Amon “Я”'s overall strategy is to rapidly soulcharge 2 cards at a time with Hell's Deal and Hell's Draw, using the generally-open counterblast for Gwynn the Ripper's cost to retire the opponent's rearguards, turning the large soul into a strong midgame with Demon World Marquis Amon's consistent 21000+ line and then going in with Demon God Marquis Amon “Я”'s limit break for similar power with an additional critical that allows it to make vengeance plays when the opponent is only at 3 damage. The deck's soul-oriented build also allows it to set up a crossride fast and early, but not as accurately as Luquier “Я.” Sakamoto Issei's Amon is notable for its more extensive use of the damage zone, decreasing grade 3 space in favor of running four copies of Gwynn and the very unusual choice of Bloody Calf over Doreen the Thruster or Poet Amon. Typically Doreen and/or Poet are chosen for their soul synergy and overwhelming field power boosts, and these strengths have been stressed even more in an era where the Irregulars have Lon Shinrin for a 12000 power rearguard attacker, but Sakamoto chose Calf for her unique ability to control the opponent's boosters, playing a similar role to Gwynn in a deckbuild that is innately low on counterblast costs.
When taking into account the base Amon's soulcharge-to-retire skill, the overall theme of Sakamoto's deck can be argued to be field control, using Devil in Shadow as a sacrifice to Amon to take out the opponent's rearguards, and Calf and Gwynn to do so in a way that actually gives the Irregulars the upper hand. Sakamoto's other innovation is the use of Yellow Bolt, using him to steadily soulcharge 1 card every turn after limit break, then Lock Bolt for the cost of his Reverse card's skill so that Amon “Я”'s power will steadily built each turn for a small extra bonus compared to contemporary Amon “Я” decks. Bloody Calf may yet become a staple of Amon “Я” play after this overwhelming success, while it remains to be seen if Yellow Bolt will be similarly adopted. Considering Luquier “Я”'s success in the previous national championship, this may be Irregulars' time to shine.
While runner-up Kajima Kiyoto played a fairly standard Raging Form Dragon deck with the extra grade 0 and Darkbond Trumpeter that have now become staples of the Revengers, Kajima's build is still illustrating some very gradual development for the Shadow Paladins. Up to this point Mordred Phantom has very consistently been a four card staple, but Kajima chose to run him at three in order to make room for the 12 grade 2s that are also endemic to Revenger play, maximizing his build's options. Currently Kajima's deck seems to reflect the Revengers as a whole, using Dark Bond Trumpeter to fetch Claudas early on in the match for a quiet buildup, break riding with Mordred Phantom to fill out the field and power up Raging Form Dragon, using Tartu to fetch Dorin, unflipping and retiring with Blaster Dark Revenger, then finishing out the game with Raging Form Dragon's persona ride.
Within the top 8, fourth place cardfighter Kamiya Ayaka has been getting a lot of attention for bringing a previously-unproven Great Nature deck to the top brackets of professional play, with her School Punisher Leo-pald “Я” deck winning the Doctor O Prize for innovation. Kamiya's strategy was to open turn 3 with the Chatnoir break ride, break riding Chatnoir over Chatnoir on turn 4. By comboing Chatnoir's break ride skill and Binoculus Tiger's retire skill, she could stack between 8000 and 16000 power on a single Stamp Sea Otter, for a rearguard lane of 23~31000 power, a vanguard lane of 28000~ power, and another lane that could vary between 15~23000 power, then at the end of the turn draw two cards for Chatnoir's skill but not be able to retire Otter because of its own continuous ability, netting a total advantage of +1 overall. To further take advantage of this however, Kamiya ran eight stand triggers in her deck, so that each additional attack would allow her to draw another card at the end of the turn for a +2 or +3 overall while continuously wailing on the opponent with high power attacks. This transformed her stands into a combination of stand and draw instead of just stands alone, without the major weaknesses of draw triggers to interfere. Like Amon, the deck has very few uses of counterblast, so in this case it also made use of Lamp Camel's on-hit CB2 to draw to further combo with Chatnoir's power increasing break ride. For her final strategy, Kamiya would break ride with Leo-pald “Я” and use his limit break to Lock a rearguard and power up two rearguards by +4000, retiring them in the end phase, then calling them back. This would further build on the break ride's power boosts, with rearguards occasionally stronger than a post-limit break Liberator of the Round Table Alfred, and was further supported by her deck's personal staple Tank Mouse. Tank Mouse has until now been a relatively lackluster card, a base 6000 power grade 1 that can be rested to power up another unit by +4000; usually just boosting with it is better, but as in the case of Yellow Bolt, Tank Mouse is a very viable Lock target with high synergy toward being sacrificed.
Meanwhile Chaos Breaker Dragon has been picked up immediately by the junior's division, taking both first and second place at Fukuoka. An unusual trend shared between both the junior class and team tournaments is the teching of Nebula Lord Dragon as an alternative ride to Chaos Breaker, likely out of appreciation of the deck's overwhelming strength when the break ride is brought about. While Chaos Breaker is notorious as a hard counter to Reverse cards and still strong as one of the most consistent control decks in other matchups, having the occasional option of Nebula Lord as a transition between Infinite Zero and Chaos Breaker can be a useful battleplan to Link Joker cardfighters, as going through all three grade 3s both capitalizes on Nebula's strengths and his crucial weaknesses of only bringing his massive field power bonus for one turn in the game while also being wholly dependent on Infinite. With Chaos Breaker still providing a good fallback if Zero falls apart, the game strategy is solid enough that this development may be expected to progress among other Link Joker cardfighters in the future.
This year's Fighter's Climax is part of the larger Bushiroad World Grand Prix for the company's Japanese TCGs. It is the first year that Cardfight!! Vanguard is a part of the WGP. Note that while the tournament was originally referred to on Twitter as the Fukuoka regional, it is being officially designated as the Hakata regional on the official website; much like in the case of the "Dallas" versus "Texas" qualifiers abroad, both names are technically correct with regards to where the tournament took place.
Accompanying the open and junior class tournaments this year is the return of VF Koushien, a special triples division of team tournaments for student cardfighters. VF Koushien is based on the summer & winter Koushiens, two high-profile national baseball tournaments held in August and March in Japan. Like the baseball tournaments, participation in VF Koushien is restricted to school teams, and all members on the team must be from the same school. Unlike in the baseball Koushien, VF Koushien is open to any elementary, junior or high school cardfighters. If for any reason one fighter cannot participate on their team after it has registered, up to one participant may be changed out for another under the conditions that the new fighter is from the same school as the other team members.
Fukuoka's team greatly reflects the state of competitive play, with the three major decks of the format each onboard; Kuroki Yuki's Dragonic Descendant, Yoshida Hiroshige's Chaos Breaker Dragon and Tomita Hiromi's Raging Form Dragon. Although greatly scaled back compared to its glory days, Descendant is still a definitive part of the format, and the combination of three different decks each capable of varying levels of opposing field control, draw power and deck searching made for a plethora of positive matchups for Fukuoka's team.
Hakata Open Class Regional Tournament
First place: Sakamoto Issei/坂下一生
Grade 0
x1 Devil in Shadow (FV)
x4 Dark Knight of Nightmareland CT
x2 Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand CT
x2 Blitz Ritter CT
x4 Hysteric Shirley DT
x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick HT
Grade 1
x4 Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula
x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal
x4 Bloody Calf
x2 Yellow Bolt
Grade 2
x4 Amon's Follower, Lon Shinrin
x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw
x4 Gwynn the Ripper
Grade 3
x4 Demon God Marquis, Amon “Я”
x3 Demon World Marquis, Amon
Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x1 Frontline Revenger, Claudas
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x2 Death Feather Eagle CT
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x2 Freezing Revenger DT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x3 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x3 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
Doctor O Prize: Kamiya Ayaka/神谷綾香
Grade 0
x1 Acorn Master (FV)
x4 Dictionary Goat HT
x4 Eraser Alpaca ST
x4 Alarm Chicken ST
x1 Triangle Cobra CT
x3 Holder Hedgehog CT
Grade 1
x3 Coiling Duckbill
x3 Stamp Sea Otter
x4 Tank Mouse
x4 Cable Sheep
Grade 2
x3 Compass Lion
x4 Lamp Camel
x4 Binoculus Tiger
Grade 3
x4 School Punisher, Leo-pald “Я”
x4 Honorary Doctor, Chatnoir
Hakata Junior Class Regional Tournament
First place: Kenta Tatsuhiko/権田達彦
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FVG)
x3 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x3 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Moon Commander ST
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
Grade 1
x2 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
Grade 2
x4 Furious Claw Star-vader, Niobium
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
Runner-up: Sougawa Yoshiki/早川嘉輝
Grade
0
x1
Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FVG)
x4
Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x4
Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x4
Keyboard Star-vader, Bismuth ST
x4
Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
Grade
1
x1
Opener of the Black Door
x1
Star-vader, Aurora Eagle
x3
Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon
x3
Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x3
Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x4
The Hollow Twin Blades, Binary Star
Grade
2
x2
Soaring Star-vader, Krypton
x2
Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x2
Singularity Shooter
x4
Star-vader, Moebius Breath Dragon
Grade
3
x4
Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x3
Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
x1
Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon
Doctor O Prize: Hagio Kazuya/萩尾和哉
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Liberator (FV)
x4 Fortune Liberator ST
x3 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT
x1 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x1 Barkgal Liberator
x1 Silver Fang Witch
x4 Bomergal Liberator
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x3 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x2 Future Liberator, Llew
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade Liberator
x1 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x1 Zoomdown Eagle
x3 Zoigal Liberator
x4 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin
Grade 3
x1 Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore
x1 Onslaught Liberator, Mailzion
x1 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x1 Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel
x2 Dignified Gold Dragon
x1 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel
x1 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot
Vanguard Fight Koushien 2013 (Student only) Hakata Regional Tournament Championship Team
Tomita Hiromi/富田大珠
Grade 0x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x3 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
Yoshida Hiroshige/吉田大成
Grade 0
x1 Extending Black Ring, Pleiades (FVG)
x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
Grade 1
x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x3 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x2 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
Grade 2
x4 Soaring Star-vader, Krypton
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x3 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
x1 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon
Kuroki Yuki/黒木優希
Grade 0x1 Eradicator, Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x1 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x3 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Pollux CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
Grade 1
x2 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x3 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
x1 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x4 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x3 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”
