Nashville Tournament Report

I was in a weird spot with the start of this tournament.  Until the day I left, I didn't know who was going with me.  Until the week before I left, I wasn't sure if I was already going to be in the state from a family visit, or if I was going to drive down with friends.  Due to the in-laws having a hospitalization, they postponed their family visit that was going to be for this week, so I ended up driving down with my bestie Daniel.

Consequently, I didn't fill out my judge paperwork until Friday morning, because if Daniel wasn't coming and I wasn't there with family, I wasn't going to go.

Again, consequently, when I showed up with my Bushiroad shirt to judge the Vanguard event, they already were overstaffed and didn't need me, and since I had no confirmation from JD because I officially volunteered (even though I had verbally volunteered before) last minute, I ended up not judging.

Cardfight Vanguard

That's no biggie.  I didn't feel like playing Vanguard, because I've been in a bad luck rut with it, but whatever.  I went in with no expectations.  After hearing that someone made it to round 6 or 7 with Ripple Rush in Chicago, I decided to go for that.  It's my strongest and most consistent overall build, in my opinion, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

Round 1 - Win vs. Dimension Police trial deck with at least one Daishield

This kid had just started playing the game.  All I could think to myself was, "Wow.  I never get easy wins.  I'll take it."  He actually played properly, only making one mistake the entire game.  Granted, that doesn't help you win when you're forced to ride Cosmogreat, because he's your 4-of grade 3.  I never see a Genovious, but I hit the first two pieces of the chain, and spammed my on-hit rear guard restand ability, since he was never in a strong spot to guard my Vanguard swings.

Round 2 - Lose vs. Breakride Galaxy with Draw Triggers

Ugh.  I hate this build so much.  Stern is just so much better.  Crits are just so much better.  I had to lose to crit Dragruler in Chicago and now this... but, I digress.  He heals 3 times, hits two defensive draws (running 4), and offensively crits twice.  I never see a Genovious.  I do hit a clutch crit at the end, forcing him to dump out all of his remaining shield, or he was going to lose.  He breakrides Mond over Mond and finishes me off the following turn.

Playing to 9 damage is kind of why I stopped playing Vanguard.  But whatevs, I wasn't in this one to win it anyway.  It's not them, it's me.  I attract their heal triggers to the top of their deck.

Round 3 - Win vs. Silver Thorns

Holy shit.  I actually won a dice roll and got to go first.  Ride Sotorio, fish out Pavroth.  Already have Pavroth and Genovious in hand.  This is sacking for me, okay.  GIVE ME MY MOMENT!  Drop a 10k to guard his 7k+5k swing with no rear guards out.  He hits a crit, I stay at 0.  HOLY SHIT!  THINGS ARE GOING OKAY!  EVEN THOUGH I STARTED WITH 3 GENOVIOUS IN HAND AND HAD TROUBLE RUSHING.  After neither of us hitting too many triggers after that (both of our decks were trigger floundering like crazy, I was unable to secure a rush), I end up winning solely because I went first (and was able to guard early), and going first is OP.

Round 4 - Lose vs. 8 draw break ride Venus Trap Reverse

Wat.  No.  This didn't happen.  Next!  What, you mean I have to write about this?  Fuck.  I hit the full chain again.  With 3 Genovious in hand again.  Yeah.  No units could be fielded on turn 2 unless I wanted to make a perfect guard/trigger row, which was the only thing I had that I could field because of 3 Genovious.  He hit 4 draws, 2-3 were defensive.  We were neck and neck most of the game.  He had boosted on-hit fetch rows with his maidens out on turn 2.  I had to choose from the easy no-pass of his Vanguard and letting those on-hit rows hit, or risking him not hitting a trigger or me hitting a trigger to guard the on-hit rows.  I chose to let him hit with his on-hit rows to guarantee I reduce my own damage.  If I knew crits weren't a thing in his deck (being at 4), I'm not certain I would have made that decision.  He still manages to crit me when I no guarded at 3 damage, bringing me up to 5.

I force 9 cards from his hand with a big Genvious persona blast push.  He literally has 0 cards in hand and one open spot on his field.  He gets the RG back with Venus Trap, attacks, and gets a draw/heal, bringing him up to 4 cards in hand.  I guard using everything I had.  I swing in next turn with the ability to win if I hit a trigger or he doesn't hit a fifth damage trigger, he does, I don't.  He wins the next turn.  I wasn't really sad or anything.  It's just... eww.  8 draws.  In hindsight, letting Glass Beads hit at any point in time to waste his counterblasts would have benefited me greatly.  It is what it is.

This is just what I've come to expect from this game.  I want to pretty much exclusively judge it at this point, since I am fairly certain that mixed decks will be banned for next year's regionals, and rush decks are just cheese and don't feel that technical or comboish.

Future Card Buddyfight

I was debating between Big Awesome Dog (a deck focusing on using Alerta with soul guard size 3's and size 0's to get free counterattack retires against my opponent, and using Demon Lord's Dungeon for infinite recycling on my size 0's) and Fabulous World (Standard Legend World Hero Build).  I needed some Dominion Rods (I somehow have none after opening 4 boxes) to finish Big Awesome Dog.  I need two Merlins (you know, the one card that makes the deck work) to make Fab World function.  I tried to get what I needed, but many people were looking for Merlin and nobody had him.

I was thinking, "I guess I'll just go back to old faithful, Katana World."  But I remember how Dungeon World wrecks my shit because I don't have card advantage with Skull Warriors unless I happen to draw one of my 4 Return to the Underworld.  I thought about playing Dungeon World mix myself, but I found out that I actually am a hipster, and don't want to play it specifically because of how overpowered it is.  It's also brainless, and auto-pilot.  And forces you to play the game properly by giving you card advantage for removing the opponent's card advantage.

I could bitch about it some more, but I'll leave that for another day.  I eventually settled, after much deliberation, on Magic World Burn.  After going through my box of commons looking for a sideboard, I find Abra Cadabra.  I read the card.  Then I wonder why it wasn't in my deck and why I'm an idiot.  I put it in at two, hoping to get a cheese victory by swinging at an open center with a big link attack and countering their attack negation spell for game.  This never happened, but Abra Cadabra saved my nuts twice, so I'm not complaining.

I didn't have this deck completely done, either, but the cards I'm missing aren't actually mandatory for the deck to function, like Dominion Rod and Merlin are for the other two decks I wanted to run.

Deckname - #Tim's Totally Meta Mega Serious Magic World Burn Deck™

Decklist

Flag - Magic World
Buddy - Dragowizard, Burning Wand (Foil)

Items (7)
4x Gunrod, Bechstein
3x Gunrod, Stradivarius

Spells (21)
4x Magical Goodbye
4x Trans-flame
4x Solomon's Shield (Useful.  You know, except against Dungeon World.)
4x Nice One!
2x Kosher (I needed gauge fixing so bad.  I gave away my Keys of Solomon to my buddy Elliot, thinking I wouldn't need them.  I may up this number later, or switch to the Keys.  I feel like this is more slot efficient, though.)
2x Abra Cadabra!
1x Chillax! (WHY OH WHY DO I ONLY HAVE ONE OF THESE?!)

Size 1's (16)
4x Demon Lord, Asmodai (Staple)
4x Dragowizard, Burning Wand (Tap to deal 1.  If I could use multiple of this effect, this deck would be much stronger, but I'll take what I've got.  Great for a going first turn 1 ping.)
4x Kenjy of the Explosive Fists (Going to become Qinus Axias or Glassarts later I suppose)
3x Magician of Glass, Will Glassart (should be maxed)
1x Dragowizard, Qinus Axia (1 gauge wasn't too big of a deal)

Size 2's (6)
3x Center of the World, Mary Sue (I want to drop this down to 2.  Gauge cost was just too high.)
2x Magical Secretary, Genjuro Saki (I want to up this to 4)
1x Herb Magician, Soichiro Tenjiku (Worse Genjuro that's going to be taken out later)


Round 1 - W vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)

I was expecting it.  I figured that roughly half of the people there would be playing Dungeon.  There weren't that many from what I could see, though.  Every table I would look at (didn't go poking around too much, though) didn't have Dungeon World on it.

I guess I just get lucky, and get to get the "fun" match-up out of the way.

Game 1 he starts off relatively strong, but I had a perfect hand.  Kosher, Nice One, Genjuro, Will Glassart, Bechstein, Magical Goodbye.  I had gauge and cards secured for the remainder of the game.  He did equip Glory Seeker turn 1, though.  Turn 3 happens, and he's at 5.  Transflame, Bechstein, equip new Bechstein, Burning Wand.  He's at 1, and I have 3 crit on the board.  Swing with Asmodai, expecting him to Shalsana so I can win with my 2 crit swing.  He takes it.  Glory Seeker reveals a spell, and he goes to 3.  Swing for 2, he goes down to 1.  I fend off his next turn.  My turn, ping for game.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 1

Game 2 I am the ping machine.  He equips Glory Seeker again, but I just have too much ping.  He is down to 1 on the start of my turn.  I ping for 1, popping Glory Seeker.  He hits a spell.  I ping for two more, and swing in with 2 creatures.  He Shalsanas the first one, and loses to the second one.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 2


Round 2 - W vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)

Game 1 he isn't able to keep a strong offensive on the board.  He kept not link attacking with Brave, Drum, so my Solomon's Shields kept him on lock-down.  He equips a Glory Seeker.  Turn 3, I ping him down to 0, he reveals a spell.  I have too much momentum.  He used the remainder of his resources just staying alive.  He equips another Glory Seeker, and this time he just keeps swinging at my side units with no Defeat Monsters out, since I have too much life.  My turn rolls around again.  I ping down his Glory Seeker, he gets another spell.  I swing for game.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 4

Game 2 was much better for him.  He got a massive offensive force out, and I had squat for defensive spells.  I had plenty of burn, though.  He, uhh... equips a Glory Seeker with Brave Drum in the middle.  I can't get around Drum, but I ping him to 0.  He reveals a spell.  I swing into his creatures to soften the blow the next turn.  Tetsuya is called, and I can't stop 7 crit to my face if he wins the Rock/Paper/Scissors.  He does win it, unfortunately, so I lose this game.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 5

Game 3 he didn't get Glory Seeker, so when I pinged him to 0 he wasn't there anymore.  Woot!


Round 3 - L vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)

Game 1 was pretty even.  I pinged him down to 0, but, you know, Glory Seeker.  He revealed a spell.  After that, I was in a solid position to win again, even though he got another one out.  I could live if his Drum didn't win Rock Papers Scissors.  He lost the Rock Papers Scissors!  But then impacted me for game.  Lol

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 6

Game 2 he swung in hard early with... Glory Seeker. We had a difference in damage on our sheets.  I had him at 3, he had himself at 4.  We had no clue how to resolve it.  I told him I had exactly 3 damage in hand, but he had Glory Seeker out.  Mason happened to be there and convinced him to take my reasonable offer.  We were going to see if the top card of his deck was a spell.  If it was, then he auto-wins because of Glory Seeker.  If it wasn't a spell, we would roll for game.  He takes my offer, reveals a spell, and we didn't need to roll for it at all, as the outcome was decided with or without our damage disparity.  I felt bad about what happened, because I'm not sure if he missed one of my pings or if he gained a life and I missed it, but fortunately it was in a position that didn't make a difference.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 7


Round 4 - W vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)

Game 1 he equipped something that wasn't Glory Seeker.  I was in shock.  My body wasn't certain how to respond.  He played Gagnar turn 1.  He told me his hand was 3 Shalsanas, Dungeon Explosion, and his weapon he equipped (5k/2 trial deck one for one gauge, assuming he didn't finish his deck completely, or thought that it was as good as Glory Seeker for the purpose of killing creatures with Defeat Monsters, and one gauge is cheaper than a card from hand.)  I end up filling my field up and getting ready to swing in.  He casts Dungeon Explosion, losing two life.  Abra Cadabra saved my life, there.  Kosher gave me the second gauge I needed, then I got out Stradivarius to have a big enough Kenjy to take out Gagnar, dealing two lifelink to him.  He couldn't Shalsana because he burned all of his gauge.  I pinged him for game the following turn.

Game 2 was almost a literal repeat of game 1.  He Gagnared, Explosioned, I Abra Cadabra'd, then called Asmodai over Burning Wand after I rested him, discarded, and swung in for 5 damage on top of my Bechstein and Burning Wand, 2 life for Explosion, and 2 life for Gagnar's lifelink.

Woot!  No Glory Seekers!


After this, we cut to top 8.  I was convinced my tiebreakers were terrible, but I miscounted how many undefeateds there were.  We had 2 left, and I thought there would be 4 undefeated players.  So then there were 8 players that were X-1 vying for the top 6 spots.  I ended up making 4th place on the top 8 cut.  The guy who played me in round 3 was 5th, so I end up getting paired against him.  Deck check passed with flying colors.  They got to enjoy my tech Wizard, Merlin.

Quarter Finals - L vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)

Game 1 I don't know what happened.  I spent a good 5 minutes shuffling.  It seems that when I shuffle too much the same cards clump together for no reason.  But it was really bad... I got all three of my Mary Sues.  He got a Glory/Drum set-up with something else that wasn't an adventurer that he was using to pick off the center.  Probably Fate Skeleton.  He killed my center, then swung for 6, which I Chillaxed.  His offensive pressure outweighed my pinging significantly this game since I hit that hard, early dead draw with 3 Mary Sues.  I end up swinging with my Bechstein and Burning Wand into his monsters.  I had a Mary Sue in hand and one gauge.  I had a Kosher in hand, and no other wizards I could play.  I died a little on the inside right there.  My deck absolutely fizzled.

Games gradeloc Games where I couldn't field units from dead drawing: 1

Game 2 was even worse.  I wasn't even hiding it.  I said audibly, "Why deck, WHY?!"  After shuffling the shit out of my cards and moving each Mary Sue to the opposite ends of my deck... I had a Nice One! in hand, and thought, "I can salvage this." when they slowly started to appear early.  I had one Abra Cadabra in my starting hand, one Mary Sue, one Asmodai, one Will Glassart.  I charge Asmodai, get another Abra Cadabra.  Fuck.  Use Nice One!  Draw two more Nice Ones.  *Facepalm*  Next turn draw Mary Sue #3.  Charge it.  Draw into Qinus Axia.  Here's the situation.

Opponent has Glory Seeker equipped and 7 life.  I have 3 gauge and Abra Cadabra in hand, along with a Bechstein equipped, two Trans-flame, a Mary Sue, and a Qinus Axia.  Of course, I had a Nice One! in hand, too.  I sat there figuring out if there was any possible combination to make this combo finish my opponent off.  I kept getting to 6 guaranteed damage, but no 7th.

If we exclude the Trans-flames and Bechsteins, and remove their damage, I needed to do 4 damage with 3 gauge.  The easiest way to secure damage would be to swing with 4 crit and Abra Cadabra their Shalsana (I didn't know if they had one or not).  Literally, only because I kept dead drawing and getting all of my gauge monsters (literally, all 4 of them, and no vanillas, non-gauge monsters), I had no outs.  If I had a Key of Solomon, first volume, I could have used Mary Sue to get that, use that to refill my gauge, call Qinus Axia to ping them for 1 (3), then swing for game.

With what I had though, because all of my creatures took gauge, I ran out of options.  I decided to try top decking into what I needed.  I used my Nice One! and got Will Glassart and something else.  Decide to call Mary Sue to get a Kosher.  Play Will Glassart to attempt to cast Kosher, but he destroys it with Pillar of Fire (which is honestly a misplay on his part.  He should wait until I declare combat, then take my units out so I can't replace them.  He got pretty lucky that I drew all of my gauge monsters and none of my vanillas, considering how my deck is ratiod.)  I end up losing the following turn.  He casts Shalsana in response to my attack anyway, so I don't think I could have burned enough to win the game without having drawn into some actual creatures earlier.  I was told that the top card of his deck that turn was a spell, so I would have lost anyway.  Lol

Games gradeloc Games where I couldn't field units from dead drawing: 2

All in all, I finally topped at a regional qualifiers for a Bushiroad game.  I didn't think that would ever happen, considering my piss-poor luck.  Still, I do wish I could have fought something other than Dungeon World with my deck.  Match-up is so boring.  Deck is so auto-pilot.  Waaaah.  WAAAAAAH!  Okay, I'm done crying about it.

Obligatory, "You're welcome" to all of the other toppers for being that one guy who took out all of the Dungeon World players for them except the guy who beat me twice.  Everyone else was talking about all of the modified trial decks, DDW decks, Legend World decks, Dragon World decks, etc. that they played against.  I fought nothing but tier 1 metashit all day while luck was taking a chainsaw to my nutsack because I'm Tim, dammit, I'm not allowed to do well at card games.

I do feel oddly inspired to finish out this deck, though.  I will probably be doing that over the next while, while looking at the Magic World trial deck and set 5 stuff to see if we get any new burn support.

Chicago Regional Tournament Report

Vanguard:

Game 1 - Have Glendios, Colony Maker, 3 triggers. Put back three triggers, get Magnet Hollow, Trigger, Trigger. Think, "Well, ****. I have 20 outs left in my deck that either are grade 1 or fish for grade 1. Maybe I'll be okay." Top deck into a Reverse. Pitch, check top 5, no grade 1's. Ride up the following turn. Time passes, I no guard at 3, get double crit, 5th damage heal, saving myself from losing. I catch back up, and reach a situation where I'm at a solid spot to win. I have a front row locked, and the other row has nothing in it. He calls a Dragruler as a RG and attacks with it. I drop 5k to guard it. He attacks with Raging Form. I'm anticipating that he doesn't having Raging Form in hand because he didn't check one and had two in damage. I no pass it instead of two-to-passing it, thinking that he doesn't run stands because he's bad at Dragruler, and he doesn't have Raging Form. Turns out Raging Form was in his hand the whole time, so he superior rides and hits me to 6 for game.

My opponent was playing crit dragruler, so I died from cancer before I lost the actual cardfight.

Game 2 -

I open 1, 2, 1, 2, reverse. I think to myself that I can fish Glendios. Boy was I wrong.

1st World Line, nothing. Grab a 12k beater.
1st Damage, Glendios.
2nd World Line, nothing. Grab a second Magnet Hollow (5th grade 2 at this point.)
Hit with Magnet Hollow A, thin deck of non-Glendios. Keep fishing.
Second Damage check, Glendios.
3rd World Line, nothing. Grab a Ruin Magician.
Opponent has now taken 5 damage. They're at 4. I've only taken 2 damage. **** this game. They heal on this drive check bringing them to 3.
4th World Line, nothing. Cry.
Attack with VG, crit, get another Reverse unit. Score is now 7 to 3. Still no Glendios.
They breakride, swing with everything, I guard, they activate Peace before calling their second unit to the field, so the judge is like, "It's optional, so we'll play it as you only calling one."
They swing with Vanguard, I have enough to stop the second VG swing and the RG. I need them to not double crit me. I get double crit anyway. No healsack.

Final score 6-7, but that means they win since they had more points, right?

After scrub-a-dub-dubbing out, I can't honestly say I was disappointed.  There's no possible way a round 1 loss would permit me to make the top 8 cut unless I got paired up and won much later, so losing the second round essentially just finalized my results.

I go have fun for a while, and come back to the semi-finals.  Very first thing I see is a Pale Moon player hitting a stand trigger with a 12k attacker and a 7k Zelma frontrow that is at rest.  He stands Zelma and gives the power to the 12k when his opponent has out an 11k and a 9k front row.  This wasted a card he could have forced from his opponent by attacking into both rear guards by giving Zelma power, but instead he went for the crossridden Vanguard when his opponent had an interceptor.

Vanguard is a game that's all about skill, right?

And yet again we have more consistent top 8's from previous years, which once again proves that because I refuse to cheat (it is general consensus that topping a 400 man Vanguard tournament cannot be done consistently, right?  This is my best guess on how they're doing it.), I will never top a large-scale Vanguard tournament.  I am probably done with competitive Vanguard, and will switch to judging all of the Vanguard events I attend.




Buddyfight:

Round 1 (Vs. Katana World)  W

Game 1:  I enter a point where I push him down to 3 life.  If I draw a creature, I can push, but I just drew all defensive spells.  He said, "This is just a trial deck."  So I cast a spell while he has Lethal Formation and 3 gauge, and he Star Crushers me.  I call him a dirty liar, and he explains it's the only non-trial deck card he has.  After evil glares, we both laugh it off and play game 2.

Game 2:  I got my set-up and won 11-0.

Game 3:  I had to fight a little bit for this one, but had Sakurafubuki in hand and attacked with my full field of 5 crit for game, countering his Oborogenbu (What a liar!).  Lol.

Round 2 (Vs. Dungeon World)  L

Game 1:  I essentially got shit stomped.  Didn't see anything good.  Couldn't make the plays.

Game 2:  I fought like hell with absolutely nothing.  I got one Hades Fall out, but got neither Yamigitsune or Return to the Underworld.  He plays an Addrick with a Brave Drum out, trying to bait my Hades Fall.  I just said, "I'll allow it." and let him keep his 1 crit on the board.  He kept going after my field (which is how you beat Katana World if they don't draw into Return) and i was playing with 2-3 cards at most for the whole game.  I had a painful choice where I Star Crushered his Pillar of Flame on my Tempest, Garo-oh.  He had called Tetsuya, which I had Hades Falled at this point.  He continued to get Tetsuya and a Fate Skeleton back, but he had a Glory Seeker equipped with that Fate Skeleton in the middle.  I used Tempest the following turn to kill off his Drum and Tetsuya, leaving him with just his Fate Skeleton in the middle, keeping me safer.  I was able to hold out for another turn or two, but I just fizzled.  Top 4 cards of my deck when I lost were Return, Kimensai, Return, Return.  Oh well.  Both of us played really well with what we had.  I used the mindgames and blackmailing to prolong the game and turtle, and my opponent said he was very impressed with my depth of strategy.  This guy went on to get 2nd place, and was a really cool guy.  No regrets or salt for losing to him.

Round 3 (Vs. Danger World) W

Game 1:  Opened Item Blast.  Blew up his weapons mid attack, he couldn't get around my defenses very easily.  I was able to win quickly and efficiently.

Game 2:  I godhanded, which always feels nice.  Too bad it was against a Danger World trial deck.  Although, considering I've been losing to Mike's Danger World trial deck all weekend for literally no reason, I'm not sure what to say on it. 

The guy asks me for some advice on deckbuilding, since he just started playing.  I help him out by building a Dungeon World deck for him.  I showed him my deck and its combos and he was like, "This shit's dumb.  I want a more balanced deck.  Wait, Rock Paper Scissors?  WE'RE DOING THIS."  He pulls a foil Mimic with a Prize to add to the awesome.

Round 4 (Vs. Faggot Bran-Bran) L

Game 1: I fuck up and for whatever reason use Hades fall on a Tasuku.  Why I did this, I don't know.  Bran was distracting me, okay?!  After that misplay (which I realized as I did it) I tried to play a bit better.  I dead drew too many times, though.  He ends up winning the game by swinging into my creatures, which is how you beat Skulls when they have no Return. Sadface.jpg.

Game 2:  I get Hades Fall and Return in my opening hand.  11-0.  Bran was intentionally misplaying and using sub-optimal strategies on purpose.  I'm starting to get annoyed with him.

Game 3:  He is borderline trying to lose on purpose at this point.  He is doing everything in his power to just have three Gummi Slime on the board with no other plans.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is our champion.  I hit absolutely none of my strategy.  I end up drawing into 3 Lethal Formations in a row (Shut up, Elliot), and I had so many points where him playing incorrectly would have led to me winning the game if I'd just draw into something.  No Yami, no Kimensai, no Setsujishi, no Hades, no Return.  My deck just wanted to lose.  After running out of ways to not beat me, Bran ends up killing me right at time.  I have a salty catfight with him trying to get him a warning for not declaring battle phase.  He counter-tries to get me a warning for not declaring that I'm paying life for abilities, even though I totally always do it.  Elliot agreed with me.  Will said I wasn't.  The world may never know.  The judge was just like, "Ladies, please.  Stop fighting."  Well, that didn't actually happen, but that would have appropriate.

I end up going 2-2.  On one hand I could say I lost to 1st and 2nd place, which is understandable.

On the other hand, I could say that I only beat trial decks.  Or at least I think they're trial decks?

Bran trying to lose and still beating me because my deck refused to function made me quite a bit salty, too.  Especially since his big idea for playing the game is,"Screw tactics, win with Gummi Slime."

I think what I've learned is that card games just aren't for me.  And that I totally should have said, "Fuck all of you, I'm playing Dungeon World".  But meh, I didn't want to be that guy.  But you know what, that guy was all top 4 spots.

There was a top 8 cut, and my friend Will didn't make it, despite being 4-1.  This was because a guy who already has the full-trip secured decided he still wanted to play in the top 8.  Will was pissed off, especially because fucking Brandon made it in, literally with the worst earlier tie-breakers, and only because he was the lucky one who got paired up and somehow managed to win in round 5.

Will and I grew increasingly salty.

Brandon gets an auto-game loss for having an improperly filled out decklist.  Naturally, he fights the Ancient World player.  Who doesn't draw into Seiger on game one, and gets Rolling Stoned turn 2 in game 2, so Bran moves on anyway.

Saltiness gains one level.

Top 4, we're like, "Fucking Brandon.  He's NOT EVEN TRYING and he's already qualified.  Well, at least if he does win this round, we're staying in his hotel room."

Brandon wins again, for literally no reason.

We're just like, "Fuck it.  This is bullshit.  But at least we have a place to crash.  Okay, fucker.  Lose already."

He wins the finals against the first guy who beat me, declaring an attack against, "Big Awesome Dog." (Maybe I still love Bran-Bran a little bit.)

Nope.jpg

Apparently, even in a game like Buddyfight, I can still get gradelocked, and Brandon can literally go full-retard and win it all.  I was pretty salty.

Maybe after my intense and burning anguish dies down, I'll actually congratulate the little bitch.  Maybe.

GenCon Buddyfight Tournament Report

I decided to play in my first ever Buddyfight tournament. Now, I play Buddyfight all the time, but it's always my decks vs. my decks, fighting baddies online (which I stopped, because TCO can't "hide" the cards I set for Hades Fall and Secret Formation), and fighting what are at best modified trial decks.

As some of you might know, I've actually judged more Buddyfight events than I've played. ~_~

That being said, after shaking down the Bushiroad booth at GenCon for four copies of Oborogenbu (I don't usually abuse my connections, but making a mandatory-to-play card an exclusive promo is kind of dumb), I decided that I wanted to play Katana World for the day. Katana World is easily my favorite World, despite Dungeon World being significantly stronger.

The tournament showing was pretty weak. Only 39 for Vanguard on Friday and only 13 for Buddyfight on Saturday. After getting the ever-living **** sacked out of me in Vanguard on Friday, I came to the Buddyfight tournament with absolutely no expectations of winning, considering 1: People from out of state who are hardcore Buddyfighters showed up and 2: This was literally my first ever Buddyfight tournament. To my great surprise, there was only one Dungeon World player, and they dropped after they lost in round 3, even though they had a solid chance to get second/third place. The prize support was a deckbox (manga-styled artwork, front is Gao and Drum attacking, back is chibi-Drum eating pudding, Kawaii as ****), mat (set 3 mat), and sleeves (Black/Gold World sleeves for Magic, Danger, and Dragon). Top 6 all got the same prize.

Decklist:

Flag - Katana World
Buddy - Blood Knife, Kimensai

Weapons - 3x Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru (Switched to from Munechika before the tournament. With a plentiful amount of lifegain in the game, my win condition is no longer swing with 2-3 things with penetrate and counter their attack negate for the win.)

Impacts -
4x Secret Sword, Lethal Formation
2x Secret Sword, Star Crusher (I took out Moon Fang. I left it in my side deck, but the only impacts I ever see anymore are non-counterable, or are used early, like Ancient World's or another Secret Formation. Proved too unreliable for use.)

Spells (Defense) -
4x Demon Way, Oborogenbu (prioritized this over Art of Body Replacement to stop link attacks with an open center.)
3x Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze (Easily the best double-attack counter in the game. Generic enough to be useful against everything. Can stop Dungeon World shenanigans, and shuts down Seiger for an entire turn.)
2x Art of Body Replacement

Spells (Sets)
4x Art of Explosive Hades Fall
4x Return to the Underworld

Spells (Other)
2x Demon Way, Sakurafubuki (I won an entire game with this card on turn 1, since I stopped a Seiger from existing because of it.)
2x Clear Serenity
1x Demon Way, Geppakugiri (I abused this card greatly against Seiger, since I ran an extra copy in my sideboard for that match-up)

Size 1's
4x Blood Knife, Kimensai (I love this card.)
4x Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune (Obvious engine that makes everything work)
3x Steel Wall, Beheading Crab (Steel Wall, lel)
2x Undefeatable Setsujishi (This card won me more games through shenanigans than I thought possible)

Size 2's
4x Tempest, Garo-Oh (Sadly, this guy didn't shine for me that much. He's still strong, and paid for himself with Setsujishi.)

Size 3's
2x Wanderer, the Gold (Never once used this card, since I fought nothing but Dragon World and Ancient World. Well, I did use it against Ancient with Art of Explosive Hades Fall, but more about that down below.)

Sideboard:
3x Aftermath, Gagaku (This is how I chose to fight Seiger)
2x Art of Body Replacement (Swap in against Seiger, since Oboro is strictly worse if the opponent's deck doesn't Link Attack)
1x Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru (Left this in if I wanted to swap for it to have 4 weapons, didn't end up using it.)
1x Demon Way, Geppakugiri (Teched in against Seiger)
1x Secret Sword, Moon Fang (Didn't end up using this.)
1x Clear Serenity (Setsujishi fixed my gauge incredibly well, I never needed to have a third Serenity)
1x Art of Item Blasting (I fought Dragon World, but one build was Beistand focused, and the other one was Thunder Knights without many equips. Didn't end up using it.)

I never bought any EB1, so I never bothered to get Half-Kills. Too much of a direct hate card, anyway. It feels cheesy putting them in against Seiger between rounds.

Round 1 - Vs. Ancient World (Seiger) - 2W 0L

Game 1 was exhausting. It grinded out until the 6th or 7th turn before I finally got a set-up. Ended up getting Lethal Formation out with 3 gauge. He swings in and puts me to 1. I swing in with Kimensai and another unit in a Link Attack against his center unit which had Lifelink 1 (Seiger died uneventfully without evolving before that). He had 3 life, so this was going to kill him. He countered it with Dragonlution, which I Secret Formationed for game.

