My Big Problems with Bermuda Triangle

 Firstly, I am lazy and keep putting off writing about the new Granblue stuff, as well as the Bermuda reveals. Granblue (And Rose) is extremely entertaining and I'm very happy that Prisms (And Duo's) are returning, which, is something I'm glad I said before I start ripping through the clan in this blog post. 

Anyway, lets start.

A bit of background, I've been playing Bermuda since I started this game back in 2014. I won't go into detail why I picked this clan over the rest, however, I assume many could take a wild guess and be on the mark. Even now, the art still stands as one of my favorite in any card game I've played, but the quality of everything else has gone down tremendously since then. 

Card Quality, Timing and Focus will be what I'll be discussing about. 

Card Quality

When I refer to card quality, I'm discussing solely how good or bad the quality of the skills on the cards are. If you take a deep dive, you see a troubling trend stretching from all the way back to Blessing of Divas (The 2016 Sunshine Vert set).

Blessing of Divas - If you weren't playing Prisms, you were playing an extremely mediocre deck competitively.
Prismatic Divas - Every deck in this set received mediocre-horrible support. Nothing made any dent competitively and some clans even got worse support than what they received in the previous set.
Divas Festa - Things were completely flipped on there head and almost every deck in this set received amazing support...too amazing. Coral, Riviere and Shizuku were strong, but Ange was a tier 0 deck that basically broke G format on launch. Furthermore, it was too strong into Premium which resulted in Ange and Elly being restricted, the latter of which being completely erased.

Primary Melody - As a repeat of Divas Festa, Melody released and warped the entirety of Standard to the point where it became a one deck format. It was struck a little while after (Eventually returning to normalcy once the entire game could catch up)
Crystal Melody - Hat-trick! Coral and Pacifica were fine, but Riviere, like Melody previously, turned Standard into a tier 0 format. It even became high tier 1, if not the highest of tier 1 in Premium. It was so bad that Riviere needed to be errata'd. 

Every year since 2016, a Bermuda release has always either been too weak or insanely strong to the point where it needed to be struck. That isn't healthy no matter which way you slice it, and I have a distinct feeling that it will continue with the upcoming release of Twinkle Melody.

Yes, as a Bermuda player, obviously having strong cards is a positive when it comes to tournament play. However, its certainly not healthy to the life of the game, nor does it feel good to purchase cards that're either completely weak to everything around it or overpowered to the point where it will get hit on the ban-list, ultimately ruining the value of the purchase. 

Under Focus, I'll explain why I believe this is happening, but for now, lets move onto Timing. 

Timing

Timing refers to when the release of Bermuda transpires. This section is quite simple and exacerbates a huge issue I have with this clan, the way its releases are used as filler. I have no problem with Bermuda being in there own booster, but I have a huge issue with when those boosters release. 

Divas Festa - Was the final booster released during G and a lot of excitement I had for it was wasted because we knew of the impending reboot. I understand that a clan/clans had to be last to receive support before the reboot, however, it still feels terrible knowing it was your clan. It also shows that Bushiroad pictured Bermuda as a filler clan, used to draw in "Certain" crowds (Like me lol) who wouldn't really care about a reboot and instead would purchase a set of moe girls, regardless of timing, skills etc etc. 

Primary Melody - Was the first booster for Bermuda in V, and ignoring the card quality, it finally gave Bermuda V series cards, only a year after the format started. Showcasing even more that Bermuda is just a filler clan. So not only was Bermuda the last G support set released, you also had to wait a year until you could finally play in V. Why Bermuda had to be last? I'm pretty sure you can answer that yourself. My other issue, specific to this set, was that Bermuda was the only clan to -not- receive returning units in there first wave. Cannot fathom why they would go down this route, but it was annoying nonetheless. 
Twinkle Melody - As of writing this blog post, this set hasn't yet released, but I highly doubt anything substantial will change. As it stands currently, Bermuda will, again, be the last clan supported in V, and will, ostensibly, be the last clan to be supported in Overdress format, if previous patterns are concerned. 

The reason this is a prevalent topic to me is that is shows how Bushi sees Bermuda, as filler. They never had this stigma placed on them, but in the past couple years, it seems like almost every Bermuda set is placed perfectly as a stop-gap for something else bigger. The majority of G sets didn't feel like this, neither did pre G sets. It goes to show that Bushi must've realized that its much easier to stop-gap a Bermuda set rather than incorporate it innately with the rest of the game. 

Focus

To make this simple, I'll split this section into two parts: Clan focus and Bushiroad focus.

The Clan Focus is something I've always complained about for what seems like a century. The over abundance of different decks and styles this clan has is ridiculous and most are never truly fleshed out. This is no less apparent than in G.

- Prisms

- Duo's
- Harmony Lauris

- Harmony Shizuku

- Harmony Ange
- Raindear

- Coral

- Pacifica

- Riviere

- ChouChou

That's honestly ridiculous, yet, when you add on V series, you get Melody and Highlander added to this mess. So, if you're fond of a specific playstyle or specific idol/deck, the chance of you getting support is always a gamble. I waited since V started for Prisms and I have a friend who's waited the same amount of time for Duo's. This is in complete contrast to how many who prefer a clan over a specific deck build and all they need to do is wait for support for the clan, rather than praying to whatever deity you follow that your 1/11 deck is getting direct support. 

In relation to this, many of the builds just feel so....similar. They're also underdeveloped, underutilized and play poorly. Coral is just a beat down deck (At least with some bouncing), Riviere is incredibly monotonous to pilot, Raindear is just boring D-Robo's, Melody is the epitome of brain-dead and do not get me started on whatever Highlander is. 

At least Prisms, Duo's and ChouChou are somewhat interesting and unique. Anyway, moving onto Bushiroad Focus

As promised under card quality, Bushiroad focus is how Bushi sees Bermuda and what there focus is when designing Bermuda, and in relation to where I left the topic under card quality, the main reason why sets have either been extremely mediocre or insanely broken is because the quality of the skills is not the focus for Bushi, the art is. 

Starting with the first problematic set (Blessing), Bushi started implementing many more alternative and SP arts. Yes, the set prior (Academy) had unique BT style SP art, but it wasn't as apparent as future sets nor did every foil receive that specialty SP. The trend of a Bermuda set having an exorbitant amount of SP's started with Blessing. It then got turned up and up and up with each new set. That was the underlying focus for Bushi. 

You mix the perspective that they had that Bermuda was a filler set used to stop-gap between the more important aspects of Vanguard, along with a huge focus on SP's and what you have left is a weaker focus on the actual skills, coherency and utilization of every deck the clan had. Why thoroughly test cards when the set will be purchased regardless of it being terrible or broken? 

If its terrible, you can't compete with the rest of the game, and if its overpowered, you're purchasing cards that'll inevitably be hit. Its not a healthy path regardless of where it goes.

Conclusion

Man, I've just nailed every big complaint I've had with the clan, but for the article skippers, here's the TLDR:

- Card quality is all over the place with the patterns since 2016 of the clan having horrible cards or insanely broken cards that break formats
- The timing of releases show me that Bushi sees this clan as nothing but filler and a stop-gap used because the set sells and Bermuda isn't important to the anime, at all. 
- With the over-abundance of Idol's (Decks) and (Admittedly, amazing) SP's in each set since 2016, it shows where the true focus is set, which is why we get the card quality we see. 

I complain because I've been with this clan since I started with Vanguard and I do enjoy playing select few decks in the clan, but the majority of them are just mind-numbingly repetitive, un-fun and under-designed. Prisms are what keeps me around (And Shizuku for art), but If I had to choose between Bermuda and Granblue....well, that's not a very hard decision. 

And with that, my rant is over and I am out. Peace.