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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

#CFV - BT04 Royal Paladin's Support Overview

Well, now with Banquet of Divas out of the way, non-Bermuda Triangle players are probably looking forward to the new booster set ''Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows'' who will introduce a new clan in the English meta : Shadow Paladins. However, even if the name of the set doesn't really spell something outside of Shadow Paladin support, some other unrelated clans gets a fair amount of it in this booster set. Royal Paladin is one of those clans and even though they receive the least amount of support in this one, they're still units worth mentioning.

Bluegal
CONT (R): During your turn, this unit gets +1000 Power for each other ''Bluegal'' in your vanguard or rear-guard circle.
AUTO : When you ride another  «Royal Paladin» unit, you may call this unit to the rear-guard circle.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

#CFV - Banquet of Diva Release Day!!


We're finally the 10th! All that anticipation and pre-release hype can finally come to an end for us asparing Bermuda Triangle players as this is Banquet of Divas' release day! Hopefully, some of you guys had the chance to win or buy a lot of boxes to build a good/decent deck. As for me, despite me winning the so called ''Release'' Team Tournament at my locals and getting qualified for regionals, I sure didn't win anything Bermuda Triangle related with my 1st place placing (the prize was $20 store credit on singles for each teammate... sadface). However, I still managed to buy 6 extra boosters from the set and got pretty good pulls, if you ask me. This is what I got.
  • (1) Top Idol, Pacifica (SP)
  • (4) Top Idol, Pacifica
  • (2) Top Idol, Riviere
  • (4) Girls Rock Rio
  • (4) Bermuda Princess, Lena
  • (4) Pearl Sisters, Perle
  • (3) Pearl Sisters, Perla
  • (3) Mermaid Idol, Elly
Overall, I'm pretty happy with what I pulled as I can pretty much build any Bermuda Triangle deck  I want aside from Riviere (which is fine with me, to be honest). I managed to trade off some junk my teammate had in his binder for the Mermaid Idol, Elly and the other Pearl Sisters, Perla I was missing. Right now, I'm currently running a Pacifica Recycle build (the build I posted in my Overview article) and I'm really liking it so far. Despite being a very consistent and powerful deck, I'll probably drop the Royal Palamedes build I made and focus on Bermuda & CoCo for the next upcoming months as I also want to play the Raindear and Lena variant and win some tournaments with them as well.

Bad quality picture featuring Pacfica Recycle!!


Oh, and if I remember correctly, here are the top 3 teams from the team tournament:

7 Teams // 21 participants

1st place
- Royal Paladin (Palamedes // Alfred)
- Gold Paladin (SDD // Garmore)
- Nova Grappler (Asura Kaiser // Azure)

2nd place
- Gold Paladin (Ezel // Garmore) 
- Gold Paladin (Ezel // Garmore)
- Angel Feather (Shamsiel)

3rd place
- Gold Paladin (Ezel // Garmore)
- Gold Paladin (Ezel // Garmore)
- Granblue (Cocytus)

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

#CFV - Banquet of Divas Overview (Riviere)


Bermuda Triangle's extra booster release date is approaching fast and to commemorate, this last entry post about this set will cover one of the most over-hyped and popular card in the Bermuda Triangle clan: Top Idol, Riviere!

Top Idol, Riviere
CONT (V): If you have card named ''Super Idol, Riviere'' in your soul, this unit gets +1000 Power.
AUTO (V): [Counter Blast (2) & Choose a card named ''Top Idol Riviere'' from your hand, and discard it] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to three of your «Bermuda Triangle» rear-guards, and those units get +3000 Power until end of turn.

When this card was first released in the japanese meta, it created a lot noise and hype around the community. One of the reason why was because, at that time, Riviere was the first one to introduce this particular type of Ride Chain in the game (Now, we already have Spectral Duke, Lox and Ergodiel). The other reason was because of her Persona Blast that resembles a lot like Soul Saver Dragon's famous and devastating effect Royal Paladins are known for. While it's true that her Ride Chain is good and generates a lot of advantage if pulled off, a lot of people's expectations were a bit too high when reading that card for the first time and ignored a lot of factors that made this card a little less devastating than she looked.

With the help of her unique Persona Blast and her conditional 11k defense, Riviere builds focuses on establishing solid columns as well as applying pressure early on to maintain a solid lead during the whole game. Indeed, by completing her entire Ride Chain and netting solid hand power advantage, Riviere becomes the best defensive vanguard in Bermuda Triangle due to her permanent 11k and the extra shield acquired when properly doing the Ride Chain. These two little pluses it gives you helps in maintaining a solid lead as it makes everything a little bit easier to guard. As for her Persona Blast, it is the main tool used to get that early lead & pressure game on. Swarming the field and pulling off Riviere's Persona Blast as soon as she appears on the vanguard Circle (if all the conditions are met) is key to get the early damage lead as it pretty much guarantees damage from the boosted rear-guards as well. Other than that, Riviere build is your typical and straightforward beatdown deck.

Example of Riviere Rush Build
As for her cons, Top Idol Riviere, herself, doesn't have a lot of them as the card is pretty good for what it is. However the lack of synergy with the whole clan is probably her biggest con as it hinders her capacity in being on par with the other main Grade 3 units from the clan. Because Bermuda Triangle is a clan that focuses more on getting raw advantage through soul and bounce mechanic rather than ruthless rushdown, Riviere, who is a rushdown oriented unit, seems kind of out of place in the clan. The fact that she relies on soul to be the most effective restricts key units such as Top Idol Flores, Turquoise Blue Tyrrhenia and Pearl Sisters, Perla from getting in the build and being useful without a drawback. With that said, aside from the occasional +1's she will be getting through her ride chain, the build doesn't gain much advantage and needs to rely more or less on triggers to get an edge against decks that gets a lot of it. In addition to that, again, because Bermuda Triangle is not an heavy hitter type of clan, they lack 9k and 10k boosters that would be great behind Riviere for her to reach the 20k or 21k magic numbers. The fact that she cannot properly threaten and can be guarded constantly by 15k shield late game is the main reason why she needs to make use of her Persona Blast during the early/mid game to establish the lead and the pressure game. Though, even with all those drawbacks, Riviere Rush builds can still be somewhat competitive and be able to win when taking the right type of guesses and pulling off well-timed Persona Blasts. Here's a match video demonstrating Riviere's potential and the effectiveness of her early pressure game against Pale Moon's Barking Manticore. 

Credits to GreenRabbitim for the video

All in all, while the Riviere Rush build is pretty simple deck to play, it's ironically one of the hardest deck to win with consistently. The lack of synergy and support towards rushdown makes Riviere kind of subpar compared to the other Bermuda grade 3's. Though, if you are into straightfforward and simple rushdown builds, Riviere might be the right choice for you. Hopefully, the next batch of Bermuda Triangle's support will lean toward a more offensive approach to support Riviere's type of play.

And this conclusdes the Banquet of Divas Overview entry serie. Hopefully, those little articles came in handy and helped a few Bermuda Triangle plays in choosing what type of deck they want to play and how to play them!

Friday, November 2, 2012

#CFV - Banquet of Divas Overview (Raindear)


All right! With less than 10 days away from the official English release of Banquet of Divas in North America, let's tackle on and review one of the strongest (if not the strongest) build this set has to offer by talking about it's boss: Velvet Voice, Raindear.

Velvet Voice, Raindear
AUTO (V): [Choose 1 of your «Bermuda Triangle» rear-guard and return it to your hand] When this unit Drive Checks a Grade 3 «Bermuda Triangle», you may pay the cost. If you do, select up to 1 «Bermuda Triangle» from your hand, and call it onto an open rear-guard circle.


Raindear is the typical Grade 3 Drive checker for Bermuda Triangle and, surprisingly, the unit that exploits the bouncing mechanic this clan is known for the best. Similarly to Nova Grappler's Asura Kaiser, when Raindear reveals a Grade 3 unit of the same clan as her during the Twin Drive!!, she can enable an extra attack by bouncing a rear-guard unit back to the hand and playing another one back on the field in Stand position. What's so good about it is the fact that, when used with on-bounce effect units such as Girls Rock, Rio and Rainbow Light, Carine, you get to activate their effect giving you a +1 in term of hand advantage. Therefore, Raindear not only turns all the grade 3 units in the deck into Stand triggers, but can also turn them into potential +1's with the right unit on the field (all that without any mention of getting triggers!) Of course, on paper, she's one of the better vanguards in Bermuda Triangle but realistically, a lot of luck has to be involved to get the most out of Raindear. A Raindear that does not reveal grade 3's during a game or bounces back units that gives no advantage whatsoever is possibly the worst vanguard in the Bermuda clan as she has frail defense (10k vanguard) and has no way to get to high magic numbers due to the clan's lack of 10k booster. If all goes according to plans, though, she can be a real threat. Here's a small example of a Raindear Aggro-Bounce build:


Example of Raindear Bounce Build



There's really not much to say about Raindear build as it's strategy is pretty straightforward : beat the opponent down while getting the best of both world (hand power and extra pressure) by getting ''double triggers''. It's a solid build that relies more or less on luck to get wins. If you're into aggro type of builds, definitely consider this deck as an option for a Bermuda Triangle deck. Here's a japanese match video showing Velvet Voice, Raindear's bounce mechanic against Megacolony's Master Fraud (there are actually people playing this deck, wow...!)


Credits goes to Bosuo1929 for the video
Notice: Little misplay @13:25 on the Raindear player's part. He attacked the rear-guard despite the fact that his opponent was at 5 damage and forgot to re-call Carine after Raindear's bounce for extra pressure.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

#CFV - Banquet of Divas Overview (Lena)



The long awaited (not really) part 2 of Banquet of Divas Overview is here and this part will cover the Lena Bounce build!

Bermuda Princess, Lena
CONT (VC): During your turn, if you have 4 or more «Bermuda Triangle» rear-guards, this Unit gains +3000 Power.
AUTO: When this Unit is called to the vanguard Circle, send all of your «Bermuda Triangle» rear-guards back to your hand.

Let's get right into it by talking about how my personal favorite unit of mine, Bermuda Princess, Lena, and her Re-ride Bounce build works. Similar to Soulless CoCo build in Oracle Think Tank, the Lena build focuses on riding the main vanguard of the deck (in this particular case, Lena) multiple times to net some advantage during the game while still applying decent amount of pressure with her conditional 13k power. Similar to the other bouncers from the clan, Lena's main targets when she is played are Girls Rock Rio and Rainbow Light, Carine for their on-bounce effects. That, however, means that we need to let these on-bounce effect units on the field at least a whole turn and make them susceptible from attacks or retiring effects before getting the advantage off Lena's effect the next ride phase. What's great about Lena though is the fact that her effect is an all-in-one bouncing effect. Which means that she can make Grade 0 units such as Bermuda Triangle Cadet, Caravel and Bermuda Triangle Cadet, Weddell work as 10k shields (assuming the free bounce from Weddell is not needed) and get massive advantage a single turn if multiple on-bounce effect units managed to stay alive for a turn, all while being able to re-arrange your field. Given these facts, the Lena oriented build can be considered as a pretty gimmicky deck that can be easily be countered if the opponent is aware of what Lena is able to do. Some might even say that this build is a sub par version of Soulless CoCo deck considering the fact that Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya serves the same purpose as Lena, that she has an overall better effect (+4000 boost instead of +3000) and that the deck as a whole gains a lot more (and guaranteed) advantage than Lena's. While it's to some extent true, Lena has still proven to be quite a solid and competitive deck, so to all Lena enthusiasts like myself, don't let those facts get you away from her and hope for better support in the future! Here's a small example of a Lena Bounce deck:

Example of Lena Bouce Build

Again, a lot of changes can be made depending on taste, but this is what a Lena build should look like in my honest opinion. Don't forget that in this particular build, the star herself is considered as a bouncer. In the build above, we have 9 bouncer (4x Lena, 4 Perla and 1x Weddell) and 6 on-bounce effect units (4x Rio and 2 Carmine). While it's true that the number of bouncers doesn't correspond to the numbers of on-bouncers, we have to consider that Lena's bounce is not a direct bounce (meaning you have to wait a turn every time), so I figured it was all right to add more bouncers than on-bouncers.

Finally, here's a good match video displaying Lena's build effectiveness during a game against Oracle Think Tank's Tsukuyomi.

All credits goes to Otsu for the video.

Stay tuned for my third entry about Bermuda Triangle's Velvet Voice, Raindear and her unique type of deck!