Budgetguard 26: Murakumo Updated!

Hey Cardfighters,

Murakumo got support! This is exciting because Murakumo was actually the first budgetguard I every did. Let's see what their new support brings to the budget deck!

Winning Image: Early Aggressiveness supported by "bunshin" skills


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Sticking with the same main boss from last time, Seimei provides a lot of advantage around the mid game by creating an almost full field from 1 CB especially when combined with Kuzunoha's calling effect. The main use of this card is to legion as soon as you can and pressure with a full field before your opponent is ready for it.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Like we have stayed with Semei, we also stick with Hyakki Vogue. This is because he has a great on-ride skill which lets you copy himself and then at the end of the turn the copy returns to your hand. This sets up stride plays to try to snowball the early aggression and is a super strong play for when you go first.




Deck List:
Starter: Stealth Beast, Evil Ferret
6 Crit
3 Stand (Stealth Dragon, Hidden Scroll)
3 Draw
4 Heal

G1s:
4x Stealth Fiend, Oboro Cart (0.50)
4x Stealth Fiend, White Heron (5.00)
4x Stealth Beast, Million Rat (0.30)

G2s:
4x Stealth Rogue of the Flowered Hat, Fujino (0.30)
4x Tenjiku Stealth Rogue, Dokube
4x Transformation Stealth Rogue, Kuzunoha (0.70)

G3s:
4x Onmyo Stealth Rogue, Seimei (0.50)
4x Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue "Reverse" (2.00)
1x Platinum Blond Fox Spirit, Tamamo (0.90)

G4s:
2x Ambush Demonic Stealth Dragon, Ushimitsu Train (0.50)
2x Ambush Demon Stealth Rogue, Kagamijishi (0.50)

Final Cost:  $41.20 (oops a little over budget... recorded the match before checking the prices :/ )

Deck Comments:
     Phew 40 on the dot. First you might notice the starter is Evil Ferret. This is because the ferret really helps smooth out those early turns. being able to call a grade 2 while on grade 1 or a grade 3 while your vanguard is grade 2 helps make those early rushes that much more viable. It is also very useful for being able to reuse Million Rat or Oboro Cart's skills to keep on the pressure. Lastly it lets you make aggressive plays with Grade 3s and then get them back to stride the next turn. The next "oddity" will be the lack of stride fodders in a deck that wants to stride for its late game plays. The choice for this was to maximize the ability to act early-mid game using million rat and oboro cart. The extra grade 3 helps deal with the lack of stride fodders. Overall this opens up a lot more plays than having just the stride fodder. Also a comment on why the new stuff isn't really included. Onifundo is a really good card but with a deck that wants to be aggressive the Ferret is much more valuable. Yasuie and Runstar aren't super expensive so why didn't I use them? It goes along with skew towards early- mid game. Both are really strong cards but with only 6k boosters Runestart isn't going to be doing a lot of damage to my opponent even with its skill. I don't want to use Yasuie not because its too slow but because it relies heavily on having field presence the turn before which can run counter to Ferret's ideal plan.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
    The deck has some issues striding when it wants too which is something I sacrificed to have a powerful early game. I think the deck still sits around the same power level that it was before the new support since I ended up not having much new stuff added. The ability to early rush is as strong as ever though and if you can manage it and draw well into your grade 3s to support your striding when you need it then you can easily snowball the game to victory.

Tips for Mastering:

• Plan your "bunshins" to leave your front row open. This helps give you a lot of options each turn as well as forcing your opponent to attack your vanguard where damage triggers can slow an assault and guarantee's you CB for future plays.
• Use Ferret as early as you can to provide a lot of pressure and create 3 attacks early and as often as possible.
• Some of your skills can be used to deck thin and don't forget to about Hyakki Vogue's ability to make your Bunshin's permanent by locking them. 

Tips for adding money:
     I think that the main way to add power to the deck is to fill out the stride zone. I would suggest adding in 2 Homura Raider and 2 Madew. Homura Raider excels in that late game push that the deck is lacking but the only real way to enable it is with the stand trigger so it ends up being very situational in this deck. Madew is an excellent choice to provide continuous striding over you legion where the extra trigger checks and high power of stride will secure the game. The last think you could do is trade out a few of the grade 3s for Yasuie. Personally I would only change out Tamamo for Yasuie but you could replace Hyakki with Yasuie if you want more of him.

Striding really smooths out the deck by covering spots in the aggression that you might be lacking and is very useful for the deck even though this update didn't seem to be much more than slapping on strides I feel like the deck has been tuned a bit more and works a lot better.


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

Budgetguard 24: Saint Seiya Liberators

Hey Cardfighters,

Gold paladins that resemble Gold cloth saints.... Coincidence? I think not! Channel the powers of the zodiac to gain power and superior call your allies!

Winning Image: Power Columns using our Boss' main skills.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
    These guys are totally gold cloth saints..... but as the main focus of the deck let's see what they do! Coil is the star here with a legion skill of CB2+Legion persona blast (same name as a card on your vanguard) to look at the top 4 cards of your deck and superior call 2 to separate open rearguard circles. Then those units +5k each. This effect lets you build your field as well as creating power columns to push your opponent to high damage or to finish them off. Trahern can give 2 of your rearguards +2k when he is called while you are in legion. This can be useful for getting to the right numbers.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The second grade 3 we choose is Margaux. This choice is for consistency. His effect is almost identical to Coil's except that it requires you to to especial CB liberators and return a liberator from the field to the bottom of you deck and its limited to LB4. Having another copy of the field building power gaining effect is extremely useful as it helps you have the same game plan regardless of what grade 3 you ride. Margaux is also useful for late game when you only have 1 open rearguard (the cost will open up a second.) and if you don't have any copies to discard for Coil's Effect.



Deck List:
Starter: Koronagal Liberator
8x Crit
4x Draw
4x Heal

G1s:
4x Starry Skies Liberator, Guinevere (0.25)
4x Holy Mage Bryderi (4.00)
4x May Rain Liberator, Bruno (1.40)
1x Knife Throwing Knight Maleagant

G2s:
4x Shower Liberator, Trahern (0.20)
4x History Liberator Merron
4x Taciturn Liberator Brennius

G3s:
4x Murasame Liberator, Coil (0.20)
4x Twin Blade Liberator, Margaux (0.30)

G4s:
4x Fast Chase Golden Knight, Cambell (1.13)

Final Cost: $29.92

Deck Comments:
     Let's start top down. Cambell is useful as a cover before you hit legion or limit break. Merron is a key card to dig for stride fodder or another copy of Coil to repeat the effect. Brennius helps hit even higher numbers as well as providing on hit pressure which will unflip precious counterblasts. Unflipping perfect guards are used to secure extra eounterblasts. Guinevere will provide extra defense and a use for your CB if your field is already filled. Bruno is for more power columns and Maleagant is to help with counterblasts. Lastly Koronagal is the starter because simply having it behind vanguard when using Coil's skill will pump up your VG column to 33k.

Match ups:


Overall Performance:
  
     I really enjoy playing this deck. It has the ability to create extremely strong rearguard columns which you can see in the video. Combined with stride provides excellent change ups in your tactics as well as building your field. I think the deck might be a little weak compared to some of the stronger top tiered decks but it definitely packs a punch and does so extremely consistently due to the nature of the grade 3 line up. The major downside of the deck is that Coil and Margaux need you to call into open rearguard circles so the deck can't really do much if you already have a full field.

Tips for Mastering:

• Balance calling rearguards from the field and from Coil's or Margaux's skills to benefit from the superior calling while remaining aggressive.
• Pick and choose your timings. Using Coil is best used early because it can pressure your oppponent to high damage quickly. Margaux shines late game as returning a liberator to the deck can open up the 2 spots you need for superior calling. Interweaving strides with these gives you a lot of options.
• Becareful with the PG and Maleagant. Since they aren't liberators they can mess up your counterblasts for Margaux. 

Tips for adding money:

     First I would suggest filling out the stride zone. Basic additions would just be to add 4x Rain Element, Madew. Since he lets you recycle Coils for the discard superior call effect. If you are worried about super retiring matches and don't think Coil and Margaux will be able to keep up I would try 2x Spearcross Dragon. The rest of the deck doesn't need much to improve it other than possibly switching Merrons with Phallons (12k attacker for liberators) to get consistent 16k+ attackers via G3 skills. and possibly switching out the non-liberator units just to make Margaux's LB as consistent as possible.

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

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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Today's article is brought to you with the help of donations from our patrons at Patreon.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 19: Dungaree Stride

Hey Cardfighters,

Tell your opponents to get their diapers ready cause their about to be pooped on! Poop on your opponent's front row with the king of poop "Dung"aree!
 
Winning Image: Build up your Bind Zone/Power Meter and hit hard while controlling the field with Dungaree.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The big bad boss of our deck. First he is a cross-ride for the other dungaree, meaning if you have Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree in your soul then UNLIMITED will gain +2 which makes him consistently 13k making it super easy to guard attacks since almost everything is 16k columns nowadays. UNLIMITED's lb4 is his primary skill though since you get to retire a front row, bind a card from the top of your deck and then you get +2k for each narukami in your bind zone (so everything.) this can let you get upto 21k unboosted really easily and also helps you control your opponent's front row.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The base form of UNLIMITED, Dungaree lets you bind 2 cards from the top of your deck when you ride him which helps set up UNLIMITED's power bar I mean... Bind Zone. This also leads into his LB4 which lets you return a card bound by "this card" to the bottom of the deck and then retire a front row rearguard. once per turn. This is really good since its only a cb1 effect which makes it pretty easy to get off. The more frustrating skill is the CONT ability "VC/RC, this unit gets -2k if there are no cards in your bind zone bound from this card's effect" This means you can't go too crazy with the LB4 and if you want Dungaree to be 11k on rearguard you need to have the starter. But overall a decent card mainly for cheap field control and possibly making a stack of triggers on the bottom of the deck if things work out right. (Definitely not plan A)



Deck List:
Starter: 2x  Exorcist Mage, Dan Dan (0.20)
8 Crit
4 Stand (Dragon Dancer Vianne)

G1s:
3x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia (6.80)
1x Wyvern Guard, Guld (5.00)
4x Eradicator, Egg Helm Dracokid
3x Mighty Bolt Dragoon (0.75)
2x Rising Phoenix (0.20)

G2s:
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
4x Whirlwind Axe Wielding Exorcist Knight (0.25)
3x Heat Blade Dragoon

G3s:
4x Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree (1.60)
4x Demon Conquering Dragon, Dungaree "UNLIMITED" (0.50)

G4s:
2x Lightning Dragon Knight, Zorras (0.80)

Final Cost:  $39.45

Deck Comments:
     First of lets talk about the triggers, No draw triggers with the few strides and all the self binding you'll be doing with Dungaree the deck doesn't need ways to help deck out faster especially without having a legion. We also run 2 of the starter, this is not only for just incase he gets retired but if you have 2 you can really build up your bind zone for huge numbers with UNLIMITED. The last key piece to this deck is the stand trigger. Since you can get free unflips from the stand trigger it helps a ton which grinding out games with Unlimited's CB2, Since we are running Stand Triggers then we want to use a plethora of 11k attackers as prime stand targets.

Match ups:

• VS. D. Police (Win)
• I get to go first and with 3 G3s in my hand I'm hoping I don't get rushed. When I hit grade 2 I call an attacker to start the pressure. He 1passes my vanguard but I get a crit. 3-1. He hits grade 2 and fills up his front row he goes for my vanguard which lets me get damage triggers and stop his 3rd attack. 3-3. I ride into dungaree and start binding calling my other dungaree too. He guards all my attacks. 3-3. He strides and while I want lb4 he hasn't hit many triggers so I pg to prevent loss to a double crit. lucky for me he gets a stand and I get lb4 anyway. I ride UNLIMITED to get crossride status and foolishly attack with rearguard first which prevents me from getting a retire off UNLIMITED's skill. 4-4. He calls nothing so I 2 pass his vanguard. 4-4. I go for a stride since he has no front row to retire. He guards carefully and I don't get the crit. 5-4. Luckily for me he doesn't stride and goes for and aggro play with rearguards. 5-4. I go for a high power hit with UNLIMITED and get a crit to seal the game.
• VS. DOTX (Loss) #rekt
• I get to go first but my opponent gets aggressive calling a rearguard for triggers which he gets. 0-2. He 1 passes me and I miss. 0-2. He builds his field finishing his column. 0-3. I miss crossride riding UNLIMITED first and binding with 2x dan dan. He rides DOTX and then calls a full row of attackers I 2 pas his vanguard and he goes all vanguard draw and crit. 1-5. I bind some more with a dungaree taking out his front row with my lb4. he 1 passes again and I miss. He fills up his front row with grade 3s and then legions. I don't have enough cards to guard and that's the game.
  

Overall Performance:
       The deck has really strong control potential but lacks strong attacks to finish games. The D. police game was pretty even though he didn't stride a lot which probably would have won him the game and the DOTX match I got destroyed by not hitting triggers while he was pulling them out of his butt like Kai.

Tips for Mastering:

• Find the trade off between calling grade 3s for binding and striding
• Know when to go for strides or for clearing the field with either Dungaree.
• Learn the match ups in which cross ride excels the most and take advantage of it.

Tips for adding money:
     The first order of business would be to finish up the stride zone with conquest dragons. The next is to grab the last Anastasia for more consistent unflips. Other than that I'm not sure how else to improve the deck. Probably by adding money to the grade 2s. Maybe using Garuda for more unflips to grind your opponent out with Dungaree.


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.

Today's article is brought to you with the help of donations from our patrons at Patreon.

Thanks for reading,

~Chris

Budgetguard 18: Dark Irregulars

Hey Cardfighters,

This week we get in touch with our creepy side using a Dantarian and Echo of Nemesis deck

Winning Image:  Huge Unguardable Breakride attack


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

      The key card to this strategy is King of Masks,  Dantarian. His break ride effect is that you can choose upto 3 rear guards giving them +1k for each card in the soul until end of turn. In case you didn't know it is a CONT: effect so those rearguards can get even higher if you soul charge more in that turn. This effect will let you hit super high numbers which make it hard for the opponent to guard with Echo of Nemesis' Skill.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

     The second piece to the wombo combo is Echo of Nemesis who can soul blast a grade 0 to soul charge 2 and then his limit break ability is that when you attack if you have 10 or more cards in soul then your opponent cannot call grade 1s or greater from their hand to guardian circle and he also gets +10k which means that on break ride turn he is 31k unboosted. This is the key point to our strategy.


