Let's Translate Cardfight!! Vanguard: Lock on Victory!! Part 3: THE Kai Toshiki

Enough putting this off.

Tetsu: Today, we will be having a scrimmage with Hitsue High.
Ren: It's been a long time since I've seen Kai.
Tetsu: Do you know of him, Touya? Hitsue High's Kai Toshiki is among the highest class of cardfighters, rivaling Ren.
Asaka: Tetsu! Master Ren is leagues stronger.

Suiko: Oh, it seems they're here already.

Miwa Taishi: Thanks very much! Or rather, sorry to keep you waiting.

Izaki Yuuta: Oh? That's a new face.

Kai Toshiki: Ren, is this one of your new guys?
Ren: That's right. I brought him here to make his debut today.

Morikawa: Last time I lost because my horoscope was poor, but today you'll face my fantastic self with my fortune in perfect form!
Izaki: ...I sure haven't heard that in a while. That kind of talk.
Miwa: Hey, hey...Hm? What is it, Kai?

Kai: This one's mine.
Tetsu: Hah. For Kai to be so direct...Just like Ren, he must sense something in Touya.
Kai: Let's go.
Miwa: Ohhhh. This should be FUN.

VS Kai Toshiki
Kagerou 1

Kai: Show me your power!

The great Kai Toshiki then proceeds to end his turn, gradelocked. I reset for something more challenging.

That's better.

We open on the only Little Sage Marron in the deck. In any other ride chain, missing the grade 1 would be a cause for grief; in Sanctuary of Light it's fine, because Planet Lancer is a 7k booster.

First turn critical trigger gives us a damage lead stretch to work with. I think I've never mentioned this in the entire history of my website, but the player that goes second has always had a slight technical advantage based on the fact that the flow of damage-dealing favors them. This is in turn balanced out by the player who goes first reaching grade 3 first, and while they don't have a natural lead in card advantage, the earlier twin drive does get them a greater opportunity for two coinciding triggers to have a positive effect on their match. (They do not in fact get more drive checks than the opponent, as the player that goes first can't attack on their first turn.)

Kai fails his Red Pulse Dracokid's top 5 check, putting us both off to an uneven start. It's not so surprising; on average Shizuku clones of this type only have a ~30% chance of success, even presuming there are 8 grade 3s remaining in the deck. Still better than a Fullbau ride chain though.

I block his vanilla swing with a 10k, and Kai recoups his lost advantage with a draw trigger. These small plays are building up to something bigger, though. Going into my grade 2 turn, I can consider the possibility of putting Kai to limit break already.

Sure enough, Kai doesn't muster any defense on my turn, putting us at 0-4.

Kai: Ride the Vanguard! Burn everything in this world to ashes, flames of the apocalypse; Dragonic Overlord!

The neutral game is over. Right now, we have a secure lead, and Kai needs to take it back if he's to overturn that. Surprisingly, he doesn't use Gattling Claw to kill Planet Lancer, even though it would slightly stretch his advantage lead. (He has a one-card lead from that draw trigger + my earlier guard, taking a card away from both of us would make it worse.)

A draw trigger damage check turns what I intended to be a two-pass on his vanguard into a no-pass. Kai checks a Burning Horn and Wyvern Guard Barri, then turns his in-play Burning Horn on my rearguard. I decide to drop the 10k to keep it live, since he's at 4 already.

Ashlei snags that Barri right back out with her attack. Our drive checks are lackluster; two perfect guards. But Claudine puts Kai to 5.

Kai doesn't have an End to ride, and I don't have a second frontrow for him to justify going into a CB3, so this next turn becomes a repeat of the last.

We continue to exchange for another turn. But when I drive check Planetal, that seals it...

Touya: That's right. This is something only I can do! Break ride!

Planetal's on-ride skill can bring out any Sanctuary of Light unit; I superior call a copy of itself to get Toypugal live, as I already have a Little Storm and Determinator in hand. As I mentioned last time, one of the reasons Toypugal works so well in this deck is that it's functionally another copy of Storm, making the exact same numbers and fitting seamlessly into the math for SoL attackers. Battle Song Angel does the same thing in the post-G format, but goes from 7k to 9k rather than 6.

Touya: Break past the boundaries...Limit Break!

The final columns are 21-30-23. It's not as big as a perfect setup Zerachiel (27-36-27) or Nebula (37-30-37) but none of those decks have the same modular design or net-plus superior call skills. There's simply a very low failure rate in Sanctuary of Light, because Little Storm and Toypugal are functionally interchangeable, as are Determinator, Claudine, and Palamedes--just not with the exact same boosters.

