Cardfight Overdress, Lyrical Monastario and how I'm invested in Vanguard again

Didn't think I'd be making another Vanguard blog post (Or blog post in general), however, here we are. So might as well begin in earnest.

I'm not sure where to begin specifically, so I'll just give a bit of a summary on my thoughts on Vanguard in the past few years, basically since the beginning of the 2018 reboot.

It was awful. I believe its been said numerous times, but I'll repeat those same sentiments, V series has been nothing short of a disease on Vanguard as a whole. Almost nothing in Standard ever got me excited, and it turned a competently made game into a baby-fest card game for blind toddlers. For other reasons I would rather not state, I didn't expect to be playing again after the game went through -another- reboot at the beginning of the year. 

I had even had a big chuckle when I heard about Overdress and that it would be another reboot. "Bushi is so incompetent that they forced themselves to reboot twice in three years" were my sentiments. Mix that with what was currently happening (And what continues to happen) in Premium and I knew this game wasn't for me anymore. 

Then, one day, just for kicks and giggles, I played some Overdress decks for fun and realized my line of thinking was a mistake. 

There's been chatter about why the 2018 reboot happened in the first place, and a lot say because they power-creeped themselves into a corner. That's wrong. It was because Bushi wanted to deeply simplify the game while concurrently nostalgia pander to the highest heavens. You couldn't simplify without starting from zero, aka, restart. 

This reboot feels wholly different. Just from the first two sets, you have more uniquely playing decks with more thought, interactions and plays than anything in V series. The switch to nations will also mean come a year from now, even longer perhaps, the card pool will become infinitely more massive, even more than G era (Minus cards post G era), which will make deck building feel incredible. Which, by the way, is already one of the most entertaining aspects thanks to the ride line. Such a simple addition makes the world of difference. 

Unfortunately, all of these positives couldn't have been made if Overdress was just a V continuation. Who'd play Zorga over Nightrose? Or Magnolia over whatever Zoo nation bosses in V are? So another reboot was needed, but not for nostalgic pandering reasons, or for simplifying for your 7 year old nephew or niece, but to actually grow what Vanguard is. 

Anyway, I don't want to ramble, so lets move onto Lyrical.

As positive as I became with Vanguard again, the one section I was still extremely hesitant on was certainly Bermuda, or, Lyrical, the 3000 year evolution of the mermaid clan. The entirety of the V series was nothing short of a disaster for my favorite clan in the game. Every single deck was either brain-dead, incredibly boring, offered no interactions of note, completely against what made the G deck fun or was just a random cluster of cards thrown together and called "a deck". In any case, I hated the core concept of what made Bermuda, Bermuda, other than art of course (That part stayed true). 

And now, with the recent reveal of Kairi here, my interest and excitement is back, not just for Vanguard, but for Bermuda/Lyrical again, after three years. 

I don't expect G-era/Premium (Before the tier 1 nonsense that it currently is) level of interactions, but just Kairi, and her ride line, have shown to me that Bushiroad is actually attempting to create a competent game again. 

They've been doing so many things correct lately, whether its the switch to Nations, the ride line which lowers randomness and creates opportunities for unique deck building, more complicated interactions the return of what made Bermuda so fun in G, and a new main mechanic that shouldn't be ripe for abuse like markers. 

Over-triggers aren't as great, but that's a topic of conversation for another time.

We're still in the middle of Lyrical reveals, and I'm excited to see where Zorga ends up too. Hoping for an actual Premium banlist too, perhaps. I didn't even mention how we finally get the return of lore, how the R&D testing department was replaced with a new face that helped save Shadowverse in Japan or how they're becoming more vocal. Bushi is also reprinting a lot more staple cards for all formats, which is making jumping into whichever format you'd like even easier. 

Suffice to say, its such a great change of pace from the past few years. 

The three year shitty filler arc is finally over. It feels good to be back to the actual canon content!