Weekly Bites reveals: Mini Booster 01 "Rivalry of PSY Qualia" launches 9/28, featuring Exculpate and Nouvelle

V-Mini Booster 01: Rivalry of PSY Qualia launches September 28th in Japan. The first-ever Mini Booster contains only 8 new cards, alongside 36 reprints. The booster contains support for both Royal Paladin and Kagerо̄, with its cover cards being Exculpate the Blaster and Dragonic Nouvelle Vague, Kai and Aichi's trump cards from the end of the manga's fifth volume. The set comprises 2 Vanguard Rares, 4 Triple Rares, 6 Double Rares, 10 Single Rares, and 14 Commons, along with 2 Special Vanguard Rare alternate prints and 16 Gift Markers based on various scenes form the anime.

Each pack contains just 2 cards, with booster packs costing 100 yen (~$0.90) rather than the normal 300, and each boxes contains 32 packs, with a guaranteed Vanguard Rare or Special Vanguard Rare in each. Every pack contains either a Single Rare or higher or a holographic print of a Common.

The grade 0 reprints have 2 versions, 1 normal version and 1 version with a modified card frame that allows artwork to completely fill the card.

This week's card reveals focus on Granblue.

Evil Shade
ACT [Rearguard Circle] Once per turn: [Counterblast 1, bind 1 card from your drop zone] Call a card from your drop zone to Rearguard Circle with the same name as the bound card.

Dragon Undead, Skull Dragon
Imaginary Gift: Protect
CONT [Hand]: This card cannot be Normal Called.
CONT [Vanguard/Rearguard Circle]: During yoru turn, for each card in your drop zone, this unit gets Power +2000.
CONT [Rearguard Circle]: At the end of the battle it attacked, retire this unit.

King of Demonic Seas, Basskirk
CONT [Vanguard Circle]: During your turn, if the number of cards in your drop zone is 10 or greater, this unit gets Power +5000/Critical +1.
ACT [Vanguard Circle] Once per turn: [Counterblast 1, Soulblast 1] Call 1 card from your drop zone to Rearguard Circle, and for each of that unit's Grades, this unit gets Power +5000 until end of turn.

V-Trial Deck 03: Sо̄ryū Leon

News: Vanguard Manga Volume 5 to Include Episode Zero, Exculpate the Blaster Promo

Yesterday evening Vertical Inc. posted a vine of Cardfight!! Vanguard volume 5, showcasing both the manga's latest promotional card and a page from the volume's omake, Episode 0. This zeroth chapter of the manga details Kai Toshiki's past, and is the first canonical appearance of Link Joker cardfighter Ibuki Kouji, a major character in the fifth anime series Cardfight!! Vanguard G as well as the principle antagonist in the film Neon Messiah. Having first debuted in Japan in January of 2013, the English translation of the zeroth chapter marks the close of the manga's first arc. The initial five volumes of the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga approximately correspond to the first season of the anime series, while the sixth through eighth volumes currently released in Japan correspond to the anime's Link Joker and Neon Messiah chapters.

While the first three volumes were packaged with Studio TMS' alternate artworks for Blaster Blade, Dragonic Overlord and Blaster Dark, beginning with volume 4 the English-language promotional cards  have matched their Japanese counterparts. Hence while volume 4's was The Dark Dictator, volume 5's is Exculpate the Blaster. The motivation behind reprinting the promo cards, which in English were originally distributed as box toppers, was likely that these cards have not been reprinted since their initial run two years prior. Exculpate in particular was only available as a topper for VGE-EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1, one of the least successful sets in the history of the English-language card game.

The fifth volume of the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga will be released on February 17th, and can be preordered through Amazon. Volume 6 is to follow on May 26th, and volume 7 on August 25th.

Royal Paladin Extra Study Material: Majesty Lord Blaster

Photo by rawritzrichii, not to be reposted elsewhere without the original photographer's express permission.

Clans are not static. They are born, then grow and undergo constant change and revision. The units of those clans are likewise always evolving in their scope and concept. These units are characters, and their role, their loyalties and personal stories are deeply intertwined into the mechanics of Cardfight. Sometimes units will grow up and become different cards, or join another clan and suddenly bring their past support with them. Each card added to the game causes previous cards to start interacting differently. This is the premise of the Royal Paladin Blaster deck introduced by BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades, which unifies not just past units from TD01-BT04, but also two different clans into one composite strategy. The subgroup has also revised the Royal Paladin clan as a whole to the point where a static critical is considered part of their core gameplay, beyond just calling rearguards and drawing power from them.

The first thing that we should tackle is the existing support that the Blaster subgroup is reliant upon. Deck space for the Blasters is enormously constrained by a backlog of old cards that are endemic to the Royal Paladins, so from the previous modules you should pick up on Explosive Flames Palamedes, Toypugal, Margal, Gancelot and the King of Knights being retained in the Royal Paladin Blaster deck. Alfred in particular is a useful single copy because he forms a good alternative vanguard in the crossride format, and because his V/R counterblast 3 allows for many pieces of the Blaster strategy to be searched for. Blaster Blade is also retained and maxed out at four copies, as he forms the cornerstone of almost every play that the Blaster deck will make and is part of multiple activation conditions. Barcgal would be retained in the build were he not restricted, for reasons discussed below.

The first vanguard for the deck is Wingal Brave, the Royal Paladins' first true base 5000 FVG and the reason that Blaster Blade is such a critical card for the subgroup. When he boosts a Blaster unit and the attack hits, Brave can move to the soul to add one unit with Blaster in its card name to your hand from the deck. This makes grade 2 a very important point in a match for the Blaster deck, as a vanguard Blaster Blade with Wingal Brave boosting him will be difficult for opponents to rationalize guarding if their vanguard is not a base 10000 grade 2. And Margal makes even that difficult for the opponent to justify, since she throws their line up to 17000, so in most scenarios the opponent will be left to choose between dropping 15000 shield at grade 2, letting one early trigger ruin their defense and bring your strategy together, or simply not guarding and letting you get that Blaster unit in hand. This is why Gancelot is retained by the new subgroup, as he can search out Blaster Blade on the preceding turn, which makes this grade 2 scenario easy to set up as you can effectively run five copies of Blade.

With regard for what we want to search, Wingal Brave's main feature is not specifying any particular grade requirement in his search criteria, which makes one of the subgroup's Blaster grade 3s the natural target. These units are Blaster Blade Burst, Exculpate the Blaster and the titular Majesty Lord Blaster, which we'll examine in reverse order. Majesty is the deck's winning image, around which the strategy is based. Like most Royal Paladin grade 3s Majesty is a base 10000 unit, but his autoskill allows him to soulcharge a Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark on-attack for +10000 power until the end of the battle; more importantly, he also receives +2000 power and +1 critical continuously for having both of these units in the soul. This makes him easily the greatest shield that the Royal Paladins have, just under the defense of a crossride but above base 11000 units, demanding 12-17000 power lines from the opponent. Since these skills will activate simultaneously at first, Majesty will go for 22000 power and critical 2 unboosted, but with Marron or Toypugal can clear 30-31000, thereafter breaking 20-21 critical 2 each turn. The inclusion of Blaster Dark is surprising to many, but Majesty Lord Blaster is a character based around uniting a warring people and bringing conflicting ideas together for synergy. As his deck is already intended to be a mixed deck, it's natural for it to look at other Shadow Paladin additions that can be made to improve the strategy.

Apocalypse Bat is probably the first other unit that fighters take note of. Like Lionmane Stallion, Apocalypse is a base 4000 power unit that when it boosts a unit with a specific word in its name, can soulblast 1 to give +6000 additional power for a +10000 boost overall. While Lionmane focused on "Alfred" units for a stronger rearguard, Apocalypse is more vanguard oriented, soulblasting when it boosts "Blaster" units. Because it is a Shadow Paladin and has low base power, it's recommended to be run at 1-2 copies maximum, with at least 10 other boosting units in the deck of power 7000 or higher. The recommended way to run Apocalypse with Majesty is to actually not soulblast initially, as with Majesty's continuous and autoskills the first attack will go for 26000 power critical 2, and from that point on will form a 16000 power critical 2 line every turn. It's best to save the soulblast for turns when Majesty's autoskill will not be used, because we want to avoid removing Blade and Dark from the soul, so Lord Blaster with Apocalypse only gets three soulblasts per game, and thus three turns of 22000 power critical 2. The main reason to use Apocalypse instead of Toypugal is that this will pressure other Majesty decks, while Toypugal's 21000 critical 2 line could actually be stopped by a single trigger defense.

In general, the Blaster deck intends to have a unit with "Blaster" in its name as the vanguard from grade 2 onward, be that Blade or Majesty. This is something to be taken advantage of. The Blaster series has a plethora of rearguard support, primarily the grades 1 and 2 Knight of Friendship Kay and Knight of Loyalty Bedivere. Kay is a base 7000 unit that gets +3000 power when he attacks and there is a Blaster vanguard, allowing him to effectively do the job of Gallatin for greater flexibility and to score early damage. Meanwhile, Bedivere is a base 9000 grade 2 that gets +3000 power when he attacks under the same conditions for 12000 total, allowing him to go for 20-21000 with Marron or Toypugal, and to form the easy base 18000 lines that are so critical to the crossride format. Bedivere also has a Shadow Paladin equivalent, Knight of Nullity Masquerade, but there is not a whole lot of room for Bedivere by himself in the first place, so this is an unlikely inclusion.

The reason that the room is so constrained is that Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark are both necessary for Majesty's skills, which means running both at four. And even at four, Dark doesn't have a Gancelot to search him like Blade does; with Wingal Brave's skill dedicated to Majesty, that makes bringing Dark out problematic. The answer to this is Star Call Trumpeter, a base 8000 grade 2 that can counterblast 2 on-call to superior call one grade 2 or lower Blaster unit. While Brave's key feature is ignoring grade, Star Call's is ignoring clan. This allows her to be freely called to the back line to bring out Dark and his slightly higher power to the front, or even to call Dark over Trumpeter and simply retire her with no loss in advantage. Together with the two Blasters, grade 2 space is already tight, although by running less grade 3s it's possible to make room for Bedivere.

Blaster Javelin is another Shadow Paladin unit that can be considered for the deck, but only as a single copy. This is more of a rearguard modification, as it lets Wingal Brave be moved to boost the left or right lanes, and for a turn 1 activation of Brave's skill to get Majesty Lord Blaster into hand immediately. Javelin can then be safely retreated afterward to boost Palamedes, Masquerade or Bedivere, each of which he will form an 18000+ line with for fighting The End and contemporaries.

The basic Majesty build has almost no need for any draw triggers whatsoever, beyond using Margal for tactical moves, and can be run without them because it is exploding with search skills. Critical triggers are overwhelmingly favored by the deck, so much so that you can even run a single Grim Reaper from the Shadow Paladins if three types are not enough to satisfy you.

One variant on Majesty that continually pops up is using Fullbau with Javelin to search for Blaster Dark. The problem with this is that it's attempting to make use of units that the Shadow Paladins wouldn't run if they had a real choice in the matter. Much as the Royal dilemma of being forced to run Drangal with Galahad or resort to Stardust Trumpeter following Bacgal's restriction between BT03 and BT05, Fullbau-Javelin is an enforced restraint on deck space that prevents more useful grade 1s from being utilized. Even in Japan's restricted format where only one copy of Majesty can be in the same deck as Brave, Fullbau-Javelin is not necessary because of Brave's search power and because of the remaining grade 3s that we are about to describe.

As a followup to Majesty, we have Exculpate the Blaster, a promo card that will see English release with boxes of EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1. While Majesty represents Blaster Blade's power after taking up Blaster Dark's sword and bringing together light and darkness to fight the Phantom Blaster Overlord, Exculpate is a temporary transformation that shows his inner light above all else. Exculpate is unique as a base 12000 grade 3, but self-retires when called and at the end of a turn in which you ride him, moves to the soul by riding Blaster Blade from the soul or drop zone. He also requires your vanguard to be a Royal Paladin grade 3 to ride him, and he cannot attack if Blade is not in the soul. Ironically for a transformation that lore-wise took place before Blade became Majesty, what this translates to in gameplay is a one-turn finishing move after riding Lord Blaster. Analyzing the costs that we've paid up to this point, moving Dark and Blade to the soul is a -2 overall, while riding Exculpate over another grade 3 is a -1, and since we'll be left with a weak base 9000 Blaster Blade vanguard after this turn, it's critical that those losses be compensated for. Exculpate's counterblast 3 is his answer to this; an activate skill that causes him to battle all of the opponent's units at once, as an advanced take on Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion's limit break. Assuming the full field that the opponent will generally have at that point, they will be at a minimum suffering a -5 in addition to taking damage. Defending the rearguards would also be pointless--as long as you have two counterblast open, when superior riding Blade from the soul or drop zone in the end phase you can retire any rearguard on the field with Blade's autoskill.

Beyond his activate skill, Exculpate's autoskill is his other key benefit. When he attacks, Exculpate sends all cards in his soul not named "Blaster Blade" to the drop zone to gain +2000 power for each unit. This autoskill does not discriminate between clan. Considering what we did on the turn before with Majesty, Exculpate will be getting +8000/+10000 power to going for at least 20-22000 depending on whether or not your grade 2 ride was Blaster Blade, more if you used Margal. Then you can also use Apocalypse Bat's soulblast on the Blaster Blade that's left in your soul--boost takes place after attack declaration, so Exculpate's current attack must resolve before his inability to attack without a Blade in the soul will kick in--for 30-32000 overall, to the entire field. As with Kaiser Vermillion, each unit must be guarded individually, so you will have at least a one or two card lead at the end of the turn, and the opponent will likely be unable to sustain any kind of counterattack even assuming that they do survive.

Exculpate is believed to be the chief reason that the Barcgal restriction remains universal across formats. The five soul that Barcgal once lent to Soul Saver Dragon would go to Exculpate the Blaster, but with the added bonus of guaranteeing a Blaster Blade in the soul as made necessary by Exculpate's activate conditions. Instead of turning that soul into +5000 power to three rearguards, Exculpate would use it to default to 22000 power prior to boost to the entire field, in every game. This kind of power is already possible as discussed above, but it isn't the same concrete guarantee that Barcgal would give, albeit Exculpate himself would be difficult to search without access to Wingal Brave. Exactly how this works out will likely be seen in the unrestricted Total War tournament set for March 2013, a Japanese tournament that will probably decide Barcgal's ultimate fate in relation to Exculpate.

The main problem with Exculpate is that he can only go off once and exactly once in a fight. This is the only other search target that a standard Blaster deck will dedicate Wingal Brave to, so Majesty Lord Blaster can safely be run at four while Exculpate must be as just one copy.

The last of these "Blaster" vanguards is Blaster Blade Burst, a promo card that has yet to be released in the English format but is nonetheless worth examining for the future. Burst is a base 10000 grade 3 that cannot be boosted, and when he attacks a vanguard he gains +3000 power, both skills which we are familiar with from Alfred and Soul Saver Dragon. This creates a certain expectation for what the remainder of his skills will be, but unfortunately that final skill does not wholly succeed their legacy. When Burst attacks, he can perform an especial counterblast 2--a counterblast where all of the damage being flipped are Royal Paladins--to increase Blade's power by the original power of all of his front row Royal Paladin's for that battle. This is counterblast intensive to a deck that will be using Star Call, Blaster Blade and Exculpate within it, and it also contradicts the synergy that Majesty Lord Blaster promotes between Royal and Shadow Paladin cards, as there must be two Royal Paladins in the damage zone for the skill to work and two in the front row for it to be effective. However, it does have some merits. In general, this will be a total boost of 16-20000 power, for 29-33000 total with his on-attack skill, an increase which is well worth the price but unfortunately lacking in extra critical, and difficult to repeat for a clan devoid of damage unflipping at release.

Like Drangal and Brugal before him, to understand Burst you have to understand the context within which he was printed. Blaster Blade Burst was created as a response to the January 1st 2013 restricted list, which restricted Wingal Brave, Majesty Lord Blaster and the King of Knights Alfred to being run in no combinations exceeding two within the Japanese format. Burst was created to address the loss of each of these units, providing a unit that could be run in two to three copies along with one Wingal Brave and one Majesty to provide an alternative if weaker vanguard line, and to give Alfred decks an alternative vanguard as well that shared the synergy with Wingal Brave. The unit is a crutch to support the weakened Royal Paladins of a different format, not the dominating theme of an entire deck as Majesty Lord Blaster is. In spite of his weaknesses, because his skills are vanguard exclusive, Burst can at least have some synergy with Apocalypse Bat in the rearguard by forming a base 20000 line.

The Blaster subgroup is characterized by its synergy between multiple clans, strong plays at every stage of a match and consistency. It is extremely rare to not bring both Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark into the soul in a game; this means that the deck can guarantee a continuous critical and 12000 base in every match. That critical means that even though the vanguard has somewhat lower base power than contemporary units, it will draw much more attention and shield from the opponent than normal, and that it suddenly only takes three hits to win the round instead of six. This kind of consistent accelerated play is Majesty Lord Blaster's greatest asset, as while The End has the greater potential damage, Lord Blaster's will come out more consistently and is not as reliant on trigger checks.

Fifty-two pros use this deck.

News: New Years' Trio Festival 2013 Osaka Championship Results

Just today the first results of the commemorative New Years' Trio Festival were posted on CF-Vanguard, welcoming the new year with the opening to 2013's pro season. This event can be seen as a continuation of the Vanguard Fight Team Festival begun in January-February 2012; such team-based tournaments are the norm for beginning the new year. Today's results come from Osaka, a city home to many famous pro cardfighters like Kakuhara Misaki and 2012 National Runner-Up Kanamaru Makoto. While last year saw Royal Paladin, Shadow Paladin, Kagerou and Oracle Think Tank as the dominant decks of the time, this year is divided between Royal Paladin, Gold Paladin, Narukami and Oracle Think Tank decks.

An important development on the Narukami side is that the clan has a clear, distinct identity now due to the onset of Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD." Beyond being a less powerful clone of Kagerou, Narukami has struggled to establish itself as both a distinct and viable clan within the past year, but now pro decks are finally settling into a niche for it as multiple grade 3 rides become an exploitable center of the deck's strategy in addition to its retire strategy. "THE BLOOD" has proved to be the most popular deck of those presented today, though he has not quite lived up to The End's legend as a format-defining unit.

Much to the chagrin of classical purists, this is also the first time in history that Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel-based Gold Paladin has really proved itself in a professional environment. Criticized for being a blank card at less than five damage, and for his strain on counterblast, Platina has been a difficult unit to gauge and build around effectively. His lack of a persona blast or soulblast-based boosting unit for the rearguard has also weakened the idea of running both the crossride and its preceding ride at four, a trait unique to this particular generation of crossride. The format of team tournaments however, better lends itself to the emergence of a wider variety of decks, as less powerful builds have more of a chance in the trio fights than in the juniors' and seniors' divisions. This was demonstrated in the last 2012 championship, where the Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, waning Shadow Paladin and pre-crossride Aqua Force all placed within the team tournaments despite being heavily unpopular in the other two divisions.

The Blaster deck has also been firmly established as still kicking, with a variant having emerged that similar to the now-restricted Tsukuyomi variant runs just four grade 3s, using a grade 2 lineup which consists exclusively of Blaster units and Starcall Trumpeter to ensure that Wingal Brave's skill goes off. With one new pro, Tachibana Souten, going so far as to add a single Blaster grade 1 to the deck, this new variant is extremely dangerous. Blaster Blade Spirit seems to have replaced Gallatin altogether for the foreseeable future due to his compatibility with Wingal Brave, and his retire combo with Starcall Trumpeter. While the deckbuild does not seem to have been widely circulated prior to the Osaka tournaments, future events are projected to see a resurgence in Blaster decks due to Majesty Lord Blaster now having the winning qualities of both its past self and the restricted Tsukuyomi, with Blaster Blade Burst arriving at the end of January to replace Soul Saver Dragon in the deck. For some fighters, concern over further amendments to the restricted list because of this indie deck potentially seeing mass adaption is already budding.

Of all these surprises however, the most directly shocking of all is that a possible revival of standardized three perfect defense is at hand; in a curious trend, two of the three A Block, all three B Block, one from C Block, and one Trio Championship deck from F Block have reverted to the old style of play, a model which was outmoded in the parallel English pro scene by the introduction of the limit breaks that are now endemic to the Japanese format. Until these tournament results came in, running four perfect defense cards was a nigh-unquestionable part of the tournament scene. How this will be resolved remains yet to be seen; the 2013 Trio Festival will pick up again further down the line with the Tokyo results.

