My Love Affair with Madew

Madew is Ma-Dood. One of those bros you can always count on.

I've always kinda liked Madew, mostly because of my obsession with card advantage and my love of 10k Grade 3s. The more I played with it in the OTT Sakuya build and abusing Dark Rex, I realized how powerful it actually is. It's legitimately really good and part of the reason for my increased affection is thanks to Timpowergamer. He's got a lot of great articles so you should check them out even if he is pretty inactive. His last article was a huuuuuge eye opener and has basically made me decide that Madew is one of the best cards in the game.

Here's a link to Tim's Article and the list he used to get 16 in a Bushiroad Regional Qualifier.

Starter - Shining Knight, Millius

12 Critical Triggers
4 Heal Triggers

4 Rainbow Guardian
4 Air Elemental, Fwarlun
3 Light Elemental, Peaker
3 Laurel Knight, Sicilus

4 Knight of Twin-Sword
4 Knight of Fragment
3 Transmigration Knight, Brede

4 Gigantech Charger
4 Stardrive Dragon

4 Rain Element, Madew
2 Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
1 Snow Element, Blizza
1 Miracle Element, Atmos

We can examine the list if we want, but I mainly talk about Madew in comparison to other "First Strides" like Gablade or Arborea or Tidal Bore. These "First Strides", which I call them because generally they are used to stride before going into the GB2 strides (Lambros, Rootflare, etc) are used to set up the G-zone and provide on-hit pressure. If they do hit, you get a free card. All of them are pretty much strict +1 effects. +1 meaning that you are getting an extra card or depriving your opponent of one or superior calling a unit, etc. Many of these effects also come with enablering skill as well. Judgement Messiah is able to unlock a unit to enable Messiah's skils, Lila provides soulcharging to help with Dark Irregulars high soul requirements. But the real question is how does Madew compare to these cards?

If we have a 10k base vanguard or are in legion, Madew lets us grab a grade 3 from the dropzone and put it into our hand. That's a free card right there. Sure its a grade 3, but they can be used for attacking if you have too many, they can be used for striding more, and for being discarded to a PG. Without having to do anything other than have a 10k vanguard you can use Madew to get the same +1 as all the other "First Strides" but without having to hit and that's really what it comes down to. Madew gets you free cards without requiring you to hit your opponent or counterblast or basically anything really. One Madew can lead into another and another and another until you run out. It seems as though its almost a strict upgrade to other "First Strides" if you have the ability to run it. The exception would be heart strides such as, Machining Destroyer, Sanctuary Regalie and others which do incredibly powerful things right from the get go.

Another advantage of Madew is that any deck can use him. This means you can use Madew to start gaining advantage in clans that don't really have a good advantage engine of their own. Take for example Dark Irregulars which are very strong, but lack a good advantage engine. You could make a build around Master of Fifth Element to use Madew to fix that problem and free up your counterblasts for lots of soulcharging. Another great example is Nova Grapplers. Their crazy powerful multi-attacks can destroy the opponent, but they lack a solid advantage engine, which Madew can fix.

But let's go back to Tim's deck. How did this deck really turn me from Madew is awesome, to Madew is a god? Well, the deck is focused around comboing Madew into Gigantech Charger which lets you superior call the top card of your deck when you call it. This turns Madew into a +2 now that Charger can be used to stride, picked up by Madew (+1) and then called (+1). I have been doing the same thing for a couple weeks with Dark Rex, but I didn't delve into other clans enough to realize that this sort of potential existed all over the place, nor did I really do the "card math". So now that I've done my research and my "card math" I can't get over how good Madew is. I don't think I would ever run a deck again that can't abuse him. Yea its a little restricting but I think its well justified (I'll probably be playing Dark Rex with Madew "DarkDew" for a long time to come anyway.)

I hope you liked my explanation of why I think Madew is one of the best cards in the game! I really like doing this sort of card analysis so you should expect so see more of it in the future once I work out my "Tech to Wreck" series and get it up and running. (Don't hold your breath, because it will be at least a couple weeks if not longer and possibly a Patron only thing, though I haven't decided yet.)

I'll try not to let my love of Madew invade Budgetguard to keep the decks diverse and interesting :)
As always thanks for reading.

~Chris