Kai one-passes us with two 5ks and a 10, and...

Heal.

The End.

Kai: And that's the game...

750 VP for beating Kai, 50 for limit breaking, 100 for break riding, 100 for breaking 30k in one attack, and a Flame of Promise Aermo for our trouble.

Kai: Hah...Not bad.
Ren: What do you think, Kai? Our new one's great, right?
Asaka: Don't tell me, he really beat the Kai Toshiki...I don't believe it.
Suiko: He's even more interesting than I thought. I can't take my eyes off him now.
Tetsu: He's still in training. Once we return, we'll resume practice immediately.
Ren: Well, it's my turn next. Who will be my opponent?
Morikawa: Hahaha! The great Morikawa's up next!
Izaki: Stop it already.
Suiko: This scrimmage is getting exciting. We were right to come here.

Unusually, we have two main missions available now. The first is with Yuri in the park...

And the second is with Kamui at Fukuhara.

Part 4: Kamui (06/08/2017)

News: Matthew Preston Wins Texas Regional Qualifier with Phantom Blaster “Abyss,” ARG Providing Shop Tournament Kits

ARG Regional champion Matthew Preston (left) and runner-up Austin Funderburg. Original photo by Alter Reality Games.

February 8th, 2015. Over the preceding weekend the first stage of the newly-christened ARG national championships concluded, with regional champion Matthew Preston winning the tournament using his Phantom Blaster “Abyss” deck. Preston's victory is the first time since the BT16-on format shift that “Abyss” has topped in a major US tournament, preceded by Robbie Kohl's victory at Chicago last December. Following the Texas regional qualifier there are now 40 cardfighters eligible for the national championship, sampled from the top 8 of each regional. Preston and Funderburg are among those that have been given point vouchers to pay for their entry into the $2000 finals, to be held this summer. Currently the invited fighters face a 20% majority of pure “Abyss” cardfighters, but these are primarily holdovers from the Atlanta tournament and may not reflect the final makeup of NCS2015. Instead the second most played deck among the top places, Thing Saver Dragon, is gaining the preference of professional American cardfighters as it did among the Japanese.

The Fort Worth qualifier drew 97 participants, compared in preceding order to Orlando's 85, Atlanta's 41 and Chicago's 34. As the tournament attracted more than 50 participants, in accordance with ARG's policy the finalists had the option of receiving either a predetermined cash payout or 150% of the payout in store credit. Preston and Funderburg opted for the former, receiving $200 and $100 respectively. The tournament finals were livestreamed to ARG's Twitch channel on the night of the tournament, and will later be uploaded to YouTube. The top 8 decklist are provided below.

Several of the top decks were easy to foresee; Prominence Glare, Thing Saver-“Abyss” and Cat Butler Raizers are all decks that have done well in Japanese play and been received positively by American fighters. The legion format Spike Brothers deck is something that has generally fallen under the radar outside of a few Doctor O Awards during Bushiroad's Fighter's Climax 2014, where eight draw variants made it into the top 8 of the Sendai, and Sapporo regional tournaments. Their solitary claim to fame in Japan has been second place at Fighter's Road 2014 Okayama.

Capping off the eclectic top 8 were two Overlord cardfighters hybridizing Dragonic Overlord the Great with past Kagerou Overlords, “The Яe-birth” and The End. Sam Hargrove with the End was the top ranked cardfighter following the last preliminary round, and made it to the semifinals before falling to Funderburg's Spike Brothers. Perdition decks have been strong contenders since BT17: Blazing Perdition hit stores in late January, but many Kagerou cardfighters have come to prefer having an offensive vanguard option over purely defensive rearguard control skills, leading them to integrate these past Overlords in place of Vortex Dragonewt and take advantage of support cards specific to the Overlord line like Dragonic Burnout. As several Perdition series cards are not Perdition-specific, there is innate synergy between using the lower costed Perdition card skills with aggressive Overlord variants. By contrast, running Vortex and the Great together tends to fall flat versus opponents that minimize their early to midgame calls, and against Shadow Paladin cardfighters that micromanage their rearguards through “Abyss'” and Raging Form's retire skills to avoid having any present during the Perdition fighter's turn.

Note that while striding was not permitted at the tournament, G Assist was. This is why Harmonics Messiah appears on several of the finalists' decklists, so that they could use the card for G Assist.

