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:
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 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.
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.
I would say this was the best post I've seen talking about those two Grandmasters, no biased opinion ,no funny talk and all that.. Just a logical and honest view about the units and their background. So, congrats!
ReplyDeleteAs I'm a "Lore fighter", I run a full Diablo deck (event if Aura really helps Dark gb2 online and plus With Charon as first stride) and I'm hopping for this second Blaster stride on the new FC (coming in dec).
Do you plan to test the G-Shadows? If só, how?
Keep up the good work!