News: Beast Deity Cardfighter Places First in Fateclock Championship, Fighter's Climax 2013 National Finals Decklists

Kitano Civic Center, Hachiouji.

The fifth Fateclock Vanguard Championship concluded today with the only Ethics Buster cardfighter in the tournament topping first out of 81 participants. For the purposes of this VGCS, held on January 25th in Japan, the February 1st Fighter's Rules and accompanying restricted list were adopted prior to their effective date, providing a look into what the February-on format looks like. Although Kagerou and Genesis together accounted for 48 of the 81 decks entered, the top 4 still ended with two Nova Grappler cardfighters billed for first and second.

Interestingly, the primary influence for these Nova Grappler decks seems to come from the 2013 junior national championships. CS champion "One Way Road" fought with a Beast Deity deck similar to Nagoya regional champion Muramatsu Masakiyo's (村松真聖) decklist, with an identical grade 3 lineup that takes advantage of the Beast Deity's shared support to make an amorphous strategy based around Ethics Buster that can either set up an eight attack combo using its Reverse card's limit break in combination with Buster's break ride skill or use Ethics Extreme to form an independent strategy even if the break ride is missed. One Way Road's primary renovations were to run Street Bouncer and Energy Charger for cheap card advantage and Miraioh, the clan's generic grade 3 searching first vanguard, rather than Riot Horn as is more common. Meanwhile runner-up Ojima's Blaukluger deck drew inspiration from Nishida Sachi's (西田祥) Osaka decklist, using Galaxy and Mond Blaukluger in tandem with the Mars and Jupiter Blau series and 3 copies of the original Blaukluger for early game combos through low counterblast skills and damage unflipping. As in the official tournaments, some familiar names have cropped up as Gungnir has turned up on the radar once more, this time in fourth place with a Minerva-based Genesis deck rather than the Raging Form Dragon that first put him on the map, and Gaiji who some may remember from a previous Fateclock team tournament has likewise come up again right on Gungnir's heels.

The fifth Fateclock VGCS was held in Hachiouji city's Kitano Civic Center and used a Swiss tournament ruleset with 5 rounds of Swiss draw and a 20 minute time limit followed by a cut to top 16. For the top 16, 50 minutes were allotted for best of 3 sets between each participant. Under these rules the tournament began at 11:15 AM and ended at 6:50 PM, with the awards ceremony finishing at 7:00 PM. The tournament's entry fee was 1000 yen, approximately $10 US, and the prize payout was a Nintendo 3DS XL for first place, second place a standard size 3DS, while third place received three boxes of VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike, fourth place two boxes of the same and the rest of the best 8 one box each. The system used by the tournament is similar to that previously tested at the West Tokyo VGCS, which has been employed since then in the majority of CS events.

The Fifth Fateclock VGCS Top 8 

One Way Road/一方通行 Beast Deity
Ojima/オジマ Blau
Black-Rimmed Glasses/くろぶちめがね Dominate Nouvelle
Gungnir/ぐんぐにーる Minerva
Gaiji/カイジ Minerva
Miju/ミジュ Nouvelle
Tsubame/つばめ Dominate
Wago/わご Blau

Of the participants, 23 fighters played Kagerou decks (13 of those based around Dragonic Nouvelle Vague and 10 of them on Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Яeverse"), 23 played Genesis, 8 Royal Paladin (1 Jewel Knight, 6 Sanctuary Guard Dragon and 1 Majesty Lord Blaster), 7 Link Joker, 6 Nova Grappler (5 based on the Blau series, with 1 Beast Deity deck), 5 Gold Paladin (3 Gancelot Zenith and 2 Ezel decks), 3 Shadow Paladin, 2 Narukami, 2 Pale Moon, 1 Dimension Police and 1 played Oracle Think Tank. The top 4 decks have been translated into English at the bottom of the page, and can be jumped to directly by searching the page for [5FVGCS].

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.

Lee Innyeng (center right) and Adachi Yuuki (center left) hold up the first and second place trophies.

In other news, the FC2013 national championship decklists were unveiled through the Japanese Cardfight portal yesterday, revealing Lee Innyeng as the winter 2013 national champion. Lee achieved his position with a Revenger deck, based around the twin boss cards that have remained popular since their debut last July, Mordred Phantom and Raging Form Dragon. He is followed by Adachi Yuuki, Issei Sakashita and Hung Kai Chen in Japan's winter best 4, and is the first national champion to use the Shadow Paladin clan; his immediate predecessor, Kokubo Hikaru, played Pale Moon and was the cardfighter that first broke a two year chain of Royal Paladin dominance over the national title. Among the other developments since the previous national tournament, Sakashita's Gancelot build in third place and Hung's Minerva deck in fourth mark the first time that quintet walls have been used in pro decks, at a 1:3 ratio with their perfect defense cards. Quintet Walls are well liked for conserving cards expended from the hand when defending, using their counterblast 1 skill to put the top 5 cards of the deck onto the guardian circle, but can be difficult to manage in higher numbers with counterblast-heavy decks and conflict with perfect defense cards due to sharing the Sentinel keytext.

On the surface, national champion Lee's deck is a very traditional Revenger deck. While other Shadow Paladin cardfighters have experimented with running Creeping Dark Goat as the first vanguard and Claudas as a Dark Bond target, and running 12 grade 3s at the sacrifice of grade 1 space is common to max out Tartu, Lee has done something more subtle with his construction. Instead of running Goat he chose to run two copies of Claudas, the Revengers' unique first vanguard, to create several favorable scenarios for the deck. Primarily this is being able to fetch two Blaster Dark Revengers without needing to rely on Mordred's break ride skill, using Dorin to conserve counterblast and Darkbond to fetch the second Claudas if it is not drawn. Since Dark Bond superior calls Claudas at rest, Shadow Paladin cardfighters have every incentive to immediately put Claudas into the soul with his skill to turn Dark Bond's otherwise serviceable +1 into an active rearguard able to declare an attack that turn. Having a second Claudas ready to come into play also helps deal with Linchu, Moebius Breath Dragon and Dust Tail Unicorn, common staples in the present format that counter Claudas by restricting how quickly he can be used as with Moebius or outright removing him with Linchu or Dust Tail into Chaos Breaker. The core elements of the deck are still the same field buildup with Mordred and Tartu that previous Revenger decks have rlied on, controlling the opponent's field with Dark Revenger and striking a finishing blow with Raging Form's self-stand skill, but Lee has refined it to make the deck run better than it did in Fighter's Road.

Lee is the first Japanese champion to not be ethnically Japanese, born of Cambodian descent. Like the American and Luxembourgian world champions, Lee's achievement points to the globalization of Cardfight!! Vanguard as a competitive game and extends this even to within Japan, but also has deeper significance for everyday fighters in the country. Pro cardfighters in Japan primarily come from a Yamato Japanese background, leading to less visibility of minority ethnic groups in high level play. The FC2013 national decklists have been translated below, and can be jumped to directly by searching the page for [FC13OP].

The Fifth Fateclock VGCS [5FVGCS]
First Place
One-Way Road/一方通行
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Reincarnation, Miraioh
x1 Beast Deity, Bright Cobra CT
x4 Beast Deity, Banpauros DT
x3 Red Lightning CT
x4 Beast Deity, Death Stinger CT
x4 Beast Deity, Rescue Bunny HT
Grade 1
x4 Beast Deity, Desert Gator
x4 Beast Deity, Solar Falcon
x3 Energy Charger
x1 Beast Deity, Max Beat
Grade 2
x4 Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos
x4 Street Bouncer
x2 Beast Deity, Brainy Pabio
x2 Beast Deity, Golden Anglet
Grade 3
x4 Beast Deity, Ethics Buster
x2 Strongest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster Extreme
x3 Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster "Яeverse"

Ojima/オジマさん
Second Place
Grade 0
x1 Morgenroet (FV)
x4 Red Lightning CT
x4 Schones Wetter CT
x2 Schneeregen DT
x2 The Gong DT
x4 Regenbogen HT
Grade 1
x4 Blau Dunkelheit
x4 Clay-doll Mechanic
x4 Stoic Hunny
x2 Screamin' And Dancin' Announcer, Shout
Grade 2
x4 Jupiter Blaukluger
x4 Mars Blaukluger
x3 Blaukluger
Grade 3
x4 Galaxy Blaukluger
x4 Mond Blaukluger

Third Place
Black-Rimmed Glasses/くろぶちめがね
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
Grade 1
x2 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x2 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x2 Dragon Dancer, Maria
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Dominate Drive Dragon
x3 Bellicosity Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x2 Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я”
Grade 4
x2 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Fourth Place
Gungnir/ぐんぐにーる
Grade 0
x1 Vivid Rabbit (FV)
x3 Witch of Lemons, Limoncello CT
x2 Cyber Tiger CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
x3 Bandit Danny DT
x4 Witch of Big Pots, Laurier HT
Grade 1
x4 Witch of Apples, Cider
x4 Orange Witch, Valencia
x4 Goddess of Protection, Kushinada
x2 Ordain Eagle
Grade 2
x4 Witch of Ravens, Chamomile
x4 Grape Witch, Grappa
x3 Goddess of Trees, Jupiter
Grade 3
x4 Omniscience Regalia, Minerva
x4 Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica

Fighter's Climax 2013 National Championship, Open Division [FC13OP]
National Champion: Lee Innyeng
Grade 0
x2 Frontline Revenger, Claudas (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x3 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x3 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Runner-up: Adachi Yuuki/足立優樹
Grade 0
x1 Extending Black Ring, Pleiades (FV)
x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
Grade 1
x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle
x2 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x2 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
Grade 2
x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x4 Star-vader, Moebius Breath Dragon
x3 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Third Place: Sakashita Issei/坂下一生

Grade 0
x1 Little Fighter, Cron (FV)
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
x4 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
Grade 1
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Barcgal Liberator
x2 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
x1 Sword Formation Liberator, Igraine
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Liberator
x4 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of Bonds, Gancelot Zenith
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Fourth Place: Hung Kai Chen
Grade 0
x1 Vivid Rabbit (FV)
x4 Witch of Big Pots, Laurier HT
x2 Bandit Danny DT
x4 Witch of Lemons, Limoncello CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
x2 Cyber Tiger DT
Grade 1
x3 Goddess of Protection, Kushinada
x1 Goddess of the Shield, Aegis
x4 Apple Witch, Cider
x3 Ordain Owl
x3 Witch of Frogs, Melissa
Grade 2
x3 Grape Witch, Grappa
x3 Witch of Ravens, Chamomile
x4 Goddess of Trees, Jupiter
x1 Witch of Owls, Paprika
Grade 3
x4 Omniscience Regalia, Minerva
x4 Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica

News: School Punisher Leo-pald and Cocytus "Reverse" Revealed, Ethics Buster Extreme Shown in NND Broadcast

This morning Bushiroad revealed a series of cards following the showcasing of VG-EB07: Mystical Magus in a Nicolive broadcast, attracting over one million visitors. After the display on NicoNico Douga, Doctor O later uploaded higher-quality images of the cards to the net. Among those shown were two new Reverse cards, for Granblue's Cocytus and Great Nature's Leo-pald, the latter of which had been teased by Doctor O on Twitter the night before. To cap off the event, Nova Grappler's new crossbreak ride Ethics Buster Extreme was shown in full, bringing their strategy full circle with a new version of Asura Kaiser's skill.

Cocytus in particular has drawn attention for comboing with Granblue's Card of the Day, Banshee Strolling Under the Sea, a Granblue incarnation of Dindrane with which Cocytus “Я” can use to quickly grab up card advantage through a +2 and create a 9000-power booster in the process.

Demonic Lord of the Ice Prison, Cocytus “Я”
Grade 3/11000 Power/No Shield/Granblue - Skeleton/
Activate (V) [Limit Break 4]: [Put three cards from the top of your deck into the drop zone, choose one of your «Granblue» rearguards and Lock it] Choose a «Granblue» from your drop zone, call it to (RC), and that unit gets [Power] +3000 until end of turn.
Continuous (V): If you have a "Ice Prison Necromancer, Cocytus" in your soul, this unit gets [Power] +2000.
Continuous (V/R): Lord

School Punisher, Leo-pald “Я”
Grade 3/11000 Power/No Shield/Great Nature - Highbeast/
Activate (V) [Limit Break 4]: [Choose one of your «Great Nature» rearguards, and Lock it.] Choose two of your «Great Nature» rearguards, those units get [Power] +4000 until end of the turn, and those units get "Auto [R]: During the end phase of your turn, retire this unit," "Auto: During your end phase, when this unit is sent from (RC) to the drop zone, call this card to an (RC) without a unit."
Continuous (V): If you have a "School Hunter, Leo-pald" in your soul, this unit gets [Power] +2000.
Continuous (V/R): Lord.

Strongest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster Extreme
Grade 3/11000 Power/No Shield/Nova Grappler - Battleroid/
Auto (V) [Limit Break 4]: When this unit drive checks a grade 1 or greater "Beast Deity," choose one of your «Nova Grappler» rearguards and stand it.
Continuous (V): If you have a "Beast Deity, Ethics Buster" in your soul, this unit gets [Power] +2000.
Continuous (V/R): Lord.

Nova Grappler Extra Study Material: Beast Deities

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

Mythic tradition and legends are an important part of human culture. Although mechanical in nature, the Nova Grapplers are frequently designed to fuse those mechanical elements with legend to create artificial gods of the ring. While it has received nowhere near the same amount of attention, the Beast Deity subgroup is one of the most cohesive decks in pro play, on par with the interclan Blaster series for how much synergy the individual cards have with one another. Drawing its origins from BT06: Breaker of Limits, the Beast Deity cards have seen repeated revision with the progression of the game, reaching a crescendo with the coming of BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons and finding another leg of support in BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights.

The first vanguard introduced for them in BT06 is Beast Deity, White Tiger. To recap our introductory model's treatment of him, Tiger is an important milestone in Nova Grappler play as a base 5000 power FVG that can be moved out from the soul when ridden over, providing an extra card and booster that can form basic 15-18000 lines. The other use of White Tiger, exclusive to the Beast Deity cards, is to counterblast 1 and move him back into the soul when an attack that he boosted hits a vanguard, and then stand a Beast Deity rearguard. This costs you the card advantage that Tiger gained, but it can potentially be offset by the extra defense that this draws out from the opponent, and is further intended to combo with two other cards in the Deity series, Scarlet Bird and Black Tortoise.

Together these three cards make up three fourths of the four gods, mythical rulers of the constellations. Bird and Tortoise, representing Suzaku and Genbu respectively, are base 6000 and 8000 grade 1 and 2 units that when their attack hits the vanguard can look through the top five cards of the deck for a copy of the grade 3 Beast Deity, Azure Dragon. This provides quick, counterblast-free grade security while also grabbing you card advantage and playing into Azure's own skill later on. Since all of the Beast Deities so far share the same hit condition, you can combo this early on when the opponent is not able to defend as easily, using White Tiger to stand a Beast Deity whose attack just hit to try and make use of their skill again. Grabbing that Azure Dragon from the deck can offset the advantage lost by Tiger going into the soul, and like Tsukuyomi you can also gradually form a stack of triggers at the bottom of the deck while using the Nova's cycling trigger Battleraizer to reshuffle the deck if that stack turns out badly. While the Full Moon's stacking capabilities in normal play are capped at fifteen and sixteen cards, the Beast Deities' shared ability to do this when attacks hit instead of at the beginning of the main phase leaves the potential for twenty cards with a likely cap of twenty five to be stacked instead.

Azure Dragon is the Nova Grappler analogue to the fourth god Seiryuu, dragon of the east. His 11000 base is the same strong defense that Asura Kaiser boasted, and over that when his attack hits the vanguard he can activated his persona blast, to stand two rearguards. This is where the previous Deities come in outside of just providing grade security, as a persona blast that can be searched right from grade 1 on is much more playable than it would be otherwise. Being able to guarantee that two rearguards will stand without relying on Death Army units is important, and the presence of all these on-hit skills gives the Beast Deities a very strong early to midgame. If the opponent feels pressured to block the attacks to prevent those skills from going off, then they're usually being forced into a misplay by overthinking the situation, which weakens their defense and opens them up to taking more damage and being unable to protect their rearguard lines later on. The main issue with this is that the Beast Deity deck by itself has no concrete endgame. Once the opponent is at four damage, there's very little that you can do to decide the match on subsequent turns beyond protecting your existing lead.

Entire BT09 and Azure Dragon's crossride; Ultra Beast Deity, Illuminal Dragon. Representing Ouryuu, the golden dragon of the center, Illuminal occupies a very tall throne within the Nova Grapplers as their first crossride, getting a constant +2000 power bonus for having Azure in the soul for a 13000 power defense overall. This forms a 21000 power offensive line with Tough Boy, and while the Nova Grapplers lack the soul manipulation to finalize their crossride if they miss their initial Azure ride, Illuminal's offensive power makes up for this. At limit break 4, when Illuminal attacks he can counterblast 3 to stand two Beast Deities rearguards, with no on-hit attached. This is the endgame that Azure was looking for. Being able to forcibly stand an entire column after driving the opponent to five damage with that same column beforehand is devastating, and the skill can even be repeated by sampling cards from the Nova Grappler's original unflipping engine like Claydoll Mechanic.

Of course, the Beast Deity restriction means that you need stronger rearguards to be able to actually use that limit break with. Clash of the Knights and Dragons brings us Golden Anglet and Yamatano Drake, grade 2 and 3 variations on the same core skill of gaining +3000 power when they stand in the battle phase, over respective 9000 and 10000 power bases. With Illuminal Dragon these cards are guaranteed to hit even opposing crossrides for relevant numbers, and versus other decks by lining the new Deities up with Tough Boy you can ensure that the lines will go for 20-21000 power so that their second attack will always be tougher than their first.

BT09 also brings us Blank Marsh, a functional grade 1 variation on White Tiger with 7000 power. While Yamatano was the Beast Deity incarnation of the eightheaded serpent Yamata no Orochi, and Anglet was a representation of the "dragon horse" Ryuuma, Marsh is analogous to a Hakutaku ("White Marsh"), a legendary beast whose image was used to ward off disease. When an attack that Marsh boosted hits a vanguard, he can counterblast 1 and move to the soul to stand a rearguard. White Tiger and Marsh can both do the same jobs, standing Anglet and bumping him up to 12000 power to ready him for an independent attack or using this with one of the older Deities to perform another Azure search. Damage triggers are generally the biggest hazard to these skills, so it is important to read the situation and be aware of when it isn't the right time to use the Deities' stand skills. Fortunately, the timing of them is such that you don't have to actually choose to activate them or not until after your opponent has completed all of their damage checks.

Scheduled for an October release, BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights introduces a series of Beast Deities derived from the two zodiacs and a new first vanguard in Beast Deity, Riot Horn. Representing Taurus and the Ox, Riot Horn is like White Tiger before him a base 5000 first vanguard that moves out from the soul when ridden over with a unit of the same clan. Horn's autoskill is designed so that when a Beast Deity in the same column as Horn stands, he can also stand, allowing for a full-power attack using Blank Marsh, and multiplying Illuminal's impact on the game by allowing for two columns to attack, one unboosted and one with Horn to assist it.

Sagittarius and the Horse are represented by Hilarity Destroyer, a base 7000 grade 1 that can discard a card to draw one when his attack hits. While Destroyer won't see a heavy amount of play later on in a match, he can be good for the early game if you want to replace Scarlet Bird in your Beast Deity deck, as he forms an anticrossride 18000 line with any of the Grapplers' many 11000 power units, makes for a good grade 1 ride and can help improve your deck's consistency.

At grade 2, Hatred Chaos is affiliated with both Leo and the Tiger. With a 9000 power base, Chaos gets +3000 power when he attacks from the rearguard if there is a Beast Deity vanguard, although unlike with Golden Anglet this power bonus only lasts through the battle that he attacks in. Because of that, Chaos' power increases cannot be stacked. Instead, he and Anglet act as complementary rearguards that can be used in place of one another. Hatred Chaos' imagery is a little looser than past Deities, as while his face and nose are based on a lion, and he has stripes taken from the Tiger zodiac, his appearance is also derived from the thunder god Raijin and the ring of drums that Raijin uses to summon storms.

Finally, Ethics Buster. This Beast Deity is unique, based on the unused thirteenth sign of the Cat from the Chinese zodiac. Like Azure Dragon and Illuminal Dragon, Ethics Buster has an 11000 power base, but he differs from them in that he is a break ride, harbinger of a highly explosive endgame but being limited in what he can do by himself. Ethics gets +2000 power in the vanguard cricle when he is boosted by a Nova Grappler, creating a 20-21000 line. But when you ride a Nova Grappler over him while at limit break, Ethics Buster gives your vanguard +10000 power and an autoskill that stands all of your front row Nova Grapplers when that vanguard attacks. Using Illuminal Dragon with this skill, you can unfailingly stand all of your rearguard columns while having a center line in the range of 21-31000 power, taking around six cards to block all of the attacks without any triggers coming through. This makes both decks that use Azure with Illuminal and Ethics Buster viable, as well as just Illuminal-Ethics decks, and while Ethics Buster is a Beast Deity, his break ride skill is compatible with all Nova Grapplers, effectively updating Illuminal Dragon, Stern Blaukluger and Asura Kaiser all at once.

The Beast Deities are an extremely diverse subgroup with a heavy amount of support, and there is a lot of freedom of choice between how you want to build your deck, whether you choose to go for a four deities or zodiac deities model, or some combination therein. Next time that we revisit the Nova Grapplers I will be discussing the new Death Army series cards from EB04: Infinite Phantom Legion and the ultimate lifeform, Cosmo Lord.

News: Fighter's Road 2013 Kyoto Results, Stand Up Cup Finals to be Held Sunday

Today the results for Japan's ongoing national championship went public, following up Doctor O's report from Saturday. In the Open division Dragonic Descendant has continued to consistently place first in spite of now being restricted to two copies per deck, while Liberator Alfred has continued to be only second best. Interestingly, the best 16 is seeing some greater experimentation among pros as Doctor O's pick from the open class tournament is a fusion of Dauntless Drive Dragon and Flare Whip Dragon. While Flare Whip has been well liked among some professionals--his skill gives him +3000 power when a Kagerou with the race of Flame Dragon is drive checked, for a consistent 16000 vanguard prior to calculating boost--before it was difficult to compose a deck purely of Flame Dragons that was also competitive, as Dragonic Overlord The End was typically the better option. Tanimoto Naoya's variant uses Seal Dragon units in concert with existing Flame Dragon race cards and Dauntless Drive to have a vanguard line that on its key turn goes for 26000 power on both of its twin drive checks.

In the Junior Class tournament a Beast Deity deck using Ethics Buster and a Stern Blaukluger tech placed first, drawing much attention for running only a single critical trigger in the deck while using seven stands instead in concert with Dancing Wolf's skill to force its way to the top. An Angel Feather build with an astonishing amount of variation placed second; while the deck's primary vanguard is Shamsiel, it also employs single copies of Metatron, Calamity Flame, Remiel and Kiriel that are easily fetched through the damage zone manipulation skills of Shamsiel, Nociel and Turiel. While erratic, the innovative build does bring out one of Angel Feather's best qualities in always having the card it wants in hand.

Doctor O's pick from the Junior class' best 16 is surprising. After its long reign, the legendary Dragonic Overlord The End has fallen far enough to not even place second. The deck is a mostly traditional, crossride-oriented The End deck using Seal Dragon cards to make use of Corduroy's skill, but the fact that this deck needed to be spotlighted to be known of at all speaks volumes for how far it has fallen. By contrast, in the VF High School Tournaments' Open division, The End's classic rival Majesty Lord Blaster is making a comeback. While unlike The End, Majesty is currently restricted to just two copies, emerging pro Masami Daishi is taking the restriction in stride by only using Majesty at one copy, playing his deck as a traditional Alfred-Palamedes build up until Wingal Brave's attack hits to grab Lord Blaster, then using Starcall to bring out Blaster Dark for Majesty's skills. His teammates have employed more modern tactics, using proven Descendant and Liberator builds. The Student-only division's top team was more off the wall, with Kitaoka Tomooki using a break-ride oriented Gauntlet Buster deck while Kitaoka's teammates brought successful Dauntless Drive-Blockade Inferno and Chromejailer-Liberator fusion builds. Overall Kyoto has seen much more diversity of play than at Sendai, in spite of the top Open class decks remaining the same.

On the English side of pro play, the Stand Up Challenge Cup will be coming to a close this Sunday as the next US national champion is decided. Reigning champion Brandon Smith is no longer running for the Cup title, but instead will be hosting a gunslinger event to play against cardfighters that want to test their skills against the current champion. Because of this, there is no direct favorite for the national title as there was in 2012, and the public eye is turned now toward the question of who will step up to fill the interregnum period between Smith and the WCS2013 national champion. Saturday will see the last regional event prior to the Cup finals take place at the Champion's Gate, Florida. Unlike previous regionals, the Last Minute Qualifier is open to any who are in line in time to join. Including this qualifier, there are 27 regionals spread out between the United States, Mexico and Canada, with two fighters from each participating in the finals for a 54-person final stage that will dwarf the previous national's 16-person finale.

Open Class Regional Tournament
Regional Champion: Aoyama Takuya/青山拓也
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Castor CT
Grade 1
x2 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x3 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x2 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x2 Dragonic Deathscythe
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon

Runner-up: Gisuji Junpei/宜壽次隼兵
Grade 0
x1 Little Battler, Cron (FVG)
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x2 Pomergal Liberator
x2 Liberator, Flare Mane Stallion
x2 Liberator of the Future, Llew
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
Grade 2
x2 Blaster Blade Liberator
x3 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x3 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Doctor O's Pick: Tanimoto Naoya/谷本直也
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x4 Blue Ray Dracokid CT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpitch DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Shading HT
Grade 1
x4 Seal Dragon, Flannel
x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x2 Iron Tail Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
Grade 2
x4 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Corduroy
x3 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Flare Whip Dragon
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon

Junior Class Regional Tournament
Regional Champion: Nishida Sachi/西田祥
Grade 1
x2 Beast Deity, Riot Horn (FVG)
x4 The Gong DT
x1 Red Lightning CT
x3 Turboraizer ST
x4 Battleraizer ST
x4 Wall Boy HT
Grade 1
x4 Twin Blader
x4 Beast Deity, Blank Marsh
x3 Dancing Wolf
x2 Tough Boy
Grade 2
x3 King of Sword
x4 Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos
x4 Beast Deity, Golden Anglet
Grade 3
x4 Beast Deity, Ethics Buster
x3 Ultra Beast Deity, Illuminal Dragon
x1 Stern Blaukluger

Runner-up: Shoutsubo Mizuki/庄坪瑞生
Grade 0
x1 Hope Child, Turiel (FVG)
x4 Fever Therapy Nurse DT
x4 Critical Hit Angel CT
x4 Happy Bell, Nociel ST
x4 Sunny Smile Angel HT
Grade 1
x3 Battle Cupid, Nociel
x3 Crimson Mind, Baruch
x2 Clutch Rifle Angel
x4 Thousand Ray Pegasus
x2 Pure Keeper, Requiel
x1 Adamantine Celestial, Aniel
Grade 2
x1 Candle Celestial, Sariel
x1 Love Machine Gun, Nociel
x1 Core Memory, Armaros
x4 Crimson Drive, Aphrodite
x3 Million Ray Pegasus
Grade 3
x4 Chief Nurse, Shamsiel
x1 Crimson Impact, Metatron
x1 The Phoenix, Calamity Flame
x1 Prophecy Celestial, Remiel
x1 Circular Saw, Kiriel

Doctor O's Pick: Gotou Yuusuke/後藤優介
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x2 Embodiment of Armor, Tahr CT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpitch DT
x2 Dragon Mmonk, Genjo HT
x2 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x2 Seal Dragon, Shading HT
x2 Blue Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
x1 Flame of Promise, Aermo
Grade 2
x1 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
x2 Seal Draogn, Corduroy
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Bellicosity Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
x4 Dragonic Overlord

