Grade 1 Rush

Hello and Hello everybody once again, and welcome back to SO IMBA!

Where we learn how to be a better card fighter.

So today's topic is Grade 1 Rush.


People usually see a grade 1 Rush and think...

What the heck is wrong with this guy?

In a deck consisting entirely of Grade 1 and Grade 0, how can you win?

The deck will have no twin drive, and no hope of beating any other deck, right?

Right?

Wrong.


The most important concept behind the grade 1 rush is the concept of Ride.

See, every turn, you ride to the higher grade, by putting a card of that grade on top of your Vanguard, changing your Vanguard.

But what if you dont ride?

What if you only ride to grade 1?


Usually, what happens as you ride to the next grade is this:

Draw +1, Ride -1, Drive Check +1,(Grade 1)(Total +1)
Draw +1, Ride -1, Drive Check +1,(Grade 2)(Total +2)
Then Draw +1, Ride -1, Drive Check +2(Grade 3)(Total +4)

As you can see, every turn, you are only getting one card from your drive check, as advantage wise you are losing cards to ride.

Yes, you do gain some power, but how big a difference is 2000 more power?

That's less than 10% of the average vanguard's attack at grade 3!

The end result of your efforts in riding is the grade 3's Twin Drive, the ability to gain more and more cards every turn, and make triggers come out faster.



But lets think in another way.

What if, lets say, we DON'T ride beyond grade 1.

What would your number of cards look like then?

Draw +1, Ride -1, Drive Check +1,(Turn 1)(Total +1)
Draw +1,Drive Check +1,(Turn 2)(Total +3)
Then Draw +1, Drive Check +1(Turn 3)(Total +5)

By not riding beyond Grade 1, you gain a 1 card advantage over the enemy every turn for the first two rides.

What about turn 4?

At turn 4, the grade 3 will gain 3 cards, whilst the grade 1 will gain 2 cards.
Grade 3 player will have a total advantage of +7, whilst the grade 1 will have a total advantage of +7 as well.

Thus, it is only turn 5 and beyond that being at grade 3 will make a difference, card advantage wise.

And, as most players of Vanguard will already know, Turn 5 usually means the opponent is at 4-5 Damage, and about to die to a nastily timed trigger.


This means that the advantage and power of a Grade 1 rush is in fact...

The fact that advantage wise, you are at equal footing, if not better footing, until each player has gotten their 5th turn!

So, why bother with all this potential ride mishaps or having to mulligan to get a good hand with good balance up from grade 1 to grade 3?

Why not get rid of all of that, and just play ALL grade 1s?

All you have to do is rush the enemy, and kill the off before they can get their grade 3's Twin Drive to mean significant advantage.

So, by running only grade 1s in your deck, and probally mixing 2 clans(Kagerou + Royal Paladin or Kagerou + Nova Grappler are the most common), you generate a strategy in which you have a grand total of 5 turns to end your opponent, but in doing so be significantly advantageous in terms of advantage.


Thats all for today.

See you again on SO IMBA!