Striding Towards the Future - Neo Nectar in Vanguard Zero Part 3

 Heyo!  I'm back with some more speculative stuff now that Zero has been moving G along and that means I get to start speculating on what I think will appear in sets again!  Originally I was going to do Narukami again but in addition to the clan being Event exclusive the cards for Vanquisher Part 2 don't appear until Season 2 of G and there is much more that I need to cover first such as Neo Nectar's second batch of support and possibly Genesis.  With that said let's get into it;

This time around I'll be tackling the subject differently since now that I have an idea of how NN plays in Zero I can make better guesses as to how good/bad some effects will be in addition to possible buffs.  I'm also going to be going over cards in the opposite order of before (G4>3>2>1) and also making a summary and some important notes on how the clan was handled/faired with their recent set of support.  

Summary

In the case of Neo Nectar the clan ultimately fell flat as while the Ahsha deck can sometimes hit big numbers it doesn't matter in Zero format when your attacks either hit or get PG'd, your big multi attack turns lack numbers so defensives fuck you over pretty hard.  The deck is also trying to play in a format where Dragonic Blademaster is one of the top decks and Dragonic Vanquisher is the top F2Pish deck (meaning there will be alot of it on ladder) and Ahsha just dies to those two.  It's not entirely bad though as while the deck is not well fit for ladder play it's fantastic in tournament play as an Anti-Meta deck that can shut down decks that rely on multiple pokes to win like Aqua Force and Bermuda Triangle.

Important Notes

-Ahsha's on Stride skill got buffed so that you can call a card from hand prior to cloning.

-Primavera is CB2 and doesn't discard.

-Jingle Flower Dragon's board buff is active on the opponent's turn.

Now let's move onto what cards I expect to see in the probable 5th G set for Zero.

Fighter's Collection 2015

This card was part of some convoluted infinite power gain loop that allowed you to swing face with unguardable numbers while praying to sack Stand Triggers to get more attacks.  Needless to say that kind of strategy is impractical against double Intercepts and a PG.  Not to mention NN needs to run draws to see its pieces.  Stands just don't cut it.

Cecilia is a fine one of throw in for the Musketeer deck if you run her as a draw I guess?  She's technically a +1 that allows you to filter dud cards you called off your Musketeers for better units as a +1 but this card would make you want to run 4 Cecilia and she's just not very good anymore.  Vera and Elvira are just better VGs to sit on and IDK about running a 1 of Stride for a 1 of G3.

Soul Strike Against the Supreme

Dream-Spinning is...not what this Clan needed to get over its hurdles.  She's free and can be used as a first or 2nd Stride but her skills are lacking for Zero format as is.  The front row buff is laughable in the face of double intercept + PG and the on call would have been nice if it wasn't GB2 locked as by that point you may as well go into Jingle Flower or Primavera.  I can only hope that Dream-Spinning's front row buff sticks going into the opponent's turn like Jingle Flower's did as otherwise this will be a very underwhelming GR to pull.  Thankfully you'll never need more than 2 since Glorious Ahsha flips anything and only cares about how many of these are face up in the G-Zone for her board buff.  Hell you can probably even get away with 1 just to flip with the 1 Glorious you'll ever want.

We already got Maiden of Rambling Rose as a RRR in Set 2 (it's not a great backup to Ahsha) so I'll skip it and go straight to the Glimmer Breath clone.  Salianna is pretty okay as she can help set up your board by fetching a missing booster or cloning a G2 you kept in the back so she may wind up being a one of.  Her main issue is that Thuria replaces her completely in the next wave.

There are better options.  Pass.

This honestly doesn't seem that bad?  A good replacement for the 12k attacker that the deck already uses since you want to clone these as Wisteria Knight scales by himself and draws you cards if he hits which ideally he would be.  Honestly not a bad card to fetch off of Arborea or Dream-Spinning.

Again big numbers go brrr as your main strategy isn't a good enough.  Otherwise DP would be half as shit as they are.

Fighter's Collection 2015 (Winter)

This is kind of a stretch but when I looked at G-BT04 NN only had 10 cards put in the set and 4 of them were already put into Set 2 for Zero!  How are we supposed to make a Try-3 come back set with only 6-7 NN cards!  Enter filler cards from other sets.  Maiden of got expanded here into a full on archetype that would get bits of support with later sets.  Yggdrasil (this bad one, not the good Genesis unit) buffs your front row and gives you the ability to potentially multi-attack if your units hit.  Except you know intercepts and whatnot.  You do get to extend your attacks by 1 but then you have to rely on RNG to hit a card from the top 5 that pairs up with what's on board.  And that the opponent doesn't hit a defensive.  Primavera does this job with less steps.

Transcension of Gale and Blossom

 Man.  If only it wasn't in a bad deck.  Securing your G3 ride and Persona Blasts for Trailing Rose is actually pretty good.

Yeah I can see this eating up a RR slot.  It requires another card in hand for striding but you make back the neg by getting a booster and a draw.  This is unironically a solid card.

Noisette's also unironically good.  She yeets herself out of dodge and replaces herself with on hit draw and isn't locked behind GB.

And that's about it.  I'm pretty certain we're going to see Maiden of get their first batch of support in this set alongside Ahsha's remaining pre-Bloom pieces and neither deck I feel will be that competitive on ladder.  Ahsha will probably lose her spot as an anti-meta deck since by the time this set drops Shadow Paladin will be the (likely) BDIF and I don't see Phantom Blaster Diablo not fucking your board over, not to mention Gears having more spot removal and a powerful finisher in Nextage.  Until next time.

Striding towards the Future - Neo Nectar in Vanguard Zero Part 2

G in Zero's been out for a few weeks and the format seems to be quite the shakeup from what we're currently in.  While the best decks are still likely to be Kagero, Narukami, BT and Shadows the additions of Gears along with Heal Guards has been appreciated nonetheless.  With that said I'm going to finish up with my thoughts on how Neos will look like in the upcoming set as we'll soon get info on the November Banner for JP very soon.

Of the Try 3 boss units this is by far the one that needs buffs the most.  Ahsha's stride skill is reliant on you having a board going into your turn and between Kagero, Narukami and Gear Chronicle you're going to have a hard time keeping a decent board after they're finished picking it apart.  The solution to this is quite simple as much like the buffs the Arboros ride chain got recently all they have to do is give Ahsha the abiliy to call a unit from hand, then clone something.  This would allow you to clone G2s to set up double intercepts and it'll be especially useful once the Bloom keyword comes out.  That aside Ahsha's skill is your basic +1 in field presence that also buffs whatever she calls so that it can hit intercepts/VGs unboosted which is nice for any BP focused combos that may come up.  Her GB2 lets you sometimes have beefy columns if you meet the conditions for it which is relevant with Heal Guards being a thing now.

Oh right.  NN's cardpool is so small that they didn't print some of these shitty G3s that other clans have long had at this point.  Skip!

This...isn't awful?  The on ride skill leaves a bit to be desired since it's a top 5 call, but that GB1 skill lets it swing for 16 alone and for 21+ with any decent booster.

Now this is strictly better.  The search effect is good (and I'd hope it also gets a call from hand buff) and the first skill COULD be good if they make it call a copy of itself from outside the deck.

I think we just found our ideal backup G3.  Frilldrod enables multi attacks provided she hits which means it's worth taking a look at in Zero format.  You can swing into intercepts with your RG and VG then have this swing at the VG, clone your own intercept over the spot she's on and swing a 4th time and set up double intercept.  That's not bad for a Rare which means she'll likely be bumped to RR if Jet and Victor's supporting G3s are anything to go by.

Jingle Flower leaves alot to be desired.  GB2 for a moderate board buff was lame then and still is here.  At least his skill is a CONT so any Gladiolus or Frilldrod plays you have will be powered but when you compare this to the likes of Saint Blow you can see how "wait this was a RRR?" it is.  I'm really hoping that this guy gets a buff to offset how slow and low reward he is.  Maybe give him the same anti retire buff Saint Blow got.  Either way this definitely will stay as a RRR and you only need 2 of it.

On hit attack extender that's free?  Definitely going to be a GR.  2 of too.  IDK what else to say as Arborea is basically Gablade exept in a much more fair clan.  You will need to work harder to maximize the payoff of this compared to "call Twin Sword go brr" but otherwise Arborea is a fantastic addition to any Neo Nectar deck and helps give the builds without wincons (all of them) an actual means of doing more than 1 damage a turn.

What an interesting story this card had.  Primavera was released to no fanfare (and became one of the cheapest SGRs for a while) but then Bloom happened and this thing became broken.  

They are definitely going to nerf Bloom units into the ground and I won't be surprised if they do.  Primavera + Bloom makes Asura/Mond look weak in comparison.

Back to Primavera and despite the cost I think she's very worth the trouble of using.  Ideally they'll do away with the hand discard like with Chronocommand Dragon (and maybe make her CB2) but she allows you to call 4 units to the field provided you have enough copies of them between your drop and deck which allows the clan to do a minimum of 5 attacks during that turn.  More if you have Gladiolus/Frilldrod and the open CB for it.  Smart opponents are definitely going to need to keep watch on how much damage a NN player has to work with as giving them 3-4 could mean death.  Primavera is a GR that you'll want to try to get 2 of since you'll be hunting down 2 Arborea to begin with.  If you can only get 1 then that's not the end of the world as Primavera best works as a finisher to go into after your opponent has gone through multiple intercepts.  I think how often this will get used will come down to how CB heavy a given NN build is.  Musketeers burn CB like nobody's business unless you play a Legion focused build so maybe they'll try to spam more than 1?  Regardless this is one to watch out for, especially when Bloom comes out.

And that about does it.  They may surprise me and include the Glimmer Breath clone or Maiden of Trailing Rose in this set but I don't know.  Ahsha, Gladiolus and Jingle Flower Dragon are all easy RRR candidates with Primavera and Arborea as the GRs so there isn't much room for Trailing Rose to make it in.  Regardless this definitely is looking to be the strongest NN will be BUT they don't have nor ever will get any form of removal so decks that can put up double intercepts consistently while also having removal of their own will be trouble.

So basically Paladins are going to be a bad time.  Like always.  Siiiiiiiigh.

Anyway I'm excited to see what happens and hopefully the gatcha rewards me when I pull on this banner.  In regards to a potential list I'm thinking along the lines of;

G3/Triggers

4x Ahsha (Draw)

4x Maiden of Frilldrod (Draw)

1x Maiden of Venus Trap Musse (Draw)

4x Heal Guard

G2s

4x Maiden of Gladiolus

2-4x White Rose Musketeer, Alberto/Wheelwind Dragon

2-4x Maredream

2-4x Maiden of Flower Screen

G1s

4x Maiden of Passionflower

4x Padmini

3-4x Marehope

1-2x Filler

FV

1x Ozu

G4s

2-4x Arborea

2-4x Jingle Flower Dragon

2-3x Primavera

No I'm not playing the RR crit.  Turns out that those things are fucking garbage and shouldn't be played except in some very niche circumstances.  "But crits push damage" yeah and they also ruin your deck strategies.  Think about it;

-Blademaster needs to draw cards in order to win because Kagero can't plus on their own.  They need 9 Draw Triggers for this because hitting draw triggers on your turn lets you plus.

-Altmile and Victor's power plays involve hitting the VG with their VG.  Flipping crits causes your opponent to block them with PGs/Heals and your turn suddenly falls flat on its face.  Imagine passing up on 3 damage because you decided to be a monkey and UNGA BUNGA ME FLIP YELOR CARD!

-Chronojet needs to stride in order to play.  Playing less G3 Draw triggers means you're cutting down on fodder for striding.  You can't rely on Steam Breath Dragon to get you there.

Ahsha is in the same boat as Altmile in that you need to connect with Arborea to kick start your combos.  Furthermore Ahsha is a piece reliant deck and the extra draw power lets you see your clone targets.

So yeah.  New crits are trash but because DifferentFight has been an advocate of playing them in the G-Archetype decks and "talking youtube man say things, subscribers do what he says" will apply here, there will be ALOT of bad players playing split trigs in their decks including this one and they will either lose because they're not drawing well enough or win in spite of it because Zero rewards bad players/deck building by letting them steal wins they don't deserve via sacking.  Fuck "but it makes games more exciting, you don't know what could happen" I want my games to be as little RNG as possible.  Not surprisingly I fucking despite Daikaiser because he turns what could be good fights into a game of chance.  Fuck that shit.

Striding Towards the Future - Neo Nectar in Vanguard Zero Part 1

As excited as I am for Narukami's eventual apperance in Zero (and Ryutaro as a fight skin) I'm just as intrigued about how my "other" clan that I played extensively in the TCG will fare and that would happen to be Neo Nectar.  NGL I didn't think I'd play the clan through all of G as I figured I would have dropped it once Genesis came around given how underwhelming NN was going into G.  Turns out being a Main Character deck really does do a fair bit in making a clan playable and while it took some time eventually Neos became solid if a bit overly complicated with the Ahsha/Bloom Archetype.

We don't talk about what happened after G by the way.

With that said I'm going to do the same for NN (and likely GB) that I did for Narukami in that I'll look over what I expect to see in their first batch of support in Zero as I highly doubt NN will be relegated to Event Clan status when one of the three key cast members plays it.  Based on how Generation Overstride looks we can expect the following to happen;

-There will be 2 GRs and I'm very confident I know what they'll be.

-Stride Fodders are in set RRs.

-There will be at least 3 RRRs with one of them being Ahsha.  She's also likely to be a Rank reward based on the Alt Art we saw.

This will be a multi parter like with NK as not only is there Soaring Ascent of Gale and Blossom to look over but also TD3 Flower Maiden of Purity.  Oh boy!

Ozu's not a bad starter given that she'll get resist like the other Gen Break starters.  CB1 to get yourself an intercept or a booster is nothing to sneeze at in Zero.  Oh and NN's other starters are kinda ass.

Most NN builds will play Fairy Light Dragon (Musketeers may be the exception until it stops being a Legion deck) due to a lack of good G3s to put in the slot.  Sure there's the Gene package but idk if there'll be space for it.  Plus G0 Heals aren't limited to 1 per battle.  If the attack is big enough more than 1 G0 will come down to block it which can be pretty clutch against some decks.

Maiden of Daybreak is another Stand that throws itself back into the deck and admittedly Ahsha/Maiden of are that goes RG, RG, VG with big RGs so flipping stands to swing with them again has merit...but you're still going to want draws to see your pieces.  Daybreak does become better later on once NN gets it's G-Guardians since two of them let you call units from hand and that'll trigger Daybreak to give your VG a defensive buff against multi attack decks.

Same deal as my reasoning for Reseph.  The first set has the crits for Jet, Altmile and BM so there's little doubt Mylis will be in here.  Just a reminder that this will draw you a card if you damage check it.  Again IDK if these will see play when Draws will always be beneficial.

If Musketeers were to cut any of it's 3s for Triggers, it wouldn't be this even if Alain is a CC2.  That being said I think this set will have the SB2/CC2 Grade 1 that's been absent from NN's last couple of sets if Kagero getting theirs in G-Set 1 is anything to go by.

Ozu's better.  Skip.

Oh right I forgot these existed!  I remember this actually seeing play for a short period because of some shift in a format.  I think it was to counter early game rush decks?  Admittedly being an 11k base makes it harder for your opponent to do ye standard early play of "call G2 down to side and swing unboosted, then VG swing" that would put you at 2 damage unless you flipped a defensive as they'd have to call more cards down or just pass on trying to be aggressive early.  Honestly I think Ahsha and Maiden of just may play these just to punish aggressive decks as just one hit puts you to 16 which requires a 1 to pass to break and outright fucks the opponent if you hit a defensive trigger.  Just try to hit my 21k Vanguard, Paladin sackers.

It's crap.

I think the options for Ahsha will be so limited for this set that the deck just may end up running this.  Pia and Katrina can't get here soon enough.

If only it gained power.  Admittedly the buff to Arboros Dragons (calling a card from hand, then cloning) makes cards like this much more appealing.

The effect is lacklustre but I do believe it saw play for a bit just because it was a Maiden of.

If this comes in the set then Musketeers become much more playable given that Elvira crit spam has been the deck's wincon for ages now.  Cecilia also gets a stride so being able to turn her Limit Break on at some point could be helpful?

It's a G1 that goes back into the deck to call an Intercept out and not at rest.  For Zero format I think that's really useful.

Stride fodders are good, etc, etc.

Altmile got his Pia clone in Set 1 so I don't think it's a stretch for Pia herself to appear in the set.  Honesly the card is *okay* and she can buff your board to some solid numbers if you can get multiples of her or Maiden of Flower Screen set up which could help make your multi attack turns better.  Also recycling intercepts that got retired is a welcome addition to any non Musketeer NN build.

Lost Memory saw a brief amount of play in some kind of convoluted strategy along with Fruit Baskets Elf that involved damage deny, drawing lots of cards then aiming for a massive power gain loop that made it so you could swing for unguardable numbers iirc.  Given that Zero mechanics eliminate the hassle of powering up until you're blue in the face I'm doubtful we'll ever have to worry about that.  In spite of this I think there's some merit to Maiden of Lost Memory because of how on hits work in Zero as by setting up two of these you get a free +2 for hitting the VG and if you're able to stack enough power on them, possibly a +4.  You could be cheeky and put one in the back row to have 3 on the field and get 3 draws and CC3.  That sounds like an awful amount of work through right?  Well...

That's where this comes in.  Maiden of Flower Screen was originally a promo released along with G-BT02 and it was what allowed the Jingle Flower Deck to...not lose as badly >_>

That said Flower Screen is still an important piece to the deck as copying any other units name makes your "X units with the same name" type skills actually worth considering while also letting you do things like change her name to that of an important booster, then cloning it so you have two of them.  She can copy Maiden of Lost Memory's name so that you'll get that Draw 2/CC2 and she even puts your Intercepts back into the deck.

Gladiolus is one of the better Amber Clones in the context of Zero.  She enables extra attacks and can call anything that you already have on the board, including G1s for those niche situations where you don't have anymore 2s in the deck to call out.  This becomes more notable once G1s with Bloom start to appear.

There's merit to playing this guy given that he can swing at most VGs unboosted and you can clone it in BP.

Oh man I forgot these existed!  Yeah this has a good chance of seeing play given how good the on hit CC1 units have been for Zero.

If you can get 3 of these on the board then they become 13k attackers but honestly I think Grace Knight is better for the most part.  This guy admittedly isn't Gen Break locked but most of the power plays for NN come from Striding soooo...

Maredream isn't nearly as good as his G1 counterpart as he costs you resources and triggers at the end of turn rather than being a Main Phase card.  A shame really as you could throw him into the deck and call 2 boosters in case your hand was clogged with them.  Regardless I can see this being played just because Marehope can call it out of the deck on demand.

That's it for the first part.  Lots of stuff reviewed and you can see that the gimmick of the non Musketeers stuff is pretty close to that of Arboros, except your power gains are larger and there's more payoff to having multiple same named units than just getting power.  The next part will show more of this as we get to the key cards and boss units that just may give the deck a fighting chance once it comes to Zero.  Until next time.

Striding Towards the Future - Narukami in Vanguard Zero Part 5

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.