[JCG] Set Check: Blazing Perdition! (part 2)

[JCG] Set Check: Blazing Perdition! (part 2)

  Thursday, August 07, 2014    byak

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Booster Set 17 was just way too huge and significant for us to jam everything into one article! Read on for the rest of the big contenders in the set!

In our last article, we managed to go over the three big clans that got support in Blazing Perdition: Gold Paladin, Kagero, and Link Joker. The other clans that gained support are Royal Paladin, Granblue, Tachikaze, Narukami, and Aqua Force. None of these clans gained as much as the first three, but the individual cards that they got make up for it in viability.

The first clan on our agenda for today is Narukami. Brawlers rushed into competitive play with a boatload of support, having just about as many cards as the new Royal Paladin archetype, Seekers. Many regarded the deck as one with a large amount of options, but the primary flaw was clear: their bosses lacked power.

The Brawlers Bust Back into Action!

Brawlers' flagship grade 3 is none other than Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Dragon, who has the ability to attack your opponent's whole front row, similarly to Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion, but with only the cost of two counterblasts. Since it's basically impractical to guard the attacks on their rear-guards, your opponent will rarely every save them, turning this skill into a +2 in card advantage almost all of the time. There are also many units in the Brawlers' arsenal that would jump up in power when you get rid of your opponent's rear-guards, like Military Brawler, Lisei, Tonfa Wielding Brawler, Aak, and Knuckle Dragon's mate, Brawler, Big Bang Slash Dragon. This basically generated the idea of using your vanguard to control the board by itself, thus making your rear-guards reach extremely high numbers.

Unfortunately, as most of us have observed, Brawlers have flopped hard in the Japanese metagame. Big Bang Knuckle Dragon isn't even the vanguard of choice for Brawlers, since they have a bunch of other grade 3's that do the same thing but with more cost efficiency. Even then those cards still fail to impress, resulting in Bushiroad's Brawler project to fail, at least for the time being.

Bushiroad decided to reboot Brawlers with a small package of cards that grant them a lot of power, with their first step being to create a better boss unit for the deck. Meet Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster, Knuckle Dragon's Cross Ride who will take field control to the next level! To activate his Legion skill, you need to either add a copy of himself or a copy of Knuckle Dragon to your soul and counterblast one. If you do, Knuckle Buster gains +5000 power and the ability to attack four units as once. That's double the card advantage that you can gain from Knuckle Dragon, given that you're attacking rear-guards. Even if you attack three rear-guards with Knuckle Buster, it's well worth its moderately cheap cost, plus if you use the original Knuckle Dragon for the cost, you'll achieve Cross Ride defense without riding twice.

It's pretty much a given that you're not always going to see another grade 3 every game, or at least more than one, but resolving this skill at least once is huge and can slingshot you ahead in the game. Being able to pseudo board wipe with this card while making your columns reach even higher numbers is very significant, as it demands high value of guarding late in the game and forces heavy commitment from your opponent's hand. This card is quite easily a great addition to the Brawler arsenal.

Knuckle Buster's mate isn't something to ignore either. Brawler, Big Bang Slash Buster operates almost exactly like his former self, Big Bang Slash Dragon, except he's also an 11000 power attacker when you have either Knuckle Dragon or Knuckle Buster as your vanguard. This means you can play up to eight units that gain +3000 power whenever your vanguard lands a hit. In the case of Knuckle Dragon, they'll both gain +9000 power while with Knuckle Buster, they'll both gain +12000 power! This takes a lot of pressure off of creating your own columns, seeing as both of the Slash Dragons can launch fearsome attacks all by themselves.

Unfortunately, Knuckle Buster and Slash Buster are the only Brawler units of significance in this set (though there is quite a significant Eradicator in this set!), but it's not like they needed much else anyways. Again, the main flaw with Brawlers were their poor bosses. Knuckle Buster is probably the strongest boss they've gotten yet, and with him they might start making a dent in the metagame!

Blue Storm Changes the Tides of Battle with Legion!

Next up is Aqua Force, who have been stuck in the Break Ride era with their latest support coming from Booster Set 15 and Fighter's Collection 2014. Their latest package of support established the Blue Storm archetype, bringing the old Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom back into the spotlight with support that revolves around him, along with a Reverse Cross Ride, Blue Storm Karma Dragon, Maelstrom "Reverse". The deck fell short due to a poor match-up versus Link Joker and didn't really take that many tournaments. Even with a new Break Ride suited to work with the Maelstroms, Blue Storm Marine General, Demetrius, they were already deemed obsolete by Legion.

Aqua Force have probably been the signature combo deck ever since their first wave of support all the way back in Booster Set 8. Their strategies revolved around creating multiple small attacks with their rear-guards, and then finishing it all off with a huge attack from their vanguard. Their weaknesses obviously came from their field being constantly dismantled by the always prominent control decks of vanguard, which is why they needed an over the top combination of grade 3's like Blue Wave Dragon, Tetra-drive Dragon and Blue Flight Dragon, Trans-core Dragon to give themselves a fighting chance.

Bushiroad's attempt at modernizing the deck for the Legion era is... not that convincing, at first look anyway. Tetra-drive Dragon has joined up with the rest of Blue Storm in the form of Blue Storm Wave Dragon, Tetra-burst Dragon. Unlike his previous form, Tetra-burst doesn't stand himself on the fourth attack anymore. Instead, if Tetra-burst is in Legion and makes the fourth attack, you can counterblast for +5000 power and an extra critical. It's not the most expensive critical in the game (I'm looking at you, Egbert), but it's a surprisingly bland skill in general, at least for Aqua Force. It's a very good skill to have access to in the early game, but whether it's worth building around is a question that's still on the table.

It's clear that this card doesn't come with the same pressure of his former self, or either of the Maelstroms, but a strength that Tetrra-burst has is useful early on. At the beginning of the game, damage counts and hand sizes are way too low to require a player to guard Tetra-burst's attacks. Of course this also means that the new dragon falls off in the late game, where natural criticals lose effectiveness, so there needs to be an alternative to switch to as the game progresses.

If Limit Break bosses still aren't your thing, Blue Storm Marine General, Zaharias might be the ideal alternate boss for you. He doesn't carry criticals like Tetra-burst, but if you manage to drive check another copy of himself, or his mate, Blue Storm Marine General Ianis, you can counterblast one to stand two of your rear-guards and give them +5000 power for the rest of the turn. It synergizes with Tetra-burst's attack pattern, since the stand skill is most effective after everything else has attacked. However, there is a lot of variance involved. In one game you might see this skill activate two or three times, and in another game you might not see this skill go off at all.

Despite variance always existing in Vanguard, it's definitely rewarding to be able to use this card's skill, especially in the late game. Ideally you want to run through Tetra-burst for the first half of the game, and when your opponent is at a high damage count, you want to transition to Zaharias and fill your deck with as many copies of himself and his mate as you can, in order to maximize the probability of getting his skill off. Once your opponent reaches four or five damage, each individual attack becomes more and more relevant, as cards need to be invested for almost all of them. Being able to create two more strong attacks has the potential to seal the game.

Aqua Force's two new Legion bosses might not be the most attractive cards to use, but one of their big selling points are the mates that come with them! Tetra-burst's mate, Blue Storm Marine General, Starless is something that Aqua Force players have wanted for the longest time. Starless works similarly to the old Storm Rider, Basil, who was an 8000+2000 power grade 2 who could switch positions with the unit behind himself after his attack to initiate another one, as long as Basil initiated the first attack. Starless does the same thing, but requires you to be in Legion in order to use his own skill. As a trade-off, his base power is 9000 and he gains +3000 power on attack, resulting in a 12000 power un-boosted attack.

This makes Starless leagues better than Basil, since Basil would basically be attacking for 10000 almost all of the time due to the fact that he needs to switch places with a standing unit behind him. He also had to be attacking a vanguard to achieve his skill, and with almost every vanguard sporting an 11000 power base, he would almost never be guaranteed a relevant attack. Starless on the other hand attacks for 12000, hitting all 11000 bases, so not only you would be able to launch four or more attacks, you would also be able to make the first attack a valid one. The only downside to Starless is that you can only use it with your Legion bosses, leaving Blue Storm and Tetra-drive decks out dry, but this card is still a huge boost to Aqua Force Legion.

Fortunately, Zaharias' mate can find its place in a lot more Aqua Force builds. Blue Storm Marine General, Ianis comes with a pressure skill that's enabled if he launches the third or higher attack in a turn, allowing you to draw a card if he lands a hit on the vanguard. Previously, Marine General of the Restless Tides, Algos was the only unit that would act like this, but he'd only be usable on the fourth attack or higher. Obviously Ianis becomes a lot more effective here because as long as you have a relatively full field he can be live. His pressure can't be applied with your grade 2 ride since his skill can only be used as a rear-guard, but at the very least, he creates pressure without requiring combo, which is something that Aqua Force never really utilized before.

