Vanguard takes over Tokyo trains in aggressive new advertising campaign

Bushiroad promotes new series by celebrating seven years of animation.

Original image uploaded by Comic Natalie.

For two weeks from March 22nd to the 29th, trains operating on the JR Yamanote Line will be sporting Cardfight!! Vanguard advertisements on their exteriors. More than 129 designs will be featured, highlighting every existing season of the Vanguard anime series and concluding with key visuals from the 2011 manga and 2018 rebooted anime series. A full schedule can be seen below.

• 03/22 - Cardfight!! Vanguard and Asia Circuit
• 03/23 - Cardfight!! Vanguard: Link Joker
• 03/24 - Cardfight!! Vanguard: Legion Mate
• 03/25 - Cardfight!! Vanguard G, GIRS Crisis, and Stride Gate
• 03/26 - Cardfight!! Vanguard G: NEXT 
• 03/27 - Cardfight!! Vanguard G: Z
• 03/28 - Original comics and new anime series key visual

The Yamanote Line is Japan's busiest and most commercially important railway system, running around the economic epicenter of the nation to connect with every major station in Tokyo. Operating for approximately twenty hours around the clock, at peak hours one train departs every two minutes from one of its 29 stations. More than one million people use the line daily, and all but two of its stations connect to other railways. Bushiroad's move to canvas the line in Vanguard advertising is part of a hard push to get the franchise in the public eye in advance of its next season.

Vanguard banner at Toshimaen waterpark, July 2011.

Despite being comparatively smaller than its contemporaries Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, and Magic: The Gathering, since 2011 Cardfight!! Vanguard has developed stronger visibility with the general public through similarly grand-scale advertising campaigns. While Konami, TPCi, and Wizards of the Coast, have generally downplayed the importance of explicit commercials to promote their trading card games--favoring TV anime series and/or a greater brand name to push their product--Bushiroad has always emphasized traditional television commercials, posters, and other forms of public advertising to reach out to new audiences that aren't already engaged with TCGs. Nearly every individual booster set and trial deck receives its own preview video to promote it, while for the past seven years most of the company's competitors have limited their PV output to one to two major videos per year.

2011 billboard advertisements for BT02: Onslaught of Dragon Souls, set up along a railway.

The result is that many casual consumers of Vanguard in Japan mistakenly believe it to be bigger than its contemporaries, as they live in a landscape shaped by the brand. When the game first launched seven years ago, Bushiroad partnered with three of the nation's biggest waterparks to turn their pools into giant Vanguard advertisements for one summer. Parkgoers could dry off and walk right into a teaching workshop for the game, then leave with the first chapter of the manga for free. Throughout the Asia Circuit arc Bushiroad made a point of advertising around university campuses, on billboards and at train stops. And at one point, the company even owned the variety TV program Vanga-Road, created specifically to promote Cardfight!! Vanguard using the crossover celebrity appeal of its cohosts, actress Kitta Izumi and musician Naitou Daigo.

January 2013 wall advertisement for Cardfight!! Vanguard: Link Joker.

The 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. Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and Trial Deck 02: Kai Toshiki will launch in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018.

Press Release: Blazing Perdition ver. E in Development, Legion Campaign to Start in November

Bushiroad's most recent press release has announced the launch of the Legion Campaign from November 21st to February 28th. Believed to comprise the promo cards that in Japan were distributed as part of the Summer Legion Festival, the Legion Campaign in the west will come in the form of promotional booster packs called "Legion Packs" containing one of six Legion pairs, which will be handed out with every five booster packs purchased from an officially supported card shop. A Legion Pack can also be received with every purchase of a trial deck. The start of the Legion Campaign coincides happily with the five simultaneous releases taking place on November 21st, which will see the introduction of three new trial decks Seeker of Hope, Liberator of the Bluish Flames and Will of the Locked Dragon. As it is customary for cardfighters to buy four copies of a trial deck in order to get a full playset of its exclusive cards, the Legion Packs work well with the community's existing practices, and provide incentives for players to support their local stores rather than turn to Walmart or web dealers.

Cardfighters participating in weekly shop tournaments between December 2014 and February 2015 will also receive a Legion Revival promotional card alongside the standard promo packs. While the Legion Campaign is thought to consist of the Summer Legion Festival cards, the Legion Revival is inferred to contain the cards from the Japanese Grade 3 Revival Campaign. The Revival Campaign is an ongoing project to bring back old grade 3 cards from 2011 and 2012 by making them the mates of a new Legion unit with an appropriate skill. So far it includes the Legion pairs Oohirume and CEO Amaterasu for Oracle Think Tank, Droite and Riviere for Bermuda Triangle, Ezer and Alfred for Royal Paladin, and an as-of-yet unrevealed Legion for the Dimension Police's Great Daiyusha.

