Deck Profile - Royal Paladins

Alright so this is a picture of my deck. Obviously. At first glance it may seem pretty bad, and honestly there are some changes I want to make (more on that later). I think the most noticeable difference from the majority of Royal Paladins is the 1 Soul Saver Dragon and 4 Gigantech Charger.

Gigantech is a neat card and is a +1. Yes, it hits triggers which can be annoying, but it also helps me fill up my rearguard positions in order to get King of Knights, Alfred up to 20K power. I've also been lucky enough to hit another Gigantech or an Alfred off of the first Gigantech's effect on occasion, which can be very clutch. With that said, I'm planning to drop 2 of the Gigantechs for 2 Knight of Conviction, Bors. I haven't received mine in the mail yet and that is the only reason I did not play him at the tournament. Bors is a great Grade 3 rearguard that can easily get up to 20K power with a Pongal behind him, a quality that Gigantech lacks. For this reason, Bors will usually draw attacks away from my Vanguard. This can be helpful when I dont have many blockers in hand.

I only run 1 Soul Saver Dragon, and its not because I dont have a second (If I wanted to I could borrow another from a friend of mine). I honestly just dont think another copy of Soul Saver is needed. I have yet to win on the turn I use his effect and I win most of my games without even dropping him. Alfred is a superior Vanguard. There are times when Soul Saver is able to clear out most of my opponents blockers, then I win on the following turn depending what they drive check. However, I only need 1 copy to serve this purpose. Not only that, but Soul Saver is ridiculously easy to search. The only reason I could justify running two is that sometimes I damage check him before I am able to search him. Usually when that happens though I just shrug it off and play my game accordingly. If I remember correctly, there was only one instance in which damage checking Soul Saver hurt me and it was only because I couldn't draw my Alfreds. Soul Saver is good, but 1 is the right number for me.

Alright, now I'm going to talk about my trigger line-up. I think most Royal Paladin deck lists I see floating around Pojo, Youtube, and other places play 6 critical triggers, where as I am only playing 4. The reason for that is I like stand triggers (see the article "The Pre-Game Show" for my explanation on this). So I took those 2 criticals and switched them out in favor of 2 more stand triggers. I am only playing 2 Llew because I don't really want to invest in any more of him, especially since he becomes obsolete when Barcgal gets banned from being the starter. I am fairly certain this will happen seeing as Bushiroad is trying to merge the Japanese and English games so that they are essentially the same. I have been having some issues with drawing both Llews, or drawing one and damage checking the other early on before I am able to search him out with Barcgal. While this isn't to big an issue, seeing as I can just summon one and use his effect for Blaster Blade, it is annoying. Not even sure I would want to bring another one out and only leave myself with 1 more critical in the deck. Whatever, you can't always draw/check well.

Margal has been SO GOOD. I remember one game where the first 3 damage I took were all Margals, netting me +15K (not that big of a deal on defense usually) and 3 extra cards! His effect to add 3K power to a Royal Paladin can also be very clutch. Then of course I run 4 heal triggers. Not much to say on those.

I think the rest of the deck is self explanatory. 4 Flash Shields, 4 Gallatin, 4 Marron, 2 Blaster Blade, etc. is all very standard. If you have any questions about how I ran the deck or want me to explain a card choice in more detail be sure to leave a comment. As far as my weekend goes, I dont think I'll be able to go to any tournaments or really do anything Cardfight Vanguard related. I have to work and I also have a couple of papers to start writing for college - ugh. Well, this round is over, good luck to those of you going to tournaments this weekend. I should be able to post an article on Monday giving you the run down for the rest of week and possibly give you the summary of what happened this weekend if I do so happen to fit in some Vanguard into my schedule. See ya later!