deck building tactics part 2

as i mentioned in the previous article i run a kagero deck!!  and here is it

Grade0
conroe x1
stand
draw - gatling dragon
heal
crit - tarr

total 17

grade 1
barri x3 - perfect defense
barr x4
iron tail x4
amber dragon daylight x3

total 14

grade 2
amber dragon  dusk x2
blazing core dragon x2
dragon knight aleph x2
dragon knight berger x2
nehalem x3

total 11

grade 3
dragonic overlord x3
flare dragon x1
eclipse x1
aleph x2
blockade x1

total 8




barr x4 (grade 1)
tarr x4 (grade 0)
dragon knight aleph x2 (grade 2)0
embodiement of victory aleph x1 (grade 3) 

i run a high number as this increases the chance of drawing the cards i need i can also use conroe t to find and spare grade 1 or 0 cards i need

once i have bar and tar and alpeph i can put them into the soul and from dragon knight aleph supior ride to victory aleph  from here depending on my soul and damage i can either counter blast 4 and increase victory alephs critical by 1 and attack power by 3000 then i can use his 2nd effect get rid off dragon knigh aleph barr and tarr to unflip all my damage so i can use his first effect agen giving victory these stats

16000 power and a critical of 3 that means with a boost of 8000 from a grade 1 u get 24000 power then twni drive if u pull 2 triggers 34000 damage  ur opponent will need to block with atleast 3 cards

if i do the above BUT next turn ride vortex dragon with a soul blast of 8 and counter blast 5 i can retire all rear guard!!!!

my 2nd tactic is this

iron tail dragon x3 (grade 1)

gatling claw x3 (grade 0)

blazing core dragon x2 (grade 2)

blazingflare dragon x1 (grade 3)

with this tactic it has the same superior ride as aleph by filling up the soul (if i do this first it boosts my soul count for both aleph and vortex)  by having core dragon as the vangaurd and adding gatling and iron tail to the soul and counter blasting to call flare dragon

with him in the vangaurd i attack rear guards first to boost him then attack with him i can soul blast 5 to retire 1 rear guard unit

my 3 tactic is a double edged sword it locks down ur opponents front 2 rear guard units leaving u free to attack at full strength

sealed dragon blockade x1 (grade 3)
then either nehalem or berger
or sum grade 3's for a full offence

last combo i use is the amber dragon set
daylight
dusk
eclipse

deck building 101

now weve got the basics out the way  its time to talk deck building!!  before we go into tactics this is the most important part of playing vangaurd being able to build a deck. their is a simple check list  to use when building a decent deck 

starting with the basics we need to use  50 cards with  16 triggers  plus a starting card that means we have 33 cards left for the rest of the deck and ill use my kagero deck for examples the basics are kagero are high damage and retiring rear gaurd units we can do other things but these are the main stratagies that i use

my triggers are
embodiement of spear tarr x4 (critical)
lizard soldier ganlu x4 (stand)
dragon monk genjo x4 (heal)
gatling claw dragon x4(draw)
conroe is my starting vangaurd

i use a balance of all 4 triggers as after u draw 6 cards theirs nearly a 50% chance to draw a trigger when u attack or take damage and 25% chance to draw any of the above triggers obviously you can change these if u feel ore inclined towards a certain play style

conroe is my starting vangaurd because he can counter blast and fetch a grade 1 or less kagero in 2 my hand

with the 33 remaining cards  we need 2 create a curve with the first hand that is drawn IE 0-3 then secondly the deck needs synergy so that you can ride up quickly to grade 3 this curve is so important for defending if u draw to many high grade cards u wont be able 2 defend early game

this is the set up i use for my deck
grade 0 17
grade 1 13
grade 2 11
grade 3   9

this means that my starting hand  shud contain atleast atleast 1 from each grade  giving me a gd curve

synergy
this is created through 1 or more cards boosting others and helping you on the road to victory  this can be done through cards fetching other cards or drawing them  having a high number of cards and beng able to superior ride :D

the next article will be a list of all the cards in my deck and my tactics

vangaurd part 2

we looked at the basics  now im going to go over the cards and more indepth game play

each card indepth!!
as well as the lv of each card and its power they also have shield written on them this is the amount of damage they can help block.

as you can see from the card above their are 3 different types of abilities
cont in red these are continuous  abilities and as soon as the card is played they come into effect
act in blue are activated abilites these require you to perform a certian action
auto in green  this means that the ability will come into effect its important to pay attention to auto effects

some cards can also soul blast or soul charge

the above card can soul blast a soul blast is perform by flipping face up damage cards face down
a soul charge is done by putting the top card of the deck underneath of the top card (any card below the top card is called the soul)

damage check drive triggers and combat  !!!!!!!

as i mentioned in the first article  you win by causing 6 point of damage and that balancing taking damage with bocking

dealing damage
only front rank cards can attack  to deal damage to the player u must attack their vanguard.  you can also attack other front rank rear guards.

simply declare which will attack first
if u will boost
then the opposing player decides to block or not

blocking
the opposing player can block any cards vanguard or rear guard by calling his cards to the guardian circle. defence is worked out by adding the amount of shield to the power of the vanguard  if the total beats the attackers then they lock if not you take damage.

the twist  check the drive trigger!!!
if a vanguard unit attacks then after the opponent guards or not the drive trigger is checked this is done by revealing the top card to the opponent if a stand draw heal or critical trigger is revealed the evvects activate:

firstly all triggers give a card 5000 powe this can be added to any card including the vangaurd to boost his power to do damage

stand trigger  after a card attacks it is put on its side (called resting)  a stand trigger means the card can go back upright or stand to attack agen
draw triggers alows you to draw another card (triggers wont activate)
heal this lets you heal 1 point of damage for this to work you must have equal or more damage than your opponent
critical this is good one  this adds +1 damage to an attacking unit so if the opponent didnt guard thats 2 damage!!

now if the opponent guarded and the attack still went thru or they didnt guard then its time to damage check!!

this is done in the same way a drive check is done reveal the top card then place it on the left hand side of the play mat face up if a trigger is revealed resolve the effects first so all the effects above apply although critical wont work on the defencesive but giving +5000 to the vangaurd makes it harder to do damage

thats it all the rules are on line as well and the next articles will be about deck building tactics and the elusive FINAL TURN!!!!!!!!!!

stand up the vanguard

vanguard  cardfight is finally out so now ill be doing  some deck analysis combos etc etc coz i love to blog. for those browsing and dont know what vanguard is its a card game made by bushiroad and the guys behind duel monsters and yu gi oh!

card fight game play area basics and stuff  !!!
its very simple each player has a 50 card deck with exactly 16 triggers which are stand draw heal and critical these are very important during combat as they can add an extra 5000 damage to a card which makes the difference between doing damage and not(more on that later). after that each card has a level  and these levels have different abilities.  the picture below  is a playmat 

the green semi circle is the gaurdian circle
the blue circle is the vanguard circle
gold is rearguards
the rest are labelled

level 0 cards
these are mainly trigger cards (heal triggers re capped at 4)  and the initial card you will use as your avatar to start the game.  the main ability of lv0 cards is they boost attacking cards

lv1 cards
these are used to boost other cards when attacking

lv2 cards
these cards can intercept  if a lv2 card is on the field in the front row then it can be placed in the gaurdian circle to defend the vanguard

lv3 cards
twin drive!! these are the most powerfull cards and will also have devastating effects such as retiring all rearguard units or being able to summon your own units from the drop zone to rear guard spaces

how the game works !!!
each player has a turn which has 4 seperate stages

ride phase - this is where you place a card with equal or higher level on the current
main phase - call any other cards to rear guard and activate any abilities
battle phase - this is where you battle :D
end phase  - this is where u end your turn and the steps are repeated for your opponent

the winner is the first player t ocause 6 points of damage!!

the most important part of vangaurd is being able to weigh up when to block attacks and when to take damage this will be covered in the next article :D as well as other card abilities such as soul charging and soul blasting

musings

over  5 games iv won 1 lost 4  so 10 games will be 2/8   thats a poor average when  the tournament im goin to is only 3 games  that means theirs a gd chance ill lose all 3 games which is not gd .  now i am looking to win atleast 2  which means  in the next 5 practice games i really need 2 win atleast 2 games this will put me 2 3/7  which is a better average and more hope of gettin those 2 wins that i need.

from playing iv realised i dont have enough shooting and 2 much CC   2 dedicated shooting units and 2 dual units  in wave 1 wasnt enough  so now  iv changed the list and boosted the shooting to 6 units

the new lists look like this
 

Hq

Herald of tzeentch
Chariot
Bolt
We are legion / master of sorcery
X2

Herald of tzeentch
Disc
We are legion / master of sorcery
Bolt of tzeentch

Elites

Flamers x6
Feinds x6
Might
Crushers x5
Fury / instrument

Troops

Plague bearers x5
Plague bearers x5
Plague bearers x5
Plague bearers x5

Hs
Deamon prince
Wings
Armour
Might
Mark of tzeentch
Bolt of tzeentch
X2

now going back through the list

dedicated shooting units
both heralds  as per the original list
a new herald with the same setup
flamers (herald on disc attached to these)

these have doubled from 2  to 4 lol  this means that i shoud be able 2 drop these 4 on turn 1 along with 2 deamon princes being optimistic

CC units
feinds
crushers

these havent changed but with the improved shooting phase when they drop hopefully theyll be nice little juicy targets bcoz ill have destroyed sum boxes :P

dual units
deamon princes

these will be as they allways have been shooting a tank with bolt then charging it 2 finish it off from turn 2 they shud both hopefully take out 2 a turn  all being well  4 wounds with a 3+/4++

so in total  6 shooting units and 4 CC units which is an improvement well see how it does on the table next thursday

5 weeks and counting

well were entering the few final weeks for open war and i have this to report

blood crushers done!!
deamon prince done!!
demon prince done!!

as for the gaming side its deffinately worth while to split the army evenly  and this is how im gunna do it

heralds x2
deamon princes of tzeentch x2
feinds
crushers

this leaves
blood thirster
deamon prince of khorne
and 4 troops

hopefully with the drop on turn1  i  have  a chance to take out 4 tanks then after their turn1 hopefully ill have enough left to finish off what ever comes out of those tanks or do mor damage with the feinds and crushers   and if the DP and thirster drop in ill be reinforcing the charge  side and dropping troops out of the way  thats the plan

next game necrons :D

deamons cotinued

i have changed my list this week adding 1 bloodthirster and dp of khorne and dropping the horrors and soul grinder  AND MY PACK GO ARRIVED ITS AWESOME!!! LOL

as for actual models

i have just ordered the chariots and magnets to stick larger models together etc etc and 2 more bases for these models

still need:
20 plague bearers
2 heralds of tzeentch
1 blood thirster
1 dp

time limit 6 weeks  lets get it on!!!

gaming wise im still struggling with deamons and gettin the hang of them  losing 2 nids with more fire power and its annoying

what iv learnt so far tho is make the drop as even as possible  and then depending on the game saturate the weak half  allways refuse flank!!