I’ll be honest, this is the day I was most tempted to start a blog again.
The man, the legend, the myth: Thavas is here to destroy the world.
I don’t actually know what happened on this weekly bites, because I was absent for the actual stream. Instead of covering that stuff and spending the next few hours driving myself insane: I’ll just write about the revealed cards for the stream. k? k. You had no other options anyway.
This thing is kinda nuts-o. The one thing balancing it is the fact that it’s a Stand Trigger, and Aqua Force has long since cast them off a long time ago. However, it’s a pretty tempting stand trigger, I gotta say. It acts like a draw trigger that also happens to double as a stand trigger, which in laymen’s terms means that it’s a cantrip while pinging the Wave Count up. It behaves like two triggers, and it’s all for having the “Thavas” name on your VC. What’s borderline insane about this is how that condition– “…if you have a Vanguard with “Thavas” in its card name…”– is one of the most laughable things in the game. You’re telling me, if I were running Maelstrom or -insert literally any Aqua Force Grade 3 as a boss- in the game, all I gotta do is stride into Commander Thavas? And for added insult to the injury, use Commander Thavas’ ability to give it +5000 more power, alongside the ability to attack from the back-row. Like, it’s a stand trigger and all… but bruh. That’s kinda brutal value, if you think about it. Not like the card’s a problem, but it’s definitely a fine addition to every Aqua Force deck (or at least the ones that still feel like they need a stand trigger in this day and age). Definitely isn’t a bad addition to the Thavas main deck either.
I’ll be honest, I expected the worst from Aqua Force’s version of this cycle. But Cretas is simply… perfect, I guess one could say. If there’s one upsetting thing, it’s that it’s not a unit that has an effect on the VC besides the searching effect (which is pretty damn strong, considering that’s the only way Aqua Force is capable of searching for something off the top of the deck. It makes for a fine back-up to Thavas.
…and might be a secret tech to my Maelstrom deck. I’m not quite sure yet.
On the use of being in a Thavas deck: it pretty much does a lot of things. Searches for most of Thavas’ friends, while also being a perfect rear guard for Thavas. Thavas swings third, this unit stands again and is the guaranteed fourth attack. It also gets +2000 power, but who cares about that unless you’re running some secret tech 8000 vanilla. Or pumped it with a Gull Soldier. That’s kinda relevant too, since the Gull has the Wave keyword too. Hmm.
If there’s one issue I foresee with this Wave deck, it’s that almost bloody everything uses a soul blast. To become pretend Gold Paladin? Soul Blast. To power things up? Soul Blast. Jeebus. There’s a bit too many soul blast costs involved in a pure Wave deck. Even the dolphin up there uses a Soul Blast too. It makes riding and using this guy’s ability something resembling a death sentence.
And then there’s the legend himself. Wailing Thavas is just legitimately perfect. It gives you a great reward so long as you hit at least Wave 3: which is knocking two rear guards off the field and getting the big bonus of power +10000 and the ability to prevent Perfect Guards from coming onto you. I feel as though Blue Wave may or may not have a problem with using this, at least not without Tidal Assault or Stacia (no way in hell can you use Foivos while this guy is on the VC). But otherwise, every Aqua Force deck gets to appreciate this on some level, Ripples included.
But you know what really appreciates this? Maelstrom.
The more apt use of Despina is now here: Wailing Thavas. When Wailing Thavas attacks at 41000, now 45000 (lol) when boosted by Despina, your opponent cannot stop the attack with any kind of guard besides Guardians appearing from other zones that aren’t the hand. Meanwhile, on top of the total restriction on guarding at all: the opponent also loses 3 (or 4) rear guards in the process. It’s almost like a Phantom Blaster “Diablo” for Aqua Force, just lacking the extra critical bonus. Which won’t matter since Maelstrom is, and always will be, a 12 critical deck. Better hope you rip that crit somewhere in those three drive checks!
But seriously, Maelstrom gets the biggest benefit off of this unit, and has definitely reignited my excitement in the Maelstrom style again. Meanwhile, Maelstrom is still expecting another Stride in this set, so Maelstrom’s about to be lit as fuck by the end of this spoiler season.
Hear ye, hear ye; Maelstrom might finally just git gud. And then Aqua Force’ll vanish from the meta again by the next set, probably. It’s their pattern, hahaha.
That concludes this week’s article. I’m pretty goddamn hype for G-BT09 thanks to these cards.
See you.
The Return of the Revival of the Remix of... 