News: First Images of TD14 and TD15 Made Public, Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal Previewed

New promotional images for the upcoming VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope and TD15: Brawler of Friendship are now in circulation, showing off some of the trial decks' illustrations. The Beginning Set prints of the trial decks are the main focus of these promo images, advertising them as TD14+ and TD15+. In addition to the standard trial decks, the Beginning Sets will also include 53 card sleeves and a storage case, a Fighter's Count in denominations of +5000 as well as three promotional cards and a promo card pack.

Interestingly, franchise artist and Blaster Blade's original designer Itou Akira did not illustrate the new Blaster Blade Seeker artwork. The illustration was instead handled by Ryuutetsu, who has worked with Itou previously on Blaster Blade's Descent of the King of Knights RRR alternate artwork, as well as on both Blaster Spirits, the original Blaster Dark artwork and other projects. In the artwork Blaster Blade Seeker is accompanied by a much more grown up Wingal; while Blaster Blade is unchanged from his original design, Wingal's dramatic transformation has given him deer-like qualities, and a ring of magatama around his sword's hilt. The use of magatama is surprising and somewhat out of place; the franchise normally associates them with the Oracle Think Tank clan and Amaterasu specifically, while in the real world magatama are jewels of ancient Japanese origin and in art associated with birth as well as the Shinto religion. Their use here may be connected to Wingal's new title as "Seeker, Sacred Wingal."

Brawler of Friendship's promotional art was done by Suzukigorou, known for illustrating Spectral Duke Dragon in 2012, Nebula Lord Dragon in 2013 and most recently both Dauntless Drive Dragon and his Reverse card, Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я.” The new Brawler units do not seem to recall any specific Narukami predecessors, although their general silhouette echoes most of Suzukigorou's previous work.

News: Trial Decks 14 & 15 Announced, Royal Paladins to Return for Legion Mate, Catastrophic Outbreak Sees English Release Date

Early this morning the Japanese cf-vanguard portal updated with information on two upcoming trial decks for the fourth season of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime, Legion Mate. To be released on April 18, the 50-card preconstructed decks VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope (希望の探索者(シーカー) Kibou no Tansakumono (Shiikaa)) and VG-TD15: Brawler of Friendship (友情の喧嘩屋(ブロウラー) Yuujyou no Kenkaya (Burouraa)) will each introduce 17 new cards, with three foils in each TD, one RRR and two R-rarity cards. Unlike with past TDs which were reprinted later in the year of their introduction, both decks will launch alongside their Beginning Set equivalents, which will have the same contents but with RRR reprints of Claudia, Spark Kid Dragoon and two Royal Paladin and Narukami units from the as of yet untitled BT16. The Beginning Sets will also come with 53 official sleeves, a deckholder, a Fighter's Counter used to show power increases on cards, and a Cardfight Pack Vol. 13 with a random promo card inside. While TD14 & 15 will retail for 1000 yen each, their equivalent Beginning Sets will instead retail for 2400 yen. Unlike with past decks, there are currently no accompanying promotional images of the sets, leading to some speculation as to which characters will be using Royal Paladin and Narukami for Legion Mate.

Currently it is known that TD14 will feature "Seeker, Sacred Wingal" "Blaster Blade Seeker" and "Splendid Seeker, Cerdic" while TD15 will feature "Brawler, Skybeat Dragon" "Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon" and "Brawler, Wildfist Dragon." Based on the return of Wingal and Blaster Blade, TD14 is widely believed to be Sendou Aichi's trial deck for Legion Mate, but the seemingly deliberate ambiguity surrounding the deck and the presence of the young Kai's first vanguard, Claudia, in Beginning Set 14 has some Japanese fans speculating that Kai Toshiki will be picking up Royal Paladin for the fourth season, coming back to the clan that he used in his origin story Episode 0, and that Aichi will be missing for the beginning of Legion Mate. Regardless of who TD14 belongs to, the general consensus is that TD15's Brawlers are designed around Ishida Naoki's character traits.

The trial decks will introduce a new mechanic, dubbed "Legion" (双闘 Soutou レギオン Region pronounced in Japanese with a hard g sound.) This is distinct from the idea of a legion as a subclan, using the kanji for "pair" and "fight" together with an English reading. The details of Legion's function are as of yet unknown, but based on the reading of it as "fighting together/fighting as pairs" it has been variously interpreted as either letting units from different subclans interact or letting entirely different clans function together.

