Hello! In this article I will be looking over two topics. First topic is the analysis of cards from the Fighter’s Collection 2017 set that are directly relevant to Aqua Force. Second topic as a quick prediction of the state of the clan in the near future.



Fighter’s collection 2017 cards

So far, all AqF cards that we’ve been promised from Fighter’s Collection 2017 have been revealed. I’ll be reviewing all 3 AqF units and the 3 Cray Elemental cards.

First off, we have our new heal trigger:

Officer Cadet, Ioanes

Grade 0/Boost/Trigger Unit/Heal Trigger

Aqua Force/Aquaroid/Magallanica

Power: 4000

Shield: 10000

(You may only have up to four cards with “HEAL” in a deck.)

[AUTO]:[Choose a grade 1 or less card from your hand, and discard it] When this card is discarded as a cost to call a “Guard Leader of Sky and Water, Ioanes” from your G zone, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

Tactical analysis:

For AqF, this is quite an improvement to our heal triggers, since AqF didn’t have any heal triggers with abilities until now. And while triggering the AUTO ability is situational, it’s useful in AqF, since we don’t have many ways to add cards we need to our hand. This unit helps us slightly, by replacing cards that have little use for potential combo pieces. And while G1 units are mostly important in AqF decks, most decks have at least 4 Draw triggers, which can be discarded for the cost of Ioanes’ skill without losing much shield value or important abilities.

Strategic analysis:

All in all it’s a useful card, but it won’t make a big impact on any of the decks. This card will and should be played in any deck that will also run the new G-guardian, released in the same set. The only possible exception currently could be Blue Storm decks that require lots of cards with “Blue Storm” in their names.

Personally, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with the art of this card, as our heals so far have ranged from well on-point to fantastic. I will be a bit sad to switch out other heals for this guy, but for competitive decks, this is a must, since cards that increase deck consistency are rare in AqF.

Second AqF card from this set is our “un-flipper G-guardian”:

Guard Leader of Sky and Water, Ioanes

Grade 4/G-unit/G-guardian

Aqua Force/Aquaroid/Magallanica

Shield: 15000

[G guardian] (Usable when both fighters’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater, and the number of face up G guardians in your G zone is three or less)-Opponent Turn’s Guard Step-[Choose a card with “Heal” from your hand, and discard it] Call this card to your (GC) from face down.

[AUTO] Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face-down G guardian from your g zone, and turn it face up] When this unit is placed on (GC), you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to five of your rear-guards, until end of turn, they get “[CONT](RC):Resist” and “[CONT](RC):This unit cannot be hit.”, and for each unit chosen, this unit gets [Shield]+5000.

Tactical analysis:

Now this is a card that will have a major impact on AqF. It is useful in any AqF deck and will help them all. It’s biggest strength lies in its versatility. Unlike Flotia and Ice Barrier Dragon, Ioanes is useful at any point of our opponent’s battle phase, which is a big improvement from the lackluster defence AqF had access to so far.

His shield can go up to 40,000, which is a no-pass for an average boosted Stride VG. In addition, he protects your entire field from many abilities that trigger during our opponent’s battle phase, as well as protecting every rear-guard from being retired by battle, meaning that units that we already have placed on our RCs will be usable during our next turn for our combo plays. Overall, the defensive bonuses from this one unit are well worth the cost of a counter-blast and a G-guardian un-flip.

Strategic analysis:

General playstyle of decks running this card will change. Ioanis encourages committing a large portion of cards from the hand to RG circles which, in turn, makes the combos more potent as well as granting more defensive power when G-guarding with him. He rewards aggressive playstyle more than a conservative one, however the conditions of an available counterblast and GB1 must be fulfilled. This will, to some extent, make all AqF decks more aggressive, meaning that units with abilities that exert more pressure can be played in higher numbers, rather than committing almost all of the decks’ RG units to enabling multiple battles for our stride/other VGs to trigger their abilities. Examples of such units are High Tide Sniper, Mind-Eye Sailor, Battle Siren, Melania and Battle Siren, Janka.

It’s also important to remember that if we have 3 G-guardians face-up in our G-zone we can still use Ioanis’ ability, meaning that we would end up with 5 G-guardians face-up. This will require us to play 5 G-guardians, which is a change to most AqF decks. Our current G-zone is already filled with many strides that any AqF deck can use, so making space for a 5th G-guardian might require removing a tech card from the G-zone. This will negatively impact the decks’ versatility as a trade-off for more defence. It will also likely replace tech G-guardians such as Metal Element, Scryew and Dark Element, Dizmel, which many AqF players included in their G-zone due to the lack of good AqF-specific G-guardians.

Third card released for AqF in this set is the mighty GB8 stride unit:

Blue Vortex Marshal Dragon, Last Twister Dragon

Grade 4/Triple Drive/G-unit

Aqua Force/Tear Dragon/Magallanica

Power: 15000+

[Stride] (Released when both players’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 8:[Counter Blast (1)] Until end of turn, this unit gets “[AUTO](VC)Wave-2nd to 4th time: When your rear-guard attacks, until end of that battle, that unit gets [Power]+5000, and at the end of that battle, look at four cards from the top of your deck, call one card to the (RC) with the unit that attacked, if the called unit has the wave ability, that unit and this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn. Shuffle your deck.”.

Despite the fact that a lot of people were disappointed with this card, I would argue that it’s pretty good. At first glance it may look very underwhelming, however this card has lots of interactions within AqF that many players simply aren’t used to yet and here I’ll try to explain some of its uses and where it’s drawbacks can be mitigated or even ignored.

Tactical analysis:

First off, let’s talk about enabling this card’s ability. GB8 is not an easy feat to achieve. However, with a little luck and keeping an eye on our GB# count, we should be able to steadily prepare for this unit’s turn. If things go well, without forcing an unrealistic situation, this unit’s ability can be used as soon as our 3rd stride. The key to this is using G-units that flip copies of other cards in the G-zone as a cost (normally themselves). Good examples of such units are the two staple Strides included in virtually any AqF deck: Commander Thavas and Lambros. Using these two as our 1st and 2nd stride is how most of our games with AqF stride decks will proceed. There are also possible replacements for these two in sub-clan decks, examples being Tetra-boil and Disaster Maelstrom. Also using the new G-guardian, Ioanis (previous card in this post), we add another 2 units face-up in our G-zone and since Ioanis is as impactful and helpful as he can be, it’s normally a good choice to play him. At this point, we have 6 cards face-up in our G-zone, meaning a second G-guardian or an extra turn striding will enable this card’s ability. If we do have a second heal in our hand for a G-guardian, striding Last Twister Dragon is a viable option for our 3rd stride turn.

Secondly, I’d like to talk about this card’s resource impact and requirements. Our main resource, as well as AqF’s liability is the amount of cards in our hand and the RCs. Our most powerful Stride units such as Lambros and Wailing Thavas have some strict requirements when it comes to our ability to perform several RG attacks, the former requiring 3 attacks before his own, meaning that we have to have at least one RG ability that enables an additional battle (re-stand, positions switch, attack from the back row etc.). This unit, however, can use its GB8 ability with a single RG that is able to attack. It is quite sub-optimal however, as it means that our VG has to attack 1st and waste a lot of potential pressure from the added power it could achieve by calling out Wave units. However, if we manage to achieve as much as 2 RG attacks, this unit’s ability will be active and it’s attack saved up for wave 5 or more. The other part of it’s cost is the counter-blast. While it does require some restraint, saving up one CB for this unit shouldn’t be too difficult and can easily be planned or added with an ability such as Supersonic Sailor‘s counter-charge.

