News: Clan Fight Rules Standardized in Professional Play

Originally uploaded by Bushiroad inc.

This evening Bushiroad's international branches announced their adoption of Clan Fight regulations, a system of rules that has been implemented in Japan since the release of VG-BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades. Under these regulations it is against the rules of the game for cardfighters to mix cards of different clans in one deck, with a small pool of exceptions. The rules were originally implemented in Japan because all units printed after TD14: Seeker of Hope do not require same-clan vanguards for their skills to activate, and no grade 3 units from that point onwards have the Lord skill that prevents them from attacking if a unit on the field does not share their clan. The game designers are thus designing cards around the presumption that cardfighters may only use a single clan.

Bushiroad's decision was preempted by that of Alter Reality Games, organizers of the 2015 US national championships. ARG had already adopted Clan Fight a week earlier as a result of strong demand from the community. The decision was made following massive player outcry against the results of the Louisville regional qualifier, where half of the top 8 decklists ran the Spike Brothers unit Frozen Ogle while using no other Spike Brothers cards in the decks. Frozen was primarily used in Cat Butler Raizer decks to search for the eponymous grade 0, but also saw play in a mixed Dimension Police deck to bring out Commander Laurel and Mist Ghost. After considering the players' reactions, ARG elected to implement Clan Fight at all of its tournaments beginning on March 8th with the Fort Lauderdale regional qualifier. Extreme Fight, in which clan mixing is permitted, will only be implemented at ARG tournaments as a side event.

Bushiroad's move to imitate ARG may be in an effort to salvage the company's official tournament system, which has progressively fallen out of favor with fans as the company as repeatedly failed to introduce best-of-three competition. Some went so far as to doubt that Bushiroad USA and its associated branches would ever implement Clan Fight regulations in light of its slow response to the release of BT16. By contrast, the Japanese branch had implemented Clan Fight from the moment that TD14 was released. While ARG will be officially implementing Clan Fight on March 8th, Bushiroad will not do so until March 30th.

One noted difference from the Japanese ruleset is that the English Clan Fight rules permit Link Joker fighters to play units with “Яeverse” in their card name. The Japanese Clan Fight rules instead permit Link Joker fighters to play units with the Я character in their card name, hence permitting Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth” to be used. Like with the exception given to Royal Paladin cardfighters being able to use four copies of Blaster Dark for Majesty Lord Blaster, this rule exists to allow a specific deck to function, Star-vader “Ω” Glendios. The English edition rules otherwise closely match the September 29th 2014 Fighter's Rules implemented in Japan, sans the restriction of Cat Butler implemented on August 18th of that year.

March 5th, 2015 Update: Bushiroad international has since released additional material identifying “The Яe-birth” as eligible for Link Joker decks.

News: ARG Announces 2015 National Championship Series, $2000 Prize Pool

Alter Reality Games President Jim McMahan has set in motion an initiative to bring together a US national championship series, promising to crown ARG's first national champion this summer. The circuit series tournaments are to serve as regional qualifiers for the championship games. Six qualifiers have been announced for February through March, with the preceding Chicago, Atlanta and Orlando tournaments also being granted qualifier status, their winners having retroactively received invitations to the finals. The new qualifier locations and dates are given below. In order to create a strong professional tournament environment without the flaws of Bushiroad's system, the ARG national championship series will employ the same best-of-three Swiss ruleset that ARG has made extensive use of at past tournaments.

In total there are nine tournaments currently integrated into the ARG national championships, and with a three month gap between the last announced qualifier and the nationals, additional locations may yet be announced. The large tournament structure stands in stark contrast to Bushiroad's recently-announced Team League 2015, which features just six regional tournaments for North America's Bushiroad national tournament, only four of which are in the United States and one in of which is in Canada. And unlike Bushiroad's paper certificate system, the winning cardfighters at ARG's tournament series will be rewarded with store credit and cash, fully realizing the meaning of "professional" cardfight.

This new national championship will award cardfighters who place inside the top 8 at qualifiers with both invitations to the finals and Circuit point amounts which can be used to pay entry into the ARG nationals in lieu of the typical $20 entry fee, as well as to purchase ARG-sponsored gear and card supplies. The national championship finals will include trophies for the winners, and a minimum prize pool of $2000--historically the largest prize pool that has ever been made available for a Cardfight!! Vanguard tournament.

Prizes for the regional Circuit series tournaments have been standardized. If tournament turnout exceeds 50 participants, the prizes can be paid out either in cash or as 150% prize credit depending on the player's choice. This means that at a 50 person tournament, first place can opt for either $200 cash or $300 credit, while second place can choose either $100 cash or $200 credit. The championship finals will be held in late July or early August, and are tentatively being discussed inside the area of Philadelphia to Providence, Rhode Island.

Upcoming ARG qualifiers include the Fort Worth and Ontario Circuit series tournaments in Texas and Canada, both on February 8th. Following that will be the Louisville qualifier on February 21st, Fort Lauderdale on March 8th, Hartford on March 15th and Toronto on  March 21st. Beginning with the Hartford Connecticut qualifier, stride units will be legal for play in ARG tournaments. Louisville will be last competition to not allow stride. As at the Orlando Circuit, Cardfight Pro will be traveling to Louisville to provide live coverage of the tournament.

The ARG national championship embodies the culmination of a collaborative effort between ARG and Cardfight Pro; last November we began contacting McMahan and others to pledge coverage for tournaments that would address the concerns of cardfighters worldwide. Alter Reality Games has our full support in establishing this tournament system, and those who place in their tournaments will be recognized by Cardfight Pro as professional cardfighters of the same caliber as those that qualify in the world championships and VGCS tournaments. 

In preparation for the upcoming events, organizer Robbie Kohl surveyed players for eleven questions on specific rulings and then contacted Bushiroad USA's judges directly, to ensure that the judges at ARG will be rigorously trained and able to address major rulings disputes. An exhaustive list of the rulings is provided below.

Q1. Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster activates its skill to attack four units. However, the opponent only has three units. Can he still attack all of them?
A1. Yes, you can still attack the three units ,because you have to do as much of the skill as possible once activated.

Q2. What happens when I use a quintet wall against Silent Tom, or Lark Pigeon and a grade 0 is called to the guardian circle?
A2. The units called by the quintet wall are being superior called, not normal called, so they are able to be placed in the guardian circle through that skill. Additionally, the Lark Pigeon is being superior called from the soul to the guardian circle so the same ruling applies. Any form of "call" that does not come from the hand is considered a "superior call" unless otherwise specified on the card.

Q3. Guarding against Transcore Dragon and Glory Maelstrom's skills, will the interceptors be affected?
A3. Intercepts will not be affected by Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom, or Blue Flight Dragon, Transcore Dragon, both units specify that units cannot be called "from the hand" to the guardian circle.

Q4. Brawler, Big Bang Slash Buster is on a rearguard circle and a vanguard Big Bang Knuckle hits multiple times. Will this card gain +3000 power for every unit hit, or only gain the bonus once?
A4. Brawler, Big Bang Slash Buster will gain the +3000 power for each hit that Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Dragon, or Brawler, Big Bang Slash Buster makes. Multiple bonuses.

Q5. Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster attacks the opponent's “Ω” Glendios and they use Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium. Will all the attacks redirect to the “Яeverse” unit, or will the other attacks still hit their declared targets?
A5. If you place Rubidium in the guardian circle and activate its skill to retire and redirect the attack to a “Яeverse” unit, despite multiple units being attacked, all the attacks will be changed to that one “Яeverse” unit. Refer to FAQ 805, 807.

Q6. If I use Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon's skill to superior ride a copy of itself from the deck, can I use the skill of the new Thing Saver to perform the skill again if I have the counterblast to do so?
A6. Yes, you may activate the skill of the new "Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon" that was superior ride from the deck, as long as you can meet the requirements to activate the skill again. You do not however, return four cards to the deck with the new "Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon."

Q7. Does riding count as putting a card into the soul? If so, this will trigger Young Pegasus Knight, Doreen the Thruster and Great Sage, Barron, correct?
A7. Ride does not count as putting the unit that was ridden over into soul. In some cases of superior ride, the unit on the vanguard circle is considered being put into the soul, such as Barcgal.

Q8. How do Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great and the break ride Dragonic Overlord interact with each other?
A8. Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dagonic Overlord the Great as well as Dragonic Overlord (breakride) both trigger and are set into standby once the attack hits the rearguard. At that timing you have to choose one of their skills to activate, so you cannot trigger both of their abilities/given abilities to restand, even if you were to attack a second rearguard.

(Editor's note; This does not contradict Q9. The reason they interact this way is because both Overlord variants have the clause "This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn. (Even if you do not pay the cost, this ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.)" Hence they are mutually exclusive.)

Q9. I have a Dorint in the frontrow and a Dorint behind it in the same column. I call a Blaster Dark Revenger over one of the Dorints. How many damage are unflipped?
A9. If Blaster Dark Revenger is placed over one of two Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint, in the same column, two damage will be unflipped due to this resolution chain: Blaster Dark Revenger placed over Barrier Troop Revenger Dorint → Both Dorint skills go into standby, called over Dorint is retired due to game mechanic, call is resolved → Both standby Dorint skills are then resolved. (Dorint does not have to remain on the field for his ability to resolve.)

Q10. If I call a Shiny Angel over a Regalia stand trigger, can I use Shiny Angel to target the said stand trigger that is currently on the same rearguard circle as I call over it?
A10. Yes, you may target the unit you retired due to being called over with the skill of Exorcism Regalia, Shiny Angel. Call Shiny Angel over stand trigger → Game mechanic retires stand trigger to resolve call, Shiny Angel's skill goes into standby → Shiny Angel's skill activates from standby to target up to three units in the drop zone.

Q11. If I legion how many cards must I return to the deck? Can it be less than four or exactly four cards?
A11. You must send exactly four units back to the deck to initiate legion.

News: Bushiroad Announces Team League 2015 and Spring Festival, Nega-Keiopojisis Promo

Bushiroad South East Asia has updated up their pages on the English portal site to reflect the upcoming Team League 2015 competition. A triples division tournament, League 2015 will be held as part of a Spring Festival comprising all three of Bushiroad's English-language TCGs. The Spring Festival involves participation at the shop and regional levels, with Team League itself taking place at regional qualifiers and (in North America) at the national level. For the rest of the world, the tournament will stop at the regional level. Controversially, this year's League 2015 rules make it possible for the tournaments to produce no winners.

Cardfighters who participate in official shop tournaments during the two month period from March 2nd through May 3rd will receive special promotional coupons from Bushiroad, which can then be exchanged at the Spring Festival regional tournaments for a promotional card, Snow Element Blizza. A maximum of four coupons for four cards can be exchanged for per person. In the tournaments themselves participation is restricted to those with current residence in the continent their tournaments are held in.

Those that take part in the Team League 2015 regional tournaments from April through July will receive a gold edition Onmyo Regalia Nega-Keiopojisis as their participation prize, and the top 50 teams will receive a commemorative bag. Like all Team League tournaments, the TL2015 format will feature teams of three facing each other in best of one games. The team with two or more victorious members will win the round.

This is the first English-language Bushiroad tournament to address the use of G-Units in decks. Although actual clan fight rules have not been formalized in the English-language format, during Team League 2015 participating cardfighters are required to have a deck of only one clan, with exception given to Cray Elemental G-Units which can be used as a part of any deck's generation zone. Royal Paladin decks may contain up to four copies of Blaster Dark, but no other Shadow Paladin units, and Link Joker decks may use any number of “Яeverse” cards. Furthermore, every team member must be playing a different clan.

The rules and organization of the tournament have already come under significant scrutiny on the web. Like the preceding world championship, Team League 2015 allows tournament organizers to run a round 0; a round 0 results in half of the teams in the tournament being eliminated in the first round of the tournament, so that double elimination rules to not apply during the first round. Round 0s have been used to deliberately cut down the size of Bushiroad tournaments without instilling an actual cap on tournament attendance. Their use has fired intense criticism of Bushiroad, as for many cardfighters the regional qualifiers involve a drive of seven or more hours, all to be eliminated in the span of twenty minutes without being given the same double elimination opportunities as the teams that survive the initial round.

The time limit of the tournament is likewise under fire. Twenty minutes is rarely enough time to play a single game in legion format, where an extended midgame characterizes most cardfights and draws games out into prolonged resource wars. Most concerning is that the time limit rules for League 2015 can result in no winner being produced. As during the elimination rounds, hitting time limit in the top cut causes both cardfighters to lose. This leads to a variety of situations in which the tournament finals will not produce a winning team; for example, if two teams have one win and one loss each and their third game hits time, neither team will win. Every team member hitting time will produce the same result, as will two games going to time. It would even be possible for a round zero to result in every team being eliminated immediately, if no winners were produced as a result of every team hitting the time limit.

Assuming that the qualifiers do produce a winner, each winning team will receive a first place certificate, and the second through third place teams will be similarly certified. The winning team at each regional qualifier will also receive an invitation to the national finals, with travel and accommodation expenses provided. There are no invitations for second through third place.

League 2015 features a very low number of regional tournaments, with only five spread throughout the Asia-Oceanian territory, four across Europe and six in the United States. A complete listing can be found through the official portal. The tournament series has downplayed the importance of international markets outside of North America, with no continental event for the European or AO countries and no international finals. For many cardfighters across the globe their closest regional tournament is several hours across country borders, and for others participation is simply not an option.

News: Sakuma Kazuki Takes National Crown with Dragonic Overlord “The X”

Early this morning the Japanese winter national championships were broadcast live over NicoNico Douga, featuring the best-of-one final match between Tokyo and Kanazawa regional champions Sakuma Kazuki and Ishida Koudai. Ishida had previously turned pro at Fighter's Climax 2013 Kanazawa with his teammates, back when he played Dauntless Drive Dragon with the End, while Sakuma had done so in the top 8 of Fighter's Road 2014 Tokyo under the alias Sakumagazuki. More than thirteen thousand viewers tuned into the broadcast, watching a tense game between two experienced Kagerou cardfighters playing Dragonic Overlord “The X.” After a nearly half-hour game, Sakuma Kazuki was crowned the next Japanese national champion. The broadcast was recorded and the video of it is presented below, with analysis.

In contrast to the victory of Thing Saver-“Abyss” at the preceding summer tournament, the success of “The X” at the national level was in doubt prior to the finals. The new Overlord deck has only been playable for the past three of eight regional qualifiers, but within days of its availability saw instant adoption by professional cardfighters. Prior to this the Fighter's Climax 2014 tournament series was dominated by Shadow Paladin fighters maining Phantom Blaster “Abyss” decks. They were closely tied with Royal Paladin and Kagerou cardfighters playing Thing Saver and Perdition Dragons. The lack of Shadow Paladin in the FC2014 finals was enough of a surprise that master of ceremonies Doctor O had to correct himself when discussing the clan breakdown of the finals. According to Doctor O, the top cut consisted of three Royal Paladin and four Kagerou cardfighters.

(Ishida is on the left, Sakuma on the right.) Ishida opened the game on Dragon Monk Gojo, using his card changing skill to drop and draw a card that would help set up his legion later on. An early heal on Sakuma's end allowed him to accelerate in the same fashion, which when taken with Calamity Tower Wyvern's soulblast 2 and his discard for stride on the next turn, helped set up his legion without any extraneous measures. Going second thus gave Sakuma an advantage in the fight, as it allowed him to stride first and pressure Ishida to defend early with the grade 4 Mahmoud's on-hit skill. If Divine Dragon Knight Mahmoud hit, he could swing the game by retiring Ishida's rearguard Overlord or Red Pulse Dracokid.

Current theory in international play holds that on-hit strides are not worth defending because of their immense power--31000 power in this case--combined with triple drive giving more opportunities to bring the attack through even if guarded for two-to-pass. Japanese pros instead prefer to take a defensive stance against on-hits where feasible to prevent the opponent's game from accelerating, made possible through the recycling property of legion units returning used perfect defenses to the deck for later. It's telling that Ishida followed by mirroring Sakuma's play on the next turn, and that Sakuma responded in kind with a Protect Orb Dragon of his own. Sakuma in general hit more triggers throughout the fight; Ishida's triple drive that turn turned up nothing, while once his rearguard Overlord hit, Sakuma healed out of damage for the second time in the game.

With the fighters standing at a single card's difference in advantage on the turn of Sakuma's legion, -3 to -2, “The X's” on-legion skill and the End's on-hit preserved the current situation in grandeur by searching out a copy of the End and immediately persona blasting it after attacking a rearguard, setting Ishida back by -1 and Sakuma forward by a net +2, in total -4 to 0 (reading across the field from left to right.) While in other situations it would be possible for Ishida to pull Sakuma down by persona blasting “The X,” because Sakuma had only a single rearguard and was at just 2 damage at the time this was not an option. Sakuma would have had to enable the play by both calling rearguards and guarding “The X,” and would not knowingly walk into the trap. His three card lead after Ishida added a copy of the End to hand allowed Sakuma to guard early, and because of Sakuma's conservative play style Ishida was not in a position to punish that. He could equalize the card advantage by drawing out defense, but could never surpass Sakuma in how many cards he controlled, causing the game to spiral out of control in Sakuma's favor.

To Doctor O's surprise, Sakuma transitioned into Dragonic Overlord the Great partway through the game. This is normally regarded as a defensive play. As seen previously in the video of the Sakura VGCS finals, staying on the Great for too long leads to being overwhelmed by “The X” in mirror matches because of how the Great encourages an unflipping-centric play style that focuses too much on the rearguards and too little on attacking the opponent's center column. Sakuma instead used the Great for defensive snowballing, playing damage control to stay close to 3 damage throughout the game while restanding his vanguard every turn of the fight after riding the Great. In total Sakuma restood six times in the match, twice with the End and four times with the Great, versus Ishida's one.

Ishida attempted to retaliate by reriding “The X,” using Calamity Tower to recoup the loss in advantage and set up a Dragonic Burnout. After searching out a copy of “The X” for his on-legion this set the two fighters at -4 to -4, giving Ishida a small window to turn the game around within. Seemingly he achieved this when Sakuma dropped three cards to protect his Burning Horn Dragon. However, at this time the damage was at 4 to 2, and Ishida being at double the damage of Sakuma gave the latter the opportunity to ignore his opponent's last attack and continue with his own offensive. Sakuma was beginning his second turn on the Great at -4 to -7 and equalized damage, but that equalized damage was achieved through Ishida catching up rather than overtaking him completely. On that turn he was able to vastly swing the game in his favor by maximizing his trigger checks with the Great, retiring one rearguard by attacking it, taking out 20000 shield with his vanguard attack, a perfect defense and its cost with a trigger-empowered rearguard, and one last 5000 shield guard with a remaining Burning Horn. Setting Ishida at -10 to Sakuma's -5 left Ishida going into his turn with just four cards in hand after his draw.

Ishida attempted to destabilize the game again with smaller plays, but small moves like his use of Neoflame around the 17:45 mark failed to make a significant enough dent in his opponent's field. Towards the tail end of the fight Sakuma  deliberated over whether or not to stride Route Flare Dragon; doing so would allow him to retire a column and still get an additional drive check from its triple drive, but by using Dragonic Burnout with the Great instead he was able to achieve the same effect by retiring one for Burnout and one with the Great's attack, while getting a fourth check instead of just three. Route Flare with Burnout would have achieved a greater impact in terms of field advantage loss, but an additional dive check was more valuable to Sakuma over an additional retire.

Ishida responded by making the stride that Sakuma decided against, but by this time the game was too far in his opponent's favor. Sakuma began and ended his game on “The X,” setting it up by defending with Protect Orb while he had a Protect Orb on the previous turn so that he could unflip a damage, and then taking one more so that he'd have counterblast open for the End.

Several things can be extrapolated from their fight; the importance of conservative play, having independent vanguard skills and maintaining damage control. Retire skills like those of “The X” are only live when one's rearguards are exposed, so avoiding rush-based strategies entirely and keeping grade 1 and 2 units in hand until absolutely necessary can be rewarding in the G-onwards format versus field control decks. And one point that international players studying the fight should be aware of is that neither cardfighter made use of “The X's” persona blast during the game. In every situation in which it was available, it was optimal to ride over that copy of it on the next turn and return additional triggers or utility cards to the deck, using Calamity Tower to soulblast the Overlords in the soul and then use them to pay for Dragonic Burnout's cost. The threat of “The X” vastly exceeds its performance in practice.

In terms of damage control, the cheaper overall costs of the Great gave Sakuma an incentive to stay on it for the majority of the game after creating a lead for himself with “The X.” Based on Sakuma's decision to not stride around the 19 to 20 minute mark, it can be argued that the value of one more drive check exceeds that of retiring a rearguard. This is an important generalization not just towards decision making when playing Kagerou, but also to deciding on deck choices as a whole. It means that any boss card that pays the same cost to drive check the same number of cards as a different boss card retires from the opponent's field is a better unit to build around than its retire-based counterpart. The bias created by additional trigger checks is significant enough to make this a viable argument. (In Sakuma's case, he actually paid a higher short-term cost to restand the Great by discarding two cards and counterblasting 1 than he would have had to pay for Route Flare's stride cost, although in the long term Route Flare can only be used twice per game.)

The live broadcast enjoyed a 79.9% positive reception and over two thousand comments posted during its airing period. This is only the second time that any portion of the national tournament has been shown in Japan, as while some of the junior national games from 2012 were aired back-to-back with the first world championship finals, for the most part Bushiroad has maintained a policy of secrecy regarding the inner workings of their competitions. The shift towards showing the tournament finals could be seen as a step towards transparency.

News: Dragonic Overlord “The X” Tops FC2014 Fukuoka, 2012 National Champion in Fourth

Flavor text: "The End isn't finished."

December 6th, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. The Fukuoka branch of Bushiroad's ongoing Fighter's Climax 2014 tournament concluded at the West Japan General Exhibition Center with a Kagerou cardfighter, alias "Bottan," placing first using a Dragonic Overlord “The X” deck. Second place was a Gear Chronicle cardfighter, and third place a Royal Paladin fighter playing Thing Saver Dragon, and fourth was 2012 national champion Nakamura Seishirou also playing Thing Saver. The first, second and fourth place decklists are given below. Bottan tweeted that he was undefeated in the tournament, with his qualification rounds consisting of Nova Grappler, Dimension Police, Revenger and Royal Paladin matchups. He played top 16 against Gear Chronicle, Kagerou, Royal Paladin and another Gear Chronicle fighter.

Dragonic Overlord “The X”  (read as "The Cross," as in "crossover") was introduced in G-BT01: Generation Stride as a revival legion for Dragonic Overlord the End, the grade 3 that has served as a continual hazard throughout multiple formats. Nearly every era of the game has had its own incarnation of the End, making him almost as long lived as Kagerou itself. Few cardfighters will need a reminder of what the End is capable of, but for the benefit of newer players; if the End's attack hits, he can counterblast 2 and persona blast to restand. Because the End gains more cards from his second twin drive than he has to discard, his restand is both a +1 in card advantage and a grossly aggressive means of checking for additional triggers.

“The X” makes the End all the more effective because not only does his legion turn the End into a 22000 base attacker to make the on-hit easier to get off, which  “The X” legions he can search the deck for a copy of either the End or “The X.” And if his attack doesn't hit,  “The X” can counterblast 1 and persona blast a copy of himself to retire two of the opponent's rearguards. This turns the crossoverlords into a lose-lose situation--since the copy of the End is added directly to the hand from the deck as a +1 in advantage, the opponent is faced with either letting the attack hit so that the vanguard can restand with a net +2 and able to overwhelm the opponent with their inherently large center lane, or blocking the attack and taking a -2 while “The X” goes back to a neutral +0. This is only the basis for the deck however, as what is truly championing “The X” is his massively overgrown pool of Overlord-specific support cards and alternate grade 3s that give him more options than there is room in the deck for.

“The X's” rise was not unforeseen. Just two days prior to the set's release on December 5th, prerelease prices in Japan showed an immense demand for “The X,” with the card being the most expensive triple rare in Generation Stride at 1500~1700 yen per card according to aucfan. Route Flare, the deck's primary stride unit, stood at only 1000 yen per card. Some will dispute the Fukuoka results as not being representative of what is to come, as Bushiroad's tournaments are infamous for their best-of-one format. However, the prereleases prices suggest a demand significant enough that these results will be replicated at the more legitimate VGCS tournaments.

Original image uploaded by besthito. Full decklist is transcribed below. Other than Route Flare and Messiah, the deck is fully SPed, with all of his Neo Flames being legion rares.

The core of “The X” rests on the grade 2 Perdition Dragon Dragonic Neoflame. Unlike many of the Perdition support, Neoflame does not require a Perdition vanguard to activate. When Neoflame is called to the rearguard, it receives a skill that when an opponent's rearguard in the same column as it is put into the drop zone, allows Neoflame to counterblast 1 and retire another in the same column. Virtually every skill in the deck can play off of Neoflame in some way. If the End's attack hits a rearguard, not only will the End restand but because a rearguard was placed into the drop zone Neoflame's counterblast will retire its booster. If the End does not hit and “The X's” persona blast goes off instead, “The X” can retire two rearguards and Neoflame will remove one of their boosters. This dramatically escalates the situation to either a +1 vs -2 or -1 vs -3 depending on which persona blast is used.

Furthermore, with the grade 2 Dragonic Burnout, who can return an Overlord from the drop zone to the deck and then soulblast 1 to retire a rearguard, it becomes possible to combo him to Neoflame, paying counterblast 1 and soulblast 1 to destroy an entire column. Because of Burnout's conditions, if either “The X” or the End's persona blasts go off, Burnout is fully set up for next turn, giving multiple options across several turns for clearing out the opponent's field and punishing them for fighting back. Bottan built his deck with multiple legions in mind that are able to recycle these grade 2 options, and having access to Dragonic Overlord the Great both offers another restanding vanguard option that can also trigger a rearguard Neoflame's skill.

Kagerou's primary stride unit, Route Flare Dragon, expands the deck's options by allowing it to retire an entire column twice per game. While this does not synergize with Neoflame, it does give the Kagerou cardfighter additional options for beating down the opponent so that the End will hit later. The cost of discarding a grade 3 in order to stride provides an opportunity to use Dragonic Burnout in the same turn as the stride unit, retiring three rearguards. Since Route Flare requires two units to be face-up in the generation zone after his persona blast is activated in order to resolve, he encourages early use of Divine Dragon Knight Mahmoud, whose on-hit retires another rearguard. The turn 3~4 plan for the deck depending on which fighter went first then becomes to discard one of the Overlords to stride Mahmoud, call Neoflame, call Burnout and return the Overlord discarded to the deck to retire a rearguard, use Neoflame to retire that rearguard's booster, then hit with Mahmout to retire another. On the next turn the Overlord returned to the deck can be grabbed back with “The X's” on-legion skill. The Overlord deck has multiple ways to trigger its key cards and start up an explosive sequence of retire skills that severely limit the number of safe plays against it. The only decks capable of circumventing “The X” directly are Tachikaze, Shadow Paladin and the Great Nature variants that draw off of their rearguards' end phase retires rather than call them back to the field.

Original image uploaded by Doctor O. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Bottan's Overlord decklist was later uploaded a second time by Doctor O, followed by the second place cardfighter's Gear Chronicle deck. The Gear Chronicle finalist focused on guard manipulation in his build, using the grade 2 Steam Knight Puzur Ili as a Silent Tom variant capable of blocking grade 0 cards, and Chrono Jet Dragon's generation break 2 to block perfect defense cards. With the generation rare Chronos Command preordering at 2500~3000 yen per card, the deck's grade 4 lineup is difficult to complete in Japan, but its property of sending all of the opponent's rearguards into their deck has been enough to launch Gear Chronicle into professional play out of the box.

One of the contributing factors to “The X's” victory may be the new G-BT01 onwards version of perfect defense cards. The runner-up at Fukuoka ran Steam Maiden Alulim, a new variant of these units, that can unflip a damage if there is a copy of herself in the drop zone when she is guarded with. In exchange, Alulim variations can only protect the vanguard and cannot be called against an attack on a rearguard. Neither Dragonic Overlord “The X's” nor the End's skills require them to hit or attack a vanguard. Both the End's restand and “The X's” retire skill can activate after attacking a rearguard, and the Great's on-hit specifically has to hit a rearguard, which means that by running these new perfect defense cards, other cardfighters are enabling Overlord fighters to funnel them towards whichever scenario is the worst one.

Original image uploaded by Seishirou. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Nakamura Seishirou tweeted his decklist shortly after the tournament. As in most years since his 2012 debut Seishirou played a Royal Paladin deck, this time using a Thing Saver variant with the legion grade 2 Jewel Knight Swordmy to superior call his copies of Shellie to act as boosters. Since Swordmy does not require a Jewel Knight vanguard, Swordmy has seen recent integration into Seeker decks as a source of cheap boosting power. Other modifications include Cycirlz from G-BT01, who gains +2 grade when discarded for the cost of stride, allowing him to be used as an alternative means of striding the deck's grade 4s Gablade and Saint Blow Dragon. Gablade's on hit skill superior calls a grade 2 or greater unit from the deck, providing an ideal moment to bring out Swordmy early on and then superior call Shellie behind him for a net +2. Like Route Flare above, Saint Blow's skill requires it to turn a copy of itself face-up in the generation zone and then have two or more face-up G-units in the zone. This endows it with +3000 power for each rearguard and an additional critical, which combined with the power from striding makes an unboosted 41000 power 2 critical center lane that can alternatively force the opponent to higher damage early so that Thing Saver's restand skill becomes devastating, or catch the opponent unprepared to defend in the turns after TSD has taken out much of their hand options.

Seishirou had just recently won the sixth Hakata VGCS with a similar deck, and in August had won the second Kitakyuu CS with Thing Saver-“Abyss.” His success in multiple tournaments, both official and underground, has made him one of the most recognizable professionals in Japanese play.

Fighter's Climax 2014 Fukuoka Regional Qualifier
Regional Champion: Bottan/ぼったん
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biella CT
x3 Magnum Shot Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Protect Orb Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Violence Horn Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Dragonic Burnout
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Dragonic Neoflame
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The X”
x3 Dragonic Overlord the End
x2 Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Imperial Flame Dragon King, Route Flare Dragon
x1 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmoud
x1 Harmonics Messiah
x2 Miracle Element, Atomos

Runner-up
Grade 0
x1 Timepiece Dracokid (FV)
x4 Steam Maiden, Ululu HT
x4 Lucky Pot Dracokid DT
x4 Steam Battler, Dadashig CT
x4 Steam Battler, Mashuda CT
Grade 1
x4 Steam Maiden, Alulim
x4 Steam Breath Dragon
x3 Steam Scalar, Gigi
x3 Maser Gear Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Smoke Gear Dragon
x4 Steam Knight, Puzur Ili
x3 Twin Maser Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Chrono Jet Dragon
x4 Ruin Disposal Dragon
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon
x2 Interdimensional Dragon, Chronos Command Dragon
x1 Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery Flare Dragon
x1 Miracle Element, Atomos

Fourth place: Seishirou
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Jewel Knight, Hilmy HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger CT
x4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle CT
Grade 1
x4 Holy Knight Guardian
x4 Laurel Knight, Cycirlz
x4 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
x2 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric 
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Jewel Knight, Swordmy
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x3 Seeker, Sacred Wingal
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
x4 Divine Sacred Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon

News: Japanese National Championship Won with Thing Saver-“Abyss,” Hayashi Hiroki Crowned National Champion

Right to left; National Champion Hayashi Hiroki, CEO Takaaki Kidani and National Runner-up Hayashida Kenjun.

The results of the most recent Japanese national championships were made public this past week, with Kanazawa cardfighter Hayashi Hiroki being crowned as Japan's summer 2014 National Champion, succeeding Lee Innyeng. The finals took place in Tokyo over August 31st, and were livestreamed onto the Japanese video hosting service NicoNico Douga. NND user Kururun (クルルん) recorded the live broadcast and reuploaded it afterwards, forever preserving the fight. The full ceremony can be viewed in five parts by those with NND accounts here, but the fight by itself has been hosted below for those without accounts. Commentary was handled by TV personality Doctor O, actress Kitta Izumi (voice of Tokura Misaki) and actor Morishima Shuuta (voice of Nitta Shin) while awards were handed out by Bushiroad CEO Takaaki Kidani.

Note that while no disrespect is intended, due to their similar surnames, for the sake of clarity Hayashi and Hayashida will hereon be referred to by their given names Hiroki and Kenjun.

Hiroki played the familiar Royal Paladin-Shadow Paladin hybrid deck that has come to dominate professional play, Thing Saver-“Abyss.” His opponent was fourteen-year-old Hayashida Kenjun playing Star-vader “Ω” Glendios. Glendios has remained an everpresent element of the format since its introduction in VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth, and the finals are of particular interest to international cardfighters because the card is just on the verge of being released in thirteen days' time. The video of their fight also has relevance beyond this tournament, as it is one of the few recordings of how Thing Saver-“Abyss” is used in Japanese play.

(Hiroki is on the left, Kenjun on right.) Having won the janken during their pile shuffling and redraw, Kenjun opened the first turn of the game. Each turn up to reaching grade 3, Kenjun used World Line Dragon's skill prior to his ride phase, discarding “Я” units to search for Link Joker cards to ride. This meant that by the time he rode Glendios, Kenjun could already build advantage out of this drop zone with Ruin Magician, which helped compensate for the amount of early guarding he had to do versus Hiroki's Blaster deck. Hiroki had a considerably stronger early game, able to make extra attacks each turn, capitalize on strong trigger checks and search out his copy of Phantom Blaster “Abyss” while Kenjun was restricted by his deck's reliance on running 14 grade 3s and only being able to bring them out one turn at a time. Hiroki's earlier aggression translated to a stronger endgame with Thing Saver, such that instead of being able to grind the game to a halt Kenjun was instead overwhelmed by trying to keep Hiroki's field in check. An important point is that Kenjun was forced to ride one of his two copies of Companion Star-vader Photon early on, and if he had access to a copy of it later then locking both of Hiroki's frontrow rearguards would have made defending through his double restand easier.

The turn that Kenjun rode Glendios, he opened the turn at -2 to +1 card advantage; by locking Blaster Dark with Vowing Saber “Я,” then using Colony Maker to play off of that lock and call out Ruin Magician from the deck, and then adding Hyakki Vogue “Я” back to hand with Magician's skill, Kenjun was able to immediately close the gap and tie the advantage +0 to +0. But while this enabled him to keep a stable circulation of “Яeverse” cards in play to maintain locks with, it did not make up for the existing gap in damage.

Hiroki was careful to keep Kenjun out of being able to start a chain of omega locks before he could prep his legion properly, attacking Vowing Saber rather than the vanguard at 07:26 to avoid giving Kenjun limit break too early. Moreover, getting Vowing Saber into the drop zone prevented a potential Ruin Magician play to recover both Cocytus “Я” and a theoretical discard for omega lock, which limited Kenjun's midgame advantage plays. Kenjun's decision to lock Mackart rather than Blaster Dark in turn kept Hiroki from superior calling off of his legion, and from abusing Mackart to call and deck thin during Thing Saver's on-stand Legions.

Hiroki's decision to go ahead with his Legion was made with the full knowledge that he would be taking advantage of “Abyss” exclusively for restanding Thing Saver; at 12:40 when he finally rides Thing Saver Dragon he has exactly 5 soul, which is just enough to use Thing Saver's skill twice. The soulblast 3 requirement, along with the previous Thing Saver remaining in the soul, ensured this. Many decks could not come back from the position Hiroki was in at the time, -9 to -4, but the neutral exchange off of his restand and access to a remaining rearguard column to receive trigger checks while being able to make three sequential attacks with his vanguard helped to overwhelm Kenjun's defenses and destroy his remaining resources in the long term, even though the game was not won on that turn. Note that around the 15 minute mark Hiroki could have theoretically won early; Kenjun did not have the resources to guard both Blaster Blade Spirit and all of Thing Saver's attacks, and declared no-guard while at four damage. This turn ended at -7 to -8 after Hiroki's draw trigger and Mackart unlocking, a complete recovery into a positive position.

There are several points which could have evened out the fight. One of Glendios' primary advantages versus TSD-“Abyss” in this format is its access to Taboo Star-vader Rubidium, whose on-guard skill would have allowed Kenjun to change the target of Thing Saver's attack to a “Яeverse” unit on the field. Because Thing Saver can only restand after attacking a vanguard, this could have completely shut down Hiroki's decisive turn. However, the play is dependent on having Rubidium in hand, and the only copy Kenjun drew in the game was the one that he rode on the first turn. More to the point, Hiroki's game would have been slowed considerably if Kenjun had allocated the 15000 shield he dropped on Hiroki's grade 2 turn to the vanguard instead of the rearguard. This would have prevented Hiroki from searching out “Abyss,” forcing him to ride Thing Saver on his grade 3 turn, and slowed the buildup of soul by another turn--potentially preventing him from initiating the double restand maneuver entirely, although the full outcome of the fight cannot be predicted because preventing the search and shuffle off of Wingal Brave would completely change how it flowed.

While Thing Saver-“Abyss” and Glendios have been cemented as the key offensive and defensive decks of this era, fourth place in the national finals went to the format's unsung hero, Big Bang Knuckle Buster. A crossride of Big Bang Knuckle Dragon, Knuckle Buster has been championed as one of the most effective field control decks; his on-attack skill sends a Big Bang card from the hand to the soul while in Legion to battle four separate units. Accounting for the late game defense necessary to protect the vanguard, this typically translates to a -6 overall, but also falls afoul of Glendios' defensive capabilities because the aforementioned Rubidium can change all of Knuckle Buster's targets to a single “Я” unit. The increased prevalence of Quintet Walls and fighters' increasing awareness of being able to guard units separately with what a Quintet Wall calls has also diminished Knuckle Buster's impact. So while highly effective at devastating the opponent's field in most scenarios, the deck's progress has been stymied by the format's defensive options.

The contestants notably did not display the kind of strict fight manners Bushiroad has become infamous for in the west. While there are countless horror stories told over American judges handing out game losses for not placing drive checked cards in the trigger zone, Hiroki and Kenjun both fell back on the commonplace habit of drive checking onto the fight table.

Fighter's Road 2014 National Championship, Open Division
National Champion: Hayashi Hiroki/林大貴
Grade 0
x2 Wingal Brave (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer  HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
x4 Knight of the Future, Llew CT
Grade 1
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Knight of Friendship, Kay
x4 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x1 Glynngal Seeker
x2 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x2 Blaster Blade Spirit
x3 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x3 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x4 Battle Spirit Revenger, Mackrt
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x1 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”

Runner-up: Hayashida Kenjun/林田健順
Grade 0
x1 Star-vader, World Line Dragon (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Pixie Powder HT
x3 Star-vader, Jailer Tail DT
x4 Vortex Star-vader, Molybdenum DT
x4 Star-vader, Apollo Nail Dragon CT
x1 Star-vader, Spark Doll CT
Grade 1
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium
x4 Star-vader, Ruin Magician
Grade 2
x2 Companion Star-vader, Photon
x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker
x2 Star-vader, Magnet Hollow
Grade 3
x3 Star-vader, “Ω” Glendios
x4 Star-vader, “Я” Cradle
x1 Blue Storm Karma Dragon, Maelstrom “Я”
x1 Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue “Я”
x1 Cleanup Celestial, Ramiel “Я”
x1 Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus “Я”
x1 Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я”
x1 Demon God Marquis, Amon “Я”
x1 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”

Third place: Itou Tatsuya/伊藤竜也
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x4 Brawler, Green Gem Carbuncle HT
x1 Brawler, Heavy Trailer Dragon DT
x4 Brawler, Dokouson DT
x1 Brawler of Heavens, Youzen CT
x2 Brawler, Plasma Kid Dragon CT
x4 Malevolent Djinn CT
Grade 1
x3 Wyvern Guard, Guld
x1 Hardship Brawler, Toshu
x4 Tonfa Wielding Brawler, Aak
x2 Threatening Brawler, Koumei
x4 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x4 Brawler, Big Bang Slash Buster
x2 Brawler, Big Bang Slash Dragon
x3 Brawler, Wild Fist Dragon
x2 Dragonic Deathscythe
Grade 3
x4 Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster
x4 Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Dragon

Fourth place: Hirano Masayoshi/平野誠祥
Grade 0
x3 Wingal Brave (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer  HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
Grade 1
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Knight of Friendship, Kay
x4 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x2 Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade Spirit
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x3 Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x1 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”

News: Nouvelle and Shotgun Blow Dragon Spread Sparks Over FR2014 Nagoya, Thing Saver Dragon Dominates Tokyo Regional

Runner-up Kajiya Takayoshi. Photo by the_Blue_13.

The first and second regional qualifiers for Japan's summer 2014 national tournament took place this week, with up-and-coming fighter Itou Tatsuya taking first at the Nagoya regional with his Dragonic Nouvelle Vague deck. Followed closely by Kajiya Takahito with Shotgun Blow Dragon in second, this marks the transition into the summer professional season with both a well established build of past formats and the rise of new blood in the format. Just days after BT16's release on the 16th, two Royal Paladin cardfighters playing the new Seeker Thing Saver Dragon took first and second at FR2014 Tokyo regional, one of the most difficult tournaments to qualify at in the Japanese system due to the high bi-annual turnout. Decklists for Tokyo are forthcoming, while in the meantime we have the top 8 from Nagoya along with the decklists from Fighter's Road, the Victory Cup and VF Koushien team tournament. The Nagoya decklists are below by the heading [FR14OC]

FR2014 Nagoya Regional Qualifier Top 8 (Open Class)
Itou Tatsuya/伊藤 竜也 - Kagerou
Kajiya Takayoshi/梶屋 隆仁 - Narukami
Fukaya Kouki/深谷 公貴 (Doctor O Award) - Neo Nectar
Ooshima Kazuhiro/大嶋 一弘 - Bermuda Triangle
Chikami Yuuki/近間 悠希 - Link Joker
Wakayama Masayuki/若山 将之 - Genesis
Kokui Shougo/國井 将吾 - Pale Moon

The Doctor O Award for the tournament went to Fukaya Kyouki's Musketeers deck, for smoothly integrating the old Cecilia strategy along with Fighter's Collection 2014's Holly Musketeer Elvira. This is the last pre-BT16 Musketeers deck to make top 8 in a major tournament after Tomato's success at the Kansai VGCS last January, and has been followed by a post-BT16 Musketeers cardfighter in the Tokyo top 4. According to tweets from on-site viewers, the Tokyo top 4 was Thing Saver, Thing Saver, Musketeers and Metalborgs. Thing Saver Dragon's success was well forecasted in Japan, where the card has been sitting at double Nouvelle Vague's single price for some time now. The card is respected as a self-standing vanguard that can be activated without needing to be at 4 damage, and with its Legion power boost and on-attack skills the Dragon already makes a 23000 power line, a peak number versus the dominant Nouvelle decks. Thing Saver's access to Margal for soulcharging and the promo card Glynngal Seeker for unflipping damage is also considered important because it allows the unit's Legion skill to be repeated several times to finish the opponent off, although this is ultimately limited by the number of Thing Savers available in the deck due to the need to superior ride one to stand.

Meanwhile Shotgun Blow's success at Nagoya is coming in the aftermath of its widespread adoption in the fan-run Vanguard Championships, where the Brawlers have been leaving their mark as a fast and powerful control deck in direct competition with the break ride-centric Nouvelle Vague. The Brawlers are projected to become even more of a runaway success with the release of Bigbang Knuckle Dragon and Wild Rush Dragon in BT16, but what exact form the new Narukami will take is uncertain. Bigbang is a modification to the Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion formula, attacking the frontrow for CB2 while in Legion rather than for CB3 while at limit break, and Wild Rush's skill effectively adds six critical triggers to the deck that give +10000 instead of +5000; when Wild Rush is in Legion, if it drive checks a copy of either of its Legion pair units, it can CB1 for +10000 power and +1 critical. Regardless of what combination of their core vanguards becomes the most popular, considering the relative expense of each deck, incoming cardfighters and those that did not adopt Nouvelle in the first place are considered likely to move in favor of the Brawlers, whose fast and easy setup allows them to easily compete with the grade 4 on equal terms.

2014's Victory Cup replaces the original juniors' division of professional play that has existed since 2011, although the term "open class" is still used to refer to the adult division by way of grandfather clause. Any cardfighters that are not in their third year of junior high school or greater can participate in the Victory Cup, which in the Japanese school system is equivalent to a fourteen-and-under division. Due to an error on the official Cardfight portal, the Victory Cup results are erroneously listed as a team tournament, although the decklists are appropriately headed "Champion," "Runner-up" and "Doctor O Prize" instead of "Foreward," "Midfighter" and "Captain." The Victory Cup decklists are by the heading [FR14VC] Meanwhile the 2014 VF Koushien is this year's major team tournament, named after the annual baseball tournament series of the same name. Unlike in 2013, there is no requirement this year for participants to be in the junior' division, and accordingly there is no separate team tournament for open class cardfighters as happened during FR2013. VF Koushien is thus experiencing a return to the 2012 system. The Koushien decklists are below by the heading [FR14KS]

Notably, this year's Victory Cup and VF Koushien tournaments are the first time we've seen Megacolony decks in professional play, with Tsurumoto Hiroki and Isogai Hitoshi both running variations on the Machining deck with the Cyclomatooth break ride to stall the opponent out, repeatedly preventing them from standing their field each turn and inducing a -2 for each -1 the Megacolony fighters incur. The Fighter's Collection 2014 boss card Machining Warsickle was particularly favored by Isogai, who used its limit break on subsequent turns after his break ride to continue preventing the opponent's vanguard from standing, giving him heavy leverage against Nouvelle's on-attack guard denial.

FR2014 Open Class Nagoya Regional Qualifier [FR14OC]
Regional champion: Itou Tatsuya/伊藤竜也
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x3 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x1 Demonic Dragon Mage, Abarara CT
x2 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
Grade 1
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x2 Bellicosity Dragon
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x4 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x1 Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я”
x2 Dragonic Overlord
x3 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Grade 4
x3 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Second Place: Kajiya Takahito
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x4 Brawler, Green Gem Carbuncle HT
x4 Brawler, Dokouson DT
x1 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
x1 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x1 Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x2 Malevolent Djinn CT
x2 Brawler, Plasmakid Dragon CT
x1 Spark Edge Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Tonfa Wielding Brawler, Ark
x4 Rising Phoenix
x2 Bonfire Eradicator, Castor
Grade 2
x3 Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon
x3 Military Brawler, Lisei
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
x2 Brawler Youjin
Grade 3
x4 Brawler, Shotgun Blow Dragon
x3 Brawler, Skybeat Dragon

Doctor O Award: Fukaya Kouki
Grade 0
x1 Broccolini Musketeer, Kirah (FV)
x4 Hibiscus Musketeer, Hanah HT
x4 Four Leaf Fairy DT
x4 Blue Rose Musketeer, Ernest ST
x4 Night Queen Musketeer, Daniel CT
x4 Bullet Chestnut CT
Grade 1
x2 Lily of the Valley Musketeer, Rebecca
x4 Water Lily Musketeer, Ruth
x4 Red Rose Musketeer, Antonio
x4 Dandelion Musketeer, Mirkka
Grade 2
x4 Cherry Blossom Musketeer, Augusto
x4 Lily of the Valley Musketeer, Kaivant
x4 Pansy Musketeer, Sylvia
Grade 3
x3 White Lily Musketeer, Cecilia
x4 Holly Musketeer, Elvira

FR2014 Victory Cup Nagoya Regional Qualifier [FR14VC]
First Place: Tsuchiya Yuuki/土屋勇希
Grade 0
x1 Little Battler, Cron (FV)
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x3 Little Liberator, Marron
x3 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
x4 White Rainbow Liberator, Balan
x1 Sword Formation Liberator, Igraine
x3 Halo Liberator, Mark
Grade 2
x2 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
x2 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x3 Liberator, Star Rain Trumpeter
x4 Blaster Blade Liberator
Grade 3
x2 Liberator, Monarch Sanctuary Alfred
x3 Liberator of Bonds, Gancelot Zenith
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Second Place: Gotouyuusuke/ゴトウユウスケ
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x3 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x1 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
Grade 1
x1 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x3 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x1 Lizard Soldier Grom
Grade 2
x2 Bellicosity Dragon
x4 Dominate Drive Dragon
x2 Dragon Dancer, Arabella
x2 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
x1 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я”
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
Grade 4
x1 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

Doctor O Prize: Tsurumoto Hiroki/鶴本祐基
Grade 0
x1 Megacolony Battler C (FV)
x4 Machining Bombyx HT
x4 Machining Scorpio CT
x8 Machining Cicada ST
Grade 1
x2 Machining Mosquito
x4 Machining Hornet
x2 Machining Ladybug
x3 Machining Black Soldier
x1 Machining Locust
x2 Paralyze Madonna
x2 Machining Caucasus
Grade 2
x2 Machining Red Soldier
x2 Machining Mantis
x2 Machining Papillion
x4 Machining Tarantula
Grade 3
x2 Machining Warsickle
x1 Machining Spark Hercules
x4 Unrivaled Blade Rogue, Cyclomatooth

FR2014 Nagoya VF Koushien Team Tournament [FR14KS]
Foreward: Iwabuchi Kouya/岩渕宏哉
Grade 0
x1 Desire Jewel Knight, Heloise (FV)
x4 Jewel Knight, Hilmy HT
x4 Jewel Knight, Sacred Unicorn DT
x4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachel CT
x4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger CT
Grade 1
x2 Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria
x2 Flashing Jewel Knight, Iseult
x3 Jewel Knight, Prizmy
x3 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
x4 Security Jewel Knight, Arwen
Grade 2
x4 Banding Jewel Knight, Miranda
x3 Fellowship Jewel Knight, Tracie
x4 Linking Jewel Knight, Tilda
Grade 3
x4 Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei
x4 Broken Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei “Я”

Midfighter: Ooba Shin'ichi/大庭伸一
Grade 0
x1 Morgenroet (FV)
x4 Regenbogen HT
x4 Schneeregen DT
x4 Shining Lady CT
x4 Schones Wetter CT
Grade 1
x1 Blaupanzer
x4 Blau Dunkelheit
x2 Flower Ray Leprechaun
x4 Clay-doll Mechanic
x2 Polar Stern
Grade 2
x4 Blaukluger
x3 Jupiter Blaukluger
x3 Mars Blaukluger
x2 Grosse Baer
Grade 3
x3 Mond Blaukluger
x3 Galaxy Blaukluger
x2 Stern Blaukluger

Captain: Isogai Hitoshi/磯貝仁志
Grade 0
x1 Machining Little Bee (FV)
x4 Machining Bombyx HT
x4 Raider Mantis DT
x4 Machining Scorpio CT
x2 Sharp Nail Scorpio CT
x2 Shelter Beetle CT
Grade 1
x1 Machining Mosquito
x4 Machining Hornet
x2 Machining Ladybug
x2 Paralyze Madonna
x4 Machining Caucasus
Grade 2
x4 Machining Red Soldier
x4 Machining Mantis
x2 Machining Armor Beetle
Grade 3
x4 Machining Warsickle
x2 Machining Spark Hercules
x4 Unrivaled Blade Rogue, Cyclomatooth

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