I haven’t been paying too much attention to vanilla cards. For the average person, this makes quite a lot of sense. Vanilla cards are not very appealing or impressive. They are printed cards with no effects whatsoever. Whenever you are deckbuilding, they are likely the last cards you’d consider putting in your deck if any at all. However, there was a time when vanilla cards were considered quite decent.
You may not believe it, but at one point in the game, this pairing above was one of the most powerful level one boards available in the game. Vanillas on their own are generally subpar. Most conditional effects in the game make it quite easy to get a larger sized beater. Furthermore, they are generally eclipsed by the generally outdated Taigei profile.
However, there is one caveat to running vanillas, and that is if there is say an Apples-like bonding effect to that card. As seen from Sayaka and Kyoko above, Kyoko not only grabs the Sayaka, but she also provides her extra power as long as she stays on the field. This by itself is not very impressive at the time of this writing, but what if we were to change the effect to be more than simply power?
With the rise in popularity of the Yamashiro and Fusou cats in Azur Lane, they got me thinking about the Apples bonding pairing once again. A vanilla card on its own doesn’t contribute much to the game, especially in its hyper fast heavy filter and advantage pushing state. However, when combined with a relevant card that both bonds to said card while giving it additional effects, these effects can create quite a powerful card. In the case of the Azur Lane cats, Yamashiro and Fusou were able to gain incredible amounts of soul and push your opponents early, potentially leaving them in a punishing deck state.
One common downside of the Apples profile is due to the amount of deck slots the combo itself takes up. Furthermore, the pairing themselves consumes two slots on your field as is. Additionally, the bonder itself is usually a lower powered support card that’s either hiding in the backrow or easily sniped in the front row. The pairings usually do little to nothing if both aren’t present on stage. This can be problematic if your opponent has a means of affecting one of the paired cards, effectively removing the vanilla’s abilities entirely and reducing it to a generic beatstick with no additional positives. The Apples bonder pairing should essentially be considered a single card split into two pieces.
Despite the downsides, the cards themselves can carry their own upsides. Firstly, they make use of the Bond [絆] mechanic which is a cheap way to filter hand, even if the hand you grab is just a vanilla. The bonder almost always provides additional power to the vanilla card, making it larger than most cards of its level on the field and giving you a cheap reverse without having to commit extra hand. Additionally, the bonder itself provides a global ability, so you can always toss the bonder in the front row as a swinger while also retaining its benefits on the vanilla card.
I may have misjudged ol’ JB and Asako above. A friend who claimed to be an older woman enjoyer made me think with his deck regarding the more updated form of Apples. Back when I first played, Apples was fading away as a standard engine of a deck. But, given how powerful some of these combinations can be, I can assuredly see some potential return and especially if someone is on a budget (most Apples profiles are on commons and in trial decks now).
The modern Apples utility has drastically improved from simply raw power like turning Elma into an on-field backup as shown above. Additionally, the ability to bond the Apples’ target using hand rather than stock as a potential alternative makes it much easier to use in the early game. Cases such as the cats’ duo or pairing of J.B. and Asako allow the profile to be used as early as turn one, guaranteeing you more early game swingers if need be.
UMA/W106-T06R-RRR 甘々な末っ子ガール マヤノトップガン (right)
There are even some silly cases if the additional ability on the bonder can be generic. In the case of Nice Nature and Mayano Top Gun, Nice Nature acts as a Helmet profile, letting you discard the same card it bonded to and sacrifice itself to salvage itself back to hand, letting you infinitely damage yourself with its two card combo.
In all honesty, I’d say, give the vanilla cards and their bonders a good read. Vanillas themselves may not be up to par in the current game, but if given enough support from their associated bonder, they can be quite formidable beaters with utility as well.