[JCG] R.I.P. Conroe

[JCG] R.I.P. Conroe

  Tuesday, January 21, 2014    byak

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Today, Japanese players have lost something timeless and precious. It was printed back all the way in Booster Set 1 and remained to be a favorite among many. It offered well-liked consistency and created a very powerful toolbox. Today, Bushiroad has updated their banlist to forbid the use of Lizard Soldier Conroe as a starting vanguard.

Most of us are very familiar with Lizard Soldier, Conroe. Conroe had the ability to exchange itself for any grade 1 of your choice with the cost of a counterblast. There were a lot of good targets to grab, mainly Wyvern Guard Barri (or whatever Sentinel you were running), Seal Dragon Kersey, Heatnail Salamander, and the list goes on. We eventually reached a point in development where the cards that Conroe could grab were too useful and versatile that Bushiroad had to unfortunately strike down with the hammer and restrict him.

Kagero had recently received a lot of good support with the recent releases of Extra Booster 9 and Booster Set 14. Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Reverse" and Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague established themselves as valid decks and started to do very well in tournaments. Conroe was actually very important for Nouvelle Vague, as it gave the deck access to Nouvelleroman Dragon. This was significant because its skill allowed you to return a Nouvelle Vague you drew early for any grade 3 Kagero. This meant you could use Conroe, Nouvelleroman, Nouvelle Vague, and any other grade 3 to create a consistent engine while only playing 4 grade 3's and 4 grade 4's. Dauntless Dominate also got Diable Drive Dragon, which was a grade 1 power attacker that was recruitable by Conroe. This wasn't as significant as Nouvelleroman, but having easy access to a power attacker was never bad for the deck. Calamity Tower Wyvern was also printed in Booster Set 14, which gave Kagero their own Luck Bird clone as most decks were getting at the time. Needless to say, Conroe's options were going a bit over the top.

Now with Conroe out of the way, what new starting vanguard do we use for Kagero? Fortunately for them they have a good amount of options. If you want a simple starter that searches for a grade 3, go with Red Pulse Dracokid. You can never really go wrong with those kinds of cards, especially considering how important getting the Kagero boss units to your hand is.

On the more unique side, we have Seal Dragon Terrycloth. Terrycloth isn't as generic as the rest of your options, but it is quite powerful. You can counterblast a Seal Dragon and slide Terrycloth into the soul to retire an opponent's rear-guard, but then they check the top four cards of their deck for a grade 2 and call one of them. Terrycloth is probably the most direct method that Kagero can use to control the field, even if they're reimbursed with a new grade 2. Obviously the problem here is that you need to run Seal Dragons to make it live, but you can easily fit in Seal Dragon triggers and Seal Dragon, Kersey in that case.

Kagero also recently got another new starting vanguard: Dragon Knight, Sadig. Sadig is a simple unit but has a lot of potential behind it. When you retire an opponent's unit with a card effect, you can slide Sadig into the soul to make your opponent choose and retire one of their rear-guards. The cool thing about this card is that it doesn't cost any counterblasts, and the only cost is removing it from your field. Of course since they have the choice they can call a low value unit to soak it up, but that doesn't stop this card from being too bad.

There are some other simpler choices, such as Demonic Dragon Mage, Deva and Prison Egg Seal Dragon Knight, but don't give as beneficial results as the other starters. In my opinion, Kagero are sort of in an awkward position right now for this area. Terrycloth is probably the best starter for them right now but it needs some form of dedication to work. Sadig gives you even advantage but your opponent can devalue it. Red Pulse is a really good choice but isn't really unique. Without Conroe, the Nouvelle Vague deck loses a lot of consistency that made it a powerful choice. Dauntless can live without it, but Conroe is still really nice to have.

The important thing to consider from all this is the fact that Kagero is getting more support in Booster Set 15. Bushiroad might have connected these two occurrences together to make sure that Kagero get a new solid starting vanguard to use from now on. What might it be, however? We'll find out soon, but for now, feel free to comment below about Conroe and Kagero as a whole without it. And as always, thanks for reading.