Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Card of the Week: Extreme Battler Malyaki



Today’s Card of the Week is Maruyaki! It may just be a rare, but it’s vital to any Victor Nova Grapper Deck! Maruyaki’s skill is:

 [CONT](RC) Generation Break 1:If you have a vanguard with "Victor" in its card name, all of your other units in the same column as this unit get "Rush-[AUTO](VC/RC):When this unit [Stand] due to an effect from one of your cards, until end of turn, this unit gets "[AUTO](VC/RC):When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose up to two of your units, and they get [Power]+4000 until end of turn.".".

He requires a Victor Vanguard so unfortunately it doesn’t work in any other Nova deck. The most important thing to take from this card is that it isn’t 1/Turn, which means this card’s skill STACKS ANY and EVERY time a unit in the same column as Malyaki stands you get to proc skill. Let me build you a scenario: You have Sazanda and Maruyaki in one column, Cool Hank and Rumbol in the other and Meteokaiser Victor on Extreme Battler Victor heart. Swing Sazanda with Malyaki first (16k), next week Cool Hank with Rumbol (14k) use Cool Hanks skill to re-stand Sazanda and proc Malyaki’s skill. Sazanda swings again (23k) gives +4k to Sazanda and Cool Hank. Swing with Meteokaiser Victor(26k), use both Victor’s skill to re-stand Sazanda and Cool Hank (as well as Rumbol) and proc Malyaki’s skill again. REMEMBER HIS SKILL STACKS! When Sazanda swings for the third time he can allocate +4k to two units, TWICE! So swing with Sazanda (41k) and give +8k to Sazanda and Cool Hank, and finally swing with Cool Hank and Rumbol (29k). That’s 105k to guard everything assuming no triggers were hit! During the turn, Malyaki gave +24k, all for free! This card is ridiculously good and needs to be in any Extreme Battler Deck. There isn’t anything I can think of that would make this design any better, the flavor of this card meshes so well with the Nova Grappler theme and gives them the power they need to push for games. A job well done Bushiroad: 10/10.   

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Chaos Breaker Dragon: why we love him, hate him, and why he's so important to the Meta




Greetings Cardfighters! This week I wanted to talk about the Chaos Breaker Dragon Deck or CBD for short. It is extremely controlling and can be difficult at times to read your opponent and make the right plays. It combines the powerful Lock mechanic with retiring units and drawing cards making it one of the scariest decks to play against in this current Meta. Link Joker had two major flaws with their clan. One: You could rush them early and they would have a hard time coming back and Two: You could leave open rearguard circles and not let them lock those spots. CBD answers both of those problems. With many decks taking advantage of Generation Break, it makes units that don’t have that requirement “fast”, this also applies to CBD and with Charcoal you don’t have to worry about getting to four damage. With Chaos Universe you can force your opponents to play cards and force commitment on your terms. In the next few paragraphs I’m going to talk about why people love and hate this deck, and why it’s so important to the Meta of Vanguard. Let’s look at my teammate Hebi’s Deck:

G4:
1x Genesis Dragon, Amnesty Messiah
2x Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch Dragon
4x Death Star-vader, Chaos Universe
1x Genesis Dragon, Judgement Messiah

G3:
4x Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon
2xStar-vader, Chaosbringer
2xStar-vader, Garnet Star Dragon

G2:
4x Companion Star Star-vader, Photon
Carbon makes the deck buttery smooth
4x Star-vader, Colony Maker
3x Disorder Star-vader, Iron

G1:
4x Flowers in Vacuum, Cosmo Wreath
3x Turmoil Star-vader, Zinc
3x Star-vader, Volt Line
2x Eclipse Star-vader, Charcoal
2x Destiny Dealer

G0:
1x Involution Star-vader, Carbon
4x Star-vader, Paradigm Shift Dragon
8x Star Vader Crits
4x Star Vader Heals






Why People Love CBD

I would say that majority of people who love CBD are people who play it. While I personally don’t play CBD I think it’s a fun deck to play against because it makes you think about the entire game. You know that come turn 4-5 your entire front row will be locked, so how do you deal with that situation? Do you rush early or do you hold your cards and weather the storm? It becomes much more tactical because you are forced to play their way. Another big reason why people love CBD is because it slowed the game down tremendously due to CBD’s ability to lock pre-GB and make early rush decks pay dearly, which means they need to think twice before flooding the field. It also has its own drawing engine which also retires allowing players to be aggressive and more critical triggers. 





