The Village Hidden in the Clouds

The Black Ops Agency of The Dragon Empire is an amazingly interesting clan but their BT05 support was extremely lacking in making them powerful but Booster 9 is fit to change all of that with multiple viable Murakumo decks including my new favorite Murakumo card Phantasmagoric Snowy Wind, Shirayuki.

In the coming posts I'll describe each of the new Grade 3 Vanguard's Murakumo received in set 9 along with decklists for each for now though I'm having a ton of fun with my Wii U and have Finals so be patient I will have real information soon.

Oracle Think Tank Defeats the Crossride

I know very little about Oracle Think Tank but I do know that it is impossible for Silent Tom to threaten a 13k Vanguard without a trigger to boost it. Tsukuyomi doesn't hit 18k without a 7k boost behind it but Coco  can hit 18k with a 5k boost and 23k with a 10k boost.

You want to call Lulu behind Coco when you ride it to have a essentially free 18000 Line. To make further 18000 lines you could use 10k Grade 2 boosted by 8k grade 1. Oracle Think Tank have no big boosters aside from their 8k Vanilla. Meaning only a 10k or higher unit can ever hit high enough numbers. You still will run Silent Tom simply because he's Silent Tom.

The only way the deck can hit big numbers is running those 8k Grade 2's that gain 3k for certain conditions. All of which are Battle Sister's. Meaning the Battle Sister build has an easier time hitting 18k than the others due to the plethora of big Grade 2's and 3's. Tsukuyomi builds don't struggle either though because of the trigger stack the deck can always keep up.

Souffle and Nana when boosted by a 6k and a 7k respectively can hit 18k.

You have 2 Grade 2 Vanilla now which honestly doesn't help at all because you still only have 1 8k boost if you had another the deck would be perfectly fine.

Your Rearguards will have to focus more on sheer numbers than on effects and pressure to threaten 13k vanguards. While your Vanguard gets the Alfred treatment with any pullback Rearguard making you not need to call a unit behind the Vanguard. As long as that Vanguard can hit 13k. Meaning you want Sky Witch Nana in your Coco deck because it's a great Backup Vanguard when it comes to hitting 18k. Battle Sister Souffle also works very well because it only needs a 6k boost as a rearguard.

Against a 12k Vanguard or any Shamshiel deck though Oracle Think Tank can excel due to the ease of hitting 17k in OTT. Hitting 13k though requires good field set up and against DOTE's Kimnara's will be aimed solely at your good rearguards. Meaning you want Lines that don't require a 8k boost to hit 18k so else your opponent will just Kimnara or Tejas or Heat Nail all your boosts. You don't want any Grade 1's with less than 7k Power but you want all your Grade 2's sans Silent Tom to be able to hit 18k with a 7k boost. If your opponent misrides Silent Tom is your go to clean-up batter because after that you treat it like any 11k deck. The only threat at that point is their offensive options are about equal to your defensive options.

That's the best I can do with Think Tanks. There should be more ways for Think Tank to deal with Crossrides in set 9 along with them getting a Crossride anyway.

Dark Irregular's Defeat the Crossride

One thing about Dark Irregular's before I start. Their pluses are hugely limited and their lines aren't as good as Royal Paladin's but eh close enough.

First off Amon is your main Vanguard. Once you have 8 soul he is Alfred Level meaning he no longer needs a boost to be a threat. But now you need equally reasonable Rearguard lines to hit at least 18000.

So possible 18000 Minimum Rearguard Lines:
G1 Amon> G2 Amon
G1 Amon> Evil-Eye Basilisk
G1 Amon> Blue Dust
2 Demon Bike in Soul > Dark Soul Conductor
Prisoner Beast> Werewolf Seiger
Prisoner Beast> Stil Vampir
Prisoner Beast> Any 10k Grade 3
G1 Amon> Any 9k Grade 2

Meaning as long as you have G1 Amon and Prisoner Beast's Boosting you can hit 18k.

Standard Field:
V: Demon World Marquis, Amon (8 Soul)
R Line Left Top: Blue Dust
R Line Left Bottom: G1 Amon
R Line Right Top: Evil-Eye Basilisk
R Line Right Bottom: Prisoner Beast
V Bottom: Empty

This would mean you have 3 lines that hit for 18k. Which makes Crossrides look like normal 10k Vanguards. (Considering the Lack of Megablasting Unit's here we can use our Counterblast Freely)

Anti- Crossride Build: (Also Anti-11k because of the easy 16k Lines)
Grade 3: 7
4x Demon World Marquis, Amon
3x Evil-Eye Basilisk

Grade 2: 12
3x Blue Dust
4x Werewolf Seiger
3x Flirtatious Succubus
2x Emblem Master

Grade 1: 14
2x Devil Child (In case you want to force unblockable 28k Amon swings)
2x Bloody Calf (Hitting Their Boosts is useful after all and 7k on a Basilisk is still 19k)
4x Poet of Darkness, Amon
3x Prisoner Beast
3x March Rabbit of Nightmareland

Grade 0: 17
1x Vermillion Gatekeeper
4x Cheshire Cat of Nightmareland
4x Dark Knight of Nightmareland
3x Blitz Ritter
4x Mad Hatter of Nightmareland
1x Hysteric Shirley


Turn 1 Ride anything over Gatekeeper SC 1 (2 Soul)
Turn 2 Ride to any non-Seiger Grade 2 (3 Soul)
- Flirtatious Succubus SC 1 (4 Soul)
- Blue Dust hits SC 1 (4 Soul)
- Emblem Master hits CB 1 SC 3 (6 Soul)
- Ride Emblem Master call Succubus and Blue Dust, Dust and Master hit SC 5 CB1 (8 Soul)
- Ride Succubus Call Blue Dust with Amon behind. Blue Dust hits SC 2 (5 Soul)
- Ride Emblem Master Call Blue Dust. Both hit SC 4 CB 1 (7 Soul)
Turn 3 Ride to Amon (5-9 Soul)
If you got 8 Soul against a Crossride you are fine if you got 6 Soul against an 11k you are fine. if you got 5 (Which is always going to happen) against an 10k you are fine.

Now about Dark Soul Conductor he'd fill an Akane Style role in that his only purpose is his effect. If I ran him I'd drop 1 Bloody Calf and 1 Seiger simply because he is only good as a blocker.

This build has not been tested but in theory it's fine just make sure to get off Emblem Master's hit against the Vanguard because RG Blue Dusts will do their magic just fine.

Next Time I don't know what I'll do next time maybe Neo Nectar or something.

Royal Paladin defeats the Crossride!

Using a Royal Paladin deck after set 5 has been fixed by the addition of Wingal Brave making your deck that much more powerful.

You have 2 10k Grade 2 Rearguard's Available 1 13k Grade 3 Rearguard and 1 12k Grade 3 Rearguard. Along with that you have Majesty Lord Blaster and King of Knight's, Alfred.

So against DOTE you have Palamedes with Wingal Brave behind it. an Alfred with nothing behind it and another line with Gallatin with a Marron behind it... you now have 3 18k lines against a 13k Vanguard.

Meaning every turn your opponent either takes damage or guards for 10k every hit.  Meaning 30k Shield every turn at 5 damage minimum assuming you have 0 Triggers in your deck. They will Kimnara the Marron but not the Wingal Brave simply because it's not a minus to you and is easily replaceable. So now you replace the Marron using Alfred's' effect with another Marron... your opponent is out 5k shield or a 6k boost... Once again they have to take 30k Shield to block again.

So you can now run a Majesty Lord Blaster deck with backup vanguard of Alfred. But Alfred actually is also a good Rearguard because with your multiple 8 and 9k boosters you can still hit magic numbers on a Crossride and also Alfred's effect works from the Rearguard. Meaning the only bad Rearguard in the deck would be Majesty Lord Blaster.

being able to threaten a 13k Vanguard with either a double critting Majesty Lord that will kill if it hits most of the time or a 18k on attack Alfred without a boost letting you hold the equivalent of a 5k shield in hand at all times. Not to mention every line you have normally will be hitting for 18k or more at all times. Your opponent's 13k Defense won't be that big of a boost when it's still 10k to block... Palamedes without a boost is still 5k to block so nasty. Run that with Either Stand Triggers or Critical Triggers (Doesn't really matter but Critical's are Preferred to force 2 trigger blocks whenever your opponent is a 4 damage).

Alfred as the secondary or primary Vanguard gives you a way to absolutely demolish 13k Vanguards regardless of what you ride. Hence Royal Paladin with an Alfred bend are a really good anti-crossride deck quite possibly the best as stopping Crossride advantage gains.

Next time i'll cover another equally good at making 18k line deck Dark Irregulars.

BTW got second a locals this weekend with Galahad Paladins (Only the grade 0-2). My only loss was to Spectral Duke... I murdered it game 1 and then Game 2 I got stuck at Grade 2 the entire game... He only won because of a lucky Heal Trigger as his 6th damage letting him get another turn. I did though block Spectral Duke's Limit Break twice that game while stuck with Grade 2 Galahad as the Vanguard. Game 3 we both got stuck at grade 2 for 1 turn each. So eh he went on to win the rest of his games... against my brother he got off Lop Ear and Dindrane drew a card got another Lop Ear and then a Pellinore wound up with a 12 card hand and Goku Blade couldn't really do anything about the stupid amounts of lucky advantage and retiring anything would be pointless because everything was free. Sooo dumb.

I had to beat my brother for second as that was also his only loss. Before the tournament he showed me how to beat Goku Blade with Royal Paladins as I had little practice (First time using the deck in tournament) both games were extremely fast.

 I played against Ryan Vignetti and early game double triggered (1 Crit and 1 Draw) him for game. Game 2 he saw that he was Locked at 0 and scooped.

 I also played against Shamshiel. She was doing relatively well at surviving she lived through so many turns but I had 17k Lines which are perfect against Shamshiel... a 22k Palamedes line and a 17k Alfred Line with a 20k Alfred swinging in everyturn. Not to mention her putting her Heal Triggers back in deck lowering her total guard. I raped the first game and game 2 she actually had me against the ropes... I couldn't block for the turn bar a heal trigger... I didn't heal all game she healed like 3 times... I set my hand down and declared no guard. Heal Trigger check. Stood my cards and wanted to declare Final Turn but with 4 Heal Triggers left in her deck and it being late game I didn't. Swung in and she couldn't block my 17k Alfred even after using Nociel to boost her Vanguard to 12k beforehand. So eh got second pulled a 5th Daiyusha and a 2nd Edel Rose. Traded for a lot of random Trade stuffs and got rid of a lot of my Yugioh stuff.

Then I unproxied my Dark Irregular deck and just built it with what I had... My brother unproxied his Nova Grapplers and with our 5 Azure Dragon's he was able to mostly build the deck anyway. Minus the full guards...

The Royal Paladin build I used for the tourney:
Grade 3: 7
2x Swordsman of Explosive Flames, Palamedes
2x Twin Shine Swordsman, Marhaus
3x King of Knights, Alfred

Grade 2: 12
4x Knight of Tribulations, Galahad
4x Knight of Silence, Gallatin
2x High Dog Breeder, Akane
2x Blaster Blade

Grade 1: 14
4x Knight of Quests, Galahad
2x Lake Maiden, Lien
1x Flash Shield, Iseult
3x Toypugal
4x Little Sage Marron

Grade 0: 17
1x Drangal
4x Alabaster Owl
4x Bringer of Good Luck, Epona
4x Weapons Dealer, Govanon
4x Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine

Spectral Duke is an easy matchup if you can make 16k lines and guess what I can make easily... 16k lines... Heck I can Call Palamedes after I ride Alfred and then play Akane CB 2 grab Toypugal and put it behind Akane and then play any boost behind Palamedes including but not limited to Marron to make a 21k Line... meaning 10k minimum for 0 triggers on vanguard. 15k minimum on Palamedes and 10k minimum on Akane.. to block for 2 triggers to pass you need 20k on Vanguard meaning 45k Shield every turn or take 1 damage... if you do block for 2 triggers and I get a Crit... I give all effects to Palamedes now Palamedes requires 20k to block meaning the turn now requires 50k to block or you take 1 damage. Allowing for Final Turn declarations against a 6 card hand at 5 damage and a 5 card hand at 4 damage... If you counted checks and see that they are mostly 5k shields and maybe 2 10k shields they now cannot block the entire turn and must take a damage if at 4 damage with a 5 card hand I'd assume an unknown card is a 10k Shield as i should know at least 3 of the rest to be something... with 45k required to guard for 2 triggers to pass.

Now one thing I want people to remember... If an attack would take 2 cards to block for 2 triggers to pass Them using  a Full Guard takes the same amount of cards while saving them some shield. It also means that if they had 5 cards... they now have 3 if you know one of those 3 is a 5k shield... and swing they at max have 25k left and thats assuming you don't know the rest of their hand meaning they'll be down to zero cards. If your opponent had 5 damage you most likely won. Otherwise you'd have to know your opponent's turn...

BTW If you have 3 lines that each take 15k to block and your opponent is at 3 damage and overextended to put down lines assuming only 1 front row is a grade 2 and they have 3 cards in hand... You can win with a single trigger assuming no Full Guard. Swing in and they have to block 15k meaning at minimum 2 cards if they had a 5k shield and 2 10k shields in hand and 1 Intercepter... But if your vanguard forces 15k shield for 1 to pass... If you are running crits they would probably not guard... You check a crit and give another Line the power and crit the opponent. One of those lines that forced 15k now force 20k... They are at 5 damage.... If they put up both 10k's to block the giant line. they now cannot block the last line and lose... bar any trigger checks on their side. If you check two triggers if one is a crit you win even if they have 2 intercepters... If they put down two Grade 2's they can live the turn against a single trigger check but if it is a two trigger check they still lose. If they happened to not have any Triggers in hand and had all 5k shields they  need 15k to block the Vanguard swing if they don't block it and you crit they lose as they cannot guard both hits.

If your vanguard is Daiyusha and you have it boosted to 14k with 2 crit pre-battle. and have 2 lines that each force 10k against the same situation. Your opponent now has to block the Vanguard for 2 Triggers or else they will instantly lose with a single Trigger check. But that means if you got to 4 damage beforehand Glory Maker makes that a 24k Swing which against a 11k Vanguard means 15k shield for 1 to pass and 20k shield for 2 to pass. If you were able to boost Daiyusha to 26k for that turn you will force 20k for 1 to pass and 25k for 2 to pass... meaning that once against no matter how much they guard a single trigger is GG.

So in certain situations even in early game if you only have 30k Shield to block with against a deck running critical triggers you will have a bad time if they can make Rearguard Lines that each take half of your blocking.

Meaning It's reasonable to actually declare Final Turn early game against an opponent who overextended. Like they rode to grade 3 and had already taken 3 damage. They play out lines to even up the damage making. So looking at an opponents handsize... turn 1 They have 6 cards and ride now they have 5 in hand... You make them take 2 damage turn 1. Turn 2 they draw to 6 and ride to 2 they now have 5 in hand. they swing and get 1 card to hand putting them at 6. You make them take 1 damage turn 2 (They spend 1 card to guard that turn). Turn 3 they draw to 6 and ride to grade 3 at 5 cards. They call out 4 cards to swing with... down to 1 card... They swing in and deal some damage... check up to 3 cards in hand. Your turn they have 3 damage and 3 cards in hand. You crit them and give power to a rearguard that also makes a line... there is a chance they can't block the boosted hit and you can win early. Or you just double trigger them and they lose. Basically 3 damage and 3 cards in hand and you have lines that force 10k at minimum they go down to 0 cards in hand if you get any critical triggers you can win that turn. It's actually possible... so Kai isn't a demon just really really good and his opponent was really bad that time.

Defeating the Crossride: The Crossride Decks

The first of this series of posts will be about what the different Crossrides are and the limited information we have about the new ones.

First here are the clans with Crossrides:
Kagero: Dragonic Overlord The End
Shadow Paladin: Phantom Blaster Overlord
Aqua Force: Supreme Blue Storm Dragon, Glorious Malestrom
Narukami: Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion, "The BLOOD"
Gold Paladin: Radiant Lion, Platinum Ezel
Nova Grappler: Super Beast Diety, Illuminal Dragon
Oracle Think Tank: Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu

Starting with Kagero:
Dragonic Overlord, The End



[CONT](VC/RC): If have a non-«Kagero» vanguard or rear-guard, this unit gets [Power]-2000.
[CONT](VC): If you have a unit named "Dragonic Overlord" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000.
[AUTO](VC): [Counter Blast (2) & Choose a "Dragonic Overlord The End" from your hand, and discard it.] When this unit's attack hits, you may pay the cost. If you do, [Stand] this unit.

So this unit will never be in a mix clan deck but it is a 13k Defense which isn't the most scary part of this card... If you don't block this cards attack you will automatically give your opponent the huge chance to pitch a useless Grade 3 after twin drive check and do it again keeping the twin drive check...

So no matter what if this attack hits you will probably be too far behind to win unless they do not have the Persona Blast available.


Next we have Shadow Paladin:


CONT 【V/R】: If you have a non-«Shadow Paladin» Vanguard or rear-guard, this unit gets Power -2000.
CONT 【V】: If you have a unit named "Phantom Blaster Dragon" in your soul, this unit gets Power +2000.
AUTO 【V】: [Counter Blast (3) & Choose a Phantom Blaster Overlord from your hand, and discard it.] When this unit attacks, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets Power +10000/Critical +1 until end of that turn.

Basically this isn't nearly as scary as The End. Your opponent has to time this effect correctly for it to matter. If they Persona Blast at the wrong time and it's blocked they can no longer use it without unflipping damage and obtaining a third Phantom Blaster Overlord.

Then we have Gold Paladin



[ACT](VC): Limit Break 5 (This ability is active if you have five or more damage):[Counter Blast(3)] Choose up to five of your «Gold Paladin» rear-guards, and those units get [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
[CONT](VC): If you have a card named "Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000.
[CONT](VC/RC): Leader (If you have a unit with a different clan from this unit, this unit cannot attack)

This is a new breed of Crossride. It's ability can only be used when Limit Break 5 is active but it's extremely powerful and a really dangerous card. Basically Soul Saver Dragon on crack. Instead of 3 units getting a huge boost it makes every line except for it's own gain 10k while it's line only gets 5k... But think of it this way... Opponent is at 5 damage with 3 open... you have 8 cards in hand 4 10k Shields 2 Grade 3 and 2 5k Shields and 1 Grade 2 on field 55k Shield total... You have 5 damage and a 11k Vanguard they have 2 16k RG lines and Platinum Ezel with a Tron behind it. You can easily guard this turn even a no trigger pass on vanguard if you wanted. They Limit Break suddenly they have 2 26k Lines and a 11k Tron behind the 13k Platinum Ezel. They swing with the Vanguard for 28k... Pre-Triggers... you have to use 20k for a 1 trigger pass 30k for a no trigger pass... say you put up 25k for 2 trigger pass. They check a Critical Trigger and give the power to a Rearguard... now you have 30k Shield left... 26k Rearguard line swings in you put up 20k. 10k Shield left 31k Rearguard Line swings in you have no guard left...

OR

You have a Full Guard in hand instead of one of those 5k Shields. You Full Guard the Vanguard and he checks that same trigger... you still have 50k Shield left. Rearguard swings in you put down 20k to stop that line. 30k left... they swing in with their 31. you put up 25k to stop that... So at 5 damage you needed a minimum of 7 cards in hand to survive the turn. Nasty right.

Next we have Nova Grappler



[AUTO](VC): Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage.):[Counter Blast (3)] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two of your rear-guards with "Beast Deity" in their name, and [Stand] them.
[CONT](VC): If you have a card named "Beast Deity, Azure Dragon" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000.
[CONT](VC/RC): Leader (If you have a unit with a different clan from this unit, this unit cannot attack.)

This is a far weaker Crossride but still extremely powerful. It swings in and lets two units that already attacked battle again pre-trigger check. Meaning if you can get the rest of the lines to stand you can get a ton more attacks in... if you have a Death Army Guy behind each of two Yamata Drake. against a 10k Vanguard you can force 30k Shield before the Vanguard attack and then if you check a Grade 3 and Stand both Beast Diety's you can force another 30k shield. even against an 11k Vanguard you can force 20k Shield before the Vanguard attack which if a 8k is behind it you can force another 20k Shield to guard for 2 trigger pass. You stand the Yamata Drakes and check a grade 3... you get to swing in and force another 20k shield... your opponent needs 60k shield to survive... if you played right the entire game the opponent shouldn't have more than 6 cards in hand... if one is a full guard and 2 are known triggers... your opponent will have to full guard the vanguard use a trigger on each Rearguard attack... and then would need 2 more 5k   Shields to stop the standed rearguard units barring a Grade 3 check or Trigger check of any kind on your side.

I don't have effects for the other Crossrides but tomorrow I should have a guide for 3 different clans and how they can deal with Crossrides sucessfully Mostly the 13k Defense portion. The most Dangerous crossride will probably be Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu due to the highly defensive nature of that clan.

One thing about Crossrides is that their entire Grade 3 Line-up is Crossride related and their Grade 3's are often bad Rearguards. Meaning most decks early game if they can apply pressure early enough before the Crossride is completed you can come out on top... Also if they miss the Crossride they often can't put the rest into the Soul meaning you can then treat it like a less flexible deck that has limited options and run it over as if it was nothing special. If you can keep their rearguards out of the game then their huge defense won't matter much when their vanguard is the only threat to you.

Final Turn!!! and some Dark Irregular Clan Discussions

Yes that's the title of this blogpost... and no i'm not qutting blogging. I'm actually coming back after not having anything to post for awhile. I've been working on deck builds using proxies and such because well why not. So I have also obtained most of my Dark Irregular deck and have noticed a lot of interesting things.

Atlanta Qualifier Report

I did relatively well but my losses were so sad... Sorry for the lull in posting recently I actually haven't had much to post on.

Anyway I was running my Narukami build and this is what went down.

Me vs Ergodiel Angel Feathers
I double healed in the beginning of the game and let Ergodiel persona blast early on simply because I needed the damage anyway. Game goes on and she eventually rides to Circular Saw and called out a Heal Trigger to boost a rearguard... I take damage up to 4 and she puts heal trigger back in.... On my 3rd turn I rode Thunder Break Dragon btw (hence why I needed the damage as I couldn't hit Ergodiel and had nothing to boost with). Once I got to 4 damage I saw she had 5 cards in hand and had 5 damage. Declared Final Turn... Swung in with just enough so that she couldn't save herself.
1-0

Me vs Soulless Think Tank
Having never before played against this deck I was at a major disadvantage to begin with especially when he started playing Apollons which really confused me as I had no idea what it even did. Lo and behold he makes two Silent Tom lines and I having no Grade 0's all game due to never seeing a trigger could only guard for so long. Eventually I just had nothing left to block with and lost.
1-1

Me vs Tsukuyomi
He gets the Superior Ride to his Grade 3 and starts going putting out as much pressure as he could. I dismantle his lines. He Rides over Tsukuyomi to Amaterasu and calls Red-Eye and Cocoa... He puts the card back on top.. Swings with Red-Eye first and I let that through because he misplayed putting his Chocolat into soul via Red-Eye. Then Amaterasu swings at my rearguard... I let it through not knowing that Amaterasu's ability can work no matter who it hits... He checks a Heal Trigger keeping me safe from the plus 4. From there he had no shield and I had a gigantic hand the entire game... Eventually got him to say no Guard at 5 damage and I won.
2-1

Me vs Shamshiel Angel Feather
This girl misplayed tons so much that I forgot to use Saishin to retire Turiel. In the long run I had lines far too big for Shamshiel to deal with eventually winning by constant hits to the dome.
3-1

Me vs Narukami (I really didn't want to play against another Narukami deck because I want it to win)
I get grade stuck at 2 and play out the game perfectly taking 0 damage until I draw Rising Phoenix which gets me Vermillion to match hers. Game goes on for a long time I have perfect lines and she has none. I've gotten rid of anything she put in the front row allowing me to save more hand cards... Eventually she has 0 cards in hand after blocking my major swing... I have 3 cards in hand but she has only a 19k Vermillion... She Top Decks Shiden... Shiden locks down one of my Intercepts... I block the Vermillion swing guarding for 2 triggers to pass... I'm thinking after seeing so many Critical triggers all game she wouldn't check more than 1... She double Crits with her last two Djinns in deck... I am 3k Shield Short of making it to the next round. This is the only instance where I can say there is blind-luck occasionally involved in Vanguard simply by merit of there being a deck from which you draw cards randomly.
3-2

Goes home got 0 trades and the swag I did get for entering was minimal so all in all a wasted day aside from the fact that I now know I am one of the top players in Georgia simply because My only real loss was due to having no chance to play against the deck and in 1 and done format you need a lot of prior knowledge but with my small local and equally local small scene I only have so many deck to play against... all I do know is I did three times as good as Ryan Vignetti and his Tier-Whoring Spectral Duke self only switching from Spike Brothers because he saw Spectral Duke top thankfully he isn't a good player.

Anyway I'll go again next year with more preparation and just win it completely leaving no room for my opponent to hope to survive.

One thing I am noticing is that people keep treating Cardfight like a business... I'm like I have a full guard from the same set as your Full Guard... You want my full guard I want your full guard I shouldn't have to throw in cards simply because it has more resell value only due to bandwagoning. Such as Halo Shield Mark compared to something like Hades Hypnotist... One is like 10-13 the other is like 30-35... Simply due to hype... I'm like if we both get what we want why are you going for value of a piece of cardboard... It's one of the things that ruined Yu-Gi-Oh to me thanks to dumb inflation on prices that makes certain cards worth more than others that you have the same chance to acquire simply due to hype... I bet when Gold Paladin's stop winning and something like Pale Moon begin to rape the Tournament scene due to sheer numbers Hades Hypnotist will top 30 and Halo Shield, Mark will drop to 10-13...

Anyway going to try and run Royal Paladin's for awhile and take a break from Narukami. Besides Doctor K signed my Vermillion so I guess I didn't go home empty handed after all.

College going well so far I should have about a 4.0 in terms of GPA which is great for first semester which is when people normally mess up the most. Just gotta hold that for two more tests in each class...

Anyway thanks for viewing I'll eventually have more to post later but it may take awhile in-between posts. I may soon make another Deck Discussion.

AWA Vanguard fun

Anyway I went to Anime Weekend Atlanta and finished basically my Dark Irregular deck and had a few things stolen but ah well can't really get em back. My skill improved, I nearly beat the Spectral Duke deck that made top 4 with Narukami but got Grade stuck at 1 for too long and by time I could catch up he had amassed too much advantage. I held off Spectral Dukes second swing twice though. Any game I won that day I actually was able to declare Final Turn everytime quite decisively. One time I was able to declare Final Turn against a 4 damage 6 card hand... worked.

Obtained 4 Daiyusha for future use. Didn't get to enter the tourney but out of my packs pulled Pellinore, Shamshiel, Leo-Pald... Traded all of that away. Pellinore was really popular so I should have shopped around before trading it off.

Anyway I'm hoping to do this Draft Tourney this weekend if I can get there. A lot of people were building Pale Moon there which is a really good deck but one thing to remember... Don't waste a Berserk Dragon effect on the Girl who Crossed the Gap if I had that Counterblast open I could have Vermillion Thunderbolted twice. Also kill any Alice that hits the field all of them... IF running Goku... Snipe out Midnight Bunnies and run over Any Grade 3 they put at Rearguard (In the Sword Magician, Sara build) Against Lequier swing in madly early game so you can get back that advantage late game. As Narukami don't put Saishin behind the Vanguard against them even though they have a Retire Target unless you can ride a Garuda.

Narukami Tournament Report 5

NOTE: This happened last week but Blogger malfunctioned and didn't save it correctly and I didn't catch that until today.

Alright so this time it was quite a small turnout. The players from Columbus all decided to be no-shows so we only had a 4 man-tourney. The players who did come were mostly new to the game for the most part. The Lawkeeper Kagero deck from before made a reappearance and I also saw a Drangal Paladin build (All of the Galahad chain except the Grade 3).

We played it Round Robin style for the fact that there was no point in having a real swiss tournament with 4 people. So everyone played everyone.

Lawkeeper Kagero vs Narukami
I won this one via Good drive checks basically Draw and Heal Double Trigger won the game once I rode grade 3.

Drangal Paladin vs Narukami
Absolutely controlled the game and made sure to use Saishin as a free early game beater 13k Saishin Lines were small but still enough to force a 5k shield which worked quite well.

Goku-Blade vs Narukami
Extremely close game won due to Double Vermillion Limit Break.

I don't have an accurate account because this post should have been up last week but I guess blogger malfunctioned so I lost it. I was wondering why I had no post from last week.

Is Narukami just that good?

I've been reading the Australia decklists for first and second place along with Mexico... I presume those were first off relatively small turnouts but WTF decklists....


(i) Australia
Champion: Lam Nguyen
Narukami (TBD/DKV Version)

Grade 3 (8):
3x Thunder Break Dragon
3x Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion
2x Dreadcharge Dragon

Grade 2 (10):
4x Thunderstorm Dragoon
2x Dragonic Deathscythe
2x Demonic Dragon Berserker
2x Brightlance Dragoon

Grade 1 (14):
3x Dragon Dancer, RaiRai
4x Red River Dragoon
4x Wyvern Guard, Guld
3x Photon Bomber Wyvern

Grade 0 (18):
4x Yellow Gem Carbuncle (Critical)
4x Demonic Dragon Nymph, Seiobo (Heal)
4x Lizard Soldier, Saishin (FV1)
4x Zephyr Kid, Hayate (Stand)
2x Old Dragon Mage (Draw)
2x Dragon Dancer Catharina (Stand)
1x Spark Kid Dragoon (FV2)

Total: 50 Cards

So WTF? I love Narukami but this is just wierd...

Grade 3 line-up is fine until instead of Breakthrough Dragon he decides to put in Dreadcharge Dragon... Dafuq??

The list seems fine until Brightlance Dragon but that can be overlooked as it's basically Thunderstorms 5-6...

Triple Rai Rai no comment...
6x Stand no comment...

4x Saishin...
1x Spark Kid... 
How the hell will you know which one you need? for the matchup? Obviously he is going to use Spark Kid for the Starting Vanguard... but Saishin is going to be mostly just useless chaff unless he is able to call it out when there is a target for it's skill consistently not to mention it's not going to be free. Just a more restrictive less good Kimnara at that point.

Then there is Mexico!!


(ii) Mexico
Champion: Alam Baruch
Narukami (TBD Version)

Grade 3 (5):
2x Thunder Break Dragon
1x Dragoni Kaiser Vermillion
2x Plasmabite Dragon

Grade 2 (12):
3x Dragonic Deathscythe
3x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda
3x Hex Cannon Wyvern
3x Thunderstorm Dragon

Grade 1 (16):
2x Dragon Dancer, RaiRai
4x Wyvern Guard, Guld
4x Red River Dragoon
3x Desert Gunner, Raien
3x Photon Bomber Wyvern

Grade 1 (17):
1x Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
4x Demonic Dragon Nymph, Seiobo (Heal)
4x Yellow Gem Carbuncle (Critical)
4x Old Dragon Mage (Draw)
4x Malevolent Djinn (Critical)

Total: 50 Cards

So hmm 5 Grade 3.. 1 Spark Kid... but in exchange he gets to run 2 Extra Grade 1 Rairai for his 2 count em 2 Thunderbreak Dragon... Fact remains he won... somehow he won I'll never understand this but one more list remains to validate this awkward situation of only the least orthodox Narukami builds winning and this one is for America!


(viii) USA (Seattle)
Champion: Poj Tony Sirisakdiwan
Narukami (Vermillion Version)

Grade 3 (7):
1x Riot General, Gyras
1x Thunder Break Dragon
1x Breakthrough Dragon
4x Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion

Grade 2 (12):
3x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda
3x Dragonic Deathscythe
4x Thunderstorm Dragoon
2x Hex Cannon Wyvern

Grade 1 (14):
4x Red River Dragoon
2x Desert Gunner, Raien
2x Photon Bomber Wyvern
2x Rising Phoenix
4x Wyvern Guard, Guld

Grade 0 (17):
1x Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
4x Old Dragon Mage (Draw)
4x Demonic Dragon Nymph, Seiobo (Heal)
4x Yellow Gem Carbuncle (Critical)
4x Malevolent Djinn (Critical)

First you may all notice that he runs 1 Thunder Break and 1 Gyras... You'd think that's wierd but then you look once more... at the 4 Vermillion... he has 2 separate Backup Vanguards both of which can actually help out in different situations. Along with 1 good Grade 3 Rearguard.

Grade 2 is quite standard

Grade 1 has 2 Rising Phoenix... I run 1 but have recently adopted Gyras and a second for testing purposes.

So basically two awkward Narukami builds outside of USA and 1 relatively standard build inside of USA... I'm starting to wonder are the players just on the level of consistent Final Turns or are they just in really small turnouts or relatively unskilled ones?

No matter how awkward the builds though they still won and will be getting a free flight to Nationals...

Gold Paladin's Post BT07

With the release of Booster 7 in what 2 and a half weeks, Gold Paladin will gain a large boost in card pool which can possibly open up a few more interesting builds.

Currently the best builds for Gold Paladin according to the recent majors are Spectral Duke and Garmore-Ezel.

Spectral Duke Dragon is slightly more skill based and more often than not a bad player against a SDD build will lose far more often than against Garmore-Ezel. SDD also has an advantage against Garmore-Ezel in that those are 10k Vanguard decks against an 11k that can hit 20+ with Tron is just dangerous.

That's not what I'm talking about today though. Today we are talking about the changes the deck will probably go through for more consistency.

The Spectral Duke Dragon build can now run Lop Ear Shooter which would allow for even more free calls from the deck and considering how Counterblast light the deck is there is a ton of actual space for anything you want. The Dallas winning build actually ran 4 Providence Strategist much like Spike Brothers would run Field Driller simply because with a 8k behind it you get a 15k line which against a 10k Vanguard is enough to force 10k in shields and if they don't guard they give you free card advantage.

In the Fighter's Road Tournaments in one of the Junior Division Spectral Duke decks they ran 2 Lop Ear Shooter most likely because if it is randomly called or called via an effect you get a good bit of extra field presence allowing you to conserve hand cards and still play out more units.

Personally Spring Breeze Messenger fits Gold Paladin far better than Crimson Lion Cub, Kryph. It allows you to call an extra semi-targetted unit from the top 3 cards of your deck.

The reason these new amazing cards aren't being used too much right now is because Superior Riding to Ezel is too powerful to ignore and Spectral Duke Ride Chain can already call 2 free units in exchange for retiring one unit so it may simply be redundancy which can be helpful to get 3 replaceable units for the Final Turn.

These new cards are honestly yet to be truly tested and I believe they deserve that testing for what they can do in a turn with minimal luck.

BTW I'm working on Dark Irregulars and Alfred Paladins as I obtained 3 Alfred last weekend in random trades because people had far more Alfred than they wanted.

Right now the deck isn't finished but we will see how it looks later... For now I run Holy Disaster Dragons instead of Palamedes as I haven't pulled one yet. So far for Final Turn situations against 10k Vanguards. Holy Disaster Dragon is extremely scary to hit someone with from the rearguard.

Narukami Tourney Report 3

This weekend was pretty awesome...

I traded Spectral Duke, 2 Djinn the Lightning Flash, Garmore for 2 Alfred... then traded sleygal daggers for Goku's. Traded Blonde Ezel for a Alfred... Now all I need are some Palamedes and I can build Alfred-Palamedes...

Traded 2 Machina Fortress, Super Limiter Removal, and a Leviair for a stack of commons and rares and a Spectral Duke Dragon...

Round 1: Narukami (Me) vs Lohengrin Alfred (Awkward deck)
Game went really quickly as I got him to 3 damage and then used an unboosted Vermilion to attack for 13000 at all of his front row... he declares no guard... Double Crit for game...

Round 2: Narukami (Me) vs Lawkeeper Kagero
This one was pretty close the final turns were when I used Shiden to lock down a Nehalem and then played a Thunderstorm infront of it so I could force a 5k shield... all of that goes through and he is at 5 damage... he draws and uses Lawkeeper to get rid of my 5 rearguards... I guard everything perfectly as in just enough shield... Final Turn... returns everything but Shiden to the field leaving me with Thunderstorm, Breakthrough, Shiden with a backrow of nothing, red river, draw trigger... I call a 5k boost behind thunderstorm... swing in and he has 2 cards in hand by the final hit with a 5k intercept... he only has 2 Grade 3's so I get through for the last damage.

Round 3: Narukami (Me) vs Goku-Blade (Ernest)
My brother and I played for 1st... I miscalculated when to use Vermilion and used it far later than I should have and the advantage eventually was just too much to keep up with.

so 2-1 and second place to my brothers 3-0 first place finish... The table beside us had a grand total of 3 Final Turns in a row. We get our first epic Deckbox and he gets 3 packs of Set 3... Pulls Dark Irregular full guard, Grade 2 Tsukuyomi, and Crimson Beast Tamer...

All in all really good day considering... and if i'm lucky I may be able to sell all of my yugioh binder stuff for 400-500 dollars which would go towards Ravnica and BT03 and BT07 boxes.

Changes to my Narukami build...
-2 Djinn of the Lightning Flash
-2 Lightning of Hope, Helena
+1 Rising Phoenix
+1 Red River Dragoon
+2 Breakthrough Dragon

I need to work on my sheer skill level... The deck is meant to be able to actually declare a Final Turn but it takes so much skill sometimes.

Narukami Tourney Report #2

I once again headed to Quest Comics on a saturday morning for Cardfight! Vanguard.

Pre-Tournament: I made some small talk and tried to get a few trades in. set up a trade to give 2 Ezel's and some random Gold Paladin stuff to someone for 45 dollars (A minus in value to me but I got those Ezel's and the Gold Paladin stuff for basically free as we traded a few cards for a PGless Gold Paladin deck.)

Tournament: Round 1 I am paired with someone I used to know from my last local (If anyone remembers my other blog and that Mirror Force, Divine Wrath play.) He's running a Netdecked Spike Bros. build (The Dudley version) I'm running Vermillion Control. The game starts out terribly in his favor and because this is one and done if you don't do research earlier then you will probably lose... He wound up winning with the Dudley effect... I just drive checked too many cards that couldn't block and didn't get to use Saishin due to going second. If I had 5k more shield I could have won the next turn but ah well.

Round 2 They pair me with my brother who I traveled to the tourney with. We both lost me to Dudley being hard to beat if you don't already know how and he lost to Angel Feather because he was helping the guy play correctly and helped him make more advantageous moves. He was running Goku Kagero with only 2 Barri and only 3 Goku. I had a really narrow match with him but after counting his checks I sealed the game by Crossriding to Thunder Break Dragon and barely making him unable to guard the last swings.

Final Round I am paired with the Angel Feather from before and I know he's a new player so I give 0 fucks. The game basically ends with Vermillion Thunderbolt followed with a heal trigger to put me at 3 damage. Finished the game out 3-6.

I make second behind the Dudley deck (The pilot wasn't too good but the deck itself doesn't care who the pilot is if the opponent doesn't know how to deal with the deck). So better than last time which is good.

Dark Irregular's BT03

So far in my testing I've had moderate success with my proxied out deck against my brothers Tsukuyomi Proxied out deck neither of us have enough knowledge of the decks to truly test them. I tested it against his Kagero and did well most games but I'm slowly figuring out the playstyle of Dark Irregular pre BT07... Stil Vampir Megablast should only be used when you can put a Grade 0 as the Vanguard otherwise just stick to Amon swings until your opponent runs out of guards...

The deck right now only can run 4 Critical Triggers and 8 Stand Triggers. It also doesn't soul charge as well as it can in BT07... Alluring Succubus is your best Grade 1 Ride in the deck as it lets you Soul Charge for it and Vermillion when ridden putting you at 3 Soul on turn 1... then you'd ride to Succubus of Decadence right? I personally don't but if you do and call a single Rear Guard you'll trigger both the Grade 1 and 2 Amon upon riding to 3... Grade 1 Amon boosting Grade 3 Amon is the best line avaliable aside from Doreen abuse. Which isn't too broken until we get Dark Lord of Abyss then it becomes stupid opening up gigantic swings of damage.

Another thing I noticed is that if you soul charge your Full Guards you may have trouble throughout the game. I currently use 3 Full Guards but 4 seems to be the optimal number for this deck.

Anyway I won't be able to go to Locals tomorrow because I'm moving into my Dorm so next week if my brother isn't doing anything I may be able to go to locals.

First Real Local Tourney Report

So I finally got to go to locals. It was fun but eh my record wasn't very good. Bad draws coupled with an incompleat deck playing against a complete Spike Brothers and getting sacked by an Aleph deck (I had nothing to guard with kept checking Grade 3's... only run 7 of em). The tourney format this time was 1 Round Match Swiss... I went 2-2 in our four round tournament and got 4th (out of 9 people with a unfinished deck is pretty nice).


Round 1: Narukami (Me) vs. Lohengrin Royal Paladin
I basically kept his hand count low by swinging in with big hits on his 10k Lohengrin. Eventually I got him to 4 damage with 3 cards in hand... I draw for my turn and declared "Final Turn", "Limit Break" I took all of his front row on at once... first check nothing... second check Critical Trigger for game.
1-0

Round 2: Narukami (Me) vs. Dudley Emperor Brothers
I had some bad luck coupled with Morikawa draws so by time I finally got to Grade 3 I had taken 5 damage didn't help that my grade 3 was a 10k Thunder Break... he never got Dudley but his swings were just too big every turn and I succumbed.
1-1

Round 3: Narukami (Me) vs. Cocytus Granblue
Basically once again with big swings he had to guard more than he wanted. Eventually with a Grade 3 Cocytus in hand he Superior Rides to Deadly Swordmaster after minusing to get out the Nightmare... Putting his hand lower... He swung and me being at 2 damage let it through. He gets a Critical... I'm at 4 with Vermilion on field. He decided not to attack my rearguard with his rearguard and just passed the turn. I attacked and he survived at 5 damage. He got a heal back up to 4. I swing in with everything to lower his hand because I know he has a Gust Jin. He decides not to use it but still makes it through without damage just barely. He swings in and deals 1 Damage I get a Heal Trigger back to 4... He has 3 cards in hand and I have 5 unflipped damage. I draw and do not declare Final Turn though I already know it is he can't block my rearguard hits though he is at 4... I call Dragonic Deathscythe to retire a random rearguard. Then I use Vermillion Thunderbolt and attack his whole front row. He guards for the Vanguard I check a Draw Trigger and a blank. Power to Deathscythe. Which is now big enough with a boost to force a 15k shield he takes it and the Djinn's attack which would require a 10k and thats game.
2-1

Round 4: Narukami (Me) vs. Aleph Kagero
He pulls off the Superior Ride and along with that constantly is able to use kimnara on my backrow so eventually I had a Djinn and 2 Vermillion on field as I kept checking Grade 3's... I was doing well but eventually he was able to use Aleph to get 3 free damage unflipped for Dragonic Overlord and that was the end of that. I blocked it and tried to block the Aleph but he got Double Crit... and that was game.
2-2

All in all not a bad day.

My brother went 3-1 also losing to Spike Brothers with his Goku-Blade (Only has 2 Goku right now though).

I bought some packs of BT03 and pulled Grade 3 Amon and some rares... yadda yadda... my brother traded our Angel Feather money cards for 2 Ezel 1 Garmore 2 Vivianne and pretty much an entire Gold Paladin deck technically we got the worse end of the deal but got some free sleeves to help out along with some more Tradebait or enough cards to run Gold Paladin again.

I traded 2 Shock Ruler and 1 T.G. Hyper Librarian for 1 Spectral Duke Dragon 1 Wyvern Guard Guld and 1 Master Beetle which was fair.

I traded some Granblue stuff for a bunch of Dark Irregular rares and commons (Worth it)

Then got my Prize Packs 1 BT03 and 1 Cardfight Pack Vol. 2 and 1 Promotional DVD with the first 4 episodes subbed. My Brother got the same and the first manga chapters instead of the DVD. I pulled Knowledge Drunkard.

I then bought a box of BT03...
Of note I pulled:
1 Nightmare Doll, Alice RRR
1 Hades Hypnotist RR
2 Toypugal R
1 March Rabbit of Nightmareland RR
1 Edel Rose RR
1 Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi RRR
1 Crimson Beast Tamer RR
1 Doreen the Thruster RR
1 Stil Vampir RRR

So I made a bit more than my money back mostly because of Tsukuyomi and 2 two full Guards... I paid 70 and just those 3 cards are about 70+ throwing in Doreen and Stil Vampir and Alice Nearly made 100 in card value. Sad thing is i'm using the Full Guard, Stil Vampir, Doreen, Amon...

If Ernest feels like posting his experience at the local he may as I don't even know how his games went. I'll be able to bring a new tourney report every 2 weeks or so maybe sooner. I'll post my Narukami build tomorrow probably.

Ultimate Justice Sword!!!!

Honestly this post was made simply because I saw the new episode of Vanguard... Which I believe was the best episode of all time simply because a non-main character performed the first Superior Crossride and had the theme song play just for him when he got hype.

"FINAL TURN!!!!" Proceeding to create a 26k Beater with Critical 2... Boost it to 32000... Swing over Ren get guarded and Draw Trigger!!! For Good Game! He had the damn theme song play throughout the entire summon and attack sequences up until the match was officially over perfectly timed.

It was a freaking combining mech full of Super Sentai I love it love it love it.

On the upswing... Dimensional Police with Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daiyusha!!! is so cool that if I ever build it and go to a tournament I will bring a boombox and once I perform the Crossride and declare Final Turn I will then hit the Turbo Bass and play Vanguard!! by JAM Project while repeating every single thing Kenji Mitsusada said throughout the FINAL TURN while standing up and yelling it. (This would be every round.)

BTW who is Daigo?

Demonic Lord Invasion Breakdown

With Booster Set 3 on the way practically next week (Ok fine 2 weeks) people are starting to wonder about the new boosts decks are getting so I'll highlight a few of the major and important ones.

First off Dark Irregular and Pale Moon become playable decks. Dimensional Police are introduced.

On to the specific boosts. (I will not speak on Tachikaze because I'm not qualified to speak for them (I know very little about them))

Royal Paladin:
This deck after losing their starting Barcgal they finally receive a good Grade 0 Starter in Dorangal which gives them a rather consistent ride chain and the ability to stack triggers if they feel the need. Which rides into G1 and G2 Galahad. The Grade 3 is mostly useless as you are better off stopping at 2 and riding to SDD or King of Knights.

