[JCG] Cardfight Pack Vol. 12!

[JCG] Cardfight Pack Vol. 12!

  Saturday, December 28, 2013    byak

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Hey there cardfighters! We apologize for the lack of updates over the past few days, but we've been taking a short holiday break and are now getting back in the swing of things. There was a small bit of Vanguard news recently, so we want to take the time and write about the newly revealed cards.

The newest Vanguard promo pack for Japan came with support for Murakumo, Neo Nectar, Pale Moon, Spike Brothers, Shadow Paladin, and Kagero. Here are the new cards:

• PR/0179 - Shadow Blaze Dragon
• PR/0180 - Dragon Dancer, Arabella
• PR/0181 - Stealth Beast, Bandit Ape
• PR/0182 - Cheer Girl, Carol
• PR/0183 - Egg Juggler
• PR/0184 - Maiden of Venus Trap Muse

Let's start off with the two newest Limit Break units.

(Note: we don't have exactly the best picture for all of these units yet! Forgive us for some low quality, but soon we'll put up better pictures when they come along :P)

Maiden of Venus Trap Muse is a new boss unit for Neo Nectar. Lore-wise, it's the normal form of Maiden of Venus Trap "Reverse" and comes with a similar skill. When Venus Trap Muse attacks a vanguard and you're at four damage, you can counterblast 1 and look at the top 5 cards of your deck. If any of those revealed cards are the same as any of the units on your field, you can choose one of the matching units and call them to any rear-guard circle. The first thing to note about this skill is that it isn't always going to grab something. The top five cards is a pretty big sample size, but it's not always guaranteed to get you a new unit. Of course, the key to successfully using this card as much as possible is to max out as many of your units as possible and keep your field as varied as possible.

Resolving the skill can also be very rewarding. Since it activates on attack, you can call a new unit over a unit that already attacked this turn, giving you a fourth attack before you even twin drive. You can expand the possibilities even further by incorporating a small Musketeer engine in your deck. Calling Lily of the Valley Musketeer, Rebecca or Lily of the Valley Musketeer, Kaivant can give you the chance to create more standing units. When you call either Rebecca or Kaivant, they can retire another Musketeer at the cost of a counterblast to check the top for a new Musketeer and call that as well. It's a stretch, but Venus Trap Muse can give you a form of burst with these combos.

The only problem with Venus Trap Muse is its consistency, and it might be better to stick with White Lily Musketeer, Cecilia or Maiden of Venus Trap "Reverse" in the end, who are much easier to use. Still a solid card nonetheless, and it's nice that Bushiroad gave a pure counterpart to a reverse unit that originally did not have one.

Next is our new Shadow Paladin boss, Shadow Blaze Dragon. Shadow Blaze Dragon comes with a Limit Break that also activates in the battle phase. After it attacks, you can counterblast 1 and retire two of your Shadow Paladins to retire any two of your opponent's rear-guards. It's a really simple skill that gives you neat flexibility.

One of the key features to Shadow Paladins is that they can amass card advantage quite easily. Stepping away from Revengers from a moment, we have always had weak cards like Skull Witch, Nemain and Dark Mage, Babhadh Caar that create fodder for your bosses. These cards can help create a decent control strategy, seeing how cheap the counterblast cost for Shadow Blaze is. Shadow Blaze can also give you an edge vs other control decks. If you retire units for Shadow Blaze's skill and get advantage back for it, it prevents control decks from capitalizing off of your full field. Versus a Link Joker deck for example, you can keep your front row empty so they can't lock it out and you can keep the aggression going.

The only problem with this card is that it's control is inferior to the damage carries of Shadow Paladin: Revenger, Raging Form Dragon and perhaps even Gust Blaster Dragon. This card has a hard time hitting strong numbers by itself, which is what is most important in Vanguard. You can back it up with Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom but in the end it just can't carry the damage to end a game. I still think it's a cute card and potentially very fun to use. I can even see it being splashed in some weird Shadow Paladin variants as a one-of or two-of, who knows?

The next card I want to go over is Egg Juggler. Its skill mimics those of Listener of Truth, Dindrane and Sea Strolling Banshee, except it's fit to work with its own clan: Pale Moon.

When Egg Juggler is called from your soul, you can soulblast 1 to draw a card. Simple enough, right? There are more than enough cards that can bring this out, and you don't even dig into unused territory to make it work. The current Break Ride and boss unit: Miracle Pop, Eva and Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Reverse" can pull this thing out extremely easily. Not only this, but your support units can grab this too. Purple Trapezist, Magician of Quantum Mechanics, and Girl Who Crossed the Gap are all good examples.

The card easily surpasses Dindrane and Sea Strolling Banshee in terms of its conditions, but it does come with a problem. Right now, Pale Moons don't play very soul heavy. Luquier and her reverse counterpart both simply pull units out, which already reduces your soul, so it's hard to fuel Egg Juggler's skill. Eva, however, does provide a very good amount of soul for you to use. Whenever Eva attacks, you get a free soulcharge and +1000 on the attack. In my eyes, this is perhaps the best way to fuel Egg Juggler. You need to sit on Eva as fast as you can or else you'll be draining yourself empty pretty quickly.

Additionally, you can rely on the rest of the Silver Thorn archetype to provide you with the soul you need. Silver Thorn Assistant, Ionela and Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina can build up the resources you need, but they're more effective with more Silver Thorns. My point is, you need to heavily think about what your build should look like (personally, this has always applied with Pale Moon more than any other clan) before you rush in with it. Pale Moon right now can be very strong but need to be crafted the right way. I'm sure there is a right way, but I haven't been given the time to figure out.

Before we move on, it's also important to note that Pale Moon are receiving more support in BT15. I strongly believe that this new support will make Egg Juggler easier to use. I think Egg Juggler is a decent card already, but it needs a few more cards to make it truly effective.

Dragon Dancer, Arabella is a fairly unique Kagero unit. When it hits the field, you can counterblast 1 to give +5000 to your Flame Dragon vanguard. Note that not every Kagero can get this boost, but most of the relevant bosses are Flame Dragon so it's safe to say that in most decks it'll always give +5000 to your vanguard.

The problem is, how effective can this card be? Does +5000 to your vanguard equal up to its cost? You can make heavy hitters like Dragonic Overlord The End or Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague appear much stronger, but it's not worth the cost that it comes with, especially when these two units in particular come with hefty costs themselves.

If this card wants to be good, there needs to be a new Flame Dragon boss that benefits from hitting the vanguard or just carrying a lot of damage, but it can't tax your counterblasts that much. Then you'll be more inclined to use Arabella's skill and make it much more relevant. But right now, Kagero have so many better grade 2 units to even consider this card.

Next up is Stealth Beast, Bandit Ape. This unit is a grade 3 Murakumo with 10000 power. As a rear-guard, if its attack hits a vanguard, you can return it to the bottom of the deck and draw a card. This card... is not so great, for many reasons. First off is its glaring 10000 base. The chance of you riding it already makes it undesirable, especially because it doesn't do anything as your vanguard. Next, its a pressure unit but hardly generates any advantage to begin with. It's a one for one trade, you get rid of it and draw a card. Of course, getting a grade 3 out is cool and all, but it's hardly beneficial at all. It also breaks away from the ideal Break Ride + boss unit model that Murakumo are following right now with Covert Demonic Dragon, Kagurabloom. It just doesn't do enough to be considered. You can always clone it with Stealth Fiend, Oboro Cart or Platinum Blond Fox Spirit, Tamamo, but it still isn't worth it since it can be guarded. I wouldn't touch this card right now, or potentially at all.

Finally, we have Cheer Girl, Carol. It's... a Blazer Idols clone for Spike Brothers.. Well... at least it has okay art, right?

This card seriously does not provide as much as other Spike Brother grade 1's to be even considered. It's not playable at all for many reasons and I just wouldn't touch it, that's all.

With the last two cards being basically unplayable, the promo pack is still decent compared to other promo packs. Maiden Trap Muse and Shadow Blaze have a lot of potential, along with Arabella and Egg Juggler. I just don't think it's time for any of these cards yet. Keep an eye on them though, because they have potential!

Stay tuned for reviews of other recent promotional release reviews, and as always, thanks for reading.