I’m sorry I’m slightly late for this article, life get’s priority. But here I am, with my first ever card analysis, for the new G Guard from FC17, Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Impede Dragon.
Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Impede Dragon
[G guardian] (Usable when both fighters’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater, and the number of face up G guardians in your G zone is three or less)-Opponent Turn’s Guard Step-[Choose a card with “Heal” from your hand, and discard it] Call this card to your (GC) from face down.
[AUTO] Generation Break 1:[Choose a face down G guardian from your G zone, and turn it face up] When this unit is placed on (GC), you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, retires it, binds it face up, if the number of rear-guards your opponent has is two or more than yours, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, and retires it.
He’s the new thundering stuff we’ve got as defense, and he’s good. Simply good. For the first time ever (or since the beginning of G, anyways) we have ourselves a good G Guard, that can be used in non-TStrike decks too.
Hi skill is, when placed on GC, by flipping a G Guard, your opponent chooses one of his/her rearguards, and retire-binds it. Then, if your opponent has two or more rearguards than you, your opponent retires another rearguard. Pretty good to activate retire/binds on opponent’s turn.
The anti-synergy of TStrike with older subclass is somewhat is brought down a peg or two, and Vanq decks simply profit from this guy.
But first and foremost, the art. It is SIMPLY gorgeous, and is reminiscent of the sub clan, Brawlers. Hell, he even has a Thundering Fist and a headband, two qualities found in my favorite sub clan. But why isn’t he a Brawler is a total mystery to me.
Next up, timing. Bushi really needs to improve on their timing. You decided to release such a good card in a set that was bound to have G Guards flipping G Guards?! This is absurd, BushiBro. You could’ve just switched Bulwark with this guy, and it would have been better. However, good card is good.
Next is the skill itself. Retiring two units is always a good skill, and the Vanq deck fully proliferates from this. This card has synergy with two cards, which pump up your VG for defense. They are Chain Bolt Dragoon, and the man himself, Dragonic Vanquisher.
Chain Bolt Dragoon
[AUTO](RC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 1:When your opponent’s rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with “Vanquisher” in its card name, your opponent chooses a card from his or her drop zone, and binds it face up. If a card was bound, choose up to one of your other units, and it gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.
This guy/gal, combined with the above mentioned G Guard, boosts up Vanq by 2k. As his skill is not restricted by “during your turn”, he can trigger on any players turn, just needing a medium to proc himself. This medium occurs in the form of two units, Bulwark Dragon, and Impede Dragon.
Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
[G guardian] (Usable when both fighters’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater, and the number of face up G guardians in your G zone is three or less)-Opponent Turn’s Guard Step-[Choose a card with “Heal” from your hand, and discard it] Call this card to your (GC) from face down.
[CONT](GC) Thunderstrike 3 (This ability is active when your opponent’s bind zone has three or more cards):This unit gets [Shield]+10000.
[AUTO]:At the end of the battle that this unit is placed on (GC), for every four cards in your opponent’s bind zone, choose up to one [Rest] rear-guard in your opponent’s front row, and retire it.
While Bulwark is an easy 25k shield, his retire skills require a lot of setup. Also has silly restrictions that lock him to front row rest rearguards only. But a retire is a retire, and it helps trigger Chain Bolt’s skill.
Now on the topic of the aforementioned Impede Dragon. He is a random retire/bind, and another retire if you have no rearguards. (often the case with me.) Now, he maybe not ace Bulwark’s 25k solid defense, but he doesn’t need TStrike 8 for two binds. But as I said, a retire is a retire. No questions asked.
So, onto Chain Bolt’s skill: Resricted by 1/Turn, when a unit is retired, the opponent binds another unit from drop zone, and he gives 2k to a unit. Pretty simple, but combine him with the Guards mentiones above, and you power up Vanq to 13k and more if you have more Chain Bolts. This not only results in high defense, but also makes sure that there are at minimum two units in the opponent’s bind zone.
Now, let’s hear it for our main vanguard,
Dragonic Vanquisher
[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2 (Active if you have two or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):When your opponent’s rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, this unit gets [Power]+3000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.
[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] During your turn, when your G unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one rear-guard in your opponent’s front row, retire it, and bind that card face up.
This skill is GB2 reliant, so make sure you have it unlocked. This combo relies on Vanq’s GB2. As I said before, a retire is a retire, no questions. And that is because of this guy. For each unit put into the drop via an effect, he gets +3k and a crit. A carbon copy of Gauntlet Buster’s LB4, so this applies to him too. Now, see, the skill is not restricted by either 1/Turn, or “during your turn” clause, making his GB2, which was offensive, into a defensive one.
When Impede procs, he retire/binds one and retires one, making a total of two units entering the drop, equal to a 6k boost in defense. Thus, you have your vanguard sitting at 17k (or 20k+ if you have multiple Chain Bolts on field) and saving the cards in your hand, thus making way for an even explosive, or rather, I should say THUNDERING next turn.
Also, putting in some tips from the wiki’s page:
- Use this card alongside Dragonic Vanquisher or Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon to buff up your vanguard during your opponent’s turn.
- Use this card alongside Eradicator, Sweep Command Dragon to retire your opponent’s rear-guards (plus draw and gain power) when they declare an attack.
- Machinegun Eradicator, Kantou can also give power to your Eradicator vanguard.
- Use this card alongside Eradicator, First Thunder Dracokid in order to Break Ride during your opponent’s turn, retiring their rear-guards, and giving your vanguard a Power+10k to boot.
- Do note that if you manage to superior ride successfully when your opponent’s vanguard is attacking your vanguard, the attack target will cease to exist, thus the attack will not hit, making the effect a pseudo-Perfect Guard.
Slowly but steadily, Vanq’s GB2 is turning defensive, and defensive GB2s are life. I PERFECTLY AM LIKING THIS CHANGE.
The interaction with FC heal: This is also pretty huge if you spam CB effects (Voltage Horn, Vanquisher G3, Rockclimb, Voltechzapper), as the CC is very welcome if you have between 0-1 CB left face up. You can also technically just g guard to cc1 without flipping over another g guard. That’s flexibility.
This card f**ks combat math over (for opponent). A few instances this happens:
Case I:
Opponent attacks RG/VG first with only 2 front row and few boosters. Effectively this nullifies a single RG attack (attacker or other front row). Even better if the attacking rg is resist and the other isn’t, which results in shutting down 2 columns.
Case II:
Opponent has full field and RG attacked first. This results in them having to kill vg booster (unless its important) > guarded rg booster > rg booster that hasn’t boosted yet. Same as 1, if their entire back row has resist, good fuckin luck to them as it will kill the front row(s).
Case III:
It punishes resist. I never believe I’ll get to say this. As highlighted in previous 2, this becomes really dangerous when opponent field flood and have a sizeable amount of resist. You can just VMAX/Turbo(if you go Brawler style) their resist next turn.
Case IV:
Opponent has 2 full RG column(4 RG) and no VG booster, and VG attacks first. All you gotta do is intercept your front row (enough to bring your RG count to 2 or less), and G Guard with this. Watch them pop their RG boosters and water down their offense (especially if they have amber clones that needs boosting), or even force them to kill a column if they need to use that amber this turn. This does not include any resist units to screw up the math further.
This card greatly improves the Nightrose matchup by A LOT. Revenge on their Canoneer/Dragut shit, eats with Negrobone plays, hell it even craps on their first rg attack if they have 4+ rg and you are smart with intercepts. Factor in vanquisher GB2 or gauntlet buster LB4 and it effectively shuts down or neuters most of the attacks. Oh and the million dollar question: Would you like to retire your hollow Grenache/Negrolazy that hasn’t attack yet and lose their CC?
Mirage decks get boned really bad. In addition to Granblue, Pale Moon of magia variants get shut off badly. Often they will have to lose precious boosters or risk losing front row attacks. Paratrooper, Swordmasters, Purple Trapeze, and amber boosters: They all hurt. Harmony kinda gets hurt as well as it effectively breaks harmony in a column, and if they only have 4 rg, goodbye Olyvia turn.
It counter punishes field wipes from opponents. Harri G4, Drag it, Taiten, Chronoscommand Revolution, LJ, basically anything that haves you lose your rearguard. If you have none left, impede will kill 2 even if opponent only has 3 rg, and that’s potent shit. If they call 2 or less…this effectively blocks out 1 column.
In vanquisher, Impede is worth at least 20k shield, if no way more. You also need to factor in vanquisher gets +3k per retire, which effectively puts vg at 14k (17k with 2 retire), making a lot of 21k columns more manageable, and shits on 16k beaters without booster (like negrorook). In fact 21k is not gonna happen without some major rg power gains or triggers, as they pretty much lose the boosters. That’s without factoring the chain bol
For Kaiser, it puts opponents in a bad spot and helps you with booster which they often cannot touch efficiently. Again +1 Thunderstrike is also lovely.
This card is the best shit that happen to Naru in quite a while. The world shall weep! It is bloody brilliant.
Now, another important topic: Space. With each new card reveal, space is becoming an issue. I’m currently running this as my G Zone:
4x Voltage (AWESOME CARD)
2x VMAX (Great card, btw)
2x Conquest
2x Voltechzapper (Good first stride if you are going second, or your opponent rushes.)
X3 Bulwark
X1 Vritra
X2 Zorras (Filler)
However, due to this card (which I’m definitely running at two)I gotta make some changes in the G Zone.
Post FC, my G Zone will look like:
x4 Voltage
x2 VMAX
x2 Voltechzapper
X2 Bulwark
X1 Vritra (Just sitting here, for flip fodder)
X2 Impede
X1 FC17 Stride
X2 Conquest
Yeah, the G Zone is kinda getting tight, so hope’s up for Bushi to increase the G Zone size.
So that’ll be it for my first Single Card Analysis. Please feel free to comment, or click dat follow button to instantly get updated on my ramblings.
Thanks for reading!
Stand UP, Vanguard!
P.S. Thanks a lot /u/cinderate for the other stuff.
Definitely not a blog thingy 