Thursday, August 1, 2013

Card Discussion - Mirror Diva, Biscayne

Alright! So... Dragon∞Blade normally does her "Unit of the Week" but since she's on vacation I'll be doing a "Card Discussion". It's been a while since anything has happened on the blog so let's take a look at one of the cards from the recently released Extra Booster, Dazzling Divas.

The card of discussion will be Mirror Diva, Biscayne.

For a set titled "Dazzling Divas", Biscayne is
the only one labeled as such outside of lore.


As her name, flavor text, and even image suggests, Biscayne is rarely ever alone on stage. A single Soulblast let's you look at the top seven cards of your deck for another copy to add to your reserves. The only qualified stand-in for the diva Biscayne is herself. 

Right then, let's use some numbers for once to get a better idea of how much "luck" you would need to pull off her effect.
(My calculations could be wrong so bear with me.)
  • After setting your Starting Vanguard and drawing your opening hand, you are left with 44 cards in your deck.
  • It's your turn and you draw a card (43 cards left in your deck).
    • You ride to Grade 1 and assuming you don't use a Forerunner, you call Biscayne to the Rearguard and activate her effect.
      • Assume 3 copies of Biscayne are left in your deck at this point.
      • Through Biscayne's effect, each checked card that is not Biscayne increase the odds of the next card being Biscayne.
3/43 + 3/42 + 3/41 + 3/40 + 3/39 + 3/38 + 3/37 = 0.5263182714 = 52.63182714%
      • Thus, you're a little better off than a flip of a coin.
    • Now, let's assume you are using a Forerunner. You won't be able to use Biscayne until you are at Grade 2.
      • By the time you're at Grade 2 you would have drawn another card (42 cards left) and performed at least 1 Trigger Check (41 cards left).
      • Again, we assume you still have 3 copies of Biscayne in your deck.
3/41 + 3/40 + 3/39 + 3/38 + 3/37 + 3/36 + 3/35 = 0.5541698772 = 55.41698772%
  • Thus, Biscayne offers a little over 50-50 chance of retrieving another copy. The same pattern can be used to calculate the odds of the effect working a second time in the same turn (37.94893264%).
To be honest, if your were the type of player to run 4x Sentinals and 4x 8k Boosters, Biscayne would just take up deck space since the remaining slots would go to Units that supports your deck's strategy. Plus if your deck requires Soulblasts, Biscayne might actually slow it down.

However, for a budget build, Biscayne is a good way to provide a small lead in card advantage. The extra copy of Biscayne can be used to Boost or Guard. Even though its just 1 less card, it still means 1 card closer to possibly checking a trigger. As a 6k Booster, it just barely sets up columns attacking for 15k-16k. Nonetheless, if your deck doesn't focus on hitting the magic 20k-21k columns, having Boosters is better than having none.

Well, I think this post is long enough. Time to sit back and enjoy Biscayne's newest song.
(I wonder if she performs covers.)


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