Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

Finally, a new Legion unit to play with for Dark Irregulars albeit...Bushiroad's decision to pack it in together as Gear Chronicle trial deck promo still eludes me. Still, I'm glad that Astaroth is now in my hands.

I still like Amon "Яeverse". He's a good card but Astaroth's abilities is multitudes of levels higher. Not only does he not require you to lock a unit, which lowers down the attack power of a column, slow set up that appears in most Dark Irregulars deck is not much of an issue now. It's actually ridiculously easier to get to 10 souls much to my surprise and you don't actually see much triggers in the soul either (when played correctly of course).

With Amon as his Legion mate, not only does it make Astaroth attack painful with that extra critical, it also makes it harder to guard with large powers. With just 10 souls and legioned, Astaroth can punch the daylights out of lots of other Vanguards with 31k unboosted. Of course your opponents will need to either throw down a 30k for 2 trigger pass or a null guard just not to get it through or risk eating at least two points of damage.

But, Astaroth is not a card for inexperienced players. I've seen lots of play style for this unit, but most of them focused too much on the Vanguard column. Not, that it's a bad thing to have but rearguards are a thing too. I've seen players that have 30 souls for Astaroth, and barely have any rearguards. Sure that extra 3 critical is nice but...it's useless if your opponent can just null guard the middle each turn. They even can finish you off before dropping that 4th null guard they hold in hand.

Now let's get on to the deck list instead of more rants shall we? I have 2 different types of deck build for Astaroth.

Consistency is key

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard)
• 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger)
• 3 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger)

• 4 x Demon World Marquis, Amon
• 4 x Amon's Leader, Astaroth

Amon and the yellow stars

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard)
• 4 x Blitzritter (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger)

• 4 x Demon World Marquis, Amon
• 4 x Amon's Leader, Astaroth

Yep, 2 builds. First build is more on consistency. The deck lists looks similar to my previous Amon build. For Amon, the base is there and simple. Not much to change aside from the triggers.

Now for my Consistency deck, I play a pretty standard trigger line up and the best starter out there. Previously, we needed more draw triggers to help fill up our hands but Astaroth hand size is pretty consistent in itself. My yellow stars deck is chock full of Critical triggers. If there's another set of crits, I'd play 16.

Grade one for both decks are similar aside for Doreen and little Amon. Little Amon is a consistent 9k booster so you can have him boost your 7k grade 1s and still hit 16k for a 10k guard. Doreen however, gains 3k from each soul charge and her skill is stackable. With Astaroth's and Amon's skill together, you can gain 12k worth of power by herself, which totals out to 18k with her base power. The choice of Bloody Calf and Devil Child depends on how you want to play it. Bloody Calf snipes away a G1 and you can still soul charge 3 with Astaroth without losing your own field. And since this deck doesn't require that much counterblasts, why not just use that free resource. Retire one and gain 3 souls and keep the field instead of doing a one for one exchange. Besides, 10 souls is more than enough to keep your opponent pressured throughout the game. Talking about pressure, if you prefer large middle columns, Devil Child would be a better choice for boosting as she's a 10k booster. Think about it, Legion+ 10 soul Amon+Devil Child. Total power is a magnificent 41k. More than enough to retire your opponent's hand if he have no null guard and you can still probably hit him even when he uses quintet wall.

Grade two is quite simple as well. Hell's draw for soul. Gwynn for retiring while keeping your field while you soul charge 3 with Astaroth. Difference between the two is a simple 12k attacker and a G2 Doreen. Ron Geenlin boosted by Amon is the most ideal setup as they hit for a consistent 21k. I mean, look at it this way. Middle for 41k, two sides for 21k. To guard everything, your opponent will definitely need 70k to guard. Do this constantly for each turn is pretty much tiring and depletes your opponent's hand and field quite quickly. Now if you prefer Izaya instead. Heck, you're in for a fun. Just by activating Amon's skill once, you soul charge 4 so a simple maths would be Izaya gains 12k, making him 21k with his base power. Now put a Doreen behind him. What do we get? An 18k Doreen boosting a 21k Izaya, 39k power on each sides? And because the Izaya variant plays 12 crits, it pressures your opponent even further if you drive checks 2 crits. Think about it, middle row crit, left and right crits. Your opponent may just flip the table when that happens.

I won't say much for Grade 3. Both decks uses the same units, Amon and Astaroth and I've pretty much mention their skills multiple times. As mentioned, Astaroth excels better when you have rearguards rather than a big hitter in the middle. While it may seem like a good idea to have 20 or 30 souls, you will run into an issue of decking out quickly. With 30 souls, you may only have less than 10 cards in the deck if you account for cards in damage zone, the Vanguard units, hand and drop zone. 20 in itself is risky and I find 10 is more or less the sweet spot between pressure and power.