Stand and Draw: Card game rants and experiences

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?

The trial decks was out two weeks ago, but I have yet to actually had a match against one. A friend of mine decided to make one liberator deck for the fun of it - even buying 4 of the trial decks. I initially thought it would be a simple few matches but boy, was I wrong.

By now, break rides is not much of new news. For us English players, we have a taste of its power in the form of mermaids that have their own sets of extra boosters back in July. Yes, I'm talking about Bermuda Triangle.

If you have not heard of break rides before, here's a quick intro; a break ride is when you ride another unit, mainly a Grade 3, on top of another necessary Grade 3, therefore activating its skill when at 4 damage. The effects mainly gives the vanguard a boost of 10,000 power as well as large benefits to the rearguards or penalties to the opponent's field. A very bold example will be the cheatwares Link Joker and Narukami. It is situational, but still, strong.

So now I'm back with what I started in the beginning of this rant. I fought against a newly formed liberator deck and got trashed left and right. Break ride on top of a break ride on top of a break ride...please, I have enough!! As usual, Gold Paladins and Narukami, while already strong to the point of too strong, now got way too strong with their new supports. Still, it will take some time for most of us to get use fighting against these decks.


Now enough of Gold Paladins and Narukami. Tomorrow is the Booster Draft for BT11 and I definitely can't wait to get my hands on them, even if it's just 6 packs! A week after, Booster 11 will be officially released. Of course I'm aiming for Kagero units, mainly the Seal Dragons and Dauntless Drive Dragon. Dauntless Drive with Lawkeeper sounds fun but Flare Whip Dragon will definitely be more trolling.


Still, one day after the release of BT11, it'll be the qualifiers for the World Championships in Singapore. From the looks of the trends, most players will be going Dauntless Drive + DOTE, Aqua Force, Angel Feather and Tachikaze, seeing as these clans will be getting huge support as well as Bermuda Triangle. As for what I'll be using, I'm still undecided. I'm aiming to either use Shadow Paladin Ildona or Spike Brothers, but my gut feeling is saying otherwise. Most probably I'll be following what my instincts tells me to do on that day. But I'm quite pissed off at Bushiroad for postponing BT10 to December. My Bad End Dragger!!!! T^T

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.

With the 3rd qualifiers for Asia-Oceania starting in 3 days, I'm psyched up. I'll be travelling out of my home country, heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the big day. I will try to bring home some pictures to your viewing pleasure, but don't count on the camera being that good. Of course, I'll try my best to get qualified! For those going there as well, I hope to see you as well!