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!

Level 1:

• 4 x Kagamine Rin "SW Striped Bikini"
• 2 x Kagamine Rin "Ni no Sakura: Butterfly"
• 2 x Melancholic(event)
• 3 x Megurine Luka "Soft Light Coordination"

• 3 x Kagamine Rin "Scissors"
• 2 x Kagamine Rin "Append"
• 2 x Megurine Luka "San no Sakura: Maple Scent"
• 2 x MEIKO "Rei no Sakura: Red Pillar"

• 4 x Kagamine Rin "Original"
• 2 x Kagamine Len "Original"

• 4 x Tokyo Teddy Bear
• 4 x World's End Dance Hall

Well, from a first look, it seemed messy. This deck plays with three colors, yellow as the primary, red for the primary support with blue for secondary support. I've linked each cards to a site that translates them; and yes, it's still messy even if you stare at them to see what combo with what.

While you're sitting there racking your head, here's an explanation broken down into different levels.

For my level 0 Blue, "Bad Boy Len" is pretty much one of those card that gets skipped over fairly easily but I like his ability. His first ability is okay, becoming a universal booster only during your opponent's turn but what I'm more interested in is his 2nd ability to sacrifice himself to "revive" a character when that character is placed into the waiting room. This card is good if you are low on stock and somehow your opponent killed your level 3. You can revive that character for almost no cost. "Solitude Miku" is a strong card by herself. If she's all alone at the front row of the stage she becomes a level 1 with 3500 power. Add in "2 x Love Squad No.1 Miku" as the back support and you have a 4500 wall that can't be penetrated until your opponent reaches level 1. Yellow have the vanilla "Future Style Rin", "Tricker Len" that gains when called to stage from hand and "Append Len" that gains power during your turn. These cards are pretty basic so I won't explain much. "Love Squad No.1 Miku" is your universal 500 power booster. Her second ability is good, but quite costly in my opinion.

Level 1 is quite weird to some but the key card here is "Striped Bikini Rin". Her ability is quite strong for a Level 1 that if you pretty much have a field full of Rin/Ren, she becomes 6500 beater. "Rin-chan Love Squad No.1 Miku" is an added bonus. Because she have "Rin" in her name, "Striped Bikini Rin" skill will still be activated. Having two these will simply boost "Striped Bikini Rin" further to 7500, and almost for free too! Did I mention her skill is continuous? That means she's huge wall to defend with too. "Butterfly Rin" is your counter card which is quite self explanatory. Event card, Melancholic, helps you search for a character card from the deck that you may need, be it now or in a few steps ahead. "Soft Light Luka" is your encore card. She's another big wall by herself and can encore herself by discarding a card from hand.

The next level, Level 2, is where the fun actually begins. I shall skip yellow, and start with red. "Red Pillar MEIKO" is one of those card that is overlooked easily. Just by having a support card, she gains 2000 power. A 9500 power level 2? Sign me up! She's also my target for clocking or encore drops. But...but you said she's good!? Why you throw her away so easily? I shall explain this as soon as I finish this sentence. "Scissors Rin" is a card you combo with the climax card "Tokyo Teddy Bear". Her combo ability is that you can pay one stock, retire one card in the stage and call out a music character in the waiting room that is equal or lower than your level. So if you only have a G0 in hand to call out, to worries, retire that card with this combo and call out "Red Pillar MEIKO" if you're at Level 2 or call out a Level 3 if you're at level 3. Quite neat no? You save some stock if you're low as well as trade a bad card for a better one at the same time. Most opponents that faced this skill calls it disgusting; I say it's trolling. "Append Rin" is your card with the change ability to change to "Original Rin" while "Maple Scent Luka" is another counter to screw up your opponent's plan.

Level 3 is pretty standard. Their ability is quite straight forward in itself.

You won't see climax cards here that dish out lots of damages. This deck aims to only "poke" your opponent with 1 or 2 damages each time. "Tokyo Teddy Bear" will only add in one soul and have a burn effect as well so that if the opponent cancelled the attack, he still needs to take another one. "World's End Dance Hall" helps you salvage for a card you need in the waiting room.

Grade 1: 15 units

• 4 x Fresh Star, Coral
• 3 x Mermaid Idol, Sedna
• 4 x Mermaid Idol, Elly
• 4 x Mirror Diva, Biscayne

• 4 x Shiny Star, Coral
• 1 x Girls' Rock, Rio
• 3 x PRISM-Promise, Celtic
• 2 x PRISM-Image, Rosa

• 4 x Aurora Star, Coral
• 3 x PRISM-Image. Vert
• 1 x Eternal Idol, Pacifica

Grade 1 are pretty simple. I was stuck at having 4 Ellys or 4 Sedna since I'm keeping Coral and Biscayne at 4. In the end, I decided that 4 Ellys are optimal and dropped a Sedna. The G1 Coral's ability is quite unique. As in, if I don't ride a G2 Coral and I have the G0 in the soul, I can look at the top 7 of the deck for the G2 Coral and ride it. I find this ability pretty neat to be honest. First, it does help me thin the deck a little, to give more chance of getting triggers. Second, it builds the soul. Third, my 8k or 9k vanguard suddenly became a 10k vanguard. 4th, it your G3 can now be 11k instead of 10k. Biscayne is another card that utilize the soul and increases your hand power. Soul blast one and look at top 7 for another Biscayne? Why not? I get myself another booster, 5k guard as well as thinned my deck for a higher trigger chance!

Two paragraphs back, I mentioned that the chain ride doesn't really matter to me. The G2 Coral's ability is the reason why. If I don't get to ride a G1 Coral previously, I'll move the G0 Coral to a rearguard circle, usually not as the same column as vanguard but on another location at the back. If I had a G2 Coral in hand, I'd ride that unit on my next turn, and move the G0 Coral to the front. The reasoning is simple; with G2 Coral as a vanguard, I can return one of the cards on the front row into my hand if her attack hits. This means that I essentially secured myself a 10k guard and cleared off the field for a better booster. Pretty neat eh? Rio can be used together with the G2 and G3 Coral, Pacifica and Vert though I mostly used her with G2 Coral and Vert to net myself the extra card in hand. Funny that I find that having one of her is actually more than enough. Celtic is another unit I combo with the grade 3s which I will later explain. Rosa is your 11k attacker but there is also an option of using 10k vanillas like Ligurian or Aqua if you find 8k units too easy a target.

Grade 3 units are a bit weird since you see that lone Pacifica there. Well, she's there for a good reason. I don't have a fourth Vert. Still, she seem to work fine and I usually use her as a rearguard. A great setup will be riding Vert first, followed by a break ride with Coral. But for this deck, break rides are is simply an option we have so you don't have to think "I must break ride Vert with Vert!"

Now on to my Celtic explanation, I usually have Celtic in the field, powering up the rearguards. Here's how; attack with Celtic first, boosted of course. Attack with G3 Coral and activate her limit break (counterblast 2, soul charge 1) now return Celtic to hand and soul blast a card, give power  (that 4k) to another rearguard that have not attacked yet. Next, up, profit! I recommend having a 11k unit for the other rearguard with a 6k booster or a 10k unit with a 7k booster. This is to hit the 21k mark to force 11k vanguard guarding for more. If your opponent is a crossride, an 8k booster with 11k unit is much more recommended as it'll hit 23k easily. Of course in this case, I will have Celtic attacking the rearguard first instead of the Vanguard to clear away his potential interceptors. Because now Coral is now attacking for 23k if boosted with a G1 Coral, some opponents may simply use a perfect guard. If he does, any triggers automatically goes to the standing rearguard. Of course now that the rearguard is already 21k to 23k thanks to Celtic, hitting 2 triggers will boost that attack to 31k to 33k, which will forces your opponent to guard for 25k to block that attack. Now imagine doing a breakride earlier on and had passed another 4k to that other rearguard before activating Coral's skill...apart from 13k vanguards, 10k, 11k and 12k vanguards will need 30k to guard. That's a lot of cards used to guard or another perfect guard gone.

Now if you noticed. this focus more on Vanguard+Rearguard power up as well as drawing and deck thinning. Give it try and see how it goes!

Grade 1: 14 units

• 4 x Wonder Boy
• 4 x Reckless Express
• 3 x Cheer Girl, Marilyn
• 3 x Medical Manager

• 4 x Field Driller
• 4 x Highspeed, Brakki
• 3 x Panzer Gale

• 4 x Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor
• 4 x Juggernaut Maximum

Line up for Grade 1, I would pretty say is quite standard. Most will play with similar units, but with different combinations. Most decks will go with 3 Reckless, 4 Marilyn, 4 Wonder Boy and 3 Medical Manager. I'm one of those who thinks 4 perfect guards is too much and decides to up my offences so I dropped a Marilyn for another Reckless. I used to play with 2 x Dudley Daisy but after many tests, I figure she's good to have, but can be too situational at times.

My Grade 2 line up is fairly...unique in a sense that they all can't hit crossrides for 10k guard, well except for one unit that is. Then again, you are pressuring them very early in the game that by the time they can crossride, they are at 5 damage. One of the best unit in this grade is not Highspeed Brakki, but Field Driller. He's a 7k unit that needs a full field to work. Sounds useless no? But here's where you're wrong. Unlike Fierce Leader Zachary, he does not return to the deck and nets you a +1. You want to actually ride him at turn 2, have a full field and force your opponent to guard. If he does not guard, great! You just earned yourself another card including that trigger check. If he guards, no problems either. He just wasted a card...at turn 2. If he guards and you got a trigger, even better! With a draw trigger, you net 3 cards, with a critical trigger he eats 2 damage. Either way, he loses a card and gets damage. If you have a field full of drillers, your opponent will have to make 2 choices; guard or lose a unit early game or not guard and let you draw. My choice of Panzer Gale instead of Treasured Black Panther is quite obvious. I always run into problems not having enough units to guard with. Panzer Gale is there to help you intercept for 10k defense. If you are on the losing side, and you know you can win if you just have one more turn, instead of calling out Juggernaut maximums, you can call out Panzers with Dudley Emperor just to last you for another turn. With cards like Silent Tom and Maelstrom locking your hands from guarding, Panzer Gale is there to pull you out of that tight spot.

Finally, the leader of the pack, Dudley Emperor. He's the unit you will always want to ride as he nets a 21k attack when boosted by Wonder Boy, forcing 20k guard to 11k vanguards as well as the ability to allow you to attack 5 times when comboed with Reckless Express, Brakki and Juggernaut Maximum. The awesome level of this unit is off the charts that one can't simply measure his greatness in words. This unit has caused great pain to my opponent that some simply concede without having me do the drive check, afterall they know they can't survive the onslaught even if they managed to get a heal trigger.

There you have it. It ended up as a rant I guess but being someone who loves this clan it has to be expected. That's all from me for today, signing off!

Grade 1: 15 units

• 4 x Alluring Succubus
• 4 x Poet of Darkness Amon
• 2 x Devil Child
• 3 x March Rabbit of Nightmareland (perfect guard)
• 2 x Demonic Dragon Mage, Mahoraga

• 4 x Flirtatious Succubus
• 1 x Decadent Succubus
• 4 x Demon of Aspiration, Amon
• 2 x Emblem Master

• 4 x Demon World Marquis, Amon
• 3 x Evil Eye Basilisk

For my Grade 1s, many asked why I have Mahoraga, a KAGERO unit in this deck. His effect is when a unit in the opponent's field is placed into the drop zone he gains +5000 attack power. Guess who lets him be a 10k booster each turn? You guessed it - Amon. I run 4 G1 Amon since he's a constant 9k booster. Boost Basilisk with him and you get yourself a 21k line. Alluring Succubus can be used in 3 ways - a 7k booster, a soul charger or Amon's fodder. Demon Child makes an unexpected appearance here. But if you think about it logically, she's also the best booster for Amon, causing Amon to hit for 26k with only 6 souls, causing lots of pressure against 10k and 11k vanguards as they need to guard for 25k for 2 trigger pass almost each turn.

Grade 2 units are pretty standard. Flirtatious Succubus is a must have, since she's not only a 9k, she's also soul charge 1 card when you call her out and can intercept. I play 1 Decadent Succubus and 2 Emblem Master but these two units are exchangeable You can play 3 x Decadent Succubus or 3 x Emblem Master but I play one because I mostly get to ride her on G2 7 out of 10 games. Not sure why either. With Decadent Succubus  you are able to soul charge the same number of cards call out to the rearguard circle. She's good to combo with Alluring Succubus and Flirtatious Succubus. Even Hysteric Shirley is a good unit to use. For Emblem Master, he's good if you ride him as a vanguard. You just need his ability to fire off just once since he soul charge 3 cards when his attack hits a vanguard.

Finally, my Grade 3s. I run 7 units in total. 3 of them are Amon, the card that you want to be on the vanguard circle. By now, you should have realize that this deck is centered around him. You may not want to spam his ability. I'd recommend using his skill just once a turn. It's actually more than enough to cause your opponent headaches and forcing him to retire a unit from his field. Amon's effect is pretty good but he has the weakness of being 10k and 20k lines are quite easily to build these days. 

So far, this deck has gotten me pretty far against lots of them meta clans. Seeing the big clans with empty fields and barely able to guard can be quite funny. It's not quite a mixed deck, and there are some ups and downs but winning 8 out of 10 matches against DOTE and MLB means this deck has good potential. I was planning to use it for the Team League 2013 but sadly, Bushiroad disallowed mixed decks other than MLB builds. What gives!? I would love to rant about that but I'll just leave it here for now. Feel free to test the deck out or use it as a skeleton for your own anti cross-ride Dark Irregulars deck.