Formatted by Cayce
Today we have a Cardfighter Spotlight! I will be having the opportunity to interview the Vanquisher player that accomplished Top 8 in the Bushiroad Rumble Online (BRO) 2021 NA for the V Premium format! His name is Nuno and is from Portugal! Let’s get right into the interview!
Jaime: First off, congratulations to Nuno!
Ahmes: It is heartening to see a Vanquisher top in recent times. Congratulations on your win! Today, Jaime and I will be doing an interview with you to learn more about your choices, experience, and even you as a player.
Jaime: Shall we begin, amigo?
Nuno: Of Course! thank you for having me 😃
Jaime: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Are you from any specific Vanguard teams/communities? Any other events that you and/or a team have done well? Etc.
Nuno: I’m from Portugal, and part of a team sponsored by Ventura games (a Portuguese store), I personally have got 3rd place at Worlds 2017 after winning the France autumn fest, and 1st place at Worlds 2019 after getting 3rd place on both Cologne and London regionals.
Jaime: That’s an amazing track record! How did you start playing Cardfight Vanguard?
Nuno: I was very young and still trying to get into competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! when I got invited to my 1st team, after a while the members of that team shifted to Cardfight!! Vanguard and although I was a little bit hesitant I decided to try (this was when the Link Joker deck came out) and I kept playing it since then.
Ahmes: Awesome and my turn. Firstly, that’s a lot of beautiful high-rares you have. Is that what made you decide on Vanquisher for the tourney? Any matchups or meta-knowledge that you had in mind?
Nuno: Ahahah, thank you. I was actually going to enter with a Spectral Duke deck, but sadly the cards I needed didn’t arrive in time and I didn’t have anyone to borrow them from, so I decided to enter with the deck that is in my opinion the second best accel deck in the game right now, and that’s what made me bring Vanquisher to the tournament. I knew Vanquisher was able to defeat some force decks with the inclusion of the book order so my columns don’t get shut down by a defensive trigger (23k vanguard) and can draw 3 cards when I get rushed, thanks to this I was very comfortable for the Luard and Prism matchups.
https://decklog-en.bushiroad.com/view/AXX2
Ahmes: Great, let’s dive into your decklist. I wanna start on the mold of this build. You chose Vanquisher with the book order. How did you settle on wanting to play this variant of Vanquisher as compared to without the order?
Nuno: In my opinion, vanquisher weakness is that it has a weak early game and is also piece reliant, with the book I was able to counter the rush my opponents playing Luard and Prism gave me as well as get 3 new cards to my hand to help me get the combo pieces I needed in order to win.
Ahmes: Vanquisher’s best-known secret is its small pool of competitively viable cards. Your ratios are interesting. Only 2 Voltechshred?
Nuno: Sadly I had no more room, I thought 3 books was the correct ratio since we only want to use it once during the game, and Voltechshred was really good because of the Fullbronto synergy in case I didn’t see a Jaggy Shot in my hand.
Ahmes: Most Vanquisher lists carry a small number of G1s, but you have opted to run the bare minimum of 4 Chain Bolt and 4 Mighty Bolt. Did that pay off well for you? Would you consider the decision risky? What about the lack of a shield? Would you say that was an issue for you?
Nuno: I decided to run the 8 G1 build because I wanted to maximize the number of combo pieces in my deck, the only other g1 that is worth using was Rising Phoenix, I tested it and it came down to using it or the book order, and I decided on the book order because of how good it is vs the force deck meta we are facing right now. I didn’t consider the decision very risky since I don’t think g assisting is that big of a problem when u can get a +1 of Chainbolt, and I also knew this was what I had to do to optimize the aggressive output and consistency of my deck and that’s why I made that choice.
Ahmes: How did you choose between crits or fronts?
Nuno: I think fronts are only a good idea in decks that either need more power to hit over a defensive trigger of decks that have a predictable attack pattern, I think vanquisher is a deck that wants to be able to adapt the attack pattern to the state of the game and because of that I didn’t want to do a suboptimal attack pattern just because I was running front triggers in my deck, for that reason I decided critical triggers was the best option for the deck.
Jaime: Thank you Ahmes. Now, during your games, which decks/clans did you face?
Nuno: I played against Neo Nectar, Tachikaze, Link Joker, Nubatama, Bermuda Triangle, and 2 Shadow Paladin.
Jaime: Was there a game you would like to highlight? Like your toughest matchup, best game, break or deal moments, etc.
Nuno: I would like to highlight the 3 last rounds of the tournament, round 6 I played against the winner of the tournament and I failed the g assist for g1, even then we got to a point in the game where my vanguard was 1 to pass but I didn’t check it, so I lost that round but it was an amazing game to show that just because u get behind in the early game, vanquisher is a really strong deck when u get to the late game. Then I played vs Luard again, and only rode Vanquisher on turn 5 (had to ride Jaggy Shot turn 3 and Fullbronto turn 4) even after that I managed to win on the turn I rode Vanquisher. In the last round where I played vs Prism and won the game despite going 2nd, showing that I prepared well for the matchup.
Jaime: During your games, what is something that you appreciated about your deck from the preparation you’ve done? The strategy of it, consistency, power, plays, etc.
Nuno: I really enjoy the way Vanquisher plays, the way your opponent is almost never able to predict what ur next attack is going to be, and the fact that the deck rewards a player that can do the best attack pattern to maximize the shield in your opponent’s hand. It’s a very fun and rewarding deck to play.
Jaime: How many rounds were in the tournament? How was your record throughout?
Nuno: There were 8 rounds of swiss and I finished 7-1, then I lost in Top 8 to a Messiah player I had beaten in round 5.
Ahmes: After the tournament, did you take some time to reflect? Anything that you learned from your experience?
Nuno: Yes I did, and I am very proud of how far the deck took me and I hope that I did Vanquisher some justice because it is my favorite unit since it came out in G era.
Jaime: Awesome! Would you like to do any shout-outs to people that you know and/or have helped you along your journey?
Nuno: Yes of course! Thank you to the store Ventura Games that helped me get the cards to build this amazing deck, to my girlfriend for helping me playtest and always cheering for me, and to all of the Portuguese community for cheering me as well.
Jaime: That’s all great stuff! I’m sure your friends are happy and excited about your accomplishment! Just one more question and we’ll be done, amigo.
Ahmes: While preparing, did you use/see any social media or online resources to help you solidify your build? Such as blogs, YouTube videos/channels, Facebook, Reddit, etc. If any, what were they?
Nuno: I watch a lot of the videos on the WCC channel to see what other people are playing in Japan and that’s where I got the idea for playing the book order in my vanquisher build 😃
Jaime: Awesome! Thank you for sharing that as well, very much appreciated. Thanks again for joining me in this interview! I wish you the best and hope to see more from you in the metagame!
Nuno: Thank you for having me! It’s a pleasure to be able to talk about my tournament experience with my favorite deck of all time.
Ahmes: Thanks for having me, Commander.
Jaime: Till next time amigos!
Takeaways
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this interview! I just wanted to highlight some takeaways that can help players out!
The Plan B Deck
Nuno mentioned, “I was actually going to enter with a Spectral Duke deck, but sadly the cards I needed didn’t arrive in time and I didn’t have anyone to borrow them from, so I decided to enter with the deck that is in my opinion the second best accel deck in the game right now“.
Physical or remote events do require physical copies of the cards you use to play. Unfortunately, sometimes the cards don’t necessarily arrive in time. It’s moments like these where it’s a good idea to have a backup deck.
Even sometimes you do well or probably have better matchups in hindsight with your Plan B deck. So you can still succeed even with it!
Final Thoughts
Thanks again for reading this Cardfighter Spotlight article! It’s great to see an awesome Cardfighter like Nuno achieving Top 8! Thanks again to Nuno for joining us today as well! Till next time amigos!
Nuno’s Social Media:
Cayce’s Social Media:
Ahme’s Social Media:
Commander Jaime’s Social Media: