Friday, August 15, 2014

Deck Profile - Supercell (Outdated)

Thunder Knights, Halberd Dragon
This used to be a pure Thunder Knights deck. Not anymore. Viable a year ago, I've felt that Bushiroad was moving too far away from the old Thunder Knights support that it was no longer feasible to simply depend on stuff like Thunder Formation and archetype-based love. But I also didn't want this deck to turn into some weird Armordragons toolbox. It was tough trying to figure out what to do with this, really.

Enter Japanese Regionals results. The person who topped played a Thunder-Crimson mix, weaving in the newer Hundred archetype with the old Thunder archetype. And guess what? It's not a bad idea on paper. Of course, being a Japanese player (great idea, really awkward ratios and choices) his deck was...kinda funky. So I'm more or less rebuilding it to be mathematically sound and efficient.

From Thunder Knights, we grab the plussing engine, damage pumps, and Penetrate effects. From Crimsons, the new weapons, control-based abilities, and the ridiculously good Impact. Play to the strengths of both worlds, and you find yourself able to do pretty much anything.

Now that we've overviewed the deck idea in general, let's go straight to the list.

Supercell - Thunder Crimson

It's a whole new beast now.

I won't go over what's changed, because practically the entire deck's been rebuilt. Instead, I'll cover what this new build does and does well.

First, take a good look at the monsters in this deck. Look at how much crit this deck packs. There's nothing in sight with less than 2-crit, and Kommandeur even makes all your Thunder Knights have 3. This deck is meant to hit fast and hard, winning without giving your opponent much of a say in things.

To aid that effort, we're going to be packing some good Penetrate at 2 in this deck. Specifically, two different Drum Bunkers: Crimson Battler and Thunder Knights. We're running more of the Thunder Knights one (don't give him any soul, please) even though Crimson Battler is technically better because A: he has Move and B: he has Thunder Knights in his name. You need as many Size 2 targets for Dragoarcher's requirement as you can. Plus Move helps mitigate some damage and gives you a few outs for strategic purposes. Kommandeur Fahne is pretty self-explanatory.

Size 1, Dragoarcher. This is literally the only reason we still keep Thunder Knights as a base in this deck, because Dragon World has virtually no draw power and Dragoarcher is that sole salvation. Dragoarcher works best with, obviously, Kommandeur Fahne - but don't feel shy about calling it even when Drum is on the board. You want your draws, desperately.

The other Size 1's get bonuses for having Fist items equipped, which means they won't be effective immediately but will surely get there. Rock Bunker Dragon is the special one, since he gives you a gauge on-call which is major news for this deck. Burn Guts Dragon gets Move which again helps out with controlling your board and redirecting attacks.

1 Boomerang Dragon because you don't need more in this deck, once you get it you keep it.

Your weapons are all Fists, a 4/2 spread of Sunshine Impact to Dragoknuckle. The reason you favor Sunshine Impact is for the additional power for reach and the fact that you have quite a lot of gauge ramp in this deck already. Since Sunshine Impact's your main focus, your buddy choice is pretty important. I recommend Thunder Knights Drum so you can link for infinite power and also get Penetrate.

Spells are where it gets a bit interesting. Green Blue Shields are normal, but what's Dragonic Loop doing in this deck? Well, that used to be 4 Dragobond until Dragonic Loop became a thing. Think about it. You bounce a monster (save it) and gain 1 gauge (+0.5). It's almost as much advantage as a Dragobond, but the important thing is that you get to play that monster again next turn. Does bouncing Dragoarchers for more draw appeal to you? Yeah? Well, how about I tell you that you can call Kommandeur Fahne, call Dragoarcher, draw 1, attack, Move Dragoarcher to the center to defend, Dragonic Loop Dragoarcher for 1 gauge, and then drop Dragoarcher again next turn to draw again? Best of all, with Green Dragon Song that gives you +1 life too. Dragobond's definitely been outclassed.

If you think about it, as long as Dragonic Loop targets a monster in your center it's essentially Blue Dragon Shield. With 12 Move, that shouldn't be a hard thing to do.

You have a lot of gauge in this deck, so it's a smart idea to use Dragonic Air Raid as a tech against scary threats that need to be gone immediately. Like Azi Dahaka, Excalibur,  Forcearms, etc.

Grimoire and Green Dragon Song explanatory.

Gigantic Crusher for game.

Sideboard Ideas

Dragon Breath has been a great counter to aggressive decks that run monsters with low power but strong effects. This includes DDW, Dungeon, Legend, and Magic to an extent. Since your monsters are mainly set, you want to give your spell and item lineup more flexibility to compensate. Dragonic Counter and The Skies in Your Hand are all other options of bouncing your monsters, and they're pretty good in this deck. Dragobond-Move is always an option as well. Choose which ones suit your style the most.

Sample Sideboard:
  • 4 Dragon Breath
  • 2 Dragonic Counter
  • 2 The Skies in your Hand
  • 2 Dragobond

Other Options

Dragoenergy is a great card and often can catch opponents off-guard, especially when they were expecting an easy kill. It's a perfectly viable alternative to Dragobond, and it works better with Halberd Dragon (so you can possibly bring him back). There's actually too many viable counter spells in Dragon World to really go over them all now, but I've more or less covered all the relevant ones for this deck.

Dragonic Kaiser Nova
Since gauge is virtually unlimited in this deck, you can feel free to utilize really gauge-expensive cards that you normally wouldn't run, like Dragonic Destroy or Dragogenius. If you really wanted to pressure damage unending, "Song of Burning March" could be a fun usage of all that gauge you get. On the topic of songs, "Proud Song of Soul" fixes a lot of power issues with the deck, bringing all your monsters to wall-breaking levels. And with the amount of bouncing you do, you may want to experiment with Return System.

Impact-wise, Dragon World has a lot to choose from. Notably, Dragonic Kaiser Nova is a neat alternative to Gigantic Punisher!! that does not require both centers to be open and allows you to field wipe in the process while dealing decent damage.

Avoid Running

Your monsters are almost completely fixed, although Burn Guts can be changed to whatever fits the purpose better. I chose Burn Guts over the others for synergy with Dragonic Loop and the fact that the Penetrate Size 1 and all the 3-crit ones have way too little power. This deck needs to hit acceptable power levels since it plays control until you can reach for game.

Day of the Dragon
Day of the Dragon is a semi-common spell I see. I don't like it, because you can't deal the 3 ideal attacks that you normally would be able to and it only really allows you to deal at most 3 damage in one turn. That's far less than the average capabilities of this deck. Day of the Dragon is really a stop-gap last-ditch measure - you're more often than not better off using Dragonic Destroy.

There are more Dragon Shields than people know what to deal with now. Notably Primeval and Red Dragon Shield are alternatives in this deck, if you really want to go for the surprise. Actually, Red Dragon Shield sounds kinda fun.

Please. No.

Counters

This deck is mostly beatdown, so it loses to very dedicated walling and stalling decks. Not so much Magic World since they can't handle Penetrate and sticky monsters, but definitely stuff like Deep and Ancient World. You really need to keep your wits about you and choose carefully against those decks. I would have like to tech anti-soul stuff but unfortunately Dragon World has very bad options in that regard.

Otherwise, you pretty much out-DPS everything that lives and anything that tries to hit harder you wipe out.

Final Words

The deck's changed drastically, but I think change is for the better. It goes to show how older decks can still thrive with some adaptation. I mean, a variant of this won a Regionals, so it must have been alright. I personally think this deck has a lot of potential and combining with some of the newer support, this deck poses a serious midgame threat. Try it yourself and see if you like it.

Finally, while each deck profile will come with an article name that I predetermine and a preliminary deck name, I'd really like some input on deck names. For one week after a decklist is posted, feel free to post the most creative, humorous, clever, or awesome names you can think of. I'll choose my favorite at the end of the time (along with some honorable mentions) and the deck will be named such, with due attribution to the contributor. I'll be looking forward to what kinds of interesting stuff you guys can come up with!

Update: The names you guys had were great! I loved all the references, from famous books to other memetic characters. A Certain Scientific Drum? That one was almost too good! However, I love names that have a certain backstory to them and this one certainly delivered. Also, it gives me an excuse to post something Miku-related.

Winner of the deck-naming challenge: Bradley Stone @ Supercell


- updated to H-BT02, CP01, H-EB01, H-TD02, PP01 -

All images used obtained from the official Bushiroad website and used here solely for reference purposes. Future Card Buddyfight!, logos, and respective content belong to Bushiroad. Large images belong to the Buddyfight! Wikia.

16 comments:

  1. Railgun is already perfect, scientific biribiri action that can't be beat. Maybe "A Certain Scientific Drum" to be cute.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm going to second this, though some readers may not get the reference...

      Delete
  2. Thunderstruck or For whom the drum tolls

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like your idea of the deck technically producing unlimited gauge with Thunder Formation, but if I may say myself Thunder Formation is not such a ideal card.

    You dont always want to move your Thunder Knights every turn because you might want to opt to keep them and Dragon Shield opponent's attack. No Move = No Gauge. True Thunder Formation is a horrible gambit unless your field is so horrible that you need to gamble on the top 3 cards of the deck. With this all the heavy gauge usage card doesnt seem reasonable anymore.

    Ya also didn't mention the Ideal Buddy that you preferred and I believe that Dragoenergy is quite a must run since it can potentially save your monsters and in return destroy your opponent's monster.

    I also didn't understand why you didn't prefer Green Dragon Song. Any life gains is a straight away advantage on your favor and I see that it could produce around +4 life at minimal in each game granted that you are able to place it during the early game. Blue Song is just not as great in real match up because my Thunder Knights is capable of hitting the opponent's center and most of the time I end up sending it to the gauge instead. I never tried Burning Song, but it seems pretty meh to deal 1 damage with one gauge once per turn that can only be triggered by a monster call.

    Lastly it feels that Railgun is more of 'Lightning Shoot' thing and Thunder Knights seems to do Thunder based physical attack. Well but name preferences are by the author's liking, so its just another Buddyfight irrelevant opinion

    Of course my opinion and argument is not mathematically justified and may be incorrect, but I was just stating out what I feel needed. I do enjoy the article though.

    My Decklist ---> http://www.tradecardsonline.com/im/showDeck/deck_id/545081

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with most of your points, actually.

      However, when it comes down to it, being able to Move twice and gain 2 gauge usually outweighs the downside of sacrificing a monster every turn. Smart opponents target your side monsters anyways, so it's not like you're losing too much (with Dragobond, you aren't losing anything). This is in line with what the deck tries to do, the optimal scenario. There may be times when you are forced to play unoptimally, but that's not the point of the deck.

      True Thunder Formation is pretty bad but if you've been consistently Moving you should have enough resources to use it. The main purpose is towards the endgame, when both players have exhausted most of their resources, Thunder Knights can pay 4 gauge to get a fresh field where there may not have been field. You can also push for game with it pretty nicely.

      There is no ideal Buddy. We're not using Ultimate Buddy here. Anything run at 4 works.

      In TK, heath is a dead resource sink - resource goes in but never really comes out. With Dragobond, you're already healing a lot. There's no point in healing more when health doesn't help you win faster. That's the whole deal. Thunder Knights want to win fast - and Green Dragon Song helps you stall out a game. Not the best synergy. I mean, it works, but doesn't feel right, at least not in my hands.

      Can you come up with a better name for the deck? I'm currently asking for suggestions~

      Delete
  4. How about Scrub.dek
    It encompasses the world, but manly this archetype, perfectly Xp

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like your deck profile for Thunder Knights, and it's wonderful that you took out Halberd Dragon, that'll save me money if I decide to build Thunder Knights later on. xD Also, it's funny that you mentioned that Danger World usually wrecks Dragon World, because my Dragon Knights deck usually picks apart the Danger World decks at my locals, it's kinda funny. Good stuff though, cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You should definitely, DEFINITELY continue writing deck articles. I really liked this, as I was struggling with certain aspects of the Thunder Knights. By reading your "A General Word About Decks" article immediately prior to this one, I understood the concept of the "winning image(s)" you presented, and understand how you built the deck around them. As an OCD person (the diagnosable kind), I find the numbers, logic, and perfection around the deck beautiful. I really liked this. I'm going to be hard-pressed not to copy this exactly for my own deck... Hopefully any changes I can think to make of it will be useful ones, not just ones made just to try to differ from yours XD

    I'm not a great deck namer. I like deck names that EXPLAIN the deck... Perhaps...

    I found it. "Supercell".

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercell

    It's a thunderstorm that contains a rotating updraft inside of it. Thunder. Rotating (moving). That's my name.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just curious.
    Any particular reason not to run "Sun Fist, Sunshine Impact"(EB01/0001EN) ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not really. I've advertised this deck as a rush-aggro deck, so my weapon choices were mainly focused on A. dealing damage and B. dealing more damage.

      In a more balanced and sustain-oriented build, I think Sunshine Impact could easily replace Dragobreach.

      Delete
    2. Either way, it would be good to have in your sideboard for Sieger decks.

      Delete
  8. Not bad, thats all I have to say honestly lol

    ReplyDelete
  9. What would this deck run and player? Also since you've point out its weak points what would be your 10 card side to help counter those who would abuse your weak point,
    Thank you for your time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think if I explained everything, there would be no fun left for the players. I've listed some ideas, so why not come up with a few of your own? For example, how would you deal with Gummy Slime?

      Delete
    2. I'd side 2-3 copies of Dragobond for 2 copies of Dragonic Shoot and perhaps a third copy of Dragonic Thunder, since they would not only help stop Gummy slime but would help against so of the other size 1's of Adventure world.

      Delete