Clan Analysis: Goku Kagero and Blockade

Kagero is a clan that focuses mainly around dragons, but includes humans and lizards or snakes. Kagero are powerful units that focus around retiring opponents units in order to stop the opponent from intercepting and in order to weaken their attacking force for the next turn. Kagero also has access to 11k units, unlike other clans (for the moment, anyways).




Currently, the most popular and seemingly most consistent Kagero build is the Goku Kagero deck. The list typically looks like this.

http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1038006

The deck uses a lot of units such as Berserk Dragon, Kimnara, Gattling Claw, and Goku that can retire units. The first three have counterblasts to retire specific grades of Units. Goku on the other hand is a Grade 3 unit with the standard 10k power, but whenever he drive checks a Grade 3 unit, he can retire one of your opponent's Grade 1 or lower rear guards, weakening their attack power for the next turn, and by using Aermo, you can swap out that grade 3 unit for another one, so that you can (hopefully) guard as well. The other grade 3 unit that this deck makes use of is Dragonic Overlord, an 11k Dragon, with a counterblast (3) that gives it +5000 power and the ability to stand every time it hits a rear guard. They are both good Vanguard's in their own ways. Dragonic Overlord will make blocking much easier as well as potentially getting a 3rd drive check, and Goku can retire units with it's Drive Check. The majority of the other units are triggers and standard units like Nehalem or Bahr. Tejas is also sometimes used, with it's ability to attack back row units in its column.

The thing that I like about the deck is that it is consistent and relies on basic strategy as opposed to a specific combo in order to win. There's not really much arguing over the decks structure or that it works well. It is certainly better than other Kagero decks, such as Aleph builds and may remain the best until Dragonic Overlord The End.

However, for the time being, there is one card that I believe is overlooked, and that card is Seal Dragon, Blockade.



Seal Dragon Blockade stops intercepting while it your Vanguard. While this may not seem like a big deal at first, it can easily take players by surprise, and usually gets rid of your opponents opponents ability to guard, particularly with new units such as Knight of Truth, Gordon or Security Guardian, which gain additional power from guarding. Unlike Goku's ability, Blockade's is always in effect. It is particularly good later game, when your opponent is high on damage and low on cards to block with, which is why some people have taken to using both, starting with Goku, and riding into Blockade when the time comes, although that plan would only work sometimes...

It will be interesting to see if more people start using this card. I think it's widely assumed that Goku is better, but a Seal Dragon can be devastating...