On our side of the water a release for VGE-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak is finally in sight, with the stated release date of May 2 bringing the set worldwide in time for Team League 2014. BT13 is most noted for its introduction of Chaos Break Dragon, widely regarded as Link Joker's optimal grade 3 second only to Infinite Zero Dragon in importance, and secondarily for the return of the much-awaited Nubatama clan and their combination of bind and discard mechanics.The set's Reverse cards, Dark Dimensional Robo "Я" Daiyusha, and Deadliest Beast Deity Ethics Buster "Я" have likewise embedded themselves in competitive play as definitive decks for their clans in professional play, with Ethics "Я" most recently making the headlines in a combination deck alongside Ethics Buster Extreme.

News: Musketeers Make Second in Kansai Vanguard Championship, Nouvelle Vague Reworked for Restricted List

From A Quick Dip! Board Game & Hobby Blog

The first Kansai VGCS concluded on the 26th in Japan, and decklists went out today with Kagerou and Neo Nectar cardfighters in first and second place. Coming on the heels of the fifth Fateclock VGCS, a similar ruleset which adopted the upcoming restricted list was used at Kansai to jump straight into the new format. In spite of this, tournament champion faruke (sic) was able to make first place undefeated in sets using a Nouvelle Vague deck modified for the new play environment.

Unlike other Nouvelle cardfighters that are still testing the waters with 2 copies of Nouvelle, faruke chose to keep maxing out the grade 4, with 4 grade 3s as in the preceding format. Due to the use of grade 4s and Dracokid in place of Conroe, the new Nouvelle has twice the soul count of pre-restricted list Kagerou decks and is more readily able to make use of Calamity Tower Wyvern's soulblast. For this reason Tower is now being run at 4, and this general improvement in draw consistency has helped compensate for Conroe's restriction so that faruke's list is made possible.

The Kansai VGCS took place at Hobby Base Yellow Submarine in Kyoto, and drew 96 participants. Entry fee was 1000 yen, with a prize payout for the top 4 identical to that used at Fateclock. The tournament began with four preliminary rounds lasting 40 minutes each, with the first fighter to 2 wins winning their round, and was followed by four more rounds for the finals under similar rules but with a 50 minute time limit instead. faruke wrote a tourney report for his blog, explaining that he went undefeated in sets, and counting each game individually came out of the day 16-1 (2-0 vs Dauntless Dominate Dragon, 2-0 vs Nouvelle, 2-0 vs Eradicators, 2-0 vs Blau series, 2-0 vs Revengers, 2-0 vs Regalia, 2-1 vs Eradicators and 2-0 vs Musketeers.)

By far the most surprising turn of events was Musketeers in second, piloted by Neo Nectar cardfighter, Tomato. Although appreciated as one of the more strategically challenging and rewarding decks around, Musketeers have not seen heavy play since their original debut in BT08. Like Nouvelle and the Eradicator decks that have enjoyed popularity in recent months, the Musketeer deck's core strategy hasn't changed, but the components of it have undergone adjustment to bring it more in line with the times. Tomato expanded the core concept of cycling out less useful Musketeers using Kaivant, Rebecca and Cecilia by bringing in the grade 2 Pansy Musketeer Sylvia to topdeck call other Musketeers that can then be cycled out if they're poor for more precise calls, and the Fighter's Collection promo Mirkka. Since Mirkka becomes a 9000-power booster as long as the deck has been shuffled by a card effect, and all of the Musketeers' unique effects shuffle, Tomato was able to form easy 21000 power lines with Augusto and Hermann as frontrow attackers. With Cecilia's limit break allowing them to recoup lost card advantage or otherwise conserve cards in the same way that Paladin decks do, trading the extra copies of Cecilia for the most important Musketeers, and now to recycle perfect defense cards with the introduction of Antonio, the build has evolved into a unique branch of Neo Nectar in the same way that Dudley Emperor has for Spike Brothers or Cosmo Lord has for Nova Grappler.

