Hi amigos! After testing with Nightrose, brainstorming with other players, and seeing the results from some tournaments, it’s time to go in depth some key aspects on building a Nightrose deck for Standard.
I will cover a little in more depth on the cards and ratios as a whole. What’s also unique with Granblue, as a clan, is that it has a lot of interactions as well. So I’ll do my best to mention the highlights of the deck as a whole. Meta game considerations and deck lists will also be mentioned.
Sections:
Nightrose’s Play Style (Big Picture Concept & Winning Image)
Cards Played & Ratios
Other Options
Basic Go To Plays
Other Key Tips
Deck Lists
Meta Game Considerations
Final Thoughts
Credit To Amigos
Nightrose’s Play Style
Let’s talk about big picture, what is the end goal or winning image that we want our Nightrose deck to accomplish?
Nightrose’s key strengths:
Multi attack. (4 to 5 attacks typically)
Calls 2 RGs to a column. (regardless of the opponent’s VG grade)
Gives +5k to every RG that attacks/boosts. (makes most units hit VG on their own and push more shield value)
Mandatory retire let’s us reuse the same units with Nightrose’s on attack skill.
We have access to RGs that become big beaters, lets us draw cards, or set up our hand/field.
A great win con, the 4 Skull Dragon attacks turn
This next section is straight from the card spotlight article, when Nightrose V was revealed. There’s 3 things to keep in mind with the big picture.
“Multi Attack, Advantage Gaining, And Pressure:
These are three things that successful Nightrose players always kept in mind when doing their turns. Like I mentioned before, we are blessed to have units that can be used in all three areas. So the real question is, what should I keep focusing on?
It’s generally good to have a mixture of all three if possible. Think about it. While you’re doing 4-5 attacks a turn, you’re able to draw 1-3 cards and apply real pressure with beaters. There are plays that will be more focused on drawing more cards with a few attacks or less beater pressure such as Ripple Banshee, Thin-mist, etc. There are plays that are big beaters but almost no draw such as Skull Dragons and Ghost Ship. There are plays that are more focused on multi attack such as Colombard/Captain Nightmist.
But what dictates your focus, will be your match-ups for the most part. Some decks require you to build up a lot of advantage to just survive until they run out of gas. Some decks need to be dealt with immediately so more pressure and multi attack will be your focus.“
To sum it up, the big picture is to be able to do our multi attack turns with as much pressure and advantage gaining. As a result, we can survive our opponent’s turns and be able to close out the game as soon as possible.
The Grade 3 ratio
Clearly, Nightrose should be our main VG but what about other G3s? Glad you asked!
To pair along with Nightrose is the mighty Skull Dragon! In fact, most of the Nightrose deck builds we’ve seen typically play at least 6 G3s (4 Nightrose, 2 Skull Dragon). Skull Dragon has always been a very solid G3 to play as a big RG beater that can be revived every turn.
Skull Dragon can be revived by the following cards:
Nightrose (battle phase only)
Colombard/Captain Nightmist (both main phase and battle phase)
Negrobone (main phase only)
The fact that we have flexibility on reviving Skull Dragons during both main phase and battle phase is great! We can easily have 2 Skull Dragon attacks with only 1 Skull Dragon card. We can have 3-4 attacks by reviving the 2nd copy during the main phase and/or battle phase.
Wait we can have 4 Skull Dragon attacks? Yep! Let me describe a play.
Main Phase:
Revive 2 Skull Dragons. You can use Negrobone/Colombard/Captain Nightmist.
Battle Phase:
Skull Dragon #1 (self retires)
Skull Dragon #2 (self retires)
Nightrose VG
CB1 to choose a column, revive a Skull Dragon and a Colombard/Captain Nightmist behind it.
CB1 to revive the 2nd copy of Skull Dragon onto the other front row RC.
Skull Dragon #1
Skull Dragon #2
Other Potential Grade 3 units?
There are a few that we can highlight. I’ll cover two that do get the most attention.
Cocytus is another G3 that can be a very solid VG ride target. Not only that, its skill helps with milling and calling 2+ cards to RC. A concern with Nightrose that stood out was that it has no main phase revival. We have to rely on other cards outside of our VG to build a main phase field. So a clever way of mitigating that is to ride Cocytus first, then next turn ride Nightrose.
However, after play testing and even seeing some results from tournaments, we realized that Cocytus isn’t really necessary. We have G1s and G2s that really make up for it. Especially when you have some quality cards in the drop zone/hand. I’ll cover those specific cards in a bit, so hold onto this thought for now ha.
King Tentacle is another G3 RG that can be used really well. The reason is mainly with the interaction with Colombard. Colombard is able to selectively mill any card from our deck. So by milling this guy, we can immediately call it to the other front row RC with just a SB1.
However, if you draw into it or mill it during an unexpected time, it’s not really that great. So I wouldn’t really take it to a tournament myself.
The Grade 2 ratio
I feel that the core of the G2 ratios are very consistent throughout multiple builds. Let’s start there!
Pirate Swordsman, Colombard:
[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, COST [Counter Blast (1)], search your deck for up to one card, put it into your drop zone, shuffle your deck, and call up to one card from your drop zone to (RC). This ability may only be used by a card with the same card name once a turn.
Definitely 4 copies of both Greed Shade and Colombard! Greed Shade does a lot for Granblue as a whole.
Greed Shade improves consistency:
G3 ride target
Milling
Improving hand quality for both field setup and hand shield value
Discarding key cards (Skull Dragon, Ghost Ship, Ripple Banshee, Negrobone, etc)
And we have his brother from another mother, Colombard! Colombard is able to fetch us ANY card from deck and send it to the drop zone. Furthermore, we can decide to revive another card if we wish to do so. Basically, we’re NOT forced to revive the card we just fetched.
Why is that important? We can set up our drop zone to extend our plays while reviving other key pieces.
Here are some examples:
If we have Cutlass in the drop zone already, we fetch a 2nd copy of Cutlass to the drop and revive a Ghost Ship/Skull Dragon. Then we can use Cutlass’ skill to call itself behind Colombard and CC. We can reuse the same CB for that turn to do 4-5 attacks. As a result, you got 3 RGs set up during the main phase without too much effort/resources.
We can send Negrobone to the drop zone, then revive Ghost Ship/Skull Dragon. Then use Negrobone to discard a card like Ripple Banshee and call it behind Colombard. We SB1 to draw one and can also recall the Ripple Banshee during the battle phase to SB1 again and draw another card.
We can send Nightrose to the drop zone, then revive another unit. Then call Greed Shade and add Nightrose to the hand. We essentially fetched a Nightrose from deck to hand, so that we can ride properly if we didn’t have it already.
Typically, the go to play when you ride to G2 with Colombard is to fetch and revive a Ghost Ship. Ghost Ship is a 24k beater and will draw you a new card. It self retires, so you won’t have front row RGs for the opponent to easily damage deny you for your upcoming G3 turn. The only way to damage deny you is if they ride and pass turn immediately.
Both Ghost Ship and Captain Nightmist have seen ratios at 1-2 copies each. I feel that Ghost Ship should be at 2 copies because Nightrose’s play style relies on it to have both that pressure and advantage gaining. Skull Dragon is a bigger beater for sure, but you don’t draw a new card.
Captain Nightmist becomes essential because Colombard’s skill is a hard once per turn. So if we used Colombard to build a main phase field with his skill, that means we can’t reuse him during the battle phase! So we can alternatively use Captain Nightmist to make it easier on us to build fields both in main phase and battle phase. He can be seen as the 5th Colombard.
Furthermore, it helps mitigate more on the main phase field setup. So having 1-2 copies is appreciated. Also, it’s worth noting that this card, Colombard, and Nightrose are the only cards that use CB. Everything else uses Soul, discards, mills, etc.
Thin-mist Banshee is another G2 that is pretty solid. The one thing about her though, it’s often compared to Ghost Ship. It essentially does the same thing but Ghost Ship is better.
So why even play her? Great question! The real benefit is being able to call her normally from hand during your main phase. Ghost Ship cannot be called normally to RC from hand nor to GC. So depending on which kind of build you’re geared to, she can see 0-3 copies in a build.
Ruin Shade isn’t seen much anymore, but it is there in case you want more milling. On its debut turn, you can mill 2 cards for a quick +4K. In addition, if you play her on turn 2 and she lives till turn 3 (when Nightrose is ridden), she can mill for a net total of 4 cards! My good amigo, Ahmes004, has messed with a build utilizing Ruin Shade over Greed Shade for budget reasons, feel free to ask him about it if curious.
Also, considering that in terms of drop zone quantity, Ruin Shade can be used to set up drop zone relatively faster compared to other G2 options. It means that you don’t just have to rely on Skeleton Seas Navigator for heavy milling.
The Grade 1 ratio
We’ve already mentioned some key G1s so let’s start with them!
Witch Doctor of Powdered Bone, Negrobone:
[ACT](Drop zone):COST [Discard a card from your hand & put this card on the bottom of your deck], and call a grade 1 card from your drop zone to (RC). If your drop zone has ten or more cards, you may call regardless of the grade.
Both Negrobone and Ripple Banshee are very vital for Nightrose’s success. They also work well together.
Negrobone does a lot overall:
Discards key pieces
Revives ANYTHING else (Once 10+ cards are in the drop zone)
Bottom decks itself (Yes! I’ve been wanting a great generic card that can return itself back to deck)
Negrobone has plenty of options to revive during the main phase:
Skull Dragon
Colombard/Captain Nightmist
Ghost Ship
Ripple Banshee
Tommy
Etc
One of the problems that Granblue has always had is deck out. Negrobone can help us with not decking out so soon. It can also create a stack that pushes up our other cards remaining in deck. You can also shuffle your deck with Colombard, to potentially draw into them, drive check them, or fetch mill to further use again later on.
Ripple Banshee is a great booster/attacker that we can continually rely on and gain advantage. In fact, she refunds the discard cost of Negrobone’s skill if she’s called. She’s also a great booster for when we use Nightrose’s battle phase skill.
For example, she’s great boosting Ghost Ship or Colombard/Captain Nightmist:
Ghost Ship boosted by Ripple Banshee (24k + 5k + 12k +5k = 46k)
Colombard boosted by Ripple Banshee (9k + 5k + 12k +5k = 31k)
You can also call Ripple Banshee from hand as an attacker. She will be a 13k attacker and self retire due to Nightrose. She then can be revived during the battle phase to refund you a card back to hand thanks to her skill.
Tommy the Ghostie Brothers:
[CONT](VC/RC):During your turn, if your drop zone has five or more cards, this unit gets [Power]+5000.
[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed from hand, look at five cards from the top of your deck, reveal up to one grade 3 from among them and put it into your hand, shuffle your deck, and if you put a card, discard a card from your hand.
Both Tommy and Dancing Cutlass serve as great support cards. They can see 3-4 copies in most builds. In the Navigator focused build we see 4 copies of Cutlass and 0-2 copies of Tommy.
Tommy is able to check top 5 for a Nightrose or a Skull Dragon. Furthermore, the discard actually helps set up our drop zone. What’s also really nice is that its +5k is easily achievable, which makes a great booster!
Here are some examples:
Ghost Ship boosted by Tommy (24k + 5k + 13k + 5k = 47k)
Colombard/Captain Nightmist boosted by Tommy (9k + 5k + 13k + 5k = 32k)
Notice with 9k G2s we can hit the 32k mark. Which forces out more shield value against Accel and Protect clans.
Skeleton Seas Navigator:
[ACT](RC):COST [[Rest] two rear-guards], and put five cards from the top of your deck into your drop zone.
Dolph and Navigator are cards that are more preference style and also dependent on your current meta game.
Dolph hasn’t seen play recently with the Nightrose builds. It’s very common to see 2 Sentinel Critical triggers with 2 Draw PGs OR 4 Sentinel Critical triggers.
There seems to be a new trend of multi attack for most clans now getting new support. So having access to a Sentinel Critical trigger can provide a 1 card guard. There are some exceptions where a PG will provide more useful, so hence the split ratio. We’re also able to generate Protect I Gifts to be a PG for us. Greed Shade is also able to retrieve Sentinels from the drop zone as well.
So wait, if there are PGs being used, why are we using the Draw PG in Granblue? Granblue normally uses a lot of Critical triggers doesn’t it? Great questions and glad you asked! The key thing with Draw PGs is that it allows clans to add other key G1s.
This new support introduced Tommy, Negrobone, and Navigator. So a way to help mitigate including those cards are to use Draw PGs instead. Thankfully, we can just do a split ratio with the Sentinel Critical triggers. So most builds play 10-12 Critical triggers. We still have that aggro pressure from Critical triggers.
Now onto the next hot G1 topic, to use or NOT to use Navigator? That is the question. So the other variation of Nightrose is using 3-4 copies of Navigator to introduce a hyper mill engine. I myself did a deck profile and explained why this helps Nightrose out more than we originally thought.
