Eradicators - Grade 3s: Part 1

Hey everyone, sorry about the huge delay in updating this guide. I plan to post a number of updates over the next two weeks, and hopefully finish the guide within a month. Fortunately, since my last update, a new mechanic and a new card have become available to the Eradicators, both of which give the subclan some potential new life. As originally planned, I'll be starting my look at the Eradicators with the break rides, followed by the deck's other Grade 3s, its Grade 2s, its Grade 1s, its Grade 0s, and several example builds. However, I will now be adding a new section at the very end, dealing with how Stride can work with Eradicators. This section will probably be delayed until G Booster Set 2's Japanese release, in late February.

Anyway, let's start our look through the ranks of the Eradicators at the top. What are the Eradicator Grade 3s?

Eradicators - Grade 3s: Part 1

Break Rides

 

Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon

Erads are fortunate enough to have access to a whopping three break rides to choose from, and where better to start than the first one released? Before the release of Ignition Dragon, Vowing Sword used to be nearly a staple in most Eradicator decks, being run at two or three in many tournament-topping builds. What about now that we have a few more options? Well, his skill is a bit underwhelming. A single retire that can only hit front row rear guards in a subclan with plenty of other cards that specifically retire front row rear guards seems a bit redundant. Further, there are many situations where your opponent will not have frontrow rearguards available for you to retire. Still, the fact that he doesn't cost a counter blast is helpful, considering that Eradicator decks can usually make significant use of every single counter blast available. In addition, Vowing Sword is the only break ride with support cards, most notably a crossride in the form of Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Яeverse" (which I'll go into more detail on later), as well as its own Grade 0.

So which decks should you use Vowing Sword in? Not many, unfortunately. A deck focused on Vowing Saber Dragon obviously benefits from Vowing Sword, due to the cross-break ride. In addition, the fact that Vowing Sword doesn't cost a counterblast makes it useful when combined with Grade 3s that want a break ride primarily as a way to get the 10,000 power boost rather than the retire, such as Dragonic Descendant.

Advantages:

-No cost

-Let's you choose the retire target

-Crossride

-Best break ride for Dragonic Descendant and Vowing Saber Dragon.

-The cheapest option at the time of this post.

Disadvantages:

-Only retires one card

-Retires front row only

Eradicator, Ignition Dragon

Now let's talk about Ignition Dragon, the break ride from Booster Set 14. Compared to Vowing Sword, Ignition costs more but does more. For 1 counter blast, he retires two of your opponent's rear guards, of the opponent's choice. Since it's usually fairly difficult for a player to get rid of all their units, it's highly likely that Ignition Dragon will have at least some targets when you want to break ride, unlike with Vowing Sword. Also, for decks that care more about quantity than quality when it comes to retires, such as Gauntlet Buster, Ignition Dragon is a huge boon. However, the counterblast cost and the fact that you can't choose retire targets mean that Ignition Dragon is not strictly better than Vowing Sword in all situations.

Advantages:
-Retires 2 cards
-Can retire backrow units
-Best break ride for Gauntlet Buster Dragon

Disadvantages:
-Costs 1 counter blast
-Retire targets are chosen by the opponent

Eradicator, Electric Shaper Dragon

Lastly, there's Electric Shaper Dragon, a unit released in Japan as part of Fighter's Collection 2013. Electric Shaper unfortunately has not received an English release at this time. Since it isn't relevant to the English edition of the card game, I'll try to keep this section short. Electric Shaper's skill retires a backrow rearguard when you retire a frontrow rearguard in the same column. Electric Shaper is...not that good. It requires both your opponent to have full columns and you to have a way of generating retires outside of its skill. It seems perfectly designed to work with Sweep Command Dragon, but given that Sweep Command also requires a large amount of setup on the part of the opponent to work, you end up left with a break ride combo that only generates significantly more advantage than other Eradicator decks when your opponent has filled both their rearguard columns. This break ride is also completely useless when ridden over itself, unless you use rearguard skills to cause retires.

Advantages:
-No cost
-Can potentially retire 2 cards.
-Best breakride for Sweep Command Dragon

Disadvantages:
-Retires backrow only
-Cannot retire unless another unit retires something in the front row first.
-Cannot retire when the opponent does not have a full column

To be continued with...A Guide to Eradicators - Grade 3s: Part 2

Eradicators - Introduction

This post will be the first of a multi-part series on everyone's (and by "everyone's" I mean "my") favorite subclan, the Eradicators. I hope that these posts will be of some help to people interested in building Eradicators, and as always, I really appreciate any feedback.

Eradicators - Introduction

So like with my SoL post, I'll get started here by explaining what Eradicators actually are. The Eradicators are one of the two major sub-clans available to the Narukami clan, and the only one available in the English format at this time. They were introduced in Trial Deck 9, and received support in Booster Sets 10, 11, 12, and 14, as well as in Fighter's Collections 2013 and 2014.

Lore-wise, the Eradicators represent the best of the best of the Narukami clan, consisting of specially trained elite warriors picked from the ranks of the Narukami military. As members of a Narukami sub-clan, Eradicators are generally thunder dragons, although other races, such as humans and demons, are present among their ranks as well. The Eradicators were formed after Blaster Blade, Blaster Dark, and Dragonic Overlord were freed in the War of Liberation, and contributed significantly to the defense of the Dragon Empire during the Star-vader invasion of Cray. Unfortunately, the invasion weakened or killed many Eradicators, inspiring several members of Narukami to form a new elite troop, the Brawlers, afterwards. In the anime, Toshiki Kai uses an Eradicator deck early in Season 3, and Naoki Ishida uses various Eradicator decks throughout the entire season.

In the game, Eradicators generally focus on retiring rear guards, having access to many effects along the lines of either " choose one of your opponent's rear-guards in the front row and retire it" or "Your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, and retires it." In addition, some Eradicators have skills that give you additional benefits for retiring your opponent's rear guards, allowing you to still generate significant advantage against decks that can easily replace or revive their retired rear guards (ex. Tachikaze, Granblue, or Silver Thorns). Aside from retiring, Eradicator decks are generally very vanguard-focused, allowing you to hit hard with your vanguard to finish the game quickly or drain your opponent's hand of cards that they could be using to refill their field.

Overall, the main reason I love this sub-clan is that it gives you a ton of options for both deck-building strategies and in-game tactics, allowing you to choose whether to focus on wiping your opponent's field or straight-up overpowering your opponent with a powerful vanguard, with certain builds even allowing you to do both.

Some people might wonder why I've decided to write a guide to Eradicators now, weeks after the release of Set 14, with the English release of Narukami's second sub-clan, the Brawlers, not too far off and the only apparent upcoming support for Eradicators being a single card in Set 17. Well, like I said, Eradicators are my favorite subclan. They offer tons of options, have a variety of unique effects, kick-ass art, and cool, albeit somewhat generic, back-stories. What's more, while Brawlers definitely appear poised to replace Eradicators, I still maintain that the new LB4 enabler being released in Set 17 will give Erads enough of a boost to still be relevant at local tournaments for a while. At the very least, they will likely be a good option for budget players looking to play Narukami in the future.

Anyway, that's all for now. For those of you who wanted to see more emphasis on the actual mechanics and cards of the Eradicators, stay tuned for the next part of this series: A Guide to Eradicators - Grade 3s.