Bloodlines that Bind Us
Within Creation, it is true to say that the humanity is the most prevalent race one encounters when exploring its expanse. However, even the most knowledgeable scholars prove unable to detect traces of the Creator's touch in people. Those of whom are purest are called descendants. They often have odd and distinctive traits. For example, 'unnatural' hair or eye colors occurring naturally from birth. True descendants are of purer human blood lines. This means that they are more likely to have the inborn gifts humanity used to enjoy, before they traversed Creation. Humans, the first chosen race of the Creators, are an intelligent and powerful breed who tamed the wild Creation set before them, and unlocked the truths hidden behind that veil. During their civilizations' golden age, they were unified and were conscious of their ability shared with one another, their experience and talents; but millennia of strife, war, and exploration, they were cast adrift and their heritage lost into legend.
Those whom are still human enough to call themselves Descendants of the First Man can feel their resonance with one another biologically like an instinct. They can still feel one another's psyche; they can meld together. The difference being, in this present day, their inborn ability is hard to hone; few are aware of the reality of this biological function in Descendants. Rather, Descendants are normally unaware of their status and, on the whole, treat this feeling like one of friendship or simple animal magnetism.
Despite this, Descendants are highly cooperative and empathetic. They are able to sense when one another are in danger, and are often physically drawn together. This makes their teamwork and coordination unmatched by most. Their ability to share skills and knowledge also means it is rare to find a weak link among a group of Descendants. This does not mean, however, that they are without their fair share of weaknesses. As individuals, the Descendants are capable but unremarkable when compared to other factions. This leaves them susceptible to being picked off one at a time as they arrive.
Descendants are a rare thing to see in Creation in this day and age. Humanity's wanderlust has ripped their once mighty empire into splinters. Now separated and dwindling in number with each generation, those Descendants aware of their lineage strive to reunify the dying embers of their people. The Descendants carry with them the will and hope of the Creators, of whom shall they fear?
Optional Support
Descendant decks focus a player's ability to search their deck at any time for the exact Descendant they would need for each situation. They have many cards that can manipulate the deck, and even the playing field, to their favor with just one search of a card. To properly play the Descendants, you will need to master the art of searching the deck and knowing what cards are best to use during certain match ups. This guide will outline the various primary support cards that would work in most Descendant decks.
Blood Mother Gracelyn - This card is an absolute powerhouse, and is one of the many lords that are in the Descendant designator. This card can be used both offensively and defensively, which is one of the many aspects that makes the Descendants a great faction to play in the game. Running at five cost and having a whopping four combat, you can very quickly start taking field advantage with the proper usage of this card. One of the best tricks to use with this card is to use a search card such as Cute Cadet Sweet to Sequence, then search your deck for Blood Mother Gracelyn after an opponent declares an attack against you. This will leave the player completely open for attack your following turn. Since you can run two copies of Blood Mother Gracelyn, you can actually use the card to search for another copy of itself to make your opponent wide open for attack. There is no reason not to run this card in your deck if you desire to run any form of Descendant members in your deck. It is strong and versatile, proving almost to never be a bad draw during the match.
Cute Cadet Sweet - Cute Cadet Sweet is a card that greatly strengthens your Descendant deck's utility. She can be activated to search your deck for any Descendant Terra Character and provides a static +1 Combat bonus to all members of the Descendant Archetype. This card is extremely useful to have on the field. It is extremely vulnerable, however, to effects such as Final Clash and Commit Sin Wrath. It is best to get this card out early for when the opponent has little to oppose it. You can very quickly establish field control by getting the exact cards you need each turn. You can search your deck for a Helen, Lust Feeder to remove threats early game, or get cards such as Cute Cadet Keen to take on the early offensive.
Molly Holly - Molly Holly is an extremely powerful Shadow Architect card, and works well in many decks. In addition to being so powerful, the first Retribution ability on the card provides support for Descendant Decks. This ability allows you to choose one of your Descendant Characters in play and search for another one of equal Terra Cost! This is very awesome for cards such as Undercover Cheerleader and Revolutionary, as these cards are massively powerful on the offensive side of Descendants. If you playing Helen, Lust Feeder you can actually get two copies of the card to shuffle back in those pesky characters you can't deal with at the moment. This card is a very fun card to play and makes for some very great plays with most Descendant Decks.
Cassie and Helen - Cassie and Helen is very similar to the other Shadow Architect, Molly Holly. This card instead has an Assimilate ability that allows you to search your deck for a Descendant character with Terra Cost of X. This card is very useful to get midgame once you have established your resource pool. It is very important not to play this card at the wrong time as it does prevent you from drawing a card. This card can prove to be much quicker than Molly Holly, as you can use her ability each turn in addition to her other Retribution abilities. Use cards such as Cassie, Vanity Feeder to gain additional Terra to use for your Descendant searching with Cassie and Helen. Always have two search card out to search your deck each turn as you can just shuffle one of the cards back into your deck with her first Retribution ability. Another option is wait to use her third ability to search which is based on how many cards you played that turn.
Key Cards for your Descendant Deck
Cute Cadet Cool - This card holds one of the most critical spots in a Descendant deck. You can use its ability when it comes into play to remove a card that you cannot deal with at the moment from a player's hand such, as Shadow Architects and removal cards. Try to make sure you have some ways to replay the Cute Cadet Cool if you were to lose it, as it does give the card back and then the player can generally use it next turn. Miss Priss is a great way to get these out early game to remove cards that would slow down your tempo.
Helen, Lust Feeder - Should your opponent be silly enough to actually keep one of these is play, you should definitely target it with Final Clash. This card poses a significant threat as it forces your character cards back into your deck and then removes itself from play. If your opponent leaves one of these out even for one turn, try to take the opportunity to hit it while it is still a vulnerable target.
Queen Arcanist Lizzy - It may come to a surprise to many of you, but Queen Arcanist Lizzy is in fact a Descendant and a Spirt card. This card is extremely useful as it allows you to draw two cards to use after playing her and you can use one of her activated abilities to keep your characters from being the target of effect cards. If you are going against a Gangster based deck, this card can prove to be extremely effective at dealing with threats before they can attach Status Effects on them. It is also great fun seeing how big you can get her combat stat for that final attack with her ability to Dispose of your characters for +2 Combat.
Revolutionary - The Revolutionary is a great source of removal for the Descendant Archetype. You can play them both late game and early game as it has abilities that benefit both ranges of the game. You can use Jazzy Lass to get this card into play quite easily. It is always best to keep a search card on deck to search for these in Sequence to an attack by your opponent. As an added bonus, once it wipes out an opponent's character, you can put a +1 Combat Counter on it each time is successfully hits during them during the Encounter.
Undercover Cheerleader - This Descendant card can shut down many Designator-based decks in the game. With the ability to protect itself from damage and abilities from sources from the chose Designator, you will definitely have a hard time removing this without effects. This is a guaranteed three card hit if you can Final Clash one of these; this would remove a great deal of the Descendant deck's ability to defend itself.
Weaknesses
The Descendants depend on their numbers to achieve victory in the game. If the opponent is well prepared to deal with your search cards, you will have a hard time establishing field control consistently. Cards that help to generate Terra such as Cassie, Vanity Feeder, Natural Balance, and Green Totem Wing should be used to restore your ability to generate Terra. Several of the Descendant cards themselves lack the ability to deal with your opponent's power cards. It does not hurt to run at least some destruction or direct damage cards, such as Commit Sin Wrath or Commit Sin Envy in the deck as well. Cards that can activate to deal damage, such as Death Reveler and Starcat Defender, can make searching for cards with Descendants very difficult. They can also remove your Helen, Lust Feeder before it can attack.
Anti-Descendant Support
Alan The First - This the main card in the game that really hates hard on the Descendant Archetype. Alan The First can activate to completely wipe out one of your Descendant characters with no chance of Revival. Along with the ability to outright wipe out your Descendant cards, this card can search for The Rival - which can then continue to remove your cards as you play them. Life is just no good when this card comes out, and you should definitely expect it to be sideboarded when playing with or against a Descendant deck. Cute Cadet Cool is a great answer for dealing with this card as you can take it out of their hand before they can use it.
Nature's Wrath - This card does not explicitly state that is only wipes out the Descendants, however it must be noted that this card can absolutely ruin you day if the player runs several in their deck. The main ability of the card deals two damage to each character in play, which is enough to remove all of your search engines except for Blood Mother Gracelyn and The Girlfriends. Late game, if you have not yet defeated your opponent, they can pay the extra cost to completely remove your field since the largest Descendant cards are only Four Combat.
Drakkonen Timekiller - Another card that does not explicitly only de-stabilize the Descendants, but very easily shut down almost ALL of their support. The Shadow Architects cannot use their put into play/search abilities. Most of your search characters just become really bad Vanilla characters that have no abilities that are not useful against a character as large as the Drakkonen Timekiller. Be ready to play a card, such as Revolutionary from your hand, as the best way to deal with this card, and if going against a Drakkonen based deck, be prepared for it each match.
Play Style(s)
Girl Friends (Utility)
The Girlfriend style of the Descendant deck utilizes the cheaper of the Descendant Cards mainly Miss Priss to put into play additional low cost Descendant cards. This deck utilizes the Cute Cadet Cool and Undercover Cheerleader to place protection of field and control of cards from your opponents hand. If setup properly you can shut down the ability of your opponent to attack you with the protection granted by the Undercover Cheerleader and Helen, Lust Feeder. If the field gets out of control where Cute Cadet Cool cannot keep the field safe, you can play Revolutionary to slay a character that is a bit too much for your smaller characters to handle. It really helps to keep your search cards for the use of Helen, Lust Feeder which will allow you to shuffle the threat back into your opponent's deck. Aspiring Courage works really with this deck as it allows you to buff your smaller cards to eliminate larger threats. Use Molly Holly to search your deck for the cards you need such as Revolutionary or have some fun with it since your costs are all small by searching for a Proto Nerd or Speaker of Darkness to take control of the field.
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Cute Cadet Crystal (Aggro)
The purpose of this deck is to get power Descendant cards out such as Blood Mother Gracelyn or Cute Cadet Sweet to storm the field with very large beat down descendant cards. The Blood Mother Gracelyn card allows you play Descendant cards directly from the deck and this is key to establishing control with cards such as Cute Cadet Pure and Cute Cadet Spice. This deck unlike the Girlfiends version of the deck is mainly comprised of Descendant cards as you will need to be able to keep playing the larger Descendant cards to maintain control. In addition, since you are using Blood Mother Gracelyn as the main card, her two Voidbourne familiars Cassie, Vanity Feeder and Helen, Luster Feeder can be used to control the field as well. Helen, Lust Feeder is especially useful when removing threats from the field and Cassie, Vanity Feeder can be used to get Blood Mother Gracelyn into play early in the game or even during another player's turn. Try to commit to one of the more power Cute Cadet cards such as Cute Cadet Pure or Cute Cadet Spice as they can take up some very high Terra cost spots in the deck.
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