Let's Translate Cardfight!! Vanguard: Lock on Victory!! Part 5: Yuri

Yuri's next.

Boy: Miss, how do you use this card?

Yuri: Well, for that one...

Mitsusada Kenji: Hey, hello! It seems like something's been troubling you for a while now. What is it? ...Vanguard? I see, you're also a Vanguard fighter! Heh, so you just began recently. Do you have a grip on the rules?

Yuri: Koutei, what is it? Oh, who are you?
Kenji: Since you've been teaching kids the rules, thought I should call you over. He just started Vanguard recently.
Yuri: Ah, I see. In that case, I'll test you to see how well you know them.

Yuri: "Sentinel" cards have one of two possible abilities, "Perfect Guard" and what else?
>Quartet Wall
>>Quintet Wall
>Trio Wall

Yuri: That's right! Not bad.

We get a copy of Dimensional Robo, Dailander for answering her quiz correctly. Quintet Walls are one of my favorite impractical card mechanics, because they absolutely ruin Daikaiser's entire very-specific mechanic.

Yuri: Let's put what you've recalled into practice. We'll see if you've mastered both wisdom and power in a real match.
>>Fight
>Don't fight

VS Yuri
Dimension Police

Yuri initially gets gradelocked at zero, so I reset this fight. She has first play this game, and is running an Enigman deck, the classic Dimension Police ride chain. Unfortunately we see the deck's weak points immediately; she fails her initial ride into Enigman Ripple, instead going into the 8k vanilla Karenroid Daisy. Unlike later ride chains, the BT04 version lacks the Forerunner ability, so it gives absolutely no compensation for failing to ride correctly.

Our opening ride isn't much better, but Planet Lancer at least gives us a booster for later.

Yuri doesn't have much of a gameplan to work with. Lining up two vanillas at least guarantees I can't block (18k vs 8k) but I would probably have accepted an unboosted attack regardless, as I need to account for potentially riding Planetal as my first grade 3 and need 2 counterblast for that.

With no grade 3 in sight, it's in my best interest to poke the opponent as much as possible. That may seem like it's wasting Planetal, but should I drive check it I can still intercept with Claudine on Yuri's turn and have an open circle to superior call a grade 3 in. Should I get Ashlei instead, I  have a 17k center and my rearguards can be content to poke Yuri for 5k blocks until it comes time to break ride.

Lo and behold, Planetal in the drive check. We're going with plan A.

Had Yuri damage checked even one trigger, it would put a total stop to all of my remaining attacks this turn, but that doesn't happen and she doesn't opt to block, leaving her at 4 damage to 1 and +0 to +1. Unless she pulls off something drastic, the end of the line is in sight.

Yuri: Behold the power of Team Caesar's empress. Ride!

Enigman Rain is Yuri's original boss card from the first season. If its power is 12000 or greater before it initiates an attack, then it gains the ability to stand one rearguard when its attack hits. Ideally you would combine this with Glory Maker to create a 22000-power center, or use Cosmo Beak to achieve the same with a lesser booster. The ideal target for this play is the grade 3 Miracle Beauty, who stands the rearguard behind her when she stands, but even so these kinds of on-hit strategies are hopelessly dated, even in limit break format.

Oh, now this is just sad. There aren't even any rearguard attacks to bother intercepting--All we need do is take the damage and call over an occupied circle.

Yuri drive checks an Enigman Ripple (her second one) and a Miracle Beauty, while we damage check a draw trigger into this Rachelle.

I ride into Planetal and superior call a copy of it to activate the Toypugals. Enigman Rain is a 10k base, so the remaining Claudine column will require a 15k guard once you factor in the +3 on each unit. I don't want Yuri two-passing my vanguard with a single trigger, so I go ahead and replacing Planet Lancer with Rachelle. It's a loss to me, but it's even more of one for my opponent.

Yuri drops 15k on our vanguard, and I check a draw trigger. I have a choice here; If I think none of the four unknown cards in her hand are 10k shields, then I could try putting the effects on Claudine in hopes of drawing out more guardians. But in light of how Yuri hasn't been calling anything of note, that's probably not the case. So it's better to power up the rearguard Planetal and guarantee that no matter which column she blocks, Yuri will have to drop another 15k.

