I swear to god 60 Good Machines will get one eventually, please just wait a little longer—

Hi, hello, howdy, and welcome to a brand new Idiot's Guide series! I'd make a joke about this being the first one that's not for Yu-Gi-Oh! but I already did that in An Idiot's Guide to Thegrea, which is still in script form (as of time I'm writing this one)!

But to be honest, the dissection of Thegrea can come later (especially when there's so many bad takes to disprove, Jesus Christ) when a newer, better, and arguably hotter, big booba restanding waifu has come to shake up a meta that's infested by Chronojet and Youthberk as the ultimate rogue counter and definitive tier 0 deck of the format!

I'm talking about none other than Lyrical Monasterio 3's dark skinned elven beauty, Claret Sword— I mean, Grimoire Etoile, Luticia!

Now me and Luticia have some history. In fact, me and Lyrical Monasterio have some history in general.

In the beginning, I was a simple man who wanted to play Feltyrosa because I'm a sucker for vampires and I'm a sucker for pink haired girls. And so, I built the deck, but made one fatal mistake.

I used this bitch as my overTrigger.

This... this would lead to the start of some very deep trauma. The first and deepest trauma I'd ever experience in my nearly six years of playing Vanguard.

Felty is a deck that lives and dies by not checking triggers. I thought this would be great, since I seem to never get them, but... in one game, I did. Not just one, but two.

I remember it clearly. I was up against kaiishida, I had no rear-guards except one booster, and I swung with Felty, hoping to check two Ghosts to fill my front row and make three attacks.

The first drive check. Nora, the Ghost critical trigger named after the trap in GEN. No problem, I put all effects on the booster and laugh it off, saying "I believe in better cards".

Spoiler alert: I didn't believe hard enough.

The second drive check. Esteranza, the overTrigger. I just stared at it. I looked at the 100 million power counter on my mouse. And instead of putting it all on the booster, I put it all on the "leave game" button.

It was the first time I scooped a Vanguard game.

Ever since, I'd never touched Lyrical, except that one time I tested Herminia and came to the painfully obvious conclusion she was bad. Like, bad bad. She would only be saved in LM3 by a rip-off Lagrele called Relie, but that's an Idiot's Guide for another day.

However, just before LM3 started, I decided to overcome my Lyrical trauma by giving Felty a shot again, but this time, instead of using Esteranza, I used Garviera, the demon looking overTrigger. You know, to fit with the whole spooky theme Felty has going on.

I think the meme speaks for itself.

I rip this bitch nearly every game I play Lyrical, particularly in Felty and Luticia (occasionally Herminia too). I deadass think I have a close to 80% check rate with her. She comes up so often, I absolutely love her.

But anyways, that's how I became a Felty simp once more and learned Herminia sucked even more ass than I imagined.

As such, for LM3, when I first saw Luticia, I thought the purple mystic shit in her background meant she was related to Ghosts, and I was huffing the cope praying she was Feltyrosa support since I loved her design and really hated how mid Felty was as a boss compared to Dietlinde, her cracked RRR G2.

Yeah, three things happened.

Firstly, I'm no longer a Felty simp. Secondly, Herminia doesn't suck ass anymore. And thirdly... Luticia wasn't Ghost support. Far from it. In fact, she was so far removed from Ghost support, she ended up being a fucking Order deck!

AN ORDER DECK.

IN A SET THAT ALREADY HAD KYOUKA AND MICHU.

IN A NATION THAT ALREADY HAS LORONEROL AND CLARISSA.

IN A GAME WHERE ORDERS (typically) SUCK ASS.

Needless to say, when Luticia got revealed, I was crying, coping, malding, seething, and generally being a salty bitch, especially since her quality of cards didn't look as good as the rest. On paper, everything about this deck looked awful. The best thing about it was the fact it was a +1 restander, Claret style. (Put a pin on this, we'll come back to that.)

The set up wasn't easy, the deck only got going turn 4, to do anything you needed to cram 4 orders into soul by turn 3, your only real support was Gin Fuchigami, and she received basically little to none extra support in the set while the other girls did. Simply put, Luticia felt shafted, a bad deck that would be expensive as fuck and still sell anyways because of her art and that sweet, sweet LSR.

