The Blue Corner is back to Blogspot?

Looking like it.  Seems like they've fixed up whatever issues I was having with them so y'know what sure I'm gonna start writing on here again for the time being and keep the Wordpress account around as a failsafe.

I'll probably just write up local/regional reports for the time being as I have no effing clue what they'll do with Zero outside of EoS speculation.  Stay Tuned!

Moving to Wordpress!

 After a great deal of consideration I've finally decided to jump over to Wordpress.  I'm still going to keep this blog up for a good while yet for archive purposes but I'm no longer going to post my content here and instead you'll find my Vanguard posts/etc on Wordpress.  You can find it here;

https://bluestar899.wordpress.com/

Hope to see you there!

Striding Towards the Future - Granblue in Vanguard Zero Part 2

This came about a bit faster than I planned for but with Zero's G-Set 4 being the finale of Season 1 that means we'll be getting into the Rummy Labyrinth stuff pretty soon and that means it's time to start talking about one of the biggest success stories of G card design in the form of Granblue.  I'm not bullshitting on this either as prior to the release of the Trial Deck and G-BT06 Granblue was regarded as one of the worst clans in the game that languished in the same tier level as Megacolony, Nubatama and all the other unplayable garbage clans.  Their Limit Break, Break Ride and Legion support all failed to make the Clan meta which was a real shame as Granblue's gimmick always had the potential to be good as it's a deck that plays out of its graveyard which any card game player worth their salt will tell you is one of the best playstyles to have.  The problem with Granblue was that their revival effects were more often than not overcosted/restricted and their call targets were underpowered which made your payoffs less than impressive.  The clan also was lacking in many of the quality things that made other clans superior; board removal, draw power/filtering, guard restrict, restanding, consistent multi attack (their one Legion helps) and pushing power among other things.

Then Stride Format came and boy howdy did it ever give this clan the G Fuel.  In the TCG once Granblue got their actual G Support it ended up being a Tier 1/1.5 deck all the way until Ultimate Stride came out (the clan never saw anymore support outside of Roseate Nightrose who was a promo and Chaos just wrecked the deck).  Nightrose was even regarded as BDIF at one point..in Japan.  In the west the deck didn't see as much play because it required a competent pilot to play it well and our players weren't at the same skill level as the Japanese players at the time so it didn't get nearly the amount of tops that the other Tier 1 decks did.  That's still pretty impressive and many of the cards printed from this time still see play even now in Premium.  Hell if you look at V Granblue one of the best versions of it is based around Nightrose.

Needless to say there's definitely some hype behind G Granblue.  But how will it translate to Zero?  Let's find out.

Summary

I honestly don't know if GB will be a core set or event clan.  It could go either way.  I'm leaning towards Core Set just because it got a TD in addition to main set support much like Pale Moon did and there's at least 3 Strides that could be GRs to work with.

Important Notes

-Blueheart is a RR in Fighter's Collection.  His skill is unchanged.

-Cocytus Negative is a RRR in Fighter's Collection.  He got a buff that lets you retire an opponent's RG if you call a Cocytus off his skill in addition to what he had before.

-Tommy the Ghostie Brothers and Waterspout Djinn are in FC as well.  They work like you'd expect so I'm skipping them.

Fighter's Collection 2015 Winter

Yeah CB1 to call 2 without restriction is super good value when you have cards that draw/retire/soul in to draw or their own self retire effects to mitigate the downside.  Or you just replace them with OG Nightmist.  Or you can not worry about that and just call attackers that die at the end of the turn to play around board removal decks like Blademaster.  This plus the 7Cs support in Set 6 made the deck Tier 1 in paper format and it could happen again here if the good stuff gets imported to Zero.  

Fun Fact: Granblue's Break Ride is one of the few in the game that works with Strides as you get to trigger it, call 2 units to the board at +5k and then go into your stride of choice like Nightmist and call 2 more.  Sage here is your main way to trigger it as you can BR him over Nightmist, call 3 cards then go from there.  Him being able to call from drop zone is insane as it actually benefits from you discarding it for stride/Guard Restrict.  Be mindful of the CB though as if you don't manage it properly your opponent could deny you the 3 you'd need to Sage over Nightmist then Nightmist Stride.  Ideally you'll want to do the Drop Zone Ride play if you're going for game or got hit with Delete/VG Stun.

