A fun fact is that the name Overlord TCGz comes from this guy Dragonic Overlord as this was my favourite card in the Cardfight Vanguard game. But of course that game changed, so I began losing interests as it was nothing compare to before. The formats before G was fun, although G was okay until they introduced G Guard, at that stage is where power creep began, but this is my personal opinions. Some people might think G was the start of power creep era, because of VG having massive power.
If you had to work for the crazy power bonus, then its fine as it only last one turn, and if its fail, then it backfires, but if its successful, then the reward is served. G era only the other hand, you could constantly get a Grade 4 by discarding a Grade 3 or grades equivalent to Grade 3 or higher to constantly get the power boost for your Vanguard.
Anyway, in this post, I will just talk about the Overlord Archetype and there forms, since Overlord has many forms, evolving each format. Of course, we also got long names for this archetype, so I will shorten their name down to their known name. I could write about other archetypes in future, but anything in D series, then I won't know anything about them. However, providing deck profiles anything related to Vanguard will be difficult for me as I haven't touched the game in a while, and I don't plan on going back to the game with other games I'm currently playing and waiting for Gundam Card Game to come out.
I also won't mention their V or D series version compare to the original version, but if those cards were made in either of those series and not the original, then I would also mention those cards to try and complete the Overlord Archetype.
Dragonic Overlord
Dragonic Overlord was the first debut in very early episode in the anime, I can't remember which episodes, either episode 1 or 2 in Season 1 anime. The famous quote from Kai Toshiki "Flame of apocalypse that burns away everything in this world! Ride the Vanguard!" you know its Dragonic Overlord coming in that season.
However, in the game wise, it isn't ideal to use this card as your finisher. There is always a risk, first is the 3 counter blasts needed, and back then, there is no such thing as counter charge, in fact only Nova Grappler has them. So using this effect comes with great risk. Plus, you only get 1 drive check, and back then Twin Drive was important as we don't have draw power unless you are playing Oracle Think Tank. 1 drive check with the need to hit a rear guard so we can restand Dragonic Overlord, man that cost really hurt. But of course, you could constantly drive check a card as long as you remove a rear guard, gaining a total of 3 drive checks maximum.
The End
Of course, everything changed when the series decided to introduce Overlord next form, The End. The End is still my favourite card till this day, and I don't mind playing this card in the classic format again. When this was introduced in the anime, we got Cross Ride and Persona Blast.
Cross Ride was very simple as you needed the original in the soul for extra bonus, 2k bonus. Plus, this is a continuous effect, making The End a 13k base throughout the entire game. 13k power was a lot back then, since not many deck can hit over that number forcing that player to use 10k shield. Obviously it is nothing these days with the state of the current Vanguard.
Persona Blast is a skill that you need another copy in hand to trigger The End's effect. The End wasn't the only card who requires Persona Blast as Shadow Paladin also got one. But I would talk about that in future. The effect cost 2 counter blasts which is a lot easier than the original who cost 3 counter blasts, but just like the original, you will need to hit for the effect to work. Considering that we didn't have a lot of power bonus in Season 1, it wasn't very difficult to stop, unless you needed that counter blasts for certain effects. But if it does hit, then we get 4 drive checks altogether since The End doesn't lose a drive check like the original does.
The Break Ride + Reverse Form
Skipping all the way to Season 3 as Kagero never existed in Season 2, we've got Overlord Break Ride and Reverse Form. These 2 works the best with each other creating a deadly combination. Of course, if you don't finish it that turn, it will hurt. Funny enough, Dragonic Overlord is still used for the name, but this is the break ride form, I guess to work with Cross Ride units, but with Break Ride, we just call them Cross Break Ride instead of just Cross Ride.
Overlord Break Ride was okay as it still kept part of the original effect where you need attack a rear guard for the effect to restand itself, only costing 1 counter blast. But this time, you give that ability to the Break Rided VG. Rebirth is technically the Reverse version of Overlord, so in Kagero we had 2 Reverse units. However, Rebirth was a game changer especially against Link Joker, mainly Glendios and Chaos Breaker. The more they lock, the more benefit we can pull out from Rebirth's effect.
Lock was a strong mechanic in break ride. Rear Guard focused decks had some difficulties as their number of attacks have been reduced, which is why using those decks were difficult in that era. Luckily there were like 2 decks who could counter Link Joker's Lock, Ezel and Rebirth. Ezel basically unlock their RGs, so lock felt a waste of effort, whilst Rebirth can unlock those RGs after you used Rebirth's effect to restand itself. It does cost you 2 cards in your hand, but in return, we've got 4 drive checks and more importantly, doesn't need to hit like The End and original version.
The Legion Units
Legion was my favourite era, and a fun fact, I've sold all my VG stuff except my Legion deck where we use The Great and The End combo. The X didn't exist until G era, so I didn't count that in the build. Unfortunately The Great was done dirty in V series, and it never got remade again. Both Legion cards were very strong, especially combining both together for a true Overlord Legion build, and that build was in G era where stride existed, but as long as we've got Legion, it doesn't matter too much.
Anyway, lets talk about The Great. The Great was very fun and definitely an improve version of the original. We still need to attack the RGs for the effect to work just like the break ride version, but we don't need to hit. This was great as it doesn't matter if your opponents guard or not as we will get the restanding effect. Although The Great does has an additional effect where you need to hit to retire something, potentially retiring a column.
The X on the other hand focuses on Legion with a Grade 3 unlike The Great with a grade 2, and that Grade 3 was The End. The End weakness was the lack of power, so The X solved that issue by making the Legion 22k power, allowing us to use The End's effect if it hits. Even if we don't hit, it doesn't matter as we can also use The X effect. Either way, it will be a win win situation for this card. Not to mention, both cards required Persona Blast and that can easily be solved through The X's effect when you perform Legion.
The G Units
I think Overlord related effects were broken when they introduced The X, but then again, The X made sense since it is pair with The End, but The Purge on the other hand doesn't. Although, I guess The Purge was made at the end of G, and at the end of G, VG was a messed which leads to a reboot V series and that failed too.
I like The Ace artwork out of all the Overlords as well as being a Grade 4. Basically it still restands, but we lose a drive check. Now for Strides, we get triple drive instead of twin drive, and you also need another Overlord to discard. Now if you are running The X Legion with The Ace stride, this is not difficult to do considering The Ace is the second stride, your first stride is something else unless you use G guard to set up GB2. The Ace is very deadly if your opponents can't stop the attack, but I think The Ace was still very easy to stop back then compare to the other Overlords as the format had changed.
The Purge is more of a set up card than The Ace. Out of all the games I've played, I rarely see The Purge as a finisher, considering that there were other better Strides out there. Purge have 2 effects, the first effect lets you deal a free damage if your opponents have 4 or less damage whilst nullifying any trigger effects. Very handy if that card was a heal trigger. The second effect is a GB3 effect where you get the same number drive as your opponent's damage zone. Maximum 5 drive checks per turn, giving you a massive hand size.
Legend & Destiny
As someone who've seen Gundam Seed Destiny, I still can't get over their naming especially when you run both in one deck. Both of these cards were made in G era, and of course when The Legend came out, it was still very bad card, and I was still using The X Legion instead whilst The Legend was a back up card. Although, prop to Bushi for keep The Legend similar to the other Overlord, so there was still relevant.
The Legend have 2 effect, the first effect being a GB2. Unlike Ace who needs you to discard a Overlord, The Legend lets you discard Flame Dragons instead to get 15k power, +1 drive and +1 grade. Then if this unit attacked a RG, you can restand this, so we gain another triple drive. At first it does looks better than The Ace effect, but we also discard 3 cards instead of 2. The second effect lets you add a Flame Dragon to hand so we could trigger the first effect easily or go into Stride if that Flame Dragon was a Grade 3.
The Destiny was made along with The Purge which is why these two units doesn't seems to be related to previous Overlord effects. The Purge have 2 effects where the first effect lets you place a card in that RG circle to the drop zone. This was a very strong effect as it can bypass Lock mechanic just like Rebirth. Not to mention, this is works once per turn as well as when it is placed on VG circle. The second effect is just a searcher when you stride on top of The Destiny whilst also retiring your opponent's RGs. I guess overall The Destiny was just a standard Kagero ability where we focus on retiring RGs instead of focusing on restanding the VG.
TurnA
The proper name is TurnAbout, but I call it TurnA for short as well as the pun for TurnA Gundam. Unfortunately, I've left VG when this card was released, so I never got the chance to see how well TurnA fair against. Not to mention is that this was a Manga card hence we also see the Manga Art they've kept.
The effect restands all of your front row Overlord along with this card. This is certainly TurnA, restanding as much Overlord as you can to go for the final swoop. I'm sure there was a combo with this card where you go do 4-5 attacks, but I've forgotten as I wasn't paying much of an attention to the game by that time.
The Victory
The Victory, a card that never came out in English, and you can't use this in a fight. I just think it was a prize card for JP tournaments, but I can't remembered. It did release in the V series as it has the V series number on the card.
Anyway, if you want to pull this effect off, you need to soul blast 6 Overlords from your soul to deal 6 damage to your opponent's VG. 6 damage is basically the win con, but they can heal to save themselves if they are lucky with the heal triggers.
Conclusion
I've think I've covered all the Overlords. I won't include their supports as I only care about Overlord. In general, most of the Overlords have been related with the restanding of VG which is what I liked about this card. Then, other clans start to copy, and I think in the end, most of the clans are able to restand their VG. Bushi just ran out of ideas for them, so it wasn't just Overlords speciality. I don't know what happen with The Destiny and The Purge, but I guess the game was ending so it was fine.
Feel free to comment if I missed an Overlord in the game. Although if they released a new Overlord after I posted this, then I won't be able to do much, except make a new one.
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