Reconquer the Darkness, the Crimson Blade Rises! G Shadow Paladin Part 1: Striders

You might be asking, where is the Part 2 and beyond for Kagero? Well, to be honest, I believe that posting the same clans consecutively would be boring. So I decided to shake things up and write about another Clan in the time being in order to keep things fresh and interesting for everyone.

So, I decided to write about the Clan made popular due to its dark, mysterious air with the theme of selfless sacrifice paving way to a greater victory adding to the already bloody nature of the Clan: the Shadow Paladins. The Clan is used in the first series by two powerhouse characters, Sendou Aichi and Suzugamori Ren. The latter used the Clan exclusively after Sendou Aichi left the clan to go back to his original Clan, the Royal Paladins. In the Cardfight!! Vanguard G series, this clan is used by Kanzaki Yuichirou, head of the United Sanctuary branch in the series. So far he had only made one appearance, crushing his opponent under the overwhelming might of the Clan.

Shadow Paladins could generally be considered to be an anti-hero clan, protecting the United Sanctuary from the shadows while rejecting the fame and glory that comes with being a real Hero. The lore really shows the struggle of the Clan, and now in the new Generation they face a new enemy in form of a rebel within their folds. Their story

Blaster Dark Diablo

Grade 3 / 11000 Power / 0 Shield / Twin Drive / Human / Shadow Paladin

[AUTO][VC][GB2 This ability is active if you have two or more face-up G-Units in your (VC) or Generation Zone]: While you are paying the cost for [Stride], if the G-Unit you [Stride] has "Blaster" in its card name, the cards in your hand gets Grade +3. 

[AUTO][VC]: During your turn, when your unit name "Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo" [STRIDE], choose one of your opponent's rear-guard, and retire it.

The current Grandmaster of the Shadow Paladins, Blaster Dark had reached the zenith of his abilities and inherited the title from the previous Grandmaster (Spoilers: The previous Grandmaster was Illusory Revenger, Mordred Phantom) Now armed with new armaments and taking the name of Blaster Dark "Diablo", the legendary Hero rises once more to protect the peace of the United Sanctuary. Released in the G-Legend Deck 1: The Dark "Ren Suzugamori", this card revives one of the most popular card in the game in the previous season into a brand new Strider.

To be brutally honest however, Blaster Dark "Diablo" is not a good card. Don't get me wrong, it is a decent card, but not good enough to live up to the hype that surrounds its reveal. Sure, the art is good which is always a plus (personal opinion; DaisukeIzuka makes some of the best art in the game), but in play it is just simply meh. 

Let's start with its on-Stride bonus. It allows the Shadow Paladin player to retire any of his opponent's rear-guards for free a-la Kagero's Dragonic Blademaster, but without the Counterblast cost. While this sounds fantastic, it is only applicable when a very specific G-Unit Strides on top of it namely the Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo", and no other unit. The Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo" is a powerful G-Unit but has the standard requirement for G-Persona units of having two or more face-up G-Units in the Generation Zone, making it unsuitable to be the first Stride in the game. Due to this, Blaster Dark Diablo's on-Stride bonus could only be accessed in the later stages of the game making the first Stride of the game essentially a vanilla Stride with no extra bonuses.

In the later stages of the game, however, when Blaster Dark "Diablo"'s on-Stride bonus is online, it becomes a dangerous weapon that could potentially force the opponent to commit 3 or more units to the board to prevent themselves from being locked out of calling units to the Guardian Circle by Phantom Blaster "Diablo"s effect. At this point of the game is where Blaster Dark truly shines, but sadly it would usually be too late and with the opponent having access to their Vanguard's skill from the get-go could possibly already amassed enough advantage to counter the Diablo play.

The Generation Break ability of Blaster Dark "Diablo" is also very sub-optimal. Unlike other Striders that uses their GB2 abilities as contingencies when the player is unable to Stride, Blaster Dark's GB2 ability facilitates the process of Stride by turning all cards in the player's hand into possible 1-card Stride fodders for "Blaster" named G-Units. So far, only ONE G-Unit in the Clan has the "Blaster" name, the infamous Phantom Blaster "Diablo".

One problem faced by pure Diablo players is that they run out of any form of aggression should the opponent manage to defend against the two Phantom Blaster "Diablo" Stride turns. At that point Blaster Dark "Diablo" does absolutely nothing to help you push for game, a vanilla Grade 3 on VC is never a good thing.

One pros to running Blaster Dark "Diablo" is that it lets the player access the powerful 'Blaster' support that comes with the Blaster Dark in the Legend Deck. Cards like Darkheart Trumpeter, Pitch Black Sage Charon and the brothers, Dorint and Claudas. Even with this, Blaster Dark "Diablo" still loses out to its more useful previous forms, namely the Revenger versions (Blaster Dark Revenger and Revenger, Blaster Dark "Abyss").

Please welcome the Clan's second Strider, the leader of the opposing force which is trying to wrest leadership of the Clan from its rightful Grandmaster. He is the dragon with the blood red sword foretold by prophecy:

Sovereign Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon

Grade 3 / 11000 Power / 0 Shield / Twin Drive / Abyss Dragon / Shadow Paladin

[ACT][VC][1/Turn][GB2 This ability is active if you have two or more face-up G-Units in your (VC) or Generation Zone]: (Choose two of your rear-guards, retire them) This unit gets [POWER]+10000/[CRITICAL]+1 until the end of this turn.

[AUTO][VC]: (CB1) During your turn, when a G-Unit [STRIDE], you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one Grade 1 or less card, call it to (RC), shuffle your deck, and that unit gets [POWER]+2000 until the end of turn.

Introduced in G Booster Set 3: Sovereign Star Dragon, Sovereign Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon is the second of the two Striders available for the Shadow Paladin Clan. Personally, I think he is the better of the two for multiple reasons, one of ti is that its on-Stride bonus providing a steady stream of +1 advantage to fuel the Clan's more powerful skill that mostly require a sacrifice of your own units. It gives the unit it calls an extra boost, bumping up any 7000-power booster up to 9000-power, creating a column with 21000 power with Knight of Solemnity, Barbedith the GB1 12000-power attacker. The 2000 power increase also brings 6000 power units such as the Black-winged Swordbreaker which is commonly used in Shadow Paladin decks as a draw engine. This allows the Black-winged Swordbreaker to function as a booster for 9000-power Grade 2 units, allowing them to reach the 16000 power threshold in order to force out a 10000-point shield from the opponent.

The on-Stride bonus also allows the deck to have an amazing toolboxing ability. While Claret Sword himself lacks a 'Blaster' name, Striding a Phantom Blaster "Diablo" on it allows the player to access the 'Blaster' support available to the Clan, so a Claret's on-Stride into Darkheart Trumpeter into Charon/New Sharp Knight David gives you access to Phantom Blaster "Diablo"s devestating skill without Calling a single card from your hand. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. 

The Generation Break 1 ability is a throwback to the signature ability of Ren's Shadow Paladin key Unit during (Season 1 of the original series; Phantom Blaster Dragon's Damned Charging Lance. Claret Sword's ability requires one less sacrifice to activate, making it a little bit less straining on the Shadow Paladin player's resources. It is, however, still a very potent finisher that could be used as a last resort should the Shadow Paladin player run out of Stride units.

To wrap this all up, I would say that both of the Shadow Paladin Striders are representative of two different approach to playing the G-Era Shadow Paladin deck. "Diablo" focuses on pressuring the opponent with the retiring ability and Phantom Blaster's guard restriction to try and end the game as quickly as possible, while Claret allows the player to be more tactical in approach and save up resources while quickly depleting the opponent's. It is certainly a difficult deck to build and master, and I hope my writing is able to help those who are doing so as it would also be a journey for myself in understanding the clan better. If there is anything that you think I should add, please do leave a comment.

Next time, I will talk about the G-Units available to the clan, all 4 of them (not leaving any out as I did Kagero). Please stay tuned!

Signing off,
ドラエン Vanguard.

Welcome to the New Generation! G-Kagero Part 1: Bladmaster and the G-Units

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new Cardfight!! Vanguard blog. Here I will discuss cards and decks, as well as offer my opinion on the current meta as well strategies on how to face (as well as how to play) some of the more or less popular decks from the current sets. Or rather anything I feel like writing about.

As my page name might suggest, I am an avid Dragon Empire fan. That, however, does not mean that I would be focusing solely on one Clan or Nation in particular. Having played the game since its first release in the Japanese version, I am confident that I could deliver some degree of understanding on most of the clans in the game.

Having said that however, I would like to commemorate the conception of this blog with an analysis of my absolute favorite clan in the game; the Flame Dragon Clan, Kagero. Kagero, literally heat haze in Japanese is the clan made popular by the anime, being the main clan one of the main characters (which is also arguably the most popular character in the game), Kai Toshiki. In the sequel series of the anime that was aired last year (2014), the clan in now relegated to being the deck of choice of a supporting character, Anjou Mamoru.

The transition from being a main character clan to a supporting character clan had brought a lot changes to the clan as a whole, both positive and negative. One of the most definite changes is the change in the mascot of the clan, which previously revolves heavily around the Overlord series of units. I will talk about the Overlord series in another post, as I would like to focus on the G Series
Kagero in this post.

Dragonic Blademaster, introduced in G-BT01, serves as the new mascot of the clan as well as the clan's Strider (a term used for units that have on-Stride bonus abilities), serving as the main focus of the decks built in the new Generation. The card's abilities and stats is as follows.

Dragonic Blademaster

Grade 3 / 11000 Power / 0 Shield / Twin Drive / Flame Dragon / Kagero

[CONT][VC](GB2: This ability is active when you have 2 or more face-up G-Units in your VC or Generation Zone): During your turn, if the number of rear-guards you have is greater than your opponent's, this unit gains [POWER]+5000/[CRITICAL]+1

[CONT][VC]: (CB1) During your turn, when a G-Unit [STRIDE], you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards and retire it.

Let's talk about how utterly non-spectacular this card is. The GB2 ability is nothing special, while his on-Stride bonus ability is barely on-par, a non Grade or row restricted retiring, as expected of a Kagero boss unit. When compared to more explosive, yet more restricted Striders, Blademaster seem vanilla in comparison. As such, Blademaster is mostly overlooked and is superseded by more 'premium' Kagero units (usually the Overlord series, or the equally popular Perdition archetype).

If anything, this culminates into Blademaster being relatively cheap compared to other Kagero bosses, making decks revolving around him to be considered a budget choice suitable for players planning to go into the previously 'expensive' clan. This one of the new directions taken by the clan, making it more accessible to newer players.

The real value of this unit is how precisely it allows its Kagero player  to control the field as well as the tempo of the game. Combined with the Kagero G-Units, most of it involved in retiring more of the opponent's units, this makes it easy for the Kagero player to remove multiple threats from the board. The opponent would have to think twice when committing to the board when playing against this card, as it is almost certain that no unit placed on the field would stay long enough to provide pressure on the Kagero player for more than one turn.

Speaking of the Kagero G-Units, let's talk about a few of them. Barring one, all of Kagero's G-Units have abilities that involves retiring the opponent's rearguards. One of the first Kagero G-Units we have in our arsenal:

Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud 

Grade 4 / 15000+ Power / 0 Shield / Triple Drive / Human / Kagero

STRIDE: (Released when both players' Vanguards are Grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their Grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face-down.

[AUTO][VC]:When this unit attack hits a Vanguard, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, retire it.

The first G-Unit for Kagero, Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud, is a standard one which has an on-hit effect which gives a simple +1 advantage to its user when the attack hit. It is an R card in G Booster Set 1: Generation Stride, making it one of the easier G-Units to obtain. In Mahmud's case, it retires one of his opponent's rear-guards when his attack hits. The effect is simple, but having a chance to misfire if the opponent ever decides to keep his board empty. While it is a norm (at least here in Malaysia) for Fighters to allow o-hit Stride units to hit, it is much less risky for a player to let Mahmud hit especially when they have no high value units on the field to be retired. 

The timing of this effect is also a problem when combined with other Kagero support units that is released in the G Generation. Being resolved after a battle, it reduces the certainty of the ability activating and enabling the combos related to retiring the opponent's rear-guards. As such Mahmud had quickly lost its place in a G Kagero deck's Generation Zone, being replaced by newer units.

Flame Emperor Dragon King, Root Flare Dragon

Grade 4 / 15000+ Power / 0 Shield / Triple Drive / Flame Dragon / Kagero 

STRIDE: (Released when both players' Vanguards are Grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their Grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face-down.

[ACT][VC]: (Choose a face-down card named "Flame Emperor Dragon King, Root Flare Dragon" from your Generation Zone, and turn it face-up.) If the number of face-up units in your Generation Zone is two or more, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, retire all of your  opponent's rearguards in the same column as that unit. This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn. 

Flame Emperor Dragon, Root Flare Dragon is Kagero's first G-Persona G-Units, the second G-Unit to be released in G Booster Set 1: Generation Stride. (G-Persona G-Units being cards whose cost includes flipping a copy of itself face-up) Once again following in theme with Blademaster, Root Flare is very unimpressive when it was first revealed. It lacked that wow factor that most other G-Persona units have, especially during release. It was mostly overshadowed by the more explosive restanding Viktplasma and the guard-restricting Ragnaclock Dragon in theory, but in practice it proved to be the more flexible G-Unit.

Retiring an entire column is not a new thing for Kagero. It is first introduced in the clan by the Perdition archetype in BT17, and was only carried over to the new Generation by Root Flare. As I had said before, the beauty in this unit is its simplicity and flexibility. The ability to -2 your opponent for essentially free is great, combined with the fact that the ability is [ACT] allowing it to be used after you have set up your field to take full advantage of retiring your opponent's units. Combined with units that gain power whenever an opponent's unit is retired such as Demonic Dragon Madonna, Joka, Chain Attack Sutherland and Blazing Flare Dragon, the Kagero player could easily build a high power formation that could swing the battle in their favor. 

Divine Dragon Knight, Zahm

Grade 4 / 15000+ Power / 0 Shield / Triple Drive / Human / Kagero

STRIDE: (Released when both players' Vanguards are Grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their Grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face-down.

[AUTO][VC]:(CB1) When one of your opponent's rear-guards is retired by an effect of one of your other cards, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and retire it.

Divine Dragon Knight, Zahm is a card released in the recent Fighter's Collection 2015. Being the lower rarity card for the clan from the set, it does has a pretty solid ability. Combined with other retiring abilities in the deck, Zahm could easily wreak havoc on an opponent's field. He punishes early rush plays, using the accumulated damage to retire all of the units that the opponent fielded to make the push.

His Counterblast cost could quickly deplete your resources if used without caution, but with the abundance of Countercharge (flipping face-down damage back face up) cards in the clan, it is easy to mitigate this cost and even use it to your own advantage.

Divine Dragon Knight, Mustafa

Grade 4 / 15000+ Power / 0 Shield / Triple Drive / Human / Kagero

STRIDE: (Released when both players' Vanguards are Grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their Grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face-down.

[ACT][VC](Once per turn): (CB1, Choose a face-down card from your Generation Zone, and flip it face up.) Choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, retire it, choose one of your units for each face-up cards named "Divine Dragon Knight, Mustafa" in your Generation Zone, until the end of this turn those units get "[AUTO][VC/RC]: When this unit attack hits a Vanguard, choose one card from your Damage Zone, and turn it face-up."

Divine Dragon Knight, Mustafa is the latest Kagero G-Unit to be released in the game (during the time of writing, 9th June 2015) as a new RRR card from the G Booster Set 3: Sovereign Star Dragon. Remember how I said that Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud would easily be replaced by a newer Kagero G-Unit? Mustafa is the G-Unit that does just that. 

Many might argue that Mustafa's cost is too much for what the effect does. A Counterblast 1 to retire 1 sounds really close to what Zahm does, but Mustafa took it a step further and requires you to flip over a face-down G-Unit. Seriously overcosted, unplayable trash. Is what some of you might be saying the first time you see this unit. I won't lie, I did too.

The true value of this card, however, lies in how much his simple ability enables so much more combos for the deck. First off, it turns Dragonic Blademaster's GB2 on on your first Stride. That early extra Critical on your Blademaster could come in clutch for putting more pressure on your opponent during the early to mid game, allowing you to take even more control of the game's tempo. Secondly, the ability is an ACT ability, which like Root Flare before him, allows a field to be set up to make full use of the retirement. 

The unflipping ability is an added bonus, giving you a chance to recuperate the Counterblast spent on activating his ability. It could also provide some of the pressure that is lost due to the lack of an on-hit ability that is present in Mahmud. When combined with Stand Triggers, this ability could easily pay for itself as well as providing some much needed pressure in the deck.

So, I guess that would be it for my first post. I hope you found it enjoyable and maybe you've learned something from it. For those of you that is asking where is my part on "The Ace" in this G-Unit review, he will be included in a dedicated Overlord post that I would be doing soon. So leave a comment, and hope to see you again soon!

Signing off,
ドラエン Vanguard.