Budget Deck: Gear Chronicle (Tiger)

Ever since Chronofang Tiger's skill was revealed, along with Bind Time Dragon, I was really stoked for a new Gear Chronicle build. What I wasn't looking forward too was the potential expensive cost of the new Tiger support.

>Tiger: $10
>Bind Time: $8

Huh. Not horrible. A potential budget deck, albeit it's gonna be on the expensive side. So here I am today.

Taiga!

Tiger decks, while not as straightup powerful as Chronojet decks(Why? Nextage and Metallica), have much more utility. That's the key word here folks. Utility. Chronofang Tiger and his entourage can pull off combo attacks and toolbox like no one else with Time Leap. I guess it would be more correct to say that Time Leap provides a hella ton of utility and Chronofang decks can utilize it to the fullest. Time Leap also allows Tiger decks(and Gear Chronicle in general) to run multiple tech cards at 1 or 2 without worry of running into it too often or not seeing it when it is needed. Time Leap also lets you get away with running expensive Grade 1 or 2s at lesser copies while still running into them consistently. Perfect for budget.

Grade 3

Chronofang Tiger, obviously. His BDDiablo skill gives all the cards in your hand Grade +3 whenever you pay for stride. You don't really need to run stride fodders and it frees up your Grade 1 slots. More room is always nice.

For backup I see a lot of people run Gear Eagle with the Chronoscommand engine since he's a Gear Beast and works with Bind Time. I understand that, but I really don't think that's the way to go for two reasons.

1. The Chronoscommand engine is expensive as hell. Revolutions are $18 a piece and Chronoscommand itself costs $8. Sheesh.
2. Gear Eagle, while providing more consistency, doesn't bring enough utility by itself once you ride Chronofang Tiger.

I really think that there are better options over Gear Eagle. For one there's Square-one Dragon, which can extend your Time Leap plays by rewinding himself to Grade 0 and pump up soul for Gigi spam and his own G-Megablast, which works on the Rearguard circle. Another option is Metalglider Dragon, which is a great Grade 3 to time leap into.

You can also run the Legions in this deck as backup. You're gonna be doing a lot of deck thinning, so sending back triggers into an already thinned out deck is really great.

Grade 4

Buckbeak!

Strides are not as tight as they used to be now that we can't use Metallica and Nextage.

Run as many Bind Time Dragons as you can, at least two. Four would be best, but since Tiger is eating up at the budget already we can't really run so much.

Floatgear Hippogriff is a nice unit for first stride for the potential Time Leap. Not as good as Metallica, but still good.

Faterider for more toolboxing and utility, Lost Age for rewind on-hits, Fiery March as a finisher, and Blizza or Warp Drive to enable GB2.

If you have any Chronoscommand units use them. They're hella expensive but they're hella good.

Grade 2

Legion mates if you're running the Legions, of course.

Upstream's a staple in pretty much every Gear Chronicle deck now because of how much utility he brings to the table, but he's pretty pricy. Try to get at least one. You can toolbox it out pretty easily, so you can get away with running one. If you can't get Upstream at all, or aren't comfortable with running just one, use History Maker instead.

Clockfencer's great for setting up your field and filling up the bind zone for Bind Time Dragon. He's not too expensive, but you might not be able to get your hands on him very easily. Again, use History Maker if you can't get Clockfencers.

Mudal can call himself from the bind zone and can +1 without real effort. The on-hit Time Leap won't really do much, since your opponent will most likely guard it, but is nice to have.

You can tech-in a Kalium or two to starter snipe.

Grade 1

MILLtiades 2.0

Melem's a Grade 1 Upstream clone... which costs about $17 or so. But she's so useful! Alas, tis the
life of a budget player.

Timebreak's does the same thing as Clockfencer and he's cheap as hell, since he's from a Trial Deck. Run 4 since he's so useful.

For Sentinels, I'd pick Quintet Walls. Emellana in particular. You don't counterblast much, if not at all, in this deck, so you can comfortably use Quintet Walls without worry. Emellana also has a really nice skill that sends back two cards(read triggers) from your drop zone to your deck after binding a card in your drop zone. She can send Mudals for easy +1s and fuel Bind Time.

But if you want to run PGs that's cool too.

Nanneya pumps himself up whenever a card is bound and makes nice pressure columns when behind Bind Time or Mudal.

Various tech-ins at one include: Gigi, Lacina-bel, Etana, Ur-zaba, Dah-nish, Crunching Worker, Gear Fox, Parallel Barrel, and Kuluracina.

Grade 0

TICK TOCK WORKER BEST STARTER EVAR! It's just great. Easy plusses and combos with Upstream, Melem, and Mudal, not to mention so many combo attacks. I wouldn't run any less than two. I might even run three. It's that good.

For triggers, run 8 Crit, 4 Heal, and 4 Ur-watar. Ur-watar is amazing and, again, makes easy plusses. I wouldn't really run draws, since you're going to be deck thinning a lot and you really don't want to deck out. You also want most of your cards to be in the deck so you can call them out with Time Leap. If you really want the draw triggers run 6 Crit, 4 Draw, 2 Stand, 4 Heal.

                                                                                             
Decklist:
NOTE: This is only an example decklist and should only be used as a base. I recommended that you create your own decklist through your own testing. I found this decklist to fit me, but it is up to you to find a decklist that fits you.

Grade 0:

2x Tick Tock Worker
16x Triggers of Choice (4 Steam Figher ,Ur-Watar)

Grade 1:
4x Sentinels of Choice
4x Timebreak Dragon
3x Steam Fighter, Nanneya
1x Steam Scarra, Gigi
1x Steam Worker, Etana
1x Steam Maiden, Lacina-bel

Grade 2:
4x Clockfencer Dragon
4x Steam Knight, Mudal

2x Upstream Dragon/History-maker Dragon

Grade 3:

4x Chronofang Tiger

3x Square-one Dragon

1x Metalglider Dragon

Grade 4:

2-4x Interdimensional Dragon, Bind Time Dragon
3-4x Fiery March Colossus
1x Interdimensional Beast, Floatgear Hippogriff
1x Interdimensional Dragon, Faterider Dragon
0-1x Interdimensional Dragon, Lost Age Dragon
0-1x Air Element, Sebreeze
1-2x Snow Element, Blizza
4x Retroactive Time Maiden, Uluru OR 2x Highbrow Steam, Raphanna and 2x Uluru

                                                                                                             

Effectiveness: 8.5/10

Price: $85-115

Competitive: Yes

Final Words: The sheer amount of utility this deck provides is just crazy. Yeah, this deck comes out pretty pricy but I totally think it's worth it. I'm planning on building it, myself, on my next visit to my locals. If you want a fully built, competitive Gear Chronicle deck without getting Nextage look no further! I really hope you guys give this deck a go and enjoy it as much as I have.


Anyhow, see you on the next one!

-Robot