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.

Deck Dissection: A Really Rogue Deck

Hello there and this is Homura bringing you a slightly more 'fun' deck for you guys to try it out. The announcement of the contents for PR pack Vol.2 for the EN side reminded me about this long forgotten deck of mine. During last year's Malaysian Qualifiers, I was actually having a mind struggle on which deck to bring for the tournament. Under usual situations, I would've brought my Goku-Blade because it's my most stable deck at the moment.

Because I don't want to reveal to others which deck I'm playing in the tourney, hence I was practicing with my other deck, which was full of proxies during the free time. Surprisingly, the playtest results were so good that my friend kept on convincing me to bring this deck instead of Goku-Blade. I was very afraid of bringing an unproven deck which I just built the day before to such a big tourney, hence I was very reluctant at first.

But after several rounds of persuading, I finally gave in. I hurried to find my friend, and asked him for the cards that I proxied. I was still scared at first, but after several rounds I played, the deck actually performed very well, and it became a rogue deck that put me in the top 4, thus earning a place to play at Singapore's WGP Qualifier later at November (apparently I'm the only one that played the deck).

In case you wanted to know what clan I was playing, it Royal Paladins, and this is the card that made me to came up with such an impulse decision. Guys, meet Holy Disaster Dragon.

Here's the list:

Grade 0
Dorangal x1 (FV)
Bringer of Good Luck, Epona x3 (Critical)
Alabaster Owl x3 (Critical)
Margal x4 (Draw)
Weapons Dealer, Govannon x2 (Draw)
Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Knight of Exploration, Galahad x4
Flash Shield, Isolde x3
Little Sage, Marron x4
Pongal x3

Grade 2
Knight of Trials, Galahad x4
Knight of Silence, Gallatin x3
High-Dog Breeder, Akane x2
Knight of Truth, Gordon x2
Blaster Blade x2

Grade 3
Holy Disaster Dragon x3
Soul Saviour Dragon x3


You might be thinking, why was the deck composition so weird? Yes, I admit that it is weird. However, the deck really performs quite well, and I never stuck grade even once in the entire tournament (apparently my luck in Superior Riding Galahad was quite good). Anyway, let's dig down deeper.

Grade 0
With Barcgal banned, and BT-04 not legal for that tourney (the set was just released, thus rendering me unable to use Bluegal and Snowgal), I have no choice but to use Dorangal as my starter. With the advantage of a free ride, Dorangal was actually not bad.

In this deck I opted for a 6-6-4 tigger lineup (which made me fell in love with this lineup, as using it for almost all my future decks, whenever possible). In this deck you need a decent amount of Draw Triggers as you need to feed hand cards to Holy Disaster Dragon in order to power it up. Margal can also help in setting up for SDD's Soulblast for the finishing blow.

Grade 1<

The G1 Galahad took up 4 slots in the G1 lineup because of Dorangal's skill, and you would love to see him to save a hand card when riding. Marron is also at maximum for being a decent booster. 3x Isolde is also quite self-explanatory.

One of the key G1s here is actually Pongal. Because this deck just have 6 G3s, ensuring a smooth ride to G3 is very important. Pongal can search out SDD while fueling up your Soul, and the most important thing is Pongal can be tutored out itself via the skill of High-Dog Breeder, Akane.

Grade 2

Again, the 4x of the G2 Galahad is to ensure that you can see him during the Ride Phase. Even though you didn't play the G3 to complete the chain, but even by itself, a 9k attacker / interceptor is good enough in most situations, plus the free Ride is also worth it.

High-Dog Breeder, Akane is the tutor from Pongal. Akane is only there to make sure that you can ride to G3 and to search out booster units. Blaster Blade provides a little bit of retiring power, especially against high-power Rear Guards. Gordon works as an extra wall of defense, as well as a lightning rod to bait attacks because of his Especial Intercept skill. Finally, Gallatin provides a bit more punch for the deck.

Grade 3

The main G3 here is actually SSD. With either a 7k or Marron behind, SSD can whack for 20k and 21k, which is a decent number already. Besides, SSD also can give you a chance for the finishing blow via her Soulblast.

On the other hand, Holy Disaster Dragon is our RG beater. Although it is just 10k, but you can discard a card when it attacks to give it a 5k power boost for that battle. But in order to aggressively use HDD's skill, you also need to feed a lot of hand cards to it, hence the 6 Draws in the trigger lineup. All and all, HDD is a very aggressive beater.

Here you go, a fun, and quite budget Royal Paladin deck for you guys to try out. If you can see, the only expensive cards here are Blaster Blade, Isolde and Soul Saviour Dragon (which I doubt that she'll be that expensive still after the release of her PR alternate art version). Of course, compared to other decks, the absence of Baromedes and Toypoogal really hurt the deck's offensive power in a big margin, but hey, I just said it's a fun deck right? Just give it a shot and see how it fares for you.

Alright then, I'll leave you all now. Apparently all the new cards that're out requires me to do a lot of research. And yes, I'm still wondering how the hell I got Top 4 with such a rogue deck (LOL!).