Today's Card Analysis: Fullbau Brave

The Japanese card of the day for February 25th is a first vanguard four years in the making, the Legend Deck grade 0 Fullbau Brave. Both a remake of Shadow Paladin's original FVG and a long-awaited counterpart to Wingal Brave from BT05: Twin Swords Awakening, 2015's Fullbau is a Blaster series support card like his original incarnation. Yet while the first generation Fullbau could only search for Blaster Dark under very specific criteria, the fifth generation Fullbau's skill opens up many different options by pulling out any Blaster unit to alternatively support crossride, field control, restand, soul or stride-based strategies.

ACT (Rearguard circle):  Generation break 1: (Active if you have 1 or more face-up G Units in your vanguard circle or generation zone) [Counterblast 1, put this unit into your soul] Search your deck for up to one card with "Blaster" in its card name, reveal it to your open, put it into your hand, and shuffle your deck.

While this skill is slower and more costly compared to Wingal Brave, it's also not an on-hit skill and can be used to facilitate true control over the fight. Even among Revenger cardfighters that would be unlikely to abandon Judgebau's double Sword-breaker combo, Fullbau Brave gives an advantage; Brave players that can defend through their opponent's initial Judgebau turn can then stride and immediately use Brave to search for Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” and then use “Abyss'” counterblast 1 to retire Judgebau, indirectly turning the Sword-breakers in their deck into vanilla units. On a grander scale this kind of direct counter may not be necessary. The presence of Grim Recruiter in the format inherently decreases dependency on Judgebau to get those cards into play, making room for Fullbau to ensure multiple Grim Recruiter turns that will push the midgame.

The other options that Brave brings to the table include being able to search for Blaster Dark “Diablo” to correct an opening ride, searching for copies of persona blast-based Blaster units like Phantom Blaster Overlord, and more pertinently searching for a Phantom Blaster “Abyss” to secure a restand with. Revenger decks are capable of easily unflipping using Barrier Troop Revenger Dorint and the original Blaster Dark Revenger, so that Fullbau Brave's cost is entirely reasonable within the subclan. Brave's skill can also be used to search for a Blaster unit to put into the soul with Nightmare Painter for Gust Blaster Dragon, or to search for Gust himself after riding the original Phantom Blaster, but Judgebau is arguably better for this because he can search for the actual Nightmare Painters to get multiple Blasters in the soul in a single turn.

Although some Royal Paladin cardfighters will doubtless turn their eyes to using Fullbau to support their own Blaster decks, all professional tournaments in Japan currently prevent this due to the onset of Clan Fight regulations. Under these regulations, cardfighters may not integrate multiple clans into a single deck; even Royal Paladin fighters can only use up to four of the original Blaster Dark for Majesty Lord Blaster's skill, while Link Joker users can only access “Я” cards.

Fullbau Brave's gold calligraphy edition will be presented to attendants on the second day of this year's Great Vanguard Festival in Japan. The Legend Deck edition will have standard flavor text, but a triple rare foil.

Card Art: BT04/025 Fullbau

Illustration: Ryuutetsu
Design: Itou Akira
Rarity: R

If Vanguard could be said to have a clan that was planned from the ground up, the Shadow Paladins would be it. Not just in terms of skills, but also in their design, the cards in this series were each planned to work together as an artistic whole and form an ongoing narrative with their Royal Paladin counterparts. Fullbau is intended as the starting point for anyone viewing the Shadow Paladin's narrative, just as it's the starting point for any ShadowPala cardfighter. In terms of body language, the highdog is crouched low to the ground and has his tail curled in toward his legs. Dogs use this as a defensive posture, indicating that he's on the verge of attack.

The color palette is like most Paladin works reliant on cold colors, primarily blue and black. As covered in our article on Ryuutetsu's Blaster Blade, blue in Asian cultures and especially Japan is associated with evil and mysterious forces. The color black amplifies the association, because of how both colors were used in kabuki's stylized costumes to symbolize villainy and jealousy. While either of them could exist alone as blue does on Blaster Blade, when together on one character the depiction is very black and white. The color red is splashed behind Fullbau's paw to highlight the danger that he poses, and to stress the emphasis on his crouched, aggressive posture that is just at the moment before he lunges.

The main line of Shadow Paladin artworks feature an ongoing story as told through their civil war with the Royals. Fullbau starts this narrative descending from the base of a stair, showing both that the viewer is fighting an uphill battle against him and asking them to look up in the same moment to where else the stair leads. The next card in the series is Blaster Javelin, who is descending the middle of the stair, and the final card is Blaster Dark, who stands at the top of it. These three artworks, all made by Ryuutetsu with Itou's direction, are undeniably connected by the continuing theme of a stair, which is inherited from Itou's use of the structure in depicting Blaster Blade. While for Blade this stair was a metaphorical pedestal that accents his righteous position, among the Shadow Paladins it symbolizes the escalation of power between members and the enduring loyalty of each character to the next in line.

Fullbau's lore, translated by NeoArkadia;

"A High Dog in black armor that reminds one of darkness. It always accompanies the black Blasters, running to them if it senses even a hint of its masters. It is despised as it is associated with misfortune, as it is said it has appeared in practically every war that has ever occurred."

Citations and External Links
Main article, posture and stair commentary by Touya. Color commentary by Wolthera. Lore translation by NeoArkadia.
View this painting on the artist's personal gallery.