[VG] [Oracle Think Tank] [Magus] Celestine Prophecy - Detailed In-Depth Guide

[Azuki Frappé]

[ryujiknight]

Nice Guide
I would not run Susanoo Stride though, your deck, power wise, doesn’t really need +2000 to every unit, +4k to columns usually doesn’t matter in certain decks, I know it matters in g ott decks because there are units like the 7k discard oracle draw 2 units, there’s the Susanoo crit and magus heal, and you also have tom and other units that don’t really have much power to get to over 16k or 21k power, you have a couple units that gain power, but that power with Susanoo stride would probably be good but in my opinion the bad outweighs the good of running Susanoo stride in the first place.

[Azuki Frappé]

Nice Guide
I would not run Susanoo Stride though, your deck, power wise, doesn’t really need +2000 to every unit, +4k to columns usually doesn’t matter in certain decks, I know it matters in g ott decks because there are units like the 7k discard oracle draw 2 units, there’s the Susanoo crit and magus heal, and you also have tom and other units that don’t really have much power to get to over 16k or 21k power, you have a couple units that gain power, but that power with Susanoo stride would probably be good but in my opinion the bad outweighs the good of running Susanoo stride in the first place.

The flexibility of strides is the key reason to running Susanoo. I rarely ever feel like I'd need a 4th Globe Magus and even if I did, I would replace Qilin for it, also using Takemikazuchi at 2 is more than enough because its a very defensive stride and drives the deck closer to deckout despite the unflips making it's cost much more manageable. With Luck Bird, some useful on-call triggers like Paisley Magus and Divine Sword, Kusanagi, along with attackers such as Ring Magus and Cuore Magus, that is more than enough of a reason to run Susanoo, Cuore Magus and Ring Magus with virtually anything is enough to reach another stage not to mention there's also times when Ring and Rhombus Magus fails to have a 7000 booster behind it and that is when Susanoo's minimalistic-yet-effective power boost comes in increasing the column power by a stage. The on-hit, as not helpful as it is, is possible to use early game instead of Qilin and so if the reason you felt I should cut down Susanoo is to add more Globe Magus, then straight out replacing Qilin for it is much more usable since you have Susanoo's flexibility of a late game column booster, the 1 extra space if I removed Susanoo for Globe Magus doesn't really go to anything important anyways since all the good options are pretty much taken. Choices would be Nine-headed dragon, Blizza and Atmos which all doesn't sound necessary at all.

[Cherry]

You are a brilliant mind and the prime example of the kind of posters I would like to see here in Deck Discussion.

I noticed details about Briolette Magus in the Ride Order page speaking of how you would have to execute careful use of soul or you would just flat-out be better off without Luck Bird in the same deck. You suggested Circle Magus, but could you elaborate why over Octagon Magus when you have Globe Magus to secure your top checks, or have Briolette do it? And would you call Briolette a viable choice without Floral Magus? (I don't much care for a Counterblast 5 turn either is why I'm asking.) I find it somewhat odd how much Counterblast usage is here, yet, even with 4 Cone Magus, no real way to stack on a mass of Counter Charging if not on a Globe turn. Then you mentioned how you don't often have to use Globe, which is part of something I'd like elaborated on too. Specifically, when you feel is best to finally use Cone instead of Striding Take-Mikazuchi or Susanoo.

How much does Susanoo work here for you, by the way? Curoe looks like your only stable way to capitalize on the boost, unless you're in a bad matchup (retires).

Finally, would you drop 1 Pentagonal or 1 Ring Magus to play 1 of the grade 3 Susanoo, just to be able to search it out with calling Ameno, or no?

[Azuki Frappé]

You are a brilliant mind and the prime example of the kind of posters I would like to see here in Deck Discussion.

I noticed details about Briolette Magus in the Ride Order page speaking of how you would have to execute careful use of soul or you would just flat-out be better off without Luck Bird in the same deck. You suggested Circle Magus, but could you elaborate why over Octagon Magus when you have Globe Magus to secure your top checks, or have Briolette do it? And would you call Briolette a viable choice without Floral Magus? (I don't much care for a Counterblast 5 turn either is why I'm asking.) I find it somewhat odd how much Counterblast usage is here, yet, even with 4 Cone Magus, no real way to stack on a mass of Counter Charging if not on a Globe turn. Then you mentioned how you don't often have to use Globe, which is part of something I'd like elaborated on too. Specifically, when you feel is best to finally use Cone instead of Striding Take-Mikazuchi or Susanoo.

How much does Susanoo work here for you, by the way? Curoe looks like your only stable way to capitalize on the boost, unless you're in a bad matchup (retires).

Finally, would you drop 1 Pentagonal or 1 Ring Magus to play 1 of the grade 3 Susanoo, just to be able to search it out with calling Ameno, or no?

Thank you for both the compliment and the suggestions! As for Briolette Magus, it is quite useful but I think it becomes redundant the more copies of it you use as it already recycles itself and becomes a dead card once you run out of soul. Though I've recently figure out that it works quite greatly in a Grade 2 centric build where you run multiple copies of Semilunar Magus as it feeds soul quite nicely. Though if you'd run Briolette it creates this butterfly effect since you'd have to cut Luck Bird meaning you can essentially run things instead of Cuore Magus from the lack of weak boosters. Though one of the main reasons I dislike Briolette is due to it's clunkiness and I'd run 1-2 at max honestly.

I've been favoring Octagon Magus a lot more lately since Sanctuary Guard Regalie's high columns are becoming sort of a problem and so I might even consider it over Circle though the reason I suggested Circle was because of it's flexibility early game. Even though it functions like Cone early game, it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea to throw Cone early so I Circle fits in here nicely helping Rhombus or Stellar without Semilunar function for a turn. Calling a Rhombus and Circle column at G2 does push the damage quite well overall. Circle's usage overall is similar to Briolette if you were to use it in a non-Floral deck because it has the ability to proc your topdecks early game though it is much more risky since if you don't have Stellar or Semilunar, you'd drive check it back and you definitely don't want that to hinder your early game instead of improving it.

Counterblast usage here varies a lot lol, I've had trouble trying to calculate the average CB and whether its heavy or not since it depends on you drawing Stellar and Ring. Without those two, counterblast usage drops to 0 so it really depends on the game. Sometimes I had games end with Rhombus Magus on both sides and counterblasts used only by Takemikazuchi or occasionally Pentagonal Magus meanwhile sometimes double Stellar/Ring eats up the counterblasts very rapidly.

Well Susanoo is quite situational but I'd say its still better than using another pair of Takemikazuchis because you'd rarely need to use defensive strides twice. Susanoo's power boost is actually very convenient as a finisher, moreso than Globe Magus when you lack Ring and Rhombus to hit columns. Also it works in some desperate games where I called Paisley or Luck Bird without Cuore. Though it really is up to personal preference. I'd also rather not buy another pair of RRR strides and use 2-2 in both my irl Coco and Magus decks respectively.

For your final question, I actually think thats a very good idea, and I'd probably cut out Pentagonal for it since Ring is more important though I think I'd rarely call Amenomurakumo, it is somewhat interesting I guess. Though riding it would be extremely terrible since, in simple terms, it'll make the deck die.

[Lequier]

I want to start off by saying I mean absolutely no harm in any comments that I may say later on and that it is purely a constructive criticism viewpoint when I mention any of the points I'm going to say. I also want to start off with some positives by saying that the amount of time that you quite obviously put into this is impressive and gives me more motivation to post more in-depth content of this forum as you've quite clearly showed a lot of thought in what you do from both your pretty fantastic layout and how much you managed to put into it.

With that being said, the first thing I'm going to say isn't necessarily a direct criticism toward the deck but more toward the guide. I feel like you may have put far too much effort into the backstory (The introduction through to Magus seems like it could have been shortened into 2 pages instead of 3) and not enough effort has gone into explaining your actual choices. You have obviously thought about your deck quite a lot and it's a shame because these thoughts aren't properly conveyed when you write them down in such a way since you waffled on for too long regarding the backstory of the clan and the archetype. I would have rather had the additional page or so explaining these choices since it generally seems a lot better in giving an audience an insight as to WHY you're playing these cards over others. You go halfway in doing this by explaining why you don't run certain cards but not why you run every non-obvious card that you do. It's unfortunate, really.

On that note, I also don't feel you covered potential tech choices and G-Zone line-ups enough. Tech choices are the things that make each deck individually stronger against specific match-ups that the user happens to fumble against and as such they should be explained more so that the reader can prepare more for obstacles they're facing. Things such as G3 Susanoo, Octagon Magus, Crescent Magus, Silent Tom, Briolette Magus. All of these things come to mind a lot more since these things are definitely things that people can and will play to success since they aren't necessarily cards that you can't play, but more things that you might want to consider playing when constructing.

As for a comment on the deck: It honestly does seem pretty fine. Lack of Octagon Magus does admittedly seem a little strange since I've seen people playing it to success. Also reasoning on not playing Hexagonal Magus would be pretty nice since Hexagonal allows you to do a lot in 1 turn since it doesn't hinder your ability to stride in a deck like Oracle Think Tank while also setting things up nicely for a turn when you can go straight into Kamisusan. Pentagonal Magus seems like a weird choice too, one you probably could have explained a bit better since it still doesn't make sense to me even when reading the decklist through. Also why the 1 Kirin?