Monthly Bushiroad Issue 5, Part 3 - Megacolony and More!

Monthly Bushiroad Issue 5, Part 3 - Megacolony and More!

  Tuesday, January 21, 2014    byak

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Sorry for the delay on this one, but welcome back to our coverage on this month's Monthly Bushiroad! Today we'll be going over the last bits of information that came from the magazine, including the new Megacolony and Aqua Force units. So, let's dive right in!

Megacolony has always been at the bottom of Vanguard. They got some of the smallest bits of support and usually none of it was even good. Their mechanic revolved around preventing units from standing during the next turn, but this usually costed so much resources that you couldn't keep up with everything else in the metagame. For example, Megacolony's strongest boss, Martial Arts Mutant, Master Beetle, came with a cost of counterblast 3 to only cripple two rear-guards, PLUS it was a Limit Break. This is basically the ceiling of Megacolony, and clearly something had to be done.

There was also the fact that the addition of Link Joker made the entire clan obsolete. Instead of crippling units, you could just Lock them instead and prevent your opponent from doing anything with them. What's more is that Locking was a lot more cheaper than crippling (see Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon and such), so at this point there was no reason to use Megacolony unless they were to increase the power of the crippling mechanic. So what did they do?

The first thing Megacolony was expected to get was a Break Ride, and for a clan that always got mediocre support, this unit was far from mediocre. Unrivaled Blade Rogue, Cyclomatooth might have confused some people with its wording, but it's about as good as it sounds. When you Break Ride over Cyclomatooth, you get to rest all units your opponent controls, and they cannot stand during their next turn. This indicates that your opponent cannot keep some units standing to avoid the Limit Break, but there's another important point about this card: it can basically cripple the vanguard.

This is something incredibly powerful that we've never seen before in Vanguard. The center vanguard attack was almost always the most important attack during a player's turn, and now you have the power to completely stop it from happening for a turn. However, I am pretty sure that if you ride something over your rested vanguard it stands again, but I haven't found any good sources proving this. If that's the case, then this card is still really good anyway. You're forcing your opponent to ride in order for them to attack, which can be very effective after they Break Ride and are sitting on a boss unit. Another thing to briefly consider is that your opponent can intercept with their front row crippled units. Just because they're stunned doesn't mean they're useless, so keep that in mind. Be glad that their back row is also crippled and they need to replace it in order to make good columns next turn.

Moving on, we have a group of new units for the old Machining archetype. The Machining units were a small group of cards that had a lot of soul interactions. Their boss wasn't too hot, though. Machining Stag Beetle only had a 10000 base and its skill was only good when you rode it. So fortunately enough, we got a new Machining boss unit: Machining Spark Hercules. Spark Hercules' Limit Break activates when you attack. You can counterblast 2 Machining, and if all of your opponent's units are rested, Spark Hercules gains +10000 power and an extra critical. In addition to this, you get to choose a rear-guard and cripple it. And if you thought the condition could be played around, you can soulblast a Machining to rest all of your opponent's units, which can be pretty helpful at times. Spark Hercules is fairly average for a boss, but the extra critical can end up being fairly scary if it's not accounted for.

As far as Machining go, they also got some new triggers and power attackers so they can fit in with the rest of the archetypes. Everything is pretty standard except for their stand trigger: Machining Cicada. Cicada is essentially the same as Mass Production Sailor, and you can use up to 16 copies of it in your deck. Also, when Cicada is called to the field and you have a Machining in your soul, it gains +3000 power during the turn. This basically means it's always a 7000 booster during the turn you call it, making easy 16000 and 18000 columns wherever necessary. After it's used up, you can just slide it into the soul to activate Machining Armor Beetle's skill as well, so you're not stuck with a terrible 4000 booster. The only remaining problem is that it's a stand trigger, but if you can change your play style to accommodate Cicada, then it works out in the end.

Spark Hercules isn't the only new boss unit we got, however. Unbeatable Mutant, Abectrozeus is a new promo that works similarly to Spark Hercules. Its Limit Break also costs counterblast 2, but you use it in your main phase. When you do, Abectrozeus gains +10000 power and you get to cripple a unit. Keep in mind that this can be used multiple times, but the counterblast cost is heavy. In addition to this, when you ride Abectrozeus, you retire all grade 1 rear-guards on the field. This includes your own, of course, but if you hold them in your hand early on and your opponent doesn't this card can really put you ahead. I don't think this card does as much as Spark Hercules, but if you plan ahead for it you'll definitely be rewarded.

That's about it for Megacolony so far. They have a lot more units coming up in the future, so expect more support to be revealed in the next Bushiroad monthly. Before we end this article however, I'd like to go over Aqua Force and the two cards that they gained.

In my last Aqua Force article I talked about the new Blue Storm Industry Dragon, Maelstrom "Reverse" and speculation about it being the start of a new archetype, Blue Storm. This was basically confirmed in this Monthly Bushiroad with the addition of Blue Storm Battle Princess, Crysta Elizabeth and Blue Storm Water General, Lysandros. They're not very useful units at this point, but they are proof that Aqua Force are getting the archetype treatment that they have wanted for months. This means their power attackers work for all Blue Storms and we're going to see a lot more support for the archetype itself, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, that's all we got from this issue. I once again apologize for the gap between this article and the other two, but I found time to go over the remaining bits and pieces. I'm really looking forward to see what the rest of the Megacolony units do, especially considering the power of the Break Ride. The set's not that far away either, and it'll be out by the end of next month. In the meantime however, feel free to comment below, and thanks for reading.