Deck Spotlight: Pale Moon (Silver Thorn)

Watch me whip

I was actually planning on doing this as a YouTube video. Instead, all I did was learn that my video editing skills are about as effective as the ice cream machine at McDonalds, so after about an hour of suffering followed by a period of regret, I decided to give up and just write a post.

So yeah, I'm here.

Silver Thorns have had the reputation for being an insanely expensive waifu deck for the longest time. Until Rummy Labyrinth, all of the Luquier Grade 3 units were RRR. In addition, Mystique Luquier, who also has an annoying pricetag, was effectively the deck's only stride option.

Rummy Labyrinth didn't exactly do a good job with creeping out a majority of the deck either, and players still have to deal with the annoyingly priced far out-of-print Commons and Rares of old. The newer Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Luquier, was a solid step in the right direction, but the Venus Luquier stride is extremely lackluster. The set gave us another on-hit Grade 2, and a weaker Upright Lion. Cernay is the only good Grade 1 we got, and even the new starter is questionable.

Thanks?

Silver Thorns won't get any support outside of the Harri Promo stride in the near future, and for the most part is going to just be a casual deck. Regardless, the deck is cheap, waifu, and can definitely appeal to nostalgic players, being basically the only relevant Pale Moon build until stride era. In addition, it's really not hard to find the deck complete, as I've been seeing plenty of people selling for cheap through Facebook.

Now watch me nae nae

It's probably about time to talk about the actual list, so I'm going to start with Grade 0s. My starter of choice is Emile. Her skill provides simple and effective deck filtering and soul setup simultaneously. Soul setup is especially important here because it's the deck's only reliable form of soulcharging aside from Mystique Luquier. Without Emile, building decent soul is a diffuclt task, and outside of ride targets, it's hard to land anything good in the soul. Considering the deck works off chain calling for Upright Lion numbers and on-hits to call out toolboxable attackers, not having multiple options at your disposal is a pain. Even outside of setup, Emile can still be repeatedly called and spammed to filter the deck of non-trigger units.

The only other real starter option is Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Lolotte. Countercharging and grabbing a stride fodder is good, but it's hard to have much of a soul to begin with if you don't use Emile. Putting others along with itself to lessen the number of units on board can be good or bad, but it's rarely a direct benefit. Lolotte is solid enough, but it's near impossible to keep a decent soul and be able to optimally use her skill.

Dixie is a really good trigger, as it moves itself back to deck if accidentally soulcharged and can be used to bolster Upright Lion even further. 8 Crits and 4 Heal is good, and then the last slot can be anything. I like Draws, as Cernay's tutor skill can be pretty costly in a deck with no actual hand advantage engine. Prankster Girl in Mirrorland is fine, works similarly to Dixie in that it's a trigger that stays in deck and can set up combos. Rainbow triggers could honestly work, but I like having at least 8 crits to sack once the deck filtering starts.

4 Perfect Guards is a must. The Silver Thorn name hardly matters, because you're rarely going to be shoving it into the soul. I also believe Zelma to be a must 4-of, as it can lead to combos with Cernay for extra calls, power for Upright Lion, boosted multiattacks if called during the battle phase, or even simply fixing the board. Cernay is a simple independent board advantage engine. It's where you're gonna be dumping most of your counterblast and it's important to get it into your soul as soon as possible. I only use 3 because having any more than one in the soul gets redundant and unnecessary. Irina is pretty much the only other usable Grade 1 with the Silver Thorn name, and I can't really complain because on-call filtering and toolboxing is useful. Colette is another option, but the 3k number rarely matters on its own and blind soulcharging is unreliable. Stride Fodder ends up filling the rest of the Grade 1 slots, because you never want to rely on Limit Break and having to minus to stride in a deck with no draw power hurts.

Upright Lion is the deck's bread and butter, getting power on-call in a call heavy deck makes him a beefy boi. Acute Dragon was a sad attempt to creep Lion, considering if you call more than twice Lion gets stronger, and that'll basically always be the case. And... the rest of the lineup is onhits. In 2018.

