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 NeoflameGrade 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 DracokidGrade 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.
