Today's Card Analysis: Knight of Silence, Gallatin

The Japanese card of the day for April 4th, 2018, is the familiar Royal Paladin vanilla Knight of Silence Gallatin from V-Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi. Gallatin hasn't stopped being a vanilla in the Standard format, but he has been tweaked slightly to reflect the updated game mechanics. In the old vanguard, the standard power for a grade 2 with a skill was 9000, and vanillas compensated for their lack of skills with 10k bases; in Standard the normal base power is 10k already, and vanillas instead have increased shield value, on par with grade 1s.

The additional 5k shield is potentially more significant than being an 11k base could ever be, as it synergizes directly with grade 2s' defensive role as interceptors. The majority of grade 2s have a shield value equivalent to half a trigger in the new format, due to triggers being retooled to grant +10k power rather than 5k. That doesn't necessarily guarantee vanillas a place as a staple in your deck, but it does give you a safe fallback when other options are undesirable for your build.

Because Gallatin is essentially unmodified from the Stardrive Dragon Start Deck, Royal Paladin fighters can keep using their alternate-background vanillas from the prerelease demos if they want. Bushiroad has not set any concrete dates for when English demos are to begin beyond "June," but the Japanese Spring Caravan began back in March and will continue to distribute Royal Paladin Start Decks through April 6th.

The previous Japanese card of the day was Vortex Dragon.

V-Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and V-Trial Deck 02: 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 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.

V-TD01: Sendou Aichi card listing

Sendou Aichi

MSRP: 1500 yen + tax (JPN)
Release Date: 05/11/2018 (JPN) 06/08/18 (ENG)
Comes with paper playmat and First Guide for beginners.
Contains 14 types of cards, 53 in total; 34 Normal Units, 16 Trigger Units, and 3 Gift Markers
All cards are exclusive to the Trial Deck.
Each deck contains 4 perfect defense cards and 4 Blaster Blades. (1 illustrated by Itou Akira, 3 by Itou Mishou) Each display case contains six Trial Decks, and each Trial Deck within that case has a randomly inserted Itou Akira-signed hot stamp Gift Marker, or a signed hot stamped Blaster Blade.

Assorted sleeves

The Stardrive Dragon sleeve is available by preordering TD01. (Japan-only) 70 sleeves are included.
The Sendou Aichi sleeve is available by purchasing TD01 as a 2500 yen bundle, with comes with the sleeve and Wingal promo. (Japan-only) 70 sleeves are included.
The Blaster Blade sleeve is available by preordering TD01 at one of the participating Spring caravan demo workshops for Standard format. (Japan-only.) 53 sleeves are included.
The Imaginary Gift sleeve will be available for separate purchase at launch, on May 11th. (Japan-only.)

Decklist

Grade 0

x1 Grime (First Vanguard)

x4 Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine (Heal Trigger)

x4 Margal (Draw Trigger)

x4 Bringer of Good Luck, Epona (Critical Trigger)

x4 Flogal (Critical Trigger)

Grade 1 (14 total)

x4 Strong Knight, Runoria (Perfect Guard)

x4 Knight Squire, Allen

x3 Wingal

x3 Auspice Falcon

Grade 2

x1 Blaster Blade (Itou Akira art)

x3 Blaster Blade (Itou Mishou art)

x4 Knight of Silence, Gallatin

x3 Sage of Literary and Military arts, Jarron

Grade 3

x4 Alfred Early

x4 Stardrive Dragon

Alfred Early (V-TD01/001)

"The young king and the sworn friend of the light, continue along the path they believe in."

• Imaginary Gift: Force
• Automatic [Vanguard Circle]: When placed, you may pay [Counterblast 1] to call up to 1 "Blaster Blade" from your hand or soul to rear-guard circle, and during this turn that unit gets Power +10000. If you called, draw 1 card.

Stardrive Dragon (V-TD01/002)

• Imaginary Gift: Force
• Automatic [Rearguard Circle]: When it attacks a vanguard, if the number of your rearguards is 3 or greater, this unit gets Power +5000 until the end of that battle.
• First available in Start Deck 01; that version gets 3k when attacking a vanguard regardless of what circle it's on, as long as you have 3 or more rearguards.

Blaster Blade (V-TD01/004 and 005)

• Continuous [Vanguard Circle]: If the number of your rearguards is 4 or greater, this unit gets Critical +1.
• Automatic [Vanguard/Rearguard Circle]: When placed, [Cost: Counterblast 1, Soulblast 1] choose 1 of your opponent's rearguards in the front row, and retire it.
• Also has a vanilla promo card print, VPR/0001.
• Trial Deck comes with 4 copies, 1 illustrated by Itou Akira and 3 by Itou Mishou.

Knight of Silence, Gallatin (V-TD01/003)

• An alternate artwork version is available by buying two copies of the Trial Deck.
• Start Deck 01 version is identical, but with a different background.

Sage of the Arts, Jauron (V-T01/006)

• Automatic [Rearguard Circle]: When it attacks a vanguard, if the number of your rearguards is 3 or greater, this unit gets Power +5000 until the end of that battle.
• First available in Start Deck 01; that version could pay counterblast 1 for +10k when it attacked a vanguard while boosted.

Knight Squire, Allen (V-TD01/008)

• Automatic [Rearguard Circle]: When placed, you may [Counterblast 1] to call up to 1 card from your hand to Rearguard Circle of equal to or lower grade than your vanguard. If you called, draw 1 card, during this turn, this unit gets Power +3000.
• Designed by Itou Akira, illustrated by Koga Azusa.
• Start Deck 01 version has no skill.

Wingal (V-TD01/007 and VPR/00?)

• Continuous: [Rear-guard Circle]: During your turn, all of your "Blaster Blade" on the same column as this unit get Power +5000.
• An alternate RRR foil version is packaged with the Japanese bundle of V-TD01, and a set of 70 Sendou Aichi card sleeves. A means of obtaining them in English has yet to be announced.
• Has 1000 more base power than the demo deck Wingal, and the skill is completely different. V-SD01/009 Wingal gives +5000 power to the vanguard that it boosts.

Auspice Falcon (V-TD01/010)

• Activate [Rearguard Circle]: [Counterblast 1, Rest this unit] Until end of turn, 2 of your rearguards get Power +5000.

Glyme (V-TD01/0011 and VPR/0003)

• Automatic: When you ride over this unit, draw 1 card.
• A statistically identical version with a different background is available in Start Deck 01, and a hotstamped special edition is available at day 2 of the Japanese Great Vanguard Festival on April 30th, 2018.

Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine (V-TD01/015)

• Heal Trigger
• "You may only have up to 4 cards with 'Heal' in your deck."
• First available in Start Deck 01.

Margal (V-TD01/014)

• Draw Trigger
• First available in Start Deck 01.

Bringer of Good Luck, Epona (V-TD01/012)

• Critical Trigger
• First available in Start Deck 01

Flogal (V-TD01/013)

• Critical Trigger
• First available in Start Deck 01