CFV Locals Report - Dem (Fists of) Feels tho

So today marked the release of Set 5 into the format and while the overall consensus is that it's pretty meh compared to previous sets there were still cards of decent value to take note of.  If you read my post earlier this month talking about the Narukami cards in here then you know how highly I think of the Brawler support so it was pretty obvious I was going to play them today (that and they're the easiest deck to update post Set 5 wheras Erads and Vanquisher need foils).  Let's do this;

Round 1 - vs Gear Chonicle (2-0)

I start off the day having to G-Assist at 1 and it felt awful.  However I'm able to claw my way back into the game thanks to a timely draw trigger and that my opponent never called RGs down so I stayed stuck on Grade 2 for a bit before assembling a hand that would let me start punching his board and so I did.  This followed by Conquest Dragon allowed me to win the first game while the second one was much the same.  I had to G-Assist (this time to 3) while also having to contend with him getting off Heal Triggers multiple turns in a row but I still manage to close the gap by keeping up a consistent rush that he has trouble dealing with.  Afterwards I start nuking his field and he can't handle my dank ass side memes and I win.

Round 2 - vs Gear Chronicle (2-0)

In the round previous Armando savaged the fuck out of Jordan with some massive help from the RNG gods which scared me considering how my round went.  Turns out it was for naught as the same gods decided to forsake him with misriding in both of our games while I hit my literal and figurative stride.  He called out a small board; I killed it.  He called out no board; I Donked him with Godquest.  Game 1 I won pretty easily while Game 2 got silly thanks to me checking 2 Draw Triggers during a Zorras turn so my hand was eternally bulk and able to deal with Nextage plays while I continued to do kill his stuff and swing with big sides.

Round 3 - vs Ripple (1-2)

Despite this being a very long and tense match between the two players who rely not on luck but what little playing ability is needed for Vanguard I really can't say much on this match.  Ripples like any Aqua Force deck like to rush and if I'm able to handle it and start killing his board then I win whereas if I can't handle the rush then I'm going to be in trouble.  This more or less happened here as Game 1 I had to G-Assist at 2 and despite my best efforts I couldn't close the gap and died while in Game 2 I got my ball rolling and killed him with a giant ass side column during a Turbo turn.  Game 3 I drew too many 3s and couldn't adequately defend his attacks while he dug himself out of bad start thanks to his one trigger and mounted a comeback with a play that allowed 3-4 attacks on his turn to my hand of PGG, G3, 10k and 5k shield.  Not having enough guard to block all of his attacks I had no choice but to risk the no guard and hoped that despite putting 6 crits back into his deck via seekmate that he wouldn't flip one.  He did and I was done.  Rip.

I finished second place with my only 2 losses being to my own deck bricking and variance so I wasn't too upset about it.  Moreso I made it pretty clear just how fucking scary my deck is now and it's going to be that thing when people see me bust it out much like Nubbits Revengers or Nord's X that they know they're gonna have to bring their A game to the table, cuz otherwise I'll kill you.

Props
-Punched several people in the dick.
-Picked up just about everything from Set 5 that I needed.  All I'm missing are 4 of each Gear foil, 2 Vanquisher Crits, 1 Angercharge Dragon and 1 Finish Blow Dragon.  That's about 60 dollars and these are set release prices.  I'm pretty sure that whole lot will be under 50 in a week

Slops
-G-Assisting
-Pulling complete ass out of my box.  Then again that's par for the course for Set 5.

Hater of netdecks = incompetent engineer

So rather than rip into specific people which has been a thing I've done recently I'm instead going to rip into a certain player type via this rare well informed post from 4chan;

Sad thing is in our locals I'm certain there's an incompetent engineer among some of the more recent players.  I hope Ryan and the others will be able to set them on the proper path...

GBT-05 Narukami Review

Since I did one of these for Set 2's Narukami support I figured why not again with the upcoming Set 5?  Looking back on that post it's clear to me that I was right on a few things but WRONG on some others with Conquest Dragon being the big offender and I'll try not to do that here.  With that set let's get on with this and take a look at the relevant cards from this set.

GBT-05 Narukami

I'd like to believe that I'm not alone in thinking that Soaring Ascent of Gale and Blossom did WONDERS for the Narukami clan.  After all the set improved upon the clan's existing gimmicks of cheap albeit random retires, mass removal and gaining power from these while also giving them a new concept of permanent retire via drop zone binding.  This aspect has turned the clan into a strong anti-meta deck with the ability to act very aggressively on the fly, making Narukami one of the few Midrange decks in the game right now.  In addition to this Set 2 also breathed new life into the Vermillion deck with a revival legion (and later on FC Support), tried to give Eradicators a shot in the arm (and failed) and created a respectable G-Deck.  However the two big things to come out of the set for Narukami was the printing of Demonic Dragon Berserker Chatura (now a staple in every list) and Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon who has literally carried the clan into meta relevancy.  How will Moonlight Dragonfang expand on this?  Well looking over the cardpool it's clear there's more support for bind based builds with Vanquisher and the new Thunderstrike keyword, Guantlet Buster Eradicators and even a bone tossed at Brawlers!

Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VOLTAGE"

[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them]Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn]:[Choose a face down card named "Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VOLTAGE"" from your G zone, and turn it face up] Until end of turn, this unit gets "[AUTO](VC):When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, retires it, and you choose up to two cards from your opponent's drop zone, and bind them face up." and "[CONT](VC) Generation Break 3:During your turn, all of the units in your front row get [Power]+3000 for each card in your opponent's bind zone.".

Voltage is in an interesting spot as he's not BAD per see but not NEEDED in most Narukami decks as every variant outside of Vanquisher all have a better boss monster in Turbo, Warning or Finish Blow.  Now in bind heavy variants like Vanquisher or Nobles then this thing is basically a better Conquest Dragon as after you get your engine rolling you're going to have HUGE lines thanks to potentially +21000 buffs.  In a Vanquisher build I'd actually advocate the use of Stand Triggers just to get more value out of those 32000 Chaturas.  Also let's not underestimate Voltage having a non GB flip skill as while on hit retire sounds lame, he DOES set up Vanquisher's GB2 skill on the first stride.

True Eradicator, Finish Blow Dragon

[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[ACT](VC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 2:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone, and turn it face up] Until end of turn, this unit gets "[AUTO](VC):When your opponent's rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, this unit gets [Power]+5000/[Critical]+1 until end of turn.", and if you have a heart card with "Gauntlet Buster" in its card name, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, and retires it.

Bushi's back at it again with Eradicator support and thankfully they're looking at the better units in the theme and none of this Tempest Bolt shit.  Now am I happy that they're instead trying to make GBD the defacto build when EDD is the true boss of Erads?  Sort of.  Descendant is notoriously awful in the early game whereas Buster Dragon was good for setting up killshots for him or getting random OTKs through delicious critsacking so it makes sense that they'd try to improve said early game. Finish Blow is basically a bigger, cheaper GBD when you can't make use of his Limit Break and adds yet another killplay to the Narukami deck and will force out PGs from the opponent like tomorrow...assuming they didn't use them up dealing with Zorras or Conquest.  What I don't like about this card is the GB2 restriction.  This could have been perfectly fine as a first stride because god knows this game isn't lacking in first strides with insane effects.

Eradicator, Angercharge Dragon

[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)-card with "Eradicator" in its card name] When this unit is placed on (RC), you may pay the cost. If you do, put the top card of your deck into your damage zone face up. Then, if that card has "Eradicator" in its card name, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, and retires it. At the end of that turn, choose a card from your damage zone, and heal it.

This guy looks like a Brawler.  

Anywho G3s with rearguard only skills are generally unimpressive but this guy is just usable enough to see play in a GBD deck given that you don't want to max out on EDD and the other Erad Grade 3s are too specalized/overcosted to be splashed in, so Angercharge will see play in the deck at probably 2-3 copies.  The ability to put you into Limit Break, enable Gauntlet Buster's Limit Break and heal yourself back to 3 is cool

Great Composure Dragon

[CONT](RC): This unit gets [Power]-3000

So simple but so god damn good.  You know what was a really good card defensively?  Majesty Lord Blaster.  This card is a MLB without having to run shitty cards in your deck!  His only drawback is that he's a 9k on Rear but boosters fix that and in return you get an amazing unit that lets you cockblock 16k lanes with draw triggers and 21ks with ONE 10 shield.  He promptly tells off 11k attackers and trolls people who stay stuck on 2 by allowing you to be 17k when you check triggers which I imagine will be a pain in the ass for Ripples and Blue Waves.  Right now only Vanquisher decks will run this thing as all other Naru variants have better backup Grade 3s but long story short if you think this card sucks, you're an idiot.

Rockclimb Dragoon

[AUTO] Generation Break 1:[Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (RC), if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Vanquisher" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent chooses one of his or her rear-guards, retires it, binds that card face up, and this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

Vanquisher's Glimmer Breath clone is exactly what I expected it to be.  Sets up Vanquisher's GB2 skill and puts more units into the bind zone for your Thunderstrike skills.

Chain-bolt Dragoon

[AUTO](RC)[1/Turn] Generation Break 1:When your opponent's rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Vanquisher" in its card name, your opponent chooses a card from his or her drop zone, and binds it face up. If he or she binds a card, you choose up to one of your other units, and it gets [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

Interesting approach for Vanquisher's Pia clone.  It only does something when you pop a unit but wow you're probably going to be binding 2-3 cards a turn with this in play in the deck and +2k isn't awful.  Puts Chatura to 13k by itself.  Not needing CB or Soul for its skill is really good though.

Machinegun Eradicator, Kantou

[AUTO](RC):[Soul Blast (1)-card with "Eradicator" in its card name] When your opponent's rear-guard is put into the drop zone due to an effect from one of your cards, if you have a vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your other units, and that unit and this unit get [Power]+2000 until end of turn.

Wow this thing's actually really good.  It's basically a Crownholder Dragon for Erads, except he triggers when you kill and only costs soul to use.  This will put a limit of how much you can use him but buffing a lane by 4k or two lanes by 2 isn't half bad.  The only issue I see with this is the Eradicator G1 lineup is incredibly cramped and he will compete with Rising Phoenix for soul.

Secret Fist Brawler, Kokon

[AUTO](RC):When your vanguard with "Brawler" in its card name's attack hits, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.

...Wow.  Just wow.  Narukami once again gets one of the best commons in a set because good lord this thing can get really big, really fast.  +3 for each hit your Vanguard makes in a deck that can punch up to six things means that even your Legion plays will allow your side lanes to hit for numbers that are normally seen when you drop Conquest Dragon.  And yet there's more!  Since this guy works when any Brawler VG hits he's effectively a 10k booster on turn 1 and afterwards so if your opponent stays Gradestuck at 2 then your Big Bangs can just swing at a side, kill it and now your 18000 Kokon + Slash Buster line just became 24000.  Sticking this thing behind Chatura for 21000 VG swings every turn is no joke either.

Brawler, Streetfight Dragon

[ACT](RC):[Put this card on top of your deck] If you have a vanguard with "Brawler" in its card name, choose up to one of your other rear-guards with "Brawler" in its card name, and until end of turn, that unit gets "[AUTO](RC):When your vanguard's attack hits, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn.". Shuffle your deck.

Oh lord. A recyclable crit that turns any of your Rearguard Brawlers into a Slash Dragon.  This thing is going to be stupid with Skyhowl and Wildcloak.

And that's it.  I'm not going to go over the other cards on here because they're honestly not that good or just not needed in their respective decks.  Set 5 doesn't do as much for Narukami as Set 2 did but the few good cards out of here will definitely help their respective decks out.  Brawlers are far and away the best Narukami deck now as their new cards allow their rearguards to hit for big numbers even if you have a board in addition to Conquest enabling them to push for game when you don't.  People need to legit watch out for them because Brawlers will punch you in the face with their Fists of Feels.

Cardfight!! Vanguard Win A Box Report - Got Dunked On

So we had a Win A Box tournament for Vanguard.  And our turnout was almost 20 people including some I haven't seen in years.  I hope this becomes a reoccuring thing because for once we had worthwhile competition in a locals environment where most of the players can be scrubby.

In regards to what I played I went through 3 decks before settling on Narukami Kaiser.  I initially chose it, then went with Brawlers so I could have crossride defense and mass removal, then Musketeers for their rush game before back to Kaiser for its greater consistency and high power lanes.  How'd it go?  Well...

Round 1 - vs Revengers (0-2)

Game 1 I pushed him to 5 damage on three straight turns and he kept healing back to 4!  After that I check no triggers during my Warning and Conquest Turns so he mounts a comeback and I lose a game that I should have honestly won (he even admitted as such).  Rip.  Game 2 I draw too many 3s and cannot handle his shit and die.

Round 2 - vs Nouvelle/Blademaster (2-0)

I end up having to G assist for my G1 Ride for two turns and play out of a 3 to 1 damage gap because of trigger sacking, but thankfully I resolve Chatura a few times and get first stride which with Vanquisher helps out immensely.  A few Conquest turns later I kill her.  Game 2 on the other hand I destroy her without question because well if Narukami can outpace and smash DotX then what the hell chance does any other variant of Kagero have against the clan?

Round 3 - vs Narukami Kaiser (1-2)

Game 1 he ends up Gradestuck at 2 while I build up advantage and I win the grind.  Game 2 on the other hand I have a poor start and get some really poor draws/checks for a mirror match and eventually lose it thanks to him getting multiple Crown Holder Dragons to stick.  Then game 3 he puts me at 5 damage to 1 and I have to deal with his high power attacks without perfect guards because god forbid I check those.

And that was it.  Top 8 was called and I obviously didn't make it in.  3 Cancer Decks (2 Ripples, 1 Sanc Guard), 4 former Cancer decks (Shadow Paladins, Liberators, Seekers) and 1 good deck (Narukami Kaiser) topped.

Props
-Picked up commons and rares for Gears and Narus out of set 5.
-Picked up Seven Seas for Granblue.  The road to finding a backup to Nightrose continues!
-Dunking on Arpy's Shadow Paladin witches with Musketeers.  The matchup is as hilarious as I thought it was.

Slops
-Bricking
-Not topping
-Missing out on the Set 5 sneaks.  A Finish Blow Dragon got pulled while I was absent and of course the BAD Narukami player is able to snag it.
-Cancer, cancer everywhere.  Ripples and Sanc Guard's exit from the format isn't coming fast enough

YGO Locals Report - Oh sure, NOW RNG Jesus likes me

Real talk; I wasn't going to be playing today as Awesome Games Done Quick 2016 is this week and I wanted to sit it out and watch them speed run Kirby 64 and Squeak Squad.  Turns out however their schedule this week is in the same time zone as me so said games would be played LATER today, specifically around the time of our top cut which meant I could actually throw a deck together that I wanted to try, not give any fucks about it vs the world and focus on going with m'gut and proceed to get knocked out in time for the Kirby runs.

Yeah that kinda didn't happen since I ended up playing a Dragon deck and as I should have known, when a Dragon deck is in my hands magical things happen.  In this case it was Chaos Dragons drawing solid to sacky most of the day.  Why them?  Aside from being the only dragon deck I had on me at the time Chaos happens to be not awful now that the Clowns are in the mix.  You'd be surprised just how much work Juggler, Hat Tricker and Trick Clown put in.  That and with the exception of Nord and Derrick nobody at locals really knew how the deck works and with the exception of Nord nobody knows that Gorz exists.  Gorz may be yet another victim to power creep but he's one of the better older cards that when you don't know he's there can swing the game around.

Round 1 - vs Odd-Eyes Magicians (2-1)

Game 1 he summons Kirin and two Apex Avian and I take too much damage and lose to a Wavering Eyes.  Game 2 I make Omega and drop Gorz on him and he's unable to deal with them followed by me clearing his board of threats and summoning Vanity's Fiend Game 3 which he can't out.

Round 2 - vs Lightsworn (2-0)

I know I end up using Ghost Ogre to kill stuff both games and beat his face in with a bunch of big monsters.  I know I"m not being really elaborate here but this is Chaos Dragons.  If I'm not summoning big monsters, swinging and hoping for the best then I'm not winning.

Round 3 - vs Fuck off (2-1)

I end up being paired against some new guy who seemed really friendly which was nice as I was enjoying this day so far.  Then he played Wave Motion Cannon, then I attacked into a Banisher of the Light and he summoned D.D. Survivor and I lost any and all respect for him.  Game 2 he plays Dimensional Fissure and Gravity Bind meaning I'm up against a Banish Burn Stall deck.

Between Royal Decree, Denko Sekka and MST he never, EVER got to Burn or Banish me for the rest of the match.  He would later go on to discuss degenerate, non interactive deck theory with our resident shitty players who also play his kind of deck, making it quite clear that he will be heading down the path of a scrublord who only plays non interactive decks.  If you're looking to have a fun time playing Yu-Gi-Oh everyone's enjoying themselves, you're not going to be doing it playing a faggot deck.

