User blog:Kuroxander/Guide for Guardian (Post X-BT03)

 Welcome to another guide/review/sample deck list. Today, as I’ve done before for Blade Beast, Knight, Oni Assassin, Adventurers and drop zone centric DK in my previous blog posts, I will try my best to explain Guardians’ play style and help you all build a Guardian deck that can evenly match against meta decks while hoping to get you interested in the deck with a reviewy/ guide like manner because I currently got too much free time I really like the deck. Another reason is that the deck has received really amazing supports in the fully spoiled X-BT03 that makes the deck more fun and better than before. Guardians has a fun playing style and their card artworks are amazing and I would really like to share them with you all in hope that you all can play, appreciate and enjoy this attribute a bit more.

 (Disclaimer: All of it are just my opinion from play testing done and my personal bias towards a play style so there may be some points which are disagreeable with you or I may have overlooked something or even misinterpret what the cards do or made a mistake, if so I would like to know your opinion in the comments on others ways that the deck can be run or what mistakes I made in this blog post so that it can be corrected and improved. Also the deck list provided should be treated as sample of a competitive enough deck list and were created based on play testing done and my personal preferences so feel free to add or remove and change it around to suit your play style. It can also be used just to analyze on what guardians typically do and what cards can you expect a Guardian deck to run. Also, I tend to get off topic really fast, which might annoy some of you, if so just ignored anything, written in parentheses that might not interest you.)

Introduction
 So let’s get go to work. Guardians unlike its counterpart Executioners used to be a less aggressive and more control oriented deck since it lacked cards that can deal high amounts of damage every turn. But in X-BT03, it received great support cards that can make the deck either focused more on aggressiveness while still retaining some control oriented play style or focused even more on the control oriented play style that can annoy the hell out of your opponents. The deck main characteristic is its focus on returning cards from your drop zone to your bottom deck to ensure that there are few cards to no cards in your drop zone in order to access the deck’s full power. It uses its plethora of cards effects to gain multitude of resources especially life since the deck has one of the best life gain recovery in the game. The deck main win condition is either to out grind the opponent by slowly but surely chipping down their resources or just simply out damage them using a five crit double attacker with penetrate. The deck has a fairly good matchup against more aggressive decks like Thunder Empire because the deck has many ways to gain a high enough life to survive the damage output from Thunder Empire and be safe from Thunder Lance X Tempest Buster (not against the new ulti though) while at the same time possess ways to easily stop Batzz by returning him to hand by using cards like Dragon Sky Regression. The deck has poor matchup against a really good stalll deck like Arthora but the deck still have some ways to effectively deal with them. Arthora and other stall deck is still manageable but the deck really struggles to fight against deck that mills you faster than you can empty your drop zone like Black Dragon (but a counter for that deck was given in X-BT03.) Even so, you can easily defeat all opponents that stand before you regardless of the deck they play provided that you know how the deck functions and build a good and balanced deck while playing skillfully enough.

 So moving along to how the deck functions. Guardians is an attribute that can only be fully accessed by playing the  Divine Guardians Flag a flag that let’s the player start at 12 life but at the cost of starting with one less gauge. Compared to executioners who starts at 4 gauges and 8 life, Guardians has a bit of advantage because unlike executioner which gains 2 gauge at the cost of 2 life, Guardians gains 2 life at the cost of one gauge. Even so guardians has plenty of ways to gain gauges and even more ways to gain lives and their cards usually don’t cost much gauges except for some size 3’s so the 1 less gauge is not a detriment for the deck at all provided that you build a balanced deck. In this blog post I will be focusing more on 2 builds of Guardians in which one of them is a more control and defensive oriented build that centered on Guardian Calvary Dragon, Glintynair and the other is a more aggressive build that centered on Giant Tanuki and  Perpetual Envoy, Elixiel. You can also try building the deck by combining the two variant of the deck together so that you have more options in a duel and would make the deck more fun then doing the same thing each duel but that would make the deck less consistent in what it want to do. There’s also a size 3 build for Guardians but I won’t discuss much about it in details about in until the size 3 segment of the blog post.

Items
 Since guardians currently only have 3 items as of X-BT03, let’s start with the recently revealed Impartial Crane, Fabulous Rod. This item is imo the best one that the world has access to. It cost a gauge to be equipped has 1k power and 1 crit but the stats are mostly irrelevant since you won’t be attacking with it. It has an act ability to rest itself to give a Guardians monster Double attack as long as you have 5 or less cards in your drop zone. This ability is simple but really good especially when combined with Giant Tanuki or Perpetual Envoy, Elixiel. Since the ability isn’t a named once per turn, you can use the ability again provided you replaced the item that has used its ability with another one though it isn’t really recommended unless you can win the game by giving 2 of your monsters double attack.

 The next item is Sky Pillar Armor, Doreamarti which is free to equip and has 4k power along with 1 crit. It has a once per turn eff to return a card from drop to bottom deck to gain a gauge and the ability to gain a crit if you have no cards in your drop zone. The gauge gain is good since guardians start with fewer gauges and the ability to lessen the drop zone each turn is useful while also helps the card potentially gains an extra crit if you have none in the drop. Since the ability isn’t a named once per turn, you can use the ability again provided you replaced the item that has used its ability with another one though it isn’t really recommended unless you’re in a dire need for gauge or you want to lessen cards in your drop zone for a card’s ability.

 The last item is jusr a vanilla, so don't bother running it.

 So which of the 2 items should be the main item? Since Guardian has access to an item searcher, you can afford only running 4 to 6 items in the deck. I personally think that in a Giant Tanuki focused build, running 4 of staff is better since Tanuki can help you gain gauge with its eff while in control oriented guardians, running both item with 2 to 3 copies of each or more copies of Doreamarti is better since cards like  Glintynair and Avalon, "Benedict Ray!"cost quite a lot of gauge so having Doreamarti is still useful. In control oriented Guardians, most of your size 2’s already has double attack so staff is only useful in giving your size 1’s or 0’s Double attack so most of the time having Doreamarti is better.

