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

DOTX Deck Profile (Not-so-Budgetguard)

Hey Cardfighters!

This article is the opposite of budget. We are talking about the infamous DOTX. The whole deck sits around $300 which is basically 10x my proposed budget.

My build for DOTX is built mainly to have an advantage in the mirror match. I'll start with the deck list and then go through my choices.

Starter: Lizard Soldier, Fargo
6x Crit
4x Gatling Claw Dragon
2x Seal Dragon, Artpique
4x Heal

Grade 3:
4x Dragonic Overlord, "The X"
3x Dragonic Overlord, The End
2x Dragonic Overlord (Breakride)

Grade 2:
3x Perdition Dragon Knight, Ilham
3x Berserk Dragon
3x Twilight Arrow Dragon
2x Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame

Grade 1:
4x Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon (PG)
4x Lava Flow Dragon
3x Eternal Bringer Griffin
2x Dragonic Gaias

Grade 4:
4x Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud
4x  Flame Emperor Dragon King, Root Flare

Alright First Lets talk about why I'm not running Calamity Tower, Burning Horn, Burnout, DOTG, and Red Pulse as the majority of DOTX builds if not all are built that way.

• I don't like Burning Horn
• I think that 12k attackers are good-to-okay. They shine the most in aggressive decks when you can call them as attackers when your opponent is at grade 1. In DOTX they basically exist to justify calamity tower wyvern which I think is kinda dumb.
• Red Pulse is terrible if you go second.
• If your opponent goes first then your pretty much always going to be hitting 1k less everytime you attack until you get rid of red pulse. Thats super easy 10k no-pass situations for your opponent and can let them really pull ahead. Not to mention that its effect can miss.
• Calamity Tower is good but it does not justify  Red Pulse or Burning Horn
• Yes Calamity Tower lets you loop DOTX while getting a free card and in general gives a bit of advantage to Kagero which really needs it. But it doesn't justify 14k columns with your 9k grade 2s. (Your grade 3s are more useful for striding, re-legioning, and DOTX/DOTE effects. So you won't really want to call them to rear). Nor does omg omg turn two Red Pulse into Calamity Tower.
• DOTG is Good
• This doesn't make sense If DOTG is good then why am I not running it? First it forces you to run a good amount of Neo-flame which I think is underwhelming is most situations. So I don't want to be constrained to running 3-4. You'll notice that Neoflame is Still in the deck and I'll go over that later but its not at amounts which justify running DOTG. 
• Dragonic Burnout
• Another thing that's missing is Dragonice Burnout. This is because He is very situational, you need an overlord in the drop zone and you need soul. This is great for putting Overlords back into the deck to re-legion more but I had it at 1 for a while and I never found it super useful and there was never a situation where I was dying to have it.

Grade 3 Analysis:

• 4x DOTX
• Duh
• 3x DOTE
• Some people like to run 4x DOTE but 3 is plenty as you can search him out with the legion skill and you generally don't want to ride him.
• 2x DO (Breakride)
• This is a hedge against being aggro'd down and serves as a replacement ride to DOTE which you can search out with Eternal Bringer Griffin.

 Grade 2 Analysis:

• 3x Perdition Dragon Knight, Ilham
• Legion-Looping + a free-retire is a sure way to totally shut down a lot of decks. Especially if it goes unchecked.
• 2x Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame
• He is at 2 because he can help you wipe out columns with ease. If your opponent is going aggressive by making a column then you can punish them really hard with this forcing them to guard attacks or lose a column. In the more common case when your opponent calls 2 attackers to go aggressive neo-flame doesn't really help out too much.
• 3x Beserk Dragon
• CLASSIC. Berserk Dragon may seem totally outclassed in today's super efficient counterblast usage, but he is still a wonderful inclusion in the deck. The key thing to remember is that you don't have to use his ability. In fact most games you won't, but the situations where you get rushed (mentioned above) by 2 rear guard attackers you can retire 1 and attack the other which will force your opponents assault to slow down. 
• 3x Twilight Arrow Dragon
• CB1 for retire 1 of anything. Could you ask for anything more? Yes it has to be boosted but you can always use draw triggers. This kinda takes the place of Burnout but is less restrictive. In my opinion atleast.

 Grade1:

• 4x Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon (PG)
• A good old standard PG. This is the biggest hedge against the mirror since you can PG a rear-guard to prevent DOTX legion from restanding. This can prevent your opponent from either recovering or getting ahead of you. Yes you can also use triggers but why give up options if you have to.
• 4x Lava Flow Dragon
• STRIDE! Strides are really good. Especially Root Flare. Having access to them constantly and without having to drop your precious DOTEs or DOTXs can be really useful. Plus its a 7k to go with your grade 2s
• 3x Eternal Bringer Griffin
• This is the one of the reasons we run DO (breakride) and he serves as a psuedo Red Pulse allowing you to drop a DOTE to get the DO so you don't have to ride it. Doesn't get used that often but I've played about 20 tournament matches IRL with the deck now and I've only been forced to ride DOTE once which seems pretty good.
• 2x Dragonic Gaias
• What would DOTX be without Legion-Looping. Unlike Calamity Tower a single Gaias can let you Legion-Loop infinitely and get a crit every turn. This puts a lot of pressure on your opponent and almost guarantee's your win in the long run. (Forces them to guard at 4 damage)

Grade 0s:

• Lizard Soldier Fargo
• So instead of Red Pulse we use this guy because he is a 5k which lets you hit your opponent's easily. Also he allows you to apply extra pressure on any attack. And demolish your opponent's field if you breakride. He ends up being an even trade or forcing your opponent to guard when its bad for them to keep their field.
•  Gatling Claw
• Many decks are reliant on their starter so having an easy way to snipe it is always good. 

 Mirror Match Theory:
      So this deck is built to beat the mirror match but how is that exactly? The over arching principle is that the DOTX mirror is a war of attrition so we have to take advantages where we can. If our deck starts off with more inherent advantage then we start off the war of attrition ahead rather than even. This means we are more comfortable the whole game.

•  Take out losses from Red Pulse
• By running Fargo we almost guarantee that we will get a 1-for-1 with our starter where Red Pulse isn't guaranteed. Also if we go second we can still hit good numbers while if they go second its possible to take advantage of their low attacking power and get easy guards. 
• Take out losses caused by Calamity Tower
• This is a little counter-intuitive. Calamity tower itself is a +1 in terms of card advantage. However if you have it behind anything other than Burning horn (Remember the thing about Grade 3s being kinda important) then you are getting effectively -1 EVERY TURN in comparison to what is a normal column. Thus if my opponent attacks me with a 14k column and I attack him with a 16k column I've already gone even with Calamity Tower and every turn after that in which the same scenario persists I pull ahead.

That's basically it for All my choices thanks for sticking with me through such a long read. I won't be giving out any tips on how to play this deck because if I let every one know how to play my version of the deck then they will know how to counter me. That or everyone will start playing my deck and then I'll have to figure out how to counter myself. :P

Keep and eye out for a video deck profile on my Team's YouTube "Vanguard Central" and let me know what you think of my deck!

As always thanks for reading,

~Bambi

P.S. I wrote this partially to give a peak into my deck building mindset and partially because I want to be able to claim ownership of this specific build in case it gets super popular somehow hahaha. (Just want credit where its due is all.)

Cardfight Budgetguard 6: Seal Dragon Limit Break Enabler Deck

Hey Cardfighters,

This week I'm going to discuss a Limit Break Enabler (LBE) powered Seal Dragon deck focused on Hellfire Seal Dragon, Weathercloth and Hellfire Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno.

Winning Image: Control the opponent's field just enough and then finishing them off with powerful vanguard attacks.

(Image courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

Our main boss card for the deck is Hellfire Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno. First he is a crossride for the original Seal Dragon, Blockade. We are not taking advantage of that in this deck though because even with the field retiring capabilities the cross ride is not that effective in most scenarios. The main effect is the Limit Break ability. Inferno's Limit Break is Counter Blast 2 Seal Dragons and then retire all your opponent's grade 2s and Inferno gets +10k until the end of the turn. This is a good ability for controlling your opponent's field and making them scared to play their grade 2s. Cost (2.20)



(Image Courtesy of Cardfight Wikia)

The next Grade 3 we will run is the Seal Dragon breakride, Weathercloth. His ability is that when you breakride over him you give your vanguard +10k and choose upto 2 of your opponent's rearguards and retire them. Then they can look at the top 4 cards of their deck and choose upto 2 grade 2 units and call them to rear. This is a classic Seal Dragon style retire and can easily end up retiring 2 of your opponents rearguards for free. Cost (1)

Looking at our grade 3s we have a total cost of $12.8

Next we need to look at our grade 2 Rs which are the 12k attacker and the 10k vanilla. For running 3 10k vanillas and 4 12k attackers we need to add 3x0.5 + 4x0.25 Which makes our cost 15.3.

Then we need to look at perfect guard prices. The lowest Kagero perfect guard is Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon costed at $4.8 and then quintet walls priced at $1. Because of the price we could run 3x PG and 1x QW but then we'd be 1.3 over budget. Thus we will stick with a 2-2 split.


Final Cost: 26.9

Deck List:

Starter: Seal Dragon Terrycloth
Rainbow Seal Dragon Triggers


G1s:
4x Seal Dragon Sprite, Mulciber
4x Seal Dragon, Flannel
2x Perdition Dragon, Rampart Dragon
2x Perdition Dragon Knight, Sattar
2x Lizard Solder Grom

G2s: 
4x Seal Dragon Corduroy
4x Seal Dragon, Jacquard
3x Seal Dragon, Hunger Hell Dragon

G3s:
4x Hellfire Seal Dragon, Weathercloth
4x Hellfire Seal Dragon, Blockade Inferno

Deck Comments:
      The first thing to discuss is Corduroy and Terrycloth. They both have the "Seal Dragon" retire skill for one especial Seal Dragon Counter Blast you can retire your opponent's unit and then they look at the top 4 cards of their deck and can call a grade 2 and call it to Rearguard. This is important for getting cheap retires and messing with your opponent's field. The other cards are Flannel which is a grade 1 attacker for Seal Dragons mainly to provide pressure early and Mulciber which is the LBE which will allow you to compete in the speed race against legion decks. Lastly is Lizard soldier Grom, while not a Seal Dragon the unflipping effect can let you use Inferno's Limit Break ability out of nowhere and catch your opponent off guard.
 

Match ups: (VS. Deck win-loss)

• VS. RPBA + Mordred 0-10
• Match up tips, This match up is really hard because RPBA can keep their board clear on your turn so there is nothing to retire. Even though you can kill Judgebau easily each time you have to play really well to even have a chance at winning. 
• VS. Thing Saver + Alfred 4-6
• Match up tips, against thing saver it is a good idea to kill File so that they are forced to use margal or ride into alfred before going into thing saver. This combined with your retiring power can bait them into using Alfred's skill to have a field which will help you avoid a restanding Thing Saver. Early pressure followed by an early limit break with Inferno or an early breakride is the best strategy. 
• VS. DOTG + Dragonewt Perditions 3-7
• Match up tips, This is really hard you debate between being aggresive or holding back cards to avoid their mass retiring abilities. I found that being aggressive and trying to finish them before their retiring kicks in is the best way to go.  

Overall Performance:
       As you can see this deck performed very poorly and I pretty much expected that. The deck let's your opponent have grade 2s and given how good grade 2s have been come this is definitely detrimental. Next Seal Dragons existed in the old era of counter blasts where CB2 = one card as seen by effects like Tartu, and Berserk Dragon. This means that their effects over all are weaker. Lastly is speed break rides can be very underwhelming in the Legion format and not being able to use any of your skills until LB4 in this deck really hurts you in terms of competing. The LBE will help but doesn't do that much.

Tips for Mastering:

•  Learn to be as aggressive as possible
•  Time your skills right so that you can kill their boosters when they don't have any in hand or wipe out grade 2s when they are lacking attackers

Tips for adding money:
     The first thing to do will be changing all the Sentinel cards to the Seal Dragon perfect guards. This will help your especial counter blasts which will allow your skills to be more consistent or use some non-seal dragon triggers so that you don't have to use rainbow triggers. The other change I would recommend for the deck is to use a different back up grade 3. The break ride is good for getting free retires but over all it felt underwhelming to sit around waiting for LB4 since the LBE doesn't actually help breakrides all that much. I would suggest using Georgette as it provides a lot more pressure and will make them scared to play a lot of grade 2s as well as strengthening the link joker match up.

Do you have any comments on the deck? Want to request a budget build from me? Please let me know in the comments section.

Thanks for reading.

~Bambi