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: Aqua Force (Ripple Cycloned)

Considering Cyclone was the cover card for Premium Collection 2020, it only seems fitting that we make some sort of post on it. We're gonna be nostalgia tripping tho. 

I'm sure some of you remember Odysseus, the broken rare that made Ripples top tier, allowing it to take the World Championship in 2015. But, as all good things must come to an end, Odysseus was soon thereafter semi-limited which crippled the deck severely, and it fell out of the meta pretty hard. 

The deck didn't age especially well, either. Bushi eventually gave Aqua players Odysseus back at 4 during V-Era. With the stride ruling change, the opponent can force the G2 game to end by simply riding up. In addition, using Odysseus after riding up to legion using Miltiades during the main phase is... mediocre. Compared to the powerhouse strides that we have nowadays, the Ripple legion is not a valid playstyle.

Don't get the wrong, though, Odysseus is still broken, providing you with an unparalleled G2 game. Calling big beatstick vanillas to rear with extra on-hit pressure from Pavroth is strong. The Cyclone package gives the deck actual scaling into late-game and access to a first stride Valeos that stops damage triggers. 

It's also worth noting that if you open your 1 Zazan and an Odysseus you do some cheeky stuff and probably autowin?

But let's get into it. 

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.

Budget Deck: Shadow Paladin ("Diablo")

WEAKNESS IS A SIN

With the Aurageyser reprint confirmed, it's time to talk about one of the best decks that utilizes Aurageyser. [Hint: It's not Claret]. "Diablo" has risen in the meta as one of the most consistent Shadow Paladin decks around. While it doesn't have the early game of the RFD/Abyss combo deck, Diablo decks have a powerful calling engine as well as field control once the stride game begins. Having access to Aurageyser, "Diablo", and Spectral "Diablo" is very deadly. And the best thing about all of this? Diablo decks are cheap, even cheaper if you purchased the Ren Legend deck because it'll only take a few upgrades to finish off that "Diablo" deck.

Budget Deck: Neo Nectar (Ahsha)

Gotta Love that Personality

Welcome back to school, guys. Hope you had a fun summer!

To start off the end of summer, I'm finally gonna write a post for Neo Nectar, which is the last clan to not have a post on this site...

Except for Touken Ranbu... which isn't even a real clan yet... Hopefully the new stuff will make them competitively viable.

Anyhow! Neo Nectar is excessively fun clan which, for a main character clan, is pretty cheap. Sure, Glorious Bloom Ahsha and Dream-spinning Ahsha are sitting at around $23 and $13 respectively cus of waifu tax, but outside of that the rest of the clan's pretty cheap.

Ahsha's big thing is huge power columns, as well as unit cloning. While the deck is a bit combo heavy, Ahsha decks have quite a few ways to get these power columns. They also have an "infinite power loop"... which is actually pretty simple to get off and got Lisbeth restricted over in Japan.

But hey, we're not Japan(or most of us aren't).