EDIT: I accidentally rushed this the first time and I’m sorry that I did. I went back and did more research and now I have updated it, 2.0. (Sorry about that…)

EDIT 2: I have changed the Alfred section and removed Sanctuary of Light.

Hello everyone! Welcome to the main attraction here attraction here at The Cardfighting Deletor!

The Clan Analyses!

Here is where we analyse the clans of Vanguard to see how they stand! Today is the first Pilot of Clan Analyses; Royal Paladin!

What is Royal Paladin?

The Royal Paladin clan is the United Sanctuary’s main forces. It’s playstyle focuses on superior calling units from the deck to the field. Recently, the Archetype Altmile has put focus on superior calling Grade 2 units specifically, and the Brave keyword which activates once the player has 3 or less cards in hand.

Now, I’ll lay down a little background info since this is the first Clan analysis. I guess these are more of subclan analyses. I investigate the subclans (and some other cards too) to see how the clan is holding up. Cards that are not in America yet I will include in analyzing. I will not mention Seekers or Sanctuary of Light. I feel I don’t need to do that.

Alfred

Alfred started with King of Knights, Alfred and continued from there. It revolved around gaining power from a high number of rear-guards and could superior call a grade 2 from the deck for counter-blast 3. These concepts of high number of rear-guards and superior calling grade 2’s would be explored a few years later, but back to Alfred. The most relevant units as of late are the following:

King of Knights’ Light Manifest, Alfred Oath

Light Source Seeker, Alfred Exiv

Alfred Oath’s abilities are interesting, and I guess it’s nice to see Bushiroad make an updated Alfred. However, I say the cost is pretty high considering you have to have a Swordsman of Light or Blaster in the soul, then you must pay the high cost of counter blast 1, soul blast 1, and discarding a card from your hand. And for calling two Blaster or Swordsmans of Light that have different grades from each other. Oh, also keep in mind you can only use this ability once, when he is placed on Vanguard. I think this will probably be used in the new Blaster deck with Exceed. If you ride this first, it’s going to be very nice.

That support combined with Alfred makes a good deck that is consistent, works well and is very customizable. The new Psion Rider helps with the excessive counter blasting that the deck will have. King’s Adjutant Knight, Galehaut has an ability that will not only get Alfred on the field, you can call Galehaut out to rear. The catch? If his attack hits the vanguard, you counter charge 1. Swordsman of Light, Ahmes help with calling Blaster Blade to destroy an opponent’s rear-guard that’s bothering you, and it removes the cost, so you won’t have to counter blast 1. The new Alfred G-unit combined with Exceed will probably feed this, but’ll have to see.

Jewel Knight/Ashlei

The Jewel Knights are known as an older subclan known for having a big field to gain power from that big field, normally to require 3 or more rear-guards to activate abilities (maybe that could be a keyword…). This subclan is… outdated. Not too outdated however. The setup I made revolves around…

Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei

Broken Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei “Яeverse”

Ashlei is the most stereotypical break ride (and only one in Royal Paladin) ever, +10000/+1 Critical, and Ashlei Reverse is your go to grade 3 for the sublcan. It’s skills are very good, having the +2000 permanent boost if you have the other Ashlei in the soul, which isn’t that much of a nuisance because regular Ashlei is a break ride. And let me tell you, having a defalut of 13000 default defense is annoying. Units like Swordmy, Starlight Violinist, or Altgaro get the early game going being able to pull grade 1’s and grade 2’s respectively out of the deck when they’re placed rear (or vanguard for Starlight). Cymbelline, oh, don’t get started. Click on that link and you’ll see the mad skillz. Or just the one that gives one your units +10000 power when you place it on rear and rest it. Not to be used excessively, but that is still something to have in the deck. Also, Jewel Knights doesn’t need Generation Break, so the early game is fierce, especially if you already the units above. Christine is great to get out units quick to. Sabremy allows limit break early for even more early game, and more synergy and support with Jewel Knights. You get the right units on the field, you sweep the competition. Oh yeah, Alwain. You can recycle grade 3’s back into the deck and it’s more than once per turn, with +5000 boosts to an Ashlei unit, every time you do so. The G Support for Jewel Knights actually is pretty good, with Evangeline being able to give +9000 boosts to all your rear-guards if you have three face up copies of her in the G-Zone. Oh, I’m sorry; did I say rear-guards? It actually says “units” so that includes Evangeline. Overall, Jewel Knights are on a equal level with where the Brave is, so 3rd best deck in the clan. (You’ll see why third right now.) In personal experience, it’s pretty fun to play.

NOTE: You can also play an other grade 3’s like Camille, Salome, and even Yvain. Do as you wish people.

Blasters

Now, may I just say that I’ve never been quite impressed with the level of popularity this subclan has with all of Royal Paladin, and just in general. Before I read tournament rules for Vanguard, I thought MLB had no relevance whatsoever. Until, I read the the tourney rules and it said:

«Royal Paladin» decks may consist of up to 4 copies of “Blaster Dark”;

*Other «Shadow Paladin» cards are not allowed.

After more research, I found the holy grail of decks, Sanctuary Blasters and Blasters/Thing Saver. Sanctuary Blasters is exactly what it sounds like; Sanctuary guards and blasters mixed together. I’ll go more into detail about them in Sanctuary Guards. Blasters/Thing Saver is a mix of using Majesty Lord Blaster, the blasters, and Thing Saver Dragon. You’re strategy is something like this. Use Floral Flogal, Wingal Brave, Blaster Barcgal, and Llew to get blasters on the field, combo, and find MLB. Ride MLB; if you played everything right, put Blaster Dark and Blaster Blade into soul after you attack with them. Congrats, MLB becomes a 22000/+1 Crit monster. Now that that you have built up the soul and counter charged with Barcgal, you use Thing Saver Dragon to attack three times. Early game rush, and if you have problems with field, just stride. It’s consistent, it’s hard hitting, and very hard to beat. You could call it broken, you could call it the best deck in format. You could call it many things. Right now, it’s probably one of the best decks out there.

Sanctuary Guard

The Sanctuary Guards have reached high levels of competitive use, especially now since Sanctuary Guard Arc, Imperial, and Regalie have all reached the US. With the blasters mentioned above, a Sanctuary Blasters deck has the aggressive early game, and the strong late game to make a insanely good deck. You see, you use use Blaster support to call out Blaster Blade to counter charge and get boosts. Stride into Regalie and Imperial as much as possible. Rush down your opponent with grade 2’s, get boosts from having grade 1’s playing Sanc Guard as vanguard, and end the game as fast as possible. It’s a speed run. Of course, regular Sanctuary Guard is good too, with the ability to have great power plays, while not having blasters. You just use other units like Brede. (Oh, use Richard and Miron in these two decks so you can draw more and put extra crits in the deck.) Still, these two decks I mentioned above work great, and these decks will probably be relevant for a while.

Alright, now it’s time for that one subclan: you know it, I know it, we all know it. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you,

Altmile (Brave)

Oh boy. Where do I begin? OK, let’s start with the keyword, Brave. Brave is the Royal Paladin’s keyword. It’s basically says the brave ability on a unit cannot be used until you have 3 or less cards in hand. This creates an interesting concept in Royal Paladin because on one hand, you’ll have less cards to guard with (which admittedly isn’t that much of a problem)/less cards for use, but you have access to these abilities now. Now, Altmile obviously plays around the Brave keyword, including the old one and Knight of Heavenly Decree, Altmile. They work pretty well, each having a little different style of doing things. But let’s go more into brave for a minute. The new forerunner for brave is Alectos which let’s you use a skill for counter blast 1 & putting Alectos into the soul to choose a unit and be able to use their brave skill without having a max 3 of cards (at the beginning or each battle phase). There are many combos that could be used with this, and it help if you need to keep some cards. Igraine, the new G-guardian, is capable of getting +15000 shield for a brave and soul blast (considering you have Altmile as vanguard). Hopesong angel is good brave support, when placed on vanguard or rear, being able to just call any unit out on the field with brave. Any. Alright, what I’m getting at here is that with the right power plays, brave + Altmile = Very good. 🙂 Altmile does also focus on calling grade 2’s, but that was more of thing in the past. Even so, units like Andragius and Laserguard still support things like that too, so…

Since Altmile (both of them) is the GB2 unit of the clan right now, I will except to see more support in the future and will update this promptly.

Final Conclusion

Royal Paladin is the thing right now, with Sanctuary Guards, Thing Saver, and the blasters. Even Altmile and Jewel Knights. I like to think this is the trademark clan for Bushiroad (that and gold paladin), so I’ll expect to see good things from this clan in the future. For now, it’s doing very good. One Blaster Blade/10.

Well, that’s all for now, so be sure to check out my next clan analysis when it comes out. Feel free to comment below or wherever you came from! Thanks for reading!

Special Thanks to: u/exo_ox and u/Kourin_Tatsunagi on reddit. Janus-006 on http://cardfight.wikia.com/wiki/Cardfight!!_Vanguard_Wiki.