Nova Grapplers received further support in the eighth Extra Booster, Champions of the Cosmos, dedicated solely to their clan. The set mainly contains support for two archetypes, “Asura” and “Blau,” giving Nova Grapplers even more options when it comes to overpowering their opponents.

In this article, we will continue to analyze “Nova Grapplers” by discussing the “Blau” support that came in this set. This includes discussion on how the cards work with one another and the synergy it may have with cards from previous sets. Because of the overwhelming amount of support being given to the “Blau” series this set, I will separate discussion of the cards into two articles, one for the RRR “Blau” units in the set and another article to talk about the RR, R and C support they received in the set as they are very crucial to the deck.

Blau

The “Blau” series for Nova Grappler is a very aggressive archetype which benefits heavily due to a vanguard with an ability to stand itself again during the battle phase. However, unlike the “Asura” series (which was discussed in a previous article), the “Blau” series gain benefits by successfully landing hits on the opponent’s vanguard. Because of the how aggressive the “Blau” series is in trying to gain hits on the vanguard, opponents will feel pressured to either guard early or be forced to take a lot of unwanted damage in the early game, putting them in a dangerous situation all too quickly.

Let’s start with the cover card for the set, “Galaxy Blaukluger,” which is the crossride given to “Stern Blakluger:”

[AUTO](VC) Limit Break 4:[Counter Blast (2) & Choose two «Nova Grappler» from your hand, and discard them] When your vanguard or rear-guard with “Blau” in its card name’s attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, [Stand] all of your units in the same column as this unit. This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn. (Even if you do not pay the cost, this ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.)



[CONT](VC):If you have a card named “Stern Blaukluger” in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000.



[CONT](VC/RC): Lord

“Galaxy Blaukluger’s” ability can be seen as a direct upgrade to his original form, “Stern Blaukluger”, who’s effect is:

[CONT](VC):If you have a card named “Blaukluger” in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+1000.



[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (2) & Choose two «Nova Grappler» from your hand, and discard them] When this unit’s attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, [Stand] all of your units in the same column as this unit, and this unit loses “Twin Drive!!” until end of turn.

The differences between the two cards are as follows:

“Galaxy Blaukluger’s” effect is a limit break, as opposed to “Stern Blaukluger’s” effect, which can be activated any time as vanguard when it hits the opponent’s vanguard.

“Galaxy Blaukluger” is a permanent 11,000 power vanguard while “Stern Blaukluger” needs to have “Blaukluger” in the soul to become 11,000 power.

“Galaxy Blaukluger” does not lose “Twin Drive” if it were to stand again.

“Galaxy Blaukluger’s” effect can activate when a vanguard or rear-guard with “Blau” in it’s name hits a vanguard.

Essentially every aspect of the original “Stern Blaukluger” was upgraded to become “Galaxy Blaukluger.” The fact that his ability is now a Limit Break makes his early game potentially less scary, but the support given to the “Blau” series more than makes up for this fact (which is covered later on in the second article, where other cards assist in it’s early pressure). The upgrade to the base power now makes “Galaxy Blaukluger” 11,000 power, meaning it won’t fall victim to weaker attacking columns set up by the opponent or potential 20,000 power columns like “Stern Blaukluger” would if it were to miss it’s ride chain.

The more important changes are in “Galaxy Blaukluger’s” main effect, which includes not losing “Twin Drive.” Before, if “Stern Blaukluger” were to hit, you would have to discard 2 cards before you could stand again, which is the same cost as “Galaxy Blaukluger.” However, because you lose “Twin Drive,” you would only check one card on the following attack, which means you essentially lost 1 card in order to activate “Stern Blaukluger’s” ability (but more often than not, the extra attack from your vanguard more than makes up for the lost card). Now, if “Galaxy Blaukluger” were to have it’s effect activated, because you get to keep “Twin Drive,” you don’t lose anything other than the two cards you discarded.

Now, the true reason why “Galaxy Blaukluger” is a force to be reckoned with is that his Limit Break can be activated when a rear-guard “Blau” also hits the vanguard with an attack. The amount of pressure generated from this change is incredible as it makes every attack from the person playing “Galaxy Blaukluger” a threat as long as the front rear-guards have “Blau” in their name. An example of a situation you or your opponent may face is this:

The player opposing the “Blau” deck is at 4 damage.

There is a “Galaxy Blaukluger” on the vanguard circle and “Blaukluger” and “Galaxy Blaukluger” are on the rear-guard circle, each boosted by a “Polar Stern.”

Imagine that a sentinel was used to guard the vanguard’s “Galaxy Blaukluger” attack, but two triggers were checked during twin drive, one draw and one critical, where the player distributes one trigger to each of his rearguards.

The rear-guard “Galaxy Blaukluger” will attack the vanguard with critical 2 for a 15,000 shield guard, which the opposing player must guard in order to survive, because they are at 4 damage.

The rear-guard “Blaukluger” will attack the opposing vanguard, which also needs a 15,000 shield guard in order to guard the attack.

Against most other decks, you could easily let that attack go and be sent to 5 damage with no repercussions. However, because of “Galaxy Blaukluger’s” effect, the attack from the rear-guard must be guarded or else “Galaxy Blaukluger’s” effect will activate and he will be able to stand once more.

In this situation alone, the player opposing “Blau” will have to use a sentinel and 30,000 worth of shield (separated into two 15,000 guards) in order to pass the turn without “Galaxy Blaukluger” standing again. This means that the opposing player will have to use, at minimum, 6 cards from their hand in order to pass the turn and up to 8 cards if the hand isn’t favorable.

As you can see, guarding attacks from “Galaxy Blaukluger” in the long run is a very difficult task. If the “Blau” player chooses to take themselves to 5 damage, not only does it lessen the chance of them healing to 3 (taking away their ability to use Limit Break), it also stops the opposing player from healing (if they were to drive check or damage check it) because the “Blau” player would be at a higher damage than their opponent. This is the pressure that “Galaxy Blaukluger” can create by itself.

When paired with another new card in the set, “Mond Blaukluger,” the amount of pressure and sheer number of attacks start to pile on. “Mond Blaukluger’s” effect is as follows:

[AUTO] Limit Break 4: When a «Nova Grappler» rides this unit, choose your vanguard, and until end of turn, that unit gets [Power]+10000 and “[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, [Stand] all of your «Nova Grappler» rear-guards.”.



[AUTO](VC):When this unit is boosted by a «Nova Grappler», this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of that battle.



[CONT](VC/RC): Lord

As you can see, “Mond Blaukluger” is a break ride that can stand all of your rear-guards for the cost of 1 Counterblast when your vanguard attacks the opposing vanguard. Not only does this increase the number of attacks for a “Nova Grappler” deck by 2 on the turn that you break ride, for “Galaxy Blaukluger,” the turn you break ride will be a devastating turn that can potentially win the game. Using our example from before, let’s look at the situation the opponent will have to consider:

The same conditions as before; opposing player at 4 damage, “Galaxy Blaukluger” and “Blaukluger” as rear-guards boosted by “Polar Stern.”

This time, however, the “Blau” vanguard will be “Mond Blaukluger” and the player will be break riding the “Galaxy Blaukluger.”

Now, “Galaxy Blaukluger” will get the addition 10,000 power from break riding on top of “Mond Blaukluger.”

Assuming the opposing player has rear-guards, the “Blau” rear-guards must attack the opposing rear-guards first before the vanguard “Galaxy Blaukluger” does first. This is very important as “Galaxy Blaukluger” states that when a “Blau” FIRST hits the vanguard, the ability can activate. This means that if a rear-guard “Blau” attack hits the opposing vanguard first, before the “Galaxy Blaukluger” vanguard can attack, the effect is wasted and cannot be activated this turn.

After the two rear-guard “Blau” attacks, the vanguard “Galaxy Blaukluger” will attack and, because it rode on top of “Mond Blaukluger,” can counterblast 1 to stand all of your “Nova Grappler” rear-guards.

Because all of your “Nova Grappler” rear-guards stood, this allows the rear-guard “Blau” attacks to get a chance at standing a minimum 21,000 power “Galaxy Blaukluger“.

Without any triggers checked from “Galaxy Blaukluger,” let’s count the amount of cards needed to guard this turn. The “Blau” rear-guards will each retire one card with their attack (or the opposing player can guard them), which means at least 2 cards will be gone. Secondly, the vanguard will attack, most likely forcing a sentinel if they have it, followed by the two rear-guard attacks that will be standing once more, netting a minimum of 2 cards if they are worth 10,000 shield. Now, this makes a minimum of 6 cards gone, which is the same number as before, meaning that with triggers distributed, would net around an extra 2 more cards, making it 8 total on a turn with two triggers. The main difference here is that, in the previous example, a sentinel was simply a choice in guarding the vanguard. However, on the break ride turn, it is almost necessary to use it due to how high “Galaxy Blaukluger” will be attacking for.

However, on this turn in particular, if any of the “Blau” units manage to hit the vanguard on the turn that they break ride, not only does “Galaxy Blaukluger” get to stand once more, upon attacking the vanguard again, all of the rear-guard “Blau” units are able to stand once more at a cost of counterblast 1 due to “Mond Blaukluger’s” effect being still in activation.

The thought of it occurring is usually enough to make players be wary of letting any attacks go through to the vanguard if they are unprepared. Having to use, at minimum, 6 cards to guard per turn is already scary enough to think about. Overall, the amount of pressure that “Galaxy Blaukluger” can put out is dangerously high and any small mistake can cost the opposing player the game.

Because the above combo is so devastating, a typical “Blau” deck based around “Galaxy Blaukluger” might not run “Stern Blaukluger” in the main deck in order to guarantee getting the combo of “Mond Blaukluger” with “Galaxy Blaukluger” off as often as possible. Although having a cross-ridden 13,000 power on defense is a great asset, it would usually take an extra turn or two to set up, which isn’t something a “Blau” player would want as they want to start hitting the opponent with as much pressure as possible or threatening the idea of a turn where “Galaxy Blaukluger” will break ride on top of “Mond Blaukluger.” Also, due to some deck compositions, if “Stern Blaukluger” stays as the vanguard for a prolonged amount of time without “Blaukluger” in the soul, having a vanguard with 10,000 power may lead to the demise of the “Blau” player.

In Conclusion

The “Blau” series received an overwhelming amount of support (so much that I can’t fit it into this article). With the addition of “Galaxy Blaukluger,” if the opponent is kept at 4 damage, the fact that they have to drop a minimum of 6 cards per turn in order to avoid “Galaxy Blaukluger” from activating essentially snowballs it into a victory as the pressure begins to stack very fast for the opposing player.

Look forward to my analysis of the other “Blau” cards in this set as they all combo with each other exceedingly well and will lead many happy “Nova Grappler” players to victory.

Thank you for reading the article. Did we miss something? Is there something you else you would like to hear about from us? Contact us on our twitter or email us your suggestions at vongola11undici@gmail.com.

Thank you again for your support. – Namian