Budgetguard 33: The Perdition Stack

Hey Cardfighters,

I'm sure you all know about Tsukuyomi's deck stacking power, which lets the fighter know exactly what is coming next, but what you probably didn't know is that Kagero can do it too! Let's see how it works.

Winning Image: Stack the deck to destroy your opponent with drive checks.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Preta is the bread and butter of this deck. Preta lets you create a "stack" of 4-5 cards (depending on whether or not you hit the skill) every time you retire something in the same column. This will let you quickly build up a well-ordered stack to let you double trigger every turn. At least, that is the plan.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Preta needs a Perdition vanguard, so what is the best budget boss for them? Its probably this guy, Pain Laser Dragon. He lets you retire 2 units in one column for 1 counter blast when you legion. This will trigger Preta twice. CAUTION: Legioning will indeed mess up your stack, so try to legion before you go about stacking. Pain Laser's second skill (soul blasting for power) is useful for building the drop zone if you go first.



Deck List:
Starter: Dragon Knight, Sadegh
12 Critical
4 Heal

G1s:
4 Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon (3.00)
4 Perdition Battler, Maleikoh
4 Perdition Dancer, Anna
2 Flame of Hope, Aermo

G2s:
4 Perdition Dragon, Menace Laser Dragon (2.20)
4 Perdition Berserker Preta
3 Perdition Monk, Asticah

G3s:
4 Perdition Dragon, Pain Laser Dragon (1.20)
4 Perdition Berserker, Jaratkaru

G4s:
3 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud (0.60)
4 Divine Dragon Knight, Mustafa (3.30)
1 Diving Dragon Knight Zahm (0.50)

Final Cost: $28.7

Deck Comments:

     I'll admit up front that I messed up the deck a little. A deck focused on building a stack like this should be focused on striding every turn to get through the non-stacked part ASAP. That being said, the Aermos should have been Lava Flow Dragon. Anyway, the rest of the deck is pretty straightforward: the grade 1s are focused on unflipping to keep the retiring going, and the grade 2s are mainly just to fulfill mate requirements for our grade 3s.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
      The deck is pretty fun. Making a stack in a clan not usually known for it can throw people for a loop, and the controlling aspect of kagero can definitely make the game last until you get there. That being said, I'm not sure it has much competitive viability. It takes a much longer time to reach your stack than it would in OTT, and if your opponent doesn't call into Preta's column, you lose your ability to stack.

Tips for Mastering:

• Be conservative with Preta. It's the only way to build a stack, so you'll want to get the most use out of it before your opponent can get rid of it.
• The deck can run out of steam pretty easily due to the lack of draws. To counteract this don't be overly aggressive.

Tips for adding money:
     The first change I would suggest would be to add in Root Flare Dragons. They let you retire a full column for free and that will give you 2 activations of Preta in one go, making an instant stack of 8-10 cards. The second change that comes to mind is Dragonewt and his mate. Preta works well in combination with Dragonewt, searching up more copies for his persona blast and will help round out the deck with a solid grade 3 line-up. Other than that, you might consider Dragon Knight, Mahmit to soul charge and speed through your deck a bit faster.

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 27: Revenge of the Revengers!

Hey Cardfighters,

New Shadow support has been revealed so let's see what it can do for our previous build of revengers. (Not all new content will be updated versions of older decks I just found that all the other shadow budget options hover too close to the Legend Deck as it comes so if you are looking for another good budget deck you should definitely check that out at $30 its a great buy)

Winning Image: Crit pressure with legion and Peredur.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The main boss of the deck Cormack provides an easy way to get extra criticals for the low cost of 1 unit. This is going to provide lots of on hit pressure and force your opponent to drop cards early than they want. The other main purpose of this card is to legion to provide extra advantage of off Teyrnon and his mate Macart.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The back up boss is Peredur again, but he's gotten so much better he's almost at main boss level if it weren't for the deck relying on relegioning from Cormack. The card that changed it all was Finegas the LBE for Shadows. Finnegas can call the LBE behind him using his on-ride skill which lets you hit his LB4 skill of +10k and +1 Crit while your opponent is still at Grade 2! The skill also fills up  the drop zone for legioning later with Cormack so there is pretty much no downside to that play. Unfortunately Peredur's effectiveness dies off quickly so you'll want to switch to Cormack ASAP.



Deck List:
Starter: Frontline Revenger, Claudas (0.20)
6x Crit
6x Draw
4x Heal

G1s:
4x Little Skull Witch Nemain (1.50)
4x Transient Revenger, Masquerade
4x Tempting Revenger, Finegas
1x Branbau Revenger

G2s:
4x Fighting Spirit Revenger Macart (5.00)
4x Wily Revenger Mana (0.50)
4x Adroit Revenger, Teyrnon (0.30)

G3s:
4x Ambitious Spirit Revenger, Cormack (1.10)
4x Halberd Revenger, Peredur (0.60)

G4s:

Final Cost:  $36

Deck Comments:
     This time the deck is much more focused on generating crit pressure with the vanguard to end games quickly. because of this we use a 6 Crit 6 Draw trigger line-up. This should give use the cards to keep up a field while having enough crits to be scary. Next you'll notice there is almost no ways to use CB in the deck. The only ways are Teyrnon and Peredur. This won't limit your ability to act no matter your damage. It is also to save CB for Teyrnon which can be used in multiple (if you have multiple out) when you legion. Lastly while most of my decks recently have used strides this one forgoes them. preferring to use extra grade 3s to relegion for more Macart/Teyrnon activations or to discard to PGs.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     I didn't get to play many games with this deck but as you can see from the video oh man is it brutal. The deck is an mid game power house hitting extremely hard with crit from the moment your ride grade 3. Masquerades help apply some pressure early to make your crits even more effective. I think the deck is positioned extremely well in the current meta game as pressuring your opponent right from the get go either makes them guard so they don't have enough cards to play their game or gets them to high damage where they are forced to guard. If you are looking for a competitive budget option this is your guy. I would suggest adding the cards I suggest below :)

Tips for Mastering:

•  Manage your aggressiveness since you need 2 cb to do the combo with Peredur you might not want to go offensive if you think your opponent will attack your rearguards.
• Be careful about calling macart and teyrnon before they are effective since you'll leave them open to attacks. the same can be said for mana incase you can't use her superior call skill.
• Almost never swing at rearguard you need to pressure the vanguard due to your lack of late game. 

Tips for adding money:
     Surprise Surprise the first thing I'm gonna say is to flesh out the stride zone. The cheapest strides are the commons Phantom Blaster "Diablo"s from the Legend Deck. You'll need one other stride to hit the requirement for Diablo so I would suggest Efnysian. You can use him in combination with Peredur to fetch out a fodder and then immediately sacrifice it. It will also provide on hit pressure which gives your opponent another reason to guard after all the crits on everything else. Once you finish up the stride zone you should consider swapping out Masquerade's for Stride Fodders. This will let you have a healthy ratio of options to choose between striding or relegioning. But it weakens the early game. Overall it should be an improvement as you don't call too much early to get 2 damage from peredur for his combo and it really adds a more consistent late game.

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 Vanguard Central Facebook page.


Thanks for reading,

Chris

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.

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


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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Thanks for reading,

Chris

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 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

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.)

Cardfight Budgetguard 9: Megacolony

Hey Cardfighters,

This week's deck is about Megacolony which some refer to as "The Stride Killer". This is because a stride comes into play in the same position as the heart so if the vanguard is in rest the stride will be rested too.

Winning Image: Gain an early advantage using cheap stunning skills followed by vanguard stunning so they can't recover.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

The main boss of the deck is the Legion Machining Tarantula Mk II who's legion effect is if you drive check a unit on your vanguard, CB 1 and then you paralyze your opponent's vanguard (it can't stand in your opponent's next stand phase). This gives you the possibility of paralyzing your opponent's vanguard multiple times in a game. The non-legion skill is Soulblast 2 machining and paralyze a unit. This can help mitigate damage early and sets up your legion super easily. Another use for it is legion looping where you can rid a new one and soul blast a pair and then legion them back into your deck for more effects. (Cost: 1.25 + 1.25 for mate)


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

The back up grade 3 is Machining Warsickle we use him because it's really important to have all machinings. His first ability is a limit break 4 if his attack doesn't hit then CB 2 and paralyze your opponent's vanguard. And he has an on-ride skill of CB1-Machining, call a machining from the soul to rearguard as rest. The first ability fits with the winning image of not letting your opponent recover while the second can help you fill your field against retire heavy clans like kagero. We aren't using the break ride here because it shuts off the clan-attackers and a lot of abilities use Machining Counterblasts or Soublasts so I want to run a lot of Machinings. (Cost: $1)

Cost so far: $14
Perfect guards are $10 so we can't really fit those in the budget. The other non common units of mention are the 12k attackers and Megacolony Battler B who lets you paralyze an opponent's unit for CB when an attack hits that it boosted. QW: 0.75, 12K: 0.20, Battler B: 0.30

This leaves us with enough budget left for 1 harmonics messiah. ($8)

Final Cost: 18.25

Deck List:

Starter: Megacolony Battler C
4x Crit
8x Stand
4x heal


G1s:
4x Machining Black Soldier
4x Machining Caucasus
4x Megacolony Battler B
3x Machining Ladybug

G2s: 
4x Machining Hornet mk II
4x Machining Red Soldier
3x Machining Tarantula

G3s:
4x Machining Warsickle
4x Machining Tarantula mk II

G4s:
1x Harmonics Messiah

Deck Comments:
       First we'll notice that the deck is almost full machining to be sure that skills get off a majority of the time. Next is using 4x of both Battler B and Caucasus and 3x Tarantula (g2) this is so that it is possible to make multiple on-hit pressure columns. This combined with stand triggers will put a lot of pressure on opponents and wear them down quickly.

Match ups: (VS. Deck win-loss) 

• VS. Bluish Flames
• He starts first. I don't get a grade 3 in my starting hand so I decide to be aggressive. Riding my quintet wall and calling Black soldier I get a card out of his hand but he damage a draw to get it back. He doesn't fill his field and my grade 3 goes to damage. Still no grade 3 so I enter super offense mode calling two grade 2s and a grade 1. An untimely heal prevents me from stunning anything. He gets to grade 3 and calls another as an attacker. I start taking damage. Still no grade 3 but I fill up my field with one last grade 1. All my columns have stunning effects so he will want to guard them all. He takes my vanguard attack and goes to 4 damage I stun his grade 3 attacker. On his turn he fills his field and hand by calling Aglovale into superior calling Josephus. I get double crit and another Grade 3 goes to the damage zone :/ I place Caucasus behind my vanguard and start attacking again. but with his replenished hand and 2 crit triggers I make don't get a single damage in even with my drive checked stand trigger. He calls a bruno to boost and superior calls the other Aglovale getting a prominence glare into his hand. This bumps his vanguard to 19k and the bruno column to 21k, I 1 to pass his vanguard and survive but I have to use up the rest of my cards to survive. I don't draw a 3 yet again and lose the next turn.
• VS. Duos (My oppponent plays the duo legion mate wrong but I'm not feeling like correcting him so I play along)
•  This time I get to go first. He ends up grade locked but drive checks his grade 1. My next turn I call 2 attackers to push cards from his hand. 1-0. He rides his grade 1 and attacks but I guard no pass. I get myself to grade 3 this time success! and continue the pressure with 3 attacks which turns into 4 with a stand trigger. 2-0. He goes upto grade 2 riding Rhone and misugin quincy to draw. he goes after my rearguards and I guard rhone to stop him from plussing, 2-0. I call caucasus behind my redsoldier and attack getting a crit on my vanguard. 4-0. He rides meer and then strides. First attacking my rear which I let through and then hitting me but I get a damage trigger stopping his last attack. On my turn I get to legion and stun his rearguard grade 2 and vanguard booster. I also fill my field to keep up the pressure. He no guards my van I pull a stand but no crits. 5-1. He break rides victoria and legions. (misusing quincy again) he goes aggro this turn and I take most of it. 5-3 I just start attacking again to take out a lot of card from his hand. He "uses" quincy again to draw more cards. I take his vanguard attack and another 5-5. I decide against riding machining warsickle since he just drove check grade 3s, instead I reride Tarantula mk II and legion stunning one of his grade 2s. (to bait him into intercepting) I drive check a crit but he has enough to guard everything. He rerides Victoria and "uses" quincy again followed by legioning to get more boosters. I use my QW to guard his vangaurd attack and he hits no triggers making it easy to guard his attacks. 5-5 I ride into Warsickle this time to give him the lose lose. but I hit a heal trigger and he can't guard my attack and loses even though I paralyzed his van. 

Overall Performance:
       I think that this deck shows a lot of promise. When I play against myself I have a lot of counterblast issues but when playing against real people they seem unwillling to let my attack hits so I didn't have as many issues. I didn't get to play any stride decks but a well-timed paralyze can really hurt them. Take time to master this deck and if the games starts to revolve around heavy striding the deck will be in a really really good spot. (Making people either unable to stride or unwilling to)

Tips for Mastering:

• The biggest thing is you need to watch for your opponent having grade 3s . There is no point in paralyzing their vanguard if they have a grade 3 to ride over. 
• Learn how to place your paralyzes on rearguards. You can bait people into intercepting if you paralyze a grade 2 which you can work to your advantage.
• The final thing is play aggressively, while vanguard paralyzing can be good as a defensive technique it works much better as a way to prevent them from recovering, pushing them over the edge.

Tips for adding money:
      The most important thing for this deck is perfect guards and harmonics messiah. Grade lock is a problem and G-assist really helps out with that as well as having the option of using messiah as a finisher when you are out of CB. There isn't much else in terms of Megacolony support right now so we'll just have to wait and see what FC2015 brings. 


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

Cardfight Budgetguard 7: Granblue Cocytus "R" + Negrobolt

Hey Cardfighters,

* DISCLAIMER* - In this deck article I misread the card Stormride Ghost Ship and because of that the testing result should be much better than the actual deck is. Update  *

Got a Granblue Limit break Legion hybrid deck for you all this week. Based around the boss cards Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus Reverse and Witch Doctor of the Dead Sea, Negrobolt.

Winning Image: Set up your ideal field and then beat you opponent with power columns.

Starting with the main boss card of the deck Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus Reverse.

(Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

As the main boss of the deck Cocytus "R" puts in a lot of work being able to fill the field for free while at limit break using his ability. "Put the top three cards of your deck into the drop zone & lock one of your Granblue Rearguards: Choose a Granblue from your drop zone and place it on Rearguard with +3k". This is great because it allows you to revive attackers to pressure your opponent and each time you use it you will have more options in the drop zone to choose from. The +3k can also be useful to lock a booster and then call out 9k attacker turning it into 12k so it can hit the vanguard on its own. Cost: 1


(Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

The next grade 3 of the deck is Witch Doctor of the Dead Sea, Negrobolt. His purpose in the deck is to create multiattack sequences and/or power lines to push for game as well as shuffling in your drop zone so that you don't lose from deck out. His non-legion effect is +3k when there is another unit in the middle column which lets him hit for large numbers with an 8k booster and easily hitting 21k before legion. The legion effect is When Negrobolt attacks you Counter Blast 1 and retire one of your own units then you can call a unit from the drop zone to rearguard. This will let you creat multiattacks by attacking with a rearguard and then using Negrobolt's effect to call a new one at stand. Cost: 0.50

Cost after Grade 3s: 6

Next is the grade 2 rares which are Negrobolt's mate, Dragon Undead, Ghoul Dragon at 4 and Pirate Belle, Pinot Blanc at 3. Ghoul Dragon is super important in the deck allowing you to retire a unit if it hits a vanguard (during the turn it was revived) and Pinot Blanc helps you gain advantage by calling itself to the rearguard for Counter Blast 1 when you legion. Cost: 3.7

Cost after grade 2s: 9.7

Lastly are the grade 1s First we will look at Sea Strolling Banshee which can Soulblast 1 when called from the drop zone to draw a card. She is really good at building advantage and costs .33 a piece while we run 3. Similarly is Dancing Cutlass which can Soublast 2 to draw whenever it its placed on rearguard. (Cost: 0.2) Next is the quintet walls Reef Banshee which goes for $1. Perfect guards are out of the question because they are priced at $20 and I'd prefer to have a deck over a perfect guard.

Final Cost: 14.7

I just want to point out that while this deck is far far under the normal budget constraint I give myself  there aren't much improvements I can make without adding perfect guards which totally break my budget.

