Another look at Silver Thorns

Hello everyone this is Natsu back for another article, this time we're going to be taking another look at Silver Thorns since the card pool has changed quite a bit since we last looked at this deck so let's see ways we can improve it from before.  I'm not going to go too into any of the units that were in the last edition of the build since I've already talked about them in a previous article which you can find in the November 2013 tab, however I will talk about how new units can help units that were previously in the deck.

G0
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emil
Dynamite Juggler (Critical) x4
Silver Thorn Barking Dragon (Critical) x4
Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia (Heal) x4
Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha (Draw) x4

The triggers have stayed the exact same, although we do run an especial counterblast unit now it CAN get in the way but it's only 4 cards so it isn't too much of a big deal.  The starter however did change to Emil who is a MUCH better starter than Iorena (although Iorena is still pretty good).  Her ability is to move her to the soul to check your top 5 and then put one of each a grade 1, 2 and 3 into your soul the only limitation being is that they must be Silver Thorn units.  One of the things that makes her better though is that her cost is to move her to the soul which prevents her from getting sniped and also since this is Pale Moon allows for repeat usage of the skill.

G1
Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina x4
Silver Thorn Assistant, Zelma x4
Silver Thorn Breathing Dragon x4
Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia x3 (Perfect Guard)

For grade 1s the only new unit is Zelma who is essentially a Purple Trapezist for Silver Thorns which makes her too good, she's your primary grade 1 ride target and also what you'll want to grab with Marichika.  You could take out Breathing Dragon for Ana if you want since now having the card go back to the soul works well since it allows you to abuse Zelma's skill over and over again.  Zelma can also get you Emil from your soul to give you a +3 to your soul (as well as allow you to skip cross-riding your Venus or  Яeverse).  Your other main use for Zelma will be to put an Irina on your field back into your soul to call it out again to let you use it's skill.

G2
Silver Thorn Marionette, Lillian x3
Silver Thorn Rising Dragon x3
Silver Thorn Upright Lion x2
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Marichika x2

For new units in grade 2 there's Upright Lion, everytime another Silver Thorn unit is called from your soul he gains 3k power.  He's mainly used in combination with Venus so that he'll gain 12k during the turn to give you a strong column for the turn although you can also boost him up with Zelma.  Marichika also gets a lot better as now with her skill you can use Zelma in the same way one would use Purple Trapezist of putting a unit back into your soul to re-call it out at a stood position.

G3
Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier x3
Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier x3
Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier Яeverse x2

The last new unit is Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier who is the new Luquier cross-ride.  Her ability is an especial counterblast of two to soulcharge 2 and then call up to 5 Pale Moons from you soul who's total grades equal 6 and call them to ANY RG circles.  Now one thing to remember is that the total number has to add up to 6 so ideally what you'd want to do is call 2 grade 2s and then 2 grade 1s.  Now one may think "but that already adds up to 6" but what is 6+0? 6 so you can call Emil from the skill and once again get to add 3 more cards to your soul.  This is very important because it allows you to still add to your soul and not have to worry about running out of quality soul.

Overall the new Silver Thorns are great additions to the archetype as they allow Silver Thorns to get over their main problem which was running out of quality soul and also accumulating a more massive soul.  It's also allowed the deck to take a more offensive playstyle rather than it's old playstyle of defending and being able to call out free 5k shield after free 5k shield.

Silver Thorns

Natsu here back with another deck profile, today we're going to be looking into Silver thorns.  Silver Thorns are the Pale Moon Archetype from set 12 that made a huge uproar at Japan by topping in a Descendant dominated format, so we're going to look at my build and I'll go over some of the choices and how the deck works.

G0
Silver Thorn Assistant, Iorena
Dynamite Juggler (Critical) x4
Silver Thorn Barking Dragon (Critical) x4
Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia (Heal) x4
Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha (Draw x4

G1
Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina x4
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana x4
Silver Thorn Breathing Dragon x4
Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia x3 (Perfect Guard)

G2
Silver Thorn Marionette, Lillian x4
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Marichika x3
Silver Thorn Rising Dragon x4

G3
Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier x3
Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier Яeverse x4

Silver Thorns take a much more crit oriented beat down strategy than Pale Moon used to have so I run 8 crit 4 draw and 4 heals for my triggers, and use Iorena as my starter.  Iorena for those who don't know when boosting the vanguard if her attack hits allows you to check the top 2 cards of your deck, and chose one of them that's a Silver Thorn and put it in your soul while the other goes to the bottom of your deck.  This ability is amazingly good for Pale Moon and gives them a way to build a much better soul since you can pick what goes in.  Of course you still have your chance factor in it but you still have the option of choice to get good units in the soul unlike before where you sort of had to base it on luck aside from Dancing Night Princess.  It can also fuel for both of the Grade 3 Limit Break skills (Although chances are you will use regular Luquier's about once every 10 games).  One other great and your most frequent use of this ability will be to put regular Luquier in your soul to skip crossriding or to later in game allow you get to 13k after riding Luquier Яeverse. 

Now onto the grade 1s, since Iorena only puts Silver Thorns into the soul I run a pure silver thorn deck aside from my extra critical triggers, (although I've experimented with other versions of Luquier Яeverse decks and it works pretty well as well).  I run 4 Irina who on call/ride can check the top 2 cards of your deck and put one of those so long as it's a silver thorn into your soul while the other goes to the bottom of your deck.  This is one of your more important grade 1 units since it can once again allow for your selective soul charging like Iorena.  Also unlike Iorena she goes off just on call or ride, so you can also pull her out of the soul to get the eff
ect off even if you've already played/damage checked/soul charged all of your copies.  She's also a fun target for the effect of the next card on my grade 1 line up which is Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana. This unit on boosted attack that hits the vanguard by counterblasting one can call any Silver Thorn from your soul to a RG circle and then at the end of the turn whatever you called goes back into your soul.  The main use of this (or at least of how I use it is either A. You can call Irina to get off an extra soul charge/use her to boost or B. You can call your regular Luquier from soul if your Luquier Я vanguard attacked already and use her to attack.  Since she'll be going right back into the soul again at the end of the turn Luquier Я won't really miss the temporary -2k in power.  The last two choices I have for grade 1s are Silver Thorn Breathing Dragon who is the standard if you have a X Vanguard it's a 10k attacking unit, and of course your standard perfect guard, so not too much to discuss there regarding those two units.

Now for the grade 2s of the deck, it's a pretty standard lineup for the most part.  I chose to run 11 grade 2s in favor of having 7 grade 3s for the extra shield in my deck to avoid having too many grade 3s and there only being 2 Silver Thorn grade 3s so not much variety can be had on a pure Silver Thorn deck for grade 3s.  I run 4 Lilian who is your standard grade 2 vanilla and 4 Rising Dragon who is your standard 12k attacking unit for Silver Thorns.  I chose to only use 3 of Marichika who is a on vanguard hit call a silver thorn to an empty rear guard circle mainly because I have a personal preference for the more high power attackers and already having 4 Ana I felt no need for another similar unit, although she can come in handy for getting extra Iorena soul charges in.

Lastly is the grade 3s of the lineup which are 4 Luquier Яeverse and 3 Luquier.  I chose to run only 3 Luquier because with all of the selective soul charging from Iornea and Irina you can USUALLY get her in the soul before you ride Luquier Яeverse.  Luquier is a unit that most people know about but incase anyone
doesn't she gets an extra 3k power whenever a unit is called from the soul.  Before this would allow for many shenanigans that would lead to her getting high power increases.  Before her Limit Break didn't see much if any use mainly due to it being a heavy counter blast cost of 3 but allowing you call one of each grade from the soul to your field.  However in this deck if any of Luquier's skills will be used this is the one since thanks to Iorena you can USUALLY get a pretty good soul for Luquier to call upon, but even then I personally only use this skill about once every 10 games or so and only to make a major push.  The main star of this deck is Luquier Яeverse.  Her ability is by simply locking a card and counterblasting one you can get ANY unit from your soul and give it 5k power.  So essentially for just a cost of a single counterblast, you can go +1.  The only downside to this ability is that after repeated usage you CAN find yourself running out of good stuff to call but it depends on how long a game goes on as well as how much soul you've accumulated.  The most common way I personally use this ability is to get grade 2s out from my soul so not only do I get myself a free 15/17k attacker, BUT I also get an extra 5k shield back for free, and who can complain about free shields.

Overall Silver Thorns are a very powerful deck to be added to the Pale Moon arsenal and it'll be interesting to see the support they'll be getting in the Brilliant Strike set.  For anyone hoping to make a Silver Thorn deck or who was having trouble against them I hope this article was able to help you get a better understanding of them.  Remember to check back next week for another article from the team and be sure to subscribe to our channel.

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