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)
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.
This time the review is on our last boss card, and the latest of the Luquier lines! I've finally played enough of Venus to feel more comfortable writing about her and giving tips (this article has been sitting as a draft for the past month or so.. lol). If you are not familiar with her effect, you can look her up here.
Long story short, Luquier Venus gives you a potential +5 for a cost of ECB2. She's basically the original Luquier with 33.3% off the cost that can call potentially 25% more than Luquier, and with higher quality. She also lost the +3k power gain per superior call, which had to be made up using Upright Lion. Unlike Luquier Reverse, she gains the advantage in an instant, but is unable to reallocate power to her columns, and cannot prolong her effect over the course of the a game; her effect happens at most twice a game without heals, but usually once because she's not the only CB user of the deck (the first 2 CBs usually end up going to Ana/Maricica).
How to Gain the Most Out of Venus
Venus is a little tricky to play. While her skill is fairly straightforward and you can really only fill your field with it and pump up a few Lions, she's often seen as a +5 for 2 CBs, and situations where we would naturally gain +5 off of her is actually very rare. In order to get a +5 off 1 usage of her skill, you literally need to eat a full field wipe, or not call any boosters at all and intercept with your entire front row, both are either rare or unpractical. But what you can do is to artificially prepare for Venus beforehand and make a +4 or at least a +3 off her skill very reasonable and reachable.
A field like this picture keeps your early game
presence, and sets up for a +4 for Venus
How do you do this? Here's the trick: call as little boosters as humanly possible without hurting yourself or giving up bigger advantage (eg. not calling Ana to boost a RG Rising Dragon when your opponent is sitting on anything 9k or less for the sake of an additional +1 off Venus is just plain dumb), and delay your Emil usage for as long as humanly possible without hurting yourself (eg. seeing a Linchu as FVG and not using Emil right away is just stupid) before you use Venus's limit break. This way, when you intercept with your entire front row the turn before you're going to use Venus's ability, you just opened up 3~4 spaces for Venus to +3~4 (see picture). You can also take a look at my video here to see how it works in practice.
So what's the catch? The catch is, you still need to maintain your early game advantage and play properly with your early game combos while still planning ahead for your Venus play. If you lose the game momentum only because you're trying to get an additional +1 off several turns later from Venus, it's not worth it. Cards are generally worth much more earlier on in the game because your opponent will still only have access to a single drive check (so less cards generated naturally), and they need to keep enough cards to ride successfully to G3. Cards several turns later that really only translates to an additional 5k shield in hand is also not worth losing your entire early game momentum to. This is also why you can reasonably gain a +3~4 off Venus fairly easily, but gaining a +5 without hurting yourself is extremely difficult.
Venus's Role
There really isn't much to it. I mean, she's essentially Luquier without the +3k per call and a cheaper cost to Luquier's skill. So she's really just 1.) a field re-generator, 2.) massive advantage engine, and 3.) a finisher.
Technically he's not strong for the field
wipe. But it happens from time to time
Her field re-generator aspect is fairly obvious. When you eat a fieldwipe, she literally makes up the entire field back for CB2. Obviously this field-wipe thing occurs fairly rarely. The more common scenario is when you committed a field early and mid game and your opponent kills your RGs to try to slow down your damage, you regenerate and keep the pressure pumping for CB2. This aspect makes her very suited for rushing and committing to a field early because she can just keep the flow going even if your opponent tries to stall by bullying and taking out your RGs. This aspect also makes sure that if you have Eva to break ride onto, that you'll always have a full field for your Eva.
Her massive advantage engine aspect is what was descried on top under how to gain the most out of Venus. By calling something like 4 units, you are extending the advantage gap by 4 in a single use. Honestly, it's still not nearly as impressive as CBD + IZD combo since each lock is worth 1~2 cards (you spend at least 1 less card to guard per column locked, and an additional card for each trigger checked), and CBD further gets +2 off each locked card, meaning triangle locks are worth 3~6 cards saved in guarding, and CBD gets +2 *3 off that triangle lock, which totals to a 9~12 card gap per combo. It's literally less than half of what the CBD + IZD combo generates in terms of raw advantage, but hey they don't have the early game we have, and that's why they attracted all the hate because CBD is just way undercosted.
