Cardfight!! Vanguard OCG Tournament Results - (July 28-29/18)

Our second weekend of the new format has not one but three Team Tournaments to look at!

BCF Hakata (Standard Teams): 
1st place) Nova Grappler/Kagero/Royals

Nova Grappler (5-1), Kagero (5-1), Royal Paladin (Unknown)

2nd TriCrits VGCS (Standard - 32 Teams). 
1st) Kagero/GB/OTT
2nd) Kagero/Megacolony/OTT
3rd) OTT/GB/Spikes
4th) Megacolony/GB/OTT

Clan Distribution:
21 Kagero
18 Oracle Think Tank
17 Granblue
10 Dimension Police
8 Spike Brothers
6 Megacolony
6 Royal Paladin
6 Aqua Force
4 Tachikaze


1st Place

Kagero (4-3), Granblue (4-3), OTT (5-2)

2nd Place

Kagero (6-1), Megacolony (Unknown), OTT (5-2)

3rd Place

OTT (7-0), Granblue (5-2), Spike Brothers (4-3)

4th Place

Megacolony (4-3), Granblue (1-6), OTT (4-3)

193 team VGCS
Oracle 14
kagero 14
DP  13
GB 9
Aqf  4
RP 3
Spike 3
tachi 3
Nova 2
Mega 1

1st) Kagero/Tachi/OTT
2nd) DP/Kagero/OTT
3rd) DP/GB/OTT
4th) Tachi/Kagero/Royals

1st Place Kagero (5-2), OTT (6-1)

2nd Place DP (4-3), Kagero (4-3), OTT (6-1)

3rd Place DP (5-2), Granblue (4-3)

4th Place RP (5-2)

Credit to TeamAbsolutionVanguard's Discord for providing the images.


Jesus that 2nd tournament.  So many awful records.  Was it a tough tournament or what?  Regardless so far it's looking like Granblue and Dimension Police are doing pretty well in the post EB02 format with both enjoying a fair amount of play and achieving some success (mind you most of the GB lists had pretty spotty records and we don't know how the DP decks on Sunday did) while Aqua Force are looking to be a flat out bust.  It doesn't help that Nova Grappler does what it wants to do better thanks to its new Promo Cards that North America should be getting right away.  OTT still looks to be the deck to beat regardless with Kagero following close behind.  The last slot of Tier 1 looks to be a fight between GB and DP and I'm looking forward to seeing how the dynamic changes next week.

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 13 Review

Episode 13 was actually heartbreaking all things considered as this focused on Kamui trying to overcome the ghosts of his past and falling short.  How did we get here though?  Well...

Kamui and Aichi race to Card Voyage as the former believes that Team Asteroid will attack it just like Capital which turned out to be true.  The two arrive just to see Gouki lose in the same brutal manner as Morikawa did last week at the hands of Kyou Yahagi who declares that Voyage is now under Asteroid's jurisdiction (although a question I still have is what would happen if the owner said "lolno get out kid") while saying that Gouki was a weak fighter.  Kamui recognizes him as the guy who beat him at his first locals which led to it being shut down and immediately makes the challenge as he reveals he's the strongest fighter of Voyage having beaten Gouki earlier.  Kyou mentions that he is a part of Team AL4 which means he's no ordinary opponent while Kamui says he's going to surpass his older, weaker self.  Fight on!

The hell is up with this animation?

The early portion of the fight is vanilla beats as none of the Murakumo units played use any of their effects aside from a Grade 2 that can attack back row units and both participants take hits that place them under extreme pain.  Kamui keeps up a tough front for the sake of Nagisa while Gouki watches in concern because of reasoning we'll see later.  Kamui rides to Perfect Raizer and immediately goes on the offensive with seven consecutive attacks that push Kyou pretty far but ultimately falls short of closing the game out.  Given that the opponent is at 5 damage and doesn't have any means of retiring outside of simply swinging he's got a chance to win this, right?

An artist's imaging of getting Extra Linked by Gouki.

Kyou rides Dueling Dragon - ZANBAKU and through the use of it, Left Arrestor and Right Arrestor puts Kamui under a lock that prevents him from standing his Vanguard and Re-Riding on his next turn.  Damn.  Murakumo gets VG stun and ride block?  Megacolony had to jump through hoops with strides to pull that off.  I wonder how overbalanced they're going to make this?  In any case Kyou goes on his own assault and flips double triggers like a god to put Kamui to five with 1 in hand and a near broken spirit.  Kamui repeats that he'll surpass his old self before losing on the next turn and finally breaking down at his inability to do anything as Aichi and Nagisa rush over to him.  Kyou declares that Kamui and his deck are weaklings and in the ultimate act of evil throws it on the ground.  Nagisa and Gouki get pissed about this with the former defending Kamui by saying he's not weak, but when pressed about why he couldn't win she too starts to break down.

And then Aichi stepped in.

Uh oh.  Someone's Plot Armour is on the verge of awakening.

Aichi, clearly not happy with what's going on as he's talking in his Season 3/4 voice tells Kyou straight up to pick Kamui's stuff up which he agrees to do if the former is able to beat him in a fight.  Aichi accepts and the episode ends with the two squaring off.  Given that the next episode is called Awaken!! PSY-Qualia and we see Soul Saver Dragon being played I can already tell that we're gonna see some crazy shit.

Cardfight!! Vanguard OCG Tournament Results - (July 21-22/18)

Only one tournament to report here but it's the first after the release of Asia Circuit and it's singles;

1st Tokai VG Off (Standard Solo - 72 players)
4 Rounds of Swiss + Round Robin between Top 5
1st) OTT 
2nd) Spikes 
3rd) GB 
4th) DP 
5th) RP

Clan Distribution:
12 Granblue
11 Aqua Force
11 Oracle Think Tank
10 Dimension Police
8 Tachikaze
7 Royal Paladin
6 Spike Brothers
3 Kagero
2 Megacolony
2 Nova Grappler


1st Place - Oracle Think Tank

2nd Place - Spike Brothers

3rd Place - Granblue

4th Place - Dimension Police

5th Place - Royal Paladin

Credit to TeamAbsolutionVanguard's Discord for providing the images.

I have to point out that this is the first weekend of a new set and therefore people are experimenting with the newly released decks.  Still it's interesting to see that Aqua Force did nothing despite its high numbers.  Also jesus that drop in Kagero players.  Did they all jump ship to DP?

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 12 Review

Would it be poor taste to say that things are getting serious given the context of this episode?  In any case Episode 12 is the official kick off of the Ren/AL4 arc of the manga and it's with this episode some things come to light while further intrigue is established.  Our resident edgelords are seen monitoring the area with plans to "invade" card shops with Voyage and Card Capital on the list.  Cut to Morikawa and co playing at Card Capital with the former on a hot streak when a mysterious white haired man in leather barges in asking to face the strongest fighter in a "serious Cardfight" with Card Capital's independence on the line.  Morikawa accepts because of course he would but the mysterious man gives him a pair of gloves and tells him to put them on.

We shift to Kamui waiting for Aichi and Emi to come with him to Card Capital (no Emi) which Aichi notes is quite the hike for him when there's likely a local cardshop that he could go do.  Kamui explains that its complicated while the two encounter Kai (who like Aichi and Misaki are decked out in their casual clothes) and Miwa as a blood curdling scream can be heard from inside.

Everyone rushes in to see Morikawa nearly passed out after losing to the mysterious man that proclaims himself to be a member of Foo Fighter Asteroid and basically goes into villain mode while Kamui explains who they are.  Asteroid are a group of Fighters that invade other shops, defeat the local playerbase and install their own while promoting "serious" Cardfights where people feel pain from taking damage which in the case of Kamui's locals caused the players to leave and the shop to shut down.  This turns out to be what made Kamui go on his journey to get stronger in order to someday defeat Asteroid which led him to Card Voyage and Capital.  He declares that he'll defeat the mysterious man but is terrified at the prospect of putting on the gloves again when a very pissed off Kai steps in and makes the challenge instead.

Kai is reliving his PTSD of the last episode he wore this jacket

The fight is honestly typical fare as the mysterious man who is actually Minami Kawanami the Megacolony player of the series trades blows with Kai who gets electrocuted to the horror of ongoers while proclaiming that a "serious" fight like this is the only way to go or some spiel like that.  Kai finally snaps after being pushed to high damage and utters things that all but tell us he knows who is behind this invasion and he's pissed that things haven't changed.  Jesus.  I think it's been a good few years since we've seen the Kai character get this furious.  Turns out insulting the integrity of the game triggers him greatly.  Who'd have figured.

You're uh, looking kinda Eva-like there Ogrelord.

Kai's turn comes up and he rides Dragonic Overlord in the most hot blooded manner possible and just fucks Minami's shit up with some incredibly badass animation.  It's hard to tell what exactly happened since Overlord's attack got PG'd but I can only assume that Kai called one as a Rear and that's what got blocked while the Vanguard flipped crits, restood and flipped more crits.  All I know is rather than actually lose Minami gets the hell outta dodge along with his lackies before the fight can finish.  Kai tells Kamui and Aichi not to get involved with Asteroid and leaves as the two discuss the possibility of them returning or invading other shops.  Kamui immediately realizes that Voyage could be in danger and true enough we see another trio of Asteroid players standing outside Voyage and wouldn't you know, it's Kyou! 

I legit wonder what would happen if someone just said "lolwtf, no.  Gtfo" to these guys.

Next week's episode should be an interesting one as we get to see the debut of Murakumo under the reboot and with it a chance at a new lease on life for what is considered to be the biggest butt monkey clan in the entire game.  It's actually fitting that Kyou gets saddled with Murakumo as if he and the deck are portrayed as fearsomely competent then it'll be another feather in the cap for the Reboot and if the two are portrayed as jokes then well we're back to square one.  Keep your fingers crossed the one person who actually plays Murakumo.

Cardfight!! Vanguard OCG Tournament Results - Destructive Roar Format

Not really much I can say here.  I think in addition to posting reviews of the Anime Reboot that I'll also post decklists from Japan's tournaments given that their environment is generally much more competitive than ours and tends to be where all the broken combos are discovered or innovative techs come up.  It's basically the opposite of what happens with Yu-Gi-Oh!

Now then this initial post is going to be huge as I have a couple weekends worth of tournaments to cover and these are almost all Team Format.  After this it'll be whatever pops up on the previous weekend (if possible).  Let's begin;

Sendai G BCF 2018 Tournament
Side Event, Standard Team Tournament

1st Place: Tachikaze/Oracle Think Tank/Royal Paladin

God VGCS Standard Format Teams Event (40 teams - 120 players)
Winner: OTT/Kagero/Spikes
2nd Place: OTT/Kagero/Spikes
3rd/4th Place: Tachi/Kagero/OTT
3rd/4th Place: Kagero/Tachi/RP

Clan Distribution:
Kagero 29
Tachikaze 26
Oracle 23
Royal Paladin 18
Spike Brothers 12
Megacolony 5
Nova Grappler 5
2 deck-sheets not submitted

1st Place

Aoba VGCS Standard Solo Event (54 Players)

1st Place: OTT

2nd Place: OTT

3rd Place: OTT

4th Place: Kagero 

5th-8th Place: 3 Kagero/1 Megacolony 

Clan Distribution:

11 Royal Paladin 

10 OTT

1 Nova Grappler 

7 Tachikaze 

6 Spike Brothers 

2 Megacolony 

17 Kagero

1st Place


2nd Place


3rd Place


4th Place



1st Triple Critical VGCS (Standard Teams - 30 teams):
1st) Kagero/OTT/Royals
2nd) Tachikaze/OTT/Kagero
3rd) Royals/OTT/Kagero
4th) Megacolony/Spikes/Tachi

Clan Distirbution:
9 Royal Paladin
24 Kagero
2 Nova Grappler
20 Oracle Think Tank
15 Tachikaze
8 Megacolony
12 Spike Brothers

1st Place




2nd Place (Tachis went 6-1, Kagero went 2-5)




3rd Place




4th Place




BCF Nagoya 2018 (Standard, Team format)
1st place) Megacolony/Royals/Kagero

1st Place




193 VGCS (Standard - Team Format, 22 Teams)
1st) OTT/Tachikaze/Spikes
2nd) OTT/Kagero/Spikes
3rd) Kagero/Tachikaze/Royals
4th) OTT/Tachikaze/Kagero

Top 8 distribution:
7 Kagero
6 OTT
5 Tachikaze
5 Spikes
1 Royals

1st Place




2nd Place

3rd Place




4th Place





15th Yamato VGCS (Standard - 53 Teams):

1st) OTT/Spikes/Kagero
2nd) OTT/Tachikaze/Nova Grapper
3rd) OTT/Tachikaze/Kagero
4th) Royals/OTT/Kagero

Clan Distribution:
OTT- 43
Kagero - 40
Royal Paladin - 25
Tachikaze - 19
Spikes - 16
Megacolony - 7
Nova Grappler - 3

1st Place (Spikes went 6-2, Kagero went 6-2)




2nd Place (OTT Went 6-2, Tachis went 2-6, Novas went 6-2**)



** This list is designed specifically to beat OTT and Kagero since they're the two best decks in the format.

3rd Place (OTT went 6-2, Tachis went 5-3, Kagero went 7-1)





4th Place (Royals went 6-2, OTT went 4-4,




Credit to TeamAbsolutionVanguard's Discord for providing the images.

And that's all of them.  Given that ARG Nationals is going to be based under this format anyone looking to compete should give these lists a glance to see if they can be a help of you.

This weekend is also the release of Champions of the Asia Circuit and I'm curious to see how Dimension Police, Granblue and Aqua Force fare in the format.  DP has alot of hype behind it and AqF is looking to be a "better Nova Grappler" which as we're starting to see here is starting to bounce back as an Anti-Protect deck.