[CFV] Might as well start a deck archive since I make so many of these damn things.

[Althemia]

And no, not like the last one. Each deck will have pictures + explanations for card choices, as well as when the deck was updated and how it needs to be updated in the future.

 

Index:

• Technical Clan Booster 1: Reckless Rampage
  • Bad End Spike Brothers
• G-BT06: Transcendance of Blade and Blossom
  • Silver Thorn

[Althemia]

Bad End Spike Brothers

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Decklist
• 2 - The Spike Brother Strategy!
• 3 - Card choices
• 4 - Match-ups

1 - Decklist

1 Mecha Trainer (Starter!)
1 Mecha Analyzer
---
4 Cheer Girl, Pauline
3 Cheerful Lynx
1 Mecha Advisor
3 Silence Joker
1 Liar Lips
4 Magical Manager
[ 8 Draw / 4 Crit / 4 Heal ]

4 Kissmark, Alma
3 Acrobat Verdi
3 Moodmaker, Nyanrook
2 Death Flag Dragger
1 Cheer Girl, Elza

4 Dudley Mason
4 Wink Killer Misery
2 Devildan Chemist
1 Jumbo the Stungun

4 Bad End Dragger
2 Bulldozer Dobe
1 Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor
1 Extraordinary Expertise, Rising Nova

3 Divine Hand, Good End Dragger
2 Shootdown King, Miracle Ace
1 Godly Speed, Flash Bruce
1 Great Villain, Dirty Picaro
1 Great Villainess, Dhampir Lily

2 - The Spike Brother Strategy!

Ever since their introduction in BT02, Spike Brothers have always had 1 primary focus: To be the aggressor no matter the match-up to push your opponent over the edge before they have a chance to take advantage of your really poor hand advantage. As a result, a lot of the Spike Brother effects are incredibly costly in terms of their hand advantage so that they are forced into being aggressive, giving them very little in terms of flexibility to do but at the same time a huge amount of consistency as their effects are often used to call very specific cards from your deck to create a game-winning formation.

The deck has two primary win conditions. These are Bad End Dragger, and to a lesser extent Good End Dragger in the same regard, and Miracle Ace. Bad End Dragger gives you a turn(s) of high-power attacks to force your opponent's entire hand out just to not die, although Bad End will also sacrifice a lot of your own cards in the process to utilize his skill. This is especially the case with Good End Dragger, as it lets you get a Grade 3 from your Deck at the same time to make the best usage out of the +10000 to everything. Miracle Ace allows you to unload your hand at your opponent to initiate a constant attack, giving something +5 and replacing a unit every time one leaves the board to give you a near unstoppable kill turn with the correct set-up.

This is the part where I should also give a warning. Because of the nature of the deck as I described before, it is incredibly hard to play as there will be games where you will get overrun and wonder where everything went wrong. It is also incredibly resource heavy and requires a good understanding of how to go about doing your power turns because you may think that you haven't built the necessary materials to beat your opponent in that turn. Don't get disheartened by this, as it is something that you learn from experience!

3 - Card choices

Mecha Trainer is the starter for the deck as it is the single most flexible card in the deck. If you want a Perfect Guard, he'll fetch you a Perfect Guard. Want to find the Limit Break enabler so that you can start using Bad End's skill as soon as 1 damage? Go for it. Maybe you just want to find some stride fodder to guarantee that you'll be able to stride with just 1 card next turn. There are a lot of ways to play Mecha Trainer and, while the usual one will most likely be finding Cheer Girl Elza, none of them are specifically wrong as they are all different depending upon the match-up and the current situation.

Mecha Analyzer is a tech card that I firmly believe may be overlooked by a lot of people when they first read it. When a card returns to your deck from RC while you have Gen Break active, you can slide it into your Soul to bind one of your rearguards and recall it while giving it +3 in the process. What this can do is actually very impressive when put into perspective of the new Spike Brother keyword, which is Charge. Charge only activates when something is placed on the Rearguard Circle by a card effect and things that are charging often have incredibly powerful effects, so Mecha Analyzer will reward you for getting one of your rearguards back in the deck by charging another one and giving it +3 at the same time. It also has a lot of flexibility as it lets you move a card from the backrow to the frontrow during a Bad End Dragger turn, giving you an additional huge attack in with something like Nyanrook to really push all of your opponent's cards out of their hand.

