[ECG] Deck Check: Eradicator's Reignition!
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Eradicators were so strong in the Japanese game that they even attracted attention from Bushiroad's small "Limited List", a list of cards that, no matter what, only allowed a player to include two of the cards from the list in their deck. This list was used way earlier to restrict big hitters and starter-boss combinations like Dragonic Overlord The End and Lizard Soldier Conroe, or Majesty Lord Blaster and Wingal Brave. The English game never got a list like this, but nonetheless Dragonic Descendant was creeped out by stronger self-standing vanguards and just other strong bosses, backed by powerful support.
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However, this is what made Gauntlet Buster work so well with Dragonic Descendant. Gauntlet Buster was super strong early on, but fell off as the game progressed. Dragonic Descendant had little to no pressure at low damage counts, but became monstrous as blocking became more and more important. As a result, their teamwork easily excelled past all of the other new decks at the time, such as Genesis and Liberators.
Now that everything has progressively grown stronger, it has become apparent that Eradicators are losing their once feared pressure. Some of the other Eradicator bosses that Bushiroad tried to add on to the archetype, like Eradicator, Sweep Command Dragon and Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse" were nowhere near the power levels of the original pair, and as a result, Eradicators fell behind. They'd still take tournaments on a small scale, but at the top of the competitive scene, their numbers have dropped slightly. Therefore, it's time for some more Eradicator cards!
Eradicator's Reignition!
17 / 14 / 11 / 8
2 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle [Draw]
3 Eradicator, Dragon Mage [Draw]
3 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle [Critical]
4 Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux [Critical]
4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo [Heal]
2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
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The new Eradicator list looks a lot like the older lists, but with a few significant differences. Gauntlet Buster and Dragonic Descendant stand the test of time, keeping the Eradicator deck upbeat with their strong skills, but they're also complimented this time around by a powerful new Break Ride. Eradicator, Ignition Dragon takes a step up from the deck's old Break Ride, Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon, by creating a larger impact on your opponent's field! While Vowing Sword got to retire a front row unit when you rode over him, Ignition Dragon retires any two units when you ride over him! However, the checks to this skill are that it comes with a counterblast cost and your opponent gets to choose which units are retired.
Vowing Sword Dragon was very lackluster, even when supported by the rest of the Eradicators, because his Break Ride was only a one for one exchange in card advantage, whereas Ignition Dragon is a two for one exchange. Your opponent might be able to choose what gets killed off, but unless your opponent is attempting to play around Ignition Dragon, you're usually going to be able to get at least one valuable unit off of the board.
What makes Ignition Dragon stand out the most, however, is its interactions with your units that trigger their skills off of retiring other units. Transitioning from Ignition Dragon into Gauntlet Buster Dragon gives Gauntlet Buster Dragon an extra +6000 power and two criticals, which will usually be negated by a Sentinel. Despite that, you gain the ability to basically force out one of your opponent's four Sentinels, making later criticals from Gauntlet Buster Dragon and Dragonic Descendant that much scarier.
Ignition Dragon also gives a huge boost to your rear-guard columns if you have Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shukis on the field. Shuki gains +3000 power when you retire an opponent's unit by a skill, meaning that Ignition Dragon turns all of your Shukis into 13000 boosters, meaning you hit very hard on your Break Ride turn, especially if you check into your critical triggers.
Eradicators also gained a useful ally to help flesh out their grade 1 line-up. Deadly Eradicator, Ouei keeps the old one for one exchange that Vowing Sword offered in the past and makes it a lot easier to reach. To simply put it, Ouei can send himself into the soul when you ride a grade 3 Narukami in order to retire a front row rear-guard on your opponent's side of the field. This is instantly a lot easier to get around to than Vowing Sword's Limit Break, and not seeing him early isn't the worst thing either. You typically want to have him on the field when you Break Ride over Ignition Dragon, since you can retire a total of three units in a single turn for Shuki and Gauntlet Buster bonuses, but you also transition into Dragonic Descendant in the late game, creating more opportunities to get value out of Ouei. Ouei can also be used to trigger Shuki and Gauntlet without the use of Ignition Dragon, depending on the situation.
The best part of Ouei is that it provides two different and very useful forms of value. Its first form is obviously the potential to trade himself for a unit of higher value, a rear-guard that your opponent has committed to the field. However, the fact that you can hold Ouei for as long as you want is what really makes him shine. You can use him as a booster for the beginning stages of the game, but when you want to make a push, you can ride a grade 3 to send him off to start off your retiring combos. This sets him apart from other retiring units like Chou-Ou for example, as Chou-Ou would have to stay in your hand if you actually planned to use his retiring skill at one point. Ouei provides the benefits of controlling your opponent's field and creating columns at the same time in a very flexible manner.
Oddly enough these are the only two newcomers introduced to a veteran deck like Eradicators. Booster Set 14 came with a whole suite of new units, but why have I chose to omit them from this particular list?
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Eradicator, Tempest Bolt Dragon was supposed to take the role of Eradicator's newest and strongest boss. There was a lot of hype behind him initially, as his Limit Break brought something relatively unique to the table. By counterblasting three, you got to retire all rear-guards on the field. A simple skill was quite shocking at first, since you could basically nuke your opponent's field with the drawback of under-committing to your field. Tempest Bolt also benefited from under-commitment as well, since he gained +2000 power for each open rear-guard circle on the field, including both your's and your opponent's.
So, what exactly is wrong with this card? There are obvious downsides to it, and your opponent could always under-commit to the board with you in order to prevent you from taking advantage of the Limit Break, but he's still not that bad of a card. The problem is that he can't fit himself into the formula that have kept Eradicators strong since release. The Booster Set 10 formula was going from Gauntlet Buster into Descendant (sometimes Vowing Sword starts if the player was using it), since this gives you access to damage pressure for all stages of the game. The Booster Set 14 formula is going from Ignition Dragon into Gauntlet Buster into Descendant. Ignition Dragon exists to give you something to sit on before Limit Break, so Tempest Bolt definitely can't fill his role. You can't forego Dragonic Descendant either, because that card is quite literally the champion of the late game. By process of elimination, the only way Tempest Bolt Dragon can incorporate himself in Eradicators is to replace Gauntlet Buster Dragon.
What gives Gauntlet Buster more priority over Tempest Bolt Dragon? To put out the simple answer, it's clear that Tempest Bolt Dragon can create advantage, but he doesn't have the ability to create criticals like Gauntlet Buster can. On top of that, the peak of Tempest Bolt's usage requires you to rebuild your field from reducing it to nothing, in order to create more attacks to set up for Descendant. This is quite difficult, especially because Tempest Bolt doesn't work with Shuki at all. Furthermore, with Ignition Dragon in your arsenal, cheap mass retiring is already at your fingertips, while allowing you to still maintain a healthy board and use your other two powerful boss units.
Is this to say that a Tempest Bolt Dragon build is out of the question? I'd be eager to disagree, because you can build Eradicators in a fashion that helps you get the most value out of Tempest Bolt Dragon. If I were to suggest how to build it, you'd want to rely Rising Phoenix and Spark Rain Dragon to build quick, easy columns while using Chou-Ou and Ouei to convert board presence into retiring. Using Chou-Ou and Ouei aggressively allows you to use units offensively before converting them into one for one card advantage, forcing your opponent to start committing again so they can get blown out by Tempest Bolt Dragon.
You would also want to use Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan to attempt to unclog your damage that gets consumed quickly due to Tempest Bolt's steep costs. In this build, I would probably max out on Tempest Bolt Dragon while using two or three Dragonic Descendant, leaving room for other preferential picks.
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Last but not least, another popular new Eradicator unit is Eradicator, Lorentz Force Dragon. Lorentz Force is part of a new wave of grade 2's that trigger their skills off of riding a grade 3, but is his reward really worth the time? When you ride a grade 3 Eradicator while Lorentz is on the field, you can counterblast 1 to force your opponent to retire a unit of their choice. It sounds great at first, considering the cost of other retire skills, but realize that he has to last a whole turn on the field to produce advantage. Any opponent that knows what they're doing can prioritize removing Lorentz Force from the field, whether it be from an attack or a skill, making it troublesome to benefit from using this card.
And on top of that, is the reward even worth reaching? Linking Jewel Knight, Tilda got to call any grade 1 Royal Paladin from your deck when you rode an Ashlei grade 3, which was huge since it was guaranteed to produce good results due to the power of choice. In the case of Lorentz Force, his retiring skill gives options to your opponent, making it hard to determine if using his skill was actually worth it or not. To put it simply, this card will almost never do the work you might think it would do, resulting in me omitting this card from my Eradicator builds.
Despite how anticlimactic it would seem, nothing big really changes for Eradicators as a result of Booster Set 14. They just get a decent sized buff to their field control, which in my opinion carries them a step up. Ignition Dragon and Ouei definitely have the potential to win Eradicators more tournaments in the future, but for now, we can only wait and see how it turns out.
Vowing Sword Dragon was very lackluster, even when supported by the rest of the Eradicators, because his Break Ride was only a one for one exchange in card advantage, whereas Ignition Dragon is a two for one exchange. Your opponent might be able to choose what gets killed off, but unless your opponent is attempting to play around Ignition Dragon, you're usually going to be able to get at least one valuable unit off of the board.
What makes Ignition Dragon stand out the most, however, is its interactions with your units that trigger their skills off of retiring other units. Transitioning from Ignition Dragon into Gauntlet Buster Dragon gives Gauntlet Buster Dragon an extra +6000 power and two criticals, which will usually be negated by a Sentinel. Despite that, you gain the ability to basically force out one of your opponent's four Sentinels, making later criticals from Gauntlet Buster Dragon and Dragonic Descendant that much scarier.
Ignition Dragon also gives a huge boost to your rear-guard columns if you have Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shukis on the field. Shuki gains +3000 power when you retire an opponent's unit by a skill, meaning that Ignition Dragon turns all of your Shukis into 13000 boosters, meaning you hit very hard on your Break Ride turn, especially if you check into your critical triggers.
The best part of Ouei is that it provides two different and very useful forms of value. Its first form is obviously the potential to trade himself for a unit of higher value, a rear-guard that your opponent has committed to the field. However, the fact that you can hold Ouei for as long as you want is what really makes him shine. You can use him as a booster for the beginning stages of the game, but when you want to make a push, you can ride a grade 3 to send him off to start off your retiring combos. This sets him apart from other retiring units like Chou-Ou for example, as Chou-Ou would have to stay in your hand if you actually planned to use his retiring skill at one point. Ouei provides the benefits of controlling your opponent's field and creating columns at the same time in a very flexible manner.
Oddly enough these are the only two newcomers introduced to a veteran deck like Eradicators. Booster Set 14 came with a whole suite of new units, but why have I chose to omit them from this particular list?
So, what exactly is wrong with this card? There are obvious downsides to it, and your opponent could always under-commit to the board with you in order to prevent you from taking advantage of the Limit Break, but he's still not that bad of a card. The problem is that he can't fit himself into the formula that have kept Eradicators strong since release. The Booster Set 10 formula was going from Gauntlet Buster into Descendant (sometimes Vowing Sword starts if the player was using it), since this gives you access to damage pressure for all stages of the game. The Booster Set 14 formula is going from Ignition Dragon into Gauntlet Buster into Descendant. Ignition Dragon exists to give you something to sit on before Limit Break, so Tempest Bolt definitely can't fill his role. You can't forego Dragonic Descendant either, because that card is quite literally the champion of the late game. By process of elimination, the only way Tempest Bolt Dragon can incorporate himself in Eradicators is to replace Gauntlet Buster Dragon.
What gives Gauntlet Buster more priority over Tempest Bolt Dragon? To put out the simple answer, it's clear that Tempest Bolt Dragon can create advantage, but he doesn't have the ability to create criticals like Gauntlet Buster can. On top of that, the peak of Tempest Bolt's usage requires you to rebuild your field from reducing it to nothing, in order to create more attacks to set up for Descendant. This is quite difficult, especially because Tempest Bolt doesn't work with Shuki at all. Furthermore, with Ignition Dragon in your arsenal, cheap mass retiring is already at your fingertips, while allowing you to still maintain a healthy board and use your other two powerful boss units.
You would also want to use Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan to attempt to unclog your damage that gets consumed quickly due to Tempest Bolt's steep costs. In this build, I would probably max out on Tempest Bolt Dragon while using two or three Dragonic Descendant, leaving room for other preferential picks.
And on top of that, is the reward even worth reaching? Linking Jewel Knight, Tilda got to call any grade 1 Royal Paladin from your deck when you rode an Ashlei grade 3, which was huge since it was guaranteed to produce good results due to the power of choice. In the case of Lorentz Force, his retiring skill gives options to your opponent, making it hard to determine if using his skill was actually worth it or not. To put it simply, this card will almost never do the work you might think it would do, resulting in me omitting this card from my Eradicator builds.
Despite how anticlimactic it would seem, nothing big really changes for Eradicators as a result of Booster Set 14. They just get a decent sized buff to their field control, which in my opinion carries them a step up. Ignition Dragon and Ouei definitely have the potential to win Eradicators more tournaments in the future, but for now, we can only wait and see how it turns out.
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