Cardfight!! Vanguard - Major Tournament Results (Oct 27-28/18)

More teams, more Kool-Aid, more expensive promos.

3rd TriCrit VGCS (Standard - 38 Teams):

1st) NN/OTT (7-0)/AF (5-2)

2nd) SP (5-2)/Spikes (3-4)/NN (5-2)

3rd) AF/NN (6-1)/Murakumo

4th) Spikes/AF/NN

Clan Distribution: 

Royal Paladin - 8

Kagero - 10

Oracle Think Tank - 9

Nova Grappler - 1

Shadow Paladin - 6

Spike Brother - 4

Murakumo - 9 

Dimension Police - 2

Angel Feather - 20 

Neo Nectar - 26 

Gold Paladin - 9

Tachikaze - 3

Megacolony - 2

Dark Irregulars - 1

Pale Moon - 3

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Nakajima VGCS (Standard - 19 teams): 

1st) AF (7-0)/NN (7-0)/Murakumo (5-2)

2nd) Spikes (3-4)/GP (5-2)/AF (5-2)

3rd) NN/Spikes/AF (7-0)

4th) AF/NN/Murakumo

Clan Distribution: 

Royal Paladin - 1

Granblue - 1

Nova Grappler - 2

Oracle Think Tank - 3 

Tachikaze - 3

Kagero - 4

Spike Brother - 4 

Shadow Paladin - 5 

Gold Paladin - 6

Murakumo - 6

Angel Feather - 11

Neo Nectar - 11

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Credit to TeamAbsolution's Discord for the photos/data

It's unforunate that all we're seeing here are team tournaments as it makes it really difficult to ascertain just how good Neo Nectar and Angel Feather actually are outside of a format as...irregular as this one.  Now admittedly we're seeing very favourable records from both of these decks so theres a reasonable chance that they'll see some success in Singles play when a Standard Single Player event happens but I do have to wonder how well these will perform in a tournament where you'll probably have to consistently play against OTT, SP and Murakumo/RP as well as mirrors.

In any case what's clear to me is that above anything else is that Sunlight Garden's Guide is putting in a ton of work for Neo Nectar and the price of it has jumped accordingly;

80 Dollar playset of Cecilla?  Check.  120 dollar playset of SGG?  Wait what?

Did I mention that it's a promo card that the west is probably not going to get for the release of EB03?  I won't go so far as to say that Neo Nectar is unplayable without SGG but there is a noticeable difference in how efficiently the deck plays with and without it.  If I may be a bit bold I'd go so far as to say that without access to SGG Neo Nectar will likely fall below Angel Feather in the rankings and be the 2nd best performing deck of EB03 over here.

On an addition side note holy shit a Gold Paladin deck appeared!  Now granted this is teams so meme decks can be carried by better players piloting better dec-wait what, the Gold Paladin player helped carry Spikes in this tournament!?  What is this life I'm living?

Oh he isn't playing Ezel and instead is focused on Pellnore.  Okay now that makes sense.  Ezel's honestly an awful boss card for the deck and aside from getting the superior ride off going first and opening REALLY well (so highrolling then) he contributes little to nothing to your overall end goal and burns up way too many resources just for his gimmick.

That said the fact that GP was able to get a top in teams with a winning record already puts it above Aqua Force.  I do find it hilarious that both clans have the two worst VRs in the game and the superior builds of them don't run them.  I'm also scared because GP, AqF and Narukami were the second incarnation of "the big three" in the Asia Circuit arc and aside from all three being Accel two of these clans have shit VRs.  Oh dear.

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 26 Review

...nope.  I'm out.  Later guys.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Major Tournament Results (Oct 20-21/18)

Alright we're back and with the first set of results after the release of Ultra Rare Miracle Collection!  Will Gold Paladin finally do Accel good?  Are we all sleeping on Angel Feather?  Let's find out!

