Saturday, December 31, 2011

Have a happy new year!

Since it is December 31st, 2011, I was deciding on a routine for you all. For next month, I will be doing Yu-gi-oh! posts, so expect those to come back.

The schedule will be as follows:
  • January 2012 - Yu-gi-oh!
  • February 2012 - Yu-gi-oh!
  • March 2012 - Yu-gi-oh!
  • April 2012 - Cardfight!! Vanguard
  • May 2012 - Yu-gi-oh!
  • June 2012 - Cardfight!! Vanguard
  • July 2012 - Yu-gi-oh!
  • August 2012 - Cardfight!! Vanguard
  • September 2012 - Yu-gi-oh!
  • October 2012 - Cardfight!! Vanguard
  • November 2012 - Yu-gi-oh!
  • December 2012 - Cardfight!! Vanguard
This schedule will be subject to change over a longer period of time, but this is the rough draft I had in mind. The reason why I'm doing the first 3 months of 2012 as Yu-gi-oh!, because I'll be waiting for more cards to come in for Cardfight!! Vanguard. Not to mention, I've been getting ideas by watching duels on Dueling Network, that I can't sit by idly and watch the opprotunity past me by. With that being said, I would point out a card that I recently saw, but that has been out for a while:

(from Yu-gi-oh! Wikia)

Vanity's Emptiness
[Continuous Trap Card]
Neither player can Special Summon monsters. Destroy this card when a card is sent from the Deck or the field to your Graveyard.

Pro:
  • Your opponent cannot Special Summon monsters.
Cons:
  • You cannot Special Summon monsters.
  • When a card gets sent from your Deck or the field to your Graveyard, Vanity's Emptiness is destroyed.
There's cards that can remedy one "Con" from this card, which is using Imperial Customs and Starlight Road. Now then, why am I suggesting this? Find out in 2012.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - Imperial Defense - Part 2

Picking out a Grade 0 Vanguard:
I would recommend Lozenge Magus, because it's an extra booster for a Grade 1 or Grade 2 Vanguard, and for this deck, not much cards would be played besides Imperial Daughter and High-Speed Blackie.

Basic Strategy "None Shall Pass":
Since guarding and this strategy are one and the same, I will not be doing them in separate sections. Also, this also takes into account that your opponent successfully rides every single turn.

If you are facing an opponent's Grade 1 Vanguard:

A typical case when you face an opponent's Grade 1, the response becomes "No Guard", because there's not much you can do with the typical hand that you have; however, this deck takes into account that your opponent will attempt to damage you every single turn. This is why the strategy is called "None Shall Pass", because if it passes. Then once you get to Grade 3, you'll have less turns to be able utilize Imperial Daughter, which is the heart of the Deck. There is one card that you can use to guarantee a safe passage for a turn when you do call it as a Guardian from your Hand: Weather Forecaster Miss Mist. Once you call her, regardless if your opponent gets a Trigger or not, they won't be able to damage you that turn.

If you are facing an opponent's Grade 1 Rear Guard attackers:

If you are facing 1 Rear Guard attack, you'll might be able to block it, depending on if the card you use can make sure that it doesn't hit. If you are facing 2 or more Rear Guard attacks, you could block them, but it is not recommended to do so, since you'll lose too many cards in the process, because at the time, you do block, you'll have one of two options:
  • If you go first, then you can only afford one card without losing the card advantage. (This discounts the card that you use to ride on your turn.)
  • If you go second, then you can afford two cards without losing the card advantage. (This discounts the card that you use to ride on your turn.)
Depending on if you win or lose the dice roll, it will determine how many cards that you can use to block, during this turn. Also, you might have a chance to gain a card in your hand, so that is always an option.

If you are facing an opponent's Grade 2 Vanguard:

It's the same result as when you are facing an opponent's Grade 1 Vanguard.

If you are facing an opponent's Grade 2 Rear Guard attackers:

It is the same result as when you are facing an opponent's Grade 1 Rear Guard attackers, however it is most likely that your opponent will swarm with their Grade 2s, since all Grade 2s have the Intercept ability.

