Budgetguard 20: Draw-qua Force

Hey Cardfighters,

This week I'm going to look at "mini-Lambros" and an aqua force deck based on "on-hit pressure" and drawing cards.

Winning Image: Pressure opponent with on-hit effects and stands (both effects and triggers.)


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

     The dimensions are wonky sorry about that! Zaharias is Mini-Lambors #1. I wouldn't really call him the main boss of the deck as both G3s serve the same purpose but are better in different situations. He has a non-limit break effect of CB1: This unit gains +2k power. This can be useful to hit an extra stage of power but I don't recommend using it. The main skill is the legion skill. When this unit drive check reveals a unit on your VG circle you may CB1 and choose 2 units and stand them and give +5k power. While not that reliable this skill is almost identical to Lambros' skill except it gives +5k instead of +10k. The power is super usefull for helping your 9k hitters reach the right numbers to apply pressure with their on hit effects.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

      The back up grade 3 we have is Strikehead. He has an awesome on-ride effect which will allow for a lot of pressure early game guaranteeing 4th battle for some of the key drawing units. Strikehead also has a GB1 effect which gives any of your rearguards that are attacking vanguard after 3rd battle +3k for that attack. This can be useful when you hit stand triggers, but generally try to ride Zaharias over him as quickly as possible as his main purpose is to create early pressure as well as a soul blast to help build the drop zone a little for legion.

Deck List:
Starter: Officer Cadet, Andrey
6 crit
6 stand
4 heal

G1s:
4x  Battle Siren, Phaidra (0.60)
4x Kelpie Rider, Nikki (1.50)
4x Tactics Sailor
2x Light Signals Penguin Soldier

G2s:
4x Blue Storm Marine General, Ianis (1.00)
4x Marine General of the Restless Tides, Algos
4x High Tide Sniper

G3s:
4x Blue Storm Marine General, Zaharias (0.30)
3x Strikehead Dragon

G4s:
4x Marine General of the Heavenly Scales, Tidal Bore Dragon (2.50)

Final Cost:  23.6 USD

Deck Comments:
     The primary thing to talk about is having 7 copies of people who can give on-hit draw a card. 4 of them are on 3rd battle (super super easy) and 3 are 4th battle (a little harder in this deck if you can't use your vanguard skills) this combined with tactics sailor which gives that effect when it boosts will create heavy pressure forcing your opponent to guard or let you build up an advantage. Nikki allows you to stride without using up Zahariases which you'll want to keep for relegioning mainly. Light Penguin Soldier can help set up early legion, and the only other rearguard unit that doesn't draw cards is high tide sniper who is a key part of winning due to his high powered attacks.

Match ups:

• VS. Holy Shine Dragon  (Win)
• He starts off the game. I have a pretty good hand all my grades and 2 grade 2s if I want to try to rush. We trade blows until I ride grade 2 and draw a second argos. I go aggro in hopes of checking a stand to pressure with algos. It doesn't work but I drain his hand well 2-1. He doens't ride to grade 3 and so I guard my rears to keep up the pressure. Riding grade 3 and going after his rear. 3-2. He rides Gancelot breakride and I no pass him to set up for legion. He attacks algos but I intercept to have 2 algos ready for next turn when I legion. My turn I legion and then call my second algos and a tactics soldier. I attack his rears with my algos alone since I have no stands or ianis or zahrias out and I figure I'd get something. I was right and I hit two stand triggers. This pressured him and I hit with an algos tactis column which let me draw 2. 5-2. This are looking good. He breakrides holy shine and messes up his skill order. (he doesn't call before giving power so he misses out on a bit. I no guard his vanguard get a stand. Unfortunately for me he leaves. My next play probably would have been to stride and use andrei to rack up attacks and pressure him for game. I'll coung it as a win since he only had 15k shield, a pg, and 2 grade 3s in his hand according to the replay.
• VS. Messiah (Win)
• When I saw the link joker grade 3 searcher I was scared because I knew he could shut me down super hard. Luckily for me he forgot some of his skills (I'll go over that when it comes up) and get got grade locked at 0 for a turn which helped too. The next bad news of the match was I started with 2 zaharias and 1 ianis in my starting hand. Looks like that game plan might not pan out. I don't go as aggressive as I could because I don't want to be punished by locking and I drew strike head to give me some early attacks. I damage another zahrias. plan B time. Strike head calls ianis. He 1 to passes and I get it choosing for guaranteed damage over maybe hitting with ianis. Unfortunately he heals 2-2. He goes crazy by calling a ton of grade 2s.I take his vanguard hit and he passes turn without attacking my ianis (mistake 1) I call a second ianis to push again before he starts his messiah shenanigans. He no passes me and then when I get a stand takes it backe (mistake 2) I let it slide and he gets a damage trigger. 3-3. He finally gets to grade 3 and so begins a long game. I'll spare most of the details here since my whole field was locked most of the game. He made the mistake of never using Alter Ego's skill to draw him cards which would have given him more units to attack me with and probably would have won him the game but he didn't and slowly we went through all our stride units. Eventually he 1 to passes my strikehead vg attack and I get the crit to finish him off. 

Overall Performance:
  
     I had a ton of fun playing this deck. You have to think about how to balance you attacks with the possibility of getting stand triggers or zaharias' legion skill so that you can make use of  ianis and algos. Through out the course of the two games I played my opponents only let the on hit effects of off twice. This is pretty much what I expected, I probably wouldn't get much drawing out of those guys but the pressure they add to your opponent really helps. I actually think that dedicated Aqua force players playing the full on Lambros deck could learn a thing or two from this and possibly incorporate Ianis into their builds since the multi attack patter usually ramps up getting stronger and stronger which makes it much more efficient to guard the earlier attacks. However Ianis adds an extra layer or pressure which might cause your opponent to take hits that are extremely easy to guard in order to prevent you from drawing cards. 

Tips for Mastering:

• Attack pattern is huuuge. Learn to make the possibilities of stand triggers work for you. Don't be afraid to get a little greedy.
• Be careful if you draw or damage a lot of Zaharias or Ianis. Plan B using strikehead dragon is very powerful as well. (Especially early game)
  

Tips for adding money:

     The first course of action for this deck is to grab Magnum Assaults. These guys are gonna let you get to 3rd battle without attacking with vanguard which means more options on attack patterns. This is really good for opening up 4th battle for tactics soldier and algos. I would suggest replacing High Tide sniper, while his ability is powerful I think focusing the deck to pressure and on-hit draws will make it have a more consistent wining image. After magnum assault you will want to get Lambros. he's gonna isntatly triple or quadruple the deck's worth but the power you gain from him is significant. He'll let you do early pressure plays to get more cards and is an amazing late game push combined with the pressure from ianis or algos. Once you get him you'll also probably want to change up the grade 1s a little bit too. Light soldier penguin can be replaced with Battle Siren, Orthia to help get the 4th attack you need for Lambros. After that any changes are up to you. Do you want to add in Thavas? Will you take out Zaharias now that you have the real deal? The choice is yours.



Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris