G-BT12 Narukami Spoilers - Week 7 (Finale)

This is it!  The last post of this series as the set is now out in Japan and we've got full spoilers to work with.  Let's not waste any time on this as I've got a set review to wrap up!

Eradicator, Sharp Impact Dragon 

[ACT](R):{Put this into your Soul} CC1. 

It's a trigger that can Countercharge.  That kind of utility is always nice to have.  If this doesn't see play now it will in the future.

Storm Eraser Shiva

[ACT](R):{Put this unit into your Soul} Choose 1 of your units, during this turn

it gets POWER+3000.

And here we have a new Malevolent Djinn except this guy has an Eradicator name which will be relevant sometimes.  Pretty much replaces Djinn.

Summon Lightning Dancing Princess, Anastasia

CONT: Sentinel

AUTO: [Choose 1 card from your hand, Discard it] When this card is placed on (GC) from the hand, you can pay the cost. If you pay it, choose 1 of your Units being attacked, during that battle, it cannot be hit.

AUTO Thunderstrike 4: When this card is retired from (GC), you can draw 1 card.

And the last card of importance I'm going to talk about (Erads got a new Vanilla Heal and Draw but nothing replaces Seibo and Carbuncle in my eyes) is best girl Haru-I mean Anastasia.  I don't really have a whole lot to say about the card as she pretty much speaks for herself.  At Thunderstrike 4 she is essentially "free" and unlike the Battle Sister PG doesn't require a copy of herself in the drop.

That's right.  This PG literally power creeps the other good PG that was released in this set.

And that's it.  All in all Set 12 is very kind to Narukami.  In fact I'd go so far as to say that Narus are the clear winners of this set as not only do we have some quality cards here, but of significant quantity too.  Sure there were some duds (most of them being on the Eradicator side) but man Bushiroad sure made up for how utterly shit Set 9 was to us.  What they've done with Thunderstrike needs to be the gold standard of how to update a Keyword for the current format as there are clans out there that definitely need a similar level of work applied to them.  Aqua Force, Megacolony, Murakumo, the list goes on.  With Set 11 being good and Set 12 being great Bushiroad has all the momentum in the world from a design standpoint and we're all eager to see what will happen next.

Don't fuck this up.

G-BT12 Narukami Spoilers - Week 6

Not much I can say on this one.  We're literally coming down to the wire and it's just a handful of Rares plus one RR left.  Hopefully these will be spoiled next week.  Until then let's just take a look at the one card I get to talk about today;

Mystic Wisdom Creator, Brahma

Grade 4 / G Unit – G Guardian / Dragon Empire – Narukami – Noble

Shield 15000+

[G Guardian]

AUTO: [Choose 2 cards with different Grades from your Drop Zone, Bind them face-up] When this Unit is placed on (GC), you can pay the cost. If you apy it, during that battle, this Unit gains Shiled+10000.

Honestly there isn't much for me to say here.  Brahma is an easy to achieve 25k shield that only requires you to have a drop zone of your own as setup.  Oh no.  Not that.

But seriously something like this was needed as Bulwark Dragon is really difficult to make live outside of Thunderstrike decks and Brahma gives Eradicators, Brawlers, Vermillion and (I can't believe I'm saying this) Dungaree a legit G-Guard to work with.  That last deck is worth pointing out as Dungaree works off of having its own cards bound and this opens the door for eventual support.  I mean Bushiroad isn't above supporting meme decks in the game and Dungaree getting support would be no less out of place than Maiden Of.

Now obviously Brahma is something you need to be mindful of using in the Mirror Match as he immediately puts your opponent up by 2 Thunderstrikes (though honestly you'll just want to flip this guy up with Impede Dragon in the Mirror anyway) but I have to point out that he also helps you get more value out of Conquering Supreme Dragon, Closer Dragon as that card buffs your units by 2k for each card in your opponent's bind zone and yours as well.  An extra two binds means your units get an extra 4k which can sometimes be enough to make magic numbers and we definitely take those.

Run this at 1 in Vanquisher and at 2-3 in everything else.

G-BT12 Narukami Spoilers - Week 5

A day late!  Sorry!  I lost track of time while TP Metal Grinding and before I knew it I was pretty much donezos afterwards.  Well regardless this just means I have a little more to talk about due to recent spoilers.  Ahem.