Size 0
 Moving on to the size 0’s, Guardians has a lot of them, a total of 6 at the moment but I will only be covering those that I find to be useful but I still link them here so you can think for yourself on their usefulness and maybe prove me wrong by showing a viable strategy with them.

 List of useless size 0’s that Guardians has:  (Admittedly Mellow still has some uses in a size 3 focused Guardians as a size 0 that keeps returning to the hand so that it can be called again since life isn’t really an issue in Guardian. Therefore, it can kind of ensure that you have a full field to attack with at all times.) 
 * Regeneration Envoy, Feather Dragon Mellow
 * Nativity Envoy, Bloom Dragon Jr..

 All the following size 0’s has effects that let’s you achieve quad formation by returning them or other monsters you control to bottom deck or the hand to clear your center, making it possible for your item to attack. In addition, all of them have effects to help gain resources, lessen your drop zone or return other monsters to the hand.

 The first would be my favorite which is Blitz Envoy, Shinybell who has 2k power and def along with a crit. Her ability lets her to return herself and a card from your drop zone to the bottom of the deck to gain a gauge. Since this ability is a counter, you can use it anytime to dodge attacks, penetrate damage or removal effects while also enabling you to clear your center for your item’s attack. You can also use her ability anytime you want to either gain gauge to call your monsters or lessen your drop zone to fulfill your cards’ requirements for their abilities. This card is quite viable in control build because if helps prevent damage to you and helps you gain gauge to call your monsters while also enable Doreamarti to attack. In the aggressive build, this would be less viable because Tanuki helps you gain a lot of gauge already and there isn’t a need for quad formation since you won’t be attacking with your item.

 The next would be Empress, Queen Ageha which shares the same stat line as Shinybell and share a similar utility. Her effect allows her to return a card from either player’s drop zone to bottom deck to gain you a life when she link attacked and enable herself to be returned to hand at the end of that link attack. Since her effect allows her to be returned to hand, unlike Shinybell, she can be reused every single turn with the downside of needing to link attack beforehand. She also has an utility in returning cards from your opponent’s drop zone to bottom deck which may helps stop certain effects that has requirements of needing X amount of certain attribute in the drop zone. This card has almost the same reasoning as Shinybell in which she is more suitable in control build than aggressive build.

 The next size size 0 is Life Envoy, Nectar which again shares the same stat line as Shinybell. It has a counter ability to counter return a size 1 or size 0 monster from either’s player field to the hand by returning this card to the bottom deck. While this card helps achieve quad formation, it also gives another benefit by returning your opponent’s monster to hand which may helps clear their center or stop their attack. In addition, by returning your monsters with this card's effect, you can make them dodge out of an attack or removal effect and if you return a card like Angelus, you can then be able to reuse that card’s on enter ability. The main issue I have with this card is that like Shinybell it returned to the bottom deck so it cannot be used to achieve quad formation each turn.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Although Nectar has an added advantage of also returning your opponent’s monster, it’s limit of only returning size 1 or less monster which rarely has devastating abilities like double attack kind of makes this card outclassed by the last size 0 in this segment which is Impartial Knight, Justlaw. He has, unlike the previous size 0’s, a stat line of 1k power and def along with 1 crit. He has a counter ability of returning a monster you control to hand by paying a gauge while you have less than 5 cards in your drop zone. This ability is admittedly more useful in control oriented build of the deck since it helps letting you have an extra attack with your item but this card is currently the best size 0 to run in aggressive variant of the deck since his ability is also useful to let your monster dodge attacks and removals which also gives you the ability to call them again. On rare occasion when you have 10 or more cards in your drop zone you can gain access to his second ability to pop a monster your opponent’s control for 1 gauge which makes him more useful.

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Size 1
<p class="MsoNormal"> Moving on, Guardians imo has some of the best selections for size 1’s in the game. There’s a total of 11+1 size 1’s so I will still only cover those that are useful. Again, I will still link them here so maybe you all can find some uses for them.

<p class="MsoNormal"> List of useless size 1’s that Guardians has: <p class="MsoNormal"> (Most of the time I rather have a size 0 to have a boomerang dragon like effect since Guardian already have plenty  of size1 that has better abilities and Guardians also already have plenty of size 0’s that clear you center.) <p class="MsoNormal">
 * Trust Envoy, Sephleed
 * Aettir "SD"
 * Aeon Envoy, Soma

<p class="MsoNormal"> The first category of Size 1 Guardians would be the ones that has an on enter ability. Since Guardians has lots of ways to return their monsters to hand, this kind of ability is especially useful since you have ways to reuse them every turn.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The first one would be what I considered the best size 1 and potential buddy for the deck which is Swoop Envoy, Angelus. He is free to call and has 3k power, 2 crit and 1k def. His ability is a named once per turn that let’s you draw when he enters the field as long as you have one or less card in the drop or  Gate of Pardon, -Forgiven-  set on your field. Draw power is always good and having 2 crit and low size is a nice bonus. Good card is good.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Another card that lets you gain advantage when it enters the field is Infinitude Envoy, Amrita. It has 4k power, 1 crit along with 2k def and cost a gauge to call. It has an on enter ability of milling the top 3 cards of your deck and lets you add 1 guardian monster among them to your hand. It also has an ability to gain a crit if you have no cards in your drop zone or a monster with a soul on field. I don’t particularly like this card since it adds 3 cards to your drop zone (2 from the mill and 1 from the call cost) although Guardians tends to like their drop zone empty, so this ability is kind of weird to me. Selective draw power is really good especially since it isn’t once per turn and the mill enable you pay the cost for certain cards that need to return cards from the drop zone to bottom deck but I still don’t quite like this card since most of the time you still like your drop zone to be empty. If you want to try out this card, only run about 2 copies of this card since more may add too much cards in your drop zone which may hinder your other cards from gaining their effects.

