Upcoming English Booster Set 4: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows (Part1) - Shadow Paladins

Hello everyone, today I'm going to blog about the upcoming booster set, Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows which is scheduled to be released internationally on December 15th, 2012.

This is the first booster where the Shadow Paladins are introduced for the Japanese game. This is also the booster which introduces a new ride chain format. These two had a pretty decent effect in the Japanese meta when they were released since the Shadow Paladins had pretty decent support at the time and the ride chain was pretty consistent.

In this part, I'll write about the Shadow Paladins. For the upcoming booster, I would recommend mixing them with another clan to have decent trigger support. This will allow you to play double critical, double stand builds or maybe more draw triggers depending on your preference. For the main vanguard, it would mostly be Phantom Blaster Dragon  which can be an 11k vanguard if you have blaster dark in the soul which is pretty easy to get since the ride chain gives you Blaster Dark automatically. Shadow Paladins also have pretty decent hand advantage with Arianrhod and Nemain, Macha can also help thin deck gives field consistency. You can even add Aermo, or clones of his, to get more hand advantage.

The new ride chain is also pretty nice for the Shadow Paladins  if you get the first ride, you get a +1 hand and a secured ride for the next turn. Your opponent will also hesitate to attack you more than once since you are able to retire any opponent rear-guards with Blaster Dark's counter blast. Like any ride chain, your grade 3 vanguard can be an 11k, and like most ride chains, you only need the grade 2 in your soul to achieve this. This means that you can have a draw trigger boost your vanguard and hit 16k. Phantom Blaster Dragon's ability is also not too bad. You sacrifice units that are of not much worth to gain more power and critical. After that, you can call out new, better units onto the field. The ability works great both early and late game.

The alternate, cheaper build would be Dark Metal Dragon. This should be a pure build to increase the consistency for the card's ability. This card is as strong as the Phantom Blaster Overlord. It is able to hit for a higher power with a +4k due to drive checks this card can reach 22k with a vanilla booster. This build also spares you more damage to use. Personally, I would prefer this build due to the environment of the English game right now. It has a more consistent power advantage and also, doesn't use up your cards from any abilities.

There is also another build with Origin Mage, Ildona  the Limit Break for Calvary of Black Steel. Ildona itself has pretty decent attack power, and gives some form of hand advantage. The main usage for this card is to retire grade 3s, preferably Dark Mage, Badhabh Caar and draw into more shield to help defend the upcoming attacks.

The most obvious weakness for this clan is that it's counter blast heavy. You will be forced to choose which ability you would want to use in a game. It also has a severe problem with keeping hand advantage since the Limit Break abilities are able to hit for a very high amount of power. You would need to maintain your damage at most, 4 so that you can avoid wasting your guards.

Dream Deck Review: Scarlet Witch, CoCo

From a previous post, I have my Scarlet Witch, CoCo deck. I made quite a few changes to it since then. Here's the new decklist.

Grade 0 (17)
Little Witch, Lulu (Starter) -1
Psychic Bird (Critical) -4
Oracle Guardian, Nike (Critical) -2
Miracle Kid (Draw) -4
Dream Eater (Draw) -2
Lozenge Magus (Heal) -4

Grade 1 (15)
Battle Sister, Chocolat -4
Battle Sister, Omelette -2
Oracle Guardian, Gemini -4
One Who Gazes at the Truth -3
Wheather Girl, Milk -2

Grade 2 (12)
Battle Sister, Glace -3
Oracle Guardian, Wiseman -3
Promise Daughter -3
Security Guardian -3

Grade 3 (6)
Scarlet Witch, CoCo -4
Goddess of Flower Divination, Sakuya -2

Let's start from the triggers, the grade 0s down to the grade 3s. First of all, you can see that I have decreased the amount of critical triggers and increased the amount of draw triggers, this is because I noticed that my previous deck had an extreme disadvantage against 20k columns. The extra draw trigger can give me a boost in defense as well as having (more) hand advantage. It also gives me more chance to recycle my Heal Trigger.

Next, in the list of grade 1s, you can see that I added Milk, the 10k booster. This card is the main vanguard booster. The increased draw trigger further increases the consistency for it's ability. It also helps my cards reach 23k or 24k to hit Cross-Rides. Another problem solved by Milk is the need for Gemini to boost my Vanguard. This means that Gemini can be used to boost the rear-guards instead.

I've made a lot of changes onto the grade 2 cards. I swapped Mocha with Glace. Well, this really is up to what you want. What I like about Glace is that it can stay on 11k even for long games where I will not have 4 or more hand. I've also swapped Brakki for Promise Daughter. Promise Daughter will be my power attacker. Of course, I will only use her ability when I have an extra card to use, which is helped by the draw triggers. I've also changed Tom for Security Guardian. One reason is to fight against opposing 20k columns, another, to counter opposing Toms.

