News: Second Phantom VGCS Decklists, Duo Tops Running Four Grade 3s

August 9th, 2015. The second Phantom Vanguard Championship site updated today with complete decklists for the top 4 cardfighters, as well as a more complete deck breakdown over what was previously given. While the tournament has been primarily noted as the resurgence of Glendios, in third place was the first Japanese Duo top since the second Kansai Vanguard Championship, over a year ago. Top 8 at the Phantom CS was Healer (Glendios), Toothpick (Sanctuary Guard), Hanta (Duo), Nekono (Glendios), Sanba (Royal Paladin), Gungnir (Revenger), Tomo (Kagerou), and Derrin (Kagerou). Hanta's Duo deck includes just four grade 3s, running additional copies of his first vanguard in place of the remaining ones in order to abuse Darling's ability to return Peace to hand to repeatedly resolve her draw and countercharge skill to add up to four cards to hand. Using this strategy, up to one third of the main deck can be added to hand in a single turn if all of the possible combo pieces come together, and Duo's new legion Nemuel is designed to facilitate this by searching out copies of cards returned to hand.

Deck Breakdown (101 Participants in total)
34 Revenger
22 Royal Paladin
11 Bermuda Triangle
9 Kagerou
6 Great Nature
4 Aqua Force
4 Glendios
3 Narukami
2 Nova Grappler
2 Gold Paladin
1 Dark Irregulars
1 Neo Nectar
1 Tachikaze
1 Touken Ranbu

Shadow Paladin was the most played deck of the Phantom CS, followed by Royal Paladin, and Bermuda Triangle. Glendios had previously topped the Kansai Spring Cup and West Japan VGCS in early May, and has since become a prominent rogue that has popularly superseded the Messiah deck in Japan. Phantom CS champion Healer's Glendios deck was similar to that used at West Japan, running fourteen grade 3s to capitalize on “∞” Glendios' ability to trap the opponent in a full-field lock as much as possible. The addition of Vorium from Sovereign Star Dragon similarly plays into this pursuit of the deck's alternative win condition, adding “Яeverse” units to hand to get five into play as quickly as possible.

First place: Healer/ヒーラー
Grade 0: 17
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x4 Recollection Star-vader, Tellurium HT
x3 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x3 Star-vader, Jailer Tail DT
x3 Star-vaer, Meteo Liger CT
x3 Star-vader, Spark Doll CT
Grade 1: 13
x4 Flowers in Vacuum, Cosmo Wreath
x2 Sword Draw Star-vader, Vorium
x3 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
x4 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
Grade 2: 6
x4 Star-vader, Magnet Hollow
x2 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3: 14
x4 Star-vader, “Ω” Glendios
x3 Star-vader, “Яeverse” Cradle
x1 Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth”
x1 Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse”
x1 Broken Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei “Яeverse”
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Яeverse”
x1 Cleanup Celestial, Ramiel “Яeverse”
x1 Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster “Яeverse”
x1 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Яeverse”
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x1 Genesis Dragon, Judgement Messiah
x1 Genesis Dragon, Amnesty Messiah
x2 Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch Dragon
x4 Death Star-vader,  “∞” Glendios

Second place: Toothpick/つまようじ
Grade 0: 17
x1 Shining Knight, Millius (FV)
x4 Jewel Knight, Hilmy HT
x4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger CT
x4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle CT
x4 Seeker, Hallowed Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1: 13
x4 Flashing Jewel Knight, Iseult
x3 Jewel Knight, Sabremy
x4 Laurel Knight, Sicilus
x1 Heat Wind Jewel Knight, Cymbeline
x1 Hidden Sage, Miron
Grade 2: 13
x3 Starlight Violinist
x4 Jewel Knight, Swordmy
x4 Knight of Twin Sword
x2 Transmigration Knight, Brede
Grade 3: 7
x4 Sanctuary Guard Dragon
x3 Sanctuary Guard Guarantee
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Holy Dragon, Sanctuary Guard Regalie
x4 Holy Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon

Third place: Hanta/はんたぁ
Grade 0: 20
x4 Duo Lovers Singer, Darling (FV)
x4 Duo Tropical Healer, Medjerda HT
x4 Duo Love Joker, Chulym CT
x4 Duo Granpus Turn, Shannon CT
x4 Duo Pride Crown, Madeira CT
Grade 1: 14
x4 PRISM-Duo Aria
x2 Duo Clear Parasol, Kura
x4 Duo Petit Etoile, Peace
x4 Duo Gorgeous Lady, Kazuha
Grade 2: 12
x2 Glitter of Yearning, Spica
x2 Duo Kelpie Jockey, Syrdarya
x4 Duo Mini Hat, Rhone
x4 Duo Lovely Devil, Vepar
Grade 3: 4
x4 Duo Lovely Angel, Nemuel
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x1 Snow Elemental, Blizza
x1 Legendary PRISM-Duo, Nectaria
x2 Legend of the Glass Slipper, Amoris
x2 Rain Elemental, Madew
x2 School Etoile, Olivia

Fourth place: Nekono/ねこの
Grade 0: 17
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x4 Taunting Deletor, Gotho HT
x2 Shockwave Star-vader, Dysprosium ST
x4 Exulting Deletor, Maestol DT
x2 Squeezing Deletor, Id DT
x4 Beloved Child of Superstring Theory DT
Grade 1: 9
x4 Flowers in Vacuum, Cosmo Wreath
x1 Grab Hand Gorilla
x2 Rain Elemental, Tear
x2 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
Grade 2: 8
x2 Light Speed Cheetah
x2 Star-vader, Astro Reaper
x4 Star-vader, Cold Death Dragon
Grade 3: 16
x2 Star-vader, Dark Zodiac
x4 Star-vader, “Яeverse” Cradle
x3 Star-vader, “Ω” Glendios
x4 Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus “Яeverse”
x3 Star-vader, Freeze Ray Dragon
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Rain Elemental, Madew
x2 Death Star-vader,  “∞” Glendios
x2 Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch Dragon

News: Weekly Broadcast Features Harmony Versus Duo Fight

This morning Bushiroad of Japan's weekly broadcast commemorated the approaching release date of G-Clan Booster 01: Academy of Divas by featuring a fight between celebrity host Doctor O and company mascot Vangarou-kun. Doctor O played the new ♪♪ Harmony deck using Lawlis and Riddhe, while Vangarou-kun played a revamped Duo deck built around Eternal Sister Meer and her breakride from Divas Duet. Doctor O had just been in New York as part of Bushiroad's international Spring Festival earlier this week, and showed off a memento of the trip prior to the fight. Almost twelve thousand viewers tuned in to watch the fight, which is presented below in its entirety.

(Fight begins at 08:04)
Doctor O quickly took the lead with his explosive stride strategy, using the ♪♪ Harmony skills of Extraordinary Freshman Shizuku to remove grade 3s from his deck and ensure he could pay the cost of stride, while also repeatedly drawing off of Lawlis' and Emilia's generation break skills. This put him ahead in card advantage while necessitating very little counterblast, and due to Vangarou-kun running Cadet Shizuku as their first vanguard rather than Duo Lovers Singer Darling, it proved difficult for them to keep up versus the deck's draw power. With Doctor O at such a low damage count, Meer's restanding skill did little to make headway into his hand.

Bushiroad's weekly information bulletins air every Tuesday evening at 8:50 PM Japanese Standard Time. They first began in late January to accommodate a new information distribution model for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as the amount of card information covered in Monthly Bushiroad magazine decreased and was redirected to other routes of distribution. The previous week contained the announcement of G-BT04: Soul Strike Against the Supreme, while the week before featured Ishii Mark (voice of Shindou Chrono) and mascot character Vangarou-kun in a fight using the Link Joker and Gold Paladin decks supported in G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon.

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

News: Duo Fighter Makes Top 4 in Second Kansai VGCS, Lock on Victory to Feature Multiple Endings

Higashiōsaka Civic Center, Higashiōsaka city, Osaka prefecture. Image source.

The last Vanguard Championship of March ended on the 30th, with the Dragonic Nouvelle Vague making an encore appearance in the Second Kansai VGCS' first and fourth spots. Turnout at Kansai almost broke 100, reaching a latent high point of 97 persons, although it was planned to accommodate up to 128 participants. Kagerou made up an overwhelming majority of the tournament with 42 entrants, but in spite of this dominance Kansai became the staging ground for Bermuda Triangle's revival in the Japanese pro scene, being tied with Aqua Force for the fourth most represented clan.

Second Kansai VGCS Clan Breakdown 
42 Kagerou
13 Link Joker
9 Bermuda Triangle
9 Aqua Force
7 Shadow Paladin
4 Gold Paladin
4 Pale Moon
3 Genesis
2 Narukami
1 Nova Grappler
1 Granblue
1 Oracle Think Tank
1 Great Nature

Just over a week after the release of VG-EB10: Divas' Duet, third place in the Kansai CS was taken by Kimuti, playing Duo Temptation Ried. Based on early previews of the cards in Monthly Bushiroad magazine, Duo builds were expected to do well in competitive play, but there was some debate over whether Ried or Iori would be the preferred deck in the current format. Where Ried is a self-standing vanguard like many of the currently favored decks, Iori's limit break allows her to search for up to two copies of any card in the deck as long as she already has one in play, forcing Duo fighters to choose between an offensive swing that can end the game or unparalleled access to the deck.

Duo True Sister, Mare.

The tournament had an entry fee of 1000 yen per person, and was held on the third floor of the Higashiōsaka Civic Center in Osaka prefecture. The tournament lasted from 11:20 AM until 7:30 PM, and had six 20-minute best-of-1 Swiss rounds followed by a cut to top 8 with four 50-minute best-of-3 games. First place won a Nintendo 3DS XL, second place a standard Nintendo 3DS, third place three boxes of VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth and fourth place two boxes of the same.


The deck's cornerstone play is using the Duo break ride, True Sister Mare, with its self-standing vanguard Ried. Like the previous Dragonic Descendant, Ethics Buster "Яeverse" and Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth", Mare into Ried has the inherent advantage of the break ride power multiplying the effectiveness of multiple attacks, but Mare's counterblast 1 also returns all Bermuda Triangle units to hand when the vanguard attacks and then calls two.

Duo Temptation, Ried.

When used in combination with Ried, who can stand herself by discarding two Duos with the same name and paying 2 counterblast after she attacks, this allows for six attacks in one turn. The calling of rearguards also provides more opportunities to use Loulou in combination with the clan's base 12000 attacker Syrdarya, and Ural.

Like Nouvelle, one of the key points of success for the Ried build is its access to a Luck Bird equivalent in Duo Pretty Horn Ural, and Kimuti chose to run Ural at four to capitalize on Duo series' efficient one-girl soulcharging engine, Ricca. By being able to grab up that kind of cheap card advantage throughout the fight, compensating for Shizuku's failure or building on her success early game, then making additional plays over Ricca's soulcharging after using skills that return her to hand, Duo decks are able to effectively accelerate in a way that makes every one card count for two.

Adding to its effectiveness is that the deck has a special booster in Duo Beast Ear Loulou, a base 7000 grade 1 that when called can choose up to Loulous on the field to give +2000 power to. Since Bermuda Triangle makes its plays around being able to return cards to the hand,  she can be safely recycled across multiple turns, and at endgame when multiple Loulous hit the field the first one played becomes successively more powerful than those that follow, so that the backrow begins to look like 13000-11000-9000 or 13000-9000-11000 to make strong rearguard lanes that complement a high-power vanguard.

