Well here it is folks the moment we dreaded… Chaos Breaker has been revealed in V series and its a really well designed card that is as silly and oppressive as it was before! It’s your boy Evan here with a quick overview of what you need to know for Chaos in premium!
[ACT](VC)1/Turn:COST
[Counter Blast (1)], your opponent gets an Imaginary Gift:Force, you choose one of your opponent’s rear-guards, and lock it.
[AUTO](VC):When your opponent’s locked card is unlocked, COST
[Soul Blast (1)], retire one of those unlocked units, you draw a card, your opponent removes a total of two markers from his or her circles or Protect from his or her hand, and you get an Imaginary Gift:Force for each marker or Protect removed
Before we go over tips on how to pilot against this new boss card its important to establish a few things.
- This Chaos Breaker’s AUTO ability is not once per turn. Essentially every unlock is a draw for the Chaos Player and a minus of 1 to 3 cards for you.
- Chaos Breaker now has a fast power spike. Although they cannot multi-attack their columns will rise in power very fast as your unlocks will trigger their marker/draw gain.
- Previous G-era support is fair game as the Star-vader arc type is now alive, though no longer being name resctriced.
- Chaos has is not a Gift Bearer. They do not get Force on ride.
- You will have to reconsider how to use Protect in this matchup.
As support cards are revealed synergies and strategies will change but I will go over the general concepts and cards that you should get/consider to get as Chaos will soon be in the meta as an anti-meta deck.
Deck Building
The topic on everyone’s mind is probably “how do we build our decks to counter Chaos?”. Its important to consider your meta in your area but there are a few generic cards to consider and the more seasoned players that lived through the Deluge Era can probably who is being referred to.
Pokkur and the order Clear Frame are probably the fastest to come to mind to counter Chaos in terms of card choices. Pokkur is the most ideal since he is reusable but it is only 1 unlock per call. This may mean running more than 1 copy if you are REALLY afraid of Chaos or if your area is saturated with Chaos but 1 copy will suffice since we have cards like Negrobone that can help reuse Pokkur though be it in a more convoluted way.
Its important to understand that simply having cards like Pokkur doesn’t mean you will always have an answer to Chaos and building a way to respond to Chaos also means that you have part of your deck that is dead in a non-LJ game.
Staple cards like these already have a place in the deck BUT now play a different role in the matchup. You don’t need to always slap in cards to counter a deck. All it takes is a shift in mindset. If you have first G3 and are only Nightrose, using any cards for offense is ideal since Nightrose makes every disappear but these 3 examples are cards that can disappear on their own accord. Use them in games against Chaos since these cards are your bread and butter at every stage of the game.
Is running more copies of Bad Bounty necessary? In general you should be running at least 2 copies but you can definitely run 3 copies. Its fairly easy to accommodate and is extra insurance so to speak against Chaos.
Gameplay Early Game
Before we get into this section I would like to do a bit of a flashback to Chaos in the G-era. Chaos in G-era was a powerhouse for being a strong anti-meta deck. Being able to lock down and slowly drain your opponent of life. But the reason in fell off in V-series is everything got faster and cards required having a “Star-Vader” vanguard. Therefore you are losing out in shields and can’t really run much tech cards since it will damage the consistency.
The new reveals shows that Chaos now has early game locking potential and even ways to benefit off how you place and/or lock cards. Future reveals more than likely will echo these early game designs and drawing effects with some offense associated to you unlocking units.
[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack or the attack it boosted hits a vanguard, look at five cards from the top of your deck, reveal up to one card with “Star-vader” in its card name from among them and put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.
[ACT](RC):If your opponent’s vanguard is grade 3 or greater, COST
[put this unit into your soul], choose up to one of your opponent’s locked cards, and unlock it. If you unlocked a card, choose one of your opponent’s rear-guards other than the unlocked unit, and lock it.
Bisection Star-vader, Zirconium
[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, if you have a vanguard with “Star-vader” in its card name, COST
[Counter Blast (1)], your opponent looks at the top card of his or her deck, and puts it on an open (RC) as a locked card. If that locked card was put in the back row, you draw a card, and this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn.
[CONT](RC):If your opponent’s vanguard is grade 3 or greater, and your opponent has a locked card, the original [Critical] of all of your vanguards becomes 2.
Early game damage denial is generally a good way to fight Chaos. With more support to revealed this will more than likely just be reinforced. Only start giving Chaos damage in your first G3 turn if you are going first or on your first stride. Fighting for first stride is very questionable since you have to extend too many CB and Colombards to keep getting using Ghostship. If the situation allows for it G2 game otherwise avoid giving any damage. You can still hit Chaos hard when you get to striding.
Chaos’ G-era and earlier support are all generally locked behind CB as well and even giving them 1 could be detrimental for you since they can actual trigger skills to be able to reuse that 1 CB and leverage their lock down even before hitting their G3 Chaos ride. Having units on board is REALLY bad since it is never an issue for LJ as a clan to mass lock. Especially in premium.
In terms of the early game, as stated before, any cards that can disappear is of value and Colombard and Ghostship are just enablers for these cards and offense to exist. If you do decide do go offense you are a little limited in options especially when you are going first but you can still generate a decent offense. Chaos’ drawing comes from your cards on your field being locked/unlocked and the longer you can prevent that before you get to striding the better you will stabilize. There really isn’t many options to go offensive against Chaos in premium since stride is a mechanic until you get to striding.
The next question is can you go on the offensive against Chaos? Is damage deny the only option? Technically no. However, I can only recommend it going second since if you use any offensive engines that don’t self retire, like Zarzan, they can and will be locked. The Chaos player doesn’t get any draws until they ride Chaos so you have to fight for the grade 2 game if you choose to go this route and hope they cant lock 3 of your units.
The moment you have 3 locked cards on your board you are in a very disadvantageous spot and will have a hard time to recover if it is even possible. LJ has never had an issue with locking cards, it was more so timing.
If you are gonna go on the offensive ensure you will only have 1-2 rearguards remaining at the end of your G2 turn and you try to give them 2-3 damage while keeping yourself at 1. This provides a buffer space and option for you to stay at Grade 2 if you so choose.
Which Marker?
Which protect marker is best against Chaos and, if we do get the choice, which force marker is best to get? Overall, Protect 1 is still the definitive better marker choice since we have cards like Greed Shade to cycle it out and effectively make Chaos’ skill moot or weaker. Protect markers also help with being forced to call cards as locked since they just disappear once chosen to be locked. Using Protect Markers as discard targets is valid in this matchup since they are more a liability than a shield half the time.
In terms of which Force Marker it has to be Force 1 since we still have multi attacks with Granblue just not enough power to really force high shield values that early in the game. If the Zarzan engine was readily abusable in this match up then it would’ve been fine but this is one of the few that using this engine is questionable at best. Force 2 does apply a 2 crit pressure but we want to control how much damage we give Chaos so as to not screw ourselves over.
Striding
We are now at the striding section! In terms of first stride it will more than likely be Obadiah since you NEED to secure certain pieces in the dropzone.
Generally your main goal is to get Pokkur into drop while only using the Front Row RCs to attack. Negrobone is there as he enables us to reuse Pokkur and cards like Wild Seas Banshee that can give us hand while disappearing is another option to filter and/or call. Even if we lose trigger pressure in the deck we are trading it for a hand that can hopefully let us survive and win the next stride turn.
Chaos isn’t a draw heavy deck. Its built on the fact that by comparison you have a smaller hand due to hand-rip or limitations to your draw engines while your reduced aggression means they need less shield efficient cards in their hands to survive.
Your first stride is like any matchup, a setup for your second stride kill turn. This is no different. It is just a different image to build your board and hand. Thanks to the current and future support Granblue can still win this matchup and better than before.
Since our access to the Zarzan Engine is limited in this matchup, you as a player can fall into a milling strategy to win. Mill/draw your deck so you can get a big drop by second stride and win. As long as your 2 front row rearguards are open you can still due a lot of your combos previously thought of and discussed!
Your kill stride will revolve around these cards as well as Bad Bounty! Due to the nature of Chaos your damage will naturally get to 4-5 damage by your 2nd stride unless they really did not attack you or just trigged multiple crits on drive check. Nightmist extends your Undead Dragon attacks by 2 and the generic 4 Undead Dragon attack with Nightrose is STILL viable just ensure that 1 column is free of lock during your main phase! This is the time where you must give the Chaos player another card in hand.
Cards to Watch
We have to first talk about the G-guardians in LJ. Cosmo Wreath and Lacus Carina both only target the backrow. Keep this in mind when doing your battle phase as you can bait out these powerful cards but they can still hurt if you did not prepare for them properly. Cards like Bad Bounty and Nightrose V-series can get around these cards with proper setup. All of G-guardians in LJ are mediocre in shield and will never break past 25k shield. Their effects is what makes them impactful. Lacus Carina can be used against Chaos if you retire their board with cards like Cannoneer. If you have a full backrow of boosters and Chaos doesn’t you will be forcing them to lock one of their front row units to fully lock your backrow. The only way for them to usually get around this is to use a Destiny Guardian.
To follow the last point, Destiny Guardian is a card that a Chaos player can use to essentially generate free guard and unlock units while triggering Chaos’ AUTO. The heal cost associated with calling Destiny guardian is replaced since Chaos allows a draw from an unlock on your field during either player’s turn and is a way to retire your locked units for essentially zero cost and its just a 25k shield to boot.
In terms of striding Chaos as a few choices for their first stride. Either they lock your existing board or rip a card from your hand. Nothing too extreme but worth noting. Chaos Universe allows the LJ player to lock a front row rear guard as they choose the circle. If you have 2 or more rearguards on your field they will get locked either via Alththani or via Glueball Avalanche. Needless to say if you do get 2 cards instantly locked with their stride you will get more locked with other units that will force you to call cards as locked. That is why it is SO important to control how much damage Chaos gets and how many units you allow them to lock during their turn. The game could be decided on turn 3 if you chose to go aggressive on your G2 turn and that ends up back firing.
Deluge is generally their 2nd stride since it is a hand-rip and a facedown damage that is moved into the damage zone. Regardless on if you avoid the lock by choosing a Protect 1 marker you will still lose a card in hand.
Glueball Dragon is a really strong scaling card. If you have 3 units locked that is a static 9k power buff to the front row and now that the new Chaos gives force efficiently, the longer the game is delayed the more likely you are to lose. Try to end the game by your 3rd stride and really use all your resources and Bad Bounty to the fullest.
These next few cards are just to represent cards in the clan that will echo similar effects. This applies to current and soon to be released cards as I do feel they will have some resemblance to these units in terms of synergy.
Chaos Breaker Close as a card is very dangerous and if it is added to their hand make mental note of it. Soul is no longer an issue with the Chaos variant and being able to discard close is essentially another card you lose from your hand and it is called as locked. This is very dangerous as even if you have zero locked cards you can instantly get to 4-5 cards locked on your board if they have multiple of this hand. RNG does play a factor into this but even a single copy of this card in the Chaos player’s hand can make a Deluge turn a 3 card hand rip as opposed to 2. There are cards that have a discard mechanic and the soon to be revealed cards may as well. Keep cards like Close in mind!
Strange Dragon and Globuladia are examples of cards that lock units and that gain power. These cards are not locked behind GB and can be used as early as possible. Cards like Zirconium already replaces Globuladia. This is why early damage denial is the safest route to pick. Other cards that is to released may be even easier to trigger.
Zinc is a really good card since it can CC2 and SC2 for the cost of itself. This kind of resource control will probably not be replicated but be aware of this card’s presence. Soul is never an issue with the card and this card can enable a Chaos player at 2 damage.
Colony Maker and Carbon are example of tool box cards. These cards can easily fetch out really strong units and there will surely be better G1 and G2 units that will revealed. These cards are locked behind CB and/or a locked card being present on the opponent’s board to resolve. Similar prerequisites may be part of future reveals as a way to control the power level of Chaos but these types of units exist now. Be prepared for them and know when to damage deny!
Lastly, its worth mentioning that new card releases may buff the vanguard like Zirconium. Stark is one of Chaos’ actual finishing cards and it being 2 crit is something to be wary of. Until more cards are reveal its not that impactful due to how late into game it shows up. Manage your damage and stay at 3 or lower until your 2nd stride and you should be fine. Cards like Zirconium that have a CONT effect are ideal targets for Cannoneer but it is not worth to solely focus on as Chaos as many units that are one and done and few actually have CONT or lasting. You will normally not have access to all 5 rearguard circles unless it is the ideal first stride where you are able to to simply get it without having to Grade 2 stall. Therefore what you call matters and retiring a card like Zirconium when they have more copies of cards like that may not be worth it. It’s something to consider when deck building!
Final Thoughts?
Chaos being reintroduced is such a wild card and with how well designed it is it will be a force to be reckoned with. It is not as oppressive as it once was and we have more ways to get out of said oppressive situations but we can still get beat by Chaos if we don’t plan accordingly. Some points in this article may change as more cards are revealed.
Chaos is not a deck that will auto win against Granblue. Be prepared, pay attention, and don’t over commit yourself and your deck to this matchup. Don’t build to counter Chaos as other decks currently out and/or up and coming decks will more than likely out scale Chaos with sheer speed. The most you need to do is to place in Pokkur and shift your playstyle and mentality.
I hope this article proved helpful and eye opening to the Chaos matchup!
Yours Truly,
Evan Alberto
Rogue of the Seven Seas 