Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

Man, I've been neglecting this empty lot for a long time. 2 months to be exact! Well, it's my usual excuse though. Work and what nots (mumble mumble...)

Well, now it's time for another unexciting episode of my deck profile! The new Vanguard G-BT03 is out for the Japanese version of the game and I can finally update my Japanese Dark Irregulars deck! With the new support from the 3rd booster,  Dark Irregulars can no longer be called a "side clan". In fact, I believe the support is strong enough to make them Tier 1, probably till the next booster.

With the new support, the two issues with DI have been addressed - poor field presence and hand size. They now even have much better early, mid and late game pressure. Did I mention they now have lots of Bishies and Bishoujos?

Sadly, with all the support, Dark Irregulars are still not recommended for new players. They need to know how to control their soul charging, when to use it or stop or ended up decking out very quickly. In the right hand, it's a very devastating but to a novice or those who don't have proper understanding of how Dark Irregulars works, it'll come back and bite you in the back.

I'm pretty sure everyone is now tired of all the yapping. Now let's take a look at the upgraded version of my Psychic deck list!

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Devil in Shadow (Starting VG)
• 4 x Hysteric Shirley (Draw trigger)
• 4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Critical Triggers (Your choice)
• 4 x Heal Triggers (Your choice)
  

Grade 1: 15 units

• 2 x Dimension Creeper
• 3 x Doreen the Thruster
• 3 x Alluring Succubus
• 3 x Pure Love Succubus
• 4 x Flag Breaker (Unflipper null guards)
  

Grade 2: 11 units

• 4 x Psychic of Dust, Izaya
• 4 x Squall Maker Vampir
• 3 x Flying Librarian
  

Grade 3: 7 units

• 4 x Scharlachrot Vampir
• 3 x Psychic of Storm, Rigil
  

 Grade 4 (G-Units): 4 units

• 4 x Storm of Love, Kisskill Lila 
• 4 x One Who is Abhorrent, Gilles de Rais

Tried, tested and worked against lots of meta clans. I made Diablo screamed in rage!

My glorious Grade 0s. I play Devil in Shadow, a Grade 3 searcher. I was thinking of using Werbat Ordonnanz but as I look through my deck again while building it, I've decided against it as I only play 7 Grade 3s. This is better to be safe than sorry later on as I rather not get grade stuck and losing hand due to G-Assist. Hysteric Shirley and Dark Knight are staples in a DI deck. Mainly because they allows us to fill up the soul. I was thinking of playing Monochrome of Nightmareland for its unflipping and draw mechanics. But thinking back, it's a better option on a full Psychic-Legion deck.

I'm playing slightly more units for my Grade 1. The cards allows me to control my soul so that I can soul charge only when needed. This way, I wouldn't charge too much. Dimension Creeper is actually enough at 2. Since you'll be soul charging quite a bit, one is bound to land in the soul anyways. Doreen is your larger than life booster. I was debating on using Doreen or Lunatic Masquerade for a slightly more consistent boosts, but during turns that I can soul charge big for the finish, she is ultimately the better option. Alluring Succubus is a good card as well. It's an on call soul charge one. Again, this is good for soul control. You can however look at Killing Dollmaster, but the only thing that made me not use it is that I lose field presence, losing a booster for my rearguards. Pure Love Succubus is your standard +2 grades during stride and Flag Breaker is your unflipper nulls, as this deck can be a bit costly on counterblasts at times (while at times, not at all).

There's not much options for Grade 2. Izaya is must as I played Rigil. Squall Maker Vampir is a welcomed addition to the team. He feeds the soul AND gains power. He's like Psycho Grave, but better since he soul charges for 2. I was jumping for joy when I saw Flying Librarian. Best card for DI ever. She soul charges and nets you hand size as well as an unflipper. Being an 8k unit is not much of an issue due to her plusses.

The key Grade 3 you want to ride is Scharlachrot Vampir. His stride on ability is too good not to use. Look at it this way, you get souls and can retire a rearguard. This itself is nothing to sneeze at. Rigil is your secondary ride. He's a legion but he's pretty strong in this deck. His secondary ability of letting him persona soul blast and soul charging back 5 cards is ridiculous when you have 3 Doreens in the field. That's a huge 21k booster. If you have Izaya in the rearguard as well, you have a 24k attacker before triggers. Rigil's abitlity to CB2 to and retire 3 units when you have 15 souls is pretty devastating to your opponent.

For my Stride units, I forgo the Fighters Collection cards. One is exclusively for Amon while the other is a poorly made watered down Doreen that should not have existed. Instead, I opt for Kisskill and Gilles. Kisskill strides extremely well with Scharlachrot. Scharlachrot already allow soul charging and retiring. Now add that to Kisskill's on hit effect, that allows her to soul charge 2 and draw 1, is a huge pressure and plus that it makes Kirin looks like a baby. Gilles is your "Final Turn" stride. He's basically a powered up version of Glory Maelstrom. Even his condition is easy to fulfill mid to late game.

That's all I have for today. I'll be doing a deck profile for Neo Nectar in the next few days!

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.

Phew, it has been a while since I last did a deck profile and now, I am back with more! This time around, it's another Dark Irregulars deck and no, it's not Amon related or Master of Fifth Element either. Say hello to my new favourite card in Dark Irregulars, Echo of Nemesis! This card is a huge monster. He not only hits hard with large numbers but he also troll hard. If you have checked out the wikia page for him, you'll see why. His ability to gain 10k worth of power when attacking as well as not letting your opponent to guard with his/her pesky quintet wall or perfect guards makes him scary. His ability definitely makes Glory Maelstrom jealous since it's easy to achieve and is actually free.

But first, I have made a video of the deck profile. Yes, this is my very first deck profile in recording (be nice to me). Enjoy!


Grade 0: 17 cards
1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard)
4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger)
4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical Trigger)
2 x Blitzritter (Critical Trigger)
3 x Hysteric Shirley (Draw Trigger)
3 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw Trigger)

Grade 1: 14 cards
4 x March Rabbit of Nightmareland (Perfect Guard)
4 x Poet of Darkness, Amo
3 x Alluring Succubus
3 x Devil Child

Grade 2: 11 cards
3 x Amon's Follower, Psycho Glaive
3 x Decadent Succubus
1 x Flirtatious Succubus
4 x Fatigue Succubus

Grade 3: 8 cards
4 x King of Masks, Dantarian
4 x Echo of Nemesis

Special mentions
Greedy Hands (G0) - If you prefer getting that soul quick, he's your best option
Dimension Creeper (G1) - Use Greedy Hands to soul in this guy. After which, soul blast again for more souls!
Doreen the Thruster (G1) - Dimension Creeper and Echo of Nemesis can make her be a good 18k booster
Yellow Bolt (G1) - Again, if you prefer getting to 10 souls really quick
Emblem Master (G2) - You will have plenty of counterblast to use and his ability easily threaten the opponent to guard. They will always try not to let you get 10 souls.
Gwynn the Ripper (G2) - Again, with so many counterblasts not used, you can always choose to snipe away those irritating boosters or interceptors.

I hope you enjoy and give the deck a try. Echo of Nemesis is really one strong deck that can also counter lock decks since he attack power is a constant 21k.

The dark Marquis have have revived himself to be more powerful at the cost of having a bad choice for his latest image change that made him look more of a dried tree/decomposing cockroach(?). But don't let that old twig fool you, his limit break is indeed powerful that butting heads with him unprepared may cost you that win.

So what makes Amon Reverse powerful? Well, technically, nothing much. His limit break ability is somewhat a carbon copy of the original Amon, with just that extra critical in the midst. This actually makes Amon a big hitter along with that huge pressure on the centre line. Sadly, the draw back like most Dark Irregulars deck have is its overall slow setup. But if a player is skilled enough to actually set up his field, he'll be pretty much at a point of advantage.

There are a few variations of Amon Reverse decks that I'll be putting in but most of the cards will remain the same with slight changes

Staple Amon Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard) 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger) 3 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger) Grade 1: 15 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal 3 x Poet of Darkness Amon 4 x Amon's Follower, Phu Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula (perfect guard) Grade 2: 11 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Ron Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Psycho Glaive 3 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw Grade 3: 7 units 3 x Demon World Marquis, Amon 4 x Demon Marquis, Amon "Яeverse"

Power Amon Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard) 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger) 3 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger) Grade 1: 14 units 3 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal 3 x Poet of Darkness Amon 4 x Amon's Follower, Phu Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula (perfect guard) Grade 2: 11 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Ron Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Psycho Glaive 3 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw Grade 3: 7 units 4 x King of Masks, Dantarian 4 x Demon Marquis, Amon "Яeverse"

Burst Amon Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard) 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger) 3 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger) Grade 1: 15 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal 3 x Bloody Calf 4 x Amon's Follower, Phu Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula (perfect guard) Grade 2: 11 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Ron Geenlin 3 x Gwynn the Ripper 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw Grade 3: 7 units 3 x Demon World Marquis, Amon/King of Masks, Dantarian 4 x Demon Marquis, Amon "Яeverse"

Here's a quick description for the three decks:
Staple Amon: I call this "Staple" as almost ALL Amon decks that I've come across plays this very same build, although mine have its trigger tweaked a little by reducing the crits and increasing the draws.
Power Amon: This decks simply replaces the normal G3 Amons for the Break Ride option. The deck will still work although some units that requires an Amon vanguard will fail for a short time which is pretty much negligible actually.
Burst Amon: One of my favourite build. As Amon decks tend not to use counterblasts at all, which I find a waste of good resources. Bloody Calf and Gwynn are good tech cards to screw up your opponent's field. This deck requires some skill to play but it's overall effects are devastating.

Three different builds. I just give them simple deck names just because I'm lazy. All three decks uses the same Starter and Triggers. They all play 5 Draws, 7 Criticals and 4 Heals along with Devil in Shadow as your staple G3 searcher. I find the new starter, "Amon's Follower, Fate Collector" is not that great of a starter as it simply let you draw a card and I rather increase my chances of not getting grade stuck in addition to using Devil in Shadow to filter out my G3s.

For the Grade 1s, the Staple and Power decks have the same line up. Hell's Deal soul charges two cards. Geenlin is your generic 10k attacker. Poet Amon is your 9k booster and Vlad is the perfect guard. These units are stays much the same in most Amon decks. For the Burst build, Bloody calf is your go to gal to retire your opponent's boosters and make them rage. Some decks may play Dimension Creeper, so you may want to give it a double take.

Like the Grade 1, both Staple and Power builds have the same line up. Ron Geenlin is that 12k attacker, with Hell's Draw your soul charger. Psycho Glaive is my personal favourite as it both gains power and adds one to the soul. For the Burst build, Glaive was replaced with Gwynn to stomp out your opponent's G2 and below.

My Grade 3s varies on all 3 decks. While the Staple decks usually goes with both Amon types, the Power type replaces the original Amon for the break ride option. This pretty much screams "perfect guard all my attacks or lose!". The Burst build however is more flexible. While Amon Reverse remains at 4, the other options of using Dantarian or normal Amon depends on the player. Both works but it up to the player's level of comfort on which unit to use.

One of the underused clans in my area - Dark Irregulars. This clan is pretty strong, hitting big numbers easily and forcing the opponent to either not guard to take a damage or forcing them to drop multiple cards from hand just so they won't lose. But despite being so strong, it is very underplayed and underestimated. The number of Dark Irregulars players that I know of in my area are so little, that I can use one hand to count them all. Sadly, this is because most players prefer the poster clans of Vanguard; Royal Paladin, Gold Paladin, Shadow Paladin, Kagero and Narukami since these are slightly more easier to play with. Another reason would be that most players simply don't understand its mechanics and can't stand it slow field setup.

After play testing with this deck and winning lots of matches with it, I'm proud to introduce a slightly different Dark Irregulars deck that many players will say this - 'You're building your deck wrong!' I will just reply with 'Who cares? It works for me.' And most of these players plays mostly meta clans so they have no right judge. Now on to the deck profile

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard)
• 4 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger)
• 2 x Mad Hatter of Nightmareland (Draw trigger)
• 4 x Blitzritter (Critical trigger)
• 3 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger)
• 3 x Cheshire Cat of Nightmareland (Heal trigger)