"Skill" in Vanguard

So, since nothing is really happening with regards to Yu-Gi-Oh and Kaijudo, I figured I'd do a post about Vanguard.  Basically, I'm going to explain how all of the "skill" in Vanguard just boils down to basic math.  In fact, I'm basically going to go over everything you need to know how to play Vanguard effectively.  Basically, if you've watched the first season of the Vanguard anime (or even just the first few episodes), then this post should teach you everything you need to know to play better than most people.

Alright, so the first thing is attack order.  Assuming you don't run Stand Triggers (which most people don't, because it makes them think harder than they have to), you can easily attack with your Vanguard first and apply the additional power from any Triggers you pull effectively (depending on how your opponent guarded).  You can attack with one rear-guard line first if it's powerful enough (to force at least a 10k guard) or if you want to kill their rear-guards (either because they're Interceptors or because they're scary, like Dragonic Overlord).  You don't want to attack with both rear-guard columns first in most situations (for instance, you can do that if you run Nova Grapplers, where your Grade 3's are turned into multi-Stand Triggers).  You can also attack their rear-guards if your rear-guards are too weak to attack the Vanguard effectively.

But, how do you determine if your rear-guards are powerful enough to attack your opponent's Vanguard effectively?  In the TCG, players refer to certain values of power as "magic numbers."  Basically, if your opponent has a 10k Vanguard, then if you can attack them with at least 15k power, then you will force them to guard with at least 10k worth of shield.  Similarly, if your opponent has a 11k Vanguard, then 16k is sufficient to force a 10k guard.  So, for every 5k extra power you can add to your attack, you force your opponent to have to guard with 5k more than they would have had to otherwise; it's basic math.  Certain decks try to hit 20k or 21k power lines so that you can force 15k guards, but not all decks can do that.

This idea of "magic numbers" is useful when setting up your columns.  You can easily put your 6k booster behind a 10k attacker to make a 16k line.  If you've got units that attack for 12k, like some Megablasters or cards like Dragonic Executioner, then you can use 8k boosters to make them into 20k lines.  Obviously, you have to take into account the power of your opponent's Vanguard.  So, making a 20k line is just as powerful as making a 16k line against an 11k Vanguard; again, basic math.  As I said, making 20k or 21k lines can be difficult for many decks, so consistently making 16k lines is often enough.

And of course, knowing about "magic numbers" helps when you're defending as well.  So, if your 10k Vanguard is being attacked by a 16k line, then you have to guard with 10k worth of shield.  But it's not only useful for guarding, you can also determine whether or not to attack your opponent's rear-guard.  If your opponent makes a 20k line (like Gigantech Destroyer supported by Gareth), then you can attack that rear-guard so that you can break up their 20k attacking line.  It makes guarding easier for you if you can take down their rear-guards.

So you know how to protect yourself against your opponent's rear-guard attacks, but how do you properly guard against their Vanguard?  Have you seen this scene (from 8:58 to 11:58)?  It's an example of how to properly guard against the Vanguard, and we also get a nice lesson from Yuri of Team Caesar.  In general, you want to guard against your opponent's Grade 3 Vanguard with 5k more than what would normally be necessary.  So, if you have a 10k Vanguard and your opponent attacks for 16k, then you would have to guard with at least 10k.  But, if your opponent gets a Trigger, they could give the extra 5k power to their Vanguard and force the attack through.  So, to avoid that, you guard with 15k instead, so that if your opponent gives the 5k from a Trigger to their attacking Vanguard, the attack still wouldn't go through.

Of course, if they pull two Triggers, take a risk, and give both to their Vanguard, then the attack would go through.  This is why people say "Two to pass" when they guard like this; they would need two Triggers for the attack to go through.  Does that mean that you should guard with an extra 10k instead so that their attack won't go through no matter what (which is called "No pass")?  No, you shouldn't do that normally.  For instance, in the fight between Misaki and Yuri, if Yuri had guarded with 20k against Misaki's Vanguard's attack, then she wouldn't have had enough cards left to guard against the rear-guard Tsukuyomi that would get the extra 10k from the two Triggers.  It also wouldn't give Misaki the opportunity to misplay by misappropriating the extra power from her Triggers.  However, if you have a mess load of cards and want to ensure that you make it to your next turn, then go ahead and waste the extra shield to protect yourself.  It's basic math (again), if you guard for "No pass", and your opponent pulls two Triggers anyways, they'll give the power to their rear-guard(s) and you'll have to guard for a lot again.

Using this type of reasoning (read, "basic math"), you can determine when it is appropriate to guard with the minimum amount of shield against a Vanguard's attack.  This is called "minimum guard" or "One to pass", because one Trigger will break through the guard.  Consider the following example: It's very late in the game, and you're at 5 damage.  Your opponent has their 16k Vanguard line and a 15k rear-guard line against your 10k Vanguard.  You have 20-25k worth of shield left.  In this situation, it's appropriate to minimum guard against your opponent's Vanguard's attack.  Why?  Because if you guard for 15k against your opponent's Vanguard, then you won't have enough to guard against their rear-guard if they pull a Trigger; you'd have to guard with another 15k, and you'd only have 5-10k left.  However, if you minimum guard and they don't pull a Trigger, you'll have enough cards left to guard their rear-guard's attack.  Of course, if they pull a Trigger, you'd lose either way; that's just something you'd have to deal with in that situation.

That's basically all of the basic math that you need to know to do well in Vanguard.  There are some more advanced strategies that you'd have to employ if you do stuff like use Stand Triggers, but it's very easy to run a deck that doesn't use Stand Triggers.  If you want a quick tip on how to use Stand Triggers effectively, here it is: Attack with one rear-guard line before attacking with your Vanguard, and use the rear-guard line that has an attacker that has enough power to hit their Vanguard (or at least one of their rear-guards) unboosted.  For instance, if your opponent has a 10k Vanguard and your rear-guard lines are 9k boosted by 7k and 10k boosted by 6k, then you attack with the 10k rear-guard first.  That way, if you pull a Stand Trigger, then you can stand your 10k attacker and give it the 5k power from the Trigger, which will force another 10k guard out of your opponent.

And of course, memorizing the cards your opponent reveals off of drive checks can be helpful as well, but since most good players use revealed cards within the next two turns (either as guards or rear-guards) to prevent you from knowing their whole hand, it's not necessarily that helpful.  There's also the idea that you should try to guard early in the game, since it's easier to guard for 5k earlier than for 15k later, but sometimes you won't be able to.

But yeah, that's basically it.  So, like I said, if you've watched the first few episodes (at least episodes 1, 2, 4, and 11) of the Vanguard anime and can remember the strategies outlined in this post, then you now know how to play Vanguard relatively well.  Of course, there's still a lot of luck involved, but employing these strategies will help you win.  At least kind of, anyways...