Murakumo - Legion Deck! *Poof*

Murakumo is the clan that I've played with for the longest and I personally found their 'hit 'n run' play-style to be very enjoyable and rewarding. In short, the clan revolves around superior calling copies of units (usually for a single counterblast) from the deck and then returning them at the bottom of the deck at the end of turn (or as I like to call it.. 'poof'-ing'.) This also increases the deck's trigger density, as the units are called, the deck is then shuffled, at the end of turn the units poof and as such more triggers are present in the chunk of cards above them. The clan also has some other niche mechanics, for instance soul-blasting one to move a unit to an open Rearguard Circle (RC), making re-positioning columns very easy (and allowing us to almost always legion the turn we ride to grade 3, by reliably filling up the dropzone.) The clan itself is very consistent, but their advantage is temporary, so it is important to strike when the time is right.

Without much further to say (for now) here's the deck-list! I'll discuss the reasoning behind my choices down below.

(Images: cardfight.wikia.com)

Grade 3:
x4 Onmyo Stealth Rogue, Seimei (Legion)
x4 Covert Demonic Dragon, Kagura Bloome (Break-ride)

Grade 2:
x4 Transformation Stealth Rogue, Kuzunoha (Legion Mate)
x4 Swift Archer, FUSHIMI
x3 Demonic Hair Stealth Rogue, Grenjin

Grade 1:
x4 Stealth Beast, Leaves Mirage (Null Guard)
x4 Stealth Rogue of Silence, Shijimamaru
x4 Stealth Beast, Million Rat
x2 Stealth Beast, Deathly Dagger OR Bangasa Stealth Rogue, Sukerock

Grade 0:
x4 Fox Tamer, Izuna (Critical)
x4 Dirk Stealth Rogue, Yaiba (Critical)
x4 Stealth Beast, Cat Devil (Critical)
x4 Stealth Fiend, Yukihime (Heal)

x1 Masago Stealth Rogue, Goemon (Starting Vanguard)

G-Zone (Grade 4):
x4 Harmonics Messiah
x4 Miracle Element, Atmos


(Only stride units that Murakumo can use right now :(. We are getting support in G BT-03 though ^_^ )

(Will add a printable Deck-list version later)


Now onto the reasoning..

Grade 3:

Seimei.. Murakumo's only legion, with this guy's skill you really don't ever need to call front row rearguards, his legion skill allows us to call up to two copies of either himself or Kuzunoha for a single counterblast and then poof them at the end of turn. I've played Hyakki Vogue 'Reverse', Shirayuki and Seimei, and of all three I found Seimei to be the more effective in various match-ups. Also now that cross-rides are seen less and less you can almost always hit vanguard using the clones without any boosters which is also a thing, but that's besides the point. His ability nets us a +2 each turn for a single counterblast and also increases our deck's trigger density, should you draw into more Seimeis you can always use them to stride or simply re-legion to put more triggers back into your deck. He also gets +3k during our turn if we have either a seimei or kuzunoha out, so with an 8k booster he can consistently hit 31k, making guarding for your opponent quite annoying.. 25k guard for one to pass, 30k for 2 to pass or 35k / null guard for no pass..

Kagura Bloome.. One of my favorite break-rides in the game. Basically when you break-ride (be at 4 damage) over this for one counterblast you get: 2 extra copies of the unit that you just rode over Kagura and call them to a rearguard circle, your vanguard gets +10000 until the end of turn, and at the end of turn you bounce the units called with Kagura's break-ride skill back into your hand. This sets up for a really nice combo afterwards, providing you with 2 turns of back to back striding which turns the +2 from Kagura into a +4 and a lot of guarding pressure. When Kagura is boosted by a Murakumo unit he gets +2k until the end of turn, so putting a Shijimamaru behind him lets you make a 21k column.. It is situational whether you want to sit on Kagura Bloome or not, but if you can afford to without losing too much pressure then it will lead to a lot of pressure as the game progresses.

Grade 2:

Kuzunoha... Seimei's Legion Mate  wife, in my opinion she is amazing, if not for 'Clan Fight' she would make for an amazing tech in most rearguard focused decks such as granblue or gold/royal paladin. In short, if your vanguard is in legion when she is placed on a RC you can Soulblast 1, choose a unit that isn't kuzunoha, and clone it until the end of turn, then poof. With her and Seimei's skills you can build a full temporary board from almost nothing, should you need to suddenly apply a lot of pressure, or simply go for that final push. Let's say you have your legioned vanguard and one booster anywhere eg. shijimamaru. You cb 1 and search your deck for 2 Kuzunoha's and call. Kuzunoha A nominates shijimamaru, soul-blasts 1 and clones him, Kuzunoha B nominates shijimamaru, soul-blasts 1 and clones him. You now have a full board for one counterblast and 2 soul-blast, She makes for a great tech in other decks because she doesn't have to clone Murakumo rearguards, the only requirement is for your Vanguard to be in Legion.

FUSHIMI... In most deck-lists that I've looked at no one uses this guy, which is very disheartening. Grade 0 forerunners are always create some sort of advantage and denying it can screw a lot of decks over. Sniping that Silver Thorn, Beast Tamer, Emile can screw Silver Thorns over a lot, and I mean a lot. There really isn't a reason not to run this guy in a legion deck, since you will be rarely calling rearguards after you've legioned. FUSHIMI and Grenjin are the best vanguard circle pressure units that Murakumo have, and some early pressure and advantage denial can go a long way in a deck that generates temporary advantage and strikes at opportune moments.

Grenjin... He is Murakumo's best pressure unit and in every non legion deck is usually maxed out at 4, but in this deck 3 are enough to help your early game rush. When Grenjin is boosted by a Murakumo and hits a vanguard you can call another Grenjin from your deck for cCB1 and poof him at the end of turn. His skill is very handy early game as you can chain one Grenjin into another into another and either rush their vanguard or simply take out their rearguards.

Grade 1:

Leaves Mirage.. Very pretty :D.. Anyways, Perfect guards are staple at 4 in most decks ( disregarding anti-meta rush decks) , they allow us to guard against those huge stride attacks with 3 drive checks, scary. Murakumo build a lot of hand advantage so there isn't a reason to run quintet walls over them, which are hit/miss, they on average pull 25k guard which isn't enough to guard against most stride attacks. Besides, Murakumo spam enough counterblast already as it is, and ripping copies of some units out of your deck can be detrimental.

Shijimamaru.. Your 8k vanilla beater, these are not to be underestimated. Riding this helps to prevent your opponent from rushing you early game, he makes 21k and 31k columns with Kagura Bloome and Seimei respectively and is a great target to clone with Kuzunoha. He can also be used to assist in early rushing, which most stride decks are very vulnerable to, due to their slow early game.

Million Rat.. He is a 6k with a very simple on call ability: when he is called to a RC you can CB1 and search your deck for one million rat, call it and then poof it at the end of turn. He allows you to pressure your opponent early game, especially when they ride a 6k vanguard, such as a pg or a quintet wall. Additionally he can fill up the back row pretty quickly to either help chain Grenjin calls, or fill up the back row when you call more Seimeis using Seimei's legion skill. If you prefer a higher base then you can run 4 Sukerock and 2 deathly dagger, but from my experience Million rat has worked pretty well.

Deathly Dagger.. Put it simply a 9k booster if you have 2 or more of the unit that you're boosting, it works really well with Seimei's legion skill, However it's only a 6k base and we have enough of those in our grade 1 lineup, so Sukerock is also a viable alternative. His skill allows us to soul blast 1 to move him to an open RC, just like Goemon. I feel that both are viable alternatives to each other. Sukerock does have a 7k base and more versatility and even though  20k / 18k (matters when killing rearguards) and 18k/16k (matters when playing against cross-rides) columns don't make that much of a difference, the 20k column is much better at taking out rearguards and as such you have the freedom of choice here :)

Grade 0:

Triggers: 12 Crit 4 Heal, draw triggers aren't of much use as we generally don't call many units from hand and besides Murakumo are a defensive deck and the 5k shields don't help nearly as much as the big 10k shields from Criticals/Heals. Stands are not very good is Murakumo (apart from Hyakki Vogue 'Reverse') as the rearguards don't have very much power nor do they have strong on hit effects unless boosted. 12 Crit 4 Heal also supports our 'early rush', and makes not guarding against vanguard attacks less forgiving as the game progresses. 4 Heals -> staple in almost every deck.

Goemon.. He does the same thing as Sukerock, except he is a 5k base (just as most forerunners that aren't grade 3 searchers.) I've tried running the grade 3 searcher, Kokuenmaru and he isn't very good in this deck (can work in Shirayuki/Hyakki, but I prefer not to run him becuase he is inconsistent.) Back to Goemon, you can use his ability more than once per turn, so if your dropzone is small you can pretty much empty your soul and ensure a legion the turn you ride to grade 3. You can also move him around to the front row to rush early as he does make a 13k column with Shijimamaru.


As always all feedback, questions, requests and opinions are welcome! :)

If anyone wants me to do a Hyakki Vogue 'Reverse' deck analysis, then don't hesitate to ask!