Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

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!

The dark Marquis have have revived himself to be more powerful at the cost of having a bad choice for his latest image change that made him look more of a dried tree/decomposing cockroach(?). But don't let that old twig fool you, his limit break is indeed powerful that butting heads with him unprepared may cost you that win.

So what makes Amon Reverse powerful? Well, technically, nothing much. His limit break ability is somewhat a carbon copy of the original Amon, with just that extra critical in the midst. This actually makes Amon a big hitter along with that huge pressure on the centre line. Sadly, the draw back like most Dark Irregulars deck have is its overall slow setup. But if a player is skilled enough to actually set up his field, he'll be pretty much at a point of advantage.

There are a few variations of Amon Reverse decks that I'll be putting in but most of the cards will remain the same with slight changes

Staple Amon Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard) 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger) 3 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger) Grade 1: 15 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal 3 x Poet of Darkness Amon 4 x Amon's Follower, Phu Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula (perfect guard) Grade 2: 11 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Ron Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Psycho Glaive 3 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw Grade 3: 7 units 3 x Demon World Marquis, Amon 4 x Demon Marquis, Amon "Яeverse"

Power Amon Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard) 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger) 3 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger) Grade 1: 14 units 3 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal 3 x Poet of Darkness Amon 4 x Amon's Follower, Phu Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula (perfect guard) Grade 2: 11 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Ron Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Psycho Glaive 3 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw Grade 3: 7 units 4 x King of Masks, Dantarian 4 x Demon Marquis, Amon "Яeverse"

Burst Amon Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard) 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger) 3 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger) 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger) Grade 1: 15 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal 3 x Bloody Calf 4 x Amon's Follower, Phu Geenlin 4 x Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula (perfect guard) Grade 2: 11 units 4 x Amon's Follower, Ron Geenlin 3 x Gwynn the Ripper 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw Grade 3: 7 units 3 x Demon World Marquis, Amon/King of Masks, Dantarian 4 x Demon Marquis, Amon "Яeverse"

Here's a quick description for the three decks:
Staple Amon: I call this "Staple" as almost ALL Amon decks that I've come across plays this very same build, although mine have its trigger tweaked a little by reducing the crits and increasing the draws.
Power Amon: This decks simply replaces the normal G3 Amons for the Break Ride option. The deck will still work although some units that requires an Amon vanguard will fail for a short time which is pretty much negligible actually.
Burst Amon: One of my favourite build. As Amon decks tend not to use counterblasts at all, which I find a waste of good resources. Bloody Calf and Gwynn are good tech cards to screw up your opponent's field. This deck requires some skill to play but it's overall effects are devastating.

Three different builds. I just give them simple deck names just because I'm lazy. All three decks uses the same Starter and Triggers. They all play 5 Draws, 7 Criticals and 4 Heals along with Devil in Shadow as your staple G3 searcher. I find the new starter, "Amon's Follower, Fate Collector" is not that great of a starter as it simply let you draw a card and I rather increase my chances of not getting grade stuck in addition to using Devil in Shadow to filter out my G3s.

For the Grade 1s, the Staple and Power decks have the same line up. Hell's Deal soul charges two cards. Geenlin is your generic 10k attacker. Poet Amon is your 9k booster and Vlad is the perfect guard. These units are stays much the same in most Amon decks. For the Burst build, Bloody calf is your go to gal to retire your opponent's boosters and make them rage. Some decks may play Dimension Creeper, so you may want to give it a double take.

Like the Grade 1, both Staple and Power builds have the same line up. Ron Geenlin is that 12k attacker, with Hell's Draw your soul charger. Psycho Glaive is my personal favourite as it both gains power and adds one to the soul. For the Burst build, Glaive was replaced with Gwynn to stomp out your opponent's G2 and below.

My Grade 3s varies on all 3 decks. While the Staple decks usually goes with both Amon types, the Power type replaces the original Amon for the break ride option. This pretty much screams "perfect guard all my attacks or lose!". The Burst build however is more flexible. While Amon Reverse remains at 4, the other options of using Dantarian or normal Amon depends on the player. Both works but it up to the player's level of comfort on which unit to use.

The invasion of Earth and Cray has begun. Are you the Invader? Or are you the Defender? Bushiroad has announced the upcoming Team League 2014 Invasion. A fight between Void and the defenders of Cray to determine the fate of the world. The winners will decide if the world to be conquered or saved and the fight begins in April, ending in July.

A single team consists of 3 members and must decide if they are a Cray Defenders or Void Invaders and each member's decks must use a different clan. The Defenders are restricted from using any "Reverse" units or Link Joker whilst the Invaders must have at least 3 "Reverse" units in their deck or use Link Joker. For the Invaders, this means that only one player can play Link Joker, while the other two will play "Reverse" units OR all three plays "Reverse".

One thing that irks me a little was how that no distinctions made between Defenders or Invaders. To be honest, they should limit the entry for both sides and have both sides of the team duke it out though I believe Bushiroad is simply too lazy to do this or things will be messy later on.

Tournament format will be the same as all previous Cardfight!! Vanguard tournaments, mainly double elimination before top 8 and single elimination after top 8. It will be best out of one round where wins and losses are calculated by the whole team. Those who participate will get a PR card that have yet to be announced and a badge depending whether you're a Defender or Invader.


I am all psyched up for the tournament and have decided on what team to play for but I am still deciding which clan to play. Well, we shall see how it goes. What about you? Are you a Defender or Invader? And what clan will you be participating with?

Finally, TD10, Purgatory Revenger, will be out very soon! Time to return those Japanese cards I loaned and switch it over with the English ones. I'm quite obsessed with Origin Mage, Ildona as he's easily my favourite card for Shadow Paladin. I'm going to skip the rants and get on with the deck profile!

I'll be presenting two different decks for the Ildona build that is effective with both offence and defence. Let's start off with the upgrade of the previous deck profile shall we?

Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Creeping Dark Goat (Starting Vanguard) 2 x Abyss Freezer (Draw Trigger) 4 x Grim Reaper (Critical Trigger) 4 x Death Feather Eagle (Critical Trigger) 2 x Grim Revenger (Critical Trigger) 4 x Abyss Healer (Heal Trigger) Grade 1: 14 units 4 x Black Sage, Charon 3 x Dark Shield, Mac Lir 3 x Buranbau Revenger 4 x Gururubau Grade 2: 11 units 4 x Blaster Dark Spirit or Knight of Fighting Spirit, Dordona 4 x Cursed Lancer 2 x Skull Witch, Nemain 1 x Darkness Maiden, Macha Grade 3: 8 units 4 x Origin Mage, Ildona 4 x Dark Mage, Badhabh Caar or Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom

Grade 0: 17 units 1 x Creeping Dark Goat (Starting Vanguard) 2 x Abyss Freezer (Draw Trigger) 4 x Grim Reaper (Critical Trigger) 4 x Death Feather Eagle (Critical Trigger) 2 x Grim Revenger (Critical Trigger) 4 x Abyss Healer (Heal Trigger) Grade 1: 14 units 4 x Black Sage, Charon 3 x Dark Shield, Mac Lir 3 x Buranbau Revenger 4 x Gururubau Grade 2: 11 units 1 x Blaster Dark Spirit 4 x Knight of Fighting Spirit, Dordona 3 x Cursed Lancer 2 x Skull Witch, Nemain 1 x Darkness Maiden, Macha Grade 3: 8 units 3 x Origin Mage, Ildona 3 x Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom  2 x Dark Mage, Badhabh Caar

A total facelift! And this deck has proven its worth even against decks that loves retiring like Kagero and Narukami. Grade 0 has some changes to its trigger line-up as well, namely, I reduced the number of Draw triggers to 2 and increased the Critical trigger count to 10. The result - big damages very early, mid and late game! 12 critical are okay, but it will end up a waste later in the game. The reason for this trigger line up is that with draw triggers, it'll be a psychological effect on the opponent thinking that you're playing with 8 crits 4 draws. Also, it is less painful to throw down a draw trigger as a booster than a critical trigger if there is such a need. Another reason why the reduce in draw triggers is due to effects of Caar, Mordred, Macha and Nemain which nets you both hand and field presence. A new starter in the pack thanks to Open Qualifiers 2013 introducing our G3 searcher, Creeping Dark Goat. He's the best starter for this deck.

With Fullbau out of the way as the starting vanguard, we have now more options for out Grade 1s as we can now abandon Blaster Javelin for better units. I've took out Arianrhod for Buranbau Revenger. This unit works best with Ildona since his ability is makes Ildona a quick 26k attacker during his limit break. Painful? Sure is. Add a break-ride to the picture for 36k attack? Yes please!

Not much changes for my Grade 2s except that Blaster Dark has fully become a spirit. This deck is now more offensive with more 10k attackers which also serves as a great defender when you ride your G2. With 12k attackers being the norm, hitting 19k is easy these days and so by having a 10k vanguard at turn 2, you can easily guard away that attack.

Grade 3s have more changes as well. Our star, Ildona, will be maxed out of course. Caar is maxed out at 4 as well as he always nets you a +1 and is good as Ildona's sacrifice. If you don't like Caar since you're afraid of decking out too quickly or find his ability too random, you may consider playing Mordred Phantom or mix up both. If you read through the lists. You notice that the cards needed to update this deck can be found in the Trial Deck which is more than enough for this build!

This deck can be considered a cheap "budget" deck if you decide not to use Mordred as Mordred is a Trial Deck exclusive card and one trial deck only have a single copy of him. Both deck works great even against top tiered deck, with the exception of Link Joker of course.