Barcgal to be unrestricted in Japan May 1st, Purple Trapezist restriction August 31st

April 17th, 2018. In a historic moment on today's episode of Weekly Bites Z, Cardfight!! Vanguard producer Shimamura Masatoshi announced that Barcgal will be completely unrestricted in the Japanese format beginning May 1st, allowing cardfighters to set Barcgal as their First Vanguard for the first time since the end of the first Japanese national championships more than seven years ago. Joining him will be Tick Tock Worker and Seven Seas Apprentice Nightrunner; meanwhile Odysseus will be unrestricted from 2 to 4. The change affects both Premium Standard and G Standard formats.

Standard format will not have a restricted list.

Meanwhile Commander Laurel will remain restricted to 1 copy per deck beginning July 20th for Premium Standard, while beginning August 31st, fighters will not be allowed to put both Purple Trapezist and the as-of-yet unrevealed V-BT02 print of Jumping Jill in the same deck. This version of Jumping Jill is said to have a Purple Trapezist-like skill that sends another card into the soul to pull another one out, which would have created an infinite loop with Trapezist. These changes do not affect G Standard.

News: "No Changes" on Japanese Restricted List, Monthly Bushiroad Cup to be Held in June

This morning Bushiroad of Japan issued a formal statement that following consideration of the results of the Fighter's Road 2015 Tokyo regional qualifier at this year's Great Vanguard Festival (held last month), there will be no changes made to the Fighter's Rules for the coming tournament season. This includes the "Additional Rules on the Use of Cards" section, which functions as the game's restricted list. Furthermore, Dragonic Overlord “The X” and Seeker Thing Saver Dragon have both been taken off of the Fighter's Rules watchlist, which up to now listed those cards on the official website as being potentially restricted in the future. No statistics regarding clan usage in FR2015 have been published, but the company's internal data likely parallels latent tournament results in which “The X” was virtually eradicated from tournament play, and Thing Saver's 40% stranglehold on the format broken by an influx of Phantom Blaster “Abyss” decks using “Diablo” support.

【カードの使用に関する追加ルール】について

 大ヴァンガ祭2015で行われた「ファイターズロード2015」の結果を元に協議した結果、【カードの使用に関する追加ルール】に変更はありません。

Regarding "Additional Rules Related to Card Use"

Consulting the results of "Fighter's Road 2015," there will be no changes to the "Additional Rules Related to Card Use."

In January, Bushiroad of Japan had announced Dragon Overlord “The X” and Thing Saver to be under consideration for restriction, after moving Calamity Tower Wyvern and (preemptively) Commander Laurel onto the list. Following Calamity Tower's restriction, a punctuated dropoff in Kagerou usage was observed in tournament play, and Thing Saver Dragon once again rose to dominate professional tournament results. Had the introduction of “Diablo” not given new life to the Revenger deck, Thing Saver would likely find himself restricted by this time.

In other news, Bushiroad made an announcement over the Cardfight!! Vanguard promotional twitter account this morning that the Monthly Bushiroad Cup will be held on June 6th. This team tournament will be held at Sunshine City in Tokyo, and contestants will form three-person teams to compete. As with all Bushiroad tournaments, the competition will have no entry free. All participants that stay until the closing ceremony will receive a copy of the promotional card Fiercebau, and first through third place will receive special gifts in that month's issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine as well as specially made Fighter's Medals commemorating the tournament. The winning team will be featured in July's issue of Monthly Bushiroad. The tournament will follow a double elimination format, with each game between individual cardfighters being best-of-one and lasting no more than 20 minutes each. The Monthly Bushiroad Cup is expected to last between two and four rounds, concluding within two hours of its start time.

The Cup was was likely designed as a vanity tournament to push the magazine's brand, as Sunshine City is a high traffic entertainment center with strong exposure to the general public. The tournament will be held inside Exhibition Hall C, which is the third most expensive space to rent in the building; unit prices on the hall exceed $16000 per day.

Sunshine City, third floor, Exhibition Hall C. Original image provided by Sunshine City.

News: Thing Saver and “The X” May See Restriction, Calamity Tower and Laurel Hit

At 3:00 AM this morning the Japanese side of Twitter blew up with the sudden leak of Bushiroad's February-on restricted list. A paper copy of the list circulated to card shops was photographed, forcing Bushiroad to immediately update the Japanese Fighter's Rules. The list, which will take effect on February 14th, restates Cat Butler's restriction from August 2014, Conroe's from February of that year, and Barcgal's from September 2011. But in addition to these, the list adds two new cards to Cardfight!!'s rogues' gallery, and suggests that more are to come. These changes to the Japanese restricted list reflect recent developments in the Japanese national tournament scene and VGCS tournaments.

The first addition to the restricted list is Calamity Tower Wyvern, one of Kagerou's supporting grade 1s. Calamity Tower is a type of card that many clans have access to, what would otherwise be an innocuous Luck Bird clone. Calamity Tower has been a staple of Kagerou decks since the Nouvelle Vague days, primarily for his draw skill. But when used in combination with the new Kagerou favorite of the day, Dragonic Overlord  “The X,” Tower has proved dangerous. His soulblast 2 helps rapidly accelerate the drop zone while building card advantage, making legion possibly at earlier stages of the game. In exchange for his low base power compared to Gojo, Calamity Tower both gives real card advantage and can be used as a booster, which snowballs with “The X's” other characteristics. On February 14th, Calamity will be restricted to two copies per deck.

The second addition is Commander Laurel, whose restriction will be delayed until March 2nd, just eleven days before the Japanese release of G-EB01: Roar of the Universe. Laurel is a unique card for Dimension Police that has historically been one of their marquee cards, but which may become problematic in light of stride. By resting four rearguards when the vanguard's attack hits, Laurel can stand it, ordinarily giving a +2 in card advantage and additional drive checks in exchange for only getting two attacks per turn instead of three. With Dimension Police receiving three new strides in Roar of the Universe, Laurel is now a suspect card because when his skill is used with the stride units' triple drive it allows for exponentially more drive checks and a +3 overall. Six drive checks in a turn is equivalent to three vanguard attacks, comparable to a break ridden Dragonic Overlord “The Яe-birth” and Thing Saver Dragon's double restand. Laurel will be the first card to be restricted to one copy per deck. Past cards Dragonic Overlord the End and Majesty Lord Blaster have been restricted to two copies in combination with other units, but never to a single copy under no other conditions.

Finally, Bushiroad has announced that their research and development staff are investigating the possibility of placing restrictions on Dragonic Overlord “The X” and Thing Saver Dragon. “The X” and Thing Saver have earned a reputation as the optimal restanding vanguards of the Japanese format, having dominated tournament results since the release dates of G-BT02: Generation Stride and BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades. Both cards have been instrumental in the 2014 winter and summer national championships, and have been leading decks in the fan-run Vanguard Championships. The reason for the company's hesitation is likely that the actual number of “The X” cardfighters participating has been lower than past top decks, despite its continual success. At the Sakura VGCS “The X” accounted for 27% of all decks played, while at the Machida CS the top decks were Royal Paladin and Oracle Think Tank with no Kagerou fighters in sight.

Perhaps the most damning evidence against “The X” is that at the second YVGCS team tournament Kagerou held a one-quarter majority over the top eight teams (24 cardfighters), with six of the top eight having one Kagerou fighter on their team. But with Royal Paladin and Nova Grappler being played at similar levels, and bearing in mind that only last November Phantom Blaster “Abyss” was consistently covering 31~33% of all tournament entries, these are hardly conclusive numbers. While last August's Thing Saver crisis saw the Royal Paladin deck only reaching about 20~26% distribution in each individual tournament, it was only because of repeated tops in more than ten separate tournaments and in the regional qualifiers that a definitive picture of it as the dominant deck could be painted. By comparison “The X” has only been playable since December 5th, barely more than a month, and this gives relatively little data to work. From lower overall participation numbers it can be argued that “The X” is topping as a result of skilled cardfighters adopting the deck rather than as a result of “The X” being a poorly balanced card. Restricting it would thus be tantamount to restricting whatever the most skilled fighters are playing, forcing them to buy different grade 3 options--scalping the top cardfighters in the game and alienating an important part of the player base.

Notably another infamous deck, Phantom Blaster “Abyss,” is not being considered for restriction. While not long ago “Abyss” was one of the most prolific Japanese decks surpassing Thing Saver, in the past two months he has seen a considerable drop in popularity compared to his contemporaries. Unlike in the example of Seeker and Kagerou decks though, restricting Phantom Blaster “Abyss” would also leave Revenger cardfighters with no legion option outside of Ambitious Spirit Revenger Cormack, forcing them to either play at least one limit break grade 3 until G-BT03 or quit Revengers entirely. The restriction of Thing Saver and “The X” would almost certainly bring “Abyss” back to the fore by eliminating his primary competition, which brings a question into play of whether there would be more or less diversity as a result of these restrictions. Whether or not one, both or neither cards needs to be hit in order to equalize the playing field for as many clans as possible is difficult to answer.

News: Fighter's Rules Kill Thing Saver-“Abyss” for the End of September, Modified Legion Ruling

The Fighter's Rules for the Japanese format were amended earlier today, modifying a portion of the standard Clan Fight ruleset that has been in place since January 2012; beginning on September 29, Royal Paladin cardfighters may no longer include up to ten Shadow Paladin cards in their decks. Instead, they may only include up to four copies of Blaster Dark. (BD variants "Blaster Dark Spirit," "Blaster Dark Revenger" and "Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”" are not acceptable.) The original ruling was made in order to promote the use of Majesty Lord Blaster in clan-restricted formats back when the deck debuted, as MLB is one of the few decks which is designed around mixing clans by using both Royal and Shadow Paladin cards, but of late the ruling has seen mass exploitation as an easy way of building up enough soul for Seeker decks to restand their core boss card, Thing Saver Dragon, twice in a turn. At the head of Thing Saver-“Abyss'” popularity the deck topped in five consecutive tournaments, and at the end of August was used by pro cardfighter Hayashi Hiroki to win the summer 2014 Japanese national championships.

This new rule is subject to some criticism, as it prevents Majesty Lord Blaster cardfighters from using other Shadow Paladin cards which support it. Past Majesty decks have made use of Apocalypse Bat and Blaster Javelin from the Shadow Paladin clan, cards which would no longer be permitted under the new ruling. However, Majesty Lord is generally considered irrelevant in the present format when compared to Royal Paladin's modern deck options, so while the principles of the rule may clash with the intent of giving fighters the freedom to play MLB, in practice few will be affected by it. The primary concern is for Seeker cardfighters, who will have to return to playing Sacred Wingal or Brutus as Thing Saver's alternative grade 3. Given the deck's overwhelming success prior to the discovery of “Abyss” however, it is unlikely that pure TSD's stranglehold on the format will be broken.

Also pressing is that the Fighter's Rules have changed the behavior of Legion. Originally, a vanguard which entered Legion through card effects (in the case of TSD's superior Legion from the soul, and in the Metalborgs' example of superior riding into a Legion) was still able to activate its Legion effect if it had not already, and return four cards to the deck. While this would not seek the Legion's mate, it would recycle trigger units and cards with the Sentinel skill, and help to prevent decking out in the slower format. The new ruling prevents cards which are already in Legion from activating their Legion altogether, dealing a further blow to TSD. It will be implemented by modifying Legion skill text to state "If this unit is not in Legion, and if your opponent has a grade 3 vanguard..."

News: Cat Butler to be Restricted on the 18th, Dragonic Descendant Removed from List

The official cf-vanguard webportal updated this morning to reflect new changes made to the Japanese restricted list. After several months of play in the current Raizer deck, the grade 0 Cat Butler has been restricted to being played at a maximum of two copies, limiting how consistently its skill can be pulled off. Meanwhile the once-infamous Dragonic Descendant has been taken off the list, after being restricted to two for the past year. Lizard Soldier Conroe and Barcgal remain restricted from being placed as the first vanguard. The new restrictions will take effect on August 18th.

Cat Butler has gained infamy internationally for making every Raizer Legion a restanding vanguard with a positive exchange in card advantage, retiring Butler to drive check an additional two cards. This has proven deadly in combination with their core grade 3, Ultimate Raizer Mega Flare. MF's extra critical encourages the opponent to guard it at all costs, and Cat Butler's skill only activates when the vanguard's attack does not hit, creating a consistent combo wherein the opponent is forced to accept multiple vanguard attacks rather than risk potentially game-ending damage.

Butler's restriction coincides with recent modifications made to the list for the English-language format, bringing changes instituted in Japan back during the height of Dragonic Nouvelle Vague's popularity.

Although the modification has answered the general dominance of Cat Butler Raizers, observant fighters have noted that the new restricted list does not address the rise of Thing Saver-Phantom Blaster “Abyss,” which has just recently come to prominence in the Japanese pro scene as a powerful hybrid deck.

News: Conroe Restricted for English Format

The English Vanguard portal just updated moments ago to reflect a change in the official Fighter's Rules governing Bushiroad-sponsored tournament play. Effective on August 20, all prints of Lizard Soldier Conroe are restricted from being used as the first vanguard in English tournament play. As with his predecessor on the restricted list, Barcgal, up to four copies of Conroe may still be included in any deck, but he may not be set as the grade 0 to begin the game with. This is the first modification made to the English-language restricted list since July 2012; while some discussion arose in the community over the possibility of Dragonic Overlord the End finding a place on the list last year, nothing ultimately came of this.

Restricting Conroe for the English-language format emulates an identical restriction made by Bushiroad of Japan in January. By eliminating Conroe from the vanguard circle, part of Nouvelle's central engine has been cut out. One of the supporting reasons that it has been so easy for Kagerou cardfighters to treat Nouvelle Vague as simply another grade 3 in the deck is that Conroe's counterblast allows his cardfighter to search for Nouvelleroman Dragon, who in turn can then return a copy of Nouvelle from the hand to the deck to search for Kagerou's grade 3 break ride. Effectively drawing a grade 4 becomes the same as drawing a grade 3, almost entirely eliminating the risk factor of playing Nouvelle and giving the deck an inordinate amount of consistency relative to its reward.

Removing Conroe makes it harder for Kagerou fighters to dominate above and beyond the other decks of the format, and bumps up the clan's grade 3 searcher Red Pulse Dracokid into becoming their go-to FVG. In order to both capitalize on the extra soul available from using Red Pulse's skill and compensate for no longer being able to search for any grade 1, most Japanese cardfighters adapted their decks with additional copies of Calamity Tower Wyvern, a Luckbird clone that when called can soulblast 2 to draw a card. English-speaking fighters are expected to follow suit, and this adaptation is important because it makes Dragonic Nouvelle Vague's persona blast much more difficult to activate. The persona blast requires three soul to use, so by encouraging multiple Calamity Tower calls the post-restriction format also puts a heavier limitation on Nouvelle's limit break--which can completely destroy every rearguard on the opponent's field. This helps to mitigate the grade 4's intense control of the game.

While Bushiroad USA attributed the restriction to the Team League 2014 results, it was likely also made with an eye to the recently announced World Championship 2014. The restriction encourages cardfighters who left the game as a result of Nouvelle's dominance to return to it, and promotes a lower bar of entry for newcomers, who already face an overwhelming number of professional decks to learn and keep track of.

News: Conroe to be Restricted for February, Tsukuyomi & Majesty to Return, Almeida Stewart's World Championship Decklist Made Public

The Japanese restricted list was revised Tuesday, with a somewhat surprising addition made in Lizard Soldier Conroe; widely respected as Kagerou's most optimal first vanguard since his release three years ago in BT01: Descent of the King of Knights, Conroe is now the first card since Barcgal to be banned from being set as the first vanguard. Like Barcgal, Conroe can still be included within the deck, but is now of limited use because he cannot be played to open the game. Unlike with Barcgal, many cardfighters saw this restriction coming.

Conroe had previously spent a tournament season on the list but in a different capacity, limited to two copies in combination with Dragonic Overlord the End. Done to put down the DOTE deck after an extended term of prolonged dominance, the world was surprised when both cards were taken off the list despite the release of Dauntless Drive Dragon as DOTE's new supporting grade 3. Initial Dauntless mania cooled with the continued dominance of the Eradicators in the format, but this new decision has come about with likely inspiration from the results of the Fighter's Climax 2013 national tournament. Divided between the open class and junior divisions, six pros made waves with powerful Nouvelle Vague decks whose overwhelming success would not have been possible without Conroe to fix their grade ratios. The common feature of all Nouvelle decks used in competitive play thus far is running 4 grade 3s and 4 grade 4s--functionally equivalent to running 8 grade 3s, and only playable in this way because Conroe's search skill can be used to target the grade 1 Nouvelle Roman Dragon, whose on-call skill sends Nouvelle into the deck to search for a grade 3. In this way, all copies of Nouvelle automatically become grade 3s purely on the basis that Conroe can instantly fetch Roman for a single counterblast, and this is almost a guaranteed move with the rise of Link Joker and subsequent diminished presence of retire skill first vanguards like Linchu and Terrycloth.

This searchability also allows Dauntless Drive Dragon and Cruel Dragon to be run in unnaturally low numbers in the Nouvelle deck and still be consistently fetched, most commonly at 2-2 as done by Sen Hayato, Matsushita Daisuke and junior cardfighter Matsushita Shunji. The ability to use Nouvelle with effectively normal grade ratios is probably not an intended part of the card's design. By cutting Conroe out from organized play, Bushiroad is taking a cautionary measure that diminishes Nouvelle's effectiveness without completely destroying the deck entirely, making Nouvelle Roman a chance-based draw and forcing Kagerou cardfighters to modify their grade ratios in order to use the same kinds of grade 3s. Reinforcing the Barcgal comparison in 2011, this has taken an exceptionally consistent deck and bumped it back down to level with its contemporaries. Restricting Conroe has also resolved an issue that has plagued Kagerou from the beginning; his search skill has discouraged diverse deckbuilding by prematurely making other first vanguards for Kagerou obsolete, even in Seal Dragon builds.

A similarly surprising change is the return of Goddess of the Full Moon Tsukuyomi and Majesty Lord Blaster, whose deckbuilds had dominated alongside DOTE in 2012. For Tsukuyomi, the nail in her coffin was the ability to run the Goddess at four copies as her build's only grade 3, and Japanese cardfighters cultivating a play style of deliberately accepting gradelock in order to avoid riding non-Tsukuyomi cards, so that Goddess of the Crescent Moon's soulcharge 2 would be guaranteed, and the freed up deck space could be used for maximum copies of Oracle Guardian Red-Eye without sacrificing space given to Silent Tom or Mocha. In this way Tsukuyomi could consistently reach grade 3, reach 6 soul with support units like Red-Eye and Kaguya, make multiple gains in card advantage through free superior rides along with Tsukuyomi's draw skill and Luck Birds to make use of the extra soul, and stack the deck up to 20~25 cards through gradelock instead of being hardcapped at a maximum of 15. Meanwhile Majesty Lord Blaster was able to set up a consistent 12000 base defense on turn 3 along with a permanent extra critical and three rows of 21000+ lines with Toypugal, Bedivere and Palamedes. While Majesty may not have aged well compared to Tsukuyomi, even while restricted he was periodically seen popping up throughout 2013 in VGCS tournaments and in Fighter's Climax, so both decks are likely to find their place in the February-on format. Eradicator Dragonic Descendant has remained restricted to 2 copies, making him the only card to still be restricted in this way. Ultimately the restricted list has diminished with time rather than grown larger as in other TCGs.

Finally, the decklists from the 2013 World Championship have been released, including reigning world champion Almeida Stewart's Dauntless DOTE deck. As an update over the previous story, there were actually ten participants in the championship rather than nine. Presumably to prevent anyone from having a bye, Bushiroad injected a Japanese cardfighter with an English-language Eradicator deck into the tournament; the identity of this mystery fighter is presently unclear, but a best guess is a representative from the Fighter's Climax national tournament that was taking place on the same day.

1/25/2014 Update: A source within Bushiroad international has explained the fighter's identity. The tenth cardfighter is Nakajima Yuu, the Japanese champion for English edition Cardfight!! Vanguard. Nakajima's presence in the world championship finals was previously overlooked due to a rule in the 2013 World Championships that differed from WCS2012, which allowed for the Japanese champion to participate directly in the finals without having to make first place in the Asia-Oceania continental qualifier. In the previous year the Japanese champion still had to place within the top 3 at the AO tournament to be in the finals, but because the Japanese route to the finals for 2013 was separate from the rest of Asia's, Nakajima was not noticed. We apologize for the gap in our coverage.

2012 world champion Brandon Smith issued a public congratulations to Stewart and the other competitors via the official Cardfight!! Vanguard USA Facebook page, expressing anticipation to one day play against the new champion and see the competitors return for 2014. Breakdowns of the top 4 decklists from WCS2013 can be viewed below, with general descriptions of their strategies and play styles.

Almeida Stewart: Black BBC

Grade 0

x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FV)

x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT

x4 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT

x2 Gattling Claw Dragon DT

x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT

x1 Blue Ray Dracokid CT

x1 Seal Dragon, Biella CT

Grade 1

x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri

x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo

x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr

x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo

x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey

Grade 2

x2 Berserk Dragon

x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem

x3 Burning Horn Dragon

x1 Bellicosity Dragon

Grade 3

x4 Dragonic Overlord the End

x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon

Stewart's decklist is a modification of his favored 8-draw build for DOTE, using 6 draw triggers and multiple types of critical triggers to give the appearance of running more criticals than in reality. There are some notable similarities to Albert Lee's old Dauntless DOTE build in using 2 Gojo and 4 Kersey to cycle those draw triggers after they've been checked, but Stewart made the wiser choice in playing Conroe to be able to tech Aermo as a vanguard booster and go through his cards more consistently. The deck is notably light on Berserk Dragon, as most Kagerou cardfighters play him at 4 not for the sake of using that much counterblast but instead to consistently draw the card. The builds' main goal is to break ride over Dauntless with The End, leaving the opponent in a world of poor decisions if they're at more than 3 damage. The most optimal way to deal with the play is to no-guard it, but if this isn't an option then Dauntless' break ride skill will stand The End, allowing it to swing again and bring the situation back at the opponent. No-guarding makes an opening for Stewart to use the persona blast to stand and attack again, which differs from Dauntless' stand skill in increasing advantage rather than decreasing, but the main point is that Dauntless DOTE will always make two 21000+ power swings with the ability to go for up to three attacks total if the opponent's hand is low, but the persona blast in this scenario only recoups the -1 of break riding rather than actually giving a +1 as it did in previous months and the danger of the Dauntless build comes entirely from its four drive checks.

