#anzu's vanguard tcg adventures

[carnelianwings]

Went to my first Vanguard shop tournament today, didn’t do great (1-2 is hardly a stellar result but hey, I won one!) but I had fun, got to enjoy myself, played against people I don’t normally play against, also got to play against people I normally do play against. Will I do it again? Yes. My locals has some pretty nice people, no one hit on me (I was the only girl there, but that’s nothing new to me, I’m used to being the Token Girl of most gaming groups at this point), people were focused more on the cards and the game play, so that’s hugely appreciated. Also got to play against some new people afterwards - I brought a couple of other decks with me that I just play “for fun” as opposed to “for tournament” - so that was pretty fun. Someone did actually pull the Minerva promo and was nice enough to sell it to me, so that’s 1 promo down, 3 more to go? XD

A little further self reflection after the cut (just because I doubt everyone here wants to actually hear me talk cards lol)

First game - went 2nd vs Hexaorb Aquamarine

Funny thing about Minerva - she doesn’t actually have a terrible game going second (going first = you get G3 first, going second = you get to restand on your first G3 turn). That said, it didn’t exactly matter this game because I got onto my G2 turn, rode Chamomile, called Cairbre (hit a dud top 3 and had to call a draw trigger, rip) but made up for it by checking my (blue) OT against my opponent who’d called No Guard (in his defense he was sitting on 1 damage). Swung the game my way after that since I’d pushed to 4 after that turn, and despite my opponent healing down to 3 on his turn, my deck Chose Violence on Turn 3 when I hit double crits on the first check (against my opponent’s PG) and then hit a draw when he did a 1 to pass. Overall just ... very sacky and essentially Genesis Doing Genesis Things with deck thinning.

Second game - went 1st vs Willista

Again checked OT on the offensive on Turn 2, but my opponent also checked his on the defensive, stalled things out, but then I saw zero triggers after that, so there way to defend against Willista and her restanding rear guards after that. I did manage to thin out 2 cards to put into Soul each time, so it was just a matter of not getting lucky - looked at my deck after the game and saw all my triggers ... in the bottom 2/3rds of my deck ^^;;

Third game - went 2nd against G4 Prison

A match up I really could’ve (and should’ve) played better against (considering I own the deck and casually played it for a while), and one I’ll definitely practice a few times in Dear Days just to figure out ways to play out of it and get creative with counters for just the general way the deck plays. Had a decent start early when my opponent sent 3 Drilling Angels to Prison (so I could discard combo pieces with the intention of Soul Charging them later) but then ran into problems on the Purelight turn simply because I had too much board and had cards in Soul (can’t really do the “empty out Soul for the Purelight turn” counter when you’re playing a deck that combos off of Soul). Biggest misplay though was putting my only Angelica from Soul to Prison when I had 2 Ciders in hand and ended up 10k short to guard their second Penetrate Aquas attack. That said, even if I’d made it it’s questionable how much I could’ve done the following turn with what I had since Minerva with 1 Soul and no board isn’t a great spot to be in, especially since I didn’t actually have a Persona Ride in hand either. Not a great match up for Minerva, but one I’ll have to put some time into figuring out An Out for (since I’m pretty sure this player will bring Prison again next week).

[thebladeblaster]

Heart of the Vanguard Concept Chapter part 1

(Concept chapters are basically just to test to see if people will like a fic idea I have. This fic crosses over Yugioh Duel Monsters and Cardfight Vanguard.)

(Note: Besides the god cards this fic will stick to tcg/ocg effects for simplicity. People can also still stupidly set cards in face up defense position.)

Yugi double checked that he had everything with him before making his trip. He tiptoed out of the door he sweat dropped as he felt a fiery glare aimed directly at him. It was his grandfather Solomon Mutou holding a broom as he had been previously sweeping with tightly.

“You're not going to another card shop, are you Yugi?”, his grandfather questioned, remembering the invitation his grandson had received earlier.

“W-what…of course not grandpa. I’m just uh...going to hangout with my friends. You know Jonouchi and the others.”, Yugi replied nervously.

“Um hm...well have fun!”, Solomon replied with a wave before going back to sweeping.

After closing the door the young Mutou took a sigh of relief. He met up with his friends Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda in the subway.

“Took you long enough Yug!”, Jonouchi said.

“Sorry, you know how my grandpa gets at the idea of us going to other card shops.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...reminds me of when we went to Duke’s.”, Honda replied, sweat dropping.

“Hopefully Jonouchi doesn’t end up in a dog suit this time.”, Anzu teased.

“Shut up!!! No one’s making a dog out of me this time!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Better hope we don’t run into Kaiba on the way.”, Honda replied much to Jonouchi’s chagrin.

“If I see Kaiba I’ll wipe the floor with him!!!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Guys the bus.”, Yugi pointed out as he saw everyone boarding.

They all hastily ran onto the train so they didn’t miss it. They took a sigh of relief as Yugi looked out the window. The buildings passed by like a blur. It always felt weird for him to leave Domino City. He always seemed to be off on some strange supernatural adventure every time but this time it was different. He was going to see friends. A definite nice change of pace.

After they finally got out of the subway they were greeted with a big expansive city.

“How are we supposed to find that tiny card shop in this mess?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“Well, we got there once. We just have to find where we are so we can find it.”, Anzu replied, looking over at the map.

“Maybe we're better off calling Misaki for directions. She has a perfect memory after all.”, Honda suggested.

“Oh, that’s right!”, Anzu gasped, as she brought out her phone and started calling her number.

The phone rang a few times before it was answered.

“Oh, Anzu. Are you guys almost here?”, Misaki asked, though there was an extreme amount of background noise.

“We're having a bit of trouble. We have just arrived outside the station and this place is a bit...big. I was wondering if you could give some directions to the shop?”, Anzu asked.

“Hmm...I guess the city is pretty big. Alright.”, Misaki replied as she started giving them directions.

They were astounded at how accurate it all was. She wasn’t even there but she was leading them perfectly throughout the city. On the way they stopped as they saw a familiar face.

“Gah, Kai?!”, Yugi gasped.

It was indeed the aloof fighter Toshiki Kai. Along with him was a blond haired teen with grey eyes. He wore the same school uniform as Kai. Jonouchi growled as he saw the older teen.

“You guys are here?”, Kai questioned, completely ignoring Jonouchi’s growling.

“Yeah, Aichi invited us to come over remember?”, Anzu replied and Kai simply nodded.

“Man, this is so cool to think we’d meet the King of Games in the flesh!”, the blond said.

“Hehe. I’m not that great, I'm just an average teen like you guys.”, Yugi replied with no hint of irony.

“Cool. Name’s Taishi Miwa. Looks like you guys already know Kai. Though let’s be real who doesn’t?”, Miwa introduced.

“Yeah. My name’s Mutou Yugi. Oh wait...you already know that.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...average.”, Kai replied blandly with a hint of sarcasm, rolling his eyes as he remembered Battle City.

“Well...average kid with an ancient magic necklace.”, Yugi replied awkwardly.

“Uh huh...you're just as ‘normal’ as Aichi and Ren.”, Kai replied, which made Yugi sweat drop.

“I’m gonna clean your clock in a duel!”, Jonouchi said to Kai.

“I don’t need another hyper kid like Kamui constantly challenging me to duels.”, Kai replied.

“Grr! I’m no kid!”, Jonouchi replied.

“Really? You sure act like one.”, Kai replied.

“Down boy. You can duel him at the shop.”, Honda said as he put his arm on Jonouchi’s shoulder.

“Hey I’m no dog!!!”, Jonouchi yelled as Honda pushed him along.

Eventually they stopped before a small card shop named ‘Card Capital’. It had a poster on the front and a sliding door. The small shop was completely crowded by people clamoring to get inside.

“Hehe, maybe Misaki can give grandpa some pointers on how to get his shop this busy.”, Yugi commented.

He jumped as some turned around to see him.

“Oh my god, is that the King of Games!”

“He’s here!”

“I thought he was taller?”

“Would he really be in a place like this?”

The door slid open and they saw Misaki on the other side. She had on a white dress shirt and a orange apron with two Cs.

“Are you guys gonna come in or will I have to give your spots to one of these guys?”, Misaki questioned.

“No need. Come on guys!”, Anzu said.

They all walked into the shop. It was just as tiny as they remembered. It was full of posters advertising various card games. It had lots of chairs and tables including two standing tables. The front desk had various card packs and there was a display on the other side with various assortments of rare cards. The shop was packed with various people dueling. It was rather lively for such a small shop.

“Is it always like this?”, Anzu asked.

“Nosy? Yes. Packed? Only when we host shop tournaments here.”, Misaki replied.

“You scoundrel!!!”, they turned their attention to a familiar voice.

They walked over to see Aichi and Kamui. The latter of which shook the former by the collar. Aichi laughed it off raising up his hands in surrender. A redheaded girl with blue eyes was trying to diffuse the situation. She wore a pink top with an orange tie and a blue skirt.

“Kamui calm down.”, the redheaded girl said.

Aichi sweat dropped as the younger boy continued to shake him.

“It’s fine Kamui. I think you’re overreacting.”, Aichi replied.

“Yeah, he just beat Emi in a duel.”, a teen with brown hair and eyes wearing a grey uniform replied.

