11/28/2015

GBT-05 Silver Thorns Prototype & Card Reviews

For the list of Silver Thorn card effects, click here

FVG:

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emil *1

Triggers *16: (10 Crit/2 Draw/4 Heal)

Grade 1 *14:

Grade 2 *11:

Grade 3 *8:

G-zone *8:

Wow, I have been incredibly busy recently that I don't even know if I'll come up with a recipe I'm happy with before GBT-06 hits, so I'm kinda merging a deck post with card reviews. We'll see.

So a little bit of what's going on here for me...

The most recent event that happened was the CA regionals that attended and scrubbed out with a 0:2 using my gorilla Rrisms, where both games I lost when I was at 2 damage versus my opponent's 5 with basically no cards in hand or field on their end, only for me to never drive check triggers, not draw into PGs, or draw into all my G3s and die to their 6th heals and double/triple crits. Oh well, that's CFV in a nutshell, and considering my deck did perform exceptionally well, I'm ok with it. I mean, consistently taking control of the game tempo and driving my opponent to the corner with a 3 damage lead and a 6~8 card lead while drive checking pure crap is no simple feat, even if I literally died to a combination of 6th heals and double/triple crits or getting 6 of my G3s all happening at the same time. My gorillas did well, and I have no regrets. Ok maybe I do, I wanted the name gorilla to become more public, but yeah.

Other than that, work has been a sh*storm for me recently, and I've been incredibly busy the past couple of weeks; working late, skip entire weekends, etc. Fortunately after working over weekends for 2 weeks back to back, we got most of our stuff done. Busy season for our clients means busy season for us too. Meh.

Anyways, now that the rant is over, let's get to the new toys Silver Thorns got from GBT05. Specifically, we got 2 new Silver Thorn units and some generic support.

Silver Thorn Magician, Colette

Wa... wait! Stop, stop soul charging
that non-Silver Thorn!

The best asset we received by far is Silver Thorn Magician, Colette. Colette is great; being a 10k booster in a deck full of on-hit pressure units that can reuse on-call abilities to re-use that 10k boost is pretty darn good. She significantly reduced our reliance on Upright Lions to do anything in the late game, and removed the complete reliance on superior calling to create big columns. She easily forms 21k columns with Clemens and Lions, and she makes Mystique Luquier able to form 21k columns much more consistently, and removed the reliance of needing Zelmas to make larger columns. To make things even better, even with Colette's slowness of requiring a G3+ vanguard, she can punish those playing G2 games very hard by pushing Maricica or Clemens to a 19~21k column with on-hit effects. Yup, we not only have the luxury of playing the G2 game, but we also have the luxury of choosing not to participate in that G2 game and begin with a punishing G3 turn even without stride. If we ride to G3 with being the first to stride? Ouch.

Obviously, it's not all pure goodness for Colette. She's not online until we sit on a Luquier, she's adding more competition for the already very cramped G1 space, and for whatever reason, Bushiroad decided it was a good idea to give her a chance to fail. However, even with all that in mind, she's still easily the 2nd best G1 we have access to now following Zelma because she boosts our mid/late game power quite significantly, and also greatly improved our finishing capabilities.

Silver Thorn Magician, Clemens

If only she's online with any Silver Thorn
VG, like Machining Mosquito...

Another thing we received is Clemens, who while is not bad, isn't nearly as great as Colette. She's not even a direct upgrade to Rising Dragon that we've learned to love. While she largely fulfill the same niche of being a solo beater as Rising Dragon, she's completely vanilla early game, cannot solo swing at a 7k VG body with a trigger, and cannot form 19k columns. However, she does add that delicious redundancy to our already plenty on-hit pressure, and makes it much easier to achieve a field where there's on-hit effects across the board. To make things better, her (to-VG-only) Mirror Demon ability is free, and theoretically she can perform infinite attacks with 2 Zelmas if the opponent somehow cannot guard and doesn't check damage triggers. She is also quite delicious when we toss a Colette behind her, making a quick and dirty 21k column with some on-hit effect that also baits bad plays out of your opponent. Overall, she's not-bad/10 but also not-great/10.

Masquerade Bunny

Not being a Silver Thorn hurts a ton.

Finally, we also got 2 new Stride units and a stride enabler. These support however, after play testing, perform very awkwardly with Silver Thorns. Masquerade Bunny is very cloggy and is quite a dead card as long as you're not using her to stride due to Silver Thorn's extreme xenophobia; initially
I tested the deck with 4 of her, and then 3, and then 2, and now completely removed her. It's a shame that she's kinda necessary to spam stride consistently without hurting yourself, but her very existence itself is hurting yourself. I'm still trying to find ways to fit her in, but so far it seems unlikely.

Jester Demonic Dragon, Lunatec Dragon

Apparently he likes candies and children.

Lunatec also plays awkwardly with Silver Thorns. His ability doesn't really mesh with Silver Thorns at all, and he basically just ends up being a very bad version of Saint Blow Dragon in Silver Thorns as we don't actually do superior calls mid-battle unless we land hits... and Lunatec doesn't actually make those attacks harder to hit unless you hit them first (even when you do, 2~4k power doesn't break into a new stage that often). See the problem here? Essentially, he's a card that threatens your opponent that "if I land hits on my attacks, even my 9k beaters will become 11k solo beaters" and potentially carry a crit himself. But that's all he does other than being a CB-free Blizza.

Dragon Masquerade, Harri

Well Primerva didn't have a GB3 slapped on her.
Why do you do this to us, Bushi!

Harri on the other hand is actually not a bad finisher; you can achieve attacks with similar effects to Primerva with Harri where you attack 5 times (Zelma can stand a column), and at the same time powers up Lions and Colette to achieve even better numbers. However, that GB3 slapped on Harri is a very significant drawback as it makes him incredibly slow. With the only way to speed Harri up being using Blizza or Lunatec Dragon, when Silver Thorns don't actually spam stride that much and when Lunatec is so mediocre for Silver Thorn, that GB3 becomes very hard to achieve, rendering Harri mostly unused or unusable in the vast majority of your games. Also do note that Harri gets completely tyrannosaurus rekt by lock, which is quite unfortunate.

The Deck

Now to the deck... First keep in mind that this is still a prototype and not even a stable build yet, as I still feel there are parts of the deck that runs 'clunky' and not 'smooth' or 'flows properly' yet. In essence, even though I have started testing this deck for a while, it's still far from finished as I just don't feel the deck flows right yet.

Colette is a great asset to Silver Thorns, now the only real issue is that, due to PG and Zelma being absolute staples, Colette needs to compete space with Masquerade Bunny, Breathing Dragon, and Ana (and even LB4 enabler, although I can't see that really trumping over any of the 3). Considering that Colette is vanilla pre-Luquier, replacing Ana with Colette wouldn't really be an upgrade to the deck as it'll just be shifting power from early to mid/late. Keeping both however, we are adding a much stronger late game without giving up what gave Silver Thorns a good early game and earned them the impression of being a weenie deck. As I've explained in my card review, I have decided to drop Masquerade Bunny due to her being a dead card way too often.

The logic of the deck is actually very simple: we keep what made us good at early game, and we add in new assets that gives us a much stronger mid and late game than before. We still have the early rush, but now we have a stronger on-hit pressure across the board, and we get bigger columns and more consistent big columns in our late game.

I'm still tinkering with how the deck is going (this is still a prototype, even if it is revision 3), but I think I'm on the right track. I'll be testing stands as well as we now have 8 on-hit beaters in the deck, although I have a strong feeling that crits will mesh better with this current deck due to Silver Thorns being able to make larger columns more consistently and more easily. I also am thinking of testing a Silver Thorn-Harri hybrid build as it can potentially be the 'mesh' that fixes Harri's early game and Silver Thorn's late game due to Silver Thorns while being quite xenophobic, doesn't care that much about who your vanguard is.

Ultimately as I mentioned earlier, the hardest part to decide is still the G1 line up, as after the staple 4 PGs and 4 Zelmas, there's only 6 spots left for all the other G1 goodness, and all of the G1s are very valuable assets that one could potentially run; I feel like whatever happens before GBT06, chances are if this deck recipe is going to change, it'll happen largely on the G1 lineup.

One other thing I did notice through testing PMs in general (not just Silver Thorns, but also the Harri and Catherine variants. Yes, I do like Pale Moon a lot.) is that PM has an incredibly weak overall stride lineup. Most strides PM has access to right now are quite lackluster, and feels that there's something missing. The variant with the strongest initial stride is Harri due to synergy with Lunatec Dragon, but even then it's still rather mediocre. Lunatech Dragon is still essentially a largely worse version of Saint Blow, and Harri being a largely worse version of Primerva due to that awkward slowness and the inability to actually plus from it (yes you do minus your opponent quite a bit, but you can't actually plus off it like Primerva can). Clifford still is just another typical on-hit stride, and Amanda unfortunately is a largely-inferior but occasionally-superior Clifford. Considering GBT06 will further PM's support, I feel that's when Bushiroad will wrap up PMs with their (hopefully) proper support.

As usual, if you have any questions, suggestions, etc, feel free to leave a comment below.

8/02/2015

G-PR♥ISM, the Ultimate Gorilla

Stable Build - 1

Olivia murdered my walled.... but I still gotta say
/all WORTH

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:
PR♥ISM-Duo, Tisza *1

Trigger: (10 crit/2 draw/4 heal):
Duo Pride Crown, Madeira (Critical) *1
Duo Grampus Turn, Shannon (Critical) *1
Comical Rainie (Critical) *1
Gunslinger Star, Florida (Critical) *1
Morning Impact, Lyps (Critical) *1
Drive Quartet, Shuplu (Critical) *1
PR♥ISM-Miracle, Canary (Critical) *4
PR♥ISM-Miracle, Adria (Draw) *2
PR♥ISM-Miracle, Timor (Heal) *4

Grade 1: (*14)
PR♥ISM-Duo, Aria (Perfect Guard) *4
Persevering Talent, Shandi *3
PR♥ISM-Promise, Princess Leyte *4
PR♥ISM-Romance, Mercure *3

Grade 2: (*11)
Admired Sparkle, Spica *4
PR♥ISM-Promise, Princess Celtic *4
PR♥ISM-Romance, Lumiere *3

Grade 3: (*8)
PR♥ISM-Image, Vert *4
PR♥ISM-Promise, Labrador *4

G-Zone: (*8)
PR♥ISM-Promise, Princess Labrador *4
School Etoile, Olyvia *4

Alright, as I mentioned in my last blog post, this is the deck that I have been messing around with for the most part recently. After testing various Duo builds vigorously and deciding that the new Duos isn't my cup of tea, I set my attention on Princess Celtic ~~because of her incredible br~~... well, lets put it as "obvious reasons" for now, and from there started playing with Prisms. On a side note, this is a very long post, so bear with me.

Overview

Prisms has been know to be rather different from the rest of their clan, focusing on power and having a basically non-existent advantage engine, which is quite the opposite the rest of their sisters in the clan. In the Clan Booster, in addition to the generic support Bermuda Triangles received, Prisms also got an updated version of their main trio. While their direct advantage engine is still below average and didn't get improved much with the Clan Booster, their capabilities to wrap games up and kill people in the late game got buffed tremendously. I would actually go as far as saying that, they probably have one of the best sustained finishing power and kill potential with their Stride units in the game right now; the combination of having access to Princess Labrador, Olivia, and Spica is just ridiculous. Being a traditional sub clan that has access to the 10k and 12k beaters also means they will not suffer from a bad early game, and has the most basic means to be able to answer to faster decks, or to suppress slower decks.

She's great at keeping up the tempo
and forcing guards early on, as well
as playing the sit-on-G2 game

The concept behind this build is actually quite simple - you try your best to play the tempo and momentum game early on, and then once you hit the post-G3 game, you start to "finish" the game every single turn until either you or your opponent dies. Execution is slightly more complex: due to how different skills interact and the timing they return to your hand is also directly tied to their positioning, every turn must be properly planned out as to how to form your field to obtain your ideal attack pattern, and also at the same time be able to bounce the correct/priority targets in the correct order with such positioning. Also, due to how the deck bounces quite a lot, it is totally reasonable and possible to drop trigger units and PGs to boost, drop 2 boosters together to attack, drop Stride enablers and G3s to swing, all while being able to pull them back into the hand to use them the way they were originally intended for.

