Interview With Cayce Vollmar

Today we have a special type of article! I’ll call this new set of articles, Cardfighter Spotlights! I’ll be having the opportunity to interview the Granblue player that him and his team got 2nd overall in Vision’s Online Premium Tournament! His name is Cayce and is well known in the Vision Discord community and as well his team being Team Best Girl on YouTube! Let’s get right into the interview!

Interview

Jaime: First off, congratulations to Cayce and your teammates for getting 2nd place in Vision’s Online Premium tournament! When I saw the results and you were playing Granblue, I was happy to see Granblue being represented! Today I wanted to do an interview with you about your guys’ overall experience and even get to know you guys a little bit. Sounds good amigo?

Cayce: Sounds good to me, Jaime! Thanks for this opportunity!

Jaime: Of course! Tell us a little about yourself and your teammates. Where are y’all from? Are you from any specific Vanguard teams/communities? Any other events that you and/or team have done well? Etc.

Cayce: My teammates are Brandon and Michael. We make up Team Best Girl! We are a team from Virginia specifically Richmond and Willamsburg. I’ve made Top 4 at a PPG event last summer, Brandon made Top 8 at the same event, and Michael made Top 3 at a BCS 2019 event.

Jaime: Wow impressive! How did you start playing Cardfight Vanguard?

Cayce: I originally started back in 2015 right before G started. I had discovered the anime and became hooked when my friend Stephen and I learned the game together. I’ve been playing off and on ever since.

Jaime: How did you start playing Granblue?

Cayce: I started playing Granblue back in November when I got Cocytus in Standard. After I had to sell the deck, I didn’t play Granblue for awhile. After getting back into Premium, I picked the deck back up and have been playing off and on with it ever since.

Jaime: Oh wow that’s less than a year! Were you and your teammates planning on attending a team league for Bushiroad before they got canceled? If so, which one?

Cayce: We weren’t. We went to White Plains, NY BSF 2019 last year but that one fell on our finals week this year (All of us are in college).

Jaime: Ah finals week! What made you guys interested in participating in Vision’s Online Premium tournament?

Cayce: I’ve been helping run the Vision tournaments since July and realized I never got to play in one. This was my first one I’ve ever played in, and my teammates wanted to play in one since we all love Premium.

Jaime: Oh wow, well thanks for helping run those! During your guys’ preparation, what are some things that you guys mainly focused on? Certain match-ups, deck builds, strategies, etc.

Cayce: I just went to each match-up one at a time during the tournament. My teammates just made sure they knew their decks as much as they could.

Jaime: Very key tip there! One game/match at a time! What made you decide on Granblue to play with? Why Cocytus?

Cayce: I was originally going to go with Riviere as I had more experience with that, but my teammate decided to go with Bermuda Triangle. It was between Kagero and Granblue, and I ultimately went with Granblue. The deck can just do everything that you could want. It can draw, rush, be aggro, filter, all of it. I see it as a very well-rounded deck and I’ve also just always had lots of fun playing it.

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Jaime: I completely agree with you on how Granblue is so well-rounded. How many rounds were in the tournament? How was your guys’ record throughout? Was there a Top 8?

Cayce: There was a total of 6 rounds with a Top 8 cut. We went x-2 and finished at 6th place after final Swiss standings. Each round was 1 game too.

Jaime: Nice record! During your games, which decks/clans did you face?

Cayce: In no order, I faced: (I don’t remember all of them haha)

• Kagero W
• Kagero W
• Kagero W
• Nubatama W
• Nubatama L
• Link Joker L
• Nova Grappler L

Jaime: Wow a lot of red clans ha! Was there a game you would like to highlight? Like your toughest match-up, best game, break or deal moments, etc.

Cayce: I had a fun game against one of the Nubatama players, since we are doing a collaboration with their YouTube channel, Team Galaxy Brain.

Jaime: Oh that’s pretty cool! During your games, what is something that you appreciated about your deck from the preparation you’ve done? The strategy of it, consistency, power, plays, etc.

Cayce: Honestly, I think I could have prepared a lot more. The deck itself did everything, it’s very powerful and it led me to 2nd place.

Jaime: Cocytus can definitely do a lot of the work by just knowing how to play Granblue. How was your finals game(s) with the team that got 1st?

Cayce: I had no clue how to deal with the Shout Loop match-up. I rushed as much as I could, but I opened with a bunch of G3s. It was close but I just couldn’t push enough.

Jaime: Ouch! Opening with a bunch of G3s is usually rough. After the tournament, did you and your teammates celebrate or at least took some time to reflect? Anything that you learned from your experience?

Cayce: I think we were all happy we got so far, but we really wanted first. I took some time to reflect and realized I could of done much better if I knew the deck better. I hope to pilot Granblue at the next BCS to make up for it.

Jaime: Awesome! Glad you were able to learn something from your experience. Would you like to do any shout outs to people that you know and/or have helped you along your guys’ journey?

Cayce: Shout out to my teammates at Team Best Girl (Brandon, Michael, Stephen, and Conner). Shout out to Team Vision, as I love being a TO for them and none of this would be possible without them. Lastly, shout out to Jaime for interviewing me! Check out Team Best Girl on YouTube and join the Vision Discord server for more tournaments!

Jaime: That’s all great stuff! I’m sure your guys’ friends are happy and excited for your guys’ accomplishment! Thank you too for the shout out ha! Very much appreciated. Just two more questions and we’ll be done for today amigo.

Second to last question, while preparing with Granblue, did you use/see any social media to help you solidify your build? Such as blogs, YouTube videos/channels, Facebook, Reddit, etc.

Cayce: My build was mostly based off of the 2nd place Worlds and Solemn Vanguard‘s lists. They both helped me understand why certain cards were played.

Jaime: Awesome! The reason I ask is that the more social media resources that we can refer to for all Granblue players, the better. I can even reference new resources onto the Rogue of the Seven Seas blog. Thank you for sharing that as well, very much appreciated.

Last fun question. Are you excited for the next new set of Granblue? Perhaps even seeing Nightrose again?

Cayce: I can’t wait! I’m hoping to build Granblue in person again when she comes out!

Jaime: That’s great to hear! I’m very excited about new support in general but I am more excited to see Nightrose once again. Perhaps we’ll see some fun new interactions in this next set to help Granblue still be able to compete in the meta-game. Thanks again for joining me in this interview! I wish you and your teammates the best and hope to see more from you guys in the meta-game!

Takeaways

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this interview! I just wanted to highlight some takeaways that can help Granblue players out!

One Game/Match At A Time

Sometimes players can fall into stress or feel overwhelm on just thinking about winning a whole event or accomplishing Top 8. I actually wrote a prior article on Force of the Ocean about this perspective tip. Here’s a snippet of breaking it down.

“Let’s say a big event has 10 rounds. So what do the win records of X-1 and X-2 look like? You MUST win 8-9 rounds overall. You can lose 1-2 rounds. That’s it.

Now, what does a round look like? Depending on the event, a round can be the best of 2 out of 3 games OR 1 game. Regardless of how many games in a round, focus on winning ONE game at a time.

If you focus on winning one game at a time, those add up to winning the round. If you keep focusing the same way each round, those rounds will add up to your win record. That’s it.”

Social Media Usage On Solidifying A Build

One of the most helpful things on solidifying a build is using social media. YouTube videos, blog articles, Reddit posts, Twitter tweets, etc. These sources can help guide you on card choices or even just affirm your own decisions.

It can also help save A LOT of time too. Just like Cayce mentioned, “My build was mostly based off of the 2nd place Worlds and Solemn Vanguard‘s lists. They both helped me understand why certain cards were played.”

Knowing Your Deck

One thing that stood out to what Cayce mentioned is that his teammates just made sure they knew their decks as much as they could. It’s important to really understand the deck you’re using in an event. The more you know about how your deck functions, the more confidence you’ll have in yourself and your teammates unto you. I wrote a prior article too about how to build up self confidence for big events. Here’s a snippet.

“You must trust yourself in doing what you believe is the right play during your turns and sometimes even during your opponent’s turn. It’s important to practice enough times to the point it becomes MUSCLE MEMORY on the plays you do in all of your matches.”

Final Thoughts

Thanks again for reading this Cardfighter Spotlight article! Thanks again to Cayce for joining us today as well! Til next time amigos!