News: Neon Messiah PV Teases Seeker Alfred

Over the first day of the 86th annual Comiket, Bushiroad of Japan aired the third trailer for the upcoming pair of Cardfight!! Vanguard films The 3 Games and Neon Messiah, soon after making it available via YouTube. Both films were announced at this year's Great Vanguard Festival, with The 3 Games serving as the live action sequel to the 2012 live action drama starring Japanese musician and actor Daigo, and Neon Messiah as the followup to the currently-airing fourth season of the animated series, Legion Mate. The previous trailer showed Sendou Aichi and Kai Toshiki's return to playing the Royal Paladin and Kagerou clans, as well as several of the upcoming fights in the film. This most recent trailer focuses on Aichi's new Legion card and the debut of antagonist Ibuki Kouji, a friend from Kai's childhood bearing the powers of Link Joker and its Deleter subclan. Due for a September 13th release date that will coincide with the upcoming 2014 World Championship qualifiers, the film is to be accompanied by the special booster set Movie Booster 01: Neon Messiah and the trial deck VG-MTD01: Malefic Deleter. The latter will feature Ibuki's core grade 3, Docking Deleter Graywon.

Although once stated to be set between the Link Joker and Legion Mate chapters of the anime, the most recent announcements place the film after the fourth season. Neon Messiah is to follow Aichi and Kai as they enter the Messiah Scramble, a major tournament involving many of the series' previous characters. Amid this an "annihilation crisis" is emerges, causing the units on players' cards to vanish. Of note, the fighters shown in the trailer appear to have locked vanguards at the moment that their units disappear.

As part of the Messiah Scramble, Kai and Aichi engage Ibuki in a tagfight. In succession the trailer shows Team Q4 and several background characters attending the Messiah Scramble, Ren suffering an apparent defeat, Ibuki and Docking Deleter Graywon, Aichi riding Seeker Alfred and Legioning, Kai and Aichi touching down in an arena against Ibuki, and Alfred battling Graywon.

Ibuki's key card is also shown off in several brief shots, with a partial view of its card art revealing that it has no Legion symbol. The background of the artwork matches up with previous promotional images for Malefic Deleter, identifying the card as Graywon.

Subsequent updates to Neon Messiah's merchandise page have shown that the new grade 3 does not have a limit break or mate, but that its first skill is a main phase counterblast 2 with no other activation conditions. This suggests that Graywon will return to the mechanics of the first season, being able to use its ability as soon as it has the damage to do so.

As no official transcriptions have been given as of yet, the name of the new Alfred unit is ambiguous. Aichi calls it as こうげんの探索者アルフレッドエクシブ Kougen no Shiikaa Arufureddo Ekushibu. Kougen has several associated kanji, but a likely written forms of it is 光源 "Light source." Ekushibu has been variously proposed as a corruption of Excalibur ("Exclib") or a phonetic rendition of the Roman numerals XIV "Fourteen." Some have disputed the Ekushibu transcription in favor of Ekusuemu "XM." At this time CFPro will use the placeholder translation "Light Origin Seeker, Alfred XIV."

Neon Messiah's opening theme will be an arrangement of OP07 "V-ROAD" performed by a live orchestra. This trailer uses Ultra Rare's latest single "Bravery Flame" as its theme. Neon Messiah will use a combination of hand-drawn and computer generated animation techniques for its fight sequences, blending the appearances of units across two mediums. The trailer is hosted below, with translations. Neon Messiah's PV begins at the 36 second mark.

Boy: My unit is...
Caption: Vanguard annihilation crisis!?
Aichi: Every day we share the same dream. The dream of a wish that I entrusted to Blaster Blade.
Caption: The exhibition of the "Messiah Scramble."
Ren: He has a hand in this Messiah Scramble. Please be careful. That man...
Caption: Masterminding the "Deleters."
Ren: Ibuki Kouji.
Caption: Aichi and Kai's tag match!!
Aichi: Kai-kun, let's go!
Kai: Yeah!
Aichi: Ride! Light Origin Seeker, Alfred XIV! Seek mate; Blaster Blade!
Kai: Ibuki...I will definitely never forgive you! Our bond with our vanguards are not that weak!
Caption: Ibuki Kouji's goal is...?
Aichi: We will...protect our world, protect Vanguard!

News: Fourth Laketown VGCS Decklists, Narukami-Royal Paladin Fusion Places Third, Cat Butler Raizers Control Top Two

Original image by card shop Fireball.

Hosted by card shop Fireball, the fourth Laketown Vanguard Championship took place over the 17th of the month, and had a turnout of 60 persons with a 1000 yen (approx. $9.80) entry fee. Preceded by several rounds of six draw and then followed by a cut to top 8, this CS marked another victory for Nova Grappler cardfighters, but interestingly preceded the debut of Cat Butler Raizers at the Second Beast Deity Cup by a matter of days. Unlike the recent Raizer decks from the fourth Tachikawa VGCS and the Second Beast Deity Cup, first place finalist Hideyuki's deck included a more normalized grade 3 count, with seven grade 3s instead of four to five, and made room for its extra grade 0s by cutting out space throughout the entire deck, running just twelve grade 1s and ten grade 2s. His build also emphasized Energy Charger in a fashion similar to Calamity Tower Wyvern's use in the late Dragonic Nouvelle Vague decks prior to their phasing out. Although Beast Deity champion Silver Crow has received much of the credit for popularizing a particular incarnation of the Raizer series in professional play, Hideyuki may lead Nova cardfighters to rethink where they make their cuts and which cards are most important for supporting their restanding strategy.

Third place finalist Black-Rimmed Glasses made his way into the top 4 by uniquely inserting a playset of the grade 2 Narukami Brawler Youjin into his Thing Saver Dragon deck, taking advantage of the fact that Youjin does not require a Narukami vanguard to use his retire skill; so that when either Sacred Wingal or Thing Saver enter Legion, Youjin automatically retires one of the opponent's frontrow rearguards. This kind of deckbuidling is not possible in Bushiroad's official tournaments due to the implementation of rules which prevent players from using other clans in their decks, but VGCS organizers have no such qualms about mixing cards if the skill text allows for it. He also featured a number of other modifications, mixing in a Shadow Paladin card as well with the card changer Witch of Nostrum Arianrhod, to help expedite getting four cards into the drop zone for Legion alongside his Lake Maiden Lien playset. BRG has made a name for himself in the Vanguard Championships, making third in the fifth Fateclock VGCS and second place in the third Laketown VGCS.

The remaining top 8 in the fourth Fireball VGCS included Star-vader "Ω" Glendios, Thing Saver Dragon and two Cat Butler Raizers cardfighters. Glendios has remained an enduring part of the format since its debut at the previous Laketown CS, becoming one of the few builds to consistently slow down the pace of a game by shutting down both rearguard lanes and preventing them from unlocking. In the Legion format Omega has received consistently trouble from the plethora of semi-independent vanguards, diminishing the impact of a locked field.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events. The VGCS model of fan-organized play has begun to gain popularity internationally, with the bi-monthly BeNeLux tournaments serving as their European equivalent.

Fourth Laketown CS
First place: Hideyuki/ヒデユキ
Deck name: STAP Cells Are Right Here!/スタップ細胞はここにあります！
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Regenbogen HT
x2 Raizer Crew DT
x2 Meteoraizer CT
x4 Red Lightning CT
x4 Minimum Raizer CT
Grade 1
x4 Shieldraizer
x4 Energy Charger
x4 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x2 Marine Raizer, HT
Grade 3
x3 Pheonix Raizer, DW
x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Second place: Rishia/リシア
Deck name: Don't Say Kompeitō Panic @Berserk/コンペイトウパニック＠バーサークとは言わせない
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x2 Raizer Crew DT
x2 Schones Wetter CT
x4 Red Lightning CT
x4 Meteoraizer CT
Grade 1
x2 Shieldraizer
x2 Twin Blader
x3 Energy Charger
x3 Jetraizer
x3 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x2 Marine Raizer, HT
Grade 3
x2 Pheonix Raizer, DW
x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Third place: Black-Rimmed Glasses/くろぶちめがね
Deck name: Youjin in Thing Saver/ヨウジン入りシングセイバー
Grade 0
x1 Starting Legend, Ambrosius (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x4 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
x4 Margal DT
Grade 1
x1 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x4 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x4 Glynngal Seeker
x1 Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod
Grade 2
x4 Brawler Youjin
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x2 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x1 Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x4 Seeker, Sacred Wingal

