Friday, July 6, 2018

V-Extra Booster 03: Ultra Rare Miracle Collection to launch October 19th in Japan

Today at both the BCF 2018 regional tournament in Nagoya and at Bushiroad's Anime Expo 2018 panel, the third Extra Booster of the Standard format was announced, V-Extra Booster 03: Ultra Rare Miracle Collection. The set is launching in Japan October 19th, 2018, and will feature support for the Gold Paladin, Angel Feather, and Neo Nectar clans, used by the three members of the idol group Ultra Rare in the 2018 Cardfight!! Vanguard anime reboot.

The set features 66 cards in total, 3 Vanguard Rares, 6 Triple Rares, 9 Double Rares, 15 Single Rares, and 33 Commons. In addition to these, it comprises 3 Super Vanguard Rare reprints of the VRs, 3 Origin Rares featuring the units' artwork from the original series, 3 Secret Rares, and 3 cards in a new rarity--Ultra Rare Rare. These "URRs" will be signed by the voice actresses portraying Ultra Rare in Japan, Terakawa Aimi, Mimori Suzuko, and Nanjo Yoshino.

The set's cover cards are Ultra Rare's key units from the manga the anime is based on, Tatsunagi Suiko's Solidify Celestial Zerachiel, Tatsunagi Rekka's White Lily Musketeer Cecilia, and Tatsunagi Kourin's Incandescent Lion Blond Ezel.

As previously announced Angel Feather is a Protect clan which can make use of its damage swapping abilities to heal by sending Protect Gifts to the damage zone, exploiting how Protect Gifts cannot exist outside the hand or guardian circle. Newly revealed is that Neo Nectar will have the Force Gift and Gold Paladin will have Accel, preserving the existing pattern of each Extra Booster containing exactly one clan of each Gift type. Although previously Neo Nectar was pointed to as a viable Accel candidate due to the additional circles synergizing with its cloning and "if you have a unit with the same name" mechanics, the shift to Force seemingly transitions them from their G-era play style focusing on large "Bloom" columns to fields of similarly-grand scale. While Cecilia was one of the first subclan boss cards in the original game, interacting only with "Musketeer" units within Neo Nectar, and Zerachiel was similarly Celestial-locked in her first run, other subclans like Machining and Raizer have already been redesigned as mostly-generic support in Standard. It's conceivable that Cecilia will follow suit.

This also suggests that Great Nature will be an Accel clan, as thus far each nation has received at least one Gift of each type. With Megacolony as Protect and Neo Nectar as Force, that leaves Great Nature to become Zoo's Accel clan.

More information will be coming in the July 10th stream, this Tuesday.