Yuri takes the first attack and guards the second for another 15k, bringing her down to 3 cards in hand. At this point, she can't even give us limit break or the required guard will jump up another 5k through our rearguard Planetal.

On her turn Yuri uses a Guide Dolphin to give Rain +3k, activating her on-hit skill. But at this point, Yuri's too far gone to recover.

We block the Miracle Beauty's first attack, tank Rain's, and take the last one to reach limit break. Yuri's gameplan becomes redundant when she drive checks a stand trigger, removing the need for Rain's on-hit altogether. Miracle Beauty stands through the trigger, then through her own skill stands the Quilt behind her.

As if things couldn't get worse for Yuri, our fourth check is a draw trigger. In general, draws are better damage checks than they are drive checks, as they add to your hand without contributing the drawback of another 5k in hand.

There's no need to play anything else. Attack with Planetal, limit break, Yuri doesn't have enough shield to block even two attacks.

Yuri: I lost, huh...

750 VP for a win, 50 for limit breaking, and a Guide Dolphin. This fight was little more than turning cards sideways until the opponent stops. In the future I'll be avoiding showing fights like these.

Yuri: I'm shocked! You certainly have good moves. I'll look forward to seeing you grow.

Kenji: I'll have to be careful, too. Let's meet at a tournament next time!

News: Monthly Bushiroad Leaks, Cosmic Roar to Hit Western Shelves in April

Everyone's favorite time of the month has rolled around once again, coinciding with a morning announcement from Bushiroad South East Asia unveiling the English-language logos for G-EB01: Cosmic Roar and G-TD04: Blue Cavalry of the Divine Marine Spirits. Cosmic Roar was announced last December, and will be released in Japanese on March 13th and in English on April 17th. The set consists entirely of cards for the Dimension Police clan, with support for the Dimensional Robo, Enigman, Zeal and Metalborg subclans. Anticipating problems with game balance following the set's release, Bushiroad has preemptively restricted Commander Laurel in Japan to just one copy in order to mitigate his use with the new stride units. This month's issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine revealed several cards from Cosmic Roar alongside cards from G-BT02: Soaring Ascent, introducing the first new Enigman and Zeal support cards since BT08: Blue Storm Armada and BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak.

The first card revealed is the grade 1 Enigman Cloud, an homage to 2011's Enigman Ripple.

AUTO: [Soulblast 1] When this unit is placed on a rearguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to 5 cards from the top of your deck, search for up to one grade 2 or less card with "Enigman" in its card name, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand and shuffle your deck. If put into your hand, choose a card from your hand, and put it into your soul.

When successful Cloud's skill effectively trades a card in hand for an Enigman from the deck, and opens up the potential for correcting the rides of Enigman decks that use the Storm evolution line. Cloud can search for himself, which can lead to rapidly changing out less useful cards like draw triggers to quickly fill the field.

Next is Evolving Beast Darvain, who similarly manipulates the soul but does so by trading cards from the field rather than from the hand.

AUTO: [Choose one of your other rearguards, and put it into your soul.] When this unit is placed on a rearguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one card with "Zeal" in its card name with the same grade as your vanguard, ride it as stand, and shuffle that deck. If you rode, choose a card from your soul with the same grade as your vanguard, call it to a rearguard circle and choose one of your opponent's vanguards, during this turn it gets Power -3000.

In the early game Darvain can be used to trade copies of draw triggers or spent on-call rearguards for lower graded Zeal units, aggressively decreasing the opponent's power even prior to reaching grade 3 while also ensuring that you ride the key units Eye of Destruction and Devourer of Planets Zeal. If you open with multiple copies of Darvain it's also possible to put your first copy into the soul for the cost of the second and then pull it out again, triggering a loop limited only by the number of Eye of Destruction Zeals in your deck. The second Darvain when called out will put the first one into the soul and call it back out, which in turn puts the second one in and out again. While only truly useful when going second or while gradelocked, this can put the opponent down to -12000 power if you don't open with Eye of Destruction. Later on Darvain can help replenish the field using cards from the soul while stacking negative power bonuses on top of Zeal's. Galactic Beast cardfighters have always favored stand triggers and aggressive turns to capitalize on the decreased power, which Darvain caters to.

The Evolution Beast's skill can also be used to superior ride Zeal over a break ride, allowing you to use Original Saver Zero to give the opponent a net -8000 power from both Zero and Darvain's skills. This exchange causes you to break even on your own card advantage, as Darvain's soul-in and superior call are a net +0, providing multiple incentives to ride through Darvain rather than through the hand. If you have the limit break enabler Dailion in play, then you can execute this play the moment you ride Zero on your third turn. With Galactic Beast Zeal's limit break, these can together stack up to -13000 power, leveling even crossrides to 0 power.

The last Dimension Police unit revealed in the issue is the grade 2 Metalborg, Magma Fork. Fork is a custom attack that specifically takes advantage of legion mechanics, as is characteristic of the Metalborg subclan as a whole.

AUTO: [Counterblast 1 "Metalborg"] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, during that battle, for each card on your vanguard circle this unit gets Power +3000.

While in any other deck Fork's counterblast would seem wasted compared to a standard subclan attacker, with an in-legion Metalborg vanguard Fork can gain two instances of the power bonus, becoming a 22000-power attacker that can help overwhelm the opponent after the vanguard has drained their hand.

Other key units revealed in the magazine issue include Sleepy Tapir and a new legion for Gear Chronicle. Tapir is a clone of Binoculus Tiger empowered with Resist, who can give +4000 power to a different rearguard when he attacks but then has to retire it during the end phase of the turn.

The new Gear Chronicle legion is Nixie Number Dragon and his legion mate, Steam Knight Zangu. Zangu's counterblast 1 lets him send an opponent's grade 1 or lesser rearguard to the bottom of their deck when the vanguard is in legion and his attack hits, making him a conditional replacement for the Relic Master Dragon introduced in the previous issue. Nixie Number's legion skill follows up on Chronojet's from the trial deck; when one of his fighter's card skills places an opponent's rearguard on the bottom of their deck, Nixie Number gets a skill that prevents the opponent from calling grade 1 and greater cards to the guardian circle, blocking perfect defense cards. Perhaps the most shocking reveal about these cards is that Nixie Number and Zangu are normal rares in the set, not double or triple rares. This gives very easy access to a guard manipulation unit for newer Gear Chronicle cardfighters, and one that independently attacks for 23000 power.

Nixie Number Dragon
Legion 20000 "Steam Knight Zangu"
AUTO (Vanguard circle): When your card effect places your opponent's rearguard into their deck, if this unit is in legion, during this turn, this unit gains "AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit attacks a vanguard, during this battle, your opponent cannot call Grade 1 or higher cards from their hand to their guardian circle".
AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit attacks a vanguard, if there is another unit in your center column, this unit gets Power +3000 during this battle.

News: G-EB01: "Roar of the Universe" Announced, Zeal, Enigman, Dimensional Robo and Metalborg Support Incoming

Six hours ago one of Bushiroad of Japan's associated card shops, Card Kingdom, tweeted early promotional materials for the first extra booster of Cardfight!! Vanguard G, G-EB01: Roar of the Universe (宇宙の咆哮 Sora no Houkou, 宇宙 is normally read as Uchuu "Outer space" but here has the pronunciation for "Sky" Sora forced on it.) According to these first blurbs, the extra booster set will be composed entirely of Dimension Police units from the clan's various subclans, including Dimensional Robo, Zeal, Enigman, Metalborg and new units. Roar of the Universe will introduce stride cards specifically for Dimension Police that all of these decks will be able to make use of. The set will be released on March 13 2015, and will use the now-standard extra booster size of 35 cards, with 3 triple rare, 5 double rare, 8 rare, 19 commons per box and 4 special parallel reprints of cards from the set.

With so many clans to support, G-EB01 is setting up to introduce an eclectic mix of strategies both old and new much like Champions of the Cosmos last year. The revitalization of the Zeal deck has been on fans' wishlist since Dimensional Robos took hold over most of the clan's support, while the Enigmen have remained a long-forgotten piece of Dimension Police history that most cardfighters haven't touched since 2012. With limit break enabler support probable, the usable card pool for the D-Police is likely to be expanded out of its current limitations. And given the recent shift in tone of revival legions towards 2012's limit breaks grade 3s, Zeal himself may find a place in the set as the target of a second revival legion for Dimension Police. While the set blurbs make no mention of crossrides, every booster containing the Dimensional Robo subclan has introduced one since BT08: Blue Storm Armada.