Long time no post! It's only been a year and then some since I decided to revive this. I wonder how many people will even glance at this? Mind you this blog has been more of a place for me to ramble about things on my mind with this being one of them.
As you know Cardfight!! Vanguard has announced another set of their bi yearly Stride Decksets that will no doubt break the game as these fuckers always do. Long story short: The Stride Crest is broken and with the exception of Messiah the Stride Decksets usually dominate the formats they are available in until the banlist kneecaps them. At least that was the case with Jet. Shiranui and Luard though? Nah let's have the west deal with them for half a year and counting.
So while that's going on and with no banlist changes in sight for the Japanese side of the format because the Diversity Cut is a joke Bushiroad has decided it's a perfectly good time to release another pair of Stride Decksets based on another duo of iconic units in VG's history; Harri and Nightrose.
Harri coming to D is whatever as Pale Moon already exists with the Luquier encounter and can take advantage of Dark States good stuff maybe but Nightrose? You know I'm gonna be on that. This will be Granblue's first appearance in D Format and as a deck from the Stoichea Nation there is some tremendous potential to be had as the clan already has a spiritual successor deck in the form of Zorga which means there's a decent amount of cards in the pool that'll have synergy with the Nightrose deck. I know I'm definitely not the only one to think so as since the deckset's announcement certain RRRs have gone up in price with the biggest offender being Sea Strike Dragon, Enlarguv. Gotta love how shitty the staple situation is with this game. It's impressive to be just as bad as Konami with chase cards.
But why are certain cards going up? Well the best place to start would be with the main boss of the deck herself: Nightrose.
Nightrose was and still is one of the best Striders of G Series (her 2nd version, Starlight wasn't nearly as good) as it took until Ultimate Stride format to power creep her out. Being able to call things from the drop zone is incredibly powerful given how Vanguard is designed as graveyard toolboxing is one of the most powerful of its kind in any TCG and Vanguard enables it by just playing the game. Any card of yours that is retired, attacked over, used for Intercept, Healed from damage, Soul Blasted or discarded all set up your drop and that's not to mention cards that fill up the drop zone like Millers, Cyclers and so on. She also gives the unit she calls a +2k which in regards to D format isn't very much due to how much unit stats have scaled up since her time but there will be moments where the buff can let units with smaller statlines like 8ks be able to attack into 10ks or be 10k boosters.
Her GB2 is also not to be underestimated as it allows you to recur cards that self destruct during your End Phase for additional use if they have an on place skill, or revive an Intercept that got picked off by a retire effect which is not irrelevant as Lock and Bind is not nearly as common in D as it was in G and V. You just have to be careful to not overuse it as milling 3 cards will lead to deckout that much faster and D Format has decks that can certainly grind you out that way.
Still Nightrose is only as good as the units she has to work with and Stoichea's stronger cards tend to be geared towards its ridelines. However one of those Ridelines just happens to be Zorga whose playstyle is Granblue's in all but name so it's no surprise that some of the cards that have been printed with the intention of supporting Zorga do have some synergy with Nightrose. Chances are that if you've been a Zorga main or have been playing Granblue in Premium format that you already have most of the Stoichea staples but for those of you who don't and are wondering what to look for while copies are (kind of) plentiful I'll list off the cards I think have the most likelihood to be used.
This is probably the biggest offender as far as price and scarcity goes. The Grade 3 Cyclers are very, very good in Stride decks for added draw power and sometimes utility based on what deck we're talking about. It's especially unfortuante with Enlarguv as he actually is really good with Nightrose as a play that I found myself doing often was discarding him to Stride, then draw, then have Nightrose CB1 to bring him back after which he will SB1 to add a Grade 2 and above card from my drop zone to my hand. This includes orders which is very, very relevant since Stoichea has a very strong Grade 2 one. Depending on how Soul heavy the deck becomes it's not impossible to establish a soft loop each turn where you Stride, have Nightrose call back Enlarguv then have him add back a different named Grade 3 to Stride again on the next turn.
The one upside is that Stride Decksets usually print a Grade 3 unit that has an effect to draw when discard for Stride and a condition to gain 10k on your turn so if Enlarguv is out of your budget you'll at least have that to fall back on. I wouldn't be surprised if it's Ghast Dragon who you may run regardless if he has a power gain effect similar to V's Skull Dragon.
If Enlarguv is out of your reach then I'd suggest trying to pick these up. The Energy Blast Cyclers/Guardians are very, very good for digging you deeper for pieces/shields during the early game and late game, even if you can't use their RG skill. That being said it occurred to me that Harri and Nightrose will be the first Stride sets to have been made since the Energy Crest was introduced to the game so for all we know there may be EB costs to manage that will make using these cards harder. I'd still suggest picking up a set.
Stoichea deck, remember? That means you get to make use of the many Orders that let you build a board too!. This one gets a special mention because it has no cost other than milling 1 and it's also a Grade 2 Order which means Enlarguv can get it back. In my testing I found myself having Nightrose revive Enlarguv who then gets back Restraint which puts another body on the board making her effectively CB1/SB1/Mill 1 to call 2 units from the drop.
That said I do think an amount of Grade 1 and lower orders should be played. Maybe a 2-2 split between them and Death's restraint? My reasoning is that in the early game you can use these orders to filter your deck of non triggers, set up the drop zone and get some early aggression since as a Stride Deck your engine naturally doesn't get moving until Turn 4. These two I've picked out as they don't cost CB and as a chain attack deck Nightrose will burn through CB very easily. Regarding which one to use it'll come down to availability as Habitat can call a card from the top 7 of the deck vs Dim Darkness' 3 but Dim Darkness can send the card you pick from the top 3 to the Drop then calls any card back while getting cards out of the Soul.
At the time of this post RPDs have thankfully gone down in price and Zorga basically got a new version of it that only works with Nadhir so in theory these may tank further. Seems like a good time to pick up a set as if you're going to play Orders in Nightrose then this guy is worth an inclusion as a recurring body that will either have huge numbers, huge crit or both after 1st Stride. He's also useful in the early game if you can get him in the drop early enough and see an Order as you could potentially rush your opponent before they get to Grade 3, thus making Nightrose a Stride Deck with an early game like Shiranui.
I don't know how much this deck wants to lean into Grade 1s if you're able to set up a buff front row given that I'm 99% certain Negrobone will be in the Stride Deck but of all the 1s around this is one of the better ones. He filters the top 5 for a card to mill and becomes an 18k body once you hit 10 in the drop which is easy to pull off by the time you stride. Pairing him up with RPDs can lead to 2 crit 23k lines if you get good RNG in the early game.
Depending on how the deck plays this Grade 2 will be a 15, 20 or 25k solo attacker that will only get bigger as the game goes on. The call from drop and 4 attack conditions will be easy to meet.
This probably won't make the final cut depending on what Negrolazy does if he's included (and I don't see why he wouldn't be), but she does set the drop zone up by milling 3 when called at any point which makes her a good target for your Orders.
After that it's a matter of picking up the effect Crit and Fronts as you definitely don't want to play Draw Triggers in this deck. I think the Effect Heals are optional and in regards to what Overtrigger to use you can use either the Red Cray, Blue Cray or Stoichea one and any of them I think would be a fine choice.
Now with that out of the way it's time to get into the bulk of this post which is my guesses as to what the cards in here will do. I know that I'm setting myself up for disappointment by doing so but A) These are fun to do and B) I like seeing just how close to the mark/predictable Bushiroad's design is.
The Rideline
For the Rideline they're going with Grenache, Parting Shade and Columbard of which 2 of these we basically know their effects. Grenache will be your standard D Series starter that draws a card going 2nd while Parting Shade when placed on V will draw a card and get you the Nightrose Crest. It's Columbard where things get interesting.
With Jet they made his Grade 2 fairly basic but Messiah had one that also did something on Rearguard. Then Luard/Shiranui made their Grade 2s do the same but also printed them in multiples. The thing they all have in common though is that all of them generate you a +1 when rode upon that doesn't cost a CB, then having a passable effect on RG. Columbard in both of his appearances in the past has always called a card from the drop and I expect that to be his rear guard skill or a drop zone skill that lets him revive himself. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on place/on attack call 1 from the drop zone not named himself which would pair nicely with your Stride effects. What I'm interested in is the skill when you ride over him as I wouldn't be surprised if it's something that lets you set up the drop zone for the later turns and either call a card, or add a card back. Basically a VG restricted version of his V skill. I wouldn't be surprised if Columbard's skill is to SB1 to mill 3 then add 1 card from drop back to hand or if they want to get really crazy send a card from the deck to drop then add any card from drop back to hand. If it's the latter effect then that'll enable some crazy toolboxing options by binning RPDs or Orders to add back.
The Strides
So far the only known Stride is Mist Phantasm Pirate King, Nightrose who is the Persona Stride of the set meaning you'll only be able to access it by pitching Nightrose herself to Stride. Given the history of this unit and Nightrose V's skill I fully expect this card to call an entire column on attack and possibly have another effect like a +1 Crit. How good this will be depends on if Columbard or Negrolazy can call things on place as you'll be able to do the play of call a beefy attacker in the front and an extender in the back to effectively reset your entire front row like what you would do during V and Zero format.
That said typically these Strides are not used as often as the intended 1st Stride due to the requirement of a Persona discard and often not having power gaining or Flip costs so the power input is typically less. See Magentenbu and Faterider Dragon being so strong that using them 3 times is often enough to win the game.
Which leads us to the question of what the other Stride will be and what will it do? I can think of a couple choices in this regard and they'd be a pick between Bandit Rum or Obadiah.
Bandit Rum if you don't remember is the on hit call a card from drop unit and Obadiah on place Foolish Burials 3 cards and potentially calls a body out. I think what they're going to go for here is a combination of both in the form of a skill that for the cost of CB1 and a flip will let you search your deck for a card, dump it, then call something out. Most likely on attack declaration since every Stride Deckset's 1st Stride so far has always enabled a 4th attack at minimum. If not then the deck will hopefully have another way to call things in BP outside of Phantasm Nightrose.
The Crest
And finally, the reason why this deck will be absurd. The far from balanced Crest mechanic that allows these decks to hit for increasingly large numbers based on face up G-Units. For a deck like Nightrose which typically employs multiple small to medium sized attackers the 5k gain itself will do alot to help it push for damage and it'll make certain units harder to block like RPDs who you'll be able to safely let become 2 critters that swing for 20k or more on your 2nd stride turn.
In regards to what other effect it'll have that's an interesting one and I think I have an idea that may actually be close to the money: It'll give you psuedo Hollow.
See the thing is Nightrose's gimmick has been about calling big attackers that self destruct as a downside. This was first in the form of the Hollow keyword then with Nightrose V's CONT skill. Nightrose herself doesn't have the Hollow keyword and I could very well see them not bringing Hollow in but enable it a different way via the Crest. This could go one of a few ways with the Crest letting you give a unit extra power but it dies after attacking or at the end of the turn giving you the option to self destruct your board for a trade off. My guess for this would be some level of resource recursion like a Countercharge, Soulcharge or Energycharge. This would make up for the fact that Grenache is a vanilla starter and now the abuseable CC2 guy from G.
Therefore the best case scenario would be the Crest gives you the option to reitre all of your units on RC at the end of the turn to CC2. This would allow you to trigger Nightrose's GB2 if need be. I think regarding Crest skills making you nuke your board to get back two CC is one of the more inoffensive things they could make.
Closing Thoughts
All in all I'm excited as short of a Vanquisher or Ahsha deckset this was one of the things I wanted: Granblue in Standard. I've long come to the conclusion that I actually miss the Clan system of old Vanguard and while the Ride Deck itself is a great inclusion alot of the actual Ride Lines are...not appealing to me. They lack that design and art flair that clans had and I think Bushiroad realizes this as we've been getting more of the Clans introduced to Standard since D started. I honestly would not be surprised if by the end of 2025 we'll have had Dark Irregular, Nova Grappler, Angel Feather and Oracle Think Tank appear as encounters which would leave only the unpopular clans that nobody really likes left (Great Nature, Tachikaze, Megacolony, Murakumo). I'm not apologizing for saying that.
With that said next week we'll be starting to get reveals for what's in this set and when we do I'll make a post reviewing them. I'm very curious to see how on the mark I am. To summarize my predictions are;
Nightrose Crest - End of turn you may retire all of your units and if you do, CC2
Columbard - When rode upon by a G3 SB1 to search your deck for a card and send it to the drop/mill 3 cards, then add 1 card from your drop to the hand. RG: When placed/On attack, CB1 to call a unit other than himself from Drop to RC.
1st Stride - On attack CB1 and G-Flip: Search your deck for up to 1 card and put it in the Drop Zone, then call 1 unit from Drop zone to RC.
Phantasm Nightrose - On attack CB1 and choose a column, call up to 2 units from your Drop to RC in that column. Potential Power or Crit gain.
Negrobone and Negrolazy will be in the TD.
That pretty much wraps it up. Until next time.
