Thursday, March 29, 2012

Spotlight: Kamosaki Mayu/鴨崎真悠

Fighter's Spotlight is an ongoing project concerned with tracking real-world professional cardfighters across the globe.

Kamosaki is at the center, holding the first-place trophy.
Kamosaki Mayu/鴨崎真悠
Age: Unknown; Seniors Division
Titles Won: Okayama Regional Champion (Junior Class), National Champion (Japan, Junior Class), Hiroshima Regional Finalist Third Place (Senior Class)
Current Status: National Champion (Summer 2011)
Deck Type: Kagerou (Okayama Regional; Dragonic Overlord-Aleph), Royal Paladin (National; Alfred Early-Soul Saver Dragon)

Debuting as champion in the Summer 2011 Okayama Regional, Kamosaki surprised cardfighters around the world when he made a reversal at the following national event. He is one of few competitive fighters known to have successfully switched decks between competitions, overcoming the inherent expense associated with running multiple clans. Although alternating between Kagerou and Royal Paladin has earned him fame, Kamosaki appears to favor the Kagerou side of his play, having invested in multiple trial decks for it.

The young national champion is not yet known to have participated in the following Grand Prix or Team Festival. He did however, reappear one year later at the Fighter's Road 2012 Hiroshima regional tournament, placing third with a new Kagerou deck. By this time Kamosaki was too old to participate in the Juniors Division, and so made his first appearance with the Senior Class league. Unlike Rikino Sakura, he did not make any additional attempts at the championship title in that year.

Decks and Play Style
Kamosaki's first deck was geared toward making grade 3 a turn early using the Embodiment of Victory, Aleph's superior ride chain, or else negating the advantage his opponent would gain from going first. This gave him the dual advantage of being able to use Conroe, Kimnara and Berserk Dragon's counterblasts with impunity until that point, as Aleph could then soulblast the cards used to superior ride it and unflip his damage zone. Overlord was then his finisher in either a rearguard circle or as his next-turn ride, repeatedly taking out the opponent's rearguards to better wound their hand and weaken their overall field presence. This would leave Kamosaki's opposition crippled and unable to continue the fight.

His opponent in the final match was Horikawa Kanata, who fielded Kamosaki's natural enemy, a Royal Paladin deck. Being an Alfred-Soul Saver Dragon deck intended to combo with Barcgal's then-unrestricted superior ride chain, Horikawa would in theory have been the winner in this fight. Instead Kamosaki came out on top with his retire strategy, proving Kagerou's power in the competitive scene--however, it is possible that Kamosaki was shaken by the match, as it appears that he took a leaf from his opponent's book for the national tournament.

Summer 2011 Regional Tournament, Okayama Juniors Division
Card Pool: TD01-BT02, PR 0001-0018
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x4 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x3 Lizard Runner, Nafud ST
x2 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x3 Lizard Soldier, Ganlu ST
x4 Demonic Dragon Mage, Raksha CT
Grade 1
x2 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x2 Demonic Dragon Guru, Kimnara
x2 Iron Tail Dragon
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr (TD)
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo (TD)
x2 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x3 Draogn Knight, Aleph
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem (TD)
x4 Berserk Dragon (TD)
x1 Dragon Armored Knight
Grade 3
x2 Embodiment of Victory, Aleph
x1 Seal Dragon, Blockade
x4 Dragonic Overlord (TD)

For his fight with Hirano Hirotarou, Kamosaki brought his own Royal Paladin deck to the table. In addition to the then-standard Barcgal and Soul Saver Dragon chain, Kamosaki included the Giro promo card. This was likely to accommodate for the copies of Alfred Early he ran, a grade 3 which would have pulled soul away normally reserved for Soul Saver Dragon's soulblast. As Kamosaki was primarily a Kagerou cardfighter, he likely brought the copies of Mirubiru into his deck out of experience with Aermo before it. His particular build gave priority to critical and draw triggers, carefully balanced with an exact number of Flogals necessary to not miss his superior ride.

Summer National Championship 2011, Juniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-BT02, PR 0001-0018
Grade 0
x1 Barcgal
x1 Giro
x4 Future Knight, Llew CT
x3 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x4 Margal DT
x2 Flogal ST
x3 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
Grade 1
x4 Flash Shield, Iseult
x4 Little Sage, Marron
x2 Lake Maiden, Lien
x3 Pongal
x3 Mirubiru
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade
x3 Knight of Silence, Gallatin
x2 Knight of Truth, Gordon
Grade 3
x3 King of Knights, Alfred
x2 Soul Saver Dragon
x2 Alfred Early 

Kamosaki's third deck returns to his Kagerou tactics of old, rolling out The End as the culmination of his deck's original strategy. Being well aware of the large number of retire units available by this time, Kamosaki included a second Conroe in his deck as an additional deck searcher, likely to get a copy of Barri in hand in the event of facing a persona blast, Majesty Lord Blaster or powerful on-hit skill. With Burning Horn Dragon as Overlord's offensive support and an irregular body of triggers, Kamosaki's new deck is an aggressive and unpredictable build that fights back against card counting and uses Gojo and Aermo to further sift through the deck in search of a second copy of The End. Unfortunately, this decklist was not able to carry him through the competition.

Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Hiroshima Seniors Division (Japan)
Card Pool: TD01-EB03, PR 0001-0066
Grade 0
x2 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x3 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x4 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x3 Bellicosity Dragon
x1 Cross Shot, Gap
x3 Berserk Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End

Additional Images


Kamosaki is at the left center, next to Daigo and in front of Shitakawachi.