Single-Clan Counterblasts, Break Rides and Double Clan: An Analysis of the Current State of Pro Cardfight

There is a war brewing in the community. As typical of these arguments and claims that one clan or another is "broken," this war comes out of recent end-of-month announcements from KeroKero Ace magazine. While in the past these infights arose from crossride, limit break and other allegedly scale-tipping evolutions in gameplay, in this time the conflict is over Solitary Liberator Gancelot, the Eradicator subgroup and new Spike Brothers units. Blaster Blade Burst is another well-discussed but less widely vilified card. Opinion is vastly split on the issue, mainly due to the introduction of power-based break ride skills that seemingly invalidate the old sets altogether.

One common statement is circulation is that the phenomenon of power creep has come to Cardfight. I caution all readers against this view; this very same reaction emerged when Great Silver Wolf, Garmore and his accompanying Charjgal surfaced. Similar statements circulated at the onset of crossrides, and with each new booster set since BT02. We have survived worse than this. And while many are content to toss the game aside and leave things at that, we will make no progress, headway or innovation of any kind by sitting and whining idly. In Cardfight, the white flag is never an option.

The most concrete argument for power creep lies in the base power of these units. Base 11000 was once unprecedented and very carefully given only to clans that could not easily form lines exceeding 21000 without triggers. These days it's being handed out like candy in trial decks. However, this new base 11000 is very different from the old, in that if you have a unit not of the same clan on the field, then the base 11000 unit cannot attack regardless of position. This dispels the myth of power creep immensely, because these new base 11000s are being pushed for in sets and trial decks based around mixed clan decks. In the February-on JPN format, double clanning will not just be more viable than ever before, it will be a necessary component of many professional strategies. And from a design standpoint, it would be both clumsy and restrictive to have every card intended for a double clan deck to have "[CONT]: This card is also treated as..." printed on its text. One of the main advantages to a double clan deck is being able to mix cards not of the same clan, giving options for fifth and sixth base 8000 boosting units, or of integrating skills intended for one clan into another. As Rikino Sakura and her contemporaries demonstrated in 2011, Soul Saver Dragon's Barcgal base could be neatly integrated into other clans to give her power-based advantages to a clan with other specialties. If double clan decks were to lose these multifaceted aspects of their play, then they would be double clan in name only. Because of this, we can safely assume that Spirit card skills will not be heavily distributed to double clan cards, and so the new Gancelot will not be usable by those decks.

Note that many new units, in particular Blaster Blade Burst and Bad-End Dragger, require their counterblasts to be composed of units of the same clan. Bushiroad has very carefully planned for this from the ground up. The only clan with real control over what cards are in their damage zone is Angel Feather, and if you'll notice, all of the Feathers are dependent on a clause which requires the cards placed into the damage zone to be of the same clan. What this means is that Blaster Blade Burst, Bad-End Dragger, and other cards with these same-clan counterblasts are near to unusable in double clan decks. Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant takes this even further, requiring three discards to be of the same clan in order for his skills to activate.

While Bushiroad is pushing for a strongly double-clan February format following the official onset of the restricted list in January, more than ever before they are dividing the world of pros between single clan and double clan decks. It is already clear that double clan decks will not be able to use single clan cards effectively. The new base 11000 clause allows those units to be distributed more freely, but also makes them unable to take advantage of the new strategies, turning every matchup into something of a The End versus CoCo fight. Yes, the new Gancelot is powerful compared to what came before it--but in the greater scheme of things, will it immediately swarm the championship and take the title with a Gold Paladin Best 4? Most likely not.

Break rides are not as simple as they are being made out to be. The new Gancelot comes with many restrictions of his own; as with Soul Saver Dragon, there must be three units of the same clan set up on the field before the break ride is initiated, and they must be defended appropriately, giving more power to Kagerou and Narukami. Furthermore, an appropriate grade 3 needs to be in hand, potentially bringing an 8-grade 3 ratio back into vogue over the currently common 7. This also gives less credibility to rearguard grade 3s like Gigantech Charger, though the new Dignified Gold Dragon helps circumvent that. This second grade 3 ride comes at a -1 that would not normally be otherwise incurred, it has the same general speed as a crossride, and can only be performed at 4 or more damage, denying the Gancelot cardfighter the chance to use limit break support due to the ride phase taking place before the main phase. Factor the damage requirements into the the opponent needing to be at 4 or more of their own for the power boost to truly matter, just as it would for Soul Saver Dragon or The Dark Dictator, and you have a card which inherently forces the user to not play damage control in a damage control deck. Soul Saver-type strategies truly shine due to their use of the soul instead of counterblast, allowing them to take very little damage at the start and then stonewall the opponent while they take damage throughout the rest of the game, forcing them to become overly defensive in the late game while the Soul cardfighter can no-guard multiple attacks and accept critical triggers with a shrug.

Two things should be clear from this. The power creep is not from the power of the individual units, but from the distribution of them. The trial decks are stronger now. This is because new cardfighters need ways to keep up with long-time titleholders. Bushiroad's decisions are primarily geared toward the Japanese pro scene, which has already had four national championships and seven champions, one of which is a repeat holder and is still reigning. Even the most recent champion, Eboshida Hiromi, was someone who had already taken a regional title in the previous year. By the end of 2013, those numbers will be bumped up to six and nine. It's much more developed than in North America, where there is only one champion and one championship.

We need to consider what the 2012 nationals format will look like. The Japanese nationals are held twice a year, with the initial run for this year being May to July. At Fighter's Road 2013, the available booster sets will be BT01-BT11, meaning that the new Alfred and new Overlord will both be in play in addition to these recent announcements. The second point that should be clear from all this is that these new units are nothing more than an update, and perhaps distraction to keep pure Gold Paladin, Narukami and Spike Brothers relevant in the February-on format. Their base 11000 coming with the Lord keytext rather than losing -2000 power if a rearguard of the same clan is not present, is conspicuous because as previously stated that makes them unusable in mixed decks. The clan-specific counterblasts and discards are likewise conspicuous. Rather than designing the next top tournament deck, Bushiroad is laying the groundwork for the BT10-BT11 decks to remain balanced, operating under the assumption that the new Alfred and Dragonic Overlord will be flocked to en masse. Bad-End Dragger and the like should not be feared for their strength in battle, but because their very existence implies that there will be equally or more powerful mixed builds available for Spike Brothers, Gold Paladin and Narukami. These mixed decks will be much more dangerous because they will be able to use the pure skills of both clans (for example, being able to use Alfred's counterblast with Tripp's unflipping) rather than just one, as the situation for Dragger, Gancelot and Vowing Sword Dragon will be.

