Locking For Days: Star-Vader Dark Band Dragon

Hello Everyone, I’m ddr101 aka ThatAsianGuy and I’m going to talk about an interesting build for Link Joker. Everyone knows the cookie cutter decks for Link Joker are Glendios, Chaos Breaker Dragon, and Nebula Lord.  However, each of these cards has a niche way of using the lock mechanic for a different means: Nebula uses it to power up the front row from its Limit break, Chaos Breaker Dragon to increase hand advantage, and Glendios going for the eternal lockdown and a win condition.  However, each of these cards’ lock feature usually have a hefty cost of CB or a limitation of uses per turn, which really made me irritated because I felt that Link Joker’s main intention was to lock as often as possible.

So looking into the other Link Joker cards in the English Format, I found a card that allowed me to lock multiple times a turn at a cheap cost: Star-Vader, Dark Band Dragon. Before people start discrediting me for choosing this card, I want to tell you this, this card may seem weak to you at first, but when the deck is built correctly and played out well, you can see this card can be as troublesome as its more expensive bigger brothers.

Grade 0:
1x Dust Tail Unicorn (Starter)
4x Star-Vader, Meteor Liger  (Critical)      
4x Star-Vader, Weiss Soldat (Critical)
4x Star-Vader, Nebula Captor (Draw)    
4x Star-Vader, Stellar Garage (Heal)

This is pretty standard for most Link Joker decks, excluding the Standing Nebula Beat-down play style, I prefer to use this trigger line-up on this deck because of the flexibility with the other units of the deck to hit the magic number of your opponent’s vanguard or rearguard units.  This way, the flexibility allows you to choose your targets carefully while continually applying lots of pressure from the critical triggers. The draws are mainly used as your technical draw engine; since there isn’t any other way to get units added to your hand in this deck, the draws play a major role in the deck to set up you optimal field against your opponent.

Grade 1:
2x Star-Vader, Aurora Eagle (10k Vanguard Booster)
4x Demon Claw Star-Vader, Lanthanum
4x Prison Gate Star-Vader, Palladium
4x Barrier Star-Vader, Promethium (Perfect Guard)

This line-up of grade one units really are the core of field presence in the deck as the Aurora Eagle and the Demon Claw Star-Vader, Lanthanum play a key part in keeping your continuous field pressure there.  Aurora Eagle and Demon Claw Star-Vader, Lanthanum does this in conjunction to Star-Vader, Dark Band Dragon’s Limit Break skill.  Dark Band Dragon’s Limit Break is that you counterblast one card in your damage zone with Star-Vader in its name and you lock a back row unit.  Aurora Eagle requires you to have more rearguards than your opponent to give your Vanguard a 10k boost, which can be easily done since Dark Band Dragon’s skill has no limitation on how many times a turn it can be used.  

However, when I use Dark Band Dragon’s skill, I use it usually when I and my opponent are at full field or when I have a pesky booster I have to deal with.  Even when we both are at a full field, only using Dark Band Dragon’s skill once will activate Aurora Eagle’s skill. The same goes for Demon Claw Star-Vader, Lanthanum as its skill allows it to gain 2k when a unit is locked by one of your card effects, with Dark Band’s skill, you can easily set up your field to hit the magic numbers you need against your opponent’s vanguard or rearguard units.

Palladium has great synergy with every Link Joker deck, but even more so in this deck.  From Infinite Zero's Break Ride effect or Dust Tail Unicorn's skill, you can easily lock the front row and keep it locked with Palladium. This help with lowering the amount of attacks coming your way, if you are behind in cards in hand.




Grade 2 :

4x Unrivaled Star-Vader, Radon(12k attacker)
4x Furious Claw Star-Vader, Niobium
3x Star-Vader, Colony Maker

This grade two line-up will be your main front row rearguards that you will have in most of your cardfights, because when combined with the grade ones and Dark Band Dragon’s skill, everything comes together. The Radon combined with our Demon Claw Star-Vader Lanthanum is a good unit combination normally as the attack total would usually be around 19k or 24k with one trigger placed on it, but in conjunction with 1 use of Dark Band Dragon’s skill, Lanthanum will gain 2k on the boost which allows that column to push for 21k or 26k with one trigger. This column will be able to hit most vanguards in the current English meta, excluding Cross-ride units like Lequier Reverse, Vowing Saber Reverse, etc.  However, with our other unit Niobium with a Palladium or a Lanthanum, the column can hit 18k with a Palladium or it can hit 20k when paired with a Lanthanum and Dark Band Dragon’s skill once.   

Our last grade 2, Colony Maker, allows us to set up the field in whatever way we need it as the skill for Colony Maker calls out a Star-Vader card from the deck, but it doesn’t have to be in the same column, which allows you to search for an Aurora Eagle for the vanguard or a Lanthanum for the other rearguard; however, the only drawback to Colony Maker is that it requires a locked unit before its effect can activate.  This problem is easily solved when you look at our grade three line-up as locking a unit will either be upon break ride or for the measly cost of one counterblast.

Grade 3:
4x Star-Vader, Infinite Zero Dragon (Break Ride)
4x Star-Vader, Dark Band Dragon (Main Unit)

This line-up allows you to lock your opponent often and make the most of it with your units.  Infinite Zero’s skill is pretty self-explanatory as it allows you to lock one unit in the front row and back row once a unit rides over it.  This in combination with Colony Maker can help you set up you ideal field even before you ride the Dark Band Dragon.  The main unit for this deck Dark Band Dragon really pulls all of the cards together as you can control the number of all of your units to hit the best possible magic number against your opponent.  Dark Band Dragon itself is a 10k base vanguard, but don’t let that fool you. 

The second ability of Dark Band Dragon is that it gains 3k if you have more rearguards than your opponent when you are attacking.  This effect works for any attack target too, whether it is vanguard or rearguard.  Depending on the unit behind Dark Band Dragon, Dark Band Dragon can hit 13k by itself, 18k with Dust Tail Unicorn, 20k with Lanthanum or Palladium, 22k with Lanthanum with Dark Band locking one unit, or 23k with Aurora Eagle with Dark Band locking at least one unit.  Dark Band Dragon allows great versatility with its locking skill and its power gaining effect, which in conjunction with units like Colony Maker or Lanthanum can cause a lot of chaos for your opponent. Even with a 10k base making it harder to guard, Dark Band Dragon is still a fun card to use as your opponent scrambles to find cards to guard with as you are hitting their units’ magic number every turn.  

    This deck really shows that with the right amount of experience and deck building, you can make versatile decks with cards that people rarely give the chance to playtest.  If you want more from ThatAsianGuy, please comment down below about your impressions about the deck. You can also put down other clans that you want to see decklists for. ThatAsianGuy, Over and Out.