Today's Card Analysis: Spiteful Hopper

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 27th, 2018, is a Megacolony Single Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Spiteful Hopper.

AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When placed, [Cost: Soulblast 1] 1 of your other units gets Power +6000 until end of turn. If there are no face-up cards in your damage zone, Countercharge 1.

When played correctly Spiteful Hopper effectively allows you to trade a card in soul for a face-up damage, while turning your rearguard lanes into minimum 15k guards, or bumping up Bloody Hercules/Machining Mantis columns into the magic 28+ range. Because the card can only be used while you have no face-up damage, it lacks the same flexibility as Oracle Guardian Gemini, and can't recoup an entire Spark Hercules turn on its own. For that you have to turn to Bloody Hercules or Butterfly Officer, as these are the only counterchargers that don't care how much damage is already face-up. With Megacolony's countercharge options limited to these three units, it's likely Hopper will get edged out by Officer for the grade 1 lineup much of the time, as the clan already has several desirable grade 1s. Running 4 Machining Hornet and 4 Phantom Black leaves 3~6 slots to divide between Hopper and Officer, and while Officer requires a greater investment to use she also comes attached to a larger payout.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Commander, Gary Gannon.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Commander, Gary Gannon

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 26th, 2018, is a Spike Brothers Single Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Commander Gary Gannon.

AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When an attack it boosts hits a vanguard, [Cost: Put this unit into your soul] draw 2 cards, and put 1 card from your hand on the bottom of your deck.

The original Gary Gannon was a Flame of Hope Aermo clone, and fittingly his remake serves a similar purpose to the Kagerо̄ card in filtering the deck. Gary Gannon has you give up 2 cards to draw 2 cards, a net-neutral exchange that facilitates hand fixing while also allowing you to return trigger units to the deck. In addition to trigger units, Gary can return cards to the deck that you want to search later with the skills of Brakki or General Siefried. This ensures you're not searching for nothing, and also refuels the soul for Siefried, Spike Bouncer, and Black Panther.

The previous Japanese Cards of the Day were Ravenous Dragon Gigarex and Fierce Claw Dragon Laceraterex.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Ravenous Dragon Gigarex and Fierce Claw Dragon Laceraterex

 

The Japanese Cards of the Day for June 25th, 2018, are Tachikaze's VR and an R from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Ravenous Dragon Gigarex and Fierce Claw Dragon Laceraterex.

Ravenous Dragon, Gigarex
AUTO [Vanguard Circle]: When it attacks, put up to 1 card from the top of your deck face-down as an Equip Gauge on each of your rearguards. This unit gets Power +5000 for each of your rearguards until the end of that battle.
ACT [Vanguard Circle]: [Discard 5 Equip Gauges] 3 of your front row rearguards get Power +5000 until end of turn, and if the number of cards in your opponent's damage zone is 4 or less, deal 1 damage to their vanguard.

Gigarex, at one time the inarguable worst Triple Rare in the original game, has been upgraded into an incredible boss card that acts both as an engine for their Equip Gauge-based draw skills and a means of pushing the opponent to higher damage thresholds. In combination with Sonic Noa or Savage Raider you can load a Blightops with 2 Equip Gauges using Gigarex, then retire Blightops via Noa, a rearguard Deathrex, or Refilstego, to add those 2 Equip Gauges to hand and score a +1 to +2 in card advantage depending on which unit you retire Blightops with.

While Gigarex's first skill is a setup ability, his second skill is a devastating finisher that deals direct damage to the opponent by removing your rearguards' Equip Gauges as a cost. Note that this skill isn't once-per-turn, so if you have 10 Equip Gauges in play you can deal 2 damage to the opponent and give +10k to the front row rearguards, though that's extremely hard to pull off. However, because the card does not negate the effects of the triggers damage checked in this way, the skill can backfire on you by giving the opponent more power than you gain through using it should they damage check a trigger. (Bearing in mind that triggers are +10k now and Gigarex only gives +5k.) Also note that Gigarex is designed to synergize with the additional Accel Circles as much as possible by buffing them with his second skill rather than focusing on his normal rearguard circles, and his first skill allows him to power up based on having additional Accels in play.

Fierce Claw Dragon, Laceraterex
AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When placed from hand, you may put the top 1 card of your deck face-down as this unit's Equip Gauge.
AUTO: When retired from Rearguard Circle, [Cost: Soulblast 1] put up to 1 card from this unit's Equip Gauge into your hand.

Meanwhile Laceraterex is akin to Blightops and Raider condensed into a single grade 1, though each skill is less powerful as a result. Because you can only add a single Gauge to hand by retiring Laceraterex, he's effectively a one-for-one trade in most circumstances. Sonic Noa is the only card that can plus off of Laceraterex currently, due to itself being a one-for-one retire-draw, and with much of the Tachikaze deck known to us we probably shouldn't hope for too much more in the department of draw skills. At present there's one Triple Rare, two Single Rares, and several Common slots of the set still unfilled.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Spike Bouncer.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Spike Bouncer

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 22nd, 2018, is a Spike Brothers Triple Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Spike Bouncer.

AUTO [Vanguard/Rearguard Circles]: When placed, [Cost: Counterblast 1, Soulblast 1] look at cards from the top of your deck equal to your vanguard's grade, call up to 1 to Rearguard Circle, and put the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order.
AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: At the end of the battle it attacked, [Cost: Counterblast 1, put this unit into your soul] draw 1 card.

This remake is a serious upgrade for humble Bouncer, turning him into the clan's only means of gaining card advantage in the Standard format. While Spike Bouncer is a clear counterpart to his fellow manga card Gyro Slinger, he replaces the card-from-hand cost with a counterblast-soulblast equivalent to Berserk Dragon, Blaster Blade, and Hi-powered Raizer Custom--and like those cards his superior call represents a clear +1. While these other units are left intercepting away afterward to make use of other units' skills later on, Spike Bouncer's other counterblast allows you to clear him from the field offensively while replenishing the lost soul for General Siefried, Black Panther, and Unite Attacker. And by disappearing from the field, Bouncer opens up the possibility of superior calling something else to the empty circle to attack later...though that will have to wait until more set reveals are out.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Winged Dragon Skyptero.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Winged Dragon, Skyptero

The Japanese Card of the Dayfor June 21st, 2018, is a Tachikaze Single Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Winged Dragon Skyptero.

AUTO: When this unit is retired from Rearguard Circle during your turn, [Cost: Counterblast 1] return this unit to your hand.

A remake of BT02: Onslaught of Dragon Souls' Skyptero, the skill is almost an exact replica of the original but with an important caveat--"during your turn." The original Skyptero could be used to foil retire skills that targeted it, while the new incarnation is strictly intended for synergy with retire costs like Tyrant Deathrex's. Given that this version of Skyptero has average base power rather than being below the margin, it's a welcome exchange.

While Skyptero allows for retire costs to be offset into neutral exchanges, the card also allows Tachikaze to be noncommital with its rearguard placement. You can call Skyptero to an Accel circle for a base 18 swing, retire it with Deathrex and then return it to hand, freeing the circle for a more powerful attacker later like Sharangastego. This flexibility is natural to Tachikaze, and by returning Skyptero to hand allows you to guard with him during the opponent's turn just as the clan did with the Skyptero and Dragon Egg of seven years' past.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Cheer Girl, Franny.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Cheer Girl, Franny

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 20th, 2018, is a Spike Brothers Common from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Cheer Girl Franny.

ACT [Rearguard Circle]: [Cost: Put this unit into your soul, put 1 card from your drop zone on the bottom of your deck] Countercharge 1.

Franny is Spike Brothers' equivalent to Giro, a grade 0 that's not a trigger unit nor a First Vanguard, with a powerful skill as a reward for decreasing the ride consistency of your own deck. If Franny were a grade 1 or 2, it would be easier to make an argument for her; the problem is that being a grade 0, you inherently increase your chance of being gradelocked by running her. While it's no problem for Megacolony to run the similar Jocular Cicada, Cicada is a dramatically more aggressive skill that Megacolony can reuse Cicada Stag Beetle or even set the card as their FV.

What Franny brings to the table is a net -1 to recycle a card from drop for superior calling later and an additional countercharge, permitting the reuse of General Siefried. Siefried is currently the only card in the clan's repertoire that benefits from the countercharge, but because his skill is not once-per-turn it can easily translate to a counterblast 4 or 5 rather than a CB1. This is Franny's role in the clan for the time being, enabling Siefried to bring out two columns with 20k on them, a powerful booster for himself, and pump up himself by 50k. Minussing oneself still isn't a great idea in Spikes, as the clan's only ways to plus are through Draw Triggers and Unite Attacker as a result of their core mechanic being one-for-one trades where they give up a card to gain a card, but final turn is final turn.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Water Gang.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Water Gang

The Japanese Card of the Day is a Megacolony Single Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Water Gang.

AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When it stands, [Cost: Counterblast 1, put this unit into your soul] draw 2 cards.

Water Gang was a staple R when Megacolony's full support first debuted seven years ago in Booster Set 04: Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows for giving the clan on-hit pressure and rare draw power, and his reimagining is similarly joined at the hip to the new deck for being a net +1 that's live from the moment you put him on the board. Right now there are two ways to use Water Gang--either you call him early and use his skill at the start of your next turn when you stand all of your units, or you superior call him with Machining Stag Beetle and stand him with Helldemise in your main phase. The fact that Stag Beetle calls from soul and Water Gang sends himself to soul as part of his cost gives the clan some incredible draw synergy, as each Stag Beetle ride is net neutral thanks to the Protect Gift adding a card to hand, and his superior calls are raw pluses with the trade-off being that they come out at rest. These two in combination allow you to reuse a single Water Gang across multiple turns to rack up card advantage.

With Water Gang's introduction, the Megacolony deck has taken on a more concrete shape, as it's much clearer what we do and don't want to be doing with our counterblast...

Grade 0: 18
x2 Jocular Cicada (FV)
x4 Paralyze Madonna (DT)
x12 Triggers
Grade 1: 12
x4 Machining Hornet
x4 Phantom Black
x4 Platoon Commander, Butterfly Officer
Grade 2: 11
x4 Machining Mantis
x4 Water Gang
x3 Bloody Hercules
Grade 3: 9
x4 Machining Stag Beetle
x3 Machining Spark Hercules
x2 Death Warden Antlion

Of course, several unknowns ambiguities remain about the deck. For one, a Helldemise skill on a grade 1 would be extremely valuable for the Stag-Gang synergy--or for grade 0s, Machining Worker Ant not being a Glyme clone and displacing Cicada could be the most pleasant surprise of the set. With tomorrow's stream coming in just a matter of hours, and full set reveals in ten days' time, we'll know soon enough what the final deck will look like.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Gyro Slinger.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Gyro Slinger

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 18th, 2018, is the final Spike Brothers Double Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Gyro Slinger.

AUTO [Vanguard/Rearguard Circles]: When placed, [Cost: Place 1 card from your hand into your soul] look at cards from the top of your deck equal to your vanguard's grade, call up to 1 card from among them to Rearguard Circle, place the rest of them on the bottom of your deck in any order, and until end of turn the called unit gets Power +5000.

Originally a promotional card used by Morikawa in the manga, Gyro Slinger has gone from an Iron Tail Dragon clone to becoming a unique support card that trades a card in hand for one from deck. This has been a recurring cost for Spike Brothers across the past seven years, allowing them to trade fodder like vanilla Draw Triggers for quality units and build up towards powerful soulblasts. In Standard format  those "powerful soulblasts" are consolidated into their finisher, Unite Attacker. Alongside the likes of Brakki and Juggernaut, Gyro Slinger builds towards being able to pay Unite's cost while creating powerful 23-28k columns that force the opponent to reach a damage threshold where Unite is threatening. Comboing into the aforementioned cards is an ideal way to make lanes that exceed the magic 28 threshold, so this is one RR that's likely to be a staple of the clan just as Little Sage Marron is over in Royal Paladin.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Death Warden Antlion.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Death Warden Antlion

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 15th, 2018, is Megacolony's final Double Rare from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Death Warden Antlion.

AUTO [Vanguard/Rearguard Circle]: When it attacks, [Soulblast 1 grade 3 card, discard 2 cards form your hand] this unit gets Power +10000/Critical +1, and your opponent cannot call Sentinels from hand to Guardian Circle until the end of that battle.

Already there have been accusations of power creep and predictions of the format's doom; but Antlion is not a card we should overestimate anymore than it is a card we should underestimate. Much hype has been made in the past twenty-four hours over combining Antlion with Phantom Black, a combo that prevents the opponent from guarding with both normal units and perfect defense cards. However, consider what you're realistically locking the opponent out of by adding on that additional discard--grade 1s with 10k shield and grade 2s with 5k shield. Antlion already pushes the opponent to guard with trigger unit guardians just on the virtue of those being the cards with the highest shield. Note that unlike in the case of Dragonic Waterfall you don't have Force Markers to layer power onto Antlion with, so with Phantom Black the card is functionally equivalent to 33k, which only requires 25k shield to guard--a Critical or Heal Trigger and virtually any other guardian.

The situations in which Black's normal unit restriction come into play are when the opponent would guard with a Heal and non-Sentinel Draw Trigger, Heal and grade 1, Heal and grade 2 from hand (as opposed to an intercept, which Phantom can't do anything about) a crit and grade 1, or a crit and vanilla Force interceptor. These are very specific scenarios--non-Sentinel draws are run sparingly by Nova Grappler and Kagerо̄, and intercepts are generally favored over guarding with grade 2s from hand.

If you're going to give up a card at all, a better use over Phantom is to stack Butterfly Officers onto Antlion to bump the card past the 38 and 48k thresholds. Of course they're not mutually exclusive, but contrary to popular belief all these discard, soul-in, and self-retire effects Megacolony is getting carry a significant impact on the clan. Megacolony can rapidly gain card advantage thanks to Machining Hornet, Machining Mantis, and Machining Stag Beetle stacked on top of the Protect Gift, but these skills involve deliberately giving up that advantage and crippling one's own defenses rather than maintaining it in the style of Oracle Think Tank. Just because he can use his skill on rearguard does not mean Antlion is a free win; the card has to be carefully built up to and used like any other finisher to close the game out, and botching the play by trying to go for it too early will only lead to making a fool of yourself.

Death Warden Antlion in episode 46 of the original series.

That said, a rearguard Antlion makes for a brutal win condition when combined with Spark Hercules in the late game. Hercules reducing the opponent's power by 5 while buffing both Antlion and your booster of choice by 5 functionally raises Antlion's final power by 15, and stands any Butterfly Officers you used for maximum synergy. Hercules himself can also put a grade 3 to soul with his second skill to set up Antlion, and being a 38k unboosted center isn't exactly something to sneeze at. The Megacolony endgame is shaping up as incredibly powerful precisely because every card the opponent doesn't take away from you in the preceding turns can be used to punish them with a harder push; if you have a hand full of Butterfly Officers and discard fodder, it's entirely on them for not beating those cards out of you.

Finally, Antlion's lore from the classic game:

An exceptionally brutal and cruel mutant that dwells in the deserts and sorts of faraway lands.
Despite being restricted, it has immense power, terrifying the people in the same area as it to the very depths of their souls.
No matter where it is, as long as there’s a few grains of sand, it can form an enormous quicksand trap called “Desert Prison”, which allows it to slowly torture and wear down its prey.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Unite Attacker.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: White Tight End

The Japanese card of the day for June 12th, 2018, is a Spike Brothers Common from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, the grade 1 White Tight End.

AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When it attacks, if the number of your rearguards is 4 or greater, this unit gets Power +10000 until the end of that battle.

White Tight is a powerful grade 1 attacker that swings for a magic 18k on his own, making a 31k column with Wonder Boy or 30 with Funky Bazooka active. The fact that a solo White hits for exactly the number required to make a base 13 vanguard drop 10+ shield should be kept in mind going forward because one of Spike Brothers' overarching mechanics is pumping up rearguards and sending them back to the deck after they attack--give tighty-whitie here a Standard version of Bad End Dragger, and you have a 28k solo polar bear ready to smash face.

That said, on the best of days White Tight is a substitute for Highspeed Brakki. His role is similar to Reckless Express in the old format, a booster of reasonable power that can become an attacker when your options are limited.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Machining Hornet.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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. 

Today's Card Analysis: Archbird, Cheer Girl Marilyn, and Paralyze Madonna

The Japanese Cards of the Day for June 8th, 2018, are the three Double Rare perfect guards from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Tachikaze's Archbird, Spike Brothers' Cheer Girl Marilyn, and Megacolony's Paralyze Madonna.

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.

These four cards are their clans' respective versions of Flash Shield Iseult, Wyvern Guard Barri, Miss Mist, and Twin Blader. Their set numbers more or less confirm what was speculated from the moment the set was announced; each clan will be receiving three Double Rares, with the two spaces between each perfect guard being the slots for their clan's remaining RRs. Of these we already know that Blightops and Sonic Noa are the other two RRs for Tachikaze, thus the clan has no RRs left in the set, while Spike Brothers and Megacolony each have two slots left to fill.

It bears repeating that while each clan will likely receive a grade 1 perfect guard as a Single Rare counterpart to the likes of Ruote Magus and Hate Reflector, Draw Trigger perfects are inherently superior for Standard format for how they free up grade 1 space by combining mandatory trigger slots with mandatory Sentinel slots. The only reasons not to run them are either for budget reasons or to run alternate trigger lineups, and the only clan likely to have alternate lineups at this time is Tachikaze with its Front Triggers. Spike Brothers and Megacolony are more likely to be put in the same position as Royal Paladin and Oracle Think Tank, locked into a minimum of 4 Draw and maximum of 8 Crit.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Jocular Cicada.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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. 

Today's Card Analysis: Jocular Cicada

"It looks weak, but it's anything but harmless."

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 7th, 2018, is a grade 0 Megacolony Common from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Jocular Cicada.

CONT: When this unit is called to Rearguard Circle, call it as Rest.
AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When it attacks, during that battle, this unit's Power is multiplied by 3, and at the end of that battle retire this unit. (Power received from boost is included.)

Cicada is Megacolony's variation on Giro, a grade 0 that isn't necessarily intended to be set as your First Vanguard but provides a reward for running more than the standard number of normal unit 0s. While Giro was defensive, Cicada is an obviously offensive unit that can quickly gain out-of-control levels of power thanks to its ability to triple itself; when boosted with Phantom Black the unit jumps up to a 60k card that can only be guarded with triggers, and every one of your own triggers effectively becomes a 30k when put on Cicada. With two triggers, he can climb as high as 120, and that's before Butterfly Officer boosts. The drawback to this on top of decreasing your deck's consistency with an extra 0 and taking a -1 from retiring him is that Cicada has what's functionally "summoning sickness" (to borrow from Magic); it can't attack on the same turn it's placed.

One potential way around this is if Megacolony preserves some of the from-soul superior calls found on its Machining units in the old format. The old Machinings like Stag Beetle, Warsickle, and Scorpio MkII, all called cards from soul but were restricted to "Machining" units, and further had cards like Little Bee that could stand rested rearguards. If the new Machining cards call from soul, and if they are not restricted to targeting Machinings, and if they have units that can stand other cards, Cicada has a chance as a very lethal card able to reach incredible levels of power, and potentially could even be a viable FV...

...but perhaps the most optimistic outcome would instead be Cicada foreshadowing a lesser implementation of similar card effects. Let's not forget that Giro lead us to Herculean Knight Allobrox, a grade 2 that under the right conditions shared Giro's property of being impossible to attack. Cicada has the same potential to be the template for a more easily used card to come, with less overall power but a similarly-strong game-closing skill.

Cicada's set number is 061, putting him just after Butterfly Officer. As trigger units typically go after the normal unit grade 0s, the clan's Glyme clone is likely right after Cicada in the setlist--potentially Machining Worker Ant, or Madame Mirage.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Savage Raider.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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. 

Today's Card Analysis: Savage Raider

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 6th, 2018, is a Tachikaze Common from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar that supports the new Armament Gauge mechanic introduced yesterday.

AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When placed from your hand, place 1 card from the top of your down face-down as Armament Gauge for 1 of your rearguards.
AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When it attacks a vanguard, you may move any number of Armament Gauge from 1 of your units to 1 of your rearguards.

Savage's second skill allows the rearrangement of any amount of Armament Gauge cards from any unit to any other rearguard every turn, so that Gauges placed on irrelevant units in the early game with Sonic Noa can be transplanted to cards with on-retire uses of the Armament Gauge like Blightops. The end goal of these plays is to manipulate the Gauge mechanic to come out at a net positive after retiring a unit, sacrificing one to draw two, and so forth. The only limitation is that it can't move Gauge between multiple units simultaneously, so you couldn't choose two rearguards to move Gauge from onto a third rearguard.

His first skill confirms that Tachikaze can amass Gauge outside of on-boost skills, which is important because it means the clan can take full advantage of the extra front row rearguard circles it gains through the Accel Gift to rack up multiple Gauge in one turn via on-call effects. If building Armament Gauge had been restricted to on-boost skills as it appeared yesterday, then Tachikaze's Accel circles wouldn't be able to contribute to resource development. Being able to gain gauge on-call allows for rapid allocation of resources and a form of resource development independent of game flow, restricted only by the cards available on a particular turn.

This has particular implications for the tempo of Tachikaze's Gauge mechanics. Because Gauge can be freely rearranged later on in the fight, from the moment the clan has the ability to build Gauge it should be doing so. At the moment opportunities to build Gauge are very limited, with Noa and Raider being the only cards we've seen, but this is inevitably going to change as we get more Destructive Roar reveals. Even after options expand however, it remains important to maximize the amount of Gauge built up as early as possible in order to place that gauge onto retire targets and set up Deathrex's final turn. The deck wants to hit a particular curve of development, one that will become more apparent as more cards are revealed. At the moment, it's easy to see Savage Raider being a staple alongside Blightops and Noa.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Platoon Commander Butterfly Officer.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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. 

Today's Card Analysis: Platoon Commander, Butterfly Officer

The Japanese Card of the Day for June 5th, 2018, is a Megacolony Common from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, Platoon Commander Butterfly Officer.

AUTO [Rearguard Circle]: When placed, [Cost: Rest this unit] choose 1 of your other rearguards, and it gets Power +10000. If you chose a rearguard, at the end of that turn, put that unit into your soul, and Countercharge 1.

Butterfly Officer is just barely above Luck Bird in base power, and requires forfeiting her boost for the turn to use her, but in exchange her skill gives on rearguard an entire trigger's worth of power and the opportunity to countercharge. Further offsetting the card's power bonus is that it sends the targeted rearguard to soul at the end of the turn, a net -1 in card advantage. To make using Butterfly's skill worthwhile, you have to time it so that the play will take away more shield than what you yourself give up by having to replace that booster next turn.

Of note is that this is Megacolony's second countercharger, after Bloody Hercules. The only other clan with multiple counterchargers at this time is Nova Grappler, which has access to Transraizer, Perfect Raizer, and Boomerang Thrower. The design plan there was that while Novas had comparatively fewer counterblast skills compared to other clans like Royal Paladin, their counterblasts were concentrated in the more-expensive Perfect Raizer. (Currently the only cards in Standard to cost CB2 are Perfect Raizer, Vortex Dragon, and Verti.) Time will tell if Megacolony is following a similar plan, but thus far their only unit to use CB is Machining Mantis.

Also of interest is that Butterfly's send-to-soul condition is in-theme with the soul-manipulating mechanics of classic Machining Megacolony. While she herself isn't a Machining unit, if the subclan follows through on its old call-from-soul plays, Butterfly could find herself becoming a staple in it. In the classic deck Machining Armor Beetle served the role of cheaply paralyzing the opponent's rearguards while simultaneously bouncing Machining Worker Ant or Little Bee back to soul so they could be superior called by Stag Beetle next turn to recycle their skills, and Butterfly could easily fulfill a similar niche.

The previous Japanese Cards of the Day were Heavy Artillery Dragon Sharangastego, and Sharp Blade Dragon Refilstego.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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. 

Today's Card Analysis: Heavy Artillery Dragon Sharangastego and Sharp Blade Dragon Refilstego

 

The first Japanese Cards of the Day of June are two Commons from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar, the grade 3 Heavy Artillery Dragon Sharangastego and the grade 2 Sharp Blade Dragon Refilstego. Sharangastego is named after Sharanga, the bow used by the god of preservation Vishnu to duel the god of destruction Shiva in Hindui lore, while Refilstego is named after Refil, an alternate name for the sword Ridill used by the blacksmith Reginn to cut out the heart of the dragon Fafnir in Norse myth. (The "f" is pronounced with a "v" sound.) Fittingly, these two Dinodragons are long-distance and close-quarters fighters, though they each possess the same skill to complement one another.

ACT [Vanguard/Rearguard Circles]: [Cost: Counterblast 1, retire 1 of your other rearguards] All of your "Heavy Artillery Dragon, Sharangastego" and "Sharp Blade Dragon, Refilstego" on your Vanguard and Rearguard Circles get Power +10000 until end of turn.

Although Sharanga lacks the Accel Gift and Refil is a base 8000, their skills make them two of the most powerful rearguards possible. Accel circles give Tachikaze access to more than the normal two front row rearguard circles, and in a given game you're likely to have as many as five front row units by the end of it. Being able to simultaneously pump up two to three of those at once is powerful, and what's more is that these skills are not once per turn, so if the opponent is at 5 damage and you have cards to spare you can use these skills up to 5 times to give +50000 to each of those units. Assuming no perfect guards, that's a 62k unboosted attack from Sharanga demanding 50k guard from Force grade 3s and 55k from Accel and Protect bosses--three to five guardians each depending on how many Heal and Critical Triggers they have to guard with. (Just don't try it versus Protect decks.)

This does bring up an important point regarding clans that use retiring as a cost: unlike other clans, Tachikaze, Shadow Paladin, and Great Nature each have the ability to give up a long-term booster in order to gain short-term power. In order for this to be a worthwhile play, the unit sacrificed has to contribute less power on that turn than what you would gain through the retire skill. So killing an 11k booster on par with Lion Mane Stallion or Aermo would be a total waste, while a vanilla Draw would be the perfect target.

The previous Japanese Card of the Day was Machining Mantis.

V-Extra Booster 01: 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Karma Queen and Super Vanguard Rares

"Come, fight for me."

The Japanese Cards of the Day for May 25th, 2018, are a Common from V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar and four Super Vanguard Rares from V-Booster Set 01: Unite! Team Q4, King of Knights Alfred, Imperial Daughter, Dragonic Waterfall, and Perfect Raizer.

Karma Queen is a clone of the Oracle Think Tank card Shooting Bobby. Like all vanillas in the Standard format, Queen's stats are determined by the Gift her clan possesses. Force clans like Spike Brothers have grade 1 vanillas with 8000 power and 10000 shield, Accel clans like Tachikaze have vanillas with 9000 power and no shield, and Protect clans like Megacolony have vanillas with 7000 power and 15000 shield. In a draw-focused deck like Oracle Think Tank that makes sense, as once the field is filled the excess grade 1s can be used solely for having shield value on par with a Critical Trigger, but because Megacolony traditionally revolves around denying the opponent advantage and conserving existing cards by stopping units from standing rather than on drawing cards, unless we see draw effects comparable to CEO Amaterasu and Circle Magus, at best Karma is likely to be a filler grade 1 when you need to fill out a 13th space and have nothing more compelling to fill the slot.

It's a shame because the original Karma Queen was the first card in Megacolony shown paralyzing a unit back in the first Cardfight!! Vanguard anime. While the card was often criticized even in the BT01 days for costing counterblast 2 just to stop a unit from standing, Mr. Invincible decks put her to good use by effectively reducing her cost to CB1. Alas, this time around we'll have to look to other units to fill that role.

(Unless we get a Megacolony Start Deck...)

Karma Queen's lore from the classic game:

The lady boss of the crime syndicate Megacolony's armed robbery group.
With her colossal wasp minions, she sometimes devours the economy of an entire town.

The skills of the SVRs have already been discussed in their respective articles, so today we'll instead touch on rarity. Super Vanguard Rares are 4 per case (4 in 20 boxes) and no box contains more than 1 SVR, making them rarer than Origin Rares but more common than Image Ride Rares. As they are only alternate prints of VRs, SVRs are optional but also ensure each case contains functionally 6 copies of each VR. That means each case sustains 1.5 players for any given clan.

The previous Japanese Cards of the day were Funky Bazooka and the four Origin Rares of V-BT01.

V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4 launches in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd. It is 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.

Today's Card Analysis: Asura Kaiser

フィニッシュホールド!

The Japanese card of the day for May 1st, 2018, is the first Nova Grappler grade 3 of the Standard format, a Triple Rare in V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4, and one of Katsuragi Kamui's key cards from the anime series, Asura Kaiser.

AUTO [Vanguard Circle]: When your drive check reveals a grade 2 or greater card, Stand 1 of your rearguards, and if the revealed card is grade 3 or greater, by paying [Counterblast 1], that rearguards gets Power +10000 until end of turn.

Asura Kaiser is the first grade 3 revealed to not possess the Force ability, instead possessing the Imaginary Gift "Accel." This skill is a little difference; when you ride a unit with Accel, you immediately add a Gift Marker next to your leftmost rearguard circle. That Marker becomes a new rearguard circle, and any unit in it gets 10k during your turn, but cannot be boosted because it has no corresponding backrow circle. When you next ride a unit with Accel, you get another Marker next to your rightmost rearguard circle. After that it alternates with each ride from left to right, stacking as many times as you have grade 3s with Accel.

Accel is an incredible mechanic because it's one of the only ways to get more than three attacks per turn in a format where Stand Triggers no longer exist. It's also important to the future-proofing of rearguard-dependent clans; when Link Joker eventually arrives in the Standard format, its lock ability will no longer be able to fully shut down Nova Grappler's multiple-attack strategies, because even though they can take away the rearguard circles, Novas can now create more in response to that. Accel better balances these kinds of matchups to give these decks a fighting chance.


As for his skill, it's an effective update to the classic Asura formula. Most decks can expect to run the standard 13 grade 1s, 12 grade 2s, and 8 grade 3s, which carries one of the optimal probabilities to successfully ride to grade 3 in 3 turns. (The exactly optimal build for that purpose is 13-11-9, but here it only impacts the chance of getting Asura's 10k.) This means you'll have 20 cards total in your deck capable of resolving at least one part of Asura's skill; realistically that's one grade 3 on vanguard, a grade 2 in soul, and 2~3 grade 2 or greater units removed from deck either as rearguards or in damage. That leaves around 15-16 additional cards in your deck that can resolve a part of the skill during your first turn as a grade 3, functionally doubling your chance for your drive checks to do something.

Already Kaiser is running into the same perception issue both his past self and Goku ran into back in the day--cardfighters underestimating him based on his chance to do nothing at all. What this critique misses is how the grade 3s in your deck effectively increase your trigger count to 23~24, and all of these units provide the only means of standing cards mid-battle phase. It messes with how the opponent guards Kaiser and the rearguards, because they now have to take into account not just the possibility of you checking triggers, but being able to suddenly make additional attacks with +10 or +13 on them.

Considering the following field:

You open this turn with Extra Muscular in play already, so he gains 3k when you stand your units at the beginning of your turn. Then you ride Asura Kaiser, add a Gift Marker to the left of Extra Muscular and call another Muscular, followed by your other rearguards. First you swing with your Muscular boosted by Turboraizer (14k) then with your Accelerated Muscular (22k) and then with Asura. (17k) Drive check 1: Perfect Raizer!--Asura's skill stands the Accelerated Muscular, it gains 10k, and Muscular's skill grants it +3k more. Drive check 2: Front Trigger! Your entire front row gets 10k. Now your Accelerated Muscular can attack again for 35k, and your Perfect Raizer for 10 + whatever his base power is. (Hopefully 13000.)

Some points of note.

• The two Nova Grappler normal units we have confirmed information about both have below-average base power. 9k grade 2s are equivalent to 8ks in the old format, except that 8s could actually make basic columns with vanilla boosters. Extra Muscular and Asura Kaiser by default only make numbers versus other Nova Grappler decks, with Muscular needing his skill to proc twice for him to break the base 13 threshold necessary to hit such lofty targets as Knight of Aggregation Firno and Wyvern Strike Agaruda.
• The lack of an additional 10k from Force is a vast difference in Accel and Protect decks, because it means you can almost never swing unboosted with your vanguard. Moreover, it requires greater field investment because if you don't max out your attacks each turn after riding to grade 3, you're just playing a weaker Force deck with fewer options.
• Despite their lower bases, the incredible power Front Triggers bring and Asura's skill actually going off both become overwhelming quickly. The Accel circle Extra Muscular attacked for a functional 10k guard on its first swing, then demanded 25k shield on its second.
• We really need some Nova grade 1s to be revealed so I don't have to use Turboraizers as boosters in future examples.

Asura Kaiser being the first base 12000 grade 3 of the format is a huge trade-off for what it brings to the deck. All previous grade 3s, even the vanillas, have been base 13ks. At the moment there are several ways to make 23 and 28k lanes in the game and comparatively few scenarios that make specific 22s and 27ks, but the fact that two Anils or a Start Deck Nehalem and any 8k booster make a basic column versus Asura is something that should not go overlooked when playing with or against Nova Grappler. Even the most basic cards in the game don't need to worry about forming columns versus Kaiser.

This is a pretty radical departure from how classic Nova Grappler once played. When the clan first debuted in Descent of the King of Knights, they were one of just three out of ten clans to possess an 11k grade 3, with Alfred, Amaterasu, Monster Frank, Demon Eater, and Voidmaster all being base 9~10. In Standard the clan has shifted away from its mostly consistent defensive base to an offense-oriented framework. It raises the question of why Asura specifically is a base 12--is this a trait of Accel grade 3s in general? Is it that he gives a 10k boost to anything rather than a 5k boost to a specific unit? Is it that half of his skill has no cost, only a condition?

Let's hope we can puzzle this one out by the time BT01 hits.

The previous Japanese cards of the day were Grime, Chrono Dran Z, and Blaster Blade.

V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4 will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018. 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 Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. They will be accompanied by a new sleeve based on the "Imaginary Gift" design.

The first Extra Booster set of Standard, V-EB01: The Destructive Roar will launch in Japan June 29th, 2018, and August 3rd for the English-speaking world. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll.