Cray Journal: The Dead Sea

Hey folks, Its another section of Khai's Cray journal.
Today I'm going to talk about granblue and the dead sea.

Its been like 2 weeks since I've been experimenting on the deck.
I was experimenting on abusing Negromarl. Yes that pathetic grade 3 with 8k base power. Well. After being taught to look at a deck and cards at a different perspective. It gives me that idea of using him and abusing that card as a rearguard.

For those who have no idea who is negromarl, here it is.

[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (2)] When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), if you have a «Granblue» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a card from your drop zone, and call it to (RC).

To be honest, he sucked as a vanguard. But to make him a rearguard, he is just what granblue needs to generate more free pluses and advantage. Just imagine the ya get a plus 3 every turn if ya spawn him with a cocytus reverse. If this is a grade 2, it is exactly what granblue really needs.

My previous decklist.
4x Nightmist, Lord of the seven seas
4x Cocytus R
1x Negromarl

4x Ruin Shade
4x Deadly Spirit
3x Corrosion dragon

4x gust jinn
3x sea walk banshee
3x Dandy guy romario
3x Deadly Nightmare

12x criticals
4x heal
1x Nightkid

Problems I faced when playing granblue with this decklist.
1. You ran out of soul very fast. Negromarl helps who respawn banshees more often. Which depletes ya soul fast alongside with the deadly spirit and nightmare which are soulblast heavy.

2. Negromarl is a 1 time use card. You need him like Once or twice in the game. Respawning him too much jams your field and cockblock you. Especially when you need a rearguard to intercept and he can't intercept.
The point is that negromarl is only good during your turn to a small extent. You do not want to keep him on the field. Which i would normally use nightmist to respawn it. Using a cocytus R to respawn him is good however, But it broke even than give pluses. As ya get a dead rearguard spawn by his effect to jam your own field even though it looks like you can gain +3 with him which you want to replace with the deadly spirit after ya spawn him. This cause you to run out of soul too fast which later limit your use and privilege to abuse the banshee.

New Decklist.
4x Nightmist, Lord of the seven seas
4x Cocytus R

4x Ruin Shade
4x Deadly Spirit
3x Corrosion dragon

4x gust jinn
3x sea walk banshee
3x Dandy guy romario
4x Samurai Spirit

12x criticals
4x heal
1x Nightkid

Here is some questions that imma answer and ya might ask.
Is Cocytus Reverse an offensive card or defensive card?
Cocytus Reverse isn't a good card for it to be an offensive card as it kills the synergy of the whole deck and disrupt your stack of triggers. The milling of 3 cards can be a little too high for a cost for granblue. Which spawning a banshee sometimes gives the minus 2 than a plus 2. Drawing and milling trigger sucks. Been there, done that. Problem with Cocytus Reverse is that it doesn't have any raw power unlike the other decks.
Although it gives the rearguard that it pulled from the dropzone a +3k. Its just help you maintain your maximum field presence and generate advantage for defences and to intercept.

Where does granblue's offensive power lies on?
Their only offensive power is the pressure from the deck where you hasten your triggers with ruin shades and when you break ride on a nightmist. I would usually call corrosion dragon along side with the sea-walk banshee on the same column to hit a 28k rearguard column with it. And a ruin shade as my rearguard to stack a double trigger on my drive check or a crit to give my huge rear the pressure on my opponent. Means if ya can't break ride anymore, its a matter of who can survive the longest and whose hand size is able to tank the volley of attacks longer.

Is Granblue a consistent and easy deck to play?
Obviously no. Granblue isn't the clan for anyone and an easy clan to play like your gold paladins.
It requires knowledge on deck building and deck structure. Its one of the few clans where deck structure plays an important role and one card can screw the deck synergy. Another is the skills it takes to pilot the clan. Its not the type of clan that is easy to pilot. It requires perfect precision in timing and control.

I've tested against a few decks. Here are some of the consistent results.
Effective on Nubatama which helps you to set up your dropzone even faster.
Lost to Zerachiel. Due to Early game rush and consistent huge columns that I can't guard with.
Lost to nova grappler. Can't guard against the multiple volleys of attacks and reverse breakride OTK.

~Signing off Khai~

Lets Break the Chaos!

Sup guys, this Le jestre over here. I be making this post on behalf of my co-author, Purgatory Void Nothingness.
Here is what he have to say:

This Post Contains:
1. Chaos Breaker Overall Analysis (vs Reverse isn't covered as Dee Kit's post has covered)
2. Triangle Lock Card Advantage Calculations (Not all Situations!)

Kai Toshiki: "Strongest Dragon... Advent!", "Lock... You're not escaping!"

He wasn't joking, and you should be scared, for he is...

BT13/007 RRR
Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
Star Gate/Cyber Dragon/Link Joker
Grade 3/Twin Drive/11k power
Auto [V] [Limit Break (4)] {This ability is active if you have four or more damage): [Soul Blast (1) - Cards with 「Star-vader」 in its card name] During your opponent's end phase, when one of your opponent's locked cards is unlocked , you may pay the cost. If you do, retire that unit, and draw a card.
Activate [V]: [Counter Blast (1) - Cards with 「Star-vader」 in its card name & Choose a card with 「Star-vader」 in its card name from your hand, and discard it] Choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and lock it. This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.
{Locked cards are turned face down, and cannot do anything. Turn them face up at the end of its owner's turn.}
Continuous [V/R]: Lord {If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack.}

The secret agent of Link Joker...! Stupid jokes aside, Chaos Breaker is the FIRST EVER HARD-counter against a certain Deck-type, specifically, Reverse, but since that has been covered, let's move on, on why you should be scared, even if you're not using Reverse.

Just stare at the Limit Break ability, let it sink in for a few moments. Yes, you pay ONE SOUL to retire one card, draw one card. Yes, it technically uses the Soul better than Dark Zone Clans and depending on the situation, It retires better than the Dragon Empire.

That isn't even including the Lock aspect of the skill. The most obvious one, is to combine it with Infinite Zero and Dust Tail as your Starter. Let us (I) do some calculations shall we?

Break Ride: -1
Dust Tail Unicorn: -1

Results: -2, 3 Units Locked.
Without factoring Lock, this is a -2, which is true for both Nebula and Chaos, but Factoring in Lock and their skills, this -2, gives a much larger Plus.

Assuming a Standard Full field and no Power Boosts, and the classic "Triangle" formation and you are forced to guard everything, you can now guard 15K No pass, instead of 15K 2 Pass VG.
IF your opponent gets 1 Trigger, it would cost you 40K wroth of guards, but don't be fooled, this isn't 4 cards, this is actually 5 cards since 2 attacks are wroth 15K.
2 Triggers, assuming lack of all to the Vanguard, is a 45K. Once again, don't be fooled, It's a 6 card guard.

NEWBIE-TIP: Don't give all your trigger powers to a single Rear-guard if you have 2 rear-guards to attack with. This forces your opponent to throw out more cards to guard your attack as they require 5K Guards.

So, assuming you throw a 15K No pass, which works on almost every vanguard in the meta, so here are the pluses you get.

2 Triggers:+2
1 Trigger:+1
No Trigger: 0

So no matter what happens, if you throw a no Pass, you won't lose anything. ALWAYS throw a no pass, unless you can't afford to throw another 5K.
This equation holds true for basically any card you Break ride, Infinite Zero, Nebula or Chaos. So It's a pretty good deal to Triangle when you can.

It gets better, when you factor in Cards like Niobium and Lanthanum (Or Lasange, if you catch my drift, Jed Lee). I don't have to explain why right? Nebula just takes it to the next Level.

Although Nebula's +9K to the front row matters in terms of guarding, This is about The Advantage Chaos Breaker generates, so let us continue.

So you're Triangle'd and Chaos Breaker stares you in the face. You can pretty much despair right there. Because, Soul Blast 3, is a very affordable cost, it is almost impossible to triangle without 3 soul.

You lose 3 units, and Chaos Breaker draws 3. Not to mention those "3 Units" are not units that you choose and are the least important ones. Units in the Lock Triangle are debatable to be one of the better cards on the rear-guard circles, Yes I know there are plenty of great on-hit or power increasing G1 boosters.

So finally, at the cost of Soul Blast 3, Counterblast 1 Chaos Breaker Gains +3-5, and you lose -3.

Yeah, that is quite the ridiculous amount of Card Advantage. This doesn't even include extra uses of Cards such as Palladium and Dust Tail in addition to Chaos Breaker's Regular Ability. So if you think that +3-5 and your -3 is recoverable... You're gonna to lose more than that.

Prepare yourself, Apocalypse is coming.

~Purgatory Void~

Captain NightTroll's Guide to Granblue

Hey folks, this is le jester over here. I have been on hiatus on the blog for quite sometime. Its time I shall talk about this clan which which hypes everyone recently these few weeks.

This clan just got revived when cocytus gets his reversed form and a new breakride.
So lets first talk about the support that its getting.

