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Greetings everyone! I'm here today to unveil a new project of sorts for anyone and everyone from within the community to participate in called The Cardfight Column!
"What is the Cardfight Column?"
It is a weekly newsletter that talks about many various topics regarding Cardfight Vanguard and Cardfight Area to an extent. Many of our articles will try to feature interviews from members within our community to get an open perspective and depth regarding said topics. Topics may include clan/archetype support, deck profiles, clan discussions, state of the game, tournament tops, restriction list, anime discussions/theories and many more. The purpose of this is to bring an open awareness and a general consensus to the many elements within Cardfight Vanguard. In addition, we also encourage other community members to share their thoughts via discussions about said topics in the comments (provided they're discussions and have not devolved to incoherent gibberish, flaming/trolling).
Cardfight Column Staff
Zane Kisaragi
Shiri
For any questions about the Cardfight Column itself, suggestions/ideas, or even if anyone would like to participate in going around asking community members in interviews and submit them as articles here, please contact our staff! Thank you for your support!
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For Cardfight Column's first article, I decided I wanted to explore general opinions about the state of Vanguard at the moment. The new set has just been released - with many controversial cards pushing their way onto the scene. Ichikishima heralded as either the saivour of Vanguard or Hell's wrath for doubting Oracle Think Tank, Helheim bursting eleven card hands into thin air, or the sudden power spike Dominate experienced with cards like Tamahagane "Metsu". The meta is very slowly being figured out, and will likely be uprooted with the upcoming Link Joker support. That said, I decided to explore opinions and thoughts from the CFA community about what the game is like currently, and where it could possibly be headed.
Perhaps to the surprise of none, all three of the interviews I conducted didn't waste any time in saying what everyone seems to be thinking. That being the creation of Ichikishima, the very header of this article due to the overwhelming presence and power she has over the current meta where G-guards reaching upwards of thirty thousand are slowly becoming more and more common, or G-guards that effortlessly halted entire turns in their tracks with little counterplay in most cases or for most clans. Not only that, returning to the skill that used to be - in darker times - the entire backbone of their clan. Some would say that even with the other great cards they received (such as the Grade one and Grade two Mikos), Oracle Think Tank still depends on this 'Silent Tom' skill to win due to this card. Furthermore, Ichikishima's raw power doesn't come at any sort of price. This card isn't restricted in any way beyond an Oracle that doesn't give an Oracle Guard Restrict - which would at least help somewhat - or to certain decks. Indeed, Tsukuyomi and Battle Sisters can be argued to be even better at abusing this behemoth. Tsukuyomi's game plan of creating a stack is effortlessly playing into Ichikishima's hands - where lots of people roll over and die, or pray that the OTT player bricks harder than Deletors, and even helps speed up the stack. Battle Sisters combine early rush and great Strides that merely overwhelm their opponent in no time at all, with cards like Sable and the majority of their Rearguards lacking Generation Break 1. Stollen helping to rig the deck followed by Ichikishima where the opponent is most likely at four or five damage is a death sentence to many decks.
So how did a card that within days of the set being released became so powerful even get made in such a state? I asked a similar question in the interviews I mentioned - here's one such excerpt. "Bushiroad does not care what decks get in the meta. If Bushiroad decides a certain decktype is becoming meta, it will become meta. Prime example being OTT's support in GBT12, although Kagero support in GBT11 counts too. Bushiroad does not let decks organically grow into relevance, they have the power and willingness to introduce overpowered cards into one clan in order to give it a chance to be relevant. ... I am of the belief that decks should grow into metagame status organically, such as with the rise of Bladewing and Fenrir, a deck designed and improved by the community. Decks that were not given a batch of overpowered cards in one swoop in order to elevate its status. That's how I think the game should be balanced." While some would call this cynical - and others would call it obvious - it raises interesting questions nonetheless. Kagero and Oracle Think Tank are two clans that have very recently surged into the limelight, propelled by cards that are powerful in and of themselves alongside strong Rearguards. When they became as strong as they did (or are), it was instant and quick. There was no slow burn - it was an explosion that demanded attention.
This same interview brought up the question of whether or not Ichikishima was at all 'deserved' for a clan that had spent so long whithering away in the background - spawning many memes about its cards, perhaps most notably "+2000 to all units" and a plethora of over-balanced cards such as Pannacotta. All three interviews came to the same conclusion - Ichikishima was too much of a push for a clan that had promising support not even counting it, with many cards that weren't Generation Break restricted allowing OTT to commit earlier and push for advantage as a fast deck. One interview suggested that Stollen should have been redesigned into a generic OTT stride boss due to it's general power without being strictly better than everything else, instead of tunnel visioning a Stride which is an automatic 4-of so powerful not running it is like hotwiring a car with the keys on the dashboard. Many suggestions were made about how to counteract the massive impact she has made - limiting her to 2-of, errata'ing her skill for a bigger cost, or trying to balance her out with other cards that were 'available to all clans'.
Now - moving on from the surprisingly sad subjeft of Still Water, there were many positive comments in the interviews about the state of Vanguard and where it was heading. Many cited enjoying the game as of late, with lots of decks being able to compete to a decent enough level now that main heavy-hitters have been scaled down a tad. One interview pointed fingers at "one or two poorly made strides" as being difficult to play versus beyond praying for some Perfect Guards sent down by the Lord from his heavenly throne. With the new set coming out - and whispers of a new Rarity and potential new mechanic - I felt the need to ask about this. Most were hopeful about the newest set, yet the thoughts about a new mechanic or the new Rarity coming caused unease. One such person said that new mechanics "keep the game fresh and exciting, yet harder to get into for beginners" and merely hoped that "they benefit the game like G-guardians in the long run".
Overall, from the interviews I gathered - and a sprinkling of my own opinion - Ichikishima and a few other poorly made cards are definitely hurting the game, yet optimism for the next few sets and what is to come is still flourishing. The new set has helped many decks achieve relevancy one way or another, yet some will rightfully argue a bit too much power was given for most of the clans and decks given support this set. The interviews in their unedited entirety are in a spoiler at the end of this post should you wish to look at them. That said, feel free to share your own thoughts about the state of Vanguard currently in this thread!
Interviews
Interview 1 (https://pastebin.com/ZQ8rPDLd) ~ With Moezilla.
Interview 2 (https://pastebin.com/yLQq8MNt) ~ Anonymous.
Interview 3 (https://pastebin.com/AsBMYEjc) ~ With Toyo.
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Do you believe there’s a different metagame per region - different topping, style of play, deck composition?
Absolutely. While some decks or trends stay popular throughout all regions, there are very significant differences in each one.
If possible, how would you describe each regions metagame? Specifically those you’re familiar with like JPN, ENG, EU?
Since I’m an English player, I will start with my home region. English typically prefers a high consistency of resourcing and power. This leads us to play really heavy tutor and/or draw heavy engines so that we can safely survive into the next turn and drop everything to finish them when we see the moment of opportunity. Decks that compliment this style is Royals (more notably Altmile), Shadow Paladin (Luard), Link Joker (Chaos), and Gear Chronicle (with English taking a huge liking to ZTB over Time Leap during Set 9’s introduction of ZTB). English player base also tends to pay attention to specific strategic trends and quickly turn to their countermeasures to punish them more effectively. English plays a really safe-burst style. Their deck composition is usually an average ratio of grades to limit G-assisting or being stuck on a grade and maintaining a decent number of rear-guards to call at any stage of the game especially since the preferred decks do a lot of tutoring. Going back to “high consistency”, English players don’t take kindly to heavy stall decks (barring Chaos and Luard), Loops, or even heavy combos that can be found in decks like Nightrose and Time Leap - preferring a more direct approach on their plays and having full control of their options. Lastly, it should be mentioned that without the inclusion of Rosal Nightrose and Masquerade Master Harri, both their respective clans are seeing much less play compared to JPN, especially for Harri whom is able to have a significantly better match up against Link Joker.