With regards to Burst, it's clear already that the new card is intended to be a dual replacement for both the original Alfred and Majesty Lord Blaster, whose recent restriction prevents them from neatly being integrated in the same deck. Primarily, Burst serves as the former, as not just Majesty decks but also other Royal Paladin decks can use him as a substitute Alfred that works more cleanly, due to being targetable by Wingal Brave. The primary difficult with Burst is that his counterblast 2 is expensive in a clan with no damage unflipping, which already uses Blaster Blade's base form as their means of field control. With the introduction of the Liberator and Eradicator subgroups, field control is going to become very important to the new format. So while Burst can reach 31-33000 power easily, his skill cannot be used very frequently, and on the turns that it is not, his unboostable nature means that opponents can safely drop one card for defense instead of two. Base 11000 and higher units can simply put a heal trigger on the guard circle and guarantee that that attack will not connect.

There is of course, the natural possibility that the double clan mechanics introduced in BT09 will not be followed up on in BT10 or 11, and that the Spirit cards are a one-off mechanic. However, in a scenario in which we must either have break ride balanced by the new mechanic, or be drowned by a swarm of Lord vanguards metamorphosing professional Cardfight into a break ride stalemate just as a Soul Saver stalemate once emerged in early 2011, and the existing evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the former, I will stand by these statements. It is not enough to look at the pro scene we have in December and anachronically pick specific cards from a format that another country will not have for another month to insert into the current scene, pretending as if this covers the full depth of a format that will not be fully definable until April of 2013. As I stated previously, cardfighters do not know surrender. We have all seen sixth, and seventh damage heal triggers. It is unfitting for any among us to give up so soon. This new scene has many implications and is already inspiring new strategy, moving toward especial intercepts, the abandoning of the increasingly-irrelevant crossrides, and the revival of older strategies like those surrounding rest-based Megacolony and Dueling Dragon, ZANBAKU. How we confront the new year will be remembered and analyzed by the cardfighters of future generations; it would be shameful, to childishly call Cardfight ruined forever and walk out in fear of break ride, a mechanic that will come and go as any other new gameplay element does. Not only does break ride share the weaknesses of traditional limit breaks, requiring a second grade 3 ride combines that with the vulnerabilities of crossrides with no way to circumvent them and no defensive recompense.

News: Ride to Victory Release Date and Storyline, Vanguard Episode 0

The latest issue of KeroKero Ace has confirmed that Miwa Taishi will be making an appearance in the Cardfight 3DS game, Ride to Victory. Along with this, RTV's release date has finally been announced. Miwa's clan is being played up as a mystery factor, listed as ?????, and while his advertised appearance is based on his design used during the Asia Circuit, his in-game cutin shows him in his Hitsue High outfit used during the first season and in the manga. In the anime, Miwa was known to use both Kagerou and Narukami, but in the manga source material he was instead a Nova Grappler cardfighter.

Ride to Victory will be released in Japan on April 11th, 2013, retailing for 5229 yen. It will come with Blaster Blade, Blade Dark and Dragonic Overlord alternate artwork promo cards packaged in, each of them from Studio TMS' collection of anime artworks, but due to the 3DS' region lock, Ride to Victory will require a Japanese 3DS to play. The game features more than 1,000 cards from the real world to recreate the game experience, having every booster set up to BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons included. At least 30 characters from the anime are featured, with six original characters for the player to choose from and customize as their in-game avatar. Players will also be able to customize the in-game playmat and card sleeves used for their deck. Currently, RTV's development is at 75% completion.

The early game of Ride to Victory has been revealed to progress in four stages. First, the protagonist is selected from a pool of three characters of each sex. Team Q4's three members--Aichi, Misaki and Kamui--then welcome the protagonist to Card Capital, after which a tutorial fight with Aichi ensues. After this, the player will be quizzed by Aichi, with their answers determining which trial deck he recommends to the player. When selecting a trial deck, the player will also be able to get a bonus booster pack with it, and then begin a fight with Morikawa. As in the anime, Morikawa uses a grade 3-centric deck.

Ride to Victory's official website can be found here.

In other news, a manga sidestory has been announced, to be packaged in the Cardfight!! Vanguard 0 Start Set. Referred to as "Episode 0," the manga will again be illustrated by Itou Akira, the overall creative influence of the franchise and author of the original manga. Episode 0 will tell the story of Kai's childhood, featuring his original Royal Paladin deck, a replica of which will be included in the 0 Start Set.

Advertisements for Episode 0 show a Blaster Blade promo card that uses its KeroKero Ace artwork, but seemingly with skill on it, along with Swordsman of the Twin Shine Marhaus, Knight of Conviction Bors, Claudia, Knight Squire Allen, Mirubiru and Blaster Blade Burst.

(via matibari and ameblo)

News: Bushiroad Announces English Logo for International English Market

Singapore, December 22, 2012 – Bushiroad Group Publishing Inc. announced the release of an English version of its current logo to increase brand awareness across the international market.

The new logo was created in response to the increasing demand and interest for Cardfight!! Vanguard and other Bushiroad titles in the international markets.

The new Bushiroad logo will represent Bushiroad and its branches in future international English-related products and events. The Japanese logo (below) will remain in use for all Japanese-related products and events. The English logo will take effect from January 1, 2013. English product releases from March 2013 will feature this logo.

Bushiroad Group Publishing Inc. consists of 5 sub-entities: Bushiroad Inc., Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd, Bushiroad USA Inc., Hibiki Inc, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd.

Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd was established in Singapore on November 12, 2011 in order to expand the overseas market for Bushiroad card games such as Cardfight!! Vanguard, Weiβ Schwarz, Chaos TCG and Victory Spark.

Bushiroad USA Inc. was established in Los Angeles, California on May 18, 2012, to better cater to the growing demand and interest in Cardfight!! Vanguard from both players and retailers in the USA.

The History of Professional Cardfight: May-August 2011

This is a series on the complete history of Cardfight!! Vanguard's pro scene, examining both English and Japanese formats in chronological order.

VG-BT02: Onslaught of Dragon Souls was released on May 28th, 2011 in Japan and was timed to coincide with the start of Japan's first competitive season. This set added a series of cards to each clan focused on charging and blasting the "soul," the area beneath the Vanguard unit, and expanded on the established game, with more superior rides and megablast units introduced. The set's cover card is Blazing Flare Dragon. Granblue and Spike Brothers were completed in this set.

Goku was not what stormed the national championship. The tools were there, and Kimnara even gave the deck additional retire options while Gattling Claw acted as a countercard to move-to-rearguard first vanguards, but standard Overlord with Dragonic Executioner was was more popular in the BT02-on format. There's also the issue of parallel development--while English-speaking cardfighters figured out Goku early, he didn't gain widespread recognition in Japan until he became the secret deck in the 2011 Grand Prix. Instead Soul Saver Dragon rose to prominence here, creating an enormous lock in the tournament listings where Royal Paladin served as a cutoff point between decks that could make it and decks that could not.

Along with many of the other new cards from BT02, Soul Saver Dragon was first revealed in the May issue of KeroKero Ace magazine, released in late April. Cardfighters were in awe of her skill because it was at the time the best field boost available, and it's a testament to her strength at release that today she is still considered one of the top cards of Royal Paladin play.

Never before had a card of Soul Saver's caliber touched the competitive scene. This was the first time that a real, modern strategy with all of its overwhelming power and consistency had been put in the hands of fighters. With BT02's added soul support, direct search skills and holdover cards from BT01 acting to help set up Saver Dragon, Royal cardfighters had zero trouble paying her five-card soulblast. From the fourth turn onward, +5000 power to three rearguards is almost free in a standard Royal Paladin deck, but at the time this clan also had access to a superior ride sequence using the grade 0 Barcgal that essentially operated as a counterblast 1 to ride Blaster Blade from the deck and build up two extra soul. The game has never been played the same way since, and her impact was such that up until the New Year six months after, it was very difficult to imagine a world in which Soul Saver would not dominate.

Saver Dragon's era began with the Sendai regional tournament, where Murakami Kazuya's deck first defined the senior format, and following this the pro scene was met with an influx of Royal Paladin decks that cemented their total dominance over the world of pros that would go virtually unchallenged for the next sixteen months. Ironically, his opponent Gotou Hirotaka, once regarded as out of touch with what BT02 was introducing to the format, would go on to be regarded as ahead of his time when the Alfred deck that he pioneered was perfected early in the 2012 tournament cycle.

By the time of the national finals for the Summer 2011 National Championship, there were two qualified cardfighters from each region participating in the senior nationals, with all but two of them fighting with a Soul Saver Dragon-based Royal Paladin deck. These sixteen were the original leading figures in the pro world, although most of them would not be taking future titles due to the sudden shift in the format. Notably, Takagi Tatsuki did later reappear after converting to the Shadow Paladin deck, as part of the 2012 Team Festival's Hakata team.

1. (Sendai) Murakami Kazuya (村上和也) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon, Gotou Hirotaka (後藤裕隆) - Alfred / Bors
2. (Sapporo) Ishiwaka Yuuji (石若佑二) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon, Nozaki Koutarou (野崎耕太郎) - General Siefried / Juggernaut Maximum / Sky Diver
3. (Hakata) Takagi Tatsuki (高木龍輝) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon, Sakamoto Takuma (坂本卓磨) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon
4. (Osaka) Anonymous (匿名) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon, Kagota Tatsuya (駕田達哉) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon / Alfred Early
5. (Okayama) Shitakawachi Kouta (下河内広太) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon, Sakamoto Kan (坂本歓) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon
6. (Nagoya) Kagami Takuya (鏡味拓也) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon, Kamachi Yutaka (蒲池豊) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon / CEO Amaterasu
7. (Tokyo B-Block) Nomiya Youhei (野宮陽平) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon / Alfred Early, Kashimura Yuuta (鹿志村祐太) - Dragonic Overlord / Dragonic Executioner
8. (Tokyo A-Block) Kawashima Shoutaka (川島掌太) - Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon / Alfred Early, Shimamoto Yuuichi (島本雄一) - Alfred / Gigantech Charger

(The Osaka regional champion is signed as 匿名 tokumei meaning that he did not wish for his name to be known. This is very rare as most pros prefer the publicity, but to this day his identity remains undiscovered.)

July 2011
Out of all this, Shitakawachi Kouta was crowned national champion, with Murakami taking second and Kagami Takuya third, creating a Royal Paladin best three. While the majority of pros did go toward the established, stable Soul Saver deck, the field was not completely devoid of innovation. The juniors' division of this era was in the midst of one of its most innovative periods, with Kagerou coming out as the most prolific decktype, and as the junior cardfighters caught on to what their seniors were doing, they began to adapt and experiment with the Royal Paladin deck for their own purposes. Unlike with the seniors, many cardfighters from this division are still active today; three national championship titles belong to junior fighters who started playing during this period.

1. (Sendai) Satou Rei (佐藤伶) - Dragonic Overlord / Blockade, Ohara Takeshi (小原雄志) - CEO Amaterasu / Oracle Guardian, Apollon
2. (Sapporo) Otani Yuuhi (大谷友飛) - King of Knights, Alfred / Gigantech Charger / Alfred Early / Solitary Knight, Gancelot, Marunaka Shouta (丸中翔太) - General Siefried / Juggernaut Maximum / Sky Diver
3. (Hakata) Outa Ichiki (太田壱基) - CEO Amaterasu / Oracle Guardian, Apollon, Yadosato Kousei (宿里幸生) - Dragonic Overlord / Blazing Flare Dragon
4. (Osaka) Nishara Tomoya (西原朋弥) - Dragonic Overlord / Sealed Dragon, Blockade / Demonic Dragon Berserker, Yaksha, Nakagawa Asuka (中川明日香) - Asura Kaiser / Mr. Invincible / Lion Heat
5. (Okayama) Kamosaki Mayu (鴨崎真悠) - Embodiment of Victory, Aleph / Sealed Dragon, Blockade / Dragonic Overlord, Horikawa Kanata (堀川奏太) - King of Knights, Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon
6. (Nagoya) Horikawa Eiki (堀川詠生) - Asura Kaiser / Mr. Invincible / Genocide Joker, Eboshida Daito (烏帽子田大翔) - Asura Kaiser / Mr. Invincible / Genocide Joker
7. (Tokyo B-Block) Hirano Yuutaro (平野裕太郎) - King of Knights, Alfred / Demon Slaying Knight, Lohengrin / Alfred Early / Solitary Knight, Gancelot, Saitou Souta (斎藤綜太) - King of Knights, Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon
8. (Tokyo A-Block) Yamamoto Akihiro (山本晃大) - King of Knights, Alfred / Soul Saver Dragon, Miyama Akito (深山暁人) - Dragonic Overlord / Embodiment of Victory, Aleph, Blazing Flare Dragon

Kamosaki Mayu would go on to become the Grand Prix National Champion, and reappear in the Fighter's Road 2012 senior class competitions. Before qualifying at Nagoya, Horikawa Eiki had previously participated as the third place finalist in Osaka using a traditional Royal Paladin deck, then placing in Nagoya with a Royal Paladin-Nova Grappler hybrid, and would go on to become a major player in Fighter's Road 2012 alongside Okayama runner-up Horikawa Kanata, where their team would take the Kanazawa regional Trio Fight cup.

Eboshida Daito was using a close to identical hybrid deck in 2011, and would later become the runner-up for the FR2012 Kanazawa regional championship, using a Gold Paladin deck. In an interesting historical coincidence, Horikawa Eiki and Eboshida Daito first appeared together in the 2011 Nagoya finals; among the finalists was a young Rikino Sakura in third place with her own variation on the hybrid deck, who would become the first consecutive national champion as well as the first female champion during the Grand Prix and FR2012. Eboshida also reappeared in mid-2013 in the best eight of Kanazawa's FR2013 junior tournaments, using a new Gold Paladin deck.

In a surprise move, Kamosaki would convert to the Soul Saver build for his championship matches, taking the title of national champion while Hirano Yuutarou would become the runner-up, and Otani Yuuhi would round out their own Royal Paladin best three. Kamosaki used other means of soulcharging, through Giro and Margal's skills, to make room for Alfred Early in his deck while Otani's take was geared toward versatility, using Mr. Invincible's unflipping to fuel many different skills from single-copy grade 3s, and supporting his megablast with the Barcgal line.

From her debut in KeroKero Ace magazine, Soul Saver Dragon was expected to do well--right from the moment the card was unveiled, it was thought of as the new Royal Paladin in the sense that Blazing Flare was the new Kagerou. She was not supposed to do this well, however. Attention should be paid to the fact that no one at the time knew why. Up until the very day that Barcgal was restricted, nobody knew what was wrong the deck, and very few people believed that the tournament was being affected by game imbalance. The general consensus was that RoyPala was popular and had a lot of support, and if they didn't take the cup then Kagerou would.

This next subject a point that few fighters are willing to admit, because in general the balance in Vanguard is done so well that any clan can fight on equal standings with what is currently dominating professional play. However, every other clan being able to consistently beat the top builds does not mean that there are no dominant builds. Soul Saver Dragon was objectively the best deck in format circa VG-BT02. If you consider how the deck is run today, it's essentially unchanged. Certain key units have been updated--Bors has been changed out for Palamedes, Randolf for Lamorak and so on--but their roles are identical. The deck no longer has access to Barcgal, so Wingal Brave or Drangal and three types of critical trigger with some copies of Margal mixed in to finish setting up the soul are run instead. The deck still has its cohesive strategy, the greatest difference in play is that it can take longer to prepare five soul, but even that's been countered by Sharron, Margal, Dream Painter, Pendragon and other soul-focused cards. Soul Saver remaining unchanged while the rest of the builds are being constantly updated and innovated upon highlights her nature as the best deck in format. Why risk not getting a grade 2 in hand, when you could play Soul Saver and unfailingly ride a grade 2 in every game? Why try to set up a megablast at all when Soul Saver has a cheaper cost and even more dramatic skill? Why try to take the lead in advantage through Kagerou's retire skills when you could get that by playing Blaster Blade and more with the Soul Saver support? Why try to play Oracle Think Tank's card advantage game when you can take the lead instead by directly searching and calling units to the field with Royals?

Barcgal was the cornerstone unit to Soul Saver's reign as the best deck in format, but he was not the ultimate source of her effectiveness and his end should not be confused with her end. Would-be pro fighters often like to tout Barcgal as "broken" but this is a new idea. If you were to time travel back to May 2011 and suggest to a group of cardfighters that Barcgal was somehow unfair, you would be laughed out of the room. When the restriction came about, the general reaction was that it made sense and was "probably" for the better. Nobody threw their hands up in the air screaming about how he was broken or that Bushiroad should have restricted him from the start. The idea of "Broken Barcgal" is a 2012 invention that overhypes a card that was called "okay" in his own time. Like all BT01 first vanguard, Barcgal's primary goal is to leave the field, and in a fashion that hurts the fighter's advantage as it was built up to that point. Soul Saver's long reign is the product of a combination of highly effective skills with an extreme amount of synergy to one another. Her consistency was unprecedented in the 2011 format, and she remains one of the best decks of all time.

Moving away from just the historical context, Saver Dragon decks universally opened with Barcgal as their first vanguard, the same FV that the Royal Paladins had been working with since Descent of the King of Knights. A typical setup was to ride Lien, move Barcgal to the rearguard, then rest him to call Flogal and use Lien's skill to change out anything unneeded like excess copies of Alfred (Flogal always preceded Llew regardless of turn order; logic being that critical was more valuable to the deck and Flogal was usually run in lower numbers, so damage checking her on the opponent's turn would guarantee that there were none left in the deck.) On the next turn they would use Lien's card change skill again, then rest Barcgal to superior call Knight of the Future, Llew, and activate Llew's counterblast 1 to soulcharge Barcgal, Flogal and Llew and superior ride Blaster Blade from the deck.

From here there were a couple ways that the game could play out; generally you would spend your initial grade 3 turn as the King of Knights, Alfred. Alfred gains +2000 power for each Royal Paladin rearguard but can't be boosted, and in those days his skill was invaluable because only the Kagerou, Nova Grappler and Spike Brothers clans had base 11000 grade 3 units. So Alfred could hit major players like CEO Amaterasu, Goku and Mr. Invincible for all the right numbers to outright demand 15000 shield to defend with, climbing up to 25000 if they wanted to guarantee that his attack would not go through. Because all Royal Paladin grade 3s at the time were base 10000, for being able to touch 20000 consistently Alfred was his own best counter. Amaterasu's continuous skill could do something similar while also hitting base 11000 units, but was dependent on having four cards in hand, and that conditional factor gave her a difficult late game because of how much shield she was dropping each turn to stop Alfred. Dragonic Overlord could also break these numbers, but required a counterblast 3 to do so and was only likely to get this skill off once or twice in the game. General Seifried and Soul Saver Dragon were the only other units that could do what Alfred did consistently, and the fact that every Royal Paladin grade 3 in the deck can reach these same numbers gave pressure toward the RoyPala play style over other clans.

