Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

Shadow Paladin has extremely lack of support as they only appear in BT04, BT05 and EB03. Still, this clan is automatically considered meta due to Phantom Blaster Overlord and he is widely used in almost all Shadow Paladin decks since he can easily be a 13k vanguard as soon as you ride him. Most PBO decks have the same deck formula and structure that I can assure you that if you have seen one PBO Deck, you've seen them all.

Now enough talk about PBO; let's talk about an alternate card that does not receive as much attention as him, Origin Mage, Ildona. Ildona plays more of a "offensive-defensive" style. Like Phantom Blaster Dragon, you need to sacrifice some of your units to use his skill. Still, you will need to know the exact timing to use it and when not to since it may cause you the game. Now then, for the much awaited deck list!

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Fullbau (Starting Vanguard)
• 4 x Abyss Freezer (Draw Trigger)
• 4 x Grim Reaper (Critical Trigger)
• 4 x Death Feather Eagle (Critical Trigger)
• 4 x Abyss Healer (Heal Trigger)

Grade 1: 14 units

• 4 x Blaster Javelin
• 4 x Black Sage, Charon
• 3 x Dark Shield, Mac Lir
• 2 x Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod
• 1 x Gururubau

• 1 x Blaster Dark
• 1 x Blaster Dark Spirit
• 3 x Knight of Fighting Spirit, Dordona
• 2 x Cursed Lancer
• 2 x Skull Witch, Nemain
• 2 x Darkness Maiden, Macha

Grade 3:

• 3 x Origin Mage, Ildona
• 2 x The Dark Dictator
• 2 x Dark Mage, Badhabh Caar
• 1 x Phantom Blaster Dragon

Nothing much to say on my Grade 0 line up. Shadow Paladins only have 1 viable starter right now and that's Fullbau. When you ride Blaster Javelin above Fullbau, you are almost guaranteed riding off a G2. This deck plays critical triggers as stand triggers does not work well with Ildona.

Grade 1 line up is a bit tight. unless we get a new starter (I'm looking at you Creeping Dark Goat) you have not other choice but to play 4 Blaster Javelins due to your starter. Charon is your 8k vanilla booster. You can search him using Darkness Maiden. Mac Lir is your perfect guard, and I find 3 is more than enough since you definitely will have plenty of cards in hand with this deck. With only 3 slots left in the deck, there are only 2 good cards that you may consider using, Arianrhod or Gururubau. As mentioned, you can play 3 Gururubau if you want to be more aggressive or 3 Arianrhod if you love trading cards for something better.

Like my Grade 1, you need Blaster Dark to guarantee you a ride to G2 smoothly. There are many arguments out there on how many Blaster Dark to play, but I find 1 more than enough. As mentioned, you can trade Dordona for Blaster Dark Spirit. You can combo him with Badhabh Caar to retire a G2 or below front row rearguard. I know I only played one, but as I have the lack of Blaster Dark Spirit, that's all I can play with right now. As this deck can be a bit counterblast heavy, Cursed Lancer is there to help unflip a damage. Nemain is a useful card used to fill your hands while getting rid of an unneeded card while Macha helps to fill up the field.

Your main vanguard for Grade 3 is definitely Ildona. His skill allows you to retire a bad column (think Badhabh Caar with a trigger at the back) and draw two cards. You don't actually want to spam his skill as you'll find yourself decking out way too quickly or drawing out your triggers too much. The best tip to use Ildona is when your field is good and perfect (hitting all the magic numbers for 10k guard) you don't need to use it. If you have a bad field, go ahead and retire the cards to nab something better. The Dark Dictator is more of a "Finishing Move" card. Once you have no counterblast for Ildona to use and you know you need that bit of fire power for the final push, Dark Dictator is there to give that final push. Badhabh Caar is a good card to fill up your field with. Best tip to use this card is when is you field in empty. At the very least, if you net another G2 or G3, you can call it out at the front row. The lone Phantom Blaster Dragon is your insurance. In case you have Badhabh Caar and not confident you can draw a better G3, you can tutor for PBD with Blaster Javelin. At the very least, you don't have to ride a 9k Vanguard.

That is all from me for today. I hope you enjoy my lengthy post and try out this deck. Comments are always welcome!