Deck List:
Starter: Devil in Shadow
8x crit
4x draw (shirley)
4x heal

G1s:
4x Dimension Creeper
2x Bloody Calf (0.30)
4x Devil Child
4x March Rabbit of Nightmareland (3.00)

G2s:
3x Dark Soul Conductor
4x House of Amon, Psycho Grave
4x Free Traveller

G3s:
4x King of Masks, Dantarian (3.80)
4x Echo of Nemesis (1.00)

G4s:
2x Heat Elemental, Magum (4.00)

Final Cost: $39.8

Deck Comments:
     The main things in the deck build are the starter which helps set up your breakride combo as the deck is much less potent without that combo. Next the Grade 2s are mainly focused on getting your soul up with Conductor soulcharging after you guard with him and Free Traveller letting you get Dimension Creepers straight from the deck. The other odd choice might be Devil Child but a 10k vanguard booster does wonders in this deck especially with the easy cost of getting to 6 soul. 


Match ups:

• VS. Revengers (Win)
• I wish I had time to show a better game because he was grade locked at ZERO and I had a hand that was capable of rushing. I go first and after my first draw have ALL my psycho graves in hand which is pretty funny. He misses his ride and attacks getting his grade 1 but not hitting. I ride and call a front row of psycho graves. Drive checking into dantarian yesss. 2-0. He rides Dorint and attacks my vanguard which I gladly take. 2-1. I ride to grade 3 and keep attacking. 3-1. He goes to grade 2 and calls a column. He attacks my rearguards but I have back ups so I let it through. 3-2. I get up to six soul using my starter and a shirley. This lets me call a Grave and get the skill off and call the 10k booster behind my vanguard. 5-2. He rides into abyss and legions trying to recoup his lost advantage through damage. Unfortunately he drive checks 2 Stand Triggers and opts not to restand with Abyss to not waste the triggers. 5-3. I stride since I'm not at limit break and he can't guard which finishes the game. I think he would have done better if he focused my rears more to prevent me from taking advantage of his slow start.
• VS. Altmile Stride (Win)
• This game was much more fun than the previous one. My opponent went first. This meant the first attack was mine. 1-0. He gets aggressive but I get a damage trigger to put an end to that. I counter his offense by going after his rearguard and then his vanguard. 2-1. He continues his pressure with another attacker. this time he gets a crit and a heal. 1-4. Looking a littler rough for me but I do have dantarian so anything can happen. I stride to equal out the damage, but get no triggers. He misplays and thinks he can break ride at 2 damage without an LBE (which would be insane) but I let it slide cause i'm tired and I have pg anyway. 2-4. I breakride dantarian over dantarian get myself upto 6 soul. I mess up my attack pattern a little but he doesn't get any defensive triggers so it works out. 5-4. He strides and I'm worried he'll go into Saint Blow forgetting he hasn't stridden this game at all. I guard his rearguard hits and pray he doesn't get a critical on his drive check. My praying pays off and he manages to only drive check non-triggers. This sets me up perfectly for next turn for breakriding with Echo of Nemesis which I do and soul charge as much as I can getting him upto 56k. Without enough grade 0s my opponent is forced to no guard and I hit a critical trigger on my drive check luckily because he go a 6th damage heal and that's the game.

Overall Performance:
      The deck surprised me its fairly consistent and is good at what it does. The first game I played was a little unfair but it shows that the deck isn't so weak that it can still lose to a grade locked opponent. If you like to make really big numbers on top of preventing perfect guards this deck is super fun.

Tips for Mastering:

• Be careful not to soul charge/stride too much because decking out can happen.
• Keep track of how many grade 0s they are using/drive checking if you catch them at a bad time you can steal games. 
• Don't forget that Dantarian powers up rearguards too! This can prove super important.

Tips for adding money:
    The first order of business is to flesh out the G-zone by getting upto 8 G-units. I would suggest Atmos and Blizza because you don't use a lot of counter blast so you can use it with them to help get your opponent up to higher damage for Echo of Nemesis to do its thing. After that look into getting better grade 2s for the deck. My suggestions would be to replace free traveler with emblem master to provide on hit pressure and soulcharge faster. That's all I can think of for advancing this particular build, but there are a lot of other option of Dark Irregulars if you find that you enjoy the clan.

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.

If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi

Budgetguard 17: Pale Moon Circus~!!

Hey Cardfighters,

This week we go to the circus/crit town with Pale moons using the Beast tamer Legion and Luqcier Reverse.
 
Winning Image: Deck Thinning via the starter Emile


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

     The main boss of the deck is Cracking Beast Tamer, The ability to legion critical triggers back into the deck is key. Along with her first ability which is when anything is place on rearguard from soul she get s+3k. Which instantly gives her +9k using her legion skill. "When this unit Legions CB2: soul charge 2 and choose up to 3 units from your soul and call them to rearguard. This lets you fill up the field gaining hand advantage or recovering from field destruction skills. As well as call Emile from the soul to use her ability more.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

     The secondary boss was chosen for us since it hast to be silver thorn and the only one which lands in our price range is Luquier "Reverse". her limit break abilty is good since you can get a use out of emile every single turn which makes your deck nothing but triggers or allows you to gain advantage slowly which is good against rushing decks.


Deck List: (cost, anything without a price is a common)
Starter: Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emile
12 crit
4 heal

G1s:
4x Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina
4x Silver Thorn, Breathing Dragon
2x Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana
4x Silver Thorn Assistant Zelma (0.50)

G2s:
4x Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica (0.30)
3x Silver Thorn, Rising Dragon (0.40)
4x Barking Sky Tiger (1.00)

G3s:
4x Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Reverse" (4.50)
4x Cracking Beast Tamer (1.00)

G4s:
2x Heat Element, Magum (4.00)

Final Cost: 38.8


Deck Comments:
     This first thing to note about the deck is that its 12 crit. This is because the deck can thin for non triggers easily making you chances of double critting very high. Also the boss cards are capable of generating lots of advantage which means you don't really need the draw triggers. We area lso not using the silver thorn perfects which are too expensive for our budget as it requires strides to enhance trigger checking capabilities even more. Another important thing is that we don't use any perfect guards. This is because it is a very aggressive build and can gain a lot of advantage on its own. I had to choose between non-silver thorn PGs and Luquier Reverse and I decided it was more important to keep Silver thorn targets for Emile to reinforce the game plan.

Match ups:

• VS. RE-birth (Loss)
•  This game starts out iffy with only a grade 1 grade 2 and 3 triggers in my opening hand. I take a damage to be able to maricica's skill next turn and start an offensive. I get 3 strong attacks in but I realize now that I could have done 4 but I am not experienced enough with pale moons. 4-1. He tries to get my field down by going after rears but I have the shield necessary. 4-2. I don't top deck my grade 3 but I am in a really good position so I don't g-assist and use emile followed by irina. Unfortunately for me emile hits a grade 3. so I continue my offense. 4-2. My opponent rides to grade 3 lucky him and I continue to protect my rearguards and take a rearguard crit attack. 4-4. Still no grade 3s I go for taking out his rearguards this time to slow my death, he 1 to passes but my trigger luck stops and I don't get it. 4-4. He has almost no cards in hand but manages to stride anyway which I have to take but he gets no crits. 4-5. Yet again a grade 3 avoids me and I can't punch through his defenses.
• VS. Abyss (Win)
• With  no grade 2 in hand grade lock seems to curse me this week. Luckily I use my plethora of grade ones to put up an offensive 2-1. He responds with a full front row of grade 2s and hits my rears. 2-2. I have to g-assist, but I get marcica and he takes a crit. 4-2. I take rearguard hits but block judgebau. This sets me up for legion with beast tamer. I fill up my field and attack with beast tamer at 36k (boosted) I guess he didn't have enough shield in hand or even if he did he would lose to a crit so he no guards and I get the crit for the victory.

Overall Performance:
      Grade locked plagued me during my testing. I didn't use G-assist a lot because I want my strides for when my deck is mostly triggers and there are only 2, as well as the fact that marcica puts in a soo much work its okay to stay on her. The deck performed excellent the early crits really strengthen silver thorns rushing abilities and give a good late game with deck thinning and striding. The lack of pgs didn't turn out to be a huge problem as it let me be more aggressive and there were not a lot of situations where I needed them.

Tips for Mastering:

• Figure out whether its better to stay on marcica or ride to grade 3. 
• Take a breath before making a decision pale moon has a ton of options and it can be easy to get lost in them. Its up to you to figure them all out.
• The deck thinning strategy may not always be the best way to go so learn the match ups. deck thinning gives you a good late game but sometimes you can aggro them out before they can even get going.

Tips for adding money:
    The Two most important things are PGs and STRIDES. Prioritize getting those and the deck should be pretty complete. After that you need to focus on the deck thinning style or the hyper aggressive style and you may want to add even more money to go for a pure silver thorn build.



I tried out a new format for the deck costs did you like it? Is it better or worse than the previous style? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.
If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi

Budgetguard 16: Spike Brothers

Hey Cardfighters,

This week we explore the world of American Football... JK ITS SPIKE BROTHERS! Unfortunately Spike Brothers doesn't have a lot of options so there wasn't much to work with.

Winning Image: Early Legion to get damage in quick followed by Striding


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

      The main boss of this deck is Bloody Ogle. He has a non legion effect of "CB2 put a card from your hand into your soul: when this unit attacks a vanguard you may pay the cost if you do search your deck for a card and place it on an open rearguard, shuffle your deck." This lets you get of extra attacks during the battle phase and helps with a little bit of utility. The Legion effect is during the turn you legion when your rearguard attacks it gets +5k power and they are returned to the bottom of the deck. This will allow you to make early aggressive pushes to get the opponent to high damage. (3.80)


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

     The secondary grade 3 is the other legion unit. Emerald Blaze. The non-legion skill is "SB2: this unit gets +2k" This has applications in infinite re-legioning not that you should need it as well as clearing out soul if you have built up a ton of it. The legion skill isn't useful in this deck so I will not go over it. It is much too costly for what it does. (0.6)

Other notable cards are 4x QWs (0.50) 4x Frozen Ogle (2), 1x Silver Blaze (0.5) 4x Mason (0.5)

Cost: 30.1

Filling in the rest of the cost we can add 2x Magum (4)

Final Cost: $38.1


Deck List:

Starter: Mecha Trainer
4 Crit
8 draw
4 heal

G1s:
4x Baron Amadeus
4x Cyclone Blitz
4x Machine-gun Gloria
2x Commander Gary, Gannon

G2s:
4x Dudley Mason
3x Frozen Ogle
3x Jumbo, the Stungun
1x Silver Blaze

G3s:
4x Bloody Ogle
4x Emerald Blaze

G4s:
2x Heat Element, Magum

Deck Comments:
     The first thing to note i the 8 draw 4 crit. This is because Spike bros are very combo heavy and getting the right set up can determine if you win or lose. Cyclone Blitz may seem like an odd choice but he hit's 9k grade 2s by himself meaning you can rush more consistently as well as using up soul/filling the dropzone for legion.  The only other thing is that we use a lot of copies of Jumbo the Stungun to set up "free" attacks by unflipping precious counterblasts.

Match ups: 

•  VS. Metalborgs (Loss) 
• I get to go first, but I am forced to ride Jumbo, I mecha trainer out gary gannon to help filter my hand from draw triggers. He calls out a rear guard attacker and swings 1-2. I ride into Bloody Ogle and crit him 3-2. He is grade stuck so I guard easily an start my aggression calling out a column and another attacker. 4-2. He rides barrengrater and goes into sinbuster which I have to take. This lets him recover some by drawing and retiring one of my units. 4-3. I go for a legion to try to take him out he guards my rearguards and I pull out a grade 3 for more attacking power and he no guards. I get a crit but he damages a draw and a HEAL! my next attack isn't strong enough to go through. 5-3. He strides and then calls a full field including laurel. I have barely enough in my hand to 2 pass but he manages to get it and with my hand gone that's game. 
• VS. Amon (Win)
• My opponent goes first. and I try to rush with dudley mason's skill bringing out jumbo for an unflip and then sending him back to draw a card with gloria. but he has the guard. 1-1. He goes aggressive right back calling a a column and a 12k attacker. 3-2. I am grade locked but I do what I can to pressure him with dudley. 3-3 He g assists into amon and then soul charges a ton which makes me damage a grade 3 :/ 3-4/ I top deck Emerald Blaze though and without enough cards in my dropzone I opt to legion. (This is a misplay I should have soulblasted for Blaze and then legioned to keep cards. I get a 2 3s and a heal while he drops a PG. 3-3. He rides into Amon Reverse. but I guard  2 pass with my quintet wall. He gets no triggers and i guard his other attacks easily. 3-4. I ride into Bloody Ogle and go for another stride which he PGs again. This time I face a 39k Amon Reverse and I guard with all my shield for 2 pass. No triggers. I take his next attack and go for game by legioning and calling 2 grade 3 attackers. He messes up and misguards which gives me. a chance and I finish the game by calling out Silver Blaze with Bloody Ogle.

Overall Performance:
     The deck seems pretty decent. Not as powerful as the usual spike brothers build due to the lack of Bad End Dragger, but the early rushing abilities combo'd with the late game stride power can take opponent's off guard.

Tips for Mastering:

• Ask yourself if its better to legion or stride?
• Learn the best units to call out with dudley and Ogle

Tips for adding money:
     Bad End Dragger and PGs. Those are your priorities. When you add them the winning image of the deck changes slightly but the performance jumps up a ton. Once you have those you should focus on attaining more stride units. Other than a few tech options that aren't expensive at all that's all you can do as spike brother's don't have a lot of depth.


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.

