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 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 Deck: Genesis (Iwanagahime combo)

With Premium Collection 2020 finally being released, a lot of interest in the format is being revitalized. Since the most expensive base rarity card in set is Tempest Sphere @ $10, upgrading your Prem decks right now is super cheap. Because of this, it's also a great time to get into the format. Our list today doesn't showcase its Premcolle 2020 stride, but it's still a very low-cost and efficient deck to pick up: Iwanagahime Beats!

Firstly, a brief explanation on how the deck functions. The best beater rear that the clan has access too is Iwanagahime. She can give herself upwards of 40k power (or 60k once the clan gets their respective Crit Sentinel). Our main stride is going to be last year's Premcolle stride, Amaruda Aphross. We will be utilizing both of her skills, her first one to give Iwanagahime an even fatter number, in addition to the draw and soulcharge, and then her second skill to restand Iwan and add a blanket sentinel restrict for the turn. We then extend the attacks by soulblasting Tahro with the skills of our other rears. 

In total, the deck should be swinging with a 63k 3-Crit Iwanagahime three to five times, with each attack after the first unguardable by sentinels. The deck aims to secure the combo first stride, and I've found that it usually kills if it goes off. 

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.

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?