Vampire Princess of the Nether Hour

One of the best Stride Breaks ever printed.  Nightrose is really, really good.  Call anything from the drop while giving it +2k to help make lines and that GB2 enabled some pretty derpy shit as long as you didn't get too greedy and mill yourself out.  I honestly suspect it'll be changed so that you can't trigger it on the opponent's turn because Zero likes to keep that kind of interaction out of the game for the sake of speed/simplicity.  I can understand it but it's gonna suck to see happen as Nightrose was famous for being a multi attack deck that could also play defense through her GB2 being able to call back spot removal/self buffers.  Regardless Nightrose is the boss that GB wanted for years and basically carried the deck on her back until ironically enough, V Nightrose came along.

Look ma!  A GR!  I don't have alot to say on Bandit Rum.  He's an on hit that calls from one of the best places to call from and if all the other on hit callers got bumped to GR then so will this.  Especially when you have cards that call things when called.

Easy RRR candidate.  Columbard enables more attacks and can call another copy of itself which lets you get even more attacks.  Your ability to combo is limited only by your imaginationand CB.

And now I get to talk about Hollow.  This is Granblue's keyword and unlike Thunderstrike it actually fits the theme since alot of GB units tend to blow themselves up.  Basically you have your basic skill or you can supercharge your unit at the cost of it dying at the end of the turn.  Generally speaking alot of Hollow'd units had great skills to make up for the loss and it allowed the deck to hard counter removal strategies like Vanquisher and Chaos since you could just yeet your board at the end of the turn.  However because Intercepts are your line of defense in Zero you're going to have to seriously consider not hollowing certain units so that you don't get bashed in on the clapback.  Nightrose's GB2 does help maintain board presence but that's a 1/Turn.  

Negrorook is one of the best beaters the clan has as he's able to hit magic numbers in just about every scenario.  11k VG?  Go unhollow'd.  16k?  Hollow.  21k?  Hollow'd + Boosted.  Good shit.

It's a Negrorook but smaller.  Still not bad but your G1 space will be hella tight and I can't see this making the cut.

Yep.  He CC2s and with Nightrose's GB2 you can CC4.  Getting him to that point is tricky since in paper format we actually kept Grenache in the soul to be blasted out with Dancing Cutlass but Zero doesn't give you that choice.  You'll have to call over it with something else or be cheeky and throw it in the front row.  Your opponent will likely never attack it too!

This is one of the few clans in the game that you could make the argument for playing crits since Nightrose mills and you draw a fair amount off of your RGs...but I'm still going to say these should be avoided.  You have good G3s to play as triggers, this is a clan that wants to stride every turn so the extra Stride Fodder is welcome and checking crits don't plus you the same way as checking draws.  Banshee is good for what she does since it's an immediate cycle and I could see 1-2 of this being played?  I do like it more than Rampage Shade.

Transcension of Blade and Blossom

Easy 2nd GR candidate.  She's basically a more expensive Lambros that requires less setup to pull off but is only as good as the things you can call back.  The only thing they really could do to buff this is make her CB1.

It's a big, beefy attacker like Negrorook that can also call itself to R...but I doubt it'll see play.  Nightrose has better G3s to run.

Yeah Nightrose got her Glimmer Breath clone in this set and if they put it in here it'd be crazy as Negrolazy is cracked.  He extends, scales and even refunds himself at the end of the turn.  I could see them bumping Negrolazy to Absolute Judgement.

Painful Choice/Battle Compressor is insane in any card game and Obadiah is no different.  He sets up your drop zone, calls out sack fodder/booster and you can make him CL2 so Nightrose can call out one of the cards you dumped.  Easy RRR.

Negrobone is stupid good.  Enables more attacks, doesn't require you to boost and hit and can call literally any Hollow unit.  This is part of why Nightrose had such a strong kill turn as you can call Negrolazy off something, have him call this, sack off the Negrolazy then call it back and have that Lazy call another Bone behind it.  Yes that uses up alot of CB but if your opponent's at 5 you go for it.

Nightstorm is a card that sees play in 2021.  That's how good he is.  Pop the intercepts, then swing in with this guy and call a Negrolazy who then calls a Negrorook over this guy and you just keep going.  He's a keeper.

This set also has support that makes 7Cs a full on deck and this guy is not a bad option to run.  Enables more attacks and whatnot.

But this guy completely outclasses it and he was the reason why you played 7Cs over Nightrose in Set 6 format as Nightmist Stride spawned a board, you attacked with your front row then sacked them off for double Slash Shade who came out at 11k and could continue to poke at the VG.  He's good.

Yeah this is gonna be a RRR.  Cannoneer is one of the best cards ever printed and he sees play to this day in paper format as both of his effects are straight cracked.  He will definitely be played in both decks.

Nightcrow is also amazing.  Just swap out the cards that were going to blow themselves up for a free 7k booster why don't you.  Thankfully the 7Runner deck that this guy enabled won't work in Zero format because of how Striding works so I don't see this being nerfed.  Famous last words?

It's a Foolish Burial on legs.  Yeah it's good.  1 of probably.

Ah yes.  This asshole.  Nightrunner was the backbone of an infamous deck called 7Runner that aimed to lock the opponent out of the game by never riding past G1 which turned off their ability to Stride or use Seabreeze.  It then proceeded to beat the opponent down with multi attacks since Slash Shade and Prisoner Dragon aren't VG grade restricted.  Many decks couldn't handle 7Runner since by the time this deck became a thing alot of people played strictly Generation Break decks and the few decks that didn't were also cancerous in their own way.  This deck even got multiple tops at major events and I think it also won Worlds?  Regardless Bushiroad was very embarrassed to let this deck slip through their notice and brought down the banhammer hard and to this day Nightrunner and Nightcrow are at 1 (the real culprit never got hit when really it should have been).

With that being said I don't see this happening in Zero as like I mentioned before Striding works different.  Anti Stride tactics like Grade Stalling have no effect and kills decks like Ripple Rush and 7Runner and because of that Nightrunner's usefulness is severely limited when Grenache exists.

While I'm iffy on G0 crits Mick the Ghostie on the other hand deserves serious consideration as he gives you a significant buff and goes back to the deck which is vital to avoiding deck out.  If Zero allows the clan to call from drop on the opponent's turn then you also get the option of giving your Vanguard +10k on their turn which can be annoying as hell for multi attack decks to handle.

Fighter's Collection 2016

I suspect this set will be released alongside whatever set GB is in as another FC.  Regardless this card saw no play in paper and I expect it to be the same here just because you can only call cards equal to the number of copies of this face up and there's a total Grade Restriction when you can just go into Obadiah or Bandit Rum instead.  She also sucks as a follow up stride when Phantasm Nightrose exists.

This guy however is pretty cool.  G Guards that actively help your deck strategy are the good ones and milling 2 for a 20k shield is fantastic.

And that's it!  Granblue's potential first wave looks to be pretty solid and it gets at least 2 more sets after this (Absolute Judgement and Rummy Labyrinth).  Wave 1 will likely be a repeat of what happened in paper format as Nightrose doesn't get the tools that she needs to take the reigns until Absolute Judgement (Gouache and Negrolilly) so 7Cs will look to be the meta contender once this set drops.  It may also be the main build even after Absolute Judgement due to how sus Hollow looks to be for Zero.  Nuking your intercepts is very risky but on the other hand the tops decks in the game all have multiple ways to clear them regardless so against those matchups this point is moot.  Regardless I'm excited as Nightrose in particular was a deck I thoroughly enjoyed due to its Yu-Gi-Oh! like playstyle and I hope she transitions well to Zero.

Striding Towards the Future - Narukami in Vanguard Zero Part 6

Ayup I'm talking about Narus again.  I'm still on the fence on if I want to go over Genesis since the Fenrir deck was something I had fun with in G but given how predatory Zero has become since the shift to Stride Format picking up a 4th clan outside of Narukami (then later on Zodiac Time Beast), Neo Nectar and Granblue would definitely be stretching myself too thin without resorting to repeated whaling and that's something I don't want to do.  #MakeGRsCheaper

In any case with Fenrir.dek out of the question the next thing on my list is what would likely be one of the first Clan events for Season 2 of G (the other likely choice being OTT) in the form of Narukami Clan Event 2 featuring Voltage and stuff.  

Summary

The first NK Clan event turned out okay in creating a very potent Anti-Legion deck with Dragonic Vanquisher while also creating a decent Dungaree deck (Striding on top of a Dungaree triggers Dan Dan) that got Top 8 at the Autumn Championships but there were definitely issues that popped up.  Namely Resist G2s and the number of decks running around with them like Gear Chronicle and most notably BT (they have 3 different choices) which is difficult for a deck like Vanq/Dungaree to answer.  Vanq lists have been playing a small Crimson package to deal with these but then you're swinging VG first with rear guards that don't scale which means that one defensive trigger fucks your push turn and you're likely to get clapped back.  Still at the time of this post Narukami are by far the best of the event clans and Vanquisher has a place in the meta as a strong, reasonably budget high Tier 2-1.5 deck and depending on what cards pop up in the next event I'd say there's a reasonable chance the clan will do well after it's 2nd wave.

Important Notes

-Big Bang Knuckle Buster got nerfed.  You don't draw when using his Legion Skill.

-Rising Phoenix and Big Bang Knuckle Dragon are choice restricted at the time of this post.

-Dragonic Vanquisher gets around anti-retire.

-Zorras does not get around anti retire as he retires, then binds 2 from drop.  It's possible that he'll target Anti-Retire units for his on hit.  You choose what gets bound.

-Voltage Horn Dragon's skill got changed to be an on attack Zorras.  You choose what gets bound.

-Chain-Bolt Dragoon only binds 1 card from drop.  You get to choose what gets bound.

-Chatura is a GB1.

-Conquest Dragon gives a flat 5k to the front and requires a retire to do so.  No retire = no buff.

-Turbo and Vishnu got released in Fighter's Collection.  Turbo only attacks the front and if you have 2 Hearts one back row unit of your choice.

Fighter's Collection 2015 Winter

Remember that problem I mentioned about not being able to handle double Resist G2s and Vanquisher decks running Crimson to out them?  Enter Warning who is is a Vermillion that also buffs two units by 5k for every unit he hits.  Assuming you hit the VG and double Intercepts he's giving out 15000 to two units of your choice which solves the issue of non scaling Rears during your Crimson pushes.  I definitely expect the power buffs to be scaled down since Conquest Dragon got nerfed in much the same way.  Regardless Warning might actually warrant building a dedicated Kaiser deck since you can always counter early rush with Vermillion/The BLOOD's Limit Break.  That or he'll be a 2 of in the Vanquisher deck for when you have to pivot to a Kaiser to break Resist setups.

Crownholder's pretty solid.  If you hit 3 things then he and another unit get +6k which stacked with Warning is 21k.  Gross.  That being said IDK if he'd be played outside of a dedicated Vermillion deck since G1 space in the Vanquisher deck is already tight as is.

Moonlit Dragonfang

Here's your GR of the set and it's a Persona Flip because Gamestudio are evil bastards.  VOLTAGE you'll sadly want to have 4 of not because you'll go into him that many times but because VMAX needs face up Vanquisher strides in the G-Zone for his board wipe effect and VOLTAGE is the only other Vanquisher Stride you will have to work with until the 4th (and last) Narukami Clan Event with VBUSTER.  As for VOLTAGE himself he's an odd duck as in paper format the card has been great and still sees play as Narukami's finisher to this very day but in Zero format I don't know.  His retire effect was always disappointing since he was basically Zorras when what the clan really needed at the time was main phase spot removal to help clear out the board.  His power gain while impressive in paper format is kinda overkill too as once you reach a certain threshold power doesn't matter anymore as Neo Nectar players will tell you.  Not to mention unlike your other GR in Conquest Dragon, VOLTAGE doesn't remove intercepts so you'll be relying on Gunners and other cards to make the most out of this.  Regardless VOLTAGE will basically be your 3rd Conquest play so you'll really only ever need 2.