And honestly? That was enough for me to cope and test her out anyways. I mean, aside from two very big reasons to play her, I had pretty much put all my hopes and dreams into her when LM3 got announced through the sheer copium of Luticia being Ghost related, and I wasn't ready to back down just because she was a bad Order deck (a.k.a Zorga).

I mean, looking back, maybe it was a bit of an overreaction, especially since I was double killed by the fact she wasn't Ghost support and this motherfucker kaiishida called her gimmick right off the most stupid reasoning, but you can't blame me when she was the last deck to be revealed (last time it happened, Loronerol was meta) and Kyouka and Haseritt were looking like hot tier 1 decks.

Like, especially compared to Kyouka's order, Luticia's orders felt like it was designed by C-kun. Not B-kun, but C-kun. It was that much of a difference. Especially since we only received 1 of each type.

In fact, the moment she was revealed, my first point of discussion wasn't even about her, it was comparing her situation's to Eva since they both felt like unfinished decks... says a lot about the deck tbh.

But I digress. Because everything from my initial takes and testing about Luticia was wrong. I had unknowingly written her off, much like other people, called her bad (but not the worst LM deck, that shit goes to like Panda girl or Tall Ket bitch), and appreciated her from afar like Herminia, as a failed LM deck with art that I really like.

But then... something strange happened.

I don't know when it started, but around the time of the Youth and Jet meta in JP, Luticia began cropping up in the top cuts.

I initially wrote it off as her being carried by the other decks, but soon it began happening again. And again. And again.

It came to a point where I couldn't ignore it anymore. The projected new best deck from LM3, Kyouka, had absolutely zero tops (aside from an early one shortly after her release), the LM3 deck that was topping, Michu, was severely falling off, and all of a sudden, Luticia came pouring in to put this edgy poor person and a dragon who just got their driver's licence in place.

This all culminated in Luticia winning first place in the Deluxe event's B Group, using a list that... ended up the exact same as mine?!

Even funnier is that I started testing for the deck a day before the Deluxe event happened. I called her Tier 0 on the 9th December, while the tournament happened on the 10th December.

In any case, I had to get to the bottom of Luticia's sudden streak of tops, and the only way I could do that was by re-testing the deck myself. To do that, I first had to educate myself on what exactly these decks were using to win.

So, I scoured the net and collated all the winning decks, analysing and researching them to figure out what were the most commonly played cards, what ratios they were being used at, and how did all these shitty pieces of cardboard come together to make Luticia a force to be reckoned with?

My first hint? Orfist tops.

Coinciding Luticia's uptick in usage was also Orfist, who managed to top a event swarmed with Youth and Jet. A lot of people chalked this up to the fact Orfist has a strong early game, whereas Youth and Jet don't, meaning they gain an advantage early by pushing them to four and killing before they can spiral out of control.

Essentially, rush was the rogue counter to the meta decks.

And after looking at these Luticia lists, it was obvious to see that they also focused on rushing. They were extremely top heavy on grade 1 cards, running only four grade 3s and seven grade 2s... just like early V Claret with Morion Spear and Dark Pride. (Put a pin in this.)

I didn't realise it at the time, but it must've been the instincts of the Claret player inside of me that came to this conclusion. Otherwise, I wouldn't have understood how this deck works, or why it won in the first place.

This was the second hint. The deck felt... strangely familiar to me. It was almost as if I'd played a similar deck before.

From the moment I picked it up, with this new and improved list, what I had to do came naturally to me. I didn't have to think too hard, yet I was already producing results from the first game.

And suddenly, I understood. I understood why Luticia was good, why I loved her so much, and why it felt amazing whenever I played the deck.

Luticia is Claret Sword Dragon.

(They're even facing the same way!)

And ever since, I've been a Luticia main.

Yeah, that's right... me, resident Thegrea simp and best player of her deck, stopped being my favourite deck in standard after coming to this realisation. That, and I had a game where I saw three Dark Thegrea and two triggers off Light Thegrea's skill. Twice.

Just like how Andy discarded Woody, I discarded Thegrea and never looked back.

I mean, what do you want me to do? Luticia is fucking Claret Sword but as a waifu, and he was my favourite unit, my favourite deck, so of course I'm gonna love playing her more! This combination is a no brainer, it should've happened months ago!

If you haven't realised it yet, or understand what the fuck I'm talking about, let me explain.

Luticia is a rush deck, aiming to kill the opponent as soon as possible. Everything about it was designed to turbo the four orders into soul so you can restand on turn 3, brutally slaughtering the opponent after pushing them to the brink with a turn 2 rush reminiscent of 7cs.

And this is the exact same play style as Claret Sword when he was released in V.

Everything about that deck was designed to turbo seven grade 1s in drop so you can restand on turn 3, brutally slaughtering the opponent after pushing them to the brink with a turn 2 rush reminiscent of 7cs. They were essentially the exact same deck, except this time, in the current meta environment, Luticia was allowed to flourish whereas Claret was not.

While I jokingly called her the definitive tier 0 deck, she is by all means the best rogue option you have at your disposal. I'm not joking when I say she's a good deck. In fact, I'll go ahead and say it.

Luticia is tier 1, up there with Jet and Youth.

YEAH, I JUST CALLED BEST GIRL TIER 1, WHAT YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?

(If I called her tier 0, no one would take me seriously, and I'm serious when I say Luticia is a tier 1 deck)

Okay, calling her tier 1 is all well and good, but what is it about Luticia that makes her deck work so well? I mean, this is the Idiot's Guide after all, I've got to teach you all why she's busted, right? Well, without further adieu, here's the ultimate Luticia decklist, made by yours truly!

Credits to KRX350 for letting me live the fantasy of having max rarity Luticia, because god knows I won't ever be able to afford it.

So, let's go through with the card by card, starting with the heart and soul of the deck, Luticia.

Her rideline is pretty meh, but for the purposes of functioning in the deck, it's actually pretty good. The grade 0 is your usual D starter, except with way more eye candy, and the grade 1 is an Order searcher when ridden upon.

While I would've liked to see it grab an Order on ride, similar to Eva and Arknighthite, so you can play one turn 1 without having to hard mull for one, it has a nice trade off in the fact you can return a card from hand to deck for it.

Usually, if you draw into any triggers (especially the overTrigger or Heal triggers), you can feed it back. It's essentially swapping a blank for a trigger. It's not too impactful, but the option is nice since I usually end up drawing or soulcharging all my triggers early.

The grade 2 has the Powerful ride line skill of alternatively paying cost for riding. In her case, it's soulblasting a Luticia, and assuming you didn't low roll your Sugar Sparkle's soulcharge, you should have two ready to go.

It's actually pretty beneficial to the deck since it means you can call more cards down early to rush without sacrificing pieces, and considering how low Luticia hand usually gets, not having to discard to ride is really welcomed.

The main downside is the fact you need to soulblast, since if you get bad hits with the Order, you won't be able to spam Skank Bitch Yuika to bounce (unless you're prepared to sacrifice a card to ride up) since you need to conserve the Orders soul for Big Luticia's skill, and G2 Luticia's skill.

And speaking of, Big Luticia is the reason why this deck can kill so effectively turn 3 and 4. Because she doesn't have the Mordred restriction, if you can turbo 4 Orders into soul, you're able to do two Vanguard swings turn 3, essentially forcing your opponent to guard since you've pushed them to 3-4 early with rushing, or forcing them to no guard it while they're still low on damage, risking to eat a potential crit in three drive checks.

Not only that, but Luticia is one of the two restanders in the game plusses you, thanks to her drawing a card. This means she pays can always pay the cost of restanding herself, making her second swing's drive check a true +1, rather than a wash.

And the other restander that plusses you? Claret Sword Dragon. He doesn't discard for cost, so his second swing is also a true +1, rather than a wash. And both these cards cost CB1 to restand!

To further the parallel, Claret gains +10k if you can mill at least one grade 1 from the top 3. Luticia can also gain +10k, a stack of 5k from playing a normal Order, and another +5k on attack. However, this split on power is quite significant.

While Claret risks always whiffing, meaning his attacks are potentially a 13k wet noodle if you chose Force II, Luticia will always be an 18k swing minimum since the +5k is attached to the restand skill. While the ceiling of power gain in Claret is higher (upwards of +30k), the power gain in Luticia is more consistent and will always be felt by the opponent, since 18k vs 13k no longer makes a 15k shield a 2 to pass (13k vs 28k), but rather a 1 to pass (18k vs 28k).

This is especially important in D series, since shield is much lower than in V, meaning to make it a 2 to pass, you'll need to drop a 20k shield, which will usually be a trigger + 5k shield (two cards). And if they want to no pass, it's two triggers minimum (18k vs 43k). And this is all without factoring Persona Ride, which would bump all the guard stage by 15k alone.

This makes Big Luticia a force to be reckoned with, especially since she gets three drive checks and there are ways to deck compress in Luticia as well. While her thinning isn't as efficient as Claret's, or even Youth's, you go through a lot of the deck naturally through the game, and it's just enough to make a visible impact, especially if you can hit the "stack".

However, Luticia is unusual in the sense that, despite being a restanding vanguard, she relies quite a bit on her rear-guards to help support her in killing the opponent. Without finding them, you have a significantly harder time killing the opponent.

However, the high quality of her rear-guards is what helps elevates the deck despite Luticia's lack of dedicated support, and is also the reason why Luticia to be a cut above the rest, both in terms of meta, and as a better version of Claret Sword.

See, Claret's always struggled with having good, powerful rear-guards since the majority of the deck is grade 1s. A lot of the time, you're relying on Branwen to make columns, and your only good beater in the G2 department is Morion Spear.

That's where Luticia shines and is how she is a cut above Claret. Both of the grade 2s she run are beaters, meaning her side columns are just as threatening as her vanguard, and are online as soon as turn 2, helping to facilitate the rush aspect of the deck.

The most important grade 2 in the deck has to be Naustria, a.k.a Gin Fuchigami and Not Artoria. This yakisoba bun loving cutie is basically Youthberk as a school girl, since she scrys 3 on place and puts a card from among them... not to hand, but to soul. Probably why she doesn't have the discard cost.

This is really good in the deck for three reasons: first, it sets up your soul for either Luticia, by putting an Order to soul, or for Sugar Sparkle, by putting a unit into soul (assuming you didn't hit 3 triggers). This way, it reduces turn your RNG when you play it.

Second, it builds excess soul. A lot of cards in Luticia demand soul, and you need to be careful with what you're playing, otherwise you might accidentally soulblast an Order and reduce it below 4, turning off Luticia.

Third, it filters your deck and digs it by 3 cards. This is the most important aspect since it lets you deck compress for triggers, see more of your pieces, and set up the "stack".

If, for some reason, you go into the late game, Luticia becomes devastating to deal with since repeated usage of Gin Fuchigami will inevitably lead to all triggers sent to the bottom of the deck reaching the top, ready to be checked in an explosive triple trigger drive check. It's basically what V Luquier did with Romy.

This effect being free means you can recycle it ad nauseam by using Skank Bitch Yuika, bouncing her to hand and calling her down again next turn to do it all over again. If you have two of her, suddenly becomes checking 6 each turn. This, combined with Luticia's triple drive, means you are going through a minimum of 9 cards in deck per turn. Luticia goes hard, and fast.

But wait, there's more! If Naustria wasn't already pushed enough, she has a ridiculous skill which makes a 15k to 25k beater as early as turn 2, meaning you can swing 15k into a 10k VG to demand 10k shield to block (one card 10k shields are a rarity in D format, so usually that's a trigger or two cards being used), and late game she scales incredibly hard into a 25k beater, which combined with Skank Bitch Yuika's 13k body, forms a 38k column that only gets stronger with triggers or Persona Ride.

Safe to say, Gin Not Artoria Naustria Fuchigami who is Youthberk as an Idol is the most important card in the deck aside from Luticia. Her, combined with Skank Bitch Yuika, make for an insane tag team combo that the opponent can't get away from, since she'll always return to hand by the end of your turn. They'll have to make do with removing the Skank Bitch.

The other G2 Luticia runs is Ludivine, a.k.a Ludwig, and she's a simple beater who's online as early as turn 2. She's technically stronger than Gin Fuchigami turn 2, since she gains +10k from her skill, but due to the soulblast cost, a lot of the times you skip it in favour of spending excess soul on Skank Bitch's bounce skill.

Regardless, Ludwig helps makes big numbers and is a fine alternative for beaters if you don't find Gin Fuchigami. Her lack of "prime" usability also means she's great discard fodder for Big Luticia, since you don't need to think too hard on what to keep if you already have double Gin Fuchigami for big numbers.

Now for the grade 1s, and just like Claret, Luticia runs a lot of them. Fret not though, since all of them are really important in helping Luticia's game plan.

We'll start with the two Orders, Cursed Sugar Sparkle and Anathema Slap Twinkle. Cursed Sugar is a normal order that's really important to see (and use) as early as possible to build your board and fill your soul, helping you rush early and gain additional resources for cards like Skank Bitch.

While the soulcharge can be a bit of a gamble, your worst hits will always be a vanilla trigger, since you can call a PG or an effect trigger to rear-guard and bounce it to hand with Skank Bitch to buff your defence. And even if you do hit a vanilla trigger, you can just call G0 Luticia, who becomes an 11k beatstick regardless because Cursed Sugar gives +5k to the unit that's called.

This +5k is actually massive for the deck, since it adds a stage of guard to your attacks, and allows Luticia to build columns early game as opposed to pokes, which are typically shut down with a trigger. Indeed, the strength of Luticia's rushing is the fact you will be swinging for big numbers, meaning that trying to guard early will just be as painful as trying to guard late game.

In fact, the opponent is more incentivised to guard early against Luticia too, otherwise they'll get sent to 3-4 damage and have to deal with a restanding vanguard turn 3, so it's just better for them to guard now and soak up the big hits later, especially since Not Artoria will become a 25k beater as opposed to a 15k one.

In fact, calling Not Artoria off Cursed Sugar is really strong since she'll become a 20k beater turn 2, similar to Ludwig, but for free. While this may seem insignificant, since 1 trigger blocks the attack regardless of 15k or 20k power, in the scenario where they don't have that, they'll be forced to guard with 3 cards as opposed to 2, which is really low value in terms of efficient guarding. Chances are they'll just take the L and eat the damage, which is great for you since it brings you one step closer to killing them on turn 3.

The +5k also helps if you're going second, since you can all a G1 or G0 and still have them hit, assuming the opponent doesn't check a damage trigger (alternatively, just swing with them first and vanguard last). It's why calling a trigger or PG off them isn't complete shit, since you'll be able to hit the opponent's vanguard. In fact, some players use vanilla triggers specifically because they're 5k base power, making them 10k off Cursed Sugar, and allowing you to hit the opponent's vanguard.

Between the two of them, Slap Twinkle is worse, simply by nature of being a Blitz order, but this is a necessary evil for the deck so you can turbo out the four Orders in soul. Early game, it's fine enough to block vanguard attacks, but I find it has most value late game, since it becomes a free 15k shield since it replaces itself with a draw. In fact, that's probably the best part about the card, but unfortunately you'll never get it off early unless you seriously high roll.

Next up we have Yuika, a.k.a the super generic Skank Bitch who spreads her legs for all Lyrical decks. Aside from being the cutest little slut you want to bend over straight into the banlist, Skank Bitch is the most important grade 1 in the deck due to her versatility as a booster and synergy with Cursed Sugar and Gin Fuchigami.

Early game, Skank Bitch is really good at protecting your rear-guards from being attacked and preventing yourself from being damage denied since your opponent won't have a front row to attack into. She's also key in looping Gin Fuchigami's skill early, helping to thin deck and set up the "stack" like I mentioned earlier.

Likewise, she lets you bring back any defensive cards that end up in your soul via Cursed Sugar, and if you soulcharge Big Luticia early game, you can secure a Persona Ride by calling Big Luticia off Cursed Sugar and bouncing her with Skank Bitch, or loop it by playing Cursed Sugar on turn 4 after Persona Riding.

Late game, Skank Bitch is your best Booster since she's almost always 13k, making your columns hit for 23k minimum, but usually they'll be 28k to 33~38k since your only beaters are Gin Fuchigami and Ludwig. Again, this only goes higher with Persona Ride and triggers, but going 18k+ > 18k+ > ~38k > ~38k on turn 3 is stupid strong. Not many decks can withstand that on turn 3.

Now, the other reason why Luticia's rush is so good is because of on-hit pressure from Aura. She's a generic Order searcher and is superior to Meredith (the G2 Order searcher) is because Aura's a grade 1, meaning you can call her down as early as turn 1, she directly searches as opposed to scrying, meaning no whiffs and control over which type of Order you need in the moment, and she removes herself from the field as cost, meaning she doesn't overstay her welcome into the late game as opposed to Meredith.

Aura is strictly an early game card, making her easy discard fodder for Big Luticia or deck filter fodder off Gin Fuchigami, and her condition of needing to Boost actually helps you rush since you're forced to build columns, which are harder to guard, as opposed to pokes with Meredith, meaning your opponent will drop more cards to guard to stop you from turboing out the Orders.

This works effectively with your early game beaters, since those 3 cards they would've potentially saved by taking the damage will be forced out, since taking a damage and giving you an order to hit 4 in soul quicker is the same as assuring their death off the back of Big Luticia's turn 3 restand. It's a very tricky and painful choice for your opponent to make.

Finally, the PGs. Just use whichever you like, I personally use the bunny girl since I like bunny girls. Unlike most decks, which run a 3-1 split between it and the CE Blitz Order, you want to use exclusively PGs in Luticia because they're a body you can call off Cursed Sugar in a pinch to rush if you soulcharge it, whereas you can't with the CE Order. Plus, if you call it out, you can loop them back to hand with Skank Bitch, something again you can't do with the CE Order.

It's a very small optimisation, but I think it's worth since the only deck you can use the CE Order against is Jet in the current meta, and well, if you reach that stage of the game against it, you're losing anyways, so you might as well make your their match-ups stronger than tech for one specific deck, even if it's popular.

The last aspect of this deck is triggers, but I think they're fairly self-explanatory. Eight crits because it's a vanguard restander deck, so you want to rip as many yellows off your checks as possible to kill the opponent. It also helps early game, since checking a random crit means more pressure or putting them at higher damage, so it's easier to kill them.

Really, if it weren't for the 8 trigger rule in D, Luticia would probably rock 12 crits Claret style, with 1 oT and 3 Heals. Whether or not you want to use effect crits or vanilla crits is personal preference really, but I like the effect crit since it goes into soul, and that can come in handy in a pinch where you need the extra soul for either Ludwig or Skank Bitch.

3 Fronts because Portuguese Worlds Champion and X-2 Burger King drop Vanquisher aficionado Nuno Raimundo told me so.

(On a real, Nuno was very nice and helped me by explaining why he thought Fronts were more optimal than Draws in Luticia when I was struggling to decide between them; that being you always swing vanguard first so checking a Front will never be bad, you'd rather draw into the 20k shield from a Front than the 10k shield from a Draw, and the Front is actually worth +40k power since you swing with Luticia twice. Shout out and big thanks to him!)

Of course, 4 vanilla Heals. Use whatever art you want (probably the Astecise Heal for more bling, but I prefer this one since she looks like Fauna from Hololive EN) but please don't use effects Heals.

They're bad, and for once, being 5k base matters in this deck, since you can make them 10k beaters in a pinch off Cursed Sugar. For once, you can actually argue it's less optimal using effect Heals in Luticia rather than trying to argue against the personal preference/tech for tourneys take.

Finally, BEST GIRL GARVIERA as the overTrigger. If you run anything other than best girl, the deck instantly becomes shit and you'll lose every game. Use Garviera in Luticia. DO IT. I WON'T ACCEPT ANYTHING ELSE.

And there you have it! The ultimate idiot's guide on Luticia, the new best deck in Standard!

Honestly, all the jokes and memes aside, it's honestly really impressive how Luticia climbed up from being one of the worst LM3 decks to one of the best decks in the format, especially since on paper, her deck looks like a miserable mess with no synergy. But in testing... all these little things somehow come together to form a very competent aggro deck with small complimentary intricacies which make it really strong.

Luticia's claim to fame is so random, but it just makes so much sense now. It's no wonder Bushi saved her for last - she really did end up being the best deck out of that set, just like Loronerol. I wonder how long this will last though...

Personally, I hope the reign of our new tier 0 meta queen Luticia stays forever, but that's probably because this is the closest I'll ever get to Claret being a meta deck in any format.

So you better watch it! Or else you too may lose to a Big Luticia who checks two crits and a Best Girl Garviera while having two columns of Gin Fuchigami boosted by Skank Bitch as follow up.

All in all, I LOVE YOU CLARET SWORD LUTICIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next time... maybe 60 Good Machines. That, or Thegrea. Or something else. Who knows!

That's all, Fox out!