With the updated errata, Riviere seems to be lost at sea. Can she be find her way back to the meta? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z…
Spam is (not) alive
What changed?
With Riviere’s new errata, she can only superior ride once per turn which turns off a key factor in why Riviere topped the meta, her spam capabilities. Her spam capabilities or spam energy (which I will call it from here on out) enabled her to pressure opponents hard at the FIRST RIDE TURN!!! Couple that with the fact that when Riviere superior rides, she always has 1 drive basically giving you 2 free draws every time you superior ride (though you have to discard 2 to superior ride her).
What this errata does, it decreases her spam energy significantly to the point of changing her whole playstyle from a glass canon that seeks to win on turn 3 to a more conservative approach where you rack up damage while defending with the fresh cards you drew.
Before:
[AUTO](VC):When placed, COST [Counter Blast (1) & discard a card from your hand], and draw two cards.
[AUTO](VC):At the end of the battle it attacked, COST [discard two cards from your hand], ride up to one card with “Riviere” in its card name from your hand as [Stand], and that unit gets drive -1 until end of turn.
After:
[AUTO](VC):When placed, [COST][Counter-Blast 1 & discard a card from your hand], and draw two car
[AUTO](VC):At the end of the battle it attacked, COST [discard two cards from your hand], ride up to one card with “Riviere” in its card name from your hand as [Stand], and that unit gets drive -1 until end of turn. This ability may only be used by a card with the same card name once a turn.
What Now?
As said earlier Riviere now has to play slower than ever, thinking more of what to keep and what to dump out. Gladly, we have support cards that can help us in these troubling times.
As to make this easier I will divide the solutions into 2 things: discarding and combat.
1. Discarding
A lot of Riviere’s mechanics revolve around card draw and that is why this deck is still strong as these card draws are what make Riviere so consistent to pull off (and before to spam off). The downside to this is that we have to offer sacrifice in the form of cards in our hand to gain draw advatage. Luckily we have a friend who can help us out!
Marijan here returns any Riviere to our hand (or a soul charge) and an extra card basically drawing us 2 cards for free. So you can be confident to dump any extra Rivieres and retrieve the later with Marijan.
Side note: She can be used in conjunction with From Colorful Pastorale, Caro as soul charge fodder to activate her ability with ease or let Caro soulblast Riviere to use her again. Gotta get more force markers!
But what if we don’t have Marijan
Before you discard anything, you should first understand what your opponent is playing. For more aggressive force decks, you might want to hold on to at least one perfect guard and some triggers but if you’re going against accel decks you could leave that perfect guard for some more triggers or even grade 1s. As for the protect decks, it would be wise to leave just one perfect guard.
The usual hand of a Riviere post turn 3 would be around 5-6 cards and don’t forget to conserve at least 1 card for your next turn to go off again.
2a. Combat
Now here is where it gets super difficult, as you are now allotted to at an average of 4-5 attacks. We have to think more conservatively rather than just going Rambo.
and check out 2b for some special cases.
First we should swing with our vanguard boosted as to get through that tight spot or to power up our supporting cast of idols as they can be pretty lackluster without an extra force marker or so. After that, we go into our second Riviere giving the force marker to herself as to make up for that lost booster then we swing with her again for the drive check. Then, we swing with the weaker rear guard then the next one and that’s it.
2b. Special Combat Cases
There are ways though to enable more attacks or more powerful plays and we will be going through them now…
Super Idol, Riviere’s second ability “[AUTO](RC)1/Turn:When your vanguard with “Riviere” in its card name is placed, you may [Stand] this unit.” makes her a good candidate as the first attack as she can attack at a later turn. Attack with her first without a boost as much as possible as to either waste a guard, a potential attacker from an intercept or a free damage. If you can’t then go for the rearguard to slow then down or give the force marker to her if you’re really confident. Just make sure her first attack comes first before your vanguard.
Next up on the list is Scramble Red, Eilend who has the ability “[AUTO](RC):When your vanguard with “Riviere” in its card name is placed, this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn.”. What makes this a special combat case is when to call her as normal riding can trigger this ability as well. In order to know when to place her, you must know your opponent’s game plan. For opponents who want to retire/bind your rear guards, you call her once it’s your turn but you can call her earlier for opponents who ignore rearguards all together.
Our last case is now a grade 1 that goes by the name of Loftiest Pier, Evge who wields the power of “[AUTO](RC):When your vanguard with “Riviere” in its card name is placed, if you have one or less face up cards in your damage zone, COST [retire this unit], draw a card, and Counter Charge (1).”. This signals us to retire her once we superior ride so we get to draw to every single time. Her ability makes her a single use boost in which you want to boost the first possible attack with her. Calling her behind either Super Idol, Riviere or Top Idol, Riviere, just make sure when you use their first attack, use her boost ability.
Conclusion
Though much slower, Riviere can still pack a punch with its insane draw power and consistency. Rather than going in brain dead, we play more conservatively, paying more attention to what we discard for our next power turn and what to attack with to get the most of our turn. So I say yeah, “she can still fight”.
To be fair, it’s Bermuda Triangle…
Source
https://cardfight.fandom.com/wiki/Cardfight!!_Vanguard_Wiki
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