Today's Card Analysis: Transraizer and Twin Blader

The Japanese cards of the day for May 15th, 2018, are two Nova Grappler units from V-BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4, Transraizer and Twin Blader.

Transraizer
AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When it boosts. [Cost: Soulblast 2], Countercharge 1, and if that attack targeted a vanguard, this unit gets Power +3000 until the end of that battle.

Transraizer was previously revealed at the Anaheim Team League event this past weekend, while Twin Blader was all but confirmed by the first episode of the Origin anime series. Due to the power of boosting units being continuously applied to the boosted unit during the battle phase, Transraizer's additional 3k will transfer to the unit it's paired with. Ideally that would be Extra Muscular, Iron Killer, or Cup Bowler to make a 23k+ column, but the 3k isn't what's really valuable about Transraizer.

Rather, it's the countercharge that makes the card useful. One countercharge off Transraizer means a second use of Perfect Raizer's counterblast or a full refund on Asura Kaiser. In conjunction with Boomerang Thrower you can further refund the soul cost and make Transraizer more sustainable, and by carefully timing your use of Hi-powered Raizer Custom you can pull Battleraizer out of the soul to soulcharge with Boomerang Thrower, then throw Battleraizer back into the soul mid-battle phase with Hi-powered, and soulblast the card with Transraizer to countercharge.

Twin Blader is the clan's Draw Trigger perfect guard, matching Iseult, Barri, and Miss Mist.

Twin Blader
CONT: Sentinel (You may only have up to 4 cards in your deck with "Sentinel")
AUTO [Guardian Circle]: When placed, [Cost: Discard 1 card from your hand], and one of your units cannot be hit until the end of that battle.

As in the other decks, Twin Blader is an important component of a good Nova Grappler build for freeing up grade 1 space. With Raizer Custom, Transraizer, Jetraizer, Death Army Guy, Rocket Hammerman, and at least one more unrevealed card all competing for those slots, the free space is a welcome addition regardless of whether you're maining Raizers or Heroes.

With this, all of Nova Grappler's Vanguard Rares, Triple Rares, and Double Rares have been revealed; There are two to three Single Rares left for the clan, depending on whether V-BT01/037 R is a Nova Grappler grade 3, a Kagerо̄ grade 1, or Kagerо̄ grade 0.

The previous Japanese Cards of the Day were Circle Magus and Luck Bird.

V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4 will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd. It will be accompanied by sleeves based on Dragonic Overlord and Blaster Blade. V-Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and V-TD02: Kai Toshiki will launch in English June 8th.

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

News: Neo Nectar, Dimension Police and Nova Grappler Cut from BT16 ver. E, Alfred XIV and Knuckle Buster to Join Legion of Dragons & Blades

Following up on the previous announcement from late on the 18th that Harmonics Messiah will be reaching the English format, Bushiroad's international branch has made a continuing statement on the official Cardfight portal and via Facebook, listing the clans available in BT16 ver. E. The English edition set will include support for the Royal Paladin, Gold Paladin, Narukami, Link Joker, Aqua Force and Spike Brothers clans, integrating cards from three of the Japanese booster packs and two trial decks by removing the Neo Nectar, Dimension Police and Nova Grappler cards originally present in BT16: Legion of Dragons & Blades. These cards are presumed to have been moved to later sets.

The removal of these three clans was made to accommodate the introduction of BT17, MBT01 and MTD01's Gold Paladin, Link Joker, Aqua Force and Royal Paladin cards as well as additional Narukami units from TD16 and BT17. By removing these clans from the set, room was made for 56 cards in addition to the 42 added into the set size. This brings the total count of cards from other sets to at least 108, making room for almost the entire combined card pool of Malefic Deleter, Neon Messiah, as well as the Gold Paladin, Narukami and Aqua Force units of Blazing Perdition. However, it is unknown which cards from each set will be cut to make room for the accompanying Brawler of Friendship unit.

Additional reasons can be inferred from the clans targeted; Nova Grappler has been singled out in the professional community for its infamous Cat Butler Raizer deck, a once-dominant deck from Japanese play that uses the grade 0 Cat Butler to restand its Legioned vanguard. Within the past few months the build was subject to restriction in the Japanese Fighter's Rules. While fears regarding Cat Butler lack foundation compared to the raw unparalleled dominance of Thing Saver Dragon in Japanese play, delaying the hit of Raizers to the English-language format can be seen as a preemptive response to player outcry.

Neo Nectar and Dimension Police may have been switched out due to their lack of popularity overseas, as western competition has generally favored Aqua Force's extremely consistent aggressive play style and Link Joker's perceived ability to shut down the game, in comparison to Neo Nectar's demanding strategic buildup and Dimension Police's tendency towards all-or-nothing plays.