Set 4: Ascension of Dragons - SPOILER SERIES!

Spoiler season is upon us once again, so I will be working hard to bring you coverage on every card in Set 4. That's right; I'm going to provide a review on absolutely every single card in Ascension of Dragons. It will be a lot of work, but I'm prepared for it. Are you ready to take on this arduous journey with me? I sure hope so, because I look forward to bringing you these previews and reading your comments.

Without further delay, on to the second wave of previews!

Alligade

One thing Green desperately needed was a counter to Blue mill. I was being sarcastic if you couldn't tell. Alligade is an easy answer to your opponent’s mill cards. Green is quick enough to use Alligade's ability, so you won't find yourself using Alligade's effect and not taking advantage of the opportunity.

Alligade has a healthy cost reduction of three, which means that there is the possibility of reducing his cost to 0! It would be great for Green to get more spirits that are able to reduce by that much, but Green's speed certainly doesn't need to increase. However, that may happen if Bandai were to create more cards like Alligade. You could argue that Alligade's battle points are low for a three cost spirit. I certainly agree that he has low battle points. Although the cost reduction off-sets that a little, this card would be much better had its cost been two cores instead of three at level two. Then it would have been an arguable choice when compared with other Green cards.

As it stands, this card is best used as a side-deck card against a Blue Mill deck.


Arcanabeast-Hart

I should be happy that we got another Arcana / Magician spirit. That arch type definitely needs additional support to push it onto the competitive scene. Unfortunately, this is not the card to do that job. Arcanabeast-Hart is basically Arcanabeast-Paira (Paira), but it doesn't have the keyword Brilliance. It would be one thing if it was stronger than Paira. However, I can't even say that it sports higher battle points. There is absolutely nothing great about this card. You could play it in multiples or with Paira in order to have a strong attack force on your turn. However, the problem with that is that they only work on your turn. It would be feasible when the combo of Silent Wall, The Sacred Place of Falling Stars, and Brilliance together. That's the equivalent of saying "it will work when pigs fly". I don't recommend using this card. Paira is similar and has another effect for you to abuse.


Braveless-Leo

Hooray for receiving another no print (vanilla) spirit! Ponyrus wasn't enough to make us jump for joy, so we get to bask in the awesomeness of Braveless-Leo. Let's think a bit before jumping to conclusions about this being simply another vanilla spirit. He has a high cost of 7, but reduces down to a cost of 2; that's not too shabby. You could use this guy as a mid-game beatstick. Yellow likes having a lot of spirits on the field, so it shouldn't be that difficult to get the full reduction out of him. What makes this guy playable is the fact that he will come out with five-thousand battle points for one core and will jump up to seven-thousand battle points for an extra core. That certainly is an admirable quality. I will grant you the argument that HungryTree is cheaper and can achieve the same battle points. We aren't looking at Green, though. Instead, we are looking at Yellow, which doesn't have a lot of beaters. This guy could work as the beatstick to stabilize your middle game.


Chamelewhip

The first thing I noticed about this card was that it cost 2 cores to place him at level one. That's not a good sign for this cards playability. Red excels in producing spirits with high battle points at low costs. Forcing you to place two cores on this card to put him into play does not fit with that theme. On the brighter side of things, this card has a cost of two that reduces to a cost of 1. That's fairly reliable.

I find this card reminiscent of Chakrambat. The main reason I say that is they are both reduced to a cost of one and are able to get up to six-thousand battle points. Therefore, this card is definitely up in the ranks of Red's great beatsticks. The cost is definitely higher and it is susceptible to core removal. However, it is able to attain battle points higher than five-thousand. You can classify this card as an early game beatstick, because it is able to break the five-thousand battle point mark. This card is definitely a step forward for Red. Players should place this card in the ranks of Charger Dragno, Chakrambat, and Scout Dragno.

Editors Note: Check this article out to learn more about what makes a great early game beatstick!


DarkDinohound

Thus far we have only seen evolution on spirits who have a cost of 4 or higher. DarkDinohound breaks that trend by having evolution and a cost of 3. His stats aren't too shabby either; you can push him to seven-thousand battle points in the middle game. That is an extremely easy task thanks to evolution. This level of battle points allows him to compete with the strongest of middle game beatsticks (i.e. HungryTree).

He also sports a voluptuous ability that makes a strong case for Evolution decks. Where would an Evolution deck be without the ability to continually beat down the opponent? It would be sitting in the fun deck pile like all the other sore losers. I'm going to be bold in claiming that this is no longer the case! DarkDinohound allows you to pressure the opponent early, middle, and late game through its secondary ability. Imagine Siegfried and DarkDinohound on the field together. I would love to have those two spirits working together! DarkDinohound drastically increases the effectiveness of an evolution deck in the early game. This card is a must have in every Evolution deck. I could also see it being played over Runkaphorynkus or Pteramahawk in Red Beatdown decks.


Dra-Golem

The prospect of using Dra-Golem in an evolution deck is very exciting. Red has received a lot of evolution support in the last two sets and that trend is continuing in Set 4. Dra-Golem is another card that supports the soon to be infamous Evolution deck. Some of you are probably wondering why this card helps. I had to think about it initially, but I came to the conclusion that his effect would help. It is true that spirits with evolution are able to move cores around to level themselves up whenever they want. The problem is that a lot of evolution spirits require a lot of cores to be placed at their highest level; adding this spirit to the equation solves that. You can now move three cores among your evolution spirits and have them all be at their strongest!


More Previews!

We looked at a couple cards that can be very potent when used in the correct deck. Chamelewhip has the potential to join Red's early game ranks of Scout Dragno, Chakrambat, and Charger Dragno. Evolution has received additional support in the form of Dra-Golem and DarkDinohound. In fact, it's reasonable to believe that a Blue-Red Evolution deck could surface next set. However, Green didn't get much this time around; a simple side deck card that will allow it to combat Blue Mill. It most certainly is not what Green needed. Yellow got additional Arcana support and desperately needed late game beater. These six cards were fairly decent as support for existing decks go. I'm particularly excited to see how Dra-Golem, Chamelewhip, and DarkDinohound will fit into the mix.

What about you? What do you think about these new cards? Do you see something that I don’t? Let’s talk about it.

I’ll see you in the forums!

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