Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

Eldora, one of the most underused LRIG in WIXOSS but she's extremely fun to play with. Constructing a deck that plays well around here however, may take a bit more thinking than most other LRIG.

The key reason why she is not as popular as other LRIGs are mainly due to the lack of support for her play style. She mainly aces at control of your Life Cloths, and at time, your opponent's Life Bursts. But that is what actually made her harder to use sadly as her plays require the manipulation of Life Cloths.

But, with the release of Next Selector, it opens up a new kind of play style for Eldora that is extremely fun to play with too. Interested in the deck list? Carry on!

LRIG Deck:

• Eldora=Mark 0
• Eldora×Mark I
• Eldora=Mark II'
• Eldora=Mark III'
• Eldora=Mark IV' or Eldora×Mark IV
• Surprise With Me
• Cross Life Cloth
• Cross Life Cloth
• Xeno Multiple
• Don't Escape or Don't Move

Main Deck (Normal):

• 2 x Una, Water Phantom
• 3 x Servant D2
• 1 x Servant T2
• 2 x Code Art OSS 
• 4 x Code Art SPK 
• 1 x Code Art RGN
• 1 x Fracturing Lust
• 2 x RAINY
• 4 x FREEZE THROUGH

Main Deck (Life Burst):

• 3 x Servant O
• 3 x Code Art GRB
• 3 x Code Art TAP
• 3 x Code Art KEY
• 2 x Code Art CPU
• 1 x SEARCHER
• 4 x FREEZE
• 1 x Arc Aura or No Gain

Main deck breakdown:

LV 1	LV 2	LV 3	LV 4	LV 5	Spell	Total
14	3	5	5	0	13	50

For my LRIG, I play until Level 4. I would recommend playing Eldora×Mark IV over Eldora=Mark IV' but the latter is easier to get as it's from the Trial Deck which the former is a LR. Mark IV allows you to draw a card with each crushed Life Cloth while Mark IV' needs a Life Burst to draw, but she does come with a costly banish cost. Surprise With Me is a must for Eldora deck so that you can rearrange the top 4 of your Life Cloth. This way, you can put your Life Bursts in front or non Life Burst cards and swap one out with Cross Life Cloth with a Life Burst card in hand. Requires some memorization, but at the very least, you can manipulate what Life Burst you can get and plan your damage ahead. Xeno Multiple gives you a choice of abilities you can use. Most of the time, you'd be gunning for its Freeze and Draw effects. The other effects can be useful in situations where you need the extra defence. Last but not least, Don't Escape. If you are on a budget, Don't Move is another option you can use. Both cards down 2 of your opponent's signi, although the former is cheaper on the ener, with slightly stricter condition.

This deck plays LOTS of Spells. The reason is quite simple. You simply want to FREEZE your opponent and finish it off with FREEZE THROUGH. In the event you can't use FREEZE, there are other cards like CPU, SPK or KEY that allows you to FREEZE your opponent's SIGNI. Aside from freezing, I have cards that allows me to check my opponent's hand, like TAP, or drop cards like OSS, SPK, TAP's Life Burst and RAINY. Hand size is pretty consistent as well thanks to cards like GRB, SEARCHER, RAINY, and KEY and GRB's Life Bursts. I also have teched in Arc Aura for it's defensive Life Burst, but No Gain has a good mention as well as it prevents your opponent from using Arts like Idol Defense when it's time for your final push.

That's all I have for now. Until next time!

Ah yes...Neo Nectar. My deck have never been updated since BT08! There wasn't any good new releases for units outside of Musketeers and it has been stuck at that stage for months. Thanks to the release of the trial deck, it finally receives a facelift!

My deck is a simply an updated version of the Arboros chain ride. Yes, the good ol' chain ride. May not seem much, but it does work wonders with the new support from the TD and G-Booster 2.

Here's a quick breakdown of my photocopier deck! It's pretty much...the same as most old Arboros decks, but with a twist!

Grade 0:

• 1 x Arboros Dragon, Ratoon
• 4 x Draw trigger
• 8 x Critical trigger
• 4 x Heal Trigger

Grade 1:

• 4 x Arboros Dragon, Branch
• 4 x Maiden of Blossom Rain (Null guard)
• 3 x Snowdrop Musketeer, Pilkko
• 3 x Valkyrie of Reclamation, Padmini

Grade  2:

• 4 x Arboros Dragon, Timber
• 4 x Maiden of Rainbow Wood
• 3 x Maiden of Gladiolus

Grade 3:

• 4 x Arboros Dragon, Sephirot
• 4 x Ranunculus Flower Maiden, Ahsha

Grade 4:

• 4 x Flower Princess of Spring, Arborea
• 3 x Sacred Tree Dragon, Multivitamin Dragon
• 1 x Snow Element, Blizza

As you can see, this deck is not meant to be very competitive, but it can hold itself up in a match.

I play the standard starter for ALL Arboros decks, Ratoon. If you ride Branch on him, you can look at the top 7 of your deck, look for Timber or Sephirot and put it to hand. Trigger line up is pretty much the same as most decks. However, you could also play Maiden of Daybreak, to pump in more power to your rearguards at almost no cost.

Grade 1 is pretty simple. 4 Branch is a must for the chainride to work. I opt for the normal null guard instead of Maiden of Passionflower as defence against cards like The End/X and Commander Laurel. Despite having the chance to unflip a card in the damage zone, it can't guard attacks against rearguards. Pilkko is the famed limit break remover. She can be pretty scary with Sephirot since you gain the pluses very early in the game. Padmini is a simple stride fodder and also a good card for change of plans when the chain ride is looking grim. If you have Sephirot in hand but not Timber as your G2 vanguard, call out Padmini, reveal Sephirot and search out Ahsha. Pretty much a good backup plan I say.

It does look like I'm still stuck with BT08 for my Grade 2s. I play Timber, the G2 chain for Arboros. I also kept Maiden of Rainbow Wood instead of any other new units. She's a really good card since she does not require any condition (GB or Legion). Just hit, counterblast 2, and draw a card. In fact, because the deck is not that counterblast heavy, she's really a good card to play. She also pressures the opponent to guarding as you would net a plus with her rather too easily seeing that she's simply needs to hit so you could just aim a rearguard or a vanguard with her. I've also added in Gladiolus for more copying power. Maiden of Lost Memory can replace Rainbow Wood or Gladiolus but she is limited to hitting a Vanguard. But being 8k, it won't be easy for her to hit 16k boosted unless using Sephirot or Ahsha's effects.