While the deck has no built-in advantage engine other than Princess Celtic, the deck competes and gains advantage through momentum and assault. One thing people often forget is that there is direct advantage generated through battle advantage, and not just purely from skill; and that's where momentum plays comes in. You start pushing for 3 attacks a turn, or force bad guard early where most other decks wouldn't have to do otherwise; making 3 attacks is a direct additional -1 inflicted on your opponent when compared to only making 2 attacks, for example. Against decks that cannot consistently make 3 attacks a turn since early game, for every additional attack I am hitting, I'm gaining advantage over my opponent. Then you have Princess Celtic that works similarly to Rhone; the opponent must choose to guard her or risk being snowballed by Princess Celtic's ability since your G2 turn, because it will become harder to slow down Prism's assault the more cards they acquire.

Imagine if Conquest Dragon is an initial
stride. Yup, that's basically what Labrador is.

Now when you couple that with the late game G-Prisms has access to, the deck can be very overwhelming to play against since Princess Labrador basically guarantees quality attack regardless of hand - even PGs can boost or swing for 11k solo, and it becomes very easy to form 21~26k rear columns ever since Prism's 1st stride. For example, a lot of people will choose to no guard a 26~31k stride VG that does not have an on-hit effect at 3 damage. However due to how Princess Labrador works similarly to Conquest Dragon, this means at 3 damage if they choose to no guard, even if you only check 1 critical trigger, it immediately puts them at 5 damage and forces them to guard your remaining 2 21~26k columns on your initial stride turn. That is a massive gain of tempo advantage on your end, and a massive loss in both card and tempo advantage to your opponent as now they're pretty much guaranteed to be forced into the catch-up-and-survival game for the rest of the game at a relatively early point in the game. Even if you don't check any triggers, they still have to choose how to deal with your remaining 21~26k columns after being sent to 4 damage, all while that is just your initial stride, where you can easily repeat the same play the next turn, or have a more deadly Olivia turn coming right after this. And due to how insanely overwhelming this deck's stride works, being at 4 damage is well within the potential kill zone.

Another unique and interesting thing to point out for this deck is that due to its nature of bouncing cards back to the hand, it gives the deck 2 very unique attributes over other tempo/aggro decks or even just decks that are highly RG reliant in general:

1.) It is highly resistant to retires and locks in general if you know what you are doing. This deck does not auto-scoop to locks and retires and instead can often force them to scoop. Some even claim that this deck is such pain and terrible match up for Link Jokers to the point that it's almost auto-scoop for them.

2.) While the deck rarely generates direct advantage, you are actually quite tanky and not as fragile as other decks without an avantage engine because of how many cards can return to your hand as shields to allow you to guard more efficiently. If you have played things like RPBA or Aura Geyser, I think you'll know what I mean by this.

Card Choices

I'll be going over my choices in this section, although I will not go over cards that I feel are very self explanatory unless by request. If you want to know why a specific card is ran/not ran, post in the comments section below or find a way to shoot me a message in some way.

Triggers

Prisms have incredible synergy with
crits. A shame they don't have a 2nd set.

First of all, the trigger lineup. There are no stands due to how unlike most decks, Prisms can't effectively and consistently attack with an attack patter that support stands. Regardless of it being with original Labrador, Princess Labrador, or Olivia, you always run into the same issue with stands - you cannot consistently guarantee at least one stand target without gimping your optimized attack pattern. The only time stands are great for this deck is in the early game before you ride to G3, and once you hit G3, Stand triggers forces this deck into some extremely awkward and risky attack patterns that simply doesn't perform as well as the crit attack patter IF you check no stand triggers. This is a great shame because both the Prism stand and the new stand from the clan booster have incredible skills. Irish can function as additional Princess Leyte, and Krk can chain and weave more attacks into your already heavy assault, such as resetting Spica again for a net total of another 2 attacks.

Then the next part with the triggers is that I am maximizing Prism triggers, and that is for simple ECB purposes for Princess Celtic. Princess Celtic's most optimal use and threat happens in a very narrow window of opportunity - your turn 2. Due to how the deck is quite Stride reliant and how much power Spica brings, as well as how there are no 2nd set of Prism crit or draw triggers, this already forces the deck into running, at the very least, a whooping 11 non-Prism cards. If we are expecting to take 1 damage and we need that 1 damage to be a Prism card for Princess Celtic to use, even at 11 non-Prism cards, as we can see with this handy tool, we are looking at a 22.45% failure rate for that 1 damage to be a Prism, which already means you will fail more than 1 in 5 times. If we bump the non-Prism card count even by just a very slight amount, say by 2 cards to make it 13 non-Prism cards total, we will end up looking at a 26.53% failure rate. This bumps up your chance of failure from a already-high over 1 in 5 games to a whooping over 1 in 4 games, which I simply cannot justify for consistency reasons.

Lastly, some will also notice I run a 1-of for the remaining crit triggers in the deck, and there are 2 simple reasons for this: 1.) They make Olivia more consistent and 2.) they make it harder to count triggers for your opponent.

Tisza

The next is Tisza. Some people might wonder, "What does Tisza even do for you? She nets you no advantage, and isn't she just like a vanilla 5k booster?". The answer to that is yes and no. While Coro offers some utility in the late game and allows you to always have her to boost and guarantees her to fly back into the hand, she does that far too late. Tisza is excellent at keeping up the pressure and momentum in the early game, as she basically tells your opponent this - "If you let me hit, I will have a 10k shield in hand that can keep my valuable RGs alive even if you try to attack them to slow me down." Essentially, Tisza is there to keep you ahead of the tempo game - she protects your RGs for you to continue you assault, making it harder for your opponent to slow you down. She also provides an extra 10k shield in hand in cases where your opponent checks a critical trigger of some sort, allowing you to maintain the choice of keeping your damage low to stay ahead of the game in prep for what is yet to come. A small example would be, that things like Phantom Blaster 'Diablo' aren't very scary when you are sitting on 2 damage.

Princess Leyte

She's incredible. 'nuff said.

Then we have Princess Leyte. I feel she's pretty self explanatory as to why she is ran, but I doubt it's clear to everyone what she is capable of. Princess Leyte is a very stable 7k booster and by default has no drawbacks. To top off that, she regenerates resources and turns Olivia + Spica turns from a net CB3 play into a net CB2 play for free while still being a Clear. She combos with Olivia and Princess Labrador to pass power to another unit during your relentless assault. She also combos nicely with Spica where Spica's +3k power when Leyte's +4k power adds up to +7k power, which is enough to put even a 9k solo beater into a 16k solo beater. She puts your 17k+ columns that can result from 10k beater + 7k booster, 12k beater + 5k trigger booster, 11k beater + 6k PG boost columns into 21k columns. She makes your 12k beater a solo 16k beater. She with Spica, turns a 19k column you have into a 26k column on your Princess Labrador and Olivia turns. She makes 5k triggers into 9k beaters, which is enough to swing for 16k when boosted by a 7k booster. She gives your opponent a very strong incentive to guard your Princess Celtic early on to prevent free advantage. She powers up units for free with original Labrador, and even allows you to make 20k Princess Celtic columns against opponents still sitting on G2s. All in all, she is a free magic number machine that regenerates resources for free, combos with virtually everything, all while having zero drawback. Literally a zero risk high reward card.

Mercure

I've come to love 10k beaters a lot in the
Stride era. Prisms is no exception.

Some might also wonder why I run Mercure. Answer is, that she brings so much to the table in this deck, that she's basically too good not to run. First of all, as we all know, in the Stride era, a lot of decks are given strong cards in the late game. However, not many decks shine in the early game. 10k beaters exploits that weakness many decks have, and gives you an edge over slower decks. 10k beaters also gives you a way to retaliate faster decks that actually have an early game rather than just passively drop cards to guard in attempt to survive.

Then in decks like Prisms where there are no direct advantage engines, 10k beaters increases deck consistency by adding more beaters into the deck to allow you to keep the attack flowing, all while still keeping the benefit of it acting as a 7k booster. 10k beaters also gives allows you to punish players that tries to sit on G2, and is compatible with your own sit-on-G2 game. Last but not least, in Prisms specifically, 10k beaters forms 21k columns with other 7k boosters when they get that 4000 power boost from Princess Leyte, which is quite a big deal.

Lumiere

Simple is marvelous.
And she makes complex also marvelous.

The reasons for this one is actually quite similar to Mercure, Lumiere gives us an edge in the early game, punishes G2 opponents with 19k columns, combos incredibly well with Princess Leyte and Spica's power-ups, and adds a TON of consistency to the deck. 12k is 17k even when boosted by triggers or powered up by Princess Labrador when you lack any boosters. Also, in a deck that lacks advantage engine, a beater that can solo hit almost anything is a very welcome addition to consistency. She's also currently the only card that can form 26k columns with a 7k booster when powered up by Princess Leyte and Spica at the same time.

Spica

She is beast. Literally everyone I played knows that
sh*t just hits the fan when she appears on my Stride turns.

Spica is absolutely incredible in the deck. Spica is crazy and Olivia is crazy, and when added together is insanity. Add Leyte to the picture on power up and attack order and bounce and call back and drive check into alternative call targets, and you end up with multi-attack-and-power-boost insanity beyond insanity. Yes. Sanity points -398475689. Spica is also the only card that costs CBs aside from Olivia, when none of the rest of the deck even touches CBs remotely and you have your Leyte doing unflipping when you don't even need more unflippings. Spica alone makes the deck feel like you are playing Aqua Force. And if you are familiar with Crayon Tiger? Imagine a Crayon Tiger that doesn't have the once-per-turn clause, and can be reset. Yes, that's Spica in a nutshell. She makes life very hard for your opponent and amplifies Princess Labrador and Olivia's kill potential significantly.

What I Did Not Run

Celtic

One thing people will notice immediately is the lack of the original Celtic. The reason for that is actually quite simple - the card is slow and doesn't come into play until much later, does not contribute to your momentum early on, gets lower bounce priority than Princess Leyte, and is NOT a very independent card. And by not-independent, what I mean is that the card absolutely require other cards to function and does nothing on its own. Some might argue that Princess Leyte is the same in that boat, and while I agree to some degree, Princess Leyte does not have nearly as high as an opportunity cost attached. What the original Celtic has to compete against for deck space are all absolutely incredible cards that you can almost say are crucial to this deck's success. There simply is no room for Celtic at this point.

Other strides that's not Princess Labrador or Olivia

"The opponents will not forget that one hot day."

I did not run any on-hit strides because PRISM's on-hit strides enables an extra attack, which translates to 1 lost card to guard or 1 damage IF you land a hit. Princess Labrador just does (largely) the same apply-damage job better and more reliable. I also didn't run any Amoris because I don't know why I would ever even want to stride into her (Leyte can't even be called back for example). Princess Labrador and Olivia also are both very important strides that closes the game for you, and they are suited for different situations where you may need to use one of them twice in a row.

For example, if I somehow got a column locked via something like Big Crunch Dragon, I may want to stride into Princess Labrador again due to both how it still hits like a truck, but also how it leaves my column empty afterwards to prevent my whole field being locked down. Same cannot be said with Olivia.

On the flip side, if I did a Olivia turn and my opponent didn't die, often times striding into Olivia again yields stronger kill potential than striding into Labrador; Olivia enables more attacks, and usually by the time where you can stride into your 2nd Olivia, your opponent is probably sitting at 5 damage. Guarding 4~7 attacks from Olivia when you are @5 is no simple task, and usually Olivia will be able seal the fate right there.

Closing

Unfortunately, it's kinda hard to explain exactly how the deck is played and how you should position your field since this deck is designed to have combo pieces that all work independently, and due to how this deck does not have any direct search engine, it's really about making plays and combos by reacting to both your opponent's moves and what you draw into, while always keeping tempo in mind. So I figured it might be easier to directly upload some videos to show rather than to tell.

Here's a sample video of one of my games against a DOtX deck that captures the core idea of the deck - tempo and forcing your opponent to play the catch-up game.

I have several other replays too, such as games against Glendios or Gear Chronicle, Messia Link Joker, that can give a pretty good idea how I handle against lock and "retires". Let me know if there is like a particular one you would like to see in that regard. And as usual, if there are any questions, comments, requests, etc, feel free to leave a comment below!

7/21/2015

What I've been Up to Recently

What I'm Up to Revently

This image kinda sums up what
I have been cooking recently.

So uh, been pretty damn busy recently due to work as usual (although more so these past few weeks; actually just had a 14 hour day @work as I'm posting this).

