Double Deck Check: Then and Now - Jewel Knights!

Double Deck Check: Then and Now - Jewel Knights!

  Tuesday, December 17, 2013    byak

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Hey there cardfighters! byak here with another edition of deck check. This time around, we'll be covering two decks in one article! The catch is, they're both Jewel Knight decks. One is designed to go with the recent English release of Booster Set 10, while the other is designed to go with the recent Japanese release of Booster Set 14. Without further ado, let's get started!

In Booster Set 10, Jewel Knights served as a reboot towards Royal Paladin. After being neglected for basically five sets in a row, Bushiroad decided it was time to bring them back and fit them with one of the first Break Rides, Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei. Ashlei wasn't alone though, because Leading Jewel Knight, Salome, the leader of the Jewel Knights, accompanied her and helped establish the deck. The two worked well with each other, and they were given a decent pool of support to work with. Let's take a look at our first list!

Into the Fray - Jewel Knight!
17 / 14 / 11 / 8

1 Dreaming Jewel Knight, Tiffany
4 Ardent Jewel Knight, Polli [Heal]
4 Devoting Jewel Knight, Tabitha [Draw]
4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle [Critical]
2 Alabaster Owl [Critical]
2 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona [Critical]

4 Flashing Jewel Knight, Iseult
4 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
4 Jewel Knight, Prizmy
2 Regret Jewel Knight, Urien

4 Fellowship Jewel Knight, Tracie
3 Pathetic Jewel Knight, Olwen
2 Blaster Blade
2 Dogmatize Jewel Knight, Sybill

4 Leading Jewel Knight, Salome
4 Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei

The first card we need to look at is Salome. The first notable thing you'll see with Salome is that she comes with an ugly 10000 power base. This can be problematic, but at the very least she brings utility for the early and late game. Salome comes with an especial counterblast that can pull any Jewel Knight from the deck! There's no grade restriction, and it's not a Limit Break, meaning you have a lot of possibilities. You can bring out Shellie or Tracie for offensive power, or Prizmy if you have an awkward hand. Needless to say it's easy to adapt to most situations with this skill.

Not only does Salome have this skill, but her Limit Break can also come in handy. Once you hit four damage, when Salome attacks and you have four or more Jewel Knight rear-guards, she gains an additional +2000 power and critical, which in turn can put insane damage pressure on your opponent! Seeing as a majority of your deck are Jewel Knights, it's very easy to satisfy Salome's Limit Break, and it can end up forcing out a lot of guard from your opponent.

Ashlei comes in handy as your Break Ride, but she rarely works well with Salome, which is a problem. When you Break Ride over Ashlei, your vanguard gets an additional +10000 and critical, so if you're riding Salome, you can theoretically get her to 22000 power un-boosted and have her hit for three damage. This seems a bit overkill, seeing as your opponent will use their Sentinels during that turn no matter what. However, if you can catch your opponent off guard, the three damage may connect and win you the game. Though, the important thing to pull from this is that both of your grade 3's are very good to sit on in the early game.

Tiffany also serves as a powerful starter, but she needs to be used properly in order to be effective. You can slide her into the soul to give two of your Jewel Knight rear-guards +3000 power for the turn. Versus standard 11000 decks, you can turn your 18000 or 19000 columns into 21000 and 22000 columns for the turn, forcing out more guard if your opponent is high in damage. Tiffany can also be used on Salome's booster in order for her to hit harder, which can work out in some cases. While she doesn't provide raw advantage like most starters do, Tiffany still has the potential to pack a punch.

One of the main problems with the deck is that it's not 100% Jewel Knight. Jewel Knights don't have a second critical trigger (until Set 14!) so you have to resort to using non Jewel Knight triggers. Olwen can be a bit pathetic (no pun intended!) to warrant four copies, and Sybill is extremely redundant when setup next to Salome, which leads to us adding Blaster Blade to the deck for additional utility. The problem with not running 100% Jewel Knight is that there will be times where you can't use Salome's counterblast if you can't flip over a Jewel Knight. Fortunately, the release of Urien and Olwen in the recent Royal Paladin Trial Deck helped us out a bit, but they're not necessarily the greatest cards to use.

One approach you can take with Jewel Knights is to not use Salome at all. Sanctuary Guard Dragon was recently released, and serves as solid boss for Royal Paladin. When you ride Sanctuary Guard, you can discard a Royal Paladin to get any Royal Paladin grade 1 from your deck. He also comes with a Limit Break that gives him +3000 power during your turn for all of your grade 1 Royal Paladins. Overall, Sanctuary Guard hits like a truck and gives your field consistency.

But why use him with Jewel Knights? The answer is that Jewel Knights don't rely on you having a Jewel Knight vanguard, unlike most archetype decks. Jewel Knights rely on you having a certain amount of Jewel Knight rear-guards. Shellie and Tracie require three other Jewel Knight rear-guards for them to gain power, and Prizmy needs that much to draw. Tiffany also doesn't have any restrictions, except for it only putting power on Jewel Knight rear-guards. Sanctuary Guard Dragon also gives you more freedom with what you can use, since you can now splash in more non Jewel Knights, like Toypugal, more Blaster Blades, etc. If you were to use Sanctuary Guard Dragon instead of Salome, I'd make these changes:

-2 Regret Jewel Knight, Urien
-3 Pathetic Jewel Knight, Olwen

+2 Toypugal
+2 Blaster Blade
+1 Star Call Trumpeter

Another cool thing about Sanctuary Guard Dragon is that it doesn't counterblast at all, giving you more fodder for your grade 2 lineup. The one Star Call Trumpeter can be used with your four Blaster Blades to give your front row the consistency to compliment your back row.

Overall, Jewel Knights initially felt decent, but still very weak. Salome had all the problems of a 10000 base boss and some of the Jewel Knights were just plain terrible. They had a lot of holes in them and weren't necessarily complete. However, when Booster Set 14 came around, those holes were quickly filled:

Lost Foundation - Jewel Knight "Reverse"!
18 / 14 / 11 / 8

1 Dreaming Jewel Knight, Tiffany
4 Jewel Knight, Hirumi [Heal]
4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle [Critical]
4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger [Critical]
2 Jewel Knight, Sacred Unicorn [Draw]
2 Devoting Jewel Knight, Tabitha [Draw]

4 Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria
4 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
4 Jewel Knight, Prizmy
2 Security Jewel Knight, Arwen

4 Banding Jewel Knight, Miranda
4 Linking Jewel Knight, Tilda
2 Dogmatize Jewel Knight, Sybill
1 Fellowship Jewel Knight, Tracie

4 Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei
4 Broken Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei "Reverse"

Ashlei "Reverse" was one of the few Cross Break Ride units to be released recently. In case you don't know already, a Cross Break Ride is, as the name implies, a Break Ride of a Cross Ride. When the units end up going together, you not only gain the benefits of a Break Ride turn, you also gain a solid 13000 base to sit on for the rest of the game. Ashlei "Reverse" complimented Ashlei in this way, and also came with a very useful Limit Break. Once per turn, you can counterblast 1 and lock away a Jewel Knight for the turn to retire one of your opponent's front row rear-guards, AND superior call one Jewel Knight from your deck. As you can see, it does a lot for such a cheap cost. Locking one is very negligible and much cheaper than a second counterblast, plus there is very little restriction on what you can bring out, as long as it's a Jewel Knight.

As mentioned in Saturday's article, Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria and Security Jewel Knight, Arwen give this deck the power spike it needs to carry damage. Gloria can put copies of Ashlei into your drop zone and Arwen can use those to power your field (Prizmy can also discard Ashleis to draw!). The best part about this is how easy it is to get Arwen by using Ashlei "Reverse"'s Limit Break. You can also pull out other Ashleis from your deck, and if they're retired, they just become more fodder for Arwen.

Jewel Knights got a very interesting hybrid between a power attacker and a pressure unit. Banding Jewel Knight Miranda becomes an 11000 attacker once you ride either one of your Ashleis. Not only this, but if she hits a vanguard, you can give one of your other Jewel Knights +3000 power during the turn. Seeing how easy it is to make 18000 columns in this deck to begin with, it's easy to force out guard from your opponent because they know they can't deal with a 21000 column that comes after it. The fact that it's an 11000 attacker is extremely relevant because it's nearly impossible to make bad columns with it. The only bad column is if you have an Arwen or any trigger behind Miranda and you're fighting a Cross Ride, but you shouldn't play into those situations anyway.

In addition to this, they also got one of the first of a new king of units. Linking Jewel Knight, Tilda has a skill that activates when you ride either of your Ashleis. When this happens, you can pay a cheap cost of one counterblast to superior call any grade 1 or lower Royal Paladin from your deck. There were a few more units similar to Tilda in Booster Set 14, and I like to compare them to time bombs, for example. They're most effective on your turn 2, because you're most likely riding that grade 3 next turn. You can use this unit in one of two ways. The first way is to keep her out front, so your opponent will try to commit to the board in order to stop it from activating. The second way is to keep Tilda in the back, so your opponent has no chance to attack it. This may not apply to some retiring decks, but vs other decks you're basically guaranteed advantage at the cost of an awkward column for a turn.

It's also notable that even after turn 2, Tilda still carries value. Tilda still has the opportunity to activate when you Break Ride, so when you ride Ashlei "Reverse" over Ashlei, you gain just a bit more field presence than you normally do. You can use this to your advantage once again by keeping Tilda in front. By doing this, you threaten your opponent with the situation where you can get the cheap advantage off of it, and they'll commit to shut it down. This commitment will either save you more hits from your vanguard or bait out counterblasts used to get Tilda off the board. Either way, it can be manipulated to your favor.

The rest of the deck is pretty understandable. I kept Sybill in here still if only because of the early advantage you can get from her. If you really don't like her, it's easy enough to drop her for two more Tracies.

As a result of their new support, Jewel Knights got MUCH stronger. They have archetype consistency from actually getting good units, they have a good 11000 base boss with Cross Ride defense and an easy advantage engine, plus they have extremely threatening support units. With all of these factors combined, Jewel Knights give you a solid early, middle, and late game and allow you adapt to any situation. As always, you are encouraged to try your own build but use this as a guide of sorts. Try your own techs and feel free to share them in the comments below.