Messiah plays dice:The mathematics of deck building (Part 1)

There is a belief in the Cardfight! Vanguard community that Vanguard as a trading card game is competitively non-viable as "luck" is a very prevalent mechanic, which can very easily swing games, and while it is certainly true that Vanguard has many elements which involve chance, that does not mean that it is impossible for Vanguard as a trading card game to be competitive, and today I am going to give you the knowledge to be able to manipulate chance so you can win more games of Vanguard! No, I am not talking about stacking or other forms of cheating. I am talking about:

The mathematics of deck building!

Mathematics is a skill that is rarely, if ever used for deckbuilding. However it is a very important skill that can give you the edge in a cardfight, since your deck is the main thing you can edit to improve your play.

Mulligan is a mechanic whose power is very understated in vanguard, as it gives you a way to directly manipulate your hand once without losing any advantage or having to use any abilities.

The chances of having a specific card in your starting hand after your first draw:

# Cards in deck	Mull 0	Mull 1	Mull 2	Mull 3	Mull 4	Mull 5
1	12.24%	14.20%	16.94%	17.85%	19.56%	21.20%
2	23.21%	26.53%	29.81%	32.80%	35.60%	38.23%
3	33.02%	37.48%	41.56%	35.29%	48.71%	51.85%
4	41.75%	46.93%	51.55%	55.67%	59.36%	61.68%

Using this handy table, you can decide how many copies of a card you want in your deck for how often you want that card in your hand when you are starting the game.

For example, I know that if I want Flash Ripple Odysseus (The Rippul Gansta) in my hand when playing Ripple, since the maximum I can run is 2 I know that I have a 32.8% chance of getting him at the start of the game.

I hope this information helps you make your play better!

If you want to learn more about deck building, more specifically the likeliness of being double crit by a stride at 3 damage, I would recommend watching this video by my good friend TimmyPowerGamer!

That is all for today. The next part of Messiah Plays Dice will be on how much more consistent ride chains are!

Interesting Rulings #2 How to Troll Link Joker, Ninja Style.

Lock. Arguably one of the most annoying mechanics in the game. We've all dealt with it, some of us since BT-12 when it was introduced. But what if you could get around lock? No I am not talking about unlock, which is pretty much useless against everything apart from one single clan... That being Link Joker.

No, I am talking about a mechanic which is useful against every single deck in the game which happens to have a way to troll lock:

Afterimage!

So you can just keep your rearguards empty? So what? Aqua Force can block lock with Skyros and Granblue, Palemoon and Spike Brothers can keep their board clear between turns. Not only that Afterimage is restricted to having six or less cards in hand to use!

Ah yes, but afterimage has a second, more interesting use against lock: Clearing freshly unlocked rearguards before the opponent has a chance to lock them again.

But how?

You see, it has everything to do with how the End Phase works... So let's learn at how exactly the end phase works.

6.8.1. The phase in which several actions are resolved at the end of a turn. This phase is done in the following order: 

6.8.1.1.The turn player performs the following simultaneously. 
6.8.1.1.1. Return all locked cards on that player's field to a normal state by turning the cards face up. 6.8.1.1.2. Return all deleted units to a normal state by turning the cards face up. 
6.8.1.1.3. Put all G units on the vanguard circle to the G zone in a face up state.

This means that Locked cards and deleted unit return to a normal at the same time G-Units return to the G-Zone face up.

6.8.1.2. Each automatic ability with the timing “when a card is unlocked”, “when a card is put to face up”, and “when put to G zone” triggers and are put to stand by. Then, resolve a check timing.

Any ability that is triggered by cards returning to G-Zone or returning to a normal state trigger and resolve.

 6.8.1.3. Each automatic ability with the timing “At the beginning of end phase” and “at the end of turn” that have not become stand by in this end phase becomes stand by. 
6.8.1.4. Resolve a checking timing. After completing all the actions in the check timing, all effects with “until end of this turn” will cease to exist. 

Any ability says "At the end of turn" and "At the beginning of end phase" trigger and resolve. All effects with "Until end of this turn" are removed.

Honestly the end phase is really simple. But there is two things we need to know: Afterimage and when bound cards return to the opponent's hand in Nubatama.

Afterimage is this: "When your opponent's puts a bound card into hand, if you have six or less cards in hand, you may return this card to your hand"

After checking over every single card in Nubatama, I can assure you that every single bind as of writing works the same way. Let's use a popular Nubatama card from BT-13 as an example:

For Nubatama, he is a bear necessity!

Stealth Beast, Tamahagane

(Auto)]: When this unit is placed on (RC) or (VC), if you have a <Nubatama> vanguard, choose one of your opponent's rearguards, bind it face up, and at the end of your turn, your opponent puts the card bound by this effect into his or her hand.

So the bind happens at the end of turn. Now we know the timing of the bind, it is time to show you how to troll Link Joker, ninja style!

It is quite simple: At the end of your turn, have a bound card in your opponent's bind-zone, have a rearguard with the afterimage skill locked and have 6 or less cards in hand.

The locked card unlocks. Then any skills relating to that unlock (For example, Chaos Breaker Dragon's LB4 or Palladium) trigger. After that, the bound card returns to your opponent's hand. Then you can return the rearguard with afterimage before the opponent's turn begins, clearing that rearguard circle.

This ability is perfect for clearing your front row so that Link Joker can only lock it once, and can reduce the effectiveness of Chaos Universe significantly. As Chaos Breakers LB4 can trigger before you are able to return the card with Afterimage to your hand, it can still retire the unit and draw a card.

It is also worth noting that you can only do this if the card actually unlocks, so "omega locks" from Glendios or "Tagliatelle" are an issue.

Happy trolling!

-DrSheep