News: Asia Circuit Memorial Tournament Osaka Results

Today the Osaka regional tournament results for the Asia Circuit Memorial Tournament were made public, giving the first look at how the BT11-on format plays out in an official tournament setting. Both first and second places were taken by Narukami cardfighters, and as these Dragonic Descendant-Gauntlet Buster Dragon decks are very close in design, predictions are already coming out that the self-standing Descendant deck may replace The End as the dominant pro deck of the season. Critics of this view point to the recent Hobby Station unofficial tournament for contrast, where the new Eradicator subgroup flopped in face of a Shadow Paladin deck reworked around The Dark Dictator.

The Memorial Tournament is being held to commemorate the conclusion of the second season of Cardfight!! Vanguard, and will extend to three other locations, with the Tokyo tournament taking place on March 23rd, Nagoya's on the 30th, and Hakata's on April 6th. These tournaments operate on special rules which require fighters to have more than four grade 3s in their deck, most likely in response to the Osaka Trio Festival results in which C Block Champion Tachibana Souten's Majesty Lord Blaster deck emulated the tactics of national third place runner-up Tanaka Shouta's Tsukuyomi deck in running four grade 3s, effectively defeating the restricted list that had been placed on the Blaster deck. This had been followed up by the Tokyo Trio Festival, where Tachibana's idea had been similarly used in Nakamura Mitsuaki's Blaster deck, and in Murakumo cardfighter Kagawa Hitori's Magatsu Storm build. The winners of the Memorial Tournament will have an invitation to the Fighter's Road 2013 national championship.

Prizewinner: Uemura Shouhei/上村昌平
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seioubo HT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
Grade 1
x2 Rising Phoenix
x1 Dust Storm Eradicator Tokou
x4 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Thunderboom Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon

Runner-Up: Nishiyama Daiki/西山大希
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FVG)
x3 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seioubo HT
x4 Divine Spear Eradicator, Pollux CT
x1 Malevolent Djinn CT
Grade 1
x2 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
x4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Thunderboom Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
Grade 3
x4 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon

News: Hobby Station Vanguard Championship Tournament Results, Shadow Paladin Victory, Eradicators Defeated

The Japanese pro scene is currently exploding from the Hobby Station Vanguard Championship tournament results, where in a surprise final match, a Dark Dictator-based Shadow Paladin cardfighter defeated his Eradicator opponent. Hot off the presses from BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights, the Eradicators have been hailed as one of the definitive competitive decks of Japan's January-on format. Their defeat by Dictator, an underground deck that has never been mainstream in the nine months since its June 2012 release, has shaken the world of pros to its core.

Notably, photos of the event show the Shadow Paladin cardfighter with somewhere between five and eight base 8000 grade 1s, accomplished by running the TD09 reprint of Red River Dragon in addition to Black Sage Charon. Because crossride mechanics are currently irrelevant in Japan's break ride format, the current scene is dominated largely by base 11000 vanguards, which means that anticrossride base 10000 units like CoCo and Garmore have gone out of style. As a result, Dictator's full 20000 power is no longer a goal for Shadow Paladin cardfighters--with this in mind, tournament champion "Jaguar" likely realized that he could afford to miss out on that maximized power in exchange for a more consistent rearguard boost. While some blogs have speculated that this Dictator deck uses Phantom Blaster Overlord as a finisher, Overlord's continuous -2000 for having a non-Shadow Paladin rearguard in play versus the inclusion of Red River suggests otherwise. A proper deck recipe is forthcoming, expected to go up on the 20th.


Update 3/20/3012: The deck recipe has been posted.

