Cardfight!! Vanguard - Major Tournament Results (Jan 26-27/2019)

It's a new format!  Yes it is!  Set 4 is now out and the first weekend of results are in which means...a grain of salt will be needed as people are going to be experimenting with the new stuff.  Just like with Set 3 and all that.  However just like with Set 3's release weekend this is the pivotal moment to see how the new cards measure in the scope of a format as here when people are most willing to experiment with a new clan or a second wave of support and if that clan isn't able to succeed on some level (or yield a high number of players) then people will be discouraged from trying to make what appears to be a bad deck work and go back to what they know will win.  This is what happened to the Nubatama Clan and Oracle Think Tank's Magus/Witch support when Set 3 came out as these decks failed to break into the metagame and were abandoned pretty quickly.  Another thing to note is that this past weekend had a tournament held under the "Two Deck Format" which to make a long story short is similar to Conquest Format from Hearthstone;

-Best of 3 Format
-Both players bring two decks.  Their Main Deck and their 2nd Deck.  Must be different Clans
-The player who wins Game 1 must switch to their 2nd Deck.  The loser can switch to their 2nd Deck or stick with their main.
-The first player to win with both Clans wins the match.

That is the jist of it but there's alot of nuance to the format that makes me eager to try it as we'll see in the results.

Crystal VGCS (Standard - 24 People minimum): 

1st) Neo Nectar 

2nd) Shadow Paladin 

3rd) Gold Paladin 

4th) Angel Feather 

5th-8th) SP/GP/GN/OTT

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

Malaysia GiFT VGCS 02 (Standard - 55 People): 

Format was "2 Deck Fight" (1st deck/2nd deck).

1st) SP/GN **

2nd) Mura (Shirayuki)/AF

3rd) NN/OTT (Magus)

Clan Distribution (1st Deck/2nd Deck):

NN - 10/2 

DP - 3/3 

GC - 1/4 

LJ - 4/3 

GN - 6/4 

Murakumo - 6/10 

AF - 4/3 

Kagero - 3/3 

Narukami - 2/2 

OTT - 6/8 

SP - 4/2 

RP- 2/3

DI - 1/2 

AqF- 1/0 

GP - 2/1 

Nubatama - 0/2 

SB - 0/1 

PM - 0/2

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

**Fist place was Ryan Kai for those of you who are familiar with famous players.

5th Kishiwada VGCS (Standard - 34 Teams):

1st) AF/OTT/GN

2nd) SP/GN/Murakumo

3rd) NN/AF/Murakumo

4th) Not posted yet 

Clan Distribution:

Royal Paladin - 11

Shadow Paladin - 11

Gold Paladin - 3

Angel Feather - 15

Oracle Think Tank - 18

Genesis - 1

Tachikaze - 2

Murakumo - 14

Dimension Police - 2

Link Joker - 4

Dark Irregular - 3

Pale Moon - 2

Grandblue - 1

Megacolony - 1

Great Nature - 8

Neo Nectar - 6

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

Credit to the Team Absolution Discord

Despite everyone taking a proverbial shit on Shadow Paladin's wave two support the deck is performing better than expected.  Seems to be that the deck's focus has shifted from trying to aggro the hell out of people to being slower and advantage oriented.  So basically Robbie Kohl is going to play it badly  Murakumo is also performing strongly which is to be expected however the surprise here is that the deck has dropped Mandala Lord entirely and is now focused around the Dueling Dragons and Shirayuki to create this beast of an aggro deck with ridiculous defensive options.  OTT, Angels, Great Nature and Neo Nectar are also doing well however what I've noticed that Royal Paladin and Narukami which were two of last format's top 5 decks are nowhere to be seen.  Furthermore Link Joker has completely flopped on its first weekend.  Nobody was able to top with it in Singles or Teams and in both tournaments they had low representation.  What happened!?  Is it because Standard Link Joker is based on Deletors instead of Chaos!?

Well it's a few things actually.  Link Joker's issues stem from the fact that they honestly play like a worse Kagero deck and look where they're at in the format.  Having its support split into Deletors and Not Star Vaders also hurt as both builds have a shitty first Grade 3 ride which in this format is a back breaker.  Look at all the decks that are topping and see what they have in common: all of them have Grade 3s that you don't mind riding first even if some of them have really good effects if you ride them second (Imperial).  Link Joker doesn't have that.  Link Joker has Docking Deletor, Greion.  CB2 for Delete and nothing else is awful in today's Meta and it's no surprise that a worse Kagero deck without Waterfall (the thing that keeps Kagero relevant) isn't able to compete.  It'a also lacking in draw power and sufficient resource management.  However I will say that Link Joker is very, very close to breaking in.  The Deletor deck really only needs a couple good cards and it's off to the races.  More's the pity when they'll get nothing in EB06 because of Brandt taking the focus of that set.

In regards to the 2 Deck (now referred to as "2D") event what we see here is people going about it in the way that I suspected competitive players would.  They bring their main deck which they feel the most comfortable with, then their 2nd Deck is something that would have a good matchup against what the opponent will bring in game 2.  In this case the 1st Place player mained a Force Clan and had an Accel Clan as his 2nd deck which is a fantastic choice when you know your opponent is going to be binging in a Protect Clan for Game 2.  I really like what this format can bring about as far as deck choices and how people go about their play and I hope North America adopts this eventually.  Apparently Japanese Buddyfight already competes under 2D Format for its official events so this isn't out of the realm of possibility.  I can only hope that the North American playerbase is willing to embrace this given how...pigheaded the less competitive Cardfighters around here can be.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Episode 38 Review

Following the hype that was worlds we now get to come back down to the usual with Vanguard V.  To be fair the episode does start off with Ren and Asaka throwing it down with her flinching in pain from any damage dealt which is a clear sign that she has PSY-Qualia now.  Tetsu asks if Suiko fancies herself as a god or devil but she retorts by saying she's merely a Rear-Guard carrying out the will of her Vanguard: put all Vanguard fighters under his control.  The fight continues as Asaka rides to Barking Dragon Tamer and has a PSY-Qualia vision that tells her what the outcome will be and it's that she will defeat Ren.  She does not take this well.

"I don't want to be in this crappy arc!"

At Card Capital the next step of the invasion begins as Kyou arrives looking for Aichi but has to settle for Morikawa as the "strongest fighter" instead thanks to Misaki conveniently leaving the store.  Backwith Ren and Asaka we see the latter struggling to accept the prediction her new powers have given her and I have to admit I'm kind of liking how they're going about this fight.  Zombie Asaka has new powers and they're supposedly enough to allow her to defeat Ren which would make him a zombie which she doesn't want and thus she's all kinds of conflicted here.  I was honestly expecting a retread of the Season 3 fight with Asaka being turned into a massive domineering Yandere so this change means that at the very least some of the fights I'm expecting to see will be handled differently.  But will they be better is the big question here.

Asaka crit sacks the hell out of Ren who manages to survive her push through a Perfect Guard but is still at a disadvantage since despite his opponent using PSY-Qualia in all of its bullshit inducing glory he is yet to use his in response.  Ren asks her if she's foreseen the outcome of this fight which she eventually says yes to while breaking down and weeping and boy howdy this pisses him right off.  Not the hammy kind of anger that we saw from Kai vs the Megacolony player but some straight tranquil fury as he rides Phantom Blaster Dragon.

Remember when this thing was terrifying?  Now it's outclassed by a Tomato.

We cut back to Card Capital as Misaki and Shin arrive with Kamui in tow to find the shop in an unnerving state.  Morikawa challenges Kamui to a fight but Kyou steps in since he's a "halfway decent fighter" while telling Misaki he's the one responsible for the change in everyone's behaviour.  Kamui accepts his challenge before we shift back to Ren telling Asaka to fight him with everything she's got as he calmly tells her that he will defeat her while activating his PSY-Qualia much to the surprise of Suiko.  Shoutout to the OST here proving an added sense of unease and fear among the characters here.  Ren and Asaka speak to each other in the Image World and have a cute little moment as he goes on the offensive by flipping a PG + Crit combination that falls short of being able to close out the fight as she rides her brand new boss unit: Gun Salute Dragon, End of Stage.

Funny how this guy's effect is what SP players wanted for Gust.

Goofy name aside this card is...okay.  Accel Restanders aren't as scary to deal with if their opponent is a Force deck due to that magicial difference between 12k and 13k and Ren shows that by using a Heal Trigger in order to two pass End of Stage despite his power boost from riding over a Grade 3.  Asaka shows off EoS's ability to restand despite never showing us what her drive checks were so I guess none of those were triggers and swings at Ren again while flipping a crit to bring her prophecy regarding the game to a close.  Kamui also loses here and Kyou leaves to find Aichi while his new apprentice looks to fight Misaki while Ren performs a damage check and hits the miracle heal to everyone's shock.  Ren explains that while PSY-Qualia does show the user an intense image leading to the outcome of the fight he's learned from fighting Aichi that those outcomes are not absolute and that when two PSY-Qualia users meet a new fate is made.  To further prove his point he flips a second miracle heal and rides Gust Blaster Dragon.

"BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE RESTAND + GUARD RESTRICT + CRIT!!!"

Ren gets to work closing out the fight by calling over his own rear-guards and using Gust Blaster's skill to retire the rest to buff up his Vanguard to 23 with 4 Crits before showing everyone a power even further beyond that of Super Saiyan by flipping two more crit triggers to put him at 43k 6*.  SHE DEAD.  Suiko steps up to challenge Ren as the episode comes to a close with Miwa and Kai coming into Card Capital with Kamui eager for a fight.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - V-BT03 Format Wrap Up

With the Japanese release of V-BT04 this weekend I can officially declare this current format over.  Probably one of the best that Standard has had at the least so it'll be sad to see it go.  With that being said I've made a tally of how many Top 4s each clan has had during this current format based on the results I've already posted and well I can't say I'm surprised with some of these;

OCG Singles

Royal Paladin - 3
Murakumo - 2
Oracle Think Tank - 2**
Narukami - 1
Angel Feather - 1
Neo Nectar - 1
Gold Paladin - 1
Genesis - 1
Great Nature - 1
Kagero - 1

**Oracle Think Tank won Worlds.

OCG Teams

Angel Feather - 21

Oracle Think Tank -  18

Royal Paladin -  15

Narukami - 10

Neo Nectar - 5

Great Nature - 5

Gold Paladin - 3

Genesis - 2

Gear Chronicle - 2

Kagero - 1 

This is what I figured would happen.  AF and OTT being the top two decks with AF taking the lead while Royal Paladin is now the best Force deck with an absurd early game rush if it sees the Knightbros and a strong finisher in Monarch/Exculpate.  What surprised me however was Narukami's performance as it's the 4th best deck in the format and by a bit of a margin too.  Great Nature admittedly saw a surge in numbers near the end (and this was before Worlds happened) but I'm pleased to see my Thunder Bois getting in there.  Probably has to do with having a favourable matchup against OTT and AF and the lower NN numbers.  It's far and away the most popular and best performing Accel deck in the format however.  Nubatama completely flopped in Standard and despite having 2 waves of support to its name Gold Paladin has a whopping 3 tops.

Now will this be the same here?  I'm doubtful of it.  North America seems to favour Genesis which has a good matchup into Angel Feather so we may not see it have as much of a lead over OTT.  RP should have similar or better numbers and Narukami I think has a chance of repeating it's performance here since its playerbase is very dedicated and people have been waiting since G-BT12 to play the deck again.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Major Tournament Results (World Championship Edition)

Well that was an interesting thing to happen.  No other tournaments happened this past weekend in Japan while results from PPG's event are still pending so today I get to go over what happened at the show of shows!

WGP Last Chance Qualifier Before Worlds (Premium - Unknown Player Count):
1st) DI (NLK)
2nd) DI (NLK)
3rd) Nubatama (Standard+)
4th) GP (Ezel)

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

WGP Last Chance Qualifier Before Worlds (Standard - Unknown Teams): 

1st) OTT/AF/GN

2nd) OTT/AF/RP

3rd) Narukami/RP/AF

4th) AF/RP/OTT

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Odd how the LCQ for Standard was a Team Tournament for an event that was Singles.

Bushiroad World Championship 2018: 

Standard (Japan): 

1st) Oracle Think Tank

2nd) Royal Paladin

3rd) Great Nature

4th) Kagero

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Premium (Japan): 

1st) Bermuda Triangle (Ange Trois)

2nd) Nubatama (Standard +) 

3rd) Angel Feather 

4th) NLK

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Why yes.  The Nubatama+ player that got top 4 at the LCQ got 2nd here.

Bushiroad World Championship 2018: 

Standard (English): 

1st) Great Nature (Leopald/Hammsuke)

2nd) Murakumo

3rd) Neo Nectar

4th) Royal Paladin
Top 8) Great Nature (Leopald/Bison)

1st Place

3rd Place

4th Place

Top 8

Premium (English): 

1st) Megacolony (Gredora ft Antlion-Zoa)

2nd) Gold Paladin (Ezel)

3rd) OTT (Gyze) 

4th) Gold Paladin (Ezel) 

5th-8th) GP (Ezel), GP (Ezel), GP (Ezel), DI (NLK)

1st Place

3rd Place

Credit to the TeamAbsolution Discord for the stats.

Pro Play Games Pro Tour Atlanta

1st Place) Neo Nectar

1st Place

8th Place

Now that I've had some time to get more info and talk with people with a better eye for things that I missed I can finally give a more fair assessment of what happened this weekend.  For Japan it was more of the same.  They stuck to what they liked and the usual suspects ended up doing well.  Then there's the big brain player with Premium Nubatama that is apparently disgustingly good according to the people who watched it in action.  Leave it to Premium to come up with the spicy stuff.

On the subject of big braining that is pretty much the best way to described what happened with North America especially with Premium Format.  For Standard there was reportedly alot of Great Nature present which combined with Genesis and Murakumo running around meant that Angel Feather was not going to have a good time which is why it failed to top.    Shout outs to the Genesis player from the stream representing Canada on the big stage by the way.  Unfortunately he lost to Murakumo in top cut and that guy went onto the finals against Hammsuke Great Nature and lost.  Observers and WSlasher himself commented on MK choking in the finals but I still have to give both players props.  The first finals of the Vanguard Reboot ended up being a match of Accel vs Accel which if you had told me would be the case when we were in Q4-EB02 Formats I'd have balked.  This is what happens when Bushiroad actually designs competent Accel decks.  That being said the fallout of this will be a spike in play from Great Nature as people pick up the deck thinking it's the BDIF when it's not, it's just a solid Accel deck.  Anyone with a good Force deck like Neo Nectar can probably score some wins off them.

That being said while the Standard event was good for what it was I can honestly say the real star of this event was Premium Format.  Sure you had the bad apples such as NLK loop (which Bushiroad is addressing in the new Restriction List that I'm certain we'll get) and Ezel but then you had some spicy stuff like Fenrir/Wiseman in 2019 and the deck that won the whole thing: Megacolony.  Now admittedly this is the result of the same big braining that I mentioned before as the players were expecting NLK to be the BDIF so they went with the deck that counters it in Ezel which is why there were so many of them in top cut.  Our champion decided to do it one better by playing a deck that counters Ezel with Darkface while also having some applications against NLK and Gyze on paper.  I can't really say how Darkface fares against them as according to my sources the one time he played NLK in the tournament he flipped 3-4 crits on his first stride and won right there since Swiss was best of 1.  Regardless the fact that this stuff happened is a fantastic showcase of what Premium is supposed to be; a wide open format that gives players tons of options in what they can play and rewards you for being smart with your deckbuilding and gameplay.  Standard simply doesn't have this level of flexibility or skill required to play at this time.

I have more things to say about this event such as how it was ran, the stream presentation and the choice of commentators but I'll save that for when I publish my Tournament Results Video later this week.  Until then.