A.V.D.: Clash of the Paladins - Shadow against Gold

Advanced Vanguard Discussion: Clash of the Paladins - Shadow against Gold

In the land of cray, there existed a clan of noble and loyal knights called the Royal Paladins

They swore to protect their land with honor and fortitude and to lead all  the

other clans of Cray to progress. However, a number of these paladins deliberately committed treason and denied "the will of the blade" and sought power for their own. Exiled, they came to be known 

as the Shadow Paladins who embodied supreme prowess and avarice. This conflict escalated

to a full-scale war which eventually came to a compromise and gave birth to the all new

 Gold Paladins.

Among the three aforementioned clans (Royal, Gold, and Shadow), Royal Paladins proved to have been the best clan among the three. However,last November 2012, Bushiroad hit Majesty Lord Blaster (MLB,the best card of the clan) on their official ban list semi-limiting MLB to only two (2) copies per deck. This devastated the status of the clan in the professional scene in the meta which eventually lead to its demise. The throne was then open for the two left paladin decks for them to seize it and prove who reigned supreme and more dominant against the other. Either of which, both proved to be of equal rivals to the other as both decks are very much played by the majority.

Both clans are very offensive in nature bringing with them more than four critical triggers in their trigger line-up - albeit Gold paladins were more aggressive with their twelve (12) criticals in contrast to the Shadow paladins' standard eight criticals. This was due to the insufficiency of support cards printed for the Shadow Paladins, despite the fact that they have their crossride support whereas Golds didn't (yet Golds had more support than they could ever need of). This caused shadow paladins to become more passive in their pace,focusing to succeed in their crossride and focus their power in their center baseline or on their vanguard unit. Gold paladins though didn't play like this. Usually, Gold paladins would spam 3-4 units on the field during turn 2 or 3 of the game and just abuse their resources to an all-out assault.

This kind of play-style might have instigated player Brandon Smith to pick this as his choice of weapon to play in the World Championships - and he was very right about it. During the finals match of last year's World Championships, both players played gold paladins. The two players onlydiffered in the build that they were using. Smith used Spectral Duke Dragon (SDD) while Suharto used the Pellinore build. Smith won and further established the authority of Gold paladins as the more dominant paladin clan. 

Despite the fact that Gold paladins won last year's World championships, one can never take away the bulk and power that the crossride of Shadow paladins brings: Phantom Blaster Overlord with its gigantic attack of 13,000. This massive attack power provided a stalling mechanism to the pace of Shadow Paladins. This was the asset that Shadows had and Golds lacked. Unfortunately, this "was" the case until set 9 came and gave Gold paladins their very own crossride unit.This fully engraved the place of Gold paladins as the "dominant paladin clan" of the meta and has proved its superiority over the Shadow Paladins.

-KamiPrince39-

A.V.D.: Blaster Spirits

Advanced Vanguard Discussion: Blaster Spirits

Photo owned by James Gabriel Garrido. Photo not to be used or be posted elsewhere without the consent of the owner.

Blaster Blade Spirit and Blaster Dark Spirit are two very unique cards which were introduced in set 9 (BT09 - Clash of Knights and Dragons). They both are in the same clan as their original versions and both have 10k in power.Blaster Blade Spirit is a Royal Paladin unit while Blaster Dark Spirit is a Shadow Paladin unit. And just as they were once grade 2 units, they still are in this version of theirs.

The skills of both Blasters are very similar in nature, differing only in the target that their skill are allowed to be applied. Their first skill is an [AUTO] skill which activates when either one of them is called to the Rear guard from the deck (or Superior called) and for the cost of ONLY one (1) counter blast, you get to retire an opponent's front row rear guard. Blade destroys a grade 2 or higher rear guard while Dark obliterates grade 2 or lower front row rear guard units. These two are best brought in a deck which revolves more on superior calling from the deck such as that of Pellinore builds. But what makes them really tough is that both of them have a huge base attack power of 10,000. This base power surpasses the 9k regularity of most grade 2 rear guards thus they are nerfed by their second skill. Whenever either one of them is attacked, then the blaster automatically dies despite if you guarded it.

What's more peculiar to this two is their third skill. A [CONT] Continuous skill which haves them two (2) treated as Gold Paladin cards. This is the very reason that these two are mixed in Gold paladin decks because they are 10k and they a skills which are more or less very strong and potent. But back to their "destroy-this-automatically-when-attacked" skill, it isn't really that big of a deal. Anyway, it could've been used to only intercept and losing it was already prepared for. Its their 10k base that makes them really big and painful.

Unfortunately though, only the Gold paladins have this kind of mini-support from other clans (Royals and Shadows). Other clans have no units such as these. It would've been better to see more of these kind of units. It is a unique perk that Bushiroad thought of, but only for Gold Paladins.

-kamiprince39-