Cardfight Retrospective: Gold Paladin Pt.3: Some like it...Blue Hot?

Welcome people to the third part of the Gold Paladin retrospective. This time we will be looking at the era of Legion, possibly the shortest format in the history of the game. As in, there were only two main sets for this game. 

Also take a shot every time someone said "Mate"...and not die.

Yeah Legion was an idea and format short lived, but good lord there was so much crazy stuff that happened like a deck full of nothing but restanders due to Royal and Shadow Paladin mixing in, Kageros were still a legit threat, Genesis didn't have the budget to animate themselves, and Gold Paladins getting consistent...

Cardfight Retrospective: Gold Paladin Pt 2; The Liberators and the Lion.

Greetings everyone to the second part of this Gold Paladin retrospective. This is now Block 3, otherwise known as the Break Ride era, or as some like to call it "Bushiroad deciding to make archetypes for all the clans." Gold Paladins' archetype were Liberators who was essentially reskins of the old Royal Paladin units...

Everyone's reaction to Liberators.

Let's get this retrospective down the way

Cardfight Retrospective: Gold Paladin Pt.1

Times sure have changed in the past couple of years. Before there was only TWO paladin clans, and we liked it. Then Bushiroad decides to be a silly person and make a third Paladin clan, aptly named Gold Paladins. 

Just don't tell anyone that Gold is horrible for armor making.

I figured with so much that has happened, it will be nice to look back at how far we've come starting with their introduction, Breaker of the Limits.

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. 
 

Vanguard: Cards that are not good for Luard Deck.

A few weeks ago, the western world has finally got a chance to play the new Shadow Paladin cards based on Kazuma Shouji's Ritual deck with his avatar, Dragheart Luard as his ace.

Behold the ultimate weapon: His hat.

Naturally with the introduction of Shadow Paladins means a lot of hype. With that hype means people will jump onto the bandwagon. I am one of those people that was caught onto the hype. I have played this deck since it was first announced, so I like to think I know what I'm talking about when I consider these cards to be bad for Luard decks. I have tried all sorts of combinations to see what works and what doesn't.

Future Card Buddyfight: Ideal Girl, Mary Sue

There was a monster that I was always curious what is their mini form suppose to look like. That monster happens to be Center of the World, Mary Sue. I mean her mini form can't be any creepier than her regular form.

How is possible that her mini form is even creepier? The power of uncanny valley is real.

Initially the translator thought Mary Sue searches for ANY Size 2 or smaller monsters, which would have been amazing.  We could tech all those different Omni Lords (except Ziun, Tenbu, and Omnidai), tutor that Asmodai we have in our decks, or even...tutor our tutor monster.  It was not meant to be for he got the correct effect which is this:

"All Mine" When this card enters the field, you may return a size 2 or less monster from the field to the owner's hand. You may only use "All Mine" once per turn. 

While my hype took a blow at it...this is still a very great card to have.  Let me talk about the bad first:

1. It has sub-par stats

Okay okay I know sub-par stats has always been a thing in Magic World.  To be fair, 3000 attack is not bad for fighting some monsters and for Link Attacking. My only true gripe is that Ideal Girl has a crit of 1.
  

...Okay lame thing to hate, but I have to point out a flaw otherwise it wouldn't be fair.  However it has SO many good things going for it.

2. It is essentially an on-call Magical Goodbye 
 Her effect is basically that.  Iris the Tricker is the on call version of Oops, so naturally Ideal Girl is the on-call version of Magical Goodbye, and it is even complete with no gauge cost to summon her.  Most Magic World players know how useful Magical Goodbye is.

HA! The only people who don't play a playset of this are plebs! ...I'm one of those plebs though...

 I am sure people are aware on how useful the card is.  However, Ideal Girl can only use her ability if she's called...and only once per turn.  That does NOT diminish her role though.  The thing is that she has great utility on her.

For example...

2. We get to re-use on-call effects of certain monsters.
Now while we can use "All Mine" once per turn, that doesn't mean we cannot use other abilities.  A good example will be using the burning Dragowizards, Burning Wand and Axia.

Come on Bushi...I'll pay good money for plushies of his chibi form and others.

A neat way to score 2 points of burn damage. This is not bad at all as well.

Oh? Not feeling the burn for 2 points of burn damage?  Well how about...double asmodai power?  Yes we can even re-use the effects of Asmodai as well if we so wish.

  

"Let's Play!"

"Let's Dance!"

"I'm gonna take you for a ride!"

With those three Asmodais plus Ideal Girl, you can destroy 2 monsters (preferably ones with huge souls for soulguard), gain two life, or draw 2 cards (for 2 two gauge),  Not the best combos, but it is certainly useful.

Keep in mind, she targets ANY Size 2 or lower monster.  In a way, she's also...

3. Ideal Girl is like Asmodai-lite
Now Wizards have very powerful effects such as Glassart's pressure game and have good crit.  The problem is that due to our typical poor stats, dealing with center lane monsters is a hassle for us.  This is where Ideal Girl shines though.  She can temporarily open the center for us, get rid of Movers, and wreck Soulguard units.

...Think about it...a little girl is beating up Variable Cord.

"I AM INVINCIBLE!" Except he gets owned by cuddly dragons, buckets, crossbows, basic daggers, dogs, and now little girls.

She is also great at removing cards from the Soul of Size 2 or smaller monsters such as Drum, Miseria, and Astraoth. She can also remover Movers like Halberd, Brynhildr, and TK.  She is very useful for that regard.

"okay I'm convinced! I will be playing a playset of her!"

If you thought of that way, you might want to stop and REALLY think about it.  That is due to the fact that...

4. She's kinda in the wrong meta (as of right now when I typed this).
Do not get the wrong idea.  Ideal Girl is great at what she does, and has a lot of utility.  The problem is like Magical Goodbye, her targets are limited.  She won't help us out with the current meta.  Said meta, I believe, revolved around this card:

Screw you Gao! It's one thing to be a very boring MC, but you also brought one of the most degenerative impacts in the game!

In turn, that creates a meta where you need to have a monster in the center at all times, and tends to be size 3 monsters.  As a result, it diminishes Ideal Girl's usages.  It also does not help with the equippable monsters from Hero World like Kaizeron.

Ideal Girl is still very useful at what she does, and I would at least side her in.  However if I were to play Magic Mix, Asmodai is top dog.

Hmmm? No...I won't make a deck profile for a Size 3 Magic Mix.
No means NO! You can't make me!

...So how fast you guys want me to publish it?

 

Future Card Buddyfight:itch of Illusions, Luvia the Mirage

A little while ago, I saw the sneak preview of a certain card...for Wizards.  Anyone that knows me knows I really do l favor Wizards by a ton.  Naturally I thought the card will be good. 

It is a mixed bag, and it is hard to tell illusion or fact.

[Call Cost] [Pay 3 gauge]
[Counter]【Act】 You may discard a 《Wizard》 from your hand. If you do, for this turn, give a card on your opponent's field power-2000, defense-2000 and critical-1.
During your turn, when you cast a spell, draw a card. This ability only activates once per turn.
[Double Attack] 

On paper, you can see why people are confused as what to make of this card. For me, I do not like it, but it does have some good points.

1. It has a useful ability.

Once per turn, if you cast a spell, you are allow to draw one card.  That is pretty cool since it will turn any spell into an Upstart Goblin hybrid.

Considering that we are Magic World Wizards, this is pretty awesome. Do note, however, that Luvia's Upstart Goblin ability only works on YOUR turn, so don't get any ideas on strange shenanigans. The thing is that it has a pretty bad ability.

2. Luvia's ability sucks so much.

I do see what they were trying to do now that Brave Machines are a thing, but think about it: we are giving up one card to WEAKEN another card.  Why do you do that Bushi?  To give you an idea on how lackluster it is, let me show you this card:

Huh...never thought I will use this.

 This card has the same stats and summoning cost as Luvia.  The difference makes it that Hearty is better in my opinion.  You are giving up one card to pop one monster card.  The tradeoff is MORE than worth it.  The worst part is that even if Lufia is better than Hearty, I sincerely doubt she will be better than these two powerhouses:

 

Not only are their call costs is cheaper, but they have better abilities that control the field better.  With Tempest, the guy sends monsters to the gauge, and can trigger his ability multiple times on the same turn. Champion Wrestler can target ANY card on the field, including items and set spells.

