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.

News: Monthly Bushiroad Reveals Deleter Legion, Great Daiyusha Legion Teased

This month's issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine broke early over Thursday in Japan, with several photos leaked onto the net by fans ahead of the issue's release date. The issue's Vanguard section focused on upcoming Link Joker, Royal Paladin, Gold Paladin and Kagerou cards from VG-MBT01: Neon Messiah, to be released in Japan on September 24th.

Of primary interest are the new Deleter units introduced to support the cards from MTD01: Malefic Deleter. These new units are each of the Alien race, much like their key card Woksis before them. Secondarily the issue focused on Kagerou's new Perdition Dragon support for their remade Dragonic Overlord. It was also stated that Dimension Police will be the next recipient of a Legion card for the Grade 3 Revival Campaign, with Ultimate Dimensional Robo Great Daiyusha as the mate of the new Legion. Although with his crossride and limit break active Great Daiyusha will be able to contribute an additional +4000 power to the Legion, because the mate's critical is not naturally added to the Legion, his passive second critical will not actually affect how much damage is dealt to the opponent's vanguard.

A note on the translation of these cards is that each of the new Deleters employ one of the obsolete katakana ヰ "wi" or ヱ "e," which have not been in use for more than seventy years. Similar to the English "long s" character ſ, these characters have been abandoned in everyday language. The effect they create is that of struggling to read an alien name even when written in a phonetic script.

Juxtapose Deleter, Gwiil (並列する根絶グヰール "Parallel Deleter Guwiiru")
Grade 2 /Alien - Link Joker/
"AUTO: When this unit is placed on a rearguard circle, if your opponents' vanguard is deleted, choose one of your opponent's rearguards, and lock it."

Much like the Star-vaders' recent support unit Photon, Gwiil uses an existing condition as a trigger for lock, manipulating the opponent's field for a defensive buff on top of using delete offensively against their vanguard.
Juxtapose Deleter, Zwiil (並列する根絶ゼヰール "Parallel Deleter Zewiiru")
Grade 3 /Alien - Link Joker/
"ACT (Vanguard circle): Legion 20000 "Gwiil" (If your opponent has a grade 3 or greater vanguard, only once, this unit may return four cards from your drop zone to your deck, and search your deck for the specified card, and perform Legion.)
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 2, choose a card from your hand and discard it] When this unit Legions, you may pay the cost, if you do so, delete your opponent's entire vanguard. (A deleted unit is flipped face-down, its power becomes 0 and it loses all text. At the end of its owner’s turn, it is flipped face-up.)
AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit attacks a vanguard, during that battle, this unit gets Power +2000."

Zwiil's Legion skill, while more restrictive in its timing compared to Woksis, generally supersedes it card-for-card in terms of cost. Zwiil's Legion power boost makes it more effective after delete's period of effect has already expired, and the lower counterblast cost synergizes with their first vanguard Wigor's unflipping skill. The primary weakness of Zwiil is the need to continuously re-Legion across multiple turns to keep delete active, but the overall low impact on counterblast means that Woksis can be kept in hand as a followup to Zwiil late-game.

Infatuation Deleter, Gwiim (心酔する根絶者グヰム "Adoration Deleter Guwiimu")
Grade 1 /Alien - Link Joker/
"AUTO (Rearguard circle): When an attack hits a vanguard during the battle that this unit boosts, if the opponent's vanguard is deleted, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards in the frontrow, and lock it. (The locked card is turned face down, and cannot do anything. It turns face up at the end of the owner's turn.)"

Gwiim's on-hit puts increased pressure on the opponent to guard the attacks that have already been made more powerful by delete, providing an incentive to drop more cards and endanger themselves to taking important damage later on.

Greedy Deleter Jewir (貪り喰う根絶者ジェヰル "Longing to Consume Deleter Jewiru)
Grade 2 /Alien - Link Joker/
"AUTO (Vanguard/Rearguard circle): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, choose a card from your damage zone, and turn it face-up."

Jewir's skill is a notable game changer both for the Deleter and Star-vader subclans, as giving Link Joker a clanwide unflipper has been seen as one of the stepping stones towards breaking the major constraints on their more counterblast-heavy decks. On the other hand, as a Deleter Jewir interferes with the need for Star-vader specific counterblast, and he has better synergy with the Deleters overall because of how the opponent's power reduction from being deleted makes it more difficult to block Jewir in the first place, and so feeds back towards multiple Deletes in a game.

Other leaked images have also revealed a new base 8000 power grade 1 for the Deleter subclan, making Link Joker the first clan to receive such a clone. The unit is considered particularly essential for the Deleters because delete's effect of reducing the opponent's power to 0 makes their key number for rearguard lanes 20000. The illustration also reveals a base 10000 power Deleter grade 2, a 12000-power subclan attacker, a Cosmo Roar clone and a special Woksis booster in the same class as Chaos Beat Dragon that gives it an 11000-power boost if the opponent's vanguard is deleted.

Star-vader, Sword Viper
Grade 2 / Cybergolem - Link Joker/
"AUTO (Rearguard circle): When this unit's attack hits, if your vanguard is in Legion, and if your opponent has a Locked card, choose one of your opponent's rearguards and Lock it."

Star-vader, Venom Dancer
Grade 3 / Cybergolem - Link Joker/
ACT (Vanguard circle): Legion 20000 "Star-vader, Sword Viper" (If your opponent has a grade 3 or greater vanguard, only once, this unit may return four cards from your drop zone to your deck, and search your deck for the specified card, and perform Legion.)
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1] At the end of the battle that this unit attacked a vanguard, if this unit is in Legion, you may pay the cost, if you do so, for each of your opponent's locked cards choose one of your rearguards and Stand it.
ACT (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1 cards with "Star-vader" in their card name] If you have another unit in your center column, choose one of your opponent's backrow rearguards and lock it.

Perdition Dragon Emperor, Dragonic Overlord the Great
"Surge forth Flames of Perdition! Eternal Explosion!"
Grade 3 / Flame Dragon - Kagero/
"ACT (Vanguard circle): Legion 20000 "Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame" (If your opponent has a grade 3 or greater vanguard, only once, this unit may return four cards from your drop zone to your deck, and search your deck for the specified card, and perform Legion.) 
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1, Choose 2 cards from your hand, discard them] At the close step of a battle in which this unit attacked a rearguard, if this unit is in Legion, you may pay the cost. If you do, stand your entire vanguard. This ability cannot be used again this turn. (This ability cannot be used even if you pay the cost.)
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Choose 1 of your rearguards with the same name as a unit in your Vanguard circle, retire it] When this unit's attack hits, you can pay the cost. If you do so, choose 1 of your opponent's rearguards, and retire it."

Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame
Grade 2 / Flame Dragon - Kagero/
"AUTO: When this Unit appears in a Rearguard circle, during this turn, this unit gets "AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Counterblast 1] When a rearguard in the same column as this card is placed in the drop zone, you may pay the cost. If you do so, select 1 of your opponent's rearguards in the same column as this card, and retire it.""

The wording on Neoflame is important because unlike Berserk Dragon variants, it does not need to be used the moment the card is called. As long as the conditions are met in the same turn that Neoflame is called, his skill can be used, which gives it synergy with the Great's freedom to attack a rearguard before the vanguard. By using the Great to attack a rearguard in same column from where Neoflame was called, you can use Neoflame's skill to retire than unit's booster when the Great's attack hits, then use Overlord's skill to retire Neoflame and retire a card in the opposite column, after which you can use Overlord's remaining skill to restand.

Perdition Dragon, Petal Flare Dracokid
Grade 0 / Flame Dragon - Kagero/
"AUTO: Forunner
AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Place this unit into your soul] When your vanguard performs Legion, you may pay the cost. If you do so, choose 1 of your vanguards, during this turn, it gains "AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit's attack hits, choose 1 of your opponent's rearguards, and retire it.""

Petal Flare's skill doubles up on the aforementioned combo, allowing Overlord to retire another unit by hitting, and if his attack connects twice in one turn then using all four units' skills together can result in a total field wipe.

News: Daunting Deleter Wokshyz and "Delete" Unveiled

デリートされたユニットは裏向きになり、パワ—が０でテキストを失う。持ち主のターンの終わりに表に戻る

"A Deleted Unit is flipped face-down, its Power becomes 0 and it loses all Text. At the end of its owner’s turn, it is flipped face-up."

The official Japanese portal updated early this morning with information on the upcoming mechanic introduced in VG-MTD01: Malefic Deleter, delete. Featuring the trial deck's cover unit Daunting Deleter Wokshyz as the card of the day, this unit is at present the only one capable of inflicting a delete. Wokshyz separates the cardfighter's astral body from their vanguard by deleting it, forcing the player to fight as themselves without their main unit to protect them. Fitting this idea, once deleted the vanguard turns face-down and has its power reduced to 0, reflecting the native weakness of the player's astral from. All of the vanguard's skills are removed, and if the vanguard is in a Legion then both halves of it will be affected. Like a locked card, the vanguard turns face-up at the end of its owner's turn.

The massive power reduction effectively strengthens the entire Deleter cardfighter's field by 11000 power and negates the effects of crossrides, while also decreasing the amount of shield they will need to spend on defending the next turn and preventing strong comebacks from limit break and Legion skills. However, because the vanguard retains its name, grade, clan, nation and critical it will still have twin drive if at grade 3, activate the rearguards' subclan-related skills and be able to deal damage if its attack goes through. That fighter's soul still remains a usable resource, and the delete can be partially bypassed by riding over the deleted unit, but if the deleted vanguard was a break ride then its limit break will not activate because it still deleted at the moment that it is ridden.

Wokshyz itself blocks the opponent from riding by taking a leaf from Dueling Dragon ZANBAKU and forcing them to discard a card at the beginning of their ride phase if their vanguard is already deleted; if they cannot discard a card or choose not to, then they cannot perform a normal ride. Wokshyz's delete is notably not a limit break or Legion skill, so it may be used regardless of conditions with only 3 damage, putting it in the same class of unit as the primary first season bosses. And while it is clearly one of the strongest cards in that classification, the skill is expensive;

Daunting Deleter, Wokshyz
Activate (Vanguard Circle): [Counter Blast 3 Cards with “Deleter” in their card name, Choose 1 of your Rearguards, place it in your Soul] Delete all of your opponent’s Vanguard, during this turn, this Unit gains Power +10000. (A Deleted Unit is flipped face-down, its Power becomes 0 and it loses all Text. At the end of its owner’s turn, it is flipped face-up.) 

Requiring three especial counterblasts for its main skill means that none of the pre-Malefic Deleter support is compatible with Wokshyz, forcing Link Joker cardfighters to find a fresh start in the trial deck and Neon Messiah booster set. As an offensive incarnation of Link Joker focused on dramatically weakening the opponent in order to strip them of their abilities just long enough to win the game, the deletion strategy stands in contrast to their past defensive play style. Accounting for those differences, delete can be expected to attract completely different kinds of cardfighters from lock.

MTD01: Malefic Deleter and MBT01: Neon Messiah are both due for September 24th release date in Japan, with a limited theatrical release on September 13th.

News: Fake Restricted List Circulated by Americans, Fighter's Carnival Dominated by Six Thing Saver-“Abyss” Fighters

A falsified restricted list for the Japanese format began circulating on Facebook this morning, garnering significant attention for showing the alleged restriction of Revenger Phantom Blaster “Abyss” to two copies per deck. PhotoShopped to appear as though it were screencapped from the Japanese Fighter's Rules page, several errors exposed the list as fake. While the most obvious is that the Japanese Fighter's Rules do not show the restriction, the forgery also shows decentered card images in its examples of how “Abyss” was to be used. Real Bushiroad restricted lists sample card images from their online card index, and fits the images into an HTML template that centers them between borders, so that they do not touch the top or bottom of the OK and NO boxes. Another giveaway is the name of the card at the list's heading, which in real restricted lists hyperlinks to its entry in Bushiroad's card index.

Selected comments. Names removed for privacy.

As the falsified list has not been discussed by Japanese cardfighters on any of their major forums or within their blogosphere, the hoax is believed to have originated in the American fandom. While doubtless based on the overwhelming success of Thing Saver-“Abyss” decks in Japanese play, judging by the responses from English-speaking fans the intention of the prank is to play on the rising tensions between the players and Bushiroad Inc. Restricting “Abyss” is a move that virtually no experienced cardfighters would agree with, as many believe that Thing Saver itself should be targeted to curb the hybrid deck's dominance, and shutting down the Revengers' current core Legion would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The forgery is a commentary on the perceived incompetence of Bushiroad in managing the card game, showing something fans believe the company would do. Tensions have been running high between both parties for the past two years, particularly in light of Future Card Buddyfight receiving a best-of-three competitive format with a 40 minute time limit for its World Championship, while Cardfight!! Vanguard is still restricted to the popularly-despised best-of-one format with a 20 minute limit. WCS2014's new time rule has worsened matters, as it causes both cardfighters to lose the round if they hit the time limit. The distrust among cardfighters has also been tempered by Bushiroad's perceived willful ignorance of cheating, and refusal to investigate standing world champion Almeida Stewart after accusations surfaced alongside news of his robbery of a Luxembourg card shop during Team League 2014.

In Japanese news, a recent release from Duel Portal has revealed three of the upcoming card sleeves for Bushiroad's Cardfight!! Vanguard sleeve collection, based on the key cards featured in the September film Neon Messiah and in one of the upcoming cards from the anime series to be released in the film's accompanying booster set.

First is Daunting Deleter Wokshyz (威圧する根絶者 ヲクシズ  Iatsusuru Deriitaa Wokushizu) the cover card for VG-MTD01: Malefic Deleter. According to Duel Portal, the intended reading for this name is Daunting Deleter (ドーンティング・デリーター Doontingu Deriitaa) rather than the native reading of Iatsusuru "Overpowering." As Ibuki Kouji's key card, Wokshyz has been used prominently in promotional materials as the face of his personal variant on the Link Joker clan. Previously Wokshyz was thought to be Docking Deleter Graywon, Ibuki's key card from the manga to which it bears similarities, but now appears to be an alternate continuity equivalent in the same vein as Majesty Lord Blaster and Exculpate the Blaster.

Second and third are Light Origin Seeker Alfred XIV (光源の探索者 アルフレッド・エクシヴ Kougen no Shiika Arufureddo Ekushivu) and Star-vader Blaster Joker (星輝兵ブラスター・ジョーカー Sutaabeidaa Burasutaa Jookaa) representing cards from the Royal Paladin and Link Joker clans. The new Alfred has been noted to have a shield icon on its promotional mockup, normally not present on grade 3 units. This contradicts the most recent trailer for Neon Messiah, wherein Alfred was shown as part of a Legion with one of the Blaster Blade variants, and implied to be a grade 3 as a result. While this discrepancy could be dismissed as the result of applying a nonspecific card template to Alfred, as was the case with Platina Ezel two years earlier, Wokshyz above notably does not have a shield icon despite coming out of the same press kit.

Blaster Joker has been the focus of the most fan attention, as well as of attention from the card lore. Although comparisons have been drawn with the Reverse units of the preceding season, Duel Portal's article indicated that Blaster Joker will be a Link Joker unit and not a Royal Paladin, and thus far the card lore has contradicted this view. Blaster Joker is implied by Bushiroad's most recent articles to be an "Emotion Duplicate" like Star-vader Brave Fang (based on Wingal Brave) and Silent Star-vader Dilaton (based on Knight of Silence Gallatin) before him. These Duplicates are the products of copying the captive Blaster Blade's memories and using them as the basis for the personalities of newly created soldiers.

Wokshyz's sleeve is due for a September 29th release date, while Alfred and Blaster Joker will go out on October 3rd.

Meanwhile over the 17th the first Japan Fighters' Carnival was held, one of the few fan tournaments to use a three person team format. The top two places in the triples tournament went to two full teams of Thing Saver-“Abyss” cardfighters, while third was Brutus-Thing Saver, Purgatory Dragons and Brutus-Thing Saver. Fourth place was also filled by three Thing Saver-“Abyss” fighters. Decklists for the top 4 have not yet been published.

News: World Championship 2014 Announced, Cardfight!! Vanguard Neon Messiah Movie Trailer Airs

Three hours ago Bushiroad Inc. uploaded the formal announcement of the start of World Championship 2014 to the official cf-vanguard web portal and Cardfight!! Vanguard Facebook page. Slated for an August to December timeline, this year's international competition will use booster sets up to VGE-BT15: Infinite Rebirth, to be released in September. While very little information is available regarding WCS2014 at this time, fans remain hopeful for the implementation of the long desired best-of-3 format championed in VGCS, ARG Circuit series and Cosmic Oasis tournaments.