The Legion Campaign can be expected to have the bigger impact; Bushiroad international has specified that six Legion pairs will be available from the packs, suggesting a total set size of 12 cards for the promo pack. The exact contents are speculated to be the Cracking Beast Tamer and Barking Sky Tiger Legion for Pale Moon, the Holy Edge and Overdose Celestials for Angel Feather, Light Saver and Light Blaze Dragon for Royal Paladin, Kuzunoha and Seimei for Murakumo, Researcher Fox and Tester Fox for Great Nature, and Machining Hornet and Tarantula mkII for Megacolony.

The press release also hinted at the coming of VGE-BT17: Blazing Perdition ver. E for the English-language format, following up on the announcements regarding BT16's consolidating of Japanese booster sets for its English edition. That announcement made waves for revealing that the grade 4 Stride unit Harmonics Messiah will be released as a promo for the set. Like Legion of Dragons & Blades before it, BT17 ver. E will contain cards from multiple sets, but the exact sets included have not been specified. The full press release is posted below.

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bushiroad Reveals Cardfight!! Vanguard English Exclusive Booster Pack and Legion Campaign

Singapore (September 19, 2014) – Bushiroad revealed that the upcoming Cardfight!! Vanguard English Edition expansion, Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver. E, contains a mix of cards from 5 different Japanese Edition Cardfight!! Vanguard expansions. ‘ver.E’ is exclusive to the English Edition and features a specially selected collection of cards. This mix of cards allows players access to cards from multiple expansions at once.

Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver. E features a mix of cards from the following Japanese Edition Cardfight!! Vanguard expansions:

- Trial Deck Vol. 15 ‘Brawler of Friendship’
- Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’
- Booster Pack Vol. 17 ‘Blazing Perdition’
- Movie Trial Deck ‘Malefic Deletor’
- Movie Booster Pack ‘Neon Messiah’
*Certain cards are omitted from this set.

Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver. E is slated for release on December 19, 2014. Its Sneak Preview Events will run from December 12 to 14, 2014. Booster Pack Vol. 17 ‘Blazing Perdition’ ver.E is also currently in development and will include a mix of cards from multiple expansions too.

Coupled with the year-end releases, Bushiroad announced a ‘Cardfight!! Vanguard Legion Campaign’, which will run from November 21, 2014 to February 28, 2015. This campaign aims to increase awareness of the upcoming Cardfight!! Vanguard Legion Mate arc and to drive sales in official stores. Stores which are not registered with Bushiroad can sign up with Bushiroad as an official store to receive support for this and similar campaigns in future.

During this campaign, Bushiroad will collaborate with official distributors to provide an exclusive series of promotional pack, named the ‘Legion Pack’, to stores and players. Players who purchase 5 Cardfight!! Vanguard packs or a Cardfight!! Vanguard Trial Deck at official stores will receive a Legion Pack. Each Legion Pack contains a pair of ‘Legion’ cards. Players will be able to collect a total of 6 different pairs of Legion during the Legion Campaign.

In addition to the Legion Packs, players participating in the monthly tournaments between December 2014 to February 2015 will receive a special ‘Legion Revival’ promotional card together with their regular monthly promotional pack.

News: Cardfight!! Vanguard Films "A Game of Three" and "Neon Messiah" to Screen in September, Petit Vanguard Festival Decklists

Information regarding the upcoming Cardfight!! Vanguard films has just come out of this year's ongoing Great Vanguard Festival. Previously revealed at Bushiroad's December 2013 press conference, the films are currently scheduled for dual screenings as a single movie in September 2014. The first piece, A Game of Three (３つのゲーム Mitsu no Geemu) will be filmed in live action and star musician-actor Naito Daigō, while the second movie, Neon Messiah (ネオンメサイア Neon Mesaia), will be animated by LIDENFILMS of Ultra Super Pictures and star professional seiyuu Yonaga Tsubasa as the voice of Sendou Aichi. LIDENFILMS had previously done animation work on the franchise's poorly-received second season, Asia Circuit. Neon Messiah is set to take place between the end of the Link Joker and the currently airing Legion Mate chapters of the anime series, and will explore the events leading up to Aichi's disappearance in the latter season.

Also coming out just today is news regarding the sixteenth and seventeenth Japanese trial decks, leaked by the manager of the Fukuoka-based card store G-PROJECT. VG-TD17: Blue Flames of the Sacred Court (聖裁の青き炎 Seisai no Aokihonoo alternatively translated as of the Sacred Judge) will feature the Gold Paladin units used by Quatre Knight Olivier Gaillard, but the exact nature of TD16's support is not known. TD16: Cursed Dragon of Determination (決意の呪縛竜 Ketsui no Jubakuryuu) has been widely speculated to contain support for the Link Joker clan, based on the use of the kanji 呪縛 Jubaku "curse/spell" which is also the written form of ロック Rokku Lock. Without a pronunciation guide, it's uncertain if the intended reading is Cursed Dragon or Locked Dragon; the double meaning may be intentional. According to G-PROJECT, both decks will be receiving a Beginning Set variant as with TD14 and 15, and will be released on July 11th.

In other news, the decklists from the Petit Vanguard Festival's winning team have been made public and are translated below. Captained by Sussan using a Dragonic Nouvelle Vague deck, the team also features one of the first successful Monarch Sanctuary builds of the BT15-on format; Monarch has had a generally lukewarm reception in Japan, debuting on the secondary market as a 200 yen (approx. $2) RRR, and even in the team midfielder Chris' deck Monarch himself is only played at two copies. Much of the build's newfound success comes from Balan, an improved clone of Barrier Troop Revenger Dorint that can unflip damage whenever a Blade Liberator is called to the rearguard, and from Star Rain Trumpeter, who can superior call a unit by returning Blade Liberators to the deck from the drop zone or soul. The new grade 1 Zorron is also subtly important to the new Liberators; when called to the rearguard from the deck Zorron can move into the soul to call another card from the top 3 cards, so that with the skills of Gancelot Zenith, Star Rain and Escrad all able to trigger him, the Monarch build achieves effective acceleration that can partially ignore Zorron and run a "46-card" deck while also replenishing the soul for Monarch's limit break. Chris' version of the deck also has synergy with Gancelot Zenith's emphasis on grade 2 and lower rearguards, achieved by running just 6 grade 3s.

Petit Vanguard Festival First Place Team
Foreward: Akebi/アクビ
Grade 0
x1 Vivid Rabbit (FV)
x4 Witch of Big Pots, Laurier HT
x2 Bandit Danny DT
x2 Fancy Monky DT
x4 Witch of Lemons, Limoncello CT
x4 Battle Maiden, Kukurihime CT
Grade 1
x4 Goddess of Protection, Kushinada
x4 Orange Witch, Valencia
x3 Apple Witch, Cider
x3 Ordain Owl
Grade 2
x4 Grape Witch, Grappa
x4 Witch of Ravens, Chamomile
x3 Goddess of Trees, Jupiter
Grade 3
x4 Omniscience Regalia, Minerva
x4 Regalia of Wisdom, Angelica

Midfielder: Chris/クリス
Grade 0
x1 Aspiring Liberator, Alm (FV)
x4 Flame of Victory CT
x4 Liberator of Hope, Epona CT
x2 Strike Liberator CT
x2 Armed Liberator, Gwydion DT
x4 Elixir Liberator HT
Grade 1
x3 May Rain Liberator, Bruno
x4 Halo Liberator, Mark
x4 White Rainbow Liberator, Balan
x4 Physical Force Liberator, Zorron
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade Liberator
x4 Liberator of the Flute, Escrad
x3 Liberator, Stair Rain Trumpeter
x1 Player of the Holy Bow, Viviane
Grade 3
x4 Liberator of Bonds, Gancelot Zenith
x2 Liberator, Monarch Sanctuary Alfred

Captain: Sussan/すっさん
Grade 0
x1 Red Pulse Dracokid (FV)
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe
x1 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x2 Dragon Dancer, Barbara HT
x1 Dragon Dancer, Therese HT
x1 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Seal Dragon, Artpique DT
x2 Seal Dragon, Biera CT
x2 Blue-Ray Dracokid CT
x2 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT
x1 Lizard Soldier, Goraha CT
Grade 1
x4 Nouvelle Roman Dragon
x2 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x1 Dragon Dancer, Maria
x1 Seal Dragon, Rinocross
x3 Calamity Tower Wyvern
x1 Dragon Monk, Gojo
Grade 2
x4 Nouvelle Critique Dragon
x3 Berserk Dragon
x2 Bellicosity Dragon
x1 Dragonic Burnout
x1 Demonic Dragon Berserker, Kumbhanda
Grade 3
x4 Dauntless Drive Dragon
x2 Dragonic Overlord (BT15/004)
Grade 4
x3 Transcendence Dragon, Dragonic Nouvelle Vague

News: Extra Booster 11 "Requiem at Dusk" and Extra Booster 12 "Waltz of the Goddess" to Support Shadow Paladin and Genesis, New Witch Cards to be Introduced

Images circulating on Twitter Japan this morning unveiled the next two extra boosters for the Japanese edition of Cardfight!! Vanguard, VG-EB11: Requiem at Dusk (宵闇の鎮魂歌 Yoiyami no Chinkonka, "Requiem of Twilight") and VG-EB12: Waltz of the Goddess (女神の円舞曲 Megami no Enbukyoku, "Goddess' Waltz.") Stated to provide exclusive support for the Shadow Paladin and Genesis clans, and feature cards used by Suzugamori Ren and Tokura Misaki in the TV anime Cardfight!! Vanguard Legion Mate, the extra boosters are confirmed to support the Revenger and Regalia subclans that were introduced last year. In addition, EB11 will introduce a series of Shadow Paladin "jet-black witch" (漆黒の魔女) cards, while EB12 will introduce "snow-white witches" (純白の魔女) for Genesis.

新たな力、漆黒の【魔女】達を集めて新しくヴァンガードをはじめることもできる！
Aratana chikara, shikkoku no majo-tachi wo atsumete atarashiku Vangaado wo hajimerukoto mo dekiru! 

