Spiritual Sword of Rough Deity, Susanoo is the new big boss unit for OTT so I’ll skip right to talking about it’s ability and it’s utility in several different types of OTT decks.

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2 Oracle (This ability is active when you have five or more cards in your hand):At the beginning of your ride phase, look at the top card of your deck, and put it on the top or the bottom of your deck.

[AUTO](VC):At the beginning of your ride phase, if you have a face up card with “Amaterasu” or “Wakahirume” in its card name in your G zone, you may Soul Charge (1).

[AUTO](VC):[Soul Blast (2)] During your turn, when your G unit Stride, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

So this new Susanoo predictably has the Oracle keyword, which as previously stated in my last post, is good as it allows you to use cards that require a Vanguard with the Oracle ability, like Handbell Purification Maiden, Ouka and Precious Ophidian. This is especially good because it allows the Oracle deck to use Precious Ophidian’s second ability going first, and then hopefully his first ability will be active by first stride. This is very helpful in maintaining 5 or more cards in hand so that Oracle is active whenever possible but it isn’t always necessary as it is sometimes better as a boosting unit.

[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 Oracle (This ability is active when you have five or more cards in your hand):[Retire this unit] At the beginning of your ride phase, you may pay the cost. If you do, until end of turn, you may Stride without paying the cost the next time you Stride.

[AUTO]:[Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (RC), if you have a vanguard with the oracle ability, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

His actual GB2 Oracle ability is essentially a “free” version of the OG CEO Amaterasu’s main phase ability, as it doesn’t require you to soul charge, like Ammy does. Personally I’m a big fan of this ability as it allows you to deck manipulate to a certain extent, which is an OTT mechanic that hasn’t gotten a lot of support recently, as now everything seems to be about drawing cards. This ability activates at the beginning of the ride phase, which means that as soon as GB2 and Oracle are active, you can use it every turn even when you stride (except on the turn you ride him). This gives you the ability to know which Stride unit you should go into. If the top card is a trigger, for example, you know it might be time for an offensive push with Dragon Destroyer Battle Deity, Kamususanoo instead of a more defensive Takemikazuchi turn. Of course, the final decision is based on the hand and field you have, but this information is also helpful when you see a non-trigger that you want to draw into. Overall his GB2 is so amazing that I’m sad it’s restricted to GB2 and Oracle as I would want to pull it off every single turn instead of just on turns where I can meet the conditions.

The GB2 Oracle ability is also complimented by his secondary skill. It allows you to Soul Charge 1 at the beginning of the ride phase, as long as you have a face-up card with “Amaterasu” or “Wakahirume” in your G-Zone. This restriction is actually the easiest to fulfill as it *should* always be active after your first stride. This is because of the new stride for the set: Spiritual Deity of Benevolence, Ame-no-sagume. This card is the perfect first stride that OTT was missing. Ame-no-sagume offers on-hit pressure, while at the same time, allowing you to flip up any card in your G-Zone. This is the first OTT stride that can flip up anything, so it is perfect in Susanoo as it allows you to flip up a spare copy of Wakahirume, to gain his middle ability as soon as possible. This is why in Susanoo G-zones moving forward, you should play 1 or 3 copies of Wakahirume instead of 2 or 4. The Oracle deck, in my opinion, should play 3 copies of Waka, as she is a good Stride on her own and combos really well with stand triggers. She also has the Oracle ability, which has a lot of synergy in the deck.

[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[AUTO](VC) Oracle (This ability is active when you have five or more cards in your hand):[Choose a face down card from your G zone, and turn it face up] When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, until end of that battle, this unit gets “[AUTO](VC):When this unit’s attack hits a vanguard, draw two cards, choose a card from your hand, discard it, and Counter Charge (1)/Soul Charge (1)”.

Ame-no-sagume also has the Oracle ability, which allows you to use the cards that need an Oracle Vanguard on first Stride, but also means that you need to be careful of how many cards you lose from your hand in the early game, as her ability activates when she attacks, meaning that you need to have 5 in hand before the drive check. If she does hit, she allows you to draw 2, discard 1, and Soul Charge 1 and Counter Charge 1. The Soul Charge is very nice as it fuels Susanoo’s stride on skill, and the extra card in hand helps maintain Oracle.

