Deck Dissection: 'THE BLOOD'

Hello guys, Homura is back again with a deck dissection of one of my favorite clans, Narukami. As we all know, BT-09 released a lot of new units that boosted a few clans decently, especially crossriders, which brought those few clans into the next level. As a Narukami player, I've kinda expected some 'proper' boosts for my clan as the previous few sets gave very awful cards to Narukami (at least in my opinion, those cards are totally unplayable at all, except for the Damage Manipulators and the Draw Trigger).

In the end, I felt glad that Narukami can finally shine to its best when the upgrade unit for Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion, Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion 'THE BLOOD' was released. When the entire set was previewed, a lot of people say that The Blood was subpar in terms of its Ultimate Break, compared to the other crossriders. Also, the existence of Shirayuki's LB, which minuses the power of a unit attacking her by 20k, fabricated a lot of comments too deeming that The Blood now is a stupid card because of the power reduction rendering its UB totally useless. But here I am now, to show you how false are those claims, and to restore The Blood to its proper position as one of the best cards ever printed for the set, not individually, but in the entirety of the clan. So for now, let's have a look at the build that I'm currently running:

Grade 0
Spark Kid Dragoon x1 (FV)
Spark Edge Dracokid x3 (Critical)
Malevolent Djinn x4 (Critical)
Demonic Dragon Nymph, Seiobo x4 (Heal)
Old Dragon Mage x3 (Draw)
Mischievous Girl, Jiangshi x2 (Draw)

Grade 1
Red River Dragoon x4
Wyvern Guard, Guld x4
Dragon Monk, Ginkaku x3
Photon Bomber Wyvern x3

Grade 2
Dust Plasma Dragon x4
Thunderstorm Dragoon x3
Dragonic Deathscythe 2
Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda x2

Grade 3
Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion x4
Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion 'THE BLOOD' x4

I would say my build is quite standard, but with some slight twists to adapt my ideas and theories. This is still a 1.0 version, so I might make some changes along the way after I tested more with this deck. And now, onto the explanations:

Grade 0
Nothing much changes for the G0 lineup. This has been my standard lineup for most of my Narukami builds unless the deck requires me to play Stand Triggers. Spark Kid Dragoon become even more important as he might be able to net you the missing piece of the puzzle to form your 13k The Blood. As usual, triggers is my favorite Critical-based set up.

Grade 1
The G1 lineup is also quite similar to previous Narukami incarnations. The new cards were not that viable in the deck (although I wanted to try the Demonic Seal Dragon, Indigo.) albeit how good they seem to be. Hence, I stuck with the cards from older sets as they looked more practical to me compared to the new ones.

The only new inclusion here is Dragon Monk, Ginkaku. Ginkaku is the clone of Disciple of Pain, which allows you to add a damage to your Damage Zone, and shuffle back one damage into your deck at the end of turn by paying a CB of 1. In my opinion, he is good in this kind of deck because The Blood's skill is an Ultimate Break, meaning that you need LB5 to use it. Ginkaku can provide you with the crucial 5th damage in case your opponent decides to stuck you at 4. Also, even if he's not used to manipulate your damage, he can still be used to return any possible triggers into your deck (especially Heals), essentially feeding your deck with more trigger units for you to hit during checks. Although Ginkaku's 6k power is a bit at the lower end, but a 18k line combined with Dust Plasma Dragon is good enough to force a 10k shield against crossriders.

Grade 2
Nothing much to explain either for the majority of the G2s. Deathscythe is to control your opponent's board presence by destroying anything that can hit 18k. Garuda is used to force shields, or to unflip your damage to regain your CB. As for Thunderstorm Dragoon, what is there to be said for a 10k vanilla? A beatstick.

In the G2 lineup, I'm going to highlight more on Dust Plasma Dragon. Like all the crossrider clones (with the exception of Illuminal Dragon), there is a 9k G2 that can grow into a 12k beater if you have a Vanguard of a particular name on your field. In this case, Dust Plasma needs a 'Vermilion' Vanguard to be able to hit for 12k. Combining Dust Plasma and Red River Dragoon will create a 20k line, and a 18k line can be formed with the remainder of the G1s, enough to force 10k shields out.

Grade 3
As a deck that aims to crossride, I'm playing a full set of Dragonic Kaiser Vermilions and The Bloods just to make sure that I can get them into my hand. the 21k line of DKV and Photon Bomber Wyvern was already scary back on those days, but now 23k? Shit has just gone worse. And now, let me show you how stupid is Shirayuki in front of The Blood (sorry, no offense to Murakumo players in general, just need to prove a point to those trolls out there).

Yes, Shirayuki has a LB that can minus 20k power off The Blood. But that skill needs a cost of CB1 and Persona Blast, so at any given time when you're extremely lucky, you can only do it 3 times. And frankly speaking, The Blood doesn't even need to use its UB to pressure you, so how can they say Shirayuki is the perfect counter for The Blood? And bear in mind, Narukami RGs can also hit for more than 20k, so even if you stopped The Blood, can you stop the other sides? Unless you're playing 16 10k shields in your deck, if not don't even think of anti-ing The Blood with Shirayuki.

And another thing, regarding The Blood's UB, it's true that skill is just an upgraded version of DKV's LB. But look carefully, ignoring the 'whack front row' skill, basically you're paying CB3 to get a free Critical Trigger, and how bad can it be when you can force more guards while eliminating board presence anyway? As if when DKV uses its skill the opponent won't use a null if they're in a pinch?

Individually, The Blood might look weak, but if you factor in the entirety of the Narukami arsenal, The Blood is one of the most threatening cards in the new set, not because of the skill, but because of what he can do at normal times. Well, you might say that I'm a Narukami fanboy, but hey, that's the truth, and sometimes the truth is harsh for certain types of people. So what I can say now is have fun with the deck, and prove to those average minded people that The Blood is not weak at all. Until next time, bye!