Today's Card Analysis: Earth Elemental Pokkle

The Japanese card of the day is a unit that doubles as both anti-Link Joker and “Яeverse” support, Earth Elemental Pokkle. The first grade 2 Cray Elemental unit, Pokkle's on-call soulblast 1 unlocks any of your locked cards as long as you have a face-up Cray elemental in your generation zone, providing an important support option for decks that are overwhelmed by lock but don't have reliable Lock Break Campaign support.

AUTO: [Soulblast 1] When this unit is called to a rearguard circle, if you have a face-up Cray Elemental in your generation zone, choose one of your locked cards and unlock it.
CONT: This unit belongs to all nations and clans.

Ironically, the decks that benefit most from the addition of Pokkle are the “Яeverse” decks that already lock their own units as part of their costs, as keeping around a counter just for Link Joker that's tied to a specific rearguard with no other function is overdedication when one may never encounter Link Joker in the tournaments they're attending. Meanwhile “Яeverse” decks can already anticipate needing to lock cards for their card skills, and so are able to carry with them both a utility grade 2 that can make their lock skills more effective, and a partial counter to the very clan that so often counters them.

Although not formally a “Яeverse” unit, Star-vader Blaster Joker can also make use of Pokkle to unlock the unit that he locks for his legion skill. However, because there's no benefit to repeating the skill and he's dependent on soul for using it in the first place, this is less advisable. One trick that Joker can exploit is with Infinitesimal Star-vader Mayoron, an existing support card that rests himself to give Blaster Joker +10000 power. By locking Mayoron for the cost and then unlocking him with Pokkle, Mayoron's skill can be repeated a second time because cards default to unlocking as stand even when they were at rest beforehand. A similar combo exists with the promotional card Roaring Legs Blast Monk, whose generation break unlocks a locked card for +4000 power in the battle phase, allowing Mayoron to be used as a booster. Pokkle provides one more option for achieving this combo, and the soul used for his skill can be replenished semi-consistently with Link Joker's upcoming Margal clone.

Not every “Яeverse” deck benefits equally from running Pokkle. Many of the existing “Яeverse” units can only use their skills once per turn, or otherwise have limited timings to their locks that prevent them from taking advantage of main phase unlock. Those units whose skills activate in the main phase but are once-per-turn can still benefit from unlocking the locked unit as a booster, eliminating the principle weakness of Ashlei “Яeverse” and similar cards. Below is a list of “Яeverse” cards capable of exploiting Pokkle.

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Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon “Яeverse” - Locking four Eradicator rearguards to retire four of the opponent's rearguards has always been possible, but Pokkle makes it easier by unlocking one of the initially locked units and still allowing for two rearguard attacks to be used in the turn. The issue with this is that Vowing Saber's limit break is attached to a counterblast 2, which severely hampers its use.

Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier “Яeverse” - The primary use of Pokkle in this deck is to enable Luquier “Яeverse” to call more rearguards than normal by using her skill multiple times and then unlocking the locked units, calling up to four rearguards from the soul in a turn. As Pokkle is technically a Pale Moon, he can also be superior called from the soul by Luquier's effect. More typically, Pokkle can be used to make two 21000+ power lanes with Luquier “Яeverse;” locking her booster with her limit break to superior call an attacker and give it +5000 power, unlocking the booster with Pokkle and then locking it again to superior call a +5000 power booster behind the Earth Elemental.

Cleanup Celestial, Ramiel “Яeverse” - Use with Pokkle is possible, but Ramiel's effect of "Choose up to three units in your front row with "Celestial" in its card name, those units get Power +5000 until end of turn" will be partially negated because Pokkle does not have Celestial in their card name. Instead, using Pokkle you can effectively retire two to three of the opponent's rearguards that turn and give Ramiel “Яeverse” +10~15000 power by locking two Celestials, unlocking one of them with Pokkle, locking two Celestials again, then calling another Celestial over Pokkle and locking the remaining units. It's entirely a question of how many Pokkles and Celestials you have available in hand, and where you want to stop. It's actually entirely possible to retire up to five units in a turn and give +25000 power to Ramiel “Яeverse” if you have four Pokkles and a sufficient number of Celestials in hand, by repeatedly calling over units to unlock locked cards and then relocking them.

Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster “Яeverse” - Ethics Buster's limit break has never been repeatable, as even if his cost is paid twice, when he attacks a vanguard “Яeverse” meets the criteria for both instances of his restanding skill, hence the second instance also can't be used for the rest of that turn. However, Pokkle does allow you to make one of your rearguard lanes attack for full power, which can be vital during the battle phase when “Яeverse's” crossbreakride rearguard stand comes into play.

Ice Prison Hades Emperor, Cocytus “Яeverse” - Due to Cocytus both sending three cards from the deck to the drop zone every time his lock is used, and superior calling and powering up units as part of his skill, trying to abuse Pokkle with him to repeatedly lock units is undesirable. However, it can be useful for restoring the unit originally locked to pay for his cost.

School Punisher, Leo-pald “Яeverse” - Leo-pald's lock skill can be used as many times as there are unlocked Great Nature units, and a common tactic in the past has been to lock all three backrow units to give +12000 power to the frontrow rearguards. On the surface it would appear that Pokkle doesn't synergize with this play style because calling him over one of the units powered up in this way ultimately grants you less power than you lose by retiring that unit. However, he can be abused by having open backrow circles to call Pokkle to, unlocking one of the units locked and effectively getting two more locks out of it. This upgrades Leo-pald “Яeverse” from giving +12000 power to the rearguards to giving +20000 power to each, locking both the unit Pokkle unlocked and Pokkle himself.

Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue “Яeverse” - As far as Vogue is concerned, Pokkle is not a new trick. Murakumo cardfighters have been using Stealth Beast Metamorfox to unlock their locked units and repeat Vogue's lock 2 to make the copies of himself attack for 31000 power each ever since BT14: Brilliant Strike hit. Pokkle simply adds another grade 2 option that's capable of pulling this off, replacing the filler grade 2s Grenjin and Bloody Mist that once took up space in the build.

Maiden of Venus Trap “Яeverse” - Like with Luquier, Pokkle is valuable because he enables Venus Trap to set up two powerful rearguard lanes in a turn. Moreover, since Venus Trap's limit break comes out of the top 5 cards of the deck, this also has the benefit of thinning the deck of nontrigger units, making one more likely to drive check triggers after bringing out those 21000+ power lanes.

News: Weekly Information Bulletin Shows Spear Cross Dragon, Bermuda Triangle Sleeves Revealed by Duel Portal

This morning Bushiroad of Japan's weekly information bulletin revealed five cards from the upcoming booster set G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon. The new cards, as well as the video itself, are given below. Chief among those revealed is the new Gold Paladin stride Spear Cross Dragon. Spear Cross is another twist on the persona generation stride units that have defined much of the mid to endgame of the current format, but like with Aurageyser Dragon before him, Spear Cross modifies the formula severely.


Golden Dragon, Spear Cross Dragon
AUTO: [Counterblast 2, choose one face down "Golden Dragon, Spear Cross Dragon" from your generation zone, and turn it face up] When this unit appears in the vanguard circle, if there are 1 or more face up cards in your generation zone, you may pay the cost. If you do, look at up to 5 cards from the top of your deck, and for each face-up card in your generation zone, choose 1 of those units, call all of those chosen to empty separate rearguard circles, and shuffle that deck.

Because of Spear Cross' unique on-stride timing, and being only able to pay the cost if there is already a face-up G unit in the generation zone, Spear Cross is functionally similar to the main phase strides that require two or more face-up cards in the generation zone. However, by calling as many rearguards to open circles as there are cards face-up in that zone, Spear Cross also accomplishes superior calling on par with that of Wolf Fang Liberator Garmore and Monarch Sanctuary Alfred. To avoid calling trigger units, a greater depth can be reached using the on-stride counterblast 1 of the grade 3 Gurguit, who superior calls a card from the top four cards of the deck and replaces the remaining ones on the bottom. This gives Spear Cross a net nine card reach, and if used as the second stride of the game will bring out three units for three counterblast; if used as the third it instead brings out four in conjunction with Gurguit. The primary problem faced by Gold Paladin cardfighters at this point is budgeting and countercharging counterblast, as the bevy of both genericized and non-Liberator support in Sovereign Star Dragon opens up multiple deck options to use their stride units with.

Arousal Messiah
AUTO: Generation break 1: When this unit is unlocked, choose up to one of your rearguards, stand it, during this turn it gets Power +2000.

Second to Spear Cross is Arousal Messiah from G-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah, who occupies the space in the trial deck normally given to a base 10000 grade 2. Arousal's skill is useful in conjunction with the Alter Ego & Amnesty Messiahs, as it allows for up to four attacks in the turn by locking Arousal for Alter Ego's on-stride cost, attacking with the other rearguard lane and then Amnesty, unlocking Arousal with Amnesty's counterblast 1 and then using Arousal to stand the rearguard that had just attacked previously.

Sunset Edge, Duskblade
AUTO: Generation break 1: [Counterblast 1] When this unit attacks a vanguard, if it is boosted, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your opponent's grade 2 or lesser rearguards, and lock it.

The broadcast also revealed the Japanese edition text for Sunset Edge Duskblade; the English edition print of the card has already been known from posters for the international trial deck. Duskblade is among the first cards to receive this treatment, highlighting the approaching synchronization of the English and Japanese set releases for all.

Breaker of Keys, Riddle Biter
AUTO: Generation break 1: When this unit attacks a vanguard, choose up to one locked card and unlock it. If unlocked, during that battle this unit gets Power +4000.

Finally, Doctor O revealed the trial deck's effect trigger, a Link Joker copy of Margal that gives one unit on the field +3000 power by putting it into the soul. A playset of these draw triggers will be included in every Fateful Star Messiah deck. (Jump to 14:34 to see the triggers.) The broadcast attracted almost twelve thousand viewers during its run and over 6400 comments.

Shining Star of the Academy, Olivia

In other news, Duel Portal has revealed four upcoming sleeves for the Bermuda Triangle clan from Clan Booster 01: Academy of Divas. In order these are Shining Star of the Academy Olivia, Call of the Future Lawlis, Single Minded Young Girl Lydie and Lovely Day for a Walk Emilia. The sleeves have a border design pattern unique to this particular batch of minisleeves, which is more similar to Ultra Pro's Vanguard sleeves rather than Bushiroad's.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

News: Upcoming VGCS Tournaments for June through August

Pending playmat illustration for the first-place tournament prize at the fourth Brave Cup. Illustration by Gunjima Souichirou.

The following sixteen Vanguard Championships will be taking place in Japan during the months of June through August. Dates, tournament formats and projected participation caps are listed below where they are known. Expect to see tournament result reports within a few days of each tournament.

Many of the organizers of these tournaments are longstanding members of the Japanese professional community. The third Hokusetsu championship will be overseen by kuroneko (sic, top 4 at sixth Cardbox national tournament, top 8 at second Kansai VGCS, organizer at the first and second Hokusetsu CS), the Yamato championship by Gugnnir (first place at the first Tsurumai championship, fourth place at the fifth Fateclock CS, first place at the Hachioji Cup), the Shimon championship by Pest (forward on the championship team at the third Kansai CS, organizer for the third Hachioji Cup, top 16 at September 2014 Ibaraki CS) and the fourth Tsurumai CS by Shiretoko (organizer for the first, second and third Tsurumai championships, assisting manager on the Brave Cups).

5/21/2015 Update: The Dolce Cup has been added to the list.
5/22/2015 Update: Kaguya VGCS added to the list.
5/23/2015 Update: Eighth Hakata VGCS, Kyoto Joker Cup, Vanguard Bon Festival, and Sixth Sapporo VGCS added to the list. Added information about Battle Dome CS, Second Odawara CS.

Today's article was made possible by the donations of our patrons at Patreon. Cardfight Pro is funded by public contributions from readers like you.

June

June 6th - Eighth Hakata VGCS (70 participants; 85 preregistered): Clan fight, five rounds of double elimination with a best-of-one 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 16 with a best-of-three 50 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place wins a New 3DS XL, second place two boxes of G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon and one box of Fighter's Collection 2015, third place on box of G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon and fourth place one box of Fighter's Collection 2015.

June 7th - Third Hokusetsu CS (48 3-person teams, 144 participants): Clan fight, five rounds of Swiss draw with best-of-one 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 8 teams with a best-of-three 50 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place receives a New Nintendo 3DS XL for each teammate. Second place 9 boxes of G-CB01: Academy of Divas, third place 3 boxes and fourth place 1 box.

June 13th - Yamato CS (42 3-person teams, 126 participants): Clan fight, four rounds of Swiss draw with best-of-one 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 16 teams with a best-of-three 50 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place receives a New Nintendo 3DS XL for each teammate. Second place 6 boxes of G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, third place 3 boxes and fourth place 1 box.

June 14th - Dolce Cup (40 participants): Clan fight, three rounds of Swiss draw with best-of-one 30 minute time limit and mutual loss at time limit ruleset, followed by a cut to top 16 with a best-of-one 30 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place wins three boxes of Sovereign Star Dragon and a rubber playmat, second place two boxes of the same and a playmat, third place two boxes and fourth place one box.

June 20th - Shimon CS (48 3-person teams, 144 participants): Clan fight, no teammates may share clans. Five rounds of Swiss draw with best-of-one 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 8 teams with a best-of-three 50 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place receives free participation at the fourth Hachioji Cup in August and a New Nintendo 3DS XL for each teammate. Second place 9 boxes of G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, third place 3 boxes and fourth place three Cardfight!! Vanguard playmats (Dragonic Overlord the Great, Blaster Joker and Thing Saver Dragon.)

June 27th - Fourth Chiba Brave Cup (96 participants): Clan fight, five rounds of Swiss draw with a best-of-one 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 16 with a best-of-three 50 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place receives a rubber “Ω” Glendios playmat illustrated by Gunjima Souichirou, as well as two boxes of G-CB01: Academy of Divas. Second place will receive one box of Sovereign Star Dragon, and third place one box of Academy of Divas; second, third and fourth will all receive playmats illustrated by 47AgDragon. Fifth through eighth will receive fifteen packs out of Sovereign Star Dragon.

June 28th - Second Kitokito CS (32 participants): Clan fight, five rounds of Swiss draw with a best-of-one 25 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 4 with a best-of-one 25 minute time limit tournament bracket. Intentionally agreeing to a draw is prohibited in this tournament. First place will win one box of Academy of Divas.

July

July 11th - Battle Dome CS (Team tournament)

July 12th - Kaguya VGCS (32 3-man teams, 96 participants): Clan fight, four rounds of Swiss draw with a best-of-one 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 8 teams with a best-of-three 60 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place wins one New Nintendo 3DS for each teammate, second place three boxes of either Title Booster 01: Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- or G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon, and third place whichever prize second place did not choose.

July 18th - Fourth Tsurumai CS (64 participants): Clan fight, five rounds of Swiss draw with best-of-one 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 8 with a best-of-three 50 minute time limit tournament bracket. First place will win a New Nintendo 3DS, second place may choose between three boxes of Title Booster 01: Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- or three boxes of Academy of Divas. Third place will have the same option for two boxes, and fourth place for one box. The rest of top 8 will receive one box of Fighter's Collection 2015.

July 26th - Second Kyoto Joker Cup

August

August 15th - Vanguard Bon Festival (Corresponds to this year's annual Bon Festival celebrations)
August 16th - Sixth Sapporo VGCS
Fourth Hachioji Cup (Not yet dated)
Fifth Petit Vanguard Festival (Not yet dated)

News: Cardfight!! Vanguard Manga Volume 6 on Sale May 26th

Vertical Inc.'s English translation of the sixth volume of Itou Akira's Cardfight!! Vanguard manga will go on sale on the 26th of this month, marking the beginning of the Link Joker arc of the English manga. This is a unique time for fans of the manga, as the international scanlation efforts of years past stopped at volume 4, and raw scans of the manga dropped off with the previous volume. The end of May is the first time that even many veterans will be experiencing these chapters of the manga in any language. Readers can purchase the volume at Amazon; it's currently priced at just under $10.

Advanced copies of the sixth volume are currently being sold at a discount at the Anime Central convention in Chicago, alongside Attack on Titan, Dream Fossil and Ajin: Demi-human. Like past Vertical releases, this volume includes a promo card packaged on the interior cover. The previous volume included the Chapter 0 of the series, which was only published as part of a special release in Japan.

Volume 6 covers the introduction of the Tatsunagi group, Kourin and Rekka, and their returning elder sister Suiko. It is also the debut of Ishida Naoki in the manga and of the Narukami clan. Key confrontations in this volume include Kourin and Misaki's initial battle, giving rise to a character arc which has just lead to a final resolution between them in the latest chapters of the Japanese manga. This volume also includes the first appearance of the Magus series cards from VG-EB07: Mystical Magus; the Magus subclan was designed from the ground up by Itou for the extra booster.

Itou's production drawings for Raven Haired Ezel and Pentagonal Magus. Original image uploaded by Itou Akira.

News: "No Changes" on Japanese Restricted List, Monthly Bushiroad Cup to be Held in June

This morning Bushiroad of Japan issued a formal statement that following consideration of the results of the Fighter's Road 2015 Tokyo regional qualifier at this year's Great Vanguard Festival (held last month), there will be no changes made to the Fighter's Rules for the coming tournament season. This includes the "Additional Rules on the Use of Cards" section, which functions as the game's restricted list. Furthermore, Dragonic Overlord “The X” and Seeker Thing Saver Dragon have both been taken off of the Fighter's Rules watchlist, which up to now listed those cards on the official website as being potentially restricted in the future. No statistics regarding clan usage in FR2015 have been published, but the company's internal data likely parallels latent tournament results in which “The X” was virtually eradicated from tournament play, and Thing Saver's 40% stranglehold on the format broken by an influx of Phantom Blaster “Abyss” decks using “Diablo” support.

【カードの使用に関する追加ルール】について

 大ヴァンガ祭2015で行われた「ファイターズロード2015」の結果を元に協議した結果、【カードの使用に関する追加ルール】に変更はありません。

Regarding "Additional Rules Related to Card Use"

Consulting the results of "Fighter's Road 2015," there will be no changes to the "Additional Rules Related to Card Use."

In January, Bushiroad of Japan had announced Dragon Overlord “The X” and Thing Saver to be under consideration for restriction, after moving Calamity Tower Wyvern and (preemptively) Commander Laurel onto the list. Following Calamity Tower's restriction, a punctuated dropoff in Kagerou usage was observed in tournament play, and Thing Saver Dragon once again rose to dominate professional tournament results. Had the introduction of “Diablo” not given new life to the Revenger deck, Thing Saver would likely find himself restricted by this time.

In other news, Bushiroad made an announcement over the Cardfight!! Vanguard promotional twitter account this morning that the Monthly Bushiroad Cup will be held on June 6th. This team tournament will be held at Sunshine City in Tokyo, and contestants will form three-person teams to compete. As with all Bushiroad tournaments, the competition will have no entry free. All participants that stay until the closing ceremony will receive a copy of the promotional card Fiercebau, and first through third place will receive special gifts in that month's issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine as well as specially made Fighter's Medals commemorating the tournament. The winning team will be featured in July's issue of Monthly Bushiroad. The tournament will follow a double elimination format, with each game between individual cardfighters being best-of-one and lasting no more than 20 minutes each. The Monthly Bushiroad Cup is expected to last between two and four rounds, concluding within two hours of its start time.

The Cup was was likely designed as a vanity tournament to push the magazine's brand, as Sunshine City is a high traffic entertainment center with strong exposure to the general public. The tournament will be held inside Exhibition Hall C, which is the third most expensive space to rent in the building; unit prices on the hall exceed $16000 per day.

