One-By-One: Promos Galore!

Hey there. Homura here for another simple and short post. Since the release of BT-08, more different archetypes have already emerged and has been widely played up to now. While waiting for the new releases, there's nothing much to write about deck analysis to be honest. So, I would like to start a new column, which does not focus too much on decks, but rather on individual cards and how would they be able to include themselves in decks of their respective clans.

As a kickstarter for this column, I shall review cards from the newest Promo Pack, which is Cardfight Pack Vol. 7. This promo pack is given to participants of any shop/official tournaments throughout the period of October-December as an entry gift. Before I continue, Let's have a look at the list of cards included in this promo pack:

1) Medical Gunner, Hermieres (Angel Feather)
2) Assault Dragon, Circular Spino (Tachikaze)
3) Demonic Dragon Berserker, Vasuki (Narukami)
4) Electrostar Combination, Cosmo Great (Dimension Police)
5) Battle Siren, Nepheri (Aqua Force)
6) Stamp Otter (Great Nature)

And now, I shall explain slightly more in detail on how these cards work and how can you play them in your decks.

Medical Gunner, Hermieres
This card is a clone of Deathseeker Thanatos of the Grandblue clan, but with AF's twist in it. Instead of retiring herself, you may CB1, and send herself to the Damage Zone and Superior Call another AF unit other than 'Medical Gunner, Hermieres' into a RG circle.

This gives another 'swapper' for a clan that already has plenty of it. Hermieres acts like a pseudo Stand Trigger, allowing you to bring in a new unit to attack, as long as you manage to trigger the skill. Hermieres works exceptionally well with cards like Calamity Flame, Thousand/Million Ray Pegasus, and Chief Nurse, Shamsiel. Because you need to send her into the Damage Zone, you get to trigger the aforementioned units' power boosting skills, giving you slightly more punching power when you attack. And by comboing with Shamsiel, you get to reuse her over and over again.

Hermieres also goes well with cards that can return her back to your hand or field, like the Nociel series as well as Circular Saw, Kiriel. The only drawback of Hermieres is that she can only call face-up units, so you have to be careful in which card you use to pay for your CB skills so that Hermieres can always call out what you want. However, given that most AF decks already has a predetermined set of units to be used in the deck, it seems like Hermieres will have a hard time to fight for a place in any AF decks.

Final Verdict: Decent skill, awesome art, but hard time fighting for slots

Assault Dragon, Circular Spino
A new unit for Tachikaze, this unit allows you to retire one of your Tachikaze RG to give this unit a +4000 power boost when it attacks. While 8k base power does not look impressive, being able to hit the magic number against Majesty Lord Blaster instantly made Spino slightly better, especially when Tachikaze has plenty of units that can confer advantage to you when retired.

One classic example will be Dragon Egg and Winged Dragon, Skyptera. You can always target this unit with Spino, and pay a mere CB1 to take back those two units back to your hand. In that way, not only you gained a 12k attacker, but you increased your hand size, putting you in a better situation when you're on the defense. A newer example will be the new Pteras, Beamptera and Slashptera. These two units, when retired during your turn's Battle Phase, you can give a Tachikaze unit a +3000 power boost. Either you can give a unit which haven't attack more power, or you can target Spino itself in case you still need more punch.

Circular Spino is a very versatile unit, being able to fit in all Tachikaze builds. The only concern is whether you can find space for it or not. Frankly speaking, I tried it in my Raptor Colonel build, but ended up removing it because my power output has been reduced due to the omission of Sonic Noa (8k vanilla) to fit in Skyptera in order to provide 'unlimited' fodder for Spino to eat. I don't know about you guys, maybe you guys can find a better way to incorporate it in your decks.

Verdict: 'Fluffy' skill, has synergy with the clan overall, but slightly reduces the overall power output

Demonic Dragon Berserker, Vasuki
Enter the angry snakeman. This is my favorite PR in this promo pack (one of the reasons being me as a Narukami player). Vasuki is a very interesting unit that can become a powerhouse, and somewhat quite 'abusable' in certain Narukami deck builds.

First things first, Vasuki's skill allow him to gain a +10000 power boost, whenever a Narukami G3 enters the Vanguard circle. Which means, whenever you ride a G3, his power is doubled for the turn. Finally, a card that can make triggered G3s in your hand into useful stuff. There's actually a few ways to abuse this card.

Firstly, Vasuki can be incorporated in a Dungaree-main Narukami deck. Dungaree requires you to keep on reriding him in order to get ammo for his skill, as well as to this your deck. So every instance of 'reloading' is a +10k for Vasuki. Hence, with 2 Vasukis and your Dungaree boosted by Photon Bomber Wyvern (the Narukami 10k booster), you basically can have 3 20k+ attack lines to threaten your opponent.

