Iona, Ultima/Maiden Analysis

Today, we have the beautiful Iona.

Name: Iona, Ultima/Maiden
Colour: Black
Level: 5
Limit: 5
Type: LRIG
Grow Cost: 0

Effects

• You can grow into this LRIG only if you have one or less Life Cloth. 
• [Constant]: Skip your grow phase. 
• [Constant]: All players can only draw one card during their draw phase. 
• [Constant]: All players can only have one SIGNI on the field. (If a player already has two or more SIGNI on the field, that player puts SIGNI into the trash until they have one SIGNI

Description:

  Iona Ultima can be described as one of the strongest late game control LRIGS in the game as of now. Her effects are not actually effects at all but all ruling changes. She is also one of the anti-meta cards in the meta now as with the recent push for Cross and Resona being supported in the recent boosters. Iona Ultima's 3rd constant effect is a shut down to these decks as they require at least 2 Signis on the field. Iona Ultima is a LRIG that forces a late game fatigue game - basically, who runs out of Arts/Guards/Life Cloth first wins. So make sure you have enough of these in the late game.
Be warned though, games with Iona Ultima tend to drag, so while your friends may have finished 2 games, you might not be done with yours.

Strategies

• Combos with Code Labyrinth Quinn (WX04-029) to provide full field coverage as this SIGNI can move to an empty spot in front of the attacking SIGNI and all your <Labyrinth> SIGNI gains +1K power each time your opponent's SIGNI declares an attack.
• You might not think of it but a Blue Signi has room for play in Iona Ultima decks. Code Art SPK freezes a opposing signi and if all your opponent's signi are frozen, your opponent discards a card. Now how many signi can a player have on the field... Hmmm?
• Code Anti Mage is a recent promo release that really helps Iona Ultima. How so? Her effect is to call herself from trash to the field, thereby stopping an opponent attacking without the use of an ART helping you survive later and later into the game where your odds of winning are higher.
• Since there are only 4 ARTS slot, below are some considerations:
• Last Select (WX05-007PR-156) - This is an defensive/offensive arts which is limited to Iona/Tama which requires the user to Exceed 4(Sending 4 cards below your LRIG to LRIG Trash) and the effect sends 1 Opponent's SIGNI to trash. Since Iona has no ability that makes use of Exceed, this card makes quite a good defensive art for her.
• Dark Matter (WX04-025) - Because Iona 5 only allows up to 1 SIGNI for each player, and Dark Matter allows you to add 1 extra life if you have no SIGNI after sending your SIGNI to trash, this lets you to gain 1 Life Cloth, and also acts as a removal for your opponent's SIGNI. Sugoi!~
• Dead Splash (WX03-014/PR-184) - This card requires you to pay 1 Black and 3 Colourless Ener just to summon 1 SIGNI from Trash on to the field, but the good part of it is that it only cost 1 Black Ener if your opponent is White(E.G: Tama, Tawil, Sashe), and it allows you to summon any Black SIGNI back to the field. A good combo with this card is to summon back Code Ancients Necronomico and by using Necronomico 's constant ability, you can salvage back 1 card from your trash, which is a super useful effect since you can get back guards.
• Grave Awake (WX09-006) - Similar to Dead Splash, it summons 1 SIGNI from trash to the field, but even better, you can summon any SIGNI! That means you can summon back the all time favourite SIGNI for Iona, Code Labyrinth Quinn! It costs 3 Black Ener if you use it on your opponent turn but Black Ener isn't much of a problem for Iona. Similarly, you can also use the Necronomico combo that was stated in Dead Splash to block 1 attack and get back a guard.
• Baroque Defense (WD01-008/PR-022/SP01-008) - With this card, you get to choose either 1 SIGNI or LRIG to not attack, but why would you put a White Art that cost 2 White Ener in a Black LRIG? This is because Iona's deck usually consist of both White and Black SIGNI inside, and without Arts that uses up the White Ener, it will just become dead Ener and you really wouldn't want that, do you? Plus it stops cards like Arc Destruct, Arc Aura and Enigma Aura that are a threat if you allow the LRIG to make an attack.
• Ancient Surprise (PR-044/PR-115/WD08-006/PR-185) - Most of the other Arts so far help you survive the late game once you grow into Iona 5. However to even grow into Iona 5 there must be checks in place to help you survive the early game. Ancient Suprise is one such card. If your opponent opens two holes in the early game, call out Code Anti Aztec and use her ability to call out a random lv 1 Ancient Weapon, which should be in the trash by the effects of Code Maze Triumph. Also, if by any chance your opponent has 5000 power signis and you have at least 7 cards in your trash (the remaining 3 come from your paying of cost), you can banish all his signis for both defense and offense for next turn! That's value.

Leggo Scrubs~
By: Joker, MakiBestGirl and FlareXKaizer