I have been putting off writing something here for the longest time. Admittedly I lost interest in April, and then had exams to deal with but I think I'll start actually writing stuff up again. Already managed to scrap 2 articles I was half way through since they just became outdated. (Fucking Chaos Dragons messing everything up. :c)
Anyway, today I decided I'd profile a deck that I've been using and testing a lot recently, and have had plenty of success with. For those of you that don't know, my favourite HERO is none other than the amazing Invincibubble himself, Elemental HERO Bubbleman. The aquatic super hero is well known for popularising his own deck, Bubblebeat, with the advent of the Xyz monster Blade Armor Ninja, and more on him later.
For now, though, the build at a glance is as follows:
Monsters (7)
1 Elemental HERO Stratos
3 Elemental HERO Neos Alius
3 Elemental HERO Bubbleman
Spells (23)
3 E - Emergency Call
3 Gemini Spark
3 Miracle Fusion
3 Pot of Duality
2 Forbidden Chalice
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Soul Taker
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps (10)
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Hero Blast
2 Solemn Warning
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road
Extra (15)
3 Elemental HERO The Shining
2 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero
2 Elemental HERO Nova Master
1 Elemental HERO Gaia
1 Stardust Dragon
2 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Number C39: Utopia Ray
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Steelswarm Roach
Side (15)
3 Snowman Eater
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Super Polymerization
1 Smashing Ground
3 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Rivalry of Warlords
The basic function of the deck, is to use Bubbleman alongside the other HEROes in the deck, to create Rank 4 Xyz monsters, typically Blade Armor Ninja, to allow the deck to push for a lot of damage early on, the specific focus really being on Blade Armor Ninja putting 4400 damage on the board per turn. The deck relies on a lot of search power, and a lot of cards are used to stop the opponent's plays. However, because naturally Blade Armor Ninja won't always win games by itself, and because you won't always have E-Calls, RotAs and Stratos, the deck can be inconsistent with an incredibly low monster count. To fix this, the Alius engine is used. The Alius engine, typically, consists of 3 Elemental HERO Alius, 3 Gemini Spark and 2 Hero Blasts. This gives the deck a huge control factor, and makes The Shining (arguably, and in my opinion, the best of the Fusion monsters the deck has to offer) incredibly easy to make.
Alius also allows the deck to be more versatile in what it attempts to do, it is also a huge bait card for backrows. Just by dropping Alius on the board you put your opponent in the position where they want to remove it, lest you stop their moves with a simple Gemini Spark play. It also scares them because it brings the immediate threat of The Shining becoming a plausible play.
In the current metagame, The Shining is an incredibly valuable monster, no monster can beat over it, since it will almost always be sitting on 3200 ATK (or more) meaning that their only way to destroy it is with monster removal. In most cases, this costs them resources or an effect they would rather use to shut down your plentiful backrows. However, The Shining cannot be played too recklessly, cards such as Ryko force it to miss timing, and cards like Chaos Sorcerer and Black Luster Soldier - EotB banish it entirely. Because of this, the Chaos Dragon matchup can be slightly more difficult than other matchups.
Of course, the deck's major selling point is its ability to put consistent damage on the board, without using up all its resources, however unlike most decks that can push for 4000+ a turn, Bubblebeat has the ability to use a significant number of backrow cards. Now, as you can tell from the numbers of cards in the deck, a lot of these will be Spell cards, this is because it allows the deck to function as quick as possible, while also being defensive as possible with cards like Forbidden Chalice (an MVP now with ignition priority gone from the TCG).
This build for the most part is incredibly standard, however there are a few personal choices I have decided to include. Most specifically these are: Forbidden Chalice/Lance and Soul Taker.
All of these cards have very unique selling points. Forbidden Chalice is a clutch card, that allows a player to stop effects that would otherwise be fatal, or would allow the opponent to gain the upper hand. Stopping cards such as Rescue Rabbit (or Laggia itself), any Inzektor monster, Chaos Sorcerer and BLS, from either interrupting your strategy or flat out removing your advantage from the field. If anything, I would consider running 3 of this card.
Forbidden Lance has an incredible niche. One of Shining's biggest issues (and Blade Armor's) is Bottomless Trap Hole (and Torrential Tribute, and in Shining's case Drimensional Prison - Blade Armor won't be killing much if it dodges D-Prison with only 1400 ATK) and Forbidden Lance allows it to plain avoid it, without having to blind MST in hopes of hitting it. The only time MST would be more useful in the deck is against Macro Cosmos or Necrovalley, but MST cuts into main deck spaces that are better used by different cards in more games. MST is also dead against Chaos Dragons sans Future Fusion. Forbidden Lance also allows Neos Alius/Stratos/Blade Armor run over monsters that would normally destroy them, particularly Sabersaurus/Guaiba, as Dino Rabbit is a big advocater for Forbidden Lance. If space permitted, this is another card I would rather run @3, but am forced to stick to 2.
Finally, Soul Taker. It has an absolutely incredible niche in the current format. The deck can struggle to get over Pulsar/REDMD without The Shining, and Soul Taker destroys the whole combo. It destroys Lightpulsar, then increases the opponent's life points, causing Lightpulsar to miss timing and thus leave you without another huge dragon to deal with, allowing Bubblebeat to push for damage faster, especially in a matchup where both decks are trying to put 8000 damage on the board first.
The rest of the deck is pretty self-explanatory, however Bubblebeat does demand its own playstyle, and is very different from other decks. You have to be able to read/bait out the Heavy Storm as early as possible, and from the point where you have either got rid of it, or can determine your opponent doesn't have it you're free to go off. This is because Bubbleman requires no cards in hand to be Special Summoned, forcing you to commit a lot of cards to the field at once. Smart setting is very, very key to optimally playing Bubblebeat.
The deck can also OTK, putting 8800 damage in one go on the field, however it requires Monster Reborn and Stratos (or 2 E-Calls and a Stratos) to go uninterrupted which is incredibly unlikely. In both scenarios, one can summon 2 Blade Armor Ninjas in one turn. In the first case, setting everything to the backrow, summoning Stratos and searching Bubbleman. Overlay the two for Blade Armor, and detach Stratos. Next Reborn Stratos and search the second Bubbleman and make another Blade Armor with those 2. In the second case, simply set the hand, summong Stratos and search Bubbleman, summon it and make Blade Armor. E-Call another Bubbleman, summon it. E-Call the third Bubbleman and summon it too, making a 2nd Blade Armor. (These combos are incredibly unlikely, but they're good to know)
Overall, the deck is incredibly versatile, and has a very linear goal, simply pushing for 8000 damage faster than the opponent can.
My writing is rusty as all hell, so please tell me how useful this was.
Thanks for reading and I'll do my best to not let this blog just pass by unused again.
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