The turns spent as Blaster Blade and Alfred would be spent setting up the final turn. Pongal, a base 7000 grade 1, can counterblast 1 to soulcharge himself and add Soul Saver Dragon to the hand, which made him very popular since both grade 2 and 3 could be guaranteed by the Royal Paladin deck of the time. Pongal could also be targeted for a search by both High Dog Breeder, Akane at grade 2 and by Alfred, regardless of whether these units were in the vanguard or rearguard circles. Essentially, no matter how the game progressed Soul Saver Dragon could be guaranteed to the hand with Pongal while the five soul for her soulblast was already prepared by the Barcgal-Flogal-Llew combo. As long as no frontline units were called during the first turn, the opponent would have to attack the vanguard to guarantee themselves a drive check and not fall behind in card advantage, creating a situation where the opponent was forced to activate the superior ride.

That isn't to say that there weren't counters to Barcgal, but they all depended on the Royal Paladin cardfighter taking the second turn rather than the first. In that situation, Kagerou cardfighters could retire Barcgal with Gattling Claw Dragon for a simple counterblast 1, or if the RoyPala opponent had checked a critical trigger, then either Berserk Dragon or (in a mirror match) a vanguard Blaster Blade could do the same. This was unfortunately dependent on a coin flip, die roll or janken. Like Conroe, Battleraizer and Guiding Zombie, Barcgal was never really intended to be stopped. A skilled fighter could overcome the Royal Paladin deck of the time, and in fact many fighters did so--using other Royal Paladin decks. Unfortunately, this set a historical precedent for the future. When one deck emerges with many strengths and no concrete weaknesses, the majority of pros tend toward that deck rather than toward giving themselves a harder time with others.

After the turn as Alfred was over and a proper field was called, the opponent was likely in the range of 4-5 damage already, so what remained was to defend the vanguard and the field for one turn and then ride Soul Saver Dragon, triggering her soulblast 5 for +5000 power to three rearguards. The rearguard setup of the time typically used Blaster Blade for his on-call retire skill, Gallatin for his base 10000 power and Randolf as a substitute for a second Gallatin, which the Royal Paladins did not have access to in those days. The grade 3 Knight of Conviction, Bors was also a very valuable rearguard, since he could counterblast 1 when attacking for +3000 power, breaking the 21000 line with Marron as his booster. A typical assembly of the deck can be seen below, with key cards highlighted in blue.

Grade 0

x1 Barcgal (FV)

x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT

x2 Flogal ST

x4 Knight of the Future, Llew CT

x3 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT

x3 Margal DT

Grade 1

 x3 Flash Shield, Iseult

x4 Little Sage, Marron

x4 Lake Maiden, Lien

x4 Pongal

Grade 2

 x4 Blaster Blade

x4 Knight of Silence, Gallatin

x1 Covenant Knight, Randolf

x2 High Dog Breeder, Akane

Grade 3

x4 King of Knights, Alfred

x2 Soul Saver Dragon

x1 Knight of Conviction, Bors 

The September 5th Restriction
One disadvantage to Barcgal being restricted is that it effectively put the developing pro scene on  indefinite hold. The restriction was first announced on August 3rd, 2011, taking effect on September 5th, and until the outbreak of the Total War in March 2013 every effort to perfect the strategy was put aside. The Barcgal strategy has not stayed static; had it been active, soul-heavy Lohengrin and decks relying on cards like Borgal and Gigantech Dozer would have a greater presence in the pro scene, the modern Majesty Lord Blaster deck would have had deeper competition at the professional level, and the Blaster deck itself would have several more ways to run its plays.

Spotlight: Eboshida Hiromi/烏帽子田拓海

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

Eboshida Hiromi/烏帽子田拓海
Age: Unknown; Juniors Division
Titles Won: Kanazawa Regional Champion (Junior Class, Summer 2012), Kanazawa Regional Champion (Junior Class, Winter 2012), Fighter's Climax 2012 National Champion (Junior Class)
Current Status: National Champion (Reigning)
Deck Type: Kagerou (Dragonic Overlord-The End)
Eboshida Hiromi is the reigning junior national champion for Winter 2012. A former participant in the Fighter's Road 2012 tournament, Eboshida left his greatest impact on the Fighter's Climax 2012 event of the same year. He is the first, and by all estimates last proper national champion to represent the Dragonic Overlord-The End deck; following his victory, The End was heavily limited for tournament play in Cardfight's first extensive restricted list. Eboshida is considered one of the defining cardfighters of the format, as his seizing of the title played a key role in the restrictions coming into play. Along with his two-times opponent Rikino Sakura, Eboshida is regarded as one of the strongest fighters to come out of the juniors' division.

Decks and Play Style
At his debut in Kanazawa, Eboshida made use of a fairly standard The End deck, using Conroe to retrieve his grade 1s while gradually building up to The End's 13000 base by riding Dragonic Overlord on the turn beforehand. To counter the general slowness of this play, Eboshida sought to slow his own opponents down by retiring their grade 1s and 0s with Gatling Claw to force them to spend more time on setting up their field. Although a typical play from Kagerou cardfighters is to use Conroe to retrieve Barri, Eboshida instead left two single-copy targets in the deck, Heatnail Salamander and Flame of Promise, Aermo. Heatnail, as a card that retires the opponent's rearguard then cycles back into the deck, put pressure on the opponent to guard the attack that he boosted and could also be retrieved with Conroe for a second run if he were drawn and used early in the game. Meanwhile, the Promise Aermo variant was a custom booster for his Overlord vanguard, helping Dragonic Overlord climb up to 26000 power and making The End hit a similar baseline of 23000. The main purpose of this was to bring their initial attacks through, so that the Overlords' on-hit skills could go off and further press the game.

Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Kanazawa Regional Tournament
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x3 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Heatnail Salamander
x1 Flame of Promise, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Wyvern Strike, Tejas
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End

At the subsequent Fighter's Climax, Eboshida brought a modified version of his previous deck that omitted both Flame of Promise and Heat Nail in favor of a fourth Bahr and the Flame of Hope. This was to work more closely with Garp and Burning Horn, who could act as fifth and seventh Nehalems or in Burning Horn's case, powerful 20000 lines for pressuring base 10000 units. Like his previous deck, this one placed emphasis on Tejas rather than Berserk Dragon, due to Berserk straining his already-choked pool of counterblast while Tejas encouraged the opponent to defend earlier to protect their rearguards, potentially allowing The End's attack through more easily. The use of the original Aermo over his successor was done to increase Eboshida's ability to search for extra copies of The End; factoring in the draw and drive check, he would be searching three to four cards every turn for copies to persona blast with, possibly as high as six on his initial run as Dragonic Overlord.

Winter 2012 Kanazawa Regional Tournament, Japan
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Wyvern Strike, Tejas
x2 Burning Horn Dragon
x1 Cross Shot, Gaarp
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End

Eboshida's Kanazawa deck went unchanged for the national tournament.

Fighter's Climax 2012 National Tournament, Japan
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x4 Wyvern Strike, Tejas
x2 Burning Horn Dragon
x1 Cross Shot, Gaarp
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End

News: TD08 and TD09 Release Dates, New Sleeves

Today the release dates for trial decks 08 and 09, Liberator of the Sanctuary and Eraser of the Empire, have been confirmed as January 26th, 2013. The decks will be available just thirteen days after the first episode of the third season, Link Joker, airs on January 13th. By that time it's expected that TD08's exclusive grade 3s will have their card skills revealed. Additionally, two sleeves based off of the new units, "Solitary Liberator, Gancelot" and "Eraser, Vowing Sword Dragon" have been announced, giving Gancelot fans a long-awaited new look for their decks.

The trial decks, already known to be for Gold Paladin and Narukami, are speculated to include multiclan skills like those of BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons' Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark Spirits. If so, this would make the decks compatible with not just existing Gold Paladin support, but also with Royal Paladin and Kagerou support, updating one clan that has not had new cards printed forit since May of 2012.

My Time with the World Champion; Reworking the Shadow Paladin Deck

Going into this tournament, I had no illusions of placing first. I had heard of the event purely by coincidence--my main objective was always to meet and interview the world champion, but when we called to ask about their hours, my father came out of the phone call telling me about a commemorative tournament. I wasn't certain of the circumstances, but if Mr. Smith were participating, I wanted to show him my ability at a fighter.

I was determined to use my Shadow Paladin deck. Spectral Duke-based Gold Paladin was a temporary clan that I'd adapted for the purposes of the world championship because BT04 was not available at the time, they were not my deck and I was and remain eager to get rid of them. This was a difficult situation. Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows, the Shadow Paladins' proper debut set, was released internationally on the 14th, but the tournament was on the 16th. I had only two days and two boxes to get together a deck with. Making matters worse, my local shop tournament on the 15th had been called off because of low attendance--the Yu-Gi-Oh! regionals had apparently drawn most of the regulars away. Only two other fighters had arrived that day, so I was only able to trade for a third Blaster Dark and a third The Dark Dictator. Ideally, I wouldn't be running three of the latter, but I had to adapt my strategy because I didn't have a second Phantom Blaster Dragon, so I couldn't fall back on his defense when building up a strategy. It would be like trying to play Aqua Force without Maelstrom; doable, but much more difficult.

To resolve the issue, I studied decks from the 2011 Grand Prix. That was the last major Japanese tournament in which BT04 was the most recently released set, so it was my ideal starting point for finding new strategies. As it happens, there was only one Shadow Paladin pro at the time, Sakamoto Kiyomasa, an elementary school boy from the Hakata ward of Fukuoka. He'd placed fourth in the regional tournament, but fourth place out of several hundred fighters was still very good.

Although it's not entirely certain, the kanji on their award papers suggests that Sakamoto Kiyomasa is probably the boy wearing glasses, second from the right.

I had taken a look at his deck once before because we shared clans, but back then I had been absolutely baffled by it. Still, I tried to remain objective and see the deck for its real strengths rather than focus on weaknesses alone. Probably the most startling thing about it was that the deck ran twenty grade 0s, using three copies of Zapbau. Zapbau was effectively a Stardust Trumpeter for the Shadow Paladins, a grade 0 that you run if you're only buying packs instead of boxes and haven't pulled Fullbau yet. Modern booster sets don't even print them--after the sixth set, Breaker of Limits, Bushiroad had chosen to just throw a bone to those cardfighters and give them clan-specific copies of Bermuda Triangle Cadet Shizuku, who at least moved to the rearguard when ridden over. The fact that Sakamoto had been using three of them in addition to Fullbau, looked bizarre.

I worked out what he had been doing quickly enough. Zapbau has a unique combination of base 6000 power and 10000 shield, something that no grade 0 has normally. The majority of trigger units have either 5000 or 4000 power, to balance them for having 10000 shield, which gives a much more powerful defense than you can get from grade 1 and 2 units. Battleraizer and Lozenge Magus-type triggers are the only units to give a 6000 power boost, and they return to the deck after doing so, again to balance that they give equally good offense and defensive power. Zapbau is useful for forming lines that reach 15-16000 power, while also giving an extra 10000 shield than normal. In that way, he can compensate for a lack of perfect defense cards. This was another point of Sakamoto's deck, he had no copies of Dark Shield, Mac Lir. Without Mac Lir, he had no guaranteed way of stopping powerful vanguard attacks.

I had an advantage over Sakamoto, in that I had one copy of Mac Lir, and could use the remaining three Zapbau to compensate. It wouldn't be a perfect replacement, but it would be enough to let me defend against several current decks like Garmore-Ezel and in a mirror match, my very own Shadow Paladins. I also had Knight of Fighting Spirit Dordona, a second base 10000 grade 2 that also forms those 16000 lines with Zapbau. A Shadow Paladin deck that runs the Fullbau-Blaster Dark line can also run as few as eight grade 2s and reach that grade with the same reliability as a deck that's running ten, although just because you can do so doesn't mean you always should. This was a desperate retuning of my deck on my part; I wouldn't encourage anyone to follow my example.

