News: Japan's 2012 National Champion Crowned

Information leaked through Japanese twitter accounts has prematurely revealed that Gotou Kiyomi of Sendai is the new senior class Fighter's Road 2012 champion and the overall national champion for Japan. His King of Knights, Alfred deck has surmounted the dominant crossride and limit break decks of this format, using an overall strategy previously criticized as a relic of BT01. For the second consecutive year, Royal Paladin has come in as the top deck of Japan's national tournament.

Furthermore, the junior national champion used a Sakuya and CoCo-based Oracle Think Tank deck, and is rumored to be Rikino Sakura. How she entered the competition is not currently known, however misreporting is a possibility; until today it was widely believed that only the first-place winners in the Fighter's Road participated in the national championship, as was the case with most 2011 events, but the rules may have been amended since then to include second-place winners as ruled in the current North American competitions. If this were the case, or if the Nagoya regional champion was somehow rendered ineligible for participation, then Rikino has indeed qualified for the championship and may be the junior champion. Additionally, she would be the first person in Cardfight's history to defend a national title in consecutive years. The switch to Oracle Think Tank would be extremely surprising however, given her consistent track record with Kagerou decks.

Spotlight: Gotou Kiyomi/後藤聖弥

Fighter's Spotlight is an ongoing project concerned with tracking real-world professional cardfighters across the globe.

Gotou is pictured at the bottom, second from the left.

 Gotou Kiyomi/後藤聖弥

Age: Unknown; Seniors Division
Titles Won: Sendai Regional Champion (Senior Class), Fighter's Road 2012 National Champion (Senior Class)
Current Status: National Champion (Reigning)
Deck Type: Royal Paladin (Alfred)
Gotou Kiyomi is the 2012 Japanese national champion. He is one of eight senior class fighters to define 2012 competitive cardfight as it was known in the game's home country. Coincidentally, he shares his surname with Gotou Hirotaka, as well as much of his deck strategy.

Decks and Play Style
While Gotou is a Royal Paladin cardfighter, his deck eschews Majesty Lord Blaster as popularized by Shinhori Kentarou in favor of a traditional, Hirotaka-style Alfred build with Palamedes filling rearguard attack roles. Although the King of Knights is his key vanguard, Palamedes could be called the deck's true centerpiece, as with either Marron or Toypugal (as called out by Akane), he can form a line above 21000 power, enough to consistently oppose Dragonic Overlord The End and his contemporaries. As these crossrides boast high defense, Gotou's rearguards are designed to oppose this; hence the inclusion of multiple base 10000 grade 2s, whom with Toypugal or Marron can demand more than a draw trigger's worth of shield out of those units. With Alfred's vanguard skill to support himself into being able to likewise assail The End and Blaster Overlord, Gotou Kiyomi's strategy can be defined as making consistent 18000-and-above attacks over the course of multiple turns to wear out the opponent gradually, making it a someone passive deck.

Despite this strong anti-crossride build, Gotou's Royal Paladins have several key weaknesses. Alfred himself cannot exceed 20000 power without triggers, in a limit break and soulblast dominated format where 21000 and above are the key numbers for offense. His Wingal Brave has very limited use due to the deck's lack of focus on Blaster units, being only able to boost Blaster Blade to search out a second Blaster Blade. The unit which Brave searches is more than likely to be relegated to being a shield, due to Gotou's counterblast already being dedicated to Akane and Alfred. His deck is also low on draw triggers, being entirely devoted to criticals, and so it does not perform particularly well defensively. How these flaws will interplay with the incredibly consistent and extremely dangerous The End is yet to be seen.

Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Sendai Seniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FVG)
x4 Future Knight, Llew CT
x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
x4 Alabaster Owl CT
x4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
Grade 1
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x3 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Toypugal
Grade 2
x3 Blaster Blade
x4 Knight of Silence, Gallatin
x2 High Dog Breeder, Akane
x2 Knight of Determination, Lamorak
Grade 3
x4 Knight of Knights, Alfred
x3 Swordsman of Explosive Flames, Palamedes

Main Article: Alfred's Place vs Crossride: The "Fifth Marron"
Kiyomi's national championship deck was virtually unchanged from what he used at Sendai. The only difference is swapping out one copy of Gallatin for a fourth Blaster Blade, possibly as insurance for getting Wingal Brave off the field to make room for Marron, Lien or Toypugal.

Summer 2012 National Tournament, Seniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FVG)
x4 Future Knight, Llew CT
x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
x4 Alabaster Owl CT
x4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
Grade 1
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x3 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Toypugal
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade
x3 Knight of Silence, Gallatin
x2 High Dog Breeder, Akane
x2 Knight of Determination, Lamorak
Grade 3
x4 Knight of Knights, Alfred
x3 Swordsman of Explosive Flames, Palamedes