Why People Hate CBD

Majority of these people are probably rearguard dependent players such as Nova Grappler, Aqua Force and Great Nature. They think that CBD muddles the game considerably and creates a game that is too slow and boring. CBD forces you to play their game and because they have such an efficient engine and is very consistent, it leaves very little room to counter play during the game and makes for very stale Vanguard play. People get upset that Link Joker as a whole makes it difficult to execute their plays to the full extent, CBD just takes it to another level. I play Messiahs and I can tell you that I’ve had my fair share of salty players and people who get frustrated because they “can’t do anything”.



Why CBD is important

The single most important reason is due to the slowing of the Meta. By reducing the pace of the game, it gives many other decks a chance to participate. With extremely fast decks like Regaile, games would be over within the first or second stride. How are decks with GB3 strides or GB2 bosses supposed to compete with that? The second reason why CBD existence is good for Vanguard is the closing of the Meta Triangle. Before CBD, rearguard dependent decks would run amuck and aside from The X, there wasn’t a really good competitive control deck. The CBD shift also causes a rise in Vanguard-centric decks because they can combat CBD better and also because there is less rush decks in tourneys. This creates a Meta Triangle where each deck has a weakness and advantage over the other two. People now have to seriously think about what decks to bring to tourneys because the counter-pick is very much alive. Either that or just play with whatever you feel comfortable with because there isn’t a right or wrong answer anymore. And that my friends is a sign of healthy Meta.

~kooj out

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Card of the Week: Wink-Killer Misery





What’s up Cardfighters! Hope everyone is having a good week. 
Our Card of the Week is Wink-Killer Misery! She is the Amber Clone for Spike Brothers and definite Waifu material, her skill is:

[AUTO](RC) Generation Break 1 :[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a card from your hand, and put it into your soul] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if this unit is boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one card not named "Wink-killer Misery", call it to an open (RC), shuffle your deck, and that unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.

Her skill is very basic and is exactly what G-Spike Brothers needed. You can extend combos, tutor the correct units onto the field and build soul. One thing to note the unit called by this effect stays on the field permanently and also gets +5k which makes good numbers. With (Bulldozer Dobe) you can make 26k by himself. She is a must of in any G-Spike deck and even warrants merit in Bloody/End Decks. 8/10

Tuesday, March 8, 2016




What’s up Cardfighters! This week I wanted to discuss the results from Sakura VGCS in Japan that has been stirring up the Meta talk amongst the community. It’s really exciting to see what Japan brings to the table because most of the time it’s fresh decks and brings lots of hype across to the West. First off here’s the results:


Top 16 Decklist for Sakura VGCS:
Top 4:
1st - Royal Paladin (Thing Blaster)
2nd - Royal Paladin (Thing Blaster)
3rd - Shadow Paladin (Revengers)
4th - Gear Chronicle

Top 8:
Royal Paladin (SGD)
Gear Chronicle
Granblue (Nightrose)
Link Joker (Glendios)
Top 16
Link Joker (Chaos Breaker Messiah)
Link Joker (Chaos Breaker Messiah)
Bermuda Triangle (Duo Nemuel)
Royal Paladin (Thing Blaster)
Royal Paladin (Thing Blaster)
Royal Paladin (SGD)
Royal Paladin (Seeker)
Aqua Force (Ripple)

As you can see the event was primarily dominated by Royal Paladin with majority of them being of the Blaster. It’s strange seeing only one Revenger deck (even though he did top 3) and one Aqua Force (oddly enough being Ripples). I understand the high placements of Control Decks like Gear Chronicle and Link Joker because there are so many rear guard dependent decks topping, but the absence of Brawlers and Blue Wave was a little surprising. I’ve been toying with CBD/Messiah as well because it’s really useful to force-lock cards in the Messiahs although I think it’s sub-optimal, I’ll watch a few matches before I make my decision. It’s hard to tell what is going to translate to the US from Japan because they come up with wacky stuff and sometimes it just doesn’t catch on like Chatnoir/Testerfox even though that’s a killer deck. However the Royal Paladin hype has already hit the U.S. with MLB and Soul Saver reaching crazy prices, which means that people believe in the Blaster deck and rightfully so because they’re extremely potent and going to be around for a while. Let’s look at the Royal and Shadow Paladin decks that topped:

Thing Blaster:
G Units:
2x Holy Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon
2x Holy Dragon, Religious Soul Saver
2x Aerial Divine Knight, Altmile
1x Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
1x Rain Element, Madew

Grade 3:
4x Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
1x Blue Sky Knight, Altmile
1x Majesty Lord Blaster

Grade 2:
4x Favorite Disciple of Light and Darkness, Llew
4x Blaster Blade
3x Blaster Blade Seeker
1x Blaster Blade Spirit
1x Blaster Dark

Grade 1:
4x Laurel Knight, Sicilus
4x Blaster Friend, Barcgal
4x Holy Knight Guardian
2x Swordsman of Light, Blaster Rapier Laura

Grade 0:
8x Crit (4x Floral Paladin, Flogal)
4x Margal
4x Heal
1x Wingal Brave


I really like the design for this deck because it plays much like an OTK deck. It goal for this deck is to use MLB to stack soul by adding all the Blasters on the field and gain extra power. When you have enough CB you go into Thing Saver Dragon and you are able to swing 3-4 times with VG. It is extremely efficient and very deadly because there isn’t much the opponent can do to counter or control this deck. If you do decide to stride you have a plethora of options from on-hit pressure to extra crits. I asked my teammate Hebi on his take of Blaster Thing:

Recently in Japan the release of G-Set 6 was released. The set gave incredible blaster support for Royal Paladins. The Royal Pally builds coming out of this set has been utilizing this support with the classic Thing Saver Dragon deck. Thing Saver Dragon needs huge soul to be able to restand multiple times and the new blaster support makes it easy to build soul and at the same time put a body onto the board. The new Llew lets you grab a blaster blade after attacking and goes into soul further fueling Thing Saver while also calling a unit for another attack! You can easily pull off triple Thing Saver in one turn! What makes Thing Saver shine even better is that at the moment there has been a rise of Link Joker, Chaos and Messiah decks just got support in the last G-Set and have been showing very positive results. Royals as a clan has a difficult match up against link joker, however Thing Saver is good against Link Joker because it can function through Vanguard alone. It has the ability to restand and has access to Soul Saver Stride, which gives a critical as a quick first stride. Most people let first stride hit, but if someone is swinging for an automatic 2 damage before triggers, they are more than likely going to dump hand to guard this first stride. Sanctuary Guard is definitely still strong, but just a lot more difficult to function if you have no columns. So if the front row is locked, Sanc Guard is essentially a vanilla stride. Although, there are some crazy heavy cb combos in the new SGD deck that I will definitely put together when new set comes out and it’s going to be nuts, it will definitely be harder to pull off because of the great number of control decks being played in this current meta.

The other deck I wanted to talk about is the Revenger deck that topped:

G Units:
4x Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo"
2x Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon
1x True Revenger, Dragruler Revenant
1x Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Doomed

Grade 3:
4x Revenger, Raging Form Dragon
3x Revenger, Phantom Blaster "Abyss"

Grade 2:
4x Wily Revenger, Mana
4x Blaster Dark Revenger "Abyss"
4x Revenger, Dark Breath Angel

Grade 1:
4x Dark Revenger, Mac Lir
4x Vigor Revenger, Maul
4x Tempting Revenger, Finegas
2x Transient Revenger, Masquerade

Grade 0:
8x Crit (Revenger)
4x Draw (Revenger)
4x Heal (Revenger)
1x Judgebau Revenger

When I first saw this decklist I thought that this guy topping was a fluke. He played a deck that nobody really talked about with Raging Form Dragon and Abyss plus he was the only Shadow Paladin player to be in Top 16. But the more I discuss this deck with my teammate Hebi and the more I ran some simulations, I came to the conclusion that this deck is actually extremely dangerous. Its goals are pretty similar as Thing Saver in that you want to set up for a huge, multiple swing VG turn. The biggest difference is that this deck doesn’t have to wait for soul therefore you can get your combo off earlier. This form of Revengers is much more balls to the wall because you are sacrificing your entire field to swing 2-4 times with your VG and hopefully kill your opponent that turn, or at least whittle them down for an Abyss or Diablo turn. With Dark Breath Angel and Mana tutoring any G1 in the deck means that you will always have LB4 available and you will have enough Raging Forms in your hand thanks to Maul’s skill. With 3CB and a full board you can easily swing Raging Form three times. That’s 6 drive checks with no Laurel! I really like make or break decks so when GBT06 gets released this is the first decks I’m revising, I am super hyped for Raging Form!

It’s an exciting time of season due to all the tournaments being held both in Japan as well as here with Springfest. I am certain we are going to get a well diverse group of tops this year with many people experimenting not only with different clans, but different ratios of sub-clans also. SackSquad will be attending Springfest in Anaheim so be sure to say hi, we’d be happy to talk Vanguard with you! See y’all next week




~kooj out

Sunday, February 28, 2016

COTW: Absolute Ruler, Gluttony Dogma!



This week’s COTW is Dogma! He is the new stride for Tachikaze and is hands down the best stride of the clan. His skill is if you Engorge three units he gains 10k and another skill: if he has engorge five units he can restand himself with -1 Drive Check. If you like Nextage, then you’re definitely gonna love this guy. He synergizes will with Gaia Emperor and Ancient Dragons extremely well because they are able to call units back to the field so you really don’t minus on those turns. You can also swing with your rearguards before you Engorge as well as after you call them back. If you can manage a full field for two consecutive Dogma turns, you should win majority of your games much like Nextage. Four copies of him is a must in any Tachikaze deck because one: there isn’t really much else and two: he’s actually a pretty good restanding stride. 8/10

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Why is Moonlit Dragonfang so bad?!

With the rest of GBT06 being revealed due to the release in Japan this week, lots of people the community is hyped including myself. However I wanted to do somewhat of a rant of its ugly older brother: GBT05. Many considered this set to be the weakest of all the G sets and for good reason. What makes a set strong is the playability of the clans it supports. For example GBT04 was considered a strong set because it revived Angel Feather (pun intended), updated Genesis and made Megacolony the pain it is today. On top of that it gave us Nextage which is a mandatory stride in every competitive GC deck. In GBT05 there were very few cards that were worth playing, one obviously being Chaos Universe and the support for Chaos Breaker Dragon. Other noteworthy cards are Nightmare Doll Catherine which is the best version of Pale Moon even though G-Era Pale Moon received majority of the support. Excelics Messiah is easily the best stride for Messiahs but it requires 3 GRs to play, at least they got some decent support with their Messiah G2,G1 and crit. Gear Chronicle seemed like just a toss in, but they got Colossus Monarch which is extremely good if you can fit it in your stride zone. Narukami was pretty darn weak with Erradicator and Vanquisher support, nothing worth going out of your way to play. And the OTT stuff was so meh in comparison to the older support including KamuSusanoo who is a complete joke. What made this set worse was the rarity of these cards because most of the RR and RRR is garbage! Why would they make Clockfencer Dragon a RRR?! During my sneak peek kit opening I pulled: Chaos Universe, KamuSusanoo, 2x Clockfencer Dragon, Voltage and Gauntlet Buster. I was so disappointed that I wasted 150 bucks on cards not even worth 1/3 of what I paid. So moral of the story is unless you are going to be playing all the clans or have a team that can split the cost, don’t bother buying packs. Sure it’s fun and you might get lucky but if you’re on a budget like most of the world, save yourself the disappointment and go straight to TCGPlayer. Just make sure you buy ‘em a couple weeks after the release so the hype dies down. Even though Bushiroad completely ripped me off, I am still going to be splitting GBT06 boxes with the rest of SackSquad because all the clans in this set are going to be played and this set looks very strong. So keep an eye on our Youtube channel next month for that unboxing!

Monday, February 15, 2016

DOUBLE HEADER COTW: Rikudo Stealth Dragon, Tsukumorakan!






This week we have a double header for COTW! Today’s card is Rikudo Dragon Tsukumorakan from the new Tech Booster: Reckless Rampage! His skill is when he’s placed on VG: CB2 and flip any card up from your G-Zone. Then your opponent chooses 4 cards to keep in their hand, the rest gets binded face down and returned to hand at the end of turn. Tsukumorakan is a very powerful card and is just the type of finisher Nubatama needs. In combination with Shiranui’s on stride skill you can whittle the hand down to three cards and one less interceptor; and for each Miyabi column that you are able to fulfill the requirements, you would take an additional card. It’s very difficult guarding with restrictions such as Silent Tom and Glory Maelstrom, but if you can’t guard because you have no hand is a nightmare. I like the design of this card because it gives you the “comeback” factor for it doesn’t matter how much hand advantage you opponent has, all you need is a couple good swings. I also like that Tsukumorakan is a G flip rather than a persona flip because it gives you flexibility in your G Zone (also your wallet). 9/10

COTW: Darkside Princess


Today's COTW is: Darkside Princess! Pale Moon has waned in comparison to other clans because of the limited amount of cards and also due to GBT-05 being so weak. Aside from having below average strides, many problems stem from their random soul-charging. However if you can get quality soul early they can be very deadly with high columns and multiple swings. Enter: Darkside Princess. Her skill is when she attacks a VG you can give her +5k and at the end of the battle she goes into the soul. It’s super simple yet very efficient for making 21k columns, 26k with Intensely Sweet Clown. Her offset skill to go back into the soul doesn’t hurt the deck because most of the Pale Moon cards have Magica anyway so she would have to return to the soul regardless. Also in situations with the GR Harri she can be very deadly by swinging for 26k twice with one column. Darkside Princess is a staple if you combo your attacks with Purple Trapezist/Midnight Bunny. She is also not GB restricted which means you can use her for an early push or if you are running 8k guy. This card deserves 4 spots in any G Pale Moon deck for the utility and power it gives to columns. 8/10

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Reviewing Reckless Rampage!

Today I wanted to talk about the new Technical Booster how the new support is going to effect the Meta. Reckless Rampage is a special booster in that it specifically supports Tachikaze, Nubatama and Spike Bros. First I want to congratulate Bushi on a job well done with giving crowd-favorite clans some much needed love because they holda specail place in people's hearts, Tachi and Spikes specifically. All three clans were mostly considered the underdogs against majority of the cast, but with  new support they now have a chance to compete and maybe even hold a place in the Meta.  Although each clan currently has a specific sub-clans that somewhat work in the meta now, I will be mixing both old support with new G-Era support in my discussion:



Tachikaze:

Dinos have always been a fan favorite among the Vanguard community. Ancient Dragons were cool with their additional crits, however having only on-hit effects made them obsolete. They now have an endless breakride combo with Spinodriver and Spinocommadner giving them pressure, hand advantage and the threat of always being able to stride. Historically Tachi strides were so terrible people were forced to stay on legion, but now they have much more powerful strides to get ridiculously explosive turns(I’m looking at you Gluttony Dogma). In the past, Tachikaze's gimmick of retiring their own units to get more powerful effects had paled in comparison to Shadow Paladin because it wasn’t as efficient and on-hit skills are too inconsistent. Now they have very dangerous turns with Engorge setups and can continue to keep board presence with Gaia’s skill calling rearguards back. I think of all the three clans, Tachikaze is going to be the most popular by a huge margin due to its artwork appeal and seriously: who doesn’t like Dinosaurs?! 


Spike Brothers:

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL! Spike Bros were probably the most competitive clan before the Tech Booster with their deadly Bad End/Legion combo that could end any game in one turn. Now they have the new Charge mechanic which allows them to get multiple swings in the same column because they can replace each other with superior calling from the deck. The breakride deck is pretty tight on room and aside from the LB remover, I don’t see that deck changing much. However the new G-Era deck featuring Rising Nova and Dirty Picaro can be just as deadly with their multiple swings; I’ve done some simulation and its plausible to get 6-8 attacks in a turn. They also have some of the best G2's with Wink-Killer Misery and Axe Diver creating multiple columns a turn. The new G-Era deck is less reliant on getting combo pieces and is better balanced, however it is extremely GB reliant like most G-Era decks so we’ll see how it fairs among the Meta. I think they will do well due to the fact they can tutor their units from the deck and they don't rely on board presence. 






Nubatama:

Easily the most delicate of the group, probably in the entire game because one small tweak can completely change the complexion of the clan. A lot of people suspected that Bushiroad didn’t want to meddle with Nubatama because of how powerful the discard mechanic is. Because if Bushi made them too powerful then Nubatama would dominate the Meta making the game very stale, however if they made them too weak  there would be an outcry in the community. I feel like they cut Nubatama’s power just slightly in comparison to the other two clans by giving them multiple requirements, but not an excessive amount so that they can still compete. They put tons of pressure and they force you to play their game much like Link Joker. With having the Afterimage ability you can expect a full board of swinging rearguards each turn because they can swing and still maintain hand. Lots of people fear the Shiranui/Tsukumorakan turn because you are forced to guard with only three cards, maybe two if Miyabi hits! With probably one of the best finishers in the game, Nubatama will definitely be around as an Anti-Meta deck similar to Megacolony. I don't know if you'll see this deck top, but you will definitely see this deck in tourneys just to ruin competitors hopes and dreams. 



Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Sacksquad ARG Results!


Sacksquad in the house!



Feed placing 3rd with Ripples AKA Cancer
ARG weekend has come in gone and I hope everyone played to their fullest potential or at least got some good games in. Sacksquad was able to attend ARG Watsonville and with a field of about 50 people we did alright. One of our members (Feed) managed to fight through the crowd and get into playoffs with a 4-2 record and placed 3rd overall. A big congratulations to him and we’re proud to have him as a part of our team! I ended up going 3-1-2 with Revengers and I wanted to share my experience:




Round 1: Ripples (2-1)
Definitely one of the toughest matches of the day. Even though I knew the match-up very well, I couldn’t stop his Ripple shenanigans game 2. However both victories came due to my control of the pace and he had to stride multiple times, at that point I knew the game was mine.


Round 2: Sanc Guard (0-2)
First game I had complete control over the game: the board was in my favor, I had at least +5 hand advantage and I was up 4-2 in damage. He swings with Regalie and I eat the attack (with PG in hand) thinking I can punish him with Diablo then…CRIT!, CRIT!, CRIT!…FUUUUUU! My Sodium levels were way over 9000...


Round 3: Angel Feather (1-1)
I’ve played this match-up plenty of times with my brother to know that this is a toss-up. Most Angel Feather matches go to time so I thought that if I could clutch out the first game I’d be sitting pretty. I was wrong. Instead the first game was completed within the first 15 min with me setting up two rounds of Diablo and grabbing the win. Second game was a grind and went to time. On the 4th turn I decked out and it was tied up. I should’ve checked the rulings to see if time was called does the person with the win get the match? Or do you finish the 4 rounds and then decide? Either way it was my fault and I took the tie.


Round 4: D-Robos (1-1)
First game he guard-breaks me 3 separate occasions, but I was able to hold on with guarding early and getting a couple lucky heals. Second game was very volatile game with triggers being hit back in forth, but he was able to get the win 20 seconds before time is called. TIME IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE TODAY SENPAI…


Round 5: Touken Ranbu (2-0)
At this point I was pretty pissed that I dropped my last 3 matches and I was probably not going to make it with only 2 points over 3 games. So I played much more aggressive and blew caution to the wind. This didn’t bode well for the next guy which I felt a little bad for now that I’m reflecting on the match. Both games I proc’d Judgebau then strode Doomed, Diablo, Diablo and he had no chance of coming back.


Round 6: Tachikaze (2-1)
My last match was pretty fun considering I’ve never played against Dinos before. First game I tried to retire his units while he had counterblast which was a pretty big mistake considering he can just call them back. He was able to sack me the first game with Tyrranolegend. I quickly picked up on his gimmick and for the next two games I suffocated his resources by attacking his rears and retiring is backrow with my Blasters while he didn’t have CB. With Judgebau and Swordbreaker I definitely noticed the difference in card advantage and then I went in for the kill with Abyss.

Our Top 8: Revengers, Revengers, Ripples, DiaBuster, SancGuard, Chaos Breaker, SancGuard, Ripples


Overall I think Sacksquad had a decent outing at our first ARG. I've been to plenty of tournaments throughout my Pokemon and Yu-Gi career and I have to say that the ARG tournament was well executed, shout-outs to Gamer’s Den for a job well done! Everyone was pretty friendly and I was able to get a few trades in as well as these awesome Marth sleeves! I hope everyone had a good weekend and I look forward to seeing some familiar faces at our next event (which will probably be Springfest in Anaheim).

See you all next week, kooj signing out.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Card of the Week: Steam Maiden Lacina-Ber

Hello Cardfighters! Today’s Card of the Week is: Steam Maiden Lacina-Ber!







She is the promo that you receive for participating in the Moonlight Dragonfang sneak peek and is definitely good to pick up for Gear Chronicle players that are looking for more tech cards. Her skill is: GB1 When this unit is put into the bind zone from rearguard, choose up to one of your opponent’s grade 1 or less rearguards and put it on the bottom of their deck. I like the design of this card because her skill has great synergy with the rest of the Time Leap deck and you can use her skill every turn. However with Gear Chronicle having so many options such as Gear Wolf, Gigi and even Etana, is she really worth a slot? I think it depends on the Meta and what’s being played at the your locals. Are you sick of Laurel/Odysseus/Judgebau? One Lacina-Ber please! In my personal opinion, I would only run her at a single copy because most GC decks have a good handle on control with all of the rewind cards out there, and even at one copy it seems a little redundant. I think you will see many GC decks tech this card, but very rarely will you see her played to her full potential. 5/10

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Watchu Gonna Play at ARG?!

What’s up Cardfighters! With ARG coming up this weekend (all you Cardfighters in the Bay Area come on down to Watsonville for our ARG State Qualifiers and meet up with us! I wanted to share our team’s opinions of what we think is going to be dominate post GBT-05. Keep in mind that this is just our personal opinion and I wouldn’t be surprised if none of the decks we picked won the whole thing. Also this is only for the state that Vanguard is in today, not including Reckless Rampage which we believe will change the Meta dramatically. Let’s get started: Stand up, Vanguard!


Kooj: I am your Blogger and Analyst of the game, so if you have questions regarding strategy and deckbuilding please feel free to contact us through our blog or via e-mail. I am known for my D-Robo and Revenger decks. 

       Revengers:
With Ripples being almost non-existent because Odyseus is now only two copies and SGD’s loss of Swordmy, I believe that Revengers will once again reign supreme. They have enough control pre-GB to handle early rush and they have one of the deadliest post G3 game. The game is going to slow down due to the decline of Ripples and SGD as well as the rise of CBD gives Revengers that extra turn they never had. As far as how they matchup vs other Meta decks: CBD is probably going to be the hardest, but I don’t think Chaos Breaker will be able to topple Revengers. Sure they have Chaos Universe to force lock, but they can only do that for two turns. There’s also the inherent downfall of LJ vs Shadows: the ability to retire their own units thus not giving LJ the ability to lock preexisting rearguards. Majority of these games will be a grind down to the last card, however I believe Revengers have the upper hand because Revenger’s primary boss is a legion while CBD, if they decide to even run legion, will be a secondary thus tilting the power towards Revengers. Also in tournament format I think that almost every game is going to run into timeouts and all Revengers need is one turn to push for damage with either swinging twice with Abyss, or spending all their CB and sacking them with Diablo. The second biggest threat to Revengers is Blue Wave because they aren’t nearly as rearguard dependent as other Aqua Force Decks and can overwhelm them. Tis not to say that Blue Wave can fight without any rears because clearly Tidal and Magnum make this deck amazing, which means that there are targets for Dark Blaster/Abyss to snipe. Revenger’s can sit on G2 with Dark Blaster retire and wait to stride first. Getting first stride with Aura Doom to clear rearguards can put a hindrance on Tetraboil’s first stride. I think this matchup comes down to who has the better G2 game and if Blue Wave is able to get Foivos on rear and Vanguard they might be able to force Revengers to G3 first. Revengers is probably the most well rounded deck and consistent deck which is why they take my first spot.

      Chaos Breaker Dragon(CBD):
Easily the best control deck out at the moment because of its control pre GB. With Chaos Universe, people cannot leave their front row empty in hopes for a counter assault because Chaos Universe can force lock anywhere on the board. Also Chaos Breaker himself is pre GB which means that he can fight any gradelock deck as well as hold rush decks a turn early because he doesn’t have to wait for GB. He also has a built in draw engine and retire to keep up with other draw powered decks. One of the biggest downfalls to CBD has always been CB, but with the new support from GBT-05 comes Zinc which can easily CC. Like all LJ decks, CBD forces the opponent to slow down and play at their pace which means that fast paced decks such as Aquas and SGD become dead in the water. Aside from Messiah’s that completely wreck this deck, there isn’t much else out there that can compete with CBD. I would’ve moved it to my first slot but I feel like top Meta decks shouldn’t have glaringly bad matchups for I’d hate to take CBD to a tourney only to run into 2 Messiah decks and get knocked out, which I could see easily happen because that deck is no slouch.

     Blue Wave:
Blue Wave takes my third spot for best deck in the Meta because it isn’t completely rearguard dependent with their powerful strides. They have tons of options you can tech in to stop lots of different decks which makes them so versatile in almost any situation. They have Tetra Drive Dragon for decks that don’t want to stride, they have Aristotle and Thavas for retire, and most importantly they have Skyros for resist. Skyros saves Blue Wave from a lot of decks due to the front row resist which plays an important role against Chaos Breaker. The problem with this is that if you stock your deck up with Skyros for the CBD matchup, then you’re going to have a hard time against Revengers because you cannot retire resist units for Diablo. Tetraboil allows Blue Wave to not rely too much on their rearguards but with a full board you can easily end the game by the second Tetralboil stride. Brawlers don’t care about Skyros and punches the entire field which can prove troublesome for any Blue Wave player.



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     Chaos Breaker Dragon:

Out of all the control decks Link Joker provides arguably one of the most powerful with its ability to render not only the units placed useless but units in hand practically useless. With Kagero and Megacolony those units can be replaced and for some clans this isn’t an issue. But when a unit is locked you cannot replace it, you simply have to watch helplessly. Chaos Breaker while not a new card did get support, and the support is strong enough to shift the Meta to its demands. Being able to lock pre generation break as well as on stride forcing your opponent to call a card from hand as locked means that even trying to save field from link joker means nothing now, as they can ruin even clans like Bermuda, Spike Brothers, and Murakomo, that lived off hit and run tactics. There is a savior though and leads me to my second pick.


     Messiahs:
While Chaos Breaker Dragon may get time in the sun, another Link Joker deck provides the perfect shield. Messiah also recently got support and is now a direct Counter to Chaos Breaker in my opinion, While also a stride deck Messiah gains strength from being able to unlock the field, meaning that while Chaos locks and draws, Messiah unlocks and draws, taking away the advantage the Chaos has. Excelics and Amnesty also gain power and crit for unlocking, which means the more you opponent locks you, the more they will pay later. Why it is a number two pick though is hit and run clans can still function as well as not playing field till you need to still work, as Messiah cannot force cards from hand to lock.

     Revengers:
Not much needs to be said here, this clan can call, not call it, and it doesn't matter as it doesn't get punished like most clans having no front row. Shadows has an option for everything, a truly toolbox clan. It can leave nothing on the field for Link Joker to lock, and even with it getting locked by Chaos Break from hand, it can still drop enough to make for devastating turns with Doom/Diablo Strides. Where I feel it will struggle though is the fact that Chaos Break does draw on unlocks, which means it gains hand. And good Chaos Breaker Players will be able to save enough units to fill the field pre Diablo turn, and save themselves from that pain.



Feed: Always enjoys a trigger-less game and is our Twitter Manager. While a man of few words on social media, you can always hear him in the backgrounds of our videos. Known for his Aqua Force and Great Nature decks.

1      CBD:
 Pre GB lock, control deck that can essentially plays for you by forcing cards from hand in lock and can draw on unlock- deck thinning is deck winning, hard counters rear guard dependent decks, ripples lose to him but ripples have been neutered, decks have to play around him but loses to messiah - which it doesn't have to worry about too much.    

2      D.Robos:
Two words: GUARD BREAK, when you couple that with Laurel your opponent is gonna have a bad time especially if he doesn't use regular PG's, able to get multiple pluses to hand or field, can play around control decks due break ride skill and critical stack pressure. Also given there is a loop hole to give a Leon stride critical with his triple drive and guard break - such wow, much OP. Also no restriction on Laurel is a bad move.

3      Blue Wave:
No pun intended, but keyword here is Pressure. Aqua's known to have early game pressure with multiple battles, able to play the grade 2 game efficiently but can also dominate at grade 3. Re-standing Vanguards is a big deal and in a deck that thrives in multi attacks if you don't have enough to guard most of it, GLHF. This deck can also generate a decent plus to hand especially when stacking blue wave starter and a couple special critical triggers. Even though they are heavily reliant on rearguards, which control decks have an advantage, sometimes a crashing tsunami can come from a small wave.



Hebi: Our Youtube Master who likes to examine matches to get the most optimal play out of every turn. When he isn’t posting videos, you can find him at all the SoCal locals including CoreTCG. Hebi is known for his Jewel Knights and Brawler decks.

     CBD
I put him at one because he’s a field disruption deck that can do what it wants to do without having to wait on someone else to hit 3. He does everything you want in one go: lock, retire, and draw. He has limited bad match ups. The new build allows him to misride because the new grade 3 lets you superior ride into CBD making sure you are always on the boss. I would personally add in a legion and that would help in the deck out problem as well as recycling the new crit trigger which also locks making it even stronger. Any deck that is rear guard dependent automatically starts a battle going uphill. Because the lock is a mechanic 90% of decks cannot play around, CBD will be strong for a long time.

   Brawlers
They punch the field and they do it efficiently and are one of the better decks against CBD. Brawlers have good tempo and continue throughout the game because they don’t necessarily need field to put pressure. They force you to play cards from hands because they destroy field consistently; Turbo on top of legion is hit 6 targets meaning just to refill you have to play 5 cards from hand and guard the Vanguard at the same time. Brawlers also has good matchups with strong decks such as Aquas, Royals, and Shadows. Aquas has no ability to tutor cards so losing their valuable grade 2s makes them worthless. Royals and Shadows can toolbox for field but forcing them to use valuable resources that normally isn’t a problem just to stick to their normal game plan is easier said than done. Shadows especially since they need to retire field in order to get skills off so if you hit field they must commit from hand just to have value turns. 

     Revengers
Not much to say about Revengers. They can retire backrow with their grade 2s and they can tool box cards and have great pluses with Aurageyser and Judgebau. Their one weakness is that they are a bit slower than royals and aqua but once the grade 3 game starts it doesn’t matter. With the new Meta I predict the game to slow down a lot because of CBD being so prevalent.  Revengers is also a deck that has cards that activate pre GB and you can’t really forget the good ole Abyss restander and Diablo. They were once BDIF and still are a really good deck in today’s format.


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     Messiah:
Messiahs were already was a solid clan and with the latest support and new stride Excelics it’s ridiculously over powered. Plus it’s a great counter pick to CBD.


     Brawlers:
With its newest ability “Thunderstrike” and new support from G-BT05, Narukami in general is definitely getting stronger. However Brawlers is where it’s at by being able to target multiple units in one attack. A good counter to any rearguard dependent decks.

     Gear Chronicle:

The new time Leap ability is amazing in the sense that you can literally set up multiple swinging combos per turn, keeping pressure on opponents that may have card advantage. The clan itself is very versatile allowing you to adapt to different situations by utilizing a number of different strides and utility cards. Downside though is they are Generation Break reliant which can be harsh going against rush decks, although I don’t see that happening as much considering the Meta slowing down.