Obviously Zaharias works the best in the stand trigger variants of Aqua Force, meaning the Maelstrom variant or with Zaharias. He's very strong with Zaharias as well, since you can create a Starless + power attacker column with Ianis in the other column with a 7000 booster. If you attack with Starless and the power attacker first (in this case, Blue Storm Marine General, Gregorious), Ianis can apply his pressure before you swing with your vanguard. This comes in handy because if you manage to use Zaharias' skill, you can stand Ianis and either his booster or Gregorious to recreate pressure and gain a lot of damage potential. This isn't going to be the reality all of the time, but it's good to know that Ianis has a lot of applications at different stages at the game.

Other than these two Legion combinations, Blue Storm also received their own Perfect Guard to replace their old Quintet Wall, and they also got Blue Storm Soldier, Tempest Boarder. Tempest Boarder supports the Legion variant by acting as a counterblast-less Wheel Assault as long as your vanguard is in Legion, giving you another easy and cheap route to reach four attacks for Tetra-burst. Blue Storm Cadet, Anosu acts as a new starter for the Legion build. It can send itself to the soul at the cost of a counterblast, and if your vanguard attacks on the fourth or higher attack, you can draw one and retire an opponent's rear-guard, giving you a reasonable amount of value for utilizing your combo.

Even with all of this, can the Legion build still stand up to the classic Aqua Force builds? Normally it would seem so, but another new Blue Storm unit would suggest that Maelstrom and Tetra-drive still have some fighting spirit in them. I'd elaborate more, but that's for another article!

The Granblue Pirates Rise Again!

While we're down in the ocean, we might as well take a moment to look over the new Granblue cards as well! While I wasn't exactly vocal with the idea, I had always believed that Granblue was actually one of the strongest decks during the reign of Chaos Breaker Dragon and Nouvelle Vague. They certainly failed to pick up as much attention, but the deck had one of the cleanest grade 1 line-ups ever, along with one of the strongest Break Rides in the game: Lord of the Seven Seas, Nightmist.

Granblue dominated the early game by having access to easy draw power thanks to cards such as Dancing Cutlass and Rough Seas Banshee, as well as consistent columns from Samurai Spirit and the two Deadly units. Its late game was just as powerful thanks to Nightmist's ability to create something out of nothing, and Nightmist became even more powerful when you performed a double Break Ride with Deadly Swordmaster, usually ending the game based on the situation.

Granblue also had almost no poor matchups, especially since the most popular decks were field control decks. While it wasn't as effective versus other styles of decks, it still had the ability to ride on Nightmist to victory no matter what the situation, making it a consistently good deck throughout the second half of the Break Ride era.

Unfortunately, dreams came to an end as Legion turned the game on its head and gave all forms of decks good early games, as well as gave them stronger boards to build. As a result, Granblue sank back down to the bottom of the sea, waiting to be reborn by the coming of their Legion.

Oddly enough, their own Legion came by pretty quickly as it was used in the anime. Young Pirate Noble, Pinot Noir was shown to be the primary Legion of choice for the deck, and in an early game deck like Granblue, it definitely has the potential to shine. When you Legion with Pinot Noir's mate, Pirate Belle, Pinot Blanc, you can send the top three cards of your deck to the drop zone to call any unit from your drop zone.

It's not the flashiest skill, and it resembles the primary one-for-one Legions that most decks have picked up, but the fact that it's a Legion in Granblue makes this cards potential shine unimaginably. Bringing up units like Dancing Cutlass and Sea Strolling Banshee make this card produce more value than advertised as well, causing the card to fit in with the rest of the deck nicely. Granblue, as most of you know, spends their time filling their drop zone with cards from their deck in a random fashion. While it is beneficial to do this because of all of the cards you want in your drop zone, it causes your trigger count to suffer casualties. Thanks to Pinot Noir, you can stock up your drop zone while keeping your triggers in the deck at the same time.

You also benefit greatly from riding multiple Pinot Noirs to get their Legion skills off, since you want to keep stocking your deck with triggers and building up a soul. It doesn't create burst like Nightmist does, but it turns Granblue into a full value deck, where your bosses begin to create card advantage instead of damage, allowing you to survive heavier decks.

Pinot Noir's mate, Pinot Blanc is also a huge bonus to Granblue, for various reasons. If you manage to Legion while Pinot Noir is in your drop zone, you can counterblast one to bring up Pinot Blanc from your drop zone without any additional costs. This is a huge step forward from traditional Granblue units like Captain Nightmist and Samurai Spirit, who had to trade off with other units on your field to come back, making it a one for one. It also technically makes Pinot Noir a two for one instead of a one for one, and it also lets you make a fairly easy column on the spot while conserving guard in your hand.

Pinot Blanc is also a relief for Granblue players because of the deck's long lasting problem of having a very weak grade 2 line-up. The only useful grade 2 that Bushiroad gave the deck in Booster Set 12 was Dragon Corrode, Corrupt Dragon, and that wasn't even anything too special since his power boost fell off after the turn he was called out. Players were forced to use cards like Commodore Blueblood and Captain Nightmist, and this factor was what set Granblue so far behind other decks. Fortunately, thanks to Pinot Blanc and the next Legion's mate, this is no longer the case.

Granblue's second Legion, Witch Doctor of the Sea, Negrobolt, promotes a different strategy to Pinot Blanc, where you aim to sit on one Legion and play the rest of the game with a re-usable skill. When Negrobolt attacks while in Legion, you can counterblast one to trade a Granblue on your field with one in your drop zone. The applications that this card bring can vary, but the biggest advantage to using it is that it can make your field even more consistent. If you're force to set up a <16000 column it can easily be fixed, or you can also turn a fresh Pinot Blanc into a useful booster.

The card is also very good with creating additional attacks thanks to Corrupt Dragon, and can also create card advantage by bringing up Sea Strolling Banshee. The applications of this card are quite vast, and having a counterblast cost in Granblue gives players high hopes, as the deck was never too counterblast heavy to begin with.

Negrobolt's mate, Dragon Undead, Ghoul Dragon, finishes off Granblue's hopefully durable grade 2 lineup for Legion. It's also generically useful, since it just needs to come back from the drop zone for its skill to come into play, similarly to Corrupt Dragon. During the turn you manage to revive it, Ghoul Dragon gains a free on-hit ability that retires an opponent's rear-guard when it lands a hit on the vanguard.

It's nothing too special, but it's another usable grade 2 that Granblue can add to their arsenal. It's the most useful when used with its Legion, Negrobolt, since you make your first attack an un-boosted attack and replace the rested unit with Ghoul Dragon after to make another boosted attack, thus applying pressure. It's also pretty legit to use with Nightmist because of the power boost that he gains for the turn, making him a quirky card that can fit in with all Granblue builds.

Last but not least, Granblue also received a new starter to compliment their new set of Legions. Fledgling Pirate, Pinot Gris can send himself into the soul whenever you Legion to call any unit from your drop zone, which is fairly simple, but highly effective. Most of the time you're going to turn him into a Sea Strolling Banshee while bringing up another Sea Strolling Banshee with Pinot Noir to accelerate your card advantage on your first Legion, but being able to call anything makes him highly flexible. Your grade 2 Dragons are always decent targets, and if you need soul for whatever reason, you can bring up a Rough Seas Banshee. The possibilities with Pinot Gris, and the rest of Granblue, are endless.

Granblue also managed to pick up another utility stand trigger, Performing Zombie, who, on call, can choose one card among the top ten cards of your deck and send it to the drop zone, allowing you to set up your drop zone precisely while creating more fodder for Samurai Spirit. The clan also received their own Quintet Wall, Reef Banshee, which would appear to be a godsend for some due to the synergy with building up your drop zone and having low counterblast costs throughout the course of the game. While Granblue don't return with the same playstyle they used to have with Nightmist, they're definitely suited up to be a contender due to all of the card advantage they can build up over the course of the game, making them a scary matchup for some.

The Ancient Dragons Charge Back into Battle!

Tachikaze was an odd clan to support in such a new set for the Legion era, but I guess I can't really argue with them because of how unique and oddly powerful Tachikaze have been through the seasons. Tachikaze's theme has always been about using your rear-guards as fodder for your vanguards to reach insanely high levels of power, and the factor that has constantly been setting them back is their steep costs. They might be able to tribute off a handful of units, but their pressure can easily be mitigated by a Perfect Guard. However, this time around, with a new set of Legions and a rise in popularity of Quintet Walls, Tachikaze might be able to finally stomp through the competition!

Their primary Legion of the set is Ancient Dragon, Tyrannoquake. When Tyrannoquake attacks, you can retire any one of your rear-guards to give him a small +5000 power boost for the battle, which may not seem like much, but it allows his Legion skill to kick in. In addition to the first power boost, if you retire another copy of Tyrannoquake or its mate, Ancient Dragon, Tyrannobite, your vanguard Tyrannoquake gains +5000 and an extra critical for the rest of the turn, making the payoff to appear more apparent.

