The Changing Of Tides- Aqua Force

"Wash away all vice in the flow of a furious flood. Its name is righteousness! I ride Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom!"


This phrase explains all when it comes to aqua force. This deck is capable of flooding your opponents field with decisive and powerful attacks. However this deck does have a pretty wide learning curve and I would suggest reading and learning how everything works before jumping into this clan. On the bright side your probably here to learn anyway so I went ahead and did the hard work for you. So lets dive into the depths of the clan known as Aqua Force.

Lets start at the bottom and work our way up and in this case its with the starting vanguard options. You have 3 choices for a starting vanguard which are Officer cadet of the first battle a 6k vanilla from the trial deck, Officer cadet erikk which is your grade 3 checker, and Aqua breath dracokid which allows you to give an ability to one of your units at the cost of a counter blast this ability is the unit gains +1000 and if it is the fourth or higher attack and hits the vanguard you can draw 1. This ability sounds good on paper but in reality is hard to achieve. I'm not saying this effect is bad just hard to plan and setup. I personally like Officer Cadet Erikk due to the fact that getting your main vanguard in this deck whether it be Maelstrom, Hydro Hurricane, or even Navalgazer is very important. The reason i say this is that your other grade 3 choices are 9k power or have no use on the vanguard spot and are essentially a 10k vanilla. So after extensive testing I have decided to stick with Erikk until theres a more useful card. The only downfall to Erikk is his power being at 4k when dracokid has a power of 5k but in the end it really comes down to the usefulness of the card in question but also playing either or will add vital points to the deck.

On to the grade 1 section which is not that vast as a matter of fact its so close to standard that its boring. So i'm just going to quickly cover this section.

4 8k vanilla

3-4 Perfect Guard
4 7k booster with CB1 add +1000
3 10k booster


Like i said very standard. You can mix and match a few cards i personally like to tech 2 grade 1 units from the pain series to deal 1 point of damage early game to set off my limit break and slam relentless attacks into my opponent especially if I go first and they are on grade 2. So in short your grade 1 units should reflect your grade 2 and 3 choices.

Now to the fun part which is the grade 2 line-up. This grade is the most important part of aqua force and its where your assault begins. With the right setup you can knock an insane amount of damage and pressure into your opponent which can easily decide a game. Lets start with Storm Rider, Basil which should be the start of your combo if he is the first attack he gets power +2000 and the ability to swap with the rear guard behind him so long as he attacks a vanguard. This ability starts your conquest to 4+ attacks per turn which is the signature play style of aqua force. So what card goes well behind Basil well none other than Coral Assault which is an 8k grade 2 but if it is the 3rd or higher attack gains +3000 power till the end of that battle.  Now there are 2 other solid options as well but they don't really shine unless you hit a stand trigger on grade 2 or until you ride grade 3 and can play Benedict. The other 2 units are Marine General Of The Restless Tides, Algos and Tear Knight, Valeria. Both units require them to be the 4th or higher attack and if they hit the vanguard their abilities activate. Valeria can destroy an opponents rear guard and Algos allows you to draw a card. Both have amazing effects and all tie into the other and like i said earlier this deck requires a very specific setup in order to show its true power. If you fail to setup properly you will easily notice that the deck isn't performing to standards.


We wrap things up with the true monsters of the deck the grade 3's.
You saw me mention Benedict earlier and he is a kill on sight to the opponent for an obvious reason. Benedict Can attack and then drop his attack by 5000 to stand again. what does this mean for aqua force though? It means Benedict counts as 2 attacks every turn guaranteeing that you can threaten your opponent with your units that require they be on the 4th or higher attack. Benedict clearly presents a threat with an ability like that making him a big target so use him wisely because if you cant guard him he wont last long. So what does a typical grade 3 play look like? Its simple really your first attack should be with Basil or Diamantes use their skill to move your heavy hitter forward aka your 4th attack unit then attack with Benedict alone without boosting for 10k activate his skill to stand him again. Next attack with Benedict boosted which should be for another 10k+ so now that totals 3 attacks. So all thats left is your vanguard and your heavy hitter so in order to use your heavy hitter which is base power Of 9000 you need to hit a trigger so attack with your vanguard and hope to get the trigger if you check one then swing with the last unit. There is another setup which plays the same just swapping the heavy hitters placement with Benedict so you can then attack with your heavy hitter boosteed. Either way works it just depends on your play style. The bottom 2 cards are Maelstrom which is my vanguard of choice and Diamantes which is a clone of Basil that can reach 11k instead of 10k. All the cards that i mentioned are key cards that should be included in some way the rest is all a learning curve for the deck and once you get it down your plays will be sure to put your opponent in a tight spot. I hope you all enjoyed this article and that it has given some inspiration to try this amazing clan.

Circus Of Horrors

Today I will be covering a clan with more tricks and stunts than you can imagine I am of course referring to the Pale Moon Circus.  In this article I'm going to discuss choices, strategies, and my experience with this amazing clan.  Starting off this article I will say that this deck is not for the casual player however there are versions of it that can be used for that particular type of player.  Pale Moon requires a precise setup to make its plays devastating and if that setup is planned poorly the deck will suffer.  Many questions are asked about this clan and how it works and the answer is simple all you need to do is have the right balance of soul and field.  How does one achieve that?  There are a good variety of cards for the clan that allow a player to build their soul but these choices are the most important when constructing the deck.  You will be faced with choices such as precision soul charging which of course has a cost and free randomized soul charging which does not.  What you need to keep in mind is free is not always better in fact being able to choose the cards you soul charge is far more effective and keeps important cards in your deck where they belong.  Field setup is the other half of the equation where soul charging and it go hand and hand.  An example of this is the tamer series of crimson and turquoise which rely on having a crimson in soul.  Before set 7 the deck did not have precision soul charging and suffered because of it not being able to get the right cards in soul for its combos.  The point I am making here is that its better to precisely add cards to soul over a random pick from a card like skull juggler who is in fact a key card but is there for utility as a card that can soul charge and is a 7k booster which isn't terrible for hitting magic numbers.

Now we enter the field segment of this article and the beaters that this deck has are pretty vicious.  Starting our lineup we have midnight invader which is your typical clone of any other grade 3 vanilla.  Hold that thought i'm aware i just called it a vanilla but in essence it is due to the simplicity of the effect and that it has to attack the vanguard to get it.  So on to the next question why is this card good?  Well like any other clone of this card if you stick an 8k behind him he hits 20k on a vanguard and 18k on a rear not bad at all.  However Pale Moon does us one better with a turquoise beast tamer behind him he can hit 21k which is a key number against 11k vanguards so in short this guy alone can trample over your opponents with ease making him a solid choice for the deck.  Our next main beater of the deck is crimson beast tamer a card that was good from the start and even better now with precision soul charging added to the mix.  An 8k unit that swings for 11k is pretty nasty but if you stick a turquoise behind her she becomes a 20k column which is devastating since most grade 2 columns on hit 16k-18k.  This row in particular is important for targeting important rear guards on your opponents field making them over commit guarding to stop its assault on their precious key card.  examples of those cards would be emblem master, libra clones etc.  Basically and 8k or 9k with a dangerous effect will be a great target for the tamer duo to knock out since it will cause them to have to pitch a minimum of 15k shield to stop it.  Vanguards are also a good target of course especially 10k vanguards since it will cause them to commit 15k shield as well to stop the swing so late game this row can hurt especially alongside your 21k midnight invader.

Were coming to the mid point of our discussion which is combos and tricks.  Before that though lets cover another card key to this role and that card is purple trapezist.  Before set 7 pale moon was a straight beatdown deck with combos only made possible by hitting an opposing unit which caused the deck to be easily stopped by simply guarding those units.  The release of this monstrosity is all it took to make the deck hit the competitive scene due to its ability to loop combos and fully utilize the soul.  The other card that makes this card amazing is none other than the girl who crossed the gap which is the clans best choice for a starting vanguard.  Counterblast 1 to swap itself for a card in soul.  Purple trapezist is an awesome choice for that cards effect allowing you to swap in a useless card for a better one and also is great to set up a row that hits a magic number.  Like I said before soul is power in this deck and without the right soul the deck wont work.  So to setup these combos I would suggest using dancing princess of the night sky to precisely soul charge the cards needed.  Counter blasting 1 for a precise soul charge isn't much to guarantee you have what you need to make your opponent suffer.  So now that you are aware of the engine that the deck uses and how to utilize if to its fullest we can move on to the last part which is Grade 3 and essentially choosing the variant of deck to use.

So now we come to the fork in the road which is what deck to choose.  Lets look at our options you have 3 of them which are...

-Luquier (Aggressive and controlling Beatdown with alot of combos)
-Sarah (Grade 3 checker abuses alice has potential to attack 6x)
-Robert (cheap build for the casual player easy to use)

So there are the 3 options available to us in order of effectiveness and competitiveness.  Luquier recently placed 2nd in the Manchester World Championship Qualifier.  Luquier is for those who dare to challenge their skill level and if skilled enough are rewarded with combos and rows that tear into an opponents vanguard with ease.  Sarah isn't quite as effective but is still a fan favorite due to its ability to possible attack a bunch of times and abuse nightmare doll alice which is still a favorite card to pale moon fans and some don't want to play without it.  The issue with Sarah is consistency since it requires you to have a grade 3 on the field and then to drive check another when most likely your running 8 total leaving 6 in deck if something hasn't already happened to them. Last is Robert who really is just a mention for those who wanna play casual of lack the money to afford the good stuff.

In closing this clan is simply amazing and given you take the time to learn it properly you will love it.  My experiences with the deck have been nothing less than great.  The deck building and options are kind of annoying since in this deck its really easy to throw the deck off track but once you find the balance and get past the learning curve its a powerful choice in any tournament setting at this time.  So what are you waiting for get out there and try it.  Right now the deck ill estimate to cost anywhere from 150+ for the competitive variants and robert will cost next to nothing minus the price of perfect guards.  I hope you all enjoyed the article and best of luck in your endeavors with the clan.  Ill post below my list that has been doing very well for me so enjoy.

Luquier Tamer Beat

Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer Luquier x3

Midnight Invader x4

Barking Cerberus x4

Crimson Beast Tamer x4

Dancing Princess Of The Night Sky x4

Skull juggler x3

Hades Hypnotist x4

Turquoise Beast Tamer x4

Purple Trapezist x3

Dynamite Juggler (crit) x4

Poison Juggler (Crit) x4

Rainbow Magician (Draw) x4

Popcorn Boy (Heal) x4

The Girl Who Crossed The Gap (Starter) x1

Hey guys Travis here with a locals report.  Enck and Diamond arcade and card shop in lebanon PA holds locals every sunday and its one of team limit breaks hot spots for playing.  This is the first local that barcgal is banned for us and I intended to prove that royal paladin is still to be feared and i did just that.  Here's the decks we took with us to the local.

Travis- Royal Paladin (KOK Version)
Cory- Spike Brothers (Emperor Version)
Haley- Angel Feather (Kiriel Version)
Josh- Kagero (Lawkeeper Version)

The competition was pretty solid there were 9 players counting us in total and here are the competitor decks.

OTT
Gold Paladin x2
Narukami x2

I'm not going to go into too much detail on specific rounds but the top 4 consisted of 1Gold 1 Kagero 1 Narukami and 1 Spike Brother deck.  The matches were Golds against Spikes and Narukami against Kagero.  My main focus was on the Gold VS Spike game which was severely aggressive up to the very end.
The gold paladin player pushed Cory into 5 damage and made a mistake of opening one of his occupied rear guard zones giving Cory the optimum chance for a rush.  Cory's turn came around and he did just that and the gold paladin player was going to be faced with 5 ferocious attacks thanks to Dudley Emperor.  The rush was going as it should breaking down the opposing player to nothing when unexpectedly on the 4th attack on the losing trigger a heal was flipped for the gold paladin player.  That extra 5000 power was just enough to end Cory's onslaught and turn the game around.  Needless to say Cory could not get through the next turn putting gold paladin into the final rounds.  Josh lost to Narukami and our team had to let the last 2 players go for the win this week.  It was a great tournament needless to say the amount of good players has improved greatly at the Enck and Diamond Shop.

Now On to the real purpose of this article which was to show that royal paladins are indeed still something to fear.  Ill get to test the full force of this deck hopefully this coming weekend once set 3 is released.  The build i took had to make replacements for cards that aren't out yet such as palomedes and toypugal.  I am happy to say that my only losses of the day were to trigger sacks which has nothing to do with the ability of the deck.  Each game played the deck performed admirably and drove aggressive 20k attacks into the opponent and with.  The Alfred variant of royal paladin is most certainly a deck to look for in your first regional event.  Once completed the deck will consistently make 20k-22k rows and they will be created with ease.  The reason for that is a combination of Alfred's skill and cards like High dog breeder, Akane to fill the rows with what is needed when it is needed.  Alfred's skill is a counterblast 3 but unlike the other units that have the same cost his is actually worth the price for the reason it can be used multiple times if possible and also its not a activate on ride effect which lets you plan or save it for later to replace a fallen unit.  I will do a follow up report on this deck in the near future once I have had time to test it and get used to playing it more.  In the end the deck went 2-2 and only lose to trigger sacks as I said before and this deck is something to look out for.  That's all I have for you today guys so until next time keep exceeding your limitations.

Cardfight Vanguard At Otakon

Ah otakon a place for us nerds to gather and enjoy anime to its fullest...however my trip to otakon was more in the direction of the card tables than anywhere else.  The experience was great met a'lot of good and bad players that weekend.  Now i'm not here to rip on players but i am going to discuss certain mistakes and certain things that were learned through this trip.

Ill start off with the underestimated Granblue clan.  Granblue is a legion of undead pirates that will keep reviving themselves until you are as dead as they are.  Most players don't have much fear for them at the moment and feel that they lack the ability to last in competitive play.  My goal this weekend was to set out and test the decks that have been dismissed and also some that have been proven to be worthy for competitive play and put their titles to the test.

For the granblue deck I chose to go with a variant that utilizes the drop zone as a tool box and also runs a card i've heard get alot of slander and that card is Dragon undead skull dragon.  For those of you who dont know about this card it is a grade 3 with 10000 power its ability is it gains 3000 power when it attacks so long as you have a granblue vanguard and its a counterblast 1 to retire a grade 2 or higher rear guard to revive itself from the drop zone the cost of this amazing ability is it dies at the end of the turn its place on the field.  As i stated before this card gets a'lot of hate because players

feel the cost is too much and fail to see what the cards purpose is.  This card in particular is a late game card meaning you don't use it till your trying to push for the win which is usually after 4 damage has been dealt.  Moving on to the results of this deck, after testing in multiple games including a mirror match and a game against kagero the deck tested great.  The deck demonstrates true raw power and endless amounts of it.  In the kagero game the opposing player repeatedly destroyed my rear guards mostly the boosters and interceptors if needed.  However by simply utilizing the soul and if needed a well timed counterblast the deck snapped back on the aggressive path it started on.  Using cards like Spirit exceed to refill the soul helped to push for the win.


Another important thing about decks like this are you can add stand triggers to them.  The deck i ran used 10 critical 2 stand and 4 heal.  Stand triggers are grossly underestimated due to the fact that most of us american card players want to play the fastest and most aggressive way possible.  Thinking that way may win you some games but in the long run a stand trigger will give you a better chance at winning in the late game.  Imagine it a 10000 interceptor that stood back up with 15000 power forcing more out of your opponents hand if they have much of one left at that point in the game.  Again Dragon undead skull dragon shines with a stand and a boost of 5000 he can reach 18000 and get 2 attacks before he dies at the end of the turn.

The second and last deck i am going to cover is the over hyped and now underestimated angel feather clan.  I'm going to make this quick and simple, this deck will be a'lot more enticing once set 7 is launched in the next few months.  Until then do not underestimate a good player piloting this deck.  Much like granblue angel feather turns a zone into a tool box in this case the damage zone,  All other decks have chances to lose valuable cards to the damage zone which can effect their games but angel feather thrives on this by being able to swap cards from their hand with ones in their damage zone.  Doing this also allows them to take face down cards and swap them with face up ones allowing for more counterblast action.  Our team has a player who uses this deck and it has proven its worth on more than 1 occasion,  The deck may seem slow and timid when you first start the game but late game you will start to see how fast the deck was actually moving.  Imagine the damage zone as an extra hand that is holding options that you can use for when you need them.  Every damage you take adds to this hand however it is limited to its capacity due to a player losing at 6 damage.  What I want you to see is that the deck is working a double the speed by drive checking on the offense and taking damage on defense this causes both hands to take 1 card from the deck and then after grade 3 it takes 3 cards due to twin drive.  Using the swap effects you are able to fix your hand as the situation calls for it.  I played this deck against a few players at otakon and they were amazed to see how dangerous the deck can be if put in the right hands.  Utilizing kiriel to start chain of events resulting ultimately in a field with some very threatening power.  Once again this is another deck that can utilize stand triggers to push for even more damage late game.

I hope you enjoyed this article and stay tuned for more thanks for reading...

-Travis OHalloran

Introduction

Hello viewers and welcome to the team limit break blog this is just an introduction to give you the viewer an idea of what we want to accomplish here.  First of all id like to put a list of the members who will be sharing their thoughts and opinions with you.

-Travis OHalloran
-Haley OHalloran
-Cory Eshleman
-Chrys Johnson
-Justin Cornelius
-Josh Celsky
-Dakota Kenyon
-Flint Stites
-Peter Dipisa

Now that that is out of the way we can move on to what we hope to accomplish here.  Our goal is to give new and veteran players alike a place where they can come to find out about information in Cardfight Vanguard.  Each of us as players have a'lot of information to share.  We will be posting about different strategies, deck types, card sets, single cards, and tournaments.  We here at team limit break can't wait to share these topics with you.  And remember there is no limit to what you can achieve so long as you have the will to make it happen that's what we at team limit break are all about so we hope you all will be looking forward to our first article coming soon so until then this is team limit break signing out...