Support Cards & Theme Decks


New sets are one of the most fun times for players. We get to attend release tournaments, experiment with new cards, new prizes, and draft with different packs. Ultimately, it allows us to get our hands on all of the new cards!

An addition to the existing card pool grants us access to theme decks and support for existing decks. In the previous meta lots of decks were not playable in a competitive environment. New cards allow decks like these to shine. New sets accomplish this by providing non-competitive decks the support they need to efficiently execute their strategy.

A new set often introduces cards that are based around a central idea. These cards make up a theme, which may be made into a deck. Adding support and themed cards to the card pool gives players a new, fun, and enriching experience. The game would become dull and boring without these attributes.

Now that I've gushed about Set 3's release, let's put on our thinking caps and speculate what can be done with it!

Blue; Mill, & Nexus Control


I'm sure many of you are aware of the new color that was introduced. This color (Blue) has provided us many options for creating interesting decks. The plausible ones that I see are a mill and Nexus control.

Nexus control is a deck that focuses entirely on Nexus cards. This type of deck is quite foreign to a lot of people. This is not surprising, considering it wasn't a possibility using cards from the first two sets. However, Blue has been equipped with a plethora of useful Nexuses that a Nexus control deck can use. It also has several cards that manipulate how a Nexus is played and used. The Spells Construction and Golem Craft are situational but provide an exceptional base for this deck. Use these with Spirit cards that allow you to deploy Nexuses for free, and you have the basis of an interesting deck. You can also combo these with cards that discard from your hand. The ideal situation would be to use them to discard Nexus cards. Nexus Register, Hand Reverse, and Storm Draw will all do the trick!


Mill may be a completely new idea for players who have not played a card game before. The purpose of a Mill deck is to win the game by removing all the cards in your opponents deck. Blue is the perfect option for this because of its new keyword - Crush. Crush allows you to "move cards from the opponent's deck to their trash equal to the [attacking] Spirits level." There are also several Blue Spirits whose effects remove cards from the opponents deck. The problem with this deck is that your Spirits are weak. You can fix this problem by making good use of the Blue Nexus Rampart of Sapphire. Attack with them sparingly to control the field and slowly mill your opponents deck! Blue also got a Spell and a Spirit card that mill cards from the opponents deck. Throw all these cards into one deck and you'll be sitting pretty at your next local tournament.




Yellow; Arcana & Spell Abuse


Yellow's new keyword (Brilliance) supports the Spell abuse deck that came about with Set 2. It actually makes Yellow much more playable in a competitive setting. It has all the tools it requires to create a strong deck that is themed around abusing Spells. What I find quite amusing about this deck is that adding a couple select Green & White Spells makes it a lot more consistent. Power Aura, Shadow Elixir, Binding Thorn, Same Tired, Angel Voice, Storm Draw, Invisible Cloak, and White Potion are all Spells to abuse Brilliance. You could also throw in the Sacred Place of Falling Stars. This Nexus' level two ability allows you to play Brilliance on your opponent's turn. Re-using Silent Wall every turn wouldn't be too bad, right?

Arcana has received a huge boost this set. Oddly enough, the new Arcana cards also have the keyword Brilliance. Arcanabeast-Paira and Arcanadoll-Tria are the two Arcana Spirits that we received. What I find humorous about Arcana is that it also doubles as a magician deck. All Arcana Spirits have the characteristic Magician. This wasn't important before. However, we have received a Spell card called Four Cards that can be played when four Magician Spirits are present on the field. It places all your opponents Spirits at level one. This can be used with Angel Voice to create some very fun situations. We also received the Spell Puppet String. This Spell turns all Spirits on your side into Arcana and Magician. This is extremely beneficial since all of the Arcana effects give a bonus to every Arcana Spirit. You could potentially have a field full of Arcana Spirits who are receiving an enormous battle point addition. This deck is very beatdown-oriented and does take a lot of setup. You will have to be patient with it. It will require some many fixes before it is playable on a competitive level.

White; Immunity & Machine Beasts


Immunity was introduced in set two: Rise of Angels. It didn't make the big splash that I wanted it to. I think Michael Elliott is trying to make up for that in set three. He is giving us many very powerful cards with the immunity keyword. Perfect Guard makes all of your Spirits with the keyword invisible for the turn. The IceBeast Mam-Mori gives all your Spirits Immunity to every color. These two cards alone are very vicious when used under the correct circumstances. White also received a card with amazing art. I know the card isn't amazing but the fan boy inside wants to let everyone know. I am talking about The Metal Surtr! Fan boy disillusion aside, I think people should give Immunity another go in set three.


Machine Beasts didn't register one bit on the grid when Rise of the Angels released. That will soon change as they received a huge boost in Scars of Battle. The general theme around Machine Beasts is that they are incredible walls. This creates a scenario where you can generate cards by stalling. The SilverFox Hati and Unicorn Einhorn both share the Machine Beast characteristic. Throw these cards in a deck with The DragonTank Earthguard and other machine beasts. You will end up with a deck capable of holding the opponent off. Toss in a lot of bounce and you will be sitting quite nicely against any opponent.


