News: Team League 2014 France Won by Defender Team, Invaders in Second

Photo courtesy of Alunyan.

The first stage of Team League 2014: Invasion concluded in Paris yesterday, with first place taken by a team from the Netherlands. 39 teams took part in the regional qualifier, numbering 117 persons in total, with a native French team placing second. According to eyewitness accounts the French team was in the minority of those playing Invader side of the tournament; Team League 2014 is divided into two halves according to its special rules, the Cray Defenders and Void Invaders, and depending on which force a team chooses to side with they are restricted to either being unable to use Link Joker and "Яeverse" cards or are required to use them in their decks.

Photo courtesy of Alunyan.

Following the announcement that Extra Booster 9: Divine Dragon Progression will be getting an English release midway through the Team League tournament, many teams have preemptively chosen to side with the Defenders in anticipation of Dragonic Nouvelle Vague's sweeping effect on the format. In spite of Chaos Breaker Dragon's upcoming release in BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak within the next two weeks, this has ironically left Void understaffed.

The first place team, United Force, was led by a Gold Paladin cardfighter playing a Liberator deck that combined Liberator Alfred's topdeck superior call to fill the field with a massive field power bonus from Gancelot's break ride skill. Middle and rear positions were played by Shadow Paladin and Eradicator cardfighters, with the self-standing Raging Form Dragon as the marquee card of the Shadow Paladin fighter's Revenger deck. Second place team SKET played Luquier "Яeverse," Nebula Lord Dragon and Vowing Saber Dragon "Яeverse."

The regional qualifiers for Mexico and Canada also took place on the 19th, with their results currently forthcoming.

News: Chaos Breaker Dragon's Skills Leaked

Following a long train of hype surrounding Link Joker's new boss card, Star-vader Chaos Breaker Dragon, his skill has been leaked through images of Monthly Bushiroad magazine. As Kai Toshiki's new key card, Chaos Breaker integrates Link Joker's Lock skills along with the retire aspects of his previous clans Kagerou and Narukami. The new unit's skill allows it to retire a rearguard when it is Unlocked and draw a card by eroding at Chaos Breaker's soul, preventing opponents from escaping Lock altogether.

Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
Grade 3/11000 Power/No Shield/Link Joker - Cyber Dragon/
AUTO (V) [Limit Break 4]: [Soulblast 1 cards with "Star-vader" in their name] During the opponent's end phase, when an opponent's card Unlocks, retire that card and draw 1 card.
ACT (V): [Counterblast (1) "Star-vader" and discard 1 card with "Star-vader" in its name from your hand] Choose one of your opponent's rearguards and Lock it. This ability cannot be used for the rest of the turn.



Chaos Breaker is expected to carry a heavy impact on professional play, as prior to his debut Link Joker has been very reliant on the Infinite Zero Dragon break ride to achieve consistent field control, and his ability to retire Unlocked units is very destructive to the currently Reverse-centric Japanese competitive scene. At present there are two types of Reverse units that have shown themselves to be best all-around units in tournament play and preliminary testing. The first type are cards like Luquier “Я” and Cocytus “Я” that give +1 card advantage per counterblast spent, but are based on limiting that advantage to the manipulation of specific zones and rearguard skills. They get their mileage out of Lock by capitalizing on the fact that Locked cards open at the end of their owner's turn. Being able to retire the cards that the opponent's Reverse card Locked changes this, negating the +1 that Luquier and Cocytus “Я” achieve and instead giving it to Chaos Breaker.

The second type are cards like Vowing Saber “Я” and “Я” Daiyusha, which Breaker has an even better matchup against. This is because these units are reliant on Lock 2 skills to achieve overwhelming power. Normally, Vowing Saber uses his Lock 2 to retire 2 of the opponent's rearguards, which works out to a -2 to the opponent with only counterblast cost once the Locks open. “Я” Daiyusha doesn't directly take away the opponent's card advantage, but by decreasing the opposing vanguard's power he functionally forces the opponent to drop one more card per attack to defend successfully so that they incur a -3 each turn. Chaos Breaker breaks the formula because now Vowing Saber takes a -2 equal to the opponent's -2, and Chaos gets to draw 2 cards to replace the rearguards that Saber retired, while Daiyusha's impact on the game is similarly mitigated to a -2 for Daiyusha vs net -1 to Breaker. Using Reverse card skills no longer becomes sustainable because more resources are lost through using them than are gained. The use of those skills is likely to drive Chaos Breaker's cardfighter to limit break in the first place, enabling his counterplay. Furthermore, Vowing Saber and “Я” Daiyusha normally choose their vanguard booster as the primary sacrifice for their Lock 2 skills, because Saber gets +10000 power to go for 21-23000 unboosted and Daiyusha's Tyrannus Gravity has a functionally similar effect. Chaos Breaker's retire skill takes away those vanguard boosters, so that in either case Reverse cardfighters need to use their limit breaks just to attack at normal strength rather than to power up. This narrows down their resources even further when Breaker limit breaks again, perpetuating a vicious cycle that makes Chaos Breaker Dragon into a hard counter to Reverse cards.

Bushiroad has gone all out in making Reverse cards some of the best choices to build a deck around within their own clans, which suggests that Chaos Breaker will be a format-defining unit not just during the release of Catastrophic Outbreak, but also through future booster sets.

News: Luquier Reverse Wins Tachikawa Vanguard Championship

The decklists for the August 3rd Second Tachikawa Vanguard Championship are out, bringing with them a dark horse victory in VGCS champion Hibari's Luquier “Я” deck. Held at Hobby Station Tachikawa, the tournament drew 82 participants in all, with the top 4 being Pale Moon, Revenger, Eradicator and Spike Brothers cardfighters, while the top 8 contained three more Revenger decks, as well as one Majesty Lord Blaster build running 2 copies of Majesty with 1 Soul Saver Dragon, for 3 grade 3s in all. The final matches of the Tachikawa VGCS were uploaded to TwitCasting, a Japanese video sharing website geared towards mobile devices.

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, with entry fees in the vicinity of 1000 yen per person that go toward grand prizes like booster boxes, Nintendo 3DS handhelds and other merchandise. 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 at official events.

Deck Distribution: Total Attendance 82 Persons

Revengers 24 (15 with Creeping Dark Goat, 9 with Claudas)

Eradicators 19 (10 with Spark Kid Dragoon, 9 with Linchu)

Link Joker 7

Pale Moon 6

Liberators 5

Spike Brothers 4

Bermuda Triangle 3 (2 using Eternal Idol Pacifica, 1 using Aurora Star Coral)

Genesis 2

Dark Irregulars 2

Sanctuary Guard Dragon 2

Seal Dragons (Kagerou) 2

Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion 1

Great Nature 1

Ezel 1

Crimson Impact, Metatron 1

Majesty Lord Blaster 1

Scarlet Witch, CoCo 1

Although Japan's current format is known for its extremely aggressive gameplay, early on in the match the Minatsuki v. Hibari finals showed the two fighters dancing around one another considerably, while focusing on one another's rearguards and playing to a very slow buildup, fighting tooth and nail for each point of damage. Hibari showed considerable innovation in how he played his Reverse card, using the Miracle Pop Eva break ride in conjunction with Reverse's limit break to come back from a four card difference, locking two backrow rearguards behind his vanguard and one rearguard line to call two new ones to the front, then attacking with those rearguards and afterwards swapping them in with Eva's break ride to call a completely new column to his then-empty left lane. The Silver Thorn series' quick and accurate soul setup allowed him to prepare a constant pool of new units to call with Luquier “Я”'s skill, calling more soul-charging rearguards from the soul and then locking those units to bring out more opportunities.

In the second round Minatsuki became gradelocked at 0, quickly leading to a three-card disadvantage for the Revenger side, but he came back using Tartu and Darkbond Trumpeter's skills to superior call boosters. Even so, this couldn't hold up to Luquier's reliable strategy, so after his surprise comeback in the first round Hibari completely dominated the second, beating Raging Form 2-0.

First Place
Deck Name: Luquier
Handle Name: Hibari
Grade 0
x1 Innocent Magician (FV)
x4 Silver Thorn Barking Dragon CT
x1 Dynamite Juggler CT
x4 Poison Juggler CT
x3 Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha DT
x4 Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia HT
Grade 1
x4 Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina
x3 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Ana
x4 Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia
x3 Purple Trapezist
Grade 2
x4 Silver Thorn Marionette, Lillian
x2 Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Maricica
x3 Silver Thorn Rising Dragon
x2 Nitro Juggler
Grade 3
x3 Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Я”
x3 Miracle Pop, Eva
x2 Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier

Second Place
Deck Name: Revenger
Handle Name: Minatsuki
Grade 0
x1 Frontline Revenger, Claudas (FV)
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x1 Grim Reaper CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
x3 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Healing Revenger HT
Grade 1
x4 Morale Revenger, Dorin
x3 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x2 Revenger, Darkbond Trumpeter
Grade 2
x4 Black Clothed Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 3
x4 Illusion Revenger, Mordred Phantom
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon

Third Place
Deck Name: Midsummer~ Misha-sensei
Handle Name: Ryou
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FV)
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
x1 Eradicator Dragon Mage DT
x3 Eradicator, Blue Gem Carbuncle DT
Grade 1
x4 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x2 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x4 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
Grade 2
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Cho-ou
x3 Supreme Army Eradicator, Zuitan
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Я”

Fourth Place
Deck Name: Anthony Respect
Handle Name: NEXT
Grade 0
x1 Mecha Trainer (FV)
x4 Silence Joker CT
x4 Sonic Breaker CT
x4 Cheerful Lynx DT
x4 Cheer Girl, Tiara HT
Grade 1
x4 Wonder Boy
x4 Reckless Express
x4 Cheer Girl Marilyn
x1 Dudley Dan
Grade 2
x4 Dudley Mason
x4 Highspeed Brakki
x2 Panzer Gale
Grade 3
x2 Juggernaut Maximum
x4 Bad End Dragger
x4 Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor