Decklist: Piruluk: "Maboroshi Sapphire"

Way back in the WX06 era, when Shironakuji first came out, a Piruluk build that used Water Beasts was born. This build made the best use of Shark Lance, which, at the time was one of the best cards for Piruluk, and Shironakuji was an overall amazing card, and it remained meta for quite a while then. However, when WX09 became a thing, more effective cards came out for Electric Machines (namely, AMS and HTR) while quality generic Water Beast support became uncommon, making Waterluk fall off from the meta by quite a bit. 

A year or so later, I was testing my SuperDora for fun to see how it worked. The last time I played it was... what, when it first came out in WX10? Back then, the results weren't all that fabulous so I didn't expect much and really expected it to be a fun deck for casual play.



But then, Daihouika turned out to be more effective than I imagined it to be. By a far margin. I mean, sure, I tried that thing out in a couple of non-Eldora builds since it was being splashed in every build ever (like... well, Tawil), but then when I paired it with Aorika, the way it worked was deserving of a ban. It was just ridiculous. Then with the Level 1 and 2 counterparts of Daihouika, discarding wasn't even a problem anymore and you could easily stay way over 7 cards in hand every turn (and discard just as much since Daihouika can discard any number). Looking at the deck, the only complaint I really had was that it couldn't block off ARTS as a finisher (which it might not need, but is still nice) and that SuperDora herself's effect hardly ever got used anymore since at this point you're drawing and discarding too much.

... Then it dawned on me.

Water Beast Piruluk has descended from the skies.

I mean, just look. Most of the really relevant cards are generic. Daihouika and friends are generic, Aorika is generic, and while Pirarucu wasn't generic, Shark Lance was the exact same thing. About the only thing that wouldn't make over was Arowana, which, at that point, wasn't even neccesary.

So you got all the pieces, a good finisher, and a discard engine (consisted of Lambda + Delta, CRYSTAL SEAL and RAINY). When you mix them all together, you get Water Beast Piruluk Mk.II!

And this is how this blog was born.

In this post, I'll be giving you guys a sample decklist of this said build, and appeal to you the advantages and disadvantages of the deck.

 Anyways, without further ado, let's get into the deck itself!

Maboroshi Sapphire

Stars indicate Life Burst.

LRIG deck

• Code Piruluk
• Code Piruluk K
• Code Piruluk Pi
• Code Piruluk Delta
• Code Piruluk Lambda
• Code Piruluk APEX
• Don't Escape
• Blue Punish
• Blue Punish
• Four Color Miasma 

Level 1

• 4 Hotaruika, Water Phantom
• 4 Ein=Dagger ★
• 3 Servant O ★
• 4 Servant O2 

Level 2

• 2 Suzumeda, Water Phantom
• 1 Servant D2

Level 3

• 4 Aorika, Water Phantom ★
• 2 Shark Lance, Water Phantom 

Level 4

• 4 Daihouika, Water Phantom Princess ★
• 2 Shironakuji, Water Phantom ★ 

Level 5

• 1 Code Love Heart †MCMR†★ 
• 1 Code Ancients Hellboros ★  
  

Spells

• 2 THREE OUT
• 2 MIRROR
• 2 CRYSTAL SEAL 
• 1 Three Swords 
• 1 FREEZE 

Card Choices

The skeleton of this deck is similar to Piruluk's, but closer to Eldora's. Everything not SIGNI in this deck belongs to Piruluk, while all the SIGNIs are Eldora's. If you think about it, this is really what a child between Piruluk and Eldora would look like.

The Spells are standard. FREEZE is APEX fodder, that can block various types of murderous fields that isn't easy to defend against. Three Swords is a good card in general, giving you ener. CRYSTAL SEAL is a standard choice, along with THREE OUT and MIRROR.

Two of Blue Punish which is an extremely trolly card, Don't Escape as an extremely good Defensive ARTS, and Miasma for being a good staple.

Lambda is the most popular Piruluk LRIG, as I've said in this article. Plus, the hand it provides is amazing. Not only does it help set the hand count for Aorika, it also helps in consistency. Combined with Delta to make your opponent discard 2 cards can be effective.

Going to the SIGNIs, Daihouika and Aorika at max is a pretty self-explanatory choice. Daihouika is an overall good card and what your deck revolves around. Aorika is amazing with Daihouika, instantly creating opportunities to do 3 damages in one turn, 4 if you manage to kill all of your opponent's hand, which is difficult without CL and RAINY, but not impossible.

Shironakuji is a good card overall. Acts as a banishing magnet, protecting important SIGNIs such as Daihouika and Aorika. She can help against decks like Yuzuki, namely in countering Bolshack.

Ein=Dagger is good Black fodder for Miasma and APEX, as well as effective for rushing in damage early on. It can also act as discard fodder for Daihouika and such, if you need to. Hotaruika can discard it early on if you really don't want it.

Suzumeda is great. She can make up for Ein=Dagger losses early on or act as an 8k meat shield.

Both Hellboros and †MCMR† are extremely good cards. †MCMR† has an amazing effect of being able to banish something during the Attack Phase, or being able to completely nullifying a spell. Any effect that's free during Attack Phase tends to be really good, and †MCMR†'s 15k makes it considerably difficult to remove. Although you can't salvage anything without Electric Machines, that doesn't make her any less worth, really.

Playstyle

Oh, this is simple.

Play Ein=Daggers for the early rush, then go to late game, build up the hand and bring out Daihouika and Aorika, and easily push in 3-4 damage. Most decks will die at this point, but if they don't, then you can grow into APEX and stall the game out. Fighting off APEX while being constantly threatened by 3 damage from SIGNI attacks is not easy.

Counters

Not a lot of things can counter this deck, especially considering how potent it is in all the ways. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, though.

Midoriko, with Souryuu makes Daihouika utterlessly useless while having 15k lanes. Midoriko also has Retribution to easily threaten you. This can be easily countered by growing into APEX or using Lambda's Exceed 3, but even then, gnawing on your resources is a big minus for you.

Yuki makes a tricky matchup for this deck, too. Utilizing Gojuu and Pishato, she can invalid-fy Daihouika. Yuki 5 is devastating, killing off any amount of pressure you set up initially, and alike to that problem, if your opponent sets up multiple Louvres, you're not going to have a fun time. APEX does help against Louvre, but Yuki 5 still makes things complicated.

Other Options

One alternative is to remove APEX, and add in Lock You. This will make for games to become easier to nail and faster, I guess, but APEX is too big of an asset to give up. You could run both, but only having 3 defensive ARTS can hurt.

Adding in more of certain cards like THREE OUT, Yariika, and Shironakuji is an option. You could run Gurehozame and Hatahata as a method of defense, I guess, or just Gurehozame in general to nerf Life Bursts and Blue Punish benefits. Carmilla is a decent card that has a place in the deck. Both her abilities of drawing and power are good. You could easilly replace Jinbei for her. If you don't like Nafushu, you can replace her with Kozame.

Running a Vier=VX for more offense is always an option. At this point, with Aorika and Daihouika though, it's basically meaningless.

If you don't like having multiple copies of the same ARTS, you could replace a Blue Punish for a Crisis Chance or Penalty. Combined with Lambda's Exceed 3, it makes a surefire stop to Retribution.

Code Art TAP is an option, since scouting your opponent's hand is helpful at times, but I never liked TAP much.

Yariika is decent, but not really worth.

Overall

From what I've tested about this deck so far, it's effective, and is extremely offensive despite being a Piruluk deck. The handsize it can keep, combined with Assasination from Aorika and Daihouika shenanigance and Shironakuji (the start of it all), still being considerably useful, Water Beast Piruluk holds an extremely valid placing in the metagame, despite the fact that no one ever uses it.