[JCG] Blue Storm Industry Dragon, Maelstrom "Reverse"!

[JCG] Blue Storm Industry Dragon, Maelstrom "Reverse"!

  Tuesday, December 31, 2013    byak

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Now this is something that I can say most of us weren't expecting until we saw the preview for the most recent episode of Vanguard. Despite it being delivered in one of the most random ways ever, Bushiroad created Blue Storm Industry Dragon, Maelstrom "Reverse", a reverse unit of one of the more popular Aqua Force boss units. Let's take a look at it, shall we?

Maelstrom "Reverse" resembles its original form, Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom, quite a bit. The original Maelstrom gained a very powerful on-hit ability as its Limit Break, as long as it was the fourth attack. Maelstrom "Reverse" takes this idea but throws away the downside of relying on hitting your opponent. When Maelstrom "Reverse" attacks and it's the fourth or more attack this turn, you can pay the cost of one counterblast and resting then locking another Aqua Force to give it +5000 power and an extra critical. Seems cool enough, right?

It also comes with a backup if it doesn't get to hit the opponent. If you use this ability and the attack does not hit, you get to choose and retire any of your opponent's rear-guards, then you draw a card. This was what the original Maelstrom did if it hit, and now with Maelstrom "Reverse", you don't have to worry about it hitting. It's a win-win situation!

Let's go over fulfilling all of Maelstrom "Reverse"s costs and skill efficiently. The first and most important factor is making it the fourth attack. Aqua Force are known for easily breaking the three attack standard that most decks carry, but what's the best way to do it in this deck?

The first card that came to mind for me was Storm Rider, Diamantes. All of Aqua Force's Storm Riders come with abilities that let them swap with the units behind them when they attack a vanguard for more attack potential. Diamantes in particular comes with 9000 power, but gains +2000 when attacking, which is important. Diamantes is the strongest Storm Rider and can hit the most when un-boosted. Storm Rider, Basil comes in second, but he's only really effective vs 10000 power grade 3's when you enter the late game, which aren't very prominent. Though on the other hand, Basil boosts your early game by being a grade 2, so it has some merit.

The only problem that Diamantes comes with is that he's a grade 3, and this cuts into the standard model of four boss units and four Break Rides. Is there another grade 3 that is so important that we need to include, though? Aqua Force's Break Ride, Blue Flight Dragon, Trans-core Dragon only really synergizes with Blue Wave Dragon, Tetra Drive Dragon, so it's not the best to include here. Maelstrom's original form works well in the sense that it does the same thing as Maelstrom "Reverse" but only slightly weaker, but it also contributes to making Maelstrom "Reverse" a 13000 base, making it an alright choice. None of the other Aqua Force are necessarily good enough to match with Maelstrom "Reverse", but we'll keep the original Maelstrom in mind.

Another problem that comes with Diamantes are the unfortunate situations where you have to ride it. It has a very ugly 9000 base that your opponent will capitalize on like there's no tomorrow, plus it gains no skills as a vanguard. It is still very valuable for creating a fourth attack, however. So in the end, I'd probably use something like this for my grade 3 line-up:

4 Blue Storm Industry Dragon, Maelstrom "Reverse"
3 Storm Rider Diamantes
2 Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom

I'd also follow a 17/13/11/9 ratio for this deck due to the grade 3's. This line-up makes it so that ~66% of the time you're riding a grade 3 that isn't Diamantes. Diamantes is really important, but not at a high number like four. You can realistically only use one per turn anyway, and it's hard to get rid of since it hides out in the back row, so you only need one at a time. I personally believe this is a solid way to start off with the deck.

There are other more recent cards that also let you reach the fourth attack fairly easily. Tidal Assault and Wheel Assault were introduced in Booster Set 13 and really helped push the new Aqua Force support that was released at that time. Tidal Assault mimics the old Water General of Wave-like Spirals, Benedict that used to see play, but tackles Benedict's biggest flaw: it was a grade 3.

Both of these units gained an ability as a rear-guard when they attack the vanguard. After the battle, you can stand them, but they lose 5000 power during that turn, plus you can't use the skill again for the rest of the turn. Benedict did a decent job when going up against 10000 vanguard decks due to its 10000 base power, but now it has lost its effectiveness and is only good for making an extra empty attack. Tidal Assault carries on Benedict's role but doesn't eat into your grade 3 slots, which is very important. Though the key thing to keep in mind when using these units is that you have to jump through tons of hoops to make both of their attacks effective. If you have an average 7000 booster behind Tidal Assault, you get two attacks of either 16000 and 4000, or 9000 and 11000. The first is the best route when they're sitting on a grade 3 since the first attack will force out the most shield, but the second route is very deadly in the early game, because they're likely to be sitting on a 9000 grade 2 for a turn. If you get Tidal Assault out at this moment, he can rack up early damage fairly easily, so it's definitely something to keep in mind. Additionally, putting trigger effects on Tidal Assault before it attacks can be very beneficial and can make both of its attacks count at any point of the game.

Wheel Assault on the other hand resembles the Storm Riders, but functions completely differently. When it boosts an Aqua Force, after the battle you can counterblast 1 to switch the positions of two Aqua Force in a column. This is cool because it can efficiently make your more powerful attackers become Storm Riders. The simplest example is having a column of two Maelstrom. You can attack with the first Maelstrom for 11000, then boost with Wheel Assault in another column. After that battle, you can use Wheel Assault to switch the positions of the Maelstroms to get another 11000 un-boosted attack. The only problem with Wheel Assault in this deck is that to be effective, it can't be sitting behind your vanguard. Maelstrom "Reverse" and Maelstrom want to attack last, so using Wheel Assault to create another attack when boosting your vanguard will usually be pointless, because then you lose the value from having multiple attacks. This leaves Wheel Assault to only be useful in one spot on the board: the back row of the column that doesn't have two strong attackers in it. In this deck, Wheel Assault appears to be a bit tricky to use and also eats up your counterblasts which is something Maelstrom "Reverse" needs, so I'm still unsure of how good it is in the deck. Still, it's a 7000 grade 1, so it doesn't hurt to include it.

These in my opinion are the best units to enable Maelstrom "Reverse"s fourth attack condition. There are a lot of other units that do this, but these come with enough consistency to be useful outside of enabling Maelstrom. Obviously you'll need to pack a lot of power attackers in the deck, seeing as units like Diamantes and Wheel Assault rely on you making a lot of un-boosted attacks. Not only do you have Twin Strike Brave Shooter and Mercenary Brave Shooter, but it appears that in the latest episode, Maelstrom apparently gained its own power attackers. So now like most decks, you can pack 12000 and 10000 attackers that don't rely on the conditions that the Brave Shooters come with, which is very useful. This also lets you set aside weaker power attackers like Titan of the Beam Rifle that come with weaker 8000 bases.

The next thing to look at is the cost to use Maelstrom "Reverse"s Limit Break. You have to counterblast 1, which is easy enough, but you also have to rest AND Lock an Aqua Force unit. What this means is that you can't just Lock away a unit that attacked or boosted this turn, which can lead to some complications. At the very least, you can lock away your vanguard booster, since Maelstrom "Reverse" already hits for 16000-18000 unboosted. You can also take a normal column and not boost with it, leaving a grade 1 behind a rear-guard that you can lock away if you want to focus more power on Maelstrom "Reverse". There are, however, plays that you can make to keep yourself from doing this. Simply enough, having two Wheel Assaults in your front row can increase your damage output by a lot. Attack with one of your Wheel Assaults twice, then attack with the other Wheel Assault, but don't attack with it after it stands. It has 4000 power, so instead of attacking for no reason you can just attack with Maelstrom "Reverse", locking away the second Wheel Assault to make Maelstrom "Reverse" break 21000 on its attack. The only problem with this is that it's a bit reckless. If your opponent knows what they're doing, they can shut you down by dedicating their next attacks on both of your Wheel Assaults, leaving you with nothing if they do it right. It's up to you to determine if you want to hold a Wheel Assault or commit more of them to the board, but proper judgment can put you ahead in the end.

Finally, let's go over match-ups. As with most Reverse decks, you have a poor time fighting against Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon. You're locking a unit each time you Limit Break, so Chaos Breaker can take advantage of it and get rid of whatever you locked. Aqua Force are also generally weak to Link Joker to begin with, because they only need one Lock to keep you from your fourth attack, making your Maelstrom "Reverse" a sitting duck. This also applies slightly to some retire heavy decks. Kagero and Narukami especially can wipe your board of any enablers in an instant, so you have to play very conservatively against them. If you can always hold an enabler in your hand you should be fine unless they get rid of everything you have and you can't even form a basic field. The deck also has a hard time vs Cross Ride units, because they turn Diamantes columns into empty attacks and Wheel Assault only hits for 16000 at the most. This just forces you to commit early and beat them up to the point where they're already in a bad spot once they get their 13000 defense.

Needless to say, Aqua Force have a hard time doing well in this metagame. But in the end, they can be very fun to use and if you play your hands right they can work very well. I haven't done any testing with this new unit yet, but if I were to play the deck this is what my list would be like:

"Reverse" Justice!
17 / 13 / 11 / 9

1 Officer Cadet, Erikk
4 Supersonic Sailor [Critical]
2 Mothership Intelligence [Critical]
1 Battleship Intelligence [Critcal]
1 Jet-ski Rider [Critical]
4 Battle Siren, Marika [Draw]
4 Ice Floe Angel [Heal]

4 Emerald Shield, Paschal
3 Mercenary Brave Shooter
2 Wheel Assault
2 Reliable Strategic Commander
2 Light Signals Penguin Soldier

4 Tidal Assault
4 Blue Storm Water General, Gregorious (9000+3000 power attacker)
3 Twin Strike Brave Shooter

4 Blue Storm Industry Dragon, Maelstrom "Reverse"
3 Storm Rider Diamantes
2 Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom

Still a very rough list, but I'll be trying it soon and figuring out what's good and what's bad. Reliable Strategic Commander is cool because you're not waiting on a Break Ride unit in this deck. If you're on either Maelstrom, you can use Commander to turn on your Limit Break for the turn and gain a lot of advantage from it.

An important thing to note from the latest episode is that large amount of Blue Storm units used by reverse Leon. This leads us to believe that Booster Set 15 is going to establish Blue Storm as an archetype, and thus are going to be receiving a lot of unique support. They're already confirmed for getting a new Sentinel, another 9000 grade 2, and a new set of triggers. This would also mean that Hermes and Gregorious are power attackers for Blue Storm, which would also make sense. This opens up a lot of potential for Aqua Force as a deck, and I'll definitely return to this deck once new support is leaked.

But for now, feel free to test this list and make your own changes, since this list is very theory based and not supported by testing. I think Maelstrom "Reverse" has the potential to be very powerful, as it fits in a decent deck already and is basically set to get even more support, which I'm looking forward to. Feel free to discuss the card in the comments section below, and as always, thanks for reading.