Now, Diablo's a special little gem as it's a deck past it's most prime, the peak when it was actually viable.

You give it some life with the new Shadow stuff, but really, it's a deck left best for casuals and not for actual tournaments, as the two Striders of the deck are restricted to specific striders, for whatever reason.

Let's quickly talk about the flamefest that is known as "Blaster Dark "Diablo"". While I love him, at the same time I loathe him.

BDD is weak. There's no reason why you should even bother using the Luard-Diablo variant. I was dumb enough to think it was ever good. Back to why the reasons BDD is weak:
1) The Stride skill is specific to Phantom Blaster and can only pop one thing. You might aswell Canivore, as it sacks two things and isn't specified to the card which got analed when G Guardians became a thing.
2) GB2 still requires you to ditch something. It's not a free stride if you still have to drop your hand. Granted in Luard your hand can get clogged with said G3, but you can use Fodla to call that sacktastic Belial Owl to get free draws! Meanwhile, your stuck discarding whatever the hell you can for a Blaster G-Unit. Not any unit, but a Blaster unit. sighing intensifies

So, what do I think of Vortimer? Slightly better. He can grab your Twitterun if your opponent likes to stall with the spicy on ride cb1, sb1 call a G1, but his Stride skill is GB2 and to get any advantage from it, you need to stride Spectral. Jesus Christ.

With that in mind we're still running 4 of each because there's nothing real better and you can work with them. You ideally want to ride Blaster Dark mainly because of the Blaster name for... Charon, Dark Heart and fun shit like that

Now, G2.

Thanks to Morfessa, we have a consistent 14k attacker. Run 4 of her. I don't care if you can't afford her. The 14k is under appreciated, and I under appreciated her too. 14 + 7 = 21. Your opponent will have to give up 15k shield. That's good.

Next, run 4 Hoel. Only thing I wish was Luard restricted. Fucking dumb card, it's a Grosne for both you and your Vanguard and if you call his buddy Kahedin you unflip and soulcharge. He makes me nut. Just run four. There's nothing wrong with him tbh. He's all around really nice.

Then, run whatever the hell you want for the last 3 spots.

My main candidates are Dark Night Maiden, Macha, Dark Saga Painter, Skull Witch, Nemain, and 10k vanillas. Myself, I would run Macha mainly because we need a call engine. And I mean it.

Otherwise, I'd go 10k vanillas because synergy with Gnesa, and helps prevent early game Rush.

The thing is, while Dark Saga can be a G1 in deck and can be checked by Aurageyser as a G1 which ups the G1 count, but, while the draw drop skill helps dig through deck, it's one thing that makes you go deck out. She/he (I don't even know what the fuck the gender is) has good synergy with Dark Heart tho.

Nemain is for early game digging. Digging cards are good in Vanguard. In any game really. What hurts her is 3k base and that she's a dead unit after call. Sack fodder essentially. I cut her from my Luard deck in favour for Grosne for the fun 15k right off the bat, but in Diablo or a more casual scene she's not a bad choice.

that and jesus christ she is real waifu material, I love her to bits, she's my OG waifu from SP btw

G1s.

Now, this should be standard, BUT FUCKING RUN ESRAS.

FREE PGS EACH TURN. YOU WANT THAT? DON'T YOU? IF YOU DON'T, WHATS WRONG WITH YOU?

If you don't like sacking running Karma Collector I guess. Unflip is fine I guess..

4 Kahedin to get the max potency with Hoel. That and 5000 power to a restanding Spectral is fun, plus pressure...

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And then for the last 6 spots you can really run whatever. I like going with 2 Charon, 2 Dark Heart, 2 Night Sky because Charon counts as 2 while being sacked and you don't run David, Dark Heart can give you more units to sack or attack with, and Night Sky is an 11k which goes good with Dark Heart to create 18k spicy columns or be a 11k booster to a 10k without Gnesa for 21k columns.

I mean, you could run Knies for the free fuck you to control decks, but this deck has no real unflip bar Hoel. Have fun conserving guys...

(Is it bad I underrated Night Sky Eagle but now run 4 of him in my Luard deck because 11k?)

Now, that you have G1s sorted out, time to do triggers!

Do I need to explain?

Run 8 draws, 4 stands and 4 Heals.

You might be thinking: lol wut there's the CRITS?!

To that, my response is: This isn't fucking Luard where your hand is actually decent.

That line up is what I use irl. It's fine as so.

Draw triggers give you cards. You do not understand how important that is.

Cursed Eye Raven gives you free sack targets. Free sack targets. Have fun with him. That, and let's restand those buffed up Hoel's shall we?

4 Heals should be standard.

If you want to, go 8 crits, 4 draws, 4 Heals. But I do not regret switching to 8 draws. I was doing 11 draws once, but I needed 10k shields and stands are just better than criticals imo.

Critical just adds pressure. It's situational pressure. I'd rather hard plus or get more attacks (note, Shadows only really get 3 chances to swing so they need to make it count) rather than pressure. Besides, if my opponent is no guarding those 21k+ swings or wasting 15k shields, I think that's fine enough pressure.

I only wanted the 5k power boost anyways. O3O

Then, your starting vanguard. Officially, my new favourite starter beside David, it's Commanding Knight, Gnesa. She makes 10ks useful and can help stack power or be sacked without feeling bad that it's David. You run 2 Charon which is fine. I play against GC irl and I use David as a starter and when he gets spun back into deck, and I've damaged check Charon or lost one through other means, and basically have 2 to work with, it's fine. You can cut Night Sky to 0 and add another 2 Charons, but being realistic, you only sack Charon on Phantom turns. You want to sack Kahedin Spectral turns for pumping the vanguard and HOEL UNFLIP :D

But I'm using Macha so yeah whatever just slam that power onto her or something lmao

So, G4s.

This, is very difficult imo. Shadows have so many good Strides, it's hard to choose what you should use.

Personally, I'd go:
2x Aurageyser
4x Phantom
2x Spectral
2x Carnivore Dragon
1x Grim Recruiter
1x Irgahn Vert
3x Plotmaker
1x Dizmel or Agleam

Notice the lack of Jeliddo? Yeah, since this isn't Luard where you can't as easily recover your calling (you need Macha...) and Dizmel protects what necessary or Agleam can dig...

Plotmaker is a free 10k shield, if you don't run it, your insane

2x Aurageyser for free stride or call advantage right off the bat

4x Phantom because I find he's more consistent at 4. Cause first one is probably blocked by G Guards if they don't want to sack. Either way they sack something. Plus he gets crits. Fun.

2x Spectral because you restand twice really. Any more than 3, it's overkill.

2x Carnivore to help clear field in prep for Phantom. Either way they lose field advantage and you don't care because you'll go Phantom and continue to sack the actual shit out of their field, while at the same time make them waste 15k shield and hand to call stuff. If they don't call, go Phantom. It's a never ending cycle of fuck yous...

1x Grim because you might get to call off him. (I've used him plenty of times as a 1st stride because Carnivore wasn't a good choice.)

1x Irgahn because mass retire than call for 15k. If they survive for that long, go ahead and fuck their hand even more.

Well, to actually use the deck, you'll be sacking a lot and getting advantage off your opponent guarding for your vanguard, 21k+ columns, and them having to call stuff to make up what they lost or commit a board because theyll get Phantom'd if they don't.

This deck is casual, but is nowhere near as good as Luard is tbh. The Diablo Strides in Luard is lacklustre at times, so yeah.

Diablo deck was good at G-BT06, but it's way past it's prime...

It's a fun little deck I like and wish for support, but right now it's dead. Should it stay dead? Probably.

That's all, fox out.