Gurguit Helios (deck recipe) [GBT13]

GBT13 just dropped and Gurguit got some nice support. There are 2 builds for Gurguit:

• The more traditional build with stand triggers and Jeffery that has more emphasis on multi-attacks and value plays.
• The deck built around Gurguit Helios - make your vanguard very big and try to 1 shot them with quad drive and guard restriction.

The recipe here is the latter, I feel it's the better build given the meta is populated with Kagero, Link Joker and Aqua Force; games typically end or is pretty clear who's going to win after second stride.

Recipe

* = not staple/replace with what you like

Grade 4: 16
4 Holy Sword of Heavenly Law, Gurguit
4 Master Swordsman of First Light, Helios
2 Golden Dragon, Glorious Reigning Dragon
1 Air Element, Sebreeze
2 True Liberator of Healing, Elise (G-guardian)
2 Golden Beast, Sleimy Flare (G-guardian)
1 Sacred Heaven Prayer Master, Reia (G-guardian) *

Grade 3: 7
4 Golden Holy Sword, Gurguit
1 Sunrise Ray Knight, Gurguit *
2 Militant Act Dragon *

Grade 2: 11
3 Holy Mage, Pwyll
3 Knight of the Remaining Sun, Henrius *
2 Fhamgal *
3 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane *

Grade 1: 15
4 Dawning Knight, Gorboduc
4 Liberator, Improve Falcon (Sentinel)
4 Knight of Insolation, Carinus
3 Knight of Morning Light, Horsa

Grade 0: 17
4 Scarface Lion (Crit)
4 Flame of Victory (Crit)
4 Ascendant Liberator, Barbtruc (Crit) *
4 Liberator, Shaggy Rabbit (Heal)
1 Knight of Early Dawn, Coel (Starter)

Notes

As mentioned the idea of the deck is simple use Helio's guard restrict to one-shot. So...Helios is minimum 51k if your field is full (+25k), Horsa shenanigans can easily make him 100k, notice that basically half the deck does some sort of filtering, we play 12 crits, you get the point right? Here are some things you need to know.

Some card run downs

• I'm playing the 4|2|1 grade 3 line:
  • Which Gurguit you main doesn't really matter its all preference though Unite Gurguit has a slight advantage right now due to me playing Carinus at 4.
  • 2 Militant for Link Jokers, I had issues riding him too often so I'm playing another Gurguit instead. If you don't care about Link Joker play whatever you want here.
• Pwyll, Henrius and Fhamgal is the main superior call engine I decided to play. I chose to dismiss the second part of Unite Gurguit's superior call ability. The unite engine generates more value(Kinarius and Perimore etc are great cards) but I prefer the flexibility that Henrius and Fhamgal gives me.
• Another card I decided to play is Viviane for early game pressure. She used to be a meh card but now that we have Carinus we can swap out the card if need be so the result is a free +1. Viviane allows the deck to play 3 columns early game without being punished too hard, like this:

Downside is Viviane is useless once stride happens so honestly play whatever you want in this slot, I highly recommend:

• More superior call units; Pwyll, Henrius, Fhamgal, Perimore, Kinarius etc.
• Blaster Dark Spirit - ride this grade 2 and laugh at Aqua Force. Useful later on the game as it gives the deck some control; kill interceptors. You can keep reusing him with Carinus.
• Knight of Sunny Day, Salonius - field power buff and cool utility.

Playing the deck

• Standard Helios one-shot turn:
  1. Stride Helios.
  2. Put Horsa behind Helios; you can have Horsa set up earlier if you're not playing against control and it'll give you a couple more procs.
  3. Play cards to proc Horsa.
  4. Attack.

Think about this...play Carinus and another card (2 Horsa procs = +8k) and then use Carinus to buff Helios. This is already +12k...
So Helios (51)+Horsa (7)+buffs (12) = 70...

• Alternate pressure plays are Heavenly Law, Gurguit or Glorious Reign Dragon. With this play you want Horsa on side columns and you want cards that you superior in the battle phase be called to the column that Horsa is in so they receive the power buff.
  • If you still have Pwylls in deck you want to leave 1 booster up so you can call Pwyll to that column.
  • This is the better play against things like Kagero.

• Because of Gurguit's GB2 ability we can use the entire field to guard (our small hand size is actually deceptive) so if you know you will have trouble guarding next turn don't be afraid to call triggers to the field. Refrain from ending the turn with grade 3s on the field because they have no guard value.
• Intricate things:
  • Henrius, Improve Falcon and Carinus can create stacks as they bottom deck cards similar to Oracle Think Tank. Something for you to think about on Helios turns =). Carinus is very valuable because he can spin back triggers =D and other cards so we can use them again.
  • Because of the way these cards filter, similar to Bladewings soul charging you need to know when to stop to maximise the value of trigger checks. This is something you need practice to figure out. For example the top 3 cards from Henrius were not triggers which means the next couple of cards are likely to be triggers and so on.
  • Before attacking with Helios if you've failed to reach your stack use Pwyll or find a way to proc Fhamgal or Barbtruc to shuffle the deck, it'll undo the stack but if you've been sending back triggers the chance of proc'ing a trigger afterwards is still higher.
  • Use Glorious Reign Dragon to spin cards you want to see again back to deck.