Justice Rains from Above

Published on 4 March 2024 at 13:42

Good morning class. Now normally I would be introducing a DZ01 deck here, but due to a lack of EN scans, I am going to have to pace out the new decks for a while. So instead, we are going to go back to the latest set to be released in English, which was Lyrical Set 4. Now a bunch of decks got supported in that set, and for this post, we are going to be looking at one of my favourite decks - "Holy Angel of Blessings, Alestiel". So without further ado, let's dive straight into the rideline.

Rideline Discussion

So Alestiel has her own rideline, which honestly does what we need it to do, so we are going to start straight away with "Indesicive Sky, Alestiel".

So "Indecisive Sky, Alestiel" shows us that this deck is going to be revolving around controlling our bind zone to activate different skills based on what is in there. Black Wings is active when we have only even based grade in the bind zone, whereas White Wings is active when there is only odd grades in there. It doesn't matter if we have multiple of the same pattern (Odd or Even) in there, just that we only have one or the other pattern, as having both in there shuts down both Wings in the deck. As for "Indecisive Sky, Alestiel", she either lets us Ride up for the cost of a Soul Blast if we are in White Wings, or prevents grade 1 or less Rear-guards from attacking our Vanguard, both of which are really solid skills to have on a grade 1. Talking of solid skills, let us move onto the grade 2 in "Shining As-Is, Alestiel".

With "Shining As-Is, Alestiel", the theme is pretty much the same of gaining skills based off our bind zone, but when she appears, she changes up what was set originally from "Indecisive Sky, Alestiel" and sets up a new bind. Her Black and White wings skills both apply pressure, just in different ways. Having either guard restrict or Critical gain alone provides a lot of pressure, but there are ways which we will discuss later that will allow us to gain both. But some people dont like this being in their rideline due to the card from bind being placed on bottom of the deck, so instead the alternative option would be "Astesice, Kiyora".

What "Astesice, Kiyora" does for the deck is she allows us to rush early no matter our bind zone and then bounce a front row unit back to hand to proctect it. Combining this with "Cooling Heart, Yuika" allows 3 attacks on turn 2 and then putting both front row Rear-guards back into hand, allowing us to save them for next turn. Or if you don't have enough power for 3 attacks, combining with Yuika can allow 2 attacks and bounce the full column instead, leaving no Rear-guards on field for retiring. Both grade 2 cards are decent options, but let us now look at the star of the deck in our rideline grade 3 - "Holy Angel of Blessings, Alestiel"

So "Holy Angel of Blessings, Alestiel" is the upgraded Vanguard that we recieved back in Festival Collection for "Archangel of Twin Wings, Alestiel". But unlike ride lines such as "Cardinal Dominus, Orfist Regis", we still use the old version alongside the new version in the same deck, in the form of a reriding vanguard. Along with that, "Holy Angel of Blessings, Alestiel" compresses the deck of Black Wing units, leads us to have a really good vanguard with flexibility. Adding on top of all of those skills, we also get a guaranteed +1 to hand every turn from the bind zone.

Overall, the rideline flows really well together combining into a solid basis for the deck. But let us take a look at what key support cards we can add in alongside this line to further bolster the deck.

Key Cards

So with how the theme works with Alestiel, you can guess the key cards that are going to be involved are all wing based. And where better to start than our superior ride target in "Archangel of Twin Wings, Alestiel".

So as we have said, we need to run "Archangel of Twin Wings, Alestiel" as it is the target we have to ride into, as "Holy Angel of Blessings, Alestiel" asks for the original name, so reriding into herself would not work. But we do not only get a second Vanguard swing out of the play, we also get "Archangel of Twin Wings, Alestiel" skills live in the same turn as well, applying so much pressure. On top of that, due to how Dress Up works, we can then ride back into "Holy Angel of Blessings, Alestiel" next turn and it count as Persona Ride. Overall, the revolving door of Vanguards is a really interesting style. But how do we guarantee that we have the White Wings to do the superior ride every turn? Well that is where "Incessant Voice, Elkel" comes in.

"Incessant Voice, Elkel" removing the RNG about what Wing form you are in is really good, plus having both Wings active at once leads to some really interesting plays. Adding on that she has her own way to self bind and activate the dual Wings is even better. This skill does also activate when you ride "Archangel of Twin Wings, Alestiel" from deck or hand via "Holy Angel of Blessing, Alestiel"'s skill. You do need to be careful though, as it does mean that you will be having more than one card in bind once you have used that skill, which can lead to being in neither Wing due to non matching grades. But we do have a way to fix this in "Privilege Potential, Phenael".

With "Privilege Potential, Phenael", the ability to control our bind lets us choose which skills we do or do not want to activate at certain times. There is no grade or Wing restriction with this skill either, allowing us to manipulate our bind from as early as turn 2. And the second skill allowing us to scale even better in the late game across multiple attacks is really useful for the final push, as this deck doesnt have a dedicated win condition.

So the core package of Wing support is really good at increasing the consistency of the deck, but let's take a look at a few tech options that we can use to increase the strength of the deck.

Tech Options

So to no one's surprise, there is even more Wings in the tech options, starting out with a strong pick in the form of "Aim for the Horizon, Piael".

So Piael lets us extend even further with our attacks with letting her swing at a grade 3 or greater Vanguard from the back row. Whilst she may not get the power of Persona ride sitting there, using Black Wing skills such as "Privilege Potential, Phenael" and "Archangel of Twin Wings, Alestiel", we can reduce our opponent's Vanguard down in power to allow this to hit. Ideally if using Piael, you would want to heavily focus on the main bulk of the deck being Black Wings. So to assist that, we are going to be sticking with the Black Wing theme for our next card, and take a look at "Enfolding Fondness, Elyliel" 

With "Endolding Fondness, Elyliel", we have an additional way of attempting to fix our bind zone if we get stuck in the wrong Wing, or even in a state of no Wing due to having 1 of each type, but it is random what we fix it with, due to it taking from the top deck instead of the hand. The second skill is also nice to have against restanding units as well, as the power loss is until end of turn, which then technically makes her a 15k shield, which also does activate on intercept due to her wording looking at put, not placed. We are going to round out the tech cards section with another card from Festival Booster 2023, "Together With You, Serafiel"

So "Together With You, Serafiel" brings the deck together well, as allows us to return any Alestiel grade 3's in our drop back to deck, so ideally we want to soul blast out our "Archangel of Twin Wings, Alestiel" with other skills and then return them back to deck with Serafiel so that we can reride into them again. This also being a restanding booster helps, as if the opponent gives us a 1 or 2 triggers to pass when our Vanguard attacks, we can put the power onto Serafiel, allowing us to have that trigger power count for 2 attacks instead of just one, similar to how "Grand March of Full Bloom, Lianorn" plays. 

The tech options really do create some flexibility with what we can and cannot use within the deck, and leads to us having 3 different routes we can go with the deck; pure White Wings, pure Black Wings, or combine them both together for a Dual Wings deck. But let us look at a nice example list now to see which way I have gone.

Example List

So the main thing I want to stress here is that this is just an example of what I am currently testing, you do not have to copy my list card for card, as well as the fact I may make changes down the line as well. I have chosen to go with a Dual Wing version of the deck, so some of the options will be more beneficial to this version of the deck.

Clicking the image will open it up in Decklog (new tab)

Most of the cards were already covered in the above sections, but let us take a look at the few options that were not down below, starting with "Nightlight Unison, Litael"

With "Nightlight Unison, Litael", we get some much needed resource gain within the deck, both in the form of soul charge and counter charge. This is definately more beneficial if we are focusing on a Dual Wing version, as we want to be counter blasting 2-3 times in a turn, so monitering the damage intake so that we can comfortably be at 2-3 damage on the end of our turn 3 allows this to fully go off and shine in the deck. It does get less useful in the later game, due to the fact it needs us to ride Alestiel twice in the same turn, and not doing that does make this card a vanilla. But after looking at a White Wing tech, let us look at our Black Wing tech in "Heavenly Recital, Emmael".

So what "Heavenly Recital, Emmael" does is allow us to either protect our board even more in retire heavy matchups, or we can go down the route of adding our Persona rides from soul back to hand, at the cost of sending Emmael to soul. However, combining this with "Cooling Heart, Yuika" and using Yuika's skill first allows us to grab the card from the soul without the drawback, as Emmael is no longer on the field so cannot be placed into soul, leading to an actual +1 within the deck. 

Overall, "Holy Angel of Blessings, Alestiel" is a really fun aggro deck with a unique mechanic within the format. It does take a fair bit of thought and planning with timing when and when not to use certain cards, and having a clear focus on the end game, but will definately reward players who put time and effort into practicing the deck. But that's all from me this time, and I will see you in the next one!!!

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