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Saikyo Cardfighter R

Star-Vader, Blaster Joker   And the final card of the week was naturally going to be...Star-Vader, Arcfox.   Nah, kidding, it's Blaster Joker. He legions with Photon, and once he's in Legion, his ACT skill costs 2 Counterblast and 2 Soulblast and you locking one of your Star-Vader rear-guards to lock ALL of the opponent's rear-guards, and then...retiring the opponent's Legion Mate, if it's in Legion, anyway. His normal skill is to gain 1 critical on attack by putting a copy of one of your Vanguards into the soul from the hand.   For the most part, it's merely "alright". Ticks some boxes but doesn't excite me. Oh I know it'll get people in a lather because OMG LOCK EVERYTHING SO BROKEN. Calm down, guys. First of all, it's really not efficient. It's certainly FAIR enough in terms of cost, anyway, but the big issue is that he isn't spammable. The only 2 soul you'll likely have to spare is the stuff you rode to get to Blaster Joker. Apart from that, you'd have to minus yourself in some way (either through the use of your starter and/or Blaster Joker's normal skill, or riding Joker over something else). Secondly, it comes at the cost of nerfing a whole column for that turn by locking something you have. Mayoron may make it hurt slightly less, but it needs to be placed somewhere specific in order to get the most mileage out of it (here's a hint: behind the VG).   And most importantly, it isn't entirely necessary to lock everything down. In order to shut down both rear-guard columns that turn, only the front row needs to be locked. So for CB2 and Soulblast 2, you're performing what is essentially a glorified Triangle Lock for that turn. Yes, maybe you have Lanthanum or Niobium who can then power up to excess but even then.   The ability to retire the Legion Mate? Well, it's not unwelcome, but as mentioned before Blaster Joker sort of lacks the right tools to do it again, so as long as you keep a spare Grade 3 to ride when fighting him, you ought to be okay. Blaster Joker has a lot of glaring issues but he can work to some degree. However, his use is almost entirely defensive and against a sufficiently aggro opponent he will eventually fall. But if you must use him, use Imaginary Plane alongside because it can replicate the gambit near perfectly, or Garnet Star since it can free up Grade 2 space.   Either way, I wouldn't rank this as high as the top dogs of the Legion format but he isn't that bad, I guess.   3/5

Nanya

Star-vader, Blaster Joker   "If Blaster Blade represents the bonds of teamwork and friendship, then Blaster Joker is the sword that severs those bonds."   Yeah, I just made that up, go away.   Anyway, Blaster Joker, hoo boy, here we go, the final card of January.  Maybe instead of Blaster Joker, we should call him Blaster Blade Reverse.   See, in the alternate timeline, Blaster Blade was never freed from being sealed away, in fact, I'm pretty sure that he and the rest of the Royal Paladins died.  However, his body was revived by the Link Joker and they used his memories to create corrupted versions of Wingal, Marron and Gancelot, which are all represented by Brave Fang, Mayoron and Dialton.  And Aichi's corrupted Avatar legions with Kourin's avatar...   ...*Ahem*  Repressing some thoughts right now about poor writing and season management...   Anyway, the non-Legion ability is the ability to take either Blaster Joker or Photon, if in Legion, and put it into the Soul to get an extra critical.   Insert typical "Vanguards gaining crits sucks" spiel here.   The Legion ability...  Absolute Lock and Absolute Break.   To be honest, there's no real advantage for locking 5 over 3, so the ability to CB2, Soul Blast 2 and lock one of your Star-Vader rear guards, typically Mayoron, isn't really that useful.  Basically, it's an over-costed Imaginary Plane Dragon for just the lock.   But the other part of the skill, now THAT one's unique!   Not only do you lock their rear-guards, you break up a Legion.  And the rulings on that are simply this, if you've been in Legion, even if the Vanguard was put into Legion by another skill (Thing Saver and Blackboi), you cannot legion again and must ride another grade 3 to Legion.   In that instance, yes, it is more appropriate for the cost.   The only legion that should be run with this is Garnet Star Dragon, seeing as both have the same Mate to legion with.  In fact, nearly everything this week runs better with Garnet Star Dragon as the back-up.  Though, in the case of Blaster Joker, you want to Legion with Garnet Star Dragon first, that way you can use Dialton to search out Blaster Joker.   This is a pretty good unit, though it does tend to chew through counter-blasts.  Thankfully the Deletors have Jail, which can unflip damage when it hits.   This is very solid and tends to go off a lot if you build the deck right.  I think Venom Dancer might be a bit better, but this is a nice card   Rating: 4/5 Legion Rating: 4/5   See you next month, folks!