Hi amigos, today’s article with be an in-depth one for Aqua Force premium! This is David Song’s (Cay#6437) first official article on the blog! I also add some of my techs at the end too. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
- Quick rundown on Aqua Force History
- The Four Viable Aqua Force Decks
- Decklists, Strategies, and Techs:
- More Techs Used In BCS 2022 Worlds
- Final Thoughts
Quick rundown on Aqua Force History
Many veteran players of Cardfight Vanguard are used to Aqua Force being a clan that focuses on rear guard multi-attacking as its winning image. This is primarily done through the use of restanders such as the old reliable, Tidal Assault. This playstyle was first introduced through Aqua Force’s first G era set along with its trial deck. Lambros for better or worse, solidified Aqua Force’s identity in this manner. Since then, although different playstyles have been introduced and reintroduced, nothing is more iconic for the clan other than a rearguard that can attack more than once which led to people associating it with a brother clan, Nova Grappler. In fact, a lot of people would say, why play, one when the other is better. For instance, the Star Gate set which introduced Winning Champ, Victor, had a lot of players referring to Novas as the superior clan in every way during this time. While this may have been true, Aqua Force still had tools that the other clan did not, despite the winning images being very similar.
The Four Viable Aqua Force Decks
I first need to go over the four viable decks that have either seen play or gained notoriety as of 2022.
Thavas
Without a doubt the most viable deck Aqua Force has to offer in Premium, especially with Pursuit Assault being legal in English. This deck is extremely versatile, as it has main phase removal options, vanishing board, strong early game, early-mid game advantage, recycling, stride denial along with Aqua Force’s powerful G zone for late game. The problem with Thavas is the deck building. The deck must include units that can achieve the rest condition for pseudo striding. This can interfere with including traditional restanders such as Tidal Assault. It’s possible you may find yourself lacking a decent kill turn from this fact alone but Aqua Force does have options to supplement Thavas’ playstyle without ruining the core gameplan.
Drawqua Force
A variant focused on drawing cards through the use of restanders and the ability of Bubble Edge Draco Kid. Other draw cards such as Sabreflow Sailor see play. It is closer to the traditional Aqua Force decks that try to win through tempo and scaling into the late game. The main vanguard for this list is generally Navalgazer Dragon as it is an Accel bearer with a restand ability. Easy to enable another restand to trigger Bubble Edge’s skill again. This deck utilizes D series cards, Spurring Maiden, Ellenia, and Spiritual Body Condensation to reuse bubble edge’s skill so the amount of cards drawn per attack increases. The deck’s main weakness is the lack of pressure on the first stride. Unless the opponent was pressured previously, a Genbold turn would not do too much to push the opponent as most of the rears in this deck do not gain power on their own. It should be noted that this deck values accel 1 more as it already draws a lot of cards. G guarding into a Valeos turn is generally its strongest first stride. Overall, powerful early, weaker mid, and powerful late. One of my personal favorite lists.
Maelstrom
The current leader of the clan. This deck seeks to gain advantage through adding Maelstroms to hand and using press stream and G Despina to increase Vanguard pressure as early as turn 3. While having access to all of Aqua Force’s good strides, Maelstrom also has access to Engulf, which although weakened since the introduction of protect markers, can still be a viable threat as it can easily restrict grade 0s and 1s. This covers most perfect guards. Maelstrom arguably has the best G3 turn in the clan due to its many drives and strong vanguard restand. Coupled with Despina’s guard restrict, the opponent can just out right lose if a crit is flipped on turn 3. Maelstrom’s down side is having a weaker early game than the other the other variants because it does not play many restanders and some cards only gain their full ability once there’s a Maelstrom vanguard. I played this list during Vanguard’s loop meta as the only way to win against some decks was to blow it out in 1 turn. Maelstrom was the answer during this time.
Blue Wave
The subclan that went all over the place throughout V finally has an Accel Bearer through Tetra Drive. This deck can go many ways. There is the Drawqua Force variant of Blue Wave which is similar to the Navalgazer list and a more traditional Blue Wave list with early agro and focus on VG pressure. Cards from D series that increase power can be utilized in this list to make a stronger Tetra Drive turn. Using G Beragios can provide an extra 2 attacks as the restand condition is not 1/turn. This also means you can use bubble edge here too. The biggest downside of Blue Wave is that it is more piece reliant than all the other decks.
