End of an era: Vanguard leaves Sunday mornings for late-night

On April 8th, 2012, the first episode of Cardfight!! Vanguard Asia Circuit aired on TV Tokyo. It was 10:00 AM on a Sunday morning in Japan, twenty-six hours later than the first season's timeslot. Since that episode aired, Cardfight!! Vanguard has retained its timeslot across seven seasons of animation and nearly six years of continuous broadcast.

Until today.

The final episode of Cardfight!! Vanguard GZ has aired, and with it comes an end to Vanguard's stranglehold on the slot. After the 24th episode closed, the first thing to follow was a TV spot for Kiratto Pri☆chan, which will be taking its place in seven days' time. The next season, which begins May 5th, will be broadcast at ten different times. All but two of them are after 9:00 PM. Its primary slot is 10:00 PM JST Saturdays on Tokyo MX, and its latest slot is 3:00 AM Monday morning on Sun TV. In Japan streaming services have struggled to gain ground, with only around 16% of residents using a subscription streaming service compared to more than 50% overseas. Traditional television broadcasts and video rentals are still thriving, and so the change represents a potentially harmful shake-up for the franchise domestically.

Who is this new slot targeted at? Vanguard has cross-demographic appeal, but while Future Card Buddyfight is Bushiroad's elementary school show, Vanguard is primarily targeted at late middle through high school students. (The biggest clue to this--both Aichi and Chrono began as middle school students that eventually went through the all-important transition to high school.) Perhaps there's a fourteen-year-old working a graveyard shift desk job somewhere there that thinks this new slot is a dream come true. But for the majority of Vanguard's target audience, these are inaccessible air times their parents would never let them tune in to, and it's hard to say if any but hardcore fans will be following this series. The new season's most accessible broadcast time for its traditional audience is Wednesdays at 7:00 PM, taking over from...THE Karaoke★Battle 2018?

North American viewers will probably prefer the change. For those of us in the midwestern United States Asia Circuit was airing in the dead of night at 10:00 PM through the grainy low-quality video playback and lossy audio of Keyhole TV. (This was a dark time, when Bushiroad had chosen to not renew their contract with Crunchyroll as a direct result of how heavily pirated Vanguard was--they sincerely thought no one was watching, and thus it took a good thirteen weeks for fan outcry to change their minds. Remember kids, KissAnime and HorribleSubs almost killed Vanguard.) With the show now moved thirty-six hours forward, we'll be getting "Origin" at a cozy 9:00 AM, as if it were a real Saturday-morning cartoon. Those on the west coast will instead be up at 6:00 AM sharp to catch the new series, or otherwise spend their mornings hiding from their Twitter feed.

All joking aside, the move to 10 at night is concerning. Some have interpreted it as an opportunity to inject the show with "darker" themes, but those hoping for Bushiroad to hand Aichi a gun anytime soon are in for a rude awakening. The more likely explanation is that the series' history of falling ratings and poorly-performing merchandise has hurt its future with TV networks. Of note is that while seasons five, six, and seven of Vanguard were all greenlit long before they went into production, no similar deal has been announced since early 2014. It seems the anime has been renewed season-by-season up to now, and the confidence once placed in the brand is long gone.

Bushiroad has taken the appropriate measures to fight for the franchise's survival, aggressively marketing the upcoming anime through a total takeover of the Yamanote Line, and pushing the rebooted game at major events like Anime Japan 2018, all while promising to focus on their international presence in this year's strategy conference. The new series is set to debut May 5th, with a subbed simulcast appearing on Crunchyroll. For the English-speaking world, the game itself will follow on June 8th.

Come this time next year, where will this new Vanguard be? Will it recapture everyone we lost in Asia Circuit, Link Joker, and G? Will it be found worthy of being called back to its old home--or perhaps become something else entirely?

Time won't tell. We will.

Opinion: Where is Link Joker Headed?