Last topic to talk about this card is the unit interaction and how its calling ability works. Many have argued that it’s sub-optimal as it doesn’t work well with re-standers. While it is true that since it’s skill calls to the same RC, it is noteworthy that it does not reveal the top 4 cards of the deck, it only shows them to the player. This enables the player to take advantage of one of CFV’s basic rules, which explains that if a unit should be “found” in a hidden zone, such as a deck or face-down bind zone, the player does not need to “find” a card there even if there is, in fact, a unit that could be chosen. This rule is often used in situations like using a Legion skill, to only put cards back into the deck.

It has come to my attention that with the way this card is worded, this might not be the case. I will confirm this with others who are well knowledgable in the rules and edit this article accordingly. If you wish to check it out for yourself, the mentioned rule is 8.5.4.1.4 here.

For example: after the 2nd battle we have a unit with wave, that was called with Blue Vortex’s ability, has received the additional 5000 power and has the ability to re-stand (like Foivos or Lucianos). After its attack, the ability of Blue Vortex will trigger and we have to look at the top 4 cards of the deck for a unit to be called. However, since our deck is a hidden zone, we don’t have to pick a unit if we don’t want to and simply return the cards to the deck and shuffle it. The RG re-stood for an additional battle and since it has a Wave ability, its power would be higher than any non-wave units we might be calling tue to a lack of wave-units in the top 4 cards of our deck that were revealed to us.

And if the last unit called with this ability is a re-stander, it can still use its re-stand ability after Blue Vortex’ attack, with triggers all stacked onto it, in the case that our opponent was able to guard Blue Vortex’ attack.

Also important, is the wording on Blue Vortex’ ability, which makes it so that it cannot be canceled by cards like Denial Griffing or Heteroround, which are the two major threats to our re-standers (along with Negrolily combo with Skeleton Canoneer and Nightrose‘s GB2 ability). It makes it a safer option against clans that are able to use such G-guardians against us.

Strategic analysis

Similarly to G4 Ioanis, we will most likely have to replace a tech G-unit from virtually any G-zone for AqF. The issue is, this card cannot be a replacement for any other offensive stride that can be used earlier than this card, as we may not be able to get to GB8 quickly enough, yet we might need more copies of our offensive strides, such as Lambros, Wailing Thavas, Tetra-boil etc.

Decks that can make good use of this card right now are: Blue Wave, Thavas with Wave units, Maelstrom with Wave units. It’s also important to note that among AqF support released recently, there has been a lot of Wave units and cards that interact directly with Wave, meaning that as time goes on and more support is released, this card is going to get better.

All in all, I feel this card is good, since it requires almost no setup. I’ll definitely be testing it in virtually every AqF deck I’ll be playing.

Want more on this card? See what One Who Gets Crits, Commander Jaime has to say about it: Video link

The first Cray elemental card from the set:

Snow Element, Valancher

[Stride] (Released when both players’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1)] If you have a heart card with [Power] of 10000 or less, draw a card, and this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.

[AUTO](VC):When this unit’s attack hits a vanguard, if you have a heart card with [Power] of 10000 or less, choose up to one heal trigger from your drop zone, and put it into your hand.

[CONT]:This card is from all clans and nations.

General analysis:

This is a great card for any deck that has G3 units with 10000 or less original power and wishes to ride them. It is also useful for most Legion decks that have legion mates with 10000 or less power, as they can be chosen as the main heart card. Valancher’s ability adds a +1 card to your hand with the draw, for the cost of one counterblast and it adds on-hit pressure as well. Returning a Heal trigger to your hand is very important due to the existence of G-guardians. As for attack numbers, with a booster that adds at least 6000 power, Valancher’s ability will make its power hit the number of 31000, which is a good number for attacking 11000 VGs (most common ammount of power on G3 VGs).

So all in all it’s a useful stride, which also enables decks that wish to play Earth Elemental, Pokkur. In AqF, this card may see play in Ripple decks, possibly Blue Storm Legion decks and other miscellaneous decks that play G3 units with 10000 power or less.

The second Cray Elemental stride:

Heat Element, Melandru

[Stride] (Released when both players’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Choose a face down card from your G zone, and turn it face up] Until end of turn, this unit gets “[AUTO](VC):When this unit’s attack hits a vanguard, choose one of your rear-guards, and it gets [Power]+5000 for each face up card in your G zone until end of turn.”