Fourth place: Knight of Stability/安定のナオト
Deck name: Seeker, Media Park Kawaguchiten/探索店メディアパーク川口店
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x2 Arms Dealer, Govanon DT
x4 Messegal Seeker DT
x4 Certain Kill Seeker, Modron CT
x2 Seeker, Herald Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Lake Maiden, Lien
x3 Flash Shield, Iseult
x1 Summoning Jewel Knight, Gloria
x2 Glynngal Seeker
x4 Flail Seeker, Hasbasado
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x3 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x4 Seeker, Sacred Wingal

News: Requiem at Dusk to Introduce "Abyss" Shadow Paladins, Sacred Regalia and Nouvelle Take Spotlight in Vanguard Festival Team Tournament

The latest poster leaks from Japan have named both VG-EB11: Requiem at Dusk's and VG-EB12: Waltz of the Goddess' dual cover cards, hinting at the identities of an anticipated quartet of new units for the Shadow Paladin and Genesis clans. Shadow Paladin's new Legion pair, Blaster Dark Revenger "Abyss" (ブラスター・ダーク・撃退者 “Abyss” Burasutaa Daaku Ribenjaa “Abyss”) and Revenger Phantom Blaster "Abyss" (撃退者 ファントム・ブラスター “Abyss” Ribenjaa Fantomu Burasutaa “Abyss”) are named after an epithet for the original Phantom Blaster Dragon, the "Abyssal Dragon" (奈落竜 Narakuryuu also given as "Dragon of Hell.") The Abyss motif had previously been used for the Revengers in TD10 where 奈落の撃退者 was translated as "Purgatory Revenger" and referred to that trial deck's break ride, Mordred Phantom.

With Abyss-specific support expected to come out of the set along with the new Revenger cards, Blaster "Abyss" is currently set up to be the most supported Shadow Paladin boss in the clan's history, drawing simultaneously from four different subclans with its name alone.

A similar poster for EB12 has identified that set's Legion pair as Regalia of Destiny Norn (運命の神器ノルン Unmei no Jingi Norun) and Regalia of the Cosmos CEO Yggdrasil (宇宙の神器CEOユグドラシル Uchuu no Jingi CEO Yugodorashiru.) The paired units draw their origins from Norse mythology, where Norn was the tripartite goddess of fate, and Yggdrasil was the world tree that Norse cosmology was built around. Yggdrasil has been previously named in Genesis' card lores as both the CEO of Genesis and a goddess of Neo Nectar, and has been implied to have some connection to Cray's own world tree.

The character was previously alluded to in Jupiter's card lore and in the November 2013 issue of Monthly Bushiroad, where Yggdrasil was Genesis' CEO and working in secret with Hexagonal Magus, the acting head of Oracle Think Tank during Amaterasu's absence.

In other news, the fan-run Second Petit Vanguard Festival (第二回プチヴァンガ祭 Dai-Ni-Kai Puchi Vanga Matsuri) team tournament has just concluded in Japan, with a team of Sacred Regalia, Monarch Sanctuary-Zenith and Nouvelle Vague cardfighters taking first place. The triples tournament was named after Bushiroad's ongoing Vanguard Festival events, humorously rebranding itself as the "Petit" Festival rather than the official "Great" Festival to distinguish between the two.

Second place went to a team made up of Nouvelle Vague, Gancelot-Holy Shine Dragon and Omega Glendios fighters, with the Glendios fighter focusing on aggressive beatdown tactics rather than on their alternate win condition. The tournament finals were Regalia vs Nouvelle, Liberator vs Liberator and Nouvelle vs Glendios. Decklists are forthcoming. In all the Petit Festival had a turnout of 108 cardfighters divided into 36 teams, and the total deck makeup of the tournament is given below;

The Second Petit Vanguard Festival Clan Breakdown
3 Dragonic Overlord
1 Dauntless Dominate Dragon "Я"
22 Dragonic Nouvelle Vague
8 Shadow Paladin
21 Star-vader, "Omega" Glendios
5 Aqua Force
2 Neo Nectar
15 Bermuda Triangle
10 Gold Paladin
4 Pale Moon
1 Blau
8 Genesis
2 Brawler
5 Seeker
1 Other Royal Paladin

The Second Petit Festival represented the professional debut of Brawler and Seeker decks in Japan, the trial decks for which were just released yesterday. Although BT16 support is still a month away, the Legion abilities of Wingal Seeker and Skyhowl Dragon have proven sufficient to stand on their own in the new format. Notably, there were also no Eradicator decks in the tournament,  and strong support for both Omega Glendios and the new Duo builds as competitors against Nouvelle Vague.

