[DeckReview] Abuan Binoe – 1st Place Flagship PH with Kaido ST4

Why purple? At first, my answer to this is because it is the cheapest color but as the game progresses and I have seen the different mechanics, I saw that Purple has the potential to be the best control centric mechanic in the game because of the combination of KO skills and high-power characters. It is not that easy to pilot but the goal of the deck is simple – control the board and call the big guys!

The core card of the deck is the stage card Onigashima, this card enables the deck the play the high-cost cards earlier than the opponent resulting to a change on the tempo of the turns. The rested don from its effect also compensates for the minus don cost of the purple character’s effects. I usually take the Mulligan if I don’t have Onigashima in my hand, it is that important for the deck. It is also the usual early play for purple, making the deck a slow starter but very powerful mid game and late game. 

Purple has some of the best characters in the game. Here are the key cards of the deck and my reasoning on why I chose them:
1. ST Kaido –  9 cost, 10K power with a very powerful effect – don minus 5, KO opponent’s character with 6 cost and below and then gains rush. One may think that the cost is really large as it is don minus 5 but with Onigashima and the free 2 dons at the refresh phase, it is not as painful as it looks like. Having a 10K character on your side means you have a big hit every turn that they need to block/counter, making the opponent waste resources with just one attack. It is also hard to remove on the field because of its high cost and high power level. It is also the answer of purple to the Kidd-Law combo of green as it can KO law on play and then attack the rested Kidd. 

2. ST King – this is my favorite card of the deck. If you go first with Onigashima in hand, you can play this on your third turn and can KO the 4 cost character your opponent played the turn before. It has good stats with 6 cost which evades removal cards like Lion’s breath and 7K power making it out of range of the notorious Jet pistol. 

3. ST Queen – 5 cost, don minus 1, draw 2, discard 1, 6K blocker. It’s cycle effect lets you filter your hand as there is a high chance that you’ll draw into multiple onigashima and load your hands with possible good cards and counter. Its stats are also good, a 6K blocker forces the opponent  to load dons to their leader just to go over its block. The only downside is that it is within the range of common removal cards. 

4. ST Uta – 4 cost, 5K blocker with an on block effect to rest an opponent character with 5 cost or less for don minus 1. Versatile card, this usually forces the opponent to waste removal cards on it as it has a very good defensive effect. 

5. Blast breath – 1 cost, +4K counter event for the cost of don minus 1. I think the design of this card is really busted. During late game, the minus don cost is negligible and the +4K counter is big. This card in combination with the large counters in the deck makes the defensive mechanic of the deck. The deck I used has 11 +2K counter cards – Sasaki, Ulti and Drake. 

As for the build of the deck, this follows the standard build but with the addition of ST Ulti and Page One, I used these two instead of the Film cards Buena fiesta as Having Ulti and Page One on the board can add pressure to the opponent. I opt to not play Buena Fiesta as the deck is not film centric. This build also uses hand disruption in the form of OP1 Jack and OP1 Drake.