News: English Launch of G-Comic Booster 01 "Vanguard & Deletor" for November

August 5th, 2015. Today Bushiroad Inc. has announced a November 20th launch for the English edition of G-Comic Booster 01: Vanguard & Deletor, which will contain cards featured in Itou Akira's Cardfight!! Vanguard manga. Vanguard & Deletor will feature Link Joker cards supporting Ibuki's "Docking Deletor Greion," and Royal Paladin units supporting Aichi's Alfred deck. There will also be a series of prerelease tournaments from November 13th through the 15th, a week prior to the set's launch date. Although the associated volumes of the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga featuring Ibuki were set to launch this month and in November, according to publisher Vertical Inc. the release of volumes 7 and 8 have been delayed.

In total the Vanguard & Deletor setlist will comprise 45 cards; 29 new cards and 16 reprints. The set will include one generation rare, four triple rares, seven double rares, fourteen single rares, nineteen commons, and six special parallel prints of cards from lower rarities. The set will also include alternate artwork prints of several cards.

Each sealed box will contain twelve booster packs, with seven cards in each, two of which will always be single rare or higher. Prerelease kits will contain 32 booster packs, with four packs being given out to every player, for 28 cards per participant, as well as 9 promotional cards and two playmats.

Artwork published to generate interest in the set shows off Docking Deletor Greion, Blaster Blade in his appearance as Ames (Blaster Blade prior to having receiving his titular sword and having succeeded Yuunos, who became Blaster Dark) in Koshimizu Makoto's Shining Swordsman manga, and Lola (the future Blaster Rapier) of the same.

One noted change between the Japanese and international key art is the use of Blaster Blade's Descent of the King of Knights special parallel print for the English edition; in the Japanese edition, Aichi held an unidentified Vanguard card. Past English-language sets have made a point of editing out stride card backs for standard ones, but in this case the card Aichi was holding was completely innocuous by the standards of the international game.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

News: Leaders & Deletors Poster Shows Gaiden Units, Oksizz Stride

July 22nd, 2015. The first poster for G-Comic Manga Booster 01: Leaders & Deletors was made public today through Bushiroad's official Japanese Cardfight!! Vanguard Twitter account, teasing several units from the first Comic Booster of the G series. Intended to feature Ibuki Kouji's Deletor cards from Itou Akira's ongoing Cardfight!! Vanguard manga, and Sendou Aichi's Alfred cards from the same series, the booster set will also include units featured in Koshimizu Makoto's Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden: Shining Swordsman manga. While Koshimizu's Gaiden manga has yet to be licensed by any western publisher, Itou's manga has been licensed by Vertical Inc. The seventh volume will be published in English this August, while the eighth volume will follow in early November.

The poster most prominently features Ibuki's signature grade 3, Docking Deletor Graywon, as well as Aichi's Blaster Blade. The poster also teases what appears to be a stride revival of Daunting Deletor Oksizz on Ibuki's side, and the Shining Swordsman character Lola--Blaster Rapier's past self. Leaders & Deletors will include 45 different cards, 16 of which are reprints from previous sets, and will only include support for Royal Paladin and Link Joker. The set's tagline is "Which will you choose? To command Ibuki Kouji's Deletors, or Sendou Aichi's Royal Paladins."

Itou's manga, which served as the template for the animated series and first debuted ahead of it at the 2010 Tokyo Toy Show, has gained steady popularity internationally. Most recently the title received a cross-promotion with the LINE messaging system, making Cardfight!! Vanguard manga themed emoticons available to users.

G-CMB01: Leaders & Deletors will launch on September 26th 2015 in Japan. No international launch date has been announced at this time. Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you. 

News: Mixed Deletor Chwawos Revealed in Bushiroad's Weekly Information Bulletin

This morning Bushiroad's weekly information bulletin revealed five cards from the upcoming booster set G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, including a new double rare boss card for the Deletor subclan. Chwawos was preceded by several rearguard support units for the Deletors, as well as two new cards for the Murakumo ninja clan. The broadcast opened with summaries of key episodes from the first two cours of Cardfight!! Vanguard G, followed by a discussion of several upcoming Clan Leader decks designed by Bushiroad's staff and presented by a representative from the research & development team. The Clan Leader decks addressed were Revenger Shadow Paladins, Kaiser Vermillion Narukami, Machining Megacolony and Hyakki Vogue. Doctor O then proceeded with the introductions for several cards from G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, translated below.


