Week 1: Neo Nectar - Creating the Idea

Welcome to another week of Cardfight!! Vanguard, (Hopefully) on a Budget. Last week, I made a feeble attempt at continuing the Great Nature deck, sorry about that, I couldn't test out the deck to make any changes. I'll try to do so when I got the time.


So anyways, 22nd Sept saw a new set. I cracked myself a box, got some really good money cards, and then some. However, I got my eyes drawn to this interesting common in NeoNectars, have a look:

Fruit Basket Elf

Week 2: Changes to Budget Great Nature, what I might be up to next...

Welcome to another week of Vanguard on the Budget. Last week, we kicked things off by building a Great Nature decklist that goes for a large fraction of the cost. In case you have forgotten, here's the list below:

1 Blackboard Ohm
4 Ruler Chameleon (CRIT)
4 Triangle Cobra (CRIT)
4 Fortune-Bringing Cat (DRAW)
4 Dictionary Goat (HEAL)

4 Silver Wolf
4 Loop-the-Loop, Duckbill
4 Pencil Squire Hamsuke
2 Feather Penguin

4 Pencil Knight, Hamsuke
4 Geograph Giant
4 Compass Lion

3 School Dominator Apt
3 Magnet Crocodile
1 Scientist Monkey Rue

Well, so far so good. However, I thought that given the massive ability to pile up hand size in the mid game, The draws are a bit too much. So I cut the draw triggers and 2 Chameleons for Stands, since Lion goes well with them given its high attack power. I also cut a Pencil Knight since they were clogging up my hand, and I want to be eating just the squires anyway. Essentially, I'm aiming for a powerful mid-game where I can suddenly increase my hand size.

Rue works great now especially since he can pump himself with Steroids and I have Stands to work well with this card, but then again we have limited counterblast and we need them for Hamsukes. So I cut them for Crocodile.

I'll probably come back to it some other time, but I haven't got the time to test it out extensively.  Do look forward to it though, I'll come back to it soon.

Out of boredom: Week 1

Used a bunch of spare cards to cook up the following list (surprising how I somehow end up with them):

Here goes nothing then.

1 Kaleido Ace
4 BattleRaizer
4 Other Vanilla Stands
4 Three Minutes
4 Ring Girl Clara

4 Shout
4 Tough Boy
3 Queen of Heart
3 Clay-doll Mechanic

4 King of Swords
3 Magician Girl Kirara
4 Brutal Jack

4 Mr. Invincible
2 Armored Fairy Sphira
2 Moai the Great

Disclaimer: For all intents and purposes, this is meant for recording purposes and not meant to be a serious deck, and for recording down ideas for any builds I have in mind for the future. Looks good on paper, but not practical and is for-fun purposes.

This deck's roughly based around the interaction with Sphira, Invincible, and Kirara. The stands round it off and bring this deck somewhat together.

Mr. Invincible becomes a resource storage, and runs a pressure clock of sorts. You either let me trade in my stuff for free cards, or you eventually let me build them all up and fire them off in a game-changing finisher. Also included 2 ways to create 15k columns.

Day 3, end of weekend too...

Well, it's the end of the weekend, so I went to a card shop that I always frequent. Nothing new really, but I did participate in today's tournament (entry fee's 2 bucks, we get a promo card too. Cracked me a King Seahorse, I'm going to see if I can't use that...) The matches seem to be single elimination.
Anyways, here's what I sleeved up:

Granblue

1 Captain NightKid
4 Banshee (Crit)
4 Samurai Spirit (Crit)
4 Hook-arm Zombie (Draw)
4 Doctor Rouge (Heal)
3 Chappie the Ghost
20 Cards

4 Deadly Nightmare
4 Samurai Spirit
4 Dandy Romario
2 Dancing Cutlass
14 Cards

4 Deadly Spirit
2 Captain Nightmist
4 Chef Pietro
10 Cards

2 Deadly Swordsmaster
1 Spirit Exceed
3 King of Demonic Seas, Basskirk
1 Dragon Undead, Skull Dragon
6 Cards

The strangest thing about Granblue is that anything seems to work out, which makes it weird in a certain way. Nevertheless, here's how I did:

Game 1: Narukami
Well, I superior rode into Deadly Swordsmaster and proceed to ride him to victory despite a Vermillion Limit Break since I quickly recovered by eating up my 2 spare grade 3s for the same units that he blew up and therefore bolstering my tattered defence. However, his drive checks drew blanks most of the time and the ghosts took this one home to mommy.

Game 2: Gold Paladin
I hate Ezel. My opponent quickly superior rides into him at the first opportunity, but did not capitalise on the increased offensive by calling more units (his hand must be full of triggers since he kept turtling me with Silent Punishers and Gwydions, weird though since Gold Paladin's well-known for their ability to sward the field quickly). Ah well, I welcomed the victory with open arms

2 down, 1 more to go before the semi-finals. Let's get this on!

Game 3: VS Dark Irregulars
Or maybe not. Got "Double-Critted" at 3 damage when I declared no guard. Ouch.

So I got 3 boosters for my trouble. I did crack a Gold Pally Perfect guard, S$18 in my pocket yay.
Anyways, I made some changes to the line-up, More details next week if I'm free, I still need to take on my project.

Updates for week 2!!!

Nothing much really. I had been play testing the budget great nature deck with some proxies, and so far I've been getting the impression that it only looks good on paper (sigh...). Maybe I was emphasising too much on the retiring portion, but anyways. I'll try to round it off next week, but no promises here since I'd like to test out a second route for this after making changes.

Also, I've some deck ideas in mind afterwards, but I'd like to get some opinions from you guys. Bushiroad introduced enough clans that I'd take many months to be able to cover them all. In that case, what clan would you want me to try building a budget version of next? Comment below, or if in the case that I don't I'd just go for the clan that takes my fancy.

Great Nature: Week 1 - Creating the idea.

Great Nature is quite a powerful clan. Its ability to rack up immense power bonuses while increasing hand size makes it the equivalent of a "Sword and Shield".

Still, it can be said to be pretty darn expensive. Not surprising though, several key cards go about being RR and above (Leo-pald, Binoculars Tiger, Cable Sheep, and then we have the promo Sea-Stamp Otter, which I wager is going to be a serious staple in most builds, but hopefully not going in the same direction as Purple Trapezist), which does increase the price of a deck quite a bit.

So naturally, I'm not willing to fork out SGD$12 (it could be different in other areas, but let's use Singapore as a reference 1st) a piece for 8 RRRs (SGD$96, can you believe that?), so of course, the first thing is that we look for an alternative. The great thing is that BT-08 gives us something that can substitute or be run alongside Binoculars Tiger and Leo-pald, and is a mere fraction of the cost:

Compass Lion
Grade 2/ Great Nature/ High Beast/ 11000
Effects:
AUTO【V/R】: At the beginning of your end phase, choose one of your rear-guards, and retire it.
R rarity (BT-08)

Going by the market rating for rares (or R), they should go for about SGD$1 to SGD$2 a piece, a lot less if you are savvy and would be sniping some off those booster box crusades or know somebody. In that sense, a playset would go for about SGD$8 at the most. Comparing it to the initial prices, there's definitely a difference. Considering that retiring effects are the bread (more on the butter later, and then let's talk jam, see what I did there, haha), and there's hardly many decent options outside the RR to RRR range, let's start by putting him as a 4-of, which means I want to try and draw him most of the time.

Other pieces of the deck:
Pencil Squire Hamsuke
Grade 1/6000/Great Nature/High Beast
AUTO: [Counter Blast (1)] During your end phase, when this unit is put into the drop zone from Rear-guard Circle, if you have a «Great Nature» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one card named "Pencil Squire, Hammsuke", reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.
R rarity (BT-07)

Pencil Knight Hamsuke
Grade 2/8000/Great Nature/ High Beast
AUTO: [Counter Blast (1)] During your end phase, when this unit is put into the drop zone from Rear-guard Circle, if you have a «Great Nature» vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one card named "Pencil Knight, Hammsuke", reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.
C rarity (BT-07)

These are quite simply put, your butter. It's very difficult for a deck that aims to retire its units to function without them. With them you can thin out your deck of non-triggers cards, replace the card you lost, and when you staple on other effects, get more cards. What's there to not love? Again, 4-of. The reason why I'm not playing the Grade 3 Hamsuke is because of his lack of shield value, meaning that his effect is only good to phase out your unit for a better one, and used as perfect guard fodder at best. Also, we have better units to use (I hope?)

Schoolyard Prodigy, Lox
Grade 0/4000/Great Nature/High Beast
AUTO: When a card named "Bringer of Knowledge, Lox" rides this unit, look at up to seven cards from the top of your deck, search for up to one card named "Guardian of Truth, Lox" or "Law Official, Lox" from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

AUTO: When a «Great Nature» other than a card named "Bringer of Knowledge, Lox" rides this unit, you may call this card to Rear-guard Circle.

Bringer of Knowledge, Lox
Grade 1/7000/Great Nature/High Beast
CONT【V】: If you have a card named "Schoolyard Prodigy, Lox" in your soul, this unit gets Power +1000.

AUTO: When a card named "Law Official, Lox" rides this unit, if you have a card named "Schoolyard Prodigy, Lox" in your soul, choose up to two of your «Great Nature» rear-guards, and those units gets "AUTO: During your end phase, when this unit is put into the drop zone from Rear-guard Circle, draw a card" until end of turn.

Law Official, Lox
Grade 2/9000/Great Nature/High Beast
CONT【V】: If you have a card named "Bringer of Knowledge, Lox" in your soul, this unit gets Power +1000.

AUTO: When a card named "Guardian of Truth, Lox" rides this unit, if you have a card named "Bringer of Knowledge, Lox" in your soul, choose up to two of your «Great Nature» rear-guards, and those units gets "AUTO: During your end phase, when this unit is put into the drop zone from Rear-guard Circle, draw a card" until end of turn.

Guardian of Truth, Lox
Grade 3/10000/Great Nature/High Beast
CONT【V】: If you have a card named "Law Official, Lox" in your soul, this unit gets Power +1000.

ACT【V】: [Counter Blast (2) & Choose a card named "Guardian of Truth, Lox" from your hand, and discard it] Choose one of your «Great Nature» rear-guards, and that unit gets Power +4000/Critical +1 until end of turn, and at the beginning of your end phase, retire that unit.

I think for budget reasons, we can fit this in. This goes somewhat well with the "Sword and Shield" idea because only Lox has that 11k static defense that the others don't, in exchange for an unwieldy sword. I know some people are against these sort of ride chains citing inconsistency claims, but I beg to differ. These cards increase your chances of pulling off a successful Grade 1 to Grade 3 ride, they give some bonuses if you can pull it off (and have the cards to do so), and even if you don't get them off, you still get a 4000 starter that you can eat (either feed him to Lion or dump a +4000 bonus on him), ever useful 7k boosters and 9k attackers, and believe me when I say that you ain't missing much riding a 10k Lox or using him as cannon fodder. Not to mention, because so many people are quick to dismiss them as inferior to other Great Nature VG, those can be picked up on the cheap (Guardian of Truth, Lox goes for about SGD$5 if you know where to look, look below for other options if you aren't) Sounds fine to me. 1-4-4-3-of.

If you aren't too convinced, here are some another option below:

School Dominator, Apt
Grade 3/10000/Great Nature/High Beast
AUTO【V】: Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage): When this unit attacks a vanguard, this unit gets Power +5000 until end of that battle.

AUTO【V】: [Choose one of your «Great Nature» rear-guards, and retire it] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to one «Great Nature» from your hand, and call it to Rear-guard Circle.

This card is very good. He swings for good numbers, and if he does hit, I get another free attack in exchange for killing off a weak card. I might, for example, kill off my last copy of Pencil Knight Hamsuke and put in a high attacking unit like Magnet Crocodile or Compass Lion. I'll put him as a 2 to 3 of, but he's ridiculously cheap and easy to find due to his not meshing properly with other Great Nature cards (poor little guy). Playing him also means that you have more space to run other cards.

For now, let's go with the Apt Route since I like penguins, we don't have the cards to make running Lox a more consistent option (or maximise his benefits) and I want some flexibility in my starting builds (We'll try out the Lox Route next week).

Loop-the-Loop, Duckbill (R, BT-08)/ Tic-Toc Flamingo (C, BT-07)
Grade 1/7000/Great Nature/High Beast

Honestly speaking, I'm getting a little lazy. The former lets you draw a card when you retire the selected unit, while the latter unflips a damage. Essentially, they are the "jam" that we are talking about. Thank god for their convoluted wording, otherwise Leo-pald would have had a ridiculous combo going.

Blackboard Ohm (C, BT-08)/Flask Marmoset (R, BT-07)/Acorn Master (C, BT-07)
Alternative starters if we are not playing the Lox series. Use according to taste.

Right, let's throw in some 8k Vanillas, some beat sticks, some strange options, and we have something like this:

Great Nature On A Budget Mk. I (nuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, not budget cuts, a school's worst nightmare~)
1 Blackboard Ohm
4 Ruler Chameleon (Crit)
4 Triangle Cobra (Crit)
4 Fortune-bringing Cat (Draw)
4 Dictionary Goat (Heal)

4 Silver Wolf
4 Loop-the-Loop, Duckbill
4 Pencil Squire, Hamsuke
2 Feather Penguin (Apt Personal booster)

4 Compass Lion
4 Pencil Knight, Hamsuke
4 Geograph Giant

3 School Dominator, Apt
3 Magnet Crocodile
1 Scientist Monkey Rue

Some might be a little surprised to see Rue. I'm currently playtesting him as a 5th retire outlet, although expect to see him gone soon, since he competes with Hamsuke for counterblasts. I think this deck might be a decent candidate to have stands considering the average power of its frontline attackers. Admittedly, I wanted to try Canvas Koala, but I did not think that Great Nature has the swarming power nor the continuously large hand size to use it.

How does it run? I'm going to leave it on a cliffhanger here, because I'm a jerk like that (amen to that)

Signing off,
Me.

Well, hopefully this one doesn't die off so easily...

Well, after 2 or 3 other failed attempts to write me a journal, or a least a record, one might say that this is my 4th attempt at trying my hand at something. So anyways, the purpose of this blog mainly to build on a cheap and affordable budget. The great thing about Vanguard is that any deck can win, as long as one builds the deck correctly and pilots it well. Although some decks might win more than others, in the end of the day, it's the fact that you had fun that counts. Bonus points if you did that without busting your wallet.

Gold Paladins too expensive at the moment? I'm certain that we could think of something that lets you enjoy the clan without all the extra frills (you could add those in later, more on that later on in later builds.).

So anyways, here's how I'm going to work. It's a weekly entry (with some random unrelated thoughts in between (remember, it's a blog after all) that may or may not relate to gaming in general), where I'll introduce a format or theme, and then we'll visit that over the next 2 to 3 weeks (between posts I'm hoping to get some feedback on this, so we all improve, you know?)

So either way, the rules regarding my starter skeleton build:
Building on a budget
- No perfect guards
- Must not contain more than 4 cards rated RR and above
- Must address the needs and wants of the deck
- Anything goes, within reasonable limits.

Sounds like a tall order? Sounds unreasonable? Sounds stupid? Well too bad, because simply put:
"I CAN AND IT (MOSTLY) FREE"