As I asked for 18 ANGERY emotes on Facebook to confirm my place as Clam Liter, and ended up getting 96 ANGERY emotes, I have decided to release my updated Clore Elmimantle dacklost.
Starter - Shining Knight, Millius
8x 5k Royal Paladin Crits
4x Thunder Elemental, Goloro (Critical)
4x Royal Paladin Heal Triggers
4x Light Elemental, Sunny
4x Air Elemental, Fwarlun
3x Light Elemental, Peaker
3x Laurel Knight, Siciilus
4x Knight of Twin Sword
4x Transmigration Knight, Brede
2x Escort Eagle
1x Earth Elemental, Pokkur
4x Knight of Mastery, Glenus
4x Gigantech Charger
GZone
4x Rain Element, Madew
3x Blazing Sword, Fides
2x Aerial Divine Knight, Altmile
1x Divine Knight of Flashing Flame, Samuel
1x Air Element, Sebreeze
1x Snow Element, Blizza
2x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Light Element, Agleam
1x Metal Element, Scryew
The first observation you will probably make is, "Oh hey, this looks pretty much the same other than filling out the GZo- WHERE DID STARDRIVE GO?! YOU TRAITOR!"
Hear me out, bro. Fides can only search for grade 2's and those grade 2's need the "Brave" keyword. Fides draws a card, retires a unit, gets a grade 2 out of my deck, AND gives me 10k power to distribute to my board. It's an INSANE card and the only reason it isn't played at 4 of in a bunch of decks is because those decks can't afford to run "Brave" units. The unit that has replaced Stardrive Dragon is Knight of Mastery, Glenus. Glenus, being a 10k power Royal Paladin unit means that it, of course, does everything Stardrive did in the deck, including being able to proc Madew. Additionally, Glenus' skill is, "Brave: Cont: This unit gets grade -1 while in the deck." This means we can grab him directly out of the deck with Fides (who can only grab grade 2's), and the check for his Brave keyword is done after the discard for Fides and after the cost for stride has been paid. So, if your hand was 5 or less cards at the start of your turn, Fides into Glenus can definitely be a good move.
Now, you may be thinking, "Tim, how necessary even is that? You're running Escort Eagles in your deck already." Brede is mandatory at 4 of (switchable and interchangeable with Knight of Fragment who is 11k when attacking vanguards and rear guards vs. 12k vs. Vanguards only. I'm running 2/2 at the moment, but I think Brede is better, which I'll cover shortly). Knight of Twin Sword is our only multi-attack enabling unit in our deck (and he can grab Glenus too, if done before my Vanguard attacks or if I have 0 cards in hand at the start of the battle phase), so he's a 4-of. We only have 3 spaces, and Pokkur is just amazing in a deck with 10 Cray strides and with the ability to grab 2's on-demand. So Escort Eagle is down to being a 2-of. If I draw EITHER of them pre-Fides plays, I can't proc the draw for Fides. This is why we play Glenus. That and he makes 21k with any non-sentinel grade 1 booster in my deck, which is icing on the cake.
Now that that's out of the way, let's discuss updates. We added in the Cray Elemental critical trigger, Goloro. Goloro's guard restriction ability (you can only call this card as a Guardian if you have another Guardian on the circle) is actually pretty bad, but it can be pitched with Fides, Agleam, Scryew, or used for its useful ability, to count as a grade 2 when pitched for stride. In this deck, we can easily convert our strides into hard advantage generation. Even just ditching Goloro and another card to stride into Madew will take our previously +2 turn and convert it into a +1 turn. Whether or not this is mandatory isn't super important to me, I am playing it for the Cray Craze. The vast majority of the time, you will not be impacted by its negative or positive effects. It does have a 4k body, however, and that is why we made the next change.
Knight of Fragment and Transmigration Knight, Brede are our Brede and butter cards to call off of Knight of Twin Sword. (NYEH HEH HEH) With Goloro being a potential call from Gigantech Charger, Brede makes numbers with EVERYTHING where Knight of Fragment has this weakness with only being 15k with Goloro (and requiring another 2 out, which cards like Heteroround, Denial Griffin, having a locked front row, and getting Fragment called off of Charger can make difficult). While you can easily build around this in most cases, I've found that the only advantage that Fragment gives over Brede is the ability to hit 10k+ rear guards unboosted, since the counter-charge is typically useless and the soul charge is almost detrimental.
Escort Eagle made its way into the list due to being a Brave and a Resist unit that is grade 2. It gets Fides synergy, and helps handle a big weakness the deck has in its Link Joker match-up. The extra shield is just icing on the cake.
Now, for the GZone, we have 8 new spots to fill. Of course, Cray Elemental GGuardians are entering four of these spots. Reason 1, they are all relatively powerful Guardians due to having some nice secondary effects. Reason 2, pretty much all of the Royal Paladin GGuards have been roasted garbage on a stick. Reason 3, they give Fwarlun power and enable Pokkur plays without having to stride into Madew and waiting a turn. For our remaining spots, we have made the following changes.
-1 Atmos
-1 Gablade
+2 Aerial Divine Knight Altmile
+3 Fides
+1 Sebreeze
Atmos was in the deck as the designated flip target for Blizza. We no longer need that, since Sebreeze took its place. Gablade was never really good, but it didn't require a flip and I had one space open previously. I actually did switch both Atmos and Gablade out for Aerial Altmile before the 16 card GZone happened, but not much else has been changed from the base list. We added in Sebreeze because it is a Cray Elemental (procs Fwarlun and Pokkur) and the deck is very Generation Break heavy. We also have a large amount of counterblasts available to expend where a Samuel or Sebreeze doesn't kill our resources all that badly anyway. I feel like Fides was already covered, but I'll just recap. You can flip Sebreeze with it for more effects with your Cray Elementals, and it's discard a card to make big numbers, draw a card, retire a unit, and call a unit. Like, it does so much for such a tiny cost.
That covers the major changes. I hope you don't rage on me too hard for dropping Stardrive. On that note, the original reason I played Stardrive was due to their being NO suitable 10k Royal Paladin unit that made a meaningful difference. Palamedes was the best one initially. I'm not counterblasting 2 to call a grade 1. I didn't have enough spots in my GZone to play Regalie, so I couldn't risk having a dead, vanilla stride when I missed my Sanc Guard. There was no room to put in Jewel Knight archetype support, and Swordmy would be useless without JK grade 1's, even if I could use him with Charger. I could have run the 10k Vanilla legion, but I don't think the 10k grade 2 was worth running at the time. The long and short was that there wasn't much that was really useful to run, and anything that may have been useful would compromise my GZone.
That's it for now. Clyde Ornamental Cornpattytav Clumb Looper, signing out.
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Monday, November 7, 2016
Diet Cancer - All of the taste, none of the calories. A non-Wiseman Fenrir Build.
To preface this, I believe that Wiseman Loop (Thanks Science of Vanguard for the video explanation!) is currently the superior build for Genesis at the moment. The only major stipulation to that is that Angelic Wiseman's Loop has three hard counters that stop their OTK turn.
The first has been around for a while. Denial Griffin. This retires Wiseman on his first swing, preventing him from restanding multiple times.
The second has just been released for, what is arguably the most played deck in the format, Chronojet Gear Chronicles. Heteroround Dragon places the powered up Wiseman into the deck, which is then shuffled and the Genesis player calls the top card of their deck, which is likely to be a 4k Stand Trigger or 7k grade 1. Even if they sack into the Wiseman that was placed back into the deck, they still have to deal with it only being a 14k swing. They could also potentially Heteroround a second time. A single defensive trigger will shut it down, so they would have to swing with their Vanguard after putting multiple stands into their deck for the power, but that drastically cuts down on the loop's ability to restand Wiseman. While this doesn't prevent lethal 100% of the time, it still disrupts the loop greatly.
The third is Freezeray Dragon. It can stop the loop if the Link Joker player is at 4 or less damage, since the loop variant has few outs to give Wiseman a bonus critical, since that is almost never necessary.
Due to the Wiseman Loop typically occurring on the third stride turn after two Tyr strides, It's extremely likely that a Kagero or Gear Chronicle player will have gotten one or more heal triggers in their hand, and then held on to them understanding the match-up. Additionally, they never need to guard the Vanguard due to extremely low critical quantities (2 or 4) and no on-hit abilities, giving them an unfavorable match-up to Freezeray. Damage is very easily kept low early-to-mid game due to Genesis having no real rush, restanding, or superior calling mechanics that the Loop is willing to utilize, due to needing those counterblasts for higher power on the push-turn.
Since my locals has many Gear Chronicle and Kagero players, and our Link Joker players typically run Freezeray, I felt like it was a bad meta call to play the Wiseman Loop variant of Genesis, and opted instead for a more balanced version of the deck. Here's the list.
Grade 0's
Starter - Fetter Creator, Van
4x Goddess of Sound Sleep, Tahro (Stand)
2x Dreaming Dragon (Stand)
4x Stake Fetter, Thviti (Critical)
2x Battle Maiden, Kukurihime (Critical)
4x Goddess of Youth, Hebe (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Mythic Beast, Skoll
4x Shackle Fetter, Gelgja
4x Goddess of Decline, Hel
2x Mythic Beast, Hati
Grade 2's
4x Boulder Fetter, Gjoll
4x Battle Maiden, Kotonoha
2x Earth Elemental, Pokkur
1x Mythic Snake, Jormungand
Grade 3's
4x Mythic Beast, Fenrir
4x Ice Crest Goddess, Svava
GZone
4x Mythical Destroyer Beast, Vanargandr
2x Beast-Slayer Military Deity, Tyr
2x Mythical Hellsky Beast, Fenrir
2x Great Angel, Doom Brace
1x Air Element, Sebreeze
1x Snow Element, Blizza
3x Goddess of Seven Colors, Iris
1x Sky-dome Battle Maiden, Hanasatsuki
The first major question would be, "What does this list provide over the standard Wiseman Loop variant?" Well, it provides a few nice things, actually. It gives extra critical pressure on your Vanguard swing, gives you access to the Revelation mechanic for units you want to field (giving you more trigger scrying and potential soul set-up), and it also gives you access to counterblasts at all stages of the game so you can make plays on a case-by-case basis instead of going "all-in" for a single turn. Additionally, the deck doesn't automatically lose when you miss the Fenrir ride, even though both decks would gladly ride Fenrir at a minus to have him as Vanguard.
A few cute things the deck can do:
The first has been around for a while. Denial Griffin. This retires Wiseman on his first swing, preventing him from restanding multiple times.
The second has just been released for, what is arguably the most played deck in the format, Chronojet Gear Chronicles. Heteroround Dragon places the powered up Wiseman into the deck, which is then shuffled and the Genesis player calls the top card of their deck, which is likely to be a 4k Stand Trigger or 7k grade 1. Even if they sack into the Wiseman that was placed back into the deck, they still have to deal with it only being a 14k swing. They could also potentially Heteroround a second time. A single defensive trigger will shut it down, so they would have to swing with their Vanguard after putting multiple stands into their deck for the power, but that drastically cuts down on the loop's ability to restand Wiseman. While this doesn't prevent lethal 100% of the time, it still disrupts the loop greatly.
The third is Freezeray Dragon. It can stop the loop if the Link Joker player is at 4 or less damage, since the loop variant has few outs to give Wiseman a bonus critical, since that is almost never necessary.
Due to the Wiseman Loop typically occurring on the third stride turn after two Tyr strides, It's extremely likely that a Kagero or Gear Chronicle player will have gotten one or more heal triggers in their hand, and then held on to them understanding the match-up. Additionally, they never need to guard the Vanguard due to extremely low critical quantities (2 or 4) and no on-hit abilities, giving them an unfavorable match-up to Freezeray. Damage is very easily kept low early-to-mid game due to Genesis having no real rush, restanding, or superior calling mechanics that the Loop is willing to utilize, due to needing those counterblasts for higher power on the push-turn.
Since my locals has many Gear Chronicle and Kagero players, and our Link Joker players typically run Freezeray, I felt like it was a bad meta call to play the Wiseman Loop variant of Genesis, and opted instead for a more balanced version of the deck. Here's the list.
Grade 0's
Starter - Fetter Creator, Van
4x Goddess of Sound Sleep, Tahro (Stand)
2x Dreaming Dragon (Stand)
4x Stake Fetter, Thviti (Critical)
2x Battle Maiden, Kukurihime (Critical)
4x Goddess of Youth, Hebe (Heal)
Grade 1's
4x Mythic Beast, Skoll
4x Shackle Fetter, Gelgja
4x Goddess of Decline, Hel
2x Mythic Beast, Hati
Grade 2's
4x Boulder Fetter, Gjoll
4x Battle Maiden, Kotonoha
2x Earth Elemental, Pokkur
1x Mythic Snake, Jormungand
Grade 3's
4x Mythic Beast, Fenrir
4x Ice Crest Goddess, Svava
GZone
4x Mythical Destroyer Beast, Vanargandr
2x Beast-Slayer Military Deity, Tyr
2x Mythical Hellsky Beast, Fenrir
2x Great Angel, Doom Brace
1x Air Element, Sebreeze
1x Snow Element, Blizza
3x Goddess of Seven Colors, Iris
1x Sky-dome Battle Maiden, Hanasatsuki
The first major question would be, "What does this list provide over the standard Wiseman Loop variant?" Well, it provides a few nice things, actually. It gives extra critical pressure on your Vanguard swing, gives you access to the Revelation mechanic for units you want to field (giving you more trigger scrying and potential soul set-up), and it also gives you access to counterblasts at all stages of the game so you can make plays on a case-by-case basis instead of going "all-in" for a single turn. Additionally, the deck doesn't automatically lose when you miss the Fenrir ride, even though both decks would gladly ride Fenrir at a minus to have him as Vanguard.
A few cute things the deck can do:
- A combination of the stand trigger, Svava, and Vanargandr can make for a nice 21k+ multi-attacking RG row if you have excess stands in soul. This can be boosted higher with Gelgia.
- A combination of Gjoll (called that turn) and a critical trigger can create an 18k restanding rear-guard. I use Gjoll instead of Wiseman for my multi-attack gambit, trying to use the twin-Revelation checks from Hellsky Fenrir to set up a double trigger for Gjoll. Additionally, Gjoll can also get bonus power from Gelgia, much like Wiseman can. I typically have at least one game in a set where I have a 41k+ 2 crit restanding Gjoll. This can play around Freezeray to an extent.
- I've used Revelation on Vanargandr turns using Gelgia to restand and was able to filter down 7 cards to hit a double trigger on a Gjoll turn.
- Fenrir can call Gjolls that you've intercepted with by placing them back into soul with Iris for a prolonged gambit.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Chicago Regionals 2016 Tourament Report (Vanguard)
So, interesting things happened this weekend at Chicago. I simultaneously went negative at a Buddyfight tournament for the first time ever and did the best I've ever done at any Vanguard event.
The night started with me, Daniel, Zack, and Mike road tripping to Chicago. We met up with Tommy and Steve at the hotel and had a good old time making fun of Aldnoah.Zero, which we were watching for some reason. I wanted to be in the lobby representing my Buddyfight Gym (The Dank Meme Gym) so that I could take on challengers for the Dank Meme Badge, but they closed the lobby at midnight. I really hope they change the venue next year, as this was the only location we've had that wouldn't let us play card games in the lobby. Austin Somers was the only player able to defeat me on Friday for a badge.
Saturday rolls around. I really didn't care what I was playing or what I was doing. I expected maybe a round 5 finish or something and then I was planning on doing more badge fights. Saturday had a lot more in store for me than I had bargained for. I asked the Vanguard Complaint Group Chat what I should play for the day. I got more votes for Seven Seas Rush than my other two options, Giraffa and Madew, so I went with that.
Here is a link to the decklist I ran.
It took barely any time to get my list done. We had over 350 people show up at the venue for Vanguard. After a delay, round 1 finally started.
Round 1 - W vs. Gold Paladin (Gurguit)
This match was a bit of a wash. I was able to secure my set-up, but I hit no triggers offensively or defensively the entire game, barring a single offensive stand when my entire field was already standing because I used Slash Shade. He no guards my Vanguard at 4 twice and lives both times. I end up not getting enough shield and have to no guard his Vanguard at 4 one time. Neither of us hit the crits we needed to seal it, so I end up killing him with a 5 attack turn.
Round 2 - W vs. Bermuda Triangle (Prisms)
This match was terrifying. They had out two Celtics for on-hit bounce and draws, and I didn't have the ability to guard one earlier, giving them more defense against the rush when they bounced their starter to hand. I had to face a 2 crit Labrador for two swings. I had to one-to-pass the final swing. I end up winning only because he tried to break the two-to-pass the turn prior, so I had enough shield to survive the following turn. I didn't hit any offensive or defensive triggers this game, and only narrowly won due to some luck and getting my set-up.
Round 3 - W vs. Bermuda Triangle (Prisms)
My opponent never rode to grade 3. Their game plan was to stay on Celtic the entire game. My game plan was to get gradelocked on 0. I opened one of each trigger and Nightrunner. I knew that I could ride Nightrunner if I had to, and that I could ride over it later for no net loss in cards, so I wasn't super worried about it. I G-Assist just to see if I can get Raistutor, and he was my 5th card. I was able to recover my field completely because this deck is bullshit, and I swung in as if I never negged in the first place. I kept Celtic at bay, guarding it every time it swung. I won the game hitting a crit trigger through either a one-to-pass or a no-guard on 4. Don't remember exactly which. It was my first crit so far in the tournament and it made me pretty happy that I actually hit a trigger.
Round 4 - W vs. Oracle Think Tank (Susanoo/Tsukuyomi)
This round was sad. I had to fight my buddy Mike. To put things in a very simple fashion, he missed every Tsukuyomi check, had to ride Susanoo against a grade 1 rush deck, and I sacked the ever loving shit out of him. I ended up killing him by superior riding to Plegeton, making a large Nightspinel row, and hitting a crit to secure game.
Round 5 - W vs. Dimension Police (D-Robos)
I don't remember a lot about this match. I remember he swung into rear guards, then I pooped them back out. He kept trying to disadvantage the rush that can't be disadvantaged. I destroyed him.
Round 6 - L vs. Royal Paladin (Sanc Blaster)
So, I kind of knew I'd lose to Kevin Cho. I didn't get a single grade 2 in hand or in drop. I wanted to ride to 2 against him because Sanc Blaster doesn't use GBreak, really, Sebreeze would eat all of the counterblasts from Flogal, and 12k Blaster Blades are terrifying for 7k base Vanguards. But, since I couldn't secure a bigger butt, he ended up killing me on a Blaster Blade/Flogal turn. RIP.
Round 7 - W vs. Gear Chronicle (Chonojet)
This opponent seemed to mulligan heavily for getting a counter-rush to my rush. I guess the 7Cs sleeves gave it away. Lol. But, uhh. He rode Gigi. And stayed on Gigi. Staying on a 5k butt meant that even two damage triggers weren't enough to stop my swings. I demolished the poor guy. I have no idea whether he turbo-bricked, thought the counter-rush would help, or if he just wanted to have a full board like me because he thought it was cool.
Interestingly, I moved from table 4 to the very last table for round 7. I thought that would kill my tiebreakers and I wouldn't make top cut. I kind of didn't care one way or the other, since I don't think a BO1 Vanguard tournament can even pretend to be competitive. Especially since I won about half of my rounds by praying that my opponent wouldn't crit me and succeeding. Regardless, they ended up announcing top 8. I heard 8th place get called. I heard 7th place get called. I was thinking, "Welp, I probably got 9th, since Austin had better tiebreakers than me." Then I hear, "6th place, Timothy Emerson." Oh shit. I guess I did it. Then 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd get called. Austin's name isn't called. Even though he was undefeated until the final round. That's kind of bullshit. Austin got 9th. RIP Austin.
After deck check, I go to top 8. Amazingly, there were many people who brought grade 1 rush to the tournament. Far more than I ever imagined would. And a whopping 3 of us made it to the top 8, all with the same list. One person said they mirrored my list from my blog post. I can't take credit for the deck, though, since it topped over a half-dozen times before I did with it. Still, it's nice to see that my topping cannot be called a fluke since so many people went so far with the deck in so many tournaments in so many different countries. The other two Seven Seas Rush players lost their first match in the top 8.