HOWEVER

What you actually need are 4 VOLTAGE from this event because the boss card of Narukami's 3rd wave (with hopefully a skin for Henri) VMAX requires face up Vanquisher Strides in your G-Zone for his Big Bang Knuckle Buster effect and VOLTAGE is the only Vanquisher Stride you'll have to work with until VBUSTER comes out in the 4th wave!  This means you'll want a pair of VOLTAGE to go into as your first stride and another pair to go into as a finisher stride.  Yes its absurd and I really hope VOLTAGE is a RRR in this event but we can't have that.

Oh yes Eradicators get more cards that waste slots in this set.  This time around it's support for Gauntlet Buster Dragon whose playability will come down to if Egghelm is available or not.  Regarding Finish Blow he's okay as a pressure card as thankfully his crit gain skill is generic which means you can splash it into Vanquisher if you need to push damage.  It's only the retire part that requires GBD as the Heart (and good god trying to get CFA randos to understand that was a trial) which the Erad cards in this set do try to help make work.  Where this card falls short is being GB2 locked as by the time this card came out there were already strides that could get bonus crits on first stride (DP Strides, PB Diablo) and this being so slow really hurts when your other options are Conquest and Voltage.  I really hope they remove the GB2 restriction on this guy.

Angercharge in Zero context is actually not bad.  Self-Damager that also retires which sets up your retire based effects.  I'm willing to bet that the Eradicator CB will definitely be removed since special counterblasts haven't popped up in Zero so far but the needing to damage an Erad for the pop effect I'm not sure about.  I actually hope that also gets removed as that would make this a cool tech option for Limit Break decks like Vermillion and Dungaree.

I wonder if Rockclimb will get his effect changed to random retire + bind 2 cards of your choosing from the Drop Zone like they did with Voltage Horn.  Either way I don't know if he'd see play over other options as he doesn't remove intercepts which means Gunners are already a better pick nor does he draw cards/CC.  Being 11k when you call him down while also removing a booster and building up binds may still be enough.  Hard to say.

That's right they threw in cards from the manga as pack filler in this set!  Whew!  That being said Stinger's actually not bad in Zero!  On place each player pops a RG is whatever but that Break Ride skill is not awful.  The first effect would be changed to be the typical "Discard a G3+ from hand to PG" for the condition of clearing intercepts while the 2nd effect also gives your VG a crit if you somehow clear the backrow.  It's something.

So hear me out.  You play this guy as a tech in Vanquisher specifically to wipe the board before going into VOLTAGE since Drill retires through resist and therefore those pesky double resist G2s get screwed.  Yes you lose your board but how much are you really losing after having both your intercepts get killed?  It's risky mind you but also something to keep in the back of your mind.  Anti-Retire boards are obviously exempt from this but for those you stay on Vanquisher.

Oh boy now I get to talk about Thunderstrike.  TS is infamous among players for being one of the worst of the Keywords that was introduced during Mid G.  Keywords ended up becoming the defining trait for many of the clans with their later set support being designed around them.  How well a clan's old and new cards worked with their keywords meant the difference between a good deck and a bad one.  Kagero for instance has "Blaze" which triggers as long as you have more units on board than the opponent on your turn.  Pretty synergistic for a clan that retires.  TS is based on how big your opponent's Bind Zone was which...was bad in the TCG since it was really easy for your opponent to play around it by either not calling cards to get bound or not letting your on hits land which also denied TS.  Bear in mind that TS came out in a format where Magia and Hollow existed which were nightmare matchups for this deck.  Granblue wound up being meta for a year even.  What sucked about this was that it effectively made TS a handicap on top of a handicap since you'd have cards that were GB locked and Thunderstrike locked which meant they were doubly useless.  It really wasn't until the end of NK's time in G that they rectified this by printing cards that allowed you to force binds regardless of the opponent's board state and they printed TS units that didn't have GB tacked onto them.  This meant that if you were able to pull off early binds you were rewarded with some good skills before stride.

That being said Thunderstrike in Zero looks like it'll be different by nature of game mechanics.  Your opponent can't cockblock Zorras/Chatura, they have to leave G2s on the board to not die which means Vanquisher can pick them off and get you started.  It's quite possible to hit TS3 or more by the end of your first stride turn which is a big help towards wincons like VMAX.

Now let's talk about Djinn.  He's basically discount Dragonic Overlord in that he can remove an intercept while also attacking the VG which is really good in Zero format.  Resist/Anti-Retire Intercepts in particular get screwed by this guy which makes him great for the VOLTAGE turn.  I think he'll definitely get played alongside the Crimson package (or maybe instead of it).

This is either getting nerfed to only remove 1 intercept, or he's not being put in at all.  A Seal Dragon, Blockade on RG that also scales would be nuts and given that the Eradicator and Brawler units that also turned off double intercepts for a turn didn't make it I'm not expecting Cloudmaster to either.

While I think Drill might have a chance as a tech choice, Hammerknuckle is SOL.

What's funny about this is that they still haven't put Cho-Ou in the game at the time of this post.  That aside Cho-Jun is a thing?  He does have the merit of being able to kill off old starters if you go first and ride this thing.  Get fucked Conroe?

Erads have better G1s to work with.

Well.  She isn't GB locked and she does help clear out the board but what would you even cut for her?  The G1 lineup is already more or less set.

NNNOOOOOOOPE.

God this thing needs a buff.  You played this in the day out of necessity since there were so few ways to build up TS but I hated it nonetheless.  A -1 just to force a bind and 5k buff was so underwhelming when things like Conroe existed.  While I expect him to be buffed so you get to choose what gets bound I really want that -1 to be offset by a Draw.

Fighter's Collection 2016

This one's a stretch since FC2016 is also the set that debuts G-Guards and there's no telling how they'll handle that can of worms (or the 16 Card G-Zone expansion that came with them) but I figure they'll make an FC for that well before the third NK Clan event and I'm going to go over Voltech now rather than later.

Anyway Voltechzapper ended up being a wash as Zorras was more often than not the better choice since both cards effectively were on VG attack retire/bind 1.  Voltech really wanted you to be at TS4+ so you could get to kill 2 but getting to that on first stride required alot to go right and I'm not a fan of cards that require you to highroll to be effective.  That being said Voltech does have the advantage of Zero format allowing you to build up Thunderstrike alot easier due to on hits being better.  Furtheremore he retires and binds at the same time which gets around Anti-Retire which gives him a small niche over Zorras.

Uhh yeah so regardless of how they figure out how to make G-Guards work I'll just say that Vritra will undoubtedly be better in Zero format because TS1 is alot easier to pull off than in TCG so you'll have a consistent 20k shield.

And that's it for this roundup of Narukami.  Set 5 makes up the bulk of the cards here and in paper format it was notable for giving Brawlers their new cards to help them compete.  Post nerf Brawlers for Zero won't be as well off and instead we'll be seeing more Vanquisher and if we get Warning soon enough, Kaiser as well.  That's also all Narukami gets in this block before GNEXT's release and with that comes a new fighter, a potentially broken GR and even more Eradicator support.  Hurray.

Striding Towards the Future - Neo Nectar in Vanguard Zero Part 3

 Heyo!  I'm back with some more speculative stuff now that Zero has been moving G along and that means I get to start speculating on what I think will appear in sets again!  Originally I was going to do Narukami again but in addition to the clan being Event exclusive the cards for Vanquisher Part 2 don't appear until Season 2 of G and there is much more that I need to cover first such as Neo Nectar's second batch of support and possibly Genesis.  With that said let's get into it;

This time around I'll be tackling the subject differently since now that I have an idea of how NN plays in Zero I can make better guesses as to how good/bad some effects will be in addition to possible buffs.  I'm also going to be going over cards in the opposite order of before (G4>3>2>1) and also making a summary and some important notes on how the clan was handled/faired with their recent set of support.  

Summary

In the case of Neo Nectar the clan ultimately fell flat as while the Ahsha deck can sometimes hit big numbers it doesn't matter in Zero format when your attacks either hit or get PG'd, your big multi attack turns lack numbers so defensives fuck you over pretty hard.  The deck is also trying to play in a format where Dragonic Blademaster is one of the top decks and Dragonic Vanquisher is the top F2Pish deck (meaning there will be alot of it on ladder) and Ahsha just dies to those two.  It's not entirely bad though as while the deck is not well fit for ladder play it's fantastic in tournament play as an Anti-Meta deck that can shut down decks that rely on multiple pokes to win like Aqua Force and Bermuda Triangle.

Important Notes

-Ahsha's on Stride skill got buffed so that you can call a card from hand prior to cloning.

-Primavera is CB2 and doesn't discard.

-Jingle Flower Dragon's board buff is active on the opponent's turn.

Now let's move onto what cards I expect to see in the probable 5th G set for Zero.

Fighter's Collection 2015

This card was part of some convoluted infinite power gain loop that allowed you to swing face with unguardable numbers while praying to sack Stand Triggers to get more attacks.  Needless to say that kind of strategy is impractical against double Intercepts and a PG.  Not to mention NN needs to run draws to see its pieces.  Stands just don't cut it.

Cecilia is a fine one of throw in for the Musketeer deck if you run her as a draw I guess?  She's technically a +1 that allows you to filter dud cards you called off your Musketeers for better units as a +1 but this card would make you want to run 4 Cecilia and she's just not very good anymore.  Vera and Elvira are just better VGs to sit on and IDK about running a 1 of Stride for a 1 of G3.

Soul Strike Against the Supreme

Dream-Spinning is...not what this Clan needed to get over its hurdles.  She's free and can be used as a first or 2nd Stride but her skills are lacking for Zero format as is.  The front row buff is laughable in the face of double intercept + PG and the on call would have been nice if it wasn't GB2 locked as by that point you may as well go into Jingle Flower or Primavera.  I can only hope that Dream-Spinning's front row buff sticks going into the opponent's turn like Jingle Flower's did as otherwise this will be a very underwhelming GR to pull.  Thankfully you'll never need more than 2 since Glorious Ahsha flips anything and only cares about how many of these are face up in the G-Zone for her board buff.  Hell you can probably even get away with 1 just to flip with the 1 Glorious you'll ever want.

We already got Maiden of Rambling Rose as a RRR in Set 2 (it's not a great backup to Ahsha) so I'll skip it and go straight to the Glimmer Breath clone.  Salianna is pretty okay as she can help set up your board by fetching a missing booster or cloning a G2 you kept in the back so she may wind up being a one of.  Her main issue is that Thuria replaces her completely in the next wave.

There are better options.  Pass.

This honestly doesn't seem that bad?  A good replacement for the 12k attacker that the deck already uses since you want to clone these as Wisteria Knight scales by himself and draws you cards if he hits which ideally he would be.  Honestly not a bad card to fetch off of Arborea or Dream-Spinning.

Again big numbers go brrr as your main strategy isn't a good enough.  Otherwise DP would be half as shit as they are.

Fighter's Collection 2015 (Winter)

This is kind of a stretch but when I looked at G-BT04 NN only had 10 cards put in the set and 4 of them were already put into Set 2 for Zero!  How are we supposed to make a Try-3 come back set with only 6-7 NN cards!  Enter filler cards from other sets.  Maiden of got expanded here into a full on archetype that would get bits of support with later sets.  Yggdrasil (this bad one, not the good Genesis unit) buffs your front row and gives you the ability to potentially multi-attack if your units hit.  Except you know intercepts and whatnot.  You do get to extend your attacks by 1 but then you have to rely on RNG to hit a card from the top 5 that pairs up with what's on board.  And that the opponent doesn't hit a defensive.  Primavera does this job with less steps.

Transcension of Gale and Blossom

 Man.  If only it wasn't in a bad deck.  Securing your G3 ride and Persona Blasts for Trailing Rose is actually pretty good.

Yeah I can see this eating up a RR slot.  It requires another card in hand for striding but you make back the neg by getting a booster and a draw.  This is unironically a solid card.

Noisette's also unironically good.  She yeets herself out of dodge and replaces herself with on hit draw and isn't locked behind GB.

And that's about it.  I'm pretty certain we're going to see Maiden of get their first batch of support in this set alongside Ahsha's remaining pre-Bloom pieces and neither deck I feel will be that competitive on ladder.  Ahsha will probably lose her spot as an anti-meta deck since by the time this set drops Shadow Paladin will be the (likely) BDIF and I don't see Phantom Blaster Diablo not fucking your board over, not to mention Gears having more spot removal and a powerful finisher in Nextage.  Until next time.