Cardfight Discussion: Winners and Losers of "Stride Generation:

Hey Cardfighters,

I wanted to try something new and talk about another Vanguard Bloggers article and my thoughts on it.

Check Out The Superior Call's Blog and Article for "Winners and losers of 'Stride Generation'" which I will discuss. (Make sure to check out his other work its really insightful topics about vanguard theory and they are very well thought out.)

 First the topic is the Losers: Breakrides, Power clans, and Quintet walls

     1. Breakrides

I don't actually think they are a complete loser which I think Superior Call might agree with because they essentially have the same cost as a stride but without getting an extra drive check. The difference is if you have a great breakride combo or if the breakride serves a different purpose than a stride effect. This allows a deck to have a variety of options to use depending on the situation. Take one of the examples given Dauntless Drive Dragon. DDD can work well even in stride format because he can serve as a multi attack enabler. Allowing your deck to put the opponent at high damage with Strides and then finish up with a restanding vanguard via DDD. Or one that isn't mentioned the Dark Irregular Breakride King of Masks, Dantarian who can power up your field to ridiculous amounts where a stride will usually only affect how strong your vanguard attack is.

     2. Power Clans

I totally agree with him on this one. Clans that have traditionally focused on highpower vanguards lose out a lot from stride since they become less unique. and need much more powerful effects to compete with stride on a vanguard vs. stride basis. There is a remedy and I think it is to switch from a power build with those clans to one which revolves around a different type of advantage. The best example of this is Dark Irregulars. I don't think they actually lose out as much from stride than Superior notes. First is Astaroth, the revival legion for Amon, He is able to attack for numbers as high as 41k unboosted with multiple crits rivaling even strides. The second thing is Dantarian which I mentioned before using a build like that to let you switch into a rearguard oriented strategy for a turn or two can be enough to have a strong deck.

     3. Quintet Walls

I will have to disagree with Superior on this one. I think that quintet walls are just as good if not stronger than they were before its just that their use has changed. Before they were a good way to fill up for legion and possibly serve as a replacement Perfect Guard.  Now I think that they keep the functionality of prepping for legion but they are no longer replacement Perfect Guards. Instead they should be used to no-pass pre-stride attacks so that you don't have to defend the highpower strides later. Meaning they excel in early game focused decks. There is also one other advantage that Superior doesn't mention which is that they don't require you discard an additional card. When playing a deck with full Quintet walls you usually find your hand filled with grade 3s because you would normally discard them to perfect guards. This means that you can continue to keep up your defenses while conserving more grade 3s for striding.

Now let's talk Winners: Abrasion, Distruption, Bermudas, and Draw triggers

     1. Abrasion (Decks that win via multi-attack patterns and aggression)

I agree with Superior in this case. Early aggression goes a long way in the stride format. And an abrasion deck shines when the opponent is at a high damage forcing them to guard many attack or else they'll lose. Stride helps out in that it can put your opponent at that high damage zone very quickly if they aren't willing to use up their hand to guard it.

     2. Distruption (Decks that kill your opponent's units)

I am on the fence but I have to lean towards disagreeing. Disruption tactics are strong but I think that stride format is defined by high power vanguards so I don't think that killing rearguards goes as far as it used to. Granted It does help you reduce how much you need to guard so you can save more for the vanguard but I think that the high-powered vanguard format will cancel out with people not wanting to drop grade 3s as attackers keeping in the same spot it was before which is still REALLY GOOD.

     3. Bermuda Triangle

This is more of Superior's own little bet on them but I'm willing to bet the same way that he is. The ability to bounce rearguards means that you can go aggressive with your G3s and then bounce them back to do stride plays the next turn. They should be very strong in this format especially when they get their own strides in FC2015 or whenever their EB comes out.

     4. Draw Triggers

Draw triggers as Superior has mentioned have gotten much much better with the release of the new mechanics. Everything he mentioned is true, you need to balance your cards between using your Perfects, filling your field and striding. Any other trigger can at most fufill one of these roles either as a booster or as Perfect fodder. But Draw triggers themselves can act as Perfect guard fodder or a booster and the card you draw has the possibility to fufill all 3 functions. So while on paper Draw Triggers are still worse than the other triggers each single card is becoming more and more important and the fact that draw triggers give you two shouldn't be overlooked.
 
The one to watch:
     Lastly is Superior's other prediction that megacolony will punish stride heavy decks a lot for since Strides come into play in the same state as the vanguard meaning that if your vanguard is paralyzed your stride comes into play as rest and you can't attack. This certainly makes them an incredibly strong choice in the upcoming Stride format along with their ability to migitate early aggression which we know is super important as late game damage becomes harder and harder to guard with each set.

I hope you liked my Discussion article on Superior Call's "Winners and losers of 'Stride Generation'"
Again check out his blog he has a lot of good stuff about general vanguard theory which can help you classify your deck's overall strategy. That in turn will help you figure out what cards to use to advance that strategy.

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Thanks for reading,

~Bambi