News: Fighter's Collection 2014 to See English Release, English TCG Approaching Synchronization

The next eight English-language set releases have been announced through the official Cardfight!! Vanguard USA Facebook page, and much excitement has been raised over the upcoming release of VGE-FC: Fighter's Collection 2014 at the end of the year. Due to the nature of FC sets as primarily featuring reprints with few new cards and the rapid release schedule of the game's English edition, it has been a concern of the English-language Cardfight community that they would never get a western release. FC2014, which is set to feature at least 23 new cards with one new grade 3 for each of the clans, has more incentive to be brought over to western shores due to the decreased count of reprints. All of these sets have been added to the official products page, sans set images.

With 37 cards and just 7 known reprints, FC2014 will feature SP reprints of Majesty Lord Blaster, Goddess of the Full Moon Tsukuyomi, Phantom Blaster Overlord, Dragonic Overlord the End, Eradicator Vowing Sword Dragon, Perfect Raizer and Top Idol Pacifica. The full Japanese setlist is not yet currently known, but as no English release of FC2013 has been announced and the set size of Fighter's Collection sets is not necessarily set in stone, it has been variously speculated that the English release could include cards from FC2013 by bumping the set size up to a full 72~80 cards, similar to the set sizes of BT01~BT05. The lack of a release for FC2013 has been a sore spot for westerners, in part due to the exclusive break rides Bleoberis and Electric Shaper Dragon, and also due to the highly coveted alternate artworks in the set for Asura Kaiser, Phantom Blaster Dragon, Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark.

More immediately, VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike and its accompanying pool of Reverse cards are suspected to be arriving in July or August. Eight releases are scheduled for after June, and with only six months remaining in that time period, it's possible that some of these will be dual releases within a single month. In particular, TD13: Successors of the Sacred Regalia and the later trial decks TD14: Seeker of Hope and TD15: Brawler of Friendship are all opportune products to release in the same month as accompanying booster sets due to how they complement the cards in Brilliant Strike and Legion of Dragons and Blades. Another possibility is for the sets following Infinite Rebirth to be released in the winter months following the new year, though this would contradict Fighter's Collection 2014's placement.

With these factors in mind, the annual World Championships--which have historically taken place in August/September through December/January--will likely be held in at least a Brilliant Strike or Divas Duet-on format, with Infinite Rebirth available in time for the finals. This oncoming rapid release schedule will likely put the English card game close to being totally synchronized with the Japanese TCG, matching the goal outlined at last year's Anime Expo of achieving simultaneous release.

News: Ezel and Gancelot to Return in VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike

Early posters and web previews from Doctor O's twitter shocked the global Cardfight community today with the first look at the contents of the fourteenth main booster set, VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike (光輝迅雷 lit. Blazing Thunderclap.) The set's slogan is 「黒き呪縛を截ち切れ！金色の騎士たち！！」 "Cut through the black Lock! Golden knights!!" and its cover card is a currently-unknown new form of Ezel, Aichi's key grade 3 from the Asia Circuit arc. According to Doctor O, the set will provide strong support for the Gold Paladin, Royal Paladin, Genesis, Kagerou, Murakumo, Neo Nectar and Narukami clans. BT14 will be released in Japan on December 12th, 2013. The special conference for BT13 to be held live on September 26th through NicoNico Douga will reveal additional information regarding this latest booster set in addition to showing off cards from the recently released Catastrophic Outbreak.

The new incarnation of Ezel mixes his Red Lion and Platina armors, and is shown prominently cutting through the black rings used by the Link Joker clan to create their Lock spell. Popular speculation is that this Ezel will either be a new Gold Paladin grade 3 for Aichi, or that Ezel will return to his in-universe home army as a Royal Paladin for the Jewel Knights. This is fueled by Ezel's unique relationship to Kourin, who uses the card as the basis of her Gold Paladin deck in the manga, and who originally owned the card in the anime.

Alongside Ezel has been featured a crossbreak ride for Solitary Liberator Gancelot, and a crossbreak ride for "Sacred Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica," the cover card of VG-TD13: Successor of the Sacred Regalia, Misaki's Genesis trial deck. The crossbreak will be "Fair Goddess, Minerva" and will be illustrated by celebrated artist Tanaka Takayuki alias "Tony Taka," who has previously done work for Sega's fantasy RPG Shining franchise.

Reactions to the set's unveiling are mixed. Internationally many cardfighters were left with the impression that Ezel's storyline within the card lore was finished, and that Alfred, Garmore and now Gancelot would have taken the reigns for Aichi's key grade 3s. There have also been expectations within the community that Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark would be the key units to repel the invading force of Link Joker due to their ongoing storyline in the card lore, and Ezel's sudden appearance seems jarring to some in light of that. In Japan however, Ezel's appearance has not been as surprising, in part because of some wordplay that has been lost in the translation of BT14. Both Brilliant Strike and Ezel's previous form Blazing Lion Platina Ezel are written with the kanji 光輝 , so that in Japanese their names are Kouki Jinrai and Kouki no Shishi Platina Ezel. Ezel's appearance was thus foreshadowed by this allusion, and he is the title card of the set as Alfred was in BT10, and as Blockade Inferno was for BT11. The decision to translate 光輝 as "Brilliant" instead of "Blazing" caused this to be lost in translation.

It has been noted that despite some indications to the contrary, this does not appear to be the final set of the third season Link Joker, as the season's titular clan is not listed for BT14. It would be very uncharacteristic for a final set to not include the current antagonists, which implies that BT15 or later will be the last set of the current storyline, in keeping with Bushiroad CEO Kidani Takaaki's previous statement that Link Joker is planned to air for over a year. Finally, Doctor O stated on Twitter this evening that Megacolony would be supported in BT15, bringing with them the winning entry of the original unit card design contest "Unbeatable Mutant Abectrozeus" from last May.