With 2016 finally dead now seems as good a time as any to go over my current build for Kagero’s flagship build.

This is my main deck and the only complete one I own physically. I like to think I have a pretty good understanding of it and after a lot of changes from the release of G-BT07 and I think I’ve finally reached a build that functions pretty goddam well.

Enough waffling let’s get into it.

The List

I’m going to leave out triggers and the starter because I want to talk about them with a bit more detail. I’ll also cover the tech slots by themselves as well since there is plenty to talk about there.

Grade 1 – 13

Grade 2 – 11

Dragonic Burnout x 3

Emperor Dragon Knight, Nehalem x 4

Tech slots x 4

Grade 3 – 8

G-Zone

Starting Vanguard

There are two candidates for this role

Undeax allows you to search for an Overlord which helps secure the Ace or use the Legends GB2 skill. Meanwhile Sadegh allows you to get an extra retire.

Sadegh has some nice synergy with cards that retire on your opponents turn and can help a lot against clans that rely on restanding rearguards (when combined with defeat flare).

This is very much a preference thing so choose what you like best personally I use Sadegh as I’m very big on counterplay and don’t like the counterblast cost on Undeax.

After the publishing of this article Conroe was unbanned here’s my article on it.

Grade 1 and 2

So before I go onto triggers and tech slots I want to talk about a few of my choices.

So first off I fully believe that even without as odd a grade 3 lineup as I use 4 Conroe is entirely needed since it’s the decks main source of countercharge on top of allowing you to get whichever Overlord is most effective at the time and is able to set up burnout and Defeat flare early if needed. I did test with him at 3 and found the extra consistency granted by the one extra copy was far too valuable to pass up.

Lava flow is at 3 right now because it’s the most spaces I feel I can give it right now. Stride fodder is incredibly useful to this build as Overlords themselves are a resource for the Aces skill. I’ll go into more detail in the tech slot section but if you wanted to you could use a tech slot for the fourth copy but I get pretty decent results from it at 3.

Protect orb is essential since despite it’s efficiency Conroe has one big issue in that the counter charge happens during battle phase it doesn’t exactly line up with what the deck wants all the time, most of your main skills in this deck are ACT skills meaning that open damage is needed most during the main phase. Protect orb grants you a single yet incredibly important charge that can also be utilised for your G-guards.

As for grade 2s Nehalem is a given at 4, it’s your most important grade 2 and is essential for creating offensive power. The only other grade 2 that I believe is locked in is Dragonic Burnout which functions as one of the most effective retire skills in the game. I think there’s a genuine case case to be made for cutting it down to 2 in the current meta but thanks to Conroe you can set up and use this card for some early tempo if needed.

The Grade 3 Lineup

So my chosen lineup is slightly odd I go for 3 Legend, 3 End and 2 X.

This is probably the biggest point of contention with the Overlord deck as players are constantly changing the grade 3s. Many players use the great as backup so that they still have access to a legion and a powerful boss in the case of missing stride others have opted to run the breakride and even tech in the rebirth.

Personally I think the best alternate grade 3 to the Legend is the End. It allows you to keep up tempo even when riding to grade 3 first it’s hard to put down why this card is so good without filling an article all to itself. So with all this said why am I running the X?

Well the biggest reason is that the X can win games… in a very loose way. If a game goes long and both decks are close to deckout then you can use the X to guarantee the win. Of course this is a fringe situation I still think it comes up enough to be relevant. The other reason is a little bit dumber – Why not?

Seriously Conroe allows you to basically have whatever Overlord you need whenever and while there will be the occasional game where you have to ride the X it still doesn’t actually hurt that much, still if you want to shoot for more consistency go for 4 and 4.

G-Zone

This is pretty run of the mill but I want to discuss the choices I’ve made.

One of the big ones I have to argue for quite often is the inclusion of Mustafa I’ve bounced between cutting this card and keeping it in but I think I’m finally settled on this card staying. The best way to make an argument for this card is with actual examples most notably in the form of Tick Tock Worker and Commander Laurel. This card is for situations where you need a rearguard gone and don’t have any other available options in effect you sacrifice pressure for consistency. Even if you don’t use him you can flip him for Taiten so it’s not like the space is wasted.

Ace and Nouvelle share the same purpose but do it in very different ways. While Ace is the more effective and powerful of the two it is also much more costly and inconsistent due to the requirement to have an Overlord in hand and two open damage. However Ace can secure wins against small to mid sized hands and generates a lot of pressure especially when comboed with Nehalem. Nouvelle on the other hand is a little more niche with it’s odd guard restrict and trigger null it can guarantee a win especially when you know a fair number of cards in your opponents hand, it also only requires 1 CB and retains its triple drive meaning you finish with an extra card in hand.

I highly recommend against running 4 copies of the Ace it’s not consistent and while having acess to 2 shots of the Ace seems nice and will certainly win some games but the risk just isn’t worth it.

Triggers

So there’s a few ways to go here and I think it depends a lot on playstyle and meta. In the current meta I’m very in favour of 5 draw triggers especially in areas with a lot of gear chronicle. 12 crit is also as always viable and so is the old standard of 4 draw 8 crit.

Another option I want to bring up but not necessarily reccomend is running a few copies of Lizard Soldier, Veira.

This card can be used with Denial griffin to give an extra 10k to your vanguard for the rest of the turn allowing you to defend against attacks much easier especially against clans like aqua force and gear chronicle. Of course stands aren’t the best in Overlord and this isn’t the most consistent combo but I thought it was worth noting anyway.

Other things to note are that you should run flame dragon heals for the Legends skill and Dragon Knight, Jannat helps to enable blaze in situations where you are short a rearguard without losing a card from hand. Draws also have the advantage of coming in the form of gatling claw dragon which is always nice.

Currently I’m running

5 Draw – 3 Gatling Claw and 2 Artpique

7 Crit – 4 Jannat and 3 Flame dragons

4 heals – all flame dragons

Tech Slots

So the deck has a fair few of these allowing for some flexibility so I’ll go in order of grade.

Grade 1

Lizard Soldier, Bellog

Bellog give you more counter-play allowing you to shoot down a rested rearguard this is my current choice personally mostly down to my love of counter effects but a good chunk of my preference and the reason I have it at 3 is it’s interaction with Melem allowing you to stop gear chronicles ridiculous attack loop or at least slow it down.

Dragon Knight, Nadel

An 11k booster and countercharge option that refunds your Taiten plays this card is definitely worth considering despite the blademaster restriction.

These are my picks but there are obviously many more that I don’t think are that good of course deckbuilding has a lot of personal choice so if that’s the route you want to go down feel free.

Grade 2

So grade 2 is probably the area with the most freedom in the deck and there’s a lot of options here too so I’ll what I consider to be the main contenders. I also personally split this slot into 2 sets of 2 rather than 1 set of 4 but like most tech slots it’s mostly down to preference and local meta.

Dragonic Neoflame

Often cited as Kagero’s main anti-rush card it does that job fairly well but not without shortcomings. It will often hit the board as a 9k vanilla and the CB1 cost can also be somewhat restrictive. Still it’s definitely a decent option and it can put in work especially agains’t opponents who overcommit early on.

Burning Horn Dragon

This deck can often have low backrow presence which means that a lot of the time your 9k rearguards will be unable to hit. Burning horn can help remedy this somewhat by being a 12k on attack, not much else to say but it does it’s job very well.

Berserk Lord Dragon

I don’t like this choice but it’s worth mentioning it allows for some extra somewhat effective retire so if that’s an area you feel you’re hurting in it’s always there.

Radiant Dragon

I did a larger analysis of this card so if you want you can read that but in short this card makes numbers and has a somewhat cost effective retire. Only works on Taiten turns but they are fairly common anyway it also adds some extra power.

again there are other options based on preference and meta but I think these are the main choices. I’ve also considered Dragon knight, Nadim but not being a flame dragon means it loses points for me.

G-Zone

This is a slot that has gone from not being open, 2 open slots and now only 1. Innitially I considered Mustafa as a tech and as a meta call he would certainly fit but I feel as though his uses are far too valueable to pass up. I also once considered 3 Griffins essential but less so now.

I’m not going to go into much detail here since it’s probably the most open slot in the entire deck so go wild and find what works with you. I am currently trying out Dizmel but up until recently I was using Griffin here and I’ve even considered putting another Mustafa just in case I wanted the unflip. So like I said go wild and find what works for you.

Wrapping up

Wow that went a lot longer than I expected. I might revisit this fairly soon to cover some plays you can make with the deck but I think most people will either figure them out or already know them, but let me know if that would be an interesting article.

As always thanks for reading.