When news of Fortuna passed among players, so did a fresh breeze indicative of change to the format forever. With this Grade 3 Genesis card's ability to essentially control the much coveted double trigger, players would have to completely re-evaluate their decisions to go "two to pass" as death sentences. People could dream of launching an assault on an opponent at 3 damage, and be able to -expect- a killer double critical. Profanities would be declared, shameless victories would be declared, and conquering the new format, it would quickly become the deck noone would ever want to play against. However, with the release of the card listings for Genesis, that dream became a little more out of reach -namely, in the form of two critical triggers instead of three. Assuming one would go with 8 critical and 4 heal, this would lead many to fill that last slot with 4 draws. For many a player, this is a very solid, and overall respectable decision. However, with Fortuna comes a completely new set of rules, and I come to tell you today that to Fortuna, those 4 draws are a fatal error.
The reason for this is that Fortuna's ability and build is like no other Soul-Charging based deck in existence for the fact that her ability is a gamble that can backfire and destroy the player. Looking back to OTT's Tsukuyomi, for example, there is a significant difference in the fact that after the effort was made to Soul Charge, the player is guaranteed to gain from her ability to Soul Blast 3 and Counter Blast 2. This is a logical sequence of effort that pays off as profit to assist in a victory. With Fortuna, however, in addition to requiring soul in multiples of three, it is necessary that the non-trigger drive check is discarded to be replaced with the next card in the deck. This matters because there must be two triggers in the top X cards of the deck for it to effectively go off and be considered a success. Even if the player has a stock of 12 soul from which he or she may use the ability four times, it is completely possible that at the top of the deck lie six non-triggers, resulting in practically all effort having been put to waste. In this case, with 12 dead cards from soul cards plus 5 cards in damage that may or may not have benefited and 4 cards trigger-zone-to-discard from Fortuna's self-destructive powers, that is a total of twenty-one cards out of your deck and unusable for the rest of the game. Without even attempting to factor in the card resources in the hand or on the field, this is about 50% of the deck destroyed for nothing more than a "chance" to obtain a double trigger. There is certainly a good chance to have two triggers in the stack, but the possibility is very real, resulting in decisions with Fortuna to nearly always be gambles, and when they fail, it will happen big.
In spite of this reality, Fortuna remains a test of luck many are willing to step up to the plate for. This applies even moreso for those who are able to calculate their options, but by choosing to include draw triggers, there will be necessary hurdles to overcome. This harsh reality is often shot down quickly by the notion that the Stand Trigger alternatives are no alternatives at all. For almost all except specialty decks that absolutely cannot function properly without them, Draw Triggers are staples that grant victory to the player -and with good reason. Unlike Heals who can only activate at equal or less damage and Stands or Criticals that only work on your turn, they are the only triggers that will absolutely work out for you both as Drive Checks and Damage Checks. This will give cards that will expand play options. However, as stated before, Fortuna is a completely different game. The connection between gambling with Fortuna and draw triggers hindering it is that any trigger not in the deck is effectively useless for her double trigger assault. A draw trigger that forcibly removes a card from the deck has the potential to remove yet another trigger from the deck, thus lowering your total trigger count.
Taking from the aforementioned scenario of 12 soul and 5 damage, instances where draw triggers activate lead up to potentially 4 cards stacked onto this for a guaranteed total of twenty-five cards that cannot be relied on to trigger plus other resources. By this, it has to turn out that within this stock are a small enough number of triggers so that the trigger count in-deck can be relied on -for if both players realize that the odds of getting double trigger with the ability are very low, all hopes of winning dissipate. To illustrate, suppose one is in a game. 12 cards have been in Fortuna's soul for a good number of turns, and the opponent is stuck in a situation where he or she is unable to rely on perfect guards or adequate shield to null-pass the assault and survive. If the Fortuna player's draw triggers have been going off during the game, it must be that the stack is considerably thinner than what it would be suppose stand triggers were used. In this situation, the smaller stack will always be the most disadvantageous for the Fortuna player for two reasons: one, the deck is small, and so a full-on Fortuna assault risks decking out. Two, it is unlikely that there are a large number of triggers when they take up about a quarter of the deck. If there were a larger number of cards, the opponent would remain threatened even if the ability flopped because then it is known that there are triggers left. Simply put, a Fortuna without deck to threaten the opponent with, one cannot win.
In addition, stand triggers are advantageous in consideration to the other cards that make Genesis powerful. In particular, these triggers work with the decks' ability to call cards out from the soul just because they were removed from it. With Witch of Birds and Witch of Frogs, a free column, and therefore a fourth attack, can be launched, and this becomes all the more powerful if a card was stood in the process. To illustrate, suppose one attacks with a left-side 16K column then attacks with Fortuna. The ability to mill for triggers results in a stand trigger. If the left rear guard in the back row is stood, it can effectively boost a Melissa or Chamomile from the soul. With only three stands in the deck with one draw as the tech complimenting Fortuna free of fearing decking out or losing triggers to mill in the final turn, the Fortuna-stand build has much potential to threaten players everywhere.
The writer is Ino Senso, a vanguard player for what will soon be a whole year of playing competitively. I love to make charts and graph data to battle against the numerous theories that surround the game, though I face interests that mutate into hilariously horrible obsessions -I once spent an entire week trying to make Riviere useful in the new format! With a lot of help, I spotted 51st place in the Canadian CFV!! Nationals for 2013. I have experience playing with Leopald and Polaris in Great Nature, and have prepared a full printed proxy set of Genesis cards to experiment with for the December 13 release. Apart from Vanguard, my hobbies include collecting drawing material and over thinking anything and everything to the point of paranoia and paranoia of paranoia itself.
Latest posts by Ino Senso (see all)
- [CFV!!] Fortuna on the Draw: You Feelin’ Lucky? - November 14, 2013
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