Deck Dissection: Gold Paladins of the Black Stallion

Hello there, I'm back again with another post. After so long leaving my blog untouched, I found a new comment from someone, requesting for a decklist of the Spectral Duke Dragon build Gold Paladin deck. The reason why I didn't post it up yet is because I haven't find a good way to play it yet, but now I'll be posting up a skeleton which you guys can use as a base to modify it into your own taste.

Let's have a look at the decklist first shall we?

Grade 0
Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer x1 (FV)
Flame of Victory x4 (Critical)
Silent Punisher x3 (Critical)
Falcon Knight of the Azure x4 (Draw)
Weapons Dealer Gwydion x1 (Draw)
Elixir Sommelier x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Jet Black Vanguard, Vortimer x4
Knight of Fine Skills, Gareth x4
Halo Shield, Mark x4
Warhorse, Raging Storm x2

Grade 2
Knight of the Black Dragon, Vortimer x4
Knight of Divine Skills, Beaumains 4
Flash Edge Valkyrie x3

Grade 3
Spectral Duke Dragon x4
Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel x1
Great Silver Wolf, Garmore x1
Gigantech Destroyer x2

This deck focuses a lot on Spectral Duke Dragon itself, since most of the cards used supports it instead of other GP cards. Let's do a grade-by-grade analysis for the deck.

Grade 0
The G0 Vortimer is our starter here, when you ride the G1 Vortimer on top of it, you can check the top seven cards of your deck, and add either the G2 Vortimer or SDD into your hand, and shuffle your deck afterwards.

This provides a potential -0 to your hand as you ride a card from your hand, and add one back from the deck. But what if you didn't get either one of them? No worries, because Vortimer can still Superior Call itself if not ridden by the G1 Vortimer. I opt to go with my favorite lineup of triggers here, which is 7 Critical, 5 Draw and 4 heal. I chose to include a full set of Falcon Knights because he has synergy with the Vortimers. When he is called out from the deck, one of your units gets a +2k boost to power. The rest is just standard.

Grade 1
Nothing much that is unusual here i would say. The G1 Vortimer provides a free superior call from the top deck when you ride the G2 over it.

The cost is to retire one unit, meaning that you have to play a card from your hand beforehand to ensure that you can use his skill, but since you're trading 1 card for 2, so it's still a +1. Yes, you might call out triggers, but hey, Vanguard is about luck anyway right? 4 Gareth and 4 Mark, quite standard here. The 2 Raging Storm here is to ensure that you can Soul-in the missing Vortimer into your Soul so that you can met the requirements for the permanent power boost for your Vanguard.

Just the right card to make the Vortimer chain more effective

Grade 2
the G2 Vortimer serves the same function as the G1, when you ride SDD over it. Beaumains is at 4 thanks to his 10k power, and the spotlight here is the 3 pieces of Flash Edge Valkyrie. Same as Falcon Knight of the Azure, Flash Edge Valkyrie has a skill that can be activated when she's called out from the deck.

By paying a CB cost of 1, you can check your top deck, and you may call the unit into an empty RG circle if the unit is a GP unit.So if you do the combo correctly, you'll be able to get a +3, or even +4 if you hit another Flash Edge Valkyrie. What a incredible swarming ability.

Grade 3

The main focus here will be Spectral Duke Dragon itself. With its 11k power, you should be able to manage your defenses easier. Once you hit Limit Break, he can technically 'cheat' your opponent's null guards away. During the close step of SDD's Battle Step, you can CB2 and retire 3 of your own Rear Guards. If you do, stand back SDD, regardless whether the attack hits or not. The only drawback of using this skill will be a -3 to your board presence and SDD loses Twin Drive. But with proper timing, you sure can catch the opponent off guard. Gigantech Destroyer is to provide slightly more firepower to your deck, and creating magic numbers up to 20k. Blond Ezel is at 1 just in case you can't dig for the Vortimer pieces. Although you only have a 10k on field, at least Ezel's Limit Break can still pressurize your opponent. Garmore serves as a 'tech' card, where he can also be your alternative VG choice. He can also combo with Flash Edge Valkyrie to help swarming the board, and his +5k Limit Break is not bad as well.

In short, SDD functions similarly with the Phantom Blaster Dragon build Shadow Paladins, where you need to sacrifice your units for stronger abilities. This difference is just that you now can replenish the field easier thanks to so many Superior Call enablers. This deck, unlike Ezel builds, require a bit more skill and good judgment to properly play it, so beginners might have a tough time using this deck. But overall, the SDD build has potential (although Ezel is the better choice at the moment), we just need to see what else Bushiroad has installed for GP in the future sets.

That's all folks. Stay tuned for the next article coming soon! This is Homura, signing out!