Friday, May 09, 2014 byak
Welcome back everyone! Ready for more self-standing vanguards? In this article, we go over one of Aqua Force's flashiest bosses yet:
Blue Wave Dragon, Tetra-Drive Dragon!
Aqua Force have always had a reputation of using their rear-guards to create combos full of multiple small attacks to slowly but surely chip away at your opponent's damage. Aqua Force's newest wave of support aims to continue this trend, but at the same time, your vanguard also has the opportunity to hop in and add on to it!
Blue Wave Dragon, Tetra-drive Dragon's name actually accurately describes what it does: give your four drive checks with its self standing skill! It's a bit of a complex Limit Break though, so I'll take some time to explain it. Tetra-drive's Limit Break begins when it attacks and it's the second attack during that turn; no more, no less. After the attack, Tetra-drive applies a lingering sort of skill. If you manage to get to your fourth attack during this turn, after that attack, you can counterblast 2 and discard 2 to stand Tetra-drive for the fifth attack! Unfortunately, you can only get this on the fourth attack, so you can't use any other rear-guard attacks to trigger him again, but regardless, Tetra-drive turns are huge. Stand triggers basically guarantee you get the proper amount of attacks, but Aqua Force come with enough units to create that magic fourth attack anyway.
Tetra-drive is entirely combo based, and cannot function properly without the proper board setup. It's difficult to maintain in some situations, but it's usually worth the commitment, as it's easier to use than most other self-standing vanguards. The counterblast cost also gives you room to use it more than once per game, allowing you to finish up on the turn after if they manage to live the first time.
Tetra-drive gets even better when you combo it with Aqua Force's Break Ride:
Blue Flight Dragon, Trans-core Dragon. Upon release, Trans-core Dragon was actually extremely mediocre. All it did was force a discard when your vanguard attacked. If they didn't discard, they'd be unable to guard that attack, and your vanguard would gain an extra critical. They would almost always discard a card of low value and deal with the attack then, and while you ended up with a fair trade in card advantage, Trans-core didn't really put you ahead. It's a bit different with Tetra-drive, however. Considering you can transition from Trans-core to Tetra-drive and put a full combo on board, Trans-core can basically become the icing on the cake and turn your Break Ride turn into the final turn.
The beauty here is that Tetra-drive can activate Trans-core's skill twice per turn. This results in your opponent discarding two in order for them to retain their right to guard, which really adds up when you're getting three rear-guard attacks in and two very large vanguard swings. At the very least, they have to invest a single card on each rear-guard attack, and a minimum of three cards on each vanguard swing (discarding one and using a Sentinel each time). This is a nine card minimum, and if they don't have Sentinels, it forces out a lot more!
Tetra Storm Drive!
17 / 14 / 11 / 8
1
Bubble Edge Dracokid
1
Pyroxene Communications Sea Otter Soldier [Draw]
4
Battle Siren, Mallika [Draw]
1
Mothership Intelligence [Critical]
1
Battleship Intelligence [Critical]
1
Jet-ski Rider [Critical]
4
Supersonic Sailor [Critical]
4
Ice Floe Angel [Heal]
4
Emerald Shield, Paschal
4
Wheel Assault
4
Mercenary Brave Shooter
2
Light Signals Penguin Soldier
4
Tidal Assault
4
Titan of the Beam Rifle
3
Twin Strike Brave Shooter
4
Blue Flight Dragon, Trans-core Dragon
4
Blue Wave Dragon, Tetra-drive Dragon
For those familiar with Aqua Force beforehand, Booster Set 13 introduces a few new units that work a lot more effectively at reaching the magical fourth attack. The most important support unit by far in my opinion has to be Tidal Assault. The first time Tidal Assault attacks a vanguard in a turn, you can stand it after the battle, but it loses -5000 power for the rest of the turn. It's basically the same thing as
Water General of Wave-like Spirals, Benedict, except it's a grade 2. This is a huge difference, since being a grade 3 interfered with maxing out on your Break Rides and boss units, plus Benedict had a 10000 base, giving low incentive to actually play it.
Tidal Assault on the other hand fits in quite well with the rest of your support units. 9000 may not be able to hit any grade 3 on an attack, but it can still swing for 16000 on the first attack, then swing for a blank attack the second time. You may not deal damage the second time around, but it still fulfills the conditions for Tetra-drive Dragon.
Wheel Assault is another unit that helps reach your fourth attack, but in a fairly unique way. When Wheel Assault boosts a unit, after the battle, you can counterblast one to switch the boosted unit with any other Aqua Force rear-guard on the field. When I had first read this card a while back, I had for some reason interpreted it as only being able to switch a front row rear-guard with its back row booster, but I was completely wrong. Wheel Assault can basically swap the unit in front of it with basically anything else on your field. For example, if you boost Tidal Assault with Wheel Assault, after the battle you can exchange Tidal Assault with the front row unit in the other column. If that other unit can attack for 11000 or more, it can hit relevant units un-boosted while Tidal Assault now has an appropriate booster to make a second relevant attack. You can always call two attacker to the same column to switch their positions after one has battled as well. There's many different things you can do with this card, which will usually define the line between a new Aqua Force player and an experienced Aqua Force player.
The reason I'm using four copies of Titan of the Beam Rifle is because of the deck's excessive need for units that can make relevant attacks un-boosted. Titan of the Beam Rifle swings for 11000 whenever you have one of your grade 3's on the field, since they have Limit Break. However, 8000 power is fairly weak and it can focused out pretty easily. Riding Beam Rifle is also really bad as well, since they can capitalize on it and ramp up your damage pretty fast.
If you're looking for alternatives, I'd recommend trying out either
Tear Knight, Valeria or
Marine General of the Restless Tides, Algos. They don't swing for much by themselves, but if they get to use the fourth attack for themselves, they create advantage pressure. If Valeria hits, you can retire a unit for free, and if Algos hits, you can draw a card for free. They might not be the best units to use in the late game, but early game they can set you far ahead. If you can fill your two rear-guard columns and have a Tidal Assault, you can fulfill the conditions really early on, and if you end up riding Valeria or Algos, they'll be much harder to defend against. Again, it depends on how you value them and Beam Rifle. I personally like Beam Rifle more, but I know other players who like to use these guys.
Bubble Edge Dracokid is my starting vanguard of choice for the deck. I've never enjoyed a specific starting vanguard for Aqua Force, as they've all seemed to be mediocre to me. Bubble Edge isn't very special either, but at least it can be exchanged for a card, or even two. By sliding it into your soul, you give a rear-guard a special skill for the rest of the turn. If it attacks and its the fourth battle or more, you get to draw one when you declare the attack. You can reach the fourth attack with Tidal Assault pretty easily, but with two Tidal Assault, it's actually plausible to reach a fifth attack as well! If you can put two Tidal Assaults on the field, you can use Bubble Edge on one of them, then swing with everything else first. When your last Tidal Assault swings twice, you draw a card after each attack, netting you two cards from your starting vanguard! At the very least, if this doesn't occur, you can always just grab a card, or just use Bubble Edge as a booster.
Of course, if this doesn't suit your fancy, you can always default to
Officer Cadet, Erikk, the grade 3 searcher for Aqua Force. Erikk can come in handy as well, since you need to turbo to your Break Ride combo as fast as you can in order for your deck to do things.
Lastly, I want to go over my choice of triggers. Most players suit themselves to a stand heavy lineup in Aqua Force, since your rear-guards can shove out multiple attacks in a turn. However, I'd lean more towards critical triggers in this deck, as the deck can't actually function without them. The reason for this is because while your rear-guards are fairly important in this deck, your vanguard is still the most important column, as this is a self-standing vanguard deck. Without critical triggers, your vanguard loses all damage pressure. Why guard at four damage versus a Tetra-drive if you don't have critical triggers? Stand triggers don't create fear when combined with a huge vanguard, so I find them to be very counter-intuitive.
Everything else in the deck should be self-explanatory. Tetra-drive as a boss unit can carry a whole lot of damage if it can get its combos off, but it's fairly useless versus field control. Link Joker is an incredibly difficult match-up to play against. As long as they can lock out a front row unit, it's almost impossible to reach your fourth attack. Granted if they're only locking one unit, you can still go the distance by using both Wheel Assault and Tidal Assault in the same turn, but they're not going to stop after just one. Narukami is also a painful match-up, but as long as you can fill your field over and over again, it should be smooth sailing. The main deck to worry about is Link Joker, though.
That's all for now! Hopefully this article will have helped you with your new Aqua Force deck. It's not the best choice right now due to other metagame picks, but it's still a really fun deck to play, as the combos are very fulfilling. It won't be too long until we get more Aqua Force either, with the resurgence of Maelstrom! But for now, thanks for reading.
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