Deck Dissection: 'THE BLOOD'

Hello guys, Homura is back again with a deck dissection of one of my favorite clans, Narukami. As we all know, BT-09 released a lot of new units that boosted a few clans decently, especially crossriders, which brought those few clans into the next level. As a Narukami player, I've kinda expected some 'proper' boosts for my clan as the previous few sets gave very awful cards to Narukami (at least in my opinion, those cards are totally unplayable at all, except for the Damage Manipulators and the Draw Trigger).

In the end, I felt glad that Narukami can finally shine to its best when the upgrade unit for Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion, Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion 'THE BLOOD' was released. When the entire set was previewed, a lot of people say that The Blood was subpar in terms of its Ultimate Break, compared to the other crossriders. Also, the existence of Shirayuki's LB, which minuses the power of a unit attacking her by 20k, fabricated a lot of comments too deeming that The Blood now is a stupid card because of the power reduction rendering its UB totally useless. But here I am now, to show you how false are those claims, and to restore The Blood to its proper position as one of the best cards ever printed for the set, not individually, but in the entirety of the clan. So for now, let's have a look at the build that I'm currently running:

Grade 0
Spark Kid Dragoon x1 (FV)
Spark Edge Dracokid x3 (Critical)
Malevolent Djinn x4 (Critical)
Demonic Dragon Nymph, Seiobo x4 (Heal)
Old Dragon Mage x3 (Draw)
Mischievous Girl, Jiangshi x2 (Draw)

Grade 1
Red River Dragoon x4
Wyvern Guard, Guld x4
Dragon Monk, Ginkaku x3
Photon Bomber Wyvern x3

Grade 2
Dust Plasma Dragon x4
Thunderstorm Dragoon x3
Dragonic Deathscythe 2
Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda x2

Grade 3
Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion x4
Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion 'THE BLOOD' x4

I would say my build is quite standard, but with some slight twists to adapt my ideas and theories. This is still a 1.0 version, so I might make some changes along the way after I tested more with this deck. And now, onto the explanations:

Grade 0
Nothing much changes for the G0 lineup. This has been my standard lineup for most of my Narukami builds unless the deck requires me to play Stand Triggers. Spark Kid Dragoon become even more important as he might be able to net you the missing piece of the puzzle to form your 13k The Blood. As usual, triggers is my favorite Critical-based set up.

Grade 1
The G1 lineup is also quite similar to previous Narukami incarnations. The new cards were not that viable in the deck (although I wanted to try the Demonic Seal Dragon, Indigo.) albeit how good they seem to be. Hence, I stuck with the cards from older sets as they looked more practical to me compared to the new ones.

The only new inclusion here is Dragon Monk, Ginkaku. Ginkaku is the clone of Disciple of Pain, which allows you to add a damage to your Damage Zone, and shuffle back one damage into your deck at the end of turn by paying a CB of 1. In my opinion, he is good in this kind of deck because The Blood's skill is an Ultimate Break, meaning that you need LB5 to use it. Ginkaku can provide you with the crucial 5th damage in case your opponent decides to stuck you at 4. Also, even if he's not used to manipulate your damage, he can still be used to return any possible triggers into your deck (especially Heals), essentially feeding your deck with more trigger units for you to hit during checks. Although Ginkaku's 6k power is a bit at the lower end, but a 18k line combined with Dust Plasma Dragon is good enough to force a 10k shield against crossriders.

Grade 2
Nothing much to explain either for the majority of the G2s. Deathscythe is to control your opponent's board presence by destroying anything that can hit 18k. Garuda is used to force shields, or to unflip your damage to regain your CB. As for Thunderstorm Dragoon, what is there to be said for a 10k vanilla? A beatstick.

In the G2 lineup, I'm going to highlight more on Dust Plasma Dragon. Like all the crossrider clones (with the exception of Illuminal Dragon), there is a 9k G2 that can grow into a 12k beater if you have a Vanguard of a particular name on your field. In this case, Dust Plasma needs a 'Vermilion' Vanguard to be able to hit for 12k. Combining Dust Plasma and Red River Dragoon will create a 20k line, and a 18k line can be formed with the remainder of the G1s, enough to force 10k shields out.

Grade 3
As a deck that aims to crossride, I'm playing a full set of Dragonic Kaiser Vermilions and The Bloods just to make sure that I can get them into my hand. the 21k line of DKV and Photon Bomber Wyvern was already scary back on those days, but now 23k? Shit has just gone worse. And now, let me show you how stupid is Shirayuki in front of The Blood (sorry, no offense to Murakumo players in general, just need to prove a point to those trolls out there).

Yes, Shirayuki has a LB that can minus 20k power off The Blood. But that skill needs a cost of CB1 and Persona Blast, so at any given time when you're extremely lucky, you can only do it 3 times. And frankly speaking, The Blood doesn't even need to use its UB to pressure you, so how can they say Shirayuki is the perfect counter for The Blood? And bear in mind, Narukami RGs can also hit for more than 20k, so even if you stopped The Blood, can you stop the other sides? Unless you're playing 16 10k shields in your deck, if not don't even think of anti-ing The Blood with Shirayuki.

And another thing, regarding The Blood's UB, it's true that skill is just an upgraded version of DKV's LB. But look carefully, ignoring the 'whack front row' skill, basically you're paying CB3 to get a free Critical Trigger, and how bad can it be when you can force more guards while eliminating board presence anyway? As if when DKV uses its skill the opponent won't use a null if they're in a pinch?

Individually, The Blood might look weak, but if you factor in the entirety of the Narukami arsenal, The Blood is one of the most threatening cards in the new set, not because of the skill, but because of what he can do at normal times. Well, you might say that I'm a Narukami fanboy, but hey, that's the truth, and sometimes the truth is harsh for certain types of people. So what I can say now is have fun with the deck, and prove to those average minded people that The Blood is not weak at all. Until next time, bye!

Randomization: January 2013 Official Restricted List Thoughts

To those that are concerned about the banlist, here's something for you to read, and stop being childish and ranting, complaining and making a big fuss about the banlist (for those that think this post is offensive, please ignore)

To all the players out there, if you really think this banlist is going to make you quit Vanguard, by all means, go ahead please. If you don't really understand the logic behind the bannings and restrictions and just keep on complaining, why don't you all just move ahead and find another game to play?

The reason that they restrict all these cards is very easy, one word: SPAM. Didn't you guys notice that all major JP format tournaments' winners are from OTT, Kagero and RP? Well, I'll ask you this: If your favorite clan has near to zero chance of winning any top tier tournaments, will you still have confidence in it? It's to balance up the metagame by preventing overspamming of these clans in the tournament. It's to give other clans a chance to try to take the to spot of the meta.

And you might wanna say: why not ban Ezel, why not ban Maelstrom, why not ban Vermilion? For god's sake, they are not even considered a meta clan yet. If they are meta enough, they would have been replaced OTT, Kagero and RP eons ago.

In a sense, it might look like that those clans are 'dead', but it's not. Yes, you lose one archetype, but you still have others to play with. Use your brains, and start being innovative, this is not the end of the world.

In short, the new banlist is just to put your deckbuilding skills to the test and to provide a better environment, not for you to complain and whine. So, go back and think properly, and if you're thinking detailed enough, then you'll know the ban list is for the sake of the majority, not for you all power whores and metards.


I'll just make this really short, lazy to explain the whole thing in detail. If you guys needed any further clarification or explanation about why each of these cards are in the list, feel free to drop me a message and I'll discuss it with you. That's all for now, Homura signing out.

Deck Dissection: Phantom's Successor

Hey guys, Homura here after another long absence (lol!). Work is getting very hectic as my company's project is coming to its final leg. Finally found some time to post something, and that's only when my boss is not in the office. All these aside, today's article is actually another request from one of my readers. And since the new set is coming out soon, I would say why not I write a few articles featuring all the new cards from BT-09?

All of us should know by now that BT-09 is one of the best season-end boosters ever released to us, with decent reinforcements and boosts for almost all main clans, and sub-clans that hasn't been getting new cards for quite some while. And today, I'll be covering one of the decks that all the folks out there are quite hyped of it - Convicting Dragon, Chrome Jailer Dragon (CJD). And without further ado, let's have a look at my take of the deck:

Grade 0
Little Fighter, Cron x1 (FV)
Flame of Victory x4 (Critical)
Dantegal x2 (Critical)
Speeder Hound x4 (Draw)
Arms Dealer, Gwydion x2 (Draw)
Elixir Sommelier x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Knight of Fine Skills, Gareth x4
Listener of Truth, Dindrane x3
Halo Shield, Mark x4
Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue x3

Grade 2
Calamity Mage, Tripp x3
Blaster Blade Spirit x2
Blaster Dark Spirit x2
Lop Ear Shooter x3
Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane x2

Grade 3
Convicting Dragon, Chrome Jailer Dragon x4
Great Silver Wolf, Garmore x4

This deck only has one purpose, swarming the field with Superior Calls, and gain profit with it through units that has skills that activate when they are called out from the deck. CJD is the key card here as it allows you to swarm very fast at a small cost, and act as your finisher for the deck. Here is the analysis of the card inclusions.

Grade 0

We're not favoring any ride series in this deck, because CJD doesn't require any specific series to kickstart the engine. And also, because of CJD's Persona Blast, I opted to use Cron as he can possibly net me another copy of CJD in case I wanted to do a Persona Blast. The triggers here, as usual are pretty standard for Critical based decks nowadays.

Grade 1

Gareth and Mark is at 4x each without question. Gareth now plays a more important role because unlike Ezel, which can passively pump himself up, or Spectral Duke which has a base 11k power if you complete the chain, CJD doesn;t have any passive power bonuses, that's why Gareth is very important for him to construct 18k lines against Crossriders which will be running rampant this set. As CJD is a deck-based Superior Call deck, Dindrane is in for her self-replacing skill upon called out from deck.

Grade 2
Again no favoritism of any particular ride chains, Beaumains is omitted from the deck. You might wonder why is the 10k vanilla being axed? Because we have new replacements for him, the Blaster Spirits. An upgrade form from their previous incarnations, both Blasters retains their skills but with a additional 1000 power increment. Yes, their skills require them to be called out from the deck in order to activate, but even if they can't use their skills, they can be well considered as a normal 10k vanilla.

But, they do have a drawback by possessing such decent skills. When they are attacked, you must retire them during the end of the turn. In detail, as long as somebody attacked them, they have to die, regardless of the power, which means you can just call out a 5k Draw Trigger and attack them, and they WILL die at the end of the turn. Well, I wouldn't say this is a heavy drawback, if they attack the spirits, you just saved your Vanguard from a possible lethal attack, sounds good, isn't it?

This deck uses a lot, yes A LOT of Counterblasts, so Tripp is back in action to help recover some CB resources. Further emphasizing the deck-based Superior Callings, Lop Ear Shooter is here as well to help fish out more cards from your deck, hopefully netting out the Blasters in the same time.

Grade 3
Enter Chrome Jailer Dragon, the main star of the deck. CJD is a 10k unit, which doesn't look very impressive stats wise. But he does make it up with a couple of very decent skills at his disposal. Firstly, he has a CB1 Persona Blast which allows players to peek at the top four cards of their decks, and Superior Call up to two Gold Paladin units. This is a very good skill, as you're trading away a useless nonshield card for a more superior board advantage. And yes, you can call out the Blasters although they are originally from Royal and Shadow Paladins because they have a continuous skill which makes them Gold Paladins wherever they are.

The second skill, which is a 'combo' with the first, is a mirror of Phantom Blaster Dragon's skill. CJD's skill gets a reduced cost (you only need to retire 2 instead of 3 units), but the drawback is the skill is a LB4 skill, which makes it unable to be abused early game. But still, in a deck that can swarm easily, retiring 2 units to get a +10k and +1 Critical is not a tough job, and not a joke as well.

The supportive unit of the deck is none other than the first deck-superior call enabler from the Trial Deck- Great Silver Wolf, Garmore. Even if you failed to ride CJD, Garmore still has a Superior Calling skill, meaning you still can do your Superior Call mojos, albeit not so effective if you compared to CJD of course. And, Garmore also has a good LB, making it a 23k attacker once you hit LB threshold. So in short, no matter who you ride, the deck can still function properly, and you still have Cron to fish out the missing G3 for you!

And that concludes my analysis of the upcoming Chrome Jailer Dragon Gold Paladin deck. Those that played Phantom Blaster Dragon and Pellinore decks will definitely have an advantage in terms of understanding how this deck works.As for those new players, I don't really recommend this deck yet as it actually involves a lot of thinking because this is a combo deck more than a standard beatdown style GP. So, have fun trying this out, and good luck cracking out all your CJDs once the booster hits the shelves!

Deck Dissection: Hi-Beast Rumble

Hey guys, Homura here with a double dose today, since I was absent for quite some time already, and people were bugging me to come up with something new ASAP. Well, I went for a vacation, and fell sick after that, that's why you guys were unable to see new posts coming up in the blog. But now, I shall resume my writings with another post dedicated to the VGE community in conjunction with the upcoming release of the new set, BT-04 'Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows'.

If I recall correctly, I've already posted up a Shadow Paladin article sometime back, so I won't be talking much about them except for certain playable cards sometime in the future. Instead, I'll be talking about their 'good' counterparts, the Royal Paladins today. In BT-04, the Royals will gain some new support, basically a totally new archetype that is quite fun to play with while it lasts. Remember when High Dog Breeder Akane was released as one of the first cards that work together with a specific 'race' instead of clan? Yes, the deck that I'll be mentioning will be centered around the Royal Paladins' most trustworthy and loyal allies, the Hi-Beasts. And let's have a look at the deck of my choice:

Grade 0
Bleugal x1 (FV)
Alabaster Owl x4 (Critical)
Bringer of Good Luck, Epona x3 (Critical)
Margal x4 (Draw)
Arms Dealer, Govannon x1 (Draw)
Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Little Sage, Marron x4
Flash Shield, Isolde x4
Pongal x3
Snowgal x4

Grade 2
Beast Knight, Garmore x3
Knight of Silence, Gallatin x3
High Dog Breeder, Akane x3
Blaster Blade x2

Grade 3
Fang of Light, Garmore x3
Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Palamedes x3
Soul Saviour Dragon x2

As you see, this deck is lacking the presence of some Royal Paladin staples nowadays like KoK Alfred and the Galahad chain. Instead, this deck focuses its swarming abilities through Hi-Beasts, which can also in return power up their allies. Let's have a look at the choices of the deck I've posted:

Grade 0
Bleugal is the starter for this deck. Since Barcgal was banned, most people shifted to the Galahad series as their starting plays as they generates a free ride (+/- 0 from hand). But now, Bleugal returns as a starter that can be pulled back upon riding, thus also generates a +1 board presence during G1. Bleugal's power up ability can be ignored unless you are playing multiple copies of it, which I don't think it's a good choice. You can still switch back to the Galahad chain, you just need to adjust the deck composition a bit, then you're good to go.

The trigger lineup here is as usual, 7-5-4. With the capability of hitting high numbers, this beatdown deck really craves for Critical Triggers to end the game as soon as possible, as this deck in my opinion, is lacking the endurance to play a drag game.

Grade 1
The stars of the G1 lineup are none other than the Hi-Beasts, Pongal and Snowgal. Pongal is a good tutor for Soul Saviour in case you need her for your Final Turn, or in case you're gradestuck, plus it can be tutored out via Akane as well. Also, its 7k power makes it a very good booster to hit 11k Vanguards in the current environment.

Snowgal is the main booster for this deck. Starting as a 6k unit, it doesn't seem attractive at the beginning. But, once you have multiples of Snowgal on your field, they get +1000 power for each other one present, making them a maximum 9k power beatstick/booster once you have all 4 in play. However, having 3 is already considered good enough as they can be considered as your extra Marrons, plus they can be tutored out as well. Just beware of Kageros. I guess I don't need to further explain why Isolde and Marron are inside.

Grade 2

The G2 lineup for this deck focuses slightly heavier in the tutoring part, with as much as 6 tutors in the deck to search out the Hi-Beasts. Akane here is the universal tutor, whereby she can search out any Hi-Beast in the deck, whether its Pongal to further tutor for SSD, or Snowgal to increase their numbers.

Beast Knight, Garmore is the new entree in the deck. With a base power of 8k, he might not look that impressive on its own, but what makes him good is his tutoring skill. Upon appearing in play, you can discard a hand card to tutor out a Snowgal from your deck. And if you already have several Snowgals in play or some other boosters, Garmore himself can whack for up to 16k worth of power, which is considered decent in the current environment.

Blaster Blade is in the deck to take care of those pesky S-Intercepts, annoying Grade 2s, and some threatening G3, because in the current environment, only Blaster Blade can easily take care of G3s without sacrificing one attack. Gallatin is there to provide some extra punch, feel free to replace him with Knight of Determination, Lamorak if you prefer his design more, lol.

Grade 3

Here we go, into the Grade 3s. The main star here is Fang of Light, Garmore. This earlier counterpart of the Gold Paladin Garmore is the main Vanguard of this deck. Upon appearing in the VG circle, his skill, which is similar to Beast Knight's triggers, allowing to tutor out either a Bleugal or Snowgal from your deck and call it out. Plus, FoL gains +1000 power for each of those two units in play, enabling him to hit very high numbers, for example 21k when you have 3 Snowgals in play and boosted by one of them.

Our secondary beater here is Palamedes. Nuff said, Palamedes is one of the best G3 ever printed for RP, with the capability to handle even Crossrides on his own, he in automatically included in the deck without any question. A unit that can hit 21k easily? Why not!

As for Soul Saviour Dragon, as usual, she is the finisher of the deck. When you think its time, just Soulblast 5 and watch your opponent's hand cards fly away, or cards in their deck fly away into the damage zone. Definitely a solid finisher for any Royal Paladin decks.

Hence, this is my version of the FoL deck. Truthfully speaking, other variants of the deck can't really stray much from this 'skeleton', whereby the core of the deck like Snowgal, Garmores, Isoldes, and co. are no-brainer inclusions in the deck. The deck is quite fun though, so far the only bad matchup I see from my JP experience is Goku Kagero, whereby you must make sure the timing of your Snowgals must be correct in order to minimize casualties. So give this deck a try, and let me know how it feels.

Deck Dissection: Let's Go Sisters!

Hey guys, Homura is back with yet another deck dissection for you all as per request from one of my readers, this time featuring the new Extra Booster for Oracle Think Tanks: Celestial Valkyries. EB-05 is a joint release with EB-04 Infinite Phantom Legion, which is the Nova Grappler Extra Pack, and this extra booster features a lot of reprints of staples fro m the older sets, as well as the 'Battle Sister' archetype featuring OTT's first ever LB unit.

When Vanguard is still in its early days, Battle Sisters are occasionally featured in every booster, which at least one new card in the majority of the sets. At that point of time, Battle Sisters only played a supportive role, and there's no main unit for this archetype. Hence, this set is welcomed by a lot of players, especially existing OTT players that are yearning for a LB unit for the clan. Without further ado, I'll post up my take on the Battle Sister deck and how it is played.