New Year's Trio Festival 2013 Trio Championship, Osaka
A Block Championship Team
Gotou Hiroshi/後藤啓志
Phantom Blaster Overlord (Shadow Paladin)

Tokumitsu Kenta/徳満健太
Spectral Duke Dragon (Gold Paladin)

Kawachi Yoshirio/河内良弘
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD" (Narukami)
B Block Championship Team
Tonoi Wataru/殿井渉
Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel (Gold Paladin)

Nakaya Haruhi/中矢一日
Battle Sister, Fromage (Oracle Think Tank)

Ueyama Naoki/上山尚樹
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD" (Narukami)
C Block Championship Team
Maeda Atsushi/前田惇
Scarlet Witch, CoCo (Oracle Think Tank)

Hisano Masanori/久野雅徳
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD" (Narukami)

Tachibana Souten/立華奏天 (Note; this name is most likely a pseudonym, lifted partially from the anime/light novel series "Angel Beats!" If this is their actual birth name, then they have supreme, all-surpassing luck.)
Blaster deck; Majesty Lord Blaster, Exculpate the Blaster with Soul Saver Dragon (Royal Paladin)
D Block Championship Team
Kubo Yoshinori/久保慶典
Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel (Gold Paladin)

Nakamura Koujiro/平岡晃次郎
Galactic Beast, Zeal (Dimension Police)

Umehara Shunei/梅原俊瑛
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD" (Narukami)
E Block Championship Team
Anonymous/匿名
Scarlet Witch, CoCo/Battle Sister, Cookie (Oracle Think Tank)

Tanabe Kazuki/田辺一樹
Blaster deck; Majesty Lord Blaster with Soul Saver Dragon (Royal Paladin)

Matsushita Shin'ya/松下晋也
Spectral Duke Dragon (Gold Paladin)

F Block Championship Team
Sakagami Ryouta/阪上良太
School Hunter, Leo-pald (Great Nature)

Fujii Taichi/藤井太智
Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD" (Narukami)

Yagi Ryousuke/八木亮輔
Spectral Duke Dragon/Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel (Gold Paladin)

News: Exculpate the Blaster to See EN Release, VGE-EB01 Promo

As preorders for EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1 become available, various distributors are now leaking that the manga promo card Exculpate the Blaster will be included as a promotional tie-in, much as The Dark Dictator followed for BT04. Exculpate is a unique transformation-based grade 3 for the Royal Paladins, being intended as a finishing move for the Blaster deck capable of wiping out an entire field in addition to the opponent's vanguard; however, there are severe restrictions on its use requiring the vanguard to already be grade 3, and for Blaster Blade to be in the soul. Exculpate originally debuted in Volume 5, Chapter 21 of the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga written and illustrated by Itou Akira, as the finishing blow used by Aichi to overcome Suzugamori Ren's Phantom Blaster Dragon. Most recently, the card appeared in the Fighter's Climax 2012 national championship, where it was included as a single copy in the junior championship runner-up Shinhama Yoshifumi's decklist.

VGE-EB01: Comic Style Vol.1 is the first Cardfight!! Vanguard extra booster, and at release will be the tenth booster set to be released in English overall. The set is composed entirely from cards that were originally designed for the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga, Itou's first original work following his departure from Yu-Gi-Oh! R. The primary features of the set are the solidification of the Raizer series as a distinct playstyle for the Nova Grapplre clan, the introduction of the Murakumo clan and their lockdown strategy, the Machining units for Megacolony which gain power from having other Machining in the soul, as well as minor reinforcement for Royal Paladin and Kagerou. Bellicosity Dragon in particular has drawn attention for allowing Kagerou decks to unflip their counterblast, letting them repeat the use of skills and take the strain away from their damage zone. While all of the cards in the set were designed by Itou, only the SP artwork for the Sage of Guidance, Zenon, was completely illustrated by him. The inclusion of Exculpate in the set is appropriate; much as Dictator was appropriate for BT04 as it was the Shadow Paladins' core set, Exculpate is so because it is the climax card of the manga's first major story arc. Like Zenon, it is also purely Itou's work.

The manga has yet to be officially serialized in individual volumes for English distribution, although the first chapter has been translated in a free promotional booklet often handed out as a participation prize at shop tournaments and at World Championship 2012 regional events. Thus far, fan translations of the manga have been filling the gap.

Character: Sendou Aichi

"I've become stronger, haven't I? But I'm still not there, am I? I have to become even stronger...or you won't recognize me." 
"Stand up, my avatar...Ride! Blaster Blade!"

Sendou Aichi/先導アイチ
Age: 15²
Birthday: June 06²
Blood Type: B²
Voice Actor(s): Yonaga Tsubasa (Japanese)³, James Beach (English)⁴, Jeon Gwang ju(Korean)⁵
Anime Biography: Series protagonist. A somewhat timid, but gentle boy who has been bullied regularly. Four years ago, Aichi had a sudden encounter with Kai Toshiki, who encouraged him to become stronger and more outgoing. Since then Aichi has respected Kai deeply, and made every effort to engage him in a Vanguard fight. Sendou Emi is his sister, and Sendou Shizuka his mother.

The first season's initial episodes focus on Aichi's personal and emotional growth, as he learns to trust in others and stand on his own feet. This is the time at which Aichi makes the most mistakes in the series, as he is still a beginner, and where his primary character flaw of pursuing greater strength without regard to the harm he does to himself first emerges. With prodding from the manager, Nitta Shin, Aichi eventually enters Card Capital's shop tournament and qualifies to enter the Kanto regional competition. Together with Kai, Misaki and Kamui, Aichi forms Team Quadrifoglio to represent his shop.

Spoiler warning: Season 1 details follow.
Despite making it past the Kanto regional, Aichi's team is crushed by the competition at the national tournament, withdrawing with a 1-2 win-loss ratio. It's at this time that Aichi first loses faith in himself and those around him, right as he learns that Kai is a former member of the Foo Fighters--the team which ousted his from the national tournament. AL4's leader, Suzugamori Ren, convinces Aichi that he is the weak link on Q4, and that if he had won even a single match at the nationals, they would have made it through the elimination round.

While Aichi attends the joint training camp between Team Q4 and Team Caesar, his self-doubt lingers. At this point, the Qualia that he first felt at the Kanto regional begins to emerge in earnest, and Aichi starts ceding more and more control of his fights to this mysterious power.

From rides 35-42 Aichi begins a gradual descent. His obsession with power blinds the boy, as he continually slips deeper and deeper into PSY Qualia's promises of strength, while losing sight of why he first sought to grow. Rather than make new friends, Aichi pushes others away. And though in ride 23 he was only receptive to the Qualia of others, able to sense--and feel great pain from--the presence of Suzugamori Ren, by 35 he can "hear the voices of the cards" and is no longer the master of his own deckbuilding. As time goes on Aichi's skill with PSY Qualia develops, until he can foresee strategies and start to torture his opponents with visions of Cray.

 

This power does not come without its drawbacks. PSY Qualia saps Aichi's physical strength, leading to his repeated collapse in the second Kanto regional and Tokyo national.

