GBT-05 Narukami Review

Since I did one of these for Set 2's Narukami support I figured why not again with the upcoming Set 5?  Looking back on that post it's clear to me that I was right on a few things but WRONG on some others with Conquest Dragon being the big offender and I'll try not to do that here.  With that set let's get on with this and take a look at the relevant cards from this set.

GBT-05 Narukami

I'd like to believe that I'm not alone in thinking that Soaring Ascent of Gale and Blossom did WONDERS for the Narukami clan.  After all the set improved upon the clan's existing gimmicks of cheap albeit random retires, mass removal and gaining power from these while also giving them a new concept of permanent retire via drop zone binding.  This aspect has turned the clan into a strong anti-meta deck with the ability to act very aggressively on the fly, making Narukami one of the few Midrange decks in the game right now.  In addition to this Set 2 also breathed new life into the Vermillion deck with a revival legion (and later on FC Support), tried to give Eradicators a shot in the arm (and failed) and created a respectable G-Deck.  However the two big things to come out of the set for Narukami was the printing of Demonic Dragon Berserker Chatura (now a staple in every list) and Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon who has literally carried the clan into meta relevancy.  How will Moonlight Dragonfang expand on this?  Well looking over the cardpool it's clear there's more support for bind based builds with Vanquisher and the new Thunderstrike keyword, Guantlet Buster Eradicators and even a bone tossed at Brawlers!

Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VOLTAGE"

[Stride]-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 "Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VOLTAGE"" from your G zone, and turn it face up] Until end of turn, this unit gets "[AUTO](VC):When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, retires it, and you choose up to two cards from your opponent's drop zone, and bind them face up." and "[CONT](VC) Generation Break 3:During your turn, all of the units in your front row get [Power]+3000 for each card in your opponent's bind zone.".

Voltage is in an interesting spot as he's not BAD per see but not NEEDED in most Narukami decks as every variant outside of Vanquisher all have a better boss monster in Turbo, Warning or Finish Blow.  Now in bind heavy variants like Vanquisher or Nobles then this thing is basically a better Conquest Dragon as after you get your engine rolling you're going to have HUGE lines thanks to potentially +21000 buffs.  In a Vanquisher build I'd actually advocate the use of Stand Triggers just to get more value out of those 32000 Chaturas.  Also let's not underestimate Voltage having a non GB flip skill as while on hit retire sounds lame, he DOES set up Vanquisher's GB2 skill on the first stride.

True Eradicator, Finish Blow Dragon

[Stride]-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] Generation Break 2:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone, and turn it face up] Until end of turn, this unit gets "[AUTO](VC):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]+5000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.", and if you have a heart card with "Gauntlet Buster" in its card name, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, and retires it.

Bushi's back at it again with Eradicator support and thankfully they're looking at the better units in the theme and none of this Tempest Bolt shit.  Now am I happy that they're instead trying to make GBD the defacto build when EDD is the true boss of Erads?  Sort of.  Descendant is notoriously awful in the early game whereas Buster Dragon was good for setting up killshots for him or getting random OTKs through delicious critsacking so it makes sense that they'd try to improve said early game. Finish Blow is basically a bigger, cheaper GBD when you can't make use of his Limit Break and adds yet another killplay to the Narukami deck and will force out PGs from the opponent like tomorrow...assuming they didn't use them up dealing with Zorras or Conquest.  What I don't like about this card is the GB2 restriction.  This could have been perfectly fine as a first stride because god knows this game isn't lacking in first strides with insane effects.

Eradicator, Angercharge Dragon

[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)-card with "Eradicator" in its card name] When this unit is placed on (RC), you may pay the cost. If you do, put the top card of your deck into your damage zone face up. Then, if that card has "Eradicator" in its card name, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, and retires it. At the end of that turn, choose a card from your damage zone, and heal it.

This guy looks like a Brawler.  

