Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Ride to Victory Translation Part 8: Gouki


Card Capital


Is the guy who won against my little sister in a cardfight at this shop?


Gouki-san? Whatever is wrong?


I've come to play my sister's rival!



Rival!?



My name is Daimonji Gouki. And my sister's name is Nagisa. Bring out the one who interfered with my little sister and Kamui's journey of love!


Ha. So it's you? That's a good expression you've got there. But as Team Handsome's leader, I won't be silent! This is a challenge! Face me in a fair fight! If you have the courage, come to Card Shop Handsome. You can run if you're scared.


Gouki-san. He's full of spirit. What do you plan to do?



...I see. You'll go. Yeah. Do your best!

Card Shop Handsome


Gouki-san, he came!



He's got a lot of guts, ka-boom.


You came. I've been waiting. Because you've against my little sister, Team Handsome's all troubled by you. Take a good look, at the power of the Granblue pirate deck!



Grade 0
x1 Skeleton Assault Troops Captain (FVG)
x2 Rick the Ghostie HT
x3 Hook-wielding Zombie DT
x3 Knight Spirit CT
x1 Rough Seas Banshee CT
Grade 1
x1 Gust Jinn
x1 Dandy Romario
x3 Evil Shade
x1 Ripple Banshee
Grade 2
x3 Ruin Shade
x2 Captain Nightmist
x2 Three Star Chef, Pietro
Grade 3
x3 King of Demonic Seas, Basskirk
x4 Master Swordsman, Nightstorm
(Above are the confirmed cards that we've seen; there are around 20 cards missing from this list, but until complete data can be assembled it should give you an idea of what to expect from Gouki.)

Gouki's Granblue deck is geared toward making the best out of any game, no matter how bad it's going. That said, there are a lot of ways for this to go wrong. The key units to watch out in a typical build of this kind are Samurai Spirit, Captain Nightmist, and the Deadly series as well as Cocytus, but only Captain Nightmist has been sighted Gouki's initial decklist so far. The way these units operate is that when they're in the drop zone, Gouki can counterblast 1 and retire a Granblue rearguard to call them from the drop; Nightmist specifically requires a grade 1 or greater rearguard. Furthermore, Nightmist has just an 8000 base but gets +3000 power when another Nightmist is in the drop zone, so Gouki can have a consistent 16-18000 line and every time he intercepts with Nightmist or you retire it, he can just call it back again next turn, though not without a loss in card advantage.

The way that Gouki gets these cards into the drop zone outside of using them to defend is through the Shade series. Evil Shade gives a 10000 total boost to the vanguard line by sending 2 cards from the top of the deck to the drop zone when he boosts, while Ruin Shade goes from 9000 to 11000 when she attacks through the same cost. Evil Shade also forms a consistent 22000 line with any of Gouki's grade 3s, so even if you had a consistent Majesty Lord Blaster deck at this point Gouki would be able to manage pressure on the vanguard line.

The main issue with Gouki's deck is that it's not fully invested in the idea. This deck avoids using anything but minor counterblasts, because its focal grade 3 is Basskirk, a megablast. Basskirk soulcharges 1 at the start of Gouki's main phase and gets +2000 power, so he can have a consistent 20000 line with Romario, and this also starts off a countdown to the fight. Five to six turns after he rides Basskirk, Gouki will have 8 soul and can get off Basskirk's megablast, but only if he also has five open damage to counterblast with. This is why Pietro's in the deck--Gouki's plan is to use the cheaper counterblast 1 skills from Nightmist and Assault Troops to set up, then unflip them with Pietro and/or by healing damage so that he can have his megablast ready. Six turns is a long time to wait for the win condition, but Gouki speeds it up by using Rough Seas Banshee's skill to move her to the soul and draw 1, improving his consistency by getting access to more cards from the deck while also cutting down on how long he has to wait for the effective timer on Basskirk's skill to finish.

However, trying to devote so much to both the field management and the megablast means that Gouki is effectively stuck trying to strike a middleground between two different strategies, being exceptionally good at neither of them. The megablast itself lets him call up to five Granblue from the drop zone, which will usually increase his card advantage and can be a game-ending maneuver if done well. Usually what you end up with is Gouki not being able to get off the megablast because you aren't letting Pietro's attacks hit while he has two counterblast flipped and/or Gouki becomes unwilling to use skills that could turn the fight around because he's trying to save up for a long-term strategy.



Muu. It's my loss. It seems I misjudged your power.



You beat Gouki-san, that's amazing!



I'm surprised ka-boom!


Nagisa will shed a lot of tears. She has a formidable enemy now. Well, feel free to come and play anytime. Team Handsome welcomes you.