Card Review: Dark Pride Dragon, Dark Quartz Dragon, Aurageyser Damned

Today I will reveal 3 new cards that work together to aid claret sword. They are Dark Pride Dragon, Dark Quartz Dragon, and finally Aurageyser Damned. And does it look good for G-SP next set. I will actually go back to working on this deck again.

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Dark Quartz Dragon

[AUTO] 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):When this unit is placed on (RC), if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Claret Sword Dragon" in its card name, choose one of your vanguards, and that unit and this unit get [Power]+3000 until end of turn.

So firstly, these two have emphasis on having claret sword dragon as the VG, meaning no shenanigans for revengers, strictly only claret support. And what interesting support it is. We will first look into Dark Quartz as he is the biggest interaction towards claret.

G-SP is all about those freaking huge one time columns. And Dark Quartz provides a 10k booster the turn it is called and a small 3k bonus to claret. Although this seems very small, it is far from it. 3k makes any 7k boost become another 10k guard, which guys is a real pain to deal with outside of a PG. It also lets you hit a crossride for free 5k more shields. But the beauty of it is when you call this using claret stride skill behind it. Claret +2k and this skill combined is a whooping 15k power boost to the stride, easily pushing to PG or no guard range of 41k (35k shields for 1 pass, 40k for 2 and 45k for 3).

Whats make this really a star is the interaction with claret's stride skill. The 2k bonus makes it an 12k booster, easily pushing a 9k unit it boost to 21k. It can also serve as a 12k attacker the turn too if you desperately need attackers. So base math you need to know as a claret deck:

Claret stride skill + Dark Quartz = 12k booster/attacker
Claret stride skill + Dark Quartz boosting stride = 41k stride attacking
Claret stride skill + Dark Quartz + 9k (Fiercebau, macha, dark pride) = 21k
Dark Quartz + any 11k+ (G3, Barbelith, Fiercebau, night sky eagle) = 21k
Dark Quartz + any 6k (say Swordbreaker, Giva, stride skill +2k any 4k) = 16k

Best part? This is effectively costless other than calling it through effects or hand, so all your counterblast can be used towards claret or the stride effects. Granted that its only for 1 turn, but this has never deterred night sky eagle, and I think this is no difference for Dark Quartz. But it only gets better with Dark Pride Dragon.

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Dark Pride Dragon

[AUTO] 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):When this unit is put into the drop zone from (RC) for the cost of your unit's ability, if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Claret Sword Dragon" in its card name, search your deck for up to one card named "Dark Quartz Dragon", call it to (RC), and shuffle your deck. If you called that card, Counter Charge (1).

Previously when i ran this deck I was running Macha and Fiercebau to fill up the grade 2 slots to go with 10k vanilla and Barbelith. Now I can just run this and not have to worry too much for having to retire a grade 2. The problem of retiring a grade 2 for any skill (usually Diablo, or future Aurageyser Damned) is that you lose a 5k intercept. But this creates a very interesting incentive: A deck thin of a power unit as well as a countercharge that SP sorely lacks.

Step away Grim, I am the new pressure!

This creates an interesting use out of Efnysian. Sometimes you don't really have a G1 you want to kill when you stride this, and don't want to kill your G2, or you have no counterblast to use claret's stride skill. But now the trade off isn't so bad as you get to unflip immediately after striding, and still be in time to use claret's stride skill. So this can be pulled off even if there is no counterblast available. And if you call Dark Quartz, Efnysian automatically goes up to 36k (26+3+7=36), if Dark Quartz boost it we are looking at 46k!

So since it does quite a deal for a Claret deck, you expect this to die, a lot. Which brings me to its real hidden value: its an attack magnet. Your opponent WILL want this off the board if possible, which will draw out attacks like its a VG, which can and will save you valuable hand. Just careful against those overlords and Big Bang who are gonna attack it anyway.

More thinning and fodder, how he likes it

And then we have interactions with Diablo. you can set up a field where:

Dark pride / Diablo / Any 11k
David (+2k)/Any 7k/nothing

Stride Diablo, stride skill call david and give it 2k power (7k)
Activate Diablo's skill.
Swing with 16k Dark Pride/David column
Swing with Diablo, retiring Dark Pride and David
Call a  Dark Quartz behind last column, Diablo goes from 43k to 46k (another 5k shields!)
Swing with 21k+ last column (12+10=22)

So its entirely possible to diablo for minimal cost and still get out a strong swing turn (1 PG, 25+ shields and 2 RG to guard, about 8-9 cards to guard), with 2 cards thinned from deck before drive checks.

Edit* This is brought up by some, but if you retire this to Aurageyser Dragon's skill when it is attacking, you have to reveal the top 2 first, before calling Dark Quartz from the deck. This works either way since you get to unflip, thin 1 more card out of the deck, all before the drive checks.

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Wrecking train, Mode-B

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.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card named "Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon" from your G zone, and turn it face up & Choose three of your rear-guards, and retire them] Reveal two cards from the top of your deck. Choose one of your opponent's rear-guards for each grade 1 or less card revealed with this effect, and retire them. Put the cards revealed with this effect into your hand. If the number of face up cards named "Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon" in your G zone is three or more, this unit gets [Critical]+1 until end of turn.

This was previewed awhile ago, but I feel we need to talk about him here. This is basically "Mode B" of Aurageyser dragon's Value train. You retire 3 units (which is likely a David and a unit you can or have already profit off) to draw 2 cards. And as an added bonus, if any of the cards you drew are grade 1 and below, you get a FREE retire each, which can beautifully set up for Diablo next turn by crippling opponent's rearguard formation.

Wrecking train, Mode-A

Interesting note about the cost is not a persona flip, but rather reducing the amount of "Aurageyser Dragon" left as a stride option. Also this means striding this after using Aurageyser skill once automatically entitles you to a free critical. The skill being an ACT skill is frowned upon by many people as many SP players prefer it during combat to maximize the value of units, but I see this as more of a way to cash in 1-time use units like Dark Quartz and Night sky Eagles for more cards, making room to call more of them, and possibly using these 2 new cards to fill the field.

So how many would you run? If you are not such a fan of Diablo (like me), you can easily run 4 Aurageyser and 2 Damned and 2 Diablo. Alternatively a workable lineup is running 3 Aurageyser and 1 Damned and 4 Diablo, although I rather stride Aurageysers to further cement the gap between my opponent and me, and Diablo as the coup the grace. He tends to be heavier on commitment than Aurageyser, so I would not advise more than 2 of him.

How does this fair against other big strides like Saint Blow? I'd say its quite nasty considering we can now boost stride by 15k thanks to Dark Quarts and Claret's stride skill, effectively mimicking Saint Blow. And although you give up 2-3 units and a CB, you are drawing 2 more cards, and thinning at least 1 card (thin 2 if you retire David + Dark Pride) and still possibly getting 1-2 retires off it. Pretty good odds of what SP does very well; overwhelm your opponents and plus back to mitigate any minus you take. Sure you don't have guard restrictions like Gillas or Ragnaclock, but Olivia and Saint Blow have already proven it does not really matter as you are swinging hard; the pressure itself is key.

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So what do you guys think? Leave your comments and tell me what do you plan for these new units when they are released!