Randomization: Speculations and Bannings

Hey there, sorry for the sudden post of non-game related stuff. After I finish posting this I'll be posting up my usual stuffs again. The reason why I decided to write this article is because I saw a post at Facebook from one of the VG players at my local playgroup. After I read that post, I gave myself a facepalm for seeing such nonsense.

The post that I just read was about some speculation about 'banned' cards in the Japanese VG tournaments. According to the poster (I don't want to name names), he said that Incandescent Lion, Blonde Ezel, as well as Phantom Blaster Overlord is banned in all formats of Japanese tournaments. I was like 'LOL?' How can these two cards got banned?

First things first, as far as I know, Bushiroad does not simply ban cards. The only card they did so far is Barcgal, and they didn't even ban it, just restrict it as the First Vanguard. The reason why they did so is reasonable, as Barcgal really causes the environment to be filled with Royal Paladins only, where other decks don't even get enough screen time. The consistency of Barcgal gives RP players a confirmed ride to G2, as well as setting up for Soul Saviour Dragon. WIth this kind of advantage given to them, I find that there's no reason not to restrict it as a starter because weighing the advantages given to the cost of gaining the advantage, it's too easy.

If other clans like Kagero, Oracles, or even Nova can do that, then I would say that a one sided-ban is harsh for RP players. Yes, Kagero do have multiple Superior Ride chains, but compared to Barcgal, they're nothing because the cost is too high (3 cards), and the condition is too hard to fulfill (you need all the specific cards) without the help of tutoring abilities like Barcgal. So people, please don't complain why Bushiroad restrict Barcgal as a starter.

As for the post that I read from Facebook, the speculation doesn't make any sense to me. Why they want to ban those 2 cards? First of all, Ezel does generate board presence while gaining absurdly high power bonuses, but his skill can't be used when you have more than 4 RG, and also the Superior Call is random. If his skill says that SEARCH YOUR DECK FOR A GOLD PALADIN UNIT AND SUPERIOR CALL, and also GAIN POWER EQUAL TO THAT UNIT"S BASE POWER, I would say yes, Ezel is freaking broken and they should perma-ban the card. If a ban is really needed for Ezel's case, I would say they should ban Kryph instead, so that they can't abuse Ezel early.

As for the case of Phantom Blaster Overlord, the banning of this card (if it's true) is even more retarded. Why should it be banned? Because he can be 13k? If it's like that Dragonic Overlord The End and Majesty Lord Blaster should be banned also. Furthermore, PBO's skill is so freaking predictable that a null guard can just stop it in its tracks, so I couldn't see the reason of its banning.

If Bushiroad really want to ban these cards, I think they should ban all G3's with skills, like some of the following ones:


Dark Lord of Abyss
Wow! Insanely high numbers while pumping Soul, and can hit 30k++ without being boosted? Ban!


Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion

He can attack 3 units in a row? Ban!



Silver Dragon Tamer, Lukie
She can call out 4 units at once? So broken! Ban!


Sowrdsman of Exploding Flames, Baromedes
Can become 13k just by having 2 Grade 3s on field? Broken! Ban!


Sealed Dragon Blockade
Stopping your opponent from Intercepting? Broken! Ban!

(The above is just for laughs, I just have to do that)



I don't know which source he got that information from, but I think the source is either trying to pull a joke (not funny at all), or that fella kept losing to those cards that's why he go and start this speculation (I'm sorry mate, that one is your problem, not Bushiroad's).

The main point that I want to make here is please don't simply speculate. Everything that you say must have some sort of proof. Speculating without any proof will just make somebody looks stupid.

The Parallel Vision: Jurassic Park for VGE

Hey guys, Homura here, back with another dose specially made for VGE players. From what you can read from the title, today I'll be talking about Tachikaze in the English environment.

BT-03 is just around the corner, and it brings us Tachikaze together with the other clans. After 3 sets, finally the Dino Dragons can unleash their fury in the fullest. Basically, Tachikaze is a very simple clan to play, where by you're just going to hit your opponent with big power counts, and nothing much. Subtlety is not what a 'primitive' clan will have an idea of, so they just prefer to trample you, knock you down, and munch on you.

I'm still not sure whether the EN release of BT-03 will give Tachikaze their Promo card or not, so I'll assume that they don't. And with this, let,s have a look at a Tachikaze sample decklist for the EN version:

Grade 0
Dragon Egg x1 (FV)
Black Cannon Tiger x4 (Critical)
Pack Dragon, Tinyrex x4 (Stand)
Herbivore Dragon, Brutesaurus x4 (Draw)
Savage Shaman x4 (Heal)
Ironclad Dragon, Shieldon x2

Grade 1
Sonic Noa x4
Archbird x3
Winged Dragon, Skyptera x4
Savage Warrior x2

Grade 2
Cannon Fire Dragon, Cannogear x4
Ravenous Dragon, Megarex x4
Assault Dragon, Blightops x3

Grade 3
Tyrant, Deathrex x4
Chaos Dragon, Dinochaos x2
Ravenous Dragon, Gigarex x1

The aim of the deck is simple: Call your big guys, and whack with big damage. No further explanation needed. Off we go for the deck composition analysis.

Grade 0

Dragon Egg is our only viable starter here. With an ability to Superior Call itself after being ridden, plus being able to CB1 to return itself to your hand when it is retired from RG suits the theme of Tachikaze a lot, by being able to constantly provide fodder to feed your bigger Dino Dragons. The trigger setup is however, sad for me, because I was hoping Tachikaze can get multiple of the same triggers. Unless the inclusion of the Japanese PR Draw Trigger, Bombarding Dragon, Sledge Ankylo is confirmed in BT-03 for EN, we have to settle with a balanced 4-4-4-4 Trigger setup.

The interesting part here is the inclusion of 2x Shieldon. Why would you add in extra G0s? This is because most of our G2 doesn't do anything when they are retired, so the Shieldons are inside to transform Blightops from a 5k shield unit into a 10k shield card in your hand. You'll never know when the extra 10k worth of guard can save you from a certain defeat.

Grade 1

4x Sonic Noa and 3x Archbird is a standard already, so I don't need to explain much. Winged Dragon, Skyptera is at maximum because its one of the crucial cards in the deck. Skyptera shares the same skill as Dragon Egg, where you can CB1 to return it to your hand when it is retired. Not only it generates hand advantage, it is also a decent booster for your units.

Savage Warrior fills in the remaining slots because he can gain a +1k power boost whenever your RG is retired on your turn. So once you're able to trigger the 'cannibalizing' skill of your other units, you can pump Savage Warrior's power to a considerable amount. But I would not suggest more than 2 of him, as he's only a 6k vanilla if you can't trigger your cannibalizing skills.

Grade 2

Cannon Fire Dragon, Cannongear is our mainstay unit at G2. Basically it's like Genocide Jack, which it has a drawback for being a 11k G2. The drawback is if it is called out to VG circle or RG circle, you need to retire one of your Rear Guards. This drawback however, is easily mitigated when you have Skyptera or Dragon Egg on field, and you have 1 damage. Also, it shares Jack's skill whereby he get's an extra power boost when you're boosting it with a Tachikaze.

Blightops is also a very interesting unit. The presence of this unit will make your opponent for most of the time, only focus on your Vanguard, because they don't want to give you a free 10 shield through Blightops' skill. It's a good thing for you, because you want to take some damage to pay for your CBs, and as long as your opponent doesn't attack Blightops, you'll always have a 9k beater on your side of the field. Megarex as 4x is standard.

Grade 3

The star of the deck is Tyrant, Deathrex. He's one of the Vanguards in the game that can automatically gain a power boost of 5k just by declaring an attack. So without boosters, he can solo almost anything in the game except 11ks and 13ks. By putting Skyptera or Sonic Noa behind him, he can hit 21k and 23k just like that. The downside of this plus is whenever its attack hits, you need to cannibalize somebody, which can also be easily done by offering the booster behind it (the best booster in this situation is always Skyptera, where you can CB1 and return it back to your hand).

Chaos Dragon, Dinochaos is here to provide a little bit of speed for this deck. The cost for its Superior Ride maybe very steep (retire 2 Tachikaze units), but with the presence of the 'bouncers' you can easily go to Grade 3 first without much problem.

As for Ravenous Dragon, Gigarex, it is just a bigger Savage Warrior. So it's really up to your preference whether you want to include him in the deck or not.

Here you go, the analysis for Tachikaze for the EN environment. Despite not being supported well enough during debut, Tachikaze can handle most decks decently enough. If you're the one that is really into dinosaurs and raw power, Tachikaze is the clan for you. And not forgetting to mention that Tachikaze is one of the most cheapest, semi-competitive decks to build out there.

That concludes my post today. Until then, this is Homura signing out!

Defining the Metagame: Great Nature

A new set, a new deck. Hey guys, Homura here to bring you the latest information about Cardfight! Vanguard. Today it'll be another edition of 'Defining the Metagame', whereby the star of this edition will be the clan that caused the most hype, and played by most players in my local meta - Great Nature.

Initially, Great Nature was introduced to us via 4 cards released in BT-02, where 2 of them are the usual G1 and G2 vanillas, and then a G0 and a G3 that can give one of their Rear Guards +4k boost, but retire them during the end phase. Just to give it a different name for this ability, I'll call it 'Brainjack' (they're students and teachers anyway, brainjacking is my definition of forcing people to absorb a lot of information until they can't stand it anymore and go nuts LOL!)

Back to topic, when BT-07 was released, GN finally join in the fray as a fully playable clan, with 3 different deckbuilds upon release, and another one coming soon in BT-08. From a glance, uncontrolled brainjacking might give you a disadvantage because you'll have lesser units to play with, but the design team found a way to fix the problem by giving them ways to recur their cards. I think GN will be one of the sub-clans that can really pose a threat to the mainstay clans because of the advantage that they can generate. I'll be analyzing the main archetypes, as well as the key cards that will be used in the decks.

The High Rankers


School Hunter, Leopald
This guy is the head of Great Nature University's Disciplinary Division. Once he thinks you're guilty, he'll hunt you down with his buds. If you resist, he'll send in more of his buds.

He can be considered as the most playable G3 in the entire clan. Embodying offensiveness to the max, he can brainjack somebody the moment he attacks the Vanguard, even if the attack misses. And once you make him mad (reaching Limit Break), he brings back a brainjacked unit back by paying CB1, ready to beat you up again next turn. The best card to abuse GN's brainjacking skills, where you can have a superpowered, brainjacked unit to slash away your opponent's hand cards, or make him take that damage, then bring your dead guy back.

Guardian of Truth, Lox
The genius of the university, this guy makes sure that you don't lie, if he found out that you do, he and his buds will arrest you, painfully.

Comparing Lox with Leopald, Lox still lacks a bit of support in the form of secondary attackers, as he can't revive brainjacked units. However, Lox boasts the highest defense in GN thanks his chain ride system. Each successful chain ride triggers the previous Grade's skill, allowing to you choose up to two units, and give them the ability to net you a card if they went to the Drop Zone during your end phase. The G3 Lox is a Persona Blaster, whereby you can CB1, Persona Blast and brainjack a guy, giving the brainjacked guy not only +4k power, but +1 Critical as well. Comboing with Lox's chain ride skill, you can hit hard with the brainjacked guy, and draw a free card when the guy dies.

School Dominator, Apt
The principal of the Great Nature University, and the second unit with a Limit Break skill. But ironically, as the principal of an university, he's surprisingly the weakest unit among the main archetypes' key units.

Apt has a very common LB skill, whereby you get a 5k boost when attacking a Vanguard. Not very impressive there. His second skill is a very interesting one. Upon hitting a Vanguard, you can retire one of your Rear Guards to call another one from your hand. Though his skill seems to be very interesting, acting as a pseudo Stand Trigger, but he's actually putting you at a minus, because you're losing a Rear Guard (-1), then another card from your hand (-1). Count in the plus for gaining another unit on field, which leaves you at a -1 hand advantage. Unlike Lox and Leopald, where they can retrieve back the units, or brainjack them for higher efficiency.

The Elites


Hammsuke
This cute little hamster is spread among all 3 Grades, and shares the same skill, where upon the instance Hammsuke is retired from the RG circle, you can CB1 to fetch a card of the same name as the one retired from your deck and add it to your hand.

This makes Hammsukes a favorite target for brainjacking, because you'll be able to pick them back anyway. Probably the G2 Hammsuke won't make it into decks because he's only 8k, but the G1 and G3 Hammsuke is definitely worth consideration.

Binoculars Tiger & Monoculars Tiger

These two brothers are experts in brainjacking. Just by declaring an attack against the Vanguard, you may brainjack somebody. 9k and 7k are quite good numbers for their respective Grades, and I would say Binoculars Tiger is definitely an auto-include of 3x to 4x in every GN deck, while his younger brother, Monoculars Tiger might be only a 2-off since you need to attack, and you won't want to attack with him unless that's the final turn.

Tic-Tock Flamingo

He's the music instructor of GN University, teaching his students all about tempo. I would say this is one of the best Rear Guards available for GN. He's a 7k booster, and also, he has a very good skill.

Upon entering the field, you can choose one of your Rear Guards, and give them the ability to flip a damage in your Damage Zone face up if the targeted unit goes to the Drop Zone during your End Phase. He's the best partner unit for Leopald, where he can make Leopald's Limit Break free! Of course, he will be found in decks that can gain advantage from brainjacking.

Magnet Crocodile

The best secondary G3 for GN without any question. He's basically a clone of Dragonic Executioner, where he gets a 2k boost when attacking a Vanguard. GN is in need of units that have good Rear Guard skills. and Magnet Crocodile fits in the role perfectly.

Of course there are more units that I would like to mention, but I think this post is long enough. I'll further elaborate when I start the deck dissection of GN decks.

Based on what I've posted here, you can already roughly see what type of decks that you can build, or want to build. I believe that GN will be a very strong contender for being a Tier 1 deck based on the support that is given to them (I would say they're like Gold Paladins during their initial release). I actually don't play GN, but now I'll be testing it out to see how can GN be utilized properly as well as finding a way to counter possible GN builds.

Until next time, This is Homura signing out for now!

Deck Dissection: The Witch Sisters

Hey there and this is Homura here with a post that can be referred by both Japanese and English Vanguard players out there. After almost a year has passed, Oracle Think Tank players finally can rejoice because from now on, they wouldn't need to be stuck playing the Tsukuyomi / Amaterasu build already.

BT-07 has decided to give OTT something new (albeit not in the form of Persona Blast or Limit Break) in the form of very nice looking girls from Scarlet Witch, Coco's family. These new cards are specifically designed to boost Coco based decks' playability, and of course to provide an alternative to players rather than spending so much to complete the Tsukuyomi / Amaterasu build (there's a lot of RRs and RRRs inside the deck, I'll let you do the math for the deck's cost yourself).

Without further ado, let's have a look at a rough list on how a Coco deck will look like post BT-07:

Grade 0
Little Witch, Lulu x1 (FV)
Battle Sister Ginger x4 (Critical)
Psychic Bird x4 (Critical)
Dream Eater x4 (Draw)
Lozenge Magus x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Oracle Guardian Gemini x3
Watcher of the Truth x4
Battle Sister Chocolat x3
Luck Bird x2
Dark Cat x2

Grade 2
Oracle Guardian Wiseman x4
Battle Sister Mocha x3
Security Guardian x2
Maiden of Libra x2

Grade 3
Scarlet Witch, Coco x4
Sky Witch, Nana x3
Omniscience Madonna x1

From a glance of it, this deck performs like any normal OTT deck, with their decent drawing power, but added with a slightly better offensive power. All the Witches introduced to us in this set are not really necessary except for Lulu, as the rest are more like 'tech' cards. Here's a breakdown and analysis of the selection of cards.

Grade 0
We finally have a proper starter for this deck, which is Little Witch Lulu. Although we have to add in another card to fit in Lulu, but the advantage that Lulu generates is so good that she must be inside the deck. Take a look at Lulu's skills:

AUTO [Soul]: When a Grade 3 or Higher <Oracle Think Tank> is placed on the Vanguard circle, you may call this card to a Rear Guard circle.

AUTO: [Choose two <Oracle Think Tank> in your Soul and send them to the Drop Zone] When this unit is placed on a Rear Guard circle from the Soul, if you have a <Oracle Think Tank> Vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

Lulu can't be Superior Called when you ride a G1. But she can be called out when you ride a G3. Both skills will combo very well together when you ride Coco, and will also allow you to draw another card without paying any extra cost. Here's how it works:

- Let's assume you didn't remove any Soul up to this point. So by the time you ride Coco, you'll have 3 Soul (Lulu, G1 and G2).

- Normally Coco's skill can't be used now, but since you're the active player, you can choose to reorder the resolutions of each skills. When Coco is rode, both her skill and Lulu's first skill triggers. You choose to resolve Lulu's skill first, putting Coco's skill into standby. Lulu is Superior Called out to a RG circle.

- Then, Lulu's second skill triggers, putting the skill into standby again. You choose to resolve Lulu's skill first, again. Send 2 Soul to the Drop Zone, and draw 1. Now, only Coco's skill is left at standby.

- At this point, the check timing for Coco's skill comes, since you now have 1 Soul or less, you can CB2 to draw 2 cards! In the end, you've netted yourself 3 cards and a free unit, and Coco now is always 13k when it's your turn since you have no Soul!

As for the triggers, since Coco, plus some other cards in the deck can provide you with drawing abilities, we now focus more on the beatdown element, by using 8 Criticals, 4 Draws and 4 Heals.

Grade 1
The majority of the units in the G1 lineup are used to support Coco by ensuring you'll always have 0 Soul. The key cards here are Watcher of the Truths and Luck Bird.

Watcher can SB1 to give himself a 3k boost, making him a 9k attacker which can punch through most Rear Guards, while reducing your Soul. As for Luck Bird, you can SB2 upon CIP to draw 1, that's a double advantage where you can net a free card and reduce your Soul. The downside is that Luck Bird is only a 5k unit, so it doesn't help a lot when boosting.

Good, but too situational. Need to find space for her...

I choose to use Dark Cat over Emerald Witch Lala because Lala can only use her skill when you have no Soul, means if you call her out when your Soul is not empty, she's just a vanilla. Even though Dark Cat gives your opponent a card as well, but to be able to net a card instantly is still better than cycling a card conditionally. As usual, Battle Sister Chocolat is at 3.

Grade 2
We have Wiseman here at 4 to provide a bit more punch during Grade 2, as well as better defense. Battle Sister Mocha is chosen over Battle Sister Glaze because Mocha's condition to gain the additional +3k is easier (getting 4 cards in hand is easier than having 0 Soul). Security Guardian is included to boost up our defense level because the highest power of our units are only 10k, hence we need more defense support to cover up for the lack of natural defense (for example, 11k and 13k Vanguards).

Personally I prefer Mocha, but it's really up to you

Overall, OTT Rear Guards are slightly lacking in power, and we couldn't use Battle Maiden, Tagitsuhime because she requires Soul to power up and this deck doesn't want Soul. The same goes to Oracle Guardian Red-Eye. Silent Tom might be a viable choice because of his skill, but having to many 8ks will result to insufficient defense to protect the Rear Guards, but if you insist to try out Silent Tom, you can actually replace Security Guardian to make space. In the end, I chose to use Maiden of Libra. Libra is 9k, meaning that she can defend better when being attacked, and she can help you to gain hand advantage, while at the same time acting as a lightning rod to force your opponent to make choices.

Grade 3

Enter the main card of the deck, Scarlet Witch Coco. I guess I don't need to further elaborate what can Coco do. She's at maximum copies because you WANT to ride here (that's what the deck is made for, right?). Try to manage you Soul properly, and make every single copy of Coco count when you ride her over and over again.

As a secondary beater, Coco's sister, Sky Witch, Nana enters the picture.When you can't find Coco but you have 0 Soul, Nana is as equally good as her, just that you don't get to draw any cards. When you have 0 Soul, Nana gets +3k when she's the Vanguard, and +1k if she's a Rear Guard. This can provide chances to break magic numbers when partnered with the appropriate boosters.

Purely a 'tech' choice, use it or not is up to you

The lone Omniscience Madonna is actually a 'tech' card, allowing you to Twin Drive as well as card cycling upon the hit of her attack. This can slightly help you to fish out the important cards needed during that moment (such as Coco or null guards). Feel free to replace her with cards that you deem fit better in the deck.

All and all, Coco decks are really simple and strong decks to play, because it adds in the element of offense in OTT which usually focuses more on hand advantage and control. Just try it out for once at least, and get the feel of the 'fiercer' part of the girls. Let me know how the deck performs for you. As for English players, you can also build the deck, just that you don't have Lulu, Nana and Lala, which you can just easily replaced by other cards like Silent Tom and Oracle Guardian Apollon.

That's all for now, until next time, where I'll discuss about the recent banning of Barcgal as the starter Vanguard, and how would it impact the English environment.

Deck Dissection: Gold Paladins of the White Hare

Hello there, this is Homura here to bring to you guys another installment of Deck Dissection. BT-07 is out today, and I have the honor to play against the first post BT-07 deck within my playgroup, Gold Paladins. I am actually expecting to play against Great Nature, but the member from my group that is supposed to play GN is not back yet, so I guess my GN related post have to be delayed until later.

The deck that I've played against is the Gold Paladins from the White Hare division, with White Hare of the Moonlight Shadow, Pelinore and Blonde Ezel and the main Vanguards. Truthfully speaking, I felt that my friend's deck was a little weird (no offense intended) because he was using so many different units which can only perform to their maximum potential when they're in the VG circle. However, there's no doubt from my side that Pelinore's skills were very 'explosive', enough to caught their opponents off-guard if they don't realize what is happening.

Well, without wasting anymore time, I'll show you my take on the Pelinore deck and the justifications on the card choices:

Grade 0
Spring Breeze Messenger x1 (FV)
Flame of Victory x4 (Critical)
Silent Punisher x3 (Critical)
Falcon Knight of the Azure x4 (Draw)
Speeder Hound  x1 (Draw)
Elixir Sommelier x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth x4
Halo Shield, Mark x3
Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue x1
Hearer of Truth, Dindrane x3
Sleygal Dagger x3

Grade 2
Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains x4
Calamity Mage, Tripp x3
Lop Ear Shooter x2
Master of Pain x3

Grade 3
White Hare of the Moonlight Shadow, Pelinore x4
Great Silver Wolf, Garmore x3

There, my take on the Pelinore deck. From what I can see, there's nothing much different with my friend's build besides running Garmore instead of Ezel, and the inclusion of Lop Ear Shooter (which my friend didn't use). And now onto the selection of cards:

Grade 0

Spring Breeze Messenger is our desired starter in this build. Like almost all other starters of the game, Messenger has the skill to be Superior Called once ridden by a GP unit. However, the 2nd skill is the one to keep an eye on. GP has always been suffering from being unable to call out units with precision, as most of their calling abilities comes from the top card of the deck. Messenger is able to improve the precision (albeit just slightly) by allowing you check the top 3 cards of your deck and call one out in REST position. This certainly decreases the chance of accidentally calling out a Trigger when now you have 3 cards to choose from.

The Triggers that I opted to use was my favorite lineup, with those that have skills played to the maximum number. So nothing much to describe in this part.

Grade 1
Gareth at 4x is quite standard these days, together with 3x of null guards. Sleygal Dagger is a very good booster because of its 7k power, as well as being able to break magic numbers once you have a full field. Nimue is more of a tech card to allow you to possibly fish out units from your deck earlier, since she's not that necessary for the deck, you can replace her with something else.

Before BT-07, my friend always employ Silver Fang Witch as his draw enabler as GP don't really use their Soul for much reasons. Now, we have a new variant that is slightly better than SFW. Enter the Hearer of Truth, Dindrane. Compared with SFW, Dindrane can only draw when she comes out from the deck. But having sufficient enablers to do so, and topping up with Dindrane's 6k power and cheaper cost to draw, I choose to include her instead of SFW because even though you can't draw, Dindrane is still better than SFW.

Grade 2
No need to say, Beaumains is at maximum for his raw power as a G2. Damage unflippers are now the staples of any deck that uses a lot of Counterblast. Same as GP, once you notice that you need quite some CB to pay for your skills, Tripp becomes very important in the deck.

The new addition from BT-07 is Lop Ear Shooter. Lop Ear shares the same requirement as all the White Hare division members, where his skill can only be used when he's called out from the deck. His cost is a bit cheaper, whereby you only need to discard a card from your hand to Superior Call one GP unit from the top 3 cards of your deck. I'm still trying out this unit to see whether he's worth the slot or not. The other newcomer is Master of Pain. For those that do not understand how Master of Pain works, you can refer to my previous article about the Shamsael based Angel Feather deck, where I talked about how good is Doctoroid Megaross.

Similar to Megaross, MoP is a LB enabler, as well as a card that can help you to reshuffle triggers back to your deck. By using it properly, you can even heal more damage than your opponent if you time it right.

Grade 3

Now on to the bosses of the deck. As the name suggest, Pelinore is our main star of the deck. Playing 4x of him is just to increase the chance for him to come out via your Superior Callers. This build can churn out a very devastating combo if you have the correct cards and the correct timing, especially when you already hit Limit Break threshold. I'll describe the combo here:

1. You attack with your VG, Drive Check, and apply any triggers as you desire.

2. Let's say your VG's attack hits, and was boosted by Spring Breeze Meesenger. SBM's skill activates, found a Pelinore among the 3 cards. Call out Pelinore in REST. If your opponent has a G2 or higher VG, pay the cost, put Pelinore in your VG circle, and stand.

3. Attack with Pelinore, and gain another Drive Check (this time it's Twin Drive). If you hit LB, you just need to plan your attack properly so that your final attack will be one that will be boosted with high numbers thanks to Pelinore's LB.

Verdict? Hand advantage via 2 times of Drive Checks, and big attacks (power is what GP do best, sometimes even better than Narukami or Spike Brothers).

The other card that we're using here as our alternative VG is Great Silver Wolf, Garmore. We all know that Garmore is a crucial card in any GP deck, as he's the only one that can perform a precised tutoring. He's also important because of his tutoring that comes from the deck, he can redistribute the cards you've checked from Lop Ear or Messenger, in case you sent Triggers to the bottom of your deck. Using him to maintain pressure while waiting for the time to finish things off with Pelinore is also decent enough.

Pelinore is definitely an interesting and explosive deck to play with. The only thing that bothers me is just that GP has received 3 consecutive sets of support, and other clans are seem to be ignored. Well, frustrations aside, try this deck out, and let me know how well this deck performs compared with the other GP decks out there now. Until next time, this is Homura signing out, and praying that I can do a writeup on Great Nature soon!

Deck Dissection: Shamsael Angels

Hey there guys, Homura here with a new post regarding one of the most-played clans out there - Angel Feather. AF gained a lot of popularity when they was first released, thanks to gorgeous artwork featuring females, and of course, angels. I noticed that even in my local community, new players (and some old ones) tend to start AF without much hesitation nowadays. I myself wanted to start, but their playstyle just doesn't appeal me at all. Plus, there's nothing much interesting to see from AF now, since most of their builds are the same (Kiriel + Ergodiel).

Remember I said that there were a few overlooked cards in AF that'll make some impact once proper support for them is out? For those that do not remember, here are those cards:

Guys, meet the flying horses. When they first came out, AF doesn't have much damage swapping skills to constantly make these guys a threat. But after BT-07 is out, they'll definitely be more viable to play as Shamsael will make them shine. Without further ado, let's have a look at a decklist, as usual.

Grade 0
Child of Hope, Turiel x1 (FV)
Critical Hit Angel x4 (Critical)
Rocket Dash Unicorn x4 (Critical)
Bouquet Toss Messenger x4 (Draw)
Sunny Smile Angel x4 (Heal)

Grade 1
Burst Shot, Bethnael x4
Pure Keeper, Requiel x3
Thousand Ray Pegasus x4
Battle Cupid, Nociel x3

Grade 2
Million Ray Pegasus x4
Doctoroid Megaross x2
Core Memory, Armaros x3
Gatling Shot, Barbiel x2

Grade 3
Chief Nurse, Shamsael x3
The Phoenix, Calamity Flame x3
Circular Saw, Kiriel x2

With the new cards available to AF players now, we can see that there are more deckbuilding options opened to them, since they will not need to rely solely on both of their ace G3s, namely Circular Saw, Kiriel, as well as Fate Healer, Ergodiel. And now, on to my analysis of the deck.

Grade 0

For this deck, we chose to use the new starter, Turiel. Turiel is our normal G0, where you can Superior Call it after you ride an AF unit on top of her. But the key point is her second skill. If you have an AF Vanguard (which you WILL have, unless you're mixing clans), she gains the ability to send herself into the Soul to swap a card from your hand with your Damage Zone by paying a Counterblast of 1. This skill is particularly useful to push up the damage count for your units with the power boost skills, an also to free up a slot for better boosters.

As for the triggers, I chose to use 8 Criticals, 4 Draws, and 4 Heals. This lineup has been quite standard for AF builds since their debut. For this particular build, you can also choose to use Stands in place of the Criticals, but I personally would not do so because even after you stand your units, their power is still weaker without a boost (which will be 17k for Calamity Flame, and 16k for Million Ray Pegasus under normal situations). Correct, this power value can still break through most Vanguards, but we're looking at 13k units all over the place for the Japanese metagame, hence there's still something lacking here. However, I'll recommend Stand Triggers to players that play AF in a more controlling way though, whereby you try to end your opponent towards the late game and controlling their Rear Guard count.

Grade 1
4x Bethnael and 3x Requiel is common in almost any AF decks, as 1 of them is a 8k booster, and the other one is a null guard. Nociel is also a staple in AF decks, as she provides double advantage for you. Firstly, she pumps up Calamity Flames and the Pegasuses during defense, as well as swapping a card that might be crucial for you out of turn.

The key card for G1 is Thousand Ray Pegasus. Being a 7k booster, there's nothing much to complain, as 17k is good enough to force guards when attacking anybody except for DOTE and PBO. But, when you have a potential G1 that can boost, or attack for more than 10k, now that's something to look out for! Whenever a card goes to your damage zone (whether you're doing a card swap, or taking damage), TRP gets a +2k power boost, and that's enough to break most magic lines already. Though lacking the ability to intercept, TRP can be a good attacker early game to harass your opponent. It is still useful even in late game as long as you can keep the damage swapping moving.

Grade 2
Similar to TRP, Million Ray Pegasus share the same skill with its G1 counterpart, topping up with a 2k increase in base power, and the ability to intercept. As what I said earlier, as long as your damage manipulation keeps on running, MRP is actually a good unit, sometimes even better that your standard 10k vanilla. We have Core Memory, Armaros here at 3x because since this deck doesn't use a lot of CB, you can freely use them for Armaros' skill to increase your hand size, since you'll get more unflipped damage through your swapping ability. Barbiel at 2x is to give you some extra punch against 10k Rear Guards of Vanguards if you're finding yourself lack of boosters.

An interesting addition here is actually Doctoroid Megaross. Upon entering play, Megaross allows you to pay CB1 to put the top card of your deck into the Damage Zone, and shuffle a card from there back into your deck at the end of your turn. This might sound weird: "Why I want to take damage?" You see, there are actually a few hidden advantages by taking this point of damage. I'll give some examples:

#1
The most simplest, and common situation. You're at 3 damage, and you want to gain access to Shamsael's LB, so by taking this damage and making it 4, you can utilize LB skills instantly.

#2
Your opponent has 4 damage, while you have only 3. You use Megaross' skill, making your damage same as your opponent. You attack, and Drive Checked a Heal Trigger, recovering one damage (3 damage). Then Megaross' skill allows you to shuffle another damage back to your deck (2 damage). See the math there? This mitigates some situations where if you Checked a Heal Trigger, you're not able to heal because your opponent has more damage than you. And not forget to mention you'll be gaining more unflipped damage for future CB as well.

Grade 3

Chief Nurse, Shamsael is our star of the deck. With a Limit Break that can abuse the Pegasuses and Calamity Flame without paying any cost, she's what AF needed to make the latter units shine. On top of that, she also shares those units' skill, hence when boosted by Thousand Ray Pegasus, she can 21k with one activation of damage swap, and more insane numbers if you swap more than once.

Calamity Flame is the G3 version of the Pegasuses, so I think further explanation is not necessary. Kiriel is our secondary Vanguard, at 2x. If you can't find Shamsael, Kiriel is good to bring back those Pegasuses or Calamity Flames back into play if they accidentally went into the Damage Zone. Being able to attack for 15k when you hit LB threshold is not bad too. Just make sure that never ever ride Calamity Flame unless you have no choice as she is better serving as a Rear Guard.

Here you go, a sample of a Shamsael build AF deck and a brief analysis on how the deck was built and played. Though I have yet to try it out as BT-07 is not out until the weekend (plus I don't have an AF deck myself), but this nonetheless provide you guys with a rough idea on how to utilize the Chief Nurse's Limit Break. Hopefully we'll be seeing more variety of AF decks now onwards. Once the deck is out, for those that planning to build this, try it out and do let me know how the deck is performing for you.

That's all for now, happy brainstorming!

The Parallel Vision: Barome-Saviour for VGE

Hey guys, its Homura here with a new post catered to the English Vanguard community. EB-03 is around the corner, and BT-03 for English will follow suit. So far the current status for the English environment is still dominated by Gold Paladin, while Royal Paladins and the other earlier clans not doing as good as GP due to not having access to Limit Breakers (well, they are still competitive though...)

With EB-03 arriving first, GP gets another massive boost in the form of the Spectral Duke Dragon ride chain, as well as other support cards for GP, whereas Kagero, and Royal Paladins will only gain access to their first Limit Breakers - Dragonic Lawkeeper and Knight of the White Dragon, Pendragon. Compared to GP, both of the Limit Breakers are still not quite there yet.

Well, no fear because RP and Kagero will get their reinforcements soon in BT-03, and trust me, this is the best set ever released for the English meta, whereby it brings Kagero, RP and OTT to their fullest potential pre-Persona Blasters. The clan to take note here is Royal Paladins. In this set, RP will get their best ever cards printed and will definitely be a staple in their decks from now on. Guys, enter the Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Baromedes, and also Toypoogal.

Baromedes is definitely a powerhouse by himself. With the ability to get an extra 3k power when attacking for just a cost of having 2 or more G3 Royal Paladin units on the field, other clans will curse that why they did not receive the same treatment. Being a 13k monstrosity when you fulfill his requirement, he can punch through almost any card ever printed in existence without a boost, and he can hit any magic number with ease depending on who you use to boost his attack. The same goes to Toypoogal, having the same requirements as Baromedes, this cute little doggie transforms itself into a 9k booster/attacker, enough to supplement some of the weaker RP units to force 10k shields.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the deck build for the EN version of Barome-Saviour:

Grade 0
Barcgal x1 (FV)
Flogal x2 (Stand)
Future Knight Llew x3 (Critical)
Bringer of Luck, Epona x3 (Critical)
Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine x4 (Heal)
Margal x4 (Draw)

Grade 1
Little Sage, Marron x4
Flash Shield, Isolde x3
Pongal x3
Toypoogal x3
Lake Maiden, Lien x2

Grade2
Blaster Blade x3
Knight of Silence, Gallatin x3
High-Dog Breeder, Akane x3
Knight of Truth, Gordon x2

Grade 3
Soul Saviour Dragon x2
King of Knights, Alfred x2
Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Baromedes x3

The advantage of the EN environment is that Barcgal is not banned as the starter Vanguard, unlike in the Japanese side of the game (but it might result to that after a few major tournaments if RP is the dominant clan). Because of this advantage, we have been opened to a lot of options in deckbuilding. Let's have a look at the details of the deck.

Grade 0

Without a doubt, Barcgal is our starter Vanguard. The advantage in Soul generated by it is so good that not only it provides a guaranteed Ride to G2, but sets up SSD as well by providing you with 4 Soul upon the Ride to Blaster Blade. As a follow up, the Flogals and Llews are for the Superior Ride engine. Margal here is to provide a Soulcharge outlet in case the Blaster Blade Superior Ride fails, and can also hit higher numbers with its skill.

Grade 1
Marron is at maximum to build up 16k, 17k, 18k, and 21k lines. Pongal helps you to fish out SSD in case your hand does not have any G3, or if Baromedes is the only G3 in your hand (trust me, you will want Baromedes in the RG circle instead of VG). Toypoogal is at 3x because we don't want to clog up deck space with 6k early game, and since it can be tutored by Akane, so 3x is good enough. I included 2 copies of Lien for some hand filtering and as your 1st turn G1 ride. 3 Isoldes are standard here.

Grade 2

Blaster Blade is at 3x because he can be Superior Rode and to provide some removal against those pesky interceptors and G3s. With Toypoogal as a booster, Blaster Blade can hit 18k, forcing 10k against 13k Vanguards (in case you're pitted against Japanese Vanguard players). Gallatin gives us some more punch in mid-game.

Akane is our key card here. By paying CB2, we can basically tutor out either Pongal or Toypoogal depending on the situation. To improve our defense, I opted to add in a pair of Knight of Truth, Gordon. These Especial Interceptors can provide a crucial 10k shield when needed, or can act as a lightning rod to lure an attack towards them instead of your Vanguard.
Grade 3
As stated in the title, this deck is called Barome-Savior, and our stars here are definitely Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Baromedes and Soul Saviour Dragon. Baromedes is so much win without further debate, and with SSD in the VG circle boosted by either Marron or Toypoogal, having 3 lines of over 20k power attacks is no longer a dream. Not forget to mention that the moment you launch SSD's Soulblast, I bet your opponent will either say use a null guard, or just simply say 'No Guard'.

The interesting addition here is King of Knights, Alfred. Alfred can be your secondary Vanguard, as he can also hit 20k without much problem. But the key point here is actually his CB3 skill. After you paid the cost, you can tutor out a G2 or lower Royal Paladin unit from your deck onto the field. This is basically an upgraded version of Akane's skill, with the additional capability to call out Gordons and Gallatins, or even Blaster Blade to perform a combo (quite heavy cost though...). And bear in mind, while Alfred is in the Rear Guard circle, he CAN be boosted, which means he can hit 17k, 18, and 19k power lines as well.

So here you go, Barome-Saviour for the VGE environment which will be available to you guys soon. So far in the Japanese environment pre-Persona Blasters and 13k Vanguards, this deck is one of the most stable build for RP (of course we have to find a replacement for Barcgal as it was banned here). Give it a go, and do let me know how you guys feel about it. Until then, Goku-Blade will be next!