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?

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!

After the Storm: Cardfight!! Vanguard EN Post-WCQ Analysis

Hey guys, Homura is back after quite a few days of absence due to work and health problems. WCQs for Europe and Canada have already kicked off last week, and we can see from the statistics that Gold Paladins are dominating the metagame. Actually, I would say that this scenario was actually a carbon copy of the previous Japanese WCQs and Championship Finals. During that time, Royal Paladins was so famous and widely used that they almost have Top 8 appearances in every single tournament, and also one-two finishes during the Finals.

But why we don't see other clans topping? What was the reason of their absence? In my opinion, the reason why the traditional clans don't have any high place finishes was due to the fact that they lack a very crucial thing - Limit Break. Well, isn't Kagero and Royal Paladins got their LB unit already? How come they still can't top? Which brings me to my second point - Support.

As we can see, Gold Paladins got tons of support during the first 3 months of their debut in English, together with 2 possible deck types which was equally strong (not to forget featuring Limit Breakers also). What about Kagero and Royal Paladins? Compared with Gold Paladins, these two supposed-to-be the main clans of the game kind of fell short in terms of support given to them.

Let's look at Kagero. At the moment, the only deck that was actually viable for Kagero players was the Goku-Blade build. I know that Lawkeeper exists, but comapring both of them, I would say Goku-Blade fares better against the majority. And moving onward to Royal Paladin. RP is worse, with only one possible competitive deck ready at their disposal - Barome-Saviour. Truthfully speaking, Pendragon was a flop, it never seen play in JP tourneys, and I doubt it'll be seeing major play in EN tourneys.

So all and all, I think that GP will still be the deck to beat in this WCQ season. One weakness of the EN environment was that the sets were not parallel, meaning that they will not have what we JP players already had. If you all did your research, you should be able to see that regardless how strong GP was, Kagero and RP still dominates the metagame, as we have access to Majesty Lord Blaster and Dragonic Overlord The End.

This article was not written to show off the privileges that we JP players have, but to show you what defines a metagame as a whole. As what we can see from the statistics, sheer numbers can actually define a metagame. Imagine if 80% of the people were using Kagero and we'll be able to see Kagero topping everything. It's just as simple as that.

Calm Before the Storm: Lookout! (Pt.2)

Hello guys, Homura here with the 2nd part of 'Lookout!', which covers the few clans that you'll see running rampant in most tournaments, and how to lookout against them. As promised in my earlier article, I'll be covering Narukami, Great Nature and Gold Paladins today.

As I said earlier, the decks that you'll definitely see the most are Royal Paladins, Oracle Think Tanks, and Kageros. However, with the ascension of Limit Breakers, more clans are joining in the fray, especially Gold Paladins and Narukami, the second clans of the main characters. Without further ado, let's have a look in these clans and see how can we lookout! while playing against them.

Gold Paladins
Gold Paladins, up to the WCQ period, has 2 different builds that we can play - Blonde Ezel, and Spectral Duke Dragon. Each of these builds are distinct in playstyle, but still sticks to the root of the Paladin clans, which is swarming the board and gaining massive board advantage.

First up, I'll be talking about the Blonde Ezel build. Blonde Ezel is a 10k-power Limit Breaker that allows you to Superior Call the unit from the top of your deck and gaining a power boost equal to the original power of the Superior Called unit. Ezel works almost the same as King of Knights, Alfred of the Royal Paladin clan, albeit in a different way. Ezel's skill nonetheless gives you a free unit and a free power boost, but the point here is the unit called is random.

What do I mean by random? Yes, you might call out a precious Trigger unit. The reason why Royal Paladins are far more superior than their Gold counterpart is because they have targeted calling, meaning that they can call whatever they want and whatever they need to fit the situation in hand. The only unit in GP that can do that is Great Silver Wolf, Garmore. Without BT-07 to boost up Garmore's efficiency, the best that he can do is just to maybe call out Nemea Lion or Beaumains to maintain your attack force. But nonetheless, GP is still very strong thanks to them still having Superior Calling skills and power boosts as a bonus.

The other build viable for GP will be the Spectral Duke Dragon build. This build also plays heavily on Superior Calling, but mostly is to fuel SDD's Limit Break. SDD has a very devastating Limit Break, which allows is to 'cheat away' Null Guards. So you really have to think properly before deciding on how to defend SDD's attack.