Sure they're all vulnerable to Pillar of Fire, but these two does so much more. However, she also has more usages.

3. She can make great usage of the Battlewizards

Ace and Straight, when discarded from the hand, pay 1 life to draw one card and to gauge charge for 2 respectively.  They can give you the last minute save such as Ace finding an attack null, or the Straight to give you enough gauge to oops or chillax your way out.

Incidentally, I do believe they also combo well with this card as well:

...I found out the name is based on a poem. I will need to read it now.

Ultimately I will not use this card for one reason, and that is...

4. The Call Cost is too expensive.

 Paying 3 gauge to even bring the card to the field, and with such a meh set of abilities? I am sorry, but that is not enough to win me over.  Even if you use Andy to reduce the cost, that is still too expensive. You also need to factor in that not ALL of our available spells will not go live.

Kosher is dead unless you also have The Ace out...but in this scenario, he's better in the hand.

Goodbye/Chillax/Shields are obviously best used in Opponent's turn.

Some of the Great Spells are too expensive at that point once you called Luvia.

Nice One, Never Say Never, Abra Cadabra, and the Solomon Books are the best ones. 

She does have legitimately good combos though, such as casting Auld Lang Syne, so you can have 2 cards in hand, have 10 life, and some more if you discarded Ace and Straight.

It's just that there are simpler set ups that aren't as gimmicky as Luvia's combos. I guess I shouldn't have such a problem with her.  I mean it's not like she's hard to get...

Assault of the Omni Lords - H-BT03/0004 (RRR) 

...You know what's the worst part?  I am being forced to make a deck with her in mind against my own will due to my cats.

Now if you excuse me...I need to make up a deck.

Future Card Buddyfight: Red Warrior, Road Blader

As a Magic World player, I dread whenever I face a Hero World deck. I'm sure a lot of you guys are familiar with their Monsters becoming Items, and thus they gain defense power as well right?

Fair warning: this article will have bias...namely on how it influenced me into thinking how great the card is.

This guy needs a lot of salt to clear the road you know?

This card is simply amazing at what he does. For starters, those stats are actually good, in particular his Defense power.With a Justice Will Prevail, he can stop a lone attack from Thunder Knights Bastard Dragon, Dragowizard Tempest Dragon, and base form Seiger due to having a base defensive power of 5000. Good for a Hero World player, bad for us Wizard players. Unless we have a Size 2 AND a Size 1 OR 3 Size 1s then we ain't going to hit that (unless you're one of those crazy people that run Kenjy). To be out of the "danger zone" (which I like to call when facing an equipped Superhero and the threat of Justice WIll Prevail) you have to link for 8000.

I know there are a lot of decks that can hit this threshold no problem.  It still doesn't make it any less scary though.

...I did warned that this article will be biased right?

I think this is how every Hero World player feels when their opponent can't hit them.

His on-call (or on-Transform) ability is simple, but very good. Upon setting foot on the field, he can destroy ANY Monster. It's so simple, but it works so wonderfully. Not only will it clear a center Monster so you can lay major damage on your opponent's life, but it also helps knock out Movers, pressure Monsters (like Wil Glassart), and ones that have Soul Guard. The point is that the ability is simple, and as such, it's quite versatile.

Don't worry about his Call Cost and Transform cost of 2 Gauge.  Shout-outs to Austin for teaching me and an aspiring Hero World player that Hyper Energy also happens to have the "Brave Machine" attribute. That means you can use Call Super Machine spell to search it out and gain a total of 3 gauge. Assuming you Transformed into Road Blader the same turn, you still come out with one extra gauge, and that single Gauge may allow you cast draw2 spell or summon Emergency Launch Decker Drum.

Road Blader is a good control card. I wouldn't say it's the Demon Lord Asmodai of Superheroes, but I can see why some people in my locals (of 6) will make this comparison. And as salty as I am with this card, it is reasonably cost. According to Blaise, 2 gauge should be the equivalent of 1 card, and since this thing can destroy any Monster (on-call or on-transformation) it is very powerful.

Now if you excuse me...I have some salt I need to let lose.

Future Card Buddyfight: Battle Dragon Crushing

You know what is frustrating at times? The fact that you want to playtest a new card in a totally different deck than the one you're more accustomed to. This article was originally going to be about Armorknight Ogre A, but building Armorknights is..tougher than I thought,

However I will talk about a new Danger World card that, in my opinion, should be main at 2 or more depending on your build.

