Press Release: Bushiroad Announces Initial Future Card Buddyfight Products and Release Dates

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, CA (October 22, 2013) – Bushiroad announced the initial product release dates and additional information for their newest trading card game, Future Card Buddyfight, at several conferences around the United States, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas. Numerous players and store owners attended the conferences which were conducted by Bushiroad President Takaaki Kidani along with special guests: Future Card Buddyfight co-creators Shunichi Taira and Yoshimasa Ikeda, and Bushiroad USA General Manager Junghun Kim.

Bushiroad revealed the initial product release information in addition to the accompanying animated series and comic serialization schedules. President Kidani described Future Card Buddyfight as “easy yet complex.” Future Card Buddyfight will launch with three initial products—Trial Deck Vol. 1 : Dominant Dragons and Trial Deck Vol. 2: Savage Steel will both release on January 24, 2014, and Booster Pack Vol. 1: Dragon Chief will release a week later on January 31, 2014. The English and Japanese versions of the game will release simultaneously worldwide.

OLM Inc., the animation studio responsible for the Pokémon movie series, will be producing the Future Card Buddyfight animation series, scheduled to air in Japan from January 2014. An English-dubbed version will air shortly thereafter in Singapore and on YouTube worldwide.

A comic serialization will also appear in Shogakukan’s “Coro Coro Comic” in November in Japan.

Yoshimasa Ikeda, co-creator of Future Card Buddyfight and former CEO of the successful Japanese trading card game store franchise Card Kingdom, described the game as a “culmination of all the feedback that we’ve taken directly from store owners and players.” While the primary target audience in Japan is children ages 9-11, both President Kidani and Yoshimasa Ikeda feel that the game will also have a wider appeal in the United States. Gameplay demonstrations followed each presentation with many of the attendees taking the opportunity to sample the game.

In closing, Bushiroad vowed to fully support Future Card Buddyfight with a worldwide organized play program, and mentioned that in addition to their initial product offerings, they are planning for a full release schedule for 2014. Further information about Future Card Buddyfight will be presented by Bushiroad at Anime Festival Asia taking place in Singapore November 8-10, 2013.

---------

Bushiroad Inc. consists of 6 sub-entities: Bushiroad Group Publishing, Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd, Bushiroad USA Inc., Bushiroad Media, Hibiki Music, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd.

Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd was established in Singapore on November 12, 2011 in order to expand the overseas market for Bushiroad card games such as Cardfight!! Vanguard, Weiβ Schwarz, Chaos TCG and Victory Spark.

Bushiroad USA Inc. was established in Los Angeles, California on May 18, 2012, to better cater to the growing demand and interest in Cardfight!! Vanguard from both players and retailers in the USA.

---------

Future Card Buddyfight (Japanese) - http://fc-buddyfight.com/

Future Card Buddyfight (English) - http://fc-buddyfight.com/en/

Bushiroad (Japanese) - http://bushiroad.com/

Bushiroad (English) - http://bushiroad.fm/

Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (Japanese) - http://cf-vanguard.com/

Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (English) - http://cf-vanguard.com/en/

Weiβ Schwarz (Japanese) - http://ws-tcg.com/

Weiβ Schwarz (English) - http://ws-tcg.com/en/

ChaosTCG (Japanese) - http://chaos-tcg.com/

Victory Spark - http://vs-tcg.com/

Monster Collection - http://moncolle-tcg.com/

News: Kira Kira Cards to Host Free Tournament at AX2013, Clash of the Knights and Dragons Box as Prize

An employee of the card shop Kira Kira Cards, based out of Monterey Park, California, has informed us that the store will be hosting a double elimination Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG tournament at Anime Expo 2013 in Los Angeles. AX2013 will be taking place from July 4th-7th.

The tournament will have no entry fee, will allow for up to 64 cardfighters to participate, and one box of the soon to be released VGE-BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons booster set will be given to the fighter that takes first place, with a second box being split among second through eighth place. Playmats may also be given out as additional prizes.

Registration will take place throughout the first day of AX at the shop's booth, #1432 in the exhibition hall, with the actual tournament taking place on the second day at the Table Top Gaming Room. On-site registration may also be done from 10:00-10:30 AM of the second day.

Spotlight: Donald William Buckley

Fighter's Spotlight is an ongoing project concerned with tracking real-world professional cardfighters across the globe.

Original photo provided by frugs, do not repost without the original photographer's express permission.

Donald William Buckley

Age: 18
Titles Won: Los Angeles Regional Champion
Current Status: Los Angeles Regional Champion (Reigning)
Deck Type: Granblue
Donald William "Will" Buckley is the reigning Los Angeles regional champion, and the final entrant in the 2012 North American national championship. A stand-out fighter among the participants, he is mainly remembered for being one of three North American regional champions in that year to not run some variation of Gold Paladin or Narukami, the dominant clans of his day. This claim to fame was considered unbelievable at the time, and as a result of it and his inexperience in the tournament scene, some accusations of cheating emerged from online critics. Unlike with the previous cases of Kanamaru Makoto and Thomas Cassidy however, none of these accusations were ever substantiated with evidence or testimony, and Buckley remains a powerful reminder of the influence of individual skill and often-underestimated outlier decks in the pro scene.

Buckley did not participate in the National Championship finals, and was instead substituted for by third-place fighter Austin Pham¹.

Decks and Play Style
Buckley's Granblue deck draws from the limit break play style introduced for them in Breaker of Limits. The main concept of the deck is to use their most recent first vanguard Captain Nightkid, along with the older cards Chappie the Ghostie and Ruin Shade, to bring key cards into the drop zone for later use in conjunction with card skills. The deck's trigger base is almost entirely devoted to critical triggers; because of the deck's ability to instantly and unpreventably send any card to the drop zone with Chappie, draw support becomes less necessary as the main strategy revolves around that same zone, also where healed cards go during the drive or damage check of a heal trigger. Dancing Cutlass and Rough Seas Banshee also act as support against this lack of draw power, actually fueling one another by sending Banshee to the soul and then using her as fuel for Cutlass.

The deck's key drop zone cards are Ice Prison Necromancer, Cocytus and the Deadly series of cards--Nightmare, Spirit and Swordmaster. The two skills complement one another, as when one is not available due to its restrictions, the other is. Cocytus' skill is activated by riding Skeleton Demon World Knight and discarding a Granblue, then riding Cocytus from the drop zone, but this can only be done when the opponent has a grade 3 or greater vanguard and only at the beginning of the ride phase, meaning it can be only used on the turn after it is ridden. So while it does not steal out the first turn advantage from them, it can ensure security and provide a powerful unit to make comebacks with. At more opportune times, Buckley can turn to the Deadly cards instead.

Nightmare and Spirit appear from the drop zone to the rearguard by soulblasting 2 and retiring a grade 1 or greater Granblue rearguard. This again plays into the soul provided by Rough Seas Banshee, as with even one copy of her in the soul after Nightkid's skill, both units can be superior called. While they do not allow for direct card advantage, there is no way to remove them from the game since they can simply appear from the drop zone if retired, and the two cards together form a base 16000 line for combating both the popular Garmore and Spectral Duke Dragon decks of that tournament season. Furthermore, when Nightmare and Spirit are both on the field, they can be retired at no other cost to superior ride Deadly Swordmaster from the drop zone if Buckley has a grade 2 or greater vanguard, providing another way of fighting and directly taking the lead when Cocytus would otherwise be unavailable or inappropriate.

Since Swordmaster himself is a base 11000 unit, it takes greater resources to assail him, and his defense puts strain on other cardfighters. Meanwhile Cocytus provides +5000 power at limit break 4, breaking the 21000+ line easily with twelve of Buckley's fourteen grade 1s, and on-ride he can counterblast 2 to superior call a unit from the drop zone--also opening up a combo with Demon World Knight by calling the unit that Knight dropped to the field.

The deck's name is a carryover from Buckley's experience with the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, being named after the Infernities deck archetype; said archetype was a very dominant deck in 2010, thus the joke is that "Infernities topped" in Los Angeles. It was named alongside his friends, who similarly patterned their deck names after Yu-Gi-Oh! as "Wind-Ups" and "Madolches."

Summer 2012 Regional Tournament, Los Angeles: Infernity
Card Pool: TD01-BT03, BT06-BT07
Grade 0
x2 Chappie the Ghostie
x4 Knight Spirit CT
x4 Rough Seas Banshee CT
x1 Captain Nightkid (FVG)
x4 Ghoul Cannonball CT
x4 Doctor Rouge HT
Grade 1
x4 Gust Jinn
x2 Dancing Cutlass
x4 Samurai Spirit
x4 Deadly Nightmare
Grade 2
x4 Ruin Shade
x2 Skeleton Demon World Knight
x4 Deadly Spirit
Grade 3
x4 Ice Prison Necromancer, Cocytus
x3 Deadly Swordmaster

Citations and External Links
1. "[Press Release] Top Four Cardfight!! Vanguard North American Finalists Heading to Japan to Compete in World Championship 2012." Official Cardfight!! Vanguard USA. Bushiroad, 6 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.facebook.com/notes/official-cardfight-vanguard-usa/press-release-top-four-cardfight-vanguard-north-american-finalists-heading-to-ja/363826427040389>.