Welcome to "Cards Narukami gets in G Part 2 Literal Electric Boogaloo" with an emphasis on the 2 as this is where we start to see some decent cards here. Before I begin I should let readers know that since the last post we've seen buffs given to how G0 Heals, Heart Thump Clones and Stride Fodder work and I've edited it accordingly. Now let's not waste any time here as we've got a promo to tackle!
Shoran is a pomo card that came with Set 2 in the OCG that we didn't get until it was way too late for it to be relevant. He's an interesting case as unlike later cards intended for Vanquisher, Shouran counts cards that you bound yourself for effects so he's actually a card that could see play in Dungaree who need I remind you is considerably better in Zero than his TCG counterpart. That being said Dungaree is probably far from relevant by the time this set drops and IDK if Vanquisher will have the space for Shouran.
Here's our third and last vanilla to be released until V-Series rolls around. Hoping to god they don't put the Zarzan package into Zero that would break this.
This really should have been imported into Brilliant Strike. Hell they imported the G Set 5 Brawler card into Neon Messiah and he's been fantastic! Anyway this is more support for Tempest Bolt.dek and as such it won't be used.
This is just bad. First you have to draw this. Then you have to retire something, then you have to retire one of your own units just to pop a random backrow. And you'd have be considering running this over Zuitan, Spark Rain or Gunners.
Right these things. Every clan got a GB1 12k attacker, but only when swinging at the Vanguard. These were meant for clan builds that never got their own Burning Horn clone but these things were never played. Better 2s just existed. Like Desert Gunners.
Voltage Horn is Narukami's "Amber Clone" which are all GB1 Grade 2s that have to attack the Vanguard while boosted to do a Clan thing. In this case it's likely randomly retire a unit with priority to the backrow and bind. With this we get Narukami's new gimmick and one that has stayed with the clan since. The idea basically was that Kagero had the ability to retire whatever it wanted compared to Narukami's random retire but whatever Narukami retired stayed dead which at the time of this set release was actually pretty strong since Legion decks still ran the format. Binding away Seek Mate targets hurt some decks and for decks that played out of the drop zone just removing key pieces set them back. Also if I remember my rulings correctly this effect was two parts meaning if you couldn't retire the unit with your effect, it still got bound which gives a giant middle finger to Garmore, Seeker Alfred and Saint Blow. That being said Voltage Horn is okay as a removal unit. What makes him noteworthy is that he's BP retire which triggers First Thunder Dracokid and therefore improves the Sweep Command Dragon deck's ability to pull off its combo. This set along with Spark Horn Dragon gives the deck a much improved gameplan and that's just one way of playing Steve. Just wait until we get Impede Dragon!
Chatura was f**king crazy in the TCG and I don't see that being different in Zero. The CB2 on hit draw G2s saw play here and there but this is one that can hit VGs unboosted, costs only 1 CB and lets you selectively remove whatever you want from the drop zone. Chatura's weakness of not attacking rears and being on hit are irrelevant since you can just swing your VG at a rear and have him go at the Vanguard instead for that sweet +1. I legit think they'll bump Chatura up to RR since *every* Narukami deck played him through the entirety of G.
Nobles still keep getting some support throughout G-Era. Nobles still wound up sucking regardless.
Man it's weird seeing Jaggy Shot be so meh considering how broken his V retrain was for so long. I'm honestly not sure if he'll see play in the deck since G-Narukami will probably play G0 Heals, the CCer, Djinn or the Unlocker as draws alongside Vanquisher. And that's assuming we don't get Crimson It depends on if they buff his skill since on hit front row retire is lol when you have to kill intercepts first. I suppose he can always kill G3s in the front but that's less than ideal in a format that will still have Legion Decks running around. Maybe later on when G-Decks start playing utility G3s in the front or if they give him bind.
Crimson turned out to be 'okay' in the TCG much to my chagrin. It's debatable if a dedicated Kaiser deck was better than playing straight Vanquisher, Sweep Command or Brawler since there weren't alot of generic Narukami cards released since the gap between end of Asia Circuit to G (but I sure as hell tried to make something work). In the end the deck ended up showing off the power of Narukami's boss Stride and Chatura more than anything else but maybe it'll be different in Zero just because you'll need additional G3s to fill out your 13 slots and a 'generic' Legion that at Limit Break gives you a free Front Row wipe isn't exactly something you can sneeze at. Especially if they keep the Soul Blast effect to help set the drop zone up or put the LB remover in the set.
In the TCG Dragonic Vanquisher was mediocre AF on his release, establishing a long and storied history of hype followed by crushing disappointment as he failed to deliver results again and again. Will it be different here? He certainly has the potential because of how Zero works. First up is his on stride skill of removing an Intercept for the low cost of CB1 which at the time of this post I think they'll keep since Chonojet Dragon's removal effect didn't get nerfed. Obviously intercept removal on demand is extremely powerful in a format that needs intercepts and PGs to live and Vanq's GB2 is a redo of Gauntlet Buster Dragon's Limit Break...except you don't have the luxury of a Break Ride to trigger it and this deck isn't able to trigger it twice in a turn without Striding. Still it's something to keep in the back of your mind if you decide to run non GB based removal options like Dragonic Deathscythe/Saishin in order to bait PGs out. Once the deck gets its Glimmer Breath clone the GB2 gets useful and honestly it's gonna be tough to drop this guy for Sparking when he comes along just because Front Row Snipe > Back Row Snipe. I should note that like all the other Stride Breaks shown so far Vanquisher is likely to get the effect of on ride +3k until end of turn which I still don't understand why it's there but oh well. I'm also hoping he gets an additional buff to help with bind acceleration since part of why Thunderstrike sucked was with how slow it was to get going. Maybe add random drop zone bind to the front row snipe?
On hit Strides in general are massively buffed in Zero because they will actually hit most of the time. Zorras is pretty good for that since he's a free (backrow) retire while letting you selectively bind 2 cards from the drop which triggers both retire oriented and bind oriented skills. He's yet another option to enable Sweep memes and will see some amount of play for a good while for that reason. He's also likely to be one of the RRRs in the set if Kagero's on hit stride is anything to go by.
Here's the payoff to all of that Noble crap. A free nuke 1-3 that gains a crit. It's an okay card in a bad deck that you'll randomly lose to just because it'll be one of those games where you can't draw a PG and they hit draw triggers on both turns four turns in a row then when they attack they flip their 1 crit trigger they play 'just because.' Must be nice to be that fucking lucky.
I mean what?
Conquest is cracked. A free front row snipe that also buffs your front row to scale over triggers if you manage to completely clear both intercepts? Yes please! Conquest's existence actively punishes people who try to play around your removal effects by allowing you to power up your front line to 19, 36 and 19+ if you're able to stick a Rising Phoenix behind one of your lanes. A deck that benefits from this immensely is Brawlers since Conquest now gives you a line of play if your opponent has 1 or less units in the front which is something Revengers have been known to do. Conquest being added to the Big Bang deck now puts your opponent in a quandary as they much choose to either call a board down and lose it to Buster or call no board and get pushed by Conquest. It's this interaction that made Brawlers such a good deck during Mid G and I fully expect Conquest to be one of Narukami's two GRs in the set. I also think that there's a reasonable chance of him getting a buff that makes it so that he does something as a first stride. Maybe they'll separate the retire and buff effect so that one isn't GB2 locked and the other is? The clan is definitely going to need some form of playable G-Flip first stride to play until VBUSTER comes along since VOLTAGE was terrible at that job.
Our last card is going to be another G-Unit from Fighter's Collection 2015 and one that I think has a legit chance of making it into Set 2 as it's the last piece of support that Brawlers are missing and Turbo happens to be a doozie. On his own he's just a Vermillion for a CB and SB but if you happen to be in Legion state he's a complete boardwipe that ignores Resist and Anti-Retire. You thought the numbers Brawlers were hitting were silly before? Imagine the Slash Bros getting 6 triggers! The fact that Turbo isn't GB locked means you can wipe the front row on first stride which can be brutal for some decks. Turbo is a fantastic card and the one-two punch of him and Conquest did an amazing job of carrying Narukami through G until Vanquisher got his third wave of support (VMAX) and even then you could still argue that Brawlers were better. Mind you that was more of a testament of how awful Divine Dragon Caper was for Narus but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. That being said I'm not 100% sure we'll even get Turbo in the set just because Set 1 didn't show any of the legacy cards from FC15 (Religious Soul Saver, DOTA) but then that begs the question of what the other GR will be. I hope to god it's not Zorras.
And that about wraps it up. All in all I'm cautiously optimistic that Narus will do well when their first wave of G-Support comes around as Zero has been pretty good to the clan for the most part. Them un-meming Dungaree is a testament of their ability to give out solid buffs to cards that need them. What the best version of the deck will be remains to be seen as Brawlers have a fantastic non stride game and Conquest gives them some much needed counter play to the opponent's counter play while Sweep has RNG based multi attack potential and Vanquisher will eventually take the clan on his back. Vanquisher does have the benefit of being able to use Desert Gunners to disable intercepts so any stride play with a Gunner is 3 attacks to the face for CB1. Barring some crazy stuff I think the Vanquisher Deck is going to look like;
1x Lizard Soldier, Saishin
4x Heal G0
4x Dragonic Vanquisher
4x Djinn
1x CCer / Vermillion
4x Desert Gunner
4x Chatura
3-4x Garuda
1-2 Deathscythe/Voltage Horn
4x Anastasia
4x Mighty Bolt
3-4x Desert Gunner
1-2x Rising Phoenix
4x Conquest
4x Zorras
Until next time.
