Megacolony is a crime syndicate made entirely of insects. Their primary mechanic revolves around "paralyzing" the opponent's units, preventing them from standing during their next stand phase, which in turn prevents them from boosting or attacking.
However, skills of such a level are merely pesky insect bites in today's meta. With the advent of stride generation, Megacolony has attained a new mechanic of paralyzing the opponent's vanguard consistently. This has caused a few Megacolony champions to emerge in tournaments all over the globe, making this clan tournament viable for the first time ever since Bt15. The sole reason of Megacolony's success is its subclan the Machinings. Being a Megacolony fan ever since Master Beetle, I'm very happy that bushiroad has given this clan a unique mechanic and substantial support so much so that it has surpassed its limits of being a non main clan to 'metacolony' today. Below is my take on the Machinings series as well as a full decklist with explanation.
Deck : 'Machinings, DESTROY!'
Grade 4: Total 8
-4 Carapace Mutant Deity, Machining Destroyer
-2 Force Spear Mutant Deity, Stun Beetle
-1 Poison Mutant Deity, Paraspear
-1 Snow Element Blizzard
Grade 3: Total 8
-4 Machining Stag Beetle
-4 Machining Warsickle
Grade 2: Total 12
-4 Machining Tarantula
-4 Machining Mosquito Mk II
-4 Machining Red Soldier
Grade 1: Total 13
-4 Rebel Mutant Star Shield
-3 New Face Mutant, Little Dorcas
-3 Machining Caucasus (my avatar)
-3 Machining Black soldier
Starter: Machining Little Bee
Triggers: all Machinings 8criticals 4draws 4heals
The star of the deck, Carapace Mutant Deity Machining Destroyer. Nuff said, destroyer of the worlds.
With a cost of especial counterblast 1 Machining, this card can prevent your opponent's vanguard and 1 rear guard from standing for 1 turn. On the surface this card does not look so impressive as reriding again would fix the vanguard stun. However like a spider that spun its web, this destroyer is waiting for unsuspecting victims dumb enough to underestimate its ability to fall into its pit of despair! Assuming that a standard deck runs 8 grade 3s, being able to reride and stride after the first stun would cost you three grade 3s. That alone is the cost needed to overcome this units skill for 1 turn. The number of grade 3s left in your deck would normally be around 3-4 after reriding for multiple stride turns and this is where the opponent finds himself at a dead end with no more grade 3 to reride. Striding over a rested vanguard would cause the vanguard to take the position of the heart, which does not solve the issue. Losing the ability to drive check, the opponent is forced to bet his first draw to be a grade 3 in order to survive. Failing to do so would result in no vanguard attack, no drive checks and ultimately a very low hand size with an insufficient offence or defense.
The ideal ride, Machining stag beetle can easily give you 2 rear guards at rest for free to fulfill the cost of Machining Destroyer. Using cards like Machining little bee, we can easily convert the booster into a standing rearguard. As the vanguard lane is powerful enough not to have a boost, its better to 'transfer' a vanguard booster into a 'standing' rearguard.
It is also noted that you should pay the cost for Destroyer before using little bee if you only have 4 rear guards then.
Another notable combo is to use little bee to stand either Machining Mosquito mk II or a 7k booster, hence forming a 21k lane with an on hit pressure, increasing the power by one stage.
The not so ideal ride. However, it acts as a good backup with the limit break to stun the opponents vanguard. The primary skill is also useful to increase the number of rearguards with an especial counterblast to help with the cost of Machining Destroyer.
Comparatively, these grade3s are the most ideal as compared to the Machining legion counterparts as they do not help with the cost of Destroyer. Arguably legions are better backups, however the main gist of the deck is focused on striding and paralysing the opponents vanguard. Failure to do so would result in defeat and running backups that do not paralyze the vanguard would eventually lead to your own defeat due to the subpar skills that Megacolony has. If only the legion was an on-legion VG paralyse....
Other notable mentions include Machining Mosquito Mk II
Early pressure 11+7 =18k against a 7k vanguard is a three stage attack that requires 15k of shield to guard. should the attack hit it would be a paralyze 1 and you get to stand one of your rear guards hence being a plus 1 and minus 1 attack for the opponent. such a pressure card if used early would prove to be very deadly due to the power lanes.
The rest of the deck would be very intuitive, with Machining tarantula and Caucasus being on hit pressure lanes. Machining Tarantula is best ridden on the VG circle at G2 turn, since with any 5k booster behind the VG the opponent is only able to guard 10k for 1 pass or 15k (dropping 2 cards) for no pass. This often means that the opponent will either have a RG paralysed (if Tarantula hits), or the opponent drops a 10k shield for the vanguard early game. Also, if you are able to call Caucasus behind the Vanguard early game, this essentially gives you additional free RG stun each turn, making it an extremely powerful early game card worth running at 3 copies, even if it is only a 6k booster.
Machining firefly (critical trigger) is also a potent card being able to counterblast 1 to stand a rear guard to help stand both rear guards called out by stag beetle. One point to note is that Machining red soldier helps to fix machining firefly into a 16k lane.
Tips to play this deck:
-Due to the nature of this deck, try to superior call as many rear guards as possible instead of calling them for maximum advantage.
-The grade ones have 2 units that are non Machining and given a choice, do not ride then as Stag Beetle would not be able to call them out of the soul.
-If you have both Machining Warsickle and Machining Stag Beetle, but only able to call out 1 machining unit from the soul due to having ridden a non-machining G1 (PG or Stride Enabler), it is better to ride Warsickle because its LB4 ability is better in the long run as a backup in case you can't stride.
-If you have both Machining Warsickle and Machining Stag Beetle, but only able to call out 1 machining unit from the soul due to having ridden a non-machining G1 (PG or Stride Enabler), it is better to ride Warsickle because its LB4 ability is better in the long run as a backup in case you can't stride.
-Use Stun Beetle when your opponent is unable to reride and you can confirm that he has no perfect guards for a sure stun and prevent your opponent from normal riding to ensure your victory against 6th damage heals.
-perform your vanguard paralyze every turn and do Megacolony proud.
Tips to play against this deck:
-Link jokers locks make it impossible to fulfill the criteria of 4 Machining rearguards.
-Retire decks like Kagero or Narukami are effective against this deck as they prevent the opponent from having 4 machining rearguards easily.
-CONSERVE your grade 3s in your hand! pay the cost of stride with grade 1s and grade 2s if possible never discard your grade 3 to stride unless you have enough to reride.
-NEVER let Stun beetle hit. Its over for you if he hits.
-If you cannot reride, attack his rear guards instead of the vanguard, deny him of the especial counterblast he needs to stun your vanguard again and hope for the best and wait out till its your turn again.
-Never underestimate this deck, ask your opponent if you are unsure of his effects.
That's all guys, hope I have given you a good breakdown and some tips of the Machinings subclan of Megacolony, stay tuned to my next article about G-Megacolony (Darkface). Have fun paralyzing your opponent vangaurd, winning isn't everything, remember to also have fun! Long live Megacolony!
Yours truly,
Just another Megacolony fan.
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