English edition TD04 and BT02 to launch September and October 2018

The official English Cardfight portal updated today with information on the English versions of V-Trial Deck 04: Suzugamori Ren and V-Booster Set 02: Strongest! Team AL4. While the Japanese TD04 will launch August 10th in the Japan and and BT02 will go on sale August 31st, in the United States the fourth Trial Deck will launch September 14th and its corresponding Booster Set October 5th. This puts both the Trial Deck and Booster Set launches approximately one month apart.

V-TD02 features the first support for the Shadow Paladin clan in the Standard format, while V-BT02 contains cards for the Shadow Paladin, Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, and Murakumo clans, used by the members of Team Foo Fighter AL4 in the manga and 2018 "Origin" anime series.

Weekly Bites reveals: Phantom Blaster Dragon, Golden Beast Tamer, Death Anchor, and ZANBAKU to feature in Foo Fighter Booster Set

 V-Trial Deck 04: Suzugamori Ren will launch in Japan August 10th, 2018.

 The deck will include 14 types of cards, totaling 50 in all, and come with 3 Gift Markers.

The deck will include 4 copies of The Dark Dictator illustrated by Takayama Toshiaki, 1 copy of Blaster Dark illustrated by Itou Akira, and 3 copies of Blaster Dark illustrated by Lack.

V-Booster Pack 02: Strongest! Team Apex Limited 4 will launch in Japan August 31st, 2018, containing support for the clans used by Team Foo Fighter AL4: Shadow Paladin, Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, and Murakumo. Contains VR (Vanguard Rare) SVR (Secret Vanguard Rare) and SCR (Secret Rare) cards.

Features Team AL4's trump cards: Phantom Blaster Dragon with the Force Gift for Suzugamori Ren, Golden Beast Tamer with the Accel Gift for Narumi Asaka, No Life King Death Anchor with the Protect Gift for Shinjou Tetsu, and Dueling Dragon ZANBAKU with the Accel Gift for Yahagi Kyou.

Phantom Blaster Dragon is illustrated by Miyoshi Norikatsu, who illustrated his RRR artwork in Booster Set 4: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows seven years ago. Golden Beast Tamer is illustrated by Foo Midori, who previously illustrated her in Extra Booster 1: Comic Style Vol. 1, Death Anchor by Kondo Totesu who illustrated Vrykolakas, and ZANBAKU by Miyoshi Norikatsu who also did his illustration in Comic Style.

Trial Deck 03: Souryuu Leon and 04: Suzugamori Ren to launch July 20th, August 10th, V-BT02 for August 31st

More details on Bushiroad's Cardfight!! Vanguard product lineup for 2018 emerged from a flyer this weekend, giving us hard dates on the upcoming Aqua Force and Shadow Paladin Trial Decks, as well as the game's second booster set. TD03: Souryuu Leon will launch July 20th in Japan, and TD04: Suzugamori Ren will follow on August 10th. The still-unnamed Extra Booster 02 will launch on the same day as TD03, expanding Aqua Force, while V-Booster Set 02 will launch three weeks after its corresponding Trial Deck on August 31st. V-BT02 features support for the Shadow Paladin, Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, and Murakumo clans.

Bushiroad has also confirmed that its first official tournaments of the Standard format will be starting up in June. For the Bushiroad Card Fight 2018 tournament series, the Osaka regional qualifier will be held June 2nd, the Sapporo qualifier on June 9th, and the Fukuoka qualifier June 30th. The Nagoya regional qualifier will follow on July 7th, and Hakata on July 28th. This means that the three clans in EB02--Aqua Force, Granblue, and Dimension Police--will be added to the format just eight days before the Hakata regional.

Official Vanguard anime reboot website opens with new character designs and profiles, Kyou uses Murakumo

The official Cardfight!! Vanguard Origin anime website is now fully operational, replacing its splash page with basic character profiles and an introduction to the upcoming "Origin" series. Episodes of the rebooted anime are now known as "Images" rather than "Turns" (G) or "Rides," (original series) and the first episode will be Image 1 "Stand up, Vanguard!!" 

