Demiurge Misconceptions and Deckbuilding

So uh, Demiurge support came and there's been a good amount of talk about it.

I couldn't believe all the things people were saying.

There was so much wrong with the Demiurge advice people were giving... I'm making it my job to fix all of those misconceptions.

Let's begin.

Misconception 1: Drastic is a better ride over Prospatheia

Why anyone. Anyone. Would even suggest that Drastic is better for Demiurge than Prospatheia needs to wake themselves up.

First, the good things. Drastic offers a solid on-ride to start up binding, is a Zodiac Time Beast as well as a Gear Colossus, and grants some aggressive pressure with the powerboost per bound card on-stride, which also nets a bound card. He also fixes hands a bit.

Now let me tell you why none of that matters.

Drastic's binding speed is completely outshined by Prospatheia. If we look at how much they bind every turn, Drastic binds 1 on ride, and then 1 every turn you stride. So he binds one on ride and then another one every turn cycle. In comparison, Prospatheia binds two at the end of the turn and one guardian with his GB2, effectively making him a bind three per turn cycle. If we look at how quickly Demiurge goes off with striding Altered(and no other bind engines), we see that:

Drastic:

First Turn Cycle: 5, Second Turn Cycle: 9, Third Turn Cycle: 13, Fourth Turn Cycle: Demiurge

Prospatheia:

First Turn Cycle: 6, Second Turn Cycle: 12, Third Turn Cycle: Demiurge

Prospatheia finishes his Demiurge setup an entire turn before Drastic, as well as providing
survivability with his GB2 to live til Third Stride to allow for a use of Demiurge. Sitting on Prospatheia is undoubtedly better for getting Demiurge off, which is the entire goal of the deck, is it not?

Drastic's aggressive bonus with his on-stride skill isn't making much for his case, either. He needs five card in bind to hit one stage and ten cards in bind to hit a second. It's unlikely he'll grant a third stage with the powerboost, since you'll most likely stride Demiurge before getting the bind to 15+. He loses out on the stride skill powerboost after using Demiurge as well, since 12 cards will be leaving the Bind Zone. Prospatheia, while he doesn't provide offensive power, provides minor field control as well as an amazing defensive skill to bump him up to 26k base by binding any ZTB on your Guardian Circle.

Drastic being a Zodiac Time Beast as well as a Gear Colossus offers little benefits when compared to Prospatheia's pure Gear Colossus race, the only benefits being treated as a ZTB while in bind for Demiurge and being a ZTB to discard for Arka(Who I'm gonna talk about later, don't worry). Both of these are extremely minor benefits that. The increase in ZTB bind consistency with Drastic is completely outweighed by the fact that Prospatheia just binds faster and binds more. The discard benefits for Arka is minor as well, since you'll more likely than not have another Zodiac to discard for Arka's cost anyways.

Oh, and speaking of Arka...

Misconception 2: Arka takes priority over Quintet Walls
This has got to be my favorite one.

Yes, Arka is a great card and pretty stable in Demiurge, but immediately deciding that it is a 4-of without considering Quintet Walls is just wrong.

Quintet Walls thin the deck and places triggers and other needed cards into the drop, namely triggers. They set up a good Demiurge on second or third stride close to effortlessly, as well as saving hand cards. Looking at our available Quintet Walls as well, Chanomai binds two cards and Emellana binds one card while recycling units.

Arka has great benefits as well. She's a PG, first of all, and recycles herself allowing for more surivivability. People say that she's an amazing bind engine because "Wow bind two from drop so good!". But here's the thing, she needs to bind a Trigger and herself, herself being the big clincher. The first use of Arka is a bind two Zodiacs, which is good in and of itself, but later uses are only a bind one for Demiurge. There are also a good amount of occasions where the triggers in your drop zone all have the same names as triggers in your bind, effectively making her a bind zero in some cases(although this doesn't happen too often).

Arka's a great card, so I love her at 2 in Demiurge, but running her at 4 and omitting Quintet Walls is just silly. Quintets do too much for the deck to cut completely, especially Chanomai(who had a boost in consistency as well with Drastic being a good backup ride to Prospatheia).

And finally...

Misconception 3: Running too many Idea Drones ruins consistency
Ok, I have to give some credit this is half true.

What is true is that running more Idea Drones means running less Zodiacs, meaning that there's less Zodiacs to bind and makes it somewhat harder to get 12 of them into the Bind Zone.

What isn't true is that it actually lowers the chances of getting Demiurge off.

The entire Idea Drone engine increases bind speed and consistency as a tradeoff for skewing correct bind targets. Prospatheia binds three every turn cycle, Chanomai binds two every time he's used, Kaigomai gets a Zodiac straight out of the deck and binds it when he intercepts, and Anarchia is literally the Refros of the deck. Hell, the non-binding Idea Drone stuff is great as well. Voltaro CCs and fixes your bind and hand(hey, it grabs Arka from bind as well) and Itel blocks for a huge number once you have 8+ in the bind zone. Running less Zodiacs for more Idea Drones is an entirely even tradeoff and as long as the Idea Drone engine is streamlined and uncluttered.

Now onto how this deck should be built.

Grade 3s

Obviously Prospatheia goes in at 4, no reason to run less of your main ride this is common knowledge.

Drastic, being the next best ride to Prospatheia, should go in at around 2-3.

Your last 1-2 Grade 3 slots are pretty much player pick.

Chronojet G and Tiger are both to enable different things in your GZone: Nextage+Groovy and Rebellion+Bind Time respectively. Hell, you could be a madman and fit in both into your deck if you are feeling it.

