Fighter's Collection 2014 - The Paladins Take Arms!

Fighter's Collection 2014 - The Paladins Take Arms!

  Sunday, April 13, 2014    byak

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Welcome back to our coverage on Fighter's Collection 2014! Last time, we went over Dimension Police and Daikaiser's rework. Today, we'll be going over the three new units for the three Paladin clans, which support Liberators, Revengers, and Jewel Knights!

If you thought Liberators were already over-saturated enough, too bad! Twin Blade Liberator, Margaux is yet another boss option for the deck, and to be fair, he's really not that bad of a card. Margaux' Limit Break comes with a cost of counterblasting two Liberators, along with returning a Liberator from your field to the bottom of your deck. When you pay the cost, you can call the top two cards of your deck! These don't have to be Liberators in order to be called, or even Gold Paladins, meaning you can mesh anything with Margaux, as long as you can pay the Liberator specific costs. In addition to calling two units, they gain +5000 power during that turn, meaning you can have both of your rear-guard columns break 21000+ or just have a super huge column on its own!

While most Liberator bosses take advantage of Gold Paladin's mass calling tactics, Margaux takes it one step forward by buffing your field in the process! If necessary, you can also shuffle back dead grade 3's and triggers in order to pay its cost, which can be beneficial as long as you don't get a bad card off of the top. If you want to make your field even stronger, play copies of May Rain Liberator, Bruno and Overcast Liberator, Geraint, which gain +3000 power whenever you call a unit off the top of your deck. This means that each Bruno and Geraint will get +6000 power when you use Margaux, and then the two new units gain +5000 power as well. Combine this field with critical triggers, and your opponent will have a hard time keeping up.

It's also very possible to sustain Margaux' somewhat large cost of two counterblasts, with the help of Liberator's iconic Blaster Blade Liberator. Liberators recently got a massive buff with the addition of White Rainbow Liberator, Balan. Balan functioned similarly to Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint, a unit that would un-flip a damage whenever a Blaster Dark Revenger was called in the same column, except in the case of Balan, Blaster Blade Liberator doesn't need to be in the same column. This can lead to ridiculous results, where you could have multiple Balans on the field, turning each Blaster Blade Liberator you'd call into two or even three free damage to counterblast with. It's also relevant that Margaux can be used multiple times per turn, meaning you can turn two invaluable units into a new, huge field!

Twin Strike Liberator!
17 / 15 / 11 / 7

1 Yearning Liberator, Arum
4 Liberator of Hope, Epona [Critical]
4 Strike Liberator [Critical]
4 Armed Liberator, Gwydion [Draw]
4 Nappgal Liberator [Heal]

4 Halo Liberator, Mark
4 White Rainbow Liberator, Balan
4 Physical Force Liberator, Zorron
3 May Rain Liberator, Bruno

4 Blaster Blade Liberator
4 Overcast Liberator, Geraint
3 Liberator, Star Rain Trumpeter

4 Twin Blade Liberator, Margaux
3 Liberator, Monarch Sanctuary Alfred

Notes: depending on how you use Margaux, you might find instances where you won't have the damage to use Alfred's Limit Break. If this happens too much, you can exchange Alfred for a different boss unit, or even one of the two Liberator Break Rides. Liberator of Bonds, Gancelot Zenith serves as a powerful, yet cost efficient boss.

Next up is Revenger's newest boss: Halberd Revenger, Peredur. Peredur comes with a surprisingly average Limit Break compared to the rest of the Revenger bosses. When Peredur attacks, you can counterblast one and retire two Revengers to give him +10000 power and an extra critical for that battle. I'd arguably say that he outclasses similar bosses such as Cursed Spear Revenger, Diarmuid and Revenger, Death Master Dragon due to the combination of high power and criticals, but his Limit Break falls short when compared to Gust Blaster Dragon, who can gain an enormous amount of power and criticals. However, Peredur is backed by all of the Revenger support, something that Gust Blaster lacks. Not only that, but Peredur also has quite a useful skill when you ride him.

When you ride Peredur, you can counterblast a Revenger to call any grade 1 or lower card from your deck. Similar to Margaux, this isn't restricted to Revengers or Shadow Paladin, you can pull out any card you want, as long as it's grade 1 or lower. Considering Peredur doesn't come with Lord, you have a lot of options to choose from. Unfortunately, most units come with skills that bind them to their clan, but there are still a few gems waiting out there to be discovered. One cool non-Shadow Paladin unit you can bring out with this guy is Spike Brother's Wild Hitter. When Wild Hitter boosts your vanguard and you drive check a grade 3, you can counterblast one and slide him into the soul to call any unit from your deck to the field. You wouldn't want to build Peredur with a lot of grade 3's, but there's no downsides to including two copies of Wild Hitter, as long as your other boss unit doesn't have Lord. If you do manage to check a grade 3, it's actually really convenient for you, since if you just used Peredur's Limit Break, you should have an open space in your front row.

Until we get another safe boss unit that doesn't have Lord however, it's safe to say that Black-winged Swordbreaker is going to be our target of choice most of the time. Whenever you call Swordbreaker directly from your deck, you can soulblast one to draw a card. I talked about Swordbreaker a while ago, with my verdict being poor due to it not being a Revenger really hurts it, since boss units like Raging Form and Dragruler can't do enough with it. It was also a bit inconvenient when it came to calling it from your deck. Now with Peredur, you get Swordbreaker immediately, which is really important. You might not be able to do anything with it, but if you add Revenger, Desperate Dragon, the result is a consistent damage carrying deck that can do stuff before you reach four damage.

Halberd of the Shadows
17 / 14 / 12 / 7

1 Frontline Revenger, Claudas
4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon
4 Grim Revenger
4 Freezing Revenger
4 Healing Revenger

4 Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir
4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
3 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
3 Black-winged Swordbreaker

4 Blaster Dark Revenger
4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
2 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
2 Revenger, Bloodmaster

4 Halberd Revenger, Peredur
3 Revenger, Desperate Dragon

Notes: Bloodmaster can be really useful for launching a surprise Limit Break attack, since he can ramp you to four and increase your hand size, while at the same time being ideal fodder for Peredur. It's important to use Dorint as much as possible, since there are situations where you need more counterblast than you can afford.

The last Paladin on our list is Jewel Knight's newest boss, Sprout Jewel Knight, Camille. Camille is actually an extremely simple unit, which is both a curse and a blessing. Its Limit Break activates at the beginning of your main phase, if you have three or less Jewel Knights on the field. By counterblasting one, you can call any Jewel Knight from your deck. It's really underwhelming when comparing it to Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei and her Reverse form, since Ashlei has support in the form of Security Jewel Knight, Arwin and Banding Jewel Knight, Miranda, along with a much stronger Limit Break. So, how do we find value in our young sprout?

I won't deny that Camille is certainly not the strongest unit, since it doesn't really carry damage or produce large amounts of damage, but it comes with a lot of value the longer you last. Each turn you can use up a counterblast to get a free unit. If you die the next turn after you reach four damage, Camille will have turned out to not producing any advantage. However, if you stay in the game for three or four more turns, Camille would have output a total of three or four free cards. Another strength to using Camille over Ashlei Reverse is that Ashlei Reverse is vulnerable to Link Joker in general. Going against a deck featuring Star-vader, "Omega" Glendios or Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon will turn Ashlei's advantage engine into a disadvantage engine.

The selling point to Camille is that it's simple and easy to use. It might not be the strongest unit, but it's pretty ideal for a player who's still new to the game. I definitely recommend it under those conditions, but I don't think that it'll go really far in serious tournaments.

Sprout Jewel Knight - Camille!
17 / 14 / 11 / 8

1 Desire Jewel Knight, Heloise
2 Jewel Knight, Sacred Unicorn [Draw]
2 Devoting Jewel Knight, Tabitha [Draw]
4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle [Critical]
4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger [Critical]
4 Ardent Jewel Knight, Polli [Heal]

4 Flashing Jewel Knight, Iseult
4 Jewel Knight, Prizmy
4 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
2 Jewel Knight, Melme

4 Fellowship Jewel Knight, Tracie
4 Linking Jewel Knight, Tilda
2 Dogmatize Jewel Knight, Sybil
1 Pathetic Jewel Knight, Olwen

4 Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei
4 Sprout Jewel Knight, Camille

Notes: the grade 2 lineup is fairly weak in this build, since Miranda can't be used. If Olwen and Sybil don't work out for you, try using 10000 grade 2's or some other form of power attackers. The cool thing about Heloise is that it turns both of your grade 3's into 21000 center columns, as they both gain +2000 on attack, so always put Heloise behind your vanguard. Jewel Knight, Melme is an edgy choice, but it's meant to combo with Tilda and Camille. If you're at three damage, you can ride Camille to trigger Tilda, who brings out Melme and gives you an extra damage. This lets you use Camille's skill early on which actually can put you pretty far ahead. If it doesn't work for you, I suggest using Regret Jewel Knight, Urien or Sword of Hope, Richard.

And that's it for today! I'm impressed with all three of the new Paladin units, even though they might not be the strongest. They're fair in terms of design and very easy to use, and Bushiroad's strides towards a more generic game are evident, which I'm looking forward to. Stick around for tomorrow, where we take a trip to the Dragon Empire!