Hello its your boy Evan here! This is gonna be a multi-post article on the state of Premium and deck building for premium! You will join me on the trial and error process that is deck building for this format!
If you already read the article that Jaime did just earlier then you have an idea of how much some of the cards can do for Granblue! This article is to share my initial thoughts on the newly revealed cards and what new options we have for premium.
** NOTE EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND ADJUSTMENTS**
[AUTO](RC):At the end of the battle this unit attacked or boosted, you may discard two cards from the top of your deck. Then, if one or more trigger units were discarded, COST
[retire this unit], and draw a card.
Sea Strolling Banshee is such a good card and instantly became a pillar for EVERY Granblue deck. The ability to ride and they instantly get access to any card in your deck by placing it into drop means you can run more 1-of copies in the deck and makes certain decks more viable.
New Ability?
Sea Strolling now introduces a new engine that every Granblue deck will have access to and that’s a SUPERIOR RIDE.
Spirit is an OLD card all the way from the original BT02. The reason why it rarely saw any play is because the conditions to get 2 cards on the board and Spirit Exceed in the Dropzone is NOT as consistent and requires slots in the deck for mediocre units that have no use outside of the gimmick, thus, effectively hurting the potential of decks in terms of versatility.
Sea Strolling fixes this because, unless your opponent damage denies, the moment you ride Colombard on G2 you can get 2/3 pieces into the drop and the missing piece you usually have in hand already. This superior ride is, at the moment of this article, about 70-80% consistent depending on ratios. If you don’t ride Banshee you still have options on things you can do!
This new G1 also introduces a new form of deck milling. If you look at all the other cards Granblue has access to this is the only card that lets you mill AFTER a battle and at a point where you can have more information you can account before activating the skill. If Sea Strolling is behind your Vanguard and you are on Bad Bounty. You can choose to mill after the Vanguard boost so you can dig 2 cards deeper into your deck in hopes of hitting more triggers!
Returning Cards?
Older cards may see returns due to the new support. Double Nightstorm in the main deck may be optimal due to the fact that Pinot Noir gives a constant static power buff to your front row! Negrobone (G-series) falls under the same benefit because it can keep reviving Nightstorm! If you are doing pure Nightrose and Pinot Noir then Negrobone is a great combo extender before you reride into Pinot Noir. This allows for some Undead Dragon attacks before you do any attacks that Pinot Noir can further strengthen!
AUTO VC 1/T: When your “Pirate Belle, Pinot Blanc” is placed on RC during your turn, [SB1] to discard top 2 of deck, and activate all trigger effects of the discarded cards.
This is making for some weirdly high power combo attacking! Pretty nostalgic to how Granblue was in its prime in the G-era with multi attacking! More meta decks are able to generate high amounts of guards. Though Undead Dragons do make extremely high numbers, the fact that there are so few attacks you can make with then is its own weakness. If you are able to make 13+ attacks all breaking 33k that may be more impactful that 5 Undead Dragon attacks due to the quality of shield value in premium ranging from 5k-20k.
Goauche may be a card you are curious about! When you use the superior ride engine with Spirit Exceed you actually shove 2 cards into soul from the Rear Guard Circle so you may have more soul than you think or may like! Ideally you want the BARE MINIMUM of your soul since drop-zone count is still important depending on your deck type! Gouache is there as an alternative first stride if you are able to make use of him. After more testing there may be a Zarzan build for Goauche and Pinot Noir! Just something to keep in mind.
Pinot Noir is interesting because be promotes the concept of a quality dropzone. Where, you want to have triggers in drop on top of your usual combo pieces. This can be argued as both a harder and easier requirement but to each their own. Being able to make ANY attacker a relevant attack capable of demanding 20k shield is great because you can make your deck focus on other aspects other than offense since that will come naturally.
More cards may return with more testing but these were the 3 that stood out immediately!
Are they not needed?
This may seem like a weird thought but these cards are part of the group of cards that may not be needed depending on the deck build. I am mentioning these 3 because these have been staple, long-standing cards for a good while in premium but the new cards may change that.
With Undead Dragon, Pinot Noir’s static power buff may render it obsolete compared to a high multi-attack count combo. It will require more testing to truly see which is better but Granblue has not shortage of attack extensions. Its just the power of those attacks that were an issue until now.
Ghost Ship’s purpose really is only in the first stride. Could you maybe move the need to draw to another unit like Cannoneer? Using 1 more CB to save a call slot for another unit? Something to keep in mind.
With Pinot Noir being able to generate a quality board in terms of power. Is the board setup better than Nightrose’s low maintenance offense. Nightrose has very little conditions you have to meet to get the same end result. Pinot Noir will require more field setup, though be it not that extensive. Will you sacrifice a consistent G3 like Nightrose for a G3 like Pinot Noir that is more flexible in the units that can be used to attack? I feel like Pinot Noir may outclass Nightrose in terms of the quality of the kill turn with proper polishing of ratios!
RC CONT RC/GC This unit cannot be attacked, and gets +5k shield for every 3 Trigger units in your drop.
Pinot Blanc is an interesting tech card. You don’t need this for Pinot but holy does it make the attacks better. Being able to have an extra attack after the Vanguard attack that also adds 2 drive checks is pretty solid. This is on top of being a scaling intercept that can be a base 25k shield at a 12 trigger drop with no Protect 2 buff that has to be spot removed by a retire skill.
This card makes your quality of guarding batter. It may not be worth to run 4 of this card but a couple may save you shield in hand AND can win you the game with 2 additional drive checks. Having 6 drives on a Bad Bounty turn is pretty terrifying what with most Granblue decks having a high saturation of critical triggers.
With Protect 2 dare I say she may be the biggest shield Granblue will have outside of Negronora.
Ratios?
•Choose one of your vanguards, and it gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn.
•Choose one of your opponent’s units, and it gets [Critical]-2 until end of that battle.
AUTO When this unit is placed on (RC) from hand, if your damage zone has 0 cards, put the top card of your deck into the damage zone.
On the topic of Heal Guardians. Are they worth it? Well it depends. The obvious pros for these guardians is that they prevent damage denial and are amazing shields early game while late game double as an emergency stride cost since they are grade 3s.
The cons is that you don’t want to ride them, they are offline when you superior ride with Spirit Exceed, and they are not Vanilla units and thus lowering your vanilla targets for Zarzan.
Depending on how you make your deck the value of this card can range from 0-4 copies in the deck. Take these into consideration when building! I will be testing out ALL ratios so stay tuned for that!
Deck Builds?
This is probably what you are expecting but unfortunately I have not fleshed out a good deck yet but I can share a few builds I have in mind already!
**NOTE THESE ARE NOT TUNED, ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE, AND CAN BRICK HARD**
- V-series Nightstorm are placeholders for Heal Guardians G3s
- Sea Strolling Banshee, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Blanc should be there V-series counter-parts
- This build is one that incorporates a strong use of Pinot Noir and Zarzan. Ratios need to be adjusted.
- Superior Ride Engine is present
- Zarzan Engine is not as polished but is still present to be abused for first stride Obadiah
- Heavy on hand Management and 2nd hand milling (milling cards as a result of drawing or hand fixing)
- Superior Ride Engine is present
- This build is more of a “power mill” build that scarps the Zarzan Engine and goes for a Grindy game while milling your deck for triggers
- You can run a copy of Undead since you will have a high drop count BUT it’s more so for the trigger milling over anything
- Mistoph is there to essentially restrict your opponent’s hand to 8 cards on your kill turn
- 4 Heal Guardians as you NEED to survive the early game and have lower early game presence compared to other builds
- This build is more leaning towards Pinot Noir and focuses on Granblue’s tanky stats to basically survive the game then proceed to loop your enemies to death with attack extensions
- A split on heals and heal guadians to offset the need for Vanillas for Zarzan
- Headstart Zombie is there to just target triggers
- This one is for the Nightrose fans. Pinot is a great reride target but your early game and some easy smaller attacks come from Nightrose.
- You can run less of Sea Strolling in this build but that initial ride to get a Beatrice into drop is too good to pass up, more so that this is another mill card that can draw. Offensive power milling is the focal point of this deck.
- The small techs like Bale serve as a way to help with Rose’s defenses since this is one of the more glass builds. It has the inherent defenses with the G-guardians but not so much hand wise since we run a lot of 5k shield units. You can also switch out a Sea Strolling for a Negrobone (G-series)
All of these builds are subject to heavy changes but these are 3 kinds of builds I was able to come up with! As you can see, aside from the strides, the main deck shifts slightly it card choices but the playstyle DRASTICALLY changes depending on single card choices! Every card has a purpose and with more fine tuning these decks could end up better or different from how they are now!
More cards will get tested and more cards will change in their value to the deck! Any card is valid as long as there is a consistent and effective method to the madness!
Stay tuned for future articles on the fine tuning and deck building with the new cards.
I hope you enjoyed this quick article to highlight the new cards! Thank you for reading and until the next part. Evan signing off~
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Rogue of the Seven Seas 