News: Maelstrom “Яeverse” Places Second in First Sapporo VGCS, Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth” Soars in Beast Deity Cup

Decklists from the first Sapporo VGCS went up late yesterday evening, along with accompanying videos of the final match. Although the tournament marks yet another top spot for Kagerou cardfighters, interest in the second place fighter's Aqua Force deck has exceeded that in the Nouvelle fighter's, both in Japan and internationally. Second place cardfighter Mantesu created an innovative Maelstrom “Яeverse” deck modeled on the Glory Maelstrom builds of old, with nine grade 3s including familiar Diamantes support to pull off the deck's various limit breaks.

There is a substantial division in how “Я” Maelstorm is being played however. Unlike past and current Aqua Force fighters that tend to tech Glory Maelstrom at one copy, Mantesu's post-BT15 Maelstrom deck focused very heavily on the new crossride, running it at 4/3 with its original form. The first Sapporo VGCS reportedly drew 60 persons including spectators, with 48 persons participating in the championship; Mantesu was the only Aqua Force cardfighter present.

His version of the deck made use of a combination of Blue Storm and Brave Shooter support. The first vanguard Marios can search the top 5 cards of the deck for a Maelstrom unit to put into hand when an attack that it boosted hits a vanguard, potentially giving two to three opportunities to search for one of Mantesu's seven Maelstrom grade 3s before he needs to ride one. However, in both of his games with Nouvelle cardfighter Kukkii, Marios was shut down on his opponent's second turn by Gattling Claw Dragon. With Hermes and the grade 1 Brave Shooter, Mantesu had six options for base 10000 power attackers as early as turn 1, and Storm Rider Eugen let him take advantage of that further by attacking for an 8000 power base early on, then swap out for either Brave Shooter or Hermes for a second attack.

Blue Storm Marine General, Spyros.

Including the vanguard, that can create an early three attack combo. This is where the deck's eight stand triggers come in, as they exacerbate the opponent's initial dilemma of facing repeated and early attacks when guard power is typically low. Tidal Assault is meant to facilitate that further at turn 2; a base 9000 power unit that stands itself after attacking and loses -5000 power in the process, Assault is intended to attack unboosted first and then with a boost second so that it swings in the ballpark of an 11000 base for the second blow, just enough to graze most grade 3s in the format. From turn 3 onward it can also enable multiple-attack vanguards alongside the counterblast-to-stand Spyros and the Blue Storm base 12000 attacker Gregorious, who works well when swapping positions with Diamantes.

This enables both Maelstrom “Яeverse” and Maelstrom's +5000 power limit breaks, which activate during the fourth or greater battle of the turn. If Maelstrom's attack hits it can counterblast 1 to retire one of the opponent's rearguards and draw a card, grabbing up a net advantage of 2 by giving the opponent a -1 and his own cardfighter a +1, which together with the multiple attacks and stand triggers snowballs into the opponent having very few cards in play regardless of how they approach the attacks. Even if Maelstrom is defended, attacking for a ~23000 power base is a tall order to defend early with or without a perfect defense card, and potentially denies the opponent their limit break while Mantesu is setting up his crossride.

In addition to sitting on crossride defense that lets him expend less cards per turn while his opponent spends more defending the attacks, Maelstrom Reverse's limit break bypasses the need to hit. He gives himself an innate extra critical by resting and then Locking a rearguard during the fourth or greater battle of the turn, which makes up for the lack of critical triggers by smoothly bringing the opponent to 5 damage and making the additional attacks of the turn from stands that much more important. If his attack is defended, Reverse can then retire an opponent's rearguard and draw a card without needing to hit, sending the opponent into a downward spiral where there's an effective time limit on how long they have to win the game before they run out of cards from defending multiple attacks and losing a rearguard each turn while Aqua Force hovers above them with superior card advantage. You can jump to the first and second place decklists directly by searching the page for [1SVGCS]

The major fault of the deck is when it does not draw the cards necessary to pull off its strategy, as in the first game of the Sapporo finals where Mantesu went second but had none of his early game offensive power, and late in the second game where he had his Reverse card in play but not a strong enough field to trigger the limit break. Damage triggers can also upset this strategy at any point in the fight, as they effectively decrease the entire field's power by 5000. But with so many options for triggering the fourth attack condition, the consistency of the build is still sufficient to stand up to professional giants like Nouvelle Vague and Raging Form-Dragruler.

Meanwhile the decklists from the Beast Deity Cup are out, and much excitement has been raised over the success of Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth.” While generally agreed on as a strong contender in the current format, “The Яe-birth” has also been overshadowed by its grade 4 big brother, Nouvelle. Яe-birth's Lock field skill prevents anything but the vanguard from being used for the turn, but gives its vanguard +10000 power and a skill that allows it to stand by discarding two cards after an attack. In conjunction with the skill of the BT15 break ride that Яe-birth is a crossride of, this allows for up to three attacks and six drive checks with no loss in card advantage, equivalent in practical terms to giving the entire field twin drive for one turn.

Generally Яe-birth has been used in conjunction with on-call skills like those of Calamity Tower Wyvern and Berserk Dragon, but has only penetrated tournament play in small numbers. Hisui's victory with it is one early footholds in the BT15-on format.

He was accompanied by two other Overlord cardfighters in the top 4, and also notably the Nova Grappler cardfighter Konomu, who played a Beast Deity deck that fused Ethics Buster Extreme and Reverse into one composite strategy. This has become a popular strategy since the release of VG-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak, with Extreme-Reverse fusion decks dominating the Nagoya junior regional finals, and taking first in the fifth Fateclock VGCS. Konomu made a relatively unprecedented call in running eight draw rather than the stand or critical triggers that have been shown effective with Beast Deities, using Shout to card change the draws out of his hand after they've been checked. He may have been taking a leaf from contemporary Link Joker cardfighters' playbooks, as running in the vicinity of 5~7 draw has been demonstrated to be effective for decks that are heavily break ride dependent, and Ethics Buster “Яeverse” in conjunction with his break ride has achieved no small amount of notoriety as an eight-attack kill strategy. With Chaos Breaker and Glendios heavily sidelined by the Nouvelle-centric state of professional play, the way has been opened once more for rearguard-dependent decks like Maelstrom and Ethics Buster “Яeverse.” You can jump to the top 4 decklists directly by searching the page for [1BCUP]

First Sapporo VGCS [1SVGCS]
First Place: Kukkii/くっきぃ
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 HT (Specific information not given)
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x1 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x7 CT (Specific information not given)
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x2 Bellicosity Dragon
x1 Demonic Dragon Berserker, Kubhanda
Grade 3
x2 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
x3 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Grade 4
x3 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Second Place: Mantesu/まんてす
Grade 0
x1 Blue Storm Cadet, Marios (FV)
x4 Blue Storm Fleet, Angler Soldier ST
x4 Dolphin Sider of High Speed Raids ST
x4 Blue Storm Battle Princess, Doria DT
x4 Blue Storm Kitchen Sailor HT
Grade 1
x4 Emerald Shield, Paschal
x4 Blue Storm Marine General, Hermes
x3 Storm Rider, Eugene
x2 Mercenary Brave Shooter
Grade 2
x4 Tidal Assault
x4 Blue Storm Marine General, Spyros
x3 Blue Storm Marine General, Gregorious
Grade 3
x4 Blue Storm Karma Dragon, Maelstrom “Я”
x3 Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom
x2 Storm Rider, Diamantes

Beast Deity Cup [1BCUP]
First Place: Hisui/ヒスイ
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x2 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x2 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
x2 Blue-ray Dracokid CT
x1 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Abarara CT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
Grade 1
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x4 Eternal Bringer Griffin
x2 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Violence Horn Dragon
x1 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x4 Dragonic Burnout
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”

Second Place: Awaawa/あわあわ
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x3 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x2 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
x2 Blue-ray Dracokid CT
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x3 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x3 Eternal Bringer Griffin
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
Grade 2
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
x3 Bellicosity Dragon
x2 Dragonic Burnout
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”

Third Place: Konomu/このむ
Grade 0
x1 Beast Deity, Riot Horn (FV)
x4 Beast Deity, Death Stinger CT
x4 Beast Deity, Banpauros DT
x4 The Gong DT
x4 Beast Deity, Rescue Bunny HT
Grade 1
x4 Beast Deity, Solar Falcon
x4 Beast Deity, Blank Marsh
x2 Energy Charger
x2 Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x1 Beast Deity, Hilarity Destroyer
Grade 2
x4 Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos
x3 Beast Deity, Golden Anglet
x3 Beast Deity, Brainy Pabio
Grade 3
x4 Beast Deity, Ethics Buster
x4 Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster “Я”
x2 Strongest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster Extreme

Fourth Place: Fayete/ふぁやて
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x3 Blue-ray Dracokid CT
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x1 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Dragon Dancer, Therese HT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
Grade 1
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x1 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x4 Eternal Bringer Griffin
x2 Violence Horn Dragon
x2 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x4 Dragonic Burnout
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”