Top 8 - vs PePe (2-0)

I'm up against Matt and Game 1's a bit hazy other than I think he opens with a weak board and I drop Dark Armed, force out his Veilers and kill him with Utopia Beyond while he was at under 3k LP.  I know I Maxx "C" him while he's in a bad spot and I draw into multiple Damage Jugglers so he scoops it up knowing he can't kill me through them and Gorz while drawing 5-6.

Or was it the other way around?

Top 4 - vs Kozmo (2-1)

Game 1 I opened pretty poorly for this matchup as while I do have Gorz, I don't have Maxx "C" or Damage Juggler to his E - Tele + a Pilot Summon and end up losing in 2 turns.  Game 2 on the other hand I open optimally as I have Ghost Ogre to play around his attempt to Emptiness Chain pilot into Dark Destroyer so he can't helmet me out of the game while later on I drop drop Gorz on another Dark Destroyer and tribute summon Vanity's Fiend and lock him out of the game instead.  Game 3 he opened with all of his sided cards, but no spaceships for a few turns so while I'm able to play the game, all he can do is just not die.  Eventually I start summoning Chaos Monsters and M7 and kill him with a big ass board.

Finals - vs PePe Magicians (2-1)

Game 1 he opens with a Joker set one pass and I open double Charge of the Light Brigade, Maxx "C" and BLS in hand so I'm off to the races while in Game 2 he's able to answer my multiple Gorz.  All I needed was for the bugger to stick on the board into my turn so that I could search Hat Tricker and tribute summon Vanity's Fiend so that he would HAVE to make his Dragonpulse Magician live in order to win but that doesn't happen.  Game 3 I make him go first and he opens up with a combo that ends the board with Psi-Blocker calling Raiden, Pleiades, Feral Imps, Trick Clown and 2 Scales to my hand of 2 MST, Lightpulsar Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer,and I forget what else other than my hand being not very optimal for dealing with a full board of monsters after waiting like 5 minutes to see made.  I know there was a draw spell in there as I was hoping to draw into Dark Hole or Raigeki but I don't.  Instead I shit out almost my entire hand to clear his Seraphinite, Pleiades and Trick Clown and end with an M7, LPD and my own Trick Clown with two MST set.  Turns out those MST were clutch as when he tried to Wavering Eyes I flipped both of them and completely shut down his play and clearly made him mad given the look I got for playing "bad" cards like MST, especially vs PePe to which I'm rolling my eyes inwardly (so sorry I don't have Twin Twister yet).  After that he makes a Castel and spins M7, I make a Dweller so he can't use Damage Juggler on his turn which also makes him upset because "Dweller is shit" to which I'm again facepalming inwardly before finally capping off this match with a topdecked REDMD that I hard Tribute Summon and use to bring back Lightpulsar Dragon to put him out of reach.  Ryan gets salty and that's the tournament.  He eventually apologizes but not going to lie I was a bit put off by how this ended when the honest truth of the matter is;

I did not win this match solely because of sacking.  I won it because I made some good choices in deckbuilding that were good against not only the meta but also rogue that just so happen to catch Ryan off guard because while he was playing with a certain mindset and expecting me to mirror it, I didn't and he lost because of it.  Remember folks, between the two of us I've shown a few times now I'm much more open minded in regards to decks/card choices and in the instances where our philosophies have clashed...I've won more matches than lost.

Props

-DERGONS

-Dropping big fucking monsters like it's 2012

-The look on peoples faces when they attacked into Gorz

-The look on Shard's face when he had to read Lightpulsar Dragon and saw REDMD in graveyard

-Watching Shard attempt to make LPD miss timing by...using Wicked Witch's protection effect while attacking him.

-Pushing Rich Clarke's Shard's shit in

-Damage Jugglering a Mirror Conductor.

-Beating Kozmos

-Beating Pepe.  Twice.

-Winning locals with a deck I literally made with the intention of suiciding with so I could get knocked out early and watch AGDQ.  I should not bother trying more often.

Slops

-Made a few misplays in what I banished for Chaos fodder while forgetting about Instant Fusion and M7.

-Milling power cards

-Games where I couldn't summon LPD where awful

-Bricking.  Happened a few times.

-FUCK THAT ROUND 3 GUY