Premium Budget Deck: Geoma-Glass Cannon

Justice once again

 

So this can also be dubbed as a Crazy Diamond build but I prefer Geoma-Glass Cannon for the irony in addition to having a more straightforward naming process. This build is focused on using the Enigman ride chain, allowing you to skimp out on other units of that grade in order to run as many Grade 3s as possible. The original build used this in tandem with Daikaiser to abuse the break ride skill, and other variants since then focus on synergizing with units that benefit from running a lot of Grade 3s. In the modern day we now have Geomaglass who greatly lends itself to this strategy alongside new units from the V series with higher base stats that can be abused by the deck. 

Instead of the usual spotlight where I provide various options to run with a sample build alongside it, I'll be instead providing insight on my own take for a budget build, which you're welcome to change at your own discretion. 

Premium Budget Deck: (True) Ancient Dragons

This one's for you friend

Tachikaze, and more specifically Ancient Dragon was the first deck I had fully built in real life after reading Tachi's post and discussing ideas with him online. While I did move away from the clan after ADs fell out of relevancy, I would still play games casually with the deck and with V Series coming around I had always hoped a reboot would give the archetype another moment in the spotlight. And here we are, six years from that point, with new cards promoting the aggressive playstyle of the past. 

Premium Budget Fight: Spike Brothers (Bad End)

Congrats Chiefs

So with the Superbowl being a recent event, I thought it'd be appropriate to talk about Spike Brothers. In both Standard and Premium Spikes are a pretty solid clan that sets up rear guards to threaten the opponent each turn. Recent sets have also given the deck the ability to complement their aggressive playstyle with draw power and nice tech options as well. V-EB09 has graced us with the return of Bad End Dragger, and with everything Spikes already have alongside with being pretty budget in general, we can revisit a popular premium variation that use him alongside his stride Good End Dragger for a strong aggro turn.

Standard Budget Deck: Nubatama (Kujikiricongo)

Discard No Jutsu!! 

Nubatama has always been a fun clan for me to brew, even since the original series. Controlling cards in the opponent's hand was something I never really tried in card games prior to Vanguard, and when V-BT03 came around I was looking forward to seeing how Bushi would adapt the clan for Standard. 

I was initially confused when the VR was revealed to be Magatsu Storm, alongside the rest of his ride chain. However, and more importantly, Shura Stealth Dragons returned to Standard alongside the mainline Magatsu set. Let's talk about them for today.

Premium Budget Deck: Shadow Paladin (Claret)

So it's been a while....

We're Still Here

For those unfamiliar with me, I'm Inferno, a new addition to the writing team of Budgetfight Vanguard. Nice to meet you all! I've been playing the game since 2013, and met the Budgetfight members on Discord thereafter. Recently, I thought it'd be cool to try and write an article. There hasn't been too much to discuss in terms of standard format as the limited card pool makes deck-building fairly straightforward. In Premium, though, we have a much larger cardpool to work with, and plenty to talk about as a result. 

Anyway, I thought it'd be nice just to say, "hey we're not dead" and also start to get back to showcasing decks. All of us here look forward to creating more articles as the game develops, and we thank all of you for your continued support. 

So anyway, how is deck-building in premium going?

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?

Deck Spotlight: Triochou (Bermuda Triangle)

Best Onee-san figure

...God it's been 3 entire months since I wrote something here. Handling a job, two blogs, moderating
on discord, and playtesting all of my decks ended up being a lot for me to handle.

But I'm here now, so that's what counts.

In terms of new sets, we've just left Bermuda month and now have our annual Bermuda set, Prismatic Divas! All the stuff in the set, bar SPs, Ange, and Lapria, are all really, really cheap now so if you want to get anything out of the set I highly recommend you do now. $4 Kukuris are just... wew.

But the hottest new thing out of Bermuda month is Bermuda's first Trial Deck, introducing the new Bermuda archetype: Chouchou(pronounced Shushu, just as a side note. It's French).

The new archetype involves sending your own rearguards to the bottom of the deck to gain benefits. Unfortunately the benefits aren't too great at the moment and the deck is riddled with resource problems, but it's still a very fun deck that can be built on a pretty low budget. The main deck is entirely commons and Trial Deck cards, after all.

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.

Budget Deck: Granblue (Nightrose)

....... The market underwent some... heavy changes while I was playing WIXOSS apparently.

Originally, I was planning to write about Vanquisher, but then he went up to about $9.50. Then for some godforsaken reason Grandgallop went up to... $26. After that, I went looking for a couple stuff I could actually write about, and I ended up in Chatnoir and Nightrose, and since I have next to no experience with the former, I decided to go with Nightrose. I actually tried Nightrose afterall. And luckily, most of Nightrose's pieces are located in G-TD08, which is also said to be one of the better G-TDs around, which makes stuff a lot better.

Budget Deck: Oracle Think Tank (Magus)

Simple Geometry!

So I'm finally writing about Oracle Think Tank.

OTTs are probably my favorite non-control deck(Gear Chronicle/Kagero ftw!). Their ability to accumulate huuuuge hand sizes has always appealed to me. But... Oracle Think Tank has had a bit of a hard time in the G-Era. They've gotten pretty little support this season and the little support we've gotten was... pretty mediocre. Outside of some Archetypal support, Oracle Think Tank generally didn't get any good support. They've been relying of Silent Tom for a long time. And Tom is a no-no for budget. So my solution?

Play an older, previously supported deck that doesn't use Tom.

Magus has been around for awhile and even got their own Extra Booster. They got some lovely units from Moonlit Dragonfang and will help to make up for budget. A lot.

Budget Deck: Pale Moon (Harri)

Welcome to the dream stage!

Magia-Pale Moons have the ability to set up a full board without using a single card in hand, then send them all back into the soul for safekeeping. It's for this reason alone that Magia-Pale Moons an AMAZING matchup against control decks.

Kagero? Nothing to retire. Gear Chronicle? Nothing to rewind. Link Joker? Nothing to lock.

Do I really need to say any more? And the great thing is that control decks are all seeing significant amounts of play at the moment. The only "bad" matchup that Magia-Pale Moons have is against Shadow Paladin because Phantom Blaster "Diablo", but not like it's that hard to deal with.

Anyhow, let's get into the blog.

Budget Deck: Nova Grapplers (Beast Deity)

     Beast Deities. Probably my favorite Nova Grappler deck with its perfect mix of pressure

and rush. Quite flashy too and it feels so great when you pull off combos. Only problem is that almost every card with "Ethics Buster" in it's name is pretty expensive... Whatever, I'll make it work. Let's get on with it.

Budget Deck: Narukami (Crimson)

Narukami is a meta clan. Which should mean that it's expensive. It's true, most of the part, at least.

Even meta clans have budget builds. When people say something like "Gold Paladins are expensive!" or something, they're usually referring to the widely used build of Gold Paladins. In this case, probably a Prominence Glare deck. It's not like Gold Paladins have to be expensive (That will have a seperate blog in the future), and the same applies to all the meta clans. Here, I will be talking about how to make a Narukami Budget deck.

So for Narukami, the main expensive builds nowadays are Brawlers. I meant, Big Bang decks. It works really well, Busting your opponent's field each turn. It makes them scared to put down Rear-guards at all, and so you'll be able to guard less than normal. If they choose to call, then those are less cards for your opponent to guard with (and attack with, since you're gonna kill them next turn). But, who ever said that only Brawlers can do this?