Calm Before the Storm: Lookout! (Pt.2)

Hello guys, Homura here with the 2nd part of 'Lookout!', which covers the few clans that you'll see running rampant in most tournaments, and how to lookout against them. As promised in my earlier article, I'll be covering Narukami, Great Nature and Gold Paladins today.

As I said earlier, the decks that you'll definitely see the most are Royal Paladins, Oracle Think Tanks, and Kageros. However, with the ascension of Limit Breakers, more clans are joining in the fray, especially Gold Paladins and Narukami, the second clans of the main characters. Without further ado, let's have a look in these clans and see how can we lookout! while playing against them.

Gold Paladins
Gold Paladins, up to the WCQ period, has 2 different builds that we can play - Blonde Ezel, and Spectral Duke Dragon. Each of these builds are distinct in playstyle, but still sticks to the root of the Paladin clans, which is swarming the board and gaining massive board advantage.

First up, I'll be talking about the Blonde Ezel build. Blonde Ezel is a 10k-power Limit Breaker that allows you to Superior Call the unit from the top of your deck and gaining a power boost equal to the original power of the Superior Called unit. Ezel works almost the same as King of Knights, Alfred of the Royal Paladin clan, albeit in a different way. Ezel's skill nonetheless gives you a free unit and a free power boost, but the point here is the unit called is random.

What do I mean by random? Yes, you might call out a precious Trigger unit. The reason why Royal Paladins are far more superior than their Gold counterpart is because they have targeted calling, meaning that they can call whatever they want and whatever they need to fit the situation in hand. The only unit in GP that can do that is Great Silver Wolf, Garmore. Without BT-07 to boost up Garmore's efficiency, the best that he can do is just to maybe call out Nemea Lion or Beaumains to maintain your attack force. But nonetheless, GP is still very strong thanks to them still having Superior Calling skills and power boosts as a bonus.

The other build viable for GP will be the Spectral Duke Dragon build. This build also plays heavily on Superior Calling, but mostly is to fuel SDD's Limit Break. SDD has a very devastating Limit Break, which allows is to 'cheat away' Null Guards. So you really have to think properly before deciding on how to defend SDD's attack.

SDD comes in a Chain Ride package, where every successful chain will allow you to spawn two more units from your top deck at the cost of retiring one on the field. Skill-wise, SDD is better than Ezel because it allows you to setup your field earlier, and allow even more Superior Call chains as long as you hit the units that activates their skills once they are called from the deck. The only downside of SDD is it is highly dependent on the chain to unleash its full potential, so decks like Kagero and Narukami will be tough against them, especially if they're able to stop your chain early game.

With the release of BT-07, GP players might think of a way to tech in the White Hare division cards, as they provide a plethora of skills that activate when you call them from deck, perfect for SDD builds. Also, they can also tech in Pelinore as a finisher, with his fairly low-costed Limit Break. So be prepared to face a lot of GPs during the WCQs.

Narukami

On the other hand, Kai's 2nd clan doesn't share much success compared to the Gold Paladins. So far, they only have one viable deck that is tournament-worthy, which is Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion. Narukami plays very differently from Kagero, as they don't have much retiring power. But in return, they gained ways to disrupt your opponent's defenses by preventing them from Intercepting through the Desert Gunners, and Vermilion's Limit Break.

Also, another one of Narukami's advantages will be their capability to churn out high power attacks at ease, even without the aid of Limit Break. The lineup of Breakthrough Dragon, Djinn of the Lightning Flash boosted by Red River Dragoons are already very fearsome in this environment full of 10ks. Topping it up with the existence of Photon Bomber Wyvern, Narukami defines the next level of raw power and the continuous pounding of the Vanguard.

The only weakness of Narukami besides only having one type of viable deck will be the setup of their field. As long as you can keep those Red River Dragoons at bay, you're quite safe from those 20k attacks, somehow. Even so, be prepared to see a lot of Narukamis in WCQ though.

Great Nature 
The newcomer from BT-07, Great Nature is a force not to be taken lightly. Despite being a new clan, GN already displayed their strong presence by having multiple deck types which can pose a serious threat to all clans out there, if played properly.

First up will be School Hunter, Leopald. Leopald focuses on the recurrence of units while providing ample support for 'brainjacking' (those that read my GN article should know this term by now). Comboing with Monoculars and Binoculars Tigers, you can continuously brainjack your units to make them into monsters, while recurring them when they're about to be retired via Leopald's LB. The only downside for Leopald's build is that Leopald is only a 10k Vanguard, rendering it extremely vulnerable for 20k lines (which can be done easily).

Next in line will be a deck with the Lox Ride Chain as the main Vanguard. Also utilizing the brainjacking specialty of GN, Lox gives a additional advantage by giving units the skill to replace themselves when they are retired via a free card draw, of course the condition is to have the chain ride successfully done. In addition, Lox comes with a Persona Blast, being able to give a unit +4k power and +1 Critical. Not forgetting to mention that Lox is also a 11k unit when you have the G2 Lox in your Soul. The most crucial weakness of this build, like other chain rides is the chain itself. You screw the chain, you screw yourself.

Another point to take note when playing against GN decks is be cautious on brainjacking units. When one comes down, kill it. Without brainjacking, GN is less dangerous.

And here you go, the 2nd part of the "Lookout!" series. Chances I might do the 3rd part of this series, just let me know which clan you think will be 'spammed' in WCQs and I'll try to do a writeup about them. Until then, bye guys!