Post BTG2 Narukami Options

This week marks the release of Soaring Ascent of Gale and Blossom in the Japanese metagame and as a long time Narukami player I've been excited to see what new cards I'll be getting to work with in my decks.  Now that the full set has been spoiled I can finally give my thoughts on what Soaring Ascent does for Narukami variants and as such I'm going to review all of the cards they get in this set, barring Vanillas.  Will my thunderous avatar stand up to reclaim his glory once again?  We'll see

To my surprise the way Soaring Ascent goes about supporting Narukami is unusual.  Based on the previous set, I expected a good chunk of generic cards with random Legion support tossed in much like what was done with Battle Sisters getting a Legion and Perdition Dragons having random support.  Instead Bushiroad opted to support generic Narukami and Eradicators instead of Brawlers.  I have to question this move as retiring front row Rearguards isn't as effective as it used to be and the Limit Break mechanic has become severely outdated with the advent of Legion.  Still Eradicators were one of the two builds of Narukami to spring the deck into Tier 1 Status and Dragonic Descendant is a self standing Vanguard and as we all should know by now; Self Standing is far and away the best skill in the game.  That being said let's get this started with the G-Units and Heart from this set.

Dragonic Vanquisher

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):When your opponent's rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, this unit gets [Power]+3000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.
[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] During your turn, when your G unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one rear-guard in your opponent's front row, retire it, and bind that card face up.

Dragonic Vanquisher is for all intents and purposes an inferior Dragonic Blademaster, a card that Kagero doesn't even run.  Narukami on the other hand may very well end up playing this due to a lack of options on the generic side of things.  While Blademaster lets you kill something of your choosing on stride and gets the passive crit if you have more cards than the opponent, Vanquisher tries to further a new gimmick that Narukami gets as of this set which is permanent binding in the form of sniping a front row rearguard, then binding it face up permanently.  This is actually pretty powerful as it (sort of) interferes with Legion, hurts decks that toolbox off the drop zone (Glendios) and it straight up murders Grandblue due to Bind's nature.  It's effectively the same as Banish/Exile except as of this moment Vanguard has never had permanent Bind.  Cards hit by this effect are gone for good and that's pretty damn strong.  His GB2 skill is a straight clone of Guantlet Buster Dragon's Limit Break, except GB2 is never relevant until way late into the game.

Thunder Dragon Knight, Zoras

Stride (Released when both players' vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.
[AUTO](VC):When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, retire it, you choose up to two cards from opponent's drop zone, and bind them.

Zoras much like all of the on hit Strides is your early game play as he costs no CB and will either hit or draw out a Sentinel.  Much like Vanquisher he's largely inferior to the Kagero version of this as you can't choose what dies, but on the flip side if he hits you get to bind up to 2 cards from the opponent's drop zone.  This is actually really good in a format where most decks play the unflipping Perfect Guards and those things require another copy of themselves in the drop zone to work.  In addition to that you can bind triggers that were used to guard your early attacks so that the opponent cannot shuffle them back into the deck for Legion or remove Legion Mates from the game.  I'd say that this is going to be an amazing pressure card as alot of decks will not want their stuff to get bound from the grave and he'll bait out Perfect Guards like crazy.

Supreme Conquering Dragon, Conquest Dragon

Stride (Released when both players' vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.
[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Choose a face down card named "Supreme Conquering Dragon, Conquest Dragon" from your G zone, and turn it face up] If the number of face up cards in your G zone is two or more, choose one rear-guard in your opponent's front row, retire it, and until end of turn, all units in your front row get [Power]+5000 for each open (RC) in your opponent's front row.

For all the not bad Zoras is, I'm really mixed on Conquest Dragon.  I knew he was going to be a watered down Route Flare Dragon clone and he certainly lived up to that expectation, but retire one are you kidding me?  Yes if you stride this over Vanquisher you're nuking the entire front for a CB1, but come on!  They could have given this guy the ability to wipe the entire front row on his own and given him a bonus effect of +5000 if you had 2 or more face-up G-Units.  They also could have simply thrown us a serve and given this guy an entirely different effect like that of Descendant or ProGlare.

Whatever.  This guy will have to suffice until Fighter's Collection 2015.  As it is while sniping one front row unit isn't very potent, his ability to power up the front CAN give you a swing in tempo.  +10000 to the front means you'll be attacking with columns of roughly 19-22000+, 36000+ and 19-22000+ assuming you do not have boosters in play.  If boosters are factored in then those lines become larger and the end result will be swings that eat up a fair amount of guard.  It won't be nearly as much as what you could do with Big Bang Knuckle Buster and not even close to the amount of shield Aqua Force will eat up, but Conquest Dragon offers this ability to push to all Narukami variants for 2 turns, allowing you to throw big numbers at the opponent even if you don't have an optimized board like Knuckle wants.