Ah dragons. The things that haunt my nightmares and happen to be my mortal enemies.

For those who are not aware, Battle Dragon Crushing allows you to destroy a card for 2 Life and 1 Gauge. This card is something that Danger World definitely needed. This card is very useful, but it does have some drawbacks.

1. This card HURTS you...and it's FANTASTIC.
Generally, it is considered a bad idea to hurt yourself, real life and in card games. In the case of Danger World, hurting yourself will actually help you.

A big reason why is because of this card:

It's really painful when you have a hand full of these

Along with putting the Armorknights from the field to the soul.

Danger World players want to have more cards in the hand, because as far as I am aware of, they do not have much of a advantage engine. You know it, I know it, and the opponent knows it. That is why they will stall a Danger World player at 6 Life, to stop Survival Chance and other abilities that triggered at low life from going live.

Battle Crushing basically solves the problem. No longer can your opponent can stall you out. They now have to be weary of you playing Battle Crush so you can activate the ability. This means that if the opponent does not want certain abilities (that are triggered

Great, let activate our Draw 2 cards! Well...maybe not due to...

2. The card has a slightly high Cast Cost.
Now don't get the wrong idea. The two life cost is in my opinion really good. As I said earlier, this hurts us so we can start putting Aces in the Item's soul and start using Survival Chance.

The main issue I have is that it costs a Gauge. Yes it is one gauge, and some Danger World builds aren't that Gauge intensive, but it does impact you in more ways than one.  For the most part, the main reason you want to use Battle Dragon Crushing is so you can make Survival Chance live. However, since Survival Chance also costs a gauge, that means you'll be spending two Gauge for this set-up, and that is assuming you already have an item ready to use.

The gauge cost does seem significant, but it can be the difference from summoning the Demon himself.

Wait, that's the wrong devil!

Of course, and do take this with a grain of salt, my playstyle tends to call for me to conserve gauge whenever I can.

At the same time, I can see why the makers made the cost that way.

3. It destroys ANY card on the field.
Now it goes without saying, but having the ability to destroy any cards on the field is pretty handy. Fighting Dragon World with a Thunder Halberd Dragon or Crimson Battler with their Fist item? Dragon Crush it. 
Dungeon World giving you grief with Glory Seeker or a Dungeon Lord boss? Dragon Crush it.
Hero World ruining your fun with their defense? Dragon freaking Crush it.

I think you guys get the point. This can really help you out and tip the scales to your favor. It can help facing key cards on the field.

In that case, why not run more of these things?

4. Depending on your tech or build, casting it more than once can be suicidal.
Now considering the average critical of size 1 and 2 monsters is 2, then assuming no Buddy Call, you can only take a maximum of 5 hits from these guys. That's even assuming they don't have access to burn damage.

Better have Life Gain! Wait...that can't be right,..

Using Battle Dragon Crushing reduces the amount of attacks to 4. You can still fight like that though. We're called "Danger World" for a reason. There is, however, a difference between going dangerous to going suicidal. Casting it more than once means you won't be able to take many direct attacks at all unless you have Life gain cards like Armorknight Bahamut and .

Even though Danger World was given some nice defensive options like the movers Kibaltes and Jetfighter, spells like Strong Battle Wall, and Gargoyle A, you have to play your defense perfectly.

Then again it's Danger World...living life on the edge is basically our thing.

Future Card Buddyfight: New Era Great Spell, The Creation

Wow it has been over a year since I last updated this blog. At that time, I really got into a new card game Future Card Buddyfight. Good timing too, because I was getting sick of the constant power creep of Vanguard, buts that's a topic for another day.

My locals of maybe 6 sees the new cards from the set Miracle Impack. They know that I'm trying to build Wizards and suggested this one.

"Dude you'll get more gauge AND life!"

"Come on, Wizards draw like crazy, so why not use this?"

Well I did some testing on Buddyfight Area, and I...have a few problems with this card.

1. It isn't a Spell
That may seem such a minor thing, but it IS important. Due to the fact that it is not a Spell, you cannot search it with Mary Sue.

Goddamn it, why are you always creepy?

