Deck Analysis: Link Joker Messiah.

Link Jokers, for the majority of season 3, had little rivalry in how well it's mechanic disrupted all clans, despite being weak to retire. It could make any deck only be able to have an 11-14k vanguard attack every turn if your opponent didn't break ride, or maybe a 21-24k of they did. 

Then Season 4 came around, with the new "Legion" Mechanic, which made the both abilities faster to activate and vanguards hit harder Because of this, and h the small amount of pluses Link Joker could even get, Link Joker became less relevant, even with their legion support which made locking easier. Link Joker was at a crossroads: 

Unable to slow the opponent down further, but that still wasn't enough, The only solution was to speed up. The being of the results of this effort was Star-Vader, Venom Dancer.

 With it's ability to stand a rearguard for every locked rearguard after it attacked, It made Link Joker more aggressive while keeping your opponent locked. Of course, Venom Dancer was far from perfect: It couldn't plus and was easily disrupted by Lock and Retire. Today I am talking about Venom Dancer's successor: Messiah, and some notable cards for the deck.   

First lets talk about one of the most essential cards of the deck, and the boss monster of the deck, Alter Ego Messiah 

  

Alter Ego Messiah is simply put, Chaos Breaker 2.0. His Generation Break 2 Skill allows the user to plus whenever Alter Ego has no stride on top of him, and a card Unlocks for a soulblast, Whilst locking an opponents rearguard ,one of your own and powering up for a counterblast.Why would you want to lock one of your own rearguards? Messiah does something new with locks: It can literally unlock cards to fuel a weapon. The main one being our next card, Genesis Dragon, Amnesty Messiah.

I regret forgetting Amnesty, He would be on my top ten G-Units if I were to remake it. Amnesty Messiah may seem a MUCH worse (and much more situation) Saint-Blow at first, but he is actually an incredibly powerful and versatile weapon for Messiah. First off, It makes fighting all other Link Joker decks a breeze, after all what's the point of locking a deck that can unlock itself in an instant. Secondly, It can be used as a first stride version of Saint-Blow, if you have strode over Alter Ego Messiah,  used his skill and have a Gravity Well Lady Battler on the field. This is one of quite a few combos with this card that you can do. It may cost 2 counterblasts to do that, but the cards later on makes that a little bit cheaper and worth the cost.


Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch dragon is a simple but effective card. Counterblast 1-Persona Flip, choose one of your opponents rearguard, lock all rearguards in that rearguard's column and then omega lock it. It gives Messiah the ability to eliminate a problem column from the game for two turns, and so this card can be used to shut down Destroyer and Laurel, two extremely powerful and fast cards, for two turns. That and your opponent not having a column will hurt them greatly.

Dark Metal Chameleon can make Alter Ego Messiah's Locks free. His skill is GB1 When he is unlocked, Counter Charge (Unflip a Damage, for those that didn't know), And since he also has resist, he cannot be retired by many units. This can backfire if your opponent uses Diablo, however, so be careful.

Awaking Messiah is a brilliant card. It allows the deck to behave more like Venom Dancer. His skill being GB1 When unlocked stand another of your own rearguard and give it 2k. With the ruling that Unlocked cards go to stand, that can make Awaking Messiah behave as a Pseudo Magnum Assault.

Gravity Well Lady Battler is another essential card. It skill is GB1 Lock another of your own RG this unit gains 4000 power. This allows Lady Battler to enable further combos in the deck using White Dwarf Lady Batter, Dark Metal Chameleon and Awaking Messiah.

White Dwarf Lady Battler is another Source of Unlocking in the deck. It's skill is GB1 when this unit boosts, you may unlock a card, if you do boosted unit gains 4000 power. A Generic 11k booster which can also enable combos is good in every deck.

Lightspeed Cheetah is probably one of the best Especial Interceptors in the game. To become a 15k Intercept, You lock another of your rearguards that isn't being attacked. This is notable because it is one if not the only sources of self -locks that do not need Generation Break.

Neon Messiah is another interesting card. It is essentially a version of Gunner-Gear that you have to unlock to use. However, It is a good target to lock with Alter Ego if you have no other good rearguard to lock, or you have a Lightspeed Cheetah To use.

Running other cards that can lock independently of whether you are in Generation Break or not might be a good idea, a good options for this is Star-Vader Freeze-Ray Dragon, a card which locks whenever you take damage. and thus punishes  your opponent purposely grade locking themselves.In my opinion, one of Messiah's biggest assets is that it can quickly shift gears from being Control to being Aggro. It can even do both at the same time. And with Messiah's only bad match ups being against Retire based clans such as Kagero and Narukami, surviving in the meta shouldn't be a problem.

Top Ten G-Units.

G-Units, some of the most influential cards in the G-meta. For my first post on Surpassing the Storm, I thought I would share my thoughts on what I think are some of the best of these incredibly influential cards. But First, Some Honourable Mentions:
 Super Cosmic Hero, X-Tiger. This card is quite powerful. Unfortunately, It can only either be used after two or three strides or require rearguards to power it up.
Any of the On-Hit Paladin G-Units. All of these are exceptional cards, with the ability to fill the field back by just hitting the vanguard.
Holy Dragon, Soul Saver Dragon. This card is very good for the MLB deck, but can only give it 5k and a crit if you've satisfied certain situations.

And now, to my list.

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10: Six Realms Stealth Dragon, Joruririakan.

Just like real ninja's, Nubatama are almost invisible in the metagame, but just as deadly.

Despite not being a finisher, I find Jorurirakan to be a very effective card, and gave Nubatama exactly what they needed: A way to constantly remove several cards from your opponent's hand every turn turn. It can be used whenever you require it to. Your opponent rushed you early? Jorurirakan. Your opponent have just enough cards to guard this turn? Jorurirakan. Have a pesky Laurel that needs sniping? Jorurirakan. Making the final push? Joruririakan. It's a flexible card, and that's what makes it good. Unfortunately, it's far from perfect. It's CB cost conflicts a bit with Dreadmaster, which can be a problem if you need to keep them both online, because Nubatama has no counter-charging, I'm afraid.

9: True Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Turbo.

Just hope you never encounter this fellow in one of Cray's bars.

Big Bang Brawlers are arguably the best deck in Narukami, and they have always hated the opponent actually having a field, and Turbo is the pinnacle of what Brawlers do: Field Nuke. He also gives access to this slightly earlier in the game then legion. While this may sound massively overpowered, Turbo is not perfect, in fact he shares the same problems as his non stride variants. Those being that they doesn't have much pressure other then destroying the field, and that they actually requires the opponent to have a field to power up their rearguard. He is still an important piece in Narukami's strength, and a Field Nuke is nothing to scoff at. But Turbo's Best Friend, another stride, is who really puts him onto the map. We'll be talking about him later on in the article. This won't be the only card from Fighter's Collection 2015, I guarantee you that.

8: Holy Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon

Angst Dragon's older Brother

Saint Blow is one of Royal Paladin's best Finishers, being able to be splashed in any Royal Paladin Deck. With other very powerful and reliable cards like Jewel Knight Swordmy and Thing Saver Dragon at RP's disposal, Saint Blow can help RP to constantly force cards out of your opponent's hand throughout the entire game.

7: Death Star vader, "Omega Loop" Glendios.

Turns out, Glendios was pissed that star vaders tried replacing him with Dark Zodiac.

Omega Loop's ability on it's own sounds extremely niche. A card that is only really good when you have 5 damage, but it's exactly that ability that makes Omega Loop so potent. It essentially reads to your opponent "Put me to five damage and you lose!" and that's the beauty of such a card, it forces your opponent to play around it just by it existing in the G-Zone.

6: Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo"

Does this remind you of a Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich as well?

Despite me consistantly saying that Diablo is not the next coming of Vanguard Jesus, I DO think Diablo is a great card. It has almost the exact same ability as Saintblow, however, unlike Saintblow,whose main idea is to kill you that turn by whacking you over the head with a crit,  Diablo has a slightly different goal. While it definitely does what Saint Blow does, it's main purpose is to force the opponent to call cards to rearguard, just for Diablo to force you to destroy them. My main problems with Diablo is that he can only be used to slowly grind your opponent down, and is just a bit more effective as a finisher then Saintblow if your opponent has dedicated their rearguard (Which we've already established sane people will do when facing Shadow Paladins if their not playing Murakumo) and that having to sacrifice rearguard two or three times to kill your opponent also means you're also weakening yourself.

5: Interdimensioanl Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon

Man, Time Lords are scary!

One of the OG Finisher Strides, Rangaclock essentially carries Gear Chronicle on it's back. It's ability is simple, CB1 Persona your opponent cannot call G0 and if 2 or more gets a critical. P-Guard or Die is the summary of many cards in the G season, and this card is still one of the best. No restrictions, 1CB, P-Guard or Die.

4:Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon

Conquest used Thunderbolt on Thavas, It was super effective!

This card is the sole reason Narukami are a great deck in the metagame right now. For a long time, Narukami has had little capability to punish those who just don't call rearguards, and since Narukami kinda needed those, it held back the deck, but with this card that issue is no more! For just a persona flip you retire one of your opponent's front row rearguard, and your entire front row gains 5000 power for every open rearguard circle in the front row. This meant that decks like Big Bang Brawlers could finally find a way to beat your face in regardless of whether you have rearguards or not!

3: Carapace Strange Deity, Machining Destroyer.

♫You better watch how you talking, and where you walking

Or you and your homies might be lined in chalk♫

I wouldn't be surprised if Megacolony were the villain clan of the season, they seem perfectly fit for it. With the ability to make striding, this season's mechanic, either A) More costly or B) Absolutely pointless and their lore about Megacolony essentially being Cray's Mafia. Destroyer represents the absolute potential of Megacolony: The ability to shut down almost any deck in the game, Once you cannot ride, they've won. And because of Destroyer's homie, Stag Beetle, they can punish decks that purposely grade-lock themselves. Only problem, Megacolony don't have a stride enabler, and so Megacolony could be in a situation where they can't stride, In that case they become quite easy to fight.

2: Marine General of Heavenly Silk, Lambros:

Fun fact: Jaime Alcaraz, the user of this card in the Anime drives a Lambrosghini

Lambros is nothing without his friends, but with them? I think we'd all agree that trying to survive a king cobra bite might be the easier option, unless you're playing OTT or Great Nature, and even then you're not 100% guaranteed survival. Lambros is the centerpiece of Aqua Force's insanely powerful and aggressive combos, and because of this he is the undeniable king of combos. With such friends as Tidal Assault, Magnum Assault, Andrey, High Tide, Stacia, Orthia and more, Lambros can take an opponent who has a relatively large hand and is at a comfortable two damage, beat them to an pulp, and push them to the ropes. All in a single turn.The only option against this card is to do the same to him first, Unless your're Link Joker, where you can grab a can of coke, kick back, relax and laugh at them maniacally.

1: One who is Abhorrent, Gilles des Rais:

Surprised? Don't lie, I know you are!

This card is absolutely terrifying. It's the exact card Dark Irregular's needed to become meta again.  Being a Glory Stride already means big business, having 3 drive checks, and as a resulta higher likelihood of you taking a critical trigger or two straight to the face. Gaining 10k makes this even harder to 2 pass. And then, It gains a crit on top of that. It's the forsaken child of Glory Maelstrom and Saintblow, Except in Dark Irregulars, whose main traits are SOULCHARGING and absolutely huge columns... Messiah Help us all!  So basically, You put Doreen right behind this monstrosity you SOULCHARGE and your opponent dies.Think that's not Impossible to guard enough? Use Barmaid Grace! whose soul charges two and gives an Amon card Amon's skill for a counterblast and resting itself. This means that it can be used to both set up Gilles Des Rais, and power him up! The condition takes several turns to set up, however, so you do have a chance to slow Dark Irregulars down a bit or kill the opponent before they kills you. Gilles des Rais