So we finally get to see our new stride and its skill!

Skill: [AUTO](VC):At the end of the battle that it attacked, COST [Counter Blast (1) & discard three cards from your hand], put this unit into your G zone face up, and ride up to one grade 3 card from your drop zone as [Stand].

So what does the stride bring to the table for our beloved clan? Glad you asked! Let’s first go over the pros and then some of the “cons” of it.

Pros

A stride that promotes 2 VG attacks.

Great option against Gredora and Chaos matchups.

Generic and can be used in all Granblue variants.

High Crit variants of Granblue thrive on having 5 drive checks (increase of seeing critical triggers).

“Cons”

Does NOT call any RG units.

A potential minus 1 in hand advantage depending on what unit you rerode.

Does NOT flip a card in G Zone (relevant for GB2 active on 1st stride and closer to GB8).

Personally I feel that the Pros outweigh the “Cons” for this card. Granblue has plenty of strides that already call RGs, but never really had a solid VG centric stride. Having access to a VG centric stride gives us more options and ways of dealing with bad matchups such as Gredora and Chaos. VG restanders tend to be one of the best ways to deal with those two matchups.

The potential minus 1 is negligible because if you reride a card with the Protect I gift, then you’ll get a sentinel card added to your hand. Which is great because most restanders in Vanguard tend to be a minus 1 in advantage. We have a way to break even!

What’s really cool and actually powerful is that it brings some new combos! Here are a few different ones that I thought of from the top of my head with some of the variants in Granblue.

Key Highlights

V Era





There a number of V Era G3s that can be great choices for the reride itself, but I think these two are the best at the moment.

Cocytus has his CONT skill that increases his power by 10k OR 20k with an additional Crit. It’s very good pressure as a 2nd attack. Due note, in my experience, usually the 2nd VG attack is guarded by a PG/Protect I Sentinel/G Guard.

Skull Dragon has the benefit of becoming HUGE because his skill also works on VC! This essentially makes it where the opponent has to have a PG or Protect I sentinel to guard it effectively otherwise they will take the damage.

Both have the Protect Gift, so if you’re playing with Protect I, then you’ll get one added to your hand and thus break even in hand advantage. You can use other V Era cards to help build your field such as Greed Shade, Captain Nightmist, etc.

Seven Seas (Pseudo Megiddo Turn)







Yes that’s right! We can do essentially a pseudo Megiddo turn! Let’s cover that! During your 2nd stride turn with LB4 active do the following:

Ride Phase:

With your VG already being Lord of the Seven Seas, Nightmist. Ride another one from hand. Breakride to superior call 2 Skull Dragons and they get +5k as well.

Main Phase:

Setup any appropriate boosters like Romario or Grenache. You can use cards like Greed Shade to grab those pieces from drop into hand or if they were already there due to early and mid game turns.

Battle Phase:

Skull Dragon (50k+) Skull Dragon (52k+) Bad Bounty VG (26k + booster) (Breakride with a Skull Dragon and to bring back 2 RG Skull Dragons) Skull Dragon VG (64k+) Skull Dragon (54k+) Skull Dragon (56k+)

You can extend another attack with Nightstorm with an extra CB. When you reride to breakride, bring one Nightstorm and one Skull Dragon. You can do the same sequence with Nightstorm being the 6th attack and then the final Skull Dragon revived by him will be the 7th attack.

That’s it! Basically you get a version of the Megiddo turn! A welcome addition! The benefit that Lord of the Seven Seas, Nightmist brought is that it was able to bring RGs for just breakriding. So then you can stride into a G unit like Negrosonger or Phantasm Nightrose to extend attacks during the battle phase. Now we can do the same with Bad Bounty but better!

Nightrose







Everyone knows that Nightrose’s GB2 skill is amazing. However, one scenario that doesn’t happen often is that a player is able to use her skill during their own battle phase.

Wait, what do you mean? Glad you asked! If a unit is sent to drop zone during your battle phase, you can revive it back and the unit comes in Stand. So that means that same unit can do another attack!

Let’s say it’s the beginning of your 2nd stride turn and you have the field shown below.

You need 3-4CB depending if you use Nightrose on stride skill on a particular unit or not. You want 2 Romarios (12k booster) and one Negrobone (attack extender) in the back row for sure.

The front units can be anything. You can use Greed Shade to help out during the main phase with any missing pieces to fix your field. You can also revive a King Serpent to get a free unit if you really need it.

Battle Phase:

Greed Shade (14k) Ruin Shade boosted by Negrobone (24k) (CB1 retire Ruin Shade and call Nightstorm onto the RC where Greed Shade is) Bad Bounty VG (26k) (CB1 & discard 3 to reride Nightrose) Nightrose VG boosted by Romario (23k) Nightstorm boosted by Romario (23k+ any triggers checked from the 5 drive checks) (Then at end of battle, CB1 call Skull Dragon) Skull Dragon (50k+) (retires due to skill, use Nightrose GB2 skill to revive it back) Skull Dragon (56k+)

We get two VG attacks that actually promote your multi attack RG patterns. Really neat interaction. This one sneaks in 2 last attacks that are from a Skull Dragon that an opponent may not expect. I’m sure there are more patterns, Nightrose is a deck that has a lot of possibilities.

Ghosties?





Oddly enough, you can do a similar interaction with Demetria just like from Nightrose’s GB2 skill. After you reride into Demetria, you can have a RG Skull Dragon attack and it’ll retire itself. Then with Demetria’s skill, bring back Clemmie as another 16k attacker.

I recommend first attacking with Skull Dragon then attack with Demetria, so then any drive checks with triggers can be stacked onto Clemmie. Then during your opponent’s battle phase, Clemmie can be used as a 10k shield by intercepting.

Is this game breaking? Not really, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it’s GHOSTIES!

Conclusion

Will this new stride be used? Absolutely! It’s a very welcomed addition to our toolbox! I can see this card being played at 1-2 copies depending on your meta game. I’m very excited because it helps us in our bad matchups and helps bring new combos with multiple variants of Granblue! A+ Bushiroad! Till next time amigos!

Also check out Solemn’s reveal of the card! Really well done and hilarious in the beginning!