Budgetguard 40: Gilvaese Shadow Paladin

Hey Cardfighters,

The forgotten knight of Shadow paladin. Overbearing Knight, Gilvaese wants you to "Gilve" him a chance.... yea that was bad.. sorry not sorry. Let's get into the deck!

Winning Image: Crit Presssure among other things!


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
      This guy is going to be the main boss of the deck providing some pretty neat effects for no counterblasts! Focusing on a boss like this has a lot of benefits allowing your rearguards to counter blast a lot. His first ability makes it VERY hard to guard strides without a Perfect Guard. This is going to play well into the on-hit pressure and extra criticals of the strides. He also provides a decent change up getting to provide a field control style of on hit pressure.


Deck List:
Starter: Knight of Meditation, Mac Nessa
1 Promising Knight, David
8 Critical
4 Draw
4 Heal

G1s:
4  Little Skull Witch, Nemain (0.60)
4 Cherishing Knight, Branwen (1.00)
4 Night Sky Eagle
1 Sabmyu (1.00)

G2s:
3 Skull Witch, Nemain (0.30)
4 Dark Knight Maiden, Macha (0.40)
4 Knight of Brawn, Grosne

G3s:
4 Overbearing Knight, Gilvaese (0.25)
4 Demon World Castle, Totwachter

G4s:
4 Dark Knight, Efnysien (2.00)
4 Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo" (1.25)

Final Cost:  $23.9

Deck Comments:
     This deck is designed to be able to transition back and forth between stride turns and using Generation Break 1 skills. With Gilvaese and Efnysien you have on hit field control skills while Diablo and Totwachter provide crits. Switching between the two should provide a nice strategy to take out the opponent. Most of the skills are free which leaves out CB open to use Nemains and Machas as much as you like. The rest of the deck is mainly focused on power and stride fodders to help enable your transition plays when you like. I wanted to run less Branwens but I didn't feel like much else fit the deck well.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     The deck actually performed a lot better than I expected the power Gilvaese adds can really throw off numbers and makes it hard to guard any stride without a perfect guard. This deck has a lot of synergy with itself allowing you to transition between plays to keep up constant pressure which I really like but think it might fall a little short of being super competitive. That being said, I think Gilvaese could go into a Claret Sword deck extremely well and mesh a lot better than Blaster Dark Diabo does.

Tips for Mastering:

• Change up between strides and GB1s to trip up your opponent and get the effects you need.
• "Diablo" doesn't force you to retire 3 so try to think of him as a super powered Atmos being 41k unboosted with Gilvaese.

Tips for adding money:
     The changes to the stride zone I would make is to swap out efnysien to Grim recruiter. This will help you build the field for sacrificing plays later and also creates more options between strides and GB1s. Other than that if you want to keep the deck the same I'm not sure what else you can add. Keeping with the theme though you could replace Totwachter with Claret sword and start adding in Claret support like Darkpride and Darkquartz in for some of the other cards you find less useful.


Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 39: Angelfeather Legion

Hey Cardfighters,

Angelfeathers got support in set 4! This brings a lot of opportunities for powerful builds especially the super powered ponies style that is popular. Let's take a step in a different direction focusing on cards that aren't used as much and see what we can do with them.

Winning Image: Consistently high columns and card advantage


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     This legion is going to be the focus of the deck because it gives you a free unit from the damage zone when you legion. not only that but if you have the right setup you'll bump up its power! The rest of the deck is build to take advantage of the slight toolboxing to get the cards you need into your damage zone.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     This guy is the main power of the deck powering up his specific support cards by +2k for each one of him in the damage. Really important to get him in the damage. You'll hit 22k with a column of Armen support and 2 in the damage which shouldn't be too hard.



Deck List:
Starter: Thermometer Angel
8 Critical
4 Draw
4 Heal
(All Celestial)

G1s:
4 Black Record, Israfil (3.30)
4 Nurse-cap Dalmatian
4 Anesthesia Celestial, Rumael
2 Nursing Celestial, Narelle (1.00)

G2s:
3 Candle Celestial, Sariel (3.25)
4 Surgical Celestial, Batariel
4 Control Celestial, He-el (0.30)

G3s:
4 Accident Celestial, Batarel (0.30)
4 Operation Celestial, Armen (0.20)

G4s:
2 Holy Seraph, Uriel (1.80)
1 Holy Celestial, Mikhael (2.40)

Final Cost:  $34.15

Deck Comments:
    This deck is more of a field advantage and consistent columns deck. The Dalmatian and Rumael provide powerful boosters, Narelle will help you get any cards that you want from your hand into the damage (most likely Armen). For G2s we have mates cause they are mates, more power gaining with Armen support, and Sariel to set up legion really easy or get the desired cards into the damage zone.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     I'll be honest the deck is just okay. Operation celestial Armen is a cute way of making power columns but it isn't nearly as effective as the ponies and also tends to conflict with getting either Batarel or He-el in the damage zone to activate their legion effects.

Tips for Mastering:

• Be cautious when using Naraelle since the deck only contains 2 you won't be able to swap anything and everything into your hand.
  
• Don't be afraid to go for an early legion. Sometimes you might not have the damage zone set up but having the power and putting triggers back might be more useful than sacrificing a lot of cards just to stride.

Tips for adding money:
     The best way to add money will be to go with the stride zone. Securing Raphael for the deck gives you a huge power spike which helps to close out games with your power columns or give you a bit more time to set them up. The next option to consider would be going for a more complete celestial deck using the promo legion Malchidael + Asmodel. This would make for a pretty powerful and consistent double legion deck either going for advantage with Batarel or power with Malchidael. There are a lot of ways to build around Batarel since its a utility card using no counterblasts. You could even go the power pony route or end up using her as a back up for Gavrail. I really can't cover all the possibilities given how open Batarel's skills are.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 37: Genesis Witches!

Hey Cardfighters,

Which Witch will you Soul Charge?? Got a request to update the old witch deck profile! The old route was more focused on persephone so I might try to redo that as well since I decided to go with a Witch focus this time.

Winning Image: Speed through your deck and then recycle triggers with Legion.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     This legion pair is the main boss of the deck for good reason. The on-legion skill is pretty nuts. For a low cost of Soul Blast 3 you get to check the top FIVE cards of your deck for 2 cards with "Witch" in the name and put them in your hand. This serves 2 major purposes. First get the cards you want and 2nd thin your deck from triggers to let you Crit your opponent to death.


Deck List:
Starter: Vivid Rabbit
12 Crit (4 Witch's Familiar Shiroma)
4 Heal
(All witches)

G1s:
4 Witch of Strawberries, Framboise (6.30)
4 Witch of Melons, Thyme
4 Witch of Peaches, Bellini
1 Mythic Beast, Skoll (0.40)

G2s:
4 Witch of Ravens, Chamomile
4 Witch of White Rabbits, Cardamon
4 Witch of Golden Eagles, Jasmine (0.40)

G3s:
4 Witch of Eagles, Fennel (2.50)
4 Witch of Wolves, Saffron (0.20)

G4s:
4 Goddess of the Firmament, Dione (0.30)

Final Cost:  $39.2

Deck Comments:

     This deck really takes advantage of the new support that witches got. First we have the Shiroma and Thyme who fill up your drop zone for legion and help selectively Soul Charge (super powerful). It also gets to run even more copies of Chamomile in the form of Cardamon making sure that your front row will always be filled. Intercepting and then filling up again is a powerful strategy and it can also let you do multi-attacks to wear down your opponent! You might be wondering why Melissa isn't in the deck and that is because I wanted to focus more on calling the Grade 2s from soul and a lot of times you can't get rid of boosters. This means you won't want to call as many grade 1s early so that you can take advantage of melissa's call from the soul. I think this takes away from early plays so we replaced her with Bellini to get our Rush on. Lastly Vivid Rabbit is the starter to ensure we get Fennel. There are 5 non-witch cards in the deck 4 Crits and 1 Skol. I think having the extra stride fodder and more Criticals are worth it since the only time you care is with Thyme or Shiroma and the chances of you getting 3 non-witches with only 5 in the deck is pretty minimal.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     This deck is actually pretty strong. It gets a lot of early advantage and isn't super counterblast reliant which lets you choose between field building plays and multi attack patterns. The selective Soul Charging provided by Thyme and sometimes Shiroma is amazing. The deck lacks a strong finishing play though which is something we can try to fix when adding more money. If you invest a bit more money in the deck I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of success with the deck.

Tips for Mastering:

• Known when and how to use your Counter Blasts. Field building? Multi attack? Soul Charging?
• Don't be afraid to intercept its a very powerful and under utilized mechanic especially when we can easily replace the front row. 

Tips for adding money:
     You have 2 major options when updating the deck. First we can replace Saffron with Mint. Mint is the other legion for Witches and gives a lot of power to the front row. This will focus the deck more on legion plays and re-riding and legioning. I would suggest actually swapping the starter for Spectral Sheep/Pray Angel if you go this route. It will help make the early game more consistent and if you combine it with Thyme you'll have 3 cards in the dropzone for legion without having to guard at all. (Super nice if you go second.) The other option is adding Vanargandrs to the Stride zone. This won't mess with the core deck and allows the Soul Charging skills to come into play more. I would suggest this route as you can have more options using fennel for advantage/multi attack while Vanargandr provides the strong vanguard plays. Of course you can mix and match both as you please :) *One thing that I forgot to mention early is Doombrace which can replace some of the Dione in the stride zone for better power plays/ consistent soul blasting for field building.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 36: Trying not to use Chronojet Gears

Hey Cardfighters,

This week's deck attempts not to use Chronojet and focuses on Dimensional Expulsion Colossus. Let's dive right in!

Winning Image: High numbers!


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The main card of the deck allows you to rewind your opponent's starter and also lets you grab grade 3s from the deck for power pushes when you can't stride. This effect was pretty lackluster but now that Gear Chronicle has a Grade 3 with rearguard effects it should be somewhat useful.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     This guy is the main pressure of the deck letting you rewind your opponent's front rows when it hits vanguard provides some extra pressure when you either hit Epoch-maker's effect or in a power column after Colossus's GB1 skill.



Deck List:
Starter: Gunnergear Dracokid
12 Critical
4 Heal

G1s:
4 Withdrawn Gear Raven
4 Maser Gear Dragon
3 Steam Breath Dragon
2 Summit Crest Gear Wolf

G2s:
4 Smokegear Dragon
4 Upstream Dragon (1.00)
3 Mechanized Gear Tiger

G3s:
4 Dimension Expulsion Colossus
4 Steam Fighter, Balih (0.50)
1 Chronojet Dragon

G4s:
4 Interdimensional Dragon, Epoch-maker Dragon (3.30)
2 Interdimensional Dragon, Faterider Dragon (7.20)

Final Cost:  $37.2

Deck Comments:

     I tried soooo hard to not use Chronojet but I succumbed due to the fact that I wanted to use Balih and if I ride him I might as well swap him out for Chornojet to get nice vanguard effects. Basically the deck has 2 game plans going on. The first is striding and setting up a good field via Colossus/Fateride/Upstream. The second is to gain power which is also supported by the previous mention cards. Upstream mainly comboing with Masergear to create 21k and other power gainers in the Gear wolfs and tigers. I tried to lead the deck away from mass rewind (putting rears to the bottom) because I don't want to be reliant on my what my opponent does.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
      Honestly the whole time I played this deck I felt like I wasn't playing the deck right. Hahaha. I think the deck can be very strong if played right as it isn't reliant on your opponent's field and epoch-maker can be super sweet with Balih providing and extra attack and on-hit pressure. I think i got a little too excited about calling my grade 3s as attackers but the deck shows a lot of promise. I think with a bit more tuning and mastering the deck it could be tier 2/3 or whatever you want to call it "kinda a little competitive"

Tips for Mastering:

• Know when to call grade 3s as attackers or for stride fodder.
• Figuring out the right attack patterns for Epoch-maker will help you a tooon.
• Dimension Expulsion Colossus can cover the turns you don't stride so don't be afraid to make a 21k+ column with Balih's on-hit pressure.

Tips for adding money:
     To complete the base deck I would grab a pair of Ragnaclocks if they are in your budget or go for more fateriders for a bit more budget. I think most of the main deck is solid though you can definitely swap your PGs for the Unflipping PGs. But the real thing on everyone's mind is do I go full Chronojet? and as much as I don't want to admit it its probably the best option. Using colossus to fetch 3s isn't a super power play and Chronojet is just solid all around. You're still able to take advantage of Balih's on-hit pressure with Epoch-maker so I don't think you'll lose out on too much.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? 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 Vanguard Central Facebook page.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 35: The Psychics of Dark Irregulars

Hey Cardfighters,


This week's deck was suggested by Joshua Kim! How can we use the Pyschic Legions to their max potential?

Winning Image: Powerful columns and field destruction

(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     These two are the main gimmick for the deck. Rigil can be used for awesome field control and his ability to soul charge 5 in one turn can push the power gaining cards over the top. This should give the deck a nice balance between high power and managing your opponent's field.



Deck List:
Starter: Werefleder Ordonnaz
12 Crit
4 Heal

G1s:
4 Flag Breaker (3.80)
4 Killing Dollmaster
4 Succubus of Pure Love (0.50)
2 Rune Weaver

G2s:
4 Psychic of Dust, Izaya (0.90)
4 Squallmaker Vampire (1.50)
3 Flirtatious Succubus (0.25)

G3s:
4 Sweet Predator (0.25)
4 Psychic of Storm, Rigil (0.25)

G4s:
4 Great Demon, Soulless Demagogue (0.50)
4 Love Tempest, Kisskill Lira (0.50)

Final Cost:  $33.55 

Deck Comments:
     The deck breaks down into two main parts; Soul Chargers and Power Gainers. For Soul Chargers we have Dollmaster, Squallmaker and Succubus, for power we have Izaya and Sweet Predator and Squall maker (he/she does both). Then we have Rune Weaver WTH is that? Well he lets you selectively soul charge from your hand. This lets you take extra copies of Rigil and turn them into Soul Charge 5s in an instant! We use 4 Stride fodder to help us get the first stride off to activate Generation Break 1 effects without using up precious Grade 3s.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     The deck performed well and you can meet the soul requirements for rigil pretty easily especially using his non-legion skill. What the deck lacks most is speed. Usually you can't legion right away and you'll want to stride once anyway for sweet predator and squall maker. This slows the deck down a bit too much in my opinion. You end up playing the catch up game versus decks which have more powerful first strides or early game plays and generally it isn't fast enough to catch up. I never used Rune Weaver's skill so it might not be better to have a different grade 1.

Tips for Mastering:

• Count your soul carefully, reaching the 10 soul mark is the most important so make sure you can hit it, even if it means riding an izaya to secure Rigil's skill.
• Izaya only works during main phase so it can't get power from squall maker. Don't forget to call it before using Rigil's skill!

Tips for adding money:
     The most expensive and best way to add money to the deck is to add Doreen, The Thruster. This will help you create even more power columns and just bring your deck over the top. The main way is to add the strides Gilles de Rais. This one is iffy to me because I see it mainly as a legion based deck using stride mostly for effects. However it could be a good change up and option if you can reach the soul requirements.  The last thing I want to throw out there isn't really a money upgrade but you can use the Amon cards early game to have an extremely strong soul charge engine which might be able to speed up the deck to make it more viable.


Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 34: Musical Ch-animals

Hey Cardfighters,

The musical string of great nature are hardly used but with the right set up you can rid your deck of a crazy amount of non-triggers and with triple drive you should be able crit your opponent to death.

Winning Image: Deck thinning equals winning


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     These three animals are the most important players in the deck. Chicken calls Cat. Cat calls Dog. Dog calls Chicken. If you aren't sure what is going on lets pretend we have 2 of the animals out on the field. Say you have 2 Chickens. If you retire 1 then you can call a Cat on top of the other Chicken. This will place it into the drop zone and let you call out a new Cat on top of the previous on and so on. By doing this you should be able to remove a large amount of cards from you deck in one go. If you didn't explain just watch the matches :)


Deck List:
Starter: Acorn Master
12 Critical
4 Heal

G1s:
4 Contradiction Instructor, Shell Master (4.30)
4 Diligent Assitant, Minibelly (0.30)
4 Recorder Dog
2 Mohican Hyena

G2s:
4 Malicious Sabre
4 Melodica Cat
3 Sleepy Tapir

G3s:
4 Trainee Sage, Minette (0.25)
4 Vocal Chicken

G4s:
4 Immortality Professor, Phoeniciax (0.30)

Final Cost:  $20.60

Deck Comments:
     The base of this deck is simple, you are forced to use Recorder Dog, Melodica Cat, and Vocal Chicken. Minette provides the ability to counter charge when your rearguard is put in the drop zone during your end phase allowing you to combo off right when you hit grade 3. Mohawk Hyena and Malicious Saber should help you hit high numbers after you thin your deck making your crits even more scary. Lastly we have sleepy tapir letting you combo off before being able to stride and Minibelly because after our thinning play we would need to stride but not have many grade 3s left in the deck. Oops, forgot about Acorn Master. His purpose is to help you assemble the combo pieces (Minette and Vocal Chicken) who are both grade 3s.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     The deck is pretty amusing. Thinning your deck of most of your non triggers in one go sets you up to crit your opponent really easily. This game wins by being the double crit guy. If that is something you enjoy go for it. As for competitiveness I wouldn't really suggest this deck. It has one gimmick and while crits are extremely strong there will be times when you ride Vocal Chicken and you can't do anything. The inconsistencies of the deck hold it down a lot.

Tips for Mastering:

• The most important and really the only thing you need to figure out is how to call the chain to get the most cards out of your deck.

Tips for adding money:
     Strides can do a lot for this deck. Managarmr will help you apply even more pressure with your crits with guard restriction on your rearguards. The other change I would consider is using the Tester Fox legion replacing Minette and the 3 Sleepy Tapir and 1 Malicious Sabre. This will add a little consistency to the deck as well as even more trigger renewing. The cost of adding Tester fox is a slower deck so you will have to decide which one you want more. (They aren't expensive but since Minette is part of a set it is probably easier to find which is why I used it in this deck.)

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 33: The Perdition Stack

Hey Cardfighters,

I'm sure you all know about Tsukuyomi's deck stacking power, which lets the fighter know exactly what is coming next, but what you probably didn't know is that Kagero can do it too! Let's see how it works.

Winning Image: Stack the deck to destroy your opponent with drive checks.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Preta is the bread and butter of this deck. Preta lets you create a "stack" of 4-5 cards (depending on whether or not you hit the skill) every time you retire something in the same column. This will let you quickly build up a well-ordered stack to let you double trigger every turn. At least, that is the plan.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Preta needs a Perdition vanguard, so what is the best budget boss for them? Its probably this guy, Pain Laser Dragon. He lets you retire 2 units in one column for 1 counter blast when you legion. This will trigger Preta twice. CAUTION: Legioning will indeed mess up your stack, so try to legion before you go about stacking. Pain Laser's second skill (soul blasting for power) is useful for building the drop zone if you go first.



Deck List:
Starter: Dragon Knight, Sadegh
12 Critical
4 Heal

G1s:
4 Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon (3.00)
4 Perdition Battler, Maleikoh
4 Perdition Dancer, Anna
2 Flame of Hope, Aermo

G2s:
4 Perdition Dragon, Menace Laser Dragon (2.20)
4 Perdition Berserker Preta
3 Perdition Monk, Asticah

G3s:
4 Perdition Dragon, Pain Laser Dragon (1.20)
4 Perdition Berserker, Jaratkaru

G4s:
3 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud (0.60)
4 Divine Dragon Knight, Mustafa (3.30)
1 Diving Dragon Knight Zahm (0.50)

Final Cost: $28.7

Deck Comments:

     I'll admit up front that I messed up the deck a little. A deck focused on building a stack like this should be focused on striding every turn to get through the non-stacked part ASAP. That being said, the Aermos should have been Lava Flow Dragon. Anyway, the rest of the deck is pretty straightforward: the grade 1s are focused on unflipping to keep the retiring going, and the grade 2s are mainly just to fulfill mate requirements for our grade 3s.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
      The deck is pretty fun. Making a stack in a clan not usually known for it can throw people for a loop, and the controlling aspect of kagero can definitely make the game last until you get there. That being said, I'm not sure it has much competitive viability. It takes a much longer time to reach your stack than it would in OTT, and if your opponent doesn't call into Preta's column, you lose your ability to stack.

Tips for Mastering:

• Be conservative with Preta. It's the only way to build a stack, so you'll want to get the most use out of it before your opponent can get rid of it.
• The deck can run out of steam pretty easily due to the lack of draws. To counteract this don't be overly aggressive.

Tips for adding money:
     The first change I would suggest would be to add in Root Flare Dragons. They let you retire a full column for free and that will give you 2 activations of Preta in one go, making an instant stack of 8-10 cards. The second change that comes to mind is Dragonewt and his mate. Preta works well in combination with Dragonewt, searching up more copies for his persona blast and will help round out the deck with a solid grade 3 line-up. Other than that, you might consider Dragon Knight, Mahmit to soul charge and speed through your deck a bit faster.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? 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 Vanguard Central Facebook page.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 32: Dudley Spike Brothers

Hey Cardfighters,

Most people think that dudley's are vastly inferior to the standard Bloody Ogle, Bad End Dragger, but this week we'll see how well we can do with the dudleys! Hopefully it won't be a "dud". (eeeeyyyy)

Winning Image: Multi-attacks with Geronimo and early aggro


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

     The main goal of the deck is to abuse this guy. With him we should be able to get off 6 attacks in one turn! Granted, they won't be super powerful attacks but if your opponent is at high damage (ideally 5) or doesn't get damage triggers then it will be really painful for them.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

     To get the Dudley name we have a few choices but I decided to go with Dudley Lucifer. He has advantages that he doesn't use any counterblasts so we can save it for other effects unlike Dudley Emperor. This lets us do 4 attack turns consistently even when we can't stride which can sometimes be even better than our strides as it doesn't require as much dedication to the field.


Deck List:

Starter: Smart Leader, Dark Bringer
8 Critical
4 Stand
4 Heal

G1s:
4 Cheer Girl, Marilyn (2.20)
4 Dudley Daisy (0.25)
4 Machine gun, Gloria (0.25)
2 Dudley Dan (0.25)

G2s:
4 Devil Summoner
4 Dudley Mason (0.25)
2 Dudley Monty
2 Spike Bouncer

G3s:
4 Demonic Lord, Dudley Lucifer (0.50)
3 Dudley Moses

G4s:
4 Godly-Speed, Flash Bruce (0.30)
4 Great Warrior, Dudley Geronimo (1.00)

Final Cost:  $18.00

Deck Comments:
     This deck is built around trying to get off lots of attacks with Geronimo to try to finish off the game. To achieve this we will need to get a lot of cards on the field. This is where the key cards of Gloria and Devil Summoner come in. Gloria will let you keep up your hand while dishing out early rushes and Devil Summoner should have a fairly good chance of nabbing a free rearguard which will become an effective attacker with Geronimo. The rest of the deck is mostly Dudley stuff to work with Dudley Lucifer's LB4. Spike bouncer should help if your opponent lets a few attacks go through (it should power up a good amount).


Match ups:


Overall Performance:
     Over the few games that I've played, I found that the early game this deck can bring is really strong. A few attackers set up amazing follow up plays mainly Dudley Mason who can searh your deck for a Devil summoner to hopefully lead to more rearguards. Once the strong early game wraps up we can get straight into power plays with Geronimo or on-hit pressure with Flashbruce. It is still debatable whether this deck is better than the Ogle/Dragger combo since that deck's main win condition is almost unstoppable but this deck has a much more rounded game plan having decently strong plays through out the game rather than just a single turn. Personally I'm more a fan of this style but that doesn't really make it more powerful objectively.

Tips for Mastering:

• Learn to play around Devil Summoner's call. you might what to attack in certain orders to either call a booster or another attacker.
• Sometimes Dudley Lucifer can be a more effective kill than Striding since he requires less units to go off than Geronimo

Tips for adding money:
     One option for adding money would be to switch out the legions for Dudley Emperors. I'm honestly not sure how effective this would be since Emperor's skill is a little lack luster without the breakride. You could consider doing the Breakride combo with Dudley Emperor and then using Geronimo to cover the situations where you are forced to ride Dudley without the breakride. Other than that there isn't much to do to add power to the deck. Possibly switching out Dudley Daisys and Spike Bouncers for Reckless Express and Highspeed Brakki could work.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 31: Alk Bermuda

Hey Cardfighters,

With the advent of the new Bermuda extra booster I wanted to take a look into new budget options that might be available for the clan!

Winning Image: Power Columns


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     OOOH look at the pretty full art!!! Anyway Alk is the main boss of the deck because she allows you to ride a grade 3 from your hand after she attacks and then retrun her to your hand and then draw a card! this is extremely useful for reusing breakrides but that isn't quite in our budget. Instead we are using Alk for her infinite loop with herself to draw and extra card everyturn! This also powers up cards which get +10k when a grade 3 is placed on VG which will be the main focus of the deck.





Deck List:
Starter: Bermuda Triangle Cadet, Shizuku
8 crit
4 stand (Dreamer Dreamer, Kruk)
4 heal

G1s:
4 Mermaid Idol, Elly (4.30)
4 Prism-Duo, Loretta
4 Duo Happy Diary, Sheryl (0.90)
1 Diva of Silence Iska

G2s:
3 Afternoon Tea Party, Couver
4 Top Gear Idol, Sanya
4 Mystery Solving Time, Ithil

G3s:
4 Costume Idol, Alk (4.40)
4 Dancing Fan Princess, Minato
1 Duo Lady Canotier, Salinas

G4s:
2 Fluffy Ribbon Somni (0.90)

Final Cost: $39.3 (USD) 

Deck Comments:
     The core of the deck is obviously Alk and Minto/Ithil so we max them all out at 4. Next we have 4 LBE to make sure we can combo off early. Sheryl is a good card to include in the combo to net extra draws each turn. Iska is an 8k to be a good ride target and sometimes to make Ithil hit even harder.The last card of note I think is Dreamer Dreamer Ithil which lets you activate Sheryl and is useful for multi attack chains combining Ithil or Minato with Alk.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
      The deck is pretty inconsistent to be honest. You need 2 Alk to go infinite and then you need copies of Ithil or Minato to have it do anything more than draw you a card every turn. The other big draw back is that you have to attack with alk meaning you lack a lot of power and threat from your vanguard. I'm sure the deck can get a lot better with strides but I'm iffy at its overall ability to be competitive. Stride will mainly help by letting you play a strong game and then finish off once you've got all the pieces for your combo.

Tips for Mastering:

• Think about when it is better to use Alk's skill or stride. Both are very strong but they accomplish different things.
• Sheryl is the key method to drawing you might want to consider riding other grade 1s over her to enable your plusses.
• The Stand trigger is insanely good, but practice makes perfect and you'll need to try it out to know how to maximize its potential.

Tips for adding money:
     To add money the first thing I would suggest is investing in Breakrides. Alk has an amazing breakride game since you can repeatedly breakride with Alk's skill as long as you have more in hand. That being said I think Meer is the best because you can call Ithils or Minato's from your hand and then Alk's skill will activate after the attack powering them up. After getting some breakrides you'll want to flesh out the stride zone. Olivia is probably out of budget reach for most of my readers and it doesn't really suit the deck anyway. I would advocate for more Somni's to provide on hit pressure and set up your field for Alk's combos and probably Atmos for a high powered vanguard attack. There are definitely a lot of directions you can take this deck so give it a try!

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 30: Tyrannolegend & Dark Rex

Hey Cardfighters,

Welcome to Jurrasic... Vanguard! Last time we looked at an Ancient Dragon Double Legion build but Dark Rex wants to destroy something so let's bring him out to play and see what we can do!

Winning Image: Restanding plays with Dark Rex and multi-attack patterns in general.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Obviously the main goal of the deck so we'll play him at 4. There are a few things to note about his abilities because he needs to be in the bind zone for his LB4. and then he can place himself in the Bind Zone and give a unit +3k. This can enable early power columns and set up for later in the game. Also he isn't an Ancient Dragon which is going to shut off a lot of your skills when he becomes your vanguard. That being said a "restanding" vanguard is an extremely powerful tool and this should be no exception. Especially one that doesn't require CB.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
      As a back up we use Ancient Dragon Tyrannolegend. The main purpose of this card is to be fetched with Baby Rex which will enable multi attack patterns, early aggression and a lot of very powerful things. The second job he fills is being able to attack for 21k +1 crit unboosted which will wear out your opponent's resources. and set them up for Dark Rex. Like Dark Rex his skill requires no CB which is important in letting your other skills go off.



Deck List: 
Starter: Ancient Dragon, Baby Rex (x2)
6 Crit
6 Draw
4 Heal

G1s:
4x Archbird (2.00)
4x Ancient Dragon, Tyrannoblaze
4x Ancient Dragon, Iguanogorg (1.50)
1x Savage Magus

G2s:
4x Ancient Dragon, Tyrannobite (0.80)
4x Ancient Dragon, Dinocrowd
3x Ancient Dragon, Criollofall

G3s:
4x Ancient Dragon, Tyrannolegend (2.00)
4x Destruction Dragon, Dark Rex (1.49)

G4s:
4x Destruction Dragon, Archraider (0.40)
2x Madew (6.25)

Final Cost:  $39.3

Deck Comments:
     I focused on Ancient Dragons for this build because they will work really well with Tyrannolegend who I wanted to run because it makes early plays possible with Baby Rex which ends up being extremely powerful. Savage Magus might seem odd but I just wanted to maximize the LBE type effects because both vanguards use LB4 skills I think its really important. 2 Baby Rex's is to help replenish the field during plays and for getting multi attacks off. And lastly the 6 crit 6 draw is to help keep up the number of cards because if we go for many dark rex plays then we end up depleting our own resources a lot since the "Revivers" Iguanogorg and Tyrannobite can't be revived when you use Dark Rex's Skill. I wish I could have fit in more Madew's because they have crazy synergy with Dark Rex but unfortunately it didn't work out.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     I'll be honest and say that I'm not really sure how powerful this deck is. I don't think its top tier but its definitely good enough to compete. The main thing holding the deck back is that Dark Rex is a 10k vanguard which really hurts when you use his skill and attack unboosted. I have a feeling the deck will be really strong when they finally get their G-support but until then its definitely a fun variant of Tahcikaze and mixes some of the generic stuff with Ancient Dragons fairly well.

Tips for Mastering:

• You can't revive Tyrannobite and Iguanogorg if you use Dark Rex's skill so be careful.
• Plan out your attacks each turn to get the most out of them. You get an insane amount of drive checks with this deck, be careful of decking out.
• Don't be afraid to take that 4th damage to use your skills as it is your main hurdle.  

Tips for adding money:
      This probably isn't surprising but you need to get 2 more Madew's the combo with Dark Rex is just insane because you get to stride and keep Dark Rex's for extra drive checks pressuring your opponent. And really I feel like that was the only thing missing from the deck. you could experiment with other secondary grade 3s like Tyrannoquake who would Synergize more with Dark Rex but I recommend still running a few Tyrannolegend for Baby Rex as it is very powerful especially early game.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 29: ASURA KAISER ft. NoMgc

Hey Cardfighters,

This week's deck is a budget Asura Kaiser Build! Shout outs to NoMgc for requesting the deck and for being a long time follower of the blog (definitely one of the first). Its been a long time since the suggestion but I haven't forgot about it. Since I just finished up all the clans from G-BT03 here it is!

Winning Image: Check your grade 3s!!!


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The boss of this deck isn't a grade 3, it is the Stride unit specialized for Asura Kaisers. His ability is just absolutely insane. Restanding both of your rearguard columns for checking a grade 3 while at the same time putting a grade 3 back during the main phase to increase your chances of doing so. What really pushes him over the edge are the asura support rearguards which gain +3k when your unit restands during the battle phase. Meaning these guys get +12k when War Deity goes off and come in both the grade 1 and grade 2 variant. Hopefully you'll be able to stride this every turn.




Deck List: Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh
4x Crit
8x Draw
4x Heal

G1s:
4x Twin Blader (3.50)
4x Bear Down Samurai
4x Final Wrench
1x Dancing Wolf

G2s:
4x Daredevil Samurai (0.25)
4x Beast Deity, Golden Anglet
4x Extreme Battler, Sazanda

G3s:
4x Asura Kaiser (3.00)
4x Extreme Leader, Mu-sashi

G4s:
4x War Deity, Asura Kaiser (3.00)
2x Meteokaiser, Vic-ten (0.50)

Final Cost:  $40.00

Deck Comments:
     There are a few things to note about the deck. The first is that every rearguard gains power when it restands. This is important because it makes your field super, super consistent. No matter what you are using you are guaranteed high powered restands. Next is the Starter we are using the grade 3 searcher even though we want to check grade 3s because we want to ride Asura Kaiser over Musashi all the time. Speaking of Musashi he is helpful as the deck doesn't use any CB what so ever so if you need to take out a few rears switch into him and pop pop pop. Lastly is the triggers. Running 4 crit EIGHT DRAW seems kinda odd in a deck that you want to check grade 3s in but it works well for a multitude of reasons. First, there are no stride fodders in the deck so by running so many draws it will increase our ability to consistently stride. Second, The deck is insanely rearguard dependent and so draws not only will count as boosters but will net you another card to call down. And lastly you don't need to be worried about drawing grade 3s because you can use them to stride as I said and the draws lower the total deck count. A low deck count makes War Deity Asura's ability to return grade 3s to the deck more and more effective as the game goes on. I contemplated running quintet walls to amplify this thin the deck type Idea but with so little 10k shield triggers I think it would almost never be able to guard anything.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     I really love this deck, its super fun and I think the chance based play on getting that grade 3 is exciting. You're really hoping to get it and your opponent chanting "Please no." in their mind. Other than it being a blast to play it is actually extremely powerful. It is a little inconsistent due to the grade 3 checking gimmick BUT when you get it I think its at least on par if not as powerful as the Sanctuary Guard deck especially if you have any Samurai on the field. As I mentioned in the video the high grade 2 count and draw triggers lend to a fantastic grade 2 game which can lead to an instant win if you follow up with War Deity's skill activating. The current version is a little inconsistent as you can't always ride Asura Kaiser and turns that you can't stride really hurt, but if you follow the tips for adding money I think it can definitely be a dark horse competitor as the huge attacks give it a decent shadow match up.


Tips for Mastering:

• Sometimes using War Deity, Asura Kaiser isn't the best option. (too many grade 3s out, not enough field. In these cases not striding or using Vic-ten can be just as good.
• Don't be afraid to call Grade 3s as rearguards, if you stride using other cards you can call a over your grade 3 to get in the drop zone for War Deity's skill. 

Tips for adding money:
     ABSOLUTELY THE FIRST THING~~~ get a play set of Immortal, Asura Kaiser. This makes War Deity so much more consistent and provides and excellent fall back skill if you can't stride. Next I think you want to add in some ways to use counterblast. there are a few options. I think the best is Cool Hank because he allows you to still have punishing turns even if you don't check a grade 3. Other options could be Magical Gambler or Magician Girl, Kirara for more power or more draw. Finally the last change should be adding the last 2 strides. Personally I like Victoplasma in this spot. I think it guarantees powerful attacks to finish your opponent off. The CB2 is never an issue since you hardly use any CB, under normal circumstances. Other options would include more Vic-ten to provide on hit pressure or Tribrut, which I don't recommend as there are little to no ways in the deck to enable his skill.

Again thanks to NoMgc for his suggestion to try a budget version of this super fun deck :)

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 28: Deletors

Hey Cardfighters,

Welcome to t-DELETED-.... thats right! this week's deck is based on the Deletor subtype for Link Jokers. I thought Mixed Deletor Keios seemed really strong when it was first revealed. Unfortunately no one else thinks so.... cause its $0.50... so let's try it out.

Winning Image: Delete and pressureeeee.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Let's talk about why I think this card is good. First is that its a fairly cheap CB cost for deleting. This means that you can use it effectively early. The discarding cards can be a problem but there isn't much we can do besides running a bunch of draws. Next its an on-ride ability. This means you aren't limited to later in the game like Zaele you could even Delete your opponent's grade 2 vanguard! Keios punishes rushing player extremely hard by locking their front row and counter attacking with 3 damage because your opponent probably doesn't have much left to protect their 0 power deleted vanguard. The Keios into Keios play you'll see in the match video is insanely strong and even if your opponent survives they'll be seriously hurting for cards or to be able to do anything.




Deck List: 
Starter: Acquire Deletor, Igor (3x) (0.20)
8x Stand (All deletor)
4 Draw (Deletor)
4x Heal (Deletor)


G1s:
4x Breaking Deletor Gatario
4x Deriding Deletor Aieda
4x Lady Keeper of Virtual Reality

G2s:
4x Clipping Deletor Evo (1.30)
4x Greedy Deletor Jail
3x Lady Battler of the Gravity Well (0.50)

G3s:
4x Mixed Deletor, Keios (0.50)
4x Penetrate Deletor Iggy

G4s:
4x Nebula Dragon, Maximum Seal Dragon (2.20)

Final Cost:  $18.3 (woo under half my limit!)

Deck Comments:
     The deck is meant to have a lot of pressure units to incentivize your opponent to guard or make it so that you get freebies when your opponent doesn't guard. The 2 non-deletors in the deck are PGs which are vital and Lady Battler, which creates 20k columns with 7k boosters which is a crazy high number against a deleted vanguard. Other than that I think the choices are fairly straight forward. Aieda and Jail are pressure units to help get some extra advantage off of your opponent's difficulty guarding. 10k attackers hit perfect numbers against 0. Evo helps call out Aieda or a 10k attacker to get the pain going while conserving a little bit of cards in the hand for another Keios. The strides are mainly there for G-assist, or to provide an Atmos type effect when you stride after using Keios' skill.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     After playing a few games I found that the deck was very inconsistent. I had many games where I couldn't draw the right cards, or I had to G-assist. That being said I think the deck proves that Keios is an extremely powerful card, letting you demolish your opponent's resources or putting them at high damage which puts them in a precarious spot. The deck isn't very competitive as it is but with a few additions I think it could be a real contender especially as we look into the clan booster which is coming out.

Tips for Mastering:

• Find the perfect time to use Keios. if you have a lot of rushing potential you might want to rush hard and then grade lock yourself to deplete their resources setting them up for deletion.
  
• Don't be afraid to delete while your opponent is at grade 2. while they get to ride over and negate the delete normally you'll probably get in 3 damage. remember that with stride's ability to negate a deletion its become an all-in offensive tool and you should treat it as such.
• Never Mulligan double Keios. If you watch the video you'll know why. Its BRUTAL.

Tips for adding money:
     #1 super most important thing. Add the legion pair for Zaele and Gaele. This will push the deck through the roof. All your vanguards will be able to delete for a relatively low cost. This means that you can pull the repeated deletes of very easily especially if you take into account that Keios sets up for Legion by requiring you to discard cards.  *** Replace Iggy with Zaele and replace Evo with Gaele (you won't have room to CB for Evo anymore)*** It will be crazy trust me. The next thing you are going to want to do is get Madews. This is gonna make the deck that much more consistent. Since you can activate Madew's skill when you legion you can follow up a Delete turn from Zaele with a stride if you don't have enough CB and grab back whatever grade 3 you ditched to take damage and push the next turn. The last and final thing you can do to add money will be to choose a PG. will you choose the Unflippers to keep CB open for deleting? or will you choose Deletors to make Keios' skill mroe consistent? The choice is yours.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? 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 Vanguard Central Facebook page.


Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 27: Revenge of the Revengers!

Hey Cardfighters,

New Shadow support has been revealed so let's see what it can do for our previous build of revengers. (Not all new content will be updated versions of older decks I just found that all the other shadow budget options hover too close to the Legend Deck as it comes so if you are looking for another good budget deck you should definitely check that out at $30 its a great buy)

Winning Image: Crit pressure with legion and Peredur.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The main boss of the deck Cormack provides an easy way to get extra criticals for the low cost of 1 unit. This is going to provide lots of on hit pressure and force your opponent to drop cards early than they want. The other main purpose of this card is to legion to provide extra advantage of off Teyrnon and his mate Macart.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The back up boss is Peredur again, but he's gotten so much better he's almost at main boss level if it weren't for the deck relying on relegioning from Cormack. The card that changed it all was Finegas the LBE for Shadows. Finnegas can call the LBE behind him using his on-ride skill which lets you hit his LB4 skill of +10k and +1 Crit while your opponent is still at Grade 2! The skill also fills up  the drop zone for legioning later with Cormack so there is pretty much no downside to that play. Unfortunately Peredur's effectiveness dies off quickly so you'll want to switch to Cormack ASAP.



Deck List:
Starter: Frontline Revenger, Claudas (0.20)
6x Crit
6x Draw
4x Heal

G1s:
4x Little Skull Witch Nemain (1.50)
4x Transient Revenger, Masquerade
4x Tempting Revenger, Finegas
1x Branbau Revenger

G2s:
4x Fighting Spirit Revenger Macart (5.00)
4x Wily Revenger Mana (0.50)
4x Adroit Revenger, Teyrnon (0.30)

G3s:
4x Ambitious Spirit Revenger, Cormack (1.10)
4x Halberd Revenger, Peredur (0.60)

G4s:

Final Cost:  $36

Deck Comments:
     This time the deck is much more focused on generating crit pressure with the vanguard to end games quickly. because of this we use a 6 Crit 6 Draw trigger line-up. This should give use the cards to keep up a field while having enough crits to be scary. Next you'll notice there is almost no ways to use CB in the deck. The only ways are Teyrnon and Peredur. This won't limit your ability to act no matter your damage. It is also to save CB for Teyrnon which can be used in multiple (if you have multiple out) when you legion. Lastly while most of my decks recently have used strides this one forgoes them. preferring to use extra grade 3s to relegion for more Macart/Teyrnon activations or to discard to PGs.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     I didn't get to play many games with this deck but as you can see from the video oh man is it brutal. The deck is an mid game power house hitting extremely hard with crit from the moment your ride grade 3. Masquerades help apply some pressure early to make your crits even more effective. I think the deck is positioned extremely well in the current meta game as pressuring your opponent right from the get go either makes them guard so they don't have enough cards to play their game or gets them to high damage where they are forced to guard. If you are looking for a competitive budget option this is your guy. I would suggest adding the cards I suggest below :)

Tips for Mastering:

•  Manage your aggressiveness since you need 2 cb to do the combo with Peredur you might not want to go offensive if you think your opponent will attack your rearguards.
• Be careful about calling macart and teyrnon before they are effective since you'll leave them open to attacks. the same can be said for mana incase you can't use her superior call skill.
• Almost never swing at rearguard you need to pressure the vanguard due to your lack of late game. 

Tips for adding money:
     Surprise Surprise the first thing I'm gonna say is to flesh out the stride zone. The cheapest strides are the commons Phantom Blaster "Diablo"s from the Legend Deck. You'll need one other stride to hit the requirement for Diablo so I would suggest Efnysian. You can use him in combination with Peredur to fetch out a fodder and then immediately sacrifice it. It will also provide on hit pressure which gives your opponent another reason to guard after all the crits on everything else. Once you finish up the stride zone you should consider swapping out Masquerade's for Stride Fodders. This will let you have a healthy ratio of options to choose between striding or relegioning. But it weakens the early game. Overall it should be an improvement as you don't call too much early to get 2 damage from peredur for his combo and it really adds a more consistent late game.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? 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 Vanguard Central Facebook page.


Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 26: Murakumo Updated!

Hey Cardfighters,

Murakumo got support! This is exciting because Murakumo was actually the first budgetguard I every did. Let's see what their new support brings to the budget deck!

Winning Image: Early Aggressiveness supported by "bunshin" skills


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Sticking with the same main boss from last time, Seimei provides a lot of advantage around the mid game by creating an almost full field from 1 CB especially when combined with Kuzunoha's calling effect. The main use of this card is to legion as soon as you can and pressure with a full field before your opponent is ready for it.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     Like we have stayed with Semei, we also stick with Hyakki Vogue. This is because he has a great on-ride skill which lets you copy himself and then at the end of the turn the copy returns to your hand. This sets up stride plays to try to snowball the early aggression and is a super strong play for when you go first.




Deck List:
Starter: Stealth Beast, Evil Ferret
6 Crit
3 Stand (Stealth Dragon, Hidden Scroll)
3 Draw
4 Heal

G1s:
4x Stealth Fiend, Oboro Cart (0.50)
4x Stealth Fiend, White Heron (5.00)
4x Stealth Beast, Million Rat (0.30)

G2s:
4x Stealth Rogue of the Flowered Hat, Fujino (0.30)
4x Tenjiku Stealth Rogue, Dokube
4x Transformation Stealth Rogue, Kuzunoha (0.70)

G3s:
4x Onmyo Stealth Rogue, Seimei (0.50)
4x Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue "Reverse" (2.00)
1x Platinum Blond Fox Spirit, Tamamo (0.90)

G4s:
2x Ambush Demonic Stealth Dragon, Ushimitsu Train (0.50)
2x Ambush Demon Stealth Rogue, Kagamijishi (0.50)

Final Cost:  $41.20 (oops a little over budget... recorded the match before checking the prices :/ )

Deck Comments:
     Phew 40 on the dot. First you might notice the starter is Evil Ferret. This is because the ferret really helps smooth out those early turns. being able to call a grade 2 while on grade 1 or a grade 3 while your vanguard is grade 2 helps make those early rushes that much more viable. It is also very useful for being able to reuse Million Rat or Oboro Cart's skills to keep on the pressure. Lastly it lets you make aggressive plays with Grade 3s and then get them back to stride the next turn. The next "oddity" will be the lack of stride fodders in a deck that wants to stride for its late game plays. The choice for this was to maximize the ability to act early-mid game using million rat and oboro cart. The extra grade 3 helps deal with the lack of stride fodders. Overall this opens up a lot more plays than having just the stride fodder. Also a comment on why the new stuff isn't really included. Onifundo is a really good card but with a deck that wants to be aggressive the Ferret is much more valuable. Yasuie and Runstar aren't super expensive so why didn't I use them? It goes along with skew towards early- mid game. Both are really strong cards but with only 6k boosters Runestart isn't going to be doing a lot of damage to my opponent even with its skill. I don't want to use Yasuie not because its too slow but because it relies heavily on having field presence the turn before which can run counter to Ferret's ideal plan.

Match ups:

Overall Performance:
    The deck has some issues striding when it wants too which is something I sacrificed to have a powerful early game. I think the deck still sits around the same power level that it was before the new support since I ended up not having much new stuff added. The ability to early rush is as strong as ever though and if you can manage it and draw well into your grade 3s to support your striding when you need it then you can easily snowball the game to victory.

Tips for Mastering:

• Plan your "bunshins" to leave your front row open. This helps give you a lot of options each turn as well as forcing your opponent to attack your vanguard where damage triggers can slow an assault and guarantee's you CB for future plays.
• Use Ferret as early as you can to provide a lot of pressure and create 3 attacks early and as often as possible.
• Some of your skills can be used to deck thin and don't forget to about Hyakki Vogue's ability to make your Bunshin's permanent by locking them. 

Tips for adding money:
     I think that the main way to add power to the deck is to fill out the stride zone. I would suggest adding in 2 Homura Raider and 2 Madew. Homura Raider excels in that late game push that the deck is lacking but the only real way to enable it is with the stand trigger so it ends up being very situational in this deck. Madew is an excellent choice to provide continuous striding over you legion where the extra trigger checks and high power of stride will secure the game. The last think you could do is trade out a few of the grade 3s for Yasuie. Personally I would only change out Tamamo for Yasuie but you could replace Hyakki with Yasuie if you want more of him.

Striding really smooths out the deck by covering spots in the aggression that you might be lacking and is very useful for the deck even though this update didn't seem to be much more than slapping on strides I feel like the deck has been tuned a bit more and works a lot better.


Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? 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 Vanguard Central Facebook page.


Thanks for reading,

Chris

Budgetguard 25: Amon's Sheep

Hey Cardfighters,

This week we have a Dark Irregular's deck using the Amon's Follower/House of Amon engine to power out huge rearguards using their crazy crazy good starter.

Winning Image: POWAAAAAA!!!!


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     The main boss of the deck only because he has the amon name which enables all our skills. He is a crossride for Amon which isn't that important to us. His limit break is super important for the deck though as it allows the reuse of the starter Barmaid Grace if combined with Pokkur and can just create early power plays with the limit break enabler.


(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)
     This card is absolutely insane. Its not limited by Legion or GB1 which means its active literally the whole game. This pushes your rearguards upto enormous numbers each and every turn. The only think to note about this cards is that the skill it gives will last so anytime your soul changes that turn it will affect the power of the unit you chose with Barmaid Grace. Whether you are using the power for vanguard or for rearguard the cheap and always available soulcharging is also a huge huge bonus.



Deck List:
2x Starter: Amon's Follower, Barmaid Grace
6 Crit
3 Stand (Monochrome of Nightmare Land)
3 Draw
4 Heal

G1s:
4x March Rabbit of Nightmareland (3.00)
4x Amon's Follower, Mad Eye
4x Amon's Follower, Hell's Deal
1x Succubus of Pure Love (0.50)

G2s:
3x Demon of Aspiration Amon (0.60)
4x Amon's Follower, Hell's Draw
4x Earth Elemental, Pokkur (0.30)

G3s:
4x Demon Marquis, Amon "Reverse" (3.00)
4x Sweet Predator (0.30)

G4s:
1x Snow Element Blizza (3.50)
4x Storm of Love, Kisskill Lira (0.50)
3x Great Demon, Soulless Demagogue (0.50)

Final Cost:  $35.8

Deck Comments:
     As I've mentioned the starter is the MVP of the deck and is why we run two. Its actually so good I've been tempted to run 3. Moving on we have all amon cards with the exception of Pokkur and Sweet Predator. The predator is meant to be a nice support grade 3 which will boost upto 16k when you use the starter's skill. Pokkur is there for the "Wombo Combo" which is Using Grace, locking her then unlocking her with Pokkur (which puts her in stand position) and then using her skill again. For super high numbers everywhere. Thats about all there is soul charge lots and give lots of power.


Match ups:

Overall Performance:
     I had a ton of fun playing this. Soulcharging like crazy and turning it into crazy high numbers all across your field. I find that I deck myself out a lot but it is okay because the deck puts on serious pressure with its high numbers. As is the deck is definitely not in contention for a top tier spot however if you put in some more money for some of the powerful strides and the Amon legion I have no doubt it can be a serious contender.


Tips for Mastering:

• As with any Dark Irregular deck managing your soulcharging is very important so that you don't deck yourself out. Be Cautious.
• Prepare for your next turn. This can mean taking a hit so that you have 2 counterblasts for the wombo combo.
• Learn where to put Barmaid's power to make the most of it. Sometimes this means putting it on VG to force shield or pray for the crits sometimes its on rear to wear out your opponent's hand.

Tips for adding money:
     The cheapest improvement will be to start by changing out the PGs for the PG-Gs to help unflip damage to make the wombo combo more accessible. (Sometimes you want to do it but the CB cost prevents you from doing so. Next is the most important addition to the deck. Gilles de Rais. This is the main change that will take the deck to the next level or even two levels up. By soulcharging like crazy and then Striding Gilles de Rais and boosting it with Barmaid's skill you can hit absurdly high numbers and your opponent won't even be able to perfect guard. Lastly and probably most expensive you need to fill our the grade 3 line-up with Amons. The cheapest way to do that is 4 of Amon's Leader Astaroth just for the name. If you want to get regular Amons to be able to legion and get the crossride I suggest grabbing 1-2 and dropping down on then number of reverses you use or one of each Astaroth and Reverse.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget deck from me? Please leave a comment and help me help you.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris