Hi amigos, Stoicheia just got their new Ride Line skills revealed! Let’s take some time to discuss it and some aspects moving forward. Let’s dive into it!
Skills
First let’s do the Ride Line!
AUTO: When rode upon, if you went second, draw a card.
Right: Inload Shooter
AUTO: When this unit is rode upon by “Ascendance Assault”, call this card to RC.
CONT(RC): If your vanguard is “Flagship Dragon, Flagburg Dragon” or “Ascendance Assault”, this unit gets “Intercept” and Power +2000.
Oh snap! The Aquaroids are part of the Ride Line! It’s great to see the artwork of these units! The starter skill is the same before but I’ll definitely be using this guy in all of my Stoicheia decks.
Inload Shooter is a nice +1 on the field. Plus it services as a 10k booster for your columns. Most likely you’ll call it behind the VG to have some pressure early on from the VG column.
AUTO: You may pay “Reveal a ‘Flagship Dragon, Flagburg Dragon’ or an ‘Inload Shooter’ from your hand” as the cost for this ability. When this unit is rode upon, COST[SB1 other than this card], and call this card to RC.
AUTO(RC)[1/Turn]: When your other rearguard attacks a vanguard, if your vanguard is “Flagship Dragon, Flagburg Dragon”, COST[CB1], and Stand this unit.
Right: Flagship Dragon, Flagburg Dragon
AUTO(VC): When this unit attacks a vanguard, COST[CB1], and perform the following effects below based on how many attacks have been performed during that turn.
*3 or more – Draw a card.
*4 or more – Choose two of your opponent’s rearguards, and retire them.
*5 or more – Until the end of this battle, this unit gets Power +10000, and when your opponent would call to GC from hand, he or she must call three or more at the same time.
Ascendance Assault has a rode upon skill where it can come out to give another +1 on field. It’s appreciated but you must have either the G1 or the G3 in hand to do the skill. The RC skill though, is super useful since it restands! The pattern seems that this needs to attack before another RG attacks to restand. In history of Aqua Force, we’re used to being immediately or after that battle it attacked ends. So this is slightly different timings.
Flagburg himself! It’s interesting that it gains more effects as the number of battles are more that turn. Ideally we do want to get to 5 battles. That last effect has it gain +10k and forcing 3 cards to GC for the opponent if they guard. The G1 helps with an additional +10k too. Lastly, the 3 and 4 battles are nice since we can have a +1 in hand and -2 the opponent’s field.
Now for the other support to help with its plays!
AUTO: When this unit is placed on RC, if your vanguard is “Flagship Dragon, Flagburg Dragon”, choose one of your other rearguards, and it gets “AUTO(RC): When this unit attacks, if it is the first battle of that turn, COST[CB1 & SB1], and Stand this unit.” until end of turn.
Middle: Agressblue Dragon
AUTO(RC)[1/Turn]: At the end of the battle that this unit attacked a rearguard, if your vanguard is “Flagship Dragon, Flagburg Dragon”, COST[SB1], and Stand this unit.
Right: Creed Assault
CONT(RC): If you did not have a rearguard Stand by your card’s effect during this turn, this unit cannot attack.
CONT(RC): During the battle that this unit attacked a vanguard, this unit gets Power +10000.
High-rate Burst Dragon is a great flexible card on making another RG a restander! Not only that, but it can be stacked onto a card that already is a restander. That unit alone can do 3 battles. Definitely worth trying this card out!
Agressblue Dragon is a restander! It reminds me of the Tidal Assault from V Series but more restricted to attacking a RG to restand. This essentially helps get rid of the front row RGs and then let Flagburg take care of what’s remaining. The only annoying thing is when the opponent doesn’t have front row RGs to attack to. So be mindful of that, but still it’s a SB1 versus a CB1.
Lastly but not least, Creed Assault! The CONT skill is kind of annoying because it forces you to make sure you have a RG that restands. It can be by ANY skill though. But I think the reason for it is because of the next skill. The 2nd skill has it gain +10k when it attacks VG! So we have a beater to go along with the restanding RGs. Again, back in Aqua Force days it was best to have a combination of restanders and beaters to have an effective turn.
Key Highlights
- The deck is focused on achieving a certain number of battles and gaining more benefits
- We have cards that restand themselves or others to help increase the number of battles
- Our 3 cards that restand use resources such as CB1 and SB1 or both
- Our VG skill is CB1 so with restanders, we’ll be using about 2-3 CB, 1-2 SB per turn
- Flagburg forces 3 cards if it attacks 5th battle or more if the opponent guards
- Persona Riding will help cards like restanders thrive, so it seems its strongest is at Turn 4
Cipher and Zellious from Axis Vanguard have already play tested a bit and recognized a few things:
- The deck thrives on Turn 4 if you’re able to Persona Ride
- Perhaps on Turn 3 is not always necessary to get 5 attacks, 4 is a great spot
- You draw a card
- You retire 2 RGs on your opponent’s side (which can hurt some decks and get rid of annoying RGs)
- It has a similar style of Old Aqua Force playstyle
- Flagburg’s skill at 5 battles seems lackluster if the opponent was going to No Guard anyway (such as being at early damage)
I think we have a solid Ride Line to work with. It’s great that they even revealed 2 support cards to have a more fully functioning deck to play test. I feel it has potential and it reminds me of the OG Maelstrom days! Here are there skills and meme to go along with it ha!
Resource Management
It’s worth mentioning that there needs to be some type of resource management. Luckily we do have 2 cards that help and come to mind.
[AUTO](RC):When your other unit attacks, if it is the fifth battle of this turn, COST
[put this unit into your soul], and Counter Charge (1).
Right: Aspiring Maiden, Arana
AUTO(RC): At the end of the battle that this unit boosted, COST[put this unit into your soul], choose one of your units, and it gets Power +2000 until end of turn.
At first, Prized Trident comes to mind because it does help with both Soul and CB! You can view this card as refunding our VG’s CB1 cost and a SB1 from one of our restanders.
Arana is our Critical Trigger that can help make numbers and go into Soul. I believe she’ll play a role on making efficient plays. Feel free to read a prior article about them here.
overDress Impact
It’s too early to tell since more Ride Lines will be revealed soon. But overall I do feel this will be a contender. Plus as we get more Stoicheia cards, we’ll see if they help the deck.
Furthermore, we can use the existing cards that have helped Zorga.
Spiritual Body Condensation can help with reviving RGs that we need. It also can revive our restanders with an additional +5k. Which can hit VGs on their own!
Sensationalism may be something to try out since it can give power. Once you hit 15 cards in the Drop Zone, then that unit will gain an additional +Critical. Restanders can take advantage of this the most too.
Cards that give power to others will be key, such as a Admantis and Ellenia. Ellenia can revive our restanders and give them +5k. While Admantis can be on placed anywhere and distribute the +5k to a restander.
These are a few things that come into mind for now. So perhaps there are other cards that I may have missed.
Premium Impact
I think the biggest thing impact wise is that now the clans outside of Aqua Force gain more options. Outside of Aqua Force, both Magallanica and Zoo clans now have access to some restanders assuming you’re using Flagburg as your VG and/or Heart in Striding.
This can create some plays players haven’t considered or tried out. So I’m curious what comes of it.
AUTO(RC)[1/Turn]: When your other rearguard attacks a vanguard, if your vanguard is “Flagship Dragon, Flagburg Dragon”, COST[CB1], and Stand this unit.
I know clans like Neo Nectar have access to Force Markers and may somehow take advantage of that. Both Force I and II have their benefits and restanders can take advantage of it.
Granblue can easily fulfill the 5th battle condition since it can multi attack and reride during the battle phase with the Bad Bounty stride. Flagburg is actually a good reride target for Bad Bounty. Then you end your turn with now having a 13k base VG. Which helps since Granblue is a Protect clan.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’m excited for the new support! It has the Aqua Force vibe to it as well. I’m curious to see how over time this deck will evolve. Are you excited for the new support?
Thanks again for reading! Till next time amigos, see ya!