Today's Card Analysis: Spring Waiting Maiden Oz

Today's Japanese card of the day is a new first vanguard for Neo Nectar, introduced in the upcoming trial deck G-TD03: Flower Maiden of Purity. Like Gunner Gear Dracokid and his contemporaries, Spring Waiting Maiden Oz is intended to linger on the field for several turns before having her skill made active by striding a grade 4. This leaves her exposed to retire and lock skills like those of Gattling Claw Dragon or Mobius Breath during the initial turns of the fight, but if you can keep her around long enough to activate her generation break the results are stronger than skills that could be used on the first or second turns of the game.

Oz's generation break 1 costs a single counterblast, putting her into the soul in exchange for superior calling a copy of any grade 2 or lesser unit on the field from the deck. While this has immediate synergy with the old Arboros deck from BT08: Blue Storm Armada, which requires having multiple rearguards with the same name in order to give them power boosts, it's difficult to get Arboros away from his evolution line because of how beneficial it is to him. Considering more recent cards for Neo Nectar, the grade 1 Dandelion Musketeer Mirkka is a 9000-power booster during any turn in which the deck was shuffled by one of your card effects. Since Oz shuffles the deck with her own skill, you can bring out a second copy of Mirkka so long as you have the first and make it easy to form 21000-power lanes, as well as hit basic crossride numbers when necessary. Or from Neo Nectar's grade 2 lineup, having one copy of White Rose Musketeer Alberto out automatically lets you get out a second one with Oz, forcing the opponent to block two instances of an on-hit unflip.

The trick with Oz is that she lets your gameplay become better based on already having some form of positive setup. Her generation break escalates the existing situation by giving you another copy of whatever you have out to play around with, making each card you draw exponentially better. This is not a FVG like Maiden of Physalis or Shield Seed Squire that can make something out of nothing. Oz has to already be in a favorable position to become important, and has to survive long enough for that to happen when cards like Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” and Dragonic Neoflame are running around ready to snipe her. This makes her a more technical support card like Evil Ferret, as well as one that is defined by her call targets. Since Snowdrop Musketeer Pirkko has effectively resuscitated the old limit break decks, Oz may well find a home in Venus Trap “Яeverse” or Arboros, provided you can determine useful call targets for her and find room for Arboros. In combination with the break ride Master Wisteria, Oz and Tamara from BT16, Arboros now has a multitude of options for setting up his ideal ~23000 power columns that don't rely on using his grade 0, 1 and 2 forms, so the deck has the makings of a niche carved out for itself.

It should be noted that Oz is not actually considered a part of the Maiden subclan, as in Japanese the subclan uses the English word Maiden while Oz is instead an Otome like Darkness Maiden Macha. Thus, any subclan-specific support would likely not benefit her if it were to arise in G-BT02.

News: Dragonic Overlord “The X” Tops FC2014 Fukuoka, 2012 National Champion in Fourth

Flavor text: "The End isn't finished."

December 6th, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. The Fukuoka branch of Bushiroad's ongoing Fighter's Climax 2014 tournament concluded at the West Japan General Exhibition Center with a Kagerou cardfighter, alias "Bottan," placing first using a Dragonic Overlord “The X” deck. Second place was a Gear Chronicle cardfighter, and third place a Royal Paladin fighter playing Thing Saver Dragon, and fourth was 2012 national champion Nakamura Seishirou also playing Thing Saver. The first, second and fourth place decklists are given below. Bottan tweeted that he was undefeated in the tournament, with his qualification rounds consisting of Nova Grappler, Dimension Police, Revenger and Royal Paladin matchups. He played top 16 against Gear Chronicle, Kagerou, Royal Paladin and another Gear Chronicle fighter.

Dragonic Overlord “The X”  (read as "The Cross," as in "crossover") was introduced in G-BT01: Generation Stride as a revival legion for Dragonic Overlord the End, the grade 3 that has served as a continual hazard throughout multiple formats. Nearly every era of the game has had its own incarnation of the End, making him almost as long lived as Kagerou itself. Few cardfighters will need a reminder of what the End is capable of, but for the benefit of newer players; if the End's attack hits, he can counterblast 2 and persona blast to restand. Because the End gains more cards from his second twin drive than he has to discard, his restand is both a +1 in card advantage and a grossly aggressive means of checking for additional triggers.

“The X” makes the End all the more effective because not only does his legion turn the End into a 22000 base attacker to make the on-hit easier to get off, which  “The X” legions he can search the deck for a copy of either the End or “The X.” And if his attack doesn't hit,  “The X” can counterblast 1 and persona blast a copy of himself to retire two of the opponent's rearguards. This turns the crossoverlords into a lose-lose situation--since the copy of the End is added directly to the hand from the deck as a +1 in advantage, the opponent is faced with either letting the attack hit so that the vanguard can restand with a net +2 and able to overwhelm the opponent with their inherently large center lane, or blocking the attack and taking a -2 while “The X” goes back to a neutral +0. This is only the basis for the deck however, as what is truly championing “The X” is his massively overgrown pool of Overlord-specific support cards and alternate grade 3s that give him more options than there is room in the deck for.

“The X's” rise was not unforeseen. Just two days prior to the set's release on December 5th, prerelease prices in Japan showed an immense demand for “The X,” with the card being the most expensive triple rare in Generation Stride at 1500~1700 yen per card according to aucfan. Route Flare, the deck's primary stride unit, stood at only 1000 yen per card. Some will dispute the Fukuoka results as not being representative of what is to come, as Bushiroad's tournaments are infamous for their best-of-one format. However, the prereleases prices suggest a demand significant enough that these results will be replicated at the more legitimate VGCS tournaments.

Original image uploaded by besthito. Full decklist is transcribed below. Other than Route Flare and Messiah, the deck is fully SPed, with all of his Neo Flames being legion rares.

The core of “The X” rests on the grade 2 Perdition Dragon Dragonic Neoflame. Unlike many of the Perdition support, Neoflame does not require a Perdition vanguard to activate. When Neoflame is called to the rearguard, it receives a skill that when an opponent's rearguard in the same column as it is put into the drop zone, allows Neoflame to counterblast 1 and retire another in the same column. Virtually every skill in the deck can play off of Neoflame in some way. If the End's attack hits a rearguard, not only will the End restand but because a rearguard was placed into the drop zone Neoflame's counterblast will retire its booster. If the End does not hit and “The X's” persona blast goes off instead, “The X” can retire two rearguards and Neoflame will remove one of their boosters. This dramatically escalates the situation to either a +1 vs -2 or -1 vs -3 depending on which persona blast is used.

Furthermore, with the grade 2 Dragonic Burnout, who can return an Overlord from the drop zone to the deck and then soulblast 1 to retire a rearguard, it becomes possible to combo him to Neoflame, paying counterblast 1 and soulblast 1 to destroy an entire column. Because of Burnout's conditions, if either “The X” or the End's persona blasts go off, Burnout is fully set up for next turn, giving multiple options across several turns for clearing out the opponent's field and punishing them for fighting back. Bottan built his deck with multiple legions in mind that are able to recycle these grade 2 options, and having access to Dragonic Overlord the Great both offers another restanding vanguard option that can also trigger a rearguard Neoflame's skill.

Kagerou's primary stride unit, Route Flare Dragon, expands the deck's options by allowing it to retire an entire column twice per game. While this does not synergize with Neoflame, it does give the Kagerou cardfighter additional options for beating down the opponent so that the End will hit later. The cost of discarding a grade 3 in order to stride provides an opportunity to use Dragonic Burnout in the same turn as the stride unit, retiring three rearguards. Since Route Flare requires two units to be face-up in the generation zone after his persona blast is activated in order to resolve, he encourages early use of Divine Dragon Knight Mahmoud, whose on-hit retires another rearguard. The turn 3~4 plan for the deck depending on which fighter went first then becomes to discard one of the Overlords to stride Mahmoud, call Neoflame, call Burnout and return the Overlord discarded to the deck to retire a rearguard, use Neoflame to retire that rearguard's booster, then hit with Mahmout to retire another. On the next turn the Overlord returned to the deck can be grabbed back with “The X's” on-legion skill. The Overlord deck has multiple ways to trigger its key cards and start up an explosive sequence of retire skills that severely limit the number of safe plays against it. The only decks capable of circumventing “The X” directly are Tachikaze, Shadow Paladin and the Great Nature variants that draw off of their rearguards' end phase retires rather than call them back to the field.

Original image uploaded by Doctor O. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Bottan's Overlord decklist was later uploaded a second time by Doctor O, followed by the second place cardfighter's Gear Chronicle deck. The Gear Chronicle finalist focused on guard manipulation in his build, using the grade 2 Steam Knight Puzur Ili as a Silent Tom variant capable of blocking grade 0 cards, and Chrono Jet Dragon's generation break 2 to block perfect defense cards. With the generation rare Chronos Command preordering at 2500~3000 yen per card, the deck's grade 4 lineup is difficult to complete in Japan, but its property of sending all of the opponent's rearguards into their deck has been enough to launch Gear Chronicle into professional play out of the box.

One of the contributing factors to “The X's” victory may be the new G-BT01 onwards version of perfect defense cards. The runner-up at Fukuoka ran Steam Maiden Alulim, a new variant of these units, that can unflip a damage if there is a copy of herself in the drop zone when she is guarded with. In exchange, Alulim variations can only protect the vanguard and cannot be called against an attack on a rearguard. Neither Dragonic Overlord “The X's” nor the End's skills require them to hit or attack a vanguard. Both the End's restand and “The X's” retire skill can activate after attacking a rearguard, and the Great's on-hit specifically has to hit a rearguard, which means that by running these new perfect defense cards, other cardfighters are enabling Overlord fighters to funnel them towards whichever scenario is the worst one.

Original image uploaded by Seishirou. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Nakamura Seishirou tweeted his decklist shortly after the tournament. As in most years since his 2012 debut Seishirou played a Royal Paladin deck, this time using a Thing Saver variant with the legion grade 2 Jewel Knight Swordmy to superior call his copies of Shellie to act as boosters. Since Swordmy does not require a Jewel Knight vanguard, Swordmy has seen recent integration into Seeker decks as a source of cheap boosting power. Other modifications include Cycirlz from G-BT01, who gains +2 grade when discarded for the cost of stride, allowing him to be used as an alternative means of striding the deck's grade 4s Gablade and Saint Blow Dragon. Gablade's on hit skill superior calls a grade 2 or greater unit from the deck, providing an ideal moment to bring out Swordmy early on and then superior call Shellie behind him for a net +2. Like Route Flare above, Saint Blow's skill requires it to turn a copy of itself face-up in the generation zone and then have two or more face-up G-units in the zone. This endows it with +3000 power for each rearguard and an additional critical, which combined with the power from striding makes an unboosted 41000 power 2 critical center lane that can alternatively force the opponent to higher damage early so that Thing Saver's restand skill becomes devastating, or catch the opponent unprepared to defend in the turns after TSD has taken out much of their hand options.

Seishirou had just recently won the sixth Hakata VGCS with a similar deck, and in August had won the second Kitakyuu CS with Thing Saver-“Abyss.” His success in multiple tournaments, both official and underground, has made him one of the most recognizable professionals in Japanese play.

Fighter's Climax 2014 Fukuoka Regional Qualifier
Regional Champion: Bottan/ぼったん
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biella CT
x3 Magnum Shot Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Protect Orb Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Violence Horn Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Dragonic Burnout
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Dragonic Neoflame
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The X”
x3 Dragonic Overlord the End
x2 Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Imperial Flame Dragon King, Route Flare Dragon
x1 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmoud
x1 Harmonics Messiah
x2 Miracle Element, Atomos

Runner-up
Grade 0
x1 Timepiece Dracokid (FV)
x4 Steam Maiden, Ululu HT
x4 Lucky Pot Dracokid DT
x4 Steam Battler, Dadashig CT
x4 Steam Battler, Mashuda CT
Grade 1
x4 Steam Maiden, Alulim
x4 Steam Breath Dragon
x3 Steam Scalar, Gigi
x3 Maser Gear Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Smoke Gear Dragon
x4 Steam Knight, Puzur Ili
x3 Twin Maser Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Chrono Jet Dragon
x4 Ruin Disposal Dragon
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon
x2 Interdimensional Dragon, Chronos Command Dragon
x1 Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery Flare Dragon
x1 Miracle Element, Atomos

Fourth place: Seishirou
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Jewel Knight, Hilmy HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger CT
x4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle CT
Grade 1
x4 Holy Knight Guardian
x4 Laurel Knight, Cycirlz
x4 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
x2 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric 
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Jewel Knight, Swordmy
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x3 Seeker, Sacred Wingal
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
x4 Divine Sacred Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon

Today's Card Analysis: Interdimensional Dragon Ragnaclock Dragon

"Ah, the time for everything to end
has come once again."

Today's Japanese card of the day is a stride unit for the Gear Chronicle clan, Ragnaclock Dragon. Illustrated by Amemiya Keita (Werwolf Sieger, Dark Lord of Abyss) Ragnaclock is intended as a game-finishing generation unit that combines the overwhelming power of a stridden grade 4 with guard manipulation and additional critical to help secure the end of the match, and the opponent with it.

When Ragnaclock attacks the vanguard, you can counterblast 1 and turn a copy of itself in the generation zone face-up; this prevents the opponent from calling grade 0 cards to the guardian circle from their hand, and if there are two or more face-up generation units in the generation zone, Ragnaclock will get an additional critical. Since getting the most out of Ragnaclock's counterblast requires you to have already stridden on a previous turn, he's ideal as a followup to Chronos Command Dragon. For counterblast 2 soulblast 1 Chronos Command sends the opponent's entire field to the bottom of their deck when his attack hits the vanguard, and as a stride unit he will innately attack for ~26000 power, forcing the opponent to spend perfect defense cards on his attack even while they're at 2~3 damage, or otherwise risk taking up to a -5 from what is effectively a field retire skill on par with Nouvelle Vague's. The counterblast and soulblast costs do not have to be dedicated until the moment he actually hits, so keeping up with defending against Chronos Command for several turns severely taxes the opponent's hand and leaves them open to rearguard attacks that will eventually put them in the range of 4 damage. This is when Ragnaclock is intended to come out, catching the opponent without the perfect defense in hand to guard with.

Alternatively, you can bring Ragnaclock in when the opponent is still at 3 damage if their hand is full of 0s, to try and go for the endgame. Attacking boosted for 31000 2 critical effectively takes a leaf from Genesis' book, requiring the opponent to either drop a perfect defense or risk the critical. Like Vict Plasma and many of the other grade 4s from G-BT01: Generation Stride, Ragnaclock's persona cost prevents you from using his skill more than twice per game under normal circumstances. But Gear Chronicle is one of the few clans with a means to circumvent this; their stand trigger Waku Waku Worker has a generation break skill that turns a G-unit face-down after its boost, then recycles Waku back into the deck. Ragnaclock's persona cost is thus limited only by the number of Workers that can be brought out, but seeing as it's critical triggers that make Ragnaclock threatening prior to 5 damage, it's difficult to recommend a default trigger ratio to this kind of deckbuild. A 4-4-4-4 rainbow trigger spread is just as easily recommendable as 4 stand 8 critical, but more unorthodox ideas like 3 stand 3 draw 6 critical--effectively a standard 6 draw 6 critical option with 3 stands substituted in--are also feasible. As one of the newest clans in the game, Gear Chronicle has a lot of room for experimentation with new ideas tailored to its stride-centric strategies.

News: ARG Chicago Top 8 & Decklists, Atlanta Championship Upcoming

Alter Reality Games has uploaded recordings of the ARG Chicaco Circuit's top 8 fights to its YouTube channel, showing off the last two of each three games played between Circuit champion Robbie Kohl and top 8 finalists Brian Mei, Antoine Michael Jackson and Christian Maldonado. Kohl has also provided us with some of the decklists gathered from the top 8, but was only able to provide Brian Mei's Great Nature deck and his own “Abyss” build. The videos of the top 8 are given below, with commentary.

In upcoming tournament news, the ARG Atlanta Circuit is imminent, coming up on this weekend on December 7th at the Georgia International Convention Center. $550 in prizes will be awarded to the top 8 as store credit, with the credit becoming cash payout if more than 40 cardfighters attend. Each participant will receive five free booster packs with their $20 entry fee, and the tournament will consist of 45 minute best-of-three rounds. Registration is at 10:00 AM and the tournament will begin at 11:00 AM, so please arrive promptly. You can find more information through the event's Facebook page.

ARG Atlanta will be followed by an Orlando tournament on January 4th. Each of the ARG Circuit events will be accompanied by its own playmat, generally handed out to the top 8 in addition to their prize credit. The ARG Circuit series is publicly endorsed by Cardfight Pro as a professional tournament system. Those who place in the tournament will be recognized by Cardfight Pro as professional cardfighters of the same caliber as those that qualify in the world championships and VGCS tournaments.

Researcher Fox, the crux of Mei's deck.

One of the most noted fighters present at Chicago was Brian Mei, whose Great Nature deck was uncharacteristic of typical top 8 tournament results. Mei's deck was assembled just two days before the Chicago Circuit, and primarily focused on Great Nature's breakride Chatnoir with its legion pair Tester Fox and Researcher Fox. His primary strategy was to use Tester Fox's skills to power up rearguard copies of Researcher Fox, then retire it in the end phase while in legion; Researcher's on-retire skill counterblasts 1 to search the deck for either half of the legion pair so that he breaks even on the retire exchange, then Tester Fox's end phase skill unflips the damage Researcher counterblasted, draws a card and then puts two cards from the drop zone onto the bottom of the deck. In this case, putting the Researcher that was retired onto the bottom of the deck ensures that the one in his hand can search for it next turn, and repeat the whole cycle from square one.

Furthermore, for every copy of Coiling Duckbill called to the field that turn Mei could layer an instance of "[AUTO]: During your end phase, when this unit is put into the drop zone from a rearguard cricle, draw a card." on Researcher Fox, essentially gaining a +1 in card advantage for every card drawn after using Researcher's counterblast. Mei ran four stand triggers in place of draws in his Great Nature deck, taking advantage of the clan's triple rare grade 2 Binoculus Tiger. Every time Binoculus attacks the vanguard he can give +4000 power to another rearguard in exchange for retiring it at the beginning of the end phase, which means that there is no penalty for repeatedly using Binoculus on Researcher Fox. With one stand trigger, it's possible for Researcher to acquire a net +12000 power boost from Binoculus and Tester Fox, making a ~28000 power column.

Mei also ran a single copy of Leo-pald “Яeverse” to round out the grade 3s; “Яeverse” can be a devastating tech card in the endgame in combination with the deck's stand triggers, as “Яeverse” can repeat his limit break any number of times per turn limited only by how many cards it can lock. Since “Яeverse” gives two rearguards +4000 power in exchange for locking one, this establishes two rearguards with the +12000 power boost described above. When break ridden this allows his fighter to attack with two rearguards columns in the range of ~29000 and ~32000 while the vanguard attacks for 21000 power, and then draw two cards at the end of the turn to not just refund the cost of riding but also gain a +1 off of it. With so many options this leaves the deck able to have simultaneously offensive and defensive turns, as seen below.

Mei had wanted to run an additional copy of Coiling Duckbill in his deck but was not able to find room for it, believing that Silver Wolf was more important for building 21000 power rearguard lanes. A 16000 power column can only reach 20000 with a single Binoculus or Tester Fox power boost on it, but a 17000 power column is able to graze its way into 21000. Hence, Silver Wolf is important for getting the deck's various 9000 power grade 2s into that territory.


Versus Kohl's Revenger deck Mei won the unseen first game, but struggled to keep pace in the second and third. One of the weaknesses of Great Nature is needing to keep its rearguards in hand until a combo is set up, and hence having poor early aggression. Kohl had the first move and this would normally put Mei in a position to be very aggressive, but because of this incentivesto keep cards in hand earlier he was unable to build on this. Initial triggers also set Mei behind significantly, forcing him to play catch-up in a damage lead, and Kohl was able to consistently retire Mei's first vanguard Gardening Mole, which prevented Mei from using his skill later on to return a card retired in the end phase to the hand.

Because Mole sends itself into the soul to do so, it typically trades field presence in order to keep the hand high for a defensive game. Its skill can be particularly dangerous in combination with the critical trigger Ruler Chameleon, whose on-retire counterblast can search the deck for a copy of itself and put it into the hand. Mole into Chameleon results in both critical triggers being put into the hand for defensive purposes, which also sets up a legion for the next turn in addition to being defensively beneficial immediately. In the first game Mei drew three cards off of Chatnoir's break ride skill and Tester's legion, and was able to search out a Chameleon with Chameleon, but not having access to Mole prevented him from converting a fifth card to his hand. Had this been the case, Mei would have been able to keep a Researcher Fox in hand rather than guard with it, to use with Tester Fox's legion skill in the next turn, which would have led to drawing another card and searching for another Fox instead of losing card advantage off of Compass Lion.

In game 3 the problems of the first game were exacerbated when Mei became gradelocked at 2, preventing him from making a comeback against Kohl's early leads. Gradelock has been a constant hazard for cardfighters since the game's beginning, but with the introduction of stride units and Harmonics Messiah in VGE-BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades ver.E on the 19th fighters will be able to circumvent gradelock through the G Assist step.


In top 4, Kohl played against Antoine Michael Jackson's Duo deck. Kohl ended up gradelocked at 1 in the second game, followed by Jackson facing the same. However, Jackson was ultimately unable to retaliate against Kohl's Transient Masquerade field, and Judgebau ensured that Kohl had a six card lead going into Jackson's first grade 3 turn on top of the immense 2-to-4 damage difference. While Jackson attempted to delay Kohl's endgame by playing counterblast control, focusing on his rearguards and only affording him a single damage, having Dorint's unflipping skill active allowed Kohl to ignore this and his break ride entirely to go for game.

As in most of these games, Kohl effectively won with his grade 1 plays; as long as his opponents were unable to retaliate against multiple rearguard attacks early in the fight, the rest of the deck's card skills would ensure that the situation would be preserved for the remainder of the game. Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” continued to push Jackson down in card advantage while preemptively negating the draw power from his first vanguard by retiring it, and Judgebau threatened him with the alternative of a constant high pressure lane that demanded at least 15000 shield while the rearguards would continue to push him towards 4 damage, or with Kohl building advantage off of a Sword Breakers.

Versus Antoine, Kohl deliberately avoided giving critical triggers to his vanguard in order to prevent Jackson from break riding. Kohl was already at 4 damage by this point, and allowing Jackson's Duo break ride to go off would spell an end to the match. This allowed him to slow down the pace of the game by a turn and recover, putting his opponent at the 3 damage mark so that Phantom Blaster “Abyss” would have better chances of getting his opponent to 4 damage and ending the game before most of Jackson's skills could go off. Kohl won the round 2-1.


Game 3 of Robbie Kohl versus Christian Maldonado was already covered, but as discussed there in game 2 Kohl repeated much of his strategies he would use in 3, retiring Maldonado's first vanguard to prevent soulcharging later on, playing both aggressive attack and early defense strategies. Kohl ended his grade 2 turn at +0 to -3, taking four cards from Maldonado in a single turn. By the end of his grade 3 turn Kohl to Maldonado was at -1 to -6, an advantage difference of five cards. This went down to -7 when Maldonado was gradelocked at 2. This was a deliberate decision, but one which cost Maldonado the game, attempting to prevent Phantom Blaster “Abyss” from legioning by not going to grade 3 until it could become part of a winning play. By the end of the first game Kohl was maintaining a ten card difference in advantage, -2 to -12. In game 2 Maldonado was able to get his Yggdrasil legion set up, putting Kohl from 3 to 6 damage with a single critical trigger by gaining an added critical from his soulblast 6 legion skill, and blocking Kohl's grade 0-heavy hand from being used. In game 3 Maldonado's play was weakened by opening with Minerva and once more having his first vanguard Pray Angel retired, while Kohl chose to prioritize a brute force approach before dedicating to his restand strategy, winning 2-1.

Kohl's opponents did not play around the fact that his rearguards were generally only worth 5000 shield. Because of Kohl's pattern of attacking with one rearguard and then attacking with the other if the first one was guarded, then following with the boosted vanguard, it was in his opponents' best interests to let the first rearguard attack hit in the case of a damage trigger check. A single damage trigger would prevent the remaining unboosted rearguard from hitting, and make Kohl's vanguard a 10000 shield for two or none to pass, but each opponent consistently guarded the first rearguard and took the second instead, missing out on the opportunity to counter Kohl's offense. In turn, his opponents did not emulate this strategy of attacking with unboosted rearguards prior to the vanguard, sometimes costing them when Kohl would damage check triggers, as in the case of Maldonado's first turn Ordain Owl in their second game.

Alter Reality Games Circuit Series Chicago, December 2014
Chicago Circuit champion: Robbie Kohl
Grade 0
x1 Judgebau Revenger (FV)
x4 Healing Revenger HT
x4 Freezing Revenger DT
x4 Grim Revenger CT
x4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
x4 Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
x2 Black-winged Sword Breaker
x4 Transient Revenger, Masquerade
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss”
x4 Blaster Dark Revenger
x3 Revenger of Nullity, Masquerade
Grade 3
x4 Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss”
x4 Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Top 8: Brian Mei
Grade 0

x1 Gardening Mole (FV)

x4 Dictionary Goat HT

x4 Eraser Alpaca ST

x4 Triangle Cobra CT

x4 Holder Hedgehog CT

Grade 1

x4 Cable Sheep
x4 Silver Wolf
x3 Coiling Duckbill

x3 Tank Mouse

Grade 2

x4 Illusion Scientist, Researcher Fox
x4 Binoculus Tiger
x2 Compass Lion

x1 Lamp Camel

Grade 3

x4 Magic Scientist, Tester Fox
x3 Honorary Professor, Chatnoir
x1 School Punisher, Leo-pald “Яeverse”

News: Monthly Bushiroad Volume 16 Reveals Alfred Promo, Cards Reprinted for G-Regulation Format

Some first images from the January issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine have been leaked early by distributors, breaking the issue's December 8th street date. Additional leaks may be expected in the coming days. These first looks into the issue have revealed that the first compiled volume of the Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden: Shining Swordsman manga will come with an alternate artwork print of the King of Knights Alfred, illustrated by the manga's artist Koshimizu Makoto.

Shining Swordsman first began serialization in Monthly Bushiroad's first issue last year, and the compilation of its chapters represents a major milestone for the manga. The promo print will be valid for use with Alfred's revival legion, King of Knights' Vanguard Ezzell. Notably, its printing will make Ezzell valid for play in one of Bushiroad's recently announced alternate formats "G Regulation," which only allows cards printed from the Cardfight!! Vanguard G format onwards. Recently introduced as a format more friendly to beginners, while it is currently being treated much as Extreme Fight Rules are, the prospect of set rotation is being approached cautiously by veterans of the TCG. As all of the revival legions are also having their mates reprinted at Comiket 87, this could be seen as setting the stage for making the G-onwards format Bushiroad's primary one.

This issue also revealed that an upcoming volume of FiveQross, one of Bushiroad's other TCG properties, will come packaged with alternate artwork prints of Blaster Blade and Dragonic Overlord, drawing on assets originally created for the volume 1 and 2 covers of Itou Akira's Cardfight!! Vanguard manga.

Today's Card Analysis: Battery Boom Dragon

Today's Japanese card of the day is an update to the Aqua Force's serial attack strategy, and the first card revealed from the clan's upcoming second trial deck, Jaime Alcaraz's G-TD04: Blue Cavalry of the Divine Marine Spirits. Battery Boom Dragon is a twist on past support cards like Benedict and Lysandros, filling their position in creating multiple attacks to trigger the vanguard's skills with conditions like "if it is the fourth or greater battle of the turn," while also harassing the opponent with glancing blows. Unlike his predecessors though, Battery Boom can fill a role in the vanguard circle in the event of a worst-case scenario.

Battery Boom Dragon's primary skill lets him change positions with a unit in the same column as himself after he attacks, as long as it was the first battle of the turn. Like with the Storm Rider series of the past, the rest or stand position of the units does not change, so you're intended to place an 11~12000 power independent attacker behind Battery so that it can attack after he has and increase the number of attacks in the turn. This makes it possible to get to the fourth battle of the turn, by attacking with Battery Boom, swapping positions with the unit behind him, attacking with the other rearguard lane, and then attacking with the vanguard for the fourth attack.

The primary problem with Battery Boom is his 10000-power base. In order for his attack to connect with most vanguards of the present format, you have to use either Battle Siren Mallika's or Neferli's skills to pump up Battery Boom by +3000 first. Otherwise you're only attacking to increase the number of attacks that turn to meet a skill threshold and exchange positions with Twin Strike Brave Shooter or Gregorios. This is not necessarily a wrong approach, but Battery Boom is in competition with Diamantes, Lysander and Lysandros. Diamantes at least attacks for 11000 power before changing positions, while Lysander and Lysandros can both restand after being boosted instead of needing to rely on position-changing, and attack rearguards that they can actually hit afterward to rack up the number of battles on that turn. So in the rearguard Battery Boom is generally outclassed, but he does have an advantage on the vanguard circle that none of these past support cards could fill.

Like many lesser grade 3s introduced in the wake of G-BT01: Generation Stride, Battery Boom has a generation break skill that follows the same design as the initial limit breaks of BT06. For generation break 1, Boom gets +6000 power when he attacks the vanguard, and accounting for the general inflation of grade 3s over the past several years from having a normal base power of 10000 to 11000, this means that cards of Boom's type are effectively the Garmores of the new era. The bar has been raised from 15000 to 16000 power, and having face-up G-units has replaced having four damage as a skill condition. In fact, Aura Shooter Dragon in G-TD02: Divine Swordsman of the Shiny Star is a near equivalent for Great Silver Wolf Garmore, only calling grade 2 and greater cards instead of lower for the same cost and timing.

So unlike Diamantes, if you're forced to ride Battery Boom and have no other options, you still have a 10000-power base instead of 9000 power, and you have an offensive vanguard skill to fall back on that can make a 21~23000 power column with a 5000-power booster. Even if you face a Link Joker matchup and find your booster locked, Battery can still fight back with a 16000-power attack as long as you have access to stride early on. This flexibility between the vanguard and rearguard circles gives Battery a good balance between parameters that other Storm Rider derivatives do not have, and because of his rearguard role this clan in particular is more likely to run their generation break Garmores than contemporary clans are. While not a game-winning card by any means of the imagination, Battery is a very respectable upgrade over Diamantes.

The question is whether or not you really need Battery Boom. With a variety of effective grade 1 and grade 2 support that can achieve his skill indirectly using rearguards that can already hit for the right numbers, comprising Wheel Assault, Spyros and their legion equivalents Starless and Tempest Boarder, Battery Boom only has a place if you are running a deck that is both non-Blue Storm and non-legion. Aqua Force is likely to receive its own generation break grade 1 and 2 units with similar skills to these cards, so Battery Boom may well be dead on arrival.

Today's Card Analysis: Snowdrop Musketeer Pirkko & Paint Otter

Today's Japanese cards of the day are a pair of limit break enablers from G-BT02: Flying Flowers. Just having these cards on the field allows any limit break 4 skill to activate regardless of your damage. Snowdrop Musketeer Pirkko and Paint Otter give support to Neo Nectar and Great Nature, and like the limit break enablers for Granblue and Gold Paladin, both of these grade 1s synergize with their clan's ability to search from the deck or filter from it to get them into play more reliably.

While on the surface Pirkko may appear to be just the last bastion for Cecilia and Elvira, it should be kept in mind that limit break enablers are not subclan specific, so she can just as easily go to supporting the Venus Trap grade 3 pair. With Link Joker at its weakest point since the Nebula Lord days, Pirkko makes Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse” more viable than ever as an early game unit. Even if you lock Pirkko for her cost, since at the moment you performed the skill you met the conditions for limit break, you can fully resolve “Яeverse's” effects.

And since “Яeverse” is not a once per turn effect, this means that if you have two counterblast available, you can quickly swarm the field by locking a different booster to call from the top 5, then locking Pirkko after to call a second one, netting a +2 in card advantage while still attacking with three ~16000 power columns. Pirkko into “Яeverse” becomes a kind of early Judgebau play for the deck; since this all takes place beyond the point where the stride step would happen, how viable this strategy is will be determined somewhat by the quality of Neo Nectar's upcoming stride units. Even if stride is preferable however, when you first ride to grade 3 the opponent may not be at your grade yet, so Pirkko with “Яeverse” can still be good for that turn.

However, trying to use Pirkko in this way is limited by the Maiden subclan's lack of ways to superior call Pirkko. The only means to achieve it prior to 4 damage when the skill matters is with the first vanguard, Maiden of Physalis, who can call a grade 1 from the top 5 early in the fight. The Musketeers have more reliable ways to search for Pirkko, since they can repeatedly search the top 4~5 cards with the skills of Rebecca, Kaivant, Cecilia and Elvira. The latter two ensure that as long as you reach grade 3, you have a means to retire a Musketeer and check the top for Pirkko, so these grade 3s have the potential to activate their own limit breaks inherently.

Of course, the hangup to this is that the Musketeers are both the subclan that can access Pirkko the most easily and the ones that need her the least. With powerful legions like Lycoris Musketeer Vera and Peony Musketeer Martina around, what niche can Cecilia and Elvira fill? Martina's legion skill can superior call two Musketeers once per turn for a +2, which is effectively an improved version of Cecilia's limit break, while Vera gives every Musketeer on the field +3000 power in the turn that she legions for a strong finishing maneuver, creating columns that read like 22000-36000-22000. The situational advantage that Cecilia holds over Martina is that Martina has to rely on the top 4 while Cecilia just searches for two copies of herself, which can be exchanged through the Musketeers' retire-and-call skills for subclan attackers or on-hit unflippers. Cecilia gives more up front, but then requires additional skills to be used on top of hers to get the same maximum possible results as Martina, and doesn't have the same big center lane. Elvira has the stronger argument going for herself. Not only does she have a more modern 11000 power base, but Elvira's counterblast 1 limit break gives her an additional critical whenever a Musketeer is called from the deck. Early Shotgun Blow-like critical gain is not a tool that legion Musketeers have in their repertoire, and can either give you an early lead in damage or force the opponent to drop a perfect defense card much earlier than they want to, especially if her skill is repeated to give her a critical of 3 or higher. The catch to this is that Elvira has no power gain skills, and only the Musketeers' 9000-power booster to pump her up to 20000 while the opponent is at grade 2. Like with the Maidens described above, these ideas may go out the window depending on the quality of Neo Nectar's stride units.

Paint Otter offers more exciting possibilities. Great Nature's only legion thus far is a promo card distributed in this year's legion campaign. With some small exceptions, Great Nature is a clan that was born and built in limit break format, so most of its options have been locked behind the gate of limit break ever since the onset of legion format. Otter is here to set them free, and his first rescuee will invariably Honorary Professor Chatnoir. This break ride has been the backbone of Great Nature ever since her debut in BT13, to the point that most all Great Nature legion decks run her today just in case the opportunity to use her skill presents itself. Chatnoir's break ride skill gives all of the rearguards the ability to power up a rearguard by +4000 power when they attack and then retire that unit at the end of the turn, which can cause multiple columns to push for high numbers in the range of 21000+ power, as if Great Nature had its own Vera.

Since Chatnoir refunds the retired unit by drawing at the end of the turn, this also clears off the field while preserving card advantage in hand, only incurring a -1 overall from putting another grade 3 down for break ride. This was already a great limit break in BT13, Paint Otter just updates it to compete on even footing with legion, and by using cards like Coiling Duckbill to put on-retire draw effects on your rearguards, or Hammsuke as a retire target, you can actively build card advantage from using Chatnoir. The disadvantage to this is that Chatnoir is not live the moment he and Otter hit the field, so you have to position both of them beforehand and wait until next turn, leaving yourself exposed to retire and lock skills.

The second grade 3 Otter fans should be looking into is Leo-pald “Яeverse,” Great Nature's boss card from Catastrophic Outbreak. A refresher; “Яeverse's” skill locks one of the rearguards to give two rearguards +4000 power, retire them at the end of the turn, and then call them back to open rearguard circles. This is not a once-per-turn skill, so you can lock three rearguards to give both frontrow units +12000 power, and since the same principles described for Venus Trap above apply, as long as Paint Otter is the last booster that you lock you will be able to complete the limit break. Further, if you have the opportunity to use Telescope Rabbit or Tank Mouse as your lock targets, then before using “Яeverse's” limit break you can use their own skills to rest them and stack an additional +4000 power on each unit. If this strategy is used with Binoculus Tiger, who can power up the other rearguard by +4000 power when he attacks, then one column will attack for 25000 and the other for 29~31000 power depending on where it is between base 9000 and base 11000 power. This will be old hat to veteran Great Nature fans, but the perspective to put into place here is that “Яeverse” can now be done while at zero damage because he has no counterblast cost, and the enormous power of the rearguard lanes forces so much defense out of the opponent that in the early turns of the fight when resources are low, they are effectively Vortex Dragonewts dealing direct damage. Again, this comes with a weakness; Leo-pald “Яeverse” by himself can only attack for 11000 power, which lends to the idea of having Paint Otter as his booster and not locking it so that he'll attack for 18000, leaving the rearguards at a "mere" +8~12000 each, generally coming out to 21000 power if Tank Mice are available.

The last options for Otter are School Hunter Leo-pald from BT07 and Trainee Sage Minette from Fighter's Collection 2014. Time has not been kind to other Great Nature boss cards, so Polaris and Apt are not likely to see much play. Today the original Leo-pald is the option for limit break Great Nature cardfighters that want to avoid Chatnoir's slow setup, as he makes a good pair to his crossride Leo-pald “Яeverse.” Crossride Great Nature has never enjoyed much popularity, owing to Chatnoir's once-undisputed status as the king of the clan, but Leo-pald himself once held that position and for those looking for a speedier approach he can take up the mantle once more. Leo-pald's on-attack powers up a rearguard by +4000 power and then retires it at the end of the turn, while his counterblast 1 limit break calls it back to the field when it's retired. With Otter around the tricks being pulled off are the same as in the past, using Hammsukes as retire targets and using their own counterblasts to search out copies of them while calling them back to build a +1 off of each retire. Duckbill's draw effect snowballs with Leo-pald's limit break in a similar manner, since the retire target is preserved but you still get an additional card from retiring it. Most importantly, Otter gives the opportunity for Leo-pald to interact with a support card he never had the opportunity to take advantage of before; Wash-up Racoon. Racoon behaves like a higher base power super-Hammsuke that can return grade 1 and greater units other than itself to the deck when it's retired to search for a copy of itself, building a +1 in the same way while also preventing deck out without having to resort to a legion. The downside to this is that Racoon cannot return trigger units as a legion can, by returning nontriggers he reduces the chance of drive checking triggers, and that his skill is unwieldy in conjunction with Otter Leo-pald because early on you are unlikely to have so many normal units in the drop zone.

Paint Otter provides a unique opportunity to take advantage of crossride Leo-pald, as early game you can build card advantage off of the initial limit breaks, then in the midgame force the opponent to take damage after crossriding “Яeverse” and plowing in with 21000 power columns, and at the endgame when the opponent is at 5 damage those columns suddenly become much more dangerous. This unique combination of early active defense and late game offense is only possible in Great Nature because of Paint Otter, as the original Leo-pald's late game nature was so restrictive during the game's third block that it brought nothing to the deck compared to Chatnoir.

Finally, Egg Sage Minette. Since Minette is already a unique combination of Leo-pald and an earlier card, Armed Instructor Bison, much of what he can do with Otter has already been established. With Otter out, his limit break counterblast 2 gives the standard power boost to a rearguard, retires it at the end phase, then draws a card off of it, so like with Leo-pald you can stack card advantage by stacking Duckbill's draw effect to that targeted rearguard and/or targeting Wash-up Racoon. Minette also unflips damage every time a rearguard is retired in the end phase, which lets you keep taking advantage of Otter allowing the limit break to activate at lower damage, since you can be at 3 after using Minette's limit break on the previous turn and still only have one flipped damage rather than two. Minette can effectively replace the base Leo-pald in a “Яeverse” deck if you're uncomfortable with Leo-pald's 10000 power base, but this means missing out on Great Nature's only crossride for a draw rather than a return-to-field skill. Since Minette's target does end up in the drop zone, he does have better synergy with Racoon than the base Leo-pald does.

As with Pirkko, stride hangs over any considerations of Paint Otter like a guillotine waiting to fall. None of the Great Nature cards have on-ride skills that would be able to bring out a benefit before the stride step, so the effectiveness of their stride units will greatly determine how much you will or won't want to take advantage of the old grade 3s. The last word, as typical, belongs to legion: Chatnoir with Otter into Researcher Fox.