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.

News: International Game to See LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori” in June, VGE-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah and Fighter's Collection 2015

Today the English Cardfight portal updated with release information for the international distribution of G-LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” G-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah and G-FC01: Fighter's Collection 2015. All three sets will hit western shores simultaneously on June 19th 2015. The legend deck will notably contain all of the accoutrements of its Japanese counterpart sans sleeves, including the triple rare promotional card Grim Recruiter.

The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” first announced in late January, will introduce the new Shadow Paladin cards used by legacy character Suzugamori Ren in the Cardfight!! Vanguard G anime series. Careful scrutinizing of a promotional poster distributed in early February reveals that the cards teased so far each have partial grade information in their grade circles. The number of bars inside their grade circles indicate that the new Nemain and Charon units are grade 1s, Macha and Mac Lir grade 2s, and Blaster Dark “Diablo” is a grade 3. Furthermore, Nemain's gold shield icon points to her being a card with the Sentinel skill, and Phantom Blaster “Diablo's” card color corresponds to a G Unit.

The legend deck will come out on April 24th in Japan.

Fateful Star Messiah was announced in Japan only last week, alongside the upcoming booster set G-TD05: Dragonic Star of the Supreme Way. The set will feature Ibuki Kouji's Messiah units, a new series of Link Joker-turned variations on the original stride Harmonics Messiah. Japan will receive Fateful Star Messiah on May 29th.

Fighter's Collection 2015 is a special form of extra booster that will provide G Units for every clan sans Etranger. The set will reach Japanese waters on May 5th.

News: G-TD05: Messiah of the Fateful Star and G-BT03: Dragonic Star of the Supreme Way Revealed, Dragonic Overlord “The X” Sleeves

This past week Bushiroad has released a steady stream of information regarding the upcoming trial deck and booster set G-TD05: Messiah of the Fateful Star (宿星の救世竜 Shukusei no Kyuuseiryuu lit. "Savior Dragon of the Fateful Star" but with the forced reading of "Messiah") and G-BT03: Dragonic Star of the Supreme Way (覇道竜星 Hadouryuusei, written with the kanji "supremacy, way, dragon, star.") The most recent of these reveals has given us the set details through the Japanese products page, placing both TD05 and BT03 for a May 29th release. Messiah of the Fateful Star will feature Ibuki Kouji's Link Joker cards from the currently airing Cardfight!! Vanguard G anime series, while Dragonic Star of the Supreme Way will include support for the Shadow Paladin, Link Joker, Gold Paladin, Dark Irregulars, Murakumo, Kagerou and Cray Elemental clans.

Both the trial deck and booster set feature units that appear to be visual variations on Harmonics Messiah, the first stride unit that served as a focal character in last year's Cardfight!! Vanguard theatrical film, Neon Messiah. In the film Ibuki sought to take Harmonics for himself in order to erase the card game entirely, but only achieved his goal after he had already given up on destroying Vanguard. Harmonics then transformed into the grade 0 Neon Messiah. Neon Messiah will debut in the card game as the first vanguard for Messiah of the Fateful Star, and while Harmonics is the only card to have no original clan, Neon is a pure Link Joker. In the card lore Harmonics was summoned to purify the Deletors' home planet Brandt of Link Joker's influence, and its artwork depicted it holding Cray and Brandt on its shoulders. The trial deck's Messiah unit carries a similar theme, while the booster set's Messiah appears empty.

Supreme Way's cover card was also briefly teased in the thirteenth episode of Cardfight!! Vanguard G, where series protagonist Shindou Chrono envisioned himself fighting against a Messiah unit shrouded in darkness.

G-TD05 makes use of a complex visual pun; the name is written with the kanji 宿星 Shukusei "star of fate" but with the radical for "sun" 日 substituted by an illustration of a partial eclipse. A popular but grammatically incorrect alternative translation is "Messiah of Zodiac." Shukusei can refer to a singular zodiac (Pisces, Aquarius, Leo et al.) but not the entire twelve signs at once; for this 獣帯 Shuudai is used. Shukusei is also used in relation to the Chinese system of constellations. The trial deck is referring to a singular star with governance over fate, not a Zodiac sign that embodies a series of interconnected stars. G-BT03's ryuusei is a homophone for "shooting star," while hadou is a form of martial law that is also written with the characters for "Way of Supremacy," just as the samurai code Bushidou is written "Way of the Warrior" and the Japanese religion Shintou is written "Way of the Gods." Of note is that the kanji for Supreme Way has a black X crossed through it, which resembles another symbol found on the Malefic Deletor logo.

In other news, the Japanese Treasure Campaign has updated to reflect an upcoming promotional sleeve for the revival legion Dragonic Overlord “The X.” These sleeves are to be obtained by turning in trigger points distributed in Japanese booster packs, but as with past campaigns, overseas fans can expect to import them through secondary sellers. “The X” has been a popular figure in Japan since his rise to power in professional play, to the point of being considered for restriction. While post-BT02 tournament results have seen “The X” all but disappear from the top spots, that has not inhibited strong turnouts from Overlord cardfighters, who regularly account for the second or third greatest deck representation.

News: G Assist Step to Eliminate Gradelock, Stride Effective November 21st

Accompanying today's Japanese card of the day profile is Bushiroad's newly announced G Assist Step, a major reform to the standard Cardfight!! Vanguard rules designed to help eliminate gradelock through the newly introduced G units. The Japanese announcement was quickly followed by an translated explanation on the English web portal, reflecting the company's recent pro-synchronization stance.

The announcement has clarified the Stride mechanic further, officially introducing a Stride step that will be put into effect during the ride phase and after the ride step, effective November 21st in Japan, with an effective date for the English edition of the game not yet set.

With standard Striding, if both cardfighters have grade 3 or greater vanguards after the ride step, then by discarding cards whose sum grade is equal to 3 or greater, the turn cardfighter can Stride a G unit from the generation zone. The G unit is placed over the original grade 3 in a manner that allows the name and power of the previous unit to be visible, reflecting the fact that the G unit gains the name and power of the card beneath it, and that the card beneath it is not a part of the soul (and therefore cannot be soulblasted), but is instead the "Heart" of the card that Strode over it.

To meet the necessary conditions to use G Assist, immediately after their draw phase and before their ride phase a cardfighter must have a vanguard which is not grade 3 or greater, they must not have a card in hand that is one grade greater than their vanguard, and they must have at least 2 cards in their generation zone. By revealing their hand to the opponent, the player can then look at 5 cards from the top of their deck, search for a unit that is one grade higher than their vanguard, add it to their hand, and then choose two cards from the generation zone and two cards from their hand and remove them from the game. This last clause prevents legion decks and other builds which benefit from having cards in the drop zone from using the G Assist to accelerate.

Following a successful G Assist, the deck is shuffled and the cardfighter is able to ride normally; if the G Assist fails, the deck is still shuffled but cards are not removed from the game. Overall a successful G Assist comes off as a -1 in exchange for avoiding gradelock, giving the same loss in card advantage as being trapped at a lower grade but being able to compete with the same level of power as the opponent.

Ironically, the new ruleset will be generally incompatible with “Ω” Glendios decks despite originating from World Line Dragon's mechanics, because that particular deck is heavily reliant on grade 3 cards which interfere with having no cards in hand one grade higher than the vanguard. An “Ω” cardfighter that does not have either Glendios or “Я” Cradle in hand will likely not be able to use G Assist because of the other (non-Link Joker) “Я” cards in their hand.

How the underground community will respond is uncertain. There are several VGCS tournaments coming up on November 2nd, 16th and 22nd, with the third Tsurumai CS taking place the day after the new Stride rules take effect. Vanguard Championships have made a habit of preemptively adopting new rule modifications and restricted lists ahead of their official adoption however, and we may see our first Stride-onwards tournament results debut at the beginning of November.

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.

News: English Release for Harmonics Messiah in December, Deleters to be in BT16 ver. E

Just hours ago the set release details for VGE-BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades ver. E came out, making public some of the set's contents and teasing upcoming cards. Unlike standard booster set releases, BT16 ver. E will differ significantly from its Japanese counterpart, already stated in a preceding press release to contain cards from multiple sets. We now know that the English edition set has 42 additional cards over the Japanese edition, totaling 144 cards versus 102. Furthermore, each display for the set will include a promo card, PR/045EN Harmonics Messiah as a box topper, and the set will also contain an original English Edition Special Parallel card. Harmonics is one of the game's most closely kept open secrets at the time of this writing, distributed to those who attend the Neon Messiah animated film in Japan. The grade 4 unit has a unique mechanic "Stride" which currently prevents it from being used as the mechanics of Stride have not been explained and Harmonics' own skills prevent it from being placed in the main deck. The main deck is currently the only deck that Vanguard has, but this fact is imminently about to change.

BT16 Ver. E includes adds additional cards in the following rarities; 2 RRRs, 4 RRs, 8 Rs, 28 Cs, 2 SPs and 4 Legion Rares. Based on promotional images the two new Triple Rares are inferred to be MBT01's Bluish Flame Liberator Prominence Glare and MTD01's Daunting Deleter Woksis, and the new RRs would include Prominence Core's Legion Mate Liberator of Destiny Aglovale. The Sneak Preview prerelease event for BT16 ver. E will feature a playmat with Prominence Core and Aglovale's Legion as its artwork, while the set will feature Thing Saver Dragon and Blaster Blade Liberator. The promotional cards for the prerelease are stated to be Dark Irregulars units, suggesting them to be the Legion pair Psychicers Hadar and Izaya.

The increased set size may prove problematic, as each box is still to contain just 30 packs, and the drastically increased size will make it more difficult to acquire a playset of each rarity. The situation recalls English Vanguard's early infamous releases, which added several Rares to BT03, BT06 and BT04. The addition of just two cards to the Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows caused Blaster Dark to become a $16 Rare for a brief time, and even today the card hovers between $6 and $8. The decision to include Harmonics Messiah in the set was likely done to move the game closer to a simultaneous worldwide release schedule, which Bushiroad has been discussing since Anime Expo 2013.

VGE-BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades ver. E will be released worldwide on December 19th 2014, six days before the Christmas holiday. The set will include 144 types of cards (RRR: 10 / RR: 16 / R: 30 / C: 88) with 14 Special Parallel prints and 6 Legion Rares.

News: Grade 4 Harmonics Messiah Promo Leaked, Extra Deck to be Introduced to Vanguard

Five hours ago images of the Cardfight!! Vanguard Neon Messiah film's promo card were leaked to Twitter by Japanese fans, revealing the full skills of the grade 4 unit Harmonics Messiah. The first unit in the game to make use of the new Stride mechanic, Harmonics uniquely belongs to no clan or nation, possesses a triple drive check instead of twin drive, and has a staggering 16000 base power where 13000 is the norm for grade 4 cards.

Harmonics Messiah
G Unit/Grade 4/Triple Drive/16000 Power/No Shield/Critical 1/No Clan or Nation - Messiah/
"Shining on the darkness of chaos, oh grand light of truth----!"
(This card cannot be put in your Main Deck)
STRIDE (By meeting the condition and cost, until the end of the turn you may Stride)
CONT: This card belongs to all clans and all nations.

Harmonics' unique card back.

Harmonics' skills explicitly prevent it from being placed into the deck, and in fact its card back is completely different from standard card backs. This suggests that Harmonics will remain in a separate zone until Stridden, which has been theorized to be some form of Extra Deck or a zone specifically designed for this type of unit. Interestingly, Harmonics is not a Normal Unit nor a Trigger Unit, but a "G Unit," tying into recent promotional materials for the still-unannounced fifth season of Cardfight!! Vanguard which stated "To the next "G" Stand up!! Vanguard!"

The Triple Drive ability gives Harmonics the same offensive trigger checking and card advantage buildup as Great Daikaiser, but the fact that Stride only lasts until the end of the turn suggests that it will either retire or return to the zone it was Stridden from after it is used, preventing Harmonics' 16000 power base from being manipulated as a massive bunker defense.

While the exact mechanics of how Stride will work are unclear, seeing as Harmonics can be used by any clan or deck, it serves as an equal upgrade to all of the clans. It can be expected to best support the clans which already have a strong early to midgame but are lacking in some form of endgame skillset, as using Harmonics in place of one's vanguard would mean giving up that vanguard's skills for the duration of the turn. Stride itself exists in place of an Activate, Auto or Continuous skill, and its kanji is written as 超越 Chuuetsu "Transcendence," the same form of Transcendence used in the name of Transcendence Dragon Dragonic Nouvelle Vague.

Harmonics Messiah is being distributed as a promo card to attendees of the Neon Messiah film, and will also be printed with alternate artwork as a Special Parallel-rarity card in the accompanying booster set, VG-MBT01: Neon Messiah.

News: Fourth Neon Messiah Trailer Showcases Miyano Mamoru as Voice of Ibuki Kouji

Early this morning a fourth trailer for the upcoming film Cardfight!! Vanguard Neon Messiah was put up by the Japanese theater and motion picture company Shochiku Channel. The PV provides a first look at the voice work of seiyuu Miyano Mamoru, who was previously confirmed to be voicing Ibuki. Many of the other leaks from the film's prescreening have been confirmed by the trailer and recent promotional materials, including Kai's new grade 3 Dragonic Overlord the Great, and several of the tournament matchups for the Messiah Scramble.

The trailer focuses on the motivations of antagonist Ibuki Kouji, as well as the matchups of the upcoming Messiah Scramble tournament. Ibuki's goal is the total destruction of the Cardfight!! Vanguard trading card game, using his Deleter deck and the awakening of "the Messiah," implied to be the grade 4 Harmonics Messiah. The trailer suggests that this will allow him to erase Cray and the card game with it; while Ibuki's full reasoning is not known, he states that Vanguard "invites calamity and misfortune," painting him to be well-intentioned but unaware that Cray's destruction will also be Earth's.

Neon Messiah's fourth PV was fansubtitled and reuploaded to YouTube, and is hosted below. Western demand for the film is strong, but no announcements regarding its international release have been made as of yet. The movie will debut in theaters in Japan this Saturday.