Preface: Milling the opponent isn't a viable wincon with accel getting the bulk of good support in recent sets. Let's not pretend like that's anything other than a fun meme deck.
What happens when Vanguard "shifts focus" for a clan between sets? Well, a few things. You either end up with two "de facto" clans that don't meaningfully interact with one another, crazy hybrid concepts, or particular "good" cards from one build get eaten by the other build and only one variant ends up being played. Only in extremely rare cases do you end up with two builds that both benefit from the others' support with both retaining viability. At least in Vanguard, where power creep is mandated to sell sets due to a lack of set rotation. In Megacolony's case, it's more of the "good cards get eaten" idea. The old deck has, essentially, replaced its boss card with Gunningcoleo and remains more or less unchanged. I mean, the additional crit is the second best card Megacolony got this set so they don't have to run 4 draw nulls. That's kind of crazy when you consider it.
Let's discuss the issue that Megacolony has: Megacolony's new set of support is filled with high-rolling mechanics. Now, Vanguard already has triggers, which are elements of high-rolling mechanics. What happens when you "double down" on this? Your consistency takes a major hit. But, if the base effect (the low-roll) is good enough to justify the cost on its own, then the "high-roll" is merited in virtue of that. Let's look at the low-rolls for the cards Megacolony got this set and see if they're "worth it" on the merit of missing their primary skill.
Gunningcoleo -
On-ride, opponent mills one, Coleo gets 5k and Triple-Drive!!!(Odds of low-roll (milling 0-2), 80-86%).
Soul blast 1 grade 3, opponent mills one (Odds of low-roll (milling grade 3), 14-20%, odds of high-roll (milling trigger) 32%).
Gunningcoleo is an interesting exception to the rest of the set in that if the low-roll was all the card did, he would be worth running. Even over our previous boss, Spark, who has been made obsolete from numerous units that gain so much power that the -5k is negligible during the opponent's turn. He also doesn't really require soul to function, nor does he use counterblasts. He can fit any type of future support and I have doubts that the third VR Megacolony gets will be able to make this obsolete, and would likely still want to run it.
Rating 9/10
Cyclomatooth -
If something rides this, opponent discards 1 and the ride target gains 5000xgrade of the card.
When it attacks, CB1, SB1, opponent mills 1 and Cyclomatooth gains 10k. (Low-roll chance (milling trigger), 32%)
CB1 SB1 for making the opponent mill 1 and this card gaining 10k is trash. Even with the bonus critical on the high-roll, it's still not good. The on-ride effect is abysmal compared to just riding Gunningcoleo without a grade 3 in soul, then riding another the following turn. Especially if you have limited turns to survive in the accel meta. This card can't be meaningfully justified to run as a standalone card. Much less in spite of its incredible competition with Stag Beetle, Spark, Hell Demise, and Ant Lion.
Rating 3/10
Hiding Killerleaf -
On-attack, CB1, SB1, opponent mills 1 and Leaf gains 10k. (Low-roll chance (milling trigger), 32%)
Similar to Cyclomatooth, you have 10k and mill 1 on the low-roll. The difference being that the high-roll is actually much more useful, since it's "draw a card". It compensates for the natural weakness of protect decks to hit over force decks and gives meaningful pressure to accel decks while also adding defense. Of course, the obvious downside is that there are numerous other clans with access to better/cheaper draws than CB1/SB1. But, when Killerleaf goes off properly, he's not awful. But, in playing the card, with the same odds of him failing as my opponent hitting a trigger, it just feels bad. That being said, with the high-chance of success, I think this is one of the few justified cards to run.
Rating 5.5/10
Brawny Jerk -
On-call, SB1, this unit gains 6k, mill 1 for opponent. (Low-roll chance (milling trigger), 32%)
When it boosts a unit attacking a grade 3 VG, discard 1 and opponent discards 1.
Brawny Jerk has a lot more potential since Megacolony has more raw hand-cards than most clans to make the 1-for-1 trade more valuable. The SB1 +6k mill one is honestly not awful either, as it wasn't uncommon to make this SB1 cost for Hercules or Spiteful Hopper to give this amount of power prior to this. And the bonus effect on high-roll (soul charge 1) is actually incredible. If you charge a grade 3, you're able to use Coleo's skill or Ant Lion's skill an additional time for free. If you charge a Water Gang against a retirement deck, it gives you an out to get Water Gang to fire off if you didn't ride him.
Rating 7/10
Additionally, we also got one non-RNG high rarity card:
Megalaralancer -
On-attack, gains 2k per rest RG opponent has. You may move a RG to soul to make the opponent unable to intercept until the end of turn.
This card is hot garbage. It's either a vanilla beatstick (which isn't really amazing) or it causes you to lose a booster or attacker to nullify intercepting OR give them the opportunity to pre-emptively intercept. I guess it's supposed to be "trade a boost to nullify Protect II". Because Protect II needed a counter that didn't involve "not being Protect I". Regardless, the effects are underwhelming for the first, terrible for the second. Now, obviously, you might think, "Tim! This is it! This fixes the soul issue!" To which I reply, "Yes, let's neg ourselves so we can get the soul to roll for a chance to undo the neg we just did!" The only real benefit is tossing G3 RGs in soul so you can get another user out of your Coleo or Ant Lion. And that's still a hard minus for the first skill which isn't worth it to attempt, typically, and makes Ant Lion a -3 to use which makes it potentially more beneficial to your opponent than to you, at that point.
Rating 1.5/10
So you might be wondering, "Tim, these RNG cards seem okay. What's the big deal? Why aren't they worth running in your opinion?" And I agree, if there wasn't previous Megacolony support, I'd run them due to lack of better options, but... you see... Megacolony has a 10/10 card. It's still their best card and still better than Gunningcoleo. All builds want to run it or suffer the consequences of the deck failing to ever secure card advantage ever again. It's the combo enabler. It creates endless potential. It lets you reuse your move-to-soul AND on-call effects. It's a solid first ride and amazing rear guard. It has same-turn synergy with both Water Gang and the promo. What card? Stag Beetle of course.
Machining Stag Beetle -
On ride or call, call two units from soul to RC as rest. If this unit is on the VC, gain power equal to the original power of those units.
Rating 10/10
Now, Stag doesn't typically want to call grade 3s from soul (other than maybe a Hell Demise), so Gunningcoleo and Ant Lion play nicely with it. But, you also don't want to use grade 3 soul for anything other than Gunningcoleo or Ant Lion. So what do you do in order to try and run the other soul blast cards? Well, the short answer is, you can't, really. Do you run the "Get two cards for literally free" or do you run the "CB1, SB1, 10k on attack, have a 2/3 chance of drawing a card/gaining a critical?" I mean, the answer is pretty obvious when you think about it. Megacolony just doesn't have enough soul generation to run both, and Stag Beetle is still obviously superior. Again, since there's no reliable method of soul generation (on-hits from grade 1s are all we have at either a -1 to us or a break-even outside of Megalarancer who is just awkward and Water Gang which is public enemy #1 and will be sniped/attacked pretty much without fail) we're left only 3-4~ soul we can reliably soul blast/call to RG. Stag eats up most of that on his first call.
As things stand, it's either:
Option A: Run Stag
Option B: Drop Stag to run worse cards
And I just can't see myself doing option B for anything other than meme builds. Fortunately, Brawny Jerk OR Killerleaf could either be justifiably run in the deck without causing too much harm. But we have a brand new problem: A counterblast vacuum.
Previously, we had to spend all of our counterblasts on Spark. Spark's been cut for Coleo. What do we even do with resources? Obviously, Water Gang is ideal, but if we could use counterblasts on Water Gang all the time at-will, we'd never do anything different. Thus, it seems like certain other cards might want to be cut. For example, Spiteful Hopper and Butterfly Officer might be worth cutting since we can't afford the soul for Hopper and we don't want to shove cards in the soul for minimal purpose with Officer (although, Officer isn't bad. We just need the unflip to justify the spot, so it will likely phase in and out of decks for the next few sets of support Megacolony gets).
I think that, in place of them, we'll be running Millipede (promo, coming out soon) and Brawny Jerk. Jerk fills the niche of Hopper with a strong chance of not "losing" the soul. Additionally, he helps push harder on your late game plays when you're trying to finish with Ant Lion. Finally, Millipede was never a "bad" card. He just contradicted Spark completely. Like I've said since it was released, it just needed a different deck to thrive in. This is that deck.
Decklist:
Grade 0's
Worker Ant - Starter
2x Draw Nulls
10x Crit
4x Heal
Grade 1's
4x Machining Mosquito
4x Brawny Jerk
3x Stealth Millipede
Grade 2's
4x Machining Mantis
4x Water Gang
3x Bloody Hercules
Grade 3's
4x Stag Beetle
4x Gunningcoleo
2x Hell Demise
1x Ant Lion
I think at this point, the only card I haven't "explained" is Bloody Hercules, which doesn't seem to be a popular pick. Let me justify my decision. In a deck running more than 8 crits with extra drive checks, getting bonus crit swings will happen a lot. Hercules unflipping is fairly irrelevant for this specific deck, but taking out an interceptor and giving plus power to the row with crit effectively adds 11k to that row, which will force between 10-15k extra shield for that row, effectively, if they need to guard it to survive, which is pretty common.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Platina Ezel - New Trigger Calculations
Since I've been waiting for 3 hours to get into MTG Arena and it's still down, I decided to burn some time by writing this article. Yes, I do math when I'm bored.
For those unaware, Platina Ezel's new effect is:
Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel
[ACT](VC):[COST][Counter-Blast 1], and change this turn's first drive check to "look at two cards from the top of your deck, reveal one card from among them in your trigger zone, and call one card from among them to (RC)." If your soul has two or more grade 3 cards, change the second drive check of the turn and more as well.
Let's start with the basic odds.
Odds of hitting at least one trigger off of a normal Twin-Drive!!: 55.1%
Odds of hitting at least one trigger with no grade 3's in soul: 70.39%.
Odds of hitting at least one trigger with a grade 3 in soul: 80.88%
Odds of hitting two triggers off of a normal Twin-Drive!!: 10.2%
Odds of hitting two triggers with no grade 3's in soul: 17.22%
Odds of hitting two triggers with a grade 3 in soul: 30.36%
The big thing to notice here is that your odds of hitting two triggers is the biggest boon this card's selective trigger checking grants to you. The odds are the same as hitting a single trigger or more on two independent Twin-Drives!!, which is why the number is so comically large. If you are just aiming to hit a singular trigger, you should recall that the number for no grade 3's in soul is identical to the odds of hitting a trigger with OG CEO Amaterasu. Obviously, one-to-passing Ezel is going to be a non-option. Two-to-passing also isn't particularly safe (especially if fronts are involved), as the odds of the Platina player hitting two triggers are about the same as the odds of a normal Twin-Drive!! getting a single trigger. Hopefully, being armed with this information will help to keep you aware of what the general risk level is with each decision.
For those unaware, Platina Ezel's new effect is:
Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel
[ACT](VC):[COST][Counter-Blast 1], and change this turn's first drive check to "look at two cards from the top of your deck, reveal one card from among them in your trigger zone, and call one card from among them to (RC)." If your soul has two or more grade 3 cards, change the second drive check of the turn and more as well.
Let's start with the basic odds.
Odds of hitting at least one trigger off of a normal Twin-Drive!!: 55.1%
Odds of hitting at least one trigger with no grade 3's in soul: 70.39%.
Odds of hitting at least one trigger with a grade 3 in soul: 80.88%
Odds of hitting two triggers off of a normal Twin-Drive!!: 10.2%
Odds of hitting two triggers with no grade 3's in soul: 17.22%
Odds of hitting two triggers with a grade 3 in soul: 30.36%
The big thing to notice here is that your odds of hitting two triggers is the biggest boon this card's selective trigger checking grants to you. The odds are the same as hitting a single trigger or more on two independent Twin-Drives!!, which is why the number is so comically large. If you are just aiming to hit a singular trigger, you should recall that the number for no grade 3's in soul is identical to the odds of hitting a trigger with OG CEO Amaterasu. Obviously, one-to-passing Ezel is going to be a non-option. Two-to-passing also isn't particularly safe (especially if fronts are involved), as the odds of the Platina player hitting two triggers are about the same as the odds of a normal Twin-Drive!! getting a single trigger. Hopefully, being armed with this information will help to keep you aware of what the general risk level is with each decision.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Vanguard Zero - Initial Thoughts, Opinions, and Theory-Crafting
After watching a full game of Vanguard Zero, I've come to a few conclusions about what's going to be busted and what will be balanced.
First, I'll explain some core mechanics so you can follow what the game plays like.
You have a 40 card deck. A vanilla starter, 13 grade 1s, 13 grade 2s, and 13 grade 3s that are also trigger units (you get to choose what type of triggers they are). This next part is conjecture, but I can only assume that you are limited to 4 heals. If we get to use 9 critical triggers, that will be fancy. I may even evaluate if running fewer heals and more crits would be worthwhile. Spoilers, it probably will be if my theories are remotely accurate.
The board is setup the same as vanilla Vanguard. You have a Vanguard circle and 5 RG slots in the normal locations. Riding and calling function identically to vanilla Vanguard. That's about where the similarities end. When it comes time to attack, you'll notice that you are unable to call Guardians. That's because Guarding isn't "a thing" in this game. Instead, your opponent must attack "interceptors" before they can swing at your face. This means that front row units are going to be consistently played and removed throughout the course of the game. Being able to maintain a board is key, as it is the difference between getting donked in the face once per turn or several times in a turn. Naturally, retiring a grade 2 on your opponent's field during your main phase leads to you getting an extra swing at their face, so retirement is pretty good.
For actual combat, drive checks function normally (other than grade 3s having 5k shield value and being triggers now). Damage checks are wildly different, however. When you take a damage, your Vanguard gains power equal to the shield value of the damage checked unit (which is always 5000 currently). If your opponent cannot hit 16k, then 21k (assuming you have no front row grade 2 RGs and they don't hit triggers), then simply damage checking can shut down their offense. Additionally, perfect guards do exist in the game. They don't require a discard to use, and automatically nullify the first attack done at your Vanguard that turn while they are in your hand.
Speculation: It was not mentioned whether or not that attack needs to have enough power to "force" the activation of the null guard. Something to look out for in the future.
With those core mechanics out of the way, the rest of the game functions like Vanguard, and games are won by going to 6 damage. All of the units I've seen have had their original skills (barring Dragonic Overlord, which gets Drive -2 on VC), but that is likely to be subject to change after more testing is done and they've already made the claim that cards could change for balancing purposes.
With all of that out of the way, let's talk some OP (in theory) units from the older sets.
Dragonic Overlord (on RG) - Dragonic Overlord was always a strong RG in early Vanguard in my opinion. I doubt they'll allow deck mixing, but if they do, he had some nutso synergy with Mr. Invincible, Hungry Dumpty, and Claydoll. In Vanguard Zero, assuming you have an 11k RG row and a Waterfall on Vanguard, you could easily CB3, wipe out the interceptors, swing 11k to VG, swing Overlord to Vanguard, Swing Waterfall to Vanguard and get in three damage that your opponent can't really do anything about (unless they have a null guard or damage check a draw and draw a perfect guard). That's devastating.
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion - Similar in concept, attacking the Vanguard and the Interceptors at the same time is pretty good. In OG Vanguard, you would lose 10k~ shield. In Vanguard Zero, you will lose your face to the two subsequent attacks that you can't guard as long as the RG rows can get the needed power to hit over the damage checks, which is the core concern Narukami seems to have at the moment. Additionally, Shiden and Raiden "stopped interceptors" in OG Narukami. Interested in seeing how those transition.
Bonus Critical Vanguards/Rear Guards - It should be pretty obvious that bonus crit units are cancer when not only can the opponent not guard, but they also must use their perfect guards as soon as they are able to. If you aren't attacking Vanguard last, you are heavily incentivized to pass crits to your RGs (as the only thing that could make the next attack be nullified would be them hitting a draw trigger (10% if they run 4) into a null guard (10%) which comes out to a 1% chance for them to do so, so giving them less damage checks on the between is going to be extremely beneficial. If the unit in question can hit 3 critical, it's just game over at that point.
Look to Gancelot either being overpowered (trading a trigger back to deck for an interceptor is already strong, especially since you pick which units are which trigger and this will be your heal. If he can CB4 for +10k +2 crit like in OG, it's game over) or nerfbatted/changed completely.
On-hit units - This also shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. If you control when your opponent is able to guard, you control when your on-hit effects proc. The majority of on-hit effects in the early game were either CB2 draw a card effects or Megablasts (draw 5 cards/retire all opposing RGs), so this won't be an overwhelming advantage necessarily. But the alternative Enigman builds from set 8 would certainly be stepped up quite a bit (made worse with Laurel being a card) and Aqua Force would also get some solid usage out of Hydro Hurricane Dragon. Things to keep in mind.
At the end of the day, these theories are based largely off of what we've seen so far and what is likely to be coming for the game in the near-ish future, assuming major changes to cards aren't in the works (they probably are).
Some cards aren't even playable without grade 0s (RIP in Aleph). So there are definitely going to be changes. Hopefully Bushiroad doesn't screw up the game balance super early, but they're Bushiroad, so... they probably will.
First, I'll explain some core mechanics so you can follow what the game plays like.
You have a 40 card deck. A vanilla starter, 13 grade 1s, 13 grade 2s, and 13 grade 3s that are also trigger units (you get to choose what type of triggers they are). This next part is conjecture, but I can only assume that you are limited to 4 heals. If we get to use 9 critical triggers, that will be fancy. I may even evaluate if running fewer heals and more crits would be worthwhile. Spoilers, it probably will be if my theories are remotely accurate.
The board is setup the same as vanilla Vanguard. You have a Vanguard circle and 5 RG slots in the normal locations. Riding and calling function identically to vanilla Vanguard. That's about where the similarities end. When it comes time to attack, you'll notice that you are unable to call Guardians. That's because Guarding isn't "a thing" in this game. Instead, your opponent must attack "interceptors" before they can swing at your face. This means that front row units are going to be consistently played and removed throughout the course of the game. Being able to maintain a board is key, as it is the difference between getting donked in the face once per turn or several times in a turn. Naturally, retiring a grade 2 on your opponent's field during your main phase leads to you getting an extra swing at their face, so retirement is pretty good.
For actual combat, drive checks function normally (other than grade 3s having 5k shield value and being triggers now). Damage checks are wildly different, however. When you take a damage, your Vanguard gains power equal to the shield value of the damage checked unit (which is always 5000 currently). If your opponent cannot hit 16k, then 21k (assuming you have no front row grade 2 RGs and they don't hit triggers), then simply damage checking can shut down their offense. Additionally, perfect guards do exist in the game. They don't require a discard to use, and automatically nullify the first attack done at your Vanguard that turn while they are in your hand.
Speculation: It was not mentioned whether or not that attack needs to have enough power to "force" the activation of the null guard. Something to look out for in the future.
With those core mechanics out of the way, the rest of the game functions like Vanguard, and games are won by going to 6 damage. All of the units I've seen have had their original skills (barring Dragonic Overlord, which gets Drive -2 on VC), but that is likely to be subject to change after more testing is done and they've already made the claim that cards could change for balancing purposes.
With all of that out of the way, let's talk some OP (in theory) units from the older sets.
Dragonic Overlord (on RG) - Dragonic Overlord was always a strong RG in early Vanguard in my opinion. I doubt they'll allow deck mixing, but if they do, he had some nutso synergy with Mr. Invincible, Hungry Dumpty, and Claydoll. In Vanguard Zero, assuming you have an 11k RG row and a Waterfall on Vanguard, you could easily CB3, wipe out the interceptors, swing 11k to VG, swing Overlord to Vanguard, Swing Waterfall to Vanguard and get in three damage that your opponent can't really do anything about (unless they have a null guard or damage check a draw and draw a perfect guard). That's devastating.
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion - Similar in concept, attacking the Vanguard and the Interceptors at the same time is pretty good. In OG Vanguard, you would lose 10k~ shield. In Vanguard Zero, you will lose your face to the two subsequent attacks that you can't guard as long as the RG rows can get the needed power to hit over the damage checks, which is the core concern Narukami seems to have at the moment. Additionally, Shiden and Raiden "stopped interceptors" in OG Narukami. Interested in seeing how those transition.
Bonus Critical Vanguards/Rear Guards - It should be pretty obvious that bonus crit units are cancer when not only can the opponent not guard, but they also must use their perfect guards as soon as they are able to. If you aren't attacking Vanguard last, you are heavily incentivized to pass crits to your RGs (as the only thing that could make the next attack be nullified would be them hitting a draw trigger (10% if they run 4) into a null guard (10%) which comes out to a 1% chance for them to do so, so giving them less damage checks on the between is going to be extremely beneficial. If the unit in question can hit 3 critical, it's just game over at that point.
Look to Gancelot either being overpowered (trading a trigger back to deck for an interceptor is already strong, especially since you pick which units are which trigger and this will be your heal. If he can CB4 for +10k +2 crit like in OG, it's game over) or nerfbatted/changed completely.
On-hit units - This also shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. If you control when your opponent is able to guard, you control when your on-hit effects proc. The majority of on-hit effects in the early game were either CB2 draw a card effects or Megablasts (draw 5 cards/retire all opposing RGs), so this won't be an overwhelming advantage necessarily. But the alternative Enigman builds from set 8 would certainly be stepped up quite a bit (made worse with Laurel being a card) and Aqua Force would also get some solid usage out of Hydro Hurricane Dragon. Things to keep in mind.
At the end of the day, these theories are based largely off of what we've seen so far and what is likely to be coming for the game in the near-ish future, assuming major changes to cards aren't in the works (they probably are).
Some cards aren't even playable without grade 0s (RIP in Aleph). So there are definitely going to be changes. Hopefully Bushiroad doesn't screw up the game balance super early, but they're Bushiroad, so... they probably will.
Monday, July 23, 2018
V Era Trigger Tier List (Standard)
After three sets of game play, we've gotten to see how the new values for triggers, including their shield values, weighs in on their overall usefulness.
Let's go ahead and list them:
SS Tier
Front Triggers
S Tier
Critical Triggers, Heal Triggers, Null Guard Draws
C Tier
Non-null Draws
As it turns out, the added shield value for Crits and heals has made them even better than before, albeit less impactful with 10k triggers and a ton of bonus power in the new format. That being said, I'd argue that Crits, Heals, and Draw-Nulls are about even in strength.
With non-Sentinel Draw Triggers being a pathetic 5k shield, they simply should never be run. The shield value is negligible in this format, the extra draws you get are marginal over many play tests, and in a format of sentinel negation, you really need shield value. As with my previous tier list, drawing into a draw trigger instead of checking into it now reduces your shield by a full 10k, and there's more variance making the Draw Trigger actually net you less average shield than if you had checked a front or a critical. I didn't think this would need to be said, but I'm seeing a lot of 6/6/4 lists floating around.
If it were in my power to not play Draw Nulls in non-Accel clans, I would. Sadly, the option to adjust your trigger line-up in Force and Protect decks just isn't there. They force you to run 4 or more draws, and I'm looking forward to this changing. I would gladly play grade 1 nulls for a 12 Crit lineup if it's beneficial for the deck in question. This is actually a philosophy I've applied in Nova Grapplers, where I play 7 front/5 crit/4 heal and play the grade 1 null, as grade 1 Novas are extremely lackluster at the moment and high-rolling is super important since it's the deck's win condition.
Finally, we have the newest trigger, the Accel Trigger. Wew lad is it ever amazing. Accel clans get bonus front row slots and this bad boy can net you 40k power with only one extra slot. It's simply a fantastic trigger, offensively and defensively, as it can make your entire board unable to be hit mid-game. It puts in so much work that it's actually crazy, which is why I've bumped it up to SS tier. It's currently the strongest offensive *and* defensive trigger, and if you get 2-to-passed and check this first, you don't have to worry about making the gamble to break through. It has so many facets that make it function quite nicely. Definitely run no less than 6 in any accel deck in my opinion.
That's it for this article. Have a good one!
Let's go ahead and list them:
SS Tier
Front Triggers
S Tier
Critical Triggers, Heal Triggers, Null Guard Draws
C Tier
Non-null Draws
As it turns out, the added shield value for Crits and heals has made them even better than before, albeit less impactful with 10k triggers and a ton of bonus power in the new format. That being said, I'd argue that Crits, Heals, and Draw-Nulls are about even in strength.
With non-Sentinel Draw Triggers being a pathetic 5k shield, they simply should never be run. The shield value is negligible in this format, the extra draws you get are marginal over many play tests, and in a format of sentinel negation, you really need shield value. As with my previous tier list, drawing into a draw trigger instead of checking into it now reduces your shield by a full 10k, and there's more variance making the Draw Trigger actually net you less average shield than if you had checked a front or a critical. I didn't think this would need to be said, but I'm seeing a lot of 6/6/4 lists floating around.
If it were in my power to not play Draw Nulls in non-Accel clans, I would. Sadly, the option to adjust your trigger line-up in Force and Protect decks just isn't there. They force you to run 4 or more draws, and I'm looking forward to this changing. I would gladly play grade 1 nulls for a 12 Crit lineup if it's beneficial for the deck in question. This is actually a philosophy I've applied in Nova Grapplers, where I play 7 front/5 crit/4 heal and play the grade 1 null, as grade 1 Novas are extremely lackluster at the moment and high-rolling is super important since it's the deck's win condition.
Finally, we have the newest trigger, the Accel Trigger. Wew lad is it ever amazing. Accel clans get bonus front row slots and this bad boy can net you 40k power with only one extra slot. It's simply a fantastic trigger, offensively and defensively, as it can make your entire board unable to be hit mid-game. It puts in so much work that it's actually crazy, which is why I've bumped it up to SS tier. It's currently the strongest offensive *and* defensive trigger, and if you get 2-to-passed and check this first, you don't have to worry about making the gamble to break through. It has so many facets that make it function quite nicely. Definitely run no less than 6 in any accel deck in my opinion.
That's it for this article. Have a good one!
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Vanguard Reboot - First Thoughts
Hey all,
I decided to give some initial thoughts on the new format and what I think of each individual mechanic, as well as the removal of other things. Let's start with my initial tier list for set 1.
SS+++ tier
Going First
S tier
Oracle Think Tank, Kagero, Nova Grapplers with a good hand
B tier
Royal Paladin
C tier
Nova Grapplers having a mediocre hand or worse.
You may notice that I skipped a full tier between Royal Paladin and every other deck. That's because Royals have no incentive to multi-ride grade 3s, don't have a "high-roll" that proves to be devastating like Novas (restanding a 32k attacker with the potential for triggers is crazy strong), and have little end-game utility outside of Soul Saver, which can only be used once and fights for resources with Blaster Blade. Outside of Royals, I think the format is pretty well balanced. Novas have an advantage over OTT generally speaking. OTT can outlast Kagero, although Kagero can get in a win with Waterfall in ideal situations. Kagero pretty much auto-wins the Nova match-up. It's not so bad that all of the match-ups are the equivalent of playing rock, papers, scissors, but no singular deck has an insurmountable advantage that we can't see a diversity of tops, either.
My initial opinion is that the format is well-balanced in card design. But that doesn't make the format itself well-designed. Let's look into the Imaginary Gifts.
FORCE
Force gives a circle of your choice 10000 power during your turn. It's pretty close to adding a legion mate to that circle. Consequently, this is a power-level we've seen and are used to. Currently, the advantages of Force are that it makes power-requirement clans like Dimension Police achieve those requirements far more easily. It also makes multi-attacker decks that call mid-battlephase have extra advantages when this is done, which will likely be a facet we see for Royal Paladin and Gold Paladin at a later date (assuming Gold Paladin is in this reboot). I think Force has solid utility and potential. The only major abuse I can see for force clans would be sentinel restriction. Wouldn't you know it, that happened set 1 with a bonus crit and it's the best singular card in the set. I think that force is the most tame of the the imaginary gifts in power level and the one that's the hardest to abuse.
ACCEL
Accel gives you an extra front row RG circle with a bonus 10000 power on it during your turn. It's pretty nuts. Nova Grappler started with very few cards in the first set and nothing to reliably get a solid field set-up. Currently, when they get their optimal set-up, they are the strongest overall deck. But, high rolling is still high rolling. You will keep seeing Novas top here and there so long as the deck can destroy anything when it gets that setup. I think this is the strongest of the gifts because it has the most potential for abuse when joined with a clan that has access to mid-battlephase calls or a large amount of restanding. Not only do you get all of the swings associated with having the extra RG slots, but you also get that extra static power boost at all times. Getting in 7-8 attacks at ascended power levels can be quite potent, to say the least. So far, no accel clans have had a mid-battlephase call announced, so I think Bushiroad is being mindful of this. That being said, I could see Accel clans being stupid in premium, which is why I'm glad I won't be playing it.
