So it comes as no surprise that once again, the Gear chronicle clan has made its place at the top spot of the competitive metagame as expected. So before I get into an in-depth analysis as to what makes the deck tick, I’d like to share the deck build that I’m currently working with.

Grade 3s

Chronojet dragon Z ×4

Pulsar, Replenish Coatl ×2

Pulsar, Obstinacy Ox ×1

Chronojet dragon Z is the main Grade 3 you want to be riding into, being the only grade 3 in your deck with an on stride skill. His stride skill is extremely potent, making him able to stride twice with a single Grade 3 card. By sending cards to the bind zone, he also increases the amount of cards you can play with, setting up combos with cards like Metal party dragon.

Replenish Coatl is mostly there for utility, providing countercharge when you’re in a pinch, or just making a nice column with the bonus 3000 you get from calling Coatl from the deck.

Obstinancy Ox is your go to unit to apply pressure to your opponents hand on a big swing turn. He creates huge numbers when used at the right time and can mean the difference between your opponent dropping 2 or 3 cards.

Grade 2s

Pulsar, Spearhead Unicorn ×3

Pulsar, Cruising Dragon ×3

Pulsar, Metal Party Dragon ×4

Pulsar Tamer, Manish ×1

Spearhead unicorn is exceptionally strong in the ZTB game, giving you access to multiple attacks, which is something the meta is shifting towards. Most decks now benefit more from multiple attacks, forcing the opponent to drop more cards in the process. Spearhead works extremely well with Hypnosis sheep as well as Avenir Phoenix which helps you get your combos out extremely easily.

Cruising dragon is a great advantage engine, allowing you to look at the top 3 cards of your deck before adding it to your hand. While it may sound like a simple +1 at the cost of a counterblast, it allows you to have your pick, giving you much more options and flexibility, setting your hand up for a combo or preparing you for a defensive turn.

Metal party dragon is just a great overall card in the ZTB game. Comboing well with his little brother Pulsar, Merry Block Dragon. Metal party has a nice base power of 10000 which helps against the early game rush. Of course, this comes at the cost of only being able to attack if the number of cards in the bind zone are above zero, but 90% of the time, this should be the case thanks to Chrono Dran Z. His GB1 skill is extremely potent, allowing him to add-on to the amount of attacks that you can make during an Avenir Phoenix turn, as well as return cards like Merry block dragon from the bind zone to the rear guard.

Manish is a tech pick, but can always be increased or swapped out for Pulsar Tamer Igigi. Her first skill is always handy, giving her resist on GB1 which is great against control decks. Her second skill gives her a potential 10000 power boost. Coupled with Avenir phoenix or with 2 split pegasus in the G-Zone, this gives her an attacking power of 21000, helping her hit the magic number. She goes to the bind zone as the cost, but it’s not too big a price to pay for the swing potential. I’ve considered cutting down on one Metal party dragon to up her to a 2 of.

Grade 1s

Steam Tamer, Arka ×4

Pulsar, Transit Dragon ×4

Pulsar, Revolver dracokid ×3

Pulsar, Merry Block Dragon ×3

Pulsar tamer, Hegald ×1

Arka is arguably one of the best Perfect Guards in the game, being able to recycle herself at virtually 0 cost. While she’s in the bind zone, she actually can be brought back to the deck with a combo involving Metal Party Dragon and Gearnext, something that I will explain in a future post. Even without that combo, you can potentially use Arka a total of 7 times, making her an extremely powerful perfect guard.

Transit dragon is a very powerful advantage engine, allowing you to increase your hand size while also providing a boost to your other cards. By putting him into the soul, you also make sure your soul is plentiful enough to utilize Chronojet Dragon Z’s skill as well as Gearnext, Heteroround and Ilishu.

Revolver dracokid is your typical stride fodder who enables you to search out your grade 3 zodiac time beast. He’s good at filtering out your deck, setting up your drop zone for Chronojet Z’s stride skill and so on. While I do like his utility, I’ve considered dropping him to a 2 of instead of a 3 of.

Merry block dragon is pretty great, with his continuous skill making him a grade 3 as long as he’s in the deck or drop zone. This means he can be used by Chronojet Z’s skill to stride, be called alongside another grade three thanks to Metal party dragon and so on. This gives him incredible utility in the deck with only his first skill. However, since it isn’t GB restricted, you do have to be careful of it sometimes. His second skill gives a potential 10000 power boost with a full field, meaning that the unit attacking will have a 17000 booster. Though at the cost of sending him to the bind zone, he can easily be called back by Metal party dragon.

Hegald is another tech slot, providing some much-needed countercharge and recycling in a resource intensive deck. While he’s not an extremely important piece in the deck, he serves as a good utility tool.