8 Draw and 4 Crit has been a standard line-up for Spike Brothers for a while. This is to attempt to make up for Spike Brother's poor hand advantage, although it also means that the average quality of the shields that they hold is a lot lower than most other decks. It also means that their damage checks are a lot stronger than other decks at the same time, not only giving them defensive power-ups but also replenishing their hands more often than not. Silence Joker and Liar Lips, however, are played because critical triggers are still incredibly strong when you check them early on and both of these cards have some pretty game-altering skills. This deck is incredibly counterblast heavy and as such Silence Joker helps to alleviate the cost, while Liar Lips lets you call her to a rearguard circle and still get a card back in your hand when your Vanguard attacks so you're still able to pay the cost for all of your Spike Brothers. They also both add to Soul, which is huge given how reliant they now are on it as a resource.

Kissmark, Alma is played over Untouchable, Milly and Cheer Girl, Marilyn because the deck doesn't care to try and defend it's rearguards, often not even having any rearguards in the front row to defend in the first place, while the unflipping is something that the deck desperately needs to continue with heavy power turns. Untouchable, Milly also has a major problem associated with her of being a rather weak powered Charge unit that you don't necessarily want to call and her Charge skill isn't especially good on top of that.

Acrobat Verdi is played so that you have a higher chance of drawing into 1 card that you can discard to Stride, since it's very common to find yourself not having it without Verdi. It also has the added bonus of being able to find Rising Nova when you place it on the Rearguard Circle for if you want to play a more Stride oriented game against your opponent, but these situations are rather rare.

Moodmaker, Nyanrook is a rather fun option that Spikes got in Reckless Rampage and admittedly one of my favourites. He is a Charger that becomes an 11000 Attacker while he is Charging and, when he returns to the Deck at the end of that battle, he gives an something else +4. He has some great synergies with some of the later cards we'll discuss, but the most notables ones are his synergies with Mecha Analyzer and Miracle Ace. Since he is a Charge, it means that you can put him down on the board and forget about him for a bit before Charging him manually with Mecha Analyzer while Miracle Ace lets you slap him down on the board during your final turn to push for 1 more 11000 attack that will further increase the power of the next one by an additional 4000.

Death Flag Dragger is a support for Bad End Dragger which still makes the life and blood of Spikes Brothers as insane as it is. When he's placed on the Rearguard Circle, you add a Bad End Dragger from your Deck to your hand if you already have a Grade 3 in your hand. This is mainly done by using him with Dudley Mason, as Dudley Mason allows you to call him when he hits before you ride to Grade 3 so that you guarantee that you go into Bad End Dragger before all of your other Grade 3s. It's also incredibly good as it searches Stride fodder against decks that go to 3 against you, making sure that despite your poor hand advantage you still have a card in hand that lets you stride without losing too much advantage.

Cheer Girl, Elza is a very simple card that a lot of other decks have, but it has a special place in Spike Brothers especially. It simply lets you use your Limit Break 4 skills while you do not fulfil the requirements for them. This is very important for a card like Bad End Dragger, as it lets you start utilizing his huge board skills to start making your opponent take damage that they wouldn't otherwise be taking, especially when combined with Good End Dragger.

Dudley Mason is one of the big reasons why this deck is playable. This seems to be a big trend with the best Spike Brothers released in BT10. Regardless, Dudley Mason lets you Counterblast 1 and move a card from hand to Soul to call any Spike Brother from your Deck when he hits your opponent's Vanguard. The important part? He lets you do this even while HE'S the Vanguard, while a lot of other cards of his nature would simply be limited to doing it on the Rearguard Circle. This means that you can have an incredibly strong pressuring Grade 2 Vanguard that, when it hits, guarantees that you find and ride Bad End Dragger next turn because of Death Flag Dragger being one of the things that he can add. Dudley Mason gets weaker the longer the game drags on, however, so this is something that you should be utilizing early to make the most out of it before guarding with it to get rid of it later.

Wink-Killer Misery hasn't been discussed much in this guide yet, but this isn't to say that she's any worse than anything mentioned before. It's actually common opinion that this card is one of the primary reasons why Spike Brothers are as scary as she is, but why? Because she's Dudley Mason, except she doesn't have to hit and she gives the thing 5000 additional power in exchange for being a lot slower than Dudley Mason and requiring a boost. She's a huge asset to the deck as it means that you can get rid of Dudley Mason in the late game for what is admittedly a much better late game version of him, since she synergizes incredibly well with all of the deck's bosses to the point where she may actually synergize too well. She will often not be calling the same things as Dudley Mason, since she is used in the late game and as such she will more than likely begin picking your Charge units out of the deck for some major hurt like Bulldozer Dobe and Nyanrook.

