Barcgal to be unrestricted in Japan May 1st, Purple Trapezist restriction August 31st

April 17th, 2018. In a historic moment on today's episode of Weekly Bites Z, Cardfight!! Vanguard producer Shimamura Masatoshi announced that Barcgal will be completely unrestricted in the Japanese format beginning May 1st, allowing cardfighters to set Barcgal as their First Vanguard for the first time since the end of the first Japanese national championships more than seven years ago. Joining him will be Tick Tock Worker and Seven Seas Apprentice Nightrunner; meanwhile Odysseus will be unrestricted from 2 to 4. The change affects both Premium Standard and G Standard formats.

Standard format will not have a restricted list.

Meanwhile Commander Laurel will remain restricted to 1 copy per deck beginning July 20th for Premium Standard, while beginning August 31st, fighters will not be allowed to put both Purple Trapezist and the as-of-yet unrevealed V-BT02 print of Jumping Jill in the same deck. This version of Jumping Jill is said to have a Purple Trapezist-like skill that sends another card into the soul to pull another one out, which would have created an infinite loop with Trapezist. These changes do not affect G Standard.

Dragabyss & Chronovisor Heritage sleeves coming to Vanguard Festival

Doctor O announced four new card sleeves during today's stream, which will be available at the 2018 Great Vanguard Festival. The new sleeve designs are Chronovisor Heritage, Dragabyss Luard, and Team Try3 and Team Q4 sleeves based on the rubber keychain designs also being distributed on-site.

Each pack consists of 73 card sleeves priced at 800 yen. This price is strictly for the event itself, and may differ if the sleeves are ever distributed by another means. Of note is that these will be among the last sleeves to bear the Vanguard G logo, as beginning in May new sleeve designs carry the logo for the 2018 anime series. (Examples can be seen on the Trial Deck 01 and 02 pages.)

News: Cardfight Online Greenlit, Commemorative Cards to be Given as WCS Prizes

August 7th, 2015. This morning Cardfight!! Online was finally greenlit by the Steam community, leading to outreach by Valve Corporation to Bushiroad to make the online game available through their software distribution platform. The online game, which was only announced a month ago, is set to launch within 2015 as a free-to-play means of playing the Cardfight!! Vanguard trading card game through the web.

In other news, Bushiroad announced through Facebook today that their 2015 World Championship series will introduce commemorative prints of existing Cardfight!! Vanguard cards, to be given to the finalists of the national and international championships. The cards currently know to be distributed are Supremacy Dragon Claret Sword Dragon, and Chronojet Dragon. Each card will be gold stamped and have a unique foil, different from its original print.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you. 

Today's Card Analysis: Steam Fighter Ul-nigin

The Japanese card of the day is a single rare from G-BT04: Soul Strike Against the Supreme, a named support card for Chronojet Dragon that complements Gear Chronicle's time-manipulation support. Steam Fighter Ul-nigin's generation break provides a countercharge option that doesn't touch the soul, freeing up its use for Steam Fighter Puzur-Ili, Glimmer Breath Dragon and others.

AUTO (Rearguard circle): Once per turn: Generation Break 1: When your opponent's rearguard is placed on the bottom of their deck by one of your card effects, if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Chronojet" in its card name, countercharge 1.

While Ul-nigin has superficial similarities to Steam Fighter Mesh-he, Ul-nigin's countercharge has no soulblast cost, which is instrumental to a Chronojet deck that may not be using any of the clan's available legions. This answers a fundamental problem of soul management in the Chronojet deck, providing an opportunity to use Gear Chronicle's soulblast support while still maintaining face-up damage to keep its counterblast-heavy stride plays sustainable. Chronojet's stride bonus becomes functionally costless as long as Ul-nigin is in play when the skill is resolved, allowing one to use both Chronojet and Ragnaclock while only having one face-up damage. These types of plays obstruct the opponent from trying to do damage control against a Chronojet deck, taking control over which skills can go off away from them.

Like Mesh-he, Ul-nigin is limited in his immediate scope by his once per turn condition, being unable to combo effectively with Upheaval Pegasus or Chronoscommand Dragon. What Ul-nigin can do is open up Chronoscommand for play in the deck alongside other options that make use of the soul for costs, and if both Ul-nigin and Mesh-he are used together multiple countercharges can be made each turn while only using up half the soul that playing two copies of Mesh-he would. Hence, Ul-nigin can either replacement Mesh-he or be run alongside him in Chronojet decks, depending on which other grade 1s you want to make use of.

News: Sixth Season "Cardfight!! Vanguard G GIAS Crisis" to Air, Comic Booster to Introduce "Docking Deletor, Graywon," Granblue to Receive Trial Deck

July 9th, 2015. At Bushiroad's Grand Strategy Presentation, Cardfight!! Vanguard producer Shima P unveiled the next season of the anime series, titled the Cardfight!! Vanguard G GIAS Crisis chapter (カードファイト！！ヴァンガードGギアースクライシス編 Kaadofaito!! Vangaado G Giaasu Kuraishisu Hen). When questioned as to what the titular crisis would be, Shima P was reluctant to answer, telling the audience to wait and see for themselves. The 30 minute Vanguard section of the presentation can be viewed below at the bottom of the page.

The season will introduce two new characters designed by franchise creator Itou Akira, Yumizuki Luna (弓月ルーナ) and Chouno Amu (蝶野アム). Luna's surname is written with the kanji for "moon bow" and her given name is taken from the Latin name for the moon. Amu's surname is written with the kanji for "butterfly field;" her given name is a play on the Japanese word amu 虻 meaning gadfly.

