Hello to all our readers, it's Derick from WCC! In light of Murakumo's new stride Ambush Demon Stealth Beast, Nue Daioh, the clan seems quite promising for the meta game ahead.





With the recent reveals of cards from the Premium Collection for 2020, Bushiroad seem to be pushing for Standard decks to be viable with little to no changes when transitioning to Premium. So we will take this opportunity to help Standard players transition their Standard deck into a Premium deck. In doing so, we are applying some rules:





Only 8 non-V cards can be added to the main deck Cards that are released in any Premium Collections do not apply to the restriction above (critical triggers) The 1st restriction does not apply to the G-Zone





The intent for this is that for a new player, they can easily pick up their Standard deck and immediately jump into Premium. When the Bushiroad Championship Series rolls around, Standard players can also play on the Premium day, still grab all the freebies that are going around and experience a great day with the rest of the players. For the players who start to dwell more into Premium, we have an extra section at the end discussing improvements to the deck so they can have a nice guide on what steps to take next.





There is a misconception that Premium is too difficult and that it is too tough to catch up to a veteran Premium player. This does not need to be the case, and hopefully we can help you discover the fun that is the Premium format!





With that said, our first clan we will be featuring is Murakumo! The clan has always been a powerhouse in the Standard format. In light of Murakumo's new stride Ambush Demon Stealth Beast, Nue Daioh, the clan seems quite promising for the Premium format following its prior dominance in the Standard format. This article will feature how you can adjust your Standard Murakumo deck to be Premium viable come the next season.

Deck build

In regards to the deck build for Murakumo, we want to maximise the use of Standard cards while also incorporating a few Premium cards to make the deck flow better.





Below is a sample deck list for transitioning the deck from your HYU-GA based Standard deck to a Premium viable Standard+ deck.





Deck Discussion

Going through this deck, we will talk about each card's contribution to the deck's play style as well as to what it needs to achieve.













The most important card in this deck is Samurai Chieftain, HYU-GA. The role this card plays allows to change all the names of your rear-guards to his name which allows you to superior stride into Ambush Demonic Stealth Beast, Nue Daioh. By changing the name all to HYU-GA's name allows for more than just superior striding but also for the access to a minimum of seven attacks where each rear-guard will attack twice as per Nue Daioh's second skill.









Due to the importance of HYU-GA being our main Vanguard target, we need ways to consistently get him into our hand. Stealth Dragon, Oboro Keeper is a card that helps with obtaining him. This Grade 2 allows for us to obtain a copy of any Grade 3 by putting two copies of itself to the bottom of the deck at the end of turn. Not only does this give us easy access to HYU-GA, it also allows us to farm for cards such as Fantasy Petal Storm, Shirayuki for defense without needing to rely on Stealth Fiend, Jakotsu Girl to have a chance of missing in an attempt to add one of her into hand. That way, you are able to fuel for any play you want coming into the Grade 3 turn without needing to hard draw Grade 3's into your hand.













With Murakumo's natural expenditure of soul in both the Standard and the Premium format, to replenish the soul usage, we are playing the Shirayuki engine with Jakotsu Girl and Stealth Fiend, Rainy Madam. Due to Shirayuki's limitation only applying in the Standard format, Premium has access to all four copies of her which makes the Shirayuki-Jakotsu-Rainy Madam engine consistent and viable. Not only does it provide you resources for cards such as Nue Daioh and Shirayuki, it also has a slight chance to grant you HYU-GA's board wiping ability on Grade 3 turn to get rid of cards such as Light Elemental, Honoly that would hinder you from maximising offense when superior striding. The Shirayuki engine also produces soul for Stealth Rogue of Indignation, Meomaru which can be searched out by HYU-GA on Turn 3 to provide big columns which cannot be stopped by one defensive trigger along with your guard restricting superior stride. By having access to Meomaru while your opponent is on Grade 3 makes it so you push your opponent to high enough damage that they need to commit cards to guard as well as have enough cards to play for their next turn. Taking into consideration the number of cards being spent on 7 attacks and their following turn, it is very unlikely that they will have enough to guard 7 or more attacks on your second stride turn while taking into account Nue Daioh's 5-card guard restrict.













Lastly, one of the key cards in this deck is Stealth Dragon, Hiden Scroll. This card plays many roles in this deck such as providing free units to attack with or gain resource in hand to guard your opponent's next turn. Hiden Scroll can clone Stealth Fiend, One-Eyed Nyudo to draw at the end of turn while filtering out Grade 3's from the deck. Likewise, you can also clone the Premium Collection 2019 critical trigger, Stealth Beast, Scratch Cat which not only provides you with a draw but applies +10000 POWER to your Vanguard which makes it harder for your opponent to guard on top of the 5-card guard restriction that has been placed for your opponent to deal with. Note that Hiden Scroll generates 2 copies of a card which means that you can target cards such as Rainy Madam to clone so that if an attack doesn't hit, you can salvage a Shirayuki from drop zone while also having cards to use for boosting. You can also clone Oboro Keeper which at the end of turn will secure you a Grade 3 which can either be an Ultimate Stride fodder or merely, another Grade 3 to ride to generate another Accel circle.









This is the one stride that has made Standard+ Murakumo very viable. Let's take a look at its effect courtesy of Cardfight Wiki:

[Stride]-Stride Step-COST[ 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](G zone):If you have five or more units with the same card name each, and your vanguard is grade 3,COST[ Soul Blast (1) ],Stride this card on your (VC) from face down, and during the battle this unit attacked this turn, your opponent can only call cards from hand to (GC), and must call five or more cards at the same time.

[AUTO](VC):When it attacks,COST[ turn a card from your G zone face up ], and [Stand] all of your rear-guards with the same card name as one of your rear-guards.





With the release of Premium Collection 2020, Ambush Demon Stealth Beast, Nue Daioh will be available to synergize with the main deck that is being transitioned from Standard to Premium. This card is very similar to a well-known Gold Paladin stride called Golden Dragon, Spear-X Dragon which also superior strides. The difference is that Nue Daioh has no discard cost and has an insane 5-card guard restriction on the Vanguard attack. Not only does it make it an absolute nightmare for the opponent to plan how to guard your offensive turn, this stride adds in six rear guard attacks on top of that. This stride may very well be meta-defining at this stage of the Premium Collection reveals but not to say that this card is the worst of them, not at all. The Standard deck naturally synergises with this card which may be Bushiroad's intention for this exquisite set built for Premium, which allows for Standard players to transition into Premium without needing to worry about the exotic effects from other clans in the game.









To sum up the construction of the deck, the main deck only consists of 8 cards that are not available in the Standard format (outside of Premium Collection cards), Stealth Dragon, Oboro Keeper and Stealth Dragon, Hiden Scroll. Oboro Keeper and Hiden Scroll are both accessible at rare or common card costs which makes them very easy to get your hands on. Stealth Beast, Scratch Cat is available in a set which is still around as the game is progressing now from Premium Collection 2019. As more of the Premium Collection 2020 set is revealed, additional critical triggers are available to modify this deck in place of some of the triggers currently in this deck. In all honesty, out of the G-Zone, Nue Daioh is your main stride that you would want to get your hands on as well as Ambush Demon Stealth Dragon, Shibarakku Victor which compliments Nue Daioh's multi-attacking feature, allowing for more than seven attacks on your turn. Both cards are easily accessible from the two Premium Collections. The other strides are flex spots which can be altered to your liking.





Meta game

From first sight and on paper, Murakumo seems like a clan which was completely irrelevant in the previous meta with a dominance of Gold Paladin, Neo Nectar and Dark Irregulars, with Nue Daioh, Murakumo's light in the meta game may have shot them as high as these dominant clans. With the execution of Gold Paladin, the meta game as of the moment is based heavily on Neo Nectar and Dark Irregulars. Murakumo is quite similar to Gold Paladin in that it can superior stride, push for damage early as well as generate cards to guard in hand. In retrospective to other decks in the Premium meta at the moment such as Bermuda Triangle, Kagero and Shadow Paladin, Murakumo's access to its own superior stride is inevitable as these decks are aggressive and aren't afraid to give one singular damage at any point in the game. Hence, obtaining the superior stride on your Grade 3 turn is 99% achievable. The one counter blast cost for HYU-GA will open up Murakumo's toolbox and push your opponent to very high damage without worrying too much about repercussions in the following turn as the deck generates an above average scaling advantage for the user to guard through the opponent's turn.





In the current meta game for Premium and the meta game coming up, I would not count out Murakumo as it can freely steal games by launching seven or more attacks and make your opponent a sitting duck depending on how their hand rolls out. I suspect a rise in Murakumo in the Premium format due to its easy transition from the standalone HYU-GA Shirayuki deck which was hit from the previous ban list and its minimal cards needed to make the deck Premium viable.

Improvements

Improvements to the deck would be as simple as incorporating the infinite loop into the frame of the deck.









The deck already has Stealth Dragon, Hiden Scroll which one of the main pieces to the combo. Adding in Stealth Rogue of Concealment, Tanba, Stealth Beast, Metamorfox and Stealth Dragon, Dual Weapon will complete the puzzle.

Outside of the contribution to the loop, Tanba can become a big powered rear-guard which can be accumulated to hit over a defensive trigger. Metamorfox is a V-Series card which is easily obtainable can copy a card's name until the end of turn which in dire situations, if you don't have HYU-GA on the Vanguard, Metamorfox can compensate of the five unit requirement needed for Nue Daioh's superior stride. Dual Weapon on your kill turn can act as an additional attack which can be replaced with a unit that is the same name as one of your Grade 1's or Grade 3's on the field. Since all cards on your Nue Daioh turn is the name of your Vanguard (in most cases, HYU-GA), you can search your deck for HYU-GA to add in an additional attack if it doesn't hit, increasing the minimum attacks of your turn from seven to eight, and possibly more.





The nature of these cards compliment the Standard deck well and it also gives the deck an alternate win condition outside of Nue Daioh itself. Even though Nue Daioh itself is a very aggressive stride and potentially can kill your opponent by striding that, there may be situations where the infinite power infinite attacks loop is worthwhile to secure a 100% win.





To check how the loop works, follow the link below to our video on the Infinite-Attacks-Infinite-Power combo:





Summary

In summary, Murakumo and it's overall image in the Premium meta game has been quite stale until the recent reveal of its amazing stride, Ambush Demon Stealth Beast, Nue Daioh. With much anticipation, we should expect to see Murakumo rising in the Premium side of the game.





Following from this article, keep on a look out for many other articles about clans which can be transitioned from Standard to Premium as the Premium Collection 2020 seems to be very devoted to making Standard decks viable in the Premium side of things. Please continue to support us as we hope to release more content which will benefit the Cardfight!! Vanguard community around the world!





Written by Derick Dao

Edited by Kai Chung