BT14: Jewel Knight cards revealed! New type of Perfect Guard?!?! (WARNING SPOILERS)

Hello everyone. Just a short post on regarding some Cardfight Vanguard!!! news on the anime, where I'm sure if you guys haven't already watched, Cardfight Vanguard's latest anime episode. I'll put a link down below just in case you guys want to watch it.

Cardfight Vanguard Episode 146 - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrvCvr32Dgs
Cardfight Vanguard Episode 146 - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEBXx6EyMok

WARNING: What I am about to discuss in my blog post below WILL contain spoilers of the latest episode of the anime, so if you haven't watched it yet, do click on the links above to watch them before you read my post.

Now, you guys should already know that recently I posted a rant on my blog about the boring nature of Cardfight! Vanguard, and with what I saw in the latest episode of the anime, which is basically Kamui duelling with Kourin, and in that duel Kourin used a special type of Perfect Guard, which I think is a original concept and refreshes the game. For that, good job Bushiroad, for making a unique mechanic, which I hope each clan will have a different Perfect Guard mechanic in the future. If you all don't already know what card I am talking about, its' Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria.

                                        I think this looks like Knight of Rose Morgana with Alfred's armor....

Now the card's effect is unconfirmed, but it is likely that the effect will stay true to the anime, because most, if not all cards shown in the anime are usually accurate to the card game, with the exception of certain phrasing of the card text. But basically her effect is:

Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria 
GRADE 1
[CONT]: Sentinel (You may only have up to four cards with "[CONT]: Sentinel" in a deck)
[AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (GC), if you have a «Royal Paladin» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to five cards from the top of your deck, search for up to five «Royal Paladin» from among them, call them to (GC), and shuffle your deck.  

This is a completely new type of Perfect Guard. It may seem to be overpowered, just like all new cards always are...right (not really), but it is good in the sense that you do not need to discard a card to activate the effect, although if you ask me if you need to use Gloria then you must be pretty screwed. Notwithstanding the effect where you send the top 5 cards to you Guardian Circle as guard against the attack, although it is not a 100% chance you will get enough guard if for some reason you topdeck 3 Grade 3s and 2 Grade 2s, which in that case you wasted the effect as it is likely the attack will go through (this action is irreversible) and you waste 5 cards, which essentially is a -6, because you don't gain anything out of it by discarding Gloria milling 5 cards. I foresee that there might be some problems with this card, such as the obvious likelihood that you potentially can overguard and lose precious triggers when you mill 5, or you might thin your already thin stack of cards which remains in your deck, as it is likely that IF you use Gloria, more or less you are in a position where you have not much choice left. It is also not advisable to run more than 1, personal preference (I rather not lose by decking out, if you know what I mean). This possibility of decking out is made more likely given the fact that Royal Paladin tends to have units based around superior calling cards from your deck, like Ashlei Reverse, Sybil and Salome among the Jewel Knights archetype, and this thins your deck by quite a few cards. You may think it is insignificant, but sometimes when it comes down to the wire, an extra 3 or 4 more cards in your deck may allow you to outlast your opponent, or at least hang on for a longer amount of time. 

Another card which I mentioned above and will be coming out in BT14 would be Broken Heart Jewel Knight Ashlei Reverse:

Cyber-Ashlei!!!

[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (1) & Choose one of your rear-guards with "Jewel Knight" in its card name, and lock it] Choose up to one of your opponent's rear-guards in the front row, and retire it, and search your deck for up to one card with "Jewel Knight" in its card name, call it to (RC), and shuffle your deck. This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.
(Locked cards are turned face down, and cannot do anything. Turn them face up at the end of its owner's turn)
[CONT](VC):If you have a card named "Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashley" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000.
[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

 

 

Ashlei 'Reverse' has the self-Lock skill to activate her effect, and the CB cost Lock 1 Rearguard cost isn't too much of a requirement to activate Ashlei Reverse's ability, which functions very much like a Blaster Blade for the front row plus a free superior call, and for -2 cost due to Locking and Counterblasting for a +2 due to retiring and superior calling, it is a good way to fill up your field, the drawback being that you can only use it once per turn. But it is a pretty balanced card, not screaming 'OP' or anything like that on the outset, but what disturbs me is possibly the lack of synergy it has with her breakride form, which I guess is not too much of a problem besides the crossriding thing that everyone has just gotten used to. Overall this card is a 6/10 for me, it is slightly better than the breakride form, which synergises better with Julia then with this card. But do take note that because you Lock 1 to superior call 1, this does not help you to activate Tracie and Sherrie's +3k skill when attacking, or Prizme's filtering on-call skill. In fact, it hinders their effects as you 'waste' a slot which brings your rearguard count to a maximum of 4, and given that you need 3 OTHER Jewel Knights to activate their skills, this makes it even harder. But in the long run it is a +1 if your opponent is not CBD. Another issue is thaqt as with other Jewel Knights, this makes it difficult to splash in non-Jewel Knight Royal Paladins into your deck, like Blaster Blade.

 

Well that being said, I am not especially hyped for BT14, because its' likely that by the time it is released, I will be in the army anyway.... On the side note, this card's name reminds me of Demi Lovato's 'Give your Heart a Break'...haha don't ask me why, maybe recently I have been listening to too many Demi Lovato songs.

