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: Extra Boosters 8 & 9 Announced, Stern Blaukluger to Recieve Crossride, Grade 4 to be Printed for Kagerou

This morning Doctor O  unveiled a new pair of extra booster sets through Twitter, VG-EB08: Champions of the Galaxy 「銀河の闘士」 and VG-EB09: Divine Dragon Progression. EB08 will be released on November 15th, while EB09 will be released on November 22nd. EB08 will feature cards exclusively for Nova Grappler, including long-awaited crossrides for Asura Kaiser and Stern Blaukluger, and cards from the manga.

Historically these two were the Novas' primary competitive vanguards prior to the Beast Deities taking over, and EB09 will conclude Asura Kaiser's long search for a supporting grade 3. Described as "the perfect booster for people just starting or have been fans for years!" EB08 will allow Nova Grappler cardfighters to build decks "of Real Robots based on the Blau Series," suggesting that these decks will consist solely of Blau support units in a revitalization of their BT04 play style.

EB08 will contain 17 reprints with 18 new cards for a total of 35 cards in all. In addition to a crossride for the legendary Asura Kaiser, the set also advertises "friends of Asura Kaiser" pointing to a supporting build for the deck comparable to Stern's. The set will contain 3 RRR/5 RR/8 R/19 C and 4 Special Parallel cards, in contrast to past extra boosters which have only provided 2 SPs per set with 2 RRR units.

Like Mystical Magus before it, VG-EB09: Divine Dragon Progression will feature primarily cards from the manga, this time focusing on Kai Toshiki's Kagerou cards from chapters 17-25. Gaiarth Dragon and Cruel Dragon are confirmed to be printed in the set, along with reprints of Berserk Dragon and Bellicosity Dragon. Most surprisingly of all, Kai's grade 4 "Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague" will be printed in the set. Gaiarth Dragon (a portmanteau of "Gaia" and "Earth") was originally known as the grade 2 Dragonic Gaiarth in the manga, and unlike most grade 2s had the boost ability instead of intercept, but contributed 0 power when boosting and increased the critical of the boosted unit by 1 instead. Kai first used this card against Ren in chapter 17, where he used it to increase a rearguard Dragonic Overlord's critical.

Meanwhile Cruel Dragon was an 11000 power grade 3 that could be superior ridden from the hand when an opponent's rearguard was sent to the drop zone in the main phase, but it would also lose 3000 power for the turn when ridden in that way, so that Cruel would have just 8000 power offensively but then revert to its 11000 power defense on the opponent's turn. Kai used this again Aichi in chapter 22, as part of a combo with Berserk Dragon, Raopia and Hidden Dragon Striken that would give Cruel a total of 23000 power and 2 critical while Aichi was still at grade 2.

Finally, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague (French; Dragonic "New Wave") is the first real grade 4 in the game, predating Silvest. Kai used this unit to defeat Aichi in chapter 22. Like how Gaiarth did not have the intercept ability, Nouvelle Vague did not have twin drive. Instead, Nouvelle Vague canceled out both players' drive checks, preventing the opponent from gaining power from triggers, and from healing or drawing as a result of those triggers, and stopping them from increasing their critical through anything but card skills. The unit as it's currently designed is very difficult to use however, because lower graded units cannot be ridden over higher graded ones, so once a grade 4 is ridden there is no going back to grade 3, and consequently once twin drive is lost through riding Nouvelle it is lost for the rest of the game. The unit's base power was never shown, but it is generally suspected to be at least an 11000 power unit.

EB09 will feature 23 reprints and 12 new cards, with 3 RRR/5 RR/8 R/19 C and 4 SPs. Dragonic Waterfall may be one of those reprints, as it is Kai's finishing card in the manga equivalent to Aichi's Exculpate the Blaster and Ren's Phantom Blaster Dragon.