How to Play Cardfight!! Vanguard: Deck Construction

Welcome back to our discussion of Vanguard!! rules! In this instalment, we shall discuss the rules concerning deck construction and how to G-assist. We will also cover basic tactics in deck design, including end-game, combos and resource management.

Absolute Rules

Vanguard has certain rules that must be obeyed during deck construction:

1. Decks must be exactly fifty cards (including starting vanguard).
2. There cannot be more than four copies of cards with the same name in a deck (Unless the card states otherwise). This means that even if two cards have the same name but different effects (such as Phantom Blaster Dragon), there can only be four cards named ‘Phantom Blaster Dragon’ in the deck.
3. Decks must contain exactly sixteen trigger units, of which only four may be heal triggers.
4. Decks may only contain four units with the Continuous skill ‘Sentinel’.
5. Decks may include a G-deck of up to eight units.

Further, decks may only be formed out of units from a single clan, meaning that, if a player wanted to make a Gold Paladin deck, only Gold Paladin units could be included. There are few exceptions to the rule:

1. Cray Elemental units can be included in any deck, as they have the Continuous skill of being from all clans and all nations.
2. Royal Paladins can contain up to four copies of Blaster Dark (a Shadow Paladin), so that they can use the effect of Majesty Lord Blaster.
3. Link Joker can use any card with ‘Я’ in its name, because of the effects of Star-vader, “Omega” Glendios and similar cards. These are Continuous skills which mean that any unit with ‘Я’ in its name is always also counted as a Link Joker.
4. Some units have continuous effects which make them part of two clans at once. So far, only three units have this ability: Blaster Blade Spirit (Royal Paladin) and Blaster Dark Spirit (Shadow Paladin) both count as Gold Paladins, while Coral Princess, Thetis is an Etranger who also counts as an Aqua Force.

Guidelines

Grade Balance

Most decks follow a similar Grade ratio, with a few notable exceptions. This is:

• 17 Grade 0s (16 triggers and 1 starter)
• 15 Grade 1s
• 10 Grade 2s
• 8 Grade 3s

This ‘pyramid’ structure means that you are less likely to get ‘grade stuck’ early game, as Grade 1s and 2s are significantly more likely to turn up than Grade 3s. As the Vanguard must be upgraded over a series of turns, it is likely that the user will draw into a Grade 3 by the turn they need to ride one. Even though Grade 3 units have a high power, most players prefer to use Grade 2s as their main front-row rear-guards as they can be used to intercept and so keep their shield value. Many Grade 3s, therefore, are run at 8 largely for the purpose of consistency and to provide good cards to discard for Strides or Perfect Guards. Some Grade 3 units like Nightmare Doll, Alice are used as dedicated rear-guards for the usefulness of their skills.

Sometimes, even with this consistent Grade ratio, a player is unable to ride. It is at this point that G-Assist is used. Click here to learn how to perform it.

End Game Goal

A good place to start choosing cards for your deck is to work out how you want to win the game, and then build the deck with this in mind. Often, this is by choosing a Grade 3 or 4 ‘boss monster’ to focus on, and then choosing good units to support it. In Dark Irregulars, for example, a player might wish to focus on Abominable One, Gilles de Rais. He has two effects which only activate with either ten or fifteen cards in the Soul, which means that a deck which uses him needs to include many soul-charging effects. As Gilles is a Grade 4, the player will need a Grade 3 to use as their main Vanguard – they might choose Psychic of Storm, Rigil for his ability to soul-charge quickly and for his powerful retirement ability. As Rigil can soul-charge five cards on his own per turn, including Doreen the Thruster in the deck would be sensible, as she can gain 15000 power from his effect alone! From choosing simply one boss monster and selecting cards to help his effect, a deck with powerful synergy can start to be formed. In decks which focus on boss monsters with Limit Break 4, players usually use Limit Break Enablers. Some combinations are more obvious than others, and admittedly some research needs to be done to find the interactions between the cards, but that’s just part of the fun of deck construction!

Choosing Rear Guards

Not all rear-guards have to support the ‘boss monster’ of the deck, and many are useful because they are strong in their own right. In the case of Gilles de Rais, it’s a good idea to make sure that there are enough units which can soul-charge to be able to use his effects, but dedicating too much of the deck to setting up the soul means that the deck will not be able to do anything outside of soul-charging. There are several things to think about when selecting rear-guards, such as their power, costs and effects. Many strong effects use counter-blasts or soul-blasts as their costs, which limits how many times they can be used in a game. As tempting as it can be to use loads of these effects, they do not work when the player runs out of that resource! A balance needs to be found between these sorts of effects and ones which can help to pay for them. Battle Sister, Lemonade can be used to reset counter-blasts, but equally uses a large amount of soul to do so. As such, she converts a resource used relatively rarely by her clan (the Soul) in order to help what is very commonly used (counter-blasts). With certain units that consistently soul-charge, like CEO Amaterasu, her effect might be able to be used multiple times in one game, but her effect will most likely only be able to be used once as it has an expensive cost. However, the advantage that can be gained by being able to use more counter-blasts can be significant. Being able to use Diviner, Kuroikazuchi more times in a game is valuable, and so finding a balance between resetting costs and using them is important. Most players, therefore, will try to use some cards with costs for their effects, some without costs for their effects and some to help pay costs.

It is also important to consider power when constructing a deck. As most Grade 3 vanguards have 11000 power, it is good to make columns that can reach 11000, 16000 or 21000 power. As shield can only be applied in 5000 point blocks, an 11000 power attack against a vanguard is often identical to a 15000 power attack, as they both require 5000 shield to block! As such, the selection of Grade 1 and 2 units is often made to form columns which reach these power thresholds, as it enables them to hit efficiently. Diviner, Kuroikazuchi can be boosted by a 7000 or more booster to force a 10000 shield, and so has both a strong effect and a strong offensive presence. Battle Sister, Lemonade has a great effect too, but a tiny power, and so finds it difficult to create strong columns. She would work well boosting Diviner, Shinatsuhiko (who can gain 3000 power when attacking a vanguard, becoming 12000 on her own), as she grants just enough power to reach the next stage. Many players like to run similar 12000 attackers as they can hit a vanguard un-boosted – these cards also usually do not use any resources, and so can be included in most decks without problem.

Sentinels

Some cards have the Continuous ability Sentinel, which means that only four cards in total may have that ability in the deck, even if the units have different names. Newer Sentinels may be easily recognised by their golden shield crest, although the first Sentinels merely had a shield with a value of ‘0’. There are currently two main types of Sentinel units, Perfect Guards and Quintet Walls.

Perfect Guards are the most commonly used form of Sentinel, and for good reason. At the cost of discarding a card, they can make a unit entirely immune to an attack, allowing even the strongest attacks to be blocked with two cards. Some Perfect Guards can only be used to defend attacks made against the Vanguard, while others may block any unit. The Vanguard-only Sentinels almost always have the ability to turn damage face up provided another copy of them is in the Drop Zone, allowing that user to use more abilities in the future. The other Perfect Guards are significantly more flexible, being able to guard rear-guards and be used when called from the deck (rather than just from the hand), but do not un-flip damage. As such, they are often considered to be superior in decks which value their rear-guards highly, and also are considered to be better against units such as Dragonic Overlord, the End.

Quintet Walls are substantially different. The user does not need to discard a card, but equally their shield is less strong. At the cost of a counter-blast, they call the top five cards of the deck to the guardian circle to guard. As such, depending on luck, they can be anywhere between a 0 to 50000 shield, but most commonly act as a 25000 shield. Quintet Walls are usually used in decks which expect to have a low hand size or in Legion decks, as they can single-handedly set up the Drop Zone to Legion. Some cards, such as Apple Witch, Cider, can be used with Quintet Walls to make them more efficient, in this case by placing all the cards called into the Soul instead of the Drop Zone.

Almost all competitive decks use four Sentinels, as they are extremely useful cards. They allow even the most powerful attacks to be easily blocked, and can make the difference between winning and losing.

Trigger Line-up

The choice of triggers is often best left until the rest of the deck has been planned, as they should be chosen to compliment its strengths. Decks usually contain all four heal triggers, as healing is a valuable resource, so the decision usually comes down to how to allocate the remaining twelve. Many decks work best with eight to twelve critical triggers, which means that even one attack hitting can be devastating to the opponent. Critical triggers work well in decks with otherwise weak rear-guards, as, even though only a few attacks will hit, they will be powerful when they do. They can also punish the opponent heavily for not guarding attacks from the vanguard, as Stride units can potentially deal four damage in a single attack, even without their effects. Stand triggers, by contrast, work best in decks with powerful rear-guards and ones which expect to have a large field presence. The idea behind stand triggers is to force the opponent to use more cards to guard attacks, and a great example of their optimal use is in Murakumo’s Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue “Яeverse”. He can easily produce a pair of rear guards with 31000 power, and stand triggers mean that the opponent might well need to block five attacks at that power! Clearly, this can be a devastating combination, and forces the opponent to take substantial damage or else use their whole hand and field to guard. Draw triggers are used to add consistency to decks, especially those which rely on multiple copies of certain cards, rely on having a greater hand size than the opponent, or use many discarding and retiring effects. As draw triggers only have 5000 shield, they are not inherently defensive cards unless combined with Perfect Guards. Draw triggers are often seen used at four copies, allowing the focus to be on critical or stand triggers. If you’re unsure about what line-up to use, the ‘Rainbow’ set of four of each kind of trigger is often a good starting point, allowing the user to test which ones are better than others in actual gameplay, and to change their deck accordingly.

Starting Vanguard

Most starting vanguards that are used have the ability ‘Forerunner’, which allows them to be called to a rear-guard circle when they are ridden. Forerunners often have an ability which is activated by putting them into the Soul, which allows them to be later used for soul-blasting. Several starters, however, are designed to stay in the Soul when ridden. This is often as part of something called a ‘ride chain’, where the player attempts to ride specific units in succession for powerful bonuses. An example of this is Godhawk, Ichibyoshi, which is used to set up the Tsukuyomi series. If you are using a ride chain, then your starting vanguard is pretty much determined for you! For other decks, the choice of Forerunner is largely based on what effects you value more highly, and should be tailored to suit your playstyle.

Conclusion

Most decks, therefore, have a lot of flexibility in which cards can be run. Using four Sentinels and a good variety of triggers is a must, but everything else can be tailored to suit your end-game goal. The choice of cards for the G-Zone should be made to complement the main deck, although, as you can Stride whichever unit you like, it is much more viable to include situational cards. The main deck requires a little more balance between effects, and spending the time to make sure that the deck has balanced costs, decent columns and reliable combos is well worth the time.

G-Assist

When a player is unable to ride to a higher Grade and have not yet reached Grade 3, they may perform a G-Assist. The player reveals their hand, then searches the top five cards of their deck for the Grade they need. If they find one, then they remove two cards from their hand and two cards from their G-Deck from the game, then can continue to their Ride step as usual. The cards removed from the hand and G-Deck are not considered to have been discarded or Bound, so, even though the cards removed from the G-Deck are removed face-up, they do not count for the purposes of Generation Break abilities. Further, if the player attempts to G-Assist with only one card in hand, then they will need to remove the card they added to pay the cost. A player who foresees being unable to ride should therefore keep a hand size of at least one to be able to G-Assist usefully. If no card is added to the hand by G-Assist, the cost is not paid.

Previous Rules

Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vanguard.