Clemens is a free 11k, which I guess matters because it's not always possible to devote a booster to the rears, especially in control matchups. Having the opponent either guard or deal with another (hopefully) 11k swing forces their hand, and that's that. Marcia fills the final slot because lolearlygame and apparently we have to welcome pressure to our Grade 2 lineup. Lucamia exists, but wants to eat a soulbast for her skill, but even then tutoring a Grade 3 to soul still doesn't do much unless Lolotte is being ran. Since I'm not running Lolotte, I'm not running Lucamia.

The first four-of Grade 3 is the Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Luquier retrain. She does it all. The LB4 call from soul is a solid plus, and with Zelma or Mystique in the deck it usually can turn into a permanent plus once it's swapped. She enables the crossride skill because it has the same name as OG Luquier. It has a stride skill that helps the deck make actual numbers, as it can turn 9k units called with on-hits to 12k, or help a non-Lion column break 21k. Our secondary ride is going to be Reverse Luquier. You're going to be striding every turn, and it's extremely rare to have access to LB4 before the stride game, so the fact that her skill is pretty wet noodle doesn't actually matter very much. Venus and Reverse both have the crossride number. Venus Luqiuer's skill is undeniably better 99% of the time, but considering it's basically never going to go off, using Reverse for budget purposes is fine.

Mystique Luquier has an annoying price tag, but I still think she's a two-of at least. She's the deck's strongest first stride, and is usually used late game too for combos with Upright and Cernay. She plays to the deck's strong points, and even if powercreep makes her competitively irrelevant, she's still the deck's best stride. Venus Luquier stride... exists. Her skill isn't exactly cost-efficient at all. It's an alternative first stride option, I guess, but I'm not going to justify her skill with "crit pressure can be important". Milward is appreciable in Thorns, as plussing to the board for little investment and stacking on-hits works very well in the deck. The minor power boost can make numbers, and putting on-hits on an on-hit deck makes it easy to have a full pressure formation and forces the opponent to guard. Fairfield and Dragon Masquerade Harri are pretty cost heavy, and aren't by any means necessary. Spamming Cernay can eat up counterblast really fast, and both of them need to counterblast two. They're winmores at best, and I guess Farfield could be optimal because there's a decent amount of space in the G Zone, but usually not worth for a budget player. G Guards are hardly worth going over, other than I wanted to point out that hey Wandering can call a PG from soul, that's pretty spicy.

So, moving onto the decklist:
                                                                      

Decklist:

NOTE: This is only an example decklist and should only be used as a base. I recommend 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:
1x Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emile

4x Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia

4x Silver Thorn Assistant, Dixie

4x Silver Thorn, Barking Dragon

4x Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha

Grade 1:
4x Perfect Guard

4x Silver Thorn Assistant, Zelma

3x Silver Thorn Clown, Cernay

2x Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina

2x Masquerade Bunny

Grade 2:
4x Silver Thorn, Upright Lion

4x Silver Thorn Magician, Clemens

2x Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica

Grade 3:
4x Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier

4x Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Reverse"

Grade 4:
4x Dreamily Axel, Milward

2x Silver Thorn Dragon Master, Mystique Luquier

2x Silver Thorn Dragon Master, Venus Luquier

1x Scream Dragon Master, Droll Kimberly

2x Chainsaw Megatrick, Furnival

2x Jester Demonic Dragon, Wandering Dragon

1x Kinesis Megatrick, Coulthard

                                                                      

* There's two extra slots, can be filled with Dragon Masquerade, Fairfield, Sebreeze, Mystique, or anything you feel you'll need, according to your budget. 

Price: $80

Effectiveness: 3/10

Competitive: Definitely not. Thorns haven't kept up with the increasingly high powercreep rate in the slightest. Again, the best I'm labeling it as is a nostalgia/waifu deck. 

Final Words: Considering how high the deck could jump up if it gets decent support, Thorns really aren't a terrible investment. It probably won't cost much to keep updated, either. It's a neat Pale Moon deck if you don't like Nightmare Dolls or have the budget for Harri. Regardless of how lackluster Thorns are, there's still reasons to pick them up. 

Until next time

~JamesTheFenrirFanboi