Card of the Week 8/25

[Logress]

Counterattack

People have been asking me, “why no Card of the Week on Grimoire cards?” Okay, not many people have asked. Well, one. Fine, it was me, I asked myself that question. Anyway, the point is, this week’s Card of the Week is [card=39]Counterattack[/card].

Counterattack is probably one of the strongest attack Grimoire cards in the game. It’s also the only one that hits all the enemy units without also hitting all of your units. If you’re a Lawtia player, it will probably be doing 30 damage, since Lawtia can power this card with the likes of Animated Dead, a level 1 card. It’s a level four, which makes it a bit more expensive than Gowen’s Flame Arrow, but cheaper than any other Grimoire capable of hitting multiple units.

However, Counterattack requires the sacrifice of any unit of your choice. It seems like a disadvantage, except maybe for use on a wounded card that can’t be revived. Coincidentally, Lawtia has a number of cards that are especially short lived, like Mad Priest, or that hurt their owner. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for a Lawtia player to want to get rid of their own units, especially if they’ve planned for using Counterattack. The obvious choice is the Angel of Moon and Soul, Noirweiden. She revives, burning one LP off her Iczer each time. In addition, she hits for a murderous 50 AT. Keep her around until your LP starts going low, and then turn her into a field-clearing 50 damage explosion with Counterattack. Sometimes, getting rid of another auto-regenerating card can also help, like Animated Dead. After he buys you a few rounds until you get out the rest of your army, the enemy keeps pinpointing him to drain your SP! Counterattack turns that liability into an advantage. Using Counterattack on Zugateroza is much less likely, unless you’re up against a full field of Falkows and a Vordore that can pretty much kill anything six times in one turn. Then instead of burning all your SP before he gets a chance to go at AGI 1, Zugateroza will take out most of that Falkow field at Open Skill timing.
While not as game dominating as Return, nor as strong against DF as Fire Tornado, Counterattack is probably the best general-purpose direct damage Grimoire any Sphere has to offer. As a nice bonus, since it hits everything randomness isn’t a factor. It is an absolute must for any Card File running Noirweiden, and probably is also the only reason to ever include an Animate Dead in your game.

[Romdeau]

Animated Dead is the poor man's Zombie Lord-inferior in every way, but comes with the starter deck!

[Candi]

Animated Dead is the poor man's Zombie Lord-inferior in every way, but comes with the starter deck!

True, but it's a much better sacrifice to CA than the Lord, seeing as its a level 1 card.

[Phades]

Salamander tends to be convienent for that as well.

[DanTheTimid]

Animated Dead will probably go out of use as we get more sets (then again who knows how the meta will evolve) but right now he does have his use... and that use is with Counter Attack. The great thing about him is that you only need 1, even if you don't end up using counter attack on him his own skill revives him making multiple copies pretty much unnecessary. Now if your not using him with counter attack, yeah he's usually not worth it, but counter attack does exist and he is worth it when paired with counter attack.

As for my thoughts on Counter Attack itself... amazing. Most of the high level grimoires just aren't that useful in the first set, but this is definitely an exception. Outside of maybe Fire Tornado theres no high level grimoire I hate seeing more and unlike Fire Tornado theres no chance of bad luck causing it to be a dud. As stated by Logress the brilliance of it is that it doesn't just potentially provide huge field advantage, but it can save your butt when your LP are low and you've got an unrevivable liability sitting on the field. Versatility and Power, whats not to like, its not necessarily for every deck cause it does cost alot of sp, but most Lawtia files are improved by its inclusion.

4/5

[Cheezy]

Counter attack is an amazing card and it has saved me a lot of times.
There's nothing more satisfying than killing 5+ cards with counter attack.