[JCG] Deck Check: Knights of the Blue Flame!

[JCG] Deck Check: Knights of the Blue Flame!

  Tuesday, August 26, 2014    byak

---

Welcome back to Deck Check! Today's deck will be about one of our favorite decks to erupt from the recent Booster Set 17: Bluish Flame Liberators!

Liberators had received a fairly large burst of support for the new Legion era, including a new Trial Deck and further core set support. In addition to adding the Legion mechanic to their arsenal, Liberators as a deck gain a lot more power in terms of superior calling, along with more consistency revolving around it. This time around I'll cut the introduction short and go straight to the deck, and we'll go over card choices from there!

Knights of the Blue Flame!

17 / 14 / 11 / 8

1 Coronagal Liberator
4 Liberator of Ambition, Asus [Critical]
4 Steel Edge Liberator, Aruira [Critical]
4 Catchgal Liberator [Stand]
4 Liberator of the Holy Tree, Elkia [Heal]

4 Fast Chase Liberator, Josephus
3 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
3 Physical Force Liberator, Zorron
3 Halo Liberator, Mark
1 Sword Formation Liberator, Igraine

4 Liberator of Oath, Algovale
4 Liberator, Lawful Trumpeter
3 Overcast Liberator, Geraint

4 Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Core
2 Bluish Flame Liberator, Percival
2 Liberator, Monarch Sanctuary Alfred

Percival and Prominence Core Enter the Fray!

Bluish Flame Liberator, Percival was the star of the Trial Deck, which came out before the core set, and pretty much set the precedent for how powerful the rest of the new Liberators would be. When you Legion Percival with his mate, Liberator of Oaths, Algovale, you can check the top four and call a Liberator from among those four cards, without any sort of cost or condition. Unfortunately you only get this skill once per Legion, but it should be apparent how powerful it can be.

Liberators gain a ton of consistency from their new superior calls, due to the fact that they provide more of a choice. Percival, for example, lets you choose one from four, preventing your field to get flooded with triggers you never wanted there to begin with. Percival's mate, Algovale, also calls one from the top three cards of your deck when he's called, at the cost of a counterblast. With this new found consistency, Liberators are allowed to take a much more rewarding approach in terms of card choices. Units like Fast Chase Liberator, Josephus become a lot easier to find, making them much more convenient to play.

It just doesn't stop at Percival and Algovale, however. Liberator's boss coming from the recent core set, Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Core, steps around Percival's only apparent flaw of only bringing one Liberator to the field. We went over this guy back in our Set Check for Booster Set 17, but to recap, Prominence Core can counterblast one and retire any unit to check the top four for a Liberator, and call it. The skill can only be used once per turn, but it's much better than Percival's once per Legion skill.

Additionally, if Prominence Core is in Legion with Algovale, and you manage to call another copy of either one of the two units from the deck, Prominence Core gains an extra +3000 power and a critical for the turn. It may not seem like much, but it can still come from nowhere and hit hard, especially in the early game. It's also really good to see an Algovale off of the top, since you can use his skill right after to grab another unit.

Prominence Core's main strength is the fact that he creates a superior call every turn with his counterblast skill, allowing you to benefit from all of your Liberators' skills more than ever! Units like May Rain Liberator, Bruno and Overcast Liberator, Geraint start the turn with a minimum boost of +3000 power, and can expand even more if you get cards like Algovale and Physical Force Liberator, Zorron off of the top. You'll most likely see Josephus more than any other Liberator deck, allowing you to benefit from his draw skill to extreme lengths. It's also very easy to find other copies of Prominence Core to stack the extra criticals, allowing your center column to hit even harder.

Instead of playing four copies of Percival to compliment the four copies of Prominence Core, we're also fitting in two copies of Liberator, Monarch Sanctuary Alfred to create a triad of bosses. Alfred might not be as powerful as the other two new Liberators, but he's still your ticket to get back into the game if your field is really small. He's also really good to have vs Link Joker, thanks to his unlocking skill. Unfortunately you won't be getting any criticals from him due to the lack of Blaster Blade Liberator, but it's too rewarding to include Alfred, so cutting out two copies of Percival is fine.

