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Age: Unknown, thought to be eleven at initial crowning; Juniors Division
Titles Won: Nagoya Regional Finalist Third Place (Junior Class), Nagoya Regional Champion (Junior Class), Vanguard Grand Prix National Champion (Japan, Junior Class), Kanazawa Regional Finalist Fourth Place (Junior Class), Nagoya Regional Runner-Up (Junior Class), Fighter's Road 2012 National Champion (Japan, Junior Class), Nagoya Regional Finalist Third Place (Junior Class), Kanazawa Regional Runner-Up (Junior Class)
Current Status: National Champion (Reigning)
Deck Type: Nova Grappler (Asura Kaiser), Kagerou (Dragonic Overlord-The End), Oracle Think Tank (CoCo-Sakuya)
Rikino is the first and currently only female national champion of her class, making herself known during the 2011 Grand Prix. Despite being vastly outnumbered compared to her male competitors, Rikino rocketed to the top spot of the Best Four.
Rikino reappeared in the Fighter's Road 2012 Kanazawa regional, placing fourth with a new Kagerou build. She made a second attempt at breaking into the national scene at the Nagoya regional, placing second behind Chiku Fumiya's Spike Brothers deck. This permitted Rikino to mount a full attempt at the national title, becoming the first professional cardfighter to defend any title in consecutive years, and the first national champion to hold her throne without interruption. Since her original appearance in the 2011 championship, Rikino has unfailingly participated in every subsequent championship.
Decks and Play Style
While Rikino is primarily remembered as a Kagerou cardfighter, at debut she fought with a Royal Paladin-Nova Grappler hybrid deck, based out of Soul Saver Dragon in following with the trend established by the majority of the pro scene at the time. As this was before the institution of a restricted list, Rikino's deck relied on Barcgal and a RoyPala grade 1 setup to prepare for Soul Saver Dragon's skill. Barcgal, Flogal, Llew and Blaster Blade would prepare the soul, Pongal would add the card to hand, and her remaining lineup of grade 1 Royals would act as the catalyst to give Soul Saver's power boost to.
In the meantime, Asura Kaiser and her lineup of grade 2 Nova Grapplers would wear the opponent down to bring them to five damage as quickly as possible and prepare for the soulblast. To maximize her use of Kaiser's skill, Rikino ran only a single copy of Soul Saver Dragon and just one Blaster Blade, striking a very careful balance to bring the best out of both clans.
Note that Rikino signed her name in hiragana during this tournament, not kanji as she would do in following events.
Summer 2011 Regional Tournament, Nagoya Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT02, PR 0001-0018
Grade 0
x1 Barcgal (FVG)
x2 Knight of the Future, Llew CT
X4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x2 Margal DT
x1 Pixie Fife and Drum ST
x3 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
Grade 1
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x1 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Pongal
x4 Soul-Guiding Elf
x2 Twin Blader
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade
x4 Genocide Jack
x4 King of Sword
x1 Magician Girl, Kirara
Grade 3
x1 Soul Saver Dragon
x4 Asura Kaiser
x3 Genocide Joker
Rikino would go on to use a hybrid Nova Grappler-Kagerou deck in the Winter championship. In order to cope with the pure Grappler of the time being wholly reliant on the Blau series, Rikino selected Conroe as her first vanguard with eleven different Kagerou grade 1s to activate his skills with. Rather than use Conroe to search out single card Kagerou grade 1s however, Rikino instead relied on him to form a consistent base 16000 line with Asura Kaiser and Genocide Jack. Typical of the time, the Death Army cards were used as a self-standing 16000 line while Asura Kaiser played off of her nine grade 3 count to trigger his own skill to stand the opposite line. Gojo, Bahr and Aermo each provide a different kind of opening ride to suit the situation, whether it be for a strong opening offense, card changing when taking the first move or encouraging the opponent to deal more damage to use for counterblasts. Gojo and Aermo also both help her to change out the grade 3s that Kaiser drive checks after their purposes is served.
Genocide Joker, while even more counterblast reliant than his cousin Jack, forms stable 21000+ lines as necessitated by the tournament environment of the time, and Deathmetal Droid behaves similarly. This counterblast can be opened up against through riding Gold Rutile, and with the high amount of card changing going on in the deck, it becomes much easier to ride said unit when the situation calls for it. Notably, the deck only ran two perfect defense cards, a hallmark of what the pro scene at the time was like, as perfect defense at that point in 2011 was not considered a four-of. The trigger lineup opts for Clara over Genjo, as she is the only trigger which Rikino would not benefit from in the first drive or damage check, and all of the other triggers are important for those opening moves. Rikino played a very close mirror matchup for the Nagoya finals, but her emphasis on Kagerou triggers and grade 1s, the Genocide series and consistent 21000+ rearguard lines eventually won out over Horikawa Kanata's more Grappler-based build.
Winter 2011 Regional Tournament, Nagoya Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT04, PR 0001-0036
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Round Girl, Clara HT
x4 Blue Ray Dracokid CT
x3 Red Gem Carbuncle DT
Grade 1
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x2 Twin Blader
x2 Death Army Guy
x3 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x2 Genocide Jack
x4 King of Sword
x3 Death Army Lady
Grade 3
x4 Asura Kaiser
x3 Genocide Joker
x1 Gold Rutile
x1 Deathmetal Droid
Rikino's first championship deck is characteristic of a long-standing Kagerou build, utilizing the Dragon Monk, Goku as her primary vanguard to mass retire her opponent's rearguards. This demands more cards from their hand on the opponent's attack, which in turn makes it easier to land her attacks when the opponent is unable to guard. The Flame of Hope, Aermo is used to cycle out extra copies of Goku and the grade 3s that it checks, while Dragonic Overlord attacks from the rearguard to further decimate the opponent's field.
These three cards, combined with supporting units like Kimnara for a further offensive and Guard Gryphon to stop the opponent's attacks, allowed Rikino to play against an essentially empty field. What ultimately carried her through the final round was her own skill, as Rikino's opponent was using a nearly identical decklist that turned the match into a prolonged game of continual retire-and-stand maneuvers.
Winter 2011 National Tournament, Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT04, PR 0001-0042
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x3 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x3 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
x3 Red Gem Carbuncle DT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x3 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x2 Guard Gryphon
x2 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x2 Hidden Dragon, Striken
x4 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragon Monk, Goku
At Kanazawa and Nagoya, Rikino played a new build that retained many of her old cards, but changed the focus over to Dragonic Overlord and his corresponding crossride, The End. This new build omitted her previous deck's Striken in favor of Burning Horn support for The End. While not playing up to her previous' decks reputation, this iteration did rank well versus opposing decks at Kanazawa.
Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Kanazawa Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x3 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x2 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
Rikino's succeeding Nagoya decklist was almost identical, only swapping out excess Kimnara cards for more copies of Nehalem and Gojo, increasing the deck's overall consistency and making additional room for The End's persona blast. With a lower focus on Kimnara and a higher overall trend toward draw power and deck searching than at Kanazawa, this version of the deck allowed her to place more highly than in her previous tournament.
Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Nagoya Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
At the Akiba Square finals in Fighter's Road 2012, Rikino completely abandoned Kagerou to use the new model of Oracle Think Tank. This deck uses Little Witch, LuLu as its first vanguard, hiding her skill away until Rikino's endgame. LuLu kicks in when she rides either CoCo or Sakuya--at that point the Little Witch pops out from the soul and soulblasts 2 to draw a card. If CoCo were ridden, then because there are no cards left in the soul, her own skill lets Rikino counterblast 2 to draw two cards while giving CoCo +3000 power for the duration of her attack step. This sudden control of four additional cards with one ride more than pays for Rikino's grade 1-3 rides, typically ending with a hand size large enough to completely fill the remaining circles and still end the turn with seven or more cards in hand to defend on the opponent's turn with.
As an alternative, Sakuya automatically sends LuLu to Rikino's hand after the Little Witch's skill has been used, along with any other cards that have been called up to the ride phase of that turn. This allows her to rearrange the field freely and replace LuLu with a more powerful booster while using the first vanguard as an additional 10000-power shield, effectively adding 5000 more shield than normal to Rikino's control. This also ties back to Sakuya and Battle Sister Mocha's skills, which give them additional power when there are four or more cards in hand. Unlike other first vanguards, LuLu's skill is impossible for the opponent to interrupt, and even if she somehow didn't get it off, the two Luck Birds that Rikino runs in her deck act as backup soulblast for CoCo and additional draw power. These draw skills give Rikino the freedom to run just two draw triggers in her deck, focusing mainly on criticals to score extra damage, while also using Dark Cat with impunity--despite the Cat giving cards to the opponent, the opponent is not operating with the same level of draw power that CoCo carries, and this can easily snowball when used in conjunction with LuLu and Sakuya. Overall, Rikino's fourth deck emphasizes an incredible amount of synergy and forethought.
Summer 2012 National Tournament (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT07, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Little Witch, LuLu (FVG)
x4 Lozenge Magus HT
x3 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x2 Victory Maker DT
x3 Battle Sister, Ginger CT
Grade 1
x4 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x1 Weather Girl, Milk
x2 Luck Bird
x3 Dark Cat
Grade 2
x4 Battle Sister, Mocha
x4 Oracle Guardian, Wiseman
x3 Silent Tom
Grade 3
x4 Scarlet Witch, CoCo
x4 Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya
Rikino brought a modified version of her previous Nagoya deck to the Fighter's Climax tournament, where she placed third. The primary innovation over previous decks was her running nine critical triggers in all--a strategy taken from her CoCo deck's playbook--and omitting Gatling Claw Dragon in favor of Monica. The logic in this is that both Overlord and The End could form base 16000 lines with Monica in the rearguard, and that Gatling Claw's counterblast is one more than she can afford in a Kagerou deck that does not make use of Bellicosity Dragon. Ultimately the deck did not perform as well as in the previous year, though it brought her farther than in Kanazawa.
Winter 2012 Regional Tournament, Nagoya Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT08, PR 0001-0079
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Raskha CT
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x3 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
For the Kanazawa regional--her last chance at qualifying for the national title matches--Rikino modified her Fighter's Road championship deck for the current format. Notably, this deck followed through on the model popularized by Tsukuyomi decks of the time, fighting with twelve critical triggers rather than including the draw triggers that she was more accustomed to. Due to having less access to the cards in her deck from the removed draw triggers, the deck also forewent Milk to add in Sedna as a fifth base 8000 units, for ease of forming 18000 lines and supporting Silent Tom, who was now included in as many copies as possible. The switch from Wiseman to Tart as her base 10000 grade 2 may be a stylistic choice, or as a deceptive maneuver; since LuLu is also compatible with the Battle Sister deck and sees occasional use over Waffle, the identity of Rikino's deck is effectively concealed until the turn that she rode a grade 3.
Rikino placed second in the regional, losing to her old rival Eboshida Hiromi, who would go on to seize the Winter championship title.
Winter 2012 Regional Tournament, Kanazawa Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT08, PR 0001-0079
Grade 0
x1 Little Witch, LuLu (FVG)
x4 Lozenge Magus HT
x4 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x4 Battle Sister, Ginger CT
Grade 1
x4 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x1 Mermaid Idol, Sedna
x2 Luck Bird
x3 Dark Cat
Grade 2
x3 Battle Sister, Mocha
x4 Battle Sister, Tart
x4 Silent Tom
Grade 3
x4 Scarlet Witch, CoCo
x4 Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya
At Kanazawa and Nagoya, Rikino played a new build that retained many of her old cards, but changed the focus over to Dragonic Overlord and his corresponding crossride, The End. This new build omitted her previous deck's Striken in favor of Burning Horn support for The End. While not playing up to her previous' decks reputation, this iteration did rank well versus opposing decks at Kanazawa.
Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Kanazawa Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x3 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x2 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
Rikino's succeeding Nagoya decklist was almost identical, only swapping out excess Kimnara cards for more copies of Nehalem and Gojo, increasing the deck's overall consistency and making additional room for The End's persona blast. With a lower focus on Kimnara and a higher overall trend toward draw power and deck searching than at Kanazawa, this version of the deck allowed her to place more highly than in her previous tournament.
Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Nagoya Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
At the Akiba Square finals in Fighter's Road 2012, Rikino completely abandoned Kagerou to use the new model of Oracle Think Tank. This deck uses Little Witch, LuLu as its first vanguard, hiding her skill away until Rikino's endgame. LuLu kicks in when she rides either CoCo or Sakuya--at that point the Little Witch pops out from the soul and soulblasts 2 to draw a card. If CoCo were ridden, then because there are no cards left in the soul, her own skill lets Rikino counterblast 2 to draw two cards while giving CoCo +3000 power for the duration of her attack step. This sudden control of four additional cards with one ride more than pays for Rikino's grade 1-3 rides, typically ending with a hand size large enough to completely fill the remaining circles and still end the turn with seven or more cards in hand to defend on the opponent's turn with.
As an alternative, Sakuya automatically sends LuLu to Rikino's hand after the Little Witch's skill has been used, along with any other cards that have been called up to the ride phase of that turn. This allows her to rearrange the field freely and replace LuLu with a more powerful booster while using the first vanguard as an additional 10000-power shield, effectively adding 5000 more shield than normal to Rikino's control. This also ties back to Sakuya and Battle Sister Mocha's skills, which give them additional power when there are four or more cards in hand. Unlike other first vanguards, LuLu's skill is impossible for the opponent to interrupt, and even if she somehow didn't get it off, the two Luck Birds that Rikino runs in her deck act as backup soulblast for CoCo and additional draw power. These draw skills give Rikino the freedom to run just two draw triggers in her deck, focusing mainly on criticals to score extra damage, while also using Dark Cat with impunity--despite the Cat giving cards to the opponent, the opponent is not operating with the same level of draw power that CoCo carries, and this can easily snowball when used in conjunction with LuLu and Sakuya. Overall, Rikino's fourth deck emphasizes an incredible amount of synergy and forethought.
Summer 2012 National Tournament (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT07, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Little Witch, LuLu (FVG)
x4 Lozenge Magus HT
x3 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x2 Victory Maker DT
x3 Battle Sister, Ginger CT
Grade 1
x4 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x1 Weather Girl, Milk
x2 Luck Bird
x3 Dark Cat
Grade 2
x4 Battle Sister, Mocha
x4 Oracle Guardian, Wiseman
x3 Silent Tom
Grade 3
x4 Scarlet Witch, CoCo
x4 Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya
Rikino brought a modified version of her previous Nagoya deck to the Fighter's Climax tournament, where she placed third. The primary innovation over previous decks was her running nine critical triggers in all--a strategy taken from her CoCo deck's playbook--and omitting Gatling Claw Dragon in favor of Monica. The logic in this is that both Overlord and The End could form base 16000 lines with Monica in the rearguard, and that Gatling Claw's counterblast is one more than she can afford in a Kagerou deck that does not make use of Bellicosity Dragon. Ultimately the deck did not perform as well as in the previous year, though it brought her farther than in Kanazawa.
Winter 2012 Regional Tournament, Nagoya Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT08, PR 0001-0079
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Raskha CT
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x3 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
For the Kanazawa regional--her last chance at qualifying for the national title matches--Rikino modified her Fighter's Road championship deck for the current format. Notably, this deck followed through on the model popularized by Tsukuyomi decks of the time, fighting with twelve critical triggers rather than including the draw triggers that she was more accustomed to. Due to having less access to the cards in her deck from the removed draw triggers, the deck also forewent Milk to add in Sedna as a fifth base 8000 units, for ease of forming 18000 lines and supporting Silent Tom, who was now included in as many copies as possible. The switch from Wiseman to Tart as her base 10000 grade 2 may be a stylistic choice, or as a deceptive maneuver; since LuLu is also compatible with the Battle Sister deck and sees occasional use over Waffle, the identity of Rikino's deck is effectively concealed until the turn that she rode a grade 3.
Rikino placed second in the regional, losing to her old rival Eboshida Hiromi, who would go on to seize the Winter championship title.
Winter 2012 Regional Tournament, Kanazawa Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT08, PR 0001-0079
Grade 0
x1 Little Witch, LuLu (FVG)
x4 Lozenge Magus HT
x4 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x4 Battle Sister, Ginger CT
Grade 1
x4 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x1 Mermaid Idol, Sedna
x2 Luck Bird
x3 Dark Cat
Grade 2
x3 Battle Sister, Mocha
x4 Battle Sister, Tart
x4 Silent Tom
Grade 3
x4 Scarlet Witch, CoCo
x4 Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya
