As promised:
From Vanguard Wikia
Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
G3 / Power: 11000 / Shield: 0
[AUTO](VC) Limit Break 4: (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):When you use a unit's effect to send an opponent's rear-guard to drop zone, during this turn, this unit gets [Power]+3000/[Critical]+1.
[ACT](VC):[Counter Blast (2) - Cards with "Eradicator" in their card name] Your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, and retires it.
[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit that doesn't belong to the same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)
Once again starting from the least interesting skill.
Lord. I don't like it, but it serves its purpose. A skill to keep potentially game breaking cards in check. But lets hope Bushiroad comes up with something different again in the future, so we have some options in terms of mixing clans.
This guy's second skill is a Berserk Dragon on activate, with restrictions but some bonuses as well. The first restriction is that the two Counter Blast used must have Eradicator in their names. Not that huge a deal, as it is possible to create a deck containing only Eradicator units. Even if the deck contains none Eradicator units, careful management of Counter Blast (such as using none Eradicator units first whenever you can and healing none Eradicator units etc.) should mean that this skill will always available when you need it, assuming you have 2 Counter Blast.
The second restriction is that you can't actually choose the target, instead your opponent does that, just like Demon World Marquis, Amon.
This actually poses some problems. The cost of this card seems to be much higher than Amon at the cost of CB2, but Amon's skill has to add 1 card from the field to Soul, which is a -1 and makes his skill effectively a 1 for 1 and gives you no immediate advantage (although the power increase Dark Irregular units get from having more Soul can be converted into more Card Advantage later). Gauntlet Buster on the other hand pays 1 more Counter Blast but doesn't "sacrifice" any of your own cards. So the cost of the two skills can be considered equal when we consider the immediate effect they have on your Card Advantage (almost sounds scientific lol). Consider that both Clans don't really have ways to build up hand size other than draw triggers, this actually makes the Buster Dragon seem better.
However the main problem both skills have is that you can't choose your target. The only way you can "choose" what to retire is when your opponent only has 1 choice and you activate the skill then. But that single card might not always be all that important, so you will not always activate the skill when your opponent only has 1 card to retire since the cost of CB2 is quite high. Still the less cards your opponent has on the field, the better it is to use this skill in terms of retiring exactly what you want. Thinking like this, the best time to use this skill is in the early to mid game when both players will try to get a lead, your opponent will be likely to play some key cards, for example playing 8k G1s to attack to push for damage or card changers to cycle for G3s to avoid missing rides, it is also when the starting vanguards might still be around, which could be key to take out. This poses a problem in itself because you will only be able to ride Grade 3 on turn 3 earliest as Gauntlet Buster doesn't have Superior Ride available.
Another problem with that is the Limit Break that seemingly works well with his own retiring skill, in fact it works well with any retiring skill (if the translations are accurate). At the standard 4 damage mark, Gauntlet Buster Dragon's Limit Break activates and whenever you use any skill to retire an opponents Rear Guard, Gauntlet Buster's fist becomes more badass and he gets +3k and +1 Critical.
It's like stealing your opponents money and punching him harder than you usually would.
Like many Limit Break skills before it, this would be an exceedingly awesome skill if it weren't for the LB4 restriction. Being at 4 damage means either you ate one too many critical triggers or the game has dragged for quite a bit already. In the latter case, both fields are also likely to be full, so activating Buster Dragon's retire skill most likely means you won't retire exactly what you want, unless your opponents field is so awesome you want to just get rid of anything you possibly can (but in that case your chances of winning probably aren't looking all that great). Depending on the situation, the -1 of your opponents choice might mean all the difference or nothing at all and same goes for the plus to your Vanguard's power and critical. If your opponent was lucky with criticals and doesn't have many cards in hand the RG retired will mean a lot and if your opponent is at 3-4 damage you might force out a perfect guard, which means another guaranteed 2 cards your opponent will lose, or potentially lose the game. In a situation where both cases apply, you have a good chance of winning the game and this effect is awesome, but even when only one case applies this is still a good skill. However if none of the mentioned cases is in effect, this skill will do little for you. Keeping in mind their relative costs, Buster Dragon comes fairly close to game winning cards like a Soul Saviour Dragon, Platinum Ezels Ultimate Break or even Majestic Lord Blasters +10k with static 2 Criticals (all of which are good almost no matter when you use them) IF you can guarantee the minimum of 3 or more cards Buster Dragon can force your opponent to drop (or an equivalent advantage, although I can't give specific examples at the moment). This means your opponent is at 3, ideally 4 damage and has something you'd want to get rid of when you activate this Limit Break. Even better if your opponent doesn't have a perfect guard and you boost with Gauntlet Buster's custom booster, but don't count on it to always be like that.
A cool thing about this Limit Break is that it doesn't actually have all that many restrictions: Other than the usual LB4 and having to activate a skill that retires an opponents Rear Guard, there are no restrictions, which is probably why this card has the Lord skill. There are no restrictions in terms of the phase of your turn so it can activate during the battle phase as well, and it doesn't state that the retiring skill must be a Narukami skill, so you could use cards like Vortex Dragon, although that isn't really practical (that is a possible fun deck haha).
We can't really make use of the multi clan retire skills as most of the other practical retiring skills are on Vanguards or require Vanguards or a certain clan (Kagero mostly), but there is a Narukami card that can retire during the battle phase for a cost of CB2 when it hits a Vanguard. However it only has 8k power and can only retire the front row.
Other cards that will help trigger Gauntlet Buster Dragon's Limit Break are Vowing Sword Dragon (although I'm still unsure if sitting on an almost vanilla 11k Vanguard until 4 damage is viable), Narukami's own Berserk Dragon, Dragonic Deathscythe and Voltage Claw Dragon. Of the 3 of them only Dragonic Deathscythe can retire back row Rear Guards and only Vowing Sword is an Eradicator. So you'll be relying on Gauntlet Buster Dragon's own retiring skill more often then you'd like to.
Having said all that, this is the deck list I would use with Gauntlet Buster Dragon as the focus.
G0: 17
8 Critical
4 Draw
4 Heal
(Play max number of cards with Eradicator in their names where applicable)
1 Spark Kid Dragoon
G1: 14
4 Red River Dragoon
3 Wyvern Guard Guld
3 Thunder Fist Eradicator Doui (custom booster) / Eradicator of True Flames Kougaiji (10k booster)
4 Eradicator Demolition Dragon
G2: 11
4 Eradicator Spark Rain Dragon
3 Conquering Eradicator, Zuitan
2 Assassinating Eradicator, Suusei
2 Dragonic Deathscythe
G3: 8
3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
2 Chain Attack Eradicator Shion
As much as I like Saishin, at the moment I don't think it is very practical in this deck, although I still consider it due to the rise of more good starting vanguards (Vanguard Y U NO SIDEDECK?!). 8 Criticals because you'll want your opponent at 3 damage quite fast and continue to pressure with a combination of +Critical on Vanguard and giving Critical Triggers to Rear Guards. For Grade 1s I max out on Red River because I heard 8k booster is good and only 3 Wyvern Guard as I feel this is more of an aggressive deck. 3 copies of the custom/vanguard booster of your choice, but if you decide to go with Kougaiji then consider I'd play only 2 copies as it only works on the Vanguard, compared to Doui which can also power boost Rear Guard Buster Dragons, in that case play 4 Wyvern Guard, cause no other reason not to do so.
Demolition Dragons to round out the G1s as the card changers condition is rather unreliable and having back up 10k attackers is good in a pinch.
To compensate for the amount of 6k booster, max out on Spark Rain Dragons, the Eradicator 12k beater. 3 copies of Zuitan for unflipping goodness but I contemplate playing 3 Spark Rain and 4 Zuitan instead. Not playing 4 of each as I want to have 2 Suusei for pressure and potential retiring during battle phase and only 2 Deathscythe because he is not an Eradicator sadly (and ironically). An alternate lineup would be 4 of each Spark Rain and Zuitan, then 3 of either Deathscythe or Suusei, Deathscythe not being an Eradicator but his on demand retire and ability to burn back row is good to keep in mind when making a choice.
And finally the Grade 3s; this is the one I'm most unsure about, I list my standard 3-3-2 lineup with 2 Shion BUT I feel maybe 4-4 Vowing and Buster Dragon is also viable and maybe better or even 4 Buster and 3 Vowing and playing an additional Grade 2, probably 1 more Dragonic Deathscythe. This would need testing before being able to make a definite conclusion.
As mentioned before, I consider building a Narukami deck and currently I'm leaning towards Gauntlet Buster Dragon rather than Dragonic Descendant mainly due to art and Buster Dragon kinda reminds me of awesome stuff like Mega Man and Gunbuster/Diebuster haha. But I also like the retiring play style which was the reason I used to play Kagero (but gave up cause everyone played Kagero back then).
Seems like I lied and this ended up being quite long after all haha. I'll be sure to make edit this if I change my opinion on the deck build or this card, but that will be all for now.
My next writeup will probably not be on a specific card but my opinion on the current state on the game itself, and following that I'll probably take a closer look at the new
I like your writing, keep posting haha :D and..
ReplyDeletewhich one do you think is better Gauntlet or Descendant ?
Thanks!
DeleteI haven't seen enough of Gauntlet in action to say for sure. But at the moment I think Descendant is better just for the fact that sometimes a 4th attack is just impossible to guard for your opponent. Kinda like Spectral Duke, but Descendant can also buff himself so he is not as reliant on triggers as Duke was.