Cardfight Vanguard

Though 40k and Tau will be the focus of my writings here, I figured it would be nice to branch out and touch on or analyze the other games I enjoy. So for all of the Renaissance Men out there that tend to play a few TCGs along with their wargames, I figured I should introduce this game.

Cardfight Vanguard is my new focus in the card game sphere, after alternating between Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! for years.

I've been staring at theory for this game for about a month now, using the online system occasionally to test an idea, and having been playing with the starter decks for about a week with friends. I've been enjoying playing this game quite a bit casually, as it is quite easy to learn and pick up to play, but my main interest in it is how different the underlying mechanics are; the higher level play seems to draw fondly from Chess, in that it is largely about resource management and transitioning through phases of the game, and thus the mechanics differ rather strongly from those of the more mainstream TCGs.

To start, it only has one "type" of card. While Yu-Gi-Oh! has monsters, spells and traps, and Magic: The Gathering has Creatures, Sorceries, Instants, Enchantments, Artifacts as well as variations and permutations of the above, Cardfight only has cards that could be classified as "creatures". Each card has the ability to act as a Vanguard, Rearguard, Guardian, or be turned into "soul" or damage.

In addition, almost everything is an available resource to be used by the players, and certain decks specialize in using one type of resource in ways that allow for huge plays, and require a "look before you leap" ideology in players. For an example, Counterblasting allows a player to activate powerful abilities if they have taken a certain amount of damage. These abilities can really turn games around, gain the player card advantage, and be absolutely devastating if played at the right time. While in other games a clear field might mean to attack, in Cardfight dealing two damage to your opponent early could spell your doom, allowing them to gain huge advantage through combos. Even the starter decks have traps like this available to them, so you must not only predict your opponent's plans but change your game so that they cannot make the most of their cards. This leads to tons of mindgames and meta play that really alters the core gameplay and screws with incentives to attack, defend and commit to the field.

Furthermore, the deckbuilding aspect of this game, along with the way mulligans function allow for a ton of consistency in each deck. Out of your 50 card deck, you pick 1 card to start on the field. You then draw a hand of 5, and can remove any unwanted cards, shuffle them back in, and draw again, similar to a game of Five Card Draw. In addition to this, from about turn 3 on players will be drawing 3 (and with decent luck it could be 4 or 5) cards per turn, resulting in your hand constantly being refreshed throughout the game. With four copies of almost any card that is important, you will be seeing your key players quite often.

Anyways, I highly recommend picking up the starter decks for this for anyone who is interested in TCGs or simply likes tinkering with cool mechanics.