Beyond the Apex Limit

Sunday, October 23rd
Two Thousand and Eleven

Is the date today, and you are currently reading

SO IMBA!

Where we learn how to be a better card fighter.

I am Rauzes, your host, and today, we discuss the AL4 deck.


So you might be thinking: "AL4 is a team that runs 3 different clans, right? Everyone knows how to play those decks."

But what about using them all together at once?

Today, I'll be explaining a deck to you about the deck I recently be on a winning streak with: The AL4 deck.

Is it good?

Well, I've won a few tournament games without bothering to ride to grade 3, and at times even before needing to ride to grade 2.


The AL4 consists of 4 clans: Shadow Paladins, Spike Brothers, Dark Irregulars, and Pale Moon.

When constructing the deck, I focused on the specialties of each of these clans, and built the deck around these.

Spike brothers specializes in:
Superior Call during the battle phase, and Soul Blast for power up at the cost of returning to the deck.

Dark Irregulars specializes in:
Soul Charging at a fast rate, and utilizing this Soul for Power up.

and Palemoon Specializes in:
Superior Call from the Soul, and Power up from specific units within the soul.

Now a regular deck with only 1 clan can and would make full use of all these specialties, but if you think about it enough, you could actually mix all of these together.

If you use Dark Irregulars to soul charge, your Pale moons would be able to function to their fullest.

Then, if you use Spike Brothers to soul blast out anything that you DON'T happen to need for your pale moons, you can get rid of the dead weight soul charges that happened, for next to free attacking offensive power, leaving everything you might need behind.

If you think like this, the deck actually falls into place...

You start off the game by soul charging while putting on the offensive with high power Spike Brothers, and end the game when your combination of Pale moon and Spike Brothers superior call.


Spike Brothers Superior Call?

Spike Brothers have two cards that can Superior Call out Juggernaut Maximum(or Wonder Boy): General Zaifreed and Dudley Dan.

General Zaifreed is kind of weak as a Vanguard, but Dudley Dan is a rear guard circle unit...

When this Unit Boosts a Vanguard, You may pay the cost (Counter Blast 2, and send one Spike Brothers card from your hand to the soul). If you do, superior call one Spike Brothers from your deck to a Rear Guard Circle that has no unit in it.

And Juggernaut Maximum:
When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost of (Soul Blast 1). If you do, this unit gains 5000 Power(to 16000), but returns to the deck at the end of the battle.


Note that these two effects have one very important line missing from their effects...

The line "If you have a Spike Brother's Vanguard".

That's right. Dudley Dan can call out Juggernaut Maximum for him to attack with 16000 Power regardless of Vanguard.


So, as a finishing move, you could:

Attack with High Speed Blacky, boosted by Midnight Bunny, with Soul Blast.

Thats 21000 Power. Assuming it hits, High Speed Blacky will return to the deck, and Midnight Bunny will call out either a Barking Cerberus or Dark Metal Bicorn.

Then you attack with your Vanguard. Use Dudley Dan's Boost and effect to superior call out Juggernaut Maximum.

Juggernaut boosted by Dark Metal Bicorn with Soul Blast... 24000 Power.

Then, attack with the other rear guard you have.

Rather than forcing several weaker attacks, try to do so in the early game, to make it so the high power attacks of the late game will matter more.


By interchanging the cards on your field to adapt to the situation at hand at ease, you will find yourself at an advantage very quickly.

On top of that, by playing 3 clans, you have access to not just 4 types of Triggers, but a whooping total of 12 TYPES of triggers... of which you can pick any 4.

You can play 16 Criticals if you wanted to!


There is a criticism against mixed clan decks though...

Some say that it's very hard to play, because what clan your Vanguard is can severely limit what you can and cannot do...

Allow me to quote an adept player:

"Have you ever heard of this super awesome thing that allows you to change the card that is your Vanguard, whilst sending the previous one to the soul called 'Ride'?




The only thing stopping you from reaching the apex limit is your play.

Here at So Imba, we step up your game.