Liddy Clones and Budget Deck Building

Them Legs

Liddy clones have been a thing for awhile now. Ever since keywords were a thing actually. Most
clans have them at this point, and I felt the need to talk about their worth and why they should be considered as budget deck options.

Now, if you're not familiar with Liddy clones, they're Grade 3 units with a skill that states the following:

"[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (VC), you may pay the cost. If you do, look at five cards from the top of your deck, search for up to one card with <ability or race> from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck."

It's pretty nice plus and in a proper deck the effect is basically guaranteed. 

For convenience's sake I'll put a list of Liddy clones here:

Retractor, Sarakiel - Rescue
Goddess of the Prophet, Yasaka - Oracle
Model Knight, Orhan - Brave
Enticing Mage, Ildona - Ritual
Wyvern Strike, Galgi  - Blaze
Dragonic Overlord "the Legend" - Flame Dragon
Sword Hunting Stealth Rogue, Oniwaka - Shadowstitch
Resounding Thunder Lance, Jalil - Thunderstrike
Stealth Dragon, Kegarashinmyo - Afterimage
Rage Dragon, Tyrannobrute - Engorge
Frosty Steeple - Darkness
Flying Manticore - Magia
Hive Maker - Charge
Great Cosmic Hero, Grandmantle - Burst
Exxtreme Battler, Danshark - Rush
Stapler Penguin - Success
Haughty Mutant, Allie Antoinette - Dark Device
Cornflower Flower Maiden, Ines - Bloom
Uguisumaru Toku - Touken Danshi - Tachi
Marine General of the Twin Shots, Cretas - Wave
Sincere Girl, Liddy - Harmony
Mighty Rogue, Nightstorm - Hollow

Now, enough about what Liddy clones are. Now to talk about why to run them and consider them as a budget option when building decks.

Outclasses all
...because of an on-ride

What first got me into thinking about Liddy clones was Dragonic Overlord the Legend. He was the first of the Liddy clones that was meta at one point. No, not just because he was an Overlord. No, not just because of his GB2, but because of his on-ride skill. Believe it or not, his on-ride skill was actually the tipping point for many Overlord players when they were deciding which Overlords to run. Yes, the Liddy skill was the tipping point for the Legend and was chosen over things like The X/The End's dual-bladed pressure and the Great's drive-check pressure and retire.

Now, why? Why would you have just a simple +1 instead of an actual skill that applies pressure?

The reasoning for this is because most decks are gonna be striding every turn. Since they're striding every turn, most Grade 3s lose out on their chance to use their own skills, with the exception of Striders.

But not Liddy clones.

Their skills trigger on-ride and give you a nice, simple, easy +1. And not just any +1, the best kind of +1 in hand cards. And after this, you can continue to play the stride game every turn without any worry about wasting your Vanguard's skill being wasted, since you've already plussed off of your vanguard. Because it allows you to constantly stride every turn without any detriment, Liddy clones can act in lieu of the typically more expensive Striders for G-Decks.

That covers what and why. Now how?

Well, mostly like how you play standard G-Decks. With the best Generic and G-Support that each clan has to offer.

The one and only original

Most commonplace and what most G-Decks use are Amber clones, which affordably provide strong plus and are often quite easy to get your hands on, with a few exceptions (Looking at you, Crayon and Pwyll).

Outside of that, it's obvious to stockpile your deck to the brim with as many of whatever your Liddy targets. Whether it be an Ability or a Race, you want to fill your deck with as much of it as you can. Yes, you'll need to keep some space open for Stride Fodders, Amber Clones, Backup G3s, and PGs(some PGs are even searchable by Liddy clones, particularly ones with abilities), but the majority of your deck should be filled with Liddy targets to ensure it going off. You want at least 25-30 cards in your deck to be able to be searched off of your Liddy clone

So yeah. Liddy clones are a solid way to get into a clan for cheap and can work pretty solidly. Having a cheap main deck built around a Liddy clone lets you put much more of your expenses into your precious G-Zone, which is the life and blood of a Liddy deck. Liddy builds are also very easy to upgrade as you get more and more money to spend on your deck and after getting your G-Zone just right you can progress to fixing up your main deck with all of the more expensive things you couldn't add before.

I hope you found this guide helpful and inspire you to build a Liddy deck of your own.

Anyhow, see you in the next one!

-Robot