Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier

   So next up after Luquier Reverse, comes the Luquier review! The reason I put priority on her over the rest of the deck is because a lot of people have a hard time deciding if they should justify dropping big bucks getting the original queen (which I personally got 4 copies when she was cheap. I think I spent a total of $16 for 4 Japanese copies, and she's going for $20 per copy now. The EN version's prices are more outrageous). So I'll review this card and explain her uses, and hope that it will help you guys out there to make the decision of whether or not she's worth the $$.

   Again, I assume my readers to know her effect. If you don't, feel free to look her up here. Also, some of the information overlaps with the Luquier Reverse review article, like what the 13k base can do for you. So feel free to skip it if you already know what's going on.

  So a brief overview of what the card can do. She gains power for every unit you call from your soul, and also has a situational effect to fully fill your field for a hefty cost. Anyone that had played her before BT12 knows that her LB4 is extremely situational, and that she was good due to the +3k per call effect.

Her Role in a Silver Thorn build

   So first of all, unlike the old days when she was boss, her main role and focus is no longer that +3k power. Silver Thorns RGs aren't particularly well know for calling stuff out of the soul consistently and easily, and even when they do, it's usually 1, up to 2 units during battle phase only if you actually land a hit on your opponent's VG. And since Silver Thorns doesn't run 8k vanillas, getting +3k doesn't do anything; it just looks nice because 20k VG columns are as bad as a 16k VG column. While the +3k power ability still makes a difference, the difference is so subtle that you probably won't notice it or see at work even once every 50 games (it's more common in a build with Eva though). So don't expect this to be a thing in Silver Thorns outside of some very rare occasion.

   Her first and primary role is an obvious one; she's the cross ride fodder who's greatest purpose is to sit quietly in your soul doing nothing so your Luquier Reverse or Luquier Venus gets a 13k body.

   She does have a second role though, and that is field recovery. It's extremely situational, and you'd probably only use it once every 10 games or so. But I consider 10% of my games to be a rather high chance, so I consider it not negligible. While Luquier Venus also does field recovery, and a better job at that, Luquier gives this option to a Luquier Reverse focused deck, and gives a Luquier Venus focused deck 100% G3 consistency to have the ability to recover the field.

   Considering that her +3k ability doesn't do jack most of the time, and that her LB4 is very situational, she's usually just vanilla and a bad G3 to ride.

What She Brings to the Deck

The 13k Base

  The largest difference is obvious; the 13k body. This is actually quite a difference for the deck due to its defensive nature and the advantage engine it has, as well as the deck's inability to push for a final turn.

   When a Silver Thorn player is playing by the technique of bullying RGs, it's not uncommon to render your opponent unable to consistently form 18k columns. When that happens, it's easy for the Silver Thorn player to proceed to snowball the advantage game, because when guarding a column with a 5k shield becomes an option, you gain a tremendous amount of advantage when you can generate 5k shields for CB1 (Reverse) or 2 5k shields for CB2 (Venus). The 13k body also renders re-standers much less effective, as mentioned here, which contributes to Silver Thorn's ability to anti-meta.

Your VG still swings for 16k without a booster

   Another major difference, as already mentioned in my Luquier Reverse article, is that  the 13k body enables your Luquier Reverse and Luquier Venus to hit for magic numbers when you have a Poison Juggler. At a 13k base, +3k allows your Luquier cross rides to hit for 16k solo. For Luquier Reverse, that meas you can safely lock your VG booster without losing stages, essentially allowing you to form a 21/16/16 field as opposed to a 21/16/9 field, assisting on your final turn push. The +3k also allows your VG to hit for 21k if your VG is boosted by a 5k base booster (11 + 2 + 3 + 5 = 21), or 23 if boosted by a 7k base booster (11 + 2 + 3 + 7 = 23). While these magic numbers do require quite an amount of pre-conditions to be met to attain, they are all just flat out impossible to achieve if you do not have the 10k base Luquier. And trust me when I say that Poison Juggler and a cross ridden Luquier Reverse/Venus actually makes a difference; Silver Thorns have almost no other way to push for a final turn outside of a break ride or a good usage of Upright Lions. To the people that runs 4 Eva and no base Luquier, this does mean that if you miss your break ride, you're left with little capability to push for game.

   Also keep in mind, with the help of Zelma and Emil, or even Eva (the SC1 from attacks and the break ride effect both assist in cross riding), achieving the 13k body is really easy; it's just slightly harder than Transcendence Dragon, who has it built in.

The Field Replenishment

   This is a utility that is useful in less occasions, but ultimately it is still useful to some extent. Similar to Luquier Venus, she can replenish your field in an instant, but with a heavier cost and worse quality as well as more restrictions than Luquier Venus. This is more useful for the Luquier Reverse build, because it aids in covering up the weakness that Luquier Reverse has. Yes, it's extremely situational, but it's there nonetheless, and it actually does help out quite a bit when you had a really bad start.

Those are huge columns

   This ability of hers also allows a Luquier Reverse cross ride build to achieve a similar power gain for Upright Lion to push for game even when you don't run Luquier Venus. The only catch is that Luquier shifts the power of one Lion to the VG when compared to Luquier Venus (Luquier Venus can call 2 Lions but doesn't gain power herself, where as Luquier can only call 1 Lion but gains power herself), and that while Venus can do it twice a game, Luquier can only do it once and eat up most of your CBs, meaning it's more of a do-or-die.

   In the case of when you are running Eva for break riding, this ability is actually a lot more useful because it guarantees a full field upon break riding, something that Eva needs to be devastating.

   Overall, this field replenish ability is really just an inferior version of what Luquier Venus does. You can rush early game and eat a lot of RG attacks and use it to pressure on, or use it with Eva to guarantee that you have a full field on your break ride turn. But even when inferior, it's better to have the option than not, and she provides this option almost for free if you are planning to focus on cross riding.


  Hopefully this article gives you an overview on what Luquier provides and helps in your decision of whether or not she's worth purchasing with whatever price tag you see her with.