This came about a bit faster than I planned for but with Zero's G-Set 4 being the finale of Season 1 that means we'll be getting into the Rummy Labyrinth stuff pretty soon and that means it's time to start talking about one of the biggest success stories of G card design in the form of Granblue. I'm not bullshitting on this either as prior to the release of the Trial Deck and G-BT06 Granblue was regarded as one of the worst clans in the game that languished in the same tier level as Megacolony, Nubatama and all the other unplayable garbage clans. Their Limit Break, Break Ride and Legion support all failed to make the Clan meta which was a real shame as Granblue's gimmick always had the potential to be good as it's a deck that plays out of its graveyard which any card game player worth their salt will tell you is one of the best playstyles to have. The problem with Granblue was that their revival effects were more often than not overcosted/restricted and their call targets were underpowered which made your payoffs less than impressive. The clan also was lacking in many of the quality things that made other clans superior; board removal, draw power/filtering, guard restrict, restanding, consistent multi attack (their one Legion helps) and pushing power among other things.
Then Stride Format came and boy howdy did it ever give this clan the G Fuel. In the TCG once Granblue got their actual G Support it ended up being a Tier 1/1.5 deck all the way until Ultimate Stride came out (the clan never saw anymore support outside of Roseate Nightrose who was a promo and Chaos just wrecked the deck). Nightrose was even regarded as BDIF at one point..in Japan. In the west the deck didn't see as much play because it required a competent pilot to play it well and our players weren't at the same skill level as the Japanese players at the time so it didn't get nearly the amount of tops that the other Tier 1 decks did. That's still pretty impressive and many of the cards printed from this time still see play even now in Premium. Hell if you look at V Granblue one of the best versions of it is based around Nightrose.
Needless to say there's definitely some hype behind G Granblue. But how will it translate to Zero? Let's find out.
Summary
I honestly don't know if GB will be a core set or event clan. It could go either way. I'm leaning towards Core Set just because it got a TD in addition to main set support much like Pale Moon did and there's at least 3 Strides that could be GRs to work with.
Important Notes
-Blueheart is a RR in Fighter's Collection. His skill is unchanged.
-Cocytus Negative is a RRR in Fighter's Collection. He got a buff that lets you retire an opponent's RG if you call a Cocytus off his skill in addition to what he had before.
-Tommy the Ghostie Brothers and Waterspout Djinn are in FC as well. They work like you'd expect so I'm skipping them.
Fighter's Collection 2015 Winter
Yeah CB1 to call 2 without restriction is super good value when you have cards that draw/retire/soul in to draw or their own self retire effects to mitigate the downside. Or you just replace them with OG Nightmist. Or you can not worry about that and just call attackers that die at the end of the turn to play around board removal decks like Blademaster. This plus the 7Cs support in Set 6 made the deck Tier 1 in paper format and it could happen again here if the good stuff gets imported to Zero.
Fun Fact: Granblue's Break Ride is one of the few in the game that works with Strides as you get to trigger it, call 2 units to the board at +5k and then go into your stride of choice like Nightmist
and call 2 more. Sage here is your main way to trigger it as you can BR him over Nightmist, call 3 cards then go from there. Him being able to call from drop zone is insane as it actually benefits from you discarding it for stride/Guard Restrict. Be mindful of the CB though as if you don't manage it properly your opponent could deny you the 3 you'd need to Sage over Nightmist then Nightmist Stride. Ideally you'll want to do the Drop Zone Ride play if you're going for game or got hit with Delete/VG Stun.
Vampire Princess of the Nether Hour
One of the best Stride Breaks ever printed. Nightrose is really, really good. Call anything from the drop while giving it +2k to help make lines and that GB2 enabled some pretty derpy shit as long as you didn't get too greedy and mill yourself out. I honestly suspect it'll be changed so that you can't trigger it on the opponent's turn because Zero likes to keep that kind of interaction out of the game for the sake of speed/simplicity. I can understand it but it's gonna suck to see happen as Nightrose was famous for being a multi attack deck that could also play defense through her GB2 being able to call back spot removal/self buffers. Regardless Nightrose is the boss that GB wanted for years and basically carried the deck on her back until ironically enough, V Nightrose came along.
Look ma! A GR! I don't have alot to say on Bandit Rum. He's an on hit that calls from one of the best places to call from and if all the other on hit callers got bumped to GR then so will this. Especially when you have cards that call things when called.
Easy RRR candidate. Columbard enables more attacks and can call another copy of itself which lets you get even more attacks. Your ability to combo is limited only by your imaginationand CB.
And now I get to talk about Hollow. This is Granblue's keyword and unlike Thunderstrike it actually fits the theme since alot of GB units tend to blow themselves up. Basically you have your basic skill or you can supercharge your unit at the cost of it dying at the end of the turn. Generally speaking alot of Hollow'd units had great skills to make up for the loss and it allowed the deck to hard counter removal strategies like Vanquisher and Chaos since you could just yeet your board at the end of the turn. However because Intercepts are your line of defense in Zero you're going to have to seriously consider not hollowing certain units so that you don't get bashed in on the clapback. Nightrose's GB2 does help maintain board presence but that's a 1/Turn.
Negrorook is one of the best beaters the clan has as he's able to hit magic numbers in just about every scenario. 11k VG? Go unhollow'd. 16k? Hollow. 21k? Hollow'd + Boosted. Good shit.
It's a Negrorook but smaller. Still not bad but your G1 space will be hella tight and I can't see this making the cut.