Lastly, I've went back to my original setup of grade 3, being 4 CoCo and 2 Sakuya. The deck I posted on my last post was actually an edit of that original deck. Running less grade 3 is actually good for this deck, as I will have more shield power. This also means that I don't have to run grade 3 on my rears so that I have space for interceptors. The increased Sakuya gives more chance to ride her and return Lulu, and also rearrange the field. Sakuya also helps against Megacolony rest abilities.

The main focus for this deck is to ride CoCo over CoCo for as many times possible. Then, clearing out the soul with One Who Gazes at the Truth. Truth with Glace makes the perfect column for almost any situation as they will reach 16k, with or without soul. Also, depending on the situation, recycling heal triggers can help a lot. This build will be pretty cheap with the upcoming Extra Booster 5. The only cards missing from that booster would be Lulu, Security Guardian, Promise Daughter and maybe the need for a second draw, if the booster doesn't get one.

Clan Review: Aqua Force

Two post for the day! Today, I will be having a look at the Aqua Force clan. This new clan is a very unique clan that gains abilities based on the amount or order of the attacks.

First of all, this clan utilizes cards that are able to stand itself  in the rear-guard or swap positions with another unit to build up the amount of attacks for the upcoming unit abilities. The abilities varies from increase in power to retiring enemy units and even, letting you draw a card. These skills are very powerful and gives you a great advantage.

Secondly, the power and abilities are stronger as the amount of attacks increases, this means that your opponent would have to let some of your early attacks to pass to prepare for the final attack, or use a perfect guard. This provides a lot of pressure and is not easy to fight against.

Many people have said that they are weak against 11k or more vanguard, especially the cross rides. This is not quite true. The most they would lose would be 1 attack, the second attack can be aimed against the rear-guards. Aqua Force also has a 9k booster, which can reach 18k just a 9k attacker. Their Vanguards also has abilities that greatly increases their power when attacking.

Although the above is true, personally, I don't really like using them. They rely heavily on setting up a perfect field and also needs to maintain them. Without a decent field, they will not be able to fully utilize their abilities. This means that they are a little weaker against rear-guard killers. Another weakness they have is that their main Vanguard units all have Limit Break abilities which means they are unable to activate their ability unless if they have 4 or more damage. This means that they would need to guard for at least 1 extra trigger against enemy vanguard attacks, or risk being hit by a critical.

Personally, this clan is great and is pretty fun to play with, but it's not the ideal clan for me. I do like the artwork for their cards though, they are pretty cool.

Best Booster Set Ever!!!

Cards that will be reprinted in the upcoming Extra Booster: Celestial Valkyries and Infinite Phantom Legion have been revealed! Just to tell you guys, my favorite card in the game is Scarlet Witch, CoCo, in case if you didn't know. Therefore, the Celestial Valkyries booster is like a dream come true for me.

This booster set contains a lot of cards needed to complete my deck, and will help others to complete cards necessary for their Oracle Builds at a lower cost, unless of course, if you're planning to build a Tsukuyomi deck, which then you will have to get the separate Tsukuyomi cards (Better get started now!).

The best thing about this booster so far is that is that there will be reprints for Trial Deck exclusive cards and also Promo card reprints. Some of those cards are,  Goddess of Fortune Flowers, Sakuya, Omniscience Madonna,  Dark Cat and also the new Battle Sister Omelette! Although, I am a little disappointed not being able to see Sphere Magus in the set. I am also really looking forward to the new cards in this set.

Another point for this deck is the decrease in rarity value for the cards, this means less shiny cards but the cards can be found at a lower price, which could mean a good or bad thing depending on the situation hehe.

I am planning to buy 2 boxes of this booster when it get released in English and might get a box for the recently released Rampage of the Beast King, or just get a single Lulu card.

Card Review: Fruits Basket Elf

Hello everyone, today I have a very unique card to review. It's a grade 1 common card. It's also currently only available to the Neo-Nectar clan. It has the name, Fruits Basket Elf. First of all, let's look at it's ability.

AUTO【R】: [Counter Blast(1)] When this unit boosts a «Neo-Nectar», and you have a «Neo-Nectar» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, your opponent cannot normal call units to the guardian circle until end of the battle. Even if the boosted unit's attack hits, it deals no damage.

This card is the first kind of skill that causes you to not damage your opponent, instead, it allows you to have an increased chance to hit the opponent's Vanguard to activate on hit effects. Some of the few main abilities that can exploit this ability are: Maiden of Trailing Rose, Avatar of the Plains, Behemoth, Knight of Harvest, Gene, Turtle That Supports the World, Akbara and Maiden of Rainbow Wood.

One good point about this card is that it does not damage your opponent. You might be thinking that this is a weird way to think but, actually, no. With the new Limit Breaks, not damaging your opponent could mean a good thing for you as they won't be dealt the damage required to use their abilities. Besides that, another advantage is that your opponent will not be able to activate any damage trigger while you are able to pull off your card's ability.This can bring quite an advantage especially for critical builds on the fourth damage. You can power up your vanguard and attack with a higher power and a critical could win you the game. Lastly is the advantage in healing, by not dealing damage to your opponent, and if your opponent have less damage than you do, they will not be able to heal with a heal trigger, but you can. This can be used together with Oracles or Angel Feathers that has recyclable heal triggers.

This card is especially good for cheaper builds like Behemoth and Trailing Roses and could save your game by bringing out interceptors with Gene. It's also has a decent power of 6000. I'm also happy that this was added into set 8 since the older cards never got much support. Overall, this is a very unique and special card in my eyes and is very fun to play with.

A Great Fanfic

One of my friends wrote a fanfic. I had a look at it and thought it was awesome. It's a Cardfight Vanguard fanfic titled Heroes of Cray. It's somewhat parallel to the current happenings in the anime series. There's currently up to 20 chapters. Just thought I should share it here. http://wind-adepts.deviantart.com/gallery/

My Narukami Build

I made a Narukami deck. Yeah, that's it. It's pretty consistent =)

Grade 0 (17)
Spark Kid Dragoon -1
Yellow Gem Carbuncle (Critical) -4
Malevolent Djinn (Critical) -2
Dragon Dancer Catharina (Stand) -2
Old Dragon Mage (Draw) -4
Demonic Dragon Nymp, Seiobo (Heal) -4

Grade 1 (14)
Red River Dragoon -4
Dragon Dancer Rai Rai -3
Wyvern Guard Guld -3
Photon Bomber Wyvern -2
Rising Phoenix -2

Grade 2 (12)
Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda -4
Dragonic Deathscythe -3
Hex Cannon Wyvern -3
Thunder Storm Dragoon -2

Grade 3 (7)
Divine Seal Dragon, Dungaree -2
Thunder Break Dragon -2
Djinn of the Lightning Flash -2
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion -1

Exploiting the Rear Drive Rule

Hello everyone! A few episodes ago, cardfight games with special rules was introduced in the anime. One of them was the rear drive rule, which means that rear-guards can do drive checks. For this rule, when a rear-guard drive checks, after a check, the checked card is placed at the bottom of the deck after all the effects are activated. I was asked to play and record this particular game rule for the game but, I will kindly refuse. One of the reason is that this game rule can be easily exploited.

First of all, stand triggers are very good in this game rule, which allows for more attacks and drive checks. Next, abilities that can cause rearguards to stand is also rules in this game rule. Besides that, like in the anime,  the player going first has a great and unfair advantage against players going second, this is because they can ride to grade 3 first, this is of course, not counting superior rides.Here are some cards which are very very good in this game rule.

Dragonic Overlord, sure, it's ability causes it lose twin drive even on rear-guard, but the increase in 5000 power and the ability to stand after killing a rear-guard greatly makes up for it. Stand triggers makes this card even more dangerous as a rear-guard with this game rule.

Asura Kaiser, although it's effect can only be used in the Vanguard circle, it's enough to totally dominate the game. In an Asura build, you would have quite decent amount of grade 3 to use it's effect. This means that you will possibly have at least 1 grade 3 rear-guard. Along with stand triggers, this deck build has the most stand power in the game, especially when the stand triggers are recycleable.

Enigman Rain, Miracle Beauty and Commander Laurel. These three can make an especially dangerous combination on the field. They all synergize on standing units and I can see a possible unlimited amount of attacks when the triggers are right.

Demonic Lord, Dudley Emperor, this card's Limit Break would eat up your hand but, in this game mode, it's way more worth it than it is in a normal game. Along with the amount of drive checks possible, it's a game finisher.

Those are just some of the cards I found. I believe there are more cards which can easily exploit this game mode, and thus I will possibly never play this game mode.

Review and Decklist: Zeal Series

Hello everyone. I got myself some free time, so I might as well post something in my now, less active blog. Recently, a new ride chain was introduced for the  Dimension Police clan. It is the Zeal series. These new cards have the abilities to decrease your opponent's Vanguard's power! Each successful ride to the next chain decreases your opponent's Vanguard's power by 3000 for the turn. The grade 3 has a Limit Break that decreases your opponent's Vanguard's power by the amount of your Dimension Police rear-guards!

I must say, the effect to decrease opponent's Vanguard's power is quite powerful. This enables you to hit the opponent with low power cards and also, forces out more cards from their hand to guard. You can either run both critical and stand builds for this card.

For critical builds, you would want to have 20k or more columns on your rear-guards. These power gives a lot of pressure to the opponent especially with the decrease in power.

Next, the stand build which is more interesting, in my opinion. My decklist today also focuses on this kind of build. Stands enables you to hit again, which can be deadly with the decrease in power. Miracle Beauty can also stand the unit behind it, I added Dancing Wolf just because of this. In a stand build, you also have Guide Dolphin which can increase your card's powers.

One last build is the Laurel build. This build can be either critical or stand based, or even a mix of both. Laurel is a Dimension Police card that can stand your Vanguard when your Vanguard hits the opponent's Vanguard, which can be pulled off quite easily with the power decrease. This gives you some hand advantage and also, possible extra critical hits from triggers.

Here is my decklist:
Grade 0 (17)
Larva Beast, Zeal x1
Army Penguin x4 (Draw)
Justice Rose x4 (Heal)
Guide Dolphin x4 (Stand)
Cosmo Fang x2 (Stand)
Justice Cobalt x2 (Critical)

Grade 1 (14)
Eye of Destruction, Zeal x4
Diamond Ace x3
Ground Support-Based Enigship x3
Dancing Wolf x2
Glory Maker x2

Grade 2 (12)
Devourer of Planets, Zeal x4
Twin Order x3
Super Dimensional Robo, Dailady x3
Cosmic Mothership x2

Grade 3 (7)
Galactic Beast, Zeal x4
Miracle Beauty x3

I think this card is a very powerful card. It can work in builds without the ride chain. Unfortunately, I don't really like this card. I think it is a little too boring and linear. Games I played with this card are somewhat uneventful and simple, which makes the games boring. However, I do think that this is a very interesting addition to the Dimension Police clan.

Official Rulings on Tag Fight

Recently, tag fight have been introduced in the Cardfight Vanguard!! anime. The rules for this game format also got revealed recently. I hope this will clear up some questions that people might have for this game format. You are also welcomed to post any questions, I will try to answer them as best as I can.

A tag fight is a cardfight between 4 players, 2 against 2. Each player would have their own decks of 50 cards. There are 2 types of tag fights. One of them, you're allowed to show your hands to your team mate, and have discussions with them, where you can't on the other type. (The official website recommends allowing discussions)

Like normal cardfights, each player starts with their initial 5 cards hand and a starter vanguard. Also, each player gets to mulligan once. The winning conditions for this game format is when the opponent's team reaches 9 damage or, one of the opponent's team decks out (0 cards left in their deck).

Now to the more detailed part of the rules. Each player have their own field however, their damage is the total damage of the team. When a Heal Trigger is checked, you check damage for the total damage for your team, and the opposing team. If your team have more than or equal damage to the opposing team, you can heal 1 of your own damage. This means that you are not able to heal a team mate's damage. For Limit Break abilities, the ability is active when the total damage your team have the amount of damage required.

You can only attack cards of the player in front of you. Your team mate can help you defend against opposing attacks by placing units on their Guardian Circle however, intercepting for your team mate is not allowed. Also, you are only able to place units with grade less than or equal to your Vanguard's grade.

For paying costs, you can use your team mate's damage for Counter Blasts and your team mate's soul for Soul Blasts. You however, cannot use cards in your team mate's hand for paying any kind of costs.

To start the game, each player will play a mini-game ie: Scisors, Paper, Stone. The winner of the mini-game will go first, and then to the opposing team member which is not in front of the first player. Players up to the third player will be unable to attack, the fourth player will be the first player to be able to attack. Here's a little example if Kamui goes first. (Follow the arrows)

Card effects that specifies to choose "your" units/cards are only meant for your own units/cards and not your team mate's, and effects that specifies "your opponent" is the player in front of you. This means that for Perfect Guards like Halo Shield, Mark, you are not able to choose your team mate's units for it's effect. For cards that affects cards on your damage like, Battle Cupid, Nociel, you can only choose cards on your own damage zone for the effects. Also, you are not affected by effects that only affect your team mate, ie: you can use grade 0 units to guard for your teammate when a Silent Tom is attacking your team mate. There are also effects that affects every single players, ie: Dark Cat allows every (4) player to draw 1 card.

That's all for the rulings. Overall, I think this format is very interesting. I've tried it a few times myself and will say that this game format is a lot more fun that a normal cardfights.