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kisaragizan · 7 years

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“Dragon King’s Ritual” [Shadow Paladin]

Hey everyone, Kisaragi here to bring you all yet another deck profile! However, for the first time on this page (with the exception of Blue-Eyes), I’m bringing a non-Aqua Force profile - a Shadow Paladin one. I wasn’t going to do much of these ones since I figured I’d wait until they get supported (which would be soon), but I found myself playing the deck recently and was asked about it via a profile so: here we are. I’m going to do this profile a bit differently because I don’t have this deck in real life so I can’t really give alternatives for budget purposes but moreso as “preferences”. So without further ado, let’s take a look at Luard.

Before I begin, if I haven’t already done so: I’m going to mention that Shadow Paladin is my official secondary clan because a close friend of mine whom I look up to as a rival and a teacher mains Shadow Paladin. And during the time of my introductory to competitive Vanguard, I always talked and listened to him about the clan and his decks so the clan became secondary nature for me. I started actively playing Shadow Paladin more during Stride Era with Diablo and Raging Folm’s upgrades, with the former being my primary choice if I wanted to switch it up from Aqua Force. I didn’t take an interest of Luard until later when I saw how fun it was managing the resources, tool-boxing, and building advantage to which I started to like it enough to take it into competitive events which it did pretty well.

x4 Dragheart, Luard: The entire deck revolves around this unit - Dragheart, Luard. His main ability being Ritual 3, return two normal units from your drop to bottom of your deck and you can stride without paying the stride cost. His heartbeat is when you Stride, counterblast retire one rear-guard to call two grade 1 or lower units from deck to your field. He’s able to stride constantly without any issues, and he’s able to build up a field and provide units necessary for combos or to build resources. In some ways, he is the best Grade 3 not only in his clan, but in the entire game. He removes the caution of securing the ability to stride allowing players to play and guard more flexible than before. As per his namesake, Luard is the heart of this deck.

x2 Supremacy Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon Revolt: So to be perfectly honest, I’d much rather be playing Blaster Dark Diablo here like I did originally since he also has a similar “reduced cost of stride” concept going on. However, Claret Sword Dragon Revolt is searchable via his own stride fodder (which we do play but I’ll explain when it shows up) which is good for deck thinning and if you just wasn’t able to get Luard. His heartbeat looks at the top cards of the deck until 2 Grade 1s are revealed: one goes to hand and the other is called to field while the rest is shuffled to the deck. This is really just honestly a back up even though there is another preferred yet riskier back up of the deck.

x1 Sharp Fang Witch, Fodla: Fodla is the “true” back up/support Grade 3 of any Luard deck currently because she can call two grade 0s for one counterblast: some of which being key cards to plus off of. The reason I have her at one is because I do not wish to ride Fodla and would prefer to ride something a bit more safer if I couldn’t get to Luard, especially when she’s a 9k.

x4 Dragwizard, Morfessa: Morfessa is Luard’s best grade 2 with a Ritual 3 getting an extra 5k power when she attacks and an on hit to call a grade 1 card from the deck. Her other skill is when she’s in the drop zone, she’s treated as a Grade 1: allowing her to fulfill Luard’s Ritual costs.

x4 Dragwizard, Naoise: Naoise is the second best grade 2 in the deck for it’s ability to call grade 1 or lower units from the top five for free. Without a doubt, building field, getting units to retire to build resources. Naoise also gains power depending on the unit called, becoming a maximum 14k. At the end of the turn, the unit called does return to the deck if it’s still on the field.

x2 Knight of Brawn, Grosne: Grosne used to be played more in this deck being able to gain power for every grade 1 or lower called to your rear-guard. However, with the introduction of Naoise and having to remove my 10k Grade 2s, I lowered Grosne since he is very susceptible to control unless I place him down after using Luard’s heartbeat skill thus missing out on a free 6k.

x4 Abyssal Owl: Abyssal Owl’s is Luard’s trusted Owl that when placed from hand to rear, you can check the top seven cards and if you see Luard within those cards, you may add it and then discard cards equal to it’s grade to the drop zone. When Abyssal Owl is retired due to the cost or effect of Luard, you counter charge 1 (provided you have Ritual 3). Abyssal Owl is a grade 3 trade that you can afford to use since you’d be effectively building your drop zone and securing a Luard ride.The counter charge is also good because it makes your plays (which are typically counterblast one) free.

x4 Dragsaver, Esras: Esras another key unit of the deck being the default sentinel. On Ritual 3: you can choose another card named “Dragsaver, Esras” and return it to the bottom of the deck and retire one rear guard, to add her to your hand. It goes without saying that Esras is the best Perfect Guard in the game and would continue to set a trend for future clans to have recyclable sentinels (after fulfilling conditions) and even Perfect Guards with bonus drop zone effects. Being able to have infinite perfect guards makes Luard a very sturdy deck with it’s only answer is through a sentinel restricting unit.

x3 Black-winged Swordbreaker: When placed on rear-guard from the deck, you may soul blast one to draw a card. Originally, I didn’t play much of swordbreaker: 1-2 at best only preferred to call her if needed. However, there were times when she’d get placed in the damage zone or stuck in the soul: to which in later on the game I did actually need her. So I put her to three because it means while I won’t use all three, I can at least guarantee one being in the deck. Luard’s deck upon release was also very soul blast heavy (much like most decks nowadays) and even now meaning it’s best to use Swordbreaker if you need the extra hand and not to spam it just because you can.

x3 Cherishing Knight, Branwen: As I started in the Claret Sword Revolt section, Branwen is played here even if the Vanguard can stride for free because if you go second, you need to have another grade 3 since Luard’s skill happens at the beginning of the ride phase. So increasing your ability to pay the stride cost traditionally is good. Additionally, Branwen is a grade 1, so when you do stride with Branwen, it is adding to your Ritual condition being in the drop zone.

x2 Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod: Arianrhod is a very strange card to use in Luard or rather in Shadow Paladin in general since her skill is to drop and draw while resting herself. However, there are amazing benefits to having her. Opening up with her early in the game will allow you to dig into your deck for whatever it is you’re looking for while also building up your drop zone with either grade 1s or just dumping away useless cards. There have been times when just dropping an Esras with her to draw into another card, and now having two Esras’ in soul, I can retire her and add back my Esras and have one at the bottom of the deck. And after she’s served her purpose, you can retire her away for skills as demonstrated above. Though I mostly value her for being able to dig into my deck especially if I’m looking for a grade 3 or a combo piece or something that’ll allow me to search/grab either of those two, on top of deck thinning.

Difarbau: Difarbau is my starter of choice for Luard. If he’s retired for the cost or effect of a “Ritual card”, you can throw him into the soul to check the top card and either call it to rear or put it to the drop zone. There aren’t too many starters for Luard save for Dragprince Rute, David, and the Creeping Dark Goat. Rute I find useless only adding a 5k and soul charging himself for a counterblast when retired. David used to be my go to starter since my finishers were Diablo units who retired 2-3 and being able to relax your field is a good thing. Creeping Dark Goat can secure a grade 3 but the chance to whiff after paying a counterblast and giving up a unit is not very fun. Difarbau let’s me replace himself while also having him be soul charged and leaving the rest to luck: either getting a solid attacker, a grade 1 to be retired later - worst case being a heal or vanilla trigger to be retired for a skill.

x4 Belial Owl: When you use Luard’s heartbeat skill, this is the unit you will call out the most despite being a trigger. When Belial Owl is retired from rear-guard due to cost or effect of one of your cards, and if you have a Luard vanguard, you draw a card. This also triggers when retired for Esras, any stride stride, and Luard’s heartbeat. Belial’s second skill is on Ritual 3, if you have a Luard vanguard at the end of your turn, you may put Belial at the bottom of your deck. This card is your engine and the reason why Luard is able to generate so much advantage by constantly skill after skill. The more Owl’s you’re able to kill in a single turn the stronger your defenses will be and of course being able to cycle them back into the deck. Even if it were to get damage checked, you can heal it and then it’ll be back in your deck by the end of turn.

x4 Critical Trigger: The rest of Shadow Paladins’ critical triggers are vanilla (except for one but in a Luard deck, it can’t be used so it’s vanilla), so it really doesn’t matter which critical you use. Alternatively, there are some stand triggers that are recyclable in Cursed Eye Raven or Mage of the Rogue Eye, Arsur: which both are really good if you’re looking to have a recyclable deck but I personally prefer to keep it critical due to LJ and due to Belial being out of the deck more than in the deck, will keep my ability to deal extra damage at a moderate level.

x4 Howl Owl/Dragwizard, Babd: Either of these will do since they both have the same effect: throw into the soul to +3k. Luard has little to no advantage at the start of the game, thus making him super vulnerable. Not to mention, his soul building is non-existent without the starter or these draws. So these draws in particular do help the deck a lot.

x4 Witch of Heresy, Jeliddo: Jeliddo is the only heal trigger with an effect that’s somewhat beneficial to Luard - pitching a grade 1 or lower to draw a card when she’s used for the cost of her G-guardian. However, and spoiler alert: we don’t run her G-Guard so at this point, any heal trigger will do.

(Note: Some of the G-Units are not present here because I couldn’t fit them in the banner.)

x1 Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Doomed: To this day, I still call this card by it’s original named: Aurageyser Damned. This is your first stride in every game, unless you G-guard and are in range to kill. Counterblast 1 and choose a facedown copy of Aurageyser Dragon face up from the G-zone and then retiring three units. You reveal the top two cards of the deck and for each Grade 1 or less revealed, you may retire an opposing rear-guard and the cards revealed get added to hand.

x1 Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon: Aurageyser Dragon is here to fulfill the cost of Aurageyser Doomed. However, I wanted to use this section to explain why I prefer Aurageyser Doomed over Aurageyser Dragon. Aurageyser Dragon has to soul blast, counterblast, and retires two only to add 5000 for each Grade 1 or lower revealed upon attack. Aurageyser Damned: doesn’t have to soul blast, and is able to retire opposing units but more importantly retires 3 of yours in the main phase. Retiring more unit’s in Luard means you’re able to gain more benefits whether it’s retiring 2-3 belial owls, 2 Abyssal owls, so on and so forth. Additionally, retiring during the main phase is a lot better than in the battle phase because you can even strengthen your board or even go for more skills after using Damned’s skills with units you drew. Damned is a lot more flexible and opens the window to plus more than you normally would without having to expend soul which can be used for later skills.

x2 Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo”: Phantom Blaster was the original Shadow Paladin boss and was one of, if not, the strongest strides in the game. Counterblast 1 and persona flipping, you can gain 10k and +1 Critical if the number of cards in the G zone is two or more. It also gains another skill where if you retire three of your units when he attacks, your opponent may choose to retire two of their units and if they don’t or can’t retire 2 units, they cannot call cards from hand to the guardian circle. Phantom Blaster was the card you strode if your opponent wasn’t staying on their toes and leaving themselves wide open and an amazing punishment for mirage decks like Pale Moon, Granblue, and even Resist decks. In Luard, you hardly ever stride into him because retiring three in the battle phase is not really good since you don’t have units that can count as two retires so you’ll be left with only two units and one thing to note about Luard is that he wants to keep his field by the time it’s his turn, so he can use his heartbeat skill. Plus with G-guardians in the game, Phantom Blaster can still be guarded even if they choose not to retire three (especially since there’s no Blaster Dark Diablo to force a retire upon striding into him). Most deck’s don’t bother to run him, but I still feel he’s good to have if not for the mandatory retirement, but for the free 10k/+1 Critical.

x2 Dark Dragon, Spectral Blaster “Diablo”: By soul blasting 1, retiring one of your units, and flipping a face down card from your G zone, face up: Spectral gets the ability to stand after his attack with drive-2, by counter blasting two and retiring two. Spectral Blaster is a very powerful and flexible G-Unit, setting a trend for G-zones to have generic flips because financially it’s perfect: only needing one or two and not an automatic four and can even adjust for G-Assists and even flipping up specific units whose effects are dependent on the number of face up copies of itself. It also has a special bonus for having the “Diablo” heart which is also a G-Unit design that never got re-used again, but rather, preferring to stick to the heart restriction style. Spectral Blaster was at a time my go-to finisher, especially in his ideal deck, Diablo. In Luard, counterblast two is very hefty unless he’s retiring Abyssal Owls. Like Phantom Blaster, I very rarely go into Spectral once let alone twice, but if the situation calls for it, I will stride into one while the second copy is either flipped to pay for a flip cost or will be strode: depending on the game.

x2 Dragstrider, Luard: Going to note, I wish this cards name was swapped with “Dragdriver, Luard”’s name for a very obvious reason based off of their evolution from Luard and their effects. Dragstrider has Ritual 7, when he attacks, you retire two of your rear-guards and discard any number of cards from your hand to the drop zone. He gains 3k for each card discarded and if the number of cards discarded is two or more, he gains Critical+1, Drive+1, and guard restriction of grade 1 or higher from hand. This is your go-to finisher and is the reason why Phantom Blaster Diablo is considered to be removed from the deck. This is a really powerful card to go up against considering the requirements at minimum is discarding two cards to touch 32k with bonus skills. With no counterblast or soul blast card, you can just constantly stride into Dragstrider and keep throwing cards until your opponent has nothing else while also recycling your deck. It also takes advantage of the nature that Luard does draw a lot of cards: so you can go all in with very few clans being able to guard this effectively. I feel two is fine because if they survive one, then chances are, you’re probably dead and if they can’t kill you, then chances are that they’re dead.