The nicest part of Susanoo’s first two abilities is that they both activate at the same time, meaning that you can choose which to activate first. I would always rather Soul Charge first, but only in situations where I need more soul. Since the Soul Charge isn’t mandatory, you can simply choose to avoid it when you’re running low on deck, and don’t need the soul. However, in a pure Oracle deck, you will need to Soul Charge a lot due to Susanoo’s Stride skill.

His final skill is that when you Stride, you may Soul Blast 2 and draw a card. The ability to draw an extra card is nice to maintain Oracle, but it is certainly my least favourite of his three skills. The issue is that this ability is expensive, especially in pure Oracle, where soul is tough to come by and Soul Blast abilities are common. Susanoo’s Soul Charge skill does help to mitigate the cost, but it isn’t enough most of the time, especially if you want to use Soul Blasting units such as Precious Ophidian, Astrologer Miss Haze, Goddess of Prophet, Yasaka, Akagi, and Wakahirume. The only ways to Soul Charge in pure Oracle is through Susanoo, Psychic Bird, Rigid Crane, Ame-no-sagume, and the new Amaterasu G-Guardian. This means that Soul is precious and that Susanoo’s skill cannot always activate even when you want it to. The other issue is that since this deck needs to Soul Charge and draw so much, the deck runs thin very quickly, and the only cards that can help prevent deck out are Battle Sister, Muffin and Lozenge Magus, who can spin themselves back to the deck. As such, deck out is a real issue this deck faces, especially if it cannot pressure the opponent and win fast enough. I wish that his ability was a Soul Blast 1, because at least he could pay for his own ability, and we would be able to use other Soul Blast units more freely. Finally, the other issue with Susanoo’s Stride on, is that unlike the original Susanoo, it doesn’t allow you do choose a card out of two to draw. This blind draw means that you may not draw the card you were looking for. Susanoo’s first skill does help though, as it allows you to draw the top card, if you want it. The bonus is that since the Stride on used Soul instead of Counter Blast, it allows for more freedom in using Counter Blasting abilities like Takemikazuchi and Deity Spirit Loyalist, Ame-no-oshiho.

Overall, this new version of Susanoo is a great addition to many OTT decks, though a “pure” Oracle deck still has many issues. Through testing I find that the soul issue is easy to mitigate in a hybrid deck of Tsukuyomi/Susanoo, though in that case, Susanoo isn’t the ideal first ride, which slows his abilities down considerably. In exchange though, he is fully able to use his Stride on skill and other Soul Blast skills with ease. This new Susanoo doesn’t mix well with Coco, as she empties the Soul that Susanoo needs. Amaterasu also works as a back up to gain soul and work up for Susanoo’s stride on in situations where you go first or can’t stride. A pure Susanoo deck is possible, but I find that the keyword is more important than the name, so Yasaka works better as a backup in Oracle. I wouldn’t mix him in Battle Sisters or Magus, as they require their own subclan to fully utilize their abilities.

Here is a decklist I made for an Oracle deck once the set drops. Of course, some cards may change as the set hasn’t been fully announced yet, but the G-Zone will stay the same.

Grade 4:

State Affair Subjugation Deity, Kamususanoo x2

Dragon Destroyer Battle Deity, Kamususanoo x4

Lord of Guidance, Wakahirume x3

Spiritual Deity of Benevolence, Ame-no-sagume x1

Sun of Eternity, Amaterasu x3

Ichibyoshi/Dizmel/Scryew x1

Sword Deity of the Thunder Break, Takemikazuchi x2

Grade 3:

Spiritual Sword of Rough Deity, Susanoo x4

Goddess of the Prophet, Yasaka x4

Grade 2:

Rigid Crane x4

Akagi x2

Deity Spirit Loyalist, Ame-no-oshiho x4

Grade 1:

Precious Ophidian x4

Deity Dynasty Defense Offical, Amatsu-hikone x4

Divine Sword, Ame-no-murakumo x3

Deity Spirit Loyalist, Kumano-kusibi x4

Grade 0:

Deity Spirit Loyalist, Ikutsa-hikone x1

Lozenge Magus x4

Divine Sword, Kusanagi x4

Psychic Bird x4

Handbell Purification Maiden, Ouka x4