Tracking Vanguard's Mountain Lily

Unmarked spoilers for the entire series ahead.
One of the recurring symbolic items in season 1 is the mountain lily. This isn't an official name--it's just what the flower itself most resembles.

The first time the mountain lily is encountered is in ride 31, at the start of the second match between Q4 and AL4. Ren is seen holding one in his observation deck, and a visual connection is made between him crushing the flower and Kyou feeling pain(presumably, from Ren's Qualia. It was demonstrated in both rides 30 and 49 that Ren can use his Qualia to hurt others, and Aichi does something similar in 42.) It's worth noting that in the Japanese language of flowers, lilies are used to refer to "purity" and "chastity."

At the time the flower seems out of place, but the viewer is often looking in the wrong direction to see its meaning. The mountain lily isn't at all connected to Kyou, but is instead to Kai. This is because its first chronological appearance is in ride 49, during Kai's flashback to four years ago.

These mountain lilies were the only kind of flower seen at Kai's parents funeral. With this information revealed, the lilies take on a sinister meaning; their significance to Ren likely implies that, as Kai's closest friend and fellow founding member of the Foo Fighters, Ren was divulged the circumstances of their deaths. The lilies act as a whole plot reference for all of the tragedies from four years ago, starting with Kai's orphaning and ending at him abandoning Suzugamori. As Tetsu states in ride 31;

 "Ren is preoccupied with Kai. No..."hates him" is more accurate..."

Where Tetsu chose to stay by his friend, even in spite of his growing obsession with strength, sadism and desire to humiliate others, Kai refused to take part in the Foo Fighter's plot. Ren saw this as the ultimate betrayal, and in ride 32 even demands an apology;

Ren's demand for an apology shows that he doesn't believe himself to be in the wrong in the slightest. It's Kai who messed up, and it's Kai who needs to pay. By crushing the flower that Ren knows was present at Mr. and Mrs. Kai's funeral, he's trampling on his friends' life and their shared history. Ren has gone from wanting his friend back, to senselessly lashing out at Kai, attempting everything to hurt him as much as is possible--up to and including turning Aichi into Suzugamori 2.0, pushing Kai to quit Q4, and be left isolated again. By ride 48 Kai has no one but Miwa to turn to, and it's only because Toshiki finally overcomes his own flaws and reaches out to Aichi that Ren's plan to put Kai on his knees fails.

The final appearance of the mountain lily is ride 53, while Ren awaits for the results of the national tournament elimination round.

Here we see that Ren actually has a vase full of these mountain lilies. Note that while Ren holds a trimmed lily here, and the one he crushes in 31 has the top two leaves remaining, the vase he takes them from and the funeral bouquets seen in the flashbacks all have the leaves radiating wildly out from the stem, a characteristic of the Japanese mountain lily.

 

Once again, Ren crushes the lily he's holding. This time the act of tearing the flower up has a different meaning--Ren has just had his plan to isolate Kai ruined, he himself was publicly humiliated by Aichi, and his main plot to "take over" Japan is for the very first time under serious threat. Aichi and Kai are literally the only people in the country capable of fighting Ren on equal ground, and they are now both willfully hunting him. Breaking this flower, rather than being a statement of hatred, is Ren's crossing of the Rubicon. He doesn't care about getting Kai back anymore, but instead is fighting to reassert his position as the top Vanguard fighter in Japan, and return their humiliation tenfold.

Episode Guide: Volume 1, Chapter 3

Seriously, if you guys don't like the blue just tell me, I'll switch it right back.

Game Set Volume 1, Chapter 3: Birth of the Assistant Fighter!!

SENDOU AICHI VS TOKURA MISAKI

AICHI TURN 1

[V] Graeme(6000) vs Lozenge Magus(3000)

Aichi's hand: Six. Little Sage Marron, Blaster Blade, Knight Squire Alen, Knight of Silence Gallatin and two others.

Aichi's damage: 0/6

Triggers: 16

Misaki's hand: Five. Circle Magus, Weather Forecaster Miss Mist, Promise Daughter, Battle Sister Chocolat and Battle Sister Cocoa.

Misaki's damage: 0/6

Triggers: 15

Aichi rides Little Sage, Marron(8000) and ends his turn.

MISAKI TURN 1

[V] Little Sage, Marron(8000) vs Lozenge Magus(3000)

Aichi's hand: Five. Blaster Blade, Knight Squire Alen, Knight of Silence Gallatin and two others.

Aichi's damage: 0/6

Triggers: 16

Misaki's hand: Six. Circle Magus, Weather Forecaster Miss Mist, Promise Daughter, Battle Sister Chocolat, Battle Sister Cocoa and one other.

Misaki's damage: 0/6

Triggers: 15

Misaki rides Circle Magus(7000) and Lozenge moves to the back row. Using Circle's skill, Misaki checks the top card of the deck, and chooses to leave it on top.

Boosted by Lozenge, Circle(10000) attacks, gaining an additional +3000 from Lozenge's skill. Misaki drive checks Oracle Guardian, Nike(CT +5000 +1 Critical) giving all effects to Circle(18000 +1.) Aichi damage checks one unseen card, and then Giro.

Lozenge returns to the deck.

AICHI TURN 2

[V] Little Sage, Marron(8000) vs Circle Magus(7000)

Aichi's hand: Six. Blaster Blade, Knight Squire Alen, Knight of Silence Gallatin and three others.

Aichi's damage: 2/6

Triggers: 16

Misaki's hand: Six. Oracle Guardian Nike, Weather Forecaster Miss Mist, Promise Daughter, Battle Sister Chocolat, Battle Sister Cocoa and one other.

Misaki's damage: 0/6

Triggers: 15

Aichi rides Blaster Blade(9000) then calls Knight Squire, Alen(7000) and Knight of Silence, Gallatin(10000).

Blaster Blade is guarded by Weather Forecaster, Miss Mist(S13000.) Her skill functions as a perfect defense against any grade 2 or lower unit, and so his attack cannot connect. Drive check is not shown.

Gallatin and Alen go unguarded. Misaki damage checks two cards.

MISAKI TURN 2

[R] Knight of Silence, Gallatin(10000) vs No rearguard

[V] Blaster Blade(9000) vs Circle Magus(7000)

[R] Knight Squire, Alen(7000) vs No rearguard

Aichi's hand: Four unseen cards.

Aichi's damage: 2/6

Triggers: 16

Misaki's hand: Six. Oracle Guardian Nike, Promise Daughter, Battle Sister Chocolat, Battle Sister Cocoa and one other.

Misaki's damage: 2/6

Triggers: 15

Misaki rides Promise Daughter(9000), then calls Battle Sisters Chocolat(6000) and Cocoa(6000) to the rearguard. Bizarrely, she does not use Cocoa's skill.

The remaining fight is not shown.

Aichi's victory.

Notes

• Circle's combo attack with Lozenge Magus is called Resist Foresight.
• Misaki's past is divulged much more casually than in the anime. We aren't shown the circumstances of the events, but we do see her and Shin praying together.
  

Decks used in Chapter 3:
Misaki's deck: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody (Manga) 6/50 cards 
Grade 0
x1 Lozenge Magus HT
Grade 1
x1 Circle Magus
x1 Weather Forecaster, Miss Mist
x1 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x1 Battle Sister, Cocoa
Grade 2
x1 Promise Daughter

Grade 0
x1 Lozenge Magus HT

Grade 1
x1 Circle Magus
x1 Weather Forecaster, Miss Mist
x1 Battle Sister, Chocolat
x1 Battle Sister, Cocoa

Grade 2
x1 Promise Daughter

Aichi's deck: Shining Swordsman of the Holy Land (Manga) 7/50 cards

Grade 0
x1 Graeme
x1 Flogal ST
x1 Giro
Grade 1
x1 Little Sage, Marron
x1 Mirubiru
x1 Knight Squire, Alen
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade

Grade 0
x1 Graeme
x1 Flogal ST
x1 Giro

Grade 1
x1 Little Sage, Marron
x1 Mirubiru
x1 Knight Squire, Alen

Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade

On the use of the word "bunshin" and Vanguard

One word that has been a repeated key phrase throughout all of the first season is ぶんしん. I'm going to come out and say right away that this word does not translate at all well into English; there are things that you can say in one language that you simply can't say in another.

For example, you can say רוּחַ("ruach") in Hebrew, which has a translation in Latin(bonus points for having both female and male versions of a nonliving word) but no corresponding English one. And while you can list the dictionary meanings of such words, you cannot repeat said meanings every time that word comes up in a text or film(hence the birth of the dreaded translator's note.)

So what is "bunshin"? Crunchyroll has chosen to translate the word as "avatar," as has whatever dub team is working on the English release of the anime. This is probably the most accurate term for the purposes of Vanguard. It's in this term that Aichi describes his two Blaster units. Compare with how Kai defines Dragonic Overlord; ほんとのすがた　"honto no sugata" or "true form," which is a distinct and separate term.

Though I say that avatar is the most accurate translation, avatar hasn't had its current meaning for very long. "Avatar" as a word has existed for 7500 years, originating in the Hindu religion as a word to speak about the various forms of particular gods. Avatar itself is not an English word, nor does its meaning in English match its meaning in Sanskrit. In Hinduism, avatar is an "appearance, descent" from the heavens, while in English we use this word to mean "incarnation." Much like bunshin and ruach, the original sense of avatar has no English equivalent.

The current use of the word avatar was codified in Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel, Snow Crash, in which he used it to describe the digital icons representing people on the internet. It's from this novel that we get the modern term, used to describe images representing user posts on forums and social media websites like tumblr. "Bunshin" has not had a proper translation until just 20 years ago.

Taking this into account, Vanguard is by far not the first series to use "bunshin." Chronologically, this term has posed trouble for translators of both the 1991 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and the 1998 Yu-Gi-Oh! TV anime(produced by Toei, separate from the 2000-2004 anime.) "Bunshin" continues to trouble Zelda fans due to how its wildly different meanings affected A Link to the Past's plot.

In the aforementioned Zelda game, bunshin was translated as "alter-ego," referring to the primary antagonist, Ganon, and his relationship to a secondary antagonist encountered much earlier in the game, Agahnim. There are two takes on Agahnim--first, that he is truly just a disguised version of Ganon. Second, that he is a separate but linked entity which sought to free Ganon in exchange for power.

"Bunshin" at the time had no good translation. Avatar simply didn't mean what it did then, what it does now. "Bunshin" can mean to give live birth, to divide in two, as well as to describe one's own child, and the act and results of reincarnation. Various fanmade Vanguard websites may mention "my second self," which is another translation for "bunshin." In Vanguard ride 11, Ninja Master M uses a derived term to refer to his body-double technique.

In A Link to the Past's case, if avatar were a more widely used word at the time, it may have been used instead of "alter-ego," though truthfully we'll never know, as once a translated script is established, its establishers are generally hesitant to shy away from it(just look at how Samus Aran is still described as a "bounty hunter.")

Meanwhile, the 1998 Yu-Gi-Oh! has what is perhaps the most cringe-worthy translation of "bunshin."

This is probably the worst possible translation of "bunshin" imaginable, but even though avatar did exist in its current meaning in 1998, the term was not popular outside of science fiction circles, so it's certainly an understandable fumble. "Alter-ego" doesn't sound as nice as avatar, nor have the same connotations, but it is adequate. "Bunshin" is quite simply a difficult word, much like trying to explain Übermensch without dipping into German. Avatar really is the best translation, and we should all tip our hats to Crunchy for hitting the mark.

Episode Guide: Volume 1, Chapter 2

Game Set Volume 1, Chapter 2: Let's Go to Card Capital!

SENDOU AICHI VS MIWA TAISHI
TAISHI TURN 2
[V] Little Sage, Marron(8000) vs Unknown
Aichi's hand: Unknown.
Aichi's damage: 5/6
Triggers: 16
Taishi's hand: Unknown.
Taishi's damage: Unknown.
Triggers: 16

Taishi rides Cup Bowler(9000). Drive check unknown; Aichi damage checks his sixth damage.
Taishi's victory.

MIWA TAISHI VS KATSURAGI KAMUI
KAMUI TURN 3/4
[V] Unknown vs Perfect Raizer(????)
[R] Unknown vs No rearguard
Taishi's hand: Unknown.
Taishi's damage: 5/6
Triggers: 16
Kamui's hand: Four.
Kamui's damage: Unknown.
Triggers: 16

Kamui attacks with Perfect Raizer, drive check unknown. Taishi damage checks his sixth card.
Kamui's victory.

SENDOU AICHI VS KATSURAGI KAMUI
KAMUI TURN 1
[V] Graeme(6000) vs Battleraizer(3000)
Aichi's hand: Five. Knight Squire Alen, Blaster Blade and three others.
Aichi's damge: 0/6
Triggers: 16
Kamui's hand: Six. Raizer Custom, High-Powered Raizer Custom and four others.
Kamui's damage:0/6
Triggers: 15

Kamui rides Raizer Custom(6000), moving Battleraizer out to the rearguard through its skill. Due to Raizer Custom's skill, it gains +11000 power when there is a Battleraizer behind it.

• Differences from real life: Raizer Custom's skill only works on your turn.

AICHI TURN 1
[V] Graeme(6000) vs Raizer Custom(6000+11000) boosted by Battleraizer(3000)
Aichi's hand: Six. Knight Squire Alen, Blaster Blade and four others.
Aichi's damage: 0/6
Triggers: 16
Kamui's hand: Five. High-Powered Raizer Custom and four others.
Kamui's damage: 0/6
Triggers: 15

Aichi rides Knight Squire, Alen(7000), but does not have enough power to attack.

KAMUI TURN 2
[V] Knight Squire, Alen(7000) vs Raizer Custom(6000+11000) boosted by Battleraizer(3000)
Aichi's hand: Five. Blaster Blade and four others.
Aichi's damage: 0/6
Triggers: 16
Kamui's hand: Six. High-Powered Raizer Custom and five others.
Kamui's damage: 0/6
Triggers: 15

Kamui rides High-Powered Raizer Custom(5000).
HPRC(5000) attacks unboosted, drive check unknown. Due to HPRC's skill, it gains +11000 power, for a total of HRPC(16000).

• Differences from the anime: In real life HPRC has 8000 power and gains +8000 from having Battleraizer behind it. The ultimate attack power is the same. However, in real life the skill only works on your turn, not the opponent's.

Aichi's damage check is not shown.

AICHI TURN 2
[V] Knight Squire, Alen(7000) vs High-Powered Raizer Custom(5000+11000) boosted by Battleraizer(3000)
Aichi's hand: Six. Blaster Blade and five others.
Aichi's damage: 1/6
Triggers: 16
Kamui's hand: Six unknown cards.
Kamui's damage: 0/6
Triggers: 15

Aichi rides Blaster Blade(9000) and counterblasts 2 to retire Battleraizer, dropping High-Powered Raizer Custom's attack to 5000 points.
Blaster Blade attacks, drive check unknown. Kamui's damage check is not shown.
The remaining turns of the match are skipped.
Aichi's victory.

Notes

• Cup Bowler's attack is called "Kendama Flame." A kendama is a type of Japanese toy, which Cup Bowler gets his name from.
• Perfect Raizer's attack is the same as Asura Kaizer's; "Finish Hold."
• High-Powered Raizer Custom's attack is called "Hammer Spank."(?!)
• Blaster Blade's "Pinpoint Burst" counterblast is illustrated to be similar to its anime counterpart this time, with the blade dividing into three sections. However, in this incarnation it shoots a beam straight out rather than along the ground.
• Blaster Blade's attack is called "Final Blade" in this chapter.

Decks used in Chapter 2:
Miwa Taishi's deck: Miwa (Manga) 1/50 cards
Grade 2
x1 Cup Bowler

Aichi's deck: Shining Swordsman of the Holy Land (Manga) 7/50 cards
Grade 0
x1 Graeme
x1 Flogal ST
x1 Giro
Grade 1
x1 Little Sage, Marron
x1 Mirubiru
x1 Knight Squire, Alen
Grade 2
x1 Blaster Blade

Kamui's deck: Kamui (Manga) 4/50 cards
Grade 0
x1 Battleraizer ST
Grade 1
x1 Raizer Custom
Grade 2
x1 High-powered Raizer Custom
Grade 3
x1 Perfect Raizer

Deckbuilding: Staple Cards

Deckbuilding Step 2: Staple Cards
As discussed previously, a balanced deck will have 9 free spaces to place any cards its fighter likes. Those nine free spaces however, will be in part be taken up by staple cards. These are cards which you can't have a deck without, because they're too good. I'm not talking about Dragonic Overlord, Soul Saver Dragon, Majesty Lord Blaster or whatever the latest, most powerful grade 3 is--I'm talking about truly timeless cards that will be reprinted ten and twenty years from now. These cards are for the most part shared between clans, and you can't get around them no matter what your playstyle is.

The first and most immediate, is the heal trigger. You can only have up to four of these in a deck, and they will save your life where it counts. If you're looking to enter into serious competition, then four of your sixteen triggers will be heal triggers no matter what. For Royal Paladin this is Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine; for Kagerou it's Dragon Monk, Genjo; for Nova Grappler it's Round Girl, Clara. Find your clan's heal trigger, and add four of it to your deck.

The second is what the Japanese call 完全防禦 "kanzen bougyo" or perfect defense. This is a grade 1 with a shield score of 0 which, when called to the guard circle, allows you to drop a card of the same clan as it and your vanguard to completely nullify one attack. The critical importance of the perfect defense is that it will stop skills from activating, and make any triggers your opponent drive checks useless to their vanguard. For example, Phantom Blaster Dragon's skill requires it to counterblast 2 and sacrifice 3 of its Shadow Paladin rearguards to activate. Since killing rearguards is the same as destroying your hand, because you have to call other units to replace them, this is quite the expensive skill. Dropping a perfect defense in front of PBD will mean that your opponent has just paid four cards(the cost of riding, and the cost of PBD's skill) for nothing where you paid two to stop it.


Likewise, there are a number of "megablast"-type cards which soulblast 8 and counterblast 5 to activate their skills. Dropping a perfect defense on them means that they just expended all of their soul and damage for no effect.


There should be at least 2 perfect defense cards in your deck, and 1 more for every draw trigger you add in, maxing out at 4. Unlike the heal triggers, this comes out of your 9-card allowance, because you don't want to ride a perfect defense card.


Outside of these two definitive groups, what does and does not constitute a staple is a matter open for debate. However, though their skill conditions vary greatly from clan to clan, grade 2 and 1 units which together form a 20000-power column tend to crop up as staples, and following the fourth booster set so do grade 3 and 1 units. 20000 is a very important number for individual attackers in Vanguard, because when the target of the attack is a grade 3, it takes about 2-3 cards to guard. Coming from two or more units, this is automatically more cards than the opponent will gain through twin drive and their draw phase, ruining their hand.

Starting Vanguards: Oracle Think Tank

Oracle Think Tank

Options: Lozenge Magus, Sphere Magus, Godhawk Ichibyoshi

Review: The first clan to lack a Trumpeter clone, Oracle Think Tank is no worse off for it. Lozenge Magus and Sphere Magus are like Battleraizer, cycling triggers that move to rearguard circles when ridden over. The difference being, these are heal triggers, making them by default required in a deck. As such, even for a deck that chooses not to run them as the starter, these two are essential to all Oracle Think Tank decks.

Restating my position on Battleraizer, these cards are a form of hand conservation. Lozenge/Sphere comes from “nowhere,” taking nothing away from your hand and instead giving you a free unit. When compared to the likes of Stardust Trumpeter, Undeux and Kaleido Ace, you will generally call one less unit because you are gaining one automatically, removing the pressure from your hand.

Despite sharing the ability and benefits Battleraizer came with, Lozenge and Sphere are not the decisive starters for Oracle Think Tank. The alternative is an attractive, if somewhat risky card that keeps one's hand even more closely guarded than Lozenge. Godhawk, Ichibyoshi searches out the top five cards of your deck at the start of your ride phase, and if Goddess of the Crescent Moon, Tsukuyomi is present in those five cards, he superior rides her from the deck. Likewise, the Crescent and Half Moon forms of Tsukuyomi each search out the top five cards in an identical fashion, for their corresponding higher-grade counterparts.

Because all forms of Tsukuyomi are ridden from the deck, this protects the player from having to pay the cost of riding. In a Lozenge-style ride line(Lozenge Magus → Oracle Guardian, Gemini → Oracle Guardian, Wiseman → CEO Amaterasu) the hand at the end of the third turn is 9 cards, but in an Ichibyoshi-style ride line(Godhawk, Ichibyoshi → Goddess of the Crescent Moon, Tsukuyomi → Goddess of the Half Moon, Tsukuyomi → Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi) the hand at the end of the third turn is ten, a one card advantage over Lozenge-style riding. This may seem insignificant, but that one card is one more card to guard with, or one more unit to call, which is invaluable regardless of the situation.

