Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

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-

As mentioned in my previous box opening video, I'll be getting 4 more boxes. And guess what, I sure did. As promised, here's part 2 of Daybreak Illusion box opening!

Box 1 & 2
Box 3 & 4

Time for yet, another update! Another deck profile for Daybreak Illusion featuring Akari. This deck uses 3 colours so it may need some skill to utilize the deck well. It was planned to use all 4 colours but sadly, that ended up in a flop. Powerful as it may be, but if it is not consistent it spells trouble.

So this deck focuses on Red, Yellow and Green. Most Akari based decks are Red and Blue, or Red, Blue and Green, making it 2 to 3 coloured deck. Take note that what I meant by multicolour is that colours mainly used from LV1 onwards. Even if a deck have 4 colours for LV0 but focus mainly on 2 colours for LV1 onwards, it is still considered a 2 coloured deck, to me anyways.

Now that we get that in the clear, here's the awaited deck recipe! There are two lists here. Not much differences between them, just a slight difference in the LV2, LV3 and climaxes.

Level 0: 4 x Ginka, Loves Takoyaki 4 x Ginka, Open-Hearted Girl from Kansai 4 x Luna, Flushed Cheeks 4 x Akari, Sleeping Level 1: 4 x Ginka, Calculated  2 x Luna, Kind Smile 4 x Taiyou Hinata Level 2: 3 x Ginka, Father's Child 2 x Ginka, Rookie Member 3 x Luna, Rookie Member 4 x Akari, Rookie Member Level 3: 4 x Akari, Power of the Sun Climax 4 x Opened Fate 4 x Clessidra

Level 0: 4 x Ginka, Loves Takoyaki 4 x Ginka, Open-Hearted Girl from Kansai 4 x Luna, Flushed Cheeks 4 x Akari, Sleeping Level 1: 4 x Ginka, Calculated  2 x Luna, Kind Smile 4 x Taiyou Hinata Level 2: 4 x Ginka, Father's Child 2 x Ginka, Rookie Member 3 x Luna, Rookie Member Level 3: 4 x Akari, Power of the Sun 3 x Ginka, Power of the Temperance Climax 4 x Bloodstained Future 4 x Clessidra

Well, the decks looks a bit...awkward. It is supposed to be a deck focusing more on Akari, but after looking through the cards, I that there are too much cards that self inflict damage on the Red side of things and has too little power. Even her G1 encore card, Akari, Girl of Destiny, seems good at first, but still loses out on raw power against Calculative Ginka. But awkwardness aside, the cards in the deck complements each other on both combo, power and deck thinning.

This deck have 8 cards in total that can be sent to the memory and both of them are from Level 0. Takoyaki Ginka and Sleeping Akari. Tako-Ginka is your attacker, since she can hit 3000 by herself when she attacks and she also have a chance (key word, chance) to go to memory when reversed, since you need to check a Tarot card from the top deck. Chances of getting her to memory are high, since 42 cards in the deck are Tarot cards but the remaining 8 are climaxes. Sleeping Akari is your suicider, killing off your opponent's level 0s and herself. She is particularly useful in this deck as she goes to the memory by paying 1 stock when she is placed to the waiting room from stage. Kansai Ginka is your global 500 boost while Flushed Cheeks Luna is your power attacker. At the right situation, she hit more than 6500. Such power...

I play only 10 cards for my Level 1, which honestly, is more than enough. Calculative Ginka is your 7000 power attacker and a discard-encore. I noticed she tends to stay in the field for a long long time during most of my matches because of her high attack and defence. Taiyou Hinata is your Level 1 suicider, killing all the LV1 and below with her. She is one scary card to call out at LV1 as you're killing away your opponent attackers easily. Hinata is also needed to be used for LV3 Akari's climax combo, so she must be placed in the deck. Kind smile Luna is your everyday 1500 power counter.

Depending on which deck I play with, I'll have 9 to 12 LV2s. Father's Child Ginka is a must play card in my opinion, as she is one of those LV2 that not only hits 9500 by herself but she can go more than 11k, easily hitting LV3s. Rookie Ginka is also another must play counter card as she can counter for up to 3500 power. Rookie Luna is too good not to use, seeing that she is a 1000 global booster. She is also a decent attacker if you already have 2 of her at the back. Rookie Akari is a change card as well as damage adder. Her ability to change to LV3 Akari is dependant on having the climax card in hand. While seems bad at first, her change ability also inflicts a damage to your opponent (which can be cancelled sadly) but it still forces your opponent to think twice before attacking her.

LV3 Akari can be considered "broken" once you get her combo out. She's a healer, a potentially 14k defender by herself (depending on the number of marker she have). Hit big and defend big? Why not? LV3 Ginka is another card that locks down the opponent. Her climax combo prevents your opponent from getting an encore, effectively locking away the opponent's field if, especially good when your opponent does not have enough cards to call out.

For my choice of climaxes, Opened Fate deals in 2 additional soul when trigger checked. This card is also used for Rookie Akari's change ability. Clessidra is your salvager as well as LV3 Akari's climax combo. Bloodstained Future is a soul and burn card and can be comboed with LV3 Ginka.

First post of the year!! And a happy new year to all. It's been about two weeks since my last post but with work getting too much into the way that I had to hold on a bit on writing a new post and deck building. Remaining time I had went to playing WS and Vangard on the weekends.

About a month ago, I got myself 4 boxes of Daybreak Illusion and mentioned about building a deck profile. I didn't actively build a deck until about a week ago, where I finally had the time to sit down and start building. While I did originally build after the box opening, I feel those are a bit weak and only tweaked them again later. Of course deck building is one thing; I've tested the deck to ensure it works as I would like it to. So far, it works well and pressure hard too 80% of the time.

This deck focuses on two tarot cards, The Moon, represented by Tsukuyomi Luna and Temperance, which is represented by Shirokane Ginka. An odd combo as they don't often appear together in the anime. This deck focus solely on high powered attacks and defence and a little bit on deck thinning. Now here's the awaited list!

Update: List has been updated since I managed to get more cards to improve the deck.

Level 0:

• 3 x Ginka, Loves Takoyaki
• 3 x Ginka, Girl of Destiny 
• 4 x Ginka, Open-Hearted Girl from Kansai 
• 4 x Luna, Flushed Cheeks

Level 1:

• 2 x Ginka, Deploy Order
• 4 x Ginka, Calculated 
• 2 x Luna, Kind Smile
• 3 x Luna, Unexpectedly Enthralled

Level 2:

• 2 x Ginka, Rookie Member
• 2 x Ginka, Father's Child
• 3 x Luna, Rookie Member
• 4 x Luna, Girl of Destiny

Level 3:

• 4 x Ginka, Power of the Temperance
• 2 x Luna, Power of the Moon

Climax:

• 4 x Bloodstained Future 
• 4 x Shine from the Amaryllis Flower

This deck requires some setup from Level 0 onwards to get its engine going. It is still possible to be able to skip the setup at Level 0 and do it at Level 1. The setup I'm talking about? Getting at least two memory by level 1 and getting 3 memory before level 3. Reasons for this? Well, most of the attackers in this deck requires cards in the memory to gain lots of boost. I'll explain that in a moment.

Level 0 is where most of the key memory goers are. Takoyaki Ginka and Destiny Ginka serves to stock up your memory. If you can get all of them to the memory, it serves as a plus too. Tako-Ginka is a free memory card. As soon as it gets reverse, just reveal the top card and check to see if it's a tarot card. If tarot, put it to memory. Detiny Ginka is slightly more pricy. You need to pay a stock, drop a card from hand. The plus side? You get to replace that dead card in hand for something better and Ginka will then head to the memory. Kansai Ginka is your global 500 power booster. Flushed Luna is another attacker. She is useful in a sense that if you have 4 cards in the field and you called her out, she can hit for 5500, even 6500 at the right condition. Even Level 1s will flee from her.

My Level 1s are the attackers as well as defenders in early and mid game. Their only downfall - when you have no cards in memory, their attacking power is quite low. The two cards that have this ability are Calculated Ginka and Deploy Order Ginka. Both of these cards gains 1500 power when they have the minimum number of cards in memory. Deploy Order Ginka requires 2 memories while Calculated Ginka requires at least 1. Kind Luna is your usual counter card while Enthralled Luna is another big attacker where she gains 500 power for each tarot card you have in the field.

The fun begins at Level 2. Rookie Ginka is another counter for the deck so it's self explanatory. Father's Child Ginka is another big attacker. Like the Level 1 Ginkas in the deck, she need to have cards in the memory in order to gain 2000 power, which in her case, she needs 2. Rookie Luna is definitely the best booster in the deck. She is a global 1000 boost, meaning having 2 of her at the back stage ensures all your attackers gets additional 2k boost. Destiny Girl Luna is your healer. As the Level 3s of the deck is unable to heal, this card is really important as she allows you to heal a single point of damage. In WS, one damage may be a fine line between winning and losing. She's a climax combo and her ability seems a little costly at first, but thinking back, this deck don't requires much stock and the Climax card for her ability add in another stock for you in the first place.