Sunshine City, third floor, Exhibition Hall C. Original image provided by Sunshine City.

Today's Card Analysis: Sovereign Black Dragon Aurageyser Dragon & Cutting-Edge Knight David

戦場を行く。ただ無人の野を進むが如く。

"To the battleground. It will be just like advancing on untended fields."

The Japanese cards of the day for the weekend are two support cards for Shadow Paladin's rebel faction, the triple rare stride Aurageyser Dragon and the clan's new first vanguard David. Illustrated by Takayama Toshiaki--otherwise known for Dragonic Overlord the End, “The Яe-birth,” Galaxy Blaukluger and Great Daiearth--Aurageyser is a stride revision of one of Shadow Paladin's past boss cards, Origin Mage Ildona. Aurageyser is currently semi-unique as a persona generation grade 4 that does not benefit from nor require two or more face-up G units for any of his card effects, and this property gives him a number of uses in different Shadow Paladin decks attempting to take advantage of the generation zone. The only other cards that function in this way have specific heart requirements, which Aurageyser does not.

AUTO (Vanguard circle): [Counterblast 1, soulblast 1, choose a card named "Sovereign Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon" in your generation zone and turn it face-up, choose two of your rearguards, retire them] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost, if paid, reveal two cards from the top of your deck, during this turn, for each grade 1 or lesser card revealed by this effect, this unit gets Power +5000. Put the cards revealed by this effect into your hand.

Aurageyser was originally envisioned by the Research & Development staff to synergize with Claret Sword Dragon, his corresponding grade 3. By superior calling a Swordbreaker with Claret Sword's on-stride skill and drawing from that Swordbreaker, then her as part of Aurageyser's cost to reveal and add two cards to hand, you set up a net +2 in card advantage when striding over Claret neutrally and consolidate your rearguards into your hand. Counting the triple drive, two additional cards from Aura's skill and the draw off of Swordbreaker, you will put six cards into your hand on that turn. This is offset by all but one of those cards being known to the opponent. A sufficiently skilled cardfighter can memorize everything that Aurageyser has added in terms of (at least) your guard power, if not knowing the cards by name. While Aura does not fully address Ildona's longstanding problem of drawing into trigger units, he does compensate for it by getting +5000 power for each grade 1 or lesser card revealed by his skill, effectively still gaining the power if not the effects of the triggers and during that reveal temporarily turning all remaining grade 1 cards into trigger units that can exclusively be applied to the vanguard. In light of this current brand of Shadow Paladin's emphasis on superior calling grade 1 and lesser cards this can be a difficult sword to balance, as superior calling units interacts with Aurageyser in a strange way by actually decreasing the number of valid targets for his skill.

The incentive to run Swordbreaker does conflict with Aurageyser's soulblast cost. In decks that make use of Phantom Blaster “Diablo” or Blaster grade 3s, Darkheart Trumpeter is also contending for that limited resource, and the latest first vanguard option described below does not move into the soul. This means that to have space for multiple Swordbreakers/Darkhearts and Aurageysers in the same game, one must run Creeping Dark Goat, Judgebau Revenger or Fullbau Brave to build up the available soul. Otherwise one is left with just the grade 1 and 2s in the soul, which makes room for two Aurageysers but no Swordbreakers nor Darkhearts, or vice versa. Running the new move-to-soul draw trigger Howl Owl is an option, but also neutralizes any card advantage gained from these soulblast skills because putting Owl into the soul is itself a negative action. One means of getting around this is to limit Aurageyser to a first-stride utility play. The game-ending turns will typically be spend on Phantom Blaster “Diablo” rather than on Aurageyser, so planning to use Aura only once is an effective means of planning around his soulblast cost. You can run two copies of Aura for the initial stride, four copies of “Diablo” for the two turns after that, and then two of another stride like Blizza or Atmos that can catch the opponent unawares.

Aurageyser is relevant to more than just Claret Sword. Ironically, Blaster Dark “Diablo” benefits immensely from running at least two copies of Aurageyser in the generation zone, as Dark “Diablo's” primary shortcoming is his slowness and utter dependency on Phantom Blaster “Diablo” to function. Blaster Dark “Diablo's” generation break 2 allows him to stride a Blaster unit using any card for the cost by giving that card grade +3, but as a generation break 2 the skill will not come online under normal circumstances until the third stride or later.

This is much later than decks like the Revenger subclan are going off, putting Blaster Dark at a severe disadvantage. What Aurageyser does is address this by getting two G units face-up on his initial stride, making Dark “Diablo” live a turn earlier and allowing an immediate stride into Phantom Blaster “Diablo” just from discarding a grade 0 unit for the cost.

"Always. More than anyone else."

Finally, we have the second card of the day that Aurageyser's been paired with, Cutting-Edge Knight David. Befitting his name, David is a truly state-of-the-art first vanguard with a generation break 1 skill similar to that of Pitch Black Sage, Charon. When David would be used to pay the cost of one of your own retire skills, he can instead be treated as two units, effectively decreasing its cost by one. While Charon requires a Blaster vanguard for this, David instead accomplishes it by being a generation break 1.

With Aurageyser this means that you create a net +1 in card advantage by using David to pay the cost, retiring one card to draw two, and you can reduce Claret Sword's generation break to a net -1 instead of a -2 to pay for a stronger late game offensive. One unorthodox trick the anime series has advocated is running multiple copies of David in the deck and superior calling them with Claret Sword's on-stride skill to grab net card advantage off of Aurageyser without exhausting the soul for Black-winged Swordbreaker.

This is not without precedent. Deletor cardfighters worldwide managed a similar strategy with Acquire Deletor Igor not long ago, and still depend on that strategy heavily. Using David in this way also circumvents Revenger matches using Blaster Dark Revenger “Abyss” to retire him. However, it comes at the risk of being forced into a G Assist or even gradelock by having to shave off grade 1, 2 and 3 space to make room for the extra copies of the first vanguard, and whether this is worth it or not to make multiple Aurageyser turns play out positively is up to the individual fighter to decide.

Today's Card Analysis: Magical Yell, Nina

The Japanese card of the day is a Bermuda Triangle promotional card that will be distributed in commemoration for the Japanese release of G-Clan Booster 01: Academy of Divas. In truth Nina's skill is functionally identical to that of an existing card, Duo Clear Parasol Kura, but her skill text also makes a critical revision to the existing key text that has implications for the rest of the game.

AUTO: [Soulblast 2] When this unit is called to a rearguard circle you may pay the cost, if you do, countercharge 2.

Since Cardfight!! Vanguard's first booster set hit in March 2011, the game has included counterblast, soulblast, soulcharge and unflipping as part of its core resource mechanics. Of these, counterblast and unflipping are arguably the most definitive features of Vanguard's core gameplay that differentiate it from existing Trading Card Games, alongside drive checks.

Each player necessarily takes damage in order to get access to more powerful counterblast-dependent skills, and accordingly has to weigh the risk of going to a dangerous threshold like three or four damage more quickly in order to gain access to those game-determining skills sooner. However, unflipping damage has been the odd mechanic out in that it has no formal icons. Nina's publication changes this by rewriting "Choose up to 2 face-down cards in your Damage Zone and flip them face-up" as "countercharge 2." 

Retroactively all instances of unflipping have become countercharge, a means of "filling up" the damage zone without taking damage. This is less intuitive than soulcharging because no cards are actually added to the damage zone and it can only restore what has already been used, but it does clarify for cardfighters one fact of resource management that has not always been completely clear. Nina is just one of many clones of Battle Sister Lemonade, a soulbast 2 unflipper in Oracle Think Tank, and the new wording more clearly explains that with all of these cards one is trading the soul resource for open damage. No less nor greater number of resources are gained than are put in, blasting one resource and charging another in an equal amount. While this has always been true, the new wording and icons associated with it make this fact more obvious, and in turn it's now easier to teach newcomers this core principle of gameplay.