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: Fighter's Climax 2013 Fukuoka Decklists, Amon “Я” and Chaos Breaker Dragon Take the Spotlight

Just in time for Halloween, a very spooky deck has opened Japan's 2013 winter national tournament. To great fanfare the results of the first FC2013 regional qualifier have been posted on the official portal, with first place cardfighter Sakamoto Issei bringing Demon God Marquis, Amon “Я” to the height of the open class tournament. The surprise both domestically and internationally cannot be overstated, as the Irregulars were far from one of the clans projected to do well in the immediate buildup to the tournament. The Fukuoka regional was expected to be taken by Link Joker decks in droves. In the eyes of many the Irregulars have still not surmounted their primary problems of gaining and maintaining card advantage, but Sakamoto chose to instead take the clan in a completely different direction to even the playing field for his clan. Decklists are at the bottom.

Amon “Я”'s overall strategy is to rapidly soulcharge 2 cards at a time with Hell's Deal and Hell's Draw, using the generally-open counterblast for Gwynn the Ripper's cost to retire the opponent's rearguards, turning the large soul into a strong midgame with Demon World Marquis Amon's consistent 21000+ line and then going in with Demon God Marquis Amon “Я”'s limit break for similar power with an additional critical that allows it to make vengeance plays when the opponent is only at 3 damage. The deck's soul-oriented build also allows it to set up a crossride fast and early, but not as accurately as Luquier “Я.” Sakamoto Issei's Amon is notable for its more extensive use of the damage zone, decreasing grade 3 space in favor of running four copies of Gwynn and the very unusual choice of Bloody Calf over Doreen the Thruster or Poet Amon. Typically Doreen and/or Poet are chosen for their soul synergy and overwhelming field power boosts, and these strengths have been stressed even more in an era where the Irregulars have Lon Shinrin for a 12000 power rearguard attacker, but Sakamoto chose Calf for her unique ability to control the opponent's boosters, playing a similar role to Gwynn in a deckbuild that is innately low on counterblast costs.

When taking into account the base Amon's soulcharge-to-retire skill, the overall theme of Sakamoto's deck can be argued to be field control, using Devil in Shadow as a sacrifice to Amon to take out the opponent's rearguards, and Calf and Gwynn to do so in a way that actually gives the Irregulars the upper hand. Sakamoto's other innovation is the use of Yellow Bolt, using him to steadily soulcharge 1 card every turn after limit break, then Lock Bolt for the cost of his Reverse card's skill so that Amon “Я”'s power will steadily built each turn for a small extra bonus compared to contemporary Amon “Я” decks. Bloody Calf may yet become a staple of Amon “Я” play after this overwhelming success, while it remains to be seen if Yellow Bolt will be similarly adopted. Considering Luquier “Я”'s success in the previous national championship, this may be Irregulars' time to shine.

While runner-up Kajima Kiyoto played a fairly standard Raging Form Dragon deck with the extra grade 0 and Darkbond Trumpeter that have now become staples of the Revengers, Kajima's build is still illustrating some very gradual development for the Shadow Paladins. Up to this point Mordred Phantom has very consistently been a four card staple, but Kajima chose to run him at three in order to make room for the 12 grade 2s that are also endemic to Revenger play, maximizing his build's options. Currently Kajima's deck seems to reflect the Revengers as a whole, using Dark Bond Trumpeter to fetch Claudas early on in the match for a quiet buildup, break riding with Mordred Phantom to fill out the field and power up Raging Form Dragon, using Tartu to fetch Dorin, unflipping and retiring with Blaster Dark Revenger, then finishing out the game with Raging Form Dragon's persona ride.

Within the top 8, fourth place cardfighter Kamiya Ayaka has been getting a lot of attention for bringing a previously-unproven Great Nature deck to the top brackets of professional play, with her School Punisher Leo-pald “Я” deck winning the Doctor O Prize for innovation. Kamiya's strategy was to open turn 3 with the Chatnoir break ride, break riding Chatnoir over Chatnoir on turn 4. By comboing Chatnoir's break ride skill and Binoculus Tiger's retire skill, she could stack between 8000 and 16000 power on a single Stamp Sea Otter, for a rearguard lane of 23~31000 power, a vanguard lane of 28000~ power, and another lane that could vary between 15~23000 power, then at the end of the turn draw two cards for Chatnoir's skill but not be able to retire Otter because of its own continuous ability, netting a total advantage of +1 overall. To further take advantage of this however, Kamiya ran eight stand triggers in her deck, so that each additional attack would allow her to draw another card at the end of the turn for a +2 or +3 overall while continuously wailing on the opponent with high power attacks. This transformed her stands into a combination of stand and draw instead of just stands alone, without the major weaknesses of draw triggers to interfere. Like Amon, the deck has very few uses of counterblast, so in this case it also made use of Lamp Camel's on-hit CB2 to draw to further combo with Chatnoir's power increasing break ride. For her final strategy, Kamiya would break ride with Leo-pald “Я” and use his limit break to Lock a rearguard and power up two rearguards by +4000, retiring them in the end phase, then calling them back. This would further build on the break ride's power boosts, with rearguards occasionally stronger than a post-limit break Liberator of the Round Table Alfred, and was further supported by her deck's personal staple Tank Mouse. Tank Mouse has until now been a relatively lackluster card, a base 6000 power grade 1 that can be rested to power up another unit by +4000; usually just boosting with it is better, but as in the case of Yellow Bolt, Tank Mouse is a very viable Lock target with high synergy toward being sacrificed.

Meanwhile Chaos Breaker Dragon has been picked up immediately by the junior's division, taking both first and second place at Fukuoka. An unusual trend shared between both the junior class and team tournaments is the teching of Nebula Lord Dragon as an alternative ride to Chaos Breaker, likely out of appreciation of the deck's overwhelming strength when the break ride is brought about. While Chaos Breaker is notorious as a hard counter to Reverse cards and still strong as one of the most consistent control decks in other matchups, having the occasional option of Nebula Lord as a transition between Infinite Zero and Chaos Breaker can be a useful battleplan to Link Joker cardfighters, as going through all three grade 3s both capitalizes on Nebula's strengths and his crucial weaknesses of only bringing his massive field power bonus for one turn in the game while also being wholly dependent on Infinite. With Chaos Breaker still providing a good fallback if Zero falls apart, the game strategy is solid enough that this development may be expected to progress among other Link Joker cardfighters in the future.

This year's Fighter's Climax is part of the larger Bushiroad World Grand Prix for the company's Japanese TCGs. It is the first year that Cardfight!! Vanguard is a part of the WGP. Note that while the tournament was originally referred to on Twitter as the Fukuoka regional, it is being officially designated as the Hakata regional on the official website; much like in the case of the "Dallas" versus "Texas" qualifiers abroad, both names are technically correct with regards to where the tournament took place.

Accompanying the open and junior class tournaments this year is the return of VF Koushien, a special triples division of team tournaments for student cardfighters. VF Koushien is based on the summer & winter Koushiens, two high-profile national baseball tournaments held in August and March in Japan. Like the baseball tournaments, participation in VF Koushien is restricted to school teams, and all members on the team must be from the same school. Unlike in the baseball Koushien, VF Koushien is open to any elementary, junior or high school cardfighters. If for any reason one fighter cannot participate on their team after it has registered, up to one participant may be changed out for another under the conditions that the new fighter is from the same school as the other team members.

Fukuoka's team greatly reflects the state of competitive play, with the three major decks of the format each onboard; Kuroki Yuki's Dragonic Descendant, Yoshida Hiroshige's Chaos Breaker Dragon and Tomita Hiromi's Raging Form Dragon. Although greatly scaled back compared to its glory days, Descendant is still a definitive part of the format, and the combination of three different decks each capable of varying levels of opposing field control, draw power and deck searching made for a plethora of positive matchups for Fukuoka's team.

Hakata Open Class Regional Tournament
First place: Sakamoto Issei/坂下一生

Grade 0

x1 Devil in Shadow (FV)

x4 Dark Knight of Nightmareland CT

x2 Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand CT

x2 Blitz Ritter CT

x4 Hysteric Shirley DT

x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick HT

Grade 1

x4 Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula

x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal

x4 Bloody Calf

x2 Yellow Bolt

Grade 2

x4 Amon's Follower, Lon Shinrin

x4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw

x4 Gwynn the Ripper

Grade 3

x4 Demon God Marquis, Amon “Я”

x3 Demon World Marquis, Amon

Runner-up: Karajima Kiyoto/辛島聖人
Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x1 Frontline Revenger, Claudas
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x2 Death Feather Eagle CT
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x2 Freezing Revenger DT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x3 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x3 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Doctor O Prize: Kamiya Ayaka/神谷綾香
Grade 0

x1 Acorn Master (FV)

x4 Dictionary Goat HT

x4 Eraser Alpaca ST

x4 Alarm Chicken ST

x1 Triangle Cobra CT

x3 Holder Hedgehog CT

Grade 1

x3 Coiling Duckbill

x3 Stamp Sea Otter

x4 Tank Mouse

x4 Cable Sheep

Grade 2

x3 Compass Lion

x4 Lamp Camel

x4 Binoculus Tiger

Grade 3

x4 School Punisher, Leo-pald “Я”

x4 Honorary Doctor, Chatnoir

Hakata Junior Class Regional Tournament
First place: Kenta Tatsuhiko/権田達彦
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FVG)
x3 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT
x3 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT
x2 Star-vader, Moon Commander ST
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT
Grade 1
x2 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
Grade 2
x4 Furious Claw Star-vader, Niobium
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Runner-up: Sougawa Yoshiki/早川嘉輝

Grade 0

x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FVG)

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

x4 Keyboard Star-vader, Bismuth ST

x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

Grade 1

x1 Opener of the Black Door

x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle

x3 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

x3 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium

x3 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon

x4 The Hollow Twin Blades, Binary Star

Grade 2

x2 Soaring Star-vader, Krypton

x2 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon

x2 Singularity Shooter

x4 Star-vader, Moebius Breath Dragon

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x3 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

x1 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon

Doctor O Prize: Hagio Kazuya/萩尾和哉

Grade 0

x1 Wingal Liberator (FV)

x4 Fortune Liberator ST

x3 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT

x1 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT

x4 Strike Liberator CT

x4 Elixir Liberator HT

Grade 1

x1 Barkgal Liberator

x1 Silver Fang Witch

x4 Bomergal Liberator

x4 Little Liberator, Marron

x3 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth

x2 Future Liberator, Llew

Grade 2

x1 Blaster Blade Liberator

x1 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon

x1 Zoomdown Eagle

x3 Zoigal Liberator

x4 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin

Grade 3

x1 Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore

x1 Onslaught Liberator, Mailzion

x1 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred

x1 Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel

x2 Dignified Gold Dragon

x1 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel

x1 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Vanguard Fight Koushien 2013 (Student only) Hakata Regional Tournament Championship Team

Tomita Hiromi/富田大珠

Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x3 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Yoshida Hiroshige/吉田大成

Grade 0

x1 Extending Black Ring, Pleiades (FVG)

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT

x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

Grade 1

x1 Star-vader, Aurora Eagle

x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium

x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium

x3 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon

x2 Demonic Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum

Grade 2

x4 Soaring Star-vader, Krypton

x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon

x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x3 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

x1 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon

Kuroki Yuki/黒木優希

Grade 0
x1 Eradicator, Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x1 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x3 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Pollux CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
Grade 1
x2 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x3 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
x1 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x4 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x3 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”

News: Bushiroad Announces Fighter's Climax 2013 and VF High School 2013 Tournaments

Following the crowning of Japan's current national champion, Bushiroad has announced the beginning of Fighter's Climax 2013, which will form Japan's Winter national tournament for this year. In the open class division, the top cardfighter from each shop qualifier will receive an invitation to their corresponding regional tournament, after which they will have to register online. The winning fighters from each regional will then go on to the national finals, similar to the model used during the American Challenge Cup. Meanwhile, fighters in the junior tournaments will not need to win at a shop qualifier, instead appearing at their regional to register on the day of the tournament. Only elementary school cardfighters born on or after April 2nd, 2001 can participate in the junior tournaments. Each round will be best of 1, with 20 minute rounds, like in the previous five national tournaments.

Those participating in Fighter's Climax 2013 will not be able to participate in the VF High School Winter 2013 team tournaments taking place at the same time. The current rules for VFHS require all three team members to be from the same school, with participation open to any elementary, junior high and high school students. Students attending special needs schools will also be able to participate. If for any reason one fighter cannot participate on their team after it has registered, up to one participant may be changed out for another under the conditions that the new fighter is from the same school as the other team members.

Regional tournaments will be starting up October 6th and ending on December 12th. Currently eight regionals are planned, going to Hakata, Sapporo, Kanazawa, Sendai, Nagoya, Okayama, Osaka and Tokyo. Unlike FR2013, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Hiroshima will not be part of this coming tournament. It appears that Bushiroad's currently strategy is to cover those cities during the Summer championship, then swap them out for Winter.