For JPN meta, it’s a black and white split between aggression and defensive style - which is evident in their deck compositions and style of play. The aggressors don’t shy away from using Grade Stalling and rushing to ensure they have as much as an advantage when they go into their first stride which is typically aimed to finish the game. This also gives rise to really defensive heavy decks to be able to prolong the game (either by softening their aggression with huge defensive buffs, stalling, and/or disrupting their plays) since the aggressor will lose momentum - having to commit so early and will be at the mercy of the defensive player. For aggressors: decks like Deletors, Blue Waves, Battle Sisters, Blasters, Time Leap (up until Set 12’s Dragon King’s Awakening) seem to fit their style as they have superior early game but they do not want to go into the late game. For the defensive players: Bladewings, Luard, Chaos, Kagero, Narukami are decks that would be used to support this. Their styles also aren’t simply limited by their deck choices alone, their preferred card combos and card choices also help reinforce each style. Combos like Gear Chronicles Gear Cat w/ Heteroround or Nightrose’s Negrolily to call back a unit to give the vanguard power and/or to retire an opposing unit, or Sweep Command and Impede Dragon. Another style of play is for JPN players to deny damage to lower their chance of being counter assaulted. With Set 13’s Ultimate Stride and THE AWAKENING ZOO Booster, there has been a surge of mid-range decks such as Neo Nectar’s Ahsha, Aqua Force’s Thavas, and Megacolony’s Gredora: but the style of play and deck composition does accomodate both aggressive and defensive players. Additionally, because Japan is the first region to get newer cards, they enter an unfamiliar territory figuring out what works and what doesn’t work which the process can be short for some decks and strategies while longer for other decks, which was something I mentioned in the English region where we have time to acknowledge what is trending to either dive straight into it or already have counter measures to deal with it.
I can’t really speak too much of the EU region as I don’t follow them as much as the two previous regions.
Do you think Cardfight Area’s (or online rather) has their own metagame? If so, how would you describe it and which of the real life ones do you think it closely resembles?
Yes, absolutely. Cardfight Area has a benefit of being exposed to many different playstyles and mentalities which can often clash into heated discussions but have also created a format and meta game of their own, for better or for worse. It should be noted that because Cardfight Area does Team Battles, there is a variety of decks that can appear because of the inherent counter-pick: forcing decks in a very unfavorable match up to which some decks just automatically fold, which to me personally, I feel is an inaccurate representation to gauge a deck’s strength because a deck winning a match up it’s supposed to win doesn’t really say much about either decks overall match up vs the rest of the game. For example, just because a Royal Paladin deck beats two decks but loses to Chaos doesn’t mean said Royal Paladin is a bad deck, which is why I believe Team Battles aren’t a good way to gauge a deck’s power. However, Team Battles shouldn’t be completely ignored as the deck choices/builds can be used to explain what type of fighters CFA players are. With a number of tournaments increasing, we can determine a metagame for Cardfight Area in terms of clans which can also lead us to understanding what is the play style and why certain decks are preferred. Taking a step back to mid October up til now, LJ Clan Booster to Zoo Nation Booster in reference of support, the tournament top 3 decks are as followed:
10/14: Nightmist, Darkness, Ahsha
10/21: Luard, ZTB Time Leap, Battle Sisters
10/28: Harri, Vanquisher, Chaos
11/4 (2v2 Tournament): Messiahs/Oracle, Bladewing/Dominate, Blademaster & ZTB
11/11: Harri, Messiahs, Harri
11/11: Bladewings, Vanquisher, Harri
12/3: Deletors, Gavrail, Harri
12/9: Thavas, Ahsha, Gaia
12/16: Ahsha, Ahsha, Nightrose
12/23: Thavas, Luard, Gurguit
12/30: Musketeers, Ahsha, Gredora
1/6: G1 Seven Seas, Thavas, Susano'o
1/6: ZTB, Ahsha, ZTB
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(Chaos, Musketeer, and Gurguit are one player each but wasn’t specified on the chart.)
From this we can conclude that the top decks are, in order of number of tops: Ahsha, Harri, Zodiac Time Beast, Thavas, and a 5th place tie between Messiahs, Susano'o, Luard, and Vanquisher. Honorable Mention to Gredora being a popular deck choice though only making it to the top 3 once. Cardfight Area’s metagame is heavy focus on mid to late game with a strong stability in both hand and/or field to limit disruptive elements in their play while pressuring other decks with overwhelming strength in multi-attacks, high power, restrictive guarding, and aggression. Additionally, because these decks have answers to control, many of the traditional control decks like Chaos and Overlord (barring Gredora) are seeing less play because the other decks hit too fast and too hard for control to even matter. In terms of playstyle, Cardfight Area’s players are leaning more towards JPN style of play because these decks have a stronger pressence in the mid-game, it’s better to hit them hard early or to stall via a defensive deck and/or grade stalling along with going in aggressively as shown with Grade 1 7cs and Musketeers. Gredora is the only control deck that really ‘controls’ the opponent especially via Obitirandus, which as I mentioned before, has been a popular deck choice in tournaments and in Team Battles but are unable to get to the top three. Some of the fifth place decks can be seen as an anti-meta pick towards Cardfight Area’s meta in addition to the aforementioned Gredora and Grade 1 7cs.
Does playing on an online simulator have an effect on CFA’s meta compared to real life? Is it a positive or a negative effect, and why do you think so?
A bit of both. Being on an online simulator which gives you access to any card, let’s people to play more comfortably to their style and to adjust easier than they would in real life: having to commit to few decks and competiting with the market for other cards which can bring out alternative/tech choices aka “Meta calls”/“Budget Calls”. You are also exposed to a variety of decks, usually rogue decks, rather than just playing new, recently supported decks. However, because of this, your deck has to be ready for almost anything to everything, and if you do end up facing the rogue deck you wasn’t/didn’t prepare for (especially if it’s not in your favor), you will most certainly have a difficult time to playing into those situations, which come up a lot in Team Battles moreso than Tournaments. By all means, it’s not a bad thing that there is a lot more variety but can moreso misjudge a deck’s potential either by falsely empowering or undervaluing decks. Whereas in real life, your expectations of the metagame beyond a locals setting, is geared to the meta decks of your region or with decks being as optimal as possible. For example, if you saw Fenrir, you’d know the opponent had Wiseman in the deck (which is a topic on it’s own but another day maybe). While there would be very few rogue decks that you have to worry about because trying to get those cards and playing them into the meta isn’t really effective in most cases.
Lastly, with Star Gate Booster finishing up and with Set 14 on the way: based off of the clans alone, can we expect to see any shifts towards the metagame in any of the regions (including CFA)?
Since English still hasn’t gotten their Zoo support yet, I can’t give an answer on how much the meta will shift especially since both CFA and JPN are playing in Zoo Meta. However, from Star Gate, Chaos will see more play since ENG loves Chaos Breaker. From Set 14, Shadows and Royals are ENG standard decks especially considering Altmile and Luard are in it. Gear Chronicle will be played as well.
For JPN, Chaos and Dimension Police will see more play but while Chaos will still remain where he is, Dimension Police have the potential to be part of the meta. Set 14, much like ENG: JPN will play RP, SP, GC but additionally will play Dark Irregulars. Genesis and Nubatama’s are a maybe depending on the contents of the support overall, although JPN has taken a liking to Fenrir/Wiseman.
Lastly, for Cardfight Area: I believe Dark Irregulars, Shadows, Gears, and Royals will see play. Cardfight Area was on and off about Dominate since most decks during the time had a better early and mid game to overwhelm Nubatama. Genesis is also an on/off because Amaruda was played as well as Fenrir/Wiseman but for the same reason as Dominate, other decks just outpaced them.
Tournament data was taken from Starfight’s Generation Drive and Winter Clash tournament series. Data also contains: number of participants, brackets, clans/decks registered, and deck lists for all Winter Clash tournaments.