Hello one and all and welcome back to another exciting Gate Ruler article. With the English audience having officially graduated onto Set 4, ‘Become the Hero!’, it is time for us to start reviewing all the fresh playstyles that have emerged, in addition to the powered-up versions of a few old favorites.
To start things off; we have none other than one of the primary flagship archetypes of the game; Wizard Alice and her A7 crew. Still purporting to operate as a control deck, the archetype has attained a few explosive finishers in the forms of Units and Events thus diversifying its win-condition to something beyond attrition.
Let’s get into it!
The Decklist
While I would not be so bold as to claim that this is ‘THE‘ definitive decklist for the Alice archetype, I do sincerely believe it is quite close to it. Of course, as with any deck, there are changes that can be made, either functional or stylistic thus tailoring it to a player’s local meta-game. Most examples of such changes are covered in the sections hence. In this instance, however, what I have attempted to create is a deck that has a relatively even match-up against most other archetypes that have been perceived, at this early stage, to be in the upper echelon of competitive tiers.
It is also worth noting that unless there are some drastic changes in the format or choice of Ruler, Alice as an archetype (at least at the present time) has a set, relatively cookie-cutter, build. As a result, the propensity for great similarity between iterations of the deck is going to be quite high.
Defensive Combo
While the older builds of Alice lacked consistency, due to the absence of a dedicated searcher and the need to draw into a copy of Alice – Wonderland’s Champion early in order to put your opponent on the backfoot and the engine in motion, set 4 introduced Alice of the Magnificent Dream. This latter unit comes with a few unique perks of its own, while simultaneously sharing the former Alice’s key skill of giving A7 units the Sentinel Summoning ability (albeit worded a bit differently), thus doubling the likelihood of initiating your main defensive strategy early on.
In terms of her A7 crew, the usual offenders are present and accounted for, albeit with a few new additions. A7 “Mad Hatter” the Showman remains steadfast at four copies, while A7 “Humpty Dumpty” the Sentinel is experiencing a bit of a slump due to fewer units having the ‘Ascendant‘ attribute, in addition to Captain Liberty being cut from the main starting line-up.
The most recent member, A7 “White Rabbit” the Vanguard, is another great addition to the team. Her skill “Time Stop“, played at instant speed after being sentinel summoned can be devastating for an opponent, preventing a potential kill turn or even saving your board if you are low on resources. The caveat is its cost. Requiring a specific and costly DR7, it is possible for the effect to not have room to be used in light of Wizard’s smaller health total. Furthermore, unless you specifically run cards aimed at ‘unflipping’ your damage zone, it will be a once per game effect. Thus it is recommended that she and her ability be used more so as an emergency button, rather than trying to make the effect a core element of your strategy.
Last but certainly not least, there is A7 “Cheshire” the Cat and Alice in Wonderland. The former card should be quite well known at this point, operating as the generic shield of choice throughout the entirety of set 3. While the latter, as another recent addition, operates as this deck’s version of Dark Knight Vamel while also functioning as a pseudo-searcher much like Alice of the Lost World (who we will be seeing in the next section).
Win Condition
As addressed in some detail above, the deck at hand has a wealth of defensive combos at its disposal, thus furthering its original attrition-based win condition. However, and thankfully for the archetype, its viability has been furthered with the creation of a few aggression-oriented units and events.
The main units at our disposal, in this instance, are:
- Alice of the Lost World; one of the archetype’s pseudo searchers that also provides the very handy and highly relevant Breakthrough ability,
- A7 “Duchess” The Brawler; the generically used original ‘reach’ card of set 3, not just exclusive to Alice and finally,
- A7 “Queen of Hearts” the judge; one of, if not The strongest aggressive unit currently forming part of the A7 arsenal, which in addition to 3 STK also facilitates multiple attacks.
Yet, the aforementioned cards are not the end of it. In addition to units, we also received a very powerful Event. Namely, The Sword of Everafter, which in my view is a perfect finisher card and provides ample reach for when your Unit attacks cannot hit home. However, the card itself is proving to be somewhat divisive, with certain players already cutting it from their lists. While I do not think this is an incorrect approach, considering that Gate Ruler does not have sideboards and in the eventuality that it did I would relegate this card as a tech option, in this instance including two copies in any Alice list is more than warranted, in order to have an out for specific matchups while also not diluting the consistency of your deck against others.
Legends
I believe this segment, more than any other, is one that will be of special interest to most players, as the Legendary Unit ‘Alice of the Looking Glass‘ is currently locked behind the ??? rarity paywal. First of all, it is very very likely that she is going to be reprinted as a promo in a few short months. But, even if she was not, the competition for Wizard’s two legendary slots is quite fierce, as both Wonderverse and ATLAS have access to some very powerful and relevant legendary Units.
Draconoid Destroyer “Zmei” is an absolute behemoth of a legendary and quite deserverdly is given top billing, in this instance. The combination of Effect Damage, Eight Health and Sentinel Summoning can stop any array of attacks from hitting home. Of course, we would be remiss if we did not explicitly mention none other than the game’s unofficial 17th CNT Schrodinger, the Cat Out of the Box (Scoob). While no longer considered an absolute staple, the little spacial feline continues to remain more than relevant as a generic pink inclusion.
Lastly, bringing up the rear of options we have Masashi Amanogawa Da Galactic Samurai and Captain Liberty. The former rather than the latter lends itself to be significatly more impactful thanks to its TD skill, destroying any unit, in addition to its handtrap functional capabilities, giving you a chance to close out an even game from hand. The latter, while definitely a solid value card, is not as relevant as he once was. By no means obsolete, his relevance has waned slightly within the confines of the Alice archetype.
All in all, while Alice of the Looking Glass and Schrodinger, the Cat Out of the Box may be a little hard to come by at the moment, Zmei and Masashi would still serve as a devastating legendary duo, for this deck, that is more accessible to all.
Final Thoughts
At this early stage of the set release, Alice as an archetype, in this writer’s humble opinion, would rank at the lower end of the Tier 1 classification. While definitely quite strong and with a lot more consistency in bringing its win conditions to fruition, both defensive and offensive, other archetypes have not remained stagnant in their evolution. With drive rulers poised for a comeback and consistent destruction-based decks looming on the horizon, Alice will have a lot of aggression to contend with.
All in all, the deck has received a substantial amount of meaningful support. So much so that it has slowly consolidated itself into a relatively pure archetype, without the need for excessive amounts of generic support cards. Of course, we will need to wait for further tournament results to truly gauge how strong the deck is. However, based on preliminary results both from JPN tournaments and ENG locals, she is already performing quite splendidly.
Now that we are back and stronger than ever, I do sincerely hope you enjoyed this write-up. If you are curious to see more, do not forget to give me a follow on Twitter and if you would like to be a part of the creative process that goes into doing these write-ups, you can also check out my Patreon. Your further support would be very much appreciated.
Special shout-out and kind thanks to C. Sweeney & Kenny as my first ‘GateRuler’ related Patrons.
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