A.V.D.: Chaos Breaker Dragon

Advanced Vanguard Discussion: Chaos Breaker Dragon

With the release of the Link Joker clan in BT12 Binding Force of the Black Rings together with TD11 Star-Vader Invasion, and the innovation of the Reverse units (both of which fully utilize the new "Lock" mechanic), a new age of gameplay has come to rise for the meta. With clans getting further support of reverse units, the meta has come to define itself as a crossride type of meta, most of which are the reverse units which utilize the lock ability. BT13 Catastrophic Outbreak further expanded the number of these Reverse units available to the game and along with it was the beast incarnate who has come to be  known as Chaos breaker Dragon.

A grade 3 unit, Star-vader Chaos Breaker Dragon was a unit designed as field-control card and is commonly referred to as a "boss card" of the clan (game-ender card). It's a solid 11k Vanguard which is capable of reaching 16k-21k attack power in its own attacks and with it is a limit break ability which was designed to obliterate and counter the ever-growing number of players utilizing the lock mechanic with their reverse units. Lastly, it has the "Lord" ability which restricts it from being splashed into other clans.

Its first ability is an [ACT] Activate ability which locks any rear guard of the opponent for the cost of 1 counterblast and by discarding 1 "Star-vader" card from the hand. This ability isn't really that much of a surprise, considering the 'lock' ability as being the main gameplay tactic of Link Joker. In contrast to the primal Link Joker boss card though, Nebula Lord, it is in a way reasonable as to why this unit's skill costs more (with the addition of an extra cost of discarding a card from the hand, albeit minus the second counterblast) for its skill because it is more flexible in nature and is more "open" compared to Nebula Lord's which locks only one back row rear guard of the opponent, for the cost of two (2) counterblasts. Chaos Breaker's skill allows the player to freely and carefully select a unit which is more optimal for him/her to lock. And with the aid of the clan's breakride, Infinite Zero, during the turn that you would ride Chaos Breaker Dragon over it, you're already guaranteed to have locked two of the opponent's rear-guard units. But what really separates this card from Nebula Lord as a boss card for the Link Joker clan is its Limit Break. 

Its Limit Break is the skill which it is more known for, for this limit break skill completely destroys the locked unit/s of the opponent by retiring them. Whenever an opponent's unit is unlocked, for the cost of one (1) soul blast, Chaos Breaker retires that/those unit/s which were unlocked AND for each unit that was retired by this skill, the player which controls Chaos Breaker gets to draw a card. For the cost of one (1) soul-blast, a cost so irrelevant, Chaos Breaker's controller is allowed to retire the opponent's unit(s) AND get free card(s) from it. This skill is very potent for unlike the infamous Kagero clan (notable for their retiring skills), it first locks the unit, thus having the locked unit take-up a rear-guard space (rendering 1 rear guard either useless or irrelevant) and then afterwards, retire it and get rid of it permanently, taking it out of the field for game advantage.

Overall, Chaos Breaker is a very potent unit capable of stopping the more notable clans in the meta while getting so much pluses from doing so. The only problem with this though is that this Limit Break is only efficient during the turn that you breakride it, giving you the opportunity to retire 2-3 units and draw cards from this skill in the succeeding turn. Locking 1 and drawing 1 card from its skill isn't as efficient compared to if you locked 3-4 units and for the same cost, you get more. Still, a card that was made specifically created to counter decks which benefited from the lock mechanic is one hell of a card.