Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress Title Booster 02 Record of Ragnarok – Review
More than a decade ago our site got acquainted with Cardfight!! Vanguard, and we absolutely adored what this new up-and-coming card game had to offer. Now, ten years later, the card game has different formats for people to enjoy and it is still a game adored by many. In the game’s current ‘Standard’ format, there have been a few interesting and original collaborations with other franchises. Not that long ago there was a collaboration with Touken Ranbu for the first Title Booster in the Standard format, and we are currently awaiting the release of Title Booster 03 Shaman King Vol.1. That being said, for today’s review we are taking a closer look at Title Booster 02 Record of Ragnarok. This set encompasses the famous character of the first season of the Netflix series with the same name. We were curious to see how the battle between gods and mankind would feel in the palm of our hands.
To those unfamiliar with the series of Record of Ragnarok, it’s all about the many different gods and deities in the universe who have decided the world of man is no longer of any use to them. Because of this, it’s time to wipe the board clean and just destroy the world as we know it. The Valkyries, who form the bridge between the gods and humankind, try to stop this and they suggest that the humans fight for their right to exist. Zeus, the strongest of Gods, agrees with the proposal and soon after a tournament between the strongest gods and the strongest humans begins. In the first season, the show focused on the human warriors Adam, Lü Bu, and Kojiro Sasaki, and on the Gods’ side, it focused on Zeus, Thor, and Poseidon. We did see many appearances by Brunhilde, who was clearly deemed the most important of the Valkyries. This Cardfight!! Vanguard Title Booster also features these seven warriors as the main Ride Lines. The set consists of 73 cards (11 RRR, 13 RR, ORR 2, 17 R, 30 C) and 94 Parallel cards (7 SSP, 14 SP, 73 RGR). The Ragnarok Rare cards are a rarity that is exclusive to this set.
In the following review, we will discuss the different Ride Lines of the set, as well as the Title Trial Deck. For our review we were given two booster boxes of the set, as well as a Title Trial Deck, to have a closer look at what one may get out of the booster boxes, and how the Title Trial Deck fares against other decks. Of course, a Title Trial Deck is often no match against very competitive decks, so we based our test for the latter against other Trial Decks and Start Decks. To get more information on a certain card, we will be linking to the specific card in the Wiki, so be sure to click the names to go to said card’s information page.
For starters, the Title Trial Deck of Record of Ragnarok is centered around Brunhilde. The deck’s shtick is basically to be able to easily fill the playing field when you have placed your Grade 3 Man’s Survival at Stake, Brunhilde. For a cost of two Counter Blast and one Soul Blast, you may search your deck for up to one Man and one Valkyrie in the top seven cards of your deck. After doing so, you shuffle the remaining cards of those seven cards and then put them at the bottom of your deck. With how the deck is structured, you can more than often find one of each quite easily when performing this ability. While you’re not getting any direct power increase from this specific ability, you can easily fill your field and perform more attacks during your turn. This applies certain pressure upon your opponent, and this will force them to guard more. On top of that, the Title Trial Deck for Record of Ragnarok includes all the aforementioned human warriors as supporting Rear-Guards, including valkyries that provide support for Adam and Lü Bu. As a whole, the synergy of the deck is quite good, and there are almost no redundant cards in the deck. Only the duplicates of the Grade 1 and Grade 2 Brunhilde cards are not that useful outside of the Vanguard Circle. We found the deck to be fairly competitive in nature when playing against other Trial Decks or Start Decks. Of course, against D Start Deck 05: Tomari Seto – Aurora Valkyrie and D Start Deck 06: Mirei Minae – Sealed Blaze Maiden, which both focus on removing Rear-Guards from the field, the Title Trial Deck has a lot of issues gaining the upper hand.
When taking a closer look at the booster set itself, there are seven Ride Lines that are important. You’ll have the aforementioned warriors, gods, and Valkyrie that all have a Ride Line and support. We’ll start off by taking a closer look at the human decks, which center around Adam, Lü Bu, or Kojiro Sasaki. Each of these Ride Lines has its own unique mechanic, and the humans also have the Völundr ability. This ability is very reminiscent of Sealed Blaze Maiden, Bavsargra’s ability where she can equip arms. In Record of Ragnarok, each main human character can ‘equip’ a Valkyrie character to serve as their arms. Upon doing so, you’ll unlock new special abilities, that may reduce the power of the opponent’s Grade 0 shields, the ability to match the power of the unit that is attacking you, or even the power to restand your Vanguard in case your attack didn’t hit the first time. Of course, not all of these powers are available for each deck, as each Valkyrie will only support their chosen human warrior. In this case, Valkyries’ Second Sister, Hrist supports History’s Strongest Loser, Kojiro Sasaki, Valkyries’ Seventh Sister, Reginleif supports Father of All Humanity, Adam, and Valkyries’ Fourth Sister, Randgriz supports China’s Strongest Hero, Lü Bu. All of these Ride Lines prove to be very entertaining to play with, but if you’re looking for the most competitive Ride Line we’d probably suggest Kojiro Sasaki’s one. The overall power level is decent and you’ll be able to get a fairly cheap restand if your first attack misses.
On the Gods’ side, you’ll have Poseidon, Zeus, and Thor. These decks are slightly less complex than those of the human Ride Lines. Berserker of Thunder, Thor focuses on retiring Rear-Guards, Godfather of Cosmos, Zeus will focus on an extra attack by restanding a Rear-Guard with Zeus in its card name, and Tyrant of the Oceans, Poseidon will put a heavy focus on getting an extra Drive Check. To achieve the latter, you’ll have to sacrifice your own Rear-Guards, but the deck has several possibilities to recall retired units again. As a whole, these decks proved to be quite straightforward. We haven’t had any in-depth experience with these three Ride Lines, so it’s hard to judge which deck would come out on top.
Last, but not least, there’s Brunhilde, who has her own unique Ride Line (outside of the Title Trial Deck). Unwavering Determination, Brunhilde has the ability to power up all Man and Valkyrie cards, and she can even call one back from the Drop Zone. This means she can give a power boost, as well as slowly fill up the field with discarded or retired Rear-Guards. Of course, as always, this comes at a cost, but the cost is still reasonable. Out of all the Ride Lines in the set, we find this one to be extremely beginner-friendly.
As stated above, for our review we were given two booster boxes. Upon opening the boxes, we collected a bit of every Ride Line, as well as full playsets for the common cards in the set. Each booster box also guarantees one Over Trigger. In this set, you’ll have two types of Over Triggers (not counting the one in the Title Trial Deck), one for the humans and one for the gods. We were lucky to get each version by opening our two boxes. We were unable to construct a full deck by opening our boxes, but we did gather a lot of the most important cards to do so. With a bit of trading and buying some additional support, we were able to easily construct a few decks. As a whole, this isn’t a very expensive set, and because of that, this one might be very fun for beginners, as well as fans of the series.
Conclusion
All in all, Title Booster 02 Record of Ragnarok is an extremely fun set to construct your own decks and try out different combinations. While the Ride Lines themselves restrict very creative builds, you’re still able to mess around with several options. We wouldn’t call this a very competitive set, meaning you’ll probably end up constructing your deck for casual play or for local tournaments. A booster box of this specific set will give you a bit of everything the set has to offer, meaning you will not be able to construct a full deck with the contents of one box. That being said, a booster box only contains 12 booster packs, meaning the price is also a lot lower than a full booster box of the D Booster Sets. If you like Record of Ragnarok and enjoy card games, this one is certainly worth checking out.
Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress Title Booster 02 Record of Ragnarok - Review,
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