[ECG] Deck Check: Reverse Thunder Overbreak!

[ECG] Deck Check: Reverse Thunder Overbreak!

  Monday, March 10, 2014    byak

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While Eradicators had already started off fairly strong with the release of Booster Set 10, they were still subject to Bushiroad's attention, and were given their own powerful Reverse unit in Booster Set 12: Eradicator, Vowing Saber "Reverse"!

Let's rewind back to the Eradicator builds that were used in Booster Set 10. The deck revolved around using Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon as an early game terror, along with Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant as a dangerous finisher. The deck was already regarded by many as one of the best decks, and it remained that way for a few months.

One of the problems with Eradicators is that their Break Ride, Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon, really wasn't putting in as much work as the other Break Rides at the time. When you Break Ride over Vowing Sword Dragon, you get to retire a front row unit and give your vanguard +10000 power. While Vowing Sword Dragon did synergize slightly with Gauntlet Buster and Dragonic Descendant, he didn't really compare well to more powerful units such as Solitary Liberator, Gancelot or Dauntless Drive Dragon. In fact, most Eradicator players simply stuck to running a combination of their two bosses while leaving Vowing Sword Dragon to the side. This lead to Bushiroad stepping in and giving Eradicators a new way to play their deck.

Reverse Thunder Overbreak!
17 / 14 / 11 / 8

1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu
4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle [Critical]
4 Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux [Critical]
2 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle [Draw]
2 Eradicator, Dragon Mage [Draw]
4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo [Heal]

4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
4 Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki
4 Ceremonial Bonfire Eradicator, Castor
2 Rising Phoenix

4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou
3 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
2 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
2 Homing Eradicator, Rochishin

3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
3 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse"
2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant

Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse" is the first of many Cross Break Rides. As the name implies, it's a unit that is a Cross Ride of a Break Ride, which strongly promotes using the two units together in the same deck. Why use this Break Ride with something like Gauntlet Buster Dragon when you can use it with Vowing Saber Dragon and get a Cross Ride bonus? Well, of course, Vowing Saber has to match the power levels of other bosses to be worth using, and fortunately, it does a decent job of doing so.

Vowing Saber's Limit Break truly embraces the theme of field control. At the cost of locking two of your Eradicators, along with two counterblasts, you force your opponent to retire two units of their choice, and Vowing Saber gains +10000 power. The cool thing about its cost and skill is that you can easily lock out your vanguard booster without worries, seeing as Vowing Saber won't really need a boost with +10000 power anyway.

Bushiroad's intended combo for this card involves the turn where you Break Ride over Vowing Sword. Vowing Sword gives Vowing Saber +10000 and retires one unit. Then, you use Vowing Saber's Limit Break twice, locking out four units, counterblasting four, and retiring the rest of your opponent's field! Of course, you're not obligated to do this. Using Vowing Saber's skill over two turns is just as good, and it also creates more damage pressure because you're not locking out a whole column in the process. The only problem is your opponent can commit very invaluable units that they can retire when you use Vowing Saber, so you won't always get the value out of it.

We also continue to include Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant in this build because it's still too good to pass up. Vowing Saber fills Gauntlet Buster's role of putting in work for the early game, but unfortunately doesn't really create the same damage pressure that Gauntlet Buster does. However, it's still very easy to make Descendant relevant, which is why we include it. Additionally, if you're sitting on multiple Vowing Swords the whole game, riding into Descendant can be very powerful due to extra +10000 power.

One of the newer support units for this deck is Homing Eradicator, Rochishin. He may not seem like much with 8000 base power, but his skill can become terrifying when used in conjunction with Vowing Saber. Whenever your opponent's rear-guard is retired by a card effect and you have an Eradicator vanguard, Rochishin gains +5000 power during that turn. When used with Vowing Saber, he gains +10000 power, turning him into a strong column all by himself, which makes it sensible to lock the unit behind Rochishin. With two uses of Vowing Saber, he reaches 28000, which can be devastating if your opponent is high in damage, but you can't forget that you're shutting out a column. The problem is that outside of these turns, Rochishin is very useless. He can't make any good standard columns without his power, so it's important to hold him until you start retiring.

Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki functions similarly to Rochishin, but isn't useless outside of your retiring turns. Just like Rochishin, he gains power whenever a unit is retired by a card effect, except he only gains +3000 power instead of +5000. However, he has a 7000 base so he makes decent 16000 columns throughout the game. Plus, being a booster makes him less fragile of a card, and he can make your front row units hit for ridiculously high numbers.

These two cards are part of the reason why Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou is more important in this deck than ever. When Cho-Ou hits the field, you can slide an Eradicator into the soul to retire a front row unit. Cho-Ou is basically how you activate Shuki and Rochishin without investing counterblast. You have to invest card advantage, but it's still a one for one exchange that can make your columns strong for that turn. In addition to this, Cho-Ou can actually help out your Vowing Dragons a lot. Because he slides any Eradicator into the soul, you can slide Vowing Sword in while you have Vowing Saber as your vanguard. If you never got to ride Vowing Sword, don't worry, because now he's in your soul and providing Cross Ride defense. Keep this in mind!

Now, if you don't like Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu as your starter, there's another new option that you can try out! Eradicator, Blade Hang Dracokid was designed to directly support Vowing Saber, and it can be a really useful early game card if you use it right. When you retire a unit by your own card effect, you can slide Blade Hang Dracokid into your soul, and if you have a Vowing vanguard, you can give it +3000 and an extra critical during this turn. At its simplest, when you Break Ride over Vowing Sword, you can give your Vowing vanguard an additional critical for the turn. This is relevant because it's already at really high numbers, but on the other hand, it'll probably only soak up a Sentinel. You can still get it off using cards like Cho-Ou and such, but I still personally prefer Linchu for its synergies with Zuitan and its simple versatility. Honestly, you can go either way with it.

With all these factors out there, what build is truly better? Vowing or Gauntlet Buster? Personally, I still like to play Gauntlet Buster over Vowing. The criticals that come from Gauntlet Buster are really strong and it creates more damage pressure. Vowing Saber technically generates more advantage but doesn't apply the damage pressure as well. I still think both are tournament level decks, and in the end it's really up to you to decide which one you like more. You can even try a mix and play Vowing Saber, Gauntlet, and Descedent if you want. I could go on forever about the combinations of Eradicators, but that's it for this article. If you want more explanations of some of the older Eradicators, I recommend checking some of the other articles that we've done on the deck. As always, feel free to leave feedback below, and thanks for reading.