A BLAST TO THE PAST... IN THE FUTURE.
Fang of Light, Garmore
G3/ 10000 power/ Human/ Royal Paladin (BT-04 RR rarity)
CONT 【V】: During your turn, this unit gets Power +1000 for each 「Snowgal」 and 「Bluegal」 in your rear-guard circles.
AUTO 【V/R】: [Choose 1 《Royal Paladin》 from your hand and discard it] When this unit is called to a vanguard or rear-guard circle and you have a 《Royal Paladin》 vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for one 「Snowgal」 or 「Bluegal」, and call it to a rear-guard circle, then shuffle your deck.
Garmore's initial incarnation is actually a pretty excelllent card. What it has above its Gold Paladin counterpart is that it's effect can be done as both the Rearguard or Vanguard circle, and it doesn't eat counterblast at all. In addition, it gets a halfway decent power up if you manage to assemble the line up you desired. It loses out in terms of power and range of units it can get.
Let's look at the automatic support it comes with:
Beast Knight, Garmore
G2/ 8000 power/ Human (BT-04 Rare)
Auto: [Discard 1 <<Royal Paladin>> from your hand] When this unit is called to your Vanguard or Rearguard Circle and you have a <<Royal Paladin>> Vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you did, search for 1 "Snowgal" or "Bluegal" from your deck and Call it to one of your Rearguard Circle. Shuffle your deck
Snowgal
G1/ 6000 power/ Hi-beast/ Royal Paladin (BT-04 Common
Continuous【R】: During your turn, this unit gains +1000 Power for each other "Snogal" on your Vanguard or Rearguard Circle.
Bluegal
Grade 0/ 4000 power/ Hi Beast/ Royal Paladin (BT-04 Common)
Continuous【R】: During your turn, this unit gains +1000 Power for each other "Bluegal" in your Vanguard or Rearguard Circle.
Auto : When you ride with another 《Royal Paladin》 Unit, you may call this card out to the Rear Guard Circle.
Well, for the heck of it, we shall ignore the G0 because it's bull crap, but we can make something of these cards. In addition, we have a myriad of strong support that is inherent of the clan (naturally). In addition, at the cost of hand size, this deck gets efficient card search at no counter blast cost, which Royal Paladins are notorious for eating through like popcorn. As such, we can easily set up our desired field at a very consistent rate. To top it off, it should be easy to get your hands on several copies due to the rarities.
Alright, for the sake of this article, let's try putting together the decklist.
Grade 0
1 Bluegal
4 Alabaster Owl (Critical Trigger)
4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona (Critical Trigger)
4 Margal (Draw Trigger)
4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine (Heal Trigger)
The trigger line up is very standard; other side of counterblast guzzling shenanigans, Royal Paladins do not generate any hand advantage (except for random superior calls ala Gold Paladin), and they form 20-21k columns with ease. People may play slightly more draw if desired. The Starter's Bluegal for obvious reasons, but especially bold players may give the Galahad lineup a chance.
Grade 1
4 Snowgal
4 Iseult (Perfect Guard)
The above are auto includes for obvious reasons. The G1 line up is your most malleable due to the wide variety of viable choices to include. Mix and match however you want to find something that suits you, your deck will play differently accordingly. Here are choices to add to your G1 line up:
Pongal: It's 7000 power, may fix your Grade 3 ride, or set up a game finishing turn. AND it can get out of the way to set up your Blizzard Formation. In addition, it's a hi-beast, which has some synergy with the Hi-beast support available. Make it a 2-3 of.
Toypoogal: It helps set up magic numbers no problem, and you can fetch it with Akane. Even if you don't get your whole Formation, a 9k booster would help greatly in reaching numbers. Make this a two-of if you want to include it.
Lake Maiden, Lien: Decent Filter engine, works great with Alfred if you are going to include him at best, at worst it's a 7k boost whose effect you are rarely gonna use except behind Alfred.
Little Sage, Marron: Backup 8k booster. 'Nuff Said.
