The Skyfall Executioner – Youthberk

“The knight disappointed by the heavens, dons its black armor, chooses the destruction of the skies”

Welcome to an in depth look at the Skyfall Knight, Youthberk. Featuring some of the edgiest character design Vanguard has seen in a while along with a brand new mechanic, Revoldress, I’m sure this will become a fan favourite deck.

Revoldress

The key feature of Youthberk is Revoldress, a new and unique ability that Youthberk’s main vanguards possess that allows them to ride a unit with Revolform in its name from your hand after it attacks. This gives you 2 vanguard attacks in a turn for no additional cost – compared to most other skills that give additional Vanguard attacks, this is a bargain.

There is a catch, however, because the unit you ride with this effect loses 2 drive checks making that additional Vanguard attack 0 drive (which makes it a net minus to hand overall). At the end of turn, Revolform units will then force you to reride into a unit with the Revoldress skill (either Youthberk) from soul if there is one available, effectively resetting your Vanguard for next turn.

Both Grade 3 units feature the same Revoldress skill but they differ in their secondary skill. Skyfall is able to discard a card to look at the top 3 cards of your deck for a Revolform unit to add to hand or call a G2 or less amongst them to RC, then the rest goes to the bottom of the deck. On the other hand Protofall has a RG skill that gives it 5000 power when a G3 or greater vanguard was placed this turn. Lastly, Protofall first skill, essentially allows you to activate Persona Ride if you ride either itself or Skyfall Arms on top of it (but not the other way around).

Between the two, Skyfall will be your go to Vanguard as that ACT skill adds to decks consistency and allows you to try and play out of brick hands.

Revolforms

Revolforms are the targets of your battlephase reride skills and are something you always want to have access to make the strategy consistent. They are all Grades 3s and represent Youthberk in various stances in a different battle stances with changes to its armor and weapon. They feature abilities to compensate for the lack of drive check to still make them threatening enough to guard against. As mentioned above, they also have a secondary skill that forces a reride into a Revlodress unit in your soul at the end of the turn – soulblasting them all can leave you stranded on a vanilla Vanguard with a name that will also deny your Persona Rides.

Rideline

The Youth rideline is a pretty simple one.

G1 Youth is a 10k attacker on VG/RG. When the G2 Youth rides over it, you may SB1 to look at the top 3 cards of your deck for a Youthberk to put into the hand or call out a G2 or less unit to rg – either way it’s more or less always going to be a plus and is likely going to be SB1 well spent.

G2 Youth can pay SB1 to raise itself by 5000 when boosted. When a Revoldress unit rides on top of it you may pay CB1 to add a G2 unit or greater card from the drop zone to your hand, which you can use in a similar way to retrieve a card you threw away for the ride deck or even a G2 you used to rush. 

There’s not much reason to run copies of them in the main deck as they don’t offer too much unless you’re looking to play very aggressively in which the G1 Youth might see play. G2 Youth would be a bit good if it weren’t for the SB1 cost but that stops it from being much use s a beatstick.

Your Grade 3 will then be your choice of Protofall Arms from the trial deck or the improved Youthberk Skyfall Arms from the booster set. To understand the 2 let’s first understand how Revoldress works. 

Playstyle

The Youthberk deck features an almost completely Vanguard focused strategy and finisher, which makes is less usualy in D format with Thegrea being the closest thing within its nation. Its many secondary mechanics that call G2 units gives it the opportunity to easily maintain a rearguard formation or rush and many of those supporting pieces can search for Youthberks or Revolforms.

Due to its ability to search, it also thins decks very well which gives it an edge if the game lasts longer. In summary, either you play aggro with it, where the rush lays the foundation for Youthberk to end the game decisively or you play passively, using constant card flow and deck thinning to grind the game out. You may even find something in between.

Deck Building

To be consistent with Revoldress, you will allocate at least 10-11 slots in your deck to your Grade 3s, along with triggers and perfect guards. Additionally, Schneizal is your best supporting unit, so you definitely want to play as many as you can.

For the ride deck depending on your preference , you can either play Skyfall for its skill or Protofall to have more Persona Ride targets in the deck.

Thus, we have around 11 or 12 slots left to fill up at most. This depends on the direction you want to take your deck, for example, an aggressive version won’t want any grade 3s and will lean more towards using G2s and G1s to rush down your opponent, whereas a grindy deck might go in another direction. What rearguards you choose to play will also depend on how you take the deck forward.

Youthberk “Revolform Zest” 

“In order to shatter the order of the skies, the dark knight wields the strength of crimson.”

Zest was the first Revolform that was saw and is the one that you get in the trial deck. It’s the more simple of the two (current) Revolform units – when placed on VG by Revoldress, it gets 15000 and if you persona rode turn, it even gets an extra critical. Its main function would be as your main Revolform unit on your first G3 turn when going first or as a finisher to create “checkmate” scenarios where your opponent absolutely has to guard. It also has no cost attached to it, unlike Gust who requires a discard – that probably won’t matter often but its worth keeping in mind.

Its main flaw is that for it to be at full potential, you have to have Persona Rode that turn as while it does have high power, it’s just a one damage attack with no surprises which will be easily no guarded by an opponent under 5 damage.