If you are facing an opponent's Grade 3 Vanguard with Rear Guard attackers assisting the opponent's Grade 3 Vanguard:

You must make sure that you don't go over 3 Guardians, because if you call out more than 3 Guards, then you may not be able to survive for much longer; hence you watch out for your opponent's power lanes:
  • If the power lane is between 11k and 16k power, then you can use a 5000 Shield to block.
  • If the power lane is between 16k and 21k power, then you can use a 10000 Shield to block.
  • If the power lane is 21k power or higher, that is when you say "No Guard" and take the damage.
If the power of the Vanguard is within the range, listed above, then a typical idea is to use an extra 5000 Shield or Battle Sister Chocolat to block.

Win Condition:

Win by inflicting the sixth damage successfully or by decking out your opponent. 

Sample Deck List:

Grade 0:
4x Red Shoe Milly

Grade 1:
4x Battle Sister Chocolat
4x Battle Sister Cocoa
3x Weather Forecaster Miss Mist
3x Dark Cat

Grade 2:
4x Silent Tom
4x Security Guardian
4x High-Speed Blackie

Grade 3:
4x Imperial Daughter

~~~~

If you have any questions, leave a comment. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - Imperial Defense - Part 1 - Oracle Think Tank as Vanguard Clan and Non-Oracle Think Tank Units

Post that you should check out:
Well, this idea is based off what I read on Rauzes "SO IMBA!" blog a while back. So, I'm going with the theory of "How would Imperial Daughter stand alone with those cards, and how well would it do?" Which leaves a question: "What would the other cards in the deck look like?" For the Non-Oracle Think Tank units, you can use the following:
Here's the test results I had with the deck:
More will be explained in Part 2.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas (short post)

First off, Merry Christmas to you all.

Here's a challenge for you all:
  • On the Yu-gi-oh! side of things, try to build a Fire/Wind deck hybrid. Why you ask? Red is Fire, and Green is Wind.
  • On the Cardfight!! Vanguard side of things, try to build a Megacolony and Kagero hybrid.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - Blaster - Part 3

Picking out a Grade 0 Vanguard:
As said in "Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - Blaster - Part 1 - Shadow Paladin as Vanguard Clan Unit", I would pick Fullbau.

Basic Strategy:
For the units before, when is a good time to use the Non-Shadow Paladin Units?
When the Vanguard, in question, is not affected by the non-Shadow Paladin Units. If you have Phantom Blaster Overlord as your Vanguard, it is NOT ideal to have non-Shadow Paladin Units out.

What else would be ideal for this deck?
Having 3 units at hand without losing much of an advantage when using Phantom Blaster Dragon's skill, or having Phantom Blaster Overlord in hand when you want to use Phantom Blaster Overlord's skill.

Guarding:
  • 16 Grade 0 Shields (10000)
  • 4 Draw Triggers
  • 8 Grade 1 Shields (5000)
  • 3 Dark Shield, Mac Lir
  • 10 Grade 2 Shields/Interceptors (5000)
Sample Deck List:

Grade 0:
4x Abyss Freezer
4x Wingal Brave
Fullbau

Grade 1:
4x Blaster Javelin
4x Nostrum Witch, Arianrhod
4x Dark Shield, Mac Lir

Grade 2:
4x Blaster Dark
4x Skull Witch, Nemain
3x Blaster Blade or Blaster Keroro (depends on preference)

Grade 3:
4x Phantom Blaster Dragon
4x Phantom Blaster Overlord

~~~~

If you have any questions, leave a comment.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - Blaster - Part 2 - Non-Shadow Paladin Units

Alright, now I'll talk about the Non-Shadow Paladin Units in this Blaster deck.

Starting off, I will talk about Wingal Brave. Using Wingal Brave's effect in this build, not only lets you search out Blaster Blade and Blaster Keroro, it will help you search out Phantom Blaster units (as mentioned in Part 1, meaning this card comes out in Set 5), and make it easier for you to get the desired chain ride.

The other unit would be a coin flip between Blaster Blade and Blaster Keroro. If you can keep your hand greater than your opponents over a long period of time, use Blaster Keroro. If you want a stable power unit, use Blaster Blade. It all depends on the person running the deck. Personally, just in case I run into problems, I would prefer using Blaster Blade over Blaster Keroro. It'll all depend on the user.

Part 3 will talk about the remainder of the strategy and the sample deck list will be posted.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - Blaster - Part 1 - Shadow Paladin as Vanguard Clan Unit

For the moment, I'm doing a three part post of Shadow Paladins and Royal Paladins, naming this the Blaster Hybrid.

What should you use as the Vanguard for Shadow Paladins in the Blaster Hybrid?
Remember the Phantom Blaster cards from the Cardfight!! Vanguard - Strategies II - Shadow Paladins - Part 1. Same units can apply here, but this time the chain will be the following:


With that chain, if you do ride Blaster Javelin, not only with Fullbau's skill, you'll get Blaster Dark, but also, with another way, with a Royal Paladin card from Set 5, and other Blaster units (Blaster Blade and Blaster Keroro). More will be explained in Part 2.

What should be the amount of cards that you can put in for a sub-clan in a Hybrid build?
The rule of thumb with hybrids is that you need to have a good, reliable, Vanguard without losing triggers from Drive Checks. For example, in this deck, the main clan is Shadow Paladin, so I put in all triggers for Shadow Paladin; however, you can place other clan units in this deck. The general idea for a balance for a sub-clan within one of these Hybrids is having 4 Grade 0s, 4 Grade 1s, 4 Grade 2s, and 4 Grade 3s (maybe); however, this balance for a sub-clan is not correct the majority of the time; however 16 units from the sub-clan should be the ideal maximum. It can be more for your ideal maximum. It can be less. It depends on the Cardfight!! Vanguard player.

Part 2 will mention the cards that I can put into this Blaster deck, that are not Shadow Paladins.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - General Idea

This will be a short post; however, there's a few things that you need to know.
  • If you decide to hybrid a strategy, you should try to make sure that there's a base VG clan for your deck, so that you can run cards that can support it. For example, if you do run Oracle Think Tank Vanguard, you should run Triggers related to that clan, and clan-specific cards related to that clan. If you have two or more base VG clans, then running those clan specific cards becomes pointless.
  • If you do decide on running two or more base VG clans, then you should focus in on how much you can guard. If you run a lot of 5000 Shields, then, your resources will dwindle fast.
  • If you do decide on running a VG base clan where there is not that many clan-specific cards, you need to make sure that you can guard well with cards, and if it has a Soul Blast requirement, you should run 10000 Guards that add themselves from the Guardian Circle to the Soul, instead of being sent to the Drop Zone.
Anyway, if there's anything you guys want to add, leave a comment. Anyway, enjoy!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Strategies II - Megacolony - Part 2

This strategy was done by request, so here it is:

Picking out a Grade 0 Vanguard:
I would choose Machining Worker Ant, because the Larva Phantom Giraffa is not usable when you combine both of them. Machining Worker Ant can be useful while in the Soul, giving your deck a much better advantage than Larva Phantom Giraffa.

Basic Strategy:

How are we suppose to be using Pupa Phantom Giraffa, Elite Phantom Giraffa, and Wicked Shell Phantom Giraffa?

For Elite Phantom Giraffa, to give the boost to Wicked Shell Phantom Giraffa, Elite Phantom Giraffa is needed to be in Soul, so Death Warden, Antlion is needed for Soul Charging it or ride it normally. For Pupa Phantom Giraffa's effect, you can discard Machining Stag Beetle or Death Warden, Antlion to get Wicked Shell Phantom Giraffa into your Hand. As for using Wicked Shell Phantom Giraffa's Counterblast, you can ride Machining Stag Beetle to get to Megacolony units from Soul to Rear Guard Zone to reduce the cost of Wicked Shell Phantom Giraffa, when you ride him.

Why is Death Warden, Antlion in here?

The reason is to have it Soul Charge the necessary pieces into your Soul.

Remainder of Strategy: Swarming with Machining cards, and making sure Elite Phantom Giraffa and one Machining card is in Soul.

Guarding:
  • 12 Grade 0 Shields (10000)
  • 4 Draw Triggers
  • 10 Grade 1 Shields (5000)
  • 4 Paralyze Madonna
  • 11 Grade 2 Shields/Interceptor (5000)
Sample Deck List:

Grade 0:
Machining Worker Ant

Grade 1:
4x Machining Hornet
4x Paralyze Madonna
3x Gloom Flyman
3x Pupa Phantom Giraffa

Grade 2:
4x Elite Phantom Giraffa
4x Machining Mantis
3x Tail Jaw

Grade 3:
3x Machining Stag Beetle
3x Death Warden, Antlion
2x Wicked Shell Phantom Giraffa

Friday, December 16, 2011

Yu-gi-oh! Deck - Steelswarm/Verz I

Right now, I decided to post a rough draft of a Steelswarm/Verz Deck that I have been meaning to test out on Dueling Network.

2x Armageddon Knight
2x Dark Grepher
3x Level Eater
2x Steelswarm Girastag
2x Steelswarm Mantis
2x Steelswarm Moth
3x Steelswarm Scout
3x Verz Mandrago

Allure of Darkness
3x Creature Swap
2x Creeping Darkness
Dark Hole
3x Fires of Doomsday
Foolish Burial
Heavy Storm
Monster Reborn
3x Recurring Nightmare
Reinforcement of the Army

2x Call of the Haunted
Torrential Tribute
Trap Dustshoot


Extra Deck:
2x Daigusto Emeral
3x Lavalval Chain
2x Verz Bahamut
2x Verz Nightmare
2x Verz Ophion
2x Verz Ouroboros
2x Verz Thanatos

Rate, comment, fix, thoughts, and discuss. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Updates

Alright, there's some things that I have been working on, so here's the general update for you all:
  • Cardfight!! Vanguard updates:
    • Giraffa + Machining
      • This seems to be going well, so this'll probably be the first thing posted on my blog. Swarm tactics plus destruction of opponent's boosters next turn is too good to pass up.
    • Nubatama + Murakumo + Oracle Think Tank
      • For the Oracle Think Tank portion, I'm only using them for their triggers so far.
      • For the Murakumo portion, I'm using Twin Swordsman MUSASHI and Left/Right Arrestor for power gain.
      • For the Nubatama portion, I'm using them to discard my opponent's hand fast and quickly to make sure that my opponent can't bounce back.
  • Yu-gi-oh! updates
    • Steelswarm
      • Something that I've been curious about for a while. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Cardfight!! Vanguard - Tutorial Maintenance

I'll be looking through each post, and see if I need to change anything, and the following changes will be listed below, so this post will be modified after each post that I modified. If there's any requests I missed in the comments of those posts, I will list them on this post, and get to them shortly.

Also, this post will be updated constantly, and when it gets to be too long to bear, you can use CTRL+F to find what you are looking for: Hybrid Strategies, Non-Full Clan Discussion, List of Fixes, and List of Requests.

Hybrid Strategies:
  • Shadow Paladins + Royal Paladins
    • This is one strategy I want to see run perfectly. Why you ask? The new Royal Paladin starter in Set 5 has an effect of which if a "Blaster" unit's attack hit when this card boosts the "Blaster" unit, you can add this card to your Soul, and search out 1 "Blaster" card from your Deck, and add it to your Hand.
  • Nubatama/Murakumo/??? Hybrid
    • Prevention, Discarding, and ??? all in one.
  • Bermuda Triangle/??? Hybrid
    • Soul Blasting into ???.
  • Great Nature/??? Hybrid
    • Continuously making sure the attacking zones are 20k+ or 21k+.
  • Shadow Paladin/??? Hybrid
    • Shadow Paladins + ??? makes for an interesting wonder.
  • Amon/BFD Hybrid
    • Retiring by adding cards to Soul boosts Doreen the Thruster and BFD (and any other Kagero's effects that allows a power boost by retiring an opponent's Rear Guard.)
Non-Full Clan Discussion:
  •  Nubatama/Murakumo/??? Hybrid
    • Nubatama
      • Preview: This archetype is basically one of two things:
        • If your opponent has more cards than you, you can use Counterblast 1 ability to make them discard from their hand.
        • If you have more cards than your opponent, your units gain additional power.
    • Murakumo
      • Preview: This archetype has been all over the place, so I'll separate them into seperate cards to explain what's actually going on:
        • Dueling Dragon ZANBAKU: This card prevents your opponent from riding more than one Grade 3.
        • Twin Swordsman MUSASHI: This card gains 2000 power if you have more Rear Guards than your opponent.
        • Left and Right Arrestor: These card gains 3000 power if the other card is on the Field in the correct Rear Guard Zone. I.E. Left Arrestor in Left Rear Guard Zone and Right Arrestor in Right Rear Guard Zone.
        • Archer FUSHIMI: If you ride him on top of a Murakumo Unit, you get to attack one unit in the back row.
  • Bermuda Triangles/??? Hybrid
    • Bermuda Triangles
      • Basically, they use Soul Blast effects to return one Bermuda Triangle unit to their hand. You do not need a Bermuda Triangle Vanguard to do this.
  • Great Nature/??? Hybrid
    • Great Nature
      • With either resting or Counterblast 2, they can gain power to get over a certain amount of Shields. For example:
        • +4000 will not get over a Shield.
        • +8000 will get over a 5000 Shield.
        • +12000 will get over a 10000 Shield.
    List of Fixes:

    Names and hyperlinks needed to be changed to the following cards: 
    Title of Blog Post needed to be changed to the following post:
    Other Miscellaneous Changes:
        List of Requests:
        • Cardfight!! Vanguard - Strategies II - Megacolony - Part 2
          • Request: Giraffa + Machining
        • Cardfight!! Vanguard - Strategies II - Kagero - Part 3
          • Request: Taking a deeper look into the Amber Series, with Heat Nail Salamander and Bellicosity Dragon.
          If you guys have a request for a Cardfight!! Vanguard deck, leave a comment. Anyway, enjoy!

          Monday, December 5, 2011

          Cardfight!! Vanguard - Spike Brothers and Granblues Strategy Post Update (very short post)

          Their strategies won't change between Strategy I and Strategy II, so I'm keeping them exactly the same between both clans; however, I'll update the Tutorial thread accordingly and update both posts, so that there's not mixed confusion.

          Sunday, December 4, 2011

          Cardfight!! Vanguard - Strategies II - Megacolony - Part 1

          Picking out a Grade 0 Vanguard:
          Pick Larva Phantom Giraffa. More will be explained in the Strategy section.

          Strategy:


          How to avoid getting a bad hand?
          Well, this is the reason why I did add Larva Phantom Giraffa into this deck. If you draw Pupa Phantom Giraffa in your opening hand, then you already have your Grade 1 and your Grade 2 already in your hand by just one card. There is still a chance to get a bad hand, but it's reduced due to this concept.

          What's the Grade 3 strategy?
          So far, I'm using Death Warden, Antlion for Soul Charging, and I'm using Master Fraud for Soul Blast(3) for an extra card in my hand.

          Avoiding taking damage off using a Grade 1 card. With using Gloom Flyman's effect, you can force your opponent's backrow Grade 0 card to rest, when it hasn't boosted a RG attacker or the VG attacker if need be. This would cause less power to be distributed by your opponent while you waste fewer cards to block for that turn.

          Using Counterblast(2) cards to force your opponent to not stand, what does that force?
          It forces them to either waste a card, or potentially makes your opponent waste an attack/boost for that turn.

          Guarding:

          • 12 Grade 0 Shields (10000)
          • 4 Draw Triggers
          • 11 Grade 1 Shields
          • 3 Paralyze Madonna
          • 11 Grade 2 Shield/Interceptors
          Sample Deck List:

          Grade 0:

          Grade 1:

          Grade 2:

          Grade 3:

          ~~~~

          If you have any questions, leave a comment. Anyway, enjoy!

          Saturday, December 3, 2011

          Cardfight!! Vanguard - Hybrid Strategies - Why didn't I do any Hybrids yet?

          So far, I have 3 clans that do not have a Strategy II post, which are: Grand Blue, Spike Brothers, and Megacolony, so the order of those posts will be as follows:
          • Megacolony would be first, since I haven't done a Strategy post at all.
          • Spike Brothers would be second.
          • Granblue would be third.
          And for strategies that I've already done, I'll do some more of them in due time; however, a topic I wasn't able to do was Hybrid Strategies.

          Originally, with Hybrid Strategies, in the early run of the game, I wasn't able to get any hybrids to work without them being in a deep disadvantage with "Clan-specific" cards. So, for example, if you want to block an attack without fail, you wouldn't be able to use the 0 Shield cards; however, since now, we have expanded a bit, I think I'll give them a try again.

          I'll explain the deep disadvantage in a different post, after I do the Megacolony, Spike Brothers, and Grand Blue posts.

          I'm also thinking about what combinations should I try. If you have any suggestions of a Hybrid Strategy that you want to see done, leave a comment.