Old Arsenal
Firstly I’d like to introduce Battle Siren Cloris. One of the cards that allowed me to fight on equal footing with other meta decks from 2017 – 2020. What Cloris did was allow for Aqua Force to supplement their rush by providing guard resources. A non-GB card that for a soulblast can provide a 5k shield minimum with her skill that can be accessed for as long as she was on the board. The resource heals further buffed her as now she was able to reuse the heal triggers bound as an extra 30k shield. The only reason she was not seen in every Aqua Force deck was because she did not progress Aqua Force’s game plan of standing rearguards and buffing them with Alexandros. Her susceptibility to removal was also an issue. However, in 2019 when we saw four meta clans (Dark Irregulars, Gold Paladin, Neo Nectar and Oracle Think Tank) that did not have readily available removal options, Cloris became a vital piece in the deck in order to survive and scale into the winning image. To this day, Cloris has its applications in Aqua Force due to its immunity to guard restrict and the ability to unbind cards. However, with the introduction of heal guardians, resource heals have not seen much play which decreased Cloris’ value. To be included in a modern Aqua Force deck, the current meta must not contain too much main phase removal so she can persist and provide value over the course of a game.
Supersonic Sailor is an old resource trigger that came out when Glory Maelstrom was released. This card is a double resource and can be used if counterblast is needed before the battle phase. Counter charging without losing a face up card in G-Zone with Galfilia is also ideal to maximize the efficiency of two of Aqua Force’s main strides, Alexandros and Valeos.
Water General of Wave-like Spirals, Spirals, Benedict is simply another copy of Tidal Assault. The only difference is that he is a 10k base and a grade 3. The downside is not being able to use him on turn 2 or shield. Since he is a grade 3, he is searchable through Beragios and accessible with other grade 3 support cards like bright shooter in the Blue Wave variant.
The next card I’d like to go over is Bubble Edge, Draco Kid. A simple card but highly abusable due to the nature of its condition. Even at its release, Bubble Edge was able to draw two cards when used on a restander. Not a lot of starters did that, especially not for free. An interesting list I had during the middle of G era was to run 4 bubble edges in the deck. On a Lambros turn it was possible to make one rearguard draw 3 cards per bubble edge skill which would be netting a +2 to hand with each usage. This can be increased to 4 draws if Battle Siren Orthia was included. Since there were removal clans that were prevalent during this time, it was good to have a starter that could be used for cards as soon as possible. Bubble edge had the added benefit that if used later, it could provide even more. With the introduction of D series, Bubble Edge could be utilized further with Spiritual body condensation and Spurring Maiden Ellinia (more on these two later.) This enabled one copy of bubble edge the ability to be used multiple times in a single instance. Best part was, bubble edge refunded the soul cost for these two. It was possible to draw 4 or more cards with a single bubble as early as turn 2. There’s no convincing needed to be done here. Bubble edge is just a great card and can be used today in modern Aqua Force as a starter or not. The downside to running him as a starter is that he does not provide the immediate draw or the quick shield that V starters do.
Battle Siren, Orthia always existed as an option for Aqua Force. Instead of having rearguards restanding themselves, she restood the rearguard she boosted. The problem with her during her release was that other than a Lambros boosted restander or High Tide Sniper, she was a bit awkward to use. In fact, high tide sniper was the clans largest beatstick at the time and the clan had no access to power distribution outside of Lambros. This was the biggest setback for Orthia until Alexandros. Orthia allowed Aqua Force to dip into Alexandros’ power up 3 times for a restanding rearguard. With the inclusion of power beatsticks in V and power distribution from D, Orthia has become as important as ever. She also has the added bonus of being a Resist unit.
Lastly, I’d like to introduce Aqua Force’s strongest asset from the old era. Officer Cadet Andrey. Andrey is simple, he can give a unit the ability to restand itself and get +2k power. The difference between him and Orthia is that Andrey does not need to occupy a slot on the board but can still generate an additional attack. This skill can also be provided to any rearguard, even on an Accel circle. With 1/turn rulings having changed from the original era, Andrey’s skill can stack with each other and be used separately. Meaning it is possible to have one rearguard restand as many times as you have Andrey’s skill available. As previously mentioned, the D support that provided Aqua Force the ability to call from the drop zone can be utilized to enable multiple Andrey skills even with a single copy. It’s very possible to have one rearguard attack 4x after trigger distribution. For decks like Thavas that play fewer restanders, this is crucial for enabling stronger finishing turns. Instead of using a restander, you can instead turn a large beatstick into a restander. Cards like Riptide dragon, Pursuit Assault, Coral Assault and Battle Siren, Nerissa are all good targets.
All the aforementioned cards can be incorporated into modern Aqua Force decks whether it is Thavas, Blue Wave, Maelstrom, or Drawqua Force to provide extra utility and extensions. I will go over which deck benefits the most later.
V Arsenal
As the majority of Aqua Force’s main decks are focused on V cards as a base, the following list will include cards that are not staples or widely utilized.
Storm Rider, Diamantes was immediately looked at as a strange card. When it was first revealed, a lot of people were extremely disappointed with him because although he fit neatly into Aqua Force’s winning image, he wasn’t the best at it. His cost included a counterblast and a discard which made him the most costly restander the clan had. He also lost power on the attacks and was one of the newer restanders that paid cost on battle meaning if the opponent resolved a trigger, the restand would be wasted. However the utility in Diamantes is his grade. He is an accel bearer so decklists do not have to consider ruining grade line ups to fit in restanders. For the most part in Aquas, once they reached the late game, any restander would suffice. The best way to utilize diamantes was on Alexandros or Valeos. Alexandros pumps power and Valeos effectively makes Diamantes a rg that requires 2 cards to guard on accel 1 or 2. The deck that sees Diamantes the most today is Drawqua force due to its necessity for restanders.
Fort Vessel Dragon is always a ride option when attempting to pressure or finish. It effectively provides an additional +5k to all attacking units on any stride. Any Aqua Force deck can utilize Fort Vessel as a back up due to its versatility unless all the cards require a specific vanguard’s name. Once again, this card is most prevalent in the Drawqua Force variant due to the number of restanders in the deck. The card also appears in some Thavas lists as a back up Accel bearer. Solid overall but it does lack utility as a rearguard and does not have any use after the turn it is ridden.
Blue Wave Dragon, Propulsion Dragon is an overlooked card because it is not a traditional restander. It restands itself but is not the one who attacks again but rather becomes a booster. Having a position swapping ability tied to a restander makes this card versatile to increase attacks while being able to fix column power. I see Propulsion Dragon as similar to Diamantes. He’s a restander that fits into grade lineups due to his grade being 1. Propulsion dragon is the clan’s only generic g1 self restander that only requires one counterblast. The others being G Beragios, V Battle Siren, Neferi and the Blue Wing G1s, all which are condition locked.
All the other great V cards already belong in the various Aqua Force decks and will be included in sample deck lists.
D Arsenal
Spurring Maiden, Ellenia was one of the turning points for Aqua Force. It was a generic, on-place, +1 to board which the clan severely lacked. But this +1 isn’t from the deck, it’s actually from the drop zone/ soul. Suddenly, Aqua Force has access to recurring pieces that either souled in themselves, were retired by the opponent, or just used as guard fodder. On top of all of this, she is a 10k base, which is excellent for many match-ups including Nightmare Dolls, Granblue, Narukami and all other non-Force clans. She also grants the called unit a +5k power boost which makes her calling a G1 push past any defensive trigger. She’s great for early game aggro, mid game pressure, and end game pushing. She really does do it all for the clan. In my personal opinion, she alone changes Aqua Force’s playstyle and deck building. No longer does Aqua Force need to auto-include 4 copies of certain cards just to see them more often. As a clan that draws so much, Ellenia simply sees application in pretty much every scenario. The only time I didn’t use her if I had her was if I needed counter blast for other cards. But overall, she is probably one of the best cards Aqua Force has ever received.
Performing Maiden, Diantha is another unit that can access the drop zone although only when the vanguard is grade 3 or greater. While some may say this is immediately better than Ellenia, this is not always the case. Ellenia is a Grade 2 with 10k base and that matters for a lot of matchups. Ellenia can also be used immediately and her soul blast allows her to access cards in the soul as well. While Diantha’s use is better later as she is a 13k body most of the time and costs 1 less resource, Ellenia’s utility has been tested to be better. I would still play her if there is room as her skill is very sought after.
Spiritual Body Condensation (SBC), is Ellenia in the form of an order card, or, Ellenia is SBC in the form of a body. Either way, this card is basically free recursion because Aqua Force has so much excess soul. It also gives the called unit + 5k just like Ellenia. It is worth noting SBC can call any grade as long as your vanguard is that grade or higher than that grade, something Ellenia cannot do. This means SBC can revive Diamantes, Benedict, Riptide Dragon or even Thavas. A 1-for-1 that toolboxes soul and drop zone, for a clan that does not normally have access to either. Another one of the best cards Aqua Force has ever received and made drop zone/soul access commonplace in Aqua Force.
In D Set 6, an arguably upgraded version of SBC was printed, In the Dim Darkness, The Frozen Resentment. We can call this SBC version 2. The difference with this card is that it also adds the top 3 cards of the deck as one of the targets to call but does not give the extra +5k. In my opinion, the extra consistency matters a lot for a deck that mainly draws into its pieces even though it is good at that. The 5k in premium is negligible at most times but it does come up. Also the mill is mandatory (there’s an errata) so if the deck is at a low number, this may simply be unusable. There are arguments for both sides but I think this card stood as an upgrade to SBC.
Maiden of Deep Impression, Urjula is probably the first card Stoichea received that was directly an Aqua Force card by nature. She is useful in matchups that have removal plays during the battle phase so she can keep key rearguards protected. Urjula also allows Aqua Force to fix columns or even move one rearguard onto an Accel Circle if needed. She has some synergy with column based abilities like Light Signals, Penguin Soldier where you are pretty much allowed to give +5k to any unit on the board. As of now, she remains an option in some builds.
Conspiring Mutant Admantis, Sylvan Horned Beast, Agleo, Sylvan Horned Beast, Lyouka, In Search of an Ideal Far Away and Nectar of Sensationalism are all cards that provide power distribution. Any veterans of Aqua Force will know that outside of VG abilities like Lambros and Alexandros, Aqua Force did not have much accessibility to cards that provide additional power to RGs. This was likely a design choice to keep Aqua Force’s self restanders in check, at least until D series provided these cards that are generic power distribution. These cards when used in conjunction with Aqua Force rearguards are extremely synergistic because the clan has many self restanders and 3 strides that also restand rearguards (4 with Premium Collection 2022), which would increase the amount of shield the opponent needs to guard with for each of those attacks. Although these cards are not auto-included in any of the builds I have mentioned prior, they can slot into Blue Wave and Drawqua Force because those builds generally have a lot more restanders.
Sylvan Horned Beast, Lemurea is Wailing Thavas as a rearguard. No really, this card has the highest power scaling per attack for a rearguard that Aqua Force has access to and unlike In Search of an Ideal Far Away, this card is a body. Every late game Aqua force play can push this unit to over 50k power, 70k+ when that deck specializes and runs many restanders. Of course it isn’t an auto-include in any deck, like the power distribution cards, but it can be a useful finisher, especially if restand effects are attached to it or used on it.
Decklists, Strategies, and Techs:
Thavas
BSF Newark 2022 Winning List
Thavas Post D set 6 List.
With the first list, I was able to get first place at Newark BSF 2022 with my team, Team Go Next. My personal record was 8-1 with 6-0 in swiss. An overview can be seen on Commander Jaime’s channel. Go check him out when you get the chance!
How does the deck work?
The deck seeks to utilize Thavas’ pseudo stride ability in order to win the G2 game for first stride. Out of the meta decks today, there is no deck that has a grade 2 turn stronger than Thavas’ G3 turn. Therefore, first stride is nearly guaranteed. The only decks that can threaten this strategy are decks that can make powerful grade 3 turns and threaten to end the game there. Regalia is an example of those. For the most part, whether you go first or second, you will be able to get first stride. The first stride Blue Storm Steel Dragon, Genbold Dragon, in a vacuum is a +8 in card advantage. If the opponent knows, they will choose not to call any rearguards because Genbold will be able to effectively boardwipe. This is why Regalia is a hard matchup because they can commit without worrying about their rearguards being retired while also pressuring on G3 turn. Genbold is used to pressure and build a massive hand for 3 of Aqua Force’s finishers, Torrent of Determination, Valeos Revive, Marshal General of Surging Tides, Alexandros and Progenitor Dragon of Deep Sea, Balanarena. Each one serves a separate purpose and are effective at their jobs. One thing to note that unlike the other Aqua Force decks, the Thavas deck has access to main phase removal which removes cards such as Light Elemental, Honoly and stops plays such as Negrolily combos from Granblue.
Winning Image
Even though Thavas could nearly guarantee first stride, its stride game was not as strong if every piece in the deck was focused on pseudo striding into Lambros. Cards like Denis and Penguin that were decent in helping with the pseudo stride often became dead cards later on into the game. With thorough testing, I realized that Andrey was the key in strengthening the Thavas deck during the stride turns because of its very simple skill of allowing a rearguard to stand after battle. This effect is also stackable due to the 1/turn ruling change in 2018. On Genbold turns where the turn generally sees roughly 6-7 attacks, Andrey can extend this to 8+, all while maintaining power distribution. The best unit I’ve seen that can abuse Andrey is Nerissa as she does not have a limit to how much power she can gain. It’s possible to have a Nerissa that will be swinging for 53k on her first battle if the setup is there. To attach a restand skill to her is very threatening and to attach two, that might just be what wins the game. Ellinia and SBC help with this. This is also a reason why I play the triple Galfilia. I made Andrey become part of my core gameplan. I also play one supersonic sailor to help with this winning image. It didn’t always come but when it did, it was always useful but I don’t recommend playing more than one or two. The strongest turn with this deck is undoubtedly the Valeos turn. Now why Valeos instead of Alexandros? For one, Valeos only really needs one face up when you stride into him to be really effective which means all the face up Galfilias can be used for resource. Once again, Andrey can extend the number of attacks without taking up a slot on the board. Valeos also makes sure the opponent won’t survive regardless of how many triggers are checked if they don’t have a large enough hand. During my run at Newark, I won 6 of my games with Valeos. Alexandros was only used twice, when the game went late enough and my deck was too small for a Valeos turn or I just didn’t have the correct pieces for Valeos. Balanarena sees usage when the opponent has a way to call Honoly during your battle phase. From there you can simply use guard breaks to deal damage rather than depend on a high attack count. Theoretically, Balanrena is also the strongest first stride Aqua Force has access to due the amount of guardians it is able to nullify.
The new stride Blue Furious Charge Dragon, Furiargus Dragon also provides an alternative first stride option. It is the only stride that provides 10k to a unit on the first stride assuming no G-Guardians were used which means it is the best option if we are up an Andrey restand play. Regarding the first stride, it’s best used for conservative play where you do not want to over commit but also want to set up for the following turns. With 2 Coral Assaults, you can attack 4 times and gain an extra draw off the accel circle and end your turn with no cards on the board. In Bushiroad Rumble Online, I actually had to ride a Heal guardian against Narukami. If I did not have access to Furiargus, I definitely would have had no chance in winning the game. The ability to do a non-committal play while gaining an extra accel marker is an extremely good option as the extra marker is tremendous for a follow up Valeos turn or another Furiargus turn. Furiargus’ greatest strength is when you have access to power many powerful beaters as he can stand them all assuming you have enough faceup cards in G-Zone. As great as Valeos is, he does not function well without a hand. You also don’t really want to call over the powerful beatsticks so restanding them is the best option. Furiargus provides the highest number of attack extensions for the clan from one card alone, even surpassing Megiddo. In Thavas, this is especially useful as very few, if any of the cards can restand themselves. Thavas also has beatsticks like Nerissa, Coral Assault and Pursuit Assault. One of my favorite plays is to have a full frontline of beatsticks and a Nerissa in the back as a massive booster. I would use Andrey on the Nerissa so that once Furiargus’ skill triggers to restand most of the board, I can swap her onto the newly generated accel column for an extra +15k on each of her attacks. On top of the opponent having to deal with all the beatsticks, they also have to deal with a massive final swing or more depending on how many Andrey skills were used.
Deck Techs:
The Ellenia and the 2 SBCs are primarily for consistency. It’s not rare to find a situation where you had to ride a rest unit. These two can effectively call them out which adds another layer of consistency. They also work in the mid and late game well as explained prior. The two restand enablers are there to make the deck stronger after the dominant early game. It’s worth noting that each have their pros and cons between the other so I would test with the numbers when including these.
Drawqua Force
How the deck works
This deck seeks to draw as many cards as possible to set up for a 15+ attack Valeos turn or overwhelm the opponent with Balanerena guard breaks. Its winning image is very similar to Thavas in that it plays for the second stride. However, unlike Thavas, this deck seeks to pop off as early as turn 2 using a Bubble Edge, Dracokid combo where its skill is given to a restander. Seeing any attack extender with a tidal assault on turn 2 will yield 2 cards to hand per Bubble Edge. The Ellinias and SBCs are there in order to max out on that yield. It’s not difficult to add 4 new cards to hand on turn 2 with the number of attack extenders that exist in the deck. It’s possible to draw into more Ellinia’s to draw even more cards on turn 3. If the correct pieces are in hand, it’s possible to end on a 17+ card hand on Turn 3 on top of attacking the opponent over 6 times. This is all thanks to Thundering Ripple, Genovious and Navalgazer Dragon’s ability to restand another rearguard changing the yield per Bubble Edge from 2 to 3. Genovious’ release made this deck more consistent due to his skill to call one from top 5. It was also another card that could restand a rearguard on turn 3 aside from Navalgazer. This draw combo also works during the first stride turn but in most scenarios, you would have already attempted the combo earlier in order to dig through the deck more. It’s very possible to go into Balanarena first and simply win. Some lists even have 4 Bubble Edges for this purpose.
Weaknesses
The downside to this deck is its inability to pressure first stride. Sure it can provide at least 7 attacks, sometimes more, but most of the numbers are low and can be easily guarded with one card. That’s why the deck has to pop off as early as possible to put the opponent at high damage. Accel 1 helps this deck with power issues, but it’s generally not enough. The deck also does not have removal options outside of the Genbold turn so it is very susceptible to Honoly. Surprisingly, consistency isn’t a big issue in this deck considering all that’s really needed to initiate a draw combo is any attack extender and a restander.
Winning Image
The strongest turn with this deck is surely the Valeos turn. With Accel 1 markers, each restander can force 2 cards out of the opponent’s hand effectively making them fake battledore skills. Wheel assault can swap another restander onto the Accel 1s to pressure even more. Once all the rearguards have attacked, use Valeos to call a new board. This is where Ellinia comes in because she can trigger when called by Valeos as her condition is only to be called from hand. Using Ellinia, it’s possible to call the restanders that have already attacked back from the drop zone which will reset their restand abilities. This means 1 copy of Tidal can technically attack 4 times with an extra 5k power boost. It’s also possible to call back wheel assault and initiate another position swapping restander play. For the most part, if this play is made and there are no disruptions through Honoly, the opponent should be overwhelmed through the sheer number of attacks. However, take note of the size of the deck as this deck draws so much. A Valeos turn might not be possible because his draws are mandatory. Alexandros is always the fallback due to the number of restanders in the deck. This deck uses Alexandros the best out of all the other Aqua Force decks.
Furiargas first stride is also the best in this deck as all this deck wants is for at least one rearguard to be restood. This can be good if Genbold isn’t required and all the necessary pieces are already in hand. The deck draws so much that Genbold’s draw 3 isn’t exactly needed sometimes. Having a third Accel 1 marker by the second stride turn makes Valeos even deadlier. This was impossible before Furiargus but now it is a very possible scenario. Unlike Thavas, the late game Furiargus isn’t as potent as the deck does not have Pursuit Assault and Nerissa as beatsticks but it can come up.
Deck Techs:
In this deck, Ellinia and SBC are too important as they provided the deck with its massive draw engine using Bubble Edge. I would play at least 6 combined copies of Ellinia and SBC. Lemuria is there as a card that benefits off of the sheer amount of restanders but I would not play more than two in this deck. Benedict and Diamantes are G3 restanders, meaning they are searchable by V Beragios. Play around with the numbers and see how they come up. Just keep in mind Ellinia cannot revive them specifically because she only calls G2 or lower. Lastly, Urjula helps in certain matchups that can remove pieces during the Battle Phase. No stopping a scaled Alexandros turn with this card available.
Maelstrom
How the deck works
The Maelstrom deck can be built in multiple ways. This variant focuses on opening with a powerful turn 3 through Original Maelstrom. The decklist uses Heat Element Howam in order to guarantee damage to fuel the cost for Press Stream Dragon’s ability to add 10k and a drive to the Vanguard which works great with Maelstroms restanding effect. Out of all the other Aqua Force decks, Maelstrom has the most dangerous Vanguard, which is strange for a clan focused on rearguards. In addition to this, G Despina allows every stride unit to guard restrict grade 0s on attack. The combo with Wailing Thavas stops both 1s and 0s, locking the opponent out of any perfect guard effect outside of G guard abilities and Protect Markers. All the extra drive checks this deck can achieve is also abusable by restanders, which is why this list plays 3 Tidal Assaults and 1 Orthia.
Weaknesses
Maelstroms biggest weakness are decks that are not threatened by Despina’s guard restrict and can live a G3 turn. Earth Element, Rollock is a huge counter to Maelstrom as it effectively 1 card guards either of the two G3 Maelstrom swings. Protect Markers also hinder Maelstroms ability to pressure with a guard restricted stride turn. Wailing Thavas is no threat when Protect Markers can bypass grade centered guard restriction. Even Engulf can’t even guarantee a win through its ability to block G-Guards. In these matchups, the best line of play is either playing for Alexandros or attempting to win through Glory Maelstrom.
Winning Image
As mentioned prior, Maelstrom has vanguard pressure through cards like Despina and Press Stream which adds another layer to how the opponent should guard. In most Aqua Force matchups, players tend to guard small, then eat the vanguard as there is no inherent crit attached to it or simply one card guard with a G-Guardian. Maelstrom’s winning image is similar to other Aqua Force decks where you play for Valeos or Alexandros but with more vanguard pressure. Press Stream alone can threaten game if the opponent is already at 3 due to the higher odds of flipping double crit through drive checks. If the opponent does anticipate this and guards the Vanguard, they would still need to account for the possibility that a restander like Tidal can receive all trigger effects. This is especially dangerous with Alexandros who is normally 1 card guarded with a G-guard as he will be 27k-35k, or no-guarded. The extra drive and power will force the opponent to make a decision. Either they will take it and risk losing or have to deal with triggers on a restander. Remember, this can work on any stride, including Balanerna where the opponent must use perfect guards.
Deck Techs:
Unfortunately, due to the amount of core pieces Maelstrom needs to play and its susceptibility to damage denial, There aren’t too many tech pieces the deck can play. Playing the 2 SBCs are great because they can recur pieces but also reset certain cards like Press-Stream. Orthia is also decent because the G1 line up is more fluid. I would not play Ellenia as the G2 line up is just too tight.
Blue Wave Drawqua Force
How the deck works
Blue Wave, like Maelstrom, has different variants. The one above is a Drawqua Force variant of the Blue Wave deck. The traditional variant of Blue Wave has saw very little support. In G era when the sub clan got its support, it was the Aqua Force deck that restood everything including vanguard. The game plan previously was to rush early with non-generation break restanders but this playstyle has become obsolete due to the advent of heal guardians and the accessibility to better, less name restrictive restanders like Marine General of the Restless Tide’s Algos who works on V/R and Terrific Coil Dragon. Unfortunately, it is also difficult to have Blue Wave out perform Maelstrom as the Vanguard centric Aqua Force deck at this time. Therefore, this variant was developed in order to allow Blue Wave to be its own deck, outside the shadow of Maelstrom. You may ask, isn’t this just Drawqua Force slapped onto a Blue Wave Skeleton. You might be right, but there are certain things that Blue Wave has that Drawqua Force does not. For one, Blue Wave Soldier, Bright Shooter allows the deck to return heal triggers to hand as the heal guardians are grade 3s. The only condition for Bright Shooter is to have a BW vanguard and to be boosting the 4th battle or more. In addition to this, Blue Wave has access to G Beragios which is a double restander during the Tetra-Drive turn. I included one of the power distribution techs in order to take advantage of the double restand with Beragios. Unfortunately, Sylvan Horned Beast Lyouka does not work on vanguards but a Beragios behind Vanguard would produce the same effect because he would be able to boost for all 3 of Tetra’s swings. The recyclable crit trigger provides additional draws and also allows the prevention of deck out in the late game. Unlike Drawqua Force, Blue Wave can easily kill on turn 3 if the right cards are in hand.
Winning Image
This deck’s winning image is a mix of Maelstrom’s and Drawqua Force. It can win early or late. It can pop off early. There’s also the option of going into Flood Hazard for a double vanguard attack first stride although this rarely happens. Pushing early is good because the deck can explode on turn 3 and deal over 10 attacks with multiple double restanding Beragios. On a high roll, this deck surpasses Maelstrom. Early game is rather safe if you see heal guardians because of the ability to recur them. There is no fear of not being able to G-Guardian later because a heal guardian was needed to be used earlier in the game. The Valeos turn is slightly weaker in this deck than the normal Drawqua force build as there are less restanders but can still be just as threatening.
Weaknesses
One may ask, isn’t this Blue Wave just better Drawqua Force. Well the answer is no. The Drawqua Force engine was splashed into Blue Wave in order to make the deck more consistent, not the other way around. As you see, there is only 1 G3 searcher Beragios because the card shares the same name with the double restander. It’s possible to not see Tetra Drive at all which will make 11 of the cards in this deck, non-functioning vanillas. That’s why the deck simply isn’t an upgraded version of Drawqua Force. The essential techs are present but the flexibility is not there for other cards such as Urjula.
Deck Techs:
I would include the same techs as I mentioned in the Drawqua force section. They share a similar card base with some exceptions. The power distribution cards should also be considered because this deck has the double restander, G Beragios. I would not play Diantha in this deck because she cannot pull cards from soul like SBC and Ellenia can.
Ripples
I like Ripples a lot and was a Ripple abuser back in the day. Even when Flash Ripple, Odysseus was hit to 2, I still played the deck for a bit. The moment Odysseus was put back to 4 after G-Era ended, I immediately played the deck again, despite it not being as oppressive as before. However, I’m not going to include a decklist on pre Odysseus ban Ripples. The deck was not fair nor was it a good representation of what Aqua Force did. For one’s own research, Commander Jaime’s channel has his own winning 1st place list for the deck available and the Ripple infinite loop that I discovered. There’s a good reason why Bushiroad waited so long to directly support ripples only to ban them several months later in Premium. At the very least, I’d like to hope it wasn’t just the R&D team forgetting Odysseus was a card.
A viable Ripple list today would probably resemble the Drawqua Force list that I included above. Feel free to check out Commander Jaime’s winning 1st place Ripple video too!
More Techs Used In BCS 2022 Worlds
Hi amigos, this is Commander Jaime and I’ll be discussing a few more techs and what they provide!
Tokens
That’s right, tokens! Thanks to Stoicheia being a nation that mixes Aqua Force with also Zoo clan-like cards, we can take advantage of what tokens can help out! Most generic Aqua Force cards like Pursuit Assault, Coral Assault, etc. require to have more units to use their skills. Tokens can provide rest fodder for Pursuit, multiple rested units for Coral’s power up skill, Genbold’s draw and retire for every 2 RGs, etc.
For the Thavas deck, it also provides rest fodder to perform the pseudo Stride skill! It’s also a great way to have an early game without losing key pieces early on. The tokens can help boost your columns to hit over 10 G2 VGs or even 12k/13k VGs later on.
In my deck for Worlds, I used 3 Prodpollen because of what it does so much for the Thavas deck. Furthermore, even a metagame call against Narukami. When Tokens are retired, locked, binded, etc. they just disappear. So they won’t go to the Bind Zone in this matchup. In Stride turns, both cards like Valeos and Cycloned synergize well with Tokens. When Cycloned is flipped face up in the G Zone by Valeos or Genbold, your Tokens will gain +5k per copy!
When Valeos superior calls units during the battle phase, then cards like Prodpollen or Salvia can generate more Tokens and thus increase the number of attacks. Remember, a Token on Accel 2 and a face up Cycloned will be 15k on its own! There was also a slight deck-out issue with Aqua Force because we’d go through our deck fast due to riding down and Genbold. You can superior call less cards to not draw as much, but still get the maximum amount of attacks. Salvia can be a tech of 1 copy since it only works once your VG is at G3 or greater. Prodpollen works starting at G2 and even if you ride down too in Thavas.
G3s, Elementals, etc.
Genovious and Rollocks! Let’s start with Rollock. Rollock is a 1 card PG while you’re on G2 or less. This helps survive easier if going second and if you rode back down to G2 after a Thavas turn. Aqua Force suffers when it has to guard with too many combo pieces, so Rollock really helps in that regard too. I would recommend 3 copies as a sweet spot, so your deck is still consistent on its Winning Image.
Genovious serves as the 5th rideable Accel G3! When we ride down, there’s sometimes a struggle of having a G3 to ride back up the next turn! Furthermore, in matchups against Steam Maiden, Highlander, NMD, and the mirror, it’ll be a battle of riding up and down! After you ride up a 2nd time, you’ll have 2 Accel circles. If you’re at 4 damage or more, you can achieve 9 attacks while your opponent is at G2 since they rode down. Remember, since they already rode up to G3, their heal guardians don’t work anymore. So you can see this play as a mini Furiargus turn.
Another great 5th rideable G3 card is Tetra-drive! Usually when you ride back up in other matchups, you’ll go into Genbold. So technically your heart card’s skills don’t matter in this scenario. However, thanks to having the Blue Wave name, you have access to Blue Wave strides such as Flood Hazard and Tetra-boil! It’s more options in terms of stride options. Key note, Beragios is a Blue Wave card too, so he can be the 4th battle RG that can make Flood Hazard restand!
Here’s my list that I used for Worlds.
Decklog Link: https://decklog-en.bushiroad.com/view/A5ZS
If you want a more in-depth video about the deck, feel free to watch my video on YouTube!
Final Thoughts
A few final words (from David Song)
Some people may wonder if Aqua Force, a deck with fairly small amounts of tutoring, should be playing techs at all. The main thing to remember is, Aqua Force’s advantage engine is universal to all builds and accessible via G zone. Cards like Valeos and Genbold can mass filter for correct pieces, either for surviving or offense. The lowest possible roll for Aqua Force can still see a +8 advantage on first stride. In addition, some techs mentioned are the consistency boosts that Aqua Force needed. For metas where Aqua Force was considered to be one of the worst clans, it wasn’t that Aqua Force lacked a winning image which stopped them from winning, it was the problem of reaching it. The combined support of three formats have pushed Aqua Force into the strong competing force it is today. The clan may still have problems, but it definitely has answers available.
Have fun out there sailors!
Commander Jaime’s Socials
Rogue of the Seven Seas 