Weekly Bites reveals: New Vanguard manga "MiniVan Hi!!", prototype Gift Markers

Beginning in the upcoming July issue of Monthly Bushiroad, out June 8th, a new manga by Mini Vanguard gag manga author Quily based on the new Vanguard anime will begin, MiniVan Hi!!

Prototype Gift Markers will be available as part of the Get! Treasure Campaign; one Force, Accel, and Protect Marker packaged together, exchangeable for 1 point beginning May 30th. Fighters pull points in Japanese boxes and redeem them for these prizes.

Happy Birthday Aichi!! Vanguard goods, commemorating Aichi's birthday on June 6th. Cakes, macaroons, and cupcakes.

Alternate artwork Alfred Early, being given out in Japan as part of the Vanguard Plus campaign.

FamilyMart distributing alt art Wingal and Aichi promos

Bushiroad and the Japanese retail chain FamilyMart announced a collaboration at more than 7000 participating FamilyMart and Circle K Sunkus convenience stores. Beginning May 25th, customers will be able to buy two-pack sets of V-Booster Set 01: Unite! Team Q4 for 650 yen. (Tax not included.) These sets come with three promotional cards, the TV schedule Blaster Blade, an alternate artwork version of Wingal with its Trial Deck skill, and a Sendou Aichi Force Gift Marker.

Their respective card numbers are VPR/0001, V-PR/0022, and V-GM/0016, and the key art used for the Marker differs from the one used for the booster set's own promo card campaign and Secret Rare. Buying two copies of the set will still get users the promo card pack for buying 4 booster packs.

The special 2 pack set.

Weekly Bites reveals: Shadow Paladin Triple Monsters collaboration, Imaginary Gift T-shirt

As part of the "Abyssal Dragon" event in collaboration with the Triple Monsters mobile game, the Cardfight!! Vanguard units Blaster Dark and Phantom Blaster Dragon will be made obtainable starting May 28th at 4:59 PM JST. These units will use their classic 2011 artworks by Ryuutetsu and Itou Akira.

 The Team Jaime Flowers' character song CD will come with three promo cards, Special Parallel-style prints of "Battle Sister. Florentine," "One who Proceeds Towards Daybreak, Scharhrot," and "Rananculus of Phantasmic Blue, Ahsha," hotstamped with the autographs of Okazaki Kumi, Enishi Satoru, and Anjou Tokoha's voice actors from the Cardfight!! Vanguard G anime series.

The ongoing Bushiroad Card Fight tournament series in Japan features promotional prints of Lozenge Magus and Chrono Dragon Z as participation prizes; the tournament at the Tokyo Big Sight already concluded as part of this year's Great Vanguard Festival, and the still-upcoming tournaments are at Sapporo, Sapporo, Sendai, Hakata, and Nagoya.

This year's events include individual tournaments for both Standard and G Standard format, as well as team tournaments for Standard, and Bermuda Triangle Festa and Clan Leader tournaments for G Standard. Side events include Friend Fight, Women-Only Fight, and Rental Deck Fight Corner.

The items on sale at the event included a limited edition Bushiroad Cardfight 2018 promotional T-shirt featuring the Imaginary Gift emblem.

Weekly Bites reveals: Producer Shimamura Masatoshi's comments

Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG producer Shimamura Masatoshi joins Doctor O to discuss game balance.

Force is a balanced Gift type with higher base power on its grade 2s and 3s for defense, and power gain from its Marker placement. It's dependent on the clan, but it tends to do well at attacking so long as you can strategically make use of the Force Markers.

Accel is an attack-oriented Gift. Its exclusive trait is Front Triggers, and depending on the clan tends towards standing rearguards through skills.

Protect is a defense-oriented Gift. Its markers can be used both as perfect guards and as discards for costs. The Gift tends to shine most in combination with each clan's specialties; searching the deck, draws, drawing, retiring, and so on.

Today's Card Analysis: CEO Amaterasu

The Japanese card of the day for May 2nd, 2018, is our first Oracle Think Tank grade 3 of the Standard format and one of Tokura Misaki's key cards from the anime series, CEO Amaterasu.

ACT [Vanguard Circle]: Once per turn: [Cost: Counterblast 1] Draw 1 card, look at 1 card from the top of your deck, and put it on the top or bottom of your deck.
AUTO [Vanguard/Rearguard Circle]: During your turn, when you look at your deck by one of your effects, this unit gets Power +5000 until end of turn. ("Look at," "Reveal," and "Search" effects will all activate this effect. No matter how many cards you look at with 1 effect, it's still +5000.)

The new Amaterasu is easily one of the most powerful grade 3s revealed, on par with Dragonic Overlord. Just as the grade 3s we've seen up to this week came with Force, and Asura Kaiser yesterday came with Accel, Amaterasu comes with the third and final Imaginary Gift: Protect.

Protect adds a Protect Marker to your hand every time you ride a unit with the Protect ability. This Marker acts as an additional perfect defense card that can stop an opponent's attack from hitting by discarding when you guard with it, and the Marker carries the unique property of having no grade, meaning it cannot be blocked by guard restriction effects. Unlike the other Gifts that interact primarily with the rearguard circles, the Protect Marker cannot even exist outside of the hand or guardian circle, so if moved to another zone it simply returns to your Gift area.

On your first ride the Protect Marker is a net +1 in card advantage, as it represents an additional card gained over what you're expected to spend to reach grade 3. Protect decks have a leg up over Force and Accel because every time they reride for their Gift thereafter, the cost of riding is paid back to them via the additional card they gain. The other types are instead forced to repeatedly commit grade 3s with no immediate return in cards, reducing their overall hand size compared to Protect decks. If the Marker's Sentinel effect isn't helpful at the time (something Draw Trigger perfects make all too real) it can also be used to pay discard costs, giving the Protect Marker greater overall versatility than Accel and Force. One example we already have is Onmyoji of the Moonlit Night, whose skill involves discarding 1 and soulblasting 1 to put the bottom card of your deck into your hand.

This is where Amaterasu's Activate skill comes into play. Not only does she give you a consistent +1 in card advantage every turn, checking the top card of the deck lets you know ahead of time if you're going to get a trigger unit, and if it's instead a card you want to draw you can put it on the bottom and use Onmyoji to fetch it. Her ACT also triggers her autoskill, granting 5000 power for the turn, which is where most of the confusion over today's card has come from.

First, look at this Q&A from the Card of the Day page:

Q: "When looking at the top card of the deck multiple times with the "You may look at the top card of the day, and place it on top" skill of G-BT05/004 "One Who Views the Planet, Globe Magus," will the "When you look at the deck, this unit gets Power +5000 until end of turn." of my rearguard V-BT01/007 "CEO Amaterasu" repeat?"

A: "No, it will not repeat. No matter how many cards you look at with 1 effect, the skill of "CEO Amaterasu" gives +5000 power, so even if you look multiple times the skill of "One Who Views the Planet, Globe Magus," the power increase will only be 5000."

What this means is that when you have a continuous skill that looks at the deck, Amaterasu's vanguard/rearguard skill only checks for if you have used it to look at a card or not, and does not care how many times you've used it or how many cards you've looked at. Things are a little different for automatic and activated skills--with the current wording of the card, every time an effect looks at the deck she gains power. Both the number of times and the quality of actions performed are irrelevant--if you have a card that both reveals the top card(s) of the deck and then searches a card from among them, it's still only +5000 because it's only one effect looking at the deck.

This essentially cuts Amaterasu out of any theoretical infinite loops, but still gives room for her power to climb into incredibly high numbers on both vanguard and rearguard circle. Considering that in the manga--the basis for the upcoming "Origin" anime--Misaki also used Circle Magus and Battle Sister Cocoa, both cards that checked the top card previously, reaching +15k is likely to become a regular occurrence for Oracle Think Tank. Perhaps after all this time, Amaterasu will finally get back at Vortex Dragon.

The last point to consider with regard to Amaterasu in the Standard format is her base power. Like Asura Kaiser before her, Amaterasu is as base 12000 grade 3 rather than the 13k we've come to expect. Unlike Asura she has a somewhat easier time overcoming her lower base thanks to her innate power-gain, which gives her the potential to swing on par with the Force decks of the game.

With this, we are now officially in Golden Week. May 3rd through the 5th are national holidays in Japan; usually no new Card of the Day profiles go up during Golden Week. May 3rd is Constitution Day, commemorating the adoption of Japan's post-World War II constitution, May 4th is Greenery Day, observing environmental awareness (so go hug a Neo Nectar) and May 5th is Children's Day.

The previous Japanese card of the day was Asura Kaiser.