Ideally you want both of Tyrannoquake's skills to work together, meaning you retire another copy of himself or Tyrannobite for a grand total of +10000 power and an extra critical. Additionally, you can use units like Ancient Dragon, Gattlingaro and Ancient Dragon, Dinocrowd to retire units for themselves, creating larger rear-guard columns while still attempting to put that extra critical on your Tyrannoquake. Being able to see these criticals earlier is a huge boost to Tachikaze, since it's a lot easier for those criticals to land near the beginning of the game.

However, to correctly assess Tyrannoquake, it's necessary to take a look at his mate, Tyrannobite. Tyrannobite is actually a huge bonus to any Ancient Dragon deck, since he's not restricted to Legion. Whenever Tyrannobite is sent to the drop zone, you can counterblast one to call him back to the field. The obvious factor is to use him with Tyrannoquake instead of another copy of Tyrannoquake. As a result, Tyrannoquake's skill translates to counterblast one for +10000 power and a critical, plus your Tyrannoquake is now standing again if it attacked before. It's a cute engine to work around with since it's hardly costly at all, and Tyrannoquake's extremely difficult to consistently block against.

What makes Tyrannobite even stronger is that he doesn't necessarily have to be retired by a card effect for his skill to kick in. Tyrannobite, like his predecessor Ancient Dragon, Iguanagorg, has the ability to come back when sent to the drop zone by battle, making him almost un-killable as an attacker, granted you have the counterblast to spend. This makes the constant stream of criticals coming from Tyrannoquake that much harder to deal with since getting rid of the one Tyrannobite is extremely hard to pull off. It's safe to say that Bushiroad has successfully given Tachikaze a route to high damage while not being excessively taxing on your own resources.

The second Legion that Tachikaze picked up is far different than most of the other Tachikaze bosses. Ancient Dragon, Magma Armor doesn't feed off of other Tachikaze to soar to extreme levels, but rather assist them in sticking to the field when they end up getting chomped up as fodder for other units. During your battle phase, when your rear-guard is sent from the field to the drop zone, you can counterblast one and soul blast one to call that unit back to the field. My experience with this card is having the initial thoughts of it being good, but not realizing why. The practicality of Magma Armor comes from bringing back units that normally wouldn't come back and giving them another attack. This seems odd, because odds are you're already running four copies of Tyrannobite and probably a few copies of Iguanagorg, so where does the potential lie?

The key to understanding Magma Armor's power is to consider the rear-guards that retire other rear-guards. You can basically create a finite attacking loop with units such as Gattlingaro and Dinocrowd, based on how many resources you have. If you have two of them on the field (say two Dinocrowds for this example), you can make the following play:

1. Attack with your first Dinocrowd, probably boosted because you want to aim an attack on the vanguard
2. After that attack, if your opponent's vanguard base is still 11000, attack with the second Dinocrowd and retire the first
3. Use Magma Armor's skill to revive the first Dinocrowd at stand and resolve the second attack
4. Next, attack again with the first Dinocrowd and retire the second to gain power
5. Use Magma Armor's skill again to revive the second Dinocrowd to it can attack again
6. Repeat steps 2-5 until it becomes impractical or impossible to do so

It is this combo that makes me look forward to taking Ancient Dragons for a spin when I get the opportunity to. It's a pretty unique loop, and a flexible one on top of that. It can be especially deadly in the latest stages of the game since every attack needs to be blocked, and Magma Armor can basically force out the win at that point. You have the potential to attack seven times in a single turn, meaning seven instances of card investment, which can spell doom for your opponent.

Magma Armor's mate, Ancient Dragon, Night Armor also contributes to the combo. He's essentially the same as Dinocrowd, except he can only be used in Legion. The trade-off here is that if he hits after retiring a unit for the +5000 bonus, he can un-flip one of your damage, giving your Magma Armor attack loop a smidge of pressure to potentially even create more attacks! Granted, you'll still need a hefty amount of soul to go beyond seven attacks, but your soul and counterblast balance might be uneven anyway due to Tyrannobite and Tyrannoquake occupying the early game.

Night Armor also has value in the early game with those two units, since he can retire Tyrannobite to trigger the critical while also potentially gaining back the damage you just invested to bring Tyrannobite back. It's also difficult to block a 21000 column, so odds are the pressure will go through.

