The Annoying Murakumo: Magatsu Chain

Cardfight Capital's recent update included the revealed Murakumo cards from set 9 and also units from the upcoming extra boosters. After playing with and against them, I will write on what I think about them.

First up is Murakumo. The Magatsu ride chain is the main focus. I have not played using the Murakumo units but, they are very annoying. This isn't a bad thing for them, since making your opponent feeling annoyed means that the cards are strong. This ride chain gains a great amount of advantage if they go first. When the ride chain is successfully executed, you are able to call out 2 of the units you rode from your deck. This means that you are able to attack without wasting cards from your hand. It provides a rushing strategy and also anti-rush. The called units are able to deal more damage to your opponent, take down their rear-guards and also decrease their hand size. All these are especially painful for decks that needs setup time, and also those that likes early rush needs to look out because their rears can be easily taken out and so they will lose out on later game attacking advantage.

They gain advantage by going first because you will definitely have a vanguard with a lower power than their attacking units. This means that as long as you don't get a trigger from damage check, each attack from the called units can either deal damage or take out some of your shields. If you went first, you would have to consider conserving your hand and not attack by calling more rears. You would want to have a 10k vanguard against their grade 2 attacks, since they only have 9k power. If you called a rear-guard to attack, it has a high possibility to be taken down by the called units.

While they do all this, they don't lose out on hand advantage since they don't have to call units from their hand. All they really need are boosters, and Leaf Racoon works great with the hand advantage. Although the units goes back to their deck, it doesn't really matter because the player would want to take damage until they can perform their Limit Break. Like any of their abilities, the Limit Break calls out more units for them but, the vanguard also gains 3k power for just counterblast 2.

The annoying part is that you will not be able to attack their rears unless if you have cards that can attack their back row. Also, if you attacked their rears, they can easily bring them back so it's not worth it. To boot it up, they have a possibility to have a 11k base power vanguard. This means that you will need 21k columns to go against them. Consideration on sacrificing rears or hand is also quite painful. Their strategies are basic but deadly. Early game rush and late game hand advantage with a high power vanguard. Even if you tried to rush them, they are able to turn it against you.

For triggers, they are mostly critical based with the new critical trigger. More draws can also be used to have  advantage when they get damage triggered and also works for Leaf Racoon. Their consistent shuffling also changes the trigger position in their deck so it's not easy to calculate and predict.

These new cards are an amazing new addition for the Murakumo clan. Altough their moves can be easily read, it's not too easy for your opponent to come up with an answer to fight against it. All in all, you can sit back and relax with this build as long as you have enough shields on your side. All your opponent can do is focus fire on your vanguard and despair while you damage checks draw triggers into more hand advantage and watch you Limit Break your way to victory.

----------------
CoCo 4 Lyf
Peace Out

Little Decklist: Top Gun

Cardfight Capital just got updated to 8.1, with the Death Army units. Using them, I made a Top Gun deck, which is working great! (Besides my luck of misriding) Here's the build.

Grade 0 (17)
Death Army Pawn -1
Red Lightning (critical trigger) -4
Turboraizer (stand trigger) -4
The Gong (draw trigger) -4
Wall Boy (heal trigger) -4

Grade 1 (14)
Death Army Bishop -4
Death Army Guy -3
Tough Boy -4
Twin Blader -3

Grade 2 (12)
Death Army Lady -4
Death Army Knight -4
Death Army Rook -4

Grade 3 (7)
Top Gun -4
Miss Splendor -3

The strategy is pretty basic. You rest your DA(Death Army) units using Pawn's skill, and stand them using Bishop's skill. Keep Pawn boosting the vanguard, even without other units attacking, Top Gun will attack at 22k. This build however is weak against retiring builds. Since it highly relies on Pawn to rest other units. I decided to use Miss Splendor because of her anti intercept and the fact that this build doesn't rely too much on counterblast. Forming a column of DA Lady and Guy is also recommended.

Booster Set 9: A Look at the Cross-Rides

From the recently revealed cards, booster set 9 seems to be filled with cross-ride units, with 2 units officially confirmed as X-rides and 4 more to be expected as X-rides. This could mean to be one of the biggest turning point for the Cardfight!! Vanguard game.

X-rides are units which gains some advantage by power increase if you have a specified unit in your soul. You would have a 13k base power vanguard which provides defense against 21k columns. Besides that, X-rides are also able to form their own 20/21k columns.

When the X-rides was first released along with Majesty Lord Blaster, they were thought to be very powerful, and powerful they were. Everyone was new to them, and the extra base power overwhelmed quite  a lot of strategies and decks without vanilla boosters. Since then, X-rides became much despised by many and also deemed that there should not be anymore X-rides.

For a short time, no X-rides was released anymore, and Limit Breakers became the hit, but then, came Daiyusha X-ride, with Limit Break! However, Daiyusha did not make much of an impact compared to the former X-rides due to it's requirement and the fact that quite a lot of builds have received enough support to fight against X-rides. People had also modified their deck so to prepare themselves for any X-ride opponents.

After that, came images of suggested X-rides, DA Cosmolord and an image of a Ezel-like unit, and now, DA Cosmo was revealed to be not a X-ride, but Ezel got the X-ride. This revelations brought both joy and also dissatisfaction to the players. Although it has a little restiction to it, Platinum Ezel has a very powerful ability to power up all your rear-guards by 5000 power.

Honestly, I think the addition of more X-rides are unavoidable. Personally, I don't really like X-rides but it's something that will happen sooner or later. Bushi might as well place them in our face and say "Take it or leave it". The abilities for X-rides are powerful but not broken. They are something we need to learn to deal with to be able to play on a higher level.

If the expected X-rides are true, a lot more people would want a X-ride for their favorite units. This however, might not come true for everyone. As a player who loves CoCo as my favorite unit, I don't think CoCo would ever get a X-ride because of the way it is played, soulless, and I am satisfied with that. These units also gives purpose to some of the less used units. On the bad side however, the X-rides would mean an increase in card prices especially perfect guards.

All in all, I welcome the cross-rides with open arms, and would accept any tough fights against them with my CoCo. I believe they will help me improve on my build and also help me realize strategies that I have never thought of before.

----------------
CoCo 4 Lyf
Peace Out

Nova Support Extra Booster and Set 9!!

Epic Cosmo Lord!

This time, I'll be posting on the Extra Booster and set 9 for the Nova Grapplers.

The upcoming extra booster provided some very interesting addition and new build for the Nova Grapplers  Among the cards, I noticed that there are support for UL Cosmo Lord. UL Cosmo have been thought to be one of the worst RRR card, if not the worst, but that will changed with the Extra Booster. Death Army units are getting two very special units that allows them to stand any of your Death Army units. These two cards are DA Knight and DA Bishop. This allows you to stand units after resting them with either Cosmolord at a low cost. These two cards made UL Cosmo a pretty decent build. Even without unflippers, UL Cosmo will be able to hit a pretty high power each turn without worrying about other units being unable to attack.

Besides the Critical Trigger Raizer,  two more Raizer units will be available in set 9, which are Burstraizer and Transraizer. These units are a great addition for the Raizers as it greatly increases the probability to get the required soul for Perfect Raizer's critical and also helps keep it at 11k base power. Burstraizer can provide an extra push for the perfect number and Transraizer helps by providing a chance at calling another unit.

So... it has come to this. A cross-ride for Novas! In set 9, Novas will be getting a X-ride for Azure Dragon, along with archetype, Beast Deity. Super Beast Deity, Ilminal Dragon has an awesome art and a great ability.  The upcoming Beast Deity increases their own power when they are stand during the Battle Phase this makes them very dangerous as both rear killers and also on dealing more damage. The cost might be a little high, but that can be easily solved with Toolkit Boy as boosters.

I think Bushiroad must love Nova Grapplers so much to give them so many different builds. All the variety of builds are great and has a fair chance of their own. Even cheaper builds like Top Gun and Gold Rutile are great units. Novas are coming up to be one of the most interesting clan in Cardfight!! Vanguard and the variety of builds will surely attract more people into playing them.

----------------
CoCo 4 Lyf
Peace Out

A Delicious Treat for the Oracles

This girl here is Misaki

Finally, information on the units for the Extra Boosters was revealed in the latest KeroKero Ace magazine. The main topic for this post is on the Oracle Think Tanks.

After a long wait, we finally get to see the abilities for Fromage, Waffle and Macaron. These units seems to be units focused on decks with mostly Battle Sisters.

Fromage's Limit Break allows you to draw 2 at the cost of 3 damagecards if you have at least 4 Battle Sister rear-guards. The requirement can be easily done with the amount of Battle Sisters available for Oracles and also the new starter vanguard, Battle Sister, Waffle. With the same requirement, Fromage also gains 4000 power during your turn. The good thing about this build is that it does not rely on either Soul or Souless however, you will be giving up on having higher power rear-guards.

Since you would need to have a field field filled with Battle Sisters, your deck would most likely be filled with them. This means that you would least likely to have either Milk, Gemini or Tom. Even if you have them, it's ideal to only have one of them on your field. You could, at most, have 2 columns of 20k with Macaron and Fromage herself. With the low power, you will be having trouble against opposing 20k columns since you would be using up more of your hands for guarding than your opponent. Toms also are not as useful against 21k vanguards without Gemini boosting.

What I like about this card is that it is a very flexible card. You could still make a deck not focusing on Battle Sisters and go with raw power along with pressure units like Tom and Libra. You can try to pull off the limit break once and then continue on the game with rears and maybe even a CEO ride over. This build also has consistency to bring out a decent field against cross-rides. Cocoa also provides some foresight.

Strategy wise, I think this build can utilize stand triggers more than Tsuku or CoCo builds. They can have focus on taking down dangerous enemy rear-guards, and stand triggers will help with that. Against 10k vanguards, they should have a pretty decent advantage, since you can build a high powered vanguard and a column of 20k attacker pretty easily with Macaron and Souffle. Early rushing is also an option with Omelette and Maple. Cocoa foresight can be used to force out guards and also help you strategize your moves.

Overall, the Battle Sisters build is great. It has a lot of potential and I see it as a pretty fun build.

----------------
CoCo 4 Lyf
Peace Out

Card Review: Crimson Impact, Metatron

In the last episode, some new cards for Angel Feathers was introduced in the anime for Cardfight!! Vanguard. They came to be known as the Crimson series. Later on, these cards were showed as card of the day in the official Japanese website. Today, I'll be writing on what I think about this new series for the Angel Feathers clan.

The first time I saw this card, I had my doubts on it's ability to improve on the Angel Feathers. The only appeal I could see is the possibility to pull off a superior ride. However, after watching other people play using it, this card showed a great amount of power and potential.

This card's Limit Break can bring a Calamity boosted by Pegasus to attack on 25k, and also easily bring out a Kiriel and Charger. Even with just Pegasus boosters, it has a high consistency to bring out 21k columns. The options you have for this ability can be increased using the Doctroids which also enables you to recycle triggers. Doctroids also further increase Pegasus' powers and also brings your damage up so that you have the chance to heal. The Doctroids can later be swapped for better units in the damage. Metatron herself also gets an increase in power when attacking the enemy vanguard, along with the grade 2 and grade 1 crimsons which can be easily placed into the damage zone, this card can hit for a very high amount of power.

The crimson series is a great addition to the Angel Feathers clan. With this card, I can see a possible Dindrane clone for Angel Feathers, which abilities activate when called from the damage zone. That will give Angel Feathers the speed it needs to match up with the other clans.

Upcoming English Booster Set 4: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows (Part3) - Cards for Royal Paladin!

The last part for set 4 would be on Royal Paladins. Finally, after Barcgal getting banned they will get a new starting Vanguard which can be moved when a Royal Paladin rides over it. I am referring to Bleugal. This set also comes with a card, with gold all over it, Fang of Light, Garmore.

This Garmore build is pretty decent with the ability to call units from your deck, thins the deck and also, increases the consistency in field making.The consistency can be further increased with Akane which uses damage to call for units instead of the need to discard your hand. It's easy to get 3 Snogal onto the field, this can bring the vanguard grade 3 garmore to attack at 21k power. If you have grade 3 Palamedes at both sides, every one of your attacks will be on 21k.

The Royal Garmore build is pretty simple and straightforward. The main strategy is to get 3 Snogal onto the field as boosting units. Each Snogal increases Garmore's power by 1000 during your turn. If you have the soul for it, you can also ride Soul Saver to get more power. With the build's consistency to bring out a decent field, you don't have to worry too much about draw triggers and go full offensive with triggers, however, it is good to have some to use it for Garmore's skill.

Overall, the royal garmore build is pretty linear in gameplay. It depends on overwhelming the opponent with hitting high attack power on every column. However, it can also be easily overwhelmed, being only a 10k vanguard.

Upcoming English Booster Set 4: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows (Part2) - The New Ride Chains

After a busy week, I finally got myself some time off to make a new post. In this post, I will write about the upcoming ride chains in this booster set. I really like this ride chain because if you get the grade 1, you are secured with a grade 2 ride. The grade 1 also allows you to swap out a grade 3 in your hand to search for the required grade 3 ride for the chain. This also thins your deck and decreases the amount of non-shield card in your deck and at the same time, increases the possibility for you to get a trigger on checks. These ride chains are also pretty powerful, with the best in my opinion, the Blau series.

First off, I'll start off with the Ambers series. The Ambers series are one of the more difficult cards to master in this game. The most used strategy for this build from what I have seen is to play it with Heatnail Salamander to apply pressure to the opponent, forcing them to guard, or lose a unit. The downside to Eclipse is that the ability is an ACT ability. This means you would need to pay the cost before attacking, or hitting. This eats up your damage but, you might not get to retire anything. Kagero also doesn't have a decent 10k booster, making this card even more difficult to use. Some of the good points for this card though, is that you have grade 2 12k attackers and Eclipse can be an 11k Vanguard.

Secondly, we have the megacolony Giraffa. The Giraffa chain is quite decent and you have a possibility to win even with just it's grade 2 due to it's ability to keep cards at rest. Together with Violent Vesper, this unit can be quite a tough opponent, especially when they have a pretty consistent 10k booster. Unlike Eclipse, Giraffa's ability is an AUTO on hit. This means that you only pay when you hit the opponent, which means, a consistent pressure. Although it can only retire grade 1 or less units, they deal more than enough damage to cripple your opponent's offense and defensive powers.

Next, we have the Enigman chain. This chain is pretty decent. If you get the chain, the grade 2 let's you draw a card if it has at least 14k power when attacking, the grade 3 gains a critical if it has at least 15k power when attacking. With Cosmobeak and Cosmo Roar this build is pretty consistent with getting the extra power. Commander Laurel is also a good card to play with this card as it allows you to stand your Vanguard, and if you get a trigger, the vanguard would have gained a critical due to +5000 from trigger.

Lastly, the Stern chain. Although not too easy to pull off, this unit has the ability to stand itself and the unit behind it when it hits a Vanguard, at the cost of counter blast 2 and 2 cards from your hand. This card can apply a consistent pressure on the opponent and can give you the win even if you seem to be on the losing end. With critical triggers, this card is a very dangerous opponent. It is able to stand more than once per turn if you have enough damage and cards in your hand to pay with. This card also have a consistency in making 20k columns and also with the upcoming trial, 21k columns with Death Metal Droid.