Press Release: Another Cardfight!! Vanguard Expansion Sold Out – Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E

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

Another Cardfight!! Vanguard Expansion Sold Out – Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E

Singapore (January 16, 2015) – More than 950,000 packs were sold in less than one month after the official release of Cardfight!! Vanguard Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E on December 19, 2014.

This booster pack expansion joins the list of other Cardfight!! Vanguard expansions that were completely sold out within weeks of their release dates. Previous expansions, Extra Booster Pack Vol. 11 ‘Requiem at Dusk’ and Extra Booster Pack Vol. 12 ‘Waltz of the Goddess’, sold more than 600,000 packs over the weekend.

The next expansion, Booster Pack Vol. 17 ‘Blazing Perdition’ ver.E, will hit the shelves from January 23, 2015.

Cardfight!! Vanguard is a popular trading card game developed by Bushiroad Inc. in early 2011. It is currently available in four languages; Japanese, English, Korean and Thai.

News: Neo Nectar, Dimension Police and Nova Grappler Cut from BT16 ver. E, Alfred XIV and Knuckle Buster to Join Legion of Dragons & Blades

Following up on the previous announcement from late on the 18th that Harmonics Messiah will be reaching the English format, Bushiroad's international branch has made a continuing statement on the official Cardfight portal and via Facebook, listing the clans available in BT16 ver. E. The English edition set will include support for the Royal Paladin, Gold Paladin, Narukami, Link Joker, Aqua Force and Spike Brothers clans, integrating cards from three of the Japanese booster packs and two trial decks by removing the Neo Nectar, Dimension Police and Nova Grappler cards originally present in BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades. These cards are presumed to have been moved to later sets.

The removal of these three clans was made to accommodate the introduction of BT17, MBT01 and MTD01's Gold Paladin, Link Joker, Aqua Force and Royal Paladin cards as well as additional Narukami units from TD16 and BT17. By removing these clans from the set, room was made for 56 cards in addition to the 42 added into the set size. This brings the total count of cards from other sets to at least 108, making room for almost the entire combined card pool of Malefic Deleter, Neon Messiah, as well as the Gold Paladin, Narukami and Aqua Force units of Blazing Perdition. However, it is unknown which cards from each set will be cut to make room for the accompanying Brawler of Friendship unit.

Additional reasons can be inferred from the clans targeted; Nova Grappler has been singled out in the professional community for its infamous Cat Butler Raizer deck, a once-dominant deck from Japanese play that uses the grade 0 Cat Butler to restand its Legioned vanguard. Within the past few months the build was subject to restriction in the Japanese Fighter's Rules. While fears regarding Cat Butler lack foundation compared to the raw unparalleled dominance of Thing Saver Dragon in Japanese play, delaying the hit of Raizers to the English-language format can be seen as a preemptive response to player outcry.

Neo Nectar and Dimension Police may have been switched out due to their lack of popularity overseas, as western competition has generally favored Aqua Force's extremely consistent aggressive play style and Link Joker's perceived ability to shut down the game, in comparison to Neo Nectar's demanding strategic buildup and Dimension Police's tendency towards all-or-nothing plays.

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.

Press Release: BT16 ver. E Announced for December Release

In a recent press release, Bushiroad has announced its modified schedule for 2014. Key announcements are the simultaneous release of five products on November 21st, as well as the announcement of the new booster set, BT16 ver. E: Legion of Dragons and Blades. Although billed as an English edition of BT16, ver. E's contents will significantly differ from its Japanese counterpart, including "cards from multiple sets." Scheduled to be released on December 19th, with prerelease events from the 12th through the 14th, ver. E's modification was likely made with respect to the November schedule omitting TD15: Brawler of Friendship.

Based on the delay of Narukami's newest trial deck, the predominant theory at this time is that BT16 Ver. E will drop its Narukami support in favor of a merger with some of the cards from the upcoming Japanese Movie Booster Set, MBT01: Neon Messiah. Following this theory, ver. E would contain the Royal and Gold Paladin cards from MBT01 in place of its Narukami units, which would instead be shifted into a later set.

