Link Joker is coming back, with a vengeance. It’s safe to say this is something I predicted would happen before, since if there was any clan that needed a Clan Booster; it was these guys. As a way to start off this blog, I’ll go over expectations and what I want from this brand new support coming this fall in Japan.

It was announced this previous weekend (and followed up on today’s Weekly News Bits) that Link Joker was getting a new trial deck (“Messiahs of Rebirth”) and a clan booster (“Rondo of Chaos and Salvation”). The deck obviously will have Messiah support while the clan booster is confirmed to have Chaos, Messiah, Glendios, and Deletor support.

I’ll go over some of the things I expect to see, as well as want to see in this new support well before the release, starting with the new Trial Deck.

Messiahs of Rebirth

In this new deck, it is already confirmed we are getting a new grade 3 named “Alter Ego Neo Messiah“, as well as reprints for the following:

These are some very good reprint choices for a trial deck, and keeps both Alter Ego’s in the same deck. Arrester and Destiny Dealer are both staples to the classic Messiah build, but what else can this deck include that it hasn’t revealed? As a trial deck, it is limited in its capabilities of support, but I predict two things, one big thing and one small thing. First off…

Link Joker will finally get its searchable keyword

This is the one thing that Link Joker doesn’t have that every other clan has; a keyword that they can search. Things like Lock and Delete are game mechanics while Vanish Delete technically is a keyword, it’s more like italicized text after the actual skill. Link Joker still needs a keyword that sits at the beginning of the skill and is searchable. To be more specific, most clans (besides 1-2 exceptions) have a grade 3 with this basic skill:

Auto: [CB1 & SB1]: When this unit is placed on (VC), you may pay the cost. If you do, look at five cards from the top of your deck, search for up to one cards with the <blank> ability from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

Now what kind of Keyword will Link Joker get? Honestly, there can be a number of things. It can be something along the lines of a skill that goes off when your stuff unlocks, or something that triggers based on the number of locked things on the board, or even something that unlocks/locks cards as a cost. It is clearly difficult to pinpoint where Bushiroad will go, as I don’t know how many people accurately predicted Ritual for Shadow Paladins, let alone Domination.

Most of the stuff in this deck will be related to this new keyword, as well as the process of locking units and some generic units (such as 8k grade 1’s, generic Perfect Guards, triggers, etc.). The Stride in this deck will be pretty basic but will likely have the new keyword.

This will bring me to my other prediction for this deck, given the trend set by the last trial deck. And that prediction is….

Link Joker will finally have a basic G-Guardian

Ok, you can argue that Death Star-Vader, Demon Maxwell is their basic G-Guardian; and you are right. It is pretty basic, but however, the cost is…weird, especially given the name. It is a Star-Vader card, that locks one of your own like a Messiah card. It’s a bit all over the place. This deck gives an option to potentially have a G-Guardian that doesn’t require you to lock/unlock your own card for extra shield.

Honestly, what I expect (and hope for) is a G-Guardian that relies on current board state as opposed to changing it, even if the new mechanic calls for it. This is an example of what I expect skillwise:

Auto: When this unit is placed on (GC), if the number of locked units your opponent has is two or more, this unit gets Shield+5000 until end of battle.

Right here is just a copy of Star-Vader, Turndown Dragon with a little less added shield. The number of locked units can also be altered to be as simple as just one, or even two across the board, but I doubt it would break that mold too much. As it’s a trial deck, I don’t expect anything that locks any of your opponent’s stuff during their turn (That’s what the clan booster is for).

Closing Comments

During my next part, I’ll share thoughts based on the Clan Booster and what I would expect/want to see from it. In the meantime, lemme know what you expect from the new Link Joker support, and if you agree or disagree with my logic. Also, feel free to give suggestions/comments on what I can do (or even do better) for future posts. Anyway, thanks for reading and see you next time!

-Dax