This method of riding comes with serious drawbacks. Each form of Tsukuyomi is weaker than standard units of similar grade, and her final form is overall weakened by the lack of other Tsuyomi cards in the soul. Missing a ride using the Godhawk as one's starter is even more painful than missing a ride using Lozenge.

One thing I did not cover when discussing this previously was the number of cards from the Godhawk line necessary to ensure a superior ride. While the only championship decklist to currently use a similar line(Gallahad instead of Tsukuyomi) did not follow the line up to its final form, it did use a ratio of 1:4:4 reading from grades 0-2. I would support this take, due to the sheer difficulty in riding, though current Vanguard simulation programs(Byond et al.) are not necessarily accurate for gathering data on this matter, due to fundamental problems in their shuffler. Mathematically your chance of riding increases as you continue to successfully superior ride, from a 46.51% chance on the first turn to 47.61% chance on the second and a full 50% on the third if you run four of each form of Tsukuyomi.

For its hand security and overall higher chance of making a successful ride each turn, I would choose Godhawk, Ichibyoshi over Lozenge Magus.

Next time I'll be covering Megacolony.

Starting Vanguards: Kagerou

Kagerou
Options: Lizard Runner Undeux, Lizard Soldier Conroe, Amber Dragon “Dawn”
Review: For all the reasons covered in the Royal Paladin article, Undeux is out as a starter.

Let's draw our attention instead to Conroe, the default starter for many Kagerou fighters. Like Barcgal and Battleraizer before it, the value in Conroe is intrinsic. As your starter, it is the only unit to come "from nowhere" when ridden, taking nothing away from either your deck or your hand. In fact, using Conroe's skill—counterblast 1 and self-retire to take any grade 0-1 Kagerou from the deck—increases your hand size once you reach your first twin drive. A player running Undeux who rides every turn will have a maximum of 8 cards at the end of their third turn, where a player running Conroe would have 9.

Unlike comparative clans, Kagerou cannot get rid of its starter as readily, and doesn't want to. Conroe cannot utilize its skill until it has some damage to counterblast, which requires the opponent to harm the vanguard. Thus, the fighter using Conroe will not have it off the field until they are at least at grade 2. In the meantime, this starter works as a boosting unit, forcing the opponent to either place down another card to guard or otherwise ensuring that the vanguard's initial attack goes through. This is the type of offensive security that Kagerou favors.

However, there is an alternative form of security afforded to the heat haze clan.

Amber Dragon “Dawn” is like Blaujunger, a Fullbau-style evolving ride. Like these predecessors, the grade 0 “Dawn” searches out the grade 2 “Dusk” when ridden using the grade 1 “Daylight;” “Daylight” in turn searches out the grade 3 “Eclipse” when called as a rearguard. This carries the additional cost of dropping a grade 3 Kagerou to complete the search. “Daylight” is where the evolution collapses, because unlike in the case of “Dawn” to “Dusk” it takes away one card from the hand.

Like other Fullbau-style evolutions, “Dusk” carries a power-raising skill with it. In this case, the normally-9000 power grade 2 gains +2000 power when attacking a vanguard, on top of the +1000 having “Daylight” in the soul gives it. Since these skills only activate as a vanguard unit, it is best to run “Dusk” as a single copy. Unlike the other evolutions, “Dusk” is not the sole star of its show here, as the grade 3 form of “Dawn” is actually quite good. “Eclipse” at a cost of counterblasting 2, retires up to 2 rearguards when its attack hits, pressuring the opponent to guard more heavily, thereby rapidly reducing their hand. This counterblast is easily paid for by Bellicosity Dragon, which unflips damage upon making a successful attack.

In terms of reliability, I would pick “Dawn” over Conroe, though the scales are not as heavily tipped as I make them out to be. While Conroe can enhance the hand, this gain can be negated too easily. Conroe is vulnerable to being retired by way of skill if the opponent takes the first turn, eliminating an important boost in hand for Kageoru. Meanwhile, the “Dawn” series pays for each ride made; so long as “Daylight”'s second skill is not used, the hand will be maintained as it would be with Conroe. The small amount of space the “Dawn” line consumes makes it easy to work with other important grade 3s like Dragonic Overlord or The End, while “Eclipse” proves to actually be a very nice and consistent card.