Which means you have to put 3 or 4 of The Creation in the deck to consistently see it. Well that shouldn't be a problem right?

2. What the hell is deck space?
Another issue is that the deck already has a ton of good cards to choose from. From the top of my head, the confirmed stables (in my eyes) include.

4x Magical Goodbye
4x Nice One!
4x Chillax/Solomon's Shield
4x Magic Artist Andy
3-4 x Dragowizard, Tempest Dragon

Okay that's only 19 or 20 cards out of a 50 card deck. Surely we can find room in the deck right?

Not really, because the deck tends to run about 11-13 Size 1s, 8-11 Size 2s, and the Tempests.  In short the average Wizards will run around 22-24 Monsters, but that is not taking account for this little guy.

It's cute AND a Size 0. What more could you ask?

Okay let's put this little guy into our current deck...I say 4 because a Size 0 monster is nice to have. Now at lowest, this will put the deck to 26 MONSTERS. This is before we add the 12 stable spells too. Once you add them together, we're already at 38 cards.

And there are a ton of good Spells and Items as well such as:
Kosher
Great Spell, My Grandfather Clock
Key of Solomon 1st and 2nd volume
Abra Cadabra
Gunrod Bechstein
Magic Arm, Burning Fist

and a whole ton of interesting tech choices like Power Ray Maximum or Begone or Oops!

"okay," you said "but I managed to find space for it."

If you did, then congratulations. No really, I tried to think of a way to put this card in the deck without upsetting the balance already. However you will run into a potential problem.

3. What the hell will I do with all this Gauge?!
This seems like such a minor complaint, but it is possible to run into the problem. You can actually find yourself having TOO much gauge.

Theoretically Wizards should NOT have to worry about using too much gauge. We have access to Kosher for starters, we got Andy and Genjuro Saki  to help preserve our Gauge. Most of our spells costs 1 gauge, 2 at most.

Now this card isn't bad per se. For starters, it's a "Wizard" card as well, so you can use it to fuel for Grandfather Clock. Plus being an Impact card means you won't have to worry about getting it nullified by spell nulls or something like Cecelia's Disarm Spell.

Then again it really is up to the player if they want to use that card. I simply want to put my 2 cents in. As Yusei Fudo from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds once said:

"There is no such thing as a useless card."

Vanguard: A new type of Platina deck and Blaster Engine

Some of you may know, but I really do not like Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel. Not only is the artwork kinda dull but the Ultimate Break is way too costly for Gold Paladin's usual plan to fill the field as quickly as possible.

Fast forward into some time later when Set 15 hit the shelves and FINALLY got the Blaster Blade Liberator support I have been waiting for.

You think you suffer? Can you imagined how much Dark made fun of me when he had good support earlier?

Soon after, I noticed a few things, looked over the Liberator cards, and I decided to make what I dub as the Blaster Engine. Or the Liberator Engine as some of you will call it.

Here is what the engine typically looks like:

G1:
4x White Rainbow Liberator Balan
3~4x Sharp Point Liberator (Gancelot BR searcher)

G2
4x Star Rain Trumpeter
4x Blaster Blade Liberator

G3
4x Solitary Liberator Gancelot

"That simple?" you may ask. Why yes it is that simple and I will explain why each of them are important.

Wherever Blaster Blade goes, I will follow him to the ends of Cray.

[AUTO]:[Choose a card named "Blaster Blade Liberator" from your soul or drop zone, and put it on top of your deck] When this unit is placed on (RC), if you have a «Gold Paladin» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, shuffle your deck, look at the top card of your deck, search for up to one «Gold Paladin», call it to an open (RC), and put the rest on the bottom of your deck.

Here is our Superior Caller. She does NOT need a "Liberator" Vanguard and her only requirement is to have Blaster Blade Liberator in the Soul or Drop Zone.  Since she does not cost any CB, she is practically a god-send for decks that like to eat up CB. 

Does anyone know a man named Dorint? If so, please pass the message which says "suck it" to him.

 [AUTO](RC):When a unit named "Blaster Blade Liberator" is placed on your (RC), if you have a vanguard with "Liberator" in its card name, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face up. 

The deck's unflipper. While Calamity Angel Tripp can do that for us, the opponent may let us hit with MAYBE twice.  Balan can free up CB more frequently, especially if you have two copies of him.
One problem though...Balan will need a Liberator Vanguard to use his effect.

This is where this guy comes in...

I'm not being pay enough for this.

 [AUTO] Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):When a «Gold Paladin» rides this unit, choose your vanguard, and that unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn, and choose up to three of your «Gold Paladin» rear-guards, and those units get [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
[AUTO](VC):When this unit attacks a vanguard, this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of that battle.
[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Gancelot is in the engine for three reasons.
1. He is a Break Ride unit that can help fix our columns now that we do not have access to Monarch Alfred's ability to fix them.
2. He is a Liberator, meaning we can use BBL and Balan.
3. For some decks, we can sit on that 11k body.

But what happens if you do not get Gancelot in your hand, but your other Grade 3?! What then?!

Well do not worry, because through my testing, I can get Gancelot 9/10 times thanks to...

Why am I'm here?

[AUTO]:[Choose a grade 3 «Gold Paladin» from your hand, and discard it] When this unit is placed on (RC), if you have a «Gold Paladin» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one card named "Solitary Liberator, Gancelot", reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck. 

Thanks to this guy, I can get Gancelot whenever I can.  He helps us make sure our first Grade 3 ride will be Gancelot. It also helps that this one does not need a Liberator Vanguard like Star Rain and that he can help us check for triggers.

[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (2)] When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), if you have a vanguard with "Liberator" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards in the front row, and retire it. 

And here is the main man himself, Blaster Blade! Without him, the engine will never start up. We would not be able to Superior Call or unflip damage without him. Of course he can retire an interceptor if you wish but remember to thread lightly with that skill.

Now that I explained the Blaster Engine, here is a decklist I have been using.

G0
Spring Breeze Messenger
8 Critical
4 Draw
4 Heal

G1
4x Balan
3~4x Sharp Point Liberator
4x PG
2~3x Listener of Truth Dindrane (though you could sub it in for Josephus)

G2
4x BBL
4x Star Rain
3x Viviane

G3
4x Solitary Liberator Gancelot
4x Platina Ezel

The Blaster Engine solves two problems of a Platina deck.  The first is the lack of Superior Calls which Star Rain helps by being CB free so you have room to use Viviane or even Platina's Ultimate Break. Balan helps manage our CB so we can use it more freely.

Now the "image of victory" is this. First we ride Gancelot which shouldn't be too hard since Gold Lancer will search him out. Now ideally I like to break ride Gancelot over and over to rapidly deplete the opponent's hand. If I break ride into Platina, then my opponent's worries are not over yet.

As you can see, this deck has high late game potential with excess power. Mid-game we have Vivianne for pressure and BBL to do some early retires.

Overall this deck is pretty solid. I doubt it can win in nationals, but ti is certainly interesting enough . The best part is you don't have to use Platina. Remember this is an engine so you can make that Chromejailer deck you always wanted or something like that.

Well except Pellinore because...he's Pellinore.

Vanguard: Interesting thing with Jewel Knight Sherry and Tracie

It's been a long time since I did an article, mainly because I do not have much to talk about.  I mean who gives a rat's ass about Paladins?

Anyways you know about the G1 10k and G2 12k attackers like these?

One of the common things about these types of cards are that in order to get the boost, the Vanguard needs to have the archetype name in.  In this case, Demolition and Spark Rain will not get the boost if the Vanguard is, say, Armor Break Dragon.

Shellie and Tracie are rather unique.  They ARE 10k and 12k beaters respectively, but their requirements are a little different.

  Essentially if you have 3 different RGs with "Jewel Knight" in their name, they will get the power boost.  Nowhere does it say that the Vanguard has to be a Jewel Knight too only the rear-guards.

Think about what it really implies.  This means almost an RP deck has access to 12k and 10k attackers, more importantly, Tracie since we will she can hit 11k Vanguards by herself now.

With this in mind, here will be a deck list I have thought up.

G0
1x Tiffany
12x crit
4x Heal

G1
4x Sherry
4x Iseult
4x  Prizme
3x Marron

G2
3x Blaster Blade
4x Tracie
4x Olwen (an 11k attacker)

G3
3x King of Knight, Alfred
4x Sanctuary Guard Dragon

Since this deck will only use CB for Blaster Blade and Alfred, we can actually use their skills once at 5 damage. 12 Crits are good since we'll be plussing for field presences.

