Flower Power: Neo Nectar's Break Ride years

Where we last left Neo Nectar, they were in a similar spot to Great Nature; invested with high-complexity high-reward decks like Musketeers and Arboros, yet neglected by the player base. One of their major deck types was too unstable in its grade 1-2 makeup but made for a solid finisher in any other deck, and as with much of the second block of support fighters on the whole were unimpressed with what they could get from BT08 compared to what they already had from BT05. The clan had a poor reputation, and in one particularly memorable incident recounted on Yahoo Answers Japan dated August 2013, a new fighter interested in the clan recounted a senior player at his shop telling him to specifically avoid Neo Nectar after he expressed interest in Maiden of Trailing Rose:

"Neo Nectar is weak. Maybe one of the top 10 wimps out of all the clans. Beginners should shut up and play Shadow Paladin. There's no stability, MTR is a dead meme, Musketeers are s**t, it's just easy to build because it's cheap. No matter how you look at it, it's an obsolete deck and it's been obsolete for a while. The format chewed it up and spit it out. It's hopeless to try and bring it back, so just go with it and play Shadows. Anybody that plays it or seriously wants to play it is s**t."

(The top responses told him not to listen.)

After a seven month interim, Bushiroad would seek to bring Neo Nectar into the fold of the third block with support aimed at addressing its stability issues and making its win condition easier to achieve. Expectations were riding high; Sephirot had wowed the world with one of the few Limit Breaks of the Asia Circuit block to be entirely worth the high damage requirement, and we were eager to see Neo Nectar follow up on one of the game's most creative decks.

Unlike some of the other less-supported clans of the day like Dark Irregulars or Shadow Paladin, Neo Nectar didn't have a steady trickle of promo cards to assist it. An alternate artwork print of Laurel was packaged with one of the Asia Circuit novels, but this was long after she was out of relevance. What the clan did get was support in the Japan-only Fighter's Collection 2013, in the form of a Dandelion Musketeer Mirkka. Mirkka was effectively Toypugal for Neo Nectar--if you had shuffled your deck that turn, she became a 9k booster.

Mirkka was not Musketeer-specific and could go in any Neo Nectar deck, but the intended use of her was with Augusto, the subclan's 12k attacker. Cecilia effectively didn't need to run Arboros if she didn't want to, as Mirkka-Augusto could replace Arboros, though this came at the expense of the center column being able to hit any numbers over a functional 16~18k.

(In fairness, Arboros could only do better in Musketeers if you were running the non-searchable Corolla Dragon.)

Playing Neo Nectar in the early break ride format wasn't exactly rough, as sans break rides they were still largely on par with the newer cards. During Booster Set 10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights and BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed, Sephirot was approximately equivalent to Zerachiel, and MTR was aging gracefully considering she was sharing the format with Dauntless DOTE. The Tyrannolegends and Revonns of the world were downright unimpressive compared to slamming the opponent with three lanes all demanding 15k guard.

The problems arose at the format's exact shifting point, Trial Deck 10: Star-vader Invasion and BT12: Binding Force of the Black Rings. This was the booster set that introduced Link Joker, and with it the "lock" mechanic that gave rearguard-dependent decks so much trouble. With a break ride, Nebula Lord could completely shut down Sephirot's entire Limit Break. Consider the following setup;

This is a fairly standard Sephirot field post-BT08. Both the vanguard and rearguard Sephirot have +3k since there's at least two of them in play, as do the two Blade Seed Squires, and Hey Yo will give himself 3k on-attack because there are 4+ Neo Nectar units. The columns thus read 21-21-23k. Now let's say Nebula Lord Dragon Break Rides over Infinite Zero Dragon, and locks the Blade Seed behind Pineapple, the rearguard Sephirot, and uses his counterblast 2 to lock Corolla Dragon.

Your center column is now an 10k instead of 21, your right column can't attack, and Hey Yo Pineapple is stuck at 8 since you only have 3 Neo Nectars in play now and can't get more until those cards unlock. In essence, your entire deck has just been turned off, going from triple 21k columns to a 10k center and nothing else. None of your remaining units can hit without getting a trigger first, and Sephirot's Limit Break is functionally useless. He's just become Stardrive Dragon.

This illustrates the general issues with running Neo Nectar in this format. Nebula Lord was a fragile build dependent on its break ride to get going, but even something as rudimentary as his main phase CB2 could wreak havoc on Sephirot, and Link Joker was immediately popular on-release. Chaos Breaker Dragon's debut in BT13: Chaotic Outbreak made things even worse, as Chaos Breaker's once-per-turn lock wasn't limited to the back row and with Palladium he could easily shut down both front rearguard circles. Even once the Palladiums ran out, Chaos would just retire the units as they unlocked, ruining your Sephirot formation. Without a self-standing vanguard, guard restrict, or unlocker, Neo Nectar had no way to fight back other than try to rush the deck to death early. Potentially Musketeers could do some pity swings with Augusto and Hermann.

Think about it from the perspective of a Chaos cardfighter: if you saw your opponent stand up Ratoon or Shield Seed Squire, you were very comfortable with the free win you were about to get.

So for BT14: Brilliant Strike, Bushiroad sought to reinvision several key elements of the clan to bring them into the new era. Unlike past sets, the reveals for BT14 Neo Nectar came in the form of a slow burn from the anime series. The end-of-episode preview for 149 left us with a few brief frames of Nagashiro Maki using generic Neo Nectar cards for us to dissect and speculate on, filling up a whole week wondering what Master Wisteria would do and whether Trailing Rose or Sephirot would be the clan's first crossride. The end of 2013 was anxious time for Neo Nectar, whose domineering concern was not standing up to Nouvelle or Raging Form, but how to deal with the one matchup that loomed over every cardfighter's mind.

Two grade 3s became the focal point for the new Nectars. The first was the Deep Green Lord, Master Wisteria. Wisteria's role was as the clan's break ride, a form of generic support intended to provide a second vanguard option to every Neo Nectar deck past and present.

AUTO [Limit Break 4]:[Counterblast 1] When a «Neo Nectar» rides this unit, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two of your «Neo Nectar» rear-guards, search your deck for up to one card with the same name as each of those cards, call them to separate Rearguard Circles, shuffle your deck, and choose your vanguard, and that unit gets Power +10000 until end of turn.

Compared to most break rides, Wisteria's skill was a little wordy and confusing. It was designed so that you could clone up to two of your rearguards, but it was only one-for-one. So you could not, for example, target one Corolla Dragon on the field and call two Corolla Dragons from the deck. To call two Corolla you would need to have two Corolla out already.

The card was instantly recognized as Arboros support the world over, as it was effectively an improved version of the Arboros ride chain that let you copy two rearguards instead of one. Provided that you ran Iris Knight and Lily Knight of the Valley, Master Wisteria could set Sephirot up with 26k columns straight across the board. You could use the card with Trailing Rose, but it didn't work out all that well due to Trailing Rose's early game focus clashing with a limit break card. Unfortunately while Wisteria went far to build on the existing Arboros deck, he didn't exactly do anything that Neo Nectar didn't do already, and in particular he didn't do anything to fix the grueling Link Joker matchup. Perhaps his most important use was the second skill anyone rarely paid much mind to--gaining +2k when boosted, so that he was an 11k base that could become a 21k center, or match crossrides innately. This skill was common to almost all Break Rides, and it was one of the ways Bushiroad sought to push greater aggression within the Break Ride format.

The clan's new boss card was Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse,” one of the latter entries in a long line of grade 3s built around the “Яeverse” theme. These were units implanted with the power of Void, who had both their desires and their strengths amplified by it, turning them on their comrades. Their core mechanic was locking their own rearguards as a cost, and the most celebrated among these were actual inversions of their traditional play mechanics; “Яeverse” Daiyusha reduced the opponent's power rather than increased his, Ramiel “Яeverse” sent the opponent's rearguards into their damage zone rather than swapped her rearguards into her own, and Ethics Buster “Яeverse” stood himself rather than his allies.

BT14 was the first set to introduce “Яeverse” units that were not crossrides of existing cards, so rather than gain 2k for having a prior form in the soul, Maiden of Venus Trap had an Activated skill that gave her 2k for counterblast 1.

Using that counterblast correctly could actually define the flow of a match--just like Wisteria, with Corolla Dragon Venus was a consistent 21 center, and unlike the crossrides could become 23 at will to threaten their own base powers. That wasn't why we were running her though.

ACT [Vanguard Circle] [Limit Break 4]: [Counterblast 1, choose one of your «Neo Nectar» rearguards, and lock it] Look at up to 5 cards from the top of your deck, search for up to 1 «Neo Nectar» among them, call it to a Rearguard Circle, shuffle that deck, and that unit gets Power +5000 until end of turn.

Venus Trap was seen as an instant upgrade over Trailing Rose, for being able to fill the field at her leisure while thinning the deck of nontrigger units and create rearguard columns that exceeded 21k. And while many fighters were eager to jump on 4 Draw 8 Crit, 6 Draw 6 Crit, or 12 Crit builds, Venus Trap synergized incredibly well with Stand Triggers by making Hey Yo Pineapple and any grade 3s she called 16k bases. She was in fact a Neo Nectar clone of a Pale Moon grade 3, Silver Thorn Dragon Queen Luquier “Яeverse,” calling from the top 5 rather than from the soul.

This was promising, seeing as Luquier had won the Japanese national championships not all that long ago, but the Pale Moon deck of the day had the absolutely incredible Miracle Pop Eva to create a cohesive endgame strategy with while Neo Nectar had...well, consider the following.

The optimal way to use her lock was with a break ride, locking the vanguard booster and one rearguard booster, to make one rearguard lane 21~23k to save as that turn's finisher, and the other one 16~18k as a Stand Trigger target. The problem with this was that Master Wisteria's break ride skill was redundant in the deck, since he could only clone existing units and thereby required you to already have 2 rearguard circles occupied. But after using his skill you would have 4 circles occupied, and Venus wanted to call 2 units to have the power set up. If you only had 1 rearguard in play it would work out, but you weren't getting your full money's worth for Wisteria's CB1.

