Deck Dissection: We are United!

Hey guys, miss me? Haha, jokes aside, I'm finally back after a month's hiatus due to work (yeah, I know it's always the same old reason). As a compensation for me being MIA for such a long time, today I'll be doing a double dose just to give you guys more stuff to read. And rest assured, I won't be missing for so long again in the near future. Without further ado, let's start with part 1.

In part 1, I'll be providing a deck dissection for those long overdue decks post BT-09 which I haven't mentioned about. I guess you guys already try most of the new archetypes out already, but nevertheless, I still hope to share some of my ideas here, and also as a response from some of my readers (no worries, I'll try my best to fulfill all of your requests).

As the title suggests, I'll be talking about Platinum Ezel today. Platinum Ezel, which most of my gang prefer to call it Pezel, is the upgrade for most Ezel-based decks, by providing an element that most players always wanted - Crossrides. After the inclusion of Pezel, the deck included a very lethal game ender in the form of Pezel's Ultimate Break (the official designated name for LB5), which gives a +5000 power boost to up to 5 RGs. In terms of power output, GP now has the highest 'burst of power' output, with only Spike Brothers capable of matching it. Now, let's have a look at my version of the deck:

Grade 0
Crimson Lion Cub, Kryph x1 (FV)
Silent Punisher x3 (Critical)
Flame of Victory x4 (Critical)
Speeder Hound x3 (Draw)
Arms Dealer, Gwydion x2 (Draw)
Elixir Sommelier x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth x4
Halo Shield, Mark x4
Advance of the Black Chains, Kahedin x2
Silver Fang Witch x1
War Horse, Raging Storm x3

Grade 2
Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains x4
King of Passion, Bagdemagus x4
Master of Pain x2
Blaster Blade Spirit x1

Grade 3
Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel x4
Blazing Lion, Platinum Ezel x4

As with most crossride involving decks, the card pool for those type of decks are seriously restricted because not all cards can work with the core of the deck well enough. You may see some random one-offs in the deck, which somehow might contradict with what I mentioned, but I'll be explaining the reasons of those inclusions.

Grade 0

Our preferred starter here is Crimson Lion Cub, Kryph. The reason why I choose this over Coron (the Ezel tutor) is if you get nothing from Coron, you basically is at a -1 CB and -1 Field presence. On the other hand, Kryph can ensure you a early G3 lead, or to catch up when you go second, while doesn't cause you to lose field presence as well. Even though you did not manage to Superior Ride, you still have a 5k booster, which can help boosting.

As for the triggers, my setup is always standard 7-5-4 for aggressive decks like these. So if you managed to derive a setup that works better for you, by all means go ahead.

Grade 1

Mark and Gareth is at the standard 4-off, because Gareth is one of the Superior Ride materials besides being a 8k booster. Raging Storm is included because Paladins always have this luxurious option to ensure a 13k VG, and so why don't we utilize it? basically, Raging Storm's purpose is to Soul In Blond Ezel in case you have no choice but to ride into Pezel first. This mitigates the hidden worry of not being able to hit a 13k whenever you need it.

Kahedin is the new card given to us in BT-09. Besides having a 7k statline, he offers you a chance to Superior Call out new units by recycling older ones. Let's say you accidentally called out a Draw Trigger via Ezel, you can cycle the unit and hope to get a better one. The reason why he's not more than a 2-off because of the fact that he doesn't get a free call, but you need to retire one to call one.

Silver Fang Witch is a tech choice, which you can opt not to play her. The reason why she's in is because she can utilize your Soul, which will be left unused (just remember not to blast out Ezel) by replacing herself with a new card drawn from the deck.

Grade 2

Beaumains is at 4x, do I need to explain more? Basically the logic is as same as Gareth. Bagdemagus is the Burning Horn Dragon clone for Gold Paladins. He turns into a 12 attacker whenever you VG has the name 'Ezel', which is quite impossible to not have one unless you're stuck with Master of Pain or Beaumains (but if you have Beaumains, you are just that close to have Ezel right?) Definitely a auto 4-off for such stats.

Master of Pain is basically the damage manipulator and UB enabler for the deck. When your opponent decides to stuck you at 4 damage, slap this fella down and UB all the way and bring pain to your opponent. The added bonus of being able to reshuffle a trigger back in also tempted me to play him.

The tech card here is Blaster Blade Spirit. being a 10k and having a retire skill, it is actually very tempting to put 4 pieces in the deck, but sad to say the restrictions and his drawback backs me off from doing that. His drawback is the moment he's attacked, he must be retired during the end of battle, which means a measly unboosted 5k attacker can just say 'Shoo!' and he's gone for good. Whether to include this guy in, it's all up to your preference.

Grade 3
Without a question both Ezels are at maximum to ensure consistency of getting at least one of them in your hand. Ezel doesn't require much explanation, since the Superior Ride gives you speed and his LB4 generates field advantage and grants you massive power boost.

As for Pezel, he's actually considered a vanilla before you hit LB5, but despite that, he's good as a vanilla if he hits 13k, because you can save cards from hand to guard for him, turning all possible 15k and 10k guards into  10k and 5k respectively. Also, his game ending UB, Spirit Unite Platina, gives a super powered Soul Saviour Dragon boost to up to 5 RGs, giving you a full three lines of 25k++ attacks. If your opponent can't plan his guards well, it's just game over for them. Basically Pezel is kind no-brainer I would say, due to the fact that you only need to time the UB well, while whacking painfully before that time comes.

So, this concludes my first part of the Double Dose for today, and hopefully I can come up with another article before I sleep tonight. Thanks a lot for sticking with me, and hopefully I'll be more active as time comes by, and also providing more for you guys.

Deck Dissection: Phantom's Successor

Hey guys, Homura here after another long absence (lol!). Work is getting very hectic as my company's project is coming to its final leg. Finally found some time to post something, and that's only when my boss is not in the office. All these aside, today's article is actually another request from one of my readers. And since the new set is coming out soon, I would say why not I write a few articles featuring all the new cards from BT-09?

All of us should know by now that BT-09 is one of the best season-end boosters ever released to us, with decent reinforcements and boosts for almost all main clans, and sub-clans that hasn't been getting new cards for quite some while. And today, I'll be covering one of the decks that all the folks out there are quite hyped of it - Convicting Dragon, Chrome Jailer Dragon (CJD). And without further ado, let's have a look at my take of the deck:

Grade 0
Little Fighter, Cron x1 (FV)
Flame of Victory x4 (Critical)
Dantegal x2 (Critical)
Speeder Hound x4 (Draw)
Arms Dealer, Gwydion x2 (Draw)
Elixir Sommelier x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Knight of Fine Skills, Gareth x4
Listener of Truth, Dindrane x3
Halo Shield, Mark x4
Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue x3

Grade 2
Calamity Mage, Tripp x3
Blaster Blade Spirit x2
Blaster Dark Spirit x2
Lop Ear Shooter x3
Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane x2

Grade 3
Convicting Dragon, Chrome Jailer Dragon x4
Great Silver Wolf, Garmore x4

This deck only has one purpose, swarming the field with Superior Calls, and gain profit with it through units that has skills that activate when they are called out from the deck. CJD is the key card here as it allows you to swarm very fast at a small cost, and act as your finisher for the deck. Here is the analysis of the card inclusions.

Grade 0

We're not favoring any ride series in this deck, because CJD doesn't require any specific series to kickstart the engine. And also, because of CJD's Persona Blast, I opted to use Cron as he can possibly net me another copy of CJD in case I wanted to do a Persona Blast. The triggers here, as usual are pretty standard for Critical based decks nowadays.

Grade 1

Gareth and Mark is at 4x each without question. Gareth now plays a more important role because unlike Ezel, which can passively pump himself up, or Spectral Duke which has a base 11k power if you complete the chain, CJD doesn;t have any passive power bonuses, that's why Gareth is very important for him to construct 18k lines against Crossriders which will be running rampant this set. As CJD is a deck-based Superior Call deck, Dindrane is in for her self-replacing skill upon called out from deck.

Grade 2
Again no favoritism of any particular ride chains, Beaumains is omitted from the deck. You might wonder why is the 10k vanilla being axed? Because we have new replacements for him, the Blaster Spirits. An upgrade form from their previous incarnations, both Blasters retains their skills but with a additional 1000 power increment. Yes, their skills require them to be called out from the deck in order to activate, but even if they can't use their skills, they can be well considered as a normal 10k vanilla.

But, they do have a drawback by possessing such decent skills. When they are attacked, you must retire them during the end of the turn. In detail, as long as somebody attacked them, they have to die, regardless of the power, which means you can just call out a 5k Draw Trigger and attack them, and they WILL die at the end of the turn. Well, I wouldn't say this is a heavy drawback, if they attack the spirits, you just saved your Vanguard from a possible lethal attack, sounds good, isn't it?

This deck uses a lot, yes A LOT of Counterblasts, so Tripp is back in action to help recover some CB resources. Further emphasizing the deck-based Superior Callings, Lop Ear Shooter is here as well to help fish out more cards from your deck, hopefully netting out the Blasters in the same time.

Grade 3
Enter Chrome Jailer Dragon, the main star of the deck. CJD is a 10k unit, which doesn't look very impressive stats wise. But he does make it up with a couple of very decent skills at his disposal. Firstly, he has a CB1 Persona Blast which allows players to peek at the top four cards of their decks, and Superior Call up to two Gold Paladin units. This is a very good skill, as you're trading away a useless nonshield card for a more superior board advantage. And yes, you can call out the Blasters although they are originally from Royal and Shadow Paladins because they have a continuous skill which makes them Gold Paladins wherever they are.

The second skill, which is a 'combo' with the first, is a mirror of Phantom Blaster Dragon's skill. CJD's skill gets a reduced cost (you only need to retire 2 instead of 3 units), but the drawback is the skill is a LB4 skill, which makes it unable to be abused early game. But still, in a deck that can swarm easily, retiring 2 units to get a +10k and +1 Critical is not a tough job, and not a joke as well.

The supportive unit of the deck is none other than the first deck-superior call enabler from the Trial Deck- Great Silver Wolf, Garmore. Even if you failed to ride CJD, Garmore still has a Superior Calling skill, meaning you still can do your Superior Call mojos, albeit not so effective if you compared to CJD of course. And, Garmore also has a good LB, making it a 23k attacker once you hit LB threshold. So in short, no matter who you ride, the deck can still function properly, and you still have Cron to fish out the missing G3 for you!

And that concludes my analysis of the upcoming Chrome Jailer Dragon Gold Paladin deck. Those that played Phantom Blaster Dragon and Pellinore decks will definitely have an advantage in terms of understanding how this deck works.As for those new players, I don't really recommend this deck yet as it actually involves a lot of thinking because this is a combo deck more than a standard beatdown style GP. So, have fun trying this out, and good luck cracking out all your CJDs once the booster hits the shelves!

Deck Dissection: Gold Paladins of the White Hare

Hello there, this is Homura here to bring to you guys another installment of Deck Dissection. BT-07 is out today, and I have the honor to play against the first post BT-07 deck within my playgroup, Gold Paladins. I am actually expecting to play against Great Nature, but the member from my group that is supposed to play GN is not back yet, so I guess my GN related post have to be delayed until later.

The deck that I've played against is the Gold Paladins from the White Hare division, with White Hare of the Moonlight Shadow, Pelinore and Blonde Ezel and the main Vanguards. Truthfully speaking, I felt that my friend's deck was a little weird (no offense intended) because he was using so many different units which can only perform to their maximum potential when they're in the VG circle. However, there's no doubt from my side that Pelinore's skills were very 'explosive', enough to caught their opponents off-guard if they don't realize what is happening.

Well, without wasting anymore time, I'll show you my take on the Pelinore deck and the justifications on the card choices:

Grade 0
Spring Breeze Messenger x1 (FV)
Flame of Victory x4 (Critical)
Silent Punisher x3 (Critical)
Falcon Knight of the Azure x4 (Draw)
Speeder Hound  x1 (Draw)
Elixir Sommelier x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth x4
Halo Shield, Mark x3
Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue x1
Hearer of Truth, Dindrane x3
Sleygal Dagger x3

Grade 2
Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains x4
Calamity Mage, Tripp x3
Lop Ear Shooter x2
Master of Pain x3

Grade 3
White Hare of the Moonlight Shadow, Pelinore x4
Great Silver Wolf, Garmore x3

There, my take on the Pelinore deck. From what I can see, there's nothing much different with my friend's build besides running Garmore instead of Ezel, and the inclusion of Lop Ear Shooter (which my friend didn't use). And now onto the selection of cards:

Grade 0

Spring Breeze Messenger is our desired starter in this build. Like almost all other starters of the game, Messenger has the skill to be Superior Called once ridden by a GP unit. However, the 2nd skill is the one to keep an eye on. GP has always been suffering from being unable to call out units with precision, as most of their calling abilities comes from the top card of the deck. Messenger is able to improve the precision (albeit just slightly) by allowing you check the top 3 cards of your deck and call one out in REST position. This certainly decreases the chance of accidentally calling out a Trigger when now you have 3 cards to choose from.

The Triggers that I opted to use was my favorite lineup, with those that have skills played to the maximum number. So nothing much to describe in this part.

Grade 1
Gareth at 4x is quite standard these days, together with 3x of null guards. Sleygal Dagger is a very good booster because of its 7k power, as well as being able to break magic numbers once you have a full field. Nimue is more of a tech card to allow you to possibly fish out units from your deck earlier, since she's not that necessary for the deck, you can replace her with something else.

Before BT-07, my friend always employ Silver Fang Witch as his draw enabler as GP don't really use their Soul for much reasons. Now, we have a new variant that is slightly better than SFW. Enter the Hearer of Truth, Dindrane. Compared with SFW, Dindrane can only draw when she comes out from the deck. But having sufficient enablers to do so, and topping up with Dindrane's 6k power and cheaper cost to draw, I choose to include her instead of SFW because even though you can't draw, Dindrane is still better than SFW.

Grade 2
No need to say, Beaumains is at maximum for his raw power as a G2. Damage unflippers are now the staples of any deck that uses a lot of Counterblast. Same as GP, once you notice that you need quite some CB to pay for your skills, Tripp becomes very important in the deck.

The new addition from BT-07 is Lop Ear Shooter. Lop Ear shares the same requirement as all the White Hare division members, where his skill can only be used when he's called out from the deck. His cost is a bit cheaper, whereby you only need to discard a card from your hand to Superior Call one GP unit from the top 3 cards of your deck. I'm still trying out this unit to see whether he's worth the slot or not. The other newcomer is Master of Pain. For those that do not understand how Master of Pain works, you can refer to my previous article about the Shamsael based Angel Feather deck, where I talked about how good is Doctoroid Megaross.

Similar to Megaross, MoP is a LB enabler, as well as a card that can help you to reshuffle triggers back to your deck. By using it properly, you can even heal more damage than your opponent if you time it right.

Grade 3

Now on to the bosses of the deck. As the name suggest, Pelinore is our main star of the deck. Playing 4x of him is just to increase the chance for him to come out via your Superior Callers. This build can churn out a very devastating combo if you have the correct cards and the correct timing, especially when you already hit Limit Break threshold. I'll describe the combo here:

1. You attack with your VG, Drive Check, and apply any triggers as you desire.

2. Let's say your VG's attack hits, and was boosted by Spring Breeze Meesenger. SBM's skill activates, found a Pelinore among the 3 cards. Call out Pelinore in REST. If your opponent has a G2 or higher VG, pay the cost, put Pelinore in your VG circle, and stand.

3. Attack with Pelinore, and gain another Drive Check (this time it's Twin Drive). If you hit LB, you just need to plan your attack properly so that your final attack will be one that will be boosted with high numbers thanks to Pelinore's LB.

Verdict? Hand advantage via 2 times of Drive Checks, and big attacks (power is what GP do best, sometimes even better than Narukami or Spike Brothers).

The other card that we're using here as our alternative VG is Great Silver Wolf, Garmore. We all know that Garmore is a crucial card in any GP deck, as he's the only one that can perform a precised tutoring. He's also important because of his tutoring that comes from the deck, he can redistribute the cards you've checked from Lop Ear or Messenger, in case you sent Triggers to the bottom of your deck. Using him to maintain pressure while waiting for the time to finish things off with Pelinore is also decent enough.

Pelinore is definitely an interesting and explosive deck to play with. The only thing that bothers me is just that GP has received 3 consecutive sets of support, and other clans are seem to be ignored. Well, frustrations aside, try this deck out, and let me know how well this deck performs compared with the other GP decks out there now. Until next time, this is Homura signing out, and praying that I can do a writeup on Great Nature soon!

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!

Deck Dissection: Gold Paladins of the Red Lion

As promised, I'll be posting a sample decklist for Gold Paladins today. First up is Aichi's Gold Paladins, which uses the Paladins of the Red Lion. Together with it I'll also write about the card choices (bear in mind, this is just a sample, so if you think the one I posted doesn't work, feel free to switch it according to your playstyle. After all, this is just a base!).

Since the release of BT-06, Gold Paladins and Narukami had always be in a hype due to their statuses as the new main clans. However, compared to all the other new clans introduced, GP obviously gained the upper hand as the cards released were superior compared to the others. This point was proved when GP topped several tournaments in Japan, proving themselves as a contender for the top spots.

Here is a sample decklist that uses Incandescent Lion, Blonde Ezel as their main Vanguard:

Grade 0
Crimson Little Lion, Kyrph x1 (FV)
Flame of Victory x4 (Critical)
Silent Punisher x4 (Critical)
Arms Dealer, Gwydion x4 (Draw)
Elixir Sommelier x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Knight of Fine Skills, Gareth x4
Halo Shield, Mark x4
Sleygal Dagger x4
Sacred Axe Player, Nimue x3

Grade 2
Knight of Divine Skills, Beaumains x4
Sacred Bow Player, Vivian x3
Mage of Disaster, Trip x2
Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion x2

Grade 3
Incandescent Lion, Blonde Ezel x3
Great Silver Wolf, Garmore x3
Holy Mage Manawydan x2

At first glance, this deck is full of Vanguard-only-ability Grade 3s. Yes it is, since most of the Grade 3s that are good needs to be in the Vanguard Circle to use their effects. Still, I shall explain the logic behind this build. This deck gives the image of the Alfred-main Royal Paladins when they first came out. This is because most of the new GP units has the ability to superior call units out, albeit with a little twist.

Grade 0
Kyrph is the Starting Vanguard we're using here. The triggers are quite standard for a GP deck, where Stand Triggers are quite irrelevant due to the fact that besides Garmore and Ezel, the Superior Call ablities happens during the battle phase. so 8 Criticals, 4 Draws and 4 Heals is my choice here.

Grade 1
Standard inclusion of 4 Gareth because of his 8k power, as well as being the Superior Ride material for Ezel (you want to see him). Halo Shield, Mark at the maximum because by using the Superior Call abilities, you basically will be able to conserve quite a few hand cards for defense purposes. Sleygal Dagger is in there because it's a 7k boost with the potential to be a 9k, effectively making your units to hit the 18k, and 22k mark. Nimue is a unit that has the ability to Superior Call, but being a 7k and need a hit to use the ability, she's only a 2-off.

One of the best boosters for GP. 7k base power that can become a gigantic booster.

Grade 2
4 Beaumains because of 10k and Superior Ride material for Ezel. Vivian shares the same ability as Nimue, but she's better thanks to her being a Grade 2 (taking the bullet) and her 9k power. Trip is there to force guard and replenish Counterblast while Nemean Lion adds in more defense because GP is very very aggressive with near to zero ways to defend themselves. But frankly speaking these two units can be toyed around, if you think there's a better one you can just swap them out, but Beaumains and Vivian should be a staple.

Grade 3
3 Ezel. Why? I know when a unit has the skill to Superior Ride, people will usually put 2 or even 1, but my reasoning of 3 pieces is when to prevent the situation where 1 is in the damage zone, and 1 is in your hand. Heck, even if you already have Ezel out, the remaining pieces still serves as a 10k beatstick and a 10k boost for your Vanguard Ezel's LB.

Garmore, I can say is one of the best G3 that GP has. With a decent LB that can hit 20k, 23k, and 25k lines, plus a CITP skill that allows you to tutor out a G2 or below RG, what else you want from him? Since he's competing for a VG slot and his skill is quite CB consuming also, that's why he's at 3.

The highlight here is Holy Mage, Manawydan. Without a boost, he's just a vanilla, however, with a boost, he can hit almost all the magic numbers, to the maximum of 21k with Sleygal Dagger's CB on at 1. Bear in mind the power bonus does not only apply to attacking the VG only, but to everybody as well. I think Manawydan will slowly find a place as the main units for GP thanks to his cost-free power up.

Same as Narukami's Breakthrough Dragon, this is going to be a staple soon (IMO). Who doesn't want a cost-free 12k attacker?

Well, what do you think? I wanted to state again that this is only a sample, so please don't come and shoot me saying that this deck doesn't work when you lose. After all, decks must be built according to your preference. Have fun! And by the way, Ren's GP deck will be up once I can conduct a playtest.

Defining the Metagame: Gold Paladins

Hello there, Homura is back with another post (yes, I tend to write when I'm bored, seriously). And today, I'll be talking about another new clan that was introduced when BT-06 was released - Gold Paladins. Included in this article, I'll have an introduction of the clan, it's playstyle, and it's impact in the current metagame.

('Choose Your Avatar' might be replaced by this from now on... unless somebody requested for an overview of their clan...)

Back to the topic, Gold Paladins has replaced Royal Paladins as Sendou Aichi's main clan of the second arc of the anime. And being RP's successor, please do expect it do be strong and consistent. No joke, they ARE already strong despite it's only their debut set, and getting new reinforcements in the next Extra Booster, giving them the other side of Gold Paladins that Suzugamori Ren uses.

One of the new specialties of GP is the first appearance of a Grade 3 Superior Ride chain. This is very unique because Paladins were not known for it's speed of riding, but their tutoring and swarming abilities. Look at these cards:

Their ideal starter will be Crimson Little Lion, Kyrph. Kyrph has a Superior Call ability when ridden, and with 5k boosting power, he's quite a good starter. But what makes it from good to excellent is his other skill. When you have Kyrph and Gareth (8k Vanilla) on the field, and Beaumains (10k Vanilla) is your Vanguard, you may send the former 2 into the soul, search for a Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel from your deck and ride it. Compared to the other Superior Ride chains from other clans, what I can say is this one is BROKEN. Why? Because the materials that you'll be using are staples in your deck (4x of each), and it's COST FREE! No Counterblast, no retiring, no discarding, just send to soul!

Besides having this new gimmick on them, they also retain the swarming ability of RP, albeit with less precision. The cost of their swarming skills are cheap (CB1, CB2), but in return for these cheap costs, they cannot pinpoint their search targets. Unlike RP which can tutor, they can only Superior Call from the top of the deck bearing the risk that a Trigger unit will be accidentally called out. Also, their conditions to do it are slightly harder, whereby you need to have a lesser than 4 Rear Guards, and you need an empty circle to call out the unit (the only exception is Great Silver Wolf, Garmore, which you can 'step over' a unit for the new one).

Comboing with their Superior Call skills, Ezel benefits the most from it with its Limit Break. Ezel's LB not only can Superior Call for CB2, but if the unit is successfully called out, Ezel gets a power boost equal to that unit's power. Together with Ezel's 'Alfred'-style passive boost (+1k for each RG), don't be surprised when you see a 40k-power Ezel come slamming at your Vanguard. In this set, GPs are all about high power counts (which applies to their RG as well).


If you don't really like the RP-ish style of GP, EB-03 gives you Ren's GP. Similar to its predecessor, the Shadow Paladins, Ren's GP focuses more on gaining powerful abilities through sacrifice.

In this set, instead of a Superior Ride chain, Ren's GP provides you with the 'Riviere' ride chain first introduced in the Bermuda Triangle EB. Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer is the starter. When you ride it's designated G1, 'Jet Black Vanguard, Vortimer', you may check the top seven cards of your deck and add a 'Knight of the Black Dragon, Vortimer' or 'Spectral Duke Dragon' into your hand. Otherwise, it's a free ride by pulling it back.

Also, whenever you ride these cards back-to-back, the abilities of the previous Grade activates, where you can sacrifice a unit, pay the required cost, and Superior Call either 1 or 2 units from the top of your deck. This instantly helps you to develop board advantage to start pressurizing your opponent.

Spectral Duke Dragon's Limit Break is kind of special because it actually allows you to 'bypass' null guards. At the beginning of the Close Step of SDD's Attack Phase, you may pay the cost of CB2, retire 3 of your units to enable SDD to stand again, but at the cost of losing Twin Drive. Imagine a situation that your opponent null guards your SDD's attack, and you hit double Critical. Normally you will pass it to your RG, but with SDD's Limit Break skill, you can throw everything to it, activates the skill, and attack again with a 21k, 3 damage SDD. Unless your opponent throws a null guard or 'two-to-pass' worth of shield, usually that's the end of the game. And if you have Sacred Bow Player, Vivian and some CB left, you can instantly respawn your field with new RGs to maintain advantage.

Well, I won't be posting any sample decks here, but i'll be doing both the decks of GP in another installment of Deck Dissection.

Overall, based on the perspective of the current metagame, GP can be considered a tier 1 deck, with several tournament wins in Japan. However in my local environment, GP haven't get enough Top 4 achievements to be considered as tier 1 (not sure about other regions though), mostly because of either the player's mentality and skill, or because of 13k Vanguards and Persona Blasts still dominate the scene.

I think that GP, in the hands of a bold (Ezel build) or a cunning (Spectral Duke Dragon build) player, GP will definitely shine and given all the cards that they have under their arsenal, there's no reason to say that they won't surpass Royal Paladins to replace them as the top clan of United Sanctuary in the future.