The new character profiles give us high-quality images of the rebooted character designs, as well as several details that put the new anime more in line with the manga it's based on. Of note is that the new character Kawanami Minami is not listed in the characters section with the other Foo Fighters.

• Morikawa is said to be a member of the Hitsue Cardfight Club advised by his teacher Mark Whiting, and that the club is in trouble because of his poor grades. This is a plot lifted directly from chapter 4 of the manga, where Alfred Early debuts.
• Yahagi Kyou uses the Murakumo clan. In the original manga Kyou used Nubatama, and his Nubatama units were later made into Murakumo cards as part of a general discontinuation of Nubatama in late 2011/early 2012. In the first anime, Kyou used Spike Brothers.
• Miwa uses Nova Grappler, much like in the manga.
• Morikawa uses Spike Brothers, "and others." In the manga he played a General Seifried deck, and was seen using Savage King in the first pages of chapter 1.
• Emi's, Shin's, and Nagisa's decks are listed as a mystery, rather than as Bermuda Triangle, Murakumo, and Nova Grappler.
• Daimonji Gouki's card shop is given as "Voyage" rather than "Handsome." Gouki is said to be second place in the Asia Circuit tournament.
• Mitsusada Kenji is also a regular at Voyage, and third place in the Asia Circuit.
• Souryuu Leon is an elementary schooler who uses Aqua Force and "dominated the Asia Circuit," but no other concrete information is given about him. Leon, Kenji, Gouki, and Nagisa are all listed under "NwO - Nagisa with Others." 
• Aichi is in his third year of middle school, Kai and Misaki in their first years of high school, and Kamui is in sixth grade. Ren is in his first year of high school, Asaka in her second, Tetsu in his third, and Kyou is also in sixth grade.

Image 1: Stand up, Vanguard!!

"A frail boy named Sendou Aichi is robbed of his most important card by his classmate Morikawa Katsumi. Aichi chases Morikawa into the card shop known as Card Capital."

NicoNico Live, NicoNico Channel, and Ani-TV will all be broadcasting the new Cardfight!! Vanguard anime series, every Thursday beginning May 10th. NNL will air the show at 8:00 PM, while NNC will air it at 8:30 PM. Ani-TV is still determining its air time.

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, and unlike past seasons will be in a late night to early morning timeslot. 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.

New character designs

Not every clan will be getting Front Triggers, Triple Drive not in manual

A leaked image from the Japanese First Guides distributed with the first Standard format flash decks reveals that not every clan will be getting Cardfight!! Vanguard's newest trigger type.

Front Trigger
"All of your front-row units gain +10000 Power. This is a trigger that only certain clans possess."
前列ユニット、すべてのパワーを＋１００００する。特定のクランのみが持つトリガーだ。

As Front Triggers were created to replace Stand Triggers--which executive producer Shimamura Masatoshi confirmed there will be no more of--it's possible that Bushiroad R&D is seeking to balance Fronts by only giving them to the clans specifically designed for them. In particular, Front benefits Accel clans much more than it does Force or Protect, as it addresses both their weakness of being unable to boost their additional rearguard circles and their comparative defensive weakness by giving them a more powerful damage check. (The currently revealed Accel clans in Standard release order are Nova Grappler, Tachikaze, Aqua Force, Pale Moon, and Murakumo.)

Also of note is that where the First Guide describes the different unit abilities like Boost and Intercept, no description of Triple Drive!!! is presented, reinforcing the idea that there will be no strides printed for Standard format. It is possible that Triple Drive!!! is not explained because none of the cards in the flash decks have this ability, but Front Triggers are also not present in either of these.

News: Sanctuary Guard and Kagerou Top Yamato CS, Murakumo in Second

Original photo by @kaki_excel

Original photo by Hachioji Culture

June 13th 2015, Koyasu civic center, Hachioji. First place at the Yamato Championship team tournament has been taken by Team Suddenly Sussan, running Kagerou, Shadow Paladin and Sanctuary Guard Dragon decks. Second place at the team tournament was taken by Team Nameko, running Kagerou, Shadow Paladin and Murakumo decks. The final set between team captains Battle Dome (Dragonic Overlord  “The X”) and Sussan (“The X”) were streamed live to Twitcasting, and recordings of the final set are provided below. So far only the Murakumo decklist has been uploaded to the web, with the remaining lists and tournament breakdown likely to come out of the woodwork within the next few days.

