User blog comment:Leobwin/Thunder Reign/@comment-1755882-20141023131712

Okay, so Ritter.dek is something that I've been working on, tweaking, and testing ever since the BT04 cards were added onto TradeCardsOnline. I'm honestly very impressed that a new player such as yourself very quickly latched onto the better ideas with Ritter, which is that focusing on this behemoth is the best thing to do.

http://www.tradecardsonline.com/?action=showDeck&deck_id=572315&extended_format=&grouping=type_id This is the build that I've resulted in after all my testing. Ritter usually comes out Turn 2 or 3, and the deck only has 1 or 2 match-ups that aren't favourable (Magic World's call and spell negates really hurt Ritter, and there's nothing you can really do to counter them, and Dragon World decks will have a fairly easy time due to Ironchain Dragon).

Some things to note. I originally maximized my base forms with 4 10K, 4 Berserker, and 4 of the original. At that time, I had 12 Evolutions as well. Testing revealed that the deck needed to see the base forms a bit less frequently, and evolutions a tad more frequently. Anyways, for evolutions, ALWAYS make sure your evolutions have 6k defense, so that if you are forced to field them, you don't end up screwed because your opponent can easily attack into them. The exception to this rule is Saviour, as his Move is too integral to keeping you alive when you're forced to make a play because Ritter and Gift are just not showing up.

ON THAT NOTE, 4 Ritter, 4 Gift, no exceptions. When your deck is dedicated to getting a card out, you max out that card. If we had space for 4 Braveheart, I'd max that out too. And if the gauge cost wasn't so clunky. Ritter can still be missed, and there's literally no reason to increase the chances of Ritter because you didn't run 4.

Also, the Dragobonds. Those are there because, without them, Katana World (with Explosive Hades Fall), Dungeon World (with Pillar of Fire), and Darkness Dragon World (with Death Grip) will all wreck us way too hard. Just losing a base form to counter destruction has far too much potential to screw over our plans to risk it. We DO have alternate ways around these (call Jackknife 10K as the base form for Hades Fall or Death Grip...respond with Dragoenergy for Pillar of Fire) but these should be for when we didn't have the Dragobond.

Victory Slash is very much win more and you're much better off just using defensive spells instead and not risking drawing into Slash when you need a defensive spell. Trust me when I say this, stuff like Dragoenergy is a much better supplement for more defensive spells then Flying Shield and White Shield. You may be worried by Excalibur. But don't worry. That's where the Sideboard comes in!

The Sideboard I've crafted for the deck resolves pretty much every issue of the deck. Dragobond is dead because we're facing a deck that isn't Katana, Dungeon, or Darkness Dragon? That's alright, we side 4 Knightenergy, side Dragobond out for that. Our opponent has a combo to hit 10K without linking, especially if its Excalibur? That's fine, we side Dragobond out for our 4 Cavalry Academy instead. Now that Excalibur is forced to link to hit us, and thus loses its anti-Shield effect. For the final 2 slots, we run 2 Gospel of the White Dragon Deity. Opponents are very likely to attempt to Impact us, as direct damage is one of the best bets aganst Ritter. As soon as you see any Impacts that work against you, side this in to shut that down. We'll have plenty of gauge post-Ritter, and just getting Ritter out gets 4 <> monsters in the drop, so fulfilling the conditions is child play.