For Level 3s, I play 3 Temperance Ginka. Usually by level 3, you'll have at least 3 cards in memory, which will activate her ability of getting a permanent 1500 power extra, making her 11k by herself. Her second ability is also great if you need cards but wouldn't want to clock to draw as it is the same effect since you would draw two cards and discard one. What I love about this card is her 3rd ability where when you play her climax combo, she gets an additional 6000 power and your opponent's encore abilities (including the rule induced encore) is sealed. In the right condition, she will be a 20k attacker, bigger than most cards out there. Destroying their main attacking force won't be much of a problem of course. My other grade 3 is Moon Luna. Her first ability is to give encore ability to other tarot cards in the field. Her second ability is similar to brainstorm, where calling her will allow you to look at the top few cards and keep one in hand, discarding the rest. Really great to look for those climax cards, an attacker or even a counter that you may need later in the game.

Climax comprises of Shine from Amaryllis Flower, a climax combo for Destiny Girl Luna. The climax card gives one soul to all your characters and you search one green card in the waiting room and place it to stock as well as a 2 soul trigger. The other Climax card is Bloodstained future, climax combo for Temperance Ginka. This card is a standard one soul one burn card as well as a 1k + 1 soul when played.

As mentioned, this deck mostly power based. Having grade 1s in the field that have up to 9000 attacking and defending power messes up with your opponent's play style and of course some will start play conservatively. I had players that  refuses to do a front attack just because I'm 9k and the cards that are attacking are level 2, where they complain having short of 500 power sometimes. This is a good thing as you tend to receive less or no damage at all, allowing you to survive longer.

It's been a while since my last post but it's finally time for the box opening of Daybreak Illusion, also known as Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou. First video with just me, and I think I made some lame remarks in there that I wish I can hide in a hole somewhere. Yeah, I'm not much of a camera person. Anyways, I introduced the video wrongly, only to realized it was wrong later at the end (I read it as Genei wo Tsukuru Taiyou, so sue me). Now enough of this embarrassing rant and on to the videos!! There's four parts so do enjoy! I'll be doing a deck profile for this series soon (how soon? Not so sure).

Yay!! Another video!! I planned to upload it 3 days back but work, procrastination and Pokemon Y has gotten me busy...Okay, I'll fess up; Pokemon Y was the main reason.

Devil Survivor 2 extra box is mainly consist of Blue and Yellow and I have yet have played against it in a proper game per se, but I did have a quick match with an impromptu deck that was build as soon as we finished unboxing them. I won't say good or bad it is, but I'll just have to wait till my friend build the deck properly

Just a simple notice. I'm not the owner of the boxes and again, I'm the crappy cameraman behind the lens.

In my previous post for Weiss Schwarz Project Diva F, I mentioned having 3 decks. This too was touted another deck with combo rarely used or never seen before that veteran players was surprise with or other Project Diva F users never thought of. This deck is my very first deck that I build after getting myself the booster boxes using Red and Blue.

A few players that borrowed the deck says it's not that easy to use. I have to agree a little on that. This deck relies a bit of combo when you're still at level one, but as long as you know how to use what cards you have efficiently, it is quite straight forward. But one of the most often comment I get is the deck doesn't have any change cards (from G2 to G3) or cards that recover damage. This is quite true as for Project Diva F, both Red and Blue cards have no change or cards that recover that one damage. Still, I do find it powerful enough that such skills can be neglected, albeit good to have.

Now enough with my rants and on to the deck list!

Level 0:

• 2 x Kagamine Len "Bad Boy"
• 4 x Hatsune Miku "Solitude"
• 2 x Hatsune Miku "Memoria"
• 1 x "Endless Singing" Hatsune Miku
• 3 x Hatsune Miku "Rin-chan Love Squad No.1"
• 2 x Megurine Luka "SW Resort Bikini"
• 2 x MEIKO "SW Long Pareo"

With much said and done, I'm sad to say I couldn't make it. Despite giving my all I lost very early during the tournament. I wanted to post about my experience last week, but I decided skip that for now since work has piled up after my return from Kuala Lumpur. I was pretty confident I can make it far but didn't expect to be booted out in the 2nd round.

Preparation was all good. My Spike Brothers deck performed well before the tournament and everything seems good, except for my luck.  My first match was against Gold Paladin Platina build. Not so surprising here. I took a deep breath, shuffle the deck and cut my opponent's deck in 2. He did the same. Then I draw my first 5 cards...my hand was shockingly bad; 3 critical triggers, a heal trigger and a High Speed Brakki. I kept Brakki in hand and mulligan the rest of the cards. After having the deck shuffled and cut, I drew 4 cards...which consists of a Marilyn, a critical trigger, a heal trigger and a Juggernaut Maximum.

It was a...quick match. My opponent superior ride to Ezel and hit me left and right. I couldn't drive check triggers either as I keep drawing them to hand and I couldn't get attackers out on the field either. My opponent got himself all the triggers giving me a hard time guarding as well. Despite all the guarding and struggling, I ended up losing. My opponent gives a smirk for the easy win and started acting all high and mighty. I packed up and simply left.

After the first match was over, we head on to the second one. I say this match was good of Scarlet Witch vs Dudley. My first hand was bad...4 triggers and a Marilyn. I mulligan everything and ended up with pretty much my ideal hand; 2 Field Drillers, 1 Dudley Emperor, a Wonder Boy and a Medical Manager. I started first, a good sign. On my turn, I drew a Panzer Gale, which is a another good sign. Rode Medical Manager, opt not to soul charge and attacked and drive checked a critical trigger. Looks like this match is going to be good.

I rushed him at G2 with Field Driller as the vanguard, another field driller on the side and Panzer Gale boosted with Tiara. Everything went well but somehow, I wasn't able to trigger much. During that match, I managed to drive check triggers only 3 or 4 times. Sad to say, I lost the match, but it was a good and refreshing one despite the loss. I congratulate my opponent and gave him a handshake.

With my chance now over, waited for the next few events - the free fights for Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz and tag team tournament! I managed to bag myself a Creeping Dark Goat, which I now use in my Shadow Paladin deck, and some WS promos. Tag team tournament went well, with my team mate and I bagging the wins easily. I was also quite surprise that a foil card is available in the PR pack (not mine, someone else's) as well as getting a Dudley Emperor sleeves in the lucky draw. I took some pictures for everyone to enjoy, just don't count on the quality.

Another day, another post since my last one. While I was contemplating on what kind of things to post next, almost two months have passed and...nothing? Well, this time around rather than my usual ramblings on Cardfight!! Vanguard, I have decided to write about another card game that I'm playing; Weiss Schwarz.

To be honest, I started WS as soon as Project Diva F trial deck was released in March after all that waiting and then continued on with expending the deck once the booster boxes is out. Some touted the whole Project Diva F series as weak while others say it's okay, but not that competitive. I can't really comment on that much since I simply play WS for fun. Still, I did manage to beat some tournament decks with this series.

I have 3 Project Diva F decks, all with different themes and styles. Out of the three, I have received quite a number of praises from veteran players since they are quite unique builds that they have never seen before for the two of them. As for the other one, I was told it is a unique build by itself, but it's not that original since there are others who have build something similar. For now, I shall introduce my Yellow-Red deck which I named "Rin-chan bait and switch!" I've highlighted their names in colors so that you can identify which color group they belong to.

Level 0:

• 2 x Kagamine Len "Bad Boy"
• 4 x Hatsune Miku "Solitude"
• 2 x Kagamine Len "Tricker"
• 2 x Kagamine Len "Append"
• 2 x Kagamine Rin "Future Style"
• 4 x Hatsune Miku "Rin-chan Love Squad No.1"

Hello to all. I'm surprised to find someone bored enough to be lurking into this place! And for that, I commend and welcome you. As what was mentioned on my title, I'll mostly be ranting about card games and the experience that I have with them. If you'd like to know, I'm currently playing mostly Weiss Schwarz (Japanese) and Cardfight!! Vanguard (English). I play Project Diva for WS while more on non-meta units for Cardfight!! Vanguard.

A little bit about me, I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters before, but I quit completely about 1 to 2 years back as it's getting more expensive and a bit more harder play with as a fun game with all the one-turn KO decks out there. I'm not the best duelist out there, so don't turn on this guy for tips since I haven't been on the scene for that long.

If you're wondering what to expect of this place, I suggest not expect much. I'll may be posting once, or twice a month due to my busy(?) schedule. I'll be posting deck lists that I'm using, unboxing videos (if time allows it) as well as videos where my friends and I are playing. Of course most of us are camera shy, so you may not get the best quality monologues out there but take your time and watch them.

So why I call this place "Stand and Draw"? Well, the reasoning is pretty simple; for both Cardfight!! Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz, you have to stand your cards first before drawing to mark the beginning of your turn. Simple no?

Again, if you are reading this, a warm welcome to you, and I hope I can hear from you as well.

Until next time!