Dragon∞Blade's [Narukami - Thunder Break / Dungaree]

I wasn't a fan of Vermillion, but I wanted to play Narukami.  So I came up with this BS.
Cheap decks are great!

Great Nature - Leo-pald's Hamster Farm

Haven't played this deck in a while.  If anything seems off, put in a comment.  I might have messed up somewhere.

Granblue - Only 4

It's THAT deck.

Well, no, not the 1 Monster Frank deck (although that's also hilarious).

The 4 G3 deck.
Really budget.  Really fun.

Pale Moon - Sword Throwing

My other Sarah variant.  This one is more of a beatdown deck with a bonus effect or 2.

Pressure oriented build can be found here: http://triggercapital.blogspot.com/2013/08/pale-moon-knife-throwing.html

Pale Moon - Knife Throwing

Like I promised, Pale Moon with Sarah as main vanguard.

This one is the pressure oriented build.

Beatdown build is available too: http://triggercapital.blogspot.com/2013/08/pale-moon-sword-throwing.html

I'm back!

Back from vacation in Beijing.  And guess what?  Cardfighting not only cured my depression last year, but also cured my jet lag this year.  Honestly, it works better than prescription drugs!

But, enough of that.  I should actually start putting more content on this blog.

Upcoming deck lists:

-Soul Paladins (2 or 3 versions of)
-Spectral Duke
-My budget 'unwanted vanguards' Narukami deck (oh god, I heard Guld is $5 now)
-Pale Moon (pressure build for Sarah first, then maybe I'll do a build for Luquier)
-Dark Irregulars (turbo soul charging, Reijy)
-Spike Brothers (Emperor build; this deck is really fun-- I said FUN, not GOOD --with no perfect guards or heal triggers)
-Maelstrom (been meaning to do this for a while, but maybe Rin can do this)
-'The hell am I supposed to ride?" Granblue (oh yeah....THIS deck)
-Great Nature (my Apt deck and a standard Leopald one)
-Nova Grapplers (I'm building a Rutile based deck)

Card Discussion - Mirror Diva, Biscayne

Alright! So... Dragon∞Blade normally does her "Unit of the Week" but since she's on vacation I'll be doing a "Card Discussion". It's been a while since anything has happened on the blog so let's take a look at one of the cards from the recently released Extra Booster, Dazzling Divas.

The card of discussion will be Mirror Diva, Biscayne.

For a set titled "Dazzling Divas", Biscayne is
the only one labeled as such outside of lore.

As her name, flavor text, and even image suggests, Biscayne is rarely ever alone on stage. A single Soulblast let's you look at the top seven cards of your deck for another copy to add to your reserves. The only qualified stand-in for the diva Biscayne is herself. 

Right then, let's use some numbers for once to get a better idea of how much "luck" you would need to pull off her effect.

(My calculations could be wrong so bear with me.)

• After setting your Starting Vanguard and drawing your opening hand, you are left with 44 cards in your deck.
• It's your turn and you draw a card (43 cards left in your deck).
• You ride to Grade 1 and assuming you don't use a Forerunner, you call Biscayne to the Rearguard and activate her effect.
• Assume 3 copies of Biscayne are left in your deck at this point.
• Through Biscayne's effect, each checked card that is not Biscayne increase the odds of the next card being Biscayne.

3/43 + 3/42 + 3/41 + 3/40 + 3/39 + 3/38 + 3/37 = 0.5263182714 = 52.63182714%

• Thus, you're a little better off than a flip of a coin.

• Now, let's assume you are using a Forerunner. You won't be able to use Biscayne until you are at Grade 2.
• By the time you're at Grade 2 you would have drawn another card (42 cards left) and performed at least 1 Trigger Check (41 cards left).
• Again, we assume you still have 3 copies of Biscayne in your deck.

3/41 + 3/40 + 3/39 + 3/38 + 3/37 + 3/36 + 3/35 = 0.5541698772 = 55.41698772%

• Thus, Biscayne offers a little over 50-50 chance of retrieving another copy. The same pattern can be used to calculate the odds of the effect working a second time in the same turn (37.94893264%).

To be honest, if your were the type of player to run 4x Sentinals and 4x 8k Boosters, Biscayne would just take up deck space since the remaining slots would go to Units that supports your deck's strategy. Plus if your deck requires Soulblasts, Biscayne might actually slow it down.

However, for a budget build, Biscayne is a good way to provide a small lead in card advantage. The extra copy of Biscayne can be used to Boost or Guard. Even though its just 1 less card, it still means 1 card closer to possibly checking a trigger. As a 6k Booster, it just barely sets up columns attacking for 15k-16k. Nonetheless, if your deck doesn't focus on hitting the magic 20k-21k columns, having Boosters is better than having none.

Well, I think this post is long enough. Time to sit back and enjoy Biscayne's newest song.

(I wonder if she performs covers.)

Cardfight!! Vanguard News from Anime Expo 2013

EDIT 7/23/2013: Some pictures taken at the panel have been added.

I have completed Day 2 out of 4 at Anime Expo 2013, and I have decided to take the time to write this little post on my phone of all things (and upload it from there)!

Anime Expo attendees ask Dr. K (general manager J-Kim) some questions they have about the future of Weiss Schwarz and Cardfight!! Vanguard.

I got up early to be able to attend Bushiroad's panel and Q&A session hosted by general manager J-Kim (sometimes appears at large sanctioned events as Dr. K, someone quite similar to Dr. O from the anime) and the manager of the community pages of the company's two flagship games: Cardfight!! Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz. During the event, we got some exciting news for Cardfighters!

Murakumo - Ninja Art: Illusionary Wall!

With BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons, more clans have received Crossride units, and what does that mean? An increased slowdown in game pace in this already defensive-oriented format. Well, I have a little something to say to that. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the covert corps of the Dragon Empire, particularly what I would like call the "Illusion Duo."

The Illusion Duo of the Dragon Empire. They act as defense commanders
for the Covert Ops.

BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades, the set that helped make Murakumo playable along with introducing the Crossrides and the monstrosity that that is Majesty Lord Blaster, brought us Covert Demonic Dragon, Mandala Lord, a unit that can turn extra copies of himself into a psuedo-Guardian with an equivalent of 10000 Shield at the cost of 1 Counter-Blast. Later on, BT09 gave us Fantasy Petal Storm, Shirayuki, which does something does the same thing Mandala Lord but at Limit Break only as a psuedo-Guardian with an equivalent shield value of 20000. Why do I use the term "psuedo-Guardian", you ask? These abilities in particular do not actually provide shield like Guardians do but rather decrease a unit's overall POWER. What does this mean? Against units like Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion and Exculpate the Blaster with their abilities granting them the ability to attack multiple units in one attack, you can easily put those skills to a screeching halt and completely stop them with a lower shield value than if you did not use the Persona Blasts of Mandala Lord or Shirayuki.

The concept behind these 2 units is that Drive Checking and drawing into Grade 3s does not become too detrimental for you come your opponent's turn as they essentially have Shield value. With Shirayuki in particular, it's almost like having most of the strength of a Sentinel at the cost of 1 card in hand rather than 2. With that said, let's move onto my take on a deck based around these two units:

_________________________________________________________________________________
Grade 0 (17)
1 Stealth Rogue of Body Replacement, Kokuenmaru
4 Stealth Fiend, Yukihime (Heal Trigger)
3 Stealth Beast, Cat Rogue (Draw Trigger)
2 Stealth Fiend, Rokuro Lady (Draw Trigger)
4 Fox User, Izuna (Critical Trigger)
3 Stealth Beast, Cat Devil (Critical Trigger)
NOTE: Murakumo has quite a lot of trigger choices. Use what you think looks good. If you really want to have a grind game against your opponents (which I personally would not suggest until the game becomes more offensively-oriented), you can try running Stand Triggers instead and annoy them. 

Grade 1 (14)
4 Silent Stealth Rogue, Shijimamaru
4 Stealth Beast, Leaves Mirage
3 Stealth Fiend, Oboro Cart
3 Stealth Beast, Midnight Panther 

Grade 2 (11)
4 Stealth Beast, Bloody Mist
4 Stealth Beast, White Mane
3 Stealth Dragon, Cursed Breath 

Grade 3 (8)
4 Covert Demonic Dragon, Mandala Lord
4 Fantasy Petal Storm, Shirayuki
_________________________________________________________________________________
The Grade 0 lineup consists of a Grade 3-searcher Forerunner as the clan lacks a way to access Shirayuki outside of game mechanics, and we would like to be able to access extra copies of our Grade 3s if needed. Stealth Beast, Evil Ferret does not help us too much since we don't really need the early offensive, but I guess he can make for a nice 5000 boost behind the Vanguard since both the Grade 3s here are 11000 base. Triggers are fairly standard, with an extra Draw Trigger than some would go for as we would like to be able to access both our offensive and defensive units quicker.

As for Grade 1s, we got the standard vanilla boosters and Sentinels. An interesting choice you might find is the inclusion of Stealth Fiend, Oboro Cart. With this unit, we can temporarily clone any Murakumo rearguard for a turn. This helps to increase offensive capabilities when most needed. I did try using Stealth Beast, Leaf Raccoon, a conditional 10000 boost to the Vanguard, but I found it quite unsuitable for the current state of the game, so we will use a stable 7000 boost in the form of Stealth Beast, Midnight Panther, who can be pushed up a bit if needed. You are also free to use Stealth Rogue of Summoning, Jiraiya if you do not care for Midnight Panther's ability and/or you just want to trick people into thinking that you are setting up for a Gigantoad swarm.

Grade 2s consist of our Vanilla interceptors along with a set of Damage unflippers. Believe it or not, this deck can easily eat up Counter-Blasts even though they're all paid 1 at a time. If anything, you can use them to poke cards out of the opponent's hand. As I mentioned before, Murakumo lacks easy access to Shirayuki, but the clan has 2 units that can possibly result in a Mandala Lord: Stealth Dragon, Turbulence Edge and Stealth Dragon, Cursed Breath. Cursed Breath is much more preferred because it's also an interceptor, and I would say he's the optimal Grade 2 ride because of his ability. His effectiveness begins to dwindle past the first Grade 3 ride.

Need I explain the Grade 3s? A maximum equivalent of 90000 Shield, people, with an average of an additional 40000-60000 Shield equivalent showing up during a typical game!

While this deck may not be too competitive now, it is quite the annoying deck to deal with due to the extra possible equivalent Shield values via the extra Grade 3s. It does have consistency issues such as having extra Mandala Lords while your Vanguard is Shirayuki and vice-versa along with subpar offensive power. If anything, the extra Mandala Lords can be called to rearguard for a decent 11000 attacker (You don't want to do this with Shirayuki because being an equivalent of 20000 Shield is much too valuable.). This is definitely a variant of Murakumo that requires patience to be able to properly use and succeed with.

With that, I say, "Ninja Art: Shadow Clone! Ride!"

A shameless post......I'm not sorry.

So, I was on a Skype chat with Rin and Barrel, and we were discussing snacks.  Rin said that his favorite Pretz flavor was onion, and I said I liked the tomato flavor a lot more.

And Barrel gave me this quick edit:

Neo Nectar supplies the nations with produce and other wonderful snacks!

 

This post was absolutely pointless, but I hope someone laughs at this!  (Stuck with 3 copies of this in my sneak peek deck.  Cost me a game or two for sure!)