<p class="MsoNormal"> A card that kind of synergize with Amrita is Deity Age Envoy, Michaelis who has 3k power, 2 crit and 1k def. He has an on enter ability to pop a monster while you have an item equipped by returning 3 cards from your drop zone to bottom deck. This card used to be not worth to be run in guardians since the deck only had 1 good item and no cards to search it pre X-BT03. But right now since you have a new item and an item searcher, this card can use his ability more consistently though I don’t really recommend running it since it does not do much other than popping a monster and Guardian right now have access Sun Envoy, Mera Cielsun envoy which has a reusbale removal effect.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The last of cards with useful on enter effects are Melody Envoy, Sword Flute Dragon and Sparkling Envoy, Kirarian. Sword Flute Dragon is free to call and has 3k power, 2 crit along with 1k def. When it enters the field, you can pay 1 gauge to add a  Gate of Pardon, -Forgiven-  to hand. The latter on the other hand cost a gauge to be called but has the same stats and ability as Sword Flute Dragon with an added ability of gaining 3k power while you have less than 2 cards in your drop zone. I personally prefer Sword Flute Dragon since I like its art more and it does not force you to pay a gauge to call it if you don’t want to search for Forgiven but still most of the time a free search for 1 gauge is no big deal so running Kirarian is better. When X-BT03 is released, then you can choose to not both of these cards since you sunrise that can search it for you instead. You can still run both of them just fine especially since that spell can also search item or help clear you drop zone so having other cards search your set spell is still good especially since the monster can be called directly by destroying a size 1 on your opponent’s field with Heavenz Sunshine. Though with the existence of Heaven's Sunshine, you can afford to run 2 to 3 copies of either Sword Flute or Kirairian instead of 4.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Moving on from cards that has on enter ability, I will again be discussing 2 cards at the same time which would be Deity Dragon Envoy, Muriel and Strict Beast, Gadias since their functions are kind of the same. Muriel cost a gauge to call and has 4k power, 1 crit along with 3k def while Gadias is free to call and has 5k power, 1 crit and 2k def. They both can gain double attack if you have less than certain number of cards in your drop zone. Muriel needs 3 or less while Gadias only need 5 or less to achieve double attack. So it’s quite obvious that most of the time Gadias is better since it has better stats and easier condition to gain double attack along with the ability to gain a crit and penetrate if you ends up having 10 or more cards in your drop zone. Even so, Muriel has an advantage in her other ability to gain a life each time it destroy a monster by battle. This ability helps you survive longer if you chose to play the more control oriented build since you would be more focused in removing your opponent’s resources. Most of the time though Gadias is better and a potential buddy for the deck since it’s free to call especially in aggressive build of the deck since it synergize well with both Tanuki and  Elixiel.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Next would be my personal favorite size 1 Guardian for the deck which is Justice Envoy, Angel Frill. She is free to call and has 2k power, 2 crit along with 1k def. She has move and an on attack ability to gain you a life if you have 5 or less cards in your drop zone which is good for added survival ability. But her most appealing ability is her first ability to remove a soul from any card on the field each time a Guardians enter the field and the ability isn’t restricted to once per turn. Her first ability helps weaken soulguard walls and can easily stop Death Requiem deck since it can remove cards from its soul and can do it multiple times per turn. It also has synergy with Justlaw as you can use Justlaw’s ability during the main phase while this card on field to return a card other than Angel to hand to then call it back again to remove a soul or after using Angel’s effect to remove soul, return it to hand to then call a more offensive size 1 like Gadias to replace it. This card is favorite size 1 for the deck because she saves me in plenty of duel mostly because of her first ability. To be honest, I think this card is too good because she does so much while not costing you anything. As she isn’t useful all the time, I recommend only running 2 copies of her in the main deck while the rest can be in the side deck since you can call her anytime you want with Forgiven ''s second effect or with Heavenz Sunshine and can recycle her back to the deck or return her to hand with your cards effect so 2 is a fine number imo.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The next size 1 would be Heavenarms, Zena whose effects fit more in control oriented guardians. It’s free to call and has 2k power, 2 crit along with 2k def. It’s a dragoarms so it has crossnize and it grants the neodragon that has this card in soul the ability to gain 1 life each time it attack. This effect works particularly well with Ochimizu since it has double attack and kinda works with  Elixiel since it gives it and extra soul for soulguard. But the main attraction of this card is its counter ability to put itself to bottom deck from the field or soul to prevent one of your Guardians card on field from leaving the field. This effect can protect your set spells and items along with your monster to guarantee their attack to not be prevented by counter removal and makes them stay on the field longer. Since it also activates from soul, it works particularly well with cards that gain soul as part of their call cost like Tanuki and Elixiel if you happened to get it into their soul. Even though Ochimizu lack that kind of call cost, since you can crossnize Zena into it, to give it a pseudo-soulguard like eff along with the life gain effect that can trigger Ochimizu’s ability. One thing to note that unless your opponent has some sort of ability nullifier, they can’t easily prevent Zena to get its effect off since it’s a counter and it return itself to the bottom deck as a cost so if you time Zena’s ability when your opponents attack it or target it for effects, you wasted your opponents resources since you can counter return it to give extra protection to one of your cards.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Moving on, we have Sun Envoy, Mera Ciel which is free to call and has 3k power, 1k def along with 2 crit. Its only ability is its named once per turn ability to gain you a life and returning up to 1 monster on your opponent’s center to the hand if you returned a card on either player’s drop zone to bottom deck.. This card ability is really good against Chaos, Prisms and Set spell centric Black Dragon since those decks like to have monsters in the center. Against Prisms, it helps deal with their indestructible Arthora by removing a soul from it or make it leaves the field entirely. Against Chaos, it’s best used to remove the size 3 in the center than GearGod since that card can destroy another monster to remain on the field. Against Black Dragon, it’s especially useful to safely remove their center monsters which most of the time has an effect that triggers when being destroyed. There are plenty of Guardians cards that can fulfill this ability’s requirement like Doreamarti, Forgiven, Sky Dragon Divinity, Ageha, ShinyBell, and   Glintynair  to name a few in which the last two are the best card to be used alongside this card since both of them has an counter effect that can return cards from the drop zone to the bottom deck. This means by activating their counter effects during the attack phase, you can activate this effect to return a monster in their center to their hand which stops that monster from attacking unless it has soulguard. The life gain from this effect can also be used to trigger Ochimizu ’s ability. Seeing as this card synergize with both  Glintynair  and  Ochimizu, it’s best ran at a more control based Guardian deck. In Tanuki deck, it’s still can be used if you want but that deck has less ways to return cards other than using  Forgiven or Sky Dragon Divinity and that deck rather has Gadias or Monochrome on field most of the time.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The last size 1 is Impartial Dragon, Monochrome Dragon which is free to call and has 4k power, 1k def along with 2 crit. Its first ability is the ability to prevent your cards from being destroyed while you have 5 or less cards in your drop zone while its second ability makes its attack cannot be nullified while you have 20 or more cards in your drop zone. The second ability is irrelevant most of the time in Guardians so I will be focusing on the first ability. The protection is really good since it protect your monsters from being counter destroyed especially during the attack phase while protecting your items and set spells which is nice. This card is especially good against deck that has high focus on destruction effects like Evil Deity Dragon and to some extent, Duel Golem. Even so, this card does not provide much other than that so running multiple copies of this card isn’t really recommended. 2 copies are enough imo since you call it out using Heavenz Sunshine on a size 1 and Forgiven.

Size 2
<p class="MsoNormal"> Size 2 are imo the bread and butter of the deck. Almost all of them are quite useful and can serve as the key component for you to base around your deck on. Your deck can be more offensive or defensive based on the size 2’s that you run. Yet, there are still some useless size 2’s so I will list them here beforehand: <p class="MsoNormal"> (This card isn’t honestly that bad. It only really needed to be run if you find your deck in need of a lot of gauges or you want to try building a size 3 centric Guardian. If so, put as many copies of this card as you want.) <p class="MsoNormal"> (Used to be decent but due to the existence of Tanuki, it’s better to run it especially since it can also gain Double attack with Fabulous Rod.) <p class="MsoNormal"> (Aettir;s effect is interesting since it enable Aettir to dodge penetrate and spectral strike like effects but it just not good enough since it is only a reusable size 2 mover that die easily to any form of monster destruction. The new Aettir has an added ability to also return the monster that attacked it but unless that monster has an ability to attack multiple times, the effect is kind of useless. Heck, even if that monster that attacked Aettir has multiple attacks, the monster might have soulguard so it remains on field or the opponent can just attack Aettir with an item since it cannot be bounced by Aettir’s effect or just use monster removal which plenty of worlds have easy access to these days. Aettir, I pity you and hope you can get a good upgrade like Helle Gespard.)
 * Retainer of the Demonic Dragon, Fallen Wing Dragon
 * Moonlight Envoy, Moon Mask
 * Pure White Envoy, Whitia
 * Eternal Envoy, Aettir
 * Eternal Guardian Dragon, Aettir

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<p class="MsoNormal"> I will be start by discussing size 2 monsters that fit a more aggressive play style for Guardians since one of them is the size 2 Guardians that most people are hyped about. Giant Tanuki is a size 2 that cost a gauge and need a top deck soul and has 7k power, 2 crit along with 2k def which are amazing for a size 2. It has soulguard and penetrate and two abilities that trigger on attack. The soulguard is good since it prevent Tanuki from leaving the field during the attack phase by any counter removal spells while penetrate with 7k power is really good against wall deck. It’s main appeal is its other two effects. When other cards (which include items) on your field attacks, you gain a gauge and if this card attack, you gain 1 life. Neither of this effect is once per turn and this card is already really good just with these effects but it does not stop there. In addition of gaining a gauge each time a card you control attacks, Tanuki also gain a crit if you have 2 or less cards in your drop zone. If you have Gadias and a size 0 on field, you can pump Tanuki’s crit up to 5 which is amazing along side its penetrate and then if you use Fabulous Rod to give Tanuki Double Attack, Tanuki attacks can push for a total of 10 damage. Tanuki in addition to the life gain effect each time it attack, it can also increase the critical of all other cards on your field by 1 if you 15 or more cards in your drop zone which is kind of irrelevant in Guardians but still on rare occasions it can happen.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The second size 2 that is more aggressive based is Perpetual Envoy, Elixiel which similar to Tanuki, it cost a gauge and need a top deck soul. It has 5k power, 2 crit and 3k def along with move and soulguard. While it is on the field, all cards you control gains 2k power and while you have 2 or less cards in your drop zone, all card of your field also gets an additional crit which is amazing. This ability makes this card’s stats become 7k power and 3 crit which is really amazing for a size 2 and it can still boost your other cards which makes your Gadias a 7k double attack with 2 crit, your size 0’s is boosted to 4k and have 2 crit and your Doreamarti becomes a 6k 2 crit item or 3 if you have no cards in your drop zone. This card is stupid good especially since with Fabulous Rod, you can now give it double attack which makes it even better. Even so, this card is quite inferior to Tanuki since it lacks Penetrate and Tanuki’s ability to gain gauge and life so most of the time you still want to have Tanuki as your go to size 2.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The size 1 that is best partnered with both Tanuki and Elixier best is Gadias since it has double attack and the size 0 that suit them best would be Justlaw since you can use its effect to bounce your size 2’s or other monsters to reuse them. The next best size 1 would be monochrome dragon since it helps protect your Tanuki or Justlaw from being destroyed by card effects especially during your attack phase. The item is obviously Fabulous Rod since it gives your high crit size 2s double attack. Zena also pairs well with Elixiel especially if you give it double attack with the rod since you can crossnize to gain you a life each time it attacks while giving cards on your field protection with Zena’s counter effect from the soul.

<p class="MsoNormal"> For a more control oriented play style for the deck, the main size 2 you want to run would be Guardian Cavalry Dragon, Glintynair. It cost a top deck soul and 2 gauges and has 5k power and def along with 2 crit. It has move, soulguard and can also gain Double attack if you have 3 or less cards in your drop zone. All of its effects till now is decent at best but the main attraction of this card is its once per turn ability to counter return a card from your drop zone to the bottom of your deck to reduce 2000 power and def along with a crit from all cards (yup including the item) on your opponent's field until end of the turn which is really insane! This ability is just so simple yet amazing. This may be the best card to deal with both Chaos and Thunder Empire since it nerf their damage output by a lot. Both decks are terrifying to play against since they boast some of the highest damage potential in this game due to their ability to attack multiple times in a turn but with this effect, their damage output per turn is halved and it would be nearly impossible from them to otk you. In addition, Guardians already has some really good defence spell and high life recovery which means with this card, you can essentially survive multiple turn while slowly but surely wither down their resources. Although this card has move, I recommend that you don’t move this card to the center unless that you will be otk if you didn’t. There are 2 reasons why, the first is because Heavens Shield is a defense spell that requires a open center so by not moving this card, you get access to that shield. Since this card is an annoyance to your opponent while also a key card in the dek, having more ways to protect this card is essential. The second reason is that you don’t need to worry about penetrate damage by having this card in the side while also taunting your opponents to attack it rather than damaging your open center since their crit was reduced. This card is really good and is my favourite and most anticipated card that will be coming out from X-BT03. The best item that suit this card would be Doreamarti since it helps pay for this card call cost while reducing the amount of cards in your drop zone for this card to gain Double attack, The best size 1 or less that suit this card would be Monochrome, Zena, Sun Envoy and Justlaw. Monochrome is for protecting this card from effect destruction since with their power reduced, your opponent would most likely use effect destruction to remove Glintynair  from field. Zena is because it helps makes this card stay on the field longer since the opponent will try to remove this card as soon as they can since it’s really annoying to deal with so having Zena to counter protect it from both effect destruction or battle destruction is really good. Sun because like I mentioned during its segment,  Glintynair   is currently the only 2 Guardian card to trigger its ability during your opponent’s turn. Justlaw is just really good to bounce  Glintynair   back after it used up its soulguard to call it again to annoy the hell out of your opponent though your opponent would most likely attack Justlaw first to remove it from field.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The other size 2 you want to run is Miraculous Water Envoy, Ochimizu which cost a gauge and has 6k power, 2 crit and 2k def along with double attack. Its main appeal is its once per turn ability to gain you gauge when you gain a life while also giving you a draw as long as you have a Forgiven on field or 3 or less cards in your drop zone. A free gauge and draw is always good especially in control build where you want to build up your resource while depleting your opponent’s. You can easily trigger its effect by using Forgiven first ability or when you gain life using Heavens Shield during your opponent’s turn which is really amazing. The best size 1 or less monsters to pair with this card on field is Angel, Muriel, Sun Envoy and Ageha since they can trigger its ability. Justlaw also works well to bounce Ochimizu back to reuse it since it lack Soulguard or any form of protection effects. Another good size 1 that synergize well with this card is Zena since its ability in soul gains you a life each time Ochimizu attacks and since Ochimizu can attack twice, you gain 2 lives out of it while at the same time giving Ochimizu some protection using Zena’s counter ability. In addition, if you have multiple copies of Zena in its soul, you can gain more life each time Ochimizu attacks. Since Ochimizu’s ability isn’t a named once per turn, if you have multiple copies of it in hand, you call over the previous copy to use the new one’s ability to gain another gauge and draw as long as you gain another life but most of the time it is a waste of resources to do so.

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Size 3
<p class="MsoNormal"> Now let’s get started on the size 3 options that Guardians has. To be frank though, I don’t really run any of these in my deck since I rarely run size 3’s unless the deck is size 3 focused or the size 3 has some devastating effects since you’re sacrificing the ability to call size 2’s and size 1’s just to have one size 3 on field is not worth it but my not running any of them may be due to my biased opinion. Guardian has access to some really decent size 3’s but sadly they are outclass by the size 2’s monsters and although they have high call cost, they lack decent protection thus making them not worth the investment. A size 3 Guardians deck is feasible but I think running a few copies in your aggressive or control deck as tech cards in the side deck against certain matchup deck is better. (I may be wrong though…)

<p class="MsoNormal"> Let’s start with the more simple ones which would be Dragon Towards Transfiguration, Paradise Lost which is a size 3 cost 2 gauges and a top deck soul to call, has 7k power, 2 crit along with 6k def. It also has move and soulguard and i f you have five or less cards in your drop zone, it gets +1 crit and Penetrate. In addition, when this card attacks, if you have ten or more cards in your drop zone, for this turn, it gets Double Attack Since you’re playing Guardians, this effect don’t matter most of the time. Since I’m not a fan of Size 3 that lack Double attack, I couldn’t justify running this card at all but if you like the art feel free to run it.

<p class="MsoNormal">The next one is the original big boss for Guardians which is Guardian Deity Dragon of Paradise, Avalon. It cost 2 gauges to call and has 8k power and def along with 1 crit. It has Double Attack and the ability to gain a crit if you have five or less cards in your drop zone and if you have no cards in your drop zone, it gets another crit. It also has another ability that trigger when it enters the field, it’s an absolutely mind blowing ability to put up to three cards from your drop zone on the bottom of your deck in any order and if you put three cards, you gain 1 life! Thematic? Yes, since it’s the same effect as Forgiven. Useful? Nope. It’s kind of lacklustre ability for a boss monster tbh. Sure the second effect fits well with it first effect making it a 8/3/8 size 3 with double attack but it’s kind of generic and bland especially since it lacks soulguard or any form of protection so it can die easily though you can use Justlaw to bounce it and reuse again but it cost quite a lot of gauge so it’s not really worth it. Again, run it if you want, I’m just salty that its effect kind of bland although it has an amazing name and artwork. If this card has move and/or soulguard, then this card would be a little better. (Triple attack would be nice though.)

<p class="MsoNormal">The second most useful size 3 would beDragon Protector of the Celestial Gate, Luminalion which cost 2 gauges to call and has 7k power and def along with 2 crit. It has move, double attack, lifelink 2 and the ability to prevent all items and spells on your field from being destroyed nor returned to hand by effects from your opponent's cards. In addition, it also has an on enter ability to put up to one Guardians from your drop zone into your hand. The first ability is really good since it protects your item and set spells in which the latter is really important for the deck but since this card itself lacks soulguard or any form of protection, it’s quite easy to remove it from field so the protection effect may not even be relevant when you need it the most. In addition, a size 1 with no cost like monochrome is easier to call than this card so having Monochrome to protect your cards is better although it don’t protect them from being returned to hand which honestly only really relevant in a mirror match or against magic world. The second effect of this card is really good since it lessen your drop zone while giving you a free card. Tl dr, this card is already decent just need soulguard or some protection effect to be good and worth running.

<p class="MsoNormal">The best size 3 imo that Guardian has is Unsullied Executer Dragon, Judge Charuthea which is a size 3 that cost 2 gauges to be called and has 7k power and def along with 2 crit. It has Double attack and a once per turn ability to put a total of up to two Guardians cards from your drop zone to the bottom of your deck in any order and if you put two cards, destroy a card on your opponent's field. This effect is really good since it’s a free monster, item or set spell destruction since the drop zone can be filled by this card’s call cost, you don’t need any prior set up to call this card. This card is still not good enough as a size 3 when compared to the ones from other worlds since this card also lack soulguard or any form of protection ability but in this case it does not matter since this card second ability isn’t a named once per turn. Yup, that means you can abuse this card with Justlaw’s first ability So after calling this card and using its ability to destroy a card, pay a gauge to bounce it back using Justlaw then call it again to reuse its ability or call another monster to replace it like Tanuki or  Glintynair. If you chose to call this card again, you can get two card destruction at the cost of 5 gauge which is admittedly kind of heavy in Guardians but Guardians can gain gauges easily using Shiny Bell, Glacious Defense Wall, Doreamarti, or Moonlight mask which I previously listed in the useless size 2 list. If you ends up in a scenario where you have lot of gauge and have this card and 2 Justlaw, you can abuse the fact that Juslaw’s ability isn’t a named once per turn to call law out to pop a card, use a Justlaw to return it to hand, call it again and use the second Justlaw to return this card to hand, then call it again to pop another card. If you have Dragon Sky Regression, you can proceed to return a Justlaw to hand to and call it again to bounce back this card and call it again to pop a card. This cost a total of at least 8 gauge which is kind of a lot of resources to just destroy 3 cards and if you really need items and spells removal, you have access to Avalon, "Benedict Ray!" (though it can only be call normally during the final phase) that can remove a lot of cards from field at once and deal 1 damage for each while costing significant less gauge. Regardless, this card is still good to deal with any item centric or set spell centric deck especially set spell centric Black Dragon to pop their Gale Scythe or set spells, making this card a useful enough sideboard card or just run 1 or 2 copies in the main deck so that you can use it to pop a really annoying item or set spell.

Spells
<p class="MsoNormal"> That’s all for monster I guess, now moving on with spells in which Guardians has a ton of good ones and some crappy one (honestly they are not that crappy and is really good for some situations but Guardians has plenty of better spells so they seem crappy in comparison) which I will list here: <p class="MsoNormal"> (I guess if you run   Glintynair  , then this card is decent since it can buff up its 5k def to 8k and give it counterattack for a battle. In addition,    Glintynair'   s effect reduces the power of all cards on your opponent’s field, which turns the 8k def into a really beefy wall. Running this card in a size 3 centric Guardian is also a decent uses for this card.) <p class="MsoNormal"> (Since Guardians has plenty of other ways to return cards to the hand like Justlaw and Dragon Sky Regression and only one your card has lifelink so unless you run Luminalion, don’t run this card since it is less worth running compared to other spells imo.) <p class="MsoNormal"> (Guardians have some really good shield so this card is kind of unnecessary so it is imo the worst Guardian spell. Even so, because the size 3 for the deck lack move so having this card in a more size 3 centric build is applicable at best.)
 * Encouragement of the White Veil
 * Dragon Blessing
 * Deity of Law

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<p class="MsoNormal"> For spells, let’s start with one of the most important card in the deck which is a card I mentioned plenty of times in this blog. Gate of Pardon, -Forgiven- is a set spell that has the once per turn ability to return up to 3 cards from your drop zone to the bottom deck, if you return 3, gain 1 life which is an essential effect to clear your drop zone that can be reused each turn since it’s harder for the opponent to remove set spells than monsters. What makes this card really amazing is its once per turn ability to call any Guardian monster from your deck by paying its call cost by returning 1 card from your hand to bottom deck and shuffle it while you have no monsters on field and no cards in your drop. This effect is really good and can be activated more consistently than you think since the requirement is quite easy for Guardians. An ability to call out any monster regardless of size is stupid good, you call out your size 2 boss monsters or fetch out Angel to remove soul from cards or call out Angelus for a free draw. Since this card is really important for the deck, having multiple copies of this card is really important so running cards that can search it is essential. There a currently 3 cards that can search it which are which I mentioned during the size 1 segment and Heavenz that I will cover next. Since you have plenty of ways to search for Forgiven, you can afford to run only 2 to 3 copies of it instead of 4 since having too much copies is kind of useless since you can only have one copy of Forgiven set on field and in Guardians you don’t need to worry about running out of Forgiven to search since you can return copies of it back to the deck. From my experience, in aggressive Tanuki centric Guardians, you run 4 copies of both Forgiven and  Heavens Gift and maybe some Kirarian to search for it since that deck have less ways to return cards to drop so it’s a bit reliant on Forgiven to return cards to your bottom deck in order to achieve the requirements of some of your abilities. In more control based Guardians, since both Doreamarti and   Glintynair   can return cards to bottom deck you don’t really need to run that many copies of Forgiven or any of its searcher other than Heavens Gift which is a really amazing card that I will be discussing next.