Yep. He CC2s and with Nightrose's GB2 you can CC4. Getting him to that point is tricky since in paper format we actually kept Grenache in the soul to be blasted out with Dancing Cutlass but Zero doesn't give you that choice. You'll have to call over it with something else or be cheeky and throw it in the front row. Your opponent will likely never attack it too!
This is one of the few clans in the game that you could make the argument for playing crits since Nightrose mills and you draw a fair amount off of your RGs...but I'm still going to say these should be avoided. You have good G3s to play as triggers, this is a clan that wants to stride every turn so the extra Stride Fodder is welcome and checking crits don't plus you the same way as checking draws. Banshee is good for what she does since it's an immediate cycle and I could see 1-2 of this being played? I do like it more than Rampage Shade.
Transcension of Blade and Blossom
Easy 2nd GR candidate. She's basically a more expensive Lambros that requires less setup to pull off but is only as good as the things you can call back. The only thing they really could do to buff this is make her CB1.
It's a big, beefy attacker like Negrorook that can also call itself to R...but I doubt it'll see play. Nightrose has better G3s to run.
Yeah Nightrose got her Glimmer Breath clone in this set and if they put it in here it'd be crazy as Negrolazy is cracked. He extends, scales and even refunds himself at the end of the turn. I could see them bumping Negrolazy to Absolute Judgement.
Painful Choice/Battle Compressor is insane in any card game and Obadiah is no different. He sets up your drop zone, calls out sack fodder/booster and you can make him CL2 so Nightrose can call out one of the cards you dumped. Easy RRR.
Negrobone is stupid good. Enables more attacks, doesn't require you to boost and
hit and can call literally any Hollow unit. This is part of why Nightrose had such a strong kill turn as you can call Negrolazy off something, have him call this, sack off the Negrolazy then call it back and have that Lazy call
another Bone behind it. Yes that uses up alot of CB but if your opponent's at 5 you go for it.
Nightstorm is a card that sees play in 2021. That's how good he is. Pop the intercepts, then swing in with this guy and call a Negrolazy who then calls a Negrorook over this guy and you just keep going. He's a keeper.
This set also has support that makes 7Cs a full on deck and this guy is not a bad option to run. Enables more attacks and whatnot.
But this guy completely outclasses it and he was the reason why you played 7Cs over Nightrose in Set 6 format as Nightmist Stride spawned a board, you attacked with your front row then sacked them off for double Slash Shade who came out at 11k and could continue to poke at the VG. He's good.
Yeah this is gonna be a RRR. Cannoneer is one of the best cards ever printed and he sees play to this day in paper format as both of his effects are straight cracked. He will definitely be played in both decks.
Nightcrow is also amazing. Just swap out the cards that were going to blow themselves up for a free 7k booster why don't you. Thankfully the 7Runner deck that this guy enabled won't work in Zero format because of how Striding works so I don't see this being nerfed. Famous last words?
It's a Foolish Burial on legs. Yeah it's good. 1 of probably.
Ah yes.
This asshole. Nightrunner was the backbone of an infamous deck called 7Runner that aimed to lock the opponent out of the game by never riding past G1 which turned off their ability to Stride or use Seabreeze. It then proceeded to beat the opponent down with multi attacks since Slash Shade and Prisoner Dragon aren't VG grade restricted. Many decks couldn't handle 7Runner since by the time this deck became a thing alot of people played strictly Generation Break decks and the few decks that didn't were also cancerous in their own way. This deck even got multiple tops at major events and I think it also won Worlds? Regardless Bushiroad was very embarrassed to let this deck slip through their notice and brought down the banhammer hard and to this day Nightrunner and Nightcrow are at 1 (the real culprit never got hit when really it should have been).
With that being said I don't see this happening in Zero as like I mentioned before Striding works different. Anti Stride tactics like Grade Stalling have no effect and kills decks like Ripple Rush and 7Runner and because of that Nightrunner's usefulness is severely limited when Grenache exists.
While I'm iffy on G0 crits Mick the Ghostie on the other hand deserves serious consideration as he gives you a significant buff
and goes back to the deck which is vital to avoiding deck out. If Zero allows the clan to call from drop on the opponent's turn then you also get the option of giving your Vanguard +10k on their turn which can be annoying as hell for multi attack decks to handle.
Fighter's Collection 2016
I suspect this set will be released alongside whatever set GB is in as another FC. Regardless this card saw no play in paper and I expect it to be the same here just because you can only call cards equal to the number of copies of this face up and there's a total Grade Restriction when you can just go into Obadiah or Bandit Rum instead. She also sucks as a follow up stride when Phantasm Nightrose exists.
This guy however is pretty cool. G Guards that actively help your deck strategy are the good ones and milling 2 for a 20k shield is fantastic.
And that's it! Granblue's potential first wave looks to be pretty solid and it gets at least 2 more sets after this (Absolute Judgement and Rummy Labyrinth). Wave 1 will likely be a repeat of what happened in paper format as Nightrose doesn't get the tools that she needs to take the reigns until Absolute Judgement (Gouache and Negrolilly) so 7Cs will look to be the meta contender once this set drops. It may also be the main build even after Absolute Judgement due to how sus Hollow looks to be for Zero. Nuking your intercepts is very risky but on the other hand the tops decks in the game all have multiple ways to clear them regardless so against those matchups this point is moot. Regardless I'm excited as Nightrose in particular was a deck I thoroughly enjoyed due to its Yu-Gi-Oh! like playstyle and I hope she transitions well to Zero.
