*kicks door open*

OKAY MY BOYS THIS IS NOT A DRILL

THIS IS HAPPENING

PHANTOM BLASTER DRAGON

REVEALED

FRIDAY

H O L Y S H I T

We still die to OTT, but who doesn't...

♿️ Promise Daughter is a fair and balanced card ♿️

Okay, before I go on a rant about how disgusting PD is, let's get into the actual shit you came here for.

(If you came here for a PD rant, my mans, just check last chapter LOL)

Phantom Blaster Dragon
"Submerge yourself into the abyss! Corrupted Charging Lance!"
[ACT](VC):COST [Counter Blast (1) & retire three of your rear-guards], your opponent chooses three of his or her rear-guards, and retires them. This unit gets [Power]+15000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.
[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:If your opponent has no rear-guards and 4 or less cards in his or her damage zone, COST [Soul Blast (1) Grade 3], and deal one damage to your opponent's vanguard.

MY BOYS

MY BOYYYYYYYYYSSSSSSSS

you know what, fuck Promise Thot, THIS VR IS ACTUALLY GOOD.

Unlike Burning Maeltrash and Virgin Alfredo, Phantom Chadblaster is one bombass motherfucker.

I didn't expect a card that could burn three of your opponent's rears and give you 15k and a crit! Yes, this would be much, much better with a guard restrict, but personally I do not mind, since have you *looked* at the second skill?! Yes, burning the opponent by a damage - now, this or guard restrict... I'll take either since they're both *good*!

Pinging the opponent for a damage is very, very powerful. Making them go from 3 damage to 4, then pressuring with PBD's crit is threatening, or just outright deny them a chance to fight back by forcing them to 5. As much as the restriction (0 rear guards) might seem impossible to achieve, PBD burning 3 rear-guards at once is massive since now our only have to retire 2 left. How can you do that? By using PBD again. Now, this may *seem* stupid in concept, but actually doing so has been very effective because I put my opponent down so low. Just having the first skill of PBD *not* be [1/Turn] is very powerful since it gives you a chance to go wild. And ladies and gents, I really do like that. As a side note here, if you're facing an Accel clan, BD can easily finish off the last rear-guard(s).

Now yes, I'm aware it's a SB-G3, but for what it does, it very fine. The first skill being able to stack pressure on VG means you won't have to give force markers to VG, and can spread it to your already powerful rear-guards, and the skill also makes the non-targeting retire much more consistent. You may not have a choice, but what you do have is an ability that can make your opponent go -3, and even lose 2 cards in hand. This in total means your opponent loses 5 cards, while you only lose 3.

Phantom Blaster versus Force/Accel will be very strong, but against Protect they might struggle a little. The Protect markers are free blocks, BUT, being able to waste them is very much appreciated. From what I can see, the only real Protect clans that'll threaten SP is OTT and Dark Irregs. OTT because Protect clan & Promise Thot, while Dark Irregulars can blow you out with Death Anchor and getting 2 Protect Gifts in a turn. There is the chance of Granblue, but you'll be getting that ping damage much easier versus them.

Also, being able to burn your opponent's field with a *single* card is very powerful. Due to the call and draw that Macha and Javelin have, along with the Nemain clones, it is very possible to retire 6 and not lose much. The reason why SP have so many on-place skills makes sense - once they've been used, retire them with PBD, and make room to make more on-place. Plus, the +30k/+2 criticals is nothing to scoff at. If you know the opponent can't PG, the first skill can be very strong in forcing lots of shield. But, generally the opponent will PG... but it's still two cards from them, and a sentinel, so you can't really complain.

Now, today I did some testing on CFA with kaiishida where I was using straight up Shadow Paladin and he was using various decks, mostly from AL4. This is my current testing list:

Now, if you noticed, the G2 line up is much different to how I talked about from my trial deck review. I said Emer was going to be a 4-of, but this card, Cathbad, has so much more value due to the opponent not committing cards to the field in the early. Because of this, I've also thought about adding back in Blaster Dark due to his twin drive being much more potent than before.

Otherwise, 4 Macha, 4 Lancer, this is pretty "standard". I know Macha is a 4-of for sure, but Lancer seems like it could be a 3 or 4-of, depending on how the meta shifts. For G1s, you have your core 12 (Charon, Nemain, Javelin) and then 2 random tech spots. So far, I've been playing around with the techs, but I've settled on Arianrhod for now. However, this is very likely to change. One idea I've thought of is 10 crits, 2 Mac Lir and filling the final two tech spots with the G1 PG as pulling criticals is very strong in the deck.

Speaking of which, the trigger line is crit heavy because flipping yellow wins games. Some people have been talking about 6 crit-6 draw, since Howl Owl can be called and sacked off for PBD, but I honestly don't see much... "usage" in that. I did testing it out a little bit, but it didn't have much worth. If you try Abyss Router as a tech, the Howl Owl is a very good target for her, but she's another soul cost, and if anything, SP is very resource heavy.

It is very, very easy to waste all your CB and Soul quickly in order to gain advantage. However, I've noticed that while managing CB isn't very hard due to Lancer & Charon, soul has become an issue since a lot of the cards use it. Caar, one of your main superior calls, costs a soul, and for the Macha + Charon combo, you must use a soul to refund for Macha. Arianrhod is another soul, but I don't really use her, so it's not much.

Speaking of Lancer, he is a fantastic card. Being able to become 20k and CC is very good, while cards like Nemain/Macha/Charon/Javelin who've used their skills can be used as fodder. And speaking of Nemain, I must say she is a *phenomenal* card. A single card in hand becomes two cards, and over time can become four. There is so much value from calling her turn 1 and beginning to call copies to start filling board, and that makes Cathbad really big. Plus, Macha assists in filling board, so getting 5 cards on during turn 2 is very consistent. Like, Nemain is great for retire fodder and filling board as quick as possible.

If your opponent doesn't commit anything before your G2 turn, you can very easily shit out a field using Nemain and Macha, before throwing down Cathbad to get a +15k for free since you have 5 more rear-guards than your opponent. This will push them to 3-4 and possibly make them call units, which'll just get burnt by PBD.

The main attack engine is Cathbad who gets big, PBD who becomes scary, and Javelin/Macha + Charon on their on call turns. Call Macha and Charon in a column together and you're swinging 26k, which is enough to force 15k shield. Add a force circle, it's 25k shield, and Cathbad is just insane. If the bare minimum you can retire is 3, and you have 5 rears (which is very likely) Cathbad gets +9k, making him a 19k beater by himself, then adding a boost from any card (even Nemain) he can force 15k-20k shield. At his fullest potential of 24k, and adding an 11k like Javelin/Charon then throwing a Force marker, he becomes a 35k monster.

Then, the engine to make your board is Caar, Macha, Javelin and Nemain. Nemain is just soooo good. She's free! Literally fucking free! Like, running any less than 4 is "wtf what are you doing", since she's so good. Missing her turn 1-2 can feel really detrimental. Macha and Javelin are self explanatory, they replace themselves, and it's so good. Caar is a card for a SB, so that shit's almost free too. Like, SP can build a board super easy and maintain hand doing it.

Shit's good.

This is the next rendition. BD for the twin drive and Painter to help for soul.

I don't feel like I need to explain anything else, since I went "pretty" balls deep. Of course, this is a deck still in testing, but I've gotten pretty comfortable with it so far. I'll just wait to see what kind of decks top, since they always seem interesting. AL4 as a set is nothing to scoff at - from SP being a pressure focused deck ready to retire rear-guards and swinging for some absurd lines, to Dark Irregulars having a restanding VG who can get 2 Protect Gifts in a single turn, to Pale Moon who's multi attack potential is insane, and Murakumo where the ZANBAKU build shuts you down for a good turn, or the Mandala build hits you in the face with high numbers, it's very safe to say all the clans in this set win by a good margin.

How will it affect the meta? Probably not by much since OTT is still fucking broken (#banpromisethot) and even from someone else's standpoint, scrying for triggers, drawing hard and having a finisher that is a fucking deer that searches for 2 crits, OTT really does impact it as BDIF. I don't think Shadows will have a chance to beat it, but I think the other 3 clans might, since DI can very easily challenge their large hand with No Life King's insane skill, and Pale Moon just abusing Accel circles for their multi attacks. Even Kumos, one of the assiests decks in G, can stand a chance because of ZANBAKU's powerful lock, which can also deny Imperial Daughter being spammed!

Honestly, once the set drops I am looking forward to standard. So far, it's been kind of lacklustre, but with so many cool new decks to play with, it's gonna be one hell of a ride.

Next up: Sleeping on Swagruler and maybe I'll finally make the reboot of Unit Chat.

That's all, Fox out!