Starting the Game: Research

Holder Hedgehog

The first step to this process is to inform the aspiring player about all of the purchasing options that is available in terms of starting his or her first deck. Typically, the player’s collection starts with the player’s first deck. With this in mind, it is wise to research the options one can purchase before spending any money. To help with this step, it is good to consider three recommended steps and one optional step in this phase.

• Figure out where people play near you. In order to play the game of Vanguard, you will need to find a place near you where people play the game on a regular basis. This step should be done before any other step in the research phase, since buying cards is typically a waste of effort and money without a way to play the game with people (unless you are buying cards for another reason beyond play; e.g. collecting). For starting players, it is recommended to find the locations of local tournaments in the player’s area. To do this, one can go to the official Bushiroad Cardfight!! Vanguard Tournaments/Events page. This page contains listings for a majority of tournaments and events sanctioned by Bushiroad Inc. for the sake of Vanguard. Check out the listings available for local tournaments in the player’s area to see if any of the venues are easy enough for the player to travel to. In addition to this, contact the shop you wish to play at to double check the fact that the shop actually holds a Cardfight!! Vanguard tournament on a regular basis.
• Figure out what clan to play first. For the most part, the game of Vanguard is based on building a deck around a certain clan and playing (especially in the Clan Fight format). A clan can be chosen based on its aesthetic, game mechanic, or availability. For the player who does not care what clan they start out with, choose a clan that is the cheapest to play and easiest to gather cards for during the time that you start getting into the game. For the player that wants to put care into the clan that he or she wants to start out with, choose a clan that fits your tastes in play style and aesthetics and find ways to gather cards for that clan. No matter what your motivation is, it is helpful at this stage to find clan guides online, which will walk through each clan with detailed descriptions for each clan. One such guide can be found here on our site.
• Figure out spending budget before buying cards. In order to protect your wallet, it is important to find your spending limit when starting to buy cards. This step is meant to protect the player from spending more than what he or she is capable of. In short, figure out how much you are willing to spend on cards. In some cases, this will help the player narrow down what clan or deck the player is able to play at first.
• Watch the show. This is the optional step. As crazy as it sounds, the show is a great source of information for teaching the game, especially for episodes at the beginning of certain seasons of the show. These specific episodes show the basic concept of how to play Vanguard and show the audience the lore behind the game’s mechanics. Beyond the first few episodes, other episodes tend to show how certain decks and clans are played. In addition to this, watching the show will also allow you to see if you will enjoy the premise of the general game. The show regularly premieres on the Cardfight!! Vanguard YouTube channel during the weekend.

Next time, we will discuss purchasing cards to begin a collection. If you have any questions, please put them in the comments.

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^{Images of cards came from http://cardfight.wikia.com/wiki/Cardfight!!_Vanguard_Wiki. These images may have been re-sized.}