This is what a finishing field looks like, if you
have 2 Lions just replace the dragon with a lion
Lastly, Venus acts as a finisher for Silver Thorn. This is a more common use of Venus, and she's really the only reliable finisher Silver Thorn has if you didn't break ride. However, Venus cannot finish a game by herself because she lacks any power boost. Instead, she relies on Upright Lion to do the power up. By calling a fill field with her skill, each Lion will gain at least +12000 power because you call 4 other Silver Thorn units (3000 *4). This number goes up by +3000 for each Zelma you called along with Luquier Venus's ability, usually up to +6000 power (2 Zelma). So she essentially creates 1~2 28000 (up to 34000 if you have Zelma) columns with Upright Lion (9000 + 7000 + 3000 *4), resulting into a very Great-Nature like field for your push. Keep in mind, since usually 2 CBs will go to Ana and Maricica during your early and mid game, this means Venus will probably only go off once per game. So don't waste this big push as it's very valuable to Silver Thorn. If you have seen my video on Venus and Zelma, you'll see how this works in practice.
Skyhigh Walker
Alright, I'm sure some of you probably have the question "is it worth it to run Skyhigh Walker to unflip damage for Venus?" in mind. The thought process behind it will probably be something along the lines of "if Venus's ability costs 2 CBs, then having 2 Skyhigh Walkers makes her skill free constantly! +5 for free! OP!" Here's how I'm going to answer: go try it out yourself, but I can share you my experience with it.
Skyhigh Walker is a stand trigger, and stand triggers actually works fine with Silver Thorn if you know what you're doing. So the concern with Sky High Walker isn't here. The concern with Skyhigh Walker is essentially how consistent and reliable he is, how gimmicky he is, and how well he actually works with Venus.
Lets first look at the real side of Skyhigh Walker. Yes he can be called out by Venus for free (grade 0), but if you want to keep the 'loop' going for discounts on CB, you either have to 1.) keep him around for boosting and then use his effect next turn right before you use Venus, or 2.) call him out, use him right away, and then call boosters from hand or don't call any boosters. Either way, you're going to have to save spots open for him and give up a legit unit out of Venus's potential 5 units she'd be calling.
For scenario 1, he's a horrid 4k booster. The only 16k+ column that will happen with him around are 1.) Rising Dragon, and 2.) VG booster when your VG is cross ridden, and 13k bodies will be a nightmare for any column he's boosting because nothing in the deck hits for 14k+ solo besides Lion. The fact that he's not a Silver Thorn and therefore won't be pumping up the Lions didn't help here either. This means chances are you'd have a bad column with him around trying to boost. For scenario 2, it just defeats the purpose of Venus in the first place, because you're trying to avoid calling from hand and widen the advantage gap. By needing to call from hand you're reducing the effectiveness of Venus.
The second issue is that there's no reliable way to get your Skyhigh Walkers because he's not a Silver Thorn. This makes relying on him not so reliable. He's also a 10k shield. For each Skyhigh you are using, you're reducing your defense by reducing the available 10k shields at your disposal.
His final issue is, you simply don't have that much deck or soul to abuse him. Lets say you actually can call out 3~4 quality units with Venus (3~4 because the last 1~2 spots you need to save for Skyhigh). You'd eventually run out of viable units in your soul to call after 1~2 uses. This means you need to refill your soul with Emil. Add to that Venus soul charges 2 every time she uses her effect, you end up with something unsustainable.
So my personal thoughts on Skyhigh? I wouldn't focus on it because it's too gimmicky. I'd just rather pump up my Lions and slap people with it than making weaker Lions but try to prolong the use of Venus.
However, Skyhigh Walker is decent in that as long as your not aiming for a "free" Venus skill, as 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.
Lastly, some of you may already have seen this, but here's a video that shows a good example of how to prepare for and use Venus:
This is the 'perfect game' and the idea winning image for Silver Thorns if you're main is Luquier Venus, and also why the Ana/Maricica/Zelma trio is incredibly scary, especially if you go first. In fact, this game's Zelma use is so perfect, if there's ever going to be a textbook on Silver Thorns, this will be a very good textbook example.
Too busy to spend 3 minutes?
CB1 for 2 attacks at 0:28
Cross riding by Ana/Maricica + Zelma at 0:58
Do keep in mind what happened in the video is almost like Exodia happening, and players that knows how Silver Thorn functions can reduce the amount of damage done to them (see bottom of this article), so do not expect this to happening every game. Most of your real games will be more similar to the Zelma example video, and not as fast and smooth as this one. But just always remember how you can dance with Zelma if you are given the opportunity.
A few things to take away from this for Silver Thorn players: 1.) Going first is very advantageous for Silver Thorns due to your insane on-hit pressure and exploit. 2.) It's beneficial to keep Emil around for boosting for as long as possible if you have Venus, because the spot Emil takes is the same as an open spot for Venus. This means once you clear your front row by intercepting, counting the Emil spot, you're guaranteeing at least +3 off Venus's skill, more if you leave more booster spots open. 3.) Always remember when there's a 7k exposed on your opponent's side, CB1 can result in 2 attacks. Abuse it and exploit it when you can. 4.) Maricica and Ana can help you cross ride if you have Zelma properly setup. Take advantage of it.
