Vanguard 101 Part 2: Power Columns and You

Vanguard 101 Part 2: Power Columns and You

  Wednesday, December 18, 2013    byak

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Welcome to our second edition of Vanguard 101. Last time in Vanguard 101 we went over the basics of deck building and concluded on what kinds of cards are good and what kinds of cards are not good. Today, we're going to actually step into the fray and go over one of the mechanics that more people are familiar with: setting up your columns.

...It really seems like a simple thing, doesn't it? After all, in the end it all boils down to placing cards onto the field. However, there are people who are still not familiar with the concept and today we're going to make sure that by the end of this article, everyone knows how to set up columns properly.

To start, we need to properly define what a column is. A column is simply a front row vanguard or rear-guard, accompanied by a rear-guard behind it to boost. Say your vanguard was Dragonic Overlord and Lizard Soldier, Conroe is behind it. That's a column. Let's say you have a rear-guard Swordsman of the Exploding Flames, Palamedes with a Little Sage, Marron behind it. That's a column. We're all familiar by columns at this point. But newer players might not understand the magic behind them. Allow me to explain in a theoretical situation.

Their vanguard is Eradicator, Vowing Sword Dragon with 11000 power, and your vanguard is Solitary Liberator, Gancelot, with 11000 power as well. You have Liberator of the Flute, Escrad and Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred in your front row. You have no rear-guards in your back row, but your hand contains Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth, Armed Liberator, Gwydion, and Little Liberator, Marron. Where do you place all of your rear-guards?

If your answer was Marron behind Escrad, Gareth behind Gancelot, and Gwydion behind Alfred, then you're correct. When dealing with the average 11000 vanguard, the columns that you make only have to reach thresholds of 16000 or 21000 to force out more guard. Marron with Escrad makes 16000, Alfred with Gwydion makes 16000, and Gancelot with Gareth makes 21000 (Remember, Gancelot's second skill gives him an additional +2000 power when he attacks a vanguard!).

The idea behind this is that shields come in levels of 5000, 10000, or 0 (Sentinels!). So if you're attacking an 11000 vanguard with a 16000 column, it'll demand the same 10000 shield that a 17000 or 18000 column would. This causes you to rethink your placements: why place this card here when I could place it behind another card to help it reach that 16000 threshold? This would be something like putting Gwydion behind Escrad and Marron behind Alfred, why do that when I could switch the two and make my other column relevant?

However, what if we were up against a Cross Ride unit? Let's say your field and hand were the same as the first scenario, although this time, your opponent's vanguard is Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse" with the original Vowing Sword Dragon in the soul giving it its 13000 defense. What do you do then?

Considering only the 13000 defense and nothing else, the answer in this case would be to put Marron behind Escrad, Gwydion behind Gancelot, and Gareth behind Alfred. While Marron creates a 16000 column with Escrad, which is below the 18000 threshold, Gancelot and Alfred hit for 18000 and 19000 respectively, and this gives you two proper columns for the current game state. You could argue that putting Marron and Gareth could be interchanged, resulting in a 17000 and 18000 column, but Marron is better to put behind Escrad because it has a higher chance of leaving the field, seeing as it's a pressure unit and it can intercept, whereas Alfred is simply an 11000 unit as a rear-guard. Marron carries value as an attacker, so we want it behind the more disposable unit.

One big thing to remember when creating columns is not to build them for the moment, but build them for what's to come. Just because they're sitting on a 9000 grade 2 or even a 10000 grade 3 doesn't mean you build your columns for those units. You need to be aware of what the deck can potentially be in the deck, considering factors such as prior knowledge or common knowledge areas (drop zone, damage zone, etc). A good example of this would be Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha. Sure, they're sitting on that 10000 base for a turn or two, but soon that'll most likely be Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daiyusha and add an additional 3000 power to your defense, shutting down any game plans you had for the original Daiyusha.

Though, it is true that some decks have the ability to control their own field and interchange their rear-guards easily. This makes them very viable in setting up strong and effective early columns. Consider a deck like Granblue. They have units like Samurai Spirit and Deadly Spirit who can retire a unit on the field to bring them back from the drop zone. You don't necessarily gain card advantage from them, but they allow you to freely arrange your field, which is something not every vanguard deck can do.

Decks like Granblue have the ability to build columns that are only effective in the early game, such as a combination of grade 1's, and then trade the poor columns for better late game columns. That grade 1 you put in the front can transition to a Deadly Spirit in its place, or it can become a Deadly Nightmare or Samurai Spirit on the other side of your field. Knowing what your deck can do is also very helpful for constructing your fields.

That's basically the gist of columns. Just remember to consider what you're playing and what you're playing against so you can place your rear-guards correctly. These sorts of power levels also dictate deck building, as I went over in the first article. Power attackers scale with the relevance of 13000 vanguards, which is quite common in the Japanese meta game, considering there are powerhouses such as the new Cross Break Ride units in Booster Set 14, along with the previous Cross Rides such as Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Reverse" and such. It's becoming increasingly likely that you'll be playing vs Cross Ride decks, so it's extremely important that you make sure you're prepared for them. Though... For the English meta game right now, things are a bit different. The potential Cross Ride powerhouses such as Dragonic Overlord the End and Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel synergize more with their clan's Break Ride units than their original forms, making it more rare to come across stronger defenses. That's not to say you shouldn't play power attackers right now, it's just they're not as high a priority.

The bottom line is, when you see 11000, remember 16000, 21000, and so on. When you see 13000, remember 18000, 23000, and so on. The multiples of 5000 are extremely important, because when you think about them carefully, you can end up forcing additional guard from your opponent to keep them safe. Hopefully you can apply these mechanics to your future cardfights and stay tuned for next time!

Got a question? Leave it in the comments section below and we'll get to it as soon as we can!