Raise A Suilen (Formerly known as THE THIRD(仮) ) is the 6th band in the franchise to be added. Starting out as a 4 member backing band for Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes and Hello, Happy World!, the band also had their own original songs. They were added as the Third performing band in the franchise with the inclusion of their 5th member and joins the other 2 performing bands Poppin’ Party and Roselia, with their own live performances. The decision to add them to Vanguard seems just as sudden by being only be obtainable through SP packs….
Unit Cards
The main G3 for the deck. Rei’s effects are simple, giving herself +15k, with a 1 draw and giving 1 unit +10k power
Rokka helps with her ACT skill, by discarding and drawing 1 card, and gaining power. Helps with cycling through the deck and build up music in the drop zone which is important to most of this band’s skills.
Her passive skill gives herself power if a music was played this turn
Reona has her attachment to Chiyu-sama, being able to scry for ChuChu and gaining power when ChuChu is on the field.
Masuki has a Granblue type effect where she mills 2 cards from the top of the deck. The 2nd part of the skill, by being able to pickup any RAS card from the drop zone, allows to cycle music from hand to drop and pickup any RAS card that you might need that turn or future turns.
The producer makes sure that all Raise A Suilen members stay threatening, by making all 30k power and above Raise A Suilen members have 2 Critical.
Chiyu also got her own ACT skill which gives a chance to add Raise A Suilen music to hand. This helps filter out the music cards and helps make sure there is a Music active every turn when possible.
Normally there is no need to mention the First Vanguard for a deck as all of them have the same effect. For Raise A Suilen though, by using Masking’s skill, this card can be soul-blast and added to hand. By adding this card to hand and discarding a music, this card can be used as a booster, for guarding or as a unit if in desperate need of 1. Also, it could serve as a 50th card in the deck, just for its Raise A Suilen race to get the effects of ChuChu
Music Order Cards
Order cards is the new mechanic in Vanguard. Order cards can only be played once every turn and for Bang Dream, these (music) Order cards will be placed on the rearguard circle behind the Vanguard Circle and moved into the drop zone at the end of the turn. These Order cards have grades, which can only be played if the Vanguard is of the same grade or above.
RIOT is Raise A Suilen’s 1st single that revealed their band name, graduating from THE THIRD(仮)
Able to add the top 2 cards of the deck, if the cards are from Raise A Suilen. Potentially a +2 for a deck that needs to draw its cards.
Unstoppable is the B-side of Raise A Suilen’s 1st single, also used as an Ending theme song for Cardfight Vanguard (2018)
This music card may be annoying to obtain due to it being a promo card (for Japanese Players), but it helps the deck cycle 2 cards which is important for the deck. Building music in the drop zone and the chance to draw units when there is so little of them helps it go a long way. The power buff helps make attacks more threatening.
Expose Burn Out is Raise A Suilen’s 2nd Single, and the song that introudced the band in Season 2 of the anime.
This music is the top end for the deck, being able to give +10k power to meet ChuChu’s 30k power requirement and also the ability to nullify the opponent’s trigger power. This helps the deck be more threatening as its only a 3 attack deck but 2 Criticals with each attack and nullifying damage triggers makes it a threat to guard against each turn.
Special Mentions: 50th card/Tech Cards
For Raise A Suilen, there is only a total of 9 cards from the band, 1 of which is the starter. Inclusive of 16 trigger cards, there is a total of 49 cards for the deck. As it is mandatory to have a 50th card in the deck, there is a need to see which cards could be slotted in as the 50th card in the deck. This section is also if you do not want the starter as the 50th card in the deck or looking for what options would you have to fill out the grades much better.
Tae is 1 of the 2 generic unit cards among all the bands that could fit as the 50th card into the RAS deck. Fitting as in the franchise’s history, Tae’s seiyuu Otsuka Sae played for THE THIRD(仮) as a guitarist before Rokka’s seiyuu, Kohara Riko, was scouted for the band.
She can help pick up a music card from the drop zone by discarding 1, in RAS it helps by discarding music to the drop zone and can pick up specific music that you would want to play this turn.
Her 2nd skill helps power up the Vanguard and itself when the Vanguard Attacks. Helps increase column numbers mainly in the early game, as later on in the game ChuChu’s Critical set to 2 skill only applies to Raise A Suilen units.
Kasumi is the 2nd generic unit card that could suit the deck.
Searching top 7 cards of the deck for a music in a deck that is running 10+ music cards will help in filtering out the deck
Note that Kasumi, like Tae will not benefit from ChuChu’s Critical set to 2 skill which only applies to Raise A Suilen units.
Sample Decklist
The deck builds itself as the skills are reliant on getting Raise A Suilen music into the drop zone, having a choice for the 50th card of the deck. Tae was chosen as by having 1 more Grade 2 unit, it can reduce the odds off misgrading when riding up.
Trigger lineups is up to preference. I have chosen a 6 draw 6 critical 4 heal lineup, draws and criticals count can be adjusted to your own preference.
Gameplan
The deck has 1 major flaw, is that there are only 5 RAS unit cards and 3 RAS music cards. This means the deck has only 4 Grade 3s, 8 Grade 2s (more Grade 2s if you decided to play Tae/Kasumi) and 8 Grade 1s in units that can ride. The deck will always have to hard mulligan for Grade 1 and Grade 2 units to ride at the very least if not it would be at the mercy of the Grade Assist for riding up. This can be mitigated somewhat by balancing the deck ratios. However as all the bands have been xenophobic, it is not worth it to put more unit cards as most of them will be dead cards unless riding up.
Getting past the main deck flaws, the main way the deck wins is by setting up 30k RAS Front row units to benefit from Chuchu’s skill giving all 30k power RAS Units 2 Criticals, alongside playing EXPOSE ‘Burn Out!!!’ to make sure opponent does not gain power from damage triggers, making it hard for your opponent to guard these attacks. All while using the deck’s various cycling skills to build up the Music in the drop zone needed for EXPOSE ‘Burn Out!!!’ and draw into cards/music needed.
Conclusion
Raise A Suilen’s inclusion as a band explosively entering the scene fits itself well into Vanguard. It may have a lack of units and music to play with, but with its powerful effects, Raise A Suilen can show you its mark in the world. Besides being an oshi of the band of course.