...but first here's a tournament that I didn't cover last week;

WGP Indonesia (Premium - 58 Players):

1st) Shadows (Luard)

2nd) DI (NLK)

3rd) DI (NLK)

4th) DP (D-Robo)

5th-8th) DI (NLK)/DI (NLK)/DI (NLK)/Spikes (Standard+**)

**Standard+ Spikes is used to describe using almost entirely V series cards with a G-Zone.

Now onto the good stuff;

WGP Osaka (Standard - Teams):

1st Place) RP (6-3)/OTT/NN (8-1)

2nd Place) RP/OTT (7-2)/NN (7-2)

3rd/4th Place: Angel Feather/Tachikaze/NN

3rd/4th Place: OTT/Murakumo/NN

1st Place RP (6-3)/OTT/NN (8-1)

9th VGCS Yashiro Cup  (Standard - 17 people):

1st) Shadows 

2nd) Angel Feather

1st place 

2nd Place

Traca Market VGCS (Japanese Standard - unknown player count): 

1st) Murakumo 

2nd) Angels 

3rd) Angels 

4th) Neo Nectar

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

10th Fuji Cup (Japanese Standard - 26 people):

Winner) Royal Paladin 

Clan Distribution: 

Neo Nectar - 5

Royal Paladin - 5

Kagero - 3

Angel Feather - 3

Megacolony - 2

Shadow Paladin - 2

Gold Paladin - 1

Aqua Force - 1

Pale Moon - 1

Granblue - 1

Murakumo - 1

Tachikaze - 1

1st Place

BCS Toronto (Standard)

1st) Murakumo

2nd) Kagero

3rd) OTT

4th) Kagero

BCS Toronto (Premium)

1st) NLK

2nd) Ange Trois

3rd) Coral

4th) Spikes (Standard+)

Credit to TeamAbsolution's Discord as usual for the data/pictures.

I literally cannot fathom why Royal Paladin keeps sneaking its way into tops.  The deck is not good!  The power of sack must be strong with these people or something.  Regardless we have some impressive showings from Neo Nectar and Angel Feather but I must remind everyone that this was the first weekend of a new set release and people are eager to try new things.  Give it another week or two in order to find out if NN or AF are the real deal or if OTT is still the queen of games.  Golds however were doomed to fail from the beginning and there's no salvaging them until Set 3.

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 25 Review

With this episode we are pretty much done the inaugural season of Cardfight!! Vanguard V and it was...meh.  This episode didn't help bring it home in an exciting way as despite the previous episode giving us a decent looking fight with some intrigue to go with it this one pretty much undermines it with shoddy animation, rigid looking characters and a plot decision that has made me surprisingly angry.

Jury's still out on how good this thing is.

Following up from last week we have more of Kai reflecting on himself as he realizes that he is indeed fighting an opponent equipped with PSY-Qualia which the last time it happened it was against Ren who was obsessed with beating him.  Kai ponders why he was fine with losing to Aichi back in episode 2 as he gets smacked in the face by Exculpate into Blaster Blade and remarks at how strong he's become.  Kai feels that he is weak now and believes that the match is a forgone conclusion since his opponent has magical plot hax powers when he hears a voice...from his cards...like Aichi did against Kyou.  That's right.  Kai Toshiki has awakened to PSY-Qualia.

This is literal horeshit.

I don't care if this is what happened in the Manga.  The fact that Kai gets PSY-Qualia when one of his defining traits is how much of a badass normal he is is completely and utterly stupid.  Kai's been always the character who could stand toe to toe with any character in the franchise now matter what kind of magical plot hax powers they have (and lose mind you) but now you give him those same powers?  This undermines what he's been all this time!  Someone who became strong on his own and wants to have serious fights.  Argh!

*Careless Whisper Intensifies*

With his newfound super chobram plot armour Kai is able to 6th damage Heal against Aichi, rides Dragonic Nouvelle Vague and uses its skill to wipe the board while gaining 20k, -1 drive with trigger sealing on top of it.  I hope you got all that because once again the anime didn't tell you this.  This whole "just the juicy bits" of detailing card interaction was one of the things that made G's fights so awful and they keep doing it here!  Kai flips a trigger and wins and we see that he finally got to have his earnest fight that he'd been wanting...through magical plot hax powers.  Good to see that you can't have a good card fight that involves wit and skill to win in this anime!

Card games in space?  I think I wrote a story about that.

After the fight we cut to Aichi, Morikawa and people we don't care about graduating from school with the former saying he'll be going to Miyaji High School which is where Misaki attends.  Emi and Kamui have also graduated from their schools and Shin decides to hold a shop tournament in celebration.  Aichi and Kai sit down for a game of casuals with Aichi winning but weeping.  Why?  Because Kai was happy the entire time.  Kai reflects on this by saying to himself that Aich has managed to turn the lives of everyone around him into something better, himself included and thus he has become everyone's Vanguard.  End episode.

Vanguard V is not the return to form that I was hoping it'd be when the announcement of a reboot was made.  Turns out that nostalgia pandering via a return to the OG cast/setting alone isn't enough to carry a Vanguard anime!  You also need things like good pacing and story structure, good antagonists and notably good card battles!

I bring this up because the fights in V were for the most part very predictable with a given fight being;

Player A Ride to Grade 1.  Player B rides to Grade 1 and swings.  A Ride to Grade 2 and do a skill and swing twice.  B Ride to Grade 2 and do a skill and swing twice, flip a trigger.  A Ride to Grade 3 and get a Gift, get a trigger.  B Ride to Grade 3 and get a gift and swing with everything, triggers occur.  A either Rerides to their super boss monster or just swings and goes for the kill and usually wins via a critical trigger.

Every.  Single.  Time.

There were a few exceptions to this and the one that I can still remember is Kai vs Koutei.  That was one of the few fights in this show where an emphasis on trying to outplay the other came up.  Koutei damage denied Kai and baited him into going neg in hand advantage in a gambit to beat him easier and it backfired.  Kai won with his usual trigger asspull because of course he does but the fight was thrilling.

V's pacing issues were another problem as story arcs went by way too quickly with the major fights resolving even faster.  One fight was all it took for Aichi vs Ren who was the big bad of the season no less!  I suspect this has to do with the now common 26 episode seasonal structure that makes up most anime shows now as the card anime that I often compare this show to had it's first season consist of nearly 50 episodes and the difference between the two becomes more apparent.  Unfortunately this isn't a thing I see changing anytime soon due to how the anime industry has changed since the time of OG Vanguard's run.

The music is also a huge let down.  V has it's moments now and then but this is one aspect that the later G series definitely excelled in as none of the character themes are as good as Chrono Fight, Tokoha Fight or Hayo Fight.  Add in the aforementioned shoddy fights and it's not that hard to kill any potential hype the viewer might have felt before watching the episode.

All in all Vanguard V while not as bad as GNext or GZ is definitely not as good as the original and its later seasons (well perhaps it's better than Asia Circuit but not by much) and reviewing these episodes has turned out to be more of a joykill than an actual joy.  I'm honestly not sure if I want to continue writing these even with the Miyaji arc coming up.  We'll see.  I'll review Episode 26 and we'll take it from there.  Until then.

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 24 Review

I liked this episode.  It doesn't do things that differently from the last couple but it does them well enough to make the watching experience enjoyable.  This episode is a Kai focused one and we once again take a look into the pasts of him and Aichi but with some more things expanded on while also seeing the fallout of the last couple of episodes in addition to setting up the final fight of the season: the rematch between Aichi and Kai.

You think you're a jerk here?  You should see how much of an asshole you are in OG and Asia Circuit!

Aichi defeats Ren who acknowledges him as a worthy opponent as the two nearly pass out from the strain of their fight.  Kai is also back on his feet as Aichi says he'll gladly fight Ren at any time now that he's not a yandere psychopath as we cut to the opening.  After it we see that Aichi's out with a fever and Kai likely was as well but rather than stay in bed and sleep it off he instead opts to revise his deck much to Miwa's surprise wheras Kai admitting that he was a jerk in trying to make Aichi quit doesn't shock him.  Honestly I was surprised to see him say this but that's character development for you.  V's character arcs are...a thing but Kai's is one of the better ones that we see.

It's called developing a personality generic anime girl that will never speak again.

Speaking of character development we see Aichi back in school the next day chatting it up with Morikawa about his fight with Ren which some nearby students comment on as until this point nobody has seen him act so happy.  In addition to this we see him stand face to face with Kai after accepting his challenge for a fight and not only maintain his composure but also embrace the situation they're in.  Miwa's description of their paths as "they met as friends, met again as mentor and student and now meet as rivals" is quite accurate (as well as a literal description of the evolution of their relationship throughout the 4 seasons of the OG series).  The fight itself also has a significant animation bump reminiscent of the beginning of the series with some fast paced action scenes that do a decent job of visually describing the pace of the fighting.

It's also during this fight that Aichi's PSY-Qualia manifests again and he tries to suppress it because he's against Kai but in another moment that surprised me the latter tells him to not hold back and use it instead while demanding an all out fight.  Emi is scared by this and asks why Kai wants to fight like this which makes him wonder the same thing.  Que another series of flashbacks about Kai moving away and meeting Ren and...wait, what?  They're showing us what caused him to move away?  Well that's a first.

I mean winning IS fun.

It turns out Kai's parents stole from the family company and high tailed it out leaving him behind.  He's taken in by someone who promises they'll get along but he shits on him behind his back and wants Kai taken off his hands.  Kai ends up in the care of another family but they also pass him off to someone else and the cycle repeats for years leaving him bitter.  Its during this time that Kai comes across a card shop and beats the local playerbase and is happy that he won while also discovering that at that shop there are none of the problems he has at home.  However it's because of this that he grew to become obsessed with winning which made him become the Kai that Ren encountered.

Futaba?  Is that you?

This is all being done while progressing the fight so as Kai is having his epiphany about why he grew to be such a tryhard Aichi proceeds to double crit him with is PSY-Qualia on full display but he isn't bothered by this.  The episode ends with Kai staring the viewer in the face as he figures out that his journey up to this point is why he was called the "Solitary Fighter."  Given what we now know about his history the name is sadly too fitting.  The nickname sounds cool to the people who don't know about Kai's past but to us it's now not so flattering.  I'll give the writers props for giving us an actual explanation as to why changed so much from the kid that Aichi met to the grouch that he is now as that kind of stuff would cause someone to become naturally jaded.  It also would make sense in the original continuity too given how little we know about Kai in that timeline.  Stay tuned for next week when we get our Season Finale as well as the continuation of this fight.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Major Tournament Results (Oct 6-7/18)

This one isn't going to be very large as there was only one tournament in Japan and two in the west;

2nd Hokkaido VGCS (Standard - 64 people):

1st) Royal Paladin 

2nd) Pale Moon

3rd) Tachikaze

4th) OTT

Clan Distribution:

Royal Paladin - 7 

Oracle Think Tank - 16

Shadow Paladin - 15

Kagerō - 10

Tachikaze - 2

Murakumo - 2

Pale Moon - 5

Dark Irregulars - 3

Spike Brothers - 2

Dimension Police - 1

Megacolony - 1

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Remember that this is after the release of the Mini Booster so RP had Exculpate The Blaster to work with in addition to new toy syndrome.  I would wait 1-2 more weeks to see if the deck actually is better now.

BCS Atlanta (Standard Singles)

Block A

1st) DP

2nd) OTT

3rd) OTT

4th) OTT

5th) OTT

6th) OTT

7th) DP

8th) Kagero

Block B

1st) OTT

2nd) OTT

3rd) OTT

4th) Kagero

5th) OTT

6th) OTT

7th) OTT

8th) OTT

THIS IS NOT OKAY.

BCS Atlanta (Premium Singles)

1st) Ange

2nd) Ichitom OTT

3rd) ???

4th) Ange

4 Ange, 2 OTT Gyze, 1 Ichitom and 1 Granblue made up the top 8.

Credit to TeamAbsolution's Discord for the info.

I have to point out that as usual Atlanta had some major fuck ups that affected peoples' records (a popular story is that many people went to the wrong tables and played their rounds so the judges gave everyone in the round a loss or something of that sort) but that being said jesus fucking christ OTT.  Once AL4 hits we'll be 5 months into the deck's reign over Standard with nothing being able to consistently beat it (Murakumo is favoured against it but it can still lose the matchup and thus is not a true OTT killer) and this is a level of dominance we haven't seen since Sanctuary Guard pre Swordmy errata.  Will OTT be able to surpass DOTE and maybe catch up to the infamous OCG Eradicators that caused EDD to get immediately banhammered?  Time will tell.