The biggest hole in the deck is that once that initial DOTE break ride turn is over, there's nothing left afterward. Generally all of the counterblast is used up by then, additional attacks aren't going to hit for the persona blast even when there is open damage, and more break rides aren't going to come after DOTE hits the field. Thus, the deck has to win many turns before it actually drives the opponent to 6 damage, by taking out a large part of the opponent's hand. This can be answered by doing successive Dauntless into Dauntless break rides, but because of DOTE's need to save up multiple grade 3s for both the break ride and persona blast, and the deck not actually grabbing up a huge amount of advantage despite cycling through a lot of cards per game, this isn't always practical. Stewart's deck is effective, but its primary trait is getting inside the opponent's head during break ride turns.

Albert Lee: Gundam

Grade 0

x1 Beast Deity, Riot Horn (FV)

x4 Ring Girl, Clara HT

x2 Three Minutes DT

x4 The Gong DT

x4 Red Lightning CT

x2 Shining Lady CT

Grade 1

x4 Twin Blader

x4 Clay-doll Mechanic

x1 Toolkit Boy

x4 Beast Deity, Scarlet Bird

Grade 2

x3 Magician Girl, Kirara

x4 Beast Deity, Golden Anglet

x4 Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos

Grade 3

x4 Beast Deity, Azure Dragon

x4 Ultra Beast Deity, Illuminal Dragon

x1 Beast Deity, Ethics Buster

Lee made some interesting choices when compared to the other noted Beast Deity cardfighter of the time, Sebastian LeBon; both fighters recognized the value of 6 draw with 6 critical in the Illuminal deck, due in part to Nova Grappler's minimal ways to grab up card advantage and lack of deck searching. When presented with more options than LeBon though, Lee still valued Azure Dragon more than Ethics Buster, setting up consistent crossride defense--normally ineffective in BT10-on, but with a very positive Descendant matchup due to the general reliance on Rising Phoenix in that build, tendency to run low on boosting units and the weakness of Descendant's unboosted 11000 swing vs a single 10000 shield on 13000 defense. However, Lee eschewed Black Tortoise in favor of Kirara but still considered Scarlet Bird playable as a pressure attacker and 18000 line with Hatred Chaos, where most others run Blank Marsh.

Toolkit Boy is an unusual tech, considering many cardfighters don't even know what the card does. Although at 1 it's far from guaranteed, Toolkit can unflip a damage when he boosts the vanguard and the attack hits the opponent's, which gives him a lot of synergy with Kirara's counterblast 2 and Illuminal Dragon's counterblast 3. There are also more opportunities to play him in the Eradicator matchup, where sacrificing the vanguard booster to Gauntlet is a typical play if it's something like Clay-doll or a draw trigger. Lee's general idea is to wear the opponent's hand down with Scarlet Bird and Kirara, draw cards when her attack finally goes through, then unflip counterblast with Clay-doll and Toolkit, and set up an Ethics break ride into either Azure for a persona blast to have two standing rearguards or into Illuminal for a counterblast 3 to stand the entire field, getting five attacks in either way while keeping flipped damage low so that Illuminal can go off twice. This variation is versatile and its techs are set up so that drawing one card can be beneficial by warping the entire strategy in a new direction, but without necessarily building the entire deck around the break ride. Not running Blank Marsh is the most unusual choice, but arguably a very good one. Marsh has specific combos with Golden Anglet and Hatred Chaos, but is much stronger late-game when the opponent is at 4 damage and willing to accept one more to conserve shield, and because of the problem of getting boosters set up consistently it's not typical to use him more than one per game in the first place.

Adwin Leong: FTW

Grade 0

x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)

x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT

x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT

x4 Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT

Grade 1

x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guldx3 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon

x2 Rising Phoenix

x3 Ceremonial Bonfire Eradicator, Castor

x3 Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki

Grade 2

x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon

x3 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan

x3 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou

Grade 3

x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon

x3 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant

x2 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
Leong's deckbuild is a combination of snowballing skills. Originally, Spark Kid Dragoon was the favored first vanguard for Narukami and has remained so in Japan, but internationally his main competition in Linchu has been adopted for the Eradicator deck. Linchu works like Saishin from the previous format, but to compensate for being dependent on the Eradicators he can also retire grade 1s, which can be instrumental in punishing early game attacks to control how the opponent plays in addition to countering first vanguards as before. In that way Linchu expresses a different kind of pressure, discouraging the opponent from making two or more attacks in the first turn as is so common in BT10-on with the prevalence of Kay clones, but it's also easy to bait just by leaving the first vanguard exposed without calling other units to deliberately goad the Eradicator fighter to use Linchu as early as possible. Since Linchu is lost to destroy the opponent's card, it's not truly a gain in advantage, but can create one by helping Leong conserve cards that would have been used to defend. Rising Phoenix also recoups the loss from putting Linchu back in, and combos with Cho-Ou's retire skill, which can even be used with Linchu as the cost to effectively reach grade 2s and 3s using the first vanguard. This all ties back to Gauntlet Buster Dragon, effectively the deck's midgame limit break that attacks with an extra critical for each card retired, commonly swinging for 3 damage when the opponent is at 3 and would otherwise guard the attack to clear out early perfect defense cards. Arguably the biggest flaw in Leong's build is that Gauntlet is only at 2, when there's a case to be made that the card has a bigger overall impact on the game than Vowing and takes precedence for bringing the opponent to higher damage faster to let Descendant tag in.

