In conjunction with my previous article on the Spike Brothers Stand Trigger, I decided to extend my coverage to all the new support cards being released for Spike Brothers in EB03. They get some really nice cards, including 7k boosters which they severely lacked. Their new boss card in Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor will definitely boost them in competitiveness as it starts to overtake Dudley Dan. Without further ado, here we go.
Grade 0's
Dark Bringer, Chisho
AUTO: When a 《Spike Brothers》 rides on this unit, you may call this card to a rear-guard circle.
AUTO 【R】: [Put this unit into your soul] When this unit's attack hits, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to 1 《Spike Brothers》 from your hand and call it to a rear-guard circle.
God-awful card. If we read closely, its not the unit that it boosts hits, its Dark Bringer, Chisho itself that has to hit. Atrocity that should have never been made. It will never outrank Mecha Trainer. Kill it with fire.
Grade 1's
Medical Manager
AUTO: When this unit is called to a vanguard or rear-guard circle and you have a 《Spike Brothers》 vanguard, you may soul charge(1).
An okay card. 7k booster sure, but we get two more in this set that in my opinion outrank this card in usefulness. Generally the balance between our soulblasting needs and soulcharging is well-kept, but splashing a couple copies of this card may give you more breathing room in terms of soulblasting.
UPDATE: After further testing this card has been preferred over Dudley Daisy. It's soulcharge gives you much needed wiggle room in terms of soulblasting, especially with now 4 cards that can soulblast. Using a Zachary would generally mess up your soul balance, but this card fixes that easily.
UPDATE: After further testing this card has been preferred over Dudley Daisy. It's soulcharge gives you much needed wiggle room in terms of soulblasting, especially with now 4 cards that can soulblast. Using a Zachary would generally mess up your soul balance, but this card fixes that easily.
Reckless Express
[AUTO](RC): [Soul-Blast 1] When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power] +5000 until end of that battle, and at the beginning of the close step of that battle, return this unit to your deck, and shuffle your deck.
Sick card. Has an effect similar to Highspeed Brakki and Juggernaut Maximum, but can also reach 20k if boosted by Wonder Boy. Can be really useful in the early game and in pinch situations where a versatile Grade 1 is just what you need. I don't think it should be a RR in the set, but it's 7k power and solid skill will make it a definite mainstay in future Spike Brothers decks.
Dudley Daisy
AUTO: [Counterblast (1)] If this unit is placed on a rear-guard circle during battle phase and you have a 《Spike Brothers》 vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets Power +5000 during this turn.
This and Dudley Douglas I think are two of the most underrated cards in this set. True, you can only Counterblast 1 to gain that extra 5k when you superior call her during the Battle Phase, but that's when Demonic Lord, Emperor Dudley calls units. Calling this behind a 9k rearguard and Counterblasting 1 allows the column to swing for 21k, which can work in a pinch when you were forced to call boosters using Dudley Emperor (because you didn't have any) while still being able to hit for high, offensive numbers. The downside is that it can't really be "splashed in" as to use her effect, she must be called from the deck - meaning you would need to run as many as possible in case of drawing/damage checking her. But in reality, that's not so bad as her 7k power still makes her a really good booster.
Update: After further testing I have concluded that the times that you are forced to call boosters with Dudley Emperor are few and far in between. For this reason, I have taken out all copies from my test deck on BYOND and have replaced her with Medical Managers.
Update: After further testing I have concluded that the times that you are forced to call boosters with Dudley Emperor are few and far in between. For this reason, I have taken out all copies from my test deck on BYOND and have replaced her with Medical Managers.
Grade 2's (PLEASE READ GRADE 2 UPDATE BELOW)
Dudley Douglas
AUTO: [Counterblast(1)] If this unit is placed onto a rear-guard circle during battle phase and you have a 《Spike Brothers》 vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets Power +5000 during this turn.
Similar to Dudley Daisy, this card gains +5k by Counterblasting 1 when called out in the battle phase, which would be through Dudley Emperor. This in front of any 7k booster and using it's skill allows to hit for 21k - meaning it can hit for high amounts while being able to keep field presence and being able to intercept with it next turn.
Field Driller
AUTO 【V/R】： When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, if you have at least 4 other 《Spike Brothers》 rear-guards, draw a card.
Read update below.
Brave General, Zachary
AUTO 【R】: [Soulblast (1)] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard and you have a 《Spike Brothers》 vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card, and at the start of this battle's close step, return this unit to your deck and shuffle it.
Decent card. Although it does have an "on-hit" effect, it doesn't have a shitty power base. It's effect itself is nifty if you do get it off - a "break even" which also frees up space for other units to be called using Dudley Emperor's ability. I would probably not run more than 3; personally in my deck it's mostly a filler Grade 2 that is more versatile than a 10k vanilla. It's art is also pretty awesome.
UPDATE: After some more testing I've concluded that Douglas, while still a decent card could be left out, it's reason being that not only is it a vanilla once outside the deck, but it's counterblast messes up your ability to use Emperor twice unless you heal. Fierce General Zachary has been testing better, especially in the early game. I've figured that the deck can really benefit from an aggressive early (before they ride to Grade 3) due to our slow mid game before we get to 4 damage to use Emperor's limit break. The top Spike decks that have just been revealed last week or so baffled me at first. They ran no Douglas, and ran Field Driller. It didn't make sense to me until I realized that in order to make up for the slow mid game, Spikes had to go aggro in the early game. That's why cards such as Zachary and Field Driller were used. Field Driller although they may be low power, thanks to Mecha Trainer it's easy to get good boosters for these cards to hit good numbers, especially against Grade 1 and Grade 2 opposing Vanguards. These cards force your opponent to either guard, or you gain an advantage, either drawing straight up with Field Driller, or drawing and freeing up a spot in front with Zachary's tagging out effect. In short, Douglas meh, everything else good.
UPDATE: After some more testing I've concluded that Douglas, while still a decent card could be left out, it's reason being that not only is it a vanilla once outside the deck, but it's counterblast messes up your ability to use Emperor twice unless you heal. Fierce General Zachary has been testing better, especially in the early game. I've figured that the deck can really benefit from an aggressive early (before they ride to Grade 3) due to our slow mid game before we get to 4 damage to use Emperor's limit break. The top Spike decks that have just been revealed last week or so baffled me at first. They ran no Douglas, and ran Field Driller. It didn't make sense to me until I realized that in order to make up for the slow mid game, Spikes had to go aggro in the early game. That's why cards such as Zachary and Field Driller were used. Field Driller although they may be low power, thanks to Mecha Trainer it's easy to get good boosters for these cards to hit good numbers, especially against Grade 1 and Grade 2 opposing Vanguards. These cards force your opponent to either guard, or you gain an advantage, either drawing straight up with Field Driller, or drawing and freeing up a spot in front with Zachary's tagging out effect. In short, Douglas meh, everything else good.
Grade 3's
Jelly Beans
ACT 【hand】: (Show this card to your opponent, place it at the bottom of your deck) If you have a 《Spike Brothers》 vanguard, search your deck for up to one 《Spike Brothers》 unit with 「Dudley」 in its name which is grade 2 or below, show it to your opponent and add it to your hand, shuffle your deck.
Sounds decent at first, but the only card that you actually want to search to get to your hand is Dudley Dan, but that's overtaken by Demonic Lord, Emperor Dudley in this set. It can help with consistency, as it's able to search for Dudley Daisy/Douglas so you don't miss a ride. However it's usefulness outside of that aspect coupled with the already cramped Grade 3 line-up makes it not worth the deck space in future top decks.
Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor
Auto 【V】: Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage): [Counter Blast (2), choose two 《Spike Brothers》 from your hand, and move it to Soul] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, search for up to two 《Spike Brothers》 from your deck and call them to separate open R, then shuffle your deck.
Auto 【V】: When this unit is boosted by a《Spike Brothers》, this unit gets POWER +3000 for that battle.
Our prayers have been answered. Finally, the big, bad Limit Break boss for Spike Brothers. It's ability outranks Dudley Dan completely, allowing us to superior call two units from our deck. With an ideal field, two Juggernauts can attack with their soulblast ability, tag out and be recalled out with this card - allowing us to attack a total of 5 times in one turn. Not only that, but with Dudley Emperor's second ability, with an 8k booster can hit fro 21k, an awesome number to hit with a Vanguard. With this card's arrival comes General Seifried's departure as you will want to ride this every time. It's 10k power may make it a little harder to guard but it's all worth it as it allows Spike Brothers to hit harder and faster than ever.
Conclusion
EB03 treats Spike Brothers extremely well. With 7k boosters and a much faster and effective version of Dudley Dan, we can hit high numbers more often while not losing advantage too much. I can see Spike Brothers becoming a much more competitive deck, and hope to see more of them in the future.
HerO
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Great analysis on the potential of the more questionable spike brothers cards. When I ran spike bros my friend and I decided to splash 8ks from another clan because the grade 1 pool was so shitty. The new 7k grade 1s and dudley emperor means I'll never have to worry about a crappy booster in my offensive pool again.
ReplyDeleteAnd who says Dudley Daisy/Douglas are bad? Spike brothers finally get something to use with their counterblast other than dudley dan and for CB4 you're churning out 10k more power on your fresh attackers right from your deck, combined with the juggernaut/brakki this gives spike bros a barrel full of insanely high power threats. They may only have a limited time as these threats, but that sort of all or nothing style is what spike bros are about!
What's your opinion on the grade 2 line-up? Is the utility of zachary outweigh the potential loss of not having enough power against MLB/DOTE that Treasured Black panther can more easily attain? TBP might be a cornerstone in providing some consistency that the turbulent board state of Spike brothers can lack when flying through juggernauts, but the looming value of slipping in a draw and an open rearguard slot makes for decent pressure of its own.
In my opinion Dudley Daisy and Douglas are hard to maintain because of the fact your counter blast will be needed for emperors effect, although the ideal plan is to use it twice it might not actually always happen. However, i think that dudley dan is still useful for a one turn setup since it breaks even and sets you up for emperors next turn.
DeleteSince Emperor's ability is a limit break if you reach lv 3 before 4 damage he becomes almost useless aside from the ability to gain +3k, granted it is a balancing issue with emperor if his ability was NOT a limit break but at 3 damage you can tutor dudley dan with mecha trainer and then use dudley dan to set up for next turn.
With either using mecha trainer once , or dudley emperor or dans effect twice i dont think that there will be enough counter blast to spare for douglas and daisy, since this is a rush down deck it shouldn't waste a single turn waiting on emperors condition to trigger
-Chan
Now that you mention it, I'm a little worried about the value of the CB with douglas...sure it's nice to have, but as long as I can supply the soul (a medical manager or two might be in order but w/e) brakki is a much better choice. Daisy is still nice as it's not like there's a short order on 7k boosters. I'll be willing to try dudley dan because I've had quite a few games where I'm sitting at around 3 damage, which was one aspect I sorely neglected in consideration because I have not played any deck with limit break myself. Again my inexperience is talking, so I suppose I will test a lower number of douglas than I originally intended, but I see no reason not to run 3-4 daisy at all times.
ReplyDeleteDo you think devil summoner is still worth keeping around? 7k is god awful in a deck where every attack needs to punch in, and the advantage is practically a 50/50 since there's so little deck control compared to WS. I personally won't be running him but I'd love to hear your opinion.
No, ew Devil Summoner >:O I'm not even running any right now never mind when EB03 comes out. In terms of Zachary vs. Treasured Black Panther I plan to play the deck in the English format, so I don't have to worry about that. In terms of Brakki vs. Douglas, it highly depends on the situation. Do you think you're not going to win this turn? Then call a Douglas to be able to intercept and survive the next turn, but you're right - usually the Brakki/Juggernaut is the better choice. You just have to read the situation.
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