Weekly Bites reveals: Origin Rares, Image Ride Rare, OTT Triggers

Today on the third episode of Weekly Bites, hosts Doctor O, Kitta Izumi, and Maeda Seiji, revealed the upcoming Origin Rare print cards from V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4: Asura Kaiser, Dragonic Overlord, CEO Amaterasu, and Blaster Blade. These prints use their respective artworks from Booster Set 01: Descent of the King of Knights, but have their new skills from the most recent set and no text boxes enclosing their card text.

Izumi also showed off the four Super Vanguard Rares from the set. Imperial Daughter, Dragonic Waterfall, and Alfred had already been revealed, but this is our first look at Perfect Raizer's SVR.

Also included in the set are four Secret Rare prints of the promotional Gift Markers, signed by the anime characters' respective voice actors.

The set's Image Ride Rare is Blaster Blade featuring a new illustration by manga author and franchise creator Itou Akira, with his hotstamped autograph.

Finally, in the episode's special fight between Kitta and Maeda, two more triggers for Oracle Think Tank were revealed: the Heal Trigger Sphere Magus, and the Critical Trigger Oracle Guardian Nike. In the above image, Sphere Magus is on the Guardian Circle, and Nike is in Kitta's Drop Zone. Taking into account the previously-revealed Psychic Bird, Miracle Kid, and Miss Mist, Oracle Think Tank now has two Draw and two Critical Triggers each.

The decklist used by Kitta confirms these were the only new cards used today:

Grade 0
x1 Lozenge Magus (FV)
x4 Oracle Guardian, Nike (CT)
x4 Psychic Bird (CT)
x4 Weather Forecaster, Miss Mist (DT)
x4 Sphere Magus (HT)
Grade 1
x4 Circle Magus
x4 Oracle Guardian, Gemini
x4 Farfalle Magus
x2 Luck Bird
Grade 2
x4 Promise Daughter
x3 Silent Tom
x3 Goddess of Insight, Sotoorihime
Grade 3
x4 Imperial Daughter
x3 CEO Amaterasu
x2 Victorious Deer

The next episode of Weekly Bites will air May 29th, 2018, at 9:00 PM Japanese Standard Time.

Today's Card Analysis: Circle Magus and Luck Bird

The Japanese Cards of the Day for May 14th, 2018, are two Oracle Think Tank grade 1s from V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4, Circle Magus and Luck Bird.

Circle Magus
AUTO [Vanguard/Rearguard Circles]: When your vanguard's drive check reveals a grade 2 or greater, you may put that card on the bottom of your deck, and draw 1 card.
AUTO: When rode upon, [Cost: Counterblast 1] draw 1 card.

Circle Magus is Oracle Think Tank's second Triple Rare out of V-BT01, with their third and the final RRR of the set likely being Silent Tom. The original Circle Magus in both the manga and Trading Card Game simply allowed one to check the top card of the deck, but only allowed them to place it back on top and not on the bottom as Battle Sister Cocoa did; the exchange being that Circle was a 7k base while Cocoa was a 6k. The new Circle Magus instead gives card advantage when riding over her, like an inversion of the ride chains of yesteryear, and her primary skill allows one to exchange a grade 2 or greater drive check for another card. While this makes it possible to conceal one's hand from the opponent and potentially exchange those grade 2 or greater cards for higher shield ones, it both runs the risk of drawing one's triggers and is often less than appealing to use for what it gives up.

In a Protect clan, every grade 3 in hand can eventually be translated into another Perfect Guard so long as it has the Protect ability, and reriding those cards fuels the soul for paying costs. Moreover, knowing that our deck's grade 2s are likely to consist of Tom, Saft, and Sotoorihime, none of these are cards that we are likely to want to get rid of. Drive checking grade 2s and 3s carries inherent benefits in Oracle Think Tank that will often discourage the use of Circle Magus' first autoskill, reducing her role to being a particularly valuable grade 1 ride.

Luck Bird
AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When placed, [Cost: Soulblast 2] draw 1 card, and this unit gets Power +6000 until end of turn.

Luck Bird's skill has gone mostly unchanged since its 2011 incarnation, except that the card can now act as an early 11k attacker or an 11k booster. Later in the fight he'll only be able to make relevant 17~18 columns with a relevant power attacker like Saft, or a 23 column with Sarasa. The latter case is what makes Luck Bird the easiest to run, but two factors work against him. First is that he sucks away soul from Saft, a valuable backup to Sotoorihime. Second is that Oracle Think Tank's Vanguard Rare, Imperial Daughter, is almost assuredly going to replace Sarasa in the final deck due to possessing Protect and a skill worthy of making her Misaki's "trump card." (As Monthly Bushiroad magazine described her.)

Is there room for Luck Bird? Given the amount of reriding encouraged in Gift decks, it's certainly possible. This skill has particular synergy with Protect, as receiving another card in hand in exchange for every ride already negates the loss of reriding, allowing Luck Bird to generate +1s with his draws. Oracle Think Tank as we currently know it isn't exactly starved for grade 1 space, as the deck makeup currently looks approximately like this;

Grade 1
x4 Circle Magus
x4 Farfalle Magus
x4 Goddess of Time's Passing, Mizunohame
x1 Shooting Bobby

We could easily fit in a Luck Bird tech by cutting Bobby, or acknowledging Mizunohame's limited utility as a vanguard-only booster adjust the deck to look more like...

Grade 1
x4 Circle Magus
x4 Farfalle Magus
x3 Luck Bird
x2 Goddess of Time's Passing, Mizunohame

Acknowledging that 3-ofs will generally be once-per-game cards while 4-ofs will be twice-per-game, there's room enough to run Luck Bird and set the card on the side to eventually boost a rearguard Amaterasu with her power-gain active.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Soul Saver Dragon.

V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4 will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd. 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 English June 8th.

The first Extra Booster set of Standard, V-EB01: The Destructive Roar will launch in Japan June 29th, 2018, and August 2nd for the English-speaking world. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," began airing May 5th, with an English-subtitled simulcast on both YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Today's Card Analysis: Farfalle Magus and Shooting Bobby

 

The Japanese cards of the day for May 9th, 2018 are two Oracle Think Tank grade 1s from V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4, the Single Rare Farfalle Magus and a Common, Shooting Bobby.

Farfalle Magus 
AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When placed, look at the top card of your deck, and place it on the top or bottom of your deck.

Farfalle Magus is a grade 1 clone of a card revealed in this month's issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine, Yellow Witch MeMe. Regardless of whether you place the card on top or bottom, just looking at it will cause CEO Amaterasu's autoskill to meet its check timing and resolve, giving her a 5k power boost. Farfalle's 8k is necessary in the deck, as it's the best way to make base 17 columns with Oracle Think Tank's primarily-9k rearguards for taking on base 12 vanguards like Asura Kaiser and Amaterasu herself. For facing base 13s like Dragonic Overlord and Alfred, our options are currently limited. Farfalle can make a 23 column when lined up with Weather Girl Saft if you've used Amaterasu's draw skill that turn, but 23 columns only require a single Critical Trigger to guard in this format; it would be better if there were a costless way to make an 18, or a costed way to make a 28, than a costed means of getting to 23.

Shooting Bobby is something else. We've already seen what a vanilla grade 1 looks like in an Accel clan, with Death Army Guy being a shieldless base 9000. In a Protect clan, a vanilla grade 1 is instead a 7k base with 15000 shield, reflecting their defensive properties. Bobby can still make a base 17/18 column with Battle Maiden Sarasa or the vanguard itself, but the logic in running him is naturally defensively oriented since he has the same shield value as a Critical Trigger. It's hard to see a defensive grade 1 having much place in the deck though, seeing as boosters are a very valuable resource in any format.

Bobby does make the most of those extra grade 1s you draw once your field is set up, but any act of committing him to the field in the early and midgame is going to be something of a wasted resource.

As it stands now, the Oracle Think Tank grade 1 lineup is completely fixed, with only three options.

Grade 1
x4 Farfalle Magus
x4 Goddess of Time's Passing, Mizunohame
x4 Shooting Bobby

From this point on, we can evaluate additional Oracle grade 1s according to what they bring to the deck in comparison to Bobby or Farfalle; Farfalle represents an additional 5k shield taken away from the opponent via Amaterasu, while Bobby represents an additional guard against a 23k or less column. For future cards to justify themselves over these, they must either contribute as much or more than what Farfalle and Bobby do.Oracle Think Tank has 2-3 Single Rare slots remaining, depending on whether or not Wyvern Strike Agaruda is the Rare above Vortex Dragon, and somewhere in the vicinity of 12-14 Commons. In light of the kind of support the other clans have seen like Marron and Raizer Custom, Farfalle Magus may very well be the only grade 1 listed here that survives into the clan's final deck.

The previous Japanese cards of the day were Maximum Raizer and Jet Raizer.

V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4 will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd. 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. 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," began airing May 5th, with an English-subtitled simulcast on both YouTube and Crunchyroll.