Immortality Professor, Sahasrara Veera: First Thoughts

Once again, Great Nature gets a bird G Unit that you don’t want to run into in a dark alley. Fighter’s Collection 2017 has been giving all clans a Generation Rare Stride with a GB8 skill that are intended to be used largely as finishers and I’d say ours definitely fits the bill (pardon the bird pun).

[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.
[ACT](VC) Generation Break 8:[Choose two cards from your hand, and discard them] Choose up to five of your rear-guards, until end of turn, they get [Power]+10000, and “[AUTO](RC):At the end of your turn, retire this unit.”, and if the number of cards in your hand is one or less, this unit gets [Power]+40000/[Critical]+1.

Right off the bat, we are better off than some other clans.  As this is an ACT skill and not an AUTO on-attack skill like the Angel Feather G Unit, we can safely use this ability in our Main Phase to make full use of our Stand triggers if we choose to run them.  Veera also gives his power boost to all Rear Guards, buffing the entire field where other GB8 units have only buffed the front row.

Even one buff from Veera makes for an intimidating Crayon Tiger target, but Sage Bigbelly alone can create a single better Crayon target.  Why would you ever choose to use this card over Sage Bigbelly when you’re at GB8, you might ask?  Put simply, this card is not limited to once per turn.  Great Nature often plays with a large hand, tanking through strong hits with relative ease.  Now, you can put that large hand to an offensive use as well as a defensive one.  Discard two cards and your field gets +10k power.  Still have two or more cards in hand?  Do it again, as many times as you can or desire until you have one or less cards in hand.  And once your hand is empty?  That’s where an added bonus comes in.  The VG itself buffs up by an impressive +40k power as well as gaining an additional critical.

I suppose Bushiroad decided, “+4000?  No, no, no.  That isn’t nearly enough.  Add another zero.”  An initial reaction I saw from some people to this card was that the +40k and +1 crit condition was too difficult to reach because of Great Nature’s large hand size but again, recall that its ability isn’t once per turn.

This may be Great Nature’s third situational Generation Rare, but the game ending potential it provides affords it an immediate 1-of slot in any Great Nature G Zone.  Also, even if it was a vanilla Stride, it would still be worth playing just for those adorable Hammsukes in the background.  I mean, come on.  Just look at them.

Spangled Heal and G Guard: First Thoughts

Today is a double CotD for Great Nature players.  We now know what the RR Heal Trigger and RRR G Guardian will be in Fighter’s Collection 2017!  These cards keep in theme with Great Nature’s usual retiring and drawing, but not necessarily in a way you would expect.

Boxed Daughter, Spangled

[G guardian] (Usable when both fighters’ vanguards are grade 3 or greater, and the number of face up G guardians in your G zone is three or less)-Opponent Turn’s Guard Step-[Choose a card with “Heal” from your hand, and discard it] Call this card to your (GC) from face down.
[AUTO] Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down G guardian from your g zone, and turn it face up] When this unit is placed on (GC), you may pay the cost. If you do, choose any number of your grade 3 or less guardians, and until end of that battle, they get “[AUTO]:When this unit is retired from (GC), draw a card.”.

Refugee Spangled

(You may only have up to four cards with “HEAL” in a deck.)
[AUTO]:[Soul Blast (1)] When this card is discarded from your hand for a cost to call “Boxed Daughter, Spangled” from your G zone, if the number of face up cards in your damage zone is one or less, you may pay the cost. If you do, Counter Charge (1).

Our Heal Trigger appears to be a clone of the previously revealed AF Heal.  This is a nice boon for Great Nature, as Counter Charging is always valuable to have around.  You can only get the Counter Charge as long as you have one or less face up damage, but Great Nature Counter Blasts so much, especially in Cath Palug builds, that this will rarely be much of a restriction.  The G Guardian costs a Counter Blast though, which makes the Heal’s CC even more useful.  Even if you have no face up damage, as long as you have a Soul to spare, you can get off a Counter Charge before needing to pay the cost for the G Guardian’s skill.  If you decide to run multiple copies of the G Guardian, or even if you just want to go into it early while only running one, you can always G Guard with Spangled quickly before GB1 if you need an emergency CC and do not wish to sacrifice any RGs to Kundalini.

The G Guardian itself is where these cards really shine.  Guarding will now require a bit more forethought, as you will want to have placed all other guardians on the Guardian Circle before calling out Spangled.  This is because you will get a draw for every Grade 3 or lower Guardian that is retired at the end of the battle you used Spangled to guard.  If your hand is full of Grade 1s and higher but you feel as though you will need more shield to guard out through your opponent’s turn, you can use Spangled alongside a handful of other cards, including Grade 3s, to empty your hand of useless low shield cards and have a chance to draw into useful combo pieces for your following turn or higher shield cards to survive through your opponent’s.  However you choose to utilize Spangled, it is a powerful card when played well.

The next CotD we see for Great Nature will likely be our Generation Rare G Unit from Fighter’s Collection 2017, so make sure you follow this blog or our Facebook page to get updates when that card goes up.  Also, Great Nature University now has a community on Facebook where lovers of this glorious clan can come together and talk strategy!  Join your fellow GN players to find others who can help you better yourself and maybe find some new ideas that hadn’t come to mind before.  I look forward to seeing you all there!