Deck List:

Starter: Captain Nightkid
12x crit
4x heal


G1s:
4x Reef Banshee
4x Brutal Shade (LBE)
3x Sea Strolling Banshee
1x Dancing Cutlass
1x Boatswain, Arman
1x Dandy Guy, Romario

G2s: 
3x Pirate Belle, Pinot Blanc
4x Dragon Undead, Ghoul Dragon
4x Stormride Ghost Ship

G3s:
4x Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus "Reverse"
4x Witch Doctor of the Dead Sea, Negrobolt

Deck Comments:
     There is a lot of odd choices in the deck so lets start with the starter and special stand triggers. Captain Nightkid lets you look at the top 10 cards of your deck and put one of them into the drop zone for CB1 and moving it into soul. This is great to set up your dropzone with a desired card to revive to the field. Next is the 12 crits, this is because the deck excels at creating power columns and by using criticals your just adding more punishment.

     For the Grade 2s there is the odd choice of Stormride Ghost Ship which can't attack unless you called a granblue to the field during your turn (including itself). But its an 11k and when it is boosted by a granblue it gets +5k shooting it up to 16k by itself to create power columns. There are 4 because he is vital to the end game strategy of the deck.

     For the Grade 1s we have 4 Limit Break Enablers (LBE) to help speed up Cocytus' ability and give that free field early in the game. Then we have 2 one-ofs we haven't discussed, Arman and Romario. Arman is used to revive behind an existing Ghost ship to create a 26k column as it gives itself +3k on revive. and Romario is used to place behind Negrobolt to hit for 31k. So in short they are there to make magic numbers and they shouldn't be too hard to fetch using Nightkid and other selection effects.

Match ups: (VS. Deck win-loss)

* DISCLAIMER* - In this deck article I misread the card Stormride Ghost Ship and because of that the testing result should be much better than the actual deck is. Update *

• VS. RPBA + Mordred 5-5
• Match up tips, I'm sure I sound like a broken record but take damage early and guard Judgebau. Its better to ride Negrobolt in the case you don't have the LBE so that you aren't tempted to let it hit just to get limit break. If they don't get the double sword breaker its pretty easy to win. Games that I lost were from having Reverse but no LBE, not drawing into a negrobolt which resulted in deck out/ not being able to use a quintet wall. I also lost games when they were able to restand twice in one game but it was usually compounded with one of the other factors I just said.
• VS. Thing Saver + Alfred 4-6
• Match up tips, This match is really hard because you can't stop their advantage engine by guarding. If they start with alfred it will be a hard match because early guarding isn't as useful when they have the crit. Try to go for Ghoul Dragon if possible to try to weaken their field presence/force them to guard lots.
• VS. Perdition Dragonewt + DOTG 6-4
•  Match up tips, Cocytus R is the MVP in this match he can completely out advantage perditions by himself. The only thing you have to watch out for is decking out. Most games are lost if you don't get cocytus and or if you do but don't draw into Negrobolt to prevent decking out.

Overall Performance:
       I knew that Cocytus R was strong with LBE but I didn't realize it was this strong. Wow. The deck easily beats out other decks without strong advantage or distruption engines. (It can even out advantage perditions in some cases!) As you can see it doesn't do as well against Thing Saver because you can't really stop what they are doing and the crit on Alfred really undoes a lot of advantage you can gain from early guarding. I would suggest playing the deck if you like a lot of advantage and hitting high numbers.

Tips for Mastering:

• Figure out what units are best to call in what scenarios (the most important being when to revive a Pinot Blanc while you legion because counterblasts are oh so important)
• Learn how to build your field effectively with Cocytus R. The order in which you do so can be really important
• Lastly, Learn when to use Nightkid to set up your dropzone and when to keep him as a "free" booster or sacrifice.

Tips for adding money:
     By far the most important and really only way to add money to the deck is to add in the Perfect Guards Gust Jinn. He goes for $20 so its not really fair to call it budget once you put him in but it will increase your win percentage a lot. Many times you just can't use a quintet wall because you don't have the counterblast or you have too little cards in your dropzone and you wouldn't be able to win if you used it.

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

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Thanks for Reading,

~Bambi