News: March 2nd Broadcast Explains Legion Mechanic, Raizers and Musketeers to See Support in BT16

Following the end of Link Joker earlier today Bushiroad aired a special broadcast on NicoNico Douga, discussing the upcoming Legion Mate season and some of the card mechanics therein. The program was introduced by Doctor O, with the anime being addressed by the voices of Sendou Aichi and Kai Toshiki, Yonaga Tsubasa and Satou Takuya; Satou confirmed for the fans that Kai will be the main protagonist of Legion Mate, and to Yonaga's distress that Aichi will be disappearing during the season.

When things came back to Doctor O, the viewers were treated to two jumbo-sized replicas of the upcoming TD14: Seeker of Hope cards. The deck's key grade 2, Blaster Blade Seeker, is a variation on the established field control formula. Like the traditional Blaster Blade he can retire a grade 2 or greater rearguard, but this is only when placed on a rearguard circle and costs just a single counterblast as opposed to past incarnations' two. Blade Seeker may require a Seeker vanguard to do so, but this is difficult to confirm from NND's low resolution.

What really drew surprise from the broadcast's 18,000 viewers was the explanation of the new Legion Mate mechanic and the skill of Seeker, Sacred Wingal. Sacred Wingal's Activate skill is not a limit break, but instead activates Legions it to Blaster Blade Seeker by matching up their Legion icons. Wingal can pay a cost of shuffling four units from the drop zone into the deck, to become joined with Blade Seeker as one unit with a total base power of 20000. Wingal's autoskill then triggers at the moment that it has been Legioned, letting it superior call a grade 2 or greater Seeker from the deck.

How exactly Legion Mate interacts with established mechanics is unknown. Legion units becoming a 20000 power base during their own turn was described as a typical attribute of the Legion Mate mechanic, so presumably most if not all Legion cards for this upcoming season will be a base 11000 grade 3 and base 9000 grade 2.

Interestingly, the introduction of Legion Mate may mark either an end or shaky coexistence with limit break; addressing the longstanding issue of the game's pace becoming more oriented around being at 4 damage over time, the only condition observed on Legion Mate skills is the ability to have a Mate on the field. Legion activates when a vanguard and rearguard with paired Legion icons are matched up, which gives their cardfighter greater freedom of choice on when to use skills, and rewards successful timing for using Legion Mate when the opponent is already at higher damage by giving them innately greater power to work with. Conversely, using Legion too early wastes a skill that can only be used as many times as the Mate unit can be played from the hand.

Doctor O revealed several different upcoming pairs of Legion units, including those from Brawler of Friendship and an alternate set of Legion cards from Seeker of Hope, but what drew the most excitement were the units from VG-BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades. Nova Grappler will be receiving a pair of Raizer units with the new mechanic to round out their build, while Neo Nectar will start the season off with paired Musketeer units.

Additionally, Doctor O assured everyone that Tokura Misaki will also be returning with Legion cards, much to the relief of her voice actor, Kitta Izumi. What clan she will be using is unknown. Many fans are clamoring for her to return to Oracle Think Tank while others have suggested she stay with Genesis, but neither clan is currently scheduled to be supported by BT16.

The program was closed out by Morishima Shuuta, voice of Shin Nitta, who asked the audience to help him with the cheer "Ride the Vanguard!" The cards covered by the NND conference will be given better coverage in the upcoming seventh issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine. A recording of the broadcast will go up tomorrow.

3/3/2013 Update: The broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube. Highlights include an explanation of the Legion mechanic at the 22 minute mark, Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal's debut at 23:37 as well as the introduction of Raizer and Musketeer support from 28:19 on.

News: First Images of TD14 and TD15 Made Public, Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal Previewed

New promotional images for the upcoming VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope and TD15: Brawler of Friendship are now in circulation, showing off some of the trial decks' illustrations. The Beginning Set prints of the trial decks are the main focus of these promo images, advertising them as TD14+ and TD15+. In addition to the standard trial decks, the Beginning Sets will also include 53 card sleeves and a storage case, a Fighter's Count in denominations of +5000 as well as three promotional cards and a promo card pack.

Interestingly, franchise artist and Blaster Blade's original designer Itou Akira did not illustrate the new Blaster Blade Seeker artwork. The illustration was instead handled by Ryuutetsu, who has worked with Itou previously on Blaster Blade's Descent of the King of Knights RRR alternate artwork, as well as on both Blaster Spirits, the original Blaster Dark artwork and other projects. In the artwork Blaster Blade Seeker is accompanied by a much more grown up Wingal; while Blaster Blade is unchanged from his original design, Wingal's dramatic transformation has given him deer-like qualities, and a ring of magatama around his sword's hilt. The use of magatama is surprising and somewhat out of place; the franchise normally associates them with the Oracle Think Tank clan and Amaterasu specifically, while in the real world magatama are jewels of ancient Japanese origin and in art associated with birth as well as the Shinto religion. Their use here may be connected to Wingal's new title as "Seeker, Sacred Wingal."

Brawler of Friendship's promotional art was done by Suzukigorou, known for illustrating Spectral Duke Dragon in 2012, Nebula Lord Dragon in 2013 and most recently both Dauntless Drive Dragon and his Reverse card, Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я.” The new Brawler units do not seem to recall any specific Narukami predecessors, although their general silhouette echoes most of Suzukigorou's previous work.