Calm Before The Storm: Choose Your Avatar Pt.4

Hey guys, Homura here. It has been a few days of delay in posting, and apparently one of my friends already asking me to write something. As the release of BT-06 is approaching soon, 'Choose Your Avatar' won't appear that frequent, as I have to make space for new info and new columns to come in.

Nevertheless, I'll still write about this if all of you do request for something to be written-up. And now, this article will be talking about one of the decks that used to dominate the entire Japanese VG meta alongside Kagero and Royal Paladins before the appearance of Shadow Paladins took them out of the picture- Oracle Think Tanks.

Oracle Think Tanks


Oracle Think Tank, or OTT in short, made its debut in BT-01 as a fully supported clan, and has received support when each set is released, with the exception of BT-04, where the set has zero OTT cards inside. From what I can see in the Malaysian VG environment, OTT seems to be one of the more favored clan to start by players due to the vast amount of female characters in the clan (typical, right?), but whether or not they started OTT solely for this reason only or not, OTT is still a stable and decent clan to play with.

In game, OTT represents the aspect of 'Manipulation'. As you see from other card games, resource management (which in this case, hand cards) is quite important. OTT excels in this aspect as they have lots of cards tat allow them to draw, and not to mention their trademark, Draw Triggers.

Besides drawing cards, OTT also excels in deck manipulation. Their ace card CEO Amaterasu, allows the player to soulcharge 1, and check the top card of their deck. They may either choose to leave it on top, or put it below. This is a good ability as it allows the player to anticipate triggers accurately. Also, by soulcharging, it helps in pumping Amaterasu's Megablast, which allows them to draw 5 cards upon a successful attack. Battle Sister Cocoa, a 6k power Grade 1, has the same deck-checking ability as Amaterasu, making it one of the staple cards during that time.

When BT-02 is released, Scarlet Witch Coco is introduced as an alternate playstyle of OTT. A Coco-oriented deck requires the player to have zero Soul, which contradicts the purpose of Amaterasu. So in return to compensate the lack of the deck-checking ability, Coco gives the player more draws for having less Soul, as well as something OTT is really lacking-Power. 

Then, BT-03 brings OTT to it's pinnacle by providing player with the Tsukuyomi series. Each form of the ride-chain, starting from Godhawk Ichibyoshi, allows the player to check the top 5 cards of their deck. If the corresponding higher Grade unit is among those 5, you can superior ride it, then send all the other cards to the bottom of the deck. This deck combines all the advantages of the previous 2 builds together, whereby the Grade 3 Tsukuyomi is a 11k beatstick, topped with the ability to draw 2 and SC 1 unneeded card from hand, to fuel up the Soul count for other units that uses Soul.

With the super compatibility of both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu, OTT instantly becomes a force to be reckoned with, due to its consistent and stable performances in tourneys. Building an OTT deck does not require much problem, because just by choosing to use both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu, the deck pool instantly shrinks, only remain the most suitable cards that will work with the deck, for instance:

White Hare of Inaba: SC one OTT when comes into play, nice card to feed the 6th soul, or to soul in the missing Tsukuyomi part.

Battle Maiden Tagitsuhime: A 12k beater if you have 6 or more OTT in soul. Not a problem.

Psychic Bird: A Critical Trigger that draws a card. Nice to fill in the 6th  soul, and  replaces itself.

Oracle Guardian Red-Eye: Not really necessary, but good to serve as an attacker and a soulcharger.

The conclusion for now is, although OTT is no longer a dominating deck, but it is still stable enough to pose as a threat for other decks. If the opponent is really careless while facing OTT, they will sure pay for it.Overall, here's my review of OTT:

Pros: Stable / Consistent

Cons: Quite expensive to build due to the female artworks / No longer a metagame deck / Subtle tricks are hard to learn

Rating: 3.5/5

There's a confirmed news that BT-07 will have OTT cards in it, so we'll have to wait until then to see how OTT will evolve once more. Will OTT be able to shift the tides of the current meta? We can only wait. Until next time, stay tuned for more articles! This is Homura, signing out.