CFV - SGD/Blasters April 2017

Yep another SGD update...

SGD is still imo the best Royal Paladin deck to play right now, english game has finally caught up... (I've been talking about it for months =_=) and its everywhere now, super strong along with Chronojet and Nightrose. For those that really want to play this deck...get it now because this is probably going to be its strongest its ever going to be at least in the near future, when the Rummy Labyrinth booster drops Nightrose is pretty much going to be the solo best deck (as in Japan right now). SGD won't be as dominant but definitely still in the top 5.

GRADE 4: 16

3 Holy Dragon, Sanctuary Guard Regalie

4 Aerial Divine Knight, Altmile

2 Blazing Sword, Fides

1 Air Elemental, Sebreeze

2 Holy Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon

2 Holy Dragon, Laserguard Dragon

1 Vivid Sacred Staff, Andragius

1 Dark Element Dizeml

GRADE 3: 5

4 Sanctuary Guard Dragon

1 Sanctuary Guard Arc

GRADE 2: 15

4 Sage of Salvation, Benon

4 Blaster Blade

1 Blaster Blade Spirit

4 Favoured Disciple of Light and Dark, Llew

1 Knight of Twin Sword

1 Starlight Violinist

GRADE 1: 13

4 Laurel Knight, Sicilus

4 Blaster-Friend, Barcgal

2 Swordsman of Light, Blaster Rapier Laura

3 Hidden Sage, Miron

GRADE 0: 17

4 Floral Paladin, Flogal 

4 Bringer of Dreams, Belenus 

4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona 

2 Any other critical trigger 

2 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine (play 16 crit if you don't play against Kagero)

1 Wingal Brave (starter)

I'm just going to dive right in to the meat of this post...because I'm lazy =P

This is a very standard list for SGD if any of you are familiar with the Japanese meta, tbh you could probably just look at the G-zone and ignore everything except the Regalies...I've said this before and I'll say it again, if you've built and played this deck correctly then it's never going pass 2nd stride, if it does the game is lost simply, I could write a whole post about this alone but I want to just get to the point...we run out of resources way too quickly, just food for thought: 

• Every time we use Flogal's ability it's a -1, how many times can we keep going minus for more attacks until we're out of cards?
• We only have 4 Blaster Blades, theoretically if we ride one, draw or damage check 1 that's easily 2-3 out of the deck, how many times can we actually use Llew's ability then? Btw that's the main reason Twin Sword is in here...(we can still kinda multi-attack if all our Blaster Blades are gone).
• SGD has no real effective/consistent way of counter charging, even if we play a whole set of PGGs, Damascus or Paccgal, how long can we actually play the game until we're out of counter blast?

These are few of the reasons why this deck should not be aimed to play past 1-2 strides.

Llew is back at 4 simple because I need to deal as much damage as possible; many games if I only have 1cb I'll go for the Llew+Barcgal/Flogal play over Benon+Miron because we really need our opponent to be on 3+ damage by first stride.

You may also notice the complete lack of sentinels that's because you want to avoid riding a 6000 unit because attacking a 7000 unit would be 10000 shield for no pass, basically you can lose a turn of free damage on G1 if your opponent guards, with 10000 vanillas becoming more popular and G-guards becoming more powerful its harder to end games fast now so the deck really can't afford to miss damages. Also note that because this deck plays 10 7000 units we can actually stay on G1 and still apply pressure longer than most decks, sentinels basically have 0 guard value and you don't want to call a 6000 unit to attack...if your opponent leaves the G1 on board you can make 16000 columns later which is useful the following 2-3 turns even if your opponent is on G3 and you decide to stay on G2 and all of this goes back to the benefits of having your opponent ride G2 first. I'll put this here again for those that missed it:

• We can sit on G1 until our opponent rides G2 first. 
• We want the opponent to ride G2 first because this automatically puts Sebreeze pressure on them, they'll then have to ride to G3 first, re-ride G2 or not damage us to prevent us from playing Sebreeze (which they've already done if we sat on G1). 
• This gives us a chance to hoard counter blasts which is important because the deck doesn't function on low damage. Being on higher damage than our opponent is also a good way to deny heals.

People email me time and time again...yes, I am still playing the 14 crit and 2 heals, 4 heals is too defensive, you really want every drive check to be a crit, especially the first 3~ damage, it hurts SO much when you heal away a counter blast...I'd love to play 16 crit, I actually prefer it, its much more consistent and makes EVERY vanguard attack scary but my locals have Kagero players. Kagero has always been a crappy match up for SGD but its basically insane nightmare mode now that they start with Conroe, basically we'll almost never be able to end the game on first stride because they'll just Denial Griffin our rears and if they have 2+ heals, pretty much just scoop hence why I play 2 heals and Blaster Rapier Laura, they give me a chance.

• Laura being a "Blaster", Wingal synergy and 7000 unit makes her really useful in the early game, that's enough reason to play her especially since this deck isn't playing for pass 1-2 strides but more importantly she has resist which can get around Denial Griffin and Heteroround. Stride Regalie, put Laura in the front row, dump all your triggers on to her and pray the Kagero player doesn't have an answer. Literally the only way for SGD to win unless we sack really hard on G2.
• The heals again are our 2nd chance against Kagero, if they have GB active they'll be going in to Dragonic Blademaster "Taiten" and hit us with an extra crit (this applies to all decks that has a stride with crit on GB2) that could just straight up end the game, we don't typically need the heal triggers to actually heal a damage, we want them our hand since we generally have a low hand size being able to G-guard helps a TON.

The deck is honestly very simple to play, yes there are tips and tricks in the G1/G2 game to make it harder for your opponent, I'm not going to share those because they're things you eventually learn by playing the deck and is better to figure out yourself than to have someone tell you, I guess it separates the good from the great SGD players...but ultimately its a rush deck that wins by swing pretty much everything at your opponent's face. 

*images from cardfight.wikia*