A last-minute trade was able to secure for me my first copy of Skull Witch, Nemain, who proved instrumental later in the tournament. This trade let me work out the final problems with my deck, in particular riding Badhabh Caar. I cut my third Caar from the deck to run just seven grade 3s--my preferred number for riding from one grade to the next securely--then included another Dordona to help prevent riding Nemain. This was the final balancing point for my deck. The whole situation was very precarious, so even that one Caar made all the difference. Contrary to what I thought, there was no entry fee, but since I came prepared to pay one anyway I bought a BT04 pack, partly to thank the shop and partly to test my luck, hoping to get at least a fourth Blaster Dark. The pack's rare card was Water Gang--I've been getting a lot of Megacolony lately. My second box had the RRR Evil Armor General, Giraffa when I would have preferred a second Phantom, but there was no helping it.

As I recall, there were seventeen or more participants in all. By the time the opening matches began, I had dispelled all thoughts of whether I could or couldn't place highly in the tournament. I was focused entirely on winning the fight in front of me. There were fifty minutes to a round, each was best of three with who took the first turn decided by die roll, and the loser of each match would go first in the next one.

My first matchup was against a Dragonic Lawkeeper-Dragon Monk Goku fusion with Dragonic Overlord included for rearguard support. I've written about the original deck from 2011, but the Lawkeeper-Goku fusion is a modern innovation of the English pro scene that I'd already faced several times before, particularly at the Chicago regional championship. I knew the deck's specialties inside and out, although most modern takes don't seem to use Overlord in favor of leaving the counterblast to Berserk. My first game was lost when the opponent surprised me by riding Overlord, but in the second he rode Lawkeeper instead while I was on The Dark Dictator. He kept firing off Lawkeeper's limit break to bind my rearguards and retire one at the end of the turn, but Zapbau made defending very easy on me and at the end of every turn I would call Badhabh Caar before the others to use his skill to superior call the top card of the deck, ensuring that Lawkeeper did not give him any advantage. I actually gained 5000 shield by superior calling Dordona in this way, and was also able to consistently keep The Dark Dictator at 20000 power to pressure Lawkeeper. It was a very long match, more than a half hour in all I think, but I directed the fight to a situation where the opponent could no longer defend, then brought out a second ride of The Dark Dictator and used his soulblast to finish him at five damage.

For the third match, because of the length of the second we hit overtime quickly. I was actually going to be gradelocked, so knowing from experience where that would lead me in the late game, after riding Charon for my grade 1 turn I called a full line of Abyss Freezer and began to mount a complete attack. I admit, I completely forgot about the overtime rule--once the round runs out of time, the fighter with more damage loses, or if it's tied play continues until someone takes damage. (Heal triggers will prolong the match because they are not part of the damage zone when they activate, so after a heal trigger is resolved the damage is equal.) I brought out a critical trigger on the previous turn, so my opponent was at three and overtime was called in their battle phase, right after they had dealt two. Looking at my hand back then, I had plenty of trigger units and Zapbau to defend with, so even if we were tied there would be no way that I would take damage that turn.

In the second round I played a Great Nature cardfighter, running a Leo-pald deck with Magnet Crocodile for the rearguard. The first game was won with the opponent locked at grade 1 and myself having pulled out Dictator's soulblast, but you can probably imagine my surprise when in the second game the opponent pulled out the grade 4 Silvest. My play up until that point had been good, but I hadn't taken enough of an early lead to overcome Silvest's 13000 base and 31000+ power every turn. I knew that the match was likely over when he rode it, but I have a philosophy of continuing play until the very last damage is checked. That second match was lost, but the third was won easily with a strong rearguard setup for Dictator and my opponent already taking heavy damage while stand triggers meant that he was being pressured while I was at grade 2, but he ended up gradelocked again and resigned the match by the time I reached Dictator. In the previous match he'd ridden Crocodile before reaching Silvest, and I was looking forward to playing Leo-pald in the third match as Great Nature is one of my favorite clans--they require very smart play to fight well with--but that was how things broke down.

The third round was versus an Angel Feather deck running the Ergodiel line with Kiriel and Shamsiel both as alternatives. My opponent had very strong rearguard setup with the Pegasus line breaking 25000+ every turn, so to counter this I guarded their other attacks, dropping Zapbau versus his unboosted vanguard line, and then only took damage from the Pegasus setup. Since eventually he started running out of ways to set them up, and had to sacrifice card advantage by soulcharging Nociel, I was able to play damage control throughout our matches and drain his hand with Dictator's soulblast. The second match was won by planning from the first turn, until he had only 5000 shield left in hand and 5000 on the field, but he also had four heal triggers left in the deck due to boosting with Sunny Smile earlier. To deal with this as best I could I rode Phantom Blaster Dragon while he was at five damage, then used Phantom Blaster's counterblast to make a 29000 Critical 2 line versus Kiriel so that he would need two consecutive heal triggers to survive. It did not go well for him.

The fourth round was actually against Brandon Bastianelli. That was a surreal experience for me, cardfighting someone that I'd written articles about, but it was an amazing pair of matches. He was running a Dimension Police deck, using Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha and Enigman Storm, although it wasn't yet complete since he was still waiting on some of his Daiyushas to come in. In the first game he rode Daiyusha but couldn't get its skill set up, and I retaliated with The Dark Dictator to make a 20000 line again. Zapbau was instrumental in my defense here, and proved to be again after I won the match and our second game began, as in that fight he was able to bring out the evolving ride while I wasn't and I was dealing with an 11000 base opponent who with Cosmo Beak was getting an extra critical. Without Zapbau to make my defense that much stronger, I could not have made it through that onslaught. Essentially, it would have been a repeat of how I'd played in Chicago, with only two perfect defense cards--back then I had made it through six rounds and been eliminated in the seventh, but after four rounds here I was in the semifinals.

By this time I was exhausted and running purely on the adrenaline. I think it was around 10:30 PM when the semifinals cleared, because we didn't leave until around 12:00 AM on the 17th. I had arrived in Michigan at around 12:30 AM of the 16th, then woken up at 6:45 AM. I had to do this to be up for the earlier, contemporary church service rather than groan my way through the traditional service's hymns. My father is a reverend, so attending his sermons are naturally a condition of coming up to his house for the week. It's something you become accustomed to as a pastor's kid; put your smile on, shake hands, talk about how great school is going, listen to people. Keep the world turning from 9:00-10:00 AM, then sequester yourself in the senior pastor's office until everyone's cleared out for the day. Between this and trying to fit in going to my local store for the planned shop tournament on the day before, and leaving Cincinnati by 5:00 PM after arranging to get my luggage delivered to him while he was on his way to pick me up, the 15th and 16th were like one long, continuous day of travel and cardfights.

The semifinal round was a mirror matchup versus another Shadow Paladin deck, this one running Origin Mage Ildona with Badhabh Caar. An elf deck. That made my strategy clear before the fight even began--I would go for Dictator rather than retrieve Phantom Blaster with Javelin, to exploit Ildona's 10000 base. The Origin Mage can't actually generate card advantage by himself, only preserve existing advantage from Nemain and Caar, so by using Zapbau with trigger units I could easily stop his 21-24000 power vanguard attacks to put the role of damage dealing on his poor rearguard lineup, and use the same to keep him from unflipping damage if he brought out Cursed Lancer. Once that counterblast was exhausted, his field and hand would be paralyzed and I could go for the kill with a soulblast. In our first fight he rode Nemain as his grade 2, so immediately I laid down a full field, Rugos and Charon on one side, Blaster Dark in the center, and for the right I improvised with my one Mac Lir and a Grim Reaper to force him to defend with at least 10000 shield if he didn't want to hit five damage dangerously fast. From experience online I knew that Nemain was close to impossible to defend. Both matches went by much faster than I expected due to early triggers, with the second one actually ending in a double draw trigger placed on Blaster Dark with Arianrhod, after he had already exhausted perfect defense on Dictator. I do recall one other key move, a stand trigger put on a rearguard Dark Metal Dragon, who was at 15000 already from The Dark Dictator's soulblast, and so could go for 20000 again on Ildona, but I can't remember if this was the first or the second match.

The finals were probably my most daunting matchup. My opponent was a Spike Brothers cardfighter using Dudley Emperor, a deck that I had done poorly against both locally and at the Chicago regionals. However, all those matches had been using the Gold Paladin deck, and I reminded myself of this going in. The Shadow Paladins are different. In both games, several moves that I had wished I could pull out in Chicago came through. Since the opponent wanted to use Dudley Emperor's late game power as early as possible, he opened with three attacks on the first turn in both games. In the first match I blocked one, but this left me with three damage from a critical trigger, after which I was done taking damage for the game. I pulled out Blaster Dark's counterblast next to retire Mecha Trainer to limit what he could do with it, then used Nemain's counterblast to reinforce my hand and called an Arianrhod for her to attack a front-row Wonder Boy with, forcing him to defend. I had already brought out Blaster Javelin's evolution ride, so this created a three-card difference in the first turn that helped me continue to defend throughout, and Zapbau was again a critical card as thanks to him I could stop a critical 2 Juggernaut Maximum's soulblast later on and stay at three damage. Emperor's soulcharges and his cards leaving the field caused him to fall behind immensely on top of my own skills, then in the second game I called Nemain behind Dictator for the advantage boost as well as the +2000 from having her on the field. That game fell my way as well from the strong early lead, as I could hit Emperor for 20000 every turn in both games and resort to the same soulblast tactics as ever once he was exhausted.

Ultimately, I had six undefeated rounds with my incomplete Shadow Paladin deck. This was beyond my expectations--the Shadow Paladins are not a popular pro deck. I used them because Ito is my favorite artist, because I wanted to be seen with my personal clan, not with a competitive one. Going in, I didn't think that I would make it this far. When I reported the results of the finals to Mr. Smith, he was pulling something out of the back of the store. I told him that I had won my match and, standing up with a deckbox in hand, he said "All right. Let's fight."

"What?"

I had figured out after signing up that Mr. Smith was just hosting the event, not actually participating. It was understandable. He had only been world champion for a week, and international travel and competition are both strenuous. I didn't think I'd get to fight him unless I came back later on in the week.

Brandon Smith is on the left; Touya is on the right, in dire need of a haircut.

The exhibition round was conducted in a best of 3 format just like before, only this time who began each round was decided with another die roll rather than with a loser-takes-first rules. Naturally, there was a lot of shuffling. Brandon Smith was using his world championship deck, the same one he'd started with in Toronto and brought all the way to Tokyo. I did everything I could, but Mr. Smith dominated the matches with expert play.

Initially neither of us brought out our evolving rides and both were playing with base 10000 Dragons as a result, while after my initial loss, in the second match his Vortimer line came out in full. I did my best to negate the advantage of his on-ride skills, but Mr. Smith was playing perfectly and without drive checking triggers to turn the tide in my favor, I couldn't come up with a maneuver to defeat him. In the second match I believed that I would be gradelocked, as I had no grade 3 and only Nemain to ride--had I not drawn Rugos at the last moment, I would not have ridden her.

Thinking back on it, I can recall where the match fell entirely out of my hands. I called Nemain to form a left line but couldn't get rid of her cleanly, and should have instead called her behind my vanguard Badhabh Caar; there were three Dictators left in the deck, so it would be more unlikely for me to not draw one of them, and as I eventually did, this would have been the better setup. I could have used Caar to attack his rearguard rather than vanguard, then passed any potential critical triggers to my own rearguards to try to turn things around.

I also made a poor move in the semifinal turn of the second match, where I put a damage trigger on Rugos, thinking to defend my rearguards for a soulblast next turn with a Dictator that I had in hand. This was a mistake; I was at four damage at that point, he had healed one damage with his drive check so he was at three and my soulblast would be wasted if attempted, and I was too concerned over a critical trigger coming up in his third check when there were only three left in the deck, not four as I thought at the time.

Had I given the power to my vanguard, my mindset would have changed toward no-guarding his third check and I would also have to drop less shield to stop his Gigantech-Gareth combo, then potentially having enough on his final turn to get through. Whether or not that would have really turned the fight in my favor--I doubt it. Mr. Smith had made no mistakes. He's an intense cardfighter, I don't think he sees anything but the game when he plays. My moves were geared toward safety, but safety was not what was going to win that fight, if anything could. My inability to recognize that cost me deeply. But despite my crushing defeats, in my eyes the exhibition round was easily the best set of fights of the night.

My memory may be spotty on the match content--it's been almost 20 hours now. When the last match closed, Mr. Smith set down his cards and said "Let's see what we can do for you." For taking first in the tournament, I was awarded thirteen packs. Five of them were from Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows, and before the tournament I'd been asking Mr. Smith if he would trade me any of his Shadow Paladin cards, so I get the feeling that he was trying to help me out.

Ultimately I pulled several high-rarity cards from the assortment, although none of them were ones that I needed. Still, the cards will help with trading back home where several of them are in high demand, and the fact that I was able to take first with my brand of Shadow Paladins is more important to me. I'm looking forward to bringing them to the 2013 tournament season.