Set Review: G Booster Set 8 Absolute Judgement

Okay, I know I really don't keep this up consistently, but I try. This is my attempt to start posting Set Reviews consistently with releases as both a means to keep me up to date with new cards as well as keeping you guys in the know for what cards to look out for in new sets, trial decks, and the such.

First, I'd like to outline what decks got new support and debuted in this set:

• Fenrir
• Scharhrot
• Altmile
• Gurguit
• Ahsha 
• Regalia
• Messiah
• Harri
• Nightrose
• Jewel Knight
• Arboros Dragon
• Infinite Star-vaders
• Deletors
• Nightmare Dolls
• Sanctuary of Light
• Nightmareland
• Cray Elemental

 Now that's taken care of, onto the review.

Fenrir
The star support of the set, as well as the owner of the first GR slot. They also received their keyword: Revelation.

The GR, Hellsky Fenrir, is a great card. But I must say that it is not a finisher, it is utility. If anyone compares this to Vanargandr in any way, shape, or form... just don't. Anyways, it has a pretty easy draw of counterblast 1 soulblast 3 and turns all of your Revelations to "Check top two. One goes to soul one goes to top of deck". It's great for setup and a really well designed card. Just what Fenrir decks needed.

Genesis got a new G-Guard, Hanasatsuki, which gets an easy 25k Shield by having a rearguard with the same name as a card in your soul. It's pretty basic, but good nonetheless.

Heart Thump clone for Fenrir.

Svava and the Revelation entourage is, in general, pretty solid. All rares and below, too, which is nice for budget. Svava, herself, has the skill of Soulblast 3 for +5000 and a Draw if it's on the VC. Solid skill, nice art. Nothing to complain about.

Gjoll's good. Easy draw is always good. Hand is the best resource in the game. Sure, not as good as Gleipnir, but it has its uses in certain situations. Also budget.

Azusa and Kotonoha gain power when a card enters soul, as well as bonus power if it entered through Revelation. Since they themselves have Revelation they get significant power boosts on play and can keep going up on Hellsky turns.

Battle Maiden, Touka bounces a rearguard when an attack that it is boosting hits. Okay, three problems with this. One, it takes up a counterblat. Two, it's revelation locked. Three, it has to hit. I get that it's to abuse Revelation on-calls but really? I would never run this.

Gelja is just asking to be part of loops with that kinda skill. It's virtually Dimension Creeper that slows down deck out, gives power, and can counter Megacolony/lessen the costs of revelations.

Genesis' new Quintet Wall, Secret Elsie, is actually not bad. You can soulblast any amount of cards and guard with the top card of your deck for any card that is soulblasted, so you can manage how much you need to guard with. Dreaming Dragon can recover all the cards you send to the drop like this and Urthr, which I'll talk about later, can really enjoy this since it speeds up her play. Also thins the deck like crazy for all of your Genesis Loop needs.

Van's a new starter. It's pretty nice, too. When it gets rested from revelation, it gives +2000 to any unit and can stuff himself into soul to draw a card later in the game. Nothing too game breaking. Just a nice card.

Two cards. Tahro and Angelic Wiseman. Two words. Attack loop. Yeah, Tahro's definitely gonna get hit soon, so abuse her while you can.

Scharhrot
Now the second receiver of a GR slot... actually didn't really get too much quality support. Mostly filled with nerfed manga cards. Not bad, by any means, just not much.

Steeped-in-Sin, Scharhrot, on attack, gets 10,000 power, does a full board clear, and gets a pseudo-Glory skill depending on how much soul you get. Oh he's Giles! Wait, what? No bonus crit? And your opponent can still guard with Grade 1s that aren't sentinels? Giles is a much better finisher than this! Well, Scharhrot has one thing above Giles. No Persona Blast. That's right, with four copies of Schahrot and four copies of Giles, you're gonna be able to swing six times with Glory skills: Two of which have bonus crit and four of which have board wipe. And board wipe, when used at the right moment, is just amazing. Excellent addition to the already amazing DI Stride lineup.

Glenzend Vampir... is just amazing. On ride or call he checks the top five cards of the deck and sends all cards with Darkness to the soul, then gets +1000 per card that is sent to soul with the skill. That's already pretty good. And if he's on the Vanguard Circle by the end of the turn, you can send a card in hand or a rearguard to the soul to draw a card, countercharge 1, and retire one of your opponents rearguards. For essentially free. That's a straightup +1 and if you sent a rearguard you just converted field into hand, which is almost just as good as a +1. So if it's on the VC it's pretty much a free +2 with a countercharge... And he's generic... Welp, DIs will strike again!

Succubus of Avarice is the best "to-hand-pg" at the moment. If she's in the soul, you retire one of your Grade 1 or less rearguards add her to hand. For no cost outside of Darkness. Again, field-to-hand conversion is great, and I should note the synergy between field-to-hand and Steeped in Sin.

Demented Executioner's first skill gives him +2000 when you are at 6 soul and another +3000 when you are at 10 soul. Awesome right? Well, it takes a Counterblast. Not bad, but not particularly good. But his second skill lets him check the top 7 cards for a darkness card and stick it into soul. Meaning you can search for Succubus of Avarice. Use Demented for the second skill and the Darkness keyword, not the first skill.

Edge in the Darkness, if there are 6 cards in soul and darkness is active becomes a 10k attacker/booster and with 10 cards in soul allows it to intercept from the back row. Interesting, to say the least, and if nothing else makes Giles a 46k attacker.

The last two generic commons that Scharhrot received are manga cards.

Blood Sacrifice, Ruthven has an on-call that lets him discard a card to draw a card and soulcharge one. It's pretty decent and a good card if you have nothing else to use.

Vrykolakas... is so gimmicky. If you really want that extra crit on Giles or something go ahead. But it's way to inconsistent for actual use.

Altmile
It's Brave support. It's a given that most of it straightup sucks.

Fides. Discard 1 to call a Grade 2 from deck. If it has Brave, draw a card. Oh wow, it's already worse than both forms of G4 Altmile. Greaaat. But wait, it has a second skill. Oh it's a Brave? All that work of chopping down your hand to activate Brave for a retire and +5000 to two units? That's it? I'd say it would be a GREAT card if its second skill weren't Brave, but now this is just assuming you're losing. Just... No.

Andragius. The exact same thing as Laserguard Dragon, but gets +10000 with two rearguards instead. I mean, it's an improvement in certain situations, but they're still on the same tier of Sub-par.

Okay, Fulgenius is not bad, but since it's a Vanguard only skill, it's terrible backup to Altmile. Maybe his own deck, though.

Danius sucks. His first skill needs Brave units, so you can't just tech this in and need a full Brave lineup. He's not even worth it. He just gets +2000 and the ability to bounce a rearguard with the Brave ability. So he's a 9k vanilla while not in Brave, but becomes an 11k vanilla when in Brave. Wow. Not worth it. Whatsoever. I get that field-to-hand is good, but if you're in Brave, I doubt that it will do any good.

Glenus's only noteworthy skill is his -1 Grade while in deck. Which is pretty much useless, since there are so many better call targets. And it only gets -1 Grade while in Brave. Like, come on.

Escort Eagle isn't bad. Probably the only decent Altmile support in the set. At least it has Resist and is an ok target for Hopesong Angel.

Onus has a Brave +6000 to himself when another unit is called in the same column as him. For a soulblast. In a clan in which the soul could go to many other, better things.

Piru is a Brave overglorified 10k Booster. With an on-hit draw to the boosted unit. I guess? I mean, better than most of the Altmile stuff in the set, and at least it looks pretty. But still, a vanilla until brave is no good.

Maringal. Bad new forerunner clone. No.

Silent Sage, Sharon reprint. The only generic Royal Paladin card that people will be hunting for.

Forgive me about that, I'll be taking a nicer tone for the rest of the review.

Gurguit
Golds got the least amount of support in the set, only eight in total, but the most quality support in the set.

Glorious Reigning Dragon reminds me of Spearcross... Except he's better in almost every single way. He's battle phase rather than main phase, he checks the top 7 instead of top 5, and has the net cost of soulcharge 1. Sure, Glorious Reigning needs to Unite first and Spearcross will always be your backup "save your ass" card, but Glorious Reigning's the new board filler stride for Gold Paladin.

Lavinia would be alot better if she didn't have Unite, since she'd work better with Gurguit's stride skill. And she only works from hand, so no synergy with Gurguit's GB2. Honestly, just use Mark or Candace in Gurguit decks.

Hearings. Another check-top-caller. But this one's rare, so perfect for budget. Eventually, I shall be able to make my Gurguit Call-Chain deck with all check-top-callers. Eventually...

Holsa's a Bruno clone, but only gets +2000. But he also gives it to anything in the same column as him, so net +4000 for the column. Not bad. Some aggro for Golds and with a Glorious Reigning Dragon column's getting +20,000. Whew.

Arvirarkus hits for 13k solo, and gets +1000 when a unit is called. Easy 21k Magic columns, but I doubt it will take Dawngal's spot as a backup for Gurguit.

Legan's a 12k Unite beater with resist. Pretty great, and nice art too. Simple is good.

Dexgal is a G1 check-top-caller that calls on top of himself. So a better/worse Ketchgal clone. Not bad. Helps to power up your Bruno clones and get better units off of your top-calls. +2000 is also good for making columns.

Riding Rookie has two skills depending on where he's called. If he's called to the side columns he gifts all rearguards in those rows Resist. If he's called in the center, you can Counterblast 1 and stuff him into soul to draw a card. First skill is useful and could be good, but the second skill is just bad. Just no. And 4k base on your forerunner hurts. Might have been viable if 5k base, but...

Ahsha
All the Ahsha support this set focuses on draw power and pressure. That's an interesting way of going with new support Bushiroad.

First off is the Stride, Ilmatar. Her skill is two parts. First, you select a rearguard and if it has Bloom draw a card. It doesn't stop there. You then give all units with the same name as the selected unit the skill to draw a card if their attack hits. The pressure is real! And if you have 3 or more Bloom units, Ilmatar gets a bonus Critical. Draw on-hit is so good. And that bonus Crit puts a lot of pressure on your opponent. It's more of a question whether it will compete with Verano in Ahsha decks. It's already filled with Glorious Ahsha and Dream-Spinning Ahsha, so the room is really tight.

Verna's the new G-Guard, and she gets +5000 for every other rearguard with the same name as a rearguard of your choice. It'll have its uses. I'd probably go 3-2 or something along the lines with Rain Breath.

The next two cards, Marjukka and Launy, work in conjunction with each other. Their skills are a bit complicated and I'll let you read it yourselves, but the important part is that Launy, at all times, is treated as Marjukka. So you have 8 copies of Marjukka to clone. Marjukka and Launy will probably be their own deck rather than a backup to Ahsha, since Marjukka's draw skill is actually really good on the VC and in general doesn't do much in Ahsha decks.

Blum's a +4000 rearguard G3 beater, which is slowly becoming standard for all clans. The second skill would be good, but it's awkward timing and Bloom requirement sorta makes it... Iffy to say the least.

Hydrangea Knight is bad. Awkward timing, 8k base, it's just not versatile or useful at all. Disregard.

Now Imarut is good. Becomes a 9k booster/attacker on bloom and even gets an on-hit draw skill? It's good. Draw Neo Nectar seems like a new viable and budget build now.

Goya in Champloo... Is weird. Art, name, and skill. He kills himself off when he blooms to give +4000 to four units of any name. I guess you can keep all of the in hand and spam four of them on a Katrina/Greenshot turn? Yeah, no.

Salad Familiar! A Riding Rookie clone! But! Neo Nectar actually has much need for "Resist", so it's more plausible for this to see play than Riding Rookie. Still not that good, though.

Regalia
Regalia actually got some pretty solid stuff, which I did not really expect at all.

Urthr. This card is bonkers. On-stride put all cards in your drop zone into your soul. Then, you can soulblast 6 for +10000 Power and +1 Crit. Just... Wow. Soulblast enough Norn clones and you got a big, bad 100k 4crit attacker.

And it gets even more crazy, because Verthrandi, after a Regalia unit strides, gives +1000 to all units in the front row for every card that is put into soul. And Urthr puts the entire drop zone into soul. So that's +20-25k to your entire front row... Followed up by Urthr's Power/Crit gain...

Oh boi.

Her first skill ain't bad either, giving loads of pressure on your front row. Only problem is control decks, who can get rid of front row rearguards relatively easy... Oh well. Rip.

