CFV Essay: Formed up and Ready to Strike!

Seems like most of the key Jewel Knights have been revealed already so seems like a good time to take a more in depth look!
This will be slightly different as the Jewel Knights have some minor peculiarities about them.
But as every Vanguard Deck still revolves around the main Grade 3 of choice I'll still start with that. 

Leading Jewel Knight Salome

[AUTO](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):
When this unit attacks, if the number of other rear-guards you have with "Jewel Knight" in its card name is four or more, this unit gets [Power]+2000/[Critical]+1 until end of that battle.

[ACT](VC):[Counter Blast (2) - Cards with "Jewel Knight" in their card name]
Search your deck for up to one card with "Jewel Knight" in its card name, call it to (RC), and shuffle your deck. 

Good card, but not really amazing. A passive Limit Break ability means that once you're at four damage this card will keep up the pressure. The bad thing is the extra Critical only really benefits you when your opponent is at 4 or less damage, once both players are at 5 damage, extra Criticals don't really matter as much as just having a high power and only +2k doesn't really help much. Additionally the requirement is having four or more Jewel Knight Rear Guards that means careful planning is required for Rear Guard placement if you want to include higher power boosting units, as the highest power Grade 1 Jewel Knight is 7k.

It's regular ability is really good though, on par with, if not better than King of Knights Alfred and Great Silver Wolf Garmore. The Counter Blast limitation shouldn't really be an issue the bigger problem is the call restriction on Jewel Knights, but even then it's not really a problem as you'll always want to have 4 or more Jewel Knights in the Rear Guard circles. However it does mean you can't call cards like Gorden for extra shield, at least until Jewel Knights get their own. The great thing is also the fact that it's an Activate ability. Meaning you won't run into the problem of not having enough damage when you ride Grade 3 like Garmore. 

Pure Heart Jewel Knight Ashley

[AUTO] Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):
When a «Royal Paladin» rides this unit, you may choose one of your vanguards, and that unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.

[AUTO](VC):When this unit attacks a vanguard, this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of that battle.

[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit that doesn't belong to the same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)


Standard Break Ride unit. 11k base power gives a good defense at the very least until you ride another unit over. Ashley gets +2k simply for attacking the Vanguard, meaning she can hit 11k and higher Vanguards by herself, which is always good. As for the Break Ride itself, it might seem a bit underwhelming and it certainly is. The standard +10k power to Vanguard is still there, but other than that the only thing it does different is giving the Vanguard an additional Critical for that turn. Compared to other Break Ride units it does very little and is about on par with Vowing Sword Dragon. Other Break Ride abilities give +5k to multiple units some still have effects on top of that, or giving all Rear Guards, +10k when they attack etc. 
So definitely it's not that amazing. However, in my opinion, it really can't be too great, because Royals already have many awesome Grade 3s that would be really good when riding over this.

Important to note is that none of the Break Rides are actually limited to their Archetype. So you want something like Liberator Gancelot? Break Ride Soul Saviour Dragon, some overall effect +1 Critical. Want high Vanguard power and want to save cards? Ride King of Knights Alfred 28k and 2 Critical if you want to save 1 card in hand by not playing something behind Alfred and you can save another card by calling a Rear Guard from deck with the King of Knights. Even Pendragon might be a good option because on the next turn you have a chance of riding another Ashley from the top of your deck (instead of your hand), which sets up another Break Ride the following turn.

Combined with Salome, it doesn't matter as much if your opponent has way less damage than you because you gain Criticals relatively easily to quickly catch up. 


Now the interesting thing about the rest of the Jewel Knights is that, unlike other Archetypes, they don't rely on having a Jewel Knight Vanguard. In fact most of the Jewel Knights' abilities require a certain amount of Jewel Knight Rear Guards instead, usually 3 or more other Jewel Knights Rear Guards. Like everything, this has good and bad points.
This means that there's more freedom with the Grade 3s and it's not necessary to play the Jewel Knight Grade 3s. However it does restrict your options for all the other Grades as you'll always want to have enough Jewel Knights on the field to be able to make use of their abilities, and sadly not all of their abilities are that great AND there aren't really that many Jewel Knights to choose from in the first place. 

Fellowship Jewel Knight Tracie and Stinging Jewel Knight Sherrie are the Bedivere and Kay for Jewel Knights. However, as already mentioned, they don't really on a specific Vanguard name, but need to have 3 or more other Jewel Knight Rear Guards  in order to gain +3k.

Dogmatize Jewel Knight, Sybill is the same as Akane and can call any Grade 1 or lower Jewel Knight from the deck for a cost of Counter Blast 2 when you have any Royal Paladin Vanguard.

Jewel Knight Prizme is the same as Oracles Think Tank's Emerald Witch Lala. Prizme lets you discard a card and draw one if you have 3 or more other Jewel Knight Rear Guards when Prizme gets called to the field.

Dreaming Jewel Knight Tiffany is the starter Vanguard and is quite good. Like all starter vanguards now, Tiffany has the Pioneer effect and has a respectable power for a Grade 0 at 5k power. Her effect is what makes her so good though; at no additional cost other then sending Tiffany to soul, you can give up to 2 Jewel Knights +3k power until the end of the turn. And a well timed +3k to two units can be devastating.

Other then the above mentioned, the only other Jewel Knights are the Triggers (one each of Critical, Stand, Draw and Heal) and Iseult. So it's not really viable to make a deck with only Jewel Knights. However the upside is they all have decent power for their effects, and their effects aren't really bad.

So without further ado, time for initial Deck List:

Grade 0: 17
6 Critical
6 Draw
4 Heal
(Play max amount of Jewel Knights and top up with trigger units of choice)

1 Dreaming Jewel Knight Tiffany (starter)

Grade 1: 10
4 Stinging Jewel Knight Sherrie
4 Flash Jewel Knight, Iseult
4 Jewel Knight Prizme
3 Toypugal (or  Little Sage Marron / Pongal / Lake Maiden Lien)

Grade 2: 10
4 Fellowship Jewel Knight, Tracie
2 Dogmatize Jewel Knight Sybill
2 Blaster Blade
2 Knight of Determination Lamorak

Grade 3: 8
3 Pure Heart Jewel Knight Ashley
3 Leading Jewel Knight Salome

2 Soul Saviour Dragon / Swordsman of Explosive Flames Palamedes

Some explanations:


Grade 0
This deck doesn't actually need 8 Critical I feel but it definitely won't hurt it either. So just use whatever Critical oriented setup you're comfortable with. Without testing it's hard to say if stands would work well, on one hand you gain Criticals relatively easily but on the other hand Jewel Knights don't really have big Rear Guards. For draws you could max out on Margal instead for additional power adding and soul charging options. If you don't plan on using Salome then I'd recommend to max out on Margal, otherwise stick with 3 copies of the Jewel Knight draw trigger at the very least. For the specific deck above, 4 Margal is recommended due the addition of Soul Saviour Dragon.

Grade 1
Maxed out on the Jewel Knight Grade 1s and 3 other Grade 1s of choice. I'm leaning towards Toypugal to at least let Salome hit 21k with the perfect setup, but the other options I listed are also pretty good. Marron for 8k power, Pongal for more consistent usage of Soul Saviour Dragon and Lake Maiden Lien is a great turn 1 ride and can still be occasionally useful during the game. Depending on your Grade 3 lineup you'll want to change the none Jewel Knight card and you might also want to lower the number of Prizme and/or Iseult (although nowadays it's better to have extra negators) which give you additional options.
Talking about Iseult, it's not necessary to play the Jewel Knight version as most of the time you won't be calling negators anyway and if you're forced to ride Iseult for Grade 1, that also doesn't change anything if you ride regular Iseult.

Grade 2
Tracie at 4 because 12k attacker is good and Sybill only at 2 because I want to play Salome. Both of them have the same cost, the only difference is Salome has to Counter Blast 2 Jewel Knights which shouldn't be a problem. Salome also has the Advantage of being able to call any Jewel Knight, including Grade 3s, which helps Toypugal be a bit more consistent. Sybill is also only an 8k and having to ride it at Grade 2 opens you up for a lot of damage. On top of that if you don't have enough damage to even use her ability...
The other 4 are really up to preference, I want to limit the number of 8k Grade 2s so I decided to go with good old Blaster Blade and Lamorak. Blaster Blade is a good card to have around in case you really need to burn Rear Guards. The only thing to look out for is the cost since most of the Counter Blast costs in this deck is 2, so deciding when you want to call more units instead of burning is important. Lamorak because he looks cooler than Gallatin. 
Alternatively, you can also play 4 Lamorak or go with the none Jewel Knight Grade 2s in BT10.

Uncompromising Knight Idell is a base 8k that can gain 4k when attacking for Counter Blast 1 Royal Paladin if you have a Royal Paladin Vanguard.
Delicate Knight Clowdine is also base 8k and gains +3k when attacking and your Vanguard or a Rear Guard has a Limit Break 4 ability (it's not quite clear if you need to be at 4 damage or higher or if a unit simply needs to have an LB4 skill).

Both are good units, but I don't want to have that many 8k base Grade 2s. If I had to choose one, I'd probably play Clowdine as the deck is already quite Counter Blast heavy. (assuming the deck in it's current state)

There are a lot of options with the Grade 2s as you can simply intercept to clear them and replace with Jewel Knights if you need to, unlike Grade 1s.

Grade 3
Play whatever you like really. (Besides Majesty Lord Blaster, but even that could be accommodated with some changes...) Even Grade 3 lineups from the beginning of Vanguard would work well I feel i.e. King of Knights Alfred and Palamedes based.
For this specific build above I decided on 3-3 Ashely and Salome respectively. I'm contemplating of changing it to 4-2 because Salome is only 10k and having to ride Ashley and then another card over just for Break ride seems like a terrible loss in card advantage.
Soul Saviour Dragon is there for alternate Break Ride option and also for when your initial Break Ride didn't quite work and you somehow haven't lost yet haha (and also the promo Soul Saviour Dragon looks cool and should be easy to get)
If you already have Palamedes, that's always a good option but keep in mind the number of Jewel Knights on your field. Other options are Dignified Silver Dragon, Twin Shine Swordsman Marhaus, Knight of Conviction Bors etc. any 10k Grade 3 that gains power as a Rear Guard. (because 9k Grade 3s are terrible when forced to ride.)

Overall:
One thing you may notice about the deck list above is that I included quite a few none Jewel Knights. Of course there is some concern about not having enough Jewel Knights for Counter Blast to use Salome's call skill. But as I have said in previous posts, I don't think it'll be a huge issue. Even if you can't use Salome's skill to call unit, Sybill doesn't have specific Counter Blast restriction and Blaster Blade is always a good use of Counter Blast. With careful management it shouldn't be an issue (but of course I might change my opinions after testing).
Jewel Knights seem to be quite flexible in terms of Grade 3 and are really only limited by their Rear Guards. But that is what makes them really fit the Royal Paladin theme: Getting stronger through allies. I doubt Jewel Knights will be a top top tier deck, but I'm pretty sure they have a good fighting chance :] 

CFV Essay: Beast Deity, Buster Mode!

Finally, the Nova Grappler ace for BT10 has been revealed! More awesome Buster units!

Beast Deity Ethics Buster
[AUTO] Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage): When a «Nova Grappler» rides this unit, you may choose one of your vanguards, and that unit gets [Power]+10000, and gets "[AUTO](VC):When this unit attacks a vanguard, [Stand] all your «Nova Grappler» rear-guards in your front row." until end of turn.

[AUTO](VC):When this unit is boosted by a «Nova Grappler», this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of that battle.

[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit that doesn't belong to the same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Before I continue on, it's important to note that at the time I'm writing this, there is still at least 1 unknown Nova Grappler card for BT10. I don't think it'll make much of a difference but who knows.

Other Beast Deities Nova get this set:

• Beast Deity Hatred Chaos, a Masquerade clone for Beast Deities (G2, 9k power, +3k when attacking and you have a Beast Deity VG)
• Beast Deity Herarti Destroyer, a G1 7k that has a discard and draw effect when it hits the Vanguard
• Beast Deity Riot Horn, a pioneer unit with the ability to stand when a Beast Deity in the same column stands

Other than the Beast Deities, there is Armored Heavy Gunner. A Limit Break 4 unit that gets +5k and has  a RG only effect that gives it +2k when attacking the Vanguard. Same as the rest of the Limit Break Executioners. 

