What's up everyone. This is the deck I run at tourneys with above average success. I feel I've hit a plateau in improving this deck and would like some suggestions. After the decklist, I'll explain my decision for the somewhat odd choices for cards and my strategy behind it.
ZERO (x16)
1 | Battle Raizer | Starter. I usually save the boost until Grade 2 or 3. Should I boost earlier? Most don't guard first attack so it feels like a waste.
3 | Grapple Mania | Since this deck focuses on standing and CB, I feel Mania fits well. More flexible than vanilla stands I guess.
4 | Red Lightning | On the off chance I need to soul charge (for Shubiela) and untap at the same time.
4 | Shining Lady | Vanilla crit
4 | Clara | Heal. Can't wait for Wall Boy to replace her! Go go go EB1!!
ONE (x14)
4 | Twin Blader | Perfect Guard
4 | DA Guy | Obvious. Lovely when paired with Death Metal Droid and my VG Kaiser gets a Grade 3.
2 | Claydol | For sure untap. Still useful even after (if boosting Death Metal Droid)
4 | Oasis Girl | The most overlooked and under-rated card for NG imo. For making 3 stage columns (in a pinch) with Kaiser for "cheap". Throws off my opponents every time. I fucking love this card.
TWO (x10)
4 | Kirara | Making up for lack of draw power. Applying that pressure. Abusing the CB.
4 | DA Lady | If not for the reason of making my opponents attack her with 2-3 stage (and one time, 4 stage) RG columns out of fear then what else?
2 | Hungry Dumpty | For sure untap. Utility.
THREE (x10)
4 | Asura Kaiser | My Vanguard, I typically re-ride for the extra +1 in Soul for Shubiela if my hand is getting heavy with all those threes.
4 | Death Metal Droid | God status for NG. For those sexy 3 stage RG columns. Barely anyone I know runs any 11K VG. If they do, I have Oasis Girl. I ALWAYS HAVE OASIS GIRL ;D
2 | Armored Fairy Shubiela | I've thought about this for a long time and recently decided to give her a shot. It's a hassle to get that +1 in soul to make her any sort of threat but when I do, people get really uncomfortable with her presence on the field. On the off chance she ends up as my VG, she still provides a nice column with almost all my Grade 1s. Her draw-on-hit ability works as RG so she's pretty useful either way. She doesn't use CB. I like that. My opponents don't.
My strategy.
Triggers: I see a lot of NG players filling their trigger pool with a shit ton of stands. While I understand stands work in favor of NG, I find that decks that are naturally good at standing without stands shouldn't need anymore... stands. In my experience with Nova Grappler stand-builds, they typically just get in my way. The grade three's in a way become pseudo stands which combined with a high ratio of Crits becomes pretty effective.
Grapple Mania: Probably not the ideal card for field use but works well in a pinch boosting an AK. Brings AK to 15k, untaps, and recycles a trigger. It's a -1 but can make the difference between the opponent guarding or no-guarding (which is a -1 for the opponent and gives me a CB to use against them next turn). I've only used it once. Otherwise, it's just for guarding as normal because boosting with a Grade 0 pains me.
Red Lightning: Not ideal for use outside of guarding but gives me that +1 soul for Shubiela and an immediate open CB for... anything. It's a -1 but can be worth it if the opportunity is right.
Oasis Girl: She gets no love. Why? She's currently the only available Grade 1 that can boost for 9K and higher. Sure, she's "expensive"... but not really. Behind AK, it's 20K with a 2CB. On an average game, I get about 3 opportunities to untap so she feels more like a 1CB equivalent rather than a 2CB. With 8 crits, it makes not perfect guarding a high risk especially with the high potential that I can stand rear guards. Most people ask "why not use Tough Boy instead?". Well, because Tough Boy doesn't get AK to 20K or higher. I also have no Grade 2s and 3s that need anything more than 7K boosters to make a 3 stage column. I like the flexibility and believe she has amazing synergy with this particular build.
Kirara: Her ability is easier to pull off than originally expected. Makes up for the lack of drawing. Abuses untaps.
Hungry Dumpty: I thought about using SELStorm instead but he get's denied every.single.time. Hardly a threat since it's on-hit-vanguard. Ugh. Dumpty gets my CBs open immediately.
Grade 3: I chose the ratio of 10. It's a bit high, but I find it to work pretty well. Having a ton of Grade 3s hasn't really backfired. It's like having an extra set of stands. Great for Perfect Guard fodder and OK for re-riding for +1 in soul. More on that later.
Death Metal Droid: Holy shit. Makes 3 stage columns with 10 of my Grade 1s (which is all but my perfect guards). Can touch any unpowered VG for at least 1 stage on his own.
Shubiela: Another under-rated card. Not as good synergy as Oasis Girl but get's me out of trouble if I accidentally end up with her as VG since she's similar to DMD with her +3K as VG (and it's free). However, if I can manage to get +1 in soul by either re-riding (no sweat, I have enough Grade 3s in hand by late game to make Loseumi smile) or soul-charging Red Lightning then her threat level goes up whether she's VG or RG. Even though she's on-hit, it doesn't have to be on-hit-VG .
I understand that using her nets me a +0 in the end, but re-riding a grade 3 can get me a chance of getting a card that I can guard or boost with - essentially swapping a useless Grade 3 for a useful-not-Grade-3 (hopefully at least). Soul Charging with Lightning also nets me a +0 in the end, but it also unflips damage so it's a slight advantage to me - better than zero advantage I guess?
That's pretty much it. I've had this build for a while now and many people at my shop have been re-inspired to play NG. What do you think? What can I do to improve?
It's a feeling of accomplishment that I'm getting the locals pumped for NG again. I'd like to do everything I can to show that NG doesn't suck so I'm here to get constructive feedback.
Thanks for the read. Looking forward to comments and suggestions.
Home V*Mundi Blog 
