Will Aqua Force be viable? This is probably the question I have heard asked the most, across both formats and all builds available to the clan. When you look back at G-Era, while it may not have lasted very long it was something of a renaissance for the clan. With three of the four times we saw support catapulting us to either the best clan in the game or one of the best around the time of release, it can be hard to remember the days of the “legion-that-shall-not-be-named”, or how every time we got something good finally in the past we just barely missed our mark. Whether it be to other clans’ support completely making ours irrelevant (looking at you Link Joker) or it simply arrived to late, we frequently ended up falling short and while there are those who look back fondly at Transcore Tetra-Drive breakride there’s so many more formats in between that are just filled with what-ifs and why Bushi’s.

The fact is G-Era spoiled us. G-BT09 was the first time in so long that we got a set that left a sour taste in our mouth and let me tell you, no Aqua Force player will hesitate to let you know how they felt about that set. So naturally, when V-EB02 rolled around and our support didn’t live up to the hype or the expectations from G-BT13 had set in our minds, the community lashed out hard. We’ve all seen the memes, you’ve played the deck. Whether it’s drive checking double Riptide or even riding him, running out of Soul to stand your Tidal, to just attacking once on a Naval turn into a defensive, life was hard. However that was Standard right? Surely Premium would be much better. After all it was pretty much the pinnacle of our clan competitively and the recently unrestricted Odysseus looked primed and ready to make some waves (sorry, not sorry)!

Sadly though, this wasn’t the case. In a world where everyone had early game again, coupled with the fact that other clans had G3s they could ride to give them Gifts WHILE not having to compromise in their stride game left Premium AqF in quite an awkward spot. Compacted with the fact that our best deck arguably in Ripples lost a lot of it’s teeth due to the new Stride rulings we were left feeling very uncertain about the clan in both formats. While arguments could be made for either side; whether we were the absolute worst or middling you could not deny we weren’t anywhere near where the player-base had hoped for.

So I’m sure you’re wondering by now what is the answer to this question, you’ve gotten a refresher of the history but no solid answer to the topic at hand and the answer to the aforementioned question is; maybe. I could imagine you feel like you’ve wasted your time to read all this build up in an article about how maybe the clan might be Premium viable but I urge you to understand that the format is pretty open right now. There is no way one can speak in absolutes for if something will be good or not. Except for a couple certain decks which will be alluded to in this article and spoken about in depth in the follow up ones as well. So in order to gauge how good we will be. I’ll first talk about our builds and my thoughts on their viability and then I will follow up with how I expect they will do into the Meta. So without further ado, I will talk about the 3 builds I feel will be our most competitive: Standard+, Thavas and Ripples.

Standard+:

Now I’m sure you’ve all seen the post. Ever since Tenma released his blogpost about the 24 attack Valeos turn, Aquas have had a buzz around them for the first time since Alexandros came out (will link below). Now there is a lot of hype around this build and it’s understandable – this is basically the absolute ceiling of the potential that the clan could have. While Thavas was able to achieve a ceiling of about 12 attacks on a Megiddo turn for pretty easy cost. But in order to achieve this turn, it was such an all or nothing turn and it was only possible on Megiddo. This deck, however, will start putting the pressure on you on second stride. With the ability to attack an average of 8-20+ times in a turn while still drawing an absurd amount of cards, this deck, is definitely in another tier even within the clan itself. Gone are the days of setting up an all or nothing play, you can quite comfortably swing out and draw your cards back while still being able to survive most turns coming your way after. Considering their Vanguard will be locked at 11k for all of the swings you will often eat through their entire hand. Meanwhile, you fielded a board for free, only exhausting the cards you called pre-Valeos swing which are usually mirage units (cards that leave the field such as Saberflow, etc) anyways. To give an idea, I have done this turn and as an end result I ended up with 14-18 cards in hand, pretty often.

So if this is the case, how it that not the best deck in the format?? There are a number of the drawbacks to this deck, many of which are exploitable by the best decks in the format. The main one being the most obvious, is that Valeos is not threatening until second stride. The need to G-Guard before you stride him or to stride him without the powerlocking, or have to first stride Alexandros/Commander/Lambros/Balanerena/Disaster pretty much all equals out to the same thing. Your first stride has zero pressure. Often all the first stride does in Aquas is just help you get more resources but these are not very threatening turns at all and when you take into account the power of the good first strides in the game right now this is a major issue.

Another problem is the deck cannot early game. It is actually quite ironic, but yes, the Standard+ build cannot really afford to early game. Sure you can call units on the G2 turn or call a restander plus Naval and try to get in some damage that way but you really need to conserve your combo pieces for the later turn. This often leads to you being a piñata and just getting abused very hard prior to when the deck goes off. With the recent reveal of Hydro Hurricane Dragon he might have became the better primary ride target for the build. Being a Gift G3 that can attack solo for 22k plus having a great RG effect that the clan sorely needed he seems to be a great addition to any Valeos build. Since you can call him mid-combat with Valeos skill he becomes the only card in the deck that answer Honoly at pretty much all stages. You can either play him in Main Phase if they have a Honoly just chilling on board already, or cheat him in on your VG attack. Sure the obvious counterplay is to call Honoly via G-Guard after we commit our board with Valeos, but by then we’ve already drawn a ton of cards and could just easily end the turn there with a full board set up for next turn. If you call it before we swing with Valeos then Hydro Hurricane can retire it. It doesn’t address our issue of having no early game but it does cross one huge one off the list.

Finally, the last major weakness of the deck is that it has two bad rides at different grades. In a time where our position in the meta is already shaky at best, you cannot afford to ride Saberflow on the Grade 2 turn. There are so many decks that will drop their hand to rush you and you just lost one of your most important cards in your deck at the same time. The other is Benedict, if you ride him, you honestly might have to consider scooping and that’s not an exaggeration. At 10k base, no VG effect , no gift, and worst of all being your only Grade 3 in hand it is extremely likely your going to have to hard stride for cost and you cannot afford to be that far behind. With Benedict being ran at 3-4 this can be a very real possibility and a scary one at that.

With all of that said, however, the deck is still very solid and I expect in a slower format where games don’t end on first/second stride this may end up being the go-to deck. It’s the very best the clan can achieve when highrolling post Stride and is extremely fun to pilot. For now it might be best to look at the other two options though.

Thavas:

Now I’m sure this comes as no shock to anyone but Thavas is still a very solid deck. While it is arguably the best build currently before PreColle and V-EB08, it quite literally is a one-trick pony. All the deck aims to do right now, is to rush early then turbo into Megiddo with an Accel Circle to abuse as many +15k attacks as you can afford to pay for, while your opponent is at high damage. Thankfully, despite being predictable, it’s impossible to straight up deny Counter Blasts unless your opponent just decides to never attack your VG and also thanks to all the Counter Charging the clan has available. Unfortunately, so many things can go wrong during this turn. The main one being a defensive Heal trigger specifically. It’s neat but with Valeos being a thing now, we have a much easier wincon to achieve and one we can see much earlier.

So the overall basics of the deck is very similar to the Standard+ build except you now have Ruler Thavas’ to use as your G3 Restander plus a ride target after Diamantes gives you an Accel circle or two. This deck doesn’t highroll as hard as the other build, but you may deck out with it. With having access to the Thavas package such as Mitros, Dolphin, Cipla, & Melania; as well as having access to Saberflows, the new V Heart Thump clones, Vivianas, Halpalos, Valeos’ drive checks, and Accel II; you absolutely can be in a situation with about 10 cards in deck after second stride. Typically, you first stride Commander Thavas, if on Diamantes, has the Thavas name for all of your units that need it, Mitros most importantly. From there, you proceed to make a turn of pretty low pressure easily guardable 5k pokes that will net you a lot of card draw and end with putting a Ruler Thavas into hand. This is probably the best first stride turn in the clan by the way with one sole exception.

Afterwards, you then stride Valeos, play all your mirage units and draw a crap ton of cards before putting down all the restanders and Wheel Assaults. V- Wheel made this turn so much better now too. The Thavas build typically averages about 8-15 or so attacks in the turn, but you will often have close to 20 cards in hand afterwards. This version also has the best G-Guarding, since Thavas can often afford to double G-Guard with Ihoannes super freely with like 4-7 RGs on board and then flip the Galfilias back facedown with the abundance of Soul you amass over the course of the game. Valeos often isn’t actually the finisher in this deck, in fact I only ever stride him once most of the time since I’m usually very close to decking out. And the other reason being is that I draw so many heals that I can turbo my G-Guards into a massive 3rd stride Alexandros. This is of course purely anecdotal, but it’s not uncommon to see 49k+ Tidals on the Accel Circle on 3rd stride.

Some of the strengths of this build is there is no bad G3 ride. No matter what, you’ll always have value from whatever is ridden when you go to stride. That plus amassing a large hand is a pretty solid trade-off for the bit of high-roll you lose compared to the other decks. Sadly, the build has the same issues of no early game and being too slow for the Meta. Even more so since you’ll be running some more GB1 units, plus your G3 Thavas ride is literally vanilla. Some of your triggers are also old triggers so not only can this hurt you offensively but also with guarding as well. Especially when you factor in that they are combo pieces now too which is a double whammy since the other deck is vanilla V triggers outside of the PreColle ones.

If Mitros somehow gets sniped early you are going to be in for an awful time. It can be near impossible sometimes to ride Ruler Thavas until it’s too late if this happens sometimes. Often it does happen in the matchups where we need him the most which may require you to then damage deny, to ensure you keep him which is very bad. Also, against certain decks you may need to call other units early just to have another card to retire if you have to choose. Plus having no answer to Honoly can be rough, though Thavas tends to focus more on stronger Alex turns. All that aside, the deck feels super smooth to pilot and unlike most other decks doesn’t have that awkward transition from Gift G3 to Stride Bearer. It’s very consistent in getting your pieces that you need and in a meta where it is slower, much like the Standard+ build, this will do well. Especially if they pack interaction on your turn, which Ruler is still there to protect your Saberflows with giving it Resist. This deck doesn’t actually mind playing into control as long as your Mitros lives and even then sometimes you may just draw out of that. Finally, this brings us to our last option.

Ripples:

Oh Ripples, somehow despite not getting support since 2015 this deck still finds ways to re-invent itself and remain timeless. I’m sure most of you have either played it before or been on the receiving end of this deck. It’s early game has no brakes and with us finally receiving some of our solid promos and V-EB08 giving it a bunch of new toys, once again Ripples is here to save the clan from obscurity. It seems a little crazy to say it but honestly outside of it just not sacking the absolute crap out of you, the deck has very little downsides at the moment. In a format where people are looking to play combos that want to kill on first stride, a hyper aggressive deck like this is an absolute menace for them. It’s only real downsides can often be trigger luck on both sides – did you sack them vs did they defensive trigger or check a heal. There will surely be a division between players of the build one of which being a more stride oriented deck looking to actually utilize it’s G-Zone at some point. The other being the ever notorious 16 Crit Aggro build looking to try and end games before either deck really rides G3 but even Ripples has evolved.

With Odysseus back at 4 and Diamantes having an Imaginary Gift it is actually very common for Ripples to want to ride G3. Just sometimes they won’t get to because the game could end before then. New recruits in the form of V-Wheel, Coral Assault, Nikoloz, Halpalos and Calm Assault give the deck even more tools to hit numbers while either netting you card advantage. In the case of Calm Assault, you can get Crits out of your Soul and back into drop to double or even triple Legion to shuffle them back into deck. Speaking of Crits, we are also getting 2 more V Crits! Meaning not only will Ripples be swinging for numbers, while plussing hard and sacking harder, but defensively they also saw a major boost indirectly. With 15k shields and a 10k base, Pavroth can even match Force clans in numbers and make them have to call a booster to try to threaten a 1 to pass. Regardless of whether you play 16 Crit or just normal Ripples these are huge indirect buffs to what the deck aims to do.

Now it is worth mentioning Ripples’ Stride game is nowhere near as potent as either of the other two decks, that does not mean it is weak though. Since you’ll often be striding for the first time while your opponent is at 4-5 damage things like first stride Alex, Balanerena or Lambros are much more threatening than any of the other builds. In fact this is actually that sole exception. Ripples early game sets up almost every stride in it’s G-Zone to essentially become a “First Stride Kill”. As you can see its options are very flexible as well, so regardless if they were denied Counter Blasts or just don’t have much, there is pretty much a stride for every scenario. Valeos is also no slouch in the deck either, allowing them to Multi Attack even when they don’t have Restanders present. Since Ripples doesn’t care about squashing their dudes, you might see some Corals drop in just in time to receive some juicy crits. Or even more terrifying a Diamantes on Accel ready to go… BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

Since this is Ripples, they still have access to one of the best (and most hated) Legions in the game and this turn is way more potent than it was 3 years ago. Now with Odysseus back at 4, your early game rush could end up netting you a full backrow of Odysseus just chilling waiting to do insane things on this turn. You could ride Diamantes get an Accel II Gift then Odysseus put him on the Circle, Superior Riding Miltiadis. Use Miltiadis’ on-ride skill: to check top 3 from deck to add a Ripple to hand then put the rest in drop. Then perform Legion, returning 4 triggers in and fail to seek the mate. Then use Odysseus #2’s skill, Superior Riding another Miltiadis calling the old one to a normal RG circle. Use the on-ride skill again, Legion more triggers back in and either opt to seek your Genovious this time or if you still have triggers, do it one more time. It is easily possible to turn your entire front row into 3 G3 RGs all with +2k power from Odysseus when you previously had nothing but jank in hand. This can all be set up from the turn 1 ride if you open 2 Odysseus +1 G1 by the way. Diamantes has great synergy with the Legion pair’s restand and Counter Charge effect and with the addition of the new Wheel Assault it is now possible to have 7-8 attack turns since you can put another solid RG in the backrow of one of the G3s and swap the spent Diamantes with it after he’s done attacking. And I haven’t even got into the stupid things you can do with Odysseus and Nikoloz.

All in all, if you haven’t seen Ripples in a while or haven’t played it much yourself just know that this is the kind of Aqua Force that players fear and hate to play against. I feel like even when you do ride G3 it is most likely on a turn you have decided to try and end the game, so while your strides may not be as potent they have their own pressure in the form of zero leeway for defensive triggers more often than not, and since you’ve been so aggressive all game most decks will be hardpressed to guard whatever turn you throw at them at this point, especially if you just “drew” 2 cards from Accel II and Miltiadis on-ride. This deck doesn’t actually really brick outside of actually riding the Sotirio or having to ride Odysseus without a second in hand and you know for a fact we’re mulliganing all triggers and G3s out in our opening hand.

With only 1 real “bad” Grade 1 ride in Sotirio (and even then that’s debatable plus it’s a 2 of), 1 bad ride on Grade 2 in Coral and a somewhat bad ride in Genovious which is another 2 of this deck is hyper consistent. If you open Odysseus this just blows the game open. It still has it’s own issues the main being trigger luck is a huge factor and decks that can match it’s early game which is not peerless, despite all the great things I’ve mentioned. Some of it’s old issues are now no longer causing us trouble being lack of card advantage as the game goes on and just overall card quality, Ripples are definitely poised to look to be a deadly rogue option to ruin some of these top decks’ game plans. In my humble opinion, I feel like after we get V-EB08 Ripples is hands down our best Premium deck, regardless of which version you play.

But wait! What about how these decks will do into the meta?

That will have to be a topic for another day I’m afraid. Until then, feel free to comment below or to message me on Reddit: /u/DMoC or Discord: Zaee#2572 and tell me what you think, ask me questions, tell me you hate Ripples. I’m all ears!

Link to Tenma’s blog about Valeos: https://t.co/H7WJt45Akg