Chabashira-sensei: Welcome to my extra lesson on the analysis of other character's Vanguard decks. I'm Chabashira Shizuka, your class teacher, and it's a pleasure to meet you. I'll be presenting the decks used in this volume, and give my commentary on them. Deck statistics are also included, graded from E- to A+. An explanation for each category is provided below.

Consistency: Refers to drawing, searching, deck thinning, etc. Anything to increase getting into your win condition more often.
Power: Refers to power, critical, number of attacks, etc. Anything to attack the opponent with an increased edge in battle.
Recovery: Refers to resource management, recycling cards, levelling the playing field after falling behind, etc. Anything to close the gap between you and your opponent if you are losing.
Protection: Refers to shield, retiring, binding, etc. Anything to protect yourself from your opponent through various means of disruption.
Versatility: Refers to the various lines of play the deck can make, what different strategies it can utilise, how it deals in niche situations, etc. Anything that the deck can do in any number of given situations, and how well it can adapt to it.

※ The codes next to the deck name refer to the set they come from. V-CD stands for V Character Deck. V-LD stands for V Legend Deck. V-BD stands for V Booster Set (i.e built from the set).

V-BD07: The STEAM ENGINE "Yukimura Fudou"
Imaginary Gift: Force I

Grade 0
1x Primordial Dracokid (Starter)
4x Steam Bomber, Digul (Critical)
4x Ring Ring Worker (Critical)
4x Roly-poly Worker (Draw)
4x Steam Doctor, Mar-tash (Heal)

Grade 1
4x Steam Fighter, Memenne
4x Steam Scara, Kalain
4x Quicky Quicky Worker

Chabashira-sensei: Yukimura-san doesn't use any sentinels, which weakens his defence by a wide margin. Even a basic grade 1 perfect guard would be preferable over no sentinels, as nullifying attacks can stop powerful attacks with only two cards.

Grade 2
4x Steam Fighter, Ahne
4x Steam Hunter, Lippitt
4x Missing-clamp Dragon
4x Gun-bezel Dragon

Chabashira-sensei: The main focus of Yukimura-san's deck is to get Ahne's re-ride ability off, which is why he uses 4 of each core piece, Ahne, Memenne and Zerix, his avatar. Ahne offers both the superior ride and sniping of rear-guards, while Memenne spreads power and filters the hand.

Grade 3
4x Steam Expert, Zerix (Avatar)
1x Escrude Dragon

Chabashira-sensei: His avatar, Zerix, doesn't have a Force gift, which means he cannot use Ahne's skill to amass multiple gifts in a turn, which is a popular strategy for many decks. Rather, his skill gives Zerix a pseudo-Force marker until end of turn, which is a lot less valuable. Escrude Dragon was a gift he received from Mitsuba-san as his deck was lacking a card, and is ironically the better grade 3 target to ride due to having a Force gift and skill to spin a rear-guard and draw a card. However, at only one copy, it's unlikely to be drawn before the grade 3 ride.

Consistency: E
Power: E+
Recovery: E-
Protection: E-
Versatility: E-
(8)

Chabashira-sensei: Yukimura-san's novice and disinterest for the game really shows in his deck build. All the cards, except Escrude Dragon, are common, which indicates the quality of the cards are bad. While the focus of the deck is around powering his vanguard, the cards that are included have poor synergy. The gimmicky re-riding has little benefits, and most of his cards barely function together. A large overhaul is necessary for this deck.

V-BD08: PRIDE of the Dancing Lion "Kawaguchi Masaru"
Imaginary Gift: Accel II

Grade 0
1x Crimson Lion Cub, Kyrph (Starter)
3x Flame of Victory (Critical)
3x Knight of Blue Skies, Shanak (Critical)
2x Knight of Forceful Fight, Nalnes (Front)
4x Elixir Sommelier (Heal)

Chabashira-sensei: Similar to Takanori-san's deck, Kawaguchi-san opts for a 6-2 split between his critical and front triggers. This keeps the opponent mindful about their guarding as the possibility of a front trigger still exists, which can create troublesome numbers to guard against if the opponent isn't prepared.

Grade 1
4x Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
4x Crimson Lion Beast, Howell
4x Listener of Truth, Dindrane

Chabashira-sensei: Dindrane is important as she's the only source of countercharge in a very counterblast heavy deck. Gareth's +10k Power is helpful in hitting over triggers. Howell can create more attacks, which is Kawaguchi-san's main play style. He wants to continuously swing at the opponent with successive attacks, even if it costs him all his defence.

Grade 2
4x Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
4x Flame Wind Lion, Wonder Ezel

Chabashira-sensei: Consistency wise, having only eight grade 2s isn't good, but through mulligan and hard drawing, it's very likely you can find one to ride. Since Beaumains and Wonder Ezel exist purely to active the superior ride effect, Kawaguchi-san can afford to sacrifice the extra grade 2 slots for more utility units, such as Dindrane and Sagramore.

Grade 3
4x Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel (Avatar)
4x Raven-haired Ezel (Avatar Next)
2x Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel (True Stage)
3x Battlefield Storm, Sagramore

Chabashira-sensei: This maybe an excessive amount of grade 3s, but being able to double superior ride (or even triple superior ride if you're extremely lucky) when your opponent is on grade 1 is very powerful, as you can amass many Accel II gifts, which also give you a card to draw, get Twin Drive, and sit on a 12k base earlier. Going from Blond Ezel into Raven-haired Ezel gives you an extremely strong grade 3 turn, and on the next turn, you can ride into Platina Ezel to manipulate your triggers and gain more attacks. Sagramore helps fill out the field and can create more attacks if you call it mid-battle. Overall, the grade 3s are easily the strongest aspect of Kawaguchi-san's deck.

Consistency: B+
Power: A
Recovery: D-
Protection: E-
Versatility: D-
(35)

Chabashira-sensei: Kawaguchi-san's deck has a clear win condition, which is very important to consider while building any deck. The only problem with this deck is that it's extremely glass cannon, meaning it has a lot of power at the cost of being very fragile. As it puts everything into attacks, and nothing into defence, you can easily get knocked back by your opponent and have a hard time recovering on the next turn. It's a reckless play-style that, for better or worse, suits Kawaguchi-san's headfirst personality.

V-BD09: Spring of Dreams "Yogen Emica"
Imaginary Gift: Force I

Grade 0
1x Spring-Heralding Maiden, Ozu (Starter)
4x Flower Garden Maiden, Mylis (Critical/Sentinel)
4x Chestnut Bullet (Critical)
4x Night Queen Musketeer, Daniel (Critical)
4x Watering Elf (Heal)

Chabashira-sensei: Thanks to the new sentinel critical triggers, which have 30k shield, aggressive decks can now safely run twelve critical without sacrificing defence. As the main focus of Ahsha is the "Ahsha's Flower Fairy" tokens, you can easily increase their lethality by placing all critical triggers on vanguard, and have the tokens increase to the same power and critical as the vanguard.

Grade 1
4x Maiden of Sweet Berry
4x Budding Maiden, Diane
3x Valkyrie of Reclamation, Padmini

Chabashira-sensei: Maiden of Sweet Berry can pay for the cost of summoning a Ahsha's Flower Fairy token by herself, which makes her very efficient.

Grade 2
4x Blossoming Maiden, Cela
4x Osmanthus Maiden, Anelma
4x Arboros Dragon, Timber

Chabashira-sensei: Yogen-san's entire grade 2 line-up can call multiple Plant tokens, which make for good retire fodder or flooding the board with simple attackers. Riding Timber can even give you a strengthened Plant token, which have intercept and 10k power and shield.

Grade 3
4x Dream-spinning Ranunculus, Ahsha (Avatar)
4x Cornflower Flower Maiden, Ines
2x Ranunculus Flower Maiden, Ahsha

Chabashira-sensei: Between the two Ahsha forms, Dream-spinning Ranunculus is the better ride target, as she calls Flower Fairy tokens for cheaper, and can gain inherent power and critical, which the tokens can copy. If you ride Ranunculus Flower Maiden, it isn't the end of the world, as since she can also summon Flower Fairy tokens. However, she's generally better as a rear-guard due to the ability to call normal Plant tokens and has the "Ahsha" name.

Consistency: A
Power: A+
Recovery: B
Protection: D
Versatility: E
(47)

Chabashira-sensei: While Yogen-san primarily uses Force I with this deck, either Force I or Force II work very well with Ahsha. The game-plan of the deck is simple, call two Ahsha's Flower Fairy token to the front row, stack markers and buffs onto the Ahsha vanguard, and have the tokens copy it so the opponent has to deal with three high-powered and lethal attacks. A simple but effective strategy, but lacking a 4th attack limits the deck from being better.

V-BD10: Celestial Onslaught "Kai Rikuto"
Imaginary Gift: Protect II

Grade 0
1x First Aid Celestial, Peniel (Starter)
4x Hot Shot Celestial, Samyaza (Critical)
4x Critical Hit Angel (Critical)
4x Battle Cupid, Nociel (Draw/Sentinel)
4x Sunny Smile Angel (Heal)

Grade 1
4x Underlay Celestial, Hesediel
4x Sectio Angel
2x Bandage Dresser

Chabashira-sensei: As Kai-san uses Protect II, cards like Sectio Angel synergises with it well. For Sectio Angel, she gains intercept, which becomes another added layer of defence. Combined with Protect II's intercept boost, she becomes a free 20k shield. Hesediel lets you tutor cards you need and helps puts Zerachiel into the damage zone, which makes her a valuable tool-boxing unit.

Grade 2
4x Amputation Angel
4x Hygienist Angel
3x Sanitize Raiser
1x Care Mine Nurse

Chabashira-sensei: Another card that benefits from Protect II is Amputation Angel, who becomes a 29k while on the marker and gains sentinel block when you have three markers. As the avatar of this deck is Zerachiel, re-riding multiple times for more Protect markers is extremely easy. Hygienist Angel gains constant power for each card in your damage zone, including your opponent's turn, making her strong in both offence and defence.

Grade 3
4x Solidify Celestial, Zerachiel (Avatar)
4x Preside Chief, Jomjael
3x Mend Scraper, Tomael

Chabashira-sensei: Zerachiel makes gaining Protect II markers in this deck very easy as she can re-ride multiple times from damage zone. She also spreads +3k to the front row on both vanguard and rear-guard, adding even more power to your columns. As Kai-san uses Amputation Angel and Sectio Angel, she uses Jomjael to search them out, giving her extra card advantage and thinning the deck. Tomael is another useful utility unit, being able to call cards from damage zone, and give grade 3's "Boost".

Consistency: B-
Power: A-
Recovery: D
Protection: C-
Versatility: E-
(36)

Chabashira-sensei: By gathering damage and using it as a tool box, this deck can quickly gain lots of advantage and power with cards like Zerachiel, Amputation Angel and Hygienist Angel. While Protect II is a weak gift, by using support that can use it to her advantage, Kai-san turns it into a strength. However, being a more aggressive variant, it loses the tanking capabilities Angel Feather is known to have.

V-LD02: MIGHT IS RIGHT "Demiza Taiga"
Imaginary Gift: Force II

Grade 0
1x Fullbau (Starter)
4x Darkside Trumpeter (Critical)
4x Death Feather Eagle (Critical)
4x Grim Revenger (Critical)
4x Abyss Healer (Heal)

Chabashira-sensei: Demiza-san plays twelve critical in order to capitalise on Claret Sword Dragon's lethal re-stand.

Grade 1
4x Cherishing Knight, Branwen
4x Blue Espada Dragon
4x Skull Witch, Nemain
4x Witch of Extirpation, Bheara (Sentinel)
2x Black Sage, Charon

Chabashira-sensei: To compensate for the lack of draw sentinels, she uses the grade 1 filtering sentinel instead. Branwen and Blue Espada's ability to search Claret is very important to the deck, as Demiza-san only runs four grade 3s.

Grade 2
4x Morion Spear Dragon
4x Darkpride Dragon
3x Darkness Maiden, Macha

Chabashira-sensei: Likewise, Morion Spear Dragon and Darkpride Dragon assist in getting the seven cards in drop zone necessary to bind for Claret's cost. Macha combos with Charon to give the deck more ways of filling board while keeping hand, giving it an even stronger grade 2 turn.

Grade 3
4x Claret Sword Dragon (Avatar)

Chabashira-sensei: Claret Sword Dragon is this deck's haymaker. A very strong vanguard that re-stands for little effort due to the synergy it has with the deck, this card can finish games on the turn you ride him.

Consistency: A
Power: A+
Recovery: D
Protection: D
Versatility: A
(53)

Chabashira-sensei: This deck's main weakness is after the initial explosive grade 3 turn, it exponentially decreases into a slow deck with lots of exploitable weaknesses. It's one of the few decks that can safely go second, as Claret's full power isn't restricted to turn 4. This deck's early game, rear-guard quality, and finishing power is very strong, so do not underestimate the might of Claret.

Taiga: MIGHT IS RIGHT, MY DAD RAISED ME THE 12 CRIT WAY!

V-BD11: Parallel Wonderland "Kasai Touma"
Imaginary Gift: Accel II

Grade 0
1x Silver Thorn Assistant, Ionela (Starter)
4x Hades Hypnotist (Draw/Sentinel)
4x Rainbow Magician (Draw)
4x Silver Thorn Beast Tamer, Serge (Front)
4x Candy Clown (Heal)

Chabashira-sensei: The "Silver Thorn" name helps to be another possible target for Irina's skill in a dire situation.

Grade 1
4x Nightmare Doll, Beverly
4x Purple Trapezist
3x Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina

Chabashira-sensei: By placing Beverly behind vanguard, each time you activate Carroll's skill, the unit that's ridden gets +5k for free. Purple Trapezist is very good at creating more opportunities for attack mid-battle, while Irina is a good ride target due to her soul filtering skill.

Grade 2
4x Jumping Jill
3x Nightmare Doll, Elin
3x Amaranth Beast Tamer

Chabashira-sensei: Jumping Jill is a Workeroid, which is a key race in this deck, and can bring out new units for more attacks or extend combo chains. Alice's on ride skill let's you call a Workeroid for free, meaning you can call Jill and use her skill to call a card from soul, like Trapezist, for example. Then, an Amaranth on rear-guard could attack, suck up the Trapezist, and then active it's skill to call another card from soul to give another attack.

Grade 3
4x Nightmare Doll, Carroll (Avatar)
4x Nightmare Doll, Alice (True Stage)
4x Comicality Chimera

Chabashira-sensei: The twelve grade 3s is a bit hefty, but each card is very important to the deck. Carroll is a card you want to ride, as her skill lets you ride any Workeroid from soul when a grade 3 rear-guard is put into your soul, which combos extremely well with Alice's own skill, where she goes into soul to call another non-grade 3 card from soul. Comicality Chimera's countercharge is the only source of resource recovery in a counterblast heavy deck, which makes him integral to the combo plays this deck can make. As Carroll's skill isn't a hard once per turn, you can theoretically re-stand the vanguard via re-riding up to a total of three times in a turn.

Consistency: C+
Power: A
Recovery: E+
Protection: E-
Versatility: A+
(42)

Chabashira-sensei: This deck is incredibly combo heavy, which makes it easy to mess up, but at the same time, it has many avenues of play, so even if you make a mistake, it's very likely you can get back on track. The deck can easily overwhelm and pressure the opponent with the sheer number of attacks it can pull off. However, just like Kawaguchi-san's deck, Kasai-san's Nightmare Dolls are a glass cannon and can easily fall apart if your opponent gets a damage trigger.

V-CD04: The Eradicating Deity "Matsushita Isogai"
Imaginary Gift: Accel II

Grade 0
1x Spark Kid Dragoon (Starter)
4x Yellow Gem Carbuncle (Critical)
2x Malevolent Djinn (Critical)
4x Wyvern Guard, Guld (Draw/Sentinel)
2x Old Dragon Mage (Draw)
4x Worm Toxin Eradicator, Seiobo (Heal)

Grade 1
4x Demolition Dragon
3x Desert Gunner, Gaiban
3x Bolt Capture Dragon
2x Djinn of Hundred Thunderclaps
1x Mighty Bolt Dragoon

Chabashira-sensei: The grade 1 line-up is cluttered with a lot of units. It'd be best to focus on two or three main units, as Narukami doesn't tutor cards very easily. Generally, all these units gain or give power in some way to support the front line.

Grade 2
4x Bolt Pike Dragon
4x Recklessness Dragon
4x Turning Bash Dragon

Chabashira-sensei: Bolt Pike is a powerful 12k unit with 10k shield, but has the unfortunate drawback that your opponent needs to has one or less rear-guards to attack, meaning Matsushita-san needs to keep maintenance by binding the front row. Cards like Recklessness and Turning Bash do it easily, but against an Accel deck, it's much harder to clear the front row with only those two.

Grade 3
4x Great Composure Dragon (Avatar)
4x Detonix Stinger Dragon

Chabashira-sensei: Great Composure Dragon is Matsushita-san's avatar, as it offers both a steady offence and defence by gaining 3k power during the opponent's turn, and during your turn, 5k instead. Detonix Stinger Dragon is a good first ride target and is another binder in the deck.

Consistency: E
Power: C-
Recovery: E-
Protection: B-
Versatility: E-
(21)

Chabashira-sensei: The deck lacks an explosive punch that Gauntlet Buster or Vanquisher brings to the table. It's easy to play around Great Composure's power gain during the opponent's turn, and many cards in the deck are lacklustre. There are interesting ideas, but none of them are executed properly.

V-CD05: The Loving Miracle "Sakigamiya Alice"
Imaginary Gift: Protect I

Grade 0
1x First Aid Celestial, Peniel (Starter)
4x Pinky Denturist (Critical)
3x Critical Hit Angel (Critical)
4x Battle Cupid, Nociel (Draw/Sentinel)
1x Bouquet Toss Messenger (Draw)
4x Sunny Smile Angel (Heal)

Grade 1
4x Healthful Intendant
4x Underlay Celestial, Hesediel
2x Marking Celestial, Arabhaki

Chabashira-sensei: As Sakigamiya-san is playing a more standardised version of Angel Feather, her grade 1 line-up is geared towards mainly defence rather than offence. Being able to toolbox cards means she can get whatever she wishes, whenever she needs it.

Grade 2
4x Rear Impetus Celestial, Armaiti
4x Wild Shot Celestial, Raguel
3x Freezing Granter

Chabashira-sensei: Once again, this specific tutoring is seeing in Armaiti and Raguel. Freezing Granter gives the deck the ability to snipe rear-guards, and he can gain power to become a beat-stick.

Grade 3
4x Crimson Impact, Metatron (Avatar)
4x Solidify Celestial, Zerachiel
2x Mobile Hospital, Feather Palace
2x Perdurable Phoenix

Chabashira-sensei: Metatron is a very powerful unit, with the ability to heal a damage, and Zerachiel in this deck can amass lots of Protect I gifts in hand, meaning Sakigamiya-san can stomp out three attack turns very easily. Feather Palace is the main finisher of the deck, as it is very easy to get two grade 3s in soul due to Zerachiel's consistent re-riding, and the Perdurable Phoenix tech lets her use sentinels or triggers that may be trapped in damage zone when guarding.

Consistency: B
Power: D-
Recovery: A
Protection: A+
Versatility: E
(46)

Chabashira-sensei: It's a solid Angel Feather deck that's reminiscent of the first wave which dominated the meta game. The only issue is speed and how dated the deck is, as better cards have come out since then. Despite this, it's got a perfect defence that only falls to the ever rampant Accel decks.

Results
1) MIGHT IS RIGHT "Demiza Taiga" (53)
2) Spring of Dreams "Yogen Emica" (47)
3) The Loving Miracle "Sakigamiya Alice" (46)
4) Parallel Wonderland "Kasai Touma" (42)
5) Celestial Onslaught "Kai Rikuto" (36)
6) PRIDE of the Dancing Lion "Kawaguchi Masaru" (35)
7) The Eradicating Deity "Matsushita Isogai" (21)
8) The STEAM ENGINE "Yukimura Fudou" (8)

Chabashira-sensei: This time round, Demiza-san's Claret Sword Dragon defeated the decks in this line-up by a wide margin. Always remember that none of these decks are wrong, and that I evaluate decks on a competitive level due to my job. Creativity and imagination is one of Vanguard's selling points, so feel free to use the weaker decks for fun, or try to fix them to be playable. Comment your thoughts, or your own deck-list for me to analyse below, and I'll see you all in the next Character Deck segment. Thank you for attending today's extra lesson. Sensei's happy that you've come. Now, class is dismissed.