Study Guide: Murakumo

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

If there is a lockdown deck in Cardfight, Murakumo is it. As the successors to the Nubatama ninjas, Murakumo plays similarly; the clan's specialties are denying the opponent advantages, canceling their skills and forcing them to make bad moves, and this is why they remain so relevant in a game that is largely based around jousting across the field with the vanguard. The vanguard line is the only line that cannot be predicted in a typical game, it is where all surprises originate from, and Murakumo is determined to stop it from making those surprises happen.

BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades brings the deck its basic setup, with Stealth Beast Evil Ferret as the clan's base 5000 first vanguard. In addition to outriding from the soul, Ferret's skill is to put itself on the bottom of the deck and then call a Murakumo unit from your hand to the field. In the end phase, that unit will then return to the hand. This doesn't sound like much at first since it returns your net advantage to 0, but the skill is most powerful when taking the second turn--Ferret can superior call a grade 2 or 3 unit while you are at grade 1, allowing for a better offensive. This plays into the clan's enforced stand trigger. BT05 only gives Murakumo one heal, one draw, one critical and one stand trigger, so it's best to always have something to attack with prior to the vanguard attack in case of a stand check. More than this though, Ferret gives early access to Stealth Dragon Cursed Breath's skill for a combo play.

Cursed Breath is a base 8000 grade 2, so while he's wholly reliant on a base 8000 booster to form even a 16000 power line, his skill is very complementary to his low power. When Cursed Breath's attack hits the vanguard, he can look at up to five cards from the top of the deck for the grade 3 Covert Demonic Dragon Mandala Lord, add it to the hand, and then place the remaining cards on the bottom of the deck. As with Tsukuyomi, you can use these kinds of skills to gradually build up a stack of triggers on the bottom of the deck and then draw-drive into them, while also bringing added grade security to the table and getting you back the +1 that you lost when Evil Ferret went to the bottom of the deck. Since the skill is on-hit, it can be repeated multiple times throughout the game to build up that stack much faster than Tsukuyomi can, having an 8-10 card stack after two attacks and 12-15 after three. Cursed Breath's power is also equal to the highest possible base power for a grade 1, which helps push for a strong offensive when taking the second turn.

Another way to exploit Ferret's skill is with the grades 1 and 2 units Stealth Beast Million Rat and Stealth Fiend Midnight Crow. Rat and Crow are base 6000 and base 8000 units that can counterblast 1 when they are called or ridden to superior call a copy of themselves from the deck, then place it at the bottom of the deck. Even if your hand has a lot trigger units in it and not a very good offense, these cards let you dip right into the deck and pull that offensive out of your hat, and when you do have that offense ready you get to conserve it for more important stages of the game, attacking without dedicating your hand. This keeps the field open for other units later on while controlling what targets retire-based clans like Kagerou or Narukami have access to. And when you superior call a Rat, you can counterblast again to superior call another with that Rat's skill, filling your entire back line with just one call and a counterblast 2. The tricky part of these skills is that they force the deck to be shuffled after they search for the copy unit, which interrupts the stack that you began building with Cursed Breath on the previous turn, but this is not necessarily a bad thing because now Evil Ferret's 10000 shield is no longer at the bottom of the deck and when you draw into him you will have 10000 more shield than most opponents prepare for. Like Blade Seed Squire, Murakumo decks have a very subtle defensive advantage that have small but still significant differences in play from their contemporaries.

Stealth Dragon, Turbulent Edge is the grade 1 equivalent to Cursed Breath, but as a base 6000 unit is hard to recommend because his attack will hit so rarely and because Murakumo does not yet have a Valkyrie Laurel copy to form 18000 power lines with. Instead you should consider Stealth Beast Leaf Raccoon to fill out your grade 1 slots along with the base 8000 Shijimamaru. Raccoon is a base 6000 unit like Turbulent Edge, but when he boosts a Murakumo vanguard and you have more cards in hand than the opponent, the vanguard gets +4000 extra power for a 10000-power boost overall. With Million Rat and Cursed Breath playing into keeping your hand size high, Raccoon is like an advanced Milk that make an 18-21000 power line very quickly and easily. His skill sees a lot of support from cards which add to or conserve the hand, and cards which decrease the opponent's; while Murakumo does not have a whole lot for the latter, it does have Stealth Beast White Mane, a base 9000 grade 2 that can unflip 1 damage when his attack hits the vanguard. In other words, a Murakumo print of Electromagnetic Lifeform, creating a rift in card advantage by drawing the opponent's defense out to keep you from unflipping. On increasing the hand, Caped Stealth Rogue Shanaou also plays for the hit-and-run side of things like Midnight Crow, by returning to the hand when his attack hits. Shanaou's base 8000 is difficult to recommend however, because the deck already has so many of those running around at grade 2 and there are more coming out of future sets.

The clan's boss card on-release is the very Mandala Lord that Turbulent Edge and Cursed Breath have been searching for. Mandala comes with an 11000 base and brings into play the first of many lock skills. When the opponent attacks Mandala Lord, you can counterblast 1 and persona blast a copy of him to decrease the power of the attacking unit by -10000 power. The key behind the persona blast is that it effectively lets you run one more 10000-shield unit for each non-vanguard copy of Mandala Lord in your deck than normal, without having to actually give up the grade security that is this strategy entails for other decks (in fact, Cursed Breath increases the security by giving you extra chances to add Mandala Lord to your hand.) This plays back into the extra shield that Evil Ferret puts into your deck; Evil Ferret and your three Mandala Lords together total 40000 extra shield that you can access, giving defensive play tremendous weight and letting you guard for two triggers or pull off no-pass plays very late in a match. These Mandala Lord copies that would otherwise become dead weight and be relegated to paying perfect defense costs can leave any attacking column with less than 21000 power one intercept away from needing two triggers to pass.

Supplementary to the Covert Demonic Dragon is the Stealth Field, Kurama Lord. Kurama Lord is a base 10000 grade 3, and the clan megablaster; each turn he soulcharges 1 and unflips one damage for the reuse of counterblast, and when his attack hits in either the vanguard or rearguard circles he can counterblast 5 and soulblast 8 to stand all of your units, including himself. This is a direct repurposing of Mr. Invincible for Murakumo, and Murakumo runs into a lot of the same difficulties. The clan is lacking in soul support, Evil Ferret has no way to return to the soul, and there are no soulcharging units other than Kurama Lord himself, which makes the megablast slow and cumbersome to both build off and activate. So while you'll likely never see the +2 from his megablast's extra twin drive, you can make full use of his unflipping abilities, getting more use out of Million Rat or Midnight Crow, and dedicating the minimum amount of hand to the field necessary until you can stall into Mandala Lord.

The Murakumo clan prides itself on guerrilla tactics and interrupting the opponent's strategy, two elements that Extra Booster 1 and Booster Set 9 will expand on greatly. However, at their international release they are missing elements definitive of the clan's original vision; March will see us revisiting this clan to discuss that vision and how they were designed to fit within the greater framework of Nubatama.

Study Guide: Neo Nectar

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

Neo Nectar has gained a reputation as the go-to budget clan of Cardfight's pro scene, being extremely competitive but with their rarities stopping at RR. Based out of the nation of Zoo, the clan's bioroids are responsible for most of Cray's food production, and is overseen by Zoo's nature deities. Their play style reflects this agrarian focus. Neo Nectar's primary characteristic is "seeding" units across the field by "planting" another in the deck or drop zone; you give up one card to turn it into two.

Effectively the secret clan of BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades, they were an unexpected addition that was kept quiet until very near to release. One of the unfortunate consequences of this is that Neo Nectar cannot modify its triggers out of the box, as the clan's basic four heal, four draw, four critical, four stand triggers are all just barely squeezed into the set. This can be somewhat restraining, but as with the BT04-era Shadow Paladins, when deckbuilding for Neo Nectar one should build to capitalize on this variety as a strength rather than a weakness.

The clan's first vanguard from BT05 is also one of their most successful, Shield Seed Squire. Like Wingal Brave this is a base 5000 FVG that outrides from the soul when ridden over with a unit of the same clan, but Shield Seed is based on his potential as an attacker rather than a booster. When Shield Seed's attack hits the vanguard, you can plant him on top of your deck to search your deck for the grade 1 Blade Seed Squire, and then call that unit at rest. While being at rest means that you won't be able to utilize your new Blade Seed right away, this is an important skill because it preserves the +1 that you got from Shield Seed's outride, and it gives it to you in the more preservable form of Blade Seed and his higher 7000 base, which is immune to Gattling Claw or Saishin tactics. Shield Seed's skill encourages early game attacks to get a damage lead, and it is also one way to capitalize on Watering Elf, the deck's stand trigger; if your superior call of Blade Seed is to the front row, then you can apply the stand that you checked to him to get three attacks out of the first turn, putting pressure on the opponent. While this does leave Blade Seed exposed for the opponent's attack, this also lets you use him a distraction since their focus will be momentarily shifted to eliminating a rearguard when you already have a damage lead, mitigating their chance to even that damage out. Furthermore, since Shield Seed is shuffled back into the deck in this way, you've effectively replaced the 5000 shield in the deck that a copy of Blade Seed provides with the 10000 of Shield Seed, so if you draw Shield Seed you'll then have 5000 more shield than the opponent can usually expect in a given game. The early game aggression, stable field and surprise defense that Shield Seed affords makes him one of the best first vanguards of all time.

Blade Seed Squire has his own skill. When his attack hits the vanguard, you can plant Blade Seed into the deck just as you did for Shield Seed, to superior call the grade 2 Knight of Verdure, Gene at rest. This isn't as amazing as Shield Seed's skill, especially since you're likely to have a grade 2 vanguard when you try to attack with Blade Seed, but if you did get that stand trigger from before you'll have a base 9000 grade 2 with intercept out on the field while still at grade 1. As with the Shield to Blade transition, Verdure comes with 2000 power more than the unit you changed him out for, and he provides a defensive boost. More importantly, Verdure has a take of his own on this type of gardening skill, planting himself when his attack hits the vanguard to superior call the grade 3 Knight of Harvest Gene at rest.

Offensive and defensively, Harvest is not the improvement that the previously calls were, with no shield and just 10000 power, but his on-hit is how you finally sow what you began at the start of the game with Shield Seed. When Harvest's attack hits, he can return to the deck to superior call two copies of Verdure at rest. This means that you've gained 5000 shield over just having the first Verdure on the field, a new attacker, and a +1 for a total +2, all starting with humble little Shield Seed. The problem with these skills is that it's cumbersome to make Blade Seed's go off once you hit grade 2 or later, and each unit takes up a fair amount of deckspace even running them at the minimum 1-2-1 (reading from grades 1 up to 3.) They also restrict what you can call since, while the skills do not explicitly demand open rearguard circles to call to, doing so is the only real way to maintain your increases in advantage. The minimum described previously also runs the risk of the damage check, as damage checking any of these units endangers the strategy, but running more than that means potentially missing out on copies of Neo Nectar's other important units. One effective way to handle this is to only run Shield Seed and Blade Seed Squires without either of the two Genes, guaranteeing a consistent +1 per game and 7000 power booster to better set up your field.

In terms of grade 1s other than Blade Seed, Caramel Popcorn and Lily Knight of the Valley both stand out. Popcorn is a base 7000 unit that can counterblast 1 in the main phase to gain +1000 power, a Neo Nectar Oasis Girl. Popcorn's skill is essential because it can form 18000 power rearguard lines easily for wailing on crossrides, and repeating her skill can make a 20-21000 power vanguard line, which can become a key point of aggression toward the end of a game. Even though Neo Nectar lacks the ability to unflip damage easily, the deck is very low on counterblast, with only four or so units in the basic deck having access to the mechanic. That leaves a lot of room for Popcorn.

Lily Knight meanwhile is a base 6000 unit that gives an additional +4000 power when he boosts an Iris Knight. Unlike other Wingals, Lily Knight's boost target is actually the clan's base 10000 grade 2, which makes for a very versatile setup. As with Blaster Dark and Doranbau, even a single copy of Lily Knight can see occasional use as a temporary remedy against grade 2 gradelock, and in the rearguard additional copies will make for an easy base 20000 setup to wreck havoc on Alfred and company, while also being valuable for facing down crossrides like The End and Blaster Overlord. While base 6000 grade 1s are normally difficult to recommend in crossride dominant formats, for Neo Nectar they are a little more practical because of the supporting grade 3, Frontline Valkyrie Laurel; Laurel is the original Gigantech Charger, a base 10000 grade 3 that gains +2000 power when she attacks a vanguard. This means that with even a base 6000 power booster, you'll have an 18000 power line, as well as a unit that can form 20000 power lines with Corolla Dragon. Base 20000 is very easy for Neo Nectar to come by, and is arguably one of the defining characteristics of their basic deck.

Of their grade 2s, Hey Yo Pineapple and Glass Beads Dragon stand out the most. Hey Yo is a base 8000 unit that gains +3000 power when he attacks if you have four or more Neo Nectar vanguards and rearguards, counting himself. This goes hand in hand with the clan's theme of spreading rearguards out frequently and early, the skill only actually requires two other rearguards to be called, and without actually being a base 11000 unit Hey Yo still forms anticrossride lines easily. Blade Seed is his natural, nearly-free partner, tying back to the Shield Seed strategy. Glass Beads is the basic Maiden of Libra that we've been seeing since BT01, able to counterblast 2 when his attack hits to draw one card for a +1 overall. Glass' impact is dampened somewhat by coming out in the very set in which crossrides are introduced, but there are ways to cope with this; making the most of the enforced stand triggers, Watering Elf can move to the soul to give +3000 power to one Neo Nectar rearguard, in our case Glass to make a base 12000 unit that will easily break 18000 and pay you back the card that you just gave up to empower him. More pointedly, Glass is excellent for pressuring the opponent's rearguards, as there are none that currently breach 11000 base power, so you can build a -1 to the opponent and +1 to yourself with Glass while using the other lines to hit crossride units.

All the units that we've discussed thus far bring us to the clan's primary grade 3, Maiden of Trailing Rose. Rose is a base 11000 unit in any circle, which is key to the BT05-on format. And when her attack hits a vanguard, Rose can counterblast 1 and persona blast a copy of herself to look at up to five cards from the top of the deck and call up to two Neo Nectar among them. That's (-1 +2) for a +1 overall, but this assumes that your rearguard circles are empty. While her full potential will not be realized until BT08, the skill as it is now is good mainly for its sheer utility at any point in the game. If you haven't been able to set up a strong field and the opponent has a damage lead as a result, you can persona blast to fill those empty circles and counterattack without committing anything to the field from your hand, possibly taking the lead in the process. Because the skill doesn't require empty rearguard circles however, it still holds a use beyond the early game if you're willing to take the -1. The most straightforward way to use that is to call an entire new column, but you can also do with just replacing the front row. Stand triggers are favored here, since you could attack with all of your rearguard lines first to make the opponent use up their hand defending their rearguards, then persona blast with Trailing Rose on the third attack to call two new units to the front row. Any stand triggers that you check go to the boosting units then, because the power that was applied to them can then be boosted onto the units superior called through the persona blast. This makes it even more unfortunate that triggers cannot be customized for Neo Nectar on-release, as six to eight stand triggers would actually favor their play style. Of course, you can try to attack with the rearguards unboosted and then bring out the persona blast to make use of the still-standing boosting units, but these initial attacks will be greatly weakened.

One of Trailing Rose's more interesting characteristics is that depending on the opponent, she can draw a heavy defense from the onset of the game rather than behaving as described above. Only needing a single counterblast to work with helps her case immensely, as the opponent is constantly threatened by the possibility of Valkyrie Laurel, Hey Yo Pineapple or Iris Knight coming out from the deck. Defending every turn like this wears the opponent out more quickly, which makes Trailing Rose's persona blast all the more threatening. The result is that the opponent's plays are paralyzed; they can choose not to defend and give you additional attacks to work with, or they can defend and quickly lose their stamina to Neo Nectar's heavy field presence.

Next time that we revisit this clan, I will discuss the additions from BT08: Blue Storm Armada, the upgrades to Trailing Rose and the new Arboros strategy that the set will introduce.

Seven pros use this clan.

Kagerou Extra Study Material: Dragonic Overlord The End

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

There is in the two-year history of Cardfight's professional scene, no skill more desirable than that of the self-standing vanguard. The pros love these units; Soul Saver Dragon's holy charging roar may be high game, but it lacks of the sheer versatility of extra drive checks. It speaks volumes that the 2012 world championships were a battle of who could stand their vanguard the most consistently and at the right moments. Another draw trigger, another heal, or a lingering critical triggering persisting between attacks means that there's ultimately more to be done with a self-standing vanguard than any other kind of unit. For Kagerou, this self-standing role is filled by Dragonic Overlord The End, a deck which has been embedded in Japan's professional game since January 2012 as a restraining bolt and counter deck to Majesty Lord Blaster.

The End is the most direct expansion on Kagerou's core mechanics, relying on a large base of older cards to form a cohesive strategy. There is no new first vanguard for the deck as there is for the Royal Paladin Blaster deck, but Doom Bringer Gryphon does draw some attention for being a nontrigger grade 0 that is also not a viable FVG. His skill is to counterblast 1 to retire two Kagerou rearguards, then search the deck for a copy of Dragonic Overlord The End and add it to your hand. The problem with this is that Gryphon does not outride from the soul when ridden over, and Doom Bringer also takes up an extra slot in the deck that could be better devoted to a grade 1 or 2 unit. While the best way to use the skill is to retire Gryphon and one other rearguard to get The End into the hand, and Gryphon can be used as a search target for Conroe to guarantee consistency, the skill comes at a -1 overall and trying to use it with Conroe means a CB2 -1 to get a card in hand that is likely going to incur a -1 of its own through riding an extra grade 3. This is clunky and hurts grade 2 security, but is the price paid for a direct search-to-hand skill.

The End himself is arguably one of the best grade 3s ever printed. A first generation crossride, when Dragonic Overlord is in the soul The End gains +2000 power continuously, forming a 13000 base vanguard that makes for an easy 21000 line with Bahr, and more important can shrug off any attack below 18000 with a single 5000 shield. This means that the threat of cards like Silent Tom and Palamedes are effectively negated, with each unit capped at 16000 and 22000 respectively, so that Tom can be stopped with one intercept and Palamedes with a single 10000 shield instead of 15000.

His vanguard-exclusive autoskill is that when The End's attack hits, he can counterblast 2 and discard a copy of himself--persona blast--to stand. Not only is this skill cheaper than the original Overlord's counterblast 3, it doesn't come with the threat of missing out on the initial twin drive, and gives a +1 overall every time that the attack lands, allowing for up to four triggers to be checked. Unlike Stern Blaukluger and Spectral Duke Dragon, the attack does not have to be directed at the vanguard, so if The End's initial attack is directed at a rearguard it gives a -1 to the opponent as well, for a two card lead. The skill is not a finishing move as it is often mistaken for, but instead a cheap early game skill like that of Eclipse, which can be repeated to wreak havoc in the early to midgame by making use of critical triggers, the effects of which persist between persona blasts. This can lead to a vast disparity in damage--as high as 2 to 5 on the turn of the persona blast--which turns the tide strongly in The End's favor. Just as the Flame of Hope Aermo once performed search functions for Goku by discarding checked grade 3s, in this deck he can do the opposite by discard non-grade 3 drive checks to search for extra copies of The End. The timing of The End's persona blast allows for Aermo's skill to be activated first, so if a second copy of The End is drawn at the last moment then it can still be persona blasted.

The card is not perfect, and there are serious weaknesses to the crossride. Unlike Phantom Blaster Overlord, The End does not have a Nightmare Painter to selectively soulcharge Dragonic Overlord with, so it can be slow to set up and it's possible to actually miss the initial crossride, but here at least The End does have an 11000 base to fall back on. The persona blast itself relies on drawing ot checking a specific card--of which there are effectively only three in the deck due to the first being dedicated to the vanguard circle--which will not always take place, and unlike with Stern Blaukluger this skill does not stand the vanguard's booster. This means that if no triggers are checked and The End is stood, even a base 10000 unit can simply drop one trigger on The End to block the next attack for two triggers. Since it is an on-hit skill, a perfect defense card can still stop The End dead in his tracks where Duke Dragon would not be deterred by it. And up until the release of EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1 counterblast is a very strained resource of Kagerou, so The End will have to carefully divide that resource with Berserk Dragon, Conroe and the original Overlord. Unlike Majesty Lord Blaster, The End's skill comes with no guarantees; control of whether or not the attack hits is placed in the opponent's hands, the 13000 base can be permanently missed, no triggers are guaranteed by the tetradrive, and with no boosting unit to assist in the second attack it becomes easy to defend without those triggers. Attempting to save the booster for the second attack will see the opponent drop 10000 shield on the first one and shrug off The End entirely, denying initial damage in the first place. So while the card definitely has more potential, perfect games are much more difficult to play than in Lord Blaster.