Dragonic Descendant is what will likely get the most attention. Commonly identified as the main axis around which the Narukami deck is based, like Stewart's Dauntless, Descendant relies on making multiple attacks with the vanguard line, but is able to do it over multiple turns for counterblast 1 discard 3 and swing with an extra critical the second time. The cost is technically more expensive than Dauntless but less so than The End, and can only be done if the attack does not pass through. Descendant's other skill lets it get +5000 power for 2 counterblast, making use of untouched resources if Gauntlet isn't drawn in the game and attack without a booster, and because neither attack can get through when the opponent is at 4~5 damage it means that at least the first attack has to be guarded no-pass due to all triggers automatically going to Descendant. The opponent is put into a very difficult situation, one which sometimes compels fighters to declare no guard at 4 damage simply to bypass the scenario altogether, but it can also be avoided by staying at lower damage for much of the fight and is offset by the Eradicators being a low advantage build that has trouble setting up its boosters and taking a -1 each time Descendant stands with its once-per-turn limit break. The result is that if Descendant doesn't end the game on his limit break, then the game ends next turn. Eradicator plays can also typically be seen coming a mile off due to the most optimal decisions being built into the cards, which means that after fighting one Descendant-Gauntlet, you have fought all Descendant-Gauntlets.

Kevin Lang: Made in England, God Save the Queen

Grade 0

x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)
x4 Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo HT

x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT

x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT

x4 Sacred Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT

Grade 1

x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld

x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon

x2 Rising Phoenix

x3 Steel-blooded Eradicator, Shuki

x2 Eradicator of Fire, Kohkaiji

Grade 2

x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon

x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou

x3 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan

Grade 3

x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon

x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant

x2 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon

Kevin Lang's Eradicator build differs from Leong's mainly in the use of Kohkaiji over Castor, a debate that also took place in Japan. Uemura Shouhei solidified the definitive Descendant-Gauntlet build over there with Castor, whose card changing skill proved extremely potent in the early game and following Gauntlet's limit break, but Kohkaiji isn't entirely without merit. The skill is essentially the same as Photon Bomber Wyvern but for the Eradicators, pumping the vanguard up by +10000 instead of +6000 when the opponent has 3 or more damage in the damage zone, but differs in how it interacts with the card pool. Kohkaiji becomes a very strange pressure unit in that he effectively prevents the opponent from defending early to midgame as one would like to in the Eradicator matchup if they do not guard the attack immediately preceding Gauntlet/Descendant's. All defending decisions must be made before the vanguard strikes; if Gauntlet has an increased critical and perfect defense will be dropped early to absolutely prevent it from going through, then it's natural that the previous rearguard attack will be allowed to hit since the vanguard line's power is functionally meaningless versus defense, but if the attack is to be allowed in then the rearguard must be defended to stay at 2 damage. Kohkaiji's effect on the game is more important with Descendant later on, since the card will swing for 21~31000 after the boost, so when Descendant makes his initial attack he'll often go unboosted to make the second blow go for exponentially higher power.

Lang ironically ran Dragonic Descendant at just 2 copies. As described above, this is what that card is currently limited to in Japan, but not on the world stage. This goes a ways towards demonstrating the diminished impact of the restricted list on the Eradicators, and their nature as a combo deck that bases itself on each card individually being able to make or break a clan, but it can also be construed as one of the contributing reasons that Lang's build is in fourth.

Rumor: World Championship 2013 Locations, Restricted List Will Not be Modified for WCS2013, Ride to Victory to See International Release

Updated 7/10/2013: Bushiroad USA has confirmed much of the information below.
Cardfighters that attended day 2 of Bushiroad's Anime Expo 2013 event have leaked information on the upcoming WCS2013 international tournament, confirmed since February but now with concrete dates and locations provided. This information is being attributed to Bushiroad's general manager for the Cardfight!! Vanguard USA Facebook page "Doctor K" J-Kim, who was hosting a Q&A panel that day.

WCS2013 will be taking place in December 2013, with the North American national championship taking place earlier on, in November. Seven qualifier locations have been put out so far;

1. Dallas, Texas - September
2. Chicago, Illinois - September 15th
3. Hawaii (exact city to be announced) - September
4. Seattle, Washington - September
5. New York, New York - September
6. Atlanta, Georgia - October 13th
7. Los Angeles, California - November

Additionally, Los Angeles is speculated to be the location of the championship finals. The location list suggests that this will be in the same format of WCS2012, with cardfighters attending each qualifier independently and the top two of each tournament going on to the finals, rather than using the Challenge Cup format of qualifying at a shop before going to a qualifier. While this information has not been confirmed by Bushiroad, it is considered very likely to be accurate based on the source attributed and the timing of the AX2013 event.

While there was some discussion that the English format restricted list may be modified to be closer to Japan's January 2013 list following the Challenge Cup, as Dragonic Overlord The End accounted for five of the top eight decks used in the Challenge Cup finals, according to this AX leak the restricted list will not be modified prior to the WCS2013 regional qualifiers. Furthermore, the reason for the sudden flurry of releases in English from EB04 through BT11 is because Bushiroad is moving towards simultaneous English and Japanese releases for Cardfight!! Vanguard. Simultaneous release appears to be becoming Bushiroad's default policy following the announcement of the Future Card Buddyfight franchise, and this direction will support Bushiroad's overall goal of creating a competitive environment more similar to Weiss Schwarz so that even underrated and unpopular clans will be able to do well, making favorites more practical.

Doctor K also alluded that official tagfight tournaments and an English release of the Nintendo 3DS Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG simulator, Cardfight!! Vanguard Ride to Victory!! are both being considered by Bushiroad's Japanese and international branches. Fighters have been anxious for the game's international release ever since it was first announced, and Bushiroad has appeared responsive, replying to inquiries about the game through Facebook and uploading videos of the game for those that are eager for it to be distributed in other regions.

(via Trigger Capital)

News: May Vanguard Championship Results, Eradicators Stay Strong in Face of Restricted List, Celestials Reach Top 16

The results of the most recent Vanguard Championship have come in, opening the month of May with a look at how the new restricted list will affect the format. As a preemptive measure, this VGCS event adopted the May 11 restrictions before they will actually take effect later this week. This time being held in the Hachiouji Civic Center in Hachiouji, Tokyo, the event drew 114 participants. Pairings were put together using the Swiss system, with the opening rounds conducted over the course of 20 minutes; 50 minutes were allotted for a best of 3 format among the top 16 fighters. Unlike in the previous tournament, matches were not recorded on camera.

The VGCS tournaments are a line of unofficial, amateur tournaments organized by fans and card shops and coordinated through the internet. The tournament environment is fiercely competitive, and unlike in Bushiroad's official tournaments, it's customary for participants to compete under pseudonyms and internet handles rather than using their real names.

First place was taken by Tonkatsu ("Pork Cutlet") and his restricted Dragonic Descendant deck, displaying greater break ride synergy and the integration of cards from BT11 to overcome the deck's more limited capabilities. Second went to Gaga's Liberator build, with third and fourth places going to other, almost-identical Descendant decks. Surprisingly, Dragonic Overlord The End did not do as well as predicted within the tournament, only placing within the top 16 and being ousted from the best 8 by CoCo-Cookie Oracle Think Tank decks, and Blockade Inferno was likewise low on the list. Majesty Lord Blaster has continued to maintain a competitive presence, penetrating into the top 16 with decks that use five and three grade 3s respectively. The most interesting development is the presence of a Celestial deck within the top 16, as Angel Feather has never been one of the top competitive clans, so its steady emergence into the height of amateur play may prove promising for how the world of professional cardfighters approaches it in the new format.

Of the clans participating in the tournament, there were 31 Narukami, 19 Kagerou, 15 Royal Paladin, 14 Oracle Think Tank, 7 Gold Paladin, 7 Angel Feather, 6 Genesis, 5 Tachikaze, 5 Aqua Force, 1 Bermuda Triangle, 1 Pale Moon, 1 Spike Brothers, 1 Neo Nectar, and 1 Shadow Paladin decks. First place received a Nintendo 3DS LL along with a copy of Cardfight!! Vanguard Ride to Victory. Second place won a regular 3DS, third two boxes of VG-BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed and fourth one box of BT11. Fifth through eighth places received a box of VG-EB06: Dazzling Divas.

First Place
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FV)
x4 Eradicator Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
x3 Eradicator Dragon Mage DT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x1 Spark Edge Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x3 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x3 Rising Phoenix
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x4 Dragonic Deathscythe
x3 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-Ou
Grade 3
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant

Second Place
Grade 0
x1 Spring Breeze Messenger (FV)
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Curved Blade Liberator, Yoseph
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
x2 Silver Fang Witch
Grade 2
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x4 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
x4 Blaster Blade Liberator
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Top 16 Celestial Deck
Grade 0
x1 First Aid Celestial, Penuel (FV)
x4 Celestial, Landing Pegasus DT
x4 Punishment Celestial, Shemhazai CT
x4 Healing Celestial, Ramiel CT
x2 Rampage Cart Angel CT
x1 Critical Hit Angel CT
x1 Rocket Dash Unicorn CT
Grade 1
x4 Adamantine Celestial, Aniel
x3 Marking Celestial, Arabaki
x3 Underlay Celestial, Hesediel
x3 Order Celestial, Yeqon
x2 Battle Cupid, Nociel
Grade 2
x4 Wildshot Celestial, Raquel
x4 Candle Celestial, Sariel
x3 Essence Celestial, Becca
Grade 3
x4 Solidify Celestial, Zerachiel
x3 Prophecy Celestial, Remiel

News: May 11th Restricted List Brings Back the End, Dragonic Descendant Restricted

Updated May 4th, 2013: Bushiroad has issued a statement through their official blog that the below restrictions were made due to more than 50% of the top decks in the Asia Circuit Memorial Tournament, Fighter's Cup and Fight Royale 2013 having used Dragonic Descendant, while the cards that were unrestricted did not appear in great numbers within the top 16 of the Royale. The Royale operated under special rules in which the Fighter's Rule restricted list did not apply; it can be inferred from these statements that Majesty Lord Blaster and Tsukuyomi did have such a presence justifying their continued restriction. It has been stated that Descendant was added to "prevent the deck builds from heading towards only one direction".

Heads turned this morning as Bushiroad put out its new restricted list, effective May 11th 2013. Stated by Doctor O to "provide a more interesting fight environment," the list will bring sweeping changes to professional play just five months after its predecessor. According to the new list, Eradicator Dragonic Descendant, Majesty Lord Blaster and Goddess of the Full Moon Tsukuyomi have all been restricted to a maximum of two copies per deck in any combination. As with all previous lists, Barcgal cannot be set as the first vanguard. The previous list that took effect four months prior will be annulled by the new one, meaning that Tsukuyomi may now be run at 2 copies instead of just 1, the original Alfred and Wingal Brave may be used freely among other cards on the list, and most alarmingly of all, Dragonic Overlord The End has been completely opened up for free use once again.

The news is shocking to many because The End is generally regarded as the most controversial card in the history of the game, surpassing even Barcgal in notoriety for his enduring versatility as a self-standing vanguard and for still having a deck of his own with the previous restricted list, due to Dauntless Drive Dragon being such an effective support card in his restricted incarnation. Dauntless' break ride skill lets any Kagerou ridden over him stand again by discarding three cards after an attack, if it has not stood already in that turn. While crossriding The End was impractical in Dauntless because of the hard setup of the break ride, it is now once again possible for fighters to have a consistent 13000 power base on their self-standing vanguard. Bushiroad may have decided to free up The End precisely because of the break ride's valuable support, as many fighters now feel compelled to run Dauntless instead of the original Overlord.

Most telling of all is Descendant's presence on the list. This is very clearly a reaction to the results of the Asia Circuit Memorial Tournaments, where Descendant dominated as the new pro deck of choice. Like The End--and in the English format, Spectral Duke Dragon--Descendant's great strength is his self-standing skill, which in this incarnation can only be activated when his attack did not hit, and gives him an extra critical to ensure that if the first attack is guarded, so must the second.

Previously the list had only been modified once per year, with the September 5th restriction (announced August 3rd) of 2011 putting Barcgal behind bars, and the January 1st list (announced December 10, 2012) of 2013 putting an end to The End, as well as the Tsukuyomi and Majesty Lord Blaster decks that had dominated for the entire year up to that point. This is the most rapidfire response Bushiroad has ever made. While some appreciate the swift reaction to the change in format, others consider the sudden change a sign of instability and more cynically, an artificial incentive to compel fighters to buy BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed, a booster set that was just released in Japan five days ago and contains the aforementioned Dauntless Drive Dragon as well as new Narukami units. Along with the Electric Shaper Dragon break ride from the upcoming Fighter's Collection 2013 extra booster, Sweep Command Dragon from BT11 is predicted to succeed Descendant as the new Narukami deck of choice, this time focusing on completely wiping out the opponent's field rather than on standing the vanguard.

News: Bushiroad Announces Unrestricted Tournament, "Planet Cray Total War"

Bushiroad Japan has just announced their first unrestricted tournament, Planet Cray Total War. Set to take place in March of 2013, the Total War is being advertised as a national-scale tournament which completely abandons the restricted list recently updated. For the duration of the tournament, the just-restricted Dragonic Overlord The End and Majesty Lord Blaster will be completely usable, as will the grade 4 Epitome of Knowledge, Silvest, who, due to the unique conditions surrounding his skills, has never been usable in a tournament above the shop level previously. Most tantalizing to many fighters is that the now-legendary Barcgal will also be usable in the Total War. Effectively resuming the pro scene that had been shut down two years prior, the tournament will help to gauge the state of the game, and will be important from a global perspective to see if the legend is still alive.

All participants will receive a Cardfight Pack Vol.8 participation prize. The tournament will be in the double elimination format standard to Bushiroad TCGs, as well as the 20 minutes commonly allotted to pros below the level of a title match. The unique rule specific to the Total War permits all units that have been distributed to be played.

News: Restricted List Additions, National Championship Information

This morning the Japanese format's restricted list was updated, with the effects of the modification taking place on January 1st 2013, to coincide with the coming of the new year. While the previous version of the list only restricted Barcgal from being the first vanguard, and up to four him could still be included in a deck, the new list also restricts all of the following cards to two copies in the deck, including if they are the first vanguard. This means that any combination of the following cards can only exist at a maximum of two.

Royal Paladin

• King of Knights, Alfred
• Majesty Lord Blaster
• Wingal Brave

Kagerou

• Lizard Soldier, Conroe
• Dragonic Overlord The End

Oracle Think Tank

• Silent Tom
• Godhawk, Ichibyoshi
• Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi

As an example, one copy of Alfred and one copy of Wingal Brave would be allowed, but two Alfred and one Brave would not. One Ichibyoshi and one Full Moon could be included, but that deck could not have Silent Tom in it, and no other combinations which allow for Tsukuyomi to retain her 11000 power is permitted because she requires Ichibyoshi to be in the soul.

Widely seen as a move to realign older cards with the reduced power scale of new ones, this has drastically cut down the viability of many top decks of the past, by preventing The End's persona blast from landing multiple times, hurting the ride consistency of the Alfred-based decks that have swarmed the format following the rise of national champion Gotou Kiyomi earlier this year, and preventing Tsukuyomi decks like those of Tanaka Shouta from using the Goddess of the Full Moon as the deck's only grade 3. The restriction on Godhawk also completely prevents two or more Full Moon from being used in a deck. Conspicuously, the Galahad line with skills very close to Tsukuyomi's is not restricted, meaning that the Oracle Think Tank restrictions are solely to prevent play of the Tsukuyomi series and encourage fighters to convert to CoCo, Battle Sister or the Goddess of the Sun deck.

This is the first time that the restricted list has been updated for the Japanese format since September of 2011, and the changes are already being met with criticism as a means of artificially forcing fighters to convert to newer decks. Overseas, Japanese cardfighters on twitter and on blogs are simultaneously praising the list, saying farewell to The End, while also mourning the loss of Tsukuyomi and Majesty Lord Blaster. The current prediction over there is that the new format heavily favors Gold Paladin and CoCo, with those two decks potentially reaching the same level of proliferation as The End once had. As FR2013 does not start until May, our best bet for examining this for the time being are minor events and team tournaments, which Bushiroad tends to hold before the Summer championships. Viewers of the anime dislike the list because it appears as though the main character's cards are being sealed again, much as they were in the Asia Circuit Stage side event.

In other news, Japan's senior national champion for Winter 2012 is Nakamura Seishirou, whose Royal Paladin deck has continued an unbroken chain of Royal dominance at the national level. This is the first time that a Majesty Lord Blaster deck has taken the championship title, as in the previous tournament Kiyomi's Alfred deck took the cup. Neither of their decks, nor those of their predecessors Masuda Yuusaku and Shitakawachi Kouta, will be viable in the January-on format.

If and when these restrictions will apply to the English format is uncertain, but the release of the fifth booster set, Awakening of Twin Blades, is a very likely possibility. While the official Facebook page claims that there are "no plans" to implement these changes to the English game, this could be seen as taking the English-language pro scene "hostage," as if these decks do perform as well in the EN format as they did on the JPN side, the restrictions could be implemented in the future, enforcing the existing Gold Paladin dominance.

Furthermore, back in May a similar claim was made by them regarding the now-infamous Barcgal, who was still restricted around the release of VGE-BT03, just as he was for the Japanese release of Demonic Lord Invasion. Overall, neither the English nor Japanese player base is very receptive to the changes, with some shops already preparing to adopt house rules that abandon the restricted list as illegitimate. Fearing an eventual rise of the new list abroad, a petition against the restrictions emerged within 24 hours of the announcement, operating under the slogan of "Don't Make Her Cry" with regards to the restricted Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi.