Monthly Bushiroad Issue 6, Part 3 - Яe-birth

Monthly Bushiroad Issue 6, Part 3 - Яe-birth

  Wednesday, February 12, 2014    byak

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Welcome to our final installment of our coverage for Monthly Bushiroad, where we'll be going over the rebirth of Dragonic Overlord!

Last week we wrote an article about Dragonic Overlord "The Re-birth" following its anime debut, and we still weren't sure what it exactly did. Well, Monthly Bushiroad came along and clarified it for all of us. Dragonic Overlord had actually been given a complete rework, and its Cross Ride is just as good as we thought it would be. Let's take a look at them.

We'll start with Dragonic Overlord, Kagero's new (and old, I guess?) Break Ride. When you Break Ride over Overlord, your vanguard gains a skill that activates in the battle phase. If your vanguard attacks a rear-guard, after the battle you can counterblast 1 and discard a Kagero to stand your vanguard, regardless of whether it hit or not, and then you can't use this skill for the rest of the turn. In my opinion this is a lot better than what we originally interpreted it to be (if it hits a rear-guard, stand it) due to the fact that it now doesn't have to hit. Now if you Break Ride into Re-birth you're basically guaranteed your full three attacks, which makes the combo a lot more scarier than it used to be. It also synergizes a lot more with other on-hit Kagero bosses, since it gives you almost the same amount of pressure for a cheaper price than Dauntless Drive Dragon. I'd almost always play this guy over Dauntless Drive, but the one thing you have to remember is that to attack twice, the first attack has to be on a rear-guard, which takes away from the vanguard pressure that Dauntless creates. However, he was basically designed to work with The Re-birth, which is what matters in the end.

Now let's move on to the newest incarnation of Overord: Dragonic Overlord "The Re-birth". The Re-birth is basically a Cross Break Ride of Dragonic Overlord and comes with a powerful Limit Break that has a relatively hefty price. At the cost of a counterblast, you can lock any amount of your Kagero rear-guards, and afterwards, if you have all five of your Kagero locked, The Re-birth gains an additional skill. If it attacks a vanguard, after the battle you can discard two Kagero to stand him, and lose this skill for the rest of the turn. So basically, this is the same thing as what we thought it would be, but a bit better. Now, instead of what we initially assumed was a cost of locking five, it's instead locking any amount, which makes your life a lot easier versus Link Joker. They can still punish you for locking via Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon or Star-vader, "Omega" Glendios, but now you can activate the skill while having a locked unit beforehand, giving you a final turn to kill them before they lock you up for the rest of the game. Aside from that, it's important to note that The Re-birth is actually incompatible with Dauntless Drive Dragon completely. His skill can only be used after the first attack on the vanguard, and you can't use it later even if you don't use it after that first attack. Dauntless Drive Dragon reads that you can only use his skill if your vanguard hasn't stood yet, so basically, they're both designed to activate after the first attack. Regardless, you still want to use this guy with Overlord, especially because you also get Cross Ride benefits for it, which are always good.

The breakdown of the Overlord "Re-birth" combo should be pretty simple now. You Break Ride and use Re-birth's skill to lock your field, then launch an attack on either of their front row rear-guards. You drive check twice, and then use Overlord's skill to stand the Re-birth, discarding a card. You then attack their vanguard with Re-birth, which should hopefully force out guard from them, after that attack, you discard two cards to attack them for a third time. You gain six cards from drive checks and discard three for standing, and they either take a good amount of damage or spend a lot of guard. Overall I think the whole combo can be game changing. The Re-birth is also really strong on its own, because of the +10000 it gets when it uses its skill, giving it power outside of your Break Ride turn. Though, I'm not entirely sure if it holds more value than just attacking with your rear-guards instead of locking them. The drive checks might change things, so that can be a plus.

And let's not forget about the wonderful support units that Kagero received as an addition! Dragonic Burnout is probably the most relevant, outclassing all other forms of support retire that exists right now. When Burnout is called to the field, you can return an Overlord from your drop zone to the bottom of your deck and soulblast one to retire any rear-guard on your opponent's field. Previously the downside to playing units like Berserk Dragon were their hefty counterblast cost. Dragonic Burnout on the other hand doesn't have any counterblast costs, making it fairly easy to use, given you have your Overlords in your drop zone!

Additionally, if you thought that it might be difficult to put Overlords in your drop zone, then you haven't seen the newest wave of Quintet Walls! Booster Set 15 introduces four new Quintet Walls, and Kagero received one of them. Dragon Knight, Gilmel has the potential to put copies of your grade 3's in your drop zone when you use him, making it easier to use Burnout's skill. The deck is very counterblast efficient as well, because The Re-birth and Overlord only cost one counterblast per use, meaning you should most likely have some leftover for Gilmel.

Dragonic Overlord also got its own grade 1 power attacker, Violence Horn Dragon, to compliment the previously released Burning Horn Dragon, so the deck doesn't enter the metagame missing a power attacker. Don't forget this little guy!

But that's not all! Overlord also received his very own starting vanguard: Lizard Soldier, Fargo. Fargo takes advantage of the multiple attacks that The Re-birth dishes out by giving them even more pressure! When you have an Overlord vanguard, you can slide Fargo into the soul to give your vanguard an additional skill this turn. Whenever it attacks and hits, you get to retire an opponent's rear-guard of your choice. At the most, you'll be retiring three with this guy, but at the least your opponent is probably going to let one attack land, giving you enough value to break even with Fargo. In my opinion, I'd either use this or Red Pulse Dracokid as my starter, though I definitely want to give Fargo a shot.

Looking for more Dragonic Overlord support? We also have Eternal Bringer Griffin, which is following the footsteps of Brunt Revenger, Shadow Lancer and Brunt Liberator, Gold Lancer. When it's called, you can discard a grade 3 Kagero to add Dragonic Overlord straight to your hand. This makes your Break Ride combo even more consistent, and even fuels your Dragonic Burnouts.

Another cool support unit that Kagero got was Lizard Soldier, Grom, who mimics the skills of Battle Sister, Lemonade and Throw Blade Knight, Malaegant. When he's called as a rear-guard, you can soulblast two cards to un-flip two cards in your damage. This makes your counterblast heavy cards such as Berserk Dragon and such a lot more flexible within your deck... except for the fact that Berserk Dragon has been repeatedly outclassed. I honestly cannot really think of any counterblast heavy Kagero that are good at the moment, but I'm sure we're bound to get some. You could probably run a combination of Berserk Dragon, Dragonic Burnout, and Grom for extremely heavy field control, but nothing else comes to mind. I do think it's a cute card though, and I'd try to keep him in mind, because he can be useful one day.

That's pretty much it for Kagero so far. They still have a lot of open slots for commons and rares, so there's bound to be something cute in there when the set drops. And honestly, the new Overlord combination was really all they needed to be pushed to the top. Perhaps we'll see a meta much like the one following Booster Set 5, where Dragonic Overlord reigns supreme? Who knows? Leave a comment down below if you'd like, and as always, thanks for reading.