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. 

1        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.

2       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.

3      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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1      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.

2      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.

3      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.

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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.

1      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.

2    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. 

3      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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1      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.

2      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.

3      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.