The Parallel Vision: Goku-Blade for VGE

Hey there guys, Homura here with a much anticipated post for the VGE community, especially the Kagero players. Today, I'll be discussing about one of the Kagero decks that made its name during the pre-Persona Blasters era in the Japanese metagame - Goku-Blade. This deck is one of the most stable Kagero decks ever built, as well as the most cost efficient one (you just need to get 4 Trial Decks and a few more cards to complete the deck).

The reason why this deck has dominated tournaments across Japan is because almost every card in the deck has good synergy with others. This deck packs card cycling, card draw and board control at the same time, further emphasizing Kagero as the 'control' clan in Vanguard. Though this deck has become less popular since the debut of Dragonic Overlord The End, but in the VGE environment, this deck is just beginning to shine. Before we go into more details, let's have a look at my previous deckbuild for Goku-Blade:


Grade 0
Lizard Soldier Conroe x1 (FV)
Embodiement of Spear, Tahr x3 (Critical)
Gatling Claw Dragon x4 (Draw)
Blu-Ray Dracokid x3 (Critical)
Dragon Dancer Monica x2 (Draw)
Dragon Monk Genjo x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Embodiment of Armor, Bahr x4
Wyvern Guard, Barri x3
Flame of Hope, Aermo x2
Demonic Dragon Mage, Kinnala x2
Dragon Monk Gojo x3

Grade 2
Dragon Knight Nehalem x4
Berserk Dragon x4
Dragon Knight Berger x3

Grade 3
Dragon Monk Goku x4
Dragonic Overlord x4

From the looks of the deck, it just looks like a normal Goku + Overlord build. Simple right? But do you know that even if something is simple, it doesn't mean that it can't be lethal. As for the name, you might wonder where is the 'Blade'? I'll explain that later in the article. For now let's go into the details of the deck


Grade 0
The trigger setup here is the standard (for me) setup of 6-6-4, where you can have decent offensive boost, as well as being in the safe zone for defense with the increased hand size. As for the starter, we have our best starter in the game - Lizard Soldier Conroe. Being able to tutor for a cost of CB1 is no joke. Finding out the crucial Barri through Conroe's effect can save you in a pinch.

Grade 1
4 Bahr here to provide much needed 8k boost, as our Rear Guards is somewhat lacking a bit of power to push through. 3 Barri to save your hand size when guarding a high-power smash, quite standard lineup there.

The cards that you want to look out for is these two: Dragon Monk Gojo and Flame of Hope Aermo. Let's start with Gojo first. Gojo is a 7k booster, which is a very good number to enable you to hit 16k lines in case you're boosting a Berserk Dragon. Secondly, Gojo has a very important skill, which allows you to trade away unnecessary cards in your hand, or to fish out your G3 as soon as possible. Meanwhile Aermo is also serving the same function, where once you Drive Checked a G3, you can cycle it away for a fresh card (hopefully those with Shields). Kinnala here is to provide a little bit more of the Board Control element.

Grade 2
The G2 lineup for each Kagero deck is quite standard, whereby you'll have 3-4 10k vanilla, and a couple of Berserk Dragons. Usually, Berserk Dragon's CIP skill is seldom used unless you're opponent played something that made you feel that you really must kill off that thing. However, in a Counterblast-heavy clan like Kagero, without the presence of Bellycoisty Dragon, your precious CB can't be simply used.

However, in this deck, Counterblast consuming is quite light, hence you can freely use Berserk's skill anytime you see necessary. Retiring that Interceptor of pesky boosters at the right time perfectly justifies the value of Berserk. Since this deck relies on triggering G3s. once they're in your hand, they are quite useless. So, in order to bolster your defenses, I opted to include 3 Dragon Knight Berger to improve your defenses a bit. Also, Berger can serve as a lightning rod to lure away attacks that are meant to be directed at your Vanguard.

Grade 3
As the name has stated, Dragon Monk Goku here is our Ace unit. Goku transforms all your G3s into 'Bomb Triggers' where you can retire important booster units of your opponent. By doing that, you instantly gain a plus to your field, whereby your opponent suffer minuses on their field, and more from their hand if they decide to redeploy their units to maintain attack power.

The name Goku-Blade is derived because initially, Goku is paired with a Promo card called Sword Emperor, Dragonic Valblade (hence the name 'Blade'). Valblade is Kagero's Crimson Butterfly Bridgitte, where it gains +5k power whenever you Drive Check a Kagero G3. I tried that build, and noticed that if you pair Goku with Valblade, one of them will be useless as a RG. Since Goku's advantage weighs more that Valblade's simple power boost effect, Valblade was excluded from the deck.

And who to replace the absence of Valblade? Enter our most useful RG ever printed - Dragonic Overlord. With its 11k power , and a skill that can be used even as a RG, Dragonic Overlord becomes an auto-include in the deck at maximum copies. Even though you did not manage to ride Goku, Overlord still can serves as your secondary Vanguard.

You might worried that you'll have too many G3 in hand after your Drive Check, but no fear, because this is what Gojo and Aermo is here for. Just chuck away the G3 that cannot be used to guard (especially extra pieces of Goku) to get a new card fresh from your deck.

Goku-Blade is a totally simple and easy deck to pilot, close to the 'brainless' level. But, despite being a simple deck to play, it is still very lethal to play against. I had a match before whereby the moment I ride Goku, my opponent just simply ceases to put any boosters behind his units, hence saves me a lot of precious hand cards when guarding his attacks, as most of his attacks just required a 5k shield. BT-03 is going to make an impact for sure, and this deck doesn't even need any cards from there except the Critical Trigger!

Trust me, once you mastered this deck, you'll see the fun of playing it and a lot of face expressions when you trigger a G3 during your Drive Check. For those that like Kagero, and do not have a lot of budget to make decks like Blazing Flare Dragon or Dragonic Lawkeeper, you can always try this deck. In my honest opinion, I would say that this deck is more stable than BFD or Lawkeeper, as it doesn't require set up time and necessary cards to compliment the deck. This deck is just simple: Burn, Beat, and Burn more.

Until then, have fun, and let me know how the deck performs for you! This is Homura, signing out!