This Space
For Rent

Vanguard's Hype Train

What drives Vanguard players to use something worse than their old deck?

Rather bizzarely, I'm hoping for a meta where every deck used competitively sucks so many balls. This is not out of any desire for things to be fair for everyone, oh dear me no. It's because then I can just watch these people self-destruct as they lose because they could have done so much better, but they just lost money to beat the rush to use the shiny-ass new toys. This in turn makes everything easier for me, because then I can milk all of the salty tears as my cheap-as-chips deck stomps all over their solid gold surfboard, as no-one explained to them gold doesn't float very well.

Then again, the definition of what sucks to me is pretty hard to pin down. You should already know by now I'm maining Grade 1 (and 3 depending on my mood) rush because I'm winning by exploiting what is wrong with the current meta, therefore any card or deck that cannot overcome this barrier is, to me, not worth it. I wouldn't even score anything on COTD as high as I do if I operated on the assumption people would run G1 rush. I don't play what is meta, not really. I sort of did once, but that was only because in the past, what was meta also happened to tie in with what was good. Nowadays, my deck is anything but meta, but as it's hella cheaper than the meta, and plays better than the meta, as in a LOT better, that is not something I would care to not use. I don't play for Nationals but I like to fight as though I am.

Because of that, it is very difficult for me to ever be excited about anything that's been getting released lately. Not when there are rumors to operate on, and not even when the finished product is for all to see. All that matters to me is: do you need me to be on Grade 3? If not, your ass is grass. But assuming I've never heard of such a strategy (man, I miss the days when I was an ignorant little shit), I still cannot bring myself to change a deck unless I have good reason to believe it will outpace my old deck. Whether or not the gambit is interesting doesn't matter too much. I mean, shit yes I'll play it. I'm just not going to buy any of its cards.

Part of the reason could be down to simple ignorance. Before, that was reasonably easy to assume as the clans revealed their entirely new way to support whatever the fuck they did, regardless of how good it actually was. Now, as each clan received its G Support the hype mostly comes from how the new toys can improve and add on to the existing strategy. Fair enough, some of it can (to a point), but for minor clans especially it pays to set your expectations stupidly low. I'm looking at Oracle Think Tank as an example.

Nowadays though, I guess it's because of two reasons. The first is the acknowledgment that no deck will be able to have a decent game against everything, such as a Magia deck being poison to a traditional Narukami player, so you may as well try an interesting new toy for the sake of its novelty as odds are it cannot do strictly worse, or at least that's how it's perceived. Second reason is plain and simple fatigue. Running the same shit for ages gets tiring, after all, and no good idea stays good forever.

I dunno. Doesn't affect me. My Grade 1 rush will defeat anything not niche like a sudden retire-heavy deck at Limit Break, and I am really fucking patient, it's how I managed to play the End from February until December without losing steam. The tears of my opponents are always delicious. So watching people fall head over heels for something I know isn't going to consistently win against me is something I guess I can dismiss as shit I don't get and isn't for me. AT least until the next wave of Kagero support comes along.

Sorry, I guess this was pretty short as far as articles go, so I guess I can make up for it by submitting exactly what has ruined the fun of so many players at my locals lately so you can see what I'm talking about:

x4 Genius Liberator, Woltimell

x16 Liberator Criticals

x4 Liberator, Holy Acolyte

x4 Little Liberator, Marron

x4 Deathly Silence Liberator, Curdle

x4 Pomerugal Liberator

x4 Starry Sky Liberator, Guinivere

x4 Sword Oath Liberator, Igraine

x2 Future Liberator, Llew

x2 Butterfly Liberator, Kordelia

x2 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth

This is the first deck that's been ruining everyone's day lately. The premise could not be simpler: make as many 16k+ columns as you can, swing at the Vanguard all the time, then win. Then cake.

 My only regret is that I could have totally used this deck last year after G-BT03. Seriously, once you've gotten the basics of this down, you're going to want to quit because that's it. You have reached the pinnacle. There is nowhere to go from here. And if I can be the one to start the game's slow heat death on a grander scale then I guess I've done my job.

I’m taking requests for articles if there’s something about Vanguard you need to gripe about. Email ideas at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com. Or drop a message on my Twitter account!