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scarletweather
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Cardfight! Vanguard's first block since the G-reboot has been an awkward transitional period for the game. On the one hand, clans like Dark Irregulars are finally seeing some of the support they so richly deserved, with cards printed to directly deal with the issues holding them back previously. On the other hand, you have a rise in the efficiency of cheese decks, and going first- or worse, going first and getting a G-assist- can actually be a serious disadvantage now, since you won't have the cards to deal with an opponent dropping a nasty stride on you, and Generation Break-heavy decks spend their first few moves effectively being vanilla. A mixed bag overall, and one not likely to be addressed overnight.
All that said, there are plenty of new cards I've grown to love over the course of the block. The somewhat redundantly-translated Golden Dragon, Scourge Point Dragon is one of them. It clocks in with all the standard features of a G-unit- a stride condition requiring that the player discard cards from their hand with a total Grade equal to or exceeding three, and Triple Drive. However, it also has one very non -standard feature. Many of the early G-units in a clan fall into two categories: units with a costless on-hit skill meant to be played early into a game to force the opponent to use up their Sentinels and leave them open to heavy pushes for game, or units with a G-persona which have the ability to clench games. Scourge Point has neither . Instead, it has a continuous ability- each time a rear guard appears from the deck, both that unit and Scourge Point instantly gain Power +5000 until the end of that turn. The power on Scourge Point is nice but usually not a big draw- clocking in at a minimum of 26k, most opponents are either going to throw a Sentinel at Scourge Point or just risk taking the hit rather than spend the 30k of shield necessary to block its weakest possible swing safely. It's the rear guard boosting that's important here. Once the opponent is sitting at four damage or more, a single rear guard lane with a 5k boost on it becomes more intimidating. If they get hit with two lanes, it's going to be hard for them to deal with the consequences. And Generation Break-focused Gold Paladins can get those two lanes in two pretty easy steps: Step one: have Knight of Sunshine, Gurguit as your Vanguard. Step two: use Gurguit's stride skill, instantly superior calling a unit from the deck. Both that unit and Scourge Point will get +5k right off the bat. Step three: Use Holy Mage Pryderi's skill to superior call a unit when it attacks the Vanguard. That unit will also get +5k. (Optional- since Pryderi need not call his target to an empty circle, you can attack with a front row rear guard, attack with Scourge Point, then follow up with Pryderi to call a unit over that front row rear guard and give you a fourth attack with a pretty buff final column.) Obviously Scourge Point is designed to work with the battle phase calls possible in Generation Break focused Gold Paladin. However, he's got a place in pretty much any build- even Liberators can make fine use of him thanks to Liberator of Oath, Aglovale. Final Verdict: This might be the most valuable stride in terms of utility available for Gold Paladin as of me typing this review. If you're building any Gold Paladin deck and want to include a Generation Zone, make sure you have at least two copies of this guy, and consider running four. After all, he's going to be much more valuable to your endgame than Spear Cross Dragon pretty much regardless of whatever build you're currently using. |
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