Thursday 29 August 2013

Captain NightTroll's Guide to Granblue

Hey folks, this is le jester over here. I have been on hiatus on the blog for quite sometime. Its time I shall talk about this clan which which hypes everyone recently these few weeks.

This clan just got revived when cocytus gets his reversed form and a new breakride.
So lets first talk about the support that its getting.

Lord of the seven seas, Nightmist
BT13-016-RR (Sample)
Card Effect(s) [AUTO] Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):When a «Granblue» rides this unit, choose your vanguard, that unit gets [Power]+10000 until end of turn, choose up to two «Granblue» from your drop zone, call them to (RC), the units called with this effect get [Power]+5000 until end of turn, and at the end of that turn, retire those units. [CONT]:During your turn, if the number of «Granblue» rear-guards you have is four or more, this unit gets [Power]+2000. [CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

What are the combos and dropzone targets you can pull with this guy alone?
1. Sea Strolling Banshee
BT13-037-R (Sample)
[AUTO]:[Soul Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (RC) from your drop zone, if you have a «Granblue» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

Opinions: The art is so kawaii. Soulblast 1 and draw 1. This is the card that granblue needs. With soulblast 1, as compared to cutlass, which soulblast 2, ya can finally spam this lady with your soul and gain advantages. Not to mention, deadly nightmare and spirits eat 2 cards from your soul  which is a  heavy
cost to replace your rearguards.
with nightmist, ya get a decent 11k booster with her.

2.Rough Seas Banshee
BT02-055EN C
This card is so easy to abuse to draw cards and to pump your soul up to be used later for cards that burns the soul like the deadly nightmare, spirits and sea strolling banshee.

3. Death Seeker Thanathos
BT06-014EN RR
Wouldn't it be good to keep your opponent under the pressure cooker and if this card actually hits, you can replace a rearguard and keep it permanent on the field which in this case calling either the Sea Stroll banshee would give you the pluses.

4. Ruin Shade
BT02-S03EN SP
Yea why not some ruin shades to hit perfect numbers and hasten triggers.

5. Captain Nightkid
378529
Or ya can actually call this guy to help thin and filter the deck by using the counterblast. Which granblue hardly uses it except for cocytus.

Besides all this, what is the skill of cocytus reverse and how do I actually use it?
Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus "Reverse"
BT13-017-RR (Sample)
[ACT](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Put three cards from the top of your deck into your drop zone & Choose one of your «Granblue» rear-guards, and lock it] Choose one «Granblue» from your drop zone, call it to (RC), and that unit gets [Power]+3000 until end of turn. (Locked cards are turned face down, and cannot do anything. Turn them face up at the end of its owner's turn) [CONT](VC):If you have a card named "Ice Prison Necromancer, Cocytus" in your soul, this unit gets [Power]+2000. [CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

So who do I actually call with this effect?
Answer is you don't just call a ruin shade or a banshee just because you can as wouldnt be advisable to get cards that draw from this effect either which will result to screwed up trigger stacks and decking out faster. As it would mean you decking out faster.
So what is the best option?

Scenario 1
In this scenario if you have a 7k booster without an attacker, Ya would want to call the 8k special intercepter to your Rearguard to become an 11k attacker with a 7k boost which makes it an 18k perfect number against crossrides.

Scenario 2
In another scenario is when you have a 10k vanilla as a rearguard. You would want to call back the 8k vanilla to your rearguard to make it an 11k booster which this turn makes the whole column a perfect number of 21k against the 11k base vanguard and the turn after a 18k base perfect number against crossrides.

Scenario 3
In this other scenario would be to respawn a ruin shade or a 7k booster or vice versa. With ruin shade, being notorious for milling 2 cards and hiting magic numbers of 11k. Just imagine ya mill with ruin shade which actually makes the whole column a magic number of 21k and a magic number of 19k agains crossrides without milling.

Scenario 4
This scenario is when you call a Sea strolling banshee to make it be a 9k booster. However ya would need a 9k attacking rearguard to make this column into a 18k perfect number against crossrides. This comes with a downside when the turn is over as banshee would be back to a 6k which makes it 15 column.

So what do we do in this situation?
I would say you have 2 choices.
A. You would need to use ruin shade to mill to pump the column to 17k.
B. You would need to replace the rearguard with a 7k booster to hit 16k magic number.
However use either options depending on the situation you are in.

Scenario 5
The last would be calling a rough sea banshee via cocytus Reverse's effect. In this case is when you are out of soul to burn and a Banshee would be a 7k booster. As mention above, 7k + 9k = Magic number. Similar to the situation above, he column will be imperfect for the next turn which would need you to send the banshee to soul to draw and call a 7k booster.

You see cocytus reverse isn't designed like a garmore which gives massive pluses. What he is meant to do is like a deadly spirit and a nightmare which help correct your rearguards column to hit a perfect number and how can this get any better than a free mill and no counterblasts. Wouldn't this free up some counterblasts for a nightmist to revive himself?

Conclusion on granblue's playstyle.
As the theme suggest of undeads and the sea, the deck is very volatile to situations and able to correct themsleves or refill the empty space like fluids and water. Its the deck that is able to give a massive advantage and pluses like a gold paladin deck. It also hasten triggers like a dark irregular, genesis, OTT which never guard a 1 pass against this deck or at times a 2 pass. Coz the triggers tend to stack well if you are running 12 critical triggers like me. This deck is also able to recover from mass field nuking which a kagero and a narukami would do. The possible perfect counter?

Monday 26 August 2013

Bushiroad Festival 2013


Hey there readers! Thanks for stopping by the le vanguard blog. I hope you find this post interesting.
So anyway for those of you who didn't know there was a Bushiroad festival held at Suntec City on the 24 and 25 of September. For those of you who did go for this event i hope you guys and girls enjoyed it as much as i did. We all probably still have the blue or purple stamp marks on our arms (damn they are annoying when you try and get it off) from the Cardfight Vanguard and Weis Schwarz events held on their respective days. There were tons of prizes that were distributed on these two days. An example of these loots would include limited edition deck cases from the mini games there, mouse pads, PR cards and files.
It was also the only time where players could grab the Fighters Collection 2013, a extinct booster that is high on demand. Despite the long queue in the morning and the countless hours of standing, I personally feel that the wait was well worth it as i managed to snag the deck cases as well as the shirts and other prizes.
Overall it was time well spent as not only did i get to fight fighters from all over the nation, I could also get some sweet deals for boosters and other TCG products. I mean where else can u find a promotion that says $10 for 5 boosters? I highly encourage you guys and girls to come down to these events held by Bushiroad in the future as they are not only enriching for your Vanguard or Weis Schwarz journey to gain experience but these events also act as a platform to make new friends and to learn more about the games.
Thank you for reading this post and we hope to meet you guys in person during the next official Bushiroad event.
~Jonathan 

Sunday 25 August 2013

Late Night Article 1: The Machining Files

So I was bored and couldn't sleep. Hence the reason I'm typing this on my phone at 12am. (I'll probably post this in the morning.)

Seeing that more and more people are playing meta clans, I've decided to dedicate this article to one of the oldest (and rarely-used) clans of this game- Megacolony. More specifically, the EB-exclusive series, the Machinings.

First, let's take a look at the support it receives.

-Machining Worker Ant
When this card is placed on the Vanguard Circle or a Rearguard Circle, you may choose one of your "Megacolony" Rearguards with "Machining" in its name and stand it. This card combos nicely with Machining Stag Beetle, standing the Rearguard you've just superior called in rest. If you superior called a Machining Mantis and this in rest, Mantis' skill gives it +3k (provided that you have a card with "Machining" in its name in your soul), and with this card's skill, you can stand Mantis. Machining Stag Beetle gets +14k, letting it hit 24k unboosted. 

-Machining Mosquito
Found in EB03, this card is a Felucca clone, letting you soulcharge 1 when it enters the Vanguard Circle or a Rearguard Circle. I normally use this card to get more Machinings into soul. 

-Machining Hornet
When you place this unit on a Vanguard or Rearguard Circle, and you have a card with "Machining" in your soul, this unit gains power +3000 until the end of the turn. Since Machining Worker Ant will always be in your soul until you ride to Grade 3, this is like free power. You can also rush opponents like this. 

-Machining Mantis
It's the same as Machining Hornet.

-Machining Armor Beetle 
When this unit is placed on a Rearguard or the Vanguard Circle, and you have a "Megacolony" Vanguard, you can choose one of your "Megacolony" Rearguards and move it into soul. If you do, choose an opponent's Rearguard and that unit cannot stand next Stand Phase. You can use this card to move more Machinings into soul, and paralyze your opponent's columns.

-Machining Stag Beetle
An RR found in EB01, it has an on ride skill that lets you superior call 2 cards with "Machining" in their name from your soul in rest and then it gains the power of those two cards.

In a Machining deck, I would normally run 4 Heals, 4 Draws, 4 Crits and 4 Stands, but you can also run 4 Heals, 8 Crits and 4 Draws. Also, I would run 4 of each Machining, including Armor Beetle if I can find any (it's a Promo). Since the deck does not require Counterblasts, I also run Master Beetle and Megacolony Battler B. 

The main weakness of the Machinings is that if you time it wrongly, your opponent would just throw a kanzen, and if you do not have the right units in soul or in hand, your formation is pretty much screwed.  

Overall, in the hands of a skilled player, it's a pretty decent and interesting deck. I won't post a decklist as I am strongly against netdecking. 

~Eclipse