So remember when I said last article that the UK didn’t have many major tournaments for me to play in? Well, that got thrown out the window recently when they announced a UK Shop Circuit this season, wherein the 1st place winner of each tournament would be given two byes going into Nationals; just like a GPT for Magic, only a little smaller. So having been playing for a while, of course I’m going to go to one of these to see how I stack up. Turns out, pretty well.

Like all my tournament reports, I’ll start by talking about my deck first, then the event itself. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s a quick summary: This was my first ever actual Vanguard tournament. I finished a Semi-finalist, playing Overlord (Kagero). If you want to just jump the tournament report section, click here.

Firstly, a little bit about my Vanguard history. I started the game back in BT-03. In Japanese, a friend built me a Tsukuyomi deck, which I enjoyed because having cards in hand is winning. When the game came out in English, and I found that my JP cards were no longer compatible, I sold out and focused on Magic. A few years later, just before Eradicators started causing havoc, I was brought back, and played a handful of casual games with Schwarzschild Dragon at a few Bushiroad events here and there (though I was mainly there for Weiss). Schwarzschild remains my pet deck to this day. Once the Weiss tournament season was over, so was Vanguard. Until last year, when I moved in with a friend of mine, who was a big Vanguard player. He puts the deck I’m about to show you in front of me. The rest is history.

The Deck

Grade 4 4x Supreme Heavenly Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord “The Ace” 2x Flame Emperor Dragon King, Root Flare Dragon 2x Transcendence Divine Dragon, Nouvelle Vague L’Express 2x Supreme Heavenly Emperor Dragon, Vortex Desire 1x Flame Emperor Dragon King, Iresist Dragon 2x Flame Emperor Dragon King, Asyl Orb Dragon 1x Dark Element, Dizmel 1x Metal Element, Scryew 1x Air Element, Sebreeze Grade 3 4x Dragonic Overlord, “The X” 3x Dragonic Overlord, “The End” 2x Dragonic Overlord, “The Legend” Grade 2 1x Emperor Dragon Knight, Nehalem 2x Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame 3x Dragonic Burnout 4x Armor of the Flame Dragon, Bahr Grade 1 3x Lizard General, Conroe 2x Calamity Tower Wyvern 4x Dragon Dancer Maria 2x Lava Flow Dragon 2x Lizard Soldier Bellog Grade 0 1x Lizard Hero, Undeux 1x Lizard Soldier, Conroe 4x Gatling Claw Dragon 4x Heal Triggers 8x Critical Triggers I played unique triggers, so I won’t actually name all of them.

First, a discussion on the deck itself and the relevant choices made.

Even though Grade 0 Conroe is banned as a starter (and for damn good reason), having him in the deck is still extremely useful for a variety of reasons; deck thinning, fetching needed pieces, filling up drop zone for Legion, etc. The first iteration of this deck had a lot more singleton G1s; one Twitterun, one Tahr, one Gaias, and one Heatnail Salamander. Being fetchable with Conroe made it more value to play one-ofs, but as time went on, they ended up being cut because they just weren’t good enough. Conroe always stayed though, just because of the utility he brings.

Speaking of Tahr, some may be surprised he’s not here. Don’t get me wrong, I really like it, but I feel that it’s just not good enough to warrant the space. To be brutally honest, 90% of the time Tahr is just there to ride so that I can keep the rest of my G1s open for use elsewhere. Tahr only really shines when we get to late-game, and your only recourse is to deck your opponent out; having that repeatable soul-blast makes it easier to force deck-outs using The X Legion loop. In case anyone is interested, the “loop” is thus, assuming you are currently in Legion:

Ride The X. Your soul is now at least The X and The End. Activate Tahr, giving The X +4000 power, soulblasting The X. Declare Legion using The X, Conroe, and whatever else you need (Perfect Guards, heal triggers). Do not seek mate, even if you still have them left in deck. Attack with The X, using Tahr’s skill to check the top five cards of your deck for another copy of The X. You now have 1 more card in your deck than you started the turn with, assuming you grabbed The X off Tahr’s skill, otherwise you have 2 more. Repeat, using Conroe to unflip damage as necessary.

This was the only scenario where Tahr was actually very good, and I didn’t feel he warranted it enough of the time.

Dragon Dancer Maria, while very pretty, ended up actually being a liability. At this point, with The Legend being able to search for Flame Dragons, there’s no reason to not run either Protect Orb Dragon, Seal Dragon, Rinocross, or Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon.

The Grade 2 lineup may seem a bit strange, especially 4x Bahr and only 1x Nehalem. Again, Nehalem was underwhelming unless you rode him; realistically active only during The Ace or The Legend turns. While a 16k/11k attacker unboosted is okay, I feel that Kagero is a much more defensive, slow-pressure clan than people tend to remember (it’s not just Overlords and Restanding). Bahr is much better for this, as he not only recycles Overlords from the drop zone, but he’s also a 15k interceptor, which with G-Guardians, is worth so much. In fact, I survived a Gilles de Rais turn by guarding with Scryew, discarding an Overlord, then intercepting with Bahr, using the Overlord I just discarded.

Speaking of Grade 2s, the fact that Neoflame is still good enough to warrant playing made me very sad to be cutting The Great; he is far and away the cheapest restand effect; Counterblast 1 and discard two cards, so you stay card neutral. In fact, I would go as far as to say there’s almost no drawbacks to The Great. So why did I replace my 2x The Great with 2x The Legend? Because I found that very rarely were games going far enough to the point where I needed to be able to consistently Legion, and if it came to attacking rear guards, I’d rather have the extra power and the extra drive check of The Legend because it applies more pressure. While he requires a bit more to get going, the pay-off is greater earlier, whereas The Great is more consistent throughout the late-game. In short, I needed to shore up my early play, which The Great isn’t that good for.

Having Bellog and Bahr does huge amounts of wonders for your defensive capabilities, and when Defeat Flare and Denial Griffin eventually release, I honestly believe Kagero will be one of the best defensive clans in the game. The previously “weak” matchups of Pale Moon, Aqua Force, and Nova Grapplers will be a lot easier now that you can shatter their setup in their turn. I think people look too much on the retiring aspect for pressure, whereas you really need The Ace to maintain hand advantage over your opponent (The Ace is card neutral, but your opponent has to drop a lot of cards or risk losing), whereas retiring their units is more of a defensive play (so you can intercept with Burnout, or not get swung at by a 21k column).

People seem to rate Kagero as a low tier deck. While I can see why and agree to an extent, I believe it’s a lot more about how you play the deck. The flexibility and the consistency that The X gives you is unparalleled; I noticed a lot of games throughout the day that my opponents just lost because they didn’t have enough resources or couldn’t find a certain piece of their engine. While the only cards in GBT-07 that impress me are the G4s, I think that a proper pilot can definitely find success. A defensive clan that can still apply pressure with a restanding Vanguard? When you put it that way, I don’t see how that can possibly be low tier.

The Event

So, onto the tournament itself. This was a very last-minute sort of deal; I’ve been a long-time loyal customer for Chimera, despite living on almost the other side of the country. Blair has always been excellent for Weiss events, and I figured now that I play Vanguard, I should continue giving him my money. While most of my Vanguard group were busy with work or MCM this weekend, Felix was available and he definitely needed the day off. So off we went, on a 7am train, ready to spend lots of money on sleeves and other product. We got there on time to browse wares and sign up. I didn’t really bother scoping the field, as there were only 38 people, and I figured I’d only need to care once we got to Round 3. Even though I had only been playing for half a year, I was still very confident in my ability, based on the skill level of the people I had been learning against, and from my experience in other card games, so this tournament was a great first test of whether or not I was a cocky bastard.

The tournament ran excellently and without a hitch barring a minor pairings error in Round 4 (which was quickly remedied). Once again, shout out to Steffi and Blair for a great day. Without further ado, the rounds themselves.

Round 1: vs Neo Nectar Musketeers

My opponent was a super nice guy, and it was clear he chose this build because he knew what he was doing. While I was more prepared for the Bloom combos with insane columns, he had a much better early game rush, which left me low on cards, forcing me to aggressively stride. The game was very back and forth, but as Vortex Desire and Root Flare came at him, he started running out of steam. Eventually, I decided to be a bit greedy and see whether or not Nouvelle Vague L’Express would get through, even though he was only on 4 damage. He goes for a 2-pass, and drive check a crit and a draw. A bit of a cheesy win, but that’s why Nouvelle Vague is there.

1-0

Round 2: vs Gear Chronicle

A very regular Chronojet deck; not a lot to say. GBT-07 will be kind, but even so, there were no major problems. I think he felt like he could put more pressure on me than I could to him, so he ended up committing a lot of resources to put me on the back foot, which in turn set me up nicely for Root Flares and The Legend. One Nextage later, and I knew he didn’t have enough triggers to finish me off, so there I was on 5 damage and The Ace ready to go, there he was on 4 damage with almost nothing in hand or in play.

2-0

Round 3: vs Dark Irregulars

He started with Amon, which I found interesting, but after Gatling Claw took out his starter, he committed hard to the Blade Wing route, which I can understand. Early game was not kind to him, with me hitting crit after crit, but as the game went on, I started drawing more triggers and less actual cards, meaning I could guard forever against Gilles de Rais (and I did indeed survive two back-to-back GDR turns), but I just couldn’t stride or push to The Legend. It came down very close, with him burning almost everything to push my hand down to zero, but I knew that if I kept going for the defensive play, Tibold would stop me from clawing back the advantage. The only option was to go aggro and try to force the damage through, which just wasn’t happening with only The X-End.

I believe that Dark Irregulars – Kagero is an extremely skill-intensive matchup, but played correctly, it can be a lot of fun; both decks rely on generating advantage from their Vanguard in different ways, and they seem to reflect each other nicely; while I was able to continually shoot down all of this rear guards, it actually wasn’t in my best interests to do so, because I needed more to conserve pieces for either striding (for more aggressive pressure) or for guarding heavily against Tibold or Gilles de Rais. Conversely, my opponent was pressured into committing more resources to play in order to stop me from having free rein and doing as I liked, which meant that if I was able to dig into any aggressive piece, he would have a harder time defending.

2-1

Round 4: vs Neo Nectar – Arboris/Ahsha

My opponent ended up missing the ride chain at G1, which was unfortunate, so I wasn’t expecting much. Her draws were not much better, and any attempts to recover were shot down pretty hard. I got to G-Guardian early, which lead to a first-stride Root Flare. While her columns were nowhere near as scary as the Bloom Combo turns that Neo Nectar may be used to, she was able to continue putting up a fight with Thurias and Ahsha. The only issue being that she was never able to fully make use of Ahsha’s stride skill, because she was always starting the turn with an empty field (The Legend + Neoflame will do that). I actually struggled to even end with The Ace, because she wasn’t able to push enough damage to me, meaning I had to wait a turn before I could even pay for The Ace’s counterblast. That said, even in that time, she was never able to fully recover.

3-1

Round 5: vs Dark Irregulars

Another Blade Wing. This time, her deck was much more streamlined, and she was a lot more aware of how to play the matchup, making it very difficult for me to pull ahead early. Fortunately, I was drawing lots of gas and didn’t need to Legion at all until later on, with The Ace and Root Flare doing a lot of the work. She didn’t want to let either Vortex Desire hit, giving me a bit of a lead, but I knew I couldn’t rely on it for long, because Blade Wing Tibold would push the game into very late territory if I didn’t finish quickly. L’Express drew out her G-Guardians and forced her into earlier Tibolds, which was helpful, but I knew she had 2 more left.

The match came to time, and it was a very long and drawn out process. The best she could do was continue to throw Gilles de Rais at me while sitting behind Sullivan, so I knew that there was no way The End was hitting, and I didn’t have a lot of resources left for The Legend (not to mention the fact that I was dangerously close to deck out myself). I ended up having to go for the defensive play because I knew there was no way I was getting her to 6 damage; my only hope was that she would exhaust her Tibolds quickly, given how large her soul was (I believe 21 cards at one point). Of course, 5 turns finished, and because I had Legioned back heal triggers, I ended up winning on the less damage. While I did feel a little bad about winning on rules technicality, I suppose in future it’s up to me to abuse that in the rule set. She was a very good sport about it though, and even agreed that the fact that the game went on for that long attested to how good a game that was. I would say that was the highlight of the day; a true test of skill between two players who really knew how to maximise their decks.

4-1

Round 6: vs Aqua Force Thavas

I’m not convinced about the deck build itself; he put a lot of emphasis on high aggro, which gave me the opportunity to set up to wreck his board; combined with early crits and the fact that he almost missed a G-Assist, most signs would have pointed to a positive outcome. I think what happened here is that I got a bit too cocky and ended up mis-guarding his rear-guard attacks, which is weird because I have almost limitless experience playing against and knowing how to survive Lambros attacks. He ended up not giving me a lot of leeway, and I wasn’t able to find that many cards, so I wasn’t able to put counter-pressure on using The Ace or L’Express. In the end, I lost to the fact that I just didn’t respect what his deck was capable of (“He doesn’t have as much hand size as Ripples, I’ll be fine”) and failed to respond properly.

4-2 at the end of swiss

After all is said and done, however, my tiebreakers were very good; after all, I lost to the only X-0 in the room, and the other player I lost to was also set to make Top 8 if he won his round, so I was feeling fairly good about my chances. I ended up squeezing in as the 6th Seed going to Top 8. To be honest, I was extremely happy to have made it this far, so anything else would have been a bonus. I cleared my head, knowing there was a chance that I could be headed to Nationals this quickly and focused. I had been playing well up to now, and didn’t want to let it get to me.

Quarterfinals: vs Bermuda Triangle (Nemuel)

Rocky starts for both of us; I G-Assisted at Level 1, he G-Assists at Level 2. This becomes relevant, because I end up G-Assisting a Calamity Tower Wyvern, he G-Assists one of his Nemuels.

The game is very back-and-forth; he sets up his combos and is drawing cards forever, but at the same time, can’t actually stick any damage on me because the second he commits, he loses his field and the game. He picks up some heal triggers, which keeps him in it, especially after I throw Vortex Desire at his face. I removed two of my The Ace for G-Assist, which made me stride a lot more gingerly, as I suddenly didn’t have the one-two mega-pressure I would usually have. I know Bermuda well (even though I play a slightly different deck), so I know that there’s zero way I’m winning the late-game if he sets up his Nemuel loop. I push him until he only has a few cards left in deck, and he starts evaluating whether or not he can loop. We spend about 2-3 minutes hypothesizing about what’s left in his deck, what he drive checks, and whether I can guard or not, until we realize; his last Nemuel was G-Assisted. At that point, he says that it’s impossible for him to not deck-out, I show him The Legend, and he concedes. It was an extremely tight game up to that point, with neither player wanting to give an inch in any direction; I found myself almost wanting to play Burnout with no targets just so I could put The End back on the bottom of deck as a Legion target and soul-blast my The Legend for later use.

Through to Semifinals

Semifinals: vs Tachikaze

This was a tougher game; again, I had failed to draw gas, which made it a lot harder to guard his columns. Gluttony Dogma wasn’t a huge issue; it’s not like it gains crit, and I could safely take some damage. Gaia Emperor kept him good on cards, which meant that there was no need for me to aggressively retire his units; it was in my interest to be the one controlling the momentum, which was a hard task, but not impossible. I think I should have committed to The Legend earlier than I did, instead of relying on The Ace or L’Express. I ended up having to let too much damage through in order to maintain resources to go back on the offensive with, and by the time I was ready to give up everything to stay alive, I had basically nothing left. It was a well-fought game, and he knew to attack Bahr all the time; I should have let Bahr die much earlier, as I should have known that I wasn’t going for a late-game strategy here. Defeat Flare and Denial Griffin would have been a lot stronger in this match-up, thus preventing him from using any of his high-end payoff cards. In the end, I placed too much value on slow, defensive play, which shows one of Kagero’s few weaknesses; an inability to truly take a commanding position in the game.

Knocked out of Top 8, end of tournament

The Wrap-Up

Overall, I’m still very happy with how I ended up; Top 4 finish for my first major tournament. Travelling up to Chimera is always an arduous task, but it’s usually worth it. While I didn’t get to trade for those Aurageysers I needed, I picked up a good handful of sleeves, and a box of WX-10 Chained Selector. No Dragon Extinguishing Chain, sadly, but I did get a Tarot Hanayo and a Tamayorihime Five, The Flame, so those are very playable. I also got a lot more experience in a tournament setting, which is always good; definitely learned some things about my personal playstyle and how I can maximise my deck’s efficiency.

A few interesting notes; didn’t see anybody playing Royals, which is interesting, given how good the Blaster Engine is, plus the fact that G-Guardians mean you can first stride Altmile is insane. Also low representation from Angel Feather, though the fact that Lifros will (hopefully) be restricted in EN soon might have something to do with that. More Dark Irregulars than I was expecting, but the meta was still interesting enough to make me have to think a bit.

Overall, the bar was set high for Vanguard tournaments, and I can only hope that I’ll enjoy the future ones this much, if not more. At the very least, here’s hoping my results will be at least as good! Here’s to more tournaments in the future.

~ Z