V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4 will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018. It will be accompanied by sleeves based on Dragonic Overlord and Blaster Blade. V-Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and V-TD02: Kai Toshiki will launch in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. They will be accompanied by a new sleeve based on the "Imaginary Gift" design.

The first Extra Booster set of Standard, V-EB01: The Destructive Roar will launch in Japan June 29th, 2018, and August 3rd for the English-speaking world. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Angel Feather can heal by putting Protect Markers into the damage zone

In the 27th episode of Weekly Bites Z, Vanguard producer Shimamura "Shima-P" Masatoshi issued an important ruling on the Angel Feather clan. Angel Feather is one of seven Protect clans, each of which add a Protect Marker to hand when they ride a grade 3 with the Protect ability. That Marker functions as a perfect guard with no grade nor other unit information, but as ruled previously cannot exist outside the hand or guardian circle; therefore if Angel Feather uses one of its skills to send a Protect Marker to the damage zone and take another card out, the Protect Marker will instead be sent to where the fighter stores their Gifts, and the Angel Feather cardfighter will functionally heal a damage.

This gives Angel Feather the capacity to heal as many times as they have Protect grade 3s in a deck, an ability closely guarded up to now; previously healing without adding cards to the damage zone was limited to a handful of units, and gated behind specific conditions like on-hit skills or Generation Break 2.

Shima-P did not announce when Angel Feather will actually be hitting the Standard format, but based on the current schedule it won't be until October at the earliest. Until the clan actually receives units with the Protect ability, the ruling is little more than trivia.

Tachikaze & Aqua Force will have Front Triggers, Bushiroad wants you to play Pale Moon in Premium Standard

You can't make me.

A page from Card Gamer magazine gives insight into how 14 of Standard Vanguard's 24 clans will interact with the Imaginary Gift mechanic. The image is rough, but an approximate summary of each clan's role is given below.

As a reminder, the three Imaginary Gifts are:

• Force - When your grade 3 unit with the Force ability is placed on the vanguard circle you add a Force marker to any of your circles, and for the rest of the game anything moved into that circle gets +10000 power during your turn. These decks emphasize "balance."
• Accel - When your grade 3 unit with the Protect ability is placed on the vanguard circle, you add an Accel marker to the left of your leftmost front rearguard circle. That marker becomes a new rearguard circle, and anything you call to it gets +10000 power during your turn, but it cannot be boosted. The next time you ride a grade 3, you add another Accel marker to the right of your rightmost circle, then you return to the left for the instance after that, and alternate endlessly. These decks emphasize "attack."
• Protect - When your grade 3 unit with the Protect ability is placed on the vanguard circle, you add a Protect marker to your hand. The Protect marker acts as a perfect guard while in hand; you can guard with it to discard a card to negate attacks. It has no grade nor other unit information, and cannot exist outside the hand or guardian circle, so after use it returns to the Gift zone. These decks emphasize "defense."

Oracle Think Tank - Protect
The Gift Marker in hand counts for the purposes of Oracle, increasing your hand size to make meeting the conditions easier. Because the clan draws so many cards, it can pay the cost of using Protect Markers as perfect guards again and again, nullifying countless attacks. Just defending won't win you the game though, so OraThin will have a powerful attacker to close games with.

Granblue - Protect
For the clan that focuses on resurrecting cards out of the drop zone, the discard aspect of Protect meshes well with its play style. First you discard units to block attacks, then pull those same units out next turn to use offensively.

Royal Paladin - Force
Force synergizes with Royal Paladin's overall strategy of calling rearguards from the deck, as those rearguards then have a basic power bonus to work with even if they're not boosted. Doubling up on the number of Force markers on one circle is recommended, making rearguards that are as threatening as the vanguard.

Spike Brothers - Force
Spike Brothers also call from the deck, but emphasize repeated calling mid-battle phase. You can set up 2+ Force markers on a rearguard circle, then structure your attacks so that this circle repeatedly empties after battle and gets a new unit called into it that will then gain the 20k power boost.

Shadow Paladin - Force
This clan calls from the deck in order to later sacrifice its rearguards to power up the vanguard. In the new series, this can be used to either strengthen the rearguards for their attacks before you sacrifice them, or to focus on making the vanguard overwhelming.

Tachikaze - Accel
This is a highly technical clan that superior calls units by retiring them, which Accel enhances by giving you additional rearguards to get your timing right with. This clan is also one of the few to have access Front Triggers.

Aqua Force - Accel
Aqua Force emphasizes making additional attacks and resolving skills based on the number of attacks made, so Accel is a natural fit for the clan because it increases both the number of times you can attack and the ways in which you can structure those attacks. The additional power makes those attacks matter more. (As opposed to Tidal Assault swinging for 16000 --> 4000  at 13k bases in BT09 format.) Aqua Force will also have Front Triggers in the new format.

Megacolony - Protect
This clan focuses on preventing the opponent's units from standing, controlling their board by reducing their number of attacks each turn, and reducing their hand size by forcing them to call over paralyzed units. Protect keeps the opponent on total lockdown, as whatever attack they can make is negated.

Dark Irregulars - Protect
The old image of DI as a Protect clan would be "Blade Wing," but what kind of ability could that become in the new series? The old DI was themed around increasing power by increasing the soul, and with Protect they can become a "soulcharge to increase power" deck that does not run Sentinels. Protect eliminates the risk of never seeing a perfect guard due to soulcharging it.

Kagerou - Force
Kagerou is a control deck which in the endgame finishes the opponent off by standing their own vanguard. Placing Force on the vanguard circle plays to that winning image. You should look forward to what Dragonic Overlord's skillset will be.

Dimension Police - Force
DP revolves around powering up the vanguard to achieve its goals, so Force is the gift that best supports their strategy. You can look forward to a Commander Laurel-type vanguard stand ability in the future.

Nova Grappler - Accel
This clan's theme is attacking multiple times with powerful rearguards, so Accel is an obvious match. The issue promises that Front Triggers are going to be a big deal for Nova Grappler.

Murakumo - Accel
Murakumo's strategy is to call "shadow clones" of units already on the field from the deck, then send them to the bottom of the deck in the end phase, preserving them for next turn with hit-and-run tactics. However, up through the end of the G series there was a further emphasis on attacking from the back row. Due to the nature of Accel creating additional frontrow circles, this is no longer possible. On the other hand, it was also possible to run out of circles to call to, unless the Murakumo fighter deliberately held back. Accel fixes this flaw by ensuring there's always a new empty circle every time you ride a grade 3. Thus, you can attack many times without depleting your hand.

Pale Moon - Accel
Since Pale Moon attacks multiple times by pulling cards in and out of the soul during battle, Accel's power boost and additional circle is a good fit for the clan's technical play style. You can also use the additional circle to play around situations where you would originally have retired units that you would call over.

Additionally, the article recommends taking advantage of Pale Moon's unique characteristics in Premium Standard format, where fighters will have access to the G Zone as well as Gifts. It makes special mention of Masquerade Master Harri and Dreamiy Axel Milward. Harri can call up to three units from soul on-attack, making use of the additional frontrow rearguard circles, and Milward calls two units out of the soul in the main phase, which can likewise make use of that fourth/fifth circle. The power buffs from these cards also help compensate for the lack of boost on Accel circles.

The Gift mechanic will first be commercially available in Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and Trial Deck 02: Kai Toshiki, launching in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. They will be accompanied by a new sleeve based on the Imaginary Gift design. The first Booster Set of the Standard format, BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Bushiroad Minisleeve #93 "Imaginary Gift" launching May 11th

Duel Portal reports that to commemorate the start of the Cardfight!! Vanguard reboot in May, Bushiroad is debuting a new minisleeve featuring the emblem for the "Imaginary Gift" mechanic. Although the TCG and anime are beginning again from zero, the Bushiroad sleeve collection series will be continuing from #93 with the Gift design. It will launch simultaneous to V-TD01: Sendou Aichi and V-TD02: Kai Toshiki, on May 11th, 2018.

Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and Trial Deck 02: Kai Toshiki will launch in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. The first Booster Set of the Standard format, BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Not every clan will be getting Front Triggers, Triple Drive not in manual

A leaked image from the Japanese First Guides distributed with the first Standard format flash decks reveals that not every clan will be getting Cardfight!! Vanguard's newest trigger type.

Front Trigger
"All of your front-row units gain +10000 Power. This is a trigger that only certain clans possess."
前列ユニット、すべてのパワーを＋１００００する。特定のクランのみが持つトリガーだ。

As Front Triggers were created to replace Stand Triggers--which executive producer Shimamura Masatoshi confirmed there will be no more of--it's possible that Bushiroad R&D is seeking to balance Fronts by only giving them to the clans specifically designed for them. In particular, Front benefits Accel clans much more than it does Force or Protect, as it addresses both their weakness of being unable to boost their additional rearguard circles and their comparative defensive weakness by giving them a more powerful damage check. (The currently revealed Accel clans in Standard release order are Nova Grappler, Tachikaze, Aqua Force, Pale Moon, and Murakumo.)

Also of note is that where the First Guide describes the different unit abilities like Boost and Intercept, no description of Triple Drive!!! is presented, reinforcing the idea that there will be no strides printed for Standard format. It is possible that Triple Drive!!! is not explained because none of the cards in the flash decks have this ability, but Front Triggers are also not present in either of these.

G Units' future "unclear," new 3DS game "up to FuRyu" says Vanguard producer

Will Chrono appear in the new anime? How is Legion affected by Force? Producers answer 20 questions from fans.

March 16th, 2018. At 9:00 PM Japanese Standard Time, Cardfight!! Vanguard representative Doctor O began a special Weekly Bites stream alongside executive producer Shimamura "Shima-P" Masatoshi and original concept creator-manga author Itou Akira. The three of them answered 20 questions from fans about the new anime and game mechanics, and unveiled the first set of shop tournament promotional cards for the Standard format of the Cardfight!! Vanguard Trading Card Game, which will formally begin in May for Japan. The special episode of the stream was only announced the day before, and aired on both YouTube and NicoNico Live, with approximately 2000 and 1900 viewers joining in at peak times.

With regard to the appearance of G Units in the new anime and card game reboot, Shimamura stated that he was "unclear" on it. Explaining that "in the era Aichi and his friends live in, G Units do not exist yet," Shimamura considered it unlikely. In light of the official website displaying Gift Markers being used on a field with no G Zone present, this implies that no new strides will be printed for Standard format in the immediate future.

Concerning to the Cray Elemental and Etranger clans, Shimamura is likewise ambivalent on whether or not Cray Elementals will be available in the card game. As Etranger deals with cameos not from the world of Vanguard, he's certain players won't be able to build a full deck of them in the new series. For players that want to continue using G Units and Cray Elementals, Shimamura and Doctor O encouraged them to play the Premium format instead.

The May promotional cards for Standard format will be High Dog Breeder Seiran, and an alternate artwork print of Pongal from V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4. Seiran is the participation prize for May, while Pongal is given exclusively to the winner and has embossed congratulatory text. This Pongal is being done in the style of an Origin Rare, using its 2011 artwork from BT02: Onslaught of Dragon Souls alongside its new effect.

For June the Standard format participation prize will be Demonic Dragon Madonna Joka, and the first-place prize will be an alternate artwork print of Lizard Soldier Raopia from V-BT01. Like Pongal, this Raopia is using its 2011 artwork from the BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows.

The skills of these promotional cards remain "secret."

Doctor O also announced that Roselia, the band responsible for the opening sequence to the next anime season, will be performing a cover of JAM Project's Believe in my Existence as part of a crossover with Bushiroad's BanG Dream! Girls' Band Party! franchise. Believe in my Existence was originally used as the second opening to the first season of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime, used from September 2011-March 2012.

The cover will debut in May.

The new restricted list for the Premium Standard and G Standard formats will be released on Tuesday April 17th. According to Shimamura, both the Premium Standard and Standard formats will be continued for "a long time." Premium is intended to be Vanguard as it has been up to now, while Standard will be a new body of regulations for a new Vanguard; these two will coexist, while G Standard will eventually be discontinued in October.

Doctor O also briefly showed cards from the first two 25-card flash fight decks, which will be used in training sessions across Japan from April 16th to May 30th. The full contents of the Star Drive and Crested Dragon decks have already been posted to the Japanese Cardfight portal.

A special version of the Crested Dragon deck will be distributed in the May issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine, containing an alternate artwork of Dragon Knight Nehalem that uses his 2011 artwork from TD02: Raging Dragon of the Empire.

Doctor O shows off the Force Gift Marker.

The trio took on 20 questions from fans, primarily clarifying the Imaginary Gift mechanic;

1.) Will Chrono and his friends, and the other G Series characters appear in the new series?
Itou: I can't say they won't.
Doctor O: Chrono does exist in this new world, though?
Itou: He does. [...] The manga is the basis for this new series, so we're following Aichi right now.
Shimamura: We're starting from the beginning with the manga as the base.
Itou: It's not exactly the "Comic Chapter" in the way that Vanguard G is the "G Chapter," but a new title.

2.) Will the broadcast/information delivery system used up to now continue?
Shimamura: It will continue on NicoNico Douga and YouTube.

3.) Is "Origin" the formal subtitle of the new series?
Shimamura: My apologies, it is not the formal subtitle. "Origin" is just a code name.

4.) Are Gift Markers only in trial decks?
Shimamura: Aside from the 3 Gift Markers you get in a trial deck, they will be available elsewhere, in booster packs and such.

5.) Please explain where we should place Gift Markers, how many we can have, how we should sleeve them, etc.
Shimamura: Gift Markers are placed approximately in the area used for the G Zone. They should be sleeved differently from both your main deck and your G Zone. You may have any number of Gift Markers.
Doctor O: Though it might be hard to use more than three.

6.)  Do we have to use the Gift Markers found in official products, or can we make our own?
Shimamura: In free play you may do as you please, but in the official tournaments you must use official Markers.

7.) Are the Gift Markers "Force" and "Accel" treated as cards while on the field?
Shimamura: No. Gift Markers are not cards. For example, they are not affected by Perfect Performance Ange.

8.) If a circle with "Force" or "Accel" on it is Locked, what do we do with the Gift Marker?
Shimamura: The circle becomes a Locked circle, but that is all. Even the card on top of a Marker is Locked, the Marker remains, and when it Unlocks, the Marker is still there.

9.) What happens if you Dominate a unit with a Marker on it?
Shimamura: [Force and Accel] Gift Markers only take effect "on your turn," and you only become master of the unit, not the marker, so it does not take effect while the unit is Dominated.

10.) What happens if the "Protect" Marker leaves my hand?
Shimamura: It returns to the Gift Marker area. Protect cannot exist outside of the hand or guardian circle. If it's placed from hand to rearguard Locked [like with Chaos Universe] or if it's bound from hand [like with Euryale] the Marker simply returns to the Gift area.

11.) Can the "Protect" Gift Maker be chosen for Super Dimensional Robo Daikaiser's effect while it's on the guardian circle?
Shimamura: When it is placed into the guardian circle it becomes a unit, so it can be chosen and broken by Daikaiser's skill.

12.) Will the triggers made up to now, that give +5000 power, become +10000 power triggers?
Shimamura: They will not. +5000 power triggers will remain +5000 power triggers. Although the power differential may make you want to use one over the other, many +5000 power triggers still have desirable abilities. So it's a trade-off.

13.) What will become of the Stand Trigger?
Shimamura: There are no plans to print new Stand Triggers in the future. Existing triggers can still be used.

14.) Will Narukami, Oracle Think Tank, Pale Moon, and Granblue ever get unique effect heal triggers?
Shimamura: It may take some time, but it will definitely happen.

15.) Will the activation conditions for "Stride" and "Legion" change?
Shimamura: They will.

[The change to stride has already been detailed on the Japanese portal. Stride can now be performed if at the beginning of your turn, before any of your phases, you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard, regardless of whether or not the opponent is at grade 3.]

16.) If the vanguard circle is under the effect of "Force," and you have a Legion active, how does the power increase apply?
Shimamura: Both the Legion Mate and Legion Leader get the power boost from a single Force applied to the vanguard circle. So if you have a 20000-power Legion, one Force would make it 40000-power by increasing both halves by +10000.

17.) When performing Legion, if a Front Trigger activates, what becomes of its power?
Shimamura: Because Front Triggers affect the entire Front Row, both Legion Mate and Legion Leader will gain +10000 power.

18.) At the Great Vanguard Festival's Fight Corner, what regulations will be used?
Shimamura: Because of the timing [April 29th-30th] we will use the regulations from up to now.

19.) What regulations will be used during the Bushiroad Card Fight and World Grand Prix?
Shimamura: BCF will use Standard and G Standard. Premium Standard will only be used in Free Fights. WGP will use Premium Standard and Standard.

20.) Will there be a new 3DS game?
Shimamura: I'm sorry, but it's up to FuRyu. I would like a new 3DS title, but it's in their hands.


The next regular episode of Weekly Bites will air March 20th, at 9:00 PM JST.