Youthberk “Revolform Gust“

“The blue lightning speeds forth. Gripping the blade in these hands, leading the path forward.”

Gust is your safest Revolform much of the time. It’s simple but works well with how many grade 3s the deck ends up running. If your opponent is a Grade 3 or above, when Gust enters by Revoldress you can discard a card to give itself 10000 power and a drive +1, making it more in line with other VGs that reride or restand during the battle phase. It’s also cycling you a card which is generally going to be something you want to do – the fact that it does it via a drive check is just even better.

It also has a downside, however, this time being that it has an “opponent must be G3 restriction” which means you can’t use it on your first G3 turn if you’re going first. It also has slightly lower power than Zest and a discard cost attached to its power and drive check which . During a Persona Ride turn, its going to vary which is better, Zest or Gust, but outside of a Persona Ride turn, Zest is pretty mcuh always going to be better.

Core Rearguards

Knight of Fracture, Schneizal

Probably the most important supporting unit in the main deck. On place and for a counterblast, Schneizel searches the top 5 cards of your deck for any Youthberk which helps you get your Persona Rides and gives your Revoldress added consistency by finding your Revolforms. It even gives itself 5000 for the turn, easily forming 23 with a booster or just great for rushing in general. That being said, failing the top 5 check (and it will happen) with a skill that costs 1CB will hurt.

Its second ability is not to be overlooked either. When it attacks it can give your vanguard +5000 for the turn if it was placed this turn over a G3 Vanguard (either by normal ride or Revoldress). 28000 is a very important magic number in the format right now so being able to guarantee it on Gust or your regular Vanguard attack during Persona Ride can be huge. 

Knight of Piercing, Caedwalla

A card from the expansion pack in the trial deck, Caedwalla is probably one of the better Grade 2s in the whole of Keter Sanctuary. At the end of the battle it attacks and if you have 4 or more units, you can pay SB1 and retire it to search the top 3 cards of your deck for a G2 or above to add to your hand and shuffle. If you miss the search or choose not to take a card, you then draw 1 after the shuffles.

While I do not think you need to max it out in all builds necessarily, its an excellent card throughout the game and is excellent early game in particular, or to find a Revoldress in a do or die situation. For a card in a trial deck, its powerful and generic which is a rare combination in the format.

High Synergy Units

While not essential units to run, they offer strong synergy with the core cards/strategy that the deck often goes for.

Enucleate Angel

A new card introduced to support the deck. When your G3 unit is ridden by a skill, you can soulblast 1 to retire it to countercharge and give that vanguard +5000 for the turn. While it is a minus 1 in terms of card advantage, the extra 5000 is useful for pushing your Vanguard’s attack over the 28k power level. Obviously, it’s best placed behind the Vanguard or a unit that is going to attack before using Revoldress.

Painkiller Angel

A really solid G1 that can trade itself for a draw after its boost for SB1. Ensures a constant flow of cards and also keeps your hand healthy. Improves consistency and is a way to dump the soul you passively generate over time.

Decisive Axe Dragon

A grade 3 rearguard that can block your opponent from guarding with normal units during its attack if you’ve ridden via a card’s effect (Revoldress) this turn.

Bedivere and Kay

Bedivere will search Kay for 1CB and 1SB and Kay will gain 5k power when it boosts Bedivere. That sounds good but Bedeviere does have some restrictions that hurt the pair. A 23k column and some deck thinning isn’t bad but your Vanguard must be G3 (though, not your opponent’s Vanguard) and Bedivere can only call Kay to the same column too. 1CB and 1SB is also quite a high cost in a deck that can already thin and builds 23k columns fairly easily.

Deck Builds

Do check out the links below for deck builds

DBT06 Deckbuilds by Cipher

Strategy

Mapping your Soul

Keeping track of your soul and finding ways to use it is a theme you have to incorporate with the deck to truly utilize the soul you generate from Revoldress. You will generally have two souls for your other skills during the first three turns of the game since your ride deck uses a soul. As the re-riding part of Revoldress will only trigger at the end of a turn, the deck generally does not generate soul during the main phase.

Deck Thinning

With all the deck thinning the deck does, it gets stronger as time goes on because you’ll constantly be removing cards that aren’t triggers – as the game goes on, your drive checks get more and more dangerous. On the downside, you do have to keep an eye on the remaining cards in your deck – while decking out is easily avoidable, you are burning through your units and deck quickly so you have to be aware of it.

In some ways, this is also part of your win condition so when assigning trigger powers do make the most out of it.

Power Lines

Learning to keep track of triggers and sentinels in your opponent’s hand is an important skill to pick up in Vanguard. If you have a good idea of what is in your opponent’s hand, you can figure out the best ways to attack. For Beatdown decks, if you do hold back during a turn you could potentially win, you may give your opponent that one turn they need to reach their own win condition.

The Table here will help you know what power levels will get what cards out of your opponent’s hand – often referred to as “magic numbers”, you can see what our important break points are for forcing the most cards onto the guardian circle.

Specific Plays

“Gust Arms” Plays

Maintaining a Hand

Summary

Pros and Cons

#Thank you for reading and do share it if you found it useful. This deck study will be updated accordingly with each set release if there is any significant builds or new support cards – Cipher

• Written by Cipher
• Edited by Dravoth