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: Fourth Laketown VGCS Decklists, Narukami-Royal Paladin Fusion Places Third, Cat Butler Raizers Control Top Two

Original image by card shop Fireball.

Hosted by card shop Fireball, the fourth Laketown Vanguard Championship took place over the 17th of the month, and had a turnout of 60 persons with a 1000 yen (approx. $9.80) entry fee. Preceded by several rounds of six draw and then followed by a cut to top 8, this CS marked another victory for Nova Grappler cardfighters, but interestingly preceded the debut of Cat Butler Raizers at the Second Beast Deity Cup by a matter of days. Unlike the recent Raizer decks from the fourth Tachikawa VGCS and the Second Beast Deity Cup, first place finalist Hideyuki's deck included a more normalized grade 3 count, with seven grade 3s instead of four to five, and made room for its extra grade 0s by cutting out space throughout the entire deck, running just twelve grade 1s and ten grade 2s. His build also emphasized Energy Charger in a fashion similar to Calamity Tower Wyvern's use in the late Dragonic Nouvelle Vague decks prior to their phasing out. Although Beast Deity champion Silver Crow has received much of the credit for popularizing a particular incarnation of the Raizer series in professional play, Hideyuki may lead Nova cardfighters to rethink where they make their cuts and which cards are most important for supporting their restanding strategy.

Third place finalist Black-Rimmed Glasses made his way into the top 4 by uniquely inserting a playset of the grade 2 Narukami Brawler Youjin into his Thing Saver Dragon deck, taking advantage of the fact that Youjin does not require a Narukami vanguard to use his retire skill; so that when either Sacred Wingal or Thing Saver enter Legion, Youjin automatically retires one of the opponent's frontrow rearguards. This kind of deckbuidling is not possible in Bushiroad's official tournaments due to the implementation of rules which prevent players from using other clans in their decks, but VGCS organizers have no such qualms about mixing cards if the skill text allows for it. He also featured a number of other modifications, mixing in a Shadow Paladin card as well with the card changer Witch of Nostrum Arianrhod, to help expedite getting four cards into the drop zone for Legion alongside his Lake Maiden Lien playset. BRG has made a name for himself in the Vanguard Championships, making third in the fifth Fateclock VGCS and second place in the third Laketown VGCS.

The remaining top 8 in the fourth Fireball VGCS included Star-vader "Ω" Glendios, Thing Saver Dragon and two Cat Butler Raizers cardfighters. Glendios has remained an enduring part of the format since its debut at the previous Laketown CS, becoming one of the few builds to consistently slow down the pace of a game by shutting down both rearguard lanes and preventing them from unlocking. In the Legion format Omega has received consistently trouble from the plethora of semi-independent vanguards, diminishing the impact of a locked field.

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 Laketown CS
First place: Hideyuki/ヒデユキ
Deck name: STAP Cells Are Right Here!/スタップ細胞はここにあります！
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Regenbogen HT
x2 Raizer Crew DT
x2 Meteoraizer CT
x4 Red Lightning CT
x4 Minimum Raizer CT
Grade 1
x4 Shieldraizer
x4 Energy Charger
x4 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x2 Marine Raizer, HT
Grade 3
x3 Pheonix Raizer, DW
x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Second place: Rishia/リシア
Deck name: Don't Say Kompeitō Panic @Berserk/コンペイトウパニック＠バーサークとは言わせない
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x2 Raizer Crew DT
x2 Schones Wetter CT
x4 Red Lightning CT
x4 Meteoraizer CT
Grade 1
x2 Shieldraizer
x2 Twin Blader
x3 Energy Charger
x3 Jetraizer
x3 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x2 Marine Raizer, HT
Grade 3
x2 Pheonix Raizer, DW
x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Third place: Black-Rimmed Glasses/くろぶちめがね
Deck name: Youjin in Thing Saver/ヨウジン入りシングセイバー
Grade 0
x1 Starting Legend, Ambrosius (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x4 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
x4 Margal DT
Grade 1
x1 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x4 Glynngal Seeker
x1 Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod
Grade 2
x4 Brawler Youjin
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x2 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x1 Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x4 Seeker, Sacred Wingal

Fourth place: Knight of Stability/安定のナオト
Deck name: Seeker, Media Park Kawaguchiten/探索店メディアパーク川口店
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x2 Arms Dealer, Govanon DT
x4 Messegal Seeker DT
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x2 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x3 Flash Shield, Iseult
x1 Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria
x2 Glynngal Seeker
x4 Flail Seeker, Hasbasado
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x3 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x4 Seeker, Sacred Wingal

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