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!