The Japanese card of the day is a unit that doubles as both anti-Link Joker and “Яeverse” support, Earth Elemental Pokkle. The first grade 2 Cray Elemental unit, Pokkle's on-call soulblast 1 unlocks any of your locked cards as long as you have a face-up Cray elemental in your generation zone, providing an important support option for decks that are overwhelmed by
lock but don't have reliable Lock Break Campaign support.
AUTO: [Soulblast 1] When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, if you have a face-up Cray Elemental in your generation zone, choose one of your locked cards and unlock it.
CONT: This unit belongs to all nations and clans.
Ironically, the decks that benefit most from the addition of Pokkle are the “Яeverse” decks that already lock their own units as part of their costs, as keeping around a counter just for Link Joker that's tied to a specific rearguard with no other function is overdedication when one may never encounter Link Joker in the tournaments they're attending. Meanwhile “Яeverse” decks can already anticipate needing to lock cards for their card skills, and so are able to carry with them both a utility grade 2 that can make their lock skills more effective, and a partial counter to the very clan that so often counters them.
Although not formally a “Яeverse” unit, Star-vader Blaster Joker can also make use of Pokkle to unlock the unit that he locks for his legion skill. However, because there's no benefit to repeating the skill and he's dependent on soul for using it in the first place, this is less advisable. One trick that Joker can exploit is with Infinitesimal Star-vader Mayoron, an existing support card that rests himself to give Blaster Joker +10000 power. By locking Mayoron for the cost and then unlocking him with Pokkle, Mayoron's skill can be repeated a second time because cards
default to unlocking as stand even when they were at rest beforehand. A similar combo exists with the promotional card Roaring Legs Blast Monk, whose generation break unlocks a locked card for +4000 power in the battle phase, allowing Mayoron to be used as a booster. Pokkle provides one more option for achieving this combo, and the soul used for his skill can be replenished semi-consistently with Link Joker's
upcoming Margal clone.
Not
every “Яeverse” deck benefits equally from running Pokkle. Many of the existing “Яeverse” units can only use their skills once per turn, or otherwise have limited timings to their locks that prevent them from taking advantage of main phase unlock. Those units whose skills activate in the main phase but are once-per-turn can still benefit from unlocking the locked unit as a booster, eliminating the principle weakness of Ashlei “Яeverse” and similar cards. Below is a list of “Яeverse” cards capable of exploiting Pokkle.
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Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Яeverse” - Locking four
Eradicator rearguards to retire four of the opponent's rearguards has
always been possible, but Pokkle makes it easier by unlocking one of the
initially locked units and still allowing for two rearguard attacks to
be used in the turn. The issue with this is that Vowing Saber's limit
break is attached to a counterblast 2, which severely hampers its use.
Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Яeverse” - The primary use of Pokkle in this deck is to enable Luquier “Яeverse” to call more rearguards than normal by using her skill multiple times and then unlocking
the locked units, calling up to four rearguards from the soul in a
turn. As Pokkle is technically a Pale Moon, he can also be superior called from the soul by Luquier's effect. More typically, Pokkle can be used to make two 21000+ power lanes
with Luquier “Яeverse;” locking her booster with her limit break to superior call an attacker and give it +5000 power, unlocking the booster with Pokkle and
then locking it again to superior call a +5000 power booster behind the Earth Elemental.
Cleanup Celestial, Ramiel “Яeverse” - Use with Pokkle is possible, but Ramiel's effect of
"Choose up to three units in your front row with "Celestial" in its card name, those units get Power +5000 until end of turn"
will be partially negated because Pokkle does not have Celestial in
their card name. Instead, using Pokkle you can effectively retire two to
three of the opponent's rearguards that turn and give Ramiel “Яeverse”
+10~15000 power by locking two Celestials, unlocking one of them with
Pokkle, locking two Celestials again, then calling another
Celestial over Pokkle and locking the remaining units. It's entirely a
question of how many Pokkles and Celestials you have available in hand,
and where you want to stop. It's actually entirely possible to retire up to five
units in a turn and give +25000 power to Ramiel “Яeverse” if you have
four Pokkles and a sufficient number of Celestials in hand, by
repeatedly calling over units to unlock locked cards and then relocking
them.
Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster “Яeverse” -
Ethics Buster's limit break has never been repeatable, as even if his
cost is paid twice, when he attacks a vanguard “Яeverse” meets the
criteria for both instances of his restanding skill, hence the second
instance also can't be used for the rest of that turn. However, Pokkle
does allow you to make one of your rearguard lanes attack for full
power, which can be vital during the battle phase when “Яeverse's”
crossbreakride rearguard stand comes into play.
Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus “Яeverse” - Due to
Cocytus both sending three cards from the deck to the drop zone every
time his lock is used, and superior calling and powering up units as
part of his skill, trying to abuse Pokkle with him to repeatedly lock
units is undesirable. However, it can be useful for restoring the unit
originally locked to pay for his cost.
School Punisher, Leo-pald “Яeverse” - Leo-pald's lock skill
can be used as many times as there are unlocked Great Nature units, and a
common tactic in the past has been to lock all three backrow units to
give +12000 power to the frontrow rearguards. On the surface it would appear that Pokkle doesn't
synergize with this play style because calling him over one of the units
powered up in this way ultimately grants you less power than you lose
by retiring that unit. However, he can be abused by having open backrow
circles to call Pokkle to, unlocking one of the units locked and
effectively getting two more locks out of it. This upgrades Leo-pald
“Яeverse” from giving +12000 power to the rearguards to giving +20000
power to each, locking both the unit Pokkle unlocked and Pokkle himself.
Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue “Яeverse” - As
far as Vogue is concerned, Pokkle is not a new trick. Murakumo
cardfighters have been using Stealth Beast Metamorfox to unlock their
locked units and repeat Vogue's lock 2 to make the copies of himself
attack for 31000 power each ever since BT14:
Brilliant Strike hit.
Pokkle simply adds another grade 2 option that's capable of pulling
this off, replacing the filler grade 2s Grenjin and Bloody Mist that
once took up space in the build.
Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse” - Like with Luquier, Pokkle is valuable because he enables Venus Trap to set up two powerful rearguard lanes in a turn. Moreover, since Venus Trap's limit break comes out of the top 5 cards of the deck, this also has the benefit of thinning the deck of nontrigger units, making one more likely to drive check triggers after bringing out those 21000+ power lanes.
