Future Visions: Shadow Paladin Witches

"The Dark" Legend Deck: Ren Suzugamori 

and its effect on Shadow Paladin Witches

Now, in the English format,Shadow Witches are doing well, but they're obscure.  They aren't played as much anymore, with a small, cult (aha) following. The deck is still rather good, however, in spite of new disadvantages that plague the build.

I'll cover these disadvantages first, then we can discuss exactly which cards in the new deck advance the Witch agenda. Firstly, Witches need more support.We're due some support soon, and Adora, the Promo Witch, is due a release in English. This support is needed because there's very little variation in modern Witch builds- 4 Fianna, 4 Rias, etc, etc. A dedicated Stride would also be incredibly helpful. All the strides we have for Shadows- currently work, but feel a little clunky- with some exception, more on that later.

A mechanic which also plagues us is the advent of more and more useful triggers- depriving them of the checks, and pseudo-retiring units is still fun, and advantageous, but the amount of triggers that can then be used, make the calling mechanic advantageous for the opponent. We've always known that Witches can be a double-edged sword, but it's never been sharper, and it'll only get sharper and sharper.

So, let's see what the Legend Deck gives us to play with.

Firstly, we'll start with Young Skull Witch, Nemain.

[CONT]: Sentinel (You may only have up to four cards with "[CONT]: Sentinel" in a deck)[AUTO]:[Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] When this unit is placed on (GC) from hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your vanguards that is being attacked, and that unit cannot be hit until end of that battle. Then, if you have a card named "Young Skull Witch, Nemain" in your drop zone, draw a card, choose a card from your hand, and discard it.

Firstly, Young Skull Witch, Nemain, gives us the Witch name. This is useful for one; continuing the theme, and allowing us to rid ourselves of the outdated quintet, and the off-theme Mac Lirs. It's also useful tech-wise for the purpose of Witch of Attraction, Adora, whom requires a "Witch" counter blast.

Effect wise, she's interesting- rather than the unflip of the most recent Perfect Guards, she'll give you a card, and then make you discard. This can make Legion even easier to achieve later in the game in Witches (around the stage where you need to be boosting with Arianrhod rather than tapping her to ditch cards) by adding three cards to drop zone and giving you a card. The effect also leads to interesting situations, possibly drawing you a new Perfect Guard when you need it most, or allowing you to dig even deeper into your deck for the cards you need, alongside drawing units such as Fianna.

In short, she's good, despite some controversial opinion. Worst case scenario, you just discard the card you draw, if it's not what you need, and in a Legion Deck that ISN'T Oracles/Genesis, the claims of decking out are unwarranted- you're doing it wrong if you deck out simply from adding this card.

[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if this unit is boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one grade 1 card, call it to (RC), and shuffle your deck.

Macha is an interesting choice. Without Adora, there's most likely some space in your deck taken up by Comet Witch, Serva. At 10k, she's a useful ride and a nice beater for when Rias is doing her thing, but with a little imagination, Macha can function like a tool box, getting you exactly what you need for each situation, and setting you up for the big boss.

As the call is guaranteed for only 1 counterblast (easily unflipped by one of the 4 Witch of Goats you should be running)- Macha will call a G1 to your field from the deck, and with the sometimes sparse fields Witches can suffer with, this is a big help.  And the Toolbox effect is also incredibly handy. Everything set up for a Dana play, but no Dana in hand? Use Macha. Ready for a beatdown, but the hand is all triggers and defence? Use Macha, calling Scatchach. Want to set up grave for Legion next turn? It's unlikely you'll need to, but you can use Macha, and call Arianrhod.

In short, she can fetch you whatever you need fetching. She will also most likely call attention to herself on the field, making your opponent target her, which is not so much a problem in Witches as the deck doesn't rely on her at all, simply using her effect to gain advantage. And if she lives, and you're conserving CB for the bosses- she makes excellent fodder for the next card we're going to use, or can be easily intercepted, to be replaced with a Femme or Deirdre the turn after.

 Stride (Released when both players' vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card named "Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo"" from your G zone, and turn it face up] If the number of face up cards in your G zone is two or more, until end of turn, this unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1 and "[AUTO](VC):[Choose three of your rear-guards, and retire them] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent may choose two of his or her rear-guards, and retires them. If he or she does not retire two rear-guards, until end of that battle, your opponent cannot call cards from hand to (GC).".

Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster Diablo is an incredibly powerful card. There are accusations flying that its unbalanced, too overpowered. I'm not going to get into that, but I am going to discuss a topic that I've not seen many discuss: how it can work for Witches.

Firstly, Witches find it harder to pay this cost than other Shadow Paladin builds, but they can manage. Lir, for one, eases this- either you pull her effect off, calling two Witch of Goats, getting the unflip, and then dumping those units for Diablo, or if Lir failed, send her. Macha eases the cost, even during the turn you stride Diablo, helping not to throw yourself off kilter. So, it's payable.

The effect will make the opponent retire at least 2 of their units, or make them suffer the onslaught. This works out as a win/win, even in witches. Diablo in Witches functions more as a problem solver as an out-and-out finisher, as for a finisher, look no further than Rias (potential for a pseudo +25k boost to each column for only 1 retire). The problems Diablo solves are thus- the opponent is savvy enough to know that leaving the Grade 0's is going to end badly for them, so they minus themselves more by calling more units over them, stopping your extra draw and finishing effects.

This is a dangerous move for them, but it does disadvantage us- no draws from Fianna, and no finisher with Rias. What do we do? Stride Diablo. The worst possible time for them to face Diablo is when they're low on resources. This is especially true of any Stride, but with Diablo, it can really harm them. If they want to guard, they're losing those shiny new calls to pay for the right to do so, and then when they guard, they're dealing with at least a 36K double crit unit with Triple Drive. Then they're losing cards from their small hand (Perfect Guards, mainly).

Or- if they decide to keep their rear guards (or if they don't have 2 rearguards) you're hitting them for at least 2 damage, straight up. Easy. In short, Diablo can disadvantage the opponent further, can strike for game, and can add more control to the Witch deck. Just play with the timing.

One Card Review:

Maiden of Lost Memory

Neo Nectar, Grade 2

[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):[Counter Blast (2)] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, for each unit you have with the same card name as this unit, draw a card, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face up.

Maiden of Lost Memory is an interesting unit. Taking it at face value, it's a mid-game card, that offers you not very much in the early game, where she will function as an 8k Vanilla Grade 2, which is just plain bad. Very few 8k Grade 2s get away with it, examples being Silent Tom, etc.

However, what changes this is it's effect. Copying her (easily done in the Maiden Stride deck where she is most welcome) means that she becomes a fairly scary pressure unit. On hit draw 2 (factoring in the Unflip)? And she has TWO chances to do this each turn? You could draw more cards, and unflip more, by playing more copies- but this is getting into unnecessary "win-moar" territory.

Back to the cons- how's she going to hit a vanguard with 8k? Even with Sour Slicer boosting her (and Sour Slicer SHOULD be boosting, or something is wrong) She's going to be 15k at least, or 18k with the field done right. She's best played when Ahsha reaches GB2. Then, the resulting 10k to the column will make her a much scarier 27-28k beater capable of drawing some serious cardage. Just leave the counterblasts open. So, to summarize:

Pros

1. Easily cloned like any other unit, making her "cost" easily paid
2. The drawing effect is essentially free if you're doing it right
3. The pressure and the possible defense gain is really handy for late game Maidens

Cons

1. She's an 8k Vanilla for most of the early game, bad ride, bad call, dead in hand almost
2. Once again, when the effect is active, 8k will require the best boosters (and Ahsha) to hit
3. Takes deck space away from more "reliable" cards- Watermelon Barrage/Maiden of Gladiolus

Overall Score:

3.85/5

Scary if done right, and horrifying if done wrong. A fun card none the less. Also, I've no idea what the hell it is she's holding.