Grade 0s

Chrono Dran Z ×1

Chronomedical Hamster ×4

Pulsar, Hypnosis Sheep ×4

Pulsar, Thruster Bison ×4

Pulsar, Bombard Hog ×4

Chrono Dran Z is one of the most consistent forerunners in my experience, nabbing you a grade 1 or 3 with close to no price. His search skill is also not bound by GB, making it a lot easier to activate without being sniped by Kagero’s notorious Gattling claw dragon. His ACT skill is a lot more situational, but can come in handy at times.

Chronomedical hamster is the generic ZTB effect heal trigger who offers a nice countercharge engine to any counterblast heavy deck. A staple in any ZTB deck.

Hypnosis sheep is an amazing card, giving you the ability to multi attack extremely easily, comboing well with Spearhead unicorn, making Nova Grapplers turn green with envy, especially on a Avenir phoenix turn.

Thruster bison and Bombard hog are your generic effect crits, giving you either a clutch countercharge or a 3000 power boost. Both are nice to have, and make your life a bit easier.

G-ZONE

Air Element, Sebreeze ×1

Metapulsar, Split Pegasus ×2

Metapulsar, Avenir Phoenix ×2

Chronodragon Gearnext ×4

Chronovisor Heritage ×1

Zeroth Dragon of End of the World, Dust ×1

Pulsar saver, Ilishu ×2

Interdimensional Dragon, Heteroround Dragon ×1

Retroactive Time Maiden, Uluru ×1

Time Maiden of Eternity, Uluru x1

Sebreeze is necessary in ZTB due to how dependant it’s units are on GB1. Prominent in the G2 stall game as well as punishing those who are grade locked, Sebreeze is a great utility card.

Split pegasus is a nice first stride, giving the front row 1000 per Split pegasus face up in the G-Zone. This helps in cases where the opponent hits a trigger and you need just a bit more power to be able to hit the magic numbers. it’s ACT skill is pretty decent, allowing you to fill up your board after using Chronojet Z’s soulblast skill. It really depends on the situation and what you need during that turn.

Avenir phoenix was originally a card I didn’t pay much attention to, but it can provide huge swing turns as well as making massive waves of attacks, enough to make Aqua Force jealous. By comboing with Hypnosis sheep, Metal party dragon or Spearhead unicorn, you can constantly whittle down the opponent’s hand while also poking for some nice damage. His cost is pretty cheap and his GB3 skill is pretty decent as well, providing some nice support for the front row paired with Split pegasus in the G-Zone. While I don’t necessarily use it for first stride, you can always use it as one depending on what you need.

Gearnext is an extremely powerful restander who has an extremely cheap cost for its activation. Gearnext gets a total of 5 drive checks in a turn, 3 on its first swing and 2 on it’s second while also increasing it’s power in the second swing. This puts more pressure on your opponent, especially if you have a critical trigger on it, making it extremely tough to handle. The cost of either 3 cards in hand or rear guard is also extremely helpful, saving resources and also protecting your rear guards from getting retired or locked.

Heritage is a disgustingly powerful card that needs no explaining. An extra turn is huge in any card game, and is almost always an instakill. At the cost of just flipping down four cards in your G-Zone, Heritage is an extremely dangerous card that people need to watch out for. One thing to take note of is that with your G-Guardians, some of them are not Zodiac Time Beasts, which means you should pay attention to what G-Guards you use in previous turns.

Dust is the most powerful zeroth dragon in the game, forcing an additional damage to foes, reducing them to grade 1 and 1 power. If you Ultimate Stride into Dust, it should most definitely be your final turn.

Ilishu is a pretty handy ZTB G-Guardian which is great for setting up for the Chronovisor heritage turns. Her skill is pretty strong as well, giving you a minimum of 20000 shield, and a 35000 shield situationally, which is not overly tough to achieve with a ZTB deck.

Heteroround is a situationally better card than Denial Griffin, getting rid of an attacking rear guard at the cheap cost of a soulblast. A potential combo would be to pair him with Vainglory-dream Gear Cat, providing your vanguard with a 10000 power boost on a defensive turn.

Old Uluru is a pretty decent G-Guard with a 20000 shield as well as recycling a unit and trigger back into your deck which can be great.

New Uluru is the G-Guardian flipper who has a pretty neat skill, providing 5000 shield for every face up card in your G-Zone, while this can be powerful, it can also backfire if you used Heritage beforehand, so take note of this fact.

With that I wrap up my Gear Chronicle deck profile. Look forward to another article which will cover the many different combos and playstyles that ZTB players utilise in order to dominate the meta. Tell me what you think below, and thanks for your time.

Asano, signing out.