For icing on the cake, Tachikaze also got a new adorable starting vanguard to help them build their Legion combos. Ancient Dragon, Babysaurus has a skill similar to Tyrannobite when he's sent to the drop zone. Instead of bringing itself back, though, if your vanguard is in Legion, you can call either another copy of the Legion or the Mate from your deck to the field. More often then not you're going to be calling the mate, since Tyrannobite and Night Armor have a lot more value as rear-guards, and Babysaurus' contribution makes their presence a lot more consistent.

An interesting combo to note with Babysaurus is that you can retire it with Magma Armor on the board to get Night Armor. Then, you can use Magma Armor to bring back Babysaurus and use Night Armor to retire it again for the +5000 power, netting you another Night Armor for your attack loop! It might be counterblast heavy, but given that Night Armor hits, you'll be getting one damage back to use for later.

Tachikaze also managed to get their hands on a Quintet Wall, along with all of the other clones that most clans got in the set as well, none of which are too relevant to be considered in preliminary Tachikaze builds. While the deck still might be the strongest choice, to me it seems like one of the most fun decks in the set to play by far, and I definitely recommend giving it a shot when you get the opportunity as well.

Seekers Get next to Nothing Because They Didn't Need Anything Anyway

Really, why do we need more Seekers? Is Sing Saver Dragon not good enough?

Royal Paladins jump into Blazing Perdition with an addition with a package of cards just as small as Narukami's. Their new Legion is fairly mediocre and has low chances of making it in most builds, due to their sole reliance on Sing Saver Dragon's strength. Seeker, Purgation Breath Dragon comes with a seemingly high cost of two counterblasts to call any Seeker from your deck, filling a role shared by Seeker, Sacred Wingal but with an unattractive cost. You manage to un-flip a damage after the skill resolves, making you ponder upon why it cost two counterblast instead of one to begin with, but the skill is usable more than once per Legion, unlike Wingal.

The only problem is that if you're counterblasting for something that isn't Sing Saver Dragon, you're probably not playing Seekers correctly. Granted, if Sing Saver Dragon didn't exist, this card would have a decent amount of potential, because it really does rack up advantage over time, but until something happens to the Phantom Blaster "Abyss" Sing Saver Dragon deck, I doubt this card will ever see popular play.

Fortunately, there's redemption to be found in Purgation Dragon's mate: High Spirit Seeker, Celyn. He functions similarly to Flail Seeker, Hasbasado, who would gain +4000 when called while you have Legion, except he does a tad bit more. At the cost of a counterblast, he brings the same sort of power to the table, but along with his own +4000 bonus, he can give another +4000 to another unit on the board. This results in him being 13000 power for a turn while most likely putting the other +4000 on the other side of your field.

To get the most value out of Celyn, your deck has to produce 17000+ power columns that get ramped up to 21000+ columns. Your power attackers can fill this role, but when they can't, you either need a combination of 9000+8000 or 10000+7000. It's easy enough to mesh in 10000 base grade 2's in the mix, but you need an 8000 booster for Celyn to be effective.

Fortunately, Seekers got a new grade 0 that can help fill this niche. Composed Seeker, Lucius doesn't seem like much, but in a deck trying to use Celyn to the best of its ability, it comes in handy. Lucius becomes an 8000 booster when you have three or more Seekers in your front row, meaning the conditions are met if you're in Legion and have at least one other front row rear-guard (Celyn), which is particularly easy. If you're not using Advanced Party Seeker, File to grab Blaster Blade Seeker from your deck, or if you're not using Wingal Brave to fetch that safety Revenger, Phantom Blaster "Abyss", there is room for Lucius to work as your starter. While it may not sound like the best strategy that Seekers can use, I believe that it definitely has some merit and it warrants testing.

Other than that, Seekers got nothing else useful. They got an additional draw trigger, but draw triggers are far from a necessity in the Seeker deck outside of the occasional fifth copy. Regardless, the best Seeker deck will still be the Revenger hybrid, so this set doesn't change anything... yet.

As a conclusion, I'd like to thank you all for your patience for these articles. They're certainly not a walk in the park to write, and there was a lot to cover. In fact, there was so much to cover that I couldn't cover all of it. Stay tuned, because I've yet to talk about a certain set of cards that could potentially bring Limit Break back into the game for some clans. I deemed them so important that they deserved that article, so expect that to be out soon. But for now, thanks for reading.

Also, first Tachikaze article (technically)!