I thought my card reviewing days are over. At least I know for Yugioh it's completely done. Since I have a new found love for Cardfight! Vanguard I can't help but think of these awesome strategies and it made me want to go back to reviewing again.
So for my first to review, I want to review a card that has a lot of uses and I've always been jealous that I can't have her in my own deck. That card is..
After reading this card for the first time, I thought that it was waaaay too good. My girlfriend owns a BT deck and she's very happy to have one of her. I don't blame her, that second effect alone is such a good effect. Well anyway, onto the review.
Top Idol, Pacifica's effects can only be used when she's the Vanguard. Unless you're using a Bermuda Triangle deck that focuses on Reviere, Pacifica has to be your main grade 3 Vanguard since it's a card that goes well in either the mid-game or end-game.
Effect 1
[CONT](VC):During your turn, if the number of «Bermuda Triangle» rear-guards you have is four or more, this unit gets [Power]+3000.
Fulfilling that requirement of having 4 or more rear-guards to gain 3000 boost shouldn't be a problem for BT decks. Cards like Girls' Rock, Rio, Rainbow Light, Carine and grade 0 draw triggers helps BT decks draw more cards than usual. Of course, more cards in the hand means more cards to call on the rear.
With the 3000 boost, Pacifica gets a power of 13000. The perfect cards to boost her are 7000 and higher attack cards. Cards such as Felucca, Myrtoa and Perle boosts Pacifica to a 20000 attacker to have your opponent counter it with at least 21000 worth of guard.
Effect 2
[AUTO](VC):At the beginning of your main phase, Soul Charge (1), draw a card, choose a card from your hand, and put it on the bottom of your deck.
For some reason, I find this effect alone so much worth it to play Pacifica. Besides the effect that it soul charges first, the latter part of the effect lets the player draw a card and choose a card from the hand to go to the bottom of the deck. So what cards would you likely put on the bottom of the deck? The obvious answer here are Grade 3s (considering that you have enough Grade 2s, of course). But what else? I need to review this a bit more in detail.
I find that Pacifica and draw triggers such as Caspi and Bubblin do go hand in hand. Here's why:
Start state: BT player has 0 cards. As a Vanguard, Pacifica attacks. She drive checks twice. First can be any random card like a Grade 1 or 2. And let's say for the second card she checks a draw trigger. This allows the player to draw a card. The player at this time should have 3 cards on the hand.
Pretend the opponent is stupid and doesn't attack. His/her end turns.
Player draws a card for the draw phase and uses Pacifica to draw another card. At this time, the player will have 5 cards to choose from to send to the bottom of the deck. Let's say it's a very good hand without Grade 3s, the player will most likely put the draw trigger back. This allows the user to recycle that draw trigger for future use.
Now let's go back to the start state. If the player doesn't drive check a draw trigger, the player on his/her next turn will only have 4 cards to choose from to return to the deck.
Sure we can always recycle cards like critical, stand or heal triggers. But draw triggers are much better to recycle because it's better to leave 10000 worth of guard on your hand to defend against the opponent and return that 5000 guard draw trigger back to the deck. Besides, that draw trigger made you draw a card, possibly a grade 1 or 2 with a 5000 guard. So it technically replaced that draw trigger. Don't get me wrong though, heal triggers are the number 1 (!!!) card that should be recycled. Heal Triggers are limited to 4 for a reason. But I'm doing a Pacifica review so I'm emphasizing more on draw triggers.
So in a way, draw triggers are really useful in BT decks that center around Pacifica. This is up to the player if he/she wants to have more than 4 draw triggers. Though I would suggest at least 6.
Effect 3
[AUTO](VC/RC):[Soul Blast (8) & Counter Blast (5)] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck up to three «Bermuda Triangle», call them to separate (RC), and shuffle your deck.
This is where that 20000 worth of power that I mentioned earlier is gonna be useful since we will want the attack to go through to use the effect. With that said, it's wise to attack with all of your rear guard units first so the time when Pacifica's effect activates, three rested units can be replaced with new ones.
For those peeps who watch the anime, Yuri Usui of Team Ceasar teaches Aichi about clearly imagining how to win with a deck. Decks that center around Pacifica should think ahead what the best cards to superior call from the deck once Pacifica's effect goes through. The best thing about Pacifica is that her first two effects compliment her last effect. The first effect boosts her to possibly pierce through the opponent's guard. While for the second effect, if the BT deck player has that feeling that he/she can use Pacifica's effect during that turn. The player can send a powerful unit back to the deck.
So what are the best cards to superior call? To make it simple, let's assume that the opponent has a Vanguard with 10000 worth of Power.
The combination of the Pearl Sisters and Aqua will have enough power to add damage or to get rid of units. And if the BT player doesn't end in that turn, both Aqua and Perla can intercept. Another reason why I like this combination is because the Pearl Sisters are best when they're together. Perle's effect gives Perla an effect where if Perla successfully hits a unit, she can activate both her own effect and the effect that Perle gave her. As far as I know, activating two effects at the same time could be done in any order the player would want it to happen. So Perle's given effect can soul charge a card to the soul. This soul charged card can be a cost to Perla's cost for her effect. It works out so nicely like that. =]
In a realistic point of view, Pacifica's third effect will most likely be used during a situation when it's close to the end game when the opponent gets that 5th damage from Pacifica. At this point, it's better to have one unit attack all out with high power. A set up like that should look something like this.
(Note: Blaster Memeshiba is only a fill up card. I needed a 4th rear guard unit so I chose Mameshiba =D). This combination with Blazer Idols, Sedna, and Flute allows Flute to attack with 21000 worth of power. Blazer Idols gives 2000 worth of power to Flute, Flute gets a 3000 boost from her own effect and Sedna's 8000 will boost Flute. With this, the opponent will be forced to put up a defense of 22000 or go defenseless and hope for the best and damage check a heal trigger.
There are other alternatives to what combination of 3 cards to superior call from the deck. One alternative would be a defensive combination with 2 Izumis to have that security of having at least 20000 worth of guard.
Wow, this is probably one of the longest review I've ever done. I really went into detail in this one. I really do think that Pacifica has a lot to offer and future BT cards will only strengthen her.
I might do more of these reviews for Vanguard. Maybe, maybe not. But thanks for reading. =]
