Deck Dissection: Pirates of Magallanica

Hello there, Homura here with another installment of Deck Dissection. Today, I'll be looking at Granblue. This decklist that I'm going to show today is very unique compared to what I've played throughout the year in Vanguard, as it doesn't follow my personal standard in terms of unit composition and playstyle. I can say that out of all the people that I know of, there's only 2 of them that can pilot this build properly. Not to mention that this build is one of my friend's actual deck that he's using now.

With the release of Granblue's first ever Limit Breaker, Draw Trigger and a printed 11k unit, things are sure going to change for the pirates (including very unorthodox ones). Without further ado, let's bring up the list!

Grade 0
Captain Nightkid x1 (FV)
Chappie the Ghostie x4
Doctor Rouge x4 (Heal)
Knight Spirit x4 (Critical)
Helmsman of the Underworld x2 (Stand)
Banshee of the Rough Seas x2 (Critical)
Hooked Arm Zombie x4 (Draw)

Grade 1
Deadly Nightmare x3
Samurai Spirit x2
Dandy Romario x4
Gust Djinn x3
Evil Shade x2

Grade 2
Captain Nightmist x1
Deadly Spirit x4
Commodore Blueblood x3
Ruin Shade x2

Grade 3
Spirit Exceed x1
Deadly Swordmaster x1
Dragon Undead, Skulldragon x2
Necromancer of the Ice Prison, Cocytus x1

From the first glance, weird, isn't it? That is my first impression of the deck. The ratio of units and the way he built it is so weird until I really can't justify his choices until he explained and demonstrated the deck in front of me. Well, truthfully speaking I'm still quite blur of his build and what I'm going to explain here is based on what he told me and some of my personal insights about it.

Grade 0
Captain Nightkid is the First Vanguard for the deck. Comparing it with Guiding Zombie, Nightkid wins hands-down thanks to his skill. Getting a card that you want into the Drop Zone out of 10 cards is better than sending 3 unknown cards there.

Watch out! Cos' I'm the new kid here!

The trigger choices are also interesting. Knight Spirit is at x4 because of him being a Superior Ride material for Spirit Exceed. Helmsman of the Underworld is actually a very interesting and a 'tech' choice. Besides being a trigger, it serves as a 'free' body to be swapped into Deadly Nightmare or Samurai Spirit whenever a G3 hits the field. Other than that, the rest are actually quite standard I would say.

Grade 1
Deadly Nightmare and Samurai Spirit is at 3x and 2x because those two are Superior Ride materials that can be called from the Drop Zone as well as be tutored by Chappie, so they doesn't need to be maxed out. Dandy Romario x4 and Gust Djinn at x3 are quite standard, meanwhile Evil Shade is there to give a low cost 10k boost for the final push or mid-game pressure.

Grade 2
The lone Nightmist is actually there to be swapping fodder, especially for Skulldragon, because he can be revived as either a beater or interceptor for defense, and of course be tutored by Chappie. Deadly Spirit is a better Nightmist with a slightly lower cost and better power. It is also a Superior Ride Material for Deadly Swordmaster, but thanks to his 9k base power, he's maxed out instead of Nightmist. Ruin Shade is there for her ability to dump cards into the Drop Zone, possibly fetching cards that we need and attack with 11k power after that.

Grade 3
This is the weirdest part. Spirit Exceed, Deadly Swordmaster and Skulldragon are all at low numbers. Even the LB unit Cocytus is only at one. So what's the logic? Because the first two can be Superior Rode from the Drop Zone (which means Chappie can fetch them out from your deck), that's why only 1 is needed. Skulldragon is the main pusher (not to mention can be fetched via Chappie and revivable) and hence 2 of them. Cocytus is our final pusher when you hit Limit Break Threshold. Don't use him early game unless you really have no choice because you don't want to waste his revival skill and with his 10k base power, he'll sure get raped by 20k lines.

1 of each, at most 2.

Alright, after such long typing, the bottom line is Chappie the Ghostie is actually the key card in the deck. With only 5 G3s and not much searching mechanism, it just spells doom for other clans. But with Chappie, a GB deck with such setup will not stuck grade most of the time thanks to Chappie's fetching skill (My friend never stuck grade before since he completed this deck). So most of the time you really want to see Chappie in your opening hand.

This build of Granblue is seriously a skill-demanding deck. You must know when to throw what, and when to revive your units so that you won't waste your Soul  or Counterblasts.Try it out and give yourself a headache, it is really fun to play with, and play against. Until next time, this is Homura signing out, and start digging for those Chappies (heh!).