Anyways, been playing and testing and building and tweaking Bermuda Triangles mostly ever since the Clan booster was revealed. I realized I do not like the play style of the new Duos at all, but also found out PRISM's play style is spot on; deck has an legit good early game, deck is very offensive and at the same time making defensive maneuvers and being massively fluid in answering most situations. Deck also has access to insane ability to go ham and smack people like a truck or a crazy gorilla most, if not every turn (and this is known as the Gorilla Deck in my circle). I mean, their initial Stride is like a smaller Conquest Dragon, and Olivia is like a smaller Saint Blow Dragon that enables additional attack and enables a whole chain of combos. Every turn that you stride essentially has the capability to either kill someone on the spot, or put them in that area.

Deck is also highly combo-based with all kinds of open ended effects all while all cards are able to function incredibly well independently (which is important for consistency, because no one likes dead draws), resulting in the deck to have a very high skill cap.

I'm still cooking up the deck profile, but due to the hyper intensive nature in terms of how the combos are done, I feel it's impossible to explain the combos clearly and make them easy to read all while being easy to absorb.

To give you guys an idea what the deck is capable of and what the nature of their combo is like, a typical Olivia-Spica combo turn looks something like this (notice the only combo piece needed is Spica; the other cards can be any attacker/booster really):

Yes, I know this GIF is hard to watch and very fast.
I will work out a better way to show combo sequences.

The GIF is my attempt to make it easier to absorb, kinda like the Silver Thorn ones... but obviously with a attack combo sequence this long, that GIF is way too fast and very hard to watch with no ability to pause to look at a specific segment.

So to break down what is going on in the image:

1.) Solo with your whatever beater (9~12k, usually at interceptor). Princess Celtic in this case.

2.) Attack with Spica, and use her ability to 'restand' Princess Celtic into a 12k beater

3.) Solo attack with a 12k Princess Celtic; keep her booster standing (very important)

4.) Attack with Olivia boosted by a trigger

a.) bounce Princess Celtic, Spica, and Spica's booster (can be any booster)

b.) because 3 cards are bounced, Olivia gains +1 crit and can call 2 units

c.) call Spica and her booster back

d.) do your drive checks

5.) because Princess Leyte was bounced, unflip 1 and power boost the other booster

6.) Attack with Spica, bounce the trigger and call Princess Celtic back @12

7.) Attack with a 12k Princess Celtic boosted by a 7+4k booster

Result

6 attacks in the following sequence, assuming 0 triggers were checked:

9 > 16 > 12 > 31(V) > 16 > 23

Well worth her price tag.
/all WORTH

What is scary with this combo is that while it looks like a long 5 card combo, it's really a 1 card combo from Spica, because Olivia is always available in the G-zone, and you don't really care what the other cards are as long as they can form a column of some sort and you end up with a total of 2 other cards with different names other than Spica.

But anyways, a more in-depth article on this deck is work in progress and will be posted... some time in the near future... hopefully.

For those curious, the deck list as of today can be found here

7/05/2015

Silver Thorn FC2015

Stable 1

Day 816435872365483798375982345,
still no sign of Pale Moon support.

For the list of Silver Thorn card effects, click here

FVG:

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emil *1

Triggers *16: (5 Crit/5 Stand/2 Draw/4 Heal)

Grade 1 *14:

Grade 2 *11:

Grade 3 *8:

G-zone *8:

So this is my current build with Silver Thorns with FC2015 support. As you can see, largely due to the lack of support, the core of the deck still looks largely the same; the main difference is the proportions of some cards and having access to an actual legit G-zone.

The trigger lineup is there to attempt to maximize archetype for ECB without compromising into running a full-fledged rainbow trigger lineup. In all honesty, I still prefer not running draws here because Silver Thorns are... well, Silver Thorns, so feel free to go for a fill 6/6 Stand/Crit split or a more crit-focused build because momentum is very important.

I wish you were Silver Thorn, I really do.
Hey, why don't you change jobs...

Just keep in mind that for every card that's not of the Silver Thorn sub clan, you are risking Luquier Venus not being able to pull off her skill because as I've mentioned before, due to early CB usage in the deck, in most cases we are looking at needing 2/2 damage to be Silver Thorn rather than the typical 2/4 or 2/5. To just give you an idea what the difference is between running 8-non-Silver-Thorn card and only running 2-non-Silver-Thorn card using this handy tool here, at 8 non-Silver-Thorn cards, the probability of getting 2 out of 2 ECB-able damage is about 69.7% (meaning almost 1/3 fail rate), while getting 2 out of 2 damage to be ECB-able with only running 2-non-Silver-Thorn cards is about 91.9% (meaning less than 1/10 fail rate). If you feel you can live with slightly less consistency and go for 6 crit/6 stand, 8 crit/4 stand, or even 8 stand/4 crit, the chance of getting 2/2 damage to be ECB-able with running 4-non-Silver-Thorn cards is about 84.2%. And due to Silver Thorns still needing that momentum to win games, when you need to vomit a field with Luquier Venus but cannot due to whatever reason, it can easily cost you the game.

Some people will immediately notice that I not only dropped all Breathing Dragons, but also 1 copy of Ana compared to the Legion era build, as well as dropping 1 Rising Dragon for 1 Upright Lion. This is due to the fact that we now actually have late game plays, we can shift some power and pressure off the early game and put it into the mid/late game. I will explain my choice in detail below:

I wonder why Bushit decided
to give PM a bishi.

The drop of 1 Ana, one of our most important staples since the introduction of Zelma in BT15, is largely due to 2 reasons. The first reason is that we now have access to Clifford as a on-hit stride unit that can also trigger a Zelma full column re-stand, meaning we no longer need to rely completely on Ana to apply on-hit pressure for our vanguard column as the G-zone is basically 100% guaranteed to be there unless you G-assist. The other reason is that Silver Thorn is not only one of the few decks
that can take advantage of the sit-on-G2 game, but also that their late game compared to most decks in the S5 standards is still incredibly weak; while Mystique Luquier is an incredible card, Pale Moon currently not having access to their stride enabler hurts the consistency in which the deck can stride,
or otherwise it may take a minus to stride. If the game drags on too much after you are sitting on G3, chances are Silver Thorn decks will lose control of the momentum, and eventually the game in the long run fairly quickly as trading direct advantage for momentum is not sustainable. So ideally when we are sitting on G2, we could be sitting on a Maricica who applies the same pressure, or when we get into the late game, ideally we want our opponents to be at a spot where it's just not safe to let any vanguard attacks through, with or without Ana.

Then there is also how there is now 3 Irinas with a maxed-out Upright Lions. This is due to the fact that ~~she has fox ears~~ our late game is now officially defined largely on 2 cards: Upright Lion and Mystique Luquier. Mystique Luquier works the best with Upright Lions as it doesn't just keep quality columns going, but also larger columns with the lions. Lions coming directly out of the soul with Mystique Luquier will need the aid of a Zelma to reach the next stage since he does not power up when the card itself is called from the soul.

Yay! She's back!

This is where Irina comes in: to increase the consistency of getting Lions and Zelmas by the mid-late game. The slightly increased consistency in getting Zelmas by turn 2 is just a small bonus, but there is also the slight reduction in the reliance on ~~our only loli~~ Emil; Mystique Luquier herself, unlike Luquier Venus, is a flat break-even and does not plus. This means that if we rely completely on Emil to gather the soul we need, we are always suffering that -1 which we may or may not be able to recover through Luquier Venus due to Luquier Venus not being our only late game play now. If the usage of Emil can be avoided, then she will act as a warm body for you to trade for quality columns. There is also the fact that you can easily combo Irina with Zelma and Mystique Luquier to get another shot at getting an attacker when you need it - you simply superior call both ~~animal ears~~ Irina and Zelma with Mystique Luquier, resolve Irina first, and then resolve Zelma to swap Irina for whatever you may find.

I've gone ahead and uploaded a video of a game I had with this build. I kinda sacked a 2-Zelma play on my 2nd turn, but it still captures the core and heart of what Mystique Luquier brings to the table (I literally gave no breathing room for my opponent with my endless flurry of quality attacks each turn, and I couldn't have done it without Mystique Luquier). You will also notice that when I mulligan, I am actively mulliganing for an early game play.

5/24/2015

Silver Thorn Dragon Master, Mystic Luquier

Whelp, it's been a looooooong time since my last update because work is demanding so there's been less time I can juggle around, and then this article got further delayed because I had to test the card due to it being yet another very open-ended card. And it's also been a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time since Silver Thorns got their last support. But at least Silver Thorns has always been a rogue deck for the past 2 seasons, thanks to their great G1~G2 lineup (which allows that cheesy-but-effective sit-on-G2-to-vanilla-your-opponent-strategy that started happening since S4), despite them being like 2 seasons outdated.

So the long-waited ~~technically Luquier~~ Silver Thorn support that we got was Silver Thorn Dragon Master, Mystic Luquier, a Stride unit from FC2015 that gave all clans stride units like candies in a Piñata. Interestingly enough, unlike all the other Luquiers, Mystic Luquier looks very, very 'meh', and does not do any field recovery and does not give you any direct plus. All she does is field re-scaling and/or rearrangement, and the ability is an ACT and not even an AUTO, and therefore does not even enable extra attacks. She is also highly restricted in which decks can run her, requiring both a Silver Thorn deck base and using exclusively Luquier G3s.

Unfortunately, she is not the god-send that Pale Moon support that players have been waiting for, and is not a card that will suddenly turn Silver Thorns from a rogue deck into a meta defining deck. However, she's not quite the 'meh' card she seem to be either; she's deceptively powerful, and similar to cards like Big Bang Knuckle Turbo, is designed to improve what the deck does best and fix certain issues that the deck had. It's a neat little breath of life for Silver Thorns to toy around with until Pale Moon gets their proper support.

So, what exactly does she improve and what exactly does she fix?

Late Game

The last time Silver Thorns received any support was during BT15 at the end of S3, and then soon after that, we got into the Legion era (S4), where the power creep between the seasons is arguably worse than what happened from S2 to S3. The power creep was large enough that while you still could technically plus beyond the standards of S4 with Venus's skill, everything else with Silver Thorn's G3s are so badly out-creeped that it basically renders Silver Thorn without a late game. And Mystic Luquier gives them that late game.

Venus Luquier gives your opponent a chance
to breath because of her LB4 and runs
out of steam once you run out of CBs

Mystic Luquier is Silver Thorn's current answer to post-G3 games; she fills in the gap before you get to LB4, she fills in the gap when you're at LB4 and doesn't need to use Venus's skill to refill a field, and she fills in the gap after your Venus plays if your opponent somehow is not dead yet. In other words, she is one card that fills in all the voids Silver Thorn had after Silver Thorns rides to G3.

You no longer give your opponent one turn of breathing room just because you're not @4 damage yet. You no longer get stuck with nothing if your opponent refuses to give you your damage to do stuff. You no longer force next to nothing out of your center lane. And you no longer run out of steam after you expended all your CBs.

Instead of sitting on a G3 that only asks for 15k shield per turn and provides no pressure other than that 1 turn of Lion play, as long as you are able to stride and have some warm bodies to swap out for cards in your soul, every turn after G3 will be a pushing turn to attempt to finish what you didn't finish in the early and mid game. And as long as you have Lions that you can pump, every push turn you get this way will be of fairly decent quality. On top of the Lion plays, Mystic Luquier also makes it easier to setup an Ana behind a Lion without consuming CBs, which ends up having similar pressure as a big RG column with an additional crit.

Early Game

"Wait, what? What does Mystic Luquier have to do with early game? She's a stride unit and doesn't even go in the soul!"

Whao there, don't judge a card's impact on the early game just because she can only be used late! There are cards that have an impact on the game by impacting player behavior simply by existing, such as Gatling Claw and Omega Loop Glendios. Her very existence actually has quite a bit of impact on Silver Thorn's early game in largely 2 ways.

Raise your hand if you've ever used your starter ASAP simply because your
opponent is playing Kagero, even though you don't even know if they're running this card?

The first type of impact is actually not something so unfamiliar to many players, and is something that players that had experience with clans such as Bermuda Triangle or Granblue are more familiar to; and that is the deck's ability to maintain a fluid field and the ability re-scale their field.

Upright Lion just got a lot more valuable
because he now defines our late game

Mystic Luquier herself is essentially a field re-scaling machine. What this means is that a Silver Thorn player now has more freedom and less risk in dropping down boosters/PGs and/or triggers in the same column to push in more attacks in the early game without either having to commit to that field, or requiring a Venus Luquier field reset to re-scale the field.

The other impact on our early game behavior is that now Silver Thorns actually have some means of an end game, the player is allowed to shift some power and reliance away from the early game and move it towards the mid and late game.

While Silver Thorn's early game is still essential, what this means is a Silver Thorn player no longer have to bank completely on pulling off a good early game to win the game, but instead can spread the power out to attain a better balance and have the deck scale better into the late game rather than completely fall flat and lose steam later on. And thanks to Clifford being Pale Moon's on-hit that can still enable Zelma shenanigans, the deck's reliance on Ana also dropped a little because it became easier for your center column to apply on-hit pressure.

Conclusion

All in all, while Mystic Luquier isn't enough to revive Silver Thorn back to its glorious days, it definitely is a valuable and much needed addition and breaths life into the deck. She doesn't change the core idea behind Silver Thorn decks and the deck in today's standards will still be a rogue deck, but she does improve most aspect of the deck and make it playable, and make it less risky to just throw down warm bodies to rush.

The G1 and G2 lineup of Silver Thorn still carry the bulk of the weight of the deck in general and early game is still essential, but now we can actually prolong the attack and momentum into the late game for basically as long as we are alive and force out a considerable amount of shields with a vanguard with Stride power and large RG columns. The deck also gets to keep the rare niche of sitting on G2 to make your opponent vanilla where only less than a handful of decks can afford to do in the current meta.

I'm really looking forward to what Bushiroad has cooking back there for season 5 Pale Moon support, seeing that so far the vast majority of season 5 clans support have been more than satisfactory in season 5.

1/11/2015

Gear Chronicle - What works and what doesn't

Gear Chronicle

What works and what doesn't

Hmm? Did you just ask what the hell am I doing for even having a deck of Gear Chronicle? Well, it's definitely *cough* not because of their heal trigger nor PG-G of course *cough*. And no, it absolutely has nothing to do with me wanting to find a deck for those sleeves seen in the above image. Totally nothing do do with those. It's totally because I pulled 3 Ragnaclock Dragons from my 2 box of GBT-01 and 2 TDs. Hm? Why did I even buy the TDs in the first place then? Well let's not talk about that for now. *Um hum* Anyways...

So I'm sure many of you have probably messed around either as or against Gear Chronicle, or at least heard and saw a couple signature cards of this new clan. A lot of people looked at what they have at their disposal, namely from pseudo-retire like Kagero or even a full-field wipe, to guard restriction in both the form of Glory and Tom and even a Stride with a bonus crit and guard restrictions, and screamed "WTF BUSHI! OP!!11!".

Yet this clan didn't even make a scratch on the meta; not just against new stuff like DOtX, Susanoo, but also against older stuff like RPBA, Thing Savior, or even just Jewel Knights and Perdition Dragons. So what exactly isn't working out for this clan, and why does having access to what many would deem as the most OP mechanics in the game, not get them to where people expected them to be?

There are actually a lot of factors that are not working out for these guys, and a lot of these factors are not only not unheard of, but ones that we have seen present in other clans.

The Deck is Slow and Vanilla

The first and most glaring issue with the deck is that it is slow. This is actually probably the most obvious issue more experienced players sees even before play testing the deck. With the spoilers of Gear Chronicle revealed, a new mechanic called Generation Break was also introduced that acts similarly like Limit Break in the sense that it makes your cards vanilla until a certain point into the game.

I initially looked at this and thought it would be something similar to the Limit Break, except that early guarding doesn't hinder it. I was wrong. Generation Break skills are often printed on cards of every grade, including G1 and G2 rear guards and even skilled triggers, and what this essentially means is that it's almost as if your rear guards are the ones having that LB4 printed on them.

Even the 12k beater is a GB1 unit...
At least this card actually works.

Currently almost everything Gear Chronicle has, has some form of Generation Break slapped onto their skill. And when they don't require Generation Break, other than a couple of cards, the card is either vanilla itself, has a heavy cost, or requires your VG to be a G-unit. What this ultimately means is that similar to a LB4 deck, your deck mechanics is offline until you hit at least GB1, except that your deck would be even more offline than a LB4 deck because in a LB4 deck, most if not all rear guards are still fully functional regardless of your damage.

This built-in slowness is only worsened by the fact that similar to Legion, Stride requires both players to be on a G3 or above vanguard to happen. What this means is that unlike LB4, having an opponent sit on G2 for an extra turn (which is a very viable and common strategy that we've been seeing ever since the Legion meta), will keep this deck up and playing for another turn of vanilla feast.

All of this doesn't even take into account match-ups against decks that have an incredible early game, like the Jewel Knight based decks that can consistently and easily swarm a whole field on their turn 2 for a very cheap cost and start beating faces, and then proceed to keep the pressure going with stuff like Saint Blow that pretty much tells you to PG or die after having ~~zerg'd~~ devastated you early on with their swarm.

The Deck has no Built-In Advantage Engine

This is another issue that we are familiar with and have seen in the past. Legion era Link Joker was plagued with this issue and then as a result, never saw much play because it never could do much. Gear Chronicle has no draw power nor digging power or even filter power outside of Stride itself. Their only form of advantage gain is through their pseudo-retire.

This card is broken. Like, super broken.
Such wombo, much combo. Wow.

Some people may argue that "Kagero doesn't either, all they have is Calamity Tower Wyvern, which Gear Chronicle also has access to." The difference being, Kagero is so much more efficient at retiring, as well as being much more reliable, the efficiency of Gear Chronicle's pseudo-retire simply is nowhere near as efficient as Kagero is. Kagero also have access to restanding vanguards, which translates to more drive checks and more cards or hand filtering, depending on the restanding cost. When coupled with draw triggers, even if the cost to restand for a Kagero is to discard 2 hands (such as the Great), that in itself turns into direct advantage gain because draw triggers can be discarded, and restanding greatly increases the amount of drive checks you perform which can often further minus your opponent.

The other issue with Gear Chronicle's pseudo-retire at the moment is that it cannot keep up with clans that superior call a lot. Clans like Royal Paladin can superior call just as cheaply as Gear Chronicle can retire, but also at the same time, can superior call a lot faster than Gear Chronicle is capable of wiping out each turn. Take a common combo for example, Violinist can fetch a Swordmy, who can in turn fetch any G1 Jewel Knight. Now all that took is 1 card from the RP player to instantly fill up 3 RG slots on the field, and it isn't even a multi-card combo where the player is required to have multiple pieces in hand; all it takes is 1 card. Take another example, the RP player can Stride into Gablade, and then use Gablade's skill to fetch Violinist, and then fetch Swordmy, and then fetch a G1 Jewel Knight. In this case, the RP player doesn't even need a specific card in hand; all he needs is to be able to Stride and punch you in the face to instantly fill up 3 RG slots.

