So there’s still more than three months before Amaruda makes her English debut. However, I’ve already had a number of friends come up to me for advice on the deck. What should I pick up? Do I need Fenrir? How many of X card should I run? Are all questions that I’ve heard recently. As your friendly internet Genesis person, I’m here to answer some of those questions starting with “What should I pick up?”.

Disclaimer: I’m going to be talking about what cards you should play in a pure Revelation/Amaruda deck, not a Fenrir/Amaruda hybrid. The reason for this is that Amaruda and Fenrir play so differently that I truly view them as two different decks. You can play Amaruda as a back-up in Fenrir (if you want to), but I don’t really recommend using Fenrir as a back-up to Amaruda.

Grade 0:

Starting Vanguard:

My forerunner of choice for Amaruda is Fetter Creator, Van. Now, you may be tempted to play Nakisawame (she’s cute!) or Leyding (Must.Have.Toolbox), but I strongly encourage you to pick up Van instead. Why? It’s because of Van’s skill to give a unit +2k. Not only can you use this defensively with the new revelation PG if Van just so happens to be standing at the time (stand triggers do that sometimes), but he can also give your 7ks the 2k they need to hit a 9k vanguard, or your 9ks the 2k they need to hit an 11k vanguard. This is especially important because of the increase in the use of 10k vanillas. Need to hit that 10k? No problem, use Van. Especially considering the fact that you want to proc Revelation multiple times in the early game (to set up soul for Ishtar, of course), Van’s 2k is just to important to pass up on. When you don’t need him anymore you can shove him into the soul to draw a card. Overall, Van has significantly more utility over the course of the game than either Leyding or Nakisawame, since both of them only have a one time use.

Triggers:

I’ve seen some people try to cut Tahro down to 2 because she has poor synergy with Ishtar. I’ve seen other people cut Dreaming Dragon down to 2 because you don’t need to use it every turn. All of these people are wrong, you must play both Tahro and Dreaming Dragon at 4.

The reason you want 4 Tahro is that not only is she useful if Ishtar’s skill whiffs a bit (never though I’d be sad to see triggers), but she’s essential to making an effective Athena turn. Why on earth would you play a deck that speed rushes to GB8 without considering your game plan for the GB8? With Tahro you can easily reach five attacks on an Athena turn (granted the first two will be weaker than the last three). Besides, stand triggers actually have a tremendous amount of synergy with Ishtar (especially Tahro, who’s Revelation skill is very handy), so no, you cannot just drop stands to play crits. The reason that you play 8 stand in an Ishtar deck is because you want to have consistency on your Ishtar turn.

Imagine a typically first stride Ishtar turn. You would attack with your rearguard columns first. Then you attack with your Vanguard hoping to drive check normal units with the Revelation keyword. Your opponent is very likely to have blocked your vanguard’s attack with a perfect guard. First check: Crit. Second check: Crit. Third check: Heal. Oh Rip, your turn is now over, and you couldn’t multi-attack at all. You couldn’t soul blast, and you couldn’t even reach GB2. That is one sad Ishtar turn. However, if you were playing stands, the chances are good that if you got three triggers, at least one of them would be a stand trigger, and 4 attacks is better than 3 attacks. Basically, Ishtar transforms all of your normal units into stand triggers, so for consistency purposes, your triggers should also be stands whenever possible.

Dreaming Dragon is also an essential card in most Genesis decks because it solves the issue of deckout and nets you a card. You might think that you don’t need to max him out. The truth is that the only situation where you don’t need to max him out is if you’re playing Leyding or Fenrir. The reason for this is that there is a 100% chance that Dreaming Dragon will, at some point, end up in your soul where only Leyding and Fenrir can reach him. As such, if you only play 2 copies of Dreaming Dragon, you are extremely unlikely to have him exactly when you want him (your hand). Instead, you’ll find him in your soul, drop, or damage zone. That is the nature of Genesis. Play 4.

I would recommend 12 stand in Amaruda. However, considering the fact that Witches took the stand trigger slot in GBT11 (for a stand trigger that they’ll never even want to use), I recommend using 8 stand, 4 crit instead. This slot may change though if Amaruda gets her own critical trigger or a new stand trigger. For now, I recommend picking up 4 copies of Kukurihime just in case.

But isn’t Thviti better than Kukurihime?

Yes, yes it is… but only if you’re playing Fenrir. The only situation where you can use Thviti in Amaruda is on a GR Fenrir turn. And since you would only stride into Fenrir when you’re falling behind or don’t have the right set-up for Ishatr or Athena, Thviti will be a dead card half the time. And considering the fact that you need a LOT of soul in Amaruda, you’re better off using something that you can shove in there yourself in an emergency.

tl;dr you can save money and skip Thviti.

You’re going to be rushing to GB8, and you need the soul anyway so pick up a playset of Laurier. She’s cute and shiny.

Grade 1:

I’ve heard a lot of people who say that you can’t/shouldn’t use Gelgja in Amauda because he requires the Fenrir name. However, THAT ISN’T TRUE. Sure, you get more out of Gelgja if you have the Fenrir name, but his (non-GB) ability to stand one of your rearguards and give it 3k is absolutely essential in any revelation deck, not just Fenrir. Gelgja is the reason that you don’t need Nakisawame because he is so much better than she is. Geljga is a staple for any turn that you use your revelation skill more than once, including the early game. I cannot even describe accurately to you just how essential Gelgja is in Amaruda. Please pick up a play set.

Skoll on the other hand is pretty iffy. Technically speaking you don’t need Skoll. But he’s not a bad tech considering Amaruda doesn’t have her own stride fodder or searcher yet. I’d recommend that you pick up at least 2 copies of Skoll, just in case.

Grade 2:

Kotonoha makes good numbers and works pre-GB. There is no reason not to play her at 4.

Grade 3:

Both Svava and Azusa are decent enough back-ups to Amaruda. My recommendation here is to pick up two copies of each of these and test them out yourself. Svava is a better vanguard, but Azusa is a better rearguard. Your choice.

(I’m not going to talk about Wiseman. If you want to play Wiseman, go somewhere else, thanks)

Grade 4:

Generally speaking, you don’t want to stride onto either of these. However, even after GBT11 there’s still space in the g-zone for one of these. So pick one, and play it at 1. If you’re a more offensive player (like me), I recommend Doom Brace. If you’re a more defensive player, then pick Tyr. Also be prepared to drop it once more Genesis support is released. But we don’t know when that is so… pick one up.

Vanargandr isn’t your main target anymore, but he is a good buffer stride. Fenrir on the other hand is great when you’re falling behind and you want to draw some cards, or if you want to power up your rearguards. I recommend picking up two copies of each of these.

Athena is an amazing third stride (after 2 Ishtars). She’s very flexible and you can use her as either a finisher, or a tempo stride since you choose the number of cards you soul blast. Athena is as powerful as you make her, so I recommend playing two copies of her for that reason.

Laurier is a great g-guard when you want to increase the number of normal units in your deck, rush to GB8, and guard yourself with high shield all in one. I recommend picking up to copies of her.



Iris’ skill will never lose relevancy in Genesis. It’s always nice to soul charge the exact cards you want to soul charge. As such, I recommend picking up 3 copies of Iris so that you can have the option between Laurier and Iris when you need it.

And yeah, that’s it! If you have all of these cards ready, it’s time to start the countdown to GBT11.