We have a new Gold Paladin Stride with the RRR ‘Master Swordsman of First Light, Gurguit Helios’. His first skill is “[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Unite:[Choose a face down card from your G zone with the same card name as this unit, and turn it face up] This unit gets drive +1.” A very simple skill, but can be used on first Stride, which will help a lot when defending against your opponent's first Stride. Then he has “[CONT](VC) Generation Break 3:This unit gets [Power]+5000 for each of your rear-guards, and for the battle that this unit attacked, your opponent cannot call grade 1 or greater cards from hand to (GC).” This is going to be very hard to Guard against along with the 4 Drive Checks. If you can Retire ‘Gurguit’s’ rear-guards while Guarding it will lower his Power due to the ability being a CONT effect, but even then he'll be coming in very strong.
‘Knight of Sunny Day, Salonius’ is a Grade 2 with “[CONT](RC) Unite:If you have a grade 4 vanguard with "Gurguit" in its card name, all of your units get [Power]+2000.” And he has the defensive skill of “[AUTO](RC):At the beginning of the guard step that your vanguard with "Gurguit" in its card name is attacked, you may put this unit into your soul. If you do, call two cards from the top of your deck to (GC).” Going into Soul fuels both ‘Gurguits’, and it's probably best to run Perfect Guards that don't have to be called from hand if you're not already, as this achieving a Perfect Guard will be a godsend.
Gold Paladin also get the Grade 1, ‘Knight of Radiant Sun, Carinus’. She has “[CONT](RC):If you have a vanguard with the unite ability, this unit gets "[CONT](RC):Resist"., and she also has [ACT](RC) Generation Break 1 Unite:[[Rest] this unit] Choose one of your units, and it gets [Power]+4000 until end of turn. If you have a vanguard with "Gurguit" in its card name, choose one of your rear-guards with a different card name than this unit, and you may put it on the bottom of your deck. If you do, draw a card, and Counter Charge (1).” This is an amazing way to Counter Charge, and if you need to, you could easily replace her to increase your Power. It will also work well if your unit has been Giga-Paralyzed to prevent your opponent from gaining benefits from the card.
Murakumo get a couple of cards this week. First up is the grade 3, ‘Furious Hair Stealth Rogue, Ikkaku’. He has “[AUTO]:When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), choose one of the cards on your circle other than (VC), and you may put it on the bottom of your deck. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.” Because it targets a “card” and not a rear-guard, this does mean it can put Locked cards to the bottom of the deck. It also works really well for ‘Yasuie Tenma’ as it stops you from Retiring unnecessarily, as well as giving you a really good Power buff so even if you opponent gets a Trigger, your attacks still have a good chance of hitting. He also has “Shadowstitch-[AUTO](VC/RC) Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1)] At the end of the battle that this unit attacked a vanguard and did not hit, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a grade 2 or 1 card from your drop zone, search your deck for up to one card with the same card name as that card, call it to a (RC) this unit is not on, and shuffle your deck. At the end of that turn, put that unit on the bottom of your deck.” Both these skills are really useful for a backup Grade 3, especially as they both work on RC. Even though it's a common, I can see this becoming the backup in a lot of Murakumo decks.
Murakumo also get ‘Stealth Rogue of Entertainment, Senbe’. “[ACT](RC)[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a card from your drop zone, and put it on the bottom of your deck] Choose two of your units, until end of turn, one of them gets [Power]-5000, and the other gets [Power]+5000. At the end of that turn, return this unit to your hand.” This is great if you want to activate the one's Shadowstitch, while also getting a higher chance of scoring an on-hit effect with another Unit. He also has “[ACT](Hand) Generation Break 1:[Soul Blast (1) & Discard this card] Choose one of the cards on your circle other than (VC), and put it on the bottom of your deck. If you do, draw two cards.” This is also another way to get rid of Locked Units. Also using this to put away a ‘Yasuie Gouma’ rear-guard allows you to essentially plus.
For Angel Feather we have the new RRR Stride Unit, ‘Fanatic Seraph, Gavrail Eden’. Her first skill is “Rescue 1-[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Soul Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone with the same card name as this unit, and turn it face up] Choose a card from your damage zone, heal it, choose one of your vanguards, and deal one damage.” Then she has “[AUTO](VC):When this unit attacks, choose up to the same number of cards from your damage zone as the number of face up cards in your G zone, call them to separate (RC), they get [Power]+3000 until end of turn, and put the same number of cards from the top of your deck as the number of those units into your damage zone face down.” This is going to be a bit risky with increasing the chance of deck-out a lot, but it does put a lot of pressure on your opponent, and you still get to give the new Units any Trigger effects from the Triple Drive.
There is also a new Grade 3 ‘Gavrail’ with ‘Black Shock, Gavrail Prim’. Her first skill is “Rescue 1-[AUTO](VC):[Choose a card from your hand, and put it into your damage zone face up] When your G unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a card from your damage zone, put it into your hand, choose a card from your damage zone, heal it, choose one of your vanguards, and deal one damage.” Not only does this allow you to put key cards into your hand, and giving you an almost free Rescue, it also essentially gives 2 Counter Charges which works really well for after you've used ‘Gavrail Eden’. She also has the alternate Stride cost of “[CONT](VC) Generation Break 2:You may pay "Counter Blast (1)-card with the rescue ability" as the cost to Stride G units with the rescue ability.” This isn't much of a cost as you can easily Heal that face-down Unit, and you can put the Rescue Unit into your Damage through the on-Stride skill.
‘Antibody Pegasus’ is a Grade 2 with Resist on VC, RC, and GC. And it also has “[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)] When a card is put into your drop zone from your damage zone during your turn, if you have a vanguard with "Gavrail" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a face up card from your damage zone, call it to (RC), and put the top card of your deck into your damage zone face up.” It's great that you can use this several times a turn. The Soul Blasting might get a bit too much, but luckily this set has included a good amount of Soul Charging for Angel Feather. It's a shame this Unit doesn't have Rescue, but I think it makes up for that with having Resist.
Lastly for Angel Feather we have ‘Black Talent, Lailah’. She has “[CONT](RC):During the turn that a card was put into your drop zone from your damage zone, this unit gets [Power]+6000.” And “Rescue 1-[AUTO] Generation Break 2:[Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (RC) from your damage zone, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a card from your damage zone, heal it, choose one of your vanguards, and deal one damage.” A lot of the time, this unit will gain more or the same Power as ‘Thousand Ray Pegasus’, and the Rescue on top of that makes this card generally superior for the Rescue deck.
‘Grow Heater Dragon’ is a Kagero Grade 2, specifically for ‘Dragonic Overlord’. The first skill is “[AUTO]:When this unit is placed on (VC) or (RC), choose up to one card from your hand, reveal it, and if that card or your vanguard is not a card with "Overlord" in its card name, this unit gets [Power]-5000 until end of turn.” Very much like the ‘Maelstrom’ version of this, even if you lose the 5000 Power, it's still only until the end of turn, so this works very nicely for defensive purposes with its 10k base Power. His second skill is “[CONT](RC):If you have a grade 4 vanguard with "Overlord" in its original card name, this unit gets [Power]+2000 for each card in your opponent's damage zone.” This unit can get up to 20k on its own through its second skill. ‘Nehalem’ can get to similar amounts of Power, but I feel this is better if you're going against early rush decks.
We also have ‘Burning Horn Evolute’, another Grade 2 for ‘Overlord’, this time with “[AUTO]:[Soul Blast (1) & Choose a card with "Overlord" in its card name from your hand, and reveal it] When this unit is placed on (RC), you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards in the same column as this unit, and retire it.” And like the last card, it has “[CONT](RC):If you have a grade 4 vanguard with "Overlord" in its original card name, this unit gets [Power]+2000 for each card in your opponent's damage zone.” The Retire is very nice and an easy condition to meet without having to use too many resources. It's also great as your Vanguard doesn't need ‘Overlord’ in its name to activate this effect.
‘Doom Bringer Highflame’ comes with “[AUTO]:When this unit is placed on (RC), choose up to two cards with "Overlord" in their card names from your drop zone, return them to your deck, and if you returned one or more cards, shuffle your deck. If you returned two cards, draw a card.” Because of this card, I can imagine we'll be seeing more discarding of Grade 3 Flame Dragons as costs. Then, it also has “[AUTO](RC):[Retire this unit] At the beginning of your ride phase, you may pay the cost. If you do, until end of turn, if you Stride a G unit with "Overlord" in its card name, you may Stride without paying the cost the next time you Stride.” If you do need to discard Grade 3s, then this skill is also going to be very useful so you don't have to rely on discarding from hand.
The last Clan to talk about this week is Tachikaze. Firstly they have a new RRR Stride with ‘Destruction New Emperor, Gaia Devastate’. He has Engorge and “[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone with the same card name as this unit, and turn it face up] When this unit becomes engorged, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card, choose up to two of any players' circles other than (VC) for each face up card in your G zone, and put all cards in those circles into the drop zone. If three or more of your cards were put, this unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1/Drive+1.” Like the Murakumo cards, due to the wording, this unit can get rid of Locked cards. Tachikaze did have a bit of a difficult time against Link Joker before, but this should help them a lot. This card can also be a field wipe for your opponent, and stops ‘Messiahs’ Locking their own Units for defensive purposes.
‘Photon Wave Dragon, Chasmolux’ is another of the 10k Grade 2s, where you have to reveal a ‘Gaia’ card to not lose 5000 power. It also has “[CONT](RC):If you have a grade 4 vanguard with "Gaia" in its card name, this unit unit gets [Power]+3000 for each face up card with the engorge ability in your G zone.” This can very easily rack up in Power, and unlike the Kagero version, you have a lot more control with this one, as you don't have to rely on Damaging your opponent.
Lastly we have ‘Heavy Bullet Dragon, Diablo Cannon’, another Grade 2. It has Engorge, and “[CONT](RC):If you have a vanguard with "Gaia" in its card name, this unit gets [Power]+2000.” This works even on your opponent's turn for good defence. This Unit also has “[AUTO] Generation Break 1:[Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] When this engorged unit is retired from (RC) for the effect or cost of your vanguard with the engorge ability, you may pay the cost. If you do, call this unit to (RC), and it gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.” Seeing as ‘Gaia Devastate’ draws a card, and gets Quad Drive, this cost doesn't seem very big for a 16k extra attack that you can put Triggers onto. This also works well with ‘Gluttony Dogma’ for one big push on your opponent.
