hit their 4th damage, the sooner they are forced to guard your VG attacks (and guarding Legion attacks is fairly expansive). Fianna also completely lacks fire power, to the point where I noticed this is one of her major weaknesses, so that's what Sekuana is for. I mean, she lacks firepower so much that she almost swings like the old school non-legion VGs. Sekuana also is another RG eater that works nicely with the triggers Lir calls out. Another thing that makes her nice is that on the turn she uses her effect, she swings like a 11k attacker if you happen to be missing one, and she synergizes well with stands for obvious reasons.

I also tested Adora. She's not bad, but still not the magic pill that'd suddenly make black witches top tier. Adora is decent because she is a 9k attacker, meaning when boosted by a 7k booster, she requires a 10k shield to guard if you plan to guard her attack with 1 card. This means in order to guard Adora effectively, you need to guard with G0 cards, opening your opponent up for Dana and Deirdre to mess with their columns, set up your gimmicks, and generating the cost for you to perform Legion. However, if they don't guard her, they take 1 damage and you get to do what Rias does for half the cost, with the side effect of thinning their decks of triggers. So what Adora does is essentially create a lose-lose situation for your opponent. Also similar to any on-hit units, a checked stand trigger for this kind of unit can often mess up their plans, even though she's only 9k. I'd say she's a very valuable asset for the deck, just unfortunately still not strong enough to carry the deck to a top tier position because she still doesn't change the fact that this deck's performance is still heavily influenced and dependent by your opponent's deck, skill, hand, and maneuvers. She does make it better though, and I look forward for her official release (which I think was just released recently, with her being the 2nd most expansive PR card from Cardfight Pack Vol.14).

Witches are definitely fun though. ~~And moe.~~ And remember, don't be afraid to leave comments or disagree with me. Never take anyone's words for granted or without question, and a pinch of salt to go with it often makes it both more tasty and healthy.

7/01/2014

Legion Duo

Stable 1

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

Grade 3 *8:
Duo, Fall in Heart Victoria *4
Duo True Sister, Meer *2
Duo Temptation, Reit *2

Grade 2 *12:
Duo, Fall in Heart Quincy *4
Duo Mini Heart, Rhone *4
Duo Kelpie Jockey, Syr Darya *3

Grade 1 *13:
PR♥ISM-Duo, Aria *4 (PG)
Duo Beast Ear, Loulou *4
Duo Afternoon Tea, Parana *3
Duo Pretty Horn, Ural *2

Grade 0 *1:
Duo Lovers' Singer, Darling *1

Triggers *16: (8 Crit/4 Draw/4 Heal)
Duo Tropical Healer, Mejelda (Heal) *4
Duo Lamplight Melody, Tigris (Draw) *2
Duo Morning Charm, Liffey (Draw) *2
Duo Gran Pasturn, Syanon (Critical) *4
Duo Pride Crown, Madeira (Critical) *4

FVG:
Duo Lovers' Singer, Darling *1

I guess this is kind of a random post lol. But I like the deck, and I think it works fairly well (not perfect, but pretty well), so I'm just posting it ~~because I'm stuck on the witches and can't find anything to go further with them right now~~ for the lols. Why did I build the deck? Because ~~I like the PG too much that I had to build it~~ Duos have fun, interesting, and engaging mechanics that also revolves a lot of combo and rewards good play pretty well. Anyways, let's get to the deck.

So, as the title suggests, this is a Legion focused Duo deck. Since Duo (and Bermuda as a whole) only received 1 Legion boss, this deck('s G3s) is still half stuck in the LB4 era. However, Victoria is a fairly good Legion. She may not be the best, but she is good enough to carry her own weight. She swings for very high numbers for free (something that's fairly valuable for Bermudas), and her 'cloning' capabilities gives her huge combo and toolbox potential, as well as incredible ability to adapt to the situation. Basically, as long as you can perform Legion, you can duplicate anything you have at your disposal based off the situation. Missing an attacker? Clone one. Have Rhone and want to apply more on-hit pressure as well as clone more? Clone one. Want to prep 2 PGs? Clone one. Want to push for big numbers with Loulou? Clone one. Need more 10k shields? Clone one. Hack, if you are bored, even if you just want to Legion for the sake of Legion or shuffle back a bunch of triggers, you can even clone herself (if you have a 2nd copy).

