Seizer

Just your average stoicheia player.

[Bear🧸 @miraklism]

ヴァンガード DZ-BT15 デッキタイプ 🎶

[squaggy @squaggycfvg]

tier list for dz-bt15 and specifically for singapore's wgp season 2 and also a needlessly lengthy disclaimer about the function of a tier list like this beyond the fact its very fun

metrics used are representation (how many ppl bring) and conversion (% of top relative to former)

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

@Labelauboisdodo @drahac_ @Nairodrix Thanks for the insight champ!

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

@GurguitSan Thoughts on the list? Is there a reason to not run eff heals? Are eff draws in the deck good or is three fronts the way to go?

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

@MarcoDayao76470 They look great 👀

[DifferentFight @DifferentFight]

Actually you know what, I think I'm fine with this one being a regional exclusive

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

I just realized that the BSF here in the philippines is like 3 weeks from now.

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

I said "unique" but obviously I have a bias for Stoicheia units LMAO

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

There were some vanguards that I want to put in multiple categories but decided not to in order to have a bit of touch to it. Tried to be as unique as possible with the list.

11 Stoicheia
4 Dark States
3 Keter Sanctuary
3 Lyrical Monasterio
2 Dragon Empire
2 Brandt Gate

[Katherine Tsukimei @KathyTsukimei]

Vods are up for Finals!

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

MY BABY GURL CAN FINALLY COME BACK

[Katherine Tsukimei @KathyTsukimei]

Claudine support for today's COTD!
---
Forest Hunter, Suflinze
Stoicheia - <Elf>
"Running through the trees, while driving out poachers."

[CONT]:If you have a vanguard with "Claudine" in its card name, this card gets all of the following.
- [AUTO][RC]:When this unit attacks, this unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of battle. At the end of that battle, COST [Counter Blast (1)], retire this unit, and call a plant token to the (RC) this unit was on.
- [ACT][Drop]:COST [Bind this card], and call a plant token to (RC).
---
A Multitude of Colorful Flowers Dance in Full Bloom
Stoicheia - <Normal Order>
"While picking flowers and placing them in a flower basket, I imbue them with my wishes for the recipient."

Choose a grade 3 with "Claudine" in its card name from your ride deck, and you may reveal it. If either you revealed or you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Claudine" in its card name, perform 1 of the following.
- Choose either a <Dryad> or a <Bioroid> from your drop with grade less than or equal to your vanguard, and call it to (RC).
- If you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Claudine" in its card name, and you did not normal ride or persona ride this turn, activate persona ride.
---
Vernal Twig Dragon
Stoicheia - <Forest Dragon>
"They dance gracefully, cherishing the sounds of spring."

[AUTO]:When this card is discarded from your hand during your ride phase, choose a grade 3 with "Claudine" in its card name from your ride deck, and you may reveal it. If either you revealed or you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Claudine" in its card name, look at the top 5 cards of your deck, choose up to 1 normal order without [Regalis Piece] from among them, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
[CONT][GC]:If you have a plant token on your (RC), this unit gets [Shield]+5000.

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

It hasn't even arrived in our country yet 😭

[OuterOrange 🍊 @Outer_Orange]

I am in a weird spot with Lianorn rn - how do people feel about the promo, worth it or naw?

The first place worlds list didn’t play with the order in mind 🤔

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

CBD IN STANDARD????

[Katherine Tsukimei @KathyTsukimei]

Sorry for going out of order but I think some of y'all definitely want to see this
---
Chaos Breaker Dragon makes an appearance as an encounter in DZ-BT15 - Strike of Illusionary Shadows

[Nicholas Jacobus @DeusX_23]

I really dislike participating in online vg dramas but i need to say this

Apologies in advance if its worded or reads poorly
articulating a statement from my thoughts in the middle of the night isn’t the best

Thank you in advance as well for reading it

[Torizuki @Densenseino]

GREETINGS FELLOW CROWIND ENJOYERS! I'm finally back with another Crowind build. I know it's been awhile but here's my updated list!

I'll do some explanations so tune in!🫡

#cardfightvanguard #Crowind #グラウワインド

[Kai @WCC @TransGraham]

In tournament settings (including Cardfight!! Vanguard), you generally can’t pressure or manipulate your opponent to concede—judges take that seriously. But you can make polite, sportsmanlike requests or statements that acknowledge the situation when time is called.

Here are some examples of clearly bad / coercive things people might say (the kind that could get you warned or penalised) in a Malaysian context, so you know what not to do:

🚫 Blatantly Coercive / Pressuring
“Just concede lah, you already cannot win.”
“Come on, don’t waste time—give me the win.”
“You know you’re losing, just scoop.”
👉 Direct pressure + dismissing opponent = big no.

🚫 Guilt-Tripping
“I need this win to top, can you just concede?”
“If you don’t concede, both of us lose standings.”
“Help me out lah, I really need this.”
👉 Makes it about you and tries to guilt them.

🚫 Social Pressure / Awkwardness
“Everyone knows this game is over already.”
“Don’t drag it out, be fair.”
(Looking around) “You agree right? This is over.”
👉 Pulling in others = very bad sportsmanship.

🚫 False Authority / Misleading
“Judge will say I win anyway, so just concede.”
“This position is technically a win already.”
“By rules I should get this.”
👉 Misrepresenting rules = can get you penalised quickly.

🚫 Passive-Aggressive
“Up to you… but it’s kind of obvious who wins.”
“We can play it out… if you really want to.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t continue from your position.”
👉 Still pressure, just dressed up.

On the flipside, here are some polite, non-coercive, ways to discuss with your opponent:

Polite / Acceptable Malaysian-style phrasing
🤝 Casual & Chill
“Eh time already ah… good game. See how you feel lah.”
“Looks like going to time already… tough one.”
📊 Slightly Analytical but friendly
“From here I got lethal line next turn already… unless something crazy happens lah. You want to continue?”
“I think I got enough resources to finish next turn… up to you how you want to proceed.”

As a bonus, here are some ways to discuss with your opponent using language from LinkedIn:

🤝 Thought Leadership Approach
“As we approach the end of the round, I think we’re both aligned that the current board state strongly favours my position. Happy to proceed, but open to your thoughts on next steps.”

📊 Data-Driven Framing
“Based on the current game metrics, I believe the outcome trajectory is relatively clear. Let me know if you’d prefer to play it out or explore a more efficient resolution.”

🚀 Outcome-Focused Language
“With time now called, I’m confident in the direction this game is heading. Would you be comfortable conceding, or shall we continue execution?”

🤔 Collaborative Tone
“I think we’re reaching a natural conclusion point here. From your perspective, does it make sense to continue, or would you consider conceding?”

📈 Strategic Alignment Energy
“Given where things currently stand, I believe the win condition is effectively secured on my side. Let me know how you’d like to proceed.”

🧠 Executive Summary Style
“High-level summary: lethal next turn, minimal counterplay available. Happy to validate through gameplay, or we can close this out now—your call.”

💼 Peak LinkedIn Influencer Mode
“This game has been a great example of sustained value generation and board presence optimisation. As we hit time, I believe we’re at an inflection point where a concession could accelerate a mutually efficient outcome.”

🔥 Bonus (Extra cringe, maximum engagement)
“Key takeaway here: positioning matters. At this stage, I’ve established a winning line. Open to continuing the process, but equally happy to align on an early conclusion if that adds value.”
End of the day ah — you can explain your position, you can hint the game already decided, but cannot force anything one.

How you say it, how far you push it… all up to you lah.

Win is one thing.
But how people see you after the game… that one also counts.

[Seizer @SeizerZehail]

Brute forcing to learn japanese through english cards and vice versa is wicked. Cool story though.

[Katherine Tsukimei @KathyTsukimei]

Long story that needs some buildup

I moved over to Australia in July 2017 after dropping out of Singapore JC and enrolled in a private school (I SWEAR this is somewhat important to the story)

When moving over, I brought along some of my Math notes from my short time in Singapore JC. I enrolled in as a Year 11 kid. There was a Year 12 guy who was crazy about Math, and got really interested in the notes about Math. So we made friends

At the time, I was into Yu-Gi-Oh. Twas a long time ago, but we had that shared experience and everything. After the year was over, he graduated, and I moved up to Year 12. We kept in touch

It was around June 2018 when that same friend told me about a deal at an LGS in Melbourne, called Nekocards. Get the newest Trial Deck and get a free pack (or was it 2?) of I think G-BT12

That newest Trial Deck was V-TD01. I liked it
I also tried out the other decks coming out in V-BT01. I liked them too

I tried a hand at a bunch, even attended my first ever BCS event in late 2018 (it was also the last one where I attended as a Vanguard player (specifically Vanguard)), playing Zanbaku, getting a 4-4 result at the end. I was quite proud of that

Eventually at some point I believe it was around V-BT04 I tried my hand into content creation. It was fun actually. Quite liked doing it for a bit. But after a while I stopped (I don't keep with things for very long, I'm very lazy)

I think what really got me to start looking at rulings is a card called Lie-down Deletor, Given. Card had a funny cost "put a total of six cards from your hand and rear-guards into your drop zone". Main question floating about. Does putting a rear-guard to drop count as retire. Found the CR citation (7.18.2 btw), and answered it

Around this time I returned to Singapore for a couple years. Judge test came about, I just decided "why not" and went ahead and attempted it. This is where I absolutely locked in on studying. Looked at EVERYTHING, all the keywords, the processes, read the Japanese Q&A through scuffed Google Translate

I passed the online test, and was invited to an interview at BSF 2019 Singapore. I think the proctor for that Judge test was someone I recognized in the most recent Bushiroad conference too, so that's funny. Anyways I passed the interview on the first try and became an official Vanguard judge. Now at the time, the Judge system was VERY different, so I got my Level 1 judge status immediately (nowadays there is Provisional and Level 0 to go through)

I know I stopped content creation, but I kept a Twitter account. Around the start of D Series in 2021 I decided to try my hand at just posting translations on my account. Not making videos because I didn't have any drive to do so, but just simple "type and post". I actually learnt how to translate cards through Vanguard, through brute force. It was looking at Japanese cards, seeing the clauses, seeing the English cards, seeing what those clauses meant. Rinse and repeat a bunch

In like late 2022, I returned to Australia, and (re)connected with the crowd from Nekocards. Got in touch with the events organiser for Australian events, and was invited to judge at BSF Sydney 2023, my first judged event. I actually caught an illegal deck because I spotted Spirited Star, Trois. That was a funny incident. Couple of classic Dominate problems, etc. The usual stuff

And well, here I am now. 5 years of translating seriously, and around 3 years of judging. Very funny stuff really

[Kai @WCC @TransGraham]

I finally have some time to talk about the state of the Standard Vanguard format during Daivangasai (DVGS). You might have already seen some of the results (a lot of Yakuza and Aichicon) and I'm here to explain why. This post will talk about the JP meta at DVGS which is right around the corner for us, and I’ll have another post talking about the event rules, and DVGS as an event for foreign players.

Firstly, let me break down what is considered a top deck in Standard. Standard right now heavily favours going first. Using this as a baseline, your deck has to be able to win consistently going first. This encompasses A LOT of decks, and any deck that cannot do this (sorry Eugene fans) can be considered non competitive. Now you might be thinking, since there's a lot of decks in this tier it's all good right? Wrong. Because this is the absolute minimum requirement for competitiveness in Standard.

The next level up will be a deck that can win consistently going first, and still perform well going second. There are not many decks that can fit this category and this category can be weighted on how consistently these decks can perform going second. At the top end of this spectrum is where decks like Aichicon exist, since even though they suffer going second, their powerlines, comeback potential and finishers keep them as a great choice. You could likely separate this tier into 2, separating the decks that are ok at going second and ones that have better lines going second.

The last and toppest tier would be decks that can go first and second, with an X factor that propels it to be better than the rest. Right now, this is Yakuza. Let me list what it can do:
- Can play going first and second.
- Attacks 5 times. Vanguard is a 2+1 drive restander. This is surprisingly a baseline requirement to be a good deck nowadays.

The following are its X-Factors:
- Can build a board from nothing by simply riding a G3. You can also confirm at least 1 persona ride.
- You don't need to discard for the rideline. Most ridelines give a +1/2, this is essentially a +3.
- Has an inbuilt effect to dig for pieces that it needs.
- Insane defensive power. Has many free 10k shields. Also has cards that can guard from soul (15k shields btw), and then can put those cards back into soul.
- It has Dragveda (the ultimate X factor).

The consistency and durability that this deck has is insane. They literally heavily restricted a deck recently (Vyrgilla) because it was consistent, had great defensive options and could build a board from nothing. Your only semi-bad matchup in the metagame is Zerith, but hey just go first!

Now that we've kind of established why Yakuza is the most picked deck in the format right now, let's talk about why Aichicon was the 2nd most picked deck, especially when many people were talking about how Kaicon was better when both trial decks were revealed.

The reality is Kaicon is better, if you play both decks out of the box. However, once you include the rest of the card pool, Aichicon is superior. Aichi gets Gancelot and Cerrgaon, two insane cards that make your deck more consistent and aggressive. Your going second plays are also better, with the Alfred calls getting a powerbuff. Kaicon gets...Scarlet Flame? A very mid G3 turn when it goes second? It's still a great deck, but have you read Gancelot?

Your Soul Saver finisher pumps out great numbers as well, but then you pair it with Zero and you have a very scary kill turn. Unless your opponent gets multiple heals or triggers to shut down your aggressive turns, the moment you're at 4 damage you're in range of an Aichicon kill turn. The only deck that can consistently live through that is...Yakuza.

With no diversity cut and with half decent prizing on the line, there is no way you're not bringing the 2 best decks in the meta. But why is this format so bad? There’s been a lot of other formats where there are 2 great decks, and 1 third deck that you have to figure out. Why is this time different?

Simply because, the format has way a lot more luck associated with it than before. With the power level of the cards now, there is less player agency because there is just less you can do. There are two major problems.

Rideline discard fodders have reached an all time high. Usually when you ride, you have to discard a card from your hand. However, now there are a lot more cards that can replace themselves when discarded, your early hands and plays can vary between absolute dogwater to insane quality. If you’ve ever played a deck that ran multiple energy cyclers, you’ll understand what I mean. If you were able to discard your energy cycler for your ride discard, you would generally have an amazing early hand. Consequently, when you didn’t draw them, your hand just felt awful. More cards in hand mean more options, which means you have more freedom to commit cards onto the board.

With the introduction of Belligeacro, this has changed drastically. Belligeacro is a Dragon Empire generic that has 3 positive effects and 0 downside. When drawn early, you can begin playing a very aggressive game - especially when going first. Then they introduced Lien and Gojo. When discarded for ride, these also generate bodies on the board. Their draw and discard abilities allow you to filter through the deck, and the discard function allows you to discard Belligeacro, Gojo, and Lien to generate even more bodies on the board. You don’t even need to think if you want to commit bodies onto the board anymore, you just do it because it’s part of the effect (they all have no cost as well).

Are you starting to see why this card design is problematic? Let’s say you’re Good™ at the game. You discard a Lien for ride, then discard another Lien and discard a Gancelot to search a Blaster Blade. Your first turn has placed 2 8k power bodies on the board, searched your deck for a 10k G2. Since you’re playing Aichicon, there’s a Barcgal as well behind your Vanguard. Next turn, by committing the Blaster Blade, you’re at a minimum trilaning going first for 8k, 16k VG and 18k. You can commit another G2 or a Cerrgaon if you wish and you have 3 lanes attacking while hitting over defensive triggers. It’s also why going 2nd is less good. The numbers you create here are stopped by 1 defensive trigger. Because your G2 Vanguard is Blaster Blade, you disincentivise your opponent from committing cards onto the field as well.

Even if you were playing any other Dragon Empire or Keter deck, just drawing any of these cards is already a net positive in your aggressive game plan. The fact that these trilanes are getting easier to build and the counterplay to them is difficult, creates a scenario where players pray they go first, then pray their opponent doesn’t draw good if they don’t go first, and then after these conditions are fulfilled can you finally play the game (but the going first player still has a slight advantage).

There used to be decision making when deciding what to discard for ride. Even the first bottom deck cyclers had a downside where they couldn’t be used in soulblast heavy decks, and were vanilla bodies until persona ride when you didn’t draw them in time. Now, those decisions have been removed because there are objectively best cards to discard (and the current best deck doesn’t even need to discard). And when you draw these cards, it creates a gameplay scenario that also relies on luck to get out of (sacking multiple defensives, triggering heals).

The other main culprit is triggers. Did you know, Vanguard is a game about Vanguards? That’s why I put all my triggers on Vanguard. This used to be a conscious decision one needed to make. If your opponent went for a 2 to pass, and your first twin drive check was a trigger, you had to decide if the risk was worth it to go all in, or put it on the side. The delicate balance in probability and risk management is the crux of Vanguard gameplay. However, current Vanguard design has removed a lot of decision making for you. Lets talk about restanding Vanguards:

- Restanding Vanguards by design, mitigate the risk by allowing a second swing with the additional trigger power. AKA, if your second drive check is a blank, you still get value because you can swing again.
- Decks are compressing quicker so that triggering is more probable.
- Front triggers are played in most decks due to its needed defensive value. Fronts also remove decision making. If you’re not playing fronts, you're behind.
- D R A G V E D A (and other overtriggers).
- They literally print decks that don’t lose any trigger value whatsoever wtf (Deeplands lol)??

The concept of restanding Vanguards was usually balanced by the fact that its rearguards didn’t hit for much. For some reason, they decided to print a deck that has a powerful Vanguard column, powerful side columns, and also does the most attacks. The last time this phenomenon happened, the deck got hit 3 times (Shiranui), and that deck had a terrible G3 play. Deeplands goes first, rides up and does 6 attacks, and your best course of action is praying for a defensive trigger.

Without this making it so focused on Deeplands, we can look at the Kaicon deck instead. Kaicon goes first and opens Gojo or Belligreacro. It suddenly has an early game that you need to respond to, and then on their G3 turn they swing with an 18k restanding Overlord. Their field can easily be a 15k Nehalem, boosted by a Belligreacro which makes a 25k column to your 10k. Even boosted by a Gojo that was discarded earlier on makes it hit over defensive triggers, and that’s before they hit their own triggers. You’re also less inclined to 2 pass Vanguard attacks because of the various fail states that I’ve mentioned (applies to Deeplands as well).

The high level picture here is that you’ve been pressured early game, so you’ve either had to spend cards guarding or be at higher damage count than normal, then respond to a board that isn’t defensively possible without a defensive trigger. What this means is that the best lines of play have already been established for you, and you’re instead watching a trigger simulation instead.

When player agency gets removed, there are less opportunities to show difference in skilled plays and there is more reliance on the luck element. At this stage in Standard, I feel like we’ve lost a lot of player agency. Not just in plays, but also in deck design. There are objectively best cards to play in slot for a large majority of decks. Many decks are created at conception to be automatically built a certain way. Icon decks are majority Icon cards because of requirements, unless the non-icon card is exceptionally good (Gancelot). Collab decks are straight up built in an extremely standardised fashion.

The format honestly needs to tone back the power of going first by a lot. V-premium literally had the same issue and they had to print heal guardians to curb it. But they also need to change the gameplay loop as well. You can print 200 ride lines but if they all play in a similar fashion just with different keywords, the only thing you're accomplishing is keyword bloat. There needs to be smarter, more creative game design that rewards good decision making, rather than creating extreme high roll scenarios that players cannot even play out of.

This post is already extremely long and I’m pretty sure I went on a huge tangent. I’ll post more about the DVGS experience and how to better the event itself in another post.