Tabletop Review: Kaijudo: Shattered Alliances Solar Eclipse Competitive Deck

150px-Solar_Eclipse_deckClash of the Duel Masters introduced multi-civilization cards to the world of Kaijudo. These powerful cards combined the best of two different civilizations, but required both types of mana in order to be played. However, CotDM was only the first half of the equation. Five different mana combinations were introduced, meaning there were another five left to be explored. That’s where the Shattered Alliances set comes in.

This set finishes where CotDM started, and brings us some very interesting card combos to play around with. Solar Eclipse is the new competitive deck for this set. It showcases a darkness/light combination that wasn’t previously available. It may seem like mixing oil and water at first, but this deck has plenty of potential, and is great for players who like to have options at their disposal.

250px-Death_Liger_the_Justicar_(9SHA)First up, let’s take a look at this deck’s exclusive card. Death Liger the Justicar is a big beast indeed. A level eight creature with eighty-five hundred attack and the double breaker ability, he’s a force to be reckoned with. His Soul Rend ability allows him to weaken an enemy creature by three thousand attack when he comes into play. This can gimp a big guy, or take out a smaller creature, since lowering a creatures attack to less than zero banishes it. That’s where Liger’s Triumphant Roar ability comes into play. Whenever an enemy creature is banished, you get to tap another enemy creature. Used correctly, you can banish or subdue your opponent’s entire field. It’s very easy to get a crazy combo going by using a low rent removal spell and then using your creatures to do the rest. This is a nifty card indeed, although it’s not my favorite from the deck. I’ll tell you that one later.

While light and dark may seem like they have very different goals, the truth is that they have a lot in common. Both are great choices when making a control deck, and Solar Eclipse is proof of that. This deck is great at using card combinations to tap or destroy enemy creatures, leaving the way clear for your bruisers to break down their shield.

The light cards do what they do best: they tap creatures with spells or abilities, and then take those creatures out with skirmishers or other creatures. The skirmishers in this deck include three copies of Rain-Cloud Kraken. He’s especially useful when you consider the number of darkness cards that lower enemy attack power. This low cost skirmisher can stay relevant much longer thanks to the help of those darkness cards. Two copies of Sentrus will also keep you safe. While he only has five thousand attack for a level five skirmisher (most skirmishers have an attack power higher than their cost), he gets a bonus two thousand when he blocks. That means he’s capable of holding off potential finishers until you can sort out how to deal with them. There are a whopping eight light cards dedicated to tapping creatures. Shimmerwing, one of my favorite cards in the game, is low cost and taps an enemy when he’s banished. He’s a great early aggressor. Containment Field taps a number of enemy creatures equal to the number of creatures you control. Unless you’re down for the count, this can completely subdue your enemy. It’s a shield blast to boot! Beliqua the Ascender taps a weak creature whenever it attacks, so it can be useful for taking out slayers or other low cost blockers. Repulse seems expensive. You’re paying six mana to tap a creature. However, the key is to wait until you’ve got two or less shields left. If you do, you get to put the top card of your deck down as a new shield. Finally, there are two copies of Blade Barrier. This locks down an enemy creature for an extra turn, giving you time and opportunity. To round things out, you have a couple of Citadel Stewards, a couple Virtuous Imagers, and one Halo Hawk. The Stewards are good aggro cards. While not strong, they get you a spell back when the die. Feel free to abuse them. Virtuous Imagers is a weenie that becomes a powerful double breaker when you play a spell. He’s great at lulling your opponent into a false sense of security. The Hawk is a just a low rent vanilla. He might be decent as an early aggressor, but he’s more likely mana fodder.

250px-Calamity_Bell_(9SHA)The darkness cards also offer a variety of classic darkness abilities. Let’s get the two Tygrifs out of the way first. They’re level three vanillas without a whole lot of value. I have a card in mind to replace them, but I’ll get to that later. Maddening Whispers and Cave Gulper are all about getting the card advantage. The Gulper gets you a card when it dies, and Whispers forces your opponent to discard two cards. The former is a great aggressive card while the latter can wipe out your opponent’s hand in the mid-game. Dagger Doll is a four cost slayer with two thousand attack. He might not seem that great, but he might actually win a few battles thanks to all of the cards that lower enemy creature’s attack power. First off, there are three Ghost Bites. This level four shield blast weakens a creature by three thousand attack points. This can kill weaker creatures, or open up a big guy to be taken down by one of your low rent weenies. Very cool. There are also two copies of Arachnoir, which lowers a target creature’s attack by one thousand whenever it attacks. Mind you, that’s any creature, not one that blocks it. Finally, there’s Suffocate. This level seven shield blast hits all of your opponent’s creatures for a loss of two-thousand attack points. This can really open things up for you, especially against a fellow control deck. Combining these cards is key.

Finally, we can get to the multi-civ cards. Lost Patrol is going to be your bread and butter for early aggression. For a mere three mana, you get five thousand attack points. Early on, your opponent will struggle to deal with this beast, and you’ll likely take down a shield or two in the meantime. You also have Glimmergloom Quartz, which boosts the attack of all of your creates, and really boosts your multi-civ guys. If you get a turn three Lost Patrol and then a turn four Quartz, your opponent will be stuck dealing with seven thousand attack points on turn four! Zoltara and Calamity Bell are interesting cards that basically allow you to stall for time while dropping your opponent’s hand. The bell makes your opponent discard a card at random before tapping all enemy creatures that are a lower level than the discarded card. If you get lucky, you can tap their whole army. If you’re not, you just spent a lot of mana to make them discard a card. Zoltara gives all of your creatures the blocker ability until the end of your next turn. This can save a turn be sure, and the fact that your opponent discards a card is nice. However, he’s otherwise weak and unlikely to help your turn the tide.

250px-Serpens,_the_Spirit_Shifter_(9SHA)My favorite card in the deck is the last one we’re going to talk about. That would be Serpens, the Spirit Shifter. This is a multi-civ dragon that has one of the most useful abilities in the game. To start with, Serpens is level seven with sixty five hundred attack points and the double breaker ability. The kicker is the Soul Shields ability. Whenever one of your creatures is banished, you can put the top card of your deck into the mana zone. Holy crap. With a deck like this, that ability is awesome. This deck can be very aggressive, and there are several creatures that offer up helpful abilities when the die. You can suicide bomb your opponent to replenish your shields while still using various control elements to allow you to go on the offensive. I just love this card. Plus, there are a ton of shield blast cards in this deck, so chances are each new shield you put down will come back to bite your opponent in the butt. If you can’t win with this card out, there is no help for you.

I enjoyed this deck quite a bit. I love the control elements. As always though, I want to remove the vanillas, apart from Lost Patrol of course. There are three to consider, and I have just the card that can come in and replace them all. That would be Tar Gusher. This is a level three multi-civ card with one thousand five hundred attack points. Why is that good? When the sucker is basically a Skull Cutter and a Shimmerwing rolled into one! It has the slayer ability, and taps a creature when it dies. This means you can use this sucker to kill one creature and tap another! It’s a great suicide card that will really mess with your opponent. The only downside is that we’re talking about popping in more multi-civ cards, meaning you’ll have to make sure to get your mana in order as soon as possible.

Overall, this is a very fun deck that gives you just a glimpse into what a great darkness/light combination can do.


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