Monday, August 12, 2013

News: Japan's 2013 National Champion is a Pale Moon Cardfighter, Luquier Reverse Takes Summer Cup, Enigman Storm Accidentally Wins Junior Championship

Japan's "Fighter's Road 2013" Summer National Championship just finished over the weekend, and Doctor O has tweeted the results. After the extended reign of Dragonic Descendant, and the rise of Raging Form Dragon and Dudley Emperor, the national finals have concluded with the Open class national champion revealed to be a Pale Moon cardfighter that built their deck around Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Я.” Meanwhile the Junior champion is a Dimension Police cardfighter with an innovative Enigman Storm deck, making use of the Daikaiser break ride and a grand total of fifteen grade 3s, much to the shock of Doctor O and the national tournament staff.

The identities of the two champions are presently unknown, in part because so many cardfighters have changed decks in the interim period between the regional qualifiers and the national finals. While it is possible that Luquier's appearance here was in response to her overwhelming success at the unofficial Vanguard Championship held two weeks ago, the time frame between tournaments was very short and the actual VGCS decklists were not published in Japan until the August 7th; if this were the motivating factor, the deck switch would have been a very hair-trigger decision. It is more likely that this is a coincidence, and that the new champion chose to use Luquier “Я” having been motivated by the same strengths as Hibari in that tournament.

The Junior champion's Daikaiser deck was mainly based around the new Daikaiser break ride, with the Enigman cards as a high-synergy framework. While the official decklists are not yet out, the junior champion has already uploaded their decklist to the internet, along with a recap of the events. He attributed the deck's actual creation to his elder brother, but stated that he originally inspired the build by commenting that "If you break rode Enigman Storm over Daikaiser, it'd be really strong right?" Below is a translation of his deck explanation, with the decklist "Crazy Diamond" below.
"No matter how you look at it, the grade distribution is totally different from a normal deck. I went to this number to be able to take advantage of Daikaiser's break ride skill.

Initially it was either 4 Critical 8 Draw or 6 Critical 6 Draw. Lady Justice came from [using her] in Galactic Super Beast Zeal (who I rejected because of the cost.)

For the national championship, I practiced with DOTE, Eradicators (Vowing Saber "Я"), and Link Joker but their condition wasn't good enough.

When Daikaiser's print was presented in Today's Card, the body of the deck was mainly developed by [my brother] ring. (Correction: He developed it when the skill was confirmed in KeroKero Ace, around 8/4.)

At the venue, I brought DOTE, Eradicators and this deck (the completed deck recipe), and after arriving I decided which deck I wanted to use.

The reason I used it was "to have fun while playing."

My goal was to take the Doctor O Prize, to get this deck recipe published on the official website and show it to the whole country, I thought that was possible but it seems that there is no Doctor O Prize for the national tournament, to hear something like that I was a little irritatedw

Also, I don't practice using proxy cards, so it was my first time reading some of these and the cards released between tournaments became an imaginary enemy, in my head I mean.

At the time I began Vanguard I had a goal, to become the national champion and this time it was possible, I am very happy but it feels a little like my feet won't stay on the ground."
Upon becoming champion, he commented on Twitter, "It appears that I've become the Vanguard national junior champion. Deck name is Crazy Diamond. Enigman-based Daikaiser, as constructed by Morikawa-kun." Later on he added "During the deck check, the person on staff performing the check said "15 grade 3s?!" That drew remarks ww" ("ww" and variations on it are an abbreviation for "warau" meaning laughter. It started in Japan and has been compared to the English lol but is more common, and recently English speakers have begun picking it up through exposure to Japanese net culture.)

After being told that Team Caesar would be proud, his father replied, "Thank you very much. This morning, I told him myself. "Congratulations." Listening to that he smiled a little. "But today, Mitsusada was reversed..." (laugh)"

The names of the winners have not been officially revealed, but based on some of his comments the junior champion is being tentatively identified as Niida Kazuki, the current Kanazawa regional champion and a former Kagerou cardfighter known for playing Dragonic Overlord the End. The decklist's name may be a reference to the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga.

8/15/2013 Update: The junior champion has been confirmed to be Niida.

Deck Name: Crazy Diamond
Grade 0
x1 Enigman Flow (FV)
x4 Justice Cobalt CT
x2 Dimensional Robo, Daibattles CT
x2 Army Penguin DT
x2 Gem Monster, Jewel Mine DT
x2 Dimensional Robo, Daicrane DT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gorescue HT
Grade 1
x4 Enigman Ripple
x4 Daimond Ace
x4 Commander Laurel
Grade 2
x2 Enigman Wave
x4 Operator Girl, Mika
Grade 3
x4 Enigman Storm
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha
x3 Lady Justice
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser

The strategy of the Crazy Diamond deck is to use the evolving Enigman series to compensate for the high grade 3 count, then use that grade 3 count to trigger Daikaiser's skill in every fight, sometimes multiple times per fight. Since Enigman Flow automatically adds the grade 2 Enigman Wave to the hand when the grade 1 Ripple is ridden over it, Niida would deliberately stay gradelocked at 0 if he had other grade 1s in hand but no grade 2, saving up for the scenario in which he would reliably get to grade 3. Furthermore, Daikaiser's break ride skill would let him come back from virtually any amount of gradelock while also automatically triggering Storm's extra critical. With 15 grade 3s in the deck, Daikaiser would be all but guaranteed to retire the opponent's guardian calls on a vanguard line that was looking to be in the range of 26~28000 power with a critical of 3, dealing 3 damage on-hit after which Commander Laurel would stand the vanguard line that still had 3 critical in addition to its break ride power boost, while giving yet another opportunity for Daikaiser's break ride skill to go off. Perfect defense would not save the opponent because of Daikaiser's guardian retire, and all this was effectively done without triggers. It's easy to see how Niida accidentally won the national championship instead of the Doctor O Prize, as the Enigman cards have not been taken seriously in competitive play for a very long time, setting up his rogue deck to bulldoze over the competition.