When I woke up this morning, the first thing I saw was a message on Reddit from NekoJustice that read:

YOUR TIME IS NOW YOUR FIST IS THE ONE THAT GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER TAKE GRASP OF YOUR DESTINY AND I MEAN LIKE YOUR FATE, NOT THE ILL FATED FIRST PERSON SHOOTER AND MAKE EVERYTHING TOM

Of course, I was confused, but when I read the effect of the newly revealed Still Water Festival Deity, Ichikishima, I immediately understood. The hype is real.

Many of you may take this opportunity to build or revive an Oracle Think Tank build, and as the resident OTT expert, I am always here to help! So without further ado, here’s my first impressions review of the four newly revealed cards.

Still Water Festival Deity, Ichikishima

[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.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone with the same card name as this unit, and turn it face up] Draw two cards.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 3 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] Until end of turn, your opponent cannot call G guardian and grade 0 cards from hand to (GC).

First off, I should tell you what I was looking for from this set. When it was announced, my friend asked me what I wanted. I said:

I want a good first stride, a finisher, and a way to rush to GB8, but there’s no way they can do all of that with just two strides.

I’m here, ready to eat all of my words because apparently they can do that. In fact, they can do all of that with just one stride. This card also takes me back to two cards that I designed when CHB02 was announced.

Conquesting Deity of Vital Matters, Kamususanoo Grade 4 15k Act 1/turn GB2 [CB1 and Choose a face down card named Dragon Battle Destroyer Deity, Kamusuanoo in your G-Zone and turn it face] If you have a face-up card named Dragon Battle Destroyer Deity, Kamususanoo in your g-zone, you may pay the cost, if you do until the end of this turn this unit gets “[Auto Choose a card from your hand and place it on the bottom of your deck] When your rearguard attacks, you may pay the cost if you do until the end of that battle your opponent cannot call G 0 units from their hand to the guardian circle.” and GB4 “All of your units gain 2k for each face up card named Dragon Destroyer Battle Deity Kamususanoo in you G-zone” Oracle Operative, “Silent” Tom Grade 2 9k GB1 When this unit attacks a vanguard, your opponent cannot normal call grade 0 units to the guardian circle. GB2 Oracle When this unit attacks a vanguard, your opponent cannot call grade 4 units to the guardian circle.

So as much as I did anticipate OTT having the ability to guard restrict G-Guardians, I never thought that we’d get a way to guard restrict G-guardians for an entire turn no matter what attacks. Not to mention the fact that I never would have thought that said guard restrict would be so free. Though it is clear to me that with the recent GB8s and GBT11 releases, power creep is now the name of the game, and for once, it’s nice to be caught up.

In any case, let’s move on to the skills themselves, shall we? The first skill is sweet and simple. It’s an act that lets you draw two cards, for the low low cost of a persona flip, a counter blast, and a soul blast. Sure, it doesn’t let you choose the cards you add to hand. However, I can see the direction that this (and the other 3 revealed cards) is going. The skill is meant to replenish the hand you potentially depleted during the early game turns, and for that, I welcome this skill heartily. It allows you to get to GB2 instantly, and it allows you to continue your aggression throughout the game. In other words, it allows you to keep up the tempo, instead of simply falling behind, like OTT was doing before. Sure, it’s a persona flip, which means that you cannot use this skill to flip up a Wakahirume or Amaterasu to fulfil Susanoo’s skill. But this is fine because there are other ways to soul charge in OTT and other ways to draw. You don’t need to rely on Susanoo’s stride on skill. It’s a bonus, not a must.

Does this card replace Ame-no-Sagume as first stride?

Yes, and no, and that’s the best part. You don’t have to stride Ichikishima as your first stride in every game you play. Ame-no-Sagume is still a good first stride option as she provides some on-hit pressire that you may want to have if your opponent is at low damage and you already have a high enough hand count. Ichikishima will pick you up when you’re down, but if your hand doesn’t need to draw 2, then don’t draw 2, stride Ame-no-Sagume instead. This is not a game of drawing until you can’t draw anymore. OTT is a clan of maintenance and efficiency. We want to have a full field (4-5 rearguards), and a full hand (5-8 cards), and we want to maintain both. We don’t need to draw excessively. If you already have the cards you need, don’t draw. Even if she doesn’t hit, Ame-no-Sagume is still perfect guard bait, and the less perfect guards your opponent has, the more likely it is that your Ichikishima turn will be lethal. Perhaps a R stride in this set will replace Ame-no-Sagume, but for now, I’d say it’s best to run both.

As for the second skill to guard restrict G-Guards?

Well, let’s just say that people will start expecting stands now. And low-key, the best part about the skill is the fact that it’s an ACT, which means that you can achieve Oracle, activate the skill, and then call a full field if you need to.

This card is a 5/5.

Also, the fact that this card prevents your opponent to rushing to GB8, or disrupting your turn with Impede, Denial Griffin, Negrolily, or Heteroround is the icing on a beautiful cake.

Oh screw it, this card is a 6/5.

One Advantage Miko, Nanase

[AUTO](RC):[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)] When this unit’s attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at two cards from the top of your deck, put a card into your hand, and put a card on the bottom of your deck.

[CONT](RC) Generation Break 2 Oracle (This ability is active when you have five or more cards in your hand):During your turn, this unit gets [Power]+1000 for each card in your hand.

Please, no on-hits. I don’t like on-hits.

This theme of the day seems to be me swallowing my words. Let me re-phrase myself. I don’t like GB restricted on-hits. I think that skills like Rigid Crane are dumb because they will never hit. In fact they are so irrelevant that my friend has to remind me that Rigid Crane has an ability beyond the +2k every time it actually does hit (which was like once). However, I love on-hits that are active pre-GB, like Shrewd Concierge. His skill allows me to have real early game pressure, and he works extremely well with stand triggers. I love Nanase for all of the same reasons and more.

Though Nanase doesn’t have Shrewd Concierge’s +2k pre-GB, the trade-off is in her second skill, and it is definitely worth it. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

And again please.

I could pull out more blog posts where I go on about the importance of having grade 2s that can hit numbers on their own, but I won’t. You get the idea.

5/5

Rapport Miko, Nazuna

[AUTO](RC) Oracle (This ability is active when you have five or more cards in your hand):[Retire this unit] At the end of the battle that this unit boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

[AUTO] Generation Break 1:When this unit is placed on (RC), choose one of your other rear-guards with the oracle ability in the same column as this unit, and until end of turn, it gets “[CONT](RC):This unit gets [Power]+1000 for each card in your hand.”.

Another unit that has a skill pre-GB. Honestly, grade 1 space is tight with stride fodder, perfect guards, and Ebisu, and yet, this card is so good that I may have to make space for it. Goodbye Precious Ophidian, it was nice having you around.

I love the fact that this card has the Oracle ability, and that it activates during the battle phase, after the drive check. This skill allows you to have actual board presence, without needing to sacrifice the number of cards in your hand. This is the same reason that Efficient Carp, Nebula Witch, NoNo, and Able Neil are good. Furthermore, this kind of skill screws with control decks as they cannot touch it on their turn. This skill could be better, of course. It could bounce itself instead of retiring. It could go to the soul, or the bottom of the deck. It could check the top 2 and add 1 instead of just drawing… but it is good.

As for the second skill, well it’s power in OTT. OF COURSE IT’S GOOD. Also it isn’t Oracle restricted, so if you want to give a unit +4k, then you can give it +4k. Again, stand triggers.

4.5/5

Efficient Carp

[AUTO](RC) Oracle (This ability is active when you have five or more cards in your hand):[Put this unit into your soul] At the end of your turn, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at the top card of your deck, put it on the top or bottom of your deck, and draw a card.

This card is basically a pre-GB Nebula Witch, NoNo that builds soul instead of using soul, but doesn’t increase the number of triggers in the deck. Both NoNo and Efficient Carp will have a place in my deck, as they complement each other so well. What this card does allow is the ability to help you dig through your deck in the early game to try and find your combo pieces, while building resources. It’s kind of like Psychic Bird, but with a greater awareness of what you’re drawing and a different activation time. 5/5

So now that my first impressions review is finished, I can move-on to the fun part: actually testing the units. I’m going to start off by testing 4 copies of Ichikishima, 4 copies of Nanase, 3-4 copies of Nazuna, and 3-4 copies of Efficient Carp. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated!