STAR VADER! SILVER THORN! Assseeeemble!

Sorry for the delay. This post would've appeared last night, but a power outage destroyed my internet! I come to you today supporting two very obvious Archetypes (as seen in my title): Star Vader [Link Joker] and Silver Thorn [Pale Moon].

I'll start with the clan that I'm more interested in: Pale Moon. It seems Silver Thorn is combining two primary effects: Superior Soulcharging from the Deck and TEMPORARY Superior Calling from the Soul. The only downside is that nearly every card MUST be a "Silver Thorn" for the effects to work, so these cards WILL NOT support previous Pale Moon builds very well. Let's see why, with the clan's new starter!



Silver Thorn Assistant, Ionera
<<Pale Moon>>
Grade 0 | 5,000 Power

AUTO (VG) Forerunner (When a <<Pale Moon>> rides this card, move it to RG.)
AUTO (RG) When an attack hits during the battle that this unit boosted a "Silver Thorn" card, look at the top two cards of your deck, choose up to one "Silver Thorn" card among them, and place it into the soul. Then place the rest of them on the bottom of the deck in any order.






Welcome to the new Pale Moon! This effect is good for multiple reasons. 1) It's free. 2) It's repeatable (card never moves to the soul). 3) Deck Thinning. 4) Deck Stacking. 5) The attack CAN hit a RG and still trigger. The potential to put very special cards into soul keep getting bigger, and if you can pull it off for a regular 5 turns match, you easily stack several cards in your deck (up to 10 if you never choose to SC, 5 if you SC every time). With a deck like pale moon, you DO hit those bottom 10 cards over time, so its potentially a Tsukuyomi situation.

Also, your starter isn't the only one to do this. Look!


Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina
<<Pale Moon>>
Grade 1 | 7,000 Power

AUTO When this unit is placed on VG or RG, if you have a VG with "Silver Thorn" in its name, you may check the top two cards of your deck, choose up to 1 "Silver Thorn" unit among them and put it into soul. Then place the rest on the bottom of the deck in any order.









Played early game, these units allow you to stack the soul. Which is good, because you'll need them for these two ladies...

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana
<<Pale Moon>>
Grade 1 | 7,000 Power


AUTO (RG) [CB1] When an attack hits a VG during the battle this unit boosted a <<Pale Moon>>, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose 1 "Silver Thorn" in your soul, call it to RG. Return that unit to the soul at the end of your turn.

Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Marichika
<<Pale Moon>>
Grade 2 | 9,000 Power


AUTO (RG) [CB1] When this unit's attack hits a VG, if you have  a <<Pale Moon>> VG, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose 1 "Silver Thorn" in your soul, call it to RG. Return that unit to the soul at the end of your turn.








At first I thought "Alice and Bunny Clones, only weaker." Which is pretty true. Except for two key differences. 1st, they don't vanish. They keep the field just as big as it was, which is good. Alice and Bunny had to swap in, which caused some awkwardness in field size. Second is that the card you call will return to the soul. This is both blessing and curse. You can't summon a defensive unit, or the all important booster to hang around. But you can summon big heavy hitters (your Bedivere Clones) that your opponent will want to destroy. When they pop away, your opponent won't get to kill them, AND they will go back into the soul to fuel a new ability. Also, none of these say Open RG, so you can set up a weak field, and then sacrifice it for a better field, albeit one that will empty at the end of the turn.

Speaking of your Bedivere and Kay clones:

Silver Thorn Breathing Dragon
<<Pale Moon>>
Grade 1 | 7,000 Power















Silver Thorn Rising Dragon
<<Pale Moon>>
Grade 2 | 9,000 Power






Perfect clones of Knight of Loyalty Bedivere and Knight of Friendship, Kay. They both gain 3,000 Power when attacking if your VG has "Silver Thorn" in its name (which means they work in older, traditional Silver Thorn Builds). This build also has a new 10K unit with "Silver Thorn" in its name, as well a full set of "Silver Thorn" triggers, to make those Archetype numbers swell.

Oh, you also get a shiny new Perfect Guard:

Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia
<<Pale Moon>>
Grade 1 | 6,000 Power


Like <<Dark Irregular>>, <<Pale Moon>> completely changed their Perfect Guard, making them the only two clans to do this. They are special, possibly because they turned evil. Yay Evil!









Unfortunately, the effect revealed for Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier-R was a complete sham. It was a fake card, which seemed very balanced. Personally, I'm glad it was fake, because it was a worse card than Silver Thorn herself, but that does mean there is no boss card for Silver Thorns yet. Await more info!

And now onto the main attraction, in the center ring, LINK JOKER!

Only three cards to show you today (and two to mention), helping to outline Link Joker's brokenness. Bushiroad has been keeping these guys close to the vest, but here we go!

Demonic Claw Star Vader, Lanthanum
<<Link Joker>>
Grade 1 | 7,000


AUTO (RG) When your opponent's RG is Locked by one of your cards' effects, this unit gains +2,000 Power until the end of the turn.










This is a super easy boosting requirement. If you lock a minimum of 1 unit per turn, this unit boosts for 9,000. In a big push with some of your Link Joker skills, this unit can boost for a maximum of 17,000, although with current effects you can only Lock 4 units in one turn, so 15,000. Final Turn?

One Who Shoots Gravitational Singularities
<<Link Joker>>
Grade 2 | 8,000 Power

AUTO (RG) When this unit's attack hits a VG, if you have a <<Link Joker>> VG, and your opponent has a locked card, you choose one of his RG and Lock it.
(A locked card is flipped face down and can't do anything. Locked cards flip face up at the end of their owner's turn.)








More locking. For free. This time as a RG. Just imagine if you ride Mobius Breath and have two of these flanking it. On turn 2. Lock three cards? I'm just getting mad at the brokenness now.

Look at their boss, and imagine him break riding Infinite Zero. Cuz its dumb.

Star Vader, Nebula Lord Dragon
<<Link Joker>>
Grade 3 | 11,000 Power

CONT (VG) (LB4) During your turn, every <<Link Joker>> in your front row gain +3,000 Power for each Locked card your opponent has.
ACT (VG) [CB2] Choose one of your opponent's RG on the back row, and Lock it.
(Locked units are flipped face down and can't do anything. Lock units unflip at the end of their owner's turn.)
CONT (VG/RG) Lord





So for 2 CB at LB4, This unit can: Give all front row +3000, and give the backrow grade 1 booster (seen above) a +2000. If he break rides over Infinite Zero, all your front row will gain +9,000 instead, and if you use Dust Tail Unicorn, thats +12,000 to the entire front row.....go die in a fire Link Joker.