Card Tips: Countering Rush

Wrong kind of Rush...

After an entire week of talking about rush decks, now is the time to talk about how to beat rush. Take this as a rule of thumb, since there are a few situations where you're gonna have to play differently.

The meta, at the moment, doesn't really have problems with Rush Decks, since they don't need to wait for the mid-late game. Sanctuary Guards attacks are stronger and have an amazing pre-3 advantage engine, Chaos locks, Nociel has too good defense. The only meta decks that favor the Rush matchup are Granblue and Gears, but Granblue only goes even. So the part of you that plays meta, you probably don't have problems


But for the majority of you budget players who play GB and Legion decks, two main things here:

1. Rushing the Vanguard
2. Guarding Smart

The first may seem odd, but it's actually the best thing you can do against rush decks. Most players, through logic, will assume that attacking the rearguards is the way to go, but that's flawed thinking. Again, two reasons for this

1. Rush players tend to have poor guard quality
2. Anything in hand will be able to replace what they lose on the field

Without G-Guards, Perfect Guards(usually), and general lack of hand size, rush players won't have much to guard with. Outside of Ripples, they also don't have any way of replenishing hand or reducing hand reduction so attacking the vanguard is most often the best decision.

If you decide to attack rearguards instead of the vanguard, they could just easily drop a card in hand to replace it. Attacking rearguards also takes the pressure off of their vanguard, so yeah. Little, simple thing to keep in mind when playing against rush.

Now guarding smart is a bit more complicated. Simply put, it's guarding with the idea in mind to use as little hand as possible to block as much damage. Vanguard attacks, especially, are high-priority guard targets because of Crit-Trigger pressure. You must ALWAYS be wary of the 16 crits. Always. If you take way too much damage early, you're gonna have a lot less leeway early.

Just a simple little guide to countering Rush. Any other things you want to mention post them in the comments below.

Anyhow, see you in the next one!

-Robot