Giant G-BT01 Card Review Thingy

Forgive me for not posting in the past couple weeks. Between the cards that were revealed not being that important or not having enough other support to know whether they'd be important and being busy with school and such, I haven't been doing too much with the blog. So, now you get a giant update going over today's Card of the Day and the reveals from Monthly Bushiroad.

Gear Chronicle
Might as well start with the new kid on the block, eh?

Interdimensional Dragon, Chronos Command Dragon

Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard it] Stride this face down card on your (VC).

[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (2) & Soul Blast (1) & Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent puts all of his or her rear-guards on the bottom of his or her deck in any order.

Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon

Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard it] Stride this face down card on your (VC).

[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card named "Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon" from your G Zone, and turn it face up] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, until end of that battle, your opponent cannot call grade 0 card from hand to (GC), and if the number of face up cards in your G Zone is two or more, this unit gets [Critical]+1 until end of that battle.

Fatewheel Dragon
[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone): [Counter Blast (1)] When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, during that battle, your opponent cannot normal call grade 0 units to (GC).
[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (VC), you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and put that unit on the bottom of your opponent's deck.

Relic Master Dragon[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (2)] When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one opponent's grade 2 or lower rear-guard, and put it at the bottom of your opponent's deck.

Steam Knight, Puzur Ili
[AUTO](RC):[Soul Blast (2)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent cannot normal call grade 0 cards to (GC).

Apex Standing Gearwolf
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone): During your turn, when one of your opponent's rear-guard is placed on the bottom of the deck, this unit gets [Power]+3000.

Thrilled Worker
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone): When this unit boosts, at the end of the battle, choose a face up card in your G Zone, and turn it face down. If you do, return this unit to your deck, and shuffle your deck.

This, for the most part, is the entirety of the important stuff Gear Chronicle has gotten. Gear Chronicle did also receive a grade 3 Legion unit and a common Generation Break user, but neither of those will be shown here as they're more likely pieces of budget builds.

First off is Chronos Command Dragon. He's the Generation Rare of G-BT01, and is the cover card of said set. However, he doesn't seem to be the typical DaisukeIzuka super strong dragon boss. Instead, he's actually not a winning image. Given, setting the opponent back by as many as five rear-guards is definitely nothing to laugh at. His main downfall is that he has to hit, but he swings for huge numbers. Hopefully your opponent will waste their Perfect Guards here, allowing Ragnaclock Dragon to steal the win. Ragnaclock is the finisher of the deck for sure. He gains a critical along with Silent Tom's skill. Thrilled Worker helps you keep Ragnaclocks face down so that you can use the skill as many as three times (probably not four) in a single game, if your opponent somehow lives the first two. Fatewheel is a cool grade 3 to run in the deck for when you don't have enough to discard for Stride, or if you need to push a bit more before going into Ragnaclock, but don't want to use Chronos Command. Relic Master is the clan's Berserk clone, but unfortunately is a RR for some reason. Either way, the deck doesn't really have enough free Counterblast to make much use of him, so he'll probably be left out. Puzur Ili is a cool grade 2, but once again suffers from a lack of resources. With Ragnaclock and Fatewheel already having Tom skill, Fatewheel and Chronos Command (along with Luck Bird clone) using soul, and still only being able to get one, MAYBE two uses out of him, you're probably better off with other cards. Apex Standing Gearwolf makes for a great booster to any column in the deck, assuming you can pull off Chrono Jet's on-stride skill, Chronos Command's on-hit, or Fateclock's on-ride.

Royal Paladin

Uh... the classics next, I guess?

Divine Sacred Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon
Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard it] Stride this face down card on your (VC).
[ACT](VC):[Choose a face down card named "Divine Sacred Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon" from your G Zone, and turn it face up] This unit gets [Power]+3000 for each of your rear-guards until end of turn, if the number of face up cards in your G Zone is two or more, and the number of rear-guards you have is two or more, this unit gets [Critical]+1 until end of turn. This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.

Vague Sacred Knight, Gablade
Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard it] Stride this face down card on your (VC). (When you stride, it gets the power and name from one of your hearts, and return this unit at end of turn face up.)
[AUTO](VC):When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, search your deck for up to one grade 2 or greater card, call it to (RC), and shuffle your deck.

Knight of Blue Heavens, Altomile
[CONT](VC) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone):During your turn, all of your units in your front row get [Power]+5000.
[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] During your turn, when your G Unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two cards from your hand, call them to separate (RC), choose up to two of your units, and those units get [Power]+5000 until end of turn.

Seeker, Proud Roar Lion
[AUTO](VC/RC): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, if you have a vanguard with "Seeker" in its card name, choose a card from your damage zone, turn it face up, choose another of your rear-guards, and that unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

Oddly enough, this is actually about it for important new Royal Paladin stuff. Saint Blow is the clan's equivalent of Ragnaclock, though without a fancy Tom skill. However, Saint Blow easily swings in the "Perfect Guard or No Guard" range, especially with his skill, so the extra critical can be used to finish out games rather quickly. Gablade is the Trial Deck G Unit, and is pretty much the clan's version of the R on-hit G Units that most clans are getting in G-BT01. Altomile is one of the grade 3's that the clan is getting, and one that is pretty much required in the deck. His on-stride skill is usable, but his main merit comes in the form of his Generation Break, which gives +5000 to your front row, bringing incredible use in Stand Triggers to the clan. If Royal Paladin gets a Thrilled Worker clone, this would be absolutely beautiful. Even now, they have a Stand Trigger with Margal's skill. Proud Roar Lion, while not offering anything for the new builds, does give some pretty solid support to any players who still wish to use Seekers, most notably Thing Saver Dragon.

Oracle Think Tank

I almost forgot this clan existed.

Soaring Auspicious Beast, Qilin
Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard it] Stride this face down card on your (VC).
[AUTO](VC):When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, look at two cards from the top of your deck, search for one card from among them, put it into your hand, and put the rest on the bottom of the deck in any order.

Divine Calm, Kuroikazuchi
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone):[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if this unit is boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

These are pretty much the only two cards for the main competitive build that'll probably come out of this set, alongside Susanoo and whatever RRR G Unit OTT will probably get. Qilin does exactly what Susanoo does, allowing you to build a stack of triggers on the bottom of your deck, which you can dig to with drawing cards like Kuroikazuchi. Battle Sisters also get a grade 3 in the set that will help them out at least some in terms of staying viable.

Kagero

Bushiroad's favorite! ... Or so we thought.

Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmoud
Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard it] Stride this face down card on your (VC).
[AUTO](VC): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and retire it.

Dragonic Blademaster
[CONT](VC) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone): During your turn, if the number of rear-guards you have is more than your opponent's, this unit gets [Power]+5000/[Critical]+1.
[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] During your turn, when your G Unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and retire it.

Twilight Arrow Dragon
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone):[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if this unit is boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's grade 2 or less rear-guards, and retire it.

Kagero actually seems to be turning out as a budget clan for this set, apart from "The X". Mahmoud will probably be required in any Kagero deck that wants to run 8 G Units, since it seems like he'll be the only other one they get besides the likely RRR. Dragonic Blademaster and Twilight Arrow are both RR, meaning they'll be fairly cheap (Blademaster moreso than Twilight Arrow), and both fairly competitive cards. A full on Stride deck won't be easy unless Kagero gets a really nice R or C grade 3, but the budget options are definitely there, and still full of easy retires. Both Blademaster and Twilight Arrow can retire for CB1, and Mahmoud retires on-hit for free. They also get a new starter that can do Kimnara's skill at GB1.

Nova Grappler

Finally back to standing rear-guards!

Meteorkaiser, Vikt Ten
Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard it] Stride this face down card on your (VC).
[AUTO](VC): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, choose one of your rear-guard, [Stand] it, and it gets [Power]+5000 until the end of turn.

Extreme Battler, Sazanda
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone):When this unit [Stand] due to an effect from one of your cards, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.

Extreme Battler, Runbhol
[AUTO]: Forerunner (When a unit of the same clan rides this unit, you may call this unit to (RC))
[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G Units on your (VC) and/or G Zone):When another of your units in the same column as this unit [Stand], [Stand] this unit.

Along with Viktor, and of course, the likely RRR G Unit, this seems to be the new Nova Grappler core. They're finally back to standing rear-guards instead of the vanguard, and they're doing it very efficiently. Viktor alone can force a ton of shield out of someone each turn with a decent enough setup, and Hedgehog can make it free to do so, along with allowing you to draw cards. It actually seems like Asura Kaiser and/or Immortal Asura would make good extra grade 3's in the deck, having the capability to stand even more units. Running both alongside Viktor really wouldn't hurt, either, since having a higher grade 3 count would make their skills more reliable and give you more cards to discard for Stride.

And for those who haven't seen, confirmed clans for G-BT02: Soaring Beauty are Gear Chronicle, Royal Paladin, Aqua Force, Neo Nectar, Great Nature, and Narukami. Judging by G-BT01, Great Nature and Narukami will receive the most cards. Aqua Force and Neo Nectar will be just behind them due to receiving Trial Decks, and Gear Chronicle and Royal Paladin will probably split about a clan's worth of support due to being in G-BT01.

Card of the Day - 11/5/2014 - "Supreme Sky Battle Deity, Susanoo"

Supreme Sky Battle Deity, Susanoo
Grade 3 / 11000 Power / Twin Drive!!
United Sanctuary / Oracle Think Tank / Noble
[CONT](VC): Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face-up G Units in your (VC) and/or G-Zone) During your turn, if the number of cards in your hand is four or greater, this unit gets [Power]+5000/[Critical]+1.
[AUTO](VC): [Counterblast (1)] During your turn, when your G Unit Strides, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at two cards from the top of your deck, choose one of them, put it into your hand, and put the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order.

Well, his first skill is oddly reminiscent of his older sister, Amaterasu. It's just... in a worse form. Getting the critical that late in the game isn't really that great, especially when you compare it to the Generation Break skills we know of so far from Chrono Jet Dragon and Mecha Battler, Viktor (who has yet to be a CotD).

On the other hand, his second skill is oddly reminiscent of his other sister... Tsukuyomi. This is a very good thing, especially since Triple Drive helps Tom out tremendously.

Alternate grade 3 to run alongside our favorite moon goddess, anyone?

Card of the Day - 11/4/2014 - "Steam Breath Dragon" and "Knight of Lauryl, Cycirlz"

Steam Breath Dragon
Grade 1 / 7000 Power / Boost
Dark Zone / Gear Chronicle / Gear Dragon
[AUTO]: [Choose a grade 3 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 with "Chrono Jet" in its card name, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, shuffle your deck, choose a card from your hand, and discard it.
[CONT](Hand): When you would pay the cost of Stride, this unit gets Grade +2.

Knight of Lauryl, Cycirlz
Grade 1 / 7000 Power / Boost
United Sanctuary / Royal Paladin / Human
[AUTO]: [Choose a grade 3 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 with "Altomile" in its card name, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, shuffle your deck, choose a card from your hand, and discard it.
[CONT](Hand): When you would pay the cost of Stride, this unit gets Grade +2.

So yesterday, we got two grade 1s that essentially do the same thing. Both of them can search for their Trial Deck bosses (despite being Rs in G-BT01) a bit more efficiently than Eternal Bringer Griffin or any of those clones. Their second skill is also an interesting point. It allows you to have consistent discard fodder for Stride without running an abnormal amount of grade 3s. This lets you break even off of your Strides much more often, and allows you to reach Generation Break without too much of a problem, seeing as Generation Break will probably be most decks' win condition in this format.

Also, due to the way these cards are worded, we might also be seeing more "Chrono Jet" or "Altomile" units in G-BT01 or later, possibly crossrides of the originals.

Card of the Day - 10/31/2014 - "Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery Flare Dragon"

Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery Flare Dragon
Grade 4 / 15000+ Power / Triple Drive!!!
Dark Zone / Gear Chronicle / Gear Dragon
Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this face-down card on your (VC).
[AUTO](VC): [Counterblast (4)] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may reveal the top four cards of your deck. If there are four or more revealed cards with a different grade, you may pay the cost. If you do, you get an additional turn. If you revealed, shuffle your deck.

So THIS is what they meant by manipulation of time. Well, that's an interesting skill to say the least. The main thing I see this having going for it isn't necessarily the fact that you can gain an extra turn, though. Because of the pure pressure this provides in the fact that you might as well have won due to the advantage an extra turn generates, your opponent is almost forced to either guard the attack or risk your top 4 cards being grades 0, 1, 2, and 3. Because the check is done before paying the cost, there's no risk to using the skill, and instead, it just provides a way to force a ton of shield out of your opponent. This works incredibly well in conjunction with Gear Chronicle's Trial Deck boss, Chrono Jet Dragon. After you've forced your opponent to drop a lot of shield for two turns to guard this guy, Chrono Jet comes in with his Glory Skill to finish the game.

