Gate Ruler Set 3 | T. 20 Zoo Brigade’s Juggernaut; The Rampage Continued

While we eagerly anticipate the arrival of set 4; ‘Become the Hero!‘, in English, it is still nonetheless prudent to analyse some of the late bloomers of this particular competitive format. As the title of the article suggests, we will be focusing on another iteration of a “Bigwig” Owl, Bloodrage Raptor deck. Specifically, we will be reviewing, to a certain extent, how the win condition has evolved since the beginning of set 3, before ultimately arriving at its present state.

The Decklist

For the purposes of this article, we will be using a decklist that had a very strong showing in the GateRuler World Team Circuit, for Japan, as our example. The deck at hand utilises a combination of the Yomajin Front with the Owl’s native faction; ATLAS.

While this is certainly not the only viable combination, with Volnar and even Wonderverse proving to be strong candidates on account of their versatile tech options like the ability to Genesis Summon your win condition, Skystrike Arrow, and The Two Paths, to name but a few, it does purport to be the one that can draw the most amount of cards in the shortest possible time.

In terms of what build you should opt for, well, that will depend on your local meta. Something more grind-oriented might require an aggressive approach. While, on the other hand, combo and aggressive decks would more effectively be dealt with via the use of multiple disruption effects.

The ability to be able to tech this particular version of Zoo Bridge to the meta so effectively, really stems from the fact the vast majority of key cards are housed in one faction; much like Dark Knights. This makes it a near-perfect archetype for experimentation.

Main Win-Condition

The closing strategy for the deck is identical to the Overlord variant I first published in November and consists of just this one card; “Bigwing” Owl, Bloodrage Raptor, and a substantial hand-size. While unlikely that you will be able to grind your opponent down to 0 HP if you have to start from scratch, assuming you have inflicted a decent amount of chip damage to them with your Ruler, Sakuya-hime, Kami of Blossom, and your smaller summons, this singular unit can realistically provide anywhere in the region of 5 damage and upwards, making it capable of dissipating your opponent’s remaining life-total by itself.

As if the above was not enough, it also has Breakthrough, Retaliate and Charge Shield. The former keyword is extremely relevant because it makes CNT cards like Ragdoll Cat Sith and Fell Wolverine irrelevant as blockers.

Furthermore, the latter keyword, Charge Shield, means that the minion will not die to just one round of effect damage thus requiring either an ‘ability negate’ and effect damage or your opponent to commit multiple resources to stop this one card.

Lastly, it is a level 2 unit which is extremely important because it dodges all the ‘Giant Killer‘ effects attached to a multitude of CNTs, Events, and Units in set 3, making it effectively immune to another key piece of unit removal.

Please do note that, unlike the Overlord variant, this Trickster iteration operates more as a ‘control’ deck with a burst finisher, thus requiring a bit more time to hit critical mass for a lethal turn. As such, it is a bit slower but this minor drawback is counter-balanced by the ruler’s increased health pool.

Weaknesses

As eluded to in the section above, the absolute core weakness of the deck is that it crumbles to Embrace of Eons. The discounted cost, coupled with the ability to negate a Unit’s effects plus the damage dealt, leaves no hope for survival for the unfortunate Owl.

Naturally, there are other effects that can render the win condition dormant for a turn; such as Exhausting. However, despite their ability to do so, cards with such an effect like Space Cave, do involve a significant amount of RNG, in so far as having to be checked as a CNT for the desired effect to trigger.

Final Thoughts

It has been so amazing to see the archetype grow and adapt over the many months, allocated to set 3, since I first published my original ‘Overlord Zoo Brigade Owl‘ decklist back in November of last year 2021. We have seen it change rulers and even utilise a combination of different colors, predominantly focusing on the factions of Volnar and the Yomajin Front.

In my meta deck ranking analysis, I had initially estimated ‘Bloodrage Raptor’ focused decks to be high-tier 2 contenders. However, given its current performance in the Gate Ruler World Team Circuit, there is a genuine temptation to increase its ranking to tier 1. Yet, I am hesitant to do so for one very specific aforementioned reason. Namely, Embrace of Eons. This singular card, albeit in conjunction with a few other effects as referenced in the ‘weaknesses’ section of the article, absolutely decimates the win condition of this ‘ style of decks’. While some may be tempted to make the argument that it is ‘just one card’, we should remember that it is in fact so impactful, in the present metagame, that it shows up in the majority of top-tier archetypes. As such, I would venture to say that while these decks are certainly extremely relevant, they can be dealt with quite effectively once the strategy has been solved, in a similar vein to that of Trickster Burn.