I was in the middle of writing an analysis of Goddess of Conclusion, Pallas Athena when I saw that Chief Deity of the Heavens, Amaterasu had been announced. I can save my full review of Athena for another day. I don’t even know what to say. The only way for me to truly process what I just read is to analyze all of the GB8 Strides that have been announced so far.

Instead of ordering these Strides based on nation or clan, let’s start by talking about all the cost less GB8s.

Seal Assassin Mutant Deity, Tyrantis

[CONT](VC) Generation Break 8:All of your opponent’s vanguards and rear-guards lose their [AUTO] abilities and cannot intercept. All of your units get [Power]+5000 for each of your opponent’s vanguard and rear-guard in [Rest].

Sure, this card doesn’t help Megacolony against decks that don’t have rearguards on their turn. However, for decks that do have rearguards, the ability to gain 5k for each of them on all units is a lot of power. That’s a minimum of 5k to all units, and a maximum of 30k to all units. On top of that this card shuts down a lot of effects, combos, and even intercepts. Defensive skills like Gurguit, Gavrail, and Darkface will crumble. Sure, it can’t block everything, but the fact is that this ability is FREE. You don’t have to go into it if the situation is not ideal, and there is no harm in going into it.

Black Seraph, Vellator Terminal

Rescue–[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 8:When this unit attacks a vanguard, all units in your front row get [Power]+2000 for each card in your damage zone until end of turn. Choose up to five cards from your damage zone, heal them, choose one of your vanguards, and for each damage healed with this effect, deal one damage. (Perform a damage check. Triggers will also activate)

This is one of the only Strides that has the keyword ability. I get that this card seems like it would just lead to deck out. HOWEVER, the power this skill gives is FREE. This means that your front row gets a free 10k if you’re at 5 damage. Then, the ability to rescue, and the number rescued is up to you. Rescue is already one of the best keywords in the game, so the fact that this unit can trigger it is more of a benefit than a cost.

Goddess of Conclusion, Pallas Athena

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 8:When this unit attacks a vanguard, Soul Blast any number of cards, and all of your rear-guards get [Power]+2000 for each Soul Blast card until end of turn. If you Soul Blast three or more cards, this unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.

I know, this card soul blasts. No, that is not a cost. This is Genesis, and Genesis plusses off of soul blasting. Arguing that this is a cost is just as pointless as arguing that Rescue is a cost. It’s not, it’s a benefit. It’s literally the thing that it should be doing. I would complain if it didn’t soul blast. Also thank you for the free critical. It’s nice.

Supreme Heavenly Emperor Dragon, Blazing Burst Dragon

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 8:When this unit attacks a vanguard, retire all of your opponent’s rear-guards, and all of your rear-guards get [Power]+10000 until end of turn. If the number of units that were retired is three or more, this unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.

Free board nuke. You still get the power to the rearguards even if your opponent doesn’t have any rearguards to retire. And if they did, this goes critical. There is no downside to this card.

Dimensional Robo Overall Command, Ultimate Daiking

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 8:When this unit attacks a vanguard, this unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1 for each of your rear-guards until end of that battle. At the end of that battle, if this unit’s [Power] is 80000 or greater, all of your rear-guards get [Power]+10000 for each of this unit’s [Critical] until end of turn.

This card is just plain stupid. Sure, it’s ability is dependant on your number of rearguards (which is kind of strange for a Vanguard focused clan, but I’ll let it slide), but the fact that you can give all of your rearguards 60k, on top of having a Vanguard that swing with +5 critical is just plain dumb. I know that justice is supposed to be OP, but this is a whole new level.

Coffin of Absolute Zero, Rutland Vitrei

[CONT](VC) Generation Break 8:All units in your front row get [Power]+13000/[Critical]+1 for every thirteen cards in your soul.

At first I thought that this was underwhelming. However, the fact that you can give +1 critical to a rearguard in a clan that already has stuff like Doreen and Doppel Vampir is really powerful. Sure, you might never get to use it, but this card is still a really good option when the opportunity presents itself BECAUSE IT’S FREE.

Scream Dragon Master, Dolor Kimberly

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 8:When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose up to five cards from your soul, call them to separate (RC), until end of turn, they get [Power]+5000, and additionally are <Abyss Dragon>. Until end of that battle, this unit gets “[CONT](VC):This unit gets [Power]+10000 for each on your (RC).”.

The Abyss Dragon part is weird, HOWEVER, that doesn’t change the fact that this is a free multi-attack + power that also gives +50k to the Vanguard. It’s good.

Now we’ll talk about the GB8s that use hand as cost.

Rampage Evil Rogue, Hellhard Eight

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 8:When your unit attacks, choose one of your units, until end of turn, it gets [Power]+10000, and “[AUTO](RC):[Choose a card from your hand, put this unit and the chosen card into your soul] At the end of the battle that this unit attacked or boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one card, call it to an open (RC), and shuffle your deck.”.

A free +10k to any attacking rearguard and the ability to just keep attacking? The number of attacks is only limited by the number of cards you have in your hand. Furthermore it triggers Charge and allows you to put non-charging units back to the deck. This card is really generic as it can work with non-charge decks and charge decks alike.

Immortality Professor, Sahasrara Veera

[ACT](VC) Generation Break 8:[Choose two cards from your hand, and discard them] Choose up to five of your rear-guards, until end of turn, they get [Power]+10000, and “[AUTO](RC):At the end of your turn, retire this unit.”, and if the number of cards in your hand is one or less, this unit gets [Power]+40000/[Critical]+1.

This card’s power is again dictated by the number of cards you have in your hand. Who needs cards in hand anyway if this wins you the game? The Vanguard’s power-up only helps solidify the fact that this is the final turn, as long as you have at least 2 cards in hand to pay the cost. Though cards in hand is not usually Great Nature’s problem.

And now we’ll look at the GB8s that have real costs.

Divine Knight of Condensed Light, Olbius Avalon

One word: multi-attacks. This card is a better, more OP, generic version of Brave Lancer Dragon. It’s a pity that it counter blasts, as it requires you to manage your resources well in order to pull it off, but the potential for things to get really crazy is there. It’s not blatantly OP on its own, but like everything in Royal Paladin, it need the rearguards to show the full picture.

Dark Knight, Irgahn Vert

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 8:[Counter Blast (1)] Choose up to five of your rear-guards, and retire them. Search your deck for up to the same number of grade 1 or less cards as the number of units that were retired, call them to separate (RC), and they get [Power]+15000 until end of turn. Choose up to the same number of your opponent’s rear-guards as the number of units that were called, and retire them. Shuffle your deck.

So for the cost of a single counterblast, you can effectively retire your opponent’s entire field, and give your rearguards a 15k boost each. Essentially if your opponent can survive this, they most likely won’t be able to pull of much of a fight in their next turn. However, the counterblast cost, combined with the fact that Shadow Paladin already has PBD and Ogma, makes me wonder whether this card is actually worth the cost. Though it is good pressure when you know your opponent has a lot of heal triggers in hand.

Interdimensional Dragon, Beyond Order Dragon

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 8:[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1) & Bind eight cards from the top of your deck face up] After the original battle phase of this turn, you perform an additional main phase and battle phase. Until end of turn, this unit gets “[AUTO](VC):At the beginning of your main phase, [Stand] this unit, and it gets drive -1 until end of turn.”. (Perform the end phase after the additional phase)

This is by far the highest cost we’ve seen so far on a GB8. This is likely due to the fact that Gear Chronicle can hit GB8 faster, consistently, and more efficiently than any other clan at the moment. It’s debatable whether this card is stronger or weaker than a 3rd stride Nextage. However, I think that the ability to rewind the turn back to the main phase and use the cards in hand to potentially create a new field or new combos is pretty good. The best part about this card though is that it is generic, unlike Nextage. Perhaps we’ll be seeing more Gear Chronicle support that isn’t Chronojet specific.

And now finally:

Chief Deity of the Heavens, Amaterasu

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 8:[Counter Blast (1)] Look at five cards from the top of your deck, put up to three cards from among them into your hand, and put each of the rest on the top or bottom of your deck in any order. Until end of turn, this unit gets “[AUTO](VC) Oracle (This ability is active when you have five or more cards in your hand):When your drive check reveals a trigger unit, all the units in your front row get [Power]+5000 until end of turn.”.

Okay first off I just want to talk about the art, name, and flavour text. As always, Amaterasu is absolutely stunning. Her name is also on-point, and it gives me the image of Amaterasu as the big boss of the Heavens, which is by no means a small feat. Considering this, why on earth is this skill not better? Why is the Chief of the Heavens worse than a standard “Dark Knight”? The flavour text here is even worse. OTT’s flavour text has the tradition of talking directly to the player, not the opponent. This is best seen through CEO Amaterasu “Feel the flow of time. You are creating the future”, Goddess of the Half-Moon, Tsukuyomi “Close your eyes, and feel the light glowing deep within your heart. That is the light of hope”, and Lozenge Magus “Believe. Only you can change your own destiny”. As such, as a long-time OTT player, I feel as though Amaterasu is “speaking” directly to me and telling me to give up. That isn’t exactly the feeling that I would want to have while Striding into this. In fact, it’s a huge buzz kill to have your grade 4 essentially tell you that you suck and should give up. I’m not sure that this was the intention of the flavour text, but that’s how it ended up.

Well, that was a lot of disappointment already and we haven’t even gotten to the skill yet! The skill itself is an ACT, which is fine I guess. However, it does counterblast, and as we’ve seen through the other GB8s, a counterblast cost is usually associated with heavily minusing the opponent, gaining multi-attacks, or just plain redoing your phases. This… does none of that and even less. It allows you to look at the top 5, add up to three to your hand and put the rest on the top or bottom of the deck. That’s fine. It’s the cheapest way to go +2 (the CB counts as -1) in the clan thus far. HOWEVER, I firmly believe that this card shouldn’t have counterblasted. Sure, it’s a +3 to the hand, but Dolor Kimberly gives +5 to the field, +5k to all rearguards, and +50k to the Vanguard FOR FREE. And this isn’t some OP clan we’re talking about, this is Pale Moon, which is usually on par with OTT in terms of support.

The next part of the skill is where it starts to irk me even more. Oracle. Oracle. ORACLE. ORACLE. ORACLE! How many times do I have to say how much I absolutely despise this keyword? This keyword isn’t under supported, or “just lacking something”. Everything about this keyword is just plain awful, and now it’s been slapped onto Amaterasu. She doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment. On top of the fact that it requires ORACLE of all things, the ability itself is just plain bad. It only gives the +5k to the FRONT ROW rearguards, and only IF you pull a trigger. Of all the GB8s revealed so far, the only ones that only power up the front row rearguards are Angel Feather and Dark Irregulars. Every other clan gives the power to ALL rearguards, and in some cases all UNITS. And at least Angel Feather and Dark Irregulars get their power ups for free (or you know, for having played the game. Good job Angel Feather on hitting 5 Damage, congratulations Dark Irregulars for building up your soul all game, like you’re supposed to). The worst part about this is that it relies on your ability to have already manipulated the deck, which you would think would be easy considering that it’s the thing that OTT is supposed to do (you mean drawing isn’t our thing? Refer back to this post if you still think that OTT’s thing is drawing). However, since the clan is such an absolute mess at the moment, there is no existing support within the clan that makes this ability consistent in any kind of way. As previously discussed in this post, the Vanguard (in this case Amaterasu) is supposed to facilitate the rearguards abilities within the clan. That means that the fact that this card cannot hold itself on its own further shows the glaring hole of missing support that the clan suffers from. If this card is supposed to hold itself up, then it should have been more powerful. It would have been easy to do this is if this card just drew the top 5 cards and then put any 2-5 cards from your hand to the top or bottom of your deck. Or it could have had the ability to put all triggers from your drop zone back into the deck (thus solving OTT’s glaring “my deck is gone what do I do?” issue). Or it could even have just lost the 1/turn skill, gained +1 drive, and gave the 5k to all rearguards. Now we’re talking.

Overall this cards is good-ish, though it is overly restricted and costly. Its ability does not warrant the counterblast cost or the Oracle restriction. It quite simply isn’t worthy of being a GB8. It’s worth is closer to a GB3 ability, as it is certainly not better than Gear Groovy, or any other GB3 strides. However, it’s not trash.

Also I just want to add that this is the first legitimate card that Bell-ringing Miko, Ouka wouldn’t be garbage with. I get the idea, and I… like the direction this is going in, but I think we’re still very very far away from having any of this support make actual cohesive sense. This clan is in desperate need of a clan booster, and a complete overhaul. We need more skills like this, and hopefully an Amaterasu Grade 3? Misaki, please come back, your clan needs you!