#cfvanguard

Now to go into an explanation of the key cards, any rogue choices, and overall thoughts! Starting with the name-dropped card, Ruin Collector!

[AUTO]:When this unit is placed on (RC), you may Soul Charge (1). CONT:When this unit would be put into soul for the cost of the ability of your vanguard with "Ominagruzio" in its card name, it may be regarded as putting two units.

Immediately a very simple but effective skill! This card is what you want to be boosting Ominagruzio with so you can save your other rearguards to put triggers on since you'll have 3 checks with the restand.

Its' soulcharging also works incredibly well with one of the other new cards, Misery Wing Dragon!

CONT:During your turn, this unit gets [Power]+5000 for each type of trigger icon in your bind zone. [AUTO]:When this unit is placed on (RC), if there are two or more types of trigger icons in your bind zone, COST [Soul Blast (2)], and draw a card.

Misery Wing is your main beat-stick outside of Ominagruzio Masques! With its ability pumping it up by 5 for every bound trigger type, it'll be a 30k stick on your first persona turn which is more threatening than initially thought considering shield will also be sliced off!

Its ability to soul-blast 2 and draw also synergises very well with the rest of the deck and helps alleviate some of its Masques-Itis decently well simply by having an on command draw provided you can pay the cost.

Now onto the slightly more individualised picks and numbers, namely: the Masque and Searcher ratios, and the inclusion of Almethys!

[AUTO]:When this unit is placed on (RC) or put on (GC), COST [put a total of two cards from soul or drop that were in the ride deck into ride deck face up], and perform either of the following according to the circle this unit is on. •(RC) - Counter Charge (1). •(GC) - This unit gets [Shield]+15000 until end of that battle.

Almethys provides a Lot of sorely needed defensive utility in the deck, alongside further repurposing the commonly soul-blasted ride deck cards for costs like Misery Wing and Gungnram.

For its cost though, you want to return the g0+1, 1+2 or 0+2 leaving the ride deck Ominagruzio dropped to be removed for your first Masques turn.

Next moving onto ratios! I've found that the numbers of 3-4 work quite well but can just as easily be switched around. A hidden strength that Omina possesses against decks like Bastion is that it has zero trouble putting down an early offense that can then capitalise on shield drops. But of course you have to be careful in matchups like ghandeva (although its semi-miraging can help monograde its board too which is also useful)

And lastly, Gungnram is just a nice piece of potential advantage that could maybe turn its draw into a ruin collector, another base Ominagruzio, or Misery Wing when you need it alongside how it can move ride-deck cards from soul to drop for Almethys!

And that's all! Overall i think the deck has landed nicely in the middle of its two extreme reactions. It can't break the game with its effects, but it isnt awful because of its piece reliance either. As with any deck in this series, it's definitely something to watch out for and play around properly!

Next week's deck is something I have sooome ideas on, but we'll have to see! Depending on next week's episode and preview, I could change my plans! And even then all of that is subject to whether anyone wants to leave any suggestions or engagement (like @chronojumperintraining thanks so much for your question on the Mag Masques post!)

Alright! So the big thing that previous magnolia players might notice is we're only using 2 sylvan beast rearguards! Not Giunosla or Gabregg or Daimanaru and we're also not using the 'staple' Inlet Pulse! There are reasons for all of this!

Firstly, the deck cbs and sbs enough with making markers and using serrol to generate board-wide persona power, so we simply dont have resources for it the first two! Daimanaru would only be online for 1 turn, and inlet is frankly a waste when you could have a card like tideline which actually helps you win!

So lets take a deeper look at the two name-dropped cards! Sylvan Horned Beast, Serroll and Tide Line Dragon!

Seroll! The card that turns your masques turn into a real proper threat through his simple buff of persona power to the back row!

One thing to keep in mind with Seroll is that his persona buff effect is Continuous! That means that if you persona ride, and then call him down right before you start attacking, every back row unit will have that buff!

Seroll is also a key card in finding Magnolia Masques! Both for the initial Masques ride and further persona turns!

Seroll really just pushes the deck up a rung because of the sheer poewr he enables, and we're not done talking about power cards yet either! Because Tide Line Dragon is next!

Tide Line Dragon! If you've persona ridden you SB1 to give him and another unit +10k!

This isnt the first time Tide Line's been seen with the Masque units, making his proper debut outside of Maelstrom with Lianorn Masques as a way to raise the ceiling of your highroll to play 2 of these on a LiaMasques turn and light your opponent up!

He fills a similar role here except he's a bit more versatile because he's able to pick anything to give his power to! So if you have a rock-solid backrow but your other front row is a Depth Iwelth lacking power, slap a Tide Line buff on it! Even better if you're able to use 2 at once and Really light em up!

Keeping with the theme of the last article, Tide Line may be an unprecedented pick when people are probably thinking about Forced Grow Dragon as a necessity, and I'm gonna explain why I really don't think that's the case!

Forced Grow Dragon for one thing is another cb, which you need 3 of the make your whole back-row have markers. Considering you want to conserve your hand until you can Full Power Masques, you might not even have the resources to Forced Grow, or even be able to keep him in hand against the potential clap-back turn against a deck like Gandeeva or WIllista as the top-dogs.

Going into some other choices, namely draws, no main-deck magnolia and the stoich OT. The reason for draws is you have the ability to make multiple decent size attacks, or 3 big ones thanks to how mag masques will often have g1s like Bist and Seroll in the back. Draws can help you find pieces in a deck that really really needs them compared to Orfist Masques where if you get going once you're generally fine for the game.

No main-deck Mag because there isnt really space, and its usefulness is also limited given decks like Willista, Gandeeva, Orfist Masques and Bastion Accord either mirage their boards, make their boards out of replaceable pieces or just cant be targeted by retire effects. Considering all of those decks are the top echelon at the moment, the skill will likely see one use against decks like Viamance, Youth, Drajeweled and other decks that can't recoup such a loss

Finally the Stoich OT. A case can certainly be made for Blue or even Red here, but I just find the general power it gives is very versatile, giving you every trigger effect in one no matter when you check it is going to be useful in some way. Given that you want early cb you'll likely be able to use its heal effect, and the extra crit and draw are very welcome indeed.

Those are all my thoughts this time around! There might be a break from Masques decks after this or next week since there are only 2 left, and one of them I dont think there's much point in salvaging for a Variety of reasons (those of you who follow the game closely will probably know what I'm talking about).

Though even in the case of that deck (Grav Masques), play what you like! I met someone on a big VG Discord that actually likes Gravidia which just goes to show, there's a deck for everyone no matter what! So go ahead and play it!

Once again, if this gets any even remotely notable outreach to other people in the cfvg tumblr crew, feel free to suggest decks! I'm going to be focusing on Set 12 for now, and then maybe move forward or backward depending on what I feel like!