As usual, I went to locals this weekend for Vanguard and Kaijudo tournaments.
Aki was able to come with me on both days, but he wasn't able to go until the afternoon yesterday, so we missed the morning Vanguard tournament. That is, we would have missed it if we cared about the EB06 Sneak Preview. Apparently only two people showed up, so they didn't even have the Sneak Preview, so that was good. The goodness behind this will be explained later.
Either way, we went to the other card shop for the evening Vanguard tournament. There were 17 people there, including my friend who plays Vanguard and the fourth Snogal. A group of like six players whom we had never seen before showed up today, and they were all using modified Trial Decks, so they were even less of a threat than the usual little kids.
I was running Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar, Aki was running Vermillion Narukami, the fourth Snogal was running Ezel Gold Paladin, and my friend was running Ergodiel Angel Feather. He insisted on running Angel Feathers, so I convinced him to use Ergodiel, since it's better than Metatron or Shamsiel...
Round 1: vs Gold Paladin (Ezel)
This was my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament. He sold his Spectral Duke deck for Platina Ezels and such when it came out. I got more triggers than him in the first game, and he got gradestuck in the second game, so I won the match.
OO
Round 2: vs Spike Brothers
I was playing against a little kid. He tried to rush me in the first game with Dudley Emperor's Limit Break when I was at 2 damage... I got gradestuck on Grade 0 in the second game, then won the third game.
OXO
Round 3: vs Narukami
This was my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament. He was running the most random Narukami deck I had ever seen. He didn't have play-sets of Vermillions or The Bloods, but he played at least one of each, along with Grade 3 Djinns and Breakthrough Dragons... He also used Koh Koh as his starter, so I won both games...
OO
My friend had won all three rounds so far, but Aki and the fourth Snogal were paired against each other in the third round. Aki won, so he, my friend, and I were all undefeated. Instead of cutting to Top 4 like they usually do, they cut to Top 8 because the tournament organizer didn't want our team to take up 3 of the Top 4 spots. If they had let us, we would've split with the 4th place player so that they would've at least gotten something, but whatever.
After Swiss, my friend was in 1st, I was 2nd, Aki was 3rd, and the fourth Snogal was 7th. As such, he was paired up against me. The winner of our match would play against the winner of Aki's match. Aki had to play in a Vermillion Narukami mirror match against one of the regular little kids. He lost because he got gradestuck on Grade 0 in the first game, then his opponent got double Critical Triggers in the second. The fourth Snogal gave me the win for our match so that I could go on to avenge Aki.
Top 4: vs Narukami (Vermillion)
He was a pretty bad player. Apparently, he only made it this far because he kept double Crit'ing people, which he is apparently proud of because he runs 12 Critical Triggers and plans to run 16 once the Eradicator Trial Deck comes out... I lost the first game to double Critical Triggers. I got my ride chain in the second game, but had to duplicate my perfect guard. The 9k boost helped against his crossride, though, so I was able to win that game. In the third game, I opened with two Maiden of Trailing Rose, one Sephirot, one Timber, and a Heal Trigger. I top-decked Branch to search another Timber, but I couldn't duplicate anything when I rode it. I called out two more Timbers, though, with the intention of intercepting with one and cloning the other. However, I topped my first booster: Caramel Popcorn. I skipped my ride to call Caramel Popcorn so that I could duplicate it on the following turn. Sephirot's Limit Break gave me 10k boosters so that I could hit his crossride. He used The Blood's Ultimate Break twice because he got a Heal Trigger after the first one, and I replaced my front row with two Corolla Dragons. With the boost from the Limit Break and Caramel Popcorn's own effect, I was able to win with a field of Grade 1's.
XOO
My friend ended up beating my Round 1 opponent in the Top 8, then one of the new players with a Gold Paladin Trial Deck (the only one who managed to get into the Top 8, by the way) in the Top 4 to make it to the finals. The prizes were only for the Top 2, which was us. So instead of splitting the Top 4 so that at least one player outside of our team could get something, we walked away with all of the prizes.
I imagine that the tournament organizer doesn't appreciate how we always win the tournament, but his efforts to foil us failed. We honestly wouldn't win this much if other Vanguard players made an effort to be competent, but they don't care because they can just win with double Crits one in every ten games.
Either way, out of the 18 packs we won, we pulled an Illuminal Dragon, Glory Maelstrom, Tri-stringer Dragon, Shirayuki, Tamamo, Farah, Vayu, and Blaster Dark Spirit. There may have been other stuff, but whatever.
We played a few tag fights after that. Aki and my friend teamed up, and I was with the fourth Snogal. They all used the same decks as for the tournament, and I used my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers. The fourth Snogal and I won every single game except for one. Two of the games we won involved me pulling a ninth-damage Heal Trigger; to be fair, I hadn't seen any Heal Triggers until that point, so it's not like there was a horrible chance of that happening.
On the following day (today), my friend, Aki, and I went to the usual card shop for the Kaijudo tournament. I was running my LFN Megabug deck, Aki was running a LWF Dragon Aggro deck, and my friend was running a DFN Aggro deck. They both decided to change their decks significantly, since they weren't satisfied with their performances last weekend. There were 7 players total.
Round 1: vs LWDN Control
I was up against Fwazalaza. He was running the same deck as usual...
-Duel 1: I opened with Keeper of Laws so that he couldn't play spells without giving me free cards, and that was about enough to win.
-Duel 2: Same as the first game, Keeper of Laws is so ridiculous that it overshadowed everything else that happened.
OO
Round 2: vs WDF Mid-range
I was playing against Eman of TCGWise.
-Duel 1: I didn't want to give him any shields, since he ran out of cards pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I waited too long, and he was able to play Infernus the Awakened. I still had a chance to win, though, since I broke all but two of his shields, and I had two Keeper of Laws out to finish the job over the next couple of turns. He decided to go for game, but hit Stormspark Blast, which let me win with The Hive Queen, which he opted not to kill because he wanted to go for game.
-Duel 2: I was more aggressive with my bugs and broke shields more quickly. I didn't want that Infernus to drop again, so I had to play around a Herald of Infernus. Once he ran out of cards, I got aggressive with The Hive Queen and was able to win before he could do anything crazy.
OO
Round 3: vs LW Aggro
I was playing against Stephen L. This was the finals, by the way.
-Duel 1: My opening hand consisted of The Hive Queen, The Swarmleader, Root Trap, Stormspark Blast, and Tornado Flame. I had to play Ambush Scorpion on turn 3, and he opened with a decent progression, so he was able to break a bunch of my shields, then lock down The Hive Queen with Lyra so that I couldn't do anything.
-Duel 2: I had no opening plays again and lost pretty quickly. I had to play around Lyra and General Finbarr late game, and I didn't have anything to do early game, so there wasn't much I could do. I noted after the game that I did not see any of my Heat Seekers or Blockers all match...
XX
So I went 2-1 and got 2nd place. Aki got 3rd place, so that was good. My friend lost both of his matches against Control decks, so that was sad. I'll discuss with him tomorrow to see what he thought went wrong.
Either way, I won two packs, Aki won one, and we got three entry packs, so we got a total of six packs. We pulled a third Magma Dragon Melgars, a fourth Spelljacker, and a fourth Truthseeker Forion... At least we got a total of two promo Sprouts in addition to the packs, though.
Thinking ahead, to when school will start back up, I once again tried to convince the shopkeeper to move the Kaijudo tournaments to Saturday. Although he is still reluctant to do so, there is still hope. The fact that Vanguard is such a terrible game with poor marketing and tournament attendance in the United States means that he may stop selling Vanguard products and holding Vanguard tournaments. That's great, because it frees up Saturday morning for the Kaijudo tournament. This won't affect me for another two months, so I'm hoping that he decides to move on this by then.
That's about it for this weekend. My friend who plays Vanguard is starting to plan for Set 12, but we don't even know when it's going to be released. I'll try to convince him not to get ahead of himself, since we still haven't gotten Sets 11 or 10 yet. At the same time, I wouldn't mind having Dungaree support from Set 12, and I could certainly play Link Joker, since no one else on my team wants to... We'll see what happens...
Edison Deep Dive: Gladiator Beast
6 months ago
So much hate on vanguard man :/ The game maybe bad on your place, but dont overgeneralize, even though those kind of players do exists.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all of the players I have come into contact with are incompetent. Vanguard is made in such a way so that anyone can win, regardless of skill level, so players don't have to be competent to win.
DeleteTo be honest, the game is probably relatively good here, compared to other parts in the United States. But, Vanguard is still a terrible game.
Oh, Vanguard tournament starts to have decline in attendance? That's new to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's been like that. A lot of players have lost interest in the game, which makes sense. There's not much point to playing in tournaments for a skill-less game like Vanguard.
DeleteI know why. Those players are scared of losing to your team. Because you and your friends almost win everytime, LOL!
DeleteVanguard's gone up in my area. I personally think its just the area around. Sometimes, the area around u affects how u treat a game. For me, though, vanguard's just a fun game. I mean, sure there's luck but theres also luck in other card games.
ReplyDeleteWell, the role that luck plays in Vanguard is much greater than in any other card game. It's so pronounced to the point that skill is largely overshadowed in any game of Vanguard. Of course, it's obvious that someone who has no idea of what they're doing will have a lower chance of winning, but they can still win a fair amount of the time, which is honestly too much. If someone cannot do basic math, they shouldn't be able to win at Vanguard, but because of the way the game is designed, they can.
DeleteAnd from what I've seen from videos on YouTube of Vanguard players, most of them are as bad as the players at my locals. So I feel justified in my view on the majority of Vanguard players.
Not to mention the fact that when two competent player play each other, the winner is decided by who is luckier. Even if one player is more skilled than the other, as long as both of them are competent, that little extra skill often doesn't matter. That's not like it is in Kaijudo or how it was in Yu-Gi-Oh, where even a small edge in skill level can determine who wins.
Sure, Vanguard can be a fun game. That's why I play with my friends, because it's fun. Playing in tournaments where getting double Critical'd matters and isn't something you can just laugh about with your friends isn't fun.
oh and if i were an angel feather player id rather run shamsiel or metatron. they consistently help af's abilities. ergodiel only works if the chain goes off
ReplyDeleteErgodiel isn't for the damage swapping, it's for the 11k defense and the Persona Blast. Shamsiel needs the various Pegasus or Calamity Flame to do anything significant, and Metatron is the same way, except slightly worse.
DeletePeople seem to think that swapping cards in the Damage Zone with cards in your hand is really impressive. It's really not, since eventually, you're going to use up all of the good cards in the Damage Zone and be stuck with nothing. Not to mention the fact that Angel Feathers have problems generating advantage as it is. As least with Ergodiel, you can heal.
Hmm, at least i understand where you're coming from. It just feels differently at my locals than what you describe
ReplyDeleteOh and as regards to kaijudo, I got a free deck that revolves around darkness and fire. I believe its one of those ready to play decks. So I was thinking of any advice u could give me, like is it ok to settle with this deck or to change it up?
ReplyDeleteWell, those free decks are like Starter Decks, in that they have some good staples, but aren't really that great. If you're looking to play a Darkness/Fire deck, then that's a decent deck to start with. You could try getting some Skycrusher's Might Starter Decks, which also focuses on Darkness and Fire, to help improve your deck.
DeleteConveniently, the official Kaijudo website has a series of articles that help new players learn the basics of deck building and strategy. All of these articles are listed here:
http://www.kaijudo.com/blog/strategies-tips/begin-in-kaijudo/
That would be a good place to start if you're just trying to figure out the basics. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.
ok from what i see fire+darkness =aggro. I dont mind that. Any staples for fire and darkness?
DeleteSo far kaijudo sounds interesting. I personally hope Vanguard, kaijudo and weiss schwarz continue to stay alive
Well, there are very few cards that are truly staples. Cards like Bone Blades and Terror Pit are very commonly played cards in decks that use Darkness, but not all decks that have Darkness cards use them (well, basically every deck that uses Darkness uses Terror Pit; it's probably the closest a card is to being a staple in Kaijudo). There's almost no reason not to use them, but Kaijudo has very complex interactions, so they're not always necessary. In a basic Aggro deck, though, they're pretty invaluable.
DeleteAs for Fire, there are really no cards that people would consider staples. Fire has a lot of Power-based removal like Heat Seekers, Rock Bite, and Tornado Flame which are used sometimes, but they aren't as common as Terror Pit and Bone Blades.
Even though all of these creature removal cards seem to be generic, they are usually used to deal with very specific threats. Heat Seekers was used solely to kill Level 2 and 3 Cyber Lords like Cyber Trader and Aqua Seneschal before DragonStrike Infernus was released. It has other uses, of course; I personally use it to deal with Fire Birds.
My point is that you should use creature removal cards only if they can deal with specific cards that would pose a threat to your strategy. For instance, in an Aggro deck, Comet Missile is an excellent card to use because it deals with any Blocker. One of the most commonly played Blockers, Aqua Strider, can be killed with Comet Missile, but not by Heat Seekers. Not to mention you can answer an Aqua Strider the turn after they play it with Comet Missile, since they're both Level 2 cards.
Bone Blades also deals with Aqua Strider, but it takes a little longer. That's not really a bad thing, since Bone Blades can banish several creatures that Comet Missile cannot, including things like Sword Horned, which cannot practically be killed by any Fire removal cards.
There are a lot of cards that you can consider, but you have to take into account their interactions with other cards. You could always try out different combinations of removal cards and see which ones work best.
There is one card I would specifically recommend for an Aggro deck using Fire, though: Gilaflame the Assaulter. It has Fast Attack and is difficult to get rid of because it returns to the hand at the end of the turn during which it was summoned. There are very few commonly played answers to it outside of Shield Blasts, so it's a good way to put pressure on an opponent.
also whats the price range of most kaijudo cards?
ReplyDeleteWell, it's hard to say, since Kaijudo isn't as popular as other card games so the market for Kaijudo cards is smaller.
DeleteThere are a few cards that cost over $30, last time I checked. However, those cards are used almost exclusively in Control decks, so you wouldn't need them for an Aggro deck.
Basically, if you're not running Control, you shouldn't have to spend that much on cards. A lot of the cards that are commonly used in Aggro or Rush decks can be found in Starter Decks and/or are Commons/Uncommons that are really cheap. For instance, Gilaflame the Assaulter comes as a one-of in the Bull Rush Starter Deck, along with stuff like Tornado Flame and Bolt-Tail Dragon.