Guten Tag, meine damen und herren, and welcome to the Zero Damage Blog, where we learn how to be a better cardfighter.

The Premium collection is having a lot of reveals in the past few weeks, and many players are having more and more interest in Premium Standard as a format!

Today, we will be talking about a new deck concept based on using one the of the new cards from the premium collection: the NeoNectar stride, Green Katrina.

Green Katrina has two skills. Her first skill creates plant tokens equal to the number of face up GZone, then makes all plant tokens 15k power units for the turn!

Her second skill is equally impactful. When she attacks, superior call from your deck as many units as you have plant tokens. This mean you can superior call whatever you want, where you want, when you want, and instantly set up any field you want, as long as you have enough plant tokens.

In a vacuum, Green Katrina is powerful in itself, creating a 15k boost/attacker on first stride and when attack, calling out one more units.

However, its important to keep in mind that Green Katrina can call as many units as you want, so long as you have enough plant tokens on the field. On top of that, each plant token is a 15k attacker/booster, meaning they create a 30k power column with a plant boosting a plant, with more power if you give that column a force!

Therefore, if you can get 4 plant tokens on the field, then stride Green Katrina, you can get 5 units of your choice called from your deck as you attack!

Not many decks can stand 2 30-40k power attacks extra each turn, BEFORE doing multiple attacks with force.

With Green Katrina, one of the other key points in using this girl is that if you superior call plant tokens after using her skill, those plants still also get 10k power! Therefore, if you use Exploding Tomato, you can suddenly, during the battle phase, call out an extra 2 15k boosters, or if you call out Maiden of Trailing Rose or Pansy Musketeer Sylvia during the battle phase with Green Katrina's skill, the plants they make are also 15k boosters!

In fact, that 15k power is more than Trailing rose and Sylvia's base power, so another play that you can do is call 4 of these units, use their skills to call a plant token over themselves, and create more power!

Exploding Tomato is another unit that goes very well with Katrina. Even in a situation where you brick and cant generate any plant tokens before striding, just by attacking with tomato and retiring it to create 2 tokens, you get 3 total (including 1 from Katrina herself), enough to get 3 units of your choice from your deck and set off many plays.

Multiple attacks is very important in a format such as premium, but unfortunately NeoNectar is one of the clans that suffers heavily from not being able to execute multiple attacks well, instead relying on massive power and calling units to fight their games.

However, Maiden of Gladiolus is a card that can help with this issue. The ability to call a unit during battle phase gives you effectively another attack.

Previously, maiden of gladiolus was not played because of 3 reasons: 1) not a bloom unit, 2) lack of power of the unit that was being called out, and 3) lack of power for gladiolus herself, even with boost.

However, with a force marker, this solves the power issue of the unit being called out, and with a plant token, this solves the issue of having enough power with boost, as she would be 24k power with a boost from plant token, even without any force gift!

Maiden of Gladiolus was printed in GTD03 Flower Maiden of Purity, so she will be pretty cheap to pick up your copies!

The next issue for the deck is converting field into hand cards.

NeoNectar has always been blessed with very cost effective field filling and high power, but without a way to convert this into card advantage and defense, you will run into the issue of already having a full field when you want to call more, meaning you have to give up card advantage to call more units.

Therefore, in NeoNectar, one of the most important type of card to have is one that can become defensive card advantage, cards that remove themselves from the field into your hand or guard, so you can once again fill up your field very well the next turn. In Standard, the prime examples of these cards are Lily of the valley Musketeer Rebecca, Exploding Tomato to convert plant tokens on the field into hand advantage, and units using intercept, allowing Cecilia to fill up your field the next turn for you.

In Premium, there are several cards to pick from.

The first is Lily of the valley musketeer Rebecca, whom does the job of becoming a 10k shield in hand at the end of the turn, as valuable a skill in premium as in standard.

The second example is Prosperity Maiden Diane, whose bloom ability lets her become 17k and return to the hand at the end of the turn.

Our third card is Cherry Blossom Maiden, Lilga. Lilga does not return to the hand at the end of the turn, but one of her strengths is that she is instead a null guard, allowing Katrina to effectively search out null guards from your deck, and to return them to your hand at the low cost of CB1.

One of the fun tricks with Katrina and Lilga is to call out two or three lilgas to the back row, and call token makers such as Mirkka, Exploding Tomato, Maiden of Trailing Rose, or Sylvia in the front row. Then, after first using Lilga to return to hand, use the token maker to call plants into the now empty backrow for boosting.

Another card that turns field into hand is not well know, being Maiden of Breedrain. By retiring her and returning a normal unit to the bottom of the deck, you reveal the top 5 cards of your deck, and superior call all maiden of breedrain in those 5 cards. If you did not call any units, you get to draw a card. This is an effect that may seem strange and uncertain, with the player never knowing if they will be able to draw a card or end up with card in the way on their field next turn, but this is not the case. There is a way to confirm her retiring and turning into a draw at the end of the turn: To make sure there are 0 copies of her in the top of the deck!

This is done by superior calling out all copies of Breedrain to your field, so no matter how many cards you reveal, there will never be copies of her in the top 5 cards of the deck! With Katrina and Gladiolus, this is extremely easy to achieve. Returning normal units to the deck may decrease deck stability, but she can not only return units that you want to call out next turn with katrina, but also return Marigold Musketeer Rachele, a trigger unit that can also be treated as a normal unit.

As for the rest of the deck, it is focused around many of the token generating cards.

Here is my example decklist for the deck.



The main ride is Maiden of Trailing Rose. Just riding her gives you 2 plant tokens, and once you stride into Katrina, this gives you 3 plant tokens total on first stride, just enough to do a lot of your powerful plays!



Exploding Tomato is a very interesting card in the deck, Not only is it a good art, good ride for force, but can also covert those plants into card draw while exploding into two more in the battle phase, giving you 2 15k power boosts that turn! While a g3 attacker may be dangerous to leave out and have retired, 2 plant tokens certainly are not!

One of the common plays is to call him, after attack become two plant tokens, then provide boost at 15k boosts, or to use Katrina to call more units! Just a Tomato on rear guard and striding katrina again gives you the 3 plant tokens necessary to do your most powerful plays.

We have played Spiritual Tree Sage Irminsur in our deck, to provide some early game support.

However, its important to not that unless you get two plant tokens on the field, its effect cannot go off to draw a card, unless you play Brocollini Musketeer Kirah (BT07). As his requirement is 2 G0s, one plant and your forerunner together can fulfill his condition to become a huge attacker in early game while drawing a card, enough to fight in the early game!

Irminsur in this deck is one of the flexible slots, so feel free to pick your favourite G2 unit. You can even play Maiden of Salix to provide 10k intercepts to bolster your defense, or Kaivant to gain a lot of power for each plant token on the field.

In the grade 1 slot, we have played some stride fodder, 4 copies of Rebecca to become 10k shield in hand, but since its not enough cards to turn into hand advantage, we have also played 3 copies of Maiden of Breedrain. A lower count of breedrain allows you to keep the recycling utility of her, while still keeping it easy to call all copies from the deck. Padmini the stride fodder is being reprinted in the premium collection, so now is the time to pick her up!

While we have played Lilga in this build, instead playing different g1s or using the space to play other grades of units, and playing the draw trigger null guard Maiden of Blossom Rain is also a choice you can make for your deck!

Two other options for the grade 1 lineup are: Dandelion Musketeer Mirkka, and Fruits Basket Elf.

Both cards create a lot of plant tokens for your board to hit the opponent early on, and both help out getting to that crucial number of plant tokens on board early for Katrina to make extremely powerful plays. Mirkka has an added use of being able to call plants during the battle phase, meaning that if you call her from Katrina, you can call a plant behind her, to make a 26k power column without force! On top of that, if you ride her as first ride, it generates a 5k boost right behind your vanguard early for more power early on in the game.

Fruits basket elf also has a role in the early game, providing the necessary 2 plant tokens needed to get Irminsur off early.

As for first vanguard, you have the option between Brocollini Musketeer Kirah, and Brocollini Musketeer Kirah.



No, that wasnt a joke. The old Kirah has forerunner and becomes a g0 on your board for Irminsur, at the same time providing that search for G3, extra helpful in games that you are lacking G3 or really need to hit that early maiden of trailing rose to get your plays off. In exchange, the new Kirah allows you to draw into a card while conserving counterblast for Irminsur later on in the game, more multiple attacks, and provides a soul right off the bat for cards such as Mirkka and Rebecca.

The deck as a whole has ample access to counterblast, with Lilga, Gladiolus and Irminsur being the primary uses of counterblast, but a lot of cards including your powerful G-Guardian Antero and crucial hand retention card Rebecca, which puts more emphasis on the 1 draw ability of the new Kirah.

How about the G-Zone?

While the GZone in the example decklist has a lot of cards, its important to focus on the "necessary" or core cards of the G-Zone, and get those first, before moving onto the tech or optional parts.

The beauty of the deck is how much it uses Katrina as its main stride and not much else! Because Katrina turns up any G-Zone unit, not itself, it can be stride 4 times in a row, as long as you have any card to turn face up! This turning anything face up means that your core strides are 4 Katrina and 4 Filler. Literally anything. Trial deck stride cards, Cray elemental strides, 4 Zoas for those who show off, literally anything.

Our second main core is the G-Guardians. This deck uses two main G-Guardians in its gameplay: Antero, a Rare from GEB06, to provide massive guard value, as most of the time your field will be full, or empty because you returned everything to hand, as well as a GBT12 card: Rainbow Cycle Dragon

Rainbow Cycle Dragon is a tricky card to use, since its not commonly used. While it goes back to the GZone face down, its main use is instead to return 2 normal units from your drop zone to your deck. This allows you to chain into your next turns attacks very well and set up well, or recycle those null guards you need! However, as she only has 15k shield, you must balance using G-Guards for this effect, or calling Antero instead at a different time for that crucial large shield value.

Remaining strides: Thats about it really, the rest of the G-zone is flexible slots for you to pack your favorite cray elementals, maybe a costerina to speed up opening G-zone, or pack a Zoa or two to randomly win against opponents who forget it exists. None of these are core necessities to the deck, so feel free to take your time to get them!

As for the nation stride, theres not much rush to get one of her either. While the deck will of course benefit from using her effect, the opportunity cost in this deck is a bit too large. While Dragon empire slower decks would love their field wipe, and United Sanctuary can definitely find room for using Agnos very easily, this deck does not take advantage of that very well. For starters, as a beatdown deck, giving up the 6 attack + card advantage engine that is Katrina for just one turn can give the opponent enough time to turn the tides against you! As a deck who wants to be comboing out by first stride, you cant afford it.

The second reason its not as necessary to the deck is how this deck does not have a way to search out same name as vanguard. Other decks may use the nation strides easier, given their ability to search same name as vanguard, but this deck does not have such luxury, struggling enough to get the g3 you want to ride.

Here are some example plays of when you use Katrina to call 3 units.



By attacking with Exploding Tomato first, you can create the necessary boost unit for Maiden of Gladiolus during the battle phase. with maiden of gladiolus calling one more Rebecca, you get a total of 6 attacks off, with both rebeccas returning to hand at the end of the turn!





5 Token Pattern A

If you had 5 plant tokens to call 5 units, you can add in calling 2 Lilga onto your field in the circles you plan to use Exploding Tomato to call plants into. This way, you get the same number of attacks and advantage in the end of the chain, while getting an extra 2 perfect guards into your hand!

This is another route to use, this time using Sylvia to call the necessary plant token for boosting Maiden of Gladiolus, with Maiden of Gladiolus calling out another Maiden of Breedrain, ending the turn drawing 2 cards.

As you can see, the most common route the deck likes to take with Katrina is to use plant tokens to attack first, then call out maiden of gladiolus to get another 3 more attacks in, totaling 6 attacks while maintaining hand.

As you will not be using hand to deploy a field, instead using Katrina to call out plants to attack then using those to call a new field, this deck can easily garner a lot of hand advantage, while keeping a good balance of offence, defence, early game and late game.

Conclusion:

This is plant beat down, a simple, cheap to build, but shockingly powerful deck that, true to the NeoNectar style, hits like a truck every turn, requires no VR and very few older cards, with a lot of room for you to add in your own touches to the deck! If you are a fan of the neo nectar playstyle in standard, or have a neo nectar deck in standard, be sure to pick up the necessary cards to change it to this build!

I hope you enjoyed learning about this new deck, and certainly hope you give it a try at your locals or at the next BCS!