Quarter-Finals - W vs. Kagero (Overlord)
He was playing Greats and Legends, to my knowledge. I don't remember super well the exact plays and triggers, but I'm pretty sure I won 2-1. His deck was locked out of generation break. He was able to make some decent retirement plays that would have crippled normal rush decks, but this deck just didn't care. I wind up taking the series.
Semi-Finals - L vs. Royal Paladin (Sanc Blaster)
Kevin Cho ended up being my only losses all day. Game 1 he hit defensive crit, heal (goes off), draw. I lost for obvious reasons. Game 2 I am putting on solid pressure. Since he ran draws for some weird reason and I didn't have the shield to stop him if he double crit me anyway, I no-guard his swing at 3 damage. Crit, crit. That's Vanguard, all right. RIP
Consolation-Finals - W vs. Gold Paladin (Gurguit/Ezel)
Game 1 I was struggling to get the game won. He ends up only being able to 1-to-pass my Vanguard at 5. I hit a stand trigger and push him to 6. He heals out of lethal and takes the game after that. Game 2 I have him on the ropes early from getting a 4 damage turn in my first turn swinging. He never had the ability to get 5 RGs for Ezel Scissors to get his critical. I end up winning that match. The last game was pretty close. He rode Gurguit. I ended up getting him to 5 and having him in a situation where I could kill him through a 6th damage heal by doing a cool loop with multiple Ghosties and multiple Nightcrows. I used that loop to make Nightspinel 26k, which secured the anti-heal for me.
All-in-all, I ended up getting 3rd place. This has firmly solidified my opinion that the less I care and the less I try, the better my tournament results will be, based on my tournament history. I am not sold if I'm going to California for the event. If I did, I am not sold I'd want to play Granblue Rush when I could play a meme deck. We'll see how that goes.
The night started with me, Daniel, Zack, and Mike road tripping to Chicago. We met up with Tommy and Steve at the hotel and had a good old time making fun of Aldnoah.Zero, which we were watching for some reason. I wanted to be in the lobby representing my Buddyfight Gym (The Dank Meme Gym) so that I could take on challengers for the Dank Meme Badge, but they closed the lobby at midnight. I really hope they change the venue next year, as this was the only location we've had that wouldn't let us play card games in the lobby. Austin Somers was the only player able to defeat me on Friday for a badge.
Saturday rolls around. I really didn't care what I was playing or what I was doing. I expected maybe a round 5 finish or something and then I was planning on doing more badge fights. Saturday had a lot more in store for me than I had bargained for. I asked the Vanguard Complaint Group Chat what I should play for the day. I got more votes for Seven Seas Rush than my other two options, Giraffa and Madew, so I went with that.
Here is a link to the decklist I ran.
It took barely any time to get my list done. We had over 350 people show up at the venue for Vanguard. After a delay, round 1 finally started.
Round 1 - W vs. Gold Paladin (Gurguit)
This match was a bit of a wash. I was able to secure my set-up, but I hit no triggers offensively or defensively the entire game, barring a single offensive stand when my entire field was already standing because I used Slash Shade. He no guards my Vanguard at 4 twice and lives both times. I end up not getting enough shield and have to no guard his Vanguard at 4 one time. Neither of us hit the crits we needed to seal it, so I end up killing him with a 5 attack turn.
Round 2 - W vs. Bermuda Triangle (Prisms)
This match was terrifying. They had out two Celtics for on-hit bounce and draws, and I didn't have the ability to guard one earlier, giving them more defense against the rush when they bounced their starter to hand. I had to face a 2 crit Labrador for two swings. I had to one-to-pass the final swing. I end up winning only because he tried to break the two-to-pass the turn prior, so I had enough shield to survive the following turn. I didn't hit any offensive or defensive triggers this game, and only narrowly won due to some luck and getting my set-up.
Round 3 - W vs. Bermuda Triangle (Prisms)
My opponent never rode to grade 3. Their game plan was to stay on Celtic the entire game. My game plan was to get gradelocked on 0. I opened one of each trigger and Nightrunner. I knew that I could ride Nightrunner if I had to, and that I could ride over it later for no net loss in cards, so I wasn't super worried about it. I G-Assist just to see if I can get Raistutor, and he was my 5th card. I was able to recover my field completely because this deck is bullshit, and I swung in as if I never negged in the first place. I kept Celtic at bay, guarding it every time it swung. I won the game hitting a crit trigger through either a one-to-pass or a no-guard on 4. Don't remember exactly which. It was my first crit so far in the tournament and it made me pretty happy that I actually hit a trigger.
Round 4 - W vs. Oracle Think Tank (Susanoo/Tsukuyomi)
This round was sad. I had to fight my buddy Mike. To put things in a very simple fashion, he missed every Tsukuyomi check, had to ride Susanoo against a grade 1 rush deck, and I sacked the ever loving shit out of him. I ended up killing him by superior riding to Plegeton, making a large Nightspinel row, and hitting a crit to secure game.
Round 5 - W vs. Dimension Police (D-Robos)
I don't remember a lot about this match. I remember he swung into rear guards, then I pooped them back out. He kept trying to disadvantage the rush that can't be disadvantaged. I destroyed him.
Round 6 - L vs. Royal Paladin (Sanc Blaster)
So, I kind of knew I'd lose to Kevin Cho. I didn't get a single grade 2 in hand or in drop. I wanted to ride to 2 against him because Sanc Blaster doesn't use GBreak, really, Sebreeze would eat all of the counterblasts from Flogal, and 12k Blaster Blades are terrifying for 7k base Vanguards. But, since I couldn't secure a bigger butt, he ended up killing me on a Blaster Blade/Flogal turn. RIP.
Round 7 - W vs. Gear Chronicle (Chonojet)
This opponent seemed to mulligan heavily for getting a counter-rush to my rush. I guess the 7Cs sleeves gave it away. Lol. But, uhh. He rode Gigi. And stayed on Gigi. Staying on a 5k butt meant that even two damage triggers weren't enough to stop my swings. I demolished the poor guy. I have no idea whether he turbo-bricked, thought the counter-rush would help, or if he just wanted to have a full board like me because he thought it was cool.
Interestingly, I moved from table 4 to the very last table for round 7. I thought that would kill my tiebreakers and I wouldn't make top cut. I kind of didn't care one way or the other, since I don't think a BO1 Vanguard tournament can even pretend to be competitive. Especially since I won about half of my rounds by praying that my opponent wouldn't crit me and succeeding. Regardless, they ended up announcing top 8. I heard 8th place get called. I heard 7th place get called. I was thinking, "Welp, I probably got 9th, since Austin had better tiebreakers than me." Then I hear, "6th place, Timothy Emerson." Oh shit. I guess I did it. Then 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd get called. Austin's name isn't called. Even though he was undefeated until the final round. That's kind of bullshit. Austin got 9th. RIP Austin.
After deck check, I go to top 8. Amazingly, there were many people who brought grade 1 rush to the tournament. Far more than I ever imagined would. And a whopping 3 of us made it to the top 8, all with the same list. One person said they mirrored my list from my blog post. I can't take credit for the deck, though, since it topped over a half-dozen times before I did with it. Still, it's nice to see that my topping cannot be called a fluke since so many people went so far with the deck in so many tournaments in so many different countries. The other two Seven Seas Rush players lost their first match in the top 8.
Quarter-Finals - W vs. Kagero (Overlord)
He was playing Greats and Legends, to my knowledge. I don't remember super well the exact plays and triggers, but I'm pretty sure I won 2-1. His deck was locked out of generation break. He was able to make some decent retirement plays that would have crippled normal rush decks, but this deck just didn't care. I wind up taking the series.
Semi-Finals - L vs. Royal Paladin (Sanc Blaster)
Kevin Cho ended up being my only losses all day. Game 1 he hit defensive crit, heal (goes off), draw. I lost for obvious reasons. Game 2 I am putting on solid pressure. Since he ran draws for some weird reason and I didn't have the shield to stop him if he double crit me anyway, I no-guard his swing at 3 damage. Crit, crit. That's Vanguard, all right. RIP
Consolation-Finals - W vs. Gold Paladin (Gurguit/Ezel)
Game 1 I was struggling to get the game won. He ends up only being able to 1-to-pass my Vanguard at 5. I hit a stand trigger and push him to 6. He heals out of lethal and takes the game after that. Game 2 I have him on the ropes early from getting a 4 damage turn in my first turn swinging. He never had the ability to get 5 RGs for Ezel Scissors to get his critical. I end up winning that match. The last game was pretty close. He rode Gurguit. I ended up getting him to 5 and having him in a situation where I could kill him through a 6th damage heal by doing a cool loop with multiple Ghosties and multiple Nightcrows. I used that loop to make Nightspinel 26k, which secured the anti-heal for me.
All-in-all, I ended up getting 3rd place. This has firmly solidified my opinion that the less I care and the less I try, the better my tournament results will be, based on my tournament history. I am not sold if I'm going to California for the event. If I did, I am not sold I'd want to play Granblue Rush when I could play a meme deck. We'll see how that goes.
Monday, October 3, 2016
Seven Seas Rush
So, only weeks after releasing my grade 1 rush video stating that Seeker Rush was the best rush deck and that grade 1 rushing has become largely obsolete (but still mediocre, Sanc Blaster just does everything every other grade 1 rush deck wanted to do while still riding up) in the current metagame due to effects not being as heavily restricted by generation break in this current format, we have a new grade 1 rush monstrosity. Seven Seas Rush.
This decklist originated in Japan and quickly made its way over here after it topped. I hadn't seen the spoilers for the set 8 cards involved by time this happened, so I am not the originator for this deck. All credit to the guy who came up with the base idea. I did make improvements on the base list to make it stronger, but then I was told after the fact that it may not have been the base list. Regardless, I especially love that the Vanguard community is proving to me that it can continue to be thorough, innovative, and talented in deckbuilding unique decks without my help. The community has grown and improved in so many ways over 2 and 4 years ago that I can't help but feel like I'm a bit obsolete.
That being said, this is something right up my alley, and I can explain how this beast of a deck works in a way that anyone can understand. I want to preface this by saying that this list has 8 grade 2's and 2 grade 3's. It can ride up at pretty much any point it wants to. But, without GGuardians or Heals, you typically won't want to unless the stride will give you game. That being said, your opponents can't Sebreeze you on your grade 2 ride, so you always have that advantage of safely negating stride and generation break outside of Twitterun plays. Here's the list.
Starter - Rookie Pirate, Gina (Discard a grade 2 or 3 you can't normal call and scry and draw)
4x Seven Seas Apprentice, Nightrunner (bae, FREE CARDS FOR FREE, turns into a different card)
4x Rough Seas Banshee (Crit) Consistency buff in an already consistent build
4x Cody the Ghostie (Crit) MORE FREE CARDS
4x Performing Zombie (Stand) - On call, look at top 10, mill 1. Turns into a 7k pretty easily.
4x Vanilla crits
4x Greedy Mimic (9k attacker)
4x Skeleton Assault Soldier (turns into a 5k shield in the bind zone instead of being a generic sacrifice, thus, you plus when sacking it)
4x Witch Doctor of the Seven Seas, Raistutor (Primary Vanguard. Can set up another row with its effect, then be sacked to call Nightcrow.)
4x Seven Seas Helmsman, Nightcrow (Sack any unit, call this from drop. Free row fixer. Bae.)
3x Evil Shade (Making those numbers with your Vanguard)
4x Seven Seas Pillager, Nightspinel (Discards the grade 2's and 3's you won't be using otherwise, and also puts your grade 1's and 0's into the drop zone so you can both call itself from drop and have them where you need them to be so they can activate their effects. Gets HUUUGE with enough memes)
4x Seven Seas Master Swordsman, Slash Shade (11k call from drop when your Vanguard attacks? Works on grade 1? YES PLEASE!)
2x Seven Seas Sage, Plegeton (Can be ridden from drop zone without needing a discard. You can go straight into a stride if you have enough grade in hand to try and push for game when you're ready for that.)
GZONE - Whatever you want that works on GB1. Probably the Nightmist stride. Maybe Rum if you're out of counterblasts? Obadiah is another option. No GGuards because heals are for the weak.)
After reviewing the cards, it may not be apparent at first, so I'll make it abundantly clear. All of your grade 2's can be called from the drop zone while you are on grade 1. One does so by filtering out cards that you either want in your drop zone or can't use. The other works by sacking a grade 1 or greater unit and comes in at 11k mid battle phase. This means you can attack up to 5 times with this deck, all for 11k or more. That's the real crux of this deck, death by a million cuts, wearing them down with a standard rush going into a much stronger mid-game rush. It's essentially what Tachikaze Rush wants to be with infinitely more consistency.
Let's go into my current rating for the deck's statistics.
Consistency - 9.5/10
Power - 9/10
Reach - 8/10
Rescalability -10/10
Recoverability - 10/10
Survivability - 6.5/10
Denial - 7.5/10
Let's explain why I gave these ratings, and what some of these mean.
Consistency is self-explanitory. This deck works if you ride any Seven Seas grade 1. It has numerous targets that help fill up the drop zone with your key cards, and can chain insane effects to get your board and drop zone set-up exactly how you want it to be. Even if you miss your ride, you have enough advantage to just reride later. Nightspinel also works just fine even without a Seven Seas Vanguard, and the first turn is typically set-up from hand instead of drop anyway, so you aren't even severely punished for missing the correct ride early.
Power is pretty easy to understand, too. How strong is the deck. Opening with 10k+ to guard from every row turn 1, sometimes 15k to guard or more if you open the nuts, can be devastatingly difficult to deal with. Especially when this deck transitions so well into reach. It doesn't have the row consistency of say, Seeker Rush, but its obscene mid-game and potential game ending power more than compensates for it.
Reach is the ability to close out games. It's how well you can finish off an opponent when you're pushing for the win. This deck can attack up to 5 times all requiring 5-15k guard, making sentinels essentially ineffective for your opponent, and destroying their hand size. This is only an 8 because if you want to see a 10/10, imagine a Diablo stride when the opponent has no rear guards. You're dead, Jim.
Rescalability is the ability to fix your rows if you have to field weaker units. There's no doubts here that this deck is rescalability incarnate. You can call your size 0 from the drop zone for free, mill 4, then turn it into a 7k unit. Have a Seven Seas in hand? You can swap it out for Nightspinel. Have a grade 1 Skeleton in your hand that you don't want to stay on your board? Call it, boost it, and swing with it, then turn it into a Slash Shade (getting 5k free shield, too!). Turning one dude into the next dude isn't difficult, and even calling over existing units on the board doesn't impact your card advantage too negatively when you can get free calls every turn that also increase your toolbox.
Recoverability is the ability to recover from mass card disadvantage. I will just give you an example of what this deck can REALLY do. Let's say you got boardwiped COMPLETELY. You also had to discard EVERY CARD IN YOUR HAND. And then you draw a GRADE 3 you can't field or ride on grade 1. You can STILL GET A FULL BOARD FROM ONE UNUSABLE CARD IN HAND. How, you ask? Well, you have MULTIPLE WAYS. Any combination of four Nightrunners or Cody the Ghosties can fill four spaces from your drop. Then, discard your Plegeton to call Nightspinel. After that, sack your remaining board into four Nightcrow. Now you have 14/14/24k rows. Attack with the 14k RG row first. Attack with VG, sack Nightcrow for Slash Shade. Now you get a potential trigger, an 11k attack, and a 26k attack. FROM ONE CARD IN HAND AND NO UNITS ON THE BOARD. HNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH. Sure, it cost between milling 16 cards and 1 counterblast to milling 4 cards and 4 counterblasts, but the option to recover on this level is INSANE.
Survivability is of course the ability for a deck to not die. This deck is actually way easier to kill if you swing face than most other rush decks. It literally can't run quintet walls because it will deck out. It also doesn't have hand advantage for normal sentinels. It doesn't have a happy medium defensive card outside of Skeleton Assault Soldier. That being said, you still have a good chunk of 10k shields to work with, and you have the advantage of shutting down many spooky, scary things that might kek you. That being said, if you face consistent 17k+ rows early or anything that can get bonus crit without needing Generation Break, you could be in for a world of hurt.
Denial is the ability to shut down the opponent's strategy. Naturally, with many decks wanting to stride, by playing this deck, you can deny them in that aspect. The denial here isn't as hard as it may have been previously, due to many decks opting to have an early game instead of building for late game. It is still a powerful facet to this deck and gives it an edge over decks that can't transition into a strong early game, like Gear Chronicle.
As with every deck in the game, it has favorable match-ups and unfavorable match-ups. Let's list out my observations for this.
Wall decks - These decks simply can't get enough cards to weather that many attacks. Especially since most reliable wall decks have a legion or stride engine to fuel themselves.
Retirement focused decks - Perditions aren't going to have a good time when you can poop out a field from your drop zone with no hand investment, then can rescale the board.
Anyone that thinks swinging into RG's is a good idea that isn't playing Chaos Breaker.
Seeker Rush - 17k rows with insane consistency and counter-rushing are the banes of this deck. While this deck is better than Seeker Rush, it still loses the face-off due to these factors.
Season 3 Decks - While you can recover your board easily, facing down 22k multi-crit Vanguard swings is devastating for this deck. Minerva can out-pressure the deck if it hits a critical on the first drive check. DDD"R" can force high numbers against it. All of these archetype decks also get 12k attackers, which are strong against 7k base Vanguards.
Sacking Triggers - I mean, it's Vanguard. I haven't lost a match yet that wasn't to Chaos Breaker Dragon that they didn't heal more than twice on. But when I'm playing to 9 damage, it's a bit hard to win.
Due to how the deck intrinsically functions, it actually does well against or breaks even with decks like Sanc Blaster and Nociel, decks that were outperforming the other rush decks in face-offs.
This is all my initial analysis. I will probably be making a video for it with some gameplay features in the near future (still waiting on the singles to get here). My current analysis is this: This is the strongest grade 1 rush deck, one of the best decks in the current format (since many of the counter decks are very sparse in the current meta, unlike the other rush decks' counters of literally the metagame sans Gear Chronicle), and it will have a large impact on the metagame because many people are boarding the hype train for this deck. Expect to see it in regionals over the next few months, especially since it has already topped. I will update this as more information and testing is revealed.
This decklist originated in Japan and quickly made its way over here after it topped. I hadn't seen the spoilers for the set 8 cards involved by time this happened, so I am not the originator for this deck. All credit to the guy who came up with the base idea. I did make improvements on the base list to make it stronger, but then I was told after the fact that it may not have been the base list. Regardless, I especially love that the Vanguard community is proving to me that it can continue to be thorough, innovative, and talented in deckbuilding unique decks without my help. The community has grown and improved in so many ways over 2 and 4 years ago that I can't help but feel like I'm a bit obsolete.
That being said, this is something right up my alley, and I can explain how this beast of a deck works in a way that anyone can understand. I want to preface this by saying that this list has 8 grade 2's and 2 grade 3's. It can ride up at pretty much any point it wants to. But, without GGuardians or Heals, you typically won't want to unless the stride will give you game. That being said, your opponents can't Sebreeze you on your grade 2 ride, so you always have that advantage of safely negating stride and generation break outside of Twitterun plays. Here's the list.
Starter - Rookie Pirate, Gina (Discard a grade 2 or 3 you can't normal call and scry and draw)
4x Seven Seas Apprentice, Nightrunner (bae, FREE CARDS FOR FREE, turns into a different card)
4x Rough Seas Banshee (Crit) Consistency buff in an already consistent build
4x Cody the Ghostie (Crit) MORE FREE CARDS
4x Performing Zombie (Stand) - On call, look at top 10, mill 1. Turns into a 7k pretty easily.
4x Vanilla crits
4x Greedy Mimic (9k attacker)
4x Skeleton Assault Soldier (turns into a 5k shield in the bind zone instead of being a generic sacrifice, thus, you plus when sacking it)
4x Witch Doctor of the Seven Seas, Raistutor (Primary Vanguard. Can set up another row with its effect, then be sacked to call Nightcrow.)
4x Seven Seas Helmsman, Nightcrow (Sack any unit, call this from drop. Free row fixer. Bae.)
3x Evil Shade (Making those numbers with your Vanguard)
4x Seven Seas Pillager, Nightspinel (Discards the grade 2's and 3's you won't be using otherwise, and also puts your grade 1's and 0's into the drop zone so you can both call itself from drop and have them where you need them to be so they can activate their effects. Gets HUUUGE with enough memes)
4x Seven Seas Master Swordsman, Slash Shade (11k call from drop when your Vanguard attacks? Works on grade 1? YES PLEASE!)
2x Seven Seas Sage, Plegeton (Can be ridden from drop zone without needing a discard. You can go straight into a stride if you have enough grade in hand to try and push for game when you're ready for that.)
GZONE - Whatever you want that works on GB1. Probably the Nightmist stride. Maybe Rum if you're out of counterblasts? Obadiah is another option. No GGuards because heals are for the weak.)
After reviewing the cards, it may not be apparent at first, so I'll make it abundantly clear. All of your grade 2's can be called from the drop zone while you are on grade 1. One does so by filtering out cards that you either want in your drop zone or can't use. The other works by sacking a grade 1 or greater unit and comes in at 11k mid battle phase. This means you can attack up to 5 times with this deck, all for 11k or more. That's the real crux of this deck, death by a million cuts, wearing them down with a standard rush going into a much stronger mid-game rush. It's essentially what Tachikaze Rush wants to be with infinitely more consistency.
Let's go into my current rating for the deck's statistics.
Consistency - 9.5/10
Power - 9/10
Reach - 8/10
Rescalability -10/10
Recoverability - 10/10
Survivability - 6.5/10
Denial - 7.5/10
Let's explain why I gave these ratings, and what some of these mean.
Consistency is self-explanitory. This deck works if you ride any Seven Seas grade 1. It has numerous targets that help fill up the drop zone with your key cards, and can chain insane effects to get your board and drop zone set-up exactly how you want it to be. Even if you miss your ride, you have enough advantage to just reride later. Nightspinel also works just fine even without a Seven Seas Vanguard, and the first turn is typically set-up from hand instead of drop anyway, so you aren't even severely punished for missing the correct ride early.
Power is pretty easy to understand, too. How strong is the deck. Opening with 10k+ to guard from every row turn 1, sometimes 15k to guard or more if you open the nuts, can be devastatingly difficult to deal with. Especially when this deck transitions so well into reach. It doesn't have the row consistency of say, Seeker Rush, but its obscene mid-game and potential game ending power more than compensates for it.
Reach is the ability to close out games. It's how well you can finish off an opponent when you're pushing for the win. This deck can attack up to 5 times all requiring 5-15k guard, making sentinels essentially ineffective for your opponent, and destroying their hand size. This is only an 8 because if you want to see a 10/10, imagine a Diablo stride when the opponent has no rear guards. You're dead, Jim.
Rescalability is the ability to fix your rows if you have to field weaker units. There's no doubts here that this deck is rescalability incarnate. You can call your size 0 from the drop zone for free, mill 4, then turn it into a 7k unit. Have a Seven Seas in hand? You can swap it out for Nightspinel. Have a grade 1 Skeleton in your hand that you don't want to stay on your board? Call it, boost it, and swing with it, then turn it into a Slash Shade (getting 5k free shield, too!). Turning one dude into the next dude isn't difficult, and even calling over existing units on the board doesn't impact your card advantage too negatively when you can get free calls every turn that also increase your toolbox.
Recoverability is the ability to recover from mass card disadvantage. I will just give you an example of what this deck can REALLY do. Let's say you got boardwiped COMPLETELY. You also had to discard EVERY CARD IN YOUR HAND. And then you draw a GRADE 3 you can't field or ride on grade 1. You can STILL GET A FULL BOARD FROM ONE UNUSABLE CARD IN HAND. How, you ask? Well, you have MULTIPLE WAYS. Any combination of four Nightrunners or Cody the Ghosties can fill four spaces from your drop. Then, discard your Plegeton to call Nightspinel. After that, sack your remaining board into four Nightcrow. Now you have 14/14/24k rows. Attack with the 14k RG row first. Attack with VG, sack Nightcrow for Slash Shade. Now you get a potential trigger, an 11k attack, and a 26k attack. FROM ONE CARD IN HAND AND NO UNITS ON THE BOARD. HNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH. Sure, it cost between milling 16 cards and 1 counterblast to milling 4 cards and 4 counterblasts, but the option to recover on this level is INSANE.
Survivability is of course the ability for a deck to not die. This deck is actually way easier to kill if you swing face than most other rush decks. It literally can't run quintet walls because it will deck out. It also doesn't have hand advantage for normal sentinels. It doesn't have a happy medium defensive card outside of Skeleton Assault Soldier. That being said, you still have a good chunk of 10k shields to work with, and you have the advantage of shutting down many spooky, scary things that might kek you. That being said, if you face consistent 17k+ rows early or anything that can get bonus crit without needing Generation Break, you could be in for a world of hurt.
Denial is the ability to shut down the opponent's strategy. Naturally, with many decks wanting to stride, by playing this deck, you can deny them in that aspect. The denial here isn't as hard as it may have been previously, due to many decks opting to have an early game instead of building for late game. It is still a powerful facet to this deck and gives it an edge over decks that can't transition into a strong early game, like Gear Chronicle.
As with every deck in the game, it has favorable match-ups and unfavorable match-ups. Let's list out my observations for this.
Favorable Match-ups
Generation Break locked decks - These decks can't use their primary facets, are much slower, and can't impede upon the deck's strategy.Wall decks - These decks simply can't get enough cards to weather that many attacks. Especially since most reliable wall decks have a legion or stride engine to fuel themselves.
Retirement focused decks - Perditions aren't going to have a good time when you can poop out a field from your drop zone with no hand investment, then can rescale the board.
Anyone that thinks swinging into RG's is a good idea that isn't playing Chaos Breaker.
Unfavorable Match-ups
Chaos Breaker Dragon - Poops on every rush deck. We also don't have the ability to choose to hollow any front row outside of with Raistutor or Skeleton. Even if we do, we can't Slash Shade in addition to that. This is one of the match-ups I may consider riding up. I'm not 100% sure if that's the best idea yet, but I'm going to play around with it some more in testing.Seeker Rush - 17k rows with insane consistency and counter-rushing are the banes of this deck. While this deck is better than Seeker Rush, it still loses the face-off due to these factors.
Season 3 Decks - While you can recover your board easily, facing down 22k multi-crit Vanguard swings is devastating for this deck. Minerva can out-pressure the deck if it hits a critical on the first drive check. DDD"R" can force high numbers against it. All of these archetype decks also get 12k attackers, which are strong against 7k base Vanguards.
Sacking Triggers - I mean, it's Vanguard. I haven't lost a match yet that wasn't to Chaos Breaker Dragon that they didn't heal more than twice on. But when I'm playing to 9 damage, it's a bit hard to win.
Due to how the deck intrinsically functions, it actually does well against or breaks even with decks like Sanc Blaster and Nociel, decks that were outperforming the other rush decks in face-offs.
This is all my initial analysis. I will probably be making a video for it with some gameplay features in the near future (still waiting on the singles to get here). My current analysis is this: This is the strongest grade 1 rush deck, one of the best decks in the current format (since many of the counter decks are very sparse in the current meta, unlike the other rush decks' counters of literally the metagame sans Gear Chronicle), and it will have a large impact on the metagame because many people are boarding the hype train for this deck. Expect to see it in regionals over the next few months, especially since it has already topped. I will update this as more information and testing is revealed.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Just how likely is it to die from Critical Triggers at 2/3 life with Triple-Drive!!?
To preface this, it would give you a good understanding of where some of my numbers came from if you read the original article for how likely it is to die from a double critical on a Twin-Drive!! here.
Here are the odds of getting hit with 2 OR MORE critical triggers during Triple-Drive!!!.
16 Crits: 30.6%
15 Crits: 26.7%
14 Crits: 23.22%
13 Crits: 19.89%
12 Crits: 16.8%
11 Crits: 14.04%
10 Crits: 11.46%
9 Crits: 9.18%
8 Crits: 7.14%
7 Crits: 5.37%
6 Crits: 3.84%
5 Crits: 2.55%
4 Crits: 1.53%
3 Crits: 0.78%
2 Crits: 0.255%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Double Criticals
The odds of hitting 2 criticals in a Triple-Drive!!! can be found by calculating the odds of hitting a double crit on twin-drive * 3 - the odds of hitting a triple crit.16 Crits: 27.56%
15 Crits: 24.23%
14 Crits: 21.244%
13 Crits: 18.338%
12 Crits: 15.606%
11 Crits: 13.144%
10 Crits: 10.809%
9 Crits: 8.724%
8 Crits: 6.836%
7 Crits: 5.18%
6 Crits: 3.731%
5 Crits: 2.496%
4 Crits: 1.508%
3 Crits: .775%
2 Crits: 0.255%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Odds of them getting three criticals in a Triple-Drive!!
16 Crits: 3.04%
15 Crits: 2.47%
14 Crits: 1.976%
13 Crits: 1.552%
12 Crits: 1.194%
11 Crits: 0.896%
10 Crits: 0.651%
9 Crits: 0.456%
8 Crits: 0.304%
7 Crits: 0.19%
6 Crits: 0.109%
5 Crits: .054%
4 Crits: .022%
3 Crits: .005%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Odds of damage checking heals with 4 in your deck.
Checking a heal: 8.16%
Double checking heals: .5%
Triple checking heals: .02%
Quadruple checking heals: .00047%
Checking one heal in two damage checks: 15.8%
Checking one heal in three damage checks: 22.98%
Checking one heal in four damage checks: 29.678%
Checking two heals in three damage checks: 1.531%
Checking two heals in four damage checks: 3.061%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 3 or less damage and them getting a two crits while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 21.227%
15 Crits: 18.662%
14 Crits: 16.362%
13 Crits: 14.124%
12 Crits: 12.02%
11 Crits: 10.124%
10 Crits: 8.325%
9 Crits: 6.719%
8 Crits: 5.265%
7 Crits: 3.99%
6 Crits: 2.874%
5 Crits: 1.922%
4 Crits: 1.161%
3 Crits: 0.597%
2 Crits: 0.196%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 3 or less damage and them getting three crits while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 2.947%
15 Crits: 2.394%
14 Crits: 1.916%
13 Crits: 1.504%
12 Crits: 1.157%
11 Crits: 0.867%
10 Crits: 0.631%
9 Crits: 0.442%
8 Crits: 0.295%
7 Crits: 0.184%
6 Crits: 0.106%
5 Crits: 0.052%
4 Crits: 0.021%
3 Crits: 0.005%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 3 damage and them getting two or more criticals while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 24.147%
15 Crits: 21.056%
14 Crits: 18.278%
13 Crits: 15.628%
12 Crits: 13.177%
11 Crits: 10.991%
10 Crits: 8.956%
9 Crits: 7.161%
8 Crits: 5.56%
7 Crits: 4.174%
6 Crits: 2.98%
5 Crits: 1.974%
4 Crits: 1.182%
3 Crits: 0.602%
2 Crits: 0.196%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 4 damage and them getting two crits while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 23.206%
15 Crits: 20.402%
14 Crits: 17.887%
13 Crits: 15.441%
12 Crits: 13.14%
11 Crits: 11.067%
10 Crits: 9.101%
9 Crits: 7.346%
8 Crits: 5.756%
7 Crits: 4.362%
6 Crits: 3.142%
5 Crits: 2.102%
4 Crits: 1.27%
3 Crits: .653%
2 Crits: 0.215%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 4 damage and them getting three crits while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 2.993%
15 Crits: 2.432%
14 Crits: 1.946%
13 Crits: 1.528%
12 Crits: 1.176%
11 Crits: 0.882%
10 Crits: 0.641%
9 Crits: 0.449%
8 Crits: 0.299%
7 Crits: 0.187%
6 Crits: 0.107%
5 Crits: .053%
4 Crits: .022%
3 Crits: .005%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 4 damage and them getting two or more criticals while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 26.199%
15 Crits: 22.834%
14 Crits: 19.833%
13 Crits: 16.969%
12 Crits: 14.316%
11 Crits: 11.949%
10 Crits: 9.742%
9 Crits: 7.795%
8 Crits: 6.055%
7 Crits: 4.549%
6 Crits: 3.249%
5 Crits: 2.155%
4 Crits: 1.292%
3 Crits: 0.658%
2 Crits: 0.215%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 5 damage and them getting two crits while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 25.311%
15 Crits: 22.253%
14 Crits: 19.51%
13 Crits: 16.842%
12 Crits: 14.333%
11 Crits: 12.071%
10 Crits: 9.927%
9 Crits: 8.012%
8 Crits: 6.278%
7 Crits: 4.757%
6 Crits: 3.427%
5 Crits: 2.292%
4 Crits: 1.358%
3 Crits: 0.712%
2 Crits: 0.234%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 5 damage and them getting three crits while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 3.025%
15 Crits: 2.458%
14 Crits: 1.966%
13 Crits: 1.544%
12 Crits: 1.188%
11 Crits: 0.892%
10 Crits: 0.648%
9 Crits: 0.454%
8 Crits: 0.302%
7 Crits: 0.189%
6 Crits: 0.108%
5 Crits: .054%
4 Crits: .022%
3 Crits: .005%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 5 damage and them getting two or more criticals while you are at 3 damage would be:
16 Crits: 28.336%
15 Crits: 24.711%
14 Crits: 21.476%
13 Crits: 18.386%
12 Crits: 15.521%
11 Crits: 12.963%
10 Crits: 10.575%
9 Crits: 8.466%
8 Crits: 6.58%
7 Crits: 4.946%
6 Crits: 3.535%
5 Crits: 2.346%
4 Crits: 1.38%
3 Crits: 0.717%
2 Crits: 0.234%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Triple Criticals
Okay, so we have our numbers for double crit at 3 damage. What about the odds of dying when getting triple crit at 2 damage? We have one more damage to play with, so this is going to have an extra layer of math. Let's get to it!Odds of hitting three critical triggers on a Triple-Drive!!!:
16 Crits: 3.04%
15 Crits: 2.47%
14 Crits: 1.976%
13 Crits: 1.552%
12 Crits: 1.194%
11 Crits: 0.896%
10 Crits: 0.651%
9 Crits: 0.456%
8 Crits: 0.304%
7 Crits: 0.19%
6 Crits: 0.109%
5 Crits: .054%
4 Crits: .022%
3 Crits: .005%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 2 or less damage and them getting a triple crit while you are at 2 damage would be:
16 Crits: 2.138%
15 Crits: 1.737%
14 Crits: 1.39%
13 Crits: 1.091%
12 Crits: 0.84%
11 Crits: 0.63%
10 Crits: 0.458%
9 Crits: 0.321%
8 Crits: 0.214%
7 Crits: 0.134%
6 Crits: 0.077%
5 Crits: 0.038%
4 Crits: 0.015%
3 Crits: 0.004%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 3 damage and them getting a triple crit while you are at 2 damage would be:
16 Crits: 2.341%
15 Crits: 1.902%
14 Crits: 1.522%
13 Crits: 1.195%
12 Crits: 0.92%
11 Crits: 0.69%
10 Crits: 0.501%
9 Crits: 0.351%
8 Crits: 0.234%
7 Crits: 0.146%
6 Crits: 0.084%
5 Crits: 0.042%
4 Crits: 0.017%
3 Crits: 0.004%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 4 damage and them getting a triple crit while you are at 2 damage would be:
16 Crits: 2.56%
15 Crits: 2.08%
14 Crits: 1.664%
13 Crits: 1.307%
12 Crits: 1.005%
11 Crits: 0.754%
10 Crits: 0.548%
9 Crits: 0.384%
8 Crits: 0.256%
7 Crits: 0.16%
6 Crits: 0.092%
5 Crits: 0.045%
4 Crits: 0.019%
3 Crits: 0.004%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
The odds of dying to an opponent who is at 5 damage and them getting a triple crit while you are at 2 damage would be:
16 Crits: 2.792%
15 Crits: 2.268%
14 Crits: 1.815%
13 Crits: 1.425%
12 Crits: 1.097%
11 Crits: 0.823%
10 Crits: 0.598%
9 Crits: 0.419%
8 Crits: 0.279%
7 Crits: 0.174%
6 Crits: 0.1%
5 Crits: 0.05%
4 Crits: 0.02%
3 Crits: 0.005%
2 Crits: 0%
1 Crit: 0%
0 Crits: 0%
Monday, February 22, 2016
Machining Darkface
Starter - Young Executive, Crimebug
8 Machining Crits
4 Machining Heals
4 Other Crits
4x Machining Mosquito
4x Rebel Mutant, Starshield
3x Machining Slater
3x New Face Mutant, Little Dorcas
4x Machining Red Soldier
4x Machining Mosquito mk II
3x Machining Mantis
4x Machining Warsickle
4x Intimidating Mutant, Darkface
4x Machining Destroyer
4x Poison Spear Mutant Deity, Paraspear
Machining Darkface is a deck that focuses on striding into Machining Destroyer so that Darkface will adopt the Machining name and all of your rear guard's abilities will be active while retaining Darkface's on-stride skill. You would argue that Darkface's on-stride skill isn't as useful as Machining Destroyer's Vanguard stun ability. You would be correct in making that argument. However, the ability for Machining Slater to build soul in conjunction with Darkface's GB2 effect will supplement Darkface's on-stride skill so nicely that it will compensate for the lack of support the build faced in GSet4.
The nice thing about this build is that it compensates for its bad match-ups with your other ride. Machining Warsickle is great against rush decks, grade 2 game decks, and decks where the Vanguard stun is more important than sickening amounts of card advantage. Darkface fairs better for match-ups that dissolve your board presence, making Destroyer's skill unusable, like Link Joker, Brawlers, and other such builds with a heavy emphasis on control. By having multiple facets to compensate for each side of the deck's bad match-ups, the deck ends up being extremely solid all-around.
While I wouldn't argue that this build is better than pure-Machining, it has several better match-ups. Additionally, this is the optimal way to build Darkface in my opinion, due to the G-Bug support being trash tier.
8 Machining Crits
4 Machining Heals
4 Other Crits
4x Machining Mosquito
4x Rebel Mutant, Starshield
3x Machining Slater
3x New Face Mutant, Little Dorcas
4x Machining Red Soldier
4x Machining Mosquito mk II
3x Machining Mantis
4x Machining Warsickle
4x Intimidating Mutant, Darkface
4x Machining Destroyer
4x Poison Spear Mutant Deity, Paraspear
Machining Darkface is a deck that focuses on striding into Machining Destroyer so that Darkface will adopt the Machining name and all of your rear guard's abilities will be active while retaining Darkface's on-stride skill. You would argue that Darkface's on-stride skill isn't as useful as Machining Destroyer's Vanguard stun ability. You would be correct in making that argument. However, the ability for Machining Slater to build soul in conjunction with Darkface's GB2 effect will supplement Darkface's on-stride skill so nicely that it will compensate for the lack of support the build faced in GSet4.
The nice thing about this build is that it compensates for its bad match-ups with your other ride. Machining Warsickle is great against rush decks, grade 2 game decks, and decks where the Vanguard stun is more important than sickening amounts of card advantage. Darkface fairs better for match-ups that dissolve your board presence, making Destroyer's skill unusable, like Link Joker, Brawlers, and other such builds with a heavy emphasis on control. By having multiple facets to compensate for each side of the deck's bad match-ups, the deck ends up being extremely solid all-around.
While I wouldn't argue that this build is better than pure-Machining, it has several better match-ups. Additionally, this is the optimal way to build Darkface in my opinion, due to the G-Bug support being trash tier.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
I don't even know anymore... (Locals rant about Gamerz)
Back when I first started Vanguard, I was extremely hotheaded with people. This was largely due to a large chunk of people having no appreciation for any rogue decks I would build, essentially labeling them as unplayable in spite of any arguments, testing, or results I'd show without any consideration or testing of their own. When I first moved to Indianapolis, I went to the Dugout, a card shop I had seen on Google. That didn't exactly end well. I don't have anything against the Dugout or its management, at least not anymore. I heard that the primary guy that set those things into motion was banned from their store later on, anyway. So that's all good. It's too bad they don't have a Vanguard base anymore, but Midwest Gamez has taken on all of the Vanguard players in Indianapolis, especially after the events I'm about to speak to.
After I left the Dugout, I started going to a shop called Gamerz. I really liked the atmosphere and the location. They had great networking, a solid display of non-Bushiroad card games, and a spacious location for many people to enjoy playing card games at. At the start of things, I liked the store and the store owner seemed to like me. I offered to write articles for the store and use my connections (I had several toppers and even the Vanguard world champion at the time willing to write articles for them). I didn't care about getting paid. I just wanted to grow Vanguard because it was still a small game at the start of 2013.
After a few months of going to tournaments and buying boxes at their exorbitant prices (over 85 dollars per box was killing me, but I wanted to support my locals, so I purchased about 6 boxes from them over my time there, and I don't even typically buy boxes, and I also bought a bunch of Magic there), I tried to get them to stock some particular product so I could buy it from them. I was told on multiple occasions that their "shipment didn't come in" or "it will be in next week". Almost every time, when I heard this, it didn't happen. At first, I believed their claims about shipments not coming in. After going to Midwest Gamez and watching the owner of that store order the product that Gamerz said was out of stock from the same vendor, I realized that I was just being flat out lied to.
1st thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Lying to their customers when lying isn't even necessary.
I would understand if they said, "I don't want to stock this product". Or, "I can't take your word for it that you will buy this because other people have said they would and then didn't." I'm an adult (at least most of the time), I'd like to believe that I can understand those types of things. This led to other issues. First, I waited a full month and a half after a set came out before I got the hint that they weren't going to be restocking it. This led me to purchase boxes for that set online for significantly cheaper, and that was the dividing point where I decided I wasn't going to purchase boxes at Gamerz anymore. When I asked about lowering the price, I was angrily told that if I wanted to buy them for cheaper and could find them for cheaper, that I should go somewhere else to buy the product. I wasn't banned at this point in time, but I was banned from the store before the next time I showed up.
2nd thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Lack of willingness to listen to sound business advice in any way, shape, or form.
Now, not everyone is going to give sound business advice, but when someone wants to buy a box through their locals to support it, and their locals turns them down... I can't speak much to the defense of the locals. Then, saying you're going to stock that product that your customer wants to buy from you and lying about how said product is coming in soon so that your customers won't buy them anywhere else, even though you aren't going to restock that product is just nonsensical and made me want to stop going to the store. But I endured, still, for the sake of loyalty, and because I enjoyed the crowd and location.
Another thing to add to the silliness of how they were running Vanguard was, back when the OTT and Nova Grappler extra boosters came out in the tail end of season 2, we said we'd buy several boxes of them from the store because we wanted to support them, even though the prices were still pretty steep. They said they were going to stock them. They kept saying they were on their way for roughly 3 months. We stopped asking after 2. About 8 months after these sets came out, they decided to stock a carton of both. Mind you, set 14 was out at about this time. Even the new OTT extra booster was already out. The cards in these boxes had become hopelessly obsolete, and no combination of RRR/SP in the box could possibly value as much as the box itself would cost, especially at the escalated price. Nobody bought them. And I have a feeling that the owner of the store felt like we were liars for not buying out the cards, even though it had been half a year since we requested them and had long since purchased everything we could possibly want from the boxes online. I can't even feel bad for them for ordering the boxes without asking their playerbase if they were still wanted or relevant.
A month or two after this, they have their "Vanguard judge" come in to run a sneak peak for set 15. They weren't a bad person or anything, but they had no business being in charge of a sneak peak when their most recent deck was from set 8, they didn't know that all cards were all clans in that format, and they didn't know what a break ride was in the break ride format. Long story short, the judge made an incorrect ruling and I took over the tournament, undermining their judge, and we carried on. The next time I came back to the shop, I was banned. Ehh, fair enough. Undermining a judge is a pretty serious offense, no matter how unqualified the individual is. I definitely overstepped a boundary. Would a warning have made more sense? Probably. I didn't have any previous infractions at the store (but the owner was quick to tell me that he wanted to warn me on several occasions for my prior conduct, which I had received no indication of previously, so what he said was completely meaningless). I just rolled with it. I was already feeling pretty at-odds with the store, so I took my business over to Midwest Gamez full-time at this point, convinced that the Vanguard community at the store, of which over 60% was my group of friends, was going to die shortly thereafter.
3rd thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Liberal usage of banning players and groups of players, resulting in a large loss of consumers.
For the year in which I was banned from the store until its closing, I heard horror stories about how many people would get warnings or banned for stupid things like joking about banging their head on the wall, disagreeing with the shop owner, or being too loud or rowdy in the store. After I was banned, they apparently banned over half of their Yu-Gi-Oh! playerbase, causing them to move on. The Vanguard community moved on as well. Other players had received warnings for the most minor of infractions and chose not to come back. Many players went to newer card shops like Game Paradise. I have met people who would complain about Gamerz and how rude they were before I even got to put my say into the conversation. Customer satisfaction seemed to go down the drain to the point where I could swear it was intentional.
4th thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Blatant bullying of customers, up to and including legal threats.
In the conversation I had with the owner as I was banned from the store, I ended up venting a bit to him about how poorly the store was managed and about how I legitimately tried to help make the location the biggest store in the Midwest for Vanguard.
He responded with another lie. "We are."
I ask him, "How are you the biggest store for Vanguard?"
He said, "We have the largest supply of Vanguard cards."
I bring up how Midwest Gamez doesn't just have more supply than him, but individual players like Aaron Netabai have a bigger stock than he does. And that's just in Indianapolis. Chicago sellers have way more stock. I probably even had more stock at the time, honestly. I donated two large boxes of commons/rares, which I'm fairly sure exceeded his bulk in Vanguard, to Midwest Gamez for the sole purpose of guaranteeing that his claim was a lie after this.
I then go on to speak about how his pricing for boxes was keeping people from buying them from the store, stagnating the growth of the game.
He replied with, "My prices are the same as Troll and Toad, which is the lowest you're going to find boxes."
With him selling his for 80 bucks a box, I said, "I will get out my phone right now and prove you wrong. Troll and Toad has them for cheaper."
He changes the subject, of course.
He knew about my article on the Dugout. He knew that I liked to write about things like this. He knew that I had at least some popularity in the community, being an admin on NACFV and having a relatively popular blog and YouTube channel. So he literally threatened me with a lawsuit if I attempted to defame Gamerz in any way, shape, or form. No, I'm not joking.
Additionally, literally a week after I had gotten back from judging a regional tournament for Bushiroad, he said, "I called Bushiroad. They said that you're not a judge, judges for Vanguard don't even exist, and you are blatantly lying in my shop about being a judge. And the "judge test" which you supposedly helped write also doesn't exist."
Except I have proof that my questions were used and that I was solicited by Bushiroad for them to use my questions on my unofficial test I created. And I literally just got done judging an event. But sure. Okay.
At this point, I was fuming. I decided that further conversation wasn't in my best interest and the entire Vanguard community headed home that day, essentially.
Naturally, my kneejerk reaction was to laugh at the audacity of his comments, especially the legal threats. I chuckled audibly and let him know that I didn't feel threatened whatsoever by them. I had planned to write out, essentially, what I've written out today. But I sat down and thought very deeply about the implications of the actions that he took, and made a decision.
The first conclusion I drew was that, after the extra boosters fizzled, there was an extremely good chance that Gamerz didn't want a Vanguard playerbase.
The second conclusion I drew was that, after seeing how I reacted to the Dugout, there was a chance he was intentionally riling me up so that I would defame his store and remove his Vanguard playerbase so he would be able to say, "The game has died", and no longer stock it.
The third conclusion I drew was that if I did go out and make an article about Gamerz, they would be getting attention. And, because I don't have it in me to write a partial review of the store, I'd have to be honest and say that the location was great and their MtG selection and playerbase was top notch, and that might have given them exactly what they wanted.
I decided to be completely silent for three reasons.
1. I knew that with or without my action, the Vanguard playerbase was going to die without me. And it did.
2. I didn't want to accidentally give them good publicity leading to good business.
3. I didn't think they would actually go out of business, but now I am able to make this post after they crashed and burned and get the satisfaction of knowing that during my post.
So, I stayed silent on my blog about the store until I believed the time was right. It's been half a year since they've shut down, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that they are ever opening back up again. I believe that the time to tell this story is now.
I don't really have too much more negative to say about the store. I do have a conspiracy theory, though. I honestly believe that the store owner wanted to go out of business. That doesn't sound like it makes a single lick of sense, but I can't fathom why he would have taken the actions that he took unless that's what he was going for.
Reasons why I think Gamerz was intentionally trying to go out of business:
1. Nobody would ban large sections of their consumers unless they weren't making money off of them. I could see an argument here for their Vanguard playerbase. I don't think they managed Vanguard wisely enough to profit off of the game, even with those box prices, so I could see them making the business decision to stop supporting the game. But Yu-Gi-Oh!? That's their second biggest game.
2. You don't just casually make legal threats at your consumers who have done absolutely nothing remotely illegal against you, even if you're banning them from the store/don't plan on them being consumers anymore.
3. You don't make grandiose claims of being the biggest and the best at something without someone calling you out on it. You don't ban people who call you out on your bullshit when you are, in fact, spouting bullshit.
4. You don't intentionally piss off your customers and expect to not have repercussions.
I have two different scenarios of what could have happened with the store.
1. They could be genuinely incompetent at managing a business, especially in the areas of customer satisfaction, card pricing, keeping a well-stocked inventory, and drawing in new customers.
2. They could be intentionally incompetent at managing a business, especially in the areas of customer satisfaction, card pricing (non-MtG), keeping a well-stocked inventory (non-MtG), and drawing in new customers.
Considering how good the company has proven to be at networking, hosting large events for everything at their shop, getting huge turnouts for MtG pre-releases, and selling mountains of MtG cards, I just can't believe that they could go out of business on accident. I have no business management experience, and I could have remained in business with that prime inventory and business location by just not being an asshat to my customers. I can't help but think that maybe the owner decided it was time to hang up his hat and move on to something different. He stated that he was going to change locations, then ended up never getting a new location. It wouldn't be the first lie he told. I can't imagine it would have been hard to get a new location, either, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't think it matters as much at this point, but I can't help but shake the feeling that after seeing the good business practices instantiated by Gamerz that they could bomb this badly.
Regardless, I am personally glad that the store is out of business, just so that people don't have to deal with the abuse. Midwest Gamez, my new locals, has gotten the entirety of the Vanguard playerbase in the Indianapolis area, and the game has continued to remain stable for well over a year, so there were benefits to this turn of events as well.
After I left the Dugout, I started going to a shop called Gamerz. I really liked the atmosphere and the location. They had great networking, a solid display of non-Bushiroad card games, and a spacious location for many people to enjoy playing card games at. At the start of things, I liked the store and the store owner seemed to like me. I offered to write articles for the store and use my connections (I had several toppers and even the Vanguard world champion at the time willing to write articles for them). I didn't care about getting paid. I just wanted to grow Vanguard because it was still a small game at the start of 2013.
After a few months of going to tournaments and buying boxes at their exorbitant prices (over 85 dollars per box was killing me, but I wanted to support my locals, so I purchased about 6 boxes from them over my time there, and I don't even typically buy boxes, and I also bought a bunch of Magic there), I tried to get them to stock some particular product so I could buy it from them. I was told on multiple occasions that their "shipment didn't come in" or "it will be in next week". Almost every time, when I heard this, it didn't happen. At first, I believed their claims about shipments not coming in. After going to Midwest Gamez and watching the owner of that store order the product that Gamerz said was out of stock from the same vendor, I realized that I was just being flat out lied to.
1st thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Lying to their customers when lying isn't even necessary.
I would understand if they said, "I don't want to stock this product". Or, "I can't take your word for it that you will buy this because other people have said they would and then didn't." I'm an adult (at least most of the time), I'd like to believe that I can understand those types of things. This led to other issues. First, I waited a full month and a half after a set came out before I got the hint that they weren't going to be restocking it. This led me to purchase boxes for that set online for significantly cheaper, and that was the dividing point where I decided I wasn't going to purchase boxes at Gamerz anymore. When I asked about lowering the price, I was angrily told that if I wanted to buy them for cheaper and could find them for cheaper, that I should go somewhere else to buy the product. I wasn't banned at this point in time, but I was banned from the store before the next time I showed up.
2nd thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Lack of willingness to listen to sound business advice in any way, shape, or form.
Now, not everyone is going to give sound business advice, but when someone wants to buy a box through their locals to support it, and their locals turns them down... I can't speak much to the defense of the locals. Then, saying you're going to stock that product that your customer wants to buy from you and lying about how said product is coming in soon so that your customers won't buy them anywhere else, even though you aren't going to restock that product is just nonsensical and made me want to stop going to the store. But I endured, still, for the sake of loyalty, and because I enjoyed the crowd and location.
Another thing to add to the silliness of how they were running Vanguard was, back when the OTT and Nova Grappler extra boosters came out in the tail end of season 2, we said we'd buy several boxes of them from the store because we wanted to support them, even though the prices were still pretty steep. They said they were going to stock them. They kept saying they were on their way for roughly 3 months. We stopped asking after 2. About 8 months after these sets came out, they decided to stock a carton of both. Mind you, set 14 was out at about this time. Even the new OTT extra booster was already out. The cards in these boxes had become hopelessly obsolete, and no combination of RRR/SP in the box could possibly value as much as the box itself would cost, especially at the escalated price. Nobody bought them. And I have a feeling that the owner of the store felt like we were liars for not buying out the cards, even though it had been half a year since we requested them and had long since purchased everything we could possibly want from the boxes online. I can't even feel bad for them for ordering the boxes without asking their playerbase if they were still wanted or relevant.
A month or two after this, they have their "Vanguard judge" come in to run a sneak peak for set 15. They weren't a bad person or anything, but they had no business being in charge of a sneak peak when their most recent deck was from set 8, they didn't know that all cards were all clans in that format, and they didn't know what a break ride was in the break ride format. Long story short, the judge made an incorrect ruling and I took over the tournament, undermining their judge, and we carried on. The next time I came back to the shop, I was banned. Ehh, fair enough. Undermining a judge is a pretty serious offense, no matter how unqualified the individual is. I definitely overstepped a boundary. Would a warning have made more sense? Probably. I didn't have any previous infractions at the store (but the owner was quick to tell me that he wanted to warn me on several occasions for my prior conduct, which I had received no indication of previously, so what he said was completely meaningless). I just rolled with it. I was already feeling pretty at-odds with the store, so I took my business over to Midwest Gamez full-time at this point, convinced that the Vanguard community at the store, of which over 60% was my group of friends, was going to die shortly thereafter.
3rd thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Liberal usage of banning players and groups of players, resulting in a large loss of consumers.
For the year in which I was banned from the store until its closing, I heard horror stories about how many people would get warnings or banned for stupid things like joking about banging their head on the wall, disagreeing with the shop owner, or being too loud or rowdy in the store. After I was banned, they apparently banned over half of their Yu-Gi-Oh! playerbase, causing them to move on. The Vanguard community moved on as well. Other players had received warnings for the most minor of infractions and chose not to come back. Many players went to newer card shops like Game Paradise. I have met people who would complain about Gamerz and how rude they were before I even got to put my say into the conversation. Customer satisfaction seemed to go down the drain to the point where I could swear it was intentional.
4th thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Blatant bullying of customers, up to and including legal threats.
In the conversation I had with the owner as I was banned from the store, I ended up venting a bit to him about how poorly the store was managed and about how I legitimately tried to help make the location the biggest store in the Midwest for Vanguard.
He responded with another lie. "We are."
I ask him, "How are you the biggest store for Vanguard?"
He said, "We have the largest supply of Vanguard cards."
I bring up how Midwest Gamez doesn't just have more supply than him, but individual players like Aaron Netabai have a bigger stock than he does. And that's just in Indianapolis. Chicago sellers have way more stock. I probably even had more stock at the time, honestly. I donated two large boxes of commons/rares, which I'm fairly sure exceeded his bulk in Vanguard, to Midwest Gamez for the sole purpose of guaranteeing that his claim was a lie after this.
I then go on to speak about how his pricing for boxes was keeping people from buying them from the store, stagnating the growth of the game.
He replied with, "My prices are the same as Troll and Toad, which is the lowest you're going to find boxes."
With him selling his for 80 bucks a box, I said, "I will get out my phone right now and prove you wrong. Troll and Toad has them for cheaper."
He changes the subject, of course.
He knew about my article on the Dugout. He knew that I liked to write about things like this. He knew that I had at least some popularity in the community, being an admin on NACFV and having a relatively popular blog and YouTube channel. So he literally threatened me with a lawsuit if I attempted to defame Gamerz in any way, shape, or form. No, I'm not joking.
Additionally, literally a week after I had gotten back from judging a regional tournament for Bushiroad, he said, "I called Bushiroad. They said that you're not a judge, judges for Vanguard don't even exist, and you are blatantly lying in my shop about being a judge. And the "judge test" which you supposedly helped write also doesn't exist."
Except I have proof that my questions were used and that I was solicited by Bushiroad for them to use my questions on my unofficial test I created. And I literally just got done judging an event. But sure. Okay.
At this point, I was fuming. I decided that further conversation wasn't in my best interest and the entire Vanguard community headed home that day, essentially.
Naturally, my kneejerk reaction was to laugh at the audacity of his comments, especially the legal threats. I chuckled audibly and let him know that I didn't feel threatened whatsoever by them. I had planned to write out, essentially, what I've written out today. But I sat down and thought very deeply about the implications of the actions that he took, and made a decision.
The first conclusion I drew was that, after the extra boosters fizzled, there was an extremely good chance that Gamerz didn't want a Vanguard playerbase.
The second conclusion I drew was that, after seeing how I reacted to the Dugout, there was a chance he was intentionally riling me up so that I would defame his store and remove his Vanguard playerbase so he would be able to say, "The game has died", and no longer stock it.
The third conclusion I drew was that if I did go out and make an article about Gamerz, they would be getting attention. And, because I don't have it in me to write a partial review of the store, I'd have to be honest and say that the location was great and their MtG selection and playerbase was top notch, and that might have given them exactly what they wanted.
I decided to be completely silent for three reasons.
1. I knew that with or without my action, the Vanguard playerbase was going to die without me. And it did.
2. I didn't want to accidentally give them good publicity leading to good business.
3. I didn't think they would actually go out of business, but now I am able to make this post after they crashed and burned and get the satisfaction of knowing that during my post.
So, I stayed silent on my blog about the store until I believed the time was right. It's been half a year since they've shut down, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that they are ever opening back up again. I believe that the time to tell this story is now.
I don't really have too much more negative to say about the store. I do have a conspiracy theory, though. I honestly believe that the store owner wanted to go out of business. That doesn't sound like it makes a single lick of sense, but I can't fathom why he would have taken the actions that he took unless that's what he was going for.
Reasons why I think Gamerz was intentionally trying to go out of business:
1. Nobody would ban large sections of their consumers unless they weren't making money off of them. I could see an argument here for their Vanguard playerbase. I don't think they managed Vanguard wisely enough to profit off of the game, even with those box prices, so I could see them making the business decision to stop supporting the game. But Yu-Gi-Oh!? That's their second biggest game.
2. You don't just casually make legal threats at your consumers who have done absolutely nothing remotely illegal against you, even if you're banning them from the store/don't plan on them being consumers anymore.
3. You don't make grandiose claims of being the biggest and the best at something without someone calling you out on it. You don't ban people who call you out on your bullshit when you are, in fact, spouting bullshit.
4. You don't intentionally piss off your customers and expect to not have repercussions.
I have two different scenarios of what could have happened with the store.
1. They could be genuinely incompetent at managing a business, especially in the areas of customer satisfaction, card pricing, keeping a well-stocked inventory, and drawing in new customers.
2. They could be intentionally incompetent at managing a business, especially in the areas of customer satisfaction, card pricing (non-MtG), keeping a well-stocked inventory (non-MtG), and drawing in new customers.
Considering how good the company has proven to be at networking, hosting large events for everything at their shop, getting huge turnouts for MtG pre-releases, and selling mountains of MtG cards, I just can't believe that they could go out of business on accident. I have no business management experience, and I could have remained in business with that prime inventory and business location by just not being an asshat to my customers. I can't help but think that maybe the owner decided it was time to hang up his hat and move on to something different. He stated that he was going to change locations, then ended up never getting a new location. It wouldn't be the first lie he told. I can't imagine it would have been hard to get a new location, either, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't think it matters as much at this point, but I can't help but shake the feeling that after seeing the good business practices instantiated by Gamerz that they could bomb this badly.
Regardless, I am personally glad that the store is out of business, just so that people don't have to deal with the abuse. Midwest Gamez, my new locals, has gotten the entirety of the Vanguard playerbase in the Indianapolis area, and the game has continued to remain stable for well over a year, so there were benefits to this turn of events as well.
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