I figured I’ll do something remotely related to Aqua Force.
You’re not going to want to read this, ever.
The Current State of Aqua Force
Aqua Force is sitting nice and stacked. I’ve said this lots of times in other places, but I figured I’d at least pour my thoughts on this blog.
Before G-BT09, I was already pretty satisfied with Aqua Force’s performance as a whole. Okay, I lied, it was mostly just Blue Wave and sometimes Ripple doing their things: but the fact they were relevant for a long time was a good sign of G-CB02’s support pushing things in the right direction. Hell, Aqua Force evolving their different builds into Commander Thavas-centric hybrids was the best thing that put a smile on my face. Chaos Breaker returned to the meta, with Chaos Universe leading the reigns. What did Aqua Force players do? Evolve.
Commander Thavas became the leading reigns for Aqua Force, turning their especially awful match-up (Locked front-rows) into something less of a disadvantage. Commander Thavas was pretty much the answer, especially when combined with all the double-attacking units Aqua Force has to offer. Magnum Assault, however, had to go leave builds because of Lock essentially turning it into a vanilla unit. However, he was replaced with just as strong of a unit:
Adelaide was a card that had a lot of controversy at the time of her initial reveal. Mostly that she had an extra cost, and that the double-attacking ability had an expiration date, versus Magnum Assault always functioning so long as it had a boosting unit behind it. Upon G-BT05 supporting Link Joker again, the whole thing surrounding Magnum Assault having a boosting unit at all became moot. Adelaide stepped into the limelight together with Commander Thavas to become the goddess of the new world. What especially made her powerful was that she became an 11000 attacker on her own, and then Commander Thavas adds another +5000, turning her into a 16000 attacker that could swing from the back-row.
The best thing about having this tool was: it wasn’t just limited to the Link Joker match-up. It could even be a closing move against other clans in the game and still be fairly solid. What especially solidifies this play is that checked Critical Triggers could easily be passed on to your chosen double attacking unit to make them a huge threat. Adelaide swinging for base 11000 without any Wave restriction (not to demean Foivos or anything).
Mind you, space was of no concern, at least not to me. I’ll make an example out of Blue Wave since they were the top dogs to take this strategy to heart:
4 Commander Thavas, 2 Lambros, 2 Tetra-Boil.
Boom. It was that easy. Tetra-Boil may be powerful, but it falls short against Link Joker. And to be totally fair, it fell short if it wasn’t performing any extra draws from Brutal Trooper. Lambros is another powerful Stride, but you only really needed one iteration of its abiity to force the opponent to their knees. Tetra-Boil coming down over Anger-Boil was essentially a miniature Lambros, if you played your cards right.
And the main deck was shifted around to support that G-Zone, which was kind of a thing of beauty. These were the enablers Blue Wave began featuring in their main decks:
Stacia was especially pretty damn good. Stacia sitting behind something was great value off of a Anger-Boil stride skill play: standing Stacia at power +3000, which allowed Stacia to attack for 12000 on its own. Stacia boosts Tidal Assault/Foivos/Adelaide (preferably attacking a front-row Grade 2 rear guard to squeeze either 10000 shield, or pop an intercept off the field), and then Tetra-Boil turned sideways, standing them both. Boom, it was that easy.
And furthermore, with all these enablers, there was hardly any worry for any attack thresholds. All you had to do was play the game, you’d eventually run into one of these cards and proceed to play your G-Zone normally. If you couldn’t find either of these, but had a copy of Petros on hand: you could easily stride into Commander Thavas, turn Petros into a Stacia with the ability to turn into a cantrip. Kind of a waste of an initial stride, but if it helps put you ahead: well, why not, right?
This skeleton pretty much turned out to be the staple skeleton for the longest time, and arguably still is for Blue Wave. Stacia’s still too good, Tidal Assault is still one of the best early game cards out there, and now the G-Zone is so full of Thavas that Adelaide becomes a staple. After that, your alternate Grade 1 was pretty much up in the air, and even the Grade 3’s were somewhat flexible. Some builds opted to run 7 Grade 3’s, using Erikk as the forerunner since Aqua Force didn’t offer much in the way of a good forerunner. Other players adopted a brand new tech: main decking 1 or 2 copies of Thavas while cutting into the amount of copies of Tetra-Drive. What this did was effectively reduce the chances of riding pretty badly, while giving you a stronger match-up against decks that don’t like their field being harassed. It even helped with bolstering Adelaide’s consistency by pretty much letting you ride into Thavas and use Adelaide on any stride. Usually, one would go into a copy of Anger-Boil to get the “Blue Wave” name for Foivos, if the hand were sorta clogged with them. Unlocking both powerful double-attackers while having a one-time “retire one of those three” effects was strong enough of a play that it warranted the inclusion of Thavas. Some actually took it a step further and included Melania as the alternative Grade 1 choice alongside Stacia, but it was mostly kept to Seagull (provides pushing power to your selected unit while going back to the hand for guarding/stride) or Penguin Soldier (cantrip draw power while being a warm body on the field for a solid 5000 boost).
The expansion of the G-Zone came and pretty much gave rise to running more copies of what you liked, alongside running tech copies of strides you’d originally never considered within the confines of the eight card G-Zone of old. Alongside the main decked Thavas, Aristotle was added to the G-Zone. It gave a solid initial stride sitting on Thavas, while also giving you the ability to take out two units off of the opposing field while playing the game. Extremely relevant as an initial stride, since you were still playing to your shenanigans while the retires were a solid bonus on top of your plays. The Blue Wave variant, and sometimes the Ripple variant, would otherwise remain perched in an alright spot. Not overtaking the meta, but still lasted as a very durable deck.
G-BT09 happened anyway, hahaha. I wasn’t hoping for too much, mostly because Aqua Force was sitting in a good position as it stood. I wasn’t happy with the handling of the support, but I will admit to one thing: it led to an incredibly fun deck in the pure Blue Wave deck. Mostly because Lucianos seemed pretty heavily designed towards letting Blue Wave pull off a 5+ attack Wailing Thavas turn.
Speaking of Wailing Thavas…
The man, the legend, the very face of Aqua Force today. Wailing Thavas destroys the world, and leaves nothing behind to chance. What’s even greater about Wailing Thavas is that he fits in every single Aqua Force deck, just like Commander Thavas did. What’s especially better is that it comes with amazing bonuses niche to each and every variant.
For Ripple, it provides a Stride that doesn’t require Tidal Assault, or is named Podromos, with a very relevant ability. Their early game, combined with Wailing Thavas’ field wipe and their late-game Legion capability, makes for a deadly combination altogether. Otherwise, if Tidal Assault or Stacia are existing on your field: you can go for Lambros just fine.
For Blue Wave, it’s another huge retire outlet for certain match-ups. In the ‘pure’ variant running Luccianos, Wailing Thavas can potentially retire a total of 5 cards: and get power +25000 for a whopping total of 51000. Provided, you have Stacia in the back, turn Lucciano sideways and stand it, then proceed to double swing with Foivos, then end on Lucciano. 5 rear guard attacks, boom headshot. Is this set-up recommended? Hahaha, no. It’s just what this can do. What’s more amazing is that Blue Wave has the choice between three amazing finish strides: Lambros, Tetra-Boil, and Wailing Thavas. Definitely one of the strongest decks to use this card, due to that kind of variety. It’s almost like running a blue Kagero, but with actual rear guard interactions!
Finally, there’s Maelstrom: probably one of the variants that loves Wailing Thavas the most. Why? Simple reason!
Combined with Despina, you get the entire Glory-Break Ride combo, this time with Triple Drive and the ability to wipe 3 rear guards off the board. Your opponent is rendered unable to guard using conventional means, which means they have to start tossing G-Guardians to stop this attack from landing. If you’re running 12 critical triggers, your opponent’s definitely gonna feel the pressure. Maelstrom is all about this style of finishing play, ever since the introduction of Despina in the first place: all while playing like a regular Aqua Force deck; strive to three or four attacks to destroy the world. I maintain the impression that the following enablers are still featured in Maelstrom:
Similar to Blue Wave running Foivos, Rascal Sweeper is a good enabler. While on a Thavas-named Stride: Sweeper can swap to Adelaide, and then Adelaide can swing twice. Maelstrom-Thavas can proceed to swing at their face. Or, hell, turn the other lane sideways and then swing with the Vanguard. Since that’s the 3rd attack of that turn, Marios will still trigger; and any checked critical triggers can be passed over to Adelaide.
Only issue may be that Commander Thavas doesn’t blend very well with Rascal’s column swap ability, but making the Adelaide a 16000 is still strong. And there’s still the ability to just stride into Disaster Maelstrom for the quick Grade 3 search unrestrained by any Wave count whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Blue Wave can continue running the same shell for all it cares, it’d still be solid enough.
Ripples have Stacia + Tidal Assault, and even have the option of teching Adelaide into their crew (which some have done post-G-BT05; not to say it’s a necessity).
Wailing Thavas becomes the face of Aqua Force from G-BT09 onwards, and will probably keep them on the face of the earth for the longest time. The field wipe alongside their other options is a great addition to their toolbox; while still playing to the variants’ different tactics. It may just be “RETIRE HARDER” for Thavas, but it’s still heavily appreciated. It gives Thavas’ stride skill way more reach, since they’ll be forced to retire one more unit on top of the original count they were retiring in the first place. Like I said, every Aqua Force variant heavily appreciates the addition of Wailing Thavas!
Their match-ups against Kagero/Gear Chronicle/Granblue are definitely ones that need to be considered, due to their abilities to hit things on your field during their own turn. I’ll cover such things tomorrow if there’s no Card of the Day tonight. If there is indeed a Card of the Day, I’ll cover it this weekend. I have work this week, so I can’t guarantee spending time to spam the keyboard and share my years of knowledge playing Aqua Force since day 1.
See you later.
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