If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi

Budgetguard 15: Reverse Daiyusha

Hey Cardfighters,

This week we explore the world of JUSTICE and CORRUPTION with a deck based around Reverse Daiyusha and Dark Superhuman Omega
Winning Image: Use Dark Superman to setup Reverse Daiyusha Crossride.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

The main boss of the deck is Dark Dimensional Robo, Reverse Daiyusha. He has 2 skills the first is a lb4 which is "Lock 2 Dimensional Robos and CB1: Give your opponent's vanguard -10k" This is equivalent to a huge boost in power to your whole front row and makes it really hard for your opponent to guard. The second ability is a crossride effect "When Daiyusha is in the soul +2k power" This effect lasts all the time so it gives you a 13k defense which makes it really easy to guard against the common 16k columns of the current meta. (3) Daiyusha (0.30)


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

Rather than talking about Daiyusha, our secondary boss is actually Dark Superhuman, Omega a G-unit. When Omega is placed on VG then you can "Counter Blast 2, Soul Blast 1 and then choose a unit and move it into the soul: Your opponent's front row gets minus power equal to the original power of the unit put into the soul." This lets you make aggressive plays by reducing power and then it allows you to put Daiyusha into the soul to give crossride defense. (2.30)

Cost: 22.40

The for Grade 2 we have 3x Bugreed (N/A) 4x Dailady (N/A) and 4x Daidragon (1.30)

and in Grade 1s we get 3x Quintet Wall (0.9) and 4x Grandrope (0.50) 3x Dailion (N/A) and 3x Daitiger (N/A)

Final Cost: 32.3

Deck List:
Starter: Dimensional Robo, Daishoot
6x Stand
2x Crit
4x Draw

G1s:
3x Metalborg Bryknuckle
3x Dimensional Robo, Daitiger
3x Dimensional Robo, Dailion
4x Cosmic Hero, Grandrope

G2s:
4x Dimensional Robo, Daidragon
4x Super Dimensional Robo, Dailady
3x Fusion Monster, Bugreed

G3s:
4x Dark Dimensional Robo, "Reverse" Daiyusha
4x Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha

G4s:
4x Dark Superhuman, Omega

Deck Comments:

     The reason we run the trigger line-up as seen above is because the power reduction of Reverse and Omega make them really strong but we still want Crits to apply pressure. The only other odd things are only having 3 Quintet Walls because the Perfect Guards don't fit the budget and the deck uses a lot of counter blasts so you wouldn't be able to use them much anyway. Lastly is Bugleed who is super good at rushing and also gives easy draws when you reduce their vanguards power adding a lot to your on hit pressure. The other thing to do would be to fill out the G-zone with cards like X-Rogue and X-Tiger

Match ups:

•  VS. Cosmic Heroes (Win)
• I went first and started with a super aggressive hand of all 3 bugreeds. This let me apply a ton of pressure to his vanguard cause if any of my attacks hit I would get to draw. I only got to draw once because triggers put him above 8k power. 3-1. I ride into Reverse and call Daiyusha to the field to set up the crossride combo the next turn. He didn't call any rearguards so I pressure him with attacks more 4-2. H has to G assist to get Grandgallop and then strides X-rogue and I let it hit since  I'm still at 2 damage and he doesn't have laurel or anything He gets a heal. 3-3. I go for the Omega Combo and drop him to 1k power. I get a draw off of a bugleed and swing vanguard. He no guards Omega but no crits. 5-3. He strides again and calls 2 grandfires and 2 stands to boost them. I let his rear guard attack hits so that I can focus my guard on his vanguard. I got for a 3 to pass to not take chances. 5-5. On my turn I opt for lb4 rather than striding he guards bugleed but ngs the vanguard and I get the win.
•  VS. Spike Brothers (Loss)
• My opponent gets to go first. And I start off aggressive by calling an extra attacker. 2-0. He responds with his own aggro filling up his front row. 2-2. I push back with my own front row, but he gets a heal. 2-2. He has an almost full field and starts taking out my rears. I'm forced to ride Daiyusha and stride Omega with no skill. He has the perfect guards though and I don't get much damage in. 3-2. He attacks again and gets a crit which puts me in a bad spot. 3-5. I go to stride Omega again and put a 7k into the soul. I get to call bugreed but he gets his limit break and guards the rest. 4-5. I don't have much guard and he barely breaks through. 4-6. Loss.

Overall Performance:
     The deck did fairly well. Setting up the Crossride is super easy since you either ride Daiyusha first or you shove him into the soul with Omega. (Latter is usually the better) This makes it much easier to guard your opponent and you should be able to slowly pull ahead because of that and forcing them to guard a lot each turn by using all the minus power skills.


Tips for Mastering:

• Find the optimal attack patterns for your stands 
• Learn when it is better to use Reverse VS. Omega's skills

Tips for adding money:
     I'm honestly not sure how you would add money to this deck other than upgrading the Quintet Walls to Perfect Guards. You could look into adding Cosmic Hero support to give 4k power all around which will make it even hard for your opponent to guard. Edit: 6/4/2015 one of my readers pointed out a few options to me that I hadn't thought of before. You can add extra consistency to the crossride by using Daiyards, to fetch reverse/put daiyusha into the soul and a combo of gocannon and Daiearth the get daiyusha into the soul and give your stride a crit. I will likely do an update on this deck in the future so please look forward to it!


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.

If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi

Budgetguard 14: Shadow Paladin Revengers

Hey Cardfighters,

This week I build a deck with a sweet combo that I've always wanted to put into practice. Darkbond Trumpeter into Crisis Revenger, Fritz allows you to fill up your back row extremely easy.

Winning Image: Get early advantage and ride it to victory.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

The main boss of the deck is going to be Ambitious Spirit Revenger, Cormack. His first ability is that he gets +3k when there is another unit in the same column. But more importantly his legion ability is when he attacks you can retire one of your own units to give it +1 critical. The second effect is key to providing extra pressure on your attacks which will carry over your advantage into later in the game. (0.80)


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

 Our back up boss is Halberd Revenger, Peredur. His limit break ability bring his on par with Cormack by having you CB1 and retire 2 units when it attacks to give +10k and a critical. This will help you give pressure while his second ability helps fill the field by calling out dark bond straight from the deck.(0.60)

Cost after Grade 3s: 5

For Grade 2s 3x Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart (3), 4x Masquerade (2)

In the Grade 1 we have 4x QW (1.20) 4x Dark Bond (0.20)

Cost: 27.60

With $12 left we can fit in 3x Magums in the Gzone.

Final Cost: 39.60

Deck List:
Starter: Witch of Banquet, Lir
12x crit
4x heal
3x Crisis Revenger, Fritz

G1s:
4x Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
4x Hellrage Revenger, Quesal
4x Transient Revenger, Masquerade

G2s:
3x Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart
4x Revenger of Nullity, Masquerade
4x Darkness Revenger, Rugos

G3s:
4x Ambitious Spirit Revenger. Cormack
3x Halberd Revenger, Peredur

G4s:
3x Heat Elemental, Magum

Deck Comments:
      The first thing to notice is that we are running a witch starter. This is because it gets 2 grade 0s when you hit and boost during legion. This will allow you to call out 2 Fritz for no cost and is the main reason we run Cormac as our main boss so we can consistently and easily fill the field.