The Deck has a Shallow Card Pool

This issue, while will (hopefully) be fixed by time itself, is still an issue they currently have. There really just isn't enough choices for Gear Chronicle at the moment, and they are forced to often choose between bad choice and worse choices when it comes to deck building. Considering, however, that Gear Chronicle is a 'main' clan, I'm not too worried about this one for them. I'd be worried about mah Pale Moon and Granblue before I start worry about this issue for Gear Chronicle.

What Works and What Doesn't... For Now

Now, Gear Chronicle has access to, like what I mentioned earlier, a lot of "OP" mechanics. However, a lot of them don't actually work, or at least work the way you expect them to be. This is mainly a list of cards that works and those that don't work, sorta like a card review.

Interdimensional Dragon, Chronos Command Dragon

This card does not work. Or at least not nearly as well as you'd think it would or hope it would. Honestly, this card is the worst of all the Stride units Gear Chronicle have access to as of now, and I would expect this card to be replaced very quickly unless they get something that would make it bonkers. First of all, his cost is high. Very high actually, to the point that he struggles to even make is effect a break even or worthwhile in most cases. Lets first take a few steps back and just ignore that SB1 cost for a moment. For CB2, Chrono Jet can already retire 2 on his own. Add a discard 1 hand-cost, that needs to be worth at least another card retired for this effect to just make it break even. Then we take in the opportunity cost of Lost Age Dragon's on-hit retire 1 for free because that's your best alternative. What this means is that, ignoring the soul-blast cost, he has to retire at least 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 cards just to break even. So the only thing Chronos Command has really, is his speed and pressure of evaporating an entire field in an instant if it hits. In most cases however, you either could just straight win the game if you successfully hit with a Ragnaclock Dragon, or is just plain better off using Lost Age Dragon, further leaving this guy sitting on the bench. Not to mention that you have to leave at least 2 CBs and 1 SB open for him to even apply pressure, which while isn't terribly hard, isn't terribly easy either. He does, however, bait out PGs early on for Ragnaclock to beat face later. But that's really about it. Overall, not a great card.

Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon

This card, on the other hand, not only works well, but also is one of the few cards that is carrying the rest of deck on his back. He is deadly and pressuring, and is a great card to Stride into to finish someone off or just to swing in mid game just for the pressure or instant damage gap. Ultimately it's not a Glory clone nor a restander, but a often 32k 2-crit triple-drive Silent Tom for basically no setup is nothing to scoff at. He is both capable of stealing games and turning the tables. However, since a simple PG can still easily stop him, do not rely nor trust this card to turn the tables or win the game for you. He's a still great card, but just not a dependable option to bet all your eggs on.

Interdimensional Dragon, Lost Age Dragon

This card works well. It's one of those 'simple is marvelous' cards where the effect is so simple, yet so effective. Stride him on Chrono Jet, you get up to 2 retires that turn, which is usually enough anyways when compared to Chronos Command.

Chrono Jet Dragon

As much as how he works and works fairly well, I refuse to post his card image because I still hate his art. Anyways, his on-stride skill is fairly useful. Pop an interceptor down and they have 5k less shielding against your Ragnaclock Dragon. Or just pop some priority target down and the swing as Lost Age Dragon for some cheap retiring. Doesn't work too well with Chronos Command for obvious reasons. His Glory skill can also come in handy if the time calls, although often you'd just Stride anyways. It's also interesting to note that since his Generation Break is the opposite of Ragnaclock Dragon's skill, using one doesn't really make it easier to land a hit on your opponent with the other. However what it does mean is if you know what they have in their hand, you can choose the one that hurts your opponent the most.

Steam Fighter, Amber

This may come at a surprise... that this guy doesn't really work as well as one would hope he does. He has several issues. First off is that he's slow, and is vanilla until you stride. Second off is that he requires boosting, which when there are a lot of retires flying around and with 8/14 of your G1s that you'd usually want to avoid boosting with (namely the PG/PGG and Steam Breath), is actually quite hard to achieve reliably especially considering that Gear Chronicle has no draw power. Lastly, Gear Chronicle is relatively resource intensive, and often times either your Chrono Jet already covers his job making him redundant, or you need to leave the CBs open for your Ragnaclock to use. It is also important to make note that he has to attack before your Ragnaclock to remove an interceptor for your Ragnaclock either from his skill or just as a RG attack, risking and giving your opponent a chance to damage check a trigger to make guarding Ragnaclock easier. Overall, he doesn't really work.

Steam Knight, Puzur Ili

OMG Silent Tom!!11!! Okay guys, chill out. His SB2 cost makes him basically vanilla 99% of the time. I for one still have not had a chance to have his skill go off even once out of who knows how many games I tested. The souls often just go to Gigi because drawing 1 card is pretty darn important when your deck has no way to plus. Seriously, this guy doesn't really work. Getting his skill to work is just as his flavor text implies: "It is not zero. Just an extremely small probability."

Other than these cards I listed above, a couple of other cards are worth mentioning but I don't feel like I need to go into detail for:

Twin Maser Dragon actually works despite being slow. It works about as well as Burning Horn Dragon or other G3-based 12k beaters are, but just still a tiny bit slower then those.
Apex Standing Gearwolf doesn't really work. His skill often just doesn't matter because Gear Chronicle can't really retire enough times in a turn to make it matter. He also needs to boost G3s and Twin Master Dragon to work when often times you need your G3s as Stride cost.
Steam Maiden, Elulu is actually not bad and works better than that trash known as Fatewheel Dragon. Her +5k skill also puts your opponent into Ragnaclock's kill zone faster, and SB1 cost is very easy to manage in this deck. I like her better than both Ruin Disposal and Fatewheel.
Ruin Disposal Dragon kinda works and kinda doesn't. He doesn't really work with Stride since Legion's timing and Stride's timing are just off. He is, however, your only way to put things back into your deck, and only way to fill the soul (via riding).

I like both the art and skill of this over
Ruin Disposal and Fatewheel

So that's about all I have to say regarding Gear Chronicle for now until they get more new stuff to mess with. And since real life is still hard and busy I have no idea when my next update will be. We'll see.

Oh and I forgot to mention, Steam Maiden, Ululu is Steam Maiden, Elulu's older sister. I await for Bushi to release their other possible sisters, namely Alulu, Ilulu, and Olulu because あいうえお