Thursday, July 26, 2012

Deck Dissection: A Really Rogue Deck

Hello there and this is Homura bringing you a slightly more 'fun' deck for you guys to try it out. The announcement of the contents for PR pack Vol.2 for the EN side reminded me about this long forgotten deck of mine. During last year's Malaysian Qualifiers, I was actually having a mind struggle on which deck to bring for the tournament. Under usual situations, I would've brought my Goku-Blade because it's my most stable deck at the moment.

Because I don't want to reveal to others which deck I'm playing in the tourney, hence I was practicing with my other deck, which was full of proxies during the free time. Surprisingly, the playtest results were so good that my friend kept on convincing me to bring this deck instead of Goku-Blade. I was very afraid of bringing an unproven deck which I just built the day before to such a big tourney, hence I was very reluctant at first.

But after several rounds of persuading, I finally gave in. I hurried to find my friend, and asked him for the cards that I proxied. I was still scared at first, but after several rounds I played, the deck actually performed very well, and it became a rogue deck that put me in the top 4, thus earning a place to play at Singapore's WGP Qualifier later at November (apparently I'm the only one that played the deck).

In case you wanted to know what clan I was playing, it Royal Paladins, and this is the card that made me to came up with such an impulse decision. Guys, meet Holy Disaster Dragon.


Here's the list:

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

Grade 1
Knight of Exploration, Galahad x4
Flash Shield, Isolde x3
Little Sage, Marron x4
Pongal x3

Grade 2
Knight of Trials, Galahad x4
Knight of Silence, Gallatin x3
High-Dog Breeder, Akane x2
Knight of Truth, Gordon x2
Blaster Blade x2

Grade 3
Holy Disaster Dragon x3
Soul Saviour Dragon x3


You might be thinking, why was the deck composition so weird? Yes, I admit that it is weird. However, the deck really performs quite well, and I never stuck grade even once in the entire tournament (apparently my luck in Superior Riding Galahad was quite good). Anyway, let's dig down deeper.

Grade 0
With Barcgal banned, and BT-04 not legal for that tourney (the set was just released, thus rendering me unable to use Bluegal and Snowgal), I have no choice but to use Dorangal as my starter. With the advantage of a free ride, Dorangal was actually not bad.


In this deck I opted for a 6-6-4 tigger lineup (which made me fell in love with this lineup, as using it for almost all my future decks, whenever possible). In this deck you need a decent amount of Draw Triggers as you need to feed hand cards to Holy Disaster Dragon in order to power it up. Margal can also help in setting up for SDD's Soulblast for the finishing blow.

Grade 1<


The G1 Galahad took up 4 slots in the G1 lineup because of Dorangal's skill, and you would love to see him to save a hand card when riding. Marron is also at maximum for being a decent booster. 3x Isolde is also quite self-explanatory.


One of the key G1s here is actually Pongal. Because this deck just have 6 G3s, ensuring a smooth ride to G3 is very important. Pongal can search out SDD while fueling up your Soul, and the most important thing is Pongal can be tutored out itself via the skill of High-Dog Breeder, Akane.

Grade 2


Again, the 4x of the G2 Galahad is to ensure that you can see him during the Ride Phase. Even though you didn't play the G3 to complete the chain, but even by itself, a 9k attacker / interceptor is good enough in most situations, plus the free Ride is also worth it.


High-Dog Breeder, Akane is the tutor from Pongal. Akane is only there to make sure that you can ride to G3 and to search out booster units. Blaster Blade provides a little bit of retiring power, especially against high-power Rear Guards. Gordon works as an extra wall of defense, as well as a lightning rod to bait attacks because of his Especial Intercept skill. Finally, Gallatin provides a bit more punch for the deck.

Grade 3


The main G3 here is actually SSD. With either a 7k or Marron behind, SSD can whack for 20k and 21k, which is a decent number already. Besides, SSD also can give you a chance for the finishing blow via her Soulblast.

On the other hand, Holy Disaster Dragon is our RG beater. Although it is just 10k, but you can discard a card when it attacks to give it a 5k power boost for that battle. But in order to aggressively use HDD's skill, you also need to feed a lot of hand cards to it, hence the 6 Draws in the trigger lineup. All and all, HDD is a very aggressive beater.

Here you go, a fun, and quite budget Royal Paladin deck for you guys to try out. If you can see, the only expensive cards here are Blaster Blade, Isolde and Soul Saviour Dragon (which I doubt that she'll be that expensive still after the release of her PR alternate art version). Of course, compared to other decks, the absence of Baromedes and Toypoogal really hurt the deck's offensive power in a big margin, but hey, I just said it's a fun deck right? Just give it a shot and see how it fares for you.

Alright then, I'll leave you all now. Apparently all the new cards that're out requires me to do a lot of research. And yes, I'm still wondering how the hell I got Top 4 with such a rogue deck (LOL!).

7 comments:

  1. Answer: Unpredictableness?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like a ton of fun to run. Aqua Force and Dimensional Police just got the most ridiculous buffs I've ever seen. I don't know which to build... I can't wait for BT08 to hit the TCG.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Really cool Homura, definetly like these articles! Also, since I live in NA, it's always cool hearing about the Asian qualifiers and such. Really enjoyed this, and also, are you participating in the Asian Qualifier this year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not really sure whether I'm participating or not, since I'm more of a Japanese side player. If I can find myself a deck that I'm comfortable with, I'll definitely join in (you know, cards are hard to find nowadays, especially those high demand ones).

      Delete
  4. It's a good rogue deck IMO ,
    I can ask my bro who is trying to make a low budget deck to try this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm in a place where I can't run Isolde, SSD, or Pongal. Any other cards I could play instead?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well... If you can't run those cards, you can try out substitutes like Alfred, Maiden of the Lake, Lien, Pendragon, or even whatever you please. The deck's main aim is to beat down with high power, and anything that can do that is always welcomed in the deck.

      Delete