I also find it hilarious that any deck running Nouvelle Vague has a higher chance of triggering this skill. Hooray for mixed decks?

Card of the Day - 10/30/2014 - "Miracle Element, Atmos"

Miracle Element, Atmos
Grade 4 / 15000+ Power / Triple Drive!!!
- / Cray Elemental / Elemental
Stride (Release it when both you and your opponent have a grade 3 or greater vanguard!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this face-down card on your (VC).
[AUTO](VC): [Counterblast (1)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of that battle.
[CONT]: This card is also of all clans and nations.

Sorry to have this one up a day late. There really isn't too much to say about this guy. He'll most likely be the best G Unit for clans not receiving support in G-BT01 to use, since 15000+11000 is still 26000, meaning he won't really have any downside compared to Harmonics Messiah or Magmu. The main thing I find interesting here is that his card number is G-BT01/043, yet he's a rare. In the past, 043 has been the number to start the commons of a set. This most likely means that the Generation Rare card in the set will be 001 and will be a normal part of the set, rather than a one-per-case like Glendios was.

About the card itself: His skill seems a bit undercosted, to be honest. However, at the same time, your opponent is probably going to be dropping a Sentinel on a 26000 power attack with Triple Drive, so it doesn't really make them drop anything more to guard a 36000 power attack. However, if they don't have a Sentinel, this guy makes sure to give your opponent a rough time guarding him. This will be especially great for decks like Dimension Police that can easily force out Perfect Guards and run extra grade 3's anyway.

Card of the Day - 10/29/2014 - "Gunner Gear Dracokid"

Gunner Gear Dracokid
Grade 0 / 5000 Power / Boost
Dark Zone / Gear Chronicle / Gear Dragon
[AUTO]: Forerunner (When a unit of the same clan rides this unit, you may call this unit to (RC))
[ACT](RC): Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more G Units face-up in your (VC) and/or G Zone) [Counterblast (1) & Put this unit into your soul] Search your deck for up to one grade 3 card, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

Yay! Gear Chronicle TD starter is good! Assuming Gear Chronicle gets more good grade 3 units other than Chrono Jet Dragon (which they eventually will, being a main character clan), this guy lets you run whatever crazy G3 ratios you want, and as long as you Stride on the first turn you can, you can grab any grade 3 you want for whatever situation you're in! As of now, it'll probably just be used as a more consistent way to grab Chrono Jet than a G3 searcher would be, at the expense of having to ride a different G3 first.

He can also trade himself for a G3 that you can ditch to Stride on your next turn if that's your kind of thing.

Card of the Day - 10/28/2014 - "Battle Sister, Taffy"

Battle Sister, Taffy
Grade 1 / 7000 Power / Boost
United Sanctuary / Oracle Think Tank / Elf
[AUTO](RC): When this unit attacks, if you have a vanguard with "Battle Sister" in its card name, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of that battle.

Well, they finally got it. Not only do Battle Sisters now have their own Ruth clone, they also have their third 7000 power grade 1. Unfortunately, it doesn't come in G-BT01. Instead, it comes as a promo with one of the new CDs. We'll have to wait and see how that carries over to the English format.

As far as impact on the deck, it'll basically just take the place of one of the many now-useless 6000 power grade 1s that were run in the Battle Sister deck. With Season 5 introducing Battle Sisters' first two real 7000 power units (Omelet being designed instead for CoCo, and only ever run for 7000 power base), the deck becomes a lot more aggressive early game. Seeing as Battle Sisters recently got Jelly and Pudding, their Legion units, and now have Lollipop to support Parfait significantly better, the deck is looking to be heading towards an aggressive-style deck that can pressure its opponent a lot earlier in the game, whereas they previously had to wait until Limit Break 4 to do most of their effects.

Card of the Day - 10/27/2014 - "Chrono Jet Dragon"

Chrono Jet Dragon
Grade 3 / 11000 Power / Twin Drive!!
Dark Zone / Gear Chronicle / Gear Dragon
[AUTO](VC): Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have 2 or more face-up G-Units in your Generation Zone or (VC)) When this unit attacks a vanguard, until end of that battle, this unit gets [Power]+5000 and your opponent cannot call grade 1 or greater units from hand to (GC).
[AUTO](VC): [Counterblast (1)] During your turn, when your G-Unit Strides, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and put that unit on the bottom of your opponent's deck.

