News: Grade 4 Dragonic Nouvelle Vague Revealed in Monthly Bushiroad, New Beginning Sets for Link Joker and Dimension Police Announced

The second issue of Monthly Bushiroad has brought with it an early view of Cardfight!! Vanguard's first grade 4 unit, Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. As a grade 4 Nouvelle Vague is the face of a new mechanic entirely, bringing with it immense consistency issues by giving another opportunity for gradelock to influence a match, and needing to rework entire deck ratios to compensate for that, but as a reward Nouvelle comes with immense power and supporting units that help mitigate its weaknesses.

Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague
Grade 4/13000 Power/No Shield/Kagerou - Flame Dragon
ACT (V): [Limit Break 4]: [Counterblast 3 and Soulblast 3 and choose a card named "Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague" from your hand, and discard it] Retire all of your opponent's rearguards.
CONT (V): During your turn, the effects of your opponent's Triggers do not activate.
CONT (V): When this unit attacks a vanguard, your opponent cannot call grade 0 units to the guardian circle until the end of that battle.
CONT (R): This unit gets Power -1000.
CONT (V/R): Lord. (If you have a unit without a same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

Originally conceived by franchise creator Itou Akira for Aichi and Kai's climactic fight at the end of the manga's first story arc, Nouvelle Vague (French; "New Wave") as Itou originally envisioned it did not have "Twin Drive!!" but negated all trigger effects during both player's turns. The final version of the card instead retains the ability to check two triggers per turn, and only negates the opponents' triggers, but also only during its own turn and its main advantage is its high defensive base power coupled with preventing the opponent from using most 10000-power shields against it. As Kai used it, Nouvelle Vague did not have a retire skill, but the persona blast on this card is meant to encourage playing it at more than 2 copies as the experimental grade 4 Silvest was commonly played during his time, and EB09: Divine Dragon Progression will also introduce supporting rearguards that reveal copies of Nouvelle Vague already in hand to activate their skills, or return the card to the deck to search for grade 3 or higher units to help prevent the various gradelock issues surrounding it.

Meanwhile, two new Beginning Sets (はじめようセット Hajimeyou Setto) have been announced for Japanese release, VG-HS07: Beginning Set Star-vader Invasion and VG-HS08: Beginning Set Dimensional Brave Kaiser. Based on past trial decks but with additional supplies and promo cards, these are part of regular annual releases made by Bushiroad of Japan to capitalize on the holiday season by providing a gateway for kids and new players to become cardfighters.

Each Beginning Set will come with a 50-card trial deck, 53 card sleeves, a deckholder, fighter's counters to place under cards to show power increases, and RRR prints of three promo cards. VG-HS07 is Link Joker themed, with its sleeves, deckholder and counters based on Яeverse Kai, and Star-vaders Dusttail Unicorn and Lanthanum as promo cards, in addition to a new Link Joker promo that has yet to be revealed. The accompanying trial deck is TD10: Star-vader Invasion, which brings along many essentials for Link Joker cardfighters including the Infinite Zero break ride and Mobius Breath Dragon, units that have become staples of recent competitive decks.

Meanwhile VG-HS08 is based around the Dimension Police clan, with sleeves, a deckholder and fighter's counters derived from Mitsusada "Koutei" Kenji, and Dimensional Robos Dailander and Daiheart promo cards, as well as alternate artwork prints of Super Dimensional Robos Daiyusha and Daikaiser.

The illustrator of these new artworks is Oobari Masami, a celebrated artist who originally designed Daikaiser and performed guest animation for ride 135 of Cardfight!! Vanguard Link Joker. The alternate artworks are full color pieces derived from the episode's ending illustration, showing Daiyusha and Daikaiser shaking hands in front of Mt. Fuji. Both of the new Beginning Sets will be released on December 27th in Japan.

Previously, Beginning Sets HS-05 and HS-06 for Gold Paladin and Shadow Paladin had been announced for a December 12th release, featuring TD08 and TD10 trial decks along with accompanying sleeves and deckholders based on Sendou Aichi and Suzugamori Ren. This is the first year that four Beginning Sets have been released at once. The decision to release HS-05 and HS-06 on the 12th with 07 and 08 on the 27th is likely intended to take advantage of the dual importance of Christmas and New Year's in Japan, as Christmas is the day when children receive presents but New Year's is when they are given spending money to celebrate. Although these sets could have similar impacts on the holiday season abroad, no English-language release dates for any Beginning Set have ever been announced.

News: Trial Deck 12, BT13 & Extra Booster 07 Announced, Koutei to Return to Prominence, Oracle Think Tank to Receive Break Ride

These promo images are sweeping the net up in a fervor, originating on one of the official Cardfight!! Vanguard twitter accounts. The advertisements have revealed the twelfth Japanese trial deck, VG-TD12: Dimensional Brave Kaiser, which will be the first trial deck for the Dimension Police clan. The deck's cover character is Mitsusada Kenji, otherwise known by his nickname Koutei or "Emperor." Koutei has not been seen in the anime since going overseas to study at the Singapore Institute of Technology, and his return likely means that his Team Caesar will also enter the spotlight once more.

The TD-12 tagline is　「 新たなる超次元勇者......見参！！」　"A new Super Dimensional Hero...appears!!" possibly referencing the previous Dimension Police boss card Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha and his transformation into Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daiyusha. Note that while 超次元勇者 would normally be translated to "Super Dimensional Hero/Brave," this is also the name of the set "Dimensional Brave Kaiser." Rather than introduce a new subgroup, the twelfth trial deck will reinforce the existing Dimensional Robo series, including a new break ride unit. Four new cards from TD12 will be exclusive to the trial deck, while four others will be reprinted in BT13.

Along with this announcement comes the reveal of VG-EB07: Mystical Magus, the seventh extra booster overall and the second to exclusively support Oracle Think Tank. Extra Booster 7 will introduce break ride support for OraThin, but notably both the Lozenge Magus on the set's cover and the illustration of Tokura Misaki are rendered by manga artist Itou Akira. While Itou is Cardfight's chief creative influence and the father of the franchise, the third season Link Joker in particular has been noted to draw many ideas from him directly, hence how closely it matches the manga's storyline compared to previous seasons. The extra booster is currently stated to focus on Misaki's manga playstyle, the Magus and Battle Sister series, as well as cards that will combo with an upcoming promo card from the sixth volume of the manga. It is currently unknown how closely EB07 is tied to Link Joker, but the current speculation is that Misaki will be returning to her original clan at some point in the third season rather than continuing to study Genesis, in order to better match up with her manga counterpart.

VG-TD12: Dimensional Brave Kaiser will be released on August 9, 2013 while VG-EB07: Mystical Magus will be released on August 30. EB07 will contain 35 cards in all, 14 new and 21 reprints, with 2 RRR, 5 RR, 8 R, 20 C and 4 SP prints.