METACHARGED - The Golden Three

Welcome to Redakai: Down Under.
Metacharged has finally came out and how pumped are we? The set brought in loads of new cards that really has the capability to put a new spin on decks. Including more Gold Monsters. I know Monsters aren't really the talk of the game considering that Monsters aren't necessary but... I think that they're pretty sweet creatures that help turn the tide of battle.

These three beasts are just three of the new Gold Monsters that came out in Metacharged - Riptide and Froztok in another segment. I decided to place these guys in a section between the Minor and Major Gold Monsters (Minor 4, Major 4), as these guys are slightly more useful than the Minor 4 but not so much as to compare to the Major 4.

Fractus Gold Elemental
Costing a mere 4 Kairu enables you to play it on the first go and now is a quick way of getting out of the ever annoying Frozlock Combination. Not only that but stop the annoying Sonic Slap to a Supernami or any other new "Stop an attack" that came out in this set - Including the Gold Froztok. He doesn't heal any bars, but instead hosts a beautiful 400 Blue and 400 Red Defense equaling a grand 800 Defense. Nothing is more annoying than an attack being stopped and Fractus simply fixes that without the cost of any Kairu - Take THAT Sonic Slap!

Magnox, Gold Machine
Before I do anything, they say there's an issue with his ability as you draw a card at the beginning of your turn thus rendering Magnox's ability useless - However, we can all assume that this is before you draw a card (It's going to get errated to say that anyways). But nonetheless, Magnox is VERY cheap - 3 Kairu, again playable on the first turn. Heals no bars and hosts 300 Red and 400 Green Defense leading up to 700 Total Defense. His ability activates when you have no cards in your hand at the beginning of your turn allowing you to draw an additional card - meaning you draw 2 cards instead of one. This chains very nicely with Teeny's ability from the Imperiaz as well as going well in a quick 40-Stax deck run. Assuming Magnox's ability stacks, if you play 3 Magnox's you can draw 4 cards per turn which in itself, is an entire hand and allows you to completely devastate your opponent by getting ahead of them. There are people who say that Redakai is a game with horrible draw power but Magnox rectifies it if you're quick enough to empty your hand.

Silverbaxx - Gold Animal
If you want to play offensive - Techris's Creature - Silverbaxx is for you! Silverbaxx hosts 400 Blue and 500 Green Defense, a total of 900 Defensive Power for only 6 Kairu. Considering that the Big 4 Metanoid and Bruticon has 1000 Total Defense for 10 Kairu, Silverbaxx's defense is pretty cheap. But not only that, Silverbaxx heals the bottom bar which is a fairly common bar to be hit on. His ability again regards Draw Power. Basically if you hit hard enough, you get another card. This is amazing again in a 40-Stax Deck, and amazing in some aggressive Koz decks. His ability stacks and works multiple times, so if you play 2 attacks per turn with both having 750 Power for example and have 3 Silverbaxx on the board - You can get 6 Cards from your deck, not to shabby. This allows you to go all out offense!! Check your decks now, maybe attacks like Overload and Screech Stunner has more a use now than before!

Another "Slab" of Information!

Welcome to Redakai: Down Under, everyone who has ever bought any booster pack in Redakai probably heard of this littl' crab right here...

Slab, Slab Slab SLAB SLAB!!! Nobody really likes the Crab Elementals do they? They are common, they don't heal any bars, no special abilities what-so-ever and generally a liability! So, why use Slab??? To me, they're a Wall Card. A new classification hahaha! Wall Cards are cards which host high defense in a colour similar to Trisquad Red Machine and Green Machine. When Gold Riptide comes out, I might use these fellas as a line of defense and keep my React Attack Cards for other uses. Of course, comparing these guys to Trisquads who actually have abilities, Slab gives you some room for other defenses, Red Slab giving you a free top zone, Rock Slab the middle zone and Blue Slab the bottom Zone. This allows for crazy defense in 1 colour and a minor defense in another or an utterly crazy defense against 1 colour. With Red Slab hosting 700 Red Defense in total, slap on another 400 Red Defense and you can stop Supernami, an almost impossible attack to stop! Slab's Wall-ing capabilities are definitely one to look at once Riptide, Gold Elemental Comes out! But for now, we can use them for some type of insane defense =P!
4.5/10 For All Slabs Though...

MetaCharged

If you guys have been following the forums on Redakai.com at all, you should all have already seen this littl' picture.

Yes, it seems to be a leaked image of the upcoming set of Redakai - Metacharged. Though this seems to be the only image of any Metacharged stuff out there, we can already see that the packs changed significantly and hints on some monsters on the pack =D!
Thx Bakufanatic for tip-off though!

Minor 4

Welcome to Redakai: Down Under
Following the Big 4 in the original core set are the Minor 4. These cards whilst not directly game-changing such as the Big 4, they are extremely annoying and devastating in a more... minor way...

There are some key concepts these guys have in common...
1. They're bgame to early midgame cards (6-8) meaning unlike some of the Big 4 like Metanoid and Bruticon can be played quite quickly
2. They're abilities block/assist the key strategies behind the respective game-stage Ex. Gran-ite, Gold, stops random damaging to any character thus saving Koz (for example), Harrier assists the midgame where the 7-10 Kairu Attacks is used to play the rest of any bgame attacks remaining. Spykor, though ability is costly, chops off a valuable card that your opponent has been saving. Scarachnoz, is brilliant as well... it stops people from being greedy via Nightmare, Knight Asp Gold etc.
3. They're all Gold xD

Anyways, let's get into it...
Gran-ite Gold Elemental
Low Cost of 4 Kairu means that generally he can be played in the first turn a player gets, perfect for the Imperiaz protecting Koz/Diara/Teeny and what-not... His defense of 300 Green, 300 Red isn't too shabby and as a bgame card - doesn't heal any of the three bars (Like you need to anyways). His ability reads "may redirect" so of course, it's your choice, maybe you don't want Koz to be protected anymore yadda yadda yadda. His ability is pure gold - "Redirection of attacks" and definitely assist a bgame strategy of the Imperiaz (Keeping Koz out of Fire).

Harrier, Gold Animal
With a total Kairu of 6, You get get Harrier out generally on your 4th Turn, and Harrier doesn't disappoint. Harrier has a devastating ability of allowing a player to play 2 attack cards where the 2nd one is free. Once again the wording is "may" and is optional. Often problem is sometimes you may not have too many attacks in your hand after Harrier stays in for a couple of turns. Harrier hosts a total of 800 Defense - 400 Blue, 400 Red and isn't too shabby after being stacked on others. As a midgame card, Harrier enhances the severity of blows by adding a second minor blow to the finish the job.

Spykor, Gold Machine
A cheap cost of 4 Kairu, an expensive ability costing 8 Kairu. Meaning that though he can be played during the bgame, isn't really useful until late-midgame period. Of course, you can make this faster via Infinita, Reflected Glories, etc. His ability is utterly devastating when played correctly allowing a player to look at their opponent's entire hand - (See any incoming attacks/monsters etc), Pick a card and discard it! Wow... frankly, despite its large cost can destroy strategies temporarily and even then destroy them again when they get their second copy. As the midgame closes into the endgame, Spykor really shines as he takes down his opponent's hard-saved Supernami or Bruticon etc. and sends it to the discard pile with little effort. A total of 800 Green defense however, makes him vulnerable to Red and Blue attacks, on the bright side, he's better against Shadow Punch than any of the Big 4 or Minor 4.

Scarachnoz, Gold Animal
Low Kairu of 4, again means its playable in the early game. The only one of the Minor 4 that actually heals a bar (Middle Bar) and holds 600 Defense - 300 Green, 300 Red. People normally groan if they get Scarachnoz as they initially think he is useless (Comparing Gold Rare Scarachnoz to others like Shadow Punch and Metanoid)... But later finds he isn't so bad after-all. Already playable from Turn 1 and healing a middle bar is already a pretty good end-game card but his ability to stop opponents from drawing more and more cards through their character abilities, cheap attacks like Nightmare etc. limits your opponent's options from doing pretty much anything and keeps the game going in a nice steady pace instead of leaning towards your opponent.

So I hope you liked this brief presentation on the Minor 4!

Alpha and Omega.

Hey again, now we move on into the actual game of Redakai. Due to it being what I like to call a "resource-funded" game meaning that to play cards they require some sort of resource, I am able to split the game up into Beginning, Middle and Endgame. Similar to Chess... Making a deck requires a balance between beginning, middle and endgame cards for obvious reasons with in my opinion, slightly more attention to beginning and middle game cards.

~"Bgame" Cards - Beginning Game~

So, everyone who plays Redakai knows that we each start with 3 Kairu and work our way up the Kairu Counter Ladder and so a "bgame" card as I dub them are fairly cheap below 6 Kairu Cost. The beginning of the game is the point in the match where players begin to throw "petty" tricks at each other to damage one or two zones perhaps even knocking out a character, trying to spread out the damage for a better looking middle game. Such cards are "Feather Swords", its a fairly weak card when compared to some of the endgame cards, has a low power of 250, a green attack and cost a cheap 2 Kairu with a petty trick, "If this hits, recharge 1 Kairu", it hits the bottom zone, a fairly common zone in Redakai and is a quick and easy card to open the game with. These types of cards are the bgame cards that are fairly weak compared to the middlegame or endgame cards but is easily spammable and can exhaust your hand quickly.

~"Midgame" Cards - Middlegame ~

Similar to chess, there is no set time when the bgame ends and the middle game or midgame begins, however, I have deemed that when a player reaches 6 Kairu, the midgame commences. The midgame lasts from around  6 Kairu to 10 Kairu, and is when the player's main attacking and monsters begin to appear. These midgame cards are generally a heavy-hitting cards and generally part of your opponent's grand orchestrated plan to obliterate you... Unless you obliterate them first of course... Take Fire Tornado, blocking the ability and the middle zone whilst taking out top and bottom zone with a dominant 750 Green Power. It's not easily blockable if a player isn't concentrating on Green Defence and could make a player a whole lot more stressed during the game. These types of midgame cards are definitely threatening and is when the game truly commences with both player's hurling attacks against each other whilst trying to work their way up to their master plan... However, these midgame cards pales in the likes of the long-saved and earned Endgame Cards.

~Endgame Cards~

 Whilst I can very well place a picture of Bruticon or Metanoid and state the word, "Period" and end the article right there, I'm instead going to place a picture of SUPERNAMI!!! The OHKO a character when played which is close to impossible to stop via Defenses (Apparently friend proved it was possible...). But anyways, Endgame cards are generally costing 10 or more Kairu and are nightmare cards which turns the tide of the battle quickly. These cards are like the Queens in Chess or the Aces in Poker, possessing these cards as well as the ability to play them itself remains a direct threat to your opponent. Supernami is a great example, costing a whopping 15 Kairu and a massive red power of 1050 AND the ability to instantly destroy a character of choice is DEFINITELY a card worth freaking out for... But as with these types of cards, a bit of luck and a whole load of patience and endurance is required to play it.

So that's it for this time and hope you learned a bit more about how to budget your deck, remember these are just general guidelines.

The Big Four!

Welcome to Redakai: Down Under, As our first post we're going to "dub" the "Big 4" of Redakai. The term, "Big Four" coming from another well known TCG - Chaotic. The Big 4 Cards may be compared to Redakai Dojo's "Big Guns" but I don't think the Big Guns are necessarily the only game-changing cards there are...

You can argue with me all you want, but I picked the 4 main Gold Animals/Machines from each of the 4 teams to represent the Big 4 of Redakai. Individually they are:
Drudger, Gold Machine
From Team Battacor, Drudger heals the top bar which though isn't a full-healing like Metanoid and Bruticon still remains better than nothing. He also hosts 400 Red Defense and 400 Green Defense which isn't that shabby... And his game-changing ability: "You may play cards in your discard pile as though they were in your hand". This is the key to great control of your hands and not being afraid to discard cards via Doombringer. This also allows you to play attacks that don't necessarily hit so that you expand you hand to above 6. By using Drudger, you'll have no problem in regard to playing your strongest cards first-up and you can play them whenever needed. This gives additional cards in a player's hand if you will and this ability alone is better than Metanoid/Bruticon Gold Machine's ability in the early-mid game.

Metanoid, Gold Machine
If there are any arguments against this guy being in the Big 4, you must be pretty insane. He heals all three zones or a full heal, he hosts 500 Red and 500 Green Defense and art looks pretty wicked. His ability costs a whopping 10 Kairu and has very limited control over the usefulness but is definitely a powerful ability in the endgame when you know what aces you haven't drawn. Because he costs an enormous 10 Kairu and ability costing another 10 Kairu, this dude is a late-gaming card but can easily turn the tide of the battle.

Bruticon, Gold Machine
Once again, very similar to Metanoid, Gold Machine... He heals all 3 zones and hosts a total of 1000 points in defense - 500 in Blue and 500 Red Defense. His art looks pretty sick if looked closely. Once again, his ability costs an astounding 10 Kairu and is similar to Drudger's ability except it is more of a late-gaming ability. Unlike Drudger, Bruticon can ONLY play attacks where Drudger can play both Monster and attacks especially useful in early games with Doombringer, but like Metanoid, in the endgame can create a 3 attack finish on any character and acts pretty much as a Supernami for 10 Kairu. Bruticon is also classified as a late-gaming card and can definitely turn the tide of the battle especially against other Big 4 cards.

Knight Asp Gold Animal
The only animal within the Big 4, Knight Asp is an early game card that can be played in the second round to match up to the swift aggressive play of the Imperiaz Team. His ability has become renowned and feared in the Redakai community especially when characters are knocked out in the field. Hosting only 400 Blue and 400 Green Defense and no healing, it's up to Knight Asp's ability to secure his place in the Big 4. Essentially, you gain 1 Kairu and 1 Card as a starting "tempo", but with his ability, your tempo will increase as you begin to hit middle and end game, going up to as many as 3 Kairu and 3 Cards per turn. This is a pretty scary imagination, simply every round gaining 3 Kairu and 3 Cards to support the additional use of the 3 Kairu. Not including Shadow Punch or 2 more Knight Asp, Gold Animal. His ability is definitely a tide-turner during the beginning-middle game.

Hope you enjoyed this segment on the Big 3 of Redakai.