News: March 2nd Broadcast Explains Legion Mechanic, Raizers and Musketeers to See Support in BT16

Following the end of Link Joker earlier today Bushiroad aired a special broadcast on NicoNico Douga, discussing the upcoming Legion Mate season and some of the card mechanics therein. The program was introduced by Doctor O, with the anime being addressed by the voices of Sendou Aichi and Kai Toshiki, Yonaga Tsubasa and Satou Takuya; Satou confirmed for the fans that Kai will be the main protagonist of Legion Mate, and to Yonaga's distress that Aichi will be disappearing during the season.

When things came back to Doctor O, the viewers were treated to two jumbo-sized replicas of the upcoming TD14: Seeker of Hope cards. The deck's key grade 2, Blaster Blade Seeker, is a variation on the established field control formula. Like the traditional Blaster Blade he can retire a grade 2 or greater rearguard, but this is only when placed on a rearguard circle and costs just a single counterblast as opposed to past incarnations' two. Blade Seeker may require a Seeker vanguard to do so, but this is difficult to confirm from NND's low resolution.

What really drew surprise from the broadcast's 18,000 viewers was the explanation of the new Legion Mate mechanic and the skill of Seeker, Sacred Wingal. Sacred Wingal's Activate skill is not a limit break, but instead activates Legions it to Blaster Blade Seeker by matching up their Legion icons. Wingal can pay a cost of shuffling four units from the drop zone into the deck, to become joined with Blade Seeker as one unit with a total base power of 20000. Wingal's autoskill then triggers at the moment that it has been Legioned, letting it superior call a grade 2 or greater Seeker from the deck.

How exactly Legion Mate interacts with established mechanics is unknown. Legion units becoming a 20000 power base during their own turn was described as a typical attribute of the Legion Mate mechanic, so presumably most if not all Legion cards for this upcoming season will be a base 11000 grade 3 and base 9000 grade 2.

Interestingly, the introduction of Legion Mate may mark either an end or shaky coexistence with limit break; addressing the longstanding issue of the game's pace becoming more oriented around being at 4 damage over time, the only condition observed on Legion Mate skills is the ability to have a Mate on the field. Legion activates when a vanguard and rearguard with paired Legion icons are matched up, which gives their cardfighter greater freedom of choice on when to use skills, and rewards successful timing for using Legion Mate when the opponent is already at higher damage by giving them innately greater power to work with. Conversely, using Legion too early wastes a skill that can only be used as many times as the Mate unit can be played from the hand.

Doctor O revealed several different upcoming pairs of Legion units, including those from Brawler of Friendship and an alternate set of Legion cards from Seeker of Hope, but what drew the most excitement were the units from VG-BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades. Nova Grappler will be receiving a pair of Raizer units with the new mechanic to round out their build, while Neo Nectar will start the season off with paired Musketeer units.

Additionally, Doctor O assured everyone that Tokura Misaki will also be returning with Legion cards, much to the relief of her voice actor, Kitta Izumi. What clan she will be using is unknown. Many fans are clamoring for her to return to Oracle Think Tank while others have suggested she stay with Genesis, but neither clan is currently scheduled to be supported by BT16.

The program was closed out by Morishima Shuuta, voice of Shin Nitta, who asked the audience to help him with the cheer "Ride the Vanguard!" The cards covered by the NND conference will be given better coverage in the upcoming seventh issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine. A recording of the broadcast will go up tomorrow.

3/3/2013 Update: The broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube. Highlights include an explanation of the Legion mechanic at the 22 minute mark, Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal's debut at 23:37 as well as the introduction of Raizer and Musketeer support from 28:19 on.

News: Sixteenth Booster Set "Legion of Dragons and Blades" Announced, Lock on Victory New Character Profiles

The first booster set of Cardfight!! Vanguard's fourth season, Legion Mate, is scheduled to go on sale in Japan on May 16th. VG-BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades (竜剣双闘 Ryuukensoutou "Dragon and Sword Fighting Together") will feature cards for the Royal Paladin, Narukami, Nova Grappler, Dimension Police, Spike Brothers and Neo Nectar clans, and will feature cards used by Kai Toshiki supporting the new "Legion" system. Additionally, BT16 will introduce a new rarity above or on the same level as Special Parallel, Legion Rare. The set size will be the same as BT09-BT15, 102 cards with 8 RRR, 12 RR, 22 R and 60 C cards, but with the addition of 2 LRs. The set will feature one reprint, thought to be Blaster Blade Seeker from TD14. Like in Seeker of Hope and Brawler of Friendship, the cover art for Legion of Dragons & Blades is a single continuous piece, lending to the interpretation that its two cover cards will interact in a way similar to Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal in TD14. What has captured the imaginations of both Japanese and international fans alike is the cover dragon's resemblance to the boss card of the Shadow Paladin clan, Phantom Blaster Dragon, and his past incarnation from the Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden: Shining Swordsman manga.

Left: Guardian Saint Dragon, Sing Saver Dragon (Gaiden.) Right: Phantom Blaster Dragon (First season manga.)

Although Phantom Blaster Dragon was known from the card lores as the former guardian dragon of the United Sanctuary, whose role was assumed by Soul Saver Dragon after his fall to darkness, prior to Gaiden his time as the guardian deity was not shown at length beyond being his motivation for trying to destroy the Sanctuary. Introduced as the "Guardian Saint Dragon, Sing Saver Dragon" (守護聖竜シングセイバードラゴン Shugoseiryuu Shingu Seibaa Doragon) his appearance was visually identical to his later incarnation save for being implied as a white dragon. This was before any kind of official design for Phantom as the guardian dragon had been established however, and Sing Saver's depiction came from Koshimizu Makoto rather than Itou Akira or any of the other more established artists within the franchise.

While many assume that the cover dragon for BT16 is a new incarnation of Soul Saver Dragon, artist NINNIN--known for work on Phantom Blaster Overlord, Vowing Saber Dragon and others--has rendered the unit using Phantom Blaster's iconic tripartite horns, pauldrons and six wings. A similar borrowing of visual appearance was used for creating visual continuity between BT15: Infinite Rebirth's Dragruler Phantom, the most recent incarnation of the Blaster Dragon. This has led to speculation that Legion of Dragon and Blades will feature Sin Saver Dragon as its cover card, either dealing with the history of Cray prior to Phantom Blaster's fall and the civil war, or in some way restoring Phantom from his abyss dragon form.

In other news, the official Cardfight!! Vanguard Lock on Victory website has been updated with detailed character and deck information. Notably while the character section does feature most of the third season's core cast, none of their Reverse cards have been displayed among their key cards despite ample evidence that their Reverses will appear in the game. FuRyu is making an effort to keep the Reverse storyline under wraps for the player base. In addition to the anime characters, the website also features the returning six protagonists from Ride to Victory, along with four new ones. The new characters' profiles have been translated below.

"N-nice to meet you!"

Tenjou Subaru/天城スバル voiced by Gotou Saori/後藤沙緒里 is a "quiet but energetic boy. He's somewhat introverted, but at his best in a fight."

"Here I come!"

Kusabe Rin/日下部 voiced by Ookubo Rumi/大久保瑠美 is a "neat and tidy girl with a strong heart."

"Now what will you do here, with limits you can't cross?"

Tachibana Kazuya/橘カズヤ voiced by Hiyama Nobuyuki/檜山修之 is a "mature young man, dependable and with a burning soul."

"So, have you prepared yourself?"

Kyuujou Erika/久嬢エリカ voiced by Yahagi Sayuri/矢作紗友里 is "a girl with long golden rolls of hair. She's very prideful, but cute while she's at it."







One mistake that did catch Japanese fans' attention is that Kai is mistakenly listed as a first year high school student in the character profiles, when in reality he's in his second year. (Under the Japanese school system, this is equivalent to a Junior in US schools.) Overall Erika and Kazuya have been the best received of the new protagonists with Japanese fans. Readers are encouraged to visit the Lock on Victory website, as an intense amount of foreign traffic may show international interest in an overseas release of the 3DS game.

News: Kai Toshiki to Play Royal Paladin for Legion Mate, Team League 2014 Regional & Continental Dates

The cover characters for the fourteenth and fifteenth trial decks broke early this morning, confirming fans' initial speculations about the direction of the Cardfight!! Vanguard franchise's fourth chapter, Legion Mate. VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope features cards that will be used by Kai Toshiki in the anime, while VG-TD15: Brawler of Friendship will instead feature Ishida Naoki's units. The news was first leaked through promotional posters sent to card shops, with official images replacing their placeholder equivalents on the Japanese portal soon after. The promotional posters also advertised Legion as a new mechanic, each showing off two new cards united by the same crossing of swords symbol used in Legion Mate's official logo. Moreover, a set of promo cards have given some indication of what the new mechanic may look like.

Set to be released on April 26th and 27th as part of this year's Great Vanguard Festival, the promos are new first vanguards for for Narukami and Royal Paladin intended to work alongside the trial decks' new cards. In addition to their basic Forerunner skills, Brawler Fighting Dracokid (喧嘩屋 ファイティング・ドラコキッド) and Vanguard Seeker File (先陣の探索者ファイル) have Legion-centric skills. File's skill activates automatically; when the vanguard gets "Legion" he can move into the soul to superior call a Blaster Blade Seeker from the deck. Dracokid instead has to be activated in the main phase. By moving into the soul, Dracokid gives the vanguard a skill that when an opponent's frontrow rearguard is put into the drop zone and the vanguard has "Legion," his fighter can counterblast 1 and retire an opponent's unit on the same column as the retired card. The way that these cards are worded defines Legion as a quality any unit can have or have taken away, like Twin Drive!! or Boost, but also specifies particular benefits for the vanguard receiving it, and these units also give Legion a specific icon in the shape of a shield made up of crossed swords like that shown in other promotional materials.

Note that since neither promo card is subclan or clan dependent, they do not necessarily have to be used with Brawler or Seeker vanguards, or even units of the same clan. All they require is that the vanguard have Legion. Currently it's presumed that Blaster Blade Seeker will have an on-call retire skill like past incarnations of Blaster Blade, and because File exchanges himself for a copy of Blade Seeker while Fighting Dracokid does not give anything but a retire skill, the cards are balanced around the idea that Dracokid causes the user to lose one card in advantage while the opponent's loses two where File does not cost card advantage and in exchange the Seeker he calls can only take away one card. If multiple retire skills can be triggered in one turn however, Dracokid can snowball more effectively by retiring two cards on his own in addition to what was accomplished with other skills. Furthermore, putting him in the soul can contribute towards Rising Phoenix's soulblast-to-draw skill. These extended combos specifically depend on being able to access other retire skills for less than 2 counterblast in the first place however, could not function with break ride skills due to the timing involved and can only last for a single turn.

Accounting for how posters have advertised Legion as connecting two cards, the contiguous Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal artwork, a similar design pattern for Skybeat and Skyhowl Dragon, and the literal reading of Legion's kanji 双闘 as "fighting as a pair," Legion itself seems to be built on the idea of tagging two cards together to work at once. Thus the mechanic both enables the abilities of certain cards as with File and Fighting Dracokid, and can be made useful on its own. The fact that Legion has to be received to use it at all suggests that there are restrictions on when and how many times a unit may get Legion per game.

In international news, the upcoming Team League 2014 has had some of its terminology modified. What were previously identified as national championships are now being called regional championships, and what were called regionals are now being referred to as continental championships. This answers some of the confusion surrounding the idea that League 2014 was previously touting, that the national tournaments for each country would serve as qualifiers for regionals, which to many veteran fighters sounds like a paradoxical inversion of the established tournament structure; qualifying for a smaller event at a larger one. With the change in terminology has also come the dates for the upcoming tournaments, with regionals picking up in April and lasting through July while the continental tournaments will be in July. Specific dates can be found on the official Cardfight portal.

Team League 2014 is a triples format for the English-language Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG, with each team taking the side of either the Cray Defenders protecting the planet from attack or the Void Invaders seeking to conquer it with the otherworldly power of Lock and Reverse. Invader teams are required to play either with Link Joker or "Яeverse" cards empowered by the Void, while Defender teams are banned from using these cards and must fight back with their natural abilities.

News: First Images of TD14 and TD15 Made Public, Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal Previewed

New promotional images for the upcoming VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope and TD15: Brawler of Friendship are now in circulation, showing off some of the trial decks' illustrations. The Beginning Set prints of the trial decks are the main focus of these promo images, advertising them as TD14+ and TD15+. In addition to the standard trial decks, the Beginning Sets will also include 53 card sleeves and a storage case, a Fighter's Count in denominations of +5000 as well as three promotional cards and a promo card pack.

Interestingly, franchise artist and Blaster Blade's original designer Itou Akira did not illustrate the new Blaster Blade Seeker artwork. The illustration was instead handled by Ryuutetsu, who has worked with Itou previously on Blaster Blade's Descent of the King of Knights RRR alternate artwork, as well as on both Blaster Spirits, the original Blaster Dark artwork and other projects. In the artwork Blaster Blade Seeker is accompanied by a much more grown up Wingal; while Blaster Blade is unchanged from his original design, Wingal's dramatic transformation has given him deer-like qualities, and a ring of magatama around his sword's hilt. The use of magatama is surprising and somewhat out of place; the franchise normally associates them with the Oracle Think Tank clan and Amaterasu specifically, while in the real world magatama are jewels of ancient Japanese origin and in art associated with birth as well as the Shinto religion. Their use here may be connected to Wingal's new title as "Seeker, Sacred Wingal."

Brawler of Friendship's promotional art was done by Suzukigorou, known for illustrating Spectral Duke Dragon in 2012, Nebula Lord Dragon in 2013 and most recently both Dauntless Drive Dragon and his Reverse card, Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я.” The new Brawler units do not seem to recall any specific Narukami predecessors, although their general silhouette echoes most of Suzukigorou's previous work.

News: Trial Decks 14 & 15 Announced, Royal Paladins to Return for Legion Mate, Catastrophic Outbreak Sees English Release Date

Early this morning the Japanese cf-vanguard portal updated with information on two upcoming trial decks for the fourth season of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime, Legion Mate. To be released on April 18, the 50-card preconstructed decks VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope (希望の探索者(シーカー) Kibou no Tansakumono (Shiikaa)) and VG-TD15: Brawler of Friendship (友情の喧嘩屋(ブロウラー) Yuujyou no Kenkaya (Burouraa)) will each introduce 17 new cards, with three foils in each TD, one RRR and two R-rarity cards. Unlike with past TDs which were reprinted later in the year of their introduction, both decks will launch alongside their Beginning Set equivalents, which will have the same contents but with RRR reprints of Claudia, Spark Kid Dragoon and two Royal Paladin and Narukami units from the as of yet untitled BT16. The Beginning Sets will also come with 53 official sleeves, a deckholder, a Fighter's Counter used to show power increases on cards, and a Cardfight Pack Vol. 13 with a random promo card inside. While TD14 & 15 will retail for 1000 yen each, their equivalent Beginning Sets will instead retail for 2400 yen. Unlike with past decks, there are currently no accompanying promotional images of the sets, leading to some speculation as to which characters will be using Royal Paladin and Narukami for Legion Mate.

Currently it is known that TD14 will feature "Seeker, Sacred Wingal" "Blaster Blade Seeker" and "Splendid Seeker, Cerdic" while TD15 will feature "Brawler, Skybeat Dragon" "Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon" and "Brawler, Wildfist Dragon." Based on the return of Wingal and Blaster Blade, TD14 is widely believed to be Sendou Aichi's trial deck for Legion Mate, but the seemingly deliberate ambiguity surrounding the deck and the presence of the young Kai's first vanguard, Claudia, in Beginning Set 14 has some Japanese fans speculating that Kai Toshiki will be picking up Royal Paladin for the fourth season, coming back to the clan that he used in his origin story Episode 0, and that Aichi will be missing for the beginning of Legion Mate. Regardless of who TD14 belongs to, the general consensus is that TD15's Brawlers are designed around Ishida Naoki's character traits.

The trial decks will introduce a new mechanic, dubbed "Legion" (双闘 Soutou レギオン Region pronounced in Japanese with a hard g sound.) This is distinct from the idea of a legion as a subclan, using the kanji for "pair" and "fight" together with an English reading. The details of Legion's function are as of yet unknown, but based on the reading of it as "fighting together/fighting as pairs" it has been variously interpreted as either letting units from different subclans interact or letting entirely different clans function together.

On our side of the water a release for VGE-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak is finally in sight, with the stated release date of May 2 bringing the set worldwide in time for Team League 2014. BT13 is most noted for its introduction of Chaos Break Dragon, widely regarded as Link Joker's optimal grade 3 second only to Infinite Zero Dragon in importance, and secondarily for the return of the much-awaited Nubatama clan and their combination of bind and discard mechanics.The set's Reverse cards, Dark Dimensional Robo "Я" Daiyusha, and Deadliest Beast Deity Ethics Buster "Я" have likewise embedded themselves in competitive play as definitive decks for their clans in professional play, with Ethics "Я" most recently making the headlines in a combination deck alongside Ethics Buster Extreme.