March 2024 Ban List Predictions

Published on 18 March 2024 at 14:29

So Bushiroad has announced that with the upcoming Japanese Product Stream for Cardfight Vanguard in a few days time, we are also going to be getting an update to the Japanese fighter's rules. In today's blog post, I am going to put my thoughts out about what I feel is going to be addressed on it. I will stress that these changes are for the Japanese game only, and may or may not come to the English game at a later date. I am also going to only be addressing the Standard format at this moment in time, as that is the main format that is played over in Japan, and their V-Premium and Premium format changes are normally based on what happens in the English meta

Shiranui

So anyone that is anyone knows that "Demon Stealth Dragon, Shiranui "Oboro"" is currently top of the meta with an overwhelming usage rate and conversion in most Japanese tournaments. Having a deck that not only has a good early game due to the edited rideline that players are using, but also having a solid late game as well due to the crest mechanic along with a multitude of restanders will naturally lead to a really strong deck. But what can we hit? Well let us take a look at our first option - "World-shaper Stealth Rogue, Shojodoji".

So "World-shaper Stealth Rogue, Shojodoji" is used in the rideline for extra deck compression, as the majority of the Shiranui deck is already Stealth cards, so let's us search for key pieces such as restanders or key boosters to call to RC, but we are also generating soul at the same time, which is a much needed resource for our restanders, as most of them cost a soul blast. Adding on top that using Shojodoji allows us to also add in "Stealth Fiend, Izasaou" for even more deck compression, this time adding cards to hand, such as "Stealth Dragon, Utsuroi". But this card alone does not seem enough to lower the strength of the deck to the point of not being "dominating" (pun intended). So the other option to look at would be the restanders, but seeing as hitting deckset cards making the product unplayable out of the box, we would look at the additional restander in "Vairina Esperaridea".

So up until recently, "Vairina Esperaridea" was locked behind only being able to be called normally in Mahar Nirvana decks (no I am not counting Eugene cheese decks to call it from the top 5). Well with the Shiranui deckset this became possible elsewhere, as accessing a stride made you grade 4, allowing the call to happen, allowing a total of up to 12 restanding front row Rear-guards in a single deck. But this also combo's off further when you look at "Pealing Dragon, Bliorvis" as we now have access to having a grade 4 in our hand during our opponent's turn granting access to even more shield in a deck that is already compressing and drawing a fair bit. So what are my issues with this deck and where do I feel they are going to hit it?

My issue with the deck comes down to both the discussed options, as Shiranui is able to fully control the tempo of the game due to its early compression with the Shojodoji rideline as well as having the defensive capabilities that Espararidia and Bliorvis provide to not be rushed back as hard. As for what I would suggest in terms of hitting this deck. I would honestly like to see a 3 way choice restrict between "Vairina Espararidia", "World-shaper Stealth Rogue, Shojodoji" and "Demon Stealth Dragon, Shiranui "Oboro"", as this then restricts the early game offence and defense the deck has access to, allowing for an actual out to be had against the deck in the form of early aggression.

But by just addressing "Demon Stealth Dragon, Shiranui "Oboro"", all it would do is cause another deck to just solely dominate the meta, so we also need to discuss the partner in crime - "Dragheart Luard".

Luard

So whilst "Dragheart, Luard" may not have been as dominating as "Demon Stealth Dragon, Shiranui "Oboro"", with that deck being removed, "Dragheart, Luard" would then become the dominant deck due to the sheer compression that comes with the deck, along with the massively strong finisher in the form of "Dragstrider, Luard". When you look at the base deckset alone, it really isn't amazingly powerful, as the grade 1's within the deck have been nicely balanced to work well alongside each other. The strength of this deck is when you start adding in additional cards to upgrade it, such as our first talking point - "Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World"

So "Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World" is really good in the deck for the fact that it's a free draw 2 from as early as turn 2, allowing early advantage, as well as digging for key combo pieces that you want from turn 3 onwards. Adding in that on top of that, using it once you have started compressing your deck with "Dragheart Luard"'s stride skill increases the chance that you will draw extra shield cards, such as triggers and sentinels. We also have cards that combo off well with this to cause even more advantage gain such as our next card in "Forefront Knight, Teithfallt"

By calling "Forefront Knight, Teithfallt" off of "Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World", not only do we not have to discard for "Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World", we also get to activate "Forefront Knight, Teithfallt"'s skill, as we have fulfilled both parts of the condition - an order was activated and it was called by something that wasn't a unit's ability. Not only are we providing key deck compression with this card by removing more non triggers in the deck, we are also soul blasting to help fuel our Ritual skills as we can soul blast out the grade 1 from the rideline. Another key card is "Cellgaon" (currently not released in English, link takes to JP CFV page on the card), which also help with the compression and the activation cost is so much easier if we have activated an order, as doesn't check for the number of rear-guards we have compared to our opponent.But what do we hit in the deck?

Now I have seen some suggestions of straight up choice restricting "Cellgaon" with "Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World" and whilst that would reduce the power level of "Dragheart, Luard", it would also reduce the power level of other decks that are using this combo, such as "Fated One of Miracles, Rezael" (also not currently out in English), which honestly is not fair on those decks. So what I would personally propose is still a choice restrict, but instead between "Dragheart, Luard" and "Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World". This would still allow the deck to run "Cellgaon" for filtering, but not have the severe advantage gain that the full order package currently gives it.

The Watch List

Personally I do not see them adding any more restrictions past these two decks, as these ones are the main proven problems in the current meta, but I can see them adding some decks to the watch list, just incase they get out of hand over the next few months. So with this, I am going to make my own predictions on what is going to be on the watch list as well.

The first deck on my predicted watch list is the recently released "Fated One of Unparalleled, Varga Dragres". This deck is a highly aggressive deck that turns its field cards back into hand cards, meaning that the deck gets to be aggressive with barely any downside. The only real restriction on this deck currently is the amount of Counter Blast the deck needs, without having access to a decent Counter Charger, so this deck is kept in check by damage mitigation and restricting how much they can actually use. The moment Varga gets access to a solid counter charging engine is when I feel this deck will start to become a problem.

The second deck is also from that same set, and shares the same trait as the last one in "Fated One of Miracles, Rezael". The reason I have put Rezael on here, despite it not having as many tops as decks like "Fated One of Unparalleled, Varga Dragres", is due to the fact of how it can also use and abuse the same order package of "Dragheart, Luard". What this may end up causing if this does become a problem is an harsher restriction placed on "Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World", as that order in combination with all the other order based units is a really strong engine.

The final deck that I have placed on my watch list restriction is one that is not new to the fighter's rule restrictions in "Fountain of Knowledge, Eva". For those that do not know, the Cray Cross Epic decks all got a promo grade 1 that allowed them to actively search out their alternate forms that was released in "Booster Pack 11: Clash of the Heroes". This has lead to Eva coming back to the issue that it is getting even more consistant deck compression at more than once a turn, as you can utilise "Fountain of Knowlege, Eva"'s Counter Blast to check the top number of cards and add one to hand, then use "Vetting Monster, Imigra" to ride up to "Poison in Paradise, Eva", adding an additional card to hand in the form of a "Research". This currently is not too strong, but if there is even more consistency and compression added to the deck, this may become a problem at a later date.

So these are my overall opinions on what I feel is going to be adjusted and what is going to be kept an eye on. Please do remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and no one should be mocked or ridiculed for it. As for the next blog post, I will be back again on Friday recapping everything that has happened on the Strategy Presentation and the conclusion to what actually got adjusted on the Fighter's Rules, so see you then!!!

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