Anywho G3s with rearguard only skills are generally unimpressive but this guy is just usable enough to see play in a GBD deck given that you don't want to max out on EDD and the other Erad Grade 3s are too specalized/overcosted to be splashed in, so Angercharge will see play in the deck at probably 2-3 copies.  The ability to put you into Limit Break, enable Gauntlet Buster's Limit Break and heal yourself back to 3 is cool

Great Composure Dragon

[CONT](RC): This unit gets [Power]-3000

So simple but so god damn good.  You know what was a really good card defensively?  Majesty Lord Blaster.  This card is a MLB without having to run shitty cards in your deck!  His only drawback is that he's a 9k on Rear but boosters fix that and in return you get an amazing unit that lets you cockblock 16k lanes with draw triggers and 21ks with ONE 10 shield.  He promptly tells off 11k attackers and trolls people who stay stuck on 2 by allowing you to be 17k when you check triggers which I imagine will be a pain in the ass for Ripples and Blue Waves.  Right now only Vanquisher decks will run this thing as all other Naru variants have better backup Grade 3s but long story short if you think this card sucks, you're an idiot.

Rockclimb Dragoon

[AUTO] Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (RC), if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Vanquisher" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, retires it, binds that card face up, and this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

Vanquisher's Glimmer Breath clone is exactly what I expected it to be.  Sets up Vanquisher's GB2 skill and puts more units into the bind zone for your Thunderstrike skills.

Chain-bolt Dragoon

[AUTO](RC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 1: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 grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Vanquisher" in its card name, your opponent chooses a card from his or her drop zone, and binds it face up. If he or she binds a card, you choose up to one of your other units, and it gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

Interesting approach for Vanquisher's Pia clone.  It only does something when you pop a unit but wow you're probably going to be binding 2-3 cards a turn with this in play in the deck and +2k isn't awful.  Puts Chatura to 13k by itself.  Not needing CB or Soul for its skill is really good though.

Machinegun Eradicator, Kantou

[AUTO](RC):[Soul Blast (1)-card with "Eradicator" in its card name] 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 pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your other units, and that unit and this unit get [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

Wow this thing's actually really good.  It's basically a Crownholder Dragon for Erads, except he triggers when you kill and only costs soul to use.  This will put a limit of how much you can use him but buffing a lane by 4k or two lanes by 2 isn't half bad.  The only issue I see with this is the Eradicator G1 lineup is incredibly cramped and he will compete with Rising Phoenix for soul.

Secret Fist Brawler, Kokon

[AUTO](RC):When your vanguard with "Brawler" in its card name's attack hits, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.

...Wow.  Just wow.  Narukami once again gets one of the best commons in a set because good lord this thing can get really big, really fast.  +3 for each hit your Vanguard makes in a deck that can punch up to six things means that even your Legion plays will allow your side lanes to hit for numbers that are normally seen when you drop Conquest Dragon.  And yet there's more!  Since this guy works when any Brawler VG hits he's effectively a 10k booster on turn 1 and afterwards so if your opponent stays Gradestuck at 2 then your Big Bangs can just swing at a side, kill it and now your 18000 Kokon + Slash Buster line just became 24000.  Sticking this thing behind Chatura for 21000 VG swings every turn is no joke either.

Brawler, Streetfight Dragon

[ACT](RC):[Put this card on top of your deck] If you have a vanguard with "Brawler" in its card name, choose up to one of your other rear-guards with "Brawler" in its card name, and until end of turn, that unit gets "[AUTO](RC):When your vanguard's attack hits, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.". Shuffle your deck.

Oh lord. A recyclable crit that turns any of your Rearguard Brawlers into a Slash Dragon.  This thing is going to be stupid with Skyhowl and Wildcloak.

And that's it.  I'm not going to go over the other cards on here because they're honestly not that good or just not needed in their respective decks.  Set 5 doesn't do as much for Narukami as Set 2 did but the few good cards out of here will definitely help their respective decks out.  Brawlers are far and away the best Narukami deck now as their new cards allow their rearguards to hit for big numbers even if you have a board in addition to Conquest enabling them to push for game when you don't.  People need to legit watch out for them because Brawlers will punch you in the face with their Fists of Feels.