Tuesday, November 15, 2011

[Cardfight!! Vanguard] Aki's Oracle Think Tank deck

Name (Japanese) Name (English) Grade / Skill / Starting VG Power / Guard / Critical Numbers in Deck Race Trigger Abilty Serial Number
リトルウィッチ ルル Little Witch, Lulu 0 / Boost / ✔ 5000 / 10000 / 1 1 Human n/a 【Soul】: When a Grade 3 or greater 《Oracle Think Tank》 is placed on 【V】, you may call this card to 【R】
: [Soul Blast *2 《Oracle Think Tank》 card from your Soul] When this unit is placed on 【R】from Soul, if you have an 《Oracle Think Tank》 Vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.
BT07/039 R
ロゼンジ・メイガス Lozenge Magus 0 / Boost / ✘ 3000 / 10000 / 1 4 Elf Heal (You may only have up to 4 Heal triggers in a deck.)

: When another 《Oracle Think Tank》 rides onto this unit, you may call this card to 【R】.

【R】 : When this unit boosts, the boosted unit gains 3000 power till end of that battle, and at the beginning of the end phase of that turn, return this unit to your deck, and shuffle your deck.
TD04/015 (foil)
バトルシスター じんじゃー Battle Sister, Ginger 0 / Boost / ✘ 5000 / 10000 / 1 4 Elf Critical n/a BT05/069 C
オラクルガーディアン ニケ Oracle Guardian, Nike 0 / Boost / ✘ 5000 / 10000 / 1 4 Battleroid Critical n/a BT01/056 C
サイキック・バード Psychic Bird 0 / Boost / ✘ 4000 / 10000 / 1 4 Hi-Beast Critical 【R】 : [move this unit to soul] If you have an 《Oracle Think Tank》 Vanguard, draw 1 card. BT02/068 C
オラクルガーディアン ジェミニ Oracle Guardian Gemini 1 / Boost / ✘ 8000 / 5000 / 1 4 Battroid n/a n/a BT01/054 R
真実を見つめる者 Truth Watcher 1 / Boost / ✘ 6000 / 5000 / 1 4 Human n/a 【V/R】 : [Soul Blast *1] When this unit attacks and you have an 《Oracle Think Tank》 Vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, during that battle, this unit gains 3000 power. BT02/066 C
エメラルドウィッチ ララ Emerald Witch, Lala 1 / Boost / ✘ 7000 / 5000 / 1 4 Human n/a : [Choose a card from your hand and discard it] When this unit is placed on 【R】, if you have an  《Oracle Think Tank》 Vanguard, if you do not have any cards in Soul, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card. BT07/006 RRR
バトルシスター しょこら Battle Sister Chocolat 1 / Boost / ✘ 6000 / 5000 / 1 4 Elf n/a : [choose an 《Oracle Think Tank》 from your hand, and discard it] When this unit is placed on 【G】, you may pay the cost. If you do, your 《Oracle Think Tank》 will not be hit till end of that battle. BT01/019 RR
オラクルガーディアン ワイズマン Oracle Guardian Wiseman 2 / Intercept / ✘ 10000 / 5000 / 1 4 Battroid n/a n/a BT01/26 R
バトルシスター もか Battle Sister Mocha 2 / Intercept / ✘ 8000 / 5000 / 1 4 Elf n/a 【V/R】 : When this unit attacks, and you have 4 or more hand cards, this unit gains 3000 power. BT01/018 RR
サイレント・トム Silent Tom 2 / Intercept / ✘ 8000 / 5000 / 1 2 Ghost n/a 【V/R】 :  When this unit attacks, if you have an 《Oracle Think Tank Vanguard, your opponent cannot guard with a Grade 0. BT02/017 RR
花占いの女神サクヤ Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya 3 / Twindrive / ✘ 10000 / n/a / 1 3 Noble n/a 【V】 : During your turn, if you have 4 or more hand cards, this unit gains 4000 power.

: When this unit is being ride as 【V】, send all your 《Oracle Think Tank》 Rear Guards back to you hand.
TD04/002
スカーレットウィッチ ココ Scarlet Witch Koko 3 / Twindrive / ✘ 10000 / n/a / 1 4 Human n/a 【V】 : During your turn, if you have no cards in your soul, this unit gains 3000 power.

: [Counter Blast *2] When this unit is being ride as 【V】, and you have 1 or less cards in your soul, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw 2 cards.
BT02/007 RRR


Interchangeable cards:

Name (Japanese) Name (English) Grade / Skill / Starting VG Power / Guard / Critical Race Trigger Ability Serial Number
サークル・メイガス Circle Magus 1/ Boost / ✘ 7000 / 5000 / 1 Human n/a 【V/R】 : When this unit is being ride as 【V】or called as 【R】 and you have an 《Oracle Think Tank》 Vanguard, check the top card of your deck and put it back to the top of the deck. PR/0009
バトルシスター おむれっと Battle Sister Omelet 1/ Boost / ✘ 7000 / 5000 / 1 Human n/a 【R】 : When this unit attacks, if you have an 《Oracle Think Tank》 Vanguard, if you do not have any cards in your soul, this unit gains 3000 power during the battle. PR/0069
バトルシスター ぐらっせ Battle Sister, Glaze 2 / Intercept / ✘ 8000 / n/a / 1 Human n/a 【V/R】 : When this unit attacks, if you have an 《Oracle Think Tank》 Vanguard, if you do not have any cards in your soul, this unit gains 3000 power during the battle. BT07/038 R
プロミス・ドーター Promise Daughter 2 / Intercept / ✘ 9000 / n/a / 1 Human n/a 【V/R】 : [choose and discard an 《Oracle Think Tank》 from your hand] When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gains 5000 power. EB01/011 R





Analysis:


Imouto deck, my first deck and main deck is now back with boosts from BT07, making it much stronger than ever. With the release of BT07, Imouto deck itself now centers on Scarlet Witch Koko as the eventual Vanguard. It's a deck that requires one to think well, build up strategies and lots of skill play to get the hang of this deck. Of course, let's not forget this is a perfect deck for draw whores.

Staring off, we have Little Witch, Lulu. Basically, Lulu complements Koko's ability perfectly. How so? Let's take a look at Lulu's abilities. Lulu's first ability allows you to superior call her from the Soul when you ride an OTT card on the Vanguard circle, and her second ability activates when you superior call her from the Soul, which allows you to Soul Blast *2 and draw a card. In other words, by riding Koko, you'll be activating both Koko and Lulu's abilities at the same time. According to the official ruling (read the playbook, if you can't read those on the official site), you'll need to resolve an activating ability first, if there are two abilities activated at the same time. This means, you may opt to resolve Lulu's first ability first, when you ride Koko. But, as you superior call Lulu to a Rearguard circle, her second ability activates and again, you may opt to resolve either Lulu or Koko's ability. The obvious choice is to resolve Lulu's ability, Soul Blast *2, and draw a card. After that, you'll be resolving Koko's ability, which allows you to draw two cards by Counter Blast *2 if you ride Koko on the Vanguard Circle, provided you have one or no Soul.

See the combo there? You'll be drawing up to four cards indirectly. One from Draw Phase, one from Lulu's ability, and two from Koko's ability. What's more, you could ride Koko again next turn, and gain two more cards. Sounds profit, doesn't it? So, in two turns, you may have already draw up to 7 cards, and we're not even counting the cards from Twin Drive!! yet.

Moving on to the triggers, my deck has a foundation of 4 heal triggers, 8 critical triggers and 4 draw triggers. FUCK THIS SHIT. I'm so awesome that I'm playing 12 Criticals now.

The Critical triggers, Battle Sister, Ginger and Oracle Guardian, Nike basically do nothing much except for being used for guarding. The other Critical trigger, Psychic Bird on the other hand does have a ability, in which you may draw a card when you Soul Charge it into the Soul. This helps when you need a certain card from the deck.

The Heal trigger, Lozenge Magus is one of the best Heal triggers out there. Skipping her first ability since we will not be using her as a starter, her second ability activates when she boosts another unit, the boosted unit will gain 3k in power, and after boosting, she'll go right back into the deck at the beginning of End Phase. So, exploiting her ability, we'll be having Lozenge Magus boosting units and sending her back to the deck and we'll be getting an infinite Heal trigger. Profit? You bet.

Grade 1's are very important as they are mostly used to boost Vanguard and front line Rearguard. For my deck, the Grade 1's has an important role in skill playing, which allows later usage on Vanguard riding and over-riding.

Although Oracle Guardian Gemini is a non-ability card, its high power mustn't be underestimated. Gemini is the only card in my deck which allows Koko's power to be boosted up to 21k, when Koko's first ability is being activated. This give an advantage while fighting against cards with 11k power, which forces enemy to guard either with at least 15k guard or null guard to nullify my attack.

Truth Watcher is another card which paves way for Koko's both first and second ability. By Soul Blasting *1, he gains 3k in power, making him a 9k attacker. Truth Watcher's ability is pretty good in most situation since his ability may be used regardless of attack hits as long as he attacks and this helps when you need to clear off the Soul to activate Koko's abilities.

With the release of BT07, I took the opportunity to include Emerald Witch, Lala into my deck. Lala's ability allows you to discard a card to draw another card when you call her to a Rearguard circle if you have an OTT Vanguard and you do not have any Soul. She'll be useful during times when you need better cards onto your hand, and during middle or late game when you need to discard excessive Grade 3's from your hand in favor for guardable cards.

It is undebatable that null guard is important to every Vanguard deck, since it may helps nullify dangerous attacks during perilous situation, such as units with multiple criticals and high in power. Battle Sister Chocolat basically does that for me. For my deck, I include 4 Chocolat. You might be asking, "LOL AKI, BUT YOU SAY ONLY 3 NULLS ARE ENOUGH! YOU LIED TO US DESU?". Of course, not. Having 3 nulls is just more than enough for most deck. However, for a deck with powerful draw power like this, it's safe to use 4 nulls. Besides, you'll be getting tons of cards on your hand, why not use some on nulls when you need it?

Grade 2's are deployed mainly as attacker. Needless to say, they allow you to attack more times in my turn and further forcing my opponent depleting their hand cards in guarding attacks.

Providing stable power output as an Rearguard, Oracle Guardian Wiseman is a must in this OTT deck. It is also due to usually low power output on Rearguard in the deck, Wiseman proves to be an excellent card to be used.

Battle Sister Mocha on the other hand has unstable, yet higher power if her ability is in effect. With her ability, a 11k power output is guaranteed, allowing her to fight against 11k Vanguards. The only downside is she is only 8k in power when she's not attacking, making her a easy target to be bullied.

Next, Silent Tom, one of the cards the people fear most in OTT decks. When Tommy boy's ability activates when he is attacking, in which your opponent cannot guard with any Grade 0 card. This pretty much means that your opponent will need to guard Silent Tom's attack with cards of Grade 1 and above. This makes him an annoying unit, in which most will try to get rid of him as soon as possible when he is on the field. With such awesome ability, there will a downside to him too. Well, he is only 8k in power, which makes him vulnerable when being attacked and he will not really cut it when attacking a high power unit. Meh, you get something nice, and you'll get something bad at the same time too.

Grade 3's in this deck are the opposite of Grade 2's as they're being deployed mainly as Vanguard. They are being used heavily in skill playing and dealing a stable 10k power output as Vanguard or Rearguard. Besides, as Vanguard, they allow Twin Drive!!, which allows double check when attack as Vanguard. This may increase the amount of hand cards and a higher chance of trigger activating.

Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya, deployed as the secondary choice of Vanguard in the deck. Her second ability is very important in rearranging field and strategy which is coherent with the skill play concept of my deck. The first ability allows Sakuya to gain an increased 4k power as the Vanguard if you have 4 or more hand cards during your turn. The best part? The ability may activate when you Twin Drive!!. This allows you to trick your opponent into over or under guarding.

Enter Scarlet Witch Koko, the ace of Imouto deck. Her first ability allows the most stable power output for Grade 3s if she has no Soul. This allows you to spam 20k to 21k in Vanguard line easy. Koko's the second ability is the whole focal point of Imouto deck, allowing you to increase your hand card by drawing two cards if you Counter Blast *2 when you ride her onto the Vanguard Circle with 1 or less Soul. Combined with Lulu (check Lulu section), you're practically a draw whore with a huge hand size. *claps claps*

Besides the cards recommended above, here are 4 cards that are interchangeable. with the cards in the deck.

Some might argue that Circle Magus' ability is not as useful as Battle Sister Cocoa. In my opinion, her seemingly useless ability is actually very useful in arranging and thinking one's strategy. This may stop me from drawing a trigger, allow me to use an ability of a certain card to draw a card I may need to use from the deck, playing mind games while taunting my opponent, and most importantly, giving me a head start in arranging my strategies. Besides, Circle Magus has 7k power, that is 1k higher than Battle Sister Cocoa. This is crucial in many situation as the mere 1k power may prove to be a winning point for me.

Don't really like Circle Magus? We have scrambled egg, no, I mean Battle Sister Omelet. No, seriously, her name is Omelet. Somewhat like Kay from Royal Paladin, she gains 3k power on Rearguard circle when attacking if there's no Soul. This makes her a 10k attacker, which provides you an extra option in attacking. Oh, and let's not forget Miss Egg here is a 7k booster. Isn't it nice?

Well, we have her Grade 2 sister too, Battle Sister, Glaze. She too gains 3k power on either Vanguard or Rearguard circle when attacking if there's no Soul. However, she has only 8k power in default. So, it's your choice either to have Mocha or Glaze in your deck, though I personally prefer Mocha over her.

Promise Daughter, is a pretty decent card, and she can dish out 14k power if her ability is in effect. Her ability has to be timed well, most often reserved for the turn before final turn and final turn itself. Promise Daughter's high power can be used to waste an opponents hand cards, though one must always remember that he/she is wasting a hand card to activate her ability. Another reason I chose to use this card is due to her 9k power output. Although her power may be only 1k higher than Mocha and Glaze, you can easily boost her with 7k booster, instead of wasting Gemini to deal 16k power to my opponent.

To sum it up, I'd say my Imouto deck is heavily depending on skill play and certain amount luck. Strategy arranging and timing considering is a must, as contains the essence to gain the upper hand in a match. With high draw power (lol, you draw whore stop flipping) and a consistence performance, it's a really strong deck, most probably a Tier 1 deck (will evaluate soon).