As anyone who has been here before will know, I have always been a Nociel enthusiast when it came to Angel Feather, going way back to the Jurassic period of Kiriel and Calamity when BT-06 came out. While the new set did not bring any Nociel specific support, the more generic rescue support has turned Nociel into a pre-stride engine that sets the rest of your game up for some very explosive turns which are ridiculously hard for your opponent to survive.
I've covered a lot of the good Angel Feather units in my previous post about Nociel, so this one is going to more so be about Nociel's synergy with Rescue and how that affects the build of the deck. So first let's take a look at our Angel Feather keyword; Rescue.
What is Rescue?
Rescue is the new keyword/mechanic for the Angel Feather clan which has shaped how the new support for the clan works, as well as reshaping how existing cards play. When you perform Rescue you heal a card from your damage zone, then deal your vanguard one damage (or 2 in the case of a certain stride unit's skill, but more on that later). Effectively Rescue allows you perform drive checks in addition to your vanguard's drive checks, at different points in the game, such as when guarding or after a rearguard has attacked. The great about Rescue, which arguably makes it one of the best keywords in the game, is the utility it brings. It can be used aggressively to perform more drive checks, or during your opponents turn to check for defensive damage triggers, all while filtering and effectively counter-charging damage (because Rescue heals any damage, face-up or face-down and deals a damage face-up). It is an incredibly strong mechanic.
The Nociel Engine
As mentioned earlier Nociel is an engine. The cards that make up the engine have strong skills themselves as well as making up the official strength and consistency. The card that brought the engine together was Love Sniper, Nociel , a grade 3 that on the surface (if you didn't know she was part of an archetype) doesn't seem particularly strong. It's only when you play 4 of each grade of Nociel (that's at 0,1,2 and 3) that you realise how consistently you can plus. 16 cards in your 49 card main deck are have Nociel in their card name and when you combine this with the skills of all of the Nociel units below grade 3, you have a lot of chances to trigger the skill of the grade 3 and plus. In case you don't remember Love Sniper, here are her skills:
[AUTO](VC):[Counter Blast (1)] When a card with "Nociel" in its card name is put into your damage zone, you may pay the cost. If you do, and that card is face up, put that card into your hand, then put the top card of your deck into your damage zone face up.
[AUTO]:[Choose a card from your hand, and put it into your damage zone face up] When this unit is placed on (VC), you may pay the cost. If you do, choose a card from your damage zone, and put it into your hand.
As you can see it is very easy to plus off of this skill, given the sheer amount of Nociel units you play. And as if that wasn't enough she herself gives you a free one to boot.
Nociel to the Rescue!
The synergy of this deck comes from the Nociel engine helping you to set up at hyper-speed, while the rescue support sets up turns that are ridiculously hard to guard. Remember we spoke about rescuing two at once?
Black Seraph Gavrail. Nociel maybe royalty in terms of how good she is, but she is just a princess next to the true Queen of Angel Feather. Let's take a look at that skill. -
[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 2:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card named "Black Seraph, Gavrail" from your G zone, and turn it face up] Until end of turn, this unit gets "[AUTO](VC):When your card is put into your damage zone during the battle phase, choose up to two of your units, and they get [Power]+2000 until end of turn." and "Rescue 2-[AUTO](VC):At the end of the battle that this unit attacked, choose two cards from your damage zone, heal them, choose one of your vanguards, and deal two damage.".
X-Gallop can quad-drive? That's cute. Gavrail can perform 5 drive checks. 5. 3 from her attack and 2 just after from her Rescue 2 ability. Remember how disgustingly high columns can get in this deck, thanks to the likes of Nurse of Broken Heart and Thousand Ray Pegasus? Well now you have 5 chances to find those triggers, in a deck that has been thinned and siphoned thanks to your Nociel engine. And as if that wasn't enough, Black Seraph can dish out even more power after her rescue 2. The idea is that through Nociel you set up early game, to the point where Gavrail is usually enough to win the game. The rest of the G-Zone is almost just utility if you cannot end with Gavrail.
Let's take a look at my Nociel Rescue deck (seeing as that is what most of you are waiting for!) and i'll explain some of the choices afterwards.
Nociel Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue!
4x Love, Sniper Nociel
1x Black Shiver, Gavrail
1x Holy Edge Celestial, Malchidael
4x Nurse of Broken Heart
4x Love Machine Gun, Nociel
2x Million Ray Pegasus
2x Candle Celestial, Sariel
1x Dosage Celestial, Asmodel
4x Doctroid Remnon
4x Battle Cupid, Nociel
3x Black Call, Nakir
3x Thousand Ray Pegasus
4x Sunny Smile Angel (HEAL)
4x Happy Bell, Nociel (STAND)
4x Doctroid Refros (STAND)
4x Surgery Angel (STAND)
4x Black Seraph Gavrail
4x Holy Seraph Raphael
1x Holy Seraph Uriel
1x Holy Seraph Zachariel
1x Holy Seraph Raziel
1x Holy Seraph Nociel
2x Holy Seraph Suriel
1x Holy Seraph Oriphiel
1x Metal Elemental Scryew
The Nociel engine speaks for itself, but some of the cards are less self-explanatory. Let's start with the Grade 3 line-up. Nociel is one of those decks that can get away with running less than average amounts of grade 3 units (some builds have even played just the 4 nociel grade 3!). The Gavrail tech is there as a strong back-up ride. The standard Rescue deck plays 4 of her as the main vanguard, and the essential post-stride aggression is the same, just with different rear-guards, so hitting Gavrail instead of the Nociel isn't the end of the world, it is better than not hitting grade 3 at all during the game. You do have plays outside of striding, but the true strength comes from hitting Nociel. The other grade 3 tech is one of the Angel Feather Legion units. I was recommended her by a friend for two reasons. Firstly because Nociel gets through her deck really quickly. You want to be hitting Nociel units with her skill so that you can plus, but by doing this you are eating through your deck very quickly. Her legion skill isn't terrible, nothing particularly worth mentioning, but that four cards back into the deck can be the difference between decking out and losing or winning by stacking more triggers.
For the Grade 2s we are playing one of the Legion mate, but again literally just for the off-chance you have to ride the Legion, damage checking the mate doesn't mean much, you play the legion just for the deck refuel. Broken Heart is Broken Heart. No more is needed to be to said. Nociel is Nociel. She fuels the engine and makes plays. Some people are no longer playing the Grade 2 pony, I personally still like it, it can create offensive or defensive plays outside of striding. She is also essentially the fifth and sixth Broken Heart. People know Broken Heart is a huge player in this deck and she will be targeted for attacks, retires, locks and binds. Playing two of the pony just means we have options when our Broken Hearts have to face control. Sariel is a popular tech simply because she lets you search out the Nociel you want which you then add to your hand through the skill of the grade 3 Nociel. The cost is to counterblast 2, but it's a specific plus, a plus that if you think a little bit creatively can net a what you need, for example, damaging a grade 3 nociel so you have something stride with next turn.
Grade 1s: 4 Nociel. MVP. 3 Stride Assist. You want to be able to stride when you need to. You can make plays without striding, but Black Seraph is the big finish you want to be able to reach, with so few grade 3 units, these can help you get there. I'm playing the older support rather than the rescue specific support, simply because the rescue support has been more designed to synergise with Gav, but with Pegasus you can make the huge columns. I am however playing the rescue PG because it is a lot easier to forfil the condition of having one of her face-up when you guard with her, because of all the switching Nociel does (this was an issue I found in Pure Gavrail, whereby I would be in a position where I have to rescue off the face-up PG or use her to counter-blast, but in a deck where only two of your units are performing rescue, one of the stand triggers and the stride you want to end the game with, it is much less of an issue.
G-Zone is very standard. One huge thing is no Seabreeze. The theory behind this is that, not only does Nociel not need stride to perform, but by not playing it we have more options in what we do, for example I'm playing Raziel over Seabreeze, because if I have 2 ponys and 2 Broken Heart on board, the turn I can do is much more threatening than a turn i would have done by striding while they were on grade 2.
For the G-Guards I'm playing 2 of the new ones that perform rescue and one of the limit break 4 one. You check the top card of your deck and decide whether or not you want to damage it. This can do a multitude of things. If it's a nociel you can plus. If it is a trigger you can power up your vanguard. If it is a heal trigger you can heal. And, in a position of desperation where you need to get a heal to survive the turn, you have a chance to check the top two instead. Very strong. I'm playing one of the fighter collection G-Guard because sometimes you need the 20k shield, and that isn't something that the other g-guard can guarantee. And at the moment I am playing one of the screw, for the same reason as above, sometimes you just need a really big shield.
So that is my take on Nociel Rescue. It is an extremely consistent deck, but also a deck that you need to spend time with to learn in order to maximise the potential.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading, and let me know your thoughts!
Thanks-
Flogal
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