It's less than 2 weeks to go until this set comes out and as such we're starting to finally see most of the Rares that this set has to offer.  This is fine as for the most part the Narukami rares have been pretty stellar (though my ink cartridges would probably like to have a word with BSR given the number of proxies I've made);

Lightning Strike of Aspiration, Helena

Grade 2 / Normal Unit / Dragon Empire – Narukami – Sylph

Power 9000

Shield 5000

AUTO GB1 Thunderstrike 3: [CB1] When this Unit is placed on (RC), and you have a “Vanquisher” Vanguard, you can pay the cost. If you pay it, draw 1 card, during that turn, this Unit gains Power+2000.

...I don't really know what I can say here that isn't glaringly obvious.  He's an on call +1 in a clan that desperately needs any hand building it can get.  If you further need convincing if this guy is good or not then the twits on Reddit don't like this guy.

 Electro-Butcher Dragon

Grade 3 / Normal Unit / Dragon Empire – Narukami – Thunder Dragon

Power 11000

AUTO: [CB1] When this Unit is placed on (RC), you can pay the cost. If you pay it, choose 1 of your opponent’s front row Rear-guards, Retire it, and Bind it face-up.

AUTO (RC) GB1 Thunderstrike 3: When this Unit attacks a Vanguard, during that battle, this Unit gains Power+3000.

Cool name, kind of let down by the Thunderstrike skill.  It's great that he's a souped up Skyhowl Dragon and with a 7k booster he hits 21 but I was kind of hoping for him to get more than just +3k when Wyvern Strike, Jargo can swing for +6k.

Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant "Sigma"

[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)-card with "Eradicator" in its card name] When your G unit with "Eradicator" in its original card name Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your vanguards, until end of turn, it gets [Power]+10000, and "[AUTO](VC):When this unit [Stand], it gets drive+1.".

[AUTO](RC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] At the end of the battle that this unit attacked a vanguard, if the attack did not hit, you may pay the cost. If you do, [Stand] this unit.

Where do I begin?

So this card could have been the unit that fixed many things.  Instead he only creates more issues.  His Stride Bonus works with any Erad Stride but really what good is it going to do for anything other than Zillion?  Do Linchu or Finish Blow care about it?  Hell no!  They can't restand and +10k isn't going to be relevant in most instances with those two.  To compound this Sigma doesn't help Zillion achieve it's goal of Restanding because he doesn't put pressure on your opponent to Guard which is what you want.  Descendant worked so well in Break Ride format because everyone had to play at 4 Damage to get their decks rolling which made him a terror to deal with lest you fear critsacking.  Today's Vanguard however has people being able to stay at 2-3 damage for a good while and thus they can safely no guard Zillion most of the time and not fear death because unless you're rocking 12 crits (and you're an idiot if you do in Erads).  Honestly Sigma should have been CB1 your opponent retires a RG and he gets a crit.  Boom.  Instant pressure to guard at 3 damage otherwise they die to you flipping a crit.  I mean sure if you get your opponent to 4-5 damage this guy with Zillion is kind of scary but Sigma at the end of the day doesn't do what he needed to do for the deck.

That being said his RG skill is very interesting.  He's basically a Magnum Assault for a discard and a CB but isn't restricted to Erads.  This makes him potentially splashable in other Narukami variants like Vanquisher as a restander on a Voltage turn is nothing to sneeze at.  He's also very, very good on Closer Dragon turns.

Still this is definitely the better Descendant to be on in the EDD deck.  He might also make an appearance in Sweep Command lists for his RG skill rather than the VG.

Fire Pillar Eradicator, Castor

VG-G-BT12-041 (R)

[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)] When this card is discarded from hand for the cost of Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at seven cards from the top of your deck, reveal up to one grade 3 or greater card with "Eradicator" in its card name from among them, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

[CONT](Hand):While you are paying the cost for Stride, if you have a vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name, this card gets grade+2.

Why is it that I routinely shit on the Eradicator support you ask?  It's because of cards like this where Bushiroad is clearly designing them to be more complicated (and worse) than their peers.  I know someone's gonna say "hey it's a Stride Fodder for Erads!  You can't be mad!"

