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It Seems OP Because You Can’t Beat It 

You only bitch about what seems OP because your deck’s worse, not because that card’s busted.

I recently came across this blog post from someone who’s name I forget basically comprising of him wanting to have English Vanguard walk in line with Japan and limit Cat Butler to 2 and Commander Laurel to 1. A short while later (as in 5 minutes later, it was on the same website so no wonder) another post was bitching about something that wasn’t even out in English yet and was already giving him trouble. Gilles De Rais for Dark Irregulars, specifically.

As a general rule, I don’t ever let my opinions of a card be coloured by other people because I know for a fact that a vast majority of players aren’t exactly observant, not to mention human beings as a rule are terrible witnesses anyway. I inspected several cards and yes, they are pretty nuts. But to be honest, I personally have never encountered a card or even deck that made me wish that it would get swiftly sentenced to Barcgal Jail or any similar jail, of which I am sure there are others. And to be honest, I don’t have many feelings other than disdain for those who bitch about something that will most likely not change.

The cards that are being criticised like this aren’t the problem. It’s probably not THAT bad. It just seems that way because you suck. And so do all your friends that agree. I think Ragnaclock is a bit of a dick card too but I wouldn’t want it gone. And I felt Lambros was what Aqua Force desperately needed to pull them out of the shit-pile and be actually awesome for once.

Vanguard has tiers. That is the unfortunate reality. Tournaments and other such clusterfucks of Bushiroad’s may not represent what is GOOD, exactly, but I hold a belief that everything has a most optimal means of working, even if no-one has found it yet. What makes a card/deck good is that it cannot really realistically be countered except with a gambit that is similar and hope the inevitable coin-toss ends in your favour, or running a gambit whose output is just as viable. Drawing cards compared to blowing cards up, for example. Still card advantage to you either way, isn’t it? Trying to adjust how you play while still using the same shit you always have is a poor move on your part; you can’t make bricks without clay, after all.

If I were to liken the current situation of Vanguard to anything, I would say that it would be pretty similar to the fabled “console war”. You pick a system and then proceed to stick with it and if it turned out that it was in fact shit, you moved on to something else, or just vehemently denied reality hoping it would somehow turn itself around. Vanguard is very similar.  A lot of the cards people tend to have problems with are ones that can basically end dudes with the correct setup. Aforementioned Lambros is a typical subject of complaint. Now of course, a renaissance is not impossible (Genesis were pretty meh until BT14 when suddenly they got Minerva and became amazing) but for the most part the game’s environment is a fast-changing one, and so you either pick a popular clan so that it ages decently well, or you jump from deck to deck like you were crossing a bridge of trampolines. And if you stick to one deck that doesn’t really stack up against the big guns, well, assuming you want to win you have no-one to blame but yourself for your lack of foresight.

Look, if you play casual that’s fine. To play casual is to declare that you don’t really care about winning either way. But as soon as you say you want to take it to the next level, to me, you then forfeit all right to work within your own self-imposed limits to try and squeeze as much competition as possible out of something crap. You have to use what is best for the deck, not what is best for you. The deck doesn’t give a shit about how you play because it’s built with only one purpose in mind, and if you use it differently then you’re using it wrong. So if you actually care about winning at all, you would accept that what you have currently won’t make the cut and move onto a different deck build of your clan, if you are at least not willing to move on to a different clan altogether (although you probably should and this is why if anyone was interested).

I have mentioned that each deck does have a shelf-life, and I am under no illusion that a time will come when I must shelf my current one and move to the next green pasture, and that’s what TCGs are basically about at the end of the day. I know there will be much wailing (THAR SHE BLOWS) and gnashing of teeth when all your shit gets invalidated, but let’s be honest. People bitch about what’s powerful only because they possess nothing that can counter it. Eventually these cards will be shafted in favour of something worse and then people will bitch about that instead.

I guess there’s nothing left for me except to say “Leave Lambros alone, seriously, fuck the haters.” Oh, and a pre-emptive happy 4^th of July, I guess.

Ask me in my infinite wisdom how to beat Thing Saver/Altmile at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com