User blog:FrozenStarProfXiX/Star Jesus(Zodiac)

Long, long ago in a metagame far far away there existed an attribute known as <>. <> was a nasty attribute with untapped potential left completely barren because the dark overlord, Bushiroad, was afraid of it’s awesome powers. However, thanks to the awesome force of plot and aesthetic stuff they have finally got their long overdue and long needed support.

I’m super impressed with how Bushiroad has expanded upon <>, granting them a new playstyle and some tools to support their own. Star is a control deck whether you use Zodiac or Frozen Stars. We’re looking at Zodiac today so I’ll be focusing on that. Unlike the SDW counterpart, LW Zodiac has the ability to better abuse gravity rest which you use a lot more than you’d think and goes beyond shutting down impact monsters or other annoying double attack monsters. Gravity Rest minuses your opponent because in BF you gain advantage off of attacking, but because you restrict that the turn they call something you deny your opponent an immediate plus they would otherwise gain. Because of cards like Alwidol and Gravidade you not only minus your opponent, but plus yourself during the opponent's turn which is essentially saying “screw you”.

I’ve done a lot of testing on what is the ideal way to make LW Zodiac function because despite it’s amazing ability to neg your opponent it has glaring errors of consistency so far. You need the item ASAP . Star Pole puts in just about as much work as Zodiac himself and because you need it to actually maintain an aggressive front not drawing it is disastrous. This might seem like a small issue with as much draw power this deck contains but take me at my word when I say you want the bloody item.

<span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Moving on to talk about the actual deck itself we look at the spells. I originally thought running Lua Nova would be a good idea and for the most part it’s not too bad, but Lua Nova only works when you’re ahead and you cannot always plan on being ahead of your opponent. If you don’t intend to run Lua Nova I would suggest running more Symbel Gard or perhaps Scorn of Gremlins. Future Astrology, Oswira Gard, Divine Guidance, and Shield of Knowledge are all staples. Astrology draws… Oswira plusses off attack, Guidance is very easy to cast and Shield of Knowledge protects monsters and items. I really like Breathen Gard because guage really isn't an issue and any person thinking that the off hand chance a spell can save them will be rudely awakened.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Monsters in a Zodiac deck are geared mainly to plus. Rigel is ridonk and I was so wrong to think 2 would be enough. Aquarius is a nice 4 of because of his ability to turn into 6k with Star Deity on the field and his gauge increase is solid. Alwidol and Gravidade are great and as I explained earlier make Gravity Rest stupid. Now I will take some time to explain why I don’t use Neprosa. While double attack would certainly <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">help <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">the deck it really is a conflict of timing. Neprosa would need to be run at high numbers in order to even “consistently” be added to soul via on call of Zodiac. That’s <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:700;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">bad <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">. Further because you would need to crossnize it from the field that would get in the way of the normal setup you always have. This is compensated by Gemios who has 7/2/4 body + double attack.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">8 Zodiac is an absolute must and there really isn’t a reason to use less in a <<Star>> Zodiac. However I would like to talk about how Zodiac can be run in Disgard. Disgard is the product of some really smart people realizing how stupidly easy it is to abuse the on discard effects and the discarder cards. Zodiac can be run as a very good option as a discard enabler in the deck, however I would not recommend this only because the deck itself is already pretty solid. If you want to, more power to you because it’s not that bad.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Now to address the elephant in the room. SDW Zodiac. Zodiac really cannot differentiate itself in SDW. So far all it has is simple beatdown options with some crossnize abuse, but <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">it’s nothing special <span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">. I hate to be like this but the deck just isn’t anything special. It’s not a BAD deck, but it’s so painfully vanilla that I don’t want to even bother with the deck. Neodragons and SDW have plenty of toys and Zodiac serves as a good back up to Bonds, so it’s not all useless. Jerkline is another really good card that enables a free crossnize that isn’t limited to field.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">All in all I’m really happy with Zodiac so far. Gravity Rest is a really cool ability and it helps because LW has no other way to counter Impact monsters outside some Damage control shenanigans. It in itself isn’t stupid broken but a dangerous ability so that’s always good to see. D-Bt03, and we’ve already seen a really viable card in Sagittario. I hope to see some more stuff for SDW Zodiac because it’s a shame if it just stands to serve as a backup to Bonds the degenerate.