Grade 0
Battle Sister, Eclair x1 (FV)
Battle Sister, Ginger x4 (Critical)
Psychic Bird x3 (Critical)
Battle Sister, Tiramisu x4 (Draw)
Dream Eater x1 (Draw)
Battle Sister, Chai x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Oracle Guardian, Gemini x4
Battle Sister, Chocolat x4
Battle Sister, Cocoa x3
Dark Cat x4

Grade 2
Battle Sister, Tart x4
Battle Sister, Maccaron x4
Battle Sister, Mocha x3

Grade 3
Battle Sister, Fromage x4
Battle Sister, Souffle x3

A quite simple and straightforward deck I would say, just smash face with a bunch of cute and angry nuns. This archetype is the most aggressive build of OTT decks. Without much combat tricks, this deck just aims to hit hard, VERY HARD. Moving on to the choices of cards:

Grade 0

For the starter slot, I chose Eclair as the starter instead of the new Battle Sister, Waffle. The reason behind this choice is because I don't want to stuck grade and also I will want Fromage to be in my hand. Eclair allows you to fish the top five cards of your deck for a OTT Grade 3 by paying CB1.  This gives you a chance to get the G3 you want and at the same time can also filter out 1 shieldless card out from your deck, assuming your fishing is successful. But if you prefer calling out a free unit, Waffle can be a good choice. So it's really up to the user's preference.

The trigger lineup is my favorite beatdown trigger lineup, which is 7-5-4. Almost everything here are Battle Sisters except for Psychic Bird and Dream Eater, because the bird is good on itself thanks to its self replacing skill. Since Battle Sisters like drawing cards as well, the more the merrier isn't it?

Grade 1
4x 8k vanilla and 4x Battle Sister, Chocolat is so standard that I don't even wanna talk about it, lol. Dark Cat's usage here is also quite self explanatory: a 7k booster with an CIP draw 1 card skill, why not? Now, we have a long time absentee from most Oracle decks, and now she's finally back in action. Enter Battle Sister, Cocoa.

During the early days of Vanguard, Cocoa was almost an auto include in all OTT decks thanks to her 'forecasting' ability. And the same reason is why she's finally making a comeback in this 'Battle Sister' deck. Battle Sisters is an aggressive deck, and Cocoa's skill to allow us to potentially pre-determine the trigger location is very valuable. This skill can also be used as a feint, whereby you can leave a blank card on top, causing your opponent to believe that the card most likely is a trigger, and proceed to overguard. Quite a neat skill in a 'neat' body huh?

Grade 2

The Grade 2 Battle Sisters will be the mainstay beaters of the deck. Each and every Battle Sister in the G2 lineup is either high in raw power, or possess a skill to power themselves up. Battle Sister, Tart is the new G2 10k vanilla for OTT, with an added advantage for being a Battle Sister (which means she synergizes with the overall deck strategy). Finally we can throw Wiseman away for a cuter girl, heh!

Following the lineup is Battle Sister, Mocha and Battle Sister, Maccarone. I don't need to explain much about Mocha, since she's already quite a mainstay card. A potential 11k beater with an easy condition to fulfill, and also a Battle Sister, why not?

Battle Sister, Maccarone is the Battle Sister customized beater. Basically she's a clone of units which needs a Vanguard with [Insert Name Here] in the name to gain a +3000 power up, in this case it'll be a Battle Sister Vanguard. a 12k beater by herself, you can easily form multiple 20k lines in this deck.

Grade 3
To fill up the G3 slot we have 2 different types of Battle Sisters. First up of course, is the main card of the deck: Battle Sister, Fromage. Fromage is the first ever Limit Breaker for OTT and for a LB debutante, I would say that she's quite decent, and fills in the role of beatdown very good.

Fromage is a 10k unit, but can become a 14k monstrosity when you have four or more Battle Sister RGs on your turn. Her condition was fairly easy to fulfill, considering that you have a total of 38 cards which has 'Battle Sister' in their names. Together with the same condition, you can unlock her Limit Break as well. Fromage's LB is an ACT skill, which allows you to CB3 and draw two cards. This allows you to add more hand cards, churn out more units to fight, and this skill also synergizes very well with Cocoa's forecasting skill.

Filling up the other G3 slot is Battle Sister, Souffle. Souffle is a 10k unit that gains a +2000 power when boosted by an OTT unit. Comboing with Gemini, you can have 20k lines easily. Even though you can't field Gemini because of Fromage, she can still hit for quite hard with any given booster. The most important thing? She's a Battle Sister too!

Alright, here's my analysis of the Battle Sister deck. Frankly, I liked this deck a lot because it's a beatdown deck (I'm a beatdown fan), and the deck can also gain you card advantage while maintaining its beatdown potential (unlike Tsukuyomi and CEO builds, whereby sometimes you have to forgo the overall offensiveness of the deck bacause of the drawing power). Too bad I'm slanting more towards Nova Grappler now, if not I'll definitely give this deck a try. So for you guys out there, do try it out and let me know how it feels to smash face with angry chicks!

Calm Before the Storm: Crossing the Limits

Hey guys, Homura here with a small talk about the upcoming release of BT-09: Clash of Knights and Dragons. It's been another three months since the release of BT-08, and of course the hype of Aqua Force, Narukami's new 'boost', as well as Neo Nectar's Musketeer deck. Overall, the set was a decent set, just that everything is overshadowed by Aqua Force. Being a clan that is played by one of the major characters in the anime, Aqua Force has been receiving very good initial wave releases like Gold Paladins. A Trial Deck, very good supports in boosters, and a crossride in the upcoming release.

From the looks of it, Bushiroad might want to pump Aqua Force as their sales booster. However, BT-09 brings up the other clans' competitive level to be on par with Aqua Force by providing almost all the major clans in the anime a crossride unit. Well you might think that 'Ugh, it's all about 13k Vanguards again'. Yeah, that's true. But somehow, it does make sense to provide crossrides for most of the clans because at the present moment, the presence of DOTE and MLB is still very prominent in the tournament scenes. In order to make the metagame more diverse again, clans must have units that can challenge the dominance of the Mk I crossriders, hence the birth of these units. Sometimes just by providing a crossride does not satisfy most of the players out there, so why not add in Limit Breaks into the mix? How will these units affect the metagame when you have crossride and LB all in one? And today, we'll be looking at some crossriders which has been revealed and how can they improve the clans competitiveness.

Super Beast Deity, Ilminal Dragon

This unit is the first ever crossride for Nova Grappler, and the first Limit Breaker for them as well (unless you count Cosmolord from EB04 as the first one). As the name states, this unit is the crossride of Beast Deity, Azure Dragon. Since its release, Azure Dragon was already a staple in almost all deck builds. With a free cost Persona Blast and the ability to stand two RGs, backed by a 11k body, this unit instantly nets 4x of a deck's slots without any question.

Following the specialty of NG, which is standing units, Ilminal Dragon also provides a similar ability like Azure, albeit with a mixture of restrictions and advantages. Firstly, Ilminal Dragon becomes a 13k when you have Azure Dragon in your Soul. Like all crossriders, 13k is a very dangerous number.

If you think a 13k body isn't enough, enter Ilminal Dragon's Limit Break. When this unit attacks, and you hit LB4, you may pay the cost of CB3, and stand 2 Rear Guards with 'Beast Deity' in their names. This LB is particularly dangerous, especially BT-09 has a few more new Beast Deities, like Beast Deity, Gold Angret. Gold Angret is a G2 that can give itself +3000 power when it stands during the battle phase. So combined with Ilminal Dragon's LB, plus whatever trigger effects, you can launch a very devastating attack.

Ilminal Dragon eschews the recent inclusion of more than 4 Critical Triggers by providing a new taste of a Stand-based deck. Although more Criticals can end the game fast, but Stands makes up for its speed with decent attrition, meaning in the long run, you can force your opponent to withstand your relentless attacks by dropping shields to guard, or spend even more hand cards to replenish their attackers because you're consistently wiping off their board.

Radiant Lion, Platinum Ezel
A Soul Saver Dragon with steroids, this card can be said as the most overpowered game ender among all the cards previewed so far. As far as tournament records have stated, Blonde Ezel decks are the mainstay deck for Gold Paladins compared to other builds because of their consistency to churn out units after units while gaining advantage from it.

Previously, B-Ezel's LB only gives himself the power bonus, making the Vanguard's attack the most threatening one. But this time, P-Ezel's LB makes your RGs into terrifying monsters as well. With a Limit Break activation threshold of 5, and the cost of CB3, you can give up to five GP units +5000 power! At that instant, the guard requirement for your opponent has just suddenly increased by 10k per attack!

To make up for this extremely strong LB, P-Ezel loses the +1k/RG skill. But in return, P-Ezel gains all the benefits from being a crossrider, so even if you rode P-Ezel too early before you hit LB, you can still hit for 20k/21k if you have a 7k/8k booster behind, so not a bad situation you're in either way.

Gold Paladins are already strong enough, and with P-Ezel's arrival, they just become more stronger. GP decks featuring the Ezels can now try out the 12 Critical playstyle, as BT-09 also brings in a new Critical Trigger, Dantegal. Continuously triggering Criticals will definitely make your opponent feel not happy at all when combined with the LB, because you're potentially launching 3 high-power, double-critical attacks in their face.

So far only 2 of these units has been revealed, but there are a few more that only their names are known so far:

Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion "THE BLOOD" (Narukami)

Supreme Blue Storm Dragon, Glory Maelstrom (Aqua Force)

Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu (Oracle Think Tank)

So what do you guys think about Ilminal Dragon, and Platinum Ezel so far? And what will be your expectations for the remaining crossriders?

Deck Dissection: Amber Dragons

As promised, I'm back for another article as somehow I managed to find some free time to write one as per request from my friend. Today's article is compatible with both versions of Vanguard, although the Japanese side of this deck is close to forgotten already. As stated in the title, today I'll be looking into the Amber Dragon series of Kagero from the upcoming BT-04 release of the English version of Vanguard.

BT-04 brings in a new ride system for 5 clans, which I called it the 'Progressive Ride' system. How does this work? Basically, the Grade 0 of the chain allows you to search for the corresponding Grade 2 from your deck when the corresponding Grade 1 is ridden on top of it, thus generating a +/- 0 advantage from riding a card from your hand, as well as ensuring a confirmed ride to G2. Then, the G1, when called as a Rear Guard, allows you to discard a Grade 3 from your hand and search for the corresponding Grade 3 fo the chain, again ensuring you won't miss the chain as well as filtering redundant G3s from your deck.

The Amber Dragon series is one of the chains using the Progressive Ride system, and frankly speaking, it's a quite decent system, because even though you missed the G1, as long as you have the G2, your G3 will still be at its maximum potential. Without further ado, let's have a look at a sample decklist for the Amber Dragon series:

Grade 0

Amber Dragon, Dawn x1

Embodiment of Spear, Tahr x4 (Critical)

Blu-Ray Dracokid x1 (Critical)

Flame Seed Salamander x3 (Stand)

Gatling Claw Dragon x4 (Draw)

Dragon Monk, Genjo x4 (Heal)

Grade 1

Amber Dragon, Daylight x4

Wyvern Guard, Barri x4

Heat Nail Salamander x3

Dragon Monk, Gojo x3

Grade 2

Amber Dragon, Dusk x3

Dragon Knight, Nehalem x4

Berserk Dragon x3

Lava Arm Dragon x2

Grade 3

Amber Dragon, Eclipse x4

Dragonic Overlord x3

From the looks of the deck, you might see some very noticeable omissions in the deck. You might wonder why, but I'll explain the reasons behind these selections in a bit. Also, there's one thing that you must bear in mind when playing Amber Dragons. Unlike any other Kagero builds, this deck doesn't rely a lot on retiring your opponent's units, but its played more like a traditional beatdown deck, with the threat of mass retiring to give tough choices to your opponents.

Grade 0

Amber Dragon, Dawn is the obvious choice for our starter. As I explained earlier, Dawn's progressive ride allows you to search for Amber Dragon, Dusk from your deck when Amber Dragon, Daylight is ridden on top of it. Easily understandable, right? Just remember that Dawn doesn't have the free call skill, so if something other than Daylight is ridden on top, Dawn is just a vanilla.

As for the trigger choices, I opted to use a combination of 5-3-4-4 for this deck, whereby the 3 is for the new Stand Trigger, Flame Seed Salamander. Although it's a trigger, Flame Seed doesn't become a dead card even if you drew it. With its AUTO skill, as long as the attack it boosts hit the VG, you may retire a G0 RG and shuffle Flame Seed back into your deck if you do choose to retire. By doing this, you can pile on the pressure early game to your opponent by giving him a tough choice on whether he want to waste a hand card early game to guard your attack, or risk letting their Starters get retired (Mecha Trainer, Conroe, Kryph and those with skills instantly become a sweet target)

As for the others, It's pretty much like the standard Kagero trigger selection with an additional chance to stand your units to provide a few more attacks.

Grade 1

Continuing the progressive ride is Amber Dragon, Daylight. Daylight is a 6k unit which will become 8k in the VG circle if your have Dawn in your Soul. When Daylight is placed at a RG circle, you may discard a G3 in order to search for Amber Dragon, Eclipse from your deck and add it into your hand. By doing this you have just ensured a perfect progressive ride and eliminating extra G3 without shields from your deck. Even if you already have Eclipse in your hand, you can also discard it to look for another one just because you can thin down your deck.

The reason I chose Dragon Monk, Gojo above Bahr is this deck, in order to perform at maximum potential, you must ensure that your progressive ride is complete. Hence, Gojo allows you to filter your hand in order to help you search for the missing pieces of the ride chain. And being a 7k, he's a decent booster as well.

Similar to Heat Nail Salamander over Kinnala, Heat Nail is better in this deck because it helps you to save up your precious Counterblasts for Eclipse. Although Kinnala is a direct killer card, but you have to lose a unit to do it, basically a 1-for-1. When you take a deeper look at Heat Nail, you might see that although Heat Nail doesn't outright retire, but you have a choice whether to retire or not upon hitting the VG with an attack boosted by it.

If the field doesn't require you to do anything, you can just leave Heat Nail there and continue having a 6k boost every turn. Otherwise, you still can wreck magic number units with it should you have a chance to do so. Heat Nail is a very good pressure card like Flame Seed Salamander because it gives your opponent s headaches. Imagine having 3 lines of Heat Nail boosted attacks to the VG, your opponent will really have to think twice on to let which one to go through.

Grade 2

Amber Dragon, Dusk is the G2 of the progressive ride chain. When Dusk is in the VG circle and you have Daylight in your Soul, Dusk becomes an equivalent of a 10 vanilla, with the skill to give itself +2000 power when it attacks, making it a 12k / 11k (if you don't have Daylight in your Soul) attacker.

Nehalem and Berserks are quite standard in Kagero decks, so I won't make any further explanations on their inclusion. The focus of the G2 here is Lava Arm Dragon, the Amber Dragons' custom beater. with a base power of 10k, Lava Arm by itself is already a good unit. Topping up with Dusk's power boost when attacking, it just becomes better. However, the thing that you need to keep in mind is if your Vanguard is not either Dusk or Eclipse, Lava Arm instant shrinks by 5k, making it a 5k weakling, hence why there's only 2 in the deck.

Grade 3

There's only two types of G3s being used here, and the selection varies from player to player, but one of them will be fixed: Amber Dragon, Eclipse. Eclipse is the pinnacle of the progressive ride for the Ambers. When you have Dusk in your Soul, Eclipse becomes a 11k unit, good number for both offense and defense.

The main thing here is Eclipse's ACT skill. By paying a CB of 2, Eclipse gains the ability to retire 2 of your opponent's RG upon landing a hit to the Vanguard. For such a good ability, it does come together with a drawback. The drawback is the skill is an ACT skill, which means you'll be telling your opponent "Hey, you better guard this attack if not I'm gonna burn two of your units!".

But hey, looking into the bright side, basically you're paying CB2 to bait out a null guard, and if you success in doing so, your other attacks will have a higher chance to hit. Otherwise, your opponent will throw hand cards to guard, or just let you take 2 fellas down. Quite a profit skill I would say, and remember, this deck is  not like traditional Kagero decks, don't be so obsessed in retiring your opponent's units. Constant pressuring is good enough to keep your opponent busy thinking.

Dragonic Overlord will be your 2nd beater in Grade 3. Considered one of the best units ever printed for Kagero, you now can have three 11k lines and if you managed to save up 5 CB, triggering Eclipse and Overlord's skill together will definitely put your opponent in a really bad position (either null Eclipse's attack, and let Overlord swing three times; or stop Overlord and let Eclipse take two down).

See the logic of the deck? I believe I don't need to explain much already. The only catch of this deck is the timing of Heat Nail, Eclipse and Overlord's skills, the rest is just basically auto-pilot. Have fun trying out this deck once BT-04 is out!

Randomization: Sorry for the long absence...

Hey there, Homura here with just a short post to explain why am I absent from updating my blog recently.

Firstly, my work is getting heavier, and I don't have access to the internet yet at my other office (which happens to be a construction site). Hence I don't really have much times to update my blog.

Furthermore, there's still a long way to go before any new stuffs are coming in, so hopefully you guys will stay together with me when I continue my updates once I come back from AFA12 next week. ( i should be reviewing stuff from EB-04/EB-05/BT-09 by then if I get more information about those sets)

The most important reason why I'm neglecting the blog for quite some while is because recently, my entire legacy of Vanguard was stolen. Yes, meaning all my decks, spares, collection folders, trade folders, and whatever you name it were gone. GONE FOREVER. I shall refrain from talking about this heartbreaking incident as it'll just bring back bad memories.

I'll admit, this incident did make me lose interest of the game already, as it'll be really crazy to spend a fortune again to rebuild all the decks I've lost. Not to say I don't have the money, but it's the time and effort to hunt and bargain for the cards that I don't really want to spend. But thankfully, my friend has a Narukami bundle with 4x of every card and he's giving it to me for a reasonable price, hence my loss is not that pain after all.

Well, throughout this period I have been receiving supports from most of my friends, and I would like to thank them. If not, I won't be returning back to Vanguard anymore.

Alright, rants aside, I would like you guys to be more patient and stay together with me. Although I'm really lagging and slacking in posting, I promise that I'll continue providing you guys reading materials. Until then, this is Homura, signing off for now...

One-By-One: Promos Galore!

Hey there. Homura here for another simple and short post. Since the release of BT-08, more different archetypes have already emerged and has been widely played up to now. While waiting for the new releases, there's nothing much to write about deck analysis to be honest. So, I would like to start a new column, which does not focus too much on decks, but rather on individual cards and how would they be able to include themselves in decks of their respective clans.

As a kickstarter for this column, I shall review cards from the newest Promo Pack, which is Cardfight Pack Vol. 7. This promo pack is given to participants of any shop/official tournaments throughout the period of October-December as an entry gift. Before I continue, Let's have a look at the list of cards included in this promo pack:

1) Medical Gunner, Hermieres (Angel Feather)
2) Assault Dragon, Circular Spino (Tachikaze)
3) Demonic Dragon Berserker, Vasuki (Narukami)
4) Electrostar Combination, Cosmo Great (Dimension Police)
5) Battle Siren, Nepheri (Aqua Force)
6) Stamp Otter (Great Nature)

And now, I shall explain slightly more in detail on how these cards work and how can you play them in your decks.

Medical Gunner, Hermieres
This card is a clone of Deathseeker Thanatos of the Grandblue clan, but with AF's twist in it. Instead of retiring herself, you may CB1, and send herself to the Damage Zone and Superior Call another AF unit other than 'Medical Gunner, Hermieres' into a RG circle.

This gives another 'swapper' for a clan that already has plenty of it. Hermieres acts like a pseudo Stand Trigger, allowing you to bring in a new unit to attack, as long as you manage to trigger the skill. Hermieres works exceptionally well with cards like Calamity Flame, Thousand/Million Ray Pegasus, and Chief Nurse, Shamsiel. Because you need to send her into the Damage Zone, you get to trigger the aforementioned units' power boosting skills, giving you slightly more punching power when you attack. And by comboing with Shamsiel, you get to reuse her over and over again.

Hermieres also goes well with cards that can return her back to your hand or field, like the Nociel series as well as Circular Saw, Kiriel. The only drawback of Hermieres is that she can only call face-up units, so you have to be careful in which card you use to pay for your CB skills so that Hermieres can always call out what you want. However, given that most AF decks already has a predetermined set of units to be used in the deck, it seems like Hermieres will have a hard time to fight for a place in any AF decks.

Final Verdict: Decent skill, awesome art, but hard time fighting for slots

Assault Dragon, Circular Spino
A new unit for Tachikaze, this unit allows you to retire one of your Tachikaze RG to give this unit a +4000 power boost when it attacks. While 8k base power does not look impressive, being able to hit the magic number against Majesty Lord Blaster instantly made Spino slightly better, especially when Tachikaze has plenty of units that can confer advantage to you when retired.

One classic example will be Dragon Egg and Winged Dragon, Skyptera. You can always target this unit with Spino, and pay a mere CB1 to take back those two units back to your hand. In that way, not only you gained a 12k attacker, but you increased your hand size, putting you in a better situation when you're on the defense. A newer example will be the new Pteras, Beamptera and Slashptera. These two units, when retired during your turn's Battle Phase, you can give a Tachikaze unit a +3000 power boost. Either you can give a unit which haven't attack more power, or you can target Spino itself in case you still need more punch.

Circular Spino is a very versatile unit, being able to fit in all Tachikaze builds. The only concern is whether you can find space for it or not. Frankly speaking, I tried it in my Raptor Colonel build, but ended up removing it because my power output has been reduced due to the omission of Sonic Noa (8k vanilla) to fit in Skyptera in order to provide 'unlimited' fodder for Spino to eat. I don't know about you guys, maybe you guys can find a better way to incorporate it in your decks.

Verdict: 'Fluffy' skill, has synergy with the clan overall, but slightly reduces the overall power output

Demonic Dragon Berserker, Vasuki
Enter the angry snakeman. This is my favorite PR in this promo pack (one of the reasons being me as a Narukami player). Vasuki is a very interesting unit that can become a powerhouse, and somewhat quite 'abusable' in certain Narukami deck builds.

First things first, Vasuki's skill allow him to gain a +10000 power boost, whenever a Narukami G3 enters the Vanguard circle. Which means, whenever you ride a G3, his power is doubled for the turn. Finally, a card that can make triggered G3s in your hand into useful stuff. There's actually a few ways to abuse this card.

Firstly, Vasuki can be incorporated in a Dungaree-main Narukami deck. Dungaree requires you to keep on reriding him in order to get ammo for his skill, as well as to this your deck. So every instance of 'reloading' is a +10k for Vasuki. Hence, with 2 Vasukis and your Dungaree boosted by Photon Bomber Wyvern (the Narukami 10k booster), you basically can have 3 20k+ attack lines to threaten your opponent.

The best deck to abuse Vasuki is none other than the TD star, Thunder Break Dragon. With a CIP retiring skill, TBD can be said as the perfect unit to synergize with Vasuki. As long as you can pay for the CB, each ride of TBD equals a +1 field advantage, and +10000 in Vasuki's power. Add in Stand Triggers into the mix, and your opponent will have to face 20k monstrosities not one, not two, but possibly 4 times in a turn. Change your Stands to Criticals, and slash even more hand cards away from your opponent. Definitely a good card to run.

Verdict: Decent skill, highly abusable, and versatile, just make sure he can survive the turn he came out.

Electrostar Combination, Cosmo Great
Another combination mecha from Dimension Police, this time a combination of all the 'Cosmo' machines. This unit actually share the same skill with one of his 'parts', which is none other than Cosmobeak. Bascially, Cosmo Great allows you to pay CB2 to give one of your DP units +4000 power until the end of the turn, similar to Cosmobeak.

From a glance, Cosmo Great seems like a good card to put into a Enigman deck. Yes, you're right. However, not ALL Enigman decks can fit this big guy in. Enigman Storm utilizes the Miracle Beauty/Commander Laurel combo, whereby Miracle Beauty already occupied your secondary G3 slot. Enigman Rain based decks only need a +2k in order to unlock Rain's skill, hence paying CB2 doesn't sound like a wise choice. Daiyusha is out of the question, Dailander already kick him out of the picture.

Although the older Enigmans does not work well with him, BT-08 also introduces a new Enigman - Enigman Cyclone. Enigman Cyclone has a skill which can only be unlocked when his power is 14000 or above during his attack step. In this situation, Cosmo Great looks like his best friend here. Not only being able to confer the bonus to Cyclone, but you also can have a good RG beater (DP is famous for the lack of high power RGs in Enigman builds).

Verdict: Good unit in Enigman Cyclone decks together with Cosmobeak, but quite lackluster apart from that

Battle Siren, Nepheri
The first PR give to Aqua Force. But truthfully speaking, she doesn't give much surprise despite having a nice art. Her skill allows her to confer a +3000 power boost to a G3 Aqua Force unit upon entering play. A not-so-decent power increase in a not-so-decent body (usually we tend to avoid 6k units unless they have really good skills). One word, her skill is too restrictive, as she can only target G3s.

Aqua Force is renowned for its playstyle that involves heavy usage of the Storm Riders, Basil and Diamantes. So you need to constantly churn out attackers, rather than boosters in order to unlock your VG's skills. So I can't really see any situation where Nepheri will make herself useful. Although there are actually a few 6k units in Aqua Force, a few stand out more when compared with Nepheri. The most obvious comaprisons are Battle Siren, Dorothea and Torpedo Rush Dragon. Both units are able to confer better bonuses without much restrictions.

So I'm sorry to say that Nepheri does not worth a slot in a deck due to her not-so-decent skill. Even the Starlight Unicorn clone, Accelerated Commando outshines her. Hopefully someone can find better usage for her, and whoever it is, do let me know how you managed to convince yourself to include her in your deck.

Verdict: Nice art, nothing impressive other than that.

Stamp Otter
Finally, the last card to review. Sea Otter is actually released earlier via the promo campaign of the TD-07 release. And those who got it, especially Great Nature players, will really rejoice. This card is totally a life-saver for GN players against Kagero/Narukami, and also an abusable card for brainjacking.

First things first, Stamp Otter boasts a 'good enough' 6k power, and as a booster, 6k does not sound like a  good number but Stamp Otter rectifies it with a fairly decent skill. The arrival of Stamp Otter can be said as totally replaces Hammsukes in GN decks. Stamp Otter works well in any deck that is heavy in brainjacking. You can just simply pump Stamp Otter, and through its own skill, Stamp Otter can't be retired by card effects, hence it stays after you end your turn. Basically, Stamp Otter makes good friends with the Tiger brothers, Leo-Pald, and Armed Instructor Bison.

Not only that, Stamp Otter is also a nightmare for any decks that plays retiring (Kagero/Narukami instantly comes in to the picture). Any attempt to get rid of Stamp Otter, it just shrugs it off, like a boss. What comes next? MORE brainjack!!!! All in all, Stamp Otter is a reliable card for all GN players.

Verdict: Abusable, immortal to retiring, primary brainjack target. A really good card overall for GN.

Here you go, a kickstarter reviews for my single card discussion columns. Hope you guys will enjoy it, and I would gladly take any requests for single card (or deck) reviews as long as I have time to write them. Unitl next time, bye!

Deck Dissection: Raizer, GO!

Hey guys, Homura is back with yet another old favorite to dissect and analyze. The new Extra Booster specially catered for Nova Grappler players, Infinite Phantom Legion will be released in another month's time. While most of us is waiting eagerly for the new cards in the set, namely the Death Army series, but at the same time, we shouldn't be neglecting what have the rest of the set offered us.

With useful reprints, especially the almighty null guard Twin Blader, basically you can build almost any variant of a NG deck just by buying the EB, barring the Blau series and Asura Kaiser-main builds. Definitely a worthy set to spam (yes, spam is the correct word). So, since the full spoiler isn't out yet, so I've decided to come up with a dissection of an old favorite of mine, the Raizer deck. And here's how my list looks like:

Grade 0
Battleraizer x4 (Stand) (FV)
Turboraizer x4 (Stand)
The Gong x4 (Draw)
Wall Boy x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Raizer Custom x4
Tough Boy x4
Twin Blader x3
Screamin' and Dancin' Annoucner, Shout x3

Grade 2
High-Powered Raizer Custom x4
Magician Girl, Kirara x3
King of Sword x3
Genocide Jack x2

Grade 3
Perfect Raizer x4
Mr. Invincible x4

Basically as the namesake, this deck focuses on the setting up of a gigantic Perfect Raizer and proceed to bash face. This deck is similar to the Engiman Storm version of the Dimension Police clan, by putting more pressure to your opponent through the Vanguard, and continuous harassment from the Rear Guards.

Grade 0

Either one of the 2 G0 Raizers can be made as a starter Vanguard. I don't know what the new Raizer from EB05, Minimum Raizer can do, but for now I'll make do with these first. The trigger lineup focuses more on stand, as your Perfect Raizer will have an additional Critical once you have fully powered him up.

With Stands at your disposal, your attack pattern will always be R-R-V or R-V-R, so that you can threaten your opponent with Perfect Raizer's huge power and extra critical, or risk being attacked again if you hit your Stand Triggers.

Grade 1

Without any further consideration, 4x of Raizer Custom is an auto-include in the deck. If you managed to ride him 2nd turn using Battleraizer as a starter, you can immediately attack for 12k unboosted or 18k boosted with Battleraizer (Battleraizer must be behind him of course). This amount is already enough to force a 10k guard against most G1 vanguards.

Shout is our hand filter option here. you need to ensure that you have all the key cards needed to maximize Perfect Raizer's potential, and Shout is here to help you do that. Heck if there's an Aermo clone, I'll use that also! The rest is pretty much self explanatory.

Grade 2

Again, High-Powered Raizer Custom is the no-brainer include in the deck. Sharing the same skill with Raizer Custom, High-Powered can hit for 16k unboosted and 22k boosted (again if Battleraizer is behind him), more than enough to force guards or to harass your opponent.

King of Sword is standard, Kirara is to help you rack up your hand as anything with card drawing skills are quite rare in NG. As this deck doesn't use any CB at all for your main cards, that's why Kirara and Genocide Jack is inside. Jack can provide you with a little more firepower, and not forgetting to mention hitting 16 with a Stand Trigger sounds good also.

Grade 3

Enter the main card, Perfect Raizer at 4x, yet again. Perfect Raizer boasts 4 skills in one body, and very impressive stats. He's a 11k beater, and can pump himself +3k for each Raizer in your Soul. So how do you get your Raizers in? One is you ride all the way, or you swarm your field with Raizers prior riding Perfect Raizer. When there's no other Raizer on the field, Perfect gets -2k to his power, but this can be easily mitigated just by putting a Raizer down.

The main skill of Perfect Raizer is his +1 Critical skill. When you have 4 or more Raizers in your Soul, on your turn, Perfect Raizer gets an additional Critical. Add in the Raizer power bonunses and you have a devastating war machine slamming into the red zone. A pressure card, and definitely a game ender.

Mr. Invincible is our secondary Vanguard. His Soulcharge is mainly used to charge in Raizers into your Soul, and to provide unlimited fuel for Genocide Jack's Restraint, as well as Kirara's CB. Also, Invincible sports a pretty useful Megablast, which can be very game ending as well. Attacking for 5 times with maximum power is not something to laugh at, plus the Megablast can be activated by Rear Guard Mr. Invincibles. The only thing you need to wary about is his 10k power.

And there you go, my take on one of my favorite NG deck. Truthfully speaking I really like NG's overall design (Mechas), but sad to say I've focused too much in Dragon Empire, hence my inability to continue my Nova decks (I used to have a Gold Rutile deck before). Well, this aside, hopefully everybody can try this out and if you can make is better, please do share with me!