News: Aurageyser Damned Revealed at Bushiroad's Grand Strategy Presentation

July 9th, 2015. At Bushiroad's ongoing Grand Strategy Presentation in Bellesalle, Akihabara, a card display for G-BT04: Soul Strike Against the Supreme leaked to Twitter unveiled the upcoming "Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Damned." The display confirmed Aurageyser Damned to be one of the set's two generation rares, and that the card's illustrator is Takayama Toshiaki, known for his illustration of Dragonic Overlord the End.

Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Damned
"Weakness is a sin."
ACT (Vanguard circle): Once per turn: [Counterblast 1, choose one face-down "Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon" in your generation zone, turn it face-up, choose three of your rearguards, retire them] Reveal the top two cards of your deck. For each grade 1 or less card revealed by this effect, choose one of your opponent's rearguards, retire it. Put the cards revealed by this effect into your hand. If there are three or more "Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon" in your generation zone, during this turn, this unit gets Critical +1.

Aurageyser Damned's flavor text is lifted directly from the motto of Kanzaki Yuuichirou, the current antagonist of Cardfight!! Vanguard G. A combination of Phantom Blaster Dragon and Origin Mage Ildona from years past, because his stride skill uniquely requires Aurageyser Dragon to be turned face-up, and also benefits from running as much as a playset of the card, Damned encourages running a pure Aurageyser lineup of strides to the exclusion of Dark Dragon Phantom Blaster “Diablo.” However, since no part of the skill requires Damned himself to be face-up, by contrast it's also possible to run just one Aurageyser Damned with a set of three Dragons and “Diablo” to fill out the remaining space. Unlike most strides, Damned has a severe margin of error for his effect to do nothing at all, as if no grade 1s are checked and Damned is stridden without having previously used Dragon's skill, both the retire and critical parts of his counterblast will fail. If used in conjunction with Promising Knight David, the retire for his effect becomes neutral.

News: Amnesty Messiah Prices Skyrocket

Price surveys of sales of Sovereign Star Dragon singles this week are demonstrating an alarming and rapid shift in price dynamics; over the course of just four days the set's second generation rare, Amnesty Messiah, has jumped up from a 1500~2000 yen card to selling for 6000~7000 yen each. (approx. $48~$56 at the current exchange rate.) The news comes on the heels of the set's other generation rare Phantom Blaster Dragon dominating price charts last weekend, with Amnesty matching Phantom Blaster coin for coin. The Abyss Dragon generation rare has since dropped to 5000~5800 yen, with his lows staying at the same ceiling as on the set's release date.

The inflated prices are likely owed to the modified distribution of generation rares in the set, as it has been independently confirmed several times over that in Sovereign Star Dragon each case of sixteen booster boxes comes with exactly one copy of each generation rare.

Prior sets Generation Stride and Soaring Ascent both distributed generation rares with the same frequency as triple rares, and the only real difference between GR and RRR cards were their foiling. Shadow Paladin and Link Joker are the highest priced clans in the set, with Dark Irregulars in third, and Gold Paladin and Murakumo in fourth.

Another reason for the rise is the lack of reliable unlock skills in the Messiah deck. Their key unlockers White Dwarf Lady Battler and Blast Monk are both distributed exclusively as promo cards rather than in booster sets. With few ways to unlock Arousal Messiah to initiate their combos, Messiah cardfighters rely on the high-rarity Amnesty to piece together their strategy.

Cardfighters in Japan are being forced to come to terms with the increasing expense of the game, as the popularity of specific clans dramatically increases the demand for high-rarity cards. Link Joker has always been one of the most expensive clans in the Japanese game, since the heyday of Chaos Breaker Dragon a year and a half ago. But the high prices of Phantom Blaster and Amnesty Messiah exceed anything seen in previous formats, as their absolute values have doubled; where 3500 yen was once the most expensive price one could pay for a single card in Japanese Vanguard, that value has doubled in the time since to 7000 yen. A game that was once priced for children is becoming prohibitively expensive for its target audience, leaving adults as the primary consumer. Two years ago Eradicator Dragonic Descendant was the currency equivalent of a $10 card, and one of the best decks in format could be afforded with a middle school student's monthly allowance. This dilemma is likely to hit the English-language game even harder with the international release of Sovereign Star Dragon on July 10th, as the most expensive standard rarity cards in the game are already $40~$45. The rarity of Amnesty Messiah and Phantom Blaster may drive the grade 4 units to $80~$100 per card, dramatically increasing the cost of deckbuilding. One of Cardfight!! Vanguard's original selling points internationally was the low cost of the game relative to its contemporaries Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering and the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Whether cardfighters would find the new decks worth investing in is questionable when one of the most important aspects of the game is that superior judgement wins out over the amount of money spent; a cardfighter that buys a $500 deck is no more likely to win than one who buys a $150 deck with similar levels of support.

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.

The above buylist comes from card shop C-labo, written c. May 29th. At the time this list was written, the shop was buying Sovereign Star Dragon cards at their exact market value rather than at a 30~40% depreciation. Less than a week after these prices were listed, Amnesty Messiah's average selling price has already tripled from what is seen here, while Phantom Blaster Dragon's has stayed at a similar price point.

Today's Card Analysis: Genesis Dragon Judgement Messiah

The English card of the day is the featured stride from G-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah, Judgement Messiah. A rare layered stride, Judgement Messiah has multiple effects as part of one skill that trigger sequentially, but not all of those effects have to be used every time. Like the Fighter's Collection 2015 stride Nectaria, Judgement's skill includes an initial effect that resolves on-hit and an optional secondary effect that resolves afterwards, but unlike her, Judgement's full skill does not depend on a specific heart to use. Mastering Judgement Messiah requires understanding the benefits of unlock in the Messiah deck, and when to choose to make use of it.

When Judgement Messiah's attack hits, you can lock an opponent's backrow rearguard and then choose up to one locked card to unlock. The keyword here is "up to;" it is not by any means necessary nor always a good idea to unlock a card. Particularly since Judgement is an early game stride like Gablade or Grim Recruiter, at the time you are resolving him the only locked card may in fact be the unit that he just locked. It's ideal to preserve the -1 that he incurs against the opponent, so in that scenario you would not want to unlock any units. However, if you used Judgement Messiah in conjunction with the skills of the breakstride Alter Ego Messiah, then one of your own rearguards is already locked and it would be ideal to unlock that unit so that it can either attack, or trigger an on-unlock skill like that of Dark Metal Chameleon or the deck's first vanguard Neon Messiah. That way you can either countercharge a damage or search your deck for a copy of Alter Ego to discard for the cost of stride next turn. On the other hand, if you're at a later stage of the fight where Alter Ego's generation break 2 would be online and your own locked rearguards aren't omega locked, then it would be better to wait for your units to unlock on their own in the end phase so that Alter Ego's soulblast skill can activate and draw cards off those cards unlocking. Failing to exercise proper judgment in using Judgement Messiah will invariably prove costly, as one or more pieces of your delicate lock-unlock strategy will fall through the cracks.

The major hole in the Messiah deck at this time is its lack of effective unlockers, which are primarily relegated to still-unreleased promotional cards. Judgement Messiah is thus one of a few opportunities outside of Amnesty Messiah to trigger your on-unlock skills, and you should take advantage of that opportunity accordingly. Fateful Star Messiah will reach western shores on June 19th, 2015.

Today's Card Analysis: Sovereign Black Dragon Aurageyser Dragon & Cutting-Edge Knight David

戦場を行く。ただ無人の野を進むが如く。

"To the battleground. It will be just like advancing on untended fields."

The Japanese cards of the day for the weekend are two support cards for Shadow Paladin's rebel faction, the triple rare stride Aurageyser Dragon and the clan's new first vanguard David. Illustrated by Takayama Toshiaki--otherwise known for Dragonic Overlord the End, “The Яe-birth,” Galaxy Blaukluger and Great Daiearth--Aurageyser is a stride revision of one of Shadow Paladin's past boss cards, Origin Mage Ildona. Aurageyser is currently semi-unique as a persona generation grade 4 that does not benefit from nor require two or more face-up G units for any of his card effects, and this property gives him a number of uses in different Shadow Paladin decks attempting to take advantage of the generation zone. The only other cards that function in this way have specific heart requirements, which Aurageyser does not.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1, soulblast 1, choose a card named "Sovereign Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon" in your generation zone and turn it face-up, choose two of your rearguards, retire them] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost, if paid, reveal two cards from the top of your deck, during this turn, for each grade 1 or lesser card revealed by this effect, this unit gets Power +5000. Put the cards revealed by this effect into your hand.

Aurageyser was originally envisioned by the Research & Development staff to synergize with Claret Sword Dragon, his corresponding grade 3. By superior calling a Swordbreaker with Claret Sword's on-stride skill and drawing from that Swordbreaker, then her as part of Aurageyser's cost to reveal and add two cards to hand, you set up a net +2 in card advantage when striding over Claret neutrally and consolidate your rearguards into your hand. Counting the triple drive, two additional cards from Aura's skill and the draw off of Swordbreaker, you will put six cards into your hand on that turn. This is offset by all but one of those cards being known to the opponent. A sufficiently skilled cardfighter can memorize everything that Aurageyser has added in terms of (at least) your guard power, if not knowing the cards by name. While Aura does not fully address Ildona's longstanding problem of drawing into trigger units, he does compensate for it by getting +5000 power for each grade 1 or lesser card revealed by his skill, effectively still gaining the power if not the effects of the triggers and during that reveal temporarily turning all remaining grade 1 cards into trigger units that can exclusively be applied to the vanguard. In light of this current brand of Shadow Paladin's emphasis on superior calling grade 1 and lesser cards this can be a difficult sword to balance, as superior calling units interacts with Aurageyser in a strange way by actually decreasing the number of valid targets for his skill.

The incentive to run Swordbreaker does conflict with Aurageyser's soulblast cost. In decks that make use of Phantom Blaster “Diablo” or Blaster grade 3s, Darkheart Trumpeter is also contending for that limited resource, and the latest first vanguard option described below does not move into the soul. This means that to have space for multiple Swordbreakers/Darkhearts and Aurageysers in the same game, one must run Creeping Dark Goat, Judgebau Revenger or Fullbau Brave to build up the available soul. Otherwise one is left with just the grade 1 and 2s in the soul, which makes room for two Aurageysers but no Swordbreakers nor Darkhearts, or vice versa. Running the new move-to-soul draw trigger Howl Owl is an option, but also neutralizes any card advantage gained from these soulblast skills because putting Owl into the soul is itself a negative action. One means of getting around this is to limit Aurageyser to a first-stride utility play. The game-ending turns will typically be spend on Phantom Blaster “Diablo” rather than on Aurageyser, so planning to use Aura only once is an effective means of planning around his soulblast cost. You can run two copies of Aura for the initial stride, four copies of “Diablo” for the two turns after that, and then two of another stride like Blizza or Atmos that can catch the opponent unawares.

Aurageyser is relevant to more than just Claret Sword. Ironically, Blaster Dark “Diablo” benefits immensely from running at least two copies of Aurageyser in the generation zone, as Dark “Diablo's” primary shortcoming is his slowness and utter dependency on Phantom Blaster “Diablo” to function. Blaster Dark “Diablo's” generation break 2 allows him to stride a Blaster unit using any card for the cost by giving that card grade +3, but as a generation break 2 the skill will not come online under normal circumstances until the third stride or later.

This is much later than decks like the Revenger subclan are going off, putting Blaster Dark at a severe disadvantage. What Aurageyser does is address this by getting two G units face-up on his initial stride, making Dark “Diablo” live a turn earlier and allowing an immediate stride into Phantom Blaster “Diablo” just from discarding a grade 0 unit for the cost.

"Always. More than anyone else."

Finally, we have the second card of the day that Aurageyser's been paired with, Cutting-Edge Knight David. Befitting his name, David is a truly state-of-the-art first vanguard with a generation break 1 skill similar to that of Pitch Black Sage, Charon. When David would be used to pay the cost of one of your own retire skills, he can instead be treated as two units, effectively decreasing its cost by one. While Charon requires a Blaster vanguard for this, David instead accomplishes it by being a generation break 1.

With Aurageyser this means that you create a net +1 in card advantage by using David to pay the cost, retiring one card to draw two, and you can reduce Claret Sword's generation break to a net -1 instead of a -2 to pay for a stronger late game offensive. One unorthodox trick the anime series has advocated is running multiple copies of David in the deck and superior calling them with Claret Sword's on-stride skill to grab net card advantage off of Aurageyser without exhausting the soul for Black-winged Swordbreaker.

This is not without precedent. Deletor cardfighters worldwide managed a similar strategy with Acquire Deletor Igor not long ago, and still depend on that strategy heavily. Using David in this way also circumvents Revenger matches using Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” to retire him. However, it comes at the risk of being forced into a G Assist or even gradelock by having to shave off grade 1, 2 and 3 space to make room for the extra copies of the first vanguard, and whether this is worth it or not to make multiple Aurageyser turns play out positively is up to the individual fighter to decide.

Today's Card Analysis: Sovereign Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon

 "A claret sword. There lies a history of fresh blood."

The Japanese card of the day is one of the lead figures in Shadow Paladin's rebel faction, the military leader Claret Sword Dragon. A generalissimo seeking to take advantage of the clan's weakened leadership in Mordred's absence and overthrow Blaster Dark “Diablo,” Claret Sword will ring familiar for the supporters of Shadow Paladin's former patron deity Phantom Blaster Dragon. The Sovereign Dragon is to Blaster Dark as night to day, and a visionary for a different future for the clan.

ACT (Vanguard circle) Once per turn: Generation break 2: (Active if you have 2 or more face-up G Units in your vanguard circle or generation zone) [Choose two of your rearguards, and retire them] During this turn, this unit gets Power +10000 / Critical +1.
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1] During your turn, when your G unit strides, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for one grade 1 or less card, call it to a rearguard circle, shuffle that deck, during this turn, that unit gets Power +2000.

As was predicted, Claret Sword's on-stride counterblast 1 superior calls a grade 1 or lesser card from the deck and temporarily increasing its power, allowing a weaker unit with a utility skill to temporarily serve as a valuable booster before being retired by stride skills. The primary issue working against Claret Sword is the lack of genericized support for Shadow Paladin; the Revengers are the clan itself, and most effective support cards that do not belong to them instead go to the Blasters specifically.

Of the pre-Sovereign Star Dragon units, the card Claret Sword fighters will want to take advantage of the most is Black-winged Swordbreaker from BT15: Infinite Rebirth. Swordbreaker's on-call soulblast 1 to draw will build a net +2 in card advantage if Claret was strode over neutrally, refreshing the hand, providing a temporary base 8000 power booster and providing fuel for retire-based strides. Another potential target is the original Black Sage Charon from BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows and TD10: Purgatory Revenger, who with the power bonus will become a 10000-power booster that can form 21000-power lines with either Triple Dark Armor or the generation break 12000-power attacker Belberith.

Generally the cards introduced in G-LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori” will not be compatible with Claret Sword because these units require a Blaster vanguard, but if your stride target is Phantom Blaster “Diablo” this won't be a problem for that turn. You can use Claret Sword to superior call Darkheart Trumpeter, use Darkheart's soulblast 1 to superior call Pitch Black Sage Charon, and since you have Blaster “Diablo” as your vanguard you'll be able to use Charon's Blaster-exclusive skill to make him count as two units at once, incurring a net change of 0--the same exchange as if you'd called Swordbreaker. The difference between Pitch Black Charon and Swordbreaker is that Charon allows you to maintain field presence, while Swordbreaker maintains handsize. Charon is an offensively-minded play, while Swordbreaker is defensively-minded.

Claret Sword is bringing his own leg of support with him, but with so little known of Sovereign Star Dragon it's difficult to say at this time precisely what to rely on. The promotional card Decipherer of Prohibited Books is one such option; her on-call generation break 1 counterblast 1 can superior call any grade 0, but in a generation break-centric deck with no recycling options where triggers are a finite resource, this is of dubious value compared to simply pulling out a Swordbreaker. Knight of Contempt Giiva is designed to support heavy retire skills, but as a grade 2 can't be superior called by Claret Sword and has to be brought out from the hand. The same holds true for Skull Witch Nemain, an old standby for Shadow Paladin veterans.

In terms of his stride targets, while Phantom Blaster “Diablo” is far and away the most desirable option for Claret Sword's endgame at this time, it should be kept in mind that Claret's on-stride counterblast sets up the otherwise-conditional Dark Knight Efnysian from Fighter's Collection 2015. Efnysian's on-stride skill retires one of your own rearguards to gain +7000 power and an on-hit retire skill, which can be impractical if you have no rearguards in play as a result of the opponent's card effects. Claret Sword gets around this by superior calling a card that can immediately be retired for Efnysian's skill to break even on your end and incur a -1 in card advantage against the opponent if the attack hits, and if you call out Swordbreaker this results in a net +1 to your own advantage and -1 against the opponent. Since Efnysian's skill makes him reach 33000 power by himself, if you do already have rearguards in play you can use Claret Sword to bring out a booster for Efnysian and increase its base power so that he breaks the 41000+ threshold.

Finally, Claret Sword's generation break 2 must be put under consideration. While his on-stride skill is reminiscent of Mordred Phantom, his generation break falls squarely within the realm of Phantom Blaster Dragon, down to its timing. Everything learned from Blaster Dragon years ago is applicable, including its shortcomings, but lets consider first how Claret improves the skill. Claret Sword does away with the counterblast cost entirely to get rid of the redundant costing on Blaster Dragon, meaning that so long as you have cards you can put into play, you can use his generation break. And only costing two units instead of three helps offset the lack of access to Pitch Black Charon for the Sovereign's retire skill. Phantom Blaster Dragon does have access to the generation break skills of Knights Dorint and Claudas from their legend deck to unflip damage with, and can make use of Darkheart, Swordbreaker and Charon, while on his own independent turns Claret does not have access to either Darkheart or Swordbreaker (the latter by connection to the former.)

Thus Phantom Blaster is generally looking at a counterblast 1 soulblast 1 retire 2 for his skill, sometimes at a net -1 rather than -2, and because Claret Sword has to wait so much later in the game to get his skill online in the first place, it's less immediately available by comparison. The major shortcoming of the Sovereign Dragon's generation break is that there are so many other cards with almost identical skills that are able to make use of them without paying any cost at all; Dragonic Blademaster, Battle Deity Susanoo, Dragonic Vanquisher and Charharlot Vampir all receive similar benefits passively rather than by actively needing to pay a cost. Secondary to this is that like with Phantom Blaster Dragon because Claret Sword's retire skill is a main phase retire that requires fronting two rearguards it has a hidden second cost, that essentially takes four cards out of your defenses. Every two units that you retire in the main phase have to be replaced with two more from the hand, weakening your overall ability to defend. A further discussion of these types of abilities is addressed in the History of Professional Cardfight. Where Claret has a leg up over his predecessor is that across several cumulative turns he is able to amass greater overall card advantage through repeated on-stride superior calls, and this can make him more viable in the long term. It simply weakens his overall offensive gameplay in terms of the generation break, which like Damned Charging Lance before it is destined to go unused.

Finally, Claret Sword's lore;
神聖国家の闇に生きる黒き騎士団“シャドウパラディン”の騎士。
血のように赤く染まったその剣から「クラレットソード」の名で呼ばれる。
「力こそ正義」という信念を持ち、騎士団に属していながら「神聖国家を影から支える」という思想に異を唱える。

Shinseikokka no yami ni ikiru kurokikishidan "Shadou Paradin" no kishi.
Chi no you ni akakushimatta sono kenkara "Kuraretto Soodo" no na de yobareru.
"Chikarakoso Seigi" to iu shinnen wo mochi, kishidan ni zokushiteinagara "shinseikokka wo kagekara shieru" to iu shisou ni i wo tonaeru.

Living in the darkness of the holy nation, there is a knight of the black order "Shadow Paladin."
Because of his blade stained red with blood, he is called "Claret Sword."
Believing that "power is justice," he opposes the ideal of "supporting the holy nation from the shadows" in spite of belonging to a knightly order.

Today's Card Analysis: Genesis Dragon Amnesty Messiah & Alter Ego Messiah

The Japanese cards of the day are the G unit Genesis Dragon Amnesty Messiah from G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon and her corresponding grade 3 Alter Ego Messiah from G-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah. Amnesty is the second Generation Rare from G-BT03, and the Messiah faction's new finishing move. The Amnesty stride functions like an inverted Tempest Bolt Dragon that gains power from unlocking rearguards, refunding the costs of her rearguards that lock themselves while also granting her opponents field presence in exchange for giving her power.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose any number of locked cards, unlock them, during that battle this unit gets +3000 power for each unlocked unit, and if the number of cards unlocked is 3 or more, during that battle this unit gets Critical +1.

Although this may seem lacking compared to something like the Abhorrent One that comes with innate guard restriction, the real value of Amnesty is in the combos she can pull of with skills that activate when cards unlock. Typically you can turn Amnesty into an unboosted 34000 power 2 critical line, and the purpose of this is to force guard from the opponent's hand and bait perfect defense cards if possible. The second critical gives the opponent no choice but to guard the attack when they're in the 4~5 damage range, even if it's only for one trigger to pass, and that can strategically ruin their hand to guarantee you the game. But when used in conjunction with the new Messiah support's bevy of on-unlock skills, you can strategically lock your own rearguards and then unlock them to draw benefits from that.

There are three primary units to use this with right now. The promotional card Dark Metal Chameleon is a good choice because his generation break unflips a damage when he's unlocked, refunding the cost of Amnesty. Moreover, Dark Metal has Resist and so can't be chosen by the opponent's card effects to be prematurely locked or retired, so there's very little to prevent Dark Metal from going off. Since you get to choose as many units as you like to be unlocked, having multiple Chameleons in play can also refund the cost of Amnesty's supporting units.

The Messiah subclan's first vanguard Neon Messiah is another good choice; when unlocked, by putting Neon Messiah into the soul you can search your deck for a grade 3 Messiah unit, enabling your stride for next turn. While you lose out on the boost of Neon for that turn, the net power Amnesty derives from unlocking at least two units will exceed that of Neon's boost, and the additional soul can be used for soulblast skills.

Heavy Material Dragon doesn't have an on-unlock skill, but actually locks one of your rearguards for his cost. He has the Nemain-like generation break of paying counterblast 1 discard 1 and locking a rearguard to draw two cards; by unlocking the rearguard with Amnesty, this is a net exchange of +1 while still getting your full offensive for the turn. You can also combo Heavy to Dark Metal Chameleon above, locking Chameleon for Heavy's cost and then unlocking Chameleon with Amnesty to unflip the damage that Heavy Material flipped. However, running Heavy also necessitates using base 8000 boosters to get your full offensive out for the turn.

The question remains of how you're going to get multiple rearguards locked in the first place, as just drawing Heavy Material Dragon isn't going to be reliable. By using Amnesty in tandem with the Fateful Star grade 3 Alter Ego Messiah, you can both increase the power of your center lane and ensure that you have rearguards to unlock. Alter Ego's on-stride skill locks both one of yours and one of the opponent's rearguards, creating a strategic gameplay where you can either choose to unlock only your own rearguards and activate their on-unlock skills, or you can choose to also unlock the opponent's to raise Amnesty's power further and try to go for broke on the offensive with a second critical. During the early to midgame it will be wiser not to do so, as a particular reward waits for you if you keep the opponent's rearguards locked...

AUTO (Vanguard circle): Generation break 2: [Soulblast 1] When a locked card unlocks, you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1, choose one of your rearguards and lock it] During your turn when your G unit strides, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rearguards and lock it, and choose one of your vanguards, during this turn it gets Power +5000.

Alter Ego's ultimate skill is a partial generation break revival of Chaos Breaker Dragon's limit break, one of Link Joker's most fearsome metagame giants. And unlike Chaos Breaker, Alter Ego's skill is not constrained to the end phase; if your opponent tries to use Lock Break Campaign units or Mithril Ezel to unlock their rearguards, you can soulblast to draw off of those unlocks. If the opponent unlocks five rearguards, you can draw five cards so long as you have the soul to fuel it. Since Alter Ego doesn't include the retire portion of Chaos Breaker's skill, your opponent will still return to the level of card advantage they were at prior to the lock, but thanks to the modifications made to the end phase last April, Alter Ego Messiah can now draw off of his own rearguards unlocking because skills with a timing of "when a card is unlocked" are put into standby with the same timing as "when put to G zone." The primary function of Alter Ego is to perform a burst draw during the opponent's end phase so that you can replenish your hand immediately before your turn starts and open up options, but after a point in the game you can also keep up continuous card advantage at the end of your own turn to turtle through the opponent's. The primary issue is keeping up the soul count, as a key difference between Chaos Breaker and Alter Ego is that Chaos Breaker had multiple turns of Infinite Zero Dragon and Palladium to sustain the necessary soul count. If Neon Messiah's skill will go off, Alter Ego will only be able to activate three times before you need to ride to rebuild the soul--which brings into question if running multiple Neon Messiahs is viable or not. With over twenty cards from Fateful Star Messiah and Sovereign Star Dragon yet to be revealed, the future remains open as to what kind of additional soul support the Messiahs will have, if any.

Yesterday's Card Analysis: Abhorrent One, Gilles des Rais

"Behold, all the evil in this world stands there before you."

Friday's Japanese card of the day is a superpredator among vampires who stands apart from the infighting of Dark Zone's noble houses, the Abhorrent One. A triple rare stride for Dark Irregulars from G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, the Abhorrent One is a lethal finishing move that rewards cardfighters for building up their soul in a way that surpasses all of the clan's past boss cards. Be sure to read his card lore at Arkadiaworks.

ACT (Vanguard circle): Once per turn: [Choose a face down card named “Abhorrent One, Gilles des Rais” in your generation zone, turn it face up] If the number of cards in your soul is 10 or more, this unit gets Power +10000 until end of turn. Then, if the number of cards in your soul is 15 or more, until end of turn, this unit gets "AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit attacks a vanguard, until end of that battle, your opponent cannot call grade 1 or greater units from hand to the guardian circle." If the number of face up cards in your generation zone is two or more, this unit gets Critical +1 until end of turn.

While past cards from the House of Amon series have advanced a center lane-strategy that uses the soul as a threshold to increase the vanguard's power and critical by, and the mutant Fighter's Collection 2014 unit Echo of Nemesis controlled the cards the opponent could guard with, the Abhorrent One unites these two ideas into a single killing blow. Several conditional factors ensure that the Abhorrent One can do progressively more damage to the opponent's resources the longer the game goes on; if the number of cards in the soul is ten or greater, the Abhorrent One's power increases by 10000. If the soul count reaches fifteen or greater, the opponent cannot guard with grade 1 or greater cards, negating the benefits of perfect defense and quintet wall skills. Finally, if there are two or more face-up cards in the generation zone, his critical increases by one--factor in triple drive and you have a surefire killing blow that will send the opponent from four to six damage immediately. With his power bonus and a booster with a base power of at least 7000, at fifteen or greater soul the Abhorrent One will attack for 43000 power, demanding 50000 shield to guarantee a block. That's approximately one-third the shield your opponent will have available to them in their entire deck with grade 1 and greater cards invalidated.

As a stride, one of the benefits the Abhorrent One enjoys is taking on the name of the grade 3 used as his heart card. Thus by striding over a unit that belongs to the House of Amon, like Demon World Marquis Amon or his legion revival Astaroth, it becomes possible to use Amon-series support with the Abhorrent One. This makes it easy to reach the requisite soul count using Hell's Draw and Hell's Deal to soulcharge 2 on-call for each, but more importantly it also allows you to take advantage of the new Amon support units introduced in Sovereign Star Dragon. The subclan's new first vanguard, Barmaid Grace, is especially relevant to the Abhorrent One. By resting her and paying counterblast 1, you can use Grace to soulcharge 2 and give your vanguard a continuous +1000 power for every card in the soul; with exactly fifteen cards in the soul, the Abhorrent One will reaches 58000 power after boosting, raising the threshold to guard him by one-tenth of the total grade 0 shield in the deck.

Running the Abhorrent One in Amon is not your only option. When using him in pure Dark Irregulars, you can benefit from their breakstride Charharlot Vampir, as well as an existing FVG from BT07: Rampage of the Beast King. Greedy Hand is an old hat combo for veteran Dark Irregulars cardfighters; the idea is that you use his counterblast 1 to put him into the soul and search the deck for Dimension Creeper (Binding Force of the Black Rings) to soulblast itself and soulcharge 2. This is a net -1 in card advantage, but with Charharlot's on-stride soulcharge 2 and additional soulcharges from the promotional card Flying Librarian, it helps expedite the initial buildup to 15 soul. A playset of Dimension Creeper can come in handy, since it allows you to effectively soulcharge an additional card every time you get Creeper into the soul, and unlike the Hell's series Creeper doesn't require you to have any specific cards in hand.

The chief difficulty behind the Abhorrent One is that his soul threshold is so much higher than what was once the standard for Dark Irregulars. Years ago it was feasible to stop soulcharging at as low as six or eight cards, and even Astaroth would stay at ten; twenty soul would only be reached very late in the fight. Needing to hit fifteen and have a third of the entire deck in the soul is a very high-maintenance strategy. Without the Amon series soulcharge support, reaching that number is an uphill battle. But the greatest vampire in the world makes it worth the effort invested, as he brings together the best of Dark Irregulars' past boss cards. Where the House of Amon struggles for total dominance of the nation Dark Zone, the Abhorrent One rejects all goals and seeks only to continue destroying, consuming and draining the world of life.

News: Shadow Paladin Stride "Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter" Revealed, Legend Deck Beginning Set

The Japanese products page updated today to reflect the upcoming Beginning Set for Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” due this April. Among the merchandise to be included in the Beginning Set is a triple rare print of the promotional card Dark Knight, Grim Recruiter. A counterpart to Royal Paladin's Shrouded Divine Knight Gablade, Recruiter's skill calls a grade 1 or less card rather than a grade 2. This makes for easy access to Shadow Paladin's burgeoning pool of supportive rearguards, primarily the on-call draw unit Black-winged Swordbreaker. If stridden neutrally, calling a Swordbreaker off of Recruiter and drawing is a net +2 in card advantage. This can alternately help fuel the retire skills of the clan's upcoming boss cards, or provide an intimidating pressure unit that gives the opponent an incentive to drop a perfect defense card on a high power center lane early in the fight, similar to how Gablade has been used in professional competition.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, search your deck for up to one grade 1 or less card, call it to a rearguard circle, and shuffle that deck.

Thematically the card is a successor to the trigger units Grim Reaper and Grim Revenger of BT04 and TD10, but unlike those cards Recruiter is not of the demon race. Grim Recruiter may be an early promotional print of a stride from the booster set G-BT03, as Shadow Paladin is to be included in the G-booster and only one copy of Grim Recruiter will be in each Beginning Set.

The set will also include a storage box, deck box and Fighter's Counters each featuring Blaster Dark “Diablo” and Suzugamori Ren on one face, and Phantom Blaster “Diablo” on another. Ren and Dark “Diablo” will serve as the +5000 power counter, while Phantom Blaster “Diablo” will serve as the +10000 counter. The set will include 60 card sleeves, and will retail for 3500 yen, approximately $29.50 at the current exchange rate.

Today's Card Analysis: Flower Princess of Vernal Equinox Primavera

Over the previous weekend Primavera, the cover card for G-BT02: Soaring Ascent of Gale and Blossom, was leaked by first recipients of the new booster set. Near as can be discerned the Primavera leak originates from an early morning Twitter post and was popularized a minute later by tournament organizer Sukacat. The new face of Neo Nectar has now become Monday's Japanese card of the day.

In contrast to persona generation units like Jingle Flower Dragon, Primavera is designed so that she can be use up to four times per game, but only as long as Neo Nectar cardfighters can effectively manage their counterblast. Her skill is not attached to persona or on-hit conditions, instead to a more traditional counterblast 3. Envisioned as a field restand, her skill selects two of her own rearguards when she attacks and calls out two copies of each card selected, forming two full rearguard lanes.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 3, choose five normal units from your drop zone and put them on top of your deck in any order, choose a card from your hand and discard it] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose two of your rearguards, and from your deck search for up to two cards with the same name as each of those units, call them to separate rearguard circles, and shuffle that deck.

Returning five units ensures that even if the targeted rearguards have no copies remaining in the deck, they can be instead sent from the drop zone to the field with the deck as an intermediary. Functionally her skill allows for the rearguards to stand, and can combo with other cards from the set to allow for up to six attacks, although the "stood" units will not retain trigger effects. A basic example would be using Primavera with two columns of Wheel Wind Dragon. By attacking with both rearguard columns first and then with Primavera, her on-attack counterblast could target one of the Wheel Winds and his booster to call out the other two Wheel Wind Dragons and two of his boosting unit, making two additional 16000 power attacks.

This gives additional chances for Wheel Wind to hit and unflip 2 damage, facilitating further use of Neo Nectar's counterblast-intensive support later on. Because of the nature of her skill, Primavera lacks innate synergy with stand triggers, as there is nothing remaining to stand after she has gone off. Furthermore, the job of card advantage support is handled by superior calls off of the generation break grade 3s Vegetable Avatar Dragon and Maiden of Ranunculus, the grade 1 and 2 Trifle Knights, and the early game stride unit Arborea. So draw triggers are likewise redundant for Primavera, making her one of the premiere twelve critical decks of the Soaring Ascent-on format.

Maiden of Gladiolus

A more complex interaction would be to exploit the grade 2 Maiden of Gladiolus. Gladiolus' generation break 1 lets her counterblast 1 when she attacks and is boosted to search the deck for a copy of another rearguard and call it. So for example, you can attack with the grade 2 generation break attacker Grace Knight for 12000 power, then attack with a boosted Gladiolus for 16000 and use her counterblast 1 to superior call a copy of Grace Knight, then attack with the new Grace Knight boosted for 19000, followed by Primavera's 26000+ attack. Primavera's counterblast 3 would superior call two columns of Gladiolus and her booster to make the fifth and sixth attacks with. There would be no reason to try to use Gladiolus a second time in this situation since the new copy could only attack for 9000 power, and the deck would likely be exhausted of any remaining at that point.

Primavera's skill caters to a different version of endgame compared to Jingle Flower's overwhelming field power bonus. She synergizes best with Wheel Wind Dragon for creating dual offensive and pressure attacks, and has the advantage of requiring more instances of defense over Jingle Flower forcing out more raw shield. Primavera is better suited to scenarios in which the opponent has a smaller hand size with larger shield distributions (i.e. many 10000 shield units) while Jingle Flower can overwhelm an opponent even when their hand is massive if their guard is distributed in denominations of 5000. An opponent with three perfect defense cards in a six-card hand is perfectly comfortable staring down Jingle Flower Dragon, but the same opponent trembles before Primavera.

News: Fighter's Collection 2015 Units, Neon Messiah DVD & Blu-ray for May

Caption: "Stride for every clan!" CARDFIGHT!! VANGUARD G FIGHTER'S COLLECTION 2015

Yesterday Duel Portal dropped the first promotional materials for VG-G-FC01: Fighter's Collection 2015, quickly followed by an update to the Japanese portal site. FC2015 promises to introduce stride support for all 25 main clans sans Etranger, and the early promotions have so far revealed such cards for Gold Paladin, Angel Feather and Dark Irregulars. Concept images for the set show what appear to be Bermuda △ and Granblue strides. Furthermore, a Nicodouga broadcast from Bushiroad teased a poster for the upcoming Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” to be released this April.

The same broadcast also gave a Japanese release date for the DVD and Blu-ray prints of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime film, Neon Messiah. The movie recently debuted in theaters in Singapore, subtitled in English, but there has been no word on other international releases either in the United States or in Europe. This has proven problematic for fans, as the currently airing season of Cardfight!! Vanguard G features the film's principle antagonist Ibuki Kouji, and presumes the viewers have previously seen Neon Messiah. The home video edition of Neon Messiah will hit Japanese shelves on May 2nd, and will retail for 3800 yen on DVD (approx. $32 US) and 6800 yen on Blu-ray (approx. $57 US.) The Blu-ray edition also contains the live action film The Three Games. While these prices will likely appear exorbitant to western fans, but are par for the course in Japan where DVD and Blu-ray sales are typically low and appeal to a niche audience.

Out of FC2015 Gold Paladin is receiving Purgation Lion King, Mithril Ezel (浄罪の獅子王 Jouzai no Shishiou "Sin-cleansing Lion King") a support card for the Ezel subclan previously expanded in BT06, BT09 and BT13. Like his preceding grade 3 incarnation Ezel Scissors, Mithril is a field unlocking unit that counters Link Joker decks. However, he also takes elements from his original debut as Blond Ezel, superior calling and gaining power from a rearguard.

ACT (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1, Choose a face down card named “Purgation Lion King, Mithril Ezel” in your generation zone, turn it face up] If your heart has "Ezel" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, unlock all of your locked cards, look at 5 cards from the top of your deck, choose 1 card, call it to a rearguard circle, shuffle that deck, during this turn, increase both that unit and this unit's Power. The number increased is the original Power of the unit called by this ability.

Unlike other stride units, because of his heart restrictions Mithril Ezel is specific to the Ezel subclan and will not work outside of an Ezel deck.

This is a running theme for the FC2015 cards, as Holy Celestial, Michael (聖霊守護天使ミカエル Seirei Shugotenshi Mikaeru "Guardian Angel of the Holy Spirit, Michael" with the forced reading of "Holy Celestial") is also specific to one subclan. Her skill is designed to build field advantage similar to Kiriel from years past, but also carries on the Celestial-specific mechanic of gaining power bonuses based on having a copy of the vanguard in the damage zone.

ACT (Vanguard circle): Once per turn: [Counterblast 1] If your heart has "Celestial" in its card name, put the top card of your deck into the damage zone, choose a face up card from your damage zone and call it to a rearguard circle. Then, if you have a card with the same name as your heart in your damage zone, the unit called with this ability gets Power +5000 until end of turn.

Finally, the Great Devil Soulless Demagogue (大魔神 "Great Demon God") emulates an old play style of Dark Irregulars,  conserving card skills until the moment of his stride and then mass soulcharging to gain power bonuses.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): During your main phase, when a card is put into your soul, until end of turn this unit gets "CONT (Vanguard circle.): During your turn, all units in your front row get Power +1000."

The soulcharges that Demagogue amasses are only useful on the turn that he is stridden. Like other strides, one of the best ways to use him at present is to take advantage of him receiving the name of the heart. By running Demagogue in an Amon deck, one can make use of the Hell's Draw and Hell's deal line to get off 4~6 soulcharges in one turn, stacking up instances of his continuous skill to give +6000 to the front row. After two turns of this, it leaves the soul set up for cards like Astaroth that depend on having a preexisting base of soul.

Today's Card Analysis: Popular Professor, Big Belly

The Japanese card of the day is Great Nature's first generation break unit from G-BT02: Flying Flowers. Popular Professor Big Belly is a Chatnoir for the generation break era, designed to rotate through the field in the late game by powering up the rearguards and then trading them out to refresh the hand. This in turn lets you access Great Nature's unique defensive properties, akin to a Roman tortoise formation.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): Generation break 2: (If you have 2 or more face-up G Units in your vanguard circle or generation zone) When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose one of your rearguards, during this turn it gets Power +4000, and during the end phase of that turn, draw one card and retire that unit.
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1] During your turn, when you stride with a G Unit, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two of your rearguards, during this turn they get Power +4000 and "AUTO (Rearguard circle): When an attack by a unit in the same column as this unit hits a vanguard, if the attacking unit's Power is 20000 or greater, draw a card."

Big Belly's on-stride counterblast is how he'll be used for most of the game. Because this skill does not retire your rearguards, it both creates the possibility for a flat increase in card advantage and makes it more likely to happen by strengthening your rearguard lanes. Furthermore, Belly can always target his own booster for the skill assuming that you set it in play on the turn beforehand, which means that you can get a +1 off of your stride regardless of its other abilities since the vanguard's power will automatically exceed 20000. Belly's unique property is thus that the more successful your aggression, the better a defensive position you are put in. Each attack that connects grants you another card in hand, prepping you for the opponent's counterattack.

This is offset by the properties of Great Nature's stride units. Eternity Professor Phoenicialux, revealed in the previous issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine, gives +4000 power to two rearguards when she attacks, then retires them in the end phase. Unless your targets are units like Stamp Sea Otter that cannot be retired by card skills, this means that Big Belly is only trading out one card for another rather than building true card advantage. A solution to this is to only target units with Phoenicialux that replace themselves in some fashion, like Coiling Duckbill or the Hammsuke series. In this way, you can convert the targeted cards to additional cards in hand, which causes you to build up a net increase in card advantage while converting your field into handsize to defend through the opponent's turn and protect your increases in advantage from both retire and lock effects. By destroying your own rearguards before the opponent can and getting a neutral or positive exchange out of destroying them, you prevent the opponent from punishing your plays, making your own offensive safe.

Big Belly's generation break 2 comes into play in turns where Phoenicialux is undesirable or no longer available. This is more in line with Chatnoir proper, giving +4000 power to a rearguard when he attacks, drawing a card in the end phase and then retiring the powered-up unit. Like in the Phoenicialux combo example, using rearguards that replace themselves or ones that cannot be retired by card effects causes Big Belly's draw skill to become a +1 in advantage rather than a neutral exchange. Compared to Chrono Jet Dragon blocking the opponent's perfect defense cards or Flower Maiden of Ranunculus field power bonus, Big Belly is not as dramatic a skill as one may anticipate from past generation breaks. His strengths lie in being able to consistently weather long games and enjoy considerable freedom versus field control decks.

Today's Card Analysis: Holy Tree Dragon Jingle Flower Dragon

The Japanese card of the day for this weekend is Neo Nectar's triple rare stride unit from G-BT02, Jingle Flower Dragon. Intended as an endgame unit to be used on your your fifth turn and later, Jingle Flower endows the entire field with massive power boosts in the same vein as his 2012 predecessor Sephirot. However, Jingle Flower's boosts vastly exceed those granted by Sephirot, as a trade-off to being available only twice per game and inside of a very limited window.

ACT (Vanguard circle): Once per turn: [Choose a face down card named “Holy Tree Dragon, Jingle Flower Dragon” in your generation zone, turn it face up] If the number of face up cards in your generation zone is two or more, choose one of your units, during this turn it gains "CONT (Vanguard/Rearguard circle): During your turn, all of your units get Power +2000 for each unit you have with the same name as this unit."

Jingle Flower's skill is moderately complex. It targets a single unit on the field, but actually increases the power of all of your units in play. In order to optimize Jingle's skill, you need to choose the unit which you have the greatest number of cards with the same name as it in play, and because some Neo Nectar units can take on the name of another card, this may not be the unit that you actually have the most actual copies of. As an example, the promotional card Maiden of Flower Screen can use her once-per-turn generation break skill to gain the name of another card on the field, by returning a nontrigger unit from the drop zone to the deck.

This makes it possible to have five instances of the same name in play rather than the standard limit of four, causing all of your units to get five instances of +2000, a net of +10000 power. The optimal setup for this uses two Flower Screens and three identical grade 1s that the Flower Screens will take the name of, preferably Sour Sourer (スッパ・スッパー Suppa Suppaa) a base 7000 grade 1 that gets +1000 power for every other Sour Sourer in play. All three Sour Sourers will have +4000 power from their own skill, and with every unit getting +10000 power from Jingle Flower Dragon's persona generation skill this will create rearguard power lanes of 40000 and a vanguard lane of 55000 power. With this in mind as the standard to which your Jingle Flower strategies need to get as close as possible to, a more likely situation is to be able to get out two copies of a unit and use Spring Waiting Maiden Oz to bring the third in, but without access to the Flower Screen promo these three units will result in "just" a +6000 power boost to every card through Jingle Flower's skill.

Even the small numbers for Jingle Flower are more than reasonable. With standard 16000 power rearguard lanes and just two instances of the same unit in play, your formation will have 24-37-24000 power, and with three that jumps up to 28-41-28000 power. Because each unit gets the power bonus individually, having a booster in play greatly increases their effectiveness, and wanting to have three or more instances as a specific number means that Jingle Flower works best with replicating grade 1 units. The new Neo Nectar fosters a method of play akin to vegetative cloning, deriving strength out of numbers from repeatedly cloning individual plants to cultivate a field from a single seed. Like Vict Plasma and other persona generation units, Jingle Flower can only be used so many times per game. He effectively succeeds Arboros as the finishing move of the clan, but because of the limitations on how many times his skill can be activated, there is no reassurance of being able to simply have the power boosts for the rest of the game. That kind of play instead goes to the Maiden of Ranunculus, Aasha. Hence, Jingle Flower is best reserved for very late in the fight when the opponent is already at the four and five damage mark.

Today's Card Analysis: Magical Gambler

Today's Japanese card of the day is a promo card for Cardfight Pack Vol. 16, Magical Gambler. Gambler's generation break 1 activates when he stands due to a card effect; for counterblast 1 he can send the top card of the deck to the drop zone and then gain power equal to that card's original power, allowing him to attack a second time with what will normally be at least a +4000 power boost and potentially up to a +11000 boost. While this can be helpful, what sets Magical Gambler apart is when his skill is stacked alongside those of the cards introduced in G-BT01: Generation Stride.

When stood using the skills of the grade 4 unit Vict Ten or the stride support card Mecha Battler Victor, Gambler will already have a +5000 power boost placed on him, and with his generation break will hit a minimum of 18000 power. This is just enough to make a crossride like Big Bang Knuckle Buster drop 10000 shield, but if Gambler's skill sends a unit with at least 9000 power to the drop zone he'll attack for 23000 power, making his second attack dramatically more powerful than his first.

Magical Gambler's skill also helps set up for legion skills, building on the tangible advantage that's been created for going second. With effective stride units like Vict Ten and Vict Plasma available there's no incentive to drop more cards than necessary to guard, or arbitrarily force oneself into legion by other means, since a large portion of Nova Grappler's midgame is now spent on grade 4s. Magical Gambler naturally builds towards legion, stacking on top of the cards discarded to pay the cost for stride. While Nova Grappler's only viable legion units at this time are Mega Flare and Drill Wing, neither of these cards require Raizer rearguards in order to function. So Gambler can serve a variety of mixed offensive and setup roles depending on the type of deck he's used in, and by playing with the minimum numbers of 13~18000 in mind can be counted on for reliable offense.