Game 2 I teched in my Gagaku's, Arts, and took out a size 3 for it. I ended up drawing two Hades Falls and my now one size 3, and was facepalming. I still used Hades Fall, choosing size 2, and hilariously, he had no seiger. I blew up his size 2, and swung in for game on turn 3. His deck just fizzled really hard. Hades Fall on a lifelink unit hurts quite a bit.


Round 2 vs. Dragon World (Jackknife) 2W 1L

Game 1 drags out terribly. He ends up having a non-opened center and no defensive cards. If I top deck into any creature, I can bring back Kimensai and kill him, since he had 2 life. Draw was an Oborogenbu. Charged it and drew a Sakurafubuki (I had 2 life left). If I had held onto the Oborogenbu, then charged the Sakurafubuki, my top card was a Beheading Crab, so I could have won by waiting a turn, since my opponent had no size 1's. Oh well, I had no way of knowing that.

Game 2. I thought really hard about teching cards in, but decide not to. I start off with a Hades Fall -> Setsujishi -> Buddy call a Kimensai -> Swing with Kimensai for 2, move him to gauge to have enough for Lethal Formation. He cast a spell on his turn, which I countered, bringing him down to 5. I won after another two turns. It was a pretty clean win. Setsujishi into Lethal Formation secured about 3 victories for me over the course of the day, due to me also being able to use Hades Fall on turn 1.

Game 3 I played it the way I love playing Katana World. He had an open center. I link attacked with everything for 5 crit (Setsu, Crab, Yami). He had 5 life. He Green Dragon Shields, but I Sakurafubuki for game.


(Semi-Finals) Round 3 vs. Ancient World (Seiger) 2W 1L

Game 1 he went first. Normally, I like going second, but he chained off Creation, Legend, Rise and Fall, and set Dragonverse all on his first turn, along with playing Seiger. It was unfortunate that I had Serenity and two Lethal Formations. I set them on my first turn, then he never needed to cast a spell ever again. He only used ACT monsters after that. I got him to no soul on second form, but I wasn't able to secure victory.

Game 2, I teched in everything I teched in before. Again, I drew into Hades Fall and my one size 3, since I teched out my second copy again. All of my "meh". I set one and play a Return to the Underworld. He notices that I don't proc it on Seiger's first form and gets a really worried look on his face. He, knowing that I run size 3's, decided to destroy my Hades Fall over my Return to the Underworld. After seeing my Tempest Garo-Oh in soul, he was just like, "wat". Return to the Underworld won me the game, just like it's supposed to. I was still in a good position to win this game, regardless. I drew into another Hades Fall, abusing Setsujishi for free plusses from it later. Snake Gazed the guy two turns in a row, so his Seiger was literally doing nothing for those two turns.

Game 3, I didn't tech in the second grade 3 to hit it. I mean, odds are low that I draw it, right? Right. I don't see it. I set Hades Fall, choosing my 3. He never sees Seiger this entire game. Can't complain, since I end up winning for it.


(Finals) Round 4 vs. Dragon World (Thunder Knights) 2W 0L

Game 1 I should have lost. It went down to the wire at the very end. I had 2 life left, and he had no creatures out. I stopped his weapon attack that was going to win the game for him, but he had Thunder Formation and 4 gauge. I had a Snake Gaze in hand, and could account for one monster attack. He top decks two 2 critical creatures. I was thinking to myself, "Well, I'm ****ed." He swings his first creature into my Yamigitsune. I blink. It registers that he just messed up, and I immediately respond by playing Snake Gaze on his other creature. He asks how much life I have left. I say, "1." He begins facepalming. I swing for game next turn.

Game 2 was a good game for me. I did my Hades Fall -> Kimensai -> Setsujishi -> Lethal Formation Wombo combo, since I went first. I secured too large of an advantage and snowballed the game pretty hard, winning the tournament. My penetrate was nullifying his advantages. He kept misplaying by using cards that specified that you need an open center to use, and not using them before battle phase started/while he was moving his creatures to center.

He was the only one smart enough to cast a defensive spell when I had out a Lethal Formationed when I had 2 gauge during my battlephase (and used Setsujishi to move Kimensai to the gauge after that so he couldn't cast on his turn). I wasn't super worried about him stopping one attack, though.

All-in-all, I noticed a few things.

1. I'm the only person with a common buddy. Everyone else had BR Jackknife, Thunder Drum, or Seiger that I played.

2. Everyone kept misplaying. I didn't really mess anything up, so I was able to secure large advantages over my opponents that way.

3. Seiger seems inconsistent. That pay 2 gauge to get Seiger promo seems like it might be the juice they need to make the deck function. I haven't bothered to build the deck, so this was my first time encountering it. It wasn't that difficult to tackle, even without half-kills.


Not too much else to report, other than, "I had a blast" and that a bunch of people at my locals are playing now, so hopefully I can keep entering more than yearly tournaments.

Ashlei "R", Timmy Style

I don't often post meta or hyped decks because this game isn't hard and they tend to build themselves.  Except that grade 1 line up for Minerva, that's all over the place.



That aside, I feel like Ashlei "R" is something that can be optimized outside of the normal way to run it.  It's not as starkly opposed to the way the meta functions as Dragruler is, so these are only minor changes.

Grade 0 (17):
1x Desire Jewel Knight, Heloise (Starting Vanguard)
4x Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle (Critical)
2-4x Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger (Critical)
4x Jewel Knight, Opt Harpist (Stand)
0-2x Jewel Knight, Glitmy (Stand)
4x Jewel Knight, Hilmy (Heal)

Grade 1 (14):
4x Jewel Knight, Prizmy
3x Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
3x Security Jewel Knight, Alwain
2x Flashing Jewel Knight, Iseult (PG)
2x Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria (QW)

Grade 2 (11):
4x Banding Jewel Knight, Miranda
4x Fellowship Jewel Knight, Tracie
3x Linking Jewel Knight, Tilda

Grade 3 (8):
4x Broken Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei “Яeverse”
4x Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei

So, my first comment is that this deck is numbers. The magical kind of numbers that are numerous and numbery. You have 16/19 of your grade 2+ units that swing for 11k or more as RG. That's kind of really great. Additionally, if you get excess grade 3's in your drop zone, you have Alwain to give your rear guard Ashlei 5k power per usage.

Now, let us pause for a moment and consider, why is Ordain Owl so overpowered? Is it because it's a bird? Maybe. Is it because the target of the power boost is a restander? Yes. Using this concept with stand triggers and rear guard Ashleis, we can come up with a reasonable assumption that stand triggers on a RG that can restand and swing for 21k unboosted is probably pretty sweet. As an avid Tri-Stinger Overlord enthusiast, I can assure you that it's extremely powerful.

So, that's cool and all Tim, but why are we running a split of quintet walls and null guards? There are many good reasons for this. Jewel Knights are an extremely low counterblast deck. Tilda can only trigger on grade 3 ride (and she has a tendency to die quickly) and Ashley "R" can only counterblast once per turn. This means that speaking from a resource standpoint, Quintet Walls are simply too good not to use. They also give us an added facet of loading up our drop zone with some potential grade 3's which we can use to abuse with our RG Ashlei (since our Vanguard Ashlei always has the threat of triggers and criticals). We can also fill up that Drop Zone with our remaining Prizmys and null guards. With only incremental amounts of card advantage and cycling that can't even really be used if you have a full field, and the ability to shove those grade 3's back on the bottom of our deck, decking out isn't a major scare. I can't find a single good reason not to run quintet walls in this deck, until Legion might reach the point where it's no longer safe to guard with quints.

All in all, I feel like this version performs better than the standard 8 crit/4 draw/4 heal version that doesn't run quints.

I Fail Luck for Life

Playing Lock on Victory Hard Mode.

Finally unlock set 5.

Try out MLB because why not?  Only have 1 of him, though.

Enter game against Sharlene.  Get gradelocked at 1 for two turns.

Spam Liens to fish for grade 2's, keep damage checking them.  Damaged two Blaster Darks.  This is important for later.

My deck is a weird thingy with all of my SP's, because I don't have the MLB's I want for the deck yet, so yolo.

I have two copies of Holy Disaster Dragon, which is discard a Royal Paladin, he gains 5k for the attack.  This is also important.

My opponent attacks, I block everything, using up every card but Blaster Blade.  They hit a double draw trigger.

My turn.  My field:

Blaster Blade|Soul Saver Dragon|Holy Disaster Dragon
Elaine|Wingal Brave|Lien

I drew the heal and called it (lel), because I know I'm not blocking everything again.

They have 6 cards in hand, all 5k shields.

I attack with Blaster Blade, they guard for 5k.

I attack with Soul Saver.  They guard with 3 units.  At this point, ANY drive check in the game will win the game for me other than a very particular one.  Two Blaster Darks.  I had two left in my 23 card deck.  I check both.

I attack with Holy Disaster Dragon, unable to discard a Royal Paladin for the effect, and they guard it with the remaining two cards in their hand.

Thanks for giving me that sixth damage heal into a guaranteed win for that turn.  But my Master Ball just missed.

Odds of this happening with 23 cards in deck, and two Blaster Darks in deck: 0.4%  Yay!

Ripple Rush Statitistics

Current tournament standings for Ripple Rush are as follows:

Tournament Game Winrate: 22W - 4L (84.62%)

Match Winrate: 11W - 0L (100%)

Rounds Swept (2W 0L) - 7 out of 11 (63.64%)

Tournament Standings:

1st Place - 3 Times
2nd Place - 0 Times
3rd Place - 0 Times
4th Place - 0 Times
Non-Tops - 0 Times

6-0 Wins: 3 games out of 26 (11.54%)

Turn 2 Wins (One-turn kills): 1 game out of 26 (3.85%)

I've always had a 70% winrate with it online, but I feel like it just does better without the Area shuffler giving me 3 crits in my opening hand post-mulligan.  I feel like this might be legitimately the strongest deck in Vanguard, with only a few weaknesses to lesser played decks.  I feel that if Eradicators surge in popularity next set and if they opt to forego break riding to nuke my field with Gauntlet Buster, I might be in a bit of trouble.  If they wait to break ride, then I have a stupidly high chance of killing them before they get the chance to do anything.  Turn 3 control decks (like Dark Band if people would ever use it, lawl) can counteract the deck pretty well, but nobody uses them.  This is one of the few rush decks not countered by Stern.  So far, I haven't faced anything too far outside the meta to actually pseudo-counter this deck, which is adding to its winrate significantly.  I've beaten Chaos Breaker Dragon 6 out of 6 times, because they kept riding Infinite Zero first, then either dying, or having to discard their Chaos Breaker with a null guard to stay alive, and being unable to break ride.  All-in-all, my previous testing is coinciding with my current testing.  This deck is most likely Tier 0.  If more people play it, it might even top a major event.  There is a middling amount of technical skill and a few risk vs. rewards decisions this deck can force you to make (like deciding between one Genovious drive check for a win vs. hitting 2 triggers), but for the most part, the deck is easy to play and easy to master.

Much Tourmanet, Such Win, Very Wow

I've been having a blast going to two local tournaments and spending my weekends playing card games.  It's been pretty great.  I've been getting sacked, gradelocked, and what have you, so I decided this weekend that I felt like winning.  Naturally, I play the deck I feel is the most competitive in the current meta to choose for this task: Ripple Rush.

Ripple Rush has a list on here, but for those unfamiliar with how it works, it uses the Ripple Ride chain for Pavroth's on-hit effect (if you land the chain), Sotirio's top 7 search for a grade 2/3 when you ride it on the starter, Sotirio's top 7 search for Pavroth if you ride the wrong grade 2 over him, Turtle's top card check for a grade 1 or 2 to superior call (which can be used as VG over Sotirio for a plus 1 and still hitting the chain), and passing crits to Tidal Assault for a multi-crit restanding rear guard.  That's the gist of it.

I played on Saturday with Ripple Rush.  I won two games on the first turn attacking.  One game I went Tidal -> Same Tidal -> VG attack (nulled) crit -> Tidal w/ Crit -> Tidal w/ Crit.  It was dirty.  If my VG had hit, my other Tidal would have stood at 7k power, though, and swung again.  I ended the night 6-1, and opted to get 5 packs of Gatecrash with my prizes.  Didn't pull anything spectacular, but it felt good to get some prize support.  I feel like Ripple Rush is cheesy and try-hardy, so I avoid using it.  But winning cards feels nice, so I might stop having all of these reservations about playing it.

Sunday's tournament I played Ripple Rush again.  I was determined to win since I haven't won at Midwest (lost in the final round the week before this one, somehow went from undefeated to like 7th place and got no packs).  I end up going 8-2 for the day, winning every round, and netting 6 packs of prize support or 18 bucks.  I opt to use that money for the wife and I to enter the Weiss Schwartz tournament, having never played it before.  I beat the two veterans in the 8 man tourney, and lose to the other trial deck.  Lawl.  I get 5 packs and pull one RR out of it.  So meh.  Decided on a whim to get two more packs, and I pull a 100~ dollar SP Cait Sith Silica and another copy of that RR.  I won card game forever, I guess.

Then I also traded my 4 extra Binoculus and Monoculas Tigers for a Naruto deck.  I decided that now that it's dead I'm going to get in on it.  Got an Earth/Wind Hyuga/Mind Power/Lawl1stHogakeFTW deck.  Got to play it once before my wife was beating me up to head back home since the in-laws were watching the kids.  I had a lot of fun playing the Naruto game and want to play it some more.  Looking forward to a few games of WS and Naruto in the near future.

Planning on going in on Kill la Kill for Nudist Beach.dek with purple nipples everywhere.  Hell yeah!

Kagero and Glendios - 21k On-Hit Retire Because I Can

Decklist:

Starter - World Line Dragon (Link Joker)

12 Link Joker Critical Triggers
4 Link Joker Heal Triggers

Grade 1's

4x Taboo Star-Vader, Rubidium (Link Joker)
3x Star-Vader, Ruin Magician (Link Joker)
3x Heatnail Salamander (Kagero)
2x Barrier Star-Vader, Promethium (Link Joker)

Grade 2's

4x Star-Vader, Magnet Hollow (Link Joker)
4x Star-Vader, Colony Maker (Link Joker)
1x Unrivaled Star-Vader, Radon (Link Joker)

Grade 3's

4x Star-Vader, Omega Glendios (Link Joker)
4x Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth" (Kagero)
4x Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Reverse" (Kagero)


Playtesting has been disgusting. The deck is just... overpowered. Heatnail is mostly a gag-tech. With any of my reverse units, it makes a 21k on-hit retire row to add insult to injury. Naturally, with no Cold Deaths or Infinite Zeroes, the purpose of the deck is to vanilla beat your opponent to death. 12 crits to supplement it. 6 sentinels, stupid easy 21k+ rows, extremely consistent riding, negating an entire row's attacks every turn you call a Reverse unit, and plussing like mad off of Ruin Magician. All with a lulzy on-hit retire 21k row tech choice.

It's pretty dumb. Not going to lie.

15-0 in testing so far. ~_~ Might make a video. Might let Glendios die in a corner. Haven't decided.

Legion and the State of Vanguard - My Thoughts

We've entered a new season.  We have a new mechanic.  Obligatory cries of "overpowered" and "I'm going to quit!" everywhere.  People judging the mechanic before thinking about it, trying it out, or extensively testing it, well, this is the norm for our community.

This reminds me of the release of the break ride mechanic in season 3 and the limit break mechanic in season 2 (of which the ending season 1 decks were still superior to literally all of the season 2 decks, so the community was wrong in this regard).  Each iteration had an outcry with it that made the community rise up in anger over the power creep.  Season 1 exclusive decks, barring crossride DOtE, haven't been viable in ages.  Season 2 exclusive decks couldn't hold a candle to set 12+ power creep, and struggled against sets 10 and 11.  Legion has given us a viable alternative to break riding and the Link Joker/Restander dominated meta while making a huge fix to the poor natural balance of the game.

Here's where I'm going to start off.  I am extremely happy with Legion as a mechanic.  Is it a toxic amount of power?  Sure.  They've essentially made every vanguard Amon with a second ability.  That's pretty damn strong, I'm not going to lie to you.  But it's a healthy amount of power, currently.  If these units didn't have this much power, the only units we'd even remotely care about that have been released would be Brawler, Bigbang Knuckle Dragon (Attacks all front row units for 2 counterblasts, essentially balances out Vermillion's skill with the current 1 counterblast for a +1 solidified in set 14) and Brawler, Wild Rush Dragon, who gets 10k and a crit if he checks himself or his mate.

People will argue that the Dimension Police unit negging perfect guards would be up there, but without the large base power of the Legion, it won't be strong enough to make a major impact compared to the already superior Echo of Nemesis, which can have a Doreen boost essentially making the attack unblockable.

So, the power is a necessity to give these cards weaker effects in comparison to the extremely undercosted units of the past 3 sets to make them playable.  Let's discuss the other two facets of Legion.  Returning triggers to the deck, and the grade 3 requirements for Legioning in the first place.

How much does returning triggers to the deck actually help?  Well, not that much.  Unless you legion multiple times in a match, the actual impact will be small on your trigger checking likelihood.  This is due partly from damage checked triggers being unrecoverable without healing/being Angel Feathers.  The other part of it is that you just aren't likely to have 4 triggers in the drop zone to legion.  Typically, you'll be tossing 2-3 triggers and 1-2 non-triggers back into the deck.  You're only increasing your odds to hit a trigger by roughly 3-4% on average per drive check, and 5-7% on Twin-Drive!!.  It'll make a difference over a large number of playtests, but it's not significant enough to make an impact on most games.  It's handy, but by no means the end of the world in terms of brokenness or consistency.  CEO Amaterasu's ability increases the odds of hitting a trigger on a twin-drive by 15%, for comparison.  That's twice as much.

The final thing I want to discuss is the Legioning mechanic's requirement of a grade 3 Vanguard and why I feel that this is one of the best things that's happened for the game.  I don't know if Bushiroad has noticed, but in this game going first is extremely advantageous.  Most players will inherently pick up on it, others need to be told outright.

Here's a list of advantages to going first:

No passing a 7k Vanguard + 5k starter boost with a 10k shield if you land a ride chain/ride a vanilla.

12k beaters forcing 10k unboosted from your opponent.  They also don't get negated by a single damage trigger while unboosted.  And if they're boosted, even if your opponent is grade 2, it's still 15k shield.  (I would like 12k beaters to be errata'd to require a grade 3, like they were originally, but it's too late for that).

You get the first damage, so you get to have only one check (first damage check) where a heal can't go live.  The player going second can't heal on first drive check or first damage check.  Add more to that list if they call a second rear guard or hit a critical trigger.

You get Twin-Drive!! first unless your opponent superior rides, which always cost more than simply riding to grade 3 to negate their own advantages.  This plays into the next one.

First player has the first opportunity to break ride.  The first opportunity to crossride.  The first opportunity to ride to grade 4.

You always have one more card than your opponent, save the end of their turn.  But, you immediately draw after their turn ends, and they can't utilize any of the cards in their hand as a resource, barring some extremely outlying examples.  So there isn't an instance where them overtaking you in card advantage actually has an impact until you catch right back up and have the lead until it no longer matters again.  Let's compare:

Starting out, 5-5
Go first, 6-5.
Opponent's turn, 6-6, attack, 6-7.
Your second turn, 7-7
Attack, 8-7
Their second turn, 8-8
Attack, 8-9
Your third turn, 9-9
Attack, 11-9
Their fourth turn, 11-10 (they now have the permanent card deficit)
Their attack, 11-12 (they gain it back in twin-drive, but don't get to use it at all before...)
Your fifth turn, 12-12 (you have as many cards as them before attacking that you have full, main phase access to)
Attack, 14-12 (Now you're way ahead)
Their turn, 14-13 (They're sitting a card behind that they can actually play)
They attack, 14-15 (They pass you just long enough for you to overtake them again where the situation of them having the card lead still doesn't matter because you draw before they can use any of their new cards)

As you can see, going first allows you to field more units.  You simply have more cards to play during your main phase.  It gives you ease of early guarding.  Total advantage over early healing.  You get your Twin-Drive!! a turn sooner, giving you an extra potential trigger over the opponent.  Your rear guards are harder for them to guard.  You can fend off their rear guards more easily with your higher base-power units in comparison to their lower base power units on defense.  You gain the "one-card" advantage in late game, post turn 4.  You have the raw unit power, healing, and drive checking advantages early.

The advantages to going first are simply overwhelming in comparison to the advantages of going second, which is a 2% less chance to be gradelocked, and access to cards that require an opponent to have grade 2+ units a turn earlier (Pellinore).  Yay?

Legion forces the individual who goes first to wait a full turn before Legioning.  This means player 2 has dibs on Legioning first.  While I don't think this is the do-all, end-all for rebalancing this game's poorly balanced turn system, it is definitely a start.  One that I look forward to.

A Good Day for Cardgames

I don't usually blog about tournament results.  I definitely don't blog about non-Vanguard related things.  Today I'm going to do something a little different.  Today I just had a great day all around with the three card games I do play and I even got talked into a little Yu-Gi-Oh! cubing with a bunch of old cards, which got me excited about playing without all the new cheese.

To start off, we'll talk about Buddyfight.  A guy who had pulled an SP Asmodai said he wasn't interested in the game anymore.  That made me sad, but then he offered to give me all of his card if I bought him 5 packs of Weiss.  I got 10 bucks off the packs for hitting 100 bucks spent in the store again, so I got an SP Asmodai and some other cards for 10 bucks.  Bitchin'!

The actual Vanguard tournament for the day was great.  Since I have all of the set 12 cards I need, I got a pack of Buddyfight for joining.  Pulled a King the Dominator.  Not so great.  Turns out that the pack of set 12 I could have gotten had a Promethium in it, which would have made excellent trade fodder.  :(  Still, the tournament begins.  We only had 8 people today, but them's good numbers.

Round 1 - Amon "Reverse" vs. Amon "Reverse"

First game I win by getting 2 Doreens out early and power slapping him.  I hit no critical triggers the whole game, but we both healed twice.  I win with a 28k Amon "R" bonus crit attack that he couldn't guard.

Second game I have no grade 3, but 3 Doreens.  I miss grade 3 for one turn, but push him straight to 5 without hitting a crit.  Drive check an Amon.  He attacks my frontrow Doreen.  I go, ride Amon, move a Dimension Creeper to soul to retire one of his units, move Greedy Hand to soul to get another Dimension Creeper from my deck, soul blast both creepers to soul charge 4 more times, making both of my Doreens 27k boosts.  I win that turn.

Results - 2-0


Round 2 - Amon "Reverse" vs. Dauntless/DOtE

First game I win without hitting any critical triggers the whole game until he has to no guard at 5 damage and I double crit him with regular Amon.

Second game I lose because I got gradelocked for two turns.  Could have won if I hit triggers, but I'm me.

Third game he heals 4 times and I only hit one offensive critical trigger.  Win with a 2 crit Amon "Reverse" swing that he can't guard after his heals had all been removed from his deck.  Only took 3 damage that game.  Amon and Gwynn make for good control, and he couldn't break through my crossridden defense without boosters.

Results - 2-1


Round 3 - Amon "Reverse" vs. Catapult/Dragger

First game he gets gradelocked and I win.

Second game I get gradelocked (and double check grade 3's later on in the game when 5k shield would have saved me or hitting a trigger would have won it since he one-to-passed my 2 crit Amon "Reverse").

Third game he runs out of null guards as I swing in with a 31k Amon "Reverse" with 2 crit.  He's at five damage and has to no guard.  Crit.  Crit.  Facemelt Extravaganza!

Results - 2-1

Total results:  6-2

Before we got around to playing Vanguard, though, I was playing Magic.  I run a Blue White enchantment deck styled off of the deck in Magic 2013.  The first game I won, but the second game was the cleanest victory I've ever had.

Turn 1 -  Play a land.
Turn 2 - Play Kor Spiritdancer, which is a 0/2.  He is unable to kill it.
Turn 3 - Play two Etheral Armors, Kor gets +4/4 for each enchantment on her (1/1 for each enchantment, 2/2 from her own ability), so she's an 8/10.  Kor's second effect triggers, and I draw once for each enchantment I played, so two draws.  Swing for 8, they take it.
Their turn 4 - They play a creature to block Kor next turn.
Turn 4 - I play an enchantment that gives Kor flying, I draw a card.  Their card was neither flying nor did it have reach.  Kor gained +4/+4, making her 12/14.  I attack for 12 and win.

Legitney Houston.

After Vanguard we had a 5 man EDH game that lasted 108 minutes.  Yep.  I killed all 3 of the other competitors except for one person who got the finishing blow on the guy after I did all of the work.  But I wound up losing because every single person that I killed gave me a final, "Fuck you!"

Player 1 milled half of my deck.
Player 2 dealt enough combat damage to me that I had to block with a creature for another attack which would have won me the game.
Player 3 scooped before my attack killed them so I couldn't untap with my Derevi.

I ended up drawing the last card of my deck when Player 4 had 4 life and a 2/2 flyer.  I had a 3/3 unblockable and Derevi out.  The card I drew was "Target creature gains (Tap), return target creature to their owner's hand.  I literally could not win that turn, and my opponent would auto-win from me running out of cards.  If I had my other card untapped the previous turn, I could have won.  If I didn't get half my deck milled, I'd still have cards.  If I had that one card I had to block with and sack, I would have had enough damage to kill him.  So I cycled my land to draw a card and took my loss into my own hands.

Mind you, the player that won made no moves the last 7 turns other than calling his commander.  For 18 mana.  Yeah.  He literally only won without doing anything because everyone else gave me a final fuck you on my way out.  I'm not complaining, though.  That game was really fun.

Finally, after EDH, a friend of mine (Player 3) got out a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and wanted to play cube.  Since there was no extra deck, and most of the new shenanigans that cards can do nowadays were gone, it was really nostalgic.  I got to draft some of my favorite old cards like Fissure, Slate Warrior, Guardian Sphinx, and Copycat.  It felt pretty good.  I wound up winning 5 out of 6 games, since he drafted a good 4 double sacrifice creatures while I got some pretty damn good pick-ups.  I also love that I won a game because of Twister.  But my favorite game was the game I lost.

He played Ancient Gear Golem when I had nothing but battlephase-only trap cards.  So I literally couldn't do anything to stop it.  But better than that was that we both said, at the exact same time the card hit the field, "My love for you is like an Ancient Gear Golem."  Fuck yeah, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Abridged!

Vanilla Ice - A new way to Kageroyals

Ladies and gents, we have a new Kageroyals boss.  The most broken boss that's ever been introduced to the Kageroyals playstyle, Star-Vader, Freeze Ray Dragon.

This card's effect:

Star-vader, Freeze Ray Dragon

Grade 3/Link Joker - Cyber Dragon/10000 Power/No Shield

Auto (Vanguard) [LB4]: When an opponent's rear-guard is locked by your effects from cards, this unit gains + 3000 Power until end of turn.

Auto (Vanguard): When you place one card into your Damage Zone, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and lock it.

What this lacks that other Kageroyals Vanguards have: 

+3k when attacking Vanguard

16 criticals and many vanillas in its clan to monoclan the deck with perfect guards

What it brings into the table:

Insanely nonsensical amounts of defense


We can, as of now, fit this unit into the Kagero skeleton.

Kageroyals mixed skeleton deck (post-set 11)

Starter - Lizard Solider Conroe (Or whatever starter you deem fit, like Workerpod. Or Alk.)

16 Kagero Critical Triggers

4 Bahr
9 8k's from other clans

4 Nehalem
4 Cross-shot Garp
4 Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon

4 Graphite Cannon Dragon
4 Boss of your choice (Like Heartless, Tyrant Deathrex, CEO Amaterasu, etc.)

This unit, while lesser in offense to units like Diarmuid and Waterfall, is extremely strong on defense.  Due to how the Kageroyals style of gameplay works (guard early with high base-power units to shut down early damage and triggers), this unit is typically fielded when you have one or less damage.  This allows you to no-guard Vanguard attacks coming at your Vanguard, and locking whichever row got the triggers passed to it, then guarding the final attack for 10k.  If they apply critical on their Vanguard, they lose both side row attacks.  If they attack your rear guards, literally every non-grade 0 unit is a viable front row replacement, and can make 16k with any grade 1 boost.  Then you can guard the Vanguard's attack so that they waste their triggers anyway, and enjoy your 4 damage lead.

No matter how you look at it, this card makes this style of gameplay extremely powerful.  Like Waterfall and Diarmuid, we have no counterblast reliance.  Like Diarmuid, if you choose to, you can bring in his 12k Archetype beater to make 20k rows.  You can also bring in a few of the self-damagers from Link Joker if you prefer, but this comes with less overall defense and some inconsistencies in making magic numbers.

10/10, would bang.

Dungatama

Starter - DanDan (lets you bind an extra card with your Dungarees)

Grade 0

12/16 crits, 0-4 Heals

Grade 1
4x Stealth Dragon, Dreadmaster
4x Wyvern Guard, Guld
2x Red River Dragoon
2x Photon Bomber Wyvern
2x Rising Phoenix

Grade 2
4x Lightning Axe Wielding Exorcist Knight
4x Stealth Beast Chigasumi
3x Hex Cannon Wyvern

Grade 3
4x Stealth Dragon, Voidmaster
4x Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree

The idea is to abuse single counterblasts to force out a card from your opponent. You swing with a Void/Dread row first into a rear guard. If they don't guard it, they lose 3 cards. If they do guard it, they lose 10k shield. They already lost one of their units from Dungaree. Dungaree is 21k with a large amount of criticals backing his drive checks, forcing your opponent to have to guard him for a null guard or 20k shield. After losing an interceptor and having to guard two attacks (or losing more cards/dying) you swing in with all of your triggers passed to the final row for a final attack requiring even more cards to guard.

Blau Butler - When Cats Ride Robots!

Grade 0's

Starter - Morgenrot

4x Cat Butler
16x Nova Grappler Critical Triggers

Grade 1's

4x Tough Boy
4x Flower Lei Leprechaun
4x Blau Dunkelheir
4x Blaupanzer

Grade 2's

4x Blaukluger
4x Grosse Baer
3x Mars Blaukluger
2x Jupiter Blaukluger

The objective of this deck is to use Morgenrot to function as a selective "Twin-Drive!!" check early game so that we don't lose out on cards while using Blaukluger, Mars, and Flower Lei to pressure the opponent greatly on the first few turns swinging.  When the opponent reaches 4-5 damage, you should be able to field one or more Cat Butlers.  Every time you swing in with Blaukluger, they will have to guard the attack or risk getting crit.  Grosse Baer is very important, as it's the only unit capable of making a 16k+ row with Morgenrot and Cat Butler.  Otherwise, it's more preferable to make 16k rows in all three rows as early as possible.  Don't be afraid to call triggers if you've been over saturated with them or to call a grade 1 over Morgenrot to force more shield out when the opponent is at 4 or more damage.  Jupiter Blaukluger is the preferred back-up ride.