Monday, January 6, 2014

Vanguard: Starry Sky Liberator, Guinevere

I know I tend to talk about a lot about older cards, but I want to talk about a newer unit. She is Alfred, Gancelot, and Mark's presumed wife.
AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (GC), if you have a vanguard with "Liberator" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Shield]+5000 for each of your «Gold Paladin» rear-guards until end of that battle.

Now the guys back on Pojo (by the way if you guys are reading this, I am sorry) said this really outranks a Quintet Wall. Most Vanguard experts will agree that the average Shield will be 25000 in Shield while this card can reach 30000 assuming there is a full field. Assuming this is no mistranslation, this does not seem to have the Sentinel status like Perfect Guards and Quintet Walls (I suspect that once she reaches TCG land, she will be errated to have it) means she can be run alongside with the other Sentinels. However, there are some problems I have with this card and why I think Quintet Walls are better IMO.

1. It requires a "Liberator" Vanguard.
Now I am probably one of the few losers in the world who cares about it, but this does hurt her flexibility. The only builds Guinevere works in are Liberators which does not sound too bad. It is just that other Gold Paladin builds like Garmore Bunnies, Ezel, and Spectral Duke Dragon will not be able to take advantage of of her ability, thus essentially making her a vanilla 6000 unit.
Igraine does not have that problem though.

2. The current meta is disastrous to her.
Now I will admit it's somewhat easy to Superior Call to have a full field with the Liberators. That is where people get the idea that this card will have the guard power of 30k.
We also have to take in account on what is popular in OCG land. The most dominating ones are Link Joker and Eradicators. These two can Lock and Retire respectively, meaning they will get rid of the Rear-Guards. That means Guinevere will not be guarding as much as you would like.

Against other decks?

Well if your opponent pressures you, then the only other rgs are the ones at the back. Assuming the back row is filled up, then we're looking at a 20000 Shield. That is still a sizable amount to guard with.

3.  She is only a single card to guard with.
The last one may seem strange, but there is a reason for me saying this. Think about it...why did people cheer for Quintet Walls, albeit a minority? It is because of this card:
Daikaiser is often consider to be one of the best Break Rides in the game simply because he laughs at Perfect Guards. The same reason why people will be scare of throwing Perfect Guards will be apply to throwing Guinevere in the GC.

It seems incredibly niche and I am probably overestimating Dimensional Robo power, but the fact this card exists means its really scary. That is part of the reason as to why Quintet Walls were invented.

Am I am saying Quintet Walls are better? Not necessarily because I do acknowledge their faults ie they thin the deck, getting rid of valuable triggers, and their guarding capabilities are random. It's just that a card like Guinevere requires a decent field to work with while QW forces you to take a chance.

 I will end by saying this: no way in hell this won't be a Sentinel card. If it is not, then that is quite all right since Bushiroad finally offered a cheaper alternative to defensive cards.

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