Forward. Forward. Foward. Lauren is the definition of a hard character. Almost everything she has is to either attack or to make attacking better. Looking at her stuff I'm reminded of people who say "We use every part of the buffalo", 'cause that seems to be the way she does stuff. She goes all out, all the time, and just goes all the way to empty, fills back up, and goes all the way back down again. I think her role is What??, not Frontman. She has some Frontman stuff, but Lauren's abilities seem much more centered around setting up huge freaking amounts of damage to a single target.. .right up until the second she's a Grenade. And then all of a sudden she can shift to Frontman?
Yeah, Lauren's weird.
Normally I would start with Lauren's character ability, True Focus. Normally how to interpret a character is pretty simple: look at the character's ability and view the deck through that lens. Normally everything falls into place looking at the character ability. Lauren's weird.Wanna know what Lauren's all about?
Look at Black Box.
What can we glean? First off, Black Box is expensive, at two energy. It's also extremely hard to recover, at three shields. There's only one in your deck so you need to be careful with it and not get rid of it. If it winds up in your discard pile prioritize getting it out, ASAP. With this one card Lauren's toolbox becomes the definition of an artillery: she doesn't care what she hits or why, because someone is going to suffer. Yes, the energy requirement is high. So that means you won't be able to play it all the time. But this is the card you should center your entire playstyle around, not to mention everyone else. Lauren is a tentpole, for better or worse.
True Focus, like I've said, is not the focus (ha!) of Lauren Shiba's deck. Oh not, not even close. It's an insurance policy. No matter how hard you push, you will always get an energy back. Always. So throw your energy to the wind! If someone's recovering energy don't take any unless you absolutely must. Drain it all, cause it's coming back. Forward forward FORWARD!
Yes, we're going to cover the zord now. I know, I usually do that last, but Lauren's weird! And it's necessary to understand how central the Bullzord is to Lauren's playstyle. This is not a zord for anyone else but Lauren, period. The Bullzord is not a group resource, people! Dump it onto Lauren ASAP, so that way she is able to deal large amounts of damage with less energy. You picked Lauren, that means everyone else needs to line up behind you and make sure your hits land.
Don't have Black Box? Get Hold the Line out as soon as you have a second so you can try and draw the Box. Hold the Line is one of the few cards in the game that lets everyone draw and you get an energy out of it. This also allows the group to eat a hit if they need to, by having a choice of what to put back atop the deck. It's the perfect card to compliment Lauren's otherwise straight-up offensive toolkit. It lets you get the card you want while making sure that defenses are high all around.
I know Discipline says that you can do a reroll on any ranger, but let's be honest with ourselves: you shouldn't. Use it on yourself for Strafe Burst and Burn Out. Notice how those two attacks are dependent upon specific results that you rolled? Want a specific result from either one, but can't seem to get it because the dice are evil? Why do you think Discipline is in Lauren's arsenal? It's for your own rolls! You can use this to cheat GUARD or possibly get some of the extra damage that would have been wasted on a KO elsewhere. Or, if you're willing to use Black Box on either of these attacks, you all of a sudden may be able to KO one target and still hit another one for pretty decent damage! The flexibility here is amazing!
But the piece de resistance is Spin Sword. Dump even two additional energy on it and you have a 5D attack... which isn't as good as the Power Bow, I know, or even the Bow of Darkness, but Lauren has enough tools to make this card the definitive tac nuke. First off, Black Box combined with practically anything in Lauren's toolbox is just ridiculous, and that goes double for even an unmodified Spin Sword. But the fact that you can throw in Discipline, which allows you to muck with the dice roll for even greater effect, means that you can, with just three dice, possibly get 12 damage out of the attack, 6 damage on average, which is the equal of Power Bow in terms of damage. However, if you put a bit more in... the results can be truly terrifying. Like all things post-core, it needs some set-up, but you get this whole combined with a Dragonzord or two? You're talking something of a power level that would make the Power Bow weep from the sheer amount of damage coming out. Yes, Power Bow allows you to ignore GUARD, and yes, MMPR Pink is a better single target tac nuke, but Lauren is not a tac nuke: her role is so flexible and so weird that, in a pinch, she can equal Kimberly's damage output to a single target, which is all that is required for this to be a legitimate part of Lauren's toolkit.
Lauren sits in the back, biding her time. When she strikes, she strikes once, wrecking all before her, whether it be one or many, with an accuracy that's as assured as it is deadly. With a single strike of her sword she either fells armies or the target nobody else seems to be able to get. And she walks away, perfectly balanced and replenished, ready for another round. Properly played, Lauren is deadly. Challenging. Exhilarating.
For she is samurai. And samurais demand nothing less.
Yes, this is part one. I told you, Lauren's weird.
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