Triumphs and Tedium: G-Booster 11

 

Another G Booster dawns, and that means it's time to waste money again.

 

So I realise that I haven't actually written an article for August. Well dear readers, there's a very good reason for that...actually no, it's not a good reason at all: I'm just incredibly creatively bankrupt at the moment, although if it helps any, this set actually got a few decent ideas as far as excuses to punch away at a keyboard go. But if nothing else, I can always count on the regular-ish stream of G Boosters to examine and glower disapprovingly at all of the cash being splashed around that people seem to have in fucking truckfuls.

 

The support this set is for Royal Paladin, Genesis, Nubatama, Kagero, Gear Chronicle, and Dark Irregulars. And by virtue of this set having Kagero in it, that is automatically enough reason for my attention to be grabbed, so strap in folks! Here is what the collective money cards are, for those of you who wish to live in denial at how your over-raritied deck can get shat on by beggars armed with only 50 slabs of near-worthless cardboard, but what would I know.

 

Royal Paladin: Discounting the SP pack, which is pretty much reprints, there isn't a whole lot for you, only offering eight cards this set. Most of it isn't even for Brave: you have one new G-Unit for Altmile and that's it. It's the Blaster support that's the main draw, with Gancelot Peace Saver, a new G-Guardian, PG Lien, and G3 Llew. On the plus side though, you have pretty much the least to lose, given you don't suddenly have a ton of junk to wade through, unless you bought boxes, because of course you will. I'd say Gancelot Peace Saver is pretty much the non-negotiable chase card, given its GR rarity and near staple presence at two on average in Blasters, but the rest are pretty good too. There's also a new Critical trigger, get that too.

 

Get it for: All Blaster support cards, Halbwachs.

 

Genesis: As much as I want to, I can't really get excited about the Genesis support in this set. The archetype support is mostly for Witches (Clove is getting a reprint in this set wouldn't you know) but all eyes are on Revelation. I must admit that as far as rear-guards go, they've gotten well supported, enough for the Amaruda deck to take on its own identity, but unfortunately there are no especially powerful G-Units outside of Ishtar (that goes for the entire clan as a whole really), and Amaruda forces almost everything to have Revelation to work at all. The Witch support can probably be safely disregarded given its old-hat syndrome, so you're going to be here for the Revelation cards. Get them if you must, just beware the lack of any real punch besides columns and the occasional Nova Grappler style pranks.

 

Get it for: Almost everything with Revelation, Amaruda and Ishtar a priority.

 

Nubatama: Well let's get the really obvious one out of the way: between the Trial deck and this set, new Nubatama is taking an entirely new direction in the form of Dominate. It's still Shiranui focused, so if you have an Afterimage deck with all the staples, you'll only need the mainstay G-Units and the staple rear-guards, like Mujinlord, Fuurai, etc, although an SP pack can help a bit with getting old cards if you don't have any. You're getting a pretty sweet G-Guardian that can ruin fields, so grab that too if you have time. As far as supporting Afterimage goes, you're shit outta luck: there's one on-hit R rarity G-Unit and that's basically it. All in all, you're probably going to have the hardest time getting this finished due to all the high rarity staples.

 

Get it for: Utsuroi, Mujinlord, Maguntenbu, Fuurai, Gehourakan.

 

Kagero: Here's what I actually want to talk about proper. There's little in the way of old support, not even Overlords, but you shouldn't give a shit anyway, as it's Blademaster-focused. Any Seal Dragon support can go fuck itself, it's new Blademaster Kouen or piss off. This is the set that fixed most of Blademaster's problems, in that it had few outs against mirage decks, by giving us Mbudi and most importantly Flare Arms Zeigenburg, the newest generic re-standing Vanguard most non-Overlord Kagero decks desperately needed. Surprisingly, the only cards you'll actually want are the above two, new Blademaster and Flare Trooper Dumjid. Those four will allow your deck to enter a completely new direction: I myself built a hand-trap focused one, now that Conroe's back and we have Zeigenburg to act as an Overlord deck in a pinch. All in all, called me biased as balls, but I think this set dun gud. Any other small token cards for Blaze can probably be mooched off others or gotten youself if you bought at least one box.

 

Get it for: Zeigenburg, Mbudi, Dumjid. Blademaster “Kouen”.

 

Gear Chronicle: Well, these guys got a slightly more generous helping of support compared to G Booster 9, but the question is how high quality is it? It supports the individual builds of Chronojet and Chronofang (and Demiurge if we want to get technical) somewhat equally, but as usual it's weird-as-hell jank for Chronofang not worth mentioning and new staples for Chronojet, including Transit and Cruising Dragon, although I will say that Demiurge actually got slightly faster with the support here. As far as support for BOTH goes, we have new Stride fodder who can search both Tiger and Chronojet, and two new G-Units, one of which is the second GR of the set. Both ought to be picked up regardless of what GC deck you picked.

 

Get it for: Revolver Dracokid, Cruising Dragon, Transit Dragon, Mystery-freeze Dragon, Avenir Phoenix too I guess if you're too poor for Nextage and Gear Groovy together in bulk.

 

Dark Irregulars: Token Amon support peppers this set as per usual, but really I'm guessing you're only here for Scharhot and all he entails. New G3 Scharhot is included here obviously, and as for the rest of him? Honestly, I'd say Dark Irregulars actually got the very long end of the stick, because they got some sick-ass toys. A re-standing Vanguard that's easy to use and properly costed, Weretiger Jaeger to make Striding a cinche, Sabnac as a bulky G-Guardian that is again easy to use and low in rarity, and a reprint of a useful Critical Trigger. As far as Amon support goes for those still interested, I'd say apart from the Quintet Wall, EVERYTHING related to Amon is worth getting. They honestly have the most high quality archetype support this set, I was quite surprised.

 

Get it for: Bredamouth, new Scharhot, Sabnac, Brennen Vampir, Jaeger, any Amon support for those interested.

 

Well, that's it. We have our summary of the month. Expect Gears and Kagero to be the main deck to watch out for with all this new shiny shit. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sit in a corner for a bit and chuckle disturbingly at the new Kagero support coming to Japan in October. Leave me be, lest you get sucked in.

 

I’m taking requests for articles if there’s something about Vanguard you need to gripe about. Email ideas at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com. Or drop a message on my Twitter account!