But look where we are now.
ZTB's really great now. Hell, it's even been contesting with Time Leap for tops in Japan. Time Leap is still the superior build, of course, but ZTB can now hold its own ground as a Gear Chronicle deck that's separate from the "Cancer Meta Build". It's a very powerful, very consistent beatdown deck that gets the job done and gets it done well. It's very akin to Gold Paladin, which some of my Gurguit-main friends are pretty pissed about lol.
Moving on, here's my current ZTB build.
First Vanguard - Chrono Dran G
Grade 0:
1 Chrono Dran G
4 Chronovolley Rabbit
4 Pulsar, Rush Boar
1 Pulsar, Slash Dog
3 Pulsar, Hypnosis Sheep
4 Pulsar Tamer, Annem
Grade 1:
4 Pulsar Tamer, Arka
4 Pulsar, Transit Dragon
3 Pulsar, Revolver Dracokid
3 Pulsar Tamer, Nepada
Grade 2:
4 Chronospin Serpent
3 Pulsar, Cruising Dragon
3 Pulsar Tamer, Manish
2 Pulsar, Farm Peacock
Grade 3:
4 Chronojet Dragon G
2 Pulsar, Drastic Colossus
1 Pulsar, Replenish Coatl
Grade 4:
4 Metapulsar, Avenir Phoenix
2 Chronodragon Nextage
2 Chronodragon Gear Groovy
1 Metapulsar, Split Pegasus
1 Metapulsar, Huang-long
1 Air Element, Sebreeze
2 Retroactive Time Maiden, Uluru
1 Interdimensional Dragon, Heteroround Dragon
1 Interdimensional Beast, Pandora Chimera
1 Time Maiden of Eternity, Uluru
Glorious, isn't it.
First, starter choice. Between Chrono Dran and Chrono Dran G, I do have to heartily say Chrono Dran G is the superior option. Dran G offers you a much more powerful, explosive first stride compared to OG Dran. Dran G just gives you more. He's just an overall easy tutor that can grab anything out of your deck when you need it. Cruising, Manish, Arka, just whatever you need. He's just great.
9 Crit 3 Stand. Would be running 12 Crit, but Hypnosis Sheep is too good to lose out on. Making your big dudes swing twice with a couple triggers slapped on is, needless to say, brutal. Sure, not as brutal as double Flogal but it's still powerful.
Arka is the ideal PG of choice. A recyclable PG with the ZTB race? Can be added to hand with Cruising and Huang-long? Auto-pick. You don't really need the Countercharge from Arlim, either, so even more reason to use her.
Transit Dragon and Nepada are your main Grade 1s to tutor out with Split Pegasus. Transit trades itself to beef up hand after boosting so as to maintain a healthy hand size, while Nepada can be tutored out for her Resist for a number of matchups, namely Kagero and Domination, while also being very useful for her intercept skill. You can run Unicorn over Nepada, though, if you value the numbers over the resist.
Revolver's here for stride fodder skill, ZTB race, and to search out Chronojet G.
Chronospin is here so you don't get bodied by early rush. If you don't feel the need for him, be free to swap him out for something like Speedy Bunny for numbers.
Cruising is your main target to call for Dran G. Really nice when you want to dig for Arkas or Heals. Quality plus to hand is quality plus to hand. 11k solo is also very helpful, as well.
Manish hits numbers and has great synergy with Huang-long. Resist also comes in handy against decks with Denial Griffin-type removal, making her a perfect card to stack triggers on and restand with Hypnosis Sheep.
Peacock is your MVP. Makes your Split Pegasus turns much more explosive, but only really used for that. Pretty useless in every other situation, unfortunately.
Chronojet G is your main ride. Chronojet name, ZTB race, GB2 that makes your columns hit hard, but the key thing is his stride skill can trip Peacock and enable the Split-Peacock combo.
Drastic Colossus seems sorta odd, but he's actually a very good backup. He's a ZTB, so he can be called by Avenir and restood by Hypnosis Sheep when necessary. His on-ride also works very well as a filter when you're forced to ride him, so you can hopefully dig for a Jet G. If you're still skeptical(I definitely was when I heard about it), please do try him he works surprisingly well.
Coatl becomes a 14k beatstick on Avenir turns that Countercharges if you have no faceup damage. The 14k that becomes way bigger due to Avenir and Split is very good at making columns. If I wasn't so scared of riding him I'd bump him up just to see it more often with Avenir.
Avenir. Avenir. He's such a powerful midrange stride that I've been wanting for the deck for a long time. He's the main guy you'll be striding into. Field recovery when you need him, or multiattacks for a very low cost when you want to shove.
Split Pegasus is obvious and your best first stride. Peacock-Split is one of the strongest advantage gaining first strides in the game, why wouldn't you want in on that? His +1k to front row comes in real handy to fix columns and the generic flip helps to set up Gear Groovy.
Huang and Nextage are your Groovy targets. Huang to call back a Manish or other ZTB, or add an Arka back to hand. Nextage is self-explanatory. Restanders are good. People say to max out on Groovy for two full-power Groovy turns, but I disagree with that now that we have Avenir.
Sebreeze is to answer players who Grade 2 game you, which I come across pretty often. If you don't feel a need for it, you can swap it to some other tech slot, like a 3rd Nextage, Altered, or Mystery-freeze.
I'm running two Ulurus since she's an easy 20k shield. Sometimes simple is best.
Pandora's a very niche GGuard. Only really comes in handy in a couple matchups and certain situations, but you'll be really glad when you do need it.
ZTB is a really fun deck. I've gotten some solid results with my list, currently, although I'm still open to changes. If you have any questions or criticisms please do post a comment.
Moving on, here's my current ZTB build.
First Vanguard - Chrono Dran GGrade 0:
1 Chrono Dran G
4 Chronovolley Rabbit
4 Pulsar, Rush Boar
1 Pulsar, Slash Dog
3 Pulsar, Hypnosis Sheep
4 Pulsar Tamer, Annem
Grade 1:
4 Pulsar Tamer, Arka
4 Pulsar, Transit Dragon
3 Pulsar, Revolver Dracokid
3 Pulsar Tamer, Nepada
Grade 2:
4 Chronospin Serpent
3 Pulsar, Cruising Dragon
3 Pulsar Tamer, Manish
2 Pulsar, Farm Peacock
Grade 3:
4 Chronojet Dragon G
2 Pulsar, Drastic Colossus
1 Pulsar, Replenish Coatl
Grade 4:
4 Metapulsar, Avenir Phoenix
2 Chronodragon Nextage
2 Chronodragon Gear Groovy
1 Metapulsar, Split Pegasus
1 Metapulsar, Huang-long
1 Air Element, Sebreeze
2 Retroactive Time Maiden, Uluru
1 Interdimensional Dragon, Heteroround Dragon
1 Interdimensional Beast, Pandora Chimera
1 Time Maiden of Eternity, Uluru
Glorious, isn't it.
First, starter choice. Between Chrono Dran and Chrono Dran G, I do have to heartily say Chrono Dran G is the superior option. Dran G offers you a much more powerful, explosive first stride compared to OG Dran. Dran G just gives you more. He's just an overall easy tutor that can grab anything out of your deck when you need it. Cruising, Manish, Arka, just whatever you need. He's just great.
9 Crit 3 Stand. Would be running 12 Crit, but Hypnosis Sheep is too good to lose out on. Making your big dudes swing twice with a couple triggers slapped on is, needless to say, brutal. Sure, not as brutal as double Flogal but it's still powerful.
Arka is the ideal PG of choice. A recyclable PG with the ZTB race? Can be added to hand with Cruising and Huang-long? Auto-pick. You don't really need the Countercharge from Arlim, either, so even more reason to use her.
Transit Dragon and Nepada are your main Grade 1s to tutor out with Split Pegasus. Transit trades itself to beef up hand after boosting so as to maintain a healthy hand size, while Nepada can be tutored out for her Resist for a number of matchups, namely Kagero and Domination, while also being very useful for her intercept skill. You can run Unicorn over Nepada, though, if you value the numbers over the resist.
Revolver's here for stride fodder skill, ZTB race, and to search out Chronojet G.
Chronospin is here so you don't get bodied by early rush. If you don't feel the need for him, be free to swap him out for something like Speedy Bunny for numbers.
Cruising is your main target to call for Dran G. Really nice when you want to dig for Arkas or Heals. Quality plus to hand is quality plus to hand. 11k solo is also very helpful, as well.
Manish hits numbers and has great synergy with Huang-long. Resist also comes in handy against decks with Denial Griffin-type removal, making her a perfect card to stack triggers on and restand with Hypnosis Sheep.
Peacock is your MVP. Makes your Split Pegasus turns much more explosive, but only really used for that. Pretty useless in every other situation, unfortunately.
Chronojet G is your main ride. Chronojet name, ZTB race, GB2 that makes your columns hit hard, but the key thing is his stride skill can trip Peacock and enable the Split-Peacock combo.
Drastic Colossus seems sorta odd, but he's actually a very good backup. He's a ZTB, so he can be called by Avenir and restood by Hypnosis Sheep when necessary. His on-ride also works very well as a filter when you're forced to ride him, so you can hopefully dig for a Jet G. If you're still skeptical(I definitely was when I heard about it), please do try him he works surprisingly well.
Coatl becomes a 14k beatstick on Avenir turns that Countercharges if you have no faceup damage. The 14k that becomes way bigger due to Avenir and Split is very good at making columns. If I wasn't so scared of riding him I'd bump him up just to see it more often with Avenir.
Avenir. Avenir. He's such a powerful midrange stride that I've been wanting for the deck for a long time. He's the main guy you'll be striding into. Field recovery when you need him, or multiattacks for a very low cost when you want to shove.
Split Pegasus is obvious and your best first stride. Peacock-Split is one of the strongest advantage gaining first strides in the game, why wouldn't you want in on that? His +1k to front row comes in real handy to fix columns and the generic flip helps to set up Gear Groovy.
Huang and Nextage are your Groovy targets. Huang to call back a Manish or other ZTB, or add an Arka back to hand. Nextage is self-explanatory. Restanders are good. People say to max out on Groovy for two full-power Groovy turns, but I disagree with that now that we have Avenir.
Sebreeze is to answer players who Grade 2 game you, which I come across pretty often. If you don't feel a need for it, you can swap it to some other tech slot, like a 3rd Nextage, Altered, or Mystery-freeze.
I'm running two Ulurus since she's an easy 20k shield. Sometimes simple is best.
Pandora's a very niche GGuard. Only really comes in handy in a couple matchups and certain situations, but you'll be really glad when you do need it.
ZTB is a really fun deck. I've gotten some solid results with my list, currently, although I'm still open to changes. If you have any questions or criticisms please do post a comment.
So how does this deck play? First stride Pegasus to build board, Avenir to re-fill/multi-attack and then nextage!Groovy to finish? What units should I call out with split?
ReplyDeleteTypically the deck plays conservative early, trying not to field units, although the deck can handle doing so fairly well if necessary.
DeleteOn your first stride, you typically want to Time Leap a Grade 1 in hand with Jet G's stride skill into Farm Peacock. Proceed to use Split Pegasus to turn Farm Peacock into 2 Transit Dragons, 2 Nepadas, or 1 of each depending on the situation. Since Peacock was called by Time Leap, he does not return to the deck.
After that, you just use Avenir or Huang until they're in killing range for a Nextage/Huanglong Groovy.
This is a nice build. Definitely giving this a try.
ReplyDelete