Oh your God

wat

I'm usually not too vocal when Bushiroad screws something up. But they really screwed this up.

[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.
[AUTO] Generation Break 2:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card named "Genesis Dragon, Trance-else Messiah" from your G zone, and turn it face up] When this unit is placed on (VC), if you have a heart card with "Messiah" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, lock all rear-guards of all fighters, and unlock all locked cards other than the cards locked with this effect. 

(Name is a placeholder as always. Who knows what the intention behind this one is...)

*ahem* So, let me get this straight. If I'm sitting on Alter Ego Messiah and I can't use his stride skill for lack of a card to lock, I can just use this to mass lock all the things.  

But why? It's GB2, which means it's competing with Big Crunch, who for the most part has better synergy with the Messiah deck by leaving some lingering locks for Amnesty or Excelics to take advantage of. What's more, Big Crunch can be used when you're sitting on your alternate Grade 3 - who isn't a Messiah - whatever it may be.

And in the event I do have a field, I can at best keep one card (and X number of circles) unlocked, if I have counterblasts for both this and Alter Ego. I also probably need some rear-guards that can unlock cards to make the most of it, which are awkward fits when Amnesty and Excelics are already doing that job on most turns. On the turns they aren't? Well... it's not like Big Crunch is making me lock any of my own cards.

This thing is just awkward. More so when you consider the G Persona cost in a G Zone already loaded with them: 1 Blizza, 3 Amnesty, 2 Excelics, 2 Big Crunch. Where could it POSSIBLY go without removing your win conditions?! 

I'm not really convinced Alter Ego's GB2 is so ridiculously powerful that it'd be unreasonable to give Link Joker a theme stamped method of G Zone acceleration on the first stride, but for the time being, Bushiroad seems to be afraid of it.

Such as it is. Maybe next time, Ibuki.