From rides 43-50 Aichi's relentless pursuit of strength wears on him until it brings the young fighter to his knees. The power of PSY Qualia gradually turns Aichi into a second Suzugamori Ren, until Ren himself is drawn to the boy and accelerates the Qualia's growth by offering Aichi a Shadow Paladin deck. In a vain attempt at securing himself as invincible, Aichi agrees to use the Shadow Paladins in his upcoming national fights, and in doing so sees his team past the elimination round where his Royal Paladins had failed him once before.

In ride 50 Kai finally confronts Aichi with the aid of Kourin and the underground fighters. During this fight, Aichi unleashes all of his rage and solipsism on Kai, making every attempt to torment the man he once admired;

"I've gotten stronger. I'm not the same person that I was long ago. Why? Why won't you understand?! I'm strong! I got strong!"

"Now you'll admit that I've gotten strong, right?! To fight you! Come on, look, Kai! This is my power!"

Surpassing Qualia before the boy's very eyes, Kai breaks Aichi's strategy using his friend's Royal Paladin deck against him. Kai pulls a surprise move by riding what was Aichi's signature card in the manga, Alfred Early, to make Aichi understand that real strength is found in the self and one's friends, not in the abstract supernatural. Realizing that Qualia has only made him weaker, Aichi surrenders and takes back his old deck, reconstructing it to face off with Ren in the national competition.

Aichi approaches Suzugamori Ren during the opening ceremony, attempting to return his old Shadow Paladin deck. With disdain for the separate path Aichi has chosen to walk along with PSY Qualia, Ren casts aside the cards, marking Aichi as his enemy.

On the first day of the final rounds, he pulls off an advanced form of his old Blaster Blade tactics, defeating former national champion Mitsusada "Koutei" Kenji with an Alfred Early ride. Playing his Royal Paladin deck flawlessly, Aichi wins Q4 into the last match against AL4, but that same night is called in by Kourin of Ultra-Rare to witness Kai and Ren's fight at the Foo Fighter HQ.

There Aichi sees Kai floored by Suzugamori's Qualia. In the battle's aftermath, Suiko approaches him with a contract, offering Aichi a choice between a card of darkness and a card of light. Before Aichi can give his answer however, the cards spontaneously converge into Majesty Lord Blaster; Suiko offers no explanation, stating only that she believes this card to befit him.

In the final match Sendou confronts Suzugamori directly, accusing him of making a mistake in rejecting Kai, who had risked himself to reach and save Ren from his wild power. Ren resists Aichi's attempts initially, instead luring him into reawakening his PSY Qualia.

At the moment that Sendou is prepared to show Ren despair, their mutual PSY Qualia finally achieves Ultra-Rare's long standing goal, synchronizing Suzugamori and Sendou's fight on Earth with the ongoing war between Royal and Shadow Paladins on Cray. With Kai's intervention however, Aichi breaks free from his Qualia's grasp once more--only to be left too weak to fight back against Ren, and in question of just who the real Sendou Aichi is.

Unable to guard Phantom Blaster Overlord, Aichi barley scrapes by in the final battle of season 1, pulling a sixth damage heal trigger. In his last turn Majesty responds to the boy, and firming his resolve, Aichi states that he is both the Sendou Aichi who craves power and the Sendou Aichi that rejects power. Turning both light and shadow on Ren, he finishes the battle between them and the war between paladins with Majesty Lord Blaster's skill.

In the ensuing clash, Ren is pulled back to reality. Aichi is crowned Japan's fourth national champion, and following the tournament decides to be the Aichi he always was. After that day, he can no longer feel PSY Qualia. Rather than being bothered by it however, Sendou chooses to fight with his own strength, and not borrowed power.
Spoilers end here.

During Asia Circuit, Aichi reprises his role as the captain of Team Q4. For this season he switches over to the Gold Paladin clan, using the Incandsecent Lion, Blond Ezel and the Great Silver Wolf, Garmore.

Spoiler warning: Asia Circuit details follow.
While teaching a new player the rules of Vanguard, Aichi is suddenly drawn into a vision of Cray. Witnessing firsthand the sealing of the Royal and Shadow Paladins, as well as the Kagerou, when he awakens Aichi finds his deck to have been replaced by a Gold Paladin one. Disoriented, he finds that the rest of his teammates believe that he had always used a Gold Paladin deck.

This sudden change comes just in time for Team Q4 to receive a formal invitation to the Asia Circuit in Singapore, hosted by the Tatsunagi Financial Group. Although devastated by the theft of his deck, Aichi quickly reconciles that he needs to assemble the team and fast. After besting Kamui in a fight, he's able to get his comrade traded from Team Handsome into Q4 for the season, and Misaki agrees to attend immediately. Kai however, resolves to find his own path to Takuto.

In Singapore, Sendou misses his chance to speak with Takuto directly, interrupted by the Tatsunagi spire's security. To his surprise, Kourin of Ultra-Rare is familiar with the company top, and assures Aichi that success in the Circuit will allow him to meet his mysterious stranger. Receiving the Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel as a gift from her, he rebuilds his deck to account for the new card and musters the determination to face the Circuit head-on.

However, Aichi's progress comes to a roaring halt when Tatsunagi Takuto appears before him in his match with Christopher Lo during the tournament finals. Takuto forcibly awakens the two fighters' slumbering Qualia, setting a power-mad Lo on Sendou while Aichi, bewildered and suddenly unfamiliar with Qualia, finds himself unable to rely on the power.

Because of his hesitation, Q4 fails in both Singapore and Seoul, the finals of which are played against Team New AL4. Losing to Suzugamori Ren's revived PSY Qualia and his Spectral Duke Dragon-style Gold Paladins, Sendou is devastated by his loss to his own clan. Spending the following training camp abroad at a resort island, Aichi is advised by Suzugamori to give in to Qualia. However, Ren cautions Aichi that even if he uses the power, he's not guaranteed to win; as Koutei demonstrated versus Ren in Seoul, and as Aichi had in the Japanese finals, PSY Qualia can be surpassed.

Using his old Royal Paladins as inspiration and accepting the Gold Paladins as his comrades rather than as tools, Aichi then constructs a new deck to retrieve his sealed clan with, making its formal debut in Hong Kong.

This ends in failure due to his defeat at the hands of Souryuu Leon, forcing Aichi to reconcile his defeat with what he had learned at the training camp. One more time, Sendou approaches Suiko at the card shop PSY, seeking help from Ultra-Rare in becoming strong enough to pass through the final stage of the Circuit, the Japan stage. Although confident at his strength within his own country, Aichi is nonetheless overcome with doubt from his failures at Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong, and these doubts manifest in full in his third fight versus Kourin.

Ultimately Aichi defeats her by mastering the Gold Paladin play style, and leaves PSY with a new card handed out to him spontaneously by the shop, seemingly in response to his growth. Aichi then restructures his deck once more, this time redesigning it around two cards; the Incadescent Lion, Blond Ezel that he received from Kourin, and the Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel that willed itself to him.

Following the close of the Japan Stage of the VF Circuit, and the start of the Final Stage, Aichi is able to finally achieve his goal of reaching Takuto. Within moments however, he and the other qualified cardfighters are drawn into a space created by Takuto to connect Earth to the planet Cray. There, Takuto reveals the full extent of his plot. The sealing of the three clans was masterminded by Void, a malevolent force of nothingness which seeks to overtake Cray entirely and wipe out all life. This was done to cripple Cray and prevent it from fighting back, and the plot worked, throwing the once-united planet back into chaos. Just as Suiko once manipulated Aichi and Ren to create individuals with powerful Qualia to put an end to the civil war, without regard to ethics or the sanity of those individuals, Takuto orchestrated the VF Circuit to select for four such individuals to lead Cray out from the chaos and defeat Void.

However, the plan is not perfect. Souryuu Leon, the last heir to the Souryuu family and the legendary savior of both them and Aqua Force, infiltrated the VF Circuit as a double agent for Void. With his wildly-evolved PSY Qualia and mastery of the powers that Void handed to him, Souryuu betrays Tatsunagi, draining him of his own powers and leaving the boy for dead.

When accused of betraying Cray itself, Leon reminds Takuto that the Tatsunagi family is not sinless. Despite later claiming to "trust" the leaders that he selected, Takuto used the VF Circuit winners as pawns just as Leon is now using him. To prevent the total annihilation of his family line and unseal the Aqua Force that had been abandoned by the clans that he is now turning the tide against, Leon is willing to temporarily bend his knee to Void. Encouraging the others to listen to their own wind rather than Takuto himself, Leon makes headway for the end of the constructed space, reinforcing himself with Void's power in preparation to do battle with any who would stand in Void's way.

"The tragedy that once befell the Souryuu people will happen to the entire Earth. The land will rot. The seas will dry up. All of Earth's blessings will be lost. All of life will be robbed of the will to live...Earth will become a planet of death."

With the leaders scattered inside of the space, Sendou consults Takuto for advice. Claiming that Leon's ambition is blinding him and that, should Void complete its journey from Cray to Earth through his space the entire world will feel the Souryuu tragedy, Tatsunagi persuades Aichi to use his Qualia to hunt down Leon and defeat him. Losers are not permitted to exist inside of the path to Cray. To lose a cardfight there is "the same as death," so by exploiting this principle they can stop Leon and confront Void directly.

Aichi agrees to Takuto's plan, and along the way receives guidance from the sealed Blaster Blade, but finds his path obstructed by Chris, whose Qualia has evolved completely beyond his control and left him as the same shell of his former self as Aichi had been late in the first season. To oppose him, Sendou brings out his Blazing Lion crossride and seizes the power of an ultimate break, completely overwhelming Lo and upsetting his "foregone conclusion" just as Kai had once done for Aichi.

While Christopher is brought back to his senses before vanishing from the space, the delay ends in unnecessary casualties. Aichi arrives too late to confront Leon himself, leading Kai and NAL4 to take his place. Despite Kai having his own legendary crossride, Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD" to fight with, Leon's Qualia renders himself virtually invincible and brings out Aqua Force's own keystone play. Like Chris, Kai has suffered defeat, and disappears pleading with Aichi to stop Leon.

The fight is an uphill battle for Aichi, with no clear way for either side to take advantage. For every move that he makes, Souryuu has a countermove prepared, and Sendou is forced to call on the power of his PSY Qualia that he had once resisted, to destroy Leon. Just when it seems that the tide would have turned however, with Blaster Blade spontaneously responding to his feelings as the Gold Paladin Blaster Blade Spirit, Souryuu raises up his own trump card: Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom.

Back into a corner and wholly reliant on a heal trigger to bring him through, Aichi turns to the borrowed power of the Gold Paladins and Platina Ezel to finish off Glory Maelstrom, repelling Void from Cray.

In the final stage held the next day, in the finals Aichi once more defeats Christopher Lo, becoming the VF Circuit international champion.
Spoilers end here.

At the start of Link Joker, Aichi transfers into Miyaji Academy for high school, where he finds his hobby put down by peers and teachers alike, who are more concerned with academic studies and issues of globalization than games. Having to cope with being talked down to like a child and unable to find a school club or friends to fit in with, Sendou eventually convinces his classmate Ishida Naoki to try a cardfight with him. Ishida, though initially reluctant, becomes fired up by the game and eventually buys a Narukami trial deck, forming a small bond with Sendou.

Aichi's primary struggle in the third season becomes the distance between himself and his old friends, reverting to his timid personality in an alienating environment like Miyaji, and the relative uselessness of his hobby in comparison to a serious world of academia where most of his classmates are preparing for college rather than playing card games.

Manga Biography: In the manga, Aichi was originally a student along with his sister at Miyaji Academy elementary. He later transferred to Hitsue for middle school after facing severe bullying at Miyaji, and would later go on to meet Kai in Card Capital. While he would meet Misaki and Kamui as in the anime, their shop's spontaneous invasion by the Foo Fighters forces the Card Capital gang to strike back and try to regain Kamui's shop from gang's control.

Spoiler warning: Manga details follow.
While fighting Kyou, one of Ren's underlings, Sendou undergoes a gradual enlightenment in hearing the voices of the cards, and as his newfound powers develop he becomes more ruthless in battle.

Their struggle to stop the Foo Fighters' use of fight gloves, electroshock instruments which torture the user when they take damage, eventually culminates in Kai mounting his own independent counterattack at Suzugamori's apartment. Aichi watches Kai's Dragonic Waterfall suffer defeat at the hands of Phantom Blaster Dragon, and is subsequently drawn into a mirror match with Ren's Shadow Paladin deck. Trying to understand Ren's feelings of hatred and despair, Sendou is eventually able to finish him with a last-minute draw into Exculpate the Blaster, realizing through communication through their Qualia that Suzugamori had been subject to the same sadness and bullying that he himself had been.
Spoilers end here.

In volume 6 Sendou transfers back into Miyaji for high school, intending to confront his past. He eventually participates in the Asia Circuit national tournament, placing first, with Koutei coming in second and Ren in third. To his surprise, Tatsunagi Kourin joins his class, just after the first meeting at the Circuit award ceremony. Rather than the King of Knights, Alfred, Aichi's manga self uses Alfred Early as his primary grade 3 unit, and he begins the story using Graeme instead of Stardust Trumpeter as his FVG. However, Soul Saver Dragon is still supported by his deck.

Universal Notes: In all incarnations Aichi uses the Japanese pronoun "Boku," a pronoun used exclusively for male speakers. "Boku" is a nonthreatening pronoun reserved for young boys, and has largely been replaced by more masculine or assertive pronouns in daily speaking. His counterpart in the series in Ren, which is all but stated by their actions in rides 43 and 50, and Suiko's narration at the end of the latter episode. The two also share opposing birthdays, as Aichi was born on 6/6 while Ren was born on 12/12.

Fan Culture: The alternate Aichi seen in rides 43-50 is frequently called "Yandere Aichi" by fans, combining his name with a Japanese term for a sociopathic character in a relationship (usually the girl, though it can go both ways) who murders her rivals for someone's affection, or murders the person they love so that no one else can have them.

Decks and Play Style
Main Article: Evolution of Sendou Aichi's Play Style

Tied to his personal theme of friendship, Aichi uses a Royal Paladin deck for the majority of the series, which focuses on swarming the field with many other units that are weak individually but powerful together. Aichi's strategy primarily uses a superior ride and deck-searching skill to ride Blaster Blade as his grade 2 vanguard, then utilizing Blade's skill to retire opponent rearguards. He also adapts two other tactics for his deck early on; the first is riding the King of Knights, Alfred as his grade 3 and calling other units to increase Alfred's power, and the second is to ride Soul Saver Dragon and give power increases to his already-called rearguards.

Rides 1-34 (47/50 cards)

Grade 0

x1 Barcgal (FVG: Rides 8-34)
x2 Stardust Trumpeter (FVG: Rides 1-7)

x2 Flogal ST

x3 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT

x2 Yggdrasil Maiden Elaine HT

x1 Weapons Dealer, Govanon  DT

x3 Knight of the Future, Llew CT

Grade 1

x3 Wingal (PR/0007)

x1 Wingal (BT01/044)

x3 Little Sage, Marron

x3 Flash Shield, Iseult

x2 Starlight Unicorn

x4 Knight of Rose, Morganna

Grade 2

x2 Knight of Silence, Gallatin (KAD3/002)

x2 Knight of Silence, Gallatin (BT01/021)

x1 Blaster Blade

x2 Knight of the Harp, Tristan

x1 Great Sage, Baron

x2 Knight of Truth Gordon

Grade 3

x3 Solitary Knight, Gancelot

x1 King of Knights, Alfred

x2 Gigantic Charger

x1 Soul Saver Dragon

Aichi's second deck is a modification to his first, perfected using cards from the second and third booster sets. With Yuri's coaching he's able to create a winning image, using High Dog Breeder, Akane and Pongal to add Soul Saver Dragon to his hand, then using the Saver Dragon's skill to empower his rearguards. While the tactics he employs with this deck are nearly the same as his first, they are refined to omit unnecessary cards and achieve his intended results more quickly.

Rides 35-42 & 51 (39/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Barcgal (FVG)
x3 Flogal ST
x2 Future Knight, Llew CT
x2 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x1 Little Fae Marching Band ST
x2 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
x1 Margal DT
Grade 1
x3 Little Sage, Marron
x2 Young Pegasus Knight
x1 Wingal (PR/0007)
x2 Pongal
x1 Soul Guiding Elf
x2 Flash Shield, Iseult
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade
x2 High-Dog Breeder, Akane
x1 Gigantic Dozer
x1 Knight of Truth, Gordon
x2 Knight of Silence, Gallatin (BT01/021)
x2 Swordsman of the Blaze, Palamedes
Grade 3
x1 Solitary Knight, Gancelot
x3 Soul Saver Dragon
x1 King of Knights, Alfred
x1 Swordsman of Explosive Flames, Palamedes
x1 Alfred Early

Aichi's key cards while using his Shadow Paladin deck are Blaster Dark and Phantom Blaster Dragon. His strategy is to use Fullbau and Blaster Javelin to add Dark to his hand from the deck, keeping card advantage early in the game, then using the Blaster Dragon's skill to retire his rearguards for extra power and critical. Worth noting, though Aichi puts every effort into riding Phantom Blaster Dragon during his four fights held with this deck, he only ever hits with its Damned Charging Lance in half of his fights, against Bidou and Gunji. In general, while Aichi plays Shadow Paladins well, he lacks the same level of skill that he had with his own Royal Paladins and his strategy lacks the offensive push that Ren's does.

Rides 43-50 (30/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Fullbau (FVG)
x3 Grim Reaper CT
x1 Abyss Healer HT
x1 Abyss Freezer DT
x1 Darkside Trumpeter ST
Grade 1
x2 Blaster Javelin
x2 Black Sage, Charon
x2 Doranbau
x2 Nostrum Witch, Arianrhod
x2 Dark Shield, Mac Lir
Grade 2
x2 Blaster Dark
x3 Skull Witch, Nemain
x3 Dark Knight, Rugos
Grade 3
x2 Phantom Blaster Dragon
x1 Dark Metal Dragon
x2 Dark Mage, Badhabh Catha

Though incomplete, Aichi's fourth deck is shown to use cards from BT05 in a form that builds in concert with his old strategies. His new starter accommodates for the September 5th Barcgal ban, and Alfred Early is now implemented with the intent of bringing out Blaster Blade a second time.

Sendou's final deck of season one is a mix deck, incorporating Blaster Dark into it. This build is supported by his count of "Blaster" deck searchers--Wingal Brave and Starcall Trumpeter--as well as rearguards themed around having a "Blaster" vanguard.

Rides 51-66 (37/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Wingal Brave (FVG)
x1 Barcgal
x1 Flogal ST
x1 Future Knight, Llew CT
x2 Quiet Sage, Sharon ST
x1 Margal DT
x1 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
x1 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona CT
x1 Alabaster Owl CT
Grade 1
x3 Little Sage, Marron
x1 Flash Shield, Iseult
x3 Knight of Friendship, Kay
x2 Pongal
x2 Lake Maiden, Lien
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade
x1 Knight of Loyalty, Bedivere
x1 Knight of Truth, Gordon
x1 High-Dog Breeder, Akane
x2 Knight of Silence, Gallatin (BT01/021)
x2 Starcall Trumpeter
x2 Blaster Dark
Grade 3
x2 Soul Saver Dragon
x1 Swordsman of Exploding Flames, Palamedes
x1 Alfred Early
x1 Solitary Knight, Gancelot
x1 Majesty Lord Blaster

During the Asia Circuit, Sendou is forced to switch temporarily to a Gold Paladin deck. This new deck, rather than being an outgrowth of the primary style he developed as a Royal Paladin cardfighter, shows heavy influence from the King of Knights strategy Aichi developed early in season 1. Using the Great Silver Wolf, Garmall he can superior call a grade 2 or lower Gold Paladin unit, and use his limit break to gain power while attacking vanguard units.

Rides 66-70 (24/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Grassland Breeze, Sagramore (FVG)
x1 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
x1 Elixir Sommelier HT
x1 Fortune Bell ST
x1 Silent Punisher CT
Grade 1
x2 Precipice Whirlwind, Sagramore
x1 Blessing Owl
x1 Charjgal
x2 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x1 Silver Fang Witch
x2 Evil Slaying Swordman, Haugan
Grade 2
x1 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
x2 Sacred Guardian Beast, Nemean Lion
x2 Sleygal Sword
x1 Charging Chariot Knight
Grade 3
x1 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore
x1 Sleygal Double-Edge
x2 Battlefield Storm, Sagramore

In anticipation of the upcoming Asia Circuit, Aichi reconstructs his deck shortly after arriving in Singapore in ride 70. His new construction uses the Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel he received as a gift from Kourin as its focus, pressing the game with the unit's limit break. To strengthen his early game, Aichi switches his first vanguard to Kyrph, using its skill in conjunction with Beaumains and Gareth to superior ride Ezel.

Rides 71-85 (32/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Crimson Lion Cub, Kyrph (FVG)
x2 Silent Punisher CT
x2 Flame of Victory CT
x1 Elixir Sommelier HT
x2 Weapons Dealer, Gwydion DT
x2 Greeting Drummer ST
Grade 1
x2 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x2 Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue
x3 Silver Fang Witch
x1 Little Battler, Tron
x2 Halo Shield, Mark
x1 Sleygal Dagger
Grade 2
x2 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane
x3 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
x1 Sleygal Sword
Grade 3
x1 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel
x2 Knight of Fury, Agravain
x2 Battlefield Storm, Sagramore

Built in the style of his previous Royal Paladin decks, Aichi's third Gold deck omits Kyrph much as his last Royal deck omitted Barcgal. Using Spring Breeze Messenger as his new first vanguard, Sendou gears this deck toward superior calling key units to prepare for following turns, planning out his fights step by step. As a followup tactic, Spring Breeze and Viviane are used in the hopes of calling out Lop Ear Shooter, who can then call White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore to activate Pellinore's superior ride mid-battle, standing his vanguard much as Suzugamori Ren had done earlier in the season with Spectral Duke Dragon. This deck is one of his definitive builds of the season, bringing together all of his past strategies along with what he had learned from the fighters he met overseas.

Rides 86-95 (35/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Spring Breeze Messenger (FVG)
x3 Speeder Hound DT
x1 Elixir Sommelier HT
x2 Flame of Victory CT
x2 Silent Punisher CT
Grade 1
x2 Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue
x2 Listener of Truth, Dindrane
x1 Halo Shield, Mark
x2 Blade Feather Valkyrie
x1 Little Battle, Tron
x2 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
Grade 2
x4 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
x2 Lop Ear Shooter
x2 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane
x2 Flash Edge Valkyrie
x1 Gigantech Commander
Grade 3
x1 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel
x2 White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore
x2 Sleygal Double-Edge

Aichi's final deck of the season is built in the style of his final Royal Paladin deck, converting to Ezel-based skills rather than Blaster-based ones. Despite this return to an Ezel focus, Sendou continues to avoid Kyrph, instead relying on a card with more targets, Dreaming Sage Corron. With Corron he can search out any piece in the Ezel crossride series, adding either Blond Ezel or Platina Ezel to his hand at will. Because of this new focus, the deck is reoriented around quickly putting together an ideal field using Ezel, Nimue, Kahedin and Silver Fang Witch, to bolster its strength with Platina afterward. Sendou treats Platina much as he once did Soul Saver Dragon, relying on his ultimate break only for the turn that he rides him rather than sitting on its high base power and waiting to use the break later. Despite the superior speed that War-horse, Raging Storm could afford him, Sendou's take on the deck eschews this card and as a result is somewhat slow.

Rides 95-104 (31/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Dreaming Sage, Corron (FVG)
x2 Dantengal CT
x2 Elixir Sommelier HT
x2 Flame of Victory CT
x1 Silent Punisher CT
Grade 1
x2 Halo Shield, Mark
x3 Player of the Holy Axe, Nimue
x2 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x2 Silver Fang Witch
x1 Advance of the Black Chains, Kahedin
Grade 2
x1 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane
x2 Knight of Superior Skills, Beaumains
x1 Knight of Passion, Bagdemagus
x1 Blaster Blade Spirit
Grade 3
x1 Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel
x2 Battlefield Storm, Sagramore
x1 Great Silver Wolf, Garmore
x3 White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinore
x1 Blazing Lion, Platina Ezel

Following the unsealing of the Royal Paladins and the beginning of the third season, rather than converting back to the clan that he had used for four years previously, Sendou chooses to stay by the Gold Paladins and rebuild his deck around the cards that he relied on in the first season, reimagined as Gold Paladins. These cards, drawing from the Liberator subgroup, each gain power for having either a vanguard or a certain number of rearguards with "Liberator" in their name. Despite being less developed compared to his previous decks, Sendou is nonetheless extremely proficient with his new strategy, based on a combination of Blaster and Soul Saver play. The Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred, rounds out the strategy by bringing him the base 11000 defense that he enjoyed under Phantom Blaster and a limit break that gives him +2000 power for each Liberator rearguard, without the restriction of being unboostable. This gives Sendou a powerful late game, able to reach numbers that Alfred never could previously.

Rides 105-Current (31/50 cards)
Grade 0
x1 Angelic Liberator (FVG: 105-108)
x1 Wingal Brave (FVG: 108-Current)
x1 Fortune Liberator ST
x2 Elixir Liberator HT
x2 Weapons Liberator, Gwydion DT
x2 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x1 Flogal Liberator ST
Grade 1
x2 Little Liberator, Marron
x1 Future Liberator, Llew
x2 Pomerugal Liberator
x1 Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth
x2 Halo Liberator, Mark
x1 Liberator, Flare Mane Stallion
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade Liberator
x2 Liberator of Silence, Gallatin
x1 Zoegal Liberator
x2 Liberator of Royalty, Phallon
x2 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
Grade 3
x1 Dignified Gold Dragon
x3 Solitary Liberator, Gancelot
x1 Liberator of the Round Table, Alfred

Aichi's manga deck is, like his initial anime deck, built with Blaster Blade and Soul Saver Dragon in mind. However, his primary grade 3 is Alfred Early. Aichi plays much more conservatively in the manga, rarely calling any units except to rush the opponent when riding to grade 3, and is less aggressive with deck searching. Beginning with volume 6, Sendou starts to incorporate Blaster Javelin Normally as a key grade 2 ride, soulcharging two units to call two High Beasts. Exculpate the Blaster is included as a temporary transformation sequence for Blaster Blade, to wipe out his opponent's field and overwhelm them with power derived from an alternative soulblast.

Chapter 1-Current (19/50 cards)
Grade 0
x2 Graeme (FVG)
x1 Flogal ST
x1 Giro
x1 Margal DT
x1 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine HT
Grade 1
x1 Little Sage, Marron
x1 Mirubiru
x1 Knight Squire, Alen
x1 Wingal
x1 Guiding Sage, Zenon
x1 Flash Shield, Iseult
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade
x1 Knight of Silence, Gallatin
x1 Patriotic Sage, Benon
x1 Blaster Javelin Normally
Grade 3
x1 Alfred Early
x1 Soul Saver Dragon
x1 Exculpate the Blaster

Citations and External Links
1. "先導アイチ." KeroKero Ace Vol. 45 1 Sept. 2011: 2-6. Print.
2. "AICHI SENDOU." KeroKero Ace Vol. 51 1 Apr. 2012. Print. 
3. Cardfight!! Vanguard Ride 14. Crunchyroll, 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.
4. "Cardfight!! Vanguard English Version - NicoNico Channel." NicoNico Channel. NicoNico Douga, 11 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://ch.nicovideo.jp/channel/vanguard-dub>. 
5. "Aichi Sendo." MyAnimeList. CraveOnline Media, LLC., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://myanimelist.net/character/39539/Aichi_Sendo>.