Blade Wing/Assassins (deck recipe) [GBT11]

Blade Wing/Assassins are not new to the game but GBT11 brought them incredible synergy with Darkness cards; the whole soul charging and assassin combo is now much easier to manage.
What is the assassin combo? The "assassin" refers to Enigmatic Assassin; basically she has the ability to superior call herself to a rear-guard circle and gain power at the beginning of an attack step depending on the amount of soul. Because literally everything in this deck soul charges you will eventually get multiple Assassins in to soul; a decent turn with Demagogue or Tibold will create 30k+ attackers and for every 1 Assassin in soul = 1 extra attack. This combined with stand triggers form the main tool of pressure; potentially 6~8 30k+ attacks on first stride is nothing to scoff at.
There are 2 builds differentiated by only a couple of cards:

• The original build that plays a set of Blade Wing, Skyes.
• The new build that plays Demonted Executioners and just more emphasis on the Darkness engine.

The newer build is our preferred one as Demonted Executioners give the deck some sort of early game so you don't just die to rush.

Recipe 

* = not staple/replace with what you like

Grade 4: 16
4 Wings of Annihilation, Blade Wing Tibold
2 One Who Splits Darkness, Bledermaus
1 Great Demon, Souless Demagogue
1 Sorrowful Slice, Lujairus *
1 One Steeped in Sin, Scharhrot *
1 Casket of Absolute Zero, Rutland Betray *
1 Air Element, Sebreeze
2 Medical Studies of Extinction, Vincent (G-guardian)
1 False Dark Wings, Agrat Bat Mahlat (G-guardian)
1 Cryptid Gnaw Liege, Sabnac (G-guardian)
1 Nighttime Gentleman, Saint-Germain (G-guardian)
Grade 3: 5
4 Blade Wing Sullivan (Main grade 3)
1 One who Scatters Sin, Scharhrot *
Grade 2: 11
4 Flying Librarian
1 Blade Wing Skyes
3 Demonted Executioner
3 Covetous Succubus
Grade 1: 13
2 Succubus of Avarice (Sentinel)
4 Wertiger Jeager
3 Succubus of Pure Love *
4 Dimension Creeper
Grade 0
4  Hysteric Shirley (Draw)
1 Vanilla draw trigger (Draw)
4 Monochrome of Nightmareland (Stand)
3 Werkatze Rekrut (Stand)
4 Medical Scientist, Vincent (Heal)
4 Enigmatic Assassin
1 Deranged Singular (Starter)

Notes

Some card explanations

• 1 Lujairus in case I have to ride Scharhrot; never ride him btw...his only here for the rear-guard ability. Lujairus can easily get me Sullivan to re-ride. You don't have to play the 1 off Scharhrot either, 4 grade 3s is just very iffy sometimes.
• I decided to play the darkness engine over Skyes; I just like slightly better early game, Executioner can charge Wertiger to draw and having darkness cards in soul makes Wertiger live earlier.
• You only need 2 sentinels, 3 if you think your unlucky because this deck soul charges so much it'll eventually end up in the soul and just use Avarice's ability to add her to hand.
• 3 Pure Love (stride fodders) because low grade 3 count and I want consistency.
• Decided to go with 5 draw instead of the standard 6 because I like to play a little more aggressive. Hysteric Shirley's are a must for more soul charging. Draws traditionally give more consistency but are more valuable in this deck due to Sullivan's ability, they become 15k shields and if you proc'd one you basically got yourself an extra 10k shield minimum. Also this deck plays a 'weird' line up because of the Assassins.
• Deranged Singular is also my preferred starter; His on-stride ability where he shoves himself and grade 1 or greater units on field in to soul and draws 2 cards is very valuable imo. Your typical targets are Wertiger and Creeper, if there's nothing on the field then simply shove him in soul to draw 2 cards... Werfleder Ordannaz typically soul charges more but I don't like the counter-blast he costs and he only draws 1.

Playing the deck

• Early game avoid dropping key cards such as Flying Librarian and Covetous Succubus, against rush try to mulligan for Demonted Executioner so you can attempt soul charging a Wertiger to draw a card. Its ok to take damage just try not to hit 5. Depending on your hand 3~ damage is ideal as it gives you counter-blast to play with without having to worry too much about soul requirements for things like Librarian; if you plan to proc Wertiger's abilities multiple times then you probably want 4~ counter-blast. Be careful of taking too much damage though because it'll force you to constantly recycle heal triggers.
• Tip for using Enigmatic Assassins -"At the beginning of your attack step" is when you declare an attack but BEFORE you select a unit to attack with. To declare an attack, there needs to be a unit capable of attacking, this is useful for example:
  1. You have Enigmatic Assassins in soul, lets say all 4 =P and you have plenty soul for Assassin's abilities.
  2. You are playing against Link Joker and your board is locked except for 1 circle in the front.
  3. You are on Tibold.
  4. Enter battle phase > *1* declare an attack (Tibold hasn't attacked yet), Enigmatic Assassin's ability procs, call to open circle > *2* attack declaration continues, select Enigmatic Assassin as the attacking unit > *3* proceed through attack steps > *4* declare an attack again (Tibold still hasn't attacked yet), Enigmatic Assassin's ability procs, call ON TOP of the existing Assassin > *5* attack declaration continues, select new Enigmatic Assassin as the attacking unit > *6* proceed through attack steps > repeat steps *1*~*6* until there are no more Assassins.

So, as long as you have an unit that can be selected to attack with Assassins can come out.

If you understand this example then you should know how this attack pattern can be advantageous for example Scharhrot might be on the other circle and you want to keep him or you have a grade 2 which can be a 15k shield.

• Main combos in this deck:

Demagogue+Assassins
The point of this combo is to use the massive soul charge engine in this deck to generate power with Demagogue and get Enigmatic Assassins in to soul to make multi-attacks. With a decent hand and luck can usually get you 12~ soul charges which is a +12k to the front units. Lets say your a god and have 4 full powered Assassins (20k each) in soul, you can make 6 attacks usually varying between 16 to 36k depending if you boost etc before triggers. The full combo requires 19 soul (15+4 Assassins) so think how/if you can acquire this first before trying it and whether you need all Assassins to have the max 20k power. Typically the best place to start is by having Sullivan copy Dimensional Creepers and/or multiple Flying Librarians.

1. grade 1 [1]+grade 2 [1]+ride Sullivan, copy Creeper [3]+stride Demagogue, proc Deranged Singular, assume himself and the Creeper [2] = 7
2. Using the Creepers in soul should bring your soul to 11 > 8 more soul shouldn't be hard to gather from other units; Monochrome, Wertiger, Flying Librarian and Covetous Succubus should be able to chain draw power to get more Librarians, Monochromes etc to soul charge.
3. Proceed to multi-attack with Assassins that you HOPEFULLY soul charged.

You typically don't want to force the Demagogue+Assassin combo as failure can cost you the game (you can get more soul with Lujairus or Tibold which allows you to tank longer), it requires a lot of luck to get multiple Assassins in soul and you typically want to prioritise a huge soul to abuse Sullivan's ability and hand advantage so you can set up for other combos.

Tibold+Assassins
Similar to Demagogue+Assassin you want to use Tibold to power up a bunch of Assassin attacks (30k each full power). This play requires more set up than Demagogue usually its over 2~ turns but is super easy to pull off once you get the hang of manipulating your soul.

1. First you need to get Enigmatic Assassins in soul -
   • You can do this with Tibold's ability to soul charge 5 cards combined with your soul charging units. Prior to this you want to get as many Assassins in the drop zone, they'll return to deck via Tibold's ability. You also want to keep cards returned back at a minimum, count/balance between how many cards is optimal so you won't deck out, value of triggers (you probably don't want draws to avoid drawing Assassins) to maximise the chance of soul charging Assassins.
     Tip - You can easily acquire a large soul with Tibold's ability. Ending your opponent's turn with 14 soul > soul charge 5 with Tibold will already puts you at 19 soul. 
   • Extension to the point above you can hold Demonted Executioners in hand and use them after Assassins have been returned to deck via Tibold. Since Enigmatic Assassin is a darkness card if your deck is relatively filtered you can just shove them straight to soul with Executioner.
   • Another way to shove Assassins in soul is with One Steeped in Sin, Scharhrot; when he attacks you shove your entire field in soul so just make sure they're all cards you want in there (Assassins, Wertigers, Creepers etc). This play is technically a minus, you lose cards so be sure you're able to tank your opponent's turn after.
     Tip - Say you did the Tibold+Assassins combo the previous turn you manipulate to have a field of Assassins afterwards (make columns instead of replacing them) you can use Scharhrot to shove them back in soul and basically go for a round 2 Tibold+Assassins.
2. You need 15 soul when you stride to trigger Tibold's power ability. Against decks that attack lot you might find yourself short on soul, what you want to do is manipulate your soul to end on 13~14 during your opponent's turn, you have to think hard about your guard patterns because there will be A LOT of soul interactions between G-guardians, Werkatze and Sullivan's ability then re-ride Sullivan on your turn (copy something if you need to) to get your 15th soul.
   Tip - Werkatze and Sullivan's soul abilities go off at the same time so you get to choose which to use first.
3. Proceed to attack.

Tibold is pretty much this deck's default stride, its almost never wrong to go in to Tibold; prevents deck out, soul charges when needed or can be a power buff.

Bledermaus+Scharhrot G3
This one is very simple but again requires set up. We're simply abusing One Who Scatter's Sin, Scharhrot's guard condition ability.

1. Begin filtering your soul a BEFORE your Bledermaus turn, use your Assassins and get rid of any grade 0s you don't want in your deck with Sullivan's soul blast ability. Bledermaus returns grade 0s to deck, you want to prioritise stand triggers for this play.
2. Hopefully by now your deck is relatively thinned/filtered to the point where after you use Bledermaus' ability the chance of hitting stand triggers are high. Basically you manipulated the deck correctly you can:
   1. Play Scharhrot attack with him once for 16k.
   2. Attack with Bledermaus, use his ability to give Scharhrot 5k (21k now) driver check, hit a stand trigger, effects to Scharhrot, re-stand Bledermaus.
   3. Attack with Scharhrot (26k).
   4. Attack with Bledermaus, drive check, hopefully hit another stand trigger, effects to Scharhrot.
   5. Attack with Scharhrot (31k) again.

To get the most out of  your soul charging this card here are some tips:

• Take notes of what you are soul charging; say you just soul charged 3 cards and they were NOT triggers, its likely the next few cards are triggers, then count your triggers and think if you have 8 triggers left in a deck of 20 cards, what's the chance of you soul charging another trigger?Use this information like this to determine whether you should be soul charging more, if you want to drive check those triggers you will have to weigh whether triggers are better or having a bigger soul is better in the situation.
• Taking the above in to account make use of Monochrome. For example if you know its likely that the next few cards are triggers and you need to continue soul charging use Monochrome to basically shuffle/reset your soul charging state for a less likely chance to soul charge triggers.Additionally use Monochrome towards the end of your soul charging to increase the trigger count in deck.

In a tournament setting you actually need to carry your opponent because of the time limit and this decks solitaire-like nature. On top of managing all your resources you need to play fast and to do all that you need to be planning 2-3 turns ahead. So be prepared for lots of practice and testing if you want to play this deck!