Marron is good as our G1 ride to prevent early damage.  Since the only limit break is Sanctuary Guard Dragon then there should be no need to rush.

I have yet to test this deck out since it came to me practically spontaneously.  Still in theory this looks freaking good.

Of course this is not the first deck of its kind.  I have actually heard of people using a similar mindset with this one.  There maybe other ones that have utilized what I call, the "BeJeweled" engine.

...I really wish Jewel Knights have a Josephus clone tho.

Vanguard: Grand Ezel vs Monarch Sanctuary Alfred

The past few days I have been playing nothing but these two decks, trying to get them to face as many different types of decks there is. While I will fully admit I am not one of the leading experts on Vanguard, I do believe I have enough of a grasp on the two Unlocker decks out there for Gold Paladins.

Be warn this is all my opinion. If you disagree with me, comment and tell me why I was wrong. I'm open for criticism.

Here are the deck lists for both of them in case you're wondering:
Grand Ezel:

G0
1x Scarlet Lion Cub Caria
8x Criticals
4x Draws
4x Heals

G1
3x Knight of Eleganth Skill Gareth
4x Perfect Guards
3x Knight of Passion Torre
2x Twin Holy Beast White Lion

G2
4x Vivianne
4x Eliwood
4xBagdemagus

G3
3x Incandescent Lion Blond Ezel
4x Salvation Lion Grand Ezel

Alfred got sick so I'm filling in. Also because I'm one of the important parts of the deck.

Monarch Alfred:
G0
1x Aspiring Liberator Alm
8x Criticals
4x Draws
4x Heals

G1
2xLittle Liberator Marron
4xWhite Rainbow Liberator Balan
4x Mayrain Liberator Bruno
4x Perfect Guards

G2
3x Blaster Blade Liberator
3x Star Rain Trumpeter
4x Liberator Of Royalty Phallon
2x Liberator of the Flute Escrad

G3
3x Liberator of Bonds, Gancelot Zenith
4x Liberator, Monarch Sanctuary Alfred

Ultimately the biggest question is that...which deck is better, at least for me? I'll go through each grade until we see the boss. Ready? Here goes...

Round 1: The Starting Vanguards...

Caria wins this simply because she get two units. It doesn't matter if the units are low or high quality (okay it kinda matters), since we can get field presence from it. The fact she is cost less besides moving her into the soul really helps. In fact, I will argue that she even helps the deck by moving into the Soul so Grand Ezel can use his Limit Break twice, assuming only one Counter Blast has been used.

However Alm is not to be underestimated. While he does not plus like Caria or Spring Breeze, he does do something that I think is equally important. He puts BBL on top of the deck. One might ask "Why is that good?" until you remember how Liberators tend to Superior Call. He guarantees your next Superior Call unit will be BBL, a good quality unit who can easily intercept, making him good not just in Alfred, but essentially any Liberator boss who Superior Calls from the top deck (LotRT Alfred, Wolffang Garmore, Gancelot Zenith). Basically Alm gives Liberators some consistency. That is insane.

Round 2: Their Grade 1 line ups...

This one is a little hard. Now some people will ask..."Why am I am not using Magelant in my Grand Ezel deck? Isn't CB precious?" And you're right, CB is precious...but so is the Soul. The Soul is something that isn't easy to replenish unless you use White Lion's skill.

Anyways I do like Gareth's body as Turn 1 Vanguard to stave up any rush down tactics.  Torre is the standard 10k attacker.White Lion is a damage adder meaning he can help trigger Limit Breaks (either Blond or Grand) to deliver additional pressure in raw power. I actually like him because sometimes I need to Superior Call with Blond Ezel or put a ton of pressure with Grand. I really like that.

The Liberator's Grade 1 line up is, in my opinion, better. They have Balan who is pretty much like a Dorint Clone. Do you remember the episode where Ren keeps killing off Asaka's front row by calling Blaster Dark Revenger over and over? Well you can now do that with Liberators. What? You don't like free CB? Well how about Bruno, a unit who gains +3000 every time a unit gets Superior Call from the deck. Use Monarch Sanctuary's LB and you can easily have a 19k booster, or at worst, an attacker.
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Round 3: The Grade 2 line ups...

 
Now this is where it gets interesting. In the Grand Ezel deck I have used, it was not difficult to get a full field so long as Vivianne gets hit in and Eliwood stay until an Ezel unit appears on VC. They can run those engines just fine. Between Vivianne and Eliwood, the field should fill up in a matter of  turns.

However the Liberators deck I'm using main ways to Superior Call besides Alfred are Escrad and Star Rain. However Liberators have access to their champion, Blaster Blade. Thanks to Balan, you can mitigate his retirement cost, even make it costless. Liberator have the ability to retire units if needed to.

Both decks plus in different ways with Grand Ezel having to Superior Call to a full field while Liberators does a little of that plus retiring.

Personally I ended up liking the retiring aspect of Liberators. There were times that with Grand Ezel deck's Superior Call abilities was enough. Liberators, there wasn't a time I did NOT want to retire a unit on my opponent's side, whether it is because I want to remove an interceptor or an obnoxious unit that is giving me grief.

At the end of the day, I just really like to retire stuff while maintaining field advantage with the Liberators.

Round 4: The back up...

 In case the stars of the decks fail to show up for some reason, we got Blond Ezel and Gancelot Zenith. Now which one is taking the cake?

Now, again, some of you might wonder why I used Blond and not Platina. "Don't you want that 11k defense?" True but at the same time Platina is pretty much vanilla with an absurd requirements for his Ultimate Break. I thought I was taking a big chance with using Blond but in reality...his 10k body didn't made much of an impact. One thing I learned with Blond is that the meta had changed so much that its now have been scaled assuming the G3 Vangaurd has 11k defense. It didn't changed much except the VERY rare times I'm looking at a 20k RG attack.

Anyways back on topic, I really like that Blond Ezel will  Superior Call for you and can make it into the bait for Perfect Guards. Also assuming a full field and a 6k booster behind Blond, he will force at LEAST 15k shields.

Zenith is also a really good back up boss since if your entire front row is full, then you essentially have 4 attacks. Even if the new Unit is a Trigger unit, that one will still have 15k power at worst meaning it is still good to trap those RGs...you know, trap those katz!

Honestly I like them both for what they do. Both back ups synch well with the SV, Blond because he's an Ezel for Caria and Zenith because Alm guarantees the enxt call will be BBL.

That means no cake for both of them but they both get pizza!
...Anyone? Fine here it comes...the final showdown.

Yes1 I have the high quality resolution I asked for!

Dude that just a card sleeve.

 

 

 

 

 Now here comes the kicker...who is the better Unlocker?

Grand Ezel states that if there are 5 Gold Paladin RG on the field, if you pay the cost, he will Unlock all Locked units and gains 10k power and an extra crit. This is where White Lion comes in since he can win games by using LB4 when your opponent is at 3 damage. I have yet to do that, but its viable...somewhat. Depends on what you can grab from your Superior Call.

Monarch Alfred has both a LB4 and LB5. LB4 send the units on the field to the top of the deck and re calls them plus additional units you might have. This means you can effectively reuse the effects of BBL and Balan and give Bruno MASSIVE power. boost. Worst case scenario for Bruno, he becomes a viable attacker. LB5 is that when Blaster Blade Liberator is called from the deck, then Moanrch Alfred gains 10k and extra crit for each of them called that way. That's bloody fantastic especially since Alm guarantees you that BBL. In fact, 8 out of 10 times, I had at least one Balan on the field so the cost was mitigated slightly. Sadly this is LB5. Smart players will try to keep me at 4 damage if they can help it meaning I missed out on pressure.

Now who do I ended up liking? Monarch Alfred. It's not like its hard to get a full field with Grand Ezel, but the thing is that Monarch Alfred allows me to fix my columns and reuse effects.

Plus I ended up having more fun with Liberators then with Grand Ezel. I'm sorry for those who really like Grand Ezel, but I just can't help it. The fact that Liberators can perform a Dorint combo with BBL+Balan, can fix my columns, and Gancelot Zenith.

However like I said from the beginning...I don't claim to be an expert on Vanguard. Maybe Grand Ezel is better, but I do not know.

I do know this though...Link Joker should have never been conceived.