And earlier today Oricon Inc. uploaded a trailer for the upcoming Cardfight!! Vanguard Neon Messiah theatrical film to their YouTube channel. The trailer (embedded below) teases a fight between Aichi and Kai using their traditional Royal Paladin and Kagerou decks, appearances by Morikawa playing against Osamu's Megacolony, Kamui playing his Raizer deck from the fourth season versus Naoki with Big Bang Knuckle Dragon, as well as a match between Aichi's sister Emi and her friend Mai with different Bermuda Triangle decks. A stinger image planted after the trailer hints at the introduction of antagonist Ibuki Kouji's mysterious Deleter cards. A translation of the trailer's dialogue is hosted below.

The final image of the trailer is captioned ヴァンガード消滅の危機?! Vangaado shoumetsu no kiki?! "Vanguard annihilation crisis?!" hinting at one of the mysterious qualities associated with the Deleter cards, their ability to make the vanguard itself disappear. This idea was first introduced more than a year ago in Itou Akira's Cardfight!! Vanguard manga, from which the Deleters originate, and Neon Messiah's narrative appears to be following through on the plotline. The manga is at present being serialized in English by Vertical Inc., and late this August the third of the seven volumes currently released in Japan will be adapted to English.

Aichi: Every day we share the same dream. The dream of a wish that I entrusted to Blaster Blade.
Finally, the Cardfight!! Vanguard movie version will debut! Both the anime we all appear in, and the following drama!
Kai-kun, let's go!
Kai: Yeah!
Both: Stand up
--THE--
Vanguard!
Cardfight!! Vanguard: The Movie
On September 13th, Stand Up!
The movie has not yet been licensed for western release; at present English translation of the series is primarily handled by Crunchyroll, which is responsible for simulcasting subtitled releases of the anime. No word on their potential involvement with the film has been made.

News: Link Joker Trial Deck VG-MTD01: Malefic Deleter Announced, Ibuki Kouji to Appear in Neon Messiah Film

The above teaser for one of the Cardfight!! Vanguard movies' promotional sets VG-MTD01: Malefic Deleter was put up on the Japanese Vanguard portal early this morning, giving an early look at the upcoming cards for the climactic movie tie-in to the ongoing fourth season. Set for a September 24th release date, the trial deck will promote the upcoming movie Neon Messiah by featuring cards used in the film by antagonist Ibuki Kouji (伊吹コウジ). Introduced more than a year ago in the Zero Starter Set chapter of the manga as a childhood friend to Kai Toshiki, Ibuki is the primary user of the Link Joker clan in the manga and a character many have waited for to be introduced to the anime series.

Unlike the Link Joker units introduced in the third season of the anime, Ibuki's Deleters in the manga each have a much more grotesque and alien slant to them, resembling monsters out of traditional science fiction rather than the Star-vaders' elaborate Cyber Dragons. Ibuki's strategy in the manga is to use the new mechanic Banish Delete (バニッシュデリート Banisshu Deriito) which sends an opponent's rearguard into the drop zone in the Locked position, in practical terms removing it from the game and preventing its use. This has so far only been demonstrated with his grade 2 Swift Deleter Geary, who retires one of Ibuki's own rearguards to retire one of the opponent's face down. Moreover, he has recently demonstrated another ability through his grade 3 Docking Deleter Gray One, "Delete End" (デリート・エンド  Deriito Endo) whereby the game is automatically won through the condition of having the opponent's vanguard face-down. Not much has been shown about how this is achieved, so the mechanic is poorly understood.

Swift Deleter, Geary/スイフトデリーター ギアリ
『ライド時に自分のリアガードを１体退却、その後、相手のリアガードを１体退却。退却させた相手のカードは裏側状態でドロップに送られる』
"When ridden, retire 1 of your own rearguards, and then retire 1 of your opponent's rearguards. Your opponent's retired card enters the drop zone face-down."

Malefic Deleter is slated to be accompanied by another movie-centric set with the same release date, VG-MBT01: Neon Messiah. Comprised of just fifty cards, MBT01 will support the Link Joker, Kagerou, Gold Paladin and Royal Paladin clans, and the cards present in the set will be compatible with those in Malefic Deleter.