“He just?”, Kamui questioned.

“Yeah…”, Aichi replied.

None of them seemed to notice them yet.

“You were supposed to let Miss Emi win!”, Kamui shouted.

“I was?!”, Aichi questioned, completely confused.

“I don’t get what the big deal is.”, Honda commented.

“It’s best if you don’t try to understand Kamui’s stupidity. You might catch it.”, Misaki replied casually.

“You say that as if you wanted Aichi to hold back against me.”, Emi replied.

“Well... I!”, Kamui was saying before he was cut off.

“I wanted to duel him at his best. Why would I want him to hold back?”, Emi replied, crossing her arms as Kamui shrinked back.

“It’s fine Emi. Kamui just got a bit overexcited.”, Aichi replied, brushing it off.

“Overexcited is an understatement.”, Miwa chuckled, making Aichi turn his attention to the new arrivals.

Aichi’s eyes brightened up as he saw them.

“Kai! Yugi! Miwa! Jonouchi!”, Aichi said.

“Are we gonna talk about how he called out Kai first…”, Honda commented as he sweat dropped.

The short teen was practically beaming which made Yugi blush. Though, he was at least taller than Yugi though not by much.

“No need to be so excited it’s just us.”, Yugi replied as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Oh, that’s that Yugi guy right? Didn’t you duel him in Battle City?”, Emi questioned.

“Yeah, your looking at the King of Games here!”, Jonouchi said as he gestured to Yugi.

“Woah cool!”, Emi replied.

“Oh uh...this is my little sister Emi.”, Aichi introduced gesturing Emi.

“Sister?!”, the Yugi gang gasped.

Jonouchi bent down to Aichi’s level.

“Don’t tell me she has crazy psychic powers too?”, Jonouchi whispered, causing Aichi to sweat drop.

“Uh...no. At least I don’t think so.”, Aichi replied.

“You don’t think so?”, Jonouchi replied as he pulled back sweat dropping.

“Hopefully it doesn’t run in the family.”, Honda whispered nervously.

“Yeah…”, Anzu replied as she sweat dropped.

“Since your here do you want to duel, Yugi?”, Aichi asked with a light blush.

“Gosh, why are you always so nervous, kid?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“I’d love to Aichi! It’s time to duel!”, Yugi replied.

“He said the thing!”, a black haired teen with v shaped hair and brown eyes with a grey uniform said.

“Oh my god this is awesome!”, the brown haired guy from before gushed.

Yugi chuckled, blushing nervously at all the attention he was getting.

“Their like two anxious peas in a pot.”, Anzu commented.

“Are we going to duel in here. I don’t think the holograms would fit.”, Yugi replied as Aichi blinked.

“Oh...yeah that’s true. We were dueling retro style with the Battle City rules in here since there’s still a lot of people who don’t have duel disks.”, Aichi replied.

“Oh? Retro’s fine.”, Yugi assured.

“Okay.”, Aichi replied as he nodded.

“You guys should use the standing fight table.”, Shin suggested.

“Who wants to stand and fight without the duel disks anymore?”, Misaki questioned, making Shin sulk.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that Kaiba would build portable hologram systems to duel with?!”, Shin questioned.

“I guess we’ll sit?”, Aichi asked.

“Yeah.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh man this will be awesome! It’s like Godzilla vs Kong or Devilman vs Mazinger Z!”, the brown haired teen gushed, embarrassing the two.

“Heh, I could take them.”, the v haired teen proclaimed as he crossed his arms.

“Oh really why don’t we duel tough guy?”, Jonouchi suggested.

“Alright I’ll take you on 3rd place Duelist Kingdom guy!”, the v haired teen replied, causing a tick mark to appear on Jonouchi’s head.

“Hey it’s Katsuya Jonouchi!!! And it was second place! I lost to Yugi!”, Jonouchi corrected.

“Yeah, whatever 3rd place guy my name is Katsumi Morikawa! You will forever remember my name after the beat down your about to endure!”, Morikawa proclaimed, causing many in the shop to sweat drop.

“You're going to wipe the floor with him, Jonouchi. He’s the worst duelist I’ve ever seen.”, Kamui commented.

“As if! I’ll show you Kamui!”, Morikawa growled.

Aichi and Yugi sweat dropped at the conversation around them.

“Are they always like this?”, Yugi questioned.

“Would you believe it’s usually worse?”, Aichi replied, making Yugi chuckle nervously.

“I know that feeling.”, Yugi replied.

Kai and Miwa had seated themselves down at one of the tables. Some duelists had actually lined up to challenge the aloof fighter.

Yugi noticed Yami’s spirit hovering over his shoulder.

“Oh, it’s just a normal duel for fun Yami.”, Yugi said.