Deck Name: ShadoPala
Handle: Jaguar
Grade 3
x4 The Dark Dictator
x3 Origin Mage, Ildona
Grade 2
x4 Knight of Darkness, Rugos
x2 Cursed Lancer
x3 Darkness Maiden, Macha
x4 Skull Witch, Nemain
Grade 1
x4 Black Sage, Charon
x4 Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod
x4 Dark Shield, Mac Lir
x1 Red River Dragoon
Grade 0
x1 Creeping Dark Goat (FVG)
x4 Grim Reaper CT
x4 Death Feather Eagle CT
x4 Abyss Freezer DT
x4 Abyss Healer HT

VGCS tournaments are unofficial, large-scale amateur tournaments unaffiliated with Bushiroad Inc. that are often organized by Japan's network of fans and card shops. Despite their unofficial nature, these tournaments are being carefully observed in Japan because of their high turnout and utility as a way to observe the state of the game between official events. Hobby Station's VGCS is just the latest of these amateur events, boasting a massive bracket of 92 participating cardfighters. The large scale of the tournaments is self-supporting, as the entry fees go toward supporting prizes for the top eight cardfighters, which start at fifteen booster packs and can climb as high as five boxes from the latest booster set. Entry costs 1,000円 per person (a little under $11.)

VGCS is primarily organized by Kohaku ("Amber") of 立川VGCS, a blog that serves as the announcement page for the tournaments. Due to the high success of this VGCS, a followup tournament is in the works.

(via hstachikawa, 立川VGCS, Vanguard Announce and 2critical)

News: Cray Wars Mobile App Goes Online

Today Bushiroad Mobile's Android and iOS game Cardfight!! Vanguard Cray Wars (カードファイト！！ヴァンガード 惑星大戦, Kaadofaito!! Vangaado Wakusei Taisen literally Cardfight!! Vanguard Planet Wars) went live. Based on the lore of the Cardfight!! Vanguard Trading Card Game, the app combines its home series' TCG elements with those of strategy and role-playing games to deliver a connective online play experience.

Cray Wars introduces the new character Navica, who acts as the player's guide in the world of Cray and explains the game mechanics to them. The game's storyline is based around the Virtual Vanguard System, which generates a virtual space in which people experience the world of Cray, an earthlike planet where magic and science have progressed hand in hand. Each continent of Cray is dominated by one of six prospering nations; through the VVS the player's avatar dives into this dreamlike world, and fights daily battles for one of these nations. However, a sudden abnormality upsets this scenario.

Players move their avatars about the world map of Cray using a six-sided die, accepting and completing quests to receive items, gold and advance the storyline. Two types of deck are composed for use within the game, one to be used in battle and one with which to besiege dungeons. Comprised of six cards each, skills are triggered in the battle deck based on the position of cards in relation to one another, while the dungeon deck makes use of skills related to manipulating die and avoiding traps. Thus, Cray Wars retains its source materials' core emphasis on field position and combining skills, while bringing the risk-versus-reward factors of traditional RPG dungeon exploration to the table.

In addition to the level of the player's avatar, individual cards also have levels. By increasing the cards' levels, skills can be enhanced. Leveling up and skill synthesis allows cards to be customized so that any two players may have the same card but with wildly different abilities.








As part of a promotional tie-in, special codes that can be used to obtain items in Cray Wars can be found in first print boxes of BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights, the Cardfight!! Vanguard Link Joker soundtrack CD for OP04 Vanguard Fight, and in the soundtrack CD for Link Joker's first ending theme, ED09 ENDLESS☆FIGHTER. So far, these tie-ins are exclusive to Japan.

Alarmingly, users have found that Cray Wars has enforced region blocking which prevents devices from outside of Japan from installing the game. This has created problems for those that are Japanese literate but living outside of the country, denying them the opportunity to play the game at all.

News: The Stand Up Challenge Cup 2013 Begins!

The first North American national championship for 2013 formally began this past Friday, with shops all across the nation opening their doors as local qualifiers for gaining entry into the regional tournaments. Lasting up through March 31st, almost 300 shops across North America will be distributing regional invitations to the top two tournament winners; with 25 regionals being held, this means that more cardfighters will be turning pro in 2013 than in any preceding year.

Already the reigning national and world champion Brandon Smith has qualified, and like many others, is awaiting his regional assignment from Bushiroad USA. In addition to their regional invitations, those who qualify receive a commemorative button showing that they were one of the top two finishers at the tournament.

As part of our coverage, readers can send in their stories to be featured on Cardfight Pro as part of a community effort. To get your Challenge Cup story featured, mail it in to vanguardunitedstates@gmail.com. Photos of your events are also encouraged.

Study Guide: Murakumo

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

If there is a lockdown deck in Cardfight, Murakumo is it. As the successors to the Nubatama ninjas, Murakumo plays similarly; the clan's specialties are denying the opponent advantages, canceling their skills and forcing them to make bad moves, and this is why they remain so relevant in a game that is largely based around jousting across the field with the vanguard. The vanguard line is the only line that cannot be predicted in a typical game, it is where all surprises originate from, and Murakumo is determined to stop it from making those surprises happen.

BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades brings the deck its basic setup, with Stealth Beast Evil Ferret as the clan's base 5000 first vanguard. In addition to outriding from the soul, Ferret's skill is to put itself on the bottom of the deck and then call a Murakumo unit from your hand to the field. In the end phase, that unit will then return to the hand. This doesn't sound like much at first since it returns your net advantage to 0, but the skill is most powerful when taking the second turn--Ferret can superior call a grade 2 or 3 unit while you are at grade 1, allowing for a better offensive. This plays into the clan's enforced stand trigger. BT05 only gives Murakumo one heal, one draw, one critical and one stand trigger, so it's best to always have something to attack with prior to the vanguard attack in case of a stand check. More than this though, Ferret gives early access to Stealth Dragon Cursed Breath's skill for a combo play.

Cursed Breath is a base 8000 grade 2, so while he's wholly reliant on a base 8000 booster to form even a 16000 power line, his skill is very complementary to his low power. When Cursed Breath's attack hits the vanguard, he can look at up to five cards from the top of the deck for the grade 3 Covert Demonic Dragon Mandala Lord, add it to the hand, and then place the remaining cards on the bottom of the deck. As with Tsukuyomi, you can use these kinds of skills to gradually build up a stack of triggers on the bottom of the deck and then draw-drive into them, while also bringing added grade security to the table and getting you back the +1 that you lost when Evil Ferret went to the bottom of the deck. Since the skill is on-hit, it can be repeated multiple times throughout the game to build up that stack much faster than Tsukuyomi can, having an 8-10 card stack after two attacks and 12-15 after three. Cursed Breath's power is also equal to the highest possible base power for a grade 1, which helps push for a strong offensive when taking the second turn.

Another way to exploit Ferret's skill is with the grades 1 and 2 units Stealth Beast Million Rat and Stealth Fiend Midnight Crow. Rat and Crow are base 6000 and base 8000 units that can counterblast 1 when they are called or ridden to superior call a copy of themselves from the deck, then place it at the bottom of the deck. Even if your hand has a lot trigger units in it and not a very good offense, these cards let you dip right into the deck and pull that offensive out of your hat, and when you do have that offense ready you get to conserve it for more important stages of the game, attacking without dedicating your hand. This keeps the field open for other units later on while controlling what targets retire-based clans like Kagerou or Narukami have access to. And when you superior call a Rat, you can counterblast again to superior call another with that Rat's skill, filling your entire back line with just one call and a counterblast 2. The tricky part of these skills is that they force the deck to be shuffled after they search for the copy unit, which interrupts the stack that you began building with Cursed Breath on the previous turn, but this is not necessarily a bad thing because now Evil Ferret's 10000 shield is no longer at the bottom of the deck and when you draw into him you will have 10000 more shield than most opponents prepare for. Like Blade Seed Squire, Murakumo decks have a very subtle defensive advantage that have small but still significant differences in play from their contemporaries.

Stealth Dragon, Turbulent Edge is the grade 1 equivalent to Cursed Breath, but as a base 6000 unit is hard to recommend because his attack will hit so rarely and because Murakumo does not yet have a Valkyrie Laurel copy to form 18000 power lines with. Instead you should consider Stealth Beast Leaf Raccoon to fill out your grade 1 slots along with the base 8000 Shijimamaru. Raccoon is a base 6000 unit like Turbulent Edge, but when he boosts a Murakumo vanguard and you have more cards in hand than the opponent, the vanguard gets +4000 extra power for a 10000-power boost overall. With Million Rat and Cursed Breath playing into keeping your hand size high, Raccoon is like an advanced Milk that make an 18-21000 power line very quickly and easily. His skill sees a lot of support from cards which add to or conserve the hand, and cards which decrease the opponent's; while Murakumo does not have a whole lot for the latter, it does have Stealth Beast White Mane, a base 9000 grade 2 that can unflip 1 damage when his attack hits the vanguard. In other words, a Murakumo print of Electromagnetic Lifeform, creating a rift in card advantage by drawing the opponent's defense out to keep you from unflipping. On increasing the hand, Caped Stealth Rogue Shanaou also plays for the hit-and-run side of things like Midnight Crow, by returning to the hand when his attack hits. Shanaou's base 8000 is difficult to recommend however, because the deck already has so many of those running around at grade 2 and there are more coming out of future sets.

The clan's boss card on-release is the very Mandala Lord that Turbulent Edge and Cursed Breath have been searching for. Mandala comes with an 11000 base and brings into play the first of many lock skills. When the opponent attacks Mandala Lord, you can counterblast 1 and persona blast a copy of him to decrease the power of the attacking unit by -10000 power. The key behind the persona blast is that it effectively lets you run one more 10000-shield unit for each non-vanguard copy of Mandala Lord in your deck than normal, without having to actually give up the grade security that is this strategy entails for other decks (in fact, Cursed Breath increases the security by giving you extra chances to add Mandala Lord to your hand.) This plays back into the extra shield that Evil Ferret puts into your deck; Evil Ferret and your three Mandala Lords together total 40000 extra shield that you can access, giving defensive play tremendous weight and letting you guard for two triggers or pull off no-pass plays very late in a match. These Mandala Lord copies that would otherwise become dead weight and be relegated to paying perfect defense costs can leave any attacking column with less than 21000 power one intercept away from needing two triggers to pass.

Supplementary to the Covert Demonic Dragon is the Stealth Field, Kurama Lord. Kurama Lord is a base 10000 grade 3, and the clan megablaster; each turn he soulcharges 1 and unflips one damage for the reuse of counterblast, and when his attack hits in either the vanguard or rearguard circles he can counterblast 5 and soulblast 8 to stand all of your units, including himself. This is a direct repurposing of Mr. Invincible for Murakumo, and Murakumo runs into a lot of the same difficulties. The clan is lacking in soul support, Evil Ferret has no way to return to the soul, and there are no soulcharging units other than Kurama Lord himself, which makes the megablast slow and cumbersome to both build off and activate. So while you'll likely never see the +2 from his megablast's extra twin drive, you can make full use of his unflipping abilities, getting more use out of Million Rat or Midnight Crow, and dedicating the minimum amount of hand to the field necessary until you can stall into Mandala Lord.

The Murakumo clan prides itself on guerrilla tactics and interrupting the opponent's strategy, two elements that Extra Booster 1 and Booster Set 9 will expand on greatly. However, at their international release they are missing elements definitive of the clan's original vision; March will see us revisiting this clan to discuss that vision and how they were designed to fit within the greater framework of Nubatama.

Nova Grappler Extra Study Material: Gold Rutile

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

While the Nova Grapplers have had damage unflipping as a submechanic of their clan from the beginning, there have always been problems of finding skills worth unflipping for; you only need to counterblast once in a turn for Genocide Jack, and Kirara's counterblast activates infrequently enough that you rarely ever need the entire Claydoll-Dumpty unflipping engine. TD03: Golden Mechanical Soldier expands on both the basic engine and on finding useful costs to combo with it, creating a more cohesive strategy that fits in with Nova Grappler's classical image.

The most visible addition is Super Electromagnetic Lifeform Storm, a base 9000 grade 2 and the original Cursed Lancer. When Storm's attack hits the vanguard, his skill lets you unflip 1 damage, immediately giving him an edge versus Hungry Dumpty for being able to repeat the skill over multiple turns for better longevity and draw defense out of the opponent when they would otherwise let the attack go through. With the Nova Grappler's various stand techniques like that of Asura Kaiser, Storm can even unflip 2 damage in a single turn, improving the synergy of his on-hit skill when compared to how it behaves for other clans.

The trial deck also builds on units that Storm can unflip for. Battering Minotaur is a base 6000 grade 1 that can counterblast 1 to gain +3000 power when it attacks. While this skill isn't as amazing as having a direct Kay, this does let Minotaur hit every possible vanguard at grade 1 and form an alternative attacker that can play into alternative base 16000 lines in the style of Gururubau. The chief issues with him are that Minotaur's low base power makes him easy to pick off in the front row, 17-18000 power lines are difficult to form with him, and his power boost only lasts until the end of the battle instead of the turn, so Grappler stand techniques won't play into his skill at all.

The real stars here are Oasis Girl and Death Metal Droid, both of whom bring a much-needed boost to existing Nova Grappler decks. Oasis is a base 7000 grade 1 that can counterblast 1 in the main phase to gain +1000 power. More than forming good 18000 lines, this skill is also an activate and so Oasis can become a readily-accessible 10000-power booster for one turn, and with the Grapplers' unflipping engine that flipped damage is easy to get back. Death Metal on the other hand is a base 10000 grade 3 with Battering Minotaur's skill--he handles it a lot better since that lets him attack crossrides without a boosting unit, break 21000 with Tough Boy against other decks, and in general support a more flexible field for hitting the correct numbers.

Bringing all this together is Gold Rutile, TD03's cover card and a deck in his own right. Uncharacteristically for the Grapplers, Rutile is a base 10000 grade 3 intended for the vanguard circle exclusively. So while he lacks Asura Kaiser's strong defense and rearguard utility, Rutile's skills are well worth it; when the rearguard's attack hits a vanguard, Rutile can unflip one damage. With Rutile as your vanguard, suddenly every rearguard has Storm's skill and the opponent cannot let any of their attacks connect. That skill also stacks with Storm's, so Storm becomes an on-hit unflip 2 and you can see very nearly the entire damage zone unflipped in a single turn, letting the most be made of Kirara and Oasis Girl while Death Metal almost loses his cost in the process. Rutile's second skill is to counterblast 2 when his own attack hits and stand a Nova Grappler rearguard. This has some unorthodox applications; the skill is essentially Lion Heat with no rearguard use and a continuous ability that lets it pay for itself with the correct plays, but after the opponent hits grade 3 the skill is more geared toward harassing the opponent's rearguards than hitting their vanguard. Genocide Joker from the previous module is one effective unit since despite the expense involved in using both of them in the same turn, he retains his counterblast 2's +4000 power boost upon standing, and so can go toe to toe with crossrides on a regular basis.

The weakness of the Rutile deck is that its power is primarily derived from having a larger amount of damage than the opponent, and it plays very strongly to a base 11000 game. Oasis can counterblast 4 to make Rutile a 21000-power vanguard line and still leave room for Death Metal's counterblast after Rutile's skills kick in, but Rutile himself cannot reliably break 23000 power for the crossride format. So despite its strong matchup versus anything and every of 11000 and below, the build has not aged very well, and the remedy to this problem will not manifest until well into BT09.

Next time that I come back to the Nova Grapplers, it will be to cover the Raizer series' soul-based play style introduced by EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1.

Shadow Paladin Extra Study Material: Phantom Blaster Overlord

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

As the first crossride formally introduced to Cardfight as a whole, Phantom Blaster Overlord is the harbinger of a format defining mechanic. While it lacks the overwhelming support and rapidfire early game of The End, Overlord has repeatedly demonstrated itself as a championship-level deck that operates on equally defensive and aggressive tactics, gradually stretching out a difference between it and opposing decks until there is no outcoming remaining where the opponent can win. This despair-based play style uniquely requires commanding units, rather than playing them. Individual moves become unimportant compared to the overall state of a match, and sacrifices become dispassionate rather than agonizing.

Overlord expands on the existing base of Shadow Paladin cards, bringing with him their second critical trigger, Death Feather Eagle. Death Feather is an essential component of competitive Shadow Paladin decks, as their play style prefers critical and draw triggers before anything else. As we will see soon, Overlord maximizes Fullbau's synergy and opens up deck space for other units, and because of this synergy there is no new first vanguard for the deck. Instead we have Phantom Bringer Demon, a base 5000 grade 0 that draws special attention for not outriding. Phantom Bringer's skill is very similar to Doom Bringer Gryphon of Kagerou, although the skill is more at home here. Phantom Bringer's counterblast 1 allows him to retire two Shadow Paladin rearguards--ideally with himself being used as part of this cost--and then add Phantom Blaster Overlord from the deck to your hand, helping to guarantee your grade 3 ride, but overall it incurs a -1 with no outride to compensate and as there is only Macha to search him with, his use is even more difficult to justify for the Shadow Paladins. As Nemain is more effective for letting you look through two cards at a time without any loss in advantage, she is more practical for finding your Overlord ride.

Phantom Blaster Overlord himself is one of the Shadow Paladins' strongest vanguards. Like Blaster Dragon before him, Overlord is a base 11000 grade 3, but his 11000 is contingent only upon having no non-Shadow Paladin units on your side of the field. While this does unfortunately lock him out of using Blaster support cards from the Royal Paladin side of his subgroup, in a pure Shadow Paladin deck this effectively makes him a conditionless base 11000, which is a powerful improvement over his original form. As a crossride, his autoskill gives Overlord +2000 power in the vanguard circle if Phantom Blaster Dragon is in the soul; with Dragon being searchable by Javelin, this capitalizes on his evolving line's efficiency and provides a powerful base 13000 defense that can deny the upper half of all rearguard combinations with only 5000 shield, while also forming a 21000 power line with Charon. That 21000 won't be enough to touch his contemporaries, The End and Majesty Lord Blaster, but like Lord Blaster, Overlord has access to a base 10000 boosting unit exclusive to the Blaster subgroup.

Apocalypse Bat is a base 4000 grade 1 that when he boosts a unit with "Blaster" in its name, can soulblast 1 to give that unit +6000 additional power for a +10000 boost overall, forming a powerful 23000 line that hits base 13000, 11000 and 10000 units for all of the optimal numbers simultaneously. Since Apocalypse is a Shadow Paladin, unlike in Lord Blaster you can safely run him at two copies and only need four grade 1s with base 7000 or higher to make him practical and ensure that you won't ride him in the majority of games. Unlike Conroe and Wingal Brave, Fullbau stays in the soul no matter what, and we want to avoid soulblasting Blaster Dragon from the soul, so Overlord will generally see that soulblast come out three times in a given game for three turns of 23000 power overall. Even before the soulblast though, Overlord's crossride power puts him at 17000 with Apocalypse. This means that the soulblast should probably be restricted to use only after the opponent's crossride has come out, or otherwise that it should only begin being used the turn after Overlord is ridden.

Phantom Blaster Overlord's second autoskill has him counterblast 3 and persona blast a copy of himself from the hand when he attacks to gain +10000 power and +1 critical until the end of the turn. Most commonly this skill is mistaken as the main goal of the deck and something to be done simultaneous to Apocalypse's soulblast, but a truly effective Overlord deck will likely not persona blast in the majority of games that it plays. With Nemain being the best way to search for Overlord and her intercept as the ideal use of his 13000 base, Macha setting up rearguard lines in the midgame and Blaster Dark disrupting the opponent's strategy with his retire skill, counterblast is very heavily strained in the Overlord deck and grade 2 space is still at a premium, which means that Cursed Lancer will likely only be a single card tech in most decks. Furthermore, the Overlord that we would be persona blasting is probably better used as a rearguard, forming easy base 17-18000 lines for combating other crossrides and Lord Blaster, or a base 21000 rearguard with Apocalypse. The best way to use the persona blast is as a substitute for Apocalypse Bat's soulblast, if you have run out of blastable soul or otherwise want to hold off on it for another turn. This gets you four turns of breaking 23000 power, for a more long-term offense.

Because of his 13000 base being contingent on Blaster Dragon, all Overlord decks fundamentally play four copies of the deck's titular crossride and either three or four copies of Phantom Blaster Dragon. While grade 3 space is then locked down by Overlord, he does significantly improves a Shadow Paladin deck's open space at grade 2 because Blaster Dark can now be safely run at two copies. As the new final goal is to ride Overlord instead of Blaster Dragon, and Overlord's 11000 base is not contingent upon Dark being within the soul, Blaster Dark is now solely the means by which we gain an extra card from Fullbau, as well as free up our redraw by effectively drawing our grade 2 ride when we draw Javelin. The reason to run this at two instead of just one is to avoid having our only copy of Dark in hand after the redraw, which would negate Javelin's two strengths. Overlord maximizes Fullbau's synergy and opens up deck space for other units, and the four-Overlord/four-Dragon model puts emphasis on the grade 2 and 1 units as the main area of customization.

Of those grade 2s, BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades introduces the Knight of Nullity Masquerade, a base 9000 grade 2 that will effectively replace Rugos and Dordona in the Overlord deck. Masquerade gains +3000 power when he attacks and you have a Blaster vanguard, forming a 12000 offensive base that can go for 20000 with Charon to pressure base 10000 units, or otherwise make anticrossride 18000 power lines with even greater ease than rearguard Overlords. Since unlike in the Majesty Lord Blaster deck, the Overlord deck has every vanguard from grades 1 to 3 as a Blaster vanguard and does not make use of alternative grade 3s, Masquerade is much more viable to the Shadow Paladins and should be run at four. 

While grade 2 space is once more constrained because of Masquerade being the perfect rearguard for the deck, running Cursed Lancer in one or two copies is more viable than before when considering how many counterblasts won't be going off in every game; Blaster Dark, Blaster Dragon and Blaster Overlord are all very unlikely to happen together with the other units' skills, which leaves just Macha and Nemain as consistent uses of counterblast. So while he is not stapled to the build as Masquerade is, Lancer can free up counterblast for those three Blaster units' outlier skills.

Another aspect of Masquerade is that he makes base 6000 grade 1s viable for the crossride format, and other than Javelin for searching purposes the Shadow Paladins also have the new Nightmare Painter to take advantage of this. Painter's autoskill allows him to choose up to one Shadow Paladin from the hand when he is called and put it into the soul. This is important because it means that Overlord's continuous +2000 can be made to come out in every game, and even more than that Painter brings speed to the deck by allowing you to ride Overlord directly and soulcharge Blaster Dragon from the hand instead of waiting a turn and then riding. Since getting Blaster Dragon into the hand is much easier for the Shadow Paladins than getting Dragonic Overlord is for Kagerou, this makes Overlord both the fastest and most stable crossride in the format.

The other new grade 2 that comes with Overlord is Moonlight Witch Vaha. Vaha is a Shadow Paladin release of Maiden of Libra, a base 9000 unit that when her attack hits can counterblast 2 to draw one card. Like Blaster Dark and Overlord, this is an outlier counterblast that will not go off in every game and so can be supported by Cursed Lancer, but Vaha is largely redundant because of Nemain's role in capitalizing on both crossride defense and card drawing.

Overlord's defining advantage over other decks comes from both Nightmare Painter and Apocalypse Bat, units which together allow him to start his defense early and end the match late. Having a stable base 13000 defense and 23000 power every turn as well as Masquerade as a powerful rearguard setup lets the dragon keep playing for virtually forever, gradually narrowing the situation with each turn until there is no outcome where the dragon loses. The despair deck primarily relies on patience rather than straightforward battle, playing its key move early and sitting on it for the rest of the match.

Fourteen pros use this deck.