Delete-End! An Analysis of Deletors Pre-G Comic 1.

"You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

Deletor are my favourite Link Joker deck, Rather then focus the majority of their skills on your rearguard, Deletors seek to exterminate the main threat itself: the Vanguard. They reduce their opponents vanguard power to 0 power until the end of their opponent's turn and remove any abilities on the vanguard, meaning that the Deletor player's offensive is greater while their opponents offensive is hindered significantly. 

Sounds like an amazing deck, doesn't it? Unfortunately not. Deletors are plagued with so many issues, they are actually the weakest of all Link Joker archetypes,

First and foremost, Delete's defensive aspect is completely neutered by Stride. This is a HUGE issue in a meta where every clan has access to Non-vanilla strides, there are many decks that just focus on striding anyway and offense is extremely powerful.

Secondly, All cards that Delete the opponents vanguard require you to lose advantage to active. This lowers any advantage gained by Delete, and outright makes you lose advantage to stride.

Thirdly, the decks Advantage engine is nearly non-existent. We have a stand trigger that we can call, a G1 that when it hit and the opponent's vanguard is deleted, you can SB1 to draw 1, and a Luck Bird Clone. In a deck where the you require to lose advantage, and rarely gain soft advantage thanks to stride, this is not enough.

Now I've explained these, lets have a look at some of the cards in the Deletor's arsenal.

Daunting Deletor Oksizz

"I am the vanguard of your destruction"

[Act] [VC] [CB3] Cards with "Deletor" in it's card name] & choose one of your rearguards, and put it into your soul.] Delete all your opponent's vanguards, and this unit gets [power] +10000 until end of turn.]
[Auto] [VC] At the beginning of your opponent's ride phase, if your opponent has a deleted vanguard, your opponent may choose a card from his or her hand and discard it. If he or she does not, your opponent cannot normal ride during the ride phase.

Oksizz is a decent card: He punishes your opponent for grade locking themselves, he gains power and he makes riding more expensive for your opponent if their vanguard is deleted. Everything that you could want from a G3! His only problem is that his ability isn't expensive, it isn't even ridiculously expensive, it's ludicrously expensive! It doesn't help that Deletors don't have a way to counter charge other then Igor or Jail either. So yeah. He's great when you use his ability, but don't expect for a competent opponent to allow you to use it anytime soon.

Juxtapose Deletor, Zaele

"Before us, you are nothing."

[Act] [VC] [Legion: "Juxtapose Deletor, Gaele"]

[Auto] [VC] [CB2] & Choose a card from you hand, and discard it] When this unit [Legion] you may pay the cost, If you do, Delete all your opponent's vanguard.

[Auto] [VC] When this unit attacks a vanguard, this unit gains [Power] +2000 until end of that battle.

Zaele is quite a bit cheaper then Oksizz. At CB2 and discard a card you can delete your opponent's vanguard... Once. Before you have to ride Zaele again and Legion again. This is great for a finisher, but rather costly to delete several times.

Juxtapose Deletor, Gaele.

Pursuing Deletor, Egotte & Breaking Deletor,Gatario

[Auto] [RC] When this unit attacks, if you have a vanguard with "Deletor" in it's card name, this unit gains [power] +3000 until end of that battle,

Generic sub-clan attackers? What's so special about these? Well. These units can use the fact that your opponent is at 0k power to their advantage, as they create 15k shield to guard columns on their own while your opponent's vanguard is deleted. This allows you to sustain your assault a lot easier while hitting your opponent's hand very hard.

As you can imagine, a deck that doesn't create hard advantage and removes advantage from you constant wants to make very rearguard useful, and these fit the bill perfectly. Being able to attack and your opponent either takes the hit or guards with 2 cards every time is incredibly damaging to your opponent's hand.

These units are just great in any deck, and they are even better in Deletors.

Deriding Deletor, Aieda

[Auto] [RC] [SB1] When attack hits a vanguard that this unit boosted [Boost], if your opponent's vanguard is deleted, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

One of the few cards that can give Deletors some advantage, Aieda is quite good. He pressures your opponent to guard the attacker he is boosting when their vanguard is deleted. This is problematic for your opponent as it is very easy for deletors to make magic columns. 

He also removes soul when he hits, putting more cards into the dropzone for legion.

Cramping Deletor, Edy,

[Auto] When this unit is placed on [RC] if  you have a vanguard with "Deletor" in it's card name, and your opponent's vanguard is deleted, draw a card.

A stand trigger for Deletors with a skill. Edy can actually be very useful for forming Magic numbers when your opponent's vanguard is deleted, either being boosted or boosting a 7k, the attack reaches 11k, forcing a 15k shield, and when used in condunction with Egotte, you can create a 16k columns which forces a 20k shield guard.

You also can gain advantage by calling this unit, something that Deletors need tremendously.

In turns where your opponent's vanguard is not deleted however. Edy becomes a liability, his 4k base makes him almost useless as a booster.

Acquire Deletor, Igor.

[Auto]: Forerunner

[Auto] [Put this card in your soul] When your opponent's vanguard is deleted, you may pay the cost. If you do, Draw a card and [CC1].

Deletors premier starting vanguard, when you delete, Igor filters your deck and counter charges. Simple, but very valuable in Deletors.

Decklist from Siulzen :

Grade 0

SV: Aquire Deletor, Igor

2 Aquire Deletor, Igor

4 Deletor Heals

8 Deletor Criticals

4 Cramping Deletor, Edy.

Grade 1

4 Refusing Deletor, Evil

3 Deriding Deletor, Aieda

2 Idolizing Deletor, Gunec

4 Breaking Deletor, Gatario

Grade 2

4 Juxtapose Deletor, Gaele

4 Pursuing Deletor, Egotte

3 Greedy Deletor, Jail.

Grade 3

4 Daunting Deletor Oksizz

3 Juxtapose Deletor, Zaele.

G-Zone

4 Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch Dragon.

2 Genesis Dragon, Amnesty Messiah

1 Geneis Dragon, Judgement Messiah

1 Rain Element, Madew.

[Auto] When this unit is placed on [RC], if your opponent's vanguard is deleted, choose one of your opponent's rearguards in the front row, and lock it.

Deletor's defensive grade 2, Gaele is pretty simple: Lock a rearguard when opponent's vanguard is deleted. The only problem is that you cannot delete all the time, so there are times where Gaele is a dead draw.

I can't really blame Gaele for this, as when delete becomes cheaper, Gaele will start pulling his weight a lot more, not that he doesn't pull his weight right now.