Additionally, it was announced at the conference that the long-awaited followup to Comic Style Vol. 1 will finally debut. G-Comic Booster 01: Leader and Deletor (先導者と根絶者 Sendousha to Deriitaa) will hit store shelves on September 25th, containing support exclusively for the Link Joker and Royal Paladin clans. Featuring Ibuki Kouji's Deletors and Sendou Aichi's Alfred cards from the manga, it has been announced that the card will introduce Ibuki's signature grade 3 from the manga, Docking Deletor Graywon.

The producer also revealed the current schedule for Cardfight!! Vanguard's upcoming products. In October 2015 there will be a clan booster for Aqua Force, in November there will be a set of trial decks featuring Gear Chronicle and Pale Moon, and a booster set featuring support for those clans as well as Link Joker, Narukami, and Oracle Think Tank. In December the next Fighter's Collection booster will feature support for all clans except for Etranger, Cray Elemetnal and Touken Ranbu. January will see another booster set drop, containing support for Nubatama, Tachikaze, and Spike Brothers. Finally, in January Granblue will receive a trial deck, and the booster set for that month will include support for Royal Paladin, Neo Nectar, Nova Grappler, Shadow Paladin, and Pale Moon.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

News: G-BT04: Soul Strike Against the Supreme for October English Launch

The English-language Cardfight portal updated this morning with a title and release date for G-BT04: Toujin Kongeki, which was announced in Japan earlier this week. Soul Strike Against the Supreme will reach the international game on October 2nd 2015, two months after its Japanese release on August 28th. Cardfight!! Vanguard is rapidly approaching total set synchronization between its English and Japanese set releases, with the only roadblock being the staggered launch of clan and title booster sets, as well as promotional cards.

Soul Strike Against the Supreme is not a direct translation of Toujin Kongeki; the original kanji do not include 覇 Ha which has been translated as "supreme" and "sovereign" in the franchise's English-language materials. (Compare Blue Storm Supreme Dragon Glory Maelstrom; 蒼嵐覇竜) Moreover, the set's tagline "Do you have what it takes to stand up against supremacy?" is not found in Japanese-language materials related to the set. These additions to the English-language format allude to one of the set's featured cards, Supremacy Black Dragon Aurageyser Damned, whose Japanese name does include the 覇 Ha kanji for supremacy--but until recently was generally translated as Sovereign Black Dragon. Complicating the issue is that G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon also includes the same kanji for supreme, and Sovereign has been officially adapted as the English-language name of the set. Recent modifications to Crunchyroll's official subtitles of the anime series--which are supervised by Bushiroad's staff--have translated the original Aurageyser Dragon as Supremacy Black Dragon, adjusting it from its previous "Military Rule" and "Sovereign" names.

The red X marker that exists in both the Japanese and English set logos, and which was also found on both of Sovereign Star Dragon's logos, is likely another allusion to the three known Supremacy Dragons. Although once thought to be related to a symbol of Link Joker found on the Malefic Deletor trial deck, in light of Claret Sword and Aurageyser's recent involvement in the card game's ongoing storyline, as well as the presence of the X on the kanji for supreme in BT03 and the kanji for god in BT04, the connection to Shadow Paladin's rebel faction is more tangible.

Soul Strike Against the Supreme will feature the evolved forms of existing units from Generation Stride, as well as full deck support for the Genesis, Angel Feather and Megacolony clans. The set's cover card will be Chrono Dragon Nextage, and the Japanese edition will see the release of seven card sleeves, one for each clan supported by the set, sans Cray Elemental.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you. 

News: Chronojet, Altmile, Ashsha Evolutions in G-BT04, Megacolony Support

In this morning's weekly broadcast, Doctor O and a representative from Bushiroad's development staff, Mr. Yamaki, made the official announcement of the launch of G-BT04: Toujin Kongeki (討神魂撃 Lit. "Destruction God Soul Attack.") Yamaki introduced the "evolutions" of Team TRY3's units that will be coming out of the set, Chrono Dragon Nextage, Heaven-Soaring Paladin Altmile (飛天の聖騎士 Hiten no Seikishi lit. "Fly Sky Holy Knight"), and Dream-weaving Ranunculus Ahsha. Nextage is a stride unit that previously debuted in Hirakazu Raiti's Cardfight!! Vanguard G manga; at the time the manga was being illustrated by Itou Akira, who designed the unit for Shindou Chrono's Chronojet Dragon deck. The current version of Nextage is illustrated by Tanimeso, who previously took over for illustrating Itou's Machining Stag Beetle in Comic Style Vol. 1. The entire broadcast is provided below.

Prior to this, the news of G-BT04 had been partially leaked by an image of the pack design distributed anonymously on the 7th, but with the eight clans supported by the set blacked out. Immediately after the broadcast's airing, the Japanese portal site updated with further details regarding the booster set. G-BT04 will include support for  Gear Chronicle, Royal Paladin, Neo Nectar, Shadow Paladin, Genesis, Angel Feather, Megacolony and Cray Elemental. The set will include 104 cards, with 2 generation rares, 8 triple rares, 12 double rares, 22 rares, 60 commons and 12 special parallel cards. In addition to the three units named above, the seven sleeves produced for the set have revealed the names of boss cards for the non-TRY3 clans. The news has immediately taken off on Twitter, with the prevailing theory among Japanese fans being that Nextage, Altmile and Ahsha are each specific-heart strides for their respective decks in the same vein as Upheaval Pegasus from Fighter's Collection 2015.

Left to right; Supremacy Black Dragon Aurageyser Damned, Holy Seraph Raphael, Divine Destruction Beast Vanargandr, and Raging Spear Mutant Deity Stunbeetle.

Of the units named by the sleeve reveals, Aurageyser Damned, Raphael and Vanargandr each approximately correspond to the decks of the anime's current string of antagonists Kanzaki Yuuichirou, Hashima Rin, and Shinonome Shouma. Mr. Yamaki stated that Altmile, Nextage and Ahsha's evolutions will each be appearing in the anime series; it follows that their corresponding antagonists' cards will also make an appearance. Aurageyser Damned also appears to be connected in the card lore to Claret Sword Dragon's war on the United Sanctuary, which was just announced yesterday morning in Dragruler Revenant's card-of-the-day lore. G-BT04 will launch in Japan on August 28th, 2015.

(Set announcement begins at the 26 minute mark)

Over thirteen thousand people tuned in to the broadcast, posting more than eight thousand comments during the broadcast's short half-hour duration. In addition to the set announcement, Doctor O revealed the skill of Academy of Divas' cover card, School Etoile Olivia. According to Doctor O, Olivia's skill is designed to facilitate use with the ♪♪ Harmony mechanic, returning units to hand and then calling them back to the same column to put them in Harmony. Doctor O also revealed the results of the Monthly Bushiroad Cup from June 6th, which was announced last month. Over six hundred participants divided into over two hundred teams of three took part in the team tournament, with the first-place team being Great Nature, Shadow and Gold Paladin. Decklists will be posted later today.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1, choose a face down card named “School Etoile, Olivia” in your generation zone, turn it face up] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if the number of face-up cards in your generation zone is one or more, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to five of your rearguards, and if all of the chosen rearguards have different names, return them to your hand. If three or more cards are returned in this way, choose up to two cards from your hand, call them to separate frontrow and backrow rearguard circles, during that battle, this unit gets Critical +1.

Bushiroad's weekly information bulletins air every Tuesday evening at 8:50 PM Japanese Standard Time. They first began in late January to accommodate a new information distribution model for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as the amount of card information covered in Monthly Bushiroad magazine decreased and was redirected to other routes of distribution. The previous week featured Ishii Mark (voice of Shindou Chrono) and mascot character Vangarou-kun in a fight using the Link Joker and Gold Paladin decks supported in G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

Press Release: Cardfight!! Vanguard G Trial Decks Sold Out Within One Week

The following is a press release distributed by Bushiroad USA and may not reflect the views or opinions of Cardfight Pro or its editors.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cardfight!! Vanguard G Trial Decks Sold Out Within One Week

Singapore (March 5, 2015) – More than 80,000 trial decks were sold within the first week of release of the Cardfight!! Vanguard G Trial Deck Vol. 1 ‘Awakening of the Interdimensional Dragon’, G Trial Deck Vol. 2 ‘Divine Swordsman of the Shiny Star’ and G Trial Deck Vol. 3 ‘Flower Maiden of Purity’. These trial decks were released on February 27, 2015.

These Cardfight!! Vanguard G Trial Decks join the ranks of other Cardfight!! Vanguard expansions that sold out within weeks of release; including Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E, Extra Booster Pack Vol. 11 ‘Requiem at Dusk’ and Extra Booster Pack Vol. 12 ‘Waltz of the Goddess’. More than 950,000 packs of Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E were sold within a month of release. Extra Booster Pack Vol. 11 ‘Requiem at Dusk’ and Extra Booster Pack Vol. 12 ‘Waltz of the Goddess’ sold a combined 600,000 packs over the release weekend.

The next expansion for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, G Booster Pack Vol.1 Generation Stride, will be released on March 13, 2015.

Cardfight!! Vanguard G marks a new beginning for Cardfight!! Vanguard and is the latest expansion of Bushiroad’s most popular trading card game. It features new cards, abilities and a new clan, Gear Chronicle. The new expansion introduces new abilities such as Stride, Generation Break and G-Assist into the game.

Cardfight!! Vanguard G Trial Deck Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 feature cards that are used by the new protagonists of the Cardfight!! Vanguard G anime. Each display contains a card signed by the artist of the unit, randomly inserted into one of the trial decks. Additionally, exclusive promotional cards were given out with every purchase of one of the three trial decks.

News: Dragonic Overlord “The X” Tops FC2014 Fukuoka, 2012 National Champion in Fourth

Flavor text: "The End isn't finished."

December 6th, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. The Fukuoka branch of Bushiroad's ongoing Fighter's Climax 2014 tournament concluded at the West Japan General Exhibition Center with a Kagerou cardfighter, alias "Bottan," placing first using a Dragonic Overlord “The X” deck. Second place was a Gear Chronicle cardfighter, and third place a Royal Paladin fighter playing Thing Saver Dragon, and fourth was 2012 national champion Nakamura Seishirou also playing Thing Saver. The first, second and fourth place decklists are given below. Bottan tweeted that he was undefeated in the tournament, with his qualification rounds consisting of Nova Grappler, Dimension Police, Revenger and Royal Paladin matchups. He played top 16 against Gear Chronicle, Kagerou, Royal Paladin and another Gear Chronicle fighter.

Dragonic Overlord “The X”  (read as "The Cross," as in "crossover") was introduced in G-BT01: Generation Stride as a revival legion for Dragonic Overlord the End, the grade 3 that has served as a continual hazard throughout multiple formats. Nearly every era of the game has had its own incarnation of the End, making him almost as long lived as Kagerou itself. Few cardfighters will need a reminder of what the End is capable of, but for the benefit of newer players; if the End's attack hits, he can counterblast 2 and persona blast to restand. Because the End gains more cards from his second twin drive than he has to discard, his restand is both a +1 in card advantage and a grossly aggressive means of checking for additional triggers.

