[ECG] Deck Check: Link Joker - Everything Starts at Zero

[ECG] Deck Check: Link Joker - Everything Starts at Zero

  Monday, February 17, 2014    byak

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Hey cardfighters! Today we're going to take a short break from all of the new Japanese cards to look at our own English metagame. Booster Set 12 is right around the corner, and I'm sure everyone is ready for the invasion of Link Joker!

...And if you're not, you're at a good place to be, because in this article, we're going to go over a sample list for Booster Set 12 Link Joker, along with how the deck works.

So before we talk about Link Joker, we first need to talk about lock. What is lock? If you don't know already, locking is a game mechanic that basically makes a unit, and the zone it's occupying, useless for a turn. I explained the mechanic a while ago in my Deck Check for Chaos Breaker Dragon as well, which I recommend reading along with this article if you're still new to Link Joker.

For those who are just tuning in from the English metagame, Lock is the method of flipping a rear-guard on the field face down. While that unit is Locked, it cannot do anything. It cannot attack, intercept, move forwards or backwards, use its skills, or be affected by any other skills.

Lock is essentially the backbone for Link Joker. All of their game plans revolve around locking units and gaining benefits from it. It's pretty difficult to win if you can't use any of your rear-guards, to say the least. Now with Booster Set 12 coming up, I'm sure a lot of you want to look into this deck, so let's look at the build that I would use with cards from this set!

Everything Starts at Zero
17 / 14 / 11 / 8

1 Star-vader, Dust Tail Unicorn
4 Star-vader, Meteor Liger [Critical]
3 Star-vader, Vice Soldiert [Critical]
3 Star-vader, Scouting Ferris [Draw]
2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor [Draw]
4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage [Heal]

4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
4 One Who Opens the Black Door
4 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
2 Mana Star-vader, Neon

4 Star-vader, Mobius Breath Dragon
3 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
2 Furious Claw Star-vader, Niobium
2 One Who Shoots Gravitational Singularities

4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
4 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon

Looking at the list, there is a total of five Link Joker units in here that lock units. Your pair of grade 3's do the majority of the locking, while Mobius Breath Dragon and Gravitational Singularities offer some lock potential through pressure. Dust Tail is also really useful, but reliant on your other locking skills. It's important to analyze these five cards first, seeing as they're the keys to the deck.

First is the big dragon himself, Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon. Nebula Lord is the cover card for Booster Set 12, as well as Link Joker's first legitimate boss. He comes with a skill, where, at the cost of two counterblasts, you get to lock a unit in the back row. This gives you an idea of how expensive lock is, but this skill is still fairly weak because it is much more effective to use on the front row units. Basically, because a front row is locked, it can't attack, making it AND the unit behind it essentially worthless. Fortunately for us, we don't have to worry about this because we have Infinite Zero Dragon, plus the reason why we use Nebula Lord Dragon is for his Limit Break.

When you hit four damage, during your turn, Nebula Lord's Limit Break is active. For each of your opponent's locked units, all Link Joker in your front row gain +3000 power. This means if you can spam lock enough, your columns can increase the amount of cards your opponent has to spend to guard, plus they lose their units for a turn. This can lead to turns full of burst, and it also synergizes with a lot of your burst. But before we get to that, we need to pay attention to Infinite Zero Dragon.

Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon is the Break Ride for Link Joker, and it's also potentially one of the best Break Rides in the game. Break Riding over Infinite Zero gives you the ability to lock two of your opponent's rear-guards, but one has to be in the front row and the other has to be in the back row. Unlike Nebula Lord, this guy lets you shut down a whole column by locking out a front row, which is extremely powerful. In addition to this, you can also lock out the rear-guard behind your opponent's vanguard, which helps, considering they would usually need a Break Ride of their own to be able to make their vanguard hit without a booster. Infinite Zero also works astoundingly well with Nebula Lord, since it gives your front row rear-guards an additional +6000 power that turn, which can be optionally increased, keeping Nebula Lord's counterblast in mind.

This is where One Who Shoots Gravitational Singularities comes into play. While its name is a mouthful, it works really well with your Break Ride combo, since it thrives on power. If your opponent has a locked unit, if Gravitational Singularities attacks and hits their vanguard, you get to lock another unit. Now, with its base 8000 power, this really isn't relevant. However, that +6000 power you get from your Break Ride turn bumps it up to 14000, which is then complimented by a 7000 booster to make 21000. That 21000 column not only is hard to guard, but it forces a lot of pressure, since your opponent doesn't want to deal with another locked unit on the board.

Needless to say this card can be pretty clutch at times. It basically converts the raw power from Nebula Lord into more advantage by being a pressure unit. Even if you don't get the Break Ride off the way you want it, Nebula Lord can still lock by himself to raise Gravitational Singularities to 11000, which makes a standard column.

You could even build this deck to revolve around Gravitational Singularities and stand triggers. While one 21000 swing is powerful on its own, if you sacrifice your damage from criticals and dedicate towards stands, you can turn that one 21000 swing into a 21000 swing and an additional 19000 swing. Stands generally synergize well with Nebula Lord anyway, because all of your units are beefy without boosts due to your Limit Break, so it's definitely not a bad idea.

Star-vader, Mobius Breath Dragon is our other grade 2 that locks units, but it accomplishes something that the rest of your locking units don't, which is bringing lock into the early game. If Mobius Breath Dragon is your vanguard and it hits their vanguard, you get to lock a unit, simply enough. Now, it can potentially work with Gravitational Singularities, but this is a fairly rare occurrence. The main benefit to running Mobius Dragon is that you can soften an attack or shut down an early column to save some guard. If they have a booster behind their vanguard, you can lock it out to easily guard their following attack and put yourself ahead in the damage game. Additionally, you can lock out key starting vanguards that your opponent might want to use next turn.

Now, with all this aside, Mobius Breath Dragon is admittedly pretty useless as a rear-guard. All it does is make 16000 columns with your 7000 boosters. At the very least, it can be affected by Nebula Lord to jump to stages of 12000 or 15000, which is good compensation. I always loved using Mobius Breath Dragon in my Link Joker builds, despite it being only good early. I also don't think you can go below four copies, because you want to draw into it as your grade 2 ride, meaning you need all the consistency you can get.

Lastly is our trusted starter, Star-vader, Dust Tail Unicorn. While Dust Tail might not do much by himself, he does a lot with others, and that's where he shines. When your opponent has a locked unit, similar to Gravitational Singularities, you can counterblast one and slide Dust Tail into the soul to lock any of your opponent's rear-guards. The simplest application this little guy has is comboing with Infinite Zero Dragon to essentially triangle lock your opponent, which means their front rows and their vanguard booster are locked out for a turn, but he has other uses as well.

Triangle locking seems very alluring at first, but is using up all of your burst in one turn really the best option? I usually don't think so. Instead of using Dust Tail with Infinite Zero, you can use it after with Nebula Lord's counterblast. It's a net total of three counterblast, but you get to lock down two units once more, which pumps your front row up by 6000 power again, giving you access to a second assault. Obviously what you do with Dust Tail Unicorn depends on a lot more factors, but it's important to remember that you don't have to use it up right when the opportunity is available.

The rest of the deck is simply raw power and consistency. One Who Opens the Black Door is a strict clone of Ceremonial Bonfire Eradicator, Castor, and helps you get to your Infinite Zero Dragons faster, which is truly key to this deck. Neon and Radon are your power attackers, but what exactly do Lanthanum and Niobium do?

Lanthanum and Niobium both have the exact same skill, but one is a grade 1 with 7000 power and the other is a grade 2 with 9000 power. Whenever your opponent's unit is locked by your effect, they gain +2000 during that turn. They hit ranges similar to your power attackers, but can at times surpass those ranges, plus Lanthanum doesn't have to be in front for its power to be used. Comboing Lanthanum with your Nebula Lord turn can lead to huge columns, because not only does your unit in front gain +6000 power, but Lanthanum gains +4000 power. These columns can be especially deadly as the game goes on, so figuring out how to use your Claw Star-vaders effectively is key.

Even with the support that Link Joker get in this set, they're still bound to get more in Booster Set 13 and 15, and this support will be stronger than what we have now. Right now, they control the opponent's board to a decent degree while generating a lot of raw power from it. Link Joker is most effective versus decks that rely on their rear-guards, while it is a bit weak versus vanguard-centric decks (think Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant). Regardless, they'll do very well in this metagame, and they're a good investment, since most of the cards will continue to be useful in future sets.

That's all for today's Deck Check. As always, feel free to leave questions and comments down below, and stay tuned for more Booster Set 12 Deck Checks, along with Booster Set 15 Deck Checks to follow! Thanks for reading.