News: Nitta Emi Takes Hiatus, Tokoha Performance Affected

Photo provided by S. Inc

Talent agency S. Inc announced today that the voice of Anjou Tokoha, Nitta Emi, will be taking a hiatus through February and March. In December of 2014 Nitta was diagnosed with vocal fold nodules, interfering with her singing and speech. On her doctor's recommendation, she will be taking a recovery period. As a result most all of her performances, radio appearances and public events through February have been canceled.

Nitta plays the role of Anjou Tokoha in Cardfight!! Vanguard G, first announced at a press conference last October prior to her diagnosis. As a result of the hiatus Nitta will be unable to play the role in upcoming episodes. While episodes are prerecorded well in advance of their air date, this means that any episodes recorded during the affected months will minimize Tokoha's appearances, using only prerecorded lines and samples from existing episodes. The effects of her break will likely appear delayed to fans of the anime series, with Tokoha's appearances becoming less prominent as the series enters arcs recorded during Nitta's recovery, and her return not taking place until some weeks after Nitta's.

Nitta's February 8th performance of "The Little Prince" will be unaffected by the hiatus. March 28th events commemorating the release of her second and third singles Quest Dreaming and NEXT PHASE will be postponed until April 26th.

News: G-Booster 02 "Soaring Ascent of Gale & Blossom" to Hit Western Shores in May

Yesterday evening the English-language Vanguard portal's products page updated to include the logo for VGE-G-BT02: Soaring Ascent of Gale & Blossom, an upcoming booster set still unreleased in Japan. Known through various translations as Flying Flowers and Soaring Beauty prior to this, the set did not have an official English title when first announced in Japan, causing others to use its native Japanese title Fuuga Tenshou (風華天翔 "Wind Flower Heaven Soaring.") The initial lack of an English title lead some to speculate that G-BT02 would not be coming to the west, and would instead be folded into another set akin to the fate of MBT01: Neon Messiah.

G-BT02 features primary support for the Neo Nectar, Aqua Force and Great Nature clans, with secondary support for the Gear Chronicle, Royal Paladin, Narukami and Cray Elemental clans. The set's revival legion is Dragonic Kaiser the Crimson, its cover card is Flower Princess of Vernal Equinox Primavera, and in addition to Blue Storm support it also features cards designed to bolster dedicated Maelstrom decks. Soaring Ascent of Gale & Blossom will release in Japanese on February 20th 2015, and in English on May 22nd of the same year.

News: Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori” for April

This morning Bushiroad of Japan revealed the first legend deck through a live Niconico broadcast in cooperation with Card Kingdom, G-LD01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori.” The broadcast attracted more than ten thousand viewers and five thousand comments. Card Kingdom deck designer JacK (@JacK_cardkingdo) released promotional images teasing four cards from the deck, including cover card Blaster Dark “Diablo.” Unlike trial decks, legend decks contain a full four card playset of their main grade 3, stride unit and Sentinel cards. Each legend deck contains 54 cards, and unlike with trial decks can be played competitively out of the box without buying additional legend decks. Legend decks feature the cards of legendary cardfighters from Cardfight!! Vanguard's original run, transplanted into the era of Cardfight!! Vanguard G. The legend deck will be released in Japan on April 24th, 2015. No English-language release date has yet been announced.

Duel Portal has since released higher quality images of the units from initial previews. The deck's cover card, Blaster Dark “Diablo,” is illustrated by veteran artist Daisuke Izuka. Within the clan Izuka is known for his work on Raging Form Dragon, and outside of it on other famous units like Chaos Breaker Dragon and all of the Garmore variants. As the first of a pair of “Diablo” units, this is notably the first incarnation of Blaster Dark to not be a part of the Revenger subclan since his return in VG-TD10: Purgatory Revenger in June 2013. Originally designed by franchise creator Itou Akira, Blaster Dark has not had a consistent illustrator; in BT04 and BT06 he was illustrated by Ryuutetsu, in TD12 and BT12 by Itou, as a promotional card by studio TMS, and in EB10 by Foo Midori

He is followed closely by Darkness Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo.” Generally thought to be Shadow Paladin's first stride unit, Blaster “Diablo” is illustrated by NINNIN, who previously handled Phantom Blaster Overlord in BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades. “Diablo” greatly resembles the Overlord of the past drawn from a different angle, standing upright rather than hunched over and with his double lances fused at their hilts. The background and foreground of the illustration are likewise variations on Blaster Overlord's, harkening back to the world's first persona blaster. Based on this, some fans are theorizing that “Diablo” will be Shadow Paladin's persona stride, activating his skill by turning a face-down copy of himself in the generation zone face-up.

The legend deck will also bring back Skull Witch Nemain as Young Skull Witch Nemain (髑髏の魔女っ娘　ネヴァン Dokuro no Majommusume Nevan, musume can mean either "young lady" and "daughter" depending on the context.) She is illustrated by Hagiya Kaoru, who also illustrated the original Nemain. Based on similarities in the artwork to contemporary units, many cardfighters believe Young Nemain will be the Legend deck's perfect defense card, potentially serving as Shadow Paladin's G-perfect defense capable of unflipping damage during the guard step while there is a copy of her in the drop zone.

Finally, the LD01 will bring back Darkness Maiden Macha as the Maiden of the Dark Night, Macha. Like Blaster Dark, Macha will not be retaining her original illustrator; Hayabusa Yuki has uniquely never illustrated any other cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard since BT04. Instead, the Maiden of the Dark Knight will be illustrated by Aoji, who recently did work on the Neo Nectar trial deck G-TD03: Flower Maiden of Purity.

The legend deck will retail for 3500 yen (approx. $30 at the present exchange rate) and will contain fifteen unique cards, one of those being a G Unit. It will come packaged with a Ren themed storage box, 60 Ren mini sleeves and one Ren deck holder, as well as a Ren Fighter's Counter. Additionally, there will be a triple rare-foiled promo card and a playmat with a guide on how to play the deck on its back. Its announcement reflects the increased focus on the globalization of the Cardfight!! Vanguard trading card game, as three years ago the same deck would likely have been titled “Suzugamori Ren.”

Today's Card Analysis: Popular Professor, Big Belly

The Japanese card of the day is Great Nature's first generation break unit from G-BT02: Flying Flowers. Popular Professor Big Belly is a Chatnoir for the generation break era, designed to rotate through the field in the late game by powering up the rearguards and then trading them out to refresh the hand. This in turn lets you access Great Nature's unique defensive properties, akin to a Roman tortoise formation.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): Generation break 2: (If you have 2 or more face-up G Units in your vanguard circle or generation zone) When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose one of your rearguards, during this turn it gets Power +4000, and during the end phase of that turn, draw one card and retire that unit.
AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1] During your turn, when you stride with a G Unit, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose up to two of your rearguards, during this turn they get Power +4000 and "AUTO (Rearguard circle): When an attack by a unit in the same column as this unit hits a vanguard, if the attacking unit's Power is 20000 or greater, draw a card."

Big Belly's on-stride counterblast is how he'll be used for most of the game. Because this skill does not retire your rearguards, it both creates the possibility for a flat increase in card advantage and makes it more likely to happen by strengthening your rearguard lanes. Furthermore, Belly can always target his own booster for the skill assuming that you set it in play on the turn beforehand, which means that you can get a +1 off of your stride regardless of its other abilities since the vanguard's power will automatically exceed 20000. Belly's unique property is thus that the more successful your aggression, the better a defensive position you are put in. Each attack that connects grants you another card in hand, prepping you for the opponent's counterattack.

This is offset by the properties of Great Nature's stride units. Eternity Professor Phoenicialux, revealed in the previous issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine, gives +4000 power to two rearguards when she attacks, then retires them in the end phase. Unless your targets are units like Stamp Sea Otter that cannot be retired by card skills, this means that Big Belly is only trading out one card for another rather than building true card advantage. A solution to this is to only target units with Phoenicialux that replace themselves in some fashion, like Coiling Duckbill or the Hammsuke series. In this way, you can convert the targeted cards to additional cards in hand, which causes you to build up a net increase in card advantage while converting your field into handsize to defend through the opponent's turn and protect your increases in advantage from both retire and lock effects. By destroying your own rearguards before the opponent can and getting a neutral or positive exchange out of destroying them, you prevent the opponent from punishing your plays, making your own offensive safe.

Big Belly's generation break 2 comes into play in turns where Phoenicialux is undesirable or no longer available. This is more in line with Chatnoir proper, giving +4000 power to a rearguard when he attacks, drawing a card in the end phase and then retiring the powered-up unit. Like in the Phoenicialux combo example, using rearguards that replace themselves or ones that cannot be retired by card effects causes Big Belly's draw skill to become a +1 in advantage rather than a neutral exchange. Compared to Chrono Jet Dragon blocking the opponent's perfect defense cards or Flower Maiden of Ranunculus field power bonus, Big Belly is not as dramatic a skill as one may anticipate from past generation breaks. His strengths lie in being able to consistently weather long games and enjoy considerable freedom versus field control decks.

Today's Card Analysis: Holy Tree Dragon Jingle Flower Dragon

The Japanese card of the day for this weekend is Neo Nectar's triple rare stride unit from G-BT02, Jingle Flower Dragon. Intended as an endgame unit to be used on your your fifth turn and later, Jingle Flower endows the entire field with massive power boosts in the same vein as his 2012 predecessor Sephirot. However, Jingle Flower's boosts vastly exceed those granted by Sephirot, as a trade-off to being available only twice per game and inside of a very limited window.

ACT (Vanguard circle): Once per turn: [Choose a face down card named “Holy Tree Dragon, Jingle Flower Dragon” in your generation zone, turn it face up] If the number of face up cards in your generation zone is two or more, choose one of your units, during this turn it gains "CONT (Vanguard/Rearguard circle): During your turn, all of your units get Power +2000 for each unit you have with the same name as this unit."

Jingle Flower's skill is moderately complex. It targets a single unit on the field, but actually increases the power of all of your units in play. In order to optimize Jingle's skill, you need to choose the unit which you have the greatest number of cards with the same name as it in play, and because some Neo Nectar units can take on the name of another card, this may not be the unit that you actually have the most actual copies of. As an example, the promotional card Maiden of Flower Screen can use her once-per-turn generation break skill to gain the name of another card on the field, by returning a nontrigger unit from the drop zone to the deck.

This makes it possible to have five instances of the same name in play rather than the standard limit of four, causing all of your units to get five instances of +2000, a net of +10000 power. The optimal setup for this uses two Flower Screens and three identical grade 1s that the Flower Screens will take the name of, preferably Sour Sourer (スッパ・スッパー Suppa Suppaa) a base 7000 grade 1 that gets +1000 power for every other Sour Sourer in play. All three Sour Sourers will have +4000 power from their own skill, and with every unit getting +10000 power from Jingle Flower Dragon's persona generation skill this will create rearguard power lanes of 40000 and a vanguard lane of 55000 power. With this in mind as the standard to which your Jingle Flower strategies need to get as close as possible to, a more likely situation is to be able to get out two copies of a unit and use Spring Waiting Maiden Oz to bring the third in, but without access to the Flower Screen promo these three units will result in "just" a +6000 power boost to every card through Jingle Flower's skill.

Even the small numbers for Jingle Flower are more than reasonable. With standard 16000 power rearguard lanes and just two instances of the same unit in play, your formation will have 24-37-24000 power, and with three that jumps up to 28-41-28000 power. Because each unit gets the power bonus individually, having a booster in play greatly increases their effectiveness, and wanting to have three or more instances as a specific number means that Jingle Flower works best with replicating grade 1 units. The new Neo Nectar fosters a method of play akin to vegetative cloning, deriving strength out of numbers from repeatedly cloning individual plants to cultivate a field from a single seed. Like Vict Plasma and other persona generation units, Jingle Flower can only be used so many times per game. He effectively succeeds Arboros as the finishing move of the clan, but because of the limitations on how many times his skill can be activated, there is no reassurance of being able to simply have the power boosts for the rest of the game. That kind of play instead goes to the Maiden of Ranunculus, Aasha. Hence, Jingle Flower is best reserved for very late in the fight when the opponent is already at the four and five damage mark.

News: Cardfight Pack Vol.12 to Bring Nubatama Critical Trigger, Ramune and Deletor Evo

This morning several card shops that received their initial supplies of promo packs for February leaked images of the upcoming cards, with some recipients selling the cards early through eBay. Illegal sales of promo pack cards has been a continual problem for the company since the game reached the west, as unlike their Japanese counterparts, many western distributors have no scruples over breaking street dates and selling promos rather than giving them out as participation incentives. Bushiroad updated their official events page this hour to reflect the new cards.

Included in Volume 12 are Knight of Reform Ladinas, Weather Girl Ramune, Stealth Beast Tobihiko, Brawler Earthcrack Dragon, Clipping Deletor Evo and King Serpent. Prices are steadily climbing from $6 to $10 for each, as demand for early access to the promos is strong.

Tobihiko is of particular concern for professional Nubatama cardfighters, perceived by many as an essential card to the clan. Having not seen English-language support since FC02: Fighter's Collection 2014, while having both first and last had triggers for it printed in BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak, Nubatama is a clan starved for new cards and alternate trigger lineups. Previously forced to run four every trigger type, the addition of Tobihiko now gives Nubatama the option to eschew either stand or draw triggers for a more reliable one. In Japan a promo legion pair was also issued for the clan last year, and international cardfighters can expect to see that legion hit their shores later this year.

Press Release: Another Cardfight!! Vanguard Expansion Sold Out – Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E

The following is a press release distributed by Bushiroad USA and may not reflect the views or opinions of Cardfight Pro or its editors.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Another Cardfight!! Vanguard Expansion Sold Out – Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E

Singapore (January 16, 2015) – More than 950,000 packs were sold in less than one month after the official release of Cardfight!! Vanguard Booster Pack Vol. 16 ‘Legion of Dragons & Blades’ ver.E on December 19, 2014.

This booster pack expansion joins the list of other Cardfight!! Vanguard expansions that were completely sold out within weeks of their release dates. Previous expansions, Extra Booster Pack Vol. 11 ‘Requiem at Dusk’ and Extra Booster Pack Vol. 12 ‘Waltz of the Goddess’, sold more than 600,000 packs over the weekend.

The next expansion, Booster Pack Vol. 17 ‘Blazing Perdition’ ver.E, will hit the shelves from January 23, 2015.

Cardfight!! Vanguard is a popular trading card game developed by Bushiroad Inc. in early 2011. It is currently available in four languages; Japanese, English, Korean and Thai.