News: Phantom Blaster “Diablo” Dominates Fifth Sapporo VGCS

Original image provided by SapporoVGCS

Sapporo Citizens' Hall, Japan. Yesterday morning the fifth Sapporo Vanguard Championship took place, and when the curtain closed on this tournament it cemented “Abyss” Shadow Paladins as the dominant deck of the day. First place at the tournament finals was Igachuu playing Phantom Blaster  “Abyss” with supplementary support from Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori.” Second place was Goppii with Thing Saver Dragon, third valdy (sic) and fourth Lelouch, each of them also playing Abyss decks. The tournaments top bracket was made up of veteran professional cardfighters, with Igachuu having also won the fourth Sapporo CS with “Abyss” last November and valdy acting as the midfighter for the team that topped the second Sapporo championship one year ago. However, it's not just the top 4 that was being dominated by Revenger decks; 36% of the participants at Sapporo were playing Shadow Paladin decks, greater than the combined total of Royal and Kagerou cardfighters present. Decklists are provided below.

Although these decks spend a significant portion of their gameplay on either Mordred or Phantom Blaster “Abyss,” the release of the Legend Deck on April 24th has made “Diablo” into the face of the deck. By turning a copy of himself in the generation zone face-up, “Diablo” gains +10000 power +1 critical and an on-attack skill. When he attacks a vanguard, “Diablo” pays a retire 3 cost; and then if the opponent does not retire two of their own rearguards, they cannot call cards from their hand to the guardian circle. This prevents even strategies like using “Ω” Glendios' Rubidium to redirect the attack from working, since that requires a call to the guardian circle to be made. In a pure generation break deck “Diablo's” function would be to force the opponent to both retire their rearguards and drop a perfect defense card, incurring a net -4.

However, in the Revenger deck “Diablo” receives the name of its heart, becoming a Revenger itself and then gaining access to the grade 2s Blaster Dark Revenger and BDR “Abyss.” With Dorint the former Dark Revenger can effectively counterblast 1 to retire a frontrow unit, and Revenger “Abyss” can counterblast 1 to retire a backrow unit. If the opponent only has three rearguards out this prevents the opponent from guarding altogether because they do not have two rearguards to pay the cost. And in a format where Resist is becoming increasingly prevalent, “Diablo” has one more leg up over the competition, because units with Resist cannot be chosen for “Diablo's” on-attack skill. Hence removing enough of the opponent's rearguards that they only have one eligible target in play has become an automatic win condition far more effective than the World End of past formats, as it allows “Diablo” to send the opponent from four to six damage directly.


The result is that “Abyss'” restand is secondary to the twin Blaster Darks' field control skills and “Diablo's” persona generation. In many games, Phantom Blaster “Abyss'” actual skills go unused entirely, and the card becomes purely a target to gain the Revenger name from. Supplementary to “Diablo” is the introduction of Darkheart Trumpeter, whose generation break 1 can search for any grade 1 other than herself as long as the vanguard has Blaster in its card name, and Dark Night Maiden Macha who at generation break 1 can counterblast to search for any grade 1 on-attack as long as she's boosted. Hence Macha can search out Darkheart, who then superior call Black-winged Swordbreaker to draw a card from. Pitch Black Sage Charon is a common tech in these decks, since Charon counts as two units when sacrificed for a Blaster card skill, which helps with the all-important “Diablo” mirror match by ensuring that three cards will be on the field during the opponent's turn. “Diablo” is arguably its own most difficult matchup at this point, as the sacrificial nature of “Abyss” Shadow Paladins helps consolidate cards in hand for defending against Thing Saver, while using the rearguards to pay costs in general prevents Kagerou decks from retiring them.

Many thanks to Siulzen for transcribing the clan distribution below.

Fifth Sapporo VGCS clan distribution (96 participants, 95 listed)
34 Shadow Paladin
15 Royal Paladin
13 Kagero
8 Aqua Force
6 Nova Grappler
5 Great Nature
3 Oracle Think Tank
3 Narukami
2 Nubatama
1 Gold Paladin
1 Spike Brothers
1 Dimension Police
1 Link Joker
1 Bermuda Triangle
1 Pale Moon

Notably, this is the first tournament that Gear Chronicle has completely flatlined in since its introduction; no cardfighters taking part in this month's Sapporo VGCS played Gear Chronicle. This is also the first significant reduction in Royal Paladin play, as at the preceding Phantom CS Thing Saver accounted for 46% of all decks played.

Entry at Sapporo was 1000 yen ($10 approx.) The tournament champion received a New 3DS XL, second place four boxes of VG-G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, third place two boxes of the same, and fourth place one box. As the set does not come out until the 29th of the month, these boxes are promised to the winners in advance and shipped to them at the release date. The tournament enforced clan fight rules, with a 50 minute time limit and best-of-two rounds; five rounds of Swiss pairings, followed to be a four round cut to top 16. Registration at Sapporo ran from 9:30 AM to 10:15 AM, followed by a fifteen minute opening ceremony, and the tournament proper began at 10:45 AM. A fifteen minute break interrupted each 50-minute round, with the tournament finals beginning at 8:30 PM.

Fifth Sapporo VGCS
First place: Igachuu/イガチュウ
Grade 0
x1 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
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
x2 Black-winged Sword Breaker
x2 Darkheart Trumpeter
x2 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x3 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” 
x3 Blaster Dark Revenger
x2 Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart
x3 Dark Night Maiden, Macha
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x1 Rain Element, Madew
x1 True Revenger, Dragruler Revenant
x2 Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter
x4 Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo”

Second place: Goppii/ごっぴー
Grade 0
x1 Dreaming Jewel Knight, Tiffany (FV)
x4 Jewel Knight, Hilmy HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger CT
x4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle CT
Grade 1
x4 Holy Knight Guardian
x4 Laurel Knight, Sicilus
x4 Heat Wind Jewel Knight, Cymbeline
x2 Jewel Knight, Sabremy
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Jewel Knight, Swordmy
x2 Fellowship Jewel Knight, Tracie
x1 Knight of Twin Sword
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x4 Broken Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei “Яeverse”
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x2 Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
x4 Holy Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon
x1 Flash Flame Divine Knight, Samuil
x1 Great Sage of Contradiction, Jirron

Third place: valdy
Grade 0
x1 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x4 Revenger, Wounded Angel CT
Grade 1
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x2 Black-winged Sword Breaker
x2 Darkheart Trumpeter
x3 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x1 Pitch Black Sage, Charon
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” 
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x3 Dark Night Maiden, Macha
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x1 Dark Knight, Efnysian
x1 True Revenger, Dragruler Phantom
x2 Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter
x4 Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo”

Fourth place: Lelouch
Grade 0
x1 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Young Skull Witch, Nemain
x2 Black-winged Swordbreaker
x2 Darkheart Trumpeter
x3 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x3 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” 
x3 Blaster Dark Revenger
x3 Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo”
x2 Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter
x1 True Revenger, Dragruler Phantom
x1 Rain Element, Madew