Tiger G can bind things on Rear and enable Rebellion and Bind Time as well, despite being a terrible ride. Run if you wish.

Grade 4s
Obviously a copy Demiurge. Heck, you can run two if you're daring for the ultimate memes.

Altered Dragon should go in at 2-3. He's the main Bind engine of the deck and the reason Demiurge can even go off at all. Split Pegasus is a great flip target to pay for Altered's cost, so I recommend to run as many Split as you have Altereds.

The rest of the GZone comes to what you decided to play as your Zodiac Grade 3s. Running Jet? Add Chronojet and Groovy. Running Tiger? Add Rebellion and Bind Time. Fiery March Colossus is another great option to have for his potential Glory skill and guaranteed three triggers.

GGuards are easy. Uluru at 1-2, Raphanna at 1-2, and Pandora Chimera at 0-1, and new Uluru at 1. Uluru 1.0 is an obvious choice, being the easiest 20k shield the deck has and Uluru 2.0 makes blocking large columns a breeze mid-late game. Raphanna toolboxes Anarchia and is an easy 25k shield, Anarchia like I said being a huge MVP. Chimera is pretty cool and can interrupt some of your opponent's plays if they aren't wary about it.

Grade 2

Eh, pretty easy. 4 copies of Kaigomai and maybe 1-2 Diapernos if you want. Obviously you want as many 1-of Zodiacs for Demiurge. The best candidates of those slots in my opinion are:

-Chronospin Serpent(Snek 10k Whoo)
-Chronobeat Buffalo(Easy 11k beats)
-Pulsare Tamer, Lugal-ure(Can Time Leap itself into Tiger G for more binds)
-Pulsar, Speedy Bunny(Hits pretty alright numbers with enough Zodiacs on board)
-Pulsar, Farm Peacock(If you ride into Jet G, this thing does work)
-Pulsar, Valve Laser Dragon(11k base that, with Sentry Dracokid, has no restrictions. Godly)
-Pulsar, Rewind Tiger(Potential 11k base and a draw on-call. Bind at end of turn for Pros's cost)

Grade 1
2-3 Arkas, obviously. Then put in Chanomai and Emellanas as you see fit.

Voltaro is great and has pretty solid Arka synergy. Itel is a solid defense card, albeit she may leave if you feel like she hampers consistency too much.

Now Zodiacs. Grade 1 Zodiacs don't matter as much, but like in the Grade 1s, run as many 1-ofs of them that you have space for. Best candidates to take said slots are:

-Steam Tamer, Arka(Why not mention her again lol)
-Chronoethos Jackal(Easy 11k Beats)
-Pulsar, Nibble Rat(Hand Cycling and Easy Bind-1 on a 7k body)
-Chronodash Peccary(8k base so you don't get rushed by Grade 1s)
-Chronocharge Unicorn(On-call give power, Bind at end of turn for Pros's cost)

Grade 0

There are two starter choices: Sentry Dracokid and Chrono Dran.

Sentry is probably the most solid of the two. Bind every turn by revealing a G3 Colossus, of which is pretty darn consistent with 6-7 of them. He can also turn himself from a card on field into a card from hand by binding the top card of the deck(albeit he has to bind a Zodiac with it). On the other hand, Dran is the perfect Prospatheia GB1 target, since he proceeds to call Jet G and add him to hand. It enables consistent usage of Nextage+Groovy and is a pretty cool pick as a starter, allowing you to do normal ZTB things in matchups where you definitely can't Demiurge or risk attempting to do so.

Outside of Anarchia at four, triggers should evenly be distributed for consistency reasons. So something like 1-2 Volley Rabbit, 1-2 Rush Boar, 1-2 Leghorn, 1-2 Hypno Sheep, 2 Doze Sheep, and 4 Chronotherapy should be golden.

Now For an Actual Decklist

Grade 0:
1x Pulsar, Sentry Dracokid
4x Anarchia Idea-Drone
2 Chronovolley Rabbit
2 Pulsar, Rush Boar
1 Chronotimer Leghorn
1 Pulsar, Hypnosis Sheep
2 Chronodoze Sheep
4 Chronotherapy Hamster

Grade 1:
2 Steam Tamer, Arka
2 Chanomai Idea-Drone
3 Voltaro Idea-Drone
2 Faceless Maiden, Itel
1 Pulsar, Nibble Rat
1 Chronoethos Jackal
1 Chronodash Peccary
1 Chronocharge Unicorn
1 Pulsar Tamer, Nepada

Grade 2:
4 Kaigomai Idea-Drone
1 Chronospin Serpent
1 Chronobeat Buffalo
1 Pulsar Tamer, Lugal-ure
1 Pulsar, Speedy Bunny
1 Pulsar, Farm Peacock
1 Pulsar, Valve Laser Dragon
1 Pulsar, Rewind Tiger

Grade 3:
4 Prospatheia Idea-Drone
2 Pulsar, Drastic Colossus
1 Chronofang Tiger
1 Chronofang Tiger G

Grade 4:
1 Deus Ex Machina, Demiurge
3 Metapulsar, Altered Dragon
3 Metapulsar, Split Pegasus
4 Chronotiger, Rebellion
1 Fiery March Colossus
1 Retroactive Time Maiden, Uluru
1 Highbrow Steam, Raphanna
1 Interdimensional Beast, Pandora Chimera
1 Far-Away Time Maiden, Uluru

If you have any questions, suggestions, or think that I missed over a point go ahead and post in the comments section below