Monday 6 April 2015

Vanguard Discussion: Card mechanics Q&A

Qn: Card mechanics: Legion, Stride, Limit Break? What are the difference? Which is better.

Limit Break:
[AUTO](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage)

Opinion: limit breaks are pretty much overshadowed by newer card mechanics such as stride and legion due to the difference in power and their overwhelming ability. Limit breaks are pretty risky to run limit break as a standalone mechanic in the current meta. Limit breaks required the player to acquire at least 4 damage which endangers the player to unguarded critical triggers and pressured by vanguards with additional criticals while being at 4 damage. This put them to a vulnerable spot where they have to guard and put more cards to prevent them from losing the game. However limit breaks are usually accompanied by legion where players would run "Break rides" to give the newly ridden vanguard a stacked effect or a dual skill. This hybrid build is quite common and pretty popular in the current meta.

Example.
Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser +  True Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daikaiser

Break rides
Break rides are limit break cards with effects activated when a card is being ridden on it while you are at 4 damage. In the current metagame, it is best not to play based on breakrides as it is pretty slow as compared to the current trend and metagame of vanguard nor it is still able to stall to keep up its pace. Break rides require the controller to ride a card that is of the same grade or a grade higher than the current vanguard.

How do I counter break rides and limit breaks?
As mentioned earlier, limit breaks require the controller to be at 4 damage. Pressuring them with a vanguard that has additional criticals will be great to pressure and curb the whole deck from gaining its advantage and thus, also making certain abilities unable to activate nor able to fulfil its limit break condition.

Thus, cards like e.g.
Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daiyusha, etc... are perfect to shutdown limit break decks.

This problem to limit break had been overcome by the release of "LB enablers".
They all comes with a similar effect of:
[CONT](RC):Your vanguard's "Limit Break 4" is active even when you have three or less damage.

with the creation of this new breed of cards, it increases the probability of activating limit break which negates and overwrite the original condition of having 4 damage.  This ability is active only when this card is present of the board which makes it vulnerable to board removal manoeuvres and cards that are able retire, return, bind or lock.

legion
[ACT](VC): Legion20000 "Mate" (If your opponent's vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit may return four cards from your drop zone into your deck once, search your deck for the specified card, and Legion)

Opinion: Legion is still one of the few best mechanisms that are revolving the current metagame despite having G4 strides with triple checks. 1 key advantage that legion give is the returning of 4 units from drop zone into the deck which effectively; you can add back 4 triggers from the drop zone back into the deck. 2nd key advantage is the consistent 20k pair which gave a huge power boost to the vanguard that is attacking. 3rd is the seeking of "mate" to the vanguard circle which filters 1 non-trigger out of the deck which increases the probability of drive checking triggers.

Below are some of the notable effect a mate has and carries.
Notable mate effect types:
1.  if your vanguard is Legion
2. When your vanguard Legion

they are phrased almost the same. But 2 different effects!

1.  if your vanguard is Legion
It means being in the state of "legion" where there is already 2 cards on the vanguard circle.
Therefore cards with similar effect will trigger and resolve only when there is 2 cards in the vanguard circle.
Example of cards with such effect:
Blue Storm Marine General, Starless
Blue Storm Marine General, Milos

2. When your vanguard Legion
It means the refers to the act of "performing legion" and the skill would only activate when your vanguard performs legion.
Example of cards with such effect:
Metalborg, Ur Buster
Ultimate Raizer Dual-flare
Therefore only when your vanguard performs legion and cards such as ur buster has to be present before the vanguard legions to be able to trigger its effect.

Other notable card effects:
3. During the turn your vanguard Legion
Example:
Frozen Ogle
Card effects phrased this way will only activate after the action of your vanguard legions. Which takes place anytime during the main phase to the end phase.

stride
Stride (Released when both players' vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

Common FAQ for stride: 
What is "Stride"?
Answer: "Stride" is a powerful ability to call a G unit from Generation Zone, and becomes a vanguard. The previous vanguard(s) becomes "Hearts", and it is put under the G unit, and the number of the G Unit and Hearts' power are summed. Also, when attacking, Drive Check is performed 3 times.

Until when Stride continues?
Answer: Stride continues until the end of its owner's turn.

When performing Stride on a unit with a Break Ride ability, does the ability activates?
No. Stride and ride are different actions, thus the effect cannot be used.

What happened when performing a Stride on a vanguard that is in Legion?
Both vanguards that are in Legion became "Hearts". When a Stride is performed, choose either of the Hearts, and the power and the card name of the chosen Hearts will be taken. At the end of turn, when the G unit is returned, both of the Hearts became the vanguards in Legion status.

What happened when performing a Stride on a deleted vanguard?
The vanguard would turned face up and become a "Hearts", and the G unit and the Hearts would combine normally.

What happened if you ride on a G Unit?
The G Unit will return to the Generation Zone, and the Hearts will go into your soul.

Source:http://cardfight.wikia.com/wiki/Stride

Opinions on stride: Stride is especially useful when you have a hand jam with dead cards such as grade 3s. Which makes it a perfect stride fodder and to unclog your hand. Triple drive checks makes up for the discard cost which also gives an additional chance of pulling a trigger.

Generation Break 1
[ACT](RC) Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):
Example of cards with GB1:
Cosmic hero, Grandfire
Whirlwind Brave Shooter
etc.. etc...

Opinions: Generation break 1 is only active only when you had strided a grade 4. Thus, to enable gb1, both you and your opponent has to be at grade 3 which render units with gb1 a vanilla on the 1st 3 to 4 turns of the game. Sometimes, in certain games, its all about the speed which certain decks like aqua force needs it to end the game by 7 turns.

Generation Break 2
[ACT](RC) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):

Opinions: Similar to Generation break 1, generation break 2 requires 2 or more cards faced up in either G zone or VC. Similar to what i've mentioned above. You can use Snow Element Blizza to hasten the GB2.

Thats all we have for now folks. Stay tune for more articles and discussion.

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