Finally, the decklists from the 2013 World Championship have been released, including reigning world champion Almeida Stewart's Dauntless DOTE deck. As an update over the previous story, there were actually ten participants in the championship rather than nine. Presumably to prevent anyone from having a bye, Bushiroad injected a Japanese cardfighter with an English-language Eradicator deck into the tournament; the identity of this mystery fighter is presently unclear, but a best guess is a representative from the Fighter's Climax national tournament that was taking place on the same day.
1/25/2014 Update: A source within Bushiroad international has explained the fighter's identity. The tenth cardfighter is Nakajima Yuu, the Japanese champion for English edition Cardfight!! Vanguard. Nakajima's presence in the world championship finals was previously overlooked due to a rule in the 2013 World Championships that differed from WCS2012, which allowed for the Japanese champion to participate directly in the finals without having to make first place in the Asia-Oceania continental qualifier. In the previous year the Japanese champion still had to place within the top 3 at the AO tournament to be in the finals, but because the Japanese route to the finals for 2013 was separate from the rest of Asia's, Nakajima was not noticed. We apologize for the gap in our coverage.
2012 world champion Brandon Smith issued a public congratulations to Stewart and the other competitors via the official Cardfight!! Vanguard USA Facebook page, expressing anticipation to one day play against the new champion and see the competitors return for 2014. Breakdowns of the top 4 decklists from WCS2013 can be viewed below, with general descriptions of their strategies and play styles.
Almeida Stewart: Black BBC
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FV)
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x2 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Blue Ray Dracokid CT
x1 Seal Dragon, Biella CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey
Grade 2
x2 Berserk Dragon
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x1 Bellicosity Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord the End
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Stewart's decklist is a modification of his favored 8-draw build for DOTE, using 6 draw triggers and multiple types of critical triggers to give the appearance of running more criticals than in reality. There are some notable similarities to Albert Lee's old Dauntless DOTE build in using 2 Gojo and 4 Kersey to cycle those draw triggers after they've been checked, but Stewart made the wiser choice in playing Conroe to be able to tech Aermo as a vanguard booster and go through his cards more consistently. The deck is notably light on Berserk Dragon, as most Kagerou cardfighters play him at 4 not for the sake of using that much counterblast but instead to consistently draw the card. The builds' main goal is to break ride over Dauntless with The End, leaving the opponent in a world of poor decisions if they're at more than 3 damage. The most optimal way to deal with the play is to no-guard it, but if this isn't an option then Dauntless' break ride skill will stand The End, allowing it to swing again and bring the situation back at the opponent. No-guarding makes an opening for Stewart to use the persona blast to stand and attack again, which differs from Dauntless' stand skill in increasing advantage rather than decreasing, but the main point is that Dauntless DOTE will always make two 21000+ power swings with the ability to go for up to three attacks total if the opponent's hand is low, but the persona blast in this scenario only recoups the -1 of break riding rather than actually giving a +1 as it did in previous months and the danger of the Dauntless build comes entirely from its four drive checks.
The biggest hole in the deck is that once that initial DOTE break ride turn is over, there's nothing left afterward. Generally all of the counterblast is used up by then, additional attacks aren't going to hit for the persona blast even when there is open damage, and more break rides aren't going to come after DOTE hits the field. Thus, the deck has to win many turns before it actually drives the opponent to 6 damage, by taking out a large part of the opponent's hand. This can be answered by doing successive Dauntless into Dauntless break rides, but because of DOTE's need to save up multiple grade 3s for both the break ride and persona blast, and the deck not actually grabbing up a huge amount of advantage despite cycling through a lot of cards per game, this isn't always practical. Stewart's deck is effective, but its primary trait is getting inside the opponent's head during break ride turns.
The biggest hole in the deck is that once that initial DOTE break ride turn is over, there's nothing left afterward. Generally all of the counterblast is used up by then, additional attacks aren't going to hit for the persona blast even when there is open damage, and more break rides aren't going to come after DOTE hits the field. Thus, the deck has to win many turns before it actually drives the opponent to 6 damage, by taking out a large part of the opponent's hand. This can be answered by doing successive Dauntless into Dauntless break rides, but because of DOTE's need to save up multiple grade 3s for both the break ride and persona blast, and the deck not actually grabbing up a huge amount of advantage despite cycling through a lot of cards per game, this isn't always practical. Stewart's deck is effective, but its primary trait is getting inside the opponent's head during break ride turns.
