Ride to Victory Translation Part 4: Shop Tournament Round 2

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Card Capital

Now, we're in the second round of the shop tournament. If you win here, you'll be in the Best Four. I'm expecting heated fights from all of you!


Shin-san is the hottest of us all right now.

In the original Japanese this line sounds nothing like it does in English.



Misaki...how about "Manager"?



Yes, yes. Shin-san.



T, this card has the first match of the second round on it, so let's get ready.

I'm Sendou Emi. How do you do? I'm Aichi's little sister. Every day, I'm taking care of him. It's nice to meet you. I'm still getting started with Vanguard, but I won't lose!

As her brother I'll support her, but I don't think there's anything to worry about, because I know that Emi has a lot of ability. Both of you, do your best!

Grade 0
x1 Bermuda Triangle Cadet, Riviere (FVG)
x2 Drive Quartet, Flows HT
x2 Drive Quartet, Ressac ST
x1 Drive Quartet, Shuplu CT
Grade 1
x2 Mermaid Idol, Riviere
x2 Mermaid Idol, Felucca
x2 Blazers' Pleasures
x1 Pearl Sisters, Perle
x1 Mermaid Idol, Elly
x1 Mermaid Idol, Sedna
Grade 2
x2 Super Idol, Rivere
x2 Pearl Sisters, Perla
x1 Mermaid Idol, Flute
x2 Top Idol, Aqua
Grade 3
x1 Top Idol, Pacifica
x1 Super Idol, Salem
x3 Top Idol, Rivere

(Above are the confirmed cards that we've seen; there are around 23 cards missing from this list, but until complete data can be assembled it should give you an idea of what to expect from Emi.)

Emi is definitely the most dangerous opponent RTV's thrown at you yet, and a lot of that lies in her deck construction. Kamui had a first vanguard that could move to the rearguard, but the worst that Battleraizer could do was cycle back to the deck to increase his chances of checking triggers on subsequent turns. Riviere is an actual evolving line of cards, and her skills work so that Emi has the potential to draw an extra card every turn of this fight. First, when she rides Mermaid Idol Riviere over Triangle Cadet Riviere, she gets to look at the top 7 cards of the deck for either the grade 2 Super Idol or grade 3 Top Idol; this gives her an extra card along with grade security, so that she can focus on developing her field. The skills of Super and Top are more simple, in that if she rides them and has the previous forms in the soul, Emi gets to just flat out draw a card.

Furthermore, Emi is very good at building up her soul. This gets dangerous in combination with the Riviere series because, even if she misses her grade 1 ride, Emi can use Felucca and Perle's soulcharges to get the grade 1 into her soul so that if she rides her grade 2 and grade 3, she'll still get one extra card out of the deal. The Pearl Sisters are another thing--if the grade 2 Perla's attack hits she can soulblast 1 to return a Bermuda Triangle to the hand, but when Emi calls the grade 1 Perle she gets to add another skill to Perla for the turn, allowing her to soulcharge 1 to draw a card. So Emi calls Perle, adds the skill to Perla, Perla's attack hits, she gets to soulcharge 1 and draw a card, then soulblast 1 to send Perle back to the hand and repeat the combo next turn.

To combat the constant drawing, you need to wear Emi down with multiple attacks each turn, and take out Perla at your first opportunity. If you can get a 19000 power line going with for example, Blaster Dark and Doranbau, you can force Emi to either lose Perla or drop 15000 in shield, either of which will work toward this goal.

The grade 3 that you need to worry about the most from the onset is Riviere, a base 10000 power unit that becomes 11000 when her grade 2 form is in the soul, and who can counterblast 2 and persona blast when her attack hits to give three Bermuda Triangle rearguards +5000 power.

Emi's main weakness is also her greatest strength; Riviere's persona blast and her stand trigger Ressac conflict with one another. Because it targets three separate Bermuda units, the blast is used best by attacking with the vanguard line first, so that she can power up two rearguard lines, but she has to use a rearguard first in case of a stand trigger. So while the ultimate, strongest move she can make is devastating, standing a rearguard with a trigger then powering it up with the blast so that it's going for 20000+ while the other line is easily clearing 25000+, it's more likely that she checks no stands and has just one 25000+ line with no other attacks coming after. Her AI just can't handle the persona blast well, and she'll often use it when there are no rearguards standing just because she's met the conditions. It probably fits the fact that Emi is still a beginner, but it also means that the Riviere evolution that makes her deck so devastating is also working against her.

As I've said though, Emi is extremely good at building up the soul. Since you're likely to block Riviere's persona blast anyway, this does help her out. If she reaches her fourth turn after riding the Riviere cards and hasn't used Riviere's persona blast or Sedna's counterblast yet, Emi will ride Pacifica; counting her soulcharge she'll have 5 cards in the soul, meaning if she's already gotten out or drops two Feluccas, that's one more turn to have the timing just right on Pacifica's megablast. Counterblast 5 Soulblast 8 is a steep cost, but in her deck it's actually pretty realistic to have that much available, so the main issue is that the persona blast has to hit for her to use it. This is another point in favor of Emi's stand triggers. The megablast lets her call three Bermuda Triangle rearguards when Pacifica's attack hits, so she'll be using both rearguard lines beforehand. Checking a stand trigger before the blast goes off lets her attack with two full lines afterward instead of one complete line and one unfinished, and one of those will be at 20000+ power. Pacifica constant +3000 power means that she'll also be breaking 20-21000 every turn, and the AI is pretty good about gauging how to build its lines when it actually has suitable attackers.

That said, by stopping only the key units and letting other early damage slip by, you can ride out her mid to endgame pretty well and gradually wear away the tinier Sendou's resources.



I lost...but it was really fun! Thank you! If you go to the city, you'll meet many more cardfighters!


That's right! Miwa-kun will lend you special trial decks. I think Miwa-kun is in the park, so by all means try fighting with other clans.


The next round is coming up, so please make your preparations.

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Ride to Victory Translation Part 3: Shop Tournament Round 1

←Part 2

Part 4 →

Card Capital

Now, finally the shop tournament is beginning. To start with we'll announce the competition pairings. The first match of the first round will be [Player Name] versus Katsuragi Kamui!


Starting with the first round, you're the unlucky person that got matched with me, huh?

Nice to meet you.

N-U yo.



...I see. This is your first time joining the shop tournament. It's fine, man. After all, Kamui the great will loan you some cash. Let's fight with all our strength!

Kamui-san. You mean to say "a practice match."



PM yo...



R, really!? That's dangerous. I almost gave up this month's allowance.

The original joke is that Kamui was confusing 胸を貸してやる mune wo kashite yaru "to let a less skilled person practice on" with 金を貸してやる kane wo kashite yaru "to lend money." I almost gave up translating when I realized I would have to localize these.



Oh, boy...



OB yo...



Well, now that we've pulled ourselves together, this is the start of the first round. Both of you, do your best!


Even if you're nervous, it'll be okay. Relax, and your fight will go fine.



Let's go! Take a good look at Kamui the great's deck!



Kamui-san, do your best!


DYB!

Grade 0
x2 Battleraizer ST (FVG)
x3 Round Girl, Clara HT
Grade 1
x3 Death Army Guy
x1 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x2 Twin Blader
x2 Tough Boy 
Grade 2
x3 Genocide Jack
x3 King of Sword
Grade 3
x3 Asura Kaiser
x2 Death Metal Droid

(Above are the confirmed cards that we've seen; there are around 26 cards missing from this list, but until complete data can be assembled it should give you an idea of what to expect from Kamui.)

Kamui is the first opponent you'll encounter that has a retreating first vanguard. His AI favors moving it behind the vanguard, so that he doesn't have to dedicate a booster early on; because Death Army Guy is really a booster that he wants to save for his rearguards, Battleraizer helps him not have to worry about that until he hits grade 3 when he has more freedom of choice. The deck uses a lot of small counterblasts with Genocide Jack and Metal Droid, but is missing the unflipping engine from the early episodes of the anime. Genocide Jack is his preferred grade 2 ride, so be aware that because Jack gets +5000 when he's boosted by a Nova Grappler, he can pretty well take full advantage of his stand triggers by going in with rearguards at you first, then using Jack's power boost to nullify any triggers you damage check so that it still takes 15000 to fully stop. This also means that grade lock hurts him less than it would the other characters.

There doesn't seem to be any Death Army Lady in his deck for the practical reason that Kamui would have nothing to stand with Asura Kaiser's skill if he had an entire Death Army line going. Also note that his "worst case scenario" is a lot less worse than Izaki's, since that involves riding Death Metal who can still go 20-21000 each turn with a cheap counterblast, something that Kaiser cannot do. His main goal is to ride Kaiser, then field rearguards with Death Army Guy boosting; when Kaiser drive checks one of his grade 3s, he gets to stand the rearguard and Death Army Guy then stands himself, getting in an extra attack out of them at full-power. This gets really dangerous with Metal Droid, but because Kamui likes to dedicate to the field so early, his hand size is lower in the midgame and he ends up with a lot of grade 3s in hand when his strategy is going off, which makes defense harder to play for him. Because of this, you want to focus on stretching out the difference in damage, since while Kamui has a hard time defending once his damage zone expands, he has a very easy time replacing his rearguards. Battleraizer's ability to return to the deck also means that he maintains a high trigger ratio throughout the fight, but only on the offensive side of things.



I lost...you're pretty good.



Congratulations. You got through the first round!



It's our much-anticipated newcomer's debut. That was a fun fight just now.



All right, I decided! From now on I'm cheering for you.



W, wait Kamui-san!



WK!


It's fine. This girl's got good prospects. Do your best from now on!


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Ride to Victory Translation Part 2: Hitsue Middleschool & Izaki

←Part 1

Part 3→

To advance the story, you need to find the next fighter in the sequence and fight them, using the L/R buttons to cycle through different points on the map. The next opponent is Izaki in Card Capital, but at this point you also have access to some of your first mission fights. Think of them as RTV's sidequests; not every character is always available at any given point, nor are all of their missions open from the start, so if you want to complete all of the side content it's better to do all of the ones that are available to you before advancing the story.

You can also choose to freefight Miwa in town. Fighting Miwa will get you trial decks other than the one that you chose at the start, with the same conditions as before that you get four copies of every card in the deck. Miwa uses decks that you don't already have, so you only need to fight him six times in all to get every deck.

Since you won against Morikawa, will you fight me next? When you're free, that is. I'll wait for you at Hitsue Middleschool.

Sounds fun. Count me in too.

Then, I'm also going.

Hitsue Middleschool

Thank you for coming. Then, let's fight right away!

Grade 0
x1 Ironclad Dragon, Shieldon  (FVG)
x1 Savage Shaman HT
x3 Black Cannon Tiger CT
x1 Pack Dragon, Tiny Rex ST
Grade 1
x1 Archbird
x2 Winged Dragon, Skyptero
x2 Savage Warrior
x3 Winged Dragon, Beamptera
Grade 2
x2 Ravenous Dragon, Megarex
x1 Vacuum Mammoth
Grade 3
x2 Tyrant, Deathrex
x2 Ravenous Dragon, Gigarex
x1 Raging Dragon, Blastsaurus

(Above are the confirmed cards that we've seen; there are around 36 cards missing from this list, but until complete data can be assembled it should give you an idea of what to expect from Izaki.)

The most dangerous setup Izaki can get out is a Deathrex vanguard line with Gigarex for rearguard attacks and a Skyptero in the rearguard. Deathrex gets +5000 power on-attack, so he'll go for 20000+ power each turn. When Deathrex's attack hits he's forced to retire a rearguard, which is where Skyptero comes in. When it moves from the field to the drop zone, Skyptero can counterblast 1 to return to the hand, negating the loss in advantage. Furthermore, when a Tachikaze rearguard goes to the drop zone, Gigarex will get +1000 power, so Izaki can use it to pick off your key 8-9000 power rearguards like Gordon or Masquerade. Blastsaurus doesn't do Izaki many favors, since while it thins the deck of a nontrigger unit, he still loses card advantage in the process and Izaki's four trigger spread isn't very useful in this deck.

Note that Izaki's AI sometimes screws up attack order when calling Beamptero or Skyptero as boosters, using unboosted lines prior to Deathrex rather than using the Beamptero/Skyptero line first. This is because he's trying to compensate for running stand triggers, but it instead ends in him retiring Beamptero/Skyptero for Deathrex's cost and losing his booster of the other line in the process, which means it only takes 5000 x 2 shield to stop both rearguard lines instead of 15000-20000 total. When he does attack correctly Izaki can either exploit the aforementioned Skyptero combo, or use Beamptero to power up another line by +3000 power, pumping Gigarex with Savage Warrior up to 210000. This is the limit of what he can do in terms of danger though, and there's not much reason for Vacuum Mammoth to be in the deck because so far nobody's found him to be using Savage King.



You're amazing! Good job.



Not bad. As expected of the one the great me is overseeing.



If you're this strong, maybe you should also participate in the shop tournament.



Come to think of it, the shop tournament is coming up.



That's right. If it's okay with you, why don't you try entering the shop tournament? I think that if you fight many kinds of people, surely you'll get stronger. I'll complete your entry for you. Let's meet up at the shop tournament.

Card Capital

You're participating in the shop tournament? Once you've finished your preparations, please tell me.
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News: Blaster Dark Revenger's Skills Revealed

This morning the latest issue of KeroKero Ace hit Japan, and among the previews for the DAIGO Special Set and Fighter's Collection 2013 was an ad for TD10: Purgatory Revenger with the long awaited skills of Blaster Dark Revenger enclosed. Two years ago, Blaster Dark's original incarnation in BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows was the first Shadow Paladin to ever be shown to the public, and his Revenger print follows suit.

(Imposed text; "Blessed are those who receive the light. Shadow has but one way it must go.")

Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 2/Power 9000/Shield 5000
Shadow Paladin/Human/United Sanctuary
AUTO [Counter Blast (2)]: When this unit is placed on V or R, if you have a vanguard with "Revenger" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards in the front row, and retire it.

On June 22nd, this will be the first pure Shadow Paladin unit to be released in twelve months. Although a copy of Blade Liberator, Dark Revenger is a marked improvement over his original incarnation as a consistent access point toward field control. The unit is not the "ultimate" Blaster Dark that some were hoping for, however; one of the defining features of the original was his vanguard defense, as he was the first grade 2 to get +1000 additional power when a specific grade 1 was in the soul, which allowed Shadow Paladin cardfighters to completely stop an attack from Blaster Blade and prevent Wingal Brave's skill from going off. The Revengers are interacting with both their Gold and Royal counterparts differently, right from the first card printed. Counterblast is also not as freely available for the Shadow Paladins as it is for the Gold Paladins, as Macha, Nemain, Vaha, Phantom Blaster and Ildona take up the entire damage zone many times over on their own. Dark Revenger's playability will ultimately be determined by the unique abilities of the remaining Revenger subgroup cards.

Among the other cards previewed in KKA are several special prints for FC2013; the original Blaster Dark and the SP print Itou Akira artwork of Phantom Blaster Dragon will both be reprinted with commemorative gold lettering over the illustration.

News: Bushiroad Sleeves Leak TD10 & 11 Cover Card Names

These sleeves are the public's first look at Star-Vader, Infinite Zero Dragon and Revenger of the Profound Illusion, Mordred Phantom.

Today Bushiroad's newly announced sleeves, among which were two cards from TD10: Purgatory Revenger and TD11: Star-Vader Invasion, revealed the names of two new units for the Shadow Paladin and Link Joker clans. Star-Vader, Infinite Zero Dragon and Revenger of the Profound Illusion, Mordred Phantom. Mordred Phantom in particular is drawing attention for being based on the literary Mordred, illegitimate son of King Arthur and a key antagonist in Arthurian literature. His artwork has drawn comparison to the previous two Gancelots of past trial decks, riding atop a black pegasus and wielding a sword similar to Gancelot's own.

Note that the kanji in Mordred's name 幽幻 can also be interpreted as "Dark Illusion," among many other variations. While there is no pronunciation guide as of yet, it may be read as Yuugen, which can make deliberate comparison to 幽玄 Yuugen the "Profound Darkness" or "Profound Mystery" one of the elements of Japanese aesthetic, meaning to imply more than what is before the viewer. The 幽 kanji can also mean "Secluded" and so can play off of the name of Mordred's Royal/Gold Paladin counterpart, the "Solitary" Gancelot. While the Revenger subgroup seems to be bringing a new play style to the Shadow Paladins, Mordred is providing some continuity between the old and the new, as the fourth "Phantom" unit that the clan has received.