“Fun?”, Yami questioned.

“Yeah, it’s not always shadow realm and convoluted plots.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh, hello Yami.”, Aichi greeted waving at the spirit.

“Who’s he waving at?”, Miwa questioned, confused.

[carnelianwings]

I had what you could say was a S1 Aichi moment today at the card shop when I was there chilling and waiting for the tournament to start. One of the other guys came over and sat down near me and asked me if I had a spare Emmeline he could borrow and if I could also look at his D-Majesty Lord Blaster deck and give him my thoughts because he thought I was good at Vanguard. I was actually surprised because while I do play D-MLB, I'd also put myself as just decent compared to some of the other guys at locals, but I did look through his deck and gave him some ways to improve the deck. He was essentially playing a Set 5 version of the list with a couple Emmelines thrown in, so I showed him the different units I was running (I just run a high-ish rarity version of the WGP Malaysia list), why I was running them, and then talked him through the basic G3 combo turn, complete with unit placement and numbers.

It seems like a really small thing, but to me it made me realize enough of the guys there don't see me as a "free win" when they ask me to play them and that I've made a lot of progress from Total Newbie when I started Zero in 2021. I'm so used to being not taken seriously based on my appearance alone (I'm cis, female, with a really feminine wardrobe) or be told "That's not something girls do" that I'm always surprised when it happens. And especially since I was a little nervous about regularly going to this locals after hearing horror stories of how female players have gotten treated at other shops, I just feel really lucky to have found this locals where everyone's just welcoming from the shop owners to the other players, and no one tries to downplay my ability by saying I "won off of luck" especially when my preference is heavy multi-attack decks (bonus if they come with a side of deck thin).

[carnelianwings]

Had to drive about an hour away for some (mandatory) work training, so I took the rest of the day off so I could check out a card shop in the area. Turned out Thursday nights are their Vanguard shop tournament nights, and it was Standard tonight, so I figured why not for another shot at Thasus (the Minerva promo)?

Went 2-1 with Chronojet, but even better, I pulled a Thasus out of my pack, so all in all, a win-win … even if I accidentally went so late at that shop so I didn’t get to try out the restaurant I’d wanted to that was nearby 😅

(Cutting to spare the uninterested for my match ups)

First match: Second vs Baromagnes

Overall, the match was in my favor (learned later from my opponent he doesn’t run OT, heals, or PGs in the name of hitting that 15 to Soul) even before it started. He didn’t bother to G2 game me because he was going full glass cannon. Didn’t help that I’d mulliganed into Swirler and Gigi, so I G1 rushed him and kept the pressure on, whittling down his hand with my first Faterider Stride. He had his one big “Soul Charge The Board” turn (which I easily defended with all the cards I drew off of the Gigi-Swirler-Mikani combo the previous turn), went into Nextage for game the next turn, won on the Nextage swing.

Second match: First vs DOTE

Had a really strong opening, managed to hit (Red) OT on Turn 2, so I got to restand my Gigi to push my opponent to 4. Took too much damage on their first G3 turn and I couldn’t farm enough hand so I died on the next turn when my opponent checked double crits vs my 2 to pass. Actually mildly annoyed I lost this one not because of the double crit check but because it’s DOTE (and that’s a deck I’ve faced off against more times than I can count so I really should’ve played that match up better).

Third match: First vs Granfia

Didn’t actually hit the G1 rush combo, but that was okay. Despite my opponent getting double Inlet Pulses on their G3 turn to farm up a little hand, they didn’t hit any PGs, so I won on my first (Faterider) Stride.

Even though I didn’t manage to go up against any of the decks that I’d wanted to (actually was hoping I’d get Willista or Gandeeva) I still got more tournament practice in and making decisions on the spot so it wasn’t a complete waste. Plus, I pulled a Thasus out of the pack (which I need for Minerva) so I’m really happy about that.

Onto my regular Sunday local shop tournament!

[carnelianwings]

Everyone at locals had one brain cell today because we all entered with Fun Decks this week. I'd gone in with D-MLB, went 2-1, and that's a "wish list" item checked off for me in Vanguard - enter a tournament with Blasters, optionally doing well (and by doing well I mostly mean going positive on W/L).

Tucking the rest behind a cut because I'm just gonna take a hot second to ramble about Majesty Lord Blaster (and Blasters as a whole) like I'm just (channeling my inner) Aichi.

Games themselves were pretty standard, the one game I lost was vs Viamance Bruce - not much I could've done there, just didn't have the shield power to go up against all that power gain for Final Rush/Burst on top of the multi-attack, plus my opponent flipped OT on the drive check on the last turn so I just outright didn't have the PGs for it. But I'm not even salty about it at all - I got to play D-MLB in a tournament, had it pop off, got 2 other wins.

Shout out to Emmeline and Cordiela for being an absolute terror in the back row during all 3 games (especially during my 2 wins vs Herminia and Solrairon) - letting G2s boost and then having a G2 that just gains power every time a Blaster swings (AKA whenever you attack in D-MLB lol) is just chef's kiss. Even if I don't hit triggers off the triple drive it's just like "Wait since when did Blasters get 30k/40k+ columns I thought the entire deck is just a Nostalgia Bait 3-attack Deck that hit like a Wet Noodle". Also Cordiela being a shout out to that one shot in the OG S1 finale with (ghostly) Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark standing next to MLB is just icing on the "Omg MLB has a 4th attack now!" cake.

It's really hard for me to overstate how much I actually just enjoy playing Blasters in all flavors (Premium MLB, V-MLB, D-MLB, Premium Exceed). Even if I lose, the sheer consistency in the deck means I always get at least part of (if not all of) the combo off and it's just so satisfying to know "I built my deck well and it's working like it should". And with the Premium versions I'm just giddy with all the deck search (and deck thin by extension). Like this deck is just fun. Plus there's just the whole "Blasters have been with me since Day 1 of my Vanguard journey starting with Zero and I've been learning with them ever since" angle.

And yeah the guys at locals also know I'm basically a Blaster main ... and to fear this deck because when the stars align I have Protagonist Tier Luck with this deck. Like to the tune of "Check OT multiple games in a row during key moments", "Eats Crit At 5, Checks OT/heal And Lives, draws Persona at start of next turn", "Massively Sacks with Crit(s)/Heal(s)" ... the list goes on. Probably also helps I always bring my G-era Aichi playmat with me to locals lol.

[carnelianwings]

Another shop tourney Sunday, did better this week at 2-2 with Chronojet (we had 13 players this time unlike last week with 10), won against 2 of the stronger players at the shop so that was really nice. Lost one to Gandeeva and another to Bastion Prime (that restand ...) but the real win this week is pulling my third Thasus from my promo pack so I'm now up to 3 copies, so if I don't get my 4th by the end of next month I'd be okay shelling out the money for the last copy - pulling 2 copies this week basically means I've put in ~$60 total for 3 copies thus far, and if I have to shell out another $60 for the last one next month, then at least I averaged ~$36 for 4 copies which is Not The Worst for a staple promo in a meta deck.

As usual, full match breakdown behind the cut!

First round: Second vs Chronojet mirror:

This one actually went pretty well because I "lost" dice roll and got to go second. Did the usual (G1 Mikani or Swirler) + Gigi G1 rush combo, and kept the pressure on the whole fight. My opponent easily could've G2 gamed me (and I would've done the same back to him) but he decided to say to hell with that and just gave me first Stride on my Turn 3. Went into Faterider, pushed and built up hand with my G1 Mikani/Swirler/Gigi draw engine, went into Faterider again on Turn 4 to push to 5, then did Nextage Turn 5 for game. Overall a clean game and a great start to this tourney.

Second round: First vs Zorga (Masques):

I won dice roll (when I didn't want to) but alas, it is what it is. Mulliganed into Mikani-Gigi, rushed on my G2 turn (more like when would I not rush so I can go into Faterider multi-attack when my opponent is high on damage). Had the PG for the Blue Zorga Alchemagic for triple drive, and had just enough hand to guard the rest. Went into my first Faterider turn, bot deck a Roaming Prison Dragon, opponent PGs Faterider, but I mega-sack on the checks - crit-(red) OT-crit - and I put everything onto the Upstream I'd Time Leaped with Faterider, and my opponent dies to the first swing. This was actually the same guy who played Prison last week, and one of the better players at the shop (imho) and I keep losing to him so beating him this week (even if it was with drive check highroll) felt like an accomplishment. Also actually felt prepared when I went into this fight because Zorga was one of those decks I'd studied up on via Dear Days (just to get the basic idea of how the deck worked and what orders are generally played).

Third round: First vs Gandeeva:

Not much to say here beyond Gandeeva Did Gandeeva Things. I ended up Soul Charging both of my extra copies of Chronojet so I couldn't go into Nextage and had to rely on multiattack to push damage/win, and pretty much lost to Gandeeva's innate scaling in the end. Also drew OT into hand but I forgot to play it on my first Faterider turn, but I ended up needing that 50k shield because, y'know. Gandeeva.

Fourth round: First vs Bastion Prime:

This one started out not that great - didn't get Gigi in my opening hand - and I think I tunneled too hard on putting my OT back into deck when I didn't have Upstream on hand to tutor out Gigi for draw (I had 4 Soul by that point so I really should've Time Leaped one of my G1s for an Upstream). Ended up with not enough cards on hand for his first Prime turn, and lost to rear guard restand. It's something I'll have to keep in mind for my next tournament.

[carnelianwings]

People may say Dear Days is “bad” for testing because it’s 2 sets behind, but sometimes if what you need is to just play out a match up and the deck’s old enough, there’s Enough There for you to figure out just how bad of a match up it is.

Or in other words, Minerva, I love you dearly, but if Prison is going to be at locals I just can’t bring you because you have one terrible match up against it, the few times I managed to beat Tomari’s Hard AI is either she doesn’t get Purelight into hand by Turn 4 or I manage to hit some timely triggers while rushing the early turns to keep her hand low. Basically, nothing I can consistently rely on to execute on, while putting in a heavy hand investment (that I have no real way of regaining). Plus the fact that Purelight can send units to Prison from Soul makes it worse, as it actively hinders Minerva’s ability to multi-attack/restand.

Which kind of leaves me at a bit of a cross roads, because while Minerva is 100% my jam and really fun to play, I also want to do well, and I know a part of that (from doing a lot of ladder in Vanguard Zero) is picking the right deck for the meta. That said, out of all my other arguably competitive decks, Youthberk is basically a Tier 2 deck (and has a similarly bad match up against Prison but it’s because you just can’t empty Soul completely with him), Majesty Lord Blaster has an even worse match up (no Counter Charger in a CB heavy deck to begin with), Gandeeva doesn’t really empty Soul much, so I guess that means, maybe next week, it’s time to release the Generation Zone (as the kids in 2014 would say ^^;;)

[carnelianwings]

Another week, another shop tournament!

Didn’t win the promo pack gacha but someone else did so I bought my 4th Thasus off of them, so now I’m all set for Set 11 Minerva. 🥰🥰🥰

Played Gandeeva this week, managed to go 2-0 into the 3rd round … where I promptly lost to Prison. Again. 😅 Still, 2-1 is a solid finish for me and I’m pretty happy with the result (but I’m happy with it every time I go net positive).

(More card game ramblings under the cut)

First game was actually a Gandeeva mirror. Won in the end going second because I had the stronger G3 turn and kept pushing advantage from there. Also helped my opponent didn’t get 5 into bind on his G3 turn so I didn’t have to use up as many cards to guard.

Second game was against Messiahs, also went second, so I had a turn to Do Gandeeva Things before my opponent went all in with the Locks. This is also my first game against the new Messiah Stride deck, so I was mostly going off of “generally good anti-Link Joker strats” I’d learned from going up against Link Joker and Messiahs in Zero. Kind of nice that the Lock effect doesn’t pass through into my turn, but to be honest Gandeeva naturally counters against Messiah somewhat because it tends to pass turn with 2 units on the board. This game ended because I managed to scale just hard enough my opponent had to no guard one of my rear guard swings despite having an 8 card hand (of mostly G1+ units, no triggers, and no PGs). After the game I learned he had to bot deck 2 PGs on a check Top 3, call 1 bot deck the rest skill, which is just ☠️ vs a high powered deck like Gandeeva.

Match 3 was Prison, and my god that match up just lives rent free in my head now. Despite actively trying to play against it (tried to empty Soul as much as I could for the Purelight turn), I still ended up losing because of Penetrate Aquas’ guard restrict. That said, I was starting to realize I needed to fine tune my deck some (the ratios just didn’t quite feel right and made some things kind of clunky) plus while running Bavs G0/G1 can help me deck thin I think I’d rather run pure Gandeeva Ride line so I can take advantage of the Dragon Empire cycler to maintain hand size and to either find more pieces or draw some defensive power. Definitely could’ve used it on the Snow turn so I think I’m going to do that.

All in all, another fun week of locals, I think next week we might all agree on a “fun” week so I’ll probably chill and enter with Bavsargra (because I do really enjoy how she plays with the Set 9 support).

[carnelianwings]

Finally pulled off a 3-0 tournament at locals (we have a very small group of players here, most weeks we get like, 6-7 people and that’s it), actually pretty proud of myself for managing it considering the Prison Main played Prison this week (not G1 promo for the G4 Superior Ride though, and I think that saved me somewhat). Other thing that helped is I kept “losing” (read: winning) my dice rolls so I got to go second all 3 rounds - which tipped things in my favor since I was playing Chronojet this week.

Round 1: Luquier

This was a surprisingly long round, lots of well timed heals that went off on both sides (so they resolved) so I ended up having to Stride Faterider twice (second Faterider I hit a double heal that healed me down from 5 to 3 because my opponent was on 4) before going into Nextage for game - which took me down to 1 card in deck so that Nextage turn was a do-or-die.

Round 2: Bastion

Another solid round, mostly just a lot of back and forth, but he didn’t check a G3 on his first Bastion turn and I think that’s ultimately what decided the game in my favor in the end. Another game where I had to do Faterider x2 before going into Nextage.

Round 3: Prison

Ah Prison. Or as they like to tease me at locals, the match up that lives rent free in my head - but only because it’s a match up where I can’t just “let my deck do what it wants to do” and have to actively play around it and keep certain things in mind. Like making sure I empty Soul before end of turn. And mulligan for Gigi and G1 Mikani so I can G1 rush. And running cards like a playset of G1 Mikanis so he can “refund” his cost (if I SB1’ed to free him) or so I can give him to my opponent so I can free more units after. Which I did multiple times in that game. I still had to get lucky though (burning Soul to free units means I didn’t have as much for Gigi’s draw) for a blank-heal-OT on 4 on his second Purelight turn because I didn’t have enough to guard everything (the hand rip + Penetrate Aquas’ guard restrict is always a nasty combo) and I won on my turn (because he invested a lot of cards getting 10 into Prison - I wasn’t making it easy for him by keeping Soul relatively empty plus early game rush means he had to guard more on my first Faterider Stride).

All in all, a good week at locals, with some very solid games … even if I had to heal-OT my way out of a loss 😅

[carnelianwings]

Played D-Ezel today for this week’s shop tournament (we did another fun/casual deck day), went 2-1 (won vs G4 Kairi and Zorga Masques, lost vs Unica Masques), and boy that felt like a huge shift from Majesty Lord Blaster. Sure the deck is fun, the Superior Ride up is also fun, but the deck feels like it’s missing ~something.

Cut for me rambling about Ezel, because him and I have always been on slightly awkward terms ever since I played him in Zero (vs me with Liberators, both Break Ride and Legion, we got along great). It’s like I’ve always had to actively try to make him work for me vs all of Aichi’s Blaster decks that I just pick up and immediately understand the flow of the deck without really needing to try.

EDIT: Gave it a bit more thought, realized what was missing - there’s no pressure in the Vanguard column. Nothing to help you get over a defensive, even if you boost - your G1s are 8ks, unless you somehow made room for Wayward Therapy Angel or Languedechat. I had one Vanguard swing effectively fizzle because I didn’t see Persona Ride and my opponent was like “I won’t have enough to guard the rear guard columns if I guarded Vanguard, so no guard, 1 to pass it is” after checking a defensive, and I didn’t check a trigger. So yeah definitely need the promo (for the red text skill) and/or Platina/Grand Ezel Scissors to release so we can get something for Vanguard swing, because Ezel doesn’t gain power off of the units he Superior Calls from deck off of his skill anymore, and that means a single defensive really just shuts down your entire turn if you don’t manage to check a trigger or Persona Ride.

Functionally, the deck is straightforward and plays as you’d expect for a Blond Ezel deck - Superior Ride up to put on a lot of pressure, push with a rush until your opponent Rides into G3, and then it’s full on rapid fire 5-attacks/per turn (as long as you have the CB and you should because it’s only 1 CB for the skill and you have a reasonably accessible Counter Charger in Dindrane). You don’t really deck thin though because Dindrane puts the rear guard in front of her to bottom deck to restand, but at the same time this means you don’t run the risk of decking out super fast because you’re too busy Superior Calling off Top 3-7 to multi-attack. She’s definitely the MVP of the deck as she opens up your RCs so you’re not overcalling off of Ezel’s on attack skill while also adding power to both sets of rear guard swings. (Plus she’s put any rear guard back into deck so if you really want to you can put back triggers too.)

The main problems I see with the deck is that it feels the same way it did as I when I played it in Vanguard Zero - you do the Superior Ride, you’re on G3, and then it feels like a bit of a Now What. Because the deck just sort of … does what it does, you just swing for 5 turns every turn (6 if you run Red Cray Elemental OT and drive check it) and if that means you push your opponent to 6, great, and if not, well, you sent those cards back to deck and now it’s time to Struggle Guard And Pray You See Another Turn To Do It All Over Again. The numbers are respectable (8k for Dindrane plus usually 10-13k for the rear guard in front depending on what you high rolled into sans Persona Ride, 15k if it’s Beaumains), you definitely get to Superior Call a lot more from deck to field, but it just feels like after you (Superior) Ride into G3 there’s a bit of a lull until your opponent catches up to you. It’s really easy to set up the optimal board of Ezel on VC and a Dindrane in back row of both flanking rear guard columns (you call from top 3-7 enough to make it happen unless you just get super unlucky), but it feels like there’s something missing to give the deck a little extra oomph for a winning turn, because otherwise your turn is just … Ezel start of Ride phase skill, Persona Ride (if you have it), play the Order (if you have it), go into Battle Phase, attack with both rear columns (using Dindrane to return your front row back into deck to restand), Ezel attacks and uses skill, Superior Call 2 out of Top 7, swing with both rear guard columns again (and have Dindrane send them back, because for whatever reason, she’s not a 1/Turn), rinse and repeat until you land lethal or you lose (because you don’t have that much draw power - or at least, I didn’t because I somehow see Silver Fang Witch really rarely off of my Top 3-7).

It’s like Chronojet (because you do have something of a resource loop with Dindrane/Silver Fang Witch/Sajess and/or Drilling Angel) but less reliable, because you don’t actually get to automatically see Dindrane/Silver Fang Witch consistently to keep the Soul/CB/CC loop going, so you just awkwardly loop those cards and pray. Kind of. I will say that Athaltus (the promo that just released in Japan) does fix some of the deck’s problems, especially the part where if you don’t Persona Ride you don’t really get high enough numbers for Turn 4+ and also helps you “save” your Dindranes from decks that can target back row (I did run into this issue vs Unica Masques when I had to Soul Charge both of them). But the deck just feels very … lackluster? Despite being a guaranteed 5 attack deck with ways to avoid deck out (and the ability to loop your pieces)? Especially with the state of the current meta, I feel like just “Oh I get to reset both rear guard columns” isn’t really enough to put on extra pressure for game, and if we got something like Unite In All But Name it would actually help the deck give it that extra push for more pressure late game. Like maybe if we got Platina Ezel in a future Encounter/Cray Cross Epic set, that’ll be what pushes it into “feels complete”.

In comparison, Majesty Lord Blaster is a 4 attack deck with solid pressure across all 3 columns thanks to Emmeline and Cordiela - Emmeline basically gives both of the boosted rear guard swings Bavsargra-level power, so you can poke with an unboosted attack (I like using Blaster Dark for this), and then force either a PG or a ton of shield value out of your opponent with the Vanguard swing (23k/33k, 2 crit, triple drive), and then swing again with Bavsargra-tier numbers for the follow up rear guard attacks (or more if you did a double Emmeline column - I’ve had guys at locals go “Damn Emmeline columns are scary” after facing my Majesty Lord Blaster deck). And I feel like that’s what’s missing from Ezel right now - the ability to put extra pressure on my opponent via Vanguard attack, and having enough ways to gain power late game (passively or otherwise) to give my deck the push for game (or at least make my opponent drop more cards from hand to guard).

I will say this for Ezel though - at least it’s better than how Majesty Lord Blaster was at release? That was so much praying for promos (that we did eventually get) to make it good.

[carnelianwings]

Going to put this here where I’m not restricted by dumb character counts and I can just say my opinion without getting caught by all the tryhards.

(Or, my take on the CFV Standard banlist that just dropped today behind the cut)

To get this out of the way - I play Premium and V as strictly for fun. I have no interest in playing Premium Royals Blasters competitively when it’s literally one of those decks everyone knows how it works/plays. At best I can add in Honoly and Harmonics to not get damage denied/rushed to 6 before I even Stride, and maybe Cordiela too so I can get in some “spicy” multi-attack on top of the usual Royals shenanigans. Same with V, especially since I also main Royals there too and Thing Saver-Jewel Knights is just too slow of a deck to get anywhere. In other words, I have zero stakes in the V and Premium banlists. Yes I do have a Premium Gurguit(-Percival) deck as well, but it’s also not one I play much of, and that loop, from what I hear, isn’t even possible in English so I’m more 🤷🏻‍♀️ on those hits. Like I’d legit only care if they hit something in Royals, at which point I’d be shocked and be all “what year are we that we’re hitting Royals (Blasters) for being too strong”.

Onto the Standard choice restricts - which I know is largely a “we gotta make the same hits to match Japan” list.

The Eva hit isn’t one I have a lot of stakes in, my experience with the deck is playing with and against it in Dear Days with the AI, so it’s a big 🤷🏻‍♀️ from me. Also I rarely have the CB to use Eva’s search, Obscudeid Battle Phase Superior Call, and Combine Rusher revive all in one turn so I basically never ran it to begin with or if I did I just ditched him for Ride and never bothered to revive him the rest of the fight 😅

As for Chronojet - the meta isn’t what it used to be, if anything the deck is falling off while Gandeeva and Willista are taking over. Both decks are turn 3 decks (assuming optimal conditions) and Gandeeva straight up outpaces Chronojet for power gain on a turn for turn basis, while having a stronger draw engine and better CB economy. And as for Willista she just feels super strong from the few times I’ve faced her at locals. And those Ophelia columns … 😰