Mixed Deletor, Chwawos
Grade 3/11000 Power/No Shield/Link Joker - Alien/
AUTO: [Counterblast 2 "Deletors," choose two cards from your hand and discard them] When this unit is placed on the vanguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, delete all of your opponent's vanguard and choose up to two of their rearguards and lock them.
AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit attacks a vanguard, it gets Power +2000 until the end of that battle.

Deriding Deletor, Awiida
Grade 1/7000 Power/5000 Shield/Link Joker - Alien/
AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Soulblast 1] During a battle in which this unit boosts and the attack hits a vanguard, if your opponent's vanguard is deleted you may pay the cost, if you do, draw 1 card.

Clamping Deletor, Edi
Stand Trigger
Grade 0/4000 Power/10000 Shield/Link Joker - Alien/
AUTO: When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, if you have a "Deletor" vanguard, and your opponent's vanguard is deleted, draw a card.

Stealth Beast, Charcoal Fox
Grade 1/7000 Power/5000 Shield/Murakumo - High Beast/
AUTO: Generation break 1: When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, choose up to four of your "Stealth Beast, Charcoal Fox," during this turn, they get Power +2000.

Hanagasa Stealth Rogue, Fujino
Grade 2/9000 Power/5000 Shield/Murakumo - Demon/
AUTO (Rearguard circle): When another of your "Hanagasa Stealth Rogue, Fujino" is called to a rearguard circle, during this turn this unit gets Power +2000 and "AUTO (Rearguard circle): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, choose a card from your damage zone and turn it face-up."

(Note: hanagasa are a type of traditional flower-adorned straw hat used in Japanese drama and performing arts)

In total the broadcast attracted over fourteen thousand viewers and almost seven thousand comments in fifty minutes. It was not without incident; at one point Doctor O's mic was displaced, temporarily muting him for the viewers. Bushiroad's weekly information bulletins air every Tuesday evening at 8:00 PM Japanese Standard Time. They first began in late January to accommodate a new information distribution model for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as the amount of card information covered in Monthly Bushiroad magazine decreased and was redirected to other routes of distribution.

News: Monthly Bushiroad Leaks Subclan Support for Glendios, Deletors, Seal Dragons

The latest issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine has had its street date broken by an unspecified retailer, spoiling upcoming support in G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon for Link Joker's Deletor and Kagerou's Seal Dragon subclans. Only two new card skills were revealed from the set, Light Speed Cheetah and Immersion Star-vader Bohrium. These two cards are respective support for genericized Link Joker decks and Star-vader “Яeverse” decks.

Mixed Deletor Chwawos and Amon's Follower, Barmaid Grace.

The magazine provided the artwork and names of several upcoming units; Taciturn Liberator Brennius and Seal Dragon Gari Serge. Like past Seal Dragon cards Weathercloth, Rhinocloth and Brocade, Gari Serge is named for a particular fabric. "Gari" Serge is a specific variety of Serge fabric often used in children's clothes. The skills of these units have not yet been unveiled. Over the past few months Monthly Bushiroad has scaled back card reveals in favor of Bushiroad's regularly-scheduled Tuesday information bulletins. Fan reactions to the decreased importance of magazine reveals has been mixed. In the past entire clans would be revealed in the 2011-2012 issues of KeroKero Ace, but the last Monthly Bushiroad issue to reveal a multitude of cards at once was the August 2014 volume for MBT01: Neon Messiah.

Of the units teased but not unveiled, Mixed Deletor Chwawos' name is a deliberately garbled rendition of "Chaos" which is normally written is katakana as カオス Kaosu but is here written with the archaic katakana ケヰヲス Kewiwosu. For comparison, Acquire Deletor Igor's name is rendered ヰゴール Wigooru in Japanese rather than the standard イゴール  Igooru.

Light Speed Cheetah is a base 8000 power grade 2 whose skill activates when it intercepts; by locking one of its own fighters' rearguards that is not currently being attacked, Cheetah gains +10000 shield for that battle. Cheetah follows the trend of those of other special interceptors like Outlaw Shield Mac Lir from LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” and Pure Wind Jewel Knight Kymbelinus from G-BT02: Soaring Ascent of Gale & Blossom. As with those units, Cheetah's skill is not a generation break, and so can be used as early in the fight as it can be put on the table. The self-locking aspect of the cost synergizes with the new Messiah Link Jokers most of all, as the Messiah subclan relies on unlocking units to trigger card effects.

Meanwhile Immersion Star-vader Bohrium is a support card for “Ω” Glendios and Edict Star-vader Halcion. When an attack hits that Bohrium boosted, if her cardfighter has a Star-vader vanguard, her skill will allow them to check the top five cards of the deck for a “Яeverse” unit and add it to hand. By using this early game with the grade 2 Magnet Hollow, an “Ω” cardfighter can quickly add two “Яeverse” cards to hand and set up their turn 3 plays. Bohrium also helps support Glendios' new stride from Fighter's Collection 2015, Death Star-vader  “∞” Glendios.  “∞” places a card from the opponent's deck into a locked state for every “Яeverse” unit his fighter has in play; through a combination of World Line Dragon on the initial two turns with Ruin Magician on the third, and Magnet Hollow and Bohrium used in conjunction on the second, it's possible to have four “Яeverse” units prepared on the third turn. However, grade 1 space in Glendios decks is tight due to already being split between perfect defense cards, Ruin Magician and the unflipping grade 1 Praseodymium. The advent of a G-perfect defense for Link Joker in G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon may alleviate this, as being able to unflip damage through a G-perfect defense would take the weight of unflipping off of Praseodymium.

Next month's issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine will include with it both black and white versions of a PR♥ISM-Duo limit break enabler for the Bermuda Triangle clan.

Images of the issue's card lore section have also revealed another card for Deletors and one for Shadow Paladin's witch subclan; Delighting Deletor Awiin and Witch of Black Pigeons Goewin.

News: Christian Rivera Tops ARG Orlando with Thing Saver Dragon

Six of the top 8 games. Orlando champion Christian Rivera is on the left, in the center game.

The first major tournament of 2015 concluded earlier today with the lauded Thing Saver Dragon in first place, under the command of Orlando Circuit champion Christian Rivera. Beginning at 11:00 AM and lasting over ten hours, the six round tournament saw a payout of $500 to the top 8 cardfighters, with Christian claiming $200 of it and an exclusive champion's playmat. The top 8 fighters included the first Deletor top in the United States, as well as two Gold Paladin, one Blue Storm and one Yggdrasil top. The day was primarily stolen by Thing Saver Dragon, who accounted for three places in the top 8 and a significant portion of the tournament's participants, both as a pure Royal Paladin deck and as a mixed Royal-Shadow Thing Saver-“Abyss” deck. The top 8 decklists are provided below.

85 cardfighters participated at the Orlando Circuit, making it the largest fan tournament ever organized on the North American continent. Some of those fighters came from as far as Miami, more than three hours from the tournament salon at the Ramada Gateway hotel. The Cardfight!! Vanguard portion of the Circuit was organized by judge Harris, a veteran cardfighter from Jacksonville who has been specifically hired for his experience by several tournament hosts in the past. The tournament format was held in best-of-3 with a 40 minute time limit on rounds. Six rounds of Swiss determined the top 8 cardfighters, who then played out to determine the pecking order on prizes.

Photos property of Cardfight Pro.

Clan mixing was permitted at the event. While Thing Saver-“Abyss” proved a population option as it had in Japan, no fighters were observed taking advantage of the rules to run mixed Genesis-Shadow Paladin witch decks. Importantly, while the Spike Brothers' legion grade 2s Bloody Ogle and Silver Blaze have been seen to tear apart the competition in Japan's Extreme Fight format, these were also not seen outside of pure Spike Brothers decks.

