Today's Card Analysis: Water Gang

The Japanese Card of the Day is a Megacolony Single Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Water Gang.

AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When it stands, [Cost: Counterblast 1, put this unit into your soul] draw 2 cards.

Water Gang was a staple R when Megacolony's full support first debuted seven years ago in Booster Set 04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows for giving the clan on-hit pressure and rare draw power, and his reimagining is similarly joined at the hip to the new deck for being a net +1 that's live from the moment you put him on the board. Right now there are two ways to use Water Gang--either you call him early and use his skill at the start of your next turn when you stand all of your units, or you superior call him with Machining Stag Beetle and stand him with Helldemise in your main phase. The fact that Stag Beetle calls from soul and Water Gang sends himself to soul as part of his cost gives the clan some incredible draw synergy, as each Stag Beetle ride is net neutral thanks to the Protect Gift adding a card to hand, and his superior calls are raw pluses with the trade-off being that they come out at rest. These two in combination allow you to reuse a single Water Gang across multiple turns to rack up card advantage.

With Water Gang's introduction, the Megacolony deck has taken on a more concrete shape, as it's much clearer what we do and don't want to be doing with our counterblast...

Grade 0: 18
x2 Jocular Cicada (FV)
x4 Paralyze Madonna (DT)
x12 Triggers
Grade 1: 12
x4 Machining Hornet
x4 Phantom Black
x4 Platoon Commander, Butterfly Officer
Grade 2: 11
x4 Machining Mantis
x4 Water Gang
x3 Bloody Hercules
Grade 3: 9
x4 Machining Stag Beetle
x3 Machining Spark Hercules
x2 Death Warden Antlion

Of course, several unknowns ambiguities remain about the deck. For one, a Helldemise skill on a grade 1 would be extremely valuable for the Stag-Gang synergy--or for grade 0s, Machining Worker Ant not being a Glyme clone and displacing Cicada could be the most pleasant surprise of the set. With tomorrow's stream coming in just a matter of hours, and full set reveals in ten days' time, we'll know soon enough what the final deck will look like.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Gyro Slinger.

V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar will launch in Japan June 29th, 2018, and August 2nd for the English-speaking world. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," began airing May 5th, with an English-subtitled simulcast on both YouTube and Crunchyroll.