Today's Card Analysis: Sovereign Black Dragon Aurageyser Dragon & Cutting-Edge Knight David

戦場を行く。ただ無人の野を進むが如く。

"To the battleground. It will be just like advancing on untended fields."

The Japanese cards of the day for the weekend are two support cards for Shadow Paladin's rebel faction, the triple rare stride Aurageyser Dragon and the clan's new first vanguard David. Illustrated by Takayama Toshiaki--otherwise known for Dragonic Overlord the End, “The Яe-birth,” Galaxy Blaukluger and Great Daiearth--Aurageyser is a stride revision of one of Shadow Paladin's past boss cards, Origin Mage Ildona. Aurageyser is currently semi-unique as a persona generation grade 4 that does not benefit from nor require two or more face-up G units for any of his card effects, and this property gives him a number of uses in different Shadow Paladin decks attempting to take advantage of the generation zone. The only other cards that function in this way have specific heart requirements, which Aurageyser does not.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1, soulblast 1, choose a card named "Sovereign Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon" in your generation zone and turn it face-up, choose two of your rearguards, retire them] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost, if paid, reveal two cards from the top of your deck, during this turn, for each grade 1 or lesser card revealed by this effect, this unit gets Power +5000. Put the cards revealed by this effect into your hand.

Aurageyser was originally envisioned by the Research & Development staff to synergize with Claret Sword Dragon, his corresponding grade 3. By superior calling a Swordbreaker with Claret Sword's on-stride skill and drawing from that Swordbreaker, then her as part of Aurageyser's cost to reveal and add two cards to hand, you set up a net +2 in card advantage when striding over Claret neutrally and consolidate your rearguards into your hand. Counting the triple drive, two additional cards from Aura's skill and the draw off of Swordbreaker, you will put six cards into your hand on that turn. This is offset by all but one of those cards being known to the opponent. A sufficiently skilled cardfighter can memorize everything that Aurageyser has added in terms of (at least) your guard power, if not knowing the cards by name. While Aura does not fully address Ildona's longstanding problem of drawing into trigger units, he does compensate for it by getting +5000 power for each grade 1 or lesser card revealed by his skill, effectively still gaining the power if not the effects of the triggers and during that reveal temporarily turning all remaining grade 1 cards into trigger units that can exclusively be applied to the vanguard. In light of this current brand of Shadow Paladin's emphasis on superior calling grade 1 and lesser cards this can be a difficult sword to balance, as superior calling units interacts with Aurageyser in a strange way by actually decreasing the number of valid targets for his skill.

The incentive to run Swordbreaker does conflict with Aurageyser's soulblast cost. In decks that make use of Phantom Blaster “Diablo” or Blaster grade 3s, Darkheart Trumpeter is also contending for that limited resource, and the latest first vanguard option described below does not move into the soul. This means that to have space for multiple Swordbreakers/Darkhearts and Aurageysers in the same game, one must run Creeping Dark Goat, Judgebau Revenger or Fullbau Brave to build up the available soul. Otherwise one is left with just the grade 1 and 2s in the soul, which makes room for two Aurageysers but no Swordbreakers nor Darkhearts, or vice versa. Running the new move-to-soul draw trigger Howl Owl is an option, but also neutralizes any card advantage gained from these soulblast skills because putting Owl into the soul is itself a negative action. One means of getting around this is to limit Aurageyser to a first-stride utility play. The game-ending turns will typically be spend on Phantom Blaster “Diablo” rather than on Aurageyser, so planning to use Aura only once is an effective means of planning around his soulblast cost. You can run two copies of Aura for the initial stride, four copies of “Diablo” for the two turns after that, and then two of another stride like Blizza or Atmos that can catch the opponent unawares.

Aurageyser is relevant to more than just Claret Sword. Ironically, Blaster Dark “Diablo” benefits immensely from running at least two copies of Aurageyser in the generation zone, as Dark “Diablo's” primary shortcoming is his slowness and utter dependency on Phantom Blaster “Diablo” to function. Blaster Dark “Diablo's” generation break 2 allows him to stride a Blaster unit using any card for the cost by giving that card grade +3, but as a generation break 2 the skill will not come online under normal circumstances until the third stride or later.

This is much later than decks like the Revenger subclan are going off, putting Blaster Dark at a severe disadvantage. What Aurageyser does is address this by getting two G units face-up on his initial stride, making Dark “Diablo” live a turn earlier and allowing an immediate stride into Phantom Blaster “Diablo” just from discarding a grade 0 unit for the cost.

"Always. More than anyone else."

