Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Courage and Resolve

Hello, hello, and welcome to SO IMBA!
Where we learn how to be a better card fighter.


Today, we learn how to play Majesty Lord Blaster... without being manhandled every round.

So, I hear people like to play Majesty Lord Blaster.


Let me guess. Your deck, as well as everyone else around you who likes to play this style looks something like this:

2 Soul Saviour Dragon(OMGZ FINUL TURNZZZ!! I M SO EPICZ)
3 Majesty Lord Blaster (DURRR)

4 Blaster Blade
4 Blaster Dark
3 Starcall Trumpeter(lyk OMG)

4 Marron, the little Sage
4 Borgal(SO MANNY SOULZ!)
4 Pongal
2 Kei
3 Isolde

1 Wingal Brave(SV)
4 Margal
4 Govanon
4 Elaine
4 Epona/Llew/Alabaster Owl

This is your deck, more or less, right?

No, its not wrong.

Nothing in Vanguard is wrong. the game was designed extremely well, and hence there is no wrong in deck building and no wrong in play.

There is only epic fail.

Majesty Lord Blaster isn't a type of Royal Paladin deck. Its a special type of Mixed Clan deck, so you cannot use the same concepts that used to run a Royal Paladin deck any more.

There are a few glaring errors in deck building here:

Borgal.
Just wtf. The only deck to get 6 or more ROYAL PALADIN in soul is Galahad/Lohengrin...
Lets count:
Wingal Brave, G1, G2 into Soul. MLB activate effect, suck in 1 Blaster Blade, 1 Blaster Dark. Use Pongal to search out Soul Saviour Dragon.
Its still 5 Soul, By the way.
Blaster Dark is NOT a Royal Paladin, and hence does not count towards Borgal.

Majesty Lord Blaster + Soul Saviour Dragon
Majesty Lord Blaster, unlike most other Royal Paladin units, is not someone who gives strength to his allies, or brings them to the fray.
He does the exact opposite: sacrificing them to gain power for himself!

Therefore, if you try to play both these Vanguard specific G3 units together, you end up with a clash of interests, you either have no soul to play Soul Saviour's soul blast, but plenty of allies to pump up, or plenty of power with Majesty lord, but no friends to support.

Majesty Lord Blaster represents a huge loss of fighting force by activating his effect.
While the end result of this power pump is a permanent +2k and extra damage, something not to be looked down upon, it comes at a very steep cost: TWO fighting units... capable of intercept.

So, the deck needs to be constructed with ways to RECOVER this fighting force.
Starcall Trumpter is supposed to be this...

It doesnt really do its job.

When setting up MLB's twin blast, it eats up one rear guard circle, preventing a full force attack on one side.
Either its Star Call being supported, and the two blasters on one side unable to boost one another, or one is behind Star call, preventing star call from being supported...

And, in this build, it cant seem to search out boosts...

By packing 8 Draw, one hopes to set up the combos fast and recover quickly from the twin blast, but at what cost?
12k defense is no Phantom Blaster Overlord. It is very easy to construct 17k lines, as well as 22k. Putting 8 Draw without extra guard support is a death wish.


So, what would be best?

There are two main styles of playing Majesty Lord Blaster: The Royal Paladin Base, and the Shadow Paladin based.

The Royal Paladin base is the most straightforwards.

3 Majesty Lord Blaster
3 Baromedes

4 Blaster Blade
4 Blaster Dark
2 Bedivere

3 Isolde
4 Kei
3 Toypugal
4 Maron

3 Wingal Brave
4 Sharon
2 Flogal
2 Epona
4 Margal
4 Elaine
(6 Stand, 2 Critical, 4 Draw, 4 Heal)

Now, the first thing to notice is the combination of Baromedes and Stand.

Baromedes is currently the only unit that can still burn out a 10k shield from a 13k Vanguard after its been awakened by a stand trigger.
This, and the fact that its just plain overpowered is why its used.

The Trigger balance is rather self explanatory, putting more emphasis on baromedes to deal damage and Majesty Lord to burn their guards more than deal damage.

The most important thing to notice is the two Wingal Brave.
Wingal brave allows fast setting up of Majesty Lord Blaster's Twin Blast, by giving search power to the deck. if you ride Blaster Dark/Blade in the 2nd turn, you can easily search out Majesty Lord or the other side.

If you start the game with a Blaster Blade/Dark in your hand, and a Wingal Brave, one interesting thing you can do is re-ride.
If you play either Royal or Shadow Paladin, players wont put out two units to attack you in the early game. Losing one of them to an effect in the second turn is far too painful.
So, they will wait until you ride Blaster Dark, cannot use effect, before attacking full force.
If you attack and search out blaster blade, the opponent will think that you already have Majesty Lord, whom you will ride next turn.

Instead, take another damage, and ride blaster blade. Use his effect to burn some boost support, and throw down another wingal brave. Use this one to search out Majesty Lord, and ride.

Even though the twin blast never went off, Majesty Lord Blaster will actually activate his continuous effect, due to BOTH Blaster Dark and Blaster Blade in the soul.

A sneaky measure, but worth it if your hand demands you conserve your grade twos.

Obviously, you cannot do this in several situations(you go second, the opponent superior rides to Blazing Flare on his first attack, etc), but it is an option you must keep in mind, especially if you are on the losing side of damage(ie: must increase your critical output asap).

Kei is another card that is very nice.
When you have Majesty Lord blaster as your Vanguard, Kei can become a 10k attacker, a nice size for harassing rear guards.
Once a grade 2 or 3 comes around, you can send it to the back to be support.
This solves partially one of the biggest problems Majesty Lord Blaster decks have: Losing their grade 2s.
After losing two of them, move Kei up, and have him fight for a while.


The next way to properly play Majesty Lord Blaster is the Shadow Paladin Base.

This is the more "true" to the mixed clan concept, and is without a doubt the more devastating.

5
3 Phantom Blaster Dragon
2 Majesty Lord Blaster

11
4 Blaster Blade
4 Blaster Dark
3 Starcall Trumpeter

13
4 Blaster Javelin
4 Karon
3 Kei
2 Isolde

21
1 Fullbau
4 Wingal Brave
3 Death Feather Eagle
3 Alabaster Owl
2 Margal
4 Abyss Freezer
2 Abyss Healer
2 Elaine

Alternative: -2 Abyss Freezer, +2 more Critical(max Alabaster and Death Feather Eagle(

Once again, there are added Wingal Brave.
This time around, however, the search effect can search out almost ANYTHING from your deck.
On top of this, you can pull out your blaster units after one another very quickly, as Starcall trumpter can also call out Blaster Javelin, both to boost and to use the effect.

Blaster Javelin, with superior call from Star Call, Searching Blaster Dark, and thinning the deck of Phantom Blaster Dragon, is definately one of the star players in the deck.

The deck does suffer from a lack of boost power.

This is where play comes in.
The deck utilizes rear guard harassment to mitigate the low power attack, and only waiting for when the opponent cannot guard well to attack.

Both Phantom Blaster Dragon AND Majesty lord have explosive effect, that gain power as well as added critical.
Stall and reduce the opponents power through play, and explode in their face when the time is right.
Between critical triggers and the critical up effect, it only takes two attacks to bring the opponent to their knees.

Phantom Blaster Dragon can also devour the Blaster javelins that were called, some Draw triggers, and other weaker boosts to make way for more powerful rear guards.

Never forget you can call a Majesty Lord to be boosted by Wingal brave for the search effect that attacks at 15k power.

On top of that, your Vanguard unit will always be a Blaster, so just keep abusing Wingal Brave, and search out your power cards.

With this set up, your Vanguard will almost always be 11k or 12k power. Very good for defense.

Note that with your increased G0 count, and decreased G1,2,3 count, your deck WILL burn out faster than your opponent, so make sure to defend your rear guards as well.

This also means your G0/1 Rush will also be a viable and effective strategy, which is why higher raw power units were chosen.


Those who fight with courage! Those who fight with resolve!
You shall all fight by my side!
Light and Shadow! Follow after me!
Now is the time to turn despair to hope!

RIDE! MAJESTY LORD BLASTER!!!

3 comments:

  1. hmmm i would like to ask y did u want to put star call trumpeter when ur vanguard is mostly shadow paladin when starcall needed to be activate with a royal paladin card.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i think your build missing 1 card. the royal paladin mlb build

    ReplyDelete
  3. rauzes. any tips how this mlb royal paladin build deck if fighting with kagero dote deck?

    ReplyDelete