This was initially going to be a post following up my February article where I reviewed the Narukami support from Soaring Ascent of Blossoms and Gales and talk about where I was right/wrong on certain cards in addition to the Clan itself since. Then the first point of this article happened and it ultimately turned into my thoughts on the Narukami vs Kagero debate that's been a thing for some time. Being the resident Narukami player of the city you're probably going to expect me to say my clan is superior and you're right. I do.
However I'm also going to state why I think they are outside of blind favouritism. At the very least this'll be an entertaining read that'll rustle the jimmies of at least one person I know.
Why Narukami has become better than Kagero
Back in the day Kagero players loved to gloat over how their deck was superior and Narus were a rip off. For the most part they were right as Kagero had a much better cardpool, better retiring (precision kills > random/front row kills) and an unfair (for its time) boss monster in DOTE compared to a solid boss (for its time) in Vermillion whom alot of people view as a balanced Overlord. Now though the gap has closed and the two clans favour distinctly different playstyles and at the moment I believe Narukami's is better suited for the current format. Why is that?
Kagero by nature is a control deck that favours grinding and a long game. You want to win the war of attrition by killing units and constantly legioning with DOTX/DOTE. This playstyle however comes at the cost of being easily rushed and killed before you get a chance to start your engine. DOTX despite it's formidable power and let's be honest here horrendous card design can find itself victim to getting killed by fast decks such as Sanc Guard, The Navy and Revengers. Perdition Dragons fare a bit better here as they have the ability to counter rush with Neoflame, Pain Laser and Dragnewt but they lack a consistent kill play.
Narukami on the other hand is a control deck that is more aggro. It can kill things, hit for big numbers and can counter rushes easier with its Grade 2 card pool as a majority of Naru's kill things on ride/call require no prior setup compared to say Burnout. Sometimes you don't have an Overlord in the drop zone. It happens. In addition it also now is a bit on the anti-meta side with its ability to attack the drop zone and bind things permanently, ensuring Legion Decks can't recycle triggers or persona mates. Some people have gone on record saying it's a retarded mechanic to which I often counter with saying that it's something that makes Narukami's retire unique. Kagero can kill things with ease and is usually cheaper. Narukami can't but on the flipside it makes sure things stay dead.
More importantly that aggressive based playstyle works much better in the current format as both Legion and Strides have basically defeated the entire premise of the the old control decks of Sets 1-15 where by taking away their rearguards you are using less cards in hand to guard attacks with and can win via advantage. That doesn't work anymore when VG lines are swinging for 31+ and you have to burn 3 cards for a 2 pass or a PG every single or other turn. That's why those spammy based rush decks I mentioned are not only killing control decks like Kagero, Gear Chronicle and old school Narukami but those control decks are their best matchups. You want those matchups because you don't have to worry about them killing you very quickly compared to playing against a fellow rush deck that can kill you on their second Stride. Narukami is able to do this to some degree thanks to its G-Unit turning out to be perfect fits in the format. Conquest Dragon is incredibly underrated but he wins games through his +10000 to the front skill. Root Flare just kills a column. Now if he instead gave all your RGs +1000-2000 for each open RG on the opponent's board that'd be a different story. At the very least DOTX now has The Ace who is also criminally underrated but allows the deck to attempt to kill the opponent after they've managed to grind them down. Guaranteed two attacks at 31k that'll require immense guarding or no pass vs swing with DOTX who has to hit to get the restand.
That's the main reason that I feel Narukami are currently the better of the two clans. Narukami's gimmick of less control but more aggro is working great in the format and the addition of Big Bang Knuckle Turbo to the Brawler deck now lets the deck out retire Kagero with a cheap board wipe. Leading up to this the retire aspect of both decks had become less of an issue due to the way deck construction has gone. Narukami's once glossed over aspect of front row kills has become extremely potent given what you're going after. Sure backrow sniping is always good as there are Grade 1s like Laurel that need to be killed and short of Deathscythe Narus can't do much about it. However outside of those let's take a look at the basic construction of a deck (and yes part of this is being regurgitated from SomeGamerDude's blog);
Grade 0s
17 (16 Triggers, 1 Starter)
Grade 1s
14-15 (4 PGGs, 3-4 Striders)
Grade 2s
11-12 (3-4 Amber Clones, 3-4 12k Attackers, 3-4 Speciality Unit)
Grade 3s
7-8
Of the 0s one of which is the Starter, of the G1s 4 are Sentinels and now 4 are Stride Enablers both of which are rarely called to RG. That's 8 out of likely 14 cards leaving the deck with 6 units that actually do things on RG and with most clans moving away from 10k attackers those Grade 1s aren't going to be swinging for relevant numbers. Moving onto the G2 and 3 part in the past front row kills were underwhelming because a deck had basically 18 units they could call down as beatsticks to replace what you kill. Now though people hang onto their Grade 3s for Striding which eliminates the number of front row attackers to about 11. If the player does call a G3 to the front then that's great as it means they have one less card to use for Stride fodder. More importantly this means that Narukami's front row kills have the same amount of value as Kageros as while they have more things they can kill (18 compared to Narus 11) what you're going after in the back isn't any better than what Narus are going after in the front.
Ultimately what this means is that while Kagero is better at retiring things, in G-Era Vanguard the things they kill are such low value that they're basically even with Narukami in that regard and as I've already mentioned in this post Narukami have much better RGs and G-Units which has allowed them to pull ahead. Kagero is still be better VG centric clan because of Overlord support and there's no disputing that but if you pretend DOTX and The Ace didn't exist and Kagero was still Perdition Dragons + Root Flare the clan then there'd be no contest, Narukami would win hands down because they've got the better card pool now and have become the more solid clan.
And there you have it. To make a long story short when comparing Kagero and Narukami we've now gotten to the point that the clans while similar have taken vastly different paths in how they reach their end goal. Kagero wants to win with precision kills while grinding you to death with a big Restanding VG. Narukami wants to kill you faster with board wipes, making sure your most important cards stay dead and attacking with big rearguards.
No comments:
Post a Comment