Cardfight!! Vanguard: overDress – Danji Momoyama: Tyrant Tiger (Start Deck 02)

On May 14th we saw the release of the new Cardfight!! Vanguard series: overDress.

This new series of cards brought with it many changes, and I mean MANY. What better way to get into the game, or back into the game, than with the overDress Tyrant Tiger start deck.

3000 Years Later On Cray…

The new series of Vanguard (and subsequently the cards) is set on the original Planet Cray but 3000 years in the future. Torn by war and struggle, the 28 clans have formed into six nations: Dragon Empire, Dark States, Keter Sanctuary, Stoicheia, Brandt Gate, and Lyrical Monasterio. This new nation system replaces the old clans, meaning that cards that previously couldn’t run together now can.

Dark States, which is your featured nation in overDress Tyrant Tiger, was formed when the fractured kingdoms of the Dark Zone were united by a single hero. With laws put in place by Gear Chronicle and their ongoing cooperation with the Dragon Empire, the Dark States prospers. The old clans that united into the Dark States are Spike Brothers, Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, and Gear Chronicle. This new nation system allows players to run their favourite cards from the Dark Zone clans all in one deck! As an old paladins player I love this change since it lets me run Gold and Royal paladins together!

Hello, My Name Is Bruce.

It has been three weeks since my last fish. Wait, that’s not the right Bruce. The Bruce I’m talking about is Diabolos, “Violence” Bruce. This powerhouse is a demon both in both race and on the pitch, serving as the feature card for the overDress Tyrant Tiger deck. He’s Danji’s lead card and sports a scary looking mask to intimidate the opponents!

Along with a holo copy of this beast, you’ll receive three other copies to use. This is extremely helpful as Bruce is the card that really brings together the whole deck. And I mean REALLY brings together the whole deck. Without Bruce, this entire deck is pretty much useless. He tackles the opponents at 13000 power and makes good use of the twin-drive ability. However, what really bumps him up to be the best card in the deck is his Final Rush ability. Final Rush is triggered when Diabolos, “Violence” Bruce is the vanguard at the start of your ride phase. Final Rush triggers abilities on many cards in the deck, including power boosts and bonus abilities. Most notably of all, Final Rush allows Bruce to use his second ability..

Bruce also has the new Persona Ride ability. This new ability is a grade 3 exclusive and is triggered when you ride a card on another card with the same name. When you Persona Ride, all of your front row circles get +10000 power till the end of the turn, plus you get to draw a card! This can be pretty powerful as an extra booster, and the +10000 is given to the circles, not the cards. So even if you retire a card, the +10000 is just given to whoever you call to that circle!

Soul Charge Toward The Enemy!

As they always have, Dark States specialises in soul charging and soul blasting. I’ve counted 3 different cards that have a soul charge ability of some kind, plus the order card of the deck also soul charges 2. This might seem generally useless as there is only one card in the whole deck that uses soul blasting. But keep in mind that it’s soul blast 5.

All this Soul Charging sets up the best ability in the overDress Tyrant Tiger deck. Diabolos, “Violence” Bruce has an ability that reads “when this unit attacks, if you are in Final Rush, Soul Blast 5 and stand all of your front row rear-guards.” That means that you can make five attacks in one turn! This ability is very powerful, but also a bit underwhelming. While making more attacks is great, it costs a lot, and all the Soul Charging burns through your deck quick. A redeeming quality of the ability is that it isn’t a “once-per-turn”. If you can stand Bruce a second time in your turn, you can potentially make 8 attacks in one turn, which is absolutely insane.

Unfortunately, there’s no card to stand your vanguard in the overDress Tyrant Tiger deck. But you can upgrade your deck with cards from the Genesis Of The Five Greats booster packs. A card I can strongly recommend is Tartarus Beatscram. It’s a grade 1 blitz order, which means it can be played when guarding an opponent’s attack. The order’s ability is that if you have five or more cards in your soul, you can give one of your units +15000 power until the end of that battle. This makes good use of all the Soul Charging while providing a quick defence boost in a pinch.

Keep Up The Attack!

Introduced in all of the new decks is the over/Trigger. This is a brand new type of trigger that adds a whole lot to the game, but you can only have one per deck. There’s good reason for this limit, as the over/Trigger gives +100 Million to a card of your choosing, as well as allowing you to draw a card. Each over/Trigger card also has an additional effect when drawn in a Drive Check. Spiritual King of Determination, Olbaria, who is the over/Trigger for overDress Tyrant Tiger, has the additional effect of giving another +100 Million to any of your cards. That means you can have two cards on the field with +100 Million power in one turn.

The nation-specific over/Trigger for Dark States is an Abyss Dragon. Hades Dragon Deity of Resentment, Gallmageheld holds the additional card effect of giving your vanguard +10000 power and +1 critical, which is pretty powerful if you ask me.

Artwork You Can Cheer For.

As always, Bushiroad never seems to put a foot wrong with the artwork on their cards. From the threatening design of Bruce to the chaotic mess of Acrobat Presenter, each card has art to match the character. Every detail is perfect and I have to give full credit to the artists for their skill in bringing these cards to life.

Final Thoughts

OverDress Tyrant Tiger is overall a good deck. It has a good synergy of cards and can dish out some decent damage. However, I have noticed that unfortunately this deck is often outmatched by the other start decks such as Holy Dragon and Apex Ruler. I believe this is simply because of the minimal Soul Blasting capability. The mass amount of Soul Charging is largely wasted and burns through the deck at breakneck speed. If this deck was supplemented by cards from the Genesis Of The Five Greats booster set (review hopefully soon) it could be a brilliant deck. It just isn’t a great standalone deck compared to the others on offer.

Despite this, if you’re looking for an easy way to get into Cardfight!! Vanguard, I can recommend no better way than the overDress Tyrant Tiger deck. It’s cheap and comes with everything you need to start battling for dominance on Cray!