Just as the Blaster series comes with Apocalypse Bat, The End comes with his own custom booster, the Flame of Promise Aermo. Aermo's reborn form is more situational than before; he's a base 4000 grade 1 that when he boosts a unit with "Overlord" in its name, can soulblast 1 for +6000 additional power, bringing a total 10000 power boost for a 23000-power vanguard line. This does have cross support into the original Overlord, forming a 21-26000 power line on the turn before and making easy 21000-power rearguards, but because Conroe never returns to the soul the boost is more limited than comparable ones for the Blaster deck. This incarnation of Aermo is limited to two soulblasts barring any additional soulcharging from Flame Edge Dragon, which means that it needs to be rationed carefully. As another Conroe search target, Aermo is definitely a card that can be run as a single copy, and against base 11000 and under vanguards he can go just above the 16000 baseline with The End's autoskill without actually relying on the soulblast initially.

To compensate for the lack of speed and to keep its rearguard lines relevant in the crossride format, The End brings Burning Horn Dragon with him. This is a Kagerou take on Bedivere, gaining +3000 power when he attacks and there is an "Overlord" vanguard, allowing for a base 20000 line with Bahr to pressure units like CoCo or Alfred, or otherwise allowing for base 6000 units to be run in the deck while still forming consistent base 18000 lines. Note that Burning Horn can be a serious liability as well as an asset; he's more difficult to defend than Nehalem and opposing The End decks may well see fit to direct their 19-21000 vanguard line at Burning Horn, forcing you to drop 20000 shield to account for even one trigger, or otherwise risk losing Horn and coping with extra drive checks going at your vanguard after that.

Unlike in the Japanese scene, the English environment has been receiving The End antidecks in its sets since May of 2012, with Garmore, Kaiser Vermillion, Dragonic Lawkeeper, CoCo, Luquier and Dark Lord of Abyss all emerging with skills that strongly orient them against crossride decks. Additionally, knowledge of how to defeat a crossride has become widespread in the English scene, giving both amateurs and established cardfighters an advantage in foresight that Japan never had. Because of these factors, The End may never be as viable for the English professional scene as he was for Japan. The deck is still worth examining for those who are truly dedicated to it, but its value as a go-to competitive deck is not concretely established on our side of the water.

Sixty-one pros use this deck.

Royal Paladin Extra Study Material: Majesty Lord Blaster

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

Clans are not static. They are born, then grow and undergo constant change and revision. The units of those clans are likewise always evolving in their scope and concept. These units are characters, and their role, their loyalties and personal stories are deeply intertwined into the mechanics of Cardfight. Sometimes units will grow up and become different cards, or join another clan and suddenly bring their past support with them. Each card added to the game causes previous cards to start interacting differently. This is the premise of the Royal Paladin Blaster deck introduced by BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades, which unifies not just past units from TD01-BT04, but also two different clans into one composite strategy. The subgroup has also revised the Royal Paladin clan as a whole to the point where a static critical is considered part of their core gameplay, beyond just calling rearguards and drawing power from them.

The first thing that we should tackle is the existing support that the Blaster subgroup is reliant upon. Deck space for the Blasters is enormously constrained by a backlog of old cards that are endemic to the Royal Paladins, so from the previous modules you should pick up on Explosive Flames Palamedes, Toypugal, Margal, Gancelot and the King of Knights being retained in the Royal Paladin Blaster deck. Alfred in particular is a useful single copy because he forms a good alternative vanguard in the crossride format, and because his V/R counterblast 3 allows for many pieces of the Blaster strategy to be searched for. Blaster Blade is also retained and maxed out at four copies, as he forms the cornerstone of almost every play that the Blaster deck will make and is part of multiple activation conditions. Barcgal would be retained in the build were he not restricted, for reasons discussed below.

The first vanguard for the deck is Wingal Brave, the Royal Paladins' first true base 5000 FVG and the reason that Blaster Blade is such a critical card for the subgroup. When he boosts a Blaster unit and the attack hits, Brave can move to the soul to add one unit with Blaster in its card name to your hand from the deck. This makes grade 2 a very important point in a match for the Blaster deck, as a vanguard Blaster Blade with Wingal Brave boosting him will be difficult for opponents to rationalize guarding if their vanguard is not a base 10000 grade 2. And Margal makes even that difficult for the opponent to justify, since she throws their line up to 17000, so in most scenarios the opponent will be left to choose between dropping 15000 shield at grade 2, letting one early trigger ruin their defense and bring your strategy together, or simply not guarding and letting you get that Blaster unit in hand. This is why Gancelot is retained by the new subgroup, as he can search out Blaster Blade on the preceding turn, which makes this grade 2 scenario easy to set up as you can effectively run five copies of Blade.

With regard for what we want to search, Wingal Brave's main feature is not specifying any particular grade requirement in his search criteria, which makes one of the subgroup's Blaster grade 3s the natural target. These units are Blaster Blade Burst, Exculpate the Blaster and the titular Majesty Lord Blaster, which we'll examine in reverse order. Majesty is the deck's winning image, around which the strategy is based. Like most Royal Paladin grade 3s Majesty is a base 10000 unit, but his autoskill allows him to soulcharge a Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark on-attack for +10000 power until the end of the battle; more importantly, he also receives +2000 power and +1 critical continuously for having both of these units in the soul. This makes him easily the greatest shield that the Royal Paladins have, just under the defense of a crossride but above base 11000 units, demanding 12-17000 power lines from the opponent. Since these skills will activate simultaneously at first, Majesty will go for 22000 power and critical 2 unboosted, but with Marron or Toypugal can clear 30-31000, thereafter breaking 20-21 critical 2 each turn. The inclusion of Blaster Dark is surprising to many, but Majesty Lord Blaster is a character based around uniting a warring people and bringing conflicting ideas together for synergy. As his deck is already intended to be a mixed deck, it's natural for it to look at other Shadow Paladin additions that can be made to improve the strategy.

Apocalypse Bat is probably the first other unit that fighters take note of. Like Lionmane Stallion, Apocalypse is a base 4000 power unit that when it boosts a unit with a specific word in its name, can soulblast 1 to give +6000 additional power for a +10000 boost overall. While Lionmane focused on "Alfred" units for a stronger rearguard, Apocalypse is more vanguard oriented, soulblasting when it boosts "Blaster" units. Because it is a Shadow Paladin and has low base power, it's recommended to be run at 1-2 copies maximum, with at least 10 other boosting units in the deck of power 7000 or higher. The recommended way to run Apocalypse with Majesty is to actually not soulblast initially, as with Majesty's continuous and autoskills the first attack will go for 26000 power critical 2, and from that point on will form a 16000 power critical 2 line every turn. It's best to save the soulblast for turns when Majesty's autoskill will not be used, because we want to avoid removing Blade and Dark from the soul, so Lord Blaster with Apocalypse only gets three soulblasts per game, and thus three turns of 22000 power critical 2. The main reason to use Apocalypse instead of Toypugal is that this will pressure other Majesty decks, while Toypugal's 21000 critical 2 line could actually be stopped by a single trigger defense.

In general, the Blaster deck intends to have a unit with "Blaster" in its name as the vanguard from grade 2 onward, be that Blade or Majesty. This is something to be taken advantage of. The Blaster series has a plethora of rearguard support, primarily the grades 1 and 2 Knight of Friendship Kay and Knight of Loyalty Bedivere. Kay is a base 7000 unit that gets +3000 power when he attacks and there is a Blaster vanguard, allowing him to effectively do the job of Gallatin for greater flexibility and to score early damage. Meanwhile, Bedivere is a base 9000 grade 2 that gets +3000 power when he attacks under the same conditions for 12000 total, allowing him to go for 20-21000 with Marron or Toypugal, and to form the easy base 18000 lines that are so critical to the crossride format. Bedivere also has a Shadow Paladin equivalent, Knight of Nullity Masquerade, but there is not a whole lot of room for Bedivere by himself in the first place, so this is an unlikely inclusion.

The reason that the room is so constrained is that Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark are both necessary for Majesty's skills, which means running both at four. And even at four, Dark doesn't have a Gancelot to search him like Blade does; with Wingal Brave's skill dedicated to Majesty, that makes bringing Dark out problematic. The answer to this is Star Call Trumpeter, a base 8000 grade 2 that can counterblast 2 on-call to superior call one grade 2 or lower Blaster unit. While Brave's key feature is ignoring grade, Star Call's is ignoring clan. This allows her to be freely called to the back line to bring out Dark and his slightly higher power to the front, or even to call Dark over Trumpeter and simply retire her with no loss in advantage. Together with the two Blasters, grade 2 space is already tight, although by running less grade 3s it's possible to make room for Bedivere.

Blaster Javelin is another Shadow Paladin unit that can be considered for the deck, but only as a single copy. This is more of a rearguard modification, as it lets Wingal Brave be moved to boost the left or right lanes, and for a turn 1 activation of Brave's skill to get Majesty Lord Blaster into hand immediately. Javelin can then be safely retreated afterward to boost Palamedes, Masquerade or Bedivere, each of which he will form an 18000+ line with for fighting The End and contemporaries.

The basic Majesty build has almost no need for any draw triggers whatsoever, beyond using Margal for tactical moves, and can be run without them because it is exploding with search skills. Critical triggers are overwhelmingly favored by the deck, so much so that you can even run a single Grim Reaper from the Shadow Paladins if three types are not enough to satisfy you.

One variant on Majesty that continually pops up is using Fullbau with Javelin to search for Blaster Dark. The problem with this is that it's attempting to make use of units that the Shadow Paladins wouldn't run if they had a real choice in the matter. Much as the Royal dilemma of being forced to run Drangal with Galahad or resort to Stardust Trumpeter following Bacgal's restriction between BT03 and BT05, Fullbau-Javelin is an enforced restraint on deck space that prevents more useful grade 1s from being utilized. Even in Japan's restricted format where only one copy of Majesty can be in the same deck as Brave, Fullbau-Javelin is not necessary because of Brave's search power and because of the remaining grade 3s that we are about to describe.

As a followup to Majesty, we have Exculpate the Blaster, a promo card that will see English release with boxes of EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1. While Majesty represents Blaster Blade's power after taking up Blaster Dark's sword and bringing together light and darkness to fight the Phantom Blaster Overlord, Exculpate is a temporary transformation that shows his inner light above all else. Exculpate is unique as a base 12000 grade 3, but self-retires when called and at the end of a turn in which you ride him, moves to the soul by riding Blaster Blade from the soul or drop zone. He also requires your vanguard to be a Royal Paladin grade 3 to ride him, and he cannot attack if Blade is not in the soul. Ironically for a transformation that lore-wise took place before Blade became Majesty, what this translates to in gameplay is a one-turn finishing move after riding Lord Blaster. Analyzing the costs that we've paid up to this point, moving Dark and Blade to the soul is a -2 overall, while riding Exculpate over another grade 3 is a -1, and since we'll be left with a weak base 9000 Blaster Blade vanguard after this turn, it's critical that those losses be compensated for. Exculpate's counterblast 3 is his answer to this; an activate skill that causes him to battle all of the opponent's units at once, as an advanced take on Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion's limit break. Assuming the full field that the opponent will generally have at that point, they will be at a minimum suffering a -5 in addition to taking damage. Defending the rearguards would also be pointless--as long as you have two counterblast open, when superior riding Blade from the soul or drop zone in the end phase you can retire any rearguard on the field with Blade's autoskill.

Beyond his activate skill, Exculpate's autoskill is his other key benefit. When he attacks, Exculpate sends all cards in his soul not named "Blaster Blade" to the drop zone to gain +2000 power for each unit. This autoskill does not discriminate between clan. Considering what we did on the turn before with Majesty, Exculpate will be getting +8000/+10000 power to going for at least 20-22000 depending on whether or not your grade 2 ride was Blaster Blade, more if you used Margal. Then you can also use Apocalypse Bat's soulblast on the Blaster Blade that's left in your soul--boost takes place after attack declaration, so Exculpate's current attack must resolve before his inability to attack without a Blade in the soul will kick in--for 30-32000 overall, to the entire field. As with Kaiser Vermillion, each unit must be guarded individually, so you will have at least a one or two card lead at the end of the turn, and the opponent will likely be unable to sustain any kind of counterattack even assuming that they do survive.

Exculpate is believed to be the chief reason that the Barcgal restriction remains universal across formats. The five soul that Barcgal once lent to Soul Saver Dragon would go to Exculpate the Blaster, but with the added bonus of guaranteeing a Blaster Blade in the soul as made necessary by Exculpate's activate conditions. Instead of turning that soul into +5000 power to three rearguards, Exculpate would use it to default to 22000 power prior to boost to the entire field, in every game. This kind of power is already possible as discussed above, but it isn't the same concrete guarantee that Barcgal would give, albeit Exculpate himself would be difficult to search without access to Wingal Brave. Exactly how this works out will likely be seen in the unrestricted Total War tournament set for March 2013, a Japanese tournament that will probably decide Barcgal's ultimate fate in relation to Exculpate.

The main problem with Exculpate is that he can only go off once and exactly once in a fight. This is the only other search target that a standard Blaster deck will dedicate Wingal Brave to, so Majesty Lord Blaster can safely be run at four while Exculpate must be as just one copy.

The last of these "Blaster" vanguards is Blaster Blade Burst, a promo card that has yet to be released in the English format but is nonetheless worth examining for the future. Burst is a base 10000 grade 3 that cannot be boosted, and when he attacks a vanguard he gains +3000 power, both skills which we are familiar with from Alfred and Soul Saver Dragon. This creates a certain expectation for what the remainder of his skills will be, but unfortunately that final skill does not wholly succeed their legacy. When Burst attacks, he can perform an especial counterblast 2--a counterblast where all of the damage being flipped are Royal Paladins--to increase Blade's power by the original power of all of his front row Royal Paladin's for that battle. This is counterblast intensive to a deck that will be using Star Call, Blaster Blade and Exculpate within it, and it also contradicts the synergy that Majesty Lord Blaster promotes between Royal and Shadow Paladin cards, as there must be two Royal Paladins in the damage zone for the skill to work and two in the front row for it to be effective. However, it does have some merits. In general, this will be a total boost of 16-20000 power, for 29-33000 total with his on-attack skill, an increase which is well worth the price but unfortunately lacking in extra critical, and difficult to repeat for a clan devoid of damage unflipping at release.

Like Drangal and Brugal before him, to understand Burst you have to understand the context within which he was printed. Blaster Blade Burst was created as a response to the January 1st 2013 restricted list, which restricted Wingal Brave, Majesty Lord Blaster and the King of Knights Alfred to being run in no combinations exceeding two within the Japanese format. Burst was created to address the loss of each of these units, providing a unit that could be run in two to three copies along with one Wingal Brave and one Majesty to provide an alternative if weaker vanguard line, and to give Alfred decks an alternative vanguard as well that shared the synergy with Wingal Brave. The unit is a crutch to support the weakened Royal Paladins of a different format, not the dominating theme of an entire deck as Majesty Lord Blaster is. In spite of his weaknesses, because his skills are vanguard exclusive, Burst can at least have some synergy with Apocalypse Bat in the rearguard by forming a base 20000 line.

The Blaster subgroup is characterized by its synergy between multiple clans, strong plays at every stage of a match and consistency. It is extremely rare to not bring both Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark into the soul in a game; this means that the deck can guarantee a continuous critical and 12000 base in every match. That critical means that even though the vanguard has somewhat lower base power than contemporary units, it will draw much more attention and shield from the opponent than normal, and that it suddenly only takes three hits to win the round instead of six. This kind of consistent accelerated play is Majesty Lord Blaster's greatest asset, as while The End has the greater potential damage, Lord Blaster's will come out more consistently and is not as reliant on trigger checks.

Fifty-two pros use this deck.

News: English Tournament Season for 2013, Set Release Schedule

Photo by rawritzrichii, seek consent before reposting.

Recently-released posters have set out a much-awaited schedule for 2013's tournament season, as well as a schedule for booster set releases. In addition to these, dates for sneak preview events have gone up, providing exclusive chances at getting playmats, promo cards and early access to new cards.

Tournament Schedule
March-June 2013: Cardfight!! Vanguard Stand Up Challenge Cup
A singles tournament whose victor will "Rise as the number one Cardfight!! Vanguard player." This is currently speculated to be WCS2013; the four month time frame presented matches up with that of the 2012 world championships. If this were the case, then it's possible that the schedule will parallel 2012's closely, with the Indonesian, Australian, Philippine and German national tournaments taking place in March while the tournaments for France, Great Britain, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan take place in April and the North American championship runs concurrent to the others, extending into May. If this were the case, the world finals would be in early June. However, there may be more participating countries than in the previous year.

Within the time frame of the tournament, BT05 will be usable from the beginning, while EB01 will become available in late March, TD07 will become available in the tournament's second month, and BT08 will be made available during its third. BT09-onward will most likely not be usable before the end of the tournament, based on its late release date. This means that the major players during the Stand Up Challenge will likely be Dragonic Overlord The End, Majesty Lord Blaster, Scarlet Witch CoCo and Goddess of the Full Moon Tsukuyomi. Notably, Aqua Force is projected to have a very slim window to appear within; its first opportunity to take a tournament title will probably be at a stage when only trial decks are available.

April-July 2013: Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League
A worldwide triples tournament that will pit the strongest teams from different regions against one another to select for the globally strongest team. This tournament being confirmed as a global one strongly implies that the Stand Up Challenge is an international event. Due to the timing of the tournament, it appears that it will not interfere with the Stand Up Challenge Cup, possibly allowing for dual participation in both tournaments.

Note that Fighter's Road 2013 will be starting up in May and ending in July, concluding in the same timeframe as the Team League. This is similar to how the 2012 international cup and Fighter's Climax 2012 were structured, with WCS2012 starting up a month earlier but ending in the same month as FC2012.

BT05, EB01 and TD07 will all probably be available at the start of the Team League, with TD07 having the most room to be excluded. Within the first three months of the tournament, every set listed below with the probable exception of BT09 and definite exception of EB06 will be made available.

Booster Set Schedule
BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades
February 15/16/17 2013 - Sneak Preview
February 22nd, 2013 - Set Release
Will provide the opportunity for fighters to receive a The End playmat and Darkside Pegasus promo card. Reinforces Royal Paladin, Shadow Paladin, Kagerou, Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, Nova Grappler, Oracle Think Tank and introduces Murakumo and Neo Nectar.

EB01: Comic Style Volume 1
March 22/23/24 2013 - Sneak Preview
March 29th, 2013 - Set Release
Reinforces Royal Paladin, Murakumo, Pale Moon, Nova Grappler, Kagerou and Megacolony, and introduces the Exculpate the Blaster promo card for Royal Paladin.

TD07: Descendants of the Marine Emperor
April 19th, 2013 - Deck Release
Introduces Aqua Force to the English pro scene.

BT08: Blue Storm Armada
April 26/27/28 2013 - Sneak Preview
May 3rd, 2013 - Set Release
Reinforces Aqua Force, Neo Nectar, Narukami, Great Nature, Dimension Police and Tachikaze.

BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons
June 21/22/23 2013 - Sneak Preview
June 28th - Set Release
An all-star set which reinforces Gold Paladin, Narukami, Aqua Force, Angel Feather, Oracle Think Tank, Nova Grappler, Murakumo, Great Nature, Pale Moon, Royal Paladin and Shadow Paladin.

EB06: Dazzling Divas
July 19/20/21 2013 - Sneak Preview
July 26th, 2013 - Set Release
An extra booster dedicated wholly to Bermuda Triangle, much in the style of EB02: Banquet of Divas. The set will feature Eternal Idol, Pacifica as a major card, succeeding Top Idol, Pacifica of EB02.

News: Change in Set Release Dates, Site Modifications

Recently it has become apparent through the official English website that upcoming sets of Cardfight!! Vanguard have had their international release dates modified. There isn't a clear reason given for this at this time, but EB02 and BT04, which were previously listed for a November 10th and December 15th respectively, have been rescheduled for a November 9th and December 14th release. While these two booster sets were both pushed forward by a day, TD03: Golden Mechanical Soldier and TD03: Maiden Princess of the Cherry Blossoms are now intended for release two days later than they were originally announced for, now dated to January 25th, 2013.

VGE-BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades has also recieved the forward-one-day treatment, now geared for release on February 22, 2013.

In other news, Game Set is officially becoming Cardfight Pro; the change in brand is done to reflect the new direction of the website, as over the past year our focus has steadily shifted toward providing real-world coverage. Many articles have been delayed by midterm examinations and the chief editor's academic projects, and these delayed articles will be going up alongside newer material over the next two months. The current plan follows a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday update schedule with updates ideally arriving between 4PM and 7PM EST, with allowances made for breaking news. Despite our current real-world focus, older articles on the anime and manga are being modified constantly to be up-to-date with the progress of the Asia Circuit and new manga releases. The original brand was a reference to the climax of Climber x Climber, a song performed by Breakerz used in the early promotion of Cardfight, and used as the ending theme to the live-action drama.

For upcoming articles, take note that on December 14th, there will be a special article on the Shadow Paladin clan published to coincide with the international English release of BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows. Similarly, November 9th will see the release of our Bermuda Triangle study guide to coincide with the international release of EB02: Banquet of Divas.