That is all I have for you guys for now, and until next time,

EndBlade

 

Random Thoughts! #4: Pokemon X REVIEW and 5 Reasons why Cardfight Vanguard! is getting boring

Hey everyone, just a short post to try and keep things going. Something off-topic, recently I just finished the main storyline of Pokemon X, and I must say, the story-wise was pretty underwhelming. Not because they re-used the usual Pokemon story of a young trainer who saves the world from a power-crazed, conflicted individual who leads a huge group of brainwashed members, but more of on the length of the story. Well, firstly, the plot wasn't too deep or anything, it was quite straightforward and easy to understand (Well, maybe it has got to do with the appeal to children), but I felt that as a game, the story didn't really feel LONG. The characters were not well developed, especially the rival team (SPOILERS) Team Flare, and the leader (MORE SPOILERS), Lysandre, gave off a more touch-n-go vibe, like you didn't feel for their noble cause and I didn't pity them when I defeated them. Don't get me wrong, overall Pokemon XY delivers in terms of breakthrough graphics and there are quite a few things to explore even after the plot ends, but I felt that XY was a slightly rushed job, given all the hype about its' release and announcement months back. Many crtics gave it high ratings, Gamespot gave it an 8/10, IGN a 9/10 and many others all giving Pokemon a positive rating. Overall it is a good game, with improved graphics, 3D capability and a few new Pokemon (somehow they are getting uglier and uglier, haha), and the Mega Evolution mechanic is pretty interesting (although it gets pretty repetitive after a while).

But recently with the 'game-breaking' (literally) bug about saving in the biggest city in the Kalos Region for Pokemon XY sort of showed how it may have been slightly rushed to meet the international deadline for the simultaneous release of XY. I do like how the online play function is heavily exploited in XY, which makes it a great experience knowing that thousands of other people around the world are simultaneously catching, training and sharing the same Pokemon experience with you. it really puts things in perspective. Pokemon transfer is still not out yet, and I am looking forward to the possibility of transferring my old Pokemon over to Pokemon X. That being said, another thing that I have gripes with besides the skimpy plot would be the new Pokemon in the Kalos region. I would think it would be better to incorporate more Pokemon trainers with the new Pokemon, because having the option of using Kanto/Sinnoh/Hoenn/Johto/Unova region Pokemon appeals more to me, and as such, personally I do not use many of the new Kalos region Pokemon. If you all know what I mean. 

Personally, given the plot and the game itself, I would give Pokemon XY a 7.5/10, given that it is a solid game, building upon the previous successes of the Pokemon franchise and expanding the world of Pokemon, and for that continuity aspect it scores highly, as well as the 3D graphics which are not revolutionary, but a 'nice to have' option sometimes. I would still recommend people to buy Pokemon X or Y to try it out for yourself, and maybe share in the comment section what version you play and how you found the whole Pokemon experience to be like.

Moving on, with things picking up in terms of studies and other commitments, I find that Cardfight Vanguard is starting to lose its' lustre, maybe because I havent touched the game for about a month now. Reading TehNacho's recent blog post in http://thunkofcardgames.blogspot.sg/ got me thinking: its' not just me thats' finding Cardfight Vanguard boring (personal opinion here). What he said in his blog post was more or less what I personally felt: Bushiroad is just churning out cards for the profit, and its' getting more obvious with each set that is released. Its' as if they were trying to squeeze all possible profits dry (not that I am against them for that, all companies seek profits, I understand.). Now 5 reasons why I think Cardfight Vanguard is getting boring (at least for me)

1)They are trying to make all clans 'similar'
Now, don't get me wrong. Its' good to balance out the clans' power level, and this is vital for a more varied metagame. But it seems to me their defintion of 'balancing' results in giving each clan with a unique mechanic behind them, a similar skill/ability. Just take the example of restanding Vanguards, like TehNacho mentioned briefly. For many sets now, restanding vanguards seem to be the staple behind 'good' decks. So Bushiroad decided to give almost all clans a restanding vanguard. Now restanding was unique to clans like Nova Grapplers, Aqua Force and Kagero (to some extent). But now they plan to give Genesis a restanding Vanguard? As if giving Narukami Dragonic Descendant wasn't enough, they had to overkill and give the main clans all restanding vanguard, in an effort to 'balance' the metagame, and competitive scene. Now that doesn't make any sense to me (correct me if I am wrong), but each clan USED to have something unique about themselves, Gold Paladin being lucksack heavy, Kagero defensive field control, Aqua Force with multiple attacks, Narukami with crazy retirement, Royals with high power and field presence, Shadows with sacrificing for power, Dark Irregulars with crazy soul-charging, you get my point. All clans used to have something that was unique to them, and I applaud Bushiroad for that. But now with the trend of re-standing vanguard, it seems Bushiroad is just following the statistics of 'best-selling booster packs' and making cards that re-stand. This makes the clans increasingly similar, and at the same time, incrasingly boring.

2)Crossrides are everywhere.
Now this is similar to point 1), in the sense that crossrides were seen in the past as strong and powerful and whatnot. But now, what happened to crossriding? People choose to just straight up ride the crossride Vanguard without riding the previous 'form' of the card. The intention was to make people ride the original and then 'upgrade' in order to get an advantage, much like breakride, but more defensively. But with crossrides everywhere, and the incentive to crossride decreased due to crossriding generally being a -1 and not always consistent to pull off, it seems that Burshiroad is just giving people crossrides just because 'every clan needs a crossride' reason, and because the clan may benefit more from it. It just seems redundant, and makes the game so homogenous.

3)Absurd power...everywhere.
This is another put-off for me, when it comes to playing. Now hitting 21k/23k used to be a feat only a few clans could pull off, and although it was pretty lop-sided when it came to the competitive scene, where Kagero/Royal/Gold dominated majority of the wins, at least we could blame it on the insane power levels of the cards. But now, with breakride giving a 'free' +10000 power for almost all clans, power levels are soaring, way above 9000 (pun intended). Again, this makes games hit crazy numbers like 36k or even 46k and so on, and after a while of all the crazy power, you get kind of used to it. It doesn't seem as phenomenal as before, where hitting above 20k was considered 'OP' and 'broken'. Well, when everyone can hit 26k and above, Vanguard seems like a pretty broken game to me.

4)They are making old booster set cards redundant.
THIS is really important. If you notice, card games that do last long like YuGiOh (can't say the same for Magic:the Gathering because I have never played it before), do not make old cards entirely redundant. In Vanguard, with every new gimmick like Limit Break, Lock and what not making the game 'fresh', but in fact it is an endless cycle  where people keep buying for the sake of staying relevant to the game, to extents where whole deckbuilds become redundant due to power creep. I'm not saying this is wrong, every card game in existence makes old cards redundant to some extent, where old cards are not 'usable' if you want to win consistently. In games like Yu-Gi-Oh, cards that date back to the early times in the game, like Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, Mystical Space Typhoon, even Synchros, which were released like 3-4 years back, are STILL used in tournament-winning decks, and are still part of game-winning combos, even with the introduction of meachanics like XYZs. Every game is different, I understand that. This is why there are banlists for games, and although Vanguard does have a banlist consisting of 3 cards, I think this banlist should be widened, such that decks do not completely become unplayable like in Yu-Gi-Oh, but hit in the way that crazy re-standing Vanguards like Raging Form Dragon or even cards with effects that are on the verge of conquering the metagame (yes I'm talking to you, Chaos Breaker Dragon) should be limited to 2 or even 1 copy, that old cards become may see the light again. And Bushiroad, I dont see the use of placing Tsukiyomi in the limited list. Just get her to 4 copies again.

5)Bushiroad seems like its' doing too many things....at one time.
 Some of you may dispute this, But I think Bushiroad has got its' hands full at the moment. Well sure, Weiss is more of a fangame rather than a competitive one, and Chaos has its' place. But seriously? Buddyfight? What kind of monstrosity is that? Vanguard isn't even 3 years old yet and you release yet ANOTHER cardgame? And it sounds SO similar to Cardfight! Vanguard if you ask me. This just seems too absurd to me. Why would you release a new game when your current game isn't well established around the world? Especially the English Print of the game, I feel it is sorely lacking proper tournament support and there is much potential in the English print (I don't play the English version), but if I was Bushiroad, I'd market the English version better, and proved better Cardfighter support for continents like Europe, or even Southeast Asia, and USA. Furthermore, won't this new game conflict with sales of Cardfight Vanguard? Don't assume that Cardfight is doing well now doesn't means it won't exit the market in 3 or 5 years time. This seeming lack of commitment to the game (you can tell from the storyline too) that this whole thing seems more like clockwork rather than a concerted attempt to churn out a good game. And this is why Cardfight to me has begun to lose its' luster. Not that I won't play it anymore, but it has lost the novelty it once had as a refreshing game.

With that, thanks for reading this post/rant and until next time,

EndBlade

EDIT:
FINAL VERDICT:
Pokemon XY:
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Overall Experience (ease of use, connectability, WOW factor): 7/10
Total: 7.5/10

Cardfight Vanguard!!! blog posting possible hiatus

Hey there everyone, I don't know how many people read this blog, whether people even enjoy this blog, but I am posting this notice in advance just in case for those who may read this blog.

Now I love playing Cardfight Vanguard!!!, but recently I haven't been playing any matches, just because my friends have moved away and it takes about an hour and half to get to my friend's house on weekends, and recently with all my preparation for my upcoming exams and other stuff that have cropped up, I just haven't found the time to play any Cardfight Vanguard games any more. If you all don't know already, I am from Singapore, and there is conscription into the military once you reach 18 years of age, and I just got my enlistment letter not too long ago, and the sad news is that I will be entering the army in early December, and it is unlikely for a few weeks or even months that I will be able to access a computer, much less play card games (unless somehow my bunkmates in there happen to play Cardfight Vanguard!, so it is very unlikely that I will be able to post updates on Cardfight Vanguard from December onwards.

When I first started this blog not too long ago in September, I wanted to be able to post frequently, especially once my exams had ended and with my early enlistment this kind of ruined my plans that I laid out beforehand and although I would much love to continue posting on this blog for the few readers that chance upon this blog in the short few weeks that I started this blog, it is just not possible to continue posting after the end of November.

That being said, I will try to post on Cardfight Vanguard whenever I can, and I will keep up with the Cardfight news as it comes out, and I will still continue to update this blog as and when I have free time (not much), and it is probable that I might not post as many Cardfight Vanguard posts as I would like to (the irony of calling this blog My Vanguard Journey haha), but I will still continue to post some stuff, although that will progressively dwindle as the dates for my examinations approaches as well as my enlistment into the military.

I would like to thank all my readers (however few that may be), for reading my blog posts and updates, I love to write and post things on this blog, but due to the circumstances mentioned above, sometimes life throws you a curveball, and just have to deal with it. My journey does not end here though, I think that someday I will be able to realize my dream of posting Cardfight Vanguard material where everyone can enjoy reading (sounds shallow, but hey, don't judge). It is a difficult decision to stop at a point where I am enjoying this experience so much.

So for what might be one of the very last times I type this out:

Until next time,

EndBlade.

Random Thoughts #3: Pokemon X & Y, my experiences with Pokemon

Hey everybody, hope you guys are having a good week. Well just yesterday (Tuesday to be exact), I bought guess what, yes I got Pokemon X for the 3DS! Although my exams are in 4 weeks, I just couldn't resist the temptation. But I am limiting myself to a maximum of 2 hours a day (is that a lot?) to play the game, and as of now, I am still taking my time with the game.

Pokemon X- Isn't the deer legendary just amazing looking?

Now, the main reason I bought this game was just because I felt that since I followed the Pokemon franchise from the Ruby/Sapphire days back in 2003 (Although I did play Red version and Gold version later), I figured- why not pick up a copy of Pokemon X? I didn't really do much research into it, so I kind of went into the game not knowing anything about the new Pokemon etc. and I'll come to my first impressions of it later. But why did I choose Pokemon X instead of Pokemon Y? I think it was the cover Legendary Pokemon that sold it for me. A deer with rainbow antlers or a weird Y shaped wyvern-thing? Give me the rainbow deer anytime. Well, before I proceed, I would like to warn all those who have not played the game that I may reveal some spoilers about the game (although as of now I have only reached the first gym and completed that), so I guess the spoilers in terms of plot won't be so significant, and I might do a full-on review once I get to finishing the main storyline and side-quests.

First Impressions:

Now, Pokemon X and Y are set in a new region, the Kalos region. The beginning is pretty much the same, although the way in which you get your starter Pokemon is not directly from some Professor-named-after-a-tree, but from your new 'friends' (how kind). I cant say too much about the battling system, its' reminiscent of the Diamond/Pearl and Black/White type of touchscreen interface, albeit more polished and with some slight differences (not really significant). But the thing that sold it for me so far would be the graphics, a notch up from the previous Black/White and other generations preceding it, although I was happy they did keep the L-button = A-button option, that is really convenient for single-handed play (although I don't know why anyone would do that). Another thing that struck me would be the ability to see 'passers-by' online, it really made the world of Pokemon seem much larger and I realized that Pokemon has such a wide reach and has impacted many, like myself. But one thing that was slightly off for me was that the picking up of items took a while with the new animation they implemented, as well as the battles seem to be slightly slower paced, (not that I am rushing through the game or anything) with all the animations and what-not, even after I disabled the battle animations (hey I just don't like to see the battle animations, don't ask me why, just personal preferences, haha)

Some of the Pokemon games that I played, couldn't find them all (pun intended)

Now although I have played close to all the main Pokemon games from Sapphire being my very first experience with Pokemon, Emerald (I think I clocked more than 300 hours on that game alone), FireRed & LeafGreen (yes I played both), Diamond, Platinum (I even have the Japanese version of it), SoulSilver and finally most recently Black (I didn't get Black 2, mainly because I felt the differences were too minor to warrant me getting it, and personally I didn't really like the 5th Generation Pokemon), I was blown away by the huge leap in graphics by GameFreak this time to utilize the 3D function (although in some cases may seem underwhelming and gimmicky), but still the way the game was worked (I am still getting used to using the Circle-pad on my 3DS), and the overall graphic changes were such that although it made the game look more appealing, it did not detract from the overall nostalgia that I had when I chose my first Pokemon, and the background music so far is just...fantastic.

That being said, I am no pro at Pokemon, although I do know about effort values, Natures, breeding and all those mechanics behind Pokemon, I personally do not care for them, with the exception of once I tried to create a Attack & Speed variant of Gallade (my favourite Pokemon, besides Blaziken), I have never bothered to EV train my Pokemon, or breed them for 'special' egg moves, so you can say that I am a Poke-noob. But who cares, its' the fun from playing Pokemon that makes the experience all the more unique to every player, instead of mechanically training and breeding the 'super-Pokemon', although I am not in any way discouraging you from doing so (but it is really boring and taxing).

Back to Pokemon X. Hmm for now, with the limited time that I have played on my 3DS for this game, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has played Pokemon before and are looking for the game to jump back into the Pokemon world, this is the game for you. For those who have never played Pokemon before (where were you the last 18 years), this fresh take on Pokemon does not disappoint (for now) and although revolutionary in graphics, Pokemon stays true to what it knows best, soothing background music and the simple gameplay makes it really a game for all ages, for both beginners and old players alike. This is speaking from a player who has played almost all the versions of Pokemon, although in recent years has become less hardcore. But I think the money paid for Pokemon X is worth very single cent. It is likely I will do a final review and score it once I have finished the main story, so do look out for that post (won't be anytime soon though).

On a side note (but still related to this in some way), do you guys think I should continue to post sections on 'Random Thoughts' in between every Cardfight Vanguard article? I will create a poll to see how the response is like, if for some reason you guys like the current posting format I will continue to do so, so do vote on whether I should continue to post these types of articles, and feel free to comment on how I can improve/ what I can include in future posts in the Comments Section below. But thats' it from me for now, thanks for reading and until next time,

EndBlade

Undaunted until the End! Deck profile: Dauntless Drive the End!!!

Hey there guys, hope you are having a great week. Today I'm gonna bring you my deck profile of my Dauntless Drive Dragon breakride with Dragonic Overlord the End deck (now that would be mouthful if I actually had to say it). Now, before any of you guys accuse me of 'jumping on the bandwagon' and 'another OP deck again', let me clarify certain things: I made this deck mainly because I liked Dragonic Overlord the End, and only recently did it come around to making the deck, because the price for cards like Dauntless Drive and DOTE have dropped quite a bit since the time gap from the release of BT11:Sealed Dragons Unleashed. So you could say I am sort of a hippie, I don't like newly released decks like Link Joker and all the Lock stuff, don't get me wrong, I've played with those decks (I used to have a Eradicator deck running some Vowing Saber Reverse), and to be honest, I like the idea of retiring opponents' vanguards and field control, which Kagero is really good at with all the support they have. And I thought it would be timely to make this deck before EB09- Divine Dragon Progression comes out, because prices for Dauntless Drive and other Kagero cards will shoot up, undoubtedly.

Now this is a picture of my deck (for now), taken with a potato (this is what happens when you spend your money on card games....haha)

 Oops the top part got cut off slightly x.x

Decklist:

Grade 0: 

Total: 17

Red Pulse Dracokid (SVG) x1

Gattling Claw Dragon (Draw) x2

Seal Dragon, Artpitch (Draw) x4

Seal Dragon, Biera (Critical)  x4

Embodiment of Spear, Tahr (Critical) x2

Seal Dragon, Shading (Heal) x4

Grade 1:

Total: 14

Seal Dragon, Rinocross (Perfect Guard) x4

Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara x2

Seal Dragon, Kersey x2

Dragon Monk, Gojo x2

Embodiment of Armor, Bahr x4

Grade 2:

Total: 11

Dragon Knight, Nehalem x2

Seal Dragon, Corduroy x3

Berserk Dragon x2

Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon x4 

Grade 3:

Total: 8

Dauntless Drive Dragon x4

Dragonic Overlord the End x4 

Now this deck does not differ much from some other deck profiles that others have done, I run the Sealed Dragon lineup from Grade 0 to 2 just for Corduroy's effect where he need Especial Counterblast of 1 in order to activate his on-call effect. My starting Vanguard is Red Pulse Dracokid, although Conroe is a more reliable alternative, and can help you filter out your Bahrs and Rinocrosses, I prefer the Grade 3 searcher, because usually you will want to ride Dauntless Drive as your first Grade 3, and either use Red Pulse's ability to check the top 5 cards of your deck to search for either another Dauntless Drive if you want to breakride over breakride, or search for a copy of Dragonic Overlord the End, and this is useful for searching out DOTE even if you already have DOTE, just for the Persona Blast threat to your opponent. Also, I usually don't face any trouble, I have rarely misgraded, and even I did, i usually get gradestuck at Grade 2 more often than at Grade 0 or 1, simply because I run 14 Grade 1s and 11 Grade 2s, and by the time you usually reach the ride phase to Grade 2, you usually have one or more Grade 2s in your hand. Now the downside of running Red Pulse is that firstly he is a 4k booster, and runs into some trouble if you boost DOTE at Grade 3 which hits for only 15k, 1k short of the 16k barrier mark you ideally want to hit. But this is no big deal for Dauntless which can hit for 13k by itself if you have more rearguards then your opponent, making it 17k when boosted by Dracokid. Another problem that you might face if you don't run Conroe is that you cant search for boosters or perfect guards, and sometimes this might be quite crucial especially if you are playing against decks that retire your field or lock your boosters, Kagero finds it difficult to hit particularly high numbers without boosting, with the exception of breakriding. But the aim of the deck is to make sure you get Daunltess first, so Red Pulse does help quite a bit, although if played incorrectly you might end up with a ton of Grade 3s and nothing as guarding fodder (I got into this situation a few times), so timing is crucial knowing when to use Red Pulse's ability and when not to. Ultimately both are useful and Conroe is more reliable, but I just prefer Dracokid.

Now the trigger lineup I chose 6 Draw, 6 Criticals and 4 Heals. You don't run Stands because nowadays there are so many rearguard disabling abilities, with Lock and archetypes like Eradicators, sometimes having a full field may be difficult. The reason why I run so many draws is for Dauntless' effect, which is a costly nett -1 in hand advantage if you use its' breakride effect to re-stand your Vanguard, and not to mention sometimes you need to pop pesky Grade 0s or power up your units by +3k, the two draw triggers do perform this function well, and emphasizes what Kagero is all about: not brute force, but control and utility.

Criticals are always useful. Dont' ask why. And for Heals if you don't run the maximum 4 copies then you are better off running 16 Criticals.

For the Grade 1s I run Kimnara instead of Heatnail, beacuse Kimnara doen't need to boost and hit to activate its' effect, and can be called and used immediately, 2 is enough and throughout the game I usually get to see one or even two in my hand. Seal Dragon Kersey and Dragon Monk Gojo both perform the same task, to thin the deck for triggers and get rid of cards that are dead in the hand, like excessive Grade 3s, or even to ditch cards to filter for a Grade 3 if you don't have one in your hand. Bahr is there as a solid 8k booster and preferred ride target, and to run less then 4 would be as good as running none. 4 Rinocrosses, because its' good. And perfect guards are better at 4 (or 3, but depending on the type of deck you play).

Grade 2s are where things get a bit difficult. I run 6 10k beatsticks, 10k is a good number and even when boosted by Grade 1s like Kimnara you can still hit the 16 barrier. Why not run the 12k Seal dragon beatstick, or Burning Horn Dragon, you might ask? Well, because firstly I don't run the full Seal Dragon lineup, so the Seal Dragon 12k is out of the question, and Burning Horn is only useful when your Vanguard is DOTE, because I tend to stay in Dauntless until the time is 'right' to breakride, if I run Burning Horns they will either get clogged up in my hand or stay on the field as 9ks, which aren't really good rearguards to have.

For field control and utility, I have Berserk Dragon and Seal Dragon, Corduroy. I find that although Berserk Dragon is useful, if you think about it, you have to Counterblast 2 in order to pop 1 card, and although you can choose any rearguard to retire, basically if one follows the game mechanics as laid out by TehNacho in his recent (not so recent) article on Game Design: Counter-Blasts, Soul-Blasts, and all the Little Things

(go check his article out, its' good) you will find that using his calculations which I find make a lot of sense, mathematically-speaking, we run up to a conditional 0 since we assume 1 Counterblast as 1 card and that we assume this is 'High Quality advantage' generated, which makes this: 

                                     

                               -2(cost)=+1+1(assuming it is high quality advantage)=0

Worse still if your do not have any open counterblasts(because you want to ultilize counterblasts or at least have 2 CB open at all times to give the illusion of a possible DOTE Persona Blast, Berserk Dragon is basically just waiting to be sent into the Guardian Circle, and is 'useless' so to speak. Corduroy on the other hand, although his on-call ability is less impressive then Berserk Dragon's the cost required to activate its' ability is a Especial Counterblast of 1, which translates to a -1 and a +1 due you pooping your opponent's card, which makes it:

                          -1(cost)=+1+1(asumming this is high quality advantage)=1

                               OR

                         -1(cost)-1(due to opponent calling a Grade 2 using Corduroy's effect)=+1+1=0

becomes a nett 0 in advantage if your opponent manages to call a grade 2 from the top 4 cards to replace it. Or if he chooses not to, or cannot replace due to him not drawing into a Grade 2 in those 4 cards, you have yourself a conditional +1, which is far better than Berserk Dragon and you can use 2 of it due to the lower CB cost.

Lastly, we run 4 Dauntless Drive, because of his restanding ability when it is breakridden upon

                                                                          Undaunted by any opposition! Re-Stand!

Its' effect overall is quite good, given that on the turn its is breakrided upon you potentially get a

        

 -3(discard cost)-0.5(Limit Break)-1(breakride)+4(drive checks)+1(10k bonus power/situational +1)=0.5

Therefore using TehNacho's rule we come up with this equation, where I added in the -1 due to you needing to breakride before you can use the effect, accounting for the loss in advantage generated due to it being a vanilla if you don't breakride over it. This is oversimplification of the matter, but it is just to show my take on why Dauntless overall is still a good card, and might not be the -1 people are making it out to be. The +2 comes from the 10k power as a result of the breakride and thus 10k requires a minimum of extra 10k guard from your opponent, leading to them losing 1 card extra in guarding. This leads to the total advantage gained being 0.5.

Now for the boss card, 4 copies of Dragonic Overlord the End

                                                      As Morikawa once said: NEVER-ENDO

We run DOTE just beacause he synergises well with DDD. Although it does slow down the deck and removes the early pressure exerted by DOTE due the fact that it needs Limit Break, DOTE overall is a really solid card, no wonder it dominated the Japanese format when BT05 first came out and is still solid, despite the many new cards that try to mimick it (yes I'm talking to you Dragonic Descendant, Raging Form Dragon, Ethics Buster 'Reverse'), it still is the gold standard of re-standing Vanguards, due to it not being limited by Limit Break (pun intended) and if we calculate the advantage we gain by using his Persona Blast skill, we get:

                      -2(Counterblast)-1(Persona Blast)+4(drive checks)=1 

So we get a solid +1 in advantage, this is assuming that it is low quality advantage generated. Timing is crucial for DOTE, and the weakness is that if you use the Persona Blast too many times, coupled with the draw triggers, you might end up decking out as a result. So be careful if you use his skill, don't overextend. More often than not, the advantage is more of a psychological one, as people usually will be afraid of your Persona Blast.

Well with that, hope you enjoyed reading my take on DDD-DOTE Never-End Deck profile. 

Until next time,

EndBlade

Random Thoughts #2: My experiences with Yu-Gi-Oh!

Hey everybody, its' been a few days since I have last posted. Today I'm gonna be talking about something that I played a few years back (about 2-3 years ago), and recently I've been checking the 'new' cards out, as well as I stumbled upon my old stash of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and deck.

Some of the 'new' cards are mainly the XYZ monsters (I think it came out pretty long ago, but I've just come to know about it) and after seeing a few Youtube videos here and there, as well as reading up on some wikia articles on Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia, I found out that my previously used 'old' Yugioh Deck still can be used, with the slight adjustment of certain cards and addition of a few XYZ monsters and Synchro monsters to my current deck.

Well I play a Fairy-themed deck, and the main reason why I picked up the deck way back in 2010/2011 was largely due to ONE card in the deck which I really liked, not just because of the artwork but also its' effect, and because of that I was inspired to build a deck themed around it. I did NOT consult any wiki, forum or any form of advice on how the build my deck, I literally just went and built my deck how I saw fit, adding in cards I thought would be useful. Now I'm sure you guys might be wondering: what Fairy-type card could that be?

Well, its' Archlord Kristya. Now, the copy I got (and still have) was the Gold Rare VJMP Japanese Archlord Kristya, the moment I saw that card I knew that I HAD to build a deck based on it, and it would be my avatar (he he he). I didn't have much money then, so my deck was mostly built from a combination of Japanese, English and Korean cards, the latter two being because the Japanese variants were either too rare, or was threatening to burn a deep hole in my pockets, hence I chose to not make a fully Japanese deck.

Now my deck was focused solely on getting high levelled monsters out into play, especially Archlord Kristya once I had 'set up' my ideal field with high levelled monsters through the use of cards like Vahalla, Hall of the Fallen, Mausoleum of the Emperor and Gellenduo. I also played Nova Summoner, and Shining Angel just as delaying tactics or to get out my sole 'Honest'. Now usually once I summoned Kristya it was as good as GG for the opponents, especially because at that time, Synchro Summoning was the 'in' thing to do, and once I prevented their Special Summon they were practically useless. Now to prevent crazy things like Traps I played Royal Decree, at the expense of myself not being able to activate other traps, but this 'secured' my Archlord Kristya from removal from play traps like Bottomless Trap Hole, and even if it got destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, its' effect allowed it to be at the top of my deck, ready for a summon on the next turn. Its' ability to be Special Summoned for 'free' if I had exactly 4 Fairies in my Graveyard was also really good.

But I was never able to complete my deck, and I had a few 'missing' cards. I looked into one of the Structure decks and I realized many of the cards I needed (and bought for crazy prices at that time) was in this one 'new' Structure Deck, the one with Master Hyperion in it, but apparently the structure deck is difficult to find because it is actually pretty OLD haha. This is what happens when you stop playing a trading card games for 2 years and get back into the gaming scene. I might be making a Agent-based Kristya Deck, but for now nothing is set in stone yet until I find a way to get the cards needed (which is unlikely because I am just too lazy to go out and search for sellers of such cards).

Well overall Yu-Gi-Oh! was a great part of my school life, and the times I played with my pals after a tiring day at school were one of the most memorable and happy times, even though I might not have had the most powerful/rare cards, but Archlord Kristya undoubtedly formed a great deal of memorable moments that I would never forget. What are some of your experiences with trading card games when you were younger/in your teens? I would think that most of you would have played Yugioh or Duel Masters (and other stuff like those). I hope you guys enjoyed my post, I will not be posting so frequently, just because I am preparing for my Final Year exams, which are really important. But I'll still post when I think of stuff I wanna share with you guys, and it is likely the next post I post will be about my Dauntless Drive Dragon decklist and discussion (at least before EB09 hits our shores), and I change my deck.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

EndBlade

Transcending Boundaries : Grade Four?!?! Analysis on the new Grade 4

Hello everyone, just recently there has been news for EB09: Divine Dragon Progression released, and with the revealed cards so far, it seems that building a deck centralized around a Grade 4 unit may be possible!
Now the announcement about EB09 was not big news to me, and it seems that with the revelation of its' skills there is much hype generated surrounding Nouvelle Vague as a card, no doubt it will change Vanguard as a game. Although in my opinion, it does have some weaknesses, which may change as more cards are revealed along the way.

This image was taken from Cardfight Wikia and is the property of Bushiroad

Transendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague <Grade 4> "Twin Drive!!"

[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (3) & Soul Blast (3) & Choose a card named "Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague" from your hand, and discard it] Retire all of your opponent's rear-guards.
[CONT](VC):During your turn, the effects of your opponent's triggers are negated.
[CONT](VC):During a battle that this unit attacks a vanguard, your opponent cannot normal call grade 0 units to (GC) from his or her hand.
[CONT](RC):This unit gets [Power]-1000.
[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Now this is not the first Grade 4 introduced, the first being the promo card Epitome of Knowledge, Silvest.

Its skill being [AUTO](VC): When this unit attacks a vanguard, if the number of «Great Nature» rear-guards you have is three or more, this unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of that battle.

You might be thinking 'well that kinda sucks, only +10k power? And with a condition attached to it? But one must note this was pre-breakride era, where +10k was considered pretty good, and it had base 13k defense, equal to a crossride in terms of raw power. However, with Nouvelle Vague, the skills have been reworked, such that it remains attractive, in an era of breakrides and Vanguards with absurd power values.

By itself, it is a 13k powered unit, so defense-wise it doesn't fair too badly. But hitting 18k for rearguards and vanguard units are no longer a big problem, so what is so great about this Grade 4? Well for one, its' Limit Break ability may seem great when you look at it, but hey, who would be so stupid to go all in and fill up all their rearguard spots, especially if they know they are going up against such a deck? Unless you are playing against a rush deck like Spike Brothers, or Jewel Knights, particularly any Vanguard that focuses on rear guard power, like maybe Nova Grapplers. But it comes with a heavy cost at CB3 and SB3, the Soulblast not being so much of a problem, unless you want to use its' skill twice, which by itself requires 6 unflipped damage and unless you get a heal trigger, or unflip damage with something like Bellicosity, the chances of using it twice is unlikely. Furthermore, you need to perform a Persona Blast, and by itself is a -1 due to loss in hand advantage, and if you count Counter-Blasting as a -1 and Soul Blasting as a -1, you rack up a -7 in total card advantage, for the possibility of a +5, which makes its' skill a nett -2. So unless you get about to retiring 3 or more (optimally 4-5) of your opponent's rearguards, the skill itself is too costly.

Then what makes this card so good? Now that comes to the second and third CONT abilities. The first of which being the one where during your opponent's turn, trigger effects are negated. Now that takes away the trigger element of Vanguard, and in some sense makes it more advantageous towards you (unless you are in a mirror match, or up against Ethics Buster Extreme), as every turn it is a possible -2 for your opponent as he has to drop more guard, relying less on trigger luck.

The other skill, which I think really changes everything, is where your opponent cannot call Grade 0 units from their hand. So even if you don't have a booster for your Vanguard, your opponent must still perfect guard, intercept twice, or guard with Grade 1s and 2s from their hand. This makes it a minimum loss of two cards for them when they could lose one card just by dropping a Grade 0. If one places a G1 Bahr to boost Vague, then it hits for 21k, which then either forces out a perfect guard, or makes them drop 4 cards/intercept to guard for 2 triggers to pass, which in this case, ruins your opponent's mood. Furthermore, it syntheses very well with the trigger lock skill, as the Grade 0 your opponent drive checks now becomes even more useless as they cant use it to guard your Vanguard, however they CAN still use it to guard the rearguards, so it does not completely amek Grade 0s useless.

Both effects are gamebreaking just because they are NOT Limit Break restricted, in this case I classify such a skill as worthy of future restriction, and I think with the support this Grade 4 is going to have, we may very well see a restriction of Nouvelle Vague after a few tournaments.

Some of the notable support we are seeing for this new Grade 4 would be Nouvelle Roman Dragon a Grade , its' on-call ability helps you get your Grade 3 so that so won't be grade-locked at Grade 2, because the main problem of this deck is the Grade distribution, where space for Grade 3s becomes tighter due to the likelihood of people running more than 1 copy of Nouvelle Vague as it has its' Persona Blast. So placing 4 of each of these Grade 3 searchers are essential for consistency so that you get a smooth ride to Grade 4.

Now because of this new Grade 4 mechanic, the structure of decks will inevitably change, and optimally one would run 3 or maybe even 4 Nouvelles due to the support helping to search out for Grade 3 rides. This makes Grade 3s less desired in such a deck as one would want to ride into Nouvelle as soon a possible to reap the full benefits of locking down triggers and guarding restrictions.

Onto possible weaknesses I see in this card is not only the heavy cost, it is also very conditional. Although it is a well-rounded card in terms of defensive capabilities and exerting pressure on your opponent, it does require careful setup and I find that against rush decks like Spike Brothers or even the 'old' build Majesty Lord Blaster, or just anything that can dish out quick damage in the first 3-4 turns before you ride to Grade 4 stands to fare well against this card. Also, because one needs to increase consistency as the number of Grade 3s are decreased, more focus and resources are diverted into increasing consistency, which takes up card space for other Grade 2s and 1s which Kagero has a lot of great cards for (like Kimnala,Berserk Dragon etc.), so your options become more limited and restricted, and you stand to lose a great deck if you are somehow gradestuck at Grade 2 or even at Grade 3, because a deck focused around the Grade 4 will tend to have consistency issues. But only time will well whether this card is actually good, and only with the revealing of more cards then can we make a better judgement on the power of a Grade 4. But for now, these are my thoughts on the new Grade 4.

But still, I might get a few boxes of this just because the artwork of Nouvelle Vague is just so amazing.

So until next time,

EndBlade

Random thoughts about Vanguard!! and other stuff #1

Hey everybody, hope you guys are having a great Tuesday! So today I just wanna mention some random thoughts I have about Vanguard. Well if you happen to be blogsurfing or something and come across this blog, I welcome you here and I hope you take the time to read my posts (I'm a newb when it comes to tech stuff and social media stuff like blogging, any comments on how I can improve the blog or what I can write about would be great, but for now I might put up more deck profiles soon enough on my other decks, so stay tuned!

Recently, I haven't got about to playing Vanguard these past week or so, mainly because I've been so busy with school (yes I go to school) and with exams coming round the corner, I find it difficult to meet my friends for a game of Vanguard or two, but I might try and play a few games and squeeze in some playtime so I don't get too rusty, although I really think Vanguard as a game really depends on luck of the draw. Well almost all card games rely on luck but I think it applies especially for Vanguard, where a single trigger check could make the difference between winning and losing the game. But that adds to the charm about Vanguard, its' unpredictability (although that can be disputed too, especially if you cheat, but where's the fun in that?).
There was this time where I double crit-ed (this is a word) my friend when we were just playing for fun and so I just went balls to the wall and put my trigger on my Vanguard when he blocked for two to pass, and the amazing feeling when you get a double crit, or even that miracle heal when you thought all hope was lost really makes Vanguard so fun.

 I say this from experience, I have played Yu-Gi-Oh way back ( well not so way back) during the Yu-Gi-Oh GX season and even for a small period during 5DS, and Yu-Gi-Oh in some sense gets quite repetitive, especially when you play against the same type of decks over and over again, you kind of anticipate certain moves by your opponent. Not to mention Yu-Gi-Oh cards constantly churn out new, more crazy stuff ( I heard there's this XYZ thing that came out) and old decks kind of get obsolete.

But not so with Vanguard. Well it could be that Vanguard is barely 2 years old, but I find that old decks (like Alfred Beatdown, as well as more unorthodox decks like Neo Nectar still stand a fighting chance with the game equalizer of triggers, and while there has been some disputably OP (overplayed, overpowered, whatever you interpret it to be) cards like Dragonic Descendant, the recent Chaos Breaker Dragon and whatnot, I find that older decks can still match up and put up a good fight with the newer decks.

I've also played Duel Masters way back when they still printed the English booster packs, and although I find that game kind of fun, it was a pity they discontinued the English series, it had so much potential if you ask me. I haven't tried Magic: the Gathering, mainly because I heard that the learning curve is pretty steep and the holes it burns in your pockets are pretty huge (correct me if I am wrong).

 
Other than that, onto other stuff that are not so card-related,  recently I was surfing (is this term outdated?) around Youtube and I came across a music video which was hilarious, if you guys don't know already, its The Fox by Ylvis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

Go check that out if you haven't already! And other music videos by Ylvis, those are pretty crazy too. But that's about it from me today, hope you all have a great day and until next time,

EndBlade