So most of the reveals for G-BT14 are complete, and with that, I’ve begun playtesting the new Regalia units. I’ve so far seen a lot of mixed reviews on the cards, ranging from garbage to awesome depending on who you ask. A lot of people seem to be quite salty that Regalias have taken slots away from the generic Amaruda/Fenrir builds. However, this argument detracts from the main thing we should be looking at. Is the support any good?

Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica

This card doesn’t have the same early game applications as Verthandi does, however, it does show us the direction that Regalias are headed. Angelica is a card that stabilizes the deck by providing it the draw it sorely needed. Furthermore, the stride-on really helps to put the cards you need into your soul, your hand, or drop zone. All of this is really helpful. The counterblast cost doesn’t even hurt the deck, as Regalias don’t generally soul blast. Overall, despite the fact that the stride-on skill isn’t generic, it is one of the best stride-on skills that Genesis has. The skill is better than Amaruda’s as it provides a greater amount of control over what goes where and it cannot whiff. The only downside to this card is that its power is based on the fact that you need to stride into Regalias, which limits your available options. Regardless, I’m giving it a 5/5.

Crimson Lotus Ultimate Regalia, Muspel

I cannot believe that this card is a R. Do not let the rarity of this card fool you. It is not a throwaway unit like most R strides are. This unit allows you to give one of your rearguards +4k for each card you soul blast. The wording of this card is a little confusing, but if it is ruled like X-Lead (which it most likely will) then that means that you could soul blast 3 and make a 9k swing for 21k. It doesn’t end there though. As long as you have soul, you can just keep gaining power. That’s on top of the power that you can already gain on your Vanguard with Norn and Achlis. You can even give your units +3k if you soul blast Henil too. This card is so good that it playtesting, it is literally better than Urth. Urth is an easy PG, but this makes magic columns all around. So much so, that the draw or counter charge at the end of the skill is nothing but the icing on an already sweet cake. This card is basically what you would happen if Doom Brace and Athena had a first stride baby.

The only issue this card has is that it doesn’t soul blast in the battle phase, and therefore has no inherent synergy with Tahro. However, if you happen to be playing Fenrir, not only do you have a shit ton of soul to use for the skill, but you also have access to Gjoll who can enable Tahro shenanigans. Oh and Wiseman works too. Yeah, that’s right this card is so fucking good that it actually works well in Fenrir too. And it’s a fucking R. All you’d need is to change the art into a furry, and print it as a RRR to call it Fenrir support. 5/5

Ultimate Regalia of Affection, Eir

Best heal trigger gets a retrain as best g-guard. This card is basically better than Iris, Tagwoot, Hanasatsuki, and Laurier put together. The soul charge is a little harder to pull off (especially if you’re still playing Dreaming Dragon) but the payoff is so much bigger. Heck, the only reason not to play this at 4 and forget the rest is simply the flexibility that Iris offers in that you can soul charge 3 Tahros at once and call it a day. 4/5 but only because of the fact that you need to soul charge different grades. Another generic card that everyone can use.

Service Regalia, Eir

Best heal trigger gets a retrain as best heal trigger. There is nothing here to complain about. Unless you play Witches and are salty that this is better than Laurier. 5/5

Regalia of Blessing Wind, Flap Angel

A real stride fodder. A treat only given to ZTBs and Battle Sisters thus far. If that doesn’t show you the level of support that Regalia is getting in this set, then nothing will. 5/5

Regalia of Thoughts, Henil

The first skill should basically read as: “Fuck you, Link Joker”. Sure, it’s a neg from the board, but the skill isn’t forced so if you have a column, you don’t need to use it. The on soul blast skill is great to help fix up numbers, especially if you have a random 9k on board and need it to hit 12k. 4.5/5 I’m still waiting for that early game soul blast, but this rounds out the Grade 2 line-up nicely. The only thing is that it doesn’t synergize with Achlis.

Regalia of Talisman, Expel Angel

If only this card could return triggers too. Or if only we could get a Rachele clone… This card is great in Regalias because it prevents deck-out, allows you to draw a card, and it gains power. This is all during the main phase too, which makes this card better than Skuld. This card is literally so essential to the deck now that I wish it had resist because I always want to have access to it. Its best use is as a 10k booster behind the Vanguard or Henil (first skill). You can also use it to make relevant column numbers with either Henil (second skill) or Kukurihime. 4/5 simply because it doesn’t allow you to draw pre-GB and it can’t bottom deck itself or triggers.

Regalia of Dawn, Daylight Angel

This card is good. Early game draw, early game soul, and it can be used as soon as you have damage so you can use it before it gets sniped. The only thing that would make it better would be if it were literally Angelica’s stride-on skill and allowed you to check top 4, add 1 to hand, 1 to soul, and 2 to drop, but I guess that would be too powerful for a forerunner. 4.5/5

Regalia of Epicenter, Kukurihime

Best crit gets a retrain as best crit. The only drawback to this card is that you can’t use the Psychic Bird skill pre-GB. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this card is what you get when Psychic Bird and Kukurihime have a baby. Helps make relevant numbers, adds to soul, draws cards and it’s generic. For Revelation builds, Kukurihime has great synergy with Ishtar turns as she fuels the soul blast cost while making relevant numbers. Oh and you can give Wiseman the +3k to make it a 17k swinger without even using Gelgja. 5/5

And so that’s it for all the cards released so far. Here are the holes that are still missing in the support:

A finisher stride (MINERVA. MINERVA. MINERVA)

A perfect guard (idc what it does as long as it is something useful)

Early game soul blast (to set up the drop zone and make use of pre-GB skills like Norn, Achlis, and Hesperis. idc what grade or card allows this to happen, as long as it happens)

A backup Grade 3 (ideally something that is useful on the rearguard, though I won’t be mad if I keep Minerva as back-up because she is bae)

A third critical trigger? (12 crit dream? Rachele clone please?)

A way to bounce units from soul or drop to hand

The last four are wants more than needs, but they would really help the consistency and power of the deck overall.

As for the new Minerva stride, I’ve been playtesting what it could do a bit and here is what I think it should do.

AUTO Revelation-(VC) GB2 ACT 1/turn [Soul Blast 3, choose a face-down card from your g-zone and flip it face-up] This unit gains: AUTO 1/turn [Soul Blast 3, Counter Blast 1, Discard 3 cards] at the end of the battle that this unit attacked, you may pay the cost. If you do, stand this unit. GB4 Cont. This unit gains +1 crit and your opponent cannot guard with Grade 1 or greater cards from hand.

The Revelation is only there so that Amaruda fans get something that they can really use.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t know what the GB4 should do. I just want it to be something cool. It could be +1 drive, +1 crit, guard restrict, or stand all your rearguards. I kind of want it to stand all rears but that’s probably broken. This is why I don’t design cards, I just tell other people a vague idea of what I want instead.

I also floated the idea that Minerva’s skills could scale depending on how many you soul blast. Like a Soul Blast X when if you Soul Blast 3 or more, you restand, 6 or more and you gain +1 crit, 9 or more you get guard restrict, 12 or more you stand all of your rears, etc. But then I was given the counterpoint that you don’t want the deck to become linear: get X amount of cards in soul and win the game. Again, this is why I don’t design cards.

So yeah, that’s basically it. Here is the decklist that I’m trying out right now so you can get an idea of what to pick up:

Grade 4: (16)

Note: this isn’t a recommended g-zone, it’s just what I’m testing right now mainly because I think that the idea of 16 Regalias is pretty funny.

Minerva x4

Muspel x4

Eir x4

Urth x4

Grade 3: (8)

Angelica x4

Minerva x4

Grade 2: (11)

Norn x4

Henil x4

Hesperis x1

Hemera x2

Grade 1: (14)

NEW REGALIA PERFECT GUARD OF UNKNOWN SKILL x4

Flap Angel x4

Shiny Angel x2

Expel Angel x4

Grade 0: (17)

Daylight Angel x1

Kukurihime x4

Clear Angel x4

Achlis x4

Eir x4