News: VGE-TD03 & 04, VGE-BT05 Announced

Over the weekend Bushiroad unveiled the upcoming English releases of trial decks 3 and 4, for the Nova Grappler and Oracle Think Tank clans. Theirs is the most celebrated release yet to come out of 2013, as these decks were once a point of contention for many cardfighters who felt that the clans' focal TDs were being passed over in favor of limit break. Set for global distribution on January 23, 2013, each deck features exclusive cards that have already embedded themselves in specific Japanese builds across the sea.

 

Gold Rutile of VGE-TD03: Golden Mechanical Soldier is noted primarily for his ability to unflip damage in the vanguard circle, unflipping one damage with every successful rearguard attack landed. This combos well with Super Electromagnetic Being, Storm, who innately unflips one damage when his own attack hits, allowing up to two cards to be turned face-up per attack; that ties back to Rutile's other skill, which stands a rearguard for a counterblast 2. So in some setups, Rutile can create a four-attack combo while losing no counterblast in a turn.

The TD is additionally noted for its Oasis Girl exclusive, who can repeat her counterblast 1 up to five times to gain +1000 power again and again, comboing with the aforementioned damage unflip skills, as well as other Nova Grappler unflippers like Claydoll Mechanic or Hungry Dumpty to create consistent lines of 20-25000 power.

VGE-TD04: Maiden Princess of the Cherry Blossoms has two similarly noted cards, Goddess of Flower Divination Sakuya and Dark Cat. Sakuya returns all OraThin cards on the field to her fighter's hand when ridden, allowing the reuse of on-call skills and the free rearrangement of the field. The Goddess also continuously gains +4000 power on her fighter's turn if there are four or more cards in hand, making for an easy 21000+ vanguard line while also turning any draw trigger into an artificial +9000. Dark Cat is a more rearguard-oriented card, which lets all fighters draw one card when it's called. This advantage can quickly snowball for the turn player even in spite of how it contributes to the opponent's hand. Both traditional OraThin and Tsukuyomi fighters have something to invest in, as TD04 is a viable starting point for any new player, and its exclusives are valued for their ability to shave cards from the deck to reach a Godhawk-Tsukuyomi built stack of triggers.

The deck also includes four alternate artwork Lozenge Magus heal triggers, both as a First VaNguard for those cardfighters who prefer a traditional OraThin build over Tsukuyomi or CoCo, and as a starting point for other Think Tank decks.


Alongside these Bushiroad also confirmed VGE-BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades for a February 23, 2013 release. The set is praised for its introduction of a new Blaster-oriented play style for the Royal Paladins and a concentrated vanguard Dragonic Overlord deck to Kageoru, while giving the Shadow Paladins further definition. However, these same qualities have been faced with criticism for bringing about the crossride mechanics that now pervade the Japanese scene, using 13000-power vanguard defense as bunker tactics against assault, while also rendering most 6000-power boosting units heavily mollified. How crossride will interact with the currently-omnipresent limit break mechanics and Gold Paladin dominance in the EN scene is a highly anticipated topic. The set remains a controversial part of Cardfight's history, having come in to interrupt a competitive scene that at the time was regarded as the most balanced format since BT01.

Aside from these, BT05 will also bring the English scene the original Neo Nectar cards, a new clan focused on growing one's field like a garden while also being the cheapest competitive deck available. The new ninja clan Murakumo will see its proper introduction here, despite originally debuting in EB01 of the Japanese scene.