"By collecting the jet-black "Witches" you can use a new power to begin a new kind of Vanguard!"

EB11 and EB12 will be released on June 20th in Japan. Each set will feature 35 cards, 25 new with 10 reprints (3 RRR, 5 RR, 8 R, and 19 C-rarity cards, with 6 Special Parallels containing only 1 reprint and 2 Legion Rares.) Blaster Dark Revenger is popularly believed to be one of the reprints in the set, with alternate artwork derived of the promotional image seen above, and a Legion marker to allow connectivity with the new boss card. There is also a possibility that he will be modified to be closer to Blaster Blade Seeker in skill. The sets are confirmed to include use the Legion mechanic, as was suggested at a previous press conference.

News: March 2nd Broadcast Explains Legion Mechanic, Raizers and Musketeers to See Support in BT16

Following the end of Link Joker earlier today Bushiroad aired a special broadcast on NicoNico Douga, discussing the upcoming Legion Mate season and some of the card mechanics therein. The program was introduced by Doctor O, with the anime being addressed by the voices of Sendou Aichi and Kai Toshiki, Yonaga Tsubasa and Satou Takuya; Satou confirmed for the fans that Kai will be the main protagonist of Legion Mate, and to Yonaga's distress that Aichi will be disappearing during the season.

When things came back to Doctor O, the viewers were treated to two jumbo-sized replicas of the upcoming TD14: Seeker of Hope cards. The deck's key grade 2, Blaster Blade Seeker, is a variation on the established field control formula. Like the traditional Blaster Blade he can retire a grade 2 or greater rearguard, but this is only when placed on a rearguard circle and costs just a single counterblast as opposed to past incarnations' two. Blade Seeker may require a Seeker vanguard to do so, but this is difficult to confirm from NND's low resolution.

What really drew surprise from the broadcast's 18,000 viewers was the explanation of the new Legion Mate mechanic and the skill of Seeker, Sacred Wingal. Sacred Wingal's Activate skill is not a limit break, but instead activates Legions it to Blaster Blade Seeker by matching up their Legion icons. Wingal can pay a cost of shuffling four units from the drop zone into the deck, to become joined with Blade Seeker as one unit with a total base power of 20000. Wingal's autoskill then triggers at the moment that it has been Legioned, letting it superior call a grade 2 or greater Seeker from the deck.

How exactly Legion Mate interacts with established mechanics is unknown. Legion units becoming a 20000 power base during their own turn was described as a typical attribute of the Legion Mate mechanic, so presumably most if not all Legion cards for this upcoming season will be a base 11000 grade 3 and base 9000 grade 2.

Interestingly, the introduction of Legion Mate may mark either an end or shaky coexistence with limit break; addressing the longstanding issue of the game's pace becoming more oriented around being at 4 damage over time, the only condition observed on Legion Mate skills is the ability to have a Mate on the field. Legion activates when a vanguard and rearguard with paired Legion icons are matched up, which gives their cardfighter greater freedom of choice on when to use skills, and rewards successful timing for using Legion Mate when the opponent is already at higher damage by giving them innately greater power to work with. Conversely, using Legion too early wastes a skill that can only be used as many times as the Mate unit can be played from the hand.

Doctor O revealed several different upcoming pairs of Legion units, including those from Brawler of Friendship and an alternate set of Legion cards from Seeker of Hope, but what drew the most excitement were the units from VG-BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades. Nova Grappler will be receiving a pair of Raizer units with the new mechanic to round out their build, while Neo Nectar will start the season off with paired Musketeer units.

Additionally, Doctor O assured everyone that Tokura Misaki will also be returning with Legion cards, much to the relief of her voice actor, Kitta Izumi. What clan she will be using is unknown. Many fans are clamoring for her to return to Oracle Think Tank while others have suggested she stay with Genesis, but neither clan is currently scheduled to be supported by BT16.

The program was closed out by Morishima Shuuta, voice of Shin Nitta, who asked the audience to help him with the cheer "Ride the Vanguard!" The cards covered by the NND conference will be given better coverage in the upcoming seventh issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine. A recording of the broadcast will go up tomorrow.

3/3/2013 Update: The broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube. Highlights include an explanation of the Legion mechanic at the 22 minute mark, Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal's debut at 23:37 as well as the introduction of Raizer and Musketeer support from 28:19 on.

News: TV Tokyo Commercial Reveals Plot for Legion Mate, Nouvelle Vague to Hit International Shores in June

This morning Japanese TV channel TV Tokyo aired a commercial for the upcoming fourth season of Cardfight!! Vanguard, Legion Mate, sparking a flood of images and comments over Twitter from Japanese fans. TV Tokyo's official website also updated with a synopsis of the season's upcoming storyline:

Just days after a deadly fight against Link Joker that involved the whole world,everything is peaceful and the usual calm days have came back. 

But, Kai Toshiki faces a surprising situation. 

Sendou Aichi, the hero who saved the world from the invasion of Link Joker, suddenly disappeared. Along with peoples' memory of his existence…While there are few clues to go by, Kai will seek Aichi with only the proof of their bond, “Blaster Blade” and a Royal Paladin deck. 

Fighters named the “Quatre Knights” appear before Kai. The four fighters—Gaillard, Neve, Ratie and Serra—are world class fighters in Vanguard.

They use a mysterious power and tell Kai to give up seeking Aichi.What is their purpose…?! And what is their relationship with Aichi…?!Receiving the new power "Legion," Kai's fight to get Aichi back, starts now!!

The commercial for Legion Mate showed Kai's role as the protagonist prominently, featuring him alongside the surviving Team Q4 members, as well as Naoki, Ren and Miwa. Naoki and Kai's new friendship has been emphasized in the commercial, while a poster for the series seen above features the antagonistic Quartre Knights, each of which appears to be a counterpart of a member from Q4.

Another image from the commercial gave early details on some of the cards from TD14: Seeker of Hope, revealing that Blaster Blade Seeker will be a grade 2 with 9000 power and 5000 shield, and that Sacred Wingal will be a base 11000 power grade 3. Legion Mate is set to air on March 9 in Japan, exactly one week after Link Joker ends on March 2 this weekend.

In international news, two extra boosters were confirmed for an English release today, with VGE-EB08: Champions of the Cosmos and VGE-EB09: Divine Dragon Progression getting a dual release on June 6, 2014. The primary draws of EB08 are its crossride units Immortal Asura Kaiser and Galaxy Blaukluger, along with the legacy support for the old cards that they bring. Since Champions of the Cosmos' Japanese release last November the Galaxy Blaukluger deck has gradually climbed up the ranks of VGCS tournaments to become the dominant competitive option for Nova Grappler, much as the original Blaukluger had back in 2011.

Divine Dragon Progression is based around the cards used by Kai Toshiki in the more recent volumes of the manga and is the better known set by far, chiefly for the infamy of its cover card Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. As the first fully implemented grade 4 unit, Nouvelle Vague's designers are held to have overcompensated for its unwieldy nature with extensive options for deck searching and field control, and skills that both prevent it from being guarded with grade 0 units and passively nullify the opponent's trigger checks. These qualities were not in the card's original intention--Itou had envisioned Nouvelle as nullifying both players' trigger checks and not having the Twin Drive!! ability--and have snowballed along with Kagerou's self-standing break ride support to create a deck that can attack multiple times with its vanguard while preventing the opponent from guarding those attacks while also sitting on an unnaturally high 13000 base power and destroying the opposing rearguards to prevent them from fighting back. Nouvelle has thus superseded Link Joker in Japan as the dominant deck of competitive play, leading to the restriction of Lizard Soldier Conroe who was a major linchpin in the deck's consistency. The build is currently considered wounded but playable, as it has continued to dominate Japanese Vanguard Championships alongside Omniscience Regalia Minerva, accounting for up to 18% of all decks played in some cases.

EB08 will feature a promotional print of Nova Grappler's original critical trigger, Shining Lady, with her 2011 anime artwork as a box topper, while EB09 will get a print of Dragon Dancer Arabella.

2/28/2014 Update: The Nova Grapplers will also be receiving a special Sneak Preview playmat that can be won by participating in the extra boosters' dual launch event. This time the playmat will be of Galaxy Blaukluger. Unlike with EB04 and EB05, there will be a second playmat representing the Kagerou side. Which unit will be featured is unknown but it is speculated to be Dragonic Nouvelle Vague. Those that take part in the Sneak Preview will also receive a PR/101EN Chain Blaster Dragon. Back in Japan, Chain Blast had been a Monthly Bushiroad promo, and was known for his ability to simultaneously retire three of the opponent's rearguards by discarding two grade 3 units with his limit break, while searching for those grade 3s with his non-limit break skill. Sneak Preview events will be taking place around the world on May 30, May 31 and June 1, with the final dates determined by the hosting store.

In other news, VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth officially released in Japan today. While there was some trouble with international sellers in Singapore stocking the set before the street date, the surprises surrounding the set were limited this time due to all of BT15's RRR and RR-rarity cards being known from promotional materials released ahead of time. What is drawing the most attention at this time is that the newly released Triple Reverse rarity card, Star-vader “Ω” Glendios, is now selling for as high as 6000~8000 yen (approx. $60~$80 in US money) higher than any other single card in the history of the game, including its immediate predecessor Chaos Breaker Dragon who sold for as most as a Japanese booster box at release. Although Link Joker usage has waned considerably since the release of Dragonic Nouvelle Vague in Japan, Glendios has gotten particular attention not just for its unique rarity but also due to the host of supporting units that have helped it along, in particular Cold Death Dragon and “Яeverse” Cradle.

Glendios' core strategy is built around its alternate win condition, having all of the opponent's rearguards Locked at the beginning of its cardfighters' main phase while also having five damage, but requires repeatedly discarding “Я” cards to use its highly defensive Omega Lock ability that prevents cards from opening during the end phase. The disadvantage to this is that prior to “Я” Cradle, all Reverse cards came from other clans and Glendios could only make Reverse cards already on the field into Link Joker units, so the deck had a crippling weakness in that it was forced to run between 12 and 16 grade 3s with many of them being of the wrong clan and having the Lord skill that prevents them from attacking unless Glendios is on the vanguard circle. “Я” Cradle neutralized this by giving both a Reverse card to Link Joker so that only a limited number of cards from other clans would need to be used, and also sharing his ability to turn Reverse units into Link Jokers. Meanwhile Cold Death Dragon is a grade 2 that when called can put the top card of the opponent's deck into play Locked for counterblast 1, on the condition that they already have a Locked card. This makes it easier to achieve the deck's win condition as the opponent does not have the option of leaving some circles empty to prevent cards from being Locked. With the addition of Ruin Magician and Praseodymium, grade 1 units that can add Reverse cards back to the hand from the drop zone and unflip damage respectively, the Glendios build has evolved into an effective alternate strategy that has even secured independence from Infinite Zero Dragon, but some have criticized it as lacking interaction with the game compared to Chaos Breaker or Nebula Lord and shutting the opponent down too heavily to promote interesting gameplay.

News: Kai Toshiki to Play Royal Paladin for Legion Mate, Team League 2014 Regional & Continental Dates

The cover characters for the fourteenth and fifteenth trial decks broke early this morning, confirming fans' initial speculations about the direction of the Cardfight!! Vanguard franchise's fourth chapter, Legion Mate. VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope features cards that will be used by Kai Toshiki in the anime, while VG-TD15: Brawler of Friendship will instead feature Ishida Naoki's units. The news was first leaked through promotional posters sent to card shops, with official images replacing their placeholder equivalents on the Japanese portal soon after. The promotional posters also advertised Legion as a new mechanic, each showing off two new cards united by the same crossing of swords symbol used in Legion Mate's official logo. Moreover, a set of promo cards have given some indication of what the new mechanic may look like.

Set to be released on April 26th and 27th as part of this year's Great Vanguard Festival, the promos are new first vanguards for for Narukami and Royal Paladin intended to work alongside the trial decks' new cards. In addition to their basic Forerunner skills, Brawler Fighting Dracokid (喧嘩屋 ファイティング・ドラコキッド) and Vanguard Seeker File (先陣の探索者ファイル) have Legion-centric skills. File's skill activates automatically; when the vanguard gets "Legion" he can move into the soul to superior call a Blaster Blade Seeker from the deck. Dracokid instead has to be activated in the main phase. By moving into the soul, Dracokid gives the vanguard a skill that when an opponent's frontrow rearguard is put into the drop zone and the vanguard has "Legion," his fighter can counterblast 1 and retire an opponent's unit on the same column as the retired card. The way that these cards are worded defines Legion as a quality any unit can have or have taken away, like Twin Drive!! or Boost, but also specifies particular benefits for the vanguard receiving it, and these units also give Legion a specific icon in the shape of a shield made up of crossed swords like that shown in other promotional materials.

Note that since neither promo card is subclan or clan dependent, they do not necessarily have to be used with Brawler or Seeker vanguards, or even units of the same clan. All they require is that the vanguard have Legion. Currently it's presumed that Blaster Blade Seeker will have an on-call retire skill like past incarnations of Blaster Blade, and because File exchanges himself for a copy of Blade Seeker while Fighting Dracokid does not give anything but a retire skill, the cards are balanced around the idea that Dracokid causes the user to lose one card in advantage while the opponent's loses two where File does not cost card advantage and in exchange the Seeker he calls can only take away one card. If multiple retire skills can be triggered in one turn however, Dracokid can snowball more effectively by retiring two cards on his own in addition to what was accomplished with other skills. Furthermore, putting him in the soul can contribute towards Rising Phoenix's soulblast-to-draw skill. These extended combos specifically depend on being able to access other retire skills for less than 2 counterblast in the first place however, could not function with break ride skills due to the timing involved and can only last for a single turn.

Accounting for how posters have advertised Legion as connecting two cards, the contiguous Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal artwork, a similar design pattern for Skybeat and Skyhowl Dragon, and the literal reading of Legion's kanji 双闘 as "fighting as a pair," Legion itself seems to be built on the idea of tagging two cards together to work at once. Thus the mechanic both enables the abilities of certain cards as with File and Fighting Dracokid, and can be made useful on its own. The fact that Legion has to be received to use it at all suggests that there are restrictions on when and how many times a unit may get Legion per game.

In international news, the upcoming Team League 2014 has had some of its terminology modified. What were previously identified as national championships are now being called regional championships, and what were called regionals are now being referred to as continental championships. This answers some of the confusion surrounding the idea that League 2014 was previously touting, that the national tournaments for each country would serve as qualifiers for regionals, which to many veteran fighters sounds like a paradoxical inversion of the established tournament structure; qualifying for a smaller event at a larger one. With the change in terminology has also come the dates for the upcoming tournaments, with regionals picking up in April and lasting through July while the continental tournaments will be in July. Specific dates can be found on the official Cardfight portal.

Team League 2014 is a triples format for the English-language Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG, with each team taking the side of either the Cray Defenders protecting the planet from attack or the Void Invaders seeking to conquer it with the otherworldly power of Lock and Reverse. Invader teams are required to play either with Link Joker or "Яeverse" cards empowered by the Void, while Defender teams are banned from using these cards and must fight back with their natural abilities.

News: Trial Decks 14 & 15 Announced, Royal Paladins to Return for Legion Mate, Catastrophic Outbreak Sees English Release Date

Early this morning the Japanese cf-vanguard portal updated with information on two upcoming trial decks for the fourth season of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime, Legion Mate. To be released on April 18, the 50-card preconstructed decks VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope (希望の探索者(シーカー) Kibou no Tansakumono (Shiikaa)) and VG-TD15: Brawler of Friendship (友情の喧嘩屋(ブロウラー) Yuujyou no Kenkaya (Burouraa)) will each introduce 17 new cards, with three foils in each TD, one RRR and two R-rarity cards. Unlike with past TDs which were reprinted later in the year of their introduction, both decks will launch alongside their Beginning Set equivalents, which will have the same contents but with RRR reprints of Claudia, Spark Kid Dragoon and two Royal Paladin and Narukami units from the as of yet untitled BT16. The Beginning Sets will also come with 53 official sleeves, a deckholder, a Fighter's Counter used to show power increases on cards, and a Cardfight Pack Vol. 13 with a random promo card inside. While TD14 & 15 will retail for 1000 yen each, their equivalent Beginning Sets will instead retail for 2400 yen. Unlike with past decks, there are currently no accompanying promotional images of the sets, leading to some speculation as to which characters will be using Royal Paladin and Narukami for Legion Mate.

Currently it is known that TD14 will feature "Seeker, Sacred Wingal" "Blaster Blade Seeker" and "Splendid Seeker, Cerdic" while TD15 will feature "Brawler, Skybeat Dragon" "Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon" and "Brawler, Wildfist Dragon." Based on the return of Wingal and Blaster Blade, TD14 is widely believed to be Sendou Aichi's trial deck for Legion Mate, but the seemingly deliberate ambiguity surrounding the deck and the presence of the young Kai's first vanguard, Claudia, in Beginning Set 14 has some Japanese fans speculating that Kai Toshiki will be picking up Royal Paladin for the fourth season, coming back to the clan that he used in his origin story Episode 0, and that Aichi will be missing for the beginning of Legion Mate. Regardless of who TD14 belongs to, the general consensus is that TD15's Brawlers are designed around Ishida Naoki's character traits.

The trial decks will introduce a new mechanic, dubbed "Legion" (双闘 Soutou レギオン Region pronounced in Japanese with a hard g sound.) This is distinct from the idea of a legion as a subclan, using the kanji for "pair" and "fight" together with an English reading. The details of Legion's function are as of yet unknown, but based on the reading of it as "fighting together/fighting as pairs" it has been variously interpreted as either letting units from different subclans interact or letting entirely different clans function together.

On our side of the water a release for VGE-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak is finally in sight, with the stated release date of May 2 bringing the set worldwide in time for Team League 2014. BT13 is most noted for its introduction of Chaos Break Dragon, widely regarded as Link Joker's optimal grade 3 second only to Infinite Zero Dragon in importance, and secondarily for the return of the much-awaited Nubatama clan and their combination of bind and discard mechanics.The set's Reverse cards, Dark Dimensional Robo "Я" Daiyusha, and Deadliest Beast Deity Ethics Buster "Я" have likewise embedded themselves in competitive play as definitive decks for their clans in professional play, with Ethics "Я" most recently making the headlines in a combination deck alongside Ethics Buster Extreme.

News: Ride to Victory Sequel "Lock on Victory," Fourth Season and Movies Announced for 2014

FuRyu producer Ms. Fujiwara speaks about Lock on Victory at the Special Conference.

Yesterday Bushiroad's December 16th broadcast brought with it the unveiling of Cardfight!! Vanguard's schedule going into 2014, revealing several upcoming titles including a second 3DS game, Cardfight!! Vanguard: Lock on Victory. FuRyu producer Ms. Fujiwara came to speak on the title. Based on the storyline of the Link Joker season of Cardfight!! Vanguard, Lock on Victory will feature the return of the previous game's customizable protagonists as they head into high school. The player will be able to attend Miyaji Academy, Hitsue High, or Fukuhara High School and live out their daily lives with the anime's cast. Production images showed the hotblooded-type hero from RTV in Miyaji uniform, with the cool-type hero in Hitsue clothes, and the dark-type heroine instead shown attending Fukuhara. Whether the player's school is connected to their choice of protagonist is unknown, but a versus mode image shows the female protagonist fighting in Hitsue uniform, suggesting that the player will be free to choose any school regardless of their selected character.

Images from the game's interface show the integration of Lock into gameplay, represented by black rings rotating above the face-down Locked cards. The game will also support the break ride mechanic, with new animations specific to it, as well as grade 4 units. Lock on Victory will support cards from up through VG-BT15: Infinite Rebirth, just as RTV supported up until BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons on release, but as with the previous game will not be released until after the set itself. LOV is scheduled for a summer release. Previously international fans had come out in strong support of Ride to Victory's international release, which had prompted Bushiroad to begin internal talks about localizing the game, but nothing has come of this as of yet. As the company has been responsive to its fans' requests, Lock on Victory may provide an opportunity for a renewed push to bring the video game series overseas.

12/17/2013 Update: LOV's official website has launched.

DAIGO's announcement prompted a flood of real-time comments from the viewers.

Viewers went wild when musical star DAIGO announced the production of a Cardfight!! Vanguard film, featuring the return of Sendou Aichi, Kai Toshiki, Tokura Misaki and others. Instead of being produced by Studio TMS as the core anime seasons are, the film will be produced by Ultra Super Pictures, a studio most recently involved with the production of Black Rock Shooter and Kill La Kill. More surprising still is that the anime film accounts for only half of the entire work; in addition to the anime edition, a complementary live action edition will be produced by Ace Works Entertainment. This upcoming TV drama is believed to be a successor to the 2012 film that previously brought Vanguard's musical star DAIGO to the fore as a key actor. Once again he will be joined by Mimori Suzuko, although it is unknown if she will be reprising her role from the previous film as Kagami Maria. Immediately after the Special Conference's airing an official website for the film went up, showing off a promotional image advertising the two pieces and a list of some of the actors casted. Both films are scheduled for release in 2014, with the anime film being directed by Itagaki Shin, and the live action film directed by Motoki Takashi.

Regarding the anime film, Kitta Izumi joked that she was playing the "cute heroine" as Misaki for the movie--NicoNico viewers made some humorous protests, insisting that Aichi was instead the series' heroine. She also commented that to have a film edition of Cardfight!! Vanguard being produced was "like a dream." As DAIGO pointed out, it's now been almost three years since Vanguard began; there was no small amount of sentiment for the four speakers then on stage, who had been a part of the franchise since it began in 2011. Perhaps the individual to which this meant the most however, was Itou Akira.

Known for making rare public appearances via the Vangua-Road webcast and communicating with his fans primarily via Twitter, the reclusive mangaka came on stage to describe the upcoming film as being on a larger scale. While specifics regarding the story are few, it will take place after the Link Joker chapter and feature most of the main characters. Some concerns arose that Team Q4 would be reduced to Team Q3 because of Kai's absence when the team was last active during the Asia Circuit, but these fears were alleviated when it was said that Kai would not be going anywhere for the film. Viewers took note that during the broadcast Itou was dressed "Kai-kun style"--his black blazer, scarf, high boots and the deck holder strung over his belt gave the impression of a Kai Toshiki cosplay.

Along with these announcements came news of Cardfight!! Vanguard's upcoming fourth season, dubbed "Legion Mate" chapter (レギオンメイト編 region meito hen, note that the Japanese pronunciation uses a hard G sound as in "green") which will follow Aichi and Kai's shared story after Link Joker. Images of Aichi and Kai in their Link Joker-era designs were used, prompting Kitta Izumi to comment that "Kai-kun looks a little...how should I say..." but Doctor O assured everyone that these images were recycled from BT15, as there is no key artwork ready for Legion Mate as of yet. As no final English title has been given yet, some have disputed the Legion translation in favor of "Region Mate." Those speaking at the event pronounced the レ sound as closer to L than R, but neither translation fits the Japanese rendering perfectly.

The new season's ED theme will be created by Japanese girls' pop group FAKY, while the OP "V-Road" will be created by the Bushi★7, an all-star team of artists assembled to celebrate Bushiroad's seventh year in operation. The Bushi★7 will consist of DAIGO, Psychic Lover members Yoffy and Imajo, Suara, Kitta Izumi and Mimori Suzuko, and Morishima Shuuto. The announcements drew a string of "8888" flooding the screen, which for the viewers at home substituted for clapping--the reading for 8 "hachi" sounds similar in Japanese to "pachi," an onomatopoeia for applauding.

The final announcement for the day was that 2014 will also see the release of a new extra booster set for the Bermuda Triangle clan, following up on VG-EB02: Banquet of Divas and VG-EB06: Dazzling Divas. In addition to this, another Great Vanguard Festival will be held at the Tokyo Big Sight this coming year, as has become customary for the TCG's tournament season in Japan. Doctor O closed out the Special Conference wishing well to the viewers, after which a string of new commercials for VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike and the newest Beginning Sets aired while the stage was prepared for Buddyfight's conference.

The portion of the broadcast concerned with Vanguard can be viewed in its entirety on the Cardfight Pro YouTube channel, recorded courtesy of Touya. We are looking into subtitling the broadcast, but as this will take some time to accomplish, for now only the unsubbed version is available.