Vampire Princess of Night Fog, Nightrose (V Series)

She’s finally been revealed amigos! Let’s cover her in today’s Card Spotlight!!

Skills:
[AUTO](VC):When your rear-guard attacks or boosts, that unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of that battle, and retire that unit at the end of that battle.
[AUTO](VC):When it attacks, COST [Counter Blast (1)], choose a column, call up to two cards from your drop zone to (RC) in that column, and if your opponent’s vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of that battle.

Pros

• Gives +5k to all RGs that attack or boost for every battle seen!
• The mandatory retirement synergizes with some cards with the timing. (I’ll cover more)
• We called it! Revival skill during the battle phase!
• We can call 2 RGs during the battle phase. (Restricted to a column)
• Even the newly revived units get the power up.
• If oppnent’s VG is G3 or greater, then the VG also gets +10k.

Cons

• No main phase revival.
• Mandatory retirement skill can be an issue at times.

Just wow, I’m happy with the skills provided. We called it! Our speculation about Nightrose held true! Revival during the battle phase! It’s definitely worthy of being a new G3 boss!

A New Way Of Thinking

Over the years, most VG main G3s revived units during the main phase. Now we have one that strictly focuses on reviving during the battle phase. So we have to consider a few things now that we didn’t have to beforehand as much.

• We have to build somewhat of a field formation if we want to get more than 3 attacks.
• We can use RGs that also revive from drop zone to help with building both a main phase setup and extending to the 5th attack during the battle phase.
• Our field will be completely empty if all of the RGs attacked or boosted each turn.
• We can easily spend 2-3 CB each turn and it’s even more tempting.
• We may have to call cards from hand to set up a main phase field, so reviving cards that draws us cards will be even more important to maintain hand advantage.
• We don’t have to worry about milling as much thanks to Colombard, so now in its place we have to worry about drawing enough cards.

Standard Impact

Currently, Cocytus has been our main Standard variant that has been use for the competitive scene. It has its weaknesses but now we have Nightrose that addresses them; however, it’s almost like they switched vice-versa ha!

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So with Cocytus, we had his main phase revival skill and it also scaled to call more RGs. Which is a fantastic skill! One problem that it had was that it milled A LOT and deck out was a possibility. Yes you can manage that to an extent, but the deck sometimes struggled to close out in time. Part of it, I believe, was the limitation of 3 attacks.

Now with Nightrose, we can extend to 4 to 5 attacks in Standard. So that helps but then we sacrificed the ability for our VG to revive a field setup for us during the main phase. However, we do have RGs that can help build field formations sufficient enough to do what we want them to do.

Dealing with some of the meta game is a for sure question! Right now some decks that are showing some more representation are:

• Overlord
• Susanoo
• Messiah
• Chronojet
• MLB/Altmile
• Ahsha
• Revonn (still around)
• Vanquisher (still around)

Without going into a deep discussion about the meta game, I just want to point out some key points that will help us compete in the meta game:

• All of the meta game is aggressive, so we’ll have plenty of CB on our turns to really take advantage of. Damage denial isn’t a fear as much.
• Because we can go all out, we can utilize cards to build field and generate hand advantage.
• Since our field retires anyways, we don’t have to worry about the opposing clans from retiring, binding, etc. (Overlord, Vanquisher, etc)
• Some cards will be more important than others in certain match ups in order to keep up with the pressure and/or hand advantage. We have access to cards that can go in either direction or a mix of both.
• We’re Protect, so Protect I will help with dealing with Force clans. We can still do our main multi attack strategy without the fear of not having a sentinel to nullify big attacks.

Premium Impact

I’m extremely looking forward to the impact in Premium! This year we were grateful to the addition of Bad Bounty and Chad the Ghostie.

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We’re able to consistently Stride and Bad Bounty allows us to do a reride in the battle phase. Which allows us to reride Nightrose V and do some more combo interactions.

Remember the Pseudo Megiddo play? We can further improve this play by breakriding with Nightrose V now. Since the breakride will revive 2 units and give them +5k, Nightrose’s skill can add an additional +5k. Then on attack, we can call more units to further our attacks with the cost of a 1-2 CB.

I like to mention some Nightrose support that looks useful or is improved by Nightrose V.

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Since we’ll have the Nightrose name, some utility G1s could be used. Bale is a great unit to extend more attacks and synergizes well with Nightrose V’s skill.

Negrobone boosting a RG will get a combined +10k power up from Nightrose’s skill. Then after the battle, you can use Negrobone’s skill to retire and call a new Hollow unit like Nightstorm to further extend. Then the Negrobone dies due to Nightrose’s skill.

Fatal Shade could be used for utility purposes on calling Greed Shade/Colombard. This play can be done on a Obadiah turn to set up your hand or field better for next turn.

Overall, Granblue has definitely gotten a boost from this set in both Premium and Standard formats. Remember Zazan is at one and so the meta game is currently forming up again due the recent restriction. Perhaps that’s another article for a later time to cover.

Key Cards For Nightrose To Potentially Utilize

We also got a new card revealed! A new G2 banshee card! Her and Ripple Banshee will be needed now!

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Both cards let you draw a new card without the need of CB! That’s very important! Furthermore, Thin-mist is a 19k attacker on her own, so with Nightrose’s power up, it’ll become 24k. A very solid number against VGs and forcing 15k in most cases.

Ripple Banshee let’s us SB some key pieces from Soul, draws us a new card, and becomes a 12k attacker/booster. She can even force out 5k/10k shield if it attacks the VG on its own. Otherwise, it’ll be a 17k booster for any column.

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Other cards that can draw us new cards are both Cannoneer and Ghost Ship. Cannoneer though keep in mind will cost a CB, so be moderate of your CB management.

Ghost Ship is great though because it serves as a big beat stick as well. It already retires itself immediately to draw a card! So it can resolve it’s skill to retire itself and draw one before Nightrose’s skill resolves its retire part of her skill.

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Both new retrains of Colombard and Negrobone are also very helpful for Nightrose’s main strategy! Colombard lets us build a somewhat of a field both in the main phase and battle phase. Furthermore, we can selectively mill pieces that we need such as the Banshees, Ghost Ship, Cannoneer, Negrobone, etc.

Negrobone’s retrained skill gave us more confidence that Nightrose’s skill would be battle phase specific. So his skill is primarily focused on building a main phase field setup. There’s no CB nor SB cost, but a discard is required. So be wary of that and use cards that draw to balance it out. Keep in mind, it revives ANY other unit to help your turn out.

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Captain Nightmist can also help as a similar purpose as Colombard. Due keep in mind, he’s restricted to call G1s or lower until you have 10+ drop zone card count. Although, Ripple Banshee is still a great target.

Greed Shade will help mill in Nightrose, not only that, but increase the consistency of our hand and drop zone quality. Definitely, still required and his skill doesn’t cost us a CB nor SB. Furthermore, it can grab us Nightroses and Parliament Shade to reride on our turns.

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G3s like Nightstorm can help further extend our attacks as well! We can easily get to 6 attacks and he’ll be 16k as well thanks to Nightrose’s skill. He can hit VGs on his own and still being able to resolve his skill before he is retired due to Nightrose’s skill.

Skull Dragon is a great beater to bring back with Nightrose’s skill. Especially since Nightrose will be retiring cards from your field which adds another +2k for Skull Dragon.

You can revive 2 Skull Dragons during the main phase with 2 Negrobones, then revive one back during the battle phase to have a total of 3 Skull Dragon attacks as a finishing turn in both Standard and Premium.

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Other G3s worth considering are both King Tentacle and Parliament Shade. King Tentacle works well with Colombard to get another unit onto the field when milled from deck. It’s a SB and it’ll become a 22k beater on its own, while getting an additional +5k from Nightrose’s skill for a total of 27k.

While we reach to have enough G3s in the Soul to resolve a Parliament Shade, this card can help us finish the game. Especially if we get to the point of running out of CB. By the time we can resolve it, we’ll definitely have the 15 card count in the drop zone. So then we can revive a full field during the battle phase and every unit gets +10k.

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Oddly enough, these guys may actually serve of use! These two can generate two columns for a CB1 and SB2, but then immediately refunds itself with CC1/SC1. Furthermore, Kicking Frangal will make both of them 13k attackers, then Nightrose boosts them to 18k!

I’m sure after play testing, it’ll reveal if these two are worth playing. In fact, you may be able to get away with it by running them at 1-2 copies each.

Counter Blast Management

It’s worth mentioning that there’s a need for CB management. I’ll cover some cards that can help.

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Yep both Grenache and King Serpent help in Premium! Grenache can keep refunding you 2 CB to keep using every turn. Which usually should be enough.

King Serpent can CC1 if called from drop zone, so even during the battle phase! This is key in case you think you may get damage denied aftewards. However, it may not be a problem if you clean your front RGs up thanks to Nightrose’s mandatory retire. You can also further extend attacks since you CC1.

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We have Bale as well in Premium to CC1 during the battle phase! Funny enough, this synergizes with Nightrose’s retire aspect. It also gets additional +2k to become a 9k on its own. Bale in the past has also served as a unit that lets you further extend attacks as well.

Dancing Cutlass V is available in Standard as well! This may be now a card we look to as CC management for Standard. It also promotes milling a card too which can add to drop zone quality. Also, it calls itself to field and can serve as an 11k booster too.

I also recommend giving a read to the Resource Management article I did a few months ago, that can help optimize your plays.

Some G Era Nightrose Philosophy

There are somethings that we can take from G Era Nightrose days to help use build a solid Nightrose deck. Especially for Standard since its card pool is limited compared to Premium.

Consistency Of Seeing Key Cards

If you look at G Era Nightrose decks that had success, you’ll notice they played 3-4 copies of everything. There wasn’t a lot of techs that were thrown into the mix, only a very few were.

The main reason was to make sure we got to see our key cards rather be by drawing, drive checking, SCing/SBing, and damage healing. Notice I didn’t mentioned milling. All of the cards, with the exception of King Serpent and Cannoneer could be used from being called from hand as well.

We did have Goauche to help SB out units to also use such as OG Rough Seas and anything we rode up with. But he’s only in Premium?! Correct. But keep in mind that literally G Era Nightrose had no skills to resolve until Generation Break was active. Now we have V Era cards that can actually resolve their skills in the early game such as Colombard, Ripple Banshee, Ghost Ship, Greed Shade, etc.

So I believe milling isn’t as important with this new build. Nightrose now also retires your RGs, so they even become reusable on her battle phase skill. Only testing now on will tell.

Focused More On Drawing And Some Soul Charging/Blasting

Thanks to cards like Colombard and others, we can actually use some cards to start generating more draws to dig deeper into our deck. Cards like Ghost Ship is a good example and will send itself into the drop zone to further usage. Ripple Banshee and other SB units, will also allow us to use cards that were SCed or rode up with. Typically, once you get some key pieces available to you, you’re in a pretty good spot.

Multi Attack, Advantage Gaining, And Pressure

These are three things that successful Nightrose players always kept in mind when doing their turns. Like I mentioned before, we are blessed to have units that can be used in all three areas. So the real question is, what should I keep focusing on?

It’s generally good to have a mixture of all three if possible. Think about it. While you’re doing 4-5 attacks a turn, you’re able to draw 1-3 cards, and applying real pressure with beaters. There are plays that will be more focused on drawing more cards and a few attacks or less beater pressure such as Ripple Banshee, Cannoneer, Thin-mist, etc. There are plays that are big beaters but almost no draw such as Skull Dragons and Ghost Ship. There are plays that are more focused on multi attack such as Colombard/Captain Nightmist/Nightstorm.

But what dictates your focus, will be your match-ups for the most part. Some decks require you to build up a lot of advantage to just survive until they run out of gas. Some decks need to be dealt with immediately so more pressure and multi attack will be your focus.

Some Battle Phase Revival Attack Patterns

I wanted to cover some basic plays that can help out players see what they can do when they revive a column with Nightrose’s battle phase skill.

King Tentacle + Colombard + Ripple Banshee + X unit

1. For the column, call Colombard and Ripple Banshee.
2. Resolve Colombard to fetch for King Tentacle and revive a booster for the other empty column.
3. Ripple Banshee can resolve to SB1 and draw a card.
4. King Tentacle activates, SB1 to call itself on the empty front row RC.

Now you have a full field of units:

• Colombard boosted by Ripple Banshee (9k +5k + 12k + 5k = 31k)
• King Tentacle boosted by X booster (22k + 5k + X booster power + 5k = 32k + X booster power)
• You also drew a new card with Ripple Banshee.

Ghost Ship + Ripple Banshee

1. For the column, call Ghost Ship and Ripple Banshee.
2. Ripple Banshee can resolve to SB1 and draw a card.

You have a power column that does NOT cost anymore CB:

• Ghost Ship boosted by Ripple Banshee (24k + 5k + 12k + 5k = 46k)

At the end of the battle Ghost Ship attacks, you draw another card. For a total of drawing two new cards.

Skull Dragon + Colombard + Tommy

1. For the column, call Colombard and Tommy.
2. Resolve Colombard to fetch for Skull Dragon and revive it to the other empty front row RC.

You have two power columns for a cost of 1 more CB:

• Skull Dragon (12k + 2k * (card in drop zone) + 5k = 17k + 2k * (card in drop zone))
• Colombard boosted by Tommy (9k + 5k + 13k + 5k = 32k)

There’s plenty of combinations! Do your best play for the available resources you have and the match-up.

Other Key Highlights

• It’s splashable in any variant to have the VG enable multi attack. (Even easier in Premium thanks to Bad Bounty)
• Thanks to V Era Colombard, it’s possible to play a ratio of both G Era and V Era Nightroses. (Access to GB2 skill which promotes the Pseudo Denial Griffin play)
• It counts to Twilight Nightrose’s power up skill too if there’s copies in the drop zone.

Final Thoughts

I’m excited to do some testing and even find out some more interactions! The level of nostalgia is real and now we get a taste of how a V Era retrain of our beloved G Era deck can do. Are you excited?!

I will be doing more content as testing proceeds and share some cool/useful findings that I’ll learn while playing and brainstorming with others. If you like to share some findings too, feel free to comment or reach out to me! Thanks again for reading amigos, til next time!

Also, check out Solemn Vanguard’s video on Nightrose’s reveal! He also hit some real solid points as well.