What makes her cloning ability even better is the fact that she does it on Legion, so you can shuffle back the thing you want to clone, essentially kinda looping yourself over and over again especially if you use soul blasting units like Pretty Horn. For example, say you have 2 Darlings. You guard with one. Now you can call the other Darling, perform Legion, shuffle back and search for the Darling you just shuffled back. This is also why I run 2 Darlings (one as FVG, one as tech); she makes this deck very tanky as it's very easy to always maintain having 10k shields in hand. Just that 1 extra copy of Darling gives this deck so much more utility and flexibility as well as tankyness, she's well worth the spot (and I would even argue that this 1 card spot is the most cost efficient spot spent for the deck). Darling also still has that great FVG utility (bounce back Loulous to re-call for 3 21k+ columns), and is completely reusable, and completely searchable, allowing you juggle the 2 copies of her in your deck and guard or use the ability as you please. She also makes an awesome early game Rhone target.

Victoria guaranteeing a bounce also allows you to go more aggressive early game and call down units you normally wouldn't, as you won't be committing to that field. Call down a PG to boost? That's fine, as you can bounce it back and clone one later. Call a Loulou as a temporary 9k attacker? That's fine as well, as you can bounce it back and clone one later, and enjoy Loulou's powerful skill the more you have her.

Rhone is also a very important unit in this deck. She amplifies the amount of cloning the deck does and provides precious on-hit pressure, and can snowball your advantage if she lands a hit.

Loulou is the powerhouse of the deck for RGs. She can be used as a temporary 9k attacker. Behind Syr Darya, she creates 21k columns. When you call 2 Loulous, she creats 21k columns behind any 10k+ attackers, like any of the G3s or Parana. So say you have 12k attacker, Victoria, and a 11k attacker in your front row. Call down 2 Loulous in the order of behind 11k attacker first, and then behind the 12k attacker, you just formed yourself a 21/28/22 field. The deck's extremely high cloning proficiency also makes Loulou very easy to use as well as very easy to setup.

Ural is also very good, especially for a Legion based deck due to her soul blasting cost. She allows for easier way to get 4 cards in drop zone, and she cleans out your soul for more Legion looping with her cost, all while also providing a +1 on the spot. I didn't run Peace because I still find Peace's 6k to hurt too much in general, and she doesn't synergize well with Rhone. When you still want and need advantage, you won't have enough CBs to bounce her and draw (typically on your 2nd turn). And she forming 15k column with Rhone definitely doesn't help at all. Ural shall take the job of direct drawing, and she gets the draw right away rather than relying on something else to do it for her.

I also didn't use Chicora because she is just too hard to use and too inconsistent. Parana on the other hand is surprisingly good in this deck, and very very good at that. A cloned Parana serves both as an attacker and a booster, and she provides early game attacking.

Meer is a good ride to settle on if you miss Victoria early on. She's just an awesome break ride overall and her full field bounce is also pretty awesome. Reit, while a re-stander, is more often used for her 2nd ability of bouncing units back to hand.

Oh and lastly, I'm only running 4 draws because I love those 4 different art. If I actually want to go serious and wreck faces for this deck, I'd run 12 crits lol. So feel free to change the draws to crits as this deck has immense synergy with crits. High power, strong pressure and momentum all make this deck work exceptionally well with crits.

Overall, this is a very aggressive deck, and can snowball in advantage. This deck swings for high numbers fairly easily and consistently, and can very easily throw out 3 attacks per turn since early turns, all while still having Bermuda's trait of not needing to commit to a bad field due to bouncing, as well as a decent advantage engine and search engine to make it a bulky and tanky deck as well as remain fluid and adapt to the situation. It also has many combos to punishes misplay greatly as well as reward good planning, prediction, and good plays greatly, giving it a decently high skill cap and making it very fun to play.

6/25/2014

Black Witches Prototype 1

Test Build 1

Rias and Deirdre

(White Witches would be Genesis Witches)

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

FVG:
Witch of Banquets, Lir *1

Trigger: (6 stand/6 crit/4 heal)
Black Cat Witch, Milkre (Heal) *4
Black Crow Witch, Eine (Critical) *4
Witch of Goats, Medb (Stand) *4
Revenger, Air Raid Dragon (Critical) *2
Revenger, Waking Angel (Stand) *2

Grade 1: (*14)
Barrier Witch, Grainne (QW) *2
Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir (PG) *2
Ruin Witch, Scathach *4
Witch of Precious Stones, Dana *4
Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod *2

Grade 2: (*11)
Comet Witch, Serva *2 (will be replacing with Witch of Attraction, Adora once she's out)
Inspection Witch, Deirdre *4
Witch of Reality, Femme *4
Skull Witch, Nemain *1

Grade 3: (*8)
Cultus Witch, Rias *4
Witch of Enchantment, Fianna *4

First (actually, 2nd, but close enough) attempt on the black witches. As much as I like my RRR Nemain, her 3k hurts this deck way too much since this deck has to run stands for the awesome utility Medb provides, and I almost never find myself ever wanting to use Nemain's effect more than once per game even if I can. But she is still occasionally useful ~~and looks great~~, so there's 1 copy for that.

I've explained why I prefer 6 stand/6 crit over 8 crit/4 stand previously in my Silver Thorn deck profile; with 4 stands, I still need to attack with the R > V > R pattern to avoid wasting triggers, but I see them with low consistency (as much consistency as draw triggers in the standard 8/4/4 ratio), whereas with 6 stands, I can attack with the R > V > R pattern but expect to see both with equal frequency. Honestly I feel like the witches aren't the best deck to utilize stand triggers for reasons including a weaker front line, on-call skills that makes you think twice about calling it prematurely, absolutely no on-hit pressure (that'd change once Witch of Attraction, Adora is out), and how you can and will turn front row units into G0s and so there are a lot less interceptors to swing at. It kinda sucks that Medb has such a strong skill but is on a stand trigger, forcing you to run it.

A few major issues I've noticed with the witches are:

Unlike traditional Shadow Paladins, they have no superior call (the FVG one doesn't count), and relies on Nemain and Fianna for direct advantages, which is really low quality, unreliable, and inconsistent.
Riding Rias first absolutely sucks. Her on-legion skill is pretty useless early on and even requires you to eat another witch (-1), and her Polymorph skill is extremely costly, to the point it costs as much as Fianna's but less than half as effective (you run the risk of not seeing and G0s off top 5 of deck). For the cost of CB2 even Berserk Dragon could have guaranteed something dead.
Performance is heavily dependent on the other deck in terms of match up. Examples includes, but are not limited to: Meets Raisers? Fianna helps them fetch for up to 2 Cat Butlers off the top of their deck, and the G1 and G2 helps them reuse Cat Butler. Meets Revengers? They can just eat the triggers to suffer like nothing and even lock you out of your skills that checks for the amount of G0s on the opponent's field.
Fairly easy to play around and heavily dependent on your opponent's hand and actions. Good players can avoid guarding with G0s early game, guard with G0s mid game, and then Legion to shuffle all G0s away and then leave your Dana and Deirdre always vanilla. Smart players can and will call over the G0s you give them to lock you out of your skills that require X number of G0s on their field to even trigger, and then Legion the G0s away.

Still working on it, but these are the current issues that needs to be solved/worked around. Since Witch of Attraction, Adora is already revealed and known, I'll be beginning my testing by using that as well to see how much issues it solves.

6/18/2014

Silver Thorn BT15+ Update

Silver Thorn BT15+

Early-Mid Game Focused - Stable 2

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

For the list of Silver Thorn card effects, click here

FVG:

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emil *1 (set in stone; still the best starter)

Triggers *16: (6 Crit/6 Stand/4 Heal)

Skyhigh Walker (Stand) *2 (best other stand in stand variant; occationally useful)
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Serge (Stand) *4 (ECB, and this is Stand variant)
Poison Juggler (Critical) *2 (best other crit trigger; occationally useful)
Silver Thorn Barking Dragon (Critical) *4 (set in stone, unless playing none-crit variant)
Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia (Heal) *4 (set in stone)

Grade 1 *14:

Silver Thorn Breathing Dragon *2 (for early and mid game presence)
Silver Thorn Assistant, Zelma *4 (set in stone; defines Silver Thorn early and mid game play)
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana *4 (set in stone; defines Silver Thorn early and mid game play)
Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia *4 (set in stone, because no QW avaliable)

Grade 2 *11:

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica *4 (for early game presence)
Silver Thorn Rising Dragon *4 (set in stone, 12k beater OP)
Silver Thorn Upright Lion *3 (finisher; can be very strong in early/mid game if pulled off some lucky Ana/Maricica/Zelma play)

Grade 3 *8:

Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier *4 (finisher and aggro-maintainer; keeps attacks pumping late game regardless of retires)
Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Яeverse" *1 (unfortunately much less effective against Legion units, but still has her place occasionally; some people would prefer Eva in this case for more aggression)
Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier *3 (backup Venus and cross ride fodder)

This is my current build that I've been testing with, and is here for my own reference and record keeping because it works. I've gotten too sick of checking draw triggers in the early-game-focused Silver Thorn to the point that I'd rather run stands in their place to maintain the ECB balance and Zelma swappability; Silver Thorn needs to get attacks and pressure as well as damage in throughout the entire game, not gaining more cards when your early game is your strongest point of time and when Venus already can generate a huge advantage. Also running draw triggers makes a deck weaker against things like Sin Buster and CEO Yggdrasill, or any other Glory cones for that matter. The good news is Silver Thorn's natural attack pattern even in its crit variant, due to Zelma being a thing, already supports stand triggers (it's naturally the RG > VG > RG pattern).

Skyhigh Walker is decent in that as long as your not aiming for a "free" Venus skill, he doesn't cripple your columns nearly as much; making Venus's skill equivalent to CB1 is more than enough in most cases. He is also very, very situationally useful during the late game when all 3 of your columns are consisted of something that includes Ana or Maricica and when your CBs are typically all used up; getting 1 CB open at that stage when your opponent is at 4 damage drives them nuts as letting anything through will result in an additional attack, so that letting a column through doesn't actually save them shields. But I still don't find Skyhigh Walker worth using over Silver Thorn triggers for the sake of EBC and Zelma; being swappable by Zelma is a big plus during the early and mid game when you can scale and change your field to a much more threatening one.

I have a replay for this deck to show a glimpse of how it works. I'll upload it and put it here once I find time making it into a video.

6/16/2014

Shadow Paladin Witch Triggers

The hype is unstoppable!

Latest revealing of the Witches are their rainbow triggers! Usually I don't post stuff like this that's not really useful nor informative, but the Witches gets special treatment because ~~of my hype~~ they have big awesome witch hats!

Three of them are vanillas, and the stand trigger is now confirmed to be a unflipper and a soul charger to make the Witch starter relevant (meaning on-hit you can essentially +1 and unflip 2 and SC2). Plus, since Rias focuses on lowering the vanguard's power, theoretically stands should work out fairly well.

Heal

Witch of Black Cat, Mirukura

Crit

Witch of Black Raven, Eine

Draw

Witch of Lizard, Aife

Stand

Witch of Goat, Maeve

(AUTO): When this unit enters , if you have a "Witch" vanguard,
and your opponent has 2 or more Grade 0 rear guards, SC1, unflip 1 damage.

With EB11 & EB12 being released in less than a week, that's it for now. I'm really hoping for a 7+3 generic Witch G1 attacker at this point because I still feel their G1 line up is rather lacking. It might be this card that has yet to have its effects revealed. I mean, she has a super awesome art as well, it better be useful or I'd be sad because I hate to have to leave cards with art I like a lot out of decks.

Edit:

Witch of Ruin (center) is confirmed to be the G1 7+3 attacker.

The card on the left translates to "Witch of God(ly) Speed, Emeru", and her effect is "AUTO[VC/RC]: When this unit attacks, if your opponent has 2 or more G0 units, this unit gets +3000 power during that battle"

~~This should still be their theme song~~