SDD comes in a Chain Ride package, where every successful chain will allow you to spawn two more units from your top deck at the cost of retiring one on the field. Skill-wise, SDD is better than Ezel because it allows you to setup your field earlier, and allow even more Superior Call chains as long as you hit the units that activates their skills once they are called from the deck. The only downside of SDD is it is highly dependent on the chain to unleash its full potential, so decks like Kagero and Narukami will be tough against them, especially if they're able to stop your chain early game.

With the release of BT-07, GP players might think of a way to tech in the White Hare division cards, as they provide a plethora of skills that activate when you call them from deck, perfect for SDD builds. Also, they can also tech in Pelinore as a finisher, with his fairly low-costed Limit Break. So be prepared to face a lot of GPs during the WCQs.

Narukami

On the other hand, Kai's 2nd clan doesn't share much success compared to the Gold Paladins. So far, they only have one viable deck that is tournament-worthy, which is Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion. Narukami plays very differently from Kagero, as they don't have much retiring power. But in return, they gained ways to disrupt your opponent's defenses by preventing them from Intercepting through the Desert Gunners, and Vermilion's Limit Break.

Also, another one of Narukami's advantages will be their capability to churn out high power attacks at ease, even without the aid of Limit Break. The lineup of Breakthrough Dragon, Djinn of the Lightning Flash boosted by Red River Dragoons are already very fearsome in this environment full of 10ks. Topping it up with the existence of Photon Bomber Wyvern, Narukami defines the next level of raw power and the continuous pounding of the Vanguard.

The only weakness of Narukami besides only having one type of viable deck will be the setup of their field. As long as you can keep those Red River Dragoons at bay, you're quite safe from those 20k attacks, somehow. Even so, be prepared to see a lot of Narukamis in WCQ though.

Great Nature 
The newcomer from BT-07, Great Nature is a force not to be taken lightly. Despite being a new clan, GN already displayed their strong presence by having multiple deck types which can pose a serious threat to all clans out there, if played properly.

First up will be School Hunter, Leopald. Leopald focuses on the recurrence of units while providing ample support for 'brainjacking' (those that read my GN article should know this term by now). Comboing with Monoculars and Binoculars Tigers, you can continuously brainjack your units to make them into monsters, while recurring them when they're about to be retired via Leopald's LB. The only downside for Leopald's build is that Leopald is only a 10k Vanguard, rendering it extremely vulnerable for 20k lines (which can be done easily).

Next in line will be a deck with the Lox Ride Chain as the main Vanguard. Also utilizing the brainjacking specialty of GN, Lox gives a additional advantage by giving units the skill to replace themselves when they are retired via a free card draw, of course the condition is to have the chain ride successfully done. In addition, Lox comes with a Persona Blast, being able to give a unit +4k power and +1 Critical. Not forgetting to mention that Lox is also a 11k unit when you have the G2 Lox in your Soul. The most crucial weakness of this build, like other chain rides is the chain itself. You screw the chain, you screw yourself.

Another point to take note when playing against GN decks is be cautious on brainjacking units. When one comes down, kill it. Without brainjacking, GN is less dangerous.

And here you go, the 2nd part of the "Lookout!" series. Chances I might do the 3rd part of this series, just let me know which clan you think will be 'spammed' in WCQs and I'll try to do a writeup about them. Until then, bye guys!

Calm Before the Storm: Lookout! (Pt.1)

Hello everybody, this is Homura here, bringing you an analysis for the upcoming World Championship Qualifiers. In this article, we'll be discussing the decks that will most probably being fielded by most players, and how would they fare in the current environment.

As we all know, the WCQ for Vanguard English is starting in September 2012, which means in another 2 weeks, we'll start fighting hard for a spot in the Regionals. However, by participating in such a big tournament, we all should know about the environment more or less, what decks are going to be played, and how to play around those decks. Hence, in today's article, I'll mostly discuss about the metagame decks at the moment, and provide a bit of insight on how they work, so you guys can have a bit of knowledge on these deck so that you can fight better against them.

Kagero
Let's start with Kagero. At the moment, Kagero bears the title of having one of the most dangerous deck in the current environment - Goku-Blade. That aside, other Kagero deck types including Dragonic Lawkeeper and Blazing Flare Dragon are also contenders of the metagame deck spots alongside Goku. But in my opinion, most Kagero players will either play Goku or Lawkeeper as they gives the most stability among all the other Kagero decks out there.

Firstly, Goku-Blade provides Kagero players with a big dosage of what they're supposed to do - Retiring Units. Goku makes all your G3s into 'Bomb Triggers', enabling you to retire a G1 or lower Rear Guard whenever a G3 shows up during your Drive Check. Your opponent can't actually stop you from triggering a G3, so the only thing that they can do is either helplessly watch their precious boosters got retired, or stop playing anymore boosters to preserve hand size.

Either way, this is very advantageous for you as the less boosted attacks they launch, the easier for you to guard. What about the extra G3s you have triggered? No problem, you can either use them as attackers, feed them to your Barris, or either ditch them away with Aermo or Dragon Monk Gojo to replace them with something that has a shield value. All and all, Goku-Blade is one of the decks to beat.

Secondly, Dragonic Lawkeeper might be another choice if you decide not to bring Goku for some reason. Lawkeeper is actually a more straightforward beatdown deck, utilizing Lawkeeper's Limit Break to control your opponent's Rear Guards' numbers in order for you to create 20k++ power lines together with Dual Axe Archdragon. Retiring here has to be used sparingly as Lawkeeper hungers for CB a lot whenever you want to use the LB. Without Bellycosity Dragon available to help you keep the CB open, timing becomes a very important factor here. Make sure each time you perform a LB, it better make an impact towards your opponent.

Royal Paladin
The sad part about the current RP arsenal is there's only 1 possible deck to bring into the tournament scene. But the good news is that particular deck is also the best deck available for them as well! The deck that I'm mentioning about is none other than Barome-Saviour.

Barome-Saviour is also another beatdown deck that requires you to slightly swarm the field a bit more to unlock all your unit's full potential. Barome-Saviour can easily make all three columns into 20k++ ones to constantly force your opponent to discard a lot of cards just to guard your attacks. With Baromedes running around like nobody's business, your Vanguard should be slightly safer as most people will aim to get rid of your Baromedes first.

To put some more icing on the cake, RP has unparalleled tutoring abilities compares with other clans. Basically, what you need, they can just search for it. With Pongal, King of Knights, Alfred, as well as High-Dog Breeder, Akane at your disposal, you can definitely search for any missing part of your perfect setup.

Oracle Think Tank
OTT has dropped in favor in the JP environment thanks to it lacking any sort of Limit Breaker or Persona Blaster, but has recently topped a few tourneys thanks to the arrival of supports for Coco builds. However, in the EN metagame, Tsukuyomi has just made her debut, and the deck is bound to have a lot of appearances in the tournament scene.

With the legal 'stacking' of triggers via Tsukuyomi's ride chain skills, you can basically determine the flow of the game during mid-late game if your memory is good. Besides, the drawing power of Tsukuyomi-Amaterasu decks are also very strong, enabling the player to have ample defense during their opponent's turn. The only downside of this deck is their lack of resilience against early-mid game rush decks like Spike Brothers or Nova Grapplers.

The other choice that we'll most likely see in WCQ will be the Coco build. With BT-07 accessible for EN players, OTT players will have alternatives on whether they want to play the Soul build or the Soulless build. Compared to the former, Coco is more geared towards beatdown, with quite a lot of support cards that can do the most potential while you're Soulless. Depending on your preference, actually both decks are also quite viable for tournament play. For me, I would prefer Tsukuyomi-Amaterasu thanks to Tsukuyomi's 11k power and the Trigger anticipating elements of both the G3s.

Okay, so far we've covered 3 clans which I personally think will appear quite frequent in tournaments. In the next installement, I'll be covering Gold Paladins, Great Nature and Narukami. Until then, see you later!

Calm Before the Storm: Tear Dragons 101

Hey there, Homura here with another post about the upcoming new clan, Aqua Force. I just bought 4 Trial Decks last week and started playing with a modified version of it. The results were quite satisfying, and I would say that Aqua Force definitely gives you a new taste in playing Vanguard. However, the only downside is this deck doesn't have a proper starter, and most importantly, null guards. Hence, it's very tough for me to play against the other decks out there (I lost more that I won).

But anyway, BT-08 will be giving the proper support for Aqua Force, and the rest all comes to your playstyle and card selection. Today's article will be focusing more on the 3 main units of Aqua Force, the Tear Dragons. The trio consists of Navalgazer Dragon, Hydro Hurricane Dragon, and also the recently spoiled Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom.

Each of these Tear Dragons has a distinctive playstyle that requires you to choose carefully the cards that're going to be paired up with them. And without further ado, let's have a look at all 3 cards and some brief analysis on how they work and who should they be paired with.

Navalgazer Dragon
This card is available as an x1 for each Trial Deck you bought. Navalgazer is a 10k G3 with a pair of very interesting skills. Firstly, he has an innate power boost of +3k as long as Navalgazer is the 3rd or onward unit to attack. So, assuming that you're boosted by Tear Knight, Theo (the 8k vanilla), you'll hit 21k, or 23k when boosted by Battle Siren, Dorothea.

His second skill comes in the form of an LB. By paying a cost of CB2, Navalgazer gets a +3k boost in power, and gains an additional skill to enable you to stand 2 Aqua Force Rear Guards upon a successful hit on the Vanguard. For a TD card, Navalgazer is exceptionally strong skill-wise. If your deck in centered around the 3rd battle or onward, Navalgazer is definitely your best finisher. Comboing Navalgazer with cards that gains extra bonuses for later attacks, such as Coral Assault, and Marine General of the High Tides, Xenophon will unleash a torrent of high power attacks as you keep on slamming into the red zone.

Hydro Hurricane Dragon
The second member in the Tear Dragon trio is Hydro Hurricane Dragon. Similar to Navalgazer, HHD is also a 10k that has an innate power boost of +3k when attacking the Vanguard. So HHD also can hit 21k normally with Theo, or 23k with Dorothea once you fulfill the requirements.

HHD is also a Limit Breaker, which packs a very dangerous LB skill together with him. The LB skill is a startup ability which costs CB2. After paying the cost, HHD gains an additional +3k power, as well as an additional skill which allows him to retire all your opponent's Rear Guards upon a successful hit on the Vanguard. The only downside (also similar to Navalgazer Dragon) is you're giving away prior information to your opponent, which might probably already prepared a null guard for your attack.

An additional requirement to get the LB going on is HHD's attack must be the fourth one or onward. So how are we going to do that? The answer is the usage of the Storm Riders, Bashir and Diamantes to setup the fourth attack for HHD. The Storm Riders share the same skill, which gives them +2k power, and allows them to switch places with a Rear Guard in the same column after they attack the Vanguard in the first attack. With a constant pummeling during your Battle Phase, you can ensure that you'll be wasting a lot of your opponent's hand cards, or diminishing their board presence as you set up for HDD's finisher.

Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom
This is the cover card of BT-08, and the third member of the Tear Dragon trio. In my opinion, Maelstrom is the most dangerous out of the three, as he sports very decent stats and also deadly skills. Maelstrom is like the newer 11k G3s, with a drawback in the form of a -2k power penalty if you're playing a cross-clan deck.

However, the spotlight for Maelstrom is for his Limit Break, where similar to HHD, an extra skill will be unlocked when Maelstrom is the fourth unit to attack. The first bonus is a +5k to his power, making Malestrom a 16k monster unboosted. And the LB also generate a new AUTO skill, whereby upon a successful hit on the Vanguard, you may pay the cost of CB1. If you paid the cost, you can draw a card, and retire one of your opponent's Rear Guard.

With this kind of skill that only require a mere CB1 (I know the 'must hit Vanguard' part is hard), Maelstrom is hands-down the best among the 3. Like HHD, the Storm Riders are the best partners with Maelstrom as they can setup the fourth attack. Definitely a 3 to 4 off in every deck.

Here you go, a brief introduction and analysis of the trio of Tear Dragons for Aqua Force. Which one and how many of each to use goes ultimately to your personal preference, though I suggest no matter which one you have decided to main, Navalgazer Dragon will definitely be the best sub-Vanguard for your deck, as the LB conditions for Navalgazer is easier to achieve.

Alright, I'll leave you guys now to think about this problem (I myself have to think also LOL!). Until next time, May the wind guide you to your paths.

The Parallel Vision: The Post-BT-03 VGE Metagame

Hi guys, Homura here with a brand new column upon a request from one of my viewers. He asked me how is the English Vanguard environment now and whether I can post up an article or two about VGE because somehow my articles focuses more on the Japanese side of the game. Well, I would say 'Why not', since I'll be able to cater those that play English CFVG only, and also providing me with more things to write. Anyway, let's get back to topic before I strayed too far away...

VGE started almost a year after the Japanese's release, and from what we can see, the competitiveness level of VGE is way below of its Japanese counterpart, among the obvious ones are cards from BT-05 which totally changed the entire metagame. However, they have been compensated with the availability of Limit Breakers at the same time with the Japanese release, as well as extra cards in their expansions in the form of Japanese promo cards in Common or Rare rarity. Also, with the release of BT-03 in this coming period, the VGE metagame will take shape of the pre BT-05 metagame of Japan. Without further ado, let's see how will the metagame be formed once BT-03 for VGE hits in. Let's start with analyzing the state of the Clans when the new cards are available for them.

Royal Paladin
RP gets the most out of the release of BT-03, as they will be getting a lot of new cards from that set. Firstly, they gain another useful Ride Chain, which is the Galahad series. Galahad rides in a same way like Tsukuyomi, where you get to check the top 5 cards to find the corresponding higher grade unit and Superior Ride it, thus saving your hand cards.

Galahad also gains some form of support such as Borugal, a 6k G1 that can boost for 9k if you have 6 or more Soul, matching Galahad's theme where he also needs 6 Soul to unlock his skill.

But the most notable boost that RP gains is 2 cards that is known to be the best cards ever printed for RP pre BT-05 - Toypoogal, and Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Baromedes.

 

Toypoogal is a G1 that can boost for 9k once you met the requirements of having 2 or more Royal Paladin G3, which is not hard to fulfill during mid-late game. The same goes to Baromedes, which can singlehandedly slam into any unit of the game once you hit his requirement, which is the same as Toypoogal. Together, they can hit for a whopping 22k damage!

In short, RP will be the deck to beat once BT-03 for VGE is released.

Kagero
Kagero doesn't get much boost in BT-03, where they only get 4 new cards (and maybe another 2, if the news is confirmed). The cards given to Kagero are mainly support cards for the Blazing Flare Dragon builds. Some notable ones will be Flame Edge Dragon, Kagero's equivalent of Blue Dust. With Flame Edge available to Kagero players now, BFD will be able to use its skill more than once thanks to the Soulcharging ability of Flame Edge.

Dual Axe Archdragon is a 10k G3 that can add 3k power when attacking if your opponent has less that 2 Rear Guards. He is meant to combo with any retire-based Kagero, but only given that you can consistently control your opponent's unit count.

Even though Kagero does not get much boost this set, they still can play their meta-defining deck, Goku-Blade a.k.a. Paladin Killer.

Goku-Blade is a very effective deck that can consistently control your opponent's board presence while you keep on piling up the pressure. This deck specially aims your opponent's boosters, having the logic that if your opponent does not have a booster, you won't have difficulties in guarding when only 5k shields are needed for every attack. I'll be discussing this deck in a future article. Oh, and Kagero also get another Critical Trigger too!

Together with RP, Kagero is the clan to look out for, when people knows how devastating is Goku-Blade.

Oracle Think Tank
Finally, OTT reaches its pinnacle with the advent of the goddess of the Moon. BT-03 emphasizes more on the 'Soul' theme of OTT, allowing you to do more stuff when you have Soul. the Tsukuyomi ride chain provides you with hand advantage as well as Soul, and the support cards released, such as Oracle Guardian Red-Eye further augments the theme of the deck. Tsukuyomi also marks the first ever 11k base power Vanguard for OTT (just make sure your ride is successful), and Tsukuyomi brings even more draw power to a clan that already emphasizing in drawing cards.

There nothing much special besides Tsukuyomi, and OTT now can have a more aggressive playing style now thanks to 11k units. Finally, the Big 3 for VGE is now completed.

Nova Grappler

Bt-03 brings you the Death Army couple. They share the same skill, which is the ability to stand if you hit a Grade 3 Nova Grappler during your Drive Check. They pair well especially with Asura Kaiser, since now you're able to retain NG's specialty of having multiple attacks without the need of Stand Triggers.

As usual, NG is now the underdog clan in an environment where RP, Kagero and OTT is shining brightly. But give them some time, they're just getting warmed-up.

Tachikaze, Pale Moon, Dark Irregulars
These are the three new clans joining into the fight in BT-03, each with their distinct playstyle.

Tachikaze is the 'cannibal', where they need to sacrifice their units in order to pay for their powerful skills. With null guards available for Tachikaze now, they finally can be played properly. Their signature deck will the the Deathrex-Gigarex combo, where you can hit insane power counts when you time your 'cannibalism' properly.

Pale Moon is the circus of the Dark Zone, their playstyle emphasizes in the 'quality' of their Soul, where if you have certain cards in your Soul, some of your units gets a power up. Their specialty skills emphasizes more in this aspect, because they have units that can tag with their partners inside the Soul, hence you need good cards in your Soul to keep the combo going.

Dark Irregulars is a Soul-hungry clan, and they look more at the 'quantity' of the soul. DI plays like a no-brainer, where they are at their best when they attack. The more Soul you have, the more powerful you are. Some example of units that reflects this is the Amon series, and having more Megablast units then other clans.

Jet Black Poet, Amon while boosting Aspiring Demon, Amon can hit for a whopping 20k when you have 6 or more Soul, while the G3, Hell Marquis, Amon gets +1k for each card in your Soul. He also has a skill to send one of your units to Soul to force your opponent to retire one Rear Guard, maintaining board advantage while pumping more power. The unit to look out for is Stil Vampir, a G3 with a deadly Megablast which allows you to ride any cards on your opponent's field as the Vanguard for that turn. This can lead to a very devastating Final Turn as you can ride a low-power unit as the Vanguard and start slamming them.

I guess from the Clan analysis above you can see how will the English metagame be formed once BT-03 hit the shelves. As usual, the Big 3 (RP, Kagero, OTT) will be dominating the format for the time being, while Nova Grapplers and Dark Irregulars comes close. Pale Moon and Tachikaze will have a slight disadvantage because the learning curve for PM is a bit high for beginners, while Tachikaze can't do much besides hitting hard (they are other clans that can hit harder). The only big problem is you have the Limit Breakers running around.

That's all for today's long article I guess. In the future articles related to VGE, I'll be doing the usual stuffs like analyzing decklists and each clan's playability corresponding to their environment. So if you guys out there have any requests for anything related to the English environment, feel free to ask and I'll try my best to give you my insights, hopefully can provide you with some ideas of your own at the same time. Till then, this is Homura signing out.

After the Storm: Deck Tiers pt. 2

Continuing from the previous article, today i'll be giving all of you a list of the Tier 2 decks in the current meta. So what is Tier 2? Compared to Tier 1 decks, Tier 2 decks lacks a bit of stability and consistency, and their winning rates in tournaments are also not that high compared to the Tier 1 decks out there. However, they are still considered as competitive decks and are the top contenders for Tier 1 slots in the future.

Below are my personal ratings of the top Tier 2 decks out there. Please have a look and see whether my analysis is similar to your or not. Enjoy!


Oracle Think Tank - Tsukuyomi / Amaterasu


Since the debut of Shadow Paladins, OTT is no longer a member of the 'Big 3'. Comparing all the builds available for them, only the Tsukuyomi / Amaterasu build is tourney-worthy. And frankly speaking, due to the lack of support for OTT after BT-03, they have become very predictable, and most players already know how to handle them. Yes, having a hand of more than 10 cards seems good, but with 20k and 21k power lines being so easy to make nowadays, after your opponent ends their turn, you might have only less than 5 hand cards left.

  

Not to say they are totally unplayable now, just that they are really lacking something, for example maybe a Limit Break, or Persona Blast (I won't say a Cross Rider, because that will make OTT broken). We still can see OTT winning tourneys, but not as often anymore. BT-07 is around the corner, bringing with them new support for Scarlet Witch Coco decks, so we shall see how it turns out. Is it the rise of the 'Soulless' era, or does OTT still need to fill their 'Soul'.
Rating: 4.0 / 5

Nova Grapplers - Dragon Kaiser


With the introduction of Beast God Azure Dragon, NG finally have access to tow sets of 11k power cards. This deck basically works the same like Asura Kaiser builds in the past, but with the added flavor of Persona Blast from Azure Dragon. With Azure Dragon included in the deck, they finally have the option to 'switch' into different builds while still using the same deck. Once you have depleted your pseudo Stand Triggers (via Asura Kaiser's skill), you can instantly switch to Azure Dragon, and continue to pressurize your opponent by threatening them with Azure Dragon's Persona Blast.

The core of the deck still retains, just that you'll have a better chance in late game compared to the past. If I am able to name a new deck as a Tier 1 deck, the closest for me should be Nova Grapplers. What they really need now is some form of card draw, others are quite decent already.
Rating: 4.2 / 5



Gold Paladins - Spectral Duke Dragon


Ah, another newcomer from EB-03. It seems like a lot of players out there are very eager to try out the new SDD build. I don't blame them because SDD looks pretty strong, as well as cool. Being able to Superior Call units during the Ride Phase, and Superior Call more units if you hit certain units from the previous call is not a joke. Their swarming rate is better than Blonde Ezel builds I would say, and it comes with cheaper costs as well. Also, being able to 'cheat' null guards is what makes SDD even scarier.

However, this only really looks good on paper. Despite having a good ride chain, and a strong LB, SDD is nowhere close to being a Tier 1 deck when Blonde Ezel and Garmore is still running around. Why? Because this deck lacks something really important - Power. SDD can only be a maximum of 11k at all times, and the best it can go with a boost, say Little Fighter, Tron, is only 21k (and that's if you have more Rear Guards than your opponent). Compared to Ezel and Garmore, which can hit absurdly high numbers, SDD really looks stupid in front of them.

Also, the moment you use SDD's Limit Break, you're actually putting yourself under a very big disadvantage, which is the lack of Rear Guards. A smart opponent will know how to play around with the LB, whereby they will focus all your attacks to SDD, leaving you with a dilemma of whether you want to spend your hand cards to guard (which leads to lesser units to call), or take damage to preserve board advantage (which leads to a faster defeat). So before you say SDD is strong, think twice.
Rating: 4.2 / 5

Narukami - Dragonic Kaiser Vermilion


Another newcomer that supposed to replace Kagero. But despite being so hyped, they are somewhat not performing at the moment. The good thing of playing Narukami is you can hit high power counts (which means this clan focuses in hitting the Vanguard hard and fast), but that's all they can do. Compared to Kagero, they don't have enough retiring power, and they don't have enough useful Rear Guards as support. Ultimately, their Grade 3 choices are so limited that if you don't play Kaiser Vermilion, it's very hard for your deck to be on even grounds with other decks.

Even with the help of Kaiser, you can only do that much. I'm not expecting people to be able to use Kaiser's LB more than 2 times in a game, and he being the only 11k power cards available, you're jeopardizing you defenses if you don't ride him. Thunder Break Dragon is our Trial Deck exclusive G3 Limit Breaker. But frankly speaking, it's CIP skill really is sub-par. If it says 'CB2: Retire one of your opponent's Rear Guards', it'll definitely be an auto-include. The other cards are also being 'so-so' with Breakthrough Dragon being the only possible staple in the deck besides Kaiser. Well, the good news is in three months time, Narukami will get their new reinforcements, so to all Narukami players out there (including myself), please be patient for the time being. We might be suffering now, but we'll definitely come back with a bigger and harder punch later!
Rating 4.0 / 5

Spike Brothers - Dudley Emperor / Juggernaut Maximum


With EB-03 bringing Spike's first Limit Breaker, the fearsome Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor, Spike seems to have found their ideal finisher. Not long after their release, we can already see Spike decks featuring Dudley Emperor topping a few tournaments (which is something we seldom see besides the Dark Zone Tournament way back then). With DE included in the deck, the once-staple card, General Seyfried is no longer needed, because you can Superior Call whatever you want instead of hoping to trigger a G3 from your Twin Drive And being able to drop Dudley Dan off the deck, means that Dudley Emperor can hit 20 and 21k power lines easier now, compared to the maximum of 17k when boosting Seyfried.

 

Besides having access to Limit Break, EB-03 also gives them their G1 'tagging' unit - Reckless Express. The reason why is he that good is because he can work as both a decent booster and attacker. When you need the final push, sent him in front and SB for 12k, otherwise, being able to boost for 7k is not bad also. 'Tagging' units are good when paired with Dudley Emperor, because you're now able to reform your board position better. You can always make space for units that're better for the current situation when you 'tag' them away.

Though now you are giving away a little bit of speed compared to last time, but in return, you hit way more harder than before. Trust me, once you've mastered the playstyle of Spikes, you'll definitely be able to pose as a threat to most decks out there, because creating power lines is also what Spike Brothers do best.
Rating: 4.3 / 5 (being slightly higher than Nova Grapplers is they pack more punch!)

Here you go, my Top 5 Tier 2 decks in the current metagame. Of course they are still a few more that I wanted to mention, but there's no time at the moment. But I'll be doing a continuation if you guys want it. In the next article, I'll be mentioning the Tier 3 decks for the current metagame. Until then, this is Homura signing out!