Skuld rounds out the Regalia support this set and does not stop being crazy good. At the end of the turn, for the "cost" of send 3 Regalias from drop to deck, you get to draw a card and soul charge one... What?! That's some crazy ass trigger filling and free plus. It might seem a bit counter-intuitive with Urthr and Verthrandi but trust me. Skull is amazing. Run at 4 in every Regalia deck.

If I were to play any of the decks supported in this set, it would be Regalia. Stamp of approval from your buddy Robot Victor Chang. Also seems to be pretty affordable, judging by Japanese prices and pre sale.

Messiah
A Messiah? That isn't GR? It's a miracle!

Flageolet is also potentially the most Messiah stride as well. He can unlock 2 units, then omega lock any amount of units. Wow. Hard Control Messiahs can actually be a thing now, since they now have access to Omegalock outside of Big Crunch, and could be budget. Also not heart-restricted, so unfortunately Messiah CBD also benefits from this.

Destiny Guardian, instead of locking a unit for its bonus shield, unlocks two for +10000 shield. It's really good with Alter Ego's GB2 and with some of the new self-Omegalock stuff in the set this is really viable in Messiahs.

Drill Monk of the Fierce Foot, on play, locks two of your rearguards and one of your opponents rearguards, your opponent choosing which unit of his to lock. That's worthy of play in Messiahs, especially since it's usable early game. And his second skill lets you Omegalock one of your rearguards, which in turn helps for Destiny Guardian as I've said.

Black Dwarf, after attacking, locks herself to give a unit +5000. More unlock targets for Flageolets and power ups, which Flageolets lacks. Works even better with Alter Ego's +5000 stride skill.

Proton Striker. Another bad forerunner clone.

Harri
Harri support... is ass. More ass than Altmile. Full of downgrades of existing cards and manga cards, which have a tendency to be terrible.

Prana, outside of the "Diablo" matchup, is a worse Mephisto+Harri. The only point of this card is to keep cards on the field so that "Diablo" doesn't get an easy unguardable attack in. It would be good if you could just tech-in one, but to use it you need to run 3 minimum... Just, deal with the PB"Diablo" like a normal person.

Maja fairs better. If you have a Magia vanguard, you can call a unit from your soul. If you don't, soul charge three. It gets out interceptors from soul and retire fodder in PB"Diablo" match ups.

Barking Dragon Tamer is so bad, I'm sure that it doesn't need explanation. No? Well ok. It's a straightup -1 in advantage in every single situation, only does it on ride, and gets a pissy +1000 power per retired unit. If you want something like this and be good, just play Eradicators.

Mireille is the last good Magia support in the deck. Just a simple beater that you can call out with Magia, but it's actually good. It also has a pretty damn good on-ride skill in case you don't pull Harri.

Red Star Dual Horn. Worse Flying Peryton. That needs a soulblast payment. In a deck that needs the soul.

Magical Box Trimmer is so gimmicky. Yeah, you can plus like crazy off of it, but your opponent needs to be an idiot to let it actually go off. And even if they did, you're only gonna call, like, 2-3 cards at that point. And it has 8k base. Manga cards are bad. Just bad.

Unicycle Tumbler is a 9k booster that lets you countercharge. For a soul. On-hit. Too many restrictions to make this worth it at all.

Novelty Introducer is just Purple Trapezist with a worse call timing, less base power, and more restricted.

Entertain Messenger would be so good in Nightmare Dolls if it were a Workeroid itself. But nope. No reason you would run this over Happiness Collector in generic. Or Cat in Boots. Or Smiling Presenter. You get the point.

Nightrose
Gouache is an interesting card and can plus really hard, but locks you out of SSB and Cutlass. It's good, but you're gonna have to decide whether it's worth not running SSB and Cutlass.

Negrolily is amazing in Nightrose. Really easy 25k shield. And you can do some really dirty things with Nightrose's GB2. You can retire Skeleton Cannonoer, for example, and call it back with Nightrose to retire the attacking rearguard and draw a card. There's also the option of retiring the Grenache that you can't get rid of on your field for the Countercharge 1. It's just really good.

Rampage Shade. Nightrose's Heart Thump clone. More soul. Makes Gouache more and more viable. And even more draw with Banshee.

Supreme Solger's pretty interesting. Hits for the same numbers that Ghast Dragon hits for, given that you have enoug Hollows in drop. At worst it's a budget alternative to Ghast.

Rambling Shade is an upgraded Ruin Shade. If your deck ran Ruin Shade, you should just replace it with this. Unless you just like Ruin for art.

Jean Romario is a 15k beater with on-hit SC/CC. Not too shabby. A bit weaker than Negrorook, power wise, but the pressure is still pretty good.

Carl... He's awesome with Obadiah. Stride Obadiah, use his skill to mill 2 Hollow units and Carl. Call a Ghostie with Obadiah, call Carl with his own skill, and use Nightrose to call a rearguard from drop. Instant +3 to field. I'd tech him at 1-2. And his art is so amazing.

Bale's another 9k booster... But in this case his skill is actually useful. CC and returning to deck is not too bad. Still, space is tight and there are better things. It would be great if it could be used in 7Seas though.

Skeleton Shock Troops is actually really annoying, but it's only just that. It's essentially field-to-hand, but it's not useful enough to warrant use.

Cody's funny. The skill is a little bit eh, since he's only 4K power, but he's another Crit with Ghostie in its name for Obadiah.

Jewel Knight
Just a peculiar little G-Quintet Wall(if it should even be called that anymore). Rather than the top 5, it takes cards from the top of your deck for every unit you have with Jewel Knight in it's name. Meaning at worst, it's only the top 1. It also counts other cards on the Guardian Circle. I wouldn't be surprised if it sees some tech-in in Jewel Knight decks. It also doesn't cost counterblast, so yeah. And nice art.

Arboros Dragon
Arboros got a lot of support this set. A lot more than expected. Enough to make a full Arboros deck, sans triggers.

First thing is the stride Ein Soph Ohr. He's really good. Soulblast 1 and clone an Arboros on your field, for the pretty cheap soulblast. On top of that he gives +5000 to the front row. He also doesn't need persona flip. Not broken, but solid and good.

Airi powers up and takes the name of a rearguard on your field if you have an Arboros vanguard. Pretty good already. She also has an on-hit that recycles one card and gives you +1 in hand advantage. And hand is best resource.

Sanelma is a pretty good G-Guard. After you use her, you can choose one of your guardians called by her and add it to your hand if it has the same name as a card on your field. +1 in hand advantage. Best advantage.

Compost Dragon is another Arboros Grade 3. On-hit draw cards equal to the amount of cards you have that share his name. Pressure-Draw Neo Nectar seems to be the path that Bushiroad has chosen.

Aria! Oddy clone! Albeit she is more balanced and is dead after hitting the G1 of the rise chain, but it's still worth running to ensure that you hit the ride chain. Also builds up soul for Ein Soph Ohr.

Infinite Star-vaders
Now this is some interesting stuff. I never expected Infinite to get more support after Quintessence, and the thought of a restander of all things didn't even come close to mind. Infinite Distarv has two skills, one for each circle. If his attack hits on the vanguard circle, you choose an Infinite Zero Dragon on your rear and ride it. If his attack hits on the rearguard circle, you can ride it onto an Infinite Zero Dragon on your vanguard. Also, assuming you have LB4, your re-ride also locks a frontrow and backrow rearguard. It's a cool little rare and a perfect fun budget boss. Sadly, it's way to weak to do some actual competitive damage.

Geminga Dragon is Infinite's beater. Gets +2000 per locked unit in the same column as it. It also has a skill to lock a backrow unit for 1 Counterblast when you ride an Infinite vanguard.

Heliopose Dragon's more generic Star-vader support, but works especially well in Infinite. For the cheap cost of soulblast one, you can choose one of your opponents units and Omegalock it. Awesome, right! Well nope. You have to send him into the soul at the end of the turn. Straightup -1 for an omegalock. It's not terrible by any means, though, and is a great addition to Star-vader decks. Just not super amazing.

Star-vaders get a G-Quintet Wall, which makes your opponent lock a rearguard until end of turn. Wait, wait, your opponent gets to choose which unit to lock. As in, he can choose a backrow unit that has already boosted or a frontrow unit that's already attacked... Okay I admit in Omegalock decks like Zodiac and Glendios it's not too shabby, but I doubt it will be seeing any play outside of that.

Deletors
I was hoping that the new Deletor stuff would make them playable again, but no. They decide to make the focus of the two cards that Deletor gets on Vanish Delete, which isn't even that powerful to say the least. I guess it does help you to get your instant win condition off, but...

First card is Geiron. His first skil gives him +1000 for each card that has been Vanish Deleted in the game. Good right? No. He's 7k base, first of all, and by the time you get to a significant number on it you should have won the game with Egorg. His second skill is better, though, and forces your opponent to Vanish Delete one card in their drop whenever your vanguard attacks(don't forget that Deletors have access to restanders). I guess an attempt to make Egorg playale. It's a playable card, to say the least.

Now Onagil is trash. It's a Dark Cat clone... that makes you both discard... okay? And his second skill makes him go to soul(-1) for a measly banish delete. Like, its so pointless I don't even know. Sure, it lets you dig deeper for your vanish delete cards, but it lets your opponent filter out cards in their hand too. The only point of that is to get a vanish delete target early on in the game. Which is dumb, because you have to -1 to delete it with Onagil. So... If you do decide to run it, please wait until you can end the game with Egorg and just need a final push.

Nightmare Dolls
Nightmare Dolls got some little things to help them out. Not too amazing, but more Workeroids helps.

First is Claris. She moves to Guardian Circle from rear and goes to soul after Guarding. It helps quite a bit in the defense department, which Nightmare Dolls lack.

Pamela is the crappy new forerunner clone. Just don't run it.

Dory is a cute looking Heal Trigger for Nightmare Dolls. More workeroids to work with. Great.

Seven Seas
Nightspinel gets power whenever a rearguard with 7Seas in its name is called from drop. Ok. But! You also have the option of discarding a Seven Seas to call her from the drop. I'd tech her in. She has her uses. But that's just me.

Raistutor. He obviously tutors things out of the deck so he must be good! And that holds true. When he works. See, you rest him and mill the top card of your deck. If it's a Seven Seas, you can call it and it dies off at the end of the turn. So you're gambling for a free +1. It's not bad, but it's pretty RNG.

Sanctuary of Light
Was considering if I was to actually make an actual section for this but...

Name Critical Trigger. For Sanctuary of Light. Probably the most useless goddamn ride chain in the entire goddamn game(Correction: Lox is 10x Worse). Yay. and to follow up...

Maiden of
Another name Heal Trigger. How exciting! This one is more impactful though, since it actually lets Maiden of decks play with a full Maiden of trigger lineup.

At least now we know Bushiroad looks at the small details.

Nightmareland
Nightmareland is the final debut deck in the set.

The Queen of Hearts, Heartrude, when attacked or attacking, can Counterblast 1 to gain +1000 per card in soul with Nightmareland. Damn good, I say. Simple, but effective and has great potential.

Dum of Nightmareland gets +2000 while you have Dee of Nightmareland in your soul. Which you should, in DI. And when it attacks it gets +2000 for every Dum in your soul. This is also a good place to talk about Dee, who at the cost of herself gives +1000 per Nightmareland in soul to any unit. If the chosen unit is Dum, draw a card. They work really well together, as should be assumed.

Spade Jack can get needed Nightmarelands into soul and gives you some extra digging power. Better than the new forerunner clone, at least. Also retire fodder for Heartrude after it gets called.

Last card is Dormouse. It rests itself to give a unit on the field +1000 per Nightmareland in soul. It's good. And you can use it repeatedly every turn. Also has good synergy with Heartrude, since it gives her +4000 when he gets sacked for her skill. More defense for life. Or offense. But I recommend saving it for defense. Your Strides can handle the offense.

Cray Elemental
Like how they normally do per set, Cray Elementals have gotten one new card. And it's interesting, to say the least.

Rain Elemental, Pichan is anti-resist. For one counterblast it takes resist from all units in the same column as it and does not allow them to regain it for the rest of the turn. This may see some tech-in in some control decks, but I doubt that it'll do anything meaningful.

Verdict: Don't buy boxes of this. While some clans and decks got good stuff, there's way to much trash in the set to make a box worth getting. Cases, however, would be great to get if you have the money for them.

So I hope that this review helped some of you out. I'll be trying to keep up Set Reviews, from now on, and I'm planning on making the ZTB Trial Deck Review and Gear of Fate Review sometime in October.

Anyhow, see you in the next one!

-Robot