Finally, we have the second card of the day that Aurageyser's been paired with, Cutting-Edge Knight David. Befitting his name, David is a truly state-of-the-art first vanguard with a generation break 1 skill similar to that of Pitch Black Sage, Charon. When David would be used to pay the cost of one of your own retire skills, he can instead be treated as two units, effectively decreasing its cost by one. While Charon requires a Blaster vanguard for this, David instead accomplishes it by being a generation break 1.

With Aurageyser this means that you create a net +1 in card advantage by using David to pay the cost, retiring one card to draw two, and you can reduce Claret Sword's generation break to a net -1 instead of a -2 to pay for a stronger late game offensive. One unorthodox trick the anime series has advocated is running multiple copies of David in the deck and superior calling them with Claret Sword's on-stride skill to grab net card advantage off of Aurageyser without exhausting the soul for Black-winged Swordbreaker.

This is not without precedent. Deletor cardfighters worldwide managed a similar strategy with Acquire Deletor Igor not long ago, and still depend on that strategy heavily. Using David in this way also circumvents Revenger matches using Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” to retire him. However, it comes at the risk of being forced into a G Assist or even gradelock by having to shave off grade 1, 2 and 3 space to make room for the extra copies of the first vanguard, and whether this is worth it or not to make multiple Aurageyser turns play out positively is up to the individual fighter to decide.

Today's Card Analysis: Sovereign Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon

 "A claret sword. There lies a history of fresh blood."

The Japanese card of the day is one of the lead figures in Shadow Paladin's rebel faction, the military leader Claret Sword Dragon. A generalissimo seeking to take advantage of the clan's weakened leadership in Mordred's absence and overthrow Blaster Dark “Diablo,” Claret Sword will ring familiar for the supporters of Shadow Paladin's former patron deity Phantom Blaster Dragon. The Sovereign Dragon is to Blaster Dark as night to day, and a visionary for a different future for the clan.

ACT (Vanguard circle) Once per turn: Generation break 2: (Active if you have 2 or more face-up G Units in your vanguard circle or generation zone) [Choose two of your rearguards, and retire them] During this turn, this unit gets Power +10000 / Critical +1.
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1] During your turn, when your G unit strides, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for one grade 1 or less card, call it to a rearguard circle, shuffle that deck, during this turn, that unit gets Power +2000.

As was predicted, Claret Sword's on-stride counterblast 1 superior calls a grade 1 or lesser card from the deck and temporarily increasing its power, allowing a weaker unit with a utility skill to temporarily serve as a valuable booster before being retired by stride skills. The primary issue working against Claret Sword is the lack of genericized support for Shadow Paladin; the Revengers are the clan itself, and most effective support cards that do not belong to them instead go to the Blasters specifically.

Of the pre-Sovereign Star Dragon units, the card Claret Sword fighters will want to take advantage of the most is Black-winged Swordbreaker from BT15: Infinite Rebirth. Swordbreaker's on-call soulblast 1 to draw will build a net +2 in card advantage if Claret was strode over neutrally, refreshing the hand, providing a temporary base 8000 power booster and providing fuel for retire-based strides. Another potential target is the original Black Sage Charon from BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows and TD10: Purgatory Revenger, who with the power bonus will become a 10000-power booster that can form 21000-power lines with either Triple Dark Armor or the generation break 12000-power attacker Belberith.

Generally the cards introduced in G-LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori” will not be compatible with Claret Sword because these units require a Blaster vanguard, but if your stride target is Phantom Blaster “Diablo” this won't be a problem for that turn. You can use Claret Sword to superior call Darkheart Trumpeter, use Darkheart's soulblast 1 to superior call Pitch Black Sage Charon, and since you have Blaster “Diablo” as your vanguard you'll be able to use Charon's Blaster-exclusive skill to make him count as two units at once, incurring a net change of 0--the same exchange as if you'd called Swordbreaker. The difference between Pitch Black Charon and Swordbreaker is that Charon allows you to maintain field presence, while Swordbreaker maintains handsize. Charon is an offensively-minded play, while Swordbreaker is defensively-minded.

Claret Sword is bringing his own leg of support with him, but with so little known of Sovereign Star Dragon it's difficult to say at this time precisely what to rely on. The promotional card Decipherer of Prohibited Books is one such option; her on-call generation break 1 counterblast 1 can superior call any grade 0, but in a generation break-centric deck with no recycling options where triggers are a finite resource, this is of dubious value compared to simply pulling out a Swordbreaker. Knight of Contempt Giiva is designed to support heavy retire skills, but as a grade 2 can't be superior called by Claret Sword and has to be brought out from the hand. The same holds true for Skull Witch Nemain, an old standby for Shadow Paladin veterans.

In terms of his stride targets, while Phantom Blaster “Diablo” is far and away the most desirable option for Claret Sword's endgame at this time, it should be kept in mind that Claret's on-stride counterblast sets up the otherwise-conditional Dark Knight Efnysian from Fighter's Collection 2015. Efnysian's on-stride skill retires one of your own rearguards to gain +7000 power and an on-hit retire skill, which can be impractical if you have no rearguards in play as a result of the opponent's card effects. Claret Sword gets around this by superior calling a card that can immediately be retired for Efnysian's skill to break even on your end and incur a -1 in card advantage against the opponent if the attack hits, and if you call out Swordbreaker this results in a net +1 to your own advantage and -1 against the opponent. Since Efnysian's skill makes him reach 33000 power by himself, if you do already have rearguards in play you can use Claret Sword to bring out a booster for Efnysian and increase its base power so that he breaks the 41000+ threshold.

Finally, Claret Sword's generation break 2 must be put under consideration. While his on-stride skill is reminiscent of Mordred Phantom, his generation break falls squarely within the realm of Phantom Blaster Dragon, down to its timing. Everything learned from Blaster Dragon years ago is applicable, including its shortcomings, but lets consider first how Claret improves the skill. Claret Sword does away with the counterblast cost entirely to get rid of the redundant costing on Blaster Dragon, meaning that so long as you have cards you can put into play, you can use his generation break. And only costing two units instead of three helps offset the lack of access to Pitch Black Charon for the Sovereign's retire skill. Phantom Blaster Dragon does have access to the generation break skills of Knights Dorint and Claudas from their legend deck to unflip damage with, and can make use of Darkheart, Swordbreaker and Charon, while on his own independent turns Claret does not have access to either Darkheart or Swordbreaker (the latter by connection to the former.)

Thus Phantom Blaster is generally looking at a counterblast 1 soulblast 1 retire 2 for his skill, sometimes at a net -1 rather than -2, and because Claret Sword has to wait so much later in the game to get his skill online in the first place, it's less immediately available by comparison. The major shortcoming of the Sovereign Dragon's generation break is that there are so many other cards with almost identical skills that are able to make use of them without paying any cost at all; Dragonic Blademaster, Battle Deity Susanoo, Dragonic Vanquisher and Charharlot Vampir all receive similar benefits passively rather than by actively needing to pay a cost. Secondary to this is that like with Phantom Blaster Dragon because Claret Sword's retire skill is a main phase retire that requires fronting two rearguards it has a hidden second cost, that essentially takes four cards out of your defenses. Every two units that you retire in the main phase have to be replaced with two more from the hand, weakening your overall ability to defend. A further discussion of these types of abilities is addressed in the History of Professional Cardfight. Where Claret has a leg up over his predecessor is that across several cumulative turns he is able to amass greater overall card advantage through repeated on-stride superior calls, and this can make him more viable in the long term. It simply weakens his overall offensive gameplay in terms of the generation break, which like Damned Charging Lance before it is destined to go unused.

Finally, Claret Sword's lore;
神聖国家の闇に生きる黒き騎士団“シャドウパラディン”の騎士。
血のように赤く染まったその剣から「クラレットソード」の名で呼ばれる。
「力こそ正義」という信念を持ち、騎士団に属していながら「神聖国家を影から支える」という思想に異を唱える。

Shinseikokka no yami ni ikiru kurokikishidan "Shadou Paradin" no kishi.
Chi no you ni akakushimatta sono kenkara "Kuraretto Soodo" no na de yobareru.
"Chikarakoso Seigi" to iu shinnen wo mochi, kishidan ni zokushiteinagara "shinseikokka wo kagekara shieru" to iu shisou ni i wo tonaeru.

Living in the darkness of the holy nation, there is a knight of the black order "Shadow Paladin."
Because of his blade stained red with blood, he is called "Claret Sword."
Believing that "power is justice," he opposes the ideal of "supporting the holy nation from the shadows" in spite of belonging to a knightly order.

News: International Game to See LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori” in June, VGE-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah and Fighter's Collection 2015

Today the English Cardfight portal updated with release information for the international distribution of G-LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” G-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah and G-FC01: Fighter's Collection 2015. All three sets will hit western shores simultaneously on June 19th 2015. The legend deck will notably contain all of the accoutrements of its Japanese counterpart sans sleeves, including the triple rare promotional card Grim Recruiter.

The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” first announced in late January, will introduce the new Shadow Paladin cards used by legacy character Suzugamori Ren in the Cardfight!! Vanguard G anime series. Careful scrutinizing of a promotional poster distributed in early February reveals that the cards teased so far each have partial grade information in their grade circles. The number of bars inside their grade circles indicate that the new Nemain and Charon units are grade 1s, Macha and Mac Lir grade 2s, and Blaster Dark “Diablo” is a grade 3. Furthermore, Nemain's gold shield icon points to her being a card with the Sentinel skill, and Phantom Blaster “Diablo's” card color corresponds to a G Unit.

The legend deck will come out on April 24th in Japan.

Fateful Star Messiah was announced in Japan only last week, alongside the upcoming booster set G-TD05: Dragonic Star of the Supreme Way. The set will feature Ibuki Kouji's Messiah units, a new series of Link Joker-turned variations on the original stride Harmonics Messiah. Japan will receive Fateful Star Messiah on May 29th.

Fighter's Collection 2015 is a special form of extra booster that will provide G Units for every clan sans Etranger. The set will reach Japanese waters on May 5th.

Today's Card Analysis: Fullbau Brave

The Japanese card of the day for February 25th is a first vanguard four years in the making, the Legend Deck grade 0 Fullbau Brave. Both a remake of Shadow Paladin's original FVG and a long-awaited counterpart to Wingal Brave from BT05: Twin Swords Awakening, 2015's Fullbau is a Blaster series support card like his original incarnation. Yet while the first generation Fullbau could only search for Blaster Dark under very specific criteria, the fifth generation Fullbau's skill opens up many different options by pulling out any Blaster unit to alternatively support crossride, field control, restand, soul or stride-based strategies.

ACT (Rearguard circle):  Generation break 1: (Active if you have 1 or more face-up G Units in your vanguard circle or generation zone) [Counterblast 1, put this unit into your soul] Search your deck for up to one card with "Blaster" in its card name, reveal it to your open, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

While this skill is slower and more costly compared to Wingal Brave, it's also not an on-hit skill and can be used to facilitate true control over the fight. Even among Revenger cardfighters that would be unlikely to abandon Judgebau's double Sword-breaker combo, Fullbau Brave gives an advantage; Brave players that can defend through their opponent's initial Judgebau turn can then stride and immediately use Brave to search for Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” and then use “Abyss'” counterblast 1 to retire Judgebau, indirectly turning the Sword-breakers in their deck into vanilla units. On a grander scale this kind of direct counter may not be necessary. The presence of Grim Recruiter in the format inherently decreases dependency on Judgebau to get those cards into play, making room for Fullbau to ensure multiple Grim Recruiter turns that will push the midgame.

The other options that Brave brings to the table include being able to search for Blaster Dark “Diablo” to correct an opening ride, searching for copies of persona blast-based Blaster units like Phantom Blaster Overlord, and more pertinently searching for a Phantom Blaster “Abyss” to secure a restand with. Revenger decks are capable of easily unflipping using Barrier Troop Revenger Dorint and the original Blaster Dark Revenger, so that Fullbau Brave's cost is entirely reasonable within the subclan. Brave's skill can also be used to search for a Blaster unit to put into the soul with Nightmare Painter for Gust Blaster Dragon, or to search for Gust himself after riding the original Phantom Blaster, but Judgebau is arguably better for this because he can search for the actual Nightmare Painters to get multiple Blasters in the soul in a single turn.

Although some Royal Paladin cardfighters will doubtless turn their eyes to using Fullbau to support their own Blaster decks, all professional tournaments in Japan currently prevent this due to the onset of Clan Fight regulations. Under these regulations, cardfighters may not integrate multiple clans into a single deck; even Royal Paladin fighters can only use up to four of the original Blaster Dark for Majesty Lord Blaster's skill, while Link Joker users can only access “Я” cards.

Fullbau Brave's gold calligraphy edition will be presented to attendants on the second day of this year's Great Vanguard Festival in Japan. The Legend Deck edition will have standard flavor text, but a triple rare foil.

News: Shadow Paladin Stride "Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter" Revealed, Legend Deck Beginning Set

The Japanese products page updated today to reflect the upcoming Beginning Set for Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” due this April. Among the merchandise to be included in the Beginning Set is a triple rare print of the promotional card Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter. A counterpart to Royal Paladin's Shrouded Divine Knight Gablade, Recruiter's skill calls a grade 1 or less card rather than a grade 2. This makes for easy access to Shadow Paladin's burgeoning pool of supportive rearguards, primarily the on-call draw unit Black-winged Swordbreaker. If stridden neutrally, calling a Swordbreaker off of Recruiter and drawing is a net +2 in card advantage. This can alternately help fuel the retire skills of the clan's upcoming boss cards, or provide an intimidating pressure unit that gives the opponent an incentive to drop a perfect defense card on a high power center lane early in the fight, similar to how Gablade has been used in professional competition.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, search your deck for up to one grade 1 or less card, call it to a rearguard circle, and shuffle that deck.

Thematically the card is a successor to the trigger units Grim Reaper and Grim Revenger of BT04 and TD10, but unlike those cards Recruiter is not of the demon race. Grim Recruiter may be an early promotional print of a stride from the booster set G-BT03, as Shadow Paladin is to be included in the G-booster and only one copy of Grim Recruiter will be in each Beginning Set.

The set will also include a storage box, deck box and Fighter's Counters each featuring Blaster Dark “Diablo” and Suzugamori Ren on one face, and Phantom Blaster “Diablo” on another. Ren and Dark “Diablo” will serve as the +5000 power counter, while Phantom Blaster “Diablo” will serve as the +10000 counter. The set will include 60 card sleeves, and will retail for 3500 yen, approximately $29.50 at the current exchange rate.

News: Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori” for April

This morning Bushiroad of Japan revealed the first legend deck through a live Niconico broadcast in cooperation with Card Kingdom, G-LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori.” The broadcast attracted more than ten thousand viewers and five thousand comments. Card Kingdom deck designer JacK (@JacK_cardkingdo) released promotional images teasing four cards from the deck, including cover card Blaster Dark “Diablo.” Unlike trial decks, legend decks contain a full four card playset of their main grade 3, stride unit and Sentinel cards. Each legend deck contains 54 cards, and unlike with trial decks can be played competitively out of the box without buying additional legend decks. Legend decks feature the cards of legendary cardfighters from Cardfight!! Vanguard's original run, transplanted into the era of Cardfight!! Vanguard G. The legend deck will be released in Japan on April 24th, 2015. No English-language release date has yet been announced.

Duel Portal has since released higher quality images of the units from initial previews. The deck's cover card, Blaster Dark “Diablo,” is illustrated by veteran artist Daisuke Izuka. Within the clan Izuka is known for his work on Raging Form Dragon, and outside of it on other famous units like Chaos Breaker Dragon and all of the Garmore variants. As the first of a pair of “Diablo” units, this is notably the first incarnation of Blaster Dark to not be a part of the Revenger subclan since his return in VG-TD10: Purgatory Revenger in June 2013. Originally designed by franchise creator Itou Akira, Blaster Dark has not had a consistent illustrator; in BT04 and BT06 he was illustrated by Ryuutetsu, in TD12 and BT12 by Itou, as a promotional card by studio TMS, and in EB10 by Foo Midori

He is followed closely by Darkness Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo.” Generally thought to be Shadow Paladin's first stride unit, Blaster “Diablo” is illustrated by NINNIN, who previously handled Phantom Blaster Overlord in BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades. “Diablo” greatly resembles the Overlord of the past drawn from a different angle, standing upright rather than hunched over and with his double lances fused at their hilts. The background and foreground of the illustration are likewise variations on Blaster Overlord's, harkening back to the world's first persona blaster. Based on this, some fans are theorizing that “Diablo” will be Shadow Paladin's persona stride, activating his skill by turning a face-down copy of himself in the generation zone face-up.

The legend deck will also bring back Skull Witch Nemain as Young Skull Witch Nemain (髑髏の魔女っ娘　ネヴァン Dokuro no Majommusume Nevan, musume can mean either "young lady" and "daughter" depending on the context.) She is illustrated by Hagiya Kaoru, who also illustrated the original Nemain. Based on similarities in the artwork to contemporary units, many cardfighters believe Young Nemain will be the Legend deck's perfect defense card, potentially serving as Shadow Paladin's G-perfect defense capable of unflipping damage during the guard step while there is a copy of her in the drop zone.

Finally, the LD01 will bring back Darkness Maiden Macha as the Maiden of the Dark Night, Macha. Like Blaster Dark, Macha will not be retaining her original illustrator; Hayabusa Yuki has uniquely never illustrated any other cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard since BT04. Instead, the Maiden of the Dark Knight will be illustrated by Aoji, who recently did work on the Neo Nectar trial deck G-TD03: Flower Maiden of Purity.

The legend deck will retail for 3500 yen (approx. $30 at the present exchange rate) and will contain fifteen unique cards, one of those being a G Unit. It will come packaged with a Ren themed storage box, 60 Ren mini sleeves and one Ren deck holder, as well as a Ren Fighter's Counter. Additionally, there will be a triple rare-foiled promo card and a playmat with a guide on how to play the deck on its back. Its announcement reflects the increased focus on the globalization of the Cardfight!! Vanguard trading card game, as three years ago the same deck would likely have been titled “Suzugamori Ren.”