Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Spotlight: Kagami Takuya/鏡味拓也

Fighter's Spotlight is an ongoing project concerned with tracking real-world professional cardfighters across the globe.

Kagami is on the left, between Daigo and Shitakawachi; his trophy is masked by his certification.
Kagami Takuya/鏡味拓也
Age: Unknown; Seniors Division
Titles Won: Nagoya Regional Champion (Senior Class), National Finalist Third Place (Japan, Senior Class)
Current Status: National Finalist Third Place (Summer 2011)
Deck Type: Royal Paladin (Alfred-SSD-Bors)

Kagami made his debut in the Nagoya finals, being the only national finalist to have not faced a pure Royal Paladin deck in his regional. His competition, Kamachi Yutaka, used a mix of Royal Paladin, Oracle Think Tank and Bermuda Triangle cards. She used draw power in an attempt to close the difference between her and her opponent's more expensive deck. However, Kagami's deck was more fluid and its synergy eventually saw him to Japan's first national tournament, where he would take third place after his loss to Shitakawachi.

He is not known to have participated in the Grand Prix.

Decks and Play Style
Kagami's decks are regarded as being very cut and dry Royal Paladin, always giving precedence to Alfred with Soul Saver support. For the regional, his choices in cards were very practical and made in light of what had been known to work at the time, as Nagoya was the sixth regional to be completed, running behind the two Tokyo blocks for the last spot. Gordon's especial intercept is used for defense, Randolf to make unboosted attacks on 11000-power units, Soul Guiding Elf and Marron to boost Bors, Pongal to search Soul Saver Dragon, and Barcgal to superior ride.

Nagoya 2011 Regional Tournament, Nagoya Seniors Division
Card Pool: TD01-BT02, PR 0001-0018
Grade 0
x1 Barcgal
x4 Future Knight, Llew CT
x4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x4 Flogal ST
x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
Grade 1
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x4 Pongal
x2 Soul Guiding Elf
Grade 2
x2 Blaster Blade
x4 Knight of Silence, Gallatin
x2 Covenant Knight, Randolf
x3 Knight of Truth, Gordon
Grade 3
x4 King of Knights, Alfred
x2 Soul Saver Dragon
x2 Knight of Conviction, Bors

Kagami made only a few changes to his decklist for the national, introducing Lien while cutting Randolf and Soul Guiding Elf. Notably, the deck is identical in every way to Shitakawachi's save for card ratios; the determining factor in their fight was how many of each card the national champion chose to use.
Summer National Championship 2011, Seniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT02, PR 0001-0018 
Grade 0
x1 Barcgal
x4 Future Knight, Llew CT
x4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x4 Flogal ST
x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
Grade 1
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x2 Little Sage, Marron
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Pongal
Grade 2
x3 Blaster Blade
x4 Knight of Silence, Gallatin
x4 Knight of Truth, Gordon
Grade 3
x4 King of Knights, Alfred
x3 Soul Saver Dragon
x1 Knight of Conviction, Bors