Cardfight Vanguard Deck Tech – Orfist

By Serena L.

Stand Up! Vanguard!

Serena here! It’s finally time to talk about the final Nation we have yet to discuss, Brandt Gate. It’s only taken me a little over a year to get through all 6! This time we’re covering Orfist, specifically a more budget take on the D Special Series 08: Stand Up Deckset “Orfist”. It was one of three preconstructed decks designed for more competitive play. Orfist is a deck that revolves around calling Shadow Army Tokens as well as the main gimmick of Brandt Gate, revolving around set orders. There are a few forms of Orfist himself, but this time we’re specifically covering Cardinal Dominus, Orfist Regis, as that is the main vanguard from the deck. In fact, most of the stuff in this is going to come from the precon. You can find the deck list from before the rules updates on the Deck Log.

Orfist and his support cards all get stronger if you are in ‘Dark Night’ or ‘Abyssal Dark Night’, which are conditions on all of our World set orders. We are in ‘Dark Night’ if we have 1 World in our order zone and ‘Abyssal Dark Night’ if we have two or more in the order zone (and if all of them are Worlds). We will get more in depth with the World orders later.

Starting off with our Ride deck, the deck comes with a copy of Cardinal Fang, Phovi, which is a standard starter, but I personally prefer Aura Battle Princess, Ruby Red. Next is Cardinal Noid, Routis, who when he’s placed on vanguard circle lets us search for one of our World Orders, the type of set order specific to Orfist. He also gains 2k power on attack when your World is ‘Dark Night’ or ‘Abyssal Dark Night’. Our grade 2 is actually a little different than the intended one in the preconstructed deck. Originally the grade 2 was meant to be Cardinal Noid Cubisia but… he’s rather bad. Instead we’re replacing him with one of the promos from the deck: Combine Rusher! Rusher itself doesn’t do anything special on the vanguard circle, but when we play a set order from hand we can CounterBlast1 to call it to a rearguard circle. Once there, if it attacks a grade 3 or greater unit and we have 2 or more set orders, Rusher gains 10k power for that battle. Lastly we have Cardinal Dominus, Orfist Regis. When Regis is placed on vanguard you can put a World card from hand or drop into your Order Zone. He also says when he attacks, if you’re in Abyssal Dark Night, you can CB1 and discard a card to call a Shadow Army token and gain 5k attack for every 2 World orders you have. The Shadow Army tokens are grade 1 with 15k power, 1 crit and Boost.

Next up is the order lineup. I’m playing 10 total orders, 9 Worlds and Gratias Gradale, a Regalis Piece that lets us activate a Persona Ride on a turn we didn’t ride if we were already on grade 3. The first World is 4 copies of the grade 3 Overcoming an Eternity, which can be played with SoulBlast2. It has the standard World condition mentioned above, and says when a Shadow Army is placed it gains 5k power for the turn. Next we have 3 of the grade 2 Howling Moonlit Night which can be played for SB1 and when it’s placed we draw a card. Lastly is 2 copies of the grade 2 Eclipsed Moonlight, which can be played for CB1 and when it’s put into the order zone we get a Shadow Army token.

The only Grade 1 units in the main deck are our 4 Sentinels Violate Dragon and 2 Cardinal Principle, Cagula. Cagula will let us SoulCharge1 if we are in Dark Night or 2 if we’re in Abyssal Dark Night. Also, we can SB1 and retire them to call a Shadow Army token if we’re in Abyssal Dark Night. Now, on to grade 2 units, which is much more robust!

One of the key pieces for Orfist is Polarxis Dragon, which we run 4 of. Making it’s debut in the precon, Polarxis Dragon lets us get a World from our drop into our order zone if we don’t have a copy of that one active. Also, when it’s put into drop from rearguard circle or hand during our battle phase we get to draw a card if we’re in either Night. This can trigger from being discarded for Regis’s cost, or if you call a Shadow Army over it with Regis’s effect! Now next we have 3 copies of Cardinal Draco Culjameed, a nice defensive option, as it gets 10k shield while we’re in Abyssal Dark Night and if we’re in either Night it can gain Boost while it’s on rearguard circle. Cardinal Noid, Grunder is next at 2 copies. When placed from hand, Grunder lets us look at the top 7 cards of our deck, choose up to 2 Worlds from there, and discard them. Also at the end of the battle it attacked a vanguard, we can retire it to get a World from our drop to hand, if we’re in Abyssal Dark Night. The last grade 2 will probably be the most expensive one here with 4 copies of the generic Brandt Gate support card, Sickle Blade of Inquest, Habitable Zone from set 10. When Zone is discarded during the ride phase we can SB1 and put it onto the bottom of the deck to draw a card. Also, when it’s placed on rearguard circle, if we Persona Rode this turn, we can CB1 to search our deck for a set order and add it to hand, and until the end of the turn we can play up to 2 orders and the next we one play can be played without paying it’s cost!

For grade 3s we just have our 3 copies Persona Rides of Regis and 2 copies of Cardinal Dragon, Nuvorea who gets 2k more attack for each World in our order zone for the turn, and when it’s retired while we’re in Abyssal Dark Night we get to call a Shadow Army token to replace it!

Finally we have our trigger lineup, with 3 effect draw triggers: Ameliorate Connector, 4 normal heals: Aurora Battle Princess, Treuse Gree, 8 normal crits: 4 Cardinal Draco, Barbizonde and 4 Aurora Battle Princess, Lourus Yellow and finally, our Brandt Gate Overtrigger, Star Dragon Deity of Infinitude, Eldobreath, who can double the power and critical of all of our front row units!

Other cards I’d suggest looking into would start with Detonation Mutant, Bobalmine, the most generic and useful Countercharger, which is included in precon as 1 of the 5 promos. Cardinel Draco, Destijade, Elementaria Sancitude and Abent Robust round out the 5 promos and are all good starts.

Serena, signing off!
Final Turn!