Knight of Quests, Galahad: Play him if you want the ride chain to generate haphazard card advantage. At least it's a 7k booster.
Starlight Unicorn: Hey, at least it's a Hi-beast, it's fetchable with Akane. Play some for the lulz.
Grade 2
2 Akane
2 Beast Knight, Garmore
Akane and Garmore are going to be mainstays in this deck due to the amount of heavy lifting they are going to do. This brings up a small debate between including more of which, although I would say Garmore since Akane eats counter blast and Garmore is always active as long as you have a card in hand. On the other hand, Akane has more targets to fetch due to the high number of Hi-beasts you want to be playing in your Grade 1 line up. Like G1, G2 is also quite interchangeble although you have less deck space to work with. You might play 10-11 Grade 2s according to card choices. Some other interesting choices also include
Hi-Dog Breeder, Seiran: The low power is not too much of a barrier if you are fastidious in putting together that Blizzard formation (although it will be readily punished if possible). In addition, this unit is very viable due to the high number of Hi-beasts in the deck, turning one of your boosters huge for big pushes. He is very viable if you are willing to find the space for this unit. Sadly, he's only available as a promo, so prepare to shell out some cash for it.
Knight of Silence, Gallatin: He can hit alone, and he can hit hard with any booster. And he's very beefy. Play him if you got the space, or don't bother.
Knight of Tribulations, Galahad: Again, include him if you want, since you can shuffle the deck with Garmore and Akane anyway. Playing the ride chain can potentially net you a +2 by all means.
Blaster Blade: If you are running less Akane, you might want to include this unit, since he beats for 9k and can get rid of an annoying attacker or interceptor. As usual, why not?
Knight of Truth, Gordon: Not as good as in a Alfred oriented deck, but he's there if you want to provide some extra defence.
Grade 3 Line up:
4 Fang of Light, Garmore
3 Swordsman of Explosive Flames, Palamedes
Welp, we want our boss monster for obvious reasons (you could run less Beast Knight, but I like to have him as an option), and Palamedes is just a bad ass beast in a deck that conjures up 8-9k boosters like it was nothing. This is our least flexible area due to the small amount of deck space left to work with in this build. We might want to look at 7-8 Grade 3s. If for some reason you can't afford Palamedes, here are some choices you might consider:
Twin Shine Swordsman, Marhaus: He swings for 12k, which is one less than Palamedes, but is active as long as you are attacking the VG. Pair him with Toypugal to swing for 21, or Snowgal (with 3 of them on the field) to swing for 20k. Budget choice if you can't get Palamedes.
Soul Saver Dragon: He's fetchable with Pongal, and makes a great back up ride. Plus, she can put together game ending finishes with the right set up. I'll include her as a 2 of for that reason. Note: In the Japanese Meta, she's available as a promo from the Aqua Force TD, so you can possibly pick her up on the cheap. Great tip for budget players.
Knight of Conviction, Bors: Always outclassed by Palamedes, you can include this unit if your counterblast expenditure isn't high. It's not a bad unit, but there are better choices, sadly.
Right, so here's what I'm running currently, proxied up (in english) and testing for fun:
Fang of Light, on a budget (Current version)
1 Bluegal
4 Bringer of Luck, Epona (Critical)
2 Alabaster Owl (Critical)
4 Margal (Draw)
2 Weapons Dealer, Govannon (Draw)
4 Snowgal
2 Toypoogal
4 Pongal
4 Flash Shield, Iseult
2 High Dog Breeder, Akane
3 Beast Knight, Garmore
4 Knight of Silence, Gallatin
2 High Dog Breeder, Seiran
4 Fang of Light, Garmore
2 Soul Saver Dragon
2 Twin Shine Swordsman, Marhaus
I had the Iseults, Seiran and Soul Saver so I may as well use them. This deck can be put together using a basic trial deck, but most of the parts are ripped out in favor of other cards. You should be able to get together something on the cheap though.
With that, we have come to the end of this review. I might look at Soul Paladins, another underlooked archetype next article, but we shall see.
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