“The X” makes the End all the more effective because not only does his legion turn the End into a 22000 base attacker to make the on-hit easier to get off, which  “The X” legions he can search the deck for a copy of either the End or “The X.” And if his attack doesn't hit,  “The X” can counterblast 1 and persona blast a copy of himself to retire two of the opponent's rearguards. This turns the crossoverlords into a lose-lose situation--since the copy of the End is added directly to the hand from the deck as a +1 in advantage, the opponent is faced with either letting the attack hit so that the vanguard can restand with a net +2 and able to overwhelm the opponent with their inherently large center lane, or blocking the attack and taking a -2 while “The X” goes back to a neutral +0. This is only the basis for the deck however, as what is truly championing “The X” is his massively overgrown pool of Overlord-specific support cards and alternate grade 3s that give him more options than there is room in the deck for.

“The X's” rise was not unforeseen. Just two days prior to the set's release on December 5th, prerelease prices in Japan showed an immense demand for “The X,” with the card being the most expensive triple rare in Generation Stride at 1500~1700 yen per card according to aucfan. Route Flare, the deck's primary stride unit, stood at only 1000 yen per card. Some will dispute the Fukuoka results as not being representative of what is to come, as Bushiroad's tournaments are infamous for their best-of-one format. However, the prereleases prices suggest a demand significant enough that these results will be replicated at the more legitimate VGCS tournaments.

Original image uploaded by besthito. Full decklist is transcribed below. Other than Route Flare and Messiah, the deck is fully SPed, with all of his Neo Flames being legion rares.

The core of “The X” rests on the grade 2 Perdition Dragon Dragonic Neoflame. Unlike many of the Perdition support, Neoflame does not require a Perdition vanguard to activate. When Neoflame is called to the rearguard, it receives a skill that when an opponent's rearguard in the same column as it is put into the drop zone, allows Neoflame to counterblast 1 and retire another in the same column. Virtually every skill in the deck can play off of Neoflame in some way. If the End's attack hits a rearguard, not only will the End restand but because a rearguard was placed into the drop zone Neoflame's counterblast will retire its booster. If the End does not hit and “The X's” persona blast goes off instead, “The X” can retire two rearguards and Neoflame will remove one of their boosters. This dramatically escalates the situation to either a +1 vs -2 or -1 vs -3 depending on which persona blast is used.

Furthermore, with the grade 2 Dragonic Burnout, who can return an Overlord from the drop zone to the deck and then soulblast 1 to retire a rearguard, it becomes possible to combo him to Neoflame, paying counterblast 1 and soulblast 1 to destroy an entire column. Because of Burnout's conditions, if either “The X” or the End's persona blasts go off, Burnout is fully set up for next turn, giving multiple options across several turns for clearing out the opponent's field and punishing them for fighting back. Bottan built his deck with multiple legions in mind that are able to recycle these grade 2 options, and having access to Dragonic Overlord the Great both offers another restanding vanguard option that can also trigger a rearguard Neoflame's skill.

Kagerou's primary stride unit, Route Flare Dragon, expands the deck's options by allowing it to retire an entire column twice per game. While this does not synergize with Neoflame, it does give the Kagerou cardfighter additional options for beating down the opponent so that the End will hit later. The cost of discarding a grade 3 in order to stride provides an opportunity to use Dragonic Burnout in the same turn as the stride unit, retiring three rearguards. Since Route Flare requires two units to be face-up in the generation zone after his persona blast is activated in order to resolve, he encourages early use of Divine Dragon Knight Mahmoud, whose on-hit retires another rearguard. The turn 3~4 plan for the deck depending on which fighter went first then becomes to discard one of the Overlords to stride Mahmoud, call Neoflame, call Burnout and return the Overlord discarded to the deck to retire a rearguard, use Neoflame to retire that rearguard's booster, then hit with Mahmout to retire another. On the next turn the Overlord returned to the deck can be grabbed back with “The X's” on-legion skill. The Overlord deck has multiple ways to trigger its key cards and start up an explosive sequence of retire skills that severely limit the number of safe plays against it. The only decks capable of circumventing “The X” directly are Tachikaze, Shadow Paladin and the Great Nature variants that draw off of their rearguards' end phase retires rather than call them back to the field.

Original image uploaded by Doctor O. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Bottan's Overlord decklist was later uploaded a second time by Doctor O, followed by the second place cardfighter's Gear Chronicle deck. The Gear Chronicle finalist focused on guard manipulation in his build, using the grade 2 Steam Knight Puzur Ili as a Silent Tom variant capable of blocking grade 0 cards, and Chrono Jet Dragon's generation break 2 to block perfect defense cards. With the generation rare Chronos Command preordering at 2500~3000 yen per card, the deck's grade 4 lineup is difficult to complete in Japan, but its property of sending all of the opponent's rearguards into their deck has been enough to launch Gear Chronicle into professional play out of the box.

One of the contributing factors to “The X's” victory may be the new G-BT01 onwards version of perfect defense cards. The runner-up at Fukuoka ran Steam Maiden Alulim, a new variant of these units, that can unflip a damage if there is a copy of herself in the drop zone when she is guarded with. In exchange, Alulim variations can only protect the vanguard and cannot be called against an attack on a rearguard. Neither Dragonic Overlord “The X's” nor the End's skills require them to hit or attack a vanguard. Both the End's restand and “The X's” retire skill can activate after attacking a rearguard, and the Great's on-hit specifically has to hit a rearguard, which means that by running these new perfect defense cards, other cardfighters are enabling Overlord fighters to funnel them towards whichever scenario is the worst one.

Original image uploaded by Seishirou. Full decklist is transcribed below.

Nakamura Seishirou tweeted his decklist shortly after the tournament. As in most years since his 2012 debut Seishirou played a Royal Paladin deck, this time using a Thing Saver variant with the legion grade 2 Jewel Knight Swordmy to superior call his copies of Shellie to act as boosters. Since Swordmy does not require a Jewel Knight vanguard, Swordmy has seen recent integration into Seeker decks as a source of cheap boosting power. Other modifications include Cycirlz from G-BT01, who gains +2 grade when discarded for the cost of stride, allowing him to be used as an alternative means of striding the deck's grade 4s Gablade and Saint Blow Dragon. Gablade's on hit skill superior calls a grade 2 or greater unit from the deck, providing an ideal moment to bring out Swordmy early on and then superior call Shellie behind him for a net +2. Like Route Flare above, Saint Blow's skill requires it to turn a copy of itself face-up in the generation zone and then have two or more face-up G-units in the zone. This endows it with +3000 power for each rearguard and an additional critical, which combined with the power from striding makes an unboosted 41000 power 2 critical center lane that can alternatively force the opponent to higher damage early so that Thing Saver's restand skill becomes devastating, or catch the opponent unprepared to defend in the turns after TSD has taken out much of their hand options.

Seishirou had just recently won the sixth Hakata VGCS with a similar deck, and in August had won the second Kitakyuu CS with Thing Saver-“Abyss.” His success in multiple tournaments, both official and underground, has made him one of the most recognizable professionals in Japanese play.

Fighter's Climax 2014 Fukuoka Regional Qualifier
Regional Champion: Bottan/ぼったん
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x4 Seal Dragon, Shirting HT
x2 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x3 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Biella CT
x3 Magnum Shot Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Protect Orb Dragon
x4 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x4 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Violence Horn Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Dragonic Burnout
x3 Burning Horn Dragon
x4 Dragonic Neoflame
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord “The X”
x3 Dragonic Overlord the End
x2 Perdition Emperor Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Imperial Flame Dragon King, Route Flare Dragon
x1 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmoud
x1 Harmonics Messiah
x2 Miracle Element, Atomos

Runner-up
Grade 0
x1 Timepiece Dracokid (FV)
x4 Steam Maiden, Ululu HT
x4 Lucky Pot Dracokid DT
x4 Steam Battler, Dadashig CT
x4 Steam Battler, Mashuda CT
Grade 1
x4 Steam Maiden, Alulim
x4 Steam Breath Dragon
x3 Steam Scalar, Gigi
x3 Maser Gear Dragon
Grade 2
x4 Smoke Gear Dragon
x4 Steam Knight, Puzur Ili
x3 Twin Maser Dragon
Grade 3
x4 Chrono Jet Dragon
x4 Ruin Disposal Dragon
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon
x2 Interdimensional Dragon, Chronos Command Dragon
x1 Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery Flare Dragon
x1 Miracle Element, Atomos

Fourth place: Seishirou
Grade 0
x1 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Jewel Knight, Hilmy HT
x4 Margal DT
x4 Jewel Knight, Noble Stinger CT
x4 Blazing Jewel Knight, Rachelle CT
Grade 1
x4 Holy Knight Guardian
x4 Laurel Knight, Cycirlz
x4 Stinging Jewel Knight, Shellie
x2 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric 
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Jewel Knight, Swordmy
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x3 Seeker, Sacred Wingal
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
x4 Divine Sacred Dragon, Saint Blow Dragon

Today's Card Analysis: Interdimensional Dragon Ragnaclock Dragon

"Ah, the time for everything to end
has come once again."

Today's Japanese card of the day is a stride unit for the Gear Chronicle clan, Ragnaclock Dragon. Illustrated by Amemiya Keita (Werwolf Sieger, Dark Lord of Abyss) Ragnaclock is intended as a game-finishing generation unit that combines the overwhelming power of a stridden grade 4 with guard manipulation and additional critical to help secure the end of the match, and the opponent with it.

When Ragnaclock attacks the vanguard, you can counterblast 1 and turn a copy of itself in the generation zone face-up; this prevents the opponent from calling grade 0 cards to the guardian circle from their hand, and if there are two or more face-up generation units in the generation zone, Ragnaclock will get an additional critical. Since getting the most out of Ragnaclock's counterblast requires you to have already stridden on a previous turn, he's ideal as a followup to Chronos Command Dragon. For counterblast 2 soulblast 1 Chronos Command sends the opponent's entire field to the bottom of their deck when his attack hits the vanguard, and as a stride unit he will innately attack for ~26000 power, forcing the opponent to spend perfect defense cards on his attack even while they're at 2~3 damage, or otherwise risk taking up to a -5 from what is effectively a field retire skill on par with Nouvelle Vague's. The counterblast and soulblast costs do not have to be dedicated until the moment he actually hits, so keeping up with defending against Chronos Command for several turns severely taxes the opponent's hand and leaves them open to rearguard attacks that will eventually put them in the range of 4 damage. This is when Ragnaclock is intended to come out, catching the opponent without the perfect defense in hand to guard with.

Alternatively, you can bring Ragnaclock in when the opponent is still at 3 damage if their hand is full of 0s, to try and go for the endgame. Attacking boosted for 31000 2 critical effectively takes a leaf from Genesis' book, requiring the opponent to either drop a perfect defense or risk the critical. Like Vict Plasma and many of the other grade 4s from G-BT01: Generation Stride, Ragnaclock's persona cost prevents you from using his skill more than twice per game under normal circumstances. But Gear Chronicle is one of the few clans with a means to circumvent this; their stand trigger Waku Waku Worker has a generation break skill that turns a G-unit face-down after its boost, then recycles Waku back into the deck. Ragnaclock's persona cost is thus limited only by the number of Workers that can be brought out, but seeing as it's critical triggers that make Ragnaclock threatening prior to 5 damage, it's difficult to recommend a default trigger ratio to this kind of deckbuild. A 4-4-4-4 rainbow trigger spread is just as easily recommendable as 4 stand 8 critical, but more unorthodox ideas like 3 stand 3 draw 6 critical--effectively a standard 6 draw 6 critical option with 3 stands substituted in--are also feasible. As one of the newest clans in the game, Gear Chronicle has a lot of room for experimentation with new ideas tailored to its stride-centric strategies.

News: Ragnaclock Dragon Debuts in Monthly Bushiroad Magazine, Battle Sister and Raizer Subclans Boosted by G-BT01

This morning issue 15 of Monthly Bushiroad magazine was leaked by vendors in Japan, two days ahead of its street date. The issue was packaged with the promotional card Amon's Mastermind Astaroth, and revealed cards from the upcoming set G-BT01: Stride Generation, which will debut in Japan on December 5th. The new Oracle Think Tank units focus on adding one card from the top two of the deck to hand and sending the other to the bottom, while the Gear Chronicle units focus on sending the opponent's rearguards to the bottom of their deck and alternatively blocking either grade 1 or grade 0 guardians.

The marquee card of the issue is the Interdimensional Dragon, Ragnaclock Dragon. Designed by veteran artist Amemiya Keita, Ragnaclock is a G-unit like Harmonics Messiah before it, that cannot be placed in the deck and instead has to be stridden from the generation zone. Amemiya had previously illustrated Werwolf Sieger, Dark Lord of Abyss, and Knight of Purgatory Skull Face.

Ragnaclock's counterblast 1 activates when it attacks a vanguard; by turning a copy of itself in the generation zone face-up, it prevents the opponent from calling grade 0 cards to the guardian circle from their hand, and if his cardfighter has two or more units face-up in their generation zone Ragnaclock gains an additional critical.

Accounting for the power gain from the grade 3 it strides over, Ragnaclock's final in-battle stats will be approximately ~31000+ with 2 critical, lifting inspiration from both Dragonic Nouvelle Vague in limiting the opponent's guard options to units with 5000 shield, and from the mixed critical and guard control legions of the previous format.

Similar to a persona blast in design, Ragnaclock's generation skill is fundamentally limited to activate only twice per game, but G-BT01's introduction of the Gear Chronicle stand trigger Waku Waku Worker will change this.

Waku Waku's generation break 1 lets it turn a unit in the generation zone face-down after it boosts in exchange for sending it back to the deck at the end of that battle. GB1 skills will activate even if the G-unit on the vanguard circle is the only face-up generation unit, which allows Waku Waku to begin doing its job immediately, ensuring that Ragnaclock's persona generation is limited only by the number of times Waku Waku can be brought out. Since the onset of legion format in BT16, skilled stand triggers have been a favorable alternative to draws, and Gear Chronicle's Luck Bird clone Steam Scalar Gigi will make this more viable.

As a whole Gear Chronicle is more clearly coming into its identity as a Dark Zone clan in the set, with multiple soulblast options in the vein of Spike Brothers. While G-BT01's set contents are not fully known, there is by comparison a dearth of soulcharging options, currently limited to riding over the clan's legion pair Ruin Disposal Dragon and his mate Steam Knight Puzzle Iri. Following up on Gear Chronicle's other primary mechanic, Ruin Disposal is able to send an opponent's grade 2 or lesser rearguard to the bottom of their deck when it legions. Meanwhile Iri operates under similar conditions as Ragnaclock. In the rearguard Iri can soulblast 2 when it attacks to prevent the opponent from guarding it with grade 0 cards, acting as a Silent Tom with higher base power.

While Iri is likely here to stay as a primary grade 2 option for the clan, Gear Chronicle fighters will find themselves hard pressed to fit Ruin Disposal in. The clan's existing grade 3 from G-TD01, Chrono Jet Dragon, automatically blocks both perfect defense cards and quintet walls when it attacks a vanguard while at generation break 2, and with Ragnaclock's self-flipping cost accelerating Chrono Jet is going to be very easy. Furthermore, G-BT01 is introducing a complementary grade 3, Fate Wheel Dragon. Fate Wheel's on-ride counterblast 1 soulblast 1 dismisses any of the opponent's rearguards forward in time to the bottom of their deck, while his generation break CB1 blocks grade 0 cards in the same style as Ragnaclock. Paired with Chrono Jet's combination of on-stride rearguard removal and guard control, Gear Chronicle's grade 3 and 4 lineup has multiple ways to aggressively control the two most important defensive resources in the game while utilizing their soul as a primary resource where other clans would have to pay higher counterblast costs instead.

G-BT01 is also capitalizing on Chronicle's field control options, with the grade 1 Gear Wolf's generation break 1 giving it +3000 power every time a unit is sent to the bottom of the deck by a Gear Chronicle's skill. This allows for Nebula Lord-style rearguard columns, attached to cards like Iri that block grade 0s, forcing the opponent to stare down a potential ~22000 power rearguard lane that requires either a perfect defense card to block while the vanguard is demanding the same.

Key to Chronicle's striding strategy is the grade 1 Steam Breath Dragon, who when discarded to pay the cost for stride increases his own grade by +2. This effectively turns Steam Breath into additional grade 3s, allowing him to be easily cycled out for Ragnaclock or Mystery Flare, the clan's trial deck stride.

Finally, Gear Chronicle's grade 2 lineup is rounded out by its own twist on the Berserk Dragon formula, Relic Master Dragon. For counterblast 2, Relic Master dismisses an opponent's grade 2 or lesser rearguard to the bottom of their deck, which by following up from Fate Wheel or Chrono Jet can pump Gear Wolf into a 13000-power booster. While costly relative to the other Chronicle cards and making for a tight damage zone in a clan with no unflipping options, Relic Master belongs to the same family of grade 2 control units as Gwynn the Ripper, that have defined and sometimes broken other clans in the line of professional competition.

This issue also confirmed additional support for Oracle Think Tank's emergent Susanoo and Battle Sister subclans. For Susanoo, the Steam Breath Dragon clone Battle Deity Ame no Murakumo's on-call skill searches for grade 3 Susanoo units. The grade 3 clause prevents it from searching Susanoo's grade 2 incarnation, preventing it from aiding Ohirume legion decks.

Meanwhile Battle Sister Mille-Feuille's on-ride skill is a modern implementation of Monaka, Parfait and Cookie's basic +1s, drawing a card for counterblast 1 soulblast 1. Her generation break 1 is to counterblast 2 and add one card to hand from the top 2 cards of the deck, then send the remaining card to the bottom, a generation break variant on Heaven Conquering Battle Deity Susanoo's on-stride skill.

Oracle Think Tank will also be getting its first stride unit, Auspicious Beast That Soars Through Heaven, Kirin. Kirin's on-hit skill has the same effect as Mille-Feuille and Susanoo, but is costless in exchange for being an on-hit. With the strong power boost of a stride unit that can be activated early game and triple drive backing it, the on-hit is much easier to get through compared to limit break or innate grade 3 skills.

Accompanying the Nova Grapplers' upcoming Mecha Battlers in Stride Generation is mixed support for the Raizer and Beast Deity subclans. While the Beast Deities have already been announced to receive a limit break enabler in Frog Master, the Raizers are now benefiting from a new advantage-focused grade 1. Katana Raizer's continuous rearguard skill gives an on-hit CB2 draw skill to both itself and all Raizers in the same column as itself, giving the mostly counterblast-free subclan better draw consistency and pressure attacks.

Nova's clanwide boss card Muscle Shriek has an on-ride with the same cost as Mille-Feuille above, to retire an opponent's rearguard with same level of power as one of Shriek's grade 1 or lesser units. This makes Shriek the first Nova Grappler with true field control, able to take out the opponent's boosting units; its generation break 1 stands two rearguards for counterblast 1 and gives them +2000 power each, ensuring one to two more attacks that always strike for more than the preceding blows.

Royal Paladin's stride unit, Sacred Dragon Saint Blow Dragon, is a revitalization of the old King of Knights strategy. By turning a copy of itself in the generation zone face-up during the main phase, Saint Blow receives 3000 power for every rearguard in play, and if there are two or greater rearguards along with two or more face-up cards in the generation zone, Saint Blow gains an additional critical. Saint Blow is intended to be complemented by the trial deck card Knight of Blue Heavens Altomile, who follows the traditional Soul Saver/Sanctuary of Light formula.

On-stride Altomile's counterblast 1 allows two cards to be called from hand, and then for two units to gain +5000 power. While not required for the rest of the skill to complete, the hand calling is done to cope with the specific timing of the stride step, which takes place after the ride step but before the main phase.

In the current format it's feasible not to have two rearguards to give power to after striding, so by accounting for this factor Altomile overcomes Soul Saver Dragon's old weakness. Furthermore, Altomile's generation break 2 strengthens the rearguard lines by +5000 power, providing an endgame after copies of Saint Blow are exhausted. Combining the two creates a high-power center lane in the style of classic Alfred, alongside strong rearguards. Typical numbers post-stride would look like ~21000 power for both rearguards, and 41~48000 2 critical for the vanguard.

The issue was closed with the debut of a new original unit, the winner of 2014's contest submission. Like Avectro Zeus before it, "Regalia of Yin and Yang Nega Keiopojishisu" (陰陽の神器 ネガ・ケイオポジシス) is designed by one of Monthly Bushiroad's child readers as part of a submission contest, and will be made into a promo card for an upcoming issue.

News: Dengeki Online Publishes Early Cardfight!! Vanguard G Screencaps

This evening Dengeki Online uploaded 21 screencaps from the first episode of Cardfight!! Vanguard G, "Shindou Chrono," which will air on TV Tokyo twenty-two hours from now. As the first proper sequel series in the franchise, G will follow three new protagonists introduced at Bushiroad's preceding press conference. According to Dengeki, the first episode is numbered 01 rather than 197, fitting its role as the introduction of the new series.

#01 "Shindou Chrono"

One day on his way to school, Shindou Chrono found a mysterious deck planted by someone in his shoe locker, alongside a map leading somewhere. After school, Chrono went to the place written on the map. That place was a card shop called "Card Capital, Location 2."

Set three years after Cardfight!! Vanguard, Chrono is a beginner in the game who receives a "Gear Chronicle" deck. Because of this clan that no one seems to know, Chrono's fate becomes entangled with that of Kijou Shion and Anjou Tokoha. The Card Capital 2 that Shindou visits bears some resemblance to Card Kingdom, the Japanese chain of card shops that Card Capital was originally based on.

