Monthly Bushiroad Issue 5, Part 1 - Revenge of the Revengers!

Monthly Bushiroad Issue 5, Part 1 - Revenge of the Revengers!

  Tuesday, January 07, 2014    byak

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The latest issue of Monthly Bushiroad was leaked this morning, spoiling cards that supported Shadow Paladin, Pale Moon, Megacolony, and Aqua Force. Ren's newest ace unit was revealed, along with a few new key cards for just about any Shadow Paladin deck! Want to know what they do? Continue reading to find out!.

Shadow Paladin bosses have a history of being able to carry damage by themselves, starting with Phantom Blaster Dragon from Booster Set 4. At the hefty cost of two counterblasts and the retiring of three Shadow Paladin rear-guards, Phantom Blaster Dragon would gain +10000 power and an extra critical for the turn. It was seemingly scary, especially for the time, but the skill did not cause as much as an impact as some might have thought it would. The critical was powerful, but a single Sentinel would mean everything invested was then wasted. Two counterblasts and three rear-guards was a very high cost for such a payoff that was easy to stop. Still, Shadow Paladins were a strong deck because of the card advantage their rear-guards could generate, and these kept them in the metagame.

Fast forward to Booster Set 5, Bushiroad decided to turn things up a notch and give Phantom Blaster Dragon a Cross Ride: Phantom Blaster Overlord. Phantom Blaster Overlord's skill costed an even heavier three counterblasts, but only required the discard of another copy of itself to activate its skill, which once again gave it +10000 and a critical. Despite giving it the Cross Ride defense it had been hoping for and reducing the cost, the extra power still did not equate to the new cost. Clearly Bushiroad was not going in the right direction.

It took a while, but Shadow Paladins were eventually reworked when they got their own Trial Deck and support in Booster Set 12, which properly established the Revenger archetype. The Revengers were lead by Revenger, Raging Form Dragon and backed by Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom. Raging Form Dragon carried damage in a different method. Instead of giving it an extra critical, if it attacked, it could retire three Revengers and Superior Ride another copy of itself from your hand. The new Raging Form Dragon also gained an extra +10000 power and had the ability to attack again. This translated the extra damage from a single attack to a second attack completely. It was powerful, but it was arguably balanced for what it did. Not eating up counterblasts was also a plus, allowing your other rear-guards to generate advantage. Shadow Paladin were finally in a very powerful position, doing very well in many tournaments following the release of Booster Set 12.

But that didn't stop Bushiroad, did it? Meet Shadow Paladin's newest and scariest boss unit yet: Revenger, Dragruler Phantom! Dragruler Phantom is a Cross Ride of Mordred Phantom, so it gives you more of a reason to run the two together. His Limit Break is what really makes him shine however. The cost requires you to counterblast 1 and retire 2 Revengers. Dragruler Phantom gains +10000 power during the turn, and if your opponent has four or less damage, you get to inflict 1 damage to them.

This is something we've never seen before. I've personally always imagined a card like this existing, and I'm very intrigued that Bushiroad is finally creating such a card. This gives your Revenger deck far more control over your opponent's damage, which opens up a lot of strategies. For starters, this skill can be used multiple times per turn, and it has a very cheap counterblast cost of 1. Theoretically, a game plan can be to keep your opponent at three damage (which shuts them off from their Limit Breaks and Break Rides and such) and then you can catch them in a poor position, knock them up to five damage with Dragruler Phantom and push for game. Keeping them at three damage also lets you control their rear-guards much more easily, plus it reduces the power output from their vanguard, since they don't get to use their Limit Breaks.

The only question at this point is: how do we fuel Dragruler's cost of retiring two units? You need to specifically retire Revengers, so you can't use older Shadow Paladin units such as Skull Witch Nemain, so what options do you have? You already have Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter and Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu, but are those really enough, and can you afford all of the counterblasts? Revengers need a new way of generating card advantage in a manner that doesn't limit you by your damage.

Enter Crisis Revenger, Mana. Mana is a grade 2 with a lackluster 8000 power, but when she enters the field, you get to call any grade 1 Revenger from your deck to the circle behind her for no cost. Of course, to balance things out the unit returns to the deck at the end of the turn, but Mana is the unit that Dragruler needed. Mana essentially counts as two units for Dragruler's cost, seeing as it gives you a free grade 1 for the turn. You can expand this by using the aforementioned Dark Bond Trumpeter to grab something like Frontline Revenger, Claudus that can transition into a Blaster Dark Revenger, so in the end you keep something from using Mana.

Unfortunately, there's not much else you can grab with Mana if you're looking for card advantage. Nothing you can grab will put you over the weak 15000 column you create, so what else can Mana be used for? Thankfully enough, Revengers also got another useful grade 1: Brunt Revenger, Shadow Lancer.

When Shadow Lancer hits the field, you can discard a grade 3 Shadow Paladin to add Mordred Phantom to your hand. This card heavily mimics the second skill of Blaster Javelin, except it comes with an extra 1000 power and the card you can search from it is actually useful. Shadow Lancer essentially guarantees that you're riding Mordred Phantom if you open with a grade 3. Being able to be pulled out by Mana helps to, increasing its consistency. Being able to ride Mordred Phantom first is also very useful because of its Break Ride ability, and because Dragruler is its Cross Ride, giving you the extra defense.

An important thing to note is that Mana and Shadow Lancer interact well with all Shadow Paladins. While Mana can only grab Revengers with her skill, you only need a Shadow Paladin vanguard in order to use her. Shadow Lancer only needs a Shadow Paladin vanguard as well, so you can use the two as an engine in any Shadow Paladin deck that utilizes Mordred Phantom as its Break Ride. You can also mix in Dark Bond Trumpeter if you're depending on another boss that heavily relies on retiring your own units.

Revengers also gained Eloquent Revenger, Guron, a 4000+6000 power soulblast booster for any Phantom unit. It's compatible with primarily Phantom Blaster Dragon, Phantom Blaster Overlord, Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom, and Revenger, Dragruler Phantom. In addition to this, you can be funny and use it with Phantom Black, Phantom Bringer Demon, or Dudley Phantom. I personally don't think the card is very consistent, but if you prefer it then be my guest.

While this last card wasn't included in Bushiroad Monthly, it's still a new Shadow Paladin card that was the card of the day today. Black Wing Sword Breaker is essentially a copy of Listener of Truth, Dindrain. When Sword Breaker is called from the deck, you can soulblast 1 to draw a card. Simple enough, and it works very well with Mordred Phantom. It also works with Darkness Maiden, Macha, though it creates a fairly weak column. I think the card works fairly well with Mordred Phantom and you could potentially include one copy of it in any deck that uses it. It's a cute card, and it brought no harm with its creation.

That's it for all of the new Shadow Paladin support, for now. They're still very likely to get new cards, but only time will tell what those are. Right now, however, Dragruler already appears to be a very powerful card (Dragruler... Dragon Rulers... Coincidence?) and Mana easily fuels it to the point where it's a potent threat. You don't have to change much to the core Revenger build either. You're simply swapping out your Raging Forms and including copies of Mana and Shadow Lancer. Though this might change when we see new Revengers, but right now it's easy to build a deck for Dragruler.

Stay tuned for the next part of our coverage on Monthly Bushiroad, where we go over the other established deck: Silver Thorns!