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Valuables and Vomit: G-Booster 5

Expansion Pack G hits the shelves soon. What’s worth getting? Saikyo tells all (that he remembers).

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. In between all of the Extra Boosters and shit I was sort of worried that I may end up going out of practice preaching about how the current set is the devil’s sinkhole for cash. Not that this affects me any, I pre-ordered all my shit online (again) and so I figured it was only fair of me to once again take up the mantle of Pojo Vanguard’s resident Mystic Meg so as to feed the amorphous mass that is Bushiroad. Or inadvertently feed the second hand market, horror of horrors (*sarcasm*).

The clans getting supported this time are Gear Chronicle, Narukami, Link Joker, Oracle Think Tank, and Pale Moon. So at least this means less for me to type this week, since it’s only supporting like 5 clans. Still, that’s no reason for me to slack, no sirree bob. Let’s examine what’s worth getting this Set, since 4 out of 5 clans this time are getting additional toys with only one making a fresh debut.

Gear Chronicle: Wowzers, Gear Chronicle have started to pretty much descend into the whole “Spoiled for Choice” trap this set haven’t they? Apart from like the only cards mentioned below, almost everything given to GC is pretty token. Most of it involves a new gimmick called Time Leap, designed to aid in multiple attacks and perhaps in some cases field consistency and is for the most part designed to aid in the newest Trial deck for them. Sadly, not enough here is present to make pure Time Leap decks viable over the tried and tested Chronojet build, but if you fancy building GC on a budget I guess this is as good a place as any to start, since a ton of the C and R cards have Time Leap or support it. I wouldn’t actually actively centre it around Time Leap just yet though since it doesn’t beat the hard advantage from fucking up problematic cards. Or the fact Nextage continues to exist.

Get it for: Clockfencer Dragon, Steam Maiden Melem, Fiery March Colossus, Steam Maiden Balul, that other Critical if you really must.

Narukami: I still don’t think that the Vanquisher deck as a whole retires quite as much or as cheaply as other decks I can name but it’s nice to see that field murder has gotten a little easier in the form of cards such as Rock Climb Dragoon. Stride Fusion unit is Vanquisher “VOLTAGE” who will basically be acting as a pseudo-Conquest Dragon and should be picked up quickly. Grab absolutely anything that can bind cards for that deck, since it’s easy for Vanquisher to surpass Conquest. As for the others, Brawlers got some completely unnecessary consistency with another Critical and a G1 that screws Ark right in the eye. Eradicators get a G Unit of their own as well as some other stuff, but I’d rather use stuff that can wipe more and cheaper from the G selection. You might also want Great Composure Dragon just for the fact it makes Aqua Force cry. There’s also a Dectonics Break Ride that’s fun to combo with any Narukami G3 that gains Critical and blows shit up like Eradicator Twin Thunder Dragon if you enjoy trolling. That’s the best budget option at the moment.

Get it for: Dectonics Stinger Dragon, Lightning of Triumphant Return Reseph, any Brawlers, Rock Climb Dragoon, Chain Bolt Dragoon, Dragonic Vanquisher “VOLTAGE”, any Eradicators if you really must.

Link Joker: They’ve really gone out of the way to make Amnesty Messiah suck less. I’m serious; they’re milking that shit by making one of their GRs a unit requiring Amnesty. Are you fucking kidding, Bushiroad? You want our deck to run at least 3 GRs? We’re not all rich. But if you can cut down on non-essentials such as most of your family, there’s far more Messiah cards that lock themselves and opposing cards so just unlocking 3 of your own is much more feasible. No Deletors this time since they blew their load in an Extra Booster but there are Star-Vaders to support Chaos Breaker Dragon, including an exclusive G-Unit. The way it works, I guess anything that clears a field fast like Shadow Paladin or Bermuda Triangle won’t like it much but it’s still better to have more ways to spam lock in Messiahs. All in all, nothing to build budget this time unless you held onto Chaos Breakers so be prepared to part with dough if you’re starting fresh.

Get it for: Excelics Messiah, Sacrifice Messiah, Blink Messiah, Arrestor Messiah, Death Star-Vader Chaos Universe, whatever Star-Vaders appear in general.

Oracle Think Tank: Oh dear oh dear oh dear. You still haven’t gotten round to fixing the dependency on Silent Tom issue have you, G Oracles? I know you have a nice shiny Oracle keyword to play with but it’s just a condition onto otherwise crap-ass skills. Having said that as long as Tom exists anything you can get to expand your hand isn’t unwelcome I suppose if it means drawing him. So let’s look at your older support. Tsukuyomi got Handedly Housekeeper and similar to make stacking the deck easier, but get this. We also get Magus support. It’s actually worth getting if slow decks aren’t your thing, and because Globe Magus is ridiculous. If your opponent 2-to passes, you can look at the top card before resolving trigger effects so you know. Magus delivers better rewards with better plusses if you’re prepared to hunt for the old crowd but as always (*sigh*) expanding on G Oracles may be the slightly easier option you have.

Get it for: Any Magus, Tsukuyomi and Soulless support, Divine Sword Kusanagi, Imperial Shrine Guard Akagi, Destroyer Dragon Battle Deity, Kamususanoo.

Pale Moon: The entire G Deck as a whole revolves around Magia, basically playing like Murakumo, if it was a lot less like a sad sack of crap. This got a Trial Deck so you’re basically looking for straight up improvements to it. Not easy when you have 2 G Units and one’s a GR. Lunatech Dragon is sort of boring but at the same time it’s the fastest way to Harri, so grab both at 2 at least if you can. Otherwise the rest is pretty much common sense picks like the Stride enabler to support Harri, the Perfect Guard G etc. Silver Thorn support exists too, can’t forget that, but it’s still essentially trying to support a field that got fucked over: it’s still pretty basic fare at multi-attack. Still, even if G Pale Moon seems a bit wanting it gets support next set so grab whatever you can for the stuff that’ll be hype later on. Oh yeah, and Nightmare Dolls can be an entire deck, revolving around Alice mostly, but it’s tricky to use and a savvy opponent can stop its shenanigans since it’s pretty dependant on Late Game to work.

Get it for: Masquerade Bunny, Flying Peryton, Darkside Mirror Master, Darkside Sword Master, both of Pale Moon’s G-Units, any Nightmare Doll support if you so fancy.

And there we have it. The entire set basically exists to make G Pale Moon be a thing and to reinforce everyone else. This is probably going to be a recurring trend from this Set onwards given that we know who’s going to get a Clan Booster thanks to Japan. And do make sure to mark this week down on your calendars as the Brawler and Ripple (FUCK RIPPLES) apocalypse arrives.

Try to impress upon me the importance of being so average at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com

Saikyo passed A Level Maths, ask him how at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com