Techfight Theoryguard:Nitpicking Techs for 

OTT & Pale Moon

This short post is just going to point out some cards I've been using lately. The tech cards will benefit Oracle Think Tank and Pale Moon.

- Subclan Crits -

Battle Sister, Muffin, and also Silver Thorn Assistant, Dixie, have a different effect ruling to the usual "If you have X, you may pay the cost". These cards instead let you return the card outright, then check for the required Vanguard. if they do not find that vanguard, they activate as much of the effect as possible; i.e., in this instance, they shuffle the deck. Handy for Silver Thorn and Battle Sister, right?

Well, how about considering using them in other builds across the clans? Magus, Susanoo, Harri and more can benefit in interesting and minute ways from critical stacking in this way.

Naturally, calling Muffin or Dixie straight from hand just to send them back to deck is a pure minus, but there are situations you can work around this, and turn matches in your favour- this wouldn't be the nitpicky-est of tech cards if it wasnt applicable in 95% of your games.

In most OTT builds (RIP OTT, I'll wait for you to get the attention you deserve), you will bully through your deck, drawing and drive checking. With very little deck replenishment available, Muffin may actually be a solution for that last turn when you have a few cards left in deck, and its all or nothing- send back a few Muffin, and you've literally stacked your deck with crits- you've a good chance of seeing them, and you won't deck out. 

Muffin is also nice because her effect might also let OTT decks tech in one of the Battle Sister stride when she's available- sure, the stride herself will be vanilla, but the critical's deck stacking, mass countercharging and slight power gain are nothing to sneeze at, especially considering there is room in the Oracle stride deck. Boy, is there room.

Dixie works in a similar way in Harri or Pure Magia builds, only you're not going to be dropping her often from hand. Instead, you can filter her through the random soulcharges, and turn those unnecessary Cat in High Boots later game calls (not as fun when there's no 5k sweetener) into a crit back to deck, before you activate Milward or Mephisto. 

It's all too easy to be a little overzealous with the Peryton and Cutie Paratroopers in the early to mid game, and deck out is a very real problem if you're not paying complete attention (it happens.) Dixie is forgiving of that.

-Personal Tech-

I might just have not seen many Nightmare Doll decks, so I'm unsure how creative or original this tech is, but Madcap Marionette is an interesting and useful card for Dolls, I find. On call it adds a card from hand to soul. This kind of minus for a specific soulcharge is mostly terrible in most other Pale Moon builds, but in Dolls, it has some nice synergy.

Firstly, he's a Workeroid, making him a friend of Beatrix. Secondly, he's completely optional. Thirdly, 6k isn't terrible in Dolls because he can be placed behind an active Jumping Jill or an Alice and hit for normal numbers.

In Dolls, I find that random soulcharging is never what you want. You want a Ginny in Soul, and Alice in soul, Catherine on VG, and an Alice in Hand or on RG. That's all. Catherine on Ride will give you one of those soulcharges, and Ginny is best ridden or even if you call her she'll swap with an Alice or Soulcharge herself. Beatrix herself can stack your soul if they're on RG, but by the time you stride, it's a little late for set up in Dolls.

Sometimes, things can go wrong. Consistency is shaky in Dolls, and sometimes, you're grateful for Madcap. He's a friend. Also, the drop from hand is fine because you shouldn't really be guarding early game anyway. You want the damage to counterstrike.

That concludes my little list of techs. What cards do you like to use?

- mawile

101 Things to do with Masked Magician, Harry

A Pale Moon article in-progress- Edition No. 1

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose up to one card from your soul, call it to (RC), that unit and this unit get [Power]+3000 until end of turn.Magia-[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] During your turn, when your G unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, Soul Charge (1), choose up to one card from your soul, call it to (RC), that unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn, and at the end of that turn, put the unit called with this effect into your soul.

Now that we're familiar with Harry's nice art and straightforward skill, we can start. The point of this article- and the further articles to come once we've seen more support- will be to discuss all of the most potent combos that Harry can instigate- because, despite the fact that Harry himself does not generate +1 advantage with his on-stride, he does instead offer immediate population, and at GB2, allows you to +1 for free.

Combo 1: Simple Call

Call ANY 9k G2 or 7k G1, into a column with the other. At his most basic, Harry can give you a SC1 and a 21k column, and this is assuming that you've called something which cannot use it's effect- calling something like Daydream Tone, Arnie or Midnight Bunny will up the pressure, allowing that 21k on-hit to either give you what you want, or cost a lot to guard.

On hit Countercharge 2? Sure, I'll just pay 15k guard from hand to stop THAT.

Combo 2: Purple Trapesist Redux

At GB2, On attack, Harry will call a RG permanently from soul, and give it and himself +3k. With this skill, you can populate and add a little pressure power for free, and it's a cute +1. With Purple Trapesist in soul (or GB1 Equivalent, depending on support given), this on attack call can guarantee a fourth attack (yeah, we do it too, Aqua Force) and potentially a nice one at that, making Purple Trapesist hit 9k, and if you run a 12k attacker, that's a 21k column, or if you're running a standard 9k, that's a respectable 18k extra attack- enough for late game pressure units like Arny, to guarantee you even MORE population.

Combo 3: Card Juggler

Using Happiness Collector as a starter is an interesting choice. It remains to be seen how much we'll need the current stand-out Forerunners, Starting Presenter and Girl Who Crossed the Gap, but with this combo at least, Happiness Collector pays her rent and then hints at offering you more in the future.

Thanks for the tickets! Wait, why does she keep coming back-

[AUTO]:Forerunner (When a unit of the same clan rides this unit, you may call this unit to (RC))[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):[Put this unit into your soul] When your other unit is placed on (RC) from your soul, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card, and Soul Charge (1).

So, this combo is a little less straight forward as the others so far, but it's still easy to pull off, and hints at ways that Pale Moon can grab hand advantage.

So, ride/get Egg Juggler to soul. On stride, call Egg Juggler, SC1 for Harry, SB1 for Egg, Send Happiness Collector to soul, SC1, and draw 2 cards, one for Egg, and one for Happiness.

Follow that? Good. The result of such, is a net +1 Soul Charge (since these soulcharges are random, chances are you'll be fine soulblasting for Egg Juggler), 2 cards drawn to hand, and an 11k Egg Juggler (can hit a vanguard by herself if she's alone, or makes a workable column if not), who will return to soul at the end of the turn to be comboed with later. And all this cost 1CB. Bear in mind, this is all before even taking into account what your Stride can do.

Summary

Combos like these are to be expected from the new Pale Moon support, and adding cards like Betty to the equation only serve to push a little harder. We're waiting on Magia support, as at the time of writing  Betty can only call copies of Harry himself from soul, but we know that currently, she can at least push for a 4th attack for CB1. Despite not knowing the vast majority of the support we're due to get, we'd best hope for a way to filter soul, and get the cards we WANT in there.

mawile x

A "Fun" Deck List: A Wonderful Magical Basket of Chimeras

Please enjoy, and look forward to what will appear next!

While waiting for Pale Moon support reveals, I've been driving myself mad with theories, ideas, and possible crazy combos. To mitigate this, I've built a fun little deck based around Nightmare Doll, Chelsea, that I'd very much like to share with you. 

Now, this deck is far more casual in nature compared to the current meta- don't take this to a tourney and expect to top, but if you're like me, waiting on tenterhooks for news, and you have these cards lying around- why not have fun and build your own little combo deck, to remind you of the good old days? Think of the satisfaction when you win.

Deck List is as follows:

Grade 0 - 17

Girl Who Crossed The Gap x1

5 [Draw] 7 [Crit] 4 [Heal]

Grade 1 - 14

Perfect Guard x4

Midnight Bunny x4

Purple Trapezist x4

Egg Juggler x2

Grade 2 - 11

Flying Hippogriff x4

Heat Elemental, Bwah x4

Dancing Princess of the Night Sky x2

Nitro Juggler x1

Grade 3 - 8

Nightmare Doll, Chelsea x4

Miracle Pop, Eva x4

Grade 4 - 8

Miracle of Lunar Square, Clifford x4

Rain Elemental, Madew x2

Snow Element, Blizza x2

Now to break it down, section by section.

Grade 0 Summary

The Grade 0 section is fairly straightforward, special triggers are preferred if available,but this current set up works fine. It's what I call the "Dark Irregular Set Up", where 6 Draws feels like too many, but 4 draws leave you with death hands. With 5, you'll hit them often, which helps you keep up, since you don't really have any way to plus outside of Egg Juggler and getting off Chelsea's skill.

Girl Who Crossed the Gap does her job well- she essentially becomes anything you have in soul, all for one counterblast- call a Midnight Bunny behind something for pressure, call a Purple Trapesist to rescale your field, or simply call Egg Juggler to draw- she's never really dead. Before choosing Gap, I did consider Starting Presenter, despite the completely offputting artwork- but you will soul charge enough sitting on Eva, with Dancing Princess giving you what you need, if you didn't just ride it. 

Grade 1 Summary

Everything here is pretty straightforward, too- Midnight Bunny pressures further attacks if her column hits, and considering the unit she boosts will hit 16-18k, that's a nice bit of pressure. The ages old combo of her with Purple Trapezist also still stands- simply keep a Purple or two in soul ready for this effect (keeping a Purple or two in soul also works out great for Chelsea).

Purple Trapezist needs no explanation, it's wonderful- shame it's 6k, but this doesn't matter so much when your ideal RG will be 11k anyway.

Egg Juggler gives you hand, while filtering out the cards Eva soulcharges- she also combos with Girl Who Crossed the Gap for an easy draw. Getting her into Soul and calling her out from it is a doddle.

Grade 2 Summary

Sporting surprisingly apt art for Pale Moon, Heat Elemental Bwah fits right in- on hit, he retires himself and searches one of your G3's. Hitting by himself will help mitigate Chelsea's persona blast, or even search you Stride Fodder. He's a helpful little bugger, and his name is fun to say. Go on, say it now, while sat in your chair. Say "BWAH." Go on, there's no shame, I do it too.

Flying Hippogriff reads as a trashy common, but 11k once you hit G3 is nothing to sneeze at- you could alternately play Crimson Beast Tamer, but she requires a little more set up, while Hippogriff also makes an amazing Eva swap target, as he can naturally hit vanguards on his own, and makes low power rearguards like Purple Trapezist and Egg Juggler safe to use, hitting a respectable 17k, pushing for a 10k. He doesn't reach 11k on Stride Turns, but usually you use those as either finishers (pushing that Blizza for games where it's REALLY crunch time and you have NOTHING else) or set up and hand fillers- Madew and Clifford.

Dancing Princess and Nitro Juggler are tech options- Nitro is filler, I'm considering using a vanilla, since on-call soulcharge really isn't what Pale Moon should be right now. Dancing Princess will get you those things you just HAVE to have in soul- spare Purple, Hippogriff to surprise the opponent with later, she helps you plan several turns ahead. Sure, she's 8k. Intercept with her. She's there to usher your next act in, not rush the opponent herself. It's no loss of guard to call her. 

Grade 3 Summary

Eva is fun, you'll want to sit on her until you reach 4 damage and you can REALLY go off. Against most decks, you can reach 4 damage easily (once we get LB enabler we can probably rely far less on the opponent and just rush rush rush, but I guess when we get enabler we won't be playing hype.dek, so that's a catch 22, isn't it?). You'll reach 4 damage easily, while keeping combo pieces in hand- while getting to 4 damage, you'd play as normal, setting up, pushing and pressuring with Bwah and Bunny.

Chelsea will populate your field a little for a price that's actually quite affordable, and much easier to activate with Bwah. She also works in the battle phase, like Eva, meaning she can push 2 more attacks if you've got the soul for it, or at least get out a nice column. If you combo both her AND Eva in the same turn, you can get a full field "restand". Not bad, really. Usually, though, I like to stagger their effects, especially since I like to have Trapezists on field for Eva's breakride. 5 attacks in one turn, then another 5 the following turn, without taking into account how many more potential attacks you can pressure with Midnight Bunny, or how many Egg Juggler calls you make- you'll eat hand rather nicely for a casual deck.

Grade 4 Summary

Fairly standard, here- we have no options outside of Clifford, and Madew is nice if you're sat on Chelsea and want a Stride, but don't really want to pay for it- or if you used a Chelsea earlier and want to search it back from drop zone.

Blizza is a "finisher" of sorts, which can hit for high numbers, if you've had to stride several times in the game, but it's mostly filler. You won't stride Clifford 4 times, but as we've yet to get more support, fill the space if you want (I only run 2 Clifford in real life. I never stride him more than that, the on-hit has more variables than other on-hits, but it's usually one your opponent will guard).

Backstage Preparation

Remember to just have fun with the deck- it's mainly designed for fun with friends, and to inspire them to try similarly zany or interestingly creative builds, while you're waiting for further support. Think of it as an appetizer - albeit an appetizer with a little more bite than your opponent will bargain for- and may the new card reveals be swift and beautiful for us all.

mawile   x