Two days have passed, and it is still hard to believe that I have the duty to represent Germany in the United Kingdom (Manchester) in several weeks. Nevertheless, here is my split report concerning my deck and the tournament, including some words considering:
- my decklist
- my deck's strategy
- my playstyle and the reason why I had decided to use the deck
- staff team (Bushiroad / Judge Team)
- location
- a crippled reasoning about the metagame (Call it insight if you want to :P)
Let's get started. I am sorry for totally uncool grammatical misplays. My decklist:
Grade 3
- 2 Gigantech Destroyer
- 2 Blond Ezel
- 4 Garmore
Grade 2
- 3 Nemean Lion
- 4 Tripp
- 4 Beaumains
Grade 1
- 4 Gareth
- 4 Mark
- 3 Sleygal Dagger
- 2 SFW
- 1 Charjgal
Grade 0
- Kyrph
- 6-6-4 Trigger lineup
DECK FEATURE
This deck IS the easiest deck to use I've ever created. It is extremely easy to grasp my main strategy by looking at the grade 3 lineup. Unlike other opinions, HELL NO Ezel is my backup strategy, not my main Vanguard or strategy. I will describe a few matters first and conclude this tiny deck feature with the question: Why did I choose Garmore Ezel GP? The well-known combinations of this deck are:
- Garmore Witch
- Gigantech Sleygal / Gareth
- Tripp Sleygal
- Ezel's superior ride
- Garmore Charjgal Overkill 26k attack (Luring out ZG)
- Ezel's LB (Rarely used; last resort)
This is merely a list that I will explain more or less in the following wall of text. Every time I want to create a new deck, I regard the grade 3 units of the clan. I chose Garmore, because he has bossy abilities to superior call everything I need. SFW, Nemean Lion, Charjgal, and even Sleygal Dagger are his main targets. Those four cards are ordered by importance for my performance. Garmore needs a partner, Ezel. Each deck needs a backup strategy. In this special case, Ezel includes the possibility to superior ride. That is the only reason why I had chosen Ezel before the tournament started. Ezel's LB is a waste of CBs if I can get remotely controlled 20k/21k lines Rear Guard Lines easily by using Garmore, his skill and Gigantech Destroyer with Gareth or Sleygal Dagger. I have to admit, this is common knowledge, and not the depth of the deck, either.
Gigantech Destroyer and Holy Mage Manawydan are similar units. My bet was set on Gigantech Destroyer for the same reason why Beaumains is a boss without boosters,too. I had been focusing on a deck that has units that can act independent of booster cards. Gigantech can hit 11k Vanguards alone! My playstyle, and the deck's direction focuses on attacking the Vanguard. Thus, I chose Gigantech over Manawydan.
My grade 2 circus has an even dumber background. Thanks to Garmore's awesome search and deck thinning skill, I need a bunch of CBs. Tripp is the perfect card, especially in the late game. My opponent, let's call him Absol, has four damage points. My Tripp attacks his Vanguard with a gap that is greater than 5k, Our damage points in the DZ are equal or in my favour. He has to guard two more attacks, and is in a pinch. If he does not guard, Tripp ignites his power. On the other hand, I let him choose whether to take a damage and get a possible damage trigger to save his cards. In general, my perfect field is not given. It highly depends on the flow of the cardfight, but I prefer to have a Gigantech Destroyer line with 20k/21k and a G2 line with Tripp or Nemean Lion. Nonetheless, I have to answer another question for some good friends now.
"Tripp is fine, but why did not you use Viviane?"
I love Viviane's superior call skill, but her true potential cannot be unleashed in my control-stuck Garmore Ezel deck. First of all, she devours a CB if the attack hits the Vanguard. Viviane's skill is random and needs decent targets like Lop Ear Shooter, Pellinore, Black Mane Witch or other cards. This resembles the features of a Pellinore or Spectral Duke Dragon deck. The way I use Garmore Ezel GP, she does not have a chance to get a slot in my deck. Tripp does not necessarily need a booster. Vivian does! This argument is hardly valid, but shows another feature of my deck. I used cards that act on their own. The main difference between Viviane and Tripp is its usability and its usefulness. Tripp's power is not limited or restricted to a certain point the cardfight. Viviane's powers are hardly useful in the lategame, and even if I manage to hit the Vanguard during the early game, I would waste one of my precious CBs for a random card I do not even know. Furthermore: My one and only objective is Garmore's ride. I need two available CBs for his skill, and I do not want to waste one of those two damage points for other purposes. Afterwards, Tripp and Sleygal Dagger are CB machines, and deciding stones for my victory. This phase of every cardfight is decisive for my Garmore deck. The first two CBs are reserved even before the fight starts. The next CBs, rather the usage is dependant on the flow again. A second Garmore? Sleygal's skill for pressure? I cannot give you a stalwart / proper answer.
Just a few words in consideration to my grade 1 setup: Maximum defense, draw power and a bonus card. Call him "random". Charjgal is the only card that I was rarely using during the cardfights. His power is useful indeed, but not entirely more effective than a superior called SFW. I need to create momentum by drawing new cards and by increasing the gap to my opponent with size, field control and power / pressure. SFW is my Vanguard Booster against feral 10k opponents. SFW is a possible booster for Gigantech Destroyer against 11k Vanguards, too. Charjgal on the other hand is a bonus item that I use under special circumstances:
a) Both of my witches are no longer in my deck
b) My opponent's hand size is pretty small; overkill / 21k RG line
c) My opponent has an 11k Vanguard and I want to lure out a ZG
My trigger lineup is pretty solid for control-based deck. It is possible to run 8 critical trigger, too, but I prefer this setup (Draw Damage Trigger e.g.). I cannot say which one of them is better, I am a control type fighter with THIS deck. That is all.
"Why did I choose Garmore Ezel GP?"
Thanks to several fights with really good friends during the last two weeks, I was realizing that Garmore is the top deck with RP similiarities. The strongest decks in our young English metagame are Tsukuyomit OTT, GP, RP, GB, KG and SB. Based on this "insight", I was in a pinch whether to use Spectral Garmore GP or a Garmore Ezel GP with an embedded superior ride. I hate GP, because of the mass of autopilot action. On the other hand I had wanted that opportunity to fight the UK. I had to choose a competitive deck that can easily adapt to the Best of One Double Elimination tournament mode.
Spectral's FULL Ride Chain is an obstacle that needs a bunch of experience to overcome. But that is its biggest weakness, too. At least partly. The main goal of a Spectral user is Black Dragon Knight, Vortimer. This unit triggers Spectral's most important boosting skill. 11k Vanguards are a pain in the neck. Spectral Halberd is pretty strong if used correctly. Basically the idea of combining Spectral's amazing finisher quality and Garmore's thinning skill with SFW is mediocre. I had to fight against two Spectral Halberd decks during the qualifier and in the end my ressources vanquished Spectral's obvious late game assault. It was not easy, but those fights matched my test results against Digi (Digidramon) and many other Spectral users I had been fighting before.
Finally I chose Garmore Ezel GP. Its speed, defense, offense, deck thinning qualities and swarming capabilities are even superior to Spectral's FULL Ride Chain(!). This ride chain has the weakness (irony) that you need all of them to trigger a rush onslaught. The time Garmore hits my field, I have a new control option. I am going to use my own Spectral deck with BT07, too. The new cards overlap with Spectral's idea of superior calling a bunch of cards out of nowhere. This is not possible with BT06 and EB03. Not to this extent.
In consideration to Tsukuyomi OTT and the other decks I've just mentioned: I am not a professional Tsukuyomi user, but I have the fighting experience against one of the better OTT fellows around. It is pretty vital to know how to act against OTT in various situations. Silent Tom with 16k is a hindrance, Tsukuyomi's true power is the stack and its draw speed without controlled deck thinning. They do not have any swarming abilities at all. The ability to swarm and draw cards was the basis of my decision in favour for GP, not the brute strength of a Kagero Lawkeeper or Tsuku OTT deck.
D'aww....I've written too much, but I've missed a bunch of points in the crossfire, too. If you have any questions about my playstyle, my deck or anything else, feel free contact me here via PM, with the help of this thread and NOT via facebook. I will ignore you there :P
TOURNAMENT REPORT
I am going to give you a small report of my matches. In the preliminaries I had to fight
- R1: SDD GP
- R2: Goku KG
- R3: SB
- R4: BFD KG (made it into the Top 
- R5: SDD GP (made it into the Top
My first fight of the day was against a nice guy from Belgium. I've seen him somehere before, but I dunno where at all. As well as the others, I was pretty nervous, but focused in my own tunnel / world (Yep, I do not really recognize much of the chats I was having). Black Dragon Whelp, Vortimer and Kyrph opposed each other with a silent moment of awesomeness. Scout of Darkness, Vortimer hit the field after he drew his sixth card. Surprisingly, he ended his turn and I immediately drew my sixth card. He blamed himself for forgetting to call any Rear Guard in order to trigger his Black Dragon Knight's skill next turn. The fight continued, SDD appeared with 11k and his skill. I cannot remember each and every unit anymore, but the late game began. My Vanguard was Giganteach Destroyer, the worst Vanguard I can have. After two or three turns I finally rode Garmore and pulled off my comeback with SFW and Garmore's LB attack. During the next turns I had to face two Spectral Halberds. I guarded the fierce attacks and started the final turn of the game against a limited Spectral field. (R1: 1-0)
Kagero, my former first Vanguard deck I had been using for four weeks. The fight was not lasting very long, because my opponent did not have her grade 3 right on time. She was able to ride Dragon Monk Goku after three or four turns stuck on grade 2. I decided to pressure her with three attacks each turn, dealt damage consecutively while my hand was increasing in size. Sadly this fight was not as awesome as I thought it would be against my old deck. (R2:2-0)
Spike Brothers, an amazingly underrated clan with a huge rush potential at every time during cardfights.His Sky Diver grade 3 ride was unlucky. He did not get his hands on Dudley Emperor, which he uses, I assumed. The mid-game assault was intense and strong, and it was hard to guard my units against the attacks. He used Brakki's and Juggernaut's skill and shuffled them back afterwards. Brakki's skill was useless, since I was able to ignore his attack entirely at four damage. He lost 5k that would have benefitted his defense. The fifth damage point I took deliberately after guarding Juggernaut's critical 2 attack was decisive. He was no longer able to heal on the fifth damage, I rode Garmore for a new Nemean Lion in front of Gareth. My opponent was able to survive my three attacks, but lost his hand size except for one and the new one he drew afterwards. He moved his remanining boosters to the front row and attacked with his Vanguard first. I guarded with Mark, his critical trigger was given to a rear guard. I called a 5k unit to guard the attack that exceeded my Vanguard's power and dealt the final damage next turn. (R3: 3-0)
3-0, way to go. My earlier nervous behaviour completely vanished. The deck has been running smoothly, I did not lucksack or got lucksacked yet. After a little break the new pairings were put on the wooden table, and another obstacle to vanquish appeared: Kagero. Michael Oonk won the dice-roll and started the match after he kept his hand without making use of the Mulligan. Conroe and Kyrph were staring at each other, Conroe left the show and was moved to the Rear Guard circle behind the new Grade 1 Vanguard. My turn was not spectacular. I rode to g1, moved Kyrph and dealt some damage with an early critical (if I remember correctly). I had anticipated his Blazing Flare Dragon superior ride somehow and acted accordingly. I called my grade 2 army, got rid of some rear guards and dealt another point of damage. Despite of his early Twin Drive, I was able to even turf on the field. I had had Garmore in my hand and had no worries calling my units likewise. After my first grade 3 ride, the match was open again. One of his retire skills killed my Sleygal booster and pushed his BFDs over the 10k gap. In the end I rode another Garmore for SFW, drew another card and won after a close fight that had been decided with three early draw triggers (damage / drive check). (R4: 4-0)
Round 5. Another Spectral Deck used by Alexander Riedel. He is a pretty good German cardfighter that took a liking for his Spectral Duke Dragon. This was my hardest fight in the preliminaries, I am glad that I was the winner in the end. His Spectral Duke Dragon had 11k, and the monster was born! I do not have to tell you that Spectral's Halberd is a solid winning pattern in the late game. Luckily he was not able to ride Scout of Darkness. Even though I had to change my game and adapt to Spectral's power. Alex' resorted to Garmore first, nevertheless it had been inevitable to anticipate a SDD during the late game. My playstyle was a defensive one with three lines in order to stop his hand from increasing. I bet the game on the two zero guards I was saving and was wasting my 10k shields as well as superfluous grade 3 units. I was calling my grade 3 to get rid of them after I had intercepted with Nemean Lion and other g2. I tried my best fo guard flawlessly. I checked my drop zone very often. 3/4 heal trigger cards remained in my deck. Having that in mind I took the last attack of different turns on purpose. I had needed a second CB for Garmore anyway. Those heal trigger cards eased the game in terms of attacking, guarding and hand size. On the other hand they enabled him to use heal triggers, too. It was a double-edged sword that went in my favour. The last obstacle was a double trigger check without Spectral's LB. The aforementioned and kept ZGs made the game slowly afterwards.
I drank another Red Bull and sat down in the Top 8 area. I thought: "Two more to go", and was napping on the table for a few minutes.
Top 8: Pale Moon - Horror Show - Timeout Party
I started the fight without a g2, rode my g1 and ended my turn. I took the first damage and revealed Tripp. Regardless of my misride I called another card and attacked twice. I finally got my hands on a g2, Tripp. -SKIP-
My opponent rode his grade 2 and missed his grade 3. In the end the timeout hammer fell down, both of us had five damage points. The match continued for several turns thanks to my five Twin Drive Checks without a trigger and my opponent's double trigger party after he got his hands on Robert. He used the Megablast and prolonged the match even more while guarding easily with 5- and 10k shields. But his biggest mistake was calling a 4k Draw Trigger behind the Vanguard. In the end his 16 trigger cards lay in public zones. Three cards remained in his deck before the Twin Drive. I intercepted with Beaumains, and guarded his 18k Tamer attack with my last cards. He ended his turn. I drew my card, and ended my turn.
Top 4: Spike Brothers- Ramon Elst(!)
Nothing but a disgusting fight. He is a pretty cool guy, but had a misride. He did not draw one of his 15 grade 1 cards. I owe him a rematch, and he will get this one for sure! The tension fell off my shoulders, and I was looking forward to the final cardfight!
Currently, 7-0. But I wanted that title now.
Final: Kagero - Dima!
It was a cardfight like every other one. Ride, Call, attack, Ride again and call. I dunno why, but the fight was pretty one-sided. Both sides had trigger cards. I took the lead right off the bat and attacked multiple times every turn with evolving Rear Guard lines and my Garmore SFW combo.
I am sorry that I do not detailed memories anymore. (R8: 8-0)
Bushiroad's representatives and the hired Judge Team made a flawless job. They were remaining invisible all the time, and that is a good sign for a decent event. The decisions they made did not have any backfire or bad omen. I am looking forward to upcoming events under Bushiroads leadership.
This Vanguard community has yet to increase and unfold more. I've met some cool guys, international people 
Greetings
Christopher "Chibi Gaara" Fernau
P.S.: Gimme the questions, I will give you the answer.