The current delay of BT16, previously scheduled to take place prior to Fighter's Collection 2014, was likely made to accommodate the mass November release schedule. Much like the multi-set mixup of 2012, the modified schedule will have an intense effect on professional play for the English-language game. The initial delay of BT16 pushes back the two decks popularly held to be the best in the Legion format, Thing Saver Dragon and Cat Butler Raizers, while also giving more opportunity for Genesis and Shadow Paladin cardfighters to build up a presence in tournament play using the new extra booster sets. The full press release is hosted 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
5 English Edition Cardfight!! Vanguard Expansions Mega Release in November
Singapore (September 4, 2014) – Bushiroad announced the simultaneous release of 5 Cardfight!! Vanguard English Edition expansions which will be on sale from November 21, 2014. These expansions include 3 Trial Decks and 2 Extra Booster Packs, in addition to the previously announced special Fighters Collection 2014 expansion set.
Trial Deck Vol. 14 ‘Seeker of Hope’, Trial Deck Vol. 16 ‘Divine Judgment of the Bluish Flames’ and Trial Deck Vol. 17 ‘Will of the Locked Dragon’ will be released on the same date as Extra Booster Pack Vol. 11 ‘Requiem at Dusk’ and Extra Booster Pack Vol. 12 ‘Waltz of the Goddess’.
Bushiroad also announced plans to release an English Edition exclusive expansion which will include cards from multiple sets. This English Edition exclusive expansion, Booster Pack Vol. 16 ver. E ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’, is scheduled to release in December 19, 2014. The Sneak Preview Events will run from December 12 to 14, 2014.
Trial Deck Vol. 14 ‘Seeker of Hope’ and Trial Deck Vol. 16 ‘Divine Judgment of the Bluish Flames’ features units from the ever-popular <<Royal Paladin>> and <<Gold Paladin>> clan.
Trial Deck Vol. 17 ‘Will of the Locked Dragon’ will contain the quintessential nemesis <<Link Joker>> units.
<<Shadow Paladin>> and <<Genesis>> units will make a comeback with the all-new ‘Legion’ ability in Extra Booster Pack Vol. 11 ‘Requiem at Dusk’ and Extra Booster Pack Vol. 12 ‘Waltz of the Goddess’ respectively.

News: Fighter's Collection 2014 to See English Release, English TCG Approaching Synchronization

The next eight English-language set releases have been announced through the official Cardfight!! Vanguard USA Facebook page, and much excitement has been raised over the upcoming release of VGE-FC: Fighter's Collection 2014 at the end of the year. Due to the nature of FC sets as primarily featuring reprints with few new cards and the rapid release schedule of the game's English edition, it has been a concern of the English-language Cardfight community that they would never get a western release. FC2014, which is set to feature at least 23 new cards with one new grade 3 for each of the clans, has more incentive to be brought over to western shores due to the decreased count of reprints. All of these sets have been added to the official products page, sans set images.

With 37 cards and just 7 known reprints, FC2014 will feature SP reprints of Majesty Lord Blaster, Goddess of the Full Moon Tsukuyomi, Phantom Blaster Overlord, Dragonic Overlord the End, Eradicator Vowing Sword Dragon, Perfect Raizer and Top Idol Pacifica. The full Japanese setlist is not yet currently known, but as no English release of FC2013 has been announced and the set size of Fighter's Collection sets is not necessarily set in stone, it has been variously speculated that the English release could include cards from FC2013 by bumping the set size up to a full 72~80 cards, similar to the set sizes of BT01~BT05. The lack of a release for FC2013 has been a sore spot for westerners, in part due to the exclusive break rides Bleoberis and Electric Shaper Dragon, and also due to the highly coveted alternate artworks in the set for Asura Kaiser, Phantom Blaster Dragon, Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark.

More immediately, VG-BT14: Brilliant Strike and its accompanying pool of Reverse cards are suspected to be arriving in July or August. Eight releases are scheduled for after June, and with only six months remaining in that time period, it's possible that some of these will be dual releases within a single month. In particular, TD13: Successors of the Sacred Regalia and the later trial decks TD14: Seeker of Hope and TD15: Brawler of Friendship are all opportune products to release in the same month as accompanying booster sets due to how they complement the cards in Brilliant Strike and Legion of Dragons and Blades. Another possibility is for the sets following Infinite Rebirth to be released in the winter months following the new year, though this would contradict Fighter's Collection 2014's placement.

With these factors in mind, the annual World Championships--which have historically taken place in August/September through December/January--will likely be held in at least a Brilliant Strike or Divas Duet-on format, with Infinite Rebirth available in time for the finals. This oncoming rapid release schedule will likely put the English card game close to being totally synchronized with the Japanese TCG, matching the goal outlined at last year's Anime Expo of achieving simultaneous release.

News: Sixteenth Booster Set "Legion of Dragons and Blades" Announced, Lock on Victory New Character Profiles

The first booster set of Cardfight!! Vanguard's fourth season, Legion Mate, is scheduled to go on sale in Japan on May 16th. VG-BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades (竜剣双闘 Ryuukensoutou "Dragon and Sword Fighting Together") will feature cards for the Royal Paladin, Narukami, Nova Grappler, Dimension Police, Spike Brothers and Neo Nectar clans, and will feature cards used by Kai Toshiki supporting the new "Legion" system. Additionally, BT16 will introduce a new rarity above or on the same level as Special Parallel, Legion Rare. The set size will be the same as BT09-BT15, 102 cards with 8 RRR, 12 RR, 22 R and 60 C cards, but with the addition of 2 LRs. The set will feature one reprint, thought to be Blaster Blade Seeker from TD14. Like in Seeker of Hope and Brawler of Friendship, the cover art for Legion of Dragons & Blades is a single continuous piece, lending to the interpretation that its two cover cards will interact in a way similar to Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal in TD14. What has captured the imaginations of both Japanese and international fans alike is the cover dragon's resemblance to the boss card of the Shadow Paladin clan, Phantom Blaster Dragon, and his past incarnation from the Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden: Shining Swordsman manga.

Left: Guardian Saint Dragon, Sing Saver Dragon (Gaiden.) Right: Phantom Blaster Dragon (First season manga.)

Although Phantom Blaster Dragon was known from the card lores as the former guardian dragon of the United Sanctuary, whose role was assumed by Soul Saver Dragon after his fall to darkness, prior to Gaiden his time as the guardian deity was not shown at length beyond being his motivation for trying to destroy the Sanctuary. Introduced as the "Guardian Saint Dragon, Sing Saver Dragon" (守護聖竜シングセイバードラゴン Shugoseiryuu Shingu Seibaa Doragon) his appearance was visually identical to his later incarnation save for being implied as a white dragon. This was before any kind of official design for Phantom as the guardian dragon had been established however, and Sing Saver's depiction came from Koshimizu Makoto rather than Itou Akira or any of the other more established artists within the franchise.

While many assume that the cover dragon for BT16 is a new incarnation of Soul Saver Dragon, artist NINNIN--known for work on Phantom Blaster Overlord, Vowing Saber Dragon and others--has rendered the unit using Phantom Blaster's iconic tripartite horns, pauldrons and six wings. A similar borrowing of visual appearance was used for creating visual continuity between BT15: Infinite Rebirth's Dragruler Phantom, the most recent incarnation of the Blaster Dragon. This has led to speculation that Legion of Dragon and Blades will feature Sin Saver Dragon as its cover card, either dealing with the history of Cray prior to Phantom Blaster's fall and the civil war, or in some way restoring Phantom from his abyss dragon form.

In other news, the official Cardfight!! Vanguard Lock on Victory website has been updated with detailed character and deck information. Notably while the character section does feature most of the third season's core cast, none of their Reverse cards have been displayed among their key cards despite ample evidence that their Reverses will appear in the game. FuRyu is making an effort to keep the Reverse storyline under wraps for the player base. In addition to the anime characters, the website also features the returning six protagonists from Ride to Victory, along with four new ones. The new characters' profiles have been translated below.

"N-nice to meet you!"

Tenjou Subaru/天城スバル voiced by Gotou Saori/後藤沙緒里 is a "quiet but energetic boy. He's somewhat introverted, but at his best in a fight."

"Here I come!"

Kusabe Rin/日下部 voiced by Ookubo Rumi/大久保瑠美 is a "neat and tidy girl with a strong heart."

"Now what will you do here, with limits you can't cross?"

Tachibana Kazuya/橘カズヤ voiced by Hiyama Nobuyuki/檜山修之 is a "mature young man, dependable and with a burning soul."

"So, have you prepared yourself?"

Kyuujou Erika/久嬢エリカ voiced by Yahagi Sayuri/矢作紗友里 is "a girl with long golden rolls of hair. She's very prideful, but cute while she's at it."







One mistake that did catch Japanese fans' attention is that Kai is mistakenly listed as a first year high school student in the character profiles, when in reality he's in his second year. (Under the Japanese school system, this is equivalent to a Junior in US schools.) Overall Erika and Kazuya have been the best received of the new protagonists with Japanese fans. Readers are encouraged to visit the Lock on Victory website, as an intense amount of foreign traffic may show international interest in an overseas release of the 3DS game.