Vanguard: I entered an online tournament

Last night, I was invited to an impromptu online tournament at Cray Online. It was pretty fun. Here were the rules:
1. No cards after Set 10. Meaning no break rides.
2. We were using the Japanese ban list.
3. Promos were allowed.
4. Except Deathmaster Dragon.

There were only five people including me. It was a double-elimination tourney, so you can only lose once and still have a chance to win. The deck I used was Majesty Lord Blaster because it was my first deck, so I'm quite familiar with it.

With this guy, I was sure we will win. If not, that is why ice cream is here for.

Here's a breakdown of my matches:

Match 1: MLB vs Soulless

When I saw Lulu i realized "Crap I'm going into a grind game aren't I?" Surprisingly it did not turn into a grind game. The thing was that I was rushing him like a mad man with guys like Kay, Palamedes, and Blaster Blade. The guy ended up spending more cards then he thought trying to hold my units' attacks.

It also helped that CoCo was a 10k Vanguard, so Kay and MLB boosted by Marron could easily get into her face.

Match 2: MLB vs SHaladin

I knew I had to kill this guy as quickly as I can. I knew I should try to guard as early and efficiently as possible. What really helped me was that I kept damaging into Draw Triggers which was fantastic. He did not use PBD's eff because he couldn't risk minusing himself against my slowly formidable hand. I perfect guarded just as he drive checked another PBO for his Persona Blast.

I called my third Marron in the back row and finished him off with Kay. Also this guy got into character which was pretty cool.

Match 3: MLB vs Shaladins (rematch)
Here I was, at the Finals on the Winner's Bracket. The guy was hungry for revenge and his voice proved it. I couldn't get my MLB strategy going, so I rode King of Knights, Alfred. It was going well until late game in which I did not have any 10k shield cards to help me nor do I have a Perfect Guard. I went down after that.

I still have one last match to go.

Match 4: Final round.

This is the match where my luck finally ran dry. I kid you not, I did not checked a single trigger. All my triggers either never showed or Criticals went to the damage.

I ended up doing 4 damage to the guy until he pulls out his secret weapon...Gust Blaster Dragon. There was no way I could have guarded his final attack with a power of 36k from his limit break and from the boost from Apocalypse Bat. To make it a real kicker, he was doing 4 Critical while I was at 5 damage. The only thing that would have saved me was a perfect heal which...will never happen.

In the end, Kota the Shadow Paladin player, won the whole thing form Loser's Brackets.

Still it was a fun game and I'm glad I joined in at the time. Sure it is no real life tournament, but I can settle for an online tourney.

The Top 3 decks was:
1. Shadow Paladins (PBO and Gust)
2. Royal Paladins (Majesty Lord Blaster)
3. Gold Paladins (Gerad/Pellinore)

Who knows...maybe the  next time there will be another tournament in Cray Online, if the rules allow me, then I'm going all out with Gancelot Zenith.

I hope you enjoyed this rambling.

Vanguard: Starry Sky Liberator, Guinevere

I know I tend to talk about a lot about older cards, but I want to talk about a newer unit. She is Alfred, Gancelot, and Mark's presumed wife.

AUTO]:[Counter Blast (1)] When this unit is placed on (GC), if you have a vanguard with "Liberator" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Shield]+5000 for each of your «Gold Paladin» rear-guards until end of that battle.

Now the guys back on Pojo (by the way if you guys are reading this, I am sorry) said this really outranks a Quintet Wall. Most Vanguard experts will agree that the average Shield will be 25000 in Shield while this card can reach 30000 assuming there is a full field. Assuming this is no mistranslation, this does not seem to have the Sentinel status like Perfect Guards and Quintet Walls (I suspect that once she reaches TCG land, she will be errated to have it) means she can be run alongside with the other Sentinels. However, there are some problems I have with this card and why I think Quintet Walls are better IMO.

1. It requires a "Liberator" Vanguard.
Now I am probably one of the few losers in the world who cares about it, but this does hurt her flexibility. The only builds Guinevere works in are Liberators which does not sound too bad. It is just that other Gold Paladin builds like Garmore Bunnies, Ezel, and Spectral Duke Dragon will not be able to take advantage of of her ability, thus essentially making her a vanilla 6000 unit.
Igraine does not have that problem though.

2. The current meta is disastrous to her.
Now I will admit it's somewhat easy to Superior Call to have a full field with the Liberators. That is where people get the idea that this card will have the guard power of 30k.

We also have to take in account on what is popular in OCG land. The most dominating ones are Link Joker and Eradicators. These two can Lock and Retire respectively, meaning they will get rid of the Rear-Guards. That means Guinevere will not be guarding as much as you would like.

Against other decks?

Well if your opponent pressures you, then the only other rgs are the ones at the back. Assuming the back row is filled up, then we're looking at a 20000 Shield. That is still a sizable amount to guard with.

3.  She is only a single card to guard with.
The last one may seem strange, but there is a reason for me saying this. Think about it...why did people cheer for Quintet Walls, albeit a minority? It is because of this card:

Daikaiser is often consider to be one of the best Break Rides in the game simply because he laughs at Perfect Guards. The same reason why people will be scare of throwing Perfect Guards will be apply to throwing Guinevere in the GC.

It seems incredibly niche and I am probably overestimating Dimensional Robo power, but the fact this card exists means its really scary. That is part of the reason as to why Quintet Walls were invented.

Am I am saying Quintet Walls are better? Not necessarily because I do acknowledge their faults ie they thin the deck, getting rid of valuable triggers, and their guarding capabilities are random. It's just that a card like Guinevere requires a decent field to work with while QW forces you to take a chance.

 I will end by saying this: no way in hell this won't be a Sentinel card. If it is not, then that is quite all right since Bushiroad finally offered a cheaper alternative to defensive cards.