Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

After giving it some thoughts, I've decided to close down the store. Although it has only been 8 months, there are too much commitment in real life that I'm unable to update the store (and even the blog) as regularly as I'd love to. There's lots of items to add in; from Wixoss booster 5 and trial decks, Japanese Weiss Schwarz, both English and Japanese Vanguard to the much needed updates for Ange Vierge and Level Neo. Sadly, there's only one of me and I can't really outsource for external help.

Another deciding factor was shipping costs. Throughout some feedback from a few customers, their main complaint was that shipping can be too expensive for a single card. Even with registered shipment, the shipping and handling fee can go up to $6. So if the card they are looking for is $5 and shipping is $6, it becomes quite a turn off. Not forget to mention the duration of the shipment. While the post office claims it'll take 5 to 10 working days to reach its destination, it may take 3 to 4 weeks for it to actually reach. Fedex, DHL, EMS and the likes are way too expensive for a single shipment as their minimum weight rate is capped at 500 grams, which costs about $30 for one shipment. So imagine shipping out a card that is only 10 grams in total with bubble mailer and top loaders and having to pay $30 for shipping. Well, let's throw that idea out the window shall we?

So when exactly the store will close? Welp, we're closing on the 31st January 2015, which incidentally is a month later. Well, it's sudden but it can't be help. So any orders from 31st Jan will be cancelled and payment returned. I won't be adding in more items to the store during this period.

Now what will happen to this really empty blog? It'll stay the same. Probably with the store closed down, there would be more time for me to finally put up more contents. The URL will probably just revert back to the blogger address.

Will I ever re-open the store again? Depends. But the chances are quite slim.

After a long week of delay by the new distributor, I finally managed to get my hands on WIXOSS booster 04. Why the long delay? Turns out, the distributor encountered some hiccups with the delivery of Booster 4 and there wasn't enough for all pre-orders by every other stores. So they decided to do the next worst thing: Distributing the boosters to the larger chain of stores first (which obviously have a larger amount of pre-orders) instead of doing a "first come first serve" basis. So yeah, majority of the smaller stores got their pre-orders last despite being the first ones to pre-order them. And we did like what other humans will generally do, bombard the distributor with complaints.

Phew, that was a load off my chest. I did not take an unboxing video for this booster sadly due to technical issues. But for those who have been waiting for singles from this booster, I have good news! It's now up for grabs in the store! (Images will be updated soon)

When was the last time I did a deck profile again? Oh yeah, back in February. Well, let's not get on to the little details shall we? Cause it's time for more Miku!

Project Diva F 2nd booster came out not so long ago. I have a unboxing video for it, but I think I may have lost it somehow in the sea of data that is my computer after doing some back up. Either I have accidentally deleted the file or it's named as something else...

Now enough with my rants. With Project Diva F 2nd out, the Vocaloid series finally have gotten themselves a HUGE boost that most cards from the first booster pales in comparison. And I welcome this update with a huge grin on my face (still hidden behind the camera. Who is this guy who loves to murmur to himself?). So much that it is considered anti-meta by some and too over-powered by others. For me, well, it still depends on how you use and combo the cards. Here's my deck profile of my updated Miku fan deck.


The deck hugely focuses on a few things.

1. Deck thinning through large stocks that you don't know what to do with said stock
2. Easily cycle climax cards to the waiting room
3. Large attacking and defending power.
4. Ample hand size

Yup, the deck is that strong and consistent. Playing against lots of decks and winning mostly - Angel Beats, Nisekoi, Vividred, Kan-Colle and Rewrite, just to name a few. Anti-heal? Go ahead, I have 16 stocks to use. Wanna counter? Nope, denied! Hmm, now I'm at level 2...oh wait, I have 6 climax in waiting room. Here's a G3 Miku taking the centre stage!......Yup, fun times.

Without further ado, here's the list of cards I used for the deck!

Level 0: (16 cards)

• 3 x Hatsune Miku "Pierretta"
• 4 x "39 GET!" Hatsune Miku
• 4 x Hatsune Miku "Cat Girl"
• 3 x Hatsune Miku "Magician"
• 2 x Hatsune Miku "Bless You" 

Level 1: (10 cards)

• 2 x Kagamine Rin "Ni no Sakura: Butterfly"
• 4 x Hatsune Miku "Orange Blossom"
• 4 x Hatsune Miku "Supreme"

Level 2: (7 cards)

• 1 x Weekender Girl
• 2 x Hatsune Miku "V3"
• 3 x Hatsune Miku "Orbit"
• 1 x Kagamine Len "White Edge"

Level 3: (9 cards)

• 4 x "Electronic Songstress" Hatsune Miku
• 3 x "Always Ringing" Hatsune Miku
• 2 x Hatsune Miku, Resonating "DIVA"

Climax: (8 cards)

• 4 x Packaged
• 4 x SPiCa - 39's Giving Day Edition-

I've updated the prices for WIXOSS booster sets 1 and 2 as well as more stocks added in. Not much differences but you may have noticed the foil cards are steadily dwindling down in price and has stabilized mostly. And yes, I finally got off my lazy butt to upload the images for each cards as well! So long to those "Now printing" images!

