We got 2 new Aqua Force reveals and they’re both Blue Waves, my favorite Aqua Force archetype. We also got our Zeroth Dragon Megiddo but I’ll discuss that seperately.

Let’s get to it. These will just be my initial reactions to the cards, I’m not planning to do any testing until we at least get a reveal for Valeos.

Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Flood Hazard Dragon

skills: [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 & Choose two cards from your hand, and discard them] At the end of the battle that your rear-guard with “Blue Wave” in its card name attacked, if you have a heart card with “Blue Wave” in its card name, and it is the fourth battle of this turn, you may pay the cost. If you do, [Stand] this unit, and it gets drive-3.

[CONT](VC) Generation Break 3:This unit gets drive+1, and all of the rear-guards with “Blue Wave” in their card names in your front row get [Power]+2000.

So this guy is a first stride restander. I think that’s pretty big for our offensive push power. While its certainly not the worst I do find that First Stride is where the deck feels lacking.

I’m not saying first stride is necessarily weak mind you it just always felt like I was lacking some oomph. The primary options for first stride in Blue Waves right now are Commander Thavas or using Tetra Boil to gain Anger’s stride skill and restand 2 units with +3k. In both cases you can an extra attack (more with specific setups) but something has always felt a little lacking. In the case of Thavas a lot of times I would target my G1s because I didn’t want to get something stuck in the back I couldn’t use. And I don’t usually first stride Tetra because it feels like a waste. So usually I would make 5 maybe 6 small attacks and it didn’t feel much bigger than what I was doing in the early game already. Probably a personal problem but I digress.

Returning to the topic at hand Flood Hazard opens up a big new option for first stride pressure. Having a restander first stride is pretty big when you factor in the early rush power Blue Waves have. Foivos and Tidal let you get in that aggression early and put the hurt on your opponent pretty fast. Its fairly likely your opponent will be at high damage within your first stride. Overall the amount of attacks will probably still be fairly similar 5 or 6, but 2 of those attacks being your Vanguard is pretty painful because its far less likely your opponent will have the resources to block that level of power twice at first stride. Add in Blue Wave’s early game and you have a pretty powerful first stride push, assuming you can meet the Wave 4 requirement.

This card does have its drawbacks though. The first and most obvious one is that discard 2. That’s a pretty big minus first stride, and when you consider Aqua Force’s weak draw power you can kill your defense pretty quickly. There are ways to mitigate this of course. Flood Hazard is an excellent target for Dagger Master, allowing you to mitigate the minus as well as get an extra crit on the restand attack for extra pressure. Aside from Dagger Master there’s also the argument that you don’t need your hand if your opponent is at 6 damage.

However this leads into the much bigger problem of Counterblasts. So ignoring other CB costs that may come in before your first stride just using Flood Hazard and Dagger Master eat up 2 CBs. Since many restanders, aside from Tidal, cost a CB its pretty easy to imagine your first stride eating up 3 CBs at least. There are options to mitigate this as well such as Plato or Supersonic but there’s no guarantee you will have them or have enough to keep up with your costs.

Of course both these problems can be hand waved with the argument of “you don’t need resources if your opponent is at 6 damage”, however even with the very powerful early-mid game we now have there’s never any guarantees. So going HAM and then failing could easily backfire and cause you to lose instead. Not to mention the simple fact that you simply might not have the resources you need to burst your opponent down.

Overall, I think the first stride potential of Flood Hazard is pretty high but the heavy costs also make him a very risky play. I might hold onto Commander just in case.

That said Flood Hazard’s late game potential is pretty big. Assuming Valeos (no link since he’s not officially revealed at the time of writing) becomes our main ride, Tetra’s stock will go down a bit. Both of them come out as a net zero in comparison to a normal triple drive, but Flood Hazard gets 5 drive checks total if you have GB3 before paying his cost (4 first attack and 1 on restand). Compared to the 4 Tetra has (2 each attack) you have a higher potential for triggers. In addition to that is the +2k to all Blue Wave units. So in the context of Valeos as the main ride, Flood Hazard is generally stronger than Tetra. Admittedly its more of a sideways upgrade than a huge vertical leap the main benefits are an extra drive check and not being stuck in the Wave 2 Wave 4 pattern. I will give Tetra some credit though, G-guarding into him first stride is better than Flood because Tetra is a net 0 relative to the standard triple drive.

Overall I don’t think Flood fixes any fundamental problems Blue Waves have due to its hefty costs and Wave 4 restriction. But the explosive first stride power, plus late game potential still make it a pretty solid card overall. Its good just not great.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the extra drive is not restricted to Blue Wave. So you have the option of teching Flood as a generic gb3 quad drive in non-Blue Waves. You can also use him as a generic quad drive in Blue Waves if circumstances prevent his restand. That said I don’t think either of these are particularly worthwhile ideas though its something to consider.

Blue Wave Dragon, Arsenal-fleet Dragon

skills: [AUTO](RC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1)-card with “Blue Wave” in its card name] When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+4000 until end of turn, and if it is the second battle of this turn, [Stand] this unit.

[AUTO](Drop Zone):[Soul Blast (1)] When your vanguard with “Blue Wave” in its card name [Stand] due to an effect from one of your cards, you may pay the cost. If you do, return this card to your hand.

So alongside our shiny new stride comes a new G3. So this card is more or less a G3 Lucianos. He functions as a Wave 2 restander and becomes a 15k attacker. Its not bad, With all the high Wave costs our strides have, the option to have more restanders for consistency is never a bad thing. He doesn’t work with Tetra at all due to needing Wave 2, which Tetra also needs, so clearly Bushiroad was intending you to use him with Flood Hazard. He also works with Lambros and Wailing Thavas. Its perfectly fine for what it does, and with Flood’s boost at GB3 he hits 17k.

The second skill allows you to SB1 and return him from drop. Its a good way to get easy Stride/PG fodder, and if you have the soul for it you can return multiple copies.

Its a solid option to run as your backup to Valeos. Some people may opt to go with Anger/Valeos for the potential to make good Tetra turns if you end up misriding, cause ya know shit happens. I think it depends on how the rest of the support plays out personally. If the (as of writing) unreleased support makes the Tetra attack pattern too awkward then Anger may very well lose his value. I guess Artiom exists for ride fixing but frankly I think Artiom is garbage and I want to get rid of him.

That’s it for this post. Next time will likely be either Megiddo or Valeos (plus any other Blue Waves revealed alongside him). I’ll start doing proxy tests and post my initial results once we get those reveals.

As always thanks for reading. Comments and Criticism welcome ect ect