I seriously can't stop laughing. My sides are starting to hurt. Today, we see the first Gear Chronicle card that has been revealed. It also happens to be the main boss unit of G-TD01. Chrono Jet Dragon is definitely a card, almost to the point that I could easily see it being a RRR in a main set. For no cost, at Generation Break 2, Chrono Jet gains +5000 power and Glory Maelstrom skill. For those of you who haven't noticed, "Glory Skill" has been Bushiroad's latest way of giving cards strong skills, as opposed to season 3's "Everything can restand" strategy. However, we now have an incredibly power TRIAL DECK card with "Glory Skill," along with a pseudo-retire skill. This definitely means that the quality of Trial Decks is going up, but I'm not sure what it says about the power level of cards. Generation Break 2 is hardly a condition for a skill, only forcing you to wait about 5 turns into the game to use the skill. Combined with the fact that you can get easy CB1 "retires" on the latter two of these turns just for discarding a grade 3 (or more if you don't have a grade 3) to Stride, I imagine that this card will be the defining boss for early Gear Chronicle decks, similar to Great Silver Wolf, Garmore being used in a large number of early Gold Paladin decks.

Unfortunately, due to this being the only Gear Chronicle card we've seen, I can't say a whole lot about how it'll end up interacting with other cards, but if cheap pseudo-retires are one of Gear Chronicle's ways of sending the opponent "back in time," they'll probably be a force comparable to Kagero in terms of control.

Card of the Day - 10/24/2014 - "Knight of Inspiration, Mylius"

Knight of Inspiration, Mylius
Grade 0 / 5000 Power / Boost
United Sanctuary / Royal Paladin / Human
[AUTO]: Forerunner (When a card of the same clan rides this unit, you may call this unit to (RC))
[ACT](RC): Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face-up G-Units in your Generation Zone or (VC)) [Counterblast (1) & Put this unit into your soul] Search your deck for up to one grade 2 card, call it to (RC), and shuffle your deck.

Yay for new keywords, right? This guy... definitely seems interesting, considering he's the FVG provided in G-TD02. His skill allows you to search for any grade 2 unit, but requires a G-Unit face-up SOMEWHERE. This means that the earliest you could activate this is the same timing as Legion (both players being at grade 3), but you'll need to have already used or be using a G-Unit's Stride. However, this does allow for some interesting uses.

Majesty Lord Blaster now has an alternative to Wingal Brave. While Wingal Brave still allows you to have incredible ride consistency, this FVG allows you to use Majesty Lord Blaster's second skill for +10000 power more consistently. The G-Units are already a huge buff to any outdated deck (including Majesty Lord Blaster), so you'll probably have them to activate the Generation Break regardless. Even alongside Wingal Brave, this guy could function as an extra grade 0 that allows you to swap him for either Blaster Blade OR Blaster Dark depending on which one you need, essentially giving you 5-6 copies of each rather than only 4 (in terms of trying to draw into them, at least). This is much more consistent than the previous method of relying on a Blaster Blade/Dark boosted by Wingal Brave hitting to search for your other piece.

You could also turn this guy into a Blaster Blade Spirit for a Counterblast 2 retire if you wanted to. This would be no more expensive than Blaster Blade or Berserk Dragon already are, and would trade a 5000 power boost for a 10000 power attacker.

Now we just have to wait and see what cool grade 2 units we get in G-TD02 and G-BT01!

Card of the Day - 10/23/2014 - "Paisley Magus"

Paisley Magus
Grade 0 / 4000 Power / Boost
United Sanctuary / Oracle Think Tank / Human
[AUTO]: When this unit is placed on (RC), if you have a vanguard with "Magus" in its card name, look at the top card of your deck, and put that card on the top or the bottom of your deck.

While I can't really call this card bad, it's... not really something that was too needed. The skill, while similar to that of CEO Amaterasu and Battle Sister, Cocoa, isn't really useful here. First, it requires a Magus vanguard (a whopping three Magus grade 3's currently exist), and second, it's a critical trigger. There should be no reason for you to be calling a critical trigger to rear-guard in an Oracle Think Tank deck unless it's Psychic Bird.

The only upside I can really see this card having is Pentagonal Magus's [Counterblast (2)-cards with "Magus" in its card name] cost. Currently, the Magus archetype only has two triggers, Lozenge Magus and Sphere Magus. Both of these are heal triggers, meaning you could only have 4 Magus triggers in a deck. This at least gives you another trigger that can be used with Pentagonal Magus's Counterblast.

On the other hand, if we end up getting significant Magus support in G-BT01, and if it ends up requiring Magus Counterblasts, then this trigger will be a godsend, along with any other Magus triggers we would probably get in that scenario. In fact, getting a new Oracle Think Tank trigger is a godsend anyhow, seeing as the last printed ones were in EB07, dating back to the time of Link Joker's first appearance.

Card of the Day - 10/22/2014 - "Amon's Leader, Astaroth"

Amon's Leader, Astaroth
Grade 3 / 11000 Power / Twin Drive!!
Dark Zone / Dark Irregulars / Demon
[ACT](VC): Legion 21000 "Demon World Marquis, Amon" (If your opponent's vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit may return four cards from your drop zone into your deck once, search your deck for the specified card, and Legion.)
[CONT](VC): If this unit is in Legion, this unit gets [Critical]+1 for every ten cards in your soul.
[AUTO](VC): When your opponent's rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, if you have another unit in your middle column with "Amon" in its card name, Soul Charge (3). This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.

Well then, Bushiroad. You continue to amaze me with new ways to make old units good again. All I can say about this is... 41000 power with 3 critical unboosted...?

Demon World Marquis, Amon is originally a RRR and SP card in BT03. It was more recently reprinted as an SP-only in BT12. During his day, he was actually quite a force to be reckoned with, being able to quite easily swing over the 20000 (and even 21000) magical number. With only 5 cards in soul, 23000 was achievable, and with only 7, 25000 power. His second skill was just icing on the cake, allowing you to retire one of your opponent's rear-guards in order to fill your soul a bit more. However, now his 10000 power base matters not, as Astaroth's 11000 power is used defensively, but his +1000 power per card in soul still comes into play during attacks. This allows you to swing for 21000, plus 1000 for every card in soul, plus a boost. With 10 cards in soul, you'll be attacking for 31000 with double critical, not counting your booster. At 20 cards, 41000 with triple critical. This large of a soul might seem unlikely, but there is one card in particular that makes it quite feasible.

Dimension Creeper allows you to remove it from your soul in order to Soul Charge 2. Simply by calling this to rear-guard and using Amon's second skill to move him to soul, you can retire one of your opponent's rear-guards, and Soul Charge 5. This immediately places you at 8 cards in soul assuming you have your grade 0, 1, and 2 still in soul. Doing this one more time, possibly re-riding, and calling Hell's Draw and Hell's Deal allows you to hit 20 soul within a matter of turns. Given, the triple crit is almost never necessary, but hey, it's a thing you can do.

Another card worth mentioning is Doreen the Thruster. Her skill gives her +3000 power every time a card is put into your soul during the main phase. By performing the aforementioned combo with Dimension Creeper, you would get +3000 from Creeper moving to soul, +9000 for the Soul Charge 3 skill, then +6000 for Dimension Creeper's 2 soul charges. This would give you a 24000 power booster for your giant Vanguard column that has multiple criticals every turn that you perform this combo!

Card of the Day - 10/21/2014 - "Margal"

Margal
Grade 0 / 4000 Power / Boost / Draw Trigger
United Sanctuary / Royal Paladin / High Beast
[ACT](RC): [Put this unit into your soul] Choose one of your <<Royal Paladin>>, and that unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.

You know, I'm actually kinda glad this got reprinted. If Lien was deserving of a reprint in BT17, then this was definitely deserving of a reprint. This is a pretty standard trigger clone, and as such, most clans have one. Royal Paladin's was originally released in BT02, so it has been long out of print in both the Japanese and English formats. This gives a very nice way of obtaining this card once again, since it'll come as a 4-of in G-TD02. OH YEAH AND HE COMES AS A RRR FOIL APPARENTLY.

You may be wondering why Margal getting reprinted is so important. Well, apart from any future G-BT01 bosses we might see, the main reason is this: Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon. Thing Saver requires a hefty Soul Blast 3 to use his skill, which normally limits you to once per game unless you re-ride or ride Thing Saver on top of a previously Legioned grade 3. Since re-riding isn't exactly optimal in a Persona Ride deck, and you might not always draw into your other grade 3 first, you need a backup plan to consistently achieve the double restand. Aside from Barcgal shenanigans, Margal is your most efficient way of doing this. You only lose a 5000 shield card that has little to no boosting value, you gain 3000 power in one of your columns, and Margal couldn't have been discarded for Thing Saver's skill anyhow (it requires you to discard "Seeker" units). This is an effective way to gain access to one of the plays that has been defining Japanese tournament play as of BT16's release.

