This Space
For Rent

Contrary to what you may think, I can recommend decks for people who hate mainstream.

While I certainly do not advocate the use of inferior options for its own sake, I am recently finding it a lot easier to find more good points in non-mainstream decks. You can blame Stride for that: no longer is your Vanguard doomed to only one job it’s sort of shit at for all of eternity (or until the second game starts anyway); now you can change gears and make a vanguard that better suits your needs. Unless of course you play something like Murakumo that has virtually no fucking choice at all.

So if you don’t want to use what’s recently topping tournaments or you don’t fancy getting on the hype train with the other, noisier, smellier passengers, but at the same time are sufficiently rich and well-connected to afford whatever your disgusting and possibly financially amoral imagination will allow, what else is there? I can more or less guide you through some of the best I know, on probably the most unreliable evidence possible (through about five games worth of observation followed by scornful derision of misplays someone else made), but never mind, let’s get it on.

1.     Nubatama

Not one entirely composed of G-options, hell the fuck no, I already explained why. But assuming you build one that’s fairly bog standard with your usual token Stride enablers and swap a Grade 3 slot for 4 Shiranui, you have a pretty solid choice. I was pretty lukewarm about Nubatama at first because discarding cards isn’t actually that deadly – if there’s a condition needed to use it, such as in the case of Dreadmaster. When you have a unit that can snipe a hand card, turn after turn, no strings attached, that’s when we have problems. That unit is Shiranui. When it comes to decks that don’t really have any “kill ASAP” rear-guards or have lousy finishers, this is an excellent choice to punish the pathetic fools. G-Units are a bit flimsy but even the theoretically bad finishers are aided by the constant hand sniping to wear away Perfect Guards. Just don’t fall into the usual noob traps such as that Stand Trigger that isn’t even that good and make sure your discard gambit is taken to a good extreme, and this is a pretty decent option.

2.     Tachikaze

To be honest, I wouldn’t have actually put the clan here if Gluttony Dogma didn’t exist. But it does, so there we go. Still outclassed by Diablo Shadow Paladin regarding its main gambit but it does have the advantage of not needing to go for “no Grade 3, no life” with Gaiaemperor’s GB2. But for something that does the next best thing and is less expensive due to all the Shadows hype, G Tachikaze is a decent enough alternative: turtles hand by sacrificing field instead, has a re-standing Vanguard that doesn’t compromise guard, doesn’t lose steam provided you have good retire targets, and can still answer to opposing problems with enough enemy retire options. Also there’s not a lot of choice for G-Units once 16 slots becomes a thing so at least building the fucking thing ought to be easy. I just hope you’re prepared to deal with the niggling suspicion that perhaps Diablo was the better option, but history was built on people doing weird shit primarily because it was too embarrassing to stop now.

3.     Nova Grappler

May 2016 is going to give Nova Grapplers two different types of re-standing Vanguard for you to use, so you might as well try and grab the pieces necessary before the prices jump higher than a hippie on Cannabis Wednesdays. As far as G Novas go, it’s solid enough, as long as you’re willing to hold back the cards until later so they don’t die a mistimed, pointless death, but catches my eye after Fighter’s Collection 2016 is Blaus. Pressure from the get-go, good Early Game, and with G Guardians it’s easy enough to play a decent Victoplasma. Suppose there’s no reason you can’t try to mix both, although don’t go Diablo-Revenger levels overboard: every Blau cut means one less target for Morgenrot, the best starter. Any variant is still going to get shat on by anything that can control board (and the number of decks that can is getting depressingly high) but it’s not bad if you’re smart with resources.

4.     Spike Brothers

There people who feared Bad End Dragger and everything that is associated with Bad End Dragger as far as frankly explosively bullshit turns are concerned. G Spikes doesn’t really pack all its damage-coloured eggs in one turn-based basket, but as far as wearing down opponent’s go, it’s pretty baller. Sadly, a lot of its best cards are very old and thus quite scarce, but it also means that the only ones using it had the deck from the offset, or got the deck from someone who had it from the offset, so you shouldn’t stand out that much. But for anyone that does manage to complete it, you have a deck that has a good output in terms of damage, as long as you are able to reasonably adjust for opponents that like to take advantage of a mass field to bomb or low hand to strike at. Inconsistency may be the deciding factor for some, but then again, a bad matchup is hardly a problem exclusive to just Spike Brothers, unless your local meta is filled up to its fucking ears with Gavrail.

Rather depressingly, this is where the buck kind of stops. Pretty much every other clan I could name was either mainstream or was functional but pretty uninspiring. On one hand, hooray for THE RECKLESS RAMPAGE working out as an awesome buy for the hipsters. On the other, it’s kind of depressing. Blame G-Guardians for fucking over previously reliable skills. So, unless Unite gives you bullshit levels of plusses or new Gurguit re-stands or something, the future does not look bright for Gold Paladin.

Oh wait, I forgot. There is a fifth option.

5.     Dimension Police

Just run a good amount of Laurel, follow the common-sense deck building rules, and go the fuck nuts.

Get a list of good points about your clan that’s either too short or too long at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com