The tournament's time limits fell under some scrutiny by the cardfighters present. The most common complaint of the evening was of only having 40 minutes versus 50 to 60. The introduction of legion format has stretched the midgame of each fight considerably, with a strongly defensive and stall-oriented gameplay developing around legion skills removing most damage restrictions. Judge Harris was available for comment on the matter; while he was sympathetic to the fighters' problems, he cited the encroaching length of the tournament even under the current system as one reason for the limits. The difficulty of organizing large groups of players to complete their games in a timely fashion also came into play. Harris suggested a 50 minute time limit with double elimination rules as a future solution, so that every fighter that had lost two best-of-three sets would be cut from a given competition, effectively halving the number of players needed to be paired for every round following the second.

Photos property of Cardfight Pro.

Perhaps the most striking image of the day was that of the tournament's unintended mascot, top 4 cardfighter Joshua Harvie. Referred to during the tournament as "the Teletubby," Harvie cut an intimidating figure to those competing, as he attended the tournament in a Laa-Laa costume juxtaposed with a Guy Fawkes mask. Adding fuel to the fire is that Harvie was extremely proficient with his Thing Saver Dragon deck. When he abruptly won a game after an announcement that there were two minutes remaining until the time limit, his opponent was admonished by audience members for "activating The Tub." Harvie became the first of the top 8 fighters to be put on stream, but was eliminated in the top 4 in a mirror match with Christian Rivera.

Tournament runner-up Brian Villamil carved out a place for himself with the recently released Bluish Flame Liberators. Noticeably Villamil chose not to run Prominence Core with his Prominence Glare copies, opting to run Percival instead. This is a preference emergent in the American pro scene similar to that of the Americans' Japanese counterparts. Percival's direct card advantage is seen as more valuable over Core's neutral superior calls, and the additional critical from Core is much more easily dealt with than that of Glare or Percival's unboosted center lane. Villamil was joined in top 8 by Daniel Pelaez also playing Bluish Flames, but Pelaez was eliminated quickly by Rivera. Rivera poked fun at Pelaez's mass chaining of skills--Prominence Core to Oath Aglovale to Zorron to Ketchgal to call Bruno--that his opponent had "taken his turn for a year."

Note that when going through the decklists below, the copy of Kevin Carlson's Aqua Force list currently in our possession does not have the quantities of the cards he used list on it. As such, only the names are provided at this time.

The ARG Circuit series is publicly endorsed by Cardfight Pro as a professional tournament system. Those who place in the tournament will be recognized by Cardfight Pro as professional cardfighters of the same caliber as those that qualify in the world championships and VGCS tournaments. 

First place: Christian Rivera
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Impact Seeker, Modoron CT
x4 Seeker, Hallowed Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Defending Seeker, Shiron
x4 Honest Seeker, Cynric
x3 Grynngal Seeker
x3 Lake Maiden, Lien
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x3 Great Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x1 Light Source Seeker, Alfred Exiv
x3 Seeker, Sacred Wingal

Second place: Brian Villamil
Deck Name: Gold Paladin Liberator
Grade 0
x1 Flaming Passion Liberator, Guido (FV)
x4 Numinous Tree Liberator, Elchea HT
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x4 Great Wish Liberator, Esus CT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
Grade 1
x3 Halo Liberator, Mark
x1 Light Formation Liberator, Erdre
x4 Fast Chase Liberator, Josephus
x4 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
x2 Physical Force Liberator, Zorron
Grade 2
x4 Regulation Liberator, Aglovale
x4 Oath Liberator, Aglovale
x3 Liberator, Lawful Trumpeter
Grade 3
x4 Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Glare
x4 Bluish Flame Liberator, Percival

Third and fourth place
Michael Housely
Deck name: Saver of Things
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Impact Seeker, Modoron CT
x4 Seeker, Hallowed Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1
x4 Defending Seeker, Shiron
x3 Honest Seeker, Cynric
x3 Flail Seeker, Isbuzzard
x2 Lake Maiden, Lien
x2 Grynngal Seeker
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x3 Great Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x2 Seeker, Sacred Wingal
x2 Light Source Seeker, Alfred Exiv 

Joshua Harvey
Deck name: XXMLG420YOLOSWAGXXMTNDEWDORITOSXX
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Seeker, Loving Healer HT
x4 Margal DT
x2 Messegal Seeker DT
x4 Impact Seeker, Modoron CT
x2 Seeker, Hallowed Breath Dragon CT
Grade 1
x3 Defending Seeker, Shiron
x1 Seeker, Plume Wall Angel
x3 Honest Seeker, Cynric
x3 Flail Seeker, Isbuzzard
x2 Lake Maiden, Lien
x2 Grynngal Seeker
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x3 Great Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x2 Seeker, Sacred Wingal
x2 Light Source Seeker, Alfred Exiv

Fifth through eighth place
Michael Luo
Deck name: Need Prize Money for PGs
Grade 0
x1 Regalia of Prayers, Pray Angel (FV)
x4 Regalia of Compassion, Eir HT
x4 Mirror Regalia, Achlis ST
x4 Regalia of Far-sight, Clear Angel CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
Grade 1
x4 Cold Blast Regalia, Svalinn
x4 Exorcism Regalia, Shiny Angel
x2 Regalia of Well-wishes, Preach Angel
x4 Witch of Oranges, Valencia
Grade 2
x4 Midday Regalia, Hemera
x4 Regalia of Fate, Norn
x1 Regalia of Fertility, Freyja
x2 Twilight Regalia, Hesperis
Grade 3
x4 Cosmic Regalia, CEO Yggdrasil
x4 Midnight Regalia, Nyx

Zarvani Grant 
Deck name: Team Ubermensch
Grade 0
x2 Acquire Deletor, Igor (FV)
x4 Taunting Deletor Goto HT
x4 Exulting Deletor, Maestol DT
x1 Squeezing Deletor Id DTx4 Override Deletor, Olg CT
x3 Marching Deleteor, Maze CT
Grade 1
x4 Refusing Deletor, Evil
x4 Idolizing Deletor, Guim
x3 Breaking Deletor, Gatario
x2 Looting Deletor, Gunec
Grade 2
x4 Greedy Deletor, Jail
x4 Juxtapose Deletor, Gaele
x3 Pursuing Deletor, Egotte
Grade 3
x4 Daunting Deletor, Oksizz
x4 Juxtapose Deletor, Zaele

Kevin Carlson
Deck name: Wipeout!!!
Grade 0
Blue Storm Cadet, Anos (FV)
Blue Storm Soldier, Kitchen Sailor HT
Battle Siren, Mallika DT
Supersonic Sailor CT
Blue Storm Soldier, Missile Trooper CT
Grade 1
Emerald Shield, Paschal
Blue Storm Guardian Dragon, Icefall Dragon
Mako Shark Soldier of the Blue Storm Fleet
Blue Storm Marine General, Hermes
Light Signals Penguin Soldier
Mola Mola Soldier of the Blue Storm Fleet
Blue Storm Battle Princess, Electra
Grade 2
Blue Storm Marine General, Starless
Blue Storm Marine General, Gregorios
Blue Storm Marine General, Spyros
Tidal Assault
Grade 3
Blue Storm Wave Dragon, Tetra-burst Dragon
Blue Storm Marine General, Demetrius

Daniel Pelaez
Grade 0
x1 Flaming Passion Liberator, Guido (FV)
x4 Numinous Tree Liberator, Elchea HT
x4 Ketchal Liberator ST
x4 Strike Liberator CT
x4 Steel Blade Liberator CT
Grade 1
x1 Sword Formation Liberator, Igraine
x3 Light Formation Liberator, Erdre
x4 Fast Chase Liberator, Josephus
x4 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
x2 Physical Force Liberator, Zorron
Grade 2
x4 Oath Liberator, Aglovale
x4 Regulation Liberator, Aglovale
x3 Liberator, Lawful Trumpeter
Grade 3
x4 Bluish Flame Liberator, Percival
x4 Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Core