I am saddened to announce that WIXOSS booster set 3 will be slightly delayed for one or two days however. The prices are spiking up and down a little as various stores across Japan having slightly different prices by a large margin as well. I expect for the price to settle down within one or two days though.

Ninja update: Prices seems to have stabilized. WIXOSS booster set 3 have been added in to the store!

Visit the webstore now!

Finally! Spread Selector is out and has reached my door. What was the first thing I did? Take an unboxing video of it of course! I've tried to keep it quick,  short and simple, so instead of having my normal (and boring) commentaries in the video, I went back to how it was used to be done!

I apologize for not updating for too long. No, it's that I'm lazy. I literally have no time to do any updates as I've been doing lots of overtime work in real life, working 6 days 12 hours shift a week. I did take a few unboxing videos (Ange Vierge Chapter 4 and Project Diva F 2nd) but I have yet to upload those. I have some free time these few days but I hope the lazy bug didn't get me.

For now, I'm just here to announce that there have been major price update for WIXOSS. The market price over in Japan have stabilize and the updates have been done to reflect them. From what I heard, the price have been stabilize for about two weeks but I delayed a little in case there was another unforeseen fluctuation. You'd be glad to see cards that used to cost more than $20 is now just about $10 odd. Well, except for Three Out which is has increased to $12 despite being just a common card (and I heard it may still increase some more). For those who are sceptical about the prices, I'm using Bigweb and Card Kingdom as a reference, which most players and shops in Singapore are using for Japanese singles. Head down to the store and get those cards that you've been itching to get!

Yes, the singles for Set 2, Stirred Selector, are up in the store now! As usual, I followed the Japanese market rate for these cards. Stocks are limited so get them while they last! Level 0 Yuzuki and Eldora promos also available so you can build a deck without needing the trial deck! Scanned images of the cards will be added soon.

Hey there again and I'm back with Wixoss Booster set 2 unboxing! The video is long, since it is about 15 minutes per box (on average) and most likely bore some people (sorry for not being so colourful with words).

Yes, as you've seen in the video, one of the boxes is a mispacked box. Full of parallel foil cards that includes in a SECRET card too! Aki-lucky! Here are the images of the SRs that I managed to snag from the 4 boxes!






Of course some of the cards shown here are for sale. I have yet to add them into the store yet but I'll be putting up another post ones it's done!

I've been getting lots of requests for WIXOSS, and now, here's more! Previously, we had a box opening for WIXOSS Blue Appli trial deck, today, we have White Hope, Red Ambition and Black Desire! As for Green Wanna...sorry, I couldn't get my hand on that one...But, at the very least, here are some images for you to enjoy! For those looking forward to getting the WIXOSS trial decks, my store is currently taking pre-orders for them! However, there are limited slots so you'll need to be quick before it all runs out! Pre-order closes on 19th June 2014.

EB09 have just released everybody is rushing to grab them. I originally wanted to grab a video of everything...but well, as usual, I got lazy (though the place was a bit crowded and noisy). But, I did take a couple of images for you all to enjoy! And oh, the EB09 foils are now available in the webstore! Grab whatever you need and spend $50 to enjoy free shipping!

Update: EB08 now available!!

Vanguard English eb08 and eb09! pic.twitter.com/wQK3MJ2lYc
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

Eb08 unboxed! 1 galaxy SP and 1 immortal SP! pic.twitter.com/NcDDktzfcT
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

pic.twitter.com/41HNhXqG95
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

6 Monds, not bad pic.twitter.com/aW2IoNV4la
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

So many perfect guards.... pic.twitter.com/TtynwVILfh
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

Kagero galore! pic.twitter.com/cIZNW5HJQF
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

Everybody wants this guy... pic.twitter.com/vpJeNmP6Hs
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

Cruel dragons and blast bulk Dragon. Definitely great cards for trolling pic.twitter.com/nOXrV2hnnZ
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

More kagero stuffs pic.twitter.com/fhCm9YQJy7
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

Wondering if Bushiroad will make a dragon dancer archetype. Definitely will build one! pic.twitter.com/x0PaxK8E2C
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

I feel these 2 cards are a waste of slots... I like lawkeeper but... pic.twitter.com/AxA1c7UjCz
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

The two SPs of the carton. Too bad couldn't get Nouvelle Vague pic.twitter.com/o21nQ0mZmS
— Stand and Draw TCG (@StandandDrawTCG) June 6, 2014

I wasn't able to actually complete translating the rule book, but no fret! For those who would like to play or try Level NEO and have no idea how to play it can look at a step by step tutorial at a blog called The Draw Phase by Some Guy. You may need to take a glance at the rule book for some of the parts, like the card types for cross references.

I really appreciate that he took the time to make the tutorial. Double thumbs up to him!

Phew, it has been a month since I last updated...now where do I begin...Firstly, I apologize (again) for not updating much. Work has been extremely crazy that I didn't have much time for Vanguard or blog updates. It's a Sunday and I'm still busy working too but as I am writing this, I have already finished quite a bulk of things.

Initially, I wanted to use two different blogs; one simply for my rants, deck recipes and videos (yup this blog!) and another one for updates on the store. I realized then that having two blogs is a pain and decided to use this blog and twitter for both.

While my job have been pulling me away from playing TCGs, I do find at least 2 or 3 hours to play some games to unwind once a week. I mentioned busy, but I was busy on two ends, my real life job and of course updates for the webstore. So here are a few updates on the store end!

1. Just added in more cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard, such as Trans-core Dragon or more Eradicator units. Also some EB09 Kagero cards as well from the booster draft!
2. Search optimization!! Now you can simply search for the clans you need instead of jumping all over the place, scrolling through the booster sets and getting frustrated. To be honest, this took me a couple of hours to finish. Update: May need a little bit more optimization. Eg, if you search "genesis" you get nothing but if you search "Genesis" you get something. Will fix this in due time.
3. Follow me on twitter! Posting updates on the blog, webstore and of course some random stuff! I'll be tweeting some of the box opening pictures for EB08 and EB09 this Friday Singapore time! (This will be a Thursday for those living in the west :D)
4. Got a new scanner! Some pictures added in for those with blank images. While I can simply grab an image for Vanguard on the Wikia, I rather scan my own images for quality purposes. Of course another reason is that some of the TCGs I carry doesn't have good images hi-res off the web. WIXOSS and Weiss Schwarz are such examples.
5. Blog have moved to a new domain! If you noticed, your address bar is now showing http://blog.standanddrawtcg.com. The old link will still be used, but it will simply redirect itself here.

I believe that should be about all the updates I did. I am not so sure when the next update will be (apart 6th June). Hopefully I can update more frequently soon :D.

Phew, it has been a while since I last did a deck profile and now, I am back with more! This time around, it's another Dark Irregulars deck and no, it's not Amon related or Master of Fifth Element either. Say hello to my new favourite card in Dark Irregulars, Echo of Nemesis! This card is a huge monster. He not only hits hard with large numbers but he also troll hard. If you have checked out the wikia page for him, you'll see why. His ability to gain 10k worth of power when attacking as well as not letting your opponent to guard with his/her pesky quintet wall or perfect guards makes him scary. His ability definitely makes Glory Maelstrom jealous since it's easy to achieve and is actually free.

But first, I have made a video of the deck profile. Yes, this is my very first deck profile in recording (be nice to me). Enjoy!


Grade 0: 17 cards
1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard)
4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger)
4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical Trigger)
2 x Blitzritter (Critical Trigger)
3 x Hysteric Shirley (Draw Trigger)
3 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw Trigger)

Grade 1: 14 cards
4 x March Rabbit of Nightmareland (Perfect Guard)
4 x Poet of Darkness, Amo
3 x Alluring Succubus
3 x Devil Child

Grade 2: 11 cards
3 x Amon's Follower, Psycho Glaive
3 x Decadent Succubus
1 x Flirtatious Succubus
4 x Fatigue Succubus

Grade 3: 8 cards
4 x King of Masks, Dantarian
4 x Echo of Nemesis

Special mentions
Greedy Hands (G0) - If you prefer getting that soul quick, he's your best option
Dimension Creeper (G1) - Use Greedy Hands to soul in this guy. After which, soul blast again for more souls!
Doreen the Thruster (G1) - Dimension Creeper and Echo of Nemesis can make her be a good 18k booster
Yellow Bolt (G1) - Again, if you prefer getting to 10 souls really quick
Emblem Master (G2) - You will have plenty of counterblast to use and his ability easily threaten the opponent to guard. They will always try not to let you get 10 souls.
Gwynn the Ripper (G2) - Again, with so many counterblasts not used, you can always choose to snipe away those irritating boosters or interceptors.

I hope you enjoy and give the deck a try. Echo of Nemesis is really one strong deck that can also counter lock decks since he attack power is a constant 21k.

A few days ago, I've posted the WIXOSS booster set 1 unboxing video. Now it's time for the Trial Deck, Blue Appli. This is just a short and quick video so there isn't much for me to comment on except for you all to enjoy the video!

It's finally here! The TCG that somehow received lukewarm responses among my cliques and have a little bit of hype in the interwebs. Sadly, I have a little bit of issue with the TCG currently...I still have no idea how to play it properly (why isn't there anyone out there translating the rule book!? ARGH!!). I have mentioned this a couple of times before that my Japanese isn't that great so I'm kinda struggling along with the rulebook, which makes me wish each kanji have a ruby above them.

Anyways, here are my thoughts on the trial deck. It feels nice on the hands and it's kinda thick. If anyone here who read this plays Prism Connect, yeah, about that kind of thickness. Weiss Schwarz feels slightly more thinner in my honest opinion but as of late, WS cards feel slightly more thicker than how it use to be printed before after feeling out between Kantai Collection and Project Diva F. Maybe it's just me?

Anyways, today I'm bringing out two unboxing videos; one for Kara no Kyoukai and another Wake Up Girls!. Sadly as the owner of Zvezda was busy so I am unable to show an unboxing video of that one, though I still am holding it hostage. Hope you enjoy! As mentioned, there might be one sign card in each trial deck or we're just lucky. My friend in the video even mentioned that there's a possibility that all the trial decks have a sign card but one of the card would be a golden foil or signature but these are just mere speculation. Now to time try and understand the rule book...again.

Wixoss is finally out and my boosters are finally delivered. What else should I do other than a box opening video. Admittedly, this is a long video, spanning about 45 minutes.


So what is Wixoss? Well, it is a TCG that appears from the anime Selector Infected WIXOSS. The anime is a little dark, not like Madoka and Daybreak Illusion dark but it's quite an interesting watch. The game play is a little lengthy but Anime Senshi Subs has kindly translated the Quick Start Guide for us to read comfortably in English. If you're interested to see how the game is played, you will be interested in the Wixoss tutorial by Kudou Kun. Interestingly, Takara Tomy has the TCG's recommended age to 15 and above.

Also, here's a quick breakdown on how each box of WIXOSS is packed.
1 box have 20 packs. In the 20 packs, there's 5 alternate foils (in total) for the Commons, Rares and LRIGs, there are 4 SR (Super Rare) cards and 1 LR (LRIG Rare). In addition to that, if your box have a SECRET card (or a signed card), it will replace one of the 4 SRs. So in total, one box of 20 packs have 10 packs that contains a foil card.

With the introduction out of the way, here's the awaited video! If it is too long for you, scroll to the bottom for some pictures of the foil cards! If you're looking for any cards that you need, feel free to come by the online store!

It's been almost a month since the last update, apologies. I've been quite busy updating the online store. It's not even halfway done yet as I still need to add in cards from Ange Vierge.

Speaking of Ange Vierge, a new extra booster was released recently named Chapter 3.5: Progress' Holiday. Now don't get confused. This is not their 3rd extra booster but it is the first. The way boosters and trial decks for Ange Vierge are release are from the means of "Chapters". Like Chapter 0 is their prologue, which was their first Trial Deck and Chapter 1, 2 and 3 was boosters while Chapter 2.5 was a trial deck. It may sound confuse at first but from the trend, it seems chapters in whole numbers are boosters while anything in between (aka .5s) are either trial decks or extra boosters. To make things simpler, they have fine prints on the box and booster packs itself to identify what boosters they are. An example would be AS-01 which means "Ange Starter-01" which is their trial deck with AB-01 which means "Ange Booster-01" which would be their boosters and finally EX-01 which would be "Extra-01" for their extra boosters. The numbering will increase of course.

Now where was I...oh yea, the unboxing for Ange Vierge extra booster! Without further ado, here's the unboxing video!

Here are some images of the foils from the unboxing.







Also, this is a little bit of shameless ad but it'll be great if someone could help with the translation of the cards as well at the Ange Vierge wikia. Sadly, there is only so much one person can do.

I quite frustrated with ebay. Too many restrictions and issues that I've made a decision 2 weeks ago to might as well start an eStore. And now, two weeks later, the store is now up and running! There are a few kinks left to fix, mainly;

1. Paypal only payment. I know paypal sucks but because of location issue I can only accept paypal. Looking to other modes of payment though
2. Older cards (pre BT12) won't be stocked up, unless I managed to find some.

For now, I only have Cardfight!! Vanguard up. But I will be adding in more TCGs to the list such as Weiss Schwarz, Ange Vierge and Sieg Krone among others. That's about it for today. For those reading, I do hope you spread the word around!

Despite being considered a "not so good TCG" from the English community, it seems to have quite a bit of following in Japan. Now I'm not going to rant about that now, or anytime soon. But instead, this is yet another unboxing video for Seig Krone.

Currently the trend of Sieg Krone is going towards to having TCGs from anime series. After their initial release of Holy War Cerberus, which is both a game and manga, they went on to Attack on Titans, Zettai Bouei Leviathan, Noragami and Super Sonico the Animation. I don't intend to actually get Noragami and Sonico, but I do have in hand Leviathan. So without further ado, here's the unboxing video for Zettai Bouei Leviathan.

It's been awhile since the last post. Well, has been a bit busy but I managed to find some time to do an unboxing video for Ange Vierge. Let me give a short intro for Ange Vierge - it's a card game similar to Weiss Schwarz (I say similar but not entirely the same) and is based around bishoujo characters. Yes, all girls. No speck of male presence in this TCG ever. The game play can be found at SkiethのTCG. They even have a promotion anime by Production I.G which is quite impressive and of course they have more in their channel.

A couple of months back, a new skill, Legion, was announced together with the new Trial Decks for Narukami and Royal Paladin. There is still not much info though. But if you are interested to see a glimpse of what Legion is all about, you can still view the preview info below (skip to 38:20 if you just want to hear about Legion)

As mentioned, there wasn't much info on Legion except it is when your Vanguard and another "mate" rearguard is in the field and they gain a certain effect. The cards will also have combined artwork. Their attack power are also combined, making attacks go up to 20k, but only during attack and not defend. Other than these few info, there wasn't much info yet.

Now imagine Legion mixed in with Break Rides. Yeah...I believe we may have some fun time ahead of us. So far from the revealed cards, the Legion units does not have Limit Break but this could possibly be combined to add in more abilities. Bushiroad may even decide to have Limit Break Legion units in the near future, who knows.

As for the many possibilities of Legion, I'm already assuming that Bushiroad may expand Legion to use 3 units in the future, but this may most likely be geared towards main clans like Royal Paladin and Narukami, leaving smaller clans in the dust yet again.

A new TCG will be releasing in April 25th 2014 titled Level NEO. It's a joint venture between Movic and Ensky who are the TCG makers of Prism Connect and Precious Memories. The new TCG will be making used of anime characters as used in Precious Memories and Prism Connect as well as other TCGs like Weiss Schwarz and Sieg Krone.

So far, Level NEO has announce 4 series, Garden of Sinners: Gospel in the Future, Wake Up Girls!, World Conquest Zvezda Plot and The Irregular at Magic High School which will air in April. All series announced are famous series and may attract players to the TCG.

The trial decks for Garden of Sinners: Gospel in the Future, Wake Up Girls! and World Conquest Zvezda Plot are set to be released in April 25 at about 535jpy each according to webstore Amiami. Most likely just for the first release as according to their road map in the rule book, the trial deck will cost 1200jpy each with booster pack cost 330jpy. They have stated on the release dates of the boosters with 23rd May for Garden of Sinners, 27th June for Wake Up Girls and 25th July for World Conquest Zvezda Plot. No dates for The Irregular at Magic High School but it is stated in the road map as releasing in Summer.

 
I am looking forward to this new TCG. It has this similar feeling to Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz. Personally, it does look like it has lots of potential. As for the game play itself, I have yet to see it and I am in the middle of struggling in translating the rule book (my Japanese ain't that good). Probably someone else would have it translated weeks ago by the time I finish.

Level NEO official website
Level NEO twitter
Level NEO rule book
Level NEO Tutorial (English)

Finally booster set 12 have been released and it is that time again! Yes, more video unboxing...is what I would love to say but because I did something crazy for this set, I went ahead and got myself a whole carton of it. Yes, 16 boxes. So instead of capturing a video of me ripping up 480 packs of boosters, I've decided to simply take a video of one, and take photos of the rest. Okay, I know, I know, I mentioned in the video I'll be taking shots of me ripping up 3 boxes of boosters at 24 frames per second, but one booster takes about 5 minutes open. But as there are quite a lot of packs for me to rip up to see their contents, I've decided that quite a number of people enjoy the the final product more than the process.

Now for you viewing pleasure, here's the video and pictures as promised!