Deck List: Amon Stride

Astaroth, Amon, and Marchiocias? What could go wrong? Oh yeah, Demagogue...

Here's a decklist I've been playing around with- now, it's not going to win any tournaments, and it might not work every time, but it'll be fun, that's for damn sure. With the literal crit factory at your disposal, you'll make your opponent regret not guarding that attack.

G0 - 17

Greedy Hand x1

12 Crit

4 Heal

Fairly standard spread. I personally prefer Greedy Hand , as you can load your soul with Dimensional Creeper, for an easy Counterblast 1 = 3 Soul, 1 card in Grave ready to Legion. In this build, you soul charge so much, that the charges Hysteric Shirley gives you aren't missed, and the draws certainly aren't, considering how close you can get to decking out if you aren't careful.

12 criticals combined with how powerful some of the rear guards get can help end the game very quickly.

G1 - 14

Dimensional Creeper x4

Amon’s Follower, Hell’s Deal x4

Amon’s Follower, Phu Geenlin / Bloody Calf x2 

PG - March Rabbit of Nightmareland/ Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula x4

Dimensional Creeper is incredibly handy. The level of control with it in this deck is great. You're guaranteed at least one copy in soul with Greedy Hand, and that's before riding it, or catching more in your soul charges.  Even if you draw them, it's the perfect target for Amon/Astaroth to "Eat" later. 

It's also handy to soul blast it while in Legion, to give an easy +6k to your Izaya units (and your Doreens, if you run those) In all, it's a handy card that gives you all the power. And soul blasting it and Legioning it back into the deck raises the chances of getting it back in the soul later!

Hell's Deal is a fairly standard card. +2 soul charge when you have an "Amon" Vanguard is useful for getting Astaroth to that ideal 20 card soul. 4 Perfect Guards are standard. Any work, I personally still use the March Rabbits, as I've had them for years and I like the art, but Vlad Specula can work if for some reason you need to call it for the Marchocias boost (but that's insane).

The last 2 spots should ideally be Doreen, but this is more of a budget build (DI decks to this day rely on her, and she's incredibly hard to get nowadays- hopefully G-Booster Set 3 fixes this). In my build, I'm currently playtesting Phu Geenlin, for the Amon-Required effects, but considering how much Counter Blasts aren't overly used, Bloody Calf might be an interesting choice to cripple your opponents lanes from the back, as well as overpowering the front.

G2 – 11

Psychic of Dust, Izaya x4

Amon’s Follower, Hell’s Draw x3

Amon’s Follower, Ron Geenlin x3

Imprisoned Fallen Angel, Saraqael x1

Izaya is a must. While in Legion, he gets +3k for every Soul Charge. With the Dimension Creeper we saved earlier, that's a +6k. By calling one of Amon's Succubi, that's +6k. With the Astaroth/Amon effect, the resulting 4 cards going to soul give Izaya a cool +12k, making him a 21k lane all by himself, all for a mere counterblast and a loss of one of your own units.

Hell's Draw is a useful card, acting as a G2 Amon ride should you need it, and +2 to soul on call to get you to 20 faster. Ron Geenlin is the quintessential 12k unit, slightly outclassed by Izaya's potential, but necessary for the Marchocias boost. Then, we get to my unorthodox choice.

Imprisoned Angel Saraqael is subjectively one of the most counterproductive units in nearly any Dark Irregular deck, with a Soulblast of 3 cards simply to attack, and the worst ride ever. In Amon Legion, however, she makes an interesting and handy tech choice, albeit situational. Allow me to explain:

Astaroth does not filter cards from the soul. Once a card is placed into soul without its name being "Dimensional Creeper", it stays there. The soul becomes a stagnant resource, where there is no advantage to be gained, and cards can be lost forever. Enter Saraqael. With her effect, you can freely soul blast 3 cards. Whether those cards are lost Perfect Guards, your last Demon World Marquis, Amon, Triggers you want to keep, or whether you want for push for legion early, Saraqael can (ironically, given her situation) free those cards from soul, hit hard for a turn (23k with one of the abundant 7k boosters), then either stick around if you need her to, or be used for Intercept. Early Legion is difficult in this deck, as there's no way to really get cards in grave aside from overguarding early, and Dimensional Creeper. Saraqael can ease this.

G3 – 8

Amon’s Leader, Astaroth x4

Demon World Marquis, Amon x2

Psychic of Ash, Hadar x2

Astaroth is your primary Grade 3 ride. Additional copies will be used for Stride or Trigger Manipulation. The effect is fairly straightforward, but the best idea is to aim for 20 soul, and then stay there. If you still require rear guard boosts at this point, stride Marchocias.

Amon is basic- I run 2 copies because he's not a helpful ride, but he is a great Legion partner. Use the Counterblast skill sparingly and decisively. Remember that Dimensional Creeper likes to be eaten, and that Izaya will love the boost. 

Hadar I'm currently running as playtest- it's effect is fairly simple, and can help with Trigger Manipulation/getting Greedy Hand out of soul, and the boosts aren't half bad. Astaroth works better in the long run, however.

STRIDE -8

Amon’s Claw, Marchocias x4

Demagogue x2

Miracle Element, Atmos x1

Rain Element, Madu x1

Strides are fairly simple- you won't stride too often, but when you do, you have plenty of options. Demagogue might be handy on turns where you're still soul charging- ditching Dimensional Creepers and calling Amon's Succubi, but really it's a fairly vanilla legion, since it's best to save the Creepers for when you want to boost your Izayas.

Marchocias is helpful for when you've reached the most amount of soul you really want to brave reaching (ideally 20 in this deck) and you have no way to boost the Izaya/Doreens any more. With Marchocias, you can boost 2 Amon units by +3k per 5 soul. +12 is easily achieved, making difficult columns easy to put together in the late game. The trade off of Astaroths 3 crits is mitigated by the fact that the opponent is most likely at 5 damage (making 3 crits moot) or the fact that the Triple Drive might pick up at least one of your 12 critical triggers, allowing you to place it on any of your scary columns. A good card, and running 4 means you can ditch 2 for G-Assist (hopefully you never need it, but they're there).

Miracle Element Atmos is a simple CB1, +10k, which might be switched out for a second Rain Element, Madu. Madu's effect is incredibly handy. A vanilla Stride for free, it basically becomes. Simply stride Madu over Amon (not Astaroth), and the Grade 3 card you sent it returned to your hand, ready for you to stride again later, or pay a Perfect Guard discard with. The +1 you then gain from the Triple Drive is then useful, as Dark Irregular seem to have issues with hand size. This helps to mitigate that. 

All in all, a fun deck, with potential for some very funny turns.

One Card Review:

Amon's Claw, Marchocias

Dark Irregulars, Grade 4

                                 It is said Amon has many fixers with overwhelming power.

The Amon Subclan is getting some more support,but "Overwhelming"? That's for us to decide. The full link to Marchocias is here, but we're going to also go through it line by line, and see how useful it will be.

So, to begin, we can discuss the current state of Dark Irregulars, and then the "Amon" archtype as a whole. Not exactly high tier, but certainly playable. There's a certain level of risk involved with that much soulcharging (with only 1 card even having an effect while in the soul, and that effect is to soulcharge more) - Dark Irregulars have a problem with sinking their resources into the dead pit that is the soul. Hey, we can't all be Genesis, with practically everything in the soul doing something about it, so let's hope G-Set 3 gives DI some choice.

We understand that we want to keep cards in our soul, and the amount we have directly dictates which effects our units will have, but that doesn't make it suck less when you have to stick Perfect Guards in there, or potential Stride Fodder, into a place where it's currently impossible to get them back. With the advent of cards like Psychic of Ash, Hadar, and Echo of Nemesis, the Legion format allowed those pesky triggers to be freed from the greedy clutches of the soul, and ready to be sent back to deck to "Seek the Mate". In the Amon archtype, however, once you're in the soul, no one can hear you scream.

And what a soul that'll be- with the Amon deck, you'll be soulcharging left, right and center- and be sure to say goodbye to anything you soulcharge. In exhange, however, you'll have an exceedingly strong Vanguard in Astaroth and Amon, with paltry soul of 10 cards (which is incredibly easy to accumulate in Amon) you'll be sitting pretty at 31k, double crit. Another 10? 41k, triple crit. Another 10? You crazy. Honestly, reach 20, and only go further if you want to feed Izaya and Doreen. 

Astaroth and Amon will eat up your opponents Perfect Guards fairly quickly, it's a given. If people still used limit breaks, you could lock them out of them by keeping yourself at triple crit, and keeping them on three damage. Like we used to do with Blade Wing Reijy. Remember him? Still, no one's using limit break right now anyway, at least not until the Grade 1 enablers come out for each clan, and even then, only if it's like...Prism Promise Labrador good. 

So that's your Vanguard well and truly kitted out, but what about your rear-guards? Well, if you're a DI player, then you'll know how good Doreen the Thruster can be. Izaya, Psychic of Dust, is a grade 2 clone of her that only works when you're in legion. The pair of them can stand to gain +12k just through using Amon and Astaroth's combined effects. They hit hard. But on a personal level, I really hope the new DI support does something about the clan's reliance on Doreen. Because, I've never been able to get a copy of her, and lots of people are missing out, since she's so hard to find (and obviously out of print by now). 

So, your Vanguard is pumping out crits like no ones business (and surely you're running 12 crits of your own, as a DI player it's required that you hate everyone) and your rearguards are hitting for crazy numbers, too- what's Marchocias adding to this? Uh, more power.

That might not seem required at this point, but Marchocias as a stride rewards you for the soul you have, rather than making you pump more in to boost those rear guards. 

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1)] If you have a card in your heart with "Amon" in its card name, choose two of your rear-guards with "Amon" in its card name, and those units and this unit get [Power]+3000 for every five cards in your soul until end of turn.

So, taking the dream number of 20 soul from earlier, Marchocias will give itself and 2 of your rear guards +12k. Sure, it doesn't have all the crits Astaroth will have, but you've got a triple drive check to find those, and to refresh your hand, too. Marchocias seems like it will work well in the mid- to late-game, giving a smaller boost mid game (should be compared to Demagogue, who may give an easier boost since you'll still be soulcharging then), and a larger boost towards the end of the game, where you'll be finding it harder to boost your rearguards with the rampart retiring/dangers of over soulcharging.

So, to summarize:

Pros:

1. Lessens the push for more soulcharging when you've already reached the prime point to stop

2. Pure power boost to rear columns adds pressure, which you can capitalize upon by running units with on-hit effects

3. Simple, powerful effect that will cost your opponent several cards to guard for a single counterblast, you're hitting for 38k alone on 20 soul, 45k when boosted, and 57k if you decide to add one of the bonuses to your booster. But that's not advised.

Cons

1. You will need to decide between Astaroth's crit factory and the sheer power of the field. Usually field wins this over, but other times the threat of crits can scare the opponent into over-guarding

2. Early to Mid-Game, this stride will not be helping you much, where Demagogue will become the answer

3. Not a flaw with the card, per se- DI runs the risk of soulcharging its stride fodder, meaning that it may be harder to stride in this deck compared to others

Final Verdict: 

3.8/5

A simple and effective card. Doesn't fix the problems of the deck, but tries to alleviate the awkward stage in the end-game where you must choose whether to disadvantage yourself by soulcharging simply to feed the rear guards for one turn, or suffer weaker lines. Now, just stride this. Simple!

One Card Review: 

Goddess of the Treasured Mirror, Ohirume

Oracle Think Tank, Grade 3

Firstly, may I preface this review by telling you what a fan I am of the Oracle Think Tank clan. I've suffered in the trenches, back in the days when Amaterasu carried the clan, Coco threatened to steal focus, and Tsukiyomi just went ahead and stole it.

These days, with the advent of G-Set 1, Oracles have finally been given some much needed support (although still, not quite enough), and it makes you wonder: How is CEO Amaterasu doing?

In answer to that question, she's doing okay, but not great. It pains me to say it, but while Ohirume gives Amaterasu most of the toys she needs (a 11000 Power body, a soul charging mechanic and the slightest chance of an (essentially) free couple of draws) these toys are inherently flawed.

The soul charge isn't all that helpful anymore, as it's main usage is clearly to set you up for the Amaterasu MegaBlast, but it doesn't make a lot of difference. By the time you're able to set up the 5 draws, you'll most likely be approaching deckout. Think about it, with the 2 Trigger Checks per turn (3 if you're striding- hell, 5 cards taken from the deck if you're striding Takemikazuchi) and the 3 Soulcharges from Amaterasu and Ohirume, and you're draining resources, pushing you to Legion more...and for what? A situational Megablast? Soul cards that are either outclassed by Susanoo, or cards that the deck simply has no room for (Euryale)?

Another aspect to consider is the starter. Imperial Shrine Guard, Hahiki supports the soul, uses up one of the counterblasts you have an abundance of, and lets you dig a little into your deck for a card, while Little Witch, LuLu sets up Legion, also gives you a card, and forgives the awkward moments when you have to ride a perfect guard, by removing it from your soul, allowing it to become part of the deck when you Legion. Lulu is usually the better choice, so you don't have to drop too many cards in hand early game simply to Legion, but she resets you at 0 soul, so if you're intent on using that megablast, or have some kind of turbo hand refresh strategy that relies on the soul count - Faithful Angel and Oracle Guardian, Blue Eye.

The Unflip is nice, but annoyingly, Oracles find themselves with a drought of generic counterblasting units. Stellar Magus and Diviner, Kuroikazuchi can net you some cards in hand, and with Ohirume's support they can work for longer than you'd anticipate. The Unflip is nice here. As for choosing between Stellar and Diviner, I personally find Diviner to be more reliable, since as long as he's boosted, he's gonna give you that card, long as you get at least one stride in early.

Another aspect that hurts Ohirume is simply a matter of timing. The Stride Step is before the Main Phase, meaning, that you  miss the chance to perform Legion, or you miss out on the Scry Amaterasu gives you. Missing the Legion essentially pushes you back two turns away from getting that Scry, as due to timing again, Amaterasu will not give you that check during the turn you Legion, as you missed the moment. As the check is relatively important for being forewarned (Crits for Silent Tom, useful cards to be drawn with Stellar/Diviner), this hurts the deck.

The 11000 Body, however, is good. Coupled with the +4k boost Amaterasu gains so easily, it makes the Legion hit naturally for 25k, and then hit harder for 32-33k when boosted by a standard 7k/8k booster. As 32k forces at least 25k guard (and when boosted by that Little Cutie, that's a 25k guard on Crossrides), Ohirume &Amaterasu hit pretty hard, and will force Perfect Guards, or will eat your opponent's hand. And this is before the ladies hand off to Silent Tom, who will really put your opponent in a tight spot.

So, to summarize, the Pros and Cons of Ohirume:

Pros
1. 11k defence is staple
2. 25k-33k power, basically for free, is very welcome
3. The unflip in tandem with Stellar/Diviner is fine
4. The odd occasion the draw effect actually works is nice

Cons

1. Soulcharging leads to no real advantage

2. Stride timing hurts the deck, and there's not a great deal that can be done about that

3. Apart from Silent Tom, the deck has no other real pressure- you just have to outlast them

4. The other many occasions where Ohirume's drawing skill falls flat leaves her effectively Vanilla

Final Verdict:

2.8/5

By no means a terrible card, but also, not quite a stellar one.

Compared and contrasted with Amon's Leader, Astaroth, it's clear that Ohirume could have been better.