Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

Hype is in for BT12 as the new clan, Link Joker, will get support along with its Trial Deck. I consider Link Joker a "broken clan", as they gravely disrupts your field by locking up your units. In the case you have no idea what "lock" means, it is when a rearguard unit that is face up is turn faced down. A unit that is locked is not able to boost, intercept, use its skill or be retired by calling another unit above it. You can only unlock your unit at the end of your turn.

Some considered lock as a combination of Narukami, Kagero and Megacolony since Narukami and Kagero retires your unit while Megacolony prevents your units from standing. But unlike Link Joker, units retired by Narukami and Kegero can be replaced, same goes for stunned units by Megacolony.

I personally find Link Joker more annoying since locked units can't do anything but it isn't as disruptive as Naru, Kage and Mega, unless of course you're facing Chaos Break Dragon. With Narukami and Kagero's retiring effect, you'll need to call out units to boost or attack but at the same time, you lose precious guards if you really need them. Megacolony's stun allows you to retire that unit to replace it with a standing unit or let you attack albeit lower power. Link Joker? You may need some endurance to guard against their attacks.

Almost all Link Joker decks will aim to lock your units to gain their pluses. The infamous V-lock is the most common type of locking mechanism where your opponent will lock both your front rearguards and your vanguard's booster, which makes the lock looks 'V' shaped. What makes the lock scary is not just the lock itself; is that there units in Link Joker than gains power whenever a unit got locked. A good example will be units like Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum and Furious Claw Star-vader, Niobium which can both hit for 28k if they are in the same column.

There are some ways where you can counter yourself from getting locked - one would be rushing Link Jokers hard, while the other is playing slightly conservatively. There are still pros and cons for these two methods. Rushing will use up your hands quickly and if your opponent decides to drag the game, you're quite screwed. On the other hand, if your opponent unable to counter your rush, the game is 90% as good as yours. Playing conservatively on the other hand, may weaken your attacks but it does helps you conserve your hand as and when needed but playing conservatively does not mean dragging the game too long.

Now, there's a method that is not commonly used that I call half-rush. Throughout my plays against Link Jokers, I find that they are typically weak against Grade 2 rushes. What I generally do is to attack twice on turn 2 forcing my opponent to take the damages or guard against it. Formation is best with a front rearguard with booster and vanguard with booster. Once it's their turn to attack, guard their attack, even if it is one to pass. A bit risky, but it is a risk you may have to take in order to win. So far, I managed to survive against Link Joker this way where throughout my matches, I only have a single column of rearguard while the other column is all empty. Most players will also try to aim your only attacking rearguard thinking your hand does not have enough attackers, and that is what you want them to think. Once one side got locked, you have another row to play with.

Notable clans that actually excel against Link Joker are a few. They are Narukami, Kagero and Spike Brothers. Narukami and Kagero are obviously due to their high powered retiring as for Spike Brothers, they rush and return to the decks too much that Link Joker have little to no chance to lock. Decks that requires field presence such as Gold Paladin, Nova Grapplers and Granblue may have some troubles.

One thing not to do when going against Link Joker is to drag the game. Semi-rush is a good method so far and don't be too afraid of getting yourself "locked". Most of the Link Joker's lock ability depends too much on the breakride in order for it to work and if your opponent is unable to breakride, chances of you winning increases. Link Joker may be a strong clan but so far, I have yet to see them topping tournaments frequently.

BT10 has been out for a couple of days. Previously, I talked about a Grateful Catapult. But after a couple of reading (look at the bottom paragraph of my Grateful Catapult build), and more testing, I find that playing 10 grade 3s for a Bad End Dudley deck spells bad end, for you as the user.

The number one reason why Grateful Catapult deck can run 10 grade 3s is due to its 11k base, meaning he has slightly more defensive power so you're immune to a lone 10k attacks and easily defend against 15k attacks. I know there are many 11k and 12k attackers out there, but it is easier to defend even if you have 2 less G1 or G2 to defend with.

For Dudley Emperor in the other hand, he can be hit with a vanilla 10k and needs 10k guard for a 15k attack. He excels offensively and does not have a good defence. But I've tweaked the deck and found a good balance of both.


Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Mecha Trainer (First Vanguard)
• 4 x Cheerful Lynx (Draw Trigger)
• 4 x Sonic Breaker (Critical Trigger)
• 4 x Silence Joker (Critical Trigger)
• 4 x Cheer Girl, Tiara (Heal Trigger)

Grade 1: 14 units

• 4 x Wonder Boy
• 4 x Reckless Express
• 4 x Cheer Girl, Marilyn (Perfect Guard)
• 2 x Commander, Garry Gannon

Grade 2: 11 units

• 4 x Dudley Mason
• 4 x Highspeed, Brakki
• 3 x Fierce Leader, Zachary

Grade 3: 8 units

• 3 x Bad End Dragger
• 3 x Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor
• 2 x Juggernaut Maximum

The units remain similar to the Catapult build, except that I play more Marilyn and Zachary. With break-rides going up everywhere, it is now mandatory to play 4 Marilyn as your vanguard will be only 10k if you failed the final turn. Zachary is your pressure rearguard to help draw out for Dudley Emperor, much like Garry Gannon's ability to drop a useless card for something else. His on hit ability frequently forces your opponent to guard as they don't what you to gain hand advantage during the break ride.

While some will say it's best to play 17/13/10/10 for Spike Brothers, I find that that deck ratio is best for Catapult but in Dudley Emperor, this causes consistency issue and find the classic 17/14/11/8 is still valid. So far this deck works great and I get to pull off the break-ride 8 times out of 10 games.

Update: Another grade line up will be 17/13/11/9, taking out your choice of a grade 1 and adding in a 4th Bad End Dragger.

With BT10 being released in 3 days, I can finally get my hands on more Spike Brothers units that the booster have to offer. Of course like MANY others Spike Brothers players out there, we are quite disappointed with Bushiroad as they STILL REFUSE TO RELEASE MORE TRIGGERS FOR SPIKE BROTHERS! WHERE ARE THOSE DRAW TRIGGERS!!?

My title says it all. I'll be talking about the most overlooked card for Spike Brothers in BT10, Grateful Catapult. He's the alternative of Dudley Emperor where Dudley is a +0 while Catapult nets a +1. For both units, there's pros and cons.

Dudley Emperor is a good unit where he gets to be a 21k attacker when boosted by Wonder Boy due to his +3k when boosted ability and also charges up the soul for Reckless Express, Brakki and Juggernaut Maximum soulblasts and is also more consistent as you can soul charge any Spike Brothers unit. Problem is, he's only 10k and while he gives out more attacks, you use up 2 cards from hand to put into the soul, giving up your defences for more attacks if you don't have spare Grade 3s to use as soul fodder.

Grateful Catapult one the other hand, is a 11k unit that is a persona blast. For a counterblast of 2 and discarding a copy of itself from your hand to call up 2 units, you effectively net yourself a +1. You throw away an unneeded G3 and call out 2 cards. Sadly, he loses out 2 things, the +3k ability that Dudley have and stocking up the soul and also, you will need an extra copy of him in hand if you want to use his ability. So for a better defence, you loses out in power. It'll be great if instead of discarding away the persona blast by having the persona be put in soul instead.

So you've decided to stay on and try out Grateful Catapult? Great! Now here's a decklist you can try out that works quite well for me.

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Mecha Trainer (First Vanguard)
• 4 x Cheerful Lynx (Draw Trigger)
• 4 x Sonic Breaker (Critical Trigger)
• 4 x Silence Joker (Critical Trigger)
• 4 x Cheer Girl, Tiara (Heal Trigger)

Grade 1: 13 units

• 4 x Wonder Boy
• 4 x Reckless Express
• 3 x Cheer Girl, Marilyn (Perfect Guard)
• 2 x Commander, Garry Gannon

Grade 2: 10 units

• 4 x Dudley Mason
• 4 x Highspeed, Brakki
• 2 x Fierce Leader, Zachary

Grade 3: 10 units

• 4 x Bad End Dragger
• 4 x Grateful Catapult
• 2 x Juggernaut Maximum

A big difference from my previous Spike Brothers deck profile eh? Of course the changes are not without reason.

For my Grade 0, standard Spike Brothers triggers and starter. I did consider removing a set of crits for stands, but it didn't trigger out as how I'd want it to. Also, nothing beats Mecha Trainer.

There's a bit of change for my Grade 1. Previously, I had Medical Manager in the set but I ditched him for Garry Gannon. He's your typical Aermo clone. For a persona blast deck as well as break ride deck, he's key in to filtering out your extra Bad End Draggers for those Grateful Catapults you need. I usually will put him behind Bad End Dragger. Behind Grateful Catapult though, he's only 17k max. Can't really hit cross rides for 15k 2 pass but when you think about it, most crossrides these days are usually late game so your opponent will most likely be only 11k until he hit 4 or 5 damage for that crossride or cross-break-ride but when you deal your damage with Bad End and Catapult, your opponent most likely have hit 6 damage already.

More changes for Grade 2 will obviously be the lack of Panzer Gale and Field Driller. I've added in the new Dudley in the block, Dudley Mason and invited in Zachary into the team. While Field Driller was good previously, he's now not as godly as he used to be due to the increased in 12k attackers post BT10. So in order to net that 1 draw, you will get hit left and right which makes it not worth the risk. Panzer is okay and still viable in the deck, but Zachary's drawing skills give you more advantages during the break ride. Think about it, your units will be returning to the bottom of the deck thanks to Bad End Dragger. I'd rather use Zachary to help me get another card so I could prepare myself in case my rush down failed. Mason is a must have as he charges up your soul as well as pressure the opponent to guarding to prevent him from calling out another unit for more attacks.

I bet you're assuming I must be crazy in playing 10 Grade 3s in this deck but hear me out. It's actually a good idea to play 10. 4 Bad End Draggers so that you ride him early and 4 Grateful Catapult so you can get 2 copies of him in hand easily for the break ride and persona blast. Juggernaut Maximum is what you want to search for during the break ride as he can hit 26k by himself. Since your opponent would not actually be a crossride, the chances of him being 10/11k only is high. As mentioned, most decks these days plays break-rides or cross-break-rides so they won't be 13k when they have 3 damage.

Now this is how I tend to play, since one way or another, this happen more frequently than I hoped but, it's a good way to pressure the opponent. Not sure why Brakki rarely comes out when I break ride.

1. Break ride with BED+Catapult (3 souls in total, as in G1, G2, G3)
2. Attack with Zachary boosted by Reckless (for 26k). At this point, I almost always hit and draw a card since they always bet on a trigger. (2 souls left)
3. Attack with Mason boosted by Reckless (for 26k). Opponent will either guard or risk taking it. If he takes it, I'd call out Juggernaut Maximum and attack for another 26k. (2 souls left)
4. Attack with Vanguard (for 27k) boosted by Garry Gannon. Persona Blast for 2 Juggernaut Maximum
5. Assuming no triggers, attack with both Juggernauts for 26k. (0 souls left)

One tip to take note of is that if you do have Reckless and Brakki on the side, on the first round of attacks, I recommend to soul blast to hit big but do not soul blast for Juggernauts to conserve soul, unless of course you have 4 souls already.

This attack formation usually cost my opponent 105k to 135k total shields. Of course the actual amount may be lesser if you break ride when your opponent is at 3 damage but at 5, that's the amount he needs in order to guard against everything.

Hope you enjoy this deck profile. I recommend trying out this deck. If you still don't like Grateful Catapult, I'd suggest using the same deck profile, and change Grateful for Dudley. I've tested out both types and it works much like a charm. Until next time!

It's been a while since my last post but it's finally time for the box opening of Daybreak Illusion, also known as Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou. First video with just me, and I think I made some lame remarks in there that I wish I can hide in a hole somewhere. Yeah, I'm not much of a camera person. Anyways, I introduced the video wrongly, only to realized it was wrong later at the end (I read it as Genei wo Tsukuru Taiyou, so sue me). Now enough of this embarrassing rant and on to the videos!! There's four parts so do enjoy! I'll be doing a deck profile for this series soon (how soon? Not so sure).