Today we just heard our problem child, Zazan, is now limited to 1 copy! It’s not 0 so there may still be some form of abuse. Let’s dive into it.
The Zazan Engine
Remember that others cards do play a role in making Zazan such a powerhouse card.
COST [Counter Blast (1) & Turn a card from your G zone face up]
Look at seven cards from the top of your deck, reveal up to two unit cards without [CONT], [ACT], and [AUTO] abilities from among them, put them into your hand, and shuffle your deck.
Storm Element, Cycloned:
[CONT](VC/G zone):During your turn, if this card is face up, all of your units without any [CONT], [ACT], or [AUTO] abilities get [Power]+5000.
[AUTO](VC):When a normal unit without any [CONT], [ACT], or [AUTO] abilities is revealed for the drive check in the battle this unit attacked, [Stand] one of your rear-guards.
Zazan as an engine needs to run certain types of cards in the main deck to really get the best use. We need units without skills, vanilla units, to actually even use Zazan’s skill. So cards like Mekira and Nilde were played at 4 copies to maximize seeing them. As well as vanilla triggers too.
Tempest Sphere is also an order card that we can utilize as well to help with fetching those cards to help resolve Zazan. As well being able to flip Cycloned for more +5k power to our vanilla units.
So why are you bringing this up? Glad you asked! There’s more commitment needed in the main deck to really make Zazan work in general. Currently, if you don’t see Zazan early enough, then you’re deck isn’t really that great in performance. It could cost you the game if it’s too late.
I believe the smart and bold decision that Bushiroad made with Zazan being limited to 1, was one where it still was an option to use but with the downsides becoming more relevant in deck building. As well for them to still sell product on English release.
Granblue Viability?
I’ll be upfront now, yes it’s theoretically viable BUT there needs to be plenty of practice games to see how consistent it is and if it’s even worth it.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s focus on our current and soon to be released support that we can utilize to make this Zazan engine still viable.
[ACT](RC):COST [[Rest] two rear-guards], and put five cards from the top of your deck into your drop zone.
Pirate Swordsman, Colombard:
[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, COST [Counter Blast (1)], search your deck for up to one card, put it into your drop zone, shuffle your deck, and call up to one card from your drop zone to (RC). This ability may only be used by a card with the same card name once a turn.
The most obvious new support that can fetch Zazan at will, is our new Colombard V. Literally, we can grab Zazan from deck and we can either put into to drop zone or call it immediately.
Sounds amazing and kind of broken? Yes and no. Do keep in mind that Colombard requires 1CB to use its skill. It can be susceptible to damage denial early on. That was one of the problems with Zazan. It couldn’t be denied by the opponent since its requirements are just SB1 and having the vanilla units in hand. Now I’m not saying that this puts a hard stop on this play. It’s just that some decks may not give you damage until they reach G2 or G3 turns, so they have enough time to gain access to their power plays.
You can also just stay at G0/G1 an extra turn to have your opponent more likely give you some damage. It may give you the edge to resolve a Colombard once you ride to G2.
We also do have Skeleton Sea Navigator and Greed Shade! Their cost don’t need CB nor SB. Greed Shade helps with milling and grabbing key pieces. So we can grab Zazan or vanilla units to resolve Zazan. Skeleton Sea Navigator could take the place of the other 3 would be Zazan slots. Skeleton Sea Navigator can excessively mill our vanillas and Zazan into the drop zone. Then we just scooped them out with Greed Shade.
Also, once we ride to G3, we can use cards like Cocytus and Obadiah to call Zazan from drop zone. Furthermore, Obadiah can fetch for Zazan from deck too.
We’re still waiting on V Era Nightrose’s skills to be revealed, so she may also be another G3 option that can fetch/call Zazan.
Final Thoughts
I’m not totally sure how practically effective it is yet, since it was just announced that Zazan got limited to 1. So some practice games need to be done in order to make a solid conclusion on its viability. Although, Colombard does act like an extra copy of Zazan, so you have 5 cards that lead you to resolving Zazan. So there’s a good chance I believe that it can be viable. However, Colombard is a G2 so for him to resolve into a Zazan you’ll have to wait til your G2 turn. Where before Zazan, since it’s a G1, can be used early on the G1 turn more consistently.
Keep in mind that Bushiroad can still ban Zazan to 0 sometime after English release. Once they sold some Zazans, then they can ban it completely. Things like this already happen in other card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!. So I’m going to spend time on variants that don’t use Zazan at all. Both Nightrose and Seven Seas are some decks to definitely dive into and have some fun. Plus in Premium, we have some resilience and good support in Granblue to still be a solid choice for the meta game. Thanks for reading! Til next time amigos!
Rogue of the Seven Seas 