News: G-EB01: "Roar of the Universe" Announced, Zeal, Enigman, Dimensional Robo and Metalborg Support Incoming

Six hours ago one of Bushiroad of Japan's associated card shops, Card Kingdom, tweeted early promotional materials for the first extra booster of Cardfight!! Vanguard G, G-EB01: Roar of the Universe (宇宙の咆哮 Sora no Houkou, 宇宙 is normally read as Uchuu "Outer space" but here has the pronunciation for "Sky" Sora forced on it.) According to these first blurbs, the extra booster set will be composed entirely of Dimension Police units from the clan's various subclans, including Dimensional Robo, Zeal, Enigman, Metalborg and new units. Roar of the Universe will introduce stride cards specifically for Dimension Police that all of these decks will be able to make use of. The set will be released on March 13 2015, and will use the now-standard extra booster size of 35 cards, with 3 triple rare, 5 double rare, 8 rare, 19 commons per box and 4 special parallel reprints of cards from the set.

With so many clans to support, G-EB01 is setting up to introduce an eclectic mix of strategies both old and new much like Champions of the Cosmos last year. The revitalization of the Zeal deck has been on fans' wishlist since Dimensional Robos took hold over most of the clan's support, while the Enigmen have remained a long-forgotten piece of Dimension Police history that most cardfighters haven't touched since 2012. With limit break enabler support probable, the usable card pool for the D-Police is likely to be expanded out of its current limitations. And given the recent shift in tone of revival legions towards 2012's limit breaks grade 3s, Zeal himself may find a place in the set as the target of a second revival legion for Dimension Police. While the set blurbs make no mention of crossrides, every booster containing the Dimensional Robo subclan has introduced one since BT08: Blue Storm Armada.

News: Bushiroad Publishes Revival Legion Decklists

To accompany a recent push for its grade 3 revival campaign, Bushiroad of Japan has published five deck recipes composed by its development staff. Each recipe corresponds to one of the five revival legions originally distributed in issues of Monthly Bushiroad magazine, which legion to one of each clan's iconic boss cards from 2012 and earlier. Decklists are translated below, with deck analysis provided by Cardfight Pro. The revival legions and their mates addressed here are going to be reprinted at Japan's Comiket 87, distributed between December 28th and 30th. Each card will be reprinted with its legion mark and a triple rare foiling, but older cards which do not have the legion mark will still be usable.

Those seeking advice from these decklists should take note that many of the development team's card choices would be considered suboptimal by professional cardfighters. Where more preferred options are available, these are noted in the analyses.

開発陣考案のデッキレシピを掲載！

開発陣が考案する「テーマ」や「コンセプト」に沿ったイチオシデッキレシピを掲載！
デッキレシピを参考に、色んなデッキを組んでみよう！
※同名・同能力のカードは一つにまとめて掲載しています。

"Publishing the development team's deck recipes!
By referring to these deck recipes, see various ways to put [your] deck together!
Published here are the deck recipes recommended in accordance with the development team's planned themes and concepts!
*Cards with the same name and effect are posted as one."

Goddess of the Treasured Mirror, Ohirume

The development team's Ohirume deck relies on using the grade 1s Circle Magus and Battle Sister Cocoa as supporting pivots; when ridden or called Circle lets you look at the top card of the deck and leave it there, while Cocoa lets you choose whether that card will go on the top or bottom of the deck. Because this version of the deck uses Stellar Magus, even if the top card isn't a trigger unit you'll still win out with Circle regardless of what the top card is, because you can then use Stellar's on-attack counterblast 1 to declare the top card of the deck and add it to your hand. Cocoa is less preferable because of her 6000 power base, hence why she's run at fewer copies than Circle, but can still be viable because of the grade 1 and 2 units Sayorihime and Susanoo. Both of these units get +3000 power when attacking if you have an Amaterasu vanguard, and because Ohirume also has CEO Amaterasu's name while in legion, their skills will still activate. So with Cocoa these cards will make between 16000 and 18000 power lanes, effective for dealing with either standard 11000 power bases or with base 13000 crossrides.

The most unorthodox choice in the lineup is Obligate Robin, a base 8000 power grade 2 whose on-call counterblast 2 allows you to put a card from your deck's top 2 cards into your hand, and put the remaining card on the bottom of the deck. Because Ohirume and Ame no Sagiri both provide the deck with unflipping options there is more room for counterblast-heavy skills, but a draw skill from a base 8000 unit is problematic because without Oracle Guardian Gemini there's no way for Robin to form a 16000 power lane. This means that the card advantage Robin gives is offset by the opponent only needing 5000 shield to block him.

A more recommendable grade 2 choice would be Kuroikazuchi, a generation break 1 unit from G-BT01: Generation Stride. Kuroikazuchi's skill allows you to counterblast 1 and draw a card when his attack hits a vanguard while he's boosted, which like with Robin gives a +1 in card advantage but exists on a 9000 power base. Another option would be Oracle Agent Royce, whose on-hit counterblast 1 can search the top 5 cards of the deck for a grade 3 and add it to hand, which helps avoid being trapped on CEO Amaterasu in the fights where you don't have a copy of Ohirume immediately.

Grade 0
x1 Battle Sister, Eclaire (FV)
x4 Diviner, Sukunahikona HT
x4 Psychic Bird CT
x4 Oracle Guardian, Nike CT
x4 Assault Dive Eagle CT
Grade 1
x4 Mediator, Ame no Sagiri
x3 Battle Maiden, Sayorihime
x4 Circle Magus
x3 Battle Sister, Cocoa
Grade 2
x3 Obligate Robin
x4 Battle Deity, Susanoo
x4 Stellar Magus
Grade 3
x4 Goddess of the Treasured Mirror, Ohirume
x4 CEO Amaterasu

Rising Star, Trois

The Trois deck is more straightforward. By riding each piece of the Riviere line in succession, you can draw a card; Mermaid Idol over Cadet Riviere and Super Idol over Mermaid Idol. Because the original line for Riviere was designed with the idea of riding Top Idol over Super Idol, riding the "wrong" grade 3 in this case is not as bad, since you can draw another card off of it that will hopefully help you dig deep enough in the deck to get a Trois for next turn. It's still better to open on Trois over Super Idol, because Trois' skill will allow you to search your deck for a copy of Top Idol Riviere which will make her persona blast active. In today's more defensive format, being able to grant a Soul Saver Dragon-like effect early on is invaluable, as it forces the opponent to higher damage versus Trois' 21000+ legion line, or otherwise expend unnecessary cards to guard that will leave them exposed later. Ultimately the goal of the deck is to use Trois' counterblast 3 discard 3 to restand the vanguard after attacking and go for an aggressive push while the opponent is at high damage, ideally winning that turn so that the net -1 in card advantage does not factor in.

Trois' weakness is her heavy counterblast cost, as Riviere has a counterblast 2 attached while Trois has a counterblast 3, enough that together they consume the entire damage zone. The grade 1 Duo Clear Parasol Kura is intended to deal with this, since her soulblast effectively trades 2 soul to unflip 2 damage. Since the deck has no 11000-power grade 2 attackers, Trois' only place is behind the vanguard, which has the tradeoff of limiting you offensively and giving the opponent more opportunities to guard for no-pass early in the fight. Two or more turns of restanding can make up for these initial concessions.

However, there are serious flaws with the staff's lineup. This version of Trois is primarily made up of vanilla 8000 and 10000-power units, to the point that the only grade 2 with a skill in the deck is Riviere herself. Just running three or more copies of Pearl Sisters Perla would open up new rearguard options, since you could use her on-hit skill to return cards like Apprentice Idol Karen or Dream Team Dios to your hand, activating their on-return skills. Dios in particular would be desirable for the deck because she can soulcharge 1 and unflip a damage, which helps keep counterblast open for Trois' counterblast 3. This in turn would make the endgame less dependent on Kura. Mermaid Idol Flute would also be a good choice for the deck, as it lacks 11000-power attackers and Riviere does not have subclan support.

Grade 0
x1 Bermuda Triangle Cadet, Riviere (FV)
x4 PR♥ISM-Miracle, Timor HT
x4 Comical Rainie CT
x4 Gunslinger Star, Florida CT
x4 PR♥ISM-Miracle, Canary CT
Grade 1
x4 Mermaid Idol, Ellie
x4 Mermaid Idol, Riviere
x4 Mermaid Idol, Sedna
x2 Duo Clear Parasol, Kura
Grade 2
x4 Super Idol, Riviere
x4 Top Idol, Aqua
x3 PR♥ISM-Smile, Ligurian
Grade 3
x4 Rising Star, Trois
x4 Top Idol, Riviere

King of Knights' Vanguard, Ezzell

In contrast to Trois, Ezzell has more options than can be neatly fitted into one deck. As with Ohirume above, the grade 3 searcher Libergal is the preferred first vanguard for this deck, because it avoids being stuck on the wrong grade 3. The trigger lineup is also conductive Ezzell's skill; since he comes with a soulblast 2 cost attached but also calls one unit of every grade, Margal is the ideal grade 0 target. By sending her into the soul you can both power up a rearguard column to hit key numbers and prepare to use Ezzell a second time later on. For similar reasons, Silent Sage Sharon could effectively replace Margal if you intended to pursue stand triggers for better mixed aggression rather than defensively-minded draws.

