Metagame Analysis: Gold Paladins Decklists

Here are the decklists of Gold Paladins that dominated Nagoya and Hiroshima. Let's take a peek on Golden Lion's Army.

Nagoya District Grade 3:  2x Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel 2x Gigantech Destroyer 4x Great Silver Wolf, Garmore Grade 2: 2x Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemea Lion 4xKnight of Superior Skills, Beaumains 4x Mage of Calamity, Tripp 1x Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane Grade1: 4x Sleygal Dagger 4x Halo Shield, Mark 4x Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth 1xPrecipice Whirlwind, Sagramore 2x Charjgal Grade0: 1x Little Fighter Cron 4x Elixir Sommelier 4x Flame of Victory 4x Weapons Dealer, Gwydion 2x Silent Punisher 2x Falcon Knight of Azure The player from Nagoya has chosen to focus to a more general line-up of Gold Paladins with Garmore starring as the leading finisher, while Ezel and Destroyer push your opponent at the danger zone while swarming the field. As for grade 2 , we spot again a general straightforward beat-action formation as well as the same pattern occurs at grade 1 with the exception of duo charjgal that obviously are there to support the boss of this deck , Garmore. Trigger lineup is built carefully focusing around card advantage as much as pushing power, thus 6 draws and 6 crits. Cron is there as a tutor card for Ezel , Destroyer and generally grade 3.  This decklist involves around the general concept of swarming instead of focusing around a certain card like Ezel.

Hiroshima District Grade 3:  4x Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel 2x Holy Mage, Manawydan Grade 2: 1x Sleygal Sword 4xKnight of Superior Skills, Beaumains 4x Mage of Calamity, Tripp 4x Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane Grade1: 4x Sleygal Dagger 3x Halo Shield, Mark 4x Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth 3xPrecipice Whirlwind, Sagramore Grade0: 1x Crimson Lion Cub, Kyrph 4x Elixir Sommelier 4x Flame of Victory 4x Silent Punisher 4x Falcon Knight of Azure This build is the sheer representation of the power of Ezel.  Maxing out Ezel , this deck focusing on swarming the field and push through with pure power.Manawydan follows the same concepts , general beatstick that sap away defenses and push through by breaking the 20k powerline when combined with Gareth/Sleygal (with Cb). Following the same outline, grades 2 are focused on swarming (4 viviane) and refreshing the cb in order to reuse your lions Limit Break. Nothing note worthy at Grade 1, pretty much standard line up, with the exception of 3 Sagramore a quantity which maybe is for  rush-searching Gareth/Beaumains for superior ride Triggers are focused around power and Ezel. What can be better that a 40k attack that passes and gets you 2 crits?

Gold Paladins are justifying their fame by showing their power and claiming top at their first crash test, but as I told before the world of Vanguard is vast and you should not rest and take for granted that you won nor underestimate your opponent because then you might hear your opponent announcing “Final Turn” .

 At next post we will compare the lions and the dragons.Until then, Let’s Imagine! Lets Vanguard!

Metagame Analysis : General Overview

Lately a major tournament was held and we got a really good glimpse of the way format goes.  Fighter's Road 2012' Japan Regionals ended with Gold Paladins reigning over a mass army of Dragonic Overlord The End. It seems that the swarming abilities of Paladins overcame the stability of Kagero.

  

Here are the results:

      Nagoya
   Seniors Division
1st: Gold Paladins (Blonde Ezel)
2nd: Kagero (DOTE)
3rd: Kagero (DOTE)                                                
4th: Kagero (DOTE)

Juniors Division
1st :Spike Brothers (Dudley Emperor)
2nd: Kagero (DOTE)
3rd: Narukami (Vermilion Kaiser)

Team Tournament
1st: Spike Brothers (Dudley Emperor) / Shadow Paladins (PBO) / Gold Paladins (Spectral Duke Dragon)
2nd: Kagero (DOTE) / Shadow Paladins (PBO) / Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters)

Hiroshima
Seniors Division
1st: Gold Paladins (Blonde Ezel)
2nd: Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters)
3rd: Kagero (DOTE)
4th Royal Paladins (Alfred/Baromedes)

Juniors Division
1st: Kagero (DOTE)
2nd: Neo Nectar (Gene/Laurel)
3rd: Kagero (DOTE)
4th: Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters)

Team Tournament
1st: Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters) / Shadow Paladins (PBO) / Kagero (DOTE)
2nd: Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters) / Oracle Think Thank (Tsukuyomi) / Kagero (DOTE)

Kanazawa
Seniors Division
1st: Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters)
2nd: Kagero (DOTE)
3rd: Kagero (DOTE)
4th: Kagero (DOTE)

Juniors Division
1st: Kagero (DOTE)
2nd: Gold Paladins (Blonde Ezel)
3rd: Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters)
4th: Kagero (DOTE)

Team Tournament
1st: Kagero (DOTE) / Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters) / Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)
2nd: Nova Grappler (Dragon Kaiser) / Gold Paladins (Blonde Ezel) / Royal Paladins (Majesty Blasters)


And here's the clan breakdown for all 3 regions:
Gold Paladins : 5
Royal Paladins: 10
Shadow Paladins: 3
Kagero: 16
Oracle Think Tank: 2
Nova Grappler: 1
Neo Nectar: 1
Spike Brothers: 2
Narukami: 1

As we can see, Royal Paladins and Kagero are still dominating, but I would like to analyse the presence of Gold Paladin as a new addition to the metagame.

There mainly 2 types of Gold Paladins, the Lions, utilizing Ezel and the Black Knights , utilizing Spectral Duke Dragon.

Both decks have incredible swarming abilities and can push really hard your opponent.

Lions:  The trump card of lions is none other than Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel. Its limit break can set up easily a final turn while call multiple units on field strengthening your field presence and reinforcing your aggressive force. It’s really the most popular choice and the reason for this is the stability the whole deck possesses. Kyrph is a stable starting vanguard which with no drawback can lead you to a superior ride, essentially giving you an amazing advantage over your opponent. The rest of your units don’t have anything special, but basic sometimes can be better that overcomplicated.

Dragons:  Spectral Duke Dragon is undoubtedly the star unit of Black Knights. Its limit break is really strong, effectively giving you an extra attack at the cost of 3 units. It’s really a fitting card for more aggressive type players, but great power requires great skill and risks.Thus the Vortimer chain units. In comparison to Lions this riding chain is pulled of harder and this is the main disadvantage of Black Knights.  Other than that , Black Knights have a really strong line up , gaining with Limit Break one extra attack , and also backed up by Valkyries it can swarm as easy or even more effectively that Lions essentially getting plus 3 cards with full ride chain.

In my next post I will present you some decklists of these 2 “archetypes” and we will talk about their advantages, their differences and their drawbacks in a more accurate way. 

Until then Let’s Imagine! Lets Vanguard!

Undead Pirates Rise !

Lately I have spotted a surprisingly increase of Gran Blue on the “battlefield”. Players seem to be searching for a way to differentiate and excel in the “overflowing” with Gold Paladins metagame and the Undead Pirates is certainly a great “way” to do so.

Gran Blue is a deck of great variety that demands a great deal of skill in order to succeed. Except pure skill a good deck build is essential in order to claim victory and this is where things get complicated.  The great variety that gives so much power to these Pirates in the same time causes problems of stability and synergy, but if you manage to find yourself a fitting “crew” then you are good to go and terrify any enemy you meet.

Let’s start by reviewing some of these vast choices Magallanica has to offer.

Grade 0 : A good starting “wind” is important for a “ship” to get going, thus the starting vanguard plays a vital role in the “undead crew”. The most popular choices are Captain Nightkid and Skeleton Assault Troops Captain a.k.a Cut. Nightkid is revolving around getting a “key” card in drop zone in order to be used possibly later while Cut is “fetching” you a grade 3 saving you from misride and/or reinforcing your front line with a strong enforcer such as Dragon Undead, Skull Dragon or Death Seeker Thanatos,extremely pressuring your opponents.

As far as the trigger line-up goes I have mentioned numerous times that’s strictly up to your liking. You can run 8 criticals , mix stands draws , whatever you can imagine. Experiment and succeed. Personally I like 6 criticals , 4 draws , 4 heals and 2 Hades Steersman Stand which mainly surprise the opponent while serving as fodders for “resurrecting” other units.

Grade 1: There isn’t much of variety here, Dandy Guy, Romario an 8k booster pumping your front row units to an extent. Samurai Spirit and Deadly Nightmare, 7k boosters that can be resurrected any time with their own skills, Evil shade a grade 10k booster without any “hard-to-get” requirement and Gust Jinn because everyone needs a perfect guard, don’t they? The only note worthy is Dancing Cutlass a card that can give your deck great speed and tempo if used properly.

Grade2:  Captain Nightmist is ready to lead your crew throughout the black seas, along with Deadly Spirit, Ruin Shade for an extra dose of aggression on their Stormride Ghost Ship, and don’t forget their Chef, Pietro a great must-have addition in any Gran Blue deck allowing you to reuse your damaze for “eternal” counterblasts.

Last but not least, the core of Gran Blue Grade 3. To put it simply the bosses, the captains dictate the formation of the rest of the crew. Basskirk fuels you with souls thus Cutlass and Deadly Spirit and Knightmare is gaining an advantage. Cocytus is a limit breaker, while it can “resurrect” another pirate from the drop zone, certainly puts up a lot of pressure. And then you have your wingmen. Undead Dragon, Death Seeker Thanatos, Divine Shark. All of them can be really useful, undead dragon pushing relentlessly your opponent breaking the 20-21k limits easily, Death Seeker can add an extra attack to the “bench” and Divine Shark with its +2k skill is ready to devour any obstacle you may find on your way.

Also you can’t forget your superior ride line up, Deadly Swordmaster and Spirit Exceed which with the help of their ghost guard, Chappie can catch you off guard and rush you to…the plank.

As you see , Magallanica offers you a “sea” of options , building your crew in excellence its up to you. For sure when these Pirates set off , there is hardly anything that can stop them!

Rampage of the Beast King

As the world of Vanguard evolves more and more, Balance needs to be distributed among the Clans of Planet Cray in order to maintain equilibrium. With the release of Rampage of the Beast King new units are introduced into the new Era boosting some of the “forgotten” clans like Pale Moon, Dark Irregulars and Oracle Think Tank. Also a new enemy arrives at scene, Great Nature attracts all attention and its ready (or will be) to show us the mighty power of Nature.

Here are some new spoilers:

Sword Magician, Sara  Darkfairy of Waltz  Dark King of the Pale Moon  Dark Night Dance Queen  Bladewing Reshii  Great Nature Limit Break card  Shamshel  Magic Officer, Rocks Mad Hatter of Nightmareland  Sky Witch, NaNa  Cable Sheep  Greedy Hand  Mad Eye, Bassilisk  Succubus of Courtship Bringer of Knowledge, Rocks

Little Witch, LuLu The Dark Dictator Beast in Hand Battle Sister, Eclair Battle Sister, Souffle Tuluel Doctoroid Micross Flask Marmoset Tank Mouse Grade 2 Hamsuke Grade 3 Hamsuke Grade 1 Hamsuke Resanori

As you can see there are some new starting vanguards, and also a new “type” of card which revolves around recycling “key” cards.

More specifically OTT receives a new starting vanguard, more stable, less hand/draw-dependable unlike Tsukuyomi series, which can also search up for a grade 3. You can spot a pattern forming, a less dependable on “fate” OTT that can take over a fight by controlling it in a more stable fashion.

General’s deck gets a huge boost also. Dark irregulars are an underdog in most situations but that is going to change (hopefully) with the release of BT07.
In addition another AL4 member’s deck gets further enhancement. I am talking of course about Asaka and the re-opening of Pale Moon Circus. These spectacular performers are ready to re-open the scene and amaze you with their new tricks.

Worth mentioning are the new additions in Angel Feather army as well as the long lusted Dark Dictator, who is ready to lead its fearsome comrades, Shadow Paladin to victory.

Last but not least, a deck that was “unfinished” is about to be more than “complete” with the release of BT07. Great Nature at last is ready to be unleashed and wreck havoc. Rampage of the King Beast it’s not the name of the set for nothing. 

Guardian Angels

Returning to BT06, this time we will talk about the 3^rd new clan, Angel Feather. Revolving around damage zone these cute angels will show you tricks that will keep the pressure up and make your opponent reconsider about their innocent nature.

Angel Feather can be easily modified according to your liking. You can choose the pure aggressive style running 8 crits, or mixing stands to surprise your opponent. You can also choose whether you will run chain unit line-up (Miracle-Feather Nurse, Heavenly Injector, Fate Healer Egodiel and Cosmo Healer Egodiel) or a more stable, less hand dependable build with Thermometer Angel.

Personally I like Hybrid Style, running the chain units just for getting advantage and then mix it up and don’t depend too much on Egodiel and its Persona Blast.

Angel Feather has every feature a Tier deck need, 10k boosters, Limit Break, Persona Blast, Mega Blast and its personal signature skill involving changing cards between damage zone and hand. You can change a grade 3 for a 10k guard when you need to go defensive or a 5k guard for a grade 3 when you need to push your opponent and the best part is that from this “trade” you can boost your Pegasus by 2k transforming them into powerful attackers.

The most powerful trait of AF is the variety of Grade 3 you can pick, forming a surprising powerful army of cute angels. You have 2 Grade 3s (Drill Bullet Geniel, Pulse Wave Adriel) that can “hit” the 20k limit mark, forcing your opponent to guard his 10k vanguard with 2 cards at least. There is also The Phoenix, Calamity Flame, which can be a great finisher when combined with Circular Saw Kiriel and Love Machine Gun Nociel. Last but not least you have your 3 Bosses, Circular Saw Kiriel, Mobile Hospital Feather Palace and Cosmo Healer Egodiel.

Cosmo Healer is the final chain unit. With its Persona Blast can heal 1damage and get you out of a tough spot while being an 11k vanguard is very important saving you some cards when it comes to guard.

Next, you have your personal Hospital-Palace. A really impressive megablast unit which literally can reset the fight, and get you to Zero damage. Also the fact that by soulcharging gets +2k shouldn’t be ignored.

Circular Saw Kiriel. The Head Surgeon of your Angel army. Kiriel is an exquisite unit. It doesn’t just push continuously your opponent with its Limit Break skill but also can get you a “key” unit from your damage zone to your field setting up an easy Final Turn.

The main job of this clan is to heal and this will affect their skills in the game. Angel Feather will manipulate the damage zone in ways other than counterblast and is based around a more defensive strategy, but don’t let their cute appearance fool you, these Angels will transform to little devils and by taking advantage of the smallest “opening” will claim victory over you.

Entering The Dragon's Lair

With the Release of Cavalry of Blast Steel a new archetype was introduced but at the same time “old” decks have received some significant boost. The leading trios of pre-Limit Break Era, Shadow Paladin, Kagero and Royal Paladin as well as the crushing Spike Brothers were equipped with mighty Limit Break units which will keep them among the top contenders of the new meta.

Today we will have a look at Kagero, a deck revolving around retiring valuable opposing units, keeping the pressure up and maintaining control over the field utilizing its high attack based Dragons.

Kagero was one of the star-leading decks before the appearance of Narukami and Gold Paladins. Reinforced with The End was capable of pulling fierce attacks while retiring important opposing units with cards like Berserk Dragon and Kimnara, was really setting the pace as you commanded.

Due the power of Limit break they lost some of their power but now they found it again on Dragonic Lawkeeper.  

  

This tremendous new Dragon is able to bind all the opposing rear guards sealing off any looming intercepts while gaining +3k as your opponent will control less than 2 rear guards. But its power doesn’t stop there. At the end phase opponent must choose only 4 from the units in bind zone and place them to rear circles. This means that you basically can retire 1 unit of your opponent rear guards simply by activating your Limit Break ability and the best part of it is that this skill costs ONLY 1 counterblast.

Dragonic Lawkeeper is combing very well with Raopia , forming a 23k attack which at the worst case scenario will sap out opponents null guards, stripping them off 2 cards and leaving them open for next attacks.

With the exception of Lawkeeper , the rest “skeleton” of the deck remains same. Kagero has many tricks up to their sleeves. Berserk Dragon, Kimnara contributes greatly to the maintenance of control while, Nehalem, Bahr, Belliscosity Dragon and the rest of high attack based horde of yours keep pressuring opponent and exhausting their defences.

 

The trigger configuration may differ from style to style and personal preference. There can be line ups such as 5 draws, 7 crits , 4 heals as well as 5 draws , 5 stands, 2 crits and 4 heals. Always remember to use as much different cards as possible for triggers, for example play both Monica and Gatling Claw or Blue-ray Dracokid and Tahr in order to confuse your opponent about your trigger configuration.

Finally I want to state that even without Lawkeeper , Kagero is a mighty opponent and the power of The End should not be underestimated in any case.