Once again, being limited to 5 rearguard circles hurt Neo Nectar, and so while Luquier “Яeverse” had Eva's sequential attacks to bring the game in, Neo Nectar didn't have a clear endgame plan beyond "vanilla break ride and make a 21k rearguard." In a format where the clan was contending with self-standing vanguards like Dragonic Descendant, Dauntless Drive, Raging Form, and Minerva, as well as with multiple attack decks like Eva, Ethics Buster Extreme, and Gancelot Zenith, Venus Trap was at an odd intersection of having the superior calls of Luquier “Яeverse” at lesser power level than “Яeverse” Daiyusha. Sadly, it was difficult to argue with the idea that this was anything more than a bad Sanctuary of Light clone. People would ask why you were playing Neo Nectar, and it was hard to answer.

Nowhere was that more clear than in the turn after your break ride, where the optimal play became to either Lock Pineapple's booster to make your vanguard/other rearguard column 21k, or to Lock a booster with an empty circle in front of it to make a 16k attacker. No matter what you did, you were just shuffling 5k around the board to demand functionally the same guard as a vanilla "swing with everything" turn, just with a +1 off the superior call.

Venus Trap on her own did not have an endgame to speak of, and the only alternative was to fall back on Sephirot, which left Neo Nectar more or less back where it started.

“That's great, but what if you run into Chaos Breaker/Glendios/Freezeray?”

In concept Venus Trap was great. A bioroid made to defend the World Tree Yggdrasil, Link Joker implanted her with the power of the Void and turned her on her own homeland. The card was made as a bridge with Royal Paladin's lore, connected with the Lock Break Campaign promotional card Knight of Extravagance Toulouse; Toulouse's lore was that after learning to harness the power of unlock, he journeyed to Zoo to break Link Joker's hold over the inhabitants, rescuing his friend Venus. Appropriately, Toulouse's art was designed with Neo Nectar's aesthetics in mind. It was one of those neat moments where just looking at the cards you could infer a relationship.

(Venus Trap being illustrated by Bayonetta character designer Shimazaki Mari was just icing on the cake.)

Maiden of Cherry Bloom

Two unique rearguards came out of Brilliant Strike, the grade 1 Maiden of Cherry Stone and the grade 2 Maiden of Cherry Bloom. When her attack hit a vanguard, for counterblast 1 soulblast 1, Cherry Bloom brought the chance to superior call a Cherry Stone at rest; meanwhile if the attack Cherry Stone boosted hit, she could return to the deck to search for a copy of Cherry Bloom and call her at rest. This meant that with Stone behind Bloom, Bloom was effectively CB1 SB1 to superior call a grade 2 or 1 depending on what you wanted to do that turn. You could return Stone to the deck to call out a Bloom, then use Bloom's skill to bring that same Stone back out behind her, or you could skip using Stone to just call out another copy of her to a different column. It all depended on what you needed at the moment.

The two of these cards together could effectively replace Seed and Gene from BT05, but they could also be used in tandem with the legacy cards. You effectively had two different means of securing identical rearguard columns for Sephirot, though the Maiden cards had a slight edge due to the grade 2 being capable of searching the grade 1.

With the new support came a new First Vanguard, Maiden of Physalis. While Shield Seed Squire was restricted to calling a specific grade 1 from the deck, Physalis instead could call any grade 1 but only from the top 5 cards. And rather than needing her attack to hit, Physalis' condition was needing an attack she boosted to hit, with her then going into the soul as a cost. The downside to this was that while you could fetch that essential 8k booster for your vanguard, there was also a real chance for Physalis to fail and leave you down a card for no payoff.

Venus Trap decks thus had three options to consider. They could run the Shield Seed-Blade Seed line, up to grade 1, or up to a tech Knight of Harvest to try to build up the field for a Sephirot turn. They could run Physalis for the chance to grab a Corolla Dragon or a Cherry Bloom to kick off their superior calls. And finally, they could run Broccolini Musketeer Kyrah from Blue Storm Armada, a grade 3 searcher that nobody really wanted to have to use due to their ~30% success rate.

(Musketeers ran her just to retire her.)

Maiden of Cherry Stone

The Shield Seed option had the advantage that a Shield Seed Squire boosted by Maiden of Cherry Stone would be able to create a 16k column on the other side of the field if its attack hit. Physalis' failure rate should have been around 15-20% (approximately equivalent to the failure rate for G Assisting from grade 0 to grade 1 in later formats) but because you didn't want to call perfect guards when they were the only grade 1s in the top 5, she actually had a higher chance to whiff than you'd expect.

Even if she failed to find a grade 1, going into the soul meant more soul for Cherry Bloom, which was never an option for Shield Seed. Thus your choice of FV would be impacted primarily by whether or not you felt it was worthwhile to integrate the Blade Seed line into your deck and how much you valued being able to use Cherry Bloom a second time on grade 2 or third time on grade 3. The Cherry sisters were now instant staples in every Neo Nectar deck, which was more than acceptable seeing as they were Single Rares.

In fact, BT14 marked Neo Nectar's return to budget status--once again they had no Triple Rares, with Wisteria and Venus Trap both stopping at Double

Unfortunately, beyond these five cards Neo Nectar didn't receive much from the set. They got an on-hit countercharge in White Rose Musketeer Alberto, a new Musketeer perfect guard for the Cecilia deck, and a Starlight Unicorn clone in the form of Lotus Druid. Lotus Druid was likely intended as a Lock target, since you could call it to power something up and then do away with it, but Lady of the Sunlit Forest or their local damage inducer Tulip Musketeer Mina were both more compelling. Eventually Cardfight Pack Vol. 11 brought one more promo card for the Musketeer deck, Pansy Musketeer Sylvia. She was a Devil Summoner clone but instead of calling the top card if it was grade 1 or 2, she could call it as long as it was a Musketeer, more or less guaranteeing a +1 that could then be retired and turned into another unit.

While the future had looked bright for Neo Nectar at first, by the end of set reveals the general sentiment was that Neo Nectar had been shafted hard. Trailing Rose was no longer a practical deck in a world where 11k bodies were no longer exceptional, which left the contemporary builds of the day as Sephirot, Cecilia, and Venus. It's a little strange to say that Sephirot was his own deck seeing as the card could be a finishing move for almost every Neo Nectar deck made at this time, but this was a matter of focus; dedicated decks ran the entire Arboros Dragon ride chain for its synergy with Master Wisteria and the chance to make Sephirot an 11k, while Venus and Cecilia decks didn't bond as well with the break ride.

None of these decks had a compelling gameplan if they were put up against Chaos Breaker. Sephirot would get a turn of his Limit Break before Chaos-Palladium shut him down, Cecilia would be able to set up some 21k Augusto-Mirkka columns before Chaos-Palladium stopped her cold, and Venus Trap could hope to check some of those Stands with her 16k columns before falling prey to the same combo as the entire rest of the game not named Dragonic Nouvelle Vague or Raging Form Dragon. Arguably Venus had the best deal since she at least could swing 21k while the others were stuck in the 16 range, but that's grasping at straws. Venus' matchup was much worse because the cards she locked for her cost could trigger Chaos's Limit Break in the end phase, and when Glendios eventually debuted its omega lock posed similar problems for her. Eventually the Chaos Breaker fighter would run out of Palladiums and one column would have to open up, but by that time they would have saved up sufficient hand size from not having to guard for three or four turns to survive multiple Limit Breaks.

Aside from these specific matchups, several weaknesses became apparent in this era that weren't exactly issues in the previous two blocks. With the rise of Sweep Command, Ignition, Tempest Bolt Dragon, and Dragonic Nouvelle Vague, late Limit Break format was the first time rearguard-dependent clans had to deal with the very real prospect of having all of their units retired in one turn. For Neo Nectar this was especially devastating, as both the Arboros ride chain and Master Wisteria depended entirely on already having rearguards out at the moment you rode. Otherwise, Wisteria was just a counterblast 1 for 10k. Even late into the game, staring down a Nouvelle persona blast could immediately put Nectars back to square one because of how Arboros depended on mirrored rearguard setups. Couple that with the extreme shutdown lock represented, and you had several decks that could turn off Neo Nectar's win condition at any given moment, putting a stop to any hope of a comeback unless you could field 5 replacements instantly. It wasn't a good time.

The updated and new decks were both mechanically interesting and powerful if they could get going. You just needed to pray you didn't run into the 7% of fighters still playing Link Joker post-Nouvelle, and you had to build and play with the idea in mind that your whole field could simply be wiped off the map at key junctures in the game. And in large part because of that, Neo Nectar once again failed to court competitive play. At least now you would see one or two fighters in a deck breakdown running it, and right on the precipice of the transition to legion format Neo Nectar secured its first top ever, but the reception was lukewarm for a reason.

Neo Nectar did get one more option before the end of this format, the promotional card Maiden of Venus Trap, Muse. Representing Venus Trap after having been unlocked by Toulouse, Muse was distributed in Japan's Cardfight Pack Vol. 12 alongside the other big grade 3 of the pack, Shadow Blaze Dragon. Unfortunately, while Shadow Blaze would make for an awesome generic Shadow deck of his own, Muse proved less than persuasive as a core for Neo Nectar. She shared “Яeverse's” Activated skill to gain 2k in the main phase, but her Limit Break was a different beast altogether.

AUTO [Vanguard Circle] [Limit Break 4]: [Counterblast 1] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to 5 cards from the top of your deck, search for up to 1 «Neo Nectar» with the same name as a unit on your Vanguard or Rearguard Circles, call it to a Rearguard Circle, and shuffle your deck.

Muse had potential.

She had the potential to be a Neo Nectar Zenith, just as “Яeverse” was a Neo Nectar Luquier. The key issues were twofold; first, she didn't give power to the unit she called, so to use this skill to initiate multiple attacks your only valid targets were copies of herself, your other grade 3, Irminsul on a coin flip, and Hey Yo Pineapple. The second issue was that Venus contradicted Neo Nectar's overall theme. Where Sephirot and Wiseman wanted you to have three identical boosters and two to three identical attackers, Muse wanted all six of your units to have different names so that you would have as many valid targets in deck as possible. Except that Neo Nectar had no viable grade 1 attackers at the time, so Muse truthfully was only relevant to your front row, and like Physalis had a high chance of finding nothing callable in the top 5. Reliable multi-attacking is something the "Maiden of" cards have always tried to push ever since Trailing Rose was first printed, and Muse could have gotten it right, but for LB4 should have been able to target anything in the top 5 and give it +5k.

(And if we have to adhere to Zenith's costs to get Zenith's effect, why not make Muse put a card from her field to the bottom of the deck, just to finally give Nectars something to do versus Link Joker?)

So what decks did Muse work in? Ostensibly you were to run her with “Яeverse,” as she had next to no synergy with Wisteria nor with Sephirot. Unfortunately the card just wasn't all that well designed, and “Яeverse” had better synergy with any kind of Break Ride or field power bonus regardless.

In terms of tournament results, you would now see a few straggling Neo Nectar fighters turn up in deck breakdowns. The Second Pitarui CS in January 2014 was the first time more than 1 participant played Neo Nectar, with a whole 3 fighters turning out for the clan, but none of them made the top cut. No one topped with Neo Nectar during Bushiroad's Fighter's Climax 2013 or VF High School tournaments. Outside Japan, Neo Nectar went untouched during the European BeNeLux tournaments and during the global Team League 2014 tournament series.

All that said, when someone sat down to play Neo Nectar, what made it to the table? Let's ask them.

On Vanguard Vault, a Japanese site for sharing decklists, the most upvoted Neo Nectar deck of 2013 was a 6 grade 3 Musketeer build that ran 2 copies of Venus Trap “Яeverse” as its backup grade 3. Uploaded by tera01, it received 107 "good job" votes from readers; the objective of the deck was to attack three times every turn from the very beginning of the game, capitalizing on Ruth and Augusto's +3k while using Sylvia to build up the raw materials to retire and replace. Second place (to the tune of only 23 "good jobs") was a very standard “Яeverse”-Wisteria build running Physalis, Cherry Bloom/Stone, and Mirkka. Mirkka may seem like an unusual choice in this deck, but she was run primarily to make 9k units form 18k columns versus crossrides, and because she could fill Corolla Dragon's roll as a 21k+ with Wisteria or “Яeverse.”

Musketeer Neo Nectar
Grade 0
x1 Broccolini Musketeer, Mirkka (FV)
x4 Hibiscus Musketeer, Hanah HT
x4 Blue Rose Musketeer, Ernst ST
x4 Night Queen Musketeer, Daniel CT
x4 Bullet Chestnut CT
Grade 1
x4 Red Rose Musketeer, Antonio (Perfect Guard)
x4 Water Lily Musketeer, Ruth
x3 Tulip Musketeer, Mina
x4 Dandelion Musketeer, Mirkka
Grade 2
x4 Cherry Blossom Musketeer, Augusto
x4 Lily of the Valley Musketeer, Kaivant
x4 Pansy Musketeer, Sylvia
Grade 3
x4 White Lily Musketeer, Cecilia
x2 Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse”

Maiden-type Neo Nectar
Grade 0
x1 Maiden of Physalis (FV)
x4 Sweet Honey HT
x4 Four Leaf Fairy DT
x4 Watering Elf ST
x4 Bullet Chestnut CT
Grade 1
x4 Maiden of Blossom Rain (Perfect Guard)
x4 Maiden of Cherry Stone
x3 Dandelion Musketeer, Mirkka
x3 Lady of the Sunlit Forest
Grade 2
x4 Maiden of Cherry Bloom
x3 Hey Yo Pineapple
x4 Maiden of Rainbow Wood
Grade 3
x4 Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse”
x4 Deep Green Lord, Master Wisteria

As for tournament lists, Vanguard Card Lookup is another Japanese site that indexes card lists, but it also has distinct categories for official and unofficial tournament-winning decklists. This Venus Trap list was the winner in one of the Planet Cray Total War tournaments, a side event held at regional qualifiers where fighters could play in a format with no restricted list and where the grade 4 Epitome of Knowledge Silvest would be legal. This deck ran Trailing Rose with “Яeverse” for pressure, a choice that was somewhat popular at the time; in this shop tournament finals from January 2014, we can see another Venus Trap cardfighter running the both of them, alongside Muse.

Planet Cray Total War (February 9th 2014) Winner
Grade 0
x1 Maiden of Physalis (FV)
x4 Sweet Honey HT
x4 Maiden of Egg Plant DT
x4 Watering Elf ST
x4 Bullet Chestnut CT
Grade 1
x4 Maiden of Blossom Rain (Perfect Guard)
x4 Maiden of Cherry Stone
x3 Dandelion Musketeer, Mirkka
x3 Lady of the Sunlit Forest
Grade 2
x3 Tulip Musketeer, Almira
x4 Maiden of Cherry Bloom
x4 Maiden of Rainbow Wood
Grade 3
x4 Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse”
x4 Maiden of Trailing Rose

In the final word, what was the best Neo Nectar deck of this format? I think it's a toss-up between “Яeverse” Wisteria, and Sephirot Wisteria. The logic behind “Яeverse” is this; if you ran her as a setup card to call things for Sephirot, what you were really running was a Sephirot deck without Wisteria or the ride chain. You weren't playing to Venus' strengths, but trying to make up for her endgame weaknesses by turning her into a bad Sephirot deck. Running her with Wisteria was an overall better gameplan because of how Wisteria's 2k pushed the game state forward and his 10k synergized with her lock cost.

However, Wisteria was also absolutely redundant in Venus and phenomenal in Sephirot. In most Venus games you would be overpaying by dropping counterblast on the break ride due to either already having a full field or not having an empty enough field for it to work. Or you had just suffered a field wipe the previous turn, and had nothing to clone. No matter how you played her, the deck kept pointing you back to Sephirot as the better option.

The Sephirot deck's synergy with Wisteria came from the design of the ride chain. In this deck, if you failed to get the break ride you were still able to clone a card from Sephirot-Timber's on-ride. On the other hand, if you drew the break ride first you would be rewarded for waiting by being able to clone 2 instead of 1 the moment you hit Limit Break, and the card would free you up to use Cherry Bloom's soulblast on your grade 2 turn because you wouldn't need the grade 0 in the soul for the Timber-Arboros on-ride anymore. Even if you whiffed the initial Branch ride, the new support encouraged you to keep Ratoon in the soul to pay for the cost of multiple Blooms. It was easier than ever to get Sephirot's setup going, and Ratoon's worst-case-scenario was what Physalis was doing in about half her games.

The price you paid for that was having to run 8 additional vanilla units and a lackluster starter. Venus Trap gave you access to Shield Seed and the entire Gene line, as well as your choice of Rainbow Wood/Glassbeads, Alberto, or Mina. Sephirot needed both Cherry Bloom to set up his clones and Pineapple to make up for missing a clone, so he didn't have that kind of freedom in deckbuilding. Thus the “Яeverse” deck pointed you to Sephirot, and the Sephirot deck pointed you to “Яeverse.” Venus Trap arguably had the better Kagerо̄ and Narukami matchups, as she could literally take one rearguard and make it into five, but Sephirot could also make it through by not dedicating too early, playing carefully, and saving up rearguards in hand to call later by letting his clones of existing cards stand in for them.

Another leg up “Яeverse” had over Sephirot was having adequate room for its grade 1s--Sephirot decks would at times run just three perfect guards in order to go 4-4-3 on Branch-Cherry Stone-Corolla because the alternative was either cutting a Pineapple to run 10 grade 2s or only running 2 Corolla. (2 of any grade 1 was terrible in Sephirot, but it was especially bad for Corolla since that meant not making adequate 23k columns versus crossrides.) “Яeverse” didn't have to put up with the constraints Sephirot's Limit Break added to deckbuilding.

Having experience with both of these builds, I'm inclined to favor Sephirot as the overall best-deck-in-format for Neo Nectar. The deck has a much more impressive endgame than “Яeverse,” and while it's not quite as versatile as "put literally any card in your bottom left circle and start locking," it has plenty of ways to reach that endgame thanks to the BT14 support that leave it far more stable than it was in 2012.

Arboros Dragon, Sephirot
Grade 0
x1 Arboros Dragon, Ratoon (FV)
x4 Sweet Honey (HT)
x4 Maiden of Eggplant (DT)
x4 Bullet Chestnut (CT)
x4 Night Queen Musketeer, Daniel (CT)
Grade 1
x4 Maiden of Blossom Rain (Perfect Guard)
x4 Arboros Dragon, Branch
x4 Maiden of Cherry Stone
x2 Corolla Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Arboros Dragon, Timber
x4 Maiden of Cherry Bloom
x3 Hey Yo Pineapple
Grade 3
x4 Arboros Dragon, Sephirot
x4 Deep Green Lord, Master Wisteria

Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse”
Grade 0
x1 Shield Seed Squire (FV)
x4 Sweet Honey (HT)
x2 Four Leaf Fairy (DT)
x2 Maiden of Eggplant (DT)
x4 Watering Elf (ST)
x2 Bullet Chestnut (CT)
x2 Night Queen Musketeer, Daniel (CT)
Grade 1
x4 Maiden of Blossom Rain
x2 Blade Seed Squire
x4 Maiden of Cherry Stone
x3 Corolla Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Maiden of Cherry Bloom
x4 Hey Yo Pineapple
x4 White Rose Musketeer, Alberto
Grade 3
x4 Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse”
x4 Deep Green Lord, Master Wisteria

Despite attracting some level of attention from tournament players, Neo Nectar still went largely overlooked in this time period. No go-to deck emerged out of the competitive scene. The clan's first big break tournament-wise came with the dawning of the new year in January 2014, when Musketeers made second at the first Kansai Vanguard Championship. The Kansai VGCS was one of the bigger unofficial tournaments of the era at 96 participants, and the metagame of the time revolved heavily around Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. Link Joker had an especially poor matchup against Nouvelle, which created a kind of rock-paper-scissors scenario.

Other decks with superior call or draw options like Musketeers, Jewel Knights, and Tsukuyomi could beat Nouvelle but would have almost guaranteed losses against Glendios or Chaos Breaker, which Nouvelle crushed with its guard-restricted restand and field-wipe persona blast. The exceptions to this rule were a handful of Lock Break decks like Ezel and Seal Dragons, which had all-around neutral matchups that were neither incredibly bad nor incredibly good, but depended mostly on the fighter piloting them.

Cardfighters gravitated primarily towards Nouvelle because even its worst matchups weren't that bad, with the other big names of the day being Raging Form, Minerva, and Reit--if you had a restanding vanguard, you were in. Seeing Musketeers top in that environment felt incredible, and what Tomato did at that championship essentially codified Musketeers for the period. Augusto, Mirkka, and Sylvia were the cornerstone of the deck for 21k lanes and card advantage, with “Яeverse” as the alternative grade 3 and an emphasis on rushing the opponent down.

Things looked bleak for the clan for a fair few months, until March arrived and brought Bushiroad's annual Cardfight!! Vanguard grand strategy conference with it, bestowing a solitary ray of hope: Neo Nectar was to be one of the feature clans of BT16.

It was an exciting time for the game. Limit Break, long criticized as a redundant mechanic on top of counterblast that needlessly constrained a huge pool of skills that didn't need it, was finally being dispelled in favor of a return to the faster pace of block one. The new Legion mechanics dazzled us--turning two cards into one continuous unit, returning Trigger Units to the deck, making use of the previously-panned Quintet Walls, and leaving us with question after question ranging from if we could attack the Mate rather than the Legion Leader to if we lost a rearguard circle by Legioning. The world didn't make sense for a few days, but it was a good kind of nonsense we were lost in.

And the underdog plant clan that spent nearly two years overshadowed by control decks was finally going to headline front-and-center at the very outset of the game's fourth block. In just two short months Booster Set 16: Legion of Dragons & Blades would breath new life into Neo Nectar.

All would be well.

News: Phantom Blaster Dragon Becomes Most Expensive Card in Game, Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- Playmats, Deckboxes & Sleeves

The Japanese edition of G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon went on sale just a few hours ago, and prices from both Japanese auctions and retailers are already stabilizing. Of all the cards in the set, the most alarming is G-BT03's print of Phantom Blaster Dragon; his average selling price has jumped to be the highest single in the game's history, at 5000~7000 yen per card. (approx. $40~56 at the current exchange rate.) This is more than the price of one box of Sovereign Star Dragon, and observations from Japanese buyers are that the inclusion rate of the set's two generation rares is at one of each generation rare per carton--one Phantom Blaster and one Amnesty per every sixteen boxes. If this ratio is true, it would be a massive departure from Generation Stride and Soaring Ascent of Gale & Blossom, where generation rares were distributed at the same rate as triple rares. Lagging behind Phantom Blaster are Amnesty Messiah and Aurageyser Dragon as the second most expensive cards from the set, going for 1500~2000 yen each.

The exorbitant prices for Phantom Blaster are derived from his synergy with multiple different Blaster deck types, including Phantom Blaster “Abyss,” who is generally regarded as the dominant deck of the pre-BT03 format. Both halves of the “Abyss” legion experienced a similar price jump earlier this month. However, running the Phantom breakride in “Abyss” has been brought under severe scrutiny from the first day the Blaster Dragon breakride was revealed. Doing so means surrendering virtually all forms of soulblast support, including Black-winged Swordbreaker and Darkheart Trumpeter. It also means losing access to Blaster Dark Revenger and Revenger “Abyss” for most of the game, neutering Revengers' devastating field control options and ability to shut down a vast number of first vanguard-centric strategies. Other Blaster decks are also on the rise, with triple rare playsets of Phantom Blaster Overlord reaching a 2000 yen high, and Gust Blaster Dragon rising to 1200 yen apiece.

In other news, Duel Portal, retailers Cardshop Ogre and Card Kingdom have all revealed merchandise for G-Title Booster 01: Touken Ranbu -ONLINE-, including eight character-specific sleeves from Bushiroad's Mini Sleeve Collection and several deckboxes. Six playmat designs (pictured below) are also being produced for the set, intended to double as mousepads. The Touken Ranbu booster was originally announced as an April Fool's joke by Bushiroad of Japan, and later clarified to be a real product made in association with DMM and Nitro+. The booster will feature the characters of Touken Ranbu as part of the unique clan "Touken Ranbu," and will be compatible with all of the cards produced in the existing Cardfight!! Vanguard trading card game.

While the booster set has been designed to attract a new audience to Vanguard, fan reactions across the globe have been mixed. Some fans have expressed displeasure with devoting a booster set to what has been described as an opposite gender counterpart to Bermuda Triangle, when that space could be devoted to an existing clan. Others have criticized the Touken Ranbu clan as being out of place in the greater context of Cardfight!! Vanguard's world, particularly with respect to the planet Cray. But still other fans find an appeal to the cross-promotion that would otherwise be absent from the game, and in Japan boxes of the title booster have already been promised as prizes at several upcoming VGCS tournaments.

The set's status in English-speaking countries is unknown, as DMM lacks an international presence and licensing the set for the western market could prove difficult. Bushiroad Inc. does have experience with bringing over these types of properties in its older card game Weiβ Schwarz, but the possibility remains that one of Cardfight!! Vanguard's clans will remain exclusive to the Japanese edition. Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- will go on sale in Japan on July 17th.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

Today's Card Analysis: Phantom Blaster Dragon

運命よ、我にさらなる絶望を与えよ！

"O fate, bestow unto me even further despair!"

The Japanese card of the day is an unconventional revival of Shadow Paladin's original boss card, Phantom Blaster Dragon. While the original Phantom languished in disuse for years, this new breakride incarnation of the unit supports multiple different deck types and strategies with divergent bodies of support, giving life to cards both old and new. The Dragon of Hell's second coming is upon us.

AUTO (Limit Break 4): [Soulblast 3] When a <<Shadow Paladin>> rides this unit, you may pay the cost. If paid, choose one of your vanguards, during this turn it gets Power +10000 and "AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Choose three of your rearguards, retire them] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If paid, draw two cards, choose three cards from your damage zone and turn them face-up, during that battle, your opponent cannot call grade 1 or greater cards from hand to the guardian circle."
AUTO: [Choose one of your rearguards, retire it] When this unit is placed on the vanguard circle you may pay the cost. If paid, search your deck for up to one card with "Blaster" in its card name, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand and shuffle that deck.

Phantom Blaster Dragon can be used with virtually any Shadow Paladin grade 3, but because he searches for Blasters units exclusively he primarily supports the Blaster subclan. It should be noted that the soulblast 3 attached to his breakride is attached to specifically prevent synergy with the clan's mass of soul-based card advantage support, from Black-winged Swordbreaker to Darkheart Trumpeter and Aurageyser Dragon. Running Blaster Dragon means surrendering most if not all of these support cards.

The general properties of Sovereign Star Dragon's Phantom Blaster Dragon are that by blocking grade 1 and greater guardians he answers the primary problem with his past incarnations, being easily blocked by perfect defense cards and special guardians like Rubidium or Guinevere. As a trade-off he has no innate critical skill of his own and instead depends on the grade 3 that you ride to achieve that. The soulblast cost makes it exceedingly difficult to use multiple Phantom Blasters in a game, so unlike with a unit like Daikaiser or Cormack there is no real option to continually threaten an opponent at 3 damage across multiple turns. Instead Phantom Blaster is made as a genuine killing move that will end the game on the turn that he is break ridden.

Considering the Blaster units chronologically, the breakride of Phantom Blaster Dragon conflicts with trying to use his original print from BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows. Even though their set numbers and skills are different, because the cards have the same name only up to four copies of either unit in combination may be included in a deck, just like with the Dragonic Overlord breakride from Infinite Rebirth. The primary reason one would want to mix the two is to for Eclipse Phantom Blaster Dragon's additional power and critical skill, which can work well in combination with the break ride's perfect defense blocking. However, compared to using Claret Sword Dragon's generation break, the only advantages this holds are that Eclipse Blaster can be searched by Sovereign Blaster, and that the skill can be used twice for a 40000 power critical 3 lane instead of a 31000 power critical 2 lane. With a booster factored in the difference should be that Phantom requires 15000 additional shield to block over Claret Sword Dragon.

The issue of space can be somewhat alleviated with Blaster Javelin, the grade 1 from Shadow Paladin's original series of evolving cards. Javelin's on-call skill allows you to discard a grade 3 Shadow Paladin to search for a unit named Phantom Blaster Dragon, and the breakride is just as eligible for this as the BT04 print. This is the reason Blaster Javelin has jumped up from being worth 20 yen and below to almost 400 yen overnight in Japan. You can run two copies of each Phantom Blaster Dragon, using Javelin to guarantee that you get the breakride in hand, then riding it and retiring Javelin to search for the Eclipse print. The trouble with this is trying to fit Blaster Javelin into the deck, as the breakride benefits from having both Hard Fighting Knight Claudas and Pitch Black Sage Charon in his grade 1 slots.

The card that Phantom Blaster Dragon has really been designed from the ground up to support is his crossride introduced in VG-BT05: Twin Swords Awakening. Searching for any Blaster on-ride assists with getting a copy of Phantom Blaster Overlord in hand, and his on-attack skill turning three damage face-up is meant to be specifically used in combination with Overlord's counterblast 3 persona blast for +10000 power and +1 critical. The timing of both skills is flexible so that they may be resolved in either order like with Dorint and Blaster Dark Revenger, but not inside the resolution of one another. So you can either persona blast with Overlord and then retire three to countercharge the damage to have resources open next turn, or you can use the retire skill first to countercharge the damage necessary for Overlord. The latter is the more likely use of the card; while most crossbreakride decks are characterized by having a central devastating breakride turn followed by several turns with just the crossride's abilities, for Overlord the breakride turn is the final one. Overlord simply doesn't stand on his own.

If you can muster the additional soul for it, Apocalypse Bat can act as a 10000-power booster for Overlord, creating a 41000 power 2 critical center. However, provided that that one soul is Sovereign Phantom Blaster Dragon, functionally the same thing could be accomplished using Claudas as a 9000-power booster while crossridden; a 42000 power center with the same critical. The primary issue with the Overlord build is the sheer number of grade 3s it requires, as the deck has to be up to the task of pulling off a breakride, persona blasting Overlord and striding for several turns to force the opponent to the 4~5 damage range where Overlord can kill.

Pitch Black Sage Charon is an essential card for mitigating the retire costs in Phantom Blaster Dragon decks, as his skill makes him count as two units as long as a grade 3 or greater Blaster vanguard is present. Given that the deck has access to Dark Night Maiden Macha for superior calling, Pitch Black Charon would be at a maximum of three copies, and more likely two. It's easy enough to pull out Charon that he doesn't need to take up too much space on his own.

First vanguard choice is a contentious issue. Bushiroad's Research & Development staff recommended using Fullbau alongside the requisite Blaster Javelin and Blaster Dark units. However, Blaster Javelin is not useful enough on his own to justify dedicating all of the component pieces of the sequence to the deck, and Fullbau ultimately goes off just 46% of the time. Judgebau Revenger is an option since both grade 3 options are Phantom units and he provides another means for searching out Charon, and one that doesn't depend on getting to generation break to pull off Macha.

Creeping Dark Goat would be another good choice for first vanguard, as he helps avoid riding Overlord before the Dragon and goes into the soul before retire skills can usually touch him. Fullbau Brave from the Legend Deck is also an option, since his generation break both returns him to the soul and adds a Blaster unit to hand. By riding Phantom Blaster Dragon and retiring a different rearguard to search for Overlord, then immediately striding with a different grade 3, you can use Brave's counterblast to add the second copy of Overlord needed for the persona blast to hand. This does leave Brave exposed to opposing control decks' skills though, whether that's Gattling Claw, Duskblade or Dragonic Burnout. While that won't interfere with the breakride's soulblast 3 necessarily, it would obstruct multiple breakrides from taking place and interfere with numbers when trying to exploit the crossride offensively with Claudas.

The soulblast cost is the biggest obstacle to using Phantom Blaster Dragon. It directly inhibits synergy with Gust Blaster, who gains power and critical dependent on the number of Blasters in the soul; this prevents Gust from becoming a true win condition capable of sending the opponent from 0 to 6 damage easily. For those that truly want to use Gust there are ways around this, but it's an uphill battle. It requires amassing a filler soul of non-Blaster units, preferably with the draw trigger Howl Owl from the Legend Deck. The Fullbau series is generally considered a prerequisite for Gust because of the lack of grade 1 Blasters; running Blaster Javelin, Dark and Nightmare Painter at their maximum amounts in the deck along with the breakride would all but guarantee the necessary three Blasters in soul to make him a destructive threat, and the only problem remaining is getting two additional filler soul over Fullbau in. This type of strategy also necessitates Charon to reduce the cost of either Phantom or Gust, so that retire 5 can get you the full effects of each.

For Gust that's a 38000 power critical 4 center that must be blocked by 0s and can send the opponent from 2 to 6 in one attack. This last property is the only real reason to want to go through the hoops necessary for Gust, as if the opponent is already at the 4~5 damage range both Overlord and Eclipse Dragon can reach higher center lanes with less complex setup, chiefly thanks to being able to be boosted.

The natural first temptation for Revenger cardfighters--who at this point make up the majority of Shadow Paladin fighters--is to use the breakride with Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss.” Like in the Gust example, both units require a retire 3 cost and that mandates using Charon to reduce the net retire to 5, but there are several factors that dissuade using the breakride with “Abyss.” The soulblast cost preemptively negates “Abyss'” strong early card advantage game, as you lose access to Swordbreaker and Trumpeter, who have been at the forefront of “Abyss'” Judgebau combos. “Abyss” also has to specifically retire Revenger units, so there need to be at least three Revengers in play and Charon must be used as the breakride's sacrifice. Moreover, the effect of "your opponent cannot call grade 1 or greater cards from hand to the guardian circle" only lasts until the end of that battle. To get the skill on the second attack you would have to hit with Judgebau on the first to superior call another Pitch Black Charon and one more unit so that you would be able to pay the breakride cost again after restanding.

However, since the opponent's grade 1 and greater guardians are blocked during that battle and “Abyss” is already attacking for 37000 power with Judgebau's boost, hitting is much easier. The opponent would have to drop ~40000 shield on the first attack for a no-pass and still have a perfect defense and discard target in hand for the second attack. At that point the act of trying to prevent “Abyss” from blocking perfect defense cards on both attacks may require dedicating so many resources that the opponent will be unable to come back from that turn. This still requires losing out on a tremendous portion of “Abyss'” support, and the combo is easily exposed to control tactics because Judgebau cannot be used until the breakride turn. Rather than ever needing to drop that amount of shield, opposing Revenger fighters can easily prevent it by retiring Judgebau with Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss.” Ultimately using “Abyss” with Phantom Blaster Dragon is so much trouble that it's likely not worth the effort.

The final Blaster unit to consider is the breakride itself. Riding the generation rare over himself can be done as an alternative to Aurageyser to force the opponent to go to a high damage threshold where Overlord can seal the game, as while Aurageyser can attack for 36000 power unboosted and get a net +1 from retiring Charon, he can still be blocked by perfect defense card to avoid going to that threshold in the first place. The soul math for planning out a breakride over the breakride and then with Overlord is the same as for Thing Saver Dragon or The Dark Dictator; you need a minimum of 5 soul to do it because when you do your second breakride the second Phantom Blaster Dragon you rode will become soul as well. Having to ride a grade 3, retire three rearguards and then drawing two cards off of Blaster Dragon works out to a net -2 overall, which can be refunded using Macha and other counterblast units that will capitalize on his unflipping properties. Charon can reduce it to a -1. If you can't get to at least 6 soul with Howl Owl then you ultimately come 1000 power short of making a 41000+ power line with Overlord and Claudas later, which can be just enough for the opponent to guard the final turn. But using Dragon to force them to higher damage also gives you two opportunities to retire a rearguard and search for a copy of Overlord, getting both the breakride and persona blast in hand for later.

Blaster Dark “Diablo” can be break ridden over Blaster Dragon while still benefiting from Charon, but this is not especially advisable. “Diablo” has no real card effects of his own, and if you stride over him you then lose the skills given by the breakride. The main reason to use “Diablo” is to pay the cost of stride, as you can use Charon's skill to reveal a grade 3 and search for “Diablo,” then discard a non-grade 3 unit to resolve Charon and later discard the copy of Blaster Dark for stride. You can also use a Blaster Javelin exploit with this; if you start with Blaster Overlord in hand you can use Charon to search out “Diablo,” then use Javelin to discard “Diablo” and search for Blaster Dragon. When you ride Blaster Dragon you can then retire Javelin to search for a second copy of Overlord, completing the setup for the breakride and persona blast.

As for non-Blaster units, Dragruler Phantom makes a particularly strong case for himself. Dragruler differentiates himself from the other grade 3s in that he genuinely has the highest possible power threshold of any unit that can breakride over Phantom Blaster Dragon. By repeating his limit break until the opponent is at five damage--or until you are simply out of counterblast--it's possible to make Dragruler attack for up to 71000 power unboosted, 81000 power with Eloquence Revenger Glonn or Branbau Revenger. Since Dragruler ensures that the opponent is always one point away from death, attacking with him breakridden for 81000 is functionally the same as attacking with Overlord for 42000 while they are at four to five. The biggest difference is that it's possible to get a sixth damage heal out of Dragruler's attack, while if Overlord connects the opponent will usually be going to seven damage and have to get two consecutive heal triggers to survive. The problem with this setup is that it requires even more resources and setup than “Abyss;” ten Revenger rearguards to retire and three units for Blaster Dragon, and Glonn. Dragruler is much more a theoretical scenario than he is a real strategy at this time.

The final way to consider using Phantom Blaster Dragon is with the Witch subclan. Like with Dragruler this carries the downside that none of these ride targets can be searched by the breakride, but the reason to do it is for either Cultus Witch Rias or for Witch of Quests Securna. Securna's retire skill decreases the opposing vanguard's power by -5000, and Rias' on-legion skill can reduce it by up to -25000 power, which greatly exacerbates the problems with not being able to use grade 1+ guardians. However, this is extremely dependent on getting the opponent to five damage, as the Witch subclan has no additional critical vanguards. Only time will tell if G-BT03 will introduced other grade 3s that work well with Blaster Dragon, but there's a very diverse body of options available at this time.

As has been demonstrated, the major obstacles to Phantom Blaster Dragon's success are the stringent soul conditions and the necessity of keeping and using multiple grade 3s. The introduction of a Steam Breath Dragon clone to the clan in Sovereign Star Dragon may alleviate this, provided that it happens at all. Claret Sword is considered likely to receive this type of stride enabler, and it would help the Blaster deck immensely if it could co-opts the grade +2 skill to stride prior to limit break becoming active. The soulblast makes for less of a disconnect between Phantom Blaster and his original counterpart Soul Saver Dragon, as well as to Phantom Blaster and his form as the guardian dragon Thing Saver. The emptying of the soul into the drop zone also makes an elegant parallel against Majesty Lord Blaster and Religious Soul Saver's soul-squatting gameplay. But it is also the greatest obstacle to Blaster Dragon's success, and needs to be planned around carefully based on what type of deck you want to run with it. Be sure to read the card's lore at Arkadiaworks.

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Study Guide: Kagerou in 2014

The idea of going into a 96-person best-of-three pro tournament and coming out of it virtually unscathed, undefeated in sets, sixteen wins to one loss was once unthinkable. Many cardfighters struggle just to make it to 16-8 under the same circumstances. It is exceedingly difficult to not give in to some kind of exploitable weakness and have a game taken each round, even assuming that one tops without losing any sets. But this was the story of faruke, one of the first cardfighters to make a strong showing with the grade 4 Dragonic Nouvelle Vague just after Kagerou was hit with Japan's January 2014 restricted list. It was this display which testified to Nouvelle's status as the best deck in format for Japanese professional play, and internationally we are still seeing the influence of this play out in the English-language game. We will continue to see it for some time to come, and both for Kagerou cardfighters seeking to either main Nouvelle Vague or an alternative Kagerou build, and for other fighters intending to compete with other clans it is necessary to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. Having a Nouvelle matchup is how you compete in 2014, and once you have a way to fight it the rest of your matchups will write themselves.

Before proceeding, there are several tools that you should be aware of that make virtually any Kagerou deck better. Some of these go as far back as the very first trial deck; one of the primary reasons that Kagerou has endured for so many years as one of the most competitive clans is because of the massive amount of strong, amorphous support they've received that can be reasonably mixed into almost any deck. Lizard Soldier Conroe is considered the optimal first vanguard for the clan in most situations because being able to pay counterblast 1 and retire him to search for any grade 1 allows you to effectively tech a wide variety of grade 1 units both for their utility and aggression, or simply guarantee yourself a perfect defense card at any time. However, as of August 20th Conroe will be restricted from being placed as the first vanguard.

This necessitates the use of an alternative first vanguard, and most fighters default to Red Pulse Dracokid. Red Pulse is a grade 3 searcher, counterblast 1 to go into the soul and look at the top 5 cards for a grade 3 or greater Kagerou, and it's his ability to target both grade 3s and 4s that make him useful to nearly any deck. While grade 3 searchers have been criticized for having a success rate in the ballpark of 30%, it's important that their skills shuffle the deck afterwards. If your grade 3 or 4 wasn't in the top 5 cards of the deck then it's foreseeable that you would not be able to ride to that grade on the next turn regardless, so by shuffling the deck Red Pulse tries for a game state where you will draw either of those grades.

The primary grade 3 around which most strategies for this clan hinge is the break ride Dauntless Drive Dragon. When ridden over with another Kagerou, Dauntless gives that unit the standard +10000 power boost and a skill that lets you restand your vanguard after it attacks as long as it hasn't already stood before, by discarding 3 cards. Counting both the additional grade 3 you have to ride and that this skill takes away three cards but only gives two back with the second twin drive, overall Dauntless is a -2 and so unlike many break rides will gradually kill you as you ride successively more copies of it, but the intention of the card's design is that the restanding skill be so devastating to the opponent that the -2 is reasonable. You should take more cards away with multiple attacks than you are losing. So you want to be able to break ride over Dauntless just once or twice, then immediately form an effective endgame turtling strategy to secure your victory.

Berserk Dragon

The key supporting units that can improve your deck are Berserk Dragon and Bellicosity Dragon. Either of these cards could make or break the effectiveness of another clan alone, and together they're a dangerous combination. Berserk's cost is counterblast 2 to retire an opponent's grade 2 or lower unit, while Bellicosity can unflip a card when his attack hits the vanguard, making him an ideal grade 2 ride since he can effectively compensate for Berserk or Conroe.

Bellicosity Dragon

Controlling the backrow is usually considered much better than controlling the front because retiring backrow units requires the opponent to dedicate exponentially more shield to the field over time where frontrow units can intercept, but situationally you will find it helpful to curb the opponent's aggression by doing things like retiring a 10000-power grade 2 with Berserk's skill and then using him to attack a 9000-power unit in the other lane. Bellicosity keeps the damage zone open and usable, which is more important for Nouvelle than other decks because it is not a deck where you are constantly at limit break-level damage and so being able to budget within three counterblast is a game all its own.

A good Kagerou deck will tend to balance between four and six draw triggers with criticals to compensate for a lack of direct searching in a post-Conroe format, and Gattling Claw Dragon is easily their most important draw trigger. Gattling's skill is to counterblast 1 and move into the soul to retire an opponent's grade 0 rearguard, and this is an example of one of the myriad reasons Kagerou has stayed such a consistently good clan over the years. It does more for taking the same actions than other decks of comparable support. Drive checking triggers can be considered one of the many standard parts of a deck existing in play, and in that regard Kagerou does more just by existing than its contemporaries. Gattling increases your card advantage by 1 when you drive check him, then by using his skill next turn you retire the opponent's first vanguard and have a net change of +/-0 compared to their -1.

The last important supporting element in generic Kagerou is a card that was intended to be specific to one subclan but because of its conditions can be used in any Kagerou deck. Seal Dragon Kersey is a grade 1 that allows you to discard a card when placed on a rearguard circle if the opponent has a grade 2 on their field. Kersey is considered superior to the clan's other card changer, Dragon Monk Gojo, because Gojo requires himself to be rested to use his skill while you will still get Kersey's boost after card changing. This lets you dispose of excess Gattling Claws or other drive checked cards, concealing your hand from your opponent and trading out less useful units for others of either the same or greater utility.

Moving into the cards introduced by VGE-EB09: Divine Dragon Progression, consider Nouvelle himself. Dragonic Nouvelle Vague is the standard by which not just all Kagerou decks in 2014 must live up to, but is the standard by which all professional decks must compete. If you cannot plan for and play against the Nouvelle matchup, you are not ready to be playing in a pro setting this year. Unlike every other boss card in the format, DNV's game is defined not by its limit break but by its innate skills. The unit has been said to remove chance from the game without reintroducing a proportionate amount of skill, and any one of its unique abilities could have easily been a boss card in its own right. When Nouvelle attacks the vanguard it cannot be guarded using grade 0 units from the hand, removing the primary means of defending oneself from the game, and all of the defending player's trigger effects are cancelled during the Nouvelle cardfighter's turn. This means that the benefits of defensive triggers cannot be received, including draw effects, and most importantly if a sixth damage is taken during the opponent's turn there is no way to heal out of it. DNV controlling the ability to defend oneself is easily the most dangerous aspect of it, while everything else is complementary fluff.

Nouvelle in the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga

Dragon Knight Ashgar

As a grade 4 unit Nouvelle Vague boasts a 13000 power base, giving defensive power equal to that of a crossride without demanding specific units to be in the soul. Blocking grade 0 units means that even an unboosted Nouvelle requires two cards to be put down for a two triggers to pass defense, but his grade 1 especial booster Dragon Knight Ashgar, makes this a 23000 power total and can be searched as early as turn 2 by Conroe. With any grade 0s in the hand being dead, guard options against such a line are limited to perfect defense, Quintet Wall, or dropping four 5000-shield grade 1~2 units for two to pass. In the rearguard DNV drops down to 12000 power, but Ashgar's boost is applicable to both vanguard and rearguard Nouvelles, making DNV arguably the best overall unit in the deck regardless of where it is placed.

Depending on the tempo of the fight however, a rearguard Nouvelle may never be seen. This is because Dragonic Nouvelle Vague's limit break is a persona blast; for counterblast 3, soulblast 3 and by discarding a copy of Nouvelle, all of the opponent's rearguards can be retired. Originally intended as an incentive for Nouvelle cardfighters to run four copies of the grade 4 instead of just two as had been seen in grade 4 playtesting with Epitome of Knowledge Silvest, the persona blast is often regarded as an incentive gone completely out of control. Achieving a total field wipe can make it impossible for the opponent to fight back at all, crippling setup-heavy decks like Aqua Force and Beast Deity builds, and coming back from extremely poor situations with a game-deciding limit break. Rather than considering this skill from an advantage perspective, it may be helpful to look at it from the angle of how many turns it takes to set up a field. It effectively puts the Nouvelle Vague cardfighter ahead one turn for each unit retired. The persona blast is the reason that a gradelocked Nouvelle fighter cannot be said to be totally out of a game, because the moment the skill goes off it puts Nouvelle five turns ahead by destroying that many turns' worth of drawing.

Nouvelle's major drawback of not actually being a grade 3 unit that can be ridden from grade 2 can also be partially mitigated with the grade 1 Nouvelleroman Dragon, who can send a Nouvelle Vague into the deck when ridden or called to search for any grade 3 Kagerou. Roman is how Nouvelle Vague has been treated as if it were a grade 3 in deckbuilding, and the biggest wall between DNV fighters and gradelock. Given that each of Nouvelle's attacks blocks grade 0 units, there's inherent synergy between Nouvelleroman, the grade 4 himself and Kagerou's restanding break ride Dauntless Drive. The more attacks Nouvelle gets in per turn, the more attacks the opponent has to block without using grade 0s, pushing them steadily behind in card advantage and working to that key moment when there are nothing but 0s in their hand.

Nouvelle's grade 2 lineup is usually rounded out by Demonic Dragon Berserker Kumbhanda and Nouvellecritic Dragon. Kumbhanda is a normal base 8000 grade 2 that becomes an 11000-power attacker if the vanguard has a limit break icon, and is standardized in most Kagerou decks that are not Seal Dragon or purely Dauntless based. Nouvellecritic is more interesting, acting like a Nouvelle-specific Berserk Dragon. When called or ridden Critic can counterblast 1 and reveal a Dragonic Nouvelle Vague in hand to retire any of the opponent's rearguards, eliminating key units while punishing them for trying to put together a strategy. By conserving more counterblast than Berserk, Nouvellecritic is overall healthier for the progression of Vague's game and keeping the damage zone open, and puts the field control abilities of other decks to shame by giving the deck two different options for destruction.

Overall Nouvelle Vague is a powerful format-defining deck that combines overwhelming control over the pace of the game with excellent resource management and hyperaggressive endgame pushes with a restanding vanguard that manipulates the opponent's defense, edging on being the best deck in the format. And in its favor, aside from Dauntless Drive most of the Nouvelle deck is compressed into VGE-EB09: Divine Dragon Progression, which greatly expedites assembly. It is far from the only deck worth consideration and faces severe competition from within its own clan, and as the "final boss" of Vanguard defeating it can be its own reward. It does not totally eliminate any particular decks from play as Chaos Breaker Dragon once did, but you cannot build in 2014 without accounting for the Nouvelle matchup. To do so would be like trying to ignore the existence of the sun.

Accounting for the clan as a whole Kagerou at present has three options for perfect defense cards split between BT01's Wyvern Guard Barri, BT11's Seal Dragon Rinocross and EB09's Dragon Dancer Maria. Maria is easily the cheapest option among these because of her recent release in an extra booster set, but Rinocross is desirable for Seal Dragon cardfighters because of their need for Seal Dragon-specific counterblast.

Divine Dragon Progression has also introduced several alternative grade 3 options. Of particular note is Blast Bulk Dragon, formerly known to his English-speaking fan following as Barky. Like Nouvelle, Barky is considered dangerous even before limit break, because his autoskill gives him +5000 power whenever his critical is two or greater, turning every critical trigger check into two triggers. This makes guarding Barky extremely tricky, because in normal calculations he behaves as if he always has an additional +5000 power over whatever his current swing is. Note that the +5000 power lasts until the end of the turn but cannot be stacked, so if you attack with Barky after break riding over Dauntless Drive and his critical increases then his next attack after restanding will have 26000 power rather than 21000. Barky's limit break is to counterblast 1 and discard a card for +5000 power and +1 critical until the end of the battle, making him a constant 21000 power 2 critical lane.

The other new grade 3 introduced by the set is Cruel Dragon, who was originally designed as Nouvelle support and so can either function in DNV or as his own build. Prior to limit break, Cruel's superior ride skill allows it to be ridden by resting your grade 2 vanguard when an opponent's card is put into the drop zone during the main phase, after which Cruel will ride in the standing position but with -3000 power for the rest of the turn. So Cruel will drop down to an 8000 power base to attack with effectively the same power as a grade 2, but with the benefit of twin drive to give an extra card over what is normal for that point in the game.

Cruel's limit break is to counterblast 1 and soulblast 1 when it attacks a vanguard to retire an opponent's grade 2 or lower unit, incurring a -1 against the opponent while controlling the field with a cheaper Berserk Dragon effect. The soulblast requirement normally limits Cruel to twice per game, but with Conroe out and Red Pulse in this can increase to three times per game, and it can also work in tandem with Gattling Claw's main phase effect or that of Seal Dragon Artpique. The skill is not as dominatingly aggressive as DNV, but note that if you forego the superior ride it can also combo with Dauntless' restanding skill to retire two cards in a turn and effectively force the opponent to lose as many cards as you do for break riding.

Cruel Dragon in the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga.

Cruel synergizes well with Nouvelle Vague because you can combo his skill with Nouvellecritic's and ride your grade 4 on the next turn while negating the extra -2 taken from riding one more unit than normal with his early twin drive. This is how Nouvelle was originally designed to be run prior to Dauntless Drive's design, and it allows you to secure your grade 4 ride a turn earlier. For this reason many diehard Japanese cardfighters have sworn by their Cruel Dragon techs even in builds that do use Dauntless Drive, because Nouvelleroman makes a single copy of Cruel so easily searched that it lets the deck adjust as necessary for the pace of each fight.

A direct competitor to DNV exists in VGE-BT14: Brilliant Strike's Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Яeverse," which is more field control-centric than Nouvelle with less opportunity to be gradelocked at 2 but in exchange a less stable 13000 base. Being one of the units that was Яeversed by the invading forces of Link Joker, Dauntless Dominate's strategy is based around temporarily sacrificing one's own rearguards by locking them in order to gain overwhelming power. Like most crossbreak rides, Dauntless "Яeverse" has strong breakride synergy. Once per turn during the main phase, his limit break 4 locks one of your own rearguards to receive an autoskill, so that when he drive checks a grade 1 or greater Kagerou during the battle phase one of the opponent's grade 1 or lesser rearguards can be retired, and Dauntless Dominate receives +3000 power. Acting like the new and improved Dragon Monk Goku, Dauntless "Яeverse" compensates for poor trigger checks by turning them into good ones, getting "half a trigger" in power whenever he checks a nontrigger units and giving the opponent a -1 in card advantage.

With Dauntless Drive's breakride skill you can simply sacrifice Dauntless' booster for the lock cost, and being able to restand for that turn means getting twice the chances to retire the opponent's rearguards. After potentially taking out 2~3 units and powering up your own with trigger checks, you can then go into a defensive game with his 13000 base when the opponent's field is already crippled and not well prepared to make lanes that can even hit the vanguard, much less create 18000 power lanes. This is one of the best ways to contend against both Nouvelle and Chaos Breaker in the current format, as assaulting the opponent's field is one of the few ways to reliably deal with either deck. Dauntless "Яeverse" is thus one of the strongest contenders within the clan for the Kagerou throne, and his bevy of support from BT14 assists that.

In particular DDЯ does not make use of the soul, which opens the door towards a playset of Calamity Tower Wyvern. Introduced in the same set, Calamity Tower is a Luck Bird clone that can soulblast 2 when called to draw a card, building advantage and making him into a safe lock target.

DDЯ also has room for an alternative first vanguard to Red Pulse, Dragon Knight Sadegh. Sadegh's skill places him into the soul when an opponent's unit is retired, and in exchange forces the opponent to retire another of their rearguards, which when combo'd with DDЯ's limit break and Calamity Tower over two turns can make a net change of +/-0 on your end to the opponent's -3 cards. Berserk Dragon can also capitalize on Sadegh, but as counterblast is important in this build and DDЯ has his own grade 2 subclan attacker in Dominate Drive Dragon, space may be too tight for this particular combo.

The Seal Dragons are the corner of Kagerou that is in the most need of renovation. Made up of prisoners from Kagerou's Magma Prison temporarily put on parole in exchange for fighting the Link Joker invaders, the subclan has the bare minimum of grade 1 and 2 subclan attackers and unique skills at every grade, but lacks a strong core grade 3 lineup and suffers from needing Seal Dragon-specific counterblast in a deck that is mostly not Seal Dragons. Their first vanguard is Seal Dragon, Terrycloth. Once a revolutionary that rebelled against the empire, Terrycloth in his sealed form has had his body and magic rewound three thousand years. While that seal is in theory indefinite and meant to assist a life sentence, Terrycloth still has access to some of his magical power. His especial counterblast places him into the soul, then retires an opponent's rearguard; the opponent can then look at up to four cards from the top of their deck and superior call 1. Note that even if the opponent chooses to look at up to zero, they still have to shuffle their deck, so this ruins the deck stacking strategies of Tsukuyomi and Mandalalord.

Also note that Terrycloth is the key to a specific Seal Dragon combo. The majority of Seal Dragons specialize in retiring units for cheaper costs than standard Kagerou cards would pay to retire any unit, attempting to pay less and then gamble that the opponent does not get a grade 2 off the top of their deck. These cards can retire any unit, allowing you to force the opponent to replace a grade 0 or 1 in a boosting position with a grade 2, which locks up their field. Furthermore, the Vanishing Field skill of this deck's key card prevents the opponent from intercepting, which completes the lock by forcing them to guarantee you a cheap retire by removing the grade 2 that your skill called. The point to be wary about with Seal Dragon retire skills is that they will also activate "when this unit is called" autoskills; so you could for example, end up superior calling a Blaster Blade that then retires one of your units, or a Nemain that reinforces the opponent's hand, or even end up helping the opponent to superior ride on your turn by calling a Lop Ear Shooter that they then combo with Pellinore. There's a lot of risk involved with sealed magic, and part of the reason that the magic of these cards is forbidden in the first place is because it operates in a completely different way from every other skill type in the game.

Corduroy is the star of this build's grade 2s. An insane dragon, Corduroy was dissatisfied with run-of-the-mill dragon magic and turned to investigating the cursed black arts to feed his unending greed. When called or ridden he can counterblast 1 Seal Dragon to retire one of the opponent's rearguards, and from there the skill operates exactly the same as Terrycloth. This is important because while Terrycloth interacts as turning your advantage from +1 to 0 to either give the opponent a -1 or -0 with weaker field setup, Corduroy is always a -1 or -0 to the opponent without giving an inherent loss to your own advantage.

The vanguard that once served as the basis of the deck is Seal Dragon, Blockade. While he only has a 10000 power base in a clan of 11000-power units, Blockade's Vanishing Field stops the opponent from intercepting during your own turn. Blockade himself has two forms. In his sealed form the Vanishing Field can only be momentarily expressed, but VGE-BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed opened up the ability to unseal the original Sealed Dragon. In his crossridden form as Hellfire Seal Dragon Blockade Inferno, his cursed magic runs wild and the Vanishing Field with that. Inferno's limit break is to counterblast 2 Seal Dragons, then retire all of the opponent's grade 2 rearguards and get +10000 power until the end of turn. The setup that has been established thus far is to use Terrycloth and Corduroy to retire the opponent's grade 1 and grade 0 units, replacing them with grade 2s that help lock down the field, then keep them trapped there with Blockade. After crossriding Blockade Inferno, you then take advantage of this through his especial counterblast to destroy those units that you locked into the opponent's field, giving them up to a -3 in a good game and potential field wipe on the extreme end.

VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike brings with it both a new grade 2 for the Seal Dragons and their Lock Break campaign promo, Seal Dragon Georgette. Prior to limit break Georgette has a main phase counterblast 1 to unlock one of the rearguards, carving out a specific and somewhat redundant niche for Seal Dragons as the anti-Link Joker branch of Kagerou. While DNV already overwhelms Chaos Breaker handily, both CBD and the upcoming Glendios have terrible matchups with Georgette because he effectively makes any reductions in CBD and Glendios' advantage permanent by making all of the cards they discarded and put into the soul to lock, relock and omega lock units wasted and shuts down both limit breaks for cheap. Meanwhile Georgette's limit break automatically gives him +5000 power for each of the opponent's grade 2 rearguards when he attacks the vanguard, and an additional critical if they have two or more in play. This puts Georgette on par with Barky for being a strong power and critical boss card, and further cements his status as an anti-Link Joker unit by making him into a devastating independent swing.

The grade 2 Flame Star Seal Dragon Knight is considerably less impressive, counterblasting 1 when called to prevent the opponent's units from intercepting. It is important that Seal Dragon Knight does not require Seal Dragon counterblast to use his skill, and with the original Blockade potentially out of the deck in favor of Georgette blocking the opponent's intercepts is a useful way to keep grade 2s around to activate the deck's other skills.

In December VGE-FC02: Fighter's Collection 2014 is to introduce their next major boss card, Hellfire Seal Dragon Weathercloth. Weathercloth's breakride skill is to give the vanguard +10000 power and to retire two of the opponent's rearguards when ridden, with no counterblast cost. The opponent then looks at the top 4 cards of their deck for up to two grade 2 units and calls them, and because this is only two checks from four cards rather than two checks from eight, they are much less likely to be able to hit two replacements than they would with Corduroy or Terrycloth.

Weathercloth and Georgette are the kind of boss cards that Seal Dragons need. In conjunction with Blockade Inferno's limit break he creates a 31000 power center lane and has the potential to completely wipe their field, for effectively 2 counterblast and a -1. With Georgette, Weathercloth makes up for the lack of direct retiring attached to Georgette himself and strongly supports his own innate skill, making a center lane in the range of ~36000 power 2 critical before boosting and ~43000 afterwards. The main problem with the Blockade Inferno build at this time is whether or not his skill is enough to finish the opponent off and reign the game in. Arguably other late-game power pumps like Gancelot Zenith and Dragruler Phantom do even less than this the further the game goes on, so many fighters would say that this is enough to put Seal Dragons in contention for DNV's throne, but Georgette provides them an extra boost that helps define them in a different direction and in that way compete.

On September 19th we're due for the release of VGE-BT15: Infinite Rebirth and the rise of Kagerou's second Яeverse card, Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth." While the cornerstone of the deck is a restanding strategy, unlike Dauntless the goal of "The Яe-birth" is to fight totally alone by sacrificing the entire field to stand as many times as possible and rack up multiple trigger checks. "The Яe-birth's"limit break 4 is to counterblast 1 and lock Kagerou rearguards until you have five locked cards in play; this gives DOTЯ +10000 power and the ability to restand by discarding two cards after it attacks the vanguard. In combination with a break ride this guarantees DOTЯ a 31000 power base to work off of and six drive checks, and is equivalent to giving the entire field twin drive.

Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth" is one of the only cards in the game to be both a crossride and a crossbreak ride, as there are two cards that qualify his continuous +2000 power. The first is the original Dragonic Overlord introduced in VG-TD02: Raging Dragon of the Empire and VG-BT01: Descent of the King of Knights, but the second is a new break ride with the same name introduced by BT15.

Like many alternate break rides given to other clans, the break ride incarnation of Dragonic Overlord comes with a counterblast 1 cost attached, but the timing for it is unorthodox. When ridden, Overlord gives the vanguard +10000 power and an autoskill which allows it to counterblast 1 and discard a card after attacking a rearguard to restand. So while DOTЯ's restand is an exchange of +0/-0 whose effect on the game is wholly dependent on how heavily it damages the opponent's defense, break ride Overlord's is a +1 that negates the -1 of riding over him, but also incurs a -1 against the opponent to work the individual battle in your favor. There was once some debate among "The Яe-birth" cardfighters regarding whether it would be better to run DOTЯ with Dragonic Overlord or to forgo the crossride entirely and use Dauntless Drive to get in three attacks against the vanguard, but the final print of "The Яe-birth" prevents its skill from being used if the cost was not paid after it attacks.

The break ride reimagining of the original Overlord has other consequences. While it doesn't synergize well with Seal Dragons, who are likely to not have an opposing frontrow to attack, one of the noted features of the new Overlord is that it makes the old standby Dragonic Overlord the End into a crossbreak ride. DOTE's persona blast is a familiar element to the game, restanding it whenever its attack hits, and this has been historically devastating when used in combination with Dauntless Drive Dragon because it puts the opponent in a world of bad decisions, but the new Overlord is a strong improvement by returning his defense to him and enabling his skill to be more powerful than ever.

While neither DO nor DOTE have stipulations demanding that they must not have stood previously, their skill interaction is made more complicated by sensitive timing. Overlord's break ride skill only activates when the broke ridden unit attacks a rearguard for the first time; if the cost is not paid and the vanguard restands by another skill, then like with Galaxy Blaukluger because of the clause "(Even if you do not pay the cost, this ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.)" Dragonic Overlord's skill will not be usable. So while the End and Dragonic Overlord's skills may both be used in the same turn, they must proceed in the order of Dragonic Overlord followed by the End even if their first attack is not defended. What this means is that the best option for the opponent is also the scenario in which they lose the most cards, no-guarding the rearguard attack and then dropping a perfect defense or greater when the End's next attack comes down. If the opponent chooses not to guard the End's second attack then they are conceding to staring down a third vanguard attack in addition to the still-standing rearguard lanes and giving DOTE a +1 where "The Яe-birth" merely breaks even. Dragonic Overlord as a break ride thus solves the problem faced by Dauntless Drive Dragon, that the exchange was 'solved' by being at two to three damage. Versus a crossbreaken the End, it's better to be at higher damage and a later stage of the game that justifies dropping a perfect defense than at lower damage where one is enabling the additional drive checks. At low damage it becomes a paradoxically necessary play for the End's opponent to let their rearguard go and allow the End to hit so that they only guard the last attack that DOTE makes on that turn, giving the End an overall +1 and the opponent a -3. The alternative is losing out on limit break during a crucial endgame stage of the fight, giving the Overlord fighter more time to recover and going into their next turn still at lower damage and still vulnerable to the End's persona blast. DOTE's midgame vanishes more quickly the sooner its attack hits.

The chief problem for all Overlord decks is that their strategies peter out after their break ride turns. This is more of a problem for the End than it is for "The Яe-birth" because the End becomes a vanilla crossride once his counterblast is spent. "The Яe-birth" can still repeat his limit break each turn to make two 23000 power attacks, preserving quality over time and scoring multiple drive checks, but faces problems with gradually approaching a deck-out the longer that the game drags on, and that his limit break may not always be superior to simply attacking with three lanes instead of one twice. "The Яe-birth" also has a notably poor matchup against Star-vader “Ω” Glendios because its requirement to lock all of the rearguards can walk right into Glendios' alternate win condition of having all of the rearguards locked, but only if Glendios reaches its main phase with five damage. Because DOTЯ does not make use of its rearguards very much, a Glendios cardfighter at four damage is liable to be trapped that way for the rest of the game, as the DOTЯ fighter will not be putting them to five with their rearguards. The matchup is thus not as bad as it may appear initially, although it is important to note that if all of the rearguards remain locked through Glendios' omega lock skill, DOTЯ may not use his limit break because at least one rearguard needs to be unlocked before the cost is paid in order to initiate it.

BT15 introduces two cards that support Overlord units directly. Eternal Bringer Griffin is an updated Doom Bringer Griffin, reimagined as a grade 1 that can discard any Kagerou grade 3 to search the deck for a card named Dragonic Overlord and add it to hand, helping to secure your vital break ride turn.

This also connects to the skill of Dragonic Burnout, another modified Berserk Dragon. Burnout's skill is to soulblast 1 when called and return any Overlord from the drop zone to the bottom of the deck to retire an opponent's rearguard. Like Nouvellecritic, there are no restrictions on Burnout's possible targets. This helps support a stronger endgame for the End after its break ride turn is over, capitalizing on his crossride defense by destroying the opponent's 18000 power lines and protecting the vanguard while the opponent struggles to recover from being crippled by the break ride turn.

The overall goal of "The Яe-birth" is to use the entire field as a tool to support the lone vanguard, making great use of Calamity Tower Wyvern, Dragonic Burnout, Gattling Claw and Berserk Dragon and then locking all of them to initiate a strong crossbЯeak ride turn that exhausts the opponent's defenses with its restanding strategy. While it has never been as dominant as Nouvelle, the various Overlord decks are strong contenders and have even seen mixed play with Nouvelle in Japan's post-Legion format as an effective means of piggybacking the old deck.

While Kagerou has always been one of the most well-supported clans, 2014 has a much stronger showing of support over previous years, and the rise of the Legion format in 2015 will mark a temporary dry spell for them until the arrival of the Perdition Dragons in BT17. With at least five distinct decks available that each occupy their own place in professional play, the clan is one of the best choices for cardfighters in 2014, both casual and competitive.