Figured I'd not wait until Wednesday to actually put these up;
Nakano VGCS (Standard - 64 people)
1st) AF
2nd) NN
3rd) NN
4th) NN
5th-8th) NN/AF/Kumo/GN
Clan Distribution:
12 - Neo Nectar
10 - Angel Feather
8 - Great Nature
5 - Gear Chronicle
5 - Spike Brothers
3 - Genesis
3 - Murakumo
2 - Royal Paladin
2 - Kagero
2 - Tachikaze
1 - Shadow Paladin
1 - Gold Paladin
WGP Kanazawa (Premium - Unknown Player Count):
1st) GP Ezel
2nd) DI
3rd) DI
4th) DP
1st Place
2nd Place
4th Place
WGP Kanazawa (Standard - Unknown Teams):
1st) Murakumo/NN/AF [6-2]
Kagura VGCS (Standard - 48 Teams)
1st) AF [5-3]/NN/OTT [5-3]
2nd) AF [5-3]/OTT [5-3]/NN [5-3]
3rd) Genesis/GN/AF
4th) NN/AF/GC [5-3]
Clan Distribution:
32 - Neo Nectar
26 - Angel Feather
17 - Great Nature
10 - Spikes/OTT/GC
8 - Murakumo
7 - Royals/Genesis
4 - Shadow
2 - DP/MC/PM/AqF/Tachikaze
1 - DI/Kagero/NG
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
Credit to TeamAbsolution's Discord for posting the pictures/results.
Well now. New toy syndrome wore off hella fast with Genesis and Gears seeing a drop off in play and freaking Great Nature being the most popular clan of EB04. Japan sure loves their gatcha decks I guess. That being said despite Great Nature seeing as much (or more) play than GE and GC combined it's not able to convert these numbers into top place finishes as Neo Nectar and Angel Feather can. Anyway that's all for now.
Following last week's really good episode because of Naoki we get more...Naoki! Ok that works for me. He trashes Morikawa's Spike Brothers (which admittedly seems iffy) and he talks about his new finisher while Misaki continues to be mopey about her situation with the Club. Naoki is the opposite of this as he's now legit hyped to be going to school because of Vanguard and his newfound friendship with Aichi which is shown in a more upbeat attitude that confuses the hell out of the other students. Bonus points to the writers for having Naoki fight Morikawa here as these two characters basically had the same character arc occur albeit for different reasons. Little things like these are what I appreciate.
Naoki is further proving he's the Joey of this franchise by making his own meme faces.
After the OP we see our current three Club members eating lunch together with some witty banter between Kourin and Naoki when Aichi notices they're being watched by a creeper. Given that Kourin is there this kind of thing is no surprise and to punctuate this we have more of her fans coming up to join the club. Naoki eagerly jumps in to be the gatekeeper and wins against one of the mooks in the most over the top fashion while the creeper watches on, gets angry that the club will likely be ruined because of him and laments about his idol.
This may or may not have been me when I finally achieved the dream of flipping all trigs on a Zillion turn.
Naoki gets called out for his behavior seeing as he becomes legit scary while hamming it up which he is both shocked and appalled about before being headbutted off the screen by our creeper. Aichi recognizes him as Shingo Komoi who is only too excited by this, accidentally drops his deck and immediately proceeds to rip Naoki a new one over his actions threatening "his idol's club." Naoki doesn't take kindly to this and challenges him to a fight which Shingo gladly accepts, eager to show his idol "my cool fighting techniques." Naoki meanwhile is eager to give him a beatdown which leads to the both of them laughing like villains as the fight begins and it's Narukami vs Nubatama.
This is an IMR that we now need.
One of the biggest questions coming into this series was how Nubatama were going to be handled as the two things it did pre-reboot (Hand Attack and Dominate) were fucking cancer and would have been terrible things to bring into standard. This episode doesn't really give us enough to get a concrete answer but it does seem at the very least neither of it's old gimmicks are being used here as during his Grade 2 turn Shingo is able to bounce his units back to hand Bermuda Triangle style. That's neat as it means you don't have to worry about the opponent damage denying you or retiring your stuff but at the same time why would you leave your front row open against Narukami. Naoki promptly rushes him down and pushes Shingo to 4 damage going into his Grade 3 turn in which the formerly Murakumo boss unit Magatsu Storm enters the fray.
Power Rangers Ninja Storm theme intensifies.
We also see Stealth Dragon Voidmaster return as not a 9k Grade 3 with the ability to lock intercepts which is a very Narukami thing to do oddly enough as well as more of his units returning back to hand at the end of the turn. So the deck is basically Afterimage but only the end of turn effect? Either way the other Club members comment on Shingo being an actual legit player which gets him all riled up as hearing that kind of praise from Aichi and Kourin makes his "long Vanguard journey worth it." He elaborates on this by saying he played the game constantly as a kid but upon coming to the academy he was shocked to find that Vanguard wasn't a thing there much like Aichi was a few episodes ago. Shingo still played games with his brother but was otherwise feeling bleak about it when something shocking happened recently. Naoki asks if it was Kourin's arrival to the class and angrily tells the "creepy stalker" that he's going to finish him this turn with his new finisher: Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion.
Okay I'll admit. Seeing this made me happy.
Vermillion's skill seems to give it a conditional +5k and Crit and nothing else is known since Shingo kept his front row clear. Hopefully this works on V/R and comes with some kind of removal skill. Probably not since he's likely a RR. Regardless Naoki goes all out with a pretty decent board that'd kill Shingo if Magatsu Storm didn't have the ability to retire two of its Rear-Guards to...perfect guard!? It alongside the rest of his hand is able to ward off Naoki's push turn it probably would have lost to Detonix Drill Dragon though much to his grudging respect. Shingo takes the moment to correct his assumption that he's stalking Kourin as his "idol" when the guy has no interest in "an average fighter who is the least friendly member of ULTRARARE with lukewarm popularity at best."
Yu-Gi-Oh! may have the set called "Savage Strike" but Shingo here "Savage Struck" Kourin.
...I'll see myself out.
This does not sit well with her but Shingo doesn't care as he continues his backstory from where Naoki cut him off and ultimately reveals that his idol is Aichi instead. His game against Leon at the beginning of this season was inspiring to him and he was excited that the Asia Circuit Champion was in the same class as him. They were even going to be friends as he would swoop in and join the Cardfight!! Club to keep it afloat. But then the Fire Nation attacked Naoki did it first and now he's mad at him for it. He won't stand by as a ruffian like him ruins the club and all that! Thus through the power of anger and anime he proceeds to wreck Naoki's face in by...multi attacking with a Protect Clan in Standard format? There's alot to take in here as one of the Grade 2s is able to gain +10k for a discard and it seems Voidmaster can tag itself to bounce a unit post battle in which Magatsu Storm lets the player superior call units in Battle Phase with +5000 and it's enough to end the game despite Naoki hitting a defense trigger. Man Pale Moon players must me furious right now.
Naoki needs my patented Imaginary Gift of Disappointment. Perfect for all Naru players out there!
Aichi asks Shingo to join the club which he happily accepts. Naoki also takes his loss pretty well and we get the start of their "friendship" that will provide some meme faces I'm sure. Aichi notes that the club just needs one more member to become official and we all know what that means.
It's time for Oracle Think Tank to regain it's former glory once again. All hail the return of Deer God!
It's the first weekend of Answer of Truth. Will Gears be the broken cancer of the format that salty/scrub players think they are? Is Genesis truly the best deck out of the new set? Let's find out!
WGP Tokyo (Premium - Unknown Player Count)
1st) NLK Assasin
2nd) Angel Gyze
3rd) Luard
WGP nagoya (Premium - Unknown Player Count)
1st) RP
2nd) ???
3rd) Angel Gyze
1st Place
3rd Place
Aoba VGCS (Standard - 21 Teams):
1st) NN [6-1]/AF/Genesis [5-2]
2nd) NN/GN [4-3]/Gears
3rd) SB/AF/RP
Clan Distribution:
Royal Paladin - 6
Oracle Think Tank - 3
Angel Feather - 11
Shadow Paladin - 5
Gold Paladin - 3
Genesis - 5
Kagero - 1
Tachikaze - 2
Dimension Police - 1
Spike Brothers - 4
Dark Irregulars - 2
Pale Moon - 2
Gear Chronicle - 4
Megacolony - 1
Great Nature - 5
Neo Nectar - 8
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
Hoori VGCS (Standard - 18 Teams):
1st) AF/OTT/GN
2nd) AF/NN/SB
3rd) NN/Genesis/AF
Clan Distribution:
Neo Nectar - 13
Royal Paladin - 1
Gear Chronicle - 2
Genesis - 3
Shadow Paladin - 2
Pale Moon - 1
Tachikaze - 5
Spike Brothers - 2
Great Nature - 6
Oracle Think Tank - 6
Angel Feather - 13
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
Nagoya WGP standard
1st) Genesis [7-2]/DP [6-3]/Gears [6-3]
2nd) [Not found yet]
3rd)Spikes/NN/AF
1st Place
Credit to the TeamAbsolution Discord for providing info/pictures.
Turns out when Gear Chronicle isn't one of the top decks of a format it sees less play. Who would have figured. People are still going to REEEEE over the mere mention of them because of the PTSD they still have over Time Leap and ZtB however. In any case these results as usual need to be taken with a grain of salt given its release weekend and people are trying things out as evidence by Great Nature seemingly doing well one day but then vanishing the next. Gears are performing okayish and Genesis are competing in spite of their lower numbers. Neo Nectar and Angel Feather are still the decks to beat based on the sheer number of them in these tournaments which goes to show that if a clan is REALLY good lots of people will play it. Go figure.
I'm now 100% convinced that Narukami mains make just about any episode of the anime enjoyable. Between Naoki and Henri we've had some of the most memorable and arguably best characters show up. Their fights are entertaining, they have the most grounded character arcs in a season (Henri wasn't fighting to save the world from magic card game demons, he just wanted to keep his school's club open while also making Shion and Rin slightly less insufferable to watch) and are generally the most hot blooded/macho character in their group. Seriously if you want a good episode or two of Vanguard, just throw in a Narukami main and it just works. Even the side characters like the Dragon Empire Leader or the Eradicator guy from G were badass in the few times they fought.
With that said much of this episode focuses on the fight between best boi Naoki and one of two girls fighting for best in Kourin while Misaki is dragged into the classroom to watch. Despite having a deck already made this is of course his first fight and serves as the tutorial for this season (though it's not as egregious as the ones we've had before) so we get to see him make the mistake of not drawing for turn and getting sharked and disqualified in Manilla and whatnot.
What? Were you expecting Ezel with boobs? Go buy a mat from The Solemn Vanguard if that's your thing then.
Kourin decides to go for the kill early and superior rides Blond Ezel to Naoki's Grade 1 and rushes the hell out of him. People comment on him being put in a bad spot but anyone who has seen Standard Golds know that what just happened is the literal extent of what the Ezel deck can do (for now). He's still triggered however and we get to see a flashback involving him and...his brother!? Turns out manga Naoki has more issues than "I didn't try to stop people from picking on Aichi and they think I'm a thug" as we also have an older brother that's on his case for his already established lack of motivation in life. This brings him back to Aichi and how he's changed because of Vanguard to the point that Naoki is willing to try it to achieve a similar result.
Seeing this makes me considerably less bitter than usual.
Well he certainly puts a stamp on that by riding Recklessness Dragon and showing off Standard Narukami's ability to bind front row units ala the Dragonic Vanquisher deck which in the context of this format can be pretty brutal as it's basically the same as Banish from YGO. If Granblue wasn't considered a dead deck in the format by this point, now it's definitely boned. Back to the fight and Naoki counter rushes Kourin to bring the game back to 3-4 in his favour. We get another turn of her trying to close out the game and coming up short as it's Naoki's turn again where he wonders to himself if Shinn's strategy really is going to work or not. Did someone say flashback scene? Truth be told its just Naoki learning the basics of the game from Shinn while still desperately wanting to defeat Aichi. Shinn proceeds to grab a card from a lockbox that'll be good for his deck and it turns out to be none other than the "obese" Great Composure Dragon.
Would you believe me if I said this was the optimal backup in Vanquisher until G-BT12?
Damn he worked off that potbelly! Everyone proceeds to freak out over GCD hitting the board with Misaki explaining to whats her face that said unit is very useful in this situation and we see that Kourin definitely is not impressed. In the manga the reason for this is that GCD's 12k base was just simply too much of a wall for Kourin's deck to overcome because she wasn't able to make magic numbers (when this chapter came out the standard deck of the format usually made 16k lanes with its rearguards which GCD could easily block with a simple 5k shield. It was basically a Cross Ride in a format where Cross Ride stats were really good). GCD V seems to gain power for each open R in the front row and with it Naoki is able to push Kourin to 5 who immediately fills up her ranks on the following turn to counteract it.
This is just asking to get Vermillion'd.
She goes for another kill swing and even hits a front trigger but Naoki is still able to survive the push (and with his units in tact) because once again Standard Gold Paladin are awful. Everyone in the room is impressed and Naoki excitedly tells Aichi that he's enjoying Vanguard which of course makes him happy while Lizard Soldier, Riki hits the board. His effect is basically a MUCH better version of Dure Scrap Dragon's "GET OVER HERE" ability as he moves multiple units to the front/back while also getting +3k and we also see Photon Bomber Wyvern get a conditional +10k. This also turns Great Composure Dragon back online so Kourin now has to deal with multiple fuckoff huge columns pre-trigger check! Kourin loses and Naoki is now in the club. Couldn't happen to a better character. The three of them quickly become friends including our new bromance of the season seeing as Kai and Kamui will be appearing less frequently for a while.
If the deck is able to make these numbers without triggers after V-BT03's release, it has a chance.
We cut to Card Captial where Naoki is asking Shinn for flashier cards while Aichi confirms that he indeed had a hand in building the deck used today. There's also a moment of friendship building between Aichi and Naoki while we see Misaki sulk some more outside the shop because she's doing "nothing at all" which brings about an end to the episode.
This was definitely one of the better ones of the show as it was a simple story of Naoki wanting to join the club, own up to mistakes he made as a kid regarding Aichi being bullied while also wanting to change as a person after seeing how much Vanguard affected someone else. This ultimately leads to his hot blooded personality coming to the front and will be the basis of his character for the rest of the season. The fight itself was okay with a decent amount of card effects being actually explained to the viewer (though most of Naoki's cards were kept secret because Bushiroad's gotta drag out these COTD reveals somehow!) and there was some actual strategy employed here albeit unintentionally. Naruakmi's standard playstyle looks promising and I'm doubly excited to see next week's episode where we'll have the return of Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion who will ultimately be used in a losing effort. Rip.
