My blog, plans for the future.

It has been a couple months since I started this blog, and have used it to write quite a few articles, covering various aspects of Vanguard, including the marketing, decks, general strategy, and card shops themselves. I intend to continue doing more of the clan articles, but as far as general strategy goes, I'm going to need some more ideas to continue on. I still want to figure out what the best way to attack and guard is, as most people seem to have different strategies, and that's something that's confused me from the start. Most of my articles so far have been sort of one time deals, such as the rules and a marketing comparison. As the marketing changes, I can talk more about that, though.

A year has gone by since Vanguard started, and with the next set, there will be some changes to the game. I would like to use my next articles to talk about the new clans, since it's been a while since I did a clan article. I also would like to continue with the clan articles I have been doing and also will probably talk about the tournaments once there is a clear set up. Strategy articles will still come as I learn more, but it's likely that most strategy will be talked about with the clans. I also haven't talked about the anime much, which is something that I will probably talk about in the near future, as the first season has ended. I would like to keep my articles up with the releases, so as new sets come out, articles will be created for new cards or clans. Also, as the tournament scene develops, I would like to talk more about the meta and would like to see just what impact the Gold Paladins and new clans have on it. 

Anyways, it's been a good few months, but I plan to continue with the article, hopefully even as I go in to college, where I will probably find more players and Bushiroad will hopefully have set up their english branch. Anyways, as Vanguard continues to grow, so will this blog.

Card Shops and Businesses

I've been going to game stores since fourth grade, but never really thought much about how they stay in business and exactly how they work. While it may seem obvious, it's rather cool when you think about. For starters, stores start by getting cards for less than they sell them for. My local store gets a case of six boxes for $430, and sells packs at four dollars each. There are 36 packs in a box, so if they were to sell all of the packs, they would get $864 and double their money. Of course, these packs are also used for drafts and tournament prizes sometimes, where they barely make any profit, but draw people to the store. Even with the board games, they typically get their products for what they sell them for. This remains true when they buy cards from players. They usually offer a little under half of what they sell them for, and much less for bulk rares and commons. Still people who no longer want their cards and want some extra money will come to sell their cards.

Most of their sales came from booster packs, which people usually buy 5 of, but they also get a lot of money from bulk commons that they sell for 10 cents (they buy for 10 cents an inch), and dollar rares that they buy for 10 cents. The cards are cheap because most people don't want them, but oftentimes players will just browse through the binders and get a lot of cards that the shop pretty much paid nothing for. Also, players who trade cards in can get a little bit more in store credit, so usually, they don't lose money at all. Even so, they aren't the busiest store with 6 or 7 buyers on a regular week day and about 20 on weekly tournament days, but still, they've been there a few years and seem to be doing fairly well. After talking to busier stores, I basically got the same information except that they had more people coming by. The majority of buyers were teenagers and college age, but tournaments can draw in a variety of ages, as anyone who wants to play will go. Most players find stores by using Wizards' store locator, so anyone who wants to play can find them. Prereleases and larger tournaments will draw in many players.

The stores I talked to primarily sold Magic and trading card games, and while I understand how the business works, I'm still a bit surprised that they sell enough to cover bills and employees. I didn't really get any of that information, so I am still kind of confused in that regard. I guess it depends on the popularity of the store.

Thought I'd share this.

I figured that with season 1 ending, an awesome AMV would appear. Sure enough it did. I didn't make it or upload it sadly...but I think I will be watching it again ^ ^

Enjoy. I'll have another article up soon. 

Bluffing in Vanguard

To be honest, I think that the impact of bluffing is something that Vanguard lacks. I believe probably because there aren't any options to respond to an opponent's moves. In other games, cards can be countered, so players will often have to be more careful when playing cards, as their opponent may have a counter. Really the only thing that there is to bluff in this game is what you can guard with and also don't let your opponent suspect when you're missing a grade, as they then will know to overwhelm you from the start.

The key to most decisions in Vanguard is determining whether or not you will try and end it on that turn, and if you suspect that you can't, then can you guard in order to potentially finish it on the next turn. So basically, if you think you will lose then you don't want your opponent to see it and hope they will hold back to protect their-self on the turn. Unfortunately, due to triggers being revealed, you will usually know what they have and can calculate what they can defend with.

While I've never been very good at bluffing or reading bluffs myself, I feel like bluffing and responding is something that this game lacks, and that could make it better.

Card Counting in Vanguard

For those of you who don't know what Card Counting is, it is a tactic that many use in order to get an edge on casinos in Blackjack. If you're interested in learning more about Blackjack, there are many websites dedicated to it, but for this article, I'll just be explaining the basic idea and its tie in to Vanguard. Basically, in Blackjack, there are cards that are good for the dealer, cards that are good for the player, and cards that are neutral. The idea is that the more cards that are good for the player in the deck (or six decks, as dealers will often use multiple decks), the safer it is to bet. I believe that there are multiple methods, but the one I learned was called the high-low method, and it works like this. Whenever a high card (good for you) is dealt, subtract one from the total count (which starts at 0 with a full deck, since high cards and low cards even out). If a neutral card is pulled, then the total doesn't change. Of course, a low card will cause the total to increase by 1, as low cards are good for the dealer, and one removed means a higher probability of getting a high card.

Of course, a similar method can be applied to Vanguard, in determining the probability of getting triggers. While you may just prefer to keep counting the cards in your deck and the triggers removed, or just not keep track at all, but here's a method to keep track if you are interested. It could be more effective if you perfected it, so your opponent couldn't tell that you were keeping track. Anyways, a deck starts with 50 cards. A deck contains 16 triggers and 34 other units. If 18 other units were taken out, then the ratio would be 1:1, and you would have a 50 percent chance of pulling a trigger. So, in order to keep track, then you could say that a deck starts with a count of -18. Every time a non trigger unit is removed from the deck, add one to the count. When a trigger unit is taken out, subtract one. When the count is 0, the chances are even, and when higher, you are more likely to pull a trigger.

This method would enable you to keep track of your probability of getting a trigger, which will allow you to be better informed when taking chances. It could probably be adjusted a little, but it could certainly be effective. If you are looking for a new way of keeping track of triggers, or if you are at all interested, give this a try and let me know if it helps.

Today

I went to Harrison's comics in Medford, Massachusetts, which had supposedly begun having sanctioned Vanguard tournaments. Unfortunately, there didn't end up being a tournament as most of the players there were Yu-Gi-Oh players and according to the manager (I think he's the manager, I actually don't know what his position is), Bushiroad didn't sanction half of the applying stores due to some mess up. This of course, makes me sad as I would like to avoid buying King Seahorses and Skull Dragons, but regardless, that may have to wait. It's unlikely I'll play GranBlue anyways (although I still need to see what's in set 6, as I do have a fondness for them. ^ ^)

Anyways, I played a few games, and started by making a mistake I commonly make, I overextend. In fairness, this was against an opponent who I've beat every other time I've played against him. I swarmed the fields with Grade 1 units and attacked, dealing three damage on my first attack. He was playing Kagero, so this did give him access to counter blasts, but more importantly, I had filled my back row with units I would end up retiring, when the power boost was barely necessary. When I'm not thinking, I tend to overextend. I'm using a Soul Saver/Royal Paladin deck, but I don't always use the Llew combo to get out Blaster Blade. I made a comeback game two by playing as I usually do, not overextending to the point where I am wasting units, and only playing what was necessary. I won that game by a long shot. When you have Alfred, call Barcgal out behind the Vanguard, and use it to get two Flogals on the back in the left and right unless you have a Bors and want a 7000 power unit backing it up. I'm going to Anime Boston for the weekend and am hoping to do a lot of trading/selling/playing. I'll be going as Koutei. ^ ^

GranBlue of Magallanica

Grand Blue are a clan made up of undead pirates and ghosts and some strange sea creatures. Grand Blue have the unique ability to ride and call from the drop zone and when you combine resurrection with self-milling (mill is a term referring to discarding cards from the deck, usually trying to deck your opponent out, but in this case, the target will be the Grand Blue deck) tactics, it’s clearly going to be powerful. Grand Blue combines both of these into one clan. To make matters worse, Grand Blue even have the ability to superior ride from the drop zone with Spirit Exceed. Being the first clan that can stand alone since the main four, Grand Blue is certainly going to be a powerful deck. Additionally, it’s been confirmed for even more support making it all the more interesting.

While they don’t have their own trial deck, Descent of the Knight King gives them a few cards and they get a major boost from Onslaught of Dragon Souls. With only booster pack cards, they not only can max out their amount of triggers, but also have a callable grade0 that can be used as a starting Vanguard. On top of that, they have a good amount of grades 1, 2, and 3 cards, with their own cards as well as Grand Blue versions of cards used in other clans. For instance, Royal Paladins have Gallatin, Kagerou have Nehalem, and Grand Blue have Great Leader Blue Blood; all are grade2 units with 10000 power and no skill, basically the same card, but for different clans. There are six grade0 Grand Blue units, with 4 triggers and one callable starting Vanguard. Because of this, there won’t be much variety in Grand Blue decks’ grade0s (without combining them with another clan).

Grand Blue: Grade0

Grand Blue’s starting Vanguard is Guiding Zombie, a grade0 zombie with 5000 power and the ability to be called as a rear guard when you ride it with a Grand Blue unit. On top of that, you can send it to the soul when it’s a rear guard in order to send the top three cards of your deck to the drop zone. Since many of the Grand Blue have abilities that activate in or make use of the drop zone, this skill is more useful than it appears, as it can open up new possibilities, and makes a soul blast easier. A lot of the time, though, it will be more useful to simply use it as a rear guard to boost, since 5000 power is not too bad for a callable starter.

The critical trigger is Rough Seas Banshee, and it is possibly the best critical trigger made so far. Rough Seas Banshee has 4000 power and 10000 shield, but also has a good ability. While she is a rear guard, Rough Seas Banshee can be sent to the soul to draw a card. Not only does this exchange itself for another card, but it also increases your soul, and the only downside is that it only has 4000 power, which isn’t even bad considering it’s probably going to have used its skill to draw a card, which will probably be stronger than Banshee. Basically, if you need a 10000 shield to guard with, keep it in your hand. If you don’t need it, call it and send it to the soul to draw another card. Note that its skill can only be used if you have a Grand Blue Vanguard, but if you have a pure Grand Blue deck, there won’t be a problem. Overall, Rough Seas Banshee is an amazing card.

Unfortunately, Rough Seas Banshee is the only trigger to have a skill. Ghost Lick is the heal trigger for Grand Blue, with 5000 power and 10000 shield. The other triggers areArgus Skeleton and Knight Spirit, which also have 5000 power and 10000 shield. Argus skeleton is the stand trigger of the Grand Blue, but Knight Spirit is not a draw trigger. Like Rough Seas Banshee, Knight Spirit is a critical trigger, and while it may lack a skill, it is always nice to be able to use eight critical triggers. Sadly, there won’t be variety yet in the trigger or starting units of a Grand Blue deck, but the grade0s we are given are pretty good. One starting Vanguard, eight critical triggers, four stand triggers, and four heal triggers is pretty much the ideal amount of grade0s for a typical deck. Gran Blue, however have access to one more Grade0 with a unique effect.

Chappie the Ghost is a grade0 that is not a trigger or an ideal starting vanguard. It is quite different from the majority of grade0 in that its effect activates when it guards. When you call Chappie as a guardian, you can search your deck for any Grand Blue unit and send it to the drop zone, then shuffle your deck. Like the normal triggers, Chappie has 5000 power and 10000 shield, so it is also pretty helpful when you need to guard. Since so many Grand Blue activate their skills in the drop zone, having a card to mill specific units can be quite useful, especially when it has a good shield as well. Thanks to Chappie, Grand Blue are likely to be one of the few decks that will run more than 17 grade0s.

Grand Blue: Grade1

At the moment, there are only five grade1 Grand Blue units, the first of which is Dandy Romario. Dandy Romario is a zombie with 8000 power and 5000 shield. It doesn’t have a skill, and is the Grand Blue equivalent of Bahr and Marron, being strong for a grade1 and a great booster. The next one is Jin of Gust. Jin of Gust is another familiar card with 6000 power and 0 shield. If you’ve been keeping up on the other clans, you’ll probably have noticed that the only cards with a shield of 0 are those with the ability to make sure an attack doesn’t hit. Jin is the Grand Blue counterpart of Flash Shield Isolde and Wyvern Guard Barri, and has the same ability, but for Grand Blue. When you call her as a guardian, Jin can by prevent the attack from hitting by discarding one Grand Blue from your hand. While a lot of the clans share cards, the clans all have their own cards as well. As far as Grand Blue grade1s go, Jin and Romario are the only ones to be clones of other cards.

The next Grand Blue is Dancing Cutlass, a grade1 unit with 5000 power and 5000 shield. Naturally it has a pretty good skill in order to make up for its low power. When you call Dancing Cutlass as a rear guard and have a Grand Blue Vanguard, you can use its soul blast (2) in order to draw a card. With cards like Rough Seas Banshee, you should be able to use its soul blast pretty quickly, and still be able to use soul blasts later. Also, Guiding Zombie can send itself back to the soul in order to mill your top three cards, which can be very useful if you mill something with a skill that can be used in the drop zone, such as Samurai Spirit.

Samurai Spirit is a grade1 Grand Blue unit with 7000 power and 5000 shield, and a counterblast (1) that allows you to retire a Grand Blue rear guard in order to call Samurai Spirit from the drop zone. This is not the best ability, but it is nice to be able to replace a weaker unit, or replace a grade2 or 3 if you need something to boost with. Also, Samurai Spirit is needed to superior ride Spirit Exceed (more on that, later), so this ability will be useful, so that you just have to worry about getting it to the drop zone, which can be done with multiple Grand Blue cards.

The last of the Grand Blue grade1s, Evil Shade, is a key card for the Grand Blue clan, that can send cards from the top of your deck to the drop zone every turn. It has 6000 power and 5000 shield, and by milling the top two cards of your deck when it boosts a Grand Blue Vanguard, it gives the Vanguard an additional 4000 power. This is pretty much a double bonus, since Grand Blue can make use of cards in the drop zone, and getting an extra 4000 power is always a good thing. The only limitation is that you can only use its skill when boosting a Grand Blue Vanguard, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem, as long as you remember that.

Grand Blue: Grade2

The Grand Blue also have four Grade2 units, two of which support the theme, and the other two are clones of cards from other clans. First off, we have Great Leader Blue Blood, a unit with 10000 power and 5000 shield, with no skill. As mentioned earlier, this is the Grand Blue version of Knight of Silence Gallatin and Dragon Knight Nehalem. The other clone is Skeleton Swordsman, a unit with 8000 power and 5000 shield. Skeleton Swordsman is the Grand Blue equivalent of Knight of Truth Gordon and Dragon Knight Berger (both of which are new cards) and gains an additional 5000 shield when it intercepts and you have a Grand Blue Vanguard). As usual, a 10000 power can be good, but in Grand Blue it may not be as good as usual.

Ruin Shade is a grade2 with 9000 power and 5000 shield and a good example of a grade2 that can easily surpass Blue Blood. Whenever Ruin Shade attacks, you can send the top two cards of your deck to the drop zone in order to give it an additional 2000 power. Not only does this guarantee that it can have at least 11000 (as long as you have enough cards), but it also helps you to get cards in the drop zone, and hopefully get cards that can resurrect themselves, like Captain Nightmist.

The final grade2 unit is Captain Nightmist, a vampire with 8000 power and 5000 shield. It has two skills. First off, while it is a Vanguard, it gains 3000 during your turn while there is another Captain Nightmist in the drop zone. Captain Nightmist also has a counterblast (1) that can be activated only while it is in the Drop Zone that retires a grade 1 or higher Grand Blue rear guard in order to call Nightmist from the drop zone. The first effect usually won’t help for more than a turn, if that, but the ability always have access to a grade2 vampire with 8000 power is quite helpful. It makes it so that no matter what you draw, you can always just exchange it for Nightmist (if you can pay 1). Captain Nightmist may not be the strongest, but it certainly helps to add consistency to the deck.

Grand Blue: Grade3

Finally, there are four grade3 units, all of which focus on reviving themselves or other cards. Monster Frank and Spirit Exceed are the two units that revive themselves, and they both accomplish this through superior rides. First off is Monster Frank. Monster Frank is a grade3 unit with a counterblast (3) that activates from the drop zone. If you can take 3 damage by your second turn, and have Monster Frank in the drop zone, you will be able to use its skill to ride it as long as you have a grade2 Vanguard. While it doesn’t do anything once on the field, it does have 10000 power, which is pretty good for something that you can ride from the drop zone.

Spirit Exceed has a skill similar to Monster Frank’s except it superior rides when you have a grade2 Vanguard by sending Knight Spirit and Samurai Spirit from your rear guard circles to your soul. This is fairly easy to accomplish, since Samuari Spirit can use it’s counterblast to call itself from the drop zone, and Chappie or Evil Shade can be used to send it there from the deck. It will be more difficult to get Knight Spirit, since it doesn’t have any abilities, and you will have to draw it. The odds of drawing it can be increased by cards like Rough Seas Banshee and Dancing Cutlass, luckily, so it is still fairly consistent. Spirit Exceed has 10000 power and no other skill, but as I’ve mentioned before, it can be worth it to ride to grade3 faster. Spirit Exceed is especially helpful since it doesn’t require a counterblast, which can be difficult since a lot of other Grand Blue require them as well. Spirit Exceed and Monster Frank are the two Grand Blue units capable of superior riding, but the other Grade3s focus on resurrecting as well.

Shaman of the Abyss Negramaro is a grade3 with only 8000 power, but to make up for that, it has a counterblast (2) that can be used when it comes you call or ride it and have a Grand Blue Vanguard. When it comes into play and you have paid the cost, you can call a Grand Blue unit from the drop zone. As long as you can pay the cost, you can get two Grand Blue by playing one card, plus since Grand Blue can send almost anything to the drop zone, if you play your cards right, the resurrected unit could be whatever you want it to be.

Demonic Sea King Buskirk is the last of the grade3 Grand Blue and it is also the only other Grand Blue that can call other units from the Drop Zone. However, unlike Negramaro, Buskirk is capable of calling multiple Grand Blue from the drop zone. Demonic Sea King Buskirk has 10000 power and an extremely dangerous soul blast. First of all, as Vanguard, he has the ability to soul charge (1) every turn in order to give it an additional 2000 power for that turn, which makes it so that it can always have 12000 power during your turn. Additionally it has a soul blast (8), counterblast (5) that allows you to call up to 5 Grand Blue units from your drop zone. It has a pretty large cost, and will be very difficult to pull off, without getting heal triggers or mixing with another clan that has cards to flip damage, since you will probably have used a counterblast by then. Regardless, if you can pull this off, it could be very dangerous, as you get to set up your field however you want it. And even if you don’t get to activate his soul blast, Buskirk can still have 12000 every turn, which is pretty strong just by itself.

Building the deck

Grand Blue decks can be built differently than most other decks because of their ability to send to and ride from the drop zone. Normally, you would need to draw a grade3 or have the right card to search or ride it from the deck. This would require you to have to run more grade3s, which isn’t necessarily good, unless they have great skills while in play. Since Monster Frank and Spirit Exceed are both capable of calling themselves from the drop zone, by sending them there with cards like Evil Shade or Chappie the Ghost, you can guarantee yourself a grade3 as long as you can meet Frank or Exceed’s requirements, which can usually be done by your third turn, and sometimes earlier. Because of this, Grand Blue can get away with running less grade3s, and can focus more of the deck into the other Grades.

First off are the grade0s. Grand Blue should naturally want one Guiding Zombie for the starting Vanguard, and it should definitely use four of each of their triggers (Rough Seas Banshee, Argus Skeleton, Knight Spirit, and Ghost Lick), since a deck with less than 16 will usually have a disadvantage. This makes 16 grade0s, but there’s still Chappie to factor in. Since Chappie has 10000 shield and the ability to send any card from your deck to the drop zone whenever it guards, drawing it pretty much guarantees you can have a grade3 in time as well block most attacks. Running four of these may make it seem like you have too many grade0s, but Rough Seas Banshee evens it out, since you can send a Rough Seas Banshee to the soul to get another draw.

The deck currently runs twenty-one Grand Blue units
-1 Guiding Zombie
-4 Rough Seas Banshee
-4 Argus Skeleton
-4 Knight Spirit
-4 Ghost Lick
-4 Chappie the Ghost

Next up are the grade1s. Since Grand Blue have some good draw power with Rough Seas Banshee and Dancing Cutlass, twelve grade1 units should be fine. For starters, we will probably want two Samurai Spirit since it is needed for the superior ride of Spirit Exceed and has 7000 power, but can be called from the drop zone. Dancing Cutlass is another one that should probably be run at four, since it is pretty easy for Grand Blue to get soul, so a soulblast (2) is pretty easy for them to accomplish, and with the different grade ratio and Spirit Exceed, it will be really helpful to draw extra cards.

This leaves six spots for grade1s and Jin of Gust, Evil Shade, and Dandy Romario are all good cards. Evil Shade is especially good, since it can mill the top two cards of your deck every turn (only when boosting a Vanguard, though) to give 10000 power to a Vanguard it boosts. It would probably be good to run four of these, to add consistency. Also, if you end up with extra, you can always use the skill of Captain Nightmist or Samurai Spirit to replace it, or just use it to guard or give a 6000 power boost to an attacking rear guard. For the last two, I would suggest two Jin of Gust, since it not only stops any hit, but can also let you put a Grand Blue into the drop zone, which can be useful if you want to superior ride or give Captain Nightmist a boost. Romario is good, so running it wouldn’t be a terrible choice, however it will often be more useful to have a 6000 or 7000 power unit with a good skill than an 8000 power unit with no skill. Most of the time a unit attacking with a boost of 6000 power as opposed to 8000 power unit won’t change what your opponent has to guard with. For instance, if you attack Dragonic Overlord with Sprit Exceed boosted with Jin (not that you’ll usually use Jin to boost), Spirit Exceed will have 16000 power and 11000 power. If you boost with Romario, Spirit Exceed will 18000 power. Either way, your opponent will need at least a shield of 10000 in order to guard.

So the twelve grade1 units will be
-2 Samurai Spirit
-4 Dancing Cutlass
-4 Evil Shade
-2 Jin of Gust

Since 33 of the cards are grades 0 and 1, and there should be about five spaces for grade3 (less than usual, because of the milling), twelve should also be a good number of grade2 units. First off, four Ruin Shade should probably be used, since Ruin Shade helps for getting cards to the drop zone, and can have 11000 power by itself every turn, so its easily one of the strongest grade2 units. Next, since Captain Nightmist can revive itself, it is definitely worth putting in. Running four Nightmist may be a little bit much since you can ride it from the drop zone, so three would probably be good. There are two Grand Blue units left to use and both are fairly good. Great Leader Blue Blood lacks a skill but has 10000 power, so it is pretty good, since it can hit most grade3s on its own. Since Ruin Shade can surpass it in strength, it probably isn’t worth running four, so three should do, which leaves two spaces for Skeleton Swordsman, which only has 8000, but can have 10000 shield when intercepting, so he can be pretty good to have, but not worth running four. Two Skeleton Swordsman should definitely be enough, although if you want to change the amounts of each card a little, there shouldn’t be a problem.

So, the twelve grade2 units are
-4 Ruin Shade
-3 Captain Nightmist
-3 Great Leader Blue Blood
-2 Skeleton Swordsman

Lastly, there will be five grade3 units. Spirit Exceed should definitely be in the deck, since it is the most consistent way to superior ride (since you likely won’t have Frank in the drop zone as well as three damage by turn two). Since you can ride it from the drop zone and it shouldn’t be too difficult to put it there, two should be enough. For the other three, it would probably be good to run two Demonic Sea King Buskirk, since even if its soul blast may not be used, it can still soul charge so you can use other abilities, like that of Dancing Cutlass). For the last one, let’s try using Shaman of the Abyss Negramaro, since it can use its counterblast to call any other unit from the drop zone. With that, the deck is complete.

-1 Guiding Zombie 
-4 Rough Seas Banshee
-4 Argus Skeleton
-4 Knight Spirit
-4 Ghost Lick
-4 Chappie the Ghost
-2 Samurai Spirit
-4 Dancing Cutlass
-4 Evil Shade
-2 Jin of Gust
-4 Ruin Shade
-3 Captain Nightmist
-3 Great Leader Blue Blood
-2 Skeleton Swordsman
-2 Spirit Exceed
-2 Demonic Sea King Buskirk　
-1 Shaman of the Abyss Negramaro

Again, this deck is just an example, and if yours turns out different than this, then that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing anything wrong. This article should give you all the knowledge you need to make your own decisions on how to make a successful Grand Blue deck. At the moment, the Grand Blue have the most unique strategy and I expect that they will do well in the future. I will probably write a second article once set 3 comes out.