GBT-10 Breakdown of Shadow Paladins

Valentines Day is coming quite soon, so time to show some love by giving gift, giving roses, and whipping the ever loving stuffing out of your love ones. What you don't do that? Well this is awkward considering I picked up a Roman book from the 3rd century on how to hit on women.

Titled: How to hit on women, Ancient Rome Style

Screw this let's talk about the new Shadow Paladin cards in the upcoming set, Raging Clash of the Blade Fangs. 
 

You know you want to tap that.

Our first card up is Dragwizard Siari

She's a vanilla draw trigger and...that's it. Okay she has waifu factor but that is about it. Goodness sake she isn't even a bird like this one or that one. Run this if you are doing it for the waifu factor.
















The next card is a new Shadow Paladin Starter, Knight of Rebellious Spirit, Aldan

I"m so ready to be deployed and...oh.

[AUTO]:Forerunner
[AUTO](RC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 1 Ritual 3 (Active if there are three or more grade 1 cards in your drop zone):When your other rear-guard is retired, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn. 

Well you are most certainly going to retire your Rearguards after the initial stride step and can easily be a 10k booster or even better. The problem with this card is that it is just that...a huge booster. Shadow Paladins would either want to run Rute because Soul is pretty scarce and still gives +5000 to any unit or to David for those Phantom Blaster Diablo plays. You cannot even make an argument that he can be an extra Grade 0 for Luard decks because a better one exists.

A shame for him because he looks so excited to see action...although consider Shadows get eaten I say he got lucky.

Up next is Midir

 

No not the Bow Knight. I meant Dragwizard Midir

These ingredients will grant me...disasterous results.

[ACT](RC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 1 Ritual 3 (Active if there are three or more grade 1 cards in your drop zone):[Counter Blast (1)] This unit gets [Power]+1000 for each of your units with the ritual ability until end of turn.
[AUTO](RC):[Soul Blast (1) & Retire this unit] At the beginning of your main phase, you may pay the cost. If you do, Counter Charge (1). 

This card is not terrible by any stretch of the imagination. The CC can effectively make Luard's Stride cost essentially free if you call him through Luard's skill and he can fill up the Drop Zone for a Ritual condition for a certain G-Unit. However there are two concerns with this card. The first is naturally space, because Shadow Paladins, and in especially Luard decks, grade 1 space is unbelievably tight. Now one can argue that the deck can make him a 2-of which is perfectly understandable. The other problem is his Soul Blast cost. As of GBT-10 a Luard deck still has yet to find an efficient way to gather Soul and that is a concern considering some of the Shadow G-Units like Spectral Blaster and Aurageyser also eats up precious soul. Test it out if you like it or not. Now if you excuse me, I want to drink whatever Midir is mixing.

Up next is Knight of Slection Fergus

Maybe I should have trained harder and not try to look as cool.

[AUTO]:[Choose a grade 1 or less card from your hand, and discard it] When this unit is placed on (RC), you may pay the cost. If you do, reveal three cards from the top of your deck, choose a card with the lowest grade from among them, put it into your hand, and put the rest into your drop zone.

I can see the idea of this card, but the idea is so stupid. Rarely does a Luard deck can set up Ritual 3 before Stride nor should they be aiming to do that. Fergus only breaks even for you and even then its probably a card you don't need. All the while you are putting cards that you may have wanted to use into the Drop Zone. It probably wouldn't even be this bad but the 8000 base killed any potential usage it had. Perhaps Bushiroad thought that the fact it isn't GB-lock and doesn't have a cost means that they expect people to run this without regrets and hope that this guy becomes a stable. If so...screw it I would rather run Liafall than him.

All in all only silly people run this card. Don't be a silly person. If you really want to filter your hand in the early game so much ,may I suggest a certain Shadow Paladin oldie called Skull Witch Nemain?

Up next is Knight of Contests, Edern

Wait a second, this isn't Contest of Champions!

[AUTO](VC/RC) Ritual 3 (Active if there are three or more grade 1 cards in your drop zone):When your other rear-guard is retired, this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.
[AUTO]:[Choose one of your grade 1 rear-guards, and retire it] When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card. 

I personally like this card. It's a costless Liafall and can allow you to dig deep into your deck and can help you set up Ritual. The power bonus is okay I guess, however I feel this isn't truly the backup Grade 3 that Luard truly wants. Maybe one day man.

The first R is a Ritual Quintent Wall, Evil Refuser Dragon

If Big Bro Plotmaker can, then so can I!

[CONT]:Sentinel
[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (GC) from hand during the battle that your vanguard was attacked, you may pay the cost. If you do, call five cards from the top of your deck to (GC).
[CONT](GC) Generation Break 1 Ritual 3 (Active if there are three or more grade 1 cards in your drop zone):This unit gets [Shield]+10000. 

 As far as Quintet Walls go, this is relatively decent. I mean it is nothing to write home about, but the additional +10000 shield is pretty helpful in case your pulls aren't good enough, plus with how the game has been slowly rising Vanguard power, that extra Shield can be the difference between your victory or defeat. However the problem with this card is that not only does Esras exists, but it also costs a CB. Yes Luard decks have Abyssal Owl, which is a fantastic card, but between the G-Units' skills, Luard's Stride skill, and other units' skill like Dark Knight Maiden, Macha and you really got to be careful on how you spend your CB.

On the bright side though Witches can use this. Then again it doesn't have the cute factor and as Sora from No Game No Life once said: Cuteness is justice!

Next is Dark Dragon, Animus Pile Dragon

Wait this isn't auditions for Buddyfight?

[Stride]-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.
[CONT](VC) Ritual 3 (Active if there are three or more grade 1 cards in your drop zone):This unit gets [Power]+5000 for every grade 1 card in your drop zone. 

...Let me ask you one question Bushiroad. Just WHAT exactly is the point of this card? Carnivore and Aurageyser are better 1st Strides since they can either control the field or net you more resources. It can gain potentially gain huge power, but that is all it can do whereas Phantom Blaster Diablo and Spectral Blaster are better finishers. Just please tell me why Bushiroad! Why does this card need to exist? I want to say this is a Pile of trash, but that would have been too insulting to the trash.

Oh boy after this monstrosity of a card one can sure use some quality card, and thankfully Belial Owl is here to save the day.

Little known fact...this is Hedwig from Harry Potter

[AUTO](Drop Zone) Generation Break 1 Ritual 3 (Active if there are three or more grade 1 cards in your drop zone):At the end of your turn, if you have a vanguard with "Luard" in its card name, you may put this card on the bottom of your deck.
[AUTO]:When this unit is retired from (RC) for the cost or effect of your card, if you have a vanguard with "Luard" in its card name, draw a card. 

This is proof that Luard's familiar animal are birds. Some of his best cards are birds and this is proof right here. Do I really need to explain myself more? This thing can net you a free card if you sack him (which means you get to draw THREE cards through OG Aurageyser with Luard heart). It also can cycle itself back into the deck which is amazing all by itself as long as Ritual 3 is active. This card is not the Belenus or Heart Thump Worker clone we expected, but goddamn Bushiroad you made it ridiculously strong. If one wants to build a Luard deck then get birds. Birds are the future of Luard decks! In fact birds tend to be uncommonly good like this bird or that bird. Screw dragons and knights, birds are the ultimate supreme lords of this game!

...Ahem so yeah run Belial Owl.

Our final Shadow Paladin card is a big one and his name is Draganger, Ogma

So this must be Ogma before he became a mercenary.

[Stride]-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)[1/Turn] Ritual 5 (Active if there are five or more grade 1 cards in your drop zone):[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone, and turn it face up] Choose up to five of your grade 1 rear-guards, retire them, your opponent chooses a card from his or her hand or rear-guards for each retired unit, and put it into the drop zone. If the total number of rear-guards put into drop zone of both players with this effect is three or more, you draw a card. 

Holy tempo loss Batman! This is essentially overkill on the opponent. Sacking 3 or 4 of your own Grade 1s means that your opponent pretty much lost their field and/or lost cards in the hand. If this doesn't kill the momentum of your opponents, then they must be playing something like Great Nature or Gold Paladin. However the fact that it can only sack Grade 1 means its a little restrictive and Ogma doesn't send the Rear Guards to the drop as a cost (which is probably a good thing cause Charon would have been dumb) along with having Ritual 5 can be slow. Another big concern is that his Soul Blast cost which again Luard decks (or even Shadow Paladin decks not named Diablo or Claret) have trouble with that. If nothing else, then the opponent will have to deal with a Phantom Blaster Diablo coming into the next turn since I doubt they would have the resources to work with after Ogma basically devastated it.

Overall this set was kinda...it was decent overall. Shadow Paladins got cards like Animus and Fergus which are trash, but also got cards like Ogma and Belial which are very good in their own right. Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Now if you excuse me I must return to the Edge Zone.