Yesterday evening the Japanese Cardfight portal released the top two decklists for the Tokyo branch of the Asia Circuit Memorial Tournament, held in commemoration of the end of the controversial second season of the Cardfight Vanguard!! anime. Following up what the Osaka tournament began, the event operates under special rules which require all participating cardfighters to have more than four grade 3s in their deck, in response to pro cardfighters Tachibana Souten and Nakamura Mitsuaki emulating contenders from the previous year's national title in creating decks with less than that number. These pros made use of specific search skills to dominate their respective tournaments, on a smaller scale than the Tsukuyomi-based cardfighters of previous years had done before them. Speculation abounds that the Memorial Tournament rules, if successful, could become standardized rules for professional Cardfight as a whole, permanently bringing a close to this trend in deckbuilding.
With two more stages yet remaining--in Nagoya and Hakata--the Memorial Tournament has so far been dominated by the new Eradicator subgroup, in contrast to the underground success of the Shadow Paladins in the current format. The Eradicators are a subgroup of the retire-based Narukami clan, and focus on maintaining a static critical for the vanguard line each turn, as well as on standing their vanguard like Kagerou did before them. Tokyo has seen an upset in the pattern, as second place was taken by a Battle Sister-based variation on the soulless CoCo deck, retooling it for the modern format built around base 11000 vanguards. Note that while the Tokyo winners share a surname, they are currently believed to be unrelated. On the Narukami side of things, all of the Eradicator decks seen thus far are extremely similar in build, but Uemura Shouhei from the Osaka tournament seems to be coming up as the more influential cardfighter, having worked out the "blueprint" for the Eradicators.
The Nagoya and Hakata stages of the Memorial Tournament are to take place on March 30th and April 6th, respectively. The winners of the Memorial Tournament will have an invitation to the Fighter's Road 2013 national championship.
Prizewinner: Itou Hiroaki/伊藤寛明
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x4 Eradicator Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
Grade 1
x2 Rising Phoenix
x2 Eradicator of True Flames, Kougaiji
x3 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
Grade 2
x3 Eradicator, Thunder Boom Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Sparkrain Dragon
x4 Dragonic Deathscythe
Grade 3
x4 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
Runner-Up: Itou Yuki/伊藤翔
Grade 0
x1 Little Witch, LuLu (FVG)
x4 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x4 Battle Sister, Ginger CT
x4 Lozenge Magus HT
Grade 1
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x4 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x3 Dark Cat
x2 Battle Sister, Omelette
x1 Red River Dragoon
Grade 2
x4 Battle Sister, Mocha
x3 Promise Daughter
x2 Silent Tom
x2 Battle Sister, Macaron
Grade 3
x4 Battle Sister, Cookie
x4 Scarlet Witch, CoCo
