News: Grade 4 Dragonic Nouvelle Vague Revealed in Monthly Bushiroad, New Beginning Sets for Link Joker and Dimension Police Announced

The second issue of Monthly Bushiroad has brought with it an early view of Cardfight!! Vanguard's first grade 4 unit, Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. As a grade 4 Nouvelle Vague is the face of a new mechanic entirely, bringing with it immense consistency issues by giving another opportunity for gradelock to influence a match, and needing to rework entire deck ratios to compensate for that, but as a reward Nouvelle comes with immense power and supporting units that help mitigate its weaknesses.

Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague
Grade 4/13000 Power/No Shield/Kagerou - Flame Dragon
ACT (V): [Limit Break 4]: [Counterblast 3 and Soulblast 3 and choose a card named "Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague" from your hand, and discard it] Retire all of your opponent's rearguards.
CONT (V): During your turn, the effects of your opponent's Triggers do not activate.
CONT (V): When this unit attacks a vanguard, your opponent cannot call grade 0 units to the guardian circle until the end of that battle.
CONT (R): This unit gets Power -1000.
CONT (V/R): Lord. (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Originally conceived by franchise creator Itou Akira for Aichi and Kai's climactic fight at the end of the manga's first story arc, Nouvelle Vague (French; "New Wave") as Itou originally envisioned it did not have "Twin Drive!!" but negated all trigger effects during both player's turns. The final version of the card instead retains the ability to check two triggers per turn, and only negates the opponents' triggers, but also only during its own turn and its main advantage is its high defensive base power coupled with preventing the opponent from using most 10000-power shields against it. As Kai used it, Nouvelle Vague did not have a retire skill, but the persona blast on this card is meant to encourage playing it at more than 2 copies as the experimental grade 4 Silvest was commonly played during his time, and EB09: Divine Dragon Progression will also introduce supporting rearguards that reveal copies of Nouvelle Vague already in hand to activate their skills, or return the card to the deck to search for grade 3 or higher units to help prevent the various gradelock issues surrounding it.

Meanwhile, two new Beginning Sets (はじめようセット Hajimeyou Setto) have been announced for Japanese release, VG-HS07: Beginning Set Star-vader Invasion and VG-HS08: Beginning Set Dimensional Brave Kaiser. Based on past trial decks but with additional supplies and promo cards, these are part of regular annual releases made by Bushiroad of Japan to capitalize on the holiday season by providing a gateway for kids and new players to become cardfighters.

Each Beginning Set will come with a 50-card trial deck, 53 card sleeves, a deckholder, fighter's counters to place under cards to show power increases, and RRR prints of three promo cards. VG-HS07 is Link Joker themed, with its sleeves, deckholder and counters based on Яeverse Kai, and Star-vaders Dusttail Unicorn and Lanthanum as promo cards, in addition to a new Link Joker promo that has yet to be revealed. The accompanying trial deck is TD10: Star-vader Invasion, which brings along many essentials for Link Joker cardfighters including the Infinite Zero break ride and Mobius Breath Dragon, units that have become staples of recent competitive decks.

Meanwhile VG-HS08 is based around the Dimension Police clan, with sleeves, a deckholder and fighter's counters derived from Mitsusada "Koutei" Kenji, and Dimensional Robos Dailander and Daiheart promo cards, as well as alternate artwork prints of Super Dimensional Robos Daiyusha and Daikaiser.

The illustrator of these new artworks is Oobari Masami, a celebrated artist who originally designed Daikaiser and performed guest animation for ride 135 of Cardfight!! Vanguard Link Joker. The alternate artworks are full color pieces derived from the episode's ending illustration, showing Daiyusha and Daikaiser shaking hands in front of Mt. Fuji. Both of the new Beginning Sets will be released on December 27th in Japan.

Previously, Beginning Sets HS-05 and HS-06 for Gold Paladin and Shadow Paladin had been announced for a December 12th release, featuring TD08 and TD10 trial decks along with accompanying sleeves and deckholders based on Sendou Aichi and Suzugamori Ren. This is the first year that four Beginning Sets have been released at once. The decision to release HS-05 and HS-06 on the 12th with 07 and 08 on the 27th is likely intended to take advantage of the dual importance of Christmas and New Year's in Japan, as Christmas is the day when children receive presents but New Year's is when they are given spending money to celebrate. Although these sets could have similar impacts on the holiday season abroad, no English-language release dates for any Beginning Set have ever been announced.