Standard Neo Nectar: Arboros Dragon Sephirot. Simple, Stable, Strong

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

Today, we will be going over Standard NeoNectar, and how it changes to use the new VR: Arboros Dragon Sephirot, and its powered up plant tokens with 10k power as well as intercept for 10k shield.

If you are looking for my analysis regarding the musketeer deck, do find it here!

For a Neo Nectar analysis in Premium Standard, be sure to tune in tomorrow as we analyse the new options and what they mean for the deck.

Previously, the deck revolved around Cecilia, which could use her ability to superior call 3 units from the deck while powering the whole frontrow up by 10k power to push for damage and drive the opponent to defeat, while using plant tokens to generate a board early, as well as fueling effects such as Exploding Tomato and Cecilia herself.

With Arboros Dragon's ride chain, the deck can field much higher quality units early by way of the improved plant tokens, allowing smooth transition into the later game where high power is easily generated and maintained over several turns.

Today, we will be going over the various cards used in the Standard Neo Nectar deck, both old and new, exploring two different example deck lists and interesting interactions of cards in each deck, continuing with some gameplay points, discussion regarding ride order, and then closing with a short discussion on Force gift selection.

Card discussion, old and new

Arboros Dragon Sephirot:

Arboros Dragon Sephirot is the new VR of the set, with two abilities: When on V, he turns all your plant tokens called into the powered up plant tokens, as well as on V/R having the ability to retire one plant token to superior call two plant tokens (often powered up due to Sephirot being on V), followed by a conditional +10k power. As you can tell, Sephirot is very good for filling up the field and developing it with many 10k boosters/10k intercept units.

Both abilities can be combined well with a unit that calls a plant token on call such as Sylvia, Arboros Dragon Timber, or Maiden of Happy Fawn. After calling a unit to get one 10k/10k powered up plant, retire the unit with the come into play ability to superior call two more plants!

Together, this uses one card to generate three units on your board, of which 2 of them at 10k intercepts! Quite a lot of power and shield for very cheap.

One of the key points to remember when playing Arboros Dragon Sephirot is how its ability is on V/R to superior call plant tokens and +10k!

If you have a field that is empty, call an Arboros Dragon Sephirot, then call a token maker. Use your first Sephirot to retire one unit and superior call two plants (now total 3 plants), and then use your second to retire a plant token and superior call two more (now 4 plants), creating the full field!

Another key play with Sephirot is on a full field, to retire a plant token, call only one more (replacing the unit retired with 5/10k boost plant), fulfilling the conditions for 5 or more rear guards without interrupting your own field, giving Arboros the 10k power boost.

While Arboros does gain a lot of power, builds consistency both offensively and defensively for your board, it can only call one unit per turn (as you retire one rear guard), and otherwise does not thin your deck or call units beyond your 10k intercepter plant.

Do take note that if you called a 5k plant and then later ride into Arboros, your previous plant tokens do not get promoted to the 10k/10k plant tokens, neither do they get demoted if you ride to something else. Once they are called, they stay the same.

However, what you can easily do is retire the previous 5k power plant token to superior call two powered up ones!

White Lily Musketeer Cecilia:

Cecilia is the VR from last year. While as a first ride she does not do very much, CB1 retire one to superior call two units, as a second ride she becomes very potent, to retire one rear guard to superior call three from your deck (+2 advantage), thinning your deck further, as well as giving +10k power to your front row to either push for damage or for game.

Cecilia previously used to be played with Exploding Tomato or together with Maiden of Trailing Rose in order to fill up your board very quickly, or to convert plant tokens into cards in hand, but with the introduction of Arboros Sephirot, some builds play Cecilia alongside Sephirot, and some players play Cecilia with Martina that gains a Critical and power when superior called.

One of the key benefits that Cecilia gets from the upgraded tokens is the ability to create 33k power lines without any imaginary gifts.

Previously, with 10k from her own effect, she would only reach 31k power with an 8k booster, requiring specifically Corolla Dragon to be called behind her to give her more power. By maintaining a 10k power boosting token behind her, she can reach 33k power while being able to pass off Force to other columns!

Keep in mind that once you ride from Arboros into Cecilia, although you do lose out on the ability to create 10k tokens, similarly to how Exploding Tomato functioned in the previous deck, you are not afraid to superior call Arboros Dragon Sephirot onto rear guard, as it has a very useful ability on rear guard as well!



One of the common plays is to call Arboros Dragon Sephirot to rear guard just to get 10k power on its own. Combined with Cecilia that is 33k power before adding in the boosting unit.

Exploding Tomato



Our classic Tomato. Exploding tomato has two skills; retire two plant tokens to draw one and gain 10k power, as well as at the end of the attack, retiring itself to call two plant tokens into the backrow.

This does mean that during the battle phase, you can retire exploding tomato to superior call two plant tokens that will be, thanks to Sephirot, 10k boosters.

Exploding tomato works well with Sephirot, as if you do not draw into Sephirot, you can ride exploding tomato to convert those plant tokens you are generating to card draw to draw into sephirot.

Additionally, Sephirot on V can retire any unit to convert them into two plant tokens, which Exploding tomato can then retire to convert into a draw! Exchange the cards in your hand for more cards from the deck, while getting power along the way!

Now youre thinking with plants.

Fruits Assort Dragon

Fruits Assort Dragon (nicknamed Gaim Dragon), is a Grade 3 with Force that gains the base power of all Grade 0 units on your field during your turn.

If you have 5k power plants, he gains anywhere from 0-20k power, but if you have 10k power plants, those each contribute 10k power, giving a maximum of a 63k power column in you have 4 other plants.



While Fruits Assort Dragon does have a devastatingly high power, lack of further pressure (without force 2), no ability to gain card advantage, as well as having to play specifically together with Arboros Sephirot to maintain high power output make Fruits Assort a card that is played less often, but can reach impressive power lines that demand a null guard when it is.

The key point that points players away from Fruits Assort Dragon is how if you do not ride your main Ride Target, Fruits Assort is a back up that does nothing to get you out of the bad situation, where Exploding Tomato does by drawing you cards.

This is the trade off you are sacrificing in exchange for a power output bordering on unblockable when you are able to ride Arboros Dragon Sephirot.

Grade 2:

Arboros Dragon Timber

Arboros Dragon Timber and Pansy Musketeer Sylvia fill similar roles in the deck, but ultimatley differ in one key point: when you ride Timber, you do not get to call a token. Instead, it improves the next token you call to becoming a 10k booster/intercept, handing you 10k shield worth of guard if you are able to call a plant token that turn.

Against aggressive decks, which are the majority of the current metagame, this 10k shield early can mean a lot, especially when it is coming as mostly free, as it can stop one whole attack.

However, the drawback is that you must call a plant token, requiring further card use from your hand in order to get this high value token early in the game.

Some of the common use of Timber is to ride it, followed by calling a Token to the side to intercept the next turn. This is because early on in the game, especially if you are using hand to call out plant tokens, more importantly than having a 10k power booster behind Vangaurd (you can gain a lot of effectiveness off of just 5k boost, as well as its effectiveness is limited on turn 2 and you are attacking with 3 units), you would rather have the shield on your board to slow down the opponents offense.

In the Acccel heavy metagame, one of the most important plays to do when going first is to attack three times, and all with 10k Grade 2s. This way not only can you get an early start to your tempo, you can compensate the deck's weakness of only having three attacks each turn, as well as prevent the opponent from hitting you back the next turn without losing more hand to place as boosting units. Arboros Dragon Timber allows exactly this by simply riding and then calling a Sylvia/Timber to rear guard.

One of the key points to consider when using Arboros Dragon Timber as well as Pansy Musketeer Sylvia is how combined with Sephirot, they can be one card to create 3 tokens on board. Call Sylvia/Timber, call a 10k token, then use Sephirot to retire the grade 2 to create two tokens, fast filling up the board.

Spiritual Tree Sage Irminsur

Irminsur is one of the best cards in Neo Nectar as a clan. If you have two Grade zero rear guards, you can counterblast one to draw 1, and give 5k to itself and the unit in the same column, giving the column a total of 10k power while replacing the card in hand you use to call it, all while moving close to drawing your key grade 3 units.

As you may know, Irminsur is considered one of the subtly strong cards even in premium standard, due to its power line being extremely high early on in the game. With just a 5k booster, the column creates a 25k power line, which requires 20k guard to guard the attack against a Grade 2 vanguard.

With Arboros Dragon Sephirot, it is easy to retire one unit to superior call two grade zero plants, put Irminsur in the column as one of them, then draw a card.

Another interaction is if you already have two plant tokens on board, call Irminsur first behind Vanguard, give your vanguard 5k power, then retiring it to replace it with a 10k booster behind the vanguard and a 10k interceptor, creating a 38k power line with the Vanguard without using any force, a 40k guard for two pass.

This can be a very beneficial play if you want to maintain the two 10k interceptors on your field, though its effectiveness can be questionable as it is only 5k more shield than just intercepting with Irminsur. This does change very quickly if you do have cards such as Enifa in play to increase the value of those plants used to guard.

Gale of Arboros, Oliver

Oliver is one of the strongest cards in the deck, but also one that requires the player to work around its conditions and abilities.

If you have two Arboros in soul, by paying CB1, you can either retire two units to gain 20k power and 1 Critical, or to create two plant tokens.

Keep in mind that this ability works on Vanguard as well, so should you ride Arboros Branch and then ride into Oliver, you can cb1 to gain 20k 1 critical or create two plant tokens as early as turn two!

This creation of plant tokens allows you to fill your board with ease, setting up future turns while providing boost for all units across the board. Additionally, if your vanguard is Arboros Sephirot, you can counter blast one to create two plant token, then retire one of them to create a total of four units on your board, giving you the ability to rebuild your field from nothing!

Additionally, with the rate that Neo Nectar creates units on board, mostly from effects that create plant tokens, you can easily afford the two units to gain the 20k power and 1 critical. This gives you critical pressure and a massive power boost. Just boosting with a 10k plant creates a 40k line with 2 critical, and thats before triggers.

One of the points to rememeber when playing this card is how many rear guards are on board before and after its effect.

If you are playing Arboros Dragon Sephirot as your Vanguard, by retiring two rear guards you go down to 3 rear guards (with oliver as one of them). Even if you retire one rear guard to create two 10k power tokens to fill up your board again, you will only have 4 rear guards, not enough to give Arboros the 10k power boost. This requires you to call something more from your hand in order to create the full field formation.



Another key point to remember with Oliver is how it requires two arboros in soul, and most importantly does not care what your vanguard is!

This means that if your Vanguard is Cecilia, you can still use Oliver, should you have the two Arboros in soul.

With Cecilia, there is a fair bit of synergy with both sides of Oliver's effect.

First, should your board be zero rear guards, you can call Oliver, counterblast one to create two plant tokens, then retire one of them for Cecilia's ability to call another three rear guards. This has an end result of using one card from your hand and two counterblast to create FIVE rear guards, a +10k boost to your front row. This play is extremely important against a HYU-GA deck or Blademaster deck, which will aim to remove your board every turn.

The other side of the ability is when you already have five rear guards. First, use Oliver's ability to gain 20k power and 1 critical, leaving you with three rear guards. Then, use Cecilia to retire one rear guard and call another three. This creates again the full board and takes full advantage of Cecilia's superior call ability, by giving you your +2 advantage, but also creates a 40k 2 Critical rear guard set to attack, and thats even before boosting, imaginary gift, and triggers.

Regarding Oliver's activation condition, it is surprisingly easy to achieve. First, as it requires two Arboros in soul, by simply playing Arboros Dragon Ratoom as your First Vanguard, you can already get one Arboros into soul by riding. Then, if you ride your Grade 1 Arboros, you can get your second arboros into soul by your grade 2 ride, making Oliver live by turn two. Failing this, as the deck has two options for 'Arboros' grade 2s(Oliver itself counts!), you are likely to have Oliver be able to use their ability by turn three.

And finally, should all else fail and you ride a non arboros grade 1 and grade 2, by simply re-riding from Arboros Sephirot to another grade 3, you can fulfill the conditions for activation.

Oliver is one of the main reasons most builds choose to play very few soul blasting cards, as maintaining Oliver as being able to activate their ability is is extremely crucial in the deck building stage.

In my experience running this card, I find it is very easy to fulfill the conditions for Oliver's activation, but actual activations of the card tend to be limited.

First, given Arboros Dragon Sephirot's ability to create 10k interceptors, guarding most attacks becomes easier, allowing your deck to have more control of how much damage you are taking, and more importantly, using your defense to maintain low damage. This creates a situation where Oliver can often not have any counterblast to use its ability due to highly optimal play.

Second is minimal optimal timings for activation of ability. When you activate the second half of the ability to gain 20k and 1 critical, your board is set to 3 rear guards. Even if you use Arboros Dragon Sephirot after this, your sephirot will not gain the 10k power. This causes a mild inconvenience where although one of your columns can become threatening and powerful, that power and threat is not spread across all columns. However, the ability to superior call tokens usually comes in very early in the game or when setting up with Sephirot. In the early game, unless you were lucky, it more often than not only becomes activatable on turn 3, by which point often times you have had chances to draw into copies of Branch, Sylvia, Happy Fawn, or other token generators.

Third is how it is actively played around. Players will either ignore your rear guards due to how replacable they are, leaving Oliver's ability to superior call two rear guards limited in use. There will be very few chances to superior call two plant tokens to fill up a board unless you are fighting something that retires or returns to deck like HYU-GA or Blademaster.

Finally is its clashing cost with Irminsur and Cecilia. As mentioned above, you will often need to budget your counterblast with other cards such as Cecilia and Irminsur, which can leave you aiming to time your Oliver's uses to the turns where they are most impactful, limiting how often you end up using these abilities. This is made even more true by how Neo Nectar has no countercharge, instead making up for it with high cost effectiveness and limited counterblast options.

Thus, while Oliver is indeed a very powerful and impactful card, its unlikely you will be able to afford using it every turn for two or three turns in a row.

Water Lily Musketeer Kaivant

Kaivant is a card heavily played in Premium Standard for its free power boost it gets when placed, based on how many grade zero rear guards you control.

Given Sephirot's ability to fill up the board very easily, Kaivant works well to gain up to 20k power, working well with a Force 2 or as the other column that did not get a Force 1.

The drawback to Kaivant is how it does not gain card advantage but instead is one card used from your hand in order to gain its power.

Education Maiden Melujah

Education Maiden Melujah is a grade 2 unit with the ability to retire any number of plant tokens to gain all of their base power for a turn.

This is an interesting ability, being able to eat 4 10k power plants to become 50k power for a turn, but its important to keep in mind how you will be needing to eat 10k power plants to gain a large amount of power, as well as having to ride into Sephirot to gain a large power boost from powered up plants.

A second key point against Melujah is how Fruits Assort Dragon does the same thing, only better, with no cost.

Melujah can retire any number of plants to gain all of their power, but Fruits Assort dragon does the same thing of gaining all of their power without retiring any rear guards.

Primalvane Dragon

Primalvane Dragon is a Grade 2 common unit that, when boosted by a grade zero unit, gets guard restrict forcing the opponent to call two cards to guard its attack.

While if boosted by a 5k plant it will only be 14k power, enough to be stopped with an intercept, by placing a 10k plant behind it, it can reach 19k power, which is 10k to guard.

This places the opponent in a tough situation where they have to place two cards from hand to guard, or to intercept with two units, either way making them lose cards from their hand and board.

Arboros Dragon Branch

Arboros Dragon Branch is a Grade 1 RR unit that if its attack, or attack it boosted hits anything, allows you to look at the top 4 cards of your deck and add an arboros to hand.

This functions when you ride, so its often good to ride one (both to contribute to Olivers soul requirement as well as its own ability) when going second.

A lot of players will place one behind the Vanguard to get as many activations of the search skill off over the course of the game. Just be sure to not call it excessively as is vulnerable to being retired.

With the search ability, its important to prioritize searching out proper ride targets to avoid becoming grade stuck, but following that, I recommend prioritizing copies of Branch itself to add to hand, as it 10k shield value will be worth more than the 5k of grade 2s.

One of the interesting plays with Arboros Branch is to place it instead behind rear guard, and use Sephirot to create two 10k interceptors to place one in front of Branch. Use Sephirot and the other column to attack vanguard, but use the column with Branch to hit the opponent’s rear guards. This allows you to maximize your defense by adding cards to hand while optimizing shield value through intercepts.

Wheating Maiden Enifa

Wheating Maiden Enifa is a card that gives 5k power to all plants in the same column, as well as 5k shield value to all plants on RG and guard. While there is no way to superior call plants to guardian circle, having one of her on your field does allow you to intercept with 15k shield (or 20k if you have two!), which is a value that should not be looked down on.

Although it requires you to call Enifa from hand, going against the ideal of filling your field without using much cards from hand, using up 10k worth of shield value to get two instances of 5k more shield value in a single turn is fairly valuable.

