Genesis Data[]
- As introduced to the game in 2013 on BT10 - Triumphant Return of the King of Knights.
- Came up with supports including Limit Break and Break Ride mechanics.
- Received 1 Trial Deck and 16 supports from launch to the end of the G-Era.
- Received (Until the date of this post) 1 Trial Deck and 4 supports for the V-Era.
- Received (Until the date of this post) 2 supports for the Premium format .
Classic Genesis (Before G)[]
Even with the appearance of some archetypes already in its first set, Genesis brought cards that since then and even later, would allow the existence of aggressive decks, making the Clan competent to accomplish the final objective: Do six points of damage to the opponent.
Thinking about Limit Break / Break Ride, it was possible to join Himiko with Minerva to have an excellent Power, in addition to helping Minerva in relation to the cost of discards. And just remembering, at that time Genesis already had supports with cards that returned from the drop to the field when they left Soul.
When Legion appeared, Genesis continued to receive aggressive support. Some archetypes were already in better sync and you were free to unite everything that existed since the beginning of the game. In other words, using Break Ride with Legion was not a bad idea, but it was not necessary if your deck was built in a more "pure" and exclusive way for Legion. I will focus on Legion to give some examples: Thinking about Yggdrasil, we had Power, critical and Guard restriction; Thinking about Mint, we had Power and the possibility of multi-attacks when replacing the field with Soul cards.
Regardless of the combinations you made with at least one of these Bosses, you would certainly reach satisfactory results, even if it was not enough to achieve victory. Genesis looked like a promising Clan and had strength even against competitive decks of his day. Betting on Genesis, whether for competition or personal reasons, did not seem foolish.
Did Genesis stay good until the end? We'll see...
Genesis in the G-Era[]
Genesis received its first support on G in August 2015 (JP - Soul Strike Against The Supreme). Here the Clan players contemplated two cards that appeared and certainly became iconic: Fenrir and Vanargandr. If you thought you had seen high Powers before, it is because you have certainly not yet seen columns composed by Jormungand and Hati. With Fenrir and Leyding you could easily guarantee a balanced colum with low costs. You didn't have to worry about Power as long as you did Soul Blasts, and it sure was very easy to kill by guaranteeing 2 criticals at the top of the deck with Vanargandr. Oh, and we need to remember: You could Soul Charge almost any of your deck, and then burn Soul any way you wanted, because we had Dreaming Dragon. Oh, my friends, THAT was consistency.
Until that moment, Genesis was a consistent Clan, had an excellent finisher, remained a manipulation deck and brought satisfaction even if it didn't lead to victory. You felt that you were playing and that trying was worth the effort. Then came the G-Guardians. You can say that the G-Guardians balanced the game. It's true... but not entirely.
Taking just a little focus on Fenrir, I want to remember a specific archetype that simply died thanks to G-Guardians and that was way beyond its own time (if used in a specific way). Believe it or not, I'm talking about Witch. That's what you read, Witch! Do you know Clove? If you knew her, you may have used her to help support Legion. If you did not know it, you may be thinking that it is a simple card with moderate cost and that it might make a difference in your time. Regardless, Clove was a real killer. The support that Fenrir brought also brought Shiroma, and with the cards that existed until then, you were able to make an "all or nothing" deck. Feeding Soul in the first turns, using Fennel, Leyding and some Counter Blasts, you were able to attack 5x with a Power in the first Stride that most often defeated the opponent.
Okay, but why is it important for you to know this? Here we go...
Remember when I mentioned the G-Guardians? Witch was the first deck to die. Power was no longer enough to cause pressure to the point of forcing the opponent to defend with many cards. Also, at that point in the game many decks already had Draw effects, so 13k / 16k / 26k attacks (more or less in that order), it made no difference to an opponent, and it became easier when he had Heal in hand. This is sad? Yes, but okay. We still had Regalias and Fenrir. But then we had another "small" problem that several Clans also had: Interactions outside the opponent's turns.
Although Genesis received extremely competent supports, even after the community created intense combos like Fenrir / Wiseman thanks to Tahro, it was clear that "consistency" does not always mean "competence". I will not say that Genesis became horrible, but without Resist Skills, he was still a competent Clan with powerful Builds against other Clans, except Kagero, Link Joker, Narukami and later Nubatama. After that, Genesis ended up being an excellent Clan for 4fun, but the decks caused frustration in the competitive.
Amaruda / Ishtar came to give Genesis at least a more consistent multi-attack, in addition to a Draw that maintained a good balance between attack and defense. This did not make Genesis a competitive Clan, but it did bring the feeling that getting Triggers on Drives was no longer essential, just a bonus. And finally, the last support brought Ultimate Minerva, now allowing Standing the Vanguard and not focusing so much on Rears. But again, it was no use for the competitive.
Genesis ended the G-Era by being able to use Ultima, the Zeroth Dragon of his nation. Despite being a card that brought consistency to any deck and made it possible to reuse more forgotten Builds, the lack of Resist made Genesis an easy target. So, we had a Clan with some consistent and fun decks for 4fun, but it didn't fit in the meta game or even ranks close to T1. With all this in mind, we can say that Genesis was a competitive Clan until the G-Guardians arrived. Again, that doesn't mean that Genesis was bad, it just means that the game has changed and it hasn't kept up with the competitive. But that does not invalidate the fact that, since Fenrir, he has lost the chance to go further.
Genesis in the V-Era (After the Reboot)[]
(All data and comments are explicitly based on the Standard).
A good start:[]
In the first post-reboot Genesis support, the Clan received its first Boss: Himiko. It was exciting to know that Genesis had come back as "Genesis". Confused? Relax, you will understand later.
Returning to the first support, everything looked promising despite having many dependencies and inconsistencies with what could be done. All right and acceptable, after all it was only the first support. Himiko had an excellent and balanced Skill, the cost made you get used to the use of Soul and maybe that part was purposeful thinking about possible new players without Bushiroad displeasing the old players. Although it already allows you to make some slight modifications, the support was good at a pleasant level, but we must remember: It was slow.
Without making Superior Calls from Soul, without drawing cards effectively and basically having to send Triggers from the hand to Soul (In case of bad luck when doing Soul Charge), you quickly found yourself defenseless and unable to damage Protect and decks that were already drawing cards quickly. Himiko turned out to be a promising card that with the right support, could arrive at some place.
Genesis also brought a mechanic that looked interesting and fun, Divine Gauge. With Artemis and Himiko together on the same support, it was difficult to try to decipher the Clan's future. Because Artemis was one of the archetypes left out, it was difficult to want to take a chance. However, as it was a new mechanic for the Clan, the bet was valid. And then came the new Genesis support.
A bad continuation:[]
Without the opponent's interaction on our turn, Genesis could finally have his chance to reach the top of tournaments and have his first consistent deck already in the next support. The hype increased when it was learned that the anime would have Shin as its protagonist and that it would play Genesis. Coming a VR and a support that would improve Himiko or Artemis would be perfect. These decks, doing exactly what they did, would make it into the competition as long as there was a quicker way to get to the end result. And then we received Astral Plane. (Imagine Bushiroad's troll face).
The idea of Astral Plane was new, interesting and divided the Genesis players. Despite receiving a Trial Deck along with a support in a short time, the deck was not consistent, Soul was no longer subject to manipulation, the Power on the columns was not pleasant and to compensate you needed to be lucky when using Valkerion. So far we had at least 3 different decks and none actually getting anywhere.
It didn't take long and Astral Plane received another support. The deck was more consistent, but Himiko and Artemis were already a very distant past, mainly because the game was much faster. As I write this post, Bushiroad is currently revealing the latest cards for "V Booster Set 12: Divine Lightning Radiance". After a long wait and already believing that we would no longer see support for Soul manipulation or even Divine Gauge, this box revealed Fenrir, Yggdrasil and an old archetype mixed with a new one (Witch with Sorcerer). And, of course, more support for Astral Plane. Wow, this is wonderful! Or not...
If you really play Vanguard and follow the game, not necessarily the meta game, but the last supports; it's pretty clear that most decks are doing something like: Gaining Power and giving Power (For the whole field or for the Front), giving Stand in the whole field or for the Front, making Superior Call, making multi-attacks (With a Power that will cause high damage, even if it is hand damage ), drawing cards easily, earning Guard Restriction, Making Superior Ride and or spamming Gifts in other ways. I may have forgotten something. It would be fair if Fenrir had received something like this, mainly because he is a VR.
There is currently something to play with. Astral Plane went really fast, although Valkerion is still a lucky card. However, it is really sad to think that Fenrir did not come with any features of the most current decks. In the course of the supports Genesis came disappointing for not being more... Genesis. (Maybe now you understand what I mean up there). We received Hati, Vanargandr and Gleipnir. We had a small sample of manipulation of the top and Soul with these cards, but it is not enough to reach the six of damage effectively. Consistency and efficiency are different and very distant from each other.
People are arguing that Fenrir came consistently because he can take any card on the deck. Okay, but... What card? If you want to use Yggdrasil, you will be able to make up to 5 or 6 attacks in the turn, but the power of these attacks will be so low that you will not feel that you are putting pressure on your opponent in any way. And remember: to give Stand at Yggdrasil you will have to discard a card from your hand. In other words, on a deck that doesn't draw cards, even if you decide to fit Draw Skills, you will spend the same hand to get the same result: No pressure and death on the opponent's G3 turn, sometimes the first depending on the deck. If you make a pure deck with Fenrir, Vanargandr and the rest of the support, you will notice that even with the G1 gaining 5k of Power easily, the front will remain a problem especially if you want to use Fenrir's Superior Call Skill in Battle Phase. Vanargandr makes no difference in retiring cards, especially those that have already been used because, again, currently decks draw cards easily.
If you want to make a Divine Gauge deck, you can do it. But you will have to be lucky with three things: Having the right card in VC, having YGG in RC and getting Critical Triggers to make a difference in Power to put pressure on or end the game. Is also possible to create decks focused on Melissa, and although it is possible to use her Skill 6x or more in a single turn, I honestly will not go into these details because it is not something that is easy to do and is useless against several Clans.
Thinking about all this, does Genesis look good? It depends... it depends on your playstyle and it depends on your goal at Vanguard. But for the meta game, Genesis is far from good if you want to play with Soul manipulation.
What's MY point?[]
If you got here it is because you thought and rethought the facts and points of view expressed here. So I just ask that you keep two things in mind:
- The things I am going to say now are just MY opinion and you are not obliged to agree with it, I just ask you to respect it;
- My comments will be based EXCLUSIVELY on V and on decks based only on Soul manipulation, using G and Classic only as an example and material for comparison.
The disappointment with Genesis when compared to even 4fun archetypes is very great. Nociel was just revealed and in tests, I saw the deck attacking with 60k + in ALL columns, remembering that you have Stand Skill and Superior Ride in the archetype. Protect decks like Scharhrot and Gredora are gaining multi-attacks and Power, in addition to Guard Restriction; Accel decks like Gurguit and some Pale Moon Builds (in addition to the God Hand in Nova Grappler) gain very high Power with little cost; Force decks like Luard, Mordred and others have high Power and multi-attacks in addition to additional Gifts. Based on the "original" Genesis you saw from the beginning of the post to the end of the G, now we have a Genesis so weak that it has caused revolts in people who are saying that Bushiroad cursed the Clan after Fenrir's support (G Series). Unfortunately I am forced to agree with these people, because after all that I have given from examples of a few decks, Fenrir and Himiko, or even Yggdrasil and Artemis, are a little better than Trial Decks. Only that.
Remember when I mentioned Amaruda / Ishtar and said that getting Triggers on Drives was additional and not essential? So... How can I say that a CURRENTLY deck is consistent if it is not able to do anything that all the other Clans are doing? Consistent in doing what if they are not even doing what has been proposed since the first VR? Consistent in what if, in addition to all this, getting Triggers is essential to try to at least cause supposed pressure? Consistent in what if I am feeding Soul easily, but there is no effective use of it? Consistent in what if it is killing or dying and I don't have a finisher to take me to it?
By pointing out some of these arguments, people even told me that I can't read, that I'm not playing the same Vanguard as them and that there is nothing to complain about Fenrir / Himiko and Divine Gauge because of that last support. You are free to disagree with me and agree with them. Some even said that they were expecting a competent argument from me, BUT... It is difficult because in addition to these people attacking me more than arguing, they clearly do not understand the giant difference between "consistency" and "efficiency". And up to that point these specific decks that I have mentioned have neither.
So my point is: Genesis was almost completely ignored on V (Not 100% because of Astral Plane, but I can't call that Genesis [If you've read my entire post, you'll understand my points]). And my fear is that, with this new anime (VG Overdress) V is at risk (as far as I understand, correct me if I'm wrong, please) to enter Premium and a rotation occurs in the format. If that happens, I won't be able to say that Genesis really existed in V. If it doesn't, there is also no hope that Witch, Divine Gauge, Fenrir or Himiko will become playable efficiently because Bushiroad only brings uncertainty to Genesis from the very first support. If there is some really good support for these that I mentioned in the new support (V Special Series), it will be too late because in one way or another this will complete the sets of V.
Final considerations[]
Bushiroad has done a great job this past year.. It may be that there are people dissatisfied with other Clans and decks. But she disappointed me with the support of Genesis throughout V. Could it be any better? Of course yes. But that is not the message that she is passing along the supports. This is MY opinion, it is the way I see Genesis and I feel that since Fenrir (G) until today, Genesis has fallen that needs to be well compensated to correct this error.
OBS.: I'm sorry for possible grammatical errors or concordances, I don't know how to speak / write English yet, but I hope that the writing is enough for you to understand my points.
Thank you to those who read everything! :)