News: Dragonic Nouvelle Vague Tops in Cosmic Oasis Tournament, Third BeNeLux Won by Aqua Force and Blau Series

Special thanks to the community of Illuminaudi Cards, Cincinnati, for sending in photographs, videos and information on the tournament to our editors.

This past weekend saw a medium-sized American fan tournament take place at Meeple Fest in Richmond, Kentucky, an unusual sight in a country where professional play primarily revolves around shop tournaments and Bushiroad's official events. Organized by Ron Flickinger of card shop Cosmic Oasis, the tournament was held at Eastern Kentucky University, and had a turnout of 19 persons. While these are relatively small numbers on a global scale, within the United States where fan-organized tournaments are in their infancy the turnout is respectable, and was more than four times the turnout of CO's previous tournament.

The event was held in a best of three format, with five rounds of Swiss pairings between the entrants, followed by a cut to top 8. Bushiroad was supportive of Oasis' efforts, providing the tournament organizer with Creeping Dark Goat promotional cards (previously exclusive to World Championship 2013) and exclusive official deckboxes for distribution at the event, which were given to each of the participants during the fifth round. Those who made it to top 8 were awarded either a quantity of booster packs or a cash reward of equivalent value at their own discretion, with the prize pool increasing based on the number of participants. Each player paid a $20 entry fee, with first place earning two booster boxes, the top 4 receiving other prizes in descending value, and the entire top 8 receiving official playmats. Because each pack was valued at $2 rather than the $3.99 standard embraced by most American card shops, participants could get considerably more value out of the tournament than normal. Judging was handled by a combination of volunteer players, and on-site judges from CO to prevent any favoritism.

Flickinger's tournament was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception, and a followup tournament is currently scheduled for the next Meeple Fest on September 6th.

The tournament finals were recorded by a viewer and submitted to Cardfight Pro for hosting, and can be viewed below in two parts. As both participants were already satisfied with their results in making it to the top spots, the tone of the fight was considerably more laid back than is often seen in professional play, particularly in comparison to Bushiroad's regional tournaments where the difference between first and second place is a paid trip to the national finals. The two competitors had briefly discussed the possibility of splitting their winnings, before opting to play it out. These final games were between Link Joker cardfighter Alexander Wilson playing Chaos Breaker Dragon and a Kagerou cardfighter whose name we do not have permission to use, playing Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. Wilson had previously made a bid at professional play in the 2013 Stand Up Challenge Cup and Team League 2014, and had begun playing Chaos Breaker shortly before the Oasis tournament due to dissatisfaction with his performance using the Revenger series. He was in the minority however, as turnout at Cosmic Oasis saw just one other Link Joker fighter take part, using Nebula Lord Dragon, and five Nouvelle players in the tournament. In total the top 8 was comprised of Chaos Breaker Dragon, Dragonic Descendant, Aqua Force, three Dragonic Nouvelle Vague and two Gold Paladin fighters.


In the first game, Wilson was immediately behind due to being gradelocked at 0 for a turn, but this was somewhat offset by an early critical trigger. A lack of strong aggression on his opponent's part and an early damage trigger prevented the gradelock from being capitalized on, but Wilson was also forced to open his grade 3 turn on Chaos Breaker Dragon rather than the preferred Infinite Zero. He came back by immediately shutting down his opponent's field, using Chaos Breaker's discard skill and Dust Tail Unicorn to Lock both frontrow rearguard lanes, giving himself time to recover. A surprising and early double critical trigger could have potentially sealed it for Wilson, but his opponent healed out of the blow, and he was forced to stare down a 2 critical Blast Bulk Dragon that would restand with Dauntless Drive's breakride skill. Accepting a risk, Wilson allowed the first attack through so that he would go to limit break, used a perfect defense card to block Blast Bulk's second attack, and then activated Chaos Breaker's limit break in the end phase to replenish his hand. With Colony Maker he was able to even out the situation considerably, matching his opponent one-for-one in card advantage, but on the final turn his opponent found an opening by gambling on two triggers to break through Wilson's defense. He made the correct play in assuming that Wilson would be able to guard a rearguard with two triggers on it, and took his one chance to end the game by applying the effects of his first trigger to his vanguard without knowing if there would be a second one.


As the loser of the previous game, Wilson chose to go first in the second one. Forgetting Mobius Breath Dragon's skill, his opponent was caught off guard when Conroe was Locked going into his second turn, which made his grade 2 vanguard easier to defend and limited the options available on that turn. Several timely heal triggers become defining for the rest of the fight, keeping the Nouvelle fighter at a more sustainable damage count over time. Once again Wilson had to open his grade 3 turn without Infinite Zero, forcing him to eventually repeat his shutdown play from the previous game to Lock both frontrow units one turn later. The Nouvelle fighter's persona blast is where the game definitively turned around in his favor, taking four of Wilson's units down for the price of one, leaving Wilson at -6 and his opponent at -5 advantage. Nouvelle's guard restriction skill, preventing Wilson from using grade 0s to defend, forced him to drop two successive perfect defense cards over two turns, and DNV's 13000 power base also forced him to ride Infinite Zero Dragon later on just to be able to connect a hit with the vanguard. The lack of a breakride on the following turn severely hurt Wilson's ability to recover, and this snowballed quickly because of a double draw trigger on his opponent's end. While his last turn break riding Chaos Breaker over Infinite Zero left Nouvelle attacking totally alone, the number of cards under his control was so low by that point that CBD was likewise attacking by itself, and DNV in general has a much better time acting as an independent vanguard than CBD does. Ultimately the Nouvelle cardfighter was able to check one of the last two critical triggers remaining in his deck, and while Wilson pulled a sixth damage heal, its effects were nullified by Nouvelle's skill.

Where Cosmic Oasis was dominated by DNV fighters, the story was considerably different on the other side of the pond, as the third BeNeLux tournament concluded last Sunday in Antwerp Belgium on the 22nd with only a single Nouvelle Vague in the running. Unlike previous BeNeLux tournaments, this month's competition used a combination of tagfight and Invasion rulesets, where each team of two cardfighters acted as a pair sharing one damage zone (capped at nine cards for a game loss) while also being restricted in deck choices. Like in Team League 2014, any pair on the Invading side using Link Joker or “Яeverse” cards was not permitted to use deck options outside of these, and any pair on the Defending side did not have access to Link Joker or “Яeverse” units.

A total of 30 persons took part in the third BeNeLux, divided into 15 teams. Exact clan turnout is uncertain, but the decklists of the top 2 teams were graciously submitted to us by the second place team. First place in the tournament was taken by the team of BeNeLux organizer Tom Staes. Staes is well known in the community as a devout Aqua Force cardfighter, and for one particular combo with his first vanguard Bubble Edge Dracokid wherein he sets Bubble Edge's skill on the grade 2 Tidal Assault in the backrow, and uses the grade 1 Wheel Assault to move the Tidal from the backrow to the frontrow after three frontrow units have attacked, allowing Tidal to use his own skill to create a fourth and fifth battle; this triggers Bubble Edge's draw skill twice during the fourth and greater battles, helping to overcome Aqua Force's consistency problems by building a high hand size on the second turn.

June 22nd BeNeLux
First place tag team: Unnamed
Ashley Annaert
Grade 0
1x Morgenrot (FV)
4x Regenbogen HT
4x Schnee Regen DT
4x Red Lightning CT
4x Schones Wetter CT
Grade 1
4x Blau Dunkelheit
4x Clay-doll Mechanic
2x Energy Charger
2x Stoic Hani
2x Screamin’ and Dancin’ Announcer, Shout
Grade 2
3x Mars Blaukluger
4x Blaukluger
4x Jupiter Blaukluger
Grade 3
4x Galaxy Blaukluger
4x Mond Blaukluger

Tom Staes
Grade 0
1x Bubble Edge Dracokid (FV)
4x Ice Floe Angel HT
4x Battle Siren, Mallika DT
2x Pyroxene Communications Sea Otter Soldier DT
4x Supersonic Sailor CT

2x Jet-ski Rider CT
Grade 1
4x Emerald Shield, Paschal
2x Light Signals Penguin Soldier
4x Wheel Assault
4x Mercenary Brave Shooter
Grade 2
3x Twin Strike Brave Shooter
4x Tidal Assault
2x Tear Knight, Lazarus
2x Battle Siren, Calista
Grade 3
4x Blue Wave Dragon, Tetra-drive Dragon
4x Blue Flight Dragon, Trans-core Dragon

Second place tag team: Dai Team
Kris Brazas
Grade 0
x1 Dimensional Robo, Daimagnum (FV)
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gorescue HT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daicrane DT
x1 Army Penguin DT
x1 Gem Monster, Jewelmine DT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daibattles CT
x1 Justice Cobalt CT
x1 Demon-eye Monster, Gorgon CT
Grade 1
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daishield
x3 Dimensional Robo, Daibrave
x1 Dimensional Robo, Dailander
x3 Commander Laurel
x2 Dimensional Robo, Gocannon
Grade 2
x4 Dimensional Robo, Kaizard
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daidragon
x2 Dimensional Robo, Daibarrett
Grade 3
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser
x4 Dark Dimensional Robo, “Яeverse” Daiyusha
x2 Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha

Nelson Cheung
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dust Tail Unicorn (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x4 Star-vader, Meteo Liger CT
x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Demon Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x1 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon
x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle
x1 Mana Shot Star-vader, Neon
Grade 2
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x4 Strike Star-vader, Krypton
Grade 3
x3 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

News: Invaders Take Sweden, May BeNeLux Decklists, Second Sapporo, Hokusetsu VGCS & Fighter's Road 2014 Nagoya Results

The number of Reverse fighters has been consistently low for the first two months of Team League 2014, but the Invading side of the tournament may be in for a turnaround with the release of VG-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak. Coming on the heels of a string of Cray Defender victories in Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Paris, Germany and New York, Sweden's regional qualifier marks the first major steal for the Reversed cardfighters. While according to Bushiroad's figures at Paris and New York the Invaders only accounted for 7.7% and 20.5% of the total participants, the flood of new Reverse cards introduced by Catastrophic Outbreak and the rise of Chaos Breaker Dragon as the Invaders' new flagship deck has given them a small foothold in both slots of Sweden's top 2. Along with Team SKET from second place at the Paris qualifier, Sweden's teams account for Void's only presence in the Team League, with all three teams being concentrated in the European branch of League 2014.

The respective teams are reported by our source to be composed of Leo-pald “Я,” Link Joker and Ethics Buster “Я” fighters for first place, and Amon “Я,” Link Joker and Luquier “Я” fighters for second. Meanwhile we've also received the decklists from the May BeNeLux tournament, provided below under [MBNL] First place in the tournament went to Ozan Fincan with Chaos Breaker Dragon, while second went to Daniel Gaillard with Dragonic Descendant. Both decks were noticeably heavy on their grade 2 counts, emphasizing the forms of fast aggression, field control and power gain that have proven to be exemplary qualities of the format.

In Japanese news the Nagoya regional qualifier for Fighter's Road 2014 finished up on the 11th, with first place going to a Dragonic Nouvelle Vague cardfighter and second to one running the new Narukami Brawler subclan. Third and fourth place went to Sacred Regalia and Bermuda Triangle fighters, with the remaining half of the top 8 being unsorted as Musketeer, Pale Moon, Liberator and Glendios cardfighters. The Brawlers' success coincides with their widespread adoption in the unofficial Vanguard Championships; the second Sapporo and first Hokusetsu team tournaments saw both Brawlers and the new Royal Paladin Seekers make spots in the top 4. Sapporo's first place team was led by Nouvelle Vague cardfighter Dasukuro, and was captained by Northern Jewel's Omega Glendios build, in keeping with the progression of professional play since Infinite Rebirth's release.

Brawler, Shotgun Blow Dragon.

The team's midfighter valdy (sic), brought a Brawler deck that focused on the Legion skills of Shotgun Blow Dragon, a boss card released just over a week ago in VG-FC02: Fighter's Collection 2014. Shotgun's Legion 20000 with the grade 2 Military Brawler Lisei fuses a Lisei from the deck to the vanguard circle, adding Lisei's power to Shotgun's own for a 20000 base during his fighter's turn, and when they Legion his counterblast 2 forces the opponent to retire two of their own rearguards. If Shotgun's field is greater than the opponent's immediately after the skill is activated, he also gets an extra critical. The Legion retire combos with Lisei and the grade 1 Ark's skills, both getting +3000 power for each rearguard retired during the turn to easily make a 28000-power rearguard lane together. Furthermore, the grade 2 Brawler Yousei automatically retires an opponent's frontrow rearguard for no cost when the vanguard Legions, destroying three fifths of the field with Shotgun Blow and further powering up Lisei and Ark.

Brawler, Skybeat Dragon.

Although Shotgun Blow is the backbone of the deck, Skybeat Dragon from TD15: Brawler of Friendship is also an important supporting element of it. Since Shotgun Blow can only effectively activate once, being able to ride over him with Skybeat if another copy of Shotgun isn't available is important, because riding over a Legioned vanguard will send both Legion pieces into the soul and put a new unit on the vanguard circle, allowing Legion to be activated again. This opens the door to Skybeat's Legion with Skyhowl Dragon being activated, and his on-Legion frontrow retire skill, effectively trading the Skybeat ridden for one of the opponent's frontrow rearguards. Rising Phoenix provides reliable synergy with this strategy since the two units sent into the soul from riding over a Legioned vanguard can then be soulblasted to draw a card with Phoenix's on-call skill, making for an aggressive and circular strategy that continually pushes the opponent down throughout the fight while keeping the Brawlers at a steady place in advantage above them.

It's very rare for trial deck cards to see immediate adoption in pro play without their corresponding booster set available, but the Brawlers' and Seeker's shared strength of not needing to be at limit break to use their skills has made them extremely compelling competitively. Only needing four cards in the drop zone to activate Legion promotes earlier guards and staying in the range of 2~3 damage rather than risk going to 4 early. Some have expressed trouble adjusting to the nascent format, and after two years under the 4 damage restriction many of the cardfighters competing today have never played in a world without limit break. The ability to drastically outspeed the likes of Nouvelle Vague and Raging Form is thus a crucial advantage, and these new builds are likely to totally eclipse their past Narukami and Royal counterparts with the release of Legion of Dragons and Blades this Friday.

The first place team at Sapporo won three Nintendo 3DS XLs, while second place won three boxes of VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth, and third place won three boxes of VG-EB10: Divas Duet. In total 81 persons attended the tournament, divided into 27 teams of 3. Second place team "Over Maxi Boost" was composed of Revenger, Glendios and Brawler cardfighters, while third was made up of Nouvelle, Galaxy Blaukluger and Glendios fighters, and fourth by Nouvelle, Brawler and Glendios. You can jump directly to the Sapporo decklists by searching the page for [2SVGCS] Overall Sapporo saw 81 participants, and a breakdown of the decks used by those cardfighters is available below.

Second Sapporo VGCS Deck Breakdown
13 ”Ω” Glendios
13 Nouvelle
9 Sacred Regalia
8 Revenger
6 Brawler
6 Pale Moon
4 Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth"
4 Blue Storm
3 Seeker
3 Bermuda △
3 Dimensional Robo
3 Blau
2 Liberator
1 Eradicator
1 Ezel
1 Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Я"
1 Seal Dragons

Seeker, Sacred Wingal.

Over at the Hokusetsu VGCS, this team tournament was taken by Team Wild Hitter. While team forward Hokaze's Glendios and midfighter Yakan's Nouvelle are familiar, it's the captain Rinon's Seeker deck that is attracting the most attention. His build combines the trial deck cards with the 2014 Vanguard Festival promos and Fighter's Collection 2014 support, focusing on a combination of hand conservation through traditional Royal Paladin superior call tactics, limited frontrow control and strong endgame field power boosts. Surprisingly, the build includes both the perfect defense card Iseult and the Quintent Wall Gloria, mixing them at 2-2. Previously Quintets were standardized at 0~1 in pro decks due to their comparative ineffectiveness versus the powerful extremes of the format, but for Legion decks the ability to instantly put 6 cards into the drop zone while denying an early game attack can mean near-instant setup of a game defining strategy. As limit break is not a concern for these builds and more emphasis is being placed on having a highly developed early to midgame, Quintets occupy a unique place in the new format as both the saving grace against going to high damage early and a utility role that potentially supersedes their importance as defense.

Much as the new Brawler decks are relying on mixing Castor from the Eradicators in to quickly fill the drop zone in the early game, Rinon's Seeker build uses four copies of Lake Maiden Lien and mixes in the Shadow Paladins' Arianrhod to capitalize on how card changing effectively supports Legion. The cheap counterblast 1 costs associated with the Seekers makes setting up Legion as fast as possible a priority, and the cards dropped for Lien and Arianrhod are no longer lost permanently thanks to Legion returning trigger units, making trigger units and Legion components like Blaster Blade Seeker and Combined Strength Seeker Locrinus ideal targets for card changing. The main strategy of the deck is to use Seeker Sacred Wingal with its first vanguard File; both of their skills activate when Wingal Legions to Blade Seeker, with File going into the soul at that time to superior call a Blade Seeker to the rearguard, where Sacred pays counterblast 1 to call a grade 2 or greater Seeker. Effectively, even if frontrow units aren't immediately accessible in hand, File and Sacred can together bring two frontrow cards out from the deck just by Legioning, and then with the two Blaster Blades' counterblasts can take out the opponent's entire front row.

Splitting, Seeker Brutus.

The alternative grade 3, Splitting Seeker Brutus from Fighter's Collection 2014, has a more distinct early game compared to Sacred Wingal; when placed on the vanguard circle he can counterblast 1 to search the deck for Locrinus and call it to the rearguard. His especial counterblast activates when he attacks the vanguard and has Legion, endowing four frontrow Seekers with +3000 power. Since the both halves of the Legion pair may be selected, this causes the vanguard lane to swing for 26000 power by itself, while the rearguard lanes attack in the range of 19~22000 boosted. Although not as combo heavy as the Brawlers, being able to reliably make both frontrow rearguards break the ~21000 line for counterblast 1 every turn makes Brutus a modern Soul Saver Dragon capable of a staggeringly strong endgame. Unlike Sacred Wingal, whose superior calls and potential double frontrow retire are strong plays at any part of the match, Brutus' field power bonus can fall flat in the early and middle of a fight where the opponent is starting the turn at low damage. Comparing preview cards from upcoming sets BT16 and EB10~11, Legion skills that are purely used for the endgame are already a rarity. Brutus is considered likely to be replaced by Thing Saver Dragon from BT16, a card already preordering for 3000 yen apiece (approx. $30 in US money) double the price of a Dragonic Nouvelle Vague.

Also of note is Sigma's Pale Moon deck in the lead of the second place team. Venus Luquier is a rare sight for professional play, as while she's an effective successor to the Luquier ”Я” that took last year's winter national championship, she's been generally overshadowed by the likes of Nouvelle Vague and the Revenger series. Sigma's approach to the deck dropped Silver Thorn Assistant Irina--often regarded as the crux of the Silver Thorns' soulcharging engine and a staple in their builds--in favor of Beast Tamer Ana's aggressive on-boost counterblast, using her in combination with the grade 2 Maricica to bring out an extra lane when their attack hits, with the potential to target Assistant Zelma for their skills and then swap Maricica into the soul to call out one more attacker. With the right combination of plays, these types of multiple attack chains will also power up Silver Thorn Upright Lion and the original Luquier herself. While modern Luquier has been typically thought of in terms of being a soul-derived advantage engine, these aggressive plays are a fresh and interesting approach to Silver Thorns. You can jump directly to the decklists by searching the page for [2HVGCS]

May BeNeLux Tournament [MBNL]
First Place: Ozan Fincan
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dust Tail Unicorn (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
x4 Star-vader, Scouting Ferris DT
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x2 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
Grade 1
x3 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x2 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Mana Shot Star-vader, Neon
Grade 2
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x3 Star-vader, Moebius Breath Dragon
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x3 Furious Claw Star-vader, Niobium
Grade 3
x1 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon
x3 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x3 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Second Place: Daniel Gaillard
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)
x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x2 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x2 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
Grade 1
x3 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x2 Rising Phoenix
x4 Steel Blooded Eradicator, Shuki
x4 Eradicator, Demoliton Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x1 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Thunder Boom Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x3 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant

Second Sapporo VGCS [2SVGCS]
First Place Team: ○るでぃがわからせる
Foreward: Dasukuro/だすくろ
Deck Name: Deck Descended of the Demonic Dragon 2014/魔竜降臨したデッキ 2014
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x1 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Demonic Dragon Mage, Abarara CT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
Grade 1
x2 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x3 Dominate Drive Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x1 Cruel Dragon
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Midfighter: valdy (sic)
Deck Name: Vowing Valdy Special 2014/ボーイングヴぁるでぃスペシャル 2014
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x2 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x2 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Malevolent Djinn CT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Tonfa Wielding Brawler, Ark
x4 Rising Phoenix
x2 Eradicator of the True Flames, Castor
Grade 2
x4 Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon
x3 Military Brawler, Lisei
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
x2 Brawler Youjin
Grade 3
x4 Brawler, Shotgun Blow Dragon
x3 Brawler, Skybeat Dragon

Captain: Northern Jewel/北の八坂 (Kita no Yasakani)
Deck Name: Golembeat 2014/ゴーレムビート　2014
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x3 Star-vader, Meteo Liger CT
x4 Star-Vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Scounting Ferris DT
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x1 Star-vader, Jailer Tail DT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
Grade 1
x4 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
x2 Engraving Star-vader, Praseodymium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader Magnet Hollow
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3
x3 Star-vader, ”Ω” Glendios
x4 Star-vader, ”Я” Cradle
x1 Dauntless Dominate Draogn ”Я”
x1 Dragonic Overlord ”The Яebirth”
x1 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier ”Я”
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon ”Я”

Second Place Team: Over Maxi Boost/マキシブースト終わった
Foreward: Buster/バスター
Deck Name: Shadow Paladin/シャドウパラディン
Grade 0
x2 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x3 Self-control Revenger, Rakia
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
x1 Black-winged Sword Breaker
x2 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Overcoming Revenger, Lukea
x3 Wiles Revenger, Mana
Grade 3
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
x4 Revenger, Dragruler Phantom

Midfighter: Hide/ひで
Deck Name: Papparapaa/パッパラパー
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x2 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
x1 Carved Seal Star-vader, Praseodymium
x4 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader, Magnet Hollow
x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, “Ω” Glendios
x4 Star-vader, “Я” Cradle
x1 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”
x1 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Я”
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”

Captain: Shitarabakizoku/したらば貴族
Deck Name: 夏野こおりが好きだ
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x4 Brawler, Green Gem Carbuncle HT
x4 Malevolent Djinn CT
x4 Brawler, Dokouson DT
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Guld
x2 Tonfa Wielding Brawler, Ark
x4 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator of the True Flames, Castor
Grade 2
x4 Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon
x3 Military Brawler, Lisei
x3 Brawler Youjin
x2 Dragonic Deathscythe
Grade 3
x4 Brawler, Shotgun Blow Dragon
x3 Brawler, Skybeat Dragon

First Hokusetsu VGCS [1HVGCS]
First Place Team: Wild Hitter/ワイルドヒッター
Forward: Hokaze/ほかぜ
Deck Name: Cute Deep Crimson (Shinku Kawaii/真紅)
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x2 Star-vader, Spark Doll CT
x3 Star-Vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Scounting Ferris DT
x3 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x1 Star-vader, Jailer Tail DT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
Grade 1
x4 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x3 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
x4 Engraving Star-vader, Praseodymium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader Magnet Hollow
x2 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3
x3 Star-vader, ”Ω” Glendios
x4 Star-vader, ”Я” Cradle
x1 Dauntless Dominate Draogn ”Я”
x1 Ice Prison Dark Lord, Cocytus ”Я”
x1 Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster ”Я”
x1 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier ”Я”
x1 Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue ”Я”
x1 Maiden of Venus Trap ”Я”
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon ”Я”

Midfighter: Yakan/やかん
Deck name: Cute Luna-sama (Runa-sama Kawaii) ルナ様かわいい
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x2 Blue-ray Dracokid CT
x1 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
x2 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x3 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x2 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Diable Drive Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x3 Dominate Drive Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x1 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Captain: Rinon/りのん
Deck Name: Stomachache (Itsuu/胃痛)
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x4 Messegal Seeker DT
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
Grade 1
x2 Flash Shield, Iseult
x2 Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria
x4 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x1 Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod
x1 Seeker of the Right Path, Gangalen
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x3 Combined Strength Seeker, Locrinus
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Sacred Wingal
x4 Splitting Seeker, Brutus

Second Place Team: 24 Year-old VG Fighters/２４歳、ＶＧファイターです
Forward: Sigma/シグマ
Deck Name: Pale Moon/ペイルムーン
Grade 0
x1 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emil (FV)
x4 Silver Thorn Barking Dragon CT
x2 Dynamite Juggler CT
x4 Poison Juggler CT
x2 Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha DT
x4 Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia HT
Grade 1
x4 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana
x4 Silver Thorn Assistant, Zelma
x4 Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia
x2 Silver Thorn Breathing Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica
x4 Silver Thorn Rising Dragon
x3 Silver Thorn Upright Lion
Grade 3
x4 Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier
x3 Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier
x1 Miracle Pop, Eva

Midfighter: Daigo (TL note; the cardfighter's name is written with the kanji for "Enormous Mistake" 大誤 read phonetically as "Daigo.")
Deck Name: Bermuda △
Grade 0
x1 PRISM-Smile, Coro (FV)
x4 Heartful Ale, Fundy DT
x4 Duo Gran Pasturn, Syanon CT
x4 Duo Pride Crown, Madeira CT
x4 Duo Tropical Healer, Mejelda HT
Grade 1
x4 Duo Afternoon Tea, Parana
x3 Apprentice Idol, Karen
x3 Mermaid Idol, Felucca
x4 PRISM-Duo Aria
Grade 2
x4 Duo Mini Hat, Rhone
x4 Duo Kelpie Jockey, Syrdarya
x3 Duo White Ice Crystal, Rikka
Grade 3
x4 Duo Temptation, Ried
x4 Duo True Sister, Mare

Captain: Kakao
Deck Name: Kagerou
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x2 Blue-ray Dracokid CT
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Abarara CT
x1 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Therese HT
x1 Seal Dragon, Sharting HT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x1 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x1 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x2 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x1 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x1 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x2 Dragonic Burnout
Grade 3
x3 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x2 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

News: Ozan Fincan Wins May BeNeLux Tournament with Chaos Breaker Dragon

Yesterday's BeNeLux ended with the fan-favorite Link Joker clan in first place, played by European cardfighter Ozan Fincan. Unusually for a fan competition, this month's BeNeLux was the first major tournament of the BT13-on format, with its top 8 showcasing several of the competitive favorites from Catastrophic Outbreak, in particular Link Joker's new trump card Chaos Breaker Dragon and the Nova Grappler Reverse unit, Ethics Buster "Яeverse." The BeNeLux tournaments are a line of unofficial competitions organized by the joint vanguard community of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Although open to being held in any of the three countries' major cities, it is typically held in Antwerp, Belgium on a monthly to bimonthly basis.

Participation this month was high in spite of the latent controversies surrounding the last BeNeLux winner. With an Xbox 360 for first place as an incentive to participate, a total 28 participants joined the tournament, with clan usage breaking down as follows;

May 4th BeNeLux Clan Breakdown
6 Shadow Paladin
5 Narukami
4 Link Joker
3 Nova Grappler
2 Kagero
2 Dimension Police
1 Dark Irregulars
1 Genesis
1 Gold paladin
1 Angel Feather
1 Murakumo
1 Aqua Force

Chaos Breaker's successful debut was well forecasted by the greater community, as the card's unique ability to slow the pace of the game by cheaply Locking the opponent's cards, preserving Locks with its support unit Palladium, and then later retire those cards as they unlock to draw allows it to control the general flow of card advantage throughout a fight and prevent opponents from efficiently fighting back. Despite the presence of the new decks, the top 8 was generally dominated by Eradicator cardfighters, with Dragonic Descendant-Gauntlet Buster as the most played build of the top 8, and the tournament as a whole saw heavier Shadow Paladin presence than anything else.

May 4th BeNeLux Top 8
1. Ozan Fincan (Link joker - Chaos Breaker Dragon)
2. Daniel Gallardo (Eradicator - Descendant/Gauntlet)
3. Vincent De Baere (Eradicator - Descendant/Gauntlet)
4. Gillian van Sande (Dark Irregulars - Amon Reverse)
5. Frederik De Baere (Nova Grappler - Ethics Buster Reverse)
6. Corentin Janssens (Eradicator - Descendant/Gauntlet)
7. Andy Van den Ouwelant (Link Joker - Chaos Breaker Dragon)
8. Kim Geerinckx (Genesis - Fortuna)

Seventh place in the tournament is a familiar face for professional play, taken by none other than 2012 French regional champion Andy Van den Ouwelant. Van den Ouwelant made a strong showing in World Championship 2012, winning his regional title with a Spectral Duke Dragon deck played against William Astoul's Dragonic Lawkeeper, and after two years has continued to persevere in modern play by adapting to Link Joker alongside a host of other international cardfighters. Chaos Breaker's international tenure is projected to be short-lived, as VGE-EB09: Divine Dragon Progression is due early next month alongside the grade 4 unit that has proved to be the terror of Japanese play.

News: Galaxy Blaukluger, Raging Form and Nouvelle Vague Place in Seventh Battle City Tournament, Link Joker Takes Third Tachikawa CS

The results from Japan's most recent unofficial team tournament have been published, with team KHP winning the seventh Battle City Sakai VG Trio ChampionShip. KHP's members played a combination of the Blau series, Raging Form and Dragonic Nouvelle Vague decks, following the recent trends of Nova Grappler's rise among the established Kagerou and Shadow Paladin decks. Unlike past Blaukluger decks, KHP forward Gocchan's build emphasized the original Blaukluger as part of a crossride-centric strategy, shifting away from the focus on Mond Blaukluger that contemporary cardfighters have made, and away from the more aggressive break ride format in general. Team midfighter Tokumicchan has card-for-card emulated the deck of reigning national champion Lee Innyeng, importing its Claudas- and Blaster Dark-centric strategies and to some degree finalizing the decklist with his success.

The seventh Battle City Sakai CS was held at 10:00 AM JST on the 16th, and conducted between 64 teams (192 persons) with an entry fee of 3000 yen per team. Each team member was required to use a different clan, but mixing clans within one deck was permitted. The first place team in the tournament received a voucher for an entire case (sixteen boxes) of VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth, to be released in Japan on the 28th. Second place received a voucher for nine boxes of the set, while third received a voucher for six, and fourth for three boxes. The eighth Battle City CS is currently slated for March 21st.

The Third Tachikawa VGCS also concluded just recently, with Link Joker cardfighter Shiimo taking first place against all odds. Since the rise of Nouvelle Vague and Minerva in the BT14-on format, Link Joker has taken a backseat to competing decks, with usage scaling back with each tournament until it now accounts for just under 6% of the total number of decks played at Tachikawa. This is a strong contrast to the West Tokyo CS of one booster set back, where Link Joker made up one-fourth of all decks played in the tournament. So while Shiimo's Chaos Breaker deck is familiar territory to many, the circumstances are not.

The Third Tachikawa VGCS Deck Breakdown [86 Participants]
 Kagerou 23 (Nouvelle 16, Dominate 7)
Regalia 17
Jewel Knight 8
Revenger 6
Blau 6
Link Joker 5
Eradicators 3
Dimensional Robo 3
Gold Paladin 3 (Ezel 2, Liberator 1)
Beast Deity 2
Silver Thorn 2
Great Nature 2
Magus 1
Celestials 1
Hyakki Vogue 1
Bermuda 1
Aqua Force 1
Musketeers 1 

The Revengers, Link Joker and Eradicators, which not long ago had dominated competitive play at the height of their shared era, have dwindled down to just 6, 5 and 3 decks out of the 86-person tournament. Kagerou and Genesis firmly dominated the third Tachikawa VGCS, building on a string of victories for the two clans. While Genesis is unanimously held together by the Sacred Regalia series led by its restanding grade 3 Artemis and on-soulblast superior call units Chamomile and Melissa, Kagerou is divided between cardfighters playing Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Яeverse” and those using the grade 4 Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. Nouvelle's future was uncertain after the keystone first vanguard that enabled its easy Nouvelle Roman plays, Lizard Soldier Conroe, was restricted last January, but after its success in the Kansai VGCS general confidence in Nouvelle has been restored. Like faruke's Nouvelle deck before them, Shiimo and his fellow top 8 Nouvelle cardfighters were using 4 copies of Calamity Tower Wyvern to make effective use of their soul and counterbalance the loss in consistency from Conroe being hit. Contrast this with Ucchii from the seventh Battle City CS, who played a more conventional deck that ignored the core issue altogether.

In a moment of self-aware humor, the Tachikawa CS homepage listed the Nouvelle Vagues in Tiisupin and Rabbit's decks as grade 3s--not a hard idea to grasp, considering that with the supporting grade 1 Roman in the format, this is how the majority of Japanese cardfighters have treated Nouvelle both before and after Conroe's restriction.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events.

In our final story for tonight, the comprehensive rules for the English edition of the Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG have been amended to officially define Lock and Unlock. The most important definitions provided are that Locked cards are not treated as the same cards as they previously were, they do not have a defined stand or rest position but always Unlock as stand, and that the circle they are on is also modified into a separate type of circle. For more thorough information, see relevant sections 10.1.21 and 10.1.23.

Seventh Battle City Sakai VG Trio CS
Winning Team: KHP
Gocchan/ごっちゃん
Grade 0
x1 Morgenroet (FV)
x4 Regenbogen HT
x3 Sschneeregen DT
x1 Fighting Battleship, Prometheus CT
x4 Schones Wetter CT
x4 Red Lightning CT
Grade 1
x4 Blau Dunkelheit
x4 Tough Boy
x3 Clay-doll Mechanic
x3 Stoic Hani
Grade 2
x4 Blaukluger
x4 Jupiter Blaukluger
x3 Mars Blaukluger
Grade 3
x4 Galaxy Blaukluger
x3 Stern Blaukluger
x1 Mond Blaukluger

Tokumicchan/とくみっちゃん
Grade 0
x2 Frontline Revenger, Claudas (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x3 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Revenger of Nullity, Masquerade
x3 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Ucchii/ウッチー
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
x3 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x2 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x3 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x3 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
x1 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
Grade 1
x2 Dragon Knight, Ashghal
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x1 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x2 Wyvern Guard, Barri
Grade 2
x3 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x4 Bellicosity Dragon
Grade 3
x3 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x1 Cruel Dragon
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Third Tachikawa VGCS
First place: Shiimo/しぃも
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dust Tail Unicorn (FV)
x3 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x4 Star-vader, Meteo Liger CT
x3 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x4 Star-vader Stellar Garage HT
Grade 1
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x3 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
x2 Mana Shot Star-vader, Neon
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
Grade 2
x3 Strike Star-vader, Krypton
x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
x1 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon

Runner-up: Tiisupin/てぃーすぴん
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x3 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x1 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
Grade 1
x1 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
Grade 2
x2 Hidden Dragon, Striken
x1 Dominate Drive Dragon
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
x1 Demonic Dragon Berserker, Kumbhanda
Grade 3
x1 Cruel Dragon
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

News: Trial Decks 14 & 15 Announced, Royal Paladins to Return for Legion Mate, Catastrophic Outbreak Sees English Release Date

Early this morning the Japanese cf-vanguard portal updated with information on two upcoming trial decks for the fourth season of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime, Legion Mate. To be released on April 18, the 50-card preconstructed decks VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope (希望の探索者(シーカー) Kibou no Tansakumono (Shiikaa)) and VG-TD15: Brawler of Friendship (友情の喧嘩屋(ブロウラー) Yuujyou no Kenkaya (Burouraa)) will each introduce 17 new cards, with three foils in each TD, one RRR and two R-rarity cards. Unlike with past TDs which were reprinted later in the year of their introduction, both decks will launch alongside their Beginning Set equivalents, which will have the same contents but with RRR reprints of Claudia, Spark Kid Dragoon and two Royal Paladin and Narukami units from the as of yet untitled BT16. The Beginning Sets will also come with 53 official sleeves, a deckholder, a Fighter's Counter used to show power increases on cards, and a Cardfight Pack Vol. 13 with a random promo card inside. While TD14 & 15 will retail for 1000 yen each, their equivalent Beginning Sets will instead retail for 2400 yen. Unlike with past decks, there are currently no accompanying promotional images of the sets, leading to some speculation as to which characters will be using Royal Paladin and Narukami for Legion Mate.

Currently it is known that TD14 will feature "Seeker, Sacred Wingal" "Blaster Blade Seeker" and "Splendid Seeker, Cerdic" while TD15 will feature "Brawler, Skybeat Dragon" "Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon" and "Brawler, Wildfist Dragon." Based on the return of Wingal and Blaster Blade, TD14 is widely believed to be Sendou Aichi's trial deck for Legion Mate, but the seemingly deliberate ambiguity surrounding the deck and the presence of the young Kai's first vanguard, Claudia, in Beginning Set 14 has some Japanese fans speculating that Kai Toshiki will be picking up Royal Paladin for the fourth season, coming back to the clan that he used in his origin story Episode 0, and that Aichi will be missing for the beginning of Legion Mate. Regardless of who TD14 belongs to, the general consensus is that TD15's Brawlers are designed around Ishida Naoki's character traits.

The trial decks will introduce a new mechanic, dubbed "Legion" (双闘 Soutou レギオン Region pronounced in Japanese with a hard g sound.) This is distinct from the idea of a legion as a subclan, using the kanji for "pair" and "fight" together with an English reading. The details of Legion's function are as of yet unknown, but based on the reading of it as "fighting together/fighting as pairs" it has been variously interpreted as either letting units from different subclans interact or letting entirely different clans function together.

On our side of the water a release for VGE-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak is finally in sight, with the stated release date of May 2 bringing the set worldwide in time for Team League 2014. BT13 is most noted for its introduction of Chaos Break Dragon, widely regarded as Link Joker's optimal grade 3 second only to Infinite Zero Dragon in importance, and secondarily for the return of the much-awaited Nubatama clan and their combination of bind and discard mechanics.The set's Reverse cards, Dark Dimensional Robo "Я" Daiyusha, and Deadliest Beast Deity Ethics Buster "Я" have likewise embedded themselves in competitive play as definitive decks for their clans in professional play, with Ethics "Я" most recently making the headlines in a combination deck alongside Ethics Buster Extreme.

News: Black Rings Rise Over Tokyo Vanguard Championship, Chaos Breaker and “Я” Daiyusha Top

The West Tokyo VGCS finished on Monday evening, concluding a collaborative effort between the organizers of the Fateclo and Pitarui VGCS tournaments. 107 cardfighters participated in the West Tokyo VGCS, making it the second largest fan tournament in the game's history after the Hachiouji VGCS (114 cardfighters), albeit at only one third the size of a typical regional tournament. This was also the first Cardfight!! Vanguard competition to employ a new tournament structure which combined two different systems, four preliminary rounds of Swiss draw followed by four rounds for the finals using the remaining top 16 cardfighters. Each round lasted 50 minutes, and was conducted in a best of 3 games format between participants.

Unlike in the wholly elimination-based tournaments typical of official events, the Swiss format popular in fan tournaments has each participant play a certain number of rounds regardless of how many losses they take, scoring points based on their number of wins, losses and draws. While this guarantees every participant a certain amount of games even if they do not make the top cut, Swiss is not very time efficient because the same large number of players have to be paired each round where in an elimination tournament a certain percentage of players are eliminated in each round after the second, and a player that scores too highly in a protracted tournament may cause scenarios in which it is impossible for them to not place first, making the final round of the tournament effectively meaningless. The West Tokyo VGCS went for an optimal compromise by dividing the tournament into four Swiss rounds that would guarantee at least eight games to each player, then cutting to top 16 for the last four rounds, alleviating the time and point concerns approximately four hours into the event.

Of the fighters attending, 28 played Link Joker, 26 Revengers, 13 Eradicators, 6 Dimension Police, 5 Oracle Think Tank, 5 Great Nature, 5 Nova Grappler, 4 Pale Moon, 4 Angel Feather, 2 Granblue, 2 Aqua Force, 2 Kagerou, 2 Liberators, 1 Royal Paladin, 1 Spike Brothers and 1 Dark Irregulars. First through third place in the West Tokyo VGCS were won by Link Joker cardfighters, with fourth place going to a Dimension Police fighter wielding Dark Dimensional Robo, “Я” Daiyusha as his ace in the hole. Other highlights include a Zerachiel deck, as well as a Great Nature deck running Chatnoir, Polaris and Leo-pald “Я” in the top 8, as well as a Tetra Drive Dragon deck. Each decklist of the top 4 has been translated into English below.

The Second Hakata VGCS was also dominated by Link Joker, with 7 of the top 8 being Link Joker decks, and the remaining build being a Raging Form Dragon deck. Decklists are not yet available, but this is yet another tournament pointing to the strong impact of VG-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak on the format. Chaos Breaker Dragon has now become firmly established as one of the dominating forces of the format, owing to its strong control-based play style that exceeds past decks in scope by preventing units from being called as well as retiring them later on. The effect this has on the game is fairly close to some predictions of how format warping the card would be, in stark contrast to antagonist clans of the past. During the 2011 and 2012 tournament seasons, Shadow Paladin and Aqua Force followed a set formula of a dramatic introduction with only one or two deckbuilds, neither of which were especially prominent in competitive play. Link Joker however has had an immediate effect on the game from the beginning, and while that effect only began to really pick up speed in wake of BT13, their control-based play style and multiple strong customization options make them a deck to watch in the Fighter's Climax 2013 tournaments.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model, with entry fees in the vicinity of 1000 yen per person that go toward grand prizes like booster boxes, Nintendo 3DS handhelds and other merchandise. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events.

West Tokyo VGCS First Place
Handle Name: Battledome/バトルドーム

Grade 0

x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

Grade 1

x4 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x1 Opener of the Black Door
x1 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

Grade 2

x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x4 Star-vader, Mobius Breath Dragon

x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Second Place
Handle Name: Masa/マサ

Grade 0

x1 Extending Black Ring, Pleiades (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x3 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x3 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT

Grade 1

x3 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x3 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

Grade 2

x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x3 Star-vader, Mobius Breath Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Third Place
Handle Name: DDB/ＤＤＢ

Grade 0

x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

Grade 1

x2 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

Grade 2

x3 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x4 Soaring Star-vader, Krypton

x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Fourth Place
Handle Name: Flonne-senpai's pillow is gigantic/フロン先輩の枕はデカい
Grade 0
x1 Dimensional Robo, Daimagnum (FV)
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daibattles CT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daicrane DT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gorescue HT
x2 Justice Cobalt CT
x2 Army Penguin DT
Grade 1
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daibrave
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daishield
x4 Commander Laurel
x2 Dimensional Robo, Dailander
Grade 2
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daidragon
x4 Dimensional Robo, Kaizard
x1 Dimensional Robo, Daibarrett
Grade 3
x4 Dark Dimensional Robo, “Я” Daiyusha
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser
x2 Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha

News: Fighter's Climax 2013 Fukuoka Decklists, Amon “Я” and Chaos Breaker Dragon Take the Spotlight

Just in time for Halloween, a very spooky deck has opened Japan's 2013 winter national tournament. To great fanfare the results of the first FC2013 regional qualifier have been posted on the official portal, with first place cardfighter Sakamoto Issei bringing Demon God Marquis, Amon “Я” to the height of the open class tournament. The surprise both domestically and internationally cannot be overstated, as the Irregulars were far from one of the clans projected to do well in the immediate buildup to the tournament. The Fukuoka regional was expected to be taken by Link Joker decks in droves. In the eyes of many the Irregulars have still not surmounted their primary problems of gaining and maintaining card advantage, but Sakamoto chose to instead take the clan in a completely different direction to even the playing field for his clan. Decklists are at the bottom.

Amon “Я”'s overall strategy is to rapidly soulcharge 2 cards at a time with Hell's Deal and Hell's Draw, using the generally-open counterblast for Gwynn the Ripper's cost to retire the opponent's rearguards, turning the large soul into a strong midgame with Demon World Marquis Amon's consistent 21000+ line and then going in with Demon God Marquis Amon “Я”'s limit break for similar power with an additional critical that allows it to make vengeance plays when the opponent is only at 3 damage. The deck's soul-oriented build also allows it to set up a crossride fast and early, but not as accurately as Luquier “Я.” Sakamoto Issei's Amon is notable for its more extensive use of the damage zone, decreasing grade 3 space in favor of running four copies of Gwynn and the very unusual choice of Bloody Calf over Doreen the Thruster or Poet Amon. Typically Doreen and/or Poet are chosen for their soul synergy and overwhelming field power boosts, and these strengths have been stressed even more in an era where the Irregulars have Lon Shinrin for a 12000 power rearguard attacker, but Sakamoto chose Calf for her unique ability to control the opponent's boosters, playing a similar role to Gwynn in a deckbuild that is innately low on counterblast costs.

When taking into account the base Amon's soulcharge-to-retire skill, the overall theme of Sakamoto's deck can be argued to be field control, using Devil in Shadow as a sacrifice to Amon to take out the opponent's rearguards, and Calf and Gwynn to do so in a way that actually gives the Irregulars the upper hand. Sakamoto's other innovation is the use of Yellow Bolt, using him to steadily soulcharge 1 card every turn after limit break, then Lock Bolt for the cost of his Reverse card's skill so that Amon “Я”'s power will steadily built each turn for a small extra bonus compared to contemporary Amon “Я” decks. Bloody Calf may yet become a staple of Amon “Я” play after this overwhelming success, while it remains to be seen if Yellow Bolt will be similarly adopted. Considering Luquier “Я”'s success in the previous national championship, this may be Irregulars' time to shine.

While runner-up Kajima Kiyoto played a fairly standard Raging Form Dragon deck with the extra grade 0 and Darkbond Trumpeter that have now become staples of the Revengers, Kajima's build is still illustrating some very gradual development for the Shadow Paladins. Up to this point Mordred Phantom has very consistently been a four card staple, but Kajima chose to run him at three in order to make room for the 12 grade 2s that are also endemic to Revenger play, maximizing his build's options. Currently Kajima's deck seems to reflect the Revengers as a whole, using Dark Bond Trumpeter to fetch Claudas early on in the match for a quiet buildup, break riding with Mordred Phantom to fill out the field and power up Raging Form Dragon, using Tartu to fetch Dorin, unflipping and retiring with Blaster Dark Revenger, then finishing out the game with Raging Form Dragon's persona ride.

Within the top 8, fourth place cardfighter Kamiya Ayaka has been getting a lot of attention for bringing a previously-unproven Great Nature deck to the top brackets of professional play, with her School Punisher Leo-pald “Я” deck winning the Doctor O Prize for innovation. Kamiya's strategy was to open turn 3 with the Chatnoir break ride, break riding Chatnoir over Chatnoir on turn 4. By comboing Chatnoir's break ride skill and Binoculus Tiger's retire skill, she could stack between 8000 and 16000 power on a single Stamp Sea Otter, for a rearguard lane of 23~31000 power, a vanguard lane of 28000~ power, and another lane that could vary between 15~23000 power, then at the end of the turn draw two cards for Chatnoir's skill but not be able to retire Otter because of its own continuous ability, netting a total advantage of +1 overall. To further take advantage of this however, Kamiya ran eight stand triggers in her deck, so that each additional attack would allow her to draw another card at the end of the turn for a +2 or +3 overall while continuously wailing on the opponent with high power attacks. This transformed her stands into a combination of stand and draw instead of just stands alone, without the major weaknesses of draw triggers to interfere. Like Amon, the deck has very few uses of counterblast, so in this case it also made use of Lamp Camel's on-hit CB2 to draw to further combo with Chatnoir's power increasing break ride. For her final strategy, Kamiya would break ride with Leo-pald “Я” and use his limit break to Lock a rearguard and power up two rearguards by +4000, retiring them in the end phase, then calling them back. This would further build on the break ride's power boosts, with rearguards occasionally stronger than a post-limit break Liberator of the Round Table Alfred, and was further supported by her deck's personal staple Tank Mouse. Tank Mouse has until now been a relatively lackluster card, a base 6000 power grade 1 that can be rested to power up another unit by +4000; usually just boosting with it is better, but as in the case of Yellow Bolt, Tank Mouse is a very viable Lock target with high synergy toward being sacrificed.

Meanwhile Chaos Breaker Dragon has been picked up immediately by the junior's division, taking both first and second place at Fukuoka. An unusual trend shared between both the junior class and team tournaments is the teching of Nebula Lord Dragon as an alternative ride to Chaos Breaker, likely out of appreciation of the deck's overwhelming strength when the break ride is brought about. While Chaos Breaker is notorious as a hard counter to Reverse cards and still strong as one of the most consistent control decks in other matchups, having the occasional option of Nebula Lord as a transition between Infinite Zero and Chaos Breaker can be a useful battleplan to Link Joker cardfighters, as going through all three grade 3s both capitalizes on Nebula's strengths and his crucial weaknesses of only bringing his massive field power bonus for one turn in the game while also being wholly dependent on Infinite. With Chaos Breaker still providing a good fallback if Zero falls apart, the game strategy is solid enough that this development may be expected to progress among other Link Joker cardfighters in the future.

This year's Fighter's Climax is part of the larger Bushiroad World Grand Prix for the company's Japanese TCGs. It is the first year that Cardfight!! Vanguard is a part of the WGP. Note that while the tournament was originally referred to on Twitter as the Fukuoka regional, it is being officially designated as the Hakata regional on the official website; much like in the case of the "Dallas" versus "Texas" qualifiers abroad, both names are technically correct with regards to where the tournament took place.

Accompanying the open and junior class tournaments this year is the return of VF Koushien, a special triples division of team tournaments for student cardfighters. VF Koushien is based on the summer & winter Koushiens, two high-profile national baseball tournaments held in August and March in Japan. Like the baseball tournaments, participation in VF Koushien is restricted to school teams, and all members on the team must be from the same school. Unlike in the baseball Koushien, VF Koushien is open to any elementary, junior or high school cardfighters. If for any reason one fighter cannot participate on their team after it has registered, up to one participant may be changed out for another under the conditions that the new fighter is from the same school as the other team members.

Fukuoka's team greatly reflects the state of competitive play, with the three major decks of the format each onboard; Kuroki Yuki's Dragonic Descendant, Yoshida Hiroshige's Chaos Breaker Dragon and Tomita Hiromi's Raging Form Dragon. Although greatly scaled back compared to its glory days, Descendant is still a definitive part of the format, and the combination of three different decks each capable of varying levels of opposing field control, draw power and deck searching made for a plethora of positive matchups for Fukuoka's team.

Hakata Open Class Regional Tournament
First place: Sakamoto Issei/坂下一生

Grade 0

x1 Devil in Shadow (FV)

x4 Dark Knight of Nightmareland CT

x2 Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand CT

x2 Blitz Ritter CT

x4 Hysteric Shirley DT

x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick HT

Grade 1

x4 Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula

x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal

x4 Bloody Calf

x2 Yellow Bolt

Grade 2

x4 Amon's Follower, Lon Shinrin

x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw

x4 Gwynn the Ripper

Grade 3

x4 Demon God Marquis, Amon “Я”

x3 Demon World Marquis, Amon

Runner-up: Karajima Kiyoto/辛島聖人
Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x1 Frontline Revenger, Claudas
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x2 Death Feather Eagle CT
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x2 Freezing Revenger DT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x3 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x3 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Doctor O Prize: Kamiya Ayaka/神谷綾香
Grade 0

x1 Acorn Master (FV)

x4 Dictionary Goat HT

x4 Eraser Alpaca ST

x4 Alarm Chicken ST

x1 Triangle Cobra CT

x3 Holder Hedgehog CT

Grade 1

x3 Coiling Duckbill

x3 Stamp Sea Otter

x4 Tank Mouse

x4 Cable Sheep

Grade 2

x3 Compass Lion

x4 Lamp Camel

x4 Binoculus Tiger

Grade 3

x4 School Punisher, Leo-pald “Я”

x4 Honorary Doctor, Chatnoir

Hakata Junior Class Regional Tournament
First place: Kenta Tatsuhiko/権田達彦
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FVG)
x3 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x3 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Moon Commander ST
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
Grade 1
x2 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
Grade 2
x4 Furious Claw Star-vader, Niobium
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Runner-up: Sougawa Yoshiki/早川嘉輝

Grade 0

x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FVG)

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

x4 Keyboard Star-vader, Bismuth ST

x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

Grade 1

x1 Opener of the Black Door

x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle

x3 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

x3 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium

x3 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon

x4 The Hollow Twin Blades, Binary Star

Grade 2

x2 Soaring Star-vader, Krypton

x2 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon

x2 Singularity Shooter

x4 Star-vader, Moebius Breath Dragon

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x3 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

x1 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon

Doctor O Prize: Hagio Kazuya/萩尾和哉

Grade 0

x1 Wingal Liberator (FV)

x4 Fortune Liberator ST

x3 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT

x1 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT

x4 Strike Liberator CT

x4 Elixir Liberator HT

Grade 1

x1 Barkgal Liberator

x1 Silver Fang Witch

x4 Bomergal Liberator

x4 Little Liberator, Marron

x3 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth

x2 Future Liberator, Llew

Grade 2

x1 Blaster Blade Liberator

x1 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon

x1 Zoomdown Eagle

x3 Zoigal Liberator

x4 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin

Grade 3

x1 Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore

x1 Onslaught Liberator, Mailzion

x1 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred

x1 Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel

x2 Dignified Gold Dragon

x1 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel

x1 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Vanguard Fight Koushien 2013 (Student only) Hakata Regional Tournament Championship Team

Tomita Hiromi/富田大珠

Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x3 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Yoshida Hiroshige/吉田大成

Grade 0

x1 Extending Black Ring, Pleiades (FVG)

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT

x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

Grade 1

x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle

x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium

x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium

x3 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon

x2 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum

Grade 2

x4 Soaring Star-vader, Krypton

x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon

x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x3 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

x1 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon

Kuroki Yuki/黒木優希

Grade 0
x1 Eradicator, Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x1 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x3 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Pollux CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
Grade 1
x2 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x3 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
x1 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x4 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x3 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”