Top 10 Best Crossrides
Wut wut! Wus happenen mah fellow Vanguards? So here is an article, which is gonna be another top 10 as well. But I'm first gonna be taking about this whole mechanic first. Based off the title, you probably figured that it's going to be based off crossrides, and you're right. Crossriding is a mechanic that has been part of Vanguard all the way since season one, being DOTE and PBO being the units in question. MLB was also in the mix, but he really doesn't fit the picture. Now, also in terms of the stort line for the show, crossriding was a way to sore a characters growth as a player (evident in season two when almost every character had access to a crossride). Now I'm gonna explain what a "crossride" is out of obligation to newer players (ily). A crossride is a mechanic that occurs when a unit is present in your vanguard circle while a specific unit is in your soul stack, the unit in your vanguard circle gains 2k. Generally, all crossride units are 11k base making them all 13k based. One more note is that the crossride unit is usually a powered up unit of the specific unit in soul. Think of it like a forme change or something. Now that I've explained it, I'm gonna explain it's relevance. Having a vanguard with 13k based power is not only strong offensively, but also defensively. 5k shields become really big when guarding and almost always, the person who is crossriden has a lot of control in terms of guarding. That's why a lot of players tend to make 18k lines to attack because that's the number that forces 10k shields out of your opponents hand. This boost in power is a big pinnacle to the games development and a lot, if not most competitive decks now a days are using a crossride unit alongside their breakride units, thus the term "crossbreakride" is born. Seasons 1-3 of Vanguard always in some shape or form has crossriding become a very powerful force to deal with. An example are the reverse units of season 3. All of the Reverse units (minus 3) are crossride units and are all usually paired with a breakride unit. Most of the time they are iconic units within a clan (Maelstrom for example). As season 4 is now introducing Legion, it is starting to rival crossriding, but it has not completely overruled the mechanic. For those thinking like this, the only thing that has made Legion so hard to deal with is the fact you need to start guarding early. In seasons 2 and 3 we have gained a habit of taking early damage to use our Limit Break abilities to end a game faster. If you were to do the same with Legion, you either are playing Tachikaze or losing haha! All joking aside, with that new mentality of guarding early AND crossriding, it looks like the 13k monsters are going to be relevant for a long time (especially with the new LB unlockers. :3c) Now that that is out of the way (oh look, a weird English grammar mechanic), let's get onto the list! Now, how I constructed this list is based on a few things as usual. 1. Personal preference. That's always going to be a thing. (So if you disagree, then ya disagree) 2. The unit has to GAIN 2k for having a specific unit in soul. So ride chain units, MLB and Nouvelle Vague will not be on this list unfortunately. They need to gain that 2k or bust. 3. The card will rank higher depending on playability. There are some crossride units that do not see any playability anymore (I'll prevent saying which to avoid flaming) but yeah. The units need to be relevant to the current format. Possibly the future format as well. Now that the ground rules are out of the way, let's begin! 10. Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom Starting off the list, we have the big star of season 2, Glory Melstrom. As we all know, this is one of the first ever Ultimate Break units to ever arrive in the game, and Aqua Force at this time was a force to reckon with. For those that do not know, Glory had the ability to prevent your opponent from dropping grade 1 or higher units when your back is against the wall. How powerful is that?! Also, Aqua Force had self damaging units which not only triggers ultimate break at 4 damage, but could recycle heal triggers and crits. That's really awesome! The reason, however with Glory at the bottom of this list is that being an ultimate break, you probably won't be using the ability nowadays. Sure you would be at 13k base and a ticking time bomb, but unfortunately your opponent most of the time will keep you at 4 damage to ensure their PG's and QW's go off. //just self damage yourself, you'll be fine. :D 9. Eternal Idol, Pacifica Okay, this unit is a personal favourite of mine, but the way it is, it does not go very far (but gets a better place than Glory!). So Pacifica. Her ability is to CB3 on LB to bounce 2 units and superior call 1 from the deck. That's a pretty amazing ability especially with the Prism dtand trigger and Prism Clear. Their abilities can power up the new unit so it doesn't need a booster to swing. If you combo this unit with Planet Idol Pacifica, you can potentially get 5 attacks off! Pretty awesome don't you think? The combo goes like this, make sure you have a full field. Use the front two rows unboosted to attack rearguards, or the Vanguard if they can swing. Next attack with Pacifica and bounce the two rested units. Using her LB call 1 unit and with the Breakride skill call a second one. Now you gained 4 cards to your hand (with twin drive) and you still have 2 powered up lines to attack with. If that doesn't scare you, what will? (Reit eat your heart out...) 8. School Punisher, Leo-Pald "Reverse" Here we go, the first Reverse unit to make the list. Now Leo-Pald Reverse is the crossride unit for Great Nature, but the best way to use him doesn't really need the crossride, though people still would have the option to cross (I know I would) There is a really amazing combo with the breakride Chatnoit where you would use two units that rest and give +4k to a unit (tank mouse I believe) then you would activate LB twice to lock both of those units and give power to your rearguard again. You would then proceed to attack. At the end of the turn, the units you kill are brought back onto the field and not only that, but you draw a cars for each one that died with the break ride skill. Amazing. 7. Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Reverse" Pale Moon making the list here. Luquier Reverse made Silver Thorn a very powerful deck to play, being that it made calling out units from your soul very easy to do, with a small cost of 1 CB and locking a unit. Not only does the unit come out for cheap, but it also gains 5k to counteract the lock cost. The greatest thing about Luquier is how simple it is to correct your ride. Since soul manipulation is what the clan is all about, getting a regular Luquier into soul is a simple feat. Either you soul charge it by using the Silver Thorn mechanics or you use units like Purple Trapezist to push it into soul and switch a unit in. There is also a combo with breakride, but it works better with regular Luquier so I won't dive into that one. :P 6. Dark Dimensional Robo, "Reverse" Daiyusha This unit is very unique, due to the fact that it doesn't do what Dimensional Robos are supposed to do. That being to gain crits based on power. Dark Daiyusha instead borrows an abikity from the Zeal archtype in the same clan, that is dropping your opponents Vanguards power. That's pretty amazing if you ask me (wow I've typed amazing so many times...). Now specifically, Daiyusha here drops your opponents Vanguard by 10k. If combined with Original Saver, you drop it down to I believe 15k (yes you can go to negative numbers). This ability is very strong because you really do not need the crossride with this unit. Generally your opponent has to make up for the 10k increase in shield that they will have a hard time making lines. Other than that, this unit barely beats Great Daiyusha because you play lots of crits in the deck anyways and guarding is super difficult. 5. Galaxy Blaukluger At the halfway point, and here is where we start seeing self standing vanguards. Now here is a unit that I utterly DESPISE!!!!! Galaxy Blaukluger has this self standing ability where if ANY unit with Blau in its name hits the opponents vg, Galaxy STANDS UP. What?! And with Blau units already being able to stand on their own, what do you do against that?! The only real way to protect yourself during this is hope your opponent heals the 4th damage or if you're crossriden yourself. That's ridiculously powerful. Why is this card a thing?! Ugh... Novas are the bane of my existence... 4. Broken Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei "Reverse" Although Ashlei isn't a self standing Vanguard, but she does perform really well. Basically her skill will retire one of your opponents units to superior call one of your own. What a cost. For Royal Paladins to be able to do that is insane, and with the announcement of the Limit Break unlocker with Jewel Knight in its name, Jewel Knights will be relevant for a long, long time. 3. Dauntless Dominant Dragon "Reverse" Haha, one D too many to be called DDR. DDDR is also not a self standing Vanguard, but it does factor into the retire meta season 3 has turned into. DDDR's ability is when you drive check a grade 1 or higher Kagero unit, you may retire 1 grade 1 or lower rearguard on your opponents side of the board. Really strong when the breakride does allow DDDR to stand up again (I didn't call Dauntless a self standing, because he don't self stand if you know what I'm saying.) 2. Omniscience Regalia, Minerva Genesis has become one of those crazy new clans that just takes over a format, like Aqua Force! Minerva here is a crazy unit mostly due to the units that are in Genesis to begin with. Before I get Minerva, I gotta talk about the Witch of Ravens and Melissa. Both of these units, when soul blasted can be superior called. SUPERIOR CALLED. Bushiroad, why are these two units rares when they deserve to be at least RR. They are too good. If you soul blast two of each, you basically get two free lines that hit 16k which is the basic magic number. Dang. Back to Minerva. She basically can restand herself for 1 CB and SB3. That's too strong. Also she gains 5k. Seriously. She doesn't even need a booster. No wonder her hype was so big. And finally. 1. Dragonic Overlord, the "Re-birth" Of course Dragonic Overlord would take the top spot. But why DOTR over DOTE? 3 things. 1, DOTR laughs in the face of Link Joker 2. DOTR gains power 3. DOTR does not need to hit. In all honesty, DOTR is a far superior unit to DOTE, but the two can be in the same deck. The way the deck plays, you consistently get the breakride, and you always find ways to amass a huge hand. Dragonic Overlord is a season 1 card and even now it is a really powerful crossride unit. So that there is my full list of the top 10 most powerful crossrides in the game! If you all enjoyed reading up on this, or if you have your own list you want to share, feel free to reblog this post with your list, or send me an ask with your list, we can have a nice chat! So remember to stand up to the occasion my fellow vanguards! Until next time.