Again I'm very mixed on this card as while he doesn't have any of the unfair skills, he does something.

Dragonic Kaiser Crimson

[ACT](VC): Legion22000 "Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion" (If your opponent's vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit may return four cards from your drop zone into your deck once, search your deck for the specified card, and Legion)
[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):Choose a [ACT] of one of your legion mates, and until you play that ability the next time, its cost is lost until end of turn. (The cost of a [ACT] without a cost is paid by declaring the play.)
[ACT](VC):[Soul Blast (1)] If you have another unit in your middle column, this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

You can bet I lost my shit when I first saw this.  Vermillion is my all time favourite unit and one of the most beloved cards of the Vanguard community.  Seen as a balanced Overlord, he traded in restanding for attacking multiple units at once and his Cross-Ride while having an awful ability was still one of the best in the game thanks to Narukami having access to a 10k booster.  23000 swings were no joke.

That said Vermillion has aged terribly and his gimmick of multiple unit attacks has been improved upon by Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster who can not only attack the front row, but also the backrow.  Part of the issue I have with Narukami's retiring aspect is they focus strictly on the front which is not what it used to be.  Decks run about 12 Grade 2s and 8 Grade 3s which means minus what you ride, a typical deck will have 18 units they can call to the front and attack with.  On the other hand the Grade 1 Lineup consists of 4 Sentinels which are rarely called and 10 other cards.  It is much harder to replace boosters that are killed than it is front row attackers which is what makes Kagero's removal much better.  They usually cost more Counterblast, but they can kill what's worth killing.

So what does this mean for Crimson?  Basically it means that while he lets you perform Vermillion's Limit Break for free which is definitely NO joke, you're never going to hit anything of value with the exception of decks that need to commit specific rear guards for their plays like Aqua Force and Nova Grappler.  However he is a legion for Generic Narukami and the fact that he is costless once at Limit Break (which thanks to Egg Helm isn't much of an issue, or you just stride until at LB) means you can run cards like Dragonic Deathscythe to hit backrow units and sweep the front with the Kaiser Bros.  Other G3s to run alongside this would be Shotgun Blow Dragon and his mate as Lisei and Ark both get +6000 when you Thunderbolt the front, or you can run Vanquisher to pick off rearguards in the early game, then start sweeping with Crimson in the late.  I should note that Crimson's ability to Soul Blast to gain attack is extremely helpful in setting himself up for Legion, even allowing you to blast away any Vermillions you had to ride prior, or are in soul after riding over an already Legion'd Crimson.

Voltage Horn Dragon

[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if this unit is boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, retires it, and binds that card face up.

Gotta have an Amber clone and Voltage does what I expected it to; kill something and bind it.  It sets up Vanquisher's GB2 skill and is playable in just about every Narukami variant, even Eradicators to a degree.  The fact he can hit anything is really good as you're likely to sweep off the front with your Vanguards first which will allow this guy to go after boosters.  This partners nicely with Deathscythe in Vermillion.dek.

Dragon Dancer, Anastasia

[CONT]: Sentinel (You may only have up to four cards with "[CONT]: Sentinel" in a deck)
[AUTO]:[Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] When this unit is placed on (GC) from hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your vanguards that is being attacked, and that unit cannot be hit until end of that battle. Then, if you have a card named "Dragon Dancer, Anastasia" in your drop zone, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face up.

Not going to lie, the artwork on this card is sick as hell.  Also having access to damage unflipping without having to hit things is something Narukami have desperately needed.  Unfortunately it's really hard to use this card in the most CB heavy version of the deck; Eradicators.

[AUTO]:[Choose a grade 3 card from your hand, and reveal it] When this unit is placed on (RC) from hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one grade 3 card with "Vanquisher" in its card name, reveal it to your opponent, put into your hand, shuffle your deck, choose a card from your hand, and discard it.
[CONT](Hand):When you would pay the cost of Stride, this card gets grade+2.

Like every clan, Narus are getting a G1 Stride Unit that can search out Vanquisher.  This will not see play in Eradicators or Brawlers due to their already tight G1 lineups but in generics he'll be seeing ALOT of play.  His ability to fetch a Vanquisher and pitch a card is actually really good in Vermillion as it allows you to get away with running only a single Kaiser as you can simply discard it with this guy's effect and Legion it back later.

Harbringer Dracokid
[AUTO]:Forerunner (When a unit of the same clan rides this unit, you may call this unit to (RC))
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):When a card is put into the bind zone due to an effect from one of your cards, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.

On paper this sounds great.  Vanquisher binds, Zoras binds and hell even Dungaree binds so he'll be an 8k booster or more!  However in execution I'd much rather have Spark Kid, Saishin, Linchu or Fighting Dracokid over this.

Heat Blade Dragoon

[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone): When this unit attacks a vanguard, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of that battle.

While the idea of having a generic 12k attacker is nice in Narukami, the reality is that every version of the deck has a themed 12k attacker of its own, even Dungaree.

Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
[CONT](RC):This unit cannot attack a rear-guard.
[CONT](RC): During your turn, this unit gets [Power]+3000 and "[AUTO](RC):[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card,choose a card in your opponent's drop zone, and bind it face up."

This is interesting.  Sadly you can't kill RGs with it but in exchange he's an 11k beater that on hit will generate a raw +1 in a deck that is horrendously lacking in draw power and can remove cards from the opponent's grave.  I'm going to give this a shot at the very least.

Dragon Dancer, Vianney
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):[Put this unit on top of your deck] When your opponent's rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, you may pay the cost. If you do, shuffle your deck, draw a card, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face up.

Poor Vianney.  She's a really good card as returning it into the deck to draw a card is incredibly powerful.  Unfortunately she's a Stand Trigger in a clan that generally can't make use of it.  Vermillion decks attack with the Vanguard first so she's of no use there, Knuckle Buster is in the same position and Eradicators have to have as few non subclan units as possible as to not screw up your especial counterblasts or Descendant's limit break.  This card will only be useful in weaker variants like Shotgun Blow/Skybeat or Dungaree.  A shame as if this was any other trigger type it'd be heavily played.

Two Blades Eradicator, Koenshaku
[AUTO](RC)[1/Turn]:When your opponent's rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, if you have a vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name, you may have "All fighters choose one of his or her rear-guards, and retire it.". (You may only play it once each turn.)

Again if you had told me that Eradicators were going to get support and not Brawler's I'd have called you insane.  Yet here we are.  Koenshaku is interesting as he isn't live while in hand or immediately in play.  He requires you to have another card in order to accomplish anything which makes him difficult to play.  Furthermore he costs you a unit to take out an opponents unit which makes him only a one for one.  He can kill off anything you want which includes Rising Phoenix's that have already paid for themselves.

Immortal Eradicator, Shup
[CONT](RC):This unit cannot be retired due to an effect from one of your cards.
[AUTO](RC):[Soul Blast (1)-card with "Eradicator" in its card name] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+1000 for each of all fighter's open (RC) until end of that battle.

Silly Bushiroad, Tempest Bolt Dragon will never be the true way to play Eradicators!  Erads will always be Descendant and friends.  That said this guy's synergy with Tempest is obvious as he'll become very, very big after a board wipe but otherwise I don't see this being played in much else.  Eradicator's soul actually becomes very important now because of the next card and Shup interferes with that.  Furthermore his attack gain is only relevant with Tempest Bolt.  In Descendant variants he'll usually be just 9-12k and Spark Rain Dragon accomplishes that task without wasting soul or being 8k on defense.

Assault Eradicator, Saikei
[AUTO](RC):[Soul Blast (1)] During your main phase, when your opponent's rear-guard in the front row is put into the drop zone, if you have a vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face up.

A pity it's only in the main phase.  Still this is a phenomenal card that Eradicators desperately needed as they eat up Counterblast like no tomorrow.  All it takes to set this guy off is a Cho-Ou play and as the result the deck doesn't have to run Zuitan anymore and can play Koenshaku or even Voltage Horn Dragon.  He effectively makes Guantlet Buster Dragon a CB1, comboes nicely with Sweep Commando and can be set off by Conquest Dragon who is looking like a really good mid game option for the deck when your Limit Break isn't online yet.

Ionization Eradicator, Kapunis
[AUTO]:When this unit is put into your drop zone from (RC) due to an effect from one of your cards, look at three cards from the top of your deck, search for up to one card with "Eradicator" in its card name from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, return this card to your deck, and shuffle your deck.

Finally I'll cap off this review with a look at a brand new Crit trigger for Eradicators that is really, really good.  Kapunis adds a bit of consistency to a deck that is sorely lacking in it even if triggering it is difficult as there are only 3 known ways to do so; Tempest Bolt Dragon, Twin Thunder Dragon and Koenshaku.  Koenshaku is by far the best way to do it and it helps dig for cards like Guild or Descendant if you haven't seen it already.  The fact he is a crit is also huge as it allows the deck to run 12 crits which I feel suits Descendant better than Stands as you can simply stack the crits you check with him on your Rear Guards.

And that concludes my review of all the relevant Narukami cards of this set.  Cards not mentioned like Roar of Chaos Deity, Rudra are not worth my time as honestly they're garbage and serve only as filler in this set.  In regards to how these cards will improve Narukami I can't say as I've only begun testing with them.  I'll post an update telling my experiences as we get closer to BTG2's release in May.  Until next time this is Bluestar899, jacking out.