Limited Fight: Narukami Thunderbreak-Jaggyshot

[Blog]

12 min read

Yahallo lads and ladettes, its me its your best friend its CanYouSayG and you’re reading the CanYouSayBlog, where we learn how to be a better cardfighter.

Today, we will be going over the Narukami Limited Fight deck from VEB12 Team Dragon’s Vanity, and how the deck has evolved to incorporate multi attack into its existing strategy.

Limited Fight is enjoyable on a budget as always, and highly recommended for players whom want to enjoy vanguard on a budget or perhaps play with cards they usually don’t get to see in action.

The deck we will be going over today is Thunderbreak-Jaggyshot, a deck that combines consistent accel circle building and control to reach their win. Previously Narukami focused on Thunderbreak’s front row attacking skill with his field rearranging skill to consistently remove the opponents board for multiple turns on end, while using RaiRai to re-ride and build accel circles to execute your counter attack.



By adding in Jaggyshot Dragoon, which has both hand filtering, multi-attack, accel building potential and combos with Chathura, the deck has gotten a second idea grade 3 with excellent on ride and on call ability, allowing for greater consistency at removing the opponents board while attacking and maintaining hand.

Deck Build

Lets quickly go over an example deck build for Narukami in limited Fight.

For those whom like their deck lists in text form, it is as follows:

4 Thunderbreak Dragon

4 Jaggy Shot Dragoon

4Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura

3 Recklessness Dragon

3 Supreme Army Eradicator Zuitan

2 Hammer Knuckle Dragon

4 Rising Pheonix

4 Dragon Dancer RaiRai

3 Desert Gunner Bajan

2 Dragon Dancer Anastasia



6 Critical

2 Draw

4 Wyvern Guard Guld

4 Heal

Card Choices

As you can see, a lot of the deck focuses on removing the opponents field while maintaining card advantage in hand, utilizing cards such as Chathura, Jaggy Shot, Thunderbreak and Rising Phoenix to always fill your field to win slow and steady, without using up hand to deploy a field.

Jaggyshot Dragoon is one of the powerful cards of the deck and the key new inclusion. While you will not be able to use the soul in to draw one skill that is so valuable in standard (Vanquisher, being a VR, is not legal in the format), you can still utilize the main skill to bind a card from your hand to bind an opponent rear guard in front row, and then if the opponent has no front row, to draw one.

With Jaggyshot, you have three potential outcomes of using the skill.

First, if you bind any card from your hand as cost, and don’t get to bind any rear guard. In this situation, but the opponent won’t have any rear guards in the front row, so you can draw a card. You exchange hand and remove low value cards from your hand while drawing fresh ones.

Second, if your opponent has exactly one rear guard in front row, you bind that rear guard, and then the opponent has no rear guards, so you get to draw a card. Binding one rear guard and drawing one for the cost of one card, a total advantage of +1.

Third potential outcome is the opponent has multiple rear guards in the front row. First off this sets them up for being heavily punished by cards such as Jaggyshot, Thunderbreak, or just about anything else in the Narukami arsenal, but if you did not have any of these, Jaggyshot becomes a bind one card from hand to remove one of the opponents, a +/-0 in card advantage but a devastating blow in card quality available to the opponent.

Of the three potential outcomes for Jaggyshot, two of them are +/-0 maintaining your field presence, while one of the three gives a raw +1 to card advantage, but this is before you account for Desert Gunner Bajan and Chathura, both of which further increase that advantage count by 1 by just being the cost for Jaggyshot.

Although Jaggyshot is the sole method of binding from hand, playing the full package of Jaggyshot, Chathura, and Bajan together provides enough advantage to justify it being played, especially in format of Limited where individual advantage matters more than bombastic effects. Additionally, as the move to soul skill is not applicable in Limited Fight, one jaggy shot dragoon on rear guard can bind multiple cards from your hand over several turns.

Additionally, one of Narukami’s previous weaknesses, being poor at high power output and therefore weak against damage triggers, is helped by Bajan and Jaggyshot binding to superior call out Rising Pheonix, which can help provide adequate boosters to all of your columns, especially as the deck cannot rely on Dragonic Vanquisher to provide the +10k power pump.

Thunderbreak performs double duty in the deck, both on vanguard and on rear guard, as well as with RaiRai as a deck thinning option. Thunderbreak on Vanguard allows you to hit all of the opponents front row, meaning that with a booster, it often times can take down two rear guards per turn, or even more if the opponent is playing accel.



On rear guard, his ability to pull units to the front row allow set up for his own skill, or for Jaggyshot on Vanguard to bind, triggering units such as Rising Phoenix and building up bind for Anastasia. This constant ability of removing the opponents units and potentially boosting units renders the opponents offense weakened, allowing you to take your time to win with Jaggyshot, Chathura and other cards snowballing advantage.

Two cards in the grade 2 slot that may pique your attention are Recklessness Dragon and Hammer Knuckle Dragon. Both of these cards are not played at all in standard since VBT03, giving up their slot to cards with more utility such as death scythe and ChouOu. However in Limited Fight, Recklessness Dragon fills the slot for removal of front row, while gaining on attack power for extra utility against accel or protect clans. In a similar vein, Hammer Knuckle Dragon is used as his ability is not on place, instead being an ACT skill that you can choose to activate a turn or two after it is called.



Most commonly this is used to set up a maximum card advantage Jaggyshot Dragoon, burning just enough so Jaggyshot can kill the last front row and gain extra advantage. Against other accel clans that have more units in the front row, Thunderbreak can perform wondrously against the filled front row.



While both eat counter blast in a typically counter blast heavy clan, in Limited Fight you will notice not much counter blast cost being used, with only Thunderbreak’s skill requiring it. This frees up much cost to be used for both Recklessness and Hammer Knuckle Dragon.

You may notice we are playing Zuitan, whom has both a power gaining skill when a rear guard is bind, as well as a soul in and draw skill. As Narukami in Limited tends to lack high power, Zuitans ability to gain extra power off of binds comes in very handy, setting up your attacks while staying over the crucial line to hit over one trigger. However, the soul in to draw skill can also be extremely useful when combined with Jaggyshot Dragoon to both draw into your parts as well as perform multiple attacks, so it is not to be dismissed.

In our Grade 1 slot, you may notice us playing Dragon Dancer Anastasia.

Anastasia gains 5k shield to become a 15k shield if the opponent has three or more cards in bind, but more importantly, she can, at the cost of soul blast one, move to the guardian circle, allowing her to intercept from anywhere on the board while still being a good guard value card.

This soul blast cost is one of the only ways to soul blast on demand, especially important for soul blasting out cards such as Rising Pheonix.



Option cards



Next we will discuss some of the option cards you may choose to play in your own build of the deck

Blitz Caliber Dragon





Blitz Caliber Dragon is a grade 3 unit that, if a card is bind this turn, it gains +20k power. This makes it a 32k power rear guard which can handle very well to drive damage, making up for your decks lack of power. As it counts a card bind from anywhere, Jaggyshot binding a card from your own hand counts towards this power pump as well, allowing you to utilize him alongside Thunderbreak Dragon as well as Jaggyshot on your Vanguard. The 20k power gain makes him more valuable that Beathawk Dragon

Front Trigger build

Another option for your own build would be to change from Critical to Front triggers, as often times your vanguard does go first, as well as this accommodating for the lower power lines across the board. While this does make it easier to end games when you open a front trigger, Critical triggers allow for higher pressure and your Vanguard having game ending threat. Combined with low power this allows you to force and bait the opponent into guarding more often, thus giving you options to control the opponents hand, with your effects controlling the board, giving you ample time to slowly grind towards your victory.

Thunderlead Dragon

Thunderhead dragon is a grade one version of hammer knuckle dragon, with the ability to CB2 to bind a front row and gain additional power. Useful in the same situations, if you want to clear some grade 1 space to play Thunderlead instead of Hammer Knuckle, that is also an option

Excess Streak Dragon

Excess Streak Dragon is a grade 2 that binds a front row when placed at the cost of CB1 and SB1, and gains 10k power. This gives you the much needed power line and also an option for sou blast. While I chose not to play it because of the 8k body, making it a poor ride target of which you already have Chathura, you may indeed choose to play it over cards such as Recklessness Dragon or Hammer Knuckle

Land Shocker Dragon





Land shocker Dragon can counter blast and soul blast 1 to bind a frontrow, giving 5k power to all rear guards in the same column. This skill can be used multiple times, allowing him to clear the field by using up your cost. This power gain can be helpful, and as such Land Shocker may be a choice in your build of the deck. Here I have chosen not to play it as the front row clearing ability of Thunderbreak Dragon is enough.

Strategy



Although Narukami is an accel clan, the strategy in Limited Fight is to win slow and steady, clearing opponents units and using both on hit pressure and multiple attacks to slowly drive damage, while maintaining a solid defense. Use Jaggyshot both to clear the way, open accel circles, as well as gain advantage by bidding Chathura and Bajans to fill up the board.

In the early and mid game, RaiRai can be used to boost and search for Thunderbreak Dragon. You want to transition slowly into filling the back row with Rising Phoenixes and Bajan, but do note that the more of the back row you fill with Rising Pheonix, the less Rising Phoenix you will have as an option to multi attack.

Be willing to re-ride often to gain accel circles, and maintain a strong offense each turn, tempting the opponent to no guard and open damage triggers, while destroying their response every turn.

One of the tricks that can be done with Chathura is using multiple Chathura to attack first, while having multiple attacks that would not be able to hit if the opponent opened a damage trigger. This would make the correct play in several situations (not all) for the opponent to no guard the chathura, giving you card draw, and opening a damage trigger to shut down multiple attacks, but most opponents would foolishly try to block the Chathura, wasting resources just to aim to block an on hit draw effect.



Accel 1 vs Accel 2



The choice between Accel 1 and Accel 2 is a tough call to make. While accel 2 can give you a card, the power granted is not enough to allow some attacks to hit through, especially hit through a damage trigger. While accel 2 gives you access to more card advantage, in this deck with Jaggyshot and Chathura to gain you card advantage in a format that is slower and control can be more relevant a strategy, often times that one card can not be as valuable as an additional 5k power over three or four more turns.

Making the correct call on Accel 1 and 2 with this deck is crucial, as it allows for certain attacks to hit with less power, and for certain columns to be harder to guard, furthering your control agenda. Conversely the Accel 2 would allow you to easier deploy and attack, without as much pressure on to maintain a solid defense as the additional card in hand helps greatly to defend.

For example placing Accel 1 allows the Zuitan that has only one bind to hit for 24k power, hitting through the damage trigger.

Conclusion



In Limited Fight, Narukami is both a beatdown combo deck as well as a control deck, using its retire and bind abilities with multi attack and front row attacking to control the board and pace of the game. Easy and cheap to put together for an enjoyable experience, give the updated Narukami a try with your friends in Limited Fight. Will you be the one to dominate the field with Narukami? Or are you more excited to try out the Altmile, Ahsha and Chronojet decks when they come out later this month in Limited?