Green; High Speed & Winged Beasts


Winged Beasts are not something that many people looked for under the characteristic portion of their green cards. That may change with the addition of The FightingBird Bishamon. This card gives all Winged Beast cards a 1000 extra battle points. The effect is similar to Commander Dragno. There is one key difference. Generally, Green Spirits retain their battle points on the opponents turn while Red Spirits do not. Factor in the possibility of using Hermit Wise Tree and I'm sure you can see where I am going with this. Beat down with massive core generation is a nasty combination.


I thoroughly enjoyed the High Speed keyword in set one and two. In my opinion, it is Green's best feature. I am pleased to say that Scars of Battle has increased its potential! The SavageKnight Hercules puts High Speed way over the top. Its effect allows you to refresh all High Speed Spirits. Don't stop drooling yet, though. The card also has High Speed. You can get the mop now to clean up the mess you made while reading that. We also received a couple cards that give Spirits the High Speed keyword. It all adds up to a grin on my face. Green will undoubtedly be tough to beat with Scars of Battle in the metagame.


Purple; Curse & Control Support


It is very fitting of Purple to place a curse on other Spirits. I think it would be even more fitting if Green had a way to counter it! They are enemies after all. Curse was given to two Spirits in Rise of the Angels. Both Spirits were deemed not good enough to make it into a Purple deck. I think people may re-consider that now that Scars of Battle has been released. My main reason for thinking this is because The Artificial Creature No.44 is a beast! Purple also received The GhostCaptain SilverShark. This card has two effects that result in the probable destruction of two of your opponent's Spirits! Are you foaming at the mouth, yet? I got one more for you. The VampireKnight Nosferat allows all your Spirits with Curse to avoid being blocked by Spirits at level one. So all of your Curse guys are now able to rush. It all sounds good to me. I'm definitely going to attempt a Curse build.


Red; Evolution & Destruction


I would not be surprised if you were to tell me that Red would be receiving more destruction in Set Four. It's a reoccurring theme that has been good and continues to improve. Sooner or later it's going to become a very hard to beat. That idea is quite humorous to me because I always thought Red was top tier material. The funny part is people seldom played it. I hope that changes with the addition of a couple potent destruction cards. Flame Cyclone is the first card that comes to mind. We all loved Flame Dance but hated that we couldn't destroy Spirits with 5000 battle points. Now we can!

Red always had a recursion theme to it. The Shaman Dragno and Call of Lost were abused by good Red decks in the first two sets. You can add another card to that arsenal of recursion. The GrandBishop Levia destroys any Spirit with three or less cores on it. Is that not enough to quench your taste? He also has the ability to place any Spirit from your discard into your hand on a condition. You have to destroy something in battle with his high battle points. Bear with me as I describe a scenario to you. You are told that you have to swat 100 flies with a single flyswatter. However, the flyswatter you choose is extremely large and makes your job very easy. I think this card is very similar to that scenario. We are giving this guy 10,000 battle points, a destruction effect, and a recursion effect. I am definitely making room for this card in my Red deck!


Rise of the Angels gave Red a ton of support for its Evolution keyword. We got a bit more in Scars of Battle. Brontident gains an extra 2000 battle points when an Evolution Spirit is on your side. Runkaphorhynchus has an effect that destroys a Spirit on your opponent's side of the field with the same battle points as it. This is a good effect. It also has Evolution to make it an amazing effect! There's no shame in attacking with low battle points to kill a chump blocker and then using Evolution to pump your guy back up to 7000 battle points. All these cards in a Red deck is incredibly tempting. I can't resist! Watch out! Next tournament will be a day for Red to stomp on some Spirits!


Rainbow; Rush & No Text


Every color except Yellow received a Nexus that benefits cards with no printed text. These effects aren't to be taken lightly either. They have beat down properties that would cause an untold amount of hurt on the opponent. Lets run-down the highlights to give you an idea of what these Nexus' can do. They increase your battle points by 2000, you cannot be destroyed by level one or three Spirits, they are refreshed every turn, gain one core when you are defeated or you defeat a Spirit, you exhaust and draw one card every time your Spirit is defeated and your Spirit's level is equal to the amount of cores on them. Lets throw all of those cards in a deck and see what happens. I get the feeling that the results will be astronomically positive.


Rush was a feasible deck in the old metagame, and now It has become a little better thanks to one card. Fourth Draw allows you to draw cards until you have four in hand. So essentially, you are able to dump your hand, rush with those Spirits, and re-fill your hand again. Not too shabby. I don't think that previously this type of rush was all that playable, but it does have more potential now with this card. I recommend giving it a try to see if you enjoy the style of play. I certainly don't. If you do, then kudos to you!

Overall Impression


My overall impression of set three is hard to describe in one word, but I'm going to go with enjoyable. Set one and two were fun. However, I felt like I was missing the creativity and originality that should have been there. Scars of Battle introduces that element into the game for me. There are tons of decks to create and many strategies to abuse. It is an extremely exciting time for me. I hope that you also feel the same way. I am looking forward to creating tons of original decks. Good luck on your ventures into the larger card pool and happy deck building!

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