Vanguard Fight High School 2013 Summer, Open Class Kyoto Regional Tournament Championship Team
Masami Daishi/正躰大士
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FVG)
x3 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x3 Alabaster Owl CT
x3 Future Knight, Llew CT
x3 Margal DT
x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
Grade 1
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x2 Toypugal
Grade 2
x3 Blaster Blade Spirit
x4 Blaster Blade
x2 Blaster Dark
x3 Star Call Trumpeter
Grade 3
x4 King of Knights, Alfred
x1 Majesty Lord Blaster
x2 Swordsman of the Explosive Flames, Palamedes

Koukuchi Satoya/髙口賢哉
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Castor CT
Grade 1
x3 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x3 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon


Yamaguchi Atsu/山口篤
Grade 0
x1 Little Battler, Cron (FVG)
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x3 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
x1 Flame of Victory CT
Grade 1
x4 Curved Blade Liberator, Josephus
x2 Silver Fang Witch
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Liberator
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x4 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Vanguard Fight High School 2013 Summer, Student-only Class Kyoto Regional Tournament Championship Team
Kitaoka Tomooki/北岡誠起
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Castor CT
Grade 1
x3 Eradicator of the True Flames, Kougaiji
x4 Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x1 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x3 Red River Dragoon
Grade 2
x3 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
x2 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x1 Eradicator, Thunder Boom Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Saucer Cannon Wyvern
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Sweep Command Dragon

Takimoto Yuuki/瀧本祐希
Grade 0
x1 Seal Dragon, Terrycloth (FVG)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shading HT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpitch DT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Raksha CT
Grade 1
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x4 Seal Dragon, Flannel
Grade 2
x3 Seal Dragon, Jakado
x3 Seal Dragon, Corduroy
x4 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x4 Burning Hell Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno

Irino Yuuichiro/入野裕一郎
Grade 0
x1 Spring Breeze Messenger (FVG)
x3 Flame of Victory CT
x3 Dantengal CT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
x4 Falcon Knight of the Azure DT
x2 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
Grade 1
x2 Blackmane Witch
x4 Halo Shield, Mark
x4 Listener of Truth, Dindrane
x4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
Grade 2
x1 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
x1 Blaster Dark Spirit
x2 Blaster Blade Spirit
x3 Mage of Calamity, Tripp
x4 Lop Ear Shooter
Grade 3
x4 Conviction Dragon, Chromejailer Dragon
x4 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

News: BCF2013 Kyoto Results Tweeted by Doctor O, Ethics Buster and Eradicators Sieze First

Early this morning Doctor O tweeted the results of the Bushiroad Cardfight 2013 Vanguard Stage in Kyoto, the second in a nationwide tour of tournaments that will last through July and will act as the Fighter's Road 2013 summer national tournament for Japan. While the previous tournament in Sendai saw unquestioned dominance of the Eradicators in the Open division and the celebrated return of Kagerou among Junior cardfighters, Kyoto's best 8's is significantly more diverse.

The top spot of the Junior class tournament, open only to elementary students and younger, was taken by a Nova Grappler cardfighter making use of the new Ethics Buster break ride and Beast Deity support cards. Second place went to an Angel Feather cardfighter who focused on Chief Nurse, Shamsiel and her Pegasus series. Meanwhile, the Open division tournament was topped by a Narukami deck based out of Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon, with second place going to a Gold Paladin Liberator deck. Among the tournament's best 8 were Majesty Lord Blaster, Ezel, and a vanguard-stand deck built off of Dauntless Drive Dragon and Dragonic Overlord The End. Like the previous tournament, this branch of FR2013 took place under the May 11th restricted list, but unlike in Sendai this event has had a much larger time gap between the announcement of the new list and the event itself, giving more time for cardfighters to prepare and promoting a more diverse environment overall compared to the fairly static pool of Eradicator decks that were previously at the height of professional play.

Bushiroad is expected to put out the tournament decklists within the next week. The remaining six tournaments will take place in Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Tokyo, Sapporo and Nagoya. This will be the first time that the Fukuoka prefecture has been included in the national tournament, and also the first time that Okayama, Hakata and Osaka will not be participating.