I also realize that I just talked more about Thing Saver than I did Margal on Margal's Card of the Day. Oh well, dragons always win anyway.

Deck Profile - [Link Joker] Star-vader, "Omega" Glendios

So this is the deck I ran at the Atlanta Regional Qualifier yesterday. It's a purely beatdown focused Glendios build that uses the massive columns and 8 "PG"s in the deck to create a huge gap in the amount of shield you force out of your opponent compared to what your opponent forces out of you.

Grade 3: 14
3x Star-vader, "Omega" Glendios
4x Star-vader, "Яeverse" Cradle
1x Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon "Яeverse"
1x Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Яeverse"
1x Cleanup Celestial, Ramiel "Яeverse"
1x Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster "Яeverse"
1x Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Яeverse"
1x Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue "Яeverse"
1x Blue Storm Karma Dragon, Maelstrom "Яeverse"

Grade 2: 7
4x Star-vader, Magnet Hollow
3x Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 1: 12
4x Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
4x Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
4x Star-vader, Ruin Magician

Grade 0: 17
1x Star-vader, Worldline Dragon
4x Star-vader, Meteor Liger
3x Star-vader, Weiss Soldat
3x Star-vader, Jeiratail
2x Star-vader, Scounting Ferris
4x Recollection Star-vader, Tellurium

Other Options

Engraving Star-vader, Praseodymium is a must-have for any deck that prefers to focus on Glendios's Limit Break 4 "Omega Lock" skill. He allows you to unflip one damage for each different "Яeverse" unit on your field, helping to mitigate the cost of Glendios and Ruin Magician.

Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon can be used to give you two free locks in order to set up an "Omega Locked" field much easier, or even as a means to speed up a deck aiming at the "World's End" Limit Break 5 win condition.

Star-vader, Cold Death Dragon allows you to place the top card of your opponent's deck locked onto one of their rear-guard circles. This is a must-have for the win condition builds, as your opponent can otherwise easily stop you by not calling a full field. This also helps get quicker locks in "Omega Lock" based builds.

Card of the Day - 10/20/2014 - "Dragonic Overlord "The X""

Dragonic Overlord "The X"
Grade 3 / 11000 Power / Twin Drive
Dragon Empire / Kagero / Flame Dragon
[ACT](VC): Legion 22000 "Dragonic Overlord "The End"" (If your opponent's vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit may return four cards from your drop zone into your deck once, search your deck for the specified card, and Legion.)
[AUTO](VC): When this unit performs Legion, search your deck for up to one card with the same name as a card on your (VC), reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.
[AUTO](VC): [Counterblast (1), and choose a card from your hand named "Dragonic Overlord "The X", and discard it] At the end of the battle that this unit attacked, if the attack did not hit during that battle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose two of your opponent's rear-guards, and retire them.

Uhhhh. Huhhhh. Well, this was not quite what I expected. Regardless, it's what we got. First, we'll start by looking back at The X's Legion Mate, "The End."

For those of you that don't know about "The End," he was the first crossride of Dragonic Overlord, back before Overlord became a Break Ride. His main skill is a Persona Blast. When his attack hits (rear-guard or vanguard), you can Counterblast 2 and discard a copy of himself to restand. This gives you two more drive checks at the cost of only discarding one card. He also made very easy 19k and 21k columns, allowing you to swing at a rear-guard to plus even when your opponent is at higher damage. He was so much of a threat in Japan that he even got restricted to 2 copies for a pretty long while.

"The X" allows you to easily search out a second "The End" or a second "The X," most likely whichever you don't already have in your hand. This creates a predicament for your opponent where they either guard your first attack to lose their guardians and two rear-guards, or take your first attack, allowing you to restand and attack again (in which case they either take another damage or lose 2 rear-guards anyway). This brings Overlord back as one of the biggest on-hit pressure units in the game. I can't say for sure what this says about where the game is headed with G-BT01, but I can say for sure that it'll be... interesting.

Other than that, I expect it to mainly see play alongside the rest of the generic Kagero lineup, including large amounts of vanillas for consistent defense early game, Gattling Claw Dragon for killing starters, Bellicosity Dragon for on-hit unflips, etc.

Card of the Day - 10/17/2014 - "Rainbow Guardian"

Rainbow Guardian
Grade 1 / 6000 Power / Boost
United Sanctuary / Royal Paladin / Elf
[CONT]: Sentinel (You may only have up to four cards with "[CONT]: Sentinel" in a deck.)
[AUTO]: [Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] When this unit is placed on (GC), you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your units that is being attacked, and that unit cannot be hit until end of that battle.

So, Bushiroad leaves us with a RR for the weekend. Well, it would be a RR. However, this is actually a Trial Deck card! We finally get to see the Sentinel contained within the new Trial Decks (the Royal Paladin Trial Deck, in this case)!

The card is functionally no different from any other Season 4+ sentinel, allowing you to guard for any unit and discard any card, so it really has no special use over Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron, other than the fact that it's a female, and therefore worth using. However, in a competitive setting, this is probably just going to be budget/personal preference choice, since it can't be used for any especial Counterblasts. Other than that, there isn't much to say about this, since it's a type of card we've known about for a while.

Card of the Day - 10/16/2014 - "Starlight Hedgehog"

Starlight Hedgehog
Grade 2 / 8000 Power / Intercept
Star Gate / Nova Grappler / Warbeast
[AUTO]: When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), choose another of your rear-guards, and that unit gets "[AUTO](RC): When this unit [Stand] due to an effect from one of your cards, draw a card, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face-up. This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn." until end of turn.

Uhh. Hmm. Yeah, I'm not really sure what to think about this. Generic Nova Grappler support that... doesn't really help too much right now. The draw is appreciated, but 8000 base power on a generic card...? Well, I'll list some things that it *MIGHT* work with.

Immortal Asura Kaiser has to Counterblast 2 to use his restanding skill, so I suppose you could at least get an unflip out of whatever rear-guard you choose to stand alongside him? It's a little more viable now since you can sit at low damage and still use the Limit Break thanks to Frog Master.

I don't see why you would run Hedgehog alongside Death Army Cosmo Lord instead of the Death Army support, but if you do... you can at least use his skill for one less Counterblast...?

I don't know, I'm really struggling to find a good use for this one.

Okay, here we go. Mond Blaukluger's break ride skill can be used for free when used in conjunction with Hedgehog! I'm not sure where you would fit Hedgehog into any decks containing Mond Blaukluger, but it's still a thing! I guess Mond/Immortal Asura would be the best place as of now?

Maybe we'll see some better uses for this card once more of the G-BT01 Nova Grappler support is revealed, such as Mecha Battler, Viktor.

Card of the Day - 10/15/2014 - "Bravogal Seeker"

Bravogal Seeker
Grade 1 / 7000 Power / Boost
United Sanctuary / Royal Paladin / High Beast
[AUTO](RC): [Retire this unit] When an attack hits a vanguard during the battle that this unit boosted a unit with "Seeker" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to 1 card with "Seeker" in its card name, call that unit to (RC) as [Rest], and shuffle your deck.

So, today we have confirmation that Seekers will be receiving at least SOME support in G-BT01. This card essentially has Seeker, Bucephalus's effect, but in a much more workable form.

The first card that I can see this working with is "Sacred Wielding Seeker, Octavius." Octavius allows you to Soul Blast 2 to draw a card if the number of Seekers in your front row is three or more. Assuming you're using a Seeker grade 3 that's in Legion, you already have two, and this card can be called to the front row as a third. This essentially makes it a Luck Bird clone with 7000 base power instead of 5000.

Next up from BT16 is "Seeker, Tranquil Unicorn." This card can Soul Blast 1 when called to give +5000 power to any unit on your field. While it is only a 5000 power booster, you could easily tech in a single copy of this card to use with Bravogal. Dropping it behind your vanguard still creates 26000+ columns, so it won't hurt much in the long run.

The next, and probably most obvious, choice is "Blaster Blade Seeker." For the simple cost of one Counterblast, you can retire one of your opponent's units. Not a bad trade-off if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, Bravogal calls at rest, so you'll have to drop him in the back row or go without an attack for the turn if you go with this option.

There are other choices, such as "High Spirit Seeker, Celyn," (on-call, CB1 to give +4000 to a unit) but none that really seem worth running just to call with this guy. You could always use him to call another copy of himself, essentially thinning the deck. Maybe we'll see a Seeker version of Josephus (on-call from deck, SB1 to draw 1) in this set...?