[JCG] The New King of the Metagame?

[JCG] The New King of the Metagame?

  Wednesday, April 30, 2014    byak

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Earlier this month, Monthly Bushiroad came out, releasing spoilers for upcoming products, such as Fighter's Collection 2014, Trial Decks 14 and 15, and the next core set: Booster Set 16. Bushiroad ended up giving us a sneak peek of the new boss unit for Seekers, and boy does it pack a punch.

Back when the concept of Legion was first introduced, I was certain that the effects revolving around it wouldn't be too powerful. Seeker, Sacred Wingal and Brawler, Skybeat Dragon set pretty good standards, as they came with small bursts of advantage by using Legion. However, Booster Set 16 gave us a peek at something a lot more stronger.

A new deck by Kai wouldn't be complete without a self-standing vanguard, would it? Seeker, Sing Saver Dragon is Seeker's newest and most powerful Legion unit to date, debuting in a few months. Similarly to Sacred Wingal, Sing Saver Dragon mates with Blaster Blade Seeker, except it does a lot more when it enters Legion. When Sing Saver Dragon attacks a vanguard, after the battle, you can pay a seemingly hefty cost of counterblast 2, soulblast 2, and a discard of two to Superior Ride another copy of Sing Savor from your deck as stand. Not only that, but you also get to mate the new Sing Saver Dragon with a copy of Blaster Blade Seeker in your soul. This creates an extra 22000 power attack, with twin drive still available.

In my eyes, this is a huge step forward from our last self-standing vanguard, a boss unit that had to lock your whole field in order to get its benefits. All Sing Saver Dragon truly relies on is your soul, as you can play the Seeker deck while hardly investing in counterblasts, plus you get two cards to discard after each drive check. Sing Saver Dragon also excels beyond most self-standing vanguards because it can use its skill more than once. If you have five soul under Sing Saver Dragon and four cards to counterblast with, you can effectively attack three times with Sing Saver Dragon per turn. Of course, in the case of drawing them, it's fairly easy to discard them and return them with Legion (though, Sing Saver Dragons in your damage zone is another story).

Sing Saver Dragon seemingly breaks all of the restrictions that held back other self-standing vanguards. It doesn't rely on you obtaining additional copies of it, it keeps its twin drive, along with a massive base power to work with, and it doesn't even depend on the outcome of the battle. It's not even a Limit Break, either, though I will admit it is a late game skill. While Royal Paladins don't come with any kind of soul charging worth playing, the Legion mechanic itself serves as a way to consistently fuel Sing Saver Dragon, and here's why.

Let's say we are using Sacred Wingal and Sing Saver Dragon in the same deck, with Advance Party Seeker, File as our starting vanguard. If we draw Sacred Wingal first, we end up riding it and eventually performing Legion, while at the same time using File's skill to get a Blaster Blade Seeker from your deck. The following turn you manage to ride Sing Saver Dragon. At this point, you have five soul: File, your grade 1, your grade 2, Sacred Wingal, and Blaster Blade Seeker. You don't need no more or no less, you're ready for your triple vanguard attack right then and there if necessary.

Another important factor to Sing Saver Dragon being extremely powerful is that it doesn't rely on your left and right rear-guard columns at all. Sing Saver could care less about your rear-guards being blown up all the time, as long as you have the resources to use its skills, you can close the game solely with your boss unit. Don't believe me? Test it for yourself, Sing Saver Dragon effectively creates one of the strongest decks in Vanguard.

I'm planning on doing a more detailed Deck Check of Seekers in the nearby future. I've tested the deck with only the cards from the Trial Deck and Sing Saver and it's already stupidly good, but there are more cards to be revealed with the full spoilers of Booster Set 16, so that could easily establish some competition for the new king of the metagame. For now though, Seekers manage to outpace just about every deck, even the other new Legion deck: Brawlers, and I honestly doubt other decks will reach its power level. However, that is for time to tell.