Match ups:

• Vs. DOTX
• I started out first with no grade 3s in hand but lots of grade 2s. This allowed me to rush really hard. By the end of my grade 2 turn he was at 2 dmg and I drive checked my grade 3. He did a counter offensive. 2-2. I opt to stay on grade 2 and continue to rush. He uses up a lot of guard and goes to 3. He cleans pops Lir with gatling claw. 3-4. I go into grade 3 and legion with 2 macarts on the board to gain board position. this lets me call dark bond into lir, and a masquerade into the last spot in my back row. I add pressure using Cormack's skill but he guards. 3-4. He goes to stride but I PG. I hti him with the crit from cormack but again pull no triggers. Lir gets to go off. and gets me 2 fritz. 5-4. My opponent strides root flare and uses a gatling claw to retire the rest of my field. I opt to go for another legion to refill the field with my macart. I manage to not drive check any triggers again. 5-4. He goes into DOTG which wipes out my rears. I don't have enough guard and he gets the crit to end the game.
• VS. Nova
• My opponent got to start the game off, and the first few turns were pretty uneventful just trading vanguard blows. When we hit grade 2 I went all out calling Macart, Rugos and filling my boosters with darkbond -> fritz. 4-1. He opts not to go to grade 3, I assume to prevent me from using legion/stride and advancing my lead. He targets my rearguards. 4-1. I know I have the advantage so I stay at grade 2 and fill up my field again and he no guards my vanguard and I get the crit to win the game.

Overall Performance:
       I was very surprised and happy with this deck. Its potential for early field advantage and rushing is really high. Usually you can put yourself in a good position to win the game. My Nova opponent got critted at an unlucky time but he was put in a really hard spot by my quick rushing. My DOTX opponent got really lucky and I managed not to drive check ANY triggers at all the whole game but even then I was still really close to winning. I think this deck is a good example of how rush decks are really strong in the current meta.
 

Tips for Mastering:

• Don't be afraid of staying at grade 2. A lot of times you have more rear guards than them and can beat out other players who stay at grade 2
• If you legion Lir back into the deck you can get her out with dark bond to help recover your field against crazy field retires.

Tips for adding money:
     The obvious way to add money to this deck would be to use Revenger Phantom Blaster "Abyss" to replace Cormack and Macart, but you also lose out a little on your ability to create advantage. Overall it should be a good upgrade. The other way to make the deck better is to add in more useful stride units like Atmos.

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.

If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi

Budgetguard 13: Schwarzschild Freeze Ray

Hey Cardfighters,

This week we have a super anti aggro deck for you with a combination of Schwarzschild Dragon and Freeze Ray
Winning Image: Get a ton of early advantage and ride it to victory.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

The main boss of the deck will actually be Freezeray Dragon. This is because he allows for free locks via damage adders and completely shuts down any rearguard dependent strategies. The LB effect is that whenever something is locked he gets +3k. But his non-limit break is the real killer. everytime a card is placed into your damage zone you lock an opponent's rearguard. This means that you can actually lock your opponent's rearguards during THEIR attack phase. This will allow you to mitigate early damage with ease. Cost: 0.40


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

Schwarzschild Dragon is the secondary boss of the deck. While we have the ride chain the deck is not dependent on it. Shwarzschild can be used to triangle lock your opponent and then pressure them with the power boost and crit. This is from the its LB4 effect "CB3, persona blast: Lock 3 of your opponent's rearguards and then this unit gets +10k and a crit" He also has an on ride effect of "CB1: look at the top 5 cards of the deck and search for Shwarzschild Dragon and put it into your hand". This helps enable the LB4 effect which makes the card work very well as a finisher. Cost: 3

Cost so far: 10.60

For grade 2s our non-commons are 4x Osmium, (0.50) 4x Gravity Collapse Dragon (0.25), and 3x Negligible Hydra (N/A)

For grade 1s we get 4x Gravity Ball Dragon (N/A), 3x PG (5.60) 1x QW (1) 4x Damage adder (N/A) 2x Nickel (N/A)

Total Cost: 29.65

Then with 2x Magum (4)


Final Cost: 37.65

Deck List:
Starter: Micro-Hole Dracokid
8x Crit
4x Draw
4x Heal

G1s:
4x Gravity Ball Dragon
3x Refusing Deletor, Evil
1x Star-vader, Rejection Dragon
4x Imaginary Orthos
2x Deception Star-vader, Nickel

G2s:
4x Flash Gun Star-vader, Osmium
4x Gravity Collapse Dragon
3x Negligible Hydra

G3s:
4x Star-vader, Freeze Ray Dragon
4x Schwarzschild Dragon

G4s:
2x Heat Elemental, Magum

Deck Comments:
       In this deck we use a mix of ride chain to get some free bonuses if you can get it to work. And then the damage adders which will help bump upto limit break early as well as enable essentially free retires via Freezeray Dragon. Nickel is used to help you filter hand while you are being attacked as well as free filtering if Nickel is out as you use the ride chain.Osmium will help apply early pressure with locks provided by the ride chain.

Match ups: (opp dmg - my dmg)

•  Shadow Paladin Witches

• He gets to start first and I miss the ride chain :( I draw into Freeze Ray and ride him to prevent him from going super aggro. Striding to apply pressure and get him to higher damage. Unfortunately I only get a whiffed heal trigger. 3-1. He strides which I perfect guard and then take his rearguard hit which in retrospect was a bad idea considering that I could have guarded easily and the lock didn't really help me. I stride again to try to aggro him down but I get a pg and no triggers again. He gains advantage using Fianna's skills and reduces my field down to only Grade 0s. He calls an attacker but I can block it of by no guarding and locking. This lets him use the starter to unflip and soul charge which may have been a misplay in retrospect. I use my damage adder to lock up his field some and call osmium to go for omega locks. He takes attacks smartly to avoid osmium. 4-3. He draws even more off fiana and reduces my field to 0s yet again. I guard attacks to prepare for taking a lot of damage on his game winner turn. Another damage adder comes out to lock up his field some. Unfortunately I'm not really able to whittle down his hand. 5-3. He goes into "Final Turn" dropping me to -10k power and attacking so that I have to bank on him not getting a crit which he does. 

• Thavas Aqua Force

•  I start second but I have both grade 1 and 2 of the ride chain in my hand. With a ton of grade 2s I plan to go on the offensive early. My opponent beats me to it and I take an early hit which gets me a crit trigger nullifying his attack pattern, I let his vanguard hit and a crit regains his position. 1-4. I don't draw into my grade 3 but the ride chain lets me lock down an important column for him. I then play out my osmiums and pressure him to get the omega lock. which was guaranteed with the heal I got. He g-assists to get Thavas and attacks I no guard to conserve cards but Schwarzschild goes into the damage. Luckily I G-assist into him and lock his starter. Using the on ride to guarantee me either stride fodder or a super lock crit turn. I go aggresive again to hit with osmium. Which works out. and his rearguard stays locked shutting down the column. He draws into a stride fodder and goes into attacks. I protect my osmiums and pg his vanguard attack. 4-5. The only trigger he gets is a draw so next turn I opt to use Schwarzschild's persona blast to lock the rest of his field which gets rid of his interceptor. He guards 1 pass successfully but doesn't get the heal he needs to survive.

Overall Performance:
       From these two decks we can see 2 things. This deck has TERRIBLE power plays. Your biggest power play is a generic stride. This means against a controlling vanguard centric deck you can be shut down really easily. However as you can see in the case of the Aqua Force match up you can really shut down rear guard dependent clans. Going into GBT-02 This will become really important as cutting off attackers in a multi attack turn will totally crush their momentum.

Tips for Mastering:

• Get good with Freezeray's effect. This will make the biggest difference.
• Learn when to call damage adders as boosters/attackers even without using the skill.
• Master attack patterns which maximize your ability to hit with osmium

Tips for adding money:
     NUMBER 1 PRIORITY. Fill out the deck's stride units. Freezeray functions the best when you stride every turn because it gives you a high offensive and an obnoxious defense. My loss to Witches wouldn't have been so over whelming if I had more stride units. The next thing you should look into is Volt line, who has the same ability as osmium to maximize the effectiveness of your ride chain. Also since the deck isn't good at making power columns its better to focus on on hit pressure. In this vein I would also suggest getting Astro Reapers to supply your hand with grade 3s to stride with. Both of these should replace damage adders as they are only useful when freeze ray is your vanguard and you didn't stride which ideally won't ever happen. You can also decide to follow the Freezeray path or the Schwarzschild build path and focus on one over the other.


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.

If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi

Cardfight Budgetguard 11: Ethics Buster Reverse

Hey Cardfighters,

This week I'm bringing you the infinite hell of Ethics Buster Reverse combined with LBE.

Winning Image: Restanding Vanguard for dayyysss.

(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
Obviously our boss unit is the big bad Deadliest Ethics Buster "Reverse" who is a crossride for Ethics Buster, and has a Limit Break 4 ability which is. "Counter Blast 2, Discard 2 Beast Deity cards, Lock 2 Nova Grappler Units: After the battle that this unit attacks you may Stand it. This ability cannot be used for the rest of the turn." This allows you to restand your vanguard at a decent cost but when combined with the limit break enabler you only really need 2 damage to start restanding. This is the bread and butter of the deck Cost: 1.50

(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
For the second boss I wanted to use Beast Deity Azure Dragon, his ability can work before limit break or generation break and it is. If you attack hits the vanguard you an discard a copy of Azure dragon and choose two of your units and stand them. By doing this you can add extra pressure to your vanguard attacks during the mid game. Cost 1.25

So Far: 11

For Grade 2s The Rs are Street Bouncer (0.20)  and Hatred Chaos  (0.70)

For Grade 1s we must consider the Perfect guards (4) 

This deck doesn't need strides but we will use 4x Meteorkaiser Vic-ten  (0.50) as a back up.


Final Cost: $33

Deck List:

Starter: Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh
4x Beast Deity, Crit
4x Red Lightning
4x Beast Deity, Draw
4x Beast Deity, Heal

G1s:
4x Beast Deity, Solar Falcon
4x Beast Deity, Frog Master
4x Clay-doll Mechanic
2x Beast Deity, Desert Gator

G2s:
4x Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos
3x Hungry Dumpty
4x Street Bouncer

G3s:
4x Beast Deity, Azure Dragon
4x Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster "Reverse"

G4s:
4x Meteorkaiser, Vic-ten

Deck Comments:
     Miraoh Serves a lot of purposes, Either to grab stride fodder for next turn, copies of Azure Dragon to provide pressure, to get another beast deity in your hand and most importantly to ensure you ride Ethics Buster "R". We don't use all Beast Deity Triggers because Red lightning can unflip damage which is the main limiter for using "Reverse's" skill over and over. Clay doll and Dumpty help with that as well and Street bouncer and energy charger are meant to keep you hand up so that you can have enough beast deities.

Match ups: (opp dmg - my dmg)

• Vs. Revengers (Lumicus)
• I got to go first which ended up working out well for me.  I move miraioh into a side column to set up a combo with street bouncer. Next turn I call street bouncer in front resting them both to draw and then using miraioh to search for a grade 3 and hit Reverse. I call clay doll to unflip and attack. We trade some blows and I ride Reverse at grade 3. Calling Frogmaster and using the LB4 skill while my opponent is still at grade 2. I only hit a draw trigger but he uses up a perfect guard and takes two damage. 3-2.  He rides into Mordred phantom to prepare for break ride turn and strides. I block the stride to prevent judgebau from going off, he gets a crit and I decide to guard and intercept with my street bouncer to not take 2 damage. I unflip one damage with hungry dumpty and lb4 again managing only to hit one crit. I take out his rear guard and he drops a perfect on my column with a crit. He doens't stride or break ride but I choose to prevent judgebau from going off with a perfect and he hits a crit which I decide to take to fuel Counter blasts for my next turn and i hit a heal yay! 3-3. I lb4 again on my turn. he 1 passes and I get a draw. he 1 passes again and I get a heal. I get one more attack in and he gets the 6th damage heal. :/ 6-3. He manages to top deck Abyss and goes into break ride turn. I guard but I have to let Judgebau hit this time he gets a crit but I manage to get 2 damage checked triggers to boost up my defense. He miscalculates some things which ends up with me over guarding his next vanguard attack (probably what lost me the game) I'm able to gain a little hand with street bouncer and lb4 again. He 1 passes and no luck. no passes the next one and then perfect guards my rearguard. I got no triggers and 2 grade 3s so I basically can't guard at all since he survived. I'm forced to try to heal with one left in deck and he gets another crit for game.
•  VS. Gears (beats)
• My opp. goes first. I get a pretty good hand to set up the street bouncer combo again and I already have frog masters. Unfortunately I miss miraioh but I play a booster for my vanguard and attack. 2-1. On my turn I ride reverse and go right into lb4 using frog master and calling a full field. He 2 to passes my first attack with 2 draws. I get 2 heals both going to vanguard since I will restand. apparently he has not much to guard with and I end up hitting him to 5. 5-1. He strides into chronos command which can wipe my whole field. I guard it so I don't fall too far behind. and he goes after my rear to keep me at 1 so I cant lb4. A weak turn follows but I manage to hit a crit to push out more guard. 5-1. He strides chronos command AGAIN I guard it again to not lose 3 units to its effect. and take 1 damage from the rearguard. 5-2 I'm barely able to lb4 but it works out. He 2 passes, no triggers, then 2 passes, no triggers. and finally perfects my rearguard column. On his turn he strides lost age dragon and rewinds most of my field after hitting. I take damage to get to lb4 (I have no enablers left). and use it once again. 2 to pass, no triggers, 2 pass first draw all to van. second nothing. and he easily guard my last attack. 5-4. He strides into Ragnaclock, luckily the draw got me a perfect guard. He gets super offenive but pulls no triggers. I mess up here. I take one damage and then guard with my draw trigger. but this prevents me from playing an attacker when I lb4 next turn to put triggers on/ apply pressure since I only had 2 other beast deities. I lb4 anyway but with only my vanguard attacking he 2 passes I get a trigger then 1 passes and no triggers. 5-5. He attacks with chronojet forcing me into only grade 0s which I guard 1 pass but he get a draw and heal for game. 

Overall Performance:
     This deck was amazing to say the least. The pressure of a constantly restanding vanguard is huge. and it has a good balance of beast deities so there isn't usually problems with that except when I messed up that last game. Both games were extremely close and came down to a few trigger checks. I'm really happy with the deck and will probably be my go to for fun deck for a while.
 
Tips for Mastering:

• Know what to discard for "Reverse"
• Knowing what to lock to maximize your attacking power. 
• I want to confirm this with bushiroad but I believe that you can use "Reverse" active twice in one turn to restand 3 times. It would cost 4 cb and 4 cards from hand but it might be a good choice in some scenarios.

Tips for adding money: 
     There is really only one thing you can do for this deck and that's add the Ethics buster breakride. Not only will it give you a monstrous breakride turn but it also acts as a crossride. You can also go for the Vic-plasma strides which have a similar ability to Reverse but work on a much higher power level. This is more important for games when you can't draw Frog Master and helps the deck be consistent. 


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

If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi

DOTX Deck Profile (Not-so-Budgetguard)

Hey Cardfighters!

This article is the opposite of budget. We are talking about the infamous DOTX. The whole deck sits around $300 which is basically 10x my proposed budget.

My build for DOTX is built mainly to have an advantage in the mirror match. I'll start with the deck list and then go through my choices.

Starter: Lizard Soldier, Fargo
6x Crit
4x Gatling Claw Dragon
2x Seal Dragon, Artpique
4x Heal

Grade 3:
4x Dragonic Overlord, "The X"
3x Dragonic Overlord, The End
2x Dragonic Overlord (Breakride)

Grade 2:
3x Perdition Dragon Knight, Ilham
3x Berserk Dragon
3x Twilight Arrow Dragon
2x Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame

Grade 1:
4x Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon (PG)
4x Lava Flow Dragon
3x Eternal Bringer Griffin
2x Dragonic Gaias

Grade 4:
4x Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud
4x  Flame Emperor Dragon King, Root Flare

Alright First Lets talk about why I'm not running Calamity Tower, Burning Horn, Burnout, DOTG, and Red Pulse as the majority of DOTX builds if not all are built that way.

• I don't like Burning Horn
• I think that 12k attackers are good-to-okay. They shine the most in aggressive decks when you can call them as attackers when your opponent is at grade 1. In DOTX they basically exist to justify calamity tower wyvern which I think is kinda dumb.
• Red Pulse is terrible if you go second.
• If your opponent goes first then your pretty much always going to be hitting 1k less everytime you attack until you get rid of red pulse. Thats super easy 10k no-pass situations for your opponent and can let them really pull ahead. Not to mention that its effect can miss.
• Calamity Tower is good but it does not justify  Red Pulse or Burning Horn
• Yes Calamity Tower lets you loop DOTX while getting a free card and in general gives a bit of advantage to Kagero which really needs it. But it doesn't justify 14k columns with your 9k grade 2s. (Your grade 3s are more useful for striding, re-legioning, and DOTX/DOTE effects. So you won't really want to call them to rear). Nor does omg omg turn two Red Pulse into Calamity Tower.
• DOTG is Good
• This doesn't make sense If DOTG is good then why am I not running it? First it forces you to run a good amount of Neo-flame which I think is underwhelming is most situations. So I don't want to be constrained to running 3-4. You'll notice that Neoflame is Still in the deck and I'll go over that later but its not at amounts which justify running DOTG. 
• Dragonic Burnout
• Another thing that's missing is Dragonice Burnout. This is because He is very situational, you need an overlord in the drop zone and you need soul. This is great for putting Overlords back into the deck to re-legion more but I had it at 1 for a while and I never found it super useful and there was never a situation where I was dying to have it.

Grade 3 Analysis:

• 4x DOTX
• Duh
• 3x DOTE
• Some people like to run 4x DOTE but 3 is plenty as you can search him out with the legion skill and you generally don't want to ride him.
• 2x DO (Breakride)
• This is a hedge against being aggro'd down and serves as a replacement ride to DOTE which you can search out with Eternal Bringer Griffin.

 Grade 2 Analysis:

• 3x Perdition Dragon Knight, Ilham
• Legion-Looping + a free-retire is a sure way to totally shut down a lot of decks. Especially if it goes unchecked.
• 2x Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame
• He is at 2 because he can help you wipe out columns with ease. If your opponent is going aggressive by making a column then you can punish them really hard with this forcing them to guard attacks or lose a column. In the more common case when your opponent calls 2 attackers to go aggressive neo-flame doesn't really help out too much.
• 3x Beserk Dragon
• CLASSIC. Berserk Dragon may seem totally outclassed in today's super efficient counterblast usage, but he is still a wonderful inclusion in the deck. The key thing to remember is that you don't have to use his ability. In fact most games you won't, but the situations where you get rushed (mentioned above) by 2 rear guard attackers you can retire 1 and attack the other which will force your opponents assault to slow down. 
• 3x Twilight Arrow Dragon
• CB1 for retire 1 of anything. Could you ask for anything more? Yes it has to be boosted but you can always use draw triggers. This kinda takes the place of Burnout but is less restrictive. In my opinion atleast.

 Grade1:

• 4x Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon (PG)
• A good old standard PG. This is the biggest hedge against the mirror since you can PG a rear-guard to prevent DOTX legion from restanding. This can prevent your opponent from either recovering or getting ahead of you. Yes you can also use triggers but why give up options if you have to.
• 4x Lava Flow Dragon
• STRIDE! Strides are really good. Especially Root Flare. Having access to them constantly and without having to drop your precious DOTEs or DOTXs can be really useful. Plus its a 7k to go with your grade 2s
• 3x Eternal Bringer Griffin
• This is the one of the reasons we run DO (breakride) and he serves as a psuedo Red Pulse allowing you to drop a DOTE to get the DO so you don't have to ride it. Doesn't get used that often but I've played about 20 tournament matches IRL with the deck now and I've only been forced to ride DOTE once which seems pretty good.
• 2x Dragonic Gaias
• What would DOTX be without Legion-Looping. Unlike Calamity Tower a single Gaias can let you Legion-Loop infinitely and get a crit every turn. This puts a lot of pressure on your opponent and almost guarantee's your win in the long run. (Forces them to guard at 4 damage)

Grade 0s:

• Lizard Soldier Fargo
• So instead of Red Pulse we use this guy because he is a 5k which lets you hit your opponent's easily. Also he allows you to apply extra pressure on any attack. And demolish your opponent's field if you breakride. He ends up being an even trade or forcing your opponent to guard when its bad for them to keep their field.
•  Gatling Claw
• Many decks are reliant on their starter so having an easy way to snipe it is always good. 

 Mirror Match Theory:
      So this deck is built to beat the mirror match but how is that exactly? The over arching principle is that the DOTX mirror is a war of attrition so we have to take advantages where we can. If our deck starts off with more inherent advantage then we start off the war of attrition ahead rather than even. This means we are more comfortable the whole game.

•  Take out losses from Red Pulse
• By running Fargo we almost guarantee that we will get a 1-for-1 with our starter where Red Pulse isn't guaranteed. Also if we go second we can still hit good numbers while if they go second its possible to take advantage of their low attacking power and get easy guards. 
• Take out losses caused by Calamity Tower
• This is a little counter-intuitive. Calamity tower itself is a +1 in terms of card advantage. However if you have it behind anything other than Burning horn (Remember the thing about Grade 3s being kinda important) then you are getting effectively -1 EVERY TURN in comparison to what is a normal column. Thus if my opponent attacks me with a 14k column and I attack him with a 16k column I've already gone even with Calamity Tower and every turn after that in which the same scenario persists I pull ahead.

That's basically it for All my choices thanks for sticking with me through such a long read. I won't be giving out any tips on how to play this deck because if I let every one know how to play my version of the deck then they will know how to counter me. That or everyone will start playing my deck and then I'll have to figure out how to counter myself. :P

Keep and eye out for a video deck profile on my Team's YouTube "Vanguard Central" and let me know what you think of my deck!

As always thanks for reading,

~Bambi

P.S. I wrote this partially to give a peak into my deck building mindset and partially because I want to be able to claim ownership of this specific build in case it gets super popular somehow hahaha. (Just want credit where its due is all.)