Among the initial images are a cardfight between the now-10th grader Katsuragi Kamui and Tokoha's older brother, Anjou Mamoru. The fight takes visual cues from both the first season of Cardfight!! Vanguard and its sister anime Future Card Buddyfight, with cards levitating in front of the cardfighters while they imagine themselves on the planet Cray.

The artwork for the new series is notably of higher quality than its immediate predecessor Legion Mate, which was strongly criticized for its static animation and the perceived lack of effort put into cardfights. These initial screencaps of G compare favorably to the better-received first season and Link Joker arc.

Like past seasons, Cardfight!! Vanguard G will be simulcast with English subtitles through Crunchyroll, although for the time being it is listed under the fold of Legion Mate as its 197th episode. Viewers are asked to support this official release of the anime by registering a Premium account with Crunchyroll, which will also allow immediate access to the new episodes an hour after they debut, in high definition.

News: Fifth Season Cardfight!! Vanguard G Announced, Harmonics Messiah Mechanics Detailed

Left to right; Kiba Shion, Shindou Chrono, Anjou Tokoha

A broadcast from Bushiroad's special conference today has announced the start of a new season of Cardfight!! Vanguard on October 26th, Cardfight!! Vanguard G. Coming alongside the introduction of a new separate product line for the multimedia franchise, G offers to both wipe the slate clean for newcomers and build on the material familiar to older fans of the series.

Taking place after a three-year timeskip, the series will follow Shindou Kurono, Kiba Shion and Anjou Tokoha as the new protagonists of G, with returning cast Katsuragi Kamui and Tokura Misaki serving as supporting characters. A website for the season went up shortly after the broadcast, describing the new characters introduced by G. Kurono is a protagonist who "lost his parents at an early age and relies on his own power," while Shion is "both the class clown and a cool young man, educated in fencing." Tokoha meanwhile is "a true Tokyoite girl with a graceful appearance." Kurono uses the never-before-seen clan Gear Chronicle, which brings together the destinies of these three towards an "impossible future, an impossible self signifying 'Generation.'"

Principle protagonist Shindou Kurono's name is a dual-language pun on the word Chrono "Time," while the kanji for his surname 新導 approximate the meaning "New Lead" in contrast to preceding Sendou Aichi's 先導 "Forward Lead." Returning character Kamui will be working part time at a second Card Capital location, while Misaki inherits the chain as a whole and serves as its owner.

Miyano Mamoru will be returning to voice Ibuki Kouji as a key supporting character, and to sing the new opening theme for Cardfight!! Vanguard G. Notably, Miyano's introduction in the stream doubled the number of viewers and caused a suddenly influx of Premium NND users to join, kicking out non-Premium members for the limited seating available to the livestream. The stream ultimately garnered a 72% approval rating with an audience of more than 22,000 viewers and more than 5,000 comments posted within the hour.

Starting with G the previous director and series writer Tsuji Hatsuki and Urahata Tatsuhiko will be departing from the franchise. These two have served as director and writer for Cardfight!! Vanguard, Asia Circuit, Link Joker and Legion Mate. For G their roles are filled by Yoshimura Kyoko (吉村清子) and Umemoto Yui (梅本唯.) Yoshimura is known for her work on Final Fantasy Unlimited and Witchblade, as well as serving as the co-director to Vanguard's Link Joker arc, while Umemoto is already well-appreciated for her contributions to the first season of Cardfight!! Vanguard. She has both storyboarded and directed Suzugamori Ren's introduction to the series in episode 23, the battle between Kai and Ren in 47, and the masterpiece episode 62, better known as the first instance of Tsukuyomi being used to stack the deck.

G will make use of the new Stride mechanic introduced earlier by the Neon Messiah movie promo card, Harmonics Messiah. Each of the main characters of G will be featured using a Stride unit, cards which are kept outside of the main deck and used after the ride phase of the turn; by discarding cards with total of 3 or more grade from the hand while the vanguard is at grade 3 or greater, a Stride unit can be placed over the vanguard until the end of the turn. So far this has not been treated as a ride, and according to the stream can be performed after a normal ride, meaning that break ride skills will not activate, and the Stridden card retains the names of both itself and of the base form it has Stridden over. The power of the unit Stridden is added to the Stride unit, however. The introduction of a "G-Assist Step" will see further interaction with Stride, allowing it to be performed to cope with being gradelocked.

Of the revisions made to the TCG by G, the upcoming trial decks for the season will contain four copies of their RRR-rarity card instead of just one, as well as two perfect defense cards and two copies of their cover card each. The products for the new season will also partially reset the set order, reflecting the divide between Cardfight!! Vanguard and Cardfight!! Vanguard G. On November 21st the first trial decks of the new season will come out, VG-G-TD01: Awakening of the Interdimensional Dragon and VG-G-TD02: Divine Swordsman of the Shiny Star. These will be followed on December 5th by VG-G-BT01: Generation Stride. (時空超越/ストライドジェネレーション Jikuchuuetsu/Sutoraido Jenereeshon "Space-time Transcendence/Stride Generation.") VG-G-TD03 and 04 will follow in January, then VG-G-BT02 in February, and the first extra booster set of the season will be released in March. TD01 will support the new Gear Chronicle clan, while TD02 will support Royal Paladin, and BT01 will contain cards for Royal Paladin, Gear Chronicle, Kagerou, Nova Grappler and Oracle Think Tank.