Is the New Meer Stride a Bad card?

So very recently it was announced that three special Bermuda Triangle sets would be being released later this year, likely at a similar time to the inevitable yearly does of Bermuda Triangle in the shape of a mermaid extra/clan booster, that feature three new forms for older cards. I'll do a whole blog post about them, but for this one, the card I wanted to talk about is one on who's Wikia page I found the comment that essentially said "The card this deck supports is bad" ; The "Meer" stride. 

The comment essentially said- 

"Meer is still bad" 

And this got me thinking about cards that individually are very underwhelming, but when worked as part of a combo, become significantly better. Let's first take a look at new Meer's skill- 

Duo Absolute Sister, Meer

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]

:[Soul Blast (1)]

 If you have a heart card with "Meer" in its card name, choose up to one of your rear-guards with "Duo" in its card name, return it to your hand, search your deck for up to one card with "Meer" in its card name, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck. Then, you may choose up to three cards from your hand, and reveal them. If you revealed three cards, and all of the cards revealed have the same card name, search your deck for up to one card with "Meer" in its card name, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.




So lets break her skills down. First of all; the end result. What you get for striding this unit and using her skill. If you meet all of the conditions you add two grade 3 units to your hand. Specifically "Meer" units, so either "Eternal" or "True" sister. So how do you get those two grade 3 units? 

Well the first thing you do is Soulblast 1 (remember that.) Soulblast any one card, not, for example, a Duo unit specifically. (Remember that too). 

This nets you not just a grade 3 "Meer" unit, but also a free bounce back to your hand. (also remember that, I'm going somewhere with this I promise). To get the other search, all you need to do is reveal three units with the same name. 


So that is a lot to take in at once. So let's take a look at the Duo engine, or more specifically a Meer-based Duo deck.

The Duo Engine

 The Duo sub-clan is all about getting bonuses based on having multiple units with the same name, but not necessarily just on the field or used for the sake of cloning units, as is the case in Neo Nectar. Duo uses multiple units with the same name to power up their units, or draw, or counter-charge, or to pay cost. 

For example "Duo Petite Etoile, Peace" allows you to (CB)1 when she returns to your hand in order to draw a card, then if you reveal 3 copies of peace in your hand you may counter-charge. If you return all three or even four copies at the same time you can draw a card for as many times as you have returned (as a skill that returns multiple units happen at the same time, i.e. with "Duo True Sister, Meer" 's break-ride skill). 

Another example is the skill of Stride "Meer" herself. By revealing 3 units with the same name you add a "Meer" to your hand. 

So now lets take a look at the Meer specific engine

Meer-Meer

So this deck came about last summer when the original break-ride got a "pseudo-crossride". The Ancient Dragon break-ride got a similar treatment in the technical booster. The tl;dr version of it is you can ride the break-ride from your soul in stand position, paying the cost as if the vanguard has stood (which is essentially what has happened, you get to swing again with twin drive, so essentially the cost is one from hand in order to restand). The idea is that the "Eternal" gets the plus 10000 from the break-ride, meaning that when you swing with the newly ridden break-ride you can boost her, to be hitting at least 16k (hopefully). The obvious risk being that your opponent may have gotten damage triggers, and you can't dump triggers on "Eternal" as she will be going into your soul, meaning you need to put those crits on rearguards. The benefit of this was that you add a "Eternal" from your soul to your hand at the cost of a discard, meaning you have a grade 3 unit to either stride with or play the combo again. The deck is notoriously counterblast heavy due to the skills of both Meers and the duo engine.

So lets take a look at the stride: 

- Soulblast cost (setting up plays as well as a bounce without eating a valuable counterblast) 

- Searchs Grade 3 units (at any stage in the game you can get what you need, either Eternal because you are sat on the break ride or want to stride, or the break-ride because you already have a copy in the soul and you want to deck thin and fetch yourself stride fodder (essentially netting a free stride) 

- Allows you to stride her first (whichever Meer you stride using you can fetch it back, or if you rode the break ride and have another in your hand you can ditch it to find the "Eternal". There are a lot of options) 

- It's specific to Meer and Duo, but doesn't specify which (so this means you can play the Meer break-ride, which in itself is a very strong unit, with something other than "Eternal sister. While double-Meer decks make the most of this stride, it doesn't require you to flip up a copy of itself, so you can play even just one copy as an option in a, for example Labrador/Meer deck. )

To go back to the original argument. "Meer is still bad". 

"Eternal" Meer is not the best card in Bermuda Triangle have. Not even close to it. But this new stride has a lot going for it. It isn't a card that solves problems the deck had, but just gives the deck more options that it can use. Which is fun as well as good for a deck overall. 

All three of the units revealed that will be getting their own sleeves and deckbox set aren't the best units in the game. They just aren't. Of the three, in my opinion, Meer is the best in terms of overall synergy with the deck she supports. But we will be getting these units around the same time as the summer Bermuda booster, so only time will tell what will come in that, and what will then be the best Bermuda build. But until then, with the stride revealed Meer is not a deck to be completely overlooked. 

And remember. Good cards make bad cards better. And a good engine can carry a meh card!