While this is the first major tournament that Murakumo has topped in, by this time Sanctuary Guard has settled in as a firm part of the Japanese game. Sanctuary Guard placed first at the Hakata VGCS earlier this week, despite Revenger cardfighters accounting for nine of the top sixteen decks. Prior to that, the deck had been used by the fourth-place cardfighter at the 193 Meieki Shop CS, a 64-person tournament held in early April. The deck's popularity as a rogue owes to the specific-heart stride it received in Fighter's Collection 2015, Sanctuary Guard Regalie. A renovated version of Royal Paladin's ancient Cosmo Dragon strategy, Regalie continuously endows the entire frontrow with +3000 power for every grade 1 or less rearguard in play. Regalie is not mutually exclusive with Jewel Knight support, so this allows for easy abuse of Swordmy, Tracie and Cymbeline in addition to genericized generation break support like Knight of Twin Sword.

With Tracie as a standalone 21000~31000 power attacker, and Knight of Twin Sword and Starlight Violinist to superior call one another in the battle phase, the Sanctuary deck has taken off as an overwhelming serial attack strategy that can also make maximum use of stand triggers after forcing the opponent to a high damage count with Samuel on a previous turn. The Sanctuary-Jewel Knight hybrid overwhelms assaults opponents with multiple high-power rearguard attacks without needing to dedicate to large single turns like in Thing Saver, creating an innovative fusion of disparate strategies that has just the right characteristics to thrive in the current format.

Meanwhile the Murakumo deck in second place is an entirely new breed; by appropriating the Magatsu revival legion purely for its legion functionality, the Murakumo cardfighter was able to cycle units back into the deck so that they could be targeted for same-name superior call skills even if they had already been removed beforehand. In the process they also gained access to Kuzunoha, a promotional grade 2 from last year's legion festival that can clone any other allied rearguard if the vanguard is in legion. The current incarnation of Murakumo specializes in a mixture of superior calling and then adding cards directly to the hand, keeping them on the field or sending them to the bottom of the deck at different stages of the fight, to build up both a strong offense and defense across multiple turns that can alternatively hide in the deck from retire or lock skills, or satisfy the retire condition of opposing Phantom Blaster “Diablo” strides.

Battle Dome (“The X”) versus Sussan (“The X”)

Game 1: http://us.twitcasting.tv/yamato03_16/movie/176155473
Game 2: http://us.twitcasting.tv/yamato03_16/movie/176163657
Game 3: http://us.twitcasting.tv/yamato03_16/movie/176170081
GmfWingal, winner of the first Sakura CS, reported going to the tournament and playing a Messiah deck, going 4-0 versus an opponent that did not show up, Revenger, Link Joker and Kagerou cardfighters, then in the top cut winning 2-1 against Great Nature in the top cut and losing 1-2 versus Kagerou. Link Joker's lack of presence in the finals is conspicuous, as the deck was highly anticipated prior to this, and the cards necessary to play it have jumped up to exorbitant prices in the lead-up to the current batch of tournaments. White Dwarf Lady Battler is the most egregious case by far, currently a 3000 yen promotional card--the currency equivalent of $24 per copy, more than Japanese Phantom Blaster “Abysses” go for.

Third place at the Yamato CS was taken by Team Deaspan running Kagerou, Shadow Paladin and Thing Saver, while fourth place went to Team Saitou (abbreviated name) running Kagerou, Shadow Paladin and Sanctuary Guard. Full decklists for all teams and a breakdown of the tournament results are pending.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best-of-three, Swiss tournament model. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events. The VGCS model of fan-organized play has begun to gain popularity internationally, with the bi-monthly BeNeLux tournaments serving as their European equivalent, and there are now similar grassroots organizations emerging in the United States like the ARG Circuit series tournaments and the King of Cardfight competition in the American midwest.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

Yamato CS Second Place Decklist
Grade 0
x3 Kusarigama Stealth Rogue, Onifundou (FV)
x4 Stealth Fiend, Yukihime HT
x2 Stealth Dragon, Hiden Scroll ST
x4 Stealth Beast, Cat Devil CT
x4 Stealth Beast, Moon Edge CT
x2 Dirk Stealth Rogue, Yaiba CT
Grade 1
x4 Stealth Fiend, White Heron (G-Sentinel)
x4 Gateway Stealth Rogue, Ataka
x4 Stealth Fiend, Lake Diver
x1 Stealth Fiend, Oborocart
Grade 2
x4 Stealth Dragon, Rune Star
x4 Overseas Stealth Rogue, Tokubei
x2 Transformation Stealth Rogue, Kuzunoha
Grade 3
x4 Covert Demonic Dragon, Magatsu Typhoon
x3 Covert Demonic Dragon, Magatsu Storm
x2 Fathoming Stealth Rogue, Yasuie
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Ambush Demonic Stealth Dragon, Homura Raider
x3 Ambush Demonic Stealth Rogue, Kagamijin
x1 Beauty of Light Snowfall, Shirayuki

News: Glendios and Tsukuyomi Promo Sleeves, Weekly Broadcast Features Murakumo/Kagerou Fight

This morning Bushiroad of Japan's weekly information bulletin guest starred seiyuu Morishima Shuuta (voice of Nitta Shin) and Yanagita Junichi (voice of Anjou Mamoru) in a featured fight between Shin's Yasuie and Mamoru's Dragonic Blademaster decks. The broadcast also revealed two upcoming promotional sleeves from the Get! Treasure Campaign, featuring Deity of the Evening Moon Tsukuyomi and Death Star-vader “∞” Glendios from G-FC01: Fighter's Collection 2015. The sleeves will go out in early June. Doctor O also took the opportunity to introduce several cards for both Murakumo and Kagerou from Sovereign Star Dragon, but these announcements were preempted three hours earlier by Japanese fans leaking the remaining cards of the set, much to the company's chagrin. The full video of the broadcast, including the fight, is presented below.

(Note that there is an audio desynch in the below video, and a brief interruption at the 43 minute mark. This is a consequence of recording the broadcast as it was originally airing.)

The fight between Morishima and Yanagita begins at 13:08 (standup at 15:44) in the video and ends at 48:28. The decklists used by them are provided below. Yanagita checked more triggers overall than Morishima, giving him considerable freedom with the use of his hand and taking early damage. Morishima initially got more setup off of striding first, superior calling two copies of his first vanguard Onifundou with Yasuie's skill and using two of their soulblast skills to return them to hand to gain 20000 shield, while also calling a unit from the top three cards of the deck to replace them. (This would be a net +4, but the replacement units called by the Onifundou copies return to the bottom of the deck at the end of the turn, mitigating it down to a net +2; Morishima averted this by calling Cat Devil with Onifundou and putting it into soul, still taking the negative but gaining soul that could be used for his remaining Onifundou next turn. Making his third turn a +2 in card advantage overall, discounting draw triggers.)

Yanagita retaliated with Blademaster's on-stride skill to retire the booster Ataka, comboing this to his rearguard Soheyl's autoskill to give him +5000 power. (As this only activates when a rearguard in the same column is put into the drop zone, later retires were not applicable to Soheyl.) Using the stride Divine Dragon Knight Mustafa, he then retired Tokubei and gave Mustafa an on-hit unflip. With Twilight Arrow's counterblast, Yanagita then retired the Onifundou that remained on the field, neutralizing the advantage Morishima had built up in the previous turn. Yanagita then forced him to five damage in that turn, and with only one unit in play, to meet the conditions for Homura Raider during the stride step Morishima was forced to clone his draw trigger Cat Rouge. And when Morishima attempted to go on the offensive, Yanagita guarded with the promo card Lizard Soldier Belogue--Belogue's skill allows it to retire an opponent's rested rearguard during the guard step if the guard is successful, meaning that Yanagita could completely nullify Homura Raider's skill by retiring one of the rested Cat Rogues, preventing Homura Raider from returning three units with the same name to the deck and restanding. Since Homura Raider had already received drive check -1 from its own skill, it wouldn't even get a single triple drive, let alone four drive checks; retiring Cat Rogue would incur a net -4 for the entire turn against Morishima. Morishima-as-Shin had to beg Yanagita-as-Mamoru not to do it in order for them to show Homura Raider's skill on camera, illustrating the vast disparity in support between Kagerou and Murakumo.

Yanagita obliged, retiring Fujino and using a Protect Orb Dragon to achieve perfect defense against Homura Raider. Although Morishima enjoyed a brief window with which to win the game on his second twin drive, failing to check a critical trigger prevented him from sealing it, causing Yanagita to win on his following turn.

Morishima's game was incredibly skillful overall. By standing his boosters and giving them power with his stand triggers, he was better able to take advantage of Ushimitsu Train's double superior call to clone Tokubei twice. His main misplay was fielding and then targeting units which only had one or less copies remaining in deck, in this case Nyudo Cloud. Doing otherwise would have given him two attacks, one for 12000 power and another 34000 power. His second was in using Fujino to attack the vanguard instead of the rearguard, exposing him to Belogue's skill, which otherwise can't be used while protecting rearguards. However, in general there was little else that could be done on his end of the game to fight back once Yanagita swung the game in his favor with Mustafa, Twilight Arrow and Soheyl. Making his one opening in the opponent's defenses with Homura Raider's second attack was his one chance to end the game.

Doctor O proceeded with an overview of several cards from Sovereign Star Dragon, including Dragon Knight Emad, Mustafa, Homura Raider and Hidden Scroll. However, all of these units were already spoiled by this time thanks to fan efforts. After a brief overview of the currently ongoing Cardfight!! Vanguard G the above sleeves were unveiled, and Doctor O closed out the broadcast alongside his guests imploring viewers to "Ride KYUN Vanguard!"

Almost seventeen thousand people tuned in to view the live broadcast during its run. Bushiroad's weekly information bulletins air every Tuesday evening at 8:00 PM Japanese Standard Time. They first began in late January to accommodate a new information distribution model for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as the amount of card information covered in Monthly Bushiroad magazine decreased and was redirected to other routes of distribution. The previous week's broadcast introduced Spear Cross Dragon and several other units from Sovereign Star Dragon, and the week before covered Deletor cards from the same set. Next week's episode will be a special G-BT03 release party guest starring Ishii Mark, seiyuu for Shindou Chrono.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

Morishima Shuuta's deck: Murakumo
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Ambush Demonic Stealth Dragon, Homura Raider
x2 Ambush Demonic Stealth Beast, Ushimitsu Train
x2 Ambush Demonic Stealth Rogue, Kagamijin
Grade 3
x4 Fathoming Stealth Rogue, Yasuie
x3 Stealth Fiend, Nyudo Cloud
Grade 2
x4 Stealth Dragon, Rune Star
x4 Hanagasa Stealth Rogue, Fujino
x2 Overseas Stealth Ogre, Tokubei
Grade 1
x4 Gateway Stealth Rogue, Ataka
x4 Stealth Fiend, White Heron (G-Sentinel)
x4 Stealth Fiend, Lake Diver
x2 Stealth Fiend, Oborocart
Grade 0
x3 Kusarigama Stealth Rogue, Onifundou (FV)
x4 Stealth Beast, Cat Rogue DT
x4 Stealth Fiend, River Child HT
x4 Stealth Beast, Cat Devil CT
x4 Stealth Dragon, Hiden Scroll ST

Yanagita Junichi's deck: Kagerou
Grade 4 (Generation Zone)
x4 Divine Dragon Knight, Mustafa
x2 Imperial Flame Dragon King, Root Flare Dragon
x2 Divine Dragon Knight, Mahmud
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Blademaster
x4 Dragon Knight, Soheyl
Grade 2
x2 Wyvern Strike, Doha
x3 Dragon Knight, Emad
x3 Dragon Knight, Tanaz
x3 Twilight Arrow Dragon
Grade 1
x4 Protect Orb Dragon (G-Sentinel)
x2 Lizard Soldier, Belogue
x4 Lava Flow Dragon
x3 Dragon Monk Gyokuryu
x1 Wyvern Strike, Garan
Grade 0
x1 Wyvernkid Ragla (FV)
x4 Dragon Knight, Jannat CT
x4 Gattling Claw Dragon DT
x4 Magnum Shot Dracokid CT
x4 Mother Orb Dragon HT

News: Fans Leak Sovereign Star Dragon, Murakumo Restander

This morning an anonymous Japanese retailer broke the street date on G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, enabling fans to spoil the remaining unknown cards in the set online. The major takeaway of the cards revealed is Ambush Demonic Stealth Dragon, Homura Raider; a stride unit that is also Murakumo's first restanding boss card.

ACT (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 2, choose a face down card named “Ambush Demonic Stealth Dragon, Homura Dragon” in your generation zone, turn it face up] If the number of cards in your generation zone is two or greater, during this turn, this unit gets Drive -1 and "AUTO (Vanguard circle): At the close step of the battle in which this unit attacked a vanguard, choose one of your rearguards, and return three rearguards with the same name as it to the bottom of your deck, if you returned three, stand this unit. Shuffle that deck."

Homura Raider's skill was shown off today in Bushiroad's weekly information bulletin, with the deck being played by seiyuu Morishita Shuuta, the voice of Nitta Shin in the anime series. In his fight, Morishita used the skill by using his other skills to superior call three copies of the draw trigger Cat Rogue and then return them to the deck for Homura's skill, increasing his chances of checking triggers on the second attack. Sovereign Star Dragon will hit in Japan on May 29th, and internationally on July 10th.

Murakumo's other notable cards from the set include their new first vanguard, Onifundou (bottom left) and the stand trigger Hidden Scroll. Onifundou provides a rare opportunity for Murakumo to dig into the deck for a search target for a combo, rather than to clone cards already drawn, while Hidden Scroll can superior call two copies of a card other than himself. Also visible in this image is Neutron Star Lady Gunner, a game-changing support unit for Link Joker's Messiah deck. When ridden or called, her generation break 1 locks one of her own rearguards to lock an opponent's; locking one's own rearguards makes more viable targets for Amnesty Messiah's power and critical skill.

Stealth Rogue, Onifundou
AUTO: Forerunner
AUTO (Rearguard circle): Generation break 1: [Soulblast 1, put this unit into your hand] At the beginning of your main phase, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to three cards from the top of your deck, choose up to one of them, call it to a rearguard circle, shuffle that deck, and at the end phase of that turn, put the unit called by this effect on the bottom of your deck.

Stealth Beast, Hidden Scroll
AUTO: Generation break 1: [Put this unit on the top of your deck] When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your rearguards other than "Stealth Beast, Hidden Scroll" and search your deck for up to two cards with the same name as that unit, call them to a rearguard circle, shuffle that deck, and at the end phase of that turn, put the units called by this effect on the bottom of your deck.

Neutron Star Lady Gunner/中性子星のレディガンナー
AUTO: Generation break 1: [Choose one of your rearguards and lock it] When this unit is placed on a vanguard or rearguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rearguards and lock it.

The Shadow Paladin cards leaked include new support for the Demon World Castle subclan previously formalized in Requiem at Dusk, ToteWächter and StreitenTurm. ToteWächter is German for Death Watcher (or "Death Watchman") while StreitenTurm is Fighting Tower.

Shadow Paladin has also received specific named support for Claret Sword Dragon, in the Yearning Knight Branwen (哀慕の騎士ブランウェン Aibo no Kishi Buranuen). Branwen is a Steam Breath Dragon copy for Shadow Paladin, filling the stride-enabling gap left by Pitch Black Sage Charon.

AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Choose a grade 3 card from your hand, reveal it] When this unit is called to a rearguard circle from hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one grade 3 card with "Claret Sword Dragon" in its card name, put it into your hand, shuffle that deck, and choose a card from your hand, discard it.
CONT [Hand]: When you are paying the cost for stride, this card gets grade +2.

Center top; Star-vader Technitium. Center bottom; Spiral Nebula Fairy.

??? Star-vader, Technitium
AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Choose a card with "Star-vader" in its card name in your hand, discard it] When this unit attacks, if you have a vanguard with "Star-vader" in its card, name you may pay the cost. If paid, during that battle, this unit gets Power +5000 and "AUTO (Rearguard circle) When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, soulcharge 1,  choose a card in your damage zone and turn it face-up."

Spiral Nebula Fairy ??? Girl/渦状星雲のXとし子
AUTO: Forerunner
ACT (Rearguard circle): Generation break 1: [Put this unit into your soul, choose one of your other rearguards and unlock it] Choose one of your opponent's rearguards, lock it.

Center left; Stellar Maker. Center right; Gravity Well Lady Battler. Right; Destiny Dealer.

Stellar Maker
AUTO (Vanguard circle): Generation break 1: When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose two locked cards, unlock them, during that battle this unit gets Power +5000/Critical +1.
AUTO: [Counterblast 1, Soulblast 1] When this unit is placed on the vanguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rearguards and lock it.

Gravity Well Lady Battler
ACT (Rearguard circle): Once per turn: Generation break 1: [Choose one of your rearguards, lock it] During this turn, this until gets Power +4000.

Destiny Dealer
AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Choose a grade 3 card from your hand, reveal it] When this unit is called to a rearguard circle from hand, you may pay the cost. If you do, search your deck for up to one grade 3 card with "Messiah" in its card name, put it into your hand, shuffle that deck, and choose a card from your hand, discard it.
CONT [Hand]: When you are paying the cost for stride, this card gets grade +2.

Heroic Saga Dragon
AUTO (Vanguard circle): Generation break 1: When this unit attacks a vanguard, your opponent may choose one of their own rearguards and retire it, and if they did not retire, during that battle this unit gets Critical +1 and "AUTO (Vanguard circle): At the beginning of your damage step, if the number of guardians is one, choose one of your opponent's guardians, retire it, and that units effects with "cannot be hit" is nullified." 
AUTO: [Counterblast 1, Soulblast 1] When this unit is placed on the vanguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's grade 1 or less rearguards and retire it.

Heroic Saga's skill functionally forces the opponent to either retire a unit or not be able to use perfect defense cards. Quintet walls are functionally exempt from having their guard broken, and Heroic Saga will not work if the opponent guards with multiple 10000-power shields.

Every clan included in Sovereign Star Dragon with the exception of Kagerou and Cray Elemental is receiving a G-perfect defense, with the ability to countercharge a damage when guarded with if there is a copy of them in the drop zone. These are, by clan;
Dark Irregulars -  Flag Breaker
Link Joker- Flower Blooming in the Vacuum, Cosmolis
Shadow Paladin - Karma Collector
Murakumo - Stealth Rogue, White Heron
Gold Paladin - Holy Mage, Pryderi

Upper left; Killing Dollmaster. Upper center; Lunatic Masquerade. Bottom left; Werfleder Ordonnaz.

Killing Dollmaster
AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Put this unit into your soul] At the beginning of your main phase, you may pay the cost. If you do, soulcharge 2.

Lunatic Masquerade
CONT (Rearguard circle): Generation break 1: During your turn, if the number of cards in your soul is 6 or more, this unit gets Power +2000, and then if the number if cards in your soul is 10 or more, this unit gets Power +2000.

Werfleder Ordonnaz
AUTO: Forerunner
ACT (Rearguard circle): Generation break 1: [Counterblast 1, put this unit into your soul] Soulcharge 2, if the number of cards in your soul is 6 or more, draw a card.

Sweet Predator
AUTO (Vanguard/Rearguard circle): Generation break 1: During your main phase, when a card is put into your soul, during this turn, this unit gets Power +3000.

