Cardfight!! Vanguard - OCG Tournament Results (Dec 22-23/2018)

Yeah I think I'm gonna just stick with reporting what comes out of the east with the occasional western bit.  Also tournaments happened this weekend including singles.  Not in Japan mind you.  Pretty sure at this point they play strictly teams now.

WGP Malaysia (Standard - 378 people): 

1st) Murakumo

2nd) Narukami

3rd) Royal Paladin

4th) Oracle Think Tank

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

WGP Korea (Standard - Unknown Player Count): 

1st) Royal Paladin

2nd) Murakumo 

3rd) Angel Feather

4th) ?????

1st Place

WGP Malaysia (Premium - unknown player count): 

1st) Dimension Police

1st Place

WGP Oyakama (Premium - Unknown Player Count): 

1st) DI (presumably NLK)

2nd) Unknown

3rd) OTT (Magus IchiTom)

4th) GN (Monocle Rhino Zoa)

3rd Place

4th Place

East Japan VG Cup (Standard - 39 Teams): 

1st) RP [6-2]/AF [6-2]/OTT [5-3]

2nd) OTT [5-2-1]/AF [8-0]/RP [6-2]

3rd) RP [7-1]/OTT [5-3]/AF [5-3]

4th) NK/AF/OTT (no records)

Clan Distribution:

Royal Paladin - 18

Neo Nectar - 10

Kagero - 2

Genesis - 2

Spike Brothers - 2

Oracle Think Tank - 32

Angel Feather - 23

Nubatama - 3

Narukami - 11

Gold Paladin - 8

Great Nature - 6

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Credit to the Team Absolution Discord Server for the results/images.

Now that we're two weeks into the new format we can see that OTT is once again the most played deck in the game although Angel Feather is still doing its thing and very strongly at that.  What's really surprising to me is the complete lack of Neo Nectar in the Malaysia and East Japan Cup top cut as the deck was still doing so strongly beforehand (mind you Post Set 3 RP can now play the same way with consistent big as fuck lines except you also have finishing power with Monarch/Exculpate).  No Nubatama is what I expected as after failing to break in last week it's no surprise that their numbers are down as a whole.  RP has seen a massive spike in play and tops after this new set and Golds...well they're trying.  I'm pleasantly surprised to see two Narukami pop up so the deck at least has something going for it after week 1 hype has passed.  Both topping lists played exclusively fronts which I'm starting to warm up to after hearing a good reason as to why these lists are using them over crits: Fronts and the aggro playstyle they encourage work really well in a Best of One Format such as 3v3 and WGPs.  In formats where you're playing Best of Three consistently then Crits will probably suit you better.

Cardfight!! Vanguard V - Episode 34 Review

The AL4 Electric Boogaloo arc finally kicks off with an episode that is all about a character that most casual viewers are probably more used to seeing with the G Series cast rather than OG in the form of Koji Ibuki.  His was an interesting case as he was originally a villain exclusive to the Manga that migrated into anime canon where his character arc proceeded to change dramatically compared to how the rest of the Manga played out.  Thus it's going to take a bit for me (and alot of us) to come to terms with the fact that Ibuki is actually an antagonist right now and will be one for the foreseeable future.

Suiko: (This gives me an idea for a FF.net submission...)

Following the events of last week we see Ibuki mock Aichi and ward off Naoki's attack before apologizing after Misaki called him out.  Upon telling this story to Kai and Miwa they reveal that he's someone they knew and their "Vanguard" in the same vein that Aichi is to the rest of the people in Card Capital at the moment (Misaki, Kamui, Naoki, Shingo and so on).  We cut back to Ibuki encountering Tetsu and Suiko with the former admitting he's had people watch him closely while he went about defeating all of the low to mid tier players at Fukuhara.  We also learn that Ibuki has only recently started playing Vanguard again after quitting a long while ago and furthermore people who fight him lose any interest in the game afterwards.  Tetsu throws down the gauntlet and Ibuki agrees to fight him and with this we get to see the official anime debut of Deletors outside of a Movie setting (and that one moment we saw G Ibuki fight Shadow Ibuki during the finale of GZ).

My lord how much would this IMR sell for?

While this is going on we see Suiko manifest a glyph on her forehead that is similar to the one Takuto has which I suspect allows him to see the fight in some capacity.  We also have Tetsu going wtf over Ibuki's Eldritch Abominations before a timely cutaway to Kai and Miwa because let's not actually showcase wave 2 Dark Irregulars or how Link Joker will function in the Vanguard Reboot.  Admittedly this is a follow up to the beginning of the episode where Kai turned down Morikawa's invitation to participate in the Vanguard Koshien which Miwa pokes fun at him regretting the decision before the subject of Ibuki comes up.  Turns out that he was the one that taught the two how to play Vanguard and it was through him that Kai got the Blaster Blade that eventually went to Aichi.  The three of them had a grand old time until Kai had to move away and Miwa fell out of contact with the two of them and after hearing from Aichi how Ibuki is acting now there's something not right going on here.

This is not the Gundam I imagined Setsuna becoming.

Tetsu is still creeped out by all these weird alien dudes as he rides to King of Masks, Dantarian whose effects we don't see much of other than some level of field buffing.  He makes a charge but Ibuki is able to pull through it (while also showing us that Link Joker's triggers in this set are the generic ones that appeared in Fateful Star Messiah and Sovereign Star Dragon) but Tetsu is less than impressed at what he's been fighting so far.  Then Ibuki turns on his PSY-Qualia, rides Docking Deleor, Greion and Deletes Tetsu's Vanguard.  Oh god they really did bring back the Delete mechanic and it's in a Force Clan.  Takuto is also gobsmacked as how it works is the same as before, the opponent's Vanguard loses all power and it's effects are negated as Ibuki goes on the offensive and flips triggers to blow Tetsu out because why would you no guard a PSY-Qualia user after seeing Ren in action!?

Tetsu obviously loses here to the shock of everyone watching and asks Ibuki wtf is his deck to which he gets a "pfft, I dunno."

Seems legit.

Ibuki says it's thanks to Deletors he can play Vanguard again even though he hates it and leaves while Tetsu comes to the realization that his connection with the cards has been severed much like the people before him.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Major Tournament Results (Dec 9-16/2018)

It's been a good while hasn't it?  Welp let's take a look at what's going on in this short little format we're going to have until BT04 power creeps the fuck out of everything.

Inari VGCS (Standard - 32 Teams):

1st) GN/DP/AF

2nd) AF/NN/OTT

3rd) AF/Mura/NN

4th) GN/NN/AF (no list)

Clan Distribution:

Angel Feather - 22

Neo Nectar - 18

Great Nature - 11

Oracle Think Tank - 8

Gear Chronicle - 8

Murakumo - 6

Dimension Police - 5

Kagero - 4

Tachikaze - 4

Genesis - 4

Shadow Paladin - 2

Royal Paladin - 2

Megacolony - 1

Spike Brothers - 1

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

193 VGCS, Bo1 all the way through (Standard - 32 Teams):

1st) AF/Narukami [6-1]/OTT [4-3]

2nd) OTT [5-2]/AF/NN

3rd) AF/RP [3-4]/Narukami

4th) OTT/Kagero/GP

Clan Distribution:

Royal Paladin - 14

Oracle Think Tank - 16

Angel Feather - 14

Great Nature - 4

Nova Grappler - 1

Neo Nectar - 9 

Gold Paladin - 11

Narukami - 10

Tachikaze - 2

Gear Chronicle - 2

Kagero - 1 

Genesis - 1

Spike Brothers - 2 

Nubatama - 3 

Pale Moon - 2 

Shadow Paladin - 1 

Murakumo - 2

Megacolony - 1

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Cosmo VGCS (Standard - 33 Teams):

1st) NN/GC/AF

2nd) RP/Narukami [6-2]/Genesis 

3rd) RP/OTT [5-3]/AF

Clan Distribution:

Royal Paladin - 14

Narukami - 11

Gold Paladin - 10

Neo Nectar - 10

Angel Feather - 10

Genesis - 7

Oracle Think Tank - 7

Nubatama - 6

Gear Chronicle - 5

Great Nature - 4

Dimension Police - 3

Pale Moon - 3

Spike Brothers - 2

Kagero - 2

Shadow Paladin - 2

Aqua Force - 1

Murakumo - 1

Tachikaze - 1

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

Credit to the TeamAbsolution Discord for providing the Results and Pictures

Once again I have to point out that it's the first weekend after set release and people are trying out their shiny new toys so naturally there will be a higher number of decks like Narukami and Royal Paladin being played.  There are some things I can take away from this though;

-Standard OTT (Imperial Daughter + Ammy + Deer) seems to be the better variant still compared to Magus and Witch.  No Coco decks appeared in any of the topping lists and Pentagonal Magus is only in one list and it was in the team that got 4th.

-Narukami seems to be performing better than I expected but I'm still cautiously optimistic.  The one build that went 6-1 is pretty impressive since the B player of a team will usually face a fair amount of Tier 1 Decks and is also the player that the rest of the team has act as their Heart.  The 6-1 Build ran a mixture of Fronts and Crits and the 6-2 build did the same which I can see the reasoning behind but I just can't bring myself to fully commit to.  Fronts feel so win more in Narus since they only make your good board better but don't help your worse boards climb out of the hole you're in like crits would.  Vermillion also is seeing some play as a 1-2 of which I'm going to assume is strictly as an Ant-Accel matchup where it's more efficient to CB2 and retire 3-4 RGs in the front and attack the Vanguard rather than burn multiple Scythe/Reckless/Stingers.

-Nubatama is underachieving like I expected seeing as they got the Nova Grappler treatment of this set.  Magatsu combo and Hand Attack don't seem to mesh well together and the latter (and arguably more dangerous) build lacks the ability to actually punch your opponent's teeth in due no crit gaining/restanding/etc.  You can make your opponent lose 5 cards but that's not very scary when they're at 1-2 damage because they guarded early.  That's also assuming you don't get bodied by early game rush either.  If Narukami can be considered to be mediocre then Nubatama look underwhelming.

-Royal Paladin is still in the same spot as before, it's just more consistent at its beatdown (but still loses to OTT and AF).

-Neo Nectar and Angel Feather aren't going anywhere.

Now if you'll excuse me I have some Narukami lists to test.