News: Cardfight Pro Editor Wins Origins Game Fair 2015

The following article was severely delayed due to corruption of the associated video files. At the time of this writing, the video of game 2 has still not been recovered; we apologize for this delay.

June 6th, 2015. This year's fortieth annual Origins Game Fair was also the third Cardfight!! Vanguard tournament organized by Bushiroad USA at the Fair, with 49 cardfighters participating in the competition. Cardfight Pro's editor-in-chief of four years, Alexander "Touya" Fisher, took first place with a Phantom Blaster “Abyss” deck. Unlike Bushiroad's ongoing Spring Festival tournaments, the Origins event was held in a best-of-three modified Swiss format. Double elimination rules were implemented so that only cardfighters who maintained a record of X-1 or better would be able to keep playing until the last round.

Second place went to an Oracle Think Tank cardfighter playing Susanoo with Sakuya, third place to a Narukami fighter playing Sweep Command Dragon, and fourth place to a Dimension Police fighter playing Sin Buster with Daikaiser. Top 8 at the tournament included two Thavas-Glory Maelstrom fighters and one Cat Butler; the eighth cardfighter was not reported. The tournament finals were recorded on video and are provided below.



Bushiroad USA sales manager Johnathan Lee (pictured above at right) attended the tournament as its organizer, with the assistance of local Ohio card shop The Soldiery. We were able to briefly ask Mr. Lee a few questions while on-site. According to Lee, the decision to use best-of-three at the Origins Fair was influenced by its popularity over best-of-one. A survey conducted by Bushiroad of over two thousand cardfighters showed a majority preference for best-of-three. The decision was also influenced by the Origins event not being incorporated into the world championship series or Team League 2015, as this gave the US branch greater creative freedom with running the tournament. However, when asked if the format used at Origins would be integrated into the 2015 world championships, Lee could not definitively answer in the affirmative. Doing so would require approval from Bushiroad of Japan, which has been running best-of-one tournaments for all of its card games since 2008.

By the time the finals began, it was the fourth set that the two finalists would play with one another. In the minor tournament on the previous day they had fought during round 5 of Swiss, in top 8 of that same competition, and in round 4 of the June 6th tournament. Each player was thus familiar with the other's deck composition. Game 1 of the finals ended quickly, primarily due to trigger checks. Touya checked critical triggers on his first two turns of the fight, putting his opponent at 5 damage, and on reaching grade 3 he legioned immediately to end the fight. The game left both the finalists and the spectators grateful that they were playing a best-of-three set; Touya remarked after the finals were over that had this game determined the overall winner, no one would have accepted him as the champion. His opponent remained calm in face of the poor opening to the set, stoically carrying on with game 2.

Game 2 has been lost due to the video file being corrupted, and we are attempting to recover it. One of the critical weaknesses of the “Abyss” deck was demonstrated during the game, as Touya was forced to sit on Mordred Phantom for the entire duration due to not drawing “Abyss.” Because the deck hinges around the abilities of a single card, failing to draw it negated the primary threat of the deck, and without Branwen in the format his stride options were limited entirely to additional copies of Mordred. Meanwhile Oracle Think Tank shined in this game; the reliable draw options and the constant threat of Silent Tom kept his opponent continually ahead. Although the game went long, it ended with all four copies of Phantom Blaster “Abyss” still remaining in the deck.

In game 3 Touya capitalized on early guard opportunities versus his opponent's unboosted center lane to avoid having to block Silent Tom while at high damage later on. As the fight progressed he stayed very close in card advantage despite facing draw skills that should have changed the tempo of the fight immensely. His opponent blocking Judgebau took a perfect defense card out of their hand early on, which led to the decisive blow for the fight at around the 04:40 mark. The threat of “Abyss'” high-power second attack forced his opponent to put down 20000 shield in four parts, as 5000 shield guardians. That net -4 kept them from taking the lead in cards controlled despite using both Susanoo's and Takemikazuchi's draw skills to catch up.

Dry trigger checks throughout the fight left the Oracle Think Tank cardfighter at a severe disadvantage, while Touya was able to better dictate the pace of their game with “Abyss'” self-standing skill. While his opponent seemingly had an opportunity to stave off that offensive at 6:22 by not attacking the vanguard, in reality both cardfighters had seen Dorint and Blaster Dark Revenger in his drive checks on the previous turn--hence avoiding sending him to that damage line would have only resulted in Dorint unflipping a damage to enable a restand regardless.

Touya has played Shadow Paladin off and on since its 2011 Japanese debut, and after struggling to find a deck for himself made it his clan of choice in April 2012. A devotee of Phantom Blaster Dragon, he had voiced his disdain for the Revenger subclan repeatedly since it first began receiving support in 2013. Originally intending to play a Witch deck during the current tournament season, as a result of that subclan's primary grade 3 being short printed in EB11: Requiem at Dusk, every triple rare in his boxes of the set were either Phantom Blaster “Abyss” or Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss.” The difficulty of acquiring Fianna at the set's launch, as well as the generally overwhelming support for the Revenger deck from sets past and present, led Touya to reluctantly main “Abyss” since last November. Going into Origins Touya had a win ratio of 81% with the deck, 134 wins out of 165 tournament games. (Casual games were not included in this count.)

The beginnings of Touya's Dictator deck, which would later become “Abyss” (February 7th, 2014)

Touya had previously placed fourth in the Fair's minor tournament on the preceding day, while his opponent from the finals placed first. In the following tournament on the 7th, he captained Team Delta Attack in winning the team tournament; but due to poor promotion, very few cardfighters knew of the team tournament and only three teams competed. Following this, at the ARG state championship on June 20th, his teammate Alexander Wilson made top 8 playing a Megacolony Machining deck, and Touya himself placed in the top 16 with an “Abyss”-Phantom Blaster Dragon deck using legend deck support. Both fighters are currently qualified for the ARG national championships in August, as each of them has acquired the 20 points necessary to enter the nationals.

His Revenger deck listed below is primarily designed to optimize the number of triggers checked per game, rather than going for a single game-ending attack by breakriding over Mordred. From Touya's perspective, the primary value of Mordred was of baiting the opponent into leaving him at three damage, after which he would normal ride into “Abyss” and use his legion to stretch out a vast difference in damage between himself and his opponent. Being free to absorb attacks at that point in the fight while his opponent was forced to guard, this would cultivate a difference in available shield that would eventually leave them unable to guard. The more one attacks with “Abyss” in the deck, the deeper they can filter for its combo pieces to enable additional attacks later on. Readers should be aware that an ideal version of the deck would use four copies of Dark Revenger, not three--the deck's author dragged his heels in picking up Revenger perfect defense cards, both out of spite and in the knowledge that the upcoming Sovereign Star Dragon support nearly outmodes Dark Revenger.

First place: Alexander "Touya" Fisher
Deck name: Darkness Thunder Force
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
x3 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x1 Dark Shield, Mac Lir
x2 Black-winged Swordbreaker
x3 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x4 Fighting Spirit Revenger, Macart
Grade 3
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
Grade 4
x4 Harmonics Messiah
x2 Heat Element, Magum
x2 Miracle Element, Atmos

Oracle Think Tank Extra Study Material: Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

Oracle Think Tank is a variable clan known for its diversity of play styles and many draw techniques; Sakuya may be a core element to the soulless Witch deck, but before she was codified as this she was also a deck of her own. Coming out from the trial deck TD04: Maiden Princess of the Cherry Blossoms, Sakuya introduces all of the major elements of OraThin while bringing a host of exclusive cards along with her to support her skills, and to reinforce the clan as a whole.

Sakuya comes with two skills attached, an autoskill and a continuous skill. When she's ridden, Sakuya returns all of your Oracle Think Tank rearguards to the hand by compulsory skill, opening the field while also allowing the reuse of on-call skills. Her continuous skill, taking right out of CEO Amaterasu's playbook, grants her +4000 power during your turn as long as you have four or more cards in hand. With Milk, Sakuya can go for 24000 power on-attack, so she's most definitely still relevant even in crossride formats. There are a number of ways to support this, using Luck Bird's soulblast, Maiden's Libra's counterblast and other skills, but most importantly is a grade 1 from Sakuya's own trial deck, Dark Cat.

Dark Cat is a base 7000 unit that allows all fighters to draw a card when he's called. This has been panned by some for giving the opponent cards as well, but the key reason for this card's importance is that he modifies the total number of cards in play without actually changing the card advantage of either fighter, effectively lowering the requirements for Sakuya and Milk's skills. This makes the 24000 line very easy to create, meaning that the real advantage lies in the increase in power, which the opponent will have to drop extra cards to stop. In a very roundabout way, Cat hurts the opponent long-term. This is not his sole use, either; Dark Cat is invaluable to every OraThin deck.

Cat gives greater overall access to the deck with his call, so that you can bring him out even if you have something to boost and potentially access an attacker in that very turn. For Goddess of the Full Moon, Cat is important for shaving off another card from the deck and bringing his fighter close to the stack of cards that they prearranged using the foresight skills of Godhawk, Ichibyoshi and the Tsukuyomi series. Generally this ranges from a 12-15 card stack, preferably with trigger units situated close to the top for the purposes of a drive check, and while Cat individually only brings the Tsukuyomi fighter one card closer to that stack, when taken together with the deck's multiple soulcharge and draw skills, our dark kitty becomes an instrumental piece in bringing about that cohesive strategy. CoCo takes advantage of Cat's access differently, setting up a 15000 line with Silent Tom for fighting base 10000 vanguards to force them to expend at least two cards for defense, or an 18000 line with the Battle Sisters, Mocha and Glace for assaulting crossrides reliably.

Within his trial deck, Cat does have two other partners. Sword Dancer Angel is a base 8000 that gains +1000 power whenever you draw a card. This makes a base 16000 line with Cat on the turn that he is called, but it also raises her power whenever you check a draw trigger, including on the opponent's turn. That can make for some interesting scenarios, since suddenly a unit that could be wiped out by a Marron and Gallatin line requires 19000 power to forcibly retire, although this isn't as reliable a defense as Angel Feather sees. Sword Dancer is very strictly limited to draws, not trigger checks, so more reliable than her is Battle Sister, Maple, a base 6000 grade 1. While not extensively impressive right out of the box, Maple's skill is to gain +3000 power when she attacks if you have four or more cards in your hand, and you can play the same trick of "lowering" the requirements with Dark Cat as you can with Sakuya. Maple also forms a 16000 line with Cat, making her a good backup front row unit if you have to intercept the rearguard that she's boosting at some point in the game; she's also useful for early aggression in this regard, as you can call Maple and Cat on the first or second turn for a full-power rearguard line, then ride Sakuya on the third to return them to hand and make a more normalized formation while also making Sakuya's skill that much easier to trigger by recycling Cat's autoskill. Overall, Maiden Princess of the Cherry Blossoms is a flexible set of cards that can be neatly integrated into multiple OraThin builds, providing a good foundation and offshoot for any deck set in the clan.

Next time that we revisit Oracle Think Tank, I'll be discussing Imperial Daughter and the cards introduced in EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1.

News: Vanguard Season 3 and EB03EN Announced, DAIGO to Appear in the Anime

Today at the second day of the Big Vanguard Fest in Japan, it was announced that Cardfight!! Vanguard has been confirmed for a third season. While details remain sketchy at this time and the season has no official title as of yet, Aichi has been confirmed to remain as the main character. Furthermore, DAIGO was stated to be voicing a new character in the anime, though as to whether this is connected to Season 3 or Asia Circuit remains unclear.

In other news, the English release of Extra Booster 03 - Cavalry of Black Steel was leaked through retailers today, and is currently available for preorder on Gamers' Haven. Trial Decks 03 and 04, Maiden Princess of the Cherry Blossoms and Golden Mechanical Soldier are likewise available through Toywiz, and are slated for an August release.

(via matibari, Gamers' Haven and Toywiz)

Update: Bushiroad.fm has confirmed that the EB03 information is real. However, the official word is that this trial deck release is false, as the English trial decks are still awaiting approval. EB03 is tentatively slated for a July release, barring any manufacturing problems.

Toywiz has since removed the trial deck preorders from their website.