While these Dark Irregulars units are disappointing to some--as they come in lieu of an Izaya reprint, or generation break versions of Doreen the Thruster and Izaya that work in any phase--there are some upsides to their introduction. Lunatic Masquerade's +2000 power boosts stack on top of one another so that at the 10+ soul benchmark he has a total +4000 power booster and becomes a permanent 11000-power booster. The advantage to this over Doreen is that the soul count being increased during the battle phase will affect his power, allowing the use of Scoremaker Vampir and Kiskill-Lila to pump him up to that point. Moreover, the later in the game Lunatic is on the field the more effective he is over long stretches compared to Doreen, as he does not require redundant soulcharging to power up.

Dragon Knight, Janat
AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Put this unit into your soul] When your vanguard attacks, if you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Dragonic Blademaster" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If paid, draw a card, choose one of your vanguards, during that battle it gets Power +5000.

Rising Lionet
AUTO (Rearguard circle): Generation break 1: [Put this unit into your soul] When another card is called to a rearguard circle from your deck, you may pay the cost. If you do, during this turn, that unit gets Power +5000 and "AUTO: (Rearguard circle): [Counterblast 1] When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to three cards from the top of your deck, choose a card from among them, call it to an open rearguard circle, and shuffle that deck."

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News: Mixed Deletor Chwawos Revealed in Bushiroad's Weekly Information Bulletin

This morning Bushiroad's weekly information bulletin revealed five cards from the upcoming booster set G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, including a new double rare boss card for the Deletor subclan. Chwawos was preceded by several rearguard support units for the Deletors, as well as two new cards for the Murakumo ninja clan. The broadcast opened with summaries of key episodes from the first two cours of Cardfight!! Vanguard G, followed by a discussion of several upcoming Clan Leader decks designed by Bushiroad's staff and presented by a representative from the research & development team. The Clan Leader decks addressed were Revenger Shadow Paladins, Kaiser Vermillion Narukami, Machining Megacolony and Hyakki Vogue. Doctor O then proceeded with the introductions for several cards from G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, translated below.


Mixed Deletor, Chwawos
Grade 3/11000 Power/No Shield/Link Joker - Alien/
AUTO: [Counterblast 2 "Deletors," choose two cards from your hand and discard them] When this unit is placed on the vanguard circle, you may pay the cost. If you do, delete all of your opponent's vanguard and choose up to two of their rearguards and lock them.
AUTO (Vanguard circle): When this unit attacks a vanguard, it gets Power +2000 until the end of that battle.

Deriding Deletor, Awiida
Grade 1/7000 Power/5000 Shield/Link Joker - Alien/
AUTO (Rearguard circle): [Soulblast 1] During a battle in which this unit boosts and the attack hits a vanguard, if your opponent's vanguard is deleted you may pay the cost, if you do, draw 1 card.

Clamping Deletor, Edi
Stand Trigger
Grade 0/4000 Power/10000 Shield/Link Joker - Alien/
AUTO: When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, if you have a "Deletor" vanguard, and your opponent's vanguard is deleted, draw a card.

Stealth Beast, Charcoal Fox
Grade 1/7000 Power/5000 Shield/Murakumo - High Beast/
AUTO: Generation break 1: When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, choose up to four of your "Stealth Beast, Charcoal Fox," during this turn, they get Power +2000.

Hanagasa Stealth Rogue, Fujino
Grade 2/9000 Power/5000 Shield/Murakumo - Demon/
AUTO (Rearguard circle): When another of your "Hanagasa Stealth Rogue, Fujino" is called to a rearguard circle, during this turn this unit gets Power +2000 and "AUTO (Rearguard circle): When this unit's attack hits a vanguard, choose a card from your damage zone and turn it face-up."

(Note: hanagasa are a type of traditional flower-adorned straw hat used in Japanese drama and performing arts)

In total the broadcast attracted over fourteen thousand viewers and almost seven thousand comments in fifty minutes. It was not without incident; at one point Doctor O's mic was displaced, temporarily muting him for the viewers. Bushiroad's weekly information bulletins air every Tuesday evening at 8:00 PM Japanese Standard Time. They first began in late January to accommodate a new information distribution model for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as the amount of card information covered in Monthly Bushiroad magazine decreased and was redirected to other routes of distribution.