With the full set of Kagero cards revealed now seems as good a time as any to take a look at what V-set 8 has to offer.

Kagero ended up with 2 VRs this set each offering a different take on the clan with varying degrees of success.

Dragonic Overlord “The X”

[ACT](VC)1/Turn COST : [ Soul Blast (1) ], search your deck for up to one card with “Overlord” in its card name that is different from this unit’s, put it into your soul, shuffle your deck, and this unit gets all of that card’s card names and abilities until end of turn.

[CONT](VC):When your card effect would count the number of cards in your hand, it is regarded as zero.

[CONT](VC):If your opponent’s vanguard is grade 3 or greater, this unit’s drive cannot become 0 or less.



Dragonic Blademaster “Souen”

[CONT](VC):During your turn, if your opponent has no rear-guards, this unit and all of your vision tokens get [Power]+10000.

[ACT](VC)1/Turn COST : [ Discard two cards from your hand ], call a vision token to (RC), and at the end of that turn, retire that token. If “Wyvern Strike, Doha” and “Wyvern Strike, Garan” on your (RC), retire all of your opponent’s rear-guards. (Visions are grade 3/[Power]13000/[Critical]1, and can twin drive)

Both VRs here read like patch notes to their previous versions, being sped up a turn and offering some additional upside.

Despite recieiving similar upgrades though I think its fair to say that Overlord benefits disproportionately.

Boardwipes wildly vary in terms of effectiveness and you are unlikely to really put the squeeze on your opponent first ride with Souen.

Overlord on the other hand offers the ability to outright kill on ride up or simply plus on your restand which will overall be more consistent.

Blademaster also has the fundamental flaw of being a 3 attack force deck which just isn’t going to cut it in 2020.

Overlord on the other hand offers consistent card quality and a powerful restander that can either be a straight up plus or a potent finisher.

That’s not to say that Blademaster is bad but I also can’t see it breaking through to tier 1 when put alongside decks like Messiah, Vanquisher and Revonn.

Nonetheless lets break down how each deck is looking and what tools they’ve gained in the new set.

And yes your Overlord the clan joke is very funny and original aren’t you soooooooo hilarious for coming up with a joke that is definitely not played out.

Blademaster

Despite not being in the set it’s pretty clear that the deck is still built around playing your combo column of Doha and Garan Doha is a relatively solid card and although Garan could be better as a one card column the main issue is definitely consistency of actually seeing Doha. Thankfully the new support actually looks to address this somewhat.

Dragon Dancer Faja

[CONT](RC):During your turn, if your opponent has no rear-guards, this unit gets [Power]+5000.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, look at five cards from the top of your deck, reveal up to one “Wyvern Strike, Doha” or “Wyvern Strike, Garan” from among them and put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

Dragon Dancer Soja

[AUTO](RC):When placed,COST:[Soul Blast (1)], return any number of “Wyvern Strike, Doha” and “Wyvern Strike, Garan” from your drop zone to your deck and shuffle it. This unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn for each returned card.

Dragon dancers Faja and Soja are the real gets here with Faja helping you find your pieces and Soja providing some recycling should they end up in drop.

While these are great additions to the deck I can’t help but notice the tension between these and actually generating a vision token. Obviously Doha/Garan takes up a whole column and a vision token takes up your other front circle.

This means if you need to find Doha off of your Faja your likely going to have to call over her which definitely loses her some points from me. I guess the intent is to use Faja earlier in the game but I can’t say I’m overly sold on a card with such a small window.

Soja doesn’t suffer this issue but rather another in that the speed of games in standard is currently rather fast.

Recycle effects are defintiely needed regardless but her use is limited and I don’t see her gaining much power all that often.

Overall I think Blademaster got some fairly decent upgrades addressing potential consistency issues but unfortunately fails to address fundamental flaws.

A boardwipe isn’t always going to lineup all that effectively especially against decks with evasive or recursive threats such as vanquisher and messiah.

Messiah especially is looking to be one of the biggest winners in this set and Alter-Ego reviving 2 units unfortunately makes for a rather unfriendly prospective metagame.

Between this and the board crush aspect I think Blademaster just has a few too many caveats to really break into tier 1 despite some clear upgrades.

Overlord

Compared to Blademaster, Overlord had its fundamental issues addressed a lot more head on. Both its slowness and the all in nature of DOTE are all but gone leaving us with an incredibly potent high pressure beatdown deck.

I already talked a little about The X itself and potential for a more combo-ish build here so check that out if you haven’t already.

As I said there while gimmicky combos are fun they are quite obvious and a more honest build might be the way to go.

So let’s talk about that.

Torrid Cannon Dragon

[ACT](VC/RC)1/Turn:COST[Counter Blast (1) & Put a normal unit from your drop zone on the bottom of your deck], choose one of your opponent’s grade 2 or less rear-guards, retire it, and if your hand has four or less cards, draw a card.



Torrid Cannon does a lot of what you want in this deck. The recycle and retire are both welcome and the card draw really brings the whole package together.

It is worth mentioning that compared to Burnout this card will be unable to hit messiah’s grade 4 also from this set.

That said this card is still the real deal.

This card is good insurance for drawing/damaging or just plainly running out of DOTEs. Torrid lets you return DOTE to the deck with relative ease and even generates value while doing it.

On top of being an important role filler, Torrid will likely help in situations where you only use the first restand of DOTE (the one that pluses) by keeping you stocked up on guard.

I think this is pretty key to the deck since as I said before, situations where you aren’t likley to kill and need to play more defensive to deal with the opponents response.

Between Torrid, The X and Aermo/Sabel you should be able to tank up effectively to finish off your opponent with the full 3 VG swings the following turn.

Igniroad Dragon

[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, look at seven cards from the top of your deck, reveal up to one “Dragonic Overlord “The X”” from among them and put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

[AUTO](RC):When your vanguard attacks, if your hand has four or less cards, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.

Igniroad Dragon is another roleplayer coming out of the new set. Obviously riding DOTE is less than desirable.

Top 7 is a decently wide net and adds a lot of needed consistency to the deck. This first skill being completely costless is also stellar especially when paired with the second skill.

Emperor Dragon Knight, Nehalem was a key roleplayer in G-era Kagero lasting right up until the reboot, and that was with only 1 attack most of the time.

The Nehalem skill is a proven winner and with the X potentially attacking 3 times this card is no doubt the starting point for any Overlord G2 lineup.

Heat Shot Dragon

[AUTO](VC):When placed,COST[ discard a card from your hand ], draw a card.

[AUTO](RC):At end of battle it boosted a grade 3, if the boosted unit is [Stand], [Stand] this unit.

Heat Shot Dragon rounds up the new support offering a little bit of filtering if ridden and a restanding booster for the X.

While I’m not sure where this fits in the G1 lineup it has some potential even if the rummage doesn’t come up too often. The key competitor for this spot is probably Calamity Tower Wyvern since they serve similar roles.

As of now I’m unsure what the G1 lineup looks like and I could see Heatshot in place of or alongside Tower depending on how key that power boost is.

Wrapping Up

Again while I don’t think Blademaster is bad it still carries many of the same fundamental flaws as before.

Overlord on the other hand recieves an upgrade in almost every aspect. DOTX has incredible power on its own and the surrounding support is just gravy.

There’s even potential for some kind of hybrid if there is a situation where Blademasters boardwipe helps in key matchups.

Honestly I’m pretty excited it seems like there are a few builds for Kagero to explore.

I’m a big fan of the exploration phase of a set release so I’m excited to start testing the new stuff…

If you enjoyed this article check out my piece on Zenonzard and why you should play it here and please share this around with your friends and on social media.

~Thanks for reading and cee-ya.