Also they receive Toypugal the best booster Royal Paladin will ever have as just for controlling 2 Grade 3's he becomes a 9000 Booster.

Then there is Swordsman of the Explosive Flames, Palamedes the best Rear Guard in Royal Paladin history. with the same trigger as Toypugal you can attack every turn with a 13k Rearguard pre-boost and with Toypugal's boost you can hit for 22k which is major on a Rearguard swing. As an honorable mention there is Borugal which gains 3k when you have 6 soul but as your final turn will probably be soul blast for 3 it won't happen and you shouldn't be soul charging much more than necessary anyway.

They also receive another Critical Trigger not bad really. These changes will most likely move them back up to Amazing status.

Nova Grappler:
This clan finally becomes a consistent beater and with the Azure Dragon build a lot of things get better.
Due to the smaller reliance on unflipping damage you can now stop using Brutal Jack and start using more Kirara, Black Tortoise, and other such things. But also you get Death Army Lady and Death Army Guy, these two units can stand when you reveal a Grade 3 during a drive check so you have Lady in the front and Guy in the back you can get another full power Attack out of your Drive check.

They also receive another Stand Trigger but this is unnecessary as the Asura Azure build probably wants more Critical and Draw triggers. (Their grade 3's both stand a ton of units on their own anyway)

Oracle Think Tank:
This clan reaches one of it's penultimate forms and the best possible way to run it until Booster Set 7 comes out in the TCG (Then we can see how Soulless will perform). Like Royal Paladin there is a new ride chain but unlike Royal Paladin the ride chain is easy to perform and does the most dangerous thing in the game as a side effect. A stack of 15+ cards at the bottom of the deck that are all stacked triggers. Not to mention Full Moon's effect to Counterblast 2 draw 2 cards and then put one to soul if you have 6 soul.

They also receive Oracle Guardian Red-Eye which at 9k Grade 2 status when it hits anything you can soul charge 1 giving you the 6th soul needed for Tsukuyomi but also getting you closer to your trigger stack but also possibly soul charging any tsukuyomi ride that you happened to miss which can save you if things didn't go too well.

Battle Sister Vanilla though not the greatest can be extremely powerful as a 6k boost that can be a 10k shield when you have 6 soul it's quite nice.

Victory Maker is another Draw Trigger which is something Oracle Think Tank needed as I think there is a Draw Trigger in the Starter deck we didn't receive curses Bushiroad curses!!!

Unlike the OCG we get Circle Magus as a set card and not a promo card. This card is like Cocoa as a 7k boost that can also check the top card of the deck it's alright not greatness but it's alright as Amaterasu will do that for you every turn for free.

Kagero:
This clan doesn't get very much but what it does get are things that help it out somewhat. Dual Axe Archdragon makes Lawkeeper decks a bit better in the TCG being a Palamedes with a harsher condition that can be met thanks to Lawkeeper and all. Also in that vein they get Dragon Dancer, Lourdes but it's quite bad as it becomes a 9k swing grade 1 but doesn't work when it boosts so it's quite bad. When Raopia comes out it'll be a different story.

Kagero also gets another Critical Trigger this time as a Common so you can actually pull it. though 12 crit 4 heal may be overkill I think it's cool.


Thats' all for well established clans and their boosts. In Order of magnitude of boost:
1. Oracle Think Tank
2. Royal Paladin
3. Nova Grappler
4. Kagero

Gonna be interesting soon. Now then to get rid of all my Angel Feather stuff to build a ton of decks while it's still worth something lol.

Dark Irregulars post bt07 TCG.

Haven't tested it yet but on paper seems to work fine (Doesn't have the cards of course).

Grade 3: 8
3x Dark Lord of Abyss
3x Mad Eye, Basilisk
2x Stil Vampir

Grade 2: 11
3x Dark Soul Conductor
2x Demon of Aspiration, Amon
3x Emblem Master
3x Werewolf Seiger

Grade 1: 14
4x Doreen the Thruster
4x Jet Black Poet, Amon
3x Yellow Bolt
3x March Hare of Nightmareland


Grade 0: 17
1x Vermillion Gatekeeper
4x Cheshire Cat of Nightmareland
4x Dark Knight of Nightmareland
4x Mad Hatter of Nightmareland
1x Hysteric Shirley
3x Blitz Ritter

I haven't tested this but this is what I plan to be running once BT07 is released here. The list looks fine as the purpose of this build is to get the opponent into the Red Zone as early as possible so I can clean up with a Giant Dark Lord of Abyss swing.

Mad Eye is in because it can hit 21k with a single use of Doreen or Amon or Demon Bike meaning practically anything I'd put in the backrow can easily be at minimum a 20k swing on a Mad Eye normally higher. Stil Vampir can do the same thing every turn as Vanguard. Dark Lord of Abyss though with his amazing ability to be able to use his Limit Break twice in one turn hits large numbers.

Let's say I ride in this order and get a few hits in.
Gatekeeper> Yellow Bolt (Soul Charge 1 then Bolt Soul Charge 1)>Emblem Master gets a swing in (Soul Charge 3)>Stil Vampir (Soul Charge 1)>Dark Lord of Abyss (Soul Charge 2 and effect) total of
Gatekeeper
Soul Charge
Yellow Bolt
Soul Charge
Emblem Master
Soul Charge
Soul Charge
Soul Charge
Stil Vampir
Soul Charge
Soul Charge
Soul Charge

Total of 12 in the Soul upon activation giving a 12k Boost making him 23k Pre-Boost... do it again for a 14k Boost making him 37k Pre-Boost... Put Doreen behind him... You have Soul Charged 4 times that turn meaning a 18k Boost... your Dark Lord of Abyss is swinging for 55000...

If you didn't ride to Vampir and went straight to Abyss... 10k means 21k then 12k means 33k then 18k Boost 51000 that is of course only useful if it is guaranteed final turn and the opponent has no Full Guards in hand which you can control if you keep the pressure on from your large swings throughout the game. but still 51k swing means your opponent if using an 11k Vanguard needs 40k Shield to match and 45k Shield to survive pre-triggers... if they want to account for a single trigger they need 50k Shield to put them at 61k that is at best 5 Grade 0's... So they'd have no choice but to full guard you... But even if you only did the effect once... you still get to have Ezel numbers... 21k with a 12k Boost puts you at 33k pre-triggers which is still nearly unblockable with a 4 card hand and to block is would cost so much not to mention you may have boosted rearguards for Magic Numbers...

Now then personally I don't like Demon Bike so I'm going to not be running it now that I thought about it... I'll go with 4x Doreen and 4x Amon giving me what should be a 9k Boost every game for at least 1 to two of my Rear Guards.

Trigger wise I went with 5 Draw 7 Crit so that it's harder to count triggers when the number is uneven and half of my triggers can be put into Soul for various effects.

So I'll be maining Narukami until BT07... Then I'll main Dark Irregular until BT08 where I'll fix up Narukami and build Aqua Force. Reason being all 3 clans have really cool units... And all have a unique playstyle whilst all of them still being aggro decks.

Another Dark Irregular build could use it's 8 Stand Triggers in Conjunction with the 8 Draw Triggers and set up situations where the opponent really can't do much but take a big hit from a rear-guard Amon or something. Lots of big creatures can make Stand quite good but I simply don't like it hence why I shall be building Aqua Force who thrive with Stand Triggers so they can get their effects.

Anyway it's been exactly a week since my last post... I didn't plan that to happen but I've been waiting for DN to update with the new Yu-Gi-Oh cards so I can start back up Yaminoduel.blogspot.com

Extra Booster 3 Gold Paladin Review

So now I shall commence with a review of all that Gold Paladin love received from the new pack... OK not really love more like a new way to run it but meh same thing. Read More for the full set of reviews!!

Extra Booster 3: Cavalry of Black Steel: Part: Megacolony

Alrighty after having a lot of things to play around with in MTG and Yugioh I finally remembered to make this blog post lol. After the Read More button or w/e it's called I will have my Extra Booster 3 Megacolony Full Review. NOTE: According to the English Official Website Barcgal will be banned as Starting Vanguard effective August 1st. So yeah Wingal Brave why couldn't you be released first lol.

BTW: Megacolony won't be actually playable until Set 4 where we get Triggers aside from the 1 Stand in EB03 so this Review is taking into count the cards we get from Set 4 for Megacolony ...

Keeper!? I never even met her!

Hello fans and followers! Today's discussion is on everyone's favorite deck to hate - KAGERO!!! We'll be examining the impact of Extra Booster 3's impact on the clan covering what cards to look for. To start with let's go over the new support beginning with the big man himself.

Dragonic Lawkeeper gives Kagero it's first limit break, however I don't believe this is the edge the deck needs in the U.S. meta. The problems are as follows:
  1. Barkgal isn't banned. Royal Paladins are a force to be reckoned with and this does far less than Dragon Monk Goku in dealing with the pup or the boosts he's pumping out. Soulsaver is potentially the most consistent and powerful deck to run into in the U.S.
  2. The unit's count as being called when they return. Here are some units you don't want to see a second time: Blaster Blade, Berserk Dragon, Nociel, Cocoa, Think Tank's Cat etc.Most of the topdecks have an advantageous enter the battlefield effect that you may not want to see again.
  3. Counterblast for less power. Kagero doesn't have a 10k boost yet and when it does it will only support "Overlord" creatures so what we're getting at the most is a CB dependent 21k shot at the Vanguard. This could be game-ending if you've worn your opponent down to 5 damage, but if you fail look at the situation: you've probably used Conroe (1CB) Berserk Dragon (2CB) and Now Keeper(1CB). All your damage is flipped, if you haven't won you've either made no advantage, got a +1, or (and this is likely) Your opponent +1'd when his Blaster Blade/Berserk Dragon/DeathScythe came into play. Overall, inconsistent trade-off.

Cross Shot, Garp is our new 10k vanilla. Many Kagero players will trade him in for Nehalem (the art is pretty sick). But the U.S. only has a few Kagero cards to operate on in comparison to Japan. Here I can see him replaceing Tejas for a more reliable G2 ride and an overall better rearguard. Not much to say about a 10k Vanilla but he may have solid applications in the build I'll present after.

Yes. This is the card you've been waiting for. Really. With Lawkeeper not being all he's cracked up to be and Kagero already possessing a few great G3 Vanguards what they needed here in the states is a Dragonic Executioner. His effect gives him an additional 2k when he attacks the vanguard. This is another great option for Goku Blade because it adds to the G3 check chance creating 50% chances at removal or a trigger check while also exceeding the 11k line with no boost. As a Vanguard he would be a desperation choice, however not a poor choice. You would at the least be able to reach 20k when boosted by Bahr which is a big deal when you've got a live Overlord next to you.






Here is a suggested build for a competitive Kagero Deck that can compete with most decks in the format.



0's

 8x Crit
4x Draw
4x Heal
1x Conroe

 1's
4x Bahr
4x Wyvern Guard Barri
3x Gojo
 2x Flame of Hope, Aermo
1x Kimnara

 2's
2x Berserk Dragon
4x Cross Shot, Garp
4x Nehalem

 3's
4x Dragon Monk Goku
4x Dragonic Overlord
1x Dragonic Executioner

 You'll notice that the build is heavy on G3 well this is how I see it: average scenario says you'll see Goku next to a G3 leaving 7 more 3's in the deck; factor in the usual 1 trigger per hand by the time you ride Goku there should be 13-14 triggers left in the deck thats 20 cards and very near 50% of the remaining deck. This means that each check offers a consistent 50% trigger chance any less is still not negligible. Goku is a huge problem for many of the main decks in the format by clearing out that backrow, forcing the opponent to play bad boosts and reducing their hand size. They can always hold their rearguards, but with 8 10k vanillas and the best G3 rear guard in the game they will have to boost to deal with your superior front row. Try this out and tell me your results.

Extra Booster 3: Cavalry of the Black Steel Review 1 Spike Brothers

EDIT: This took forever just forever... Every picture from the Wikia had a White Background which spread to everything typed after the picture... So from now on I'm just gonna download the wikia's pictures and reupload them here.
So for this first Review I'll be going over the new support for Spike Brothers in the Extra Booster including the Japanese Imported promos. I will not be doing all of these reviews on a day by day basis or anything of that sort. They will be spread out somewhat and interspersed with other things that may be fun to see. (Especially interesting rulings on new cards from Booster Set 7 Roar of the Beast King.) Starting now though please click the Read More button to see the reviews.

National and Worlds Qualifiers for North America

http://cf-vanguard.com/en/event/worlds2012/

Browse at said link for the information but I'll also copy and paste it here in case you are really really lazy.

Cardfight!! Vanguard North American Championship 2012

The winner will be crowned the North American Champion of Cardfight!! Vanguard!

Qualifiers

[Tournament Information]

Date	Scheduled for September to October 2012
Venue	See schedule below
Eligibility	All fighters living in North America may participate. Fighters living outside of North America may not participate.
Deck Regulations	All English version cards can be used. Cards of other languages may not be used.
Prize	Top finishers will get an invitation to the North American Championship.

[Schedule]

Date	Venue
September 01, 2012	Canada – Marriott Toronto Airport Hotel, Toronto
September 08, 2012	Dallas/USA – Wyndham Dallas Love Field
September 15, 2012	Mexico – Gamesmart MX, Mexico City
September 15, 2012	Seattle/USA – Edward D Hansen Conference Center, Comcast Arena
September 22, 2012	Chicago/USA – Chicago Marriott Schaumburg, Illinois
October 06, 2012	New York/USA – New Jersey Convention & Exposition Center
October 13, 2012	Atlanta/USA – North Atlanta Trade Center
November 03, 2012	Los Angeles/USA – Anaheim Convention Center

Championship

[Tournament Information]

Date	November 04, 2012
Venue	Anaheim Convention Center, Los Angeles, USA
Eligibility	You will need to get an invitation in the qualifiers to participate.
Deck Regulations	All English version cards can be used. Cards of other languages may not be used.
Prize	Top finishers will get an invitation to the World Championship in Tokyo, Japan. Travel fees will be provided.

So it is obvious that due to there being an event in Atlanta Georgia... I have to be there... Due to BTO7's release date I'll probably play Dark Irregulars or Narukami depending on how fast I can build DI.

That's all for today most likely.

Stand Up Vanguard!!

Stand Up Vanguard is a blog dedicated to Cardfight!! Vanguard. If you don't know of me I am the owner of Yami no Duel which is my Yu-Gi-Oh blog which as of this moment it is on hiatus for an indeterminate amount of time.

This first post is an important one and will determine whether this blog is an success or a failure. And for this first post I shall start with something simple and quite normal.This blog will cover everything Vanguard from English Tournament Reports to Deck Discussion even to new card releases and their possible impact on the English Meta when they are released here. Not to mention that I will be reviewing new sets as they release starting with a Review of Extra Booster Set 3.

I may or may not have a new post each and everyday and updates will be sporadic. So check back every so often and you may see something new and might even learn something to. Starting tomorrow I'll begin reviews of Extra Booster Set 3 English Version which releases July 7th. The next Booster Set is Booster Set 3 which releases late August. Then Roar of the Beast King on September 29th. After I finish reviewing Extra Booster Set 3 which has the most immediate impact on Vanguard English, I'll probably not review the entirety of Booster Set 3 due to it being released a year ago in Japan. Booster Set 7 Roar of the Beast King I will do a full review of at some point.

So Imagine and Stand Up Vanguard!!!

EDIT: Half of it was unreadable due to the Text Background Color for some reason changing. Probably due to me editing the entire post and deleting the original idea which had pictures. It's fairly difficult to stop things like this from happening