Defining the Metagame: Majesty Blasters

Hey guys, and welcome to another installment of 'Defining the Metagame'. For some reasons (mostly because of too exhausted the previous day before), I haven't been joining my local tourneys recently. The same thing happened to most of my teammates, thus our local meta is now full of various decks like Megacolony, Gold Paladins, Lawkeeper Kagero, Narukami and other clans. For once, mainstream decks like DOTE, Royal Paladins, Phantom Blaster Overlord Shadow Paladins were kind of missing in the party. So does it means that the metagame is reforming again, and the new cards are slowly taking over the older builds?

Not so fast. Finally after weeks of hiatus, one of my teammate made his return to the local tourney scene again, hence we're able to witness the domination of pre-Limit Break decks again. Today, I'll be talking about the deck that he used to top yesterday's shop tourney - the ever-reliable deck that you'll definitely see in major tourneys, Majesty Blasters.

Recapping the history of this deck, this deck was made available to use during the release of BT-05 (the set that caused such a big impact to the worldwide metagame), and was also the first ever 'official' cross-clan deck. As its namesake, this deck focuses on the interaction of cards with 'Blaster' in its name, providing a multitude of effects that made the deck, as a whole, a tournament staple instantly after its release in Japan. Now, let's have a look at a sample decklist:

Grade 0
Wingal Brave x1 (FV)
Bring of Good Luck., Epona x3 (Critical)
Alabaster Owl x3 (Critical)
Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine x4 (Heal)
Margal x4 (Draw)
Weapons Dealer, Govannon x2 (Draw)

Grade 1
Little Sage, Marron x4
Pongal x2
Knight of Friendship, Kay x2
Toypoogal x3
Flash Shield, Isolde x3

Grade 2
Blaster Blade x3
Blaster Dark x3
Starcall Trumpeter x1
Knight of Loyalty, Bedivere x2
High-Dog Breeder, Akane x2

Grade 3
Majesty Lord Blaster x3
Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Baromedes x3
Soul Savior Dragon x2

The decklist above serves as a template for most common builds of the Majesty Lord Blaster deck. From what we can see, Royal Paladins has evolved from it's swarming beatdown tactics (King of Knights, Alfred) of the past, becoming a more focused beatdown in the form of Majesty Lord Blaster. So what's so good about this deck? Let's start from the cover card itself, Majesty Lord Blaster.

MLB might look very complicated to play with at the first glance, due to him needing both Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark in soul to achieve maximum potential, and being just a normal 10k vanilla if you did not fulfill his requirements. But his complicated effect seems no trouble when you have good support cards available at your disposal. Wingal Brave helps you tutor for your missing pieces when you successfully boosted an attack from a 'Blaster' unit that hits. Starcall Trumpeter gathers the missing G2 'Blaster' to ensure that you can activate MLB's +10k skill without much problem.

Specially tailored, just for Majesty Lord Blaster

And not forgetting to mention about was MLB's passive skill will make sure that your opponent thinks a lot when deciding how to guard with his 2-Critical attack. The beatdown aspect of this deck doesn't end here, as the deck also sports various cards that definitely define the 'thirst for power' theme of this deck.

First up are the new Knights, Kay and Bedivere. These two knights are specially tailored to have synergy with 'Blaster' units.

As long your Vanguard is a 'Blaster' they automatically gets a +3k to power when they attack, meaning even Kay, as a G1 can solo hit a 10k Vanguard. Even though you might have times when you don't have a 'Blaster' Vanguard, they're still 7k and 9k beatsticks.

Up next, the secondary damage powerhouses for the deck. In case MLB doesn't want to show up, You still have 2 cards that can deal high power attacks to your opponent. Soul Savior Dragon is the alternative Vanguard in this deck. Being able to hit 20k++ easily, and topped up with a devastating Soulblast skill, she's an auto include in the deck without a reason.

Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Baromedes follows next. As long as you have 2 or more G3 RP units on the field (which includes itself), Baromedes gets a +3k power when you attack. The requirement is so easy to fulfill, and adding on the fact that he can solo 13k Vanguards, there's no reason not to recruit him in the deck, unless you have something else in mind.

From the looks of it, your front row beaters are already awesome enough. So what about your back row? Besides your standard 8k boosts, RP has the access to the best 9k booster in the game - Toypoogal. Same as Baromedes, if you have 2 or more G3 Royal Paladin units on the field, Toypoogal becomes a 9k booster. 21k and 22k with MLB or Baromedes? Count me in! And this cute little poodle can be tutored by Akane thanks to it being a High-Beast. Pongal also helps out in searching SSD in case you really grade stuck.

After all the analyses that I've made, it seems like MLB will still stay strong in this format for a long time more. Together with DOTE and PBO, this triangle of tournament quality decks will be quite impossible to penetrate, as I think that Bushiroad has either made a mistake by printing out these cards, or they made Limit Breakers not powerful enough to pose as a threat against these 3 decks. So the verdict is? MLB is still strong, and will still be defining the metagame in the near future.