[Weekly Bites] The One Where Ross Reveals His Laurel D

Nothin’ personnel, kiddo.

 

Hello and welcome back to another week of cards being thrown all over the place! Alongside a neat bonus if you just so happen to be a player of the Japanese format. What’s this bonus? A brand new campaign called the “Stand and Draw” campaign, where you get to pull foil versions of select Stand/Draw Triggers. Let’s take a look at our winning selections!

 

Granblue:
Nightshot of Sorrow, Nightflare
Mick the Ghostie and Family

Bermuda Triangle
Heartful Ale, Fundy
Jump to the Water Surface, Amelie

Aqua Force:
Battle Siren, Mallika
Dolphin Soldier of Leaping Windy Seas

Megacolony:
Ingot Chafer
Earth Dreamer

Great Nature:
Castanet Donkey
Watering Elephant

Neo Nectar:
Lotus Musketeer, Liana
Maiden of Daybreak

Royal Paladin:
Margal
Sarugal

Oracle Think Tank:
Battle Sister, Tiramisu
Handbell Purification Maiden, Ouka

Angel Feather:
Fever Therapy Nurse
Surgery Angel

Shadow Paladin:
Howl Owl
Mage of the Rogue Eye, Arsur

Gold Paladin:
Falcon Knight of the Azure
Player of the Holy Pipe, Gerrie

Genesis:
Regalia of Foredoom, Lot Angel
Goddess of Sound Sleep, Tahro

Kagero:
Gatling Claw Dragon
Inspire Yell Dragon

Nubatama:
Stealth Fiend, Warashibehime
Stealth Dragon, Onibidoushi

Tachikaze:
Cannon Fire Dragon, Sledge Ankylo
Coelamagnum

Murakumo:
Stealth Fiend, Rokuro Lady
Stealth Dragon, Hidden Scroll

Narukami:
Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle
Dragon Dancer, Vianne

Nova Grappler:
Beast Deity, Van Paurus
Energy Girl

Dimension Police:
Dimensional Robo, Daicrane
Operator Girl, Rinka

Link Joker:
Beloved Child of Superstring Theory
Shockwave Star-vader, Dysprosium

Spike Brothers:
Cheer Girl, Pauline
Devil Watch

Dark Irregulars:
Hysteric Shirley
Monochrome of Nightmareland

Pale Moon
Rainbow Magician
Prankster Girl of Mirrorland

Gear Chronicle
Luckypot Dracokid
Steam Battler, Ur-Watar

I almost wish wordpress actually let me use a spoiler function just to shrink that entire list. Seriously, look at that list.

Anyhow, this is pretty much the same as the foil Heal and the foil Critical campaigns. If you’re Japanese, you’re a lucky bastard who should send me those Malikas and Dolphin Soldiers. I refuse to accept no as an answer!

 

Now to move on to the cards revealed:

A Great Nature Promo:

 

[AUTO](RC):Success 20000 (When your rear-guard’s [Power] becomes 20000 or greater, this unit becomes successful until end of turn)
[AUTO](RC):[Soul Blast (1)] When this unit becomes successful, you may pay the cost. If you do, increase this unit’s [Power] by this unit’s [Power] until end of turn. At the end of that turn, retire this unit.

Tapering Beaver

Generally, I like to think that the only thing you should do to proc this card is just force its power to go high enough to become successful on its own. Going up to the 20000 threshold would just double it to 40000 anyway. My thoughts on how this can happen? Sage Bigbelly. An initial stride, a G-Guardian, and Sage Bigbelly altogether is a total of power +12000, which would put this guy to a total of 17000. If you strode over neo new Bigbelly, it’s already a total of 21000. Pay the soul blast cost, get a 42000 rear guard, potentially with the additional red text ability. With Crayon Tiger fielded, this can be a 46000 swing on its second attack.

Although, my question now becomes: why are you running this card at all?

It’s in a very bad spot by virtue of its grade; and the base power being awful makes it a pretty horrendous ride for the early game. You can’t even call it without calling a booster if you wanted to go early aggro. Why would you run this at all?

I like how Great Nature is good enough that I can make that entire situation on the spot to make the card look good for a moment. It’s almost telltale on how good Great Nature as a whole is.

 

[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 2:[Put this unit into your soul] At the beginning of your attack step, you may pay the cost. If you do, Counter Charge (1).
Burst-[ACT](Soul):[Put this unit into your drop zone] If your vanguard’s [Power] is 10000 or greater, choose one of your vanguard with burst ability, and until end of turn, it get [Power]+4000. If your vanguard’s [Power] is 35000 or greater, choose one of your vanguard and until end of turn, it get [Power]+4000.

Enigman Blanc

In the context of a Burst Deck, X-lead makes this pretty cool. If only because you can rest this unit and then activate its ability to push it into the soul for a counter charge, that way you feel less bad about what happened.

In the context of an Enigman deck, however… this unit is pretty strong. I’d definitely ignore the first ability, but the second ability is what makes it shine. Enigman Cloud is still a very real card, and can potentially make or break this unit. Similar to how placing an Enigman Sunset in your soul is a very value move off of Enigman Cloud, this unit does almost the same thing for you.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this card. Now that there are actual Burst Strides to work with, I’m kinda alright with the card? I feel like it’ll be totally useless if it’s on RC though, since you might not want to take that hardcore -1.

Next.

 

Burst-[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2:At the beginning of your attack step, if this unit’s [Power] is 15000 or greater, Soul Charge (1), and then, if this unit’s [Power] is 20000 or greater, until end of turn, all of your front row unit’s with “Enigman” in it’s card name gets [Power]+4000.
[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)] When this unit’s attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your rear-guards with “Enigman” in its card name, increase that unit’s [Power] by this unit’s [Power] until end of turn.

Enigman Gigastorm

This legitimately disappoints me. I guess Bushiroad wasn’t very willing to move past the Enigman Storm + Tornado combo, because this thing kinda sucks out loud.

I’m mostly disappointed in how this unit isn’t a Stride Bearer for Enigman. And barely does anything worth a hoot. I mean, maybe the GenBreak2 isn’t such a bad thing, but the disappointment is really killing me here, guys. I don’t even give a damn about the on-hit ability! It’s not even real advantage to the deck!

Oh well. Guess we’re playing the Storm-Tornado combo if we really wanna just be Ultraman.

 

Burst-[AUTO] Generation Break 2:When this unit is placed on (RC), if your vanguard’s [Power] is 15000 or greater, until end of turn, this unit gets [Power]+4000. If your vanguard’s [Power] is 30000 or greater, choose one of your vanguard, and until end of turn, it gets “[AUTO](VC):[Choose one of your rear-guards with burst ability, and put it into your soul] When your opponent’s unit is put on (GC), you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent chooses one of his or her grade 3 or less guardians, and retires it.”.

Enigman Helm

This thing is so delicious when you put it next to Rinka. You get a way less sacky form of guardian destruction (still a smidge sacky with having to check a Grade 3 to put a stop to a Sentinel), while also genuinely looking like a finishing attack. Requiring a full-on Burst deck isn’t totally a problem for Grandgallop, but Enigman is definitely not sitting on enough Burst units that matter. In fact, their good cards have nothing to do with the keyword at all; which is kind of a shame. Whether or not this changes over time is up in the air; but right now? Helm is the best thing a Burst deck could ever have asked for.

 

Burst-[ACT](VC):[Choose four of your rear-guards, and [Rest] them] If this unit’s [Power] is 20000 or greater, until end of turn, this unit gets “[AUTO](VC)[1/Turn]:When this unit’s attack hits a vanguard, [Stand] this unit.” and then, if this unit’s [Power] is 25000 or greater, this unit gets “[AUTO](VC)[1/Turn]:At the end of the battle that this unit attacked, if the attack did not hit, choose up to four of your rear-guards, and [Stand] them.”.

Great Galactic Governor, Commander Laurel D

Commander Laurel returns, this time as a Stride. And apparently, he hasn’t done much lifting since his base power is still 4000! Upon striding this, the total power output is an outstanding 15000. Wow that’s kind of a bummer. You need another 10000 (i.e., three instances of +4000) to get to the full power of this unit, which is kind of a pain for Enigman. You’ll need 15000 total if you want to be able to activate Enigman Helm’s full ability, so that’s even more painful to the Enigman deck. If you want to use Operator Girl, Rinka’s full ability, you’ll need to ascend further and get a total of +20000 (i.e., 5 instances of +4000).

Yeah, uh. I don’t think Enigman is gonna be doing that cool stuff anytime soon outside of using Blanc a lot. At most, I can feasibly see them getting through both of Laurel’s thresholds, and maybe Enigman Helm’s thresholds. Any further is gonna be a lot of cards and a rather ridiculous amount of effort.

Then we look at Grandgallop, who can feasibly do this. Particularly, Bravest Rush. Bravest Rush, for Counter Blast 1, gives you +8000; which already puts you miles above the required amount of times you’d need to pump Laurel D. Burst comes with plenty of tools for doing it, and I’m going to outright ignore Grandberet in that one. Especially so with Grandgallop, you’ve got options in Grandrifter. Good stuff all around, really.

I otherwise don’t think Laurel D is completely worth it, and isn’t really worth the effort if you wanted to force it as a first stride. At least, I sure don’t think so.

There’s one more card revealed, and I was waiting on this one particularly:

 

[Stride]
[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Choose a face-down G Unit with “Metalborg” in its card name, and turn it face up] If the number of your heart cards are two, this unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn, if you don’t, if you have a heart card with “Metalborg” in its card name, search your deck for up to one card that can Legion with your heart card, Legion them, shuffle your deck, and draw a card.

Hyper Metalborg, Bolt Tiga

I’m not completely sure if performing Legion involves putting cards back into your deck; but the fact that this thing sets up your Legion immediately is something definitely worth the G-Zone space. It even pays you back for striding, and you still maintain the Grade 4 unit on the VC. We’ve never had a card effect like this one, but it’s something creative alright. Metalborgs are simple, they like to destroy the world using their Legion when it comes time to win the game; which this sets up for you. Gives you an alternative to using Heavy Duke for a CB2/1-Draw anyway.

I don’t think this card is very good, per se, but it’s something alright.

Definitely something.

Bee tee dubs, the card image is tiny because it comes from a CM trailer. That is all.

That’s it for this week, see you guys later.