[CONT]:This card is from all clans and nations.

General analysis:

While this card isn’t very bad, there only seems to be one common use with it, which is using it as a stride unit that un-flips another card in the G-zone and it does so without an additional cost. If used as a first stride it might also force out additional shielding from the opponent due to the on-hit ability, but as a possible finisher, it’s a worse version of Snow Element, Blizza. This card will most likely see no play in any AqF deck, even tho re-standing RGs may make good use of the added power. The issue is, that since it’s ability is on-hit, guarding this VG will likely be easier for the opponent than guarding several attacks with added power, making it a waste of a stride, when better cards exist.

Last Cray Elemental from this set is a G-guardian:

Air Element, Luctorm

[G guardian] (Usable when both fighters’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater, and the number of face up G guardians in your G zone is three or less)-Opponent Turn’s Guard Step-[Choose a card with “Heal” from your hand, and discard it] Call this card to your (GC) from face down.

[AUTO]:[Choose a card from your hand, and discard it] When this unit is placed on (GC), you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

[CONT]:This card is also of all clans and nations.

General analysis:

While this is a new unit, it does have the exact same ability as Light Element, Agleam. Overall, it is a utility G-guardian, that may help decks that need to cycle through their decks. In AqF, this ability is certainly desirable, but since the new Ioanis Heal trigger has a similar ability, this unit is not quite necessary, especially when considering how tight space in most AqF G-zones is. It is, however, a viable choice if the player feels like more deck cycling is needed.

Fighter’s Collection 2017 is adding quite relevant cards to Aqua Force. It should definitely be worth getting a play set of the Heal triggers, 2 (or more) G-guardians and 1 GB8 Stride unit for any AqF player. The set will change a lot of decks, due the way the new G-guardians may enable them to play and possible new “win conditions” with the new GB8 units. AqF players will have to adapt to all of this, yet it seems that we’ll be well geared to deal with a lot of these new threats with some new cards of our own.

Aqua Force in the near future

Unfortunately for the clan, recent support has been rather lackluster. Fighter’s Collection 2017 will add a few nice toys to play with, slightly increasing the consistency, safety and play style of many AqF decks. However, there won’t be any significant changes to most of the main strategies.

Competitively speaking, AqF is still looking like it will lag behind the most powerful decks a bit, although the clan’s most powerful decks will be close at their tail, waiting for any further support to push them into high competitive range. Most viable decks will remain Thavas, Blue Wave and Ripple (focused mostly on early pressure and rushing). Blue Storm and/with Maelstrom unfortunately currently do not have neither combos powerful enough, nor the resilience to go toe-to-toe with the current most powerful decks. Overall, if the player is knowledgable and is able to play the deck well, AqF is a good option to take to tournaments, however, especially good care should be taken while learning how to play against more difficult matchups, such as Link Joker.

A new strategy that might need some thorough thought is how decks will attempt to reach the GB8 condition to unlock the new and powerful abilities. A certain dynamic is sure to develop between decks attempting to reach the state of GB8 as soon as possible and decks attempting to close out the game before that can happen. The “race to GB8” might soon be an important topic to look into, with the craziness that some GB8 abilities might cause.

As for play style goes and decks are concerned, while most of AqF has been well thought through, new combos and deck ideas are appearing still, meaning that we, AqF players, are far from done in our search for the most powerful or the most fun AqF decks. While the new Wave support is still rather fresh and feels weaker than what we’re used to, there is still plenty of testing to be done and finding more ways to utilise our keyword “Wave” will likely be an important focus in the near future.

All in all, I am quite excited, the new cards we will be receiving in early June (mid-May for Japanese releases) will add more diversity to the clan and will not go ignored. While the clan’s progression might feel a bit slow due to our support being released in pieces few and far in between, the clan is in no way in bad shape and I’m as excited as ever to play it.