To recap the situation, Dragonic Descendant began his reign of dominance in the Osaka branch of the Asia Circuit Memorial Tournament, where tournament winner Uemura Shouhei and runner-up Nishiyama Daiki codified the basic Descendant deck. Descendant was turned to for combining his self-stand skill with an extra critical, which in the eyes of Japanese pros combined some of the strengths of Dragonic Overlord The End and Majesty Lord Blaster, which were almost unplayable under the then-enforced January 1st restricted list. To be absolutely certain that Majesty could not compete in the Memorial Tournament, Bushiroad also instituted special rules that each deck had to have more than four grade 3s, in response to Nakamura Mitsuaki's Blaster deck from the 2013 Trio Festival which got around the restricted list by playing one copy of Majesty with three Soul Saver Dragons and using the extra deck space for additional Blaster units so that Wingal Brave's skill could be used to search Majesty. Descendant thus did not have Majesty or DOTE competing with him, bypassing the gauntlet that many previous decks have had to deal with and then becoming cemented as the go-to tournament deck. This was followed by Descendant placing first at Tokyo, second at Hakata and first at Nagoya, with Kokubo Hikaru's Nagoya decklist drawing attention for being a card-for-card copy of Uemura Shouhei's.
Then during the unofficial Vanguard Championship tournaments in April, the top three spaces of the best 4 at the Kyoto VGCS were taken by Descendant, as well as the top two spaces of the Kanto VGCS. Descendant also placed second in the A block of the official Fighter's Cup and first in B block of the Fight Royale. In May Bushiroad revised the restricted list, creating the May 11th list that brought back DOTE as well as Alfred but kept Majesty and Tsukuyomi restricted while Descendant was added to the list. This somewhat curbed Descendant's control of the Japanese scene, but Narukami cardfighters remained undeterred by the list, running extra copies of Vowing Sword and Gauntlet Buster Dragon in his place as a holdover until one of those two copies were drawn, and his dominance continued into the next VGCS tournament which had preemptively adopted the rules of the list four days prior to its actual start date. Descendant placed first in this Hachiouji VGCS, and repeated this feat at the onset of the Fighter's Road 2013 national tournament in Sendai as well as at Kyoto and Kanazawa.
This string of victories was broken by Okudaira Ryousuke at FR2013 Hiroshima, where he took first place using a Dudley Emperor-Bad End Dragger deck. While Yoshida Yuuta's Descendant deck still made it to second place, Emperor had not received heavy recognition at higher level play up to this point and essentially came out of left field, putting real doubt on if Descendant was really going to last through the duration of this current restricted list. Curiously, Descendant has not been especially popular in the juniors' division until today, which supported the suspicions that part of Descendant's success was owed to the same stubbornness that kept Soul Saver Dragon, Majesty Lord Blaster, Dragonic Overlord The End and Goddess of the Full Moon at the height of tournament play for so long. Every previous high-end deck in the Japanese scene has been buried by either direct decree from Bushiroad or by new cards from the same clan outmoding the old ones in the eyes of pro fighters. Majesty himself is even now going toe-to-toe with Descendant out of that same obstinance. While Descendant would go on to place first in Fukuoka, second place was taken by an Eradicator deck that didn't run him and instead used Sweep Command's break ride with Spark Horn Dragon. From this the idea surfaced that rather than Descendant himself being the dominating force of this tournament season, it is actually the entire Eradicator framework with Descendant and Gauntlet Buster as its dressing--an idea that veteran cardfighters of 2011 are all too familiar with, considering some of the crazier decks that the Barcgal framework was driving in that year. Unlike with Barcgal, there is no one card that Uemura's model of the deck would fall apart without. The Eradicators are an ever-growing snowball of cards that are good individually but overwhelming together, and the only thing that's going to stop their progress is the kind of impermeable evolution of strategy that Okudaira demonstrated at Hiroshima and that Gotou Kiyomi did in last year's tournament. Neither of these cardfighters made sweeping revisions to their respective builds. All they did was make their decks speak modern Vanguard with small changes that would give them concrete early, mid and endgame strategies effective in the current format. This brings us to now.
BT12's release has been anticipated because while Vowing Saber has given the Eradicators another tool to play around with, Link Joker and Shadow Paladin are FR2013's wild cards. At the very same VGCS where Descendant made its debut prior to the Memorial Tournament, Shadow Paladin was seemingly geared to start the tournament season strong as it headed in with the promise of the first new support in years coming further down the line. It speaks to the developing mind set of pro play that Descendant's tournament debut was only second place. With Shadow Paladin finally updated for modern times and Raging Form's own debut being "only second place," the throne is once again disputed as Imanishi and Nagata's shaking of the brackets has ignited new possibilities. The sudden inflation in prices for Shadow Paladin and Link Joker cards, particularly Raging Form and Nebula Lord, has pointed to Japanese pros potentially being on the verge of jumping ship to these new decks. Like DOTE and Majesty before it, Descendant may turn out to be that same breed of pro deck that commonly does well throughout a season and then drops off when the championship finals come around; FR2013 could very well be a repeat experience of FR2012's underdog championship.
In junior class tournament news, one Nakamura Shunto may actually be the return of an established junior pro cardfighter, third place in FR2012. The Nakamura Shunto that we are seeing today has played very differently from the one of the past however, coming in second place and now contending for the national title with a Scarlet Witch deck, likely in light of Majesty now being restricted. Nakamura's contemporaries are shrugging at the restriction, however; Misawa Kentarou from the open division is undeterred by the list, running two copies of Majesty with one Soul Saver Dragon and twelve Blaster cards among his grade 1 and 2 units to use Wingal Brave's search skill with.
In the student-only division of the VF High School Championship, Ueno Yuuki's unorthodox Granblue deck has seen a lot of interest for its very tech-heavy build. The deck runs twelve critical triggers, with Rough Seas Banshee and the grade 3 Basskirk serving as a soul engine to fuel its three copies of Dancing Cutlass as well as the Deadly series cards. For field control options, Ueno selected the much-beloved Cocytus for his on-ride counterblast 2 and the much less frequently played Negromarl for the rearguard, one of the weakest grade 3s in the game that clocks in at just 8000 power but can also call any unit from the drop zone to any rearguard circle with his skill. For endgame limit breaks, Ueno also ran a single copy of Malefic Dragon, a unit that specifically fights units with 12000+ power like Majesty Lord Blaster and the many crossrides now in the game, by gaining +10000 power when it attacks them. While Ueno's deck is very far from standard Granblue and follows a difficult to master playstyle, his innovative approach has breathed some life back into the undead clan and the results speak in his favor.
With six tournaments completed, there are now just two branches of FR2013 remaining. Sapporo and Nagoya will bring us the last candidates for the championship title, with the tournaments being held on the 14th and 15th. The national championship finals will be on August 11th, closing the summer tournament with the coronation of Japan's 2013 champion.
Open Class Regional Tournament
Regional Champion: Tatsuya Tanaka/田中達也
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
x4 Eradicator Dragon Mage DT
Grade 1
x2 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x4 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
Grade 2
x3 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x4 Dragonic Deathscythe
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-ou
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
Runner-up: Imanishi Kouichi/今西弘一
Grade 0
x1 Harbinger Revenger, Claudus (FVG)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x1 Sacriledge Revenger, Berith
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Black Clothed Revenger, Tartu
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusion Revenger, Mordred Phantom
Doctor O's Prize: Nagata Shou/長田祥
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FVG)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x2 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Ferris DT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanium
x4 Hollow Twin Blades, Binary Star
x3 Opener of the Black Door
Grade 2
x3 Star-vader, Mobius Breath Dragon
x3 Evil Claw Star-vader, Niobium
x3 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x2 Shooter of the Singularity
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x3 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon
Junior Class Regional Tournament
Regional Champion: Funayama Yuiga/舩山唯我
Grade 0
x1 Eradicator, Strikedagger Dragon (FVG)
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x3 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Pollux CT
Grade 1
x2 Rising Phoenix
x4 Sword Dance Eradicator, Hisen
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x1 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x2 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x4 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x3 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x1 Homing Eradicator, Rochishin
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
Runner-up: Nakamura Shunto/中村俊斗
Grade 0
x1 Little Witch, LuLu (FVG)
x4 Lozenge Magus HT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x4 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Battle Sister, Ginger CT
Grade 1
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x2 Emerald Witch, LaLa
x2 Battle Sister, Omelette
x4 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x3 Battle Sister, Cream
Grade 2
x2 Battle Sister, Tart
x2 Promise Daughter
x4 Battle Sister, Mocha
x2 Silent Tom
Grade 3
x4 Scarlet Witch, CoCo
x4 Battle Sister, Cookie
Doctor O's Prize: Okura Takumi/小倉拓海
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x3 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x3 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
x4 Eradicator Dragon Mage DT
x2 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x1 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x3 Rising Phoenix
x2 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x2 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-ou
x1 Twin Gun Eradicator, Hakushou
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
x1 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
Vanguard Fight High School 2013 Summer, Open Class Tokyo Regional Tournament Championship Team
Watanabe Kento/渡邉健斗
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
x4 Eradicator Dragon Mage DT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x2 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x3 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-ou
x4 Dragonic Deathscythe
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
Misawa Kentarou/三澤健太郎
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FVG)
x4 Enthusiastic Jewel Knight, Polly HT
x3 Margal DT
x3 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle
x3 Alabaster Owl CT
x3 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
Grade 1
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x4 Knight of Friendship, Kay
x2 Pongal
x1 Blaster Javelin
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade
x4 Blaster Dark
x4 Star Call Trumpeter
x3 Blaster Blade Spirit
Grade 3
x2 Majesty Lord Blaster
x1 Soul Saver Dragon
Matsumoto Yuusuke/松本佑典
Grade 0
x1 Little Witch, LuLu (FVG)
x4 Battle Sister, Chai HT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x4 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Battle Sister, Ginger CT
Grade 1
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x1 Battle Sister, Maple
x1 Battle Sister, Omelette
x4 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x3 Battle Sister, Cream
Grade 2
x2 Battle Sister, Tart
x2 Battle Sister, Macaron
x4 Battle Sister, Mocha
x4 Silent Tom
Grade 3
x4 Scarlet Witch, CoCo
x4 Battle Sister, Cookie
Vanguard Fight High School 2013 Summer, Student-only Class Tokyo Regional Tournament Championship Team
Imaizumi Tsukasa/今泉司
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FVG)
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Pollux CT
Grade 1
x3 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x2 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x3 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x3 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x2 Eradicator, Thunder Boom Dragon
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Sweep Command Dragon
Ueno Yuuki/上野祐樹
Grade 0
x1 Skeleton Assault Troops Captain (FVG)
x2 Doctor Rouge HT
x2 Rick the Ghostie HT
x4 Rough Seas Banshee CT
x4 Knight Spirit CT
x4 Ghoul Cannonball CT
Grade 1
x3 Samurai Spirit
x3 Dancing Cutlass
x3 Dandy Romario
x1 Deadly Nightmare
x3 Gust Djinn
Grade 2
x2 Captain Nightmist
x4 Ruin Shade
x1 Skeleton Knight
x4 Commodore Blueblood
x2 Deadly Spirit
Grade 3
x2 King of Demonic Seas, Basskirk
x2 Witch Doctor of the Abyss, Negromarl
x2 Ice Prison Necromancer, Cocytus
x1 Dragon Undead, Malefic Dragon
Kurihara Ryou/栗原遼
Grade 0
x1 Little Fighter, Cron (FVG)
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x1 Silver Fang Witch
x4 Curved Blade Liberator, Josephus
x2 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
x2 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
Grade 2
x2 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
x3 Blaster Blade Liberator
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x4 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x3 Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore
