Hi amigos, today I wanted to share some helpful tips and mindset about counter blast denial and limiting. I feel this is a tactic that players should learn how to use well. Enjoy the article!
Why Deny or Limit Damage?
Most players are used to playing the game where we ride up and start attacking the opponent’s Vanguard. As we accumulate damage, we can use it to counter blast (CB) for the cost of skills.
So why deny or limit damage? I thought we want to put our opponent to 6 damage ASAP!? Glad you asked! It comes down to the value gained from skills that require CB. Certain matchups gain immense tempo, advantage, or even just outright win with having a CB or two. Let’s go over some examples.
Examples of Decks
Eva – Standard Format
Let’s start with Standard currently. Eva is a good example of where limiting is important.
Notice that Eva has 2 skills where CB is needed. Ideally, the Eva player wants 2 CB available to perform both skills to gain the maximum advantage and apply pressure. If we only leave them with 1 CB, then they have to make a choice of which skill to use. Typically, the Eva player values the 2nd skill where it can superior call an Obscudeid. This skill gains a card and applies pressure to the opponent.
Typically players use Bobalmine to counter charge (CC) in the battle phase, so they can perform both Eva’s skills in the same turn. So be mindful of that too. However, they also play cards like Combine Rusher, which uses a CB to revive itself. It serves as an attacker and makes it easier for the Eva player to achieve 4 attacks while not losing hand advantage.
The Benefit
The main benefit of limiting CB is to prevent the Eva player from gaining maximum advantage and maximum aggression on their G3 turn. This will make their turn lackluster potentially 2-3 attacks, which helps you survive easier to come back on your turn.
Seraph – Standard Format
The Seraph deck has key cards that use CB such as Purelight and Chevalstud. It’s important to know if they use up all their current CB. If the Seraph player rides to G3 and uses all their CB for Prisoning and also drawing by Chevalstud, then they won’t have any face-up damage. Knowing this, we can deny the Seraph player any new damage and attack their Rear-guards (RG). The following turn, a Seraph player would typically want to ride to their G4 Purelight, but realize they don’t have any CB to activate her Prison skill!
The Benefit
So what happens to the Seraph player? More than likely they won’t ride to G4 because it’s a waste of a card and miss out. The skill is “on place” during the Ride phase, so they’ll miss out. This can give the opposing player to build up more momentum and have a better time dealing with the Prison matchup.
Luard – V Premium Format
Luard is a deck that requires Grade 1s to maximize its skills. A great way for them to start building momentum of gaining G1s are Liafail. Liafail can fetch for any G1 they need.
As the opposing player and going second, you can ride up to G1 and just pass. Don’t attack their VG essentially. If they only have one Liafail, then they’ll ride up with no CB to use its skill.
The Benefit
This helps in slowing them down a turn essentially. Over time, the Luard player will be able to dish out Critical pressure with multiple attacks. Going second against Luard is not a great spot to be, so might as well slow them down until you can gain your momentum. Furthermore, they can potentially “brick” and really need the Liafail to resolve.
No Life King (NLK) – Premium
A deck like NLK requires CB to start Soul charging enough cards to achieve the 13+ in Soul for their G3 turn. The G3 turn can be very powerful and advantageous since NLK can produce a 2nd VG attack while giving it a Critical.
If you’re going second, you can refuse to give them any damage until you can ride to G3/Stride. They’ll have a hard time Soul charging enough to achieve 13+ in Soul.
The Benefit
Denying CB prevents cards like Abductor fetching for Covetous Succubus to start Soul charging and applying pressure. NLK can do its skill multiple times in a turn if its kept reriding. So having any excess CB for them is very dangerous. The deck can OTK you in one turn. The benefit for you is to survive long enough to win the matchup.
Nightmare Dolls (NMD) – Premium
NMD is a strong multi-attack deck! It’s wise to know the matchup and know when to limit their available CB. The interaction with Leslie and Alice (along with Ginny), can scale to massive amounts of attacks in the Stride turns. In an example play, a Yvette can call a Leslie from Soul to an Accel circle (or Stage), while giving it +15k, making it at least a 27k+ unit. Each CB used by Alice’s skill will produce 2 attacks (one from calling Ginny, then which grabs Alice back out) and the other restanding the 27k+ Leslie!
The Benefit
Be careful of limiting CB and eliminating cards like Alice and/or Leslie if possible. If you’re not ready to finish them off, you may want to gain an advantage and limit their CB to survive another turn. Then you can go for the finish. Another reason to limit CB is because of their Ultimate stride, Dust.
Also, early on, Nightmare Doll Carroll needs a CB to perform the “ride down” as well. So watch out for that.
Extreme Example (Banned Now) – Nue Dao – Premium
The Nue Daio HYU-GA deck was really powerful and only needed 1 CB to win as soon as they ride to G3. The CB was for HYU-GA to build a field with same name. In combination with Nue Daio, the Murakumo player was able to Stride and produce easily 8 attacks (Viktor too) while the opponent was still at G2! The deck had methods of powering up their RGs and the G3 Heal Guardians didn’t exist yet!
The Benefit
If you left them at 0 damage, you get to actually survive. Then the Stride turns were your opportunity to really start the game.
Thankfully, Nue Daio was banned.
It Takes Acknowledgement And Practice
Depending if you’re a player that already knows how to use this tactic or is new to it. You may be asking yourself, why isn’t this common knowledge if it’s that important?
Great question! It’s our job as a community to help others learn and improve their cardfights! Sometimes players get upset when they play certain matchups and just lose all the time due to them not knowing how to effectively CB deny/limit. Having this tactic will make games more interesting and cause more critical thinking moves to occur.
A quick story, I had to learn this the hard way! Back in 2016, G Era format, I was playing Seven Seas (not G1 Rush) against Sanctuary Guard. I lost to that player twice (once in Swiss and in Top 16) at ARG Nationals. My friend asked me, “why didn’t you CB deny them?” I literally didn’t know how to. Plus the concept of not attacking with your Vanguard or only attacking RGs seemed not normal. Thanks to Wirab from WCC, he took the time to help me learn that tactic in a few CFA games. Ever since then, it’s always been in my mind for specific matchups or current game states.
It’ll take some practice, but it’s easy to pick it up! I hope you found this article insightful or could be insightful for a friend! Feel free to share it! Til next time amigos!
Inside Metafy
I’m also a Metafy coach and have helped numerous players with this tactic. Sometimes you do need someone to walk/talk through it, to learn it. Here’s a snippet video of how I helped one of my students.
Metafy page: https://metafy.gg/@commander-jaime/sessions
Commander Jaime’s Socials
Rogue of the Seven Seas 