Bermuda Triangle: The "Two" Major Problems (Or why this clan is in dire straits)

Okay, lets get the jokes out of the way first. BT is tier -666666, they're horrible, only lolicons/pedophiles play them, yuck loli mermaids, only fap fodder etc etc.

Okay, got the jokes out of your system? Good. Now that we got those stupid jokes and over reactions out of the way, we can focus on exactly why Bermuda's are in a dire strait and why they're one of the worse clan's in the game, both from a release standpoint and a quality standpoint.

Where it started

The Terrible Release Schedule

1. EB02 - Banquet of Divas: March 10th, 2012 (November 3 ENG)
2. EB06 - Dazzling Divas: March 23rd, 2013 (July 26 ENG)
3. EB10 - Diva's Duet: March 21st, 2014 (August 15th ENG)
4. CB01 - Academy of Divas: June 19th 2015 (August 28th ENG)
5. CB03 - Blessing of Divas: June 24th 2016 (July 29th ENG)
6. CB05 - Prismatic Divas: July 7th, 2017 (July 21st ENG)

As shown above, Bermuda -always- releases once a year, usually during the Spring/Summer (Mainly Summer now) season, and that's usually the only support they receive for the entirety of a year. Now, contrary to other clans who might have to wait over a year for there support, Bermuda is always guaranteed to get there's at the same time, year over year. You might think to yourself "Man, its must be nice to get guaranteed support every year, while everyone else never knows when there support will come, what a spoon-fed clan". Well, I'm here to explain why that's a bad thing for Bermuda, not something to hope for.

Lets look at when Vanguard G, the new series at the time started. It started airing October 26th, 2014. Vanguard G: Girs Crisis started on October 11th, 2015. Stride Gate on April 17th 2016 and the current airing series, Vanguard G Next started airing on October 2nd, 2016. You also have the new series, Vanguard GZ starting this October. Now, compare those dates to the releases of the Clan boosters? You can see that the clan boosters are usually half a year away from when these series start, barring Stride Gate, which started two months before CB03. 

Now, you're probably asking "But you dumb-ass, what does this have to do anything with anything?". Simple, when a new series starts, a new mechanic is usually introduced. A new mechanic that is either not fleshed out or not even given to everyone (Beginning of stride) until they get there support. And in the case of BT, that's gonna be always half a year, or more before they receive it (Or get the improvements of it). This is also barring Stride Gate and the introductions of G-Guardians, we were lucky enough to get that pretty early. Legion? We completely missed the boat. Stride? Had to wait over half a year to receive it. If Vanguard GZ has any new type of mechanic, we'll be off the boat for that one just like Stride and Legion.  Of course, this isn't just a problem with Bermuda, but its most apparent, and it's the least likely of the one's to change unless another Stride Gate happens, but that looks to be the exception, not the norm.

Next. Take a look at some of the popular clans like Gear Chronicle, Shadow Paladin, Royal Paladin and the like. While each set support they get might have a lot less cards than even the smallest of Bermuda sets, they get so many sets to work out the bugs and issues in each deck of there's to the point where not only are they already ahead of the lesser support clans, but they've already took the thrown as the best deck(s) in the game because of the over-support they receive. 

The following list are how many sets the 3 above received and how many cards in each (2016-Before G-12):

Royal Paladin: (93)

1. G Set 6 - Transcension of Blade and Blossom: 15
2. G Set 8 - Absolute Judgement: 12
3. G Set 10 - 6
4. G Set 11 - 8
5. Try 3 - 26
6. Legend Deck 18
7. Trial Deck 18 

Shadow Paladin: (65)

1. G Set 6 - 19
2. G Set 9 - 19 
3. G Set 10 - 9
4. Trial Deck 18

Gear Chronicle: (126)

1. G Set 7 - 14
2. G Set 9 - 9
3. G Set 11 - 18
4. Clan Booster 4 - 45
5. Trial Deck - 18
6. Try 3 - 22

 Bermuda Triangle: (124)

1. CB03 - 45
2. CB05 - 60
3. Trial Deck - 19

As you can see, only Gear Chronicle can match and exceed Bermuda's quantity count, not even Royals and Shadows can, just Gears. But, you can see another difference, the number of times supported. Bermuda only got 3, and one was a trial deck, while Gears have 5, 6 if you count the trial deck. Royals also have the same number of times supported as Gears as well. This means these clans get supported on a more average basis than Bermuda, they're able to receive more upgrades as well as fixes to there deck on a more consistent basis to match what the rest of the game is getting, while Bermuda has to wait, and by the time there turn comes, its too late for it to matter.

It all comes down to when you get support, how many times a year you do and what you receive. Just because you receive the most cards a year, doesn't mean you're #1, or that all your problems will be handled, it just means there's more mediocre cards in your clan that are either trying to fix a problem that doesn't matter anymore, create something else entirely (Will be explained later on) or just outright ignore an issue altogether. And even if Bermuda does/did receive something that fixed a major issue they've had, if in a month or two other clans receive new toys/new mechanic to "Create a new Meta", it won't mean much and Bermuda will have wait almost a whole year to try and mend that issue.

The only solution to this whole circle mess Bermuda is in, is if they got more than one Clan Booster a year, maybe every six months, or stop living in there own world and join the rest of the game in normal boosters. Former is possible, and can be a big profit wagon for Bushiroad, the latter will probably never see the light of day because of that same profit wagon. So in the end, as long as Bermuda stays held up in there own hole, and unless they get something so astronomically creeped (Aka, something insanely powerful), they won't ever touch the meta in any conceivable way.

Our best meta shot

The Sub-Par Card Quality

This, unfortunately, can be taken very subjectively, as anyone is allowed there opinion on which cards are good, and which are bad. Even if its clear as the god-damn sun that a card is either good or bad, but because this is my personal blog, I'll be stating my opinion on this, if you don't like my opinion...well...kiss a cactus (No seriously, do it)

This part will be split into two parts, "The Power-creep effect" & the "Focus effect". 

The Power-Creep Effect

In mostly any card game like Vanguard, Power-creep is a usual thing to drive the interests and excitement of its fan-base. It keeps people excited over new and more powerful and shiny toys to play with and could result in new mechanics and/or gameplay to be developed and further expanded upon.

Although, this is a two edge sword. Just because a game is power-creeped, doesn't mean everything is. This is especially apparent for Vanguard where each clan's clearly gets more support than others (Example above). This is especially true for Bermuda in the past 2 years. Lets compare some cards shall we:

First, lets compare the cover card's or GR's of CB03 with the sets around it.

Celebrate Voice Lauris - CB03
Sunrise Ray Radiant Sword - G Set 7
Shibarakku Buster - Technical Booster 2
Obtirandus - Technical Booster 2
Afanc - Technical Booster 2
Fenrir - G Set 8
Sharhrot - G Set 8

Now please, tell me that Lauris is better than most, if not all of these cards? You can't really. Gurguit trounces over Lauris, Shibarakku Buster offered something super unique, while being a strong card in itself, Obitrandus, while over-costed and in a very sub-par clan, can really mess most decks up insanely. You also have strong 1-2 of's in Afanc, Fenrir and Sharhrot board wiping. All Lauris does is give 3 units 5K and she gets a random crit, and this is only after a harsh cost of having all your units in harmony, which isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, especially when most Harmony units back then (And still kinda now) were very mediocre.

Next, lets compare RRR G2's that were all the rage a year or so ago:

Cetia - CB03
Perimore - G Set 7
Grandvolver - G Set 7
Morfessa - G Set 9

This isn't even a contest. Cetia is completely garbage compared to the other 3. She's so bad that she wasn't even ran when she first came out. That's how bad she was, and she was supposed to be our key G2 in Harmony decks.

Now, lets compare some CB05 cards, starting with the GR's:

Ange - CB05
Pacifica - CB05
Gancelot - G Set 11
Mystery Freeze - G Set 11
Ogma - G Set 10
Victor - G Set 10
Farfield - Rummy Labyrinth
Dragut - Rummy Labyrinth
Mukuro - G Set 12

The power-gap is a bit smaller this time around as a whole, as Ange is a decently strong card on her own, but if you compare to other GR's like Ogma, Victor, Mukuro, Dragut and especially Gancelot, you can see that she's kind of lacking in many ways. Gancelot himself made a new standard for how strong GR's can be, and Ange was released AFTER him. Then the next GR the game (Will receive in ENG) is Mukuro, and while the card itself isn't super amazing like Gancelot, it can board wipe and +1 for SB2, while Ange has to CB2 and hope the opponent has enough cards to bounce back to +2 (And no board wipe obviously). To emphasize again, Ange isn't a bad card nor is power gap as big as it was in CB03 concerning GR's, but when selecting a certain few, you can see how over costed and restricted cards are in BT.

Next up, lets compare some re-standers that came out recently:

Reit - CB05
Ziegenburg - CB05
Bredamouth - CB05
Victor - G Set 10
Laurel D - Trinity Dragon

Sit there and tell me Reit is good. Besides Laurel D who's very questionable, at least he doesn't negatively affect your entire deck just for his skill. Reit? She'll screw your entire game just by using her skill, as discarding 3 cards of the same name isn't just hard, it can cost you attackers you needed, boosters you needed or triggers for guarding. You can say the same for any re-stander, but you're able to pick and choose what cards to discard, here? Nope. You collected 3 of a kind that you'd like to use as attackers/boosters, but now need to discard. Not to even mention the fact that you can't repeat her skill like Raging Rapt can. Now, all you're left with is a re-stander that effects the rest of your game while things like Ziegenburg and Bredamouth exist. Also keep in mind that these 2 came out before Reit. If this isn't over-balancing, I dunno what is.

Here's a quick comparison between cards that can do multi-drive checks:

Raindear - CB05
Gancelot - CB05

Remember when I said Gancelot was now the level to reach? Well, it wasn't even close. Now, before I go on, Raindear isn't a terrible card by any stretch. She can get up to 6 drive checks, bounces stuff during the battle phase, gains some power and can + a good amount. She's not a bad card...when not comparing to Gancelot. When you compare the costs and restrictions associated, you start to see the power-creep effect and how one clan gets the benefits, and how another clan gets shafted on.

Alright, lets compare ChouChou to the thing everyone loves to compare it to, Luard (And Luard related cards).

Tirua (Main G3) - Bermuda TD
Lapria (Stride) - CB05
Tino (PG) - CB05
Clenes (Searcher G1) - Bermuda TD
Platy (ChouChou G Guard) - CB05
Blanche (Key G2) - CB05
Serah (Special Crit) - CB05

Luard (Main G3) - Shadow TD
Luard (Stride) - G Set 9
Esras (PG) - G Set 9
Abyssal Owl (Searcher G1) - G Set 9
Plotmaker (G Guard) - G Set 9
Morfessa (Key G2) G Set 9
Belial Owl (Special Crit) - G Set 10

I excluded Ogma and whatever support Luard received barring what I can match with Tirua, post G Set 9 to make it as evenly as possible....if you can even do that.

So, overall opinions first. Luard trounces Tirua, no contest. Lets go over why:

1. Both striders are good. Tirua can somewhat match Luard in the free stride, and her +1 doesn't rely on a field presence to proc, while Luard's does. But there will be some turns where you can't achieve free stride, while Luard can achieve much easier as the game progresses.
2. This is one area where Tirua outpaces Luard. The G4 Luard stride is not very good, although it'll probably get better in time, but as of now, Lapria is clearly the superior stride.
3. This one isn't even a contest. Esras is so much better than Tino. She doesn't cost a CB and can combo in an actual + with Belial. Tino can't even be ran in her deck because of how CB heavy it is.
4. Another no contest. Clenes is a -1 and SB1 for what Abyssal Owl does without a SB. You're most likely gaining that card advantage back with Abyssal and its searchable with Luard (G3) as well as other cards.
5. Plotmaker is a free 10K shield that isn't hard to achieve, Platy is a +5K shield that trades a card on the field with a random draw while costing a soul blast. Pretty easy to see which is better.
6. Blanche isn't a terrible card, she's decent, but because the deck is very SB heavy, its either her or Listella you're running as the deck cannot afford the soul for both. In most cases, its Listella, but even comparing both to Morfessa, there isn't a contest. a free 5K power up with an on-hit CB1 +1 is much better than a wash for a SB1 while swinging for 11K.
7. This is probably the farthest from a contest in this entire list. Just read both cards, you'll fully understand why.

Finally, I'd like to do a quick comparison between trial deck strides. This might seem useless, but it'll paint a picture as soon as you see it:

Lillinel - Bermuda TD

Tenbu - Shiranui TD

Celine - Neo Nectar TD

Selfes - Royal Paladin TD

Carnivore - Shadow TD

Huang-long - Gear Chronicle TD

What do you notice about these cards? Some are decent, some are mediocre, some are flat out good and what else? That's right, only the Bermuda one is an on-hit. On-hit strides are something of a rare species because 99% of the time, they're awful. Plain out awful. So then, why did Bermuda's TD come with an on-hit while the first TD in the current season (And Gears third TD in general) receive not only a non on-hit stride, but a pretty good stride in general? Questions only Bushi can answer.

Now, I can show more examples and trust me, there are many more, but I don't want this blog post to be a million words long, so I'll let my beautiful readers (You know who you are) to see and compare for yourselves. 

So to sum up my points on this, it is clear as day (I guess this is subjective....I guess) that Bermuda receives much worse cards than the competition, while at the same time receiving less # of set support throughout the year, so any hopes on catching up are dashed. But this could be solved in a simple fashion, that Bushiroad has actually done in the past with EB10 and CB01, and that's...

The Focus Effect

The right idea

Now, what I mean by "Focus Effect" is very simple, its the idea that the less things supported, the more developed the clans/decks that are supported, are. Now, some people are probably gonna be upset at this part (Especially if you love a few certain decks), but Bushiroad -needs- to stop supporting most of the Bermuda archetypes.

Not forever of course, but give each archetype the time, energy and commitment so that each one feels unique, strong and not completely overshadowed. For example, EB10 only supported Duo's. Every single card in that set were Duo's, even the few Prism cards, and the 2 Pacifica cards. They were all Duo's. This was the right decision. Now lets take a look at the CB sets:

Academy of Diva's (# of cards = 40)

1. Harmony/Lauris
2. Prisms
3. Duo's

As you can see, Academy of Diva's only supported 3 main archetypes, Harmony/Lauris, Prisms and Duo's. Technically 2/3's more than the last set, but the overall set quantity was increased to 40. While there were generic cards of course, those will always be in a set, so its unfair to call that an archetype of any type of specific support. Now, when this set dropped:

1. Harmony/Lauris was one of the better stride-break decks. It wasn't top tier or anything, but it could still hold its own when you weren't facing G2 stall decks. It had draw power, multi attacks, filtering and a very strong stride in Olivia. Nowadays, Lauris isn't much compared to the tops, but back then, it was a pretty decent deck to say the least and got what it needed from this set.
2. Prisms got Princess Labrador, Leyte and Princess Celtic, and with the generic cards thrown in, and still played to this day, Spica and Olivia, the deck, while not the most popular in the set (That'd be next year), it was more than enough to hold its own at the time. It got exactly what it needed at the time.
3. A time where Duo's didn't get completely shafted, man I miss those days. Duo's not only got the generic stuff they could use, but they also got a neat support card, for Reit, in Lamry, a very good effect critical trigger and of course, Nemuel/Vepar, which made for another round of Duo craziness. So much so, that it went rogue and topped many events thanks to the amount of draw power they had, and how good they were at the G2 game. Duo's got a lot of love this set...even if every card wasn't the best it could be (Looking at you Meer).

Overall, the set was great, gave Bermuda what it needed, focused on what was important and made cards that were properly costed, not under-powered and competitive to what was out at the time. Now we skip to CB03.

Blessing of Diva's (# of cards = 45 + 1 Special Reprint)

1. Harmony/Lauris
2. Duo's
3. Coral
4. Raindear
5. Prisms

With CB03, Bushiroad pushed the deck count to 5, while only giving an extra 5 (6 if you count the special reprint) cards. You don't even have to calculate the numbers to understand that this wasn't enough cards if Bushiroad wanted to fully give what these decks needed. Now, when the set dropped:

1. Harmony/Lauris received very...mediocre support. As explained in the previous part, the GR Lauris and the key G2 card were very mediocre, heck, down-right god awful compared to the other cards supported around this time. Harmony/Lauris only received 2 decent cards in the whole set, Sparkle in her Heart, Spica and Magical Charge, Vita, latter of which is only now seeing the fruits of her potential. When clans were receiving strong strides and powerful key units, this deck was receiving a mediocre GR, a terrible key G2, another on-hit stride, terrible 8K and 6K Harmony units, and completely useless 7K Harmony units. Just terrible.
2. The highest rarity card Duo's got was a quintet wall. And the card was promoted when the set was released. Not much else to say, really.
3. Coral's support was trash when this set dropped (And it still is post CB05). You tell me if this card is comparable to what came out around this time . Spoiler, its not. Coral hadn't received support since the promo from EB10, and this is what she received. The rest of her support cards weren't really much better. 
4. Raindear as well wasn't completely saved from this set, but it isn't because she got awful cards. She got decent cards to an extent, but she never received a stride until a year later, and because of how different it was compared to the rest of Bermuda, it couldn't really make much of a splash. This was fixed in CB05 to an extent, but as I've previously talked about, fixing a problem is fine, but because Bushiroad waited a whole year, that brings with it even more problems.
5. And then we have Prisms. If it wasn't for Prisms amazing, high tier support they received, Bermuda would've been completely dead in the water for a whole year, instead of kind of dead in the water like they were. I still remember it like it was yesterday, I've never seen so many people rush to buy a Bermuda deck then I did the night and days following the reveal of Sunshine Vert. And I can't blame them, card was amazing and is still really good, even if it power-creep has hit it somewhat.

Overall, compared to CB01, it was almost a complete let-down. It would've been one if it wasn't for Prisms saving the day. Instead of having 3 archetypes getting good-amazing support for the time, we had 1/5 getting great support leaving the rest of the 4 to flounder around like fishes in a net. Its too bad that this was a sign to come for CB05:

Prismatic Diva's (# of cards = 60)

1. Harmony/Lauris
2. Harmony/Shizuku
3. Coral
4. Riviere
5. Raindear
6. Duo's
7. Pacifica
8. Prisms
9. ChouChou

9. They decided to bump up the # of cards by 15...to support 4 more decks than even CB03 did. This set, overall, might've been better than CB03 by just a bit, but that's only because cards were just a bit better than CB03's. This set, focus wise, quantity wise and quality wise comparable outside of Bermuda, was a complete disaster. 

1. Lauris surprisingly got better support in here than in CB03, which was a big shock. That is, until you compare her to outside Bermuda and see what other clans are getting. Then you see it isn't even viable what-so-ever, which with this being her third full set of support, is pretty startling. She actually got a bit of a focus in this set, but I'd bet my Olivia's that if she got more focus, she'd be much stronger.
2. This one came out of the hole. A new archetype created, which is the very last thing that needed to happen, but it happened. She only got one card, but I suspect she'll be getting more next year. Until then, she's just an alternative to an already mediocre deck.
3. Somehow, someway, Coral's support is even worse than CB03's. She only got 3 cards as well, can you even call that support? Especially when 2/3 are complete garbage and very under-powered from even in CB03 times.
4. Then comes Riviere to outshine Coral...in terribleness. She at least got more than 3 cards (Around 5), but when most of them are terrible things like this, why even support her at all?
5. Raindear got 2 cards. Just....2. Why even at this point? Those 2 could've been better Lauris support, or Duo support. But to be honest, they're not bad, but when you compare outside Bermuda and into the top tables, they are.
6. Oh god, where to even begin with Duo's. Oh right, I discussed Reit already. She's completely awful, over-costed, severely under-powered compared to every other restander that has come out recently, and even in the past year. But it doesn't stop there. If you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, I'm overreacting just a tiny bit, just remember, this is a thing. 
7. Pacifica...only got 3 cards. Its like, at this point, why even support most of these decks if all they're getting is 2-3 cards? I mean, at least they're not terrible, and quite decent to be honest. 
8. Prisms...not surprisingly (Okay, maybe a bit) got worse support than last years set. It wasn't terrible, and they got some really nice stuff, but even then, they're not really competing as hard as they were against the big boys like they did last year, but overall, they got the best support and can still somewhat hold there own as of now. 
9. And then we have ChouChou. The archetype Bushi spent most of there time, energy and focus on. Now, maybe if Bushiroad wasn't trying to focus on 9 different decks at once, ChouChou wouldn't have the problems it has now. over-usage of soul, too CB heavy, more RNG heavy than a regular Bermuda deck (Barring Raindear), only has 1 non on-hit stride, so the deck is forced into running cards that don't do much with it, the list goes on and on. Now, I will say the deck is decent-ish, and has potential, but that's about it. But as of now, and for the next whole year, it won't be doing much of anything at all.

See a pattern? The more decks Bushi tries to support, the less focus they have on actually making them worthwhile, and the more chance of them being dead weights. We all know why Bushi does this, to sell to as many people as possible. They know mermaids in skimpy clothing sell, and they try and produce, promote and create as many decks as they can so the # of people will purchase to "support their idol". I'm not against this of course, people are free to do what they will with there own money, but what I don't like is how it affects the quality of cards. Quantity is nice, but not necessary (Unless your deck gets 2 cards as support...????), quality is what matters, and Bermuda right now, does not have that quality needed, and will continue not too as long as Bushi keeps losing focus and keeps increasing quantity. 

Final thoughts

Just a cute picture

If you've read up to this part, I applaud you. Unless you're going to rant to me about how I'm a fucking dumb-ass who's stoopid as fug, in which case..."Points to cactus". 

But to people who like to jump to the end, to summarize my thoughts, Bermuda's release schedule makes it so that they'll either be super early to the new type/mechanic of support, or too late. In either case, it certainly doesn't help them at all with fixing issues, if those issues are fixed 6 months to a year too late or they get completely power-creeped out in the middle of a season, in which case, a solution won't arrive until its also too late...if they even get it at all, which looking at the past two sets, I doubt they would've anyway. 

So long as Bushi is dead-set on trying to support every deck possible, the focus on solving the actual issues, giving them the cards needed for longevity, and crafting a deck that can compete competitively will never be realized until they understand that just because only a few decks are being supported, doesn't mean less sales or overall exposure, it means more people will be inclined to jump in, just look at Prisms and EB10 Duo's for examples. 

That or give Bermuda 2 clan boosters a year, that'd solve a lot of issues. Do it Bushiroad. Heed my call. 

And with that, this long ass post is done. Until next time my fish suckers, I'll catch you on the other side of the ocean.

Unless you can't swim. Then rip.