ARG Texas Regional Qualifier Top 8

Phantom Blaster “Abyss” - Matthew Preston
Bluish Flames Liberator - Ronald Gilliam
Thing Saver “Abyss” - Russell Graves
Spike Brothers - Austin Funderburg
Cat Butler Raizers - Sebastian Toscano and Russell Smith
Dragonic Overlord the Great/“The Яe-birth” - Jarred McClonahan
Dragonic Overlord the Great/The End - Sam Hargrove

Illust. slifertheskydragon

ARG has also begun providing tournament kits to participating card shops as part of its ARG Point Series, allowing them to host their own sponsored tournaments to have their players earn points that can be used towards merchandise, round 1 byes at ARG events and flights to the national championship. Stores interested in becoming tournament hosts for the ARG Point Series can do so through their official page. Participating stores will receive exclusive playmats designed for ARG in their tournament kits (visible above) to be given to the winners of these tournaments. Cardfighters are encouraged to speak with their local shops about becoming event hosts.

The next stage of the 2015 national championships will be the Louisville qualifier on the 21st, followed by the Fort Lauderdale qualifier on March 8th.

Alter Reality Games National Championship Series Texas, February 2015
Regional champion: Matthew Preston
Deck name: Ridiculous Peanut Butter Adventure
Grade 0
x1 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
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Black-winged Swordbreaker
Grade 2
x3 Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
Grade 3
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
Grade 4
x2 Harmonics Messiah

Second place: Austin Funderburg
Deck name: Spike Brothers Beatdown
Grade 0
x1 Mecha Trainer (FV)
x4 Cheer Girl, Tiara HT
x4 Silence Joker CT
x2 Sonic Breaker CT
x4 Cheerful Lynx DT
x2 Cheer Girl, Pauline DT
Grade 1
x4 Cheer Girl, Marilyn
x4 Wonder Boy
x4 Reckless Express
x1 Oasis Boy
Grade 2
x4 Froxen Ogle
x3 Dudley Mason
x3 Silver Blaze
x2 Devil Summoner
Grade 3
x4 Bloody Ogle
x4 Bad End Dragger

Third and Fourth Place (Unsorted)
Sam Hargrove
Deck name: The End shall never fall!
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Dragon Dancer, Therese HT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biella CT
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
Grade 1
x4 Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x3 Perdition Dragon Knight, Gia
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
Grade 2
x4 Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame
x4 Dragonic Burnout
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great
x4 Dragonic Overlord the End

Russell Smith
Deck name: ROBOT HOUSE
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x4 Raizer Crew DT
x4 Meteoraizer CT
x4 Shining Lady CT
Grade 1
x3 Shieldraizer
x1 Twin Blader
x3 Cannonraizer
x4 Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x3 Energy Charger
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, Dual-flare
x4 Phoenixraizer Flame-wing
x3 Street Bouncer
Grade 3
x4 Ultimate Raizer Mega-flare

Fifth through Eighth Place (Unsorted)
Jarrod McClonahan
Deck name: Reduce everything in this world to ashes, flame of apocalypse!
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid
x2 Perdition Dancer, Agafia HT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Perdition Dragon Knight, Tovare CT
x3 Perdition Dragon, Buster Rain Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Violence Horn Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Dragonic Burnout
x2 Perdition Dragon, Menace Laser Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great
x3 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”
Grade 4
x4 Harmonics Messiah

Sebastian Toscano
Deck name: Raizer
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x2 The Gong DT
x4 Raizer Crew DT
x3 Meteoraizer CT
x3 Minimum Raizer CT
Grade 1
x3 Shieldraizer
x1 Beast Deity, Solar Falcon
x2 Energy Charger
x4 Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x2 Carvingraizer
x2 Jetraizer
Grade 2
x1 Marineraizer High-torpedo
x2 Street Bouncer
x4 Ultimate Raizer, Dual Flare
x4 Phoenixraizer Flame-wing
Grade 3
x4 Ultimate Raizer Mega-flare
Grade 4
x4 Harmonics Messiah

Ronald Gilliam
Deck name: It's Time for a Gold Rush
Grade 0
x1 Korongal Liberator (FV)
x1 Flaming Passion Liberator, Guido
x4 Numinous Tree Liberator, Elchea HT
x4 Ketchgal Liberator ST
x2 Fortune Liberator ST
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x2 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
Grade 1
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
x4 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
x3 Fast Chase Liberator, Josephus
x2 Physical Force Liberator, Zorron
Grade 2
x4 Regulation Liberator, Aglovale
x4 Oath Liberator, Aglovale
x3 Liberator, Lawful Trumpeter
Grade 3
x4 Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Glare
x4 Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Core

Russell Graves
Deck name: Thing  “Abyss”
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FV)
x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
x4 Margal DT
x1 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle CT
x1 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger
x1 Seeker, Hallowed Breath Dragon CT
x1 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x1 Alabaster Owl CT
x3 Future Knight, Llew CT
Grade 1
x4 Defending Seeker, Shiron
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Knight of Friendship, Kay
x1 Grynngal Seeker
x2 Battle Instinct Revenger, Lifechur
Grade 2
x2 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x3 Blaster Blade Spirit
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart
Grade 3
x1 Revenger, Phantom Blaster  “Abyss”
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
Grade 4
x1 Harmonics Messiah

News: Thing Saver and “The X” May See Restriction, Calamity Tower and Laurel Hit

At 3:00 AM this morning the Japanese side of Twitter blew up with the sudden leak of Bushiroad's February-on restricted list. A paper copy of the list circulated to card shops was photographed, forcing Bushiroad to immediately update the Japanese Fighter's Rules. The list, which will take effect on February 14th, restates Cat Butler's restriction from August 2014, Conroe's from February of that year, and Barcgal's from September 2011. But in addition to these, the list adds two new cards to Cardfight!!'s rogues' gallery, and suggests that more are to come. These changes to the Japanese restricted list reflect recent developments in the Japanese national tournament scene and VGCS tournaments.

The first addition to the restricted list is Calamity Tower Wyvern, one of Kagerou's supporting grade 1s. Calamity Tower is a type of card that many clans have access to, what would otherwise be an innocuous Luck Bird clone. Calamity Tower has been a staple of Kagerou decks since the Nouvelle Vague days, primarily for his draw skill. But when used in combination with the new Kagerou favorite of the day, Dragonic Overlord  “The X,” Tower has proved dangerous. His soulblast 2 helps rapidly accelerate the drop zone while building card advantage, making legion possibly at earlier stages of the game. In exchange for his low base power compared to Gojo, Calamity Tower both gives real card advantage and can be used as a booster, which snowballs with “The X's” other characteristics. On February 14th, Calamity will be restricted to two copies per deck.

The second addition is Commander Laurel, whose restriction will be delayed until March 2nd, just eleven days before the Japanese release of G-EB01: Roar of the Universe. Laurel is a unique card for Dimension Police that has historically been one of their marquee cards, but which may become problematic in light of stride. By resting four rearguards when the vanguard's attack hits, Laurel can stand it, ordinarily giving a +2 in card advantage and additional drive checks in exchange for only getting two attacks per turn instead of three. With Dimension Police receiving three new strides in Roar of the Universe, Laurel is now a suspect card because when his skill is used with the stride units' triple drive it allows for exponentially more drive checks and a +3 overall. Six drive checks in a turn is equivalent to three vanguard attacks, comparable to a break ridden Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth” and Thing Saver Dragon's double restand. Laurel will be the first card to be restricted to one copy per deck. Past cards Dragonic Overlord the End and Majesty Lord Blaster have been restricted to two copies in combination with other units, but never to a single copy under no other conditions.

Finally, Bushiroad has announced that their research and development staff are investigating the possibility of placing restrictions on Dragonic Overlord “The X” and Thing Saver Dragon. “The X” and Thing Saver have earned a reputation as the optimal restanding vanguards of the Japanese format, having dominated tournament results since the release dates of G-BT02: Generation Stride and BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades. Both cards have been instrumental in the 2014 winter and summer national championships, and have been leading decks in the fan-run Vanguard Championships. The reason for the company's hesitation is likely that the actual number of “The X” cardfighters participating has been lower than past top decks, despite its continual success. At the Sakura VGCS “The X” accounted for 27% of all decks played, while at the Machida CS the top decks were Royal Paladin and Oracle Think Tank with no Kagerou fighters in sight.

Perhaps the most damning evidence against “The X” is that at the second YVGCS team tournament Kagerou held a one-quarter majority over the top eight teams (24 cardfighters), with six of the top eight having one Kagerou fighter on their team. But with Royal Paladin and Nova Grappler being played at similar levels, and bearing in mind that only last November Phantom Blaster “Abyss” was consistently covering 31~33% of all tournament entries, these are hardly conclusive numbers. While last August's Thing Saver crisis saw the Royal Paladin deck only reaching about 20~26% distribution in each individual tournament, it was only because of repeated tops in more than ten separate tournaments and in the regional qualifiers that a definitive picture of it as the dominant deck could be painted. By comparison “The X” has only been playable since December 5th, barely more than a month, and this gives relatively little data to work. From lower overall participation numbers it can be argued that “The X” is topping as a result of skilled cardfighters adopting the deck rather than as a result of “The X” being a poorly balanced card. Restricting it would thus be tantamount to restricting whatever the most skilled fighters are playing, forcing them to buy different grade 3 options--scalping the top cardfighters in the game and alienating an important part of the player base.

Notably another infamous deck, Phantom Blaster “Abyss,” is not being considered for restriction. While not long ago “Abyss” was one of the most prolific Japanese decks surpassing Thing Saver, in the past two months he has seen a considerable drop in popularity compared to his contemporaries. Unlike in the example of Seeker and Kagerou decks though, restricting Phantom Blaster “Abyss” would also leave Revenger cardfighters with no legion option outside of Ambitious Spirit Revenger Cormack, forcing them to either play at least one limit break grade 3 until G-BT03 or quit Revengers entirely. The restriction of Thing Saver and “The X” would almost certainly bring “Abyss” back to the fore by eliminating his primary competition, which brings a question into play of whether there would be more or less diversity as a result of these restrictions. Whether or not one, both or neither cards needs to be hit in order to equalize the playing field for as many clans as possible is difficult to answer.

News: Sakura VGCS Won with Dragonic Overlord “The X,” Phantom Blaster “Abyss” Tops FC2014 Nagoya

December 7th, Tsuchiura city, Ibaraki prefecture. The second Vanguard Championship to take place since the Japanese release of G-BT01: Generation Stride has come to a close with Dragonic Overlord “The X” in first. The Sakura VGCS champion, alias "GmfWingal" (ごまふがる Gomafugaru, from Gomafu "speckled black") is a former Chaos Breaker and Raging Form cardfighter who had been active since December 2013, had not topped in prior Fighter's Climax or VGCS tournaments. Blackgal was a native to card shop Sakura, and his decklist along with a video of the finals is presented below.

The top 4 at Sakura were “The X” in both first and second place, a Seeker cardfighter in third and a Revenger fighter in fourth. Bushiroad's Fighter's Climax 2014 Nagoya stage was taking place close to the Sakura CS' start date. Tweets shortly after the event indicate that the top 4 at Nagoya was Mordred-“Abyss” in first place, Raging Form-“Abyss” in second, Alfred XIV-Thing Saver in third, and “The X” in fourth.

Sakura's majority was split almost evenly between Royal Paladin and Kagerou cardfighters, with 13 playing Royal Paldain and 12 playing Kagerou. This was also the first time that the relative presence of Shadow Paladin fighters in a VGCS had decreased since the implementation of the most recent restricted list, with only 5 fighters (11%) playing “Abyss.”

Deck breakdown (44 participants in total)
13 Royal Paladin
1 Oracle Think Tank
5 Shadow Paladin
1 Gold Paladin
12 Kagerou
5 Nova Grappler
1 Dimensional Robo
1 Link Joker
1 Megacolony
1 Bermuda △
3 Gear Chronicle

This success of “The X” at Sakura and Nagoya has come in wake of his success at FC2014 Fukuoka, just days after the release of Generation Stride. Kagerou has been a consistent favorite for professional cardfighters throughout the game's history, due to their long-lived support across multiple formats, and just prior to the set's release “The X” was the most expensive triple rare out of the set.

The primary anomaly at Sakura is the lack of visible Nova Grappler, as the fist clan to receive a restanding stride unit, Vict Plasma. Plasma's restanding ~26000 power center lane has some advantages over the contemporary “Abyss” deck, being able to swing for higher initial numbers without the setup from Mordred Phantom and being able to do so with multiple rearguard attacks as well, in exchange for being a twice per game skill.

The tournament finals between GmfWingal and Mossan were recorded and uploaded to YouTube. GmfWingal demonstrated a clear difference in play style, prioritizing aggressive stride turns to change the flow of the game and following up with legion skills later on, while Mossan left his G-units untouched. Much of their early turns were spent mirroring one another, but in game 1 GmfWingal maintained a clear advantage throughout the fight by playing continual damage control and aggressively getting his opponent to higher damage. Mossan played a defensive game of minimizing his losses by continually restanding the Great and attacking GmfWingal's rearguards, using his Protect Orb Dragons to keep damage unflipped. GmfWingal instead used “The X's” on-legion skill to search out a copy of “The X” instead of the End; this gave his opponent an incentive to let the center lane hit and put Mossan further behind at 4 to 2 damage, which would make “The X's” persona blast become live on the next turn.

Midway through the game GmfWingal made a critical play that is in some dispute. He strode Route Flare Dragon and used its skill to turn a copy of it face-up in the generation zone, but because he did not have two face-up G units after doing so, he could not retire a column. Route Flares skills states "This ability cannot be used for the rest of the turn." but because not being able to use the ability for the rest of the turn was believed to follow from having two or more face up generation units, and it did not satisfy the condition of "If the number of face up cards in your G Zone is two or more," the remainder of the skill, including the statement that it could not be used for the rest of the turn was not implemented. A later ruling issued by Bushiroad Inc.'s support staff stated that based on as much of the skill text needing to be fulfilled as possible, "This ability cannot be used for the rest of the turn." should have taken effect. Gmfwingal issued an apology for the mistake over Twitter.

GmfWingal ultimately won game 1 by deck out, reaching the point where Mossan had no critical triggers left in his deck, no-guarding his vanguard while at 4 damage, and then passing his turn so that Mossan would draw his last card and automatically lose. This type of game is only possible with the extended time limit that VGCS tournaments afford; in Bushiroad's system both players would have hit time at the 20 minute mark and mutually lose, producing a tournament with no winner.

In game 2, GmfWingal started at a clearer disadvantage and played more carefully to stride from the outset with Divine Dragon Knight Mahmoud, but forgot to use his on-hit skill to retire Mossan's Calamity Tower Wyvern. Mossan was able to get a stronger early game going, but multiple turns of stride shifted the pace of the fight in GmfWingal's favor; by striding Route Flare on his next turn and using his persona generation skill to retire Dragonic Overlord the Great, then using the copy of Great he discarded for stride for Burnout's skill to retire Calamity Tower, and attack Burning Horn with Burnout afterwards, GmfWingal cleared out his opponent's rearguards and set up a net four card advantage over Mossan.

In both of these games any attacks on the rearguards by “The X” were effectively unblockable because Protect Orb Dragon cannot guard for a rearguard; nevertheless, versus a 29000-power “The X” lane, GmfWingal chose to put down 30000 shield to prevent the End's persona blast from going off, trading card advantage to shut down Mossan's recovery gameplan. Without a definitive way for Mossan to overtake the match, GmfWingal won the finals 2-0.

Original image uploaded by Card Shop Sakura.

GmfWingal's decklist was similar in composition to that used by Bottan at the Nagoya tournament, including nearly identical grade 3 lineups, choice of stride units and grade 2 lineup. The primary difference between them is that GmfWingal favored Burning Horn Dragon over Neoflame in the rearguard, and their aesthetic choices over trigger units.

Sakura Vanguard Championship
First place: GmfWingal/ごまふがる
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Perdition Dancer, Agafia HT
x1 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Demonic Dragon Mage, Apalala CT
x3 Blu-ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Protect Orb Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Flame of Strength, Aetniki
Grade 2
x4 Dragonic Burnout
x3 Dragonic Neoflame
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The X”
x3 Dragonic Overlord the End
x2 Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Imperial Flame Dragon King, Route Flare Dragon
x1 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmoud
x2 Miracle Element, Atomos
x1 Heat Element, Magum

News: Dragonic Overlord “The X” Tops FC2014 Fukuoka, 2012 National Champion in Fourth

Flavor text: "The End isn't finished."

December 6th, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. The Fukuoka branch of Bushiroad's ongoing Fighter's Climax 2014 tournament concluded at the West Japan General Exhibition Center with a Kagerou cardfighter, alias "Bottan," placing first using a Dragonic Overlord “The X” deck. Second place was a Gear Chronicle cardfighter, and third place a Royal Paladin fighter playing Thing Saver Dragon, and fourth was 2012 national champion Nakamura Seishirou also playing Thing Saver. The first, second and fourth place decklists are given below. Bottan tweeted that he was undefeated in the tournament, with his qualification rounds consisting of Nova Grappler, Dimension Police, Revenger and Royal Paladin matchups. He played top 16 against Gear Chronicle, Kagerou, Royal Paladin and another Gear Chronicle fighter.

Dragonic Overlord “The X”  (read as "The Cross," as in "crossover") was introduced in G-BT01: Generation Stride as a revival legion for Dragonic Overlord the End, the grade 3 that has served as a continual hazard throughout multiple formats. Nearly every era of the game has had its own incarnation of the End, making him almost as long lived as Kagerou itself. Few cardfighters will need a reminder of what the End is capable of, but for the benefit of newer players; if the End's attack hits, he can counterblast 2 and persona blast to restand. Because the End gains more cards from his second twin drive than he has to discard, his restand is both a +1 in card advantage and a grossly aggressive means of checking for additional triggers.

“The X” makes the End all the more effective because not only does his legion turn the End into a 22000 base attacker to make the on-hit easier to get off, which  “The X” legions he can search the deck for a copy of either the End or “The X.” And if his attack doesn't hit,  “The X” can counterblast 1 and persona blast a copy of himself to retire two of the opponent's rearguards. This turns the crossoverlords into a lose-lose situation--since the copy of the End is added directly to the hand from the deck as a +1 in advantage, the opponent is faced with either letting the attack hit so that the vanguard can restand with a net +2 and able to overwhelm the opponent with their inherently large center lane, or blocking the attack and taking a -2 while “The X” goes back to a neutral +0. This is only the basis for the deck however, as what is truly championing “The X” is his massively overgrown pool of Overlord-specific support cards and alternate grade 3s that give him more options than there is room in the deck for.

“The X's” rise was not unforeseen. Just two days prior to the set's release on December 5th, prerelease prices in Japan showed an immense demand for “The X,” with the card being the most expensive triple rare in Generation Stride at 1500~1700 yen per card according to aucfan. Route Flare, the deck's primary stride unit, stood at only 1000 yen per card. Some will dispute the Fukuoka results as not being representative of what is to come, as Bushiroad's tournaments are infamous for their best-of-one format. However, the prereleases prices suggest a demand significant enough that these results will be replicated at the more legitimate VGCS tournaments.

Original image uploaded by besthito. Full decklist is transcribed below. Other than Route Flare and Messiah, the deck is fully SPed, with all of his Neo Flames being legion rares.

The core of “The X” rests on the grade 2 Perdition Dragon Dragonic Neoflame. Unlike many of the Perdition support, Neoflame does not require a Perdition vanguard to activate. When Neoflame is called to the rearguard, it receives a skill that when an opponent's rearguard in the same column as it is put into the drop zone, allows Neoflame to counterblast 1 and retire another in the same column. Virtually every skill in the deck can play off of Neoflame in some way. If the End's attack hits a rearguard, not only will the End restand but because a rearguard was placed into the drop zone Neoflame's counterblast will retire its booster. If the End does not hit and “The X's” persona blast goes off instead, “The X” can retire two rearguards and Neoflame will remove one of their boosters. This dramatically escalates the situation to either a +1 vs -2 or -1 vs -3 depending on which persona blast is used.

Furthermore, with the grade 2 Dragonic Burnout, who can return an Overlord from the drop zone to the deck and then soulblast 1 to retire a rearguard, it becomes possible to combo him to Neoflame, paying counterblast 1 and soulblast 1 to destroy an entire column. Because of Burnout's conditions, if either “The X” or the End's persona blasts go off, Burnout is fully set up for next turn, giving multiple options across several turns for clearing out the opponent's field and punishing them for fighting back. Bottan built his deck with multiple legions in mind that are able to recycle these grade 2 options, and having access to Dragonic Overlord the Great both offers another restanding vanguard option that can also trigger a rearguard Neoflame's skill.

Kagerou's primary stride unit, Route Flare Dragon, expands the deck's options by allowing it to retire an entire column twice per game. While this does not synergize with Neoflame, it does give the Kagerou cardfighter additional options for beating down the opponent so that the End will hit later. The cost of discarding a grade 3 in order to stride provides an opportunity to use Dragonic Burnout in the same turn as the stride unit, retiring three rearguards. Since Route Flare requires two units to be face-up in the generation zone after his persona blast is activated in order to resolve, he encourages early use of Divine Dragon Knight Mahmoud, whose on-hit retires another rearguard. The turn 3~4 plan for the deck depending on which fighter went first then becomes to discard one of the Overlords to stride Mahmoud, call Neoflame, call Burnout and return the Overlord discarded to the deck to retire a rearguard, use Neoflame to retire that rearguard's booster, then hit with Mahmout to retire another. On the next turn the Overlord returned to the deck can be grabbed back with “The X's” on-legion skill. The Overlord deck has multiple ways to trigger its key cards and start up an explosive sequence of retire skills that severely limit the number of safe plays against it. The only decks capable of circumventing “The X” directly are Tachikaze, Shadow Paladin and the Great Nature variants that draw off of their rearguards' end phase retires rather than call them back to the field.

Original image uploaded by Doctor O. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Bottan's Overlord decklist was later uploaded a second time by Doctor O, followed by the second place cardfighter's Gear Chronicle deck. The Gear Chronicle finalist focused on guard manipulation in his build, using the grade 2 Steam Knight Puzur Ili as a Silent Tom variant capable of blocking grade 0 cards, and Chrono Jet Dragon's generation break 2 to block perfect defense cards. With the generation rare Chronos Command preordering at 2500~3000 yen per card, the deck's grade 4 lineup is difficult to complete in Japan, but its property of sending all of the opponent's rearguards into their deck has been enough to launch Gear Chronicle into professional play out of the box.

One of the contributing factors to “The X's” victory may be the new G-BT01 onwards version of perfect defense cards. The runner-up at Fukuoka ran Steam Maiden Alulim, a new variant of these units, that can unflip a damage if there is a copy of herself in the drop zone when she is guarded with. In exchange, Alulim variations can only protect the vanguard and cannot be called against an attack on a rearguard. Neither Dragonic Overlord “The X's” nor the End's skills require them to hit or attack a vanguard. Both the End's restand and “The X's” retire skill can activate after attacking a rearguard, and the Great's on-hit specifically has to hit a rearguard, which means that by running these new perfect defense cards, other cardfighters are enabling Overlord fighters to funnel them towards whichever scenario is the worst one.

Original image uploaded by Seishirou. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Nakamura Seishirou tweeted his decklist shortly after the tournament. As in most years since his 2012 debut Seishirou played a Royal Paladin deck, this time using a Thing Saver variant with the legion grade 2 Jewel Knight Swordmy to superior call his copies of Shellie to act as boosters. Since Swordmy does not require a Jewel Knight vanguard, Swordmy has seen recent integration into Seeker decks as a source of cheap boosting power. Other modifications include Cycirlz from G-BT01, who gains +2 grade when discarded for the cost of stride, allowing him to be used as an alternative means of striding the deck's grade 4s Gablade and Saint Blow Dragon. Gablade's on hit skill superior calls a grade 2 or greater unit from the deck, providing an ideal moment to bring out Swordmy early on and then superior call Shellie behind him for a net +2. Like Route Flare above, Saint Blow's skill requires it to turn a copy of itself face-up in the generation zone and then have two or more face-up G-units in the zone. This endows it with +3000 power for each rearguard and an additional critical, which combined with the power from striding makes an unboosted 41000 power 2 critical center lane that can alternatively force the opponent to higher damage early so that Thing Saver's restand skill becomes devastating, or catch the opponent unprepared to defend in the turns after TSD has taken out much of their hand options.

Seishirou had just recently won the sixth Hakata VGCS with a similar deck, and in August had won the second Kitakyuu CS with Thing Saver-“Abyss.” His success in multiple tournaments, both official and underground, has made him one of the most recognizable professionals in Japanese play.

Fighter's Climax 2014 Fukuoka Regional Qualifier
Regional Champion: Bottan/ぼったん
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biella CT
x3 Magnum Shot Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Protect Orb Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Violence Horn Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Dragonic Burnout
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Dragonic Neoflame
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The X”
x3 Dragonic Overlord the End
x2 Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Imperial Flame Dragon King, Route Flare Dragon
x1 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmoud
x1 Harmonics Messiah
x2 Miracle Element, Atomos

Runner-up
Grade 0
x1 Timepiece Dracokid (FV)
x4 Steam Maiden, Ululu HT
x4 Lucky Pot Dracokid DT
x4 Steam Battler, Dadashig CT
x4 Steam Battler, Mashuda CT
Grade 1
x4 Steam Maiden, Alulim
x4 Steam Breath Dragon
x3 Steam Scalar, Gigi
x3 Maser Gear Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Smoke Gear Dragon
x4 Steam Knight, Puzur Ili
x3 Twin Maser Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Chrono Jet Dragon
x4 Ruin Disposal Dragon
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon
x2 Interdimensional Dragon, Chronos Command Dragon
x1 Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery Flare Dragon
x1 Miracle Element, Atomos

Fourth place: Seishirou
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Jewel Knight, Hilmy HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger CT
x4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle CT
Grade 1
x4 Holy Knight Guardian
x4 Laurel Knight, Cycirlz
x4 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
x2 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric 
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Jewel Knight, Swordmy
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x3 Seeker, Sacred Wingal
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
x4 Divine Sacred Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon