Y'know what bothers me about Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion? The fact that its ability is an overglorified retire. Even though it looks cool, letting a vanguard hit multiple units, the fact of the matter is that no one is ever going to guard a vanguard attack on a rear-guard ever when they have a perfectly good vanguard to guard. Whether it's Vermillion, Big Bang Knuckle, or Exculpate (especially Exculpate), they have the same problem. Their attacks on rear-guards can hardly be said to be attacks at all.

Really, people usually don't attack rear-guards unless it's convenient for them to do so, since going face drains the opponent's hand more reliably. Even when people do swing at rear-guards, people tend to no guard more often than not. As a result, the whole concept of attacking rear-guards is underused. The number of cards Vanguard has that support rear-guard attacking is minimal. There's ye olde Overlord, of course, there's Tejas and FUSHIMI for attacking the back row, and Narukami occasionally gets rear-guards that can punch two units at once, like One Strike Two Hits Djinn or Grizel. But the concept is very, very underexplored.

I always thought that the Dragonic Overlord did the rear-guard attacking thing best; it actually gives the opponent a reason to guard their own rear-guards. In more recent times VMAX is even better, as it pressures the opponent to guard their rear-guard even as their vanguard is being attacked. So what I wanted to do is to make a clan that would both incentivize attacking rear-guards and incentivize the opponent to guard their own rear-guards. And Ayanami is my solution.

Ayanami is the navy of the Dragon Empire in some alternate universe or another. In the main timeline, the Dragon Empire doesn't need a navy, but in this timeline, a civilization of deep sea dwellers rose from the depths and invaded the lands of Cray, forcing the Empire to assemble a navy from near-scratch. The Tear Dragons chipped in, but it wasn't enough, so one dragon got the crazy idea to make ship girls robots called fleet mechs that were human-sized but as powerful as whole ships. That's the summary, anyways, and I'm not going to expound any further on it because what I really want to talk about is the mechanics of the clan.

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Clan Introduction

Ayanami is an aggressive, rear-guard-centric clan that focuses on attacking the opponent's rear-guards. Its Imaginary Gift is Accel.

In the same way Kagero retires and Narukami binds, Ayanami hits. Many of its effects allow it to take free potshots at rear-guards, like standing rear-guards after they've attacked the opponent's rear-guards or letting units attack multiple targets at once, but it can also just swing at rear-guards really hard. Since attacking is a bit less reliable than a straight retire, Ayanami cards often get a power boost to compensate.

Heavy Cruiser, Toriumi Ayanami / Battleroid / Grade 2 / Power 9000 / Shield 5000 [AUTO](RC) 1/Turn : When it attacks a rear-guard, COST [ Counter Blast (1) ], [Stand] this unit, and it gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.

[CONT](RC): During the battle that it attacked a vanguard, if there are no rear-guards in your opponent's front row of the same column as this unit, this unit gets [Power]+5000.

Rainstorm Dragon Ayanami / Tear Dragon / Grade 2 / Power 9000 / Shield 5000 [AUTO](VC/RC): When placed, COST [ Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1) ], this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn, it attacks your opponent's rear-guard, and at the end of that battle, [Stand] this unit. (If this unit is on (VC), it performs a drive check.)

[AUTO](RC): When it attacks a vanguard, if your opponent has three or less rear-guards, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of that battle.

Triple Gun Mount Dragon Ayanami / Flame Dragon / Grade 2 / Power 9000 / Shield 5000 [AUTO](VC/RC): When placed, COST [ Counter Blast (1) ], and until end of turn, this unit gets [Power]+5000, it can attack the back row, and it can choose an additional unit to battle in its attack.

Wyvern Fighter, Reppuu Ayanami / Winged Dragon / Grade 2 / Power 9000 / Shield 5000 [AUTO](VC/RC): When it attacks a rear-guard, this unit gets [Power]+15000 until end of that battle.

Even though Ayanami can drop a ton of attacks on the opponent's units turn after turn, the opponent can't afford to let their rear-guards get hit. If they do, they get punished, as Ayanami has plenty of effects that proc when a unit gets hit. Sometimes, Ayanami will even deal damage during attacks against a rear-guard as if they were attacking a vanguard.

Destroyer, Jogetsu Ayanami / Battleroid / Grade 1 / Power 8000 / Shield 10000 [AUTO](Drop zone): When your unit's attack hits a rear-guard, you may call this card to (RC). If you do, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.

Destroyer, Sekiritsu Ayanami / Battleroid / Grade 1 / Power 8000 / Shield 10000 [AUTO](VC/RC): When your unit's attack hits, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.

Dragon Captain, Mastir Ayanami / Dragonman / Grade 1 / Power 8000 / Shield 10000 [ACT](RC) 1/Turn : COST [ Counter Blast (1) ], choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and until end of turn, that unit cannot intercept, it can be attacked even if it is in the back row, and it can be dealt damage during an attack as if it were a vanguard. (That rear-guard is still retired when it is hit.)

Ayanami cards have very strong synergy, and many of them can be combined to make crazy plays that are more than the sum of their parts. For example, see that Triple Gun Mount Dragon up there? The one that can swing at a vanguard and a rear-guard at the same time? Combine it with this:

Lycoris Destroyer, Blizzard Ayanami / Battleroid / Tear Dragon / Grade 3 / Power 12000 / [AUTO](VC): When it attacks, COST [ Soul Blast (1) ], and [Stand] one of your rear-guards that attacked a rear-guard this turn.

[AUTO](VC) 1/Turn : When your rear-guard's attack hits for the second time or more this turn, COST [ Counter Blast (1) & discard two cards from your hand ], [Stand] this unit, it gets [Power]+5000/drive -1 until end of turn, and Soul Charge (1).

First, swing Triple Gun Mount Dragon at a vanguard and a rear-guard. Then, attack with Blizzard, and use her first AUTO to stand Triple Gun Mount Dragon. Since its effect is still active, you can attack with it again, for a total of four attacks: two swings at the vanguard and two swings at rear-guards.

Ayanami can most easily be summarized as a cross between Aqua Force and Narukami. Like Aqua Force, the order of your attacks matters, the clan is very combo-dependent, and its strategy involves pressuring the opponent with a bunch of attacks. Like Narukami, it focuses on clearing the opponent's rear-guards as part of its offense.

Sample Deck

By no means is this supposed to be an optimal decklist. It's really just for familiarizing yourself with the clan's general deckbuild.

Grade 0 (17)

Grade 1 (13)

Grade 2 (12)

Grade 3 (8)

4 Captain Dragonic Overlord (Accel) (22k attacker that can stand itself and drive check on rear if it hits a rear)

4 Lycoris Destroyer, Blizzard (Accel) (primary vanguard, threatens to restand if your rear's attack hits)

Individual card examples

I can't talk at length about all of Ayanami's cards in this single blog post. There's more than 50 of them, including multiple different bosses like the plane-spamming aircraft carrier and the grade 3 battleship force, and that's not even counting the G format Ayanami cards. I'll just leave the rest in the clan page and show you standout individual cards that make Ayanami tick.

Fish Lightning Dragon Ayanami / Thunder Dragon / Grade 2 / Power 9000 / Shield 5000 [CONT](RC): Your opponent chooses this unit's attack targets. (They can only choose from valid attack targets.)

[AUTO](RC): When it attacks, this unit gets [Power]+15000 until end of that battle.

Wait, what? This thing swings for 24k power! But my opponent gets to choose who this unit attacks?! This card is a perfect example of how Ayanami's offense works. If your opponent has any rears in the front row, this unit is stuck attacking rear-guards, but if you can clear the opponent's front row, you can take advantage of that sweet, sweet 24k swing. Your opponent isn't helpless, as they can guard their rear-guards, but that just causes them to lose cards in their hand. Worst case scenario, this card swinging at a rear-guard isn't even that bad, since that's what Ayanami is built on anyways.

Captain Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion Ayanami / Thunder Dragon / Grade 3 / Power 12000 / [ACT](VC/RC) 1/Turn : COST [ Counter Blast (1) ], and until end of turn, this unit gets [Power]+5000 and "[CONT](VC/RC): This unit gets [Critical]+1. If there are two or more rear-guards in your opponent's front row, instead of [Critical]+1, when this unit would attack, it battles all of the units in your opponent's front row." .

Vermillion is a lot happier now that he's in a clan that can properly take advantage of his effect. Three swings on your opponent's units, especially when boosted or on an Accel circle, is an unholy terror to behold, and when you clear your opponent's front row, you can stand this with Blizzard to finally swing with Vermillion's extra crit.

Dirty Engineer, Vairaza Ayanami / Flame Dragon / Grade 3 / Power 12000 / [ACT](VC/RC) 1/Turn : COST [ Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1) ], bind a card from your drop zone, and until end of turn, one of your rear-guards gets the [Power] and abilities of the card bound with this effect.

[ACT](VC) 1/Turn : COST [ Retire a rear-guard ], and draw a card.

While this card may not look like it has anything to do with Ayanami's rear-guard attacking schtick at first, Ayanami is a clan that is built on synergy, and Vairaza embodies synergy. With this, you can staple any two units together to create devastating combinations. Reppuu combined with Triple Gun Mount is a 33k attack on two units, and Triple Gun Mount combined with Heavy Cruiser, Toriumi means four 18k attacks on your opponent's units.

Card list

Disclaimer: Cards may or may not be overtuned. This isn't really a big deal, as I doubt anything is excessively over or under the mark. Try not to nitpick over balance too much; in my experience, discussions about balance tend to ignore interesting card design in favor of focusing on one or two little details, and as a result, they tend to be really, really dull.