PROTECT
Protect gives you a null guard every time you ride to grade 3. It's pretty nuts. It's currently the strongest mechanic in the current format because Bushiroad has been mindful in restricting the other two from becoming too cancerous, at least in the first set. This mechanic is strong independent of the deck being used, but OTT gets extra bonuses for riding more grade 3s with Imperial Daughter and Deer, so it's shown itself to be the strongest deck in the current format for exactly this reason. I can see protect in a control clan (like Megacolony) being strong, but I think protect in a clan like Granblue is going to really show us the limits on how much it can do as a mechanic. I think protect clans are always going to be in the upper tiers simply for the mechanic at this point, as the mechanic is independently strong and requires no additional mechanism to function properly.
I think that the Imaginary Gifts have the potential to be really unbalanced depending on what support is created, and it will make entire clans limited in design in that facet. I wanted to discuss what I'm really upset about with the new format: Going first. I wrote an article about how going first was objectively overpowered until Legion became a mechanic. Well, here we are, back with the same old problems, only we also have to deal with Imaginary Gifts benefiting the first player as well and all previous mechanics that benefited the second-turn player are now gone. I have done some playtesting with friends, and short of playing a deck that wins a match-up convincingly, the person who goes first wins at a very disproportionate amount. I did mirrors with my buddy (Novas vs. Novas) where there is even more variance in potential power-output from the decks, and the first-turn player won the first 12 games. ~_~ Unless there is a large disparity in deck strength, the deck going second has an unfavorable match-up, or the player going first plays suboptimally, going first is a daunting facet to the game that currently is the hardest thing in a fight to overcome. I hope Bushiroad addresses this in some way to make it more "fair" for people going second. Especially now that the loser decides who goes first in games 2 and 3. Every single 3 game match my buddies and I played was won by the person who won the dice roll when doing mirrors. Let that sink in.
In conclusion, I think that there's some room to work with. I see caution from Bushiroad on Accel that I think is merited. I also see caution on Royal Paladin, as that was the busted clan last time around, and this over-caution left them pretty lackluster, but these cautions can both be fixed later. I think that the individual mechanics are slightly imbalanced, Accel for potential and Protect for practical usage, leaving Force somewhat underpowered, but I think that they aren't so varied in power-level that it's damning to the game's potential for fun or future content. I do think this about going first, though. I hope Bushiroad will implement something to make going second less detrimental that doesn't lead to the stupidity of something similar to R I P P U L.
I decided to give some initial thoughts on the new format and what I think of each individual mechanic, as well as the removal of other things. Let's start with my initial tier list for set 1.
SS+++ tier
Going First
S tier
Oracle Think Tank, Kagero, Nova Grapplers with a good hand
B tier
Royal Paladin
C tier
Nova Grapplers having a mediocre hand or worse.
You may notice that I skipped a full tier between Royal Paladin and every other deck. That's because Royals have no incentive to multi-ride grade 3s, don't have a "high-roll" that proves to be devastating like Novas (restanding a 32k attacker with the potential for triggers is crazy strong), and have little end-game utility outside of Soul Saver, which can only be used once and fights for resources with Blaster Blade. Outside of Royals, I think the format is pretty well balanced. Novas have an advantage over OTT generally speaking. OTT can outlast Kagero, although Kagero can get in a win with Waterfall in ideal situations. Kagero pretty much auto-wins the Nova match-up. It's not so bad that all of the match-ups are the equivalent of playing rock, papers, scissors, but no singular deck has an insurmountable advantage that we can't see a diversity of tops, either.
My initial opinion is that the format is well-balanced in card design. But that doesn't make the format itself well-designed. Let's look into the Imaginary Gifts.
FORCE
Force gives a circle of your choice 10000 power during your turn. It's pretty close to adding a legion mate to that circle. Consequently, this is a power-level we've seen and are used to. Currently, the advantages of Force are that it makes power-requirement clans like Dimension Police achieve those requirements far more easily. It also makes multi-attacker decks that call mid-battlephase have extra advantages when this is done, which will likely be a facet we see for Royal Paladin and Gold Paladin at a later date (assuming Gold Paladin is in this reboot). I think Force has solid utility and potential. The only major abuse I can see for force clans would be sentinel restriction. Wouldn't you know it, that happened set 1 with a bonus crit and it's the best singular card in the set. I think that force is the most tame of the the imaginary gifts in power level and the one that's the hardest to abuse.
ACCEL
Accel gives you an extra front row RG circle with a bonus 10000 power on it during your turn. It's pretty nuts. Nova Grappler started with very few cards in the first set and nothing to reliably get a solid field set-up. Currently, when they get their optimal set-up, they are the strongest overall deck. But, high rolling is still high rolling. You will keep seeing Novas top here and there so long as the deck can destroy anything when it gets that setup. I think this is the strongest of the gifts because it has the most potential for abuse when joined with a clan that has access to mid-battlephase calls or a large amount of restanding. Not only do you get all of the swings associated with having the extra RG slots, but you also get that extra static power boost at all times. Getting in 7-8 attacks at ascended power levels can be quite potent, to say the least. So far, no accel clans have had a mid-battlephase call announced, so I think Bushiroad is being mindful of this. That being said, I could see Accel clans being stupid in premium, which is why I'm glad I won't be playing it.
PROTECT
Protect gives you a null guard every time you ride to grade 3. It's pretty nuts. It's currently the strongest mechanic in the current format because Bushiroad has been mindful in restricting the other two from becoming too cancerous, at least in the first set. This mechanic is strong independent of the deck being used, but OTT gets extra bonuses for riding more grade 3s with Imperial Daughter and Deer, so it's shown itself to be the strongest deck in the current format for exactly this reason. I can see protect in a control clan (like Megacolony) being strong, but I think protect in a clan like Granblue is going to really show us the limits on how much it can do as a mechanic. I think protect clans are always going to be in the upper tiers simply for the mechanic at this point, as the mechanic is independently strong and requires no additional mechanism to function properly.
I think that the Imaginary Gifts have the potential to be really unbalanced depending on what support is created, and it will make entire clans limited in design in that facet. I wanted to discuss what I'm really upset about with the new format: Going first. I wrote an article about how going first was objectively overpowered until Legion became a mechanic. Well, here we are, back with the same old problems, only we also have to deal with Imaginary Gifts benefiting the first player as well and all previous mechanics that benefited the second-turn player are now gone. I have done some playtesting with friends, and short of playing a deck that wins a match-up convincingly, the person who goes first wins at a very disproportionate amount. I did mirrors with my buddy (Novas vs. Novas) where there is even more variance in potential power-output from the decks, and the first-turn player won the first 12 games. ~_~ Unless there is a large disparity in deck strength, the deck going second has an unfavorable match-up, or the player going first plays suboptimally, going first is a daunting facet to the game that currently is the hardest thing in a fight to overcome. I hope Bushiroad addresses this in some way to make it more "fair" for people going second. Especially now that the loser decides who goes first in games 2 and 3. Every single 3 game match my buddies and I played was won by the person who won the dice roll when doing mirrors. Let that sink in.
In conclusion, I think that there's some room to work with. I see caution from Bushiroad on Accel that I think is merited. I also see caution on Royal Paladin, as that was the busted clan last time around, and this over-caution left them pretty lackluster, but these cautions can both be fixed later. I think that the individual mechanics are slightly imbalanced, Accel for potential and Protect for practical usage, leaving Force somewhat underpowered, but I think that they aren't so varied in power-level that it's damning to the game's potential for fun or future content. I do think this about going first, though. I hope Bushiroad will implement something to make going second less detrimental that doesn't lead to the stupidity of something similar to R I P P U L.
Friday, December 15, 2017
Interview with World Non Ranked Meme Player, Two Time Accidental Topping Player, The Princess of Dark Irregulars Himself: Timothy Emerson! On: Stardrive Dragon and Memes in Vanguard.
Hello again friends. TimPowerGamer here. Today I have an exclusive interview with the Princess of Dark Irregulars, Timothy Emerson. Timothy, how are you doing this wonderful December afternoon? I have to say, I am awestruck to be in the presence of Vanguard royalty. (TPG)
Why thank you, Mr. Power Gamer. I am doing quite well this afternoon. I do have to politely correct you on one thing, though. We are all royalty in Vanguard. I am really no different than anyone else. (TE)
TPG: Such humility! You exemplify all of the aspects of princesshood. I wanted to shift to our first topic if that's fine with you.
TE: No. Let's talk about how princess-like I am for a few more paragraphs.
TPG: No. Now, let's discuss memes in Vanguard. What is your stance on memes?
TE: I personally believe that memes are the very nature of Vanguard. Memes from every clan, unit, and player are what exemplify this game and make it what it is. Everything from Stardrive Dragon to Stardrive Dragon.
TPG: While I approve of the Stardrive Dragon meme, don't you have any other Vanguard memes?
TE: There are other Vanguard memes?
TPG: Yes, like the Zubat Victor meme you just released. Or the Hey Yo Pineapple memes. Or the Brandon Chmiel memes? Or you actually having ever topped. How did you manage that one, by the way, Timothy?
TE: For starters, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of these non-Stardrive memes. Secondly...
TPG: Ahh, well, if a doctor says so, it must be true.
TE: Assuredly.
TPG: Didn't you also top with Seven Seas Rush?
TE: Nobody cares about that.
TPG: Right. So, next question. What is your favorite card in the game.
TE: I'm sure Wolverine already knows.
TPG: Interesting. Who else acknowledges your avatar, Stardrive Dragon?
TE: Good question. Here are a few individuals who acknowledge the greatness of Stardrive Dragon. Donald Trump, Google, and Bushiroad's banlist.
TPG: Very interesting. So what you're saying is that Stardrive Dragon is quite literally the secret to success in Cardfight!! Vanguard?
TE: If Trump, Google, and especially Bushiroad know how overpowered this card is to the point where they would restrict it, I don't think I'd call it a secret.
TPG: Another quick question while I have you here. I notice that Stardrive Dragon is a "Shadow Paladin" in the Japanese text of that meme. Care to comment on this mistake?
TE: If Blaster Blade Seeker is a Shadow Paladin, why not Stardrive?
TPG: Valid point. Do you have any advice for those in the Vanguard community who want to rise to prominence and become well known and respected?
TE: Yes. Find a better goal in your life than enlarging your internet ego by claiming to be special at a Children's Trading Card Game.
TPG: Aren't you doing exactly what you're accusing other people of doing by being in this interview as a member of Vanguard royalty?
TE: Irony seems to be lost on you, Mr. Power Gamer.
TPG: Indeed it does.
TPG: That's it for my exclusive interview withmyse-, erm, with Timothy Emerson, princess of Dark Irregulars. Which makes me wonder why we never asked about Dark Irregula-
TE: Amon is my waifu.
Why thank you, Mr. Power Gamer. I am doing quite well this afternoon. I do have to politely correct you on one thing, though. We are all royalty in Vanguard. I am really no different than anyone else. (TE)
TPG: Such humility! You exemplify all of the aspects of princesshood. I wanted to shift to our first topic if that's fine with you.
TE: No. Let's talk about how princess-like I am for a few more paragraphs.
TPG: No. Now, let's discuss memes in Vanguard. What is your stance on memes?
TE: I personally believe that memes are the very nature of Vanguard. Memes from every clan, unit, and player are what exemplify this game and make it what it is. Everything from Stardrive Dragon to Stardrive Dragon.
TPG: While I approve of the Stardrive Dragon meme, don't you have any other Vanguard memes?
TE: There are other Vanguard memes?
TPG: Yes, like the Zubat Victor meme you just released. Or the Hey Yo Pineapple memes. Or the Brandon Chmiel memes? Or you actually having ever topped. How did you manage that one, by the way, Timothy?
TE: For starters, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of these non-Stardrive memes. Secondly...
TPG: Ahh, well, if a doctor says so, it must be true.
TE: Assuredly.
TPG: Didn't you also top with Seven Seas Rush?
TPG: Right. So, next question. What is your favorite card in the game.
TE: I'm sure Wolverine already knows.
TPG: Interesting. Who else acknowledges your avatar, Stardrive Dragon?
TE: Good question. Here are a few individuals who acknowledge the greatness of Stardrive Dragon. Donald Trump, Google, and Bushiroad's banlist.
TPG: Very interesting. So what you're saying is that Stardrive Dragon is quite literally the secret to success in Cardfight!! Vanguard?
TE: If Trump, Google, and especially Bushiroad know how overpowered this card is to the point where they would restrict it, I don't think I'd call it a secret.
TPG: Another quick question while I have you here. I notice that Stardrive Dragon is a "Shadow Paladin" in the Japanese text of that meme. Care to comment on this mistake?
TE: If Blaster Blade Seeker is a Shadow Paladin, why not Stardrive?
TPG: Valid point. Do you have any advice for those in the Vanguard community who want to rise to prominence and become well known and respected?
TE: Yes. Find a better goal in your life than enlarging your internet ego by claiming to be special at a Children's Trading Card Game.
TPG: Aren't you doing exactly what you're accusing other people of doing by being in this interview as a member of Vanguard royalty?
TE: Irony seems to be lost on you, Mr. Power Gamer.
TPG: Indeed it does.
TPG: That's it for my exclusive interview with
TE: Amon is my waifu.
Monday, January 16, 2017
A History of Bushiroad's Vanguard World Championships
Every single year, world finals happens. Every single year, people whine about the fact that the meta deck always wins. That bad players top. That Vanguard isn't competitive. That they're quitting the game. But, every single year, everyone seems to forget that the exact same thing happened the year before. But, what people don't seem to realize is, if a non-meta deck tops, the game isn't competitive because someone sacked with a non-meta deck and happened to win.
This year, we had an exceptional amount of players attending worlds that either maliciously or unknowingly cheated. Like, just about all of them. This, honestly, isn't wildly different from any other Vanguard Championship Circuit, outside of the staff being more incompetent than normal and the stream doing the rulings for them. It sucks when the judges aren't paying attention and things like this slip under the radar. With the loss of exceptional staff members like JD Mercado, it seems that Bushiroad can't ensure the integrity of the game. But enough about that, let's talk about the history of Vanguard World Championships.
2012 World Championships.
Brandon Smith (Spectral Duke Dragon) vs. Henry Suharto (Pellinore/Garmore)
Brandon expended a counterblast on Sleygal Dagger to make a 9k booster behind his Gigantech Destroyer to make a 21k row. Against a 9k Vanguard.
Henry called a Flame of Victory behind his 10k base Pellinore to attack a 10k base Spectral Duke Dragon, then subsequently lost because he didn't have shield. No, he didn't send it to the bottom of the deck with Pellinore to actually make a stage, either.
This was the first example of a World Championship that we had. Both players misplayed, albeit one more than the other, and it was recorded. Both players played pretty poorly, and people didn't really feel satisfied with the conclusion. To my knowledge, neither player stayed relevant after this. As a matter of fact, I don't believe we have a single person who got top 3 more than once at any World Championship.
2013 World Championships
While the decks were all pretty much what you would expect for a set 11~ time frame (DDD/DOtE won, Descendant was 3rd and 4th, Beast Deities had a surprise 2nd place finish, but Novas were the most supported clan and they had quite a bit going for them), that isn't what I wanted to touch on.
These finals weren't filmed. We can't touch on misplays or cheating. People were upset with Bushiroad for this, but they did nothing about it. It's hard to assess what happened under these conditions. But we can talk about the individual who became World Champion. Almeida Stewart. There have been allegations of Almeida cheating to win the Parisian qualifiers. It was said that he was able to stack opponents' decks without them or the judge noticing. As the article mentions, "According to our source, the statement 'If you cheat, cheat good' attributed to him by those that attended the tournament, has been a common saying from him throughout his career." has been a defining highlight of his reputation. If memory serves, I believe he was also caught stealing cards from a child and ended up getting in some legal trouble. I heard another report of him being in the news for stealing 4000 Euros of card gaming supplies in a gang-related incident. The truth of these claims is up in the air, but something definitely doesn't sit right here.
2014 World Championships
This is the second consecutive year that Bushiroad did not film the World Championship. The top three decks were all the same (Seekers). It's really hard to make any positive or negative commentary. However, 2nd place was KEVIN CHO! (Not really salty he beat me and knocked me out of the championships at Chicago this year, but I wanted to fill up space.) For all I know, this could have been the golden year of everyone being good at the game. The world may never know...
2014 was also the year they decided to fire JD Mercado for being too vocal about cheating that occurred in the Asia-Oceania Finals. Or, at least, that is my assumption of what happened. In this video you can see a Genesis player cheating really hard by having his preferred grade 2 ride face down, standing it as his Vanguard, saying, "Oops!", then adding it to his hand for his draw for turn.
2015 World Championships
R I P P U L was the deck that won the tournament this time. We got to see the grand finals get played. The Ripple player failed just about every turtle check and hit a critical just about every drive check, in spite of running draws and heal triggers. It was a very disappointing final match to watch, because he was rewarded for his opponent having a completely locked-out deck while playing a deck that was honestly trash, playing it like trash (never did top 7 search for Pavroth when riding Turtle, although that mattered less since he always had Odysseus, because he was a sack), then getting rewarded with triggers and with the ability to counteract the opponent playing the game in a pre-Sebreeze era. If he didn't sack triggers in such an insane way and if his opponent was actually hitting offensive triggers, the game would have spiraled out of the Ripple player's favor, easily. He had multiple grade 3's in hand game 2 and only had enough shield in hand because he hit a critical trigger every single drive check game 2. I decided to count triggers and turtles, so you can see how much of a sacklord this guy was with triggers, and why playing Turtle in a deck with 8 grade 3's is a waste.
Ripple player:
1st Drive Check - No trigger (False sense of security)
2nd Drive Check - Heal Trigger (Heal goes off)
3rd Drive Check - Critical Trigger
4th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
5th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
6th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
7th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
1st Turtle - Whiff (Heal)
2nd Turtle - Whiff (Genovious)
3rd Turtle - Perfect Guard (Pretty much the worst case scenario for calling a top card)
4th Turtle - Whiff (A lot of glare, but looks like a crit to me)
5th Turtle - Penguin Soldier
2016 World Championships
Our top 3 were:
1st - Daniel Middlesworth - 7C's Rush
2nd - Andy Lo - 7C's Rush
3rd - Liu Bo Chen - Thing Saver/Sanc Guard
As most of you are probably aware, there was a lot of misplaying going around. I believe it was 1st place who would use Nightrunners that were milled off of Nightrunners (the timing would be missed). The Gears player Time Leaped Gigi into Melem (Time Leap doesn't go to the same grade, and these are both grade 1's). The 3rd place player didn't discard for Sebreeze's skill (why he was running Sebreeze in a Sanc Guard deck is beyond me). Issues like this popped up all over the place. You've watched it or heard about it, and now you are angry. And here we are. We have yet to, other than the mysterious WC2014 which I wasn't able to find any real information on, have anything remotely close to a solid final match or a champion that we can say earned the title by being good at the game. And people are upset by it.
So the question lies: Have we ever had a respectable champion for an official Bushiroad tournament? Was there ever a player who legitimately outplayed the metagame and took advantage of how the game was played without locking people out of their own mechanics or luck sacking critical triggers left and right? The answer is yes.
Challenge Cup 2013. Before Team Leagues were a thing, this was how Bushiroad decided to do what eventually became "Spring Fest". They had shop qualifiers at many, many card shops all over the country. Winners of these qualifiers made it to a state qualifier. Winners of that state's qualifier made it to nationals. Sadly, nationals was where the event stopped. The individual who won nationals for this event was a very skillful player named Kaden Kawakami. Here is how he did it.
He ran the typical DOtE list. A lot of back row retirement. A lot of draw triggers. Typical walling for a deck in a metagame that struggled greatly to hit 18k. So, how was his list different? He didn't run any critical triggers. You might be thinking, "So, he's bad then?" Nope. He outplayed everybody. You see, in a best of 1 format, you have no idea what your opponent's trigger line-up is going to be. When you stare down a restanding Vanguard like DOtE, you can only assume that he is going to have the threat of increased critical pressure and a potential restand. Thus, the standard play against DOtE was to always guard him if you are capable of doing so. Kaden knew this and decided to run stand triggers to reinforce his rear guard pressure and end games. Keep in mind that during this timeframe, the standard meta way to play was to no guard any attack that didn't kill you to access limit break as early as possible, increasing the value of stand triggers even more. He legitimately outplayed the format, the players, and the metagame. And he didn't even have to lock people out of stride to do it.
It is my hope that we have another champion like Kaden to restore our faith in the game. In order for this to happen, Bushiroad needs to keep a better eye on R&D, keeping the game safe from an over saturation in the metagame along with the cheese mechanics of rushing. The only reason Gears or Wiseman Loop haven't won the last two championships was because rushing was the counter deck of the format, but the counters to rushing can't be used against the standard meta decks. Is it healthy? If rushing kills the cancer, does that make it chemotherapy? I doubt it. Bushiroad has designed themselves into a corner, and they have not handled it well.
This year, we had an exceptional amount of players attending worlds that either maliciously or unknowingly cheated. Like, just about all of them. This, honestly, isn't wildly different from any other Vanguard Championship Circuit, outside of the staff being more incompetent than normal and the stream doing the rulings for them. It sucks when the judges aren't paying attention and things like this slip under the radar. With the loss of exceptional staff members like JD Mercado, it seems that Bushiroad can't ensure the integrity of the game. But enough about that, let's talk about the history of Vanguard World Championships.
2012 World Championships.
Brandon Smith (Spectral Duke Dragon) vs. Henry Suharto (Pellinore/Garmore)
Brandon expended a counterblast on Sleygal Dagger to make a 9k booster behind his Gigantech Destroyer to make a 21k row. Against a 9k Vanguard.
Henry called a Flame of Victory behind his 10k base Pellinore to attack a 10k base Spectral Duke Dragon, then subsequently lost because he didn't have shield. No, he didn't send it to the bottom of the deck with Pellinore to actually make a stage, either.
This was the first example of a World Championship that we had. Both players misplayed, albeit one more than the other, and it was recorded. Both players played pretty poorly, and people didn't really feel satisfied with the conclusion. To my knowledge, neither player stayed relevant after this. As a matter of fact, I don't believe we have a single person who got top 3 more than once at any World Championship.
2013 World Championships
While the decks were all pretty much what you would expect for a set 11~ time frame (DDD/DOtE won, Descendant was 3rd and 4th, Beast Deities had a surprise 2nd place finish, but Novas were the most supported clan and they had quite a bit going for them), that isn't what I wanted to touch on.
These finals weren't filmed. We can't touch on misplays or cheating. People were upset with Bushiroad for this, but they did nothing about it. It's hard to assess what happened under these conditions. But we can talk about the individual who became World Champion. Almeida Stewart. There have been allegations of Almeida cheating to win the Parisian qualifiers. It was said that he was able to stack opponents' decks without them or the judge noticing. As the article mentions, "According to our source, the statement 'If you cheat, cheat good' attributed to him by those that attended the tournament, has been a common saying from him throughout his career." has been a defining highlight of his reputation. If memory serves, I believe he was also caught stealing cards from a child and ended up getting in some legal trouble. I heard another report of him being in the news for stealing 4000 Euros of card gaming supplies in a gang-related incident. The truth of these claims is up in the air, but something definitely doesn't sit right here.
2014 World Championships
This is the second consecutive year that Bushiroad did not film the World Championship. The top three decks were all the same (Seekers). It's really hard to make any positive or negative commentary. However, 2nd place was KEVIN CHO! (Not really salty he beat me and knocked me out of the championships at Chicago this year, but I wanted to fill up space.) For all I know, this could have been the golden year of everyone being good at the game. The world may never know...
2014 was also the year they decided to fire JD Mercado for being too vocal about cheating that occurred in the Asia-Oceania Finals. Or, at least, that is my assumption of what happened. In this video you can see a Genesis player cheating really hard by having his preferred grade 2 ride face down, standing it as his Vanguard, saying, "Oops!", then adding it to his hand for his draw for turn.
2015 World Championships
R I P P U L was the deck that won the tournament this time. We got to see the grand finals get played. The Ripple player failed just about every turtle check and hit a critical just about every drive check, in spite of running draws and heal triggers. It was a very disappointing final match to watch, because he was rewarded for his opponent having a completely locked-out deck while playing a deck that was honestly trash, playing it like trash (never did top 7 search for Pavroth when riding Turtle, although that mattered less since he always had Odysseus, because he was a sack), then getting rewarded with triggers and with the ability to counteract the opponent playing the game in a pre-Sebreeze era. If he didn't sack triggers in such an insane way and if his opponent was actually hitting offensive triggers, the game would have spiraled out of the Ripple player's favor, easily. He had multiple grade 3's in hand game 2 and only had enough shield in hand because he hit a critical trigger every single drive check game 2. I decided to count triggers and turtles, so you can see how much of a sacklord this guy was with triggers, and why playing Turtle in a deck with 8 grade 3's is a waste.
Ripple player:
1st Drive Check - No trigger (False sense of security)
2nd Drive Check - Heal Trigger (Heal goes off)
3rd Drive Check - Critical Trigger
4th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
5th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
6th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
7th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
1st Turtle - Whiff (Heal)
2nd Turtle - Whiff (Genovious)
3rd Turtle - Perfect Guard (Pretty much the worst case scenario for calling a top card)
4th Turtle - Whiff (A lot of glare, but looks like a crit to me)
5th Turtle - Penguin Soldier
2016 World Championships
Our top 3 were:
1st - Daniel Middlesworth - 7C's Rush
2nd - Andy Lo - 7C's Rush
3rd - Liu Bo Chen - Thing Saver/Sanc Guard
As most of you are probably aware, there was a lot of misplaying going around. I believe it was 1st place who would use Nightrunners that were milled off of Nightrunners (the timing would be missed). The Gears player Time Leaped Gigi into Melem (Time Leap doesn't go to the same grade, and these are both grade 1's). The 3rd place player didn't discard for Sebreeze's skill (why he was running Sebreeze in a Sanc Guard deck is beyond me). Issues like this popped up all over the place. You've watched it or heard about it, and now you are angry. And here we are. We have yet to, other than the mysterious WC2014 which I wasn't able to find any real information on, have anything remotely close to a solid final match or a champion that we can say earned the title by being good at the game. And people are upset by it.
So the question lies: Have we ever had a respectable champion for an official Bushiroad tournament? Was there ever a player who legitimately outplayed the metagame and took advantage of how the game was played without locking people out of their own mechanics or luck sacking critical triggers left and right? The answer is yes.
Challenge Cup 2013. Before Team Leagues were a thing, this was how Bushiroad decided to do what eventually became "Spring Fest". They had shop qualifiers at many, many card shops all over the country. Winners of these qualifiers made it to a state qualifier. Winners of that state's qualifier made it to nationals. Sadly, nationals was where the event stopped. The individual who won nationals for this event was a very skillful player named Kaden Kawakami. Here is how he did it.
He ran the typical DOtE list. A lot of back row retirement. A lot of draw triggers. Typical walling for a deck in a metagame that struggled greatly to hit 18k. So, how was his list different? He didn't run any critical triggers. You might be thinking, "So, he's bad then?" Nope. He outplayed everybody. You see, in a best of 1 format, you have no idea what your opponent's trigger line-up is going to be. When you stare down a restanding Vanguard like DOtE, you can only assume that he is going to have the threat of increased critical pressure and a potential restand. Thus, the standard play against DOtE was to always guard him if you are capable of doing so. Kaden knew this and decided to run stand triggers to reinforce his rear guard pressure and end games. Keep in mind that during this timeframe, the standard meta way to play was to no guard any attack that didn't kill you to access limit break as early as possible, increasing the value of stand triggers even more. He legitimately outplayed the format, the players, and the metagame. And he didn't even have to lock people out of stride to do it.
It is my hope that we have another champion like Kaden to restore our faith in the game. In order for this to happen, Bushiroad needs to keep a better eye on R&D, keeping the game safe from an over saturation in the metagame along with the cheese mechanics of rushing. The only reason Gears or Wiseman Loop haven't won the last two championships was because rushing was the counter deck of the format, but the counters to rushing can't be used against the standard meta decks. Is it healthy? If rushing kills the cancer, does that make it chemotherapy? I doubt it. Bushiroad has designed themselves into a corner, and they have not handled it well.
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