Today we have a Cardfighter Spotlight! I’ll be having the opportunity to interview the Granblue player that recently accomplished 3rd overall in Vision’s Online Standard Tournament! His name is Vladislav Korolev (Kido#5009) and is from Russia! Let’s get right into the interview!
Interview
Jaime: First off, congratulations to Vladislav for getting 3rd place in Vision’s Online Standard 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 overall experience and even get to know you a little bit. Sounds good amigo?
Vladislav: Thank you for your congratulations, I am very pleased.
Jaime: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Are you from any specific Vanguard teams/communities? Any other events that you and/or team have done well? Etc.
Vladislav: I am from Russia, the city of Tula. In Vanguard, I am the leader of the Divide et Impera (DEI) team. Our team on the server CFA is the best team in August.
Jaime: Wow impressive! How did you start playing Cardfight Vanguard?
Vladislav: I started playing Vanguard in 2012 when I first saw this anime. I immediately bought myself a deck of Royal Paladins and I played with my friend. Then I found out about the PC app and we often played with each other there.
Jaime: That’s great, humble beginnings ha! During your preparation, what are some things that you mainly focused on? Certain matchups, deck builds, strategies, etc.
Vladislav: For me it is important to play by the clans, which I like. It doesn’t matter if it’s a strong clan or not. I often play together with the guys from this team. Together we discuss the build decks and tactics.
Jaime: What made you decide on Granblue to play with? Why Nightrose?
Vladislav: I wanted to know how far I can go with a Granblue deck. Lately, I like this clan more and more and especially the Nightrose variant.
Jaime: Awesome, let’s dive into your deck list. I see that you’re playing 4 Navigators, how were they able to help out in the tournament?
Vladislav: Navigator is one of the foundational cards in the deck. With it, I get a lot of cards in the drop zone.
Jaime: I completely agree with you, I also see you’re playing 1 copy of Thin-mist Banshee and 2 Ripple Banshee. What are some key plays/scenario that you felt this ratio helped out?
Vladislav: These cards help me to increase the number of cards in my hand. Sometimes there are situations when there is no other choice but these cards. I find my deck build to be balanced.
Jaime: I see you wanted a balance of everything, makes sense! I’m also astonished at seeing that you were playing 3 Greed Shades. What made you decide to drop him down to 3? Usually Greed Shade is at 4 to increase the consistency of the deck in general.
Vladislav: A lot of tests led me to exactly this deck building. I think 3 Greed Shades is more than enough.
Jaime: Awesome, thanks for explaining those card choices. With this build, what was your winning image for most of your games? Like did you have a setup, game state, or strategy that you focused on?
Vladislav: My strategy was to attack fast and hard. I also used Negrobone to revive Skull Dragon, and with utilizing Navigator, Skull Dragon had great strength early on. And thanks to the ability of Nightrose, we have Skull Dragons attack 4 times.
Jaime: Nightrose Navigator is definitely great at that strategy! I also love playing aggressively with that build. During your games, which decks/clans did you face?
Vladislav:
- Shadow Paladins (Luard)
- Royal Paladins (Altmile)
- OTT (Susanoo)
- Murakumo (Yasuie)
Jaime: Was there a game you would like to highlight? Like your toughest matchup, best game, break or deal moments, etc.
Vladislav: The most difficult for me was the semi-final of the tournament against Murakumo. Fitz played very well with his deck. It was a great game from him.
Jaime: Yasuie is a really good deck! 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.
Vladislav: My team helped me test this deck. On first G3 ride turn with Nightrose, I can already carry out 4 strong attacks with Skull Dragon.
Jaime: The sheer speed that Nightrose Navigator has is amazing. How many rounds were in the tournament? How was your record throughout? Was there a Top 8?
Vladislav: The tournament had 6 rounds and I won 5 out of 6.
Jaime: How were your final’s games?
Vladislav: The most intense was the semi-final, in which I lost 1-2. The match for third place was much easier, I beat Aqua force 2-0.
Jaime: After the tournament, did you take some time to reflect? Anything that you learned from your experience?
Vladislav: I was glad that I finished third. I didn’t expect to get this far.
Jaime: Awesome, you came very far! Would you like to do any shout outs to people that you know and/or have helped you along your journey?
Vladislav: I am grateful to everyone who took part in the tournament. I’ve played with a lot of good players. Many were worthy to take the top 8. I wish you all the best in future tournaments. The main thing is not to give up and you will succeed.
Jaime: That’s all great stuff! I’m sure your friends are happy and excited for your accomplishment!
Vladislav: My team immediately congratulated me on the prize in this competition.
Jaime: That’s awesome of them! Just one more question and we’ll be done amigo. 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.
Vladislav: No, I built this deck exactly the way I wanted it myself. I was not guided by any guides.
Jaime: Wow that’s impressive! 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. Thanks again for joining me in this interview!
Vladislav: Thank you for the interview invitation. It was a pleasure to chat with you I will try harder and strive for 1st place overall.
Jaime: That’s a great goal and I wish you the best! I hope to see more from you in the metagame! Till next time amigos!
Takeaways
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this interview! I just wanted to highlight some takeaways that can help Granblue players out!
Enjoy Playing The Deck You’re Competing With
Vladislav mentioned he didn’t care if the deck/clan was a good deck/clan, he wanted to play it because he enjoyed playing it.
I feel sometimes players can be a bit too focused on playing the best deck to a tournament. That they feel they have to play the best deck of the current metagame. It’s important to recognize if you’re going to play test and perform at an event, you want to make sure that you’ll be able give it your all with the deck of choice.
Myself from experience, I’ve actually picked up a deck (Blade Wings Fall 2017) because it was really good from a meta game standpoint. I learned how to play the deck and get comfortable with it. It felt good winning against most decks but I found myself not really being fulfilled. During a local tournament, I literally wanted to stop playing the deck and switch to another one in the middle of the tournament. I lost interest/motivation to really give it my all and that affected my performance. I didn’t top as I wanted to because it just didn’t feel right. At the end of the night, I decided to sell the deck and I did.
My advice is to play with the best deck that you’re confident in playing and also enjoy to play. There’s two sides of the coin when it comes to performing at events. The first side is the player and the second is the deck. We’re all human and I think people forget that even at big events, not everyone performs 100% throughout the rounds.
I go more in depth with building self confidence and the two sides of the coin in one of my prior articles from Force of the Ocean.
Focus On A Strategy
Vladislav also mentioned his main strategy was to hit hard and fast! That’s it!
Sometimes we as players get caught up with all of the edge cases that can happen in certain games or matchups. It’s important to focus on one solid strategy that you know how to perform well and your deck is consistent at.
Practice your key strategy and your key matchups. With doing that, you’ll definitely be able to Top 8 in any event for sure.
I Will Persist Until I Succeed
Last key thing Vladislav mentioned, “The main thing is not to give up and you will succeed.”
It sounds cliché but it’s so true. It took me a few years in Yu-Gi-Oh! to see success at achieving a regional top. Then my success bleeded into Vanguard as well once I broke through that mental barrier.
I remember being so close at many regionals but coming up short. Or feeling that I calculated and did every play as perfect as possible, but still lost games. You must learn from every game you play, especially the ones you lose.
You learn a lot more from your losses if you’re honest with yourself and start asking yourself, “How can I improve?”. Your brain will help you figure out solutions on improving and eventually get the results that you want. It can be topping at a locals or a regional event. I wrote another prior article on helping players achieving Top 8 at a regional event, feel free to read it so that it may help you in your journey to success.
Final Thoughts
Thanks again for reading this Cardfighter Spotlight article! Thanks again to Vladislav for joining us today as well! Til next time amigos!
Rogue of the Seven Seas 