News: Eighth Battle City VGCS Decklists, Glendios and Kagerou Reign Over Triples Tournament

Eastern Cultural Center, Sakai city, Osaka. Image source.

The Battle City CS organization has reported its latest tournament results, and the eighth Sakai ChampionShip has been won by team Priests of Double Critical. While the previous CS saw Blaukluger and Nouvelle Vague in the spotlight, this time two Omega Glendios cardfighters have taken the gold in one of the early team tournaments of the BT15-on format. One constant has remained between Battle City tournaments; as in the previous competition, the midfighter for the winning team used a dedicated Raging Form Dragon deck. In contrast to the mix of RFD-Dragruler that have become commonplace in Japan, Adesu's RFD build has emphasized using the established Raging Form-Mordred makeup developed around BT12, foregoing the crossride entirely and mixing Blaster Dark Revenger support with cards from Infinite Rebirth. This exists in contrast to the established trend of cutting Dark Revenger entirely for Lukea and Mana, a practice that emerged in light of Dragruler's counterblast costs generally replacing Blaster Dark's.

Glendios meanwhile is continuing to grow in popularity among Japanese fans after its success at the Hakata and Tsurumai VGCSes. While an innovative means of using both World Line Dragon and Dust Tail Unicorn in the same deck had been developed at Tsurumai through the grade 2 Colony Maker, this strategy has not seemed to catch on elsewhere, where additional cards of other grades are preferred for consistency over Dust Tail's additional Lock.

Second place team "Over There, Here and There" was made up of three Kagerou cardfighters playing Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth” and Nouvelle Vague decks, with the latter making up two thirds of the team. Team forward Minorun expanded Overlord's strategy slightly by experimenting with Kagerou's new grade 2 promo, Dragon Dancer Arabella, whose counterblast 1 powers up a Flame Dragon vanguard by +5000.

Dragon Dancer, Arabella

Since all of the vanguard options in the current Overlord deck make use of self-standing limit breaks, and “The Яe-birth” in particular Locks all of his own rearguards to fight alone, this build is able to make special use of Arabella by attacking with the power increase two or three times. Team OTHT's Nouvelle fighters brought identical decks that both made use of the grade 2 Dominate Drive Dragon, a base 12000 power attacker triggered by having a "Dauntless" vanguard in play. This took advantage of how long Nouvelle builds tend to sit on Dauntless Drive Dragon for their midgame before break riding to create a game-winning play of two 23000+ power attacks that can't be guarded with grade 0 units, partially answering the slow buildup Nouvelle is faced by.

Interestingly, many decks in the format are now gravitating towards 6-6 on draw to critical triggers, where in the past 12 critical had dominated the deckbuilding process. The change may be attributed in part to the higher number of moving pieces in each deck these days, with Eternal Bringer Griffin, Dragonic Burnout, Dragonic Overlord and his crossbreak ride all being considered essential parts of “The Яe-birth's” strategy, and Glendios similarly looking to assemble Ruin Magician, Praseodymium and several “Яeverse” cards into a single hand.

The eighth Battle City CS took place on March 21st in the gallery hall of the Eastern Cultural Center in Sakai city, and met its expected quota of 64 teams, charging the standard 3000 yen entry fee per team. First place in the tournament won three PlayStation 4 consoles, second place six boxes of VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth and third place three 2000-yen iTunes cards. Third and fourth place in the tournament went to team Rotten Fighter BL4 (チーム腐-ファイターBL4) and team Amazing Party (ステキなパーティしましょ.)

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.

Eighth Battle City Sakai VG Trio CS
Winning team: Priests of Double Critical/ダブクリ坊主
Sawa/澤
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x4 Recollection Star-vader, Tellurium HT
x1 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x3 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Spark Doll CT
x3 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x1 Star-vader, Jailer Tail DT
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
x2 Carved Seal Star-vader, Praseodymium
x3 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader, Magnet Hollow
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, “Ω” Glendios
x4 Star-vader, “Я” Cradle
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”
x1 Ice Prison Dark Lord, Cocytus “Я”
x1 School Punisher, Leo-pald “Я”
x1 Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster “Я”
x1 Maiden of Venus Trap “Я”

Adesu/あです
Grade 0
x1 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
x1 Frontline Revenger, Claudas
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x1 Abyss Freezer DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x3 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Self-control Revenger, Rakia
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
x1 Black-winged Sword Breaker
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x2 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Overcoming Revenger, Lukea
x2 Wiles Revenger, Mana
x1 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
Grade 3
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon

Derrin/デリン
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x4 Recollection Star-vader, Tellurium HT
x2 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x2 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Spark Doll CT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
x2 Carved Seal Star-vader, Praseodymium
x3 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader, Magnet Hollow
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, “Ω” Glendios
x4 Star-vader, “Я” Cradle
x1 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”
x1 Blue Storm Karma Dragon, Maelstrom “Я”
x1 Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я”
x1 Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster “Я”

Runner-up team: Over There, Here and There/あっちこっちそっち
Minorun/みのるん
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Abarara CT
x2 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x1 Blue-ray Dracokid CT
x1 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x2 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Dragon Dancer, Therese HT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x2 Violence Horn Dragon
x4 Eternal Bringer Griffin
Grade 2
x4 Dragonic Burnout
x2 Dragon Dancer, Arabella
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x2 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”

Hiiya/ぴーや
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x3 Blue-ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x3 Dominate Drive Dragon
Grade 3
x1 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Seven/セブン
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Abarara CT
x2 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
Grade 1
x1 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x3 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x3 Dominate Drive Dragon
Grade 3
x1 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague