Budget Building: Thunder Dragon Beatdown

Hey guys, Homura here again with a post dedicated to either VG newcomers or to those that wanted to try out the new cards from the new Trial Decks, but don't really sure how to fully utilize the deck. Recently, the new Trial Decks for Narukami and Gold Paladins were released, and as a Dragon Empire, I obviously went and bought myself 4 of the Narukami TD, TD-09 'Eradicator of the Empire'.

The thing that all Narukami players were expecting was obviously the new 'Eraser' archetype (I know the official translation is Eradicator, but I prefer to call them by the originally given name, Eraser). However, with the given amount of Eraser cards, there's actually no way to build a proper Eraser deck that can actually win you big tourneys, as their main support comes only in BT-10, which will be released mid February.

Even so, you shouldn't be disheartened, as the TD itself can provide you with a very fun and viable deck that you can play casually or even in tourneys. After I got the TDs, I went to analyze the current Narukami card pool available to us, and came up with a deck which I think, is very good and helps reduce the strain of your wallets. And here's the current deck that I'm having fun with (and winning quite a few matches with):

Grade 0
Spark Kid Dragoon x1 (FV)
Eraser, Yellow Gem Carbuncle x3 (Critical)
Malevolent Djinn x4 (Critical)
Eraser, Dragon Mage x4 (Draw)
Old Dragon Mage x1 (Draw)
Demonic Dragon Eraser, Seiobo x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Red River Dragoon x4
Wyvern Guard, Guld x4
Dust Storm Eraser, Tokou x2
Rising Phoenix x1
Eraser of the Pure Flames, Kougaiji x3

Grade 2
Eraser, Thunder Boom Dragon x4
Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda x3
Dragon Monk, Kinkaku x2
Dragonic Deathscythe x2

Grade 3
Eraser, Vowing Sword Dragon x4
Thunderbreak Dragon x2
Discharging Dragon x2

Here you go, a deck that uses mostly cards available from both of the Narukami TDs, and a few rares from BT-06, which is quite easily available. And now, let's have a look on how the deck functions:

Grade 0
Our starter here is Spark Kid Dragoon. Spark Kid allows you to fish out a G3 from deck for CB1, which I think is quite good to either fish out one in case your opening hand doesn't have a G3, or to search for Break Riding material. As for the triggers, I choose to go for my standard 7-5-4 lineup. Nothing much to elaborate here.

Grade 1
4x vanilla 8k booster is always a staple. The only expensive card here is possibly Wyvern Guard, Guld. However, being a recent reprint, the price of Guld in the secondary market has dropped quite significantly, hence I don't think it'll be that hard to get hold of a playset.

Tokou is the Iron Tail Dragon clone, with the skill of CB1 to +1000 power for the turn. In this build, he's quite good because you can hit magic numbers with him as long as you have CB to spare. Kougaiji is the alternate version of Photon Bomber Wyvern, and both are also easy to get (PBW being a R from BT-06, and Kougaiji being a TD card). The Rising Phoenix is there to net you an extra card, whilst replacing itself.

Grade 2

Since we're using most cards from TDs, so let's just add in a set of the 10k vanilla G2s. Whether to use Thunder Boom Dragon, or the original Thunderstorm Dragoon is purely up to you guys. Garuda is a must, given that this deck is quite CB hungry in a sense (Tokou, Thunder Break Dragon, Dragonic Deathscythe). Deathscythe is your only option to retire backrow units, and because he's only at 2x in the deck (to save some CB for Tokou and Thunderbreak Dragon), use him wisely.

Dragon Monk Kinkaku is the damange manipulator for the deck. Like I always said about damage manipulators, he can either help you to set up LB, or just to shuffle a trigger back to the deck for future use. If you prefer more offensive power, you can consider add in more 10k vanillas, or Hex Cannon Wyvern (8k into 11k if opponent has 3 or more damage at the Damage Zone of that player.

Grade 3
Now the G3s is the part where you need to spend slightly more because Vowing Sword Dragon is only a 1-off in each TD, hence you need to get four set of the TDs. Vowing Sword boasts incredible stats, and his abilities are no joke at all. Firstly, he has the Lord restriction, which is quite impossible to trigger unless you're mixing clans.

Secondly, Vowing Sword can gain an additional 2k power when attacking and if the opponent has 3 or more damage at their Damage Zone. This power increase makes Vowing Sword good against 11k units, and even Crossriders. Teaming him up with Kougaiji, he can attack with full power. The third skill is Vowing Sword's Break Ride trigger. Whenever a <Narukami> rides on this unit, the unit that rode him gains +10k power for the turn, and being able to retire a front row rearguard. With 2 good skills packed in a 11k body, I think he's quite a beast.

The other G3s I chose to use to combo with Vowing Sword is Thunderbreak Dragon and Discharging Dragon each at 2x. I think all of you should know how good is Thunderbreak already, and with Vowing Sword, basically on your Break Ride timing you'll have a very big VG, and you can retire 2 of your opponent's rearguards (one must be the front one though). This can be used during your final turn, or to force a null out.

The other G3, Discharging Dragon is a new type of card that serves both a s Limit Breaker and a finisher unit. Bascially Discharging Dragon has the LB skill of most Limit Breakers, which is when attacking the Vanguard, it gets a +5000 power until the end of battle. Despite having LB, Discharging can also make a pretty good RG because it also has the Dragonic Executioner skill (attack VG when you have nothing to use)

Well, here you go, a budget deck that only uses most cards from the TDs, and some cheap rares outside the TD. I think this deck is quite fun to play, and I'm still in the middle in changing and modding of the deck. So as a conclusion, since you've already bought the TDs, so might as well use it to the fullest! Have fun, this is Homura signing out for now.