Starlight Melody Tamer, Farah
With the release of Booster Set 09, Clash of the Knights & Dragons, comes a new 11k for Pale Moon in the form of Starlight Melody Tamer, Farah. At a glance, Farah seems to be a pretty good card; 11k vanguard and an ACT persona blast, it all appears very enticing, but let's look at the card and the way she works with the deck in a bit more detail.
First off, the effect:
[ACT] (VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a card named "Starlight Melody Tamer, Farah" from your hand, and discard it] Soul Charge (2), choose up to one «Pale Moon» from your soul, call it to (RC), and that unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.
[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit that doesn't belong to the same clan as this unit, this unit cannot)
(http://cardfight.wikia.com/wiki/Starlight_Melody_Tamer%2C_Farah)
So, an ACT counter blast 1, persona blast to soul charge two, call a unit to RG, and give it +3k. Not bad, but look at what you give up for what you get. You have to discard a potential 11k attacker to gain a unit that can't even reach an extra stage of power on its own. The only card capable of that in the deck is Midnight Invader, and with random soul charging, there's no consistent way to ensure he's in your soul when you're ready to activate Farah's effect.
Speaking of, when do you activate Farah's effect? Ideally, you'd be able to activate it three times in a game, but that's not always the way it works. Sometimes you'll be able to fire it twice, sometimes never. But even if you can get it off, there's no good time to activate it. Farah herself gains no boost from having units called from the soul like Luquier does, nor could you fill a field with the effect, so Farah's effect simply cannot push for a game winning play. The best thing you can do is use Farah's Persona Blast when you can. Use it to fill an empty RG slot or to +2 into the soul, there's not much else to do with it.
So what can Farah bring to the table?
Well, she's an 11k vanguard or rear guard, which in Pale Moon, is very good. If you run beast tamer support, Farah will allow you to swing for a near consistent 20k on both VG and RG when backed by a Turquoise. The defensive capabilities are an added bonus, although in this format 16k columns are a little too easy to build. Regardless, that plus 1k makes the difference between a 5k shield and a 10k.
Farah's other bonus, albeit not always a plus, is the ability to soul charge two at one time. This is important because of Pale Moon's focus on the soul. However, this extra soul charge only helps if you have cards that allow you to make use of the soul; Alice, Purple Trapezist, Midnight Bunny, ect. Those units would benefit heavily from Farah's ability, and can open up many possibilities for your soul swaps. If you try to make Farah into an aggressive build, you'll find that the soul charging will do nothing for you, and her persona blast is all but useless.
All in all, Farah is not the best Vanguard Choice for a more competitive Pale Moon build, but she's not the worst either. She has some potential, and I look forward to seeing what other cardfighters can do with her, and if you have a build you'd like to share, or some helpful tips to add for running Farah, message me and I'll post it up. In the mean time, I'm going to stick to my Luquier build and wait patiently until Luquier "Я" is released.