x1 Draganger, Ogma: My favorite art from any Shadow Paladin. Ritual 5: counterblast 1, soul blast 1, and flip up a face down card in the G zone. Choose up to 5 grade 1 rear-guards and retire them and for each one retired, the opponent chooses a card from their hand or their rear-guards and puts them into the drop zone. You also draw a card if a total of three or more rear-guards by both fighters were put into the drop zone via this effect. This is a really really niche card, as most Generation Rares should be. Like Phantom Blaster Diablo, it punishes mirage decks and resist decks by dropping their hand since there’s either no field or the field cannot be touched. The only issue I have regarding this card is having five grade 1s to retire since specific Grade 0s such as the starter and Belial Owl also benefit from being retired, however, I think that was done intentionally so I guess it’ll just settle for being able to counter charge 2-3 from retiring Abyssal Owl or by flipping him for Spectral. Ogma is also the reason why having Naoise around is really good.

x1 Dark Dragon, Carnivore Dragon: Very basic stride, retire one of your rear-guards and your opponent has to retire two of their rear-guards (even if they have one) and they couldn’t retire two, three units in the front row gain 4k until end of turn. This is really just filler and very rarely would you stride this because even if you’re lacking counterblast and/or soul blast, you can stride into Dragstrider. Originally, I had two Claret Sword Helheim’s in place of this and one Spectral but I didn’t think they were that useful in this deck and I didn’t want to run Dragdriver either (even though he’s good for an empty board.)

x1 Dark Knight, Irgahn Vert: Irgahn Vert is the generation break 8 of Shadow Paladin. You counterblast one to choose up to five of your rear guards and retire them. Then you search your deck for up to the same number of grade 1 or lower units as the number of units retired and call them to seperate rears and they get +15k until end of the turn. Additionally, you retire the same number of your opponents rear-guards as the number of units called. This is a really strong game ender - not so much that they survived against everything in your arsenal but because you accelerated your G-zone far enough to pull this off. And because Luard does recycle his deck, getting a deck of grade 1s for this is pretty easy to fulfill.

x1 Air Element, Sebreeze: Standard G-unit because Luard is a stride based deck and doesn’t like to give up stride. There are also a number of Generic flips to flip this card should you choose not to go into him, making him flexible to play.

x3 Dark Dragon, Plotmaker Dragon: Plotmaker is a 25k Shield during Ritual 3 while on the Guardian Circle. This is currently the best and really should be the only G-Guard you should be playing except for the following one.

x1 Dragwiser, Bronach: Bronach is best used as your first G-guardian since once placed she checks the top five cards of the deck and calls all of the grade 1s from among them to the guardian circle with her. If you’re really lacking ritual, she will build it back up for you, especially when you want to go for a counter attack.

Deck Conclusion

Luard at a time was considered one of the best decks after his introduction and a follow up support set in Set 10. His only equals were Nightrose, Link Joker, and Gear Chronicle. Being able to draw and recycle his entire deck and have near infinite defenses, it was quite difficult to beat Luard because while he was overpowering other decks offensively and defensively, he also was allowed to grind out others forcing them to deck out. With a specific style deck build, not this one, Luard is also able to access a loop which can strengthen specific units and deck thin extremely hard. However, ironically, in his recent support: Set 12 Dragon King’s Awakening, while giving him Dragstrider and other important cards, they also strengthened decks that had the means to make him obsolete such as Narukami’s Thunderstrike, which is a keyword - like Ritual - revolves around the opponent having a specific number of cards bound. Most of the binds come from the drop zone, and with enough, you can lose access to your Ritual requirements making it extremely hard to go into your power plays. And with a number of guard restricts available to most clans in the game, Esras can be invalidated: forcing Luard to rely on his hand to guard everything. I don’t really have too much expectation of what Shadow Paladin will get in Set 14, let alone Luard since I would much rather see Diablo support since I do love Diablo a lot, but I also do appreciate Luard’s tool-boxing and combo play making.

So thank you all for reading this profile since this is my first non-AQ profile, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to do this since I generally prefer to do deck profiles on real life decks that way I can step through alternatives but this didn’t seem too bad. I think next deck profile will be one that I actually have in real life: not to mention potentially some screenshots of a few updated decks in real life but other than that, look forward to this deck profile!

#shadow paladin #luard #cf-vanguard #zane kisaragi #zanjoyner614 #ritual #blaster dark

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