News: European, Asia-Oceania Championship Results, Japan Eliminated from WCS2012

Note: 11/21/12 - Due to an HTML error, part of this post was not displaying properly yesterday. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Today the official results of the European and Asian-Oceania events were made public, revealing the final opponents of Brandon Smith and his fellow Americans at the 2012 World Championship. Due to the differing tournament structure, Europe will field only its champion, while the top three of the Asian-Oceania championship will be competing along with in Tokyo.

Representing Asia is national champion Irwin Jansen Arogo from the Philippines, using a Spectral Duke Dragon-Garmore combination deck. The runners-up were Henry of Indonesia, Sham Chun Lok of Hong Kong and Frenky of Singapore. Chun Lok fought with a Tsukuyomi deck, and Frenky a Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion-based Narukami deck.

On the European side, champion Christopher Fernau of Germany will be representing with his Garmore deck. Second place finalist Anthony Francis of France also used Garmore, while Daniel Cottom of Great Britain came out as the first nationally competitive Pale Moon deck in Cardfight history, basing his build around Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier.

Due to all of the Japanese participants being eliminated or having otherwise not attended in the Asian-Oceania championship, the world championship's host country is no longer able to take the title in this year's event. This is the first such tournament in Vanguard's history in which Japan was both an eligible participant and was ultimately unable to take the title. Due to the similar elimination of France, Great Britain, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, the final participating countries in the tournament are the United States, Mexico, Canada, Germany, the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong. Barring sickness, injury or some other intervention by which a participant would be substituted, the finalists for the December 9 championship in Tokyo are:

1. Brandon Smith (Canada) - Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon)
2. Christopher Sok (United States, New York) - Gold Paladin (Garmore-Pellinore)
3. Gabriel Espinosa (Mexico) - Narukami (Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion)
4. Raymond Wong (United States, New York) - Gold Paladin (Garmore-Pellinore)
5. Christopher Fernau (Germany) - Gold Paladin (Garmore)
6. Irwin Jansen Arogo (Philippines) - Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon)
7. Henry (Indonesia) - Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon-Garmore)
8. Sham Chun Lok (Hong Kong) - Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

As six of the eight participants are Gold Paladin cardfighters, the odds heavily favor this clan, and some fighters are already predicting that the clan's runaway success will steal all of the top spots in the tournament. However, the finalist Narukami and Oracle Think Tank decks remain wild cards for the tournament, as all of these decks have an equal chance at the championship title.

Spotlight: Christopher Fernau

Fighter's Spotlight is an ongoing project concerned with tracking real-world professional cardfighters across the globe.

Fernau is on the right. To the left is Dima Kvatkun, the German runner-up. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard.

Christopher Fernau

Age: 24 (at regional crowning)
Titles Won: German Regional Champion, European National Champion
Current Status: European National Champion (Reigning)
Deck Type: Gold Paladin (Garmore)
Christopher Fernau is the reigning national champion for Europe, and one of two out of 105 cardfighters to qualify in Germany for the 2012 European national. Accordingly, he is also in line for the 2012 world championship title.

Originally, Fernau had a background with online cardfight, having played for one and a half years through the Cardfight Capital BYOND client. Ironically for one of the world's first competitive GoPala cardfighters, Fernau dislikes the clan and chose to use it for its strength in the German scene so that he could qualify to compete in the United Kingdom. His view at the time of the German regional was that of the clans available in the developing scene, the Royal and Gold Paladins, Kagerou, Tsukuyomi-based Oracle Think Tank, Granblue and Spike Brothers were the primary contenders for the world title. Of those, he selected Garmore-based Gold Paladin to adapt to Bushiroad's current double elimination tournament policy, as a way of solving the competitive equation, due to Spectral Duke Dragon forming a poor hybrid deck with Garmore and Fang Witch, the latter of which worked against Duke Dragon's soul-retaining evolving ride¹.

Decks and Play Style
Fernau's Gold Paladin deck is a six-draw and six-critical play on their established Garmore and Blond Ezel styles. Taking advantage of GoPala's strong field presence, Fernau opted to utilize draw cards like Silver Fang Witch in conjunction with their Blond Ezel four-soul superior ride to maximize the potential gains from Garmore and Ezel's superior calls. This turns every one-card gain into a two-card gain on top of the powerful rush that Ezel's early twin drive allows for, while gaining massive amounts of power for a strong offensive push with limit break later on.

Garmore offers a more consistent main strategy with his counterblast 2, superior calling his own custom booster in the vanguard circle for a 26000-power assault to help cripple the opponent's hand. Because of that specified superior call, Fernau is able to run Charjgal as only a single copy. Like Fang Witch, the Silver Wolf benefits from Ezel's extra soul via Charjgal's soulblast, and also works in tandem with the Incandescent Lion by being a 21000-power rearguard. Overall this makes his deck aggressive and capable of pulling out massive advantage at any time in the game, with incredible power gain and better chances of dealing extra damage from critical triggers, but it's weakened by the lack of surprises that contemporary Duke Dragon decks would push with. The inclusion of Gigantech Charger over Manawydan was considered strange in traditional theory, due to his skill primarily being effective with stand triggers and being vanguard-oriented, where Manawydan has greater synergy with critical and draw, being useful versus any unit regardless of circle. Fernau selected this unit based on having similar effectiveness to Beaumains, being able to mount an attack unboosted even versus base 11000 vanguards.

Ease of play factored in heavily here, with Fernau using Garmore to tie it together and superior call any card needed to suit the situation. Silver Fang Witch, Nemean Lion and Charjgal were given emphasis for that superior call, as each satisfies a different demand; Fang Witch gives out draw power and along with the Lion defense, while Charjgal brings out offensive strength that easily breaks past the most stable base power of the 2012 format. Ezel was selected as a backup strategy because of his superior ride, as his counterblast was regarded as wasteful by Fernau. Due to the deck's heavy emphasis on forming controlled 16-20000-power lines, her heavy counterblast consumption even with Tripp accounted for, and the lack of key targets like Lop Ear Shooter at the time of the regional, Viviane was omitted from the deck. Fang Witch was instead preferred for the gain in advantage due to forming a 20000 line with Garmore's limit break or Ezel's autoskill. Overall Fernau emphasized control of the field over creating spectacles, and because of this the deck contains only three unique skills--those of Kyrph, Ezel and Garmore.

Winter 2012 Regional Tournament, Germany: Chibi Gaara's RAWR Deck
Card Pool: TD01-BT03, BT06-EB03, PR 0001-0029
Grade 0
x1 Crimson Lion Cub, Kyrph (FVG)
x2 Silent Punisher CT
x2 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x4 Elixir Sommelier HT
x4 Falcon Knight of the Azure DT
Grade 1
x1 Charjgal
x2 Silver Fang Witch
x3 Sleygal Dagger
x4 Halo Shield, Mark
x4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
Grade 2
x3 Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion
x4 Mage of Calamity, Tripp
x4 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
Grade 3
x2 Gigantech Destroyer
x2 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel
x4 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore

Fernau's decklist saw him through the national event mostly unchanged. Only Falcon Knight was swapped out, in favor of Speeder Hound, due to Hound having a base power of 5000 over Falcon Knight's 4000; because of this, Hound can form a 15000 line with Beaumains, Garmore, Gigantech or Ezel before accounting for skills. This improves its overall consistency and eliminates the problem of Falcon Knight becoming a complete dead card when drawn normally.

The deck's new title is a partial quote from Souryuu Leon, in reference to the limit break-centric nature of the Gold Paladin clan.

Winter 2012 National Tournament, Europe: We who carry out justice have no LIMITS
Card Pool: TD01-BT03, BT06-BT07, PR 0001-0029
Grade 0
x1 Crimson Lion Cub, Kyrph (FVG)
x2 Silent Punisher CT
x2 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x4 Elixir Sommelier HT
x4 Speeder Hound DT
Grade 1
x1 Charjgal
x2 Silver Fang Witch
x3 Sleygal Dagger
x4 Halo Shield, Mark
x4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
Grade 2
x3 Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion
x4 Mage of Calamity, Tripp
x4 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
Grade 3
x2 Gigantech Destroyer
x2 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel
x4 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore

Citations and External Links
1. Fernau, Christopher. "German Qualifier 2012 - Düsseldorf: Chibi Gaara (RAWR) - Player Report." Pojo. Pojo, 9 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1077329>.