News: Kaden Kawakami's National Championship Decklist Leaked

Reigning national champion Kaden Kawakami's decklist has gotten out to the public before Bushiroad USA could publish it on the official portal, breaking the otherwise-tight media blackout that has dominated the Challenge Cup since its opening rounds. In a video interview Kawakami has lain out his entire deck card by card, putting to rest a number of rumors surrounding its makeup. Although some controversy has arisen over Kawakami having possibly emulated a build that he had seen in his local tournaments, the national champion later clarified through Facebook that he had co-developed it with a friend, a situation similar to Smith and Bastianelli's teamwork on the previous championship's Spectral Duke Dragon deck.

Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Flame Seed Salamander ST
x2 Lizard Soldier, Gan-Lu ST
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
Grade 1
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimanra
x1 Heatnail Salamander
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Cross Shot, Garp
x1 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
x2 Bellicosity Dragon
x2 Wyvern Strike, Tejas
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
x3 Dragonic Overlord

Probably the most noted feature of the deck is its six stand triggers, previously rumored to be as high as seven or eight, and the absence of critical triggers. While one of Dragonic Overlord The End's strongest features is his ability to multiply the effects of a critical trigger by standing after checking one, Kawakami recognized The End's strategic value as a vanguard whose attack would never be allowed to hit, and instead reinforced his rearguard attacks with stand triggers, taking advantage of Burning Horn Dragon's power-gain skill in the process while also using Flame Seed Salamander's skill to reduce the total number of cards in play, recycling his stands for better rearguard offenses while making it increasingly more difficult for the opponent to defend against The End as the game went on.

News: FR2013 Kanazawa Results, Dragonic Overlord and Ezel Return to the Fore

Even though the world of North American Cardfight is currently caught up in the crowning of Kaden Kawakami, the world outside is still turning. While Kawakami was receiving his trophy, the next branch of Fighter's Road 2013 was taking place, and Doctor O has the scoop.

In the Juniors' division, Dragonic Overlord The End is picking up steam after its mild success in Kyoto's best 8. First place was taken by a The End cardfighter, although currently it is reported to not use the Dauntless Drive support that has drawn so much professional attention. Second place went to a Gold Paladin cardfighter using an Ezel build, suspected to specifically focus on the Platina Ezel crossride and his ultimate break. The Open division remains consistently dominated by the Eradicators even in their restricted incarnation, with Gauntlet Buster Dragon taking the top spot, and a Gold Paladin Liberator build placing second.  The disparity between the results of Junior class and Open class tournaments through this current season has been noted, as previous tournaments under the Junior and Senior models were relatively uniform when it came to which decks dominated the competition. While on the surface, the Eradicator and Liberator decks appear to be the defining builds of the format, this disparity between divisions may be a sign of a lack of consensus. Neither build has been as prolific as The End or Soul Saver Dragon from 2012 and 2011.

Based on Bushiroad's previous schedule, tournament decklists should go out within the next few days. The remaining five tournaments will take place in Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Tokyo, Sapporo and Nagoya with the Hiroshima tournament being next in line on the 16th. This will be the first time that Fukuoka prefecture has been included in the national tournament, and also the first time that Okayama, Hakata and Osaka will not be participating.

News: Kaden Kawakami Crowned Next National Champion

Original photo taken by Brandon Smith, used with permission.

After three months of fierce competition, the Stand Up Challenge Cup has come to a close with the coronation of the second North American national champion, succeeding Brandon Smith's seven month reign. Crowned at Champion's Gate, Florida, Kawakami is taking home the crystal cup with a radical Dragonic Overlord The End build that has drawn attention for running no critical triggers, instead filling out the space with seven stands and five draw triggers. The End has defined much of English Cardfight's professional play since February, but what sealed the tournament for Kawakami was the enhanced rearguard pressure of his deck, extending outside of his strong center line.

The runner up for the national title is John Muir, who used a Gold Paladin deck combining Incandescent Lion Blond Ezel and Great Silver Wolf Garmore. Within the best 8 were five The End cardfighters, Muir's Gold Paladin build, one Majesty Lord Blaster cardfighter and one Great Daiyusha cardfighter. The End having a greater presence is surprising to some due to Majesty Lord's firm dominance over him in the Japanese scene, but the Blaster deck as a whole has been noted to have a much lower overall presence within the North American play. Its unpopularity is generally attributed to North American fighters preferring The End's card advantage compared to Lord Blaster's static critical, and also to general overexposure among American cardfighters to The End from studying top Japanese decks.

With the Challenge Cup having come to a close, the last tournament to be resolved before the next World Championships will be the Team League 2013. The North American branch of the League will be concluded on July 14th, aboard the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. The Asian League will finish on July 7th at the Suntec City Convention Center, Singapore, and the European League on July 27th at Thistle Barbican in London.

Kagerou Extra Study Material: Seal Dragon, Blockade

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

Within Kagerou, there exist certain dragons that have been sealed away by the Dragon Emperor for their crimes. These criminals, normally housed in the underground Magma Prison, have been granted parole in a controversial mass counterattack against the invasion of Link Joker. BT11: Seal Dragons Unleashed discharges fourteen of their number, and while it will take skilled play for Kagerou cardfighters to properly break their seals, those very imprisoning mechanisms can also be used to enhance the fighting power of a Seal Dragon deck.

The subgroup's first vanguard is Seal Dragon, Terrycloth. Once a revolutionary that rebelled against the empire, Terrycloth in his sealed form has had his body and magic rewound three thousand years. While that seal is in theory indefinite and meant to assist a life sentence, Terrycloth still has access to some of his magical power. His especial counterblast soulcharges himself, then retires an opponent's rearguard; the opponent can then look at up to four cards from the top of their deck and superior call 1. Note that even if the opponent chooses to look at up to zero, they still have to shuffle their deck, so this ruins the deck stacking strategies of Tsukuyomi and Mandalalord.

Also note that Terrycloth is the key to a specific Seal Dragon combo. The majority of Seal Dragons specialize in retiring grade 2 units for cheaper costs than standard Kagerou cards would pay to retire any unit, attempting to pay less and then gamble that the opponent does not get a different grade 2 off the top of their deck. However, Terrycloth can retire any unit, allowing you to force the opponent to replace a grade 0 or 1 in a boosting position with a grade 2, which locks up their field. Furthermore, the Vanishing Field skill of this deck's key card prevents the opponent from intercepting, which completes the lock by forcing them to guarantee you a cheap retire by removing the grade 2 that your skill called.

The point to be wary about with Seal Dragon retire skills is that they will also activate "when this unit is called" autoskills; so you could for example, end up superior calling a Blaster Blade that then retires one of your units, or a Nemain that reinforces the opponent's hand, or even end up helping the opponent to superior ride on your turn by calling a Lop Ear Shooter that they then combo with Pellinore. There's a lot of risk involved with sealed magic, and part of the reason that the magic of these cards is forbidden in the first place is because it operates in a completely different way from every other skill type in the game.

To better feed its consistency, the Seal Dragons have imported LaLa's skill for their own purposes. Seal Dragon, Kersey is a base 7000 grade 1 that when called can drop a card from your hand to draw one if the opponent has a grade 2 vanguard or rearguard. This condition plays back into the mechanics of sealed magic, letting you play the same old Kagerou tricks of concealing the cards in your hand by card changing drive checks and searching for key parts of your strategy without having to leave it in the opponent's hands with Aermo or losing out on a booster through Gojo. Kersey is also important as a damage check, as Seal Dragons are reliant on counterblasts of units with "Seal Dragon" in their name to use their skills.

Offensively the Seal Dragons have grade 1 and grade 2 units that match each other's skills, both getting +3000 power on-attack when you have a Seal Dragon vanguard. Flannel and Jakado operate off of 7000 and 9000-power bases, which assists in making flexible 18000-power lines for assailing crossrides as well as forming a 20000 line between Jakado and Bahr for fighting CoCo and contemporary base 10000 vanguards. Note that while this last point is the traditional application of Masquerade copies, BT10, BT11 and DG01 have all reinstated 11000 bases as the competitive power of the format and base 10000 grade 3s are rare. Because of this and the proliferation of subgroups, early game offense is more of a priority and you will likely need Flannel more than you will Jakado.

Corduroy is the star of this build's grade 2s. An insane dragon, Corduroy was dissatisfied with run-of-the-mill dragon magic and turned to investigating the cursed black arts to feed his unending greed. When called or ridden he can counterblast 1 Seal Dragon to retire one of the opponent's rearguards, and from there the skill operates exactly the same as Terrycloth. This is important because while Terrycloth interacts as turning your advantage from +1 to 0 to either give the opponent a -1 or -0 with weaker field setup, which means that at most you can get no card lead out of it and at worst be put behind two cards--even more if the grade 2 the opponent calls retires one of your units--but Corduroy is always a -1 or -0 to the opponent without giving an inherent loss to your own advantage. Mirror matches with him get silly fast though, because you can end up with scenarios where you Corduroy an opponent's rearguard and they respond by Corduroying your Corduroy and you're Corduroying their Corduroy and it goes in a loop until you're both out of Corduroys and counterblast or someone fails to find a grade 2 in the top 4, because neither one of you wants to miss a chance to put the other behind one card.

The vanguard that ties the deck together is Seal Dragon, Blockade. While he only has a 10000 power base in a clan of 11000-power units, Blockade's Vanishing Field stops the opponent from intercepting during your own turn. Blockade is paired with Seal Dragon Chambray as his custom booster. While not strong individually, Chambray is the servant of Blockade whose research serves to fuel control and the expansion of the Vanishing Field, and when he boosts Blockade he can soulblast 1 to give the Seal Dragon an additional +6000 power over Chambray's 4000 base, in the style of Apocalypse Bat. When coupled with the 3 soul from Terrycloth returning below your vanguard, this allows for several turns of a consistent 20000-power line. Unlike Apocalypse however, the Seal Dragons have no Macha to run Chambray as a tech with, so actually getting that line out is much more difficult.

Blockade himself has two forms. In his sealed form the Vanishing Field can only be momentarily expressed, but BT11 finally opens up the ability to unseal the original Sealed Dragon. In his crossridden form as Hellfire Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno, his cursed magic runs wild and the Vanishing Field with that. Having a continuous 13000 power base for having the original Seal Dragon in the soul means a 21-23000 power line offensively and a defense that shrugs away anything under 18000 power, but thanks to the developments of the format up to Blockade Inferno's release, this is no longer as useful a bonus as it once was. Within the break ride format, where the same setup that is given to crossrides can guarantee +10000 power to the vanguard on multiple turns and similar gains be applied to the rearguards between most clans, where every clan has access to easy 18000+ lines as a matter of course instead of as a special exception, crossride defense is simply not relevant anymore. Most break rides gain +2000 power on-attack while having an 11000 base to work with, which means 23000 with base 10000 boosters that are becoming increasingly common, their subgroup rearguards are base 9000 units that jump up to 12000 on-attack and can go for 18000 with very nearly any grade 1, and as a whole crossrides no longer have an impact.

That said, Blockade Inferno is one of the few units to actively benefit from this mechanic even in the postcrossride era, because his only other skill is a limit break 4. Since this skill isn't accessible until the middle to the end of the game, being able to use Blockade first to lock down those grade 2s on the opponent's field helps pace him and prevent you from overextending yourself too early. Missing the initial form of a limit break crossrides is a critical problem because you are working with an 11000-power vanilla and are completely at the opponent's mercy to activate that unit's skills. The faster pace of the break ride format helps ease the problems associated with this, but because of these characteristics the card is not timeless. Future formats may see the pace cool down once again while continuing to make crossride defense a broken shield, decreasing Inferno's playability.

Blockade Inferno's limit break is to counterblast 2 Seal Dragons, then retire all of the opponent's grade 2 rearguards and get +10000 power until the end of turn. With Bahr, that's a 31000 power line, but the field control is the more important factor here. The setup that has been established thus far is to use Terrycloth and Corduroy to retire the opponent's grade 1 and grade 0 units, replacing them with grade 2s that help lock down the field, then keep them trapped there with Blockade. After crossriding Blockade Inferno, you then take advantage of this through his especial counterblast to destroy those units that you locked into the opponent's field, giving them up to a -3 in a good game and potential field wipe on the extreme end. As a radical evolution of Berserk Dragon's mechanics, this is easily one of the best control skills in Cardfight as a whole and a prime example of how a limit break can be used to its greatest effect. Certain clans like Tachikaze can counteract this strategy by retiring their units on the preceding turns to pay costs, but because the setup is flexible enough to be conducted either throughout the game or on-the-spot by saving Corduroy and Terrycloth for the moments before your limit break it's very difficult to fight back against a skilled Seal Dragon cardfighter.

While Blockade Inferno is the boss card of the Seal Dragon build, it is not the end-all source of the play style's momentum. The deck is very firmly a combo deck that demands both rapid and smart play, defined by how its rearguards work together with the vanguard. Because the counterblasts that the deck is reliant on are all especial counterblasts, finding the right mix of sealed and nonsealed units takes practice and experimentation. The deck has been relatively slow to be adapted by Japanese pros, but in the month since BT11's Japanese release it has already begun to compete at higher levels than The End is capable of.

Two pros use this build.

News: Fighter's Road 2013 Kyoto Results, Stand Up Cup Finals to be Held Sunday

Today the results for Japan's ongoing national championship went public, following up Doctor O's report from Saturday. In the Open division Dragonic Descendant has continued to consistently place first in spite of now being restricted to two copies per deck, while Liberator Alfred has continued to be only second best. Interestingly, the best 16 is seeing some greater experimentation among pros as Doctor O's pick from the open class tournament is a fusion of Dauntless Drive Dragon and Flare Whip Dragon. While Flare Whip has been well liked among some professionals--his skill gives him +3000 power when a Kagerou with the race of Flame Dragon is drive checked, for a consistent 16000 vanguard prior to calculating boost--before it was difficult to compose a deck purely of Flame Dragons that was also competitive, as Dragonic Overlord The End was typically the better option. Tanimoto Naoya's variant uses Seal Dragon units in concert with existing Flame Dragon race cards and Dauntless Drive to have a vanguard line that on its key turn goes for 26000 power on both of its twin drive checks.

In the Junior Class tournament a Beast Deity deck using Ethics Buster and a Stern Blaukluger tech placed first, drawing much attention for running only a single critical trigger in the deck while using seven stands instead in concert with Dancing Wolf's skill to force its way to the top. An Angel Feather build with an astonishing amount of variation placed second; while the deck's primary vanguard is Shamsiel, it also employs single copies of Metatron, Calamity Flame, Remiel and Kiriel that are easily fetched through the damage zone manipulation skills of Shamsiel, Nociel and Turiel. While erratic, the innovative build does bring out one of Angel Feather's best qualities in always having the card it wants in hand.

Doctor O's pick from the Junior class' best 16 is surprising. After its long reign, the legendary Dragonic Overlord The End has fallen far enough to not even place second. The deck is a mostly traditional, crossride-oriented The End deck using Seal Dragon cards to make use of Corduroy's skill, but the fact that this deck needed to be spotlighted to be known of at all speaks volumes for how far it has fallen. By contrast, in the VF High School Tournaments' Open division, The End's classic rival Majesty Lord Blaster is making a comeback. While unlike The End, Majesty is currently restricted to just two copies, emerging pro Masami Daishi is taking the restriction in stride by only using Majesty at one copy, playing his deck as a traditional Alfred-Palamedes build up until Wingal Brave's attack hits to grab Lord Blaster, then using Starcall to bring out Blaster Dark for Majesty's skills. His teammates have employed more modern tactics, using proven Descendant and Liberator builds. The Student-only division's top team was more off the wall, with Kitaoka Tomooki using a break-ride oriented Gauntlet Buster deck while Kitaoka's teammates brought successful Dauntless Drive-Blockade Inferno and Chromejailer-Liberator fusion builds. Overall Kyoto has seen much more diversity of play than at Sendai, in spite of the top Open class decks remaining the same.

On the English side of pro play, the Stand Up Challenge Cup will be coming to a close this Sunday as the next US national champion is decided. Reigning champion Brandon Smith is no longer running for the Cup title, but instead will be hosting a gunslinger event to play against cardfighters that want to test their skills against the current champion. Because of this, there is no direct favorite for the national title as there was in 2012, and the public eye is turned now toward the question of who will step up to fill the interregnum period between Smith and the WCS2013 national champion. Saturday will see the last regional event prior to the Cup finals take place at the Champion's Gate, Florida. Unlike previous regionals, the Last Minute Qualifier is open to any who are in line in time to join. Including this qualifier, there are 27 regionals spread out between the United States, Mexico and Canada, with two fighters from each participating in the finals for a 54-person final stage that will dwarf the previous national's 16-person finale.

Open Class Regional Tournament
Regional Champion: Aoyama Takuya/青山拓也
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Castor CT
Grade 1
x2 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x3 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x2 Eradicator of the Ceremonial Bonfire, Castor
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x2 Dragonic Deathscythe
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon

Runner-up: Gisuji Junpei/宜壽次隼兵
Grade 0
x1 Little Battler, Cron (FVG)
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x2 Pomergal Liberator
x2 Liberator, Flare Mane Stallion
x2 Liberator of the Future, Llew
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
Grade 2
x2 Blaster Blade Liberator
x3 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x3 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Doctor O's Pick: Tanimoto Naoya/谷本直也
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x4 Blue Ray Dracokid CT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpitch DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Shading HT
Grade 1
x4 Seal Dragon, Flannel
x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x2 Iron Tail Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
Grade 2
x4 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
x4 Seal Dragon, Corduroy
x3 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Flare Whip Dragon
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon

Junior Class Regional Tournament
Regional Champion: Nishida Sachi/西田祥
Grade 1
x2 Beast Deity, Riot Horn (FVG)
x4 The Gong DT
x1 Red Lightning CT
x3 Turboraizer ST
x4 Battleraizer ST
x4 Wall Boy HT
Grade 1
x4 Twin Blader
x4 Beast Deity, Blank Marsh
x3 Dancing Wolf
x2 Tough Boy
Grade 2
x3 King of Sword
x4 Beast Deity, Hatred Chaos
x4 Beast Deity, Golden Anglet
Grade 3
x4 Beast Deity, Ethics Buster
x3 Ultra Beast Deity, Illuminal Dragon
x1 Stern Blaukluger

Runner-up: Shoutsubo Mizuki/庄坪瑞生
Grade 0
x1 Hope Child, Turiel (FVG)
x4 Fever Therapy Nurse DT
x4 Critical Hit Angel CT
x4 Happy Bell, Nociel ST
x4 Sunny Smile Angel HT
Grade 1
x3 Battle Cupid, Nociel
x3 Crimson Mind, Baruch
x2 Clutch Rifle Angel
x4 Thousand Ray Pegasus
x2 Pure Keeper, Requiel
x1 Adamantine Celestial, Aniel
Grade 2
x1 Candle Celestial, Sariel
x1 Love Machine Gun, Nociel
x1 Core Memory, Armaros
x4 Crimson Drive, Aphrodite
x3 Million Ray Pegasus
Grade 3
x4 Chief Nurse, Shamsiel
x1 Crimson Impact, Metatron
x1 The Phoenix, Calamity Flame
x1 Prophecy Celestial, Remiel
x1 Circular Saw, Kiriel

Doctor O's Pick: Gotou Yuusuke/後藤優介
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FVG)
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x2 Embodiment of Armor, Tahr CT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpitch DT
x2 Dragon Mmonk, Genjo HT
x2 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x2 Seal Dragon, Shading HT
x2 Blue Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x3 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
x1 Flame of Promise, Aermo
Grade 2
x1 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
x2 Seal Draogn, Corduroy
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Bellicosity Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
x4 Dragonic Overlord

Vanguard Fight High School 2013 Summer, Open Class Kyoto Regional Tournament Championship Team
Masami Daishi/正躰大士
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FVG)
x3 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x3 Alabaster Owl CT
x3 Future Knight, Llew CT
x3 Margal DT
x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
Grade 1
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x2 Toypugal
Grade 2
x3 Blaster Blade Spirit
x4 Blaster Blade
x2 Blaster Dark
x3 Star Call Trumpeter
Grade 3
x4 King of Knights, Alfred
x1 Majesty Lord Blaster
x2 Swordsman of the Explosive Flames, Palamedes

Koukuchi Satoya/髙口賢哉
Grade 0
x1 Spark Kid Dragoon (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Castor CT
Grade 1
x3 Rising Phoenix
x4 Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x3 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
Grade 2
x4 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
x4 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
Grade 3
x2 Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x2 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon


Yamaguchi Atsu/山口篤
Grade 0
x1 Little Battler, Cron (FVG)
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x3 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
x1 Flame of Victory CT
Grade 1
x4 Curved Blade Liberator, Josephus
x2 Silver Fang Witch
x4 Little Liberator, Marron
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Liberator
x4 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x4 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Vanguard Fight High School 2013 Summer, Student-only Class Kyoto Regional Tournament Championship Team
Kitaoka Tomooki/北岡誠起
Grade 0
x1 Ambush Dragon Eradicator, Linchu (FVG)
x4 Eradicator, Dragon Mage DT
x4 Eradicator, Yellow Gem Carbuncle CT
x4 Demonic Dragon Eradicator, Seiobo HT
x4 Eradicator of the Divine Spear, Castor CT
Grade 1
x3 Eradicator of the True Flames, Kougaiji
x4 Wyvern Guard, Guld
x4 Eradicator, Demolition Dragon
x1 Iron Blood Eradicator, Shuki
x3 Red River Dragoon
Grade 2
x3 Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
x3 Dragonic Deathscythe
x2 Fiendish Sword Eradicator, Chou-Ou
x1 Eradicator, Thunder Boom Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Saucer Cannon Wyvern
Grade 3
x3 Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon
x4 Eradicator, Gauntlet Buster Dragon
x1 Eradicator, Sweep Command Dragon

Takimoto Yuuki/瀧本祐希
Grade 0
x1 Seal Dragon, Terrycloth (FVG)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shading HT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpitch DT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Raksha CT
Grade 1
x4 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x4 Seal Dragon, Kersey
x4 Seal Dragon, Flannel
Grade 2
x3 Seal Dragon, Jakado
x3 Seal Dragon, Corduroy
x4 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x4 Burning Hell Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno

Irino Yuuichiro/入野裕一郎
Grade 0
x1 Spring Breeze Messenger (FVG)
x3 Flame of Victory CT
x3 Dantengal CT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
x4 Falcon Knight of the Azure DT
x2 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
Grade 1
x2 Blackmane Witch
x4 Halo Shield, Mark
x4 Listener of Truth, Dindrane
x4 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
Grade 2
x1 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
x1 Blaster Dark Spirit
x2 Blaster Blade Spirit
x3 Mage of Calamity, Tripp
x4 Lop Ear Shooter
Grade 3
x4 Conviction Dragon, Chromejailer Dragon
x4 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot

Ride to Victory Translation Part 8: Gouki

←Part 7

Part 9→

Card Capital

Is the guy who won against my little sister in a cardfight at this shop?

Gouki-san? Whatever is wrong?


I've come to play my sister's rival!



Rival!?



My name is Daimonji Gouki. And my sister's name is Nagisa. Bring out the one who interfered with my little sister and Kamui's journey of love!


Ha. So it's you? That's a good expression you've got there. But as Team Handsome's leader, I won't be silent! This is a challenge! Face me in a fair fight! If you have the courage, come to Card Shop Handsome. You can run if you're scared.


Gouki-san. He's full of spirit. What do you plan to do?



...I see. You'll go. Yeah. Do your best!

Card Shop Handsome

Gouki-san, he came!



He's got a lot of guts, ka-boom.


You came. I've been waiting. Because you've against my little sister, Team Handsome's all troubled by you. Take a good look, at the power of the Granblue pirate deck!

Grade 0
x1 Skeleton Assault Troops Captain (FVG)
x2 Rick the Ghostie HT
x3 Hook-wielding Zombie DT
x3 Knight Spirit CT
x1 Rough Seas Banshee CT
Grade 1
x1 Gust Jinn
x1 Dandy Romario
x3 Evil Shade
x1 Ripple Banshee
Grade 2
x3 Ruin Shade
x2 Captain Nightmist
x2 Three Star Chef, Pietro
Grade 3
x3 King of Demonic Seas, Basskirk
x4 Master Swordsman, Nightstorm

(Above are the confirmed cards that we've seen; there are around 20 cards missing from this list, but until complete data can be assembled it should give you an idea of what to expect from Gouki.)

Gouki's Granblue deck is geared toward making the best out of any game, no matter how bad it's going. That said, there are a lot of ways for this to go wrong. The key units to watch out in a typical build of this kind are Samurai Spirit, Captain Nightmist, and the Deadly series as well as Cocytus, but only Captain Nightmist has been sighted Gouki's initial decklist so far. The way these units operate is that when they're in the drop zone, Gouki can counterblast 1 and retire a Granblue rearguard to call them from the drop; Nightmist specifically requires a grade 1 or greater rearguard. Furthermore, Nightmist has just an 8000 base but gets +3000 power when another Nightmist is in the drop zone, so Gouki can have a consistent 16-18000 line and every time he intercepts with Nightmist or you retire it, he can just call it back again next turn, though not without a loss in card advantage.

The way that Gouki gets these cards into the drop zone outside of using them to defend is through the Shade series. Evil Shade gives a 10000 total boost to the vanguard line by sending 2 cards from the top of the deck to the drop zone when he boosts, while Ruin Shade goes from 9000 to 11000 when she attacks through the same cost. Evil Shade also forms a consistent 22000 line with any of Gouki's grade 3s, so even if you had a consistent Majesty Lord Blaster deck at this point Gouki would be able to manage pressure on the vanguard line.

The main issue with Gouki's deck is that it's not fully invested in the idea. This deck avoids using anything but minor counterblasts, because its focal grade 3 is Basskirk, a megablast. Basskirk soulcharges 1 at the start of Gouki's main phase and gets +2000 power, so he can have a consistent 20000 line with Romario, and this also starts off a countdown to the fight. Five to six turns after he rides Basskirk, Gouki will have 8 soul and can get off Basskirk's megablast, but only if he also has five open damage to counterblast with. This is why Pietro's in the deck--Gouki's plan is to use the cheaper counterblast 1 skills from Nightmist and Assault Troops to set up, then unflip them with Pietro and/or by healing damage so that he can have his megablast ready. Six turns is a long time to wait for the win condition, but Gouki speeds it up by using Rough Seas Banshee's skill to move her to the soul and draw 1, improving his consistency by getting access to more cards from the deck while also cutting down on how long he has to wait for the effective timer on Basskirk's skill to finish.

However, trying to devote so much to both the field management and the megablast means that Gouki is effectively stuck trying to strike a middleground between two different strategies, being exceptionally good at neither of them. The megablast itself lets him call up to five Granblue from the drop zone, which will usually increase his card advantage and can be a game-ending maneuver if done well. Usually what you end up with is Gouki not being able to get off the megablast because you aren't letting Pietro's attacks hit while he has two counterblast flipped and/or Gouki becomes unwilling to use skills that could turn the fight around because he's trying to save up for a long-term strategy.



Muu. It's my loss. It seems I misjudged your power.



You beat Gouki-san, that's amazing!



I'm surprised ka-boom!


Nagisa will shed a lot of tears. She has a formidable enemy now. Well, feel free to come and play anytime. Team Handsome welcomes you.

←Part 7

Part 9 →

Study Guide: Narukami

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

There's a very clear divide in Cardfight's development between what came before BT05 and everything that followed. No card can really be designed the way they were in 2011 when there are cards like Majesty Lord Blaster in the format. Sets that followed explored a rebalancing of the game by basing the early buildup of a match around a preparation and setup period, with most offensive play pushed into the last fourth of any given game by the limit break mechanic. Narukami, as one of the first clans to be created specifically around the idea of a limit break boss card, is effectively a reimagining of Kagerou with a more concentrated and consequently less freeform play style. This clan is characterized by its front row control and blocking of the opponent's intercepts, generally contrasted with Kagerou's back row control and self-standing skills, although their card pools do overlap.

Out of BT06: Breaker of Limits Narukami has two first vanguards available, Lizard Soldier Saishin and Spark Kid Dragoon. Saishin is the clan's unique FVG, a base 5000 grade 0 with the Forerunner skill that allows it to move into the rearguard when ridden over with a grade 1 of the same clan, and his unique skill is to counterblast 1 and move to the soul when an attack that he boosts hits the vanguard to retire an opponent's grade 0 rearguard. Saishin's skill decreases the card advantage that you gained from having him outride, but it also decreases the opponent's in the same move while locking them out of their FVG's skills. The idea behind this is that in addition to countering the opponent's skills, Saishin also decreases the total number of cards in play after you have already gained an advantage through other means like draw triggers or forcing defense from the opponent, stressing the importance of your existing lead. This is virtually the same skill as Gattling Claw Dragon but it comes built into your play from the opening of the game. The main disadvantage is that it puts the power to decide whether the attack will go through or not in the opponent's hands. In general it is a bad idea to give control over to the opponent at any point in the game, and this is why Saishin is generally placed behind the vanguard line, as your drive check can still break through their defense. Note that it is not necessarily bad for the attack to not go through. If the opponent spends cards defending Saishin's boost, then they're losing advantage and weakening their own ability to stop your attacks later in the game, when Narukami is at its strongest.

Spark Kid Dragoon is less impressive. He shares the Forerunner skill, but this is over a 4000 base, so automatically he has more trouble than Conroe in forming a basic 15-16000 line. His skill is a replica of Bermuda Triangle Cadet Shizuku's, to counterblast 1 in the main phase, move to the soul and look through the top five cards of the deck for a grade 3 of the same clan. This skill is usually not favored by professional cardfighters because of its unreliability, as it usually leads to losing Spark Kid and a counterblast with no grade 3 found, and Saishin himself counters Spark Kid. However, it is worth recognizing that within this specific clan Spark Kid is generally favored both within Japan and on a global scale; of the 34 pro cardfighters that use Narukami worldwide as of May 2013, 23 use Spark Kid Dragoon as their FVG. Japanese cardfighters that have used the standard Narukami build that we will be discussing in this module tended toward Saishin, while other builds used Spark Kid. Meanwhile English-speaking pros using the same standard build all ran Spark Kid during the 2012 World Championships. Experiment, and find a first vanguard that plays to your own strengths.

The key grade 1s for the original Narukami are Desert Gunner Raien, Photon Bomber Wyvern and Rising Phoenix. Raien is a base 7000 grade 1 that when ridden or called, chooses an opponent's rearguard and prevents it from intercepting. The 7000 base is welcome in the crossride format that Narukami was originally designed for, and this effectively locks the opponent out of 5-10000 shield at no cost. Interestingly, the Desert Gunner series also has provisions for the future. Even if a future card had a skill that allowed it to intercept from the back row, Raien could still block that from activating.

Bomber Wyvern is the clan's 10000-power booster. Coming in with a 6000 base, Photon Bomber Wyvern can give +4000 additional power when he boosts a Narukami vanguard if the opponent has three or more cards in their damage zone. Narukami has a variety of 11000-power units available, so this means that the vanguard line will generally be going for 21000 power to run over the opponent with a line that consistently needs a minimum of 20000 shield to defend safely. Because of his value to Narukami's offense and being one of the chief cards that differentiates from Kagerou's play, Photon Bomber is typically run at two to four copies, with most pros leaning towards four. This ensures not just being able to get him out consistently but also that if the opponent drops Kimnara, Gwynn the Ripper or another retire skill on him, Bomber can be easily replaced.

Rising Phoenix has just 5000 power, but when called can soulblast 1 to draw a card. As stated before, Narukami has multiple 11000 power units to pair that with, and as Narukami generally leans toward critical triggers and doesn't have a lot of heavy draw power from skills, Phoenix helps to make up the difference.

The clan's important grade 2s are Demonic Dragon Berserker Garuda, Desert Gunner Shiden, Dragonic Deathscythe and Hex Cannon Wyvern. Garuda is Narukami's Storm, a base 9000 grade 2 that can unflip one damage when his attack hits. This makes him an excellent midgame unit and filling the front row with him early on can guarantee a combo attack with Saishin. When the attack hits, first you resolve Saishin's skill with his counterblast and move him to the soul to retire the opponent's first vanguard, then you unflip that damage with Garuda's skill to save your damage zone for the things to come.

The focus on unflipping its damage is another factor that differentiates them from Kagerou in terms of play style if not card pool, as where Kagerou would prefer the stability of Nehalem's 10000 power base or Burning Horn Dragon's on-attack +3000, Narukami likes to have access to rapid unflipping in order to manage their damage zone and reuse costly skills. Deathscythe is another reason to run Garuda, being the Narukami equivalent to Berserk Dragon. On-ride or on-call you can counterblast 2 with Deathscythe to retire an opponent's grade 2 or lesser rearguard, improving both front row and backrow control, and you can even reverse the Garuda combo to use him in the same turn as Saishin. First you ride Garuda, then you call Deathscythe and counterblast 2 for his skill, then attack with Garuda, and when the attack hits you unflip one damage with the Dragon Berserker's skill, then pay Saishin's cost with your newly-unflipped damage.

Shiden is the grade 2 equivalent to Raien, clocking in at 9000 power and sharing Raien's ability to block the opponent's intercepts. Hex Cannon Wyvern has the lowest power of its grade at just 8000, but when it attacks and the opponent has three or more cards in their damage zone it gains +3000 power, so you can easily form anticrossride 18000 power lines or have a 21000 offensive vanguard by comboing this with Photon Bomber even if you're forced to set through one turn of grade lock.

There are two main grade 3s designed to be at the forefront of the clan's original play. Thunder Break Dragon has just 10000 power, and when placed on the vanguard circle can counterblast 2 to retire one of the opponent's grade 2 or lesser rearguards. This is effectively a watered down Deathscythe without a rearguard skill, and many fighters today would consider it underwhelming, but Thunder Break was originally a surprise at release because he was among the first units to make use of limit break. At limit break 4, Thunder Break gets +5000 power when he attacks, allowing for a consistent 21-23000 power line from four damage onward, 25000 with Photon Bomber Wyvern. Thunder Break also has his own custom booster, the grade 1 Dragon Dancer RaiRai. She has just 6000 power and like Charjgal can soulblast 1 when boosting Thunder Break to give him +5000 power, creating a consistent 26000-power vanguard line or a 21000-power Break rearguard, but this has its problems. Most limit breakers that get +5000 power on-attack have a unique call skill---Garmore superior calls from the deck, Cocytus calls from the drop zone, Kiriel from the damage zone, and so on. Thunder Break has a powerful booster, but no way to search her out as Garmore or Kiriel do, and he has no support cards that can search her out like those cards do. Furthermore, it's typically better to reserve that counterblast for real Deathscythes or for a different limit break. A better use of the slots that Thunder Break would be taking up would be using Djinn of the Lightning Flash, who like Break is a 10000 power grade 3, but Break gets +4000 power when he attacks all the time, so that he will always go for a crossride-busting 24000 power with Bomber Wyvern, and even in the rearguard Lightning Flash gets +2000 power on-attack to form a 20000 line with the base 8000 Red River Dragoon or otherwise making a simple 18000 line. Lightning Flash's continuous skill prevents him from attacking rearguards, but giving you Amaterasu-level power even when you miss your intended grade 3 ride makes him a better alternative to Thunder Break.

Narukami's boss card is Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion. Vermillion is the first of many 11000 power grade 3s to come, and his limit break is one of the better early uses of the mechanic in the game. At LB4 Kaiser Vermillion can counterblast 3 to activate his Vermillion Thunderbolt; he gets +2000 power until the end of the turn and battles all of the opponent's front row units when he attacks. (Keep in mind that like Dragonic Overlord, this skill has to be activated in the main phase, before you attack.) Having 13000 power lets him go for 21000 with Red River and 23000 with Photon Bomber, both key numbers in the various competitive formats. The mechanics of this limit break prevent the opponent from intercepting when Kaiser Vermillion attacks, and each unit must be guarded individually. Even a perfect defense card can only defend one unit. Because you want Vermillion to attack first when he uses this, stand triggers are not recommended in the deck, as attacking with a rearguard first is a misplay that the opponent will almost certainly intercept against to mitigate the impact of Vermillion's limit break while getting some use out of their remaining shield. As long as they have a full front row when Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion attacks, the opponent will start out taking a -2 and the decrease in advantage will only progress further from there. Because it is an expensive CB3, Garuda is essential for maintaining open damage, and getting the timing right is key to playing Vermillion skillfully.

Just because you're at four damage doesn't necessarily mean that this is the right time to use the skill, however. If for example, you're facing an Aqua Force cardfighter and their front row aside from their vanguard is a Penguin Soldier and Tri-holl Dracokid, it would generally be better to wait out the next turn and then use the limit break to take out more important units.

Narukami's play style is to strike like lightning and disappear like thunder. Your front row should be relatively uniform, without any weaknesses. The deck is straightforward to build because it does not rely on a lot of techs like Shadow Paladin nor does it even have the ability to manage them like Oracle Think Tank. However, because of this uniform and inflexible style, the clan is easy to learn and hard to master. You can't go in throwing out every skill at the first opportunity. A Narukami cardfighter has to know exactly when and where to pull out each card's skill, because there will be fights where you never want to use certain skills. Contrast this to Kagerou, which generally does not have mistiming issues and has very little reason to not use its skills; there is never a bad time to activate The End's persona blast when you are able to do so, nor is there a bad time to use Goku's retire skill.

The main problem faced by Narukami is that their strength stops with Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion. Until very late in development, this and Photon Bomber had been their lone concrete advantage over Kagerou, as Saishin's skill was already available through Gattling Claw Dragon with less conditions attached and a more flexible first vanguard available for the slot. It's certainly difficult to compare them favorably at their original release, but as we branch out into later sets and Narukami further differentiates itself as a clan, their individuals strengths should become more apparent.

Thirty-four pros use this clan.