Axis Vanguard

Hi amigos, today we got the skills revealed for Minerva and more units to support it! Let’s discuss it!

Minerva and Genesis Homies (Ride Line)

Oh wow! We’re seeing more familiar faces since Limit Break days! Both Vivid Rabbit and Melissa make their return! Melissa is amazing already! When you ride to G2, you can SELECTIVELY Soul Charge from the top 5 cards of your deck. That’s BIG! Usually it’s a blind Soul Charge X cards from the top of the deck in Genesis. We now have an opportunity to Soul Charge units and keep our Triggers still in deck!

Furthermore, her 2nd skill is that she can revive herself when Soul Blasted! Just like old days, but it’s free and they added a SC1 too! The only restriction is that she’s called to back row RC. Which is fair, I think they want to avoid multi-attack shenanigans during Persona Ride turns or even when we drive check the Keter Sanctuary Over Trigger. We’re already starting off well!

More OGs! We got Chamomile and Minerva herself! Again Chamomile does the same thing as Melissa when we ride to G3! By this time, we would easily have 7 cards in Soul and have filtered out 4 units out of the deck too. Her 2nd skill is revival as well but this time we can call her to any RC. It is CB1, so be cautious of overusing the skill and moderate it. It’s best to call her and Melissa to easily form a new column.

Now Minerva herself! 3 skills! The 1st is that we get a blanket +5k to the front row! This is good since we’re able to hit better numbers and cards like Chamomile can hit VG by itself when it’s revived. There is another Regalia G3 within the main deck, so our top 5 selectively Soul Charge should be able to find one asap. The 2nd skill lets us check the top for either a potential Trigger, which can aid our attack patterns. Or Soul Charge the card if needed. The cost is SB1, which allows us to build a field with cards like Melissa and Chamomile during the Main Phase.

But the 3rd skill is a revamp of the original Minerva restanding skill! Furthermore, they balanced it too. Your opponent has to be a G3 or greater VG. I think that’s a good call. Especially since our drive checks are better in seeing Triggers. Another thing to note, the drive check is reduced by 1 and we have to discard a Genesis card. So we have to be mindful of it.

The restanding skill has more value since it SB3! We can SB cards like Chamomile and Melissa during the Battle Phase! We can easily do 4+ attacks consistently. Just with Minerva’s SB, we can have 5 attacks thanks to Chamomile. Keep in mind the CB used for her. On Persona Ride turns, we can potentially see a 15k+ buff for ALL front row units, including the newly revived ones during the battle phase. So all 5 attacks will see the power-up benefits!

More Genesis Homies and New Order

Cider helps with some versatility and shield value! You can call it to help make better numbers, then bounce it back to hand to be able to pay the cost for Minerva’s discard! Furthermore, it removes itself from the field to make room for a potential Melissa battle phase revival. If we have a G3 or greater Regalia in our Soul, it gets an additional +5k shield when guarding with it. Genesis can struggle with building a healthy hand size since Limit Break days, so it’s appreciated!

Angelica is back too! It’s also a G3 Regalia which is what Minerva and Cider need to see to gain their additional skills. Her skill is phenomenal! At the end of the battle it attacks, it SB1 and goes into Soul while giving a +5k to Minerva and CC1! The synergy is strong! While attacking as a 13k body, it can help set up more attacks with Chamomile and enable the +5k buff from Minerva.

So I want to slow down a bit with Angelica’s contribution. If we go first, we can easily get 4+ attacks with her. Furthermore, with the right setup, we could in theory do 8 attacks!

Setup: 4 Chamomile in Soul, 2 Angelica on RC, 4 CB available

1. Angelica (Left) 13k
   • End of battle: SB1 (Chamomile) go into Soul, CC1 and +5k to VG
   • CB1 to Revive Chamomile
2. Chamomile 15k
3. Angelica (Right) 18k (remember Minerva’s buff activates since prior Angelica is in Soul now)
   • End of battle: SB1 (Chamomile) go into Soul, CC1 and +5k to VG
   • CB1 to Revive 2nd Chamomile
4. 2nd Chamomile 15k
5. VG Minerva 28k
   • End of battle: CB1+SB3+discard to restand with -1 drive check
   • CB2 to Revive 3rd and 4th Chamomile
6. 3rd Chamomile w/ booster 23k OR VG swing
7. VG swing 28k (1 drive) OR 3rd Chamomile w/ booster
8. 4th Chamomile w/ booster 23k

Just wow! Thanks to these cards we can easily do 3-8 attacks. Very powerful.

Lastly, the new Order can help dig for pieces and generate hand. It’s CB1, but with cards like Angelica, it’ll be easy to manage. So the card may be worth trying out. I only wished it had Regalia in the name as an extra benefit!

Quick Nostalgic Story

Back in 2014 when the set with Glendios came out, I had the chance to pick up my playset of Minervas from Cardfighters Underground!

Glendios during sneak week was $100+ and through some negotiations with Dirk (the owner), I got my playset and Misaki sleeves! Minerva was my very first competitive viable deck in Cardfight!! Vanguard! Great memory and forever grateful!

Final Thoughts

Really great 1st wave of support for this new Minerva Ride Line! I’m super excited for it! Can’t wait to play test! Are you excited? What are some other cards that can help the Minerva deck? Let me know!

Also, if you want to see more Genesis content, I recommend Astral Susanoo! He recently came out with his first thoughts too! He even gives details from Limit Break days!

I’ve also recently created a new Discord server! Feel free to join the theory crafting and card discussions about Minerva and other decks!

Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/mcptf2ee6a

Meme

Me seeing the Minerva reveals..