Press Release: Record Sales of Cardfight!! Vanguard Winter-Spring Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, CA (March 7, 2014) – In less than a month after the release dates, three of the most recent Cardfight!! Vanguard expansions are now sold out. These expansions, released in February, are the highly anticipated Trial Deck Vol. 10: Purgatory Revenger, Trial Deck Vol. 11: Star-vader Invasion and Booster Pack Vol. 12: Binding Force of the Black Rings.

The introduction of the new “Link Joker” narrative and the popularity of the newly-released clan, along with tie-ins to the themed Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League 2014 “Invasion” campaign resulted in an unprecedented surge of purchases from retailers across the world. Despite an increased print run for all three products, both Trial Decks and the Booster Pack sold out within two weeks of their release dates in February.

Director of Bushiroad South East Asia and Bushiroad USA, Mr. Masayuki Goto, shared, “We are very pleased with this milestone for our new expansions and we hope that players and retailers alike will enjoy our line-up of products for this season together with many big events this year.”

A second print run is scheduled to keep up with the high demand for these three expansions and Bushiroad will make every effort to ensure there is no shortage of product on the market.

Cardfight!! Vanguard was recently ranked 5^th in both the “Top 10 Hobby Channel Collectible Games” and “Top 5 Collectible Games Over-all” for Summer 2013*, and had a strong showing in the top hobby game picks of 2014**, securing 6 out of 11 spots for all titles, including Weiβ Schwarz and the newly-released Future Card Buddyfight on ICV2.

* ICV2 #83, Fall 2013 p.17

**ICV2 #83, Fall 2013 p.14

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Bushiroad Inc. consists of 6 sub-entities: Bushiroad Inc., Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd, Bushiroad USA Inc., Bushiroad Media, New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd., and Hibiki Music Inc.

Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd was established in Singapore on November 12, 2011 in order to expand the overseas market for Bushiroad card games such as Cardfight!! Vanguard, Weiβ Schwarz, Chaos TCG and Victory Spark.  

Bushiroad USA Inc. was established in Los Angeles, California on May 18, 2012, to better cater to the growing demand and interest in Cardfight!! Vanguard from both players and retailers in the USA.

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Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (Japanese) - http://cf-vanguard.com/

Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (English) - http://cf-vanguard.com/en/

Bushiroad (Japanese) - http://bushiroad.com/

Bushiroad (English) - http://bushiroad.com/en/

News: Blaster Dark Revenger's Skills Revealed

This morning the latest issue of KeroKero Ace hit Japan, and among the previews for the DAIGO Special Set and Fighter's Collection 2013 was an ad for TD10: Purgatory Revenger with the long awaited skills of Blaster Dark Revenger enclosed. Two years ago, Blaster Dark's original incarnation in BT04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows was the first Shadow Paladin to ever be shown to the public, and his Revenger print follows suit.

(Imposed text; "Blessed are those who receive the light. Shadow has but one way it must go.")

Blaster Dark Revenger
Grade 2/Power 9000/Shield 5000
Shadow Paladin/Human/United Sanctuary
AUTO [Counter Blast (2)]: When this unit is placed on V or R, if you have a vanguard with "Revenger" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards in the front row, and retire it.

On June 22nd, this will be the first pure Shadow Paladin unit to be released in twelve months. Although a copy of Blade Liberator, Dark Revenger is a marked improvement over his original incarnation as a consistent access point toward field control. The unit is not the "ultimate" Blaster Dark that some were hoping for, however; one of the defining features of the original was his vanguard defense, as he was the first grade 2 to get +1000 additional power when a specific grade 1 was in the soul, which allowed Shadow Paladin cardfighters to completely stop an attack from Blaster Blade and prevent Wingal Brave's skill from going off. The Revengers are interacting with both their Gold and Royal counterparts differently, right from the first card printed. Counterblast is also not as freely available for the Shadow Paladins as it is for the Gold Paladins, as Macha, Nemain, Vaha, Phantom Blaster and Ildona take up the entire damage zone many times over on their own. Dark Revenger's playability will ultimately be determined by the unique abilities of the remaining Revenger subgroup cards.

Among the other cards previewed in KKA are several special prints for FC2013; the original Blaster Dark and the SP print Itou Akira artwork of Phantom Blaster Dragon will both be reprinted with commemorative gold lettering over the illustration.

News: New Shadow Paladin, Link Joker Cards Shown

The images at right began circulating through the Japanese blogosphere today, hinting at six new cards from TD10: Purgatory Revenger and TD11: Star-Vader Invasion. The Shadow Paladin units show a reimagined Knight of Nullity, Masquerade from their Blaster subgroup and what appears to be a new version of Abyss Healer, the clan's heal trigger. Speculation holds that the new Masquerade will behave as his original incarnation did but for the Revenger subgroup, and that the last card of those shown is a Dignified Black Dragon to go with the Dignified Gold and Silver Dragons introduced for the Gold and Royal Paladin clans previously.

News: TD10 for June 2013 Release

Bushiroad Inc. turned heads at their press conference today, with the announcement that the highly-anticipated Shadow Paladin Trial Deck will be released in Japan this June with a new artwork for Blaster Dark. Series creator Itou Akira tweeted during the broadcast to confirm that he had created the new artwork personally, as he had previously done for Blaster Blade Liberator and the original Blaster Dark.

The skills of the unit and what its final power is have not been revealed, but it is being speculated that the new Shadow Paladins will follow the current trends established by TD08 and TD09, introducing a subgroup. This is one transition that most ShadowPala cardfighters would consider difficult to screw up; even something as small as a Shadow Paladin copy of Blaster Blade Liberator would be an improvement over the original Blaster Dark.

In other news, two additional sleeves have been announced, for Leading Jewel Knight, Salome of the Royal Paladins and Dragonic Descendant of Narukami. Additionally, a special Fighters' Collection 2013 pack was announced for exclusive release during Japan's Fighter's Climax 2013 event, featuring units for Narukami, Gold Paladin and Genesis. Priced at 300 yen, the pack will uniquely sell only new units printed as RRR-rarity in units of 3 per pack.