Draconoid Dreadnaught "Fuse-ikazuchi"

News
Today the official twitter put out a tweet announcing the beginning of twitter reveals for GB03 "Ace Reinforcements", likely on a daily focus, and immediately after posted another tweet with the first of these reveals!

Starting off twitter reveals strong with the 4th Superior Rare!

(Sources: 1, 2)

Opinion
Unlike all three we've seen previously, Draconoid Dreadnaught "Fuse-ikazuchi" instead pays a Damage Reversal (see yesterday's article for more information on the mechanic) cost to reduce its cost down to 2. Even more, unlike previous DR costs, Fuse-ikazuchi's even requires the damage flipped to be Military, restricting it pretty heavily to an archtypal build.

The card itself is a rather beefy one, with 7 HP and the Retaliate keyword which synergizes strongly with the defensive cards of choice for Military's typical Red/Blue combination, such as Just a Flesh Wound and Rite of Kami's Scorn. At the same time, its not a card your opponent can afford to ignore, seeing as it will add about 4 or more damage to your attack pattern every turn it remains alive. Its on attack ability is even fairly versatile, able to fill your defense zone instead of continuing the assault if need be.

The pressure applied by its effects buff previous Military cards such as "Smithereens" Becky, Intelligence Officer and Medal of Honor which can extend your assault further, all while being more effective thanks to Fuse-ikazuchi's STK buff, and in Becky's case being more likely to activate due to all your offensive pressure. Another extender is the Draconoid Dreadnaught specific Rite of the Dragon God's Awakening, allowing you to get another 2 attacks in with 5-6 STK between them.

With all that power comes some drawbacks, the big one being its Cost Reduction. DR4 means, even going 2nd, using it on your 1st turn is next to impossible. As mentioned before, requiring specifically Military damage. While you can safely use non-Military in your CNT slots, every Military card in your non-CNT cards is risky. As an example, with even 8 non-Military among your non-CNT slots, you will have less than 4 Military in damage with 5 total damage in 1 of every 4 games, and for 11 Life Rulers, in more than 1 of every 5 games you will only be able to call Fuse-ikazuchi once.

Of note is Silver Star and Medal of Honor, since they put themselves in your damage zone after use and are Military, they can be very helpful at fixing those potential inconsistencies.

You could also make use of Dragon support to dodge the Cost Reduction entirely, though both require going outside Military's preferred Red/Blue line-up. Canhel allows you to drop Fuse-ikazuchi's base cost to 3, while Genesis Summoning can drag it out from your deck with a special summon. Front-line Mage Archietta already enjoys the usage of the 5 HP Warrior/Military cards Yomajin Expeditionary Force and Yomajin Survival Squad, while Fuse-ikazuchi can shore up their low STK or set them up in the defense zone. That said, Archietta does not have an easy time making a Level 4 currently, but further support in GB03 may change this.

Lastly there's the option of forgoing the Retaliate synergies entirely and just running Fuse-ikazuchi in 15. O - Overlord, bypassing the Cost Reduction to focus on a super aggressive assault with all the same attack extenders previously mentioned. With defensive cards like Rite of Kami's Scorn removed from your CNT slots, one idea that comes to mind for an Overlord CNT line-up would be the previously mentioned Medal of Honor, with Military Decoration Investigation to pull it back out of damage after use, G&G Produced Machine Drone "Hell Kite" to help fill the board with Military, and lastly Shinjuku Ticket Gate to dig for Fuse-ikazuchi.