Seekers

Hello everyone Natsu here back for another Vanguard deck profile article and this week we're going to be taking a look at Seekers, the new Royal Paladin archetype used by Kai in the beginning of the Legion Mate arc and how I decided to build the deck.

Grade 0

Advance Party Seeker File
Certain Kill Seeker, Modron x4
Seeker, Harold Breath Dragon x4
Seeker, Loving Healer x4
Margal x4

So for our triggers I went with the standard build and File as the starter in order to get a starter that can place himself back into my soul for a mid game retire and to help pay for Sing Saver's hefty soul blast cost (or at least hefty for this clan).  Like most other Seeker builds Margal is used as the draw trigger for a quick +3k to a unit for magic numbers and a +1 to soul while losing only 5k shield in the process.

Grade 1

Glynngal Seeker x4
Good Faith Seeker, Cynric x4
Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron x4
Seeker, Rune Eagle x3

My grade 1 lineup is also pretty standard for the most part with Glynngal who when boosting a Blaster Blade Seeker attack that hits lets you unflip and cycle through your cards.  Due to legion rulings if he boosts a Sing Saver in legion his skill will go off so it can add pressure to your Vanguard attacks since sometimes you can eat up counterblast in this deck quickly.  Next is Cynric who is our standard 10k grade 1 attacker to help push your opponent to high damage early on, and Shiron is our standard perfect guard.  I opted to not play Quintent Wall in this build because I feel that I already use up enough counterblast with my other cards and usually can just guard the 4 cards to my damage zone if I need to.  Lastly Rune Eagle is a 10k booster when you're in Legion so that you can hit 32k with your Sing Saver Dragon.

Grade 2

Blaster Blade Seeker x3
Romance Seeker, Cerdric x3
Crossbow Seeker, Gildas x2
Total Force Seeker, Locrinus x2

For our grade 2s due to my choice of back up Legion vanguard the variety is bigger than my normal grade 2 line ups.  First we run 3 Blaster Blade Seeker who is Sing Saver's Legion Mate and who by counterblasting 1 when he's called can retire a grade 2 or higher rear guard so long as your Vanguard is a Seeker.  Then I run Cerdric who is the 12k attacker for the Seeker archetype, for standard number pressure.  Next is Gildas who when you legion can counterblast 1 and get you ANY Seeker from your deck, which can help you gain more field presence and help push for game.  Then lastly I run 2 Locrinus who is the legion mate for Brutus (who I'll talk about later) and has a skill of being a 13k attacker during the turn you legion.

Grade 3

Seeker, Sing Saver Dragon x4
Bifurication Seeker, Brutus x4

First is Sing Saver Dragon who when in Legion can counterblast 2, soulblast 3 and discard to in order to ride another copy from
your deck at stand AND perform legion with a Blaster Blade Seeker from your soul.  The soul blast cost makes the skill a usually once per game skill, but the key with this deck is knowing when to use the skill due to royal paladin not having an efficient way to build up soul to have the skill go off more than once a game (although possible if you have the Margals for it).  Generally you'll want to use this skill in a push for game so that you can finish off your opponent.  The other grade 3 I chose to run was Brutus, his legion mate is Locrinus and his skill is by especial counterblasting 1 you can give your whole front row (the legion mate included) 3000 power.  So he alone will swing for 26k every turn unboosted which hits magic numbers against a lot of decks and since most clans will now have a legion and we're moving towards a legion meta, this only makes him an even better unit.  He can help add more pressure then Sing Saver and then you can ride Sing Saver over him to make a final push for game.

Overall this deck is a very good deck and it's very clear why it's been dominating most of Japan.  The deck has the ability of Raging Form Dragon where it holds 2 Vanguard attacks over its opponents while also at the same time is like Zerachiel where it can power up all of it's rows for high numbers to quickly drain and opponent's hand.  The only issue that this deck can have is sometimes running out of counterblast and in the hands of less experienced players not knowing the proper time to use Sing Saver's skill.

Ancient Dragon, Volcatops

Hello everyone, this is Ascriptmaster here, back with another Cardfight!! Vanguard deck profile. Today we will be focusing on a new card from Fighters' Collection 2014, Ancient Dragon, Volcatops. Volcatops diverges from most other Tachikaze aces by using its skill to give rearguards power, while other aces primarily focus on giving power to themselves. Here is a video of the deck in action.

[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (1) & Choose one of your rear-guards with "Ancient Dragon" in its card name, and retire it] Choose up to two of your rear-guards with "Ancient Dragon" in its card name, and those units get [Power]+5000 until end of turn. This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn.

[AUTO](VC):[Choose one of your rear-guards, and retire it] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of that battle.

To store up energy, and then release it. It is like how a volcano erupts.

Grade 0

Ancient Dragon, Baby Rex
4 Ancient Dragon, Ornithhealer
4 Ancient Dragon, Caudinoise
4 Ancient Dragon, Dinodile
4 Black Cannon Tiger

Grade 1

4 Ancient Dragon, Iguanogorg
4 Ancient Dragon, Paraswall
3 Sonic Noa
2 Ancient Dragon, Gattlingaro

Grade 2

4 Ancient Dragon, Beamankylo
4 Ancient Dragon, Dinocrowd
3 Ancient Dragon, Criollofall

Grade 3

4 Ancient Dragon, Volcatops
3 Ancient Dragon, Spinodriver
2 Ancient Dragon, Tyrannolegend

To start, the deck runs a full lineup of Iguanogorg and leads with Baby Rex. Both of these units are very useful because their abilities allow them to replace themselves when they are retired. Baby Rex is particularly nice because I can use Volcatops' second skill or one of my Dinocrowd to retire it and search out a Tyrannolegend, giving me an extra attack. Iguanogorg is also useful in this regard as its revival ability allows it to fulfill a role as booster for both rear-guard columns, by attacking with one column first, then attacking with Volcatops and retiring Iganogorg for its second skill.

Since Volcatops boosts rearguards instead of itself with its Limit Break, it benefits from stand triggers just as much as it does from critical triggers, as the rearguards will stand with increased power to force additional guard. I personally chose to only use 4 stands in my deck, but I recommend that you try out whatever combination of triggers that works for you.

My Grade 3 lineup focuses on Volcatops and Spinodriver as the main units to have as the Vanguard, Spinodriver being extremely useful as a Break Ride that gives criticals and draw power. The two Tyrannolegend act mainly as targets for Baby Rex, but if push comes to shove and I need to ride it, it serves decently as a Vanguard, albeit one that struggles to synergize with Stand Triggers because of its demanding Limit Break retiring 3 units.

Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion

Hello everyone, this is Ascriptmaster with another Cardfight!! Vanguard deck profile. This week focuses on Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion and its Crossride, and their abilities to quickly wipe the opposing front row as well as maintaining a crossride defense.

Grade 0

Lizard Soldier, Saishin
4 Brawler, Green Gem Carbuncle
4 Brawler, Plasma Kick Dragon
4 Malevolent Djinn
4 Spark Edge Dracokid

Grade 1

4 Eradicator Wyvern Guard, Guld
4 Certain Kill Eradicator, Ouei
4 Red River Dragoon
2 Eradicator of Fire, Kohkaiji

Grade 2

4 Demonic Dragon Berserker, Garuda
4 Dragonic Deathscythe
3 Dusty Plasma Dragon

Grade 3

4 Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion
4 Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD"

I will take on all of you at once! Vermillion Thunderbolt!

This is the final thunder.
Let’s go, Vermillion Catastrophe!

The general strategy of Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion is to forgo the Ultimate Break of the Crossride due to its restriction to 5 damage, and instead use it solely for its crossride defenses after the original's Limit Break has been used. Their aggressive style is complemented by a 12-crit lineup that uses the criticals to push the opponent into a corner. Saishin was chosen over Spark Kid Dragoon's ability to look for Grade 3 units and Djinn of Wishing Thunder's draw power because of his ability to boost for 5,000 and the potential pressure against decks whose First Vanguard remains on the field or otherwise rely on a Grade 0 for their abilities (like Cat Butler). While Brawler of Battles, Haoka's skill would allow me to retire a backrow unit alongside a frontrow unit that Vermillion retires, its nature as a Stand Trigger conflicts with Vermillion's Limit Break, which all but requires it to attack first.

For Grade 1 units I chose to opt out of using Rising Phoenix for draw power, due to Vermillion's lack of a consistent Soul engine, unlike Eradicators, and went for a fully offensive booster lineup. Red River Dragoon is a standard vanilla booster, and Kohkaiji boosts the Vanguard for 10,000. Certain Kill Eradicator, Ouei is also a nice booster whose skill is an added bonus to remove more units from the opponent's field and force them to spend resources to bring them back. While one could argue that Ouei provides a small Soul engine for Rising Phoenix, I felt that powerful boosters were more important for this particular playstyle and if Red River Dragoon were to be replaced, it would be for another booster with a good ability instead.

The remainder of the deck focuses on beatdown as well. Garuda's ability to flip damage face-up puts pressure on the opponent because of the threat of another Vermillion attack. Dragonic Deathscythe adds one more retiring option to the deck, using the last 2 Counterblast left by Vermillion to retire one last unit; while it appears counter-intuitive to include 4 copies when only one will likely be used, the increased likelihood of drawing it and the fact that it still serves as a good attacker mitigate that.