With a 10k plant token, she does create 23k power lines, giving you that tiny bit more offense to reach the 15k to guard power line.

One of the best plays with Enifa is to call her to Guard, where she also applies her effect to give plants 5k more shield value, giving the plant that intercepted that battle another 5k shield, totaling 25k shield!

Of note, Enifa does power up the 5k tokens as well, its just the smaller tokens dont have intercept or guard value, limiting her use.

Plant Generators at grade 1:

Fruits Basket Elf

Fruits Basket Elf is another card that is in consideration for playing. By soul blasting one and retiring itself, you can superior call two plant tokens. Then, if your Vanguard is Grade 3 or more, give those plant tokens 5k power.

This may seem great with Arboros Dragon Sephirot, as it allows you to call two 10k tokens with even more power.

However, due to the difficulty in managing soul, as well as many other ways to superior call plant tokens very fast, many players often choose to play Maiden of Happy Fawn instead.

As Sephirot and cecilia both require a retire cost, you will end up retiring either herself or the plant called to superior call, leaving only one plant from the effect, unless you are calling something else from hand to be retired.

However, if you are in need of two plant token callers, you can consider taking on Fruits Basket Elf

Maiden of Happy Fawn

Maiden of Happy Fawn is one of the best cards to come to Neo Nectar from The Mysterious Fortune, with the ability to call a plant token when placed on rear guard. An instant addition to Premium Standard, but that is a discussion for another day.

Happy fawn generates a plant token when called, speeding up key cards such as Irminsur and Oliver, while conserving soul, unlike Fruits Basket.

Dandelion Musketeer Mirkka

Our third plant creator in the grade 1 slot is Mirkka, the classic go-to ride for Neo Nectar. By soul blasting one, on ride or call, she can call one plant token to the same column as herself. Unlike Fruits Basket or Happy Fawn, she not only bears the musketeer name, allowing her synergy with Toure, but also works when you ride her.

Although riding her does set Oliver back many turns (soul blast out Arboros, you need to ride Arboros G2 and G3, then re-ride to use Oliver), it does start you out with a plant boosting the vanguard for the entirety of the game, a small boost whose subtle impact comes to fruition many, many turns down the road.

The second half of her ability to become an 11k boost is important when boosting 13k power units, or activating twice to become 14k boosting units to boost 10k units. This creates 23k power columns and hits magic numbers to be able to force good amounts of guard out of the opponents hand.

In the early game, combined with Arboros Timber, she can create 21k power columns without any other card, allowing the column to hit through a damage trigger, while maintaining a 10k intercept, all while keeping the 11k boost on your board, perfect for setting up power lines in future turns and keeping power columns maintained while Arboros Sephirot can dedicate its time and efforts to setting up other columns!

Lily of the Valley Musketeer Rebecca

Rebecca is a RRR from Ultra Rare Miracle Collection, a card that is underestimated in every format due to supposedly not doing very much. Rebecca's true value is in her second ability, to retire a plant to return herself to hand at the end of turn. This lets you convert cards on your board into shield value, such as when superior called off of Cecilia!

Ilumination of Loyalty Yonah

Our final Grade 1 that is often considered is Ilumination of Loyalty Yonah.

Yonah has an activated ability which counterblasts two to double the original power of two grade zero units.

Obviously this means targeting two 10k plant tokens to get power for the cost.

Because it requires you to play Yonah from your hand, as well as providing a measly 20k power over two columns, many players do not play it, but in the builds with minimal counterblast use, Yonah's power increases may be what your deck needs.

Example Decklists

Today, I will be going over a few different deck builds and discussing some of their strengths and weaknesses. Use these as a starting point for playing the cards you want to play!

Our first decklist focuses on Arboros Dragon Sephirot as its main Vanguard, as well as playing Exploding Tomato as the second Grade 3 unit.

As you can see, we have a fairly Grade 2 oriented decklist with 12 grade 1s, 6 grade 3s, and up to 15 Grade 2s.

The increased count of Happy Fawn, Sylvias, combined with Olivers and Irminsurs puts a great emphasis on the rush and filling up your board early.

Due to the increased number of plant creating units on placed, as well as a more willing orientation to rush, this build plays into Irminsur very well.



Once you have rushed in the early turns, follow up with Exploding Tomato and Arboros Dragon Sephirot's abilities to gain 10k power on your grade 3 units, be they on V or R, every turn.

Do note the lack of any cards that use soul, which is most apparent in this build, as it revolves around using Oliver to counterblast and retire your own units only for you to fill up your rear guards again.

Due to the card draw ease of Irminsur, Exploding Tomato, and intercept plants of Sephirot, this can be combined with Enifa to create a very defensive deck that maintains a hard defense turn after turn, excellent against some of the other more grindy force matchups.

The main reason I chose to play Exploding Tomato here over Fruits Assort Dragon is how Exploding Tomato can help you find your main ride Arboros Dragon Sephirot while Fruits Assort Dragon cannot.

One of the main issues with the deck is its lack of finisher, relying on grinding out the opponent with consistent, high powered attacks, but that is a weakness that is shared over most of the clan. Should you feel comfortable giving up the draw power of tomato for the excessive power of Fruits Assort Dragon to use as your finisher, that is an option.

Our second build revolves around Arboros Sephirot combined with Cecilia.

As mentioned before, Cecilia and Arboros combined make a great combination, as Arboros can easily transition into Cecilia.

This build benefits from the use of Oliver combined with Cecilia for very powerful plays, especially against decks very prevalent in the meta such as HYU-GA, and can utilize the synergy to power up huge columns against decks that do not excel at defense.

Compared to the first decklist playing Sephirot and Tomato together, this decklist has a more powerful second ride in Cecilia, as well as benefits from a great transition from Arboros to Cecilia. Not only does Arboros's 10k tokens stay on board to boost, but further copies of Arboros Dragon in hand or superior called from Cecilia have their effects, giving you even more power on your rear guards, beyond the 10k boost from Cecilia.

This build, although high in synergy, lacks reliable ways to increase your hand due to not playing Lily of the Valley Musketeer Rebecca to preserve soul for Oliver, and the only draw option in the deck is Irminsur. Therefore, it relies not only on high shield value from Arboros Dragon Sephirot to maintain a defense, as well as intercepting efficiently.

The Grade 1 Arboros is played not only to bring Oliver online faster, but also to search out all the parts of the ride chain. Note that by playing Oliver we have maximized our chances of getting cards off of the on hit ability.

While Rebecca would be a very good card to synergize with Cecilia, Arboros Branch can play a similar role in adding cards to hand when called off of Cecilia, given the attack hits.



Being the build of these examples today that is most equipped to deal with HYU-GA and its presence in the meta is one of the reasons why this is the build I choose to use most of the time. Although Shirayuki is an imposing card against force decks that go Force 2, Cecilia's front row pump of 10k power does help mitigate the issue.

Our third deck example gives up Oliver, instead playing Cecilia with Arboros. By giving up Oliver, there is no longer any reason to maintain soul, or have specific cards in soul. Thus, you don’t need to be locked into a certain playstyle or ride order.

This also opens up the way to play cards that use up soul: The early game powerhouse that is Mirkka, Fruits Basket Elf as your second option to give Cecilia a 10k booster, and the all important Rebecca to gain extra hand when using Cecilia's ability. All of these are options for the deck, as well as playing more copies of Happy Fawn and Kaivant to further increase the decks aggressive ability.

By way of giving up access to power and critical via effect on rear guard, the deck accesses a more open early game strategy, more ability to gain hand and less reliance on drawing and riding into Arboros Dragon's forms.



However, as Arboros Dragon here is more of a set up tool, the deck still relies on being able to draw into its attacking units, followed by re-riding into Cecilia to get the deck flowing. Failing this, the deck will not be able to fight properly, especially if you are stranded on a first ride Cecilia.

This build plays much more familiarly for players whom are used to the previous playstyle of Neo Nectar, with an emphasis on swarming the field and creating consistent power numbers.

Compared to other decks in the meta such as Palemoon and Shadow Paladin, whom can easily search their grade 3 ride even if they ride their backup, as well as search their re-ride, or other decks such as Murakumo, Gold Paladin and Tachikaze, which do not need to re-ride at all, this reliance on Re-Riding into Cecilia is one of the clans weaknesses that builds have to struggle to overcome.

Gameplay Pointers:



Simple, Stable, Strong. Neo Nectar boasts easy to handle cards with very high abilities in deploying units and giving units power. Thus, its important to emphasize these when playing the deck.

One of the decks weaknesses is the limited number of attacks. Where other decks have restanding rear guards, accel circles, guard restrict combined with criticals, Neo Nectar has absolutely none of these capabilities, with next to no units being able to get critical. This means that when it comes down to the total number of attacks, if you are holding back or do not play out a full field early, any accel deck or deck with restanding units will be able to out pace you in the number of attacks you have been able to do.

Thus, one of the key points is to aim to deal three attacks every turn, starting as early as Turn 1.

To this vein, cards such as Mirkka, Maiden of Happy Fawn, and Rebecca are extremely useful to create power lines needed to deliver three attacks.

If all you have is a hammer, swing it and swing it hard.



To follow this up, try to construct power lines that are able to hit the opponent through one damage trigger, to work around the opponent shutting down your turn off of one damage trigger. Mirkka + Timber is just one example that works well, as this creates a 21k column on your rear guard circles.

The more attacks you do in the early game the faster the opponent reaches the point of having to guard with multiple cards from hand, which is how the deck wins, by outpacing the opponent.

Another main point is to be aware of how many cards you are using from your hand and prioritize ways to increase it. While Irminsur is a fairly obvious choice, as his abilities play directly into creating multiple power lines with high power that hits through triggers, other cards such as Rebecca being called off of Cecilia and placement of Arboros Dragon Branch may require more experience to time. Try to use Arboros Dragon Sephirot and Cecilia to fill up your field as much as you can.

Tying in with these past two points is to understand how disposable rear guards are in Neo Nectar. Most of the cards of the deck are Auto abilities that occur once the unit is called, diminishing their value on the board once they have done their ability. This, combined with how Neo Nectar can easily fill up the board even if units are retired lets you play well around your rear guards being attacked to retire them.

In playing the Neo Nectar deck, you want to bait the opponent into attacking your rear guards, as each attack is one attack not being targeted at your vanguard, one that you must either guard or take damage for. Thus, you often do not guard attacks directed at a rear guard, as well as try to play a play style that baits the opponent into attacking rear guards.

Simplicty of Neo Nectars arsenal is another upside to playing this deck, as the easy to handle cards means that you will try to be, at almost all times, the active deck, forcing the opponent to react to your plays, instead of you trying to think about how to maneuver your deck around the opponent.

Use this simplicity to your advantage by thinking two or three turns ahead. Because your rear guards are all 10k base power and mostly disposable, all of them are the same once one turn has passed, so you are able to imagine what your field may look like in the next turn, and the turn after that.

Use that to guide you to what gift you want to take, where you would place it, and where you would place your triggers, and play the game two or three turns ahead of your opponent, letting them fight and play their turn in the present turn when you are busy setting up three turns down the road.

Your opponent will be busy fighting your afterimage!

Because you don’t need to think about protecting a rear guard if it is rear guard A but not Rear Guard B, and power calculations are fast and simple, Neo Nectar is a deck that allows you to hone your basic vanguard skills, how you attack and guard effectively.

Creating solid power lines is a key point in playing the deck, as most boost are 5k or 10k boosts, and Cecilia's and Arboros's power pump is in increments of 10k power, just focusing on the base power of each column being a magic number and the rest of the power lines will line up.

Also, combined with ease of deployment with disposable rear guards, learning how to effectively plan and use your intercepting grade 2s and plant tokens is a critical skill. Be sure to play each turn thinking how to intercept with everything you've got in order to conserve your hand.

Ride Order

As you can see, all of the three decks utilize Arboros Dragon Sephirot, but have taken into account Fruits Assort Dragon, Exploding Tomato, and White Lily Musketeer Cecilia.

In the game plan, you either want to transition into a second ride Cecilia, or fight with high power on Arboros Dragon Sephirot.

Here are some potential ride orders factoring in Arboros Dragon Sephirot and Exploding Tomato, as well as Fruits Assort Dragon

As Cecilia is a powerful second ride but a mediocre first one, your ride order should aim to ride into her second.

Here are some examples of Grade 3 ride order with Arboros Dragon and Cecilia.

One of the most key ride orders you see is the ride from Cecilia into Arboros. As Cecilia as a first ride does not much, riding into Arboros with the express itention of riding into Cecilia the next turn is an option, but not a very desirable one.

This is usually done when you ride Cecilia first, but are draw into a Sephirot but not another Cecilia.

While Arboros as a second ride is not great, its still better than nothing. Arboros's abilities do not scale as you ride on top of a grade 3, so all you are getting is an imaginary gift.

As you can see, this desired ride order of grade 3s is what often determines our grade 3 lineups and concentrations.

As Arboros Sephirot is a unit that is a good first ride combined with a good rear guard after you ride to your main vanguard, it can be played in fours without being a dead card after you ride Cecilia.

Similarly, for Exploding Tomato and Fruits Assort Dragon, because they will not be ride after you ride Sephirot, nor do you want to ride them as a first ride if Sephirot is an option, they are not played in 4s,

Force Gift Selection

Imaginary Gift Force has two types: Force 1 which gives 10k power to a circle as well as Force 2 which gives a critical.

Most decks tend to default to only using Force 2, and that may be the mindset when coming into playing Neo Nectar, but the decision should always be made based on the board state, including thinking about the opponent's deck and hand.

With Force 1, you can build your deck to capitalize on the speed and stability of the early game which built you a lot of tempo. This increase in power ensures that if you start running out of methods to gain power, you can still push out consistent power lines.

If you had managed to attack 3 times every turn, as well as get lucky and open a critical trigger early, consider Force 1 to push the opponent further.

Tempo generated on turns leading up to the current one is another factor determining force gift selection.

Given Neo Nectars power lines, most players will often go for Force 2.

However, against matchups such as Blademaster and HYU-GA, which can remove your board every turn, it is often better to go for Force 1.

This is because although you can rebuild better than any other clan, rebuilding without extra power boost of Force 1 will result in power columns that are not big enough, due to your ideal field being retired, allowing the opponent to guard the attacks with ease.

This, combined with how critical pressure applies minimal pressure to these decks, especially combined with lack of guard restrict or criticals on rear guards as well, results in Force 2 being poorly applied. Criticals do not matter if the attack does not have enough power to hit.

Whether or not the attacks will be hitting is one of the key deciding factors for force selections.

The key difference between Force 1 and Force 2 is that while Force 1 is inevitable, Force 2 has a faster payoff but can be played around.

With Force 2, only one column on turn 3 will have 2 critical, and two columns on turn 4 (given you can re-ride). This means that if you are attacking all attacks to V, it is very easy to go from an even number to an odd number of damage by no guarding a low critical attack.

Force 2, by making a 2 critical attack, creates an attack that has to be guarded from 4 damage. If they are at 2 damage, they can only no guard once before they have to guard the further 2 critical attacks.

However, if they are at say 2 damage, they can no guard once for a 1 critical attack, and yet still have the same number of no guards left for columns with Force 2.

Force 2 limits the number of times the opponent can no guard, but if you dont play accordingly, this pressure will be lost on you as some of your attacks can be no guarded without drawback.

And its not just that turn you select Force 2. Try to think ahead as to whether or not the opponent will guard, and if so, what they will guard if you go Force 2. There is not much point in going Force 2 if the opponent just no guards and goes to 5 that turn, setting them in a situation where your Force 2 does next to nothing.

You want your opponent to guard, and then have to guard more, and then even more as the turns go by and they are starved for counterblast. Consider if playing around Force 2 in this manner is an option for the opponent, and more importantly, an option they are likely to take.

Whether or not your opponent will play around, or can play around Force 2 is another key factor in Force gift selection.

With these key points in mind: 1) Tempo of the game 2) Matchup and Effectiveness of each gift and 3) The opponents options of playing around Force 2, pick you gift that suits your game the best.

With many matchups, Force 2 is often the answer, but making a wrong force selection will cost you the win, so be sure to think about each gift from the start of the game..

Conclusion

Today, we went over the options for Standard Neo Nectar builds playing Arboros Dragon Sephirot, the cards you can play, what they mean in various matchups and over some of the ways you can use them.

We have went over a few deck builds, so be sure to try them out to find which one suits your play style best.

Arboros Dragon is a great addition to the arsenal of Neo Nectar, with its simple and straightforward effects contributing to enforcing your early and midgame, while setting up for the powerful late game.

Join us back tomorrow when we go over Premium Neo Nectar once again, going over the changes the new set has brought to the deck, as well as adaptations to match the metagame that will hold the key to victory.