While these were generally expected changes, one which was not foreseen by the general community was the use of stand triggers in Musketeers. More accurately, it is the utility of an almost-pure Musketeer trigger lineup; as there are no Musketeer draw triggers, Tomato chose to run Blue Rose Musketeer Ernest to have as many Musketeers in his grade 0 count as possible. Ernest's own skill allows him to return himself to the deck to search the top 4 cards for a Musketeer in the same way as Rebecca and Kaivant. With the amount of consistency that Cecilia and her support gives through repeated searching and cycling, cutting draws is an understandable move. Another unforeseen change was a Maiden of Venus Trap "Я" tech used to fill out grade 3 space in place of a fourth Hermann, providing a fifth grade 3 for the vanguard circle. Since Venus Trap cannot be targeted by any of the Musketeers' skills, her chief purpose is to provide an alternate gameplan by Locking any of the Neo Nectar rearguards with her limit break to build up the field by superior calling others from the top of the deck, which can eventually lead into a Cecilia ride to tie things back together.

Third and fourth place in the Kansai VGCS went to Nouvelle and Eradicator cardfighters, with fifth and sixth going to Sacred Regalia and Revenger fighters playing Minerva and Raging Form Dragon decks. The return of Eradicators in competitive play is part of an ongoing narrative inherited from the Fighter's Climax tournament that ended earlier this year; since the release of VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike the Narukami subclan has experienced a resurgence in popularity credited to Matsumoto Kenji, the FC2013 Osaka regional champion who carved out the Eradicators' first open class victory for the Eradicators since the preceding national tournament five months ago. The major difference between his and past Eradicator builds is the use of the Ignition Dragon break ride, who fills the space that was once used by Vowing Saber and Vowing Sword Dragon techs. For a single counterblast, Ignition's break ride skill has the opponent retire 2 of their rearguards, allowing it to conditionally reach the back row where Vowing Sword could not. The really transformative change is that Ignition gives the opponent a -2 in exchange for the break ride's -1, which immediately puts the opponent in a worse position than the Narukami cardfighter, can wear them down if multiple break rides are forced in, and provides insurance because the opponent's back row is their most likely voluntary sacrifice where the front row will be dedicated to intercepts so that their attacking power is significantly diminished going into the next turn. At Kansai the build was piloted by Takai ("Expensive") who prioritized Gauntlet Buster above his other grade 3 options and dropped subclan attackers entirely, favoring Zuitan's unflipping instead of Spark Rain as well as Castor's card changing instead of Demolition Dragon.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events.

The First Kansai VGCS
First Place
faruke
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x2 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
x2 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
x2 Seal Dragon, Biella CT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x1 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
Grade 2
x2 Hidden Dragon, Striken
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x2 Demonic Dragon Berserker, Kumbhanda
Grade 3
x3 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x1 Cruel Dragon
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Second Place
Tomato
Grade 0
x1 Broccolini Musketeer, Kirah (FV)
x4 Hibiscus Musketeer, Hanah HT
x4 Blue Rose Musketeer, Ernest ST
x4 Night Queen Musketeer, Daniel CT
x4 Bullet Chestnut CT
Grade 1
x3 Lily of the Valley Musketeer, Rebecca
x3 Water Lily Musketeer, Ruth
x4 Red Rose Musketeer, Antonio
x4 Dandelion Musketeer, Mirkka
Grade 2
x4 Cherry Blossom Musketeer, Augusto
x3 Lily of the Valley Musketeer, Kaivant
x4 Pansy Musketeer, Sylvia
Grade 3
x1 Maiden of Venus Trap, "Я"
x3 Black Lily Musketeer, Hermann
x4 White Lily Musketeer, Cecilia

News: Beast Deity Cardfighter Places First in Fateclock Championship, Fighter's Climax 2013 National Finals Decklists

Kitano Civic Center, Hachiouji.

The fifth Fateclock Vanguard Championship concluded today with the only Ethics Buster cardfighter in the tournament topping first out of 81 participants. For the purposes of this VGCS, held on January 25th in Japan, the February 1st Fighter's Rules and accompanying restricted list were adopted prior to their effective date, providing a look into what the February-on format looks like. Although Kagerou and Genesis together accounted for 48 of the 81 decks entered, the top 4 still ended with two Nova Grappler cardfighters billed for first and second.

Interestingly, the primary influence for these Nova Grappler decks seems to come from the 2013 junior national championships. CS champion "One Way Road" fought with a Beast Deity deck similar to Nagoya regional champion Muramatsu Masakiyo's (村松真聖) decklist, with an identical grade 3 lineup that takes advantage of the Beast Deity's shared support to make an amorphous strategy based around Ethics Buster that can either set up an eight attack combo using its Reverse card's limit break in combination with Buster's break ride skill or use Ethics Extreme to form an independent strategy even if the break ride is missed. One Way Road's primary renovations were to run Street Bouncer and Energy Charger for cheap card advantage and Miraioh, the clan's generic grade 3 searching first vanguard, rather than Riot Horn as is more common. Meanwhile runner-up Ojima's Blaukluger deck drew inspiration from Nishida Sachi's (西田祥) Osaka decklist, using Galaxy and Mond Blaukluger in tandem with the Mars and Jupiter Blau series and 3 copies of the original Blaukluger for early game combos through low counterblast skills and damage unflipping. As in the official tournaments, some familiar names have cropped up as Gungnir has turned up on the radar once more, this time in fourth place with a Minerva-based Genesis deck rather than the Raging Form Dragon that first put him on the map, and Gaiji who some may remember from a previous Fateclock team tournament has likewise come up again right on Gungnir's heels.

The fifth Fateclock VGCS was held in Hachiouji city's Kitano Civic Center and used a Swiss tournament ruleset with 5 rounds of Swiss draw and a 20 minute time limit followed by a cut to top 16. For the top 16, 50 minutes were allotted for best of 3 sets between each participant. Under these rules the tournament began at 11:15 AM and ended at 6:50 PM, with the awards ceremony finishing at 7:00 PM. The tournament's entry fee was 1000 yen, approximately $10 US, and the prize payout was a Nintendo 3DS XL for first place, second place a standard size 3DS, while third place received three boxes of VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike, fourth place two boxes of the same and the rest of the best 8 one box each. The system used by the tournament is similar to that previously tested at the West Tokyo VGCS, which has been employed since then in the majority of CS events.

The Fifth Fateclock VGCS Top 8 

One Way Road/一方通行 Beast Deity
Ojima/オジマ Blau
Black-Rimmed Glasses/くろぶちめがね Dominate Nouvelle
Gungnir/ぐんぐにーる Minerva
Gaiji/カイジ Minerva
Miju/ミジュ Nouvelle
Tsubame/つばめ Dominate
Wago/わご Blau

Of the participants, 23 fighters played Kagerou decks (13 of those based around Dragonic Nouvelle Vague and 10 of them on Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Яeverse"), 23 played Genesis, 8 Royal Paladin (1 Jewel Knight, 6 Sanctuary Guard Dragon and 1 Majesty Lord Blaster), 7 Link Joker, 6 Nova Grappler (5 based on the Blau series, with 1 Beast Deity deck), 5 Gold Paladin (3 Gancelot Zenith and 2 Ezel decks), 3 Shadow Paladin, 2 Narukami, 2 Pale Moon, 1 Dimension Police and 1 played Oracle Think Tank. The top 4 decks have been translated into English at the bottom of the page, and can be jumped to directly by searching the page for [5FVGCS].

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events.

Lee Innyeng (center right) and Adachi Yuuki (center left) hold up the first and second place trophies.

In other news, the FC2013 national championship decklists were unveiled through the Japanese Cardfight portal yesterday, revealing Lee Innyeng as the winter 2013 national champion. Lee achieved his position with a Revenger deck, based around the twin boss cards that have remained popular since their debut last July, Mordred Phantom and Raging Form Dragon. He is followed by Adachi Yuuki, Issei Sakashita and Hung Kai Chen in Japan's winter best 4, and is the first national champion to use the Shadow Paladin clan; his immediate predecessor, Kokubo Hikaru, played Pale Moon and was the cardfighter that first broke a two year chain of Royal Paladin dominance over the national title. Among the other developments since the previous national tournament, Sakashita's Gancelot build in third place and Hung's Minerva deck in fourth mark the first time that quintet walls have been used in pro decks, at a 1:3 ratio with their perfect defense cards. Quintet Walls are well liked for conserving cards expended from the hand when defending, using their counterblast 1 skill to put the top 5 cards of the deck onto the guardian circle, but can be difficult to manage in higher numbers with counterblast-heavy decks and conflict with perfect defense cards due to sharing the Sentinel keytext.

On the surface, national champion Lee's deck is a very traditional Revenger deck. While other Shadow Paladin cardfighters have experimented with running Creeping Dark Goat as the first vanguard and Claudas as a Dark Bond target, and running 12 grade 3s at the sacrifice of grade 1 space is common to max out Tartu, Lee has done something more subtle with his construction. Instead of running Goat he chose to run two copies of Claudas, the Revengers' unique first vanguard, to create several favorable scenarios for the deck. Primarily this is being able to fetch two Blaster Dark Revengers without needing to rely on Mordred's break ride skill, using Dorin to conserve counterblast and Darkbond to fetch the second Claudas if it is not drawn. Since Dark Bond superior calls Claudas at rest, Shadow Paladin cardfighters have every incentive to immediately put Claudas into the soul with his skill to turn Dark Bond's otherwise serviceable +1 into an active rearguard able to declare an attack that turn. Having a second Claudas ready to come into play also helps deal with Linchu, Moebius Breath Dragon and Dust Tail Unicorn, common staples in the present format that counter Claudas by restricting how quickly he can be used as with Moebius or outright removing him with Linchu or Dust Tail into Chaos Breaker. The core elements of the deck are still the same field buildup with Mordred and Tartu that previous Revenger decks have rlied on, controlling the opponent's field with Dark Revenger and striking a finishing blow with Raging Form's self-stand skill, but Lee has refined it to make the deck run better than it did in Fighter's Road.

Lee is the first Japanese champion to not be ethnically Japanese, born of Cambodian descent. Like the American and Luxembourgian world champions, Lee's achievement points to the globalization of Cardfight!! Vanguard as a competitive game and extends this even to within Japan, but also has deeper significance for everyday fighters in the country. Pro cardfighters in Japan primarily come from a Yamato Japanese background, leading to less visibility of minority ethnic groups in high level play. The FC2013 national decklists have been translated below, and can be jumped to directly by searching the page for [FC13OP].

The Fifth Fateclock VGCS [5FVGCS]
First Place
One-Way Road/一方通行
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Reincarnation, Miraioh
x1 Beast Deity, Bright Cobra CT
x4 Beast Deity, Banpauros DT
x3 Red Lightning CT
x4 Beast Deity, Death Stinger CT
x4 Beast Deity, Rescue Bunny HT
Grade 1
x4 Beast Deity, Desert Gator
x4 Beast Deity, Solar Falcon
x3 Energy Charger
x1 Beast Deity, Max Beat
Grade 2
x4 Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos
x4 Street Bouncer
x2 Beast Deity, Brainy Pabio
x2 Beast Deity, Golden Anglet
Grade 3
x4 Beast Deity, Ethics Buster
x2 Strongest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster Extreme
x3 Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster "Яeverse"

Ojima/オジマさん
Second Place
Grade 0
x1 Morgenroet (FV)
x4 Red Lightning CT
x4 Schones Wetter CT
x2 Schneeregen DT
x2 The Gong DT
x4 Regenbogen HT
Grade 1
x4 Blau Dunkelheit
x4 Clay-doll Mechanic
x4 Stoic Hunny
x2 Screamin' And Dancin' Announcer, Shout
Grade 2
x4 Jupiter Blaukluger
x4 Mars Blaukluger
x3 Blaukluger
Grade 3
x4 Galaxy Blaukluger
x4 Mond Blaukluger

Third Place
Black-Rimmed Glasses/くろぶちめがね
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
Grade 1
x2 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x2 Dragon Dancer, Maria
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Dominate Drive Dragon
x3 Bellicosity Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x2 Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я”
Grade 4
x2 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Fourth Place
Gungnir/ぐんぐにーる
Grade 0
x1 Vivid Rabbit (FV)
x3 Witch of Lemons, Limoncello CT
x2 Cyber Tiger CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
x3 Bandit Danny DT
x4 Witch of Big Pots, Laurier HT
Grade 1
x4 Witch of Apples, Cider
x4 Orange Witch, Valencia
x4 Goddess of Protection, Kushinada
x2 Ordain Eagle
Grade 2
x4 Witch of Ravens, Chamomile
x4 Grape Witch, Grappa
x3 Goddess of Trees, Jupiter
Grade 3
x4 Omniscience Regalia, Minerva
x4 Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica

Fighter's Climax 2013 National Championship, Open Division [FC13OP]
National Champion: Lee Innyeng
Grade 0
x2 Frontline Revenger, Claudas (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x3 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x3 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Runner-up: Adachi Yuuki/足立優樹
Grade 0
x1 Extending Black Ring, Pleiades (FV)
x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
Grade 1
x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle
x2 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x2 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x4 Star-vader, Moebius Breath Dragon
x3 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Third Place: Sakashita Issei/坂下一生

Grade 0
x1 Little Fighter, Cron (FV)
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
x4 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
Grade 1
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Barcgal Liberator
x2 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
x1 Sword Formation Liberator, Igraine
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Liberator
x4 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of Bonds, Gancelot Zenith
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Fourth Place: Hung Kai Chen
Grade 0
x1 Vivid Rabbit (FV)
x4 Witch of Big Pots, Laurier HT
x2 Bandit Danny DT
x4 Witch of Lemons, Limoncello CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
x2 Cyber Tiger DT
Grade 1
x3 Goddess of Protection, Kushinada
x1 Goddess of the Shield, Aegis
x4 Apple Witch, Cider
x3 Ordain Owl
x3 Witch of Frogs, Melissa
Grade 2
x3 Grape Witch, Grappa
x3 Witch of Ravens, Chamomile
x4 Goddess of Trees, Jupiter
x1 Witch of Owls, Paprika
Grade 3
x4 Omniscience Regalia, Minerva
x4 Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica

News: Conroe to be Restricted for February, Tsukuyomi & Majesty to Return, Almeida Stewart's World Championship Decklist Made Public

The Japanese restricted list was revised Tuesday, with a somewhat surprising addition made in Lizard Soldier Conroe; widely respected as Kagerou's most optimal first vanguard since his release three years ago in BT01: Descent of the King of Knights, Conroe is now the first card since Barcgal to be banned from being set as the first vanguard. Like Barcgal, Conroe can still be included within the deck, but is now of limited use because he cannot be played to open the game. Unlike with Barcgal, many cardfighters saw this restriction coming.

Conroe had previously spent a tournament season on the list but in a different capacity, limited to two copies in combination with Dragonic Overlord the End. Done to put down the DOTE deck after an extended term of prolonged dominance, the world was surprised when both cards were taken off the list despite the release of Dauntless Drive Dragon as DOTE's new supporting grade 3. Initial Dauntless mania cooled with the continued dominance of the Eradicators in the format, but this new decision has come about with likely inspiration from the results of the Fighter's Climax 2013 national tournament. Divided between the open class and junior divisions, six pros made waves with powerful Nouvelle Vague decks whose overwhelming success would not have been possible without Conroe to fix their grade ratios. The common feature of all Nouvelle decks used in competitive play thus far is running 4 grade 3s and 4 grade 4s--functionally equivalent to running 8 grade 3s, and only playable in this way because Conroe's search skill can be used to target the grade 1 Nouvelle Roman Dragon, whose on-call skill sends Nouvelle into the deck to search for a grade 3. In this way, all copies of Nouvelle automatically become grade 3s purely on the basis that Conroe can instantly fetch Roman for a single counterblast, and this is almost a guaranteed move with the rise of Link Joker and subsequent diminished presence of retire skill first vanguards like Linchu and Terrycloth.

This searchability also allows Dauntless Drive Dragon and Cruel Dragon to be run in unnaturally low numbers in the Nouvelle deck and still be consistently fetched, most commonly at 2-2 as done by Sen Hayato, Matsushita Daisuke and junior cardfighter Matsushita Shunji. The ability to use Nouvelle with effectively normal grade ratios is probably not an intended part of the card's design. By cutting Conroe out from organized play, Bushiroad is taking a cautionary measure that diminishes Nouvelle's effectiveness without completely destroying the deck entirely, making Nouvelle Roman a chance-based draw and forcing Kagerou cardfighters to modify their grade ratios in order to use the same kinds of grade 3s. Reinforcing the Barcgal comparison in 2011, this has taken an exceptionally consistent deck and bumped it back down to level with its contemporaries. Restricting Conroe has also resolved an issue that has plagued Kagerou from the beginning; his search skill has discouraged diverse deckbuilding by prematurely making other first vanguards for Kagerou obsolete, even in Seal Dragon builds.