The key things to take from this:
5 and 10 cards in drop zone are magic numbers
5 cards, Tommy becomes 13k both on VC/RC
10 cards, Negrobone, Captain Nightmist, and Greed Shade become fully live
Skull Dragon becomes stronger quicker, so we can do the 4 Skull Dragon attack turn quicker
Negrobone and Cutlass are more quicker in being accessible in the drop zone
Helps building a main phase field setup
Negrobone can revive ANYTHING quicker like Ghost Ship/Skull Dragon
Negrobone can literally make your G2 turn explosive and well setup by reviving cards like Colombard and Greed Shade from the drop zone
Generally 2 mills from Navigator is a great spot to be
Practice enough to find that stopping point in certain match ups
Navigator can be used more than once in a single turn
Access to key plays earlier before our G3 ride turn
By G2 turn, you can already have access to Negrobone on reviving key pieces like Colombard to do your go to play with Ghost Ship, if you didn’t ride with him
On G1 turn, Ripple Banshee can be used immediately with Negrobone to SB1 and +1 card in field advantage
You can CC with Cutlass and call it to RC
With Negrobone/Colombard you can revive Greed Shade to grab a copy of Nightrose for your G3 ride target
The Grade 0 Ratio
I’ve kind of already touched a little bit of the trigger lineup earlier, but let’s cover some basis.
Granblue has a history of playing typically 8-12 Critical triggers. Since Granblue’s clan mechanic is to revive units from the drop zone, we naturally can build up advantage. So draw triggers aren’t really needed.
However, with the inclusion of Draw PGs now, we can make more room in the G1 slots. Nightrose and the support around it is able to generate advantage so the Draw triggers aren’t needed but don’t really hurt. The only scenario that a Draw trigger is bad for us, is when we don’t want to drive check one when we’re close to deck out. That’s really it.
Depending on your meta game, the Sentinel Critical triggers may be more required to be played at a high ratio like 4 copies. Remember, we have access to Protect I gifts that are PG-like Sentinels.
Of course still play the 4 Heal triggers. Healing damage actually benefits us because those cards end up in the drop zone for usage. You could also go very aggro and take out the Heal triggers to go 16 Critical triggers.
So what’s a trigger lineup I can play then? It’s meta game dependent and also somewhat preference. Personally, I’d lean towards 10-12 Critical triggers with 4 Heal triggers and only 0-2 Draw PGs.
Undying Departed, Grenache:
[AUTO]:When rode upon, draw a card. Then, if your opponent’s vanguard is grade 1 or greater, put a Quick Shield Ticket into your hand.
Our starting VG is any on ride draw one starter. I really like how they did Grenache’s new retrain art! I’m also loving the retrain art for Good Luck Charm Banshee, really well done!
More Other Options
There are some considerations to use as well.
Witch Doctor of Languor, Negrolazy:
[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, you may call a grade 0 from your drop zone to (RC).
Forbode Ghost Ship:
[ACT](Drop Zone):COST [Discard a card from your hand], call this card to (RC), and if your drop zone has ten or more cards, this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn.
Negrolazy has been a tech seen in some builds. The revival is limiting but it’s a free revival. You can make a column with the G0 revived or even call it to the other front row RC to extend another attack. Of course that unit will need a booster still to hit.
Forbode is another tech option that has seen in some builds. It’s a card that can call itself by just discarding a card. This allows you to conserve your CB and set up a main phase field. This card goes along well with Colombard’s fetching and Navigator’s milling. Once you have 10+ cards in the drop zone, it becomes 22k on its own.
Basic Go To Plays
Skeleton Sea Navigator + RG
If you open up with Navigator early on, definitely call it and another RG to start milling. Every turn afterwards is another opportunity to reuse the skill to mill again. Just be aware of clans that can retire, bind, cradle, etc. your RGs. A great target to Rest is Tommy since you’ll get the on place skill when it’s called. You can also call your G0s if you need to get another RG during your G1 turn, it’s worth it.
Colombard + Ghost Ship/Ripple Banshee
Most of the time when you ride Colombard onto VC, you’ll use his skill to fetch and revive Ghost Ship. There is also Ripple Banshee as well. But why Ghost Ship more over Ripple Banshee?
Ghost Ship does a couple of things:
24k beater that can hit over a damage trigger checked
Draws you a new card
Since it self retires
Prevents the opponent attacking it to deny damage
Reusage from the drop zone
To sum it up, it has hand advantage gain, with pressure, and drop zone setup.
Negrobone + Key RGs
Remember I mentioned that Negrobone and Ripple Banshee are vital for Nightrose’s success? One key play that they can do together is being able to discard Ripple Banshee from hand, and immediately reviving it. Then you SB1 to draw a new card and becomes a 12k. Hand advantage is gained back and helps with actually using Ripple Banshee’s skill.
Plus you can discard other key pieces and reviving those once you hit 10+ cards in the drop zone. Both Ghost Ship and Skull Dragon are solid beaters to set up during the main phase for a Nightrose turn. A key thing to note is that Ghost Ship will refund you hand advantage while Skull Dragon doesn’t.
Again, once you have 10+ cards in drop zone, Negrobone turns ANY card in hand into something of quality from the drop zone.
Dancing Cutlass And Greed Shade
Cutlass not only is great for able to CC but it also serves as a booster for the Nightrose turns. What’s really nice is that it just requires another copy in the drop zone to call itself. Which helps conserve hand.
Remember Greed Shade will aid you in many ways:
Discarding key pieces
Grabbing key pieces to keep in hand or call to RC from hand
It becomes a 14k beater on its own, then gets an additional +5k from Nightrose
Easy 3 RG Main Phase Setup
There are multiple ways of calling RGs onto the field during your main phase. One I like to highlight is using Colombard in combination with Cutlass.
Call Colombard from hand (or drop via Negrobone)
CB1 to fetch a 2nd copy of Cutlass into the drop zone
Call a Ghost Ship onto the other front row RC
Use Cutlass’ skill to revive itself and CC
Note that Ghost Ship will also refund you a card back to hand since you called Colombard from hand or via Negrobone as well. If you used Colombard to build a field during the main phase, you must use a card like Captain Nightmist to reach 5 attacks with Nightrose’s skill.
Other Key Tips
Cards like Ripple Banshee, Negrobone, and Cutlass are great to guard with since their skills are from drop zone or have to be revived. G1s in V Era have 10k shield.
When discarding for Negrobone’s skill, you can discard another copy of Negrobone if you drew one during your draw phase. This allows you to use another Negrobone to call another RG.
Colombard can fetch and revive other key pieces to use that turn such as Navigator and Greed Shade.
Greed Shade is great as serving as a 19k beater in combination of Nightrose’s power up skill and the 10+ cards in drop zone. You can improve your hand quality in order to do a stronger turn or defensive shield value.
Use Ripple Banshee to SB key pieces that you have ridden beforehand.
You can mill King Tentacle with Colombard and having it SB1 to call itself as an extra RG.
Deck Lists
Nightrose Navigator
This list utilizes 4 Navigators to help accelerate the deck to a 10-15 card count in the drop zone by your G3 ride turn. It enables the cards that rely on the 10+ in drop zone requirement to be at full power. Not only that, it make Skull Dragons bigger beaters faster.
I did a more in depth deck profile on my channel. Feel free to take a look and see my mindset and also some key plays mentioned. You can replace the 1 Tommy with a 2nd Captain Nightmist as well. I still played the 1 Tommy because it’s another target to call on your G1 turn and get another skill off too.
Nightrose w/ Cocytus
2nd List provided by Baowow
These two lists focus on utilizing 4 Cocytus to have as a 1st G3 ride. Part of the reason is that it provides milling 4 cards and reviving cards during the main phase. Tommy is also used to help with find the right G3s to ride throughout your game. Since 10 G3s are being played, the success rate of hitting a G3 is higher than the 6 G3 list prior.
The first list with Cocytus is what you’d expect. However, the second list with Cocytus uses both Navigators and King Tentacle. That build focuses on milling aggressively early on and also taking advantage of King Tentacle as a SB1 unit that calls itself from drop if milled. Remember, Cocytus gains power and an additional Critical. Just be aware you’ll be limited to 3 attacks max.
The second list also goes credit to Baowow for play testing with it and refining it to this current build. He also mentioned to me to keep your eye on deck size while playing his list so you don’t deck out!
Nightrose Pure
This list is a more pure version of Nightrose. Thin-mist is also utilized and can vary from 1-3 copies. Thin-mists are used as attackers to be able to call from hand to maintain advantage since it lets you draw a card back when retired via your Nightrose skill. The list also depends on Tommy more with the G3 ride consistency.
Meta Game Considerations
So during this time some countries are in different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. There hasn’t been major tournaments this 2020 year at all. So when it comes to the meta game, it really boils down to local tournaments and with only so many players willing to go to these events too.
So I will come from a different approach instead. I’ll discuss some of the clans that are highly represented from Japan’s results from their local events. I’ll cover some tips and counter plays.
V-BT09
This is the set that Nightrose is released and it had a total of 4 clans that got support and all saw representation.
Nightrose Mirror
Going against the mirror takes some practice but it’s similar to G Era days. You want to focus on getting a good number of attacks while maintaining advantage. Both players will keep going until one breaks through the other’s defense or runs out of resources. It can become a grind game as well, so expect that.
Personally, I believe the Navigator build has an advantage because you can immediately become at full power by G2/G3 turn. It can put the opponent in a position of trying to catch up to you which keeps you on the offensive.
Harri
Going against Harri is similar to the Nightrose mirror with some key differences. Harri has a limit on how many units it can call depending if you’re at G3 yet. So going second isn’t as brutal but you still want the first G3 turn since you can go off.
Early on you want to attack their Magia Doll RGs directly! They all have the GC skill that they can go into their Soul once retired from GC. So you want to avoid them from actually intercepting with them.
One key note is to end the game as soon as possible because the Accel circles will keep stacking up against you. Harri can also do 4-5 attacks per turn thanks to having the Stage and the Pop Dragon play. Also, both the Pigeon and Pop Dragon use the Stage so they’re going to be BIG attacks. Use your sentinels wisely on the other attacks because Pop Dragon has Sentinel restriction from your hand.
Also, if Harri doesn’t open as well such as building their Soul up with their different key units, then it can be a great opportunity to steal the win.
Scharhrot
Scharhrot is another clan that can do 4-5 attacks and it’s also a Protect clan. (Hmm there seems to be a pattern ha.) Scharhrot is another clan that depends on the Soul both in quantity and quality. The best strategy is to NOT give ANY damage early on, specifically before they ride G2. The reason is because their key cards that help build up the Soul rely on CB, such as Emblem Master and Demonted Executioner. So you can deny CB early on and ride up to G3 and then go off. Scharhrot will have to catch up to build their Soul and still apply pressure.
The Navigator build also helps with your deck reaching full power by G2/G3 turn. Giving you the advantage on being ready to dish out plays during your G2/G3 turn after denying them damage beforehand.
Yasuie
This match-up surprisingly reminds me of Blue Wave Tetra-boil days. They are able to generate a lot of RG attacks and have two VG attacks. They’re also Accel, so they can make some numbers, gain advantage with Accel II, and keep creating Accel circles to add more attacks. It is a very challenging one.
So some key cards they have that make it challenging is Shirayuki, Takehime, and both Yasuies. Yasuie does the reride which grants them a 2nd VG attack and another Accel circle. This allows Takehime to fill that additional circle with another attacker. One way to slow down the aggression is to force them to use their CB to build up their field instead for Takehime. Do your best to NOT give them too much open CB. Later in the game they can reach an absurd number of attacks such as 9-10.
Also be aware of them using Nyudos to dig deeper into their deck for key pieces like Yasuies and Takehimes.
The other problem is Shirayuki because it makes your attacks -10k. The moment they guard with it is when you attack with Nightrose and call your final attackers. Those attacks will become -10k weaker. It makes those attacks just easier to guard. So if you plan to do the 4 Skull Dragon attack turn, I recommend calling a full board of boosters too. This way, it just negates the +10k power ups that Nightrose will give to the RG columns.
Another aspect that makes it challenging too is that they always have unlimited searches because they can search for their key cards from both deck and drop zone. They don’t really run out of gas. They are also able to recycle the 1 Shirayuki they play with Rainy Madame. This deck is actually that good.
V-BT10
Luard and Gredora have been seeing the most representation (especially Luard) so I’ll cover these two decks.
Luard
Luard is pretty good on setting itself up with utilizing both Nemain and the PBO ride up engine as well. So it’s a bit hard to counter. Depending on what they open up and put on the field, make some right judgement calls on attacking their RGs or their VG. Focus on also maintaining advantage early on and build from there to deal with their Dragdriver turns.
One key card is the Nemain. If they don’t open up with it, then deny them CB before they ride to G2. This locks them out of Liafail as well. So they cannot fetch Nemain with it and start their G1 engine rolling.
Wait but Nemain and Luard can’t be used anymore together? Correct. I wrote this before the restriction came out but thought I leave it here still to share. So now just focus the similar strategy with Scharhrot, where you don’t give ANY CB before their G2 turn.
Gredora
Gredora and the new support utilizes the Cradle markers. In order to take advantage of the Cradle markers they need you to have RGs present on the field. So for the entire game you can make sure that you leave no RGs on the field.
Nightrose’s mandatory retire power up skill comes in really handy for this match-up. Before G3 turn, you can use the Colombard to Ghost Ship play still. Ghost Ship self retires!
As you keep your field empty, you can continue with your 4-5 attack plays and just win that way. They can also do 4-5 attacks so keep that in mind but you’ll maintain and build advantage still while they can’t due to NOT letting them put Cradle markers on your RGs.
If you’re playing the Navigator build, there’s two ways to handle this. You can use the Navigator with another RG and expect for those 2 RGs to get hit with the Cradle markers next turn. So you’ll only get a one time use typically. Which can be worth it or not, just depends how you open up. You can keep those on the field until they use their resources to retire them. Even though they are at 0 power, they can still attack and can gain power by Nightrose’s +5k, drive checks, and by a booster. Otherwise, just don’t use Navigator in this match-up at all.
So What’s The Best Build?
That’s a great question! So if you made it this far reading thanks! You’ve consumed a lot of good value of how to build Nightrose but now what kind direction do you want to go with?
There’s some considerations that will impact your decision:
Are you playing for casual or competitiveness?
The meta game that you are facing with in your games/tournaments.
Your play style and how you much time you’re willing to improve on how to play the variant.
Nightrose Navigator
This build can definitely compete in the overall meta game. It’s very fast in terms of becoming full power by G2/G3 turn. This deck’s strategy is to build up enough drop zone count and maximize your 4-5 attack turns. Finally, having a quicker access to the 4 Skull Dragon attacks turn. It’s suited for players that like a fast paced and aggressive style.
One meta game consideration worth noting is that if your area has a lot of Gredora representation then you may consider the other builds that don’t rely on Navigator.
Nightrose w/ Cocytus
This build can also compete and it’s theme is properly building up advantage and your drop zone count. Cocytus is a solid 1st G3 ride for these reasons and can setup properly for more aggressive Nightrose turns. Navigator can be used to further accelerate the mill power. So depending if you include Navigator or not, then expect to a more steady pace without it otherwise again fast paced.
This variation with Navigator I feel needs some extra games to determine your stopping point when it comes to milling. So you’ll have to spend more time on learning how to play effectively with it, otherwise you’ll deck out.
Pure Nightrose
This build I feel may have some trouble in the meta game because it’s not as fast as the prior two. The meta game has fast decks that go off as soon as they ride G3. That includes decks that I didn’t even cover such as Overlord, Messiah, MLB, etc. This deck I feel is best suited for casual play. It can win games in the meta game but it may not be as easy. It’s a more steady pace and you have to rely on key cards like Thin-mist to keep up with solid turns.
Although, I feel this variation is the easiest to pick up and learn how to play. There’s no extra factors that really give it more depth to learn such as Cocytus and Navigator. So if time is short, this could be a valid pick for a tournament if you don’t have to the appropriate time to learn and build confidence with the prior variations.
Final Thoughts
Thanks again for reading this deck study of Nightrose Standard! This has been a very enjoyable journey to create and play test. I hope this can help you in learning more about Nightrose in aiding you on using the deck or even how to counter it.
What’s next? Great question! I will be continuing with some more Premium deck profiles for Nightrose. The English release will be in early October, so I’m excited to have the real cards and also curious to see how things pan out in the U.S. Again we’re all in different phases of the pandemic so we’ll see how tournaments pan out throughout the countries.
Credit To Those Who Have Helped With This Deck Study
I’ve had a good amount of help with play testing, discussions, concepts, deck lists, and meta game considerations. Thanks to my amigos! In no particular order ha.
CrieTEXe TIG
xSilentxArtistx (formerly CVCTVChannel)
Zaee
Naroth
Baowow
Ahmes004
Dravoth
Zellious
Duke
Cipher
MachinaBlau
ZeoW