User blog comment:Tachikaze Master/So I noticed something.../@comment-26069426-20150407200318/@comment-26069426-20150408164158

I was play-testing pretty lightly last night. I haven't made any build changes, yet, but there are two things I notice: the gauge is sensitive, and Heim is even better than I thought.

The gauge: Early game it's insanely easy to gauge out. Getting Zlatorog out is very important. Getting the staff out, too. Buddy Charge or Elixir of Aesculapius could be great replacements for Thurisaz Gard. Mid game, the gauge starts to ease up. This deck lives in that area. That's when you want to Heim > Surtr > Joker > Laevatein! for 9 damage and a board clear. If that doesn't kill the opponent, the gards should help you survive. At that point you'll want to get your gauge to at least 3. Attack with Joker first, then use one of the gards to get another joker out for 4 attacks. It's very important that you remain mindful of the hand.

Heim: Heim essentially makes all size 2s discard-able or gauge-able. Meaning, of the 26 monsters, 20 are discard fodder. Unfortunately, however, the weakness is in the discard. Surtr is the only purely offensive discarder. Breathen and Berserk Gards both discard but they're mostly defensive. If you need to get a Breathen back into hand, on attack, it's difficult to pay the 5 gauge to drop a Joker.

These are some ways I'd be interested in modifying the deck:


 * 2x Frost Giant, Hrimthurs -> 2x Deity of the Death and Sun, Bloody King
 * 2x Thurisaz Gard -> 4x Perseus Algol
 * 4x Valkyrie, All-knowing Alwidol -> 3x
 * 2x Shadow Soldiers of the King of Gods, Wotanshadow -> Side Deck
 * 2x King of Forest, Zlatorog -> 3x

You'll only need Wotanshadow if your opponent is running enough weapon-hate that you can't keep your Rune Staff out. Hrimthrus is a great vanilla card, and enhances offense, but Bloody King gives more avenue for utilizing Joker, Alwidol, and the new hopeful: Perseus. Perseus lets us do some interesting things to the opponents gauge, and a well timed discard could mean the difference between being Gargantua'd, or not. Last, Zlatarog is a bit more important, and needs to be seen a touch more, so bumping it up to 3 should help the gauge out.

Now, here's to hoping Bushiroad doesn't let me down and actually puts out Bloody King and Perseus.