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: 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.