Oracle Think Tank
Options:
Lozenge Magus, Sphere Magus, Godhawk Ichibyoshi
Review:
The first clan to lack a Trumpeter clone, Oracle Think Tank is no
worse off for it. Lozenge Magus and Sphere Magus are like
Battleraizer, cycling triggers that move to rearguard circles when
ridden over. The difference being, these are heal triggers, making
them by default required in a deck. As such, even for a deck that
chooses not to run them as the starter, these two are essential to
all Oracle Think Tank decks.
Restating
my position on Battleraizer, these cards are a form of hand conservation.
Lozenge/Sphere comes from “nowhere,” taking nothing away from
your hand and instead giving you a free unit. When compared to the
likes of Stardust Trumpeter, Undeux and Kaleido Ace, you will
generally call one less unit because you are gaining one
automatically, removing the pressure from your hand.
Despite sharing
the ability and benefits Battleraizer came with, Lozenge and Sphere
are not the decisive starters for Oracle Think Tank. The alternative
is an attractive, if somewhat risky card that keeps one's hand even
more closely guarded than Lozenge. Godhawk, Ichibyoshi searches out
the top five cards of your deck at the start of your ride phase, and
if Goddess of the Crescent Moon, Tsukuyomi is present in those five
cards, he superior rides her from the deck. Likewise, the Crescent
and Half Moon forms of Tsukuyomi each search out the top five cards
in an identical fashion, for their corresponding higher-grade
counterparts.
Because all forms
of Tsukuyomi are ridden from the deck, this protects the player from
having to pay the cost of riding. In a Lozenge-style ride
line(Lozenge Magus → Oracle Guardian, Gemini → Oracle Guardian,
Wiseman → CEO Amaterasu) the hand at the end of the third turn is 9
cards, but in an Ichibyoshi-style ride line(Godhawk, Ichibyoshi →
Goddess of the Crescent Moon, Tsukuyomi → Goddess of the Half Moon,
Tsukuyomi → Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi) the hand at the
end of the third turn is ten, a one card advantage over Lozenge-style
riding. This may seem insignificant, but that one card is one more
card to guard with, or one more unit to call, which is invaluable
regardless of the situation.
This method of
riding comes with serious drawbacks. Each form of Tsukuyomi is weaker
than standard units of similar grade, and her final form is overall
weakened by the lack of other Tsuyomi cards in the soul. Missing a
ride using the Godhawk as one's starter is even more painful than
missing a ride using Lozenge.
One thing I did
not cover when discussing this previously was the number of cards
from the Godhawk line necessary to ensure a superior ride. While the
only championship decklist to currently use a similar line(Gallahad
instead of Tsukuyomi) did not follow the line up to its final form,
it did use a ratio of 1:4:4 reading from grades 0-2. I would support
this take, due to the sheer difficulty in riding, though current
Vanguard simulation programs(Byond et al.) are not necessarily
accurate for gathering data on this matter, due to fundamental
problems in their shuffler. Mathematically your chance of riding
increases as you continue to successfully superior ride, from a
46.51% chance on the first turn to 47.61% chance on the second and a
full 50% on the third if you run four of each form of Tsukuyomi.
For its hand
security and overall higher chance of making a successful ride each
turn, I would choose Godhawk, Ichibyoshi over Lozenge Magus.
Next time I'll be covering Megacolony.