Devildam Chemist has actually only been revealed today, but I knew that as soon as I saw it that it would be one of the new driving forces of Spike Brothers. He has a skill that has yet to be seen in Vanguard, as he doubles his power upon you using his skill. This includes any boost that he may get from other units (i.e. Bad End Dragger or Wink Killer Misery) as well as the boost he gets from Grade 0s or 1s in the backrow when he attacks. His synergies with the decks are huge, although he does take a lot of resources to make work properly in some cases, so it will take a more experienced deck user to realize when the correct timing is for Devildam to enter play. There is a huge downside about this card that can't be ignored, however: He only has 6000 Power. This is a huge downside for Spikes as it means that even Grade 1s can start harassing your Vanguard in the case that you have to ride it, so I recommend mulliganing it away even if it's your only Grade 2 in your opening hand because taking that much out of your hand / damage that early will mean that you lose if you ride this card.

Jumbo the Stungun has been featured in Spike Brother decks ever since it's conception as a 1-of because of how it gives resources back to the Spike Brother player for playing him off of a card effect, which is always a nice thing to have as it allows you to build up a bit of board while creating more soul and alleviating any counterblast costs that you may have had to pay to put Jumbo into play. He also has really good synergy with Mecha Analyzer, as it lets you reuse his skill while giving you an 11000 attacker to hit those power numbers. Just generally a good card, wouldn't play any more than 1 but the 1 does it's job very nicely.

And now we get on to the main reason to even play this deck: Bad End Dragger! This card has been the life and soul of Spike Brothers ever since it's conception, being the number 1 biggest reason to play the deck because of how it adds an entirely new dynamic to the way the deck plays. When you ride on him while you have Limit Break active, he gives your Vanguard +10000 Power and also gives any rearguard that may attack your opponent's Vanguard this turn +10000, but in return they return to the bottom of the deck afterwards. This may seem like a downside, but in actuality the fact that Bad End Dragger returns your cards to the bottom of the deck is a huge upside for you. Cards like Dudley Mason and Wink Killer Misery can only call cards to unoccupied rearguard circles, which Bad End Dragger accounts for quite nicely. This means that Bad End Dragger clears the way for lots of high powered attacks in a row, often forcing your opponent to guard with their entire hand to avoid losing in that same turn. It also helps that Bad End Dragger gives access to Spike's most consistently strong stride while also having his own searcher which adds a lot of consistency to the deck that it needed, meaning that Bad End Dragger will more than likely always be the figurehead of Spike Brothers for now and the foreseeable future to come.

Bulldozer Dobe is an interesting Grade 3 as it is one of the only Grade 3 Rearguard-centric cards to be strong enough to be worth playing. He is a charger that gains 10000 Power while he is charging. This card is often the card that you'll want to get from your late game calling cards such as Wink Killer Misery or Good End Dragger so that you can get some big columns going in the other column that will disappear after attacking. This is especially the case when combined with Bad End Dragger as he becomes 31000 without boost, forcing your opponent to have to guard for 25000 against most standard Vanguards. Very solid new addition to the deck.

Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor is a recent addition that I've made to the deck after looking back over the deck and making some final tweaks to it before writing up this guide. I realized that prior to adding in Dudley Emperor, the deck didn't have very many ways of abusing Bad End Dragger when your opponent refused to give you the ability to access Generation Break. As such, Dudley Emperor was added in and he has no other pre-requisites for his skill other than Limit Break 4. This is even taken care of because of Cheer Girl, Elza so the Limit Break 4 isn't even a worry by this point. You can counterblast 2 and move 2 cards from your hand to Soul when he attacks in order to call 2 different Spike Brothers from your Deck to 2 unoccupied rearguard circles, allowing for you to really abuse that Bad End Dragger skill by calling 2 Devildam Chemist to make your opponent's guarding near impossible.

Exceptional Expertise, Rising Nova is the most recent Spike Brothers boss to be added to their rather small arsenal, but it is by far one of the best tools they could have possibly gotten in the set. He allows you to get the skill of Dudley Mason or Wink Killer Misery for your Vanguard when it attacks, essentially giving you even more insane consistency at the expense of some of your hand advantage. His Generation Break 2 is also fantastic, as he becomes a counterblastless Dudley Mason/Wink Killer Misery when he reaches that point which is also fantastic for comboing off with Bad End Dragger. His interaction with Miracle Ace is the main reason why he's included in this deck, as it lets you get off even more attacks by using him in conjunction with the game winning stride.

Divine Hand, Good End Dragger is a stride that requires Bad End Dragger as your heart, which isn't too hard of a task to achieve considering how you play Death Flag Dragger. His skill basically shorthands to letting you ride a card on top of Bad End Dragger while also calling a Grade 3 to an open Rearguard Circle. This means that you can stride and breakride in the same turn while getting a Bulldozer Dobe from your deck for a 31000 swing on top of all of this. He builds up soul fairly quickly for your late turns and is incredibly efficient for what he is, great card for Spikes to have.

Shootdown King, Miracle Ace is basically an on-demand win condition when the cards in your hand are most appropriate for it. You will never be striding this card off of it's Generation Break 3 though, as the constant hand calling is the main reason you do it. You effectively want to hoard as much Soul as possible from your various different skills (Jumbo/Wink Killer/Good End/Dudley Mason/Mecha Analyzer/Triggers) so that you are able to unload your hand against your opponent while constantly powering up your board to make every next swing even stronger than the next. The card has fantastic synergy with Rising Nova, allowing you to get even more attacks in to power up your board even more while even generating more Soul at the same time. The biggest problem with this card, however, is that it is very much an all-in stride that will take away your Soul and your hand at the same time, meaning a failed killed attempt will more than likely lead to a Spike Brother player's loss. It is undoubtedly a very strong card, but it requires the right set-up and timing to be used most effectively which is sometimes difficult to gauge.

Godly-speed, Flash Bruce is often used as a first stride if the cards in your hand are not very good for building a board or if your first ride wasn't Bad End Dragger. Being a Dudley Mason / Wink Killer Misery, it puts a lot of pressure on your opponent to blow it as his skill is incredibly powerful if he is to hit since he puts you one step closer to accomplishing complete set-up.

Great Villain, Dirty Picaro is effectively only really used to push back against more retire heavy decks. As mentioned earlier, Spike Brothers don't have very strong hand advantage and they often suffer against decks that are able to push a lot of units off the board at once because they aren't able to catch-up from the cards in their hand alone. This is why Dirty Picaro is a necessary 1-of in the G-Zone, as for the cost of 1 card he will more often than not rebuild your entire board for you meaning your opponent has to spend a considerable amount of resources to retire them all again. He also triggers Charge units and lets you do some really cool Mecha Analyzer turns with Jumbo the Stungun too, but those are pretty niche yet incredibly strong when they work.

Great Villainess, Dhampir Lily is something that you stride into when 1 thing happens: Your hand begins to clump with Charge units. The Charge units are not overly good cards to have drawn early because without access to Miracle Ace it's near impossible to activate them. AS such, Dhampir Lily is good at remedying that because not only does she allow you to get a big attacker into play but she also allows you to cycle the Charge unit for another card. Considering how she is one of the only Spike Brother cards that allows you to remedy this problem, she's necessary to play the 1-of to make sure that you see your other combo pieces too.

4 - Match-ups

Spike Brothers have a considerable amount of good match-ups, mainly against more attrition based decks that focus on only gaining cards without any kind of interaction with your board in a relatively slow manner. Dudley Mason gives you the initiative against a lot of these kinds of decks as he will pressure your opponent into potentially overguarding him early while you build your hand up for the later game. If they don't attempt to overguard Dudley Mason, then Death Flag Dragger while ensure that you get your win condition against these decks by adding Bad End Dragger to your hand. Resolving a good Bad End Dragger turn with access to at least 1 Devildam Chemist while bullyng them for a good amount of early damage is the ideal way to win this match-up.

However, they also have a lot of poorer match-ups. Board control decks not named Link Joker are often reasonably hard to beat as they will retire your board a lot and force you to keep replacing your cards, which will often not be possible due to the poor nature of your hand. However, Dirty Picaro is definitely a win condition in this kind of match-up that you should attempt to resolve alongside Jumbo the Stungun as it puts a near full board down and forces your opponent to have to immediately answer it out of the threat of just dying to a Spike Brother rush turn.

Decks like Aqua Force are reasonably difficult for you to beat and you definitely need to take up the role of the aggressor as soon as possible in order to try and beat them, as you do not have the kind of hand required to play the long game against a Lambros. Try to go for Bad End Dudley Emperor as soon as possible by fetching Cheer Girl Elza from your deck while playing a strong Grade 2 game. Push important rearguards like Tidal Assault off the board as soon as you can to stop yourself from having to keep guarding it. (Note: 8 Draws does help this match-up significantly as 5000 > 10000, but in a lot of cases it's easy to get overwhelmed regardless.)

The single hardest match-up is more than likely Link Joker, as Chaos Universe is able to fill up your empty slots with locked cards to stop you from effectively rushing them repeatedly while Chaos Breaker stops you from being able to play aggressively against them. Miracle Ace is the win condition in this match-up as Miracle Ace requires that you have only one front row rearguard circle open in order to do a bunch of attacks on your opponent, but even then this may be too slow due to his Generation Break 3 requirement.

[Althemia]

Silver Thorn

Table of Contents

• 1 - Decklist
• 2 - Silver Thorn: Past and Present
• 3 - Winning performance!
• 4 - Card choices
• 5 - Match-ups and tech choices to deal with them

1 - Decklist

1 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emile (Starter!)
---
4 Silver Thorn Assistant, Dixie
4 Silver Thorn, Barking Dragon
4 Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha
4 Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia
[ 8 Crit / 4 Draw / 4 Heal ]

4 Silver Thorn Assistant, Zelma
4 Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia
3 Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina
3 Masquerade Bunny

4 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica
4 Silver Thorn, Upright Lion
3 Silver Thorn Magician, Clemens

4 Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier
2 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Яeverse"
2 Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier

3 Silver Thorn Dragon Master, Mystique Luquier
2 Jester Demonic Dragon, Lunatec Dragon
1 Dragon Masquerade, Harri
1 Miracle of Luna Square, Clifford
1 Rain Elemental, Madew

Silver Thorn: Past and Present

The Silver Thorn are an archetype found in the Pale Moon clan that were originally released BT12: Binding Force of the Black Rings. At the time, the deck revolved around using Luquier "Яeverse" as a big crossride body to defend against attacks while utilizing the archetype's engine for a large amount of consistency and selective calling from the Soul. The deck was still riddled with problems however, with the main one being that the deck wanted you to play it as a pure Silver Thorn deck yet there were not enough good Silver Thorns to warrant using it as such. Roll on to their next big set of support, BT15: Infinite Rebirth. This set introduced some of the strongest Silver Thorn cards that will more than likely forever make up a solid backbone of the deck: Venus Luquier, Zelma and Upright Lion. Upright Lion and Venus helped to fix the deck's lack of huge power plays, while Zelma increased consistency for every single part of the game. The deck still had some main problems that were yet to be fixed though, with the main one being that the deck was still incredibly susceptible to deckout with no way of seemingly changing that and the fact that they still couldn't play pure Silver Thorns due to a wonky trigger line-up. They later got their own stride in Fighter's Collection 2015, but this did not solve the deck's problems and instead accelerated it toward decking out in exchange for a more consistent pressure turn. Move on to the latest set G-BT06: Transcendance of Blade and Blossom and, almost 2 years later, the deck's main problems have finally all been solved.

Winning performance

Silver Thorn are a Pale Moon deck, which means that they share the theme of calling from the Soul instead of from the hand in order to win. However, the actual reason to play this deck runs much deeper than that. Because of the deck’s consistency boosters (Most notably Irina and Emile) it is actually incredibly easy to filter through your deck so much that you get rid of any cards that aren’t triggers. This is where the deck’s primary win condition comes into play. You will tend to thin yourself down to having very little cards left in deck, usually around 4-5, before comboing off with Mystique Luquier with Upright Lion on the board. After doing this, you will call out 2 Zelma with Mystique Luquier’s skill only to loop them between each other from every Dixie that you have in Soul, as Dixie bypasses Zelma being unable to call itself. This will not only begin fattening your deck back up with critical triggers for you to check off of Mystique Luquier, but each Dixie will also give a large booster to the Lions to make the critical triggers that you check during this turn completely unblockable.

Card Choices

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emile - This card is used as the deck's go-to starter over Ionela for a number of reasons. Emile doesn't have a pre-requisite on her skill other than just sliding her into Soul, meaning that she's going to be guaranteed to add cards to your Soul and won't rely on having to hit. Emile will more than likely be able to hit multiple cards that you want in the Soul in one go, making her a lot faster than Ionela as she requires multiple turns of hitting before she reaches the same kind of benefit from 1 Emile proc. The biggest reason that you play Emile over Ionela, however, is because of Venus Luquier. Because you can only call 6 Grades worth of cards from the Soul, being able to call a Grade 0 is a fantastic addition as it doesn't add to the Grade count. This also means that Emile is easily re-usable due to the nature of the deck that it's in, meaning you'll be able to heavily thin due to being able to call out Emile multiple times and eating your units little by little each time.

8 Crit and 4 Draw because the deck can make really big numbers without any way to make them really threatening, so critical triggers are a necessary addition to the deck. The deck does have reasonably bad hand advantage with all of this in mind though, so playing draws is necessary so that you can get a bit of sustain when you drive/damage check them. All of the triggers in this deck need to be Silver Thorn in name because of how the deck doesn't like having non-Silver Thorn names in the damage zone or on the board. Silver Thorn Assistant, Dixie needs to be maxed regardless of what you do with this trigger line-up however, as they are one of the biggest problem solving cards that the deck has received to date. It can return itself to the deck to stop you from decking out when it's necessary while also boosting up Upright Lion to incredibly big numbers. Since it's a critical trigger, it will also increase your density of damage in the late game as your deck will be thin and even 1 Dixie going back to deck will increase your chances of getting one substantially.

Silver Thorn Assistant, Zelma is one of the main reasons to play Silver Thorn in the first place. Very similar to Purple Trapezist for regular Pale Moon decks, Zelma has 2 things going for him which makes him infinitely better than the forementioned. The first is that 7000 is a much better number than 6000. 7000 pairs up with 9000s to hit out against 11000s for 10000 guard while a 6000 does not. However, the biggest thing going for Zelma is that they themself are a Silver Thorn. This means that they are easily tutored into the Soul with the many different thinning tools that the deck has so that you reliably have Zelma on hand to start correcting your board at a moment's notice. Also because of it being a Silver Thorn, it will trigger the Lion whenever it is called from the Soul while the other such mentioned card will not. Fantastic card, never play any less than 4.

Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia is played over Darkside Mirror Master and Hoop Master purely because it has a Silver Thorn name. You will even want to thin your Perfect Guards at points, as when you are going for a final turn push you do not want to be revealing Perfect Guards on your Drive Check. The unflip doesn't matter enough to warrant playing Mirrormaster while Hoop Master literally doesn't do anything in this deck.

Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina is, in my opinion at the very least, a very necessary filtering option for the deck. A lot of people will argue that Silver Thorn Magician, Colette is a better use of the space than Irina, but I'll have to disagree now that we have gotten our second critical trigger. Irina allows you to consistently soul charge the cards that you want to find, even when you ride her which is really important, which is now much more of a priority than random Soul Charging as you want to find all of your Dixie as quickly as possible. Also Irina is a lot faster than Colette, although Colette is definitely worth mentioning at this point as they are a very strong card in conjunction with things such as Mystique Luquier.

Masquerade Bunny is my own personal tech choice, but this spot is actually incredibly flexible for what you want to do with it. If you aren't playing Masquerade Bunny, then it's much better to play something like Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana or the previously mentioned Colette so that you increase your ratio of Silver Thorns while also increasing your presence in the early - mid game. Masquerade Bunny is definitely one of the weaker of the cards mentioned in those aspects, but stronger later on as it lets them stride without too much of their hand being taken up or having to rely on drawing a Grade 3. The biggest weakness of this card, however, is that it obviously isn't a Silver Thorn so it cannot be thinned by their various tutoring effects. Definitely the most flexible card in the Grade 1 slots and, if you are going to take Bunny out, I highly recommend checking either of two cards mentioned previously for the last slot.

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica is the best Grade 2 ride in the deck as it puts a lot of pressure on the opponent to block her even though they may not have the resources to do so. Calling your Grade 1 ride, whether it be Zelma or Irina, is usually incredibly strong as it either sets you up for more attacks or for more soul set-up. She is usually only good as a Grade 2 ride though, letting you play a good game while waiting around for Grade 3, because on-hit skills usually become a lot weaker when both players are able to start striding. As a result, you should aim to ride Maricica every game that you can and then guard/mill her whenever you get the chance to otherwise.

Silver Thorn, Upright Lion is a bit of an unsung hero in Silver Thorn admittedly, the things usually enabling him getting more credit than him a lot of the time even though he's the one that gets so many of the damage combos to work. He has a very simple skill, similar to cards like Geraint from Liberators, although he has a lot more potential than any of his other clones now due to the introduction of Dixie. Since his ability stacks for every single time that you call from the Soul, it's very possible to get him as high as +66000 with the correct set-up being met. This means that he will be swinging for an absolutely huge and unblockable number against 90% of decks. Backing this up with the fact that, during the turn that you go for these kinds of numbers, you're going to be able to more than likely check double/triple crit, the card becomes absolutely insane when he's swinging for those numbers with a crit attached. A fantastic card that you absolutely need to see in order to win games, as such never run any less than 4.

Silver Thorn Magician, Clemens is a relatively new addition to the deck that has overtaken the role of Rising Dragon. Even though she is slower than Rising Dragon and doesn't synergize as well with Maricica as your Vanguard, she is still pretty good at pressuring your opponent. Because Clemens will nearly always be calling Zelma with her skill, she will restand a column when she manages to break through so that she can put on even more pressure. It's even possible to call Zelma with her skill, then use Zelma to make Clemens come back out again so that they have to block the attack or take yet another attack afterward. She's a really good card, just a little bit slow in comparison to the rest of the core.

Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier is the go-to ride in the deck and is overall the best boss that Silver Thorn has in their maindeck. For CB2 Silver Thorns, she can call up to 6 Grades worth of cards from the Soul to Rearguard Circle. This makes it incredibly easy for Silver Thorn to outgrind any kind of retiring match-up, as she can call 2 Grade 2s, 2 Grade 1s and a Grade 0 with her skill to completely replenish your board if it ever gets wiped. This is especially great with Lion, as it allows you to give him a huge boost while creating a board. She got a lot better because of BT06 as well, as Dixie is another fantastic Grade 0 that you can call with her skill due to her being able to promptly tag out for any other Grade in your Soul. Due to Dixie, Venus Luquier's Grade "Restriction" no longer actually applies as Dixie cheats it incredibly well. She's also a crossride, so it's very hard for you to get rushed down by more aggressive decks if you get the original Luquier in Soul fast enough.

Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Яeverse" is really only being played because she's another 11000 Luquier. Due to the poor power of the original Luquier, you need more Grade 3s with regular/above average power levels so that you do not need to drop as much to guard with. As a result, Luquier "Яeverse" is being played due to her crossride defenses while also being an 11000 instead of a 10000. Her skill is also pretty alright, since it gradually generates card advantage for a relatively cheap price. The biggest problem with her is the fact that Link Joker is prominent now with Chaos Breaker Dragon easily being one of the best decks right now, so Reverse units such as Luquier have not aged well in the slightest.

Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier is the original Luquier and is played primarily because of her enabling the other two Luquiers to hit crossride defenses. She is easily tutorable into the Soul by using Irina and Emile as mentioned earlier. This doesn't mean that she's necessarily a bad card by her own merits, however. She can be pretty good given the right circumstances, as she is able to power up like Lion so she can give you a huge front row in comparison to just 2 big rearguard columns. The biggest problem with her is that her skill is incredibly expensive when compared to the other two Luquier cards, which is a huge problem considering that the deck does want to be able to repeat it's Vanguard skills if possible. The second is that she only has 10000 base power, which is incredibly susceptible to being rushed down. She is more of a card that you're going to ride into if you want to finish the game that turn, otherwise it's not a great idea to sit on her over the other two Grade 3s that you play.

Now we move onto the Strides. Silver Thorn Dragon Master, Mystique Luquier is one of your go-to enabler strides that deceptively has a lot of power hidden behind it. She moves 2 Silver Thorn rearguards into the Soul and Soulcharges 2 while you have a Luquier heart to call 2 Silver Thorn from your Soul. This lets you reuse the on-call skills of things such as Zelma while correcting your board and setting up for large Lion numbers again, all while thinning the deck due to her soulcharge. It's an incredibly good stride, but not going to be used all the time as it doesn't actually generate advantage by itself.

[Rest to come later]