News: Neo Nectar Stride Previewed at Kanazawa, Doctor O Reveals Flower Maiden of Ranunculus Aasha

Eleven hours ago Doctor O revealed the cover card for G-TD03: Flower Maiden of Purity over Twitter, Flower Maiden of Ranunculus Aasha. Previously revealed to audiences at the Fighter's Climax 2014 Kanazawa regional qualifier, Aasha is the new face of Neo Nectar in the ongoing anime series Cardfight!! Vanguard G and a key card for supporting character Anjou Tokoha. Her on-stride skill, activated by striding a grade 4 unit over her from the generation zone, costs a single counterblast and searches the deck for a copy of any rearguard on the field to call, then gives the called unit +2000 power for that turn.

Since this skill activates during the stride step, between the ride phase and the main phase, the rearguards that will act as targets for Aasha's skill have to be called on the turn before in order for the skill to be used. Aasha's timing is sensitive, similar to the Vortimer evolution line from two years ago. The reward for setting up her skill is significant; Aasha's generation break 2 gives every unit on the field a skill that it gets +5000 power if there is another unit in play with the same name, so that with three Aashas in play and three of the same 7000-power booster, every column will have 28000 power. With Aasha's on-stride skill and the new first vanguard Oz's generation break 1, searching out copies of boosting units is easy, but the problem comes in when trying to search for cards whose grade is greater than 2. In many situations, Neo Nectar fighters will have to concede to only having two matching grade 2 rearguards with 26~28000 power, while the center lane will vary between 18000 and 23000 power.

Being limited to having just four copies of each unit and the necessity of having multiple copies in play makes Aasha especially susceptible to the column-retiring skills of Perdition Dragon units, along with Kagerou's primary stride Route Flare Dragon. Not even having the new Resist skill will protect those columns, because Route Flare does not target the units with Resist specifically.

According to those that attended the event, the grade 4 for Flower Maiden of  Purity is similar to Gablade and Vict Ten from past sets, a G unit with an on-hit skill. Neo Nectar's unnamed stride can superior call a copy of any rearguard on the field from the deck when its attack hits a vanguard.

Doctor O also revealed a new stand trigger for the clan, Maiden of Daybreak. This card's generation break 1 allows you to return her to the deck when she's called to the rearguard, then choose a unit and give two units with the same name as it to get +5000 power each. Because of how this text is worded, Daybreak can make one of her two chosen units to receive power be the same unit as was chosen to designate the name of units targeted. (She does not specify two units different from the one initially selected.)

Daybreak's -1 in card advantage is offset by forcing the opponent to expend additional shield on each attack, and gives a trigger recycling option outside of using legion support. Stands synergize strongly with the massive power boosts from Aasha and Daybreak, especially with Neo Nectar receiving more options for building card advantage over time that help the deck become independent of reliance on draw triggers.

Aasha's existence was hinted at in a recent promotional campaign, where copies of Maiden of Cultivation Padmini autographed by Tokoha's voice actor Nitta Emi were distributed as promo cards. Padmini is a Steam Breath Dragon variant, getting +2 grade when discarded to pay for the cost of stride so that she can effectively act as a grade 3 unit, and when called to the rearguard Padmini allows her fighter to discard a grade 3 to search the deck for a grade 3 with Ranunculus in its card name.

Padmini will see her formal release in Flower Maiden of Purity, and like her predecessors Steam Breath and Cecilus in G-BT01, may also see a reprint in the accompanying booster set G-BT02: Flying Flowers.

Revealed Card Translations

Maiden of Daybreak
Auto Generation Break 1 (This ability is active if you have one or more face up G units on your vanguard circle and/or generation zone): [Put this unit on the top of your deck] When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your units, and if chosen then choose up to two units with the same name as that unit, during this turn they get Power +5000, and shuffle your deck.

Flower Maiden of Ranunculus, Aasha
Continuous (Vanguard circle) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G units on your vanguard circle and/or generation zone): All of your units gain "Continuous (Vanguard/Rearguard): During your turn, if you have a unit with the same name as this card in your vanguard or rearguard circles, this card gets Power +5000."
Auto (Vanguard): [Counterblast 1] During your turn, when your G unit strides, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your rearguards, search your deck for a card with the same name as that unit, call it to a rearguard circle, and shuffle that deck. During this turn, the unit called by this effect gets Power +2000.