Oh yeah?  Need I point out that in the same set Oracle Think Tank gets Battle Sister, Baumkuchen who reads as:

[AUTO]:[Choose a grade 3 card with "Battle Sister" in its card name 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 "Battle Sister" in its card name, reveal it, put it into your hand, choose a card from your hand, discard it, and shuffle your deck.

[CONT](Hand):While you are paying the cost for Stride, this card gets grade+2.

Now read Castor again.  Castor is completely worse than Baumkuchen!  Her filter skill is a free one for one provided you have  G3 in hand but she is a guaranteed search of any Grade 3 Battle Sister you need pre G3 ride and can correct your ride setup if need be whereas Castor is CB1 for a potential crapshoot +1 (how good are you at hitting Luards off Abyssal Owls btw) and Baumkuchen's Grade +2 counts towards any stride regardless of what Vanguard you are on.  

Do you know how awesome it would have been if you could fetch Sweep Command Dragon or a Vowing Sword Dragon on demand?  Consistency in this deck?  Why that's heresy!

Seriously Bushiroad.  Stop it with Eradicators.  Fucking support Narukami decks that need it.  Brawlers haven't gotten anything since Set 5 and they've been the biggest victims of this game's changing meta while Vermillion hasn't gotten shit despite being the most popular Narukami card among the playerbase.

Until next week.

GBT-12 Narukami Spoilers - Week 4

Yeesh.  For a moment there I was concerned there'd be nothing to talk about.  Turns out I was wrong as Bushiroad dropped some good things on us this week;

Lightning Chakram, Gliselle

G2 9k

AUTO (RC): When this Unit is attacked OR is chosen by the effect of an opponent’s card, your opponent chooses 1 card from their Drop Zone, and Binds it face-up.

CONT (RC) Thunderstrike 5: During your turn, this Unit gains Power+9000, and “ACT (RC) 1/Turn: [CB1] If you have a “Vanquisher” Vanguard, choose of your opponent’s (RC), when this Unit would attack the Vanguard, you can attack both the Vanguard and the Unit occupying the chosen (RC).”.

This one's interesting.  Low key really good, but it'll take a while for her to really get going because of Thunderstrike 5.  Both of her skills are live outside of GB which is relevant if I end up having to play the Grade 2 game and the first one can be surprisingly irritating to certain deck types.  Normally when your Grade 2 gaming you'll be protecting yourself and attacking rears.  Doing that against Gliselle will cost you a unit from the drop zone and she doesn't even have to be retired for this so if I can save her with a 5k to force out another attack and bind then she's already pulled a fair share of her weight.  Then we've got her other skill which makes her effectively an 18k beatstick with the ability to become a One Strike Two Folds Djinn for CB1 which is nothing to sneeze at.

Smash Boxer Dragon
G2 7k
CONT (RC) GB1: During a battle in which this Unit boosts a Unit with the Thunderstrike ability, this Unit and that Unit cannot be chosen by the effects of your opponent’s cards.
AUTO (RC) GB1 Thunderstrike 3: [Place this Unit into the Soul] At the end of a battle in which this Unit Boosts, if you have a “Vanquisher” Vanguard, you can pay the cost. If you pay it, draw 1 card, and CC1.

This card is perfect.  He literally covers all of my complaints that I've lodged this past month.  CB issues?  Smash Boxer covers it.  Soul issues?  Smash Boxer.  Hand?  Smash Boxer!  And to top it all off he gives himself and a Thunderstrike unit he boosts Resist which is going to be hilarious against Kagero.  Solid 4 of that easily replaces Chain-Bolt Dragoon.  What's that?  You need more convincing?  Well Woudragon from the reddits hates this thing and since we all know that guy has his head so far up his own ass that I'm certain if you gut punched him he'd end up with a broken nose then you know that this thing is the legit real deal good goods.  Takes alot of pressure off our triggers to provide soul AND it clears up your board so you can get more value off Impede Dragon.  He can also be splashed into Sweep Command decks since they first Stride Voltage which is now 1,000,000% the correct play and this guy adds to the Soul for Sweep's Limit Break while unflipping and drawing more cards.

Seriously this thing is super good and it could have been a RR.