News: National Championship 2013, Stand Up Challenge Cup

Just today Bushiroad has announced the start dates for the 2013 North American national championship, opening the 2013 tournament season with the second national level competition to shake the continent. This championship will follow a considerably different design scheme from the previous one, beginning at the shop level rather than the regional; the top two winners in local shop tournaments--of which there are currently 270--will be invited to one of the 25 regional qualifiers, victory at which will allow them to proceed to the championship finals in June.

This three-stage format follows the double elimination, twenty minute single round format of previous tournaments, and will allow for last minute qualification on the day before the championship. In all, there are projected to be more than 500 participants in the regionals and 50 in the finals, only one of which can be crowned the 2013 National Champion. The 2012 champion and celebrated cardfighter Brandon Smith is already known to be making a return appearance, leading some to speculate that the United States may soon have a Rikino Sakura of its own. The original press release is presented below, unmodified.

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bushiroad USA Inc. Announces Cardfight!! Vanguard Stand Up Challenge Cup 2013

Walnut, CA, February 8, 2013 – Bushiroad USA Inc. announced a new Cardfight!! Vanguard tournament for North America: the Stand Up Challenge Cup 2013.

The Cardfight!! Vanguard Stand Up Challenge Cup 2013 is a three-stage, one-on-one player tournament running from March to June, and is a tournament exclusive to North America. Players will participate in store qualifiers for a chance to win invitations to the regional qualifiers. With over 270 stores signed on, only the first and second place finishers at each qualified store will receive an invitation to the regional qualifiers.

There will be 25 regional qualifiers spread throughout the United States, with one regional qualifier for Mexico and one regional qualifier for Canada. The winner of each regional qualifier will receive an invitation to the Stand Up Challenge Cup finals along with airfare and hotel accomodations. Second place finishers from each regional will only receive invitations to the finals.

The Stand Up Challenge Cup finals is scheduled to take place on June 2, venue to be announced. A last minute qualifier will take place the day before on June 1 at the same venue.

Further details and updates about the Stand Up Challenge Cup 2013 can be found at  http://cf-vanguard.com/en/event/stand-up-2013/."

Study Guide: Kagerou

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

The Kagerou clan is one of the most prolific in the professional scene. Emphasizing field control, advantage through retiring the opponent's cards, and gaining momentum from the opponent having less rearguards, the clan has been a favorite for pros since the days of trial decks. Kagerou has an organic strategy that restricts the opponent's plays, punishes them for making strong moves and allows those who fight with it to control the flow of the game. To get a deeper understanding of this however, we have to look at both the clan's high and low points in design, with special attention paid to taking control from the opponent.

Out of the box, Kagerou was introduced to the world through a trial deck that has gone down as one of the most tournament-ready in the history of the game, likely surpassed only by TD08 and 09. To briefly summarize from the aforelinked history article, the highlight cards of Raging Dragon of the Empire are the grade 2 Berserk Dragon and grade 3s Dragonic Overlord and Dragon Monk, Goku. Berserk offers control of the opponent's field by retiring a grade 2 or lower unit for a counterblast 2 when called, while Goku retires the opponent's grade 1 and 0 boosting units whenever he drive checks a grade 3. Dragonic Overlord is valuable as a grade 3 that can be used in either the vanguard or rearguard circles; for a counterblast 3 he loses twin drive but gains +5000 power and can stand when his attack hits a rearguard, allowing for him to drive check three cards in the turn while retiring two of the opponent's and probably depriving them of more for their defense. Because of these units, Goku became one of the most powerful decks in the early scene and to this day it remains a viable build for tournaments.

The fact that subsequent trial decks did not catch up to TD02 until very recently attests to the deck's enduring power. Relative to its own time it was incredibly consistent, but even now going out and combining two copies of the deck will create a deck ten to twelve cards short of tournament viability. Of course, Kagerou's success is more than this deck; by the time of BT01: Descent of the King of Knights the clan already had access to one of the most well-rounded first vanguards in the game, and the first to run on base 5000 power. Lizard Soldier, Conroe has essentially maintained his place as the go-to FVG for two years uninterrupted, being a unit that forms a 16000 line by default with any base 11000 or higher unit--for many Kagerou decks, all of the grade 3s run on this kind of power, or even higher. And for a counterblast 1 and self-retire, Conroe can search for any grade 1 or lesser Kagerou in the deck and add it to hand, ensuring that the Kagerou cardfighter will never be trapped at grade 0 for more than one turn. Conroe circumvents gradelock, can grab Barri to be used as a perfect defense card, and allow for multiple single-copy grade 1s to be brought out, adjusting to each fight on the fly as the opponent's strategy becomes apparent.

This flexibility is unparalleled. There are any number of units with which Conroe can be combined to. Consider Demonic Dragon Madonna, Joka, a base 6000 grade 1 that gains +3000 power when one of your opponent's cards is retired in the main phase. With her skill active, Joka can form a 20000 line with many of the clan's grade 3 units, or a 21-22000 line with Dragonic Executioner and several other grade 3s that give themselves power. However, Joka's low base power won't initially form a 16000 line with many grade 2 units, and as her skill will most likely not be active every turn this makes running four of her inadvisable. Conroe solves this by allowing for just one of her to be run, bringing the unit out consistently at very little cost.

While she can still see some use in decks with the correct rearguard setup, Joka has since been outmoded as the vanguard booster by Lizard Soldier, Raopia. Like Joka, Raopia is a base 6000 grade 1, but his boost extends only to the vanguard, giving it +4000 power for a very easy 20-22000 line whenever the opponent has two or less rearguards. There are a number of ways to use this, as Kagerou excels at removing the opponent's rearguards, but one way to handle this is by pairing him with Dragonic Overlord. Using Overlord's counterblast for a selfmade 16000 line without Raopia's boost, the opposing front row can be cleared away, leaving the opponent with just their back line, which will likely not be completely filled--and if it is, it can be narrowed to just two circles by dropping a Berserk earlier in the main phase. With Raopia's boost saved for the third and vanguard attack, Overlord can then go for 26000 power plus whatever triggers he checked beforehand, as their effects will persist between battles of the same turn. Outside of these extended plays, Raopia is also valuable for the psychological effect he has, discouraging the opponent from intercepting your attacks and encouraging them to use multiple trigger units for defense earlier instead. Because Raopia is restricted to giving the vanguard his boost, running one copy of him to fetch with Conroe is a very sensible maneuver, as it leaves room for more grade 1s while still accessing a valuable unit.

Of those other grade 1s, Demonic Dragon Mage Kimnara, Heatnail Salamander and Flame of Hope, Aermo are the most notable. Kimnara is another base 6000, that counterblasts 1 to send herself into the soul and retire one of the opponent's grade 1 rearguards. Heatnail is her boost-based counterpart, returning to the deck in the end phase of a turn where an attack that he boosts hit the opponent's vanguard, to do the same job. Both of these cards remove the opponent's boosting units while not changing the net difference in cards in play, but Heatnail keeps the damage zone open and pressures the opponent to defend earlier, whereas Kimnara can place a strain on the damage zone and fills the soul. Heatnail is the subject of an interesting trick. When running multiple copies you can call one and use his skill as normal, but then in the next turn use Conroe to get him right back and bring another of the opponent's boosting units down.

Aermo is a trial deck exclusive, coming with a card changing skill that activates when an attack that he boosted hits, dropping one card to draw another. This is useful in concealing your hand from the opponent, discarding drive checks so that they cannot tell what you have, or dropping less useful units to sift through for others. Broadly speaking, the more of your deck that you see the more consistently your strategy will come together. Aermo allows you to put that strategy into play by giving you the pieces one card at a time, filtering out the unnecessary things in the process.

Wyvern Strike, Jarran is the last of these grade 1s that you may want to search with Conroe. He's a Kagerou print of Wingal, giving a total 10000 power boost to Wyvern Strike, Tejas exclusively. This is important because Tejas has just 8000 power, letting him break past the 16000 line and even hit crossride-relevant numbers consistently where he wouldn't be able to do so with Bahr. Additionally, Tejas' skill allows him to do battle with a back-row unit on the same column as him. With Jarran's boost, Tejas can put down Marron, Gareth and other base 8000 boosting units, severely crippling the opponent's strategy by undermining lesser power rearguards and Valkyrie Laurel copies with one blow. At 8000 versus 18000 it would take the opponent 15000 shield to stop the attack, two cards to protect one, placing the Kagerou cardfighter in a situation where momentarily there is no bad outcome, as the opponent either loses a valuable rearguard or loses card advantage.

In terms of trigger bases Kagerou's draw trigger, Gattling Claw Dragon, has Kimnara's skill but applied to grade 0 units instead of grade 1s. This lets you nip many outrider FVGs in the bud, again without actually change the difference in advantage. While the timing is up to a coin flip for Gattling to touch units like Kyrph or Barcgal, this unit is ideal for hitting LuLu before she can be returned to the hand with Sakuya, Spring Breeze before he can try to bring out Pellinore, and other first vanguards that want to use their skills later in the game. Gattling Claw placed on the Top 20 Cards of 2011 for good reason, as he eliminates the main problem with drawing draw triggers by being almost never without a target right from the opening of the game. Gattling Claw and Kimnara both confer a psychological advantage by restricting what the opponent can call; decks which are able to call draw triggers and similar units to boost will be hesitant to, for fear of losing those units immediately. Of course, the opponent can play this game right back at you by recognizing when you don't want to lose Kimnara or Claw. Unless you're pulling something off like removing Milk or Tron from the field, you will generally not want to use these cards unless you already have a lead of some kind, be it by one card or by ten. So while Gattling is definitely one of the most useful draw triggers ever printed, he must be used carefully.

There is one stand trigger that sees consideration, a unit that actually doubles as a target for Conroe. Flame Seed Salamander is a stand trigger with Heatnail's skill but applied to grade 0 units. While his 4000 power base can be troublesome, in the early game this means having access to being able to eliminate those superior ride units that Gattling Claw could only touch when the opponent took the second turn, and pressuring the opponent to defend earlier. Once you've acquired counterblast, Flame Seed becomes retrievable by Conroe, helping to eliminate the typical guesswork of running stand triggers in the deck. The main trouble with this is that you won't be able to search Flame Seed early enough for it to matter versus those first vanguards, and at that point you would probably be better off searching for Raopia. Flame Seed does come with some of the advantages of a cycling trigger, maintaining a higher trigger ratio over the opponent as more cards are removed from your decks, but many pros would consider this subverted by his being a stand instead of a critical or draw trigger.

Like the Royal and Shadow Paladins, Kagerou has access to two types of base 10000 grade 2 in Cross Shot Garp and Dragon Knight Nehalem. This means more combinations of 18000 lines are possible in crossride formats, and that the plethora of base 6000 units described above are more viable in Lord formats. Unlike these others however, Kagerou also has a third base 10000 unit, Dragon Armored Knight. Armored Knight does drop down to 8000 if there are no other Kagerou on the same line as he, but has the advantage of being able to counterblast 1 to gain +1000 power until the end of the turn. Since this is an activate skill it can be repeated as many times as you have counterblast, which makes him more flexible than the others and probably recommended over them because he can attack base 11000 units unassisted and strike for 18000 with base 7000 units boosting him, making Armored Knight very valuable to crossride matchups. Despite having these three, you're unlikely to run all of them together at once; grade 2 space is somewhat strained because of Berserk and Tejas taking center stage, and every build has its own third grade 2 that it wants to support the vanguard.

That brings us to Dragon Knight, Aleph. Aleph is a base 9000 grade 2, that when you have the grade 0 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr and the grade 1 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr on your rearguard circles, you can pull them into the soul to superior ride the Embodiment of Victory, Aleph. The math for this gives -2 for the loss of Tahr and Bahr, then +1 from the grade 3 ride that's not coming from your hand and +1 from the early twin drive, breaking even while giving you the advantage of drive checking one more card than you normally would throughout the entire game. The Embodiment of Victory is a base 10000 unit who can counterblast 4 to gain +4000 power and +1 critical. This is acceptable in the vanguard despite the steep cost, but more importantly having a rearguard that can increase its own critical is exceptionally rare in Cardfight, and one that will hit 21000 with a base 7000 booster at the same time only makes a better case for him. Further tying into his superior right though, Aleph can soulblast Tahr, Bahr and his Dragon Knight form to unflip the entire damage zone. On one hand this allows his skill to be repeated across multiple turns, or simply used twice within the same turn, but more realistically this makes Aleph the clan's Mr. Invincible, allowing Berserk Dragon, Conroe, Kimnara, Overlord and the tike to be used with impunity. Aleph doesn't have quite the same level of extensive abuse as Invincible because his skill will generally be used just once in a game, and because he does not have Claydoll Mechanic/Hungry Dumpty to support him, but this is more than sufficient for what Kagerou is trying to do.

His superior ride also ties into another grade 3, Vortex Dragon. Vortex is the clan megablaster, bringing with it all the troubles of building up 8 soul and having an unflipped damage zone, and to a clan that's less than ideal for it because their most ideal rearguard is one that both exits the soul--never to return--and uses up counterblast. Vortex will age better when we cross over into Comic Style Vol.1, but for now consider that Aleph's superior ride gives three extra soul than normal; Tahr, Barh and the Embodiment of Victory himself. While it's true that riding Vortex will negate the breaking-even aspect of Aleph, this will be a necessary sacrifice in a Vortex deck. Every turn at the start of the main phase, Vortex will automatically soulcharge 1 to give himself +2000 power, hitting 20000 with Bahr, 21000 with Joka and 22000 with Raopia. If Lizard Runner, Undeux is used as the FVG instead of Conroe and the superior ride goes off, we're looking at seven soul, one turn away from bringing out that megablast. While this effectively locks you out from counterblast for the time being, the reward is being able to retire any three of your opponent's rearguards, without restrictions on what kind of targets you can have. That means that grade 3 attacking units like Palamedes and Charger will disappear immediately, clearing out their front row and probably their vanguard booster as well for a -3 overall. This is the main reason that you'd want to run Joka over Raopia. In a Vortex Dragon deck, the megablast can have her push for 27000 with Vortex's +2000, while Raopia is restricted to 22. With Aleph's superior ride this can activate on turn four, but the trouble with Vortex is that it hinges on that superior ride going off to activate consistently, demanding that you have three specific units out with a very limited window of activation. There is a remedy for this, however.

BT03: Demonic Lord Invasion gives us Flame Edge Dragon, the Kagerou equivalent to Blue Dust. A base 9000 grade 2, when his attack hits he can soulcharge 1, speeding up Vortex and increasing his viability considerably. This is one of those units that you would want to run at four in a Vortex-specific build, trying to maximize your odds of reaching that 8 soul goal. While the Vortex deck is soul-based, unlike the Irregulars and Pale Moon it isn't reliant on having a high soul count or even specific units within the soul through the entire game, which helps to mitigate the potential deck out brought on by building up the 8 soul.

Moving away from soul-based Kagerou, there are three other units to consider as either potential decks of their own or as support for an existing build. The first is Seal Dragon, Blockade, introduced in BT02: Onslaught of Dragon Souls. Unlike Overlord, Vortex and Aleph, Blockade's skill is vanguard exclusive, preventing the opponent from intercepting during your turn. Strategically this is valuable for effectively nullifying the front row's importance, crippling strategies that rely on Nemean Lion or Gordon while forcing the opponent's defenses to come wholly from their hand. Versus a Kagerou deck that can counterblast freely, that hand will already be low from having to call replacement rearguards--which the opponent was likely betting on intercepting with to make up for the difference in an emergency--forcing the opponent to dedicate a large amount of their hand to defense earlier if you're playing aggressively. This also allows you to focus your retire skills on the opponent's back row, although versus decks that pride themselves on front-row grade 3s like Royal Paladin and Murakumo, Blockade loses his impact.

The second is Dragonic Lawkeeper, the clan limit breaker from EB03: Cavalry of Black Steel. Lawkeeper's main skill is a work of tactical brilliance, counterblasting 1 at limit break 4 to bind all of the opponent's rearguards, then allow them to call up to four of them in the end phase of the turn and drop the rest. Despite never once actually retiring a unit in the text, the opponent has five rearguard circles, and so with a full field Lawkeeper's limit break effectively becomes Demon World Marquis, Amon's counterblast. However, the break has both more strategic backing than Amon and more weaknesses. In terms of strategy, when Lawkeeper attacks from the vanguard circle and the opponent has two or less rearguards, he gains +3000 power. Since all of the opponent's rearguards are bound when he attacks, that means that he goes for 23000 with Raopia every turn, and also activates the skills of Dual Axe Archdragon and Dragon Dancer Lourdes. These are grade 3 and 1 units respectively, which gain +3000 power in the rearguard when attacking with the same conditions as Lawkeeper. Archdragon will then likewise go for 21000 every turn with Bahr, or at least guarantee himself 18000 with almost all boosting units in a crossride format, while Lourdes can hit 9000 as an alternative rearguard for the front row should you be lacking in units. Lourdes herself tends to be underestimated, much like Gururubau in the Shadow Paladins, but because her skill activates in both the vanguard and rearguard circles she has serious longevity throughout the game. Early on the opponent is unlikely to have a very large field, so Lourdes is valuable for early aggression as well as a replacement for lost units, to give more flexibility to the field. She can also form a 16000 line with any base 7000 booster, although unlike Gururubau she does not have the advantage of forming one with herself. Because she attacks for 9000, this gives you one more unit that can hit a Charon or Blaster Javelin-type unit at the grade 1 stage, negating the defensive advantage of Fullbau-type evolving rides. While Lawkeeper can be a build of his own, he can also be an update to the old Goku deck to give it endgame longevity, as the two complement each other as alternative vanguards and work well with Archdragon.

The final unit we're going to discuss is Dragonic Waterfall, the third unit of the clan to be designed by Itou himself. Like Blockade and Lawkeeper, Waterfall's skills are vanguard exclusive. First, he gains +3000 power when attacking the vanguard, going for the same 23000 with Raopia that keeps Lawkeeper relevant in crossride formats, and second when he attacks he can discard a grade 3 Kagerou to gain +10000 power, possibly hitting as high as 33000. This unit can be effectively integrated into almost any Kagerou deck due to the generalized nature of his skills, but in particular he's a natural partner for Goku in place of or in tandem with Overlord because of their mutual grade 3 focus, playing off of Goku decks tending toward running between 8 and 10 grade 3s. Waterfall's ambiguity as a unit is both a strength and a weakness, as even Goku is arguably better off sticking to Overlord and Lawkeeper, while Waterfall has no deck of his own. Just as some Royal Paladin decks not based on her run a single copy of Soul Saver Dragon as a fallback or surprise turnarond however, Kagerou can do the same with Lawkeeper.

With all of these skills available, it's easy to get wrapped up in the idea of mass retiring and squandering counterblast on taking down units, but you need to keep in mind a coherent strategy and think instead of in terms of wiping out the field, in terms of "How many units do I need to retire?" With Heatnail around, it's entirely possible for the Kagerou cardfighter to operate on small leads by bringing out one copy of Berserk or Tejas early to gain a one-card advantage, then use Heatnail and Kimnara to maintain that advantage while lowering the total number of cards in play, making a comeback very difficult on the opponent. On the other hand, Goku has the ability to drop the opponent's cards every turn, and Overlord's self-standing skill can snowball with trigger checks. Lawkeeper is one of the most consistent decks and remains so even in the crossride format. Every build of Kagerou has its own internal goals, whether that's to retire three units, build up a certain soul or count down to the opponent's resources having been exhausted. And every build also sees continual upgrades with each set; next time that we revisit the clan, I'm going to discuss Blazing Flare Dragon and his support cards, with special mind paid to his alternative model of a soul-based deck.

News: VG-BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed Announcement, EB06: Dazzling Divas Information

Previews for the eleventh Japanese booster set of the Cardfight!! Vanguard trading card game, VG-BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed have been unveiled, lighting a storm of speculation in the community. The advertisement touts the return of Kagerou, promising that complete decks for this clan along with Angel Feather and Tachikaze can be built using only cards from the upcoming set. In addition to these, Narukami, Genesis and Aqua Force will be supported by BT11.  Also promised is breakride support and a crossride for Seal Dragon, Blockade, now believed to be the titular Seal Dragon that the set will unleash.

BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed will contain 102 cards with two reprints in them, one of which is currently believed to be Dragonic Overlord because of the previous press conference, the second of which is unknown. Like Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark, this reprint will also be packaged with Ride to Victory.

Because it is claimed that complete decks for Kagerou, Angel Feather and Tachikaze can be built using BT11 alone, and that the last time this claim was circulated was for EB04 and EB05 which reprinted their clans' respective perfect defense cards, there is speculation that the second reprint will be Barri, Archbird or Requiel, with the remaining two units being reimagined as subgroup perfect defense units in the style of Jewel Knight, Iseult. Note that BT01: Descent of the King of Knights is out of print in Japan, setting precedent for a Barri reprint.

Additional news has emerged surrounding EB06: Dazzling Divas, the second Bermuda Triangle extra booster. The set has been confirmed to introduce both crossrides and breakrides to the clan, with its cover card, Eternal Idol Pacifica, at the center of attention as the most likely candidate for the former. The new Pacifica's skills are unknown, although images of what many have called out as a forgery have been circulated repeatedly in fan circles. Said image has an R foil instead of RRR/SP, limit break placed at the bottom of the text box when it is universally placed at the top elsewhere, and Lord situated close to the top of the box instead of at the bottom. The production of such falsified images is not unprecedented, as the thriving OriCa community and fake magazine scans that have taken life on the net have shown.

Moreover, EB06 is drawing attention for having Tanihara Natsuki, a celebrated artist who has previously done work for one of Bushiroad's other properties Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, on board as an illustrator. Tanihara seems to be illustrating Bermuda Triangle's breakride unit, although the name of the card and what kind of skill it will have is not known.

EB06: Dazzling Divas is due for a March 23rd Japanese release and June 26th English release.







 2/6/2013 Update: A new image has since surfaced of Kai on the cover of BT11, along with the Blockade crossride. Parallels are being drawn to BT02: Onslaught of Dragon Souls, much as they were to BT01: Descent of the King of Knights and BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights. Current speculation is that, because of his being featured on a Kagerou-focused set alongside the Blockade cover card, and because of Dragonic Overlord's reprint within the set, Kai may be converting back to the Kagerou clan.

News: Crunchyroll to Launch New Streaming Site, Anime Sols Going Live This Year

Crunchyroll, the video sharing website responsible for Cardfight!! Vanguard's official release and the original home of English-language Cardfight, is starting up a new campaign to bring anime closer to the viewer. Operating jointly with Yomiuri Group companies on a policy of consolidating the ways that fans can support their favorite shows, the Anime Sols website will feature a host of anime new to the English-language market. Through Anime Sols, legal streams of anime will become available and viewers will be able to support the release of merchandise, allowing all varieties of fans to support their favorite programs. Information on what kinds of products these will constitute is scarce for the time being, but already the larger community of anime fans is speculating that the future may see affordable DVDs--the long-lost holy grail of the English-language anime industry--and once-difficult to track down soundtracks and figures produced to sate public demand. Specific mention given to collectors is adding fuel to the anticipation.

This is the first time that Japanese animation and related goods are going to be been distributed by a Japanese business directly to North America, eliminating middlemen like 4Kids and Viz Media, companies that throughout the 1990s and early 2000s were an essential part of the industry. Three years into the new decade, businesses like Anime Sols may cut them from the industry altogether. Anime Sols is so far confirmed to be streaming Tekkaman the Space Knight, Bander Book, and Creamy Mami, the Magical Angel as release titles. While from these titles it's clear that Anime Sols is currently geared toward providing access to older anime of the 70s and 80s that never saw a proper western release beforehand, already they have picked up the 2008 remake of Yatterman, and newer anime may follow as the platform gains momentum.

In addition to those already confirmed for distribution, the various companies involved previously did work on Space Battleship Yamato, Magic Knight Rayearth, Beelzebub, Naruto Shippūden, InuYasha and others. Many of the major players in Cardfight's development have worked on one or more of these shows. Among the animation directors are Hattori Noritomo, responsible for directing OP02: Believe in My Existence as well as the animation of Aichi and Gouki's regional championship match in ride 22, and Shishido Kumiko, responsible for directing rides 50, 56 and 62, the episodes where Phantom Blaster Dragon's now-signature animation debuted. Hattori previously directed animation for Naruto Shippūden, while Shishido did the same for Beelzebub. Shiina Hekiru, the voice actor for the lead role in Rayearth Hikaru, performed ED01: Diamond Star, one of the more popular ending themes that is still inserted in new episodes as one of Cardfight's more impacting musical themes, and Shinohara Emi, the voice of Presea in the same series is also the voice of Aichi's mother, Sendou Shizuka. Yamato meanwhile was a classic work of the 70s whose animation directors included the departed Ashida Toyoo, a veteran artist of the period whose final artwork to be completed prior to his death was BT03: Demonic Lord Invasion's Stil Vampir.

Anime Sols is stated to operate on a crowd funding model, whereby more support for a series will see new ones acquired and the production of related merchandise. Among the participating companies are Tatsunoko Productions, whom westerners are primarily familiar with through Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, a Wii-based crossover fighting game that pitted Capcom characters like MegaMan Volnutt, Viewtiful Joe, Zero and Ryu against Tatsunoko's animated properties. Notably out of the series mentioned above, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom featured the titular Tekkaman of Space Knight, and the original 1977 Yatterman-1 and Yatterman-2, who were reimagined in the 2008 remake that will air through Anime Sols.

(via Crunchyroll, The Fandom Post and Anime News Network)

Analysis: Smith versus Suharto

Smith versus Suharto, Match 3 was a cardfight played in September of 2011 at the Tokyo Dome Hotel. Played between North American national champion Brandon Smith and Asia-Oceania runner-up Henry Suharto, it is among the most famous cardfights and one of the first professional games to be recorded in video. Today it is used as a reference point for the early development of the English format's pro scene, and as an instructional tool on the value of damage control, field presence and the weaknesses of limit break. Although there were actually three matches, with match 2 going to Smith and match 1 going to Suharto, match 3 is considered the most important of the three as it was the turning point where Smith gained the upper hand and demonstrated his qualification for the world title. This was also the closest of the three games, with a clear winner being impossible to call on either end up until the last trigger check. Smith would go on to call it "one of the best matches in the history of the game."²

Circumstances of the Match
The games were played as part of World Championship 2012, the first such international championship of its kind⁴. The winner would be crowned the first world champion as a result, the highest-ranked title of any format. Popular favor was overwhelmingly turned toward Smith even before WCS2012's international rounds had begun, due to his placing first at Toronto and Los Angeles previously, while Suharto had never taken first place in any of the competitions that he had qualified in. At the time, Christopher Fernau was considered the strongest alternative candidate for the title due to his performance in the harsh European environment and his wealth of experience; Suharto outperforming him and confronting Smith in the finals was a surprise turnaround, which threw off previous predictions surrounding the world championship. While almost all official tournament matches are conducted in a best of one, double elimination format with twenty minute rounds, the WCS2012 finals allotted the total match time fifty minutes for a best of three title game. A little under half of the total time given was used for the finals.


 
The final round was covered through a NicoNico Douga livestream on one of Bushiroad's official web channels, hosted by Doctor O and Terakawa Aimi.¹ While Smith was using the same deck that he and Bastianelli had first co-built prior to the Toronto regionals, Suharto had made significant modifications to convert the deck he had used at the Asia-Oceanian championship to a Pellinore-based one, which until that point had relied on Spectral Duke Dragon.³

In match 1, Smith had the weaker opening due to completely missing the Vortimer line, but through careful damage control he was able to drive his opponent to 4-to-1 damage while they both were still at grade 2. The difference in card advantage seemed to have evened out by Suharto's third turn due to him not having a grade 3 to ride, putting them both at -1 while Smith had an immense lead in damage, but Suharto was able to turn this around by using Nimue to superior call Pellinore and superior ride into him, drive checking a critical trigger that evened out their damage zones and a draw trigger that again gave him the lead in cards. Suharto went from three cards in hand to six within a single turn, having double the hand size over Smith, who still had to ride Spectral Duke and cope with not having his typical base 11000 vanguard to rely on. This culminated in a difficult late game for Smith, as a late grade 3 drive check left him able to stop all but one attack from Suharto's field. While there were heal triggers left in his deck, Smith didn't pull one after judging himself unable to defend, and so the tide passed over in favor of Suharto.

In match 2, Smith pulled out his deck's strongest opening using Vortimer to fetch Vortimer, while Suharto had a comparatively weaker first ride with Halo Shield, Mark over Spring Breeze Messenger. Smith quickly multiplied this early game into a +3, superior calling with his grade 2 Vortimer into Viviane, then using her to superior call Elixir Sommelier to boost a Black Dragon Knight rearguard. A draw trigger that turn helped mitigate Suharto's loss in position, but the damage gap was already very wide along with the difference in control of the field. Smith played more extensive control here, blocking his opponent's Spring Breeze with intercepts and in the process, clearing two field spots for Spectral Duke Dragon's superior call in his third turn. In that turn, the North American champion chose to retire one of the new rearguards that he had called, effectively trading out the Sommelier of the previous turn for a rearguard Vortimer and Spectral Duke line. While this did maintain Suharto's at-the-time 1-card advantage, it allowed Smith to form three strong rearguard lines while Suharto was already going into the turn at 3-to-2 damage, and with Gigantech Destroyer and Sleygal Dagger forming a base 21000 line, he could then push for an immediate endgame while his opponent was still at grade 2. A critical trigger that turn sealed this move, forcing his opponent to defend both of his rearguard lines. Suharto at this stage had Viviane as his vanguard, so even damage checking a trigger did not do much to help his defense, due to the 14000 defense still needing to drop 10000 shield to stop Gigantech and Spectral Duke. Suharto went into his grade 3 turn at -2 to 0 and 5-to-2 damage. In contrast to Suharto's defensive problems, Smith was able to drop a single trigger on his opponent's vanguard for a base 21000 defense, making use of Duke's continuous skill to ensure that Pellinore would need two triggers to pass through. Smith won the match still at three damage, without ever making use of his limit break.

The Game
Turns 1-2
[V] Spring Breeze Messenger (5000) versus Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (4000)
Smith's hand:  6. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Little Battler Tron, Silent Punisher, Elixir Sommelier, Spectral Duke Dragon.
Damage: 0/6
Triggers left in deck: 13
Net advantage:  0
Suharto's hand: 5. Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Halo Shield Mark, Silent Punisher, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane, Flame of Victory.
Damage: 0/6
Triggers left in deck: 14
Net advantage: 0
Smith opens with his only copy of Tron (6000) moving Vortimer to the back of his vanguard line for +1. Suharto takes the stronger opening on turn 2, riding the Nimue (7000) that he draws and moving Spring Breeze behind his own vanguard line for his own +1, then drive checking Flame of Victory (Critical Trigger +5000 power / +1 critical.) Smith damage checks Beaumains and Mark.

Turns 3-4
[V] Spring Breeze Messenger (5000) boosting Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue (7000) versus Little Battle, Tron (6000) boosted by Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (4000)
Smith's hand:  6. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Silent Punisher, Elixir Sommelier, Spectral Duke Dragon, Spectral Duke Dragon.
Damage: 2/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark)
Triggers left in deck: 13
Net advantage:  +1
Suharto's hand: 6. Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Halo Shield Mark, Silent Punisher, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane, Flame of Victory, Flame of Victory.
Damage: 0/6
Triggers left in deck: 13
Net advantage: +1
Smith rides Beaumains (10000) and drive checks Sleygal Dagger. Suharto damage checks Mark.

On turn 4, Suharto rides Viviane (9000) but his vanguard line is guarded by Elixir Sommelier (S20000.) Because Viviane and Spring Breeze can only go for 14000 together, even with a trigger they will not be allowed to pass through; while Smith is no longer tied for card lead, his choice to protect on this turn causes the damage lead from Suharto's earlier critical to be nullified while also making any potential critical this turn wasted. Smith is taking advantage of an opening that Suharto's plays have created.

Suharto drive checks Listener of Truth, Dindrane.

Turn 5
[V] Spring Breeze Messenger (5000) boosting Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane (9000) versus Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains (10000) boosted by Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (4000)
Smith's hand:  6. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Silent Punisher, Spectral Duke Dragon, Black Dragon Knight Vortimer, Spectral Duke Dragon, Sleygal Dagger.
Damage: 2/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark)
Triggers left in deck: 13
Net advantage:  0
Suharto's hand: 7. Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Halo Shield Mark, Silent Punisher, Flame of Victory, Flame of Victory, Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Listener of Truth Dindrane.
Damage: 1/6 (Halo Shield Mark)
Triggers left in deck: 13
Net advantage: +1
Smith rides Spectral Duke Dragon but because he drew his grade 2 Vortimer late, he only has a base 10000 Duke to rely on. Smith calls a rearguard Duke Dragon (10000) with Sleygal Dagger (7000) to his left line, and Vortimer (9000) to his right. Vortimer is guarded by Dindrane, while Smith's vanguard goes unguarded, drive checking Gareth and Flame of Victory (Critical Trigger +5000 power / +1 critical); the critical goes to the vanguard and the power goes to the rearguard Spectral Duke. Suharto damage checks Beaumains and Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion. Rearguard Spectral Duke (22000) is likewise unguarded. Suharto damage checks Speeder Hound (Draw Trigger +5000 power / draw 1.)

The triggers in play on this turn are interesting. Suharto's defense and Smith's critical mean that the game state would have returned to being essential neutral, with both fighters having dealt the same amount of damage and having lost the same amount of cards, but the supporting rearguards and Suharto's draw trigger means that Smith has a damage lead while Suharto still has his +1 over Smith's 0.

Turn 6
[R] No rearguards versus Black Dragon Knight, Vortimer (9000)
[V] Spring Breeze Messenger (5000) boosting Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane (9000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (4000)
[R] No rearguards versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Sleygal Dagger (7000)
Smith's hand:  4. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Silent Punisher, Knight of Elegant Skills Gareth, Flame of Victory.
Damage: 2/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark)
Triggers left in deck: 12
Net advantage:  0
Suharto's hand: 8. Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Halo Shield Mark, Silent Punisher, Flame of Victory, Flame of Victory, Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Knight of Elegant Skills Gareth, Speeder Hound.
Damage: 4/6 (Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Sacred Guardian Beast Nemean Lion, Speeder Hound)
Triggers left in deck: 11
Net advantage: +1
Suharto rides Great Silver Wolf, Garmore (10000) activating his counterblast 2 to superior call one grade 2 or lower Gold Paladin; Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion (8000.) Suharto calling Lion is a trick to defensively gain "one and a half" cards instead of just one out of Garmore, due to Nemean's especial intercept allowing him to play with an additional +5000 shield. This is also one of the more sensible calls that he could make in this situation, since the Gareth that Speeder Hound just gave him forms a base 16000 line with Nemean, and his front row is currently incomplete with this hand while Smith has almost filled the field already. Suharto still has one Dindrane left in his deck at this point, so while he could have gone for a straight +2 and access more of his deck while having a full line with Garmore, the better offensive field was more valuable.

Suharto calls Garmore (10000) to his left line and Gareth (8000) to boost Lion. Rearguard Garmore retires Vortimer, while the vanguard Garmore activates his limit break 4 for +5000 power, targeting Smith's Dragon (20000 v. 10000.) Smith does not guard; Suharto drive checks Halo Shield, Mark and Elixir Sommelier (Heal Trigger +5000 power / heal 1) giving the power to Nemean and healing his counterblasted Lion from his damage zone. Smith damage checks Beaumains. Suharto activates Spring Breeze Messenger's skill, counterblasting 1 to move Spring Breeze to the soul and look at up to 3 cards from the top of his deck to superior call one Gold Paladin at rest. Suharto sees Lop Ear Shooter, Speeder Hound and Gareth. After comparing it to his hand, Suharto calls Lop Ear, activating Lop Ear's skill by discarding Speeder Hound from his hand to look at three more cards and superior call one at rest. This time he sees Flame of Victory, Nimue and White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore. Suharto superior calls Pellinore (10000) then activates Pellinore's skill, discarding Flame of Victory to superior ride Pellinore, in the process standing his vanguard.

Pellinore (10000) attacks the vanguard Duke Dragon, but is defended by Flame of Victory (S20000.) Suharto drive checks Beaumains and Speeder Hound (Draw Trigger +5000 power / draw 1) giving the power to Nemean Lion. Nemean Lion (26000) goes unguarded, Smith damage checks Flame of Victory (Critical Trigger +5000 power / critical +1.)

This is one of the longer moves of the match, and somewhat complicated, but the end result is that Suharto starts his main phase with a sum +2 when Smith is at 0, then stretches this out into a three-card difference by giving Smith a -1 when his rearguard Garmore retires Vortimer. After that, Suharto heals one damage with his heal trigger, equalizing the difference in damage while firmly establishing himself in the lead through card advantage. This snowballs because at attack he was already at limit break and going for 20000 with Spring Breeze versus Smith's 10000 base, making the attack impossibie to stop if Smith wanted to survive the match. This put Smith in a dangerously compromised position where he could not control the flow of the game. Spring Breeze's skill initially makes no total changes to the advantage in play, but once Lop Ear's activates Suharto gets a +1; remember that Pellinore is only a +2 when superior riding from grade 2, although in this case his draw trigger check gives an additional +1. In this situation what we should consider is that Suharto added four and a half cards difference between him and Smith through multiple superior calls, and activated a second twin drive. The total advantage is now +4.5 to -2 when it started out as +1 to 0, giving the impression that this would go on to be a repeat of the first round.

Turn 7
[R] Lop Ear Shooter (9000) and Great Silver Wolf, Garmore (10000) versus No rearguards
[V] White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore (10000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (4000)
[R] Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000) boosting Nemean Lion (8000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Sleygal Dagger (7000)
Smith's hand:  4. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Silent Punisher, Knight of Elegant Skills Gareth, Elixir Sommelier.
Damage: 4/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Flame of Victory)
Triggers left in deck: 10
Net advantage:  -2
Suharto's hand: 8. Halo Shield Mark, Silent Punisher, Flame of Victory, Halo Shield Mark, Elixir Sommelier, Speeder Hound, Silent Punisher, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains.
Damage: 3/6 (Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Speeder Hound)
Triggers left in deck: 9
Net advantage: +4.5
Smith calls Elixir Sommelier (5000) and Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000) to fill in for Vortimer. The use of these two is interesting. Together, they have 13000 power, just enough to force out 10000 shield needed for Nemean Lion's defense; at that point, the Lion is no longer worth defending due to its total shield equaling what was needed to protect it, effectively negating the plus-one-half even if Suharto had blocks the attack, bringing him down to 4 v. -1 no matter how he moves. Suharto chooses to let the Lion be retired.

The vanguard Spectral Duke Dragon (14000) goes after Pellinore, Suharto defends with Silent Punisher and Speeder Hound (S25000) guaranteeing that Duke cannot get through. Smith drive checks Elixir Sommelier (Heal Trigger +5000 power / heal 1) giving the power to his rearguard Duke and healing Flame of Victory from his damage zone, then checks Viviane. The heal trigger becomes something of a mixed bag because even though it helps to prolong Smith's game, it prevents him from limit breaking, and it could be presumed from his call of Elixir Sommelier that he was intending to sacrifice Sommelier, Gareth and Vortimer for the break. Considering Suharto's hand however, it's doubtful just how effective this would be.

Rearguard Spectral Duke Dragon (22000) targets Pellinore. Suharto damage checks Viviane.

Note that Suharto checks Duke Dragon's soul when he attacks, and sees that there is no Black Dragon Knight there. This becomes a point of contention in approximately fifty seconds.

Turn 8
[R] Lop Ear Shooter (9000) and Great Silver Wolf, Garmore (10000) versus Elixir Sommelier (5000) boosted by Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000)
[V] White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore (10000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (4000)
[R] Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Sleygal Dagger (7000)
Smith's hand: 4. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Silent Punisher, Elixir Sommelier, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane.
Damage: 3/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains)
Triggers left in deck: 9
Net advantage:  -2
Suharto's hand: 7. Halo Shield Mark, Flame of Victory, Halo Shield Mark, Elixir Sommelier, Silent Punisher, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Flame of Victory.
Damage: 4/6 (Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Speeder Hound, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane)
Triggers left in deck: 8
Net advantage: +1
Suharto calls Beaumains (10000) to replace his lost Lion, then calls Flame of Victory (4000) behind Pellinore. This is the fatal move; Suharto eventually needs this 10000 shield to survive through turn 11, but he's instead calling Flame to boost Pellinore. His intentions aren't wholly clear; he could be intending to send Shooter and Victory to the deck for Pellinore's limit break to throw Beaumains up to 28000 or having a 15000 Pellinore and 23000 Beaumains while recycling a trigger with some other shuffle effect, so that when he inevitably loses the card advantage by having to replace a backrow grade 2, he can at least translate that to the opponent needing to expend more cards to defend, but this never actually materializes. It would seem as though Suharto has mistakenly assumed that Spectral Duke Dragon is at an 11000 base and that he needs the boost to hit, but he had already checked Duke Dragon's soul on the preceding turn and seen that Vortimer was not there. Whatever the case, calling Victory is an immediate mistake that costs him the game, and it's a rare example of a call actively decreasing advantage by -1 instead of influencing no change or increasing it.

Pellinore (14000) attacks the vanguard. Smith guards with Elixir Sommelier (S20000), repeating his play from turn 4. Suharto now needs two triggers to pass, but because he has to check them one at a time, he would have to be very desperate to put the first one on his vanguard and bank on the second also being a trigger unit. Suharto drive checks Elixir Sommelier (Heal Trigger +5000 power / heal 1) healing his counterblasted Beaumains from his damage zone and giving the power to Garmore. He then drive checks a second Elixir Sommelier (Heal Trigger +5000 power / heal 1) healing Speeder Hound from his zone and once again passing the power to Garmore.

Beaumains (18000) targets the vanguard. Smith defends with Silent Punisher (S20000.) Garmore (20000) follows up unboosted, and Smith damage checks Spectral Duke Dragon.

Turn 9
[R] Lop Ear Shooter (9000) and Great Silver Wolf, Garmore (10000) versus Elixir Sommelier (5000) boosted by Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000)
[V] Flame of Victory (4000) boosting White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore (10000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer (4000)
[R] Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000) boosting Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains (10000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Sleygal Dagger (7000)
Smith's hand: 3. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane, Black Dragon Knight Vortimer.
Damage: 4/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Spectral Duke Dragon)
Triggers left in deck: 9
Net advantage:  -4
Suharto's hand: 7. Halo Shield Mark, Halo Shield Mark, Elixir Sommelier, Silent Punisher, Flame of Victory, Elixir Sommelier, Elixir Sommelier.
Damage: 2/6 (Halo Shield Mark, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane)
Triggers left in deck: 6
Net advantage: 0
Sommelier (13000) attacks Pellinore. Suharto stops it with Elixir Sommelier (S20000.) Smith's vanguard Spectral Duke Dragon (14000) follows up, Suharto defends with another Sommelier (S20000.) This is a debatable call; it's clear that Smith is setting up for the limit break that he missed last turn, so any triggers that he checks are naturally going to go onto Spectral Duke, but Suharto has no base 5000 shield units in hand and most likely does not want to waste 10000 on the attack. It would be arguably better to call "no guard" in this situation rather than place a weak defense.

Smith drive checks Weapons Dealer, Gwydion (Draw Trigger +5000 power / draw 1) giving the power to his vanguard, them checks Flame of Victory (Critical Trigger +5000 power / +1 critical) placing all of it on his vanguard (24000 critical 2.) Suharto damage checks Garmore and Lop Ear Shooter. Smith counterblasts 2 to activate Spectral Duke Dragon's limit break 4, retiring Elixir Sommelier, Gareth and Vortimer to stand his vanguard and lose twin drive; however, Duke Dragon retains the effects of his checked triggers. He attacks Pellinore once more (20000 critical 2), and Suharto defends with Silent Punisher and Elixir Sommelier (S30000.) Smith drive checks Silent Punisher (Critical Trigger +5000 power / critical +1) giving all effects to his rearguard Spectral Duke Dragon.

Rearguard Duke Dragon (22000 critical 2) attacks Pellinore. Suharto intercepts with Beaumains and guards with Flame of Victory (S25000.) To recap, Suharto has just lost six cards in one turn while Smith has changed out three for one, for a net comparison of -6 to -6. With equal damage, both fighters are now once again in a neutral game state. Despite that, the situation is clearly not the same for each of them--Suharto's cards are distributed through his field, in poor positions with Lop Ear in the back line where it can't intercept and Flame of Victory unable to defend, while Smith's are concentrated in his hand, giving him greater longevity than Suharto.

Turn 10
[R] Lop Ear Shooter (9000) and Great Silver Wolf, Garmore (10000) versus No rearguards
[V] Flame of Victory (4000) boosting White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore (10000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000)
[R] Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Sleygal Dagger (7000)
Smith's hand: 7. Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane, Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Flame of Victory, Silent Punisher, Flame of Victory, Weapons Dealer Gwydion.
Damage: 4/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Spectral Duke Dragon)
Triggers left in deck: 6
Net advantage:  -6
Suharto's hand: 3. Halo Shield Mark, Halo Shield Mark, White Hare in the Moon's Shadow Pellinore.
Damage: 4/6 (Halo Shield Mark, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane, Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Lop Ear Shooter)
Triggers left in deck: 6
Net advantage: -6
Suharto calls Pellinore (10000) to fill in for Beaumains, then attacks with his vanguard (14000) at the vanguard. Smith defends with Silent Punisher and Gwydion (S25000) guaranteeing that the attack will not pass. Suharto drive checks Garmore and Elixir Sommelier (Heal Trigger +5000 power / heal 1) giving the power to Garmore and healing Lop Ear Shooter from his zone. Garmore (15000) targets Smith's vanguard, but is stopped by Flame of Victory (S20000.) Rearguard Pellinore (18000) attacks the vanguard, and is blocked by a second Flame of Victory (S20000.)

Turn 11
[R] Lop Ear Shooter (9000) and Great Silver Wolf, Garmore (10000) versus No rearguards
[V] Flame of Victory (4000) boosting White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore (10000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000)
[R] Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth (8000) boosting White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore (10000) versus Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) boosted by Sleygal Dagger (7000)
Smith's hand: 4. Player of the Holy Bow Viviane, Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Weapons Dealer Gwydion, Black Dragon Knight Vortimer.
Damage: 4/6 (Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Halo Shield Mark, Knight of Superior Skills Beaumains, Spectral Duke Dragon)
Triggers left in deck: 5
Net advantage:  -10
Suharto's hand: 4. Halo Shield Mark, Halo Shield Mark, Great Silver Wolf Garmore, Elixir Sommelier.
Damage: 3/6 (Halo Shield Mark, Player of the Holy Bow Viviane, Great Silver Wolf Garmore)
Triggers left in deck: 5
Net advantage: -6
Smith calls Gwydion (5000) to boost his vanguard, then Viviane (9000) and Gwydion (5000) to fill out his last line. Rearguard Duke Dragon (17000) attacks Pellinore, Suharto stops the attack with Elixir Sommelier (S20000.) Smith attacks with his vanguard (15000), Suharto chooses not to defend. Smith drive checks Gigantech Destroyer and Halo Shield, Mark. Suharto damage checks his second Spring Breeze Messenger. Smith activates Spectral Duke Dragon's limit break 4, counterblasting 2 and retiring his rearguard Duke Dragon, Sleygal Dagger and Gwydion to stand his vanguard and lose twin drive.

Spectral Duke Dragon (10000) attacks Pellinore, Suharto declares "no guard." At this point, Suharto's play is paralyzed because he has just three cards in hand. The only thing that he has to defend with is a single Mark; if he drops one, he will not be able to drop the other because of Mark's discard. Had he chosen not to guard the rearguard Spectral Duke Dragon, he could easily make it through the turn, but in this situation he has to hope that Smith does not get a trigger and then use up his remaining defense on Viviane. At this point, there are no heal triggers left in Suharto's deck, so a critical trigger will end the game.

Smith drive checks Silent Punisher (Critical Trigger +5000 power / critical +1) giving the critical to Spectral Duke Dragon and the power to Viviane. Suharto damage checks Dindrane and Beaumains; Brandon Smith becomes the 2012 world champion.

The Fatal Move
From the seventh turn onward, both fighters were forced to deal with poor fields and their respective gains rapidly evaporating. In this situation, the match became very tight, with the lead rapidly bouncing between finalists. Navigating these scenarios, particularly the endgame, is difficult and takes extensive experience. Turn 8 is where Suharto erred--calling Flame of Victory only deprived his hand of 10000 shield, because Smith did not have Vortimer in the soul and so Pellinore could already hit Spectral Duke Dragon, while either unboosted or not by this trigger unit, Smith would still drop one trigger to make the attack need two to hit. This effectively put Suharto at an immediate -1, as with that one 10000 shield he would have had enough cards in turn 11 to defend and potentially launch a counterattack on turn 12.

Smith's use of Spectral Duke Dragon's limit break in his final turn did more than launch a killing attack. It allowed Smith to trade out his front row Spectral Duke for a unit with higher shield. The move was necessary even if it had not been the finishing blow, because he would likely not have been able to defend through the next turn without it. Suharto's choice to not defend here was heavily criticized at the time of the finals, but by all reckoning he could not have defended. He had four cards in hand at the start of the turn, had already defended with Sommelier, would need to drop one more for Mark and still had to account for Smith's remaining Viviane line while only having one card in hand at that point. If he stopped Duke with Mark, any potential triggers would go to Viviane, which Suharto had no way of defending against. Effectively, it was impossible for him to make a good move that involved defending after blocking the rearguard Duke Dragon. His losing move was then calling Flame of Victory, who would have an extra 10000 shield to defend with, enough to stop Viviane and Gwydion after factoring in the trigger.

Citations and External Links
1. "Brandon Smith Wins Cardfight!! Vanguard World Championship 2012." Anime News Network. Bushiroad Inc., 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2012-12-12/brandon-smith-wins-cardfight-vanguard-world-championship-2012>.
2. Cavanaugh, Katherine. "Store clerk wins world title for card game." Daily Tribune 23 Dec. 2012 [Royal Oak, Michigan] : A1+. Print.
3. "DeckRecipe." CARDFIGHT!! VANGUARD. Bushiroad Inc., 13 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://cf-vanguard.com/en/cardlist/deckrecipe/WC2012_Finals>.
4. "Tournaments/Events." CARDFIGHT!! VANGUARD. Bushiroad Inc., 18 June 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://cf-vanguard.com/en/event/>.

Royal Paladin Extra Study Material: Soul Saver Dragon

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

The Soul Saver Dragon build is sometimes called the first modern deck. Certainly, it's left a serious mark on the history of the game, and the core strategy behind it is still commonly used today, but it's also been by and large left behind by modern sets. While Lohengrin, Alfred and Blaster-based cards like Gancelot have been reinforced in today's game, Soul Saver has essentially stopped developing right where she started.

The build's namesake and focal card is Soul Saver Dragon, a base 10000 grade 3 built around auto rather than activate skills. The base 10000 alone should clue you in to the fact that she's an offensive unit first and foremost; and like Alfred before her and Garmore to come, Saver Dragon is a rearguard-dependent vanguard. Her first autoskill is to gain +3000 power when attacking a vanguard, forming an easy 21000+ line with either Marron or Toypugal for forcing strong defenses from units like Asura Kaiser and Dragonic Overlord where Alfred could not, but do note that with Toypugal, Soul Saver caps out at 22000, just short of pressuring a crossride. This is one area where she's aged, as the 23000+ vanguard line is an essential part of postcrossride formats. Her second autoskill, and her area of dependency, is to soulblast 5 on-ride to give +5000 power to three Royal Paladin rearguards. This is one of the original finishing skills in the game, setting up Palamedes and Toypugal, or herself and Marron to go for 26000 before triggers, which is perfect for when the opponent is at four to five damage, but there are three key weaknesses to the card.

Before we jump into those, let's instead look into her support. Reading from lowest and moving up we find that Saver Dragon affects trigger bases, as the clan's first draw trigger to have a skill, Margal, can support her soulblast by moving to the soul to give another Royal Paladin unit +3000 power. That's one card less needed to fill up the soul with, at the cost of draining the extra lead that a draw trigger normally brings; the reason that this works so well is because Margal's +3000 can turn a 17000 line into a 20000 one, or 18 to 21000, so if the opponent is to defend that attack then they lose one card more just as you have lost one card more. Moreover, Barcgal was discussed in our previous module, but this is where the soul that we've built up with Llew really counts. The superior ride into Blaster Blade gives exactly the soul count necessary to pay for Saver Dragon's soulblast, ensuring that if you have an early lead then you can go for the endgame right from your grade 3 ride, or otherwise have a plan for the turn after you ride the King of Knights. In any format with the September 5th or August 1st restrictions in effect, Barcgal can no longer be used as the first vanguard, severely limiting his use and preventing any superior ride that he initiates from increasing card advantage, although some fighters still choose to run him as a one-card tech with the proper trigger bases. Drangal leading into Galahad is still generally considered the best replacement FVG for the English format, but any first vanguard that can reliably move back to the soul can suit Soul Saver's purposes.

Next in support is Young Pegasus Knight and his corresponding grade 2 equivalent, Great Sage Barron. At 6000 and 8000 power respectively, these units gain +3000 power whenever a card is soulcharged in the main phase; that means that one Margal can bring their line up to 23000 power, or in a Lohengrin offshoot they can reliably hit for 20000 every turn. More reliably, you can run Pegasus Knight by himself as a booster that can reach 12000, though this will be difficult to manage over the course of multiple turns and if you aren't trying to hit 12000 then Toypugal is by far the easier card to meet the conditions for. To that end we have Pongal, a base 7000 grade 1 that can counterblast 1 in the main phase to move to the soul and add Soul Saver Dragon to the hand from the deck. This support Saver Dragon and Pegasus Knight simultaneously, allowing for the mystic dragon to come to hand very easily while increasing the soul for her use, but the maneuver also telegraphs to the opponent that you're going to ride Soul Saver, highlighting one of the card's key weaknesses. Soul Saver Dragon is more dependent on the rearguard than Alfred, and unlike the King, she can't conveniently call other Royal Paladins to assist her. There's a very brief window at the start of each turn to activate her skill with, but because it is on-ride, you need to have three rearguards set up in advance to pass the power on to, otherwise the soulblast is wasted. This translates to the back row having the most importance in a Saver Dragon deck, because the power can be passed on to boosting units who are more difficult to attack than the front row, but this doesn't necessarily save the Soul Saver cardfighter because of clans like Kagerou, Narukami and Megacolony, all of whom have some way of crippling your boosting units by either retiring them or preventing them from boosting.

Among the last of the Dragon's support cards is High Dog Breeder Akane, a base 8000 grade 2 that on-ride or on-call can counterblast 2 to superior call one Royal Paladin High Beast. There are a couple of ways that this can play out; Akane can call Pongal for a base 15000 line, then move him to the soul later to get Saver Dragon into hand, she can bring out Margal for an immediate soulcharge to support the Dragon that will turn Akane into a base 11000 line for the turn, or she can bring out Lionmane Stallion to support a rearguard Alfred. That last move is particularly helpful if you do want to run Lionmane, since you can limit it to one copy and still bring the card out reliably, and it helps Akane support Alfred within his own deck, but within the context of Soul Saver, Akane's primary target is going to be Pongal or Toypugal. Toypugal is the more long-term option, since you're likely to intercept with Akane on your opponent's turn to make room for Palamedes and prepare Saver Dragon's holy charging roar, but Pongal will let you jump right into the Dragon in a pinch.

Finally, our old friend Pendragon rears his head. Because of her +3000 autoskill, it is possibly to run four copies of Soul Saver Dragon with Pendragon as a backup fifth copy to limit break into her, avoiding Alfred altogether. Pendragon can break 21000-23000 while Alfred cannot, which does give some credit to this more modern take on the deck. Lohengrin can also support her in place of Alfred, and this is fairly consistent with Marron, Young Pegasus Knight and Toypugal all available to the Royal Paladins, but he's not particularly recommended because of the lack of a guaranteed 20000 line, lack of access to Lien for card changing, and for his soulcharge not being particularly practical toward supporting multiple soublasts, which would theoretically be the reason to include the clan megablaster in the deck.

Soul Saver's ride comes with a steep cost, which in a format without Barcgal is difficult to pay even with all of this support, and very likely to cause one more card than normal to be dedicated to the vanguard circle, when it could have otherwise been used to pay for Iseult's cost or be called to replace a rearguard. Blaster Blade was arguably one reason why the Soul Saver Dragon deck was perceived as being its own best counter for some time, as he could exploit the deck's rearguard reliance to retire the opponent's front row units and then go after the second line, which if one of the opponent's back line spaces was unfilled would cripple their strategy. In truth, Megacolony and Kagerou have the best matchup as mentioned above, since Giraffa can eliminate units early and go for 21000 every turn while Goku can clear out the back row with Berserk's help and Dragonic Overlord can handle the front. Other decks with Alfred-based units also have the option of assailing your Palamedes with their vanguard, severely dampening the strategy's power with an attack that it's difficult to justify dedicating the cards to defend against. The strategy itself plays on the Royal Paladin's strong superior calls to set it up, but its maneuvers are expensive and you have to budget both your counterblast and your soul carefully to bring it together. The deck's moves have become so definitive of the pro scene that at this point the deck could be called a cliché, with virtually no surprises among its ranks. However, Soul Saver Dragon comes with consistency, power and strong plays all throughout the early to endgame, making for one of the most solid decktypes that can bring its central play out the most regularly.

News: English Tournament Season for 2013, Set Release Schedule

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Recently-released posters have set out a much-awaited schedule for 2013's tournament season, as well as a schedule for booster set releases. In addition to these, dates for sneak preview events have gone up, providing exclusive chances at getting playmats, promo cards and early access to new cards.

Tournament Schedule
March-June 2013: Cardfight!! Vanguard Stand Up Challenge Cup
A singles tournament whose victor will "Rise as the number one Cardfight!! Vanguard player." This is currently speculated to be WCS2013; the four month time frame presented matches up with that of the 2012 world championships. If this were the case, then it's possible that the schedule will parallel 2012's closely, with the Indonesian, Australian, Philippine and German national tournaments taking place in March while the tournaments for France, Great Britain, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan take place in April and the North American championship runs concurrent to the others, extending into May. If this were the case, the world finals would be in early June. However, there may be more participating countries than in the previous year.

Within the time frame of the tournament, BT05 will be usable from the beginning, while EB01 will become available in late March, TD07 will become available in the tournament's second month, and BT08 will be made available during its third. BT09-onward will most likely not be usable before the end of the tournament, based on its late release date. This means that the major players during the Stand Up Challenge will likely be Dragonic Overlord The End, Majesty Lord Blaster, Scarlet Witch CoCo and Goddess of the Full Moon Tsukuyomi. Notably, Aqua Force is projected to have a very slim window to appear within; its first opportunity to take a tournament title will probably be at a stage when only trial decks are available.

April-July 2013: Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League
A worldwide triples tournament that will pit the strongest teams from different regions against one another to select for the globally strongest team. This tournament being confirmed as a global one strongly implies that the Stand Up Challenge is an international event. Due to the timing of the tournament, it appears that it will not interfere with the Stand Up Challenge Cup, possibly allowing for dual participation in both tournaments.

Note that Fighter's Road 2013 will be starting up in May and ending in July, concluding in the same timeframe as the Team League. This is similar to how the 2012 international cup and Fighter's Climax 2012 were structured, with WCS2012 starting up a month earlier but ending in the same month as FC2012.

BT05, EB01 and TD07 will all probably be available at the start of the Team League, with TD07 having the most room to be excluded. Within the first three months of the tournament, every set listed below with the probable exception of BT09 and definite exception of EB06 will be made available.

Booster Set Schedule
BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades
February 15/16/17 2013 - Sneak Preview
February 22nd, 2013 - Set Release
Will provide the opportunity for fighters to receive a The End playmat and Darkside Pegasus promo card. Reinforces Royal Paladin, Shadow Paladin, Kagerou, Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, Nova Grappler, Oracle Think Tank and introduces Murakumo and Neo Nectar.

EB01: Comic Style Volume 1
March 22/23/24 2013 - Sneak Preview
March 29th, 2013 - Set Release
Reinforces Royal Paladin, Murakumo, Pale Moon, Nova Grappler, Kagerou and Megacolony, and introduces the Exculpate the Blaster promo card for Royal Paladin.

TD07: Descendants of the Marine Emperor
April 19th, 2013 - Deck Release
Introduces Aqua Force to the English pro scene.

BT08: Blue Storm Armada
April 26/27/28 2013 - Sneak Preview
May 3rd, 2013 - Set Release
Reinforces Aqua Force, Neo Nectar, Narukami, Great Nature, Dimension Police and Tachikaze.

BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons
June 21/22/23 2013 - Sneak Preview
June 28th - Set Release
An all-star set which reinforces Gold Paladin, Narukami, Aqua Force, Angel Feather, Oracle Think Tank, Nova Grappler, Murakumo, Great Nature, Pale Moon, Royal Paladin and Shadow Paladin.

EB06: Dazzling Divas
July 19/20/21 2013 - Sneak Preview
July 26th, 2013 - Set Release
An extra booster dedicated wholly to Bermuda Triangle, much in the style of EB02: Banquet of Divas. The set will feature Eternal Idol, Pacifica as a major card, succeeding Top Idol, Pacifica of EB02.