The best deck to abuse Vasuki is none other than the TD star, Thunder Break Dragon. With a CIP retiring skill, TBD can be said as the perfect unit to synergize with Vasuki. As long as you can pay for the CB, each ride of TBD equals a +1 field advantage, and +10000 in Vasuki's power. Add in Stand Triggers into the mix, and your opponent will have to face 20k monstrosities not one, not two, but possibly 4 times in a turn. Change your Stands to Criticals, and slash even more hand cards away from your opponent. Definitely a good card to run.

Verdict: Decent skill, highly abusable, and versatile, just make sure he can survive the turn he came out.

Electrostar Combination, Cosmo Great
Another combination mecha from Dimension Police, this time a combination of all the 'Cosmo' machines. This unit actually share the same skill with one of his 'parts', which is none other than Cosmobeak. Bascially, Cosmo Great allows you to pay CB2 to give one of your DP units +4000 power until the end of the turn, similar to Cosmobeak.

From a glance, Cosmo Great seems like a good card to put into a Enigman deck. Yes, you're right. However, not ALL Enigman decks can fit this big guy in. Enigman Storm utilizes the Miracle Beauty/Commander Laurel combo, whereby Miracle Beauty already occupied your secondary G3 slot. Enigman Rain based decks only need a +2k in order to unlock Rain's skill, hence paying CB2 doesn't sound like a wise choice. Daiyusha is out of the question, Dailander already kick him out of the picture.

Although the older Enigmans does not work well with him, BT-08 also introduces a new Enigman - Enigman Cyclone. Enigman Cyclone has a skill which can only be unlocked when his power is 14000 or above during his attack step. In this situation, Cosmo Great looks like his best friend here. Not only being able to confer the bonus to Cyclone, but you also can have a good RG beater (DP is famous for the lack of high power RGs in Enigman builds).

Verdict: Good unit in Enigman Cyclone decks together with Cosmobeak, but quite lackluster apart from that

Battle Siren, Nepheri
The first PR give to Aqua Force. But truthfully speaking, she doesn't give much surprise despite having a nice art. Her skill allows her to confer a +3000 power boost to a G3 Aqua Force unit upon entering play. A not-so-decent power increase in a not-so-decent body (usually we tend to avoid 6k units unless they have really good skills). One word, her skill is too restrictive, as she can only target G3s.

Aqua Force is renowned for its playstyle that involves heavy usage of the Storm Riders, Basil and Diamantes. So you need to constantly churn out attackers, rather than boosters in order to unlock your VG's skills. So I can't really see any situation where Nepheri will make herself useful. Although there are actually a few 6k units in Aqua Force, a few stand out more when compared with Nepheri. The most obvious comaprisons are Battle Siren, Dorothea and Torpedo Rush Dragon. Both units are able to confer better bonuses without much restrictions.

So I'm sorry to say that Nepheri does not worth a slot in a deck due to her not-so-decent skill. Even the Starlight Unicorn clone, Accelerated Commando outshines her. Hopefully someone can find better usage for her, and whoever it is, do let me know how you managed to convince yourself to include her in your deck.

Verdict: Nice art, nothing impressive other than that.

Stamp Otter
Finally, the last card to review. Sea Otter is actually released earlier via the promo campaign of the TD-07 release. And those who got it, especially Great Nature players, will really rejoice. This card is totally a life-saver for GN players against Kagero/Narukami, and also an abusable card for brainjacking.

First things first, Stamp Otter boasts a 'good enough' 6k power, and as a booster, 6k does not sound like a  good number but Stamp Otter rectifies it with a fairly decent skill. The arrival of Stamp Otter can be said as totally replaces Hammsukes in GN decks. Stamp Otter works well in any deck that is heavy in brainjacking. You can just simply pump Stamp Otter, and through its own skill, Stamp Otter can't be retired by card effects, hence it stays after you end your turn. Basically, Stamp Otter makes good friends with the Tiger brothers, Leo-Pald, and Armed Instructor Bison.

Not only that, Stamp Otter is also a nightmare for any decks that plays retiring (Kagero/Narukami instantly comes in to the picture). Any attempt to get rid of Stamp Otter, it just shrugs it off, like a boss. What comes next? MORE brainjack!!!! All in all, Stamp Otter is a reliable card for all GN players.

Verdict: Abusable, immortal to retiring, primary brainjack target. A really good card overall for GN.

Here you go, a kickstarter reviews for my single card discussion columns. Hope you guys will enjoy it, and I would gladly take any requests for single card (or deck) reviews as long as I have time to write them. Unitl next time, bye!