News: Almeida Stewart Becomes 2013 World Champion, Nova Grappler and Shadow Paladin Fighters Take Japanese Championship

Stewart, fourth from the left, stands alongside his fellow competitors as well as Morishima Shuuta and Mimori Suzuko in Tokyo Dome City's Prism Hall, Japan. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

Fourteen hours ago the 2013 Cardfight!! Vanguard World Championships closed with Almeida Stewart of Luxembourg taking the world title. As the first European world champion and successor to Brandon Smith, Stewart is the next inheritor of a growing international history surrounding the game. While for the European national championships Stewart played a Gold Paladin deck using Garmore and Liberator Gancelot, for the world finals he switched to a Dauntless DOTE deck running eight draw triggers, based on the The End deck he had qualified with at the regional level in the Belgium qualifiers. For rising up as the strongest cardfighter of 2013, Stewart was awarded the title of "Grand Champion" and 2013's crystal trophy.

Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

On-site reports state that out of nine competitors in the tournament, seven used Narukami Eradicator decks, while North American national champion Albert Lee played a Beast Deity Nova Grappler build. Stewart's decision to move to Dauntless for the finals left him in the minority and he reportedly hesitated to go ahead with the deck for Worlds, but the deck choice proved prudent as it allowed him to control the pace of his fights by forcing his opponents to play The End's mind games. The Dauntless deck is notorious for making opponents decide between either allowing its break ridden The End to hit and stand with a persona blast that recoups the loss in advantage brought on by break ride, or dealing with Dauntless restanding the vanguard even when DOTE's attack does not hit and go in for a second strike that can also lead into a persona blast to bring the previous scenario back into play. Faced with this situation, the general consensus among professional fighters is that the only right choice is to declare "no guard" against the first attack and direct all defenses toward blocking the second, but this requires playing specifically to be at 3 or less damage by that point and is not always a option in its own right when faced with early aggression.

Almeida Stewart, Albert Lee, Adwin Leong and Kevin Lang. Original photo by Cardfight!! Vanguard USA.

At the same time, since the release of BT11 Dauntless has received some praise for revising the DOTE build to both be more effective and require more thought to bring out that effectiveness, as the deck's plethora of support options from both old staples like Berserk Dragon and Heatnail Salamander as well as newer cards like Corduory and Kersey have demanded more work in the deckbuilding process and careful play in determining which of the opponent's cards are most important to control with the fighter's limited counterblast. With overlapping support from the Seal Dragons and consistent ways to remove the rearguards, Dauntless has proved to be one of the most effective and challenging decks in 2013. The Dauntless DOTE deck's major contender within the format, the Eradicator build, has been contrasted as being much more of an autopilot deck that takes much of the direct decision making out of its cardfighters' hands. After plaguing Japanese play for the past year, the Eradicators finally debuted in English-language competition for the first time in the world finals, bringing with them a powerful engine for field control and card destruction.

While BT10's break ride cards have been hyped across the board as some of the most decisive tools of the new format, most Eradicator cardfighters have eschewed their Vowing Sword break ride in favor of running an Eradicator deck that uses both Gauntlet Buster Dragon and Dragonic Descendant. Gauntlet Buster, whose limit break increases his power and critical every time an opponent's rearguard is retired, is commonly played as the deck's midgame to destroy the opponent's cards using his counterblast skill, then build up extra critical that demands perfect defense cards to be repeatedly played across two or more turns. With Zuitan to unflip damage to further support Buster, as well as lesser rearguards like Chou-ou that can retire an opponent's rearguard by putting one of the Eradicator fighter's into the soul and then recoup the loss with Rising Phoenix's soulblast-to-draw skill, the subclan's gameplan has proved overwhelming by continuously pushing the opponent's advantage down while the Narukami fighter's has stayed static. Meanwhile Dragonic Descendant has functioned as the clan's self-standing vanguard, able to limit break with a very cheap counterblast 1 and discard cost when his attack does not hit in order to swing again with an extra critical that makes his attack functionally impossible to declare no-guard against. For this reason Descendant has been limited to 2 in Japan since last May, but critics of the subclan have pointed out that with so many other powerful grade 3 options in Vowing Sword and the upcoming Vowing Saber Dragon crossbreak ride, the truly daunting issue surrounding the Eradicator deck is that each card individually could make or break a build on their own, where together they snowball into one overwhelming subclan. Even so, with Worlds 2014 likely eight to nine months away, and the upcoming releases of VGE-BT12: Binding Force of the Black Rings and VGE-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak within that timeframe, international cardfight may never see the Eradicators rise to the same prominence they did in their home country. Current predictions are that Link Joker decks will get widespread adoption in North America, where the clan has proved exceedingly popular and Chaos Breaker Dragon has become the buzzcard of the day.

2013 has left a complicated legacy for professional cardfight, but with Europe emerging as a vanguard force in competitive play the future may see more standout names making the headlines, inspired by Stewart's success story. For the time being, decklists are expected to go up within the week. And while the world is discussing the results of WCS2013, Japan's Fighter's Climax 2013 national tournament has just concluded with the junior class national champion seizing the title with a Nova Grappler deck, according to Doctor O. While their names are not yet public, Nova Grappler was extremely prolific in the juniors' division this year and there are six probable cardfighters that could have taken first, with five of them being Beast Deity fighters using a combination of Ethics Buster Extreme and Reverse alongside their break ride, and the remaining sixth being veteran Nova Grappler fighter Nishida Sachi, who had previously been noted for his Beast Deity deck with Stern Blaukluger tech in FR2013 Kyoto, and who had recently taken a full Stern deck to second place at Osaka. Meanwhile in the open class division, a Shadow Paladin cardfighter rumored to be playing Raging Form Dragon took first place, with the runner-up playing Link Joker. In total, the representation for this year showed 4 Kagerou, 3 Genesis, 2 Shadow Paladin, 2 Link Joker, 2 Aqua Force, 1 Gold Paladin, 1 Narukami and 1 Great Nature decks in the open class finals.

News: Dragonic Overlord the End and "THE BLOOD" Storm Atlanta World Championship Qualifier

The second regional qualifier in the World Championship 2013 tournament series has concluded, with first place going to Johnathan Luu and his Dragonic Overlord the End deck. Second place was taken by Daniel Sirois using Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD," with third also going to a "THE BLOOD" cardfighter Christopher Hairston, and fourth to Christian Okezie with Blazing Lion Platina Ezel. In stark contrast to the Toronto results from the previous weekend, Atlanta's top 4 is more in line with what was expected from the 2013 tournament season. Outside of the top 4, Oracle Think Tank was reportedly a popular choice, with different cardfighters bringing Tsukuyomi, CoCo and Goddess Amaterasu through the elimination rounds.

Johnathan Luu's decklist has been leaked onto the internet through an interview conducted by YouTube channel Team Limit Break. The full decklist has been reproduced in text below.

Johnathan Luu
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FV)
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x3 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x3 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x2 Embodiment of Armor, Tahr CT
x4 Blu-ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x1 Bellicosity Dragon
x2 Berserk Dragon
x1 Cross Shot, Garp
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
x3 Dragonic Overlord

Although running stand triggers in DOTE decks has proven popular since the rise of Kaden Kawakami as the presiding North American national champion, Luu preferred critical triggers for a stronger early game to throw the opponent to higher damage faster, and to avoid having dead drive checks when fighting with just his center lane. Luu was mindful of the current state of competitive play, building his deck with Majesty Lord Blaster matchups in mind and preferring base 10000 grade 2 rides to deny the majority of Wingal Brave combos.

It should be noted when considering these results is that runner up Daniel Sirois was pressed for time. Conflicting reports from eyewitnesses at Atlanta state that Sirois was either disqualified during the finals for incurring too many penalties or deliberately incurred enough penalties to get disqualified so that he could leave the tournament in a timely manner.

The next tournament in the World Championship will be the first European qualifier in Brussels on September 14, followed by the third North American qualifier in Chicago on the 15th.

News: Nova Grappler Places First in Toronto World Championship Qualifiers, Tri-stinger Dragon Turns Heads

Note: To help better organize the community and answer questions about WCS2013, there are now help threads on the Neo Ark Cradle forums and Cardgame!!Coalition.

The World Championship 2013 regional qualifiers have begun, with the first North American qualifier in Toronto having finished yesterday evening. Regional champion Sebastien LeBon fought his way to the top using a Nova Grappler deck, currently believed to be a Beast Deity build. The victory comes as a surprise to the world of pros, as Nova Grappler has never been a strong component of high level play, and even more surprising is that no Dragonic Overlord the End decks placed in the regional. LeBon may have brought some exciting innovations to how the Grapplers are played. Runner up Kevin Perron played a Narukami deck, rumored to be a Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD" build, third place fighter Robert Ewell used an Aqua Force deck based around Tri-Stinger Dragon, and fourth went to Kevin Luu with Majesty Lord Blaster. All four cardfighters have received invitations to the North American national finals in Pasadena, California.

The presence of Tri-stinger in the regional finals instead of Glory Maelstrom has also been a surprise. The deck has been relatively underground up to this point, but those well versed in Aqua Force can attest to its strength. The main strategy of Tri-stinger builds is to use the Dragon's counterblast 2 to power up a rearguard Basil or Benedict by +3000, so that they can swing for 13000 with their initial attack, and then either (in Basil's case) swap places with Coral Assault or have Benedict stand and swing for 13000+ power again with as little as a 5000 power boost. With Tri-stinger's limit break, he unflips the 2 counterblast that he paid when he attacks in the third or more battle of the turn, allowing him to make the maneuver all over again in the next turn. This quality of making four 13000+ power attacks per turn helps Tri-stinger to contend effectively with the crossride decks that have caused so many problems for Aqua Force since their debut, quickly eating up their 5000 power shields and forcing them to drop 10000 shield per each attack by way of not having anything else to guard with. Furthermore, Tri-stinger plays a very vicious game against other limit break decks, deliberately using Astraea to make a 14000 power vanguard line that constantly baits the opponent to guard in a way that they never reach their limit break until they have no resources left to guard with.

According to on-site informants, approximately 300 people attended the Toronto regional. Reigning world champion Brandon Smith was in attendance, and lasted until the final elimination round to make it into the top 16, but took two losses spread across the tournament's third and seventh rounds from gradelock, causing him to be eliminated. As Smith will still be competing for this year's championship title in subsequent tournaments, we will not be disclosing his deck type.

Alarmingly, in the aftermath of the Toronto regional some sellers have taken to selling the WCS2013 regional promo PR/0069EN Creeping Dark Goat at four times the price of any other contemporary promo card, going as high as $18.99 for a single copy, and almost twice the price of Circle Magus, a previous world championship promo released last year. Goat is a promo card whose English-language release was met with celebration earlier this year, as the card has been called Shadow Paladin's most competitive first vanguard, both in the English and Japanese formats. Critics of the high price have pointed out that there is no real market for the pricetag, as without the Revengers in the English format Shadow Paladin is generally ranked lower than Megacolony in competitive application, and only played by hardcore fans of the clan. Consumers are discouraged from buying overpriced Goats, as that price is unlikely to go down unless CDG becomes unsellable at these artificially inflated prices.

News: Creeping Dark Goat to See English Release During WCS2013

Sources at Bushiroad have identified that the highly anticipated Creeping Dark Goat, the second Shadow Paladin first vanguard to be printed since Fullbau in BT04, will see its English release at the World Championship 2013 Free Fight events. These Free Fight side events, similar to those of Worlds 2012, will be held at each regional to allow those not participating in the main tournament and those that have been eliminated to play casual matches for fun. While all of the regional events so far begin at 9:00 AM and end at 6:00 PM, the Free Fight side events will be starting up during the main tournament from 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM, coinciding with the point when many cardfighters have been eliminated.

Although FVGs of Creeping Dark Goat's model have frequently been panned for their inaccuracy, CDG has enjoyed special attention among Shadow Paladin cardfighters for being their primary competitive option, as a free boosting unit that is guaranteed is oftentimes more useful than what Fullbau brings to the table. Furthermore, even in Japan where Frontline Revenger Claudas is presently available with more power and a unique skill, CDG is often played just for providing the chance to search for a grade 3. Fighters will be able to earn PR/0069EN Creeping Dark Goat by participating in 4 or more matches in the Free Fight event. They will also be able to earn PR/0070EN Shield Knight of the Clouds by participating in 2 or more matches.

As a participation prize for taking part in the main regional tournament PR/0071EN Graphite Cannon Dragon will be given out, along with a card storage box.

Rumor: World Championship 2013 Locations, Restricted List Will Not be Modified for WCS2013, Ride to Victory to See International Release

Updated 7/10/2013: Bushiroad USA has confirmed much of the information below.
Cardfighters that attended day 2 of Bushiroad's Anime Expo 2013 event have leaked information on the upcoming WCS2013 international tournament, confirmed since February but now with concrete dates and locations provided. This information is being attributed to Bushiroad's general manager for the Cardfight!! Vanguard USA Facebook page "Doctor K" J-Kim, who was hosting a Q&A panel that day.

WCS2013 will be taking place in December 2013, with the North American national championship taking place earlier on, in November. Seven qualifier locations have been put out so far;

1. Dallas, Texas - September
2. Chicago, Illinois - September 15th
3. Hawaii (exact city to be announced) - September
4. Seattle, Washington - September
5. New York, New York - September
6. Atlanta, Georgia - October 13th
7. Los Angeles, California - November

Additionally, Los Angeles is speculated to be the location of the championship finals. The location list suggests that this will be in the same format of WCS2012, with cardfighters attending each qualifier independently and the top two of each tournament going on to the finals, rather than using the Challenge Cup format of qualifying at a shop before going to a qualifier. While this information has not been confirmed by Bushiroad, it is considered very likely to be accurate based on the source attributed and the timing of the AX2013 event.

While there was some discussion that the English format restricted list may be modified to be closer to Japan's January 2013 list following the Challenge Cup, as Dragonic Overlord The End accounted for five of the top eight decks used in the Challenge Cup finals, according to this AX leak the restricted list will not be modified prior to the WCS2013 regional qualifiers. Furthermore, the reason for the sudden flurry of releases in English from EB04 through BT11 is because Bushiroad is moving towards simultaneous English and Japanese releases for Cardfight!! Vanguard. Simultaneous release appears to be becoming Bushiroad's default policy following the announcement of the Future Card Buddyfight franchise, and this direction will support Bushiroad's overall goal of creating a competitive environment more similar to Weiss Schwarz so that even underrated and unpopular clans will be able to do well, making favorites more practical.

Doctor K also alluded that official tagfight tournaments and an English release of the Nintendo 3DS Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG simulator, Cardfight!! Vanguard Ride to Victory!! are both being considered by Bushiroad's Japanese and international branches. Fighters have been anxious for the game's international release ever since it was first announced, and Bushiroad has appeared responsive, replying to inquiries about the game through Facebook and uploading videos of the game for those that are eager for it to be distributed in other regions.

(via Trigger Capital)