A few things to take home from this for players playing AGAINST Silver Thorns: 1.) Avoid exposing a 7k if you can (in this video's case he can't) 2.) Guarding Maricica and Ana is a very smart move. VERY. An opponent that knows what he's doing will rain pain on you if you let one of those hit unless you sack triggers. 3.) DO NOT give your opponent his damage for his Ana/Maricica/Zelma shenanigans unless you are ready for it, just like LB4 and break rides. If his Damed Leo didn't give me that 1 damage (at 0:50), I could not have rained pain upon him nor could I make such quick work out of him.
I had a game with a really good Zelma usage recently on CFA, and I thought this would be a good example of how devastating the Ana/Maricica/Zelma combo is if your opponent is to ever let it hit, especially with a booster exposed. Unfortunately I did not cross ride using Ana/Zelma combo in this video, but if I was sitting on Venus or Reverse, and one of the RG was a Luquier, I would have cross ridden as a bonus to the combo.
If you're in a hurry, you can skip to 1:14 and 2:53 watch Zelma being MVP.
If the video to too fast/slow for you, feel free to pause or click the 'cogwheel' and adjust the playing speed.
Also, if you see any misplays, or have any suggestions or things you're unclear about with the video, please leave a comment either here on this blog or on the YouTube so I can improve on quality in the future. This is also my first YouTube video ever lol.
I decided to write about these 3 units together because it's weird to write about them separately when them going together is what makes them so formidable. Again, I assume you the reader already know their effects. If not, you can look up Maricica, Ana, and Zelma respectively on the wiki.
This article will assume you are playing with BT15 support since I'm writing all 3 together; there really isn't much to write about Ana and Maricicia with only BT12 support since the only combo the do is with Irina who gives you additional soul charging, and otherwise all they do is just call a single unit with a very high chance of a -1 because your front field will likely be full. What they do essentially with BT12 support is still there in the BT15 meta if you can't get a Zelma in your soul.
I'll first do a brief overview on the cards themselves before jumping into the shenanigans they do and the havoc they can wreck.
On a side note, I used a lot if GIFs in this article, so give them a few seconds to load up. And you can click on the GIFs to expand them.
Edit:
-I've cut down the GIF size by 50% (length and width) to make it less of a pain to load up. Let me know if there are any other issues or if it's still an issue.
Maricica is a pressure VG-only on-hit unit that has the ability to call specifically a Silver Thorn unit from your soul, and doesn't care if your VG is a Silver Thorn or not, meaning even if you're sitting on an Eva, she still does her thing. Unlike the traditional Pale Moon pressure unit Alice, Maricica cannot pressure by attacking rear guards, meaning once your opponent hits limit break or hits their 5th damage, Maricia becomes vanilla because no one will ever let anything hit at that point regardless of what unit it is.
She is one of the best rides you can get on a G2 ride aside from Lilian, and that is also when she applies the most pressure because your opponent will be reluctant to guard when you have ~1/3 chance of drive checking a trigger (provided they're not sitting on a 10k vanilla), and that in the early stages of the game, any card in hand is very precious.
Ana is Maricica in the form of a booster, and she is probably the best VG booster for Silver Thorns right now thanks to Zelma. A VG boosted by Ana essentially becomes similar to DOTE where you punish your opponent greatly if they let your VG hit with an extra attack for a cheap CB1, except without the Twin Drive and without the need to Persona Blast. She is incredibly annoying to deal with if your opponent has no way to lock her or retire her because she essentially leaves your opponent with 2 bad choices: 1.) actually guard a VG attack early on when you still need damage to function and hand is still precious, or 2.) take the hit and have another coming at you or your RG, putting you greatly behind in damage, or putting you behind in direct card advantage.
Similar to Maricica, she has the issue of becoming vanilla when your opponent gets to 4 or 5 damage for the same reason. Unlike Maricica, sacking and drawing into a lot of Ana doesn't do you much good because Ana need to hit on her boost, meaning she doesn't do jack on her own.
Zelma is the best thing that happened to Silver Thorns in BT15. He (yes, HE) is essentially a Silver Thorn only Purple Trapezist with 7k power, and being a Silver Thorn makes him call-able by Ana and Maricica. He single handedly changed Ana and Maricica from mediocre units into absolute monsters, allowing a full-column extra attack or 2 smaller attacks (I will explain this combo later) for a cheap price of CB1. It's also searchable by Emil and Irina, making it relatively consistent and easy to get one in your soul. Needless to say, it's very important to get at least 1 copy of Zelma in your soul ASAP if possible, and hence he's usually your best G1 ride.
One does not simply try and list all the things Purple Trapezist can do in a brief intro, and the same goes for Zelma. You guys will see what this guy is capable of later in the combos.
The Trio at Work
So what exactly is so amazing about these 3 cards working together? If you have been playing Pale Moon for a while, you probably know the classic combo of Midnight Bunny and Purple Trapezist, where Bunny will boost an attack, and if the attack hits, you use Bunny's skill to swap places with a Trapezist in your soul, and then using Trapezist's skill, you send the rested front row unit back into the soul, and call an attacker out, essentially creating a pseudo-stand effect. However, this classic combo grants you 1 additional full column attack, and then Trapezist is stuck on the field, and Bunny is stuck in the soul, essentially making the combo a 1-time thing.
The basic Zelma combo with Maricica/Ana
The Ana/Maricica and Zelma combo is like the Bunny and Trapezist combo on steroids other than that the need to land the attack on the VG. What happens is, you land an attack with Ana/Maricica, call Zelma from soul, send a rested unit into the soul with Zelma, and call it back out in stand position, similar to the Bunny/Trapezist combo (gif on the left).
However, unlike the classic combo, the Silver Thorn's version of it it's not a one time thing. Whatever Ana and Maricia calls will return to the soul at the end of the turn, and Ana/Maricia themselves do not disappear from their own skill, meaning once you get the combo going, the combo pieces will always be there until you run out of CB or your opponent retires your stuff. Now what does that mean? It means as long as they can't retire your Maricica/Ana, they will be under the wrath and pressure of your combo every single turn at no additional cost on your end; you are putting all this pressure on for free!
This kind of field often spells the end for your opponent
So if you sack some kind of field like the image on the right on your 2nd turn, you're opponent's pretty screwed if they're sitting on a VG that's anything 9k or below; the game might even end before they ride to Grade 3 because a field like seen on the right will cause a lot of pain; it's almost like you have a Galaxy Blaukluger that works on turn 2 without needing to limit break. Obviously a field as scary as seen on the right isn't common, so don't build your deck assuming you'd be getting that every game. Just keep in mind that if you do have something like that in your hand, make sure to take advantage of it and make quick work of your opponent.
Other Tricks
CB1 for 2 attacks!
There's also a neat trick that allows you to gain up to 2 bonus attacks for the cost of CB1 with Zelma and Ana/Maricica. As long as your opponent has something that's 7k or under in their front row, you have the option to call Zelma to your front row. Zelma and the unit he stands will both be able to attack, granting you 2 attacks. Obviously, if your opponent is still sitting on a 7k VG, this trick is very useful in expanding the damage gap or the advantage gap, as could be see in my Luquier Venus and more Zelma video. This is a huge advantage, because you are essentially getting 2 or more cards' worth of advantage through a measly CB1. Why 2 or more? If they guard both attacks, that's obviously getting 2 cards for CB1. But if they take the damage, that means later into the game when you swing at them with a 21k column, they may be forced to guard an attack with 2 cards because they can't afford to take further damage.
If you happen to have a open spot in front if a booster,
Zelma can swing for 12~14k in those cases.
An alternative way to gain 2 attacks for CB1 with Zelma that does not require your opponent to have exposed 7k front rows is to call Zelma in front of a unused booster, standing the attacker on the other column. This can be valuable at times as well, and usually best used when you have an unoccupied front row to avoid the -1. However, if the situation calls for it, calling over an attacker using this method is also an option.
Don't like the draw trigger? Just swap it out.
Another thing Ana/Maricica and Zelma can do is they can swap out your useless cards and re-scale your field if you need to. For example, you may have a draw trigger that you don't know what to do with, and you have a booster that can't hit anything by itself, but if you call both to the same column, you're able to hit something. Well, you can easily swap the draw trigger out for something more useful if your Ana/Maricica lands a hit and calls Zelma. The best part? Sometimes you don't even miss an attack because of it.
Now you'll have half a DOTE next turn.
This also applies to getting Ana behind your VG. Remember I mentioned earlier in this article about the goodness Ana is when behind a VG? And how she essentially makes your VG half a DOTE? Well, you can give up an extra attack (for a boost) and just fetch key cards.
Zelma can also function similar to a Purple Trapezist in re-standing entire columns if you run Eva on your break ride turn. However, just remember that Zelma cannot do anything to an Eva sitting in a RG column, essentially making the column 'stuck', so just be careful when and where you call an Eva as a RG if you do run Eva.
Video Examples
Here are a couple of actual game examples where Zelma is being used:
1.) Zelma Video Example
This article took me a lot longer to write because of the GIFs. I figured with cases like these 3 cards it's probably more clear and straightforward to just use animated GIFs to show examples of what and how certain stunts can be done.