(Note: Today's article was written before the official reveal of the BT12 sleeves. Doctor O tweeted the names six hours ago at about 6AM EST. The translated name of the new Luquier is Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Luquier “Я” and the reading for “Я” says to pronounce it as either Reverse or Rebirth; these are homophones in katakana and the pun is probably intentional. Luquier “Я” is confirmed to be a Pale Moon unit. The other new units revealed are Revenger, Raging (or Rising) Form Dragon and Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon. Nebula Lord is the set's cover card. I have edited the names into the captioned images below, but the article is otherwise unchanged.)

The recently-released poster for VG-BT12: Binding Force of the Black Rings has drawn a lot of attention for an apparent new direction headed by one of the cards showcased for the set. While not immediately apparent to most fighters, the implications of the card's design for not just this coming booster set but also for sets to follow are far-reaching.

This Luquier at the left, all but confirmed at her original debut alongside the set's cover card to be one of the new Link Joker units introduced by BT12, is at the root of the discussion. While Link Joker so far has exclusively had United Sanctuary as its nation, the color of Joker Luquier's nation in the new poster is purple--Dark Zone, the same as her original incarnation. Several possibilities have arisen from this, not all of them mutually exclusive ideas.

1. Link Joker as a multinational clan.
This is not so much a possibility as it is what the new Luquier has concretely established. Link Joker is now a clan that draws from multiple nations. As virtually every Joker unit introduced by TD11 and BT12 has had an existing counterpart, this is only somewhat surprising, but what needs to be understood is that when we talk about Link Joker from the perspective of being a "multinational clan" we're also implying that the other possibilities are not reality. Essentially, if we take perspective 1, none of the below ideas apply. I consider this idea is less likely because there's no real precedent within the game mechanics for multiple nations to have an impact. Currently, no skills rely on nation, so this would be an entirely decorative thing. BT12 is allegedly introducing a system that will "defy common sense," and while many have assumed that the new Lock mechanic will be that same common-sense defying factor, the promotional materials have not explicitly identified Lock as being so. As for what does defy common sense, that brings us to point 2.

2. Link Joker as a double clan deck.

The idea of double clan units has held public fascination on and off for several years now, but it hasn't yet been implemented in a major way. BT09 used it to make the Spirit cards more playable and to tie back to the card lore, one of the Etranger promotional cards did it to provide Aqua Force with a Knight Squire Allen clone, and for a long time BT10 was suspected to introduce Gold-Royal double clan units, but this last idea did not turn out. Joker Luquier--possibly, "Star-vader Luquier"--has a little more precedent when we consider that having a unit that is a Pale Moon with "[CONT]: This card is also a «Link Joker»." would be able to simultaneously update two clans at once. By making the card playable between two different clans, it expedites the ease with which Bushiroad can update different clans, and it would also affect sales. Although concrete numbers are not currently available, the general trend agreed upon by retailers is that the set in which Luquier originally debuted, VG- and VGE-BT07: Rampage of the Beast King did not sell as well compared to its contemporaries. Rampage was a set that primarily updated non-core clans, focusing on Dark Irregulars, Pale Moon, Angel Feather and Great Nature. The core clans that it did update were Gold Paladin and Oracle Think Tank; but the GoPala support consisted of Pellinore assist units, and the OraThin support was for the new soulless deck, chiefly in the form a new FVG, when many OraThin cardfighters were already very content with their Tsukuyomi builds.

The result was that the majority of Gold Paladin cardfighters went in to get copies of Listener of Truth Dindrane for their Garmore decks, then jumped ship to wait for BT09 while Oracle Think Tank cardfighters either just bought their Little Witch LuLu and Glace rares or didn't buy Rampage at all. With BT08 bringing Aqua Force to the table, it was very easy for the set to be overlooked. Worth considering is that in the 2012 world championships, Gold Paladin always had a presence of at least 18.2% or greater in every tournament, averaging at 26.32% throughout the season while Pale Moon, Dark Irregulars, Great Nature and Angel Feather combined averaged a presence of 10.47%. Excepting the unclear "20% Rest of Clan" results from Indonesia, there were no qualifiers in which Royal Paladin and Kagerou were not played, but there were qualifiers where Pale Moon did not show up at all, despite Pale Moon coming in second for the Great Britain qualifier and third for the European finals overall while Royal Paladin only appeared as second at the Philippines' regional. What is being illustrated here is that the global popularity of these clans impacts the sales of sets that focus on them, and it's actually quite apt that the third season of Cardfight!! Vanguard chose to open with a discussion on globalization and common sense, because in a period where the franchise is undergoing globalization the once-impossible thought of double clan mechanics may be just the common sense-defying idea that can save the more obscure clans.

By creating Link Joker as a core clan and packaging their key units with the return of the Shadow Paladins in BT12, Bushiroad may be able to replicate the global success of BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows, one of the bestselling sets of all time that was in the past practically carried by the Shadow Paladins that it introduced. BT04 is also known for reinforcing many minor clans, giving Megacolony and Dimension Police enough cards to be playable while also refining the concept of ride evolution that would go on to proliferate to every clan in the game in subsequent sets like EB02 and BT06. As with BT04, BT12 can become the launchpad for the mass support of smaller clans, by piggybacking that support onto Joker cards. Link Joker being a double clan deck would allow Bushiroad to give support to clans like Pale Moon and Megacolony while using a consumer base of Link Joker cardfighters to make it economically viable. In the example that we've been discussing, "Star-vader Luquier" is a Pale Moon with "[CONT]: This card is also a «Link Joker»." I don't intend to speculate on what her actual skill will be when printed, but for the purposes of our example let's say that it's a V/R activate skill that requires a Pale Moon vanguard and can call any grade 2 or lower unit from the soul for some amount of counterblast. Pale Moon cardfighters that use Luquier could use her example skill in either the vanguard or the rearguard, but Link Joker cardfighters would be only able to use her if she was in the vanguard circle.

In another example, let's say that Star-vader Luquier actually has two skills; one of them lets her call any grade 2 or lesser Pale Moon from the soul, and another can let her call any grade 1 or grade 2 Link Joker from the soul. In this example, you would have two skills but only one would see play depending on whether her cardfighter is using a Pale Moon or Link Joker deck. Assuming that Luquier is the only Link Joker-Pale Moon hybrid, Link Joker cardfighters would only be able to use her second skill because there would be no other Pale Moons in a Link Joker deck normally, while Pale Moon cardfighters would only use her first skill because there would not be any Link Jokers in their decks below grade 3. Keep in mind that these example skills are just thought experiments--I'm only showing how double clan cards could work, I don't think that these are her actual skills.

Both economically and mechanically, double clan Link Joker makes sense as an interesting mechanic and new play style that fits the bill for "defying common sense," but the implications of a double clan Joker are far-reaching. The cover card for BT12 is a Joker Spectral Duke Dragon; but SDD is generally agreed upon based out of his lore and holding the Armor of the Black Horse to be a reincarnation of Phantom Blaster Dragon. There have been a lot of questions as to where the Shadow Paladins in BT12 are because of a lack of obvious units out of those revealed--so is this Joker SDD a Shadow Paladin or a Gold Paladin? Ren's return to the anime and his current deck would suggest the former, and in that case, the cover card for BT12 is both a Shadow Paladin and a Link Joker unit at the same time. Considering the anime though, if Luquier is both a Pale Moon and a Link Joker simultaneously, then the release of the new batch of posters is timed perfectly because the upcoming match between Asaka and Kourin is being resolved this week. With Leon having previously pointed out that Fukuhara's Foo Fighters were holding something secret, Luquier may be the trump card that decides the fight. In other words, the first Link Joker unit that we see the actual skills of could appear as early as this coming Saturday.

Left to Right; Great Daiyusha - Mitsusada Kenji, Battle Sister Tiramasu (debated) - Tokura Misaki, Knight Squire Allen (debated) - Sendou Aichi

With regards to TD11: Star-vader Invasion, I feel the need to point out that there is no anime character on the cover of the trial deck. This is a first for the franchise. Even when Aqua Force debuted as the new antagonist clan of the Asia Circuit, Leon was still shown as being on the front cover of the deck in promotional materials. We knew of Leon before we even knew his name. The fact that TD11 has no anime characters on its cover suggests to me one of two things. Either this is being done because the character to use Link Joker this season is someone from the existing cast and it would be a spoiler at this point to know who, or it's because Link Joker is going to be used by multiple characters. If it is a double clan deck, then there's a lot of existing correlations drawn by fans that can point to which characters and clans are seeing representation within Link Joker.

Left to Right; Blaster Blade - Sendou Aichi or Kai Toshiki, Star-vader Infinite Zero Dragon (Eradicator Armor Break Dragon (debated) - Ishida Naoki)

The timing of some other parts of the franchise should also be considered. Starter Set 0 included a manga containing the prologue chapter "#0 The Beginning of Everything," authored by franchise creator Itou Akira, which focused on Kai's time as a Royal Paladin cardfighter, his connection to Blaster Blade and Blaster Blade Burst, and on Kai's childhood friend Ibuki Kouji. I should point out that, although such sources are not always reliable, Japanese twitter reports from the "Get! Deck Holder Caravan 2013" Bushiroad event mentioned that CEO Takaaki Kidani said in a Q&A panel that most of the ideas for the third season came from Itou, and that there is a planned "mood shift" in the anime related to the term Link Joker (this was prior to the announcement that LJ would be a clan.) As one of the cover cards for TD11 appears to be a corrupted Blaster Blade, and that between Kai, Ren, Aichi and Ibuki there are four characters with some kind of connection to the card in the franchise, the probability of an existing character using Link Joker is sky high.

Given that Link Joker has an extraterrestrial theme and is described in the lore as a group of invaders, it seems as though these units are being abducted and corrupted by BT12's titular "Black Rings," allowing Link Joker to gradually invade each of the clans in turn and take over Cray from the inside.

Left to Right; Star-vader, Nebula Lord Dragon (Spectral Duke Dragon - Suzugamori Ren), Silver Thorn Dragon Empress Luquier “Я” (Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer Luquier - Narumi Asaka)

The idea has already been put forth that Link Joker represents Void's clan within the anime, and if so then this also explains why Ren's former persona has resurfaced. If the Link Joker print of Duke Dragon is a double clan with Shadow Paladin, then Void may already have begun corrupting him from the inside. Although the Shadow Paladins themselves were once portrayed within the series as a semi-mystical, inherently corrupting force and the possibility remains that their deck still has these properties in the anime, this possibility seems relatively slim in face of the more concretely realized idea that Link Joker is "infecting" the decks of the cast.

3. Link Joker as a mixed clan deck.

This possibility is what I consider the least likely but still within the realm of plausibility. In this scenario, the above Luquier is not a Link Joker at all, but only a Pale Moon. Link Joker would then only have pure Link Joker units within its clan, but would encourage the use of other clans in the deck, possibly to activate the Lock skill. Without guessing what Lock actually entails, let's assume that it needs units of another clan as part of its cost. The Joker Luquier would then be a supporting, rearguard grade 3, not intended to be in the vanguard circle but instead used for skills that work independent of clan and help support Lock. The reason that I consider this unlikely is because of how cumbersome it would be to potentially ride those non-Link Joker units and be unable to use your Jokers' skills at all. Riding Blaster Dark in a Majesty Lord Blaster deck is already hard, more so if you don't have any Royal Paladins in hand to call, because once Wingal Brave is off the field your triggers no longer activate and you already can't use the skills of units like Pongal or Iseult; how problematic would it be to have more than four cards in the deck that could trap you out of your perfect defense, skills and triggers?

That said, it may be intended as a more tech heavy build that has more options for specific searching. Only a couple clans handle direct searching at the moment, but if Link Joker has skills that are limited to searching for units from other clans, then it could be balanced out. For example, you could have a skill that in some way has you lose two Link Joker units as a cost, then add two units of different clans to your hand; requiring the search targets to be of different clans from one another as well would restrict you from double dipping on skills that specify a particular type of rearguard.

4. Luquier is not a Link Joker.

This is probably the most likely possibility next to point 2. As interesting a mechanic as a double clan unit could be, the Dark Zone nation box all but confirms her as a Pale Moon unit and only the illustration suggests that double clan could be a reality. And while there isn't enough information for any further speculation on what Lock entails, it's much simpler for the one announced but unrevealed mechanic to be the mechanic that the promotional materials are talking about than it is for an unannounced idea with little precedence to be so. Lore-wise, the new Luquier could be empowered by Link Joker without actually being a part of it, and so far all previous predictions of double clan mechanics have been overturned. Considering that the card illustration being irrelevant to the game mechanics is in page 3 of the rulebook, this could be the promotional materials taking us for a spin. The wrench in this point is that one of the first promo images put out for the set shows the new Luquier's illustration side by side with the new SDD's, and it would be strange for a connection to be implied by the company and then immediately cast away.

If it seems that the editor is biased toward point 2, he is; there's less to write about the others.

How Long Can the Golden Goose Keep Laying?

Photo by rawritzrichii, seek consent before reposting.

In light of the December 9 results and the close of the 2012 World Championship, one thing has become clear; the Gold Paladins are strong. They have become the third most prolific clan in history, on the heels of Kagerou and their Royal predecessors. Being able to fill the field, draw new cards and break traditional defenses with powerful limit breaks are all key aspects of their success. Bandwagoning is also an element here--if 98 out of 100 decks at a tournament are Etranger, then at least 6 of the top 8 decks will be Etranger regardless of if those decks are any good. Even considering this however, the strengths of the clan are very real. At the very least, Smith, Bastianelli and Fernau did believe in the clan's power. In the world of pros, they are a real threat, but like any other threat they have weaknesses.

In particular, their dominant weakness has been evident since the first booster set. Garmore is the best card that the clan has ever printed; Ezel is only ever run for the opportunity to superior ride him, and occasionally his autoskill when stalling for Garmore. If the Gold Paladins had an exact copy of the King of Knights or of Soul Saver Dragon, that would be run instead. Spectral Duke Dragon is not the monster in Japan that he is on our side of the Pacific, because his sometimes-on sometimes-off +1000, intended to attack independently multiple times in a match, functions poorly in a format where stable 11000, 12000 and 13000 dominate. Even the Gold Paladins' coming crossride, Platina Ezel, is considered vastly inferior to previously-revealed crossrides that were not reliant on being at five damage. The End and even Goddess Amaterasu woul be run instead if they had Gold Paladin equivalents. Probably the most harrowing difficulty for the clan is that the general design theme is "Royal Paladin but weakened." There is no doubt that if sets 4 and 5 had been available during WCS2012, the clan would have been vastly undermined by Majesty Lord Blaster. This leaves a pressing question for the western community of Gold Paladin cardfighters who have grown endeared to their clan.

Come February, BT05 will be available, and by all estimates will be a serious factor in WCS2013. Where does that leave the Gold Paladin cardfighter? For how long can the golden goose keep laying? This is entirely dependent on BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights. The recent team tournament results have shown that both primary variants of Gold Paladin can work well on the same team as Royal Paladin and Oracle Think Tank decks, much as Kagerou did in the 2011 Grand Prix team tournaments, but Platina/Spectral Duke is also competing for that space with Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD," who has seated himself as a new, ultimate break-impaired The End. We have yet to see how Platina holds up to its contemporaries in the seniors' and juniors' divisions, or to the new, Tsukuyomi-derived Blaster build.

Liberator Gancelot is an excellent replacement for Platina, hitting 23000 on-attack with Tron or Llew and throwing a second Gancelot up to 33000 with his break ride. Gancelot is not just an upgrade, but also a countercard that close to replaces the BT09 play style. However, one card cannot carry a clan. The Liberator subgroup is definitely one of the most powerful subgroups to ever be designed, but like all Gold Paladin decks, it is still reliant on first vanguards that depend on Ezel or Pellinore. Running Corron or Kyrph means running Ezel and/or Gareth with Beaumains, severely restricting a deck that would ideally be composed as close to as purely of Liberator units as possible. Running Spring Breeze means running Lop Ear Shooter and potentially Dindrane for an overall similar restriction, but even more than that, it means running Pellinore who has been ruled as not being a superior ride and as a result, canceling Gancelot's carefully-prepared break ride. Gold Paladin cardfighters are left holding out for the new Wingal Liberator and with him the new Alfred, leaving the future murky and uncertain for a clan that in Japan was repeatedly established as underdogs. Even beyond this, the Eradicator and Dudley subgroups are already receiving quite a bit of attention from pros as more likely to replace Spectral Duke and Garmore/Gancelot, respectively.

The English pro scene will soon be left to clash over the set that will finally induct us into the crossride format that has defined much of Japan's professional play for the past year. Despite that, it is already clear that The End will not be storming the format as some doomsayers have predicted. There are two reasons for this; first, the English scene is becoming updated with the more recent sets at a relatively fast pace, introducing new counter decks and reinforcing past decks. Second, the focus of Vanguard has shifted. We are at the end of an era--you could call it the end of the vanguard. Powerful vanguards are no longer a concern in the new format. No matter how much power you gain or extra critical you add on, this cannot circumvent a perfect defense card, cards which in the English format have been standardized at four copies by limit break. While some predictions say that Glory Maelstrom will respond to this by ending the perfect defense, the situation is not equal. While he does get over Duke's base power consistency issues, the new Maelstrom can only do this when he is on the brink of death, and it's clear from playtesting by now that fighting a Maelstrom deck is a matter of changing one's play style. Shields are placed earlier and more frequently, the rearguard becomes the focus of defense, and the vanguard is either not guarded against or grade 0s are conserved for fighting Glory and perfect defense goes to the rear. The situation plays out like jan-ken-pon; the Gold Paladins are undermined by Majesty, who is locked down by The End, who is shut out by Gold Paladin counterdecks that are defeated by Majesty. The most prominent major player living outside of these restrictions is Oracle Think Tank, whose CoCo and Battle Sister play styles neatly stops both the Blaster deck and crossride decks in their tracks, but even they then fall to the Gold Paladins. To who does the throne at the top of the world go to from here? This year's cup is open to everyone.

I am not in the business of naming kings. Blaster Blade Liberator will probably be revealed close to or over the weekend, being the final card from TD08 and TD09 to go unrevealed. This unit will be our last chance before February to gauge the new Gold Paladin, and with it how the Gold Paladin cardfighters of the previous year will plan for WCS2013. While my own investment is strictly centered on my personal clan, it will be interesting to see cardfighters both in the United States and abroad rethink their strategies. The natural position, even not knowing exactly what BT10 will bring, is to assume that Gancelot will be supported by Alfred, with extra copies of the Liberator himself replacing Gigantech Destroyer and Manawydan as a rearguard grade 3, but some fighters may still stick by Garmore or even find the "perfect" offensive grade 3 in Dignified Gold Dragon, who combines the Silver Wolf's and the Destroyer's roles into a single unit. How will traditional Gold Paladin fare once the Liberator subgroup hits the scene? Spectral Duke is largely forecasted to fall into the background in the February-on format, but is there some innovation remaining to rework the deck? Furthermore, there exists an interperiod between the release of trial decks 8 and 9, and the coming of BT10; while there are no official tournaments hosted in this period, there will be ample time for casual play and experimentation. Will we see them synthesized with Platina in an offshoot deck as Galahad and Soul Saver were once synthesized by Masuda?

The parallels are interesting; Gancelot and Alfred were once the first and perfect Royal deck, but were outmoded within three months by BT02's Soul Saver, and yet here we are, once again looking at Gancelot and Alfred, this time as the last Gold Paladin deck. Maligned and potentially unhealthy in large doses as they are, Cardfight does not end with the Gold Paladins. The scene has only evolved further.