Tuesday 27 December 2011

Simple Deckbuilding Guide

I made the following post on Pojo, as there seems to be a few people that needed deck help after taking up the English version of Vanguard that just came out.

If you haven't figured it out by now, there are many strategies in the Vanguard TCG that can make you either win or lose the game, hell, each "clan" is based off one of these strategies.

Ladies(However few there may be) and Mentelgen, I come here today wanting to discuss the "metagame" as the title suggests. What do you think makes the meta in Vanguard?

To me, the game has always been about "plus-ing" in either hand or field and "big beats" to make the opponent "neg", this is explained very well in the "Magic Numbers" theory.

The combination of the two above, I believe make the "meta" and it can be seen in the decks that are constantly winning in the big Japanese events, which are mostly Paladins, who's abilities let them do of both of the above and the Kagero who are able to "neg" the opponent so that you are able to net advantage. Of course other decks are there, such as Oracle decks and what not.

So what can you do to keep up with the meta? Live every other card game, the major points are in deck building. For example, I personally use 4 null-guards in every single deck that i play, and the reason is pretty clear. And although i don't think i need to say it, 4 heal triggers is pretty much required for any deck, even though it's not a rule.

Now, besides the Heal triggers and the null guards, each clan has powerful "staple" cards that are used in most decks for the clan, no matter what the strategy of the deck is. Good examples of this is Silent Tom for Oracle Think Tanks, Blaster Blade for Paladins, Kimnala for Kagero, Claydoll Mechanic for Novas.

So how do you build a deck? Simple, pick an "engine" or a card that you want to base you deck around (In this example i will restrict myself to the English set 1 + the two initial trial decks). After picking the base of the deck it's really just adding in staples and complimentary cards that allow you to hit the "magic numbers" while firing off abilities to "plus".

EXAMPLE - Royal Paladins. (because EVERYONE and their DOGS play Paladins and ask for deck help)

Card Base - Alfred. Both abilities are amazing, potential 20k unboosted unit, and plus if ability is activated.

Total: 50 (17 + 14 + 12 +7)

Grade 0 - 17
1 x Barcgal - Starting vanguard, allows you to plus
4 x Llew(Crit) - Combos with Barcgal
4 x Epona(Crit) - 8 Critical triggers as Alfred is rarely blocked unless needed
4 x Flogal(stand) - Combo's with Barcgal + more offensive than draw
4 x Elaine(heal) - pretty much 4 heals is mandatory in every deck

As you can see the grade 0's/triggers are decided by the "base" of the Alfred/Barcgal engine, each choice has a reason to be there.

Grade 1 - 14
4 x Iseult/Isolde - Null guard
3 x Marron - 8k vanilla
3 x Starlight Unicorn - 6k + 2k to a unit when it hits field
4 x Lake Maiden Lian - Tap,Toss,Draw

The grade 1 selection pool at this point is very narrow; however Lake Maiden Lian is a very strong turn 1 play that lets you cycle hand, and is also useful behind alfred as alfred is unable to be boosted.
Null guard at 4 is my personal preference and may not be needed in set 1.
The Marron combos well with the grade 3 Knight of Conviction Bors to hit 21k and is able to maybe force an oracle/nova player to boost with their lozenge/battleraizer to hit your vanguard.
The starlight unicorn, though a 6000 unit, is able to be called to a rear guard circle and add the 2000 power onto Alfred, in the case you are hitting an 11k opposing vanguard.

Grade 2 - 12
4 x Blaster Blade - Barcgal searches
4 x Gallatin - 10k vanilla, able to hit almost everything unboosted
4 x Covenant Knight, Randolf - able to hit 11k if conditions are right

At this point, Not only is the grade 1 pool a bit shallow, the grade 2 pool is as well.
Blaster Blade is able to be searched out of deck by Barcgal's skill, and also has a very good ability. Both lake maidens and marrons are able to boost him to 16k and above.
Gallatin is a 10k vanilla, which allows him to be able to hit almost everything without a supporting rear guard. Everything in the grade 1 lineup is able to bring him to a minimum of 16k. And in the situation of a stand trigger, a solid 15k attack is nice
Randolf is able to hit 11k under the right conditions, if these conditiosn fail, you are able to put marron behind him to hit 16k. Under the right conditions, you are also able to hit for 16k if you trigger a stand trigger.

Grade 3 - 7
4 x King if Knights Alfred
3 x Knight Of Conviction, Bors

As you can see, the grade 3's are usually the most powerful, with the potential to boost themselves to high power to attack and reach higher "magic numbers" pretty self explanitory

So a simple paladin deck from set 1 was built in a matter of minutes with some number logic. The deck will probably need to be played a few times and tested to be adjusted to personal preferences.

There has also been a few people asking about the grade distribution of a deck, usually a deck will have:
16-17 grade 0s
12-14 grade 1s
10-12 grade 2s
6-8 grade 3s

However the numbers depend on the deck, as an Asura Kaiser nova grappler deck will run more grade 3's than normal i.e. 8-10.

Any other questions can be posted below.

Friday 23 December 2011

Neonectar

With the coming of set 5, 13k vanguards aren't the only thing coming... A new clan called Neonectar will be released within the set.

Little is known about the clan at this point in time, however it can be assumed from the abilities provided within the previous few "Card Of The Day" previews that the clan revolves around building up field presence, and the field presence boosting the card abilities.

So far officially shown by card of the day is:

Knight Of Harvest Gene

This card, when it's attack hits the opponents vanguard, is able to search out two "Knight of Young Leaves, Gene" and call them to rear guard spaces at the cost of returning Knight of Harvest, Gene back to the top of the deck, and shuffling the deck.

Hey Yo Pineapple

This card gains 3000 power when attacking if there are 4 or more vanguard and or rear guard cards of the Neonectar clan.

Maiden of Blossom Rain

This card is the standard null guard for this clan.

So far, with only these three cards, it seems that this clan will be a "minimum rarity" deck, as there will be no RRR cards of this clan, which can be seen in the fact that the first RR is the neonectar null guard, while the first RRR isn't a neonectar clan card at all.

For now, i believe this clan will be a very fun to play card, with heavy "plusses" in field presence at almost no cost whatsoever. I'll be staying tuned to the news for the rest of the clan.

Monday 19 December 2011

Return and the Meta game.

Been a while since i last posted, kind of forgot that this existed >.>...

I guess the newest update would be on the meta game at the moment as of set 4 + comic styles, though it will be subject to change very soon with the induction of the new 13k passive grade "3.5" cards that will be released in set 5.

As you can see, in the link provided - http://cf-vanguard.com/cardlist/deckrecipe/
Deck lists for the Japanese tournament winners have been provided with each major event, much like other TCG such as YGO and the YCS events.

The most recent event decks, and even the older ones, are mostly of the Royal Paladin clan, with Kagero/Heat Haze, coming in a very close second, and the occasional Oracle Think Tank. This is because that these three clans have a lot of support in both attackers and boosters, and are able to reach a very high attacking power, or in oracle's case, are able to make grade 0 guards useless.

Therefore, from the beginning, this card game has been about "plus-ing" and "big beats", being able to reach attack values that require the opponent to use up more hand cards to guard, while gaining hand or field advantage.

To counter the "big beats", it is almost a requirement to run a full set of "null guards", which are grade 1, 0 shields with the ability to block the attack of an opposing card.

If there are any questions ore requests, post a comment below. I'll get back to you with either a blog post or a comment, whichever one is needed.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Dragonic Waterfall

New PR that comes with Volume 2 of the manga is Dragonic Waterfall/Waterfoul, eithe way it's a great card :D, it's ability is to add 3000 power when attacking the opponenets vanguard, and you can drop 1 grade 3 kagero unit from hand to the drop zone to +10000 power D:

Saturday 6 August 2011

New Booster set is out :D

On saturday, the newest set of vanguard - Demonic Lord Invasion was released(card list in link) highlights of this box are the Tsukuyomi oracle cards, Dark irregulars, Pale moons and Tachikaze.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Card Of The Day - Raging Dragon, Sparksaurus

Today's card of the day is Raging Dragon, Sparksaurus 

This card is a grade 1 Tachikaze clan card with the ability where if it is retured, you may toss 1 hand card to the drop zone and bring another sparksaurus to the field. The ability is good, however, the problem with this card is that it is only 5000 power and in my opinion will not see much play, as the barrier of 16k power isn't easily achieved with this card as a rear guard.

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Card Of The Day - Doreen the Thruster

Today's card of the day is Doreen the Thruster



Another Dark Irregular, this card gains 3000 power for every card that is moved into soul during the min phase, as this card is a copy of the Young Pegasus Knight from the Royal Paladin clan, the way it works shouldn't be new to anybody. This card is exceptionally good for Dark Irregulars, which focus on soul charging ridiculous amounts of card and it's possible to charge Doreen to have a power beyond 25000 with the right combos, such as Amon's second skill and other Dark Irregular abilities.

A must have for any Dark Irregular deck.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Card Of The Day - Demon World Marquis, Amon.

Today i am ashamed to introduce to you the most broken card in the game.

Today's card of the day is Demon World Marquis, Amon

Belonging to the Dark Irregular clan, which excels at soul charging, Amon's first skill allows him to gain +1000 power passive during your turn (if he is in the Vanguard circle) for each dark irregular card in soul and can still be boosted by a rear guard. As Amon is a dark irregular card, it's not hard to have around 10 soul nearing the end of the game. meaning that during your turn, Amon can be approximately 20k power, without a boost from a rear guard.

the folks at Bushiroad decided that this wasn't enough, they said "Fuck it, lets make this card as broken as possible" so they added the second ability, while in the vanguard circle, During the main phase, you may counter blast 1 and send a dark irregular rear guard to soul, after doing so, the opponent chooses one of his rear guards to retire, this is potentially a board wipe as the skill can be activated more than once per turn.

If you noticed, both skills work in tandem to make Amon a ridiculously big and pretty much requires a null trigger, or your whole hand to guard.

In other news Barkgal is banned as the starting vanguard of Royal Paladins starting from September 5th.

Thus everybody jump aboard the Dark Irregular wagon and get your 4 Amons.

Sunday 31 July 2011

Card of the day - Tsukuyomi the full moon godess

Today's card of the day is the new 11k oracle think tank Full Moon Goddess, Tsukuyomi

This card's ability requires the previous versions of this card within soul, otherwise the card loses 2k power.



The second ability allows the player to draw two cards during the main phase and send one card to soul from hand, if there is six or more soul underneath tsukuyomi, this is easily acheived by chaining through the abilities of the previous versions(links above).

If i were to run this deck, i would start with a god hawk as the grade 0 vanguard, 4 of each moon godess.

Which leaves you room for your triggers of choice, another 3 grade 3, 10 grade 1 and 8 grade 2, if you were to go by normal distributions, those would be entirely up to your own choice, howver i'd reccomend CEO amaterasu as your 2nd grade 3, Luck birds in grade 1 and silent tom in grade 2.

Friday 29 July 2011

Card Of The Day

Today's card of the day is Godhawk, Ichibyoshi

This card is the new Grade 0 Oracle Think Tank, that allows a combo into the Tsukuyomi cards, replacing Lozenge Magus(Or Circle Magus for those lucky enough to have pulled or sniped one) as a grade 0 starting card, however effectively taking up a space as a grade 0 in deck.

For those of you who don't read japanese, the card allows you to reveal the top five cards of your deck, and if the grade 1 card "Crescent Moon Goddess, Tsukuyomi" is revealed, you are able to freely ride it over the grade 0, this starts a chain of the same effect, meaning a +1 card if you are able to find the card within the mill, this activates right after draw phase and you are able to ride normally if the grade 1 is revealed, however you are unable to ride again if you did ride the grade 1 from the revealed cards.

As for the usage of this card, it is 100% needed as the starting vanguard if you are running a Tsukuyomi deck that is being released within the third booster set in a weeks time.

Pluses for running this card 
 You are able to use Tsukuyomi's ability
 plus 1 chains of riding into Tsukuyomi(i.e. extra cards in hand if successful)
 the heal triggers start in deck.
 Extra soul
Minuses for running this card
No extra boost from riding over initial vanguard
Minus one in deckspace

As you can see, this card is much needed in the Oracle think tank deck that plans to run the Tsukuyomi chain.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Nova Grapplers + Kagero Deck.

So back when Descent of the knight king came out i had an idea of a deck that ran 12 critical triggers and 4 heal triggers, it worked fine enough and even got me 2nd place in a tourney that i entered out of pure luck. To further thism when Wild Dragon Soul Dance came out, i turned the deck into a fun deck that was just for fun, capitalizing on my 16 crit tirggers, crazy right?

The decklist is below:



Grade 0: 17
4 x Shining lady
4 x Red Lightning
4 x Tahr embodiment of the spear
4 x Demonic Dragon Mage Raksha
1 x Lizard Soldier Conroe

Grade 1: 14
 4 x Dragon Monk Gojo
4 x Embodiment of Armor Bahr
4 x Queen Of Hearts
2 x Twin Blader

Grade 2 : 12
4 x Nehalem
4 x King of Swords
4 x NGM Prototype

Grade 3: 7
4 x Mr. Invincible
3 x Dragonic Overlord.

My deck capitalizes on having a Mr. Invincible in the vanguard circle to unflip damage in an attempt to use Dragonic Overlord's counter blast ability, while the rest of the deck pushes for power in addition to critical hits to hit the opponent where it hurts.

CEO Amaterasu By RPG caster.

rpgcaster, a friend of mine has started a series called "Cardfight Tips", this video tutorial shows the exceptional broken-ness of the card CEO Amaterasu.

Feel free to check it out.

Card Of The Day

So to commemorate the creation of the blog, I will take a look and review today's card of the day, though once i saw it i was dissapointed, as the card is just the null guard.

As you may know, Bushiroad publishes and releases a preview card of the day every weekday, today's card of the day is "March Rabbit of the Nightmare Nation"
So it's your basic null guard for the new Dark Irregular clan, a must have in any dark irregular deck. Nothing too exciting for now.

Creation Successful.

I have created this blog to share information about the Japanese TCG created by Bushiroad named Cardfight Vanguard, future posts will include Decklists, card opinions and such.

Hope you enjoy your stay.