<p class="MsoNormal">  is a spell that can only be activated once per turn that let you choose between 2 of its effects. The first one like I mentioned before is the ability to search out either an item or a set spell which is really fantastic and improve the consistency of Guardians by a lot. The first effect is already good enough to turn this card into a staple 4 off’s but this card still have an even amazing second effect that allows it to return all cards from your drop zone into bottom and then shuffle it. This effect is a real live saver since in the past Guardians struggle really hard against deck that mills you really fast like Black Dragon or being in a situation where you have to much cards in your drop zone which prevent you from activating your cards effect. I’m really glad that Guardian finally have s card that can solve this issue. But wait, here’s more! In addition of emptying your drop zone, the second effect can also give you a free draw and put itself into your gauge if you have a Guardian set spell (which would be Forgiven since it’s the only set spell Guardian has access to at the moment of writing this blog post) on your field. This effect is really unbelievable since it make this card replace itself while giving you a free gauge but the most important part of this card ability is that it single handedly fulfill 2 out of the 3 requirements needed for Forgiven second ability which needed an empty drop, a card to be returned from hand to bottom deck and for no monsters to be on your field. This card second effect fulfill the first two requirement since it empty out your drop zone and then place itself into the gauge so that your drop zone is empty while giving you a draw that can be used to return to your bottom deck. This card synergy with Forgiven is really insane since it allows Forgiven to easily call out any monster you want from your deck while giving you a free gauge to pay for the call cost. The playmaking ability of both of this card’s effects makes it one of the best card Guardians has access to so if you want to build a really strong Guardian deck, buy 4 of this card when X-BT03 comes out.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The next spells would be a card that shares a similar which is Heavenz Sunshine. This card can only be activated once per turn and cost a life to cast and allows you to destroy a monster on your opponent’s field and if you successfully destroyed it, you can call a monster from your deck with the same size as it. (Reminder: this card does not have counter, if it did, it would be the most broken card in the game.) Not only does this card remove a threat on your opponent’s field, it also allows you to call out a monster at the same time which is just too free especially since the cost of 1 life is barely a cost with Guardian’s insane life gain ability. There’s no reason to not put this card in the deck. But since you can only call a monster with the same size as the destroyed one, although the call isn’t mandatory but it would best if you run monsters of each size in your deck to get the maximum value out of this card. For sizes 0 to 2, it does not matter that much since you’re already running multiple copies of each of them but for size 3, I recommend running Charuthea since you can use its effect during the main phase to pop a card, than call whatever you want to replace it. Another option would be calling Avalon, "Benedict Ray!" with Sunshine’s effect but “Benedict Ray” can only use its effect when it attacks so I don’t really recommend doing unless you don’t have other monsters you rather want on field. If so, go for it since that card is really good too.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The next spell is Sky Dragon Divinity. It’s a spell that can only be activated once per turn while you have 10 or fewer cards in your drop zone by paying 1 gauge and 1 life. It allows you to return 3 cards from your drop zone to bottom deck, if you returned 3 cards, you get to draw 2 cards. Draw spells are very important in Buddyfight since it allows you to gain the upper hand on your opponents by giving you both extra resources and more options. So it’s obvious this card is a no brainer a really good card for the deck especially since this card also helps lessen cards in your drop zone. One thing to note about this card is that the minimum number of cards needed in your drop zone is 2 before you activate it since the gauge paid for this card is also put into your drop zone thus fulfilling the requirements of returning 3 cards.

<p class="MsoNormal"> For Defense spells, Guardian has access to 4 defense spells each with their own pros and cons. Defense spell are simple so I won’t go in much details about it. The first one is Heavens Shield which is an attack nullifying shield that costs nothing and gives you a free life when casted and it also cannot be nullified if you have no cards in your drop zone which is useful at rare occasion against decks that can nullifies spells. Its only downside is that it needs an open center to be cast and requires a Guardian on field to be cast. These requirements may not seem much but it can hinder you at times. Cases in point being you are unable to use it to protect your monsters while you have one in the center and you can’t use it if you have an empty field. These requirements may sometimes make this card dead in your hand so be careful with that. The next card would be [http://buddyfight.wikia.com/wiki/The_Shield_of_Justice_Will_Never_Shatter! The Shield of Justice Will Never Shatter!], it’s a Solomon shield clone which means it does not give you any additional benefit other than an attack null but since it has easier cast requirements and don’t cast you anything, it is best used in Tanuki decks since most of their monster already has low def so your opponent most likely won’t be link attacking unless they are playing adventurers in which case switch this card out with Glacious Defense Wall by having a few copies of it in the side deck. This card should be avoided in a   Glintynair   focused deck since your opponent would most likely be link attacking more to get over your monsters.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The next card is my favorite defense spell in Guardians which is Glacious Defense Wall. It cost a life to cast and can prevent any attack while giving you a gauge if you have 5 or less cards in your drop zone. This card is not that necessary in aggressive guardians since that deck can generate easy gauge with Tanuki’s effect but it still can be run nonetheless since it can protect your monster even while you have another one in the center. In control guardian, run 4 of these since it’s the best defense spell for that deck. The last defense spell is Light of Guidance is a spell that cost a discard from hand to reduce the next damage you take to 0 and gain you a gauge. This card is not really good in Guardians since Guardians currently don’t have cards that activates on discard and prefer to keep their hand advantage but it’s still their only ways to reduce damage so it have some uses against certain decks. Since impacts that cannot be reduce are more common these days and monster whose attacks cannot be nullified are becoming rarer, this card is admittedly not as useful as it would been during the triple D era since they wore plenty of monsters back then whose attack cannot be nullified and impacts monster are ran more than regular impact. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend running it currently except in the sideboard.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The last Guardian Spell that must be ran at the deck and is imp the absolute best spell that Guardian has access to which is Dragon Sky Regression. This spell imo is broken as hell in terms of utility. It’s a counter spell that allows you to return any size 2 or less monsters from the field to hand as well as giving you a free life if you have no cards in your drop zone. The latter part of the effect is only really relevant when you have ochimizu on field but free life gain is still good. The first part of this effect on the other hand is really good since it’s a magical goodbye which means that it can be used to return multiple attackers like Batzz or Demios to hand during the attack phase and also return your monsters to hand to protect them from destruction while at the same time be able to reuse any on call effects they have. Since Guardians has no other counter removal spells this card imo is a 4 off’s staple. This card is really good especially in the current X era of Thunder Empire being meta while also able to deal with Black Dragons by removing them from field without triggering their on destruction effects. This card would also be really good against Duel Golem once X-BT03 comes out.

<p class="MsoNormal"> That’s not all for spell. Although this card isn’t a Guardian, I find it to be really useful especially against the current meta or would be meta deck. It is a common card coming out in X-BT03 which is Skill Binder. This card imo is just as good as a defense spell as any others ones Guardians already has access to. It cost a gauge to counter rest any card on your opponent’s field that contain either Penetrate or Double attack. This card not only stops monsters but it can also rest items that have either one of those key words which means it can stop those double attacking items that TE has. This card also deals with Batzz and the unreleased dragollum although Guardian already has access to regression to deal with which is better most of the time and has more uses compared to skill binder. Even so, this card has an advantage over Regression in that this card helps the deck deal against size 3 that has double attacks like Athora and more importantly chaos since Guardian has a hard time against Chaos. Most size 3’s has either penetrate or double attack which is hard for Guardians to deal with since the deck lack any form of counter removal other than Dragon Sky Regression that can only deal with size 2’s so this card help to deal with them. Even if you do not run it in the main deck have some copies of it in your side to ensure you can play a lot better against size 3 centric deck. (Edit: Since TE will be getting a set spell that prevent their cards from being return to hand, having this card as a defense spell would help to deal against them better but with Batzz’s overturn and TE’s having access to more cards that can stand them, rest spells may not even be enough to deal with them,)

Impact
<p class="MsoNormal"> For Impact, Guardian currently has accees to 3 of them in which one of them is an impact monster. Let's start with the one that will be coming out in X BT03 which is [http://buddyfight.wikia.com/wiki/Guardians%3F_Executioners%3F_Or_Worse%3F! Guardians? Executioners? Or Worse?!]. It's an impact that can only be cast when your opponent has 5 life or less and cost 2 gauges. It allows you to select a card you control and deal damage to your opponent equal to its crit. This card is meant to be used with Tanuki to finish of your opponent since   in a ideal field of Tanuki,  Fabulous Rod, Gadias and a size 0, you have a total damage output of 13 in which 10 damage are from Tanuki’s double attacking penetrate. In addition, just by attacking twice with Gadias in that ideal field, you already generate enough gauges with Tanuki’s ability to pay for this card’s cast cost. So is this card worth running? I think it depends on your preference. I personally don’t like impacts that require your opponent’s life to be at a certain value to be cast since it means they are dead in hand until you reach that point. This card even requires a specific field of cards to gain the maximum advantage out of it which makes it even less consistent if you end up drawing it early. Even if you successfully cast it, this impact’s damage can still be reduced so it may not even guarantee you a victory. I’m not saying that a good impact should always be irreducible but I prefer impacts that do more than just dealing damage or if it only does reducible damage, make it easier to cast by not requiring your opponent to be at a specific life. This all is just my opinion on it so if you find this card to suit your deck, feel free to add it in.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The next impact on the other hand is ↑Glee Glee↑Big Wave☆ which cost 2 life to cast which is advantageous to Guardians since paying life as a cost isn’t a issue to them at all and the damage it dealt is irreducible which is nice as a damage dealing impact. But this card has the same issue as ? since it still requires the opponent to be at 3 life or less which is lower than ? to be cast while also being more restricting than ? since it also needs you to have no cards in your drop and for the opponent to have an open center. This card is too much of a hassle to cast so please do not consider running it at all.

<p class="MsoNormal"> The last card in this blog post and imo the best impact that Guardian has access to at the moment would be Avalon, "Benedict Ray!", a card that I mentioned quite a few times in this blog post so I’m sure you all already kind of know what it does. Benedict Ray cost 3 gauges and requires you to return either a monster of Forgiven to the bottom of your deck to be called and has 8k power and def along with 2 crit. This card only has one ability which is the ability to return all cards on your opponent’s field to hand and dealing 1 damage for each card returned. This card is a really useful board wipe since it also remove items as well as set spells and may even win you game if you call it at the right time. Since Guardian currently has no better impact, running this card as a finisher is the best since in Giant Tanuki centric deck, you can deal the final few damage to win you the game with this card while in   Glintynair   deck, you can use it to remove annoying set cards or items from your opponent’s field or use it to deal enough damage to win you the duel. But in   Glintynair   deck, if you only want to run "Benedict Ray" to remove cards then I recommend running Charuthea instead to remove cards from your opponent’s field since that card effect activates during the main phase and you can use Justlaw to bounce it back to the hand to call another monster. Charuthea also has an added advantage of destroying cards rather than returning them to hand preventing your opponent from using that card again next turn. Even so, Avalon is a really good finisher and a very good counter against decks like Black Dragon since most of their cards have effects that triggered when destroyed and this card can also help reset requiem. Since you can call this card at any time using your set spell or using Heavenz Sunshine’s on a size 3, you can afford only running 1 or 2 copies of this card since this card is meant to be used as a finisher.

Closing Thoughts
<p class="MsoNormal"> That concluded this guide/review/ sample deck list for Guardians I guess. I think you all already have an understanding about the attribute’s play style if you reached this point, if not go ahead and try the sample deck list out or build a deck of your own to get a better grasp on how the deck functions. With supports from X-BT03, Guardian is already a solid deck that can stand against the meta so the deck is already competitive enough. Even so, I still like for them to have a good size 3 boss monster, a counter rest or destroy spell and having another set spell would also be nice. I think having an Overturn monster would also help the deck a lot which we may get before the X era ends considering Bushiroad will be releasing a set focusing on Thunder Empire and Chaos soon so expect a lot of Overturn/Overkill monsters to be released in that set. Guardian is a really fun deck but it requires some degree of skills and understanding of the attribute as a whole in order to be played well. I hope that with this blog post, you all can access this deck full potential to achieve victory or at least have a fun and enjoyable match with your opponent.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> (I think after this I would either be updating my blog on Blade Beast and Oni Assassin or maybe if I’ll start to work on one for Sword of The King Hero since I really like Lancelot but since that deck would most likely get support in X-BT04, I guess I will wait till that set gets fully spoiled. Also, feel free to comment and suggest a deck you want for me to do this sort of blog post for. If I’m familiar with the deck then sure I might do one for it. If there are any mistakes or things you don’t agree with, comment them too so I can acknowledge my mistakes and fix them.)

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