“Endless Blue Waves” [Aqua Force]
So today, I’m going to talk about the infamous Blue Waves and their support from G-BT13′s Ultimate Stride along with my overall thoughts of the archetype. However, instead of my usual one deck list featured in the discussion; I’m going to show off two deck lists with reasons I’ll explain towards the end of each one. Also spoilers, this will be probably the lengthiest deck discussion on this blog so be prepared for a lot. I will try to keep the profiles first with minor chatter about the cards like normal but the bulk of it is really just the differences between the two decks. It’s also for this reason, I won’t have an “Alternative Cards” section, but they will be listed in the cards themselves. So without further delay, let’s get started.
For the sake of simplicity, both decks will have two names. The first deck I’m going to cover will be focused on Blue Wave Marshal, Valeos as the main grade three. So I’ll be calling this one the “Valeos Variant”. I’ve seen others call this “Pure Blue Waves" or even “New (Style) Blue Wave" but semantics.
x4 Blue Wave Marshal, Valeos: The newest Grade 3 of the deck, who also happens to be the Admiral and the creator of Aqua Force is here. I was honestly surprised that he was even in Blue Wave’s considering I would think the creator would be a universal unit or at least have some synergy with Maelstrom considering Glory drew power from him, but nonetheless. As a unit himself, he’s pretty good, with his heartbeat skill being one of a kind: restricting the opposing vanguard’s power from increasing/decreasing from 11000 if you stride a Blue Wave G Unit. This skill is very revolutionary to Aqua Force because it eliminates one of the pesky counters to the clan’s aggression: damage triggers. Especially good in match ups whose clans/cards allow the vanguard to gain power on the opposing turn like Angel Feathers. His other skill, available at the start of ride phase: calling a blue wave card (said card gains +2000) to draw another, is really good to dig into your deck for pieces or key cards. Especially handy when looking for Brutal Troopers, which I’ll touch on more later. Overall a really solid boss card: focusing on aggression by restricting the opponent’s power.
x3 Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon: The original heartbeat of Blue Waves, Anger-boil is a good alternative to ride if you cannot find Valeos since he does come equipped with his Generation Break 2 in addition to his heartbeat skill to re-stand two rear-guards when Tetra-boil Dragon attacks second. Both of these grade 3s help reinforce the aggressive nature of the deck but in two separate paths. Valeos restricting the opponent down to let everything hit, while Anger-boil power’s up everything to make solid numbers. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses but combined together you virtually have a pretty solid ride regardless of whom you favor more.
x1 Blue Wave Dragon, Arsenal-fleet Dragon: This is the newest grade 3 for Blue Wave’s. While he isn’t a good ride target (the worst of all of them in fact), and a subpar rear-guard skill, his Drop Zone skill is what makes him a great utility card to warrant at least 1 as a staple. His rear-guard conflicts with Anger-boil’s 2nd attack (including Tetra-boil) but does allow him to re-stand and becoming a 15000 attacker. However, when he’s in the drop zone: when your vanguard has re-stood: you can soul blast one to add Arsenal-fleet back in hand. He’s the perfect discard fodder whether it’s to stride, perfect guard, or to pay for costs, because as long as your vanguard re-stands, you’ll be able to add him back to hand. My biggest gripe about Blue Wave was that it had no ability to secure stride fodder compared to the other decks outside of digging through the deck via bubble edge, draw triggers, brutal trooper, or through Bright shooter (via a boost on Wave-4+). Arsenal does fix this in a gimmicky cliche manner which is gladly appreciated.
x4 Blue Wave Marine General, Foivos: Foivos is personally the best grade 2 Blue Waves have ever received. His ability alone rivals even that of Tidal Assault, being early and can make the Tetra-boil (Anger Heart) re-stand with just him alone. That being said, Foivos still remains in the deck because his role in the deck is very crucial especially given that the entire deck is now Blue Wave, he’s able be active as early as grade 2.
x4 Blue Wave Marine General, Galleas: So this is one of the newest Grade 2s for Blue Wave, featured in the anime too. When Galleas attacks while you have Generation Break 1, you can discard one Blue Wave and counterblast one and until the end of the turn he gets the ability to stand back up with +2000 when your vanguard attacks. In addition, if Galleas attacked on the first battle when you pay the cost, he immediately stands back up. Galleas by himself is able to attack three times and fulfill the conditions for a Blue Wave vanguard to re-stand, which is amazing by right. My issue with this card is the heavy restrictions: discarding a blue wave, needing a vanguard whose original name has “Blue Wave”. His ability also clashes with many of the other Blue Wave re-standing rear-guards like Foivos and not to mention it has no synergy with Tetra-boil (Anger’s heart) since the skills will overlap. In other words, this card specifically exists for the moments where you aren’t on Tetra-boil+Anger-boil and with little to no back up rears. The cost and restrictions of the card does turn people away however the pay off is good so it’s up to preference. (Alternative: Blue Wave Marine General, Lucianos)
x3 Blue Wave Marine General, Medla: Medla (originally Medora so please forgive any mistypes) is the second newest grade 2 for Blue Wave. While she is an 8000 base, which gives me some paranoia, the pay off is again, extremely good. She has constant Resist but on Generation Break 1, if you have a Blue Wave Vanguard, she can attack from back row and becomes an 11000 for the battle she attacks. Again, a grade 2 that can hit from the back row on their own and with an added resist bonus, thus making waves flexible and durable even in the face of it’s counters: a good step to improve Aqua Force as I’ve talked about this before. While she is a Blue Wave, she’s probably not the best Vanguard to sit on but if you’re able to go for the aggressive approach with Foivos, it’d probably be best to ride her. I’ve played her at 2 and didn’t seem to make an impact, four is a tad clunky for me since there are some grade 1s you’d want in the back row, so three is generally a safe number to go with.
x4 Blue Wave Soldier Senior, Beragios: Beragios serves as Valeos’ Abyssal Owl clone: checking the top 7 for a Valeos Grade 3 and dropping cards whose grades equal 3 or more. Again: another Grade 3 search which, while nice, using this does more harm than good unless you have a stride fodder or another grade 3 in hand (preferably and ideally Arsenal fleet), you’re going to end up dropping some cards that suit better on the field. If you have no grade 3, I do not recommend using this card as a means of getting one for this reason. The reason why Abyssal Owl works is because you can ditch cards to fuel your drop zone for Ritual, not to mention Luard can free stride and recycle those cards back. Valeos - nor Blue Waves - depend on the drop zone, Valeos can’t free stride, nor can recycle from the drop zone to the deck. Beragios’ other skill is that he can re-stand if the vanguard stands. I feel this works better as a front unit in most cases or have a column of him, otherwise: without Anger-heart beat, there’s almost no front row unit that’ll be standing for Beragios to boost (save for the Vanguard), in most cases for this deck in particular. Other than that he’s a good ride target, something to call but his skills although handy do not shine a lot.
x4 Kelpie Rider, Nikki: Probably shouldn’t have to talk to much about this. The stride fodder getting reprinted in this set is extremely helpful since the only reprint it had was an SP pack edition which is already difficult to obtain.
x4 Blue Wave Shield General, Yorgos: Yorgos is the Blue Wave exclusive perfect guard that was surprising yet saw coming given the set advertised Blue Waves could be built from this set alone. It was surprising considering the amount of counterblast this deck does, I thought perhaps this would’ve been a reprint of the currently out of stock/out of print sentinel Ocean Keeper Plato. However, this card is not bad, as you would expect: it can protect any Blue Wave unit. His secondary skill turns any Blue Wave rear-guard into a back row attacker at Generation break 1, by binding himself from drop zone. Which makes Blue Wave’s endless assaults even stronger by having your grade 2s (save Melda) be able to attack repeatedly from the back row, especially good against locks. (Alternative: Ocean Keeper, Plato)
x2 Blue Wave Soldier, Bright Shooter: Lastly, I recommend Bright shooter because it keeps the decks theme consistent with Blue Wave names, it still ensures your ability to stride without Arsenal-fleet. Not to mention, Arsenal’s cost is a soul blast: the same cost as Valeos’ heartbeat. Granted you won’t always use Valeos, but there is a limit to how many times you can get back Arsenal-fleet.
Blue Wave Dragon, Dagger Master Dracokid: Dagger returns here as the best starter for this build (and I do say best sparingly). Originally, you’d play Bubble Edge here but Bubble Edge can’t exactly trigger in this deck in a traditional sense. Dagger is basically Bubble but with a counter blast one and a generation break 1 restriction but more consistent, especially taking into account this deck’s first stride. Dagger let’s you draw per Vanguard attack on Waves 2 or more but on the fifth Wave, the vanguard will get +1 critical. Blue Wave’s also have two other starters but one is a worse Andrey and the other one is not really ideal. in addition since Blue Wave rears can consistently re-stand over and over, Andrey doesn’t really fit here either. So it goes without saying: Dagger Master is the better choice here with some obvious flaws being his restrictions and is a good lock target/retire target.
x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Brutal Trooper: The staple critical of the deck and of course the deck’s main draw engine. Originally Brutal Trooper existed as a sort of luxury for the deck where, it wasn’t a must have in order to profit. However, the deck has changed to where the deck’s ability to get about anything and to maintain your defenses and resources is dependent of Brutal Trooper. A comparison can be drawn to Luard’s Belial Owl, where without it, it was subpar but with these critical triggers, the deck flows much better.
x4 Supersonic Sailor: This deck also has an counter-charging issue where Supersonic is also important here to fuel the soul and get back counter blast. This is especially true if you do not have Plato.
x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Bluegill Trooper: A blue wave draw trigger that acts like Marika, though the Blue Wave is important since there is a lot of costs that rely on the name either for discards, soul blasts, and especially counter blasting. Beyond here, I will say you can even go 6 critical / 6 draw trigger to draw a bit more to get anything you need considering how aggressive Blue Waves are and maintaining that aggression and getting those resource cards rival the offensive critical trigger. Additionally, the new Blue Wave Stand Trigger (or any Stand Trigger) is good too since you have many ways of attacking from both front row and back row that hitting a stand trigger won’t go to waste.
x4 Blue Wave Engineer, Refit Sailor: Set 13′s Ultimate Stride introduce a new series of heal triggers for specific archetypes that activate by discarding one for the cost of a G-Guardian: by binding another heal and herself from the drop zone: you’re allowed to either counter charge or soul charge. These are really good heal triggers especially given that this is by far a better heal trigger than Ihoannes whom only works with a specific G-Guardian and discards a grade one or lower to draw. As an added bonus, if it wasn’t obvious enough: she’s a Blue Wave.
x4 Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Flood Hazard Dragon: Flood Hazard is the newest G Unit for Blue Wave. At the end of the fourth battle and a Blue Wave rear-guard attacked; you may counterblast one, flip up one Flood Hazard in your G-zone, and discard two cards from hand to the drop zone to re-stand Flood Hazard with drive minus three. In addition, Flood Hazard’s Generation Break 3 gives all Blue Wave front row rear-guards +2000 and Flood Hazard gains Drive+1. In short, this is another Blue Wave re-stander but can become a Quad-Driving vanguard, but the most important note to take away from this is that Flood Hazard can re-stand as a first stride. Overall I love the card and it is a truly solid card but it does have it’s flaws. Let’s start with the fact that while he can be re-stand first stride: Flood Hazard is heavily dependent on outside elements to make up for his cost i.e. Brutal Trooper. The straight up discard 2 and the lack of drive checks on the second attack is not worth. Flood Hazard is a little bit better when he goes from GB2 --> GB3 on his re-stand because he does drive check one at least but at that point: I believe Tetra-boil is the better re-stander. Finally, when Flood is at GB3+ is where he truly shines and matches pace with counterpart due to the 2000 power buff on the front row and the ability to drive check four from the start and safely go into a drive check one. Ultimately, Flood Hazard is better in the situations where you have a lot of Brutal Troopers, if Valeos is the vanguard, or when you’re at Generation break 3+. Additionally, Flood Hazard is the reason why Dagger exists here now because even though the second attack has no drive check (if first strode), he will be given +1 critical which more often than not will be something to guard. Also a trivial note: Flood Hazard’s +1 Drive isn’t Blue Wave restricted.
x4 Blue Wave Marshal General, Tetra-boil Dragon: The original boss of Blue Waves. Because you play Anger-boil, Anger-boil + Tetra-boil is by far the strongest re-stand combination because of Anger-boil’s heart beat. Standing a column for free is super good and makes Blue Wave’s easy on costs. However, Tetra-boil and even Anger-boil specify Wave 2 so it will clash with some of the other unit’s. In addition, it isn’t restricted to Blue Wave rear-guards so you’re forgiven for playing essential non-Blue Waves but other than that: if you just want to constantly re-stand or if you have nothing else to play: Tetra-boil is the go to G-Unit especially considering he got a reprint in this set. Although, truth be told, with this deck: you can get away with playing just 2 Tetra-boil or even none if you value other G-Unit’s either as finishers (Lambros) or for utility (Commander Thavas/Sebreeze), since spacing is important and being able to have an answer to situations (whether it’s field management or cost management to use skills) is extremely important. However, if you do end up removing Tetra-boil completely, I’d recommend removing Anger-boil and adding more Arsenal-fleet since Anger would lose purpose without this card. (Alternatives: Marine General of Heavenly Silk, Lambros | Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas)
x1 Marshal General of Wave Honor, Alexandros: Alexandros is the newest G-Unit for all of Aqua Force. On Wave’s 2nd and 3rd only, at the end of the battle that he attacked, generic flip one card in the g zone face up: stand two units and give 5000 to both units per each face up card in the g zone. I’m just going to break the silence if the effect didn’t already do so: this G-Unit alone is amazingly good in Aqua Force in any variant. He’s a good first stride (especially if you don’t wish to use Flood Hazard without the necessary cards), he’s an unstoppable finisher (more on that in Thavas), he makes the G-zone flexible by being a generic flip: something I’ve always wanted. The effect itself is crazy because Aqua Force’s whole game plan was for the rears to get up to a specific wave and the vanguard takes care of the rest. Alexandros now in a sense generates more wave’s by making the rear-guards stronger and reusing their abilities such as re-standing, drawing, retiring. Lambros does do the same but you need to have a specific set up to reserve those abilities when they re-stood. In addition, this is a pretty safe stride to go into almost any time during the game, the later the better. On his own he does double of what Commander did first stride, later on he’s stronger than Lambros. For such an amazing card, why do I only have one here? Well, the other two G slots are taken up by Tetra-boil but I feel you only need one either as a first stride or a finisher ,if you first strode Flood Hazard. That and Alexandros being a GR might be difficult to obtain: so while two Alexandros is ideal, you’ll be fine with one.
x1 Storm of Lament, Wailing Thavas: With the introduction of many solid mid-range strides, Wailing’s original role as a “safe finisher” (especially in non-Blue Wave decks) can be re-purposed as just a niche alternative units as GRs should be. You still play one because well removes the opponents board and blocks their sentinel though you will find that at times, you probably won’t need to go into this unit as much as you needed to before.
x1 Zeroth Dragon of Distant Seas, Megiddo: Meggido is the newest “ZR” G-Unit that can be used by every card in the specified nation, along with it’s new mechanic “Ultimate Stride”. Dropping a unit of the same name as your vanguard to stride while having three face up cards in the G zone but at the end of the turn: the G zone is excluded from the game. Meggido’s effect is pay 2 counterblast on placement, choose up to five rear-guards from your hand or drop zone and call them to your field and they all gain 5000 and after an attack they can swap places with another unit on it’s board. An ability that represents the finer attributes of all three Magallanican clans. I’m not exactly a big fan of this card or any Zeroth Dragon in general because the punishment of not being able to finish your opponent is too steep especially with most decks being reliant on their generation breaks. Not to mention, Aqua Force has a plethora of finishers to choose from and all of which can succeed in even the most harsh conditions: lock, control. If Megiddo could call over locked cards: maybe. It also doesn’t help that counterblast two is almost a myth in this deck in the late stages of the game. Finally it also doesn’t help that Megiddo himself cannot protect rears from hazards like Lacus Carina, Impede Dragon and Defeat Flare who will almost guarantee the opponent’s survival due to the removal of rear-guards. So why is Megiddo in this deck? Well the nature of Valeos’ Blue Wave deck is an “all in, one shot” or so to speak. Everything from the heart beat, to Flood Hazard’s first stride, to the perfect guard’s the costs of other rear-guards: all of it is just speaks to me that this deck is entirely a one-shot especially since this deck has no plays outside of Foivos in the early stages of the game. If it’s able to profit then you live but if not and you aren’t able to kill: you will more than likely lose or be left with next to nothing. At the very least, Megiddo can give you a free field back and at minimum 6 attacks. (Alternatives: Marshal General of Wave Honor, Alexandros | Air Element, Sebreeze. Additionally, you can add these alternatives by removing two Tetra-boil’s.)
x2 Guard Leader of Sky and Water, Ihoannes: Ihoannes is still a pretty solid G-Guard because it protects your board and can be a huge shield buffer in any wave. Flipping a face down G-Guardian also helps contribute to Alexandros’ power especially one that you probably won’t use.
x2 Blue Wave Armor General, Galfilia: A new G-Guardian for Aqua Force whom which current stands as being the best G-Guardian for the clan. For starters she gains 5000 shield on 2nd and 3rd Waves: so finally we have a Wave 3 G-Guardian. In addition, when she’s face up in the G-zone, by paying a soul blast and flipping her face down: she can choose a card in either your damage or your circle and turn it face up. So in addition to being a strong shield, she can recycle herself and the amazing part is that not only can she flip up damage but she can unlock and un-delete your units. Simply amazing.
x1 Blue Storm Deterrence Dragon, Ice Barrier Dragon: Standard 25000 shield on 1st Wave and any Wave on 4th or more. I generally found myself playing one in other decks because Galfilia and Ihoannes cover the Waves where the vanguard usually will attack in but these G-Guardians are pretty versatile so the numbers is up to you but I feel two Ihoannes is good for the G-zone acceleration and protecting board.
Deck Conclusion
As I started in Meggido’s section: this deck is really a hyper aggressive glass cannon one shot style deck because it heavily depends on it’s first stride being able to generate resources from individual cards such as Brutal Trooper, Dagger Master, Arsenal-fleet, Brightshooter, Draw triggers. While in doing so, restricting the opponent’s power to 11000 to lock them out of damage triggers and power bonuses. The less key cards: namely Brutal and Dagger, that you’re able to use during your first stride the less you’ll be able to profit meaning the more vulnerable you are because of the costs you had to pay. I severely am not a fan of this style of play because while aggression is the name of the game, the heavy commitments need to pay off and those commitments involve hoarding Brutal Troopers. Me personally, I prefer having some flexibility in all stages of the game in case of match ups or if things start to go south very early. In addition to needing to have the correct grades, rear guards, the ability to stride, the ability to guard, you also need to hold onto these critical triggers: which ideally is not possible without you hitting draw triggers. I’ve even seen some Blue Wave builds playing 8 draw triggers which: I can understand why. This deck very much reminds me of Sanctuary Guard in which you drop everything on the first Regalie turn and if you failed, you had very little resources to work with in terms of defense, except the aggression is cranked up higher in Valeos being able to attack endlessly from all fronts without fear of damage triggers. However, that being said: if you are able to get everything you need, sure enough you will definitely have a significant advantage over the opponent and if you are a fan of this style of play of hyper aggression supported by eliminating power ups during the battle phase: I truly do recommend it. While I do prefer flexibility, I cannot lie that this deck does shine with everything comes together and has the tools to alternate their battle strategy and is a pretty overall fun deck.
Following the simplistic naming scheme, I’m going to call this next deck the “Anger Varient” because it does revolve around Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon as the main grade three. It does have another name such as “Original Blue Wave” since long story short, is the Blue Wave deck that has been played before Set 13 with just newer support. There is another name but I’m going to save that for later. That being said, I’m not going to cover too much of units I’ve already talked about: I’m just going to rush through and only talk about the units not present in the Valeos deck. Also special shout outs to two of my friends and teammates: Cherry and Anjaro for giving me the idea to try this out. Because of them, this deck is probably one that I’m dedicating myself to in real life until I’m able to complete Thavas.
[Grade 3s: 7 Units]
x4 Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon: While I say Anger-boil can used here, truth be told you can use Valeos here as well but I prefer Anger-boil more since Tetra-boil is the “go-to” re-stander of this build.
x2 Supreme Ruler of the Storm, Thavas: Supreme Thavas, originally known as “Champion Thavas”, is the greatest card to come out of Set 13 save for Alexandros. The obvious thing to note is that if you should ride him, your Blue Wave engine falls however his presence in the deck is pretty impacting. Supreme Thavas has a rear-guard ability on Generation Break 2, 1st and 4th Wave only, when he attacks at the end of the battle, counterblast one, and he stands. In my older deck profiles, I always kept one Thavas in Blue Wave’s to search him out while placing Nikki on the board just to maintain the ability to stride and never to ride. With Supreme Thavas, you actually have a benefit to having him since he can be called as an additional rear-guard. So good that I even encourage to at least run two. Should you have to ride him: he gives any unit resist and if that unit has “Wave” ability, it can attack from the back row. The deck is also built to accommodate the situation should he be the vanguard, since better this than Arsenal-fleet if you can’t get Anger-boil. You can put Thavas in the Valeos build but since Flood Hazard takes priority, it could clash with the other units or even with Flood Hazard himself.
x1 Blue Wave Dragon, Arsenal-fleet Dragon: I feel two Arsenal-fleet is good because again, having at least once is super good but this deck has means to get Arsenal in the drop zone faster for a more preferred ride. Although if you prefer seven grade 3s, you can minus one Arsenal-fleet.
[Grade 2s: 12 Units]
x4 Tidal Assault: Man of the hour, the staple of Aqua Force. Again, shaving off a lot of counterblast usage from the deck by having this guy here. I will mention that there were times when it felt like Tidal Assault would get kicked out of the deck but I feel that rather than completely invalidating a really solid card, the support across the entire clan made it so that you don’t need to have Tidal but more so as a want.
x4 Blue Wave Marine General, Foivos: Foivos again, being on par with Tidal for best grade 2. For added trivia, Foivos is the only Grade 2 in the deck with “Wave” ability. So calling him with Supreme Thavas will give him back row and resist. His re-stand ability will come from striding Flood Hazard since Flood Hazard being a Blue Wave will fulfill the conditions to activate Foivos and Flood Hazard’s GB3 is not restricted to a Blue Wave heart so he will be a Quad Driver which is better than nothing I suppose. I give credits to the Flood Hazard+Thavas+Foivos to both Cherry and Anjaro. (Alternative: Blue Wave Marine General, Medla)
x4 Magnum Assault: Magnum Assault a blast from the past. Originally I disliked Magnum Assault because of how sluggish he was and how awkward he’d be fighting against Link Joker since he’s not a standalone. But, Magnum actually has some really cool synergy with Beragios should your Vanguard re-stand giving you another column to work with. Shame Magnum is once per turn too. Although, the purpose of Magnum is to allow non-conflicting waves across any of the boss units, especially if you have to ride Thavas. (Alternative: Blue Wave Marine General, Medla)
[Grade 1s: 14 Units]
x4 Kelpie Rider Nikki: As mentioned above in Thavas, you can just call him, search your grade 3 Thavas for either stride or to call as a rear-guard later. Other than that, usual stride fodder.
x4 Ocean Keeper, Plato: Since this is deck has a lot of non-blue waves, having Yorgos would not be ideal at all. Plato is still the best perfect guard for simply counter charging.
x3 Blue Wave Senior Soldier, Beragios: Beragios I have three here because I feel that without Valeos in the deck at a maximum, Beragios loses a lot of importance outside of being a re-standing booster. (Alternatives: Blue Wave Soldier, Bright Shooter | Battle Siren, Orthia | Battle Siren, Stacia)
x3 Dispatch Mission Seagull Soldier: The Seagull is back in business. On call, you soul blast one to add 3000 to a unit and on generation break one; if he boosts on wave four or higher, you can add him back to hand. This helps Tidal reach those numbers, or can make Supreme Thavas a 21k column. The alternatives for this card are the same as Beragios.
[Triggers & Starter]
Bubble Edge Dracokid: The bubble shines best here because there are a majority of rear-guards that can attack twice in succession meaning being able to trigger the draw back to back on Wave 4th & 5th is easy. from Tidal, Magnum, and Thavas, you have numerous ways. You can alternatively put Dagger Master but is useless if you ride Thavas (until you stride Flood Hazard). (Alternative: Officer Cadet, Andrey)
x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Brutal Trooper: Again, best critical in the deck. However, in this build it returns to it’s role as being a luxury since Bubble Edge takes off some of the strain by drawing cards as early as grade 2.
x4 Supersonic Sailor: Another staple critical for the clan being a counter charger that I feel should’ve gotten a reprint.
x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Bluegill Trooper: Either Bluegill or Marika will do fine. You don’t need the Blue Wave name since there’s only one unit that especial counterblasts but their skill will most likely not see standard play. Originally, in older profiles, I used to play 12 critical Aqua Force for the maximum aggression because Brutal Trooper and Kelpie Rider, Petros allowed me to draw more and maintain a higher shield value. I will possibly look to try playing them again but I feel with how aggressive and fast paced this game is: you need to see as much of anything as quickly as possible from defensive cards, rear-guards, stride costs, everything. Drawing into heals or even Brutal Trooper & Supersonic isn’t bad since one is your defensive card and the other can shuffle itself back into the deck, while the other can replenish your damage.
x4 Blue Wave Engineer, Refit Sailor: Again, best heal in the clan so far.
[Generation Zone: 12 G Units & 4 G-Guardians]
x4 Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-boil Dragon: Tetra-boil is this deck’s go to re-stander because you run a lot of non-Blue Wave’s that makes Flood Hazard somewhat situational. Not to mention of course, you have the heartbeat of Anger-boil which turns Tetra-boil into the strongest re-stander of the two. Lastly, there aren’t any units that would clash with the skills of either Anger or Tetra-boil. Truth be told, you can actually get away with playing 2 Tetra-boil since you have other finishers to go into.
x2 Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Flood Hazard Dragon: Of course, if you are able to go into Flood Hazard Dragon especially on Generation Break 3 or higher, I’d advise going into it since the fourth drive check is pretty worth. Same with Tetra-boil, you get away with playing no Flood Hazard because you’ll go into Tetra more than Flood in addition to other powerful finishers, but the quad drive makes this pretty solid to have. However, I feel I should mention that, going into Flood Hazard vs Tetra-boil depends entirely on your situation: if your Generation Break is lower than 3 or if you’re lacking a Blue Wave rear-guard: Tetra-boil is better.
x2 Marshal General of Wave Honor, Alexandros: Alexandros is your first stride, ideally. He can enable bubble edge to go off twice by standing up the other rears. Having two is important because if nothing else, going into the second one will be death for your opponent in most cases.
x2 Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas: Commander exists as an out to Link Joker but if your deck is built with enough back row attackers or with resists, you can side this out for Lambros who can serve as another finisher. If you don’t end up fighting against Link Joker, you can flip Commander for Alexandros. (Alternative: Marine General of Heavenly Silk, Lambros)
x1 Storm of Lament, Wailing Thavas: Like before, having the option to stop grade 1s from guarding and removing the opponents board is always a reason to keep Wailing Thavas but there aren’t really much times you’ll stride into him.
x1 Air Element, Sebreeze: Sebreeze was a card that you either ran or didn’t because having a space reserved for the situation that comes up very rarely can make him a wasted slot. But, because you have Alexandros, having Sebreeze for those situations are good because then if you don’t need it, you can flip him up. Otherwise, I prefer using the CB2 to overwhelm the opponent than to go for a very situational finisher that punishes me for not winning on that turn. (Alternatives: Blue Swirl Marshal Dragon, Last Twister Dragon | Zeroth Dragon of Distant Seas, Megiddo)
x2 Blue Wave Armor General, Galfilia: See below.
x1 Guard Leader of Sky and Water, Ihoannes: See below.
x1 Blue Storm Deterrence Dragon, Ice Barrier Dragon: So I only have four G-Guardians because of the space and that I would need to cut a persona card for another non-persona stride (preferably Alexandros) and a G-Guardian. However, Galfilia can recycle so if you do use all four and have another heal left, you can just flip her face down and refund your G-Guardian.
Deck Conclusion
This build exists as a more “all purpose” deck, being able to make plays early, mid, and late game with very little to no restrictions whatsoever. I feel this is rather the better variant of playing Blue Wave, because it’s aggressiveness while not hyper like Valeos, is still stable and strong and is very similar to the top contending deck, Thavas, in every way except with the lack of resist. This is also adjustable across different formats/meta a lot easier than Valeos because it can pick up cards from the entire clan as opposed to being restricted to Blue Wave only, making it very techy. This deck is also very reminiscent to my original deck creation the “Divine Storm” since it can utilize the Thavas engine while still having the Blue Wave bosses, however, I feel it won’t be effective because Alexandros essentially gave Thavas a mid-range play that Tetra-boil gave the deck, so it’ll just default to using Thavas engine with Blue Wave bosses which although good is not really good if you ride Anger-boil (because you’d have to force yourself to a Thavas stride to benefit from the Thavas rears). This deck does however still has it’s flaws since it’s sort of a “jack of all trades, master of none” while Valeos and the other AQ decks each have a specialty that it excels in better than than build: Valeos being the more aggressive while Thavas is more resourceful and flexible, field and attacking pattern wise. This build is “average” and flexible building wise and can appeal to those who aren’t able to build their ideal decks and still trying to make something with what they currently have.
Conclusion
Thank you all for reading this profile~ It took a lot of time for me to organize this because I wanted to talk about the differences of both decks and bring awareness that there are two separate decks for this archetype. These decks may not be built exactly like either of the listed builds but each one carries a different style and game play which differs across. For anyone curious: I have an original “rant” that I wrote to my team about each deck before I began working on this for more of my immediate thoughts of the archetype. I don’t think the archetype is bad, I still love it and I find it interesting that they went this route. However, this set actually resolved an internal crisis of sorts that I’ve been having to decide between Thavas or Blue Waves, and I finally decided on Thavas for reasons that’ll be explained in the next and final deck profile featuring both the standard build and the Wave keyword build. So stay tuned and look forward to that.
(See Here For Original Blue Wave Rant: https://pastebin.com/CwtdKJRp , Just copy the link rather than clicking the link.)