Cray Journal: Granblue, the strongest budget deck!!

Want to stay competitive in the current Legion meta, but have not enough money to buy a full build, expensive Legion deck? Fear not, Granblue is here to save you. The mighty pirates will cut down anyone who stands in your way, and will be easy on your wallet too. Let's look at their main boss:

Young Noble Pirate, Pinot Noir
[ACT](VC): Legion 20000 "Pirate Belle, Pinot Blanc" 
[AUTO](VC): [Put 3 cards from the top of your deck into the drop zone] When this unit performs Legion, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one card from your drop zone, and call it to (RC).
[AUTO](VC): [Choose 1 of your rear-guards, and retire it] When this unit attacks a Vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of that battle.

 


Pirate Belle, Pinot Blanc 
[AUTO](Drop zone): [Counter Blast (1)] When your Vanguard performs Legion, you may pay the cost. If you do, call this card to (RC)

That's Granblue's ace unit from BT17. Not too shabby for a RR, right? The good thing about Pinot Blanc is, if you don't have her in the drop zone when you Legion, but end up milling her as part of the 3 cards from Pinot Noir's skill, you can still activate her skill. Pinot Noir's ability to retire units for additional power is very useful. You can either retire some useless G0(like Hades Steersman) or your Sea Strolling Banshee or Corrosion Dragons to spawn them later to use their skills. With more support from bt17, the options for you to retire are endless! Of course, the main problem with Pinot Noir is that his skill is a one-time thing. Which is why we have the other Granblue Legion card from BT17:

 
Witch Doctor of the Dead Sea, Negrobolt
[ACT](VC): Legion 20000 "Dragon Undead, Ghoul Dragon"
[AUTO]((VC): [Counter Blast (1), Choose one of your rear-guards, and retire it] When this unit attacks a Vanguard, if this unit is in Legion, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose 1 card from your drop zone, and call it to (RC).
[AUTO](VC): When this unit attacks a Vanguard, if there is another unit in the center column, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of battle.
  
Dragon Undead, Ghoul Dragon
[AUTO] When this unit is placed on (RC) from your drop zone, until end of turn, this unit gets "[AUTO](RC): When this unit's attack hits a Vanguard, choose 1 of your opponent's rear-guards, and retire it" until end of turn. 

WOOOOOWWWWW... I see so many ways to abuse these 2 together. A simple way would be to attack with a rear-guard column first, then superior call Ghoul Dragon in the front row of that column. With this, you get an extra 1 attack for that turn. Even better, Ghoul Dragon would add pressure to your opponent to guard. I must say, this is really impressive, considering it's only an R.
Here's a nice, cheap decklist for you guys:

4 Pinot Noir, 4 Negrobolt
4 Pinot Blanc, 4 Ghoul Dragon, 4 Corrosion Dragon
2 Universal Negate(bt16 or later), 2 Reef Banshee(QW), 2 Deadly Nightmare, 3 Sea Strolling Banshee, 2 Arman, 2 Evil Shade

Corrosion Dragon is almost like a staple in this deck... You can either call it via Pinot Noir, or Negrobolt's skill for a nice 12k whacker.
The reason i put deadly nightmare instead of samurai spirit, is because this deck is quite counterblast heavy. The soul isn't used for anything other than the banshee, so might as well use it to spawn perfect number 16k columns right?
Sea Strolling Banshee... Lets you soul blast 1 to draw when she's called from the drop zone. With the 2 bosses listed above, need i say more?
Chief of the Deck, Arman... He gains +3k when you superior call him from the drop zone. Basically a G1 version of Corrosion Dragon, i only run 2 of this simply due to the lack of G1 space.
Evil Shade boosts your Vanguard for 10k by milling 2 at once. Sets up for Legion and puts revivables in the drop zone for you? OH HELL YES.
The universal negate can be any negate post-bt16 since it doesn't have a clan restriction. If you want, you could run Gust Jinn, but this is meant to be a budget deck. Gust Jinn is from bt02, an extinct set, and you're gonna blow a hole in your wallet trying to get 2 of him.

Now to look at the prices:
4 Pinot Noir: ~$4 each, $16 total
2 Universal Negate: ~$5 each, $10 total
2 Reef Banshee: ~$4 each, $8 total
~$5 for all CnRs.
Total: $39
 Now would ya call that cheap or what?? :D
Cheap and good, welcome the era of the Granblue Pirates!!

Signing off,
Lee Megan 

Nubatama Legion

Well, Bushiroad's least supported clan gets support in the latest Anime Matsuri. Good for that :)
Let's take a look at their Legion units shall we?

Shura Stealth Dragon, Mantrakongou
[ACT](VC): Legion 20000 "Shura Stealth Dragon, Daranikongou"
[ACT](VC): [Counter Blast (1), and discard 1 card with the same name as a unit on your (VC)] If this unit is in Legion and your opponent has 4 or more cards in his/her hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose 2 cards from your opponent's hand, and bind them face down. Choose one of your opponent's rearguards, and bind it face up. During the start of your end phase, return all cards binded by this card's skill to your opponent's hand. 
[AUTO](VC): When this unit attacks a Vanguard, if there is another unit in the center column, this unit gets [Power]+3000.

Shura Stealth Dragon, Daranikongou
[AUTO](RC): When this unit attacks a Vanguard, if your Vanguard is in Legion, this unit gets [Power]+2000 and "[AUTO](RC)]: [Soul Blast (1) When this unit's attack hits a Vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to 2 cards from your opponent's bind zone, and place it into his/her drop zone" until end of turn.

Well, well. I kinda expected this from Bushiroad. Although Nubatama rarely gets support, when they do, it's really good. These 2 cards add on to their gimmick of playing with the opponent's bind zone very well. The Legion effect can be achieved very easily, considering most Legion decks would have large handsizes, and having very few cards in hand is kind of Nubatama's "thing".
The G2 Legion mate combos with the G3 very well for high pressure. The Legion skill would place 3 cards at maximum into your opponent's bind zone, then the G2 can attack the Vanguard to pressure your opponent to guard. If he/she doesn't guard, that's an instant -2 for him/her, which is obviously a bad thing. For even more pressure, the starter from BT13 can be placed behind the Vanguard. Here is it's skill:
Stealth Beast, Kuroko
[AUTO] Forerunner (When a unit of the same clan rides this unit, you may call this unit to  (RC))
[AUTO](RC): [Soul Blast (1)] When an attack hits a Vanguard during the battle that this unit boosted, if you have a <<Nubatama>> Vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to 2 cards in your opponent's bind zone, and put them into the drop zone.
By using this unit and placing it behind your Vanguard, it adds even more pressure. Even if you attack with the G2 Legion mate first and it fails to hit, this unit boosting the Vanguard's high-powered attack would add alot of pressure to your opponent to guard, or it's -2 to them instantly.
Overall, I would say I'm impressed by these 2 units, as not only do they go along with Nubatama's old gimmick, they are very pressurizing units when used correctly in a well-built deck. To help you, below is a decklist I came up with. Feel free to follow it or share your opinions in the comments :)

4 Shura Stealth Dragon, Mantrakongou; 4 Shura Stealth Dragon Kabukicongo
4 Shura Stealth Dragon, Daranikongou; 4 Stealth Dragon, Kokujou; 3 Stealth Beast, Tamahagane
4 Stealth Beast, Minjakure(pg); 4 Stealth Dragon, Dreadmaster; 4 Tempest Steath Rouge, Fuuki
2 Stealth Beast, Hagakure; 4 Stealth Dragon, Kurogane(critical); 4 Stealth Fiend, Mashiromomen(stand); 4 Stealth Fiend, Otsuzura(draw); 4 Stealth Fiend, Zashikihime(heal)
Starter: Stealth Beast, Kuroko

Kabukicongo acts as a back-up plan when your hand size goes too low, and you can't afford to use the Legion skill anymore. This way, he still pressurizes your opponent a lot with his LB4, and the help of the G2 Legion mate and Kuroko.
Kokujou is basically a staple in every Nubatama deck. Because of the cards in the bind zone, Kokujou will power up significantly when you use the Legion skill or Kabukicongo's LB4 skill. Tamahagane can be combo'ed with the Legion skill to set 4 cards in your opponent's bind zone, a nice even number for Daranikongou and Kuroko's skills to go off.
Dreadmaster is just a pressure unit for your opponent to guard, since you would very easily have less cards in your hand than him/her. Fuuki helps to build up the soul, and at the same time combos with the Legion skill to make 4 cards in the drop zone for Daranikongou and Kuroko's skills to go off later.
Hagakure is just fun to use as it makes your opponent use up his/her hand even on his/her turn, since you would very easily have less cards in hand than your opponent(unless he/she purposely decides to use up his/her whole hand on RGs, which would leave him/her quite defenseless later).
There is no other option than rainbow triggers for Nubatama, but it works well nonetheless. Stands can be used to restand pressure units on the field(like Daranikongou), criticals add to pressure on the high powered units on the field(like Kokujou), and draws help to maintain hand size at a decent level to maintain defense.

All in all, Nubatama is a very fun deck to use, but tricky as you need to know when to time your moves right. Feel free to share your opinions on these cards and the decklist in the comments below :)

Signing off,
Lee Megan