A similarly surprising change is the return of Goddess of the Full Moon Tsukuyomi and Majesty Lord Blaster, whose deckbuilds had dominated alongside DOTE in 2012. For Tsukuyomi, the nail in her coffin was the ability to run the Goddess at four copies as her build's only grade 3, and Japanese cardfighters cultivating a play style of deliberately accepting gradelock in order to avoid riding non-Tsukuyomi cards, so that Goddess of the Crescent Moon's soulcharge 2 would be guaranteed, and the freed up deck space could be used for maximum copies of Oracle Guardian Red-Eye without sacrificing space given to Silent Tom or Mocha. In this way Tsukuyomi could consistently reach grade 3, reach 6 soul with support units like Red-Eye and Kaguya, make multiple gains in card advantage through free superior rides along with Tsukuyomi's draw skill and Luck Birds to make use of the extra soul, and stack the deck up to 20~25 cards through gradelock instead of being hardcapped at a maximum of 15. Meanwhile Majesty Lord Blaster was able to set up a consistent 12000 base defense on turn 3 along with a permanent extra critical and three rows of 21000+ lines with Toypugal, Bedivere and Palamedes. While Majesty may not have aged well compared to Tsukuyomi, even while restricted he was periodically seen popping up throughout 2013 in VGCS tournaments and in Fighter's Climax, so both decks are likely to find their place in the February-on format. Eradicator Dragonic Descendant has remained restricted to 2 copies, making him the only card to still be restricted in this way. Ultimately the restricted list has diminished with time rather than grown larger as in other TCGs.

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.

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.

Adwin Leong: FTW

Grade 0

x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)

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, 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.

Kevin Lang: Made in England, God Save the Queen

Grade 0

x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)
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

Kevin Lang's Eradicator build differs from Leong's mainly in the use of Kohkaiji over Castor, a debate that also took place in Japan. Uemura Shouhei solidified the definitive Descendant-Gauntlet build over there with Castor, whose card changing skill proved extremely potent in the early game and following Gauntlet's limit break, but Kohkaiji isn't entirely without merit. The skill is essentially the same as Photon Bomber Wyvern but for the Eradicators, pumping the vanguard up by +10000 instead of +6000 when the opponent has 3 or more damage in the damage zone, but differs in how it interacts with the card pool. Kohkaiji becomes a very strange pressure unit in that he effectively prevents the opponent from defending early to midgame as one would like to in the Eradicator matchup if they do not guard the attack immediately preceding Gauntlet/Descendant's. All defending decisions must be made before the vanguard strikes; if Gauntlet has an increased critical and perfect defense will be dropped early to absolutely prevent it from going through, then it's natural that the previous rearguard attack will be allowed to hit since the vanguard line's power is functionally meaningless versus defense, but if the attack is to be allowed in then the rearguard must be defended to stay at 2 damage. Kohkaiji's effect on the game is more important with Descendant later on, since the card will swing for 21~31000 after the boost, so when Descendant makes his initial attack he'll often go unboosted to make the second blow go for exponentially higher power.

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.

News: Almeida Stewart Becomes 2013 World Champion, Nova Grappler and Shadow Paladin Fighters Take Japanese Championship

Stewart, fourth from the left, stands alongside his fellow competitors as well as Morishima Shuuta and Mimori Suzuko in Tokyo Dome City's Prism Hall, Japan. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

Fourteen hours ago the 2013 Cardfight!! Vanguard World Championships closed with Almeida Stewart of Luxembourg taking the world title. As the first European world champion and successor to Brandon Smith, Stewart is the next inheritor of a growing international history surrounding the game. While for the European national championships Stewart played a Gold Paladin deck using Garmore and Liberator Gancelot, for the world finals he switched to a Dauntless DOTE deck running eight draw triggers, based on the The End deck he had qualified with at the regional level in the Belgium qualifiers. For rising up as the strongest cardfighter of 2013, Stewart was awarded the title of "Grand Champion" and 2013's crystal trophy.

Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

On-site reports state that out of nine competitors in the tournament, seven used Narukami Eradicator decks, while North American national champion Albert Lee played a Beast Deity Nova Grappler build. Stewart's decision to move to Dauntless for the finals left him in the minority and he reportedly hesitated to go ahead with the deck for Worlds, but the deck choice proved prudent as it allowed him to control the pace of his fights by forcing his opponents to play The End's mind games. The Dauntless deck is notorious for making opponents decide between either allowing its break ridden The End to hit and stand with a persona blast that recoups the loss in advantage brought on by break ride, or dealing with Dauntless restanding the vanguard even when DOTE's attack does not hit and go in for a second strike that can also lead into a persona blast to bring the previous scenario back into play. Faced with this situation, the general consensus among professional fighters is that the only right choice is to declare "no guard" against the first attack and direct all defenses toward blocking the second, but this requires playing specifically to be at 3 or less damage by that point and is not always a option in its own right when faced with early aggression.

Almeida Stewart, Albert Lee, Adwin Leong and Kevin Lang. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

At the same time, since the release of BT11 Dauntless has received some praise for revising the DOTE build to both be more effective and require more thought to bring out that effectiveness, as the deck's plethora of support options from both old staples like Berserk Dragon and Heatnail Salamander as well as newer cards like Corduory and Kersey have demanded more work in the deckbuilding process and careful play in determining which of the opponent's cards are most important to control with the fighter's limited counterblast. With overlapping support from the Seal Dragons and consistent ways to remove the rearguards, Dauntless has proved to be one of the most effective and challenging decks in 2013. The Dauntless DOTE deck's major contender within the format, the Eradicator build, has been contrasted as being much more of an autopilot deck that takes much of the direct decision making out of its cardfighters' hands. After plaguing Japanese play for the past year, the Eradicators finally debuted in English-language competition for the first time in the world finals, bringing with them a powerful engine for field control and card destruction.

While BT10's break ride cards have been hyped across the board as some of the most decisive tools of the new format, most Eradicator cardfighters have eschewed their Vowing Sword break ride in favor of running an Eradicator deck that uses both Gauntlet Buster Dragon and Dragonic Descendant. Gauntlet Buster, whose limit break increases his power and critical every time an opponent's rearguard is retired, is commonly played as the deck's midgame to destroy the opponent's cards using his counterblast skill, then build up extra critical that demands perfect defense cards to be repeatedly played across two or more turns. With Zuitan to unflip damage to further support Buster, as well as lesser rearguards like Chou-ou that can retire an opponent's rearguard by putting one of the Eradicator fighter's into the soul and then recoup the loss with Rising Phoenix's soulblast-to-draw skill, the subclan's gameplan has proved overwhelming by continuously pushing the opponent's advantage down while the Narukami fighter's has stayed static. Meanwhile Dragonic Descendant has functioned as the clan's self-standing vanguard, able to limit break with a very cheap counterblast 1 and discard cost when his attack does not hit in order to swing again with an extra critical that makes his attack functionally impossible to declare no-guard against. For this reason Descendant has been limited to 2 in Japan since last May, but critics of the subclan have pointed out that with so many other powerful grade 3 options in Vowing Sword and the upcoming Vowing Saber Dragon crossbreak ride, the truly daunting issue surrounding the Eradicator deck is that each card individually could make or break a build on their own, where together they snowball into one overwhelming subclan. Even so, with Worlds 2014 likely eight to nine months away, and the upcoming releases of VGE-BT12: Binding Force of the Black Rings and VGE-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak within that timeframe, international cardfight may never see the Eradicators rise to the same prominence they did in their home country. Current predictions are that Link Joker decks will get widespread adoption in North America, where the clan has proved exceedingly popular and Chaos Breaker Dragon has become the buzzcard of the day.

2013 has left a complicated legacy for professional cardfight, but with Europe emerging as a vanguard force in competitive play the future may see more standout names making the headlines, inspired by Stewart's success story. For the time being, decklists are expected to go up within the week. And while the world is discussing the results of WCS2013, Japan's Fighter's Climax 2013 national tournament has just concluded with the junior class national champion seizing the title with a Nova Grappler deck, according to Doctor O. While their names are not yet public, Nova Grappler was extremely prolific in the juniors' division this year and there are six probable cardfighters that could have taken first, with five of them being Beast Deity fighters using a combination of Ethics Buster Extreme and Reverse alongside their break ride, and the remaining sixth being veteran Nova Grappler fighter Nishida Sachi, who had previously been noted for his Beast Deity deck with Stern Blaukluger tech in FR2013 Kyoto, and who had recently taken a full Stern deck to second place at Osaka. Meanwhile in the open class division, a Shadow Paladin cardfighter rumored to be playing Raging Form Dragon took first place, with the runner-up playing Link Joker. In total, the representation for this year showed 4 Kagerou, 3 Genesis, 2 Shadow Paladin, 2 Link Joker, 2 Aqua Force, 1 Gold Paladin, 1 Narukami and 1 Great Nature decks in the open class finals.