Spotlight: Almeida Stewart

Fighter's Spotlight is an ongoing project concerned with tracking real-world professional cardfighters across the globe.

Almeida Stewart (far left) with Albert Lee, Adwin Leong and Kevin Lang. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

Almeida Stewart
Titles Won: Belgium Regional Champion, European National Champion, World Champion (2013)
Current Status: World Champion (2013)
Deck Type: Kagerou (Dragonic Overlord), Gold Paladin (Great Silver Wolf), Aqua Force (Genovius)
Almeida Stewart is the second Cardfight!! Vanguard world champion, having formally succeeded his predecessor Brandon Smith on January 12, 2014. Although originally celebrated at his ascension, subsequent cheating scandals disgraced his reputation as a professional cardfighter within the community.

An eclectic player who had experience with many different clans, Stewart first made an appearance at the 2013 Belgium regional qualifier, taking first place with a Dragonic Overlord the End deck that would go on to be one of the mainstays of his emerging career. Stewart's qualifier had a turnout of 81 persons, which was relatively high for a European tournament but small compared to the size of regionals abroad. For the national finals he chose to play a Gold Paladin deck, coming out as the European national champion with using a Gancelot-Garmore Gold Paladin deck, and in the WCS2013 finals Stewart put Luxembourg on the map for professional play by becoming world champion with a modified Overlord build. As this was at a time when Kagerou had largely fallen out of favor in the international pro scene and was almost wholly replaced by Eradicator Dragonic Descendant, Stewart's decision to play a more deliberate DOTE than what had dominated in previous world championship qualifiers proved highly effective versus the rest of the world's top 8, then comprised entirely of Eradicator cardfighters save for one other player. Stewart made it to the top 2 with this other fighter, Albert Lee, who had been playing a Nova Grappler Beast Deity deck. Although the recordings of their games have not been made available to the public, Stewart achieved considerable fame for winning the world championship with an otherwise abandoned deck.

Stewart also did well in underground play, placing first in the March 9th BeNeLux tournament, at the time one of the larger unofficial tournaments of the Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg circuit.

In 2014 it came to light that Stewart was a repeat-offense cheater both in local tournaments and in professional play; individuals close to him came forward to Cardfight Pro with testimony against Stewart during the Paris regional qualifiers, and his fingerprints were later connected by the Luxembourg police with a robbery at card shop La Caverne du Gobelin on top of the existing accusations. Allegedly one of Stewart's personal mottos at the time  was "If you cheat, cheat good," and he favored draw triggers on in his decks so that he could touch them more frequently to stack the cards. Video footage from the Paris qualifier supposedly proved him stacking his deck on stream, but this footage was turned out by the organizers to Bushiroad without being disclosed to the general public, and Bushiroad later denied its existence. After his team was connected to the robbery at La Caverne, Stewart formally apologized, returned the stolen merchandise, and was banned for life from the card shop. Bushiroad has never instigated a further investigation of Stewart, nor issued any sanction against him for his behavior.

Decks and Play Style
Stewart's playstyle was marked by a heavy overall focus on draw power, consistency and acceleration, as auxiliary support for his deck's core strategy. He once commented that he played four draw triggers in his Aqua Force deck "because Aqua Force only has four." He tended to favor trigger lineups that ran six draw and six critical triggers, and card changing units to exchange the draw triggers after he'd checked them.

The Overlord decklist that Stewart won Belgium with is generally in line with the majority of DOTE decks being played in that era; by crossriding Dragonic Overlord the End over Dragonic Overlord, Stewart set up a base 13000 defense that allows standard 16000-power lines to be blocked with a single 5000 shield, while also creating a 21~23000 power vanguard line with either Embodiment of Armor Bahr or Flame of Promise Aermo. If the End's attack hit, his persona blast skill allowed him to stand for a +1 in card advantage and two extra drive checks, which in combination caould snowball into a high-power, high-critical vanguard line. The real value of the End during this era was its status as a "pressure unit" that forced the opponent to drop more defense than normal, as DOTE could absolutely not be allowed to hit in the minds of Stewart's opponents. The intention of the deck is thus not necessarily to use DOTE's persona blast, but to drop more cards than normal from the opponent's hand to prevent the on-hit skill where otherwise they would simply no-guard the powerful center lane. The first vanguard Conroe allowed both Bahr and Aermo to be searched effectively, while Gattling Claw Dragon controlled the opponents' first vanguard and built additional soul for Flame of Promise's soulblast. As Kagerou's damage unflipper, Bellicosity Dragon kept the damage zone open after using Conroe or Berserk Dragon's field control skill, to keep threatening the opponent with DOTE's persona blast. At endgame when it was certain that there was no more room for the vanguard to hit, it was then possible to use a rearguard Dragonic Overlord's counterblast 3 as a finishing move, with a rearguard in the range of 23000 power either crippling the opponent's frontrow while also dealing damage to their vanguard or draining their hand sufficiently that the game would end that turn.

The biggest difference between standard decks and Stewart's is the trigger lineup. Stewart chose to run additional draw triggers rather than critical triggers so that he would continually build card advantage while the opponent lost it from defending DOTE, and he would then use Gojo or Flame of Hope to card change out the draw triggers for more useful units. The use of Tejas to attack the opponent's backrow units is also unusual for an international deck where Nehalem as a base 10000 unit is more common, although it will appear familiar to Japanese cardfighters due to overall differences in unit usage. Running just four critical triggers did run the risk of running out of criticals entirely and losing out on one of the points that the End so threatening during this period, but that also requires the opponent to notice that there are only four critical triggers. This was also a period when some cardfighters were choosing to counter the End by not playing the mindgames he created at all and allowing his skill to go off early, guarding Bellicosity but letting the vanguard hit, putting them at higher damage to use for fighting back with limit breaks and leaving the DOTE fighter with a majority of their counterblast used up. Nevertheless, Stewart's strategy was brutally effective in Belgium and brought him to first place.

Winter 2013 Regional Tournament, Belgium
Card Pool: TD01-EB06, PR 0001-0071

Grade 0

x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FV)

x2 Dragonic Dancer, Monica DT

x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT

x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT

x4 Blue Ray Dracokid CT

x2 Red Gem Carbuncle DT

Grade 1

x2 Flame of Hope, Aermo

x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri

x3 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr

x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo

x2 Flame of Promise, Aermo

Grade 2

x2 Berserk Dragon

x2 Dragon Knight, Nehalem

x2 Wyvern Strike, Tejas

x4 Burning Horn Dragon

x2 Bellicosity Dragon

Grade 3

x4 Dragonic Overlord

x4 Dragonic Overlord the End

For the European national championship Stewart chose to bring his Gold Paladin deck rather than make a repeat appearance with Kagerou, using the established Silver Wolf Garmore with the Liberator Gancelot break ride that had just come out in a recent trial deck. At the time the international release of VGE-BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights was delayed, having had its release date been deliberately staggered in time for the Christmas season, and instead BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed debuted ahead of schedule. So while Stewart could have modified his Overlord deck using the Dauntless Drive Dragon break ride from that set, as many around the time of the European, Asian and North American nationals had been doing, he instead broke the trend to play Garmore.

Stewart's Garmore build uses five draw and seven critical triggers, an uncommon count at the time that helps to secure his break ride setup with higher on average acceleration. The deck's key feature is how it utilizes skill timing; Liberator Gancelot's break ride skill can give up to three Gold Paladin rearguards +5000 power, equivalent to riding a Soul Saver Dragon in Royal Paladin decks, but encounters the problem of having three rearguards on the field to power up. Since Garmore and Gancelot share the same timing of when Garmore is placed on the vanguard circle, Garmore's on-ride counterblast 2 can fetch a rearguard for Gancelot to power up, negating one of the major weaknesses of the deck while also breaking even in card advantage from dropping a second grade 3 to make the break ride take place. Garmore's ideal target is the grade 1 Dindrane, a base 6000 unit that when called from the deck can soulblast 1 to draw a card, playing into Stewart's advantage-based play style by effectively trading the extra grade 3 he puts down for a usable booster and then giving him another card in hand. Blaster Blade Spirit is also an important tech for the build, since Garmore can fetch Spirit and then use his on-call counterblast 1 to retire an opponent's rearguard, pushing the opponent down in advantage and making it more difficult for them to guard all three lanes which attack in the ballpark of 21000, 31000 and 26000 power. The build is also able to utilize Tripp to keep the damage zone open in the same way that Bellicosity was played in his previous deck, use Nimue and Viviane as early pressure units to convince the opponent to guard their counterblast 1 on-hit skills, and build base 21000 rearguard lanes using Charjgal with additional Garmore copies.

Due to the original Overlord fading out of use, at this point crossride defense was becoming a negligible element of the format, and this helped the use of lower power rearguards like Dindrane and Viviane where previously base 12000 attackers had been the staple cards of any competitive deck. Although the public was uncertain of which deck Stewart would bring to the championship, by the time of the international finals he was deciding between either a modified Overlord or a Scarlet Witch CoCo-Battle Sister Cookie deck, and had traded away this Gold Paladin deck.

Winter 2013 National Tournament, Europe
Card Pool: TD01-EB06, BT11, PR 0001-0078
Grade 0
x1 Spring Breeze Messenger (FV)
x2 Silent Punisher CT
x1 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Sommelier HT
x4 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x1 Dantegal CT
Grade 1
x2 Charjgal
x4 Halo Shield, Mark
x1 Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue
x4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x3 Listener of Truth, Dindrane
Grade 2
x2 Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion
x3 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane
x3 Mage of Calamity, Tripp
x2 Lop Ear Shooter
x1 Blaster Blade Spirit
Grade 3
x4 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore
x4 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

For the championship finals Stewart built his own variation on Overlord, incorporating the Dauntless Drive Dragon break ride that by then had become well established in pro play. Several supporting cards expedite his previous strategy's consistency; while this deck runs six draw instead of eight, the new draw trigger Artpique helps him power up his rearguards to break 21000 power and strengthen his vanguard line where necessary. Seal Dragon Kersey generally replaced Gojo's role, since it could card change one of his draw triggers out just by being called as long as the opponent has a grade 2 in play.

The game-deciding play for the deck is to break ride Dragonic Overlord the End over Dauntless Drive Dragon, forcing the opponent into a situation where there are no good decisions. Dauntless' break ride skill activates after the vanguard has attacked, allowing it to discard 3 cards to stand if it has not already stood that turn; the opponent is thus forced to choose between giving Stewart two vanguard attacks with a +1 from DOTE's persona blast or a -1 from Dauntless' skill, but if the first attack is defended then they also run the risk of the second attack connecting and triggering the End's persona blast. Earlier plays are made possible by break riding Dauntless over Dauntless, and the losses in card advantage are generally made up for by the draw-heavy focus of Stewart's build. The only safe counter is to no-guard the first attack and allow the persona blast to activate so that no more skills will activate that turn, but from a more pessimistic perspective this means that the safest play is to allow the End's skill to activate and improve Stewart's position.

Winter 2013 International Tournament, Japan
Card Pool: TD01-BT10, PR 0001-0078

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 surprised the professional community in early March by taking first in a BeNeLux tournament using an Aqua Force deck unrelated to his established builds. By using Penguin Soldier in his deck he achieved a similar level of acceleration and consistency to his other decks with its on-call draw skill, and because of his deck's focus on break riding over Transcore Dragon he generally has the 4 soul necessary to use two Penguin Soldiers per game. The core of this deck uses the Ripple evolution cards for ride security to search out Pavroth or Genovius, with the grade 1 and 2 Brave Shooter support for base 10000 and 12000 attackers that allow early aggression. This also works well with Pavroth's ability to stand and power up a rearguard in the midgame, turning Twin Strike Brave Shooter into a base 15000 attacker on the second strike.

Similar to contemporary break ride-based decks, Stewart's main strategy is to break ride his main grade 3 Genovius over the supporting Transcore Dragon; attacking with both rearguard lanes first brings the opponent to 5 damage, Transcore's skill forces the opponent to discard a card just to be able to guard Genovius in the first place to ensure a -3 even if they have a perfect defense card, and Genovius' persona blast stands both rearguard columns to ensure two more attacks waiting to receive any following trigger checks. The maneuver becomes even more dangerous if the opponent is already at 5 damage, where any one of the five attacks can win the game. For endgame purposes Stewart runs a tech copy of Blue Storm Supreme Dragon Glory Maelstrom, using Glory Maelstrom's ultimate break to prevent the opponent from guarding with perfect defense cards while increasing his own power. The decision synergizes well with his focus on draw power and grade security, where it's easier to acquire tech cards towards the end of a fight, but the build's synergy is hurt somewhat by the lack of card changing to drop Sea Otters for other units.

March 9th BeNeLux Tournament, Belgium
Card Pool: TD01-BT12, PR 0001-0078
Grade 0
x1 Starting Ripple, Alecs (FV)
x2 Ice Floe Angel HT
x2 Medical Officer of the Rainbow Elixir HT
x4 Pyroxene Communications Sea Otter DT
x4 Jet-Ski Rider CT
x4 Supersonic Sailor CT
Grade 1
x4 Silent Ripple, Sotirio
x4 Mercenary Brave Shooter
x4 Emerald Shield, Paschal
x3 Light Signals Penguin Soldier
Grade 2
x4 Rising Ripple, Pavroth
x4 Twin Strike Brave Shooter
x2 Tear Knight, Lucas
Grade 3
x4 Thundering Ripple, Genovius
x3 Blue Flight Dragon, Transcore Dragon
x1 Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom

How Long Can the Golden Goose Keep Laying?

Photo by rawritzrichii, seek consent before reposting.

In light of the December 9 results and the close of the 2012 World Championship, one thing has become clear; the Gold Paladins are strong. They have become the third most prolific clan in history, on the heels of Kagerou and their Royal predecessors. Being able to fill the field, draw new cards and break traditional defenses with powerful limit breaks are all key aspects of their success. Bandwagoning is also an element here--if 98 out of 100 decks at a tournament are Etranger, then at least 6 of the top 8 decks will be Etranger regardless of if those decks are any good. Even considering this however, the strengths of the clan are very real. At the very least, Smith, Bastianelli and Fernau did believe in the clan's power. In the world of pros, they are a real threat, but like any other threat they have weaknesses.

In particular, their dominant weakness has been evident since the first booster set. Garmore is the best card that the clan has ever printed; Ezel is only ever run for the opportunity to superior ride him, and occasionally his autoskill when stalling for Garmore. If the Gold Paladins had an exact copy of the King of Knights or of Soul Saver Dragon, that would be run instead. Spectral Duke Dragon is not the monster in Japan that he is on our side of the Pacific, because his sometimes-on sometimes-off +1000, intended to attack independently multiple times in a match, functions poorly in a format where stable 11000, 12000 and 13000 dominate. Even the Gold Paladins' coming crossride, Platina Ezel, is considered vastly inferior to previously-revealed crossrides that were not reliant on being at five damage. The End and even Goddess Amaterasu woul be run instead if they had Gold Paladin equivalents. Probably the most harrowing difficulty for the clan is that the general design theme is "Royal Paladin but weakened." There is no doubt that if sets 4 and 5 had been available during WCS2012, the clan would have been vastly undermined by Majesty Lord Blaster. This leaves a pressing question for the western community of Gold Paladin cardfighters who have grown endeared to their clan.

Come February, BT05 will be available, and by all estimates will be a serious factor in WCS2013. Where does that leave the Gold Paladin cardfighter? For how long can the golden goose keep laying? This is entirely dependent on BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights. The recent team tournament results have shown that both primary variants of Gold Paladin can work well on the same team as Royal Paladin and Oracle Think Tank decks, much as Kagerou did in the 2011 Grand Prix team tournaments, but Platina/Spectral Duke is also competing for that space with Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD," who has seated himself as a new, ultimate break-impaired The End. We have yet to see how Platina holds up to its contemporaries in the seniors' and juniors' divisions, or to the new, Tsukuyomi-derived Blaster build.

Liberator Gancelot is an excellent replacement for Platina, hitting 23000 on-attack with Tron or Llew and throwing a second Gancelot up to 33000 with his break ride. Gancelot is not just an upgrade, but also a countercard that close to replaces the BT09 play style. However, one card cannot carry a clan. The Liberator subgroup is definitely one of the most powerful subgroups to ever be designed, but like all Gold Paladin decks, it is still reliant on first vanguards that depend on Ezel or Pellinore. Running Corron or Kyrph means running Ezel and/or Gareth with Beaumains, severely restricting a deck that would ideally be composed as close to as purely of Liberator units as possible. Running Spring Breeze means running Lop Ear Shooter and potentially Dindrane for an overall similar restriction, but even more than that, it means running Pellinore who has been ruled as not being a superior ride and as a result, canceling Gancelot's carefully-prepared break ride. Gold Paladin cardfighters are left holding out for the new Wingal Liberator and with him the new Alfred, leaving the future murky and uncertain for a clan that in Japan was repeatedly established as underdogs. Even beyond this, the Eradicator and Dudley subgroups are already receiving quite a bit of attention from pros as more likely to replace Spectral Duke and Garmore/Gancelot, respectively.

The English pro scene will soon be left to clash over the set that will finally induct us into the crossride format that has defined much of Japan's professional play for the past year. Despite that, it is already clear that The End will not be storming the format as some doomsayers have predicted. There are two reasons for this; first, the English scene is becoming updated with the more recent sets at a relatively fast pace, introducing new counter decks and reinforcing past decks. Second, the focus of Vanguard has shifted. We are at the end of an era--you could call it the end of the vanguard. Powerful vanguards are no longer a concern in the new format. No matter how much power you gain or extra critical you add on, this cannot circumvent a perfect defense card, cards which in the English format have been standardized at four copies by limit break. While some predictions say that Glory Maelstrom will respond to this by ending the perfect defense, the situation is not equal. While he does get over Duke's base power consistency issues, the new Maelstrom can only do this when he is on the brink of death, and it's clear from playtesting by now that fighting a Maelstrom deck is a matter of changing one's play style. Shields are placed earlier and more frequently, the rearguard becomes the focus of defense, and the vanguard is either not guarded against or grade 0s are conserved for fighting Glory and perfect defense goes to the rear. The situation plays out like jan-ken-pon; the Gold Paladins are undermined by Majesty, who is locked down by The End, who is shut out by Gold Paladin counterdecks that are defeated by Majesty. The most prominent major player living outside of these restrictions is Oracle Think Tank, whose CoCo and Battle Sister play styles neatly stops both the Blaster deck and crossride decks in their tracks, but even they then fall to the Gold Paladins. To who does the throne at the top of the world go to from here? This year's cup is open to everyone.

I am not in the business of naming kings. Blaster Blade Liberator will probably be revealed close to or over the weekend, being the final card from TD08 and TD09 to go unrevealed. This unit will be our last chance before February to gauge the new Gold Paladin, and with it how the Gold Paladin cardfighters of the previous year will plan for WCS2013. While my own investment is strictly centered on my personal clan, it will be interesting to see cardfighters both in the United States and abroad rethink their strategies. The natural position, even not knowing exactly what BT10 will bring, is to assume that Gancelot will be supported by Alfred, with extra copies of the Liberator himself replacing Gigantech Destroyer and Manawydan as a rearguard grade 3, but some fighters may still stick by Garmore or even find the "perfect" offensive grade 3 in Dignified Gold Dragon, who combines the Silver Wolf's and the Destroyer's roles into a single unit. How will traditional Gold Paladin fare once the Liberator subgroup hits the scene? Spectral Duke is largely forecasted to fall into the background in the February-on format, but is there some innovation remaining to rework the deck? Furthermore, there exists an interperiod between the release of trial decks 8 and 9, and the coming of BT10; while there are no official tournaments hosted in this period, there will be ample time for casual play and experimentation. Will we see them synthesized with Platina in an offshoot deck as Galahad and Soul Saver were once synthesized by Masuda?

The parallels are interesting; Gancelot and Alfred were once the first and perfect Royal deck, but were outmoded within three months by BT02's Soul Saver, and yet here we are, once again looking at Gancelot and Alfred, this time as the last Gold Paladin deck. Maligned and potentially unhealthy in large doses as they are, Cardfight does not end with the Gold Paladins. The scene has only evolved further.

Single-Clan Counterblasts, Break Rides and Double Clan: An Analysis of the Current State of Pro Cardfight

There is a war brewing in the community. As typical of these arguments and claims that one clan or another is "broken," this war comes out of recent end-of-month announcements from KeroKero Ace magazine. While in the past these infights arose from crossride, limit break and other allegedly scale-tipping evolutions in gameplay, in this time the conflict is over Solitary Liberator Gancelot, the Eradicator subgroup and new Spike Brothers units. Blaster Blade Burst is another well-discussed but less widely vilified card. Opinion is vastly split on the issue, mainly due to the introduction of power-based break ride skills that seemingly invalidate the old sets altogether.

One common statement is circulation is that the phenomenon of power creep has come to Cardfight. I caution all readers against this view; this very same reaction emerged when Great Silver Wolf, Garmore and his accompanying Charjgal surfaced. Similar statements circulated at the onset of crossrides, and with each new booster set since BT02. We have survived worse than this. And while many are content to toss the game aside and leave things at that, we will make no progress, headway or innovation of any kind by sitting and whining idly. In Cardfight, the white flag is never an option.

The most concrete argument for power creep lies in the base power of these units. Base 11000 was once unprecedented and very carefully given only to clans that could not easily form lines exceeding 21000 without triggers. These days it's being handed out like candy in trial decks. However, this new base 11000 is very different from the old, in that if you have a unit not of the same clan on the field, then the base 11000 unit cannot attack regardless of position. This dispels the myth of power creep immensely, because these new base 11000s are being pushed for in sets and trial decks based around mixed clan decks. In the February-on JPN format, double clanning will not just be more viable than ever before, it will be a necessary component of many professional strategies. And from a design standpoint, it would be both clumsy and restrictive to have every card intended for a double clan deck to have "[CONT]: This card is also treated as..." printed on its text. One of the main advantages to a double clan deck is being able to mix cards not of the same clan, giving options for fifth and sixth base 8000 boosting units, or of integrating skills intended for one clan into another. As Rikino Sakura and her contemporaries demonstrated in 2011, Soul Saver Dragon's Barcgal base could be neatly integrated into other clans to give her power-based advantages to a clan with other specialties. If double clan decks were to lose these multifaceted aspects of their play, then they would be double clan in name only. Because of this, we can safely assume that Spirit card skills will not be heavily distributed to double clan cards, and so the new Gancelot will not be usable by those decks.

Note that many new units, in particular Blaster Blade Burst and Bad-End Dragger, require their counterblasts to be composed of units of the same clan. Bushiroad has very carefully planned for this from the ground up. The only clan with real control over what cards are in their damage zone is Angel Feather, and if you'll notice, all of the Feathers are dependent on a clause which requires the cards placed into the damage zone to be of the same clan. What this means is that Blaster Blade Burst, Bad-End Dragger, and other cards with these same-clan counterblasts are near to unusable in double clan decks. Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant takes this even further, requiring three discards to be of the same clan in order for his skills to activate.

While Bushiroad is pushing for a strongly double-clan February format following the official onset of the restricted list in January, more than ever before they are dividing the world of pros between single clan and double clan decks. It is already clear that double clan decks will not be able to use single clan cards effectively. The new base 11000 clause allows those units to be distributed more freely, but also makes them unable to take advantage of the new strategies, turning every matchup into something of a The End versus CoCo fight. Yes, the new Gancelot is powerful compared to what came before it--but in the greater scheme of things, will it immediately swarm the championship and take the title with a Gold Paladin Best 4? Most likely not.

Break rides are not as simple as they are being made out to be. The new Gancelot comes with many restrictions of his own; as with Soul Saver Dragon, there must be three units of the same clan set up on the field before the break ride is initiated, and they must be defended appropriately, giving more power to Kagerou and Narukami. Furthermore, an appropriate grade 3 needs to be in hand, potentially bringing an 8-grade 3 ratio back into vogue over the currently common 7. This also gives less credibility to rearguard grade 3s like Gigantech Charger, though the new Dignified Gold Dragon helps circumvent that. This second grade 3 ride comes at a -1 that would not normally be otherwise incurred, it has the same general speed as a crossride, and can only be performed at 4 or more damage, denying the Gancelot cardfighter the chance to use limit break support due to the ride phase taking place before the main phase. Factor the damage requirements into the the opponent needing to be at 4 or more of their own for the power boost to truly matter, just as it would for Soul Saver Dragon or The Dark Dictator, and you have a card which inherently forces the user to not play damage control in a damage control deck. Soul Saver-type strategies truly shine due to their use of the soul instead of counterblast, allowing them to take very little damage at the start and then stonewall the opponent while they take damage throughout the rest of the game, forcing them to become overly defensive in the late game while the Soul cardfighter can no-guard multiple attacks and accept critical triggers with a shrug.

Two things should be clear from this. The power creep is not from the power of the individual units, but from the distribution of them. The trial decks are stronger now. This is because new cardfighters need ways to keep up with long-time titleholders. Bushiroad's decisions are primarily geared toward the Japanese pro scene, which has already had four national championships and seven champions, one of which is a repeat holder and is still reigning. Even the most recent champion, Eboshida Hiromi, was someone who had already taken a regional title in the previous year. By the end of 2013, those numbers will be bumped up to six and nine. It's much more developed than in North America, where there is only one champion and one championship.

We need to consider what the 2012 nationals format will look like. The Japanese nationals are held twice a year, with the initial run for this year being May to July. At Fighter's Road 2013, the available booster sets will be BT01-BT11, meaning that the new Alfred and new Overlord will both be in play in addition to these recent announcements. The second point that should be clear from all this is that these new units are nothing more than an update, and perhaps distraction to keep pure Gold Paladin, Narukami and Spike Brothers relevant in the February-on format. Their base 11000 coming with the Lord keytext rather than losing -2000 power if a rearguard of the same clan is not present, is conspicuous because as previously stated that makes them unusable in mixed decks. The clan-specific counterblasts and discards are likewise conspicuous. Rather than designing the next top tournament deck, Bushiroad is laying the groundwork for the BT10-BT11 decks to remain balanced, operating under the assumption that the new Alfred and Dragonic Overlord will be flocked to en masse. Bad-End Dragger and the like should not be feared for their strength in battle, but because their very existence implies that there will be equally or more powerful mixed builds available for Spike Brothers, Gold Paladin and Narukami. These mixed decks will be much more dangerous because they will be able to use the pure skills of both clans (for example, being able to use Alfred's counterblast with Tripp's unflipping) rather than just one, as the situation for Dragger, Gancelot and Vowing Sword Dragon will be.

With regards to Burst, it's clear already that the new card is intended to be a dual replacement for both the original Alfred and Majesty Lord Blaster, whose recent restriction prevents them from neatly being integrated in the same deck. Primarily, Burst serves as the former, as not just Majesty decks but also other Royal Paladin decks can use him as a substitute Alfred that works more cleanly, due to being targetable by Wingal Brave. The primary difficult with Burst is that his counterblast 2 is expensive in a clan with no damage unflipping, which already uses Blaster Blade's base form as their means of field control. With the introduction of the Liberator and Eradicator subgroups, field control is going to become very important to the new format. So while Burst can reach 31-33000 power easily, his skill cannot be used very frequently, and on the turns that it is not, his unboostable nature means that opponents can safely drop one card for defense instead of two. Base 11000 and higher units can simply put a heal trigger on the guard circle and guarantee that that attack will not connect.

There is of course, the natural possibility that the double clan mechanics introduced in BT09 will not be followed up on in BT10 or 11, and that the Spirit cards are a one-off mechanic. However, in a scenario in which we must either have break ride balanced by the new mechanic, or be drowned by a swarm of Lord vanguards metamorphosing professional Cardfight into a break ride stalemate just as a Soul Saver stalemate once emerged in early 2011, and the existing evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the former, I will stand by these statements. It is not enough to look at the pro scene we have in December and anachronically pick specific cards from a format that another country will not have for another month to insert into the current scene, pretending as if this covers the full depth of a format that will not be fully definable until April of 2013. As I stated previously, cardfighters do not know surrender. We have all seen sixth, and seventh damage heal triggers. It is unfitting for any among us to give up so soon. This new scene has many implications and is already inspiring new strategy, moving toward especial intercepts, the abandoning of the increasingly-irrelevant crossrides, and the revival of older strategies like those surrounding rest-based Megacolony and Dueling Dragon, ZANBAKU. How we confront the new year will be remembered and analyzed by the cardfighters of future generations; it would be shameful, to childishly call Cardfight ruined forever and walk out in fear of break ride, a mechanic that will come and go as any other new gameplay element does. Not only does break ride share the weaknesses of traditional limit breaks, requiring a second grade 3 ride combines that with the vulnerabilities of crossrides with no way to circumvent them and no defensive recompense.

News: TD08 and TD09 Release Dates, New Sleeves

Today the release dates for trial decks 08 and 09, Liberator of the Sanctuary and Eraser of the Empire, have been confirmed as January 26th, 2013. The decks will be available just thirteen days after the first episode of the third season, Link Joker, airs on January 13th. By that time it's expected that TD08's exclusive grade 3s will have their card skills revealed. Additionally, two sleeves based off of the new units, "Solitary Liberator, Gancelot" and "Eraser, Vowing Sword Dragon" have been announced, giving Gancelot fans a long-awaited new look for their decks.

The trial decks, already known to be for Gold Paladin and Narukami, are speculated to include multiclan skills like those of BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons' Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark Spirits. If so, this would make the decks compatible with not just existing Gold Paladin support, but also with Royal Paladin and Kagerou support, updating one clan that has not had new cards printed forit since May of 2012.