Lord of the seven seas, Nightmist

Card Effect(s) [AUTO] Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):When a «Granblue» rides this unit, choose your vanguard, that unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn, choose up to two «Granblue» from your drop zone, call them to (RC), the units called with this effect get [Power]+5000 until end of turn, and at the end of that turn, retire those units. [CONT]:During your turn, if the number of «Granblue» rear-guards you have is four or more, this unit gets [Power]+2000. [CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

What are the combos and dropzone targets you can pull with this guy alone?
1. Sea Strolling Banshee

[AUTO]:[Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (RC) from your drop zone, if you have a «Granblue» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

Opinions: The art is so kawaii. Soulblast 1 and draw 1. This is the card that granblue needs. With soulblast 1, as compared to cutlass, which soulblast 2, ya can finally spam this lady with your soul and gain advantages. Not to mention, deadly nightmare and spirits eat 2 cards from your soul  which is a  heavy
cost to replace your rearguards.
with nightmist, ya get a decent 11k booster with her.

2.Rough Seas Banshee

This card is so easy to abuse to draw cards and to pump your soul up to be used later for cards that burns the soul like the deadly nightmare, spirits and sea strolling banshee.

3. Death Seeker Thanathos

Wouldn't it be good to keep your opponent under the pressure cooker and if this card actually hits, you can replace a rearguard and keep it permanent on the field which in this case calling either the Sea Stroll banshee would give you the pluses.

4. Ruin Shade

Yea why not some ruin shades to hit perfect numbers and hasten triggers.

5. Captain Nightkid

Or ya can actually call this guy to help thin and filter the deck by using the counterblast. Which granblue hardly uses it except for cocytus.

Besides all this, what is the skill of cocytus reverse and how do I actually use it?
Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus "Reverse"

[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Put three cards from the top of your deck into your drop zone & Choose one of your «Granblue» rear-guards, and lock it] Choose one «Granblue» from your drop zone, call it to (RC), and that unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn. (Locked cards are turned face down, and cannot do anything. Turn them face up at the end of its owner's turn) [CONT](VC):If you have a card named "Ice Prison Necromancer, Cocytus" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000. [CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

So who do I actually call with this effect?
Answer is you don't just call a ruin shade or a banshee just because you can as wouldnt be advisable to get cards that draw from this effect either which will result to screwed up trigger stacks and decking out faster. As it would mean you decking out faster.
So what is the best option?

Scenario 1
In this scenario if you have a 7k booster without an attacker, Ya would want to call the 8k special intercepter to your Rearguard to become an 11k attacker with a 7k boost which makes it an 18k perfect number against crossrides.

Scenario 2
In another scenario is when you have a 10k vanilla as a rearguard. You would want to call back the 8k vanilla to your rearguard to make it an 11k booster which this turn makes the whole column a perfect number of 21k against the 11k base vanguard and the turn after a 18k base perfect number against crossrides.

Scenario 3
In this other scenario would be to respawn a ruin shade or a 7k booster or vice versa. With ruin shade, being notorious for milling 2 cards and hiting magic numbers of 11k. Just imagine ya mill with ruin shade which actually makes the whole column a magic number of 21k and a magic number of 19k agains crossrides without milling.

Scenario 4
This scenario is when you call a Sea strolling banshee to make it be a 9k booster. However ya would need a 9k attacking rearguard to make this column into a 18k perfect number against crossrides. This comes with a downside when the turn is over as banshee would be back to a 6k which makes it 15 column.

So what do we do in this situation?
I would say you have 2 choices.
A. You would need to use ruin shade to mill to pump the column to 17k.
B. You would need to replace the rearguard with a 7k booster to hit 16k magic number.
However use either options depending on the situation you are in.

Scenario 5
The last would be calling a rough sea banshee via cocytus Reverse's effect. In this case is when you are out of soul to burn and a Banshee would be a 7k booster. As mention above, 7k + 9k = Magic number. Similar to the situation above, he column will be imperfect for the next turn which would need you to send the banshee to soul to draw and call a 7k booster.

You see cocytus reverse isn't designed like a garmore which gives massive pluses. What he is meant to do is like a deadly spirit and a nightmare which help correct your rearguards column to hit a perfect number and how can this get any better than a free mill and no counterblasts. Wouldn't this free up some counterblasts for a nightmist to revive himself?

Conclusion on granblue's playstyle.
As the theme suggest of undeads and the sea, the deck is very volatile to situations and able to correct themsleves or refill the empty space like fluids and water. Its the deck that is able to give a massive advantage and pluses like a gold paladin deck. It also hasten triggers like a dark irregular, genesis, OTT which never guard a 1 pass against this deck or at times a 2 pass. Coz the triggers tend to stack well if you are running 12 critical triggers like me. This deck is also able to recover from mass field nuking which a kagero and a narukami would do. The possible perfect counter?

Nubatama or NOOBatama

Hey folks, This is Le Jestre here. Today i am going to discuss about Nubatama. The clan that have been MIA since BT01. So where did those ninjas disappear to?

Bushiroad sure have something up under their sleeves that they don't wanna disclose yet. Lets 1st answer the burning questions that everyone been asking.

IS NUBATAMA OP?
Lets 1st make an analysis of what support this clan will be receiving in the upcoming bt13.

Ashura Stealth Dragon, Kujikiri Kongou

[AUTO] Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):When a «Nubatama» rides this unit, choose your vanguard, that unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn, your opponent chooses a card from his or her hand, discards it, chooses a card from his or her hand, binds it face down, and at the end of that turn, puts that card into his or her hand. [AUTO](VC):When this unit attacks, if the number of cards in your opponent's hand is three or less, this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of that battle [CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Opinions about this card: What?! discard 1 card and bind 1 card?! whoa... Isnt that a minus 2 for the opponent if ya were to break ride on him. Wouldn't this totally put transcore to shame...

Ashura Stealth Dragon, Kabuki Kongou

[AUTO](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, bind all of your opponent's rear-guards face up, if the number of cards in your opponent's bind zone is three or more, this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of that battle, and at the end of that turn, your opponent puts all those cards that were bound with this effect into his or her hand. [ACT](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] This unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn. [CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Opinions about this card: Isn't this better than the dragonic lawkeeper. CB1 to bind all their rearguards during their turn and gaining additional 10k power is just slightly broken for a single counterblast. So how to avoid him screwing your vanguard? It is to not give him enough targets to bind 3 cards into the bind zone.

How is this card effective in the meta?
This card is effective against decks that are reliant on their rearguard and field presence. Decks like Gold Paladin, Link Jokers, Celestials, Aqua Force.

What are the other support that can be played with this card?
Stealth Beast, Tamahagane

[AUTO]: When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), if you have a «Nubatama» vanguard, choose up to one of your opponent's rear-guards, bind it face up, and at the end of that turn, your opponent puts that card into his or her hand.

Storm Stealth Rogue, Fuuki

[ACT](RC):[Counter Blast (1) & Put this unit into your soul] If you have a «Nubatama» vanguard, and if the number of cards in your opponent's hand is three or more, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a card at random from your opponent's hand, bind it face down, and at the end of that turn, your opponent puts that card into his or her hand.

Stealth Dragon, Dreadmaster

[AUTO](RC):[Counter Blast (1)] When an attack hits during the battle that this unit boosted a «Nubatama», if the number of cards in your hand is less than your opponent's, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent chooses a card from his or her hand, and discards it.

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 two cards in your opponent's bind zone, and put them into the drop zone.

So what are the different type of combos a nubatama deck would pull off?
Lets imagine with me...
Kujikiri(breakride) + Kabuki(limit break) + Boost with Kuruko = 36k solo vanguard column
Not to forget the pressure that the booster adds to the vanguard where if ya were to let the attack hit. Which Effectively -2 your opponent.
Lets imagine Kujikiri discard 2 10k shields = 20k shield

Lets count now count how much your opponent will minus.
25k for 1 pass(max -5 cards, min -3cards)
30k for 2 pass(max -6 cards, min -3cards)
35k for No pass(max -7 cards, min - 4cards)
Or Kanzen!!! -2cards
Now wait... What if ya kanzen get binded? Oh fark!!!!
Maximum number of cards your opponent will lose guarding this collumn
= 10 cards if he guard with 5k shields.

Minimum number of cards your opponent will minus if he kanzen
= 3 (negate + discard)

This obviously tells ya on how to play this card and play against it. Nuff said Just Kanzen!!!

Now lets look at the combos the rearguard can pull.
Storm Stealth Rogue, Fuuki + Stealth Beast Kuroko
So what it does is that Fuuki will bind 1 card in your hand which is equivalent a minus 1 for your opponent during the guard step and a breakeven for yourself when she moves to the soul to give fodder to spam Kuroko's effect.

So how to prevent this from happening, Burn Fuuki as soon as she appear on the field as allowing her on the field will become a threat when they broke ride on that turn. Which works similarly like a dust tail unicorn.

Tamahagane + Dreadmaster
What it does is that it pressure your opponent rearguard or vanguard with the attack. Therefore it is recommended to attack with this card after the vanguard to gain some buffs from the trigger. Coz a rearguard taking a hit from this guy is practically a minus 2 cards which hits you at a magic number of 16k where assuming ya rearguard is decent 9k and your vanguard is a 11k. Its either ya minus one to guard for your rear or minus two to let your rearguard die and chooses a card to minus from your hand. This can be good and bad. As sometimes ya might wanna let this card hit if you do not have enough shields in your hand to guard which allow you to discards dead cards in your hand like grade 3s.