Standard Budget Deck: Pale Moon (Nightmare Doll)

Special thanks to James/Fenrir for allowing me to contribute to Budgetfight! As for me, I'm Nem. I've been a contributor to the local St Louis Cardfight community ever since the start of 2016, helping with playtesting for locals/regionals (even got a couple Top 8s under my belt!) and providing proxy decks to try out for every clan in the game starting from the beginning of Standard Format. Breaking out into content creation and contributing further to a wider audience are always things I've liked/wanted to do, and I've done a couple clan primers in previous formats for our team on Youtube (Team Hivemind).

I've always been a fan of this blog because it lowers the barrier required to get into this game (money can always be an issue with TCGs) by providing easily accessible deck lists for decks that have the potential to contend with the meta!

Couldn't find the ENG version on Google images :/

Once such deck that can contend post-Phantasmal Steed Restoration meta is none other than Nightmare Dolls from the Pale Moon clan! Slightly overshadowed by the more popular Silver Thorns, a diamond in the rough of Pale Moon's previous Standard Format life cycle has emerged in the form of a new boss: Nightmare Doll, Carroll.


Carroll's main utility is in her ability to put combo pieces into soul, call it out if it was a Grade 3 Workeroid, and get a psuedo-restand VG ability by reriding herself or Alice from the soul. If enough CBs are available, she can do this multiple times in one battle phase!

Standard Budget Deck: Nova Grappler (Hero)

Our lord and savior

With our most recent set, The Heroic Evolution, Miwa's Heroes finally became a full deck. They have an actual wincon, and a variety of support cards that share the >Hero< race. The deck in its entirety should run you less than $40, Perfect Guards included, and although they're far overshadowed by Beast Deities, they can still put in a ton of work. If you're looking for the most bang for your buck, I highly recommend picking up Heroes.

Update Deck: Tachikaze (Rex)

Don't tell him he isn't
really a unicorn

Tachikaze got some really, really good stuff in Raging Clash of the Fang Blades that makes for an amazing budget deck. With the hype and focus all on Golds, Shadows, and Nova Grapplers this set, Tachikaze ended up being... really really cheap. Dynast, one of the best midrange Grade 4s ever made, is only $4 and Desperado, a pretty decent backup/main vanguard, is only $0.50.

But Gaia isn't what I want to talk about today. Today I want to cover a different deck that got what I call quality budget support. That's right, we're taking a second look at Rexes.

Update Deck: Angel Feather (Celestials)

I found this picture and it's honestly beautiful. 

So I’ve been asked to share my Celestial build a ton lately due to Celestials being fun, dirt cheap, and actually pretty decent. I feel the reason that Celestials always seems to be forgotten about or thought of as “the bad Angel Feather subclan” is because they live in the shadow of the other two main Angel Feather decks: Nociel and Gavrail. Nociel has a huge advantage engine and multiattacks, which is the reason they were able to destroy the meta for a while after FC2015 Winter. Gavrail, aside from the waifu factor, also has multiattacks, insane defense, and power columns with Broken Heart.

Although Celestials don't have access to that, Celestials have their own tools that make them strong. They can call from the Damage Zone incredibly easy, power up entire formations, and essentially have 8 copies of Nurse of Broken Hearts. They also still have access to the Generic Angel Feather G Zone, which has Black Seraph and Raphael. Raziel is great for resetting the Damage Zone, and Refros was limited for a very,very good reason. Even at 1, he’s amazing if you draw into him.

Budget Deck: Kagero (Dauntless)

Acting all smug like

How long has it been since Dauntless was a thing? Like, Four Years?

God damn I feel old.

Dauntless is a really old favorite of mine. I love the card. He spiked up some time back with the release of the G-Legend Deck and Dragonic Overlord the Legend27, but has calmed back down to a stable price of $5-6, so I decided I'd be writing my next post about him. Conroe also got unbanned, so it gave all Kagero decks a buff.

Budget Deck: Murakumo (Shirayuki)

Ghost waifu

First time playing around without the old format. Here we go.

Now, Shirayuki is a very popular unit that's recently been reprinted in the Revival Collection, and she's a pretty fun one. Her skill gives herself +20,000 defense at the cost of a Personablast. It's considerably cheap and facilitates guarding Glory/Tom skills and other guard restricting skills like PB "Diablo" and Mayhem Tiger, since the skill isn't considered guarding. But... it's a defensive skill in a pretty aggressive clan so it puts her in a bit of an odd spot. She can handle being a very defensive card, but she herself applies no aggressive pressure. Fortunately, your rearguards and strides can handle being offensive for you.

Deck Spotlight: KONO CLOWN DA! (Intensely Sweet Clown Abuse)

I assume everyone here knows about the killer clown sightings recently.

If not, basically there's a bunch of clowns that are terrorizing people and whatnot. While the issues is serious and an actual problem, it's become a meme as of now. Everyone's making clown jokes, and I'm not excluded.

And this is what inspired me to write this post. A deck that's made to abuse a clown that I think is killer.

Intensely Sweet Clown's an amazing card. Instant 17k column when called with Harri or Mephisto. And with multiple Clowns? And enough face up Mephistos in the G-Zone? It's gonna hurt.

Budget Deck: Genesis (Regalia)

After the Absolute Judgement set review I wrote, like, a week or two ago I made note that Regalia got some good support. Really good support. Regalia's now contending with Fenrir for the Top Genesis Deck in the format.

But we all know Regalia's the superior deck right?

Anyhow, the new Regalia support's really cheap in comparison to other meta builds at the moment and can be quite strong.

Grade 4

(Dai)-Urth!

Urth. This card makes the deck. This card wins games. When combined with Verthrandi it gets even better. Someone was theorizing and found that the highest you could get her to was 431k 14 Crit. Alright, I know that's the sheer highest, but on average she'll still be around 60-80k power and 4-6 Critical. Which is still an OHKO if she successfully hits. Unfortunately she dies to PGs, but that's pretty much the only thing that can stop her.

The best part about her is that she's not even $3! Just... perfection. Great skill, cheap to get. What more could you ask for?

Budget Deck: Royal Paladin (Altmile)

When you realized you never have written about Altmile. Ever.

And I'm gonna fix that issue now.

BAMF

I never really liked Altmile. Mostly because I didn't like Shion as a character, but also because his Stride Bonus was a bit underwhelming. +5000 Power to two units isn't bad(it's actually pretty damn good), but it's not much compared to the hard plus that other Stride Bonuses provide. But after awhile he's gotten some nice support and bathed in the other generic support that Royal Paladin has gotten. And after playing the deck for awhile he started to grow on me.

But I hate Brave. I cannot justify a mechanic that gives you bonuses only when you are in a losing position. I can't. Especially when all of the brave skills are rendered useless the moment you triple drive check. Yes, there are some good Brave cards but I can't bring myself to build solely around the mechanic. I just can't.

So, as a note, I'm not building this Altmile deck around Brave. I'll be taking the good brave stuff, like Suleiman and Selim, and putting it together with generic Royal Paladin support, like Benon. It's gonna be great. And cheap.

Deck Spotlight: Ripple Overdrive (Ripple Rush)

Ripples are just great. They really are. The deck I started out on this blog with too. Remember when Odysseus was at 4?

Ah, good times.

Sebreeze and Oddy nerfs have really taken a toll on the Ripple strategy, but they still are fun as hell and still strong. They're also my favorite rush deck of the bunch, being the only one that's non-linear and has methods of plussing, through Sea-Turtle and multi-attacking and whatnot.

Deck Spotlight: The Real OG Royal Paladins (Alfred Early)

The young King of Knights!

Deck Spotlight is a new idea of mine. Probably won't be seen too much, but it's here now. 

So Verz was looking through the Japanese recent toppings and came across a Royal Paladin deck list that ran the original Gancelot and Alfred Early. He shared it with the guys on Discord and I thought the deck was pretty silly and only topped because of the pilot and trigger checks, but after giving it some thought I saw how it could actually work well. The actual deck was pretty wonky, since it was a Japanese deck list, so I changed it a bit to fit me. And to make it budget.

For you Royal Paladin players who wish to revive your old cards, I present to you The Real OG Royal Paladins!

Update Deck: Gold Paladin (Gurguit)

Step 1: Buy Two Gold Paladin Start Decks

Step 2: Buy Some Cheap Singles

Step 3: Deck Complete

That above isn't even a joke. G-SD02 is a very good product. It costs less than a Trial Deck and two of these gets you closer to a competitive deck than two G-TDs. Very, very good product for budget players wanting to start playing Gold Paladins.

It gets even better when you consider the fact that Gold Paladins probably got the second best support in the newest set. (First? Probably Angel Feather- Rescue) Anyhow, you who want to build Gurguit now there's no better time. Now let's get on to the blog.

Budget Deck: Shadow Paladin (Claret)

WARNING: This deck sucks flat out and shouldn't exist, and this blog is here just for fun. You have been warned.

How does his head even
look like? Is that
Raging Form Dragon?

So, today, I'll be discussing about one of the new cards we got from the latest set. The name is--- Claret Sword Dragon! This is officially our Strider for Shadow Paladin. At first look, it seems preety typical, but people, I see a lot of potential with this guy.

What? No not the GB2. I mean that second skill that lets you call a Grade 1 for a CB. It is a straight up +1, but it's quality +1. That power boost of 2k gets really good. It doesn't seem like much - but it is.

Unfortunately Claret is a RRR, and a $10 card. Well... You can try to get one, then run 4 of his searcher and get away with it. Although there's no gurantee that it'll work well though.

Budget Deck: Nova Grapplers (Blaus)

Badass Robos

Blaus are a group of badass blue robots with awesome skills. They absolutely lack support and you can't make a deck full of Blaus, so you need to tech in a few cards. But despite lacking support, they work quite nicely, and can work on budget.

Blaus originated from this Ride Chain that was released on BT04 (Maan a long time ago), but thanks to a bunch of Rambling and begging for more support for Stern, Bushi for once, decided to give them a whole Archtype. And the testing results were... Dramatically good. Stern got a crossride, Blaus got an amazing Break Ride, and probably the best hand engine in the entire game.

Now, playing budget Blaus is a bit harder than normal, since both Galaxy and Mond are at $13 or so, but there are a lot of decent options out there.

Budget Deck: Great Nature (Bigbelly)

Great Nature! The school paradise of Zoo! The students and teachers are animals!... Wait what?

Great Nature was a budget deck (And still is, at least compared to the other clans). But with G-BT02, Bigbelly and Managarm (A.K.A. Lava Arm) introduced, the price to a normal GN deck rose ridiculously. Fortunately, we can still make a very solid budget deck with our choices.

Firstly, I need to talk about something. When the End Phase starts, the actions of the G-unit going back to the G-zone and the units retiring, are activated simuntaniously. When an action starts simuntaniously, the turn player can choose which action activates first. So, you can return the G-unit to the G-zone, then retire. How is this important?

Simply put, you can still activate effects like Tester Fox's unflip even if you Strided that turn. This brings us a concept called Looping.

Budget Deck: Genesis

Genesis is a clan that Soulblasts for skills they took from other clans. No seriously. Everything from Genesis copied it from something else, like Restanding (Both VG and RG), Drawing (OTT?) Powering up the entire front row (Royal Paladin).

Complete Genesis clone.

Budget Deck: Link Joker (Star-vader)

Long long ago, Star-vaders used to rule the world of meta with their Clown, and then they did it again (Although short) with the Doomsday Weapon. But as of now, the Generation two of Link Joker of Messiahs has overpowered Star-vaders and banished them, both from Cray and from the meta game (It's funny how well the lores fit with the meta game), and ow, they can be cheap as hell.

Grade 3

HUEHUEHUE

So firstly, We need to talk about this clown. He has an amazing skill that lets him Soulblast 1 and draw a card whenever a card is unlocked, and retire that unit. People who had mastered this unit topped a lot of meta tournaments. Now that the time of the clown has gone, I can safely assume that the price went down.... Wait, what? It's still $7? Wow. I guess a Budget Deck focused on CBD is just a no-no. Well then, how do we build a Budget deck with Star-vaders?

With this amazing Legion of course. Imaginary Plane Dragon lets you lock 3 cards for 2 Counterblasts. Usually people find the cost too expensive, but it's actually preety decent. Building a deck completely focused on this guy works amazing, with the pressure units, unflipping units, etc etc.

Budget Deck: Shadow Paladin (Revengers)

Shadow Paladins is another meta clan that's expensive, with the same logic as Narukami. It's not Shadow Paladins that are expensive (Althought it's the clan that gets the most broken support) it's the main build of Shadow Paladins that are expensive. It's Phantom Blaster Abyss that's expensive, being about $40 or so. But hey, even if Abyss is expensive as hell and unfit for a budget deck, it doesn't mean that Revengers doesn't have a budget deck. In fact, thanks to Abyss everything aside from Abyss is cheap.

Grade 3 

What do you mean I'm a girl?

So firstly, this is the cornerstone of our Shadow Paladin build. It's... just amazing. Don't underestimate a consistent 30k 2 crit attack. I personally love everything about this card. And he's so underused and underestimated. It makes him cheap as hell. It's not even $1! I've never seen a more budget friendly key card in my life.

Although, the mate of this card is a bit more expensive than the Leader (Due to the fact that this can be used with Abyss) so I'd run 1-2 of the mate. It's more than enough. Trust me, I had a Revenger deck focused on this guy and it was amazing.

Budget Deck: Dimension Police (Zeal)

Reverse--- DAIYUSHAAAAA!!!

So there are 2 types of Dimension Police units. The right Superheroes of justice who strive to burn down evil, and the Villains, who wants to destroy Cray. I mean, it's obvious. A hero story can't start withought a Villain.

My head shoots out Lasers.

So the Leader of these Evil Monsters is Zeal, a ride chain. His skill is... A bit... I'm not sure if I'm willing to pay 2 Counterblasts just for a potential -5k to the opponent's Vanguard... The effect is really good, but the fact that it's a Limit Break, and that restriction in skill of needing to have Rear-guards... Zeal is usable, interesting, but... Oh wait.

Looks like I spoke too soon. G-EB01 gave us a Zeal Legion revival... Which actually works if played right. Here, we have a decent on-hit unflipper. Being able to hit 22k, it's like "PG or I unflip" which is preety good overall.

Budget Deck: Dimension Police (Enigmans)

I ride Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Greaato--- DAIYUSHAAAAAA!!!


So this clan isn't all about just Kenji shouting out card names. It's actually one of those clans included in the meta, and it is... quite a bit expensive. But originally upon release, this was considered minor, a Budget clan. It just somehow got Overpowered support and made people attracted to on-hit drawing, retiring, Critical sacking on one Vanguard, Glory skilling, and finally, Guard Breaking.

But with G-EB01's advent, we got Strides, and a whole new mechanic that supports it: Cosmic Heroes. Now; I'm not saying that Cosmic Heroes are a budget build: It isn't. However, this set introduced us our old friends. Yep. We got Enigmans.