Learning and Improving 2: Guarding

Hey Cardfighters,

This week I want to talk about Guarding. I think this is a really important topic for beginners because learning good guarding habits and then actively thinking about guarding is probably the easiest and best way to improve how well you do in matches.

Basics:
Each card with the exception of Grade 3s and 4s has a shield value in the middle left hand side of the card. To guard you call the unit to the Guardian Circle in rest position and add the shield value to the power of the unit being attacked. (Since it is a call you can't use cards with a grade higher than your vanguard)

Guarding is the reason for the term "Numbers/Magic Numbers". Since the attacker wins ties if your opponent attacks for 5k more power than your unit you are forced to use 10k worth of shield rather than 5k, thus making you use more cards in your hand.

The most important aspect of guarding is when you have to guard the vanguard. The game is set up so that drive checks happen after the guarding step. This means you have to take into account whether or not your opponent will get triggers or not. This is where the terms 1 Pass, 2 Pass and No pass come up. referring to how many triggers are needed to pass a certain amount of guard. (As the person guarding you will say these terms to help speed along the game and your opponent may confirm with you using these terms)

Base Strategy:
For a simple strategy to help guide your guarding thought process and improve your guarding is:

1. Don't guard until you are at 3 damage. Then guard all attacks.
2. Guard ALL vanguard attacks for 2 to Pass, exception being a perfect guard.

This basic guarding pattern should help you conserve cards for later in the game, give you counter blasts to use your abilities, and provide a good platform to build guarding skills from.

More Advanced Ideas:
Once you have gotten used to the basic strategy then you can start to think about these things to improve your game play. The things I have listed are general ideas that you should consider to develop your own style.

• Damage Control
• You might want to keep yourself at a low damage to prevent your opponent from making a comeback easily, or if you need to let an attack through to be able to use Counter Blasts the next turn.
• Pressure
• If your opponent has a pressure unit will you let it hit or guard it so that they can't use the abilities.
• Triggers
•  Opponent's Triggers and Yours. How likely is it that he gets a trigger and what type? If you get a defensive trigger will it cut off his offensive?
• Do you have enough shield?
• If you 2 to pass their vanguard will you be able to guard their next attacks even if they get a trigger? If they have a guard restricting skill will you have enough to play around it?

There are a lot more things to think about when you guard but the main thing is to actively think about guarding. By figuring out what works well and what doesn't you can develop a strategy that suits you and your deck and counters your opponent.

Was this article useful to you? Is there something that I can do to improve? Do you have any special guarding techniques of your own? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

If you want to be updated on the latest information and be notified about new posts click the link below and like the Bambguard Facebook page. 

Thanks for reading,

~Bambi