Alfred is also still synergistic with most of the returning Liberators. He fits in nicely with Zorron and Jospehus, plus he allows your Brunos and Geraints to reach extremely high numbers, giving potential for Alfred to be a huge finisher!

New Recruits!

One of the most useful new units that Liberators gained is probably their utility stand trigger, Catchgal Liberator. It may seem unattractive as a stand trigger, but he comes in handy more often then not. He's basically just a clone of Zorron, meaning if you call him from the deck, you can send him back to pick a new unit from the three top cards of your deck. With four Catchgal and three Zorron, it's easy to default one of those seven if you don't like the options given for a superior call, allowing yourself to see a new pool of options.There's also synergy to be found between Catchgal and Bruno or Geraint, similar to how Zorron interacts with them, giving you more potential to hit higher numbers on your board.

The only difference between Catchgal and Zorron is that, while Zorron sends himself to the soul to use his skill, Catchgal has to go to the bottom of the deck. While he doesn't end up fueling soul blasts for Josephus or Alfred, he prevents you from losing a trigger from your deck. This can help immensely, especially in the late game, where deck counts begin to run low and stand triggers spike in power.

Another useful new clone for Liberators is Coronagal Liberator, their new projected starting vanguard. He acts exactly like May Rain Liberator, Bruno, where he gains +3000 power whenever you call a unit off the top, except he's only live when your vanguard is in Legion. Unfortunately he can't be used with Alfred, but he's basically a guaranteed heavy booster when you have Percival or Prominence Core, allowing you to pull other units from the deck instead of Bruno or Geraint, which would grant you more card advantage.

He's not the most necessary to include though. He's a nice addition, but if he's not your cup of tea, cards like Spring Breeze Messenger and Little Fighter Cron are still very good in the modern Liberator deck for their own utilities.

Lastly, Liberators managed to pick up a unit that triggers its skill when you enter Legion, like most decks in this age. Liberator, Lawful Trumpeter lets you check the top three cards for another Liberator to call when you Legion, without any other cost. Unfortunately, with Prominence Core, you'll only be entering Legion once or twice, plus there's only two Percival to ride. However, Lawful Trumpeter basically gives you a free +1 in card advantage just for having it before you Legion, giving it a minimum that makes it worth playing.

Of course, if this isn't your favorite unit at times, there are plenty, and I mean PLENTY of other grade 2 Liberators you can add. Liberator of the Flute, Escrad, Liberator of Royalty, Phallon, and Evening Liberator, Trahern are all good alternatives, based on what you want more. However, Lawful Trumpeter's ability to call a unit among three is something that shouldn't be ignored after first reading it.

General Strategy

The new Liberators function similarly to a toolbox more than ever, thanks to the increase in options for each superior call. The cards you call off of the top depend on what your field needs at the moment, but you're usually going to want to find Josephus or Algovale more than anything. Aside from that, you also want to look for Prominence Core if you can't find Algovale, and you also might want to find Bruno and Geraint if you don't have many copies of them on the field already. If you have a lot of Brunos and Geraints on the field, picking up a Zorron or Catchgal can be really rewarding, due to the power your field gains as a result.

Oddly enough, the deck can actually have a hard time versus field control, despite being a superior calling deck. The key factor here is that Prominence Core and Percival don't actually generate card advantage for themselves, and both of their skills are one for one exchanges. You only really generate advantage when you hit Josephus or Algovale, which is why they should be prioritized more than anything. If your field is really small late into the game, you basically need to find one of your two copies of Alfred to mount a comeback.

Basically, Liberators as a deck compete fairly well versus most match-ups, and for the match-ups its weak against, there's always Alfred available to help you put up a fight. The deck might not be as strong as the extrmely dominate Seeker deck, but it still has fair match-ups almost across the whole board.

One last thing about Liberators is how flexible they are. It's difficult to craft a Liberator deck from scratch, since they have so many useful cards for a myriad of different situations. If you don't like some of the ratios, you have all the power to make changes yourself and improve them to your liking. Whoever finds the best ratios for Liberators may have the edge over the rest of the competition, but the challenge is actually finding those ratios.

That's all for today's Deck Check! Feel free to use this deck list and change it as you will, since it's better for you to find the best way to play the deck than just play an exact copy of the list. As always, feel free to leave questions and comments down below, and thanks for reading.