I've mentioned these two quite a bit, so let's introduce the Grade 3 line up! Sephirot gives a chance of copying units in the field to call out another one when you ride him as long as the chainride is successful while Ahsha is your Vanguard with on stride ability. Both are equally good and strong with good effects. In fact, both are simply a copy of each other...But, Ahsha is slightly stronger for late game than Sephirot as she give 5000 worth of power instead of 3000, as opposed to Sephirot. The idea is to ride Sephirot first if the chainride is successful then, finish up with Ahsha. In the event you can't stride but have a Pilkko in the field, Sephirot's limit break abilities are active, giving your rearguards a large boost. Both cards are equally strong, but requires conditions like LB4 or GB2.

As mentioned, the deck is not very competitive, but it's still fun to play with so knock yourselves out. Just don't expect to top whatever tournament you'll be in.

Man, I've been neglecting this empty lot for a long time. 2 months to be exact! Well, it's my usual excuse though. Work and what nots (mumble mumble...)

Well, now it's time for another unexciting episode of my deck profile! The new Vanguard G-BT03 is out for the Japanese version of the game and I can finally update my Japanese Dark Irregulars deck! With the new support from the 3rd booster,  Dark Irregulars can no longer be called a "side clan". In fact, I believe the support is strong enough to make them Tier 1, probably till the next booster.

With the new support, the two issues with DI have been addressed - poor field presence and hand size. They now even have much better early, mid and late game pressure. Did I mention they now have lots of Bishies and Bishoujos?

Sadly, with all the support, Dark Irregulars are still not recommended for new players. They need to know how to control their soul charging, when to use it or stop or ended up decking out very quickly. In the right hand, it's a very devastating but to a novice or those who don't have proper understanding of how Dark Irregulars works, it'll come back and bite you in the back.

I'm pretty sure everyone is now tired of all the yapping. Now let's take a look at the upgraded version of my Psychic deck list!

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Devil in Shadow (Starting VG)
• 4 x Hysteric Shirley (Draw trigger)
• 4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Critical Triggers (Your choice)
• 4 x Heal Triggers (Your choice)
  

Grade 1: 15 units

• 2 x Dimension Creeper
• 3 x Doreen the Thruster
• 3 x Alluring Succubus
• 3 x Pure Love Succubus
• 4 x Flag Breaker (Unflipper null guards)
  

Grade 2: 11 units

• 4 x Psychic of Dust, Izaya
• 4 x Squall Maker Vampir
• 3 x Flying Librarian
  

Grade 3: 7 units

• 4 x Scharlachrot Vampir
• 3 x Psychic of Storm, Rigil
  

 Grade 4 (G-Units): 4 units

• 4 x Storm of Love, Kisskill Lila 
• 4 x One Who is Abhorrent, Gilles de Rais

Tried, tested and worked against lots of meta clans. I made Diablo screamed in rage!

My glorious Grade 0s. I play Devil in Shadow, a Grade 3 searcher. I was thinking of using Werbat Ordonnanz but as I look through my deck again while building it, I've decided against it as I only play 7 Grade 3s. This is better to be safe than sorry later on as I rather not get grade stuck and losing hand due to G-Assist. Hysteric Shirley and Dark Knight are staples in a DI deck. Mainly because they allows us to fill up the soul. I was thinking of playing Monochrome of Nightmareland for its unflipping and draw mechanics. But thinking back, it's a better option on a full Psychic-Legion deck.

I'm playing slightly more units for my Grade 1. The cards allows me to control my soul so that I can soul charge only when needed. This way, I wouldn't charge too much. Dimension Creeper is actually enough at 2. Since you'll be soul charging quite a bit, one is bound to land in the soul anyways. Doreen is your larger than life booster. I was debating on using Doreen or Lunatic Masquerade for a slightly more consistent boosts, but during turns that I can soul charge big for the finish, she is ultimately the better option. Alluring Succubus is a good card as well. It's an on call soul charge one. Again, this is good for soul control. You can however look at Killing Dollmaster, but the only thing that made me not use it is that I lose field presence, losing a booster for my rearguards. Pure Love Succubus is your standard +2 grades during stride and Flag Breaker is your unflipper nulls, as this deck can be a bit costly on counterblasts at times (while at times, not at all).

There's not much options for Grade 2. Izaya is must as I played Rigil. Squall Maker Vampir is a welcomed addition to the team. He feeds the soul AND gains power. He's like Psycho Grave, but better since he soul charges for 2. I was jumping for joy when I saw Flying Librarian. Best card for DI ever. She soul charges and nets you hand size as well as an unflipper. Being an 8k unit is not much of an issue due to her plusses.

The key Grade 3 you want to ride is Scharlachrot Vampir. His stride on ability is too good not to use. Look at it this way, you get souls and can retire a rearguard. This itself is nothing to sneeze at. Rigil is your secondary ride. He's a legion but he's pretty strong in this deck. His secondary ability of letting him persona soul blast and soul charging back 5 cards is ridiculous when you have 3 Doreens in the field. That's a huge 21k booster. If you have Izaya in the rearguard as well, you have a 24k attacker before triggers. Rigil's abitlity to CB2 to and retire 3 units when you have 15 souls is pretty devastating to your opponent.

For my Stride units, I forgo the Fighters Collection cards. One is exclusively for Amon while the other is a poorly made watered down Doreen that should not have existed. Instead, I opt for Kisskill and Gilles. Kisskill strides extremely well with Scharlachrot. Scharlachrot already allow soul charging and retiring. Now add that to Kisskill's on hit effect, that allows her to soul charge 2 and draw 1, is a huge pressure and plus that it makes Kirin looks like a baby. Gilles is your "Final Turn" stride. He's basically a powered up version of Glory Maelstrom. Even his condition is easy to fulfill mid to late game.

That's all I have for today. I'll be doing a deck profile for Neo Nectar in the next few days!

Yep, another one. I really need to remember to post completed drafts...

I realized that with all the hype for The X and Blademaster+Stride, Perditions has taken a back seat in most of other player's mind. But no, not me. In fact, thanks to Stride, it makes Perditions a whole lot scarier...

In my area, there are a few who plays Kagero but majority are playing The X. It gives you pressure but it's still not as great as it hyped out to be. Heck, my Perditions was able to destroy The X rather easily at the shop tournaments I'm in and some find it a bit surprising. To be honest, I'm one of those who really hates the Dragonic Overlord types but there is one exception.

My secret? Well, here it is!

Grade 0

• 1 x Red Pulse Dracokid (Starter)
• 8 x Critical Triggers
• 4 x Gattling Claw Dragon
• 4 x Heal Triggers

Grade 1

• 4 x Perfect Guards
• 3 x Dragon Monk, Gojo
• 2 x Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
• 2 x Calamity Tower Wyvern
• 3 x Perdition Dancer, Anna

Grade 2

• 4 x Perdition Dragon, Whirlwind Dragon
• 2 x Perdition Dragon, Menace Laser Dragon
• 1 x Perdition Dragon Knight, Ilham
• 2 x Dragonic Burnout
• 2 x Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame

Grade 3

• 4 x Perdition Dragon, Vortex Dragonewt
• 4 x Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great

Grade 4

• 4 x Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud
• 2 x Flame Emperor Dragon King, Root Flare Dragon

I won't say much for my Grade 0s. The thing is...my critical and heal triggers are all different units! So yeah...I have 8 different critical triggers and 4 different heal triggers.

For my Grade 1. I play the old school perfect guards. Again, like my Grade 0, I kinda play different perfect guards. This is one of the reasons why I excel against The X - being able to guard my rearguards. I play Gojo for his early tap-drop-draw effect. I was actually torn on whether to keep him or change him to either Aethonic or Lava Flow but after a couple of plays, I realize Gojo is the better option. Kimnara makes a surprise entry but he's that one card that can clear away key cards rather easily and of course to lower his attacks. Calamity Tower Wyvern helps me to blast away Neoflame from the soul as well as netting me another card. Anna is key in this deck as she allows you to unflip to cards just by soul blasting away a perdition during on call as counterblasts are precious resources in this deck.

Grade 2 goes out of the standard. I play Whirlwind Dragon, a 12k attacker as well as the mate for Dragonewt. Menace Laser Dragon is actually a good card to snipe away boosters. I usually use him to blast away booster, swing overlord at the unit with his booster blown away. That way, my opponent loses a row right away. It's an instant Neoflame, but better to be honest. I tech in an Ilham. I'm actually surprised that despite playing him at just 1, I was actually able to abuse his ability at least twice in a game. Like Menace Laser, I will retire away a booster and use The Great to clear out the survivor. Dragonic Burnout is a must play in the deck. I love blowing away boosters so I usually just use him to burn away more G1s. And yes, rinse and repeat with The Great. Lastly, Dragonic Neoflame, the legion mate for The Great. I just play 2 of him since I find his ability...a little lacklustre. And despite with just 2 in the deck, I was able to actually legion multiple times thanks to Anna and Calamity.

And on to the Grade 3s! I have Dragonewt and The Great in the line up. But I always ended up finishing the game with The Great. Some how, Dragonewt becomes the fodder for Stride. But still, on the event I ride him, he does not fail to actually hitting my opponent to 5 damage quickly. The ace, however, is still Dragonic Overlord the Great. His skill is extremely pressurising and not only that, causes serious pain to your opponent when timed correctly. If you can twin drive twice, why not?

Finally my stride units. I play only 2 Root Flare Dragon. His ability great but sadly, I can only find two of him. But my favourite is still Mahmud. I noticed that whenever I play The Great, my opponent tends to not call any rearguard for attacking. So I just simply punish them with Mahmud.

As you have noticed, my play style for Perditions may be slightly sadistic but I find most affective. There instances where I played the deck and it actually causes my opponent not to have any boosters as most of them are hanging around in the drop zone. So keep blasting those boosters away. It spooks the hell out of them.

Okay, so G-BT01 have been out for a very long time. Somehow, I saved this as a draft a few days after release and forgot to publish it! Too much WIXOSS >.<

Finally G-BT01 is out in English! While I don't actually play OTT for English, I play it as one of my Mains for the Japanese meta. But I've decided to share it out for the English scene as well. I've posted this on reddit before so for those of you who hang out in the /r/cardfightvanguard subreddit and saw this list before, don't be alarm, it's just me pasting the same list here.

I started out with Japanese OTT quite late in the game when Limit Break (BT06) just started to be released in the English scene. Somehow won 2nd at a Japanese tournament using a General Seifried deck that was filled with MLBs and The Ends. Don't ask me how I won. I recall getting extremely lucky the whole day when most my twin drives are a Juggernaut and a trigger and kept attacking 5 times each turn. Yep, extremely lucky. I wont a whole set of Scarlet Witch CoCo at that time and randomly decided to build an OTT deck. It has stuck with me since then.

With the new support, OTT has become a force to be reckoned with, however, the clan itself is too reliant on the stride cards. This makes the deck running a bit slow in the beginning but once you reach Grade 3, it starts to speed up.

This deck has a simple build, but using the deck well is a different matter, I'll rant about that in a bit. For now, on to the list!



Grade 0:

• 1 x Battle Sister Eclair (G3 Searcher)
• 4 x Psychic Bird (Crit)
• 4 x Battle Sister Ginger (Crit)
• 2 x Oracle Guardian Nike (Crit)
• 2 x Battle Sister Tiramisu (Draw) --> Personal preference. I find teching in 2 draws balances out the deck quite a bit too. Max out Nike if you like yellow stars!
• 4 x Lozenge Magus (Heal) --> I recycle her pretty often, boosting Kuroikazuchi with her.

Grade 1:

• 4 x Divine Sword, Amenomurakumo
• 4 x Oracle Guardian Gemini
• 2 x Shrine Guard, Tsunagai --> Change for Lemonade if you think you need more CBs
• 3 x Mediator, Amenosagiri (Unflipper Null guards)
• 1 x Tetra Magus (Normal Null guards, against the X and Laurels since the new nulls only guards VG)

Grade 2:

• 4 x Diviner, Shinatsuhiko
• 4 x Diviner, Kuroikazuchi
• 3 x Silent Toms (I'd put in 4 but I only have 3 in hand. Would replace a Shinatsuhiko for another one)

Grade 3:

• 2 x Supreme Sky Battle Deity, Susanoo
• 3 x CEO Amaterasu
• 3 x Goddess of the Treasured Mirror, Ohirume

Grade 4:

• 4 x Soaring Auspicious Beast, Qilin
• 4 x Sword Deity of Divine Sound, Takemikazuchi 

I won't say much about the cards for G0 and G1. I find many OTT players are playing similar builds for this part so let's skip it.

Grade 2 is a bit of a standard. Shinatsuhiko is the 12k attacker when you're at GB1, Kuroikazuchi increases your hand size by allowing you to draw a card when it attacks a vanguard whilst being boosted. Silent Toms is your definite finisher.

Grade 3 is quite important. I just play 2 Susanoo. But despite that low number, I tend to ride him at G3 90% of the time. I generally use Eclair to search out a G3. If I get a Susanoo, great. If I get Ammy, that's fine too. If I get Ohirume, ain't even mad. This is because I tend to switch cards with Amenomurakumo. I generally will call out Amenomurakumo as the VG's booster, reveal a G3, search out Susanoo and drop a G3. If Eclair search out Susanoo, I use Amenomurakumo to search for my last Susanoo and drop that Susanoo. Same goes with Ammy and Ohirume. This is actually thins out the deck, even by one card, to ensure you have a higher chance of hitting a trigger.

Now the key part here is to stay at Susanoo until you've reach 4 or 5 damage and have used all of your counterblasts via Susanoo's skill as well as Takemikazuchi's skill (leave at least one Ammy at the bottom of the deck). By then, your deck would have thin out by quite a bit as you've most likely add non trigger units to hand. Once you have exhausted out your CBs, right Ohirume and legion back all that critcal and heals (that's why you leave Ammy at the bottom of the deck, to legion back the triggers). By then, your deck would compromise of mostly triggers. Keep riding Ohirume and legioning back the triggers. There are many plays I did by having 12 triggers in deck, with just 3 to 4 normal units left.

For my stride units, there's only two choices in OTT, Qilin and Takemikazuchi. Qilin is one of my favs as his on hit pressure is quite overwhelming as you can net quick plus. Takemikazuchi is an okay card which allows you to gain hand and field setup quickly.

Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Mayu's Room. Have a seat (points to a comfy looking couch) and enjoy some tea. Now, are you all relaxed? Good. I have some...good news, which sadly, may be bad news to others.

Three cards have been added to the ban list. Now now, don't get all worked up. I have yet to announce which cards are banned. Now without further ado, here are the cards that have been "nerfed".

You can only put up to 2 of each cards in your deck(Source):

• Repair
• Valkyrie, Unforgettable Fantasy
• Arcgain, Archangel of Pioneering

Whoa whoa...stop throwing things at me Green and White players. It's not restricted just yet! The banlist will be enforce starting on 25th April 2015, which is a month later. Once enforced. this means that you can play all three cards in a single deck, but you can only play 2 Repair, 2 Valkyrie and 2 Arcgain in that deck. Takara Tomy has also added the following notice regarding the banlist.

• Official Takara Tomy WIXOSS PARTY SPECIAL or non-WIXOSS PARTY events may enforce this rule at their discretion.
• Free plays and events outside of WIXOSS PARTY may enforce this rules at your own discretion.

This is quite straight forward. For official events and shop tournament, the host can choose to enforce the banlist or disregard it. Free plays too can enforce the banlist or disregard it. Straight forward no?

Now what does this means? I say nothing much. A deck can originally put up to 4 cards on the same name in the deck. You just put 2 less for each cards that has been restricted so it's not really the end of the world. Mayu and Midoriko decks are still strong enough with the restriction. I'm personally okay with the ban list, seeing that Tama/Mayu decks are topping too many tournaments.

But who will actually follow the list? Well, most players, free players or tournament-centric ones, tends to follow the banlist. It's a trend I noticed with most card games. Even if the a banlist says it's only for official events, most players will still follow it, simply because they want it to be tuned for tournaments or, during free plays, not having issues with another player that follows it, which means, more fun playing, less arguments.

Finally, a new Legion unit to play with for Dark Irregulars albeit...Bushiroad's decision to pack it in together as Gear Chronicle trial deck promo still eludes me. Still, I'm glad that Astaroth is now in my hands.

I still like Amon "Яeverse". He's a good card but Astaroth's abilities is multitudes of levels higher. Not only does he not require you to lock a unit, which lowers down the attack power of a column, slow set up that appears in most Dark Irregulars deck is not much of an issue now. It's actually ridiculously easier to get to 10 souls much to my surprise and you don't actually see much triggers in the soul either (when played correctly of course).

With Amon as his Legion mate, not only does it make Astaroth attack painful with that extra critical, it also makes it harder to guard with large powers. With just 10 souls and legioned, Astaroth can punch the daylights out of lots of other Vanguards with 31k unboosted. Of course your opponents will need to either throw down a 30k for 2 trigger pass or a null guard just not to get it through or risk eating at least two points of damage.

But, Astaroth is not a card for inexperienced players. I've seen lots of play style for this unit, but most of them focused too much on the Vanguard column. Not, that it's a bad thing to have but rearguards are a thing too. I've seen players that have 30 souls for Astaroth, and barely have any rearguards. Sure that extra 3 critical is nice but...it's useless if your opponent can just null guard the middle each turn. They even can finish you off before dropping that 4th null guard they hold in hand.

Now let's get on to the deck list instead of more rants shall we? I have 2 different types of deck build for Astaroth.

Consistency is key

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard)
• 1 x Hysteric Shirly (Draw trigger)
• 3 x Amon's Follower, Psychic Waitress (Draw trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger)

• 4 x Demon World Marquis, Amon
• 4 x Amon's Leader, Astaroth

Amon and the yellow stars

Grade 0: 17 units

• 1 x Devil in Shadow (First vanguard)
• 4 x Blitzritter (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Dark Knight of Nightmareland (Critical trigger)
• 4 x Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick (Heal trigger)

• 4 x Demon World Marquis, Amon
• 4 x Amon's Leader, Astaroth

Yep, 2 builds. First build is more on consistency. The deck lists looks similar to my previous Amon build. For Amon, the base is there and simple. Not much to change aside from the triggers.

Now for my Consistency deck, I play a pretty standard trigger line up and the best starter out there. Previously, we needed more draw triggers to help fill up our hands but Astaroth hand size is pretty consistent in itself. My yellow stars deck is chock full of Critical triggers. If there's another set of crits, I'd play 16.

Grade one for both decks are similar aside for Doreen and little Amon. Little Amon is a consistent 9k booster so you can have him boost your 7k grade 1s and still hit 16k for a 10k guard. Doreen however, gains 3k from each soul charge and her skill is stackable. With Astaroth's and Amon's skill together, you can gain 12k worth of power by herself, which totals out to 18k with her base power. The choice of Bloody Calf and Devil Child depends on how you want to play it. Bloody Calf snipes away a G1 and you can still soul charge 3 with Astaroth without losing your own field. And since this deck doesn't require that much counterblasts, why not just use that free resource. Retire one and gain 3 souls and keep the field instead of doing a one for one exchange. Besides, 10 souls is more than enough to keep your opponent pressured throughout the game. Talking about pressure, if you prefer large middle columns, Devil Child would be a better choice for boosting as she's a 10k booster. Think about it, Legion+ 10 soul Amon+Devil Child. Total power is a magnificent 41k. More than enough to retire your opponent's hand if he have no null guard and you can still probably hit him even when he uses quintet wall.

Grade two is quite simple as well. Hell's draw for soul. Gwynn for retiring while keeping your field while you soul charge 3 with Astaroth. Difference between the two is a simple 12k attacker and a G2 Doreen. Ron Geenlin boosted by Amon is the most ideal setup as they hit for a consistent 21k. I mean, look at it this way. Middle for 41k, two sides for 21k. To guard everything, your opponent will definitely need 70k to guard. Do this constantly for each turn is pretty much tiring and depletes your opponent's hand and field quite quickly. Now if you prefer Izaya instead. Heck, you're in for a fun. Just by activating Amon's skill once, you soul charge 4 so a simple maths would be Izaya gains 12k, making him 21k with his base power. Now put a Doreen behind him. What do we get? An 18k Doreen boosting a 21k Izaya, 39k power on each sides? And because the Izaya variant plays 12 crits, it pressures your opponent even further if you drive checks 2 crits. Think about it, middle row crit, left and right crits. Your opponent may just flip the table when that happens.

I won't say much for Grade 3. Both decks uses the same units, Amon and Astaroth and I've pretty much mention their skills multiple times. As mentioned, Astaroth excels better when you have rearguards rather than a big hitter in the middle. While it may seem like a good idea to have 20 or 30 souls, you will run into an issue of decking out quickly. With 30 souls, you may only have less than 10 cards in the deck if you account for cards in damage zone, the Vanguard units, hand and drop zone. 20 in itself is risky and I find 10 is more or less the sweet spot between pressure and power.

Looks like the date for Wixoss booster 7 is out and is set to be released on the 23rd May and it comes with many new terms such as Resona Signi, Cross and Heaven. I'm going to talk about these new skills and comment on them as much as I can, although for now, there isn't much information available.


Resona Signi


First up, is Resona Signi. Simply put, it's a Signi you put in your LRIG deck. But you can't just put any Signi you like in there. Unlike a Signi card, it has a white backing and and border, similar to your LRIG. Of course like other Signis, you're still restricted to what level and cost your LRIG have. You can only play this Signi when certain conditions are met, however, whatever condition it was wasn't mentioned. Is it like Vanguard's Stride? Or the condition is simply the text on the card itself? For now, I'm assuming it's the latter. It could be played like Mecury (image below) where you put 3 <Space> Signi which is not Resona into trash and call this card out from the LRIG deck to the field. When they leave the field, instead of going to the LRIG trash or ener, they return to the LRIG deck instead.

I find Resona Signi kinda nice although, it may take up ARTS space that is is already tight if one were to play until Level 5. I'm assuming that Resona Signi is probably meant to take up that Level 5 space but it could still be played with Level 5 decks for builds that does not actually need too much ARTS.


Cross


Cross is another mechanic appearing on new Signi cards. My very first impression when I saw this mechanic was "Whoa, this is just like Vanguard's legion!" I know Vanguard is not the only card game that can have two cards in a slot but I only know of Vanguard so sue me. So anyways, Cross Signis needs to be paired with specific signis (Just like Legion and its mate). The card that is needed to Cross itself is mentioned on either one or both of the Signis. When Cross is active, so is any skill that is needed Cross via (X 常) that is written on the card. Of course there may be cards where the Signi will have both Cross skills and non-Cross skills but again, this is merely speculation on my side. Apart from simply having two cards in the same field for Cross, we're assuming the positioning for the Signis are important as well. That means that if Cock on the third column of the Signi zone and Heckler is on the middle column, Cross is not activated. If Cock is on the first column of the Signi zone and Heckler in on the third column and there's another Signi that is not Cock in the middle column, Cross is not activated. If Cock is on the first column and Heckler is on the middle column, Cross is activated. Still, this is just an assumption as there is not much information for how cross is activated when on the field.

Cross is definitely like a high powered play and a good skill to add in. I kinda wish there's more information Takara Tomy can reveal to us but probably we'll have to wait till May for more news?

Heaven


Cross also includes another skill which is Heaven. You can see at the top of both cards that there's a half a logo. Only Cross Signis will have Heaven and is only activated when both cards are in the "down" state. The logo on top will make into the Heaven logo. With the example of Cock and Heckler, when both are down, it's now in Heaven. You can pay 1 Red ener to crush 1 of your opponent's Life Cloth. Now, apart from that scary looking Heaven's skill, it's not sure whether the skill can only be used once or can be used indefinitely as long as they're both in heaven as the ability states "as long as the Signi is in Heaven state". If there's no limit, you can just keep paying 1 Red and crush all of your opponent's Life Cloths till they have nothing left. Which could be too over-powered in my opinion.

I believe Takara Tomy may put restrictions on Heaven in the rulings, else I can just use a card skill to down myself and shotgun ahead with 7 Reds. It could be there when the Signis goes in Heaven state, you can use the ability in that instant, but hey, I could be wrong. There isn't much information to pull up for now. Again, we may have to wait for more news in the near future.

Personally, I think that Takara Tomy may have introduced too many new skills and gimmicks at once. Now it makes me wonder what new things will be in store for Booster 10 onwards.


Source: @wixoss_hanayo

And it's finally time for Fortune Selector!! Okay, I wanted to write about it before the booster is out but I've decided to put it off and post it with the unboxing videos. Yes, this is going to be a rant, meaningful or not, is completely your decision; I just want to get it out of my systems.

Firstly, I'm glad we're still getting more stuff for Wixoss. But I am quite disappointed with what was released in Fortune Selector and it's targeted mainly at the common cards. Head to the Wiki and look through the list. So what did you see? If you didn't see much stuff, then you're not looking hard enough. Here's a hint - all of the common Signi cards are cards with trait power-up effect aka "If you have another <trait> in the field, this Signi's power is XXXX.".

Yup, it's just that for ALL colours. I get that some of these traits needed them, like red's Ore or green's Beast. If these cards are released in Booster 7(?), I'd be more than happy to welcome them but in Booster 6 where slots are limited since set has only 56 odd slots, you would expect to see something better. I get that it's a supplementary booster to Booster 4 and 5 but Booster 3 have a much better pool of card for the commons and a number of these cards are staples in many decks. Now I just hope booster 7 has a much better outcome.

Secondly, the point exchange. For those who didn't know, Singapore can exchange the points they get from buying packs for foiled promo cards (look for point campaign remarks). Collect 100 points and you can change them for one of them shiny promos. It's all good and dandy when you printed out the form and was told to cut out the points and paste them. Then, drop it off to at any Wixoss supporting card shop and they'll send over the points to the supplier who will send it over to Takara Tomy Japan. The process takes about a few weeks as it involves waiting for the cards to be delivered to Singapore and back to the store.

Turns out, there are some, sorry to say this, idiots out there who think they are being extremely smart by PHOTOCOPYING the points and pasting them on the form. It wasn't officially mentioned (I may be wrong. If there is a source, direct me to it please) by Genesis Frontier (the supplier who got Wixoss in SG) but it was mentioned by a few card shops I visit for Wixoss stuff that was doing the points exchange as well. They were told not to collect any points for the time being and was instructed to tell the players not to cut out and paste the points onto the form, and instead, just pass the stack of points with the forms and written details. Apparently, after the points was delivered to Japan, there was an outrage by Takara Tomy that there was lots of fake points coming in from Singapore. Another thing to note of is that there is a limited number of Wixoss cases that was officially shipped to Singapore by Takara Tomy and they were overwhelmed that the points they received from Singapore was more than what was shipped to Singapore. They had to scan through each forms and check the point cut outs to separate the legit filled forms from the fake ones. The shops that I wanted to exchange with said they can't accept any points for now until Genesis gives them the green light for it again.


Seriously, for those who are planning on photocopying the points and exchanging them for the promos, don't be a smartass and do that, please. You're making it hard for us legit point collectors to exchange them. If people still decide to continue "cheating" the system, Takara Tomy may just announce "Hey look, we gave you a chance to get the promos, fooling me once was fine but second and third time? Know what? We're scrapping the point exchange for you guys. Nope, no promos for you!". That may just happen and who knows, Takara Tomy may decide to not export Wixoss again to Singapore or any other country.

So you've been playing Vanguard for an extremely long time, be it during its first inception in either both the English or Japanese meta game. You may have just started yesterday or a even a couple of weeks before. But have you ever take a look at your deck and think "Have I mastered this deck?"

Mastering a deck isn't about playing hundreds of time with the same deck over and over again. You can play that deck a thousand times and still have yet to master it. The best way to master it is to learn how the deck function as you play it and ask yourself questions along the way. Look at a card's skill, then think if what it can combo with another card in the deck, field or hand. Can you do a chain combo? Will that combo puts me into an advantageous situation down the road or just for that instance but it may cause me the game later on.

Then there's also the timing to use a skill. Let's say you're at 5 damage and your opponent is at 3. Should you break ride now or wait for another turn? Ask yourselves - How is my opponent doing? How many cards is in his hands and did he have a null guard during his checks and has he used it yet? How is my field and hand working out? While many "professional" players may think this is a basic thought process, I may have to actually disagree. I have seen lots of players, be it beginners, intermediates or experienced players, making lots of mistakes. It can be a simple one like not calling out a card (let's say you play Kagero and have  Perdition Dragon Knight, Ilham in hand) to the field first before performing Legion. It can also be not guarding early in the early game when your opponent attacks for 13k and you're a 9k vanguard while having a 10k shield trigger in hand. You can just guard for a no trigger pass with that.


To put it simply, mastering a decks is knowing the ins and outs of your decks. Know its particular strengths and weaknesses and see how you can exploit them to your favour. It may take time depending on the particular deck builds and clans. It's also best to try out other deck builds and clans as well for a feel for it. Knowing how a different clans or deck plays like will also help when playing against that similar deck or clan and you would know what combos to pull off for the win.

"So I tried to go to your store, and I'm seeing your blog! What gives!?". The domain will now point to this blog, and will probably stay that way. Update: Well, looks like the domain is gone.

Well, that it. I've closed the store, a day earlier than planned. Many thanks to all supporters out there who had helped me come this far. I do wish I had the time and resources to do up a more professional store but alas, despite all the planning, that idea was scrapped. I had wanted each card's translation to be reflected in the item's  description among others as well as high resolution scanned images for the cards, especially for the Japanese version card games. It may seem trivial but when I buy a card online, I personally rather have the translation on the card's page itself rather than having to go to the wikia for translation and I believe most of us would rather see that piece of info on the same page.

As mentioned in my previous post, the lack of time and resources (namely manpower), as well as shipping cost was one of the major factor that lead to my decision in closing the store. Once again, thank you for your support and I hope you'll still continue to follow my blog! Happy card gaming!

Guess what!? Time for another deck profile! With Vanguard EB11 out back in November, I've played against many other Revenger decks and I was surprised that many players in my area plays only two kinds - Mordred/Abyss and Raging/Abyss. These decks are strong, but somehow, I find that they are all the same. I reckon that they are from the same recipes from one of the top Japanese Vanguard decks.

When I have friendly matches with other Revenger players, I received lots of 'WTF?', 'How in the world?' and even 'He definitely stacking and cheating!'. Well, the cheating part, technically is not really cheating. Stacking part is a...probably. In lots of my matches using Revenger, I tend to get 4 triggers with both of my twin drives. Of course this will make others think I cheat, but let's be honest here, winning by cheating is not fun. And no, I'm not here to teach you how cheat but I will introduce my Revenger deck that excels extremely well at deck thinning.

Grade 0: 18 units

• 1 x Creeping Dark Goat (Starter)
• 1 x Judgebau Revenger
• 4 x Grim Revenger (Critical)
• 4 x Revenger, Air Raid Dragon (Critical) 
• 4 x Freezing Revenger (Draw)
• 4 x Healing Revenger (Heal

Grade 1: 13 units

• 4 x Barrier Troop Revenger, Dorint
• 4 x Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir
• 4 x Transient Revenger, Masquerade
• 1 x Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter

Grade 2: 11 units

• 4 x Blaster Dark Revenger
• 4 x Blaster Dark Revenger "Abyss"
• 3 x Wily Revenger, Mana

Grade 3: 8 units

• 4 x Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom
• 4 x Revenger, Phantom Blaster "Abyss" 

Looks simple right? Actually not quite. I've loaned this deck to many other players but some how...they kept on playing the deck wrongly and says it's a bad deck and theirs are better. Well, maybe they're right, but maybe, they just have no idea how the deck truly works.

Grade 0 trigger line up is pretty much the same is most Revenger decks. The only difference would be the starter and that lone Judgebau. Most Revenger deck will use Judgebau as their starters, even when they're using Raging/Abyss. For the love of god, I can't understand why they'd run 2 Judgebaus when one of ther Vanguards doesn't even have Phantom in the name. Anyways, Goat is my best starter since I can fish out a G3. For those who follow my blog would understand that I tend to get grade lock quite easily.

There's very little Grade 1 units. The obvious choice of Dorint is for unflipping my CBs with Blaster Dark. Mac Lir for nulls. I'm not a believer of Quintet walls and it doesn't actually work that great with Revengers. But that's my opinion. Masquerade is your 10k attacker but if there's a LB4 unlocker revenger, I'd replace Masquerade for him. Last but not least, the lone Trumpeter. Trumpeter is there, to fish out Judgebau.

I have an odd choice for Grade 2s. I play both kinds of Blaster Dark Revengers. BDR is just there to unflip the damage zone. Unless you have plenty of CBs to use, you don't need to use him to retire your opponent's front row. Most players that borrowed the deck tend to use his skill instead of just unflipping. This misplay cost them the match especially when they don't have enough CBs to spare. BDRA is your obvious Legion Mate. His skill snipes the back row but I rarely use it unless needed to, like the opponent's Judgebau if any. Mana is the key card of the deck that thins out the deck like crazy. Here's a tip, call Mana in the RC, use her skill to call up Trumpeter, use Trumpeter and call up Judgebau, key point: place him behind your vanguard!! Not so hard right? Next turn, use Judgebau to boost your Phantom vanguard - at this point, some opponent will let it pass, some will guard for dear life. If it passes, grab a that Trumpter that was returned with Mana's skill and put her behind your Vanguard and a Dorint on another empty RC on the back. With that, you just thinned out your deck of 3 non trigger units. This single combo is actually what helped me thin the deck early game as well have some field presence to prepare for Blaster Abyss Legion skill.

Grade 3 is quite simple. You simply have to ride Mordred first, break ride to Phantom Abyss, thin out the deck even further by calling out another. What to call out depends on the field. If you need another CB for Phantom Abyss, call out a Blaster Dark Revenger infront of Dorint and unflip. If you need some field, call out Mana and use her to call out another G1. Legion your trigger and and extract out another non trigger unit, Blaster Dark Revenger Abyss, from the deck. You should be able to see why the triggers stack so much. After your break ride, your chances of finishing the game is quite high as Phantom Abyss hits for 32k unboosted. You attack with a rearguard first, the one just just requires 3 to 10k guard, followed by a break ridden boosted Phantom Abyss that swings for 39k, give all triggers you get onto your rearguard (best would be the Blaster Dark Revenger you called out with Mordred which is already 21k boosted), CB2 retire your rested rearguards, attack with Phantom Abyss again for 32k and give all your triggers to the your RG. If your opponent doesn't have enough hand to guard all that, it's game over. If you checked 4 triggers. your opponent would need 10k(RG)+35k(Abyss)+30k(Abyss)+35k(RG)=110k worth of hand to guard everything if he does not have any nulls. Even with no triggers, he'll need 90k worth of guard and in the event he managed to hang on to dear life and survived, his chances of winning is quite slim unless he manages a come back.

I've been using Revengers since February last year and throughout my experience, I noticed that Revengers are extremely good at consistent deck thinning. Sadly, some players that I've played against only see them as a restanding deck and not the former. I find that the current support for Revengers can utilize both deck thinning and restanding for high trigger count and attack power when utilized correctly. Try it out, you'd be surprise by how a single combo can do a huge difference in striking those triggers.

It's a Sunday and I finally have time to sit down and write in something here! WIXOSS booster 5, Beginning Selector was released about 3 weeks ago and I'm both happy and frustrated at the release (I'm looking at you Mayu). Before the release of Beginning Selector, Hanayo decks aren't really worth considered to play with. The best decks out there is the Hanayo level 2 and sadly, playing Hanaya to Level 4 can means suicide pre-Booster 5. But still, this is simply my opinion after using Hanayo since the inception of the game itself.

Ever since upgrading the with booster 5, I was able to beat many meta and odd decks out there, with the exception of Mayu decks. The only time I managed to defeat Mayu was when my opponent misplayed at 1 life cloth left and my field have 2 Diabrides and he used Rococo Boundary on two of my ore signis. Apart from that, I have yet win against that ener locking deck.

Well, enough rants. The deck list awaits!

LRIG Deck

• Hanayo-Zero
• Hanayo-One
• Hanayo-Two, Hard Flame
• Hanayo-Three, Blazing Flame Dance
• Hanayo-Pure Four 
• Hanayo-Five
• Salvage
• Fiery Spring Landscape
• Rekindling Effort
• Ancient Surprise

Main Deck (Normal)

• 1 x Topaz, Natural Stone (LV1)
• 2 x Code Anti Henge (LV1)
• 2 x Code Anti Aztec (LV2)
• 2 x Servant D2 (LV2)
• 3 x Bronda, Natural Stone (LV2)
• 1 x Rubyl, Natural Stone (LV3)
• 3 x Ordnance, Roaring Gun (LV3)
• 1 x Servant T2 (LV3)
• 3 x THREE OUT (Spell)
• 2 x Fracturing Lust (Spell)

Main Deck (Life Burst)

• 4 x Carnelian, Natural Stone (LV1)
• 4 x Servant O (LV1)
• 2 x Servant D (LV2)
• 2 x Mithril, Natural Stone (LV3)
• 4 x Adamasphere, Natural Pyroxene (LV4)
• 4 x Diabride, Natural Pyroxene (LV5)

Signi breakdown:

LV 1	LV 2	LV 3	LV 4	LV 5	Spell	Total
11	9	7	4	4	5	50

I have linked each cards to the appropriate Wiki pages for easy references. My deck looks a little weird but I find it's quite effective against many decks out there.

My LRIG deck starts out simple. I play the the Trial Deck's Hanayo-One simply because she has a limit of 2. In this way, I can call out two LV1 signis for defence and if I start first, I can use Carnelian to grab extra cards to hand. LV 2 and LV 3 Hanayo is quite standard in most Hanayo decks; Two adds power whilst Three banishes one of your opponent's signi to open up a path of attack. My choice of Hanayo-Pure Four may baffle some but if you were to think about it properly, she fits in the deck perfectly. She costs two ener to grow and have a signi limit of 12 but, she doesn't have any abilities. The keywords here are "two eners". Her other LV 4, Hanayo-Four, Hundred-Fire Profusion, is...not so great and she costs 3 eners to call out. Her effect in itself is not as great. Sure I can banish away a signi of less than 10k, but I find it quite costly as I have to trash away a card from hand despite being cheap at 1 red ener and to add on to that, I don't even use that skill at all, and same goes with other Hanayo players I know. So Hanayo Pure is the best option for LV4 and you get to save 1 ener for some other effects. The ace LRIG for the deck of course would be Hanayo 5. As soon as you grow to her, your chances of winning shoots over the roof. All signi gets double crush and I can banish 30k worth of signi? You could easily destroy the whole field and finish the game there and then!

For Arts, Salvage and Fiery Spring Landscape helps with Hanayo based decks' achilles heel, hand size. Among all other decks in WIXOSS, Hanayo players can find themselves having not enough cards in hand and they don't quite have a good drawing engine like most other decks have. Rekindling Effort is another extremely good card to play, especially when you're at Level 5 and planning to finish things right away. If you used Hanayo Five's Exceed and gave your opponent 4 ener, Rekindling Effort helps away at whittling away those ener to prevent them from using their Arts. Most Arts like Don't Move, Black Desire and Ancient Surprise requires 3 eners and by preventing them from using this, the chances of winning is higher so combo Fracturing Lust with Rekindling Effort is an extremely good combo. Of course there would be some cards that can still throw in the wrench in the works such as Idol Defense if you used a spell and arts on the same turn. Now among the midst, there's a black Arts, Ancient Surprise. This card is mainly to do the following - Prevent Green decks from getting their Lancer off by lowering their power by 5k or 8k and defend against Mayu decks to prevent them from finishing you off. Dead Splash is a good mention against Mayu decks if you can't get your hands on Ancient Surprise.

Now, I separated my main deck to two parts, one with no Life Burst and another with Life Burst. Let's start with the former. As you noticed, I play 2 black cards, Henge, for my LV1, this is to be used by Ancient Surprise when needed later in the game. Topaz is a tech card if I need to fish out Fracturing Lust. Aztec is another black card for Ancient Surprise. Aztec calls out a LV1 ancient weapon from the trash so Ancient Surprise + Aztec + Henge makes a good defence combo when needed. Servant D2 and T2 for guarding and Bronda is a vanilla 7k LV2. I play 1 Rubyl and 3 Ordnance. Rubyl is good for that sudden power burst but Ordnance can snipe away a Signi from the field for a direct attack. Three Out is obviously for hand size while Fracturing Lust to destroy your opponent's ener, especially against Midoriko Repair and Big Bang decks.

For my Life Burst cards, I would say it's a standard recipe amongst many players. Carnelian can help with hand size with resting her and reveal top card for a gemstone. Her life burst lets you draw a card. Servant O and D are your guards as well as ener chargers. Mithril is your 15k guardian and 18k attacker whom is just a Level 3. While her on-play effects forces you to discard a card, it's well worth the cost as she'll be in the field for a very long time. Her life burst is a direct opposite that allows you to draw a card. Adamasphere increase field power, banish a weakling away and even let you get double crush, but her life burst is great at early and mid game. Most signi are less than 10k apart from some LV3s and above, and therefore have lots of targets for banishing. The ace of the Signis in this set is definitely Diabride. After burning away the field with Hanayo 5's skill, you can attack a total of 5 times (2 Diabrides attacking twice and another signi). Her second ability also forces your opponent not to use Arts like Don't Move or Rococo Boundary carelessly when they're at 1 Life Cloth and you have two Diabrides in the field. Of course Diabride is without any weakness. If you're unlucky enough to get your opponent triggering Arc Aura, Final Distruction or even FREEZE, it may be the end, or you may get a chance to finish it off at the next turn.

That's it for my deck profile. While it may looked like there's way too many unnecessary card in the deck, each card is in there for a reason and they complement each other quite well. Probably more will come up soon, probably not. Until next time!