News: World Champion Almeida Stewart Wins BeNeLux Tournament with Genovius, Lock on Victory to Include Over 2300 Cards

The latest BeNeLux tournament concluded on March 9th early this week, with reigning world champion Almeida Stewart taking first place using an Aqua Force deck atypical of the BT12-on format. The BeNeLux tournaments are a line of unofficial competitions organized by the joint vanguard community of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Although open to being held in any of the three countries' major cities, it is typically held in Antwerp, Belgium on a monthly to bimonthly basis; due to its relatively high turnout in the range of ~30 persons minimum, it has been nicknamed the VGCS of BeNeLux.

In total there were 35 participants, low compared to the normal turnout of a Japanese CS but on par with other large tournaments in Europe and the unofficial ARG tournaments in the United States. The March BeNeLux was held in the Outpost Gamecenter of Antwerp and lasted 6 rounds, with second place going to Dylan Kneip playing a Raging Form Dragon deck. The top 8 were as follows;

1. Aqua Force (Thundering Ripple Genovius, played by Almeida Stewart)

2. Shadow Paladin (Revenger Raging Form Dragon, played by Dylan Kneip)

3. Pale Moon (Silver Thorns)

4. Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon)

5. Narukami (Eradicators)

6. Link Joker (Nebula Lord Dragon)

7. Royal Paladin (Sanctuary Guard Dragon and Fang of Light Garmore)

8. Gold Paladin (Ezel)

Stewart's decklist emphasized better than average draw power, speed and consistency. The core of it used the Ripple evolution cards for ride security to search out Pavroth or Genovius, with the grade 1 and 2 Brave Shooter support for base 10000 and 12000 attackers that allowed better early aggression. This also worked well with Pavroth's ability to stand and power up a rearguard in the midgame, turning Twin Strike Brave Shooter into a base 15000 attacker on the second strike.

Stewart ran three copies of Penguin Soldier for its soulblast-and-draw skill, reasoning that with the deck's break ride he would always have four cards in the soul to use two of the Penguins later on.

His main strategy was to break ride Genovius over Transcore Dragon; attacking with both rearguard lanes first would bring the opponent to 5 damage, Transcore's skill would force the opponent to discard a card just to be able to guard in the first place to ensure a -3 even if they had a perfect defense card, and Genovius' persona blast would stand both rearguard columns to ensure that he would have two more attacks waiting to receive any trigger checks.

The maneuver became even more dangerous if the opponent was already at 5 damage, where any one of the five attacks would win the game. For endgame purposes Stewart ran a tech copy of Blue Storm Supreme Dragon Glory Maelstrom, using Glory Maelstrom's ultimate break to prevent the opponent from using perfect defense cards while increasing his own power. The decision synergized well with his focus on draw power and grade security. You can jump to the decklists directly by searching the page for [MBNL]

Meanwhile more details on the upcoming sequel to the Nintendo 3DS game Ride to Victory, Cardfight!! Vanguard Lock on Victory, have just come out through an Amazon listing. Announced last December, the sequel will feature over 2300 cards, support both local and internet play, and allow the sending of messages to other players after concluding a cardfight. Lock on Victory will also come packaged with four copies of Setting Sun Star-vader Darmstadtium, each foiled as an R-rarity card.

Retailing for 5229 JPY (approx. 52 USD) the game is scheduled for a June 5th release in Japan, will introduce four new protagonists and will allow the player to attend a high school of their choice from the anime series, between Kai Toshiki's Hitsue High, Sendou Aichi's Miyaji Academy, and Suzugamori Ren's Fukuhara High School. Recent issues of Monthly Bushiroad magazine have also shown Reversed cardfighters appearing, with Naoki and Koutei making use of their Vowing Saber Dragon and “Я” Daiyusha decks respectively.

Although past campaigns to bring the first game over have not succeeded, Bushiroad was responsive to fans' initial requests for FuRyu's game to be translated for the western markets, to the point that internal talks had begun by the time of Anime Expo 2013. As Ride to Victory was never designed with an international release date in mind, there may yet be hope for its sequel.

March BeNeLux Tournament [MBNL]
First Place: Almeida Stewart
Grade 0
x1 Starting Ripple, Alecs (FV)
x2 Ice Floe Angel HT
x2 Medical Officer of the Rainbow Elixir HT
x4 Pyroxene Communications Sea Otter DT
x4 Jet-Ski Rider CT
x4 Supersonic Sailor CT
Grade 1
x4 Silent Ripple, Sotirio
x4 Mercenary Brave Shooter
x4 Emerald Shield, Paschal
x3 Light Signals Penguin Soldier
Grade 2
x4 Rising Ripple, Pavroth
x4 Twin Strike Brave Shooter
x2 Tear Knight, Lucas
Grade 3
x4 Thundering Ripple, Genovius
x3 Blue Flight Dragon, Transcore Dragon
x1 Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom

Second Place: Dylan Kneip
Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x2 Abyss Freezer DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x2 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Sacrilege Revenger, Baal-berith
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x3 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom