Today's Card Analysis: Regalia of Duality Nega Chaopozisis

The Japanese card of the day is the winner of 2014's create-a-card contest, designed by child reader Ishii Kenichi and brought to life by veteran illustrator Terumii (Vlad Specula, Paschal, Maiden of Blossom Rain.) Neither a legion nor a limit break unit, like Daunting Deletor Oksizz before her Chaopozisis takes total control of her gameplay's tempo. Chaopozisis wields the power of Onmyou, the Japanese philosophical concept of contradictory forces that complement one another when put in balance, and this is represented through her soul management-based gameplay. In order to use Chaopozisis effectively, you have to constantly fluctuate between 3 and 9 soul and demonstrate total control over your soulcharging across multiple turns. The reward for this is nearly endless turns of additional power and critical from the moment you ride a grade 3, quickly draining the opponent's perfect defense cards, then eating into the remainder of their hand.

Regalia of Duality, Nega Chaopozisis 
ACT (Vanguard circle): [Soulblast 6] During this turn this unit gets Power +10000/Critical +1, and if the number of cards in your soul is 2 or less, place a card from the top of your deck into your damage zone.
AUTO: [Counterblast 1] When this unit appears in a rearguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose three cards with "Regalia" in their card name from your drop zone, put them into your soul, and if the number of cards in your soul is 10 or greater, put the top card of your deck into your damage zone.

Chaopozisis' skills are divided between her aspect of ice on the vanguard circle, and aspect of fire on the rearguard circle. In keeping with her card lore, misusing either of Chaopozisis' powers will cause you to take damage, respectively symbolizing being frozen alive and immolated. To use her correctly you have to strike a balance in how much soul you maintain. Her aspect of fire can be a useful supporting component either for herself or for another Regalia boss card like Yggdrasil, but because her skill soulcharges exactly three cards rather than "up to" three, if you've overdone your own soulcharging then there's no saving you from taking damage. Failing to exercise proper caution and misusing Chaopozisis when already at high damage can cost you the game.

Nega Chaopozisis' submission artwork from issue 15, illust. Ishii Kenichi.

You can never exceed 9 soul nor drop below 3, so Chaopozisis benefits from cards like Regalia of Midday Hemera that can choose up to so many cards, to prevent overcharging. Note that Chaopozisis' skill is not a once-per-turn skill like that of Midnight Regalia Nyx or CEO Yggdrasil. This is pivotal, because unlike with those cards the opponent is not safe from her skill even when at two damage. As long as you are able to set up Chaopozisis, you can use her aspect of ice to have as much power and critical as you desire. If you're absolutely certain that the opponent can't block your attack, then taking a damage on your own end may even be acceptable if it results in sending the opponent to 6 or 7 damage. Key support cards for Chaopozisis are Witch of Grapes Grappa and Witch of Oranges Valencia; while Witch cards rarely make it into Regalia decks these days, Grappa and Valencia are especially important to Nega Chaopozisis because when soulblasted they can soulcharge 2. All of Nega's text must resolve before Grappa or Valencia can however, so when using these skills you have to be certain that you will have 3 soul remaining after paying her soulblast 6 to avoid taking damage. Grappa and Valencia's on-blast soulcharges then help support Hemera and Shiny Angel in getting the soul ready for next turn. But because Witches cannot be targeted for Regalia-specific soulcharge effects, the window for getting these cards into the soul is limited. Other than riding them, you can use Cider to get them into the soul after guarding with them or bringing them out through a quintet wall, soulcharge them off of Lot Angel, and of course soulcharge the Witches through their own skills.

Chaopozisis shares her other key soulblast targets with Yggdrasil, Mirror Regalia Achlis and Regalia of Fate Norn. Both of these units give +5000 power to the vanguard when blasted, which can snowball with Chaopozisis' aspect of ice to create a vanguard in the range of 51~61000 power. The more difficult question comes into play when considering a unit to partner her with. Because of having both vanguard and rearguard skills Chaopozisis is flexible enough to either act on her own or as support for an existing boss card, so pairing her with Yggdrasil would seem like an obvious choice. But her aspect of fire will also punish you for failing to track the soul, and it's much more useful the earlier it comes into play. In a CEO deck you want Chaopozisis out before putting down Hemera, or before using the infamous Svalinn-Cider combo. When building around Chaopozisis herself, Nyx can be a useful setup card because of her draw skill, which empties out the soul early on and leaves you in little danger of backlash from the aspect of fire. Angelica is also a possible choice, but her break ride skill is undesirable in the present format because of how late it comes into play, and when it comes to a breakride critical vanguard there's very little that Chaopozisis can do with Angelica that Yggdrasil can't already do better.

From Fighter's Collection 2014 there's also Goddess of the Four Seasons Persephone. While not a Regalia unit, Persephone's on-ride skill adds three copies of a card already on the field to the soul, and when use with Grappa or Valencia this can be tremendously useful for getting Chaopozisis ready. By the time that you've reridden, Nega will have at least 6 soul to play around with, which can jump up to the magic number 9 with a single Shiny Angel. Very little of the Regalia soulcharge support requires a Regalia vanguard specifically, so as long as you can eventually guarantee your Chaopozisis ride Persephone can be a faster setup card than Angelica. But like with Angelica, the danger lies in getting stuck on Persephone without having access to your primary boss card. One of the reasons it's difficult to find a good partner for Nega Chaopozisis is that in most of the situations in which she is your main boss card, you will want to ride her and start getting the aspect of ice going right away. But with Genesis at an interim period between batches of support, there is ample time for research and testing. Make use of it.

News: Nam Vo Wins Atlanta Championship with CEO Yggdrasil

ARG Atlanta champion Nam Vo, holding his playmat and prize money. Original photo uploaded by Alter Reality Games.

December 7th, Georgia International Convention Center, Georgia. The second stage of ARG's Cardfight!! Vanguard Circuit series tournaments finished over the weekend with Genesis cardfighter Nam Vo in first place. 41 cardfighters participated in the event, making this the first largeCardfight!! Vanguard tournament with cash payout. Nam Vo received $200 for placing first in the tournament, while runner-up Matthew An was awarded $100. The tournament finals were streamed like to ARG's Twitch channel, and recordings of the top 8 will be uploaded to their YouTube later. Atlanta will be followed by another Circuit series tournament in Orlando Florida on January 4th, the first major tournament of the new year. Vo and An's decklists are provided below, courtesy of Robbie Kohl.

ARG Atlanta's top 8 consisted of five Shadow Paladin and three CEO Yggdrasil cardfighters, with three of the Shadow Paladin fighters playing Phantom Blaster “Abyss” and two of them playing the clan's Witch deck. North American cardfighters have generally gravitated towards decks out of EB11: Requiem at Dusk and EB12: Waltz of the Goddess since the November 21st releases, preferring these options to the less complete trial deck options that went out on the same day. The format is expected to diversify with the release of VGE-BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades ver. E on December 16th, but for the time being a back and forth tug-of-war between Yggdrasil and “Abyss” has dominated professional competition, as seen in both Atlanta and Chicago.

Nam Vo's Yggdrasil deck was not without surprises; while the majority of Regalia cardfighters have adamantly stuck to draw and critical triggers, Vo ran two copies of the stand trigger Mirror Regalia Achlis. One of the consequences of the Regalia Angel series' semirandom soulcharging is that there is always the potential to soulcharge trigger units. This puts an incentive on the Genesis fighter to soulblast those trigger units so that they can be recycled later through legion, rather than soulblasting grade 1 and 2 cards with on-blast skills.

Because Achlis can give a Regalia vanguard +5000 power when soulblasted, he answers this scenario by ensuring that Yggdrasil fighters do not miss out on a potential skill by soulcharging a trigger unit. Stand triggers in general have proven more popular with the onset of the legion format, as the vanguard's naturally high center lane and the increased importance of each damage point has made them a more viable--and unexpected--choice when considering trigger lineups. Most opponents do not factor in stand triggers when guarding, due to their lack of play in past formats.

The ARG Circuit series is publicly endorsed by Cardfight Pro as a professional tournament system. Those who place in the tournament will be recognized by Cardfight Pro as professional cardfighters of the same caliber as those that qualify in the world championships and VGCS tournaments.

First place: Nam Vo
Grade 0
x1 Regalia of Prayers, Pray Angel (FV)
x4 Regalia of Compassion, Eir HT
x2 Mirror Regalia, Achlis ST
x3 Regalia of Foredoom, Lot Angel DT
x3 Regalia of Far-sight, Clear Angel CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
Grade 1
x2 Cold Blast Regalia, Svalinn
x2 Witch of Strawberries, Framboise
x4 Exorcism Regalia, Shiny Angel
x1 Goddess of Union, Yuno
x3 Purification Regalia, Pure Angel
x2 Ordain Owl
Grade 2
x2 Twilight Regalia, Hesperis
x2 Regalia of Fertility, Freyja
x4 Regalia of Fate, Norn
x3 Midday Regalia, Hemera
x1 Goddess of Trees, Jupiter
Grade 3
x3 Midnight Regalia, Nyx
x4 Cosmic Regalia, CEO Yggdrasil

Second place: Matthew An
Grade 0
x1 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Black-winged Sword Breaker
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x3 Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

News: Phantom Blaster “Abyss” Tops in Hokusetsu CS, Neon Messiah Artwork Debuts on MSN

The second Hokusetsu Vanguard Championship took place in Japan over July 6th, with multiple Shadow Paladin cardfighters playing different variations on Phantom Blaster “Abyss” making the fan tournament's top 8. The 96-person tournament saw a clash between “Abyss” and the current Nova Grappler boss Ultimate Raizer Mega Flare for the tournament finals, with Seeker and Regalia cardfighters taking third and fourth place. While the new Blaster unit's debut was anticipated by the public, prior to Hokusetsu many expectations had shifted to the newly emergent Witch deck within the same clan, and it is to some surprise that Revengers have continued to hold favor.

In a move generally predicted by the rest of the community, Hokusetsu champ Mirutae's “Abyss” deck used the well-established Raging Form Dragon in combination with its Legion grade 3, providing two separate self-standing vanguards each able to attack in the range of 21~22000 power on their second strike. The pairing was debated leading up to the release of EB11: Requiem at Dusk, with many arguing that the slower Mordred Phantom would make for a more decisive turn by building a stronger center lane and rearguard formation. Mirutae's build lacked favor with the three other Revenger fighters of the Hokusetsu top 8, who instead followed up on the concept of integrating existing Phantom support with Legion. Among these fighters was Kimuti of the second Kansai CS, known for pioneering Duo Temptation Reit early after the release of Divas' Duet.

This was not the first appearance of Blaster “Abyss” in professional play either. Shortly before pro cardfighter Tochibi Yuusuke had captained Osaka's champion team in Bushiroad's ongoing 2014 VF Koushien tournament. Unlike the Hokusetsu champion, Tochibi's deck eschewed RFD in favor of splitting its grade 3 count between “Abyss,” Dragruler and Mordred Phantom, cutting the original BDR and Dorint entirely for Lukea and Rakia. By emphasizing Phantom support, the use of Swordbreaker soulblasts and prepping “Abyss” with break ride setup, Tochibi worked to enhance the gravity of his Legion's restanding skill, building up towards a single defining turn to finish the game.

VF Koushien Osaka: 栃尾悠介/Tochibi Yuusuke
Grade 0
x2 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x1 Brunt Revenger, Shadow Lancer
x3 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
x3 Self-control Revenger, Rakia
x2 Black-winged Swordbreaker
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x4 Wiles Revenger, Mana
x3 Overcoming Revenger, Rukea
Grade 3
x3 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
x2 Revenger, Dragruler Phantom
x3 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Registration for Hokusetsu began from 9:30 to 10:30 AM, with on-site registration being carried out from 10:30 to 11:00, and the tournament formally began at 11:10. The tournament opened with four rounds of Swiss draw which lasted until 2:20 PM, followed by a cut to top 8 and ended at 7:30 PM. Like other VGCSs, Hokusetsu followed a best of three format rather than the best of one endorsed by Bushiroad Inc. Rounds were 40 minutes in length prior to top 8, and 50 minutes afterwards. Organized by tomato (sic), kuroneko, Pere and Tawaran, the tournament had an entry fee of 1000 yen (approx. $10) per person, with first place receiving a Nintendo 3DS XL as a prize, second place a standard Nintendo 3DS, and third place six extra booster boxes, three each of Requiem at Dusk and Waltz of the Goddess.

Second place was taken by Minorun with Cat Butler Raizers, third by Nero with a Thing Saver Dragon deck, and fourth by Akiyuki with a combination Yggdrasil and Minerva. Minorun's deck is clearly derived from one of the original Cat Butler decks of the season, Silver Crow's, which debuted back in the second Beast Deity Cup and has served to inspire many imitators. Each of these decklists is translated below and may be jumped to by searching the page for [2HVGCS]

The previous Hokusetsu CS was held last May, and was held in a team tournament format, with Team Wild Hitter's captain Rinon being known for establishing a very early version of the then-new Seeker deck using primarily trial deck cards.

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. The VGCS model of fan-organized play has begun to gain popularity internationally, with the bi-monthly BeNeLux tournaments serving as their European equivalent.

In other news, MSN Japan has uploaded an article on the upcoming movie Cardfight!! Vanguard Neon Messiah, along with a promotional image of the main cast. Cinema Today had previously shown off lineart of antagonist Ibuki Kouji's primary unit for the film, an unnamed Link Joker from the Deleter subclan who will serve as the cover card for the film's trial deck, MTD01: Malefic Deleter. Plot summaries for the film outline Neon Messiah as being set during a global Vanguard tournament known as the "Messiah Scramble," and that protagonist Sendou Aichi will be fighting side by side with his lifelong friend and rival Kai Toshiki. The release date for Neon Messiah is currently set as September 13th.

Careful combing of each site's HTML has revealed higher resolution versions of the lineart and teaser, hosted below. The text off to the side of Ibuki's unit reads "G03" identifying it as a grade 3, but what would presumably be the unit's name appears illegible and attempts at transcription have only yielded nonsense phrases like いづう・ディ・い下り

Second Hokusetsu VGCS [2HVGCS]
First Place: Mirutae/みるたえ
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 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x3 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon

Second place: Minorun/みのるん
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x4 Raizer Crew DT
x4 Meteoraizer CT
x4 Minimum Raizer CT
Grade 1
x4 Shieldraizer
x3 Energy Charger
x4 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x3 Cannon Raizer
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x3 Street Bouncer
Grade 3

x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Third Place: Nero/ネロ

Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x3 Margal DT
x1 Alabaster Owl
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x4 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x2 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x2 Flashing Jewel Knight, Iseult
x1 Glynngal Seeker
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x2 Seeker, Sacred Wingal

Fourth place: Akiyuki/あきゆき
Grade 0
x1 Vivid Rabbit (FV)
x4 Regalia of Benevolence, Eir HT
x3 Regalia of Foredoom, Lot Angel DT
x1 Witch of Lemons, Limoncello CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
x4 Far Sight Regalia, Clear Angel CT
x1 Regalia of Prayer, Pray Angel
Grade 1
x4 Exorcism Regalia, Shiny Angel
x3 Goddess of Union, Juno
x2 Regalia of Purify, Pure Angel
x3 Regalia of Frozen Breath, Svalin
x1 Witch of Strawberries, Framboise
x1 Ordain Owl
Grade 2
x3 Regalia of Abundance, Freya
x3 Regalia of Midday, Hemera
x4 Regalia of Fate, Norn
x1 Goddess of Trees, Jupiter
Grade 3
x4 Cosmic Regalia, CEO Yggdrasil
x1 Omniscience Regalia, Minerva
x2 Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica

News: Extra Booster 11 "Requiem at Dusk" and Extra Booster 12 "Waltz of the Goddess" to Support Shadow Paladin and Genesis, New Witch Cards to be Introduced

Images circulating on Twitter Japan this morning unveiled the next two extra boosters for the Japanese edition of Cardfight!! Vanguard, VG-EB11: Requiem at Dusk (宵闇の鎮魂歌 Yoiyami no Chinkonka, "Requiem of Twilight") and VG-EB12: Waltz of the Goddess (女神の円舞曲 Megami no Enbukyoku, "Goddess' Waltz.") Stated to provide exclusive support for the Shadow Paladin and Genesis clans, and feature cards used by Suzugamori Ren and Tokura Misaki in the TV anime Cardfight!! Vanguard Legion Mate, the extra boosters are confirmed to support the Revenger and Regalia subclans that were introduced last year. In addition, EB11 will introduce a series of Shadow Paladin "jet-black witch" (漆黒の魔女) cards, while EB12 will introduce "snow-white witches" (純白の魔女) for Genesis.

新たな力、漆黒の【魔女】達を集めて新しくヴァンガードをはじめることもできる！
Aratana chikara, shikkoku no majo-tachi wo atsumete atarashiku Vangaado wo hajimerukoto mo dekiru! 

"By collecting the jet-black "Witches" you can use a new power to begin a new kind of Vanguard!"

EB11 and EB12 will be released on June 20th in Japan. Each set will feature 35 cards, 25 new with 10 reprints (3 RRR, 5 RR, 8 R, and 19 C-rarity cards, with 6 Special Parallels containing only 1 reprint and 2 Legion Rares.) Blaster Dark Revenger is popularly believed to be one of the reprints in the set, with alternate artwork derived of the promotional image seen above, and a Legion marker to allow connectivity with the new boss card. There is also a possibility that he will be modified to be closer to Blaster Blade Seeker in skill. The sets are confirmed to include use the Legion mechanic, as was suggested at a previous press conference.