Card Capital
Now, we're in the second round of the shop tournament. If you win here, you'll be in the Best Four. I'm expecting heated fights from all of you!
Shin-san is the hottest of us all right now.
In the original Japanese this line sounds nothing like it does in English.
Misaki...how about "Manager"?
Yes, yes. Shin-san.
T, this card has the first match of the second round on it, so let's get ready.
I'm Sendou Emi. How do you do? I'm Aichi's little sister. Every day, I'm taking care of him. It's nice to meet you. I'm still getting started with Vanguard, but I won't lose!
As her brother I'll support her, but I don't think there's anything to worry about, because I know that Emi has a lot of ability. Both of you, do your best!
Grade 0(Above are the confirmed cards that we've seen; there are around 23 cards missing from this list, but until complete data can be assembled it should give you an idea of what to expect from Emi.)
x1 Bermuda Triangle Cadet, Riviere (FVG)
x2 Drive Quartet, Flows HT
x2 Drive Quartet, Ressac ST
x1 Drive Quartet, Shuplu CT
Grade 1
x2 Mermaid Idol, Riviere
x2 Mermaid Idol, Felucca
x2 Blazers' Pleasures
x1 Pearl Sisters, Perle
x1 Mermaid Idol, Elly
x1 Mermaid Idol, Sedna
Grade 2
x2 Super Idol, Rivere
x2 Pearl Sisters, Perla
x1 Mermaid Idol, Flute
x2 Top Idol, Aqua
Grade 3
x1 Top Idol, Pacifica
x1 Super Idol, Salem
x3 Top Idol, Rivere
Emi is definitely the most dangerous opponent RTV's thrown at you yet, and a lot of that lies in her deck construction. Kamui had a first vanguard that could move to the rearguard, but the worst that Battleraizer could do was cycle back to the deck to increase his chances of checking triggers on subsequent turns. Riviere is an actual evolving line of cards, and her skills work so that Emi has the potential to draw an extra card every turn of this fight. First, when she rides Mermaid Idol Riviere over Triangle Cadet Riviere, she gets to look at the top 7 cards of the deck for either the grade 2 Super Idol or grade 3 Top Idol; this gives her an extra card along with grade security, so that she can focus on developing her field. The skills of Super and Top are more simple, in that if she rides them and has the previous forms in the soul, Emi gets to just flat out draw a card.
Furthermore, Emi is very good at building up her soul. This gets dangerous in combination with the Riviere series because, even if she misses her grade 1 ride, Emi can use Felucca and Perle's soulcharges to get the grade 1 into her soul so that if she rides her grade 2 and grade 3, she'll still get one extra card out of the deal. The Pearl Sisters are another thing--if the grade 2 Perla's attack hits she can soulblast 1 to return a Bermuda Triangle to the hand, but when Emi calls the grade 1 Perle she gets to add another skill to Perla for the turn, allowing her to soulcharge 1 to draw a card. So Emi calls Perle, adds the skill to Perla, Perla's attack hits, she gets to soulcharge 1 and draw a card, then soulblast 1 to send Perle back to the hand and repeat the combo next turn.
To combat the constant drawing, you need to wear Emi down with multiple attacks each turn, and take out Perla at your first opportunity. If you can get a 19000 power line going with for example, Blaster Dark and Doranbau, you can force Emi to either lose Perla or drop 15000 in shield, either of which will work toward this goal.
The grade 3 that you need to worry about the most from the onset is Riviere, a base 10000 power unit that becomes 11000 when her grade 2 form is in the soul, and who can counterblast 2 and persona blast when her attack hits to give three Bermuda Triangle rearguards +5000 power.
Emi's main weakness is also her greatest strength; Riviere's persona blast and her stand trigger Ressac conflict with one another. Because it targets three separate Bermuda units, the blast is used best by attacking with the vanguard line first, so that she can power up two rearguard lines, but she has to use a rearguard first in case of a stand trigger. So while the ultimate, strongest move she can make is devastating, standing a rearguard with a trigger then powering it up with the blast so that it's going for 20000+ while the other line is easily clearing 25000+, it's more likely that she checks no stands and has just one 25000+ line with no other attacks coming after. Her AI just can't handle the persona blast well, and she'll often use it when there are no rearguards standing just because she's met the conditions. It probably fits the fact that Emi is still a beginner, but it also means that the Riviere evolution that makes her deck so devastating is also working against her.
As I've said though, Emi is extremely good at building up the soul. Since you're likely to block Riviere's persona blast anyway, this does help her out. If she reaches her fourth turn after riding the Riviere cards and hasn't used Riviere's persona blast or Sedna's counterblast yet, Emi will ride Pacifica; counting her soulcharge she'll have 5 cards in the soul, meaning if she's already gotten out or drops two Feluccas, that's one more turn to have the timing just right on Pacifica's megablast. Counterblast 5 Soulblast 8 is a steep cost, but in her deck it's actually pretty realistic to have that much available, so the main issue is that the persona blast has to hit for her to use it. This is another point in favor of Emi's stand triggers. The megablast lets her call three Bermuda Triangle rearguards when Pacifica's attack hits, so she'll be using both rearguard lines beforehand. Checking a stand trigger before the blast goes off lets her attack with two full lines afterward instead of one complete line and one unfinished, and one of those will be at 20000+ power. Pacifica constant +3000 power means that she'll also be breaking 20-21000 every turn, and the AI is pretty good about gauging how to build its lines when it actually has suitable attackers.
That said, by stopping only the key units and letting other early damage slip by, you can ride out her mid to endgame pretty well and gradually wear away the tinier Sendou's resources.
I lost...but it was really fun! Thank you! If you go to the city, you'll meet many more cardfighters!
That's right! Miwa-kun will lend you special trial decks. I think Miwa-kun is in the park, so by all means try fighting with other clans.
The next round is coming up, so please make your preparations.
←Part 3
