Phantom Blaster Overlord

Hello everyone, this is Ascriptmaster back with another Cardfight!! Vanguard deck profile. This time, we're looking at Phantom Blaster Dragon and its crossride, as well as how their playstyle has changed with the addition of Judgebau Revenger instead of its traditional ride chain.

Grade 0

Judgebau Revenger
4 Freezing Revenger
4 Healing Revenger
4 Grim Revenger
4 Revenger, Air Raid Dragon

Grade 1

4 Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir
3 Black Sage, Charon
3 Black-winged Swordbreaker
2 Buranbau Revenger
3 Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter

Grade 2

3 Crisis Revenger, Mana
3 Cursed Lancer
2 Darkness Maiden, Macha
2 Skull Witch, Nemain

Grade 3

4 Phantom Blaster Dragon
4 Phantom Blaster Overlord

Death and agony are my blades! Writhe in pain, Shadow Erosion!

Close your eyes. All you can see is despair.

Thanks to Judgebau Revenger, the Phantom Blasters gain an additional mid-game advantage engine by searching out two Black-winged Swordbreakers for immediate draw power. Darkness Maiden, Macha also has this function within the deck, searching out the third Swordbreaker in the deck for one more draw. Crisis Revenger, Mana and Revenger, Dark Bond Trumpeter provide quick, low-cost sacrifices for Phantom Blaster Dragon's skill. Finally, Cursed Lancers maintain pressure in the deck due to the medium-to-high Counterblast usage that the deck employs.

Another look at Silver Thorns

Hello everyone this is Natsu back for another article, this time we're going to be taking another look at Silver Thorns since the card pool has changed quite a bit since we last looked at this deck so let's see ways we can improve it from before.  I'm not going to go too into any of the units that were in the last edition of the build since I've already talked about them in a previous article which you can find in the November 2013 tab, however I will talk about how new units can help units that were previously in the deck.

G0
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Emil
Dynamite Juggler (Critical) x4
Silver Thorn Barking Dragon (Critical) x4
Silver Thorn Juggler, Nadia (Heal) x4
Silver Thorn Marionette, Natasha (Draw) x4

The triggers have stayed the exact same, although we do run an especial counterblast unit now it CAN get in the way but it's only 4 cards so it isn't too much of a big deal.  The starter however did change to Emil who is a MUCH better starter than Iorena (although Iorena is still pretty good).  Her ability is to move her to the soul to check your top 5 and then put one of each a grade 1, 2 and 3 into your soul the only limitation being is that they must be Silver Thorn units.  One of the things that makes her better though is that her cost is to move her to the soul which prevents her from getting sniped and also since this is Pale Moon allows for repeat usage of the skill.

G1
Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina x4
Silver Thorn Assistant, Zelma x4
Silver Thorn Breathing Dragon x4
Silver Thorn Hypnos, Lydia x3 (Perfect Guard)

For grade 1s the only new unit is Zelma who is essentially a Purple Trapezist for Silver Thorns which makes her too good, she's your primary grade 1 ride target and also what you'll want to grab with Marichika.  You could take out Breathing Dragon for Ana if you want since now having the card go back to the soul works well since it allows you to abuse Zelma's skill over and over again.  Zelma can also get you Emil from your soul to give you a +3 to your soul (as well as allow you to skip cross-riding your Venus or  Яeverse).  Your other main use for Zelma will be to put an Irina on your field back into your soul to call it out again to let you use it's skill.

G2
Silver Thorn Marionette, Lillian x3
Silver Thorn Rising Dragon x3
Silver Thorn Upright Lion x2
Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Marichika x2

For new units in grade 2 there's Upright Lion, everytime another Silver Thorn unit is called from your soul he gains 3k power.  He's mainly used in combination with Venus so that he'll gain 12k during the turn to give you a strong column for the turn although you can also boost him up with Zelma.  Marichika also gets a lot better as now with her skill you can use Zelma in the same way one would use Purple Trapezist of putting a unit back into your soul to re-call it out at a stood position.

G3
Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier x3
Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier x3
Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier Яeverse x2

The last new unit is Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier who is the new Luquier cross-ride.  Her ability is an especial counterblast of two to soulcharge 2 and then call up to 5 Pale Moons from you soul who's total grades equal 6 and call them to ANY RG circles.  Now one thing to remember is that the total number has to add up to 6 so ideally what you'd want to do is call 2 grade 2s and then 2 grade 1s.  Now one may think "but that already adds up to 6" but what is 6+0? 6 so you can call Emil from the skill and once again get to add 3 more cards to your soul.  This is very important because it allows you to still add to your soul and not have to worry about running out of quality soul.

Overall the new Silver Thorns are great additions to the archetype as they allow Silver Thorns to get over their main problem which was running out of quality soul and also accumulating a more massive soul.  It's also allowed the deck to take a more offensive playstyle rather than it's old playstyle of defending and being able to call out free 5k shield after free 5k shield.

Sage's Egg, Minette

Hello everyone! This is Ascriptmaster, back with another Cardfight!! Vanguard deck profile. Today, we will be covering the new Great Nature unit from Fighter's Collection 2014, a unit that combines power boosts for Rearguards with drawing cards for hand advantage. See a video of the deck here.

[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (2)] Choose one of your rear-guards, that unit gets [Power]+4000 until end of turn, and at the end of that turn, draw a card, and retire that unit.

[AUTO](VC):During your end phase, when your rear-guard is put into the drop zone, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face up.
The answer is in our hand!

Grade 0
Blackboard Parrot
4 Dictionary Goat
3 Alarm Chicken
3 Eraser Alpaca
3 Holder Hedgehog
3 Triangle Cobra

Grade 1
4 Cable Sheep
4 Coiling Duckbill
3 Tick Tock Flamingo
3 Soft Tank Sloth

Grade 2
4 Binoculus Tiger
4 Compass Lion
3 Lamp Camel Geograph Giant

Grade 3
4 Honorary Professor, Chatnoir
4 Sage's Egg, Minette

Minette's modus operandi is to grant the user sustained draw power with its Limit Break, allowing you to weather most attacks from the opponent with the heightened defensive skills. As a "grind" deck that focuses on weathering opponent attacks and shields until they fall, the inclusion of 6 Stand triggers serves to increase the pressure against the opponent and force more guard, especially from a Rearguard that has been boosted by Minette's Limit Break and Chatnoir's Break Ride Skill. Naturally, Coiling Duckbill and Blackboard Parrot also increase the amount of draw power further and multiply the amount of shields in the hand.

Although Lamp Camel (a card I used in the demonstration video), Pencil Knight, Hammsuke or Washup Raccoon would further the amount of shield given by adding an additional unit to the hand, it also uses up Counterblast, a valuable resource in a deck focused on Minette. As such, the remainder of the deck focuses on high-power attackers like Compass Lion and Geograph Giant, as well as Binoculus Tiger's ability to further boost the unit targeted by Minette's Limit Break. Furthermore, Tick Tock Flamingo and Soft Tank Sloth can flip damage face-up with their skills, allowing for repeated uses of Minette's Limit Break over a long game.

Echo of Nemesis

Hello everyone, this is Ascriptmaster back with another Cardfight!! Vanguard deck profile. This week's deck focuses on the powerful new Dark Irregular unit released in Fighter's Collection 2014 in Japan, Echo of Nemesis. Echo of Nemesis stands apart from most other high-power Vanguards because of its ability to immediately stop Sentinel units that would otherwise trivialize the need to guard. Here is a video of the deck.

[自](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):When this unit attacks, if the number of cards in your soul is ten or greater, until end of that battle, this unit gets [Power]+10000, and your opponent cannot call grade 1 or greater units to (GC) from his or her hand.

[起](VC):[Soul Blast (1 Grade 0 card)] Soul Charge (2). This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.

This too, this too, this too, this too! The rest are all mine as well!

Grade 0
Amon's Follower, Fate Collector
4 Amon's Follower, Cruel Hand
4 Amon's Follower, Hell's Trick
4 Dark Knight of Nightmareland
4 Hysteric Shirley

Grade 1
4 Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula
4 Doreen the Thruster
3 Alluring Succubus
3 Jet Black Poet, Amon

Grade 2
4 Gwynn the Ripper
4 Fatigue Succubus
3 Flirtatious Succubus

Grade 3
4 Echo of Nemesis
4 King of Masks, Dantarian

Overall, Echo of Nemesis plays like any other Dark Irregular ace unit: accumulate a high Soul and gain effects based on your Soul count. Once 10 cards are in the Soul, Echo of Nemesis' Limit Break gives it an additional 10,000 Power (similar to Demon World Marquis, Amon's skill given 10 Soul) and prevents Grade 1 or higher units from guarding when it attacks. This will instantly shut down any Sentinel hoping to catch the attack effortlessly in late game. This forces the opponent to guard with the triggers in their hand, whittling down their hand because of high-power attacks. Dantarian increases the guard that Echo of Nemesis can drain in a turn, by giving even more power to Echo of Nemesis and its booster, for at least a 20,000 Power boost. Dantarian is also a good unit for increasing the Soul every turn to reach the 10-Soul threshold.

The rest of the deck also tends to focus on high-power attacks to force guard in late game. Doreen the Thruster is especially useful once you have Echo of Nemesis, because of the latter's ability to send a Grade 0 unit from the Soul to the Drop Zone to Soulcharge 2 cards, immediately granting Doreen a 6,000 Power increase for the turn, allowing it to boost for 12,000! This is especially deadly when combined with Hysteric Shirley, whose ability places herself from the field into the Soul, as it immediately fulfills the conditions for Echo of Nemesis to use, either immediately for an inhuman amount of power, or allowing you to save the skill for later to boost Doreen again. When Dantarian is the Vanguard, Jet Black Poet, Amon fulfills the role of a powerful booster as it consistently maintains 9,000 Power during your turn, which is particularly useful when boosting a Fatigue Succubus once you have met the 10-Soul requirement.

Instead of using the arguably more reliable Emblem Master and Courting Succubus to amass Soul, I ultimately chose to rely on Alluring Succubus and Flirtatious Succubus instead at the time of recording. Without the need to hit to trigger their skills, the two Succubi have one guaranteed Soulcharge when they are called, and also give Doreen the Thruster a boost for the turn. That is not to say that the aforementioned cards are not viable; you should try it out and find out which combination works best for you.