Albert Lee: Gundam
Grade 0
x1 Beast Deity, Riot Horn (FV)
x4 Ring Girl, Clara HT
x2 Three Minutes DT
x4 The Gong DT
x4 Red Lightning CT
x2 Shining Lady CT
Grade 1
x4 Twin Blader
x4 Clay-doll Mechanic
x1 Toolkit Boy
x4 Beast Deity, Scarlet Bird
Grade 2
x3 Magician Girl, Kirara
x4 Beast Deity, Golden Anglet
x4 Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos
Grade 3
x4 Beast Deity, Azure Dragon
x4 Ultra Beast Deity, Illuminal Dragon
x1 Beast Deity, Ethics Buster
Lee made some interesting choices when compared to the other noted Beast Deity cardfighter of the time, Sebastian LeBon; both fighters recognized the value of 6 draw with 6 critical in the Illuminal deck, due in part to Nova Grappler's minimal ways to grab up card advantage and lack of deck searching. When presented with more options than LeBon though, Lee still valued Azure Dragon more than Ethics Buster, setting up consistent crossride defense--normally ineffective in BT10-on, but with a very positive Descendant matchup due to the general reliance on Rising Phoenix in that build, tendency to run low on boosting units and the weakness of Descendant's unboosted 11000 swing vs a single 10000 shield on 13000 defense. However, Lee eschewed Black Tortoise in favor of Kirara but still considered Scarlet Bird playable as a pressure attacker and 18000 line with Hatred Chaos, where most others run Blank Marsh.
Toolkit Boy is an unusual tech, considering many cardfighters don't even know what the card does. Although at 1 it's far from guaranteed, Toolkit can unflip a damage when he boosts the vanguard and the attack hits the opponent's, which gives him a lot of synergy with Kirara's counterblast 2 and Illuminal Dragon's counterblast 3. There are also more opportunities to play him in the Eradicator matchup, where sacrificing the vanguard booster to Gauntlet is a typical play if it's something like Clay-doll or a draw trigger. Lee's general idea is to wear the opponent's hand down with Scarlet Bird and Kirara, draw cards when her attack finally goes through, then unflip counterblast with Clay-doll and Toolkit, and set up an Ethics break ride into either Azure for a persona blast to have two standing rearguards or into Illuminal for a counterblast 3 to stand the entire field, getting five attacks in either way while keeping flipped damage low so that Illuminal can go off twice. This variation is versatile and its techs are set up so that drawing one card can be beneficial by warping the entire strategy in a new direction, but without necessarily building the entire deck around the break ride. Not running Blank Marsh is the most unusual choice, but arguably a very good one. Marsh has specific combos with Golden Anglet and Hatred Chaos, but is much stronger late-game when the opponent is at 4 damage and willing to accept one more to conserve shield, and because of the problem of getting boosters set up consistently it's not typical to use him more than one per game in the first place.
Toolkit Boy is an unusual tech, considering many cardfighters don't even know what the card does. Although at 1 it's far from guaranteed, Toolkit can unflip a damage when he boosts the vanguard and the attack hits the opponent's, which gives him a lot of synergy with Kirara's counterblast 2 and Illuminal Dragon's counterblast 3. There are also more opportunities to play him in the Eradicator matchup, where sacrificing the vanguard booster to Gauntlet is a typical play if it's something like Clay-doll or a draw trigger. Lee's general idea is to wear the opponent's hand down with Scarlet Bird and Kirara, draw cards when her attack finally goes through, then unflip counterblast with Clay-doll and Toolkit, and set up an Ethics break ride into either Azure for a persona blast to have two standing rearguards or into Illuminal for a counterblast 3 to stand the entire field, getting five attacks in either way while keeping flipped damage low so that Illuminal can go off twice. This variation is versatile and its techs are set up so that drawing one card can be beneficial by warping the entire strategy in a new direction, but without necessarily building the entire deck around the break ride. Not running Blank Marsh is the most unusual choice, but arguably a very good one. Marsh has specific combos with Golden Anglet and Hatred Chaos, but is much stronger late-game when the opponent is at 4 damage and willing to accept one more to conserve shield, and because of the problem of getting boosters set up consistently it's not typical to use him more than one per game in the first place.
Adwin Leong: FTW
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu
(FV)
x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guldx3 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x2 Rising Phoenix
x3 Ceremonial Bonfire Eradicator, Castor
x3 Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x3 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x3 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x2 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
Leong's deckbuild is a combination of snowballing skills. Originally, Spark Kid Dragoon was the favored first vanguard for Narukami and has remained so in Japan, but internationally his main competition in Linchu has been adopted for the Eradicator deck. Linchu works like Saishin from the previous format, but to compensate for being dependent on the Eradicators he can also retire grade 1s, which can be instrumental in punishing early game attacks to control how the opponent plays in addition to countering first vanguards as before. In that way Linchu expresses a different kind of pressure, discouraging the opponent from making two or more attacks in the first turn as is so common in BT10-on with the prevalence of Kay clones, but it's also easy to bait just by leaving the first vanguard exposed without calling other units to deliberately goad the Eradicator fighter to use Linchu as early as possible. Since Linchu is lost to destroy the opponent's card, it's not truly a gain in advantage, but can create one by helping Leong conserve cards that would have been used to defend. Rising Phoenix also recoups the loss from putting Linchu back in, and combos with Cho-Ou's retire skill, which can even be used with Linchu as the cost to effectively reach grade 2s and 3s using the first vanguard. This all ties back to Gauntlet Buster Dragon, effectively the deck's midgame limit break that attacks with an extra critical for each card retired, commonly swinging for 3 damage when the opponent is at 3 and would otherwise guard the attack to clear out early perfect defense cards. Arguably the biggest flaw in Leong's build is that Gauntlet is only at 2, when there's a case to be made that the card has a bigger overall impact on the game than Vowing and takes precedence for bringing the opponent to higher damage faster to let Descendant tag in.
Dragonic Descendant is what will likely get the most attention. Commonly identified as the main axis around which the Narukami deck is based, like Stewart's Dauntless, Descendant relies on making multiple attacks with the vanguard line, but is able to do it over multiple turns for counterblast 1 discard 3 and swing with an extra critical the second time. The cost is technically more expensive than Dauntless but less so than The End, and can only be done if the attack does not pass through. Descendant's other skill lets it get +5000 power for 2 counterblast, making use of untouched resources if Gauntlet isn't drawn in the game and attack without a booster, and because neither attack can get through when the opponent is at 4~5 damage it means that at least the first attack has to be guarded no-pass due to all triggers automatically going to Descendant. The opponent is put into a very difficult situation, one which sometimes compels fighters to declare no guard at 4 damage simply to bypass the scenario altogether, but it can also be avoided by staying at lower damage for much of the fight and is offset by the Eradicators being a low advantage build that has trouble setting up its boosters and taking a -1 each time Descendant stands with its once-per-turn limit break. The result is that if Descendant doesn't end the game on his limit break, then the game ends next turn. Eradicator plays can also typically be seen coming a mile off due to the most optimal decisions being built into the cards, which means that after fighting one Descendant-Gauntlet, you have fought all Descendant-Gauntlets.
Leong's deckbuild is a combination of snowballing skills. Originally, Spark Kid Dragoon was the favored first vanguard for Narukami and has remained so in Japan, but internationally his main competition in Linchu has been adopted for the Eradicator deck. Linchu works like Saishin from the previous format, but to compensate for being dependent on the Eradicators he can also retire grade 1s, which can be instrumental in punishing early game attacks to control how the opponent plays in addition to countering first vanguards as before. In that way Linchu expresses a different kind of pressure, discouraging the opponent from making two or more attacks in the first turn as is so common in BT10-on with the prevalence of Kay clones, but it's also easy to bait just by leaving the first vanguard exposed without calling other units to deliberately goad the Eradicator fighter to use Linchu as early as possible. Since Linchu is lost to destroy the opponent's card, it's not truly a gain in advantage, but can create one by helping Leong conserve cards that would have been used to defend. Rising Phoenix also recoups the loss from putting Linchu back in, and combos with Cho-Ou's retire skill, which can even be used with Linchu as the cost to effectively reach grade 2s and 3s using the first vanguard. This all ties back to Gauntlet Buster Dragon, effectively the deck's midgame limit break that attacks with an extra critical for each card retired, commonly swinging for 3 damage when the opponent is at 3 and would otherwise guard the attack to clear out early perfect defense cards. Arguably the biggest flaw in Leong's build is that Gauntlet is only at 2, when there's a case to be made that the card has a bigger overall impact on the game than Vowing and takes precedence for bringing the opponent to higher damage faster to let Descendant tag in.
Dragonic Descendant is what will likely get the most attention. Commonly identified as the main axis around which the Narukami deck is based, like Stewart's Dauntless, Descendant relies on making multiple attacks with the vanguard line, but is able to do it over multiple turns for counterblast 1 discard 3 and swing with an extra critical the second time. The cost is technically more expensive than Dauntless but less so than The End, and can only be done if the attack does not pass through. Descendant's other skill lets it get +5000 power for 2 counterblast, making use of untouched resources if Gauntlet isn't drawn in the game and attack without a booster, and because neither attack can get through when the opponent is at 4~5 damage it means that at least the first attack has to be guarded no-pass due to all triggers automatically going to Descendant. The opponent is put into a very difficult situation, one which sometimes compels fighters to declare no guard at 4 damage simply to bypass the scenario altogether, but it can also be avoided by staying at lower damage for much of the fight and is offset by the Eradicators being a low advantage build that has trouble setting up its boosters and taking a -1 each time Descendant stands with its once-per-turn limit break. The result is that if Descendant doesn't end the game on his limit break, then the game ends next turn. Eradicator plays can also typically be seen coming a mile off due to the most optimal decisions being built into the cards, which means that after fighting one Descendant-Gauntlet, you have fought all Descendant-Gauntlets.
Kevin Lang: Made in England, God Save the Queen
Grade
0
x1
Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)
x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4
Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4
Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4
Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
Grade
1
x4
Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4
Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x2
Rising Phoenix
x3
Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki
x2
Eradicator of Fire, Kohkaiji
Grade
2
x4
Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x4
Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou
x3
Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
Grade
3
x3
Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x2
Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x2
Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
Lang ironically ran Dragonic Descendant at just 2 copies. As described above, this is what that card is currently limited to in Japan, but not on the world stage. This goes a ways towards demonstrating the diminished impact of the restricted list on the Eradicators, and their nature as a combo deck that bases itself on each card individually being able to make or break a clan, but it can also be construed as one of the contributing reasons that Lang's build is in fourth.