Second Kansai VGCS Top 8 
1st Ishibaji/イシバシ - Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague
2nd Demon King/魔王 - Star-vader, Omega Glendios
3rd Kimuti/きむてぃ - Duo Temptation, Ried
4th New Moon/三日月 - Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague
Best 8 Nao - Star-vader, Omega Glendios
Best 8 Kuroneko - Star-vader, Omega Glendios
Best 8 Kouzan/光山 - Dragonic Overlord
Best 8 Nikoru/にこる - Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Also of note is Demon King's Glendios deck, in second place. While Glendios was previously established at the third Laketown, second Tsurumai and eighth Battle City tournaments as an effective deck in its own right, King's build deviated significantly from the established norms. Most Link Joker cardfighters run Glendios with thirteen grade 3s and seven grade 2s to make use of nine “Яeverse” cards, but Demon King's build instead cut back to eleven grade 3s with seven “Яeverse” units in favor of an additional Colony Maker and Rubidium, prioritizing Colony Maker's ability to search for Ruin Magician and streamlining how the “Яeverse” units are played. This is in contrast to Nao and Kuroneko's Glendios decks from further down in the top 8, which played sixteen and thirteen grade 3s respectively, and experimented with Infinite Zero and Cold Death Dragon to pursue Glendios' ultimate break instead of winning conventionally.

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

In other news, the official website for Cardfight!! Vanguard Lock on Victory!! has updated with new information regarding the upcoming 3DS game. According to the newly established story page, there is a separate storyline for each of the three in-game high schools, with each character responding differently depending on whether the protagonist is male or female, and there are multiple endings depending on both the choice of school and character.

主人公（キミ）は高校生の新米ヴァンガードファイター。とあるきっかけで、入学した高校の「カードファイト部」に入部することに！VF甲子園優勝を目指して、ライバルたちと切磋琢磨する部員たち。しかし、そんな彼らに謎の現象「リバース」の影が迫っていた……。 

The protagonist (you) are a Vanguard Fighter just beginning high school. By certain chance, you are going to join your school's Cardfight Club! Aiming to win the VF High School Championship, you and your rivals study hard along with your club members. However, the shadow of the mysterious phenomenon "Яeverse" is drawing near to these people...

Building on the previous game's feature of being able to start the game over with the same card collection after completing it the first time, Lock on Victory takes full advantage of the system by letting them see each of the different storylines across multiple playthroughs.

Second Kansai VGCS
First Place: Ishibaji/イシバシ
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Dragon Dancer, Therese HT
x1 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Mage, Abarara CT
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
x3 Dominate Drive Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x1 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Second Place: Demon King/魔王
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x4 Recollection Star-vader, Tellurium HT
x2 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x4 Star-vader, Spark Doll CT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
x2 Carved Seal Star-vader, Praseodymium
x4 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader, Magnet Hollow
x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, “Ω” Glendios
x4 Star-vader, “Я” Cradle
x1 Ice Prison Dark Lord, Cocytus “Я”
x1 School Punisher, Leo-pald “Я”
x1 Maiden of Venus Trap “Я”

Third Place: Kimuti/きむてぃ
Grade 0
x1 Bermuda Triangle Cadet, Shizuku (FV)
x4 Heartful Ale, Fundy DT
x2 Duo Lamplight Melody, Tigris DT
x4 Duo Tropical Healer, Mejelda HT
x4 Duo Gran Pasturn, Syanon CT
x2 Duo Pride Crown, Madeira CT
Grade 1
x4 Duo Beast Ear, Loulou
x1 Duo Afternoon Tea, Parana
x4 PRISM-Duo Aria
x4 Duo Pretty Horn, Ural
Grade 2
x4 Duo Kelpie Jockey, Syrdarya
x4 Duo Mini Hat, Rhone
x4 Duo White Ice Crystal, Rikka
Grade 3
x4 Duo Temptation, Ried
x4 Duo True Sister, Mare

Fourth Place: New Moon/三日月
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x1 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x1 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x1 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
x3 Demonic Dragon Berserker, Kumbhanda
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Grade 4
x4 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague