Nightrose: A Lot Of Skull Dragon Attacks

Hi amigos, today I like to quickly cover on how to take fully advantage of multi attacking with Skull Dragons in Nightrose!

The 4 Skull Dragon Attack Turn

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Many Nightrose players have already figured out that both in Standard and Premium, that the 4 Skull Dragon attack turn, is one of the win cons for the deck. The trick is utilizing both Negrobone and Colombard/Captain Nightmist.

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Remember that Skull Dragon has the restriction of NOT being able to be normal called from hand. So we have to superior call it somehow, so that’s where these units come into play.

During Main Phase:

Using 2 Negrobones from the drop zone, use their skills to revive 2 Skull Dragons onto front RCs.

During Battle Phase:

Now you’re ready to start attacking! Here’s the sequence:

1. Skull Dragon #1 (self retires)
2. Skull Dragon #2 (self retires)
3. Nightrose V (12k or 22k)
   1. CB1 -> Choose a column and call Skull Dragon #1 back onto front RC and a Colombard/Captain Nightmist behind it.
   2. CB1 -> Using Colombard’s/Captain Nightmist’s skill to revive Skull Dragon #2 onto the other front RC.
4. Skull Dragon #1 (self retires)
5. Skull Dragon #2 (self retires)

There you go! 4 Skull Dragon attacks! Keep in mind that thanks to Nightrose V’s power up skill, all of the Skull Dragon attacks also get the additional +5k.

Extending The Play In Premium

There are 2 plays where I like to highlight were we can have 3 or more Skull Dragon attacks during our Stride turns.

Bad Bounty 4 Skull Dragon Attack Turn

This one is very similar to the original 4 Skull Dragon attack turn. What’s better than 4 Skull Dragon attacks you may ask? Well a 2nd VG attack to go along with it, that’s how! For another CB, we get a 2nd VG attack to go along with it!

Ride Phase:

Stride into Bad Bounty.

Main Phase:

Using 2 Negrobones from the drop zone, use their skills to revive 2 Skull Dragons onto front RCs.

Battle Phase:

1. Bad Bounty VG (27k)
   1. CB1 -> Reride into Nightrose V as Stand.
2. Skull Dragon #1 (self retires)
3. Skull Dragon #2 (self retires)
4. Nightrose V (12k or 22k)
   1. CB1 -> Choose a column and call Skull Dragon #1 back onto front RC and a Colombard/Captain Nightmist behind it.
   2. CB1 -> Using Colombard’s/Captain Nightmist’s skill to revive Skull Dragon #2 onto the other front RC.
5. Skull Dragon #1 (self retires)
6. Skull Dragon #2 (self retires)

Result:

4 Skull Dragon attacks with 2 VG attacks! Not only we get an additional VG attack, it’s a Stride attack! Which means we get triple drive and it being a 27k base. So in total, we’ll see 5 drive checks during this turn increasing our chances of seeing triggers.

The sequence is key on optimizing the attack power of your Skull Dragons. It’s important to attack with Bad Bounty as the 1st attack for 2 main reasons:

1. You can distribute triggers onto the Skull Dragons early on.
2. Once Nightrose V becomes your VG, all of your RGs will gain the additional +5k.

Obadiah 3 Skull Dragon Attacks

Thanks to having the Nightrose name, we have access to G Era support for Nightrose! A key unit that can help further extend more Skull Dragon attacks is using Negrobone G!

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How so? I thought we can only revive Hollow units with Negrobone G? Glad that you asked! That’s where we need to use a Nightstorm in the mix as well.

The attack chain that we’ll use is the following:
Negrobone -> Nightstorm -> Skull Dragon

So in order to get an extra Skull Dragon attack, it’ll cost us 2 CB more. But we’ll also get an additional attack with Nightstorm too.

Main Phase:

The key units that you need is 1 Negrobone G behind a Skull Dragon. 2 Skull Dragons revived by Negrobone Vs.

Here’s a picture to help illustrate. The Fatal Shade and Grenache are NOT necessary for the play. However, I do recommend another booster for Nightstorm to hit without the need of triggers.

Battle Phase:

1. Skull Dragon Left (self retires)
2. Skull Dragon Right boosted by Negrobone G
   1. CB1 -> At end of battle, retire Skull Dragon and call Nightstorm onto a front RC.
3. Nightstorm boosted by Fatal Shade (18k)
   1. CB1 -> At end of battle, call Skull Dragon onto the other front RC.
4. Obadiah VG (27k+)
5. Skull Dragon

Result:

Before we only were able to do 2 Skull Dragon attacks with older Granblue decks like Cocytus and Basskirk. Now thanks to the name and also Negrobone V, we can use 3CB to do an effective Obadiah turn such as this one.

What’s neat is that Negrobone G will stay on the field and we can use it again for next turn if we need to. I go more in depth on how to even take advantage of Fatal Shade and more on Negrobone G in my recent Premium deck profile.

Bad Bounty 5 Skull Dragon Attack Turn

Can we use Negrobone G on the Bad Bounty turn to get more Skull Dragon attacks too? Glad you asked! Absolutely! Let’s cover how to set it up!

Ride Phase:

Stride into Bad Bounty.

Main Phase:

Using 2 Negrobone Vs from the drop zone, use their skills to revive 2 Skull Dragons onto front RCs. Negrobone G is needed too and I recommend another booster as well.

Battle Phase:

1. Bad Bounty VG (27k)
   1. CB1 -> Reride into Nightrose V as Stand.
2. Skull Dragon Left (self retires)
3. Skull Dragon Right boosted by Negrobone G
   1. CB1 -> At end of battle, retire Skull Dragon and revive Nightstorm on RC in front of the other booster.
4. Nightstorm boosted by Ripple (29k/33k)
   1. CB1 -> At end of battle, revive a Skull Dragon.
5. Skull Dragon (self retires)
6. Nightrose V (22k)
   1. CB1 -> Choose a column and call Skull Dragon Left back onto front RC and a Colombard/Captain Nightmist behind it.
   2. CB1 -> Using Colombard’s/Captain Nightmist’s skill to revive Skull Dragon Right onto the other front RC.
7. Skull Dragon Left (self retires)
8. Skull Dragon Right (self retires)

Result:

So let’s the do the math on number of attacks. 5 Skull Dragon attacks + 1 Nightstorm attack + 2 VG attacks = 8 attacks!

Remember we get to see 5 drive checks during this turn increasing our chances of seeing triggers as well. Honestly, this is probably the most balanced attack pattern that we have in terms of both power attacks and quantity of attacks.

Due keep in mind that we’ll need 5 CB to work with. It’s doable and it’s a lot easier to have when we have the proper CC usage of Grenache and Cutlass. We can even CC4 with combining Grenache and Fatal Shade.

Key Highlights

• 2 Skull Dragons are only really need. We reuse the same copies during the battle phase thanks to self retiring.
• 1 Negrobone G and 1 Nightstorm are really needed.
• If you can’t Stride, you can still use Negrobone G to help extend more Skull Dragon attacks as well.

How Fast And When To Use Skull Dragons

There is still a determining factor on when we can actually get the full benefit on Skull Dragon attacks. Remember that each Skull Dragon gets 2k for every card in the drop zone. Two magic numbers to really keep thinking of are when we can hit for 33k and 43k.

Why those two magic numbers? Glad you asked! Primarily those thresholds account for 1 card guards such as Heal triggers and Sentinel Critical triggers. We want to make sure we’re able to rip more than 1 card per Skull Dragon attack.

Not only that, but we want to make sure our opponent is at 4 or 5 damage before we start pushing really aggressively. Depending on the matchup, it may be best to only do the full play when you know you can finish it. Otherwise, you won’t have enough hand to guard next turn if you fail to win.

So how many cards do we need to hit those thresholds? Let’s break it down formula wise and also remember we get an additional +5k from Nightrose’s skill.

Assuming with Nightrose’s +5k

Magic number threshold = 12k (Skull Dragon’s base) + 5k (Nightrose) + 2k * (Number of cards in drop zone)

33k = 17k + 2k * x -> 16k = 2k * x -> x = 8 cards

43k = 17k + 2k * x -> 26k = 2k * x -> x = 13 cards

If you don’t have Nightrose’s +5k, then the number of cards needed in drop zone are just 3 more additional. Both 11 and 16 cards.

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Keep in mind our other beater is Ghost Ship! With Nightrose’s power up, it’s able to hit 29k on its own! A very good number on its own and you will draw a new card with its effect. It’s important to keep generating hand advantage while you’re applying pressure. Especially if your opponent is still at low damage.

You can also use Ghost Ship (you need to play 2 copies) in place of all of these plays mentioned with Skull Dragon! So you can technically draw a lot of new cards too. Or you can even have a mix of both Ghost Ship and Skull Dragon. It can come up if you’re able to push your opponent’s damage to 5 during the battle phase. Nightrose is able to adapt during the battle phase.

Navigator is super helpful on reaching a higher drop zone count much quicker than normal. It’s possible to have 10-15 cards already by G3 ride turn or 1st Stride turn. Not only that, it’s much easier to hit higher thresholds such as 50k, 60k, 70k+, etc.

Final Thoughts

It’s really good to have these plays outside of our Megiddo Skull Dragon turn that we’ve relied for a good while. There’s more flexibility in being able to draw new cards with Ghost Ship or go for real aggression with Skull Dragon being so powered up.

Navigator is definitely a card worth trying out to help speed up the power gains for Skull Dragons. Once you hit that stopping point, then you’re good to go.

Lastly, Negrobone G is also worth trying out because it allows for further Skull Dragon abuse. If you play other Hollow units, it also opens up for different attack chains with additional benefits such as Grenache, Fatal Shade, Cannoneer, Starlight, etc. Thanks for reading and till next time amigos! See ya!