MARCH 19, 2023 – This year’s Springfest had over 100 teams attend the Standard format. There were heavy hitters like Eva and Chronojet ruining people’s day, but I used this Gravidia deck to score 6 wins for my team, and I had a lot of fun doing it! Here are the tips I learned while playing all 8 rounds, and I hope this helps you when you decide to attend Springfest next year.
Gravidia Loves to Rush
Gravidia’s main advantage is that your effects are live in the first grade 3 turn. Decks like Chronojet and Luticia takes extra time to set up their kill turn with crests and orders, but Gravidia can hit with 28K and a crit right off the bat if you manage your meteors correctly.
Instead of the Gravidia rideline, I use Routis as my Grade 1 ride with Combine Rusher for my Grade 2. This combo confused several of my opponents because Combine Rusher has no vanguard skill. What he’s there for is the setup.
Gravidia has no recurring rear guards besides Combine Rusher. Without him, you’ll find yourself calling down triggers to hit with or putting down Stanners instead of using them to guard. You get him out of soul using Bacubirito and he hits 20K on his own if you have two cards in your order zone.
If you play a meteor order from hand, you can call Combine Rusher as a rear guard attacker from drop zone, fixing Gravidia’s main problem of no recurring rear guards.
I use Routis as my Grade 1 to search for Eclipsed Moonlight, a World order for Orfist that we use to call a Shadow Army Token on our Grade 2 turn. This Shadow Army Token has 15K base power. We can use this token to bully our opponent to set up for our later grade 3 and persona ride turns.
The main goal for Gravidia in the early game is to push to three damage. This allows your vanguard to swing for lethal every time since it gains a critical, and your Bacubiritos will get a crit from their own skill as well.
Gravidia Needs Persona Ride
The one card I wanted to see in my opening hand the most was my persona ride. I mulligan hard for one copy, even one in order to set up for future turns. When Gravidia Nordlinger is ridden, you can search your deck for two meteors and place them in your order zone. If you place Neatness Meteor Shower, you get to draw two cards!
Persona riding allows you to refill meteors for your vanguard’s effect while letting you plus for free, all with a 10K front-row buff. Persona riding is a big deal for Gravidia!
Without persona ride, you can run out of meteors fast if you overuse Gravidia’s effect. You don’t get to draw two cards, and other decks will scale in power if you don’t fight back to drain their resources.
The main weakness of the Gravidia deck is its reliance on chance. Even if your deck is reduced to 17 cards and 15 were triggers, you always have the chance of drive checking two blanks no matter what. Activate the full effect only when you’re sure you will drive check triggers. If not, you will waste your meteors and won’t have them when you need them the most.
The Springfest Experience
I had a blast playing with people who came from different backgrounds who played Cardfight Vanguard like me. Some were even local to California and I look forward to meeting again in other events. All of my losses were in the first two rounds. I no-guarded too soon in those games and I did not have enough shield to block their attacks in the mid game.
In those lost games I faced a Rorowa and a Maelstrom. The Maelstrom player drove checked two crits while I was on grade 2, sealing the deal pretty quickly after that.
After those two losses I thought about how important concentration was during a Vanguard game. Most of your opponent’s cards are public knowledge because they show you them during their drive check. Once I knew to concentrate more on my opponent and not no-guard so recklessly, I started to buck my losing streak and won more games for my team.
One of my winning games, I faced a Chronojet player and I attacked him with my double-crit Gravidia swing. He two-to-passed the swing, but I flipped my Overtrigger which doubled my critical to 4. He was on two damage, and the game ended right when I flipped my Overtrigger.
The amount of power you can get from this deck when you hit grade 3 along with your oppressive board wipe is enough to push most people out of the game. When you’re thinking about a deck to try, consider giving Gravidia a shot! Your drive checks become that much exciting when you know you can use them twice.
