News: Ozan Fincan Wins May BeNeLux Tournament with Chaos Breaker Dragon

Yesterday's BeNeLux ended with the fan-favorite Link Joker clan in first place, played by European cardfighter Ozan Fincan. Unusually for a fan competition, this month's BeNeLux was the first major tournament of the BT13-on format, with its top 8 showcasing several of the competitive favorites from Catastrophic Outbreak, in particular Link Joker's new trump card Chaos Breaker Dragon and the Nova Grappler Reverse unit, Ethics Buster "Яeverse." The BeNeLux tournaments are a line of unofficial competitions organized by the joint vanguard community of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Although open to being held in any of the three countries' major cities, it is typically held in Antwerp, Belgium on a monthly to bimonthly basis.

Participation this month was high in spite of the latent controversies surrounding the last BeNeLux winner. With an Xbox 360 for first place as an incentive to participate, a total 28 participants joined the tournament, with clan usage breaking down as follows;

May 4th BeNeLux Clan Breakdown
6 Shadow Paladin
5 Narukami
4 Link Joker
3 Nova Grappler
2 Kagero
2 Dimension Police
1 Dark Irregulars
1 Genesis
1 Gold paladin
1 Angel Feather
1 Murakumo
1 Aqua Force

Chaos Breaker's successful debut was well forecasted by the greater community, as the card's unique ability to slow the pace of the game by cheaply Locking the opponent's cards, preserving Locks with its support unit Palladium, and then later retire those cards as they unlock to draw allows it to control the general flow of card advantage throughout a fight and prevent opponents from efficiently fighting back. Despite the presence of the new decks, the top 8 was generally dominated by Eradicator cardfighters, with Dragonic Descendant-Gauntlet Buster as the most played build of the top 8, and the tournament as a whole saw heavier Shadow Paladin presence than anything else.

May 4th BeNeLux Top 8
1. Ozan Fincan (Link joker - Chaos Breaker Dragon)
2. Daniel Gallardo (Eradicator - Descendant/Gauntlet)
3. Vincent De Baere (Eradicator - Descendant/Gauntlet)
4. Gillian van Sande (Dark Irregulars - Amon Reverse)
5. Frederik De Baere (Nova Grappler - Ethics Buster Reverse)
6. Corentin Janssens (Eradicator - Descendant/Gauntlet)
7. Andy Van den Ouwelant (Link Joker - Chaos Breaker Dragon)
8. Kim Geerinckx (Genesis - Fortuna)

Seventh place in the tournament is a familiar face for professional play, taken by none other than 2012 French regional champion Andy Van den Ouwelant. Van den Ouwelant made a strong showing in World Championship 2012, winning his regional title with a Spectral Duke Dragon deck played against William Astoul's Dragonic Lawkeeper, and after two years has continued to persevere in modern play by adapting to Link Joker alongside a host of other international cardfighters. Chaos Breaker's international tenure is projected to be short-lived, as VGE-EB09: Divine Dragon Progression is due early next month alongside the grade 4 unit that has proved to be the terror of Japanese play.

News: World Champion Steals €4000 of Merchandise from Luxembourg Card Shop, Interview with Paris Regional Runner-up Team SKET

Last week a massive break-in took place in one of Luxembourg's largest card shops, La Caverne du Gobelin; more than €4000 (approx. $5500) in Cardfight!! Vanguard and Yu-Gi-Oh! merchandise were stolen. The break-in at La Caverne was linked to a string of three thefts at the Team League 2014 Paris regional qualifier. Three decks were stolen, two of which were known to be a Dauntless Drive Dragon-Dragonic Overlord the End and a Link Joker deck; one of the decks belonged to an eleven-year-old boy. A player from La Caverne du Gobelin, who requested that his name not be used, volunteered to us information regarding the break-in, and our previous source in the unfolding story concerning alleged cheating at the French regional has likewise come forward to corroborate some of these statements.

Stewart as seen in 2013.

Reigning world champion Almeida Stewart was initially suspected to be involved in the theft at the regional qualifier, but not in the break-in at La Caverne due to the timing of the burglary taking place close to the regional tournament on the 19th. However, after an investigation by the Luxembourg police, fingerprints were used to connect Stewart and both of his teammates back to the burglary. Following this, La Caverne du Gobelin released a statement on their Facebook page on the 21st stating that the burglars had confessed to the Luxembourg police and issued an apology to the store. On the 26th the shop then made the announcement that Stewart, his brother Christopher and their teammate Vladyaslav Khimenko have since been permanently banned from La Caverne's various locations and organized play. Furthermore, the player from La Caverne attested to Stewart having cheated in tournaments by drawing extra cards and putting heal triggers on the top of his deck from his hand. According to this same source, after La Caverne reported the incident to Bushiroad the company placed a ban on Stewart preventing him from participating in official tournaments. However, this last piece of information has not yet been confirmed by Bushiroad and is the only piece of the story that has not been corroborated elsewhere. We granted the company an opportunity to respond, but have yet to receive a statement.

As the reports of the Luxembourg police are not filed as a matter of public record, a police report regarding the theft could not be obtained during our investigation.

With regards to the cheating accusations that have surfaced, tournament host Epitanime issued a statement on Bushiroad.fm on the 24th regarding the existence of the alleged video evidence of Stewart's cheating during the regional tournament;

Contrary to what has been reported, neither Parkage nor Games from Japan, hosting the tournament, nor the judges, have such a video confirming or reversing the suspicion on this player which could likely be used as an evidence.
Parkage and Games from Japan wish to emphasize the attention given to this kind of behaviour during our tournaments by our judges ; unfortunatly such cheating act may remain unnoticed.

Care should be taken with reading the statement that "neither Parkage nor Games from Japan [...] nor the judges, have such a video confirming or reversing the suspicion on this player which could likely be used as an evidence." Epitanime's statement as it is worded does not deny the existence of a video, but denies possessing a video which can be used as evidence for either confirming or denying Stewart's alleged cheating. It may be reasonably inferred that Epitanime is in possession of a video which they consider inconclusive. The denial of possession can also point to having turned the video over to another party, i.e. Bushiroad.

Epitanime's statements are written to deliberately be in conflict with those of on-site witnesses who have stated with confidence that the games were recorded on video, and by depriving the public of the only known visual evidence can falsely give the appearance of there being no incident at all. The possible coverup will ring familiar to veteran American cardfighters, as it can be compared to the 2012 case of Thomas Cassidy; accused of cheating by performing a twin drive while still at grade 2 in order to win the Dallas regional qualifiers in WCS2012, despite a crowd of over 200 onlookers attesting to the incident, none of the six judges noticed the illegal move and Bushiroad USA subsequently refused to release the video of Cassidy's game to the public. While in Cassidy's case the cheating was believed to be accidental rather than intentional, the fact remains that in both instances releasing the videos would resolve the tensions openly by letting the public see the games as they were played and judge the truth for themselves, rather than try to obscure the facts and promote a closed book policy. Epitanime's stance does not expressly deny that the video exists, but dodges the question of what it depicted.

Regarding the regional qualifier itself, the results of the tournament have been published by Bushiroad along with the official decklists, and in addition to that we at Cardfight Pro have secured the decklists of the runner-up Team SKET, as well as interviews with all three of its members. The first place decklists can be jumped to by searching the page for [T14FR1] while the second place decklists can be reached by searching for [T14FR2] These interviews include details on why their team members chose to side with the Invaders instead of Defenders, their favorite qualities of their decks, and what SKET stands for. The translation of our questions and of team SKET's answers were graciously handled by Kyo, a leading figure in the French Cardfight community.

Q: What kind of people are you, and why did you decide to play your decks?
A: We are 3 friends who happened to know each other on a forum which gathered the big part of the French community. Thus, we met through Internet and became friends ; and today two of us (of the Team) are playing in the same card shop. Initially, we intended to come in order to support the whole Event, as we did not get a French event last year. It was really important for us to show Bushiroad how much France loves this game, and how much we want the game to expand. Ultimately, we came in order to have fun, to laugh, and to spend a good time with our opponents, while showing our skills.

(Arnaud "JUN" Faber): I played Eradicator, based on Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse", Gauntlet Buster and Dragonic Descendant, mainly because of their artworks ; I also happen to play the clan since its original release in BT06: Breaker of Limits. Regarding Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse", I love its gameplay, which makes you wonder about the right timing about activating its Limit Break ; in order to counterbalance the Lock cost.

(Axel "Shinigami" Verdier): I love Link Joker artworks, are they are both futuristic and fiendish, Chaos Breaker Dragon in particular. I was really pleased by Nebula Lord Dragon's playstyle, mixing both control and aggressive strategies ; up to the point that Stand Triggers can become really nasty.

(Anthony "Snake" Lamontre): I played Pale Moon as I love their artworks since the beginning, and I also like Soul-based gameplays. I chose the Silver Thorn series as I find the archetype fitting my playstyle.

Q: Why did you go to Invaders instead of Defenders ?
A: For some RP aspect. It was funnier to act as the evil ones instead of the heroes, but also because many of the key units in the BT12: Binding of the Black Rings format are Reverse units.

Q: What are the favourite qualities of your Decks ?
A: (Arnaud "JUN" Faber): I was initially going to play a regular Crossbreak Ride Deck. However, it was too weak in terms of early gameplays. I then decided to remove the Break Ride units from my Deck in order to put 3 Gauntlet Buster, which is able to pull off a brutal early gameplay thanks to Ginkaku (Damage Pluser). As such, I think that the main quality of my Deck is its versatility : I can pull off pressure thanks to Ginkaku and Gauntlet Buster's extra Critical, while taking into account Chou-ou or beatstick units ; without giving the Limit Break to my opponent if I cannot manage it. Or if I need to wipe out the opponent's units as I suffered from being rushed, thanks to Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse" while having powerful Rearguard columns. Third point, Descendant is here to finish off my opponent through the remaining Counterblasts. Therefore, I am able to adapt myself to the current situation and act accordingly.

(Axel "Shinigami" Verdier): I love playing this Deck for several reasons. The first of them is that they are able of both controlling my opponent, but being aggressive. The former part is thanks to Nebula Lord Dragon's Limit Break, powering up my front-row units ; plus units like Lanthanum and Niobium and the usual Neon and Radon stuff. All of these units are able to take advantage from Stand Triggers in order to widen the gap. As for the control part, it is made possible through the Lock mechanic itself ; like in Infinite Zero Dragon, Dust Tail Unicorn and Moebius Breath Dragon. Draw Triggers and Opener of Dark Gates are also important as you cannot "control" your own hand. The second reason is that this Deck doesn't have a "bad Ride". Of course you would prefer some order of Riding, like in any other Deck. But with some mastery, you can do something regardless of what you Ride first, and make the Deck work.

(Anthony "Snake" Lamontre): The Luquier "Reverse" Deck has a great advantage of doing a controlled Soul Charge rythym, let alone you have a better range for what goes into the Soul ; this is made through Irina or Dancing Princess of the Night Sky who will feed the Soul for further Limit Break moves - with Luquier. She is able to provide a quality Card Advantage, while providing me the regular Crossride defense if the original Luquier is in the Soul. Further more, the main goal is to Break Ride Luquier "Reverse", in order to perform 5 attacks in the same turn with 2 Purple Trapezists in the Soul. All of this in order to finish off my opponent, or to make him give up his hand by making use of the Soul thanks to Luquier "Reverse" +5000 bonus. Like Arnaud, I think that this Deck has several uses.

Q: And what does "SKET" stand for ?
A: Support Kindness Encouragement Troubleshot. It actually comes from the "SKET Dance" manga, the three of us love it. In "SKET Dance", the heroes are 3, they are nice, considerate, motivated, but the main point is that they have a quirky humour ; and we hope that people felt the same way towards us during this event.

We thank you a lot for your time.

Team League 2014 France First Place: Team United Force [T14FR2]
Liu Bo Chen's Decklist: Sacking to the Max La
Grade 0
x1 Liberator, Cheer Up Trumpeter (FV)
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x2 Future Liberator, Llew
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
x4 Fast Chase Liberator, Josephus
Grade 2
x2 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x2 Blaster Blade Liberator
x3 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x4 Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore

Edwin Talahatu's Decklist: Sackmeester weet raad, idd La :P
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)
x3 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x3 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x3 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x3 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Pollux CT
x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo HT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x4 Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki
x2 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x3 Eradicator, Thunder Boom Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
Grade 3
x4 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon

Vincent Van Der Schee's Decklist: Mijn Bunshin is OP LA :P
Grade 0
x1 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 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorin
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Transience Revenger, Masquerade
x2 Sacrilege Revenger, Baal-berith
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x3 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Team League 2014 France Second Place: Team SKET [T14FR2]
Arnaud "JUN" Faber's Decklist: Narukami - Eradicator'tue Ninja/Ninja Eradicaturtle
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (First Vanguard)
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle (CT)
x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo (HT)
x4 Eradicator, Red Gem Carbuncle (DT)
x3 Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux (CT)
x1 Eradicator, Old Dragon Mage (DT)
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld (Sentinel)
x4 Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki
x3 Dragon Monk, Ginkaku
x3 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-ou
x3 Double Gun Eradicator, Hakushou
x2 Homing Eradicator, Rochishin
x2 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse"
x3 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon

Axel "Shinigami" Verdier's Decklist: Link Joker - Nebulamitié <3/Nebulafriendship
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, Dust Tail Unicorn (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage (HT)
x3 Keyboard Star-vader, Bismuth (ST)
x3 Star-vader, Scouting Ferris (DT)
x2 Star-vader, Moon Commander (ST)
x2 Star-vader, Nebula Captor (DT)
x1 Star-vader, Weiss Soldier (CT)
x1 Star-vader, Meteor Liger (CT)
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium (Sentinel)
x4 Demon Claw Star-vader, Lanthanum
x4 Mana Shot Star-vader, Neon
x2 Opener of Dark Gates
Grade 2
x4 Unrivaled Star-vader Radon
x4 Furious Claw Star-vader, Niobium
x3 Star-vader, Moebius Breath Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
x4 Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon

Anthony "Snake" Lamontre's Decklist: Pale Moon - Silverpop "Reverse"
Grade 0
x1 Innocent Magician (FV)
x4 Poison Juggler (CT)
x4 Rainbow Magician (DT)
x4 Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia (HT)
x3 Silver Thorn, Barking Dragon (DT)
x1 Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha (DT)
Grade 1
x4 Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia (Sentinel)
x4 Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina
x3 Purple Trapezist
x2 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana
x1 Midnight Bunny
Grade 2
x4 Silver Thorn Rising Dragon
x3 SIlver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica
x2 Silver Thorn Marionette, Lilian
x2 Dancing Princess of the Night Sky
Grade 3
x3 Miracle Pop, Eva
x3 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Reverse"
x2 Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier

News: World Champion Almeida Stewart Accused of Cheating

A tremor is running through the professional Cardfight!! Vanguard community as allegations of cheating have surfaced in the aftermath of Team League 2014's Paris regional. Although his team did not make first or second place in the tournament, reigning world champion Almeida Stewart has been accused of stacking his opponents' decks during the elimination rounds and in the top 8. The story has been corroborated both by several of Stewart's opponents in the tournament and by a personal acquaintance of his. On-site judges have allegedly confirmed the story after reviewing a video of his gameplay, but the video has not yet been made public.

Photo of Stewart from January 2014.

According to a source who has requested to remain anonymous, Stewart has been stacking constantly since he began playing, even in non-tournament casual games, and as a result his techniques for stacking decks have become nearly imperceptible. He made a habit of trying to find ways to accuse other players of breaking the rules to put them at an unfair disadvantage, in one example telling them that they could not stand their units after they mistakenly conducted their draw phase before their stand phase. According to our source, the statement "If you cheat, cheat good" attributed to him by those that attended the tournament, has been a common saying from him throughout his career. The allegations disturb the legitimacy of Stewart's title and potentially that of the World Championship, which has experienced problems with its on-site judge training program and spotting cheating from the beginning.

Cheating is a regular hazard in the world of professional play and developing methods to prevent it has been a constant concern, but it has not been seen on such a grand scale since Kanamaru Makoto was issued a two-year ban from playing in tournaments because of marking his cards back in 2012. Kanamaru's sentence expired just last January. The world's eyes are currently on Bushiroad International, waiting for the video evidence to be released, and for a final conclusion to be drawn on his guilt or innocence.

EDIT: A followup story has been published.

Spotlight: Almeida Stewart

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

Almeida Stewart (far left) with Albert Lee, Adwin Leong and Kevin Lang. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

Almeida Stewart
Titles Won: Belgium Regional Champion, European National Champion, World Champion (2013)
Current Status: World Champion (2013)
Deck Type: Kagerou (Dragonic Overlord), Gold Paladin (Great Silver Wolf), Aqua Force (Genovius)
Almeida Stewart is the second Cardfight!! Vanguard world champion, having formally succeeded his predecessor Brandon Smith on January 12, 2014. Although originally celebrated at his ascension, subsequent cheating scandals disgraced his reputation as a professional cardfighter within the community.

An eclectic player who had experience with many different clans, Stewart first made an appearance at the 2013 Belgium regional qualifier, taking first place with a Dragonic Overlord the End deck that would go on to be one of the mainstays of his emerging career. Stewart's qualifier had a turnout of 81 persons, which was relatively high for a European tournament but small compared to the size of regionals abroad. For the national finals he chose to play a Gold Paladin deck, coming out as the European national champion with using a Gancelot-Garmore Gold Paladin deck, and in the WCS2013 finals Stewart put Luxembourg on the map for professional play by becoming world champion with a modified Overlord build. As this was at a time when Kagerou had largely fallen out of favor in the international pro scene and was almost wholly replaced by Eradicator Dragonic Descendant, Stewart's decision to play a more deliberate DOTE than what had dominated in previous world championship qualifiers proved highly effective versus the rest of the world's top 8, then comprised entirely of Eradicator cardfighters save for one other player. Stewart made it to the top 2 with this other fighter, Albert Lee, who had been playing a Nova Grappler Beast Deity deck. Although the recordings of their games have not been made available to the public, Stewart achieved considerable fame for winning the world championship with an otherwise abandoned deck.

Stewart also did well in underground play, placing first in the March 9th BeNeLux tournament, at the time one of the larger unofficial tournaments of the Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg circuit.

In 2014 it came to light that Stewart was a repeat-offense cheater both in local tournaments and in professional play; individuals close to him came forward to Cardfight Pro with testimony against Stewart during the Paris regional qualifiers, and his fingerprints were later connected by the Luxembourg police with a robbery at card shop La Caverne du Gobelin on top of the existing accusations. Allegedly one of Stewart's personal mottos at the time  was "If you cheat, cheat good," and he favored draw triggers on in his decks so that he could touch them more frequently to stack the cards. Video footage from the Paris qualifier supposedly proved him stacking his deck on stream, but this footage was turned out by the organizers to Bushiroad without being disclosed to the general public, and Bushiroad later denied its existence. After his team was connected to the robbery at La Caverne, Stewart formally apologized, returned the stolen merchandise, and was banned for life from the card shop. Bushiroad has never instigated a further investigation of Stewart, nor issued any sanction against him for his behavior.

Decks and Play Style
Stewart's playstyle was marked by a heavy overall focus on draw power, consistency and acceleration, as auxiliary support for his deck's core strategy. He once commented that he played four draw triggers in his Aqua Force deck "because Aqua Force only has four." He tended to favor trigger lineups that ran six draw and six critical triggers, and card changing units to exchange the draw triggers after he'd checked them.

The Overlord decklist that Stewart won Belgium with is generally in line with the majority of DOTE decks being played in that era; by crossriding Dragonic Overlord the End over Dragonic Overlord, Stewart set up a base 13000 defense that allows standard 16000-power lines to be blocked with a single 5000 shield, while also creating a 21~23000 power vanguard line with either Embodiment of Armor Bahr or Flame of Promise Aermo. If the End's attack hit, his persona blast skill allowed him to stand for a +1 in card advantage and two extra drive checks, which in combination caould snowball into a high-power, high-critical vanguard line. The real value of the End during this era was its status as a "pressure unit" that forced the opponent to drop more defense than normal, as DOTE could absolutely not be allowed to hit in the minds of Stewart's opponents. The intention of the deck is thus not necessarily to use DOTE's persona blast, but to drop more cards than normal from the opponent's hand to prevent the on-hit skill where otherwise they would simply no-guard the powerful center lane. The first vanguard Conroe allowed both Bahr and Aermo to be searched effectively, while Gattling Claw Dragon controlled the opponents' first vanguard and built additional soul for Flame of Promise's soulblast. As Kagerou's damage unflipper, Bellicosity Dragon kept the damage zone open after using Conroe or Berserk Dragon's field control skill, to keep threatening the opponent with DOTE's persona blast. At endgame when it was certain that there was no more room for the vanguard to hit, it was then possible to use a rearguard Dragonic Overlord's counterblast 3 as a finishing move, with a rearguard in the range of 23000 power either crippling the opponent's frontrow while also dealing damage to their vanguard or draining their hand sufficiently that the game would end that turn.

The biggest difference between standard decks and Stewart's is the trigger lineup. Stewart chose to run additional draw triggers rather than critical triggers so that he would continually build card advantage while the opponent lost it from defending DOTE, and he would then use Gojo or Flame of Hope to card change out the draw triggers for more useful units. The use of Tejas to attack the opponent's backrow units is also unusual for an international deck where Nehalem as a base 10000 unit is more common, although it will appear familiar to Japanese cardfighters due to overall differences in unit usage. Running just four critical triggers did run the risk of running out of criticals entirely and losing out on one of the points that the End so threatening during this period, but that also requires the opponent to notice that there are only four critical triggers. This was also a period when some cardfighters were choosing to counter the End by not playing the mindgames he created at all and allowing his skill to go off early, guarding Bellicosity but letting the vanguard hit, putting them at higher damage to use for fighting back with limit breaks and leaving the DOTE fighter with a majority of their counterblast used up. Nevertheless, Stewart's strategy was brutally effective in Belgium and brought him to first place.

Winter 2013 Regional Tournament, Belgium
Card Pool: TD01-EB06, PR 0001-0071

Grade 0

x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FV)

x2 Dragonic Dancer, Monica DT

x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT

x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT

x4 Blue Ray Dracokid CT

x2 Red Gem Carbuncle DT

Grade 1

x2 Flame of Hope, Aermo

x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri

x3 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr

x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo

x2 Flame of Promise, Aermo

Grade 2

x2 Berserk Dragon

x2 Dragon Knight, Nehalem

x2 Wyvern Strike, Tejas

x4 Burning Horn Dragon

x2 Bellicosity Dragon

Grade 3

x4 Dragonic Overlord

x4 Dragonic Overlord the End

For the European national championship Stewart chose to bring his Gold Paladin deck rather than make a repeat appearance with Kagerou, using the established Silver Wolf Garmore with the Liberator Gancelot break ride that had just come out in a recent trial deck. At the time the international release of VGE-BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights was delayed, having had its release date been deliberately staggered in time for the Christmas season, and instead BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed debuted ahead of schedule. So while Stewart could have modified his Overlord deck using the Dauntless Drive Dragon break ride from that set, as many around the time of the European, Asian and North American nationals had been doing, he instead broke the trend to play Garmore.

Stewart's Garmore build uses five draw and seven critical triggers, an uncommon count at the time that helps to secure his break ride setup with higher on average acceleration. The deck's key feature is how it utilizes skill timing; Liberator Gancelot's break ride skill can give up to three Gold Paladin rearguards +5000 power, equivalent to riding a Soul Saver Dragon in Royal Paladin decks, but encounters the problem of having three rearguards on the field to power up. Since Garmore and Gancelot share the same timing of when Garmore is placed on the vanguard circle, Garmore's on-ride counterblast 2 can fetch a rearguard for Gancelot to power up, negating one of the major weaknesses of the deck while also breaking even in card advantage from dropping a second grade 3 to make the break ride take place. Garmore's ideal target is the grade 1 Dindrane, a base 6000 unit that when called from the deck can soulblast 1 to draw a card, playing into Stewart's advantage-based play style by effectively trading the extra grade 3 he puts down for a usable booster and then giving him another card in hand. Blaster Blade Spirit is also an important tech for the build, since Garmore can fetch Spirit and then use his on-call counterblast 1 to retire an opponent's rearguard, pushing the opponent down in advantage and making it more difficult for them to guard all three lanes which attack in the ballpark of 21000, 31000 and 26000 power. The build is also able to utilize Tripp to keep the damage zone open in the same way that Bellicosity was played in his previous deck, use Nimue and Viviane as early pressure units to convince the opponent to guard their counterblast 1 on-hit skills, and build base 21000 rearguard lanes using Charjgal with additional Garmore copies.

Due to the original Overlord fading out of use, at this point crossride defense was becoming a negligible element of the format, and this helped the use of lower power rearguards like Dindrane and Viviane where previously base 12000 attackers had been the staple cards of any competitive deck. Although the public was uncertain of which deck Stewart would bring to the championship, by the time of the international finals he was deciding between either a modified Overlord or a Scarlet Witch CoCo-Battle Sister Cookie deck, and had traded away this Gold Paladin deck.

Winter 2013 National Tournament, Europe
Card Pool: TD01-EB06, BT11, PR 0001-0078
Grade 0
x1 Spring Breeze Messenger (FV)
x2 Silent Punisher CT
x1 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Sommelier HT
x4 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x1 Dantegal CT
Grade 1
x2 Charjgal
x4 Halo Shield, Mark
x1 Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue
x4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x3 Listener of Truth, Dindrane
Grade 2
x2 Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion
x3 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane
x3 Mage of Calamity, Tripp
x2 Lop Ear Shooter
x1 Blaster Blade Spirit
Grade 3
x4 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore
x4 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

For the championship finals Stewart built his own variation on Overlord, incorporating the Dauntless Drive Dragon break ride that by then had become well established in pro play. Several supporting cards expedite his previous strategy's consistency; while this deck runs six draw instead of eight, the new draw trigger Artpique helps him power up his rearguards to break 21000 power and strengthen his vanguard line where necessary. Seal Dragon Kersey generally replaced Gojo's role, since it could card change one of his draw triggers out just by being called as long as the opponent has a grade 2 in play.

The game-deciding play for the deck is to break ride Dragonic Overlord the End over Dauntless Drive Dragon, forcing the opponent into a situation where there are no good decisions. Dauntless' break ride skill activates after the vanguard has attacked, allowing it to discard 3 cards to stand if it has not already stood that turn; the opponent is thus forced to choose between giving Stewart two vanguard attacks with a +1 from DOTE's persona blast or a -1 from Dauntless' skill, but if the first attack is defended then they also run the risk of the second attack connecting and triggering the End's persona blast. Earlier plays are made possible by break riding Dauntless over Dauntless, and the losses in card advantage are generally made up for by the draw-heavy focus of Stewart's build. The only safe counter is to no-guard the first attack and allow the persona blast to activate so that no more skills will activate that turn, but from a more pessimistic perspective this means that the safest play is to allow the End's skill to activate and improve Stewart's position.

Winter 2013 International Tournament, Japan
Card Pool: TD01-BT10, PR 0001-0078

Grade 0

x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FV)

x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT

x4 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT

x2 Gattling Claw Dragon DT

x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT

x1 Blue Ray Dracokid CT

x1 Seal Dragon, Biella CT

Grade 1

x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri

x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo

x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr

x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo

x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey

Grade 2

x2 Berserk Dragon

x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem

x3 Burning Horn Dragon

x1 Bellicosity Dragon

Grade 3

x4 Dragonic Overlord the End

x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon

Stewart surprised the professional community in early March by taking first in a BeNeLux tournament using an Aqua Force deck unrelated to his established builds. By using Penguin Soldier in his deck he achieved a similar level of acceleration and consistency to his other decks with its on-call draw skill, and because of his deck's focus on break riding over Transcore Dragon he generally has the 4 soul necessary to use two Penguin Soldiers per game. The core of this deck uses the Ripple evolution cards for ride security to search out Pavroth or Genovius, with the grade 1 and 2 Brave Shooter support for base 10000 and 12000 attackers that allow early aggression. This also works well with Pavroth's ability to stand and power up a rearguard in the midgame, turning Twin Strike Brave Shooter into a base 15000 attacker on the second strike.

Similar to contemporary break ride-based decks, Stewart's main strategy is to break ride his main grade 3 Genovius over the supporting Transcore Dragon; attacking with both rearguard lanes first brings the opponent to 5 damage, Transcore's skill forces the opponent to discard a card just to be able to guard Genovius in the first place to ensure a -3 even if they have a perfect defense card, and Genovius' persona blast stands both rearguard columns to ensure two more attacks waiting to receive any following trigger checks. The maneuver becomes even more dangerous if the opponent is already at 5 damage, where any one of the five attacks can win the game. For endgame purposes Stewart runs a tech copy of Blue Storm Supreme Dragon Glory Maelstrom, using Glory Maelstrom's ultimate break to prevent the opponent from guarding with perfect defense cards while increasing his own power. The decision synergizes well with his focus on draw power and grade security, where it's easier to acquire tech cards towards the end of a fight, but the build's synergy is hurt somewhat by the lack of card changing to drop Sea Otters for other units.

March 9th BeNeLux Tournament, Belgium
Card Pool: TD01-BT12, PR 0001-0078
Grade 0
x1 Starting Ripple, Alecs (FV)
x2 Ice Floe Angel HT
x2 Medical Officer of the Rainbow Elixir HT
x4 Pyroxene Communications Sea Otter DT
x4 Jet-Ski Rider CT
x4 Supersonic Sailor CT
Grade 1
x4 Silent Ripple, Sotirio
x4 Mercenary Brave Shooter
x4 Emerald Shield, Paschal
x3 Light Signals Penguin Soldier
Grade 2
x4 Rising Ripple, Pavroth
x4 Twin Strike Brave Shooter
x2 Tear Knight, Lucas
Grade 3
x4 Thundering Ripple, Genovius
x3 Blue Flight Dragon, Transcore Dragon
x1 Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom

News: Almeida Stewart Becomes 2013 World Champion, Nova Grappler and Shadow Paladin Fighters Take Japanese Championship

Stewart, fourth from the left, stands alongside his fellow competitors as well as Morishima Shuuta and Mimori Suzuko in Tokyo Dome City's Prism Hall, Japan. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

Fourteen hours ago the 2013 Cardfight!! Vanguard World Championships closed with Almeida Stewart of Luxembourg taking the world title. As the first European world champion and successor to Brandon Smith, Stewart is the next inheritor of a growing international history surrounding the game. While for the European national championships Stewart played a Gold Paladin deck using Garmore and Liberator Gancelot, for the world finals he switched to a Dauntless DOTE deck running eight draw triggers, based on the The End deck he had qualified with at the regional level in the Belgium qualifiers. For rising up as the strongest cardfighter of 2013, Stewart was awarded the title of "Grand Champion" and 2013's crystal trophy.

Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

On-site reports state that out of nine competitors in the tournament, seven used Narukami Eradicator decks, while North American national champion Albert Lee played a Beast Deity Nova Grappler build. Stewart's decision to move to Dauntless for the finals left him in the minority and he reportedly hesitated to go ahead with the deck for Worlds, but the deck choice proved prudent as it allowed him to control the pace of his fights by forcing his opponents to play The End's mind games. The Dauntless deck is notorious for making opponents decide between either allowing its break ridden The End to hit and stand with a persona blast that recoups the loss in advantage brought on by break ride, or dealing with Dauntless restanding the vanguard even when DOTE's attack does not hit and go in for a second strike that can also lead into a persona blast to bring the previous scenario back into play. Faced with this situation, the general consensus among professional fighters is that the only right choice is to declare "no guard" against the first attack and direct all defenses toward blocking the second, but this requires playing specifically to be at 3 or less damage by that point and is not always a option in its own right when faced with early aggression.

Almeida Stewart, Albert Lee, Adwin Leong and Kevin Lang. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

At the same time, since the release of BT11 Dauntless has received some praise for revising the DOTE build to both be more effective and require more thought to bring out that effectiveness, as the deck's plethora of support options from both old staples like Berserk Dragon and Heatnail Salamander as well as newer cards like Corduory and Kersey have demanded more work in the deckbuilding process and careful play in determining which of the opponent's cards are most important to control with the fighter's limited counterblast. With overlapping support from the Seal Dragons and consistent ways to remove the rearguards, Dauntless has proved to be one of the most effective and challenging decks in 2013. The Dauntless DOTE deck's major contender within the format, the Eradicator build, has been contrasted as being much more of an autopilot deck that takes much of the direct decision making out of its cardfighters' hands. After plaguing Japanese play for the past year, the Eradicators finally debuted in English-language competition for the first time in the world finals, bringing with them a powerful engine for field control and card destruction.

While BT10's break ride cards have been hyped across the board as some of the most decisive tools of the new format, most Eradicator cardfighters have eschewed their Vowing Sword break ride in favor of running an Eradicator deck that uses both Gauntlet Buster Dragon and Dragonic Descendant. Gauntlet Buster, whose limit break increases his power and critical every time an opponent's rearguard is retired, is commonly played as the deck's midgame to destroy the opponent's cards using his counterblast skill, then build up extra critical that demands perfect defense cards to be repeatedly played across two or more turns. With Zuitan to unflip damage to further support Buster, as well as lesser rearguards like Chou-ou that can retire an opponent's rearguard by putting one of the Eradicator fighter's into the soul and then recoup the loss with Rising Phoenix's soulblast-to-draw skill, the subclan's gameplan has proved overwhelming by continuously pushing the opponent's advantage down while the Narukami fighter's has stayed static. Meanwhile Dragonic Descendant has functioned as the clan's self-standing vanguard, able to limit break with a very cheap counterblast 1 and discard cost when his attack does not hit in order to swing again with an extra critical that makes his attack functionally impossible to declare no-guard against. For this reason Descendant has been limited to 2 in Japan since last May, but critics of the subclan have pointed out that with so many other powerful grade 3 options in Vowing Sword and the upcoming Vowing Saber Dragon crossbreak ride, the truly daunting issue surrounding the Eradicator deck is that each card individually could make or break a build on their own, where together they snowball into one overwhelming subclan. Even so, with Worlds 2014 likely eight to nine months away, and the upcoming releases of VGE-BT12: Binding Force of the Black Rings and VGE-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak within that timeframe, international cardfight may never see the Eradicators rise to the same prominence they did in their home country. Current predictions are that Link Joker decks will get widespread adoption in North America, where the clan has proved exceedingly popular and Chaos Breaker Dragon has become the buzzcard of the day.

2013 has left a complicated legacy for professional cardfight, but with Europe emerging as a vanguard force in competitive play the future may see more standout names making the headlines, inspired by Stewart's success story. For the time being, decklists are expected to go up within the week. And while the world is discussing the results of WCS2013, Japan's Fighter's Climax 2013 national tournament has just concluded with the junior class national champion seizing the title with a Nova Grappler deck, according to Doctor O. While their names are not yet public, Nova Grappler was extremely prolific in the juniors' division this year and there are six probable cardfighters that could have taken first, with five of them being Beast Deity fighters using a combination of Ethics Buster Extreme and Reverse alongside their break ride, and the remaining sixth being veteran Nova Grappler fighter Nishida Sachi, who had previously been noted for his Beast Deity deck with Stern Blaukluger tech in FR2013 Kyoto, and who had recently taken a full Stern deck to second place at Osaka. Meanwhile in the open class division, a Shadow Paladin cardfighter rumored to be playing Raging Form Dragon took first place, with the runner-up playing Link Joker. In total, the representation for this year showed 4 Kagerou, 3 Genesis, 2 Shadow Paladin, 2 Link Joker, 2 Aqua Force, 1 Gold Paladin, 1 Narukami and 1 Great Nature decks in the open class finals.