Probably safe to say that Ethics Buster has one of the better Break Ride abilities, not quite as good as Spike Brothers but at least equal to, if not better than Gold Paladin's Gancelot. 


Needing to get boosted to get +2k is not quite as good as just needing to attack the Vanguard, but it'll make little difference. It lets you be a bit more versatile if you feel you need to attack a Rear Guard and it works before your opponent has 3 damage unlike Vowing Sword. Ultimately though, as already stated, the difference is minor, the biggest down side is not being able to hit 13k on its own. But most of the Cross Rides aren't that consistent and even if, by the time your opponent Cross Rides you should have a unit boosting your Vanguard. 

The main reason to play this card is of course, the Break Ride ability itself. The seemingly standard +10k power to Vanguard upon Break Ride also applies here. In addition to that your Vanguard will gain the ability to stand all front row Rear Guards when it attacks  the opposing Vanguard (doesn't need to hit), until end of the turn.

While the last part doesn't matter most of the time, if your Grade 3 line up includes Stern Blaukruger and/or Mr. Invincible it's important to take note that the ability lasts until the end of the turn (and that Mr. Invincible works in the Rear Guard circles as well, how you're going to get 8s Soul I'll leave it to you to figure out!).

More importantly is that you only stand your front row Rear Guards, but it doesn't restrict you to any Archetype, meaning none Beast Deities will stand as well. This means you'll want to play as many big RGs as you can. Normally this would include Executioner clones, but Nova Grappler have much better options.
Besides Hatred Chaos, the Beast Deities Golden Anglet and Yamata Drake are also good options. Both Anglet and Drake get +3k power when they stand during your Battle Phase and also being Beast Deities, they benefit from the rest of the support the Deities get, like Blank Marsh and White Tiger. 
These three will ensure that  your RGs will be able to hit something after your Vanguards attack because they all end up at least 12k or 13k one way or another.
But of course Break Rides being meant to be game enders we need to try to maximize the potential of the increased number of attacks. Besides standing your Vanguard and then standing your Rear Guards again (which is unlikely), the other option we have is trying to stand the Rear Guard boosters as well. 

With the release of Herarti Destroyer the Beast Deities actually have quite a nice amount of Grade 1s to choose from, some better than others of course. Scarlet Bird is only 6k and while it has an arguably decent effect it doesn't quite cut it as a booster, especially we have 2 other units with 7k power each. These are the new Herarti Destroyer and the old but good Blank Marsh. These being Beast Deities are important as they both can stand again with the help of another Blank Marsh or White Tiger. 
Two ways to make use of this:

• Your 2nd RG attack is boosted by Blank Marsh or White Tiger and if it hits you can stand the G1 in the other column (assuming it's a Beast Deity)
• Your VG is boosted by either Blank March or White Tiger and hits you can stand either G1 in the side columns (again assuming Beast Deities)

7k power might not seem too impressive, but it's much better than 6k as it lets 11k RGs hit cross rides for 18k and when boosting 12k attackers, they are great for getting rid of 9k RGs.

On the topic of 7k G1s,  another great card we must not forget about is Death Army Guy. Auto stand when you Drive Check a Grade 3? Yes please. Essentially turning your Grade 3s into triggers, albeit without the power boost. 

I think that's all in terms of Grade 1s standing themselves or each other. The only other way to stand your 2 Grade 1s would be Azure Dragon and Iluminal Dragon.

Both stand 2 units with differences in restrictions: Iluminal can only target Beast Deities and cost a whooping 3 Counter Blast while Azure can stand anything but costs a Persona Blast and needs to hit. Even though you shouldn't rely on being able to hit your opponents VG, Azure still provides good pressure early on if you don't ride into Ethics Buster first, as Azure doesn't have a Limit Break restriction on his ability. 

While Iluminal has the added bonus of being able to have a static 13k power, if your intention is to make use of Break Ride it'll get really messy to add cross ride to that. So we can safely ignore the cross ride ability.

With all that said, the plan is to Break Ride while having your big hitters in your front row and either getting your G1s to stand through their own abilities or getting off Azure/Iluminal. It's simple really. However one additional thing to take note of: Ethics Buster somewhat circumvents Perfect Guards because you stand your front row no matter what so you can safely attack with all your RGs first and still give them Critical Triggers after your Vanguard's attack.

On to the deck list. Do take note that this is how I would play it RIGHT NOW. Might change my opinion after I actually play against the deck or do some testing myself. But the set isn't even out yet so that's not possible.

Decklist

Grade 0: 17

7 Critical

5 Draw

4 Heal

(or any combination of Crits and Draws you are comfortable with)

1 Beast Deity White Tiger

Grade 1: 14

4 Twin Blader

3 Beast Deity Blank Marsh

4 Death Army Guy

3 Tough Boy/Herarti Destroyer

Grade 2: 10

4 Beast Deity Hatred Chaos

4 Beast Deity Golden Anglet

2 Magical Girl Kirara

Grade 3: 9

4 Beast Deity Ethics Buster

3 Beast Deity Azure Dragon

2 Beast Deity Yamata Drake

Seems a bit weird but here are my reasonings and some other options you have:

Grade 0

Not much to say about the triggers really, you can consider playing stands but I feel it's not going to be reliable enough in low numbers and you already have other ways to stand your units. As for starter VG, White Tiger is definitely safer and probably more consistent but Riot Horn is a valid option as well. It automatically stands as long as it's in the same column as a Beast Deity and when boosting a 11k still hits for a respectable 16k. It also saves you 1 card.

Another option is Evolving Reincarnation Miraioh, the Grade 3 searcher for Novas. It might not always get you something, but it's good because it lets you either search for Ethics Buster or search for something to ride over Ethics Buster. 

Grade 1

4 Twin Blader is a must because of the additional Grade 3 in the deck. The rest is quite straight forward. Death Army Guy is maxed out because of his ability to stand when you Drive Check a Grade 3. Blank Marsh is good early to mid game mainly for standing your attackers. The last 3 slots can go to either Tough Boy for solid 8k boost or Herarti Destroyer simply for being a Beast Deity to combo with Blank Marsh and his ability is decent, I haven't really made up my mind yet. Though with all the big Grade 2s and 3s I'm leaning a  bit more towards Herarti Destroyer. If you decide to use Iluminal, definitely go with Herarti.

Grade 2

Also quite straight forward, both the big hitters are maxed out here. Kirara only at 2 because while it is nice to have something to use Counter Blast and drawing cards is good, there is not enough space for a 3rd one due to increased number of Grade 3s and standing a 9k by itself is terrible. Other options are Beast Deity Black Tortoise for searching power, Death Army Lady for more auto standing, or vanilla 10k for more beat power and solid Grade 2 ride. 
*Was reminded about the existence of Genocide Jack. Oh good old Jack. If you don't care so much about drawing cards or just decide to play more draw triggers, Jack is a good card to replace Kirara. This deck doesn't have much else that uses Counter Blast anyway.

Grade 3

Probably the most shocking part. 9 Grade 3s to increase the the chance of Death Army Guy going off. While it is weird, considering I didn't include Death Army Lady, you really want to make sure your Death Army Guys stand when you Break Ride. If you have 2 Death Army Guys boosting each of your RGs, getting a Grade 3 and a Trigger is actually better than getting double triggers in terms of power gain.

9 Grade 3s is also partly to be able to include 2 copies of Yamata Drake for more high power units after the stand. For this, Azure is only at 3 because you'll rarely get to Persona Blast more than once, so 3 copies is enough. Personally I prefer Azure over Iluminal because of the early pressure Azure provides if you ride him first instead of Ethics Buster and because Azure can stand anything with his ability, which lets us play Tough Boy. Ethics Buster Maxed out because it's what you'll want to ride most of the time. Yamata Drake could also be replaced with Iluminal Dragon if you feel like it, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you already have 2 Iluminal Dragons then it definitely won't work trying it out haha

Of course you can stick with 8 Grade 3s and just add another Grade 2 of your choice. In that case simply stick with 4 each of Azure Dragon/Iluminal and Ethics Buster.

And that's it for now =)

Jewel Knights are next as I'm interested in forming them.