15k Defense

Hello everyone, and welcome to SO IMBA!,

Where we learn how to be a better card fighter.

I am your host, Rauzes, and today, we will be discussing Agravain's Megablast.

Yeah. That card that you took one look as and threw away as because its a Junk Rare.

"CONT [V]: This unit gets Power +1000 for each of your «Gold Paladin» rear-guards"."

This is the most important part of Agravain's effect that I would like to call attention to.

Notice that it does not have the words "On your turn", like Blonde Eizel does.

People call Agravain a "Watered Down Blonde Eizel", but I dont think so.

With its effect off, Agravain goes from a 10k squishy to a 15k Defense monstrosity.

Let me put that into perspective for you.
With 15k Defense, every attack that is not more than 20k Power can be shrugged off with a 5k Guard.

What used to be supposed to kill you: Burning Horn + Bahrs, Baromedes + Kei, Sagramore + Gareth...

Becomes just big enough to become a routine attacker.

Now, the problem lies with getting up that 8 Soul.

Gold Paladins dont have such wonderful soul charge support. The best they have is Coongal and Agravain himself.

But, actually Gold Paladins have an unseen form of Soul Charge.

Crimison Cub, Kryph, has an effect similar to Llew in Royal Paladins. By sending certain units to the soul, you can superior ride, given certain conditions.

However, both are worded in such a way that you can, in fact, use the effect knowing full well you will be not superior riding.

Now, this would normally represent a loss in card advantage, just sending 2 cards to the soul, but with Agravain, you must realize that...
Once you have activated the Vendetta Berserk, every attack's saves you 1 card.

Thus, the faster you achieve the megablast, you can shrug off everything with no problem.

Yes, you lose 2 cards. But, this represents a 2 turn faster megablast, a 2 turn faster 15k defense, and... given they attack with 3 units, saving 3 * 5k * 2 turns. A whooping 30k worth of cards.


Re-riding Agravain just for the extra soul is another choice.

I hope you now see the worth in Agravain. 17k on the attack and 15k on the defense is crazy enough. A double crit simply means you can dedicate part of the deck/your play to stand style stalling.

Rukie

So the new pale moon limit break is out, Rukie

Seem may say that it's effect is too costly, being three counter blast.

But do remember that Rukie will call into the rear guard one grade 0 unit.
This is where the pale moon stand trigger sky high walker comes into play.
By moving him from the rear guard to the soul, you can open one damage.

This significantly lessens the cost of the limit break, while upping your attack power.

Also, if you call out purple trapezist, you can send back either the g2 or g3 to call out sky high walker again, and send them back for opening one damage.

So, by using the limit break, it becomes a cb1 to gain 15k power, call two units from the soul.

Which is deadly.

Also, you might be able to use the effect again next turn!

The Vendetta against Stand triggers

Hello everyone, and welcome to SO IMBA!,

Where we learn how to be a better card fighter.

I am your host, Rauzes, and today, we will be discussing why people hate stand triggers so much.


Well, if youre one to one to jump down to the bottom of the post when you first read it, I'll make this easy for you: You're playing them wrong.


In deck building, most decks play 4 Heals, about 4 draws, and the remainder 8 slots are fought over by STAND and CRIT triggers.


Now, the reasoning is that with CRIT, you have to deal less damage to defeat the opponent, but with STAND triggers, you have more attacks to defeat the opponent.


The reason why everyone things CRIT triggers are so much better is that they are applying the same thinking that makes CRIT triggers work best... to STAND triggers.

One crit that makes it in gives the opponent one more damage, meaning that the CRIT trigger itself, not including the 5k power, saved you one more attack of 10k/15k guard, which is massive amounts of advantage.


Stand Triggers, without the power, would stand the unit, and, the stood unit, assuming the opponent was of lower power, would only need 5k to guard that next attack. A gap of anywhere from 5k to 10k, right?


Lets take an example situation.
Your deck runs 2 Crit Stand, 4 Draw, and 4 Heal.

The opponent's 3 lanes:
Blaster Blade boosted by Toypugal.
MLB with 12k Boosted by Toypugal
MLB boosted by Maron
18k/21k/18k, for those who cannot math.
3 Damage


and Your field:
Empty slot, with Bahr Behind
DOTE with 13k, with Flame of promises Aermo behind. (17k/23k lane)
Empty slot, with Bahr Behind

And your hand: Wyvern Strike Tejas, Berserk Dragon, Hidden Dragon Striken, Wyvern Strike Gyuntul  Wyvern Guard Barri.
4 Counter blast open
2 Soul(not including Overlord)

Now, take a few seconds and think: what would you call?





If your deck was all crit, you would call out Berserk Dragon and Striken, as both would form the 17k lines you need to properly whack the opponent, and focus down the opponent's Vangaurd. Berserk would burn down the Toypugal behind Blaster Blade or behind MLB.


This isnt wrong, but this changes if you were playing in STAND.
Now, a lot of players who play in many STAND make the mistake of attacking with all of their RG before their Vanguard. 
If you were playing Nova Grapplers, where on Vangaurd's attack would wake up your whole field, then yes, this is a great idea, but not so great in our scenario.

Now, if you were playing in 6 Stand, what would you do?
In CRIT based decks, your attacks to rear guards would only be if they made lines that would force a 15k or more guard.
However, in STAND decks, you could harass the rear guard lines that only called for a 10k Guard, giving you more and more ability to guard.


In stand type decks, if you harass the 18k lines enough, they will eventually break, making them lines that either are not attacking, are a 5k guard, not able to attack you at all!(Wonderful!)


With this hand, you have several options: A Tejas, a 10k, a pinpoint removal, and a Gyundul, which will stand and attack for 11k.


So, what I would do would be to call out the Tejas and the Berserk Dragon, and Burn the Toypugal behind the MLB.
I would attack with Tejas and Bahr attacking the rear guard MLB.
I do this because the Blaster Blade 18k line is dependant on the RG MLB to become 18k. That, and if I stand the Tejas, I could potentially break the easiest access to 18k lines: 8k Boosters.


The next thing to do? Attack with DOTE, boosted by Aermo, without using Aermo's effect.
This is 17k. You dont quite need to push the 23k yet, as the opponent can willingly take the damage. You are already hitting for 15k guard.

IF you got one stand trigger, pump up the Berserk Dragon, and Stand Tejas.
If you got a second stand trigger, stand Bahr and pump up Tejas.

IF you got a DOTE followed by a stand trigger, by some miracle, you could stand up the Aermo behind the Vanguard, and attack for 28k. Crazy.

Now, why didnt we attack with Berserk Dragon first? Couldnt we stand that and gain another attack?

The reasoning behind this is that yes, you get another attack, but how effective was that one attack?
It was pretty useless. 14k? 13k? 5k guards.

However, since Berserk Dragon had a nice 10k line formed, pumping another 5k there would force a 15k guard, making the attack go through, no?

Tejas already has a nice attack target, so theres no real need to give more power there.

Ok. Continuing on the situation.
Lets say a very reasonable situation occured: They perfect guarded the DOTE attacking the Vanguard(Who wouldnt?) You only get 1 Stand because you dont have psyqualia. You drive check Burning Horn Dragon

Now, the opponent is still at 3 Damage, so you use your 8k Tejas to whack Maron, and use Berserk to push in the 4th damage.

Now, assuming the Tejas's attacks hit(Guarding the MLB would be a waste, Maybe not the Maron.)
So, although you only got 1 Damage through this turn, you effectively wasted the opponent's entire field.
Whether or not the opponent can mount a proper counter attack is entirely dependant on their hand. It is highly unlikely that their hand would be good enough to be able to deploy units while having the threat of instant death Via Overlord THE END hanging over them.

Guard. 5k intercept. Guard. 10k. Guard... wait cant touch this? Aww cry more. 


As you can see, by using Stand properly, you can easily ensure your own survival more than the opponent's death.

Just remember that you CAN attack rear guards, and attacking the Vanguard only is not always the best choice.

And, as always, thanks for reading.

Deck Not keeping up...

Yeah so recently Im being steamrolled over several times per day.

I really felt like my deck wasnt keeping up with me.

But maybe, It was me who was unable to answer to my cards.

Pendragon

Pendragon.

I tried it once.

I hated it so much, I actually considered re-starting Yugioh.

Yeah.

Its that bad.

Back to Basics

Hello All, and welcome to SO IMBA!,

Where we learn how to be a better card fighter.

I am your host, Rauzes, and today, we will be discussing Fundamentals.

Fundamentals.

People act as if the game of Cardfight Vanguard is a complex and difficult game, which is why some people who know how to play win, and some who dont play well dont.


Its not.


Repeat after me.

It. Is. Easy.


In games such as Magic the Gathering and Yugioh, where things happen left and right and you dont know whats going on, yes, it is quite complex.


However, the Beauty of Vanguard is its simplicity.
Seriously. A game where you only can RIDE and CALL, is it that hard?

I'd like to liken Vanguard to Basketball.

Why?
Simply put, strong players are only strong because they have their Fundamentals down, and use them.

Unlike a game such as MTG, In Vanguard, you can go and probably will grow from Rank F to Rank B+ Entirely on the basics of the game!


So, take a good moment to go back to the basics.


Guarding properly, Power Lines, Riding properly, and proper placing of triggers.


Try going back to the basics for a while. Throw away all your fancy plays and tricks, because these dont win.


Power lines, Guarding, Riding, Trigger Checks.

Focus on knowing your matchup.
If youre facing a 10/11k Clan, make 20k lines and dont plop out so many weak boost units.

If youre facing a MLB, Make 17k lines as constant as possible.
If youre facing a DOTE or PBO, make 18k lines as constant. Save your 11k Attackers for the Function 7k boost. Put 10k in front of 8k.
Easy things, simple things.

Guarding.
Think about how much damage you have.
Guard with as little as possible hand each turn, but also to minimize the amount of damage you take.

Riding
Dont ride a 8k G2, Dont ride a 10k when the opponent has 3 20k lines, etc.


People, simple stuff like this wins games.
Simple stuff like this makes the difference between a player who only lucks out his wins and one who can trample everyone.

Basics. Review them.