News: World Champion Almeida Stewart Wins BeNeLux Tournament with Genovius, Lock on Victory to Include Over 2300 Cards

The latest BeNeLux tournament concluded on March 9th early this week, with reigning world champion Almeida Stewart taking first place using an Aqua Force deck atypical of the BT12-on format. The BeNeLux tournaments are a line of unofficial competitions organized by the joint vanguard community of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Although open to being held in any of the three countries' major cities, it is typically held in Antwerp, Belgium on a monthly to bimonthly basis; due to its relatively high turnout in the range of ~30 persons minimum, it has been nicknamed the VGCS of BeNeLux.

In total there were 35 participants, low compared to the normal turnout of a Japanese CS but on par with other large tournaments in Europe and the unofficial ARG tournaments in the United States. The March BeNeLux was held in the Outpost Gamecenter of Antwerp and lasted 6 rounds, with second place going to Dylan Kneip playing a Raging Form Dragon deck. The top 8 were as follows;

1. Aqua Force (Thundering Ripple Genovius, played by Almeida Stewart)

2. Shadow Paladin (Revenger Raging Form Dragon, played by Dylan Kneip)

3. Pale Moon (Silver Thorns)

4. Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon)

5. Narukami (Eradicators)

6. Link Joker (Nebula Lord Dragon)

7. Royal Paladin (Sanctuary Guard Dragon and Fang of Light Garmore)

8. Gold Paladin (Ezel)

Stewart's decklist emphasized better than average draw power, speed and consistency. The core of it used 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 allowed better early aggression. This also worked 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.

Stewart ran three copies of Penguin Soldier for its soulblast-and-draw skill, reasoning that with the deck's break ride he would always have four cards in the soul to use two of the Penguins later on.

His main strategy was to break ride Genovius over Transcore Dragon; attacking with both rearguard lanes first would bring the opponent to 5 damage, Transcore's skill would force the opponent to discard a card just to be able to guard in the first place to ensure a -3 even if they had a perfect defense card, and Genovius' persona blast would stand both rearguard columns to ensure that he would have two more attacks waiting to receive any trigger checks.

The maneuver became even more dangerous if the opponent was already at 5 damage, where any one of the five attacks would win the game. For endgame purposes Stewart ran a tech copy of Blue Storm Supreme Dragon Glory Maelstrom, using Glory Maelstrom's ultimate break to prevent the opponent from using perfect defense cards while increasing his own power. The decision synergized well with his focus on draw power and grade security. You can jump to the decklists directly by searching the page for [MBNL]

Meanwhile more details on the upcoming sequel to the Nintendo 3DS game Ride to Victory, Cardfight!! Vanguard Lock on Victory, have just come out through an Amazon listing. Announced last December, the sequel will feature over 2300 cards, support both local and internet play, and allow the sending of messages to other players after concluding a cardfight. Lock on Victory will also come packaged with four copies of Setting Sun Star-vader Darmstadtium, each foiled as an R-rarity card.

Retailing for 5229 JPY (approx. 52 USD) the game is scheduled for a June 5th release in Japan, will introduce four new protagonists and will allow the player to attend a high school of their choice from the anime series, between Kai Toshiki's Hitsue High, Sendou Aichi's Miyaji Academy, and Suzugamori Ren's Fukuhara High School. Recent issues of Monthly Bushiroad magazine have also shown Reversed cardfighters appearing, with Naoki and Koutei making use of their Vowing Saber Dragon and “Я” Daiyusha decks respectively.

Although past campaigns to bring the first game over have not succeeded, Bushiroad was responsive to fans' initial requests for FuRyu's game to be translated for the western markets, to the point that internal talks had begun by the time of Anime Expo 2013. As Ride to Victory was never designed with an international release date in mind, there may yet be hope for its sequel.

March BeNeLux Tournament [MBNL]
First Place: Almeida Stewart
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

Second Place: Dylan Kneip
Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x2 Abyss Freezer DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x2 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Sacrilege Revenger, Baal-berith
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x3 Dark Cloak Revenger, Tartu
x4 Nullity Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Interview: World Champion Brandon Smith

Thursday morning we at Cardfight Pro were able to sit down with the reigning Cardfight!! Vanguard world champion Brandon Smith for an interview. Since his crowning in December 2012, Smith has become a noted celebrity in the greater community of Cardfight!!, opening his doors to the press and riding the wave of publicity that followed his seizing of the first international title. However, his skill is more than what's seen on camera. Played against in person, Smith is the genuine article; after a string of victories in casual matches, Smith temporarily traded decks with our editor and played a flawless game, turning the editor's personal build against him after only brief observation of how it played. This ability to pick up and play any deck has been recognized as one of Smith's greatest strengths.

Smith's store, Collectible Investments in Berkley, MI, is one of the busiest we have ever seen. In addition to selling the Cardfight!! Vanguard Trading Card Game and other TCG properties, the store does double duty as a seller of collectables and curios, with Beatles memorabilia and rotary dial telephones stacked high along the shelves. The merchandise moves in and out--what you see in the store one night is likely not there the next. While most local shops see a regular turnout of six to eight people a week, on tournament night at Collectible Investments as many as twenty-five or thirty people will be crammed into the tables of the long, corridor-like card shop. Collectible Investments serves as the epicenter of eastern Michigan's professional scene, and a gathering ground of strong cardfighters, who are currently preparing for their regional tournament in April.

CFP: Up to now we've heard the story of you becoming the world champion, the road to the championship and how the match with Henry Suharto went. The story not yet told is the story coming home. How has that impacted you, coming back to your store and your hometown, and has your life changed any by becoming world champion?

Smith: It's been a lot of fun. [Being in] Japan, the tournament was a lot of fun, but being back home was good. I got a celebration when I got back, had this tournament and whatnot. I've gotten a lot of offers for sponsorship....at nationals I got sponsored by CoreTCG, I also got a lot of opportunities to create games, so it's a lot of different things that have been offered. I got a lot of congratulations from all around the world. I'd like to thank everybody for being supportive. It's been great.

CFP: Now that we're headed into the Stand Up Challenge Cup--you've already qualified for regionals--in this new crossride format, Dragonic Overlord The End and Majesty Lord Blaster are expect to do very well, but how are you going to face this [next] championship?

Smith: I haven't quite decided yet. I have an arsenal of decks. I still have my Spectral Duke Dragon deck and it's very formidable against this format. I also have The End and MLB as well to playtest against, so I don't wanna say what I think will happen at the Stand Up Cup finals or championship. The End is very formidable as an opponent, very hard to beat, hard to deal with and if you don't play against it correctly you can lose easily. But even though those two are getting the limelight, the glory, I think that the Shadow Paladin guy [Phantom Blaster Overlord] could step up and cause some unsuspected damage to the tournament scene.

CFP: There's been a lot of talk about a restricted list like Japan currently has, with certain decks being restricted, what do you think of this idea?

Smith: [It's] like you said earlier, about everyone having a deck in their backpack, but then the decks that hit the table were MLB and DOTE. (While setting up for the interview, I had commented offhandedly about the qualifier tournament Collectible Investments had held on Sunday night. Everyone in Smith's store had two decks--their regular deck, and their "tournament" deck that was either Majesty Lord Blaster or Dragonic Overlord The End.) So I'm in favor of the restriction list. Unfortunately it does hurt [Oracle Think Tank] and they're not seeing as much play in America, so it does seem like--and a lot of people said [this]--they didn't get justly hit. I'm in favor of Bushiroad and their restriction list, especially if the tournament scene ends up like Japan. When I was in Japan I played about twelve matches against Japanese-only decks and even though they were at like set 10--it had just come out that weekend--everyone played Majesty Lord Blaster and DOTE. So it just seems like Bushiroad did themselves a favor and what's best for the game by making the restricted list, especially targeting MLB and DOTE. Unfortunately MLB is really consistent and the fact that it can pull itself out with just the one [and] Wingal Brave, overall I'm in favor of the restrictions.

CFP: In Japan right now we have the break ride format going on that's predicted to make crossrides irrelevant. Of course, we don't have those yet in the English format so you haven't had the chance to playtest [yet], but what's your view?

Smith: Theoretically I think they're good, but I think that a lot of players are overhyping them. Yes they're devastating, but you also have to have them in the correct order. So if you're playing the Kagerou ride break [Dauntless Drive Dragon], if you ride DOTE--or however it plays out if we get a restriction list--then it may not be as good, because you'll just sit there with ride break grade 3s later. Or if you play the Gold Paladin version [Gancelot], if you choose to play like Duke or Ezel, [and] you ride those first then they're just rearguards. So it all depends on how it plays out, I think they have really great potential and that's why they were introduced to the game, but I don't think they're as strong as people give them credit to be.

The Challenge Cup regional tournaments will start up on April 12th and last through April 28th, with twenty-seven regionals spread out across the continent deciding who will go on to the finals in Orlando, Florida, to be held this June. As the previous year's titleholder, Smith is among the favorites for the North American title, but the competition even at the regional level will be fierce and Michigan is one of the most difficult states to qualify in. With many cardfighters eager to either champion or defeat the crossride decks of this format, 2013 is promising to be an unpredictable year.