Iphone app - Cardfight Vanguard Cray Wars

I was waiting for the iphone app for Vanguard to come and here it is on the Japan ITunes store.

 

Unfortunately, it isn't the game I hoped it to be (like the 3DS game to be released on the 11th) which lets you play the card game. Instead, it is yet another of the iphone card game genre (like Guardian Cross) that uses the same characters but in no way is the card game itself. 

Here's the title screen with the 2 very recognizable characters.

Here is the boss fight which is a turn based system that you don't make decisions for. Normal monster fights just conclude in a flash.

 

Like the other social games, there is a timer aspect to the game and it uses a die roll to move on the map.

 

Here's a dungeon which is just another part of the game.

I was quite disappointed that the game was not the actual card game but I can only play on to find out how good it actually is compared to the other card game genres.
Having played quite a few, I think that the main points to look at would be:

 

-the ease of getting the highest rarity cards, with and without real money
-the levelling system
-the amount of time needed to restore your playability of the game
-the amount of time you need to play each segment of the game

 

I'll comment again soon.

Ranting cos I can't do anything about it

I'm very annoyed that my round 4 opponent in the CQ league happily claimed his win against me by saying that he'll be online at a time, goes on, doesn't see me and not come back in the next few days that can be used to clock a match. It's one of those "read the fine clauses dumbass" situations so I'm at fault. I don't mind losing in games but not to this kind of sneaky behavior.

I conceded and dropped in the 2nd league when my opp and I couldn't get a match done and my interest has waned greatly in this style of tournament play when it becomes so hard to catch people online.

On my side, I was online at 10+pm-2am, 7am-10am, 6pm-12am, 6.50am only to see that the last login didn't change since sat night which would be sat morning on his side.

I guess people are competitive in some way. If people really want to win like that, I'm not going to bother with this.

Mtg - The faces of Jace

 Hmm... I thought I might as well elaborate on what I was talking about in the previous post.
So here are Jace in his 7 (!!!) forms.

Lorwyn Original , Jace vs Chandra Duel Decks, Manga commemoration ver of the DD, Agents of Artifice promo that you need to get from a US participating Store.

Jace the Mind Sculptor which is the best planeswalker thus far with 4 super good abilities and wins on its own.

The new Jaces, of which the new core set Jace is a brutal win condition and the Ravnica version that isn't too shabby.

 

Jace is hands down my favorite planeswalker (being blue and draws cards). They thought they could make bad versions of Jace but they failed. Yay Jace!

 



GC - The Faces of Azi Dakaha

The Jace (most popular face) in Guardian Cross would definitely be Azi Dakaha.

See the gallery of Azi with the introduction of the pixelized Azi from the April Fool's Event.

It looks so WIERD and yet you can tell what it is.

 



The only 最凶 card (also read as saikyou which is the same as almighty 最強）...

The first X-mas card...

Happy April Fools!
(It's breath has the fragrance of lime mint?)

Legacy - NaoDelver in the $

For awhile, I thought that Wotc didn't like my deck so they didn't put up my decklist from 1 week ago on mtgonline.com (the DE just vanished).

A few days later, I managed to 3-1 again so my Naodelver is finally officially revealed. =)

 

Behold and wrench in its numbers in confusion! Hahahaha!!

I'm not actually running these card counts just to mess with people but I have solid reasoning behind its implementation. I would probably officially do an article on it in the near future on puremtgo.com.

You make the card 4 - Enchantment? Hmm...

Truthfully, as long as the card becomes something viable in my decks, I wouldn't mind the subtype of the card.

Originally, I hoped for a land so that somehow a rainbow shockland came be created, description as below:

(Rainbow Shockland)
Land - Plains Island Swamp Mountain Forest
As (Rainbow Shockland) enters the battlefield, you may pay 3 (4?) life.
If you don't, (Rainbow Shockland) comes into play tapped.

Basically it's a card that I see myself playing in any format (all actually) because it can support my current 4c deck requirements. The card probably wouldn't be played too heavily given the current mana bases can support existing deck archetypes and the life difference is very significant.

So what about enchantments?

I have nothing against enchantments actually. In fact, I am very comfortable with them.
The problem is that getting a good enchantment out of the hands of all the people who want to make fair cards is not easy, coming mainly from the side of the casting costs.

In eternal formats, a converted mana cost of 2 is probably the most anyone would pay for a generally useful enchantment because 3 mana is a very dangerous spot to do "nothing". Counterbalance costs 2, Pernicious Deed costs 3. Leylines cost 4 but I don't think people would want to cast them at all.

The most recent "good" enchantments are Rest in Peace followed by Blind Obedience (not popular yet), both of which are very much playable for their effects that can be classified as "sideboard material".

Enchantments are good because not many people have cards that interact with them apart from Abrupt Decay or maybe Maelstrom Pulse. Sylvan Library is another strong enchantment that I use every now and then. In legacy, Carpet of Flowers (adds mana = islands opp controls) is also another notable enchantment as with Engineered Plague (to beat spirit tokens).

Coming down to it, what can I hope for in an enchantment?
I want this:
(Disrupting Enchantment) U
Enchantment
Reveal a card from your hand, sacrifice (Disrupting Enchantment): Counter target spell that has converted mana cost equal to the revealed card.

or

(Brainstorm Enchantment) U
Enchantment
Sacrifice (Brainstorm Enchantment): Draw 3 cards and put 2 cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.

(which essentially is a sorcery speed to cast, instant speed to use brainstorm that cannot flip delver not gain flashback via Snapcaster Mage)

Bitterblossom already exists to win games on its own...

Classic?

This week I get paired against delver in the CQ league.
(I'm known in Classic for the deck's build)
Anyway, my opponent scoops game 1 after I develop the board a little (vs his hand filled with lands).
I win game 2 on the back of Time Vault (from Tezzeret)+ Voltaic Key which I play out slowly to keep 2x counter backup which lets me win.

So I'm 2-1 in the league as of now.
I suppose this season's plan of "use some classic kills in my deck" is working.

Then, I notice a guy in the 2 man Classic queue so I load up my "designed to beat classic decks" 4c deck and I end up giving my 2 tix to some weak elves deck (not even the legacy combo kind) because I couldn't really handle 1 bunch of 1/1s.
*pukeblood*

Lesson of the day: I should use Classic kills more often.

Behold my updated Flash list:

Deathrite Shaman is so good in a land-lite deck. It acts as a kill-condition too.
Still, I don't like how Flash-hulk combo rolls over to Grafdigger's cage or Leyline of the Void. Can't seem to think of how to solve that problem.