News: Soul Saver-Thing Saver Fusion Deck Emerges in Fourth Tachikawa VGCS, Cat Butler Raizers in First

Original photo by FarEastBirds.

Nine hours ago the fourth Tachikawa Vanguard Championship closed with a Nova Grappler cardfighter playing the new Raizer Legion deck in first place, followed closely by a Royal Paladin fighter in second running a Cosmo Dragon deck that synthesized three-year-old Soul Saver Dragon support with BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades' recently-released Seeker units. Third and fourth were likewise filled by Thing Saver and Raizer fighters. Both Nova Grappler and Royal Paladin have enjoyed considerable popularity among professional cardfighters since the set's release day, gaining favor for their aggressive self-standing vanguards whose speed--able to bring out their skills as early as turn 3--has supplanted the formerly dominant Nouvelle Vague deck, a deck once feared as having potentially solved competitive play. Out of the Tachikawa VGCS' 96-person turnout, not a single person ran Dragonic Nouvelle Vague.

Fourth Tachikawa VGCS Deck Breakdown
33 Seeker
21 Raizer
16 Metalborg
7 Star-vader, "Ω" Glendios
6 Spike Brothers
5 Musketeer
5 Brawler
2 Duo
1 Gold Paladin

According to tournament organizer Kohaku, the top 16 for the tournament consisted of five Seeker decks, five Raizers, two Spike Brothers, two Musketeers and two Metalborg decks. Although written deck recipes are not yet published, the top 2 decklists from the VGCS were photographed and uploaded to Twitter, and have been transcribed below. The first place deck was a streamlined version of Beast Deity Cup champion Silver Crow's Raizer build, running just four grade 3s to accommodate a Cat Butler playset, and focusing on setting up Legion quickly with Shieldraizer and Energy Charger while building card advantage using Street Bouncer.

Original photo by Yukiya.

Second place cardfighter Yukiya's Cosmo Dragon deck brought some much-needed innovation to the emergent format, running five grade 3s with a single copy of Soul Saver Dragon made searchable using the time-tested grade 1 Pongal. Yukiya's alternate artwork Soul Saver (illust. Studio TMS) served as a finishing move after several bouts of Thing Saver Dragon's restanding skill, taking advantage of the deck's strong soulcharging engine using multiple copies of File, the draw trigger Margal and Legion's special property of sending the entire Legion pair to the soul when another grade 3 is ridden.

Soul Saver Dragon's on-ride soulblast 5 is well remembered for being one of the first mass field power boosts in the history of the game, but is rarely played today due to contemporary cards often gaining comparable levels of power with minimal setup. Soul Saver also served an alternate purpose in facilitating the same kind of minimal grade 3 count as is played in Raizers, and due to the nature of her support is flexible enough to work either as a strategy in her own right or purely as a setup for Thing Saver Dragon to build more soul for his Soulmate Legion skill. Yukiya tweeted that the trigger count for the deck was 8-4-4, presumed to be eight critical triggers, four draw triggers and four heal triggers based on the general trends within Japanese play.

The fourth Tachikawa VGCS results were mirrored at the Fighter's Road 2014 Sapporo regional qualifier, where first place was taken by a Thing Saver Dragon cardfighter who was reportedly using a more normalized deck, followed in second by another Raizer fighter picking up on recent trends. Decklists for FR2014 Sapporo are expected to go out in the next few days.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events. The VGCS model of fan-organized play has begun to gain popularity internationally, with the bi-monthly BeNeLux tournaments serving as their European equivalent.

Fourth Tachikawa Vanguard Championship
First place
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x4 Raizer Crew DT
x4 Meteoraizer CT
x4 Minimum Raizer CT
Grade 1
x4 Shieldraizer
x4 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x3 Energy Charger
x3 Cannonraizer
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x3 Street Bouncer
Grade 3
x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Second place
Grade 0
x2 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Unstated Heal Trigger
x4 Unstated Draw Trigger
x8 Unstated Critical Trigger
Grade 1
x4 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x4 Pongal
x3 Lake Maiden, Lien
x2 Glynngal Seeker
x1 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
x1 Knight of Loyalty, Bedivere
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x1 Soul Saver Dragon

News: Lock on Victory to Introduce New Protagonists and Trial Decks, Link Joker and Nouvelle Vague Top in Third Tachikawa VGCS

The March issue of Monthly Bushiroad was released in Japan yesterday, timed to coincide with the live airing of a crossover conference between Neppu Kairiku Bushi Radio and Monthly Bushiroad staff. While this most recent issue is concerned with the remaining RRR rarity cards for VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth, it also covered information on the upcoming 3DS game, Cardfight!! Vanguard Lock on Victory. Previews have shown that the player will be able to choose between ten different characters in the game, up from Ride to Victory's six. What kinds of protagonists the new characters are intended to be is unknown, as while preceding characters like Ryouta and Luna were "Hotblooded type" and "Dark type" all four of the new characters have only been collectively referred to as "New type."

Caption: "No way this Naoki is!?"

In keeping with previous trends, there are both male and female versions of each personality, with newcomers Kazuya and Erika representing one kind and Subaru and Rin representing another. During the game's original story the player will be able to go to any of the three high schools from the Link Joker chapter of the anime, Hitsue High, Fukuhara High, or Miyaji Academy. The player character will wear the corresponding school uniform, and unlike in RTV the player will be able to change their character during the storyline.

Preview images have also shown the Hotblooded protagonist Ryouta, fighting a Reversed Ishida Naoki using a Vowing Saber Dragon deck. Lock on Victory's original storyline will apparently feature the Reverse subplot from the anime, but as the player themselves will be able to use Link Joker and Reverse cards from the real-world boosters sets, it's unknown just how the storyline will flow.

Lock on Victory will also feature ten new trial decks, making more options accessible to the player from the beginning of the game. The names of these game-unique TDs have been translated below.

Angel Feather "Aid of the Angels" (Tenshi no Kyuusai 天使の救済)
Tachikaze "Supreme Dragon of the Ancient Past" (Taiko no Haryuu 太古の覇竜)
Murakumo "Spikes of the Hidden Army" (Onimtsu no Ningun 隠密の忍軍)
Dark Irregulars "Twilit Superhuman" (Yoiyami no Inousha 宵闇の異能者)
Pale Moon "Circus of the Moonlit Night" (Tsukiyo no Kijutsudan 月夜の奇術団)
Spike Brothers "Lawless Noisemakers" (Muhou no Bakusou 無法の爆走)
Granblue "Attack of the Ghost Ship" (Shingeki no Yuureisen 進撃の幽霊船)
Megacolony "Indomitable Mutant Insects" (Fukutsu no Kaichuu 不屈の怪虫)
Great Nature "The Wisdom of Beasts" (Hyakujuu no Eichi 百獣の叡智)
Neo Nectar "Eternity of Nature" (Yuukyuu no Daishizen 悠久の大自然)

Two of Lock on Victory's protagonists made a recent cameo in episode 158 of the anime, with Luna and Ryouta wearing Hitsue and Miyaji uniforms. Although most promotional materials for the game have focused on Miyaji, Luna has now been shown wearing each of the three schools' uniforms, Fukuhara during the initial LOV conference, Hitsue in the anime, and Miyaji in Monthly Bushiroad.

In other news, the third Tachikawa VGCS has just come to a close, with Link Joker and Nouvelle Vague cardfighters take first and second place. Tournament organizer Kohaku reported that in spite of the bad weather--the Tachikawa area saw snowfall throughout the 8th--the CS still saw 86 participants attending out of their projected 96. Third and fourth place went to Nouvelle and Minerva cardfighters respectively, while fifth through eighth to another Nouvelle fighter and two Blaukluger players. Decklists are expected to go up within the week.