[CFV] Battle of the Absolute Kings

[Blake]

 
 
G0: 18
2 Baby Camara [sVG]
4 Cannon Fire Dragon, Parasalauncher
3 Ancient Dragon, Dinodile
4 Cannon Fire Dragon, Sledge Ankylo
1 Ancient Dragon, Titanocargo
4 Savage Shaman
[7 Crit / 5 Draw / 4 Heal]
 
G1: 14
4 Savage Guardian [PG-G]
4 Freeze Dragon, Freezernics
4 Prism Bird [stride Fodder]
2 Savage Heroine
 
G2: 10
4 Ravenous Dragon, Megarex
4 Assault Dragon, Assaultrex
2 Tank Mammoth
 
G3: 8
4 Emperor Dragon, Gaiaemperor [breakstride]
4 Destruction Dragon, Squallrex
 
G4: 8
4 Absolute King, Gluttony Dogma [G-Persona]
1 Destruction Tyrant, Hellrex Maxima
1 Destruction Tyrant, Twin Tempest
1 Destruction Tyrant, Archraider [On-hit]
1 Raging Strength Equipment, Hammer Gewalt
 
So, G-Tachikaze doesn't really work, on its own. Why? Well, while the Engorge Support G3 isn't a bad card, the issue is the G2s. This clan doesn't have anough fodder G2s for G-Tachi to work on its own, not to mention how that ruins the early game. Jigsawsaurus and Apatomaser are both costly and don't do enough, seeing as you want your strides (or things searchable off of Baby Camara) to do the sacking. Neither are bad cards, but the direction the G-Support took did not do them any favors.
 
So, how do you fix this issue? Run a Rex engine!
 
Squallrex is much better than it looks on paper, allowing you extra attacks... and it's live on G2. If you have Assault/Mega on VC, it can sack anything on your board to call itself, and it can do better if you have an Assault on RC, in addition to the one on VC.
 
Megarex is a 10K, which is important for playing the G2 game with Squall/outplaying the G2 game.
 
Then we have Assaultrex, who is good the whole game, generally.
 
Early on, he allows you to make Squallrex plays on the cheap, and this is important in Tachikaze, because the deck still suffers from not having a lot of hand advantage. He also has his +2 effect live early on, but it's not as relevant at that point... However, it IS relevant once you get later in the game. He's an 11K attacker that you can "Restand", thanks to Gaiaemperor, before you sack him for Squall/etc, leading to heavy pushes.
 
This engine gives you early pressure potential, as well as the ability to get set up on your opponent without striding, which covers Gaiaemperor's weaknesses fairly well.
 
And that brings me to what the deck does best: Pressure turns. Be it on G2 or on-stride, Tachi have the ability to put in multiple swings, removal, and boost their power as they do so. You don't have a lot of advantage yourself, considering how you have to devote to the board/sack it, but you DO have the ability to just wreck the opponent's advantage.
 
So, let's go over card choices.
 
Grade 0:
Baby Camara: This card is ridiculously good. Considering that you can buff it with Gaiaemperor, it's a floating source of +s from the deck, with Freezernics and Heroine both helping you out a fair deal.
 
"But why 2?" you ask? Well, you don't want to lose Camara. If it gets knocked out by the opponent before you've resolved it, you're put a fair bit behind. So you want to at least be able to find another copy, as drawing it puts you back into the game.
 
Additionally, having 2 of them at once isn't bad, and Gaia only needs to float 1 of them, while floating something like Freezernics as the 2nd.
 
I could probably run even more, like over Tank Mammoth or something, but that seems a bit... risky.
 
Ancient Dragon, Dinodile vs. Black Cannon Tiger: Honestly, I think both options are fine. Dinodile gives you more CB, which is relevant with cards like Tank Mammoth/Baby Camara/Squallrex, but you never really want to use the -1 unflip 1. Black Cannon Tiger is a soul-filling recycling crit, but it's still a -1 at the core.
 
You can use either as the additional crits, I just want to test Dinodile a bit more before turning it down.
 
7-5: Well, I said the deck had bad hand advantage... but I feel like you lose too much pressure if you run 6-6. The Gluttony Dogma turn REALLY wants you to find crits, after all, and your RGs can be strong as hell.
 
Savage Shaman: I like her better than the new Heal, Ironclad, and certainly more than derpy-ass Orinthohealer.
 
Grade 1:
Savage Guardian vs. Barrier Dragon, Styracolord: I run 4 Savage Guardian because, well...
A. Unflip is nice here.
B. Styracolord's initial "leak" was awesome... but the CB cost hurts it a LOT.
 
You can surely run 1 Styracolord, in theory, but I don't really want to. As I said, CBs are expensive as funk here, and it means you can end up with a card that doesn't do enough.
 
You can Baby Camara it, though, for a 14 swing before Freezernics/etc.
 
But yeah, it's not bad, I just worry it costs too much, and I kinda want more chances at unflipping over it.
 
Freezing Dragon. Freezernics: At first, I thought this card was bad. Why? It does the jobs of Beamptero and Gioconda together, but worse than both, and on GB1. However...
 
Beamptero, while great, is just a worse option to get off of Camara than Freezer. Additionally, Freezer makes for better combo plays when you use Gaia to drop it from hand. +3 IS sometimes better than +2, though.
 
As for Gioconda... 5K isn't great, even with Camara's +3, and SB2 means you won't resolve it much... unless you also run Freezer. I guess you could run 3-1, but yeah. Tank Mammoth also complicates this, as he needs CBs.
 
Freezernics has the strengths of both, while being only marginally weaker than both, and is much better than expected.
 
Savage Heroine: Actually amazing. It gets +3 for each of your units that has fed its engorge this turn, which means it's, usually, a 9K attacker/booster, at worst. On certain turns, it can get up to +12 (+3 from Camara, +9 from its effect), which is hilarious and a jabroni to guard against, especially if a freezernics +2 is put onto its column, making it swing for a possible 27K, without triggers.
 
She's not even GB1! That's mostly irrelevant, but it's something that may or may not be important in the future, and it works with Tank Mammoth for early pressure. Swing 8 + Boost, swing 9 + Boost, CB1/SB1, swing 11. You get the gist.
 
It's not a 4-of, because you can find it easily (and space is tiight), but it's a damn good card, and it's not even bad to draw. Also encourages the Gewalt/Archraider dillema to take more thought, but I'll cover that later.
 
Grade 2:
Tank Mammoth: I am re-heaaaaally undecided here. It's an obviously good card, and it combos well with early Savage Heroine, but... Well, lemme present an idea I had, first.
 
-2 Tank Mammoth
+2 Baby Camara
 
-1 Freezernics
+1 Gioconda
 
and optional:
-4 PG-G
+4 Cray Elemental PG
 
This means you only play the 8 Rex G2s, but you have more ability to sheet out G1s and not lose, considering that Tank Mammoth fills a similar role to Camara as the game goes on. This also lets you run Gioconda, so you have an instant +2 CBs, and the CE-PG lets you fear G-Assist less.
 
So, here's my dilemma: While the above gives you more G1 abuse (which the deck is great at), this also weakens you're early game. As mentioned, this card has synergy with Savage Heroine pre-GB, which can put more pressure on.
 
The problem is that you can't really fit more copies of them. I mean, I guess you can run 3 Megarex/3 Tank, but even so, that's 5 cards in your deck that you need 2 of.
 
Another issue with Megarex is that it sucks the later you go into the game. Even with Freezernics/Baby Camara, hitting the right numbers with a 10K isn't especially easy... It's the only G2 rex other than Assault, though. It's something that encourages you to run Beamptero, who doesn't put you ahead like Freezer does.
 
There IS a degree of disconnect between what cards you run and what you have to do. You could do away with tank and add Slashptero again, but that's... eh? but you can't do away with the Rex Engine, as-is.
 
So, while I have that oher idea, I may just try 3/3 Megarex/Tank. The deck does need some more glue to make it 100% coherent, so hopefully it gets it whenever we get more Tachi support. Or a good Rex VG.
 
I got off topic, but yeah. Tank is good, but it's a weird card, mostly due to the SB cost. Makes Gioconda unable to be run, realistically, but gives you value.
 
Grade 3:
Emperor Dragon, Gaiaemperor: I swear, this is one of the best Breakstrides in the game. It's an altmile, but it does Altmile so much better, because it then gives a better buff, while allowing a deck that doesn't maintain advantage well to:
A. Hold it until you want to buff it.
B. Lets them not die, meaning you can play the restand game/advantage preservation game with them.
 
His GB2 isn't especially relevant, though not bad, but his On-Stride is the real game winner. He makes Gluttony Dogma cheaper, and allows Arch/Gewalt to be combo players, and these can really eat your opponent's advantage.

 

Even in earlier builds, you wanted to find it ASAP, despite running 2-3 instead of 4, because it won games.

 

I can't really praise it enough, but I also can't exactly gush about it too much, because it's obvious how it should work.

 

Destruction Dragon, Squallrex vs. Destruction Dragon, Dark Rex: I run 4 Squallrex due to how it helps the early game, and it's not bad late. However, you can run 1-2 Dark Rex, and it's not an issue.

 

Dark Rex has a ton of synergy with Gluttony Dogma turns, making them very hard to survive, but the issue is that LB4 sucks. You can have a 3-damage Gluttony Dogma turn, and that means it sits there. And it doesn't work on G2 or lower, so you can't use it to get early +++.

 

Dark Rex is a fine option (4 Squall, 3 Gaia, 1-2 Dark Rex), and it's the best target for Hellrex, but... yeah, I'm disenchanted with it.

 

Grade 4:

Destruction Tyrant, Archraider vs. Raging Strength Equipment, Hammer Gewalt: While you do run both, this is actually a very interesting dilemma.

 

Your first stride is extremely important. It needs to be tailored to your situation, and what advantage you have to make a play with. Do you want to restand a column and get a 10/12K attacker? Or do you want to sack Camara, float it behind what it calls, and use, say, Heroine to restand that column?

 

Additionally, do you want to force them to guard with/lose a frontrow, or pressure them into guarding to protect their SVG/backrow?

 

Then there's Darkrex... but I'll cover that later.

 

Archraider is stronger, but Gewalt has Engorge, and it's difficult to decide which to do in which scenario, not to mention particular matchups. It can easily make or break your game, and seems to be the most skill-intensive part of the deck.

 

Run both, but think through scenarios before striding into one.

 

Destruction Tyrant, Hellrex Maxima: Amazing card... tied to terrible Vanguards. It makes cards that float better, but sacking Camara isn't the best due to it not floating back (2nd+ copy of Camara is fine). However, it does set up Dark Rex, if you run it, which means you can hopefully follow it up with Gluttony Dogma. 

 

Remember that it gives a 1-time +4 boost to the frontrow, not continuously, so plan ahead.

 

Destruction Tyrant, Twin Tempest: funk this caaaaard. It's stupidly overcosted, and it eats up a valuable resource... Hell, why is it GB2?

 

It's technically good against Aqua Force, but GB2 is a bit late to be nuking them. If you run Dark Rex, run Madew instead. You can arguably run Blizza/Another Archraider/Anotehr Gewalt over it, as well.

 

Absolute King, Gluttony Dogma: Now THIS is the amazing stride. It's basically Raging Form as a stride, and it synergizes insanely well with Gaia.

 

Despite it being a -5 to restand, you actually end up going +2-4, depending on setup, thanks to Gaia... not to mention triggers, themselves. 5 drive checks, Camara floats (and Gaia revives it), Mammoth floats, ... all before accounting the guard it eats up by being a double swinging 36K, barring triggers. If you have enough free CB/resolve Freezer, you can even make multiple mammoth swings, thanks to Heroine being searchable.

 

Even if you drop down to Darkrex, which is a -1 to get from drop, you come out on top, and can still use Mammoth/Camara to get ANOTHER swing out, if you can afford it.

 

This is the gamewinner, and the "cost" is almost a joke, only meaning that if you don't have 5 units + fodder you can't go +X.

 

As I said, this deck is about pressure. Your hand advantage isn't great, but you can attack and force out a lot, and Gluttony Dogma then forces you even further ahead by being a restander.

 

Engorge, while not a good mechanic for G2s, works well for your Strides and Heroine/Styracolord, and is great for that alone.