V-BT12 Narukami Spoilers - Week 1

 *Blows dust off the blog.*

It's...been some time hasn't it?  I'd better get cracking then.

You guys know the drill.  Narukami spoiler season?  I make weekly posts discussing what's been revealed and how good/bad I think they are.  Wave 3 Narukami raised the bar pretty high and I'm hoping (but not holding my breath) that Bushiroad will make their last batch of support just as good or better.  After all barring Narukami being a main character clan in Overdress this wave is gonna have to carry them well into mid to late 2021 which is when I expect their first set of support in the new series.  Other things to note is that because Stunverse Dragon exists the Grade 3s in this set will get some extra scrutiny as some may have meh effects for Standard but could lead to some crazy shit happening in Premium (sup Brat Arrow) because you managed to get 5+ binds in a single turn off best stride.  This wave of support is also going to be split among two archetypes in support for the Vanquisher strategy and support for Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant who I'm hoping gets the Blau treatment but much better.  

With that out of the way let's begin;

Eradicator, Spring Light Dracokid

Insert modern starter text here.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!

Rumbling Eradicator, Hassan

AUTO RC When any card is bound, choose one of your opponent's back row rear-guards, you may move it to a front row RC without a unit.

Hey this isn't too shabby!  One of NK's issues has been getting at backrow units with annoying defensive abilities like Starlight Violinist and at some points the deck would have to run things like Rikki or Bolt Capture Dragon to drag them up just so you could bind them off.  Hassan allows you to deal with those annoying little bastards by just playing your game of binding front row units, then yeeting up any backrow unit (including VG boosters!) to do it again.  He's also not 1/Turn and works when any card is bound (not just your opponent's) which means Vanquisher can use this as well!  Heck you can be cheeky and play this with Impede in Premium format to drag boosters up to the front after you've retire + binded something to reduce the overall power of an attacking column that hadn't swung yet.  Now would you actually play Hassan in Premium?  Not likely but it's something.

Honestly this thing would have easily been a RR back in the earlier sets but that just goes to show how far along we've come with power creep.  This makes me a bit hopeful that EDD won't completely suck.

That's it for the first round of spoilers.  Next week's major reveals will be for Genesis and Golds so I'm not holding my breath on anything spicy until the week after.  We'll probably get Reseph and a draw trigger that isn't worth playing over Old Dragon Mage.  Until then!

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Some Tournament Results (Apr. 4-5/2020)

Vision held two tournaments over the weekend and the results got posted so what the hell why not.  It's not like I'm doing anything else at the moment outside of Persona 5 Royale.

So as far as the west is concerned Standard is Vanquisher vs Revonn the format with Revonn being the easier deck to play therefore more repped.  Vanquisher is the better deck of the two but requires an actual pilot to do well with it.  We also have some other decks sometimes popping up like Nesquikk's Chronofang list.  Premium is more varied with its meta though the consensus I've gotten from people is that DI and NN are the decks to beat (and need cards addressed).  Mind you after watching some of these games I do need to point out that these tournaments are not as how should I put it...competitive compared to say a PPG or even an ARG.  I won't go so far as to say they're free like I've heard but given that a NN list got top 8 and HH8 won Premium...yeah.

Create A Card - Demon Conquering Dragon, Dungaree "Supreme"

I got asked what kind of stride I think would be needed for Premium Narukami to be playable in my Q +A and I not jokingly said that a Dungaree stride that played like Morfessa would be good.  Here's what I've got;

Demon Conquering Dragon, Dungaree "Supreme"
Grade 4 Thunder Dragon Triple Drive 15k+
AUTO VG: When placed you may [Choose a face down card in your G-Zone and turn it face up], your opponent moves each his or her back row rear-guards to open front row (RC) (They move even diagonally) and this unit gets "CONT VG: During your turn, if 3 or more cards were bound then all all units in your front row get +15000, +1 Critical and if your opponent would call cards to G, they must call 2 or more."
AUTO VG: When it attacks you may [Choose any number of cards in your hand and bind them] and choose front row rearguards up to number of cards bound this way and bind them face up.  If five or more cards total were bound this way, draw 1 card and this unit gets Drive +1 until end of turn.

Like I said it's a Morfessa Stride with removal that works with Standard Vanquisher's playstyle of bind based multi attack with numbers.  Dungaree's on attack skill triggers Rising Phoenix, Chatura and Bhajran while netting you a card and 4 drive checks if you bind 5 cards total.  It'll also set up his on place skill which is a free Thunderbreak for a flip and even if you can't get Dungaree's attack skill off, it's still possible to get the Morfessa skill online through interactions like Jaggy Shot/Voltechshred and Hardrod Dracokid.  You also get to flip up Vanquisher units so that VMAX can punch things if you decide to go into it for that burn effect.  The Standard + deck is already better than anything else the clan can do and one good stride is all it needs to reach that next level.  I'd like to say I'm counting on Premium Collection 2 to give me something, anything to work with but "good Narukami Strides" is something that caused Bushiroad's R + D to BSoD or something.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - OCG Tournament Results (Mar 7-15/2020)

This should have been up last week but I legit forgot about it while the world was ending and I was was occupied with other stuff.

VMC held on March 8 in Kotadamansara

1st) Dimension Police

2nd) Malkuth-melekh

3rd) Vanquisher

4th) Vanquisher

1st

2nd 

3rd 

4th 

Time Walk VMCQ - 08/03/20

48 Fighters

Source: https://www.facebook.com/pg/timewalkers/posts/

1st) Vanquisher

2nd) Isabelle/Leopald

Top 4) Claret Sword

Top 4) Astral Poet  

Top 8

Dimension Police

Vanquisher

Revonn

Granblue

Distribution

1st

2nd 

3rd 

4th 

Images/Results Provided by TA/Proofcord

Yeah these all happened before things escalated to where they are now with tournaments for all the major TCGs being cancelled worldwide.  Poor Astral Force.  Your format will forever be met with "but what if" remarks.  Anywho Part 2 of Astral Force format is here and yeeting Murakumo, Tachikaze and Pale Moon did have a positive effect on the format as we're seeing Angel Feather and Claret Sword pop up now.  Vanquisher is obviously going strong (and look at those BT numbers) and as expected we're seeing a rise in decks that can compete with it.  Dailiner is no surprise as he matched up well against Gauntlet in the past and the deck has access to more guard power than some other Force Decks to deal with Vanquisher's multi attacks.  Gatcha.dek getting the 2nd place at the much more solid tournament (what the hell were those Vanqisher decks in the first one?) is cool as GN, AqF and NG remain as solid Accel Decks alongside NK and Angel Feather is showing some promise now.  It's another 3 weeks until Next Stage comes out and Altmile is looking to be a very capable deck coming into this format with Jet bring up the rear and Ahsha trying her best I guess.  Now if we actually see more tournaments outside of the local scene in the next 3 weeks is another matter.  Stay safe everyone and remember; wash your damn hands.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - OCG Tournament Results (Feb 21-Mar 1/2020)

I had hoped that by waiting a week I'd be able to have more than just the one Teams to go off of but the Coronavirus outbreak had other plans. 

1st Yamato VGCS Teams (40 teams, 120 players)

TO twitter: https://twitter.com/VG50018945

1st Narukami /  Nubatama / Bermuda (Riv)

2st Bermuda (Riv) / Aqua / Gear 

3rd Narukami / Genesis / Bermuda (Riv)

4th Shadow (Claret)/ Bermuda (Riv) /  Aqua (Revonn)

Clan Distribution

BT 30 ,(Riviere 28, Pacifica 2) 

 NK 24

 GC 15 

 AQ 12 

 TK 7 

 AF 6 

 GS, DI 5 

 PM, MK 4 

 GN 3

NG, LJ, SP, RP, NT 1

1st (NK 7-1, BT 7-1, NT - ??)

2nd (NK ??, GE 5-3, BT 5-2)

3rd (BT 6-2, AqF 6-2, GC 1-7 Yikes)

4th (SP ??, BT 4-4, AqF 7-1)

Images/Results provided by Proofcord

It's unfortunate that the Coronavirus caused this format to end so quickly as I would have liked to have seen what Genesis and Gears could have done with another week because jesus the GC player in this tournament did not do well at all.  Weren't people hyping Fang up to be Tachikaze like?  Anyway we have strong showings as usual from Riviere and Vanquisher and starting this week both decks will be playing with their nerfs applied.  Both decks are also not going anywhere.

Cardfight!! Vanguard - OCG Tournament Results (Feb 15-16/2020)

With this EB12 format comes to a close although I find the upcoming EB13's ability to influence the format to be suspect at best.  Gear Chronicle might do something?  It depends on how willing Japan is to invest in the Chronofang deck when Chronojet is around the corner.

WGP Worlds (Standard)

1st - Tachikaze

2nd - Narukami

3rd - Angel Feather

4th - Murakumo

1st

2nd 

3rd 

21st Taiko 193VGCS (16th February 2020)

23 Teams

1st: AQ Revonn / BT Riviere / NK Vanquisher

2nd: NK Vanquisher / AQ Revonn / BT Riviere

3rd: NK Vanquisher / MK HYUGA / BT Riviere

4th: AQ Revonn / BT Riviere / NK Vanquisher

20 BT

16 NK

6 AQ, SP

4 TK, MK

3 PM

2 RP, GP, GS

1 KG, NT, DI, GB

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Images/Results provided by Proofcord

That's that and how did EB12 fare?  Turns out quite well!  I'll admit I bought into the hype/doomsaying that Riviere was going to dominate Standard with no real counter until the banhammer dropped like Melody before her but that ended up being far from the case.  Riviere is still the deck to beat don't get me wrong but our Fish Overlord's grip on standard is far from tight now that we have new decks that can fight against it.  Revonn did what I hoped in making Glory Malestrom obsolete and in one of the best ironic twists Dragonic Vanquisher has made Narukami a tier 1 meta deck.  Not any of this "yeah it's good but" or "it's got some great matchups against X deck" stuff that has accompanied NK in the past but actually "holy shit this deck is good" talk.  Given how in G the Vanquisher deck was A) bad or B) overshadowed by better decks in its set seeing Vanq be the best deck in EB12 and arguably BT's equal (it's rep to conversion rate has been spectacular) it's quite cathartic to see it all play out like this.  Barring any surprises from the upcoming restricted list I don't see this changing much until the new Trial Decks and EB14 come out.

Cardfigh!! Vanguard - OCG Tournament Results (Feb 8-9/2020)

Just the one tournament for this since the Osaka Results haven't been posted yet;

3rd Battle Dome VGCS (23 Teams - Standard): 

1st) BT/NK/MK

2nd) MK/BT/NG

3rd) BT/NK/TK (no decklist)

Clan Distribution:

Bermuda Triangle - 19

Narukami - 14

Aqua Force - 11

Pale Moon - 6

Tachikaze, Murakumo - 5

Kagero, Shadow Paladin, Dark Irregulars, Nova Grappler - 2

Genesis - 1

1st

2nd

3rd

Images/Results Provided by Proofcord.  Except for the TK list.

Even though this is just a Team Tournament to go off of I'd say the metagame itself is starting to take shape.  We've got BT (Riviere) as still the deck to beat in the format but Narukami (Vanquisher) is right on their tails as the best non BT deck.  Aqua Force (Revonn) has also been performing well and we still have decks from the earlier formats such as Murakumo, Tachikaze and Pale Moon sticking around.  PM gets a shoutout in particular for still being strong against alot of decks (especially Vanquisher) and given that it won worlds I wouldn't be surprised if we see a good amount of Silver Thorn when EB12 hits the west.