Since Ezzell's skill has no counterblast cost, Royal Paladin fighters are free to use their damage zone to support the many rearguard options available. Agreement Seeker Menprius' on-hit counterblast 1 searches out the top 5 for a grade 3 like Royce above, and synergizes with Ezzell's need to discard a copy of either himself or Alfred to activate his skill. Blaster Blade and Blaster Blade Spirit allow free control over the front row, with Spirit's triggering when he's called out of the deck by Ezzell's persona blast. Isbuzzard and Cherin both activate when they're called while the vanguard is in legion, with Isbuzzard gaining +4000 power and Cherin doing the same but also giving power to another unit. So by calling an Isbuzzard and then a Cherin, you can turn what would have been a 16000 power lane into a 28000 power lane for a single counterblast. These skills also work when superior called from the deck, so using them with Ezzell can help to create huge aggressive rearguard lines for a very low cost. When coupled with the Royal Paladin grade 4 Shrouded Divine Knight Gablade, you can use Gablade's on-hit to superior call Cherin, dramatically increasing the power of your remaining attacks.

Knight of Steel Wing is an extremely strange choice of grade 1 for this deck. Steel Wing gains +5000 power when he is attacked, becoming an 11000 power base for that battle, which is primarily only useful during the one turn that Wing is on the vanguard circle. Because there are no Alfred-specific subclan attackers, Steel Wing cannot form an 18000 power lane without Margal's support. By contrast, the deck could benefit more from Toypugal, Royal Paladin's clanwide 9000-power booster. Since Ezzell legions to a grade 3 unit, merely being in legion satisfies Toypugal's condition of having two or more grade 3s in play. Not only does this guarantee anti-crossride numbers with the deck's plethora of 9000 power grade 2s, but by running Toypugal with the generation break grade 2 Knight of Vicissitude Brede, you can form 21000 power lanes for non-crossride matchups. Brede's generation break 1 gives him +3000 power when he attacks, turning him into a 12000-power attacker, which when lined up with Toypual will extract 15000 shield from the opponent. Although not as dramatic as Isbuzzard and Cherin above, Toypugal with Brede have the advantage of stability and constant presence throughout the fight.

Grade 0
x1 Libergal (FV)
x4 Healing Pegasus HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Burning Mane Lion CT
x4 Knight of Flash CT
Grade 1
x4 Holy Knight Guardian
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x3 Flail Seeker, Isbuzzard
x3 Knight of Steel Wing
Grade 2
x3 Blaster Blade Spirit
x3 Agreement Seeker, Menprius
x3 Brave Stride Seeker, Cherin
x2 Blaster Blade
Grade 3
x4 King of Knights' Vanguard, Ezzell
x4 King of Knights, Alfred

True Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daikaiser

The development team's version of the True Great Daikaiser deck draws on the Dimensional Robo subclan's unique ability to retire cards in the guardian circle. By running 12 grade 3s instead of the normal 8, this deck maximizes its opportunities to check additional grade 3s at the risk of being gradelocked. The staff's choice of first vanguard is vexing. Daimagnum can put himself into the soul to give the vanguard +4000 power, but without cards like the original Daiyusha or Goeagle who rely on their power being increased prior to the attack step, there is little use for Magnum over Goyusha. Goyusha's superior ride sequence allows his cardfighter to put any four Dimensional Robo units into the soul to ride any Dimensional Robo grade 3 from the deck, allowing for risky but powerful plays like superior break riding True Great Daikaiser over Daikaiser on the same turn that the original Daikaiser was ridden.

The lack of a limit break enabler to make break ride and Great Daiyusha's skills accessible can be crippling in a format that relies almost exclusively on legion and generation break skills, but there is one concession available for True Great Daikaiser cardfighters to get around this restriction. As with Ohirume above, when True Great Daikaiser is in legion to Great Daiyusha, he has Daiyusha's name attached to him. This makes an in-legion Daikaiser eligible for Dimensional Robo Gocannon's skill; by putting the Gocannon and another Dimensional Robo into the soul, Daiyusha can be given an additional critical. While this won't initially increase the legion's damage output, it does in turn appease the conditions for both of Great Daikaiser's skills. As long as there are three or more Dimensional Robos in the soul, Great Daikaiser will get critical +1, and if Great Daiyusha's critical is 2 or greater, then when Great Daikaiser drive checks a grade 3, he can counterblast 1 and retire an opponent's guardian in addition to negating any effects of "cannot be hit" derived from a perfect defense card. While not as strong as it once was in a format that makes use of quintet walls, this still gives Great Daikaiser lethal gameplay that can activate early on and inflict damage to the opponent much faster than they're prepared for. Once of the consequences of this is that break ride Daikaiser can easily become a vanilla Dimensional Robo unit, as no wary opponent will allow his skill to go off. Triggering the break ride and True Great Daikaiser's skills in one turn can be a game-winning condition, as the resulting center lane would have the ability to retire two perfect defense cards and negate their effects, while attacking boosted for 41000 power and 3 critical.

There is one benefit to using standard Daikaiser in the deck, a Kaiser Grader tech. Grader is a 7000 power rearguard that allows you to superior ride Great Daikaiser if you have the grade 2 Kaizard on the vanguard circle, by discarding a grade 3 Dimensional Robo and putting Grader into the soul. This both sets up the soul-based conditions of the Ultimate Dimensional Robos and sets off Kaizard's skill to give Daikaiser +4000 power. Kaiser Grader's costs versus his output (-1 card from hand -1 rearguard +1 superior ride +1 additional drive check) work out to a net change of 0, which means that there's no reason to not use the skill when you are able to, and the additional power Daikaiser gains along with his twin drive versus Kaizard's helps push the opponent's damage zone to the point where True Ultimate Dimensional Robo's legion skills will matter.

Grade 0
x1 Dimensional Robo, Daimagnum (FV)
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gorescue HT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daicrane DT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daibattles CT
x4 Justice Cobalt CT
Grade 1
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daishield
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gocannon
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daitiger
x1 Dimensional Robo, Kaiser Grader
Grade 2
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daidragon
x4 Dimensional Robo, Kaizard
Grade 3
x4 True Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daikaiser
x4 Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daiyusha
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser

Amon's Mastermind, Astaroth

Finally, Amon's Mastermind Astaroth is one of the revival legion decks that have given cardfighters the most trouble in building correctly. The deck plays with a series of passive conditions based around soul manipulation, the most famous of which is Amon's constant +1000 power for each card in the soul. Since this a vanguard circle skill, Astaroth will benefit from this power boost while in legion to Amon, and in addition to that Astaroth gets +1 critical for every ten cards in the soul, creating a potential constant 31000 power 3 critical line. In contrast to Great Daikaiser above, the methodology behind this is that the opponent cannot guard the vanguard forever, whereas Daikaiser often only has to activate once and gamble on checking a grade 3 to win. The appeal to this is that it is safer, costs less card advantage, requires less setup and is active faster than Daikaiser, since there are no limit break restrictions on the mate, and the soul can be ready as early as turn 3. Furthermore, thanks to Doreen the Thruster and Psychic of Dust Izaya, Astaroth has access to strong rearguard lanes that can reach upwards of 28000 power every turn.

Astaroth's soulcharge 2 activates whenever an opponent's rearguard is retired, which lends itself both to using Amon's counterblast to put a rearguard into the soul and retire an opponent's, and to Gwynn the Ripper. As the resident Berserk Dragon clone, Gwynn has been the game-making feature for Dark Irregulars since his release years back in BT03: Demonic Lord Invasion. Unlike Amon's -1 for -1, the additional counterblast for Gwynn affords a real change in card advantage, rather than preserving the existing state of the game in miniature.

It's easy to be critical of the team using Fate Collector as this deck's first vanguard. Not only would Devil in Shadow deal with getting Astaroth into play better, but between Fate Collector and Greedy Hand, Greedy is much more desirable. For counterblast 1, Greedy can go into the soul and search the deck for a grade 1 to soulcharge, ideally Dimension Creeper. Dimension Creeper's skill can then soulblast it to soulcharge 2, giving you a total of three added soul and four instances of soulcharging to give Doreen and Izaya +12000 power each. Yellow Bolt is also a frequently challenged grade 1 choice, because soulcharging is already very easy for Dark Irregulars and he's competing with Bloody Calf, who can trigger Astaroth's soulcharge 2. Calf's counterblast 2 retires an opponent's grade 1 or lesser rearguard on-call, both taking from the opponent's field and giving more soul than Bolt would.

Grade 0
x1 Amon's Follower, Fate Collector (FV)
x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick HT
x4 Hysteric Shirley DT
x4 Dark Knight of Nightmareland CT
x4 Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand CT
Grade 1
x4 Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula
x4 Dimension Creeper
x4 Doreen the Thruster
x2 Yellow Bolt
Grade 2
x4 Flirtatious Succubus
x3 Gwynn the Ripper
x4 Psychic of Dust, Iazaya
Grade 3
x4 Amon's Mastermind, Astaroth
x4 Demon World Marquis, Amon

News: Hachioji Cup Won by Thing Saver-“Abyss,” Metalborgs in Fourth

Photograph taken by jupiter6062.

Koyasu Community Center, Hachioji city, Tokyo. One hundred and eleven cardfighters gathered here over July 12th for the Hachioji Cup, many of them arriving by train--the Center is a five minute walk from Japan Railways' Hachioji stop. Although originally intended as a 96-person tournament, the Cup ended up accepting entries well beyond its original capacity.

First place was taken by Gungnir, who had previously won last year's Tsurumai Vanguard Championship and placed fourth in the fifth Fateclock CS. As in those tournaments, Gungnir played a restanding vanguard deck, this time bringing a variation on the Thing Saver-Phantom Blaster “Abyss” deck that hybridizes Royal Paladin and Shadow Paladin cards. The build has gained popularity after this year's Kanazawa regional qualifier, where regional champion Hayashi Daiki demonstrated techniques for integrating old Blaster card support with the deck to effectively use “Abyss” in a primarily Royal Paladin build. The deck subsequently proliferated in the third Kansai VGCS team tournament, where the number of Thing Saver-“Abyss” fighters just barely outnumbered the number of pure Thing Saver fighters. Gungnir's deck follows the general conventions of Hayashi's FR2014 design, using MacArt's on-Legion rearguard skill to superior call Dark Bond Trumpeter and use her to call out his teched Air Raid Dragon, setting up three Revenger rearguards for “Abyss” to retire. “Abyss” himself can be searched by the deck's first vanguard Wingal Brave by having Brave boost any of deck's three Blaster grade 2s.

In second place was Zaki with the likewise-successful Cat Butler Raizers. Like Thing Saver the deck is based around a restanding vanguard line, and combines this with a high-critical center lane from Ultimate Raizer Mega Flare, while the restanding skill itself comes from the grade 0 Cat Butler. Butler can retire itself after a grade 2 Nova Grappler vanguard attacks to restand it, and after it was ruled by Bushiroad that a vanguard in Legion is both a grade 2 and a grade 3 the build found instant popularity. The subsequent second Beast Deity Cup, fourth Tachikawa CS and fourth Laketown CS each built on the dominance of Cat Butler.

Third and fourth places at Hachioji were Hibari and Tsukasa with a standard Thing Saver and a Metalborg deck. Although the successors to last year's Dimensional Robos have maintained a rocky foothold in the format, the Metalborgs' ability to prevent the opponent from using perfect defense cards while maintaining a high-power center lane has proved troublesome where implemented well. Tsukasa's Metalborg notably differs from past incarnations in how it uses the Super Dimensional Robo Daikaiser break ride. Daikaiser's break ride skill has been a recurring problem since its debut in 2013; when ridden it gives the new vanguard +10000 power and an additional critical, while also giving it the ability to retire the cards the opponent guards with when a grade 3 is drive checked. This power boosted innately activates both of Metalborg Sin Buster's skills, bringing together a powerful combo of preventing the opponent from guarding with grade 1 units while also retiring the cards they guard with. This prevents the hard answer to Daikaiser, Quintet Walls, from being used against it while still demanding in the range of 35000~40000 shield to block Sin Buster's attack. No-guarding is hardly an option when the vanguard is attacking for two damage. However, in the Legion format where many fighters prefer to stay at the safe range of 2~3 damage for the majority of the fight, this play is not met with universal success.

The Hachioji Cup's initial four rounds of Swiss draw lasted 30 minutes each, with the first round beginning at 1:30 PM and the fourth concluding at 4:00 PM. Unlike most VGCS events, Swiss draw was handled in a best-of-one games model. Best-of-one in Cardfight!! Vanguard has been criticized as being nonrepresentative of player skill and tantamount to gambling, as one game of gradelock or mass trigger checking from the opponent is enough to kick skilled fighters into loser's bracket or out of the tournament entirely, without an opportunity to play serious games. The tournament finals following the cut to top 16 were conducted using the more popular best-of-three games ruleset, with a 50 minute time limit. Finals began at 4:40 PM and lasted until 8:30 PM. First place won a Nintendo 3DS XL and one box of VG-BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades, second place won a standard 3DS, third place two boxes of BT16 and one Beginning Set of their choice, and fourth place one box of BT16 and a Beginning Set. Fifth through eighth place were given a choice of two trial decks, between Liberator of Bluish Flames and Will of the Locked Dragon. Entry fee was 1000 yen (approx. $10) per person.

A detailed breakdown of clan participation is not available.

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. The VGCS model of fan-organized play has begun to gain popularity internationally, with the bi-monthly BeNeLux tournaments serving as their European equivalent, and there are now similar grassroots organizations emerging in the United States like Cosmic Oasis' tournament series and the ongoing King of Cardfight competition in the American midwest.

Hachioji Cup/八王子杯
First place: Gungnir/ぐんぐにーる
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer  HT
x4 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
x2 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x1 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x1 Seeker, Bucephalus ST
x4 Margal DT
Grade 1
x2 Flail Seeker, Hasbasado
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter x4 Knight of Friendship, Kay
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
Grade 2
x3 Blaster Blade Spirit
x3 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x2 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x4 Fighting Spirit Revenger, MacArt
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x1 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”

Second place: Zaki/ざき
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x1 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x3 Round Girl, Clara HT
x3 Raizer Crew DT
x1 The Gong DT
x2 Shining Lady CT
x3 Meteoraizer CT
x1 Minimum Raizer CT
x1 Red Lightning CT
x1 Fighting Battleship, Prometheus CT
Grade 1
x4 Shieldraizer
x3 Energy Charger
x4 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x4 Cannon Raizer
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x2 Street Bouncer
Grade 3

x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Third place: Hibari/ヒバリ
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x4 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1
x2 Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria
x2 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x2 Little Sage, Marron
x3 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric
x4 Snowgal
x2 Pongal
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Beast Knight, Garmore
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x1 Soul Saver Dragon

Fourth place: Tsukasa
Grade 0
x1 Destined Warrior, Dai (FV)
x4 Metalborg, Black Nurse HT
x3 Army Penguin DT
x3 Metalborg, Devil Roader DT
x3 Metalborg, Battle Roller CT
x3 Metalborg, Operator Kirika ST
Grade 1
x4 Metalborg, Mist Ghost
x4 Diamond Ace
x2 Metalborg, Black Doctor
x4 Commander Laurel
Grade 2
x3 Twin Order
x2 Metalborg, Digalion
x4 Metalborg, Ur Buster
x2 Metalborg, Russell Blizzard
Grade 3
x4 Metalborg, Sin Buster
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser

News: Fighter's Road 2013 National Championship Decklists, Restricted List to Go Unchanged

The official Japanese Cardfight portal updated with the decklists from the now-complete FR2013 national tournament, Japan's summer championship for this year. The fifth national champion is Pale Moon cardfighter Kokubo Hikaru, who is also the Asia Circuit Memorial Tournament regional champion for Nagoya, having qualified to participate with a Dragonic Descendant deck prior to the card's restriction, and then subsequently abandoned the deck after the institution of the modern restricted list in favor of Luquier “Я.” Fittingly, the runner-up in FR2013 is none other than Uemura Shouhei, the cardfighter who opened this tournament season with his worldchanging Dragonic Descendant build that has defined the Eradicators throughout this season, and Uemura has stuck to the deck since then. The cardfighters who opened the Fighter's Road 2013 national championship have now brought it to a close, and for the first time in Japanese history the national champion is not a Royal Paladin cardfighter. In fact, this is the first time ever that Royal Paladin has not been in Japan's top 3, and in a serious turnaround, Shadow Paladin has grown from being their less successful palette swap into the dominant Paladin deck of the era, surpassing Gold Paladin in sheer numbers and placing in third for the national finals under the command of Hirago Masaki.

Furthermore, a special announcement was made today that the Japanese restricted list will remain unchanged through September. While some were clamoring for additional restrictions to be placed on Eradicator decks, with much attention being put on Cho-ou for how he simultaneously retires the opponent's rearguards and fuels the soul for Rising Phoenix, this decision was likely made in light of Descendant's general decline among Japanese pros following BT12. The rise of Luquier, Nebula Lord, Raging Form and other decks as strong contenders in their own right has deeply upset what was previously a very set-in-its-ways format.

Part of Luquier Reverse's success is owed to her status as a hard counter to Descendant. When using Ionela and Irina's skills, what the Silver Thorn build is really doing is calling two units at once, one to a rearguard circle and another to the soul to store for later. Since the opponent can't retire the soul, cards like Cho-ou and Dragonic Deathscythe that are a strong part of Descendant's early setup fall flat in the long term, as through chainlocking her rearguards in succession, locking 1 to call 1 that she locks to call another, Luquier “Я”'s limit break can let her multiply one card into two, or up to five if she so feels the need to. That kind of strategy may appear overly defensive and not in line with the aggressive format initially, but the Descendant deck relies on the opponent not being able to survive its endgame strategy by swallowing up their hand with Gauntlet Buster or Descendant over two to three turns after taking a field lead. Luquier “Я” doesn't need to call from the hand to call new rearguards after her soul is set up in the early to midgame, so Descendant loses its main feature as Luquier saves up her hand to go for more turns than Eradicator decks can handle.

In the Junior championship, the success of the Dimension Police has already been strongly noted through junior champion Niida Kazuki's explanation of the deck earlier this week. Although Niida was originally shooting for the Doctor O Prize when he created his 15 grade 3 deck, he ended up taking the junior championship trophy unintentionally, using the devastating combination of Enigman Storm's grade security with Daikaiser's break ride to trigger Storm or Daiyusha's skills with Laurel for a self-standing 26000+ power critical 3 vanguard line that used its high grade 3 count to retire perfect defense cards, making certain that the opponent could only guarantee safety if they dropped three perfect defense cards at once against his attack and paid the cost for all of them. Because of its highly aggressive characteristics, the "Crazy Diamond" deck aims to take the opponent to six damage on turn 4, but because of how it is structured the deck also has an endemic weakness in that once the break ride has been triggered and the vanguard is no longer Daikaiser, if the following turn is survived then the game is over for the Dimension Police cardfighter, as there is no safety net or alternative strategy.

Fighter's Road 2013 National Championship, Open Division
National Champion: Kokubo Hikaru/小久保光
Grade 0
x1 Silver Thorn Assistant, Ionela (FV)
x4 Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia HT
x4 Silver Thorn Barking Dragon CT
x4 Poison Juggler CT
x1 Dynamite Juggler CT
x3 Rainbow Magician DT
Grade 1
x4 Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina
x4 Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia
x2 Midnight Bunny
x2 Purple Trapezist
x2 Seesaw Game Winner
Grade 2
x4 Silver Thorn Marionette, Lillian
x4 Silver Thorn Rising Dragon
x3 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica
Grade 3
x4 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Я”
x4 Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier

Runner-up: Uemura Shouhei/上村昌平
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x1 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x3 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seioubo HT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x3 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
Grade 2
x3 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-ou
x2 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x4 Dragonic Deathscythe
x2 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon

Third Place: Hirago Masaki/平子真幸
Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Grim Reaper CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
Grade 1
x1 Revenger of Malice, Dilan
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
Grade 2
x4 Black Clothed Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusion Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Doctor O Prize: Matsuoka Reishi/松岡怜史
Grade 0
x1 Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (FV)
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Falcon Knight of the Azure DT
Grade 1
x4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x4 Scout of Darkness, Vortimer
x1 Silver Fang Witch
x2 Halo Liberator, Mark
x2 Halo Shield, Mark
x1 Listener of Truth, Dindrane
Grade 2
x1 Lop Ear Shooter
x2 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin
x4 Black Dragon Knight, Vortimer
x1 Blaster Blade Liberator
x2 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane
x1 Mage of Calamity, Tripp
Grade 3
x4 Spectral Duke Dragon
x2 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot
x2 Steel Spear Liberator, Bleoberis

Fighter's Road 2013 National Championship, Junior's Division
National Champion: Niida Kazuki/新井田和輝
Grade 0
x1 Enigman Flow (FV)
x4 Justice Cobalt CT
x2 Dimensional Robo, Daibattles CT
x2 Army Penguin DT
x2 Gem Monster, Jewel Mine DT
x2 Dimensional Robo, Daicrane DT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gorescue HT
Grade 1
x4 Enigman Ripple
x4 Daimond Ace
x4 Commander Laurel
Grade 2
x2 Enigman Wave
x4 Operator Girl, Mika
Grade 3
x4 Enigman Storm
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha
x3 Lady Justice
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser

Runner-up: Matsushita Shunji/松下隼士
Grade 0
x1 Frontline Revenger, Claudas (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x2 Death Feather Eagle CT
x4 Grim Reaper CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x2 Freezing Revenger DT
Grade 1
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
Grade 2
x3 Black Clothed Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusion Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Third Place: Funayama Yuiga/舩山唯我
Grade 0
x1 Eradicator, Strikedagger Dragon (FV)
x2 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x2 Malevolent Djinn CT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Pollux CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x4 Sword Dance Eradicator, Hisen
x3 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x3 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x4 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

Doctor O Prize: Haryuu Jin'ichi/針生仁壱
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shading HT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x4 Seal Dragon, Dobi ST
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpitch DT
Grade 1
x4 Seal Dragon, Flannel
x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x3 Seal Dragon, Chambray
x3 Seal Dragon, Rinocross 
Grade 2
x4 Seal Dragon, Hungerhell Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Jakado
x3 Seal Dragon, Corduroy
Grade 3
x3 Hellfire Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno
x4 Seal Dragon, Blockade
x1 Dauntless Drive Dragon

News: Japan's 2013 National Champion is a Pale Moon Cardfighter, Luquier Reverse Takes Summer Cup, Enigman Storm Accidentally Wins Junior Championship

Japan's "Fighter's Road 2013" Summer National Championship just finished over the weekend, and Doctor O has tweeted the results. After the extended reign of Dragonic Descendant, and the rise of Raging Form Dragon and Dudley Emperor, the national finals have concluded with the Open class national champion revealed to be a Pale Moon cardfighter that built their deck around Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Я.” Meanwhile the Junior champion is a Dimension Police cardfighter with an innovative Enigman Storm deck, making use of the Daikaiser break ride and a grand total of fifteen grade 3s, much to the shock of Doctor O and the national tournament staff.

The identities of the two champions are presently unknown, in part because so many cardfighters have changed decks in the interim period between the regional qualifiers and the national finals. While it is possible that Luquier's appearance here was in response to her overwhelming success at the unofficial Vanguard Championship held two weeks ago, the time frame between tournaments was very short and the actual VGCS decklists were not published in Japan until the August 7th; if this were the motivating factor, the deck switch would have been a very hair-trigger decision. It is more likely that this is a coincidence, and that the new champion chose to use Luquier “Я” having been motivated by the same strengths as Hibari in that tournament.

The Junior champion's Daikaiser deck was mainly based around the new Daikaiser break ride, with the Enigman cards as a high-synergy framework. While the official decklists are not yet out, the junior champion has already uploaded their decklist to the internet, along with a recap of the events. He attributed the deck's actual creation to his elder brother, but stated that he originally inspired the build by commenting that "If you break rode Enigman Storm over Daikaiser, it'd be really strong right?" Below is a translation of his deck explanation, with the decklist "Crazy Diamond" below.

"No matter how you look at it, the grade distribution is totally different from a normal deck. I went to this number to be able to take advantage of Daikaiser's break ride skill.

Initially it was either 4 Critical 8 Draw or 6 Critical 6 Draw. Lady Justice came from [using her] in Galactic Super Beast Zeal (who I rejected because of the cost.)

For the national championship, I practiced with DOTE, Eradicators (Vowing Saber "Я"), and Link Joker but their condition wasn't good enough.

When Daikaiser's print was presented in Today's Card, the body of the deck was mainly developed by [my brother] ring. (Correction: He developed it when the skill was confirmed in KeroKero Ace, around 8/4.)

At the venue, I brought DOTE, Eradicators and this deck (the completed deck recipe), and after arriving I decided which deck I wanted to use.

The reason I used it was "to have fun while playing."

My goal was to take the Doctor O Prize, to get this deck recipe published on the official website and show it to the whole country, I thought that was possible but it seems that there is no Doctor O Prize for the national tournament, to hear something like that I was a little irritatedw

Also, I don't practice using proxy cards, so it was my first time reading some of these and the cards released between tournaments became an imaginary enemy, in my head I mean.

At the time I began Vanguard I had a goal, to become the national champion and this time it was possible, I am very happy but it feels a little like my feet won't stay on the ground."

Upon becoming champion, he commented on Twitter, "It appears that I've become the Vanguard national junior champion. Deck name is Crazy Diamond. Enigman-based Daikaiser, as constructed by Morikawa-kun." Later on he added "During the deck check, the person on staff performing the check said "15 grade 3s?!" That drew remarks ww" ("ww" and variations on it are an abbreviation for "warau" meaning laughter. It started in Japan and has been compared to the English lol but is more common, and recently English speakers have begun picking it up through exposure to Japanese net culture.)

After being told that Team Caesar would be proud, his father replied, "Thank you very much. This morning, I told him myself. "Congratulations." Listening to that he smiled a little. "But today, Mitsusada was reversed..." (laugh)"

The names of the winners have not been officially revealed, but based on some of his comments the junior champion is being tentatively identified as Niida Kazuki, the current Kanazawa regional champion and a former Kagerou cardfighter known for playing Dragonic Overlord the End. The decklist's name may be a reference to the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga.

8/15/2013 Update: The junior champion has been confirmed to be Niida.

Deck Name: Crazy Diamond
Grade 0
x1 Enigman Flow (FV)
x4 Justice Cobalt CT
x2 Dimensional Robo, Daibattles CT
x2 Army Penguin DT
x2 Gem Monster, Jewel Mine DT
x2 Dimensional Robo, Daicrane DT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gorescue HT
Grade 1
x4 Enigman Ripple
x4 Daimond Ace
x4 Commander Laurel
Grade 2
x2 Enigman Wave
x4 Operator Girl, Mika
Grade 3
x4 Enigman Storm
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha
x3 Lady Justice
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser

The strategy of the Crazy Diamond deck is to use the evolving Enigman series to compensate for the high grade 3 count, then use that grade 3 count to trigger Daikaiser's skill in every fight, sometimes multiple times per fight. Since Enigman Flow automatically adds the grade 2 Enigman Wave to the hand when the grade 1 Ripple is ridden over it, Niida would deliberately stay gradelocked at 0 if he had other grade 1s in hand but no grade 2, saving up for the scenario in which he would reliably get to grade 3. Furthermore, Daikaiser's break ride skill would let him come back from virtually any amount of gradelock while also automatically triggering Storm's extra critical. With 15 grade 3s in the deck, Daikaiser would be all but guaranteed to retire the opponent's guardian calls on a vanguard line that was looking to be in the range of 26~28000 power with a critical of 3, dealing 3 damage on-hit after which Commander Laurel would stand the vanguard line that still had 3 critical in addition to its break ride power boost, while giving yet another opportunity for Daikaiser's break ride skill to go off. Perfect defense would not save the opponent because of Daikaiser's guardian retire, and all this was effectively done without triggers. It's easy to see how Niida accidentally won the national championship instead of the Doctor O Prize, as the Enigman cards have not been taken seriously in competitive play for a very long time, setting up his rogue deck to bulldoze over the competition.