Morris' Cardfight!! Vanguard Experience

Episode 2 of Cardfight Online (Closed Beta) is up and running!

2016-02-18T15:45:00.000+08:00

Need I say more? Enjoy!!!

Morris Plays Cardfight Online (Closed Beta) - Episode 1!

2016-02-16T20:37:00.000+08:00

Aw yeah! It is really exciting and an honour to be given the opportunity to be part of the 2nd wave of the Cardfight Online closed beta group!

Unfortunately, these text cannot do justice to the excitement I feel when I finally get myself started in the game. Thus, I will attempt to capture that very experience via the power of video recording. Behold!

I hope to continue documenting my experience and hope to grant as much information to you readers/viewers. Keep in touch!

Mysteries of Cardfight Vanguard, the Anime - Report 001

2016-01-25T21:44:00.000+08:00

Case File #10443-CV : Mysteries of Cardfight Vanguard, the Anime.

-- Report No. 001 --

Subject : The origins of Cardfight Vanguard

-------------------------------------------------------------
-- Report Start --

Since the advent of Cardfight Vanguard to the International scene, many players have risen from the masses, taking up the art of playing this trading card game. In the real world, this game has a source; easily trackable and accounted for. However, this report is not for that but for its anime counter-part.
When the first episode of the anime series started, it introduces Sendou Aichi as its main protagonist. The shy, soft-spoken, yet kind and gentle Japanese boy who finds his alter-ego in a card, given to him by another kid-stranger (Kai Toshiki, by the way) in his childhood days.

Sendou Aichi
Seen during Season 1, age 15.

Kai Toshiki
Seen during Season 1, age 16.

And this brings us our first mystery; how old is this damn game? Even in the anime, it admitted that only the first 2 trial decks and BT01 are the only ones available for sale, and yet the game seemed to have existed years ago? Either there is some serious security leak that somehow allowed Kai, who has no relation to anyone who may be involved with the design or production of the game, to gain access to Blaster Blade, a RRR card, or that the two first Trial Decks and BT01 was already released years ago and the company that made it had not released any newer releases for several years.

Next, to identify its source. In the real world, Bushiroad is the company behind it. That much is clear. But in the anime world, the company associated with the game was never revealed. Some may say that the company behind it is the Tatsunagi Corporation, helmed by its CEO, Takuto Tatsunagi. However, that is highly unlikely as they are meant to be the sole sponsor behind the Cardfight Vanguard World Tournament. This does not mean that they are the company behind the game at all.

Takuto Tatsunagi
Seen during Season 2, age unknown.

Finally, one must also consider the fact that the cards are personifications on actual beings from the planet Cray, from another galaxy. The anime has mentioned time and again that Earth and Cray are intertwined in some odd relationship, where the fate of one planet affects another. How this works does not make much sense.

Unless one considers the multiverse theory.

To summarize, the multiverse theory suggests that in addition to our own planet, there are many similar Earths existing alongside ours, but in different dimensions. For example, in this world I am simply an awesome guy sharing my blog posts about the mysteries of an anime series that does not need to make complete sense. In another dimension, I could be the head of Bushiroad Singapore deciding what next batch of Cardfight Vanguard cards will be. Or yet, in another dimension I could a world-renowned Cardfighter with titles under my belt.

The thing is, the theory may suggest that in fact, the Earth and the planet Cray are the one and the same, just that its inhabitants have taken a different course of life and evolution. But what this does not explain are some troubling questions?

How did someone come into contact with Cray in the first place?

Why do we then have cards based on Cray's people and creatures?

Where are the cards produced? Who delivers them?

Why are certain children and teens being selected by Psyqualia? What IS Psyqualia? How did it come about?

Why is the fate of two worlds being decided by a card game among children? Do the characters from Cray not possess much more people than a couple of humans?

This report shall end at this point. But know this, this is merely the beginning of the unraveling, caused by the opening of a couple of cans of worms.

-- Report End --
-------------------------------------------------------------

Patience... It really is a virtue.

2016-01-21T11:36:00.001+08:00

The Beta registration has ended, and this only serves to raise the stakes in this situation. Folks eager to play are probably checking their in-box on a hourly basis, checking the official Facebook page, Twitter account, Steam Greenlight, and Wikia.

Well, I don't blame them as I find myself checking my in-box too for any important notice that may have found its way into my SPAM box. It's quite amazing what hype can do a person.

Fortunately, I am also proud to say that due to being burned by hype in the past with big game titles and their fancy campaigns, I have become some desensitized towards it.

Don't get me wrong! I am most certainly interested in partaking the Beta session and am serious in documenting my experiences through video, streaming and of course, my good ol' blog. But even if I don't get picked for the Beta experience, I am cool with it. Simply because, I know for a fact that the game will eventually be released as a Free-to-Play game; it is just a matter of patience.

Besides, this current age is full of digital distractions thanks to the ever growing phenomenon known as the Internet. I am almost certain that if you have a Steam account, you must have some games in your library that you have yet to play. Or, you have some real-life task that you finally have an excuse to do, like learning how to drive, or taking on a part-time course for a degree.

Regardless, Cardfight!! Online will eventually reach your hands. After all, when the Beta session ceases, all progress made will be given a brand new slate and everyone starts from scratch again. For some folks, putting a lot of time and effort into something and seeing it all washed away in an instant can be a huge turn-off.

To summarize, do something else that needs doing and this matter will settle itself. ;-)

Don't shoot till you see the whites of its eyes!

2016-01-18T10:21:00.000+08:00

The subject of this post is simple and straight-forward; take it easy, guys. Day in and out, I see a lot of excited folks lamenting that the the day is not nigh and they are about to combust into digital flames.

Though, I don't blame them. I too am very excited to get involved in the action when the Closed Beta becomes live, and the lucky participants are notified. Still, I must remind you all (and the others too) that the purpose of the Beta session is to gain bug reports and suggestions from the participants. Being involved is fine, but getting to attached is going to be real poisonous.

However, let's face it. We can be sure that there's going to be a large percentage of Beta participants that will be so engrossed in playing it, that they probably miss out on reporting the bugs. But hey, here's hoping!

Now, let us distance our from the responsibilities of a Beta player and talk about what we're going to do when we DO get into the Beta sessions. Well, more like I'll be sharing about my intentions.

For starters, I love to see what clans options they will have available when it begins, considering that my favourites could be really rare to find with just the G Generation series being the only ones available. For the uninitiated, Cardfight!! Online will begin featuring cards from the G season first, with no confirmed news about what to do with the older cards.

As some of you might have already know, I'm one of those rare players that plays the Tachikaze and Nubatama clans as close to a competitive level as I can. Naturally, support for these two clans are hard to come by, especially for Nubatama. Now, with just the G series, my two favourite clans are expected to be pretty much unplayable till much later on (how much later on is anybody's guess).

The problem mainly lies with the basic support coming from the older releases, before the G Generation series. Thus, even if there are SOME cards released in the G BTs, the fact remains that those cards are merely additional support cards to the existing roster.

It is without a doubt that when the Beta session starts, these following clans will be probably the only available ones for the play; Gear Chronicle, Royal Paladin, Neo Nectar, Link Joker, Aqua Force, Pale Moon, and GranBlue. The reason being that the trial decks offered are those very clans, thus getting additional cards to modify the trial decks makes a lot more sense. Not to mention, it probably helps to ease the older cards back in at a later date, considering there is a fair amount of them that could potentially flood the playing scene in a somewhat negative way. At least, that is what I suspect the designers were thinking.

*UPDATE*

It seems that Bushiroad removed the date from the image. That is why you do not see it in the current picture,

*UPDATE*

Regardless, the latest piece of news is that the Closed Beta session will start on the 20th of Jan to the 3rd of Feb, making it a relatively short playing period of the Beta test. I like to take this opportunity to thank the folks over at the Cardfight Vanguard Wikia for providing that information with proof too:

For those of you who have yet to register for the the Beta session; what are you waiting for?!

Here, a direct link to the Google Form to get to you all signed up.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be checking my email inbox frantically now. ;-)

THERE ARE SO MANY DISTRACTIONS!!!

2016-01-15T22:58:00.000+08:00

The year of 2015 was... all right. Like life, things happened on both good and bad ends of life.

For one, I had to decide to stop playing Cardfight Vanguard, leading to me selling my cards and decks (most of them. I kept my Nubatama, Tachikaze, and Blau decks and their respective support cards for nostalgia.) not having much contact with my old Vanguard mates. Naturally, the blog took a hit and I then found myself able to focus on more pressing matters of my life.

Now 2016 has arrived, passed the corner, and I am finding myself reviving the once-dead Vanguard blog of mine. I have to admit, it is quite amazing to find that my articles continue to garner readers, likely travelers out of time and space, and finding themselves in the company of my old memories of shock, joy, disgust, and... yeah, you get the idea.

Yes, the good ol' memes are coming, and boy are they coming back with a vengeance!

Okay, maybe this one is kind of forcing it, but I'm leaving it there. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

But alas, back to the issue of the year 2016. A brand new start, and with exciting things round the corner. The problem though, is that there might be TOO much stuff to look forward to, and I am concerned that this will grab my attention away from Cardfight!! Online.

Hm... I think this is a pretty good one.

So what could those stuff be? Let us name the nominations.

Cardfight!! Online. Duh.

Pokemon Go. An incredibly close second!

Overwatch. I've pre-ordered the Origins pack. You can be sure I'll dedicating quite a number of hours to it!

Metal Gear Online 3. In case you're not aware, I'm playing it on the PC, which the Beta was finally made available after a long wait. However, I don't feel so excited to play it. In fact, I downloaded the remaining files needed last night, but I did not find myself playing it. I suppose it could have been a number of factors. Anyways, here's the picture!

Granblue Fantasy! I caught a glimpse of it during last year's Tokyo Game Show and it looks gorgeous! Can't wait for it's International (English) release. Doesn't the artwork look gorgeous?

And that's it for me. I have to put a fine line on how much non-Vanguard related stuff is going to be in just this one post. In others, I'm giving plenty of excuses when there very well be times when I'll be playing something else.

Now, let us see where Cardfight!! Online can hold me long enough against these other dangers coming in this year. Pray for my salvation, my readers. Pray for me.

The deed is done! Now, the unbearable wait...

2016-01-14T15:44:00.000+08:00

Hello again, folks! It has been a short while since the last revival post.

Of course, I see no point in sharing obvious news that can be easily done via the power of Google searches (If you managed to stumble onto my blog without knowing how, know that I am impressed.).

Regardless, with the approach of Cardfight!! Online's closed Beta session drawing close, tensions have been high on several news outlets, like the following. Do note, these screenshots are taken within minutes from publishing this post:

Yes, I did post on one of the official Cardfight Vanguard Facebook posts. Despite my more controlled reaction, I am all giddy inside, believe me.

Believe me; these screenshots are merely a taste of the madness that is the Internet. As soon as the news of Cardfight!! Online came into being, I like the many hundreds, thousands and possibly tens of thousands, have been checking the official game website, Facebook, Twitter, Wikia, and the Greenlight pages on a daily bases, hope for a hint on when the Beta registration may start.

Lo and behold, today I did my usual routine on checking for updated Cardfight!! Online news and the Beta registration is finally live! As soon as I caught a glimpse of it, off I go!

Now, the vicious waiting period starts ALL OVER AGAIN! As much as I want to maintain my stance of maturity and patience, my Cardfighter alter-ego is performing multitude of super sonic spins bouncing off the walls of my self-contained mental cell. Yeah, try to picture that in your head for a moment.

But I am used to waiting for games that's "Coming to theaters near you" for several years now, and this isn't any different. The trick is to understand this basic fact; whether or not you get the Beta access code, the game will eventually become available to all when it is ready. Some folks out there cannot seem to contemplate the fact that the very term "Closed Beta" is actually just a buggy testing ground for the developers to gain actual, real-life data to fix bugs before it becomes available to the everyone else!

Now, just stepping away from Cardfight!! Online for a moment, allow me to share briefly what entails in a closed Beta session.

A Beta session, be it 'open' or 'closed' are meant to meet some of the following objectives:

Server Stress Test

To accommodate many players in a single, on-line game, servers need to setup. Simple, right? Except it's not. See, like many other factors in game development, servers is not very cheap with work with. Considering the following factors it must do:

It has to serve (thus the name, server), say about 10,000 players at any given time. That requires some serious computing power. If you think your souped-up PC that churns our 1080p graphics is awesome, wait till you get a load of this!
Naturally, it requires business-grade components to do such handling and sometimes, may even require more than 1 server to handle the load. Aka, the more players there are, the servers will be needed.
Servers are expected to run 24/7, 365 days CONTINUOUSLY. That's like, non-stop as soon as its set-up for public consumption. Imagine the electrical bill!
Cooling. Unlike our humble PC, servers will need some serious cooling solutions, and simply fixing a liquid-cooling system into the chassis isn't going to solve the problem. So, either they fix the servers at the North Pole, or set them into a special room (a very un-creative name, like "The Server Room") with industry-grade air-con blasting from the very floor panels you're standing on top of . Pretty hard-core!

Oh! Did I mention that adds to the electrical bills too?!

Thus, to keep operating costs as low as possible, companies usually get a gauge of how many players are expected and assign just the right-amount of servers for public play. But I am sure many of you experienced gamers out are aware, sometimes there are so many peoples partaking in the digital communion biscuit that it freezes up the servers and blocks everyone out.

OS stability

It can be down-right hair-tearing when a game works on one system, but flips out on another. Welcome to the competitive world of proprietary software! Even if its from the same company.

Developers have to test on different kinds of OS environment, as one bug may appear on, say Windos 7, but not in 8.

Network stability

What kind of internet connection you're using? How fast is it? Who is your service provider? Depending on several factors it can affect that player's gaming experience, even if the game is a turn-based one. Not to mention, most service providers don't provide the marketed internet speed to your home anyways.

In-game bugs

Need I say more?

Game balancing issues

As odd as it may sound, certain trends (or metas) may only be visible within the digital confines of Cardfight!! Online, and may not be prominent in IRL game sessions. Not to mention, asking for players to test-play certain features is probably a lot more easier too when you announce it within the game's broadcasting system (I'm assuming there might one.).

So there we have it, just some (if not all) of the reasons for the existence of Beta sessions. So for the folks out there that get real salty for not being part of the Beta session giveaway, I say to you that to let it go and do something else instead. After all, this is the internet; there's plenty of things of that you can do to either be productive, or pass the time.

As for what I'll do IF I get picked for the Beta access? I plan on doing the following. Do tell what you all think about it:

Record my gaming experience and upload them onto my YouTube channel.
Possibly stream it too via Twitch! (Still hesitant about that. After all, other people and possibly my opponent, may very well see what's in my hand.)
Update my blog (this one!) about my experiences!
Maybe join a Cardfight!! Online local clan? If there is one.

I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT IT!!!

It's Thriller Night!

2015-12-16T17:20:00.000+08:00

I don't do justice to one of the late Michael Jackson's hits, but I sure can make a comeback in writing another post for this seemingly dead blog.

As you may recall, I have mentioned previously that I had ceased all playing activity with CardFight!! Vanguard, sold off most of my cards while retaining a few decks for memento reasons, and pretty much stopped my writing in this blog.

So why beat the dead corpse of a horse which probably is just a pile of bones now?

Simple; CardFight!! Online.

It's strange. I thought my time with this card game will no longer be rekindled, especially with the anime's new protagonist and his ridiculous hair. Yes, believe it or not, that very hairdo is one of the main reasons why I stopped watching the anime after just the 2nd episode. Heck, I didn't even bother to remember his name. That just shows how much I dislike the direction of the new storyline.

But I'm not here to rant about the anime; I'll probably do it some other time. Instead, it's about the news of a soon-to-be online, Vanguard game that may make it to the masses in 2016.

I only knew about it yesterday when I did a casual search online with the following keywords: vanguard online

Lo and behold, an official link to the website of CardFight!! Online! I was not prepared for that, with my further searches revealing more information about it. Apparently, it will be made available as a Free-2-Play game, via the Steam platform for PC players! That is incredible news!

Granted, the game will start off with the series from the G-era; a collection that I am completely not knowledgeable in so at least when the game comes into being, I'll be able to go into it with a clean slate.

From what I have gathered thus far, the G-era cards introduces the new mechanics of "Stride" and some others too which at the moment, I admit I am unable to make heads-and-tails out of just yet.

So since the advent of the game, we've been introduced to:

MegaBlast
Persona Blast
Cross-ride
Limit Break
Break Ride
Lock
and Legion

And now, "Stride" and a few more makes the list too. Boy, the game is getting dangerously cluttered but then again, the specific cards related to these game-changing mechanics applies their respective cards. I suppose how one builds a deck also means how one also exploits the various mechanics to their advantage.

However, from the news gathered, the beginnings of CardFight!! Online may be rocky at the start. Notice I mentioned that the game will start by featuring cards from the G-era first? That means that old cards from the older BTs will not be making an immediate appearance just yet. This also translate to the initial playing crowd not having access to the older cards and deck recipes are going to be severely limited too.

Granted, this may not apply to the more meta clans like Gear Chronicle, or Kagero, but for the lesser-supported clans like Nubatama or Tachikaze, this may pose a problem. After all, the new cards still seem to rely on the older cards for the synergy, in order for it work. This is potentially sad news as that would mean I may have to wait quite a bit before I can build decks for my favourite clans. (Can you already guess what those are?)

Regardless, the possibility of me returning back to the game with the reduced prospect of me spending potentially hundreds and thousands of dollars to play, is extremely appealing to me! I believe this may also apply to a large group of people out there, especially folks that may not have the resources nor the community to play with, due to where they are situated geographically.

But as the nature of the game is pretty much "Newer is Better", it would makes sense why Bushiroad wants to showcase the new series first. However, I do feel sad for the older cards, considering the times of hope and despair I shared with it, it feels to be a shame that the playing community may not see a reason playing those cards. Sure, this is business, but I can't help feeling nostalgic about it.

Well, until further official news, we are pretty much at the stage of speculation. However, based on my years of gaming experience, I feel confident that the following things may likely happen:

Despite F2P, there are certain, popular features that may require payment or even subscription.
Card packs and even certain cards will have a relatively high in-game credit price-tag, encouraging players to use real cash to buy instead.

High in-game prices = longer play times = longer grinding

Limited access to cards

Players may need to use real cash to gain access to certain series; possibly older ones?

Lack of single-player campaigns

Even if there is a single-player campaign, it is more likely to be objective-based, rather than an actual story-line with character development, like in a MMO.
Though personally, if there ARE story-driven, single-player campaigns that continue to have more content added to it, putting some dollars for it is something I feel is worthwhile.

So, there we have it. The future of Cardfight!! Vanguard soon to be playable via your own computer. I look forward to sharing more news with you all! Till then, have a great day!

Allow me to predict your future...

2013-12-17T19:14:00.002+08:00

Ah... BT10... the long awaited release for many. Well, at least for the English community that is. After all, why would bother to care about the late release when its subsequent counterpart, BT11, was released before 10?

Simply for the sake of Royal Paladins, Gold and Paladins, and Narukamis. Well, there are some rare cases for Spike Brothers and Nova Grapplers

But it was also at this time when Bushiroad released a new clan, just like they did with Aqua Force in the second season of Cardfight Vanguard. That clan, which you have already figured out, is Genesis.

Now for those who are already well-versed in the world of Cardfight Vanguard would have already figured out its presence, especially when it made its super long-absence comeback in the 152nd episode, where Misaki channeled the power of friendship in order to overcome the retiring powers of Kagero and the reversed Miwa. It was also very interesting to note that from the BT14 release, Bushiroad has created a type of card that is like the baby brother of the Perfect Guard; the Quintet Wall.

At first, I thought it was going to be a Jewel Knight/Royal Paladin exclusive and that got me peeved. Then, followed by the Aichi waving it around like an idiot against the reversed Kamui. TWICE.

Lo and behold, Misaki gets one too, especially when Genesis went off the radar completely since BT10 and super rarely from BT11. Notice that it all caters to the United Sanctuary clans? Well, if the pattern holds true, eventually all the clans will get one. The question though, is when.

But this also brings another scary thought too. With the speed of the releases, it would not be long for Link Joker to take presence within the English community at the start of the year 2014.

Should we be afraid? I believe so, especially seeing about much of a bitch it can be when it comes to locking the opponent's units. I thought Kagero can be annoying; Link Joker takes the cake, in my opinion.

Naturally, I tried looking into alternatives regarding any possibility in defeating Link Joker but so far, with the presence of Choas Breaker Dragon it really makes it hard to beat. (Of course, if you got any tips I'm all ears.)

So, with a quick update, it is with great regret that I am unable to fulfill my wish of getting all the Genesis cards I need. Apparently, they are are scarce as the next dude crossing his fingers for Liberator Alfred.

But! Onto something that really seriously gets on my nerves... Let's start things off with this:

Recognize this? No? Well, you bloody should! Because if your level of observation has yet to realize this was a 3DS game title for the, you guessed it, the portable 3DS gaming system.

But here's the problem; it hasn't been released in English yet! Why, oh why, is it not released in English is beyond me! It has been several months since it's release and all Bushiroad has said was that it is, oh wait, WAS considering it for International release.

As you might have already guess that has not come to pass and I know for a fact that many people are very sad to that it does not come into fruition.

So, to make it even worse Bushiroad decides to continue rubbing a fist-full of salt onto our wounds by announcing this:

Yes... a sequel to the Cardfight Vanguard Ride to Victory... and for the Japanese masses no less.

First, let's just take a step back and recognize some facts.

Cardfight Vanguard (English) is almost catching up to the Japanese releases, with now being at BT11 while the Japanese release is at BT14.
The Cardfight Vanguard anime series is already dubbed into English and released for International viewing, both via TV and online.
Cardfight Vanguard in the English community does not seem to be slowing-down in terms of popularity and still seems to be going strong.
Before Cardfight Vanguard Ride to Victory was announced, there were several free platforms online to allow players to build virtual Vanguard decks and playing against one another. It was a strong and lively community.
The Wikis have many posters saying that they are more than happy to buy the game in English, WHEN it comes out in English. They WANT to support the game!

Bushiroad, and possibly Furyu Japan, probably wouldn't care but if you are reading this, you need to understand that thinking of us as a failed market is simply not true.

Consider that the release of the Japanese cards are earlier than the English releases. For some players if they wish to get the newest cards, then clearly aiming for the Japanese cards is the way to go. But I think that from just from the turnouts alone you would have already noticed that the amount of English players are not that far off.

Thus, take into consideration of also showing some love to the English players too. For far too long we have seen Japanese players getting all sorts of goodies and merchandise that is clearly exclusive for Japanese releases. The most the English community gets are the standard Draft competitions and the Promotional Packs.

Perhaps you may think this is enough. Yet it is painfully clear how much of a bias this can be seen as. I still and do love to play Vanguard, but it is also sad to see that the company simply does not care beyond the profit charts.

Bushiroad. Furyu. Prove me wrong. Prove us all wrong.

Genesis. Hey, not talking about the first chapter of the Bible!

2013-12-02T21:19:00.001+08:00

Sorry. Religion will find themselves to be in an unfamiliar place here. That's because I am going to talk about the United Sanctuary clan, Genesis.

According to Cardfight Vanguard Wiki-san, I quote "...is a clan from the nation of United Sanctuary which first appeared in Booster Set 10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights. This clan's theme is increasing the soul in order to use Soul Blast abilities. This clan is used by Misaki Tokura in Season 3 of the Cardfight!! Vanguard Anime."

And you what? I seriously am seeing a severe lack of Genesis action with the recent episodes of the Cardfight Vanguard anime, especially with about 10 or so episodes ago! But why should that bother me?

Its this: Genesis is going to be released with BT10 this December 2013 and the Vanguard players that I know are generally ignoring it. I mean, SERIOUSLY ignoring it. They are going for Royal Paladins, Gold Paladins, Spikes Brother, and a handful for Nova Grapplers (I'm one of those Nova Grappler culprits).

And I am seriously considering getting the Genesis cards from BT10, which I honestly did not expect of doing. Some of you might have already asked, "Why are you getting Genesis? You don't look like one who would use United Sanctuary decks."

Well, the reason is this. The previous unboxing of BT11 boxes (which I failed to upload the recording and lose the videos) gathered me a total of 6 Fortunas!

Fortunas!

Yup, you read that right. I got myself 4 boxes, which didn't yield a single Ancient Dragon card. The other 2 Fortunas, I got those from the Draft Tournament. 6 Fortunas, just sitting in my album and I couldn't use them. And all the other players whom gotten themselves the BT11 boxes from the same carton, none of them got it. Apparently, I got them all... WHAT?!?!

Well, I suppose I should look into the positiveness of this situation. Because the majority of the people I know are, like, avoiding Genesis like the biblical plague, by logic there are more than willing to let go of key Genesis cards at a major low cost. It can be especially useful for me since I am seriously low on Vitamin M and this could prove to be real gentle on my leathery friend. Could this be a divine sign from the Goddess of Good Luck?!

6 times the luck!

So, in these uncertain times, I must admit this one simple truth... I have no idea how to play Genesis.

I suppose that the time has come for me to start learning the ropes and the nature of the Genesis clan. So correct if I am wrong in summarizing what I think constitutes the nature of this new clan to the English-playing community:

Genesis emphasize on the use of soul-charging and soul-blasting, in order to activate skills, like Fortuna.
Genesis requires its own cards to soul-charge quite quickly around the early and middle stages.

Erm... but massive soul-charging also equates to early decking-out, no?

It reduces the strain on Counter-blasting by mixing it up with Soul-blasting. Cost-efficient?

Do let me know what you think. :)

Void =/= Galaxy

2013-11-27T19:05:00.002+08:00

Mobile Suit Gundam... ah, believe it or not, they were my initial driving motivation in starting Cardfight Vanguard. Alas, for the English playing community, the Blaukruger series was not released until very much later, some after the release of BT8, I think.

In fact, the release was way too long by then and since then, the only clan that the community was probably looking out for was Shadow Paladin. The cards for Nova Grappler, Megacolony, Kagero, and Dimension Police from BT04 were so overshadowed that their stint in the English Vanguard scene was extremely short-lived.

Come, my forgotten Vanguard warriors. Let us meditate and forgive Bushiroad for their transgressions in forgetting about us for... shit?! It's that long?!?!

Naturally, Stern Blakruger and its gang almost faded to obscurity save for a few rare players that still uses it to this day, which is extremely rare to say the least.

Now, with the Japanese playing community having powerful releases and the advent of both Break Rides and Link Joker, it was most certainly a very refreshing thought to have the Blaukruger series be brought back from near-death. After all, Bushiroad did give immense support for the obscure Seal Dragon, Blockade. Of course, when Blockade was released from BT02, it was a pretty nice addition to the then young English community, before it got itself swarmed with the BT06 and later release. Culprit in question? Limit Break and Gold Paladin.

Sure, it was quite a strange schedule to be going about with from Bushiroad and not to mention recently we've skipped BT10 and went for BT11 instead. Contrary to the others though, I do applaud Bushiroad's delay of BT10 this time since BT09 was release quite recently as well. Most likely, it is meant to help ease in the Platinum Ezel and The Blood before it gets overwhelmed by Liberator Alfred or Eradicator Dragonic Descendent.

It was also nice to see Tachikaze getting the decent Ancient Dragon release too, though certain clans are still left in the dark like Spike Brothers.

But what the hell am I doing? I'm supposed to be talking about the Blaukrugers!!!

So why the Blaukrugers? Why am I dragging out the dead horse? Simple; EB08 Champions of the Galaxy.

This would be the first EB-dedicated release for Nova Grapplers. EB-09 is for Kagero. Reach out for the Stars, Team Rocket!

Prior to this, I have taken the liberty of printing out my own monochrome variations of cards in preparation for future releases. I obtain the partial pictures from the Cardfight Vanguard Wiki as well as obtaining the card's effect and description and pasting them into the spaces in English, and finally printing them out to be cut out and placed inside the card sleeves while using the actual cards as backings.

In short, proxies. Thus, I tried and tested the Ancient Dragons deck about a month before its release and tested it extensively while deciding my Tachikaze line-up. Additionally, I also did the same with the Nubatama cards from BT12 and with great results too, generating great interests among the other Japanese players nearby, even before BT12 was officially released. Naturally, these proxies are not used in any actual shop tournaments or bigger. (Come on, have faith in me, man!)

Regardless, I am glad that Bushiroad is breathing some life back to the Blaukruger series through EB08 and the initial leaks made available via the Wiki site has allowed me to make more proxy cards and test them out. Honestly, even if it was not good I would still have went for it anyways, just for the sake of its Gundam-theme.

And boy, do I love it! I. LOVE. IT! For example, introducing Mars Blaukruger.

In the words of Setsuna F. Seiei, "Trans-Am!"

Mars Blaukruger is a Grade 2 Nova Grappler unit, with 9000 power, 5000 shield. Its ability allows itself to stand for a mere cost of 1 Counter-blast, when the Vanguard successfully hits the opponent Vanguard. Additionally, when its skill is activated, Mars Blaukruger gets +5000 power until end of turn! Cool, eh? Of course, standing it with a Stand Trigger or another's skill will not trigger the +5000 power so do take note of that.

Don't forget the latest Break Ride card from the Blau Universer; Mont Blaukruger. Of course, there are some naming variations, but screw that.

Go, Fangs! (You get a virtual cookie for recognizing the reference. I mean it, seriously. Go check your browser settings!)

What is really cool with Mont's skill is that if a Nova Grappler unit rides on top of it and the Limit Break condition is met, when the Vanguard attacks the opponent Vanguard the Player may pay the cost of 1 Counter-blast and STAND ALL OF HIS/HER REARGUARDS!

That's a guaranteed 5 turns of attacks!!!

Grr...

2013-10-25T09:49:00.000+08:00

Ugh... Cheaters. Yeah, you'll hear from time-to-time about this kinds of people. Players that derive their joy from twisting and wicked manipulation of cards and decks, just so to ensure victory, mostly in tournaments. In fact, these very people have gone through extensive training in order to gain the upper hand in sabotaging the opponent's decks, thus negatively affecting their starting hand.

Now, it is no surprise to how I feel about these characters; they are trash. Simple and straightforward, trash. I mean, rather than trying to come up with their own play strategies, these bastards would go to the extend of cheating ways.

No, I will not take back my words about this kind of people. What is supposed to be fun is totally and entirely trashed by twisted and unscrupulous people such as these. This is especially more prominent in tournaments, especially the Cardfight Vanguard World Championships and its like.

As this is the case with my more recent experience in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, about 2 weeks ago. Sad to say, this is not a region problem; it's a global problem. Just like there are cheating players in Malaysia, so are there the same such characters in my hometown Singapore and other places too.

And its not just about doctoring decks; its also the case with making false accusations and accounts just to disqualify the other player. Have we truly been reduced to such a state? Is this really what the gaming scene has really become, even though some of us, me included, have tried to believe that there is some good in this world but only to be reminded once again that 'evil' still prevails?

You tell me what you think.

MY FAITH IS BREAKING!!!

2013-10-16T22:55:00.000+08:00

Nothing religious to do here, citizen. Move along.

Behold, the bitching has returned. So let's put some stuff into perspective, shall we?

Break Ride. A mechanic that is activated upon riding another unit on top of it, thus triggering the activation conditions and thus, reaping large rewards. Mainly comes with the standard 10,000 power boost for that one turn, some other Break Ride cards comes with some devastating skills too.

But here's the strange thing; certain clans gets it better while others do not. Here's an example case study:

Gold Paladins' ranks was recently expanded with the release of the English Trial Deck, VG-TD08 Liberator of the Sanctuary, followed shortly with Narukami's variation of VG-TD09 Eradicator of the Empire.

Personally, I think that the Gold Paladins got the better half of the deal but that is highly debatable at this point. But prior to that, the English community received its first break ride from a relatively innocent looking but deadly clan; Bermuda Triangle.

In fact, it is one of the more, if not the most, powerful Break Rides with Limit Breaks I have ever seen. The conditions to trigger either one of them is ridiculously simple and cheap, even free, and almost impossible to stop unless the Gods smile upon your plight.

Yes, I am talking about VG-EB06 Dazzling Divas. For the uninformed, here's a quick look at its prime Limit Break card:

Ah... Fame... You peons, all bowing to my infinite beauty and wealth. Spend all your hard earned money just for the chance for me to wink back at you.

PR♥ISM-Promise Labrador, has the Limit Break of simply superior calling 3 PR♥ISM units from the player's hand to the field, and it will add 10,000 power and 1 Critical to itself, when attacking. And here are my points for why its so powerful, which should already have been blindingly obvious to you by now:

It's cheap! I mean, not cheating cheap, mind you. But cheap to activate! Boy, then constant Crits coming your way... how many Perfect Guards are you going to have in one hand?!
It's focused. EB06 is practically Bermuda Triangle's world and thus, you're building a super effective deck with the cards DEDICATED to this archtype and anything in-between. Players don't have to but Booster Boxes and individual packs and keep missing crucial cards for their clan, just to see the other couple of guys grabbing it before you do. Worse of all, they'll rip you off because they don't need it and you do.
It's strong. Okay, that would be highly subject-able, and for good reason too. There are ways to make this card fail but at this point of time for the English community, that option isn't available yet.

As for me, I do not own not wish to own a Bermuda Triangle deck, simply because it just doesn't suit my style. There will be people out there wanting to get the best possible clan with the best, cheatiest (There isn't such a word, but you get what I mean) skill ever; Link Joker.

Again, its is from my personal experience fighting them but then again, I am using at best an English deck against a fully decked-out Link Joker with Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragons. I try to do whatever I can but ultimately, it's really, REALLY hard to fight on equal grounds.

Even so, I strongly believe, and I'm sure many of you and others too will agree, that when Link Joker is released, there will be so many frantic people gunning for them. Possibly going as far as to buy a whole lot more boxes for the sake of them. Unfortunately, being the punishing end of defeat of some many Link Joker decks, I think I may have already been Reversed by them too.

Yet, there is still some glint of shining hope at the end of that dark and long tunnel. I am gunning for Tachikaze's Ancient Dragons archtype that will be released within 2 weeks type, just 1 day before the World Championships in Singapore. I proxy those cards and have been practicing with them and so far, am proud to say that I could probably be a contender.

The time for Gundam has finally come upon the world!!! Yay!!!

I am also gunning for Nova Grapplers' new Beasty Deity cards, especially Ethics Buster and its counterparts, as well as the newly announced EB08 Champions of the Galaxy. Why wouldn't I want to get myself a deck full of Gundam-wannabes?!

Ugh...

2013-10-08T21:36:00.000+08:00

Ugh... how long has it been since I last updated this...

Far

Too

Long

Well, can you blame me? I suppose you can. Man oh man, am I tired. Not of Vanguard, mind you.

It's my work, taking me away from Vanguard, from Hearthstone, from fun. Well, such is the life of a working adult. But to experience it continuously in the rats race just makes me feel really sad, you know what I mean?

Still, here's a quick update; me and some of my fellow Singapore Vanguard friends ventured into the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to take part in the World Championship 2013 English. It was quite a harsh and tiring journey for me and my friend, considering that we started taking a coach from Golden Mile Plaza, all the way to Berjaya Times Square, right after work. So you can kind of imagine how tired me and my friend were when we finally reached the hotel where in the morning, the event will start.

Fortunately, 3 of my other friends went ahead on Thursday and thus, pretty much scouted the place for the both of us beforehand and fortunately, was at least able to lend us the couch from their hotel room to catch some previous zzz before the event starts. Despite me and my friend have booked a room with the hotel, we had to wait till around 3pm on the next day before we could check in.

So in general, we were sleep deprived and somewhat mentally exhausted. Regardless, we still made our way to the tournament for the hopes of coming out tops.

I also had the chance to meet and catch up with FreedomDuo again and it was nice to know that he got to the top 8 before being ousted out.

As for me and my friend, we did not fare well at all. In general, I used my personal hybrid deck. The first match, unfortunately and ultimately sucks alot, was against the same friend that traveled with me throughout the journey from Singapore to KL. How sucky is that?!

Alas, I clinched the win away from him and already, it was not a good start for him. Then, my other friends too, some won, other lost.

My second match was weird. When I sat down in front of my opponent, I found out that he was quite a loudmouth punk (A). Normally, I don't diss any players, but I do take extra effort in emphasizing on lousy attitude players like this guy. The match has not started and he was already running his mouth and generally, being a noise-producing individual. Mind you, he is not young either.

Then, another boy (B) came along and claimed that (A) took his seat. (A) began claiming that (B) was mistaken and even labeled him an idiot, and even saying that (B) does not know how to read the pairing sheets. When (B) got the judges to help clarify the situation, did he quietly relinquish the seat and sat to the next one instead. Ugh...

Well, generally, the 2nd round did not end well for me and I garnered my first loss of the day.

But the 3rd round was the most ridiculous of all. I drew my starting hand; it was full of grade 0s. I did a mulligan and re-drew my hand, I have 1 grade 1 and the rest are grade 0s. And so, I was grade-locked at grade 1 for 3 round while my opponent was leisurely beating me away. Still, I managed to hold on surprisingly long, and even my opponent was impressed I held on until I reached grade 3.

However, as you might have already guessed, by that time it was already far too late for me to deal any real damage and before long, my defenses came crumbling down. It was quite a downer and Lady Luck wasn't very supportive of me either. Still, my hopes now lies with the upcoming Singapore Qualifiers this month of October.

I am still comtemplating on what to do though... should I take my chances with the new Break Ride cards from the soon-to-be-released BT11? Or do I stick with my current decks?

Let's face it; Break Rides are really powerful, and prior to that when Limit Breaks was finally released for the English community, many other clans were unable to fight against Gold Paladin and Narukami due to them getting Limit Breaks first. Now, the current clans I have will not be able to utilize any of the Break Rides at all during the upcoming Qualifiers.

What do you all think?

A new embodiment has arisen!

2013-09-08T12:51:00.001+08:00

Hey there everyone, Conquer001 here!

It's good to see you all again, and very soon once more in new persona of myself.

As some of you might be already aware, I recently started a new YouTube Channel and a new Blog too.

The purpose? To combine my latest game-involvement with Cardfight Vanguard, and that is Blizzard's Free-To-Play CCG, HearthStone Heroes of Warcraft.

And thus, the merging of the two games under one banner; Budget Meister Morris. Yup, that's right. That'll be my new persona name from now on. Which is also why I highly recommend all to link yourself to my new YouTube Channel and Blog via the following links:

Budget Meister Morris YouTube

Budget Meister Morris Blog

Do let me now what you think and feel about my plays and especially, if you like my content that is, subscribe, like, broadcast, whatever. :)

ON TO A NEW REALM!!!

The start of new Realm

2013-09-06T11:42:00.002+08:00

As some of you are already aware, Blizzard had opened up a Closed Beta session for some time now, with one of their latest game title releases. It is a F2P (Free-To-Play) CCG (Collectable Card Game) called HearthStone.

Right now, there are a lot of attention in just trying to get the elusive Closed Beta keys so that one can participate in the action.

I, for one, am quite fortunate to obtain this morning while on my way to work. It was rather sad to see so many other interested people that wanted to take part in the action. But alas, it would Blizzard is currently sticking to a specific number of Beta keys that will be distributed out at specific intervals of their choosing.

But my purpose here is not to boast about me getting the key; hardly I want to show the Internet community my appreciation for being given the chance to take part in this seemingly fun CCG, considering the fact that I play and enjoy Cardfight Vanguard.

Thus, also my announcement on creating possibly a second and more official YouTube Channel and Blog to record and document my progress in regards to Hearthstone, both within the Closed Beta and onto the official release.

I also want to associate myself with another username during this time, and perhaps slowly pulling myself away from the personae of Conquer001. This time, it will be the Budget Meister. Some of you may not agree but I think it suits me well and I would like to try to go Pro with HearthStone too.

So, once I manage to set some things up right with my computer like recording software and a decent microphone for recording, I would be honoured to share my first and future gameplays with you all in HearthStone.

Here are some official media content about HearthStone for you to enjoy while I prepare things on my side:

EB05 Draft Battle!

2013-09-04T16:32:00.001+08:00

Hey there, ladies and gentlemen. Conquer001 here, back again from a short hiatus with work and mostly, because I feel sick. Ugh.

As I am typing this out, I still coughing. Darn, healing is a long process.

Still, here I am going to share about the most recent event I took part in; the draft shop tournament for EB04 and 05.

To be more precise, I picked the EB05 part which may come as a surprise to some, since I do not have an OTT deck.

Regardless, me and the other players proceeded on to opening up the packs. And what do you know? I didn't get a single foil. Not one. Zero. Nada!

Furthermore, I was the only one who did not get a single foil at all in the entire draft process! How sick is that? Quite. :(

But nevertheless, I tried to build my deck and I admit, I was feeling pretty down and depressed about it. I mean, even as the Budget Meister, trying to go against other decks with more power and potentially devastating skills with a half-baked deck of even more half-baked cards is quite ridiculous.

And so, the first battle went ahead. It was a massacre. For both rounds, I literally was grade-locked. First round, locked at grade 2 and my opponent pummelled me. Second round was even worse; grade-locked at grade 0, despite me exchanging my entire initial hand draw.

Second pair up came and in all honesty, I was not sure of what to expect since thus far, my draft deck was performing less than acceptable. Surprisingly though, I managed to do a round-about and took advantage one round of grade-lock and another round of a proper battle with Battle Sister Souffle as my main Vanguard.

Then, came the third pair-up. Still, battle conditions were unfavorable but with the final prize of the Battle Sister Fromage mat as the 1st runner up prize, I tried anyways despite feeling discouraged.

It was quite a run; the first round ending with me winning, while the second round I forced my opponent to exhaust his deck before I did. Ironically, we were both using OTT draft decks so I tried to control the situation as much as I could.

Ultimately, I won the 1st runner-up position and claimed 1 of the 2 Battle Sister Fromage mats that came with the Draft Pizza box.

Within a few days time, expect to see 3 unboxing videos of EB05! Aidos!

Nomad's journey has ended.

2013-08-11T15:10:00.001+08:00

Ugh... how long has it been since my last post? Wow, over a month now. And so, my humble apologies for my absence from this blog as it was due to my laziness and absorption to both Vanguard and work (involving my part-time course in the evenings too).

Still, I am glad that I have logged back in to post more news about Vanguard and hopefully, keeping it more regularly updated in the coming weeks and months.

So, let's start with one thing that has been taking the Japanese Vanguard scene by storm. Yes, I am referring to the new clan that became Kai Toshiki's avatar; Link Joker. As much as the name does not make much of a sense and may even be, pardon the pun, a joke, the fact that it uses a new mechanic known as Lock has proven to be quite powerful.

Kai Toshiki, the new embodiment of oppression, after being lured and controlled by the power of The Void. Certainly, he fulfills the role extremely well. I would say most likely on par with the old Ren Suzugamori.

However, the good news with this mechanic is that even though it is powerful, it isn't unbeatable. So, on to my bitching process:

As some of you may already know or even have experienced it, Lock is a mechanic when you simply flip the targeted card face down and it will be untouchable by anything. And I mean, E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. until the end of the player's turn. Thus, even moving its lane position is not even possible. This would require the player to plan ahead of the proper field structure and the cards that will take advantage of it.

To the opponent though, it may be of a difficult scenario since you cannot replace Locked units nor can you shift their positions, effectively reducing the attack power and the number of attacks the opponent can dish out at the moment. I will have to commend Bushiroad for continuing coming out with interesting mechanics to improve the game, and with this Lock mechanic it made quite an impressive in the overall game.

And yet, as powerful as the anime would make it out to be, Bushiroad has also created new cards for the non-Link Joker clans too. Case in question? Gold Paladin.

Yeah, yeah, I know. For all you non-Gold Paladin users, I can understand your gripe and I don't blame you. As I have said before, Bushiroad places an incredible amount of attention and support for this particular clan for both being the protagonist's main clan as well as it being the all-star attention of the game, followed closely with both Royal and Shadow Paladin.

Let's take a look at this particular card:

[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (3) - Cards with "Liberator" in its card name] Look at the top card of your deck, search for up to one «Gold Paladin» from among them, call it to an open (RC), and put the rest on the bottom of your deck. If it is called, and you have any open (RC), you use this effect again without paying the cost.
[AUTO](VC):[Choose one of your rear-guards with "Liberator" in its card name, and put it on the bottom of your deck] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+4000 until end of that battle.
[CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a sameclan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore. The third (fourth, if you want to consider its grade 2 version as part of its transformation) incarnation of the same unit originating from Royal Paladin as the Fang of Light, Garmore from BT04. Like before, the Gold Paladin has a way of introducing new skills that really blows everything out of proportion.

I mean, look at this; Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore has the ability of fill up the entire field, without using any cards from the hand, by counter-blasting 3 Liberator cards and then easily superior calling units to the field. That is essentially 5 units to the field! Others may say that Link Joker may have changed the meta or that EDD is still as imba as ever, but the whole Vanguard scene cannot change the fact that this card is certainly, in my book, very, very broken.

Of course, Bushiroad did try to limit it somewhat but the conditions are so easily met its laughable. And that scares me because when this cards comes to English-playing shores, we'll be seeing so many people using this card! I can promise you that.

But enough of the Japanese scene; let us talk about the English scene instead. Currently now, since the release of BT09, the interests in both EB04 and EB05 has waned, or at least among the group that I am currently playing with. After all, BT09 contains more desirable cards than what EB04 and 05 can offer, unless you are sincerely intending to have either or both Death Armies and Battle Sisters for whichever reason you may have.

We are sooooo abandoned...

I can understand Bushiroad's attempt in trying to being the English community up to speed with the Japanese. It may come at a cost of some specific releases but I think we have gone beyond that point so there isn't much things we can do about it either.

EB06's releases of Bermuda Triangle's new incarnation and also the English-community's first Breakride mechanic, which if I may say so, is really strong. Then again, the clan has always been strong but this particular release truly brought the synergy of the clan together really well which makes this clan a force to reckon with.

But because all the other clans are still within the era of BT09 and before, I cannot foresee how the current sets (except for EB06) could possibly compete against this clan properly. Chain-rides and Limit-Breaks aside, the Breakride mechanic will puts a major stop to a lot of opposing clans, especially the new Labrador card that really makes it really guard against.

So unless BT 11 comes quickly, which unfortunately will not until 25th October 2013, which again is still a really long time to wait for, Bermuda Triangle's Breakride is going to dominate a lot of matches.

There are still a lot for me to share about but I will let it rest for a bit just for today. Do look forward to more bitching segments of mine in the next few days. :)

New Videos Up and About

2013-07-02T10:47:00.000+08:00

Less talk, more watch!

Yeah... I got lazy typing it down... Heh.

Budget Meister Project - Murakumo-Nubatama Hybrid

2013-06-24T18:10:00.000+08:00

As the title states, this is yet another hybrid, budget experimentation under the name of the Budget Meister (yours, truly).

So, to make it simple, I've recorded it in 720p and uploaded it onto YouTube glory! Enjoy!

Let me know what you think about it. This is currently my 2nd variation of it after I took out Million Rat.

... ... ... sniff...

A new Clan. A new Threat!

2013-06-20T17:35:00.002+08:00

A little over half a month and here I am again, hopefully with something exciting to share.

And I do.

BEHOLD! LINK JOKER!

If you like it then you should put some rings on it!

Link Joker, huh? Well, not the coolest name, but the lamest either. Still, I probably should have seen this coming from a mile away. However, when this new clan was announced I predicted that Kai Toshiki will be the new poster boy. Oh boy, was my prediction spot on:

Damn you, Aichi and Ren... I'm going to be the star this time!

I came to this conclusion when Kai mentioned a couple of time in the past few, recent anime episodes, that Kai feels that he is no longer able to match up to Aichi's and Ren's skill anymore. He did not expressively say that he wants to be stronger though, but from my analysis of Kai's character thus far I would say that he is a person that hates to lose and relish on the idea that he is stronger than most, if not every, people. In other words, he desires to be the best Vanguard player out there and believes himself to be one.

But onto the main issue of this post; the new clan, Link Joker. Link Joker's characteristics, as shown in the recent episode 127, are the following:

'Locks' X number of units on the opponent's field when the attacking unit's skill is activated. Lock, can also be seen as a variation of the resting mechanic from an existing clan, Megacolony.
Link Joker units seems to be derive from converted creatures from the various clans. Or at least, they look shockingly similar to the various units. For example:

The incarnation of both Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark combined? Nah, just an incomplete experimentation.

Hollow Twin Blades, Binary Star. Prior to the reveal of this card's grade, many have speculated that this could be Link Joker's answer to Gold Paladin's and Shadow Paladin's Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark respectively. Turns out, not so much as a grade 1, 8k vanilla. Heh...

A couple of Link Joker units will power up due to if the player's field has more units than the opponent, which is also where the 'Lock' mechanic comes into play.

The idea of 'Lock' is that the selected card is simply turned face down but remains on the field. It is on the field but at the same time, not.
What this means is that the spot that the 'Locked' unit is on cannot be interacted with:

The 'Locked' unit cannot be moved.
The 'Locked' unit cannot be retired.
The 'Locked' unit cannot be targeted by any skill.
The 'Locked' unit cannot boost, intercept, nor attack.
The 'Locked' unit is not counted as part of the total number of units of the field.
The 'Locked' unit is only flipped back face up at the end of the owner's turn.

Personally, on paper this skill sounds really powerful and tricky to avoid. Since the RearGuard circle occupied by a 'Locked' unit cannot be vacated by normal means, the attacking force of the player is also drastically reduced. At the same time, the conditions to activate such skill also seems quite economical. Observe:

Don't I look a bit like Magastu Storm? Except, I know I look way cooler. Heh heh...

Star-vader, Dark Band Dragon, has the following skill:
[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Counter Blast (1) - Cards with Star-vader in its card name] Choose one of your opponent's rear-guards in the back row, and lock it.
[AUTO](VC):When this unit attacks, if the number of rear-guards you have is more than your opponent's, this unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of that battle.

Firstly, the initial skills seems decent enough in which the conditions to pay may be rather small; a cost of only 1 Counter-blast at a Limit Break of 4, it requires the player to have Star-vader cards in the damage zone which I believe, is highly achievable.

The second skill is also easily activated, that all the player needs to do is to 'Lock' one of the opponent's units (assuming that both players has full fields) to fulfill the requirements.

Overall, the player using this card is only gaining a +3K power but with an additional effect of locking one of the opponent's Rearguard slots for the next entire turn, which can be paramount to the opponent.

In comparison though, this puts Megacolony at a pretty negative light. Its clan's unique characteristic has been adapted by Link Joker and possibly, made better and more cost efficient. Additionally, add it with the anime's developing story-line, it probably won't come as a surprise that a lot of players will be picking this new clan up, just like the time when Aqua Force was first initial introduced during season 2.


My skill! No!!! Oh... right. I don't rest them; I retire them. ha ha ha ha...

Of course, it would be highly unlikely that Bushiroad would screw Megacolony users all over the world with this. I suspect that they already have something up their sleeves to try bring this unfortunate clan to fighting standards once again.

Still, I cannot help to express my interest in this clan, but only to be slight overshadowed by a piece of news...

Nubatama is coming back... and so could Ninja Master M!

Triggers, triggers, triggers...

2013-05-30T11:19:00.002+08:00

Triggers. An integral part of the trading card game Cardfight Vanguard, in which if Lady Luck is smiling at you like some deranged and sexually desperate woman, then you'll be drive-checking these triggers, in which giving you an immense advantage during your Battle Phase.

So, this topic has been hotly debated from time-to-time, as to which particular triggers would be great to use and such.

Anyways, let's get to the basics first, in which I'm sure most of you are already familiar with and this particular attempt is merely my futile effort in trying to hold on to your precious seconds for possible ad revenue, which just doesn't seem to be working.

Firstly, there are a total of 4 triggers, in no particular order: Critical Triggers, Stand Triggers, Draw Triggers, and Heal Triggers.

Now to state the obvious; I personally believe that most decks, if not all, should have 4 Heal triggers at maximum, but may have the occasional 3 Heal triggers instead, if the deck structure demands it so. As the name states, it HEALS you. Well, your damage zone anyways.

Next, Draw Triggers. With the downside of it being only a 5k shield, it triples as a decent cheap 5k booster, a card to sacrifice/discard due to certain card(s) effect(s), and drawing an additional card during the Drive Check phase.

Following up is the Stand Trigger. Stand Triggers are interesting because besides giving a 5k attack boost to any unit during that Battle Phase, it allows the player to stand one rested unit during the same Battle Phase, allowing a potential 4th or even 5th attack in one turn.

And finally, the infamous Critical Trigger. Critically acclaimed by many players out there, pun not intended, to be THE trigger that everyone should use, I can only say that this trigger is highly-overrated.

Don't get me wrong, Critical Triggers are still a more desirable choice to go for, at least for some certain decks, but from personal experience Stands Triggers have proven to be quite a fearsome card too, though a bit trickier to use and very much under-estimated by many players.

In summary, Crits for Speed, Stands for Tenacity, Draws for Hand Strength, and Heals for, er well... heals.

BT08 Unboxing and Un-Bitching... Heh...

2013-05-06T22:48:00.000+08:00

The day came and went.

The unboxing of my three pre-ordered BT08 boxes... Ah... Colonel Raptor... How long have I waited for your arrival...

Only to be marred by the presence of Aqua Force. Again, I wish to stress that I have nothing against Aqua Force... EXCEPT for the fact that they took up my Neo Nectar and Tachikaze slots!

Dimension Police, Aqua Force, MORE Dimension Police, MORE Aqua Force, and TWO Dungarees from THREE boxes!!!

Huff... huff... huff...

Now that's out of my system, I suppose I should be thankful that my other fellow Vanguard companions have the necessary Musketeers and Tachikaze cards I need to trade with and so, went pretty well to the point that my Neo Nectar Musketeer deck is complete, and so is my Tachikaze Raptor deck.

But clearly, the majority of the English-playing community of this particular period would be more... 'enthusiastic' about the advent of this new clan; Aqua Force. After all, Maelstrom has proven itself to be an incredibly powerful unit; tough to guard and having a really good secondary, Limit Break skill too. Behold...

Now, for the most part I'd probably be bitching about this powerful and potentially, its powerful clan, but I'm going to be factual about it.

For the uninitiated, Aqua Force is the latest new clan, in the English-community realm, to be added to the Cardfight Vanguard clan roster. They essential are water-based creatures with their main mechanics of having multiple attacks, mostly more 4 or more per turn effortlessly. By doing so, this unlocks specific units allowing the player access to those said skills.

However, most of the attacks are either miniscule (10k, 11k attack power), or probably would not hurt you (7k, 8k, 9k). But these attack power does not matter as much as with the number of TIMES the player has attacked the opponent. In the example of Maelstrom, as long as the player has 4 or more damage in the damage zone and is attacking for the fourth or more time, Maelstrom gets an additional 5k to its attacking power and a special skill. Check it out via the red text in the image.

This also means that the opponent will be peppered with small, annoying attacks that requires at least a 5k to guard. Fortunately, this BT08 release is clearly catered to Aqua Force and as such, this clan is getting a very decent support from Bushiroad, not surprisingly that it IS to be considered one of the new entries to the Meta ranks.

In all honesty, I was planning of building an Aqua Force deck, assuming that my 3 BT08 boxes were able to get me at least 2 of its Perfect Guards. Alas, it was not meant to be, but neither was getting any of the other prerequisite number of cards I needed for my other 2 deck-clans; Tachikaze and Neo Nectar.

In the case of Tachikaze, it was fortunate that I was able to obtain 2 Dark Rex and 1 Colonel Raptor from the Draft Tournaments as well as trading around. It was also fortunate of me to have already obtained the staple cards of the clan, such as Archbird.

The same applies for Neo Nectar too, with the fact that I have already obtained the necessary cards from BT05, which generously rewards me with tons of its cards. To date, I have 7 Maiden of the Trailing Rose! However, getting the RR and RRR Musketeer cards proves to be a rough road. Nevertheless, it was made possible with trading with my Vanguard friends whom were more focused on Aqua Force, which was to be expected.

I mean, who wouldn't want to have a deck associated with a cool clan? I do, and I have seen many other player wanting that the same coolness.

Yet, I have decided to go for something which I know, is just as, if not more, cool than Aqua Force. Answer: The Raptor series from Tachikaze and the Musketeer series from Neo Nectar.

I'm sexy hot and I'm gonna stab ya! Poke!

Nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan!

More bitching later! Mwa ha ha ha ha!!!

The double-goodness of Fossils, ancient and new ones otherwise and... ah, whatever!

2013-04-29T21:07:00.000+08:00

So, how's it feel to finally see a new post in such a looooong time?

Boy, oh boy, is it a long absence. But hey, I'm back, you're back, we're all back. As to why I'm gone for such a long time?

Classic answer; work. Yup, good ol' fashioned work, earning measly amounts of paper currency in order to support my basic survival necessities and the wonderful indulgence of Cardfight Vanguard.

Speaking of which, this is also the number one reason as to this latest post; Cardfight Vanguard. So, what the most recent news? Well, for one, mister BT08 is going to be released this weekend in Singapore, and then in the subsequent week(s) for the rest of the international communities.

For two reasons: Mr Tachikaze and Ms Neo Nectar, specifically the Raptor and the Musketeer series. For Tachikaze, which for some of you wonderful readers out there have already known from my previous entries, I am in love with this clan. In addition, BT11 announces some really wonderful news for this beloved, non-meta clan with its Ancient Dragons archtypes, which certainly brings up the level of game-play for this clan.

But why Neo Nectar, especially the Musketeer series? When the playing community was in the midst of the BT05 release-craze, for some unknown reason I kept getting a lot of Neo Nectar foil cards, like the Perfect Guards, Trailing Rose, etc, that I was able to comfortably build a decent, and fun, Neo Nectar deck.

If that's the case, why the Musketeer series and not Sephirot chain-ride?

Reason number 1: The consistency of the Musketeers. From several reading materials and personal (amateurish) research, I have to the conclusion that the Musketeers can greatly reduce the impact of a god-like power of mine. Because of this mythical power I was affectionately dubbed "The God of Mis-grades" among my Vanguard-playing peers. Okay, maybe it doesn't reduce my chances of mis-grading, but it certainly does help in helping me to fill up my field with more effective units, thus a better quality field.

Reason number 2: Er... well, I prefer more girls and clearly, Sephirot is not a girl. Booby girl.

Reason number 3: That's pretty much it.

Yet going such a path also means some hard walls to overcome, namely:

Wall number 1: Cost. There's quite a number of foils involved with the Musketeers and a few of my other Vanguard peers are also interested in the series as well, making this particular series a highly contested deck. Thus, driving up the trading and selling costs of the Musketeer foils. Still, I'm hoping that the 3 pre-ordered boxes of BT08s should help me both in the areas of Tachikaze and Neo Nectar (Musketeers).

Wall number 2: Power. Let's face it; Musketeers lack in power. I mean, no where as bad as the Brachio series, but I do not see much of the Musketeer cards being able to go up to 20,000 attacking points or more. Certainly with the Sephirot cards I will be able to comfortably reach magic numbers easily and force major pressure on my opponents, but the problem with it is the chain-ride problem and establishing a good field to take advantage of Sephirot's Limit Break.

Potential Wall number 3: In the many months of Vanguard playing, I have come to one understanding; Destiny loves to screw me over and it has done so so many times. This time, I would not expect anything less from it and thus, possibly a whole bunch of Aqua Force cards could potentially find their way into my hands. Not that I have anything against Aqua Force, mind you, except for the sad fact that it is a meta-clan. Because if I am forced to build an Aqua Force deck, it'll mean that I will have to procure many key cards like the Perfect Guards, which I already have a comfortable amount of it in both Tachikaze and Neo Nectar.

See my point?

Anyways, look forward to my unboxing videos real soon this Friday! Hopefully, I have some nice shinys to share with you all. :)

The Bounty of Extra Booster 1... huh?

2013-03-31T00:13:00.002+08:00

So... why EB01?

For one, there aren't a lot of cards I am hoping to get from this release, except for Perfect Raizer, Hi-powered Raizer, and Belicosity. Of course, there are a few essential cards for the Raizer build, but easily obtainable as they are just commons.

So, cutting straight to the chase, enjoy my exploits from the unboxing of the EB01 boxes: