Deck Spotlight: Triple Engine Aqua Force Degeneracy

Kudos to Alchemist Pants for the name.

So behind Gear Chronicle, Aqua Force stands as one of my most favorite clans and I finally started to go back to rebuilding them.

I was just strolling through some Japanese Aqua Force decklists to see trends in decklists and whatnot and happened upon a very... odd decklist that contained Ripples, Blue Waves, and Thavas all in one deck.

At first I thought the idea was horrendous and janky, but when I got to playtesting it it was... actually very very good.

Of course, it's a Japan list so it's janky, so I made a few edits of my own and this is the list I came up with(with budget choices, of course).
                                                                                        
1x Officer Cadet, Andrey 16x Triggers of Choice 4x PG of Choice 4x Battle Siren, Meliana 3x Battle Siren, Stacia 2x Flash Ripple, Odysseus
4x Tidal Assault $6 2x Unruly Ripple, Lapis 3x Blue Wave Marine General, Foivos 4x Blue Wave Marine General, Lucianos 4x Blue Wave Marine General, Iason 3x One Who Surpasses the Storm, Thavas 2x Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas 1x Storm of Lament, Wailing Thavas
1x Marine General of the Heavenly Scales, Christos
1x Blue Wave Brave General, Artiom
4x Marine General of Sky and Water, Flotia                                                                                      
So yeah, although the deceits looks pretty jank, with all the different archetype support in the deck, it works very very well and performs amazingly.

Now, for what each engine does for the deck:

Ripple Engine: Provides strong early game and fixes brick hands

It might seem really, really weird to have four seemingly random, out of place Ripple units here but trust me, it pulls work. By using Odysseus, you can turn dead triggers or Grade 1s in hand to more useful Grade 2 units. And if you end up riding Tidal, Foivos, or Lucianos you can ride Pavroth, pull your original Grade 2 out of soul, and now you have a perfectly good field. If you can make the Grade 1 space, a copy of Sotirio can be added in so your Pavroth can get it's 10k and on-hit skill.

Blue Wave Engine: Provides heavy power plays and main multiattack engine

Lucianos. Foivos. So. Many. Multiattack Grade 2s.

With a Blue Wave heart, you can stride into any Grade 4 and still be able to use this strong as hell Grade 2 lineup. With Andrey, Lucianos can swing three times in one turn and with Foivos that's 5 Rearguard attacks by itself. W e w.

The main ride here is Iason for the Blue Wave name. Thavas is the other ride that allows you to use the entire engine as well when you stride Artiom. Artiom also lets you fix heart if you happened to ride any Blue Wave units. You can also tuck Blue Wave units to pay for Artiom with Odysseus so yeah.

Thavas Engine: Draw power and finishing ability

The entire Thavas engine is meant to maintain field and hand presence. Dolphin Soldier acts as an attacker and can trade himself for a card in hand, Petros can boost for 4k and then tuck into soul for a card in hand, and Melania draws when she attacks on 3rd Wave and up. 

Now how do you use the Thavas engine with Blue Wave Grade 3s? By striding a Thavas G4 every turn. Commander's the default first stride of the deck, allowing for fast plays and enabling both Thavas and Blue Wave engine. Wailing Thavas is the second one, being the finisher of the deck and granting huge board control. Striding into Commander  then next turn Wailing will often win you the game just like that.

Potential Changes:

Tetra-drive Dragon's an amazing G3 that's, like, $12-20 right now! Great! But if you can afford him I highly suggest slapping him into the G3 slot. Provides anti-gradestall and early rush if you get hit to 4 damage early. Skyros is another great G3 that's, like, $8-10! But sticking that skill on a Tidal allows for pretty nice plus. 

Stride Fodders, obviously, should be included but Nikki's a whopping $9 at the moment. Soo yeah.

The only other changes should probably be a more fleshed out GZone with Lambros, more Commanders, and maybe even Tetra-boil if you feel the need.
                                                                                        

Effectiveness: 9.5/10

Price: $60-65

Competitive: Yes

Final Words: Altogether, the three engines complement each other very, very well and flows together very smoothly without any issues. Blue Waves, in my opinion, are much more powerful with focusing on Wailing and Wailing, with  the Blue Wave engine, has a much, much easier time hitting the sweet 51-61k mark and forcing out a shitton of hand. It's powerful, it's consistent, and it's probably my favorite